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The Master
It’s time again for this week’s Friday Fictioneers, in which a group of us attempt a 100 word piece inspired by a photo. Hosted as ever by Rochelle, this week’s photo has been supplied by Douglas M. MacIlroy.
To view all the other entries, click here!
Copyright Douglas M. MacIlroy
“You have learned well, my pupil,” smiled the old man. “Finally you too have earned the title ‘Master’. Wear it well.”
Yoshi bowed low in respect for his teacher. He straightened slowly, his hand a sudden blur as he sliced his ceremonial dagger cleanly across his mentor’s throat.
“There can of course be but one Master, old friend,” he said regretfully.
Sighing deeply, Yoshi sat cross-legged at the edge of the pond in quiet contemplation, watching as the water turned slowly to the colour of the brightly coloured koi as they swam all unaware through their recently polluted home.
Eye Aye
On Saturday I finally went for my eye test. I’ve got the system worked out now.
They send a reminder at around two years. It’s important to ignore this one. After a couple more weeks they send another reminder with a voucher attached for a £5 eye test. Hooray! I save £17.50!
Well, technically I save my work £17.50 because they pay (I spend all day staring at a pair of computer monitors – yes, I get two monitors because I’m just that good :-)).
But I save money all the same – it’s the principal of the thing.
I got a bit of a shock. Not my prescription – my eyes have remained “stable”. Apparently very short-sighted people (i.e. me) are at increased risk of detached retinas.
What? What!
Why has nobody mentioned this before?
The optician took pictures of my eyes and looked at them using a microscope gizmo with a massively bright supernova-like light in it. When I could see again she told me that she could see stretch marks around the edges of my retinas.
Stretch marks! On my eyeballs! Whaaaat! If there’s one place there shouldn’t be stretch marks, it’s in my eyeballs.
This is apparently quite normal in very short-sighted people. I’m afraid to nod my head now in case my retinas suddenly fall off.
She advised me to avoid extreme sports. I asked her if I looked like the sort of person who did extreme sports? Or, indeed, any sports? Does covering a pizza with half a bottle of Tabasco sauce and then scoffing the whole thing down count as an extreme sport, I wonder? Could the heat from the Tabasco cause my retinas to fly out of my head?
I’ll have to remember to be careful of my eyes the next time I go base-jumping, parachuting or bungee jumping.
A Little Bit of Me
This week’s end of season finale on Prompts for the Promptless is all about the Johari Window.
The Johari Window is a method of representing information (regarding feelings, experiences, motivations, intentions, attitudes, etc) – from 4 specific perspectives. It is a technique to help you understand how you are perceived by others, and how you see yourself. The perspectives are as follows:
- Open area: The things that you about yourself, that others also know about you.
- Blind area: The things you don’t know about yourself, but others know.
- Hidden area: The things you know about yourself that others do not know.
- Unknown self: The things no one knows about you.
Let’s take these one at a time.
A Costly Mistake
It’s time for Friday Fictioneers again! As ever it is hosted by Rochelle, and this week she has also provided the picture – our task is to write a story, poem or whatnot in 100 words, inspired by said picture.
You can see all the other entries here – more are added all the time – stop by and have a read!
Copyright Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Instruments lay smashed about the hotel room – heavy metal band “Iron Biscuit” was well known for such destructive after-gig parties. A young blonde sobbed in a corner amid the wreckage. Her eyes were fixed on the lead singer, his body cold and rigid, his eyes unseeing, the syringe still stuck in his arm.
A few streets away a dealer lay on the floor staring in horror at the gory mess his kneecaps had become. He had forgotten to cut the last shipment and had sold it 100% pure. His boss, an unforgiving man, had not been pleased.
A costly mistake.
Creative? Me?
There’s a new award in town! This award – the Imagine Award – was, I am reliably informed, created by Jenny over at My Fibrotastic Life – pop over and say hi! It was created in October this year, no less.
That’s last year if you’re reading this next year :-).
I’m in on the ground floor with this one. And look how cool it is – it’s got a unicorn and a rainbow in it!
It has been awarded to me by Teepee12 (Marilyn) over at Serendipity, and I have to admit I was deeply touched by her kind description of my blog – thank you! Let me tell you a bit about her blog, if you haven’t already found it. We’re talking amazing photos (sometimes aided by her other half), social commentary, light-hearted rants, all the time accompanied by a most wicked sense of humour. She manages to see the light side of many not-so-light situations. It is a most amazing blog – do visit!
The description of this award states that it was “made in order to recognize the bloggers who express their passion and dedication towards their blogs through their creativity”. Teepee has listed some qualities which make a blog “creative”.
- Words – my blog contains no end of words. They’re everywhere on my blog. Poems, fiction, musings and whatnot.
- Graphics – I have photos, doodles (both hand and computer drawn) and cartoons.
- Video – I’ve included one video. It was sort of a “Blair Witch Project” type of affair, except that mine was shot on my phone in a darkened bathroom while wearing a coat and sunglasses, illuminating my face with a torch (that’s “flashlight” if you’re in the US) and affecting a Scottish accent (and calling myself “Angus MacScotland”).
- Layout – hmm, moving on.
- Community – I have a little bunch of treasured bloggy friends plus some very welcome visitors!
Draliman’s Guide to Lists
A shopping list (noun) is a list of items needed to be purchased by a shopper, a grocery list is a the most popular type of shopping list– including items that need to be procured on the next visit to the grocery store. It’s time to get extremely personal. Share your grocery list with us! Scan it, snap a photo, or write it out.
