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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.
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”.
Love Notes – Full Circle
Sometimes called a billet-doux, or a love letter, a love note is a personal letter to a loved one expressing affection. The loved one does not necessarily have to be animate, human, alive, or known.
The theme for this week’s Prompt for the Promptless, hosted as ever by the talented Queen Creative, is love letters!
I thought we’d take a look at love letters through the ages. Let’s start with a love letter recently discovered carved into a stone tablet, which was buried in the middle of a desert somewhere probably.
Ug,
Me kill mammoth. Me get meat. Me big. Me strong. Me want you. Me make you happy.
Me pick you up at eight.
Ug
As you can see, the cavemen didn’t waste words – in fact they didn’t have many words to waste! There is a directness to this letter which I find refreshing.
Next up, let’s zoom all the way forward to medieval England. A period of chivalrous knights and beautiful damsels, you say? Not a bit of it! Take a look at this recently discovered example.
My Lady Emily,
You hath spurned me for the attentions of Sir Bravealot and humiliated me in front of ye entire court. Therefore I hath struck down Sir Bravealot with mine sword. I hath also seen ye glancing in ye direction of Sir Slashalot. Thusly hath I sliced him open also.
Thus hath you but one suitor remaining in life – me.
I shalt pick ye up at eight.
Sir Killalot
Wow – serious stuff. I imagine that “Lady Emily” feels pretty special as Sir Killalot slaughters his way into her heart.
Let’s zip forward to the roaring Twenties next. Now we really get to hear some flowery stuff, as evidenced by this next example.
Your alabaster skin, soft and pure as the most perfect of rose petals. Your eyes, sparkling as the stars in the night sky. The smile that comes so easily to your lips, lighting the room like the brightest of suns. Your laugh, the tinkling of the most perfectly crafted of wind chimes.
Crispin Bonneville, Esq
Surely we have reached the very pinnacle of love letters! Let’s try the Fifties next.
Dear Emmy-Sue,
Gosh, I enjoyed our lunch date today! You’re so smart and so pretty, Emmy-Sue! Top in your class, a cheerleader and one of the most popular girls in the school! Gosh, Emmy-Sue, I can’t wait to take you to the sock hop tonight! And please assure your Ma and Pa I’ll have you home safe and sound by ten!
Gosh, I’ll pick you up at eight!
Chad
Although not as flowery as our Twenties example, I love the sweet innocence of this letter. Any girl would surely feel special to receive this! Finally, we’ll take a look at a typical love letter of our time. Well, love text.
And there you have it. I’m not even sure it’s written in English. I mean, what the hell? Such a shame.
We have seen that love letters have pretty much gone full circle. We began, and ended, with the caveman.
A Choice of Dark or Light
Approach-approach conflict is the psychological conflict that results when a choice must be made between two desirable alternatives.
I thought I’d do a DraliDoodle for this week’s PftP, brought to us by the marvellous Queen Creative!
The Light Side allows you to help out and makes you feel good! The Dark Side gives you the power to help yourself which sounds great in theory, but let’s be honest, it’s a bit “evil”.
Why is there not a Grey Side?
Unfortunately, by the end of the doodle I’m none the wiser. That’s me in a nutshell. I can’t make decisions.
Thanks to Lucasfilm.
Amphigory – The Nightmare Coach
An amphigory is a piece of nonsensical writing in verse or, less commonly, prose. It often parodies a serious piece of writing.
This week’s Prompts for the Promptless, hosted by Rara and The Queen Creative, is all about nonsense! “Yay!” I thought. However, writing nonsense is harder than I thought :-(.
“The Nightmare Coach” starring Jeff and Nigel
A nightmare bound in sparkling lights
A coach trip, off to see the sights!
We’ll drive it here, we’ll drive it there
We’ll burn up gas without a care.
Not this nightmare coach again!
Jeff, old chap, this has to end!
It’s just not good, you need some aid
Your mind, old son, it starts to fade!
