Three little words

[clevermanka]

solo posted a meme where you get three words and then ramble about them. I'm usually up for rambling about anything, so I asked for words and here's what I got!

red used to be my favorite color. Now my favorite color is gray (which idk might say something about my general mental state over the last decade but it's a good color brent). I still like red, though, and of the rainbow-type colors, I'll usually pick red. It's my go-to base color for most of my art (a habit I'm trying to break) and my favorite set of sheets (now deceased, alas) were red. Nearly every car I've driven on a regular basis has been red (ironically, the currently-red Chevelle is not going to remain red). And of course there's the red serge fetish in the due South fandom. My first online name was Chernobyl Red from the 90s indie comic fRiNgE (the character adopted the name because it was her favorite color crayon). I'm wearing a red apron right now, actually...

kindness is not something that comes naturally to me anymore. I'm fortunate to have grown up in a loving family and when I was little, kindness was an instinct. I always offered to sit with the new kid at school (and never had hard feelings when they found their own group of friends because I had a great group of friends), and I tried to emulate what I'd been told was a loving and Christ-like (I was raised xtian) attitude. The summer after fifth grade we moved to Kansas and I couldn't make friends. I was bookish, chubby, reserved, and still liked dolls. Nobody wanted to sit with me at lunch, much less be friends outside of school. I'd never realized how rare genuine, unrewarded kindness was until nobody offered it to me and I was bitter as fuck for a long, long time. Still am, honestly. I make a conscious effort to be kind now, because kindness is a rarity in this world. But I'm only kind to the people I think deserve it.

granite looks great as a countertop. For surfaces, I prefer it to marble (which is finicky and expensive, so like, lose-lose--why are marble floors and counters still even a thing? rich people are weird). I like the depth and texture and the variety of colors--it's incredibly visually appealing to me. Absolutely hate working on it, though. Every time I set something down on a granite counter I feel like I'm going to chip the plate/glass/whatever I'm handling.

So, anyone else want to play? I'm happy to give words or receive more.

Comments

[solo]

Ohh, this is interesting, I'm glad I gave you these words. Red is my favourite colour, too, and pick it over most other colours. The walls in my (home) office are deep red and I find it so invigorating.

And like you, I try to be kind, because I think it's a good thing to be and the world needs more kindness, but I'm not what you'd call a 'kind person'; and once I've decided someone doesn't deserve kindness, I don't look back.

Aaaaand I love granite. I spent ten years living in a city mostly built of granite and in the sunshine, especially after rain, the whole city would *sparkle*! I still miss that. Also, granite is great for rock climbing since you get a lot of traction on it - I love its reliablity.

(Marble just looks messy to me. All those weird patterns.)

[clevermanka]

[islenskr]

Sure! I'll take some random words. :)

[clevermanka]

Yay!

Quality
Fortitude
Collect

[minoanmiss]

I really like your meditation on kindness. also, school was so often so terrible.

I also like red.

[clevermanka]

Luckily I found my people in junior high, but man sixth grade was rough.

Red is SUCH a good color!

[anarfea]

Oh man I feel you on not having any kindness shown to me in Elementary school. I was such an awkward kid. I'd like to play, if you want to give me some random words.

[clevermanka]

*hugs*

Comfort
Resilience
Beauty

[jo_lasalle]

Nearly every car I've driven on a regular basis has been red

RED! It is the best car colour!!

I'm finding this meme really fun and illuminating.

What you wrote on kindness really resonates with me, on a fascinating, and also slightly uncomfortable level. It would get a bit deep to go into nuances here, but I'd been thinking about that recently, how good or not I am on kindness, and this was... very familiar in some ways.

If you're up for more, have three more: Bread. Fireworks. Dance.

[clevermanka]

Seems that struck home to a few people. It was a good word to get.

Illuminating memes are rare and should be indulged!

Bread, real bread, made with actual god-damn wheat flour and spongy with a firm but tender crust spread liberally with quality butter is one of the most glorious gustatory pleasures on this planet. Tragically, I can't eat it anymore but I am glad it exists to make so many other people happy. Just thinking about the way fresh-baked bread smells can make me feel better.

Fireworks are banned in my town (except for the city-sponsored show) which I don't mind because honestly I never got into them. I appreciate the engineering that goes into them, and it's amazing to think about how ancient they are. When it's a week past the U.S. Annual Blow Shit Up and Pretend We're Awesome Day and assholes are still (illegally) setting them off at 2am, though, I get a little testy.

