Who cares to play TJBM game, The Jelly Below Me, #73?

I don’t eat chocolate everyday.

TJBM has a stash of candy from Halloween.

No. No trick-or-treaters up here, therefore, no candy.

TJBM has recovered from the Christmas festivities and is gearing up for New Year’s 2017.

No, I have been getting wasted for some time now and I’m gearing up for New Year and a test after that. Doesn’t it just suck that tests don’t leave you for the holiday?
TJBM is preparing for New Year.

Not so much for the partying aspect. New Years is amateur night. Let ‘em dip their cups in the well without me. I might toast the world with a shot or twoo of dark rum while watching Moscow, Rome, Paris, London and New York ring it in. I’ll express a hope that my home country will come to it’s senses, if I’m awake. My New Year’s preparations are now being done on the boat, getting ready for the post-New Year’s tourist season launch.

TJBM is preparing for a New Year.

A quiet night at home, maybe some bubbly.

TJBM likes quiet nights at home.

Big Time.

TJBM will tell us the brand of their favorite champagne.

Actually like Italian Prosecco brand doesn’t matter..

TJBM has a favorite wine.

I like the wine made from grapes. That one is excellent.

TJBM actually pays attention to the lyrics of songs and their meaning.

That’s maybe something that set me apart from other people. People only listen to the “rhythm” and, in the case of MV, the dance moves. But even then they can only comment on whether the things they see are “good” or “bad”. I guess I’m the only one who gets annoyed when the lyrics and the visual representation in MVs don’t match each other, or when MVs become an excuse to show off singers’ bodies.
TJBM has a surprising pet peeve.

I can stand the ads.
I can stand the buffer.
But when the ads buffer,
I suffer.

TJBM has a favourite character from a book/movie/show/video game/whatever you’re enjoying, and will tell us why s/he likes that character.

I like All characters from the Seinfeld because they make me laugh. Also I like Raymond from Everybody Loves Raymond. TJBM doesn’t like to watch TV and tell us the reason for that.

I don’t like watching TV anymore, just because of one reason: lack of originality. There used to be much more TV can offer me, from interesting shows to great movies and cartoons. Now all I can see, apart from the news and old TV shows, are horrible, even though there are much more channels. TV shows are repetitive with no creative ideas. The movies they show are generic drama and anime sorry @Sneki95, but the anime they show are just horrible. I am better off going to the internet.
TJBM feels that technology is taking over something they used to enjoy.

You are right, 99% of anime is pure, concentrated crap.. But that 1% is really worth watching.

TJAM forgot to leave cookie crumbs.

I didn’t forget. There is a cookie crumb, I just didn’t want to eat it.

translation: Mimi’s TJBM is all yours. I just commented.

Technology taking over something I enjoy. Whoa. Where does one start. But I’ll keep it short and light.

Animation. If you look at older cartoon animation, say, Tom and Jerry, Woody Woodpecker, Disney, early Road Runner, even early Boris and Natasha from the 1940’s to the early 1960’s, the movements are much smoother and more natural, and the color is much, much richer and varied than today’s animation. That’s because they used many more individually hand drawn and colored cels per footage than they do today. I miss that. In comparison, a lot of today’s animated graphics look like a slide show.

It’s too expensive to do all that nowadays, I guess, and the visual quality has suffered a lot because of it. And now there is a lot of CGI and 3D in all fields of animation. Some of it is very good, for what it is, but I like the qualities produced by the old school methods best.

TJBM will tell us where to look for top notch, A-One, primo Ah-Nee-May.

Actually it reads Ah-Nee-Me (“me” in medical)
I’m not an expert of that, but you can do a search for Mad House Studio. At least they care for the quality.
I’m going to wait for our anime expert @Sneki95 to work on that.
TJBM has a better answer for TJAM.

@Espiritus_Corvus I agree. I’m not much of a fan of CGI and 3D either. It looks…..too real, if you ask me. Somewhat not really animated anymore. My favorite cartoons are Betty Boop and Chuck Jones’ cartoons. They were wacky and surreal. I liked the style as well. I die a bit on the inside whenever I see old cartoons like thay being remade in CGI. It just looks uncanny.

As for anime, I know some. I ain’t an expert as Mimi says, but I used to watch them. Look at websites as Animefreak and Animeultima. There are plenty of anime there, and you have both subbed and dubbed. (I recommend subbed). Some studios I know of are studio SHAFT and studio Gainax.

Here are some anime to start from:

FMA Brotherhood: two alchemists brothers did an experiment that went wrong. To fix that, they decide to find the so called Philosopher Stone, that would heal them. There is an older anime version called simply FMA. That one is crap. FMA Brotherhood follows the manga, and is way better.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: a very bizarre and satirical comedy show. The main character is Nozomu, a young man who is tired of life and wants to kill himself. He is stopped by Kagura-chan, an extremely strange girl.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica: a bunch of girls get magical powers and fight the so-called “witches”. It’s way better and darker than it sounds.

Gintama: the biggest, boldest, shameless-est, parody of an anime you will find. Gintama parodies everything that it can, especially Japanese history, culture, and other anime. It is set in an alternate history, where Japan was taken over by aliens, and swords are forbidden to use. Former samurai Gin is now taking any job he can find in order to get money.

One Piece: For pirates. The main character is Monkey D. Luffy (Loofee. You’ll get used to ridiculous English names pretty soon). He wants to become the greatest pirate ever. One of the longest running anime.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: A cult classic, although it’s extremely depressing and dystopian, I have to say.

Some other recommendations: Tengen Troppa Gurren Laggan, Great Teacher Onizuka, Claymore, FLCL/Furikuri, Death Note, Hellsing, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, School Rumble and many others, but I’ll stop here.

Oooh! I wanna watch all of those again now.

TJBM has a hobby/likeness that others around them don’t have, so s/he rarely has a chance to talk about it.

@Sneki95 wow! @Espiritus_Corvus will have a hard time digging through your list. I have heard of some anime but I have never watched them. One Piece is very big in my country, but I’m put off by its lenght. After a while everything gets repetitive.
And @Espiritus_Corvus, if you want a quick look at anime, check out Mad House Studio. They only make standalone anime and their anime are easy to finish like your average movie. Also they don’t do fantasy.
The most obvious thing is my obsession for film-noir. Really, no one knows what it is, let alone liking it. I have to hide my obsession from everyone. Even here it seems like only @Espiritus_Corvus shares the same likeness. I once considered decorate my Facebook profile with film-noir theme, but backed away for fear of being called an alien.
TJBM has another strange obsession.

All paper money needs to be carefully arranged. I always arrange it from the lowest to the highest value, and each paper has to be placed the same way. I get annoyed when someone (my mom) just slams the money in the wallet with no order whatsoever. She doesn’t even bother straightening it up and putting it neatly. I always have to correct it and neatly place the money. I don’t know why I do it, it just bothers me greatly when I see money not arranged properly. I always have to correct it.

I sound like some cheap bastard. I’m not, I’m just that weird. It’s my strange obsession.

TJBM gives money or other good to charity.

I used to. My wife used to complain that I gave too much money away, spent too much time volunteering as a nurse and homeless shelters, etc… LOL. She blamed it on the Catholic schools I went to, the nuns. She was Swedish. I think I was the first Catholic she ever met.

My vacation time was mostly spent in disaster areas at home and abroad. In my latter years as a nurse, I was in research and it was pretty tame, not a lot of action. So when I got called up for a hurricane or earthquake, I was like a dog in heat, man. I loved it. It was a nice combo.

Today my charity is practiced mostly locally. I’ll send eggs or a chicken over to someone who needs to divert their cash in another direction, or help out with the medical people on Dominica. I’ve tutored a couple of kids here and tried to guide them toward university. Not much these days. I miss working disasters bigtime.

@Mimi and Sneki: Thank you very much for the tutorial. I’ll check out your recommendations.

And Sneki, LOL, I do exactly the same thing with paper money. Exactly. It comes from being a cab driver and trying to exchange money quickly, often not in the best of light and often in wadded up bills thrown at me by drunks. If I didn’t keep it organized, I would find 10’s and 20’s on the floor at the end of shift or I would give somebody the wrong change.

TJBM has had a really strange job experience.

My first job at age 17, aside from babysitting, was working at a crab factory in downtown Sacramento. OMG..I lasted 3 weeks. You were given a tub of crab legs on ice and you placed them across a little anvil and had to whack the end of the legs shell off and then pound the whole leg meat out into a tub. If your crab legs came out of their shell broken you were docked pay.

It was a killer on your hands and wrists, the repetitive banging on the tub to the point you could barely use your hands at the end of the day.
On top of this insanity I had the pervey boss that would come by, stand really close behind me breathing down my neck with his face brushing up against the back of my neck and insinuate that if I went out with him he could “arrange” a raise. Gah! 3 weeks of that shit and I just left for lunch one day and never went back. haha

TJBM has walked out on a job before with no regrets.

When I was single I walked out on several jobs for various reasons.

TJBM has a “holiday hangover” unrelated to liquor or drugs.

I have a hangover from school. Some mean tongues will call it “procrastination”. It involves a lot of sleeping.
Yeah, I know, I’ll get back on track soon, just let me rest a bit.

TJBM can sleep for a very long time, sometimes even for a whole day.

I never sleep during the day unless I am sick but can sleep 10 hours at night, like last night, if I am really tired.

TJBM has a dentist appt. today.

I don’t remember the last time I met her…
TJBM saw a drama and was able to see things in an objective viewpoint Just saw a video on Facebook. Apparently some couple broke up and they decided to make a mess all over the place just to accuse each other. Without going into much detail, I can see that the guy is a bully and the girl is a wimp, and the whole mess could have been prevented if the two had just known how to shut the fuck up.

If the story is good, I get into it, which means I’m not being objective. Objective analysis comes later, if the film was worth it. I just saw The Lake House (2006). It was a Hollywood remake of the Korean Il Mare (2000). It stuck with me for a few days and I’ve since taken it apart. It was a good film. Only fair acting by the male lead, but a good female lead and great writing. But I can’t enjoy a film if I’m analysing it while I watch it. If the story is good, I put myself into the story.

TJBM is watching vids right now.

No, I am fluthering for a few more minutes then need to launch. Have a dentist appt. and a ton of grocery shopping to do for my dinner tomorrow night.

TJBM has bitten off more than they can chew this week.

Not really. It’s an easy week. I’ve going out with friends for dinner tonight. This is college football bowl season so that schedule must be checked before anything else. ;)

TJBM has or will have to clean out a closet due to Christmas gifts and/or purchases.

Nope. I only got a book for Christmas.

TJBM understands what Obamacare is.

Yes. It’s the best compromise the Democrats could come up with to get obstructionist Republicans to let it pass through Congress.

TJBM is optimistic about their future.

No but hey, live in the moment and don’t borrow trouble, it’ll find you all by itself. haha

TJBM is taller than a grasshopper but shorter than a Giraffe.

That about says it, though I believe I’m more on the grasshopper side.

TJBM is looking for a friend who has apparently just joined Fluther.

Then you’re not looking for me. But I’ll still be your friend, if you’d like.

TJBM would like to be friends with some other jellies.

I AM friends with the other Jellies!

TJBM has phone numbers for _____ Jellies (fill in the blank with a number.)

One jelly, so far.

TJBM remembers when I posted my phone number for about 2 minutes about 7 years ago I spoke with 3 or 4 other jellies Fun night. haha

Hey! What was the full story?
TJBM knows the full story.

Not me.

TJBM knows the story.

Yes, it was a voice recording Q. and I couldn’t get the recording link to work so I just went all out and posted my phone number for about 2 minutes haha

TJBM has a distinctive voice.

You just describe me. I have a strangely masculine voice. My parents are annoyed by it unsuprisingly, my friends just have to get used to it, some other people are intrigued by it. I was able to fool people sometimes about my age and gender when talking on the phone. Adi seemed like the only one who appreciated my voice, saying that it sounded like a librarian’s.
TJBM shared something personal and regret it.

Not her but in real life yes.

TJBM has something good in the oven right now.

I ate it an hour ago.
TJBM thinks the simple game of TJBM has evolved into something more than just a true/false q&a. To me it has turned into a casual thread where we share random life stories and experience. Like some sort of chatroom but less time constraints.

Yes, it’s one of my favorites, light and fluffy is good, can’t be serious all the time, besides, in the grand scheme of things nothing is all that serious right? :-)

TJBM tries to keep a grand scheme attitude.

LOL. Grand scheme. I keep a grand nearby me at all times. No ATM within many miles.

@Mimishu1995 Many men, including myself, find Contralto voices in women very… er…. extremely attractive. And I’m sure, if you’re getting any heat, it’s mostly from other women. In men, I think it sets off something very primal, subliminal in them that even they themselves don’t understand. LOL.

Yes, TJBM has evolved into a sharing of short, personal vignettes and it is much more interesting now. The same with Word for the Day, which has evolved into a more interesting tautology game. Both are more fun and interesting than they used to be. I think this evolution should be described in the details of the next new threads so people get it right away.

TJBM thinks TJBM has evolved for the better.

I have, for sure. Just need to remember that knowledge without application is…useless. haha

TJBM is a cerebral type, an information hound, a walking trivia dictionary.

