The world inside the box

Hold out your hands.

Imagine a box, a box small enough to fit in your hands.

Imagine this box in your hands.

What shape is it? What colour is it? Is it heavy?

Open the box slowly, and look inside.

Inside the box, there is a door. An open door inside the now open box. The doorway leads to a staircase. Can you see the staircase yet? You can go through the door to look for it, if you like. The staircase is just through the door. You may have to look to the left or to the right, or it may be in front of you. It is there somewhere. Can you see it yet? It’s a spiral staircase, that climbs up into… what does it climb into? Is it a loft? Another room? Another floor? You’ll have to climb the spiral staircase to see.

Don’t worry – it’s all perfectly safe – remember, you’re holding the box in your hands, so you know it’s safe. If at any time you don’t feel comfortable, just go back through the door and out of the box.

You are at the top of the staircase now. Thinking outside of the box has enabled you to rise to the top without even trying! At the top of these stairs is a garden. A lush green, with many different types of plants and flowers around the edges, and beyond them are the tallest trees. There’s a couple of other ‘flowers’ too… a stream and a water feature. Can you hear the water trickling yet? You may need to go closer to one of them to hear it. Is the stream a gentle flowing one, or a babbling brook? Is the water feature a fountain, or a statue pouring water? Is the water clear? It is… the water is crystal clear. The clearest ‘clear’ you have ever seen, and then some.

Up above your head is a butterfly. Can you see the many colours on it’s wings? Can you hear the gentle fluttering of it’s wings? Apart from the sound of the water, this is the only other sound you can hear. The butterfly is beckoning you to follow it. It wants to show you something. Follow the butterfly to an archway which is on one of the sides of the garden. The archway leads to a room. An empty room. A completely white empty room. The butterfly flies to a corner, just inside the room. Follow it in to the room, and you’ll find a harp. Play the harp. You know how to. You can play the most wondrous music from this harp. Try it and see. Listen to the creative sounds you are producing from this magical instrument. Remember the tune you are playing. This music will relax and invigorate you at the same time. This is the music of how you are feeling right now. Not the right now in the real world, but the right now in this imagined world. You’ve enjoyed playing the harp. You can always come back again at a later time for another go. Or perhaps, you may be led into another room, by another butterfly, and find a different instrument. Or find something completely different. Something else that you have always wanted to try.

When you walk out of the room, you will be once again outside of your box. Back to the real world. Only now, you have a little more creativity within you. A little more music. A little more magic.

Does it feel good?

It’s a Smallville World!

Well, hair’s er… here’s something I have been intending to write about since starting this blog… Smallville! I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I enjoy watching this show, I like super-hero stuff, I like good stories, and I like things that make me think. Smallville pushes every button and ticks every box, in my opinion. It has moved with the times, yet kept the original ideas of the early days of Superman and his supporting characters. It is now showing in it’s ninth series (or season) in the UK, and the tenth series is the last one, apparently. I think I have seen every episode, but there may be one or two that I have missed. I have just watched the first series again, and there are some episodes there that I don’t remember seeing – although I am sure that I must have. The old memory ain’t what it was… I’ll have to find some meteor rock infused elixir which will boost my powers of recall. I’ll do that later, if I remember – I’ll get back to typing first.

I’m not going to write about my favourite episodes in this post, because there’s too many of them, and I’m a third of the way through already. But, I thought I would post a few words about my favourite characters from the series. There’s actually quite a lot of them too, so maybe I’ll just write about some of them this time around.

And the first has got to be the main man himself. Superboy / Clark Kent / Tom Welling. To start off with, he actually looks like Superboy – well, how I think he should look anyway. The way he played Clark in the early episodes, especially when he discovered a new ability was a pleasure to watch – and sometimes quite comical too. You could feel his embarrassment when his heat vision ability first appeared. And now, in the later episodes he is playing Clark working at the Daily Planet – in Superman times. So the boy has become a man so to speak.

