Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion

Firing broadsides,
Ratty boomed, "Thunder, Lightning-
today you are doomed."

The tide always turns
in oceans and war. Death cares
not if rich or poor.

On the horizon,
gaining fast. Al drives her crew
with hugs, praise and laughs.

Rat Beard suddenly
felt great distress. "Ship Ahoy!"
"W.S.S!!"

Ryan, M, Kat, Ajay, I'm lmao! Just before my bed time! I can see my self dreaming of hop-light phalanxes and flying ships.

Still laughing as I shut down after a very busy day! Still laughing!

Thunder groaned. “I’m sick
of leftovers, breakfasts of
hearts, moons, stars, clovers.”

He charged through the surf.
Lightning reared. Nothing could swim
as fast as Rat Beard.

Dining upon stars,
for even awhile, beats paste
for a twinkling smile.

Thus the Count said with
a grunt, draining the body
of Emily Blunt.

"You devil!" cried she,
nothing to lose. "You've spilled blood
on my Prada shoes!"

Wow, what else can I say? Extremely well done M & Ryan!

Thank you, Ajay!

Orlok tried on the
high heels, and preened. “I’m fond of
these Hollywood meals.”

Thank you both, Al & Ajay. It isn't easy following M! ;o)

I like Emily Blunt too! :)

I changed my mind. I 'love' Emily Blunt!

The Count liked his calves
in heels. Sweet relief for the
local bovine fields.

Ajay wrote: “I changed my mind. I ‘love’ Emily Blunt!”


Oh, yes! She’s the meaning of life.

“Are you still alive?”
“Yes.”
“How can you tell?”
“Because I crave Emily Blunt.”

Yup. Funny. But true :)

Hilarious, guys XD haha. Here's a thought that came to me yesterday while I was looking at the sunset.




The sky is a can-
vas where angels learn to paint
their masterpieces.

Beautiful, Kat!

It really is! I second that.

Aw, shucks, thanks guys. Just a little insight into my brain.

You have a beautiful mind! (Mine, on the other hand, falls into the category of genetic pranks.)

Pssshh, M, your mind is awesome too! Else you wouldn't be able to take such amazing photos and write such fantastic things.

This is a post test.
This is only a post test.
Please do not read it.

A few minutes ago, I couldn't get this thread to come up. Whew!

The only page that doesn't show up for me is page 17.

It looks like Goodreads is suffering from some kind of near catastrophic software failure. Likely a victim of its own success.

That could be it. Some of the other threads in other groups aren't working for me now, either.

Ryan, following M is always a challenge! Kat, beautiful Haiku from a beautiful mind. Now I get to follow Kat! Yay!

To be more than Blunt
Is the place Kat moves into
When writing Haiku.

Wow!! Kat, that is beautiful!!

When writing haiku,
I often think that haiku
may be writing me.

That was delightfully, amusingly Zen, Ryan!

Guy’s test haiku in #2726 is almost certainly the only thing of its kind. Following Ryan’s #2733 won’t be easy.

If my haiku must
write me, I wish it would write
me differently.

I stood absurdly
by the door jamb and shouted,
“Iamb what iamb!”

Bedroom door ajar;
whisper of silk on the stairs.
In silence, night fled.

@M 2735. Thank you, but I didn't think anyone would read it.

Also, that is a brilliant haiku following Ryan's brilliant haiku.

Al, loved your 'Zeny' humour!

M, I'm still laughing @ 2737!

And Ryan, great return to the 'real' haiku.

Okay, now what to write?!

Hi Al! Mostly, just the usual things. I hope the Christmas decorating was stress free!

And those were very good, indeed. Here's my poor effort:


His foot in the door
was at least five toes too far
inside her bedroom.

"I don't want to live,"
she said with melodrama,
"for your iambics."

"I can be limber,"
he stuttered "because I am
ambidextrous."

"Go away," she said,
"I want a night with silken
tongues and strong rhythms."

Chamber invaded,
she fast succumbs. Angel of
Night, speaking in tongues.

These are excellent, Guy and Ryan! Guy’s “five toes too far” sounds like a good title for a war movie.

Frank with horns! And on a Sunday. Great one, Alex.

M, thanks and too, too funny.

Love in the bedroom is a battlefield. And one with few survivors. LMAO.

And great segue, Ryan!