My nickname in 5th grade was Omnibus. we were such nerds

.
.
TJBM has considered running for political office.

I actually did think about it seriously at one time. Toward the end of my time in Sweden, I became very interested in small town American politics and when we moved to a small town in Florida, I became very active in it’s historical association. I dug up stuff on that town that was both interesting and sometimes embarrassing, but the lady who ran the show loved all of it. We shared the same vision for the future of our town.

She was a city councilwoman and began grooming me for office by appointing me to the city building code application review board—where you either make lots of friends, or lots of enemies. It is a test of one’s honesty and tenacity. People will sometimes do awfully strange things to get an out-of-code structure or right-of-way approved or grandfathered in.

I liked it and would have loved to run for higher offices, but my job took most of my time, so when my tenure was up, I had to step down. It woud have been fun and interesting in retirement, though.

TJBM has done a little politicking.

Not really, unless you count my animal activist days way back when.
I’d be the comedienne politician, everything would be fodder for a joke.

TJBM just had someone bring them cake! OMG…will this sugar orgy ever end? lol

No cake for me. ¦: > (

TJBM will tell us the last time they ate lamb.

Uh….I think it was in November, on my patron day (a family feast). I just tried it, I never was really into lamb meat. too salty and it kind of reeks. Maybe it’s just that one way it’s prepared.

TJBM loves pork meat.

and by the way, I love this thread too, I learnt quite a lot here.

I do. Roast pork and especially pork filet. They do pork a million different ways down here, very interesting and different than in the U.S. and Europe. I prefer beef above all meats—a good Porterhouse steak, or a big, thick filet mignon—but a good, tender entrecôte will cost over a hundred dollars in a restaurant here. These small islands cannot afford to use their limited pasture land for raising cattle, so beef is usually imported and the quality beef is very expensive. So, it’s all about pork an chicken.

TJBM will describe the last cake they ate.

I think it was spice cake with purple icing, it has been a while.
It has also been a while since I played TJBM.

TJBM sometime in their life thought they could fly, and will tell us about it.

I have had a few situations where I would think I suddenly started levitating. It would happen as I’m lying in the bed, and just as I’m about to fall asleep, I would get a feel my body just lifted up and I was floating. I’d open my eyes and find myself in the bed, with my heart beating, and a feel that I fell down from some higher place. Later on, I accidentally read that feeling of levitating is the first stage of astral projection, and if you open you eyes, the process stops, leaving you with a fell as if your body fell from somewhere. I never tried projecting on purpose, and I haven’t had that feel for at least ten years, so I guess I lost my chances of seeing the other side. Still, it’s a trippy feel, sudden and scary.

TJBM believes me when I say I never tried drugs.

(Busy laughing)

Yes I do, Sneki. LOL.

I got a Superman cape for my 5th Christmas. While everyone was busy opening their presents in the livingroom, I put donned the cape and jumped from the top of the barn. It resulted in a harried ride to the hospital with me snuggled in my desperate mother’s arms while my father drove like a madman, but everything was OK. Mild concussion.

TJBM can remember the best gift they ever received.

I do. My family suffered an exceptionally rough Christmas one year. We couldn’t afford anything. We decided to do secret Santa, and draw names. Each of us would purchase one gift with a high limit of five dollars.
My baby brother drew my name. I was a teen, and he knew I wanted my own car awful bad. He got me a Hot Wheels car.
His thoughtful choice still makes me teary.

TJBM needs to get a new something. Please describe.

Ah, man. That was a really sweet story, Patty.

I need to get 10 new life vests with water-activated inflation, strobes and local EPIRB for the boat. The money for this is being earned by said boat at this very moment.

TJBM has a hole they thow money in.

Yeah, the hole of my wallet.
@Sneki95 tell the truth!
TJBM has a random story to share.

Sneki’s TJBM reminded me of a story.

Back in the mid- to late-sixties when hipsters were first experimenting with LSD, the works of Salvador Dali became extremely popular. The buzz was that he was into halucinogens as far back as the twenties—he had to have been to come up with all those crazy visuals, right?

So, the Museum of Modern Art in NYC assembled a humongous show and got the almost-forgotten artist to fly in from Spain for the show’s opening. There was this huge crowd of young people waiting for the arrival of their God at Kennedy International Airport when he arrived. Reporters crowded the tarmac. As soon as Dali disembarked from the plane, one reporter accosted him and excitedly asked, “Señor Dali, do you do drugs?”

Dali looked confused for a second, then peered down at the reporter with distain as if he were the lowest Spanish peasant on earth and said, “Drugs? I AM drugs!”

Dali’s fan base tripled.

TJBM knows what it means if a man has long fingernails on one hand and short, well groomed fingernails on the other. (It’s much more common than people think.)

It means they can only afford half a manicure?
Do tell.

TJBM can afford a whole manicure, but usually gets beer instead.

<Stand up and give @Espiritus_Corvus a clap>
I can afford neither, and I don’t like them either.
TJBM is waiting for TJATJAM’s answer.

I’m waiting for Strauss to show up. He should know.

Go ahead. Speculate while we wait.

TJBM is waiting for the big revelation :)

Does it mean they are a guitar player and use their long nails for a’ pickin’ and a’grinnin’? haha

TJBM will tell us their favorite breed/color of horse. We have an adopted wild mustang, an appaloosa and 2 Quarter horse paints here.

Coloma gets the big Prize!!!! It usually means that they are probably acoustic guitar players, and if both hands are well manicured, successful acoustic guitar players—usually concert-level classical artists. Nice one, Sherlock!

That’s a hard choice. I love Paints and Apaloosas, but they have a rep for being a bit crazy, don’t they? I also love a big, beautiful buckskin with their dark manes and tails against ther light tan coats. Beautiful.

TJBM has a certain type of horse they like.

I’ve always liked Morgans and love the stunning Cleveland Bays.

TJBM is gearing up for an eventful afternoon.

Thank you for the applaus, Mimi

Oh that? Why didn’t I think about it? I’m such a dork.
I’m gearing up for an evenful next week. First I have to attend that yearbook photo taking, the preparation process of which has sadly turned into a popularity contest. Then my test just after that. Actually I’m more looking for the test than the yearbook thing, but maybe it could turn out good, who knows?
TJBM has nothing to do.

Actually, not true. I have to go to Wichita to visit a family member who is in the hospital. It’s just weird having a family member this close.

TJBM has no family members within hundreds of miles.

False, my daughter lives about 35 miles from me.

TJBM has had some of their answers disappear when they hit the “Answer” button this morning.

What? Did someone post something above me?

TJBM has unusual eyes.

I’m a baby blue eyes, not unusual, I have always thought deep brown eyes are prettier. Blue eyes get all watery and faded as you get older.

TJBM has green eyes.

As someone with brown eyes, I thank for the compliment. :)

Depends on my wardrobe. Sometimes my eyes seem blue, other times more green. When I’m mad they apparently get kind of silvery/metallic looking.

TJBM owns more than 1 grey sweater.

Haha, @BellaB…mettalic eyes.
Actually I own 2 gray sweaters. One is a pull over and the other is more of a jacket with pretty beadwork.

TJBM needs to get busy and start slicing and dicing for a dinner party gig tonight.

Nope. Just chillin’ out at home tonight.

@Dutchess_III TJBM?

I super suck! Again!

TJBM keeps forgetting to put their TJBM statement in, and they super suck.

Not me, man!
TJBM has sung professionally.

Not me, man!

TJBM is satisfied with his/her looks.

Yeah. I’ve come to terms with the aging process. I’ve been told that I have aged well, which helps. I look at old pictures and I can see now that I was a pretty good looking guy. I didn’t think so at the time, which is probably a good thing.

TJBM has acted, danced or sung on stage either in a professional or amateur capacity and will tell us ALL about it.

All the above. I took dance lessons as a small child, and performed in one public recital before quitting.
I performed a bit part in a hs play, as a feisty old lady.
In Church I once read poetry I wrote followed by a song. Stage fright took my song away, and not one sound came out. The pianist didn’t stop playing, and we went through the entire song with me silent as death, hoping my voice would jump in somewhere. The congregation was one big look of encouragment, and. I received great applause, and I never tried that again.

TJBM is snacking on biscuits and jelly right now.

@Patty_Melt Welcome! You forgot to ask the jelly below you a question! haha

No, I’m not. I ate at Hardee’s for the first time in AGES. That was at about 3:00.

TJBM was told she / he looks like someone else.

Someone once told me that I looked like Elliot Gould, or Jim Croce.

TJBM is a fashion professional

There is a reason people complain and give me advice about my appearance.
TJBM thought they were great at something then found out they aren’t.

@Coloma, @Patty_Melt said in their profile that they are a former member :)

I’ve always had a good understanding of my strengths.
TJBM has seen a natural disaster from much too close.

Plenty. Cat 5 Andrew, 1992, Various Mississippi flood disasters throughout the 1990’s, numerous tornados in the Midwest. Cat 4 Opal 1995. Cat 4 Fran, 1996. Cat 4 Floyd, 1999. Cat 5 Isabel 2003. Cat 4 Georges, 2008. Haitian Earthquake, 2010. I was a trauma nurse on a DMAT team. Loved it and miss it very much.

^TJBM

TJBM notices that we forget TJBM so often.

Oops. I was recalling all that and forgot.

TJBM will tell us when they will be going back to school/work.

Next Tuesday. These days I only have one course left. The thing to worry about more is the apprenticeship.
TJBM is going back to school/work soon.

I’m already back on the farm. I’ll be doing work on the boat tomorrow.

TJBM is going back to school/work soon.

Ha! I’m off from school until the 9th!
But I’ll have some good weather to do some long-neglected work in the yard!

TJBM will soon tend to something that they have been neglecting.

Well, I guess it’s just you and I now, Strauss.

I’ve got to do some cosmetic work on the boat, replace a few lines, do the decks. Make ‘er purdy for the season.

TJBM missed the question about what it means when a guy has long fingernails on one hand and short nails on the other.

I saw it but didn’t get the time to answer until just not. Thanks, Crow!
It usually means that he plays guitar. It usually goes with these weird callouses at the end of the fingertips on the hand with the short nails. These callouses are a result of pressing the strings against the fretboard of a guitar. The nails on this hand (usually the left, but not always) are short to prevent interference with a tight hold on the strings against the fretboard. That is the most important reason nails on one hand are shorter than the other. As mentioned above, the nails on the other hand (usually the right) may be used as picks on the strings, especially if the guitarist is a classical performer. But usually they end up looking like this.

TJBM is still up?

I’m here.
TJBM wakes up with an intention to wait for New Year. My New Year will come earlier than yours. I’m waiting now.

Happy New Year @Mimishu1995 . My friends in Australia say 2017 is going well so far.

TJBM has New Years Day plans.

I have planes to celebrate the new Year with my friend and the girls from college. We are going to the city on the concert.

TJBM is excited about the celebration.

Excited is probably too strongly-worded. I’m looking forward to seeing friends, but I’m helping cook the meal and just found out my friend wants me to decorate her dining room while I’m cooking. pfffffffft

TJBM is wearing comfy clothing right now.

Salmon Gortex cargo short-sleeved shirt and Navy cargo shorts, barefoot.. Work clothes. Lotsa pockets.

TJBM knows something about radio electronics.

A little. My Dad was an EE.

TJBM does not like coffee.

That is true, but I love the smell.

TJBM has been painting something.

The “thing” is an “active” life in water colors; the “active” life is my dachshund and she keeps shaking off the water colors.

TJBM prefers monochromes

I like monochrome colors but love all color. I just decorated my new little house recently and did my bedroom in bright red & turquoise. It turned out spectacular! I then found the most perfect painting of a giant red flower with abstract turquoise highlights to go over my bed it is stunning!

I have another large like 4.5×4.5 abstract acrylic painting with monochrome blues, greens and turquoises, an oceanic theme and I could look into those muting colors all day.

TJBM loves to decorate and has a designing eye.

I used to. My energy doesn’t allow me to get too involved anymore.
TJBM wears fuzzy yellow underpants.

LOL. Yeah, that would be cute. Made ‘em from my ex-wife’s house slippers! Cool, huh? (Date runs away screaming)

TJBM has had the world’s worst date and will tell us about it.

LMAO! Well Crow, you just reminded me of a guy I was starting to kinda get into about 8 years ago or so when, after a few dates, he told me about his passion for wearing womens panties etc. Sorry, have fun, but nope, that’s not gonna work for me, I have no desire to watch my man Tinker Belling about in matching bra and panty sets, I would feel inferior in my own lingerie. haha

TJBM s enjoying some delicious leftovers.

Holding off as we’re supposed to leave on our little New Year’s adventure in about 45 minutes. If I’m going to have junk food I want to really really enjoy it by being super-hungry (which I am right now after my swimming and walking).

TJBM likes to look good when seeing people from their past.

I like to look nice but have never been too concerned with impressing people. Not a class reunion type at all. Most of the people from my past are either still in it or long gone by choice. haha

TJBM loves to watch movies on stormy days.

Indeed I do.
TJBM watches stormy movies on love days.

