Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion

No, I've never tried yoga or pilates.

TPBM is about to eat dinner.

I'm in the middle of a quinoa pilaf


TPBM loves health food

Not unless it tastes good!

TPBM is often made fun of because s/he prefers healthier food than the food his/her family generally likes to eat.

Trust me, Guy, nothing I eat could ever be accused of being healthy. Taco Bell's Quesaritos, McDonald's Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Hot Pockets, I love the good stuff.

TPBM is a firm believer in the idea of a Gemini Syndrome (that is, we’re born with a dual nature that sounds contradictory, but isn’t).

Yes.



TPBM has made peace with their dark side.

Not yet, I still let her run rampant in dream world for a little while longer. She is just so evil.

TPBM talks to their darkside, and tries to convince it to be good(Futility of course ensues.)

It is futile, he wins all our debates.

TPBM thinks the devil on their shoulder makes better points than the angel.

Sometimes, but not always.

TPBM enjoys scaring people with the extent of their idiosyncrasies.

Sometimes, but not always.

TPBM has only recently become aware that they are in fact idiosyncratic.

No, my little sister has made it obviously apparent my entire life, as siblings are wont to do.

TPBM wants to travel the world

As long as traveling the world doesn't involve sitting on my ass for 30 hours during a plane flight, I'd be fine with that.

TPBM is having a nice day today.

yes, I just finished a tennis match with my twin and now I am going to tackle some essays.

TPBM wishes essay writing for school didn't have to follow strict guidelines.

When it comes to writing, anarchy rules. I agree with you completely, Nadia.

TPBM would rather write for him or herself and have no public than write for the public and have no self.

Yes, and well said.



TPBM feels that people with limited emotional range, limited imagination. limited courage and a fear of anything different have a 90% chance of winding up in a career in which they either preach morality, enforce laws, or label other people as mentally ill.

It's sad and unfortunate, but that statement is true, Connie. Ignorance isn't bliss anymore.

TPBM loves to shop on Amazon.

I'd love to shop with an Amazon, as long as she was nice.

TPBM rarely shops on-line.

I shop online all the time whether I'm buying albums from iTunes or getting a Mario keychain and an Emmet Brickowski alarm clock from Amazon. And Guy, you bring a smile to my face once again with your wise-assery. Hehe!

TPBM is socially awkward and doesn’t care.

Yes, yes, I am. I'm not so hot with those "people" creatures. I don't do small talk unless it's about something nerdy. And even though being a nerd is supposedly cool now, people still don't like to hang out with them at a bar, party, etc.

TPBM hangs on to every old Halloween costume just in case.

I still have my Luigi outfit even though I look like the Pillsbury Doughboy when I wear it. Hehe!

TPBM enjoys walking the streets at night to clear his or her head.

Yes. And being a resident of the temperate rainforest, that often means I get my hair washed for free. (Or, at least I did before becoming a pilgarlic! And thank you Garrison, for smiling at my wise-assery. :-) )

TPBM almost always carries at least two cameras whenever they go for a walk.

I don't carry any cameras when I go for a walk. Usually when I go out, there's nothing to see beyond the convenience store or Fred Meyer. Just cars, cars, and more cars. I can't take pictures at the YMCA when I walk because that would be even weirder.

TPBM once had a dream about a monster sticking its tongue all the way through his or her head via the ears.

LOL! Nope, but I dreamt that a train drove through me once. But I had become lucid in the dream, and found it exhilarating, not scary. (Too bad that your environment is so camera-phobic!)

TPBM has, because of their dreams, spent years reading about them and finding them to be beyond magical and amazing.

Maybe not years, but I've spent enough time logging my dreams to know they mean something. What they are half of the time, I still don't know. Hehe!

TPBM knows what ASMR is and uses it on a frequent basis.

I do not. [Check in on Google and Wikipedia.] Ahh! I see. Well, I did not know it, but I do. In my case it is in the form of yoga and meditation, which I do daily.

TPBM is about to go for the ASMR shower experience.

I showered last night. Plus, WWE Monday Night Raw is on TV right now, so even if I was going to do what you suggested, it'd have to wait.

TPBM picks at their fingernails to keep them short.

Yeah, I hate nail clippers.

TPBM is bothered by small noises rather then loud noises.

No. Except for most television and radio advertising and news, noises do not bother me.