Guy: Thank you M. [Pauses, feeling the obligation to thank Frank for the extreme flattery of using his lines.] And thank you Frank.
Pandora: Alex, loved your Haiku!
Guy: I did too! Although I was little surprised about the horn she didn't notice.
Pandora: [Laughs.] Guy, did you ever want me to write a Haiku?
Guy: [Puzzled.] But I thought you already did.
Pandora: Well, not really. Overtly, I mean.
Guy: So, you're saying you can write one without me?
Pandora: Of course!
Guy: How?
Pandora: How not?
Guy: Stop that Zen mumbo-jumbo crap!
Pandora: Well?
Guy: Well what?
Pandora: How not?
Guy: You'd have to show me before I believed you. And you can't show me without me being there.
Pandora: But now who's doing that Zen mumbo-jumbo crap? How do you know that you can do anything without me?
Guy: But it's obvious!
Pandora: Not to me, it isn't.
Guy: But you don't count!
Pandora: Really? [Laughs uproariously.]
Guy: Well, no, I guess not. Er, I mean, of course no— you do. I mean of course you do count. I think.
Pandora:

The dilemma's horn
Was what he found when his pants
fell to his cold feet.

[Laughs even louder.]
Guy: But that's not funny!

Hi Al! I'm doing housework and baking, and so will be an intermittent visitor. How are you doing? I think WSS is going to be okay. [Crosses fingers and toes.]

Oh! Late last night I finished another weird fushigi blog.

Good morning Al, good morning Guy. Where can I find your blog, Guy? I'd love to read it...

Good luck with that concentration thing. I had very strange dreams last night that seem to have helped my concentration. (In one I was successfully practicing to become a sharp shooter: in real life I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a shot gun. LoL.) The dreams also seem to be telling me to stop fighting with the bizarre changes that our work's fearless leaders have been trying with limited success to enact.

Ryan, thank you for asking. Here's the link, but be advised that you may only survive it if you have a touch of masochism. egajd.blogspot.ca.

Now back to housework.

Guy: [Hangs head.] It was I, mea dux. I am prepared for being planked. Do with me as you will. Fortunately, given your inability to concentrate, I am hoping it is something like a stint in the galley where I can bake some chocolate chip cookies.

That's really good, Guy. I like Fushigi. Do you think there is an element of your mind being aware of a thing and, doing the thing minds do best, creating links? Although I've never had such an exciting name for the concept, my life is drenched in Fushigi...

Al, this is not stupid at all. It is, in historical philosophical perspective, very Taoist! And you are aligning yourself philosophically with with people like Carl Jung and Noam Chomsky who argue with a great deal of persuasion that the pragmatic good that has arisen from a behaviourist (learned) approach has been almost nothing. For a quick example, visit my blog post book review and the citations there-in:
2012.03.13 — Noam Chomsky: A Philosophic Review by Justin Leiber.

I would go further, and suggest that Lou has paraphrased Lao-Tzu:

Those who know do not speak.
Those who speak do not know.

The Tao (philosophical truth) that can be known (learned) is not the real Tao.

If you have the time, quickly re-read Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching and you will see that you have made the same argument. What brings a huge smile to my face is that your approach to it reminds more of Chuang-Tzu, who liked parables and stories to make his point. Seriously, when you have the time, find a copy of
Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu translated by Victor Mair.

My only concern is that your philosophy professor, depending on his/her nature, will not appreciate the level of sophistication and historical antecedents your argument represents. Even Epictetus makes similar arguments.

Good luck!

Now I'm back to the galley: two blueberry cakes to come out of the oven and stuffed pork chops to make.

Furthermore, the Greek philosophers also made their arguments in parable form.

Now, I am not sure if this will help you or not, but here is a passage from the Greek philosopher Epictetus (my favourite Greek) that I particularly enjoy and which may, very loosely, help you with your paper.

CHAPTER V. CONCERNING THE ACADEMICS.
IT is said that there are those who will oppose very evident truths, and yet it is not easy to find a reason which may persuade such an one to alter his opinion. This may arise neither from his own strength, nor from the weakness of his teacher; but when a man becomes obstinate in error, reason cannot always reach him.

Now there are two sorts of obstinacy: the one, of the intellect; the other, of the will. A man may obstinately set himself not to assent to evident truths, nor to quit the defence of contradictions. We all dread a bodily paralysis; and would make use of every contrivance to avoid it: but none of us is troubled about a paralysis of the soul. And yet, indeed, even with regard to the soul, when a person is so affected as not to apprehend or understand anything, we think him in a sad condition; but where the emotions of shame and modesty are under an absolute paralysis, we go so far as even to call this strength of mind!

Are you certain that you are awake? — “I am not,” replies such a person, “for neither am I certain when in dreaming I appear to myself to be awake.” Is there no difference, then, between these appearances? — “None.” Shall I argue with this man any longer? For what steel or what caustic can I apply, to make him sensible of his paralysis? If he is sensible of it, and pretends not to be so, he is even worse than dead. He sees not his inconsistency, or, seeing it, holds to the wrong. He moves not, makes no progress; he rather falls back. His sense of shame is gone; his reasoning faculty is not gone, but brutalized. Shall I call this strength of mind? By no means: unless we allow it to be such in the vilest debauchees, publicly to speak and act out their worst impulses.

