Ok. This title doesn’t seem like much. However, I have seen some seriously amazing houses in Coos Bay and North Bend.

Technically, we live in North Bend, which is a block away from the Coos Bay border. Don’t ask me, I just live here. North Bend, on average, has the new-fangle homes that look a lot like the houses next door and down the street. You know the type, made from the same building plans except for the odd one in between (I suspect that those were either accidents, already there, or houses that had burned down and rebuilt) with that little touch that makes them different. Such as the house being built like someone was looking in a mirror at the first house, or the one that moves the front window over by two feet.

Well, yesterday, I took our roommate, Jessica, down to the park in Coos Bay so she could visit her son. I didn’t really notice anything on the way there since I was doing my damnedest to keep the few sights I did notice in order so that I could find my way back. On the way back, however, was a completely different situation. I glanced around in awe, and yes, almost got lost. The houses were magnificent. You have not only colonial style, but ranch (and it looked like a real log home) and everything in between. There was at least on 20th century home that looked completely modernized the whole front of it was nothing but one huge window.

Telling my parents of my discovery, I found out that they had originally looked at a house, more in the country, for 1200 a month. (Maybe one day we will afford that, but it was nice to look at.) Apparently it was huge, four bedrooms, a bit of acreage – not too much, but enough to play with. High ceilings. Spacious kitchen. The whole-9-yards. I wish I could have seen it.

I look outside and though sometimes it is cloudy, it is amazing. The winds blow different here than from Klamath falls. It is almost as if Coos Bay is a completely different world. The foliage is the same, yet different,. The weather is the same, but different.

For example, in Klamath Falls, the winds blew from the lake. The winds would reach our house from a northern direction. Here, the wind comes off the ocean, always carrying a briny smell, which hits us from the west. In Klamath falls, the trees are more pine than anything else, except in the city limits, where you have the oaks, elms, and willows. Here… I haven’t even begun to recognize half the plants. I mean, there are still the pines, but there are numerous other trees that I have not been around very often and have yet to memorize.

In Klamath falls, you drive north for a half hour and you are in the forest. East, you end up in high desert (see my facebook for pics). West is another city. South… well, that’s California. In Coos Bay, north, you see the coast. West, you are on the ocean. South, you are on the coast. East, you are in the mountain range.

The people are so much nicer here, too. Everyone has a warm smile and a welcoming hello. People go out of their way to help others it seems. In Klamath Falls, you are much more likely to see averted faces and eyes and hear mutterings behind your back.

Is Coos Bay the nicest place in Oregon? Maybe, maybe not. I haven’t seen enough of Oregon to give you a definite answer. But Coos Bay is a wonderful place to visit if you love the coast and happy people.

6. The tv series, Star Trek, has created numerous devices that are currently used in today’s society. From sliding doors to cell phones. What other special device is being made due to the creativity of the series? Is there any other television series that has revolutionalized the world?

5. Your job was to investigate reports of a special creature that lives in a small town. Only there is much more going on in the small town that just a special pet. The man who owns the pet has his own…

The sound was loud enough that it shook the entire house. S/he rushed into the den, only to find that…

I feel bad for some people. I mean they go through their lives trying to find a place that they belong. Many writers go through this. Sometimes they are lucky and can a writers’ group. But other times, they live in small towns and really have no connection to other writers.

They are scared to make that leap and put themselves out for ridicule so refuse to put an ad in the paper to meet other writers. They don’t want to wait at a proposed meeting place only to be the only one there an hour after the arranged meeting time. Writers are very fickle creatures. It is hard for us to just jump out there and say ‘howdy’. Many of us just want to be left alone and allowed to work.

Sadly, the few who do wish to expand and start living life to the fullest may meet certain sites that claim community and the ability to help writers gain a sense of themselves. However, this is untrue. There is no sense of community and very few of these places even care about the writers.

Their concern? Money. They realize that they cannot make money until they garner up a few thousand writers. So they paint pretty and enticing mental images with pretty and enticing words hoping to lure the unsuspecting into their web. Then they use the people they claim to wish to help.

Be careful. An aware writer is the one who will meek out a living on their words. One who is unaware will some day be eating theirs.

It was quick. Almost painless, in fact.

Hello again,

I figured that I would do a prompts list for writers. Currently, I have only 31 prompts. Feel free to add prompts of your own in the comments section. The prompts are for you to do whatever with and are only limited by your imagination. So have at…:

Prompt #1

S/he stood up. It was his/her turn to step up to the podium. It was time to give a speech. But…

2. It settled into his/her hand, almost sleepily. At first, s/he didn’t realize what it was, but then…

So far its mostly been work, actually.

