Day 136: Halley and the Geese

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 136: Halley and the geese

I just dawned on me that it’s been a while since I’ve given you an update on the 2.5-million-dollar project. The last two pictures I posted were these:

 For about two weeks after these pictures were taken, I didn’t see anything happening. Not that the men weren’t working, they were – as I now realize – busy placing supports in the parking garage in preparation for the next phase of the project.

Last week Monday I came home and was greeted by this sight:

From then on, the pit just became bigger and bigger.

The noise of the jackhammer (white machine on the far left) is deafening. The works starts promptly at 9:00 a.m. and continues until 5:00 or even 6:00 p.m. I try not to let it bother me, but after a few hours this is getting more and more difficult. More so because watching something on TV is impossible as I can’t understand the dialogue. The same with listening to an eBook, I can’t concentrate on the narrator.

Even Halley has a hard time dealing with the noise. She was sitting on the ledge, watching the men at work, and her eyes were clearly asking … what are they doing? 

She was trying to attract the attention of one of the men with an “Hey you! Can you keep it down a bit? Some of us are trying to sleep up here.” 

When that didn’t work she decided to call on a higher power with a “Please God, make it stop!”

Last Friday the noise did stop for a little while as the foreman came to inspect the site and he and the six men took a stroll in and around the pit. While one of the workers did a lot of gesturing, the foreman stood with his hands on his hips bobbing his head. He seemed pleased with the progress.

Then on Saturday, a different kind of inspector and his entourage came to take a look at the works. I heard a strange noise, went to take a look and there they were ... five Canadian geese, casually taking a stroll along the construction site. 

Not one but five of those big birds were just waddling along, seemingly belonging to nobody. Now that was of interest to Halley. 

Day 135: AWAI Online

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 135: AWAI Online

One of my pet peeves are people trying to take advantage of other people: Nigerian princes who want to share their millions, financially strapped mothers who can’t provide for their children and ask for support, and writing sites making unrealistic promises to aspiring writers. One such writing site is AWAI Online.

It’s understandable why freelance writing has become so popular. Men and women of all ages get to work from home, get to be creative, and some of them manage to earn a decent income.

AWAI Online recognized that freelance writing has taken off faster than a car on nitro and zoomed in to lift unsuspecting people of their hard-earned money. The plan is simple, get people’s attention with the line

““The Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting salary”

When I see a line like that I immediately know that I’m dealing with a scam. No copywriter, amateur or professional earns a six-figure salary. If they did, everyone and his uncle would choose that profession.

Generally, freelance writers work for pennies, they are among the most underpaid people in the world. Some of them get paid 3, 5 or 10 cents per word and gradually work themselves up to a better payout.

A friend of mine is such a writer. She started out working for pennies, build up a portfolio and a reputation and today she is one of the most successful and respected writers in the business. Save to say, she makes a very nice income but she earns nowhere near $100,000 a year. However, she is one of the few, the rest of us take what we can get where it comes to writing.

But let’s get back to AWAI Online. As always I did some digging and found this article:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/53003768@N06/8494566540

At Writers Beware I found the following:

https://accrispin.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-barefoot-writers-club.html

At the time of publication, there were 127 comments pertaining to AWAI Online. Let’s have a look at some of them:

The head honcho of AWAI, calls herself "Katie Yeakle" That happens to be a fake name, as are the names of many of those who run or write for AWAI. Hmm...

Check Elance or oDesk if you want to find out what freelance writers really earn. Those sites are chock full of very capable writers charging $10-$20 per hour.

If AWA has accomplished anything aside from making "Yeakle" and her insiders fabulously wealthy, it has flooded the market with pipe-dreaming wannabe $500-an-hour writers, which by their sheer volume have eliminated the chance that many will earn a reasonable living off writing.

I just found out they are taking $49 out my credit card account every year, and I have not authorized this repeated charge. Also, I cannot find anything in "My Account" on their website that shows I will be or have been charged or how I can stop the charges. This qualifies as a scam. I've never gotten anything worthwhile from them either. Stay away.

Thanks for this post! I've been wondering about these AWAI people. I signed up for their mailing list at some point but I've never spent money on them. I just get emails from them every few days that always sound about the same and never give me any actual info. Like you said, it's just all fluff that reads like one of those get rich quick scam pages. Sure it sounds glamorous and beautiful and who wouldn't want that... but it's got way too many red flags.

If I call in the next 30 minutes, I will receive two, that's right, TWO subscriptions for the price of ONE! They'll even throw in a free shower head valued at $19.95! But wait--that's not all. As a special introductory offer, they will provide me with a 1,000-page email list that I can use to spam unsuspecting people with the hypnotic power of my newly-acquired copywriting genius! If that's not a deal, I don't know what is.

On second thought, it might be easier to just take a blunt blow to the head.

There is only ONE way to be a profitable writer--have talent, wow a publisher. Get your education in the field of writing from reliable educators, work, work at it until you have a WOW piece. Now go out there and WOW one.

