I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

God, I used to love stuff like this in college!

The "word bead" challenge RULES:

5 words, randomly pulled from a dictionary of approximately 10000 basic English words. Take these words, and "string" the words below with other words of your choosing, in order to fashion a sentence, paragraph, essay, a poem, drabble or short-short story. After you post your answer to the challenge, find a dictionary (or go to Dictionary.com) and randomly select 5 more words to pass on, to the next person to do the challenge.

YOUR WORDS:

Ado
Unequivocal
Mediocre
Vivid
Certifiable

_________________________________________________________________________

Sunset bids a certifiable ado
To an unequivocal mediocre day
With her vivid and firey Display
Fading at last into the steely blue

IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO THIS CHALLENGE, HERE ARE YOUR WORDS:

Candor
Highway
Sphere
Mist
Usurper

Here is a link to a random word generator--with choices in how common or unusual a word you want, if you wish to pass the "word bead challenge" on to someone else:

http://watchout4snakes.com/creativitytools/RandomWord/RandomWordPlus.aspx

Well, we didn't get the snow, we got the sleet and freezing rain, though. Power lines down, down the street by the Presbyterian church and elsewhere in this city. I walked to work this morning, with big ol' ice pellets pelting me--down my jacket collar and the back of my neck. Not a pleasant walk this morning. This afternoon, I had to take a cab home, 'cos the sidewalks were more like ice skating rinks, and I'm a wee afraid of falling, these days...just wish for once I could go through a winter without a sprain from a fall.

I was going to go shopping, my food stamps activate today and I held off buying some things I needed until then...but, I don't think I will. It's nothing too pressing, just a few odds and ends at one of the local supermarkets, that I can't get at my usual places I shop...certainly getting a packet of butter curry sauce and some frozen veggies and things, aren't worth risking a broken neck over. It's miserable out there! Hope we don't loose power here, but the branches are all coated with ice and the temperatures are dropping. The roads aren't all that bad--they've been plowing and salting them so the main streets are all merely slushy, at the moment. Some of the snow-covered side roads are a bit slick I'm told. It'll likely get bad come night, I reckon, when the temperature drops and then turns the slush to ice and the wet roads to black ice.

Everyone says the same thing: they don't mind driving or dealing with, or walking in the snow, but ice--that's rubbish.

Well, it's nearly 20 min. to 10am, over here. Have to leave for work in about 2 min.

Yuck, it's a mess out there this morning. All the schools up and down northeastern New York are shut. We got a few inches of snow during the night--normally no big hoo-ha, business as usual, here, doesn't slow anything down, that little bit. Yet, shortly after sunrise, the snow changed to freezing rain, which changed to heavly sleet (ice pellets) and now, things are rather dire...and I have to walk in that stuff, bleh. Hope I don't fall on my arse.

Right now, I can see a heavy sleet/freezing rain coming down out there. I can't ring up the office, 'cos stinking Virgin applied my monthly fee to my phone--and never told me. I show that I still have 10 min. call time, but when I try to dial, I get a recording that I don't have any funds left on my phone. Virgin is a pain in the neck about stuff like that--they'll send you solicitation calls, but they wait to tell you about charges they take out of your phone...so now I may walk to work and find it shut...tho' I doubt it. We'd have to have a full-blown blizzard or ice storm for that.

Oooh, Flame is sitting on my lap as I type this, and she sees a crow out there, yelling and flying around...so does charlie...their little ears are all perked up and aquiver...they are so easily amused, you gotta' love 'em.

have a good day, all.

I've just read where actor David Tennant has been nominated for 'Most Attractive Man' award, from Hello magazine. So, what else is new? Personally, I don't see it...he looks like any bloke I may see on any street or lift or whatever. But, then, I suppose, being me, I just have different standards from UK women.

Even before he's been sworn in, Obama is talking tax cuts for the middle class, and budget cuts for the federal government.

But, while the middle class may come up winners in the long-term, the nation's poor will once again prove to be the losers, as US senators eye Social Security and Medicare with their cost-cutting axes. One democratic senator says, in regards to these two vital programmes which support the elderly and disabled of America: "There's going to be some unpleasant decisions being made."

