As a creative spirit I can make up a story to go with just about anything. While sitting on the bus I like to use a combination of observation and creativity to make up stories about the lives of my fellow commuters. When I'm walking the dog I see fantastical events play out in the forests around me with sprites and unicorns and dragons. But one story that has stuck with me was the discovery a friend of mine made.
My friend was weeding a plant bed near a local park and was surprised to find a pair of boxers. Naturally the boxers went in the trash and they kept working until they found a contraceptive wrapper.
Apparently this plant bed had had a few visitors. I grimaced and "ewww-ed" during the story when it was appropriate, but the next part made me laugh out loud.
The third item of trash that was found in this public flower bed was an ultrasound picture of a fetus.
I couldn't believe what an amazing look into the lives of two people this little flower bed was! We have no idea if any of these items are related to each other in real life, but why couldn't they be? For me the story of the trash in the flower bed is the story of a couple, giving in to passion in the park and creating a life.
Amazing.
-Brandolyn
Friday, 7 March 2014
Thursday, 6 March 2014
(DA) A little overwhelmed...
I may or may not have had a bit of a break down/ epiphany tonight (definitely may have), and realized that I have a lot going on.
Here's a glimpse into the things I'm doing at the moment:
-participating in Duelling Amateurs, the daily writing challenge
-Running W.A.C "Weekly Art Club" a group on Facebook
-writing for Alternate Screen, the TV and movie review sight
-writing a full length novel, this first book in my first trilogy
-reading "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
-acting classes
-working 2 part time jobs
-daily drawing
-squash
-training my dog
-going to the gym every day and training for a 5K, a 10K, a mini Triathlon and the Spartan.
and of course all the shovelling, cleaning, laundry, cooking etc that comes with being a grown up.
All of this I'm doing while also having to be very aware of how much I sleep, how good my diet is and that I get all my vitamins and medication to treat my MS.
I learned a long time ago that just because I have a disease, doesn't mean I can't keep living my life like I want to. Look at the list of things I am juggling at the moment! I can still do it, I just have to be very aware of myself and how my body is feeling, and make sure I treat my body well so that it can keep up with me.
Finding out that I have MS didn't ruin my life, it just made it a little more complicated.
And I can handle complicated.
-Brandolyn
Here's a glimpse into the things I'm doing at the moment:
-participating in Duelling Amateurs, the daily writing challenge
-Running W.A.C "Weekly Art Club" a group on Facebook
-writing for Alternate Screen, the TV and movie review sight
-writing a full length novel, this first book in my first trilogy
-reading "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
-acting classes
-working 2 part time jobs
-daily drawing
-squash
-training my dog
-going to the gym every day and training for a 5K, a 10K, a mini Triathlon and the Spartan.
and of course all the shovelling, cleaning, laundry, cooking etc that comes with being a grown up.
All of this I'm doing while also having to be very aware of how much I sleep, how good my diet is and that I get all my vitamins and medication to treat my MS.
I learned a long time ago that just because I have a disease, doesn't mean I can't keep living my life like I want to. Look at the list of things I am juggling at the moment! I can still do it, I just have to be very aware of myself and how my body is feeling, and make sure I treat my body well so that it can keep up with me.
Finding out that I have MS didn't ruin my life, it just made it a little more complicated.
And I can handle complicated.
-Brandolyn
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
(DA) Fantasy Landscape Challenge
After one of my latest posts my brother in-law came to me and suggested a few challenges to help me get out of my creative funk.
The first is what I'll be working on today. "Find a picture of a landscape and try to tell a story about what seems obvious but also what you can't see in the picture, like events or memories that happened in this landscape."
And of course, in my creative funk, I couldn't pick a landscape. So I had my brother in-law pick one for me. I have never seen this before and have no idea where it's from or where it actually is.
To passersby this is a little house on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in Newfoundland. The house is orderly, and well kept, and there isn't much of a lawn that needs to be mowed, but the view from their "backyard" is what makes people stop. The house is situated on a plot of land that has been nick-named "Picture Ridge" where locals and tourists stop to admire the view of the cliffs and the Ocean.