Ok. We moved up and settled stuff in the garage. But now Jase doesn’t have room to work on his project. So I have been steadily cleaning their house starting with the living room.

Well, they have a roomie who is staying here free of charge. She doesn’t have a job so she cant pay any rent. My parents offered her a place to stay in trade for doing some of the chores. I can honestly say that I have never seen someone so horrible at chores. She seems nice, but I get the wiggins from her and I really dont want Jase around her. I know, I am protective and easily jealous, but the way the girl dresses… well, if you were here, you would definitely understand my dilemma.

So now she wants to work on the yard which is a one or two day a week chore, and Im of the “no” side. For one, thats my brother’s job in trade to keep renting his house. The landlord is trusting him to help mom and dad with the yard work since they aren’t very young any more, and both Pol and Shirie are being garnished to the point that they cant afford the full rent plus food and necessities.

Sadly, Pol and Shirie had been fighting all day yesterday and I stepped blindly into it on several occasions, without even realizing what was happening. I honestly didn’t know that they were fighting since I don’t go over there very often. So, I became a target for outrage. Pol jumped me three times. The last time, I knew what was happening but there was really no reason to yell at me like that…..

I don’t have a clue what is happening over there and after the attitudes that I have dealt with, I don’t want to. I really need to find a place of my own that is just for me. I am planning on tearing up a tiny place in the garage for me when I tear it up for Jase. I even have these old closet door blinds (I don’t know what closet they go to, but they are definitely not from any house I have ever lived in) and then I am going to play music. I like music. I like loud music. I need music. So, that’s the best place for me.

Humph. Pol just came in, gave me a hug, and said he was sorry. *frowns* I’m still not happy about the way things went yesterday. I used to do that. I dont want to any more. That was the first time I really saw what happens to others when I acted up the way I used to. Thank god I started really working on it. I hope to never do that again.

Anyway, I will chat with everyone later. Need to move the hamper with the sheets in it into the roomies room. Toodles for now *waves*.

Well, Jase apparently couldn’t take it any more so we moved early.

Sadly, we rented from U-haul. We rented a 17 foot truck and a car dolly on Friday. That evening we stayed up till 3 A.M. putting everything that I had packed, into the truck. Jase did most of that since I was worn out. We went to bed then woke up at 9 A.M. to continue packing. We didn’t get on the road until 1:30 P.M. Saturday.

We went from Klamath Falls, to Medford (Rt. 140), up I-5 to Roseburg, then cut from Roseburg to Myrtle Point, Coquille and Coos Bay. Now we are here in North Bend, a block away from the Coos Bay city limit. Go figure.

Anyway, along the way, we stopped 8 times checking the car and the dolly to make sure everything was in order. All of our animals were in the car, because we felt that that would be safest for them.

The Dolly was the front wheel loader type, which has these little ramps you pull out and drive the front wheels of the car up before locking the wheels in place. Then you lift the ramps and slide them back into their cavity. A little bolt thing will lock them into place so that they don’t pop out and drag on the road while driving.

Right outside of Coos Bay, that metal bolt thing vanished. Just snapped off. We couldn’t find it. The only reason we knew that the ramp was dragging was because this black truck pulled up just ahead of us on the driver’s side and started driving funny. If it hadn’t been for them… The ramp was showering sparks over the car, and the fuel tank was on that side.. put two and two together and there could have been a serious problem including the fact that we would have lost all the animals.

I am not happy that U-haul didn’t check their equipment before renting it out… but it gets worse. We took the truck and the Dolly in to the U-haul place here Sunday afternoon. We had cleaned the truck up and even filled up the tank. Plus we had driven forty miles under our allotted mileage.

So we told them what happened. And we lost our deposit. 200 dollars just down the tube because THEIR equipment failed. We had nothing to do with it. The guy who took the truck in wanted proof that the animals were in danger and the car had sparks being showered on it. He wanted PROOF. Then he told Jase that we could be faking it and have taken off the bolt thing ourselves.

The worst part about it is that we were depending on the return of the deposit so that Jase could go home and finish cleaning up and packing the house. Instead we were ripped off and will probably even be charged for repairs on the dolly.

