1 Shade of Amber

Friday Fictioneers entry for the week.

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“Really, Naomi, just leave it and someone will return for them.”  Cylene took the ink pen from her mouth, pointed toward the decorated mug and sunglasses. ”  She returned pen to mouth.

Naomi hissed. “I know, for your information, I was more concerned the table is not clean.”  Cylene was unconcerned about such things.

The truck stop door tinkled, both looked as a god entered.  He was about six two, 30ish, flowing hair, and built.  Naomi and Cylene tensed pleasantly.

“Ah, there they are,” he whispered, reaching for forgotten items.  His hand brushed Cylene’s; she blushed; he noticed.

Their eyes met, Cylene let some air escape her mouth, pen falling.  He took her hand, leading toward the bathrooms.  Cylene never glanced at Naomi, but he did, barely.

Naomi saw meadows and starlit pastures.  After a second, shaking her head, reached in her purse, pulling out a small, long,pointed wooden object.

She wasn’t certain those were fangs she saw, but never hurt to be careful.  She headed toward the bathroom as the door finished closing.

Word Count: 174 , photo credit to shivamt25.

Friday Fictioneers – “Row, Row, Row!” Humorous PG13

Friday Fictioneers run by Rochelle!  See mine below and the rest > HERE<. Enjoy!!!

Source: PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright – Georgia Koch Reused license assumed. Click Pic for Page

Row, Row, Row!

By Scott L Vannatter – 100 Words

Derik looked out over the vastness of the ocean. Their dilemma made him more than a little nervous.

He looked at Cecil.

“What? You are still blaming me for the yacht going down, aren’t you?”

Derik answered with silence.

“I knew it! Well, it was an accident. The flare gun went off and the container of fuel…”

He began to lay down.

“Don’t!” Derik hollered, scaring him.

“What’s the matter?”

Don’t use the sleeping bag. It’s been two weeks and you look like a damn sandwich in it.”

“So? What are you….OWW!”

“Sorry, I tried to tell you.”

“Taste good!?”

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Namaste,

Scott

Friday Fictioneers – “A Matter of Taste” – PG13 Humorous

Well, Rochelle brings us Friday Fictioneers again.  My contribution is below the prompt.  For the rest > Here < Enjoy!!!

Source: Copyright-Kent Bonham

“A Matter of Taste”

By Scott L Vannatter – 100 Words

Toby licked the treat cautiously. He swirled his tongue around the edges, then straight across the front of the delicious morsel. It was between his meals, but who could pass up such a great surprise?

He stopped several times, swirling the taste around with saliva in his mouth, trying to figure out what flavor the delicacy was. He was stumped. He stared at it for several minutes before deciding.

In the end, he did not really care much. After all, for a tom cat like himself, it was not important if the sucker was swallow delight or mouthful of mouse.

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Namaste,

Scott

 

Dinner, A Storm, and a New Arrival!

Source: Google Image Search licensed for reuse. Click on Pic for Page.

Okay, tonight is my “General Post” night (now and Fri).  I decided to let you have 3 topics in 1!

First, let’s discuss the weather from last night (Monday).  My buddy and I went out to eat for out weekly dinner.  We discussed a lot of topics, but the one for current weather came up very near last.  My buddy is a farmer, so he watches out for weather a lot.  He told me and looked it up on his phone that much of Indiana was covered/or being covered in Red (not good).  Weather report was about 2 inches of rain by late Tuesday night (about 24-30 hours).  He looked outside and decided to leave.  So did I.  However, I did snap 3 pictures of what was heading my way when I left (see below).  OMG!!!

Okay, now, for all this coming mess, by the time I got home (about 15 minutes), the sky was clearing and we had received very few drops of rain and a bit of rumbling!  It did rain later, but kind of a general rain, nothing special.  Don’t know what’s coming tonight and tomorrow, but, so far, I laugh at the weather (hope I don’t really regret saying that).

Number Two:  A new Arrival.

I finally received and set up my new computer!  I need to tell you how much of a difference it has made for me.  I had a 3.0 Dual processor, decent video card (upgraded), 1.5 TB of disc space (1 TB on an external drive), and 2 GB Ram.  My new computer is an Alienware Computer from Dell.  It has a video card that is 1-2 steps up from what I had upgraded to, 2 TB of disc space, a 4.0 Quad processor, and 16 GB of Ram.

This one screams!!!  I love playing Fallout 3 and Skyrim.  I have always played them on medium speed/resolution and had problems with that.  Now, both play on Ultra High speed/resolution and no problems to speak of!  There are details I had never seen before and Skyrim is beautiful!

I also purchased a new Surge/Battery UPS and had to buy Word Essentials to keep Word and Excel.

Number Three.  Dinner.

Here is one of my favorite food recipes since going extreme Vegan.  I developed this recipe.  It uses brand name products for a lot of it, but they are assorted and I worked out the mixture.

