Superbowl Sunday: an Acrostic Poem

Superbowl Sunday countdown, friends

Utter mania in the house

People coming over here,

Even San Francisco fans

Ravens are the team we want

Brother versus brother but

Only one team will take the prize.

Which team do you want to win the coveted

Lombardi trophy?

Sitting here placing bets

Until kickoff time

Niners versus Ravens

Defense versus offense

As for me...

Yes, the commercials are my favorite part.

Super Bowl XLVI / Credits: Getty Images 

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This post is in response to my friend  Linda Ann Nickerson's Superbowl blogging challenge over at Simply Snickers. Pop on over if you want to participate.

An Alternative Look at David Bowie's song, Changes

This post was going to be about David Bowie’s song, Changes. I love the song. It’s brilliant how the lyrics are just vague enough to be open to individual interpretation, of which there are many.

Some believe that the Changes lyrics focus on the obsessive nature of artistic reinvention, which Bowie mastered. More common interpretations include taking a hard look at the process of aging and how you’ll handle the changes that go along with it. Even deeper, the lyrics examine a young man's attempt to figure out how he'll react to moving from the ‘cool, hip’ side of the generation divide to the ‘old, outdated’ side.

My plan was to take an excerpt of the Bowie lyrics and wax academic about the primary text and sub texts, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah.  

BUT…

…this is so much more fun. As I was researching the lyrics I noticed some word discrepancies—especially after the Ch-ch-ch-changes hook. I always thought the lyrics were:

> Turn and face the strain
Ch-ch-changes

It turns out, I may not be correct. Here are some of the alternative suggestions:

> Turn and face the strange
As in - move out and face the unknown.

> Turn and face the change
Which is an obvious repeat of the hook

> Turn and chase the grain
Guessing that Bowie drinks whiskey with a beer chaser

> Turn and get my cane
The refrain Bowie will sing when he gets older

Other notable interpretations:

> Turn and take the train
> Turn and face the stain
> Churn your face in Spain
> Turn and face Loraine
> Time to eat chow mein

Okay, I’m easily amused but these are laugh out loud funny to me. Here, take a listen and tell me what you think the mystery lyrics in David Bowie’s song, Changes are.

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This post was written for The Writers' Post group on Facebook, and this week’s topic is changes.  If you want to connect with other bloggers and join the fun, go to The Writers' Post Facebook page and request to join the group. Everyone is welcome.

Winnie the Pooh on Loyalty

The word loyalty means different things to different people. That may sound harsh and you may disagree but that’s the way it has played out in my life. One could argue: then the person wasn’t really loyal. That’s true, and there’s the rub. There are times when you believe someone is loyal and you find out otherwise. There are other times when someone’s loyalty surprises you, in a good way. 

The word itself is not hard to define:  

Loyal is an adjective. Marriam Webster defines the word as an unswerving allegiance; faithful to a person to whom fidelity is due; faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution or product. Showing loyalty.

Loyalty is a noun, defined as the quality or state or an instance of being loyal.

There are many examples of true loyalty and mistaken loyalty in literature. One of my favorite examples of true loyalty in literature is the relationship between Winnie the Pooh and Piglet in A. A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” books.    

Many authors have used Milne’s characters to illustrate a point (for example: “The Tao of Pooh,” “The Te of Piglet”). That’s because his genius is multilayered in its simplicity.

One of the messages that resonate with me is the way Milne’s characters—living in The Hundred Acre Wood—demonstrate the power and importance of loyal friends. Here are a few of my favorite “Winnie the Pooh” quotes that get right to the heart of what loyal friendship is all about:

~If ever there is a tomorrow when we're not together, there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart, I'll always be with you.

~Promise you won't forget me, because if I thought you would, I'd never leave. 

~If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever.

~If you live to be one-hundred, I hope I live to be one-hundred minus one day, so I never have to live a day without you. 

~We'll be friends forever, won't we, Pooh? asked Piglet. Even longer, Pooh answered.

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This post is in participation with the Group Blogging Experience, and this week’s prompt is loyalty.  If you want to blog with us, go to the GBE2 Facebook page and request to join the group. Everyone is welcome.

Classic Pooh image courtesy of justpooh.com. The pictures are free to use for educational purposes and personal use.

First Love: an Acrostic Poem

Fair and young, so

Innocent.

Ready to jump in,

Seriously. All the way in.  

This must be the one. Your forever.

