Short and Sweet

In a time when most things may not appear funny, it is the random things I love the most.

At my Wal-Mart, tired from shopping for a long time, when I pass the women’s department and two shirts are hanging there facing me.

One said, “Keep on dancing, smiling, loving, ….(something else)

Other one said, “But first, Wine.”

 

Love you all,

Scott

 

Time for a Fantasy

Well, here we are…all not dressed up and nowhere to go!  I, for one, don’t mind the restrictions of the virus too much.  I don’t like the illness or the death, for sure, but being at home?  It’s okay.  I am used to it and am making due.  I blog, at times (though not enough), and write some (less than blogging, truth be told), help Mom, email, Facebook, play video games, Scrabble, and… ta da binge Netflix.

I have come across some well-known and not-so-well-known shows and movies that have helped to bide my time and make my days.  I thought a brief, but good old-fashioned review of some of them might be in order: I love the scary-ish, dramatic, sci-fi genres most of all, so that may influence me, but not all…

1. Cursed (1 season) Fey Girl (think fairies) who thinks she is cursed may just save the world.
2. Supergirl (5 Seasons) – self-explan for most, I think
3. Sherlock (4 Seasons) – Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson now
4. In the Dark – (1 season) – Blind girl goes through a lot of changes when best friend is murdered
5. Star Trek Voyager (7 seasons) I I have watched this series 2 1/2 times so far plus the one-at-a-time deal when it first came out.
6. The Shannara Chronicles (2 seasons) A great book trilogy (The Sword of Shannara, etc…). Sword and Sorcery, romance and all the rest.
7. Homemade (1 season) short films made by people during this virus quarantine while in quarantine.
8. Star Trek Enterprise (2 seasons) The prequel to Star Trek.
9. Better Than Us (1 season) about what happens when you remove the Asimov Rules of Robotics from a robot.
10. Locke and Key (1 season) A family (Mom plus 3) move back home to a magical house and danger.
11. Black Mirror (4 seasons, I think) British-based strange, usually horror stories (don’t bother with the first episode)
12. Warrior Nun (1 season) a non-nun becomes part of a world-saving Catholic group of nuns when she dies and has an angel halo put into her.
13. The Old Guard (movie)  Charlize Theron – a nearly immortal group who helps keep the world peace.
14. Daybreak (1 or 2 seasons) An off-beat zombie-kinda show about a time when only kids are left to run the world.  A lot of vocal documentary added with the show (worth the listen, too)
15. Penny Dreadful (3 seasons) Penny Dreadfuls were the dime store horror stories (think Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula, Jeckle and Hyde) put together in one show – scary, interesting and good.
16. Lost in Space (2 seasons) The old 60s show updated and really good.
17. Z Nation (5 seasons) a fun, scary, dramatic, good, though gory-at-times zombie series in which a group of “heroes” tries to get a possible cure of a virus from East to West coast.
18. I Zombie (4 seasons?) zombie show in which not all become crazed killers.  This one is about a girl who works in a forensic morgue is bitten and infected.
19. Travelers (3 seasons) Group of people sent back, mostly 1 at a time, back to stock an upcoming apocalypse by changing key events in the past.
20. Flash (6 seasons) the Scarlet Speedster from the comics.

Okay, hopefully, just the first installment. Enjoy!  Let me know what you think and would you like other types of movies and shows from my past included?

Namaste,

Scott

They Might as Well Burn Them

I love comics; I love the crazy ones; but I also enjoy the ones that state a problem in a humorous manner.  For instance:

Sarah’s Scribbles

Well, the comic posted currently is not the one I tried for.  In that one, she tried on several outfits, only to have the bra show somewhere.  Her exclamation, “Do the manufacturers know that bras exist?” was the comment for my article.

The above one was humorous; however it also pointed out something I have wondered about for quite awhile.

Many, many fashion designers, artists, and department stores carry attire for women and the tops almost never cover the total bra area.

It’s not like it’s some kind of criminal scheme to run bras out of circulation.  It just seem that, indeed, sellers are recommending, by what they sell, that bras are not needed anymore.

I am not against women who don’t wear bras nor against those that do.  A woman’s figure is beautiful to me either way.

My concern is nearly always caught up with a pattern we are fed that could drastically change how things are now.  Some of those changes are for the better – seat belts, regulations about texting while driving, etc.  But on things that we get to do the choosing, we should, actually, have a choice.  Companies can say that women buy the outfits, so bras are not needed anymore.  But, isn’t that tantamount to saying how much crime has dropped in an area where many things are no longer crimes?  Women may “want to” wear bras, but if the clothes available are either backward or braless, then braless may win many times just because the others just are not in style.

Nope.  not a big expose. This is just a thing I noticed and thought everyone should see…or not see as they see fit.

Clothes and Foods and Getting Up – Oh My!