Making a list can be a daunting prospect for the uninitiated. Without proper preparation, your list could go very badly wrong! I hope that this guide will help you to get the most out of your lists.
We’re going to concentrate today on one of the most common types of list – the “shopping list”. To explain, this is a “list” you might make before you go “shopping”.
A Bureaucratic Mishap
Hello, and welcome to my entry into this week’s Friday Fictioneers, hosted as always by Rochelle. The goal is to write roughly 100 words in response to a photo, which this week has been supplied by fellow Friday Fictioneerer Sandra Crook! It looks like the ruins of a Roman coliseum to me, so I’m going with that.
To view other entries to this week’s prompt, click here.
Copyright Sandra Crook
The roar of the crowd, until now muted and distant, hit Flavius like a slap in the face as the heavy wooden door opened. The long, dark tunnel stretched into the distance, where Flavius could see a square of light – the coliseum.
Flavius had never felt so excited. His life-long dream – to be a gladiator! He strode confidently towards the light, to meet his opponent and find glory.
The gate slammed shut behind him. He glanced around. Wait – where was his sword, his armour?
In front of him, the lions growled hungrily.
Surely there has been some sort of mistake?
Birthday Yay!
Yes, it’s my birthday again. It came around so quickly! It seems like only a year ago that I last had one.
Here’s a freaky thing. I opened my Chrome browser (Google’s browser) this morning and clicked on the little animation to “view today’s doodle” (for those of you who don’t know, Google do doodles for famous events, birthdays and so on) and this is what appeared:
Holy crivens! A doodle just for me! I knew signing up to Google+ was giving one of the world’s biggest corporations too much information. Am I supposed to write a thank you note, do you think?
I haven’t been posting much recently, apart from trying to keep up with the Friday Fictioneers challenge, and there’s a good reason (and this time it’s not laziness!).
I’m house hunting. This isn’t taking up a huge amount of actual physical time (“physical time?” – you know what I mean). It’s taking up a huge amount of mental time. Even when I’m not actually looking at house websites or talking to the bank, I’m thinking about it. My little brain doesn’t have room for anything else.
Why am I looking to buy a house (let’s say it like it is – why am I trying to persuade the bank to buy me a house)? I hate change, big time. I like my routine. I hate making phone calls. I hate taking risks. I hate suddenly having no money. This doesn’t sound like the correct mind-set for such an endeavour.
I’m getting older, fast. My pension, as it stands, will barely keep me in cheese and pizzas, let alone pay rent. So I need to get a house and pay it off before I retire. Otherwise I’m going to be living in my car.
So I’m just going to have to suck it up, take it one step at a time and let the cards fall as they may.
I’ve also learned some great estate agent terms!
- cozy – not even enough room to swing a cat
- compact – see cozy
- low maintenance garden – no grass
- green views – if you go upstairs, hang dangerously out of the window and squint a bit you may catch sight of a distant field
- parking for 2 cars – parking for 2 Smart Cars or 1 human-sized car
- 2 bedrooms – house built pre-90s, 2 bedrooms. House built 90s onwards – 1 small bedroom and 1 “bedroom” too small to actually get a bed in
- in need of modernisation – falling to bits
Wish me luck!
West Beach Story
It’s Friday Fictioneers time again, hosted as always by Rochelle. This week’s photo comes to us courtesy of E. A. Wicklund. You can read all the entries here – stop by and take a look!
I was going to write a story entitled “Invasion!” but this morning I decided to turn it on its head and do a sort of Romeo and Juliet type thing instead. Only with seagulls!
Copyright E. A. Wicklund
“Great mating dance, Romero, but this can never work.”
“But I… I love you, Julia!”
“And I love you, but I’m ‘West Beach Raiders’.”
“And I’m ‘Town Gull Massive’. Deadly rivals, always and forever.”
“Yes. But I shall love you from afar, always and forever. Now go, go back to town before you’re missed!”
“I shall be back when I am able, Julia, my love!”
All my thoughts are consumed by her. I can’t think, I can’t eat, I can’t slee… ooh, tourist, ten o’clock high! Zero protective head gear is confirmed. Begin bombing run, bomb bay doors open, attaaaaack!
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Woohoo!
I totally didn't win!
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Not Any More
Hello and welcome to this week’s Friday Fictioneers, hosted as always by Rochelle. This week’s 100 word photo prompt has been supplied by fellow Fictioneerer Janet Webb, and you can check out the other entries here. I’m getting later and later with this, as I have “things on my mind” which I may post about at a later date (except I’m trying not to think about it too much).
I must admit, I’ve trickled over into 102 words this week. However, I’m safe in the knowledge that I could swap my two uses of “any more” for the modernised form “anymore” (which is annoying the spell checker as it’s technically incorrect in UK English), which would cut it down to 100 🙂
Copyright Janet Webb
“Hey Dad, what’s up with Uncle Bert, all alone over there?”
“He’s sulking. He doesn’t like the wet stuff. He doesn’t like getting his wheels wet. He’s worried he’ll rust.”
“Where did all the flesh-things go? Did they rust?”
“Maybe. Or maybe they melted. They never looked very hardy to me.”
“Where did all the wet stuff come from?”
“Full of questions today, aren’t you? I heard it used to be solid. Then everything warmed up and now it’s all wet and it’s everywhere.”
“So why are we here, Dad? Do we have a purpose?”
“Not any more, son. Not any more.”