The Featured Post Blog

A collection of the featured posts as they appeared on mo'time

by: rustymadgal

The past 45 minutes of my life have been consumed with blood, sweat and beers researching the following true story of a long forgotten legend.....

AIRSTREAM TO ANONYMITY:  The tornadic rise and fall of America's First Trailerpark Supermodel, Crystal May Topaz. 

CHAPTER ONE
The Zenith

Here we see Crystal May at the apex of her career in her most loved ad.  Her well toned leg gingerly stepping out of the harvest gold tub onto the matching patterned vinyl.   Even the innocent shapeless white cotton towel cant contain the force, the energy, the passion, that is Crystal May. 
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posted by: howard at 14:39 | link | comments |

by: chefknitbits

“Help me lift this chest.” She said.  I knew it when I saw it, it was mine.  I couldn’t imagine what it was filled with but I was eager to open it.  “You’re father’s sick of having this in the garage” my mom protested.  Once I opened it, I cringed thinking I could just slowly close it and dump it.  It was overflowing with pictures, letters, cards, dried flowers, and pieces of my past.  I started opening letters.
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posted by: howard at 18:20 | link | comments |

by: jollyoleshannon

The problem with reading the first manga in a series (and this is true for each of the above listed works) is that they just introduce the characters and give a little taste of the overall struggle those characters will have to overcome. The plotlines have them overcoming just a small difficulty in the first volume which gives rise to the issue of the whole series. Furuba features an orphan of Dicken's proportioned suffering, Tohru, and a family who has had an interesting curse put on them for generations--Each person is one of the animals of the Chinese zodiac, their human personalities have the characteristics associated with that animal, but the best part is that if someone of the opposite sex hugs them, they transform into their animal. This magical and wealthy family takes in the young orphan and allows her to know their secret.  I am curious to see how Tohru fits in with the Sohma clan and if they will be able to continue hiding their magic properties. Also, I wonder if I will learn more about the Chinese zodiac by reading the series.
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posted by: howard at 10:30 | link | comments (3) |

by: EmmaPele

It dawned on Emma this weekend how freakin' stupid she was to think that she could just remove herself from desire unless she became a forest monk or an ornamental hermit. It's not her own desire that is the problem. She spent eighteen months deciding to remove herself from that world, months in which she remained quite on her own before choosing this very reasonable course to inflict pain on no one and have no pain inflicted on her. But what completely escaped her was that other people would continue to project their desires onto her, and would not understand her choice. It is an unusual one, after all. Women, after all, are supposed to be desperate for mates, and if they were alone, it could only be out of cynicism, undesirability, or a bitterness that the right pursuer can overcome. Emma is not bitter, nor is she a cynic, nor is she undesirable. She simply believes that other things are more important, such as cultivating compassion for many people rather than passion for one. And yet even after removing herself, she managed to get tangled in an unhappy situation in which her pursuer projected a fantasy that she was having a nascent relationship with him when she just thought of him as an interesting person she had met among many interesting persons she met every week. Of course this was a blow to his ego, but was Emma responsible for this ego and the pain it had ultimately inflicted upon itself because it was acting, in Buddhist terms, as a "hungry ghost"?
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posted by: howard at 22:06 | link | comments |

by: ButterflyLane

Grandpa didn't seem to remember who we were – we being my sisters and I.  We brought him a Dr. Pepper, and he actually drank some of it.  His eyes lit up when he saw the can, and when I asked if he wanted some, he grinned.  Just for a second, he looked like the memories I have of my grandpa.  "Weeellll, I think I could handle a little of that." 

He kept telling us about the trucks on the ceiling, how they were just whipping by- and not semis, just straight trucks.  He'd be talking one minute, and staring at the ceiling the next, with a look of absolute fascination.  To a man who almost never even took an aspirin, drug-related hallucinations must be pretty cool stuff.  I don't know what they have him on, but he seemed comfortable- moaned a little when he sat up, but that was about it.
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posted by: howard at 22:38 | link | comments |

by: crysalis

M and i were sitting at the food court in East Coast Park today having brunch and suddenly out of nowhere the jukebox started playing. it's a pretty red jukebox full of really old songs, and at intervals of about 20 minutes it would just start belting out a song from random selection of it's tiny collection, seemingly asking for attention.

that gave me an idea for a short story... "the Jukebox"
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posted by: howard at 13:43 | link | comments |

by: DJGroovySlug

18. I wish I had a brother or sister.  Or at least I wish I was closer to my cousins.

19.  I love Macs but I don't hate on PCs.

20. I prefer watching movies in theater than at home on a TV.  I generally always like movies much more if I've seen them in theater.

21. I'm afraid of mimes.

22.  My first crush was in the 4th grade.  He had blonde hair and blue eyes.

23. I'm going to be a bridesmaid this September.

24. I don't mind going into debt if I spent all the money on traveling the world. Otherwise my debt is my biggest shame.
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posted by: howard at 22:45 | link | comments |

by: jordanclary

I’ve been in China long enough now that not much surprises me.  So when my husband and I went to Guantang Fuhai Hotspring Resort over Christmas weekend and the brochure told us to “Come On In and Enjoy our Drug Pool!” we figured, sure, why not?  After all, the brochure also told us that we could “cultivate spirit and free from vulgarity here.”

So that night we meandered into the “Chinese Herbal Hot Tub” area.  It looked like a tropical Munchkin Land.  Sparkling lights were draped around the palm trees.  Red lanterns swung from every available protrusion.  Rainbow lights danced off the waterfall that cascaded over the fake rocks.  It would be a great site for a Grateful Dead show (if only Jerry were still alive!) and a hit of acid.  Maybe they weren’t kidding when they said they had a drug pool.
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posted by: howard at 12:30 | link | comments |

by: BanzaiDescent

Understand...

...that for a moment I was happy. Just me, alone on the southbound expressway at 11:55pm on the 31st of December. The road, a long drive through unlit spaces and tall trees, the horizon and everything else hidden in shadows except for bright lines painted on the asphalt. There are no other cars in sight. Death Cab for Cutie is my only company as I cut through a light veil of smoke at 70kmh. For a second I think an early fog has set in but suddenly the night sky explodes with a million red stars and a hundred green comets. I open my windows. I hear the explosions. It’s the New Year. By now I’m driving at a higher altitude and can see the towns below firing off roman candles and fountains and everything else that flies merrily and goes kaboom. Imagine the scenario. I push down on the accelerator, turn up the volume, roll down all the windows and let the wind sing. Left and right, rockets spear straight up through the darkness, aiming for outer space, and shatter into sparkling flames as if hitting an invisible ceiling. The smoke along the highway thickens but I am hurled forward by exhilaration, the explosions, the civilized madness. I feel like I’m driving through the happiest war in the world.
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posted by: howard at 12:36 | link | comments |