Creator's Playbook Podcast: "Wishing Well" Magical Items

The Creator's Playbook

Episode 45: "Wishing Well" - Magical Items

Hosts: Robbie and Michael

"No quest or story can ever be complete without the items and tools that lead our heroes to victory, despite all odds against them. Today we explore these very items and what unique effects that they have on the stories around us. How can you give these important devices, even mcguffins, if you will, character and importance? Can you make your hero care about these items as much as you do as a storyteller?"

Michael is hosting this episode!  And he wrote the story, too.  This was a fun podcast to listen to.  I hope you enjoy the listen and have a wonderful weekend.

Sarah  

 

Take Courage

"Whatever loads you are carrying now, take courage.  Allow the light of courage to move you forward, and courage to fill your life with light." ~ Kate Lee

I hope you are all doing well.

Whatever you are going through I pray all is alright.  

Don't lose faith.  Fear doesn't mean weakness.  You are strong.  There is always light to be found.

Sarah

Visiting Places That Suddenly Feel Like Home, Part 2

Finely part 2!!  I wrote "Visiting Places That Suddenly Feel Like Home, Part 1" last October.  Honestly, I didn't know it's been that long, as writing this post has been stuck in the back of my mind.  It's been four months. :\  In that post I wrote about Bath England, Cardiff Wales, Orvieto Italy, and Venice Italy. 

As a note, all these trips were taken pre-pandemic, and these recollections reflect this. 

While traveling there are places that are nice and I would like to revisit, but then there are places that just feel like home, places I feel connected and could easily revisit again and again.

Enoshima, Japan

How much do I love Enoshima?  Let's just say that I've been to Japan twice, and Enoshima thrice.  

In 2015 there was no plan on visiting Enoshima two times during that trip, but my siblings and I loved it so much we spontaneously went again, giving up checking out another location, and then took the beach side train to Kamakura.  In 2019 I had to take my Mom and other sibs to Enoshima, taking an even longer train and monorail ride to get there, but it was a trip highlight.  Everyone loved it and said the effort to get there was well worth it.  Even after getting back home we still talk about Enoshima.

Wandering around Tokyo is a must, always, but there is a stiffness about the city.  This need for extra formality, stay quiet on the trains, and so on.  Fantastic things and places to visit, but it is a little overwhelming.   Enoshima is about an hour and a half from Tokyo, about two hours from Tokyo Disneyland, but the trip is so well worth it.  If you go the right way you can take the Shonan Monorail, hung underneath the rail, which is a must (so, so much fun!!!).  

When you get off the last Shonan stop on the monorail, or the other lines, there is just this really cool beachy chill vibe in the area.  Everyone is more relaxed.  Steven said it reminded him of parts around Osaka.  On the Kamakura train people actually talked and were having a great time!

Enoshima itself is just great fun.  There's a little bit of everything, and you feel like you're stepping back in time with the vintage architecture.  There's a main shopping street, restaurants, a tower, aquarium, gardens, caves, etc.  The views are spectacular, and on a clear day you can see Mount Fuji.  

Tokyo Disney Parks

Not going to get into this as I've talked in length about the Tokyo Disney parks, Land and Sea, but I love, love, love these Disney parks the best.  Pure magic.  Just thinking about these parks make me happy. They're just wonderful.

Giverny, France

Home of Monet's garden and home.  

Giverny is about an hour and a half car ride from Paris, the eastern side of Normandy, and completely in the country.  When visiting this place we spent most of our time visiting Monet's haunts, and it was all so charming.

The gardens are beautiful, and the house is as it was during Monet's time.  It was quite an effort getting Mom to leave the artist room.  She loved this room so much she bought a little square miniature replication from the gift shop.  What I was most surprised about was all the Japanese woodblock paintings scattered throughout his home.  They were amazing.  I wish we had more time to explore Giverny before heading back to Paris.  The countryside is beautiful, and it would have been nice to walk about.

Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany

I went on a Germany/France tour with my Mom and Dad, and on this tour was a cruise up the Rhine River.  It was the end of the season, and the river was lower than anticipated, so instead of cruising up the part where the castle ruins are, we had to dock in Rüdesheim for a couple nights and do a bus trip up the last portion of the river.  We were disappointed, but because of the change we got to spend a full day in this quaint little town surrounded by hills and vineyards.

