The rules for accepting the ABC (CBA) Award are:

1. Thank the person(s) who nominated you

2. There is no limit to how many fellow bloggers you can nominate so go crazy

3. Share some things about you but alphabetically just a word or two about you starting with each alphabet. (Or alternatively, just write the first word you think of.)

A – Antsy

B – Being (I’m very much into the word “be”)

C – Creative and curious

D – Dork (I’m a huge dork)

E – E-gads I can’t think of a “E” word!

F – Follows no one

G – Galloping horses in my heart

H – Hero:  I need to become my own

I – Inspire

J – Joking  (can’t take yourself too seriously)

K – Knowledge is a misnomer

L – Love for the sake of loving, let the rest go

M – Moonshine (not the alcoholic kind)

N – Nonsense:  it’s fun to find the sense

O – Olives… little round heavenly goodness

P – Paranormal (it fascinates me)

Q – Quizzical

R – Radio silence!  (what I seek in my head)

S – Silly

T – Tai Chi, when I did it

U – Underground

V – Violets

W – Willow

X – …

Y – Yonder (I love that word)

Z – I wanted a zebra as a kid

My nominations for the ABC Award are:

Believe Anyway

Julia’s Place

The Laughing Housewife

Unwritten Truth

Enjoy and thank you again!

The dwarves were under the wood pile again.  The Valentine’s Day disaster had passed but the tension had not.  The clammy moldiness was a comfort.

Herp poked a toad that stared at him blithely.

Derp sighed.  “I don’t think Moribund will ever forgive us, but if you look on the flip side…”

“A what slide?” Herp’s bad eye meandered toward Derp.

“Flip side.  Flip.  FLIP!”

Something warty wetly struck Derp in the side of the head.  It clung a moment before sliding down.

“What?  You said ‘flip!’”

“No, I said toad slide,” he spat shoving the toad down Herp’s pants.

The above is my entry for the 100-Word-Challenge. The prompt this week was “…the flip side…”

Previous 100-word installments in the Moribund saga:

• Derp’s Dilemma
• Glenda Gloop’s Failed Surprise
• Love Dies an Ugly Death Under the Sink
• Moribund’s Demise

Photos courtesy of The Shark is Still Working

The attraction celebrated the movie “Jaws” based on Peter Benchley’s novel by the same name and directed by Steven Spielberg.  It was released to theaters in the summer of 1975 and was a blockbuster smash.  It’s since become the prototypical watershed of the summer blockbuster.  It was the highest grossing film of all time that summer and was nominated for several awards.

Wikipedia gives the synopsis:  In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach, only to be overruled by the town council, which wants the beach to remain open to draw revenue from tourists during the summer season. After several attacks, the police chief enlists the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. Roy Scheider stars as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Murray Hamilton as the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody’s wife, Ellen.

I was just 13 years old that summer.  I had read the novel by Benchley the previous year.  Based on real life exploits of shark fishermen and the shark attacks on the Jersey Shore in 1916 it was ample fuel for my 13-year-old curiosity.  My thrill-seeking friends and I scurried to the local theater to see the monster shark and the havoc it wreaked on poor unsuspecting Amity Island.  As I recall, our parents cautioned us it might be too intense.

I have to laugh now.  I remember feeling so brave when the house lights went down, but by the time the thrum of the first few notes of that infamous first attack scene score vibrated my seat I was terrified.  I was so afraid I sat through the whole movie with my feet tucked safely under me on my seat.  I wasn’t going to risk having my legs bitten off by some unseen floor cruising shark!  I couldn’t even face the bathtub that night.

I’m sad to say I never experienced Jaws the Ride at Universal Studios but I remember wishing I could when the park opened.  Now it’s a thing of the past.  It was plagued with constant malfunctions, having been shut down several times during the 90s and then redesigned.  By 2005, the ride was shut down temporarily due to rising petroleum costs which fueled the pyrotechnics.  When it reopened months later, it was only as a seasonal attraction.  The Jaws attraction still remains open at Universal’s Osaka Japan location.

If, like me, you never experienced the attraction or you want to ride it one last time, here it is:

“You’re looking very… erm… gloppish today, Glenda.”

She giggled a drain-water gurgle.  Moribund fidgeted.  His valentine was being ignored after all he’d gone through.  He poked the box closer with a shadowy toe, hopeful.

