Seven Things: Some Mini Rants

01 - Do you ever have dreams where you go on some trip with a group of people, like to a museum and then for some reason they ditched you or that you somehow ended up alone and then you had to find your way back to the group but you got lost and before anything else happens, you wake up? No? I guess it's just me. I don't analyze my dreams or remember them but this one I remember. I guess it's one of those normal abnormal things because no one likes to be left behind.

02 - I don't have a license so I can't drive but traveling can be expensive even if you're going to the next neighborhood. My only way of transport is the subway, ie, the train. So if I'm somewhere and I couldn't find a train station, I wouldn't know how to get home. People use the subway because it's cheaper but now the train rides are more expensive which makes no sense. I barely know how to ride the bus which I think I rode twice. And taxis? I've only ride in one maybe once with someone. Taking a taxi is probably cheaper but I don't like that because you're alone in the back seat and who knows, maybe the taxi driver had other ideas and take you somewhere you don't want to go. 

03 - Recently I finished watching Soul Detective which is about a soul detective who finds/catches souls that had escaped from hell. It's a somewhat, light drama but with a lot of deaths and people getting possessed by souls and some romance and tiny bits of humor and a couple of sappy moments. The special effects are really well done. I enjoyed watching it. You can watch it here. Make sure to turn on the closed captions/subtitles for the English subtitles.

04 - I really starting to hate the phrase, Spoiler Alert, in fictional books. I find it's especially annoying in fantasy books. I can't give an example because I didn't mark them and don't remember them but it seems to be used to tell readers the obvious things with a slight attitude of annoyance. The ones I read were used in children's books so I find that even more annoying because it's like unless you're a child, you feel like they are trying too hard to sound young - I don't know if that's true but it just seems that way.

05 - I just finished a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle called Snow White and the Seven Gnomes with artwork by Demelsa Houghton. Houghton's artwork is gorgeous. This artwork is fun - one of the gnomes painted a mustache on the queen in the mirror. This was mostly a fun puzzle except I'm annoyed by all the puzzle dust. 

art by Demelsa Houghton

    If you don't know, Ravensburger puzzles pieces have blue backings instead of gray which is nice until you have to deal with it. There seems to be excessive dust so I couldn't completely remove them while putting the puzzle together so I have to accept it. For some reason, they just seems to multiply if you move them around as a group, like pouring them from a box to another box. I use boxes to sort the puzzle pieces so I have to remove the dust after each use. I really don't to figure out why the excessive puzzle dust or why the blue dye seems a bit clingy on smooth surfaces so I'm not buying any more Ravensburger puzzles and besides that, they are quite expensive and they don't even come with a poster.

06 - It just seems like lots of blogging things are ending - memes, challenges, co-ops, hops, blogs. Art challenges are the ones that seem to end more frequently, I think. There are many art challenges at instagram and other social media platforms but I'm more incline to participate if it's run on a blog by a blogger and stays there instead of spreading around to other platforms. 
    Motivations to create art (& do other things) has been very low for me these past few years. I do find with prompts, the creative juice seems to run more often. People crave doing creative things even when the motivation is not there, I know I do. Making art for my blog posts sort of counts as a small creative outlet but it's not quite there. Why have the motivation gone? Why do people stop doing things that make them happy? Who have answers to such things?
    Recently (more like a year ago), Thursday Art and Dinner Date ran by Rain has ended due to Rain wanting some time away from the internet. So now I'm thinking some blogger should make a new art challenge for bloggers who don't care to use social media. I would do it except somehow I just don't think I can. It's easy to come up with prompts but if I can't do, I can't ask other people to do it. I know there still a of art challenges out there but I haven't found one that I like so I'll keep looking.

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07 - Anyone up for the Blogging from A-Z Challenge this April? I'm going to do it even if I don't finish. I like the challenge of using the alphabet as a guide to write 26 post. I don't pre-write any of my posts except maybe the first post. I like the extra challenge of writing a post before I publish it which no one have to do. I think even if you pre-write your posts, it's a good challenge for any blogger to sort of test your stamina and your blogging brain. It really is a challenge and not just something to do lightly. More about the A-Z challenge here.

What's on your mind these days?