Until that had happened, the plan was that I would return with Jase to help clean and fix the house, plus pack whatever was left. Then my brother and mom were going to come down and help from Thursday to Saturday. My mom and Bro even rearranged their schedule at the risk of loosing hours to help us. But Jase’s truck is in the shop and he needed whatever was left of the returned deposit to put back in the bank for that purpose. Sadly, we borrowed money from my parents just so that Jase could get home. So on top of needing money to pay for the truck’s return, possible repairs on the dolly that should have been well maintained, we also have to pay back over 100 dollars for Jase going back there.

My parents don’t actually want the money back, but Jase and I both feel that they should not have had to pay for our return trip. If U-haul maintained their equipment we would not be in this situation.

Bottom line: I will NEVER rent from U-haul again. Next time I could end up losing something extremely important. I do not recommend anyone using U-haul in the future.

Well, today is the last day I have online. We are going to be shutting off the internet tomorrow morning. I am going to miss chatting with everyone online. But hopefully, I will be back online on June 1. If not, I dont know when we will get internet back.

Jase’s truck broke down. The transmission is shot. So he is trying to have it repaired for 2k. That means that in the next two weeks if we dont somehow get over 2k we wont be moving. Sadly this means that we wont exactly have a house. On top of that we have to get the camper registered and get some tires for it. So we might end up losing that as well.

Things will get better thankfully. So everything is going to be fine. I have hope that we will be ok.

Anyway, wish us luck and hopefully we will be online on the first!

I wanted to take a moment and comment on something that has been happening. I realized just a few minutes ago that its happening everywhere, from the smallest business to the government itself.

Oppression.

There are good people around the world who are being pressed down, told they are not worth what they do. My husband deals with it, several of my friends deal with it, and honestly people around the world hear it from their supposed governments.

Take America for instance. Instead of expanding and making the country better for its people, its closing and becoming more narrow-minded. This country was supposedly created for the people by the people. Now its for the government by the government.

Children are taken from caring and giving families, yet other children are left with undeserving families. Take it to the next point. Several families in Klamath falls have lost their children for silly reasons such as the house was dirty – it was being cleaned at the moment that Children Services chose to pay a visit. A pile of dirt needed to be put in a dust pan, but Children services had interrupted the act. So they took the child away. Then they forced the mother to sign documents on the claim that if she didnt, they would take any future children away from her. Another mother had her kids taken away on the allegation that they were underweight, even though she had a doctor’s note from before children services stepping in that said that they were where they were supposed to be. The foster parents also learned that the children where at the right weight. That mother also lost her children. Lawyers have told me that only 2% of children services cases are won by the parents here.

Along those same lines, there was a case two years ago that hit the front page of the newspaper where the family had children services called on them numerous times for abuse. Apparently, the mother had a daughter from a previous relationship, the guy skipped town and left her with the child. A year later, she met her husband and together they had a child. At that point, the little girl was 4 years old, the first child, I mean. The “step-father” and mother took to beating the little girl. Neighbors consistently called Children Services. Half the time, Children services never showed up. The rest of the time, they claimed that they saw nothing out of order. A week after the last visit by Children Services, the child was again badly beaten, and put into a corner. The child, according to the mother, was left there for several hours before the mother realized that she was too quiet. When she checked, the little girl was dead. To resolve the problem, the step-father and mother took the baby girl out to Round Lake and buried her there. It wasnt until a couple weeks after that that they were found out. The mother eventually lead police to the body.

In this town, Children Services can get away with numerous things. Surprisingly, this story never hit fox or any other widely known television station. Mostly because if the press ever came here, they would be sure to dig up enough proof, evidence, and whatever else to prove just how corrupt this town is.

There is a noise ordinance where I live that was taken to the extreme. I mean, sure, I have heard people blaring their music so loud that they have drowned out my own cars speakers, while I was driving. They were rude, no doubt. But now, if someone can hear the music from your care more than 12 inches away, you get a hefty fine. The fine is more for loud music than for not having seatbelts, littering, and not having insurance. Tell me, does that sound fair? I can understand listening to music. I love listening to mine. But seriously, that was going overboard.

My husband’s brother has been using my husband’s name when he is being arrested. The cops showed up at Jase’s work and started yelling at him about telling the jail that he was David. Turns out that David finally claimed his real name and the cops are now extremely confused. It gets better. Jase finally went to see his case file. There were people in his file that had no reason to be there. Two were mexicans, one was a girl. How they ended up in Jase’s file is beyond either of us. Because of that Jase cant clear his record. We cant even find out when the last felony was committed due to the local government’s screw ups. (Sadly, no lawyer will come here because, and I quote from several lawyer’s mouths “Klamath Falls is a law unto itself.” And the lawyers here are being paid to keep quite. Good ones are run out of town if they win their cases due to government negligence.)