Chloe Sullivan / Allison Mack. In the beginning, she was the girl who loved Clark but he was blissfully unaware. Eventually she was the girl who found out his secret, and covered for him on numerous occasions, until telling him that she knew. She has stood by Clark through some very trying times. She is definitely the kind of friend that I would love to have.

Jonathan and Martha Kent / John Schneider and Annette O’Toole. Clark’s adoptive parents, they found him shortly after his spaceship crashed in a field, in the middle of a meteor shower. They helped him to grow and develop his abilities, and found themselves caught up in some quite unusual situations, as others tried to find out the secret about Clark.

Green Arrow / Oliver Queen / Justin Hartley. Oliver wasn’t in the first few series of Smallville, but is now a great addition to the cast of characters. As well as being the inspiration for my haircut (…), he also looks good in his green leathers. I wasn’t too keen when he was going through his down in the dumps stage, but that was part of the Green Arrow history, and was well played. I think he is more positive now, but I’ve still got some more episodes to watch!

Lois Lane / Erica Durance. Erica plays Lois to perfection! I find some of the Lois storylines to be filled with humour as Lois gets herself embroiled in some kind of sinister plot time and time again. She’s also a battler, and gives her adversaries a run for their money, but she also shows her naive side when with Clark and talking to ‘The Blur’. She is 100% fun to watch!

So six characters briefly mentioned. More characters to be mentioned in my next ‘It’s a Smallville World’ post*. (*Not necessarily my next post). So, for now… TO BE CONTINUED…

Hair!

Well, I always say you get exactly what you ask for.

I wanted a haircut this morning, so decided on something slightly different for me. Something like this, maybe a little shorter at the sides and on top:

I toddled off to the barber’s shop, and, when it was my turn, asked for my hair to be short at the back and the sides, and slightly longer on top and at the front. “Did I want the side parting?” I was asked, and maybe this was my mistake. “No thank you” I answered. And my hair was cut. It looks like this:

Only not as tall on top. Note to self: Next time either take a photo with me, or go somewhere else! Oh, by the way, Justin Hartley does not look like a pineapple. The pineapple reference is intended for me. Just wanted to make that clear! Now, I’ve got to do something with my hair…

Control Your Destiny

Is it easy to control your own destiny? How difficult is it to decide what you want, and go for it? What blocks would there be to stop anyone from achieving the life they have always dreamed about? Is it selfish to want to succeed? What would be your ultimate goal?

To some, their success seems to come easy. They have an inspirational idea and go with it. Or they appear on Big Brother and then become a successful TV presenter. Or they become so good at what they do, they earn promotion after promotion. They know what they want, and go for it.

Others just watch these people making a success of their lives, and rather than being happy for them, they are resentful and jealous. They call them for their success. They look for the tiniest flaw, and make it seem the worst thing to happen since time began. They are so wrapped up in trying to find fault in other people’s lives, they forget about their own.

And there are others, who know what they want, go for it, get it, lose it, get something else, lose that and keep repeating this cycle over and over again. But they never give up, and keep trying.

And there’s another type. Those who can’t be bothered. Those who aren’t jealous of other folk’s successes, but tend to drift through their life aimlessly and without reason, except to get through each day.

And another type – the idle dreamer. Those who have ideas about how things would be better with ‘this’, or have grand ideas for a fantastic future, but do absolutely nothing to help themselves achieve their goal.

Whatever type of person someone is, each and every one of us has control of our own destiny. Well, that’s what I think, anyway. We can decide if we want to be happy, if we want to complain, if we want to keep trying, if we want  to put ourselves out a little, if we want to make our daydreams reality. Nobody can make us think any differently about anything, apart from ourselves.

So, if we want to be successful, what is stopping us? It’s not the red traffic light. Or the lack of ideas. Or someone who doesn’t like us and wants us to fail. Or the boss holding us back. Or the kids holding us back. Or the husband / wife holding us back. Or the dog holding us back. Or the weather. Or the distance. Or the colour. It’s not even how clever we are… or think we are. It is our own limiting thoughts that stop us.