We took the air tram up to the top of the hill.  Visited the musical cabinet museum.  Walked through quaint streets and shopped for gifts.  

I just felt so connected to Rüdesheim.  This place looks like how you'd imagine Germany to be.  Want to know the most amazing part?  When I was on top of the hill looking over the Rhine, on the other side of the river was some hills and a little dip where a rode goes through.  I just stared and stared, drawn to it, and really wanted to hop on a ferry to visit the little town and see what was down that road.  Turns out, and I realized this on the last day of our cruise, that's where the Stufflebeam (Stoppelbien) originate!!  About 8 miles from Rüdesheim across the Rhine and through that dip in the hill, a little place called Laubenheim off the Nahe river.  No wonder I felt drawn and couldn't stop looking at that spot across the Rhine.

Ring of Kerry, Ireland

This is more like a smattering of places along the Ring of Kerry.  It was a day tour from Cork Ireland, so a bit of a drive.  It would probably be best to stay in Killarney.  The day started with a horse drawn carriage ride through Killarney National Park, which is breathtaking.  Then the rest of the day was stops in charming towns, views of the ocean, a beautiful waterfall, and then back to Killarney's National Park with Ladies View.  Someday I would like to visit the Ring of Kerry again and spread it out over several days.

Mizen Head, Ireland

Found in another peninsula in South Ireland, and closer to Cork.

I loved all the little places we stopped.  Gougane Barra took our breath away.  It's just this little place on a lake with hills, but it captured our hearts.

Mizen Head itself is right on the coast with cliffs rising from the ocean, water splashing up on rocks.  There's a bridge and an observatory of sorts.  In the guest center is a little cafe with the best food.  The toasty sandwich was so good.  Right when we left it started to rain, so we were lucky, but I like rainy days, so it was a nice drive back to Cork. 

What's interesting is that I have Mahoney (O'Mahony) heritage that dead ends in Newfoundland, so there's no way to trace that line back to Ireland.  Our DNA connects us, and Mizen Head is one of the places the Mahoney's are from.  I didn't realize this until getting back to the States, but close to Mizen head are the Three Castles, built by the O'Mahony princes.  The O'Mahoney's were the Kings of the Kingdom of Munster, and as my Grandpa R connects to nine regions in Munster, that's the closest we can prove this line.  It would be so nice to be able to trace back my Irish roots.

Sarah

Classic Movie Monday: Roman Holiday (1953)

Roman Holiday (1953)

Starring: Audrey Hepburn & Gregory Peck

The Film

The plot of Roman Holiday comes across a little cliche in this modern era, mainly because the tropes displayed have been overplayed.  Hard working Princess dreams of common life, escapes, meets a dashing young man, and they have a grand ol' time.  The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain, published in 1881, is about identical strangers trading spaces--another now overworked plot--so the idea of royalty escaping to normality is an idea romanticized throughout time.

Roman Holiday was filmed entirely in Rome, and all the city's highlights are captured in this gem of a time capsule: A glance over Trevi Fountain, walking around the Roman Forum, stop at the Colosseum, and gelato on the Spanish Steps.  It's strange to think that this movie was filmed less than a decade after the end of the second World War, and the scene about the Wall of Wishes brings a somber reality to this time period.  Life after grand tragedy moves on, things change, but remembrances remain.

Some fun facts.  Gregory Peck was the main star when Roman Holiday started production and he was going to get top billing, but as filming took place Gregory wanted Audrey Hepburn to share top billing.  Such a rarity in those days.  In the scene with the Mouth of Truth, that wall with an open mouthed face, Gregory told the director he was going to pretend his hand was cut off after sticking it in, but he didn't tell Audrey.  Her reaction and scream was so natural because she wasn't acting in that moment, though Audrey is a wonderful actress and won an Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA for this role as Princess Ann.

Personal Thoughts

Roman Holiday first came to my attention when I was 14.  After having surgery I was kept overnight for observation and looking after at the hospital, and my Mom bought the VHS.  She and the nurse watched the movie as I drifted in and out of consciousness, hardly remembering a thing.  It wasn't for another couple years until I pulled the tape out and had another go, and found it quite charming.

Having just re-watched the movie, being older and having visited Rome, Roman Holiday means so much more now.  When younger the ending bothered me, as it's more bitter sweet.  Now I see it as it is, realistic.  No nonsensical Hallmark ending.  The last several minutes of the movie intense, and I felt all the emotions, quiet love, the pain.