To his horror, she yawned and began to snore.  He deflated like a punctured tire and glared at the two dwarves.

“It wasn’t my fault!” Derp squealed.  Herp fainted.

Exasperated, Moribund crammed his gift into her guzzawing mouth and swore off love forever.

The above is my entry for the 100-Word-Challenge.  The prompt was “It wasn’t my fault.”

Previous 100-word installments in the Moribund saga:

• Derp’s Dilemma
• Glenda Gloop’s Failed Surprise
• Love Dies an Ugly Death Under the Sink
• Toad Slide
• Moribund’s Demise

What does she want?  There’s a question lying somewhere behind the irises, deep down, resting on the bottom of the black pools of the pupils.  I can almost see it there, some pearlescent sheen reflecting the beacon light of my interest.

Then a familiar voice brushes my mind, a faraway breath whispering, “Who am I?  Do you dare?”

I study her face again.  Nothing in her expression has changed, but the gauntlet has been laid.  Something hitches in my chest:  a fluttering.  A desperate little bird clings to the cage bars of my ribs seeking a hasty escape.  Is it excitement?  Anticipation?  Fear?

A deep breath releases the bird in a sigh and I briefly watch it go before returning to my quest.  I do want to swim.  Those black waters seem calmer now, more inviting.  Less dangerous.  I dip a toe meaning only to test but the water swallows me and down I go like a stone, my curiosity lending its weight as I plummet.

I search for the question I know is there.  I am diving for pearls after all.  The answer shines like a flashlight guiding my way.  And there is the pearl.  I see it just as the answer-light swallows it and it’s gone.  Then the pearl-answer-light swallows the darkness, every last drop, as if parched from an unfathomable thirst.  I rise to the surface without so much as a twitch as the depths and the surface have risen and descended to meet each other:  to become one.  I find it all right where it began.

I’m standing in front of the mirror again.  My reflection still gazes serenely back at me.  The question is satisfied.  We aren’t quite the strangers we were.  But this time we smile.

“I am certain that Mrs. Sparkly, a woman of high expectations, commitment and integrity would agree with this approach. She is notable,  respected in her own community and likely to be peering down upon us; possibly spell checking and taking notes that feed into a mammoth government information data collection system (MGIDCS). She may have been recruited because of her discretion and integrity even behind closed doors.”

The rules of engagement are:

Ten Questions must be answered with complete honesty or Mrs. Sparkly will find you. Mrs. Sparkly-we love you. We Do! Manners and behavior, words beyond reproach…  Then tag five other people.

The Ten Questions:

1.Describe yourself in seven words.

Curious, creative, obsessive, moody, whimsical, deep, conflicted

2.  What keeps you up at night?

The word factory between my ears keeps me awake.  If I go to sleep with something unwritten, there is no sleep to be had until I get up, turn the computer back on, and bang the words out onto my keyboard.  Then when my head is empty I can sleep.

3.  Whom would you like to be?

I would like to be me.  I can’t be anyone else.  I wouldn’t know how even though I’ve tried.  It’s a dreadful thing to try to be someone else.  The only qualifier I’d slap on this is that I’d like to be me fully realized but I know this is an ideal I may never hold in my hand.

4.  What are you wearing now?

This is one of those things where fiction would definitely be more interesting than the reality.  Fictionally, I’m wearing a purple superior hero unitard with coordinating cape and identity-concealing little face mask, ready to fork out justice with hands on hip in a wide-legged stance and hair billowing in the wind.  But, quite blandly, the reality is I’m wearing a comfy t-shirt and sweat pants.  I know.  “Zzzzz.”

5.  What scares you?

Oh all those unfounded worries scuttling around in my head.  The “what ifs” and “could be’s”.   Insidious little things like spiders with too many legs. They also don’t like to die no matter how hard or how many times you swat them.

6.  What are the best and worst things about blogging?

The best thing about blogging is allows me to express myself.  The worst thing about blogging is the occasional day when I have no clue what to blog about.

7.  What was the last website you looked at?

WordPress.Com.  You mean, there might be OTHERS??!!  I stare at this one all day long!

8.  If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

Only one thing?  But I have this list…  It’s as thick as a phone book so this might take some time to decide on only one.  I’ll get back to you.

