Night Owl’s Are Wise… Coincidence?

I missed another Daily Prompt I wanted to do! It was a couple days ago. I noticed it, but I was at the beach house, sans computer internet, so I could not blog. First World problems, much?

The Prompt asked… 6:00 am: The best hour of the day, or too close to your 3:00 am bedtime?

Try, too close to my 5:59 am bedtime!

I am a definite night owl. I say I’m nocturnal. My friends say I’m a vampire.

Either way, really.

Let me put it this way…

It’s 2 am, and I just finished eating dinner.

I’m still unwinding.

I didn’t get home until just before midnight. I work as a soccer referee at the moment. So, a few nights a week I finish games at 10:30-ish, and make it home about midnight.

There’s also the case of, somehow, I am always most creative and get all my writing done at night. I think almost every single blog post you would have read by me, would have been written between 1 am and 7 am.

They say geniuses are night owls. Seriously! I read that… somewhere.

They say Leonardo Da Vinci only had two hours of sleep a day.

I don’t know who ‘they’ are, but they’re clearly on my side, so obviously ‘they’ know what they’re talking about.

Having said all that, I’m especially tired today. Goodnight, peeps!

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Daily Prompt: Name that… You!

Today’s (and I am actually on the right day today!!) Daily Prompt asks… “Do you know the meaning of your name, and why your parents chose it? Do you think it suits you?”

My real name for those playing at home, is Ewen. I don’t know why my parents chose it. I suppose they wanted something different. Something easy to spell; both for them (laziness) and for myself (dunce-ness). Both parents have some family ancestry from Wales, and this is the Welsh form of the name… I think. Unlike Ewan McGregor, who bares the Scottish version. I always get that spelling. Gee, do I look like Obi Wan Kenobi to you? (Don’t answer that).

Mum wanted to call me Joel. That became my middle name. Dad won the name game ultimately. But, I like ‘Ewen’. It does suit me. It’s a bit different, simple, and a little mysterious. Mysterious as in, “really… why?!” But, mysterious nonetheless.

The name means ‘youth‘. I don’t know if, or how that applies to me. I think I am still young at heart. I might be clutching at straws there. Maybe my simpleton parents looked at me upon birth and said “Crikey, he’s young. Let’s name him after youth.”

All I know is that people never understand me the first time I introduce myself. They’re just not ready for it. It sounds foreign to them.

Me: “Hi, I’m Ewen.”

Random: “What? John?”

Me: “No, Ewen.”

Random: “Oh, Gwen.”

Me: “Eeewen.”

Random: “Oh, Melton.”

Me: “Yeah, fucking Melton, that’ll do.”

A Brief Conversation

I am going to have a quick crack at the Weekly Writing Challenge. I love ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ challenges, so this is my procrastination exercise in between studying. I have written a short story based on the below image. And I mean short. After all, I’m meant to be working on my assessment task.

A Brief Conversation

Tamara had always felt like an outcast. For that reason she tended to find solace and comfort in the presence of other outcasts. She had spotted the green guy in his top hat and waist coat from inside the restaurant. She wanted to talk to him. He would understand. He knew what it was like to be different. To be singled out. To be surrounded by dimwits constantly moving but going nowhere. Just going in circles.

She sat down beside the green giant and leaned against his hind leg. “I know how you feel,” she said aloud, as if the thing had the ability to listen. “I’m stuck, too. My parents are inside with their friends. They’re all talking and laughing, and I’m just bored. You look bored, too. It’s okay, I’ll keep you company. We can keep each other company.” She gazed up at his stoic green face. “I like your hat. It’s fancy. You’re far too fancy for this place. We deserve to be somewhere better.”

She smiled and leaned closer against her inanimate friend. She liked the dapper object. She felt comfortable there. More comfortable than inside the restaurant. So comfortable, that she slowly but surely drifted asleep.