If you want to see a fun romantic comedy, timeless, great, Roman Holiday is worth the watch.  (Heh, after I just spoiled the ending... oops).

Sarah

Bringing Back the PPPPA, Classic Movie Monday Style

Okay, not quite.  It's a PPPPA of one.  But what is this PPPPA you may be asking?  It's a little club my friends and I created back in High School, and it stood for the Poor Pathetic People of Porterville Association.  It's as awesome as it sounds...

So what did we do?  Well, while other teens were driving the 30+ minutes to the nearest mall, going on fantastic dates, and other really cool stuff, my friends and I would go to Hollywood Video and rent a movie.  (Did we ever go to Blockbuster?!?!  Guess Hollywood Vid was more convenient?  Was Blockbuster already gone?  Why can't I remember?  Dang empty crevices of my mind.)  But we didn't rent just any video, we rented classics and old movies, and in some cases the stranger the better.

Old campy sci-fi.  Once we watched a fantastic random musical that I wish I remembered the name of.  It was great.  Hitchcock's Vertigo.  We rented a silent movie this one time, determined to read every slide with words.  It was fun for the first 30 minutes, until it got old, and I swear that movie was like 3 hours.

So for my PPPPA nostalgia, instead of having a group of people over to watch movies, which sounds fantastic right now, I'm going to seek out to watch old movies and then talk about them.  For "reasons" I've decided not to review new movie releases anymore, and instead write about the old stuff.  It will be fun watching and exploring the classics, and silly campy stuff as well.  Old movies that are new to me, as there's so much I haven't seen, and old favorites I would like to revisit. 

Sarah

 

Creator's Playbook Podcast: Perfectly Timed Cherry Soda

The Creator's Playbook

Episode 44: Perfectly Timed Cherry Soda

Hosts: Steven and Robbie

This week Steven and Robbie are hosting the Creator's Playbook Podcast, and it's all about Heists.  

"Several levels below ground, behind an army of guards, cameras, and laser defenses lies the world's most valuable treasure. It will take a tremendous amount of resources to retrieve it and an unbreakable plan to pull it off. Welcome to the Heist episode! Steven and Robbie will take a crack creating their very own heist with today's prompt."

This is a really fun episode, and it's really fun hearing Steven and Robbie develop a heist story.

If you're able, have a listen.  And have a great weekend! :D

Sarah

Speaking to Silence

Every now and then I have an existential crises when it comes to this blog.  Should I keep it up?  Is this a waste of time?  On the blogger interface thingy they give rough statistics.  The views on this blog have gone down Drastically.  Hardly anyone reads this blog.  This month alone won't have half the views as last month.

This is all understandable.  The way people find information online has changed.  Blogs aren't popular anymore.  More people check out YouTube.  Also, I don't know if what I write is all that interesting.  Perhaps I talk too much about myself, and it might turn people off.  

Know this, I'm not ready to stop.  The latest statistics pop up on my blog when I log in, and I'm like taking it as a challenge!  I'm not going to quit.  I'm going to keep on writing even if these are simply words speaking to silence.  The fewer view counts aren't going to discourage me.  The podcast is going, by Summer I WILL get music going again, and I'm working on fiction.

I don't care about being World famous.  That's not how I view success.  It's all about the creative process.  Creating is a treasure hunt.  Chiseling stone to unveil the beauty underneath.  I'm going treasure hunting!!  I'm going to find those gems!!  And I know there will be rocks, too, but you gotta shift through the rocks to find that which glitters.

So if you're a real person reading this, thanks!!  It means the world to me.

But for now I'm Kermie sitting on that log playing the banjo.  I do hope to one day make millions of people happy, but for now I'm thrilled if I can bring even the tiniest bit of joy to whoever finds these musings, known and unknown.

Sarah

Dreaming of Someplace Warm

The majority of the United States is getting pummeled by snow and cold.  Up here in northern Utah it's a week full of snow storms with a tiny break on Thursday.  Next week it will be partly cloudy and in the 40's, so nice and toasty. :P

All this snow has me craving warmth.  It happens every Winter, and then in the Summer, when it's super hot, I think a little snow wouldn't be so bad.  :\

I've just been craving the beach so bad recently.  It wasn't until yesterday when I realized the last time I was at the beach was when I visited the Ring of Kerry in Ireland, May 2019!!!  That's the last time!!!!!!  And I visited California four times after that British Isles trip.  It just so happened that all four trips to Cali was to Disneyland.

