April Bloggerstock! Hosting Alex

Hey y'all. I get the great pleasure of hosting Alex, from Ice Wolf's Ramblings. If you want to find my humble entry, head on over to fabulously Dapper Daisy's blog.

Anyways, here he is!!




Welcome to bloggerstock. This month the topic is "photo inspired." it just so happens that the image used for inspiration this month is one of mine. After my post I will tell you more about the image itself, but for now enjoy the ramblings inspired by it! I suppose my writing is probably somewhat influenced by the fact that I was there to capture the scene, but most of what I am writing is fiction.


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The warm sun beat down on the cobblestones warming the streets as the small town bustled with midday activity. There was barely a cloud in the sky on the beautiful summer day. Snippets of frenetic conversations of friends and lovers drifted up from the sidewalk caves along with the mouth-watering aromas of lunch. People wandered the streets below, darting in and out of shops and stopping to see what the street vendors were offering today.


All this was happening below. Below the rampart walkway that overlooked the small harbour. A multitude of brightly colored sailboats sat resting at their moorings on the calm waters, the stillness broken every now and then by small rowboats carrying people to and from their boats.


No one bothered to look up, people rarely do. There was too much going on in the streets for most people to spare a moment to look up. Most of the people knew what to expect anyway, the rampart walk was were one would see young lovers walking hand in hand or leaning out over the walls together. It was a place for romance on warm summer evenings under the brightly colors clouds of sunset.


Today the walk was mostly empty, after all, it was a market day and it was lunchtime. No one noticed the little girl who just stood, watching. Ariadne wasn't running away or trying to escape, she just sought some solitude. She wanted some time to think. Most people wouldn't have thought that a girl her age would seek such solitude for her pensiveness, but she was not like other girls her age.


She stared out over the water in silent reverie, barely noticed by anyone around. Even with her golden curls glowing in the afternoon sunlight she almost blended into the background. This was how she wanted felt, how she wanted to be: part of the scenery and lost in thought. Even when passersby did notice her there, they didn’t pay much mind, the streets were full of little girls.


As she looked out over the water she felt a pull, a longing. Despite her age she felt like there was more, something that she was missing. Home was nice, but the world called to her. This was not the first time she stood on this walkway feeling this way. It wouldn’t be the last either. What she didn’t know was that this day was different. She had already seen something that would change the path of her life, but like her, it blended into the background. It had seen here to, but like itself she blended into the background. For now…


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A few notes about this post. First off, in writing this, I think that I might pick this up as a starting point for more. It was kind of fun to write. So you might discover more of this on my blog in the future.


Secondly, about the photo. For all the participants in bloggerstock and anyone who was wondering, the photo was taken in La Rochelle, France. I don’t know who the girl was, I just spotted her there, alone for a while and then with another young girl. The walk is above the street level and does look out on a harbour.


Hope you are enjoying bloggerstock, make sure to check out the other posts for this month and if you are interested in participating in the future, visit the bloggerstock website: http://www.bloggerstock.net/

KBROD April

Alright folks, it's time for (drumroll please) Karaoke Blog Ring of Death. As always, thankyou to the *FABULOUS* Sara. Seriously, without her we wouldn't have this whole ridiculous awesomeness.

If you want to see my ridiculousness, you can head over to Bianca's blog. Earplugs are recommended.

Today I have the great pleasure of hosting Ash. So put your hands together for her!!!

Here's her intro:



and here's the main event!!!



Enjoy!

Leech

It's a miracle that my sister isn't a serial killer yet.

I put her through so much shit when we were little. When she was 5 or 6 (and I was 11 or 12), I once told her that she was adopted, and that Mom and Dad wanted to return her because she was defective. I put a stamp on her forehead, and had her out on the curb packed and waiting for the mailman, tears be damned.

Mom wasn't too happy with me then. I like to think she was laughing on the inside. Once Dad was done laughing (and after getting a quelling look from Mother), I was sent to my room (seriously, they thought that was a punishment? My books were in my room), presumably to think over my most grievous error in judgement and taste.

I schemed instead.