The little house on the cliff sneaks into many of the picturesque landscapes taken from "Picture Ridge" and is commonly called the "Ridge House".
As lovely as the house and scenery is, the location is not what makes this place beautiful.
"Ridge House" is known as Home to the Murphy family. Margaret and William Murphy bought this house as a starter home shortly after they married in 1949. William Murphy, 20 at the time, was a fisherman. If you ask him now, he'd tell you he's always been a fisherman and will be a fisherman till the day he dies, but now he does it recreationally. His wife, Margaret, was 18 and a seamstress. If you asked her now if she was still a seamstress she'd shake her head and smile politely.
"No." She'd say. "I'm just a mother, and grandmother, who happens to be able to repair my kids' favourite clothes."
Margaret and William had intended this house to be a starter house and never expected to raise four boys; Robert, Charles, Arthur and Peter, in their little house but the cost of four young boys stretched their pockets thin. The house was small and loud with 6 bodies bumbling around in 3 bedrooms, and fighting to share 1 bath.
As they grew up they watched their boys race down the stairs on towels pretending they were on magic carpets, or watched them scamper across the ridge in the fall when the grass was yellow and crunching under foot.
When they first got the house William had screwed a paddle from his first boat on the wall in the kitchen. No one knows why. Margaret never asked, and William never said. It hangs on the wall vertically and Margaret used it to measure the height of her boys every Christmas. She would line them up; which was a task, with the promise of cocoa and a gingerbread man if they stayed still long enough for her to strike a line with her pen at the crown of their head on the shaft of the paddle. Peter always spent the day before Christmas walking on the tip of his toes trying to stretch his legs and make them longer so that he might get taller than his brothers.
During the winter when it was really cold, the Murphy's would gather in their parent's room and listen to Margaret as she read their favourite books aloud. Robert had an old copy of The Lord of the Rings that he favoured, while Charles and Arthur preferred the Redwall stories, and Peter liked Peter Pan. Although they all liked different stories, and they had heard them before, the only time that the Murphy house was ever calm was when Margaret was reading to her boys. They would pull the mattresses in from the other rooms and gather in a makeshift pillow fort, while Margaret would snuggle into their father's lap; who'd fall asleep before the first chapter was finished, but his hands would stay snaked around her waist holding her close. The boys would set up their pillows and blankets and watch Margaret with rapt attention. Margaret would make voices and accents for each character, and run around the room imitating battle scenes, or flying around the room as if she were covered in pixie dust. When Margaret was reading the boys were watching. It was the only time the boys ever really watched their parents.
Eventually Margaret and William started watching their boys lives from the windows of their little house. The four walls were too small and they boys couldn't stand to be in them very long.
Margaret and William continued to watch as their boys learned to skate on the frozen water beyond the ridge and started to join the neighbours in friendly hockey games. They watched as they started to blush when they were asked about some of the neighbourhood girls.
As the boys grew up they became less mesmerized by Margaret. They found her stories childish, and annoying. In the winter when it was cold they would seek refuge from the cold in the solitude of various rooms of the house and busy themselves with work or school. The family would fight, and brothers would form alliances to trade rooms and avoid one another. They fought with each other, they fought with their parents, they fought with themselves. Margaret and William watched helplessly as their kids drew lines on the floor and dared each other to cross it.
One day while William was at work Arthur and Robert got into a horrible fight. Peter barricaded himself in his room, and Margaret and Charles tried to ease the tension, but the brothers were so loud they couldn't hear them. After the fight with Robert, that ended in a broken nose and a sprained wrist, Arthur moved out. Robert went off to University in Toronto that fall.
And then the boys grew up.
They went off to school across the country, found partners and jobs, and only called their parents for their birthdays, but were often too preoccupied with their own lives to get the dates right; they were usually only off by 1 or 2 days, and Margaret always said she didn't mind, but they always visited for Christmas.