Unpleasant for whom? US senators have total cradle-to-the-grave healthcare benefits, they can afford top-notch doctors, dentists, optomitrists, phycaitrists, etc., Their fellow countrymen and women living in or below the poverty level, do not have that option. Many of America's seniors and disabled, are forced to live on--entirely on their own, in many cases--on anywhere from $450 to $800 a month...in a land where the cost of rent, food, heat/utilites, transport and medical care, is skyrocketing every year that passes...and the yearly raises for the poor are shrinking and not keeping up with inflation.

So...the most vunerable Americans will be hungrier, be sicker and in greater pain, under Obama. So much for America's great new hope, the wonderboy will not be so wonderful for those who suffer...but then, very few wealthy Americans--and a huge swath of middle and upper-middle class Americans, are pretty thick...well, actually, downright stupid, when it comes to their knowledge of poverty within their own country's borders.

Poor people in America have died needlessly under Bush, how many will suffer and die with Obama in the Oval Office, remains to be seen.

A. What kind of “fame” are you working for in your life?

I don't think I've ever even thought in terms of being famous for something. Certainly, it's human to want to be recognized--to be known for a positive reason, I suppose. Really, any awards or ribbons I've won over the decades, weren't gone for with an aim at fame, it was merely me trying to be the best I can be, trying to top myself, I suppose. To measure my best effort, against the best efforts of others. But, when it comes to a judged contest or something, I don't think I've ever entered something I've created (flower arrangements, plays, etc.) with an eye towards "fame." Even my writing--sure, I suppose some part of me still has the desire to be recognized (if I deserve it) for something I'd written, but it's never been in my thoughts to be a famous writer--just a good one, I'd be perfectly content with that...to be genuinely wanted or needed by someone, or perhaps some organization--that would be all the "fame" I'd ever require.

B. What issue or cause do you care most deeply about?

Wow, that's a hard question--simply because I care about quite a few issues: the environment, animal welfare, illnesses such as kindney disease aids and cancer, mental health/brain disorders, homelessness, lack of basic health care (medical/dental/optical and mental health care) in the USA--a pet cause...But, Really, I feel rather strongly about poverty--not just in the third world, but here in the western world, as well. The poverty rate in the world is skyrocketing an an alarming rate, and nations are struggling to cope while also facing mounting national debts--and the poor, elderly and disabled are too often the first to fell the brunt of government budget cuts. In America tonight, some estimated 60 million households (that's a ballpark figure, it could be higher) are going hungry. The homeless stats are on the rise as evictions and foreclosures are taxing local social agencies to their limits and beyond. In Britain, I'll wager there's a least a few million feeling the pinch of hunger right now, as I write this. And...few care. The poor are often off the radar for most "normal" people--everyone likes success, no one wants to see failure--it might remind people how precarious their own live's really can become. And the homeless? They are the world's invisible people--no longer even considered human beings any longer, by some.

C. Describe how you would spend a relaxing couple of hours at home.

Writing or blogging while listening to music, or perhaps watching a DVD or reading a good book. Strictly hypothetically speaking, IF I had someone here (LOL), I'd perhaps cook for him or her, or serve coffee and dessert, then we'd maybe watch a film, or talk, or play a board game.

D. Do you currently or have you ever had any routines or rituals that comfort you?

Sleeping, sleeping is rather nice..and blogging, I suppose. Though that's getting to be more habit than ritual.

E. Is there anything you did as a teenager, that you still do today?

Watch the sky and the trees, enjoy the sunset, the moon, the stars...and, listen to the life around me--wind, people, humming of my computer, etc. And, write about what I see and think and feel. And pizza, still adore pizza.

F. Do you have any idiosyncrasies or unusual quirks when it comes to food and/or eating?

Yeah...you see, my sister could be quite miserable to me when we were children. She used to let me eat or drink her food/beverage, then tell me she spit in it...I didn't believe her, until one time I actually caught her doing it...so now I have a serious aversion to eating or drinking from someone else's glass or fork or whatever. Turns my stomach at the thought of it, even to this day.

G. If you could put anyone you know on Prozac, who would you choose?

David Tennant.

Really though, I think I'd give it to some of these Americans who freak out, rant and foam at the mouth at you like mad dogs--merely because you either accidentally dialed a wrong number, or, you've mis-pronounced their last name. Get a freaking grip, people!

H. How do you feel about public displays of affection?

Fine with hugging and hand holding. Not so comfy with squeezing bums, lung-sucking snogging, hands down the back pockets, that sort of thing. Yes! I'm a dull old prude, deal with it.