Uh, uh. I watch her on love days.

Walk for me, baby; (go for it now)
Let’s lose our minds and go crazy crazy
Let’s get out and go fucking crazy
............Ah ya ya ya ya!
I Keep on hopin’, we’ll eat cake by the ocean
.
Red velvet, vanilla, chocolate in my life
Funfetti, I’m ready; I need it every night
Red velvet, vanilla, chocolate in my life
..............Ah ya ya ya ya!
I keep on hopin’ we’ll eat cake by the ocean

TJBM has redicscovered Club Music.

Does just now count?
That was an unusual surprise.
TJBM enjoys surprises.

I do, who doesn’t?

TJBM has furry friends waiting for dinner.

The little girldog is snoozing out after an adventure of walking/transitting and eating.

TJBM has completed their NYE traditions.

No tradition here. The reall New Year tradition will begin in a month. I’m waiting for the real New Year right now.
TJBM knows what I’m talking about.

I believe so, Mimi. Is that Tet?

TJBM is going to sleep right at 0005 tonight.

Only 9:10 in CA. I am never going to make it. I will wake up in the New Year. haha

TJBM is going to miss midnight.

Today yeah.
@Coloma that’s understandable for someone your age. My family has a tradition of not sleeping until it’s midnight at New Year to watch the fireworks. But this year the government has decided not to do fireworks because of the recent economic problem. Wonder how we are going to do then…
@Espiritus_Corvus that’s right. I don’t use “Tet” often anymore after I saw how many people roll their eyes in confusion. But seems like saying “New Year” gets people confuse the American New Year and Tet.
TJBM is watching the fireworks.

No fireworks here, they are illegal in my county due to the fire danger.
@Mimishu1995 I did my new Years party thing last night but yes, I am too old for 2 nights of fun in a row. lol

TJBM will spontaneously combust at midnight.

Nope.
TJBM feels hopeful about 2017.

Patty Melt…Probably should have ended that sentence with an interrobang for me. On the greater and lesser levels, will be dealing with life with each day. Will see how the path leads; my choices will always be for positive and upwards spiral.

TJBM probably celebrated with some discretion last evening and is not hung over…hopefully

Correct. I have a lot of New Year’s Eves under my belt. And a propensity for gout. Getiing shitfaced at Midnight is not my idea of a good time.

TJBM woke up to beautiful sunshine.

No, 5:46 AM and it’s still dark. The dog needs to go out…I’ll be going back to bed when she’s comes back in.

TJBM thinks the New Year Celebration should be about hope.

Of course, because no one knows what the future will brings and it doesn’t hurt to hope for the best.
TJBM found their optimism thrive again during New Year, even if it’s just momentary.

My thoughts on this are, since we can’t predict the future, we have a choice in how we view it. It just makes sense to me to always remain optimistic. It is difficult to do at times because of the facts we must face, but fate is fickle and can take us either way. It is always best to maintain a positve attitude. With a positive attitude you are able to see opportunities for positive change that you can’t see if you are pessimistic.

TJBM was being introspective last night.

I didn’t have much time for introspection due to all the hype and celebration.

TJBM woke up very late this “morning.”

No. The animal’s calendars have no respect for the Holidays. They must be fed, or they will deprive one of sleep anyway. I awoke at the same time I do everyday. I’ll get a nice, pleasant nap later.

TJBM is a great believer in the concept of “siesta.”

True. In fact, that’s what keep me active throughout my life! Without a nap I can’t survive. My friends think I’m being lazy but it’s just the way my body works.
TJBM does something that others roll their eyes but is crutial to them.

That list is long, Mimi. My wife of twenty years thought the same thing about my naps. She never understood and rolling her eyes was the least of it. She was a Swede with their typical teutonic work ethic. It was the height of laziness in her opinion. Naps were for old men.

Spell check is down again

TJBM does something that others roll their eyes about, but it is crucial to them.

Hmmm…I can’t think of any thing that merits eye rolling but I am quirky about being around sick people. If you have a cold stay away from me until you are well. Oh, I still, once in awhile, cause my daughter to roll her eyes and sarcastically say ” yes, mother” if I slip into mothering mode and, for instance, tell her to drive carefully or ask if she has a jacket with her. haha

TJBM likes to wash their face with cold water in the morning.

That is absolutely necessary to the waking up process in this heat and humidity. But using cold water is still no guarantee you’ll ever dry off afterwards even with aggressive towling.

TJBM has a morning ritual.

Getout of my warm bed and turn on the heat and coffee pot then run back to bed for 15 minutes while the house warms up and the coffee brews. Then turn on the computer, pour a cup of coffee and check emails, voicemails and fluther.

TJBM is a coffee ho.

Not anymore I use to drink 30 to 36 cups a day. Now 4 maybe 6 cups. Doctor would kid me about my kidneys and pulse, which was always 68 to 75. That was 40 yearsago

TJBM has changed an eating habit recently

@Tropical_Willie 30–36 cups….oh-my-god….I’m surprised you didn’t just launch into orbit. lol

TJBM has to go to the bathroom because they are still drinking coffee. haha

No. Been there, done that already.

Man, @Tropical_Willie, I though I was bad. Probably the worst coffee abuse I ever got into was when I used to do 4 espressos back to back very quickly like shots, then launch onto a municipal bike trail that was an exact 75 mile loop. Not smart, but a lot of fun. Now, it’s a couple or 3 cups of strong Cuban cafe con leches in the morning, then maybe a couple of more with pastry or an open sandwich at around 4pm. I think I have it under control now.

TJBM goes back to their grind tomorrow morning.

Sadly, that is false. Hoping for something good after the first quarter.

TJBM parades around in men’s clothes.

No, I find boxer shorts to be so shapeless. lol

TJBM is enjoying a relaxing New Years Day.

Yuh I am. Waiting for the bacon pan to clear so I can make a home made egg McMuffin.

TJBM makes home made egg McMuffins.

Um this here TMBY shifted to a New Atkins sort of lifestyle about four months ago. Dropping the high-glycemic carbohydrates and focusing on the quality low-glycemic vegetables, moderate meats/fish/cheese and the occasional serving of walnuts/almonds/pecans…went from a borderline 36—>37 pant size to a sorta under size 34. So the Egg (plus real cheese and Canadian bacon) sounds good…the McMuffin..not so much.

That said, TJBM may, or may not. be an ova-lacto-carno-vegetarian 8~) Or some part(s) thereof

No I’m not. Sure, I love a vegetarian meal once in a while, but I just can’t eat like that everyday :(
TJBM has a unique meal at home.

On this modified New Atkins, I’d consider a chunk of cheese, broccoli and cauliflower flowerets and some mayonnaise with a bottle of SodaStream-fizzed water pretty damned unique…

The TJBM, however, loves a good Rodizio Grill with all those great slabs of meat and sausages and wait staff with knives and skewers and stuff…

Oh yes, we have a Brazilian BBQ not far away here, it is amazing!

TJBM just ate the last of the holiday sweets.Whew…all clear for Jan.2.

Not even close but I’m ok. I’m more of a sweet hoarder than a sweet eater. I can take a week to finish a chocolate bar. You’ll have to hide the chips and popcorn from me.

TJBM has a tryptophan hangover.

Nope. I forwent the turkey (and the ham due to a propensity for gout) and pigged out on the lamb and vegetable dishes.

TJBM is feeling pretty damn good right now.

Absolutely great! Delicious coffee, bowl of my own Blend v7 in a Charatan Acorn, Jessie J playing Tequia Moon, last day of a four day-long weekend…yah, I am content—not complacent by any stretch—I feel at peace.

My wish for the TJBM and for all TJsBM is to be at peace…

Thanks. Same to you too.
TJBM has another wish.

That my country will return from this period of insanity.

TJBM has another wish.

I wish people would realize that if it quacks like a duck…

TJBM knows what I mean.

…..it’s blowing the duck call whistle?

TJBM will recommend us his/her favourite band.

So many great aggregations from which to chose…
Well, the only Pandora station, of the eighteen or so I’ve programmed that is seeded with the group’s name happens to be the “first among equals”

The Rippingtons

TJBM will name his or her favorite jazz guitarist, other than Russ Freeman…

I know he’s not usually considered a jazzman, but the late, great Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead fame had some extremely hot licks.

TJBM knows what I mean.

Well, give that Garcia was just a very eclectic player and worked with the likes of Ornette Coleman and Howard Wales…one wonders if Garcia should be called an accomplished studio guitarist who moonlighted with the Dead or the co-founder of the Dead who moonlighted as a studio guitarist?

TJBM, however, will have some thoughts on his or her favorite Prince alto saxophonist.

No. The word guitarist conjured for me a desire to listen to Santana.
TJBM has seen Santana live and up close.

Who is Santana? A female Santa? Yeah I’ve seen lots of women dressing like Santa. They are friendly and helpful most of the time.
TJBM still sees Christmas decoration recently.

LMAO. Santana

https://m.youtube.com/results?q=santana&sm=1
This is a Santana concert. He is a guitar god.
I still see Christmas decorations because I’m not quite finished taking mine down.

TJBM has freckles.

Not a one, and so jealous of childhood friends who had them.

TJBM likes the socks they are wearing – and will describe them.

I’ve seen Santana, The Dead and many other greats. Damn, I’m gettin’ old. haha

Yes, I am wearing two pairs of socks right now, The inside pair are black and white striped and the outside pair are gray with pink heels and toes.

TJBM has extra fingers and toes.

Nope. Ten and ten.

@Mimishu1995 Oye como va, Chica?. What TW above linked you to was Later Santana. Bah!

THIS IS SANTANA, his complete second LP, Abraxas. It’s a fusion jazz, blues, salsa, rock, driven hard by Latin percussion and tribal beats with Carlos Santana’s piercing and often haunting Gibson SGs guitar hovering high above. He weilded that guitar on stage like a Viking warrior with a battle ax. In 1970, when this album ignited the FM airwaves, most people outside of the Mission District and the Filmore Auditorium in San Francisco had never heard anything like it.

I think you’ll also like his first LP, Santana, as well.

TJBM will tell us their favorite Santana cut and any memories connected to it..

So many to choose from…I can’t decide.

My favorite Santana memory would have to be seeing him perform from backstage in Dallas in 1982.

TJBM will share a memorable experience.

Nothing comes to mind right now…
Maybe my time here is something to remember.
@Espiritus_Corvus so that was an artist? Well at least I got a joke out of his name :)
@Patty_Melt I learned at school that Brits have to wrap up the decoration before New Year because keeping them could cause bad luck. Don’t know if it applies to America.
TJBM is so old they remember bands from long long ago.

Yes. I don’t consider myself really. really old, but I started young.

When I was in 8th grade, about 12 or 13 years old, the Rolling Stones played in a small professional softball field in a town just one orange orchard north of mine in Florida. Professional Softball. LOL. Real old-timey, Deep South, small town, fried-green-tomatoes stuff.

The Stones were a huge international sensation at the time and I could never figure out how they got stuck playing that dinky, hicksville venue. They were in the middle of their first American tour and they had been playing in big cities like NYC, Philadelphia, Toronto, Chicago, San Franciso, etc. But they came and the hype was huge. I think tickets cost around $5 and I didn’t have it. But I knew that softball field and I knew right where to jump the fence. I got in and saw my first ever big time rock concert. LOL

A couple of years later, I read that Mick Jagger had written the song “Satisfaction” in the hotel in our town the night before the concert. It was so strange. They didn’t even play in my town. They played in an even smaller town just north of us where the softball field was. Maybe it was a scheduled break for the band after playing all those big cities. We all certainly appreciated them stopping by, though.

That summer, I was sent to visit my cousins who lived just north of San Francisco. My Aunt wouldn’t let my two female cousins go to the Beatles concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco unless they took me along. LOL. I’m actually laughing while I write this. I think my Aunt thought it was an agricultural show or something. I had a great time at the concert and in what had just become the hippest city in the US..

I must have been a pretty cool kid, because two years later those same cousins took me to the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and I saw bands and performances that totally blow my mind to this day.

TJBM has had a conert or music experience they would like to share.

Wow! I have nothing to compare to that.
I had a boyfriend when I was in my teens who would communicate with me entirely in popular song titles and well known song phrases. It was challenging, fun, and a little romantic.

TJBM has a past romantic experience to share.

No romantic adventures, thanks, but one of my favorite music related memories happened in 1982 at the Kerrville Folk Festival. I was sitting backstage with Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary) and legendary bluesman Dave Van Ronk, listening to them talk about what it was like in “The Village” (Greenwich Village in New York City) in the 1960’s, when “Bobby ” Dylan arrived on the scene.

TJBM knows what the future holds.

No, for the best I’m sure. If we knew what the future held we’d either be ecstatic or put a bulet between our eyes. lol

One of my most memorable concert events was Led Zeppelin at Oakland Colosseum circa 1976. Oh what a day on the green.

TJBM slept an astounding 11.5 hours last night. I must have been dead for awhile, I never sleep that long. haha

Somewhere between six and seven.
TJBM has an ice fishing trip planned.

Haven’t been ice fishing in oh, about 55 years, so, don’t think so.

TJBM is looking forward to some new projects this year.