We help or hinder our own future. Therefore, we control our own destiny. Or not. Either way, we’re making the decisions. Ooh, a paradox.

One of my favourite quotes is “If there is no light at the end of the tunnel, march down there and switch it on yourself!”

Writer’s Block

I’ve got ideas coming out of my ears. I’ve got that many ideas, they are all mixing together, and I don’t know where to begin. I decided to use a couple of those sites that provide prompts, to give me a gentle nudge in the direction of what to write about, but I took that a bit far and looked at far more prompts than I needed. So now, as well as having too many of my own ideas to write about, I’ve now added other people’s ideas too.

The obvious thing to do would be to write a list of all of my ideas (and those that I have now acquired) and choose one to run with. However, that would take up too much time, and I would then need to rush whatever it was that I was writing about, and I don’t think I would enjoy rushing writing a blog post. Nd besydes myy tiping an speling wuld bee afectd. I could just type away, and see where the momentum would take me, but that may end up with a jumble of random words that don’t make any elephant at all. Although Sagittarius angel coathanger green is wigwam.

Several of my previous posts have been written at will, as it were, and they did tend to flow after the first or second paragraph, so perhaps it may be a good idea to start the post in the middle, or at the end, and then go back and write the beginning later. I’m using this order when I’m writing about the events that have happened to me in the way I post, so one moment I’m back in a long distant memory, the next I’m writing about today, and then I’m back to an event last month, and the next post may be about something I’m planning on doing in the future. Writing in this order may be a bit confusing all in one post though, so it’s necessary to keep track of what happened when. Structure is all important.

I’ve also looked at some pictures in books, comics and magazines to try to decide what to write about, and I’ve peered out of my windows to see if any light switches on in the creative aspect of my mind by what I saw. The light’s there – only it is just highlighting the amount of ideas that are in my mind (and building by the second with everything I look at) and not making one particular idea jump out at me.

I’ve listened to my favourite music, watched my favourite video clips, remembered offensive things that people have said to me, reminisced about wonderful places I have visited and imagined places where I want to go to. They’re all there to be written about one day, but what should I write about today?

I could do a list of all of my favourite things, foods, people, clothes, music, smells… but I can’t think of where to begin. Which would be my first favourite down to my tenth favourite. Aaaarghhh… does it matter???

I could actually write about me, but I tend to do that anyway. Whatever I write about is from my perspective, and I may see things completely different to someone else – but I’m still writing about about me. I could ‘borrow’ excerpts of other people’s posts, or snippets from their website (full credit will be given) and then add a line or two from my point of view. I could describe my favourite drink in mind-numbing detail, well, how could you elaborate on ‘nice’?

Or, I could just waffle on about the first thing that comes to mind. Which isn’t really very easy when I’ve got ideas coming out of my ears. I’ve just given them a real good stir within my mind, and now they’re all over the place.

OK, I’ve made a decision. I’ll write my next blog post tomorrow. I can’t write anything when my creativity is blocked like this…

Vampires

I seriously have a thing for vampires. I even like the name they have. And I like it also when it is spelt V-A-M-P-Y-R-S. But, I wonder, what do I like about them more? And, more to the point, what is it that I actually like about them? Well, let’s see.

POINT ONE

Vampires always look cool. Even when they have been out all night feeding on their unsuspecting prey, they always manage to pull off a cool exterior.

POINT TWO

Vampires always look fantastically good. They have an amazing dress sense, great bodies, ooze sex appeal, and have fantastic eyes. Of course, they look like this because they are all after one thing. And we all know what that is.

POINT THREE

Vampires feature in really good stories. Look at Count Dracula, for instance. You can’t get a better story than that, can you? And then there’s the movie The Lost Boys. See – good looking vampires with great bodies there. And what about the Twilight series or the Vampire Diaries? Good stories etc. once again.

POINT FOUR

Vampires know they look good, and flaunt it. And why not? If I looked as good as them, believe you me I’ll be flaunting it myself!