And as we go from town to town
I’ll kiss the girls, I’ll shoot the clowns
‘Cos clowns are creepy, don’t you think?
The plastic smiles, the fairground stink.
You’re talking nonsense, Jeff old chap
You’re spouting tripe, what’s up with that?
I think I’ll give the Doc a call
This isn’t right, not right at all.
We’ll drive the country far and wide
As endless as the lapping tide
I’ll eat some shrimp, I’ll drink a keg
Jump off a wall and break my leg.
Doctor? Hi, it’s Nigel here.
There’s something wrong with Jeff, I fear.
Please say you’ll come, and make it fast
I just don’t know how long he’ll last.
And when the trip comes to an end
My teeth begin to gnash and rend
I hate it when the coach is gone
The journey’s end. Here ends my song.
Jeff my friend, please calm you down
The Doctor’s here, no need to frown.
Be at peace, no more to say
Just close your eyes. You’ll be okay.
Well, it was supposed to be funny but it turned out being a little bit sad. Poor Jeff.
I used to be able to write “funny”. On the plus side, this is one of my few fiction pieces in which no-one’s died. Yay me :-).
On the Edge
L’appel du vide is French and translates to “Call of the Void”. It is the unexplainable urge to jump when standing on the edge of a cliff, or tall height. It can be considered a form of self-destructive ideation, or a protective instinct to let the brain play out what the body should not. It’s definition has been expanded to describe responding mentally to the call of the siren song– whether that means the desire to reach into a fire, drive into a wall, or walk into the eye of the storm.
He struggles to remember the early days, the good times. The times when drinking was fun, sociable, relaxing. The days when he and his friends met at the bar after work for a few drinks, to laugh and joke and relieve the stress of the day.
He can’t quite remember those days.
All he has now are memories of darkness. Hazy, muddled memories of fights with his friends. Vague recollections of arguments with his wife. The knowledge that he’d swapped his beautiful house and family for a tiny, grotty bedsit. A dank, dark little room to match his mood.
He remembers two days when he hadn’t drunk, when he’d tried to stay off the booze so he could see his kids. Two horrific days of misery until the siren’s song of alcohol drew him inexorably back.
His memory vaguely recalls a time when he had friends, friends he could rely on, but now his friends could no longer rely on him and they’d done their best but now they were gone. He’d pushed them away because they didn’t understand, couldn’t understand what he was going through. Those days feel like a dream, a different life.
Darkness, emptiness, helplessness, shame. Home, wife, kids, friends, job, self respect all gone.
And now his mind drags itself back to the present, as he stands on the cliff. He can’t go on like this, it has to end. He stands on the edge of the cliff, his mind remarkably clear, and stares out into the void.
Time Twister
RETROCAUSALITY IS A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT ADDRESSING THE QUESTION, “CAN THE FUTURE AFFECT THE PRESENT, AND CAN THE PRESENT AFFECT THE PAST?”. IT IS ANY OF SEVERAL HYPOTHETICAL PHENOMENA OR PROCESSES THAT REVERSE CAUSALITY, ALLOWING AN EFFECT TO OCCUR BEFORE ITS CAUSE. IT OFTEN REFERS TO PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF TIME TRAVEL, THOUGH THE TWO TERMS ARE NOT UNIVERSALLY SYNONYMOUS. (Logo courtesy of Queen Creative.)
Wow. Can the present affect the past? I’m going to say “no”.
I read the Wikipedia entry on the topic. It’s all a bit spurious, physics-wise, although there are theories. There are always theories. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century to be a physicist. I like to see my physics in action.
We’re talking “causality” here – cause and effect. One example of cause and effect is described by the “butterfly effect”, which is also part of chaos theory. Now, I’m happy with chaos theory per se. If you pop a ball on the top of a hill it will eventually roll in some direction or other based on all sorts of starting conditions. But the “butterfly effect”? A butterfly flapping its wings can cause a hurricane thousands of miles away weeks later? Really?