TPBM is reading both a fiction and non-fiction book at the same time for pleasure.

ummm I may be reading like six books at once in my free time, then all of the books I read for school. I focus better when my mind is forced to make distinctions from book to book. But they are a mixture of every genre.


TPBM thinks that is weird when people read one book at a time.

I haven't thought about that so I guess not. Although I am amazed that there exist people who don't read or only read magazines and newspapers.

TPBM has been known to walk and read a book at the same time.

That ended badly for me, so I stopped.

TPBM loves to eat raw garlic.

Well, not 'love', but I do. With a shot of fresh lemon juice and water.

TPBM enjoys eating raw jalapeño peppers with their mashed potatoes.

No, jalepeno isn't my kind of spicy. I like more Thai spicy then Hispanic spicy.

TPBM wishes that they could eat curry every day.

No. I do love curry, but I grow bored with anything if I eat it too much.


TPBM finds it sad that so many people find it difficult to shift their paradigm and take a different perspective.

No. I used to feel that, but I chose to shift that paradigm and now accept that people will change when they do, and that when they change without being pressured, then their change is deeper and more lasting.

TPBM has come realize that the universe provides the lessons in life s/he most needs to learn but doesn't want to.

Hmmm. Sounds good, but just got back from the dentist having filled two cavities! And more work next week, so I think I'll pass. This time.

TPBM cooked eggplant instead of brownies tonight.

I didn't do any cooking tonight. I didn't even eat until late afternoon when I ignored my foot injury and walked to a cafe called Charlies to pig out. I ate a double bacon cheeseburger, fries, a side of biscuits and gravy, and to drink I had a regular Dr. Pepper. I was so hungry that everything tasted heavenly. Mmm-mmm-mmm!

TPBM is more willing to believe something from a book, magazine, or newspaper than from an internet article.

Yes, print just seems more reliable.

TPBM is horrified when they find that something they learned back in grade school isn't even true.

Lol! Not at all — not any more. You can look forward to learning that most of what you learn in college and university turns out to be false. Unless you are studying math or the sciences.

TPBM is old enough to have forgotten most of what they officially learned in grade school other than basic arithmetic and language skills.

No. I have/had an excellent memory, which made my early life confusing to me because as stated above, much of it turned out to be untrue.


TPBM thinks schools should focus more on teaching children how to learn and problem solve instead of memorizing a bunch of useless facts.

There are a lot of ways in which we can reform schools, that way being among them. I would also suggest fair treatment of introverts and more interactive anti-bullying programs.

TPBM doesn’t consider celebrity happenings to be real news.

No. But I consider it to be more honest than 'real' news because it is less prone to pretending it is closer to the truth and meaningful.

TPBM has caught a major urban newspaper editor having blatantly lied.

Honestly, I don't read the paper. Doesn't interest me.

TPBM loves The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The last time I watched that movie was when I was a little kid going to grade school. I don't remember much of it, but I remember enough to have genuinely liked it.

TPBM has at least one character in his or her stories named Quinn.

I do not.

TPBM doesn't know it yet, but s/he will fall in love with the small quirky film Lullaby for Pi.

Anything involving cute and cuddly tigers is a winner in my book. :)

TPBM thinks the following Slipknot lyric is creepy: “Maybe I should let her go, but not until she loves me.”

It is, a bit. In the same vein as 'Every Breath You Take' by the Police, and 'Gimme All Your Lovin' or I Will Kill You' by Macy Gray.

TPBM finds it annoying with TPBT adds hyperlinks into their TPBM posts.

I don't mind at all, Guy. In the words of the small town pizza lawyer from the Little Caesars commercial, "It's all perfectly legal!"

TPBM can relate in some way to the short poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley (“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”).

About half way. I am fully cognizant that 'Best laid plans of mice and men' trumps mastery of fate. And even the soul part is a bit tricky, especially if we accept that the soul is distinct from the I that we think is thinking about it as different than the I the ego thinks is all there is to know.

TPBM loves the ironical wisdom embodied in the phrase 'On becoming an extreme middle-of-the-roadist.'

Yes, that is rather ironic if you think about it. It's like saying "Moderate Terrorist" or "Microsoft Works". Yet we say the latter of those two all the time and it makes perfect sense.

TPBM has somebody they consider to be their “platonic life partner”.

I can honestly say I do not have one of those. I don't let people get that close.

TPBM just wrote the best short story they've ever written. Just now.