Allusions and oatmeal

While I applaud everyone who does features for April is National Poetry Month, I must admit I've never felt the particular call to follow suit. For me, it's like eating steel-cut oatmeal 4 times a week for 48 weeks and then participating in National Steel-Cut Oatmeal Month. I know I'm one of the lucky ones, and there are people who have scant exposure to steel-cut oatmeal, but I have full confidence that other bloggers will make up for my slacker attitude.

I will be celebrating April Fool's Day with Minh Le of Bottom Shelf Books and whomever else participates in our contest next week. The "April Fool" is not that we're pulling your leg about putting your creativity to work and winning fabulous prizes, but that we want you to have a silly, fun time doing it without feeling like a fool. We're very serious about that. We promise not to tape a paper fish onto your back.... or at least, attempt the resist the urge. Stay tuned for details to come in just 5 days.

In the meantime, here's a diversion:

Presenting the "Interview With Your Daughter" Meme conducted on Thursday, March 26, 2009. Lucia's answers are in italics.

1. What is something I always say to you?
I love you.

2. What makes me happy?
You hugging and kissing me.

3. What makes me sad?
Being grouchy.

4. How do I make you laugh?
We would watch silly things together.

5. What do you think I was like as a child?
With brown hair and brown eyes and a black dress.

6. How old am I?
36

7. How tall am I?
This tall. [Hands stretched up]

8. What is my favorite thing to do?
Tell stories.

9. What do I do when you're not around?
Say grownup stuff.

10. If I become famous, what will it be for?
Being a composer.

11. What am I really good at?
Playing guitar.

12. What am I not really good at?
Doing magic tricks.

13. What is my job?
Making dollies.

14. What is my favorite food?
Pizza.

15. What makes you proud of me?
You hugging me and kissing me.

16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?
Cinderella.

17. What do you and I do together?
Sing.

18. How are we the same?
We both have brown hair and brown eyes.

19. How are you and I different?
You having pierced ears and me not.

20. How do you know that I love you?
Because you often hug and kiss me.

21. Where is my favorite place to go?
Your favorite place to go I think is California.

23. What do I love about Daddy?
Him working with the computer.

And there you have it!

Julia Larios of The Drift Record is hosting Steel-Cut Oatmeal Friday this week.

Which A.A. Milne character are you?

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

Eleven years ago, my supervisor at the Central Children's Room remarked, "I'll bet all children's librarians who take this quiz turn up as Kanga. It's the part about getting the children to safety that pegs them."

My Life In Music Albums, revisited

Do you remember the meme of My Life in Music Albums? Well, I've found my favorite album of 2007. It's Raising Sand, by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and produced by T. Bone Burnett. You can find the track listing with details on who wrote what songs here. Thanks to Jules of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast for alerting me to the album's existence three days before its release. I'm glad I didn't know about it beforehand, as I dislike having to wait for anything. Like many impatient people, I secretly suspect that people who appear to be patient are merely faking it.

I've decided to tag six people for the My Life In Music Albums meme. What you do is list your favorite album for each year of your life. You can get the Wikipedia tables of years in music to help you, but it's not all-inclusive. I tag: Tony (a.k.a. Bede), Noodle, Adrienne, Vivian, Eric and Yorkshire Pudding. Everyone tagged who actually completes this meme (as well as anyone else who wants to participate) wins a small prize. Leave your link in the comments and I'll get to work on your prize right away.

Seven Random Song Memories

In lieu of one song of the week, I'm going to give you at least seven. Noodle of Thoughts From My Noodle tagged me with a meme to list Seven Definitely Random, Possibly Odd, Things About Me. I'm supposed to tag seven more people, but only if you read this and you want to participate in the meme should you consider yourself tagged. I've decided to keep the meme S & S blog-related, so here are

Seven Definitely Random, Possibly Odd, Things About Me in Relation to Songs

1) When my parents put me to bed in my crib, I would sometimes keep myself awake by holding up my finger in front of me. My father was concerned about this behavior and didn't make the connection to Woody Guthrie's Put Your Finger in the Air, which was the song going through my head:

Put your finger in the air, in the air.
Put your finger in the air, in the air.
Put your finger in the air, and hold it right up there.
Put your finger in the air, in the air.