Great/Easy Chili Recipe – Vegan Style – 6 Ingredients

5 Cans

1 Can Hormel Chili Vegetarian with Beans (99% Fat free) (15 oz)

1 Can Hunts Dinner Starters seasoned Tomato Sauce for Chili (15 oz)

1 Can Golden Sweet Whole Kernel Corn (15.25 oz) (Do NOT drain)

1 Can Brooks Just for Chili Med. With Onions Tomato Sauce (15 oz)

1 Can Bush’s Best Chili Magic Chili Starter Traditional Mild (15.5 oz)

1 Cup Elbow Macaroni Dry

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1. Put all ingredients into a crock pot (I think mine is a 2 quart)
2. Stir thoroughly
3. Turn Crock pot on high (Cover)
4. Cook for 3 hours (Stir Once, perhaps, twice)
5. Turn Down to warm (Stir and check if boiling)
6. If boiling for a time, skip to step 8.
7. Heat on warm up to 3 more hours
8. Serve*
9. Put remainder into containers and refrigerate (eat within 3 days**)
10. Clean crock pot asap before it gets hard and difficult to clean

Makes about 4 2-cup servings or 8 1-cup servings

1 Cup = about 10 Grams of Fiber and 50 Grams of Carbs

(Don’t forget, you get to subtract the fiber from the carbs, so net= 40 Carbs/cup)

*Feel free to add some Cayenne Pepper to taste (I do). As is, it has a decent kick, but not too strong.

**Tastes great reheated

Okay, that’s my 3 bits of news today.  Feel caught up if you want.  My health is improving, my weight is dropping (slowly, but that’s good!), and I am on my way to being a Skyrim fanatic!  I can’t wait to see how Oblivion runs on it. Tomb Raider should be awesome.

Namaste,

Scott

Preferences are not Always Understandable by Others

I made my comments the other day that I do like broccoli and I don’t like steak.  My father looked at me and said, “I must have raised you wrong.” or something close to that.

I was reading Madison Woods’ post for today > the post < and the idea intrigued me enough that I decided that I would give her credit, then post my own thoughts on a similar topic.

My father’s inability to accept my preferences as okay seem to be in a kinship with a lot of other people.  I know a lot of individuals who cannot accept something that is different from what they like.  It’s worse if what they like is not normal and they still cannot accept yours as valid.

Food preferences are small potatoes (sorry, had to) when it comes to importance.  However, they illustrate well a point that covers everything from sexual preferences to political maneuvers to appearance.  If 90% of the world enjoys McDonald’s hamburgers and you much more prefer Arby’s, to the point that you think that the majority are strange, it is nearly understandable.  However, if I don’t care for McDonald’s or Arby’s ,but, instead,prefer a hot dog from Dairy Queen and you find that horrible too, how does that make you look?  That’s what I see a lot of in this old world and its people.

I have a friend who cannot understand my preference to date women who are younger than me.  Now, I have gone over a lot of this in my head and I believe I understand the reasoning I have.  Some of that reasoning is based on a simple what I find attractive; other parts are more complex and my interest in psychology tells me I may be a bit arrested on a particular stage of my life.  Whatever the reason, I am seeing quite a bit of change in how I feel now and who I prefer just on the note of age.  I have, I believe, moved past that part of me that was, perhaps, unwilling to grow older.  I have, I know, seen that younger women are, normally, less mature and not willing to look at life as I do.  Both of these psychological reasons are sound to me and have helped me to understand both myself and my growth and make adjustments accordingly.  My friend, however, is persistent on telling me that I should narrow my search to older women for the majority and ignores any progress I make on my feelings and preferences.  What it has accomplished is, basically, to persuade me to NOT change any more so that he cannot feel that he has “won.”  And I have found it irritating that I cannot allow myself to change as I see fit for the reasons I see fit.

This world is made up of individuals who do not believe the same way or prefer the same things.  That has created a world of vast opportunities as well as differences.  If we all liked the same food, there would be only one type of restaurant; if we all liked the same clothes, we would only have one type of store for clothing.  The fact is that there are almost as many different restaurants as there are foods.  When I was much younger, going to Burger Chef (which I don’t believe even exists anymore) was a real treat.  Now, fast foods are quickly falling behind to restaurants with a wider, healthier menu.  Clothing is going through a similar process as are books and other items we all enjoy to one degree or another.  When I look at how many stations are available now on cable and satellite, it scares me just a bit.  The size of the book of channel listings for satellite TV covering a month is a little intimidating to say the least.

As usual, I am digressing.  I tend to expand my point to other topics then to take off on those topics a bit.  Getting back, I have tried to figure out why people get upset when someone doesn’t care much for their particular likes and/or dislikes.  I believe I have concluded it to be a matter of feeling secure.  If I like something and you don’t, it may worry me that you may be liked more than me or that I am wrong and my choice is a poor one.  From this point, it makes sense that you would feel a little threatened by my choice not agreeing with yours.  People could see a difference as something that others would notice and not like you for, or some people might think that others would see your preference and think I am the same because we are friends.  I think this reason happens a lot in families.   One member is a little “different” and the others feel they may be compared to this member.  It does happen, but should we worry about that?

Do I have a right to my opinion, even if it differs from yours?

Are you threatened if someone doesn’t believe as you do?

How often do you choose your preference based on what someone else says or does?

And, finally, do you think two people can get along or even date or marry if they have a lot of different preferences?

Namaste,

Scott