Looking Down

Yes, I know…I’ve dragged my feet so much on Red Cowboys. But there is a line spoke in it that goes like this:

“I don’t believe you should look down on someone, unless you are reaching to help them up.”

I live my life like that for the most part. There are a couple of exceptions, people that just try your patience so you feel yourself slip and become a not-so-nice-person to just get along.

((Let’s not go nuts, I have a couple of horror stories; times when I’ve told my friends to grow up and stop trying to cross the street because someone that looks a certain way is coming towards us…then getting sexually assaulted.))

The world moves when you help others, with no gain for yourself, I’ve seen a whole pile of hate comments under videos where someone is recording themselves giving a homeless person food or money. Those make me confused. It’s conflicting. I understand that people are mad and believe the person is doing it for clout or for a virtue signal…but at the same time, I see it as good advertising – it gives people ideas to do the same thing and try to do something for someone less fortunate.

I remember donating to a great charity called Operation Christmas Child.

It was so.much.fun.

The reason it was fun was because you had to make up a shoe box full of items for schoolchildren. There was a list, and you could choose what you wanted to put in you donation box. I added colour-pencils and a doll, personal items, eg: part of the list was a bar of soap/washcloths etc. It was very exciting to choose/shop for a total stranger, someone that would never know who exactly did it for them but someone thought they were important enough to help them out a little and make them smile.

I told my social media page. My friends liked the status and pictures of the boxes because I’d made one for a girl and one for a boy. No one made a mean comment or accused me of trying to virtue signal or get clout because they know I didn’t post it that way. I posted it as encouragement to my friends, to let them know donating doesn’t have to be boring, and that it was very easy. I posted the pics with ways to get in touch with the charity and their links to sign up to the project.

So, I feel conflicted about this subject. It seems there are some social media accounts which are seeking clicks and popularity and they use this as a method to reach that goal. But I see how others (including myself) just want to help spread the awareness and get everyone involved. It’s a double-edged sword, as they say, maybe. But I think it’s important to help others and to let people know that they can be instrumental in this as well, they can do something and not feel helpless and not try.

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All content is no copyright infringement intended. All posts are opinion only and are subject to change due to experience, kicking ass and learning how to adult more effectively. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Elements of original content may be reproduced with expressed permission from Ever Eden

Bullied

It sucks being bullied as an adult. It’s not AS BAD as when are a child and have no one to tell or no one to help you ,because logically if you take a breath, you realise there are ways to go about changing it…but as an adult, it’s more unexpected so you forget who you are for a minute. You get thrown off, and the feeling of betraying yourself, for not fighting back adequately or using the moment to stand up for yourself hurts more. You’re in a “safe space,” say at your slave gig, where there are rules and regs stating the way employees should conduct themselves, but if one bitch slips through the cracks, sometimes you aren’t ready.

It’s been a learning curve that repeats whenever I seem to get comfortable. Or is that I was comfortable in knowing as a mature person, surrounded by other mature people that it would be a rare occurrence to be treated like shit. As an adult, do not stand for it.

I’m not talking to the cry babies who think everything that slightly offends them is considered “bullying”. I’m talking about when someone deliberately tries to embarrass you in front of your peers, makes you feel small, inferior or tries to pull-rank on you. I just did an episode of EVER SOMETHING TO SAY and it was good because it felt like a conversation with a friend. It might not stop the bullying but bouncing ideas off someone else or talking about it helped me to figure out the direction I wanted to move in. I’d never have let this happen to my friend. I would have told that friend to take it as far as possible, that they didn’t need to feel like trash in their workplace.

In a Name

What’s in a name? I’ve heard that people “grow into their names.” The examples being a guy called Richard who becomes very well-off in his later years, (aka rich AF)
In the literary world and on sites and in discussion groups, I’ve seen people ask for advice on naming characters. Sometimes they choose exotic names with meanings that pertain to the traits they want to convey for that specific character. Whether or not it’s lost on the reader doesn’t seem to matter as long as the author has a sense of accomplishment or joy in smelling their own farts.

I did this a lot when I was younger. I’d write all the time and get my school friends to read my stuff. Most of the stories centered around a group of teens growing up and committing a murder or creating a situation where someone died and they had to cover it up and argue between themselves. I liked dynamics and dialogue, interpersonal interaction, hieracy and things you experience in life but don’t know the words to call it out. Names were often a big thing to me in my tween brain. I remember my greatest story (lol – one about a group of teen killers that I wrote at 13years old) saw me name the main antagonist Damien, eg the stereotypical devil-like connotation name probably used in every single horror movie from that period.