2) For the first part of my life, my father was a coal-miner in MacDowell County, West Virginia. He played a lot of music in our home, and one of the songs I often heard was Merle Travis' song about coal-miners called Dark as a Dungeon. These are the lines that stuck out for me:

Oh when I am dead and the ages shall roll
My body will blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miner a-digging my bones

Yeah, even then, I was brooding about death.

3) When I was eight years old, the soundtrack for Disney's Songs from the Jungle Book and Other Jungle Favorites was one of my favorite records. The last song on the album was Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo). My father then introduced me to the version with the Andrews Sisters and Danny Kaye. For awhile, I listened to both recordings every day. If you follow the link, you will see just how horrid the lyrics are. I really don't get it why I liked the song so much. In fact, I'm a little embarrassed. However, I'm not as embarrassed as I would be if I confessed some of my other past music tastes (see #6)....

4) Flash-forward six years: After remembering how much I enjoyed "I Love Rock and Roll," I bought Joan Jett's album Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth. As Cherry Bomb, the first song, played over the speakers, I realized something: I was really, really angry with everything. In retrospect, it's an odd song to inspire a grouchy teenager when you consider that the lyrics are more in the vein of "I'm your hootchy-mama so take me now"* than "rally the youth against adult oppression." I think I was reacting more to the sounds of the music than the words of the song.

*The song was originally written for Cherie Currie, the lead singer of Joan Jett's teenage band The Runaways. You can see a video of Currie tarting it up here.

5) As a teenager, the introduction and opening lines to Led Zeppelin's Over the Hills and Far Away (before Robert Plant launched into falsetto mode) was one of my favorite pieces of music of what 1970's hard rock had to offer. Listen for yourself here. The Who's Baba O'Reilly was (and still is) up there, too.

6) After my three-year hard rock and heavy-metal binge, I went on a classical music and opera kick. Unfortunately, I also delved into musicals a la Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera. Once, as I was washing dishes and listening to Eponine's death song, A Little Fall of Rain, my mother said, "You know, I actually preferred Motley Crue to this."

7)A lot of people were introduced to the Proclaimers by their song "(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles." I first heard about them via the swing-based I'm On My Way through two college friends. These friends performed the song for many a coffee-house before one of them split off to form Schpaklava (the best college band you've probably never heard). In recent years, this song has only been supplanted by The Sunny Side of the Street as the most effective way to get the House of Glee out the door in time.

My Life in Music Albums

Last night, Philip the Pun came over for dinner, and he demanded that I list my life in favorite albums. So, instead of partaking in my normal Friday night activities (moping, reshelving my books, washing the cat, etc.), I made up a list. Phil steered me toward the Wikipedia Tables of Years in Music. While the tables don't contain complete lists of albums, they were good starting points to remember what I enjoy now about each of the years since I was born. I'm sure some of you will look at my list and say, "What about ___________?" If the suggestion is one that makes me say, "Yes, yes, of course you're right," I'll add it. Keep in mind that the albums listed are ones I'd listen to now, and not, say, 1983. (In 1983, my favorite album would have been Duran Duran's Seven and the Ragged Tiger.) Otherwise, here is my list:

(Had I been born one year earlier, my album would have been "Who's Next" by The Who)
1972—Free to Be You and Me—Marlo Thomas and Friends
1973—Simon Sisters Sing for Children—Carly and Lucy Simon/Aerosmith (self-titled)
1974—Waterloo-ABBA
1975—Physical Graffiti—Led Zeppelin/ Toys in the Attic--Aerosmith
1976—Rocks—Aerosmith
1977—Rumours—Fleetwood Mac
1978—You’re Gonna Get It—Tom Petty
1979—The Kids are Alright—The Who
1980—Peter Gabriel (Melt)—self titled
1981—Duran Duran (self-titled)
1982—I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll—Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
1983—Alive, She Cried—The Doors
1984—She’s So Unusual—Cyndi Lauper/ Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth—Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
1985—Listen Like Thieves—INXS
1986—Graceland—Paul Simon
1987--Trio - Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton/ Diesel and Dust—Midnight Oil)
1988—Short Sharp Shocked—Michelle Shocked/Fisherman’s Blues—The Waterboys
1989—Full Moon Fever—Tom Petty/ Passion—Peter Gabriel
1990—Flood—They Might Be Giants
1991—On Every Street—Dire Straits/ Honey Lingers—Voice of the Beehive
1992—The Future—Leonard Cohen (Honorable Mention: ABBA Gold)
1993—Exile in Guyville—Liz Phair
1994—Pulp Fiction soundtrack
1995—Thank You for the Music—ABBA box set (Phil says that this compilation is "cheating at Scrabble")
1996—Revival—Gillian Welch
1997—Urban Hymns—The Verve/Exile on Coldharbour Lane—Alabama 3 i.e. A3 (Honorable mention: Sixpence None the Richer—self-titled album)
1998—Car Wheels on a Gravel Road—Lucinda Williams/Absolute Torch and Twang—k.d. lang
1999—Mule Variations—Tom Waits
2000—O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack
2001—Time the Revelator—Gillian Welch
2002—You Are My Sunshine—Elizabeth Mitchell
2003—House Party—Dan Zanes
2004—Astronaut—Duran Duran
2005—Demon Days--Gorillaz
2006—My Remembrance of You—Diana Jones
2007—The year’s not yet over! I’m looking forward to receiving Alabama 3’s new album “M.O.R.” any day now. What a disappointment "M.O.R." was. My album of the year is probably going to be "Raising Sand" by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

I tag: everyone in the blogosphere.

What type of writer should you be....?

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

Well, I'm so glad that's settled. I'm now awaiting that phone-call from my favorite screenplay writing partner. We'll get to work on that live-action Justice League film, pronto. While I don't have much say in the way of casting, I'm still gunning for Gina Torres as Wonder Woman. I'm going to write in cameo appearances for Neil Gaiman and Sherman Alexie, too.

My Blog Rating

The "G" rating doesn't mean much to me. As far as I'm concerned, 101 Dalmatians should've been rated PG-13. That movie gave me nightmares. And what about Rikki-Tikki Tavi? That was a children's movie made for television, ergo it was supposed to be for general audiences. It was terrifying.

Doesn't this blog make you quake in your boots sometimes? Admit it, when I mention that a song I'm playing on guitar has an F chord in it, you run shrieking for the relative safety of the autoharp.

Four New Times Two

Here's a new meme from cloudscome via HipWriterMama: Four (4) New Times (X) Two (2). First, you share four things you learned or experienced or explored for the first time in the past four years. Then you have to say four things you want to try new in the next four years. I'm not tagging anyone for this meme, but if you'd like to write your 4+4 new things in the comments section, I'd enjoy reading them. If you want to be tagged, then you're tagged. If you don't, you're not. I'm too tired to chase anyone, virtually or in Real Time.

For me, the four things I tried for the first time in the past four years were:
1)Having a baby
2)Learning to sew
3)Learning guitar
4)Painting the interior of the house

The four new things I want to learn over the next four years are:
1) Sing (with professional lessons)
2) Play ukulele
3) Play harmonica
4) Make pierogi

Eight Facts Meme

HipWriterMama, Camille and MSMac tagged me for this 8 Facts Meme.

Here are the rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1) From grades 1-8, I had long hair, worn in braids (except for intermediate school), and from grade 3 on, I wore heavy, ugly glasses. On the first day of 9th grade, I walked into high school with short hair and contact lenses. No one recognized me. No one. However, I went into a vinyl record store that weekend, and the woman who worked there (and had seen me a total of 3 times) said, “Hey! You got your hair cut. It looks good.”

