Living with Tammy

 The absurdity of having to get things done as an adult can be shocking and when I see people on TV shows somehow have things together, I do wonder. Joey made a good point in the episode of Friends where he tells them they are all hanging around a coffee shop at 11:30 on a Wednesday morning. The simple things, like just keeping your wardrobe functioning can make you feel like you are going completely insane. Take for example the latest issue I am having, as someone who spends about 99% of his time at home, I cook, clean, read, and pretend to work all in the same clothing. Now, in the grand scheme of things this means that I only need to do the washing once every two weeks, because I don’t stress about what I am wearing and when. However, things have gotten strained between me and my wardrobe as I notice little things going wrong. Recently I have switched my all black, and drab, t-shirts to more bright and printed designs. Just the simple addition of an interesting thing appea...

You know, I am just old enough to remember going to second-hand shops, pawn shops, or whatever and finding something I know is worth a lot of money, for dirt cheap. Now, being that I am in South Africa this stopped happening around the 2010s, right around when everyone got desperate. But there were still places here or there you would go to, where you could find a good deal. Lately, though, I have noticed that these things have stopped, even the places where I would buy a good book (being 10 years old) for only 60 bucks have withered away. Now, it’s not that we need to go out in droves to support mom-and-pop shops because they are closing. Instead, it is that they are now found on almost every corner you can imagine. That is causing the death of bargain shopping because they no longer seem to care about selling things for lower prices. Instead, you now find a second-hand store that sells their cameras for the same prices as online stores, usually with the added markup for having to...

Books, games, movies, series, these things lie to us, the create this internal world of “if I do something well this time, if I train really hard this time, then I shall be the best!”. And it is by far the biggest lie children grow up with, and it has ruined the way adults look at the world more than most. The thing about failure is that you have to do it, you have to fail, we look at history and success stories as these great singular achievements. When in reality they were anything but that, they were a series of spectacular, small, larger, insignificant, failures. You have to fail, to know what not to do, you have to fail. The best way to explain this is through looking at exams, all the way back at school level. If you walk into an exam and you did nothing but still barely pass that feels good. But you learned nothing from this experience, all you learned was you could do nothing and still pass. But, if you start to study, and you get maybe 1% more on that exam, barely passin...

    T hese shorts are written as practices in writing and all are unedited and are not proofread.      Have you ever sat down and thought about the last ten, twenty, thirty, conversations you have had with friends and family? Have you then also come to the realization that apart from a few surface level conversations you never really talked about what interests you, or even what you spend your days doing? To be honest, I love talking about the country, politics, world events, and everything else we all know we talk about. But I have also come to the realization that every conversation I have usually runs dry because that which interests me is not a real topic of discussion. Instead, I must divert back to other topics, “How was the flight?”, “Did you do something new?”, “Oh, yeah, I’ve heard about that American TV show”. I spend almost no time whatsoever doing any of these, instead I wile away my time, playing games, reading articles, or watching anime. A...

    T hese shorts are written as practices in writing and all are unedited and are not proofread.     Breathe in, breathe out. Steady, slowly, through the nose, maybe through the mouth. Every nerve in my body is on end, the rustling of my chin against my coat is loud. Breathe in, breathe out. The sound of my own breathing is the loudest sound, my heart beats in my ears like a drum in the heat of a song. Breathe in, breathe out. I focus on getting my eyes to dilate, I need to see what is around me in this dark place. Breathe in, breathe out. The shapes start to be visible, a beam of wood there, an old musty carpet on the floor, and even a cabinet against the wall. The coat is loud, my every movement causing a cacophony of sound to be absorbed by the quiet. Breathe in, breathe out. A creak from the floor beneath me as I shift my weight nearly makes me jump back against the wall. I can still feel the wall, against my left hand. It is the only reason I know where I...

    T hese shorts are written as practices in writing and all are unedited and are not proofread.   Colour is the only thing we really need to look at, as there are several things about this world that may seem black or white when every issue and facet has a rainbow of ways to view them. Often the most people can understand are the issues that are directly opposed to them, this causes issues when new opinions are created or introduced. Take for example the simplest of issues that you may think of, pineapple on a pizza. Most would say that this is something atrocious, in fact, the US and the online community that they have would have you believe that there are only two sides to this issue. Pineapple is bad or it is good. When you may be shocked to find that there are several opinions that these two groups of people choose to ignore. In fact, many categorize the different opinions into their own or the opposite group, to vilify what they believe to be the wrong view....

    T hese shorts are written as practices in writing and all are unedited and are not proofread.   Life around me has been pretty consistent with the whole family and friends thing, hell I can barely think of anyone from my high school that hasn’t started a family. Legit, at least married, divorced, mother, father, whatever, I know this through Facebook updates. The most trusted source in knowing how far behind you are in your list of goals for life. Okay, let’s be clear here, this is probably not true I have just been cursed with a feed that shows only those with kids, marriages, and everything else. In reality, this is all about where I thought I would be at the age of thirty, mostly at least not going to bed each night alone. That thing is big and lonely, though I do get to kick the covers in every which way I wish. The simple fact I have no job and no income means that in my thirtieth year on this blue earth, it feels like everything has paused. This weighed he...

    From long ago there have been stories, of great magics, of greater evils, light in the dark and shadows of the light. Each story as complex as can be, each one true in ways we could not have imagined. For eons have passed since the first one told, of monsters in the dark, with misshapen bones and torn flesh.   Creatures of the night that can only be driven away by those who dare to rise above, led by brave warriors and heroes. Enchanted they be, with magic, fire, water, steel, and honour. Each story would tell of these creatures, these men, these beings that flew across the sky.   One story, so often forgotten did not tell of the past, it told of the future! When man had forgotten of those that hide in the dark, the things that were banished to the night. As the ways of magic and enchantments were forgotten man forged new weapons, of steel, of earth, of rocks that shine with no light!   Only then, the story goes, shall the darkness awaken, and man shall cry ...

    T hese short stories are written as practices in writing and all are unedited and are not proofread   He woke up to the cheese being left on the wrong shelf in the fridge. Any other day he might not have noticed, but he specifically remembered having moved it to one of the lower shelves before going to bed. Sneaking late night snacks often meant enjoying just a bite from the block of cheese. Making an executive decision to ignore everything like this until he had a cup of coffee, he headed that way. Fortunately, everything else seemed to be right, perfectly normal, in fact he found nothing else being touched even creepier. As the coffee began to brew, he slowly calmed down and took the cup to the balcony, overlooking the garden and pond. A gaggle of geese were enjoying the water and slowly making their way around the entire thing, dipping their heads below the water when needed. By the time his coffee was finished he had forgotten about the misplaced cheese ...

  T hese short stories are written as practices in writing and all are unedited and are not proofread His Day The winter cold snapped at him for a few minutes before he woke up, rolling onto his back he looked at the familiar room. The cornices were the shape he had always known, rounded with a small bump right before they reached the ceiling. There on the ceiling itself he saw the five dots, in the same place they had been since he had painted the roof so many years ago. As he looked around the room, everything came into focus and he could make out the details as wakefulness came to him. There were several things that were new to him but as he recognized the white shapes, the poles supporting them, and the pipes running from them he realized. He wasn’t in the hospital, but he was certainly being taken care of, having converted the mansion he built into a hospice. After a while he pushed himself upright and with a few blinks he swore there was something he had to remember. ...