Now how about a Chuang-Tzu parable example:

"I have heard from Confucius," said Master Timid Magpie, inquiring of Master Tall Tree, "that the sage does not involve himself in worldly affairs. He does not go after gain, nor does he avoid harm. He does not take pleasure in seeking, nor does he get bogged down in formalistic ways. He speaks without saying anything; he says something without speaking. Instead, he wanders beyond the dust of the mundane world. Confucius thinks this is a vague description of the sage, but I think that it is the working of the wondrous Way. What do you think of it, my master?"

"Even the Yellow Emperor would be perplexed by hearing these things," said Master Tall Tree. "How is Hillock capable of understanding them? It seems that you, too, are overly hasty in forming an estimate. You're counting your chickens before they're hatched, drooling over roast owl at the sight of a crossbow pellet.

"Let me say a few careless words to you and you listen carelessly, all right? The sage can lean against the sun and moon and tuck the universe under his arm because he melds things into a whole,

And is indifferent to baseness and honour.
The mass of men are all hustle-bustle;
The sage is slow and simple,
He combines myriad years
Into a single purity.
Thus does he treat the myriad things,
And thereby gathers them together.

"How do I know that love of life is not a delusion? How do I know that fear of death is not like being a homeless waif who does not know the way home? When the state of Chin first got Pretty Li, the daughter of the border warden of Ai, she wept till her robe was soaked with tears. But after she arrived at the king's residence, shared his fine bed, and could eat the tender meats of his table, she regretted that she had ever wept. How do I know that the dead may not regret their former lust for life?

"Someone who dreams of drinking wine at a cheerful banquet may wake up crying the next morning. Someone who dreams of crying may go off the next morning to enjoy the sport of the hunt. When we are in the midst of a dream, we do not know it's a dream. Sometimes we may even try to interpret out dreams while we are dreaming, but then we awake and realize it was a dream. Only after one is greatly awakened does one realize that it was all a great dream, while the fool thinks that he is awake and presumptuously aware. 'My excellent lord!' Oh, though humble shepherd!' How perverse you are!

"Suppose that you and I have a dispute. If you beat me and I lose to you, does that mean that you're really right and I'm really wrong? If I beat you and you lose to me, does that mean I'm really right and you're really wrong? Is one of us right and the other wrong?" Or are both of us right and both of us wrong? Neither you nor I can know, and others are even more in the dark. Whom shall we have decide that matter? Shall we have someone who agrees with you decide it? Since he agrees with you, how can he decide fairly? Shall we have someone who agrees with me decide it? Since he agrees with me, how can he decide fairly? Shall we have someone who differs with both of us decide it? Since he differs with bout of us, how can he make a decision? Shall we have someone who agrees with both of us decide it? Since he agrees with both of us, how can he make a decision? Given that neither you nor I, nor another person, can know how to decide, shall we wait for still another?

"Whether the alternating voices of disputation are relative to each other or not, they may be harmonized within the framework of nature and allowed to follow their own effusive elaboration so they may live out their years. What does 'harmonized within the framework of nature' mean? I would say, 'Right may not be right, so may be not so. If right were really right, then right would be distinct from not right, and there would be no dispute. If so were really so, then so would be distinct from not so and there would be no dispute. Forget how many years there are in a lifespan, forget righteousness. If you ramble in the realm of infinity, you will reside in the realm of infinity" (21-3).

Ryan, that you found my little blog entertaining has brought a smile to my face! Thank you for taking the time to read it and to comment.

Re fushigis their occurrence and observation. I think that these are happening all the time to most people, but that they go either unnoticed or are dismissed and forgotten. There are likely some to whom they occur less frequently than others. I suspect that an openness in mind to their existence allows the unconscious to bring them to fruition more readily. Maybe. I know that ever since I began writing them down, more than fifteen (?) years ago, they seem to be both more frequent and more elaborate. Sometimes stunningly so. I'll link you to perhaps the most outstanding one I've experienced: I called it 2012.02.02 Half Face fushigi and more....

And the name came from David K. Reynolds. Did you read the link to the definition and genesis of the term? You will also find it interesting.

As to the mind 'making' links, this one of the chicken and egg conundrums. Does the mind naturally as part of its make-up both look for and generate links? However, this over thinks it, in a way, because often times the most outstanding links are made outside of the mind's abilities or knowledge. The question then becomes what is the connection between mind and what Jung called the collective unconscious. This becomes a fascinating philosophical problem to which there is likely no answer but to write Haiku. LoL.

Yes Guy, I read that explanation and much more...I found it very interesting indeed. The half-face blog was startling!

Now, I have now idea where the haiku is at, so I'll throw this one out there. I know that one of the talented W.S.S. wordsmiths will be able to make something great of it...



A tired tune plays
on a worn-out radio.
Days now long ago.

Okay, here's my two cents worth.


Music drifts through air
as snow falls to the cold ground.
Frosty, blue skies fade.