Daily Prompt: Truth or Dare

Daily Prompt: Truth or Dare.

Seriously? Is it possible to be too honest?

Let’s chew on some deliciously salty food for thought, shall we?

 

-Yes honey, that dress DOES make your butt look big.

-Actually potential mate who happens to be a single mother, I find kids to be irritating and gross.

-No, I actually find organic food to be a supreme waste of money.

-No darling child, I love you and your siblings all the same.

 

Honesty is NOT always the best policy.

I’m sorry, but in my personal world view, I find that occasionally there is a time where shading the truth, omitting facts, or flat out ignoring something is going to be the best option available. No questions asked, hands down.

If we lived in a world where everyone was 100% honest 100% of the time in regards to 100% of all the things, then I believe we would find a way to cope with it. In fact, I believe it would make SOME things better.

Examples? Of course I have examples.

-ANYTHING politically charged! I’d like to see what the president had to say if he couldn’t lie for a few days.

-Courting rituals! Is this a one night stand or is he/she actually looking for love?

-Poker? Actually, this would ruin poker, but I’m sure we could come up with a new game if we tried.

-Fast food advertising! I’d like to see a poster that actually showed what a taco bell burrito looked like when they used truth to sell it.

***SIDE NOTE!***

Taco Bell burritos actually look like they are advertised. It’s everything else that doesn’t look accurate. I mean seriously, how hard is it to screw up the sale of a tortilla.

Regardless, back to the rant.

 

Truth is subjective to the situation where it is used in our current society. My religious roots tell me that the ability to choose… to choose right from wrong, good from evil, or truth from fiction is essential to our trial and purpose to being on this earth. Taking away ones free agency is something that would defeat the entire purpose of being here.

So… truth or dare… it’s a valid question. I choose truth simply because it is USUALLY the easiest method.

But are there times where it’s not the best option? Absolutely. It’s just up to the individual to determine when those situations arise.

 

*** Secondary side note!***

Darling wife: No, that dress does NOT make your butt look big.

Former Potential Mate: I do ACTUALLY like kids.

Organic Food Hippie: Sorry, Organic food IS still a scam. Sorry. And get a haircut you dirty hippie!

Loving children: I do love you equally! Sometimes I like one of you more than the other, but I LOVE you equally! (Don’t hate! I believe there is a difference between liking someone and loving someone. Deal with it!)

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Valentines Day and Asphalt

Odd title for a post, don’t you think?

Well, since the 14th is valentines day, I believe that a V-Day post is in order. But the problem is that my valentine is currently 401 miles away from me. That’s a big of a haul. Attached to that is the fact that I can’t take any time off of work right now and it kinda puts me in to a bind.

So, here I am.

Sitting in Cheboygan Michigan.

My Valentine, my lovely beautiful and amazing wife, sitting in West Allis Wisconsin.

And 401 miles of asphalt between us.

The best I can do is call her, let her know I miss her. And do my best to make sure she knows I love her and I miss her.

So, since I don’t have a paper valentine right now… I’m hoping that I can make a small mental impact with something of the digital variety.

So, Andrea, I offer up the following because it makes me smile and think of you.

It’s true ya know…. All of them!

I remember watching BSG together and being SO pissed when Saul Tigh turned out to be a cylon. PISSED!

Yeah, no explaination required here.

I saw this online and I could help but chuckle at the humor.

Simple, pure, tetris, truth.

I love you Andrea. Don’t forget that.

30 Day Blog Challenge – Day 6

Okay, day 6 states that I have to post a picture of somethign that makes me happy.

I looked at that challenge and said, “This is simple. BAM! A picture of Andrea”.

 

But I realized that this is what I ALWAYS do. No, not this time.

As much as I LOVE and adore my wife and children, this time this will be about something other than my family that makes me smile. Don’t get me wrong, my family makes me happier than most anything on this earth, but since we assume that this is a given, we’ll move on to the next best option.

