#threewordscarystories

Twitter had a trend for three-word scary stories tonight (Halloween!), and I thought it was a fun challenge. I legitimately thought up these up on my own; I did not steal these from other users.

Feel free to re-tweet these!



Since this is on my blog, I might explain a bit further here. This one reminds me of the house next door to mine. It's vacant, so how scary would it be to see a shadow of a human in the window?





What if the mirror... almost... followed what you do? Like, the Mirror has a mind of its own...





Blood in the shower is never good, no matter if it comes from the body hanging in it or from your own body.





Ever go to a funeral and get afraid that the body might suddenly move?





What if you heard more than the ocean when you put your ear to the shell?





Walk into the kitchen... every single drawer is open. That would be so creepy.

Anyway, have a happy Halloween.

Brown Bag Bans?!? The Federal Government is BANNING lunches from home (for preschools) without a doctor's note?

I'm going to do a little response to this article, which has been making the rounds.

At first glance, this seems like a nightmare. Now the government is telling us we can't feed our own children? Yikes!

But, that's what the political spin is. The headlines are misleading; it's like they're trying to scare us all with some sort of crazy conspiracy. The writer of that article says that it's about monetary control, but it's not. The article even mentions Obamacare, which is ridiculous. Even the first quote on the page tries to make you believe that classic American values are all but obliterated.

The reason for a food-from-home ban is much simpler.

But let's start by noting that this is for Federally Operated HeadStart Preschools, not any other level of schooling. Preschools are optional, not forced on anyone. There are plenty of alternative pre-schooling centers. Brown bag lunches are not and will never be banned from public middle or high schools. And also, almost all privately-owned preschools have this same exact policy, and for a very good reason. (The picture are my home-made, Game of Thrones cookies :-))

And the reason why preschools are singled out is simple: Allergies.

Preschools have a range of ages from newly-born through five. Children, as the article points out, LOVE to swap lunches around. As a former toddler teacher, I know that some kids don't even understand that they cannot eat the lunches of children sitting next to them.

Can we expect a five year old to have the mental comprehension mature enough to understand what an allergy is? If Timmy gets a Snickers Bar from Julie, he dies.

Dies.


Allergies kill kids, and you know what? Children five and younger LOVE sharing. If they get a Snickers Bar, they want to give some to the other kids. How are they supposed to know not to share (when they are told to share all day long)? Even worse, what if little Jackie gets a chicken salad wrap? Jackie doesn't know that there are peanuts in it. She just knows it's chicken.

And peanuts aren't the only problem. There are fish allergies. Wheat allergies. Milk allergies. Meat allergies. Etc. Etc.

Preschool teachers are some of the most overworked people in the world. They don't have time to inspect everyone's lunch every day, especially since Joe started biting others at random, Mark keeps hitting Sally, and Steve just pooped on the carpet. These are all things that really happened to me, commonly even. If you think that a preschool teacher absolutely always has the ability to monitor every single child the entire time, you're mad. From ages one-and-up, SEVEN children are allowed in a classroom with a single teacher. SEVEN!! Imagine trying to control SEVEN toddlers all at the same time.  Imagine the eating table. It's madness as is. Now, imagine that John's mom loves to give him a pack lunch filled with peanuts and if Timmy gets one, even one that gets picked up off the floor, he dies.

It doesn't take but a second for a kid to pop a peanut in their mouth and swallow it.

And parents cannot be expected to cooperate, let's just be honest. You really think you can trust every parent to follow the list of banned-allergy-inducing-child-killing list? Wrong. Even at the Center where I worked, parents STILL tried to bring food in when it was banned. And they STILL brought in peanuts.

The only way for a preschool to function safely is to control what is fed to the kids. This goes for any preschool--from government to privately owned. It's much easier to control meals if they are planned by the school, expected by the teachers, and served without surprises.

I honestly cannot believe that that article was posted without mentioning allergies once. It's obvious that she just had no idea why preschools ban home-food, so I had to respond.
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tl;dr: young kids will swap food without knowing that allergies can kill their friends



Caterpillars of the Commonwealth, a poem and song by Harrison Aye



caterpillars of the commonwealth by Harrison Aye

for every leaf you consume, a string constricts the caterpillar.
You call them young believers, but that's more than this moth can chew.
You're heading towards the light now, you call it higher intelligence,
your wings can take you there now, and awestruck you will die.
It's when you cut down all the things that make them,
chop off both their wings and break them that you ground them and keep them grounded.
And you can pull off both their legs and choices,
a quiet room and cricket noises,
ground them! keep them under glass!
and it'll all go nova when that last moth hits the fan,
your bloodline boils over in a whirling blade hurricane
and yes I wonder why,
you fly against the wind,
to find reality
is to live in doubt of it


Credits: Video, lyrics, music by Harrison Aye (@Oxyborb), guitar and backup vocals performed by Brian Wood, and drums performed by Scott Weber.

I suppose at the heart of this song is ignorance. Taking things without questioning why they are the way they are. It seems like our world is filled with people who flutter through life without caring about knowing what is ahead of them. Our media blinds us with so much spam and messaging that we forget what is important. We forget that not everything everyone says is inherently true. Some people don't even know that they themselves spread wrong information. Some people think they are doing good by trying to make others conform. I suppose that's what this poem was written about.

And this could swing into political stuff, but I'd rather not. Everyone has their own opinions. Take these words and make them meaningful to you.

The video was shot this night, right outside my house. It's littered with Halloween decorations. I put this up because I felt like doing something different. I've been editing my novel lately, and I've been doing it tirelessly for the last year. I'm trying to make sure it's perfect. Line-by-line. Anyway, I needed a break from that so I made this. I hope you're having a good night. The autumn season is the best season, in my humble opinion. I love the feel of the cool air and the look of the orange leaves.



Support local artists! Buy this song for $1!


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Nintendo proves it knows what gamers want with a new game about moving water using a ladle to a pitcher

No, seriously.
What the heck?
 
Nintendo.
Eat something, Nintendo. You always make worrisome decisions when you don't get something to eat.

But, seriously. What has happened to your creativity, Nintendo? It shouldn't take much to sell me on a new Nintendo system. I own ALL of them, except for the Wii U. You're going in a direction that I cannot follow, Nintendo. I represent the most diehard of Nintendo fans, yet... I don't even slightly desire the Wii U system. If I don't want it, then you have a major problem.

And that problem is only emphasized by Water Runners. What are you thinking? Why would you EVER think that moving water from a stream to a pitch with a spoon would be a good idea? Why would you think I'd want to do that?

I feel like the Wii U is just a rehash system. Nerfed versions of old games. No achievements system. Remakes. Carbon copies, like the new Mario 3D World, New Super Mario U. These don't change up the mix. I already own these for 3DS. I want Mario to do NEW things, not just piggyback off of the gameplay styles of yesterday. Nintendo. Let's talk about how EVERY Pokemon game has you battle a team and a bunch of gyms and the elite four. Let's talk about how every Zelda game has a "dark" world, with "dark" Link (not to mention, Dark Mario, Dark Samus, Dark Pit, ENOUGH WITH THE DARK CHARACTERS ALREADY, GET CREATIVE!). Let's talk about the insanely repetitive use of Bowser as the main villian in every single Mario game. What happened to Wart? Or that alien in a space ship from the Gameboy? Or Wario as a villian? Or Mouser? Or, more importantly, some new threat? Bowser and his predictable goon cast has become extremely boring. Nintendo says that gameplay trumps story, but why not have both? Not even trying to do even a minimal new story is really just a show of laziness. You're more creative than that, and you're certainly more creative than spooning water into a pitcher!



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