Have these last few months felt strangely unfamiliar to you?  Right?  Well, I discovered this week (with the help of my stroke counselor) that I have triggers.  I knew what they were, but I, certainly, didn’t think I had any.  I have a friend who rages at times.  The rest of the time he is wonderful, but at these moments, he is a different person.  Now, he doesn’t rage at me, but at things in general, usually. I realized how angry I was after we had spent some time on a video game together on the Internet.  I was seething at him and didn’t really care if I ever talked to him again.  This bothered me because he wasn’t mad at me and I really like him.  I mentioned this to my Counselor.  We are gonna talk more about it on Monday.  But, the idea is that my father yelled at me; my 1st wife yelled at me.  Both of these people set me up to hear any sort of yelling as a threat to me as an individual.  I want to discuss more with her on how to diffuse this, but I find it fascinating and it helps me understand others better.  To an extent, I am an empath for  angry feelings and yelling.

That was before my grocery trip to Walmart.  I went there because my Insulin Rx is there.  I decided to just shop since I was already there. Things had been decent in the recent past but, as things were starting to get back to normal, I noticed that the customers and, to a degree, the cashiers were getting a bit mean and dicey.   It was not a fun, enjoyable, and relaxing jaunt.  It was hard and I got home so tired of being out even for those few hours.

I read an article this morning. It stemmed from Facebook, somehow.  Anyway, it was the general public’s responses to a LA article about how we are dressing during the pandemic.  WHAT!!!???

We are just getting along the best we can!  I figured the author must be one of those guys who finds it fun to steal little kids’ ice cream cones from them.  I found out that, while I had never heard of him, he was kinda popular.  I am not so certain that is true now.  People were upset.  This may have been an article on Twitter, which sounds right.  Anyway, he/she stated that we are getting paid for sitting home, so we outta dress like it!  I want to yell and scream at this jerk!  I guess, in some ways, I am! lol  However, now I remember.  I wanted to know if I could safely wear shorts yet to the grocery.  This article was one I can across: work from home

I did like this one that is satirical in nature (please keep that in mind): pants?

Finally, one more shot to the midsection for my last 48 hours.  I chose that, for now, I would live more on a 2nd-3rd shift schedule and have told most people about this.  That, basically, means I go to bed between 3:00-4:00A, read for an hour, then sleep until about 3P that afternoon.  I don’t answer any calls except from my doctors or hospital, my Mom, and calls I consider emergency.  I try to let all of them go to voice mail so that I either see the phone number or hear the voice.   I am pretty firm about this.  I have told my family and friends and, for the most part, enjoy my days.  I had a stroke (severe) about 10 years ago and it reset my brain.  I don’t sleep well, so I simply make use of the hours I can’t really sleep well.  I live alone, don’t really date and with this virus, don’t go much of anywhere.  So it should be fine.  One of my friends doesn’t agree and tends to call me between 2 and 3 in the afternoon.  It throws me off of my early schedule and, for instance, I literally forgot to take my Insulin until almost 2 hours late.  My answer to this, after some thought, is that instead of getting angry, I am going to consider it his fault and simply not answer anymore until after 3 and take my time calling him back.  It might appear passive-aggressive, but I think it is a positive approach to not having the same talk again in which I tend to lose my temper.

Well, that’s my weekend.  How was yours?  Oh yeah, I still have Sunday to go, don’t I? lol

Namaste,  Stay Safe

Scott

And The Learning Continues

I write for Quora.com, which is a kind of Q/A on the Internet.  People write questions, pick some of the people they wish to answer, and anyone else can answer.  It allows a lot of things to be asked and answered in many different ways fairly quickly.  Here is one question I was just asked in the last two weeks:

 

My 12-year-old daughter told me when she gets older she wants to start stripping. What should I tell her?

Scott L. Vannatter

·

Fri

I love open-world games

I would like to give a sort-of controversial answer. It’s only because of a person I know quite well. This person was raised to the value of “use what you have to get ahead”. When she went to college, she chose stripping as a side job. It paid well, if you did it well. And, she did it very well. She did it to earn college money. Later, when she got married, she paid off her spouse’s student loan and her own, and bought their expensive home. She quit stripping when it no longer suited what she was doing. Now, she is a champion surfer, lives in Hawaii with her spouse and two children (adopted), and is debt-free.

Now, this is not to say that stripping is a great choice, especially for a 12yo to be thinking about. It is, merely, to suggest that there are worse choices depending on how you go about it and think of it.

My friend never got into drugs or really alcohol. She did not get into the sex trade at all. She is deaf, helps charities, and is a good person. I am not certain I really have known better. She has a clear head and a good mind.

Simply something to think about. That’s truly all this is.

1.1K views

View Upvoters

Now, if you want to know more about this person, she is a blogger, and goes by: https://aghostdancer.wordpress.com/  Michelle Styles.  She is one of the most wonderful people I can say I know because a good blog tells you about a person; they tell you about themselves.  I have not told her yet that I answered this question with her story.  I think she will be happy (perhaps, I am wrong, but I don’t think so).  I will drop her a note.

Please do with all this what you will.  Question me.  Counter me.  Yell at me.  But, do think….because these types of questions are being asked and need/deserve good answers.

This particular question  has been upvoted by 12 other users (That’s a record for me.  I believe 3-5 was the previous one and I have been writing quite awhile on Quora.com

It was viewed 1,100 times.  Probably another record for me.  But, it’s not about me.  It’s about a 12yo girl’s statement and her mother’s crying out for help/guidance.

Visit Michelle’s blog – I think you will be glad you did.

Namaste,

Scott