There is no way, as I see it, that some snake oil salesman on the internet can make you a writer.

What I want to know is, "who are all these people writing the testimonials?" 

AWAI is pretty much of a joke.

Unfortunately, the naïve, and the ones who don't do their homework on AWAI get sucked in.

I have lost count the number of business owners I have written for who got burned after hiring "copywriters" through AWAI.

The stories I could tell you about this place. Just the way AWAI advertises themselves should tell anyone with a half a brain that they are not good at copywriting. Their lame articles alone should tell you plenty. Buyers beware. 

I guess this just about sums it up. If you go searching for AWAI Online, you’ll no doubt find favorable reviews, but the question is … who wrote those reviews, even if the writer states that he/she is unbiased.

Take it from me, anyone who believes that earning a six-figure salary (meaning in access of $100,000 a year) with copywriting is possible is dreaming.

The only ones who make money from the six-figure writing course are AWAI Online and you can be sure that they’ll be smirking … we caught another sucker.

You want to learn how to write? There are two ways of doing that: 1) go to school, an actual school where a teacher/professor will explain the process and the finer points; 2) go online and read everything you can get your hands on. Don’t just read through, study the material. Next, you practice, practice, and practice some more. You’ll get the hang of it soon enough and it won’t cost you a dime.

Day 134: Puss in boots

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 134: Puss in boots

Most people you meet will tell you that they have no problem remembering something that happened years ago, but don’t ask them what they had for lunch yesterday. I’m one of those people. I remember my first date, how I felt when I first sat on a horse, and what I wore to a friend’s wedding. Safe to say, there’s nothing wrong with my long-term memory. My short-term memory … hm, that’s a whole different story. For instance …

Last week I was ready to go out when I couldn’t find my shoes. As always, I turned to my son.

“Dieter, do you know where my sneakers are?”

“Where did you take them off?”

Yeah, what kind of a dumb response was that? If I knew where I had taken them off, I would just go there and put them on. It was Dieter who eventually found them. “They’re over here,” he called, “under the kitchen table.” 

Under the kitchen table? Now that was strange because I never leave my shoes in the kitchen.

The next day it was the same scenario.

"Where were my shoes?"

“Again?” Dieter asked, slightly annoyed. 

Yep, again. A search party was dispatched and this time the shoes were located deep under my bed. Once again, I thought this was strange. While I sometimes place my shoes under my bed, I never store them in a way that I can’t see them anymore.

Two days later it got even stranger. Now I found one shoe behind my bedroom door and one shoe in the laundry cabinet. Something was definitely happening, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know what kind of strange forces were at work here. Was I the victim of a ghost who was playing a prank on me?

Having had experiences with ghosts in the past, I wasn’t particularly keen on that idea. Fortunately, before I could get myself too worked up about the possibility of a spook, the truth was revealed, and its name was … Greyson.

While folding some laundry, I saw Greyson coming into my room, grabbing hold of the laces of one of my sneakers and dragging the shoe with all his might into the living room. Considering that Greyson is a 10-week-old kitten who barely weighs 1,5 kg and the shoes are twice as big as he is, this was quite a formidable task.

The question is … what was he trying to proof by stealing my shoes? Play a game of puss in boots?

Then again, the way Greyson runs and jumps it might be a good idea for him to have some supportive footwear. At the rate he’s going he’s going to wear out his poor little feet.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 133: A day in the life of a kitten

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 133: A day in the life of a kitten

For those who are following Greyson’s adoption … he’s been with us for 11 days now and the little fellow has made himself quite at home.

In the beginning he hesitantly traipsed around the house, curious but scared at the same time. And who could blame him, for such a small kitten, the rooms and the furniture must have looked enormous. He quickly overcame his fear though and now his careful traipsing has been replaced by running at full tilt. When he gets going it’s a case of … get out of my way! His partner in crime is Halley, and the two of them take turns in who does the running and who does the chasing. In the process rugs go sliding, bowls of kibble go flying while water bowls get tipped over.

The running and the chasing doesn’t limit itself to the living room, kitchen and bedrooms though, they also take it outside on the balcony. For instance, on Saturday Halley and Greyson saw a fly outside they absolutely had to have. Both of them has just had their breakfast, so they couldn’t have been hungry, but apparently they still had room for a snack.

They chased the fly all over the balcony, zipping from left to right and right to left, occasionally jumping to catch the bug mid-air. Time after time they came up empty handed, but they did manage to make a mess by jumping on a flower pot which toppled over. By the time I got there, Halley was nowhere to be seen, leaving Greyson to face the music. (Not that there was any music to face.)

          

          

All this running around makes a kitten tired, so shortly after lunch Greyson went down for a much needed nap. Unlike people who battle insomnia, Greayson was out like a light in 3 ... 2 ... 1. 

When he woke up he lazily opened his eyes and stretched, no doubt wondering when dinner would be served. 