2) I don’t lie to children, and I have a hard time lying to adults. While I could lie convincingly to save someone’s life, the best I can do in most circumstances is stay quiet and not volunteer information.

3) I have accidentally “outed” two people. Both of them were forgiving, and even bemused. Whew. I am not good at keeping everyone’s secrets in order. I get cross when I’m told to keep something secret, and do, only to find out later that the person who told me the secret has told everyone else—and forgot to tell me that the secret wasn’t a secret anymore.

4) I grew up with a Jewish father and a Mennonite mother. As a teenager, I toyed with the idea of becoming a Wiccan. I was baptized Mennonite when I was 19, and became Roman Catholic when I was 30. I’m 35 now, and I still don’t feel I belong anywhere. I’m starting to suspect that’s the human condition.

5) I am very, very sensitive. Over time, I’ve learned to mask the sensitivity to a certain extent, but I still get my feelings hurt easily. I don’t expect anyone to tip-toe around my feelings (hence the various emotional disguises), but it still surprises me sometimes how easily I get upset. I appreciate the “Yea rahs!” I get in the comments section. I don’t interpret those comments as critical analyses of my writings but as the vital cheering section that provides external validation. Speaking of which…

6) Sometimes I get jealous when I see other blogs with double-digit comments.

7) The week after I gave birth via caesarian surgery, my relatives went home, and I broke out in hives. They burned, they itched, and if I didn’t scratch them, the heat from the itch grew worse. The only two ways I could deal with the hives would be to ice them or to scald them in the shower. After the hives finally abated, my daughter and I developed thrush. Memo to all current and future pregnant women: if you go on antibiotics during or after the labor you will need the healthy bacteria to balance out your system. I think all the antibiotics and medicines I had in the hospital severely knocked my immunities for a loop. I can’t think of that time without scratching.

8) I’m fascinated by skin-conditions. Sometimes I think I missed my calling as a dermatologist. Then again, it could just be my primal grooming tendencies rearing up.

People I'm tagging:
Lady K
Friday
LoneStarMa
ABCGirl
Philip the Pun
Yorkshire Pudding
Brad the Gorilla
Tony Dowler
Neil Gaiman (come on Neil!)

What Books am I Reading?

HipWriterMama tagged me with a pleasantly simple meme regarding the books I'm reading. Here goes:

1) City of Bells--Elizabeth Goudge, first in a trilogy--sequels are Sister of the Angels and The Blue Hills (USA) or Henrietta's House (UK). I like to reread Goudge's novels where children are important characters, even if they aren't the main characters. My mother owns copies of almost all of Goudge's novels. (Thanks, Mom!)

2) How to Get Suspended and Influence People--Adam Setzer (thanks for the recommendation, Kelly Fineman!)

3) The Big Book of Irony--Jon Winokur

I have plenty more books on my library shelf, but I haven't even opened them yet. If you can believe it, I've checked out An Abundance of Katherines twice from the library and didn't get past the first chapter. I was interested in the book, but I got distracted, and then I had to return it. After watched Brotherhood 2.0, though (thanks for the introduction, Fuse!), I'm looking forward to reading it when it comes my way again.

Now, I tag LoneStarMa, Goddess of Clarity, abcgirl, Yorkshire Pudding, and anyone else who wants to participate in the meme.

My birthday is tomorrow

Tomorrow is my birthday. To commemorate the event, I'll post a list of 35 things I know about myself. Last year, I posted 34 things I knew about myself. Today, you might be interested in reading the answers the interview meme that BlueMamma and HipWriterMama supplied. LoneStarMa, don't think I've forgotten about you! I know that you are dealing with a misbehaving home computer, so it might be awhile.

Update: Here are LoneStarMa's answers.

Your interview questions

As promised, here are some interview questions for the people who wished for them. Note that they all have some form of "mother" in their name: BlueMamma, HipWriterMama, and LoneStarMa. Coincidence or cunning plot? As MotherReader did for her interviewees, I composed four questions for everyone with a fifth question addressed to the individual blogger.