Light-headed and giddy, life’s a blissful blur.

Open your eyes. Please. Be

Very careful.

Evolve slowly, precious girl. 

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This post is in participation with the Group Blogging Experience, and this week’s topic is first love. I chose to write an acrostic poem instead of my typical blog post. If you want to blog with us, go to the GBE2 Facebook page and request to join the group. Everyone is welcome.

Links to more acrostic poems:

Exploring Superstitions, in an Acrostic Poem 

An Ode to Spring in an Acrostic Poem 

A New Year's Resolution in an Acrostic Poem 

  

A-Z Blogging Challenge: Top 10 List

The A-Z Blogging Challenge. Over 1,200 bloggers. One post per day per letter of the alphabet. Whew. I had no idea what I was getting into. And now, it's over. I did it! Every.Single.Day. (except Sundays).

As a new blogger, I really didn't know what I was getting into, but this was baptism by fire. The challenge was probably the best way to learn how to blog and get into a routine. Special thanks to Lee and the other hosts at Tossing it Out There. The challenge helped me in so many ways.

Today is the first day of the end of the challenge. I feel a bit out of sync, like I have to blog today. So I'll write my recap..

Here are the Top 10 things the A-Z Blogging Challenge taught me:

1. Bloggers are good people
2. I write better with prompts
3. Goals are necessary for me to be productive
4. Peer support is more important than I anticipated
5. I have tons to learn about the technical aspects of blogging
6. Challenges are motivational
7. Blogging is more intimate than article writing/sharing
8. The blogging community is sincerely supportive
9. Colorful, shiny badges look cool on a blog
10. Camaraderie fuels my enthusiasm

Thanks to all of you who supported this journey and cheered me on. I look forward to more interaction with you. It was a pleasure and a delight.

Now to Catch Some ZZZZZZZs

It's with mixed emotions that I make this announcement. It's over. This is my final post for the A-Z Blogging Challenge. Since it's Z-day and since I'm creatively spent, I'm going to write about catching some ZZZZZZZZs after this challenge is over. Okay, I totally lifted the idea from the comment section (thanks Word Nerd) but still, it will be nice to sleep more.

Going into the challenge I had no plan, no map, no clue. I blogged by the seat of my newbie pants the entire month. Some nights, as I was trying to sleep, I would start churning through possibilities for the next day's post. I would write the post in my mind and think I could remember it until morning.  Then I might think of other options for that letter and mind-write another post. This could go on for hours. Mentally writing instead of sleeping.

Yes, I know that writers often sleep with a pen and pad on their bedside table for this very reason. I do too. But I don't like to turn on the light once it's off. The light makes me 'more awake' and then I'm liable to fire up the computer and settle in for a night-long date with the written word. Actually writing instead of sleeping.

Sure, I'll still mentally write and actually write when I should be sleeping, sometimes. I always have. But maybe I'll do the mental-writing thing less. Perhaps the alphabetic prompts over-stimulated me creatively. I couldn't turn it off. So now I need some good, old-fashioned ZZZZZZZZs.

See you after I catch some sleep.

Yay! We're Almost Through

Yes. For Y-day I'm skimming by. Cutting corners. Taking the cheap route. Slowing down this train. My Y-word is yay as in Yay! We're almost through.  

The A-Z Blogging Challenge has been a learning experience. Dipping my toes in the blogosphere only days before the challenge kicked off, I had no idea what I was getting into. I started this blog and one on WordPress at the same time - as an experiment, to learn about both platforms. I fully expected to spend more time learning how to work within the templates than on the actual blogging. I planned to quietly blog under the radar until I found my footing. Then, and only then, did I plan to get serious about what I would write. I didn't think up cool names for my blogs, whether I should niche or go general, or any of the other smart stuff I would normally do. Nope, these blogs were only for me.

Then a friend learned about the A-Z Challenge and started (virtually) talking it up. With naive enthusiasm, I signed up BOTH BLOGS. Whatever was I thinking?! I didn't even know how to blog and I signed up to post on 2 blogs every day of the week (except Sunday) for a month? Oh, the folly of inexperience.