 What you are seeing here is a rendered version of a scene from Descent. Now, it isn’t this game in particular that I want to write about. The shot is more of an analogy. Maybe a metaphor. Possibly some other word that says it means something other than it looks like. I forget, but that’s not important.

The thing I’m trying to represent here is video games in general. I play them. I enjoy them. Some of them make me smile. Some piss me off. Some make me think. Some I just like to look at. Others I am finally begining to play.

There is so much of my life that has been affected by video games.

I have a few that top my list of favorites and those I believe I will point out in the future.

…

Well, it’s TECHNICALLY the future now from when you read those last lines, so I guess I’ll tell you about them now.

GAREN’S TOP xx FAVORITE VIDEO GAMES

 

5. Super Mario Bros. series on NES

I spent way too many summers playing this bugger. Be it with or without cheats, I enjoyed it. I played with my brothers and sisters in nearly every house I lived in growing up. This is the epitome of nostalgia in my book. LOVE IT!

4. Metroid

Metroid is one of those games where I love the premise of the game. I love the physics. I love the controls. I love the exploration and the ability to wind up in some really strange places…. but…. I never beat the game. Hell, in all reality, this game scares the ever living daylights out of me. Dunno why. But it’s still one of my favs.

3. Tribes

“Trust me, I work at Gamestop”. Worst words ever to hear. Best game that could have ever been suggested by that guy. I still think he was a tool though.

2. Warcraft Series

From RTS, to point and click, to MMO… The warcraft and Starcraft universes  make me smile. I love the lore. the storylines. the graphics. the ideas behind the game. And hey, Jaina is kinda hot. LOL. Regardless, with the amount of time invested in this series, it’s up there in the top 5 for a reason.

1. Descent

I played descent for way too many years. I still pick it up from time to time even. The game makes me sick to play. It’s scary at times. And no one I know plays because they were never able to get ansy good at it. Let’s not forget though, I have the super power known as ADD, so a lot of things like this I wind up being really good at. Take battletech for example. I’m CRAZY GOOD at that game.

But that isn’t the point. The point is that I enjoy video games, and some board games. And it is those forms of entertainment that give me the opportunity to escape the real world for a little bit, enjoy some time either alone or with others, and let my imagination run wild.

So, what is it that makes me happy? (Other than my family which is my true #1)

Video games.

Sorry, it’s true

 

-G

30 Day Blog Challenge – Day 3

3 days in.

I’m already getting tired of this. LOL.

Okay, here we go… todays topic:

Your First Love

Hmm, this one is interesting. I know that there is a difference between love and infatuation.

Very few people will know what I’m about to talk about. You should feel lucky to hear the story.

I know that I dated a number of girls growing up. Some I dated. Some I just took on a date. Others that I was infatuated with and still others I simply lusted after. (Don’t worry, I’ll try to prevent you from being uncomfortable with this)

The first girl was Marybeth Kershaw. I liked her. She was the first real girl I spent any amount of time with. Mom and Dad didn’t want me dating her so I didn’t. BUT, that was a year long fight.

next…

I actually dated a girl named Elizabeth Harmon. She was sweet. A member of the church. She was even my first kiss. I told her I loved her, but looking back, I don’t quite think it really fell into the jurisdiction of actual love. I liked her a LOT. Don’t get me wrong, but was it love? I’m sad to say, no.

After Liz there were a few girls I was friends with. Some I spent some personal time with. Even a few I kissed. But then there was “her”.

Andrea Choate.

I actually made this girl my wife. I dated her for around two years. I spent great amounts of time with her. She made me smile. Made me happy. And while my parents wanted me to have nothing to do with her because she was considered a ‘floozy’, I fought them every single step of the way.

Eventually, my mother and I came to blows on this topic and she kicked me out of the house for it. We eventually made up, but the damage had still been done.

