Shared with Melissa’s FFFC #351 picture prompt
Puppy Love – 18th December 2025
Tag: animals
he doesn’t know it’s Christmas
Big Cats – 17th July 2024
Would you cheat the tigers of their worth?
The voices of the dead claim a friend
Hasty to join the march towards oblivion
Bad blood bullets hold a message to send
Bless the big cats in a natural ceremony
A scent on the breeze of the savannah
From the city smells, to our sandy shells
The ringing of bells will cry ‘Hosanna!’
Submitted to Shay’s Word Garden
Today I’m feeling:
OK, though not particularly up or down. I pushed myself this morning with a full body workout and am waiting to see how my hip reacts, especially as I don’t have a class until 2.30 pm today so I’ll be sitting a lot until then.
Today I’m grateful for:
That Cap ate all his breakfast this morning as he woke us up in the middle of the night, hacking up a hairball.
The best thing about today was:
Helping out in Kru Numnim’s class again in the morning and being able to take the time to help some of the poorer students with their learning and understanding.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I feel a little down this evening and I think it is because I’m thinking too much about our education system here in Thailand. When I see some teachers in their classes, I just don’t understand what they are doing. They are wasting their students’ lives!
When I ask students what they learned today and they say ‘nothing’ I try to get them to understand that they should be angry if that is truly the case.
It’s a struggle some days!
Something I learned today?
There is an app for Makro where I can see what they have in stock. Amy showed me today as I went there on my way home and was once again disappointed to find that they were out of stock of my favourite yoghurt.
Now I can just check the app before going.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
Iphone asked me for some help with wanting to be a buddy for future exchange students and I gave her some advice on how to find out more about what is required.
Sweet Lips – 13th March 2023
A trickster manipulates words
I’ll collect them in my box
Register them with internal affairs
And see what it unlocks
Adding a twist of lemon
They become spat-out sour
More honest than the saccharine
Used to give them power
Everything already said
Is gonna get said once more
A constant strive for meaning
Makes a profit to explore
27th Sep 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt – lips
Today I’m feeling:
Calm and relaxed.
Today I’m grateful for:
The delicious perfume of this candle that Amy brought from Australia for me. No matter how much you try to save money when buying perfumed candles the more you spend the better the smell and its lasting effect.
The best thing about today was:
Feeling in a great mood in the morning, chatting with students and spending time with them without any rush, then spending about three hours drinking coffee and updating the blog (1983 diary entries completed) and then back to school again for more chat and some play before shopping and home.
After eating dinner though I’ve run out of steam and ready for bed before the sun has even set.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I was excited to get a call from FedEx as it meant they would deliver the SSD I needed which will hopefully upgrade my iMac and get it running again.
Unfortunately, when the delivery guy arrived he needed almost 800 baht in import tax before handing it over, adding another 40 bucks to the cost. What can I do?
I hope this all works in the end otherwise I’ll just have ended up with an expensive SSD drive and still no desktop computer.
Something I learned today?
I’ve made some lessons that require audio input from myself and the students and I went to record this afternoon but it sounds really odd when played back. There’s an option to upload mp3s so that seemed like the way to go except there is no simple way to do that without downloading new software. You can record to m4a files and then hopefully (I haven’t tested yet) can convert them in Apple Music.
I forgot how simple things can be once they’ve been set up, such as I had on my main computer and then just ran and worked forever. Now I’m back to fiddling around again to do this initial setup.
What is something I can do today to improve my well-being?
That would be the exercise I did this morning and the early night I’m about to get this evening so I can catch up on some sleep.
Woke up to thunder, or was it a truck? I couldn’t hear any rain, must’ve been a truck. Wait, there it is again, must be thunder. Where’s the damn rain?
Soon my alarm goes off and even though I’ve only had six hours of sleep and feel a little achy, I’m feeling good and do my little exercises and then, finally, a little rain falls though not enough to mean I don’t need to water the garden still.
It’s still misty and hazy with low clouds too, so it’s difficult to tell if the rain has had much impact on the air quality yet.
I drive to school without rush for a change and hang out with the few kids who still bothered to come, particularly enjoying catching up with my old students, Aon, Aomsin and Wan, who fill me in with the latest classroom gossip.
It’s fascinating to see the changes in these kids over the three years I’ve known them and to get some idea of the direction they would like to head in.
Aomsin told me how the class dynamics had changed and I mentioned another class that were all good friends in grades 7 and 8 and then all split into different factions in grade 9. Aomsin said, ‘Of course because we are all growing up.’ It made me question why, when we grow up, we lose that forgiveness for our friends?
Happy Times – 5th September 2022
I’m grateful you’ve been spared
In some way that was my doing
If you’d have stayed here
You’d soon discover troubles brewing
Wisdom came to me far too late
I know it was wrong to make you suffer
There’s no way to go back now
I am one and you are another
I’ll watch you from a distance
Happy you are happy and content
I’ll hang on to the memories
Of the happy times we spent
All I’m saying is that the difference between humans and animals is that animals would never allow the dumbest of the herd to lead them.
The Far Side
Today I’m grateful for:
Being able to leave school early and have an afternoon snooze after treating myself to some lunch.
The best thing about today was:
The bearable temperature, thankfully lowered after a heavy rain whilst I was drinking my morning coffee at House.
We got that attitude! – 3rd April 2021
I am so happy and grateful for a nice long refreshing sleep. So deep I don’t remember any dreams – still sleepy now with eyes unable to focus properly. Time to do a little exercise and shake the cobwebs loose.