9.  Slankets, yes or no?

Neither.  I have no clue what a “slanklet” is.  If I find out, I’m afraid I’ll want these slanklet things and I’m sure they won’t be available in India.  And if they are, they will be too small because I’m just a white amazon floating in a sea of very beautiful tiny-boned brown women.  So…  maybe I’ll amend my answer to “no.”  (Swats at one of those spidery “could-be’s” as it scuttles by…)

10. Tell us something about the person who tagged you.

Linda is an extraordinary human being.  She is so multi-dimensional I don’t know where to begin.  She is eloquent, intelligent and full of grace.  Do visit.

I’m passing Mrs. Sparkly’s Ten Commandments on to:

1. Being Arindam
2. Joy in the Moments
3. Allaboutlemon
4. I Choose How I Will Spend the Rest of My Life
5. Freedom to a Full Life

Have fun!

One Lovely Blog Award Rules:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other newly discovered blogs.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

The 15 blogs I pass the One Lovely Blog Award on to are:

1. Mortal Hearts with Immortal Souls
2. Julia’s Place
3. CKuhnTampaBay
4. The Bard on the Hill
5. Joy in the Moments
6. Mystical Tidbits
7. Daniel Blaga
8. Inside Out Café
9. Cereal with a Fork
10. I Choose How I Will Spend the Rest of My Life
11. Living Life in Glorious Color
12. An Evil Nymph’s Blog
13. Cravedfw
14. Robotic Rhetoric
15. Sake White

Here’s your Award!  Enjoy!

Champis the Sheep Herding Bunny

Meet Champis, a 5-year old mixed-breed rabbit and pet of Nils-Erik and Greta Vigren, who is quickly becoming a YouTube and online sensation.  Little Champis lives in the village of Kal in north Sweden.  What makes Champis extraordinary is his uncanny natural ability to herd the Vigren’s sheep.

This behavior was noticed last spring when the Vigren’s first turned their sheep out to pasture after a long winter.  Little Champis hopped along, keeping them in line just as the sheepdogs do.  Even more remarkable is the fact Champis was never trained to herd.  He’s apparently picked up his skill by watching the other sheepdogs.

Dan Westman, a sheepdog breeder who shot and posted the video of his friends’ remarkable bunny, said he was in awe when he first witnessed the phenomenon, noting Champis does the job even better than most dogs would.

“It’s really incredible, it’s a herding rabbit,” he said. “He rounds them up, and if they get close to escaping through the gate he sometimes stops them,” he said.

“I mean I work with sheepdogs and know how hard this is. There are very few dogs that could do what this rabbit does.”

According to the Vigrens, Champis also looks after the hens.

“He just started to behave like a sheepdog,” Greta said, adding that while he likes to round up the sheep, he is consistent about leaving the farm’s hens alone, treating them more gently.

“He’s like a king for the whole group. He thinks he rules over both the sheep and the hens. He has a very big ego.”

The amazing thing is the sheep pay attention to the little bunny and take him quite seriously, paying their minder a load of respect.

Watch little Champis in action.  Seeing is believing!

You can see the full article here.

Reblogged from mathangijeypal:

We usually use the word buffalo as a derogatory term. “You stupid buffalo”. “Fat Buffalo” . “Don’t behave like a Buffalo”. Most of us get irritated with the fact, that the Buffalo does not care about our pace of life. You want to fly to your office (you are already half an hour late and the monstrous face of your boss has just replaced the happy family picture you carry in your wallet ) – and there it is! A buffalo. Right in your path. Trudging along slowly. And deciding to sit down – in the middle of the …

For my readers who wanted to know more about life in India… this is an every day “problem” for commuters here.  Beautifully written.

Reblogged from New Heaven on Earth!:

Rare sightings of pure white animals have peaked my curiosity lately. (http://news.discovery.com/animals/rare-albino-hummingbird-120127.html). In England a rare white stag has been photographed. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040472/Rare-sighting-white-stag-spotted-Dartmoor.html Lately there have been several great white shark sightings in San Diego, a once rare event. What is up with all the white? White is associated with newness, passages, initiation, awakening, nourishment, purity, …

I’m reblogging this because I’m just nuts about things like this and I think those who follow my blog will enjoy it as much as I did!