#SoCS: Empty and Whole

The last thing I emptied was a small portion of me A memory A word A thought That escaped I can’t remember Where I was going What I was doing Or thinking Perhaps I was headed to the closet for a roll of toilet paper, but passed it by and grabbed a cup of tea instead Perhaps I was supposed to be somewhere else I can remember words like discombobulate and facetious, but blank-stare over the simple one that hangsRead more

The Measure of Humanity

In a beloved episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a cyberneticist arrives on the starship Enterprise with the intention of dismantling Data, the android, for scientific discovery and for the goal of creating more androids like him. Data would not survive this, and when he tries to give up his commission as an officer so they cannot order him to submit, Data is told he is not human and cannot make that decision for himself. He is a machine.Read more

Hoshi, the Star Trek Cat

For those of you who follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you already know I did a “thing” on Friday and adopted an eight-week old kitten, who I have named Hoshi. She’s adorbs and a handful. I had forgotten how crazy active a kitten can be and Hoshi gets the award for living up to that standard. I dare you to try and pick her up when she’s in the heat of play…if you can actually catch her. Hoshi meansRead more

Checking in with Priorities

“Instead of saying ‘I don’t have time,’ try saying ‘it’s not a priority,’ and see how that feels. Often, that’s a perfectly adequate explanation. I have time to iron my sheets, I just don’t want to. Changing our language reminds us that time is a choice. If we don’t like how we’re spending an hour, we can choose differently.”― Wall Street Journal Let me be honest. Blogging hasn’t been a priority of late. I could say that I don’t have timeRead more

SoCS: How Ya Doin’?

How many times have you asked that question of family and friends? A hundred? A thousand? Too many times to count? When we don’t stay in touch with our people on a regular basis, it’s a fairly common first question to ask. Right? So, how are you doing my fellow blogging peeps? I’ve been a tad busy the last couple of weeks, which means I haven’t published a post or been reading many of your posts. I apologize. I’m notRead more

#SoCS: Icing on the Cake

Mmmmm…cake. Chocolate cake, lemon cake, carrot cake, any cake. Icing is a great part of cake, but please don’t give me the sicky-sweet stuff. I prefer fluffy not-so-sweet icing that enhances the cake rather than overpowers it. But I digress. For now, I have to stay away from cake and lose the pounds that it and all of the holiday treats added to my waistline. Instead, I’ll focus on a different kind of icing…the type that makes life a littleRead more

#SoCS: In The Something

In the, in the, in the… I’m not coming up with much for the Stream of Consciousness prompt. In the heat of the night… In the final analysis… In the dead of winter… In the something… Okay, so I suppose I could write about the dead of winter since as of this moment, the temperature is 15F (-9.4C) and the expected high on Monday will be 1F (-17.2C). Yes, it’s cold here in Wisconsin and my plans are to spendRead more

#SoCS: Punk Rock, Piglets and Reality

Mary J’s December List of Opposites: Black – White Up – Down Hungry Cat – Sleepy Human Clean House – Lazy Human Christmas Cookies – Liver Too Many Christmas Cookies – No Such Thing Writing/Blogging – Reading/Napping Exercise – Lazy Human Part II Christmas Carols – Punk Rock No Christmas Carols before Thanksgiving – Really? Friendships and a Social Life – You Need to Come out of your Basement Cooking Everything from Scratch – Lazy Human Prologue Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/TikTok – PointingRead more

#CBWC: Bumpy & Lumpy

This week’s entry for Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge (CBWC) includes photos of things that are bumpy or lumpy. NOTE: Evidently, lumpy and bumpy has been postponed for a week, but I hope you enjoy regardless. If my readers can stand it, I have a few more photos of Colorado from the two and a half week vacation in October and November…this time in black and white. I hope you enjoy! Join the fun of black and white photographyRead more

Melange-O-Rama

Did you know that the meaning of melange is “hodgepodge” or “assortment?” I named my blog Mary J. Melange because I planned on writing a variety of content rather than singularly about cats or bicycles or poetry. It is today that I’m sharing a chaotic hodgepodge of stuff would have been called mish-mash were it not for Dan’s recent post at No Facilities. Great minds think alike, but I may have to outdo his assortment. Just because I can. IRead more

Kirk, Thor and a White Board

As you may know, I am a nerd of the Star Trek franchise. I’ve watched every episode of the original series with Captain Kirk, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise at least five times…probably more. I signed up to CBS All Access a few years ago so Natasha and I would be able to watch the newest Star Trek series of Discovery and Picard, and wait on whatever else was to come. It had been our ritualRead more

The Ending

“I’m not going to abandon the things that make me who I am because of a future that contains an ending I hadn’t foreseen for myself.” ~Captain Christopher Pike on Star Trek: Discovery~ In this episode, Captain Pike sees his future and it’s not a happy-joy-joy experience for him. Star Trek fans know the outcome, but I’ll leave that part out in case you are not currently a Trekkie, but are thinking about joining the awesomeness of a crazy cultRead more