Dance has been an important part of my life since I learned I was not terrible at it at a school dance in high school. I was not good at most physical activities (we're a pretty sedentary family) but I could dance and I took pretty much any opportunity to do it. I started learning bellydance in 1990 and performed in a number of venues for a wide variety of audiences (from Renaissance Festival drunks to the Arab American Medical Association). I can follow swing (basic rock-step only), waltz, and cha-cha and can lead swing. I used to host dance parties at my house and I once danced for nearly nine hours straight at a New Year's Party. I'll probably never perform professionally again but being able to dance like I want to dance (even just fun-times club dancing) is my prime motivator in rebuilding my strength. Dance is just...really super incredibly important to me.

Would you like some words in exchange?

[jo_lasalle]

Um, sorry, I didn't realise you can't have bread! I didn't mean to allude to this tragedy. (Which is properly tragic.) Sorry!

Dance - wooo, you really have amazing experience!

Sure, hit me up with words! :D

[clevermanka]

Oh, no apologies necessary, seriously. If I got upset every time something like that happened, I would be a miserable person! I honestly am happy for the people who still do the stuff I can't. LIFE'S RICH TAPESTRY and all.

How about:
indulgence
shell
contained

[wyomingnot]

My family moved to Kansas at the beginning of fifth grade for me. It was the absolute worst ever. I too was chubby and bookish, and I had boobs and was taller than everyone else. Sixth grade was marginally better (after we moved to the suburbs), but still. Ugh.

:)

[clevermanka]

Kansas is a shitfest and sometimes I can't believe I'm still here. Even my parents, who dragged me here, got out! I had two chances to leave (in my 20s to Chicago and in my 30s to San Francisco) and didn't take either of them, so that's on me, but still. Hmph.

[wyomingnot]

I did manage to get out but went back.... *twice*. But my parents retired (went back) to California, and took my stuff with them. So I'm done done with Kansas. I've got a brother there still, but as much as I love him, I will not be returning to Kansas for anything. :)

[moodsong]

I probably won't write anything but I could use some drawing prompts... so hit me.

[clevermanka]

Oh, I LOVE the idea of your using these for drawing prompts. How about:

structure
contrast
blended

[saffronhare]

I would love some random wordplay, please. Feeling kind of entropied, creatively.

[clevermanka]

I'd be thrilled to help shake something loose for you, bb!

anticipation
growth
flavor

[saffronhare]

Anticipation -- This one got me thinking about ketchup and I gave it a few days to get more clever but my brain is stuck on ketchup so here we go. Well, ketchup and Carly Simon, because it's her song that's running through my brain. Dad played that album all the time. I think "You're So Vain" is on the same album, which I have strong aerobics memories of. See, when I was about 11 or 12 years old, I was really bored one summer so my mom signed me up for Adult Rec aerobics classes to keep me busy and tired. This was in Germany. So I've got very strong memories of doing crunches in the gymnasium with a couple dozen mommy-ladies (not my mom, though, she didn't like aerobics) to "You're So Vain." Probably a bunch of irony there, with a side of ketchup.

Gonna come back to the other two, maybe on my own DW. Loving everyone's rambles!

[clevermanka]

Wow, that was a ride! =D

[saffronhare]

Growth -- Lately, I've been preoccupied with intellectual and emotional growth...and I think a lot of it happens the way crystals form. Driven by heat/pressure, along with elements available in the environment, they create branches and structures and intricacies, but frequently only on the inside and over nearly immeasurable periods of time.

[clevermanka]

This is gorgeous.

flavor, finally

[saffronhare]

I hadn't forgotten about this challenge. Came back to it when I needed it, so glad it's there today. FLAVOR is on my mind as a dance term, but I extend the metaphor. (When do I *not* extend the metaphor? NEVER.)

A choreographer will direct the movement and note counts or musicality but a lot of performances call for the dancer to add some FLAVOR. Sometimes they call it texture, but it's all the little things that make a performance *theirs* and not somebody else's. If you're in a chorus line, flavor is bad. (Nobody is supposed to stand out in a chorus line or draw focus from the main performer.) But everywhere else, flavor is GOOD. The really confident dancers are able to *use* flavor to glorify elements that would ordinarily be flaws. Flavor is variety, flavor resists repeating. Flavor draws the eye to somebody who might not even be at the center because watching them is compelling.

I think that's how I'm trying to approach my writing. I am not going to out-write a bunch of people but I can sure make my writing MINE. Anyway. Back to it.

Re: flavor, finally

[clevermanka]

Oh, that's gorgeous.

[dancing_crow]

I need words, please

[clevermanka]

Yay!

Design
Sentiment
Present

[the_lucky_nun]

It's late, but I'd like to play!

[clevermanka]

Yay!
How about:
Discovery
Cool
Illuminate