The "Ridge House" got very big and very quiet when they boys went away. The ocean stayed blue, and the rocks of the ridge never changed, but when the grass turned from bright green, to yellow and brown, then slept under a blanket of snow, the beauty on the ridge would change. When they boys would come home for a visit at Christmas, they would bring their wives, partners and children to the little house, and it would turn back into their home.
William and Margaret, now aged and lined would line up their family with the promise of cocoa and gingerbread to take a family photo, and when tempers got too high, Margaret would reach for the nearest book, sit in her husbands' arms and read for her family.
The family they had started with had seemed so big, 6 people in 3 bedrooms, but now there were wives and grandchildren; 13 people squeezed into that little house, and even in this small house the spaces between the brothers was too much. Things that had been said in anger or frustration kept them apart, and even the size of the house could not get them close enough again. But when Margaret pulled Peter Pan off the shelf and started to read, the eyes of her children watched her mesmerized once more.
They watched her not just for her tales, but admired her for her patience, her generosity, and watched as their father's arms squeezed her gently as he slept- loving her through his dreams. They looked around the room at siblings they had fought with and nodded silent apologies. They let go of their grudges and resentments surrounded by the bigger family they had created, and that Margaret had brought together.
“Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.”
-Brandolyn
Wow, I just lost myself in that. I started this 2 hours ago! It's long, but I hope you like it.
The first is what I'll be working on today. "Find a picture of a landscape and try to tell a story about what seems obvious but also what you can't see in the picture, like events or memories that happened in this landscape."
And of course, in my creative funk, I couldn't pick a landscape. So I had my brother in-law pick one for me. I have never seen this before and have no idea where it's from or where it actually is.
To passersby this is a little house on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in Newfoundland. The house is orderly, and well kept, and there isn't much of a lawn that needs to be mowed, but the view from their "backyard" is what makes people stop. The house is situated on a plot of land that has been nick-named "Picture Ridge" where locals and tourists stop to admire the view of the cliffs and the Ocean.
The little house on the cliff sneaks into many of the picturesque landscapes taken from "Picture Ridge" and is commonly called the "Ridge House".
As lovely as the house and scenery is, the location is not what makes this place beautiful.
"Ridge House" is known as Home to the Murphy family. Margaret and William Murphy bought this house as a starter home shortly after they married in 1949. William Murphy, 20 at the time, was a fisherman. If you ask him now, he'd tell you he's always been a fisherman and will be a fisherman till the day he dies, but now he does it recreationally. His wife, Margaret, was 18 and a seamstress. If you asked her now if she was still a seamstress she'd shake her head and smile politely.
"No." She'd say. "I'm just a mother, and grandmother, who happens to be able to repair my kids' favourite clothes."
Margaret and William had intended this house to be a starter house and never expected to raise four boys; Robert, Charles, Arthur and Peter, in their little house but the cost of four young boys stretched their pockets thin. The house was small and loud with 6 bodies bumbling around in 3 bedrooms, and fighting to share 1 bath.
As they grew up they watched their boys race down the stairs on towels pretending they were on magic carpets, or watched them scamper across the ridge in the fall when the grass was yellow and crunching under foot.
When they first got the house William had screwed a paddle from his first boat on the wall in the kitchen. No one knows why. Margaret never asked, and William never said. It hangs on the wall vertically and Margaret used it to measure the height of her boys every Christmas. She would line them up; which was a task, with the promise of cocoa and a gingerbread man if they stayed still long enough for her to strike a line with her pen at the crown of their head on the shaft of the paddle. Peter always spent the day before Christmas walking on the tip of his toes trying to stretch his legs and make them longer so that he might get taller than his brothers.
