The Hemingway Challenge

Earnest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. Rumor has it that Hemingway regarded it as his greatest work:

For sale: baby shoes, never used.

Here are our 6 word stories, see if you can guess the author of each I will post the answers at a later date.

Participants: Bradley, Jenn, Ellisa, Gerry, Prokopipants, our very own Ange Feehan and myself X2.



Single white female. 46. Seeking intimacy.


Mouths agape, their necks craned upward.


He came, she stared. Stoic. Again.


I wish this challenge didn't suck.


She dumped him. He stalked her.


Errant smile, sly retort, tussled sheets.


Lost in hurricane: spectacles, kitten, toupee.


My dress! My shoes! ...My Son?

A Junktastic Ideology - Part 1

I was reading a story on CBC today that caught my fancy - mostly because I consider myself to be somewhat of a "Thrift" shopper. The article, Worshipping at the altar of Cheap, by Heather Mallick, surrounds how our society has become obsessed with Cheap and how quantity has definately taken presidence over quality.

In Canada's cities, homeowners passively enriched by exploding house prices still go to Costco and Wal-Mart for bulk goods while complaining about property tax increases. They impoverish the lives of others, destroy local shops and live with housefuls of shoddy goods because they are worshipping that Canadian idol, the Cheap god.

And by the way, the problem isn't plastic bags. The problem is that plastic bags are free. If they cost $5 each, trust me, people would pull them out of tree branches and hoick them out of the mouths of poor strangling fish already marinated in mercury. They'd probably frame them.



Heather Mallick quoted a "product-drunk" culture and a "junktastic ideology" from Mark Mumford, who had much to say...

We are not the slightest bit trained to care about waste, excess, the mindless accumulation of needless things. The notion of simplifying, of saying no, of intentionally and mindfully choosing to keep ourselves free of all the superfluous crap that's hurled at us by a product-drunk culture is so far from our junktastic ideology it is, as evidenced by my cashier's baffled reaction, nearly unthinkable.

Free plane ticket! Free iPod! Free colonoscopy! Free tank of gas! Free extra set of cheap useless knives when you buy the two other sets of cheap useless knives! Free supersizing of your Coke! Free upgrade to premium membership when you commit to a 10-year contract! Pay no money whatsoever! Seriously! No money at all! All we ask in return: countless, endless chunks of your time, your brain, your intelligence, your health, your soul, your respect for nature, just a little bit of your ability to think and feel and care about the world. Come on now, is that too much to ask?


Link to the article: Totally Free! Click Here Now!

My thoughts on these articles are still being formulated....

monkey and peas

A monkey was carrying two handfuls of peas. One little pea dropped out. He tried to pick it up and spilt twenty. He tried to pick up the twenty and spilt them all. Then he lost his temper, scattered the peas in all directions and ran away.


-Fables, Leo Tolstoy

Silver Lining ~ Rilo Kiley

My latest obsession:




Also, "Moneymaker"- actually the entire album Under the Blacklight is rad.

Celebrity Look-A-Like

This Week's Challenge: Celebrity Look-A-Likes

Submit a pic of yourself or someone else as they resemble a celebrity:

Gerr-man

Prokopipants:

Dana:

Ellisa:

Bradley:

Ellisa's procrastination that was the inspiration for This Week's Challenge:

Benji:

Local Art

A great piece done by an anonymous local artist:

Jesus is my homeboy

My friend wrote me an email with some questionable content and at the end of it she inserted: "I am going straight to Hell". I thought about our cavalier use of this phrase; however, collectively (I dare say), we believe that religious higher powers are as legitimate as the Ab Tronic 5000.

I wonder why it is that upon a morally questionable action or thought we always revert back to the old standby of damnation for eternity. Does this occur because from early on we are conditioned to equate this life’s no-nos with worse consequences in the supposed spiritual world? Reflecting further, does that mean that we are tenaciously clinging to a belief in hell because we so desperately want to believe that there is something more after our hearts stop pumping? And, because on some unconscious level we want some form of heaven to exist, if so facto we must believe in Hell? Or, is it just a moral pulse check, where we pause and evaluate our behaviour and deem it to be unsatisfactory against the go-to scale that Jesus, or God, or whoever, created; doing so without buying in to the superstitious mumbo jumbo?

Now that I have written a paragraph about religion every ounce of me is screaming to highlight and delete before some line is crossed. Although, I don’t really care about slighting someone’s beliefs; but rather, I feel ill informed on the subject as: A. I have never read the Bible and B. I stopped going to church as soon as it was no longer appropriate for me to make Jesus crafts in Sunday school.

Anyways, no matter if you believe or don’t, you really have to hand it to some of these quips for their staying power. It is certainly not uncommon in a moment of fury for the phrase, "What the Hell?" to escape my lips. This just a more imposing way of inquiring: "Why is this occurring?" Why does Hell carry such risqué innuendo?

Hell in a handbasket, does anyone know the origin to this phrase? I just looked it up – and actually: No, nobody knows. Where does one purchase this alleged handbasket? And, how does one travel to hell in it... it must be an awfully large basket, maybe it is one of those magical carpet bags like Mary Poppins totes -only made of asbestos so that it doesn’t burn up on contact in the fiery depths.

Why are we still using these phrases? Do they carry extra weight because they have a religious allusion and are therefore naughty? Or, have we become so flippant with these ideas that they have become devoid of meaning, such as the words gay and retard?

Religion has lodged itself in our everyday vernacular but is this symptomatic of the power it wields or the lack thereof?

I was thinking about Jesus the other day- how even if he did exist, how ridiculous it is to believe that he is some sort of deity, he is probably just some guy who was trying to get everyone to be nicer to each other. Actually, Erik Davis relates in the book, Techgnosis, that there were lots of guys spouting Jesus like material at that time... maybe he was just the one who hit it big. That's a pretty phenomenal idea, imagine if he was just some regular dude who wanted his voice heard and the message came out horribly warped like some perverse game of telephone.

You know the question: If you could have a conversation with one person living or dead, who would it be? Jesus would definately make my top 5.

The Way I See It

The Way I See It: No. 23

Chances are you are scared of fictions.

Chances are you are only fleetingly happy.

Chances are you know much less than you think you do.

Chances are you feel a little guilty.

Chances are you want people to lie to you.

Perhaps the answer lies on the side of a coffee cup.

You are lost.

— David Cross, Comedian

~

Bradley's Way of Seeing It:

We are consumed by choices

Some easy, some evil

As the world crumbles, we ask ourselves;

Selfishness or Selflessness

Charity or Indulgence

Vice or Virtue

Paper or Plastic

In the end who cares?

Live the day for you…

And Laugh.

~

Dana's Way of Seeing It:

The Eskimos have many words for snow.

Acquire, purchase, buy, pick up, sales receipt, grab, charge, come by, haggle, get a hold of, tab, realize, redeem, secure, lay away, take, bill, gain, procure, credit card, retrieve, obtain, bargain, sale, closeout, proof of purchase, cheque, attain,

SHOP.

I can see where North American's priorities lie.

~