Monthly Archives: March 2020

Color Your World – Hot Magenta, Inch Worm, & Indigo

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Color Your World – Hot Magenta Inch Worm, & Indigo

Color your World: Hot Magenta, Inch Worm & Indigo

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I think this photo has all the CYW colors for this time. It’s a black and yellow butterfly, resting on a leaf that has touches of inch worm green, indigo, and hot magenta. The bottom part of the photo has the magenta looking bricks. It’s probably all done with the kind of lighting where they were. I think the butterfly was at an indoor butterfly exhibit.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2020 BS

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Flower of the Day – Lilacs

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Flower of the Day – Lilacs

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Across the street from us are several of these large bushes, just covered in pretty pink/purple flowers. I went over there to get a photo. Oh my goodness – they smelled so sweet! I found out they are lilacs.

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For Cee’s Flower of the Day:

FOTD – March 31 – Daffodils

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2020 BS

Share Your World

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Share Your World SYWbanner319

https://sparksfromacombustiblemind.com/2020/03/23/share-your-world-3-23-2020/

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Here are the new questions for SYW for last week and this week. Thanks so much, Melanie!

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On A Scale Of 1-10, How Strict Were Your Parents?

I would say a 5

What Wastes The Most Time In Your Day To Day Life?

I have all day to do whatever I want to do. I don’t consider it wasted, even if I’m just sitting & thinking.

Do They Bury People With Their Braces* On?   (* “braces” in this scenario are those metal bits they put on people to straighten their teeth.   I realize “braces” are also some item of clothing that I believe men wear to keep their socks up or something.  I’m talking about the teeth option).

What a weird question! I would suppose the surviving family would determine if the teeth braces should stay on or come off. Since most don’t really like having them on, I’d say take them off.

Why Does A Round Pizza Come In A Square Box?

It’s easier to stack the boxes on the shelves? Or maybe it’s easier to make a square box than a round one?

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https://sparksfromacombustiblemind.com/2020/03/30/share-your-world-03-30-2020/

Pancakes, waffles or French Toast as your breakfast favorite? 

I like each of these equally, but we don’t have them very often.

Do you think a person’s name influences the person they become?

Not really. You are what you are, and act how you act, whatever your name is. I’ve heard there have been studies that show some people with so called ‘good’ names get better jobs? Don’t know if that’s true. It’s interesting to think people’s last name may have began from what occupation they had, such as a baker becoming Baker, and so on.

Would things get better or worse if humans focused on what was going well rather than what’s going wrong?

It would be better if we heard more good news.

Is math something that humans created or something we discovered? Is looking at reality mathematically an accurate representation of how things work?

It was probably discovered that certain amounts of items added to some more items, made a larger number? I really don’t know and can barely even do basic math.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2020 BS

What I’ve Been Reading

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What I’ve Been Reading

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Now, I don’t like living in a time when there is a pandemic viral disaster, but I sure like reading about fictional ones.

I’ve read this first series of books several times.

“Quarantine” (the Loners), by Lex Thomas, is so good. This is the first book in a series of YA novels, which are set in a high school. Some catastrophic event causes a horrible virus to spread, so the whole school is quarantined. Unless help from the outside comes along to eradicate the virus, the teens are stuck until they reach, I believe, age 18, and then they graduate by being able to leave. The contamination is over for them. Meanwhile, they gravitate toward groups of like-minded students to form gangs. The first we read about are the ‘Loners’. Each gang is out for themselves, and they have battles for survival against the others.

In the next few books, another gang is featured in each one, but they all interact. You want to keep getting these books to find out how it all turns out.

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This two book series is good, too. I’ve read the first one twice, and am about half way through with the second one. I don’t know if there will be more.

The setting is in England, present time. Something causes a virus to be unleashed into all water, especially the rain, which contaminates every other water source. If even a drop of bad water touches you, you die a horrible death.

Some people have so far survived, and the book is told through the voice of one high school girl as she manages her life now, alone.