On one of those Disney trips, July 2019, my Mom and Aunt decided to visit Newport Beach.  I could have gone with them but decided instead to stay at the Disney park and spend the day with my Dad running around California Adventure.  We did soooo much!  I got so soaked on Grizzly River Run I might as well jumped in a pool fully clothed.  That final geyser did me in.  It was so bad.  That was a good day.

But at that point my Mom and I booked a trip with Steven and Ty to do a Disney Cruise in the Caribbean for late February 2020, so I was planning on seeing the ocean then, then Steven lost his job in January, so we canceled the trip.  In hindsight my Mom and I regret the cancellation, but if we had gone we wouldn't have taken my two older nieces to Disneyland instead, and I'm glad we got to experience Disneyland in all its glory one last time before everything closed down.

This is the longest I've spent away from the beach.

I'm aching for the sound of the surf.

I close my eyes and imagine Cambria CA, walking along wooden paths.  That's my favorite place, my happy place, even more than Disneyland.  So many wonderful memories.  Thankfully my imagination is strong enough to whisk me away to those beautiful sights.  Every now and then I feel Cambria in my memories.  Hopefully I'll get to see the ocean again, sooner rather than later.

Sarah

 

Creator's Playbook Podcast: Love, Don't Hurt Me

The Creator's Playbook

Episode 43: Love, Don't Hurt Me

Hosts: Sarah and Robbie

The Valentines Day episode!!  And it's all about Love potions and problems caused by love.  

This is the first episode where I'm the lead host, and it's also the first episode I edited.  It was so much fun.  Steven inserted the music, because I still haven't learned how to do that.  The prep story is silly and corny, but fun.  Really, I spend a lot of time theorizing love stuff, all coming from a single gal, so you know the knowledge is legit. ;0)

So I hope you enjoy listening to it!! :D

Sarah

Creator's Playbook is on all platforms that have podcasts.

 

Canceling the Trip to Mexico

Previously I hinted at planning a trip to a place that spoke Spanish.  Well, what I didn't say was that the trip was already booked and fully paid for.  It was a gift from my Dad, in combination with the trip that was canceled last year.

My Mom and I were going to visit the Riviera Maya, flying into Cancun, and staying in one of those all inclusive resorts with a private beach.  It would have been amazing.  And we would have been leaving on February 20th, which is in 10 days.  Since I was a kid I've always wanted to see the Mayan Temples and ruins.  To say I'm a little disappointed is an understatement.  Choosing to cancel wasn't an easy decision. 

It started with the change the CDC made, requiring testing before getting on a flight home.  Now, the place we were going to stay offered onsite testing, and if the test came back positive we would have been quarantined, but wouldn't have to pay for room and food.  That's a pretty good offer from the resort.  The trip was for six days and seven nights, so the test would have been taken on the 3rd or 4th day, and if it came back positive (true or false positive), the quarantine would have started then.  Then the worry of when a negative test result would happen, and the worry of how the flight back would work.

If I trusted the tests my Mom and I may have went for it.  I've heard that some tests are up to 40% inaccurate.  Another study last Summer found a 30% false positive and 20% false negative result, making those tests 50% inaccurate.  My uncle's neighbor works in a testing lab, and he said they run the tests up to 40 times, and then I started hearing this same information in other places.  We may have been fine, but getting quarantined, even by the beach, in another country, was a chance we didn't want to take.

Though!!!!  Funny enough, after we made the official cancellation, my Mom was talking to someone who knows 7 people, from two groups, who came back from Cancun with the virus, so maybe my Mom and I made the right choice.  It's so hard to know!!!

Sarah

Dirty Snow

It snowed last Friday.  By evening time the outer world up here in northern Utah was really quite pretty.  Trees covered in freshly fallen snow really is a nice sight.

It was yesterday that proved quite interesting.  The aftermath!!   Brown snow.  Well, brown snow was more of a SLC thing, as high northwest winds combined dessert dirt with snow, creating really dirty snow.  Here in Utah Valley we didn't so much have that problem, but we did get a little.  Our cars were filthy.