It's been good. Through this challenge I've learned:

• how to schedule a post on Blogger and WordPress
• how friendly and supporting this blogging community is
• how to remove a captcha code requirement 
• how creative and smart you people are
• how to add buttons, gadgets and other cool stuff to blogs
• that you can't monitize basic WordPress
• how to use google analytics
• that you can't use google analytics on WordPress
• that it's hard to write 2 posts per day and keep up with other writing requirements and a family and other regular stuff...
• that I've got a lot more to learn but I've gotten a good start
• that I've met super people and discovered excellent blogs to follow
• oh yeah, and that I love blogging

... and that I'm glad the A-Z Challenge is almost over. Today is Y-day and I say Yay! We're almost through. Tomorrow is Z-day and we will be through.

It's been a real pleasure blogging with you and I hope we stay in touch.

On a less sappy note, I'm happily accepting Z ideas in the comments section! :)

Top Ten Words That Start with X

While considering what to write about for the X-day on the A - Z Blogging Challenge, I came across loads of X-words I'd never heard of. For fun, I tried to use them in (very simple) sentences to see how it felt. While they don't exactly roll off the tongue, it was an interesting exercise, though I doubt I'd ever use these words in real life. See if you can weave a few X-words into your daily vocabulary.

1) Xenodochial - hospitable; kindly to strangers

We liked going to Betty's house, she was always xenodochial.

2) Xanthic - yellow; yellowish

Bill shouldn't have eaten those peanuts, now he looks xanthic.

3) Xenodocheionology - love of hotels

England is the best place to indulge my xenodocheionology.

4) Xebec - small three-masted pirate ship

That almost looks like a xebec in the harbor.

5) Xylopolist - one who sells wood

My dad made a good living as a xylopolist.

6) Xerothermic - dry and hot

Arizona is nice but I find it a bit xerothermic.

7) Xenophobia - fear of foreigners

Jane can't visit France due to her extreme xenophobia.

8) Xanthippe - ill-tempered woman

We avoided Modine at all costs, she was truly a xanthippe.

9) Xenium - gift made to a guest or ambassador; any compulsory gift

After our visit, a xenium was offered.

10) Xerasia - abnormal dryness of the hair

This was my third deep conditioning treatment and I still suffer from xerasia.

Source: The Phrontistery

T is for Too Close to Quit

Warning: cop-out post alert.

That's right. I'm not good about writing on the weekends and today is Saturday. Amazingly, I have stayed 100% compliant with the A - Z Blogging Challenge (on this blog). I say amazingly because, since I escaped from the rigid corporate bonds of my previous existence I've become commitment phobic. So much so that I almost didn't participate in this fun challenge at all. The fact that the challenge had no strict 'rules' attracted me, so I jumped in. See, that's another thing I avoid, rules. No commitments and no rules please. Call it overcompensation or whatever, but I've had enough of those to last a lifetime.

My drive and competitive nature has not waned in retirement, however. Once I start something I will finish it. And I started this challenge so I will finish it.

Today is the day for a T-post. And, as I mentioned, it's Saturday. So my T-post is about the fact that I'm too close to quit. That's it. No more wisdom or insight. Just that I will continue to plug through until I reach Z.

That is next Saturday, right???

R is for Rain

It rained so hard the entire day

My blogging was on rain delay

Hail smacked against the window panes

Then lightening came, and still more rain

The storm, it raged. The winds blew hard

Big puddles formed in my front yard

Loud thunder claps boomed loud, they roared

I stayed away from my keyboard

Now rains have passed and all is clear

A post with R is due my dear

I'll blog about the rain, why not

A poem will fill up the R-spot

It might not be a prize, it's true

But still it's done and I say whew!

Q is for Quagmire

Totally appropriate for today. My Q-word is quagmire.

Q came at the right time because I feel like I'm stuck in a quagmire, figuratively speaking of course.

The Encarta Dictionary defines quagmire (noun) as 1) swamp: a soft marshy area of land that gives way when walked on and 2) an awkward, complicated, or dangerous situation from which it is difficult to escape.

The word quagmire is used more colloquially around here. Instead of using quagmire to describe an awkward, complicated or dangerous situation we use it more to mean a dilemma, a pickle, a predicament, a jam, a quandary.  

The reason I feel like I'm stuck in a quagmire is that I've been pushing out these A-Z Blogging Challenge posts the day of. No preplanning, no scheduling, no rough drafts. And things are starting to get busy. I've picked up a few new clients that expect me to produce (gasp!).

I started this challenge and I intend to finish it so I find myself in a quagmire.

Footnote: I purposely refrained from writing about Glenn Quagmire here. If I open that subject, I'm afraid I'll get in a real quagmire.