POINT FIVE

Vampires tend to work the night shift, which, funnily enough, is the kind of hours I like working too. I’m not much of a morning person, but love working into the small hours. The pay is better too.

POINT SIX

Vampires have split personalities. When they are angry, you can really see it in their faces! Their teeth sharpen too!

POINT SEVEN

Vampires don’t like garlic. This is where the similarities between me and vampires differ as I love garlic. Oh, and if I’m feeling angry I don’t get sharper teeth.

POINT EIGHT

Vampires always seem to have fun, as they live care-free lives. Well, apart from the fact that they aren’t actually alive, that is. But they do tend to do what they want to do.

POINT NINE

Vampires, although they tend to stick together, seem to have solitary lives – especially those who live for centuries. I don’t think this is a good point…

POINT TEN

Vampires, although they look amazingly good, can not see themselves in a mirror. This isn’t a good point either…

POINT ELEVEN

Vampires need to beware of mobs, hunters and slayers who are always chasing them. Again, another not so good point…

Right, let’s leave the points… they’re starting to feel a bit negative now. I’ll put together what I have.

OK, so let’s see: Cool exterior with an amazing dress sense, sexy personality with eyes to match, likes to have fun into the early hours, and looks good all of the time.  Memorable, but can, on occasions, be slightly moody. Enjoys every moment to the full. Likes being around others, but also likes own company. Not too keen on people being a bit too full-on. Personal motto: Forever young, forever ageless.

The reason I like vampires so much is because they remind me of me! Cool… I’d have never thought of that one!

And now for something slightly similar!

Not really, though… it’s still me waffling on about something that has come into my life at some point! This time, I’m going on about things that used to make me feel good years ago, and still have the very same affect on me to this day.

The first thing I have to write about is my love of comics. The comic to the left is DC’s Justice League of America number 29, from 1964. Several years ago, I actually managed to obtain a copy of this, and I was / am very pleased with myself! This particular story features the second team-up between the JLA and the Justice Society of America from Earth Two. I’ve wrote about these stories in a previous post, but I have a ‘thing’ for the JLA/JSA team up stories in particular, as the very first DC comic I ever owned was one of these. I waited thirty years to read part two of that story, and that makes you think in itself! All good things come to those who wait! I waited each and every month for the next issue. Loved them!

Next on my reminiscence of things good, has to be the one and only Scooby Doo from Hanna-Barbera. I used to enjoy all of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the sixties and seventies, such as The Flintstones, Laff-A-Lympics, Top Cat (Boss Cat), The Jetsons, Blue Falcon, and the shorts including Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw and the rest, but Scooby Doo must take top spot! I even tried to call the BBC’s Multi-Coloured Swap Shop on 01-811-8055 (I still remember the number!) just to ask for an episode of Scooby Doo. I never got through, but just as well really as I only had 2p for the phonebox! I’m not too keen on the changes they have made to Scooby in the latest series of cartoons – it has lost it’s feel in my opinion. The updated cartoons (before this relaunch), where Fred has a blue stripe on his top, are OK though. But those from the early episodes are just fantastic! Love them!

Monday to Friday lunchtime TV used to feature a twenty minute or so show like Pipkins, Hickory House, and Rainbow. Rainbow was my favourite, and I still enjoy watching the shows to this day (although, I must admit I cringe sometimes… in a good way, I must add!) There was a dream episode once featuring Zipman and Bobbin… I’ll have to see if I can dig that episode out and watch it again. The theme tune is still with me today. Thames TV bongs followed by “Up above the streets and houses, rainbow climbing high. Everyone can see a rainbow, up in the sky. Paint the whole world with a RAINBOW!” and some more drums. Love it!

Everything that I’m remembering here is very colourful. As I’ve said before, I love colours, and they are providing very vivid memories to me. Even in the very early days, when we had a black and white TV, I used to watch Scooby Doo and imagine the colours. When I finally saw an episode in full colour, I was beside myself. It was a story about strawberry, chocolate and vanilla phantoms in an ice cream factory, and I watched it on my Auntie’s TV.

Nice memories…