Kim Chi was acting strangely last night, looking scared and hiding herself away. This morning she didn’t show up at breakfast time and by 11.30 Amy and I were both starting to worry as we leave tomorrow morning for 5 days.
Finally, Amy found he hiding behind our long grass outside our gate. I quickly saw that she had a big, clean hole as a wound in her side so we had to bundle her up and take her straight to the vet where she will have to stay until we get back. They said that the wound was not infected but just needed to be cleaned and checked daily.
In balance I think animals bring more joy than worry but as you get more the potential for problems seems to increase. I still like the idea of a dog but I’m not sure of the wisdom of having one.
Could I borrow your lawnmower? – 28th January 2021
If I had a dream book what would I write today? As I work out sometimes my dream will pop back up but sitting here thinking about it – I got nothing. Let’s see.
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for the connection I can make with some animals. Sometimes I look at them and think how strange it is that we live with an animal in our house.
Time felt strange today. I finished some things well ahead of when I expected, got everything done that I needed and classes disappeared very quickly. I spent most of the day wondering what I had forgotten.
The best part of the day was realising that some students just want to talk with me – about everything. I hope I can continue to give them that feeling of openness and that they will not shy away from trying to speak with others in the future. It’s a long shot but I must live in hope.
We got that attitude! – 11th December 2020
I am so happy and grateful to Tigger to come to me this morning for belly rubs and big purrs. I love our animals.
Today’s not the day the sky will fall down around my ears – 30th June 2020
It’s been raining on and off for the last two weeks or more and finally, the ground has gotten soaked enough that big pools of water remain around our garden after the daily storm passes through. The frogs are going crazy, croaking across the valley. The snakes must be happy to be able to easily locate their food again. What a dangerous life. Having to call out to find your mate, only to be swallowed by a hungry snake.
Kim Chi, our killer cat, was found one morning munching on the guts of a bird in the dining room. How thoughtful. Amy woke me up to come and help clean up. There were bird feathers everywhere, strewn across the floor, table and lounge. I love our animals and I also love the birds that come to visit our garden. Leave them alone Hellcat!
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful that I have been able to adapt to the Thai style of working (so far). Disorganised, short notice, changing decisions…. It’s all good.
Brain dump
Home workout warmup – first time – just the warmup makes me tired! Start somewhere. Itchy throat – can’t get sick. Itchy leg – something always biting.
All our fish dead again. We can’t take care of them for some reason. Jukebox – Happy – I don’t know who sings it – George someone. Today we will make a video and I will hate this song even more.
Feel good – a little tired. But good. thinking about Hayden but have an idea how to help. Can I just be me? Too late to be tough on him.
Thinking of poor kids in China who walk 5 km across rough valleys to get to school. Just primary kids. Predictably they want to be soldiers. They are tough. Circumstances dictate. No one’s fault. Everyone wants to be someone else for a while. But without the effort. Like a video game.
The pleasures of the sight, the pleasures of the flesh, the vanities of life – 14th April 2020
“A hundred billion people who came before us, over ten thousand generations and everything they did for us, to build up our world…if we were to go extinct, through our own actions, or lack of doing anything about it, we would be the worst of those ten thousand generations.”
Tony Ord from the Ezra Klien podcast
I’ve gotten into the habit of listening to podcasts before I go to sleep (after reading comics and books before I go to sleep….it seems like I just don’t want to sleep!). The quote above, right from the very beginning of the podcast, shook me awake.
The podcast goes on to talk about real existential threats to our world and when I say our world, I really only mean the human world. Outside threats such as asteroids are very unlikely to be the cause. Internal threats such as nuclear war and pandemics are the most likely. Humans are the pox on this earth but we can redeem ourselves.
Each morning I receive an email with a quote and a writing prompt and I attempt to put down a few words of thought. The prompts are sometimes too thought-provoking, requiring too much time for me to consider (though consider them I should). This morning I got this:
Don’t go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.
Marcus Aurelius
Prompt
You are but one animal among trillions. Let the trivial fall away. Focus on the important.
My response:
I was thinking about this yesterday after a collection of different and varying inputs – watching a documentary about prostitutes struggling with drugs and taking care of a pet, watching cat videos, listening to podcasts about human extinction and reading Sufi tales with talking animals.
Why do humans think they are more important than other animals?
We will destroy ourselves. So, focus on the important? Decide what is important.
And, in the face of everything, this is a big question. If nuclear wars and pandemics are the most likely causes of the end of human existence – this feels like it must be important then.
Some will shrug their shoulders and give up, often promoting their view as a good thing. Others will sincerely do their best to encourage action from everyone and anyone. The worst will be those taking advantage of the situation to enrich their own lives.
I’m still thinking about and searching for the answer.
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for a big rain. No need to water our garden today!
To-do list
- Keep tracking down digital files on Soulseek ✅
- Write another lesson
- More 1994ever entries ✅
- New blog entry (use an email for inspiration) ✅
- More drawing?
Fairly well motivated today – could still spend less time watching TV and get out to my room before lunchtime but that’s OK. Not really much of anything else to report today.
Oh, last night it rained (after a big storm in the afternoon) and Amy woke me up (out of a wonderful sleep) at about 2am because our power was off. I realised that it was probably because the connectore box outside was exposed and water got on the electricity cables. I covered it as best I could, stood there in my underpants, ants crawling for cover too.
We turned the power back on and it stayed and I fell back into bed. So, this afternoon I savoured a snooze in front of the TV listened to a talk about Ram Dass.
1994ever 