It is eerie how this book is so much like what we have going on right now in the real world, except the virus comes through the rain, though it is contagious person to person. How the people are told to shelter in place – stay home, how the people that are left begin raiding stores, and hoarding, how the government is looking for a cure, but not really helping, and more similarities.

These were written by Virginia Bergin in 2014 & 2015.

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So, that’s what I’ve been reading. How about you? 🙂

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2020 BS

 

Two Souls: Into the Fire # 283

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Two Souls: Into the Fire # 283

Warning … adult content

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TWO SOULS: INTO THE FIRE

# 283

warning…adult content

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Steve went into the kitchen to see what Linda and Melody were doing. There was a rich aroma of coffee infusing the air in the little house, and he inhaled deeply. Linda was setting out mugs for everyone, and Melody was making eggs and toast. They were glad now, that they’d stopped by the little convenience store on the way to Ghost’s house this morning. Picking up a few things for breakfast was a good idea, as there was nothing much in the refrigerator to use.

“Hey…breakfast?” Steve asked.

“Yep, that’s what it is, brother,” Linda said, giving him the once-over.

“About earlier…” Steve said, a bit embarrassed.

“Don’t worry about it,” Linda said, and winked. “Here, sit down.” She handed him a full mug, of the hot coffee. She looked up, as Ghost came into the room. “You, sit down.” She poured him a mug of coffee, too, setting it in front of him. “Here’s sugar, and there’s milk, but I didn’t find any creamer. Y’all need to go to the store.”

Melody finished the eggs and toast, and set them on the table. Getting out plates and forks, she didn’t look either Steve or Ghost in the eye. It was getting awkward, and no one was saying anything, as they concentrated on eating.

Linda sighed. “Okay, enough of this. Sorry we were laughing before, and we didn’t mean to surprise you like we did, but we’re all grown-ups here, so…oops…and let’s forget about it.” They all agreed, and Ghost added, “I love him.”

Linda reached over and hugged him. “We know you do, honey.”

~

After eating, Ghost showed Melody around the house, small as it was. He pointed out the newest parts that were built after the hurricane. “My room looks just the same as before, but has new walls and stuff, ’cause they were all smashed.” He looked at the walls, touching the nearest one. He had been slowly adding to the writing on them. Looking down, he said, “It was all flooded in here, and I almost died, but Steve saved me.” He looked sad, remembering that day.

Melody looked up at the ceiling, noticing the stars painted on. “They glow in the dark, don’t they?”

When Ghost nodded, she said, “I had some on my ceiling at home, too. They were just the stick-on kind. I’d look at them every night, and dream of being somewhere else.”

“We have a song about the stars, on our CD,” Ghost said. He got up from the bed, where he’d been laying down, to get something from the dresser. “Here, you can have these,” he said, holding out a copy of their book, and the CD they made. “But, don’t listen to it now. Wait ’til it’s quiet.”

Melody nodded. “I know I’ll love it. Is this is the book y’all did?”

“Yeah,” Ghost said.

She flipped through it, stopping at a picture or two. “This is awesome. You really saw the spirits and talked to them?”

“Sure…at least I did. Steve says he can’t see them, but I think he just don’t want to. He gets freaked out a lot.” He laughed, because it was true.

“You’re not scared?”

“No, not of the spirits of the dead, cause they’re not really dead. They’re just in spirit form. They’re still who they always were.” He paused a few seconds. “The other things, yeah, I’m scared.”

Melody glanced up at him, wondering what he meant by that, and not sure she wanted to find out. She felt a chill go up her spine, leaving goose-bumps on her arms. Rubbing them away, she asked, “You’ll show me how to see them, the good ones?”

Ghost shrugged, “I’ll try, but I don’t really know how I do it. I was always seeing them…always…” he whispered the last word, as he remembered his past for a minute.

Melody saw the fleeting shadow of his thoughts cloud his face. “Ghost? What is it…something just happened. Was I feeling your thoughts, or sensing something sad?”

Ghost shook his head to clear away the thoughts, to clear his mind. “Hmm? What did you say?”

