And after my coffee.
Category: Uncategorized
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I don’t use them. The closest thing I have to a “favorite” emoji dates back to the 80s/90s, when what we call “emojis” were sideways faces created like this:
: – ( .
My boyfriend back then, Tim, was one of the first people to establish himself (for better or worse) as an online personality. He was known for “flaming”
Someone posted a piece suggesting various emojis to use as avatars. One showed a frowning, angry face that was meant to say “I get flamed a lot.” The next one was a snarling, angry face with fangs meant to convey “I get flamed a lot by Tim.”
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…and movies. Especially movies. I love watching a film, digesting it, then having a good, indepth conversation with someone about it.
For instance, last week, for the first time, I watched Collateral, with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. It took me a few days to realize that it is now one of my favorite films, and why. Aside from outstanding performances from Cruise and Foxx, it’s a fascinating character study both of the psychopathic assassin Vincent (Cruise) and Max, the taxi-driver (Foxx) Vincent hijacks into a night-long odyssey of killing.
The two characters keep stepping into each other’s roles — Max when he’s forced to pretend he’s a hit-man to Vincent’s employers, Vincent when he forces Max to confront Max’s exploitative boss. Much of the mystery in the film centers on the kind of past that created this handsome, well-dressed, smiling, utterly remorseless and hollow killer, who appears the embodiment of facile white-boy privilege. We get hints in Vincent’s description of his drunk, abusive father, a childhood in and out of a foster care system. In one especially pivotal line, a likely echo of that childhood, Vincent advises Max, “take comfort in the fact that you have no other options.” By the end of the movie, Vincent’s final line in the film is almost heartbreaking.
That’s what I like talking about.
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I now picture these prompts being written some nervous WordPress employee who’s trying to talk himself into something. What is it ? A new job? That engagement ring in your drawer? The skydiving appointment that’s the result of a lost bet?
The last risk I took was two days ago, when I allowed an update to my brand new Ipad. I now cannot play my favorite game on it, and will have to wait until someone at Asypr gets around to doing something about it.
Which, given the customer service for most game software, can take anywhere from days to a year.
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Any time a woman goes on a date, she is taking a risk. She is taking a risk when she gives her telephone number to a man she’s only recently met, when she gets into his car, when she invites him into her home, when she goes into his home.
It’s not the risk of having her feelings hurt or being embarrassed. It’s the risk of assault or worse, and it’s something most of us learn very early on. Yes, I know, most men are not out to hurt women, but the older we women get, the more we exprience and observe, the more aware we become of just how many men are predators. We don’t live in constant fear — but whenever we interact with a man we don’t know well, there is a heightened element of caution.
And so, I took a chance when a man approached me in a night club with a lame pick-up line. (“What’s that you’re drinking?”) I took a chance when he asked for my phone number.
We’ve been together now for almost thirty years, and I have never regretted it.
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Daily writing promptWrite about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?
a man who was giving the woman waiting on him behind the counter a hard time because she had a speech impediment. I wish I had spoken up about it there and then, but I told myself it might embarrass her more — which was probably a lie.
That was atypical. Normally, I do speak up.
Which is why I get called names a lot.
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it’s the upcoming election and my memories of Jan 6, 2021.
They’ll try it again. They always do.
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Daily writing promptDescribe a random encounter with a stranger that stuck out positively to you.
I rode the Eight every morning. It was a pretty painless, brief trip (about 15-20 minutes) from downtown San Francisco to San Bruno Avenue, a predominantly Asian/Hispanic neighborhood. By the third stop (SOMA), I was usually the only non-Asian on the bus.
One afternoon on my way back to downtown from teaching, I sat next to a round, elderly, very cheerful Asian lady who seemed to speak very little English and who, out of the blue, offered me a small pin, a butterfly fashioned from blue and pink thread. At first I thought she was offering it for sale, but she made it plain it was a gift and she wanted me to pin it to my lapel. I did, and she smiled, vigorously nodded her approval then stared ahead, apparently satisfied. She got off at the next stop. I never saw her again.
It’s possible she was a grandparent to one of the children I taught, and recognized me from the school, but to this day I’m not sure why I warranted the butterfly. I still have it. -
Daily writing promptDescribe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.
about whether everybody likes me or not.
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I was a child when the first moon landing took place. We all gathered in front of the TV to watch it live. My parents were of that optimistic generation who imagined that by the 21st century, tourists would be visiting the moon, staying in hotels there, etc.
After explaining the terrible risks the astronauts were taking, and why they had to wear those heavy suits, what could happen to them if those helmets they wore so much as cracked, my parents told me confidently, “…and someday, you will visit the moon yourself!”
Which absolutely horrified me.
Pam Troy 