I remember romping around the neighborhood with my friends, Leech (my sister) trailing behind. We'd ride our bikes and she'd attempt to keep up with her brand new scooter, because she refused to learn how to ride a bike.

We outran her every time.

I taught Leech many things when we were little. I taught her how to dig for worms, where the best spot in the creek was to catch minnows, how to avoid crazy old Mrs. McCluskie's dog whenever cutting through her yard. I also taught her not to eat yellow snow.

She still hasn't thanked me for that.

We were raised differently. When I was younger, my family didn't have a lot of money. I remember the electricity getting shut off, or us not having any heat in the wintertime because we couldn't afford to fill the oil tank up. My father has his own business now, and it took off when Leech was young. So she never went through any of that (thank God). She never knew what it was like to do without. As a result, she's quite spoiled (I think my parents kind of overcompensated a smidge). I'm the frugal spendthriftyish one (or, as she likes to call me, the Scrooge), and she burns through money like it's going out of style.

As I write this, she's getting ready to go out with her friends. It suddenly occurs to me that my baby sister is growing up, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. She's in college - attempting to procure a business degree.

Her grammar still sucks.

We still fight. We still pretend to hate each other. And yet...there's a sort of camaraderie that wasn't there when we were younger. It's most unsettling.

So I'm watching her go out the door now, to go hang out with her "friend that's just a coworker" (that pays for all her food, movie tickets, etc). She's all grown up, and she can take care of herself now.

But if he hurts her, I have a hockey stick, and I'm not afraid to use it.

Bad movie review!

Hey y'all. I'm hosting the *fabulous* Jes from Jesgettingstarted on here for this month's bad movie review, which is totally like winning the lotto. Once again, as always, thankyou Nugs for hosting this shindig - you're made of the same stuff ninja unicorns are made of. Incidentally, my review will be posted on Nug's blog (HOW THE FUCK DID I GET SO LUCKY? WOOT). Anyways, here's Jes with the review. Hey y’all this is Jes and I write a little blog called Jes Getting Started, well that blog and a couple of others. What can I say; I have a horrible time keeping to just one thing. I love Nyx to death because she is super hot and she lives so close we are basically neighbors and I totally peep in her windows so I am super excited to be invading her space. For another shitty movie review make sure you check out my blog to read TJ’s review of an actual shitty Nicolas Cage movie. So this is my first time doing the horrible movie review ring. What is the actual title of this ring anyway? How bad of me for not even knowing. For shame, for shame. This month’s theme was Nicolas Cage movies, and I kind of cheated a bit because I actually love my movie. And even own it on DVD no less. Just not the Nicolas Cage part of it.

Peggy Sue Got Married stars the amazing Kathleen Turner, who I have seen naked in real life, as a middle aged, divorced mother who faints after being crowned reunion queen. When she wakes up she has been magically transported back to her high school days and gets to relive the last few months of her senior year, where she can decide to relive it the same way or you know create havoc and have a better life. Nicolas Cage stars as her boyfriend/ex-husband. First off this movie was made in 1986 when Kathleen was 32 and Nicolas Cage was 22 so there is a little bit of an age difference there to both be playing 17-18 and then the 30-40 or how ever old they are supposed to be at the reunion. So this means ridiculous amounts of make up on Nick Cage to make him seem old and washed up. This was also the point in his life where he talked with that horrible, scratchy, pitchy falsetto voice. Oh and did I mention he sings? But oh I am forgetting the best part, Jim Carey is in it as one of his best friends/boy band members and he sings as well. The movie asks the question that many of us face about if we could relive a moment in time would we? For Peggy Sue not only does she relive it but she does everything possible to change it, even “inventing” things from the future, like panty hose. And no way does she want to get married, even though this time around three different guys propose to her. In the end Peggy Sue wakes up and realizes it all was a dream, or was it? Although Nick Cage is super annoying and super whiny and you really wish she would end up with someone else. It is a decent movie and there are tons of other parts that actually make it kind of endearing. There are lots of other familiar faces like Helen Hunt who plays their daughter, Sophia Coppola as Peggy Sue’s sister, and Catherine Hicks aka the mom from 7 Heaven, as Peggy Sue’s best friend. Next month I should probably do a movie that actually sucks.