Melody was confused. Ghost was acting weird, now. She repeated her question.

“Um…yeah, you picked up on something, I guess, like how I was feeling? But, I don’t know how I was feeling. Everything just went blank or something. I don’t know…” he said, seeming a bit dazed, or confused himself.

“You looked sad, and I could feel it…in here,” Melody said, putting her hand over her heart. Coming over to the bed, she gave her brother a hug. “It’s okay, whatever it was. We’re together, now, and no bad things can stand up to us. Do you believe that?”

Ghost looked into her eyes, a mirror of his eyes. “I want to,” he whispered, “but, I can’t.”

“Now, you’re freaking me out, Ghost,” Melody said. “I wanted to see and feel things, but you’re making me scared.”

Ghost didn’t answer. He was still looking in her direction, but wasn’t really seeing her. She hadn’t known Ghost long enough to have seen him like this.

“I’m getting Steve,” she said, leaving the room. She stopped for a second, at the door, looking once more at Ghost. He’d not moved or stopped staring into space. She found Steve and Linda on the front porch.

“Steve,” she said, as she came outside.

“Hey, Melody, getting the grand tour of the house?” He laughed.

“Not any more. Ghost is acting weird, and he was scaring me. Go look at him.”

Steve jumped up from the swing and ran into the house, with Linda and Melody following. At the bedroom door, Steve was relieved to see that Ghost wasn’t having a seizure.

“Ghost?” he asked, softly, coming to sit by him on the bed. “What do you see?”

Linda started to say something, but Steve motioned for her to wait. “It’s okay, Ghost, you can say what it is.”

Ghost finally focused on Steve’s face. “Steve?”

“I’m right here…there’s just us. No one else in here. You okay?”

Ghost shuddered. “I don’t like it. I don’t…I can’t see it, yet…just a bad feeling, real strong. We need protection…” he faded off, as he began his trance, again, his eyelids fluttering. He was breathing hard. Steve knew he had to break the circuit in Ghost’s thoughts, and feelings, or he’d go into a seizure for sure.

“Ghost, come on, get up. You need to walk around, get some fresh air. Let’s go NOW.” Steve shouted, making Ghost startle.

“What? Why you yelling?”

Steve grabbed is hands, pulling him up, then guided him outside. “Linda, get some coffee. You know how he likes it.”

“But, there’s no cream,” Linda said.

“Crap, well, lots of sugar and milk, then. Hurry.”

Linda ran to the kitchen, and Melody trailed after her. “What’s going on? Why is Ghost so weird? Tell me.”

“Don’t worry, he gets like this sometimes,” Linda said. “Didn’t Steve tell you?”

“He said Ghost has seizures sometimes. Was that one in there?”

Linda looked up from heating the coffee. “You never seen anyone have one before?”

Melody shook her head. “No.”

“I’ll explain later, but that wasn’t one, or maybe a little one. I think Steve calls it Ghost’s trances. It’s where he does this psychic thing, where he can see into the future, and most times it’s bad. Anyway, he’ll be fine. It’s normal for him, and yeah, it’s spooky as hell.” Linda still looked worried, though, as she poured coffee into a mug for Ghost.

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Next part coming soon!

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2018 BS

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This is a work of “fan fiction” based on the novel, “Lost Souls” by Poppy Z. Brite. All credit for the original characters, places, and some backstory mentions, belong to Ms. Brite and her publishing affiliates. Only newly introduced characters, places, and original elements of this story are entirely from my imagination. Character descriptions are a blend of the original book descriptions and my interpretation of them.

All songs included in this work will be solely owned by the original performers/writers and will be credited. Creative license is taken in including them in this story.

No harm is intended toward author, musicians, or people and situations to whom there may be a resemblance.

warning      warning      warning      warning

The content herein is rated by me as being at the high end of MA (Mature Audience). It includes strong language, violence, sexual themes, including same sex pairings, religious themes, and fantasy horror.