During the winter when it was really cold, the Murphy's would gather in their parent's room and listen to Margaret as she read their favourite books aloud. Robert had an old copy of The Lord of the Rings that he favoured, while Charles and Arthur preferred the Redwall stories, and Peter liked Peter Pan. Although they all liked different stories, and they had heard them before, the only time that the Murphy house was ever calm was when Margaret was reading to her boys. They would pull the mattresses in from the other rooms and gather in a makeshift pillow fort, while Margaret would snuggle into their father's lap; who'd fall asleep before the first chapter was finished, but his hands would stay snaked around her waist holding her close. The boys would set up their pillows and blankets and watch Margaret with rapt attention. Margaret would make voices and accents for each character, and run around the room imitating battle scenes, or flying around the room as if she were covered in pixie dust. When Margaret was reading the boys were watching. It was the only time the boys ever really watched their parents.
Eventually Margaret and William started watching their boys lives from the windows of their little house. The four walls were too small and they boys couldn't stand to be in them very long.
Margaret and William continued to watch as their boys learned to skate on the frozen water beyond the ridge and started to join the neighbours in friendly hockey games. They watched as they started to blush when they were asked about some of the neighbourhood girls.
As the boys grew up they became less mesmerized by Margaret. They found her stories childish, and annoying. In the winter when it was cold they would seek refuge from the cold in the solitude of various rooms of the house and busy themselves with work or school. The family would fight, and brothers would form alliances to trade rooms and avoid one another. They fought with each other, they fought with their parents, they fought with themselves. Margaret and William watched helplessly as their kids drew lines on the floor and dared each other to cross it.
One day while William was at work Arthur and Robert got into a horrible fight. Peter barricaded himself in his room, and Margaret and Charles tried to ease the tension, but the brothers were so loud they couldn't hear them. After the fight with Robert, that ended in a broken nose and a sprained wrist, Arthur moved out. Robert went off to University in Toronto that fall.
And then the boys grew up.
They went off to school across the country, found partners and jobs, and only called their parents for their birthdays, but were often too preoccupied with their own lives to get the dates right; they were usually only off by 1 or 2 days, and Margaret always said she didn't mind, but they always visited for Christmas.
The "Ridge House" got very big and very quiet when they boys went away. The ocean stayed blue, and the rocks of the ridge never changed, but when the grass turned from bright green, to yellow and brown, then slept under a blanket of snow, the beauty on the ridge would change. When they boys would come home for a visit at Christmas, they would bring their wives, partners and children to the little house, and it would turn back into their home.
William and Margaret, now aged and lined would line up their family with the promise of cocoa and gingerbread to take a family photo, and when tempers got too high, Margaret would reach for the nearest book, sit in her husbands' arms and read for her family.
The family they had started with had seemed so big, 6 people in 3 bedrooms, but now there were wives and grandchildren; 13 people squeezed into that little house, and even in this small house the spaces between the brothers was too much. Things that had been said in anger or frustration kept them apart, and even the size of the house could not get them close enough again. But when Margaret pulled Peter Pan off the shelf and started to read, the eyes of her children watched her mesmerized once more.
They watched her not just for her tales, but admired her for her patience, her generosity, and watched as their father's arms squeezed her gently as he slept- loving her through his dreams. They looked around the room at siblings they had fought with and nodded silent apologies. They let go of their grudges and resentments surrounded by the bigger family they had created, and that Margaret had brought together.
“Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.”
-Brandolyn
Wow, I just lost myself in that. I started this 2 hours ago! It's long, but I hope you like it.
(DA) The Lego Movie Review
EDIT: Apparently last night's entry just got saved as a draft, but I did post yesterday, check the date stamp on the website if you need to.
***
Today's writing is a short blurb about the Lego Movie.
Please find it on ALTERNATESCREEN.com if you are interested.
-Brandolyn
***
Today's writing is a short blurb about the Lego Movie.
Please find it on ALTERNATESCREEN.com if you are interested.
-Brandolyn
Monday, 3 March 2014
(DA) With the best of intentions
I joined Duelling Amateurs with the idea that by writing every day, my writing would eventually improve. But I'm noticing that although I post something every day I've had a very sudden drop in my creative writing.