Here are the four questions for everyone:

1 )What fairy tale, myth or fictional story are you most drawn to as your own, and why? Tell me about childhood associations, parallels with your own life, fulfillment of wishes, etc.
2) What story makes you angry? How does it make you angry?
3) If you could choose three books to be brought back into print, which ones would they be?
4) Tell me about the movie you want to see that has not yet been created.

Individual questions:
BlueMamma: What are your specific views on higher education and how did you come to think the way you do?

HipWriterMama:
If you brought your family over to my house for dinner, what sorts of things would be good to prepare so that everyone could partake of the meal and enjoy it?

LoneStarMa: If you had free reign in your classroom to decide the curriculum, what would it be?

When you have answered the questions on your blog, please post the link in the comments section, and I'll place the link in the main body of this post. Then, of course, you may ask your readers if they would like to answer some of your interview questions, too.

***
BlueMamma's answers

HipWriterMama's answers

LoneStarMa's answers

Interview Meme

MotherReader posted an interview meme that she had received from a wrung sponge. Here are the interview questions and my answers:

1)What is your favorite quote?

“Courage!” he said and pointed toward the land...
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Lotus-Eaters." It’s a line I tell myself when I need it (which is often).

2)How would you spend 1500 dollars you won in a radio contest?

Boring answer: I’d get the outside of our house repainted. Fun answer: I’d use it for the long-overdue weekend getaway. Really fun answer: Balloon rides for everyone!

3) Where do you like to go to get away from it all?

I like to walk by the edge of the water. I haven’t done this in a long time. I usually take out my guitar in order to get some rest from my nagging thoughts.

4) If you had the complete attention of everyone in the United States, but only for 30 seconds, what would you say?

I think I’d need a month to work on this one. I’d want to be both humorous and serious, to say something that mattered without people tuning me out. It would be something to the effect of, “Can we get a grip already, and deal with what’s important, instead of petty squabbles over ideological issues that don’t actually have any bearings on our lives?”

5) Why did you choose your blog name and signature name?

“Saints and Spinners” (not “Sinners” as is the common typo, though it's probably just as accurate!) comes from a conversation I had with a parent after a storytelling gig. I’d mentioned something about how many stories there were that involved sewing, spinning, and weaving. Somehow, we ended up talking about the lives of the saints and the interesting stories they had. I said, “I should do a program that’s entirely sewing stories and saints’ stories. I could call it ‘Saints and Spinners.’” My blog name, “Alkelda” is named after the saint whose commemoration day is my birthday. A few years ago, I was a guest-player in a Star Wars role-playing game. I chose "Alkelda" as the name of my character, a Twi’lek Jedi. I only played that one game, but the name stuck. “The Gleeful” refers to my tendency to play harmless tricks primarily to make the recipients laugh. I’m a melancholy person with a streak of optimism and silliness.

Dear Readers: If you would like to answer 5 of my questions on your own blog, let me know in the comments, and I’ll write up an interview for you.

Can you believe I'm still sick? I'm incredulous, myself. I haven't practiced guitar in 5 days. The cough and chills aren't as big a deal as the all-over body-ache that gets worse when I try to do something productive. As Monkey would say, "Please send bananas." In my case, please send muscle relaxants.

The Blogging Year in Review: a Meme

"We're space guys. We know what we are doing."
--Daniel Pinkwater, Guys from Space
Photo by Clara Todd

Cloudscome of A Wrung Sponge asked readers to participate in a blogger's "year in review" exercise by which we share the first sentence of the first post of each month in the past year. This practice reminds me of the way I kept track of the books I read during my Children's Literature classes: in addition to the bibliographic information and other notes on my index cards, I wrote down the first sentence of each book. I often didn't count prologues, just because the prologues often didn't have snappy first sentences. Some people say that the author should encompass the entire theme of the book in that one first sentence. My college poetry professor said that the last line of each poem we wrote should do the same. I'll give a little leeway for other people's writings, but in my own stories, I attempt to the first sentence to contain the mood of the story. Let's see how I did with my blog-posts. I included a second sentence when the first sentence was a generic greeting.