Touch Me – Song Lyric Sunday – Touch/Feel

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Touch Me – Song Lyric Sunday – Touch/Feel

https://jimadamsauthordotcom.wordpress.com/2020/03/28/senses/

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Today for SLS, Jim has given us the prompt of Touch/Feel. Thanks, Jim.

To join in, and also see other entries, just click the above link.

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I always liked most of the Doors songs, and this is what I found about this one:

From the Wiki article:

According to Bruce Botnick‘s liner notes the song was initially referred to by its various working titles; “I’m Gonna Love You”, from a line in the chorus, or “Hit Me”, a reference to blackjack. The opening line was originally “C’mon, hit me … I’m not afraid”, the line thus reflecting the first person vantage point of a blackjack player.[2] Morrison reportedly[citation needed] changed the lyric out of concern that rowdy crowds at their live shows would mistakenly believe that “hit me” was a challenge to physically assault him.

At the end of the song, Morrison can be heard saying, “Stronger than dirt”, which was the slogan of the Ajax household cleaning company, because the last four notes of “Touch Me” were the same as those in an Ajax commercial and as a mocking criticism of Krieger, John Densmore, and Ray Manzarek wanting to accept an offer from Buick to use “Light My Fire” in a commercial. The deal was aborted when Morrison opposed it. This vocal was omitted on the single version, which was a different mix.

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“Touch Me”, by The Doors, can be found on their album, “The Soft Parade”, released in 1968. It was written by Robby Krieger, and is on the Elektra label.

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[Intro]

[Verse]
Yeah! Come on, come on, come on, come on
Now touch me, babe

Can’t you see that I am not afraid?
What was that promise that you made?
Why won’t you tell me what she said?
What was that promise that you made?

[Hook]
Now, I’m going to love you
Till the heavens stop the rain

I’m going to love you
Till the stars fall from the sky for you and I

[Verse]
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Now touch me, babe

Can’t you see that I am not afraid?
What was that promise that you made?
Why won’t you tell me what she said?
What was that promise that you made?

[Hook]
Now, I’m going to love you
Till the heavens stop the rain

I’m going to love you
Till the stars fall from the sky for you and I

Till the heavens stop the rain
I’m going to love you
Till the stars fall from the sky for you and I

[Sax Solo]

[Outro]
Stronger than dirt

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Found on genius lyrics

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2020 BS

Kammie’s Oddball Challenge – Mask

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Kammie’s Oddball Challenge – Mask 

https://nuthousecentral.wordpress.com/2020/03/27/kammies-oddball-challenge-3-26-20/

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This large green bush is located on the corner of one of our busy local streets. It has a smiley face cut into it. They decorate the bush for all the holidays, and have done this for many years.

Now with the pandemic all around, they gave the bush a face mask, to remind people to keep safe. 🙂

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2020 BS

Falling Apart – Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Beside You

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Falling Apart – Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Beside You

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS March 28/2020

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Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “beside you.” Write about whatever is beside you when you read this prompt. Not when you sit down to write, but whatever is beside you right now. Take note of it if you think you might forget. Enjoy!

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Well, this is a bit different for a prompt for SOCS. Linda asks us to look beside where we are when we first saw the prompt, and write about what we see. Thanks, Linda.

To join in, and also to see other entries, just click the above link. It’s fun! 🙂

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I sit at my computer desk every day and nothing much changes as to what is beside me. On the left is our TV shelf with stuff on the side shelves. But, on the right is always my pole lamp.

Now, I’ve had this lamp for years – actually I think this is the second one of the same kind.

It is falling apart, just like the first one did after a long time. The shades are so brittle they are crumbling if you touch them. They are just some kind of plastic, and I guess the heat from the bulb makes it eventually disintegrate.

Yep, it’s ugly, but it still works, and we just haven’t gone to get another one. When we do, maybe there is another kind that will not fall apart.

Photos show bare light bulb surrounded by crumbly plastic shades. The last photo is when it was fairly new – not falling apart – with four shades of light green, blue, white, and aqua.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2020 BS