I am looking forward to planting my little Xmas tree and starting some pots of my 20 year cultivated morning glory seeds. Always a surprise waiting to see what colors and patterns show up. :-)

TJBM likes hybridized plants.

I like flowers but don’t like to fool with them.

TJBM has tried to catch animals on the water other than fish…........alligators, snakes, etc.

No alligators, yet, but frogs, snakes, turtles, snails, and when I was a little girl I kept looking for some mysterious little creature. I had no particular thing in mind. I just kept feeling there was something cool I hadn’t yet discovered.

TJBM wants to or has discovered something completely new.

In the past 24 hours I’ve discovered that Hunter S. Thompson was abandoned and stranded by Rolling Stone Magazine editor/publisher Jann Wenner in the chaos of Vietnam during the last days of the fall of Saigon without press credentials and as an American civilian without portfolio while the NVA were taking the city and he almost didn’t make it out. And that Rolling Stone Magazine didn’t publish his reports of those days until ten years later and not until heavily editing out Thompson’s diatribes against Wenner. LOL. I’m trying to find his reports of those days on the net right now.

I found the combined NCCIC/FBI report on the investigation into the Russian hacking of the US presidential election which was released on 29 December.

That Asians suffer the least lactose intolerance of all the races at around 10%, and Jews suffer the most at around 75%.

That it is now believed that Neanderthals buried their dead and some clans were canabalistic.

I found out that doctors have been prescribing Lithium for depression and bipolar disorder for decades, but didn’t understand how it worked on a molecular level until just recently.

TJBM wants to, or has discovered something new.

^^ Oh, yeah. I also discovered there is an island off India about the size of Manhattan in the Bay of Bengal with anywhere from a few dozen to a couple of hundred prehistoric people living on it. They are very hostile to outsiders and scientists believe they’ve been there for 60,000 years. But nobody has been able to approach them.

There are a few shipwrecks on the shore an salvagers have lost there lives trying to get to them. The Indian government gave up on trying to contact these people and has thrown a 3-mile protective no-go zone around the island. The forest canopy on the island is so thick that aircraft and satellite photography can’t penetrate it.

Nobody knows anything about these people other than they have lived alone and detatched from the rest of the world for thousands of years. These people are appropriately called the Sentinalese and the name of the place is North Sentinal Island.

^ Wow…super cool! Yes, I was just reading today about a previously unknown and never before contacted remote tribe of people in the Brazilian amazon that also want no interaction with the outside world but a Nat Geo helicoptor snapped some photos of them through the canopy. Bah Humbug, leave them alone!
Apparently they are worried that mining operations and people could bring diseases and disaster in. Sad.

I also learned that sea water emits Dopamine. ;-)

TJBM is going to lullaby land now.

No way! I am picking up cool bits which make me want to learn more. I’m. Gonna go surfing!

TJBM likes late night surfing.

Sometimes if my sleep patterns are disturbed I do.

TJBM is still up.

Yeah, I have been up since 5 a.m. I’m still in the middle of my yearbook photo quest. I’m getting worn out from going all day without rest and this is a rare moment when I got to sit down.
I wish @Coloma was here though, she would have had a chance to witness a gogerous Ao Dai show.
TJBM is exhausted.

Not yet.

TJBM has seen a read-only view of this thread, and is just fine with never seeing it again. ;-p

I agree, it looks horrible.

TJBM gets ill easily.

That view is even worse than Jelly.

No. I’ve been really lucky up to now. But in the last year I’ve taken some knocks. Age is catching up, I guess.

Good Morning, everyone! 0700 AST here.

TJBM is healthy as a horse.

Pass me another zinc tablet please. I want to keep fighting off the colds that are all around.

TJBM slept in an odd place last night.

“Your” last night, to be exact. I slept outside on a bench. I was taking a quick rest during my trip.
BTW, I’ve just returned from the yearbook trip. At least it turned out better than I thought. The most memorable thing was that our Ao Dai show made quite a sight for tourists. We had to pose for their camera apart from taking our own photos, extending the trip’s time more than we expected. I talked to some tourists a bit too just some friendly chat, I prefer talking on Fluther anyway :p
Still, I don’t like the preparation when the planners tried to slap their ideas onto the rest of the class and refused to listen. The trip could have been less exhausting if they realized their photo site was too far away.
TJBM has an outdoor experience.

I’m going to ride Shy and the dogs down to a cove rich in shellfish and snorkle my dinner.

TJBM collects shark teeth.

Yes! Do you have any to share?

TJBM has something to share.

No. Not yet, I am only on my 2nd cup of coffee here this morning. Not fully conscious yet. haha

TJBM is not fully conscious.

I haven’t been for a few days now, because I do have something to share, a very nasty cold. My lungs are quite rumbly.
TJBM has a friend they are worried about.

No, all’s well with my friends.

TJBM is a worrying type of personality, in other words, neurotic as hell. lol

No, in fact, quite the opposite. I’ve been accused of being Pollyanna-ish.

TJBM knows about Pollyanna.

Haha, me too, yes, I know about the Pollynna-ish syndrome.

TJBM is getting cabin fever. Man, 4 days of non-stop storms, I wanna go outside and move around!

I don’t have a cabin fever, but I did have a fever last night. I’m ill too.

TJBM never drinks tea.

False. I often drink tea when I’m out to eat. Unsweetened.

TJBM will tell us about one of their bad habits.

I’m a sugar addict, have broken the habit before but is has been back with a vengeance the last few weeks. Man, I finally was almost out of the holiday sugar scene and then, my neighbor brought me fresh out of oven Persimmon cookies last night. I give up. Just gotta ride the sugar wave out here. haha

@Sneki95 “Cabin Fever” is not an illness, it is an American term for being cooped up inside for days or weeks due to bad weather.

TJBM has had cat scratch fever.

Well, I am amazed I don’t. My cat scratches me 20 times a day, for no reason.

TJBM is ready for summer to come back.

Nope. I love winter. It finally snowed here, I want to enjoy it as long as possible. Summer can wait as far as I’m concerned.

@Coloma I referred to @Patty_Melt answer that he caught cold.

TJBM loves snow.

I do love snow, and I wish it would. It’s just damn cold right now.

TJBM has a dog that likes to sleep in the snow.

No. I have two, very pampered, pussies that like to hog the bed. haha

TJBM is waiting for the rain to stop so they can venture out.

No rain here. No snow. Nothing but cold shit outside.

TJBM has never taken a selfie.

I have.
TJBM has used an outhouse, sometime.

Best view at the cottage is from the outhouse. I had a sign made for it The Ritz

TJBM finds scented poop bags annoying.

Aren’t poop bags poop- scented anyway?

TJBM thinks so.

That’s what I always thought. I’ve never heard of perfumed poop bags. LOL. Sounds like a late-night TV advertisement.

TJBM knows that the average horse eliminates 20 lbs (9 kg) of excrement per day.

I did not know that. I know what it’s like to be on a horse behind a horse that is pooping, though.

TJBM likes the smell of horses and horse poop and barns in general.

I do. What I can’t tolerate is pig shit. It smells really sour. I love pigs, but man, their shit smells horrible. There was this HUGE pig farm about a hundred miles outside of Kiev in Soviet Poland back in the 1980’s. You could smell that shit from 35 miles away, swear to God. At ten miles it became nauseating. It was a bloody ecological disaster zone. Typical centralized Socialist operation.

TJBM knows what I’m talking abut concerning pig shit.

Can’t say that I do. haha
Horse shit, goat shit, rabbit shit, goose shit, chicken shit, cat shit, dog shit but never been around pig shit.

TJBM has a shit story to share.

I think you mean shit literally.
Here in my place I only experience two types of shit: dog shit, of irresponsible owners and can be deadly traps, and rat shit, which is a curse on my home and their smell can go for miles. Dog shit can be avoided but not prevented, and we have to set up rat traps every night because they are troublemakers and because we can’t stand their shit. Recently we put up wired bars as a front defender, but who knows where those sleazy bastards could manage to get in.
I may sound like a hypocrite, but I love pet rats and hate wild rats.
TJBM has another shit story.

Like @Dutchess_III, I also know what it’s like to be on the east end of a mule headed west. We had ten covered wagons, each dawn by a pair of mules. And yes, it happened in the late 20th century.

TJBM has had an experience that could have happened in an earlier time.

Were you following the Mormon Trail?
Sort of. I was a small child, very small, and celebrated our town’s sesquacentennial. The whole town dressed in period attire. I loved my little ruffled pantaloons and bonnet.
All the men grew their beards long. There were cool contests, and a street dance. I think some people went on hay rides, but I didn’t, so my memory is weak on that one.
When the show Little House On The Prairie started, I felt like I had lived it.

TJBM likes sticky foods.

Yes, but I don;t like to have sticky hnds. I eat my cinnamon rolls with a fork. haha

TJBM has had wood heat as their only source of heat. I did for many years.

In Texas for awhile I lived on a ranch that had once been a “dude ranch” where folks could get away from the city for a time and play at being cowboys and cowgirls. There were several guest cabins with a wood stove for heating and cooking. I was single, and the solitude was great for songwriting.

Patty_Melt It was a youth program.

TJBM has an interesting story to share.

I have many but I’m not up for story telling now (2:21AM). I’m about to look for my bed.

TJBM had to set an alarm tonight.

Nope. My alarm has stayed set for several months. I did recently have an alarming night.

TJBM likes for things to be shaken up occasionally, even if it means bad news for them.

No, no bad news needed here. I’ve had enough of that. But a little shake up every once in awhile to snap me out of routine is OK.

TJBM will promise to share a story with us sometime.

I promise! But you have to give me some hint to get my memory going first.
TJBM will think of a topic for me to remember an interesting story.

How about telling us more about the time you had a paid companion/minder, or the most poignant or interesting moment of your recent class trip in the yearbook quest? What town in Vietnam was it in? What were the most interesting crowd moments during the performance? Were there any thespian rivalries during rehearsals?

Coloma can tell us about her most interesting horseback ride or horse trail/camping trip in the beautiful Sierras or her crazy days in the San Diego area back in the ‘70s. Strauss can tell us more about the wonderful seclusion on that dude ranch in Texas, or the great musicians he’s met—where and how, or his time in the Navy, or as a busker in New Orleans, or about trying to convince his wife to let him have a small chicken coop in the back yard. LOL. Tropical Willie can tell us more about his surfing adventures in SoCal, Hawaii and elsewhere. Bella can tell us about her visits to places like Smith Island, her culinary adverntures and what the people are like in the Serbian delicatessen. abcbil can tell us about his more advernturous moments and the places he’s been in his lifetime, or the strangest moments he’s had with one of his clients. Sneki can tell us what it was like to grow up in post-war Serbia, or her interest and studies in philology. Patty_Melt can tell us more poignant stories about her childhood. MollyMcGuire can tell us about her life in South Florida and The Dutchess can tell about growing up and about the boys in Kansas and the worst storms and tornados she’s seen. I wish MooCows were here. She could tell us about married life on a dairy farm in Upstate New York—she reminds a lot of the woman in the book The Egg and I, about a woman and her love-hate experiences of living on an island chicken farm off the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State with an incurably idealistic husband.

These stories, short or long, can all be sneaked comfortably into the TJBMs when we each have time and make the place more interesting and less like Twitter. They can also be written without revealing too many personal identifiers.

We have all lived interesting lives whether we know it or not. Life is interesting, especially in hindsight.

TJBM will write about whatever.

OK. I’ll leave the minder story for later. Now I’m going to tell you about the yearbook trip in details. Prepare for a reaaaaaaally long read.
First the background: It is some sort of tradition that every final year student prepare for the yearbook photos. The yearbook is basically photos of the whole class standing together in a specific theme and they go to Facebook they could go to anywhere else but Facebook is always the first destination. The planners are the class representative and her friends. The representative is a stereotyped popular kid in school/class and is well-versed in trends. My class isn’t very enthusiastic in general apart from some zealous kids and they will go for anything that many people choose, partly because they don’t want to think much.
Before we could do anything, a theme had to be decided. There is a class Facebook group and the discussion went there. I couldn’t contribute any idea because, you know, I’m a nerd and the ideas needed to fit the liking of the “general public”. There was a suggestion for a “cultural harmony” theme in which we dressed in clothes of different countries. I liked that idea but there were only some likes and no comment on that thread. Then suddenly there was a suggestion coming from the representative that we all wear stylized Ad Dai a bit background info: there is a trend for stylized Ao Dai recently. Those are just your regular Ao Dai but modified a little so that it suits young people. Don’t know how it became a trend. The thread soon got lots of likes and comments simply because it was what’s hot right now and because the Ao Dai in the photo was so beautiful.
Now this is the part where I complained earlier. The Ao Dai was nice, but to me the theme was so genetic. Lots of other classes were doing the same thing and it could be hard to be creative with the Ao Dai. I didn’t say that though, I only commented on that thread that I prefered the cultural harmony theme. And that comment became the most hated one on the thread. The hate came from the representative’s friends. My friends later told me that I disagreed with the idea while everyone else was applauding it and it disappointed the planners, but I still don’t feel right about it. After all it was a discussion, and we were supposed to contribute some ideas. Beside, I didn’t say anything offensive, I was just stating my thought. If they didn’t like it, they could just at least ignore it.
Anyway, the Ao Dai theme was chosen. The planners went to find a costume shop to hire some Ao Dai. This process felt very… disjointed, since they split up and tried different shops and uploaded every single thing they found on Facebook. The class, except for the Facebook addicts, could hardly keep up with the updates. There were some people who preferred certain clothes to another but couldn’t choose because they were late and the poll result was in favor of the one they disliked. One of my friend was like “fuck it” and stopped caring for the whole thing altogether, saying that she would wear anything the class chose. I thought they could just photograph everything in one place then posting the photos at the same time so that everyone could catch a breath.
Finally, the planners came up with three themes: the Ao Dai theme, a “three-color team” theme in which each student chose a color among red, pink and blue and brought a clothes with that color on that day, and an arty theme in which the class formed several images and photos were to be taken with a drone. They described their plan in a docx file. We were supposed to go to Hoi An city for the Ao Dai theme in the morning, then ride back to our city for the other themes. It was just ridiculous, having to go for a excruciatingly long distance then turn back instead of just finishing everything in the city before going. But by then I was so tired of seeing my opinion beaten down so mercilessly that I said nothing.
My, this is getting so long. I’m going to split this story into two part. This will be part one: The Preparation. Coming up is part two: The Trip.
TJBM would like to hear part two.