After all, if there's one thing Grayson loves besides sleeping, it's eating. No matter where he is, no matter what he's doing, when he hears a can opening, he would go over corpses to get to the plate first. He's also still eating long after everyone else is finished. Of course, eating can be tiring too, so after dinner and a quick wash, it's time to sleep again. This time nestled against mommy's or daddy's arm.

Day 132: Meet Greyson

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 132: Meet Greyson

Isn’t he cute? His name is Greyson and we adopted him from a Toronto Cat Rescue foster mother last Friday. Let me explain how this adoption came about.

On December 4, 2017 Mickey, our 13 year old tuxedo cat crossed Rainbow Bridge quite expectantly. He had trouble breathing, we took him to the vet thinking he had a cold, but he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. To ease his suffering we had him put down right there and then.

His passing left such a void that after two weeks I started looking to adopt another cat. While I would have liked to go for an adult cat, I doubted that the rest of our gang would accept such a newcomer. So it would have to be a kitten. 

I visited the Toronto Cat Rescue website and found Ella, a beautiful white kitten with grey patches and a grey tail. We adopted her on January 4^th from Jackie, her foster mom. Ella was renamed Halley and Jackie, her foster mom and I stayed in touch with emails and photos.

   

Two weeks ago, Jackie sent me a picture of Truffle, a kitten she was fostering. As soon as I saw Truffle I thought ‘OMG that is such a cutie’. The following Friday afternoon we visited Jackie for afternoon tea and we got to meet Truffle. He was even more adorable for real than in his picture and a real heart stealer. The long and the short of it is … we adopted Truffle last Friday and renamed him Greyson.

When I introduced Greyson to Charlotte, Gabriel, Holly and Halley things went more or less as expected … Charlotte was terrified of the newcomer and ran to my bedroom; Gabriel took one whiff of the little one and decided he wasn’t worth bothering with; Holly hissed and turned her back on him, while Halley looked like she’d seen a ghost.

From what I read online, a new pet should be kept in a separate room and introduced to resident pets gradually. This is probably good advice, but I couldn’t find it in my heart to lock the little one in the bedroom and leave him all alone. I would just have to chance it. I wasn’t worried, I knew I had to give Charlotte, Gabriel, Holly and Halley time to get used to this new addition to the family, but I was confident that everything would be alright.

After just 24 hours, Charlotte, Gabriel and Holly started to warm up to Greyson. They were still weary of him, but their curiosity got the better of them. Halley on the other hand wanted nothing to do with this newcomer, she didn’t even want to stay in the same room as him. Practically the whole of Saturday she spent on the balcony, only venturing inside to eat and use her litter box.

Oh dear, I thought, this is not going well. I had expected that Halley would embrace little Greyson as a friend, since they are both kittens. Admittedly, Halley is 10 months old and Greyson is 8 weeks old, but technically they are both kittens.

Then suddenly on Sunday Halley had a change of heart. Not only did she come inside, she actually sought out Greyson and started keeping an eye on him.

Today, a week later, Halley and Greyson are inseparable. Don’t ask me what happened but as from last Monday those two are the best of friends. Where you see Greyson, you see Halley, where you see Halley you see Greyson and on the rare occasion that Greyson makes a dash for freedom, Halley goes looking for him.

Just goes to show, I didn’t follow the new pet introduction rules, but as predicted, everything turned out to be okay.

Day 131: Some much to do, so little time

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 131: Some much to do, so little time

Some people complain that they are bored. For me there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. 

Reading

Ever since I was introduced to James Patterson, I’ve been reading his work one book after another. For me this is unusual because even with my favorite authors, no matter how much I like the story or the writing style, I could only read one book and then had to read something else. Two books in a row of the same author just didn’t agree with me.

That changed when I tried James Patterson. I’ve read about ten of his books in a row now and they are all so different that the stories hold my attention start to finish. All except one that is, I started reading ‘Princess’ and I couldn’t get into that story. Other James Patterson fans enjoyed the book though, so I might give it another try.

​At first I didn’t like the book I’m currently reading, ‘Invisible’, but that soon changed and now it’s so riveting I would do nothing but reading. I swear that man could write about a doughnut going stale and make it sound interesting. 

Diamond Painting
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Another hobby that takes up my time is diamond painting. Up until about a month ago I didn’t even know what diamond painting was. I imagine quite a few people are just as clueless. Rather than explaining what diamond painting is, let this video do the talking.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bReU2hBt_7g
 
There's a variety of designs to choose from, partial or fully drilled. Be warned though, diamond painting is not only a beautiful and relaxing hobby, it's also very addictive. You can't just do one. See anything you like?

Writing

Finally there my new manuscript. I had this idea for a new story, which I thought was going to be easy to write but it proves to be anything but. I’ve become way too conscious about word choice, sentence structure and showing vs. telling that writing is no longer a pleasure but sheer torture. I had originally planned to finish this new story by Christmas 2018, but the way things are going, it could be Easter before I write ‘the end’ or worse, Christmas 2019.

Working

Yeah this last one really throws a spanner into the works, but it's something most of us do between 9:00 and 5:00.