January: Update glasses prescription. [Context: New Year's resolutions for fairy-tale characters. This resolution was for Red Riding Hood.]

February: I have lots of notes and background material for stories.

March: I have not forgotten about the aliens.

April: Bede's Mom had a procedure done yesterday to drain the gall bladder.

May: Many little girls in my part of the world have a fascination with princesses.

June: Greetings! The House of Glee is in New York City for a few days.

July: "Which book are you?" personality quiz. [Watership Down]

August: It is said that if you could randomly teleport to any part of the universe, then 99 % of the time you would find yourself in empty space, devoid of stars.

September: I've started a blog for my storytelling gigs to have in place for the time when I am ready to be more than semi-professional.

October: Lucia's preschool teacher eats a raw foods diet and offers fresh fruits and vegetables to the children during snacktime. [This sentence is actually the 2nd post of the month. The first post was the poem "Ars Poetica" by Archbald MacLeish.]

November: Happy All Saints' Day! Celebrate the day with saints action figures.

December: Seattle schools closed last Tuesday and Wednesday because of the icy conditions after the snowfall, and I spent both days inside the house with Lucia.

Four Things Meme

Galetea tagged me for this "Four Things Meme," and I'm going to be cooperative because it's turned out to be a reflective exercise.


Four Jobs I’ve Had
1) File Clerk: I stapled, photocopied and pasted labels onto patents for 8 hours a day. You can imagine how grouchy I got when the boss of the department decided that we couldn’t listen to our Walkmans while we worked.
2) Walking Companion: Three days a week, I pushed an elderly gentleman around in a wheelchair so that he could get some fresh air and a break from hospice care.
3) Library Page (i.e. “shelver”): I love shelving books. I find good things to read.
4) Assistant Teacher: After college, I was a full-time volunteer at a daycare center for children of homeless parents. The hardest job I’ve ever had.

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
1) A Room with a View
2) Donnie Darko
3) Empire Strikes Back
4) Clueless (my favorite Jane Austen adaptation!)


Four Places I’ve Lived
1) Cucumber Creek, West Virginia (USA)
2) Takoma Park, Maryland (USA)
3) Goshen, Indiana (USA)
4) New York City, New York (USA)

Four Places I’ve Vacationed
1) Victoria, British Columbia (Canada)
2) Glasgow, Scotland (UK)
3) Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire (West Africa—though really, I was living there for three months doing my Study Service Term for college)
4) Florence and Rome (Italy)

Four of My Favorite Dishes
1) Lamb and spinach curry
2) Lentils, rice, & caramelized onions (“Megeddarah”)
3) Ethiopian vegetarian combo with a spicy lamb addition
4) Sushi

Four (Non-blogger) Sites I Visit Daily
1) Unshelved
2)New York Times
3) IMDB (we’re being honest, right?)
4) Seattle Public Library

Four Places I’d Rather Be Right Now Like to Visit
1) England
2) New Zealand
3) Lebanon
4) Japan

Four People I am Tagging to do this Meme
1) Nonny
2) Hitman J
3) Lone Star Ma
4) Goddess of Clarity

Silly Personality Quiz: Which Muse Are You?

You are Thalia
You scored 68 MUSE POINTS!

Thalia (Thaleia) the "Flourishing" is the muse of comedy and of playful and idyllic poetry, and is seen with a comic mask. She is sometimes seen with a crown of ivy and a crook. By Apollo, Thalia had the Corybantes, priests who castrated themselves in identification with the goddess, Cybele.



Link: The Which Muse Are YOU? Test written by babescottie on Ok Cupid

The Cube

Sometime during my grad school days, my Mom presented me with a game called The Cube. Unlike other personality tests, The Cube was actually enjoyable to me. It was a story in the making. I still remember what my answers were. The particular narrative for this game is lifted directly from Ambivablog. My answers are as faithful as I can make them to my original responses.