Back in August of 2002, Andrea and I set the date to be married for October 12th. We cranked out invitations and everything. The invitation thing is a whole blog post in and of itself. I don’t think I’ll be telling that one any time soon though.

Anywho, I prevented myself from telling Andrea tha tI loved her for nearly a year while dating. That was a trick in and of itself. I had been burned a few times with girls that I liked and I did NOT want to screw this one up. So, while sitting in the car on the beach in Tracyton Washington while eating a sack of Tacos, she let it slip that she loved me. Incidentally, it was in the same place doing the same thing that we agreed to get married.

I realized at that point that I felt the same way. I loved her too.

So, there you have it. I liked girls. I dated some. I was infatuated with a few. Hell, I even lusted after a couple. BUT… I can’t honestly say that I really loved a girl until I met my wife. I don’t think even she knws that part of the story. (Well, she does now as she reads this blog)

 

A first love? Yeah, I have one. I just happened to be lucky enough to marry her.

Maybe that sheds some light on why I fight so hard to keep her.

-G

 

p.s.

I love you Andrea Anderson. Don’t ever forget that.  ❤ +1

I want to buy you shiny things…

I need to apologize in advance, I found this on the internet and I felt like I needed to repost it. You can find the original source Here.

We’ve all heard it: someone will love you, when you learn how to love yourself.

It’s something that people say when you’re young and you’re looking for someone to love you. It’s something that people say to you when they know that to find love, you need to be open to loving yourself.

But what happens when you love yourself, find someone to love you, and then fall out of love with yourself?

What happens when there is someone in your life that is so amazing and wonderful, someone who looks at you like you are the most cherished thing on the planet, and you find yourself feeling unbearably distant because you just can’t feel their love?

The thing about self-hatred, damaged body image, or low self-esteem is that it’s isolating. It can feel as though you are the last person, on the last glacier, out in the middle of the abyss and nothing is strong enough to breach the distance between you and the people in your life. You hear them saying all the right things, “I love you. You’re my favorite. You’re my one and only.”

The kind of things that people dream about hearing.

And yet, in your brain, the only sounds are:

How can that be? Don’t they know how awful I am? How repulsive? I bet they are onlypretending to love me. I bet they just think that they love me, but someday they will realize that they were mistaken. Don’t get comfortable. Don’t let your guard down.

Before long you find yourself picking fights. You find yourself taking apart every bit of the relationship, aggressively, trying to locate the evidence that will support your lack of self-worth. You find yourself sabotaging something good, because you don’t think that you deserve it.

Unfortunately, in this isolated state, all you can manage to think about its you you you. Your needs. Your feelings. Your love. Your safety. Your security. It doesn’t even cross your mind to imagine the difficulty of what it must be like to love you in that miserable state. You don’t consider how much strength and heart is required to love someone that spends the entirety of their day trying to push you away or test your love.

Being in a relationship with someone who doesn’t love themselves is heartbreaking.

It is overwhelming.

For many years I tested my partners’ love. I ran through them. Or rather, I pushed them until they ran away. In that moment, I felt validated, because I just knew that they would leave me in the end. I just knew that I didn’t deserve to be loved. 

Until I met Her. When I met Her I was challenged with a level of love that I had never experienced. I pushed. I yelled. I cried. I experienced the deepest depths of my self-hatred and I blamed it on her. But she didn’t run away.  I felt disgusting. I begged her to leave me, because I was no good, I ruined everything, I didn’t deserve someone to be there for me, forever.

The thing about love – reciprocal, intimate, lasting, nourishing, fantastic, gorgeous, exciting love – is that it requires that both parties believe that they deserve to be there. It is impossible to participate wholly in a relationship with another person when you are constantly tripping over your feet, getting in your own way, and demanding all of your attention.

The thing about love is, that when you feel it for yourself, when you are able to truly forgive yourself for all of your perceived shortcomings and treat yourself sweetly, you can’t help but want to extend that love to those you come into contact with.

Love breeds love, but it begins with love for yourself.