Confessions of a serial Tsundokuist

Hello, my name is JP and I’m a serial of Tsundokuist. What the heck is that? Glad you asked. From our good friends at Wikipedia:

Tsundoku (Japanese: 積ん読) is acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them.

I read a quote somewhere, sometime ago that one of the greatest treasures of life if a pile of unread books. Oh I agree! When I was a child, I read constantly and adored it. From my mid-teens until my mid thirties, I read mostly “study” stuff. Self help, self improvement, philosophy, religion, with the occasional smut um er, I mean romance novel thrown in for good measure. I enjoyed reading for knowledge but I had forgotten the pure delight of reading just for the fun of it.

Fandango’s Provocative Question # 12

To Truth or Not to Truth that is Fandango’s Provocative Question

“How do you feel about people who always seem to exaggerate when relating a story? Do you equate embellishment with lying? As a blogger, when, if ever, is stretching the truth, other than when writing fiction, permissible?”

Hmmmm, well, to quote Geoff Chaucer (as played by Paul Bettany in A Knights Tale) “I’m a writer, it’s what I do, I give the truth scope.” I think to one degree or another most people “exaggerate” when relating a story. How much of that is intentional and how much is relevant to their particular memory, I would not presume to say. It’s all about the story.  To me it will always be about the story. “Exaggerations” that do not alter the intent of a story don’t bother me. They don’t change the basic truth.

Just Jot it January # 31

For the final January Jot, Lindaghall.com give us this beauty:

Your prompt for JusJoJan 2019, January 31st is “your favorite thing/part/blog post of last year or last month.” Talk about what you did or discovered that gave you happiness and/or success. Have fun!

Will without a doubt my favorite part of the past year (2018) was October and November which I spent traveling various countries including China, Taiwan, Japan and New Zealand. It was a wonderful and exciting time so much beauty, so much excitement and genuine delight. You can check my posts (which I still writing by the way) tagged travel but here’s a link to the most recent and certainly one of my favorites.  Wide Eyed Wanderings — Queenstown Gardens, New Zealand

Share Your World

Melanie over at Sparks from a Combustible Mind offers up some insightful questions this week. I don’t do the Share Your World all the time because, like Kristian, I want this blog to be more about my writing than about me but hey, sometimes Melanie’s questions are just irresistible.

Just Jot it January # 25 – Balance

 

Today’s Just Jot it January essay brought to you by Lindaghill.com

Today’s prompt thunk up by, oh wait, its ME!!! — Balance

Balance –

(n) – a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions
(v) – to offset or compare the value of (one thing) with another

Fandango’s Provocative Question # 10

Fandango has posed another thought provoking question for us this week.

“What is more important to you, doing the right thing or doing things right?”

I’m more of a feeler than a thinker and although I do weigh consequences, I always try to do the right thing. Doing things the “right way” not so much. It is the nature of provocative questions to be matters of opinion. What is right? What is wrong? What is the correct way? What is my way? Is there an only way? I’m one of those people who doesn’t believe in absolutes because complete truth is unknowable.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday – television

Our Just Jot it January and Stream of Consciousness Saturday combo prompt is: television.  Brought to us by lindaghill.com. Pop on over and check out the responses, I know I’m going to.

Hmmm, I don’t quite know what to say about “television.” You see, I’m one of those people, the uninformed, the not-in-the-know, you know those people who haven’t heard about the latest “orange haired clown” fiasco until I either bump across it while searching the internet or somebody mentions it in a blog. I have no idea what “game of thrones” or the latest “naked and afraid” (is there really a show named that? *insert shaking head*) stories are. These are words I have heard from people trying (in vain) to communicate with me. I just don’t watch TV. The last cooking show I watched was “The Galloping Gourmet”, go look it up, yeah it’s been that long and yeah, I’m still pissed off about Firefly.

Fandango’s Provocative Question # 9 – part 2

Fandango has another whopper for us this week. I already answered the first part of this but I thought I’d answer the part 2 too (pun intended).

“As a blogger, do you enjoy ‘virtual relationships’? Do you consider them to be real?”

Yes, I enjoy ‘virtual relationships’ in fact I like them better than most IRL relationships. While it is true that not every virtual relationship is all encompassing, most people don’t know everything about me; the same is true of my interpersonal relationships. Frankly there’s only one person who really knows all of me and he’s sitting across the table.

Virtual relationships take on a special meaning for an introvert, even an extroverted introvert such as I (yes there is such a thing). What makes on-line (I’m just going to use that instead of virtual all the time) relationships special for me is simple expedience. They are available whenever I need them to be and they can be as deep or as shallow as I want them to be. That makes them very important and very real.

We have things in common, things we share. We have differences wide and varied that make for fascinating and illuminating discussions. I look forward to this prompt every week partly because I love reading everybody’s opinion. I have on-line a much more diverse demographic than I would ever have in person.

So, yeah, I like virtual relationship and they’re as real as anything else in this wacky world of ours. Do NOT get me started on the “Matrix” theory.

Til next time ~Peace ~JPP

 

 

Spoonie Saturday – Fandango’s Provocative Question # 9

Fandango’s got a couple of whoppers in the proverbial “provocative questions” hopper this week. Since this first one fits in nicely with my current “Spoonie Saturday” theme, hang on to your seats. Here we go.

What are you struggling with the most right now?

I can sum up my main struggle in one word “biopsy.” Now don’t be concerned or waste your sympathy on me. It’s OK, this isn’t even unusual, more’s the pity. I’m not struggling with the aspects most people struggle with. I’m not struggling with the idea of a debilitating illness, already got those. I’m not afraid of the invasive procedure or the anesthetics, I’ve had two knees replace for pete’s sake. I’m not even struggling with the concept that this could be deadly, death and I are old friends; but that’s for another story. No, what I’m struggling with is the bloody INCONVENIENCE of the whole thing.

Fandango’s Provocative Question # 8

Fandango has another of those wonderful provocative questions this week.

When was the last time you did something for the very first time? What was it that you did?

Hmmm, this is pondersome. I really don’t want to go back to the 50’s when I started walking or even the 70’s when I became a mother, although those were both definitely “firsts.” Every time I think “oh yeah there was the very first time I …” right on the heels of the thought comes the “oh wait, I did something like that before.” So just for the sake of argument and my sanity, I’m going to just go with this.