Those Chinese butterflies have some serious mojo going on
“The Butterfly Effect” by DraliDoodles
Back to retrocausality. As a thought experiment it’s fun, I guess, especially if you’re with your mates down the pub, or it’s post-university-disco and you’re all sitting in the kitchen, nicely drunk making cheese toasties and talking philosophy.
As a reality, I’m thinking it could not be! I’ve watched a ton of Dr Who and he always actually travels to the past in order to affect the future. If he could affect the past by changing something in the present, he wouldn’t need the TARDIS, now would he?
But whoa there just a minute! How do we know that this retrocausality thing isn’t happening all the time? We don’t! Think about this:
- I don’t like something about my past
- I fire up my RetroCausalitron(TM)
- I change the past from “here”, the present
- The timeline from “that point then” on to “this point now” is rewritten
- Because the timeline has changed I never actually changed the past – that action belonged to a defunct timeline. Nor do I even want to change the past as it is now what I wanted it to be.
Therefore we could have changed the past millions of times from the present and we’d never even know. Now that’s scary. My head hurts.
D I Why
Prompts for the Promptless – Do It Yourself (DIY) is the method of building, modifying or repairing something without the aid or experts or professionals.
I have to be honest – DIY and me don’t mix. I’d love to be one of those chaps who can put up a shelf at a moment’s notice or fix a leaky tap at the drop of a hat, but sadly this is not the case.
If I try anything so much as cutting the tag off a new t-shirt, I always ensure that the first aid box is close at hand. Stick me anywhere near a power tool and I’m likely to have one of those hard-to-believe hilarious yet tragic accidents.
“Cornish man accidentally falls on own chainsaw while hanging picture.”
“Chainsaw Disaster” by DraliDoodles
A Brand to be Proud Of
This week’s Prompts for the Promptless asked us about brands – not the type they use on cattle, the type we use to identify oneself or one’s product.
DraliDoodles.
We’ve all seen them. It’s a brand synonymous with integrity, quality and value for money.
That is how I see DraliDoodles in the coming years. In order to promote this, I have fashioned a logo.
As you can see, I’ve pulled out all the stops on this one, as it has to be as professional as possible! I suppose it could have been in colour, but I have no coloured pens. Once DraliDoodles takes off, I’ll get a small business loan and invest in some. Or maybe I’ll tap my investors.
Can anyone see what’s missing from my logo?
“A graphic designer with actual talent?”
Who said that? No, I need a strapline (that’s “tagline” if you’re in the US).
To that end, I’ve thought up a few to try:
- Quality. Integrity. Professionalism. Cheap.
- You know it makes sense! (Possibly that one’s taken.)
- When there’s no-one else, call us!
- Because one day we’ll be famous
- We doodle because we care
Which do you think I should use? I think you’ll agree, they’re all pretty awesome.
And don’t worry, when I’m rich and famous and living on my own island, I’ll continue to post DraliDoodles here on my blog!
I’ll encrust them with real gold, though. Because I can.
The Beast of Drali Moor
Prompts for the Promptless – Cryptozoology is the search for legendary animals, usually in an attempt to evaluate or confirm the possibility of existence. This includes looking for living examples of animals that are considered extinct, such as dinosaurs; animals whose existence lacks physical evidence but which appear in myths, legends, or are reported, such as Bigfoot and Chupacabra; and wild animals dramatically outside their normal geographic ranges, such as phantom cats. The animals cryptozoologists study are often referred to as cryptids, a term coined by John Wall in 1983.
Drali Moor. A wide expanse of moorland, marshes and woodland stretching from the centre of the land across to the small coastal village of Drali-On-Sea. An area of outstanding natural beauty (if you like that sort of thing), it is home to a scattering of farmers, sheep and, some say, the “Beast of Drali Moor”.
Few have caught a glimpse of the beast; no pictures exist. However, those who claim to have seen it swear it is real.
Artist’s impression of the Beast.
It looked way scarier in my head.
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I totally didn't win!
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