I’m reading. Continue, please.

Now that I have looked up Ao Dai, I’m ready for Part Two (and I want my own Ao Dai).

It is getting late. I have written a bit of part 2 so I’m going to return to it tomorrow. Night.

I understand. It’s 1am where you are. Get some sleep and give us Part Two tomorrow, please. This is very interesting on many levels. Thank you, Mimi.

In the meantime,

TJBM will tell us something they learned recently.

I learned that I have zero interest in being a relationship coach after a new member here pm’d me wanting relationship advice. haha

So you want a story Crow? Okay, here’s a humorous, slightly salty tale from my archives.
About 8 years ago I came home from work and heard a strange humming sound coming from my living room wall. I put my ear to the wall and was trying to figure out what the heck this sound was.

I was terrified there was some electrical short in the walls and was just about to call my neighbors husband to come over and check things out until, my sleuthing out the source of the sound led me around the corner into my bedroom and inside my closet where I kept a dresser with my girlie stuff, undies, summer clothes etc. Lo and behold I discovered my B.O.B. battery operated boyfriend had somehow come to life and turned himself on minus my intervention. lol
BOB had buzzed himself down to the wooden floor of the drawer and was humming away. I must have slammed the dresser drawer shut hard enough to activate BOB. man, those were some good batteries, BOB was buzzing away for hours and still going strong.

Thank gawd I didn’t have my neighbors husband come over, I would have died of embarrassment. lol

Okay….there you have it, humor of the day.

TJBM has a funny story to share.

Always. Fresh, too, because three of my youngest grandkids wound up in my house today:

I have a package of small bird feathers I picked up at Micheal’s a few years ago. They were just hanging around. I saw them and asked the kids if they would like some feathers. 5 year old Adrionna said “Yes!” immediately, 4 year old Savannah was concerned that they would bite her, and 4 year old Kale wanted to know if I killed a bird. Oh good heavens!
Well, I put a few in each hand, and Savannah giggles, “They tickle!” Then they took them back into my room, where they’d been playing on our giant waterbed, and found a box and put them to bed.

TJBM loves the funny things kids do.

Dutchess, given that I am the proud father of twins (now in their 40s) I do. Boy/girl fraternal. Brother/sister just happen to be born on the same day.

We were hip parents. Taught the kids proper names for body parts, trees—Of course that sorta backfire when my daughter, at age announced to my mother (while Mom was giving her a bath…) she (my daughter) had a “badginal opening”...

Mom was pissed.

TJBM, of course, NEVER did anything that EVER upset his/her Mom…

Too bad Mom was pissed! That was spot on. I gave my kids the proper names too, but allowed them to modify as they saw fit. Once, when my daughter was 3, she was bugging me so I said, “Go out side and dig a hole to China!”
She gave me the strangest look…a look I’ve never seen since on a tiny kid.
I knew there was a reason for it, but had to think and think…and it hit. That was HER pronunciation of vagina and she had no idea of the existence of the country! That poor poor child!

Once or twice. We lived on a cul de sac on a dirt road out in the country. I had just gotten my driver’s license and got it in my stupid head to start at the top of the hill and just fly down the dirt road in my Mom’s Vega, and SLIDE around the cul de sac, which had an ancient, old oak tree in the middle of it, in an island of grass. On the return, as soon as I straightened out, I’d punch it and make the car fish tail a bit. It was so much fun.
About the 4th time I saw Mom, in the yard, jumping up and down, so I stopped to find out what was wrong with her.
I got grounded. One of the very, very few times I actually got in trouble.

OK, TJBM just got some GREAT news regarding this weekend!

I have no more test this weekend! Well, that’s the only news I have :(
@Espiritus_Corvus alright. I’m awake. Time to care for some unfinished business Godfather voice
Yearbook Guest Story – Part 2: The Trip.
So the preparation was such a mess, with the popular kids totally dominating the class. But at least everyone had taken into account of the bad weather. The weather had been very terrible and unpredictable around the time of the story. When it rained, it was all cats and dogs. Even the overconfident representative had to negociate with the costume shop about a backup plan in case it rained too much, and the shop agreed to let her hire the Ao Dai for as long as she wanted. One thing was certain: no one should ditch the trip because it was the only time when the class gathered together and it was a tradition. Peer pressure alone was enough to get people going. The fuck-it friend and I had little hope that the trip could be good.
On that day everyone had to gather at school to get the Ao Dai and went to Hoi An city. I got up at 5 a.m and rode to school at 6:15. The sky was dark and I was afraid of a sudden rain. After everyone had gathered, we set off. On our way slight raining poured down now and again. It was not too heavy, but was enough to make photographing uncomfortable. When we arrived at Hoi An it was raining so much that we had to wait for it for a while. I realized that the planners didn’t hire any photographer, but they brought two guys from Tech school who had some photographing skills. They seemed to be the representative’s friends.
Hoi An had an old town area where they kept the houses from ancient time for tourists. That was the setting of our photos. We either took photos of ourselves or took group photos along the way. The two photographers were helpful in helping us to adjust our posture. We also had to take class photos, and the photographers were the ones who set up the position for everyone. Not to mention the many photos in people’s phones. The selfie addicts got a hell of a time. I’m not that into selfie so I was more occupied by sightseeing than recording myself every 10 seconds.
The old town had a lot of tourists, and since they don’t see people in Ao Dai so often they were immediately drawn to the class. They took photos of us and we happily posed for them. Some of them came and asked what was going on. Even the tour guides had a hard time explaining to the tourists what we were doing. Most people thought we were celebrating our wedding :) Some even thought we were engaging in some town tradition. Anyway, we attracted so much attention that I’m pretty sure our faces are all over the internet right now.
It rained now and again. Every time it rained we had to stop taking photos and take refuge. That and all the tourists had extended our time. We had some lunch and left much later than expected. It was around 1 p.m. On the way back to the city, it suddenly started raining heavily. I was exhausted and wet. I must have looked like a zombie. When we finally got to the school I still couldn’t rest. We had to take photos with a teacher that the representative somehow managed to invite. Another tiring long posing section then we had some time for ourselves. The selfies addicts somehow still had enough energy to go around taking more photos. I chose to find a bench and lie down instead.
At 3 p.m we were off again, this time for the remaining theme. We had to change from the wet Ao Dai to the colorful clothes we brought from home and rode away. It was freezing and all of us were wearing dresses I didn’t know how I managed to survive. We stopped at a park and unleashed all kinds of insanity. It felt less restraining than the Ao Dai theme because the Ao Dai forced us to act like stereotyped women. Everything ended with the drone photos, the same time with another rain section. There seemed to be another plan for more photos but by now everyone was too tired. There was an argument among the planners – not that I cared. Then somehow the representative decided that we went to a cafe and got some more photos there.
By the time I got to the cafe it was 7:15 p.m. I seemed to have become disoriented and I almost lost my way to the cafe. Nothing really happened in the cafe. People split into several small group. I gathered with my friends and we chilled out while waiting for our turn to take photos, but by then we had basically stopped caring for any more posing. At 7:35 p.m we were finally free. A friend suggested that we had some meal. I agreed because I hadn’t had a proper meal though by then I only wanted to go home. I was finally home at 9 p.m.
So there you go, from 5 a.m to 9 p.m without any rest. I was such a wretch that I scared my parents. Now the only thing left is to wait for the results on Facebook. The people with selfies have been roaming Facebook since yesterday, bombarding others’ notification with their photos and decorating their profiles. But looking at the selfies, I realized that my joy lies in the journey and the experience, not from seeing my photos. I kind of stop caring for how I look like in the photos. What’s left is the memory of me being insane with my classmates.
TJBM has been patient enough to read through this.

Excellent story-telling @Mimishu1995. You created a great picture of your day. I’ve just gone back to FB to search for Hoi An. I discovered that several of my friends have been there and I am now going to look at their photos. It seems to be a very photographed city.

TJBM has been thinking about the story assignment from @Espiritus_Corvus .

Ya, some. Mostly I have been enjoying the stories being shared by everyone else.
Mimi, so colorful, so vibrant! I could almist smell and hear the rain.

TJBM snort laughed about the grandchild who thought dutchess killed a bird.

Yes, great story @Mimishu1995 !

No, it was cute but I didn’t snort laugh. haha

TJBM has an infectious laugh.

Only under certain circumstances. People around me already have to be infected, when all it takes is a giggle from me and they lose it.

TJBM Thinks the location notice thing on FB really super sucks. (My husband went to the grocery store last night and encountered a very young friend of hers….her father was a friend of Rick’s, but he died. We both have her as friends on FB. Last night she told him that I had freaked her out earlier. She was at McD’s and she got a FB notification that I was there too…..I need to figure out a way to turn that shit off.)

That’s one of many reasons I don’t use FB.

TJBM is selective about using social media.

Out of all social media sites, I only used Facebook. I shut it down after I finished highschool. I find no use in social media sites, it’s boring.

TJBM will name his/her favourite musical album and why s/he likes it.

I enjoyed reading Mimi’s story as well.

Wrong guy to ask. I actually don’t have one.

It changes all the time. I go through a little new stuff. Then back to Classical and Film music. Then some Mowtown and Soul, which inevitably leads to the Blues.

If you would have asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would have said it was a toss up between Stanley Turrentine’s LP, More that a Mood and Diana Krall’s torch songs, and this week I’m listening to Disraeli Gears by Cream, a little nostalgia. I’m also using some of it for a sound track I’m applying to some newsreel clips about Hippies—Cream and other groups from that time. I like that music, but haven’t listened to it in decades.

I was listening to a lot of Santana a couple days ago for the first time in 30 years, prompted by Mimi’s question. Santana’s first LP is my favorite of his for instrumentals. Not long ago I couldn’t get the songs Drops of Jupiter by Train, Cake by the Ocean by DNCE and How Deep is Your Love (Like the Ocean) by Calvin Harris and Co out of my head. That was a hang-over from the hotel back on Martinique a couple of months ago. Club music. Probably ancient to you, but new to me. LOL. I got into listening to old Toot’s Tillman’s blues harp for a couple of days last month.

I’ve been trying to sync some of Jimi Hendrix’s music to clips of the Vietnam War as an excercise to teach myself how to use some new film editing software. Hadn’t heard his stuff in about 30 years either. I’m a pretty flighty guy with terabytes of music. It depends on what I’m doing, where I’m going. Ask me tomorrow, I may have a definite answer for you.

@Mimishu1995 I loved your story. I spent a lot of time looking at Ao Dai on Google Images, researching the city of Hoi An between Parts One and Two. And thinking about your impressions of your trip. It was an education and a good story. Thank you.

TJBM has a been listening to a certain type of music lately.

For my own listening, I started listening to Pentatonix during the holidays. I think they’re musical successors to The Swingle Singers as far as a capella singing.

Otherwise, for research for my teaching, I have been listening (as much as I could bear) to some Top 100 songlists. I like to keep abreast of what is happening musically so I can use music that is culturally relevant to my students.

TJBM likes to stay culturally relevant.

I try, I really do. But it is now actually an effort, whereas it wasn’t before. The place I live in has something to do with it, and age does also. The part of the island that I live on and the people I interact with the most are what you might call culturally autonomous. It’s easy to stay culturally relevant locally, because I’m submerged here. And it’s actually relevant.

To stay culturally relevant with the rapidly morphing culture of the States and Europe is difficult because of isolation. Even with the net, you only get stills of the Big Movie and you really don’t get the full film.

It’s confusing at times to see words pop up on places like Fluther that, no matter how hard you try, you can’t make an entymological connection. And it’s a bit scary. You begin to feel that the thin tether that connects you back to your home country and culture is disintegrating right before your eyes.

Will listen to your links, Strauss.

TJBM has felt this way before.

Yes, and I’m here.

TJBM has been saddened by recent events in his or her own country.