Fin

The Sunshiny Pholidota Subking

The new Daily Prompt is incredibly random. So, I love it! It asks us to scribble down the first 10 words that come to mind, then pick 3 of them. Those 3 are to make up our post title. I decided to go completely random and use an online random word generator. That was ballsy. I ended up with the title ‘Sunshiny Pholidota Subking’.

No joke, they were words 7, 8 and 9, in exact order. And they were the only three words that made any of much sense. I think it was meant to work out like this.

Since that is not a particularly usual phrase, I’ll break it down…

‘Sunshiny’ can refer to possessing the quality of cheerfulness or happiness, which is the definition I am running with here.

‘Pholidota’ is the zoological order comprising of the pangolins.

A ‘subking’ is basically what it sounds like. A leader that rules over part of an empire.

So, below is my (decidedly children’s) story of The Sunshiny Pholidota Subking.

Photo credit: utaot.com

Percy was a very happy pangolin. He had everything a pangolin could want.

He ruled over a great Pangolin Kingdom. He had a beautiful pangolin family. He had access to all the insects a pangolin could ever want to eat.

But there was one problem in Percy’s Pangolin Kingdom. That problem was Lara, the leopard.

Lara was a meat-eater. And pangolins are meat!

Percy was the friendliest pangolin. Everybody who ever met Percy thought he was just wonderful. So all the pangolins decided that lovable Percy should try asking Lara very nicely not to eat them.

So one day, Percy Pangolin went to visit Lara Leopard at her favourite tree.

But Lara was not in her tree this day. She was on the ground, looking sadly up at the last bunch of leaves. Her tree was dying.

Percy put on his friendliest voice and asked the leopard, “Lara, why is your tree dying?”

Lara was very surprised that the pangolin would speak to her. Usually pangolins hid from leopards. But she was too sad to chase Percy today. Lara pointed a big paw at her tree and said to Percy, “Termites are eating my tree. Termites eat wood, and my tree is wood!”

Percy thought about this and had an idea. He was a pangolin after all, and pangolins eat termites! In his nicest pangolin voice, Percy said, “Lara, we pangolins eat termites. If I eat all the termites, your tree will be saved.”

Lara thought this was very nice of the pangolin. She thought it was so nice, that she wanted to do something nice for him, too. Lara said, “Mr. Pangolin, if you eat all the termites and save my favourite tree, I will promise not to eat any of your pangolin friends anymore.”

Percy thought this was a fantastic idea. So he agreed. That night, Percy ate all the termites living in Lara’s tree. He was so full he could not eat anymore.

Lara was very grateful to her new pangolin friend. Now the termites were gone, her favourite tree would live for a very long time. She was so grateful that she would never eat another pangolin ever again.

Percy returned back to his pangolin kingdom and told the other pangolins all about how he saved Lara’s tree. All the pangolins were very grateful that Percy had saved them from the leopard. He had brought happiness to all the Pangolin Kingdom.

And Percy would always be known as the friendliest Pangolin King ever.

The End

Me, the 10-year-old Zoologist

When I was 10, I wanted to be either a Zoologist or a Wildlife Photographer.

I was mad about animals. Oh, the amount of books I had. The amount of books I still have. I have always found that stuff fascinating. It isn’t where I am now, but hey, my journey is far from over.

I actually got close. I have a Bachelor of Science Degree, with a double major in Zoology and Conservation Ecology. So, I have the relevant qualifications for one part of my childhood dream.

These days I am studying Professional Writing and Editing. Hey, if I end up writing Zoological books, the 10-year-old me will love me forever.

At the moment though, the closest I get to my childhood dream is visiting the Zoo. Here’s a few recent pics…

Poor Tasmanian Devil. He looks a bit mopey today. Don’t you just want to give him a cuddle?

Two little squirrel monkeys playing together. Well, that’s decidedly cute!

Spider monkey in the midst of a staring contest. Spoiler: He wins this one.

Meerkat on watch. You can never be too careful.