The list of problems in this town is endless. I could go on for hours, days, weeks, months, possibly even years listing what is happening here. Though I doubt it would do any good.

Anyway, there is another place where stuff like this is happening. Helium.com. Yep, you heard me. Helium.com. Its face is pleasant to look at and gives the image of being a welcoming “community”. Sadly, right now. Its not a community. There used to be an almost constant communication going on between the stewards that has sadly fallen into a state of disrepair. The reason for the decline, because they shifted a wonderful caring person into a closet. Its not ok.

If you know some of the stewards on Helium, feel free to browse this site and add your thoughts and comments to it. http://mjjoachimmeetsheliummembers.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-barbara-whitlock-new-member.html?showComment=1242065700000#c4317054424170177185. The goal is to get Barbara where she belongs. She is a caring and fun individual. If you spoke to her you would see that she is an amazing person and an outgoing one. She cares about people, not just the business. If someone is unhappy she goes out of her way to find the problem and rectify it. This is the type of person we want to head the steward program. Add your voice to ours and lets start standing up against oppression!!!

This question has always bugged me. But at some point, often many, a writer will be asked what made them choose to write.

I think the best way to describe it is by using one of Whoopi Goldberg’s movies. Everyone has seen Sister Act. The movie I am referencing is Sister Act 2. (Forgive my memory, my movie is currently packed *rolls eyes*

Whoopi Goldberg goes back to the sisters in order to help them with their new challenge. The sisters have taken on a school, and want Whoopi Goldberg, whom is the character Delores van Cartier is once again disguised as “Sister Mary Clarence”, to be their music teacher.

She does and then becomes determined to save the school which is threatening to close down. At the urging of the sisters, Whoopi turns the music class into a choir and they begin the journey to be the best choir in the state.

At one point, one of the best singers in the class is pulled out of it because of a too controlling, but well-meaning mother. Whoopi misunderstands and starts “dogging” the girl. Finally, in frustration, Whoopi corners the girl and hands her a book.

She tells the girl that the author of the book had been receiving letters by another person who wanted him to read their work. They wanted to know if they were good enough to become an author themselves. The author’s response was to write the book, which said basically;

“If you wake up in the morning and think of nothing but writing, then you were meant to be a writer.”

Whoopi then transposes writing with singing, and writer with singer. The girl reads the book and shows up at the next class. If you want to know more about the movie, watch it. There are a couple of chilling scenes. Well, chilling in a very good and warm feeling way.

That sentence is what I am referencing to. If you think about writing a lot, constantly… or if you see something and think about writing it down on a regular basis, guess what? You are meant to be a writer. This same system goes with any practice or job. If you think about it constantly, then that is your signal. It doesnt matter what that dream is. It doesn’t even matter how other people view it. As in Sister Act 2, the mother did not want the girl to sing. I promise that the end of that scenario is a worth a look or a dozen.

I can garantee that if you dont persue that dream, even if it seems silly, you will forever regret it.

I write because it is who and what I am. I am made up of the language of words. I play with them. I try to place them where they will have the most affect, but in the end, they are me. When they beckon I heed. And I write.

Once, I described my need to write as: “It’s an itch that you can never completely scratch.”

I have been thinking for a while on what I would do with my blog, would I document things that happen in my life? Would I discuss something of importance to me, like writing or a controversial subject? I still do not really understand the importance of blogs. But I did finally come to a conclusion. I would write about things that inspire me to write about. LOL. Now that might not make sense, well maybe the sentence, but what I mean is that I will write about the inspirations. (And about my life – a commentary of sorts when important stuff happens.)

Which leads to this topic: What is inspiration?

If you ask a writer where they will find their inspiration, they may cite numerous sources. Pictures, memories and even questions are the inspiration of many artists. There is no wrong answer in seeking inspiration. Anything that sets your blood on fire to write the next word, draw/paint the next image, even promote the next Plan of Action (POA) for a business, is inspiration.

Inspiration can be from something as every day as a bee buzzing around the blossom of a rose. It can stem from something as rare as a sudden snowstorm in the middle of the desert. Finding the letter from a high-school crush can be a wonderful source of inspiration. Seeing a picture and wondering why. Or remembering something from the past and asking “What if”.

Inspiration is as free flowing or limited as the artist’s own mind. If you stumble into a roadblock… or a writer’s block… maybe, you are not asking the right questions. Or you could be closing yourself to the variety of inspirations in front of you.

Always remember to keep your eyes, ears, mind and heart open. You may surprise yourself by what you find right in front of you.