Yeah. That’s an understatement.

TJBM wonders what the hell is wrong with our economy today.

I know what’s wrong, but nobody will pay me to fix it!

TJBM knows what it’s like to be paid for their expertise.

I do indeed.

TJBM has been listening to some old favorites in the way of music. For me, today has been Laura Branigan day.

Yah, Weather Report, Manhattan Transfer, Hank Mobley, Crusaders, some of the older Fattburger charts, Lindsey Sterling, Art of Noise.

TJBM has not the FIRST CLUE about my genre…

I have a slim clue. I have heard of some of the names you mentioned, but that is it.

TJBM got a new pet during the holidays.

My fish pool got a new member, but not during the holiday. And I’m beginning to think that getting new fish is unnecessary. There are so many fish that we can breed them everyday. More fish only means less space.
Thank you for the appreciation. I was just writing about my actual experience. This is the only place where I can talk about my real feeling about the whole thing, given that part one has things that can rub people the wrong way.
@Espiritus_Corvus now you’re going digital! Please keep us updated about the project. Will it be an anti-war video?
TJBM remembers something that scared them as a child I just found this video. Many people claimed to be scared to dead as kids by it. I don’t find it scary but there is something disturbing about it. And the story behind it could be turned into a movie.

“What Happened to Baby Jane” did me in. Okay, that was wierd @Mimishu1995!

TJBM thinks that some of the things that scares kids is silly. NOT NOT NOT what I think, BTW

I don’t blame the kids for being scared of some mundane things. They are mundane to adults, but children simply see and understand things differently than us, the same way the see some stuff that we find horrible or terrifying as complete nonsense because they don’t get it the way we do. It’s all about perspective, after all. What is scary to you may not be scary to me, and what a typical child may be afraid of is nothing to a typical adult.

TJBM loves parodies.

I do!

TJBM thinks that the state paying for a convicted criminals sex re-assignment is insane.

Yeah, i suppose. I guess preventing them from having the op could be considered cruel and unusual punishent. And as one sex or the other, they are prevented from living with the ones they identify with most. Also, if they are male, and identify as females, their lives are probably in danger in general pop. I suppose that could be considered cruel and unusual punishment as the only other option would be solitary confinement/protective custody. I dunno. It’s not something I think about a lot.

My concern is the general brutality by the guards in the prison system in the US. In Florida, the guards have gotten away with hell for decades, burning people alive, boiling them alive by locking them in super-heated showers, beatings, hangings, slowly starving the ones they don’t like by denying them complete meals, etc. That’s the kind of cruel and unusual punishment that bothers me. If you treat people like animals, it should be no surprise that they act like animals. I’ll worry about the trannies when that is taken care of.

TJBM knows that 23% of the world’s prisoners are confined in the U.S.

I did not, but I am not surprised, another lovely mass shooting on Ft. Lauderdale today. sigh…what a world, what a world.

TJBM is fed up with it all.

No. Sometimes I think I am, but I won’t give up on the human race. Two things keep it in perspective for me: Meditation and a long solo voyage to an island with another language and culture every so often.

On the afternoon of December 19th, 2012, I sailed out of Key West for Celestún, Mexico on the Gulf side of the Yucatan. It was supposed to be a short round-trip thing. I was delivering a young woman to her little yoga clinic there. When we arrived the following night, theere was a newspaper box on the dock. I bought one. In Spanish in one-inch headlines it read “20 school children massacred in Connecticut, USA”.

Two days later, I pulled out of Celestún alone on a NE heading for Key West. About 60 nautical miles out, she nosed to the southeast toward the Straits of Yucatan between Mexico and Cuba. I just let her have her head. My vessel hasn’t been in US waters since.

TJBM needs a break every once in awhile.

I never get one, so I pretty much stay in constant need of a break. This has been the case for well over a decade.
I suppose death will be my next chance at a break.

TJBM longs for a break, if only for one day, with no drama, no high priority issues, just be.

No, I get my down time but I wish I could afford to travel again and get away from it all.

TJBM has seen “Moana.”

No, and I won’t be surprised if it’s something too American ~
TJBM is drawn to mysteries I’m a sucker for internet mysteries, but that’s another thing I can’t share with people around me.

I am. I like reading about mysterious places and websites. It’s even more interesting when it mysterious and slightly creepy too.

TJBM knows about this man.

Slender man? Yes, creepy.

@Mimishu1995 “Moana” is an animated Disney film about a Hawaiian/Polynesian girls quest. It’s really cute. :-)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5dnZKrUpdA

TJBM likes animated films.

I adore animated films. From short cartoons to movies. Animation is one of few things that interest me. I like all styles and eras of animation. It is a world of illusion I like to escape to.
The only type of animation I never watch is hentai. It’s just wrong.

TJBM has a favourite cartoon character.

@Coloma It’s not Slenderman. It’s this man.

I have too many to tell. Actually I have more favorite cartoon characters than real people. I sometimes wonder if I have some sort of disorder too :p
@Sneki95 I know him. I read about him somewhere. Some people claimed to dream about him every night and they gathered. The result is what you see.
TJBM knows about the story behind an animation called “Crack Master”

Just googled it. Apparently, it’s about a girl seeing patterns in wall cracks, until she runs into the “crack master”. It aired in 1975, then several times later. It’s unknown who made this, someone sent the email about it to Cosmo Anzilotti thinking he was the author, but the man denied, saying he doesn’t even remember the cartoon. Some man got his hands on the copy in 2008. The short scared a lot of kids. It’s far from being the only kids cartoon that scared the crap out of kids. Actually, I can’t remember any child programme that isn’t creepy in one way or another.

TJBM needs to hug a teddybear now.

@Sneki95 yeah. It wasn’t the only scary cartoon. But what makes it famous is the mysteries surrounding it. It seems that whoever created it doesn’t want to remember that it ever existed. It was an interesting internet mystery that I have found. And I’m not the kind of people who is scared easily, but something about it just makes me feel… uneasy.
I’m holding my teddy bear in my hand, ready to sleep.
TJBM will say good night to me.

Goodnight Mimi, have sweet dreams.

TJBM needs to sleep too.

Just woke up two hours ago.

TJBM has their own theory about the “THIS MAN” phenomenon.

Well, I do have thoughts about “Wicker Man” and “Mothman” and “Mann”-heim Steamroller and The Third Man Theme and “Mannix” and Manwich and Manhattan (which is where I live) and Manchester and a couple of derivatives…malevolent, gentleman, mantle…

Just not “THIS MAN” phenomMENon.

TJBM, however does have thoughts about the NEW John Wick movie…John Wick Does London With Morpheus…

My cold is worse today instead of better. The only thought I have now is, “Are my tissues within reach?”

TJBM is handy, and will divulge something handy they have recently done.

I drive a beat-to-hell, diehard, roofless, doorless,1970’s precurser to the Jeep Wrangler. You can do stuff like that here. A couple of days ago, I broke the small plastic volume knob off the dash radio. I epoxied a 2-inch metal valve wheel onto the turn switch. It works fine. Gives the old Blue Max a kinda steampunk look.

TJBM likes the steampunk look.

I like the steampunk look, fashion and music.

TJBM still has the Christmas decorations.

My daughter won’t let us take them down until after her mid- January birthday.

TJBM has a tale to tell.

I’m always amusing to hear parents say their kids “won’t let” them do something.

Yes, but not today.

TJBM was a regular in detention back in high school.

No. In high school, I was too busy to get into trouble due to sports and other things. But in junior high I was in detention a lot. I used to get sent to the library after school. I’d read back issues of National Geographic, Time and Life magazines. It was there that I found out what happened to the Jews in Germany before and during WWII. I saw the pictures and it freaked me out.

Up until that time, I guess I thought that the Jews were some people who existed back in the biblical days, but just blended in with everybody else over time. I went to Catholic schools out west and later in the south. Years later, I looked through my yearbooks and saw that some of my classmates had Jewish names. LOL. It then occurred to me that they spent a lot of time in the library too, during the hour each day that we spent studying our Catholic catechism. I really hadn’t noticed that at the time.

TJBM had a really good day today.

Today was fine but not exceptional…..............we’ll see how this game goes.

TJBM knows the meaning of @Espiritus_Corvus.

Hmmm….. a spiritual crow? A spirit of a crow? A crow of a spirit?

TJBM will offer a better answer

I remember he explained his username that @Espiritus_Corvus is a spirit of a crow Something like a crow that is not visible but can do incredible things… um, I don’t remember much.
TJBM will wait for the name owner to explain.

I think you’ve both got it. The spirit of the Crow. Clever, crafty, intelligent and resourceful. All excellent qualities dont’cha think?

TJBM loves spaghetti with garlic bread!

I DO! Leftover-spaghetti-on-leftover-garlic-bread-sandwiches, even! Cold. Yum! Let me repurpose your leftovers. Someone make me a spaghetti pie? Per favore e grazie!

TJBM needs a hug.

<Give @ibstubro a virtual hug>
TJBM will spread the love.

Always spreading the love! I love you, Mimi!

TJBM will tell Mimi she’s loved

I love you my little Mimi, :-)

TJBM is about to zonk out.

Yes, in minutes.
TJBM is excited by anthropology.

Well, I wouldn’t say excited, but I do find it interesting.

TJBM is excited about some type of science.

@Strauss @Coloma Awww… I feel so loved my heart is going to burst :)
In some way yes. I have said before that I don’t believe in the horoscope, but lately I have been digging into astrology and star chart for kicks. Turn out the star sign that people talk about is just the sun sign. We also have rising star and the moon sign and other stuff to consider. Those things are affected by the time and place of birth. I can’t draw my own star chart though because I don’t know my birth hour. But oh well, that was some good stuff to read on a boring day.
TJBM has discovered something new lately.

I discovered that @Mimishu1995 is huggable – and a very good writer.

I also discovered that Lululemon is one of those brands that is really for people that will pay extra to have wear smaller size labelled clothes.

TJBM has a story of people doing things they think will make them look better (but don’t).

Oh yes, I have ad several middle aged female friends go off the deep end in their neurosis about aging and go for facelifts, botox, boob jobs, all of which had, at minimum, less than optimum results and several that were down right disasters like the friend who had butt fat implanted in her breasts and then, one of them fell and she had a sausage roll of fat on her rib cage. No thanks, not for me, I’m okay with letting nature take its course. haha

TJBM has to go out and do something they do not want to do right now.

No. It’s 5:30 AM; I’m going nowhere. I woke up early for no reason so I made coffee and sat down at the puter and here I am.

TJBM swims year round.

Yes I do. It’s one of my rediscovered passions.

TJBM will tell us about their favourite senior human.

I had (and still have) quite a lot of respect for some of my professors. One used to teach linguistics when I started studying. He is over sixty and is now retired, but I liked him a lot. He was very sharp minded and clever, a calm, relaxed person with a lot of intellect. He is an academic now, and is regarded as one of the first socio-linguists around here. Regardless of his reputation and influence, he is very down to earth and not at all stuck up and arrogant.
Besides him, I like my Yugoslav literature professor too, as well as some other, slightly younger professors. who are very dedicated to their work and willing to help students as mush as they can. Not to mention the massive knowledge these people possess, which makes quite an impression on us ignorant fools.

TJBM has traveled a lot through his/her country.

I grew up in Northern California and Florida. I hitchhiked the US from Clearwater, Florida to San Francisco in September,1971 when I was seventeen. I hitched to Wenachee, Washington and picked apples, I took a mail plane from LA to Hawaii in ‘72 for twelve bucks—a thoroughly illegal transaction—and stayed with friends for a month. I made trips to Mexico and Las Vegas on my Norton 750 —Las Vegas for the excellent complimentary buffets and Mexico for the cheap weed I could resale on communes in the Northwest. I worked as a brakeman on the railroad between Chicago and Seattle. I bicycled the width of the country for 90 days from Astoria, Oregon to Johnstown, Virginia with a group of other bikers in 1976. I did NYC for a few days twice. Those were good days and the country was much different physically and psychologically.

Since then, I’ve worked as a waiter and carpenter in the Pocono resorts of Pennsylvania, visited friends in Vermont and Boston, lived in an urban commune in New Orleans where I think I ran into Strauss a few times in Jackson Square, LOL, lived on South Beach, Miami before it was gentrified, got caught in a buffalo herd as it crossed the highway while driving a beat-up old Chevy in Montana, lived in Key West while it was being gentrified and visited and toured many cities on a bike during weekend seminars.

And I killed a man in Reno just to watch him die.

One of the above is a lie.

TJBM has travelled a lot period.

@BellaB thanks <hugs> I didn’t know someone would appreciate my writing that much :)
And you don’t spill your secret before you kill someone @Espiritus_Corvus!
I don’t travel much. We don’t have that much money. Every year we only travel to mom’s parents’ home in another town. The furthest that I went was to Ho Chi Minh city. The trip was a gift from my parents for passing that exam to colege.
But this is going to change! In two months I’m going to spend my apprenticeship in Thailand. It is just a cultural exchange program in disguise, but that is going to be the first time I’ve traveled to a foreign country.
TJBM has traveled to a foreign country.

Yes, and I’ve beaten that to death here.