Mine was also personal.

DAMIEN legit looked like this

I knew a boy. His name was Damien. He was a piece of trash who is probably dead now after an overdose, leaving behind an equally-as-addicted ex-girlfriend and 5 kids with 5 baby-mamas to match. Poor bastard never stood a chance. His single mother was an overweight, vulgar, loud woman on welfare who would rather spend time with her boyfriend of the month and let him parent himself in the communal playground of our apartment block. He’d bully people, use swear words I didn’t know, and when I’d try to say them all back, I’d get them mixed up in nonsensical order because I was never taught how to swear and be a piece of shit like he was. My parents weren’t alcoholics, I was literate and raised to treat others kindly, not see them on a playground and assault them with sticks because they were different. Who knew that years later it would prompt me to name the biggest piece of shit in my story after him, sort of. I will forever associate that name with things I don’t want to be around and people who are assholes.

I’ve read a lot of people’s comments about using this method to name a bad guy after someone in their past and then yeeting them out of the book because murder is illegal in real life. I’ve mentioned it before in this post, I’ve done it once or twice too. It’s not as cathartic as you originally expect. Upon your 1000000 reading and edit, it’s just another name.

I’d be more than happy to tell you the origin story of Frank in KOS, Dr Cole in Red Cowboys etc. because it used to make me chuckle. Naming an adversary who the main protagonist either defeats or has intense scenes with doesn’t give you the satisfaction you maybe thought it would, and I haven’t found them to matter too much to a reader either. They don’t know know or care about your inside joke.

If you are writing some epic masterpiece and you name your lead something that means “THE ONE” or “hidden warrior,” why would I read the whole book? You gave me the ending in the first line buy dropping this unnecessary name that doesn’t fit with the time period or genre. Naming characters can be a cycle that I don’t bother with much anymore; it’s chicken or the egg, it’s does life imitate art? Do they grow into the character bcause you named them after an asshole…or did you name them that way so they could be an asshole?

Now I just choose names I like. Stay tuned for a post about where I get them from too if you need some inspiration and the tools I’ve tried…I’d like to think my characters have unique but cool names.

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All content is no copyright infringement intended. All posts are opinion only and are subject to change due to experience, kicking ass and learning how to adult more effectively. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Elements of original content may be reproduced with expressed permission from Ever Eden

Nose

This morning I planted my butt on a train seat and loaded up a game on my phone. I’ve developed an obsession with arranging parked cars on a screen, rather than expanding my literary horizons by reading while I had a few minutes to myself. If I ever run a car dealership one day, I’m going to be the best manager. Unfortunately, I’m also hyper-aware and notice things in my peripheral. Today, I saw a man picking his nose.

He was middle-aged(?)reading a book, smartly dressed, glasses, obviously on his way to work and engrossed in the pages in front of him. I saw him pick at one nostril, then the other, almost elbow deep, then wipe his nose on the back of his hand…and then LICK it. (I’m about to vomit right now.)

YAY 2023, oh nose guy.

Happy New Year to me.

Many of these holidays don’t hit the same as you get older. This last Christmas (a weekish go) it felt like another day; worse than another day…a day where it felt like nothing was different only I had to cook for more people and I finally experienced a festive family feud.

Boogerman on the train seemed to reiterate that life is drudgery, disappointing and disgusting LOL

Welcome to 2023.

I think we’re all tired from the past two years of the RONA FARCE and remembering that the PTB/elite can flex power whenever they want, and once again, use any excuse to tighten their claws. Did you know the government was once voted for to govern on behalf and represent the people? IKR.

I’m yet to see a politician in my lifetime do this adequately or for longer than the time it takes to be written a cheque and be bought, because it’s easier to go along with a narrative than to fight the system. And it seems if someone believes there are no consequences, certain people will do just about anything. The flipside is that there are some people who have finally become aware of the world we live in. Congratulations and welcome to the next evolution of your depression (jk.)

This one is going to be a big year, and it feels like we are collectively all ready for it.

Two years of lockdowns, being messed about, learning new hobbies because we were stuck at home, taken new jobs that allow people to work on a computer from home, others relocated due to restrictions they wanted to avoid, a lot of people’s lives were thrown into chaos or bitterness at the way things were in their area. Now is the time to emerge as a pretty, jaded butterfly!

I don’t know what 2023 will bring…but *ding ding* here we go!