J is for Just Write Something

Today has been a busy day in town as it officially marks the 150-year anniversary of the American Civil War. We live in Charleston, S.C., where the first shots were fired (Fort Sumter) so we had to get out into the fracas. Keeping up my morning ritual of writing A-Z Blogging Challenge posts took a back seat on my daily schedule, so I find myself trying to quickly bang out a J post.

Since I’m blogging by the seat of my pants (no plan, randomly choosing a topic when I sit down to write) I have no J word ready. Nope, no nuggets of gold, no pearls of wisdom here today. Just a girl sitting at a desk writing a blog post about nothing. (Hey, it worked for Seinfeld.)

So I'll...

Just write.

Just write something. 

I’ll refer you to my I post from yesterday about where ideas come from. I'm directing you there because today, this random post, is a demonstration of what I was trying to communicate yesterday. 

As I said, when faced with lack of ideas/writers block/no motivation/a missing muse, I free write. So welcome to the inside of my head. This is me free writing.  

Just writing.

E is for Ego

As I pondered the post for today, I thought a good E word to write about for the A-Z Blogging Challenge would be Ego. Writers are notoriously egocentric. After all, they think that what they think/create/write will be interesting enough that others will invest time and sometimes money in it.

Yes, I am aware that this is a very complex subject. There are many definitions for the word Ego and a variety of beliefs surrounding the one simple word. For the purpose of this post, I’m not talking about the false center, the id, the superego or any Eckhart Tolle definitions of Ego.  I’m keeping it simple.  

For this post, Ego means a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance; that state of awareness which thinks of you as separate from the other. Sorry to dumb it down, but I’m talking about having a ‘big head.’

Even when the definition of Ego is taken at it's most common understanding, however, writers have a variety of opinions about the importance of ego in their work. Here’s what some writers say about Ego.

Opinions scattered indiscriminately about leave the mark of egotism. ~William Strunk

Writer’s block is simply a failure of ego ~Norman Mailer

Good writers are often excellent at a hundred other things, but writing promises a greater latitude for the ego.  ~John Cheever

Writers must fortify themselves with pride and egotism as best they can. The process is analogous to using sandbags and loose timbers to protect a house against flood. Writers are vulnerable creatures like anyone else. For what do they have in reality? Not sandbags, not timbers. Just a flimsy reputation and a name. ~Brian Aldiss

I have always been a huge admirer of my own work. I'm one of the funniest and most entertaining writers I know. ~Mel Brooks

 

Take egotism out and you would castrate the benefactors. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Automobiles are free of egotism, passion, prejudice and stupid ideas about where to have dinner. They are, literally, selfless. A world designed for automobiles instead of people would have wider streets, larger dining rooms, fewer stairs to climb and no smelly, dangerous subway stations. ~P. J. O'Rourke

I know perfectly well my own egotism. ~Walt Whitman

I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. ~Henry David Thoreau

Mastery is often taken for egotism. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I have nothing to declare except my genius. ~ Oscar Wilde

I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly. ~Oscar Wilde

If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or my music, then in that respect you can call me that. I believe in what I do, and I'll say it. ~John Lennon

Do you think a writer must have a big ego? What are your thoughts on ego in general?

The A to Z Blogging Challenge

An online writing buddy, Marie Anne, found The A to Z Blogging Challenge and threw down the gauntlet. Many people have joined the challenge to ramp up their blogging frequency. I’m just learning how to blog, so figuring out the frequency hasn’t hit my radar yet.

But so many interesting people have signed up, and it looks like an ideal time for me to learn from cool and seasoned bloggers so…. yeah. I’m going to run before I walk.

Here’s the skinny: there are 26 letters in the alphabet and there are 26 days in April (excluding Sundays). The challenge is to blog Monday – Saturday. The blog post must correspond to the letter in the alphabet that falls on that day (i.e., April 1 = A, April 2 = B, etc.). This requires a 6-day per week blog post commitment during the entire month.

I am goal-oriented so this seems like a great way to jump in. Since I have two blogs, I may toggle between them but I am 100% committed to posting to at least one of the blogs every day. If you want to follow along, I’ll be blogging here and at Langley Writes about her rich & random life.

And if you want to sign up a blog and join in the fun, click the The A to Z Blogging Challenge button below. 

See, I'd put that badge in this post if I knew how. Yikes, I've got a lot of crawling to do before I walk or run!