I’m sorry I missed the love fest for Mimi. But I am always there in spirit, girl. You are a jewel. Please give us updates of your experiences in Thailand. Don’t forget about us.

TJBM has travelled to a foreign country.

Yes, I have traveled to Taiwan andMexico. Mexico doesn’t really count because it’s right next door. haha I’d love to travel more but it’s no longer in my budget. My daughter is going to Amsterdam, Poland and Italy in may so I will travel there vicariously via her sharings.

TJBM will tell us what their favorite coffee mug looks like. Mine is big and solid red.

My favourite tea mug these days is a cobalt blue/gold beer stein from Queens University. Beer steins are great for holding tea.

TJBM will tell us about their least favourite holiday meal.

Hmmm….not holiday perhaps but I am not a fan of Prime Rib and other near, bloody raw meat meals. I like my meat well done, not tough or burned but not rare. I also do not like Sushi. Gah!

TJBM is not a fan of Sushi

Oh no. Nope nope. Fire was invented for a reason.

TJBM had the most amazing weekend.

I’ve had an amazingly busy weekend prepping for 3 big horse events and stuffing about 650 horsey goodie bags to hand out at the shows. Mane and tail combs, herbal supplements, salt suplpements, pellet supplements and cool leather coasters, fun stuff for the horsey set. I have also enjoyed an amazing storm!

TJBM will be getting the big west coast storm traveling through their zone.

Most likely, but it will take a few days. It’s ok, we’re getting a great assortment of weather today after being released from the deep freeze.

TJBM will tell us what this year’s colour is.

White, like a blank canvas that is yet to be used.

TJBM can’t swim.

Given how much time I spend in a pool each week, that would be unfortunate :) I swim miles.

Pantone color of the year: greenery

TJBM has an interesting book to recommend.

Too many to count.

Divine Comedy by Dante, Candide by Voltaire, Ode to Folly by Erasmus of Rotterdam, anything by Dostoevsky, The epic of Gilgamesh, My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, After Dark my Haruki Murakami, The Scaffold by Chinghiz Aitmatov, Perfume by Patrick Suskind, and many, many more. Whatever you choose from these, you won’t make a mistake.

TJBM will recommend us an interesting music album to listen.

You can google “Nox Arcana”. Their musics are really weird. A typical album has a theme and it arranges music in a way that tells a story, and the themes are usually fantasy or horror. Some of the musics are very calm and pleasant to listen. Recommended if you like weird stuff.
TJBM will recommend us another weird thing.

No she won’t.

TJBM knows what LG stands for on LG appliances.

I used to wear their T-shirts. Very good quality. It stands for “Life’s Good”.

TJBM knows what GEICO stands for.

GEICO Government Employees Insurance Company around since the late 1930’s

LG stands for Lucky-Goldstar a large Korean conglomerate. I use to have a couple portable TV’s made by Goldstar from 1980’s

TJBM Knows who owns Kia car company.

Hyundai- Kia Motor Group

I always thought LG stood for “Lucky Guy ”!

TJBM knows BMW stands for.

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG aka something very rude

TJBM has a national/cultural outfit and has worn it – in public.

No, but I’m Scottish, Welsh and German, I used to look like the St. Pauli girl, blonde braids and great legs in short skirts. haha

TJBM has great legs.

I used to. Long. Well defined becasue I was into a lot of sports.

TJBM has problems with their boobs.

Don’t get me started.

TJBM likes Eminem.

Just not the red ones. The red ones make you horny. I heard it in college.

TJBM likes Payday.

dafuk @Dutchess_III lol. Eminem is a rapper.

@Sneki95 LOLOLOL

I do like pay day, the cash kind and the candy bar.

TJBM has bad breath.

No. Well, maybe after a garlicky dinner. But if my companion didn’t eat the garlic, she’s just SOL until I’m done with my wine. Wine and the after-taste of toothpaste is a no-go. Anyway, who doesn’t like garlic?

TJBM thinks Snecki has a helluva command of the language. (dafuk? LOL)

I don’t like garlic

Of course! I could have never believed she is not a native English speaker. How did she do that?
TJBM is genuinely astonished by someone.

Yes, the Trump supporters I must humor. @Espiritus_Corvus Haha, maybe wine flavored toothpaste could be the next big thing.

TJBM has a wart on the tip of their nose.

No. Do you think I should?

TJBM has a big date planned.

I have to be at a place called Basil’s Bar on the tiny island of Mustique in the Grenadines by noon tomorrow.

TJBM has some historic trivia they’d like to share.

(Omg! I’m there tomorrow. I’ll pop in.)
I don’t think I know any history that would be new to anyone here, so I will tell you a secret. I fancy thinking George Washington was a total hottie.

TJBM has wondered about the hotness factor of famous persons long gone.

Tesla was steaming hot, in my humble opinion. There are also some poets and writers long gone who were quite good looking.

TJBM has a celebrity crush.

Yes. I almost stumbled over her lifesize body reclining on the floor of the Musee d’Osay. Absolutely beautiful right down to the tiny cellulite dimples at her magnificent gluteal fold. She is still there, writhing forever in an orgasmic trance. She lay there in the middle of the museum floor, unprotected even by a velvet rope.

Her life was spent facilitating her salon where the finest authors, poets, artists, composers, singers and actors of her generation would gather around her charismatic beauty like moths to a flame hoping for just a moment of her affections. An opera was written about her, a plethora of paintings depict her as goddesses and milkmaids, they sand of her in bars, bawdy houses and in the palace. Poets obsessed over her.

Gustave Courbet painted her adoringly standing over him in the nude like a loving muse as he works on a landscape. In the same painting she is also found off to the side fully clothed, in middle age, her then-lover’s face partially hidden behind her. Immediately behind them is the poet Charles Beaudelaire, an unrequited lover, with his face buried in a book.

Thomas Couture and included her in his Les Romains de la Décadence . That’s her off to the left, rising above the Roman orgy in the throes of ecstasy.

Edouard Manet painted her over and over again as if attempting to purge himself of obsession. His friend, the poet Charles Beaudelaire attempted suicide after she rejected his repeated advances, then poured his grief onto the pages of his greatest work, the tortured Les Fleurs du Mal:

So I would like, one night,
when the sounds of pleasure heure,
Towards the treasures of your person,
like a coward, crawling noiselessly

To punish your joyous flesh,
to bruise your breast forgiven,
And to thy astonished flank
A large wound and hollow

And, vertiginous sweetness!
Through those new lips,
more vibrant and more beautiful,
To infuse my venom, my sister!

She took what she wanted and when she wanted from life’s cornicopeia with such generous charm no one would dare to stand in her way. She was more intelligent than most those around her, and they knew it. They called her “La Présidente” and she was subtly dominant, hypnotic, penetratingly sexually aggressive, and both sexes supplicated themselves at her feet, drugged with desire. She chose her lovers as carefully as a queen chooses her jewels, as if acutely aware that we are only given one chance here and she wouldn’t waste a minute of it.

The sculptor Auguste Clésinger captured her piercing, imperious gaze in marble. Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier did the same, again with lowered eyelids like an empress in a private moment peering down upon her subjects.

Her name was Apolonie Sabatier and this is how I found her and a life-long thirst to know everything about her began. Clésinger called his magnum opus, Woman bitten by a Snake.

Yes, Monsieur Clésinger, you never fooled anybody. We know what kind of snake has bitten this woman.

Oops.
TJBM has either a terrarium or an aquarium in their home.

Not anymore but I have had aqauriums over the years.

TJBM is an Umbrella salesman.

No, but the great-grandfather of one of the guys who started this site was. And a very successful one at that.

TJBM heard a great Trump joke recently.

No, actually I haven’t.

TJBM remembers getting shocked by touching or impaling an electrical outlet.

Nope, but I have been shocked plenty by electric fencing for my garden and horses over the years. haha

TJBM is enjoying a relaxing day before a busy weekend.

I’m enjoying a not-busy day; the first of the week was very busy.

TJBM remembers the pre-remote-control home.

Yes. I remember the “clickers”, too. By introducing the remote, they removed the very last bit of physical exertion from the life of the couch potato. LOL.Cardiology is an excellent field to go into. Enter any aspect of it and you have a well-paying job for life.

@Tropical_Willie Well, wuddya know. I wonder who I was shilling for all those years? Those were great T-shirts and I like the positive message—Life is good!.

TJBM is good at working through the pain.

Worked through it until Tuesday AM, went to Dr for Rotary cuff, shots not any operations.

I got a couple of ball caps with “Life is good”

TJBM has more than a dozen ball caps.

I’ve got a couple dozen, in various stages of wear. My favorite is about 13 years old. My then four-year-old daughter and her best friend at the time decided to call both fathers “Dad”. Each would refer to her own father as ”#1 Dad” and the other as ”#2 Dad”. For Father’s Day that year my daughter gave me a cap that said ”#1 Dad”.

TJBM has a piece of clothing that has an interesting history.

One of my melayas was used by one of my first dance teachers when she performed with the Reda Troupe. I’ll sell the other melayas but that one is my keeper.

Melayas are used in stylized Alexandrian dance . They represent the modesty cloaks the mullahs required women to wear when they took control of Egypt. The way they are wrapped are supposed to reflect the attitude of Alexandrian women toward the mullahs – you want us to cover up? ok we’re covered up, now back off.

TJBM enjoys ethnomusicology and will describe the specific area they are most interested in.

I do enjoy that. One of my favorite areas is the overlap between musical cultures.

TJBM knows of some music that reflects the overlap between musical cultures .

My favourite area of overlap is Andalusian music. Lamma Bada is the great classic – found in the Maghreb as well as in Spain.

Toronto Consort did a wonderful concert years ago where they performed the music Cervantes would have heard in Spain before he was captured, what he would have heard while imprisoned in Algiers, and how the music in Spain would have sounded on his return with the additional influence of the Moors on traditional Spanish music. Fascinating concert experience.

TJBM will describe an outdoor musical experience which they really enjoyed.

I haven’t really experienced any real concert. Most of what I went to were just casual parties in disguise.
TJBM can switch emotion at will.

I can change the expression, but not the underlying emotion.

TJBM has made a snow angel within the past decade.

No but one year I made the cutest little 16 inch snowman and put him in my freezer and then, brought him out in July as a centerpiece on my deck table. Of course he melted pretty quickly but it was a delightful little thing to do. :-)

TJBM loves making snowmen and snow sculptures. ( I also made a deer and bear once, I sculpted their life size heads protruding from a snow bank and they looked quite realistic.

I like to build things when there is good building snow. I tend more toward buildings rather than animals/people.

TJBM has more than one coat with a hood on it.

I do.

TJBM has had an ice sculpture and will tell us the occasion, and whether it was worth the cost.

No, but…you can buy molds and make your own. I love the Swan molds since I have a passion for waterfowl.

TJBM likes geese and has had a pet goose.

Only vicariously..LOL!

There are a lot of Canadian geese around here, but they’re wild.

TJBM has a wild pet.

I had several; deer, turkeys, squirrels mostly. I moved. Now the occasional squirrel and some bunnies. I am wishing for a bald eagle.
TJBM is bald.

No, I’m not.

TJBM finds bald men attractive.

(young bald men)

I do like many bald men, young or older but not the Bozo the Clown kind of bald, with the goofy little poofy tufts of hair on the side with the bald spot in the middle. Guys like that should be named Ludwig. lol

TJBM thinks clowns are creepy.

Not really. I don’t get why are people that afraid of clowns. Probably that “monster clown” trope being overused.

TJBM is a fan of Addams Family.

Oh yes. I have a book of the collected cartoons, loved the tv show and the movies as well. The Addams Family movies are among the few dvd’s I bought at almost full retail cost. Love Lurch. I’ll always be close to one ex because of our shared love of Lurch.

TJBM has watched Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in more than one language.

I have not, never heard of it.

TJBM loves Gary Larsen Farside cartoons.

No. Another too American thing again :p
TJBM will tell a joke that everyone can understand.

What do you get when you cross a donkey with an onion?

Most of the time you get an onion with floppy ears but…every once in awhile you get a piece of ass that brings a tear to your eye. :-p

TJBM feels like a nut.

@Coloma your joke just reminded me of a similar joke I heard before. A kid asked a teacher “what would happen if we bred a giraffe and a hedgehod?” The teacher didn’t know. The kid said “Easy. We would have a gigantic toothbrush”
I always feel like a nut, but when I came here I knew it is for a good cause.
TJBM is proud of something about themselves.

I am. I am very good at answering questions for children in ways they can fully understand.
TJBM gets a rush when they see that lightbulb pop on over a kid’s head.

Yes, I love kids. My daughter is grown but I babysit a little 9 yr. old girl a few times a week. Tomorrow we are going to see “Sing.” I love turning kids on to nature and fun facts. I helped my little friend learn all about bunnies before she got a pet bunny. :-)

TJBM is having a bedtime snack. Apple slices and cashews here, yum!

It’s 5:31 here, the house is asleep and I don’t have the access to the fridge. I’d like to bite something, my belly is singing already.

TJBM never wore make up.

I really can’t say no. When I was younger I did some acting in college and community theater.

TJBM knows what the future holds.