From Ambivablog:

There's a catch to this game. Knowing the "key" in advance will ruin it for you. I'm going to post the "key" at its own link at the end of the game. If you want to play the game, DO NOT LOOK AT THE KEY TILL YOU ARE COMPLETELY FINISHED. (I also suggest not reading other people's Cubes in the Comments till after you've played. Nothing should influence your Cube but your own imagination.) Pass this warning on to anyone you want to play the game. It's up to you whether you want to play and be surprised, or peek behind the scenes and be your own spoiler. (You could still "cube" others even if you'd missed your chance. In fact, you can only play innocently once, and after that, the fun is "cubing" others when you know the key and they don't.)

Here's The Cube. Answer each question for yourself thoroughly before moving on to the next.

1.) Imagine a desert landscape. It's very simple . . . horizon, sand, sky, whatever you see when you think of a desert.

2.) In this desert there is . . . a cube! What does the cube look like? What's it made of (if you know)? What color is it? How big? Is it sitting on the sand, or in some other position? How close or far away is it?

3.) In this desert there is also a ladder. Where is it (in relation to the cube)? What is it made of? What position is it in? Does it have many rungs? A few rungs?

4.) In this desert there now appears . . . a horse. Where is the horse? What color is it? What is it doing? Does it have on a saddle or bridle, or not?

5.) Now, somewhere in the desert there is a storm. What kind of storm is it? Where is it? And does it affect the cube, the ladder, the horse, or not?

6.) Finally, somewhere in the desert are flowers. Where are they (in relation to the cube, ladder, horse, storm)? What kind are they? Are they many or few? Scattered or clustered?

***
Please feel free to post your Cube visions in the Comments section, email them to me privately, or totally keep your own counsel. If you post your answers publicly on your own blog, please let me know-- I've not gotten the hang of the "Trackback" gig. I am going to link my answers in a backdated post.

Alkelda's Cube

The Key

Alkelda's answers to the Cube game

Here is my backdated post for The Cube:

The desert sand is pale and sparkly. The sand is fine and slips through the fingers as if it were silk. There are plants dotting the landscape. The sky is blue but streaked with white. Even though the setting is spare, there is warmth to it that has nothing to do with the heat. In fact, as deserts go, this one has a chill in the air that is quite pleasant to feel contrasted with the warmth of the sun.

The cube is translucent with deep pink, red, and orange shots of color. It is like a piece of rosewater Turkish Delight. It hovers above the ground, and casts a shadow. It revolves slowly, with one of the corners pointing down, and it makes a whooshing noise. It is the size of a small living-room.

There is a medium brown wooden ladder leaning against the cube. I’m not sure how it manages to lean against the Cube while the Cube revolves, but it does. The ladder is smooth and polished, with 5 or 6 rungs. The rungs are slippery unless you go up the ladder with bare feet.

All of a sudden, on the horizon, a horse gallops toward the Cube. It runs circles around the Cube, paws the ground and lifts its forefeet in the air a la the poster shots of The Black Stallion. The horse is dun colored, which is odd to me, because if I were to choose a horse based on color, I would choose a black, glistening horse. It has no bridle and no saddle, but it is friendly and approachable. However, it wants to remind me that in the end, it is wild.

The storm comes suddenly, and the sky turns from streaked blue and white to dark red and purple, with fierce rains beating down upon the sand. The inner translucent light of the Cube is dimmed. Thunder booms, water runs into the ground, and rivulets turn into little rivers. The horse is wet, but stays by the Cube, its mane plastered to its neck, no longer running around, but staying close to the Cube. The Cube is not revolving now. It is still, waiting for the storm to abate.

As suddenly as the storm appeared, it vanishes. All of a sudden, bright flowers bloom all over the desert. The air is heavy with moisture, and there are birds singing their relief. Everything is washed clean, cleaner than it was in the beginning, yet at the same time there is good rich mud where none existed before. How is this possible in the desert with the sand? The landscape is changed. It is no longer desert, but it is not quite meadowland. There are hibiscus flowers in this landscape, and I don’t know if that’s possible in a desert. But there they are.