Mr Gorilla is tired. Someone throw him a pillow.

 

All photos here are by me, That EJ.

In response to – Daily Prompt: When you were 10, what did you want to be when you grew up? What are you now? Are the two connected?

Daily Prompt: Green-Eyed Monster – An Open Letter

Dear boyfriend of Sophia Bush,

I do not know your name. I do not care to know it. I won’t bother learning it. Besides, what is a name to a monster? And I am just that – a green-eyed monster, whenever I see you proudly hanging your arm around my celebrity crush.

I’m not even jealous of your good looks, or your self proclaimed super-intelligence, or your spiffy career.  I’m just jealous of the company you keep. The company you smugly throw your arm around, as if to say “yeah, good luck guy, have you even met the paparazzi?”

And I would say, “well, no, I haven’t. But that – that is irrelevant… I think.

Shut up.”

So, I wouldn’t say much of worth, but I’m like that under pressure. And I’m sure you wouldn’t shut up. Or maybe you would. I don’t know. I don’t know your character. I don’t know what you’re like. I don’t care to know.

Either way, I don’t think you would lose that smug grin.

But, I can’t blame you, really. I’d be grinning too if I had someone so gorgeous draped across my arm. So, I guess, in the end, um… well played, nameless Sir.

Well played.

Photo credit: Adriana M. Barraza / WENN

Taken from http://www.aceshowbiz.com

*I made all that up. Except for my celebrity crush. That’s true. Totally love Sophia Bush. But I’ve never heard this guy claim super-intelligence or any of the rest of it. And I don’t think he has a smug grin. Oh, and his name is Dan Fredinburg. I’m sure he’s a marvelous chap. I just didn’t have any fun ideas for a jealousy letter. Blame the Daily Prompt.

Daily Prompt: Life After Blogs

Your life without a computer: what does it look like?

It looks healthy. Haha. I would waste much less time. I would procrastinate far less. I think I would get a lot more accomplished. I may be more sociable, but also less. I would possibly put on weight, because instead of wasting patches of boredom on the computer, I would likely eat. I would probably exercise the same amount. I have always been good at that. If I did do any more it would likely be a return to regular swimming. Then I’d eat more again.

But then there would be no blogging. That may be a shame…

From the Daily Post… http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/daily-prompt-without/

Daily Prompt: A to Z

Today’s Daily Prompt challenge… http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/daily-prompt-orderly/

Create a short story, piece of memoir, or epic poem that is 26 sentences long, in which the first sentence begins with “A” and each sentence thereafter begins with the next letter of the alphabet.

Admittedly, Rachael could think of elsewhere she’d rather spend today. Birthdays had never felt like a special occasion to her. Celebrating seemed overly self-indulgent and she hated ever making a fuss. Despite her protests however, her boyfriend Xavier had dragged her along to the Zoo. Even though it was just the two of them, it still felt to Rachael like there was a fuss being made.

Friday, and there was almost nobody around. Giant crowds would be here the next two days, so she was thankful to at least avoid those. Hundreds of visitors to share the day with was much better than thousands. In Rachael’s mind, this day should not be like any other. Just because it was her Birthday didn’t mean she had to endure people. Kids were the worst too, so the Zoo seemed like one of the dumbest places to visit.

Lounging about would have suited her much better. Moreso than walking all day. Not that she wasn’t grateful. Only Xavier was truly worth spending time with. Problem was, he felt she should converse with others, too. ‘Quit expecting me to act like normal people’, she would tell him. Rarely did he really try to force it on her though. Special occasions mostly. Today, for example. Unrelenting, Xavier had invited others to join them. Vehemently, Rachael had persisted those people stay at home.

Walking all day must have taken the fight out of her now though. Xavier led her to one last enclosure and she smiled. ‘You saved the best for last on purpose’, she said as she gave him a knowing look. Zebras approached her and now she couldn’t stop grinning, finally glad that she gave in to Xavier’s plans.