Yesterday became the battle of the car wash.  Car washes that don't get much business had crazy long lines!  Popular car washes had even longer lines wrapping around streets!!! My Mom found a smallish line at one of those "do it yourself" washes.  Thankfully between the two of us we had $4 in quarters.  My car is still dirty, simply because I'm waiting for early this coming week when the lines will be shorter.  

Seeing all those long lines yesterday was just so amusing.

Sarah

Creator's Playbook Podcast: A Detective Story in Space

It's official: my brother Michael and I are now regular hosts, joining our brothers Steven and Robbie, on the Creator's Playbook podcast.  This episode was recorded late November/early December, so it's exciting that the episode is up!

The episode is #42, "Red Sand".  In this episode Steven and I are creating a detective story.  What's fun is that, with changing up the format in the last several episodes, we start the creative process after telling a story prompt.  These prompts are tiny stories that preps setting and basic characters, and on this episode I wrote the prompt!!  I had complete freedom: Anywhere/Anytime.  It seems a lot of detective stories are based in the past or present, so basing our story in the future seemed like a fun place to go.

If you're looking for something interesting to listen to, that inspires creativity and thinking about fun things, look no further than the Creator's Playbook, which is on Spotify and other podcast services.

Sarah

Putting the Christmas Things Away

Every year it's an internal, personal competition to see how long the Christmas decorations can stay up.  How long until family begin to grumble a little?  I think Christmas should stay up until February.   Christmas tree lights are just so pretty.

Well, yesterday I finally put away the Christmas ornaments.  Accidentally broke one, and in a super careless way.  -_-;;  Thankfully it wasn't sentimental, though it was pretty.  Lesson learned, and I took great care with the rest of the ornaments.  The rest of the Christmas stuff was put away this morning, and it's a little sad.  Twinkle lights scattered about it really magical.  I wasn't ready to let Christmas go.

Now Valentines is in 10 days.  0_0  Groundhog Day was just a couple days ago.  There was a meme that went around about the Groundhog Day movie, estimating how many years it would have taken the Bill Murray character to be proficient in so many skills.  It was like 34 years, or about, though there were some debate in the comments.  (There's a lot of debate on the net in general about the length of time the day loop lasted).  Repeating a day over and over again for 34 years... not aging in the process.  You couldn't create anything, because it would vanish the next repeat, so all the things that can be carried must be learned or skill based, and then maintained.  Because you can become fluent in a language in those first five years, and then lose the skill in the next 29 without practice.  What would the psychological impact be in repeating a day for that long?  It would only be nice if teleportation was possible, so you can instantaneously travel to anyplace, in a time when it wasn't a pandemic.   That would be fun.

Anywho, time moves forward.  

Sarah

"A good conscience is a continual Christmas."

~ Benjamin Franklin

February 2021 Health Goals: Celebrating The Journey

I just got back from a short trip to St. George Utah.  Went with my Mom and Aunt to visit my Uncle, and it was a nice visit.  Didn't get any exercise, but that's okay.  The first morning I tried walking the hotel hallway, but doing so while wearing a mask was too cumbersome, so that didn't last long.  Thankfully I'm still on track with the Route 66 mile challenge.

Lao Tsu said: "Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."  Sometimes I get so caught up with the destination that the journey is swept aside.  It seems more of an hindrance than an opportunity for memories.  When it comes to health goals I focus on losing pounds.  Up pops the Time and Date website, open the "calculation between dates" calculator, and the number crunching begins.  If so and so weeks are between these two dates, and I lose a pound each week, than I'll weight x amount of pounds by this date.  And so forth.  I torture myself with projections, and then nothing happens.  Time passes.  Desired progress isn't achieved.

Wanting to achieve an ideal finish point is one I must erase from my head.  Visualization is good.  But... I'm focusing too much on where I want to be that I've lost touch with where I am.  Each day is an experience.  Each day we get to celebrate the little moments in our lives.

If there was one measurable goal I would like to achieve this year, it would simply be losing ten inches off my waist.  According to waist and height calculations that would put me in the normal range.  And according to some websites 4 pounds lost = an inch.  And there I go calculating and setting end points!!!  

Heh, well, this will be a process.  More and more I'm enjoying the exercise.   I haven't incorporated strength training, so that's the next hurdle.  It'll be good.  0_0 ... :P

Sarah

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." ~ Martin Luther King Jr.