( My feelings on guns )

Was going to post this yesterday, before the LJ Idol vote ended (I wasn't involved, but some friends were), but LJ was down. Things seem better now, and I had invested some time and effort writing this, so, here goes:

When I saw several days ago that the week's topic was "sobriquet," I had to look it up. Turns out I grew up with one.

My "baby" sister ( Read more... )

In the days when I frequently played Dungeons & Dragons, one of my favorite player characters was a dragon.

A Fairy Dragon, to be precise.

We came across this creature in the pages of one of the Advanced D&D books from the late-80s and I thought that even more fun than encountering one would be to play one.

The Dungeon Master didn't agree. However, I ( Read more... )

Having taken my bow from therealljidol , I had planned on taking a week or two off from writing for it. But this week's topic reminded me of an idea I had been toying with mentally for a long time, a concept I felt could make an interesting story, but so very difficult to explain. So, I decided to take a crack at it.

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( You never forget your first time )

Coming in just a few short days, the new 2011!

With all the traditional features you’ve come to expect, but with surprises and innovations throughout, it will bring you hours and hours of entertainment, as well as numerous interesting and exciting challenges. It comes with the full range of features, with various heat and cooling settings for every ( Read more... )

Did you know that you can get used to the smell of a skunk?

Unfortunately, I found this out first-hand.

Back during on of my high-school years, as winter was coming on, skunks were spotted around the farm where I grew up. A neighbor had had a very nervous encounter with one. At first he thought it was a cat, until he noticed the shape of the body ( Read more... )

Yesterday was World AIDS Day. I don’t think most people knew that; I nearly missed it myself. I remember when it was a much bigger deal, though.

It was about 20 years ago, I was part of what some called a stupid stunt, others called a brave, ingenious act to spread awareness. I was on staff of the Traveler, the University of Arkansas student ( Read more... )

I remember that evening long ago being very boring. Of course I was a preschooler (or at least very young) and everyone else in the room were grown-ups.

We were in the board room of the local electric cooperative, with no need to rent a bigger meeting room. Including Mom and Dad there were about a dozen adults present (and me, wasting time as best I ( Read more... )

With the change of seasons, we recently changed our bedsheets over to the winter flannel sheets. They feel wonderfully comfortable -- the_dark_snack  says the bed now feels like "a big warm hug" and believes that she is sleeping better now than in past months.

We snuggle in "for a long winter's nap," as the Christmas poem says, and before you know it, the clock ( Read more... )

My thoughts for Earth Day.

Once again, the issue of global climate change comes up, and something occurs to me.

Regardless of how true the crisis is, or to what degree humanity is responsible, something will be done. There will be a program, if not several. It's inevitable.

A sufficient amount of the populace, and the leaders who answer to them, are ( Read more... )