I enjoy how much I have been able to post on ALTERNATE SCREEN, and some blog posts that differ from my regular "Here's what's cooking today" posts, but I have barely written more than a few pages in my novel.
Duelling Amateurs was supposed to help me write everyday, and build up my confidence to post and share my work but instead I've been focusing so heavily on coming up with topics for my daily writing that I haven`t made time for creative writing.
I thought Duelling Amateurs would help me power through writing my novel, but so far it's the opposite. Now that I'm aware of it, I'll make a conscious effort to change it.
I can still write every day, but I'll also be posting updates about my creative works.
-Brandolyn
Sunday, 2 March 2014
Do what you Love, and Love what you do
 |
| A T-Rex and Stegosaurus sat on either end of the center piece of the head table; my surprise Firefly reference for my husband. |
I wish this post was about finding a job you love and pursuing it, but I'm afraid I'm not there yet.
Instead this is about finding out what excites you, surrounding yourself with it and loving it while it excites you. When I was young I discovered I had a passion for Fiction and loved to read. I surrounded myself with mountains of books on my book shelves, dressers and side tables. I always felt at home surrounded by a lot of books.
In high school when I started to ask myself "Who am I?" I started to discover how much of a nerd I am. I like to think that it started from my love of books with the Harry Potter series, but that's probably not true. I was a nerd before Harry Potter.
I love board games, I love TV and Movies, comic books, graphic novels, etc... but my nerdyness really flourished in University when I accepted it whole heartedly. There are bigger nerds out there, but I am proud of my passions. As such it felt natural to combine what I consider "nerd stuff" into my wedding.
Yesterday a friend said that they were thinking about a wedding without any nerdy references because they might regret it in 20 years. That's a good point. People change, tastes change, passions change, however, I never even considered if I would regret my nerdy wedding choices in 20 years because for me and my husband it was all about right now. Who are we right now? What excites us right now? And for us, the answers were easy.
In 20 years I should write another post about whether or not I regret some of my choices, but at the moment I am thrilled with what we decided to do.
 |
| from our engagement shoot. Live Long and Prosper- Star Trek |
 |
| "Something old" our bouquets out of our favourite novels. |
 |
| My bouquet and the boutonnieres were made from "The Hobbit" |
 |
| I had a T.A.R.D.I.S earring dangling from my bouquet. It was a gift my Uncle brought for me from GenCon so I would have "something blue" |
 |
| Red "10th Doctor" Hightop Converse. Believe me, they were comfy to dance in! |
And,
 |
| Because "Bow ties are cool!" |
 |
| Because our wedding needed to have swords. |
 |
| To happen in Jurassic Park. |
-Brandolyn
Saturday, 1 March 2014
(DA) Annual Melee of Kindness
As you can guess by the title of this post March 1st is the Annual Melee of Kindness. It's a day designated to going out of your way to do some nice things for family, friends and/ or strangers. It is endearingly called AMOK, so my best friend and I spent the early part of the day running AMOK, going around town doing nice things for other people.
If you follow some of my interests and personal activities you will know that I participated in the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen, aka GISHWHES in 2013. Both GISHWHES and AMOK are associated with the charity Random Acts which encourages Random Acts of Kindness and I was thrilled to participate in both.
Today for AMOK I was driving around with my my best friend picking up the perfect ingredients for our surprises and delivering them to her family and friends. I bought a few treats for my hubby, donated 2 boxes of clothing and books to a nearby Good Will, bought some surprise gifts for friends I was seeing later and bought a coffee for the person in line behind me at Tim Hortons.
I did a few little things today and had a bunch of ideas that I didn't get to, but instead of thinking "oh well, next year," they are things I can do any time and I plan to do more often. I think that's the idea; to get people thinking of the little things they can do and watch how much that little act brightens other people's day.
We don't have to wait for a specific date once a year to do something nice for another person. It should be on our to do list 365 days a year.
-Brandolyn
For a little information about GISHWHES my best friend and creator and editor of Alternate Screen's account of our experience HERE!
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