[in GIR’s voice] I don’t know.

TJBM feels slightly sorry for all those vlogers who can’t have a decent life because they have to film and instagram everything.

I feel sorry for all those whose urge to update their life on social media is so strong they allow Facebook to dictate what to do, even the most ridiculous things.
I have a friend who shows lots of signs like that. She could have been a decent person, if she could for once restrain from taking selfie everywhere Hope she won’t read this.
TJBM uses social media in a healthy way.

No, I don’t use it at all. Dropped my FB acct. in 2011. I just babble on Fluther. haha

TJBM bites their nails.

Not in thirty years.

TJBM is a spaz.

Often times.

TJBM hates dogs.

I wouldn’t say hate, I have had a couple of dogs I loved over the years but I am more of a cat person. I haven’t had a dog now in the last 20 years but am around friends dogs fairly often. I do not like dogs licking me, gah and I do find dogs to be pretty oafish in general. Cats are just so much more dignified, graceful and non-sloppy. haha

TJBM will tell us what their favorite animal is.

I don’t think I can. I really love a lot of animals. Sugar gliders are
so cute. Hamsters, little brown bats, chipmunks, all cute little furry creatures.
Snakes are cool, especially when they wrap themselves around your wrist like an Egyptian bracelet.
Horses are awesome.
There is something about elephants, how they can be so huge and yet so gentle.
Nope, I can’t choose a favorite.
TJBM has a pet which is not furry.

Can my fish count?
TJBM notices that dog people don’t like cats very much and vice versa.

Yeah, that’s weird, huh? Dogs and cats are so different from one another, both with great, lovable qualities. It’s hard for me to declare for one or the other. I love them both for different reasons. There is no need to declare. It’s like boats, too. People feel they must identify for or against ragtops (sailboats) and smokers.(motorboats).

Sailboat owners are known to be purists, old school, snobs, elitists. It is said motor yacht owners rarely know anything about marlinspike seamanship and they can’t get from point A to B without satellite navigation and autopilot. They rarely know anything beyond the next cocktail party. We even have separate marinas and yacht clubs in some places.

Jesus. It’s all horseshit, Mimi. I know a little about sailing history, tradition, celestial navigation and I can tie a bowline knot behind my back. Parlor tricks for the tourists. Man, my boat is packed up the ass with electronic navagational equipment, alarms, satellite communications, even auto pilot, just like any sane, modern deepwater sailor.

Hell, I have radar, radar reflectors, sonar, satnav, internet, EPIRB, auto pilot, more radar reflectors, and everything is rigged with loud alarms in case I fall asleep. I can even throw a switch and light this bitch up like an airport. I usually only run these things at night, but I have them. I’m not crazy. I’m no elitist. The last thing I want to do is pull a PT-109 some night. It’s fucking crowded out here. Check it out. Those are all huge tankers, freighters and cruise ships. And they ain’t got no brakes.

TJBM has broken their ____ before.

I broke my cellphone once.

TJBM plays an instrument.

Acoustic Guitar, kinda.

TJBM writes music

I write poetry and humorous, whimsical story poems and tidbits of sardonic humor.
I did write one song way back when that a friends band put to music at one time. It was decent but not extraordinary.

TJBM slept like a baby last night.

You bet!
@Espiritus_Corvus yeah. I just can’t understand why dog and cat lovers have that adversity. I see dog people sharing dog protecting videos on Facebook, detailing how dogs are being mistreated and we have to do something about it, but at the same time staying away from cats. Or cat lovers who are willing to adopt any stray cat they see, but can’t stand dogs.
I sense some hypocrisy here.
TJBM has a good bullshit detector.

Pretty good. I wish I was better at controlling my expressions when that happens.

TJBM has a good poker face.

Yeah, both. Both a good bullshitter, when the need arises, a good poker face, fairly decent BS radar.

My mother used to say, “If you can’t dazzle ‘em with your brilliance, baffle ‘em with your bullshit.”

TJBM will share a pithy saying.

I like to change old sayings around and while I am not religious I like to transpose ( the old bible saying ) instead of ” Be in the world but not of it ” to ” Be of the world but not in it.” haha

TJBM is a perfect blend of social and reclusive.

Perfect for me.

TJBM has caught fish about which he or she enjoys bragging.

I caught a fish once. It’s a very small fish that lives in sweet waters, I can’t find the name in English. Anyways, they took it and threw it back in the water, saying that every fisherman has to release the first fish he catches, for luck in further fishing. I never caught anything after that.

TJBM is a collector.

One of my collections; about 250 cookbooks.

TJBM is enjoying a Sunday afternoon, now that chores are done.

Yes I am. Busy weekend, just got home from house/pet sitting for the neighbors since Fri. night, tidied my house, re-made my bed with fresh sheets, blankets and just took a shower. Now I am fluthering on the couch flanked by my big kitty cat “Myles.” Nice to be home and looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

TJBM has a very soft bed.

Superfirm bed – with a pillow top. Best of both worlds :)

TJBM is about to try a new recipe, thanks to Fluther.

As a matter of fact, yes. I found some real Banh Canh noodles today in a little mom and pop grocery store. Now I can make Mimi’s Vietnamese noodle soup, Banh Canh Gio Heo, with a recipe I found on the net. (Vietnamese Udon Noodle Soup) I’ll be doing some sailing in the next few days and frequent mug of soup is a good energy boost when you’re busy.

TJBM is about to try a new recipe, thanks to Fluther, and prove once again that we don’t post these ideas and recipes for naught.

And that new recipe is a modification of the Steelers’ PICKLE JUICE thing from a couple of years back. Pickle juice and Orange essence in the ole SodaStream bottle after a level three fizz.

TJBM probably thinks that sounds disgusting. But then TJBM is not in training for the International Crepitation Championships.

I’m clueless to be sure.

TJBM had a stick horse and cap pistols as a kid.

If only our culture was that big on cowboys :p
@Espiritus_Corvus I really appreciate that you wrote Banh Canh Gio Heo without any error :D I guess you already know the recipe so I don’t need to explain, but to the rest of you Banh Canh Gio Heo is literally “Vietnamese Udon Noodle with Pig’s Leg”. Some people are disgusted by pig’s leg and so can’t taste the food. I don’t like it either. I prefer Banh Canh Cha (this is Cha)
TJBM is surprised by something lately.

Yah, sure as heck was…and it was too personal to even mention. I’d never seen anything like it. Even a pig’s leg (wait…that would be a ham or a pork butt…)

TJBM has fixed a ham in a MOST unusual way…MOST unusual….

That’s a trick eh. Depending on where you are in the world, one ham prep might seem normal, but be most unusual elsewhere. I’ll go with the traditional (to me) ham hocks and sauerkraut.

TJBM loves crispy (grilled or bbq’d) pig tails.

No. Never had them, probably never will. I am not big on eating funky animal parts. I don’t even like chicken wings. haha

TJBM has loves malted milk balls.

No, I’ve never eaten a lot of candy, or cake for that matter. My mother used to fix me a special dinner on my birthdays instead. Good ol’ mom. I do like a real malted shake though. Real ice cream, real malt instead of some dehydrated chemical facsimile, real whole milk. Something that you would find at a drug store counter or in a malt shop in 1962. And a real root beer float made with real root beer that smells like bubble gum from a block away.

I mean, really, if you’re going to treat yourself only once in awhile, why treat yourself so badly? It’s a bloody treat, not an exercise in dietary health.

@Sneki95 Please give the Serbian name of that fish.

@Mimishu1995 Your link for Banh Canh Cha isn’t working. Please try again.

TJBM knows what I’m talkin’ about.

@Espiritus_Corvus ok, second try. And the link only contains the substitute for pig’s leg, not the whole meal.
I guess you are talking about people being too anal about healthy food. Sadly many of them are among those who suffer the most health problem. In the end what’s the point anyway?
TJBM sees absurdity in something that people do.

@EC manjov/мањов

@Mimishu1995 It works! Yes. We have plenty of pork and banana leaves here. I’ll try that recipe as soon as we hit Barbados.

@Sneki95 That, my dear, is the Ameiurus nebulosus, otherwise known Stateside as the a Bullhead, Bullhead Catfish or Brown Bullhead. They can live just about anywhere in any climate from the Caucasus tot the Antipodes in any sweet water, but are mostly at home in muddy waters, like the Mississippi and brown lakes, or what we southerners call mud holes. They are a popular Cat Fish. We catch and eat a lot of them in the southern states where we call them Mud Cats. They are a good food fish, but very invasive.

By the way, we also have that tradition of throwing the first fish back.

TJBM likes it when different peoples share similar traditions.

Thanks,@EC. I couldn’t find the name in English. I didn’t know it was a catfish, we have a different name for it (som/сом, read similar to “some”). Due to different names, I never connected the two as the same species. I learnt something new today.

On another note: I like listening about different traditions. Some I find amasing, some I don’t agree with, but I like knowing about other cultures and traditions. Knowledge is power, after all.

And to answer Mimi too: I’ll never get people that wear shoes/sneakers without socks. I am a passionate socks hater, and avoid them as much as I can, but would never put a naked foot in a sneaker. That is just unnatural and nasty to me. Why people do that is beyond my understanding.

TJBM has a nice day today.

Yes. An easy day. Late night with friends, slept late, made some minor repairs on the boat, napped, ate, napped again, and now I’m ready to sail the 160 km from Bequia to Barbados, or what we down here call Rihanna Land. She’s the small town island girl from Barbados who made good for herself. The island is wild about her. From what I understand, they bullied her in high school. LOL. People.

@Sneki95 Always go for the Scientific term when you’re hunting down the common name of an animal. Take that a feed it into whatever language you want. I copy and pasted the Cyrillic name for the fish into Google followed by Wikipedia. A Cyrillic page in Wikipedia popped up with the Latin Taxonomic term for the fish, I copied and pasted that back into Wikipedia and the English page for the fish popped up.

TJBM likes Rihanna’s singing voice.

I actually do. Not an expert, but I think she actually has a good singing voice. Back in the day, she made some decent songs. It’s your typical pop thing, but it was tolerable, catchy even. Nice party songs and love ballads. Nowadays she is just burnt out. She is not even capable of making lyrics with more than five words. I think that her unfortunate experience with that assface changed her quite a lot, and it surely affected her art and career. Pity, she was a promising one.

TJBM loves rain.

I like thunder storms, wild ones, but not drizzle. Drizzly rain is depressing to me.

TJBM likes wild thunder and lightening storms.

I do, though it can get very loud, and legit scary here sometimes, especially during the summer storms. I like it, even though it gives me chills.

TJBM likes to be scared from time to time.

Yeah, I confess I do. It’s the endorphine rush. I think I’ve been addicted to my own endorphins for a long time. It influenced my choice of occupations and activities, and also solo sailing across the Atlantic and back. That was a risk I shouldn’t have taken at my age, and I paid, and am still paying a price for it. Oh, well. Shit catches up with you eventually.

TJBM is paying a price for something.

I’m paying for the food in a restaurant. Yeah, I’m with my friends now, but they have gone to fetch something, so I’m here.
TJBM will think of a topic that we can talk about.

Boooobs!

Kidding.

Let’s talk about clocks.
Do you own more than one clock in the house? Do you like clocks? Do you often look what time is it? Do you get annoyed by the clock ticking, or does it calm you? What do you think would happen if there were no clocks?

TJBM will answer these questions.

I don’t have any clocks in the house. My phone tells me what time it is. I have two chronometers on the boat, one in the cockpit and the other below in the navigation station. Some of my other instruments have clocks in them because they are measuring distance, currents and wind against time.

I have a dive watch that I usually only wear when I’m diving so I don’t run out of air. You can get mesmerized down there and forget the time, which could be dangerous at certain depths.. i really don’t have much use for clocks or the exact time of day anymore. I don’t have to be anywhere precisely on time. I naturally get up about a half our before dawn, go by the sun the rest of the day. I eat when I’m hungry.

I often go by the stars and planets at night. For example, I know it’s about 2100 when Venus sets these days, about 2200 when Mars sets. Jupiter rises at Midnight, Saturn at 0400 and Mercury at 0500. The sun will come up about 0700. Those times are close enough for my purposes.

When zig-zagging toward or away from the wind, tacking and jibing, I have to keep each zig timed with the zag, or I miss my target by a few miles. That’s what the chronometers are for.

TJBM can identify some stars and constellations.

No. I have never had a chance to observe the sky in dept. But I know some about the horoscope, at least more than my horoscope-craze friends. It is ironic given that I don’t believe in horoscope. You don’t know how big the horoscope is among people my age, EC. They keep using the horoscope to explain everything related to personalities. I can easily fool them into thinking I’m a big horoscope fan by showing them what I know.
How I get my knowledge? Well I’m just curious about it one day and I do my research. And when something catches my interest, my research will go very deep. So you can say I’m some kind of information collector.
TJBM collect unusual things.

I collect Kinder egg figurines. Kinder egg is a chocolate candy, shaped like an egg, and inside of it, you get a small yellow capsule that holds a tiny figurine or a toy. Sometimes you get separate pieces to put together and make a figure. It’s the funniest part as you puzzle how to do it. I keep my figurines in a small cookie box.