The Dollar Tree, Lamentation and Pork Skins

Have you heard of the Dollar Tree?

It's a store where EVERYTHING inside is a dollar.

  That makes it a very useful place for people like me who happen to not have a very large amount of spending money. 

On a recent trip to this wondrous place I made two very important purchases. 

1)Pork Skins

and

2)Lamentation

Ok. so, why would pork skins be an important purchase?

     Porks skins are something I have wanted to try for about two years.  It has taken two years because I was very wary about buying them.  The most common argument against being “what if I don’t like the snacky foodstuffs contained in this bag? what if it tastes terrible?”

     The Truth, which I find not hard to admit whatsoever - is that I absolutely, unashamedly, through-and-through find pork skins to be disgusting.  That is one dollar I am never getting back.  

I regret nothing.  

  The other VIP I am talking about is a book.  It is by Ken Scholes.  The advance praise on the cover is from Orson Scott Card!  To those of you familiar with the iconic science fiction work Ender’s Game, that’s a pretty big deal.  

  So, I’m sifting through these books and none of them look particularly interesting for a light read.  There’s some political books, about a bajillion romance/detective books, a book on natural aphrodisiacs and a few “self-help” books.  

     When my friend who was just about through with being checked out pointed out Lamentation “This one looks a bit interesting” and walked out the door.  

This one looks a bit interesting, indeed

I pick up the book, complete my purchase and after consuming five-and-a-half pork skins, dumping the rest, making my way home and finding a nice soft spot to read, I’m hooked.  

One thing before I go- I have a habit of finding mistakes in published works.  Not out of spite, but because I like details.  

On page 71 of Lamentation Lady Jin Li Tam has “Piercing blue eyes”, but on page 121 her eyes are “blazing green”. 

-AG

A Grand New...

     ...Forum!  
One of my good friends has made a forum.  It's a new, budding site and needs members.  Knowing your memes always helps.  It has rules, mostly to ensure that everyone stays civil.  There's a nice debate section that probably needs some attention.
     The atmosphere is very chill, on the top it says, "A website for free thinkers".  This forum is known as:

stop start forward back

It can be found if you follow this nice, shiny link.  

     

      I urge anyone to check it out, thanks.

Yours,

AG.

My Family is Made of Word Salad

So I was making a glass of lemonade.
Jax was passing through near the kitchen and so I sought a second opinion.
"Hey, Jax!  Tell me what you think of this!"
 "I don't think." is his genius reply.
"Ok, How about you tell me how it tastes?" I implore.
A shrug, "OK."
He takes the lemonade from me and proceeds to...
...suck on the chopstick I was using to stir it with....
?
"Jax, that's not...a...straw..."I manage through my laughter "...that's...that's a.....chopstick!"
 I double over, spewing laughter.

So, I walk into the room where Ammamay's sitting on the couch.
"Momma, Jax sucked on my chopstick."
I can barely stifle my giggles.
She looks up at me, completely straight-faced, and asks me, "What was it doing on the floor?"


It's moments like this that make life worth living, isn't it?

Yours,
AG

How to Stump a Stubbern Child

 I was one.  I was a very stubbern child.

Now I am very different.

Now I am a very stubbern teenager.

Lovely.

     Anywho, I was thinking, as I often do, about this, that, the-other-thing, and ventalation.  I was also working on an English project and I found a list of questions relationg to the wonderful book by Roald Dahl that is known to the world as, The BFG.      

     One of the questions was, "How does the BFG label his dream jars?"

     My response(my immediate one, at least) would have been,* "With paper."

*(ha!  Actually, this was my immediate reaction)


     Another thing it brought to my mind was the question, "Why does the BFG label his dream jars?"


The answer to the question is easy to find, but the point is that it derailed my train of thought.


Again.


     Now I was thinking about little children and how they incessantly the question, "Why?" 


 I, myslef, have been one of the worst. 

     The proper response to this question from a child, I have found, is to ask them a question in return.


     Answer their questions until you have no more answers or have run out of your Advil, ibuprofin, Tyelnol(yadda, yadda, yadda, [insert brand of pain releiver/headache medicine here]), then return to them a question of your own.


     When you have reached the limits of your answering capabilities, simply ask them , "Why not?"
     Be prepared for a new round of questions on a new subject, or persistence on the other one, but honestly, this has worked.
     I mean, I've used this.  It had become second nature because it worked. I just hadn't stopped to ask myself why it worked.


     My answer to why it works?  Why not?  Why shouldn't it work?  It may not be one-hundred-per-cent, but it's better than nothing and can inspire exploration and curiosity.


This is my random thought for today.


Best Regards
~AG