Standing Into Danger: 2025

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

IWSG: Wednesday, October 1, 2025 ~ Gingerbread Girl

It's the first Wednesday of the month,
the day that members of the
Insecure Writer's Support Group
share their writing struggles
and writing successes
and offer their encouragement
and support to fellow writers.

To visit the IWSG website, click here.

To become a member of the IWSG, click here.

Our wonderful co-hosts who are volunteering today,
along with IWSG Founder Alex J. Cavanaugh are

Beth Camp, Crystal Collier, and Cathrina Constantine!

Stop by their posts and thank them for hosting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every month the IWSG announces a question that members can answer
with advice, insight, a personal experience, or a story in their IWSG posts.

Or, the question can inspire members
if they aren't sure what to write about on IWSG Day.

Remember the question is optional.

This month's optional question is:

What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy October, Everyone!

I hope all is well with each of you.

Tough question this month!

Tough in that it's hard to choose my most favorite thing I've ever written.

Was it my short story "Ugly Little Bastards"

that was published in "The Antigonish Review," a Canadian literary journal?

My research paper "A Bestiary for 'The Saga of Pliocene Exile'

by Julian May with Notes on the Pliocene Epoch"

for my Paleontology Certificate for the Denver of Museum and Science?

My short story "Dare Double Dare"

that was published in the IWSG anthology "Voyagers: The Third Ghost"?

My research paper "Reflections on Eternity" which compared Milton's "Paradise Lost" with Tolkien's "Silmarillion?"

There are so many things I've written that are favorites,

because I poured everything, heart, mind, and soul, into them as I wrote.

I Can't Believe It!

Copies of Voyager: The Third Ghost Arrive

Photo by Terry Barbour, May 1920

I have decided on one, and my choice surprised me.

It's a blog post titled "The Lansdowne Letters: The Pervert and the Sandwich Man."

Just reading it now made my heart beat faster and my throat close.

It's the story of my run in with a pedophile when I was eleven years old.

Mom, Our Beloved Dachshund Gretchen, and the Five of Us

Not Long Before I Met the Pedophile

Late Spring, 1961

Landsdowne House, Ontario, Canada

Why on earth would this be my favorite?

Because I finally had the courage to write it.

Because this and a second event changed the person I was

and impacted my life for decades.

I'm still struggling with writing about the second event.

Together they made me the Gingerbread Girl.

Run, run as fast as you can ...

Wikimedia ~ DylanIsChilling ~ License

It's part of the memoir I've been trying to write,

the memoir I've been struggling with forever.

Even this morning I woke up and thought,

"What if I just say "Screw it!"and let it all go.

Play "Royal Match" and "Words with Friends."

Kick back and enjoy the rest of my life.

Take up painting? 😂

But, I can't.

I've just got to slog on.

I'm looking forward to seeing how others respond to this month's question.

Have a healthy, happy, and creative October!

Take care!

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

Standing Into Danger https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com

My next post will be Friday, October 10th 🤞

Just so you know, I monitor my comments before publishing them. This means your comment won't appear immediately. I will not publish mean spirited or commercial comments.

Friday, September 26, 2025

Shocked!

Every so often Terry shocks me with something so unexpected!

It happened most recently on Tuesday.

It was a small thing, but a big thing to me.

I was downstairs unpacking, sorting through a box

of what-the-hell-should-I-do-with-these things?,

when Terry turns up and interrupts me saying,

"Would you like to go see Downton Abby at the movie theatre?"

Teaser Poster for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

Wikimedia ~ License

I did say it was a small thing. 😂

Terry hasn't taken me to a movie since before the pandemic.

I can't remember the last movie I dragged him to. Cloud Atlas???

As for him inviting me to go to a movie, it might be 15 or more years ago.

That's why it was a big deal for me.

I hesitated for a moment, mentally rearranging my To Do List,

and Terry said, "You said you didn't have anything to do this week."

"Outside appointments," I answered. "I have plenty to do at home!"

"Nothing that can't wait for a few hours. It's cold and rainy out.

This is a perfect day to go to the movies."

"You're right! I'd love to go see Downton Abbey. Let's go!"

On the way upstairs Terry said, "This was my own idea. Jon didn't suggest it."

Our friend Jon, a movie buff, frequently suggests movies I might like to see.

But Terry is a reluctant movie goer (I'm not sure why).

Perhaps Jon has given up on suggesting in-theatre movies.

Lately he's been suggesting movies and programs on tv ~ like The Accountant,

which is one of the best movies I've seen in a very long time.

Jon and Terry

Aurora, Colorado, USA

August 22, 2025

"I bet you're shocked," Terry added as we reached for our jackets.

"Shocked and delighted!" I said.

AMC Chinese Theatre at Arapahoe Crossing

Nextdoor

Well, it has been a looong time since we were at the movies.

We went inside and discovered there was no one selling tickets.

We had to use a computer to buy our tickets and preorder our snacks.

Preorder our snacks?

Could we get everything to work right on the third or fourth try?

No.

On Our Own

Yelp

It was humiliating when a young guy came up to the adjacent computer

and had his movie and snack tickets spitting out in 15-20 seconds.

I was thinking, I really am an old fossil!

Eventually the tickets emerged, we collected our hotdogs and a giant soda,

and headed for Theatre # 10.

Yum!!!

Terry was shocked!

We went to the cheapest matinee with senior prices,

split a drink-and-2-hotdogs special, and the cost was $47.63!

I was a little surprised myself.

When I went to the movies as a preteen in Sioux Lookout,

I could buy a ticket, pop, and popcorn for 25¢.

(soda ~ American, pop ~ Canadian).

It took us a while, but eventually we found our assigned seats, and settled in.

Well, Terry settled in.

I got excited and frustrated trying to recline in my comfy chair,

and it was bucking up and down like a bronco.

It's times like that Terry pretends he doesn't know me. 😂

My chair quieted, the feature rolled, and we happily ate our hotdogs and shared our soda.

The clarity of the images, the vividness of the colors, and the stereo sound were amazing!

Obviously screen technology has improved too.

AMC Theatres "We Make Movies Better" ~ Yes, they do!

Yelp

Of course, we both enjoyed Downton Abbey.

It was wonderful to see all our favorite characters and to have a satisfying end to the story.

The only downside was that this movie was the end to the story.

We had a great time, and I predict we will return to the movie theatre soon.

And next time, I'll know exactly what to do! 😂

Happy weekend!

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

Standing Into Danger https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com

My next post will be

Wednesday, October 1, 2025 🤞

Friday, September 19, 2025

Sometimes We Just Need to Laugh!

Today is a much better day than where I was week ago.
I spent the afternoon with four teachers, specialists,

and a teaching assistant from my former school, Sunrise Elementary.

We are all retired, and we get together in our book club.

I love it because I get to see them all again, and I read books I never would have heard of.

Today (Thursday) we discussed Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere.

What a fabulous book; what a fabulous discussion!

Motherhood from so many perspectives.

This week, after all the turmoil and distress of last week,

I just wanted to look at things that made me laugh.

There's no rhyme or reason to my choices for the memes I'm sharing,

other than they made me laugh when I really needed to.

So here are a few memes that I found in different places on the internet:

Every day it's getting a little calmer, and I am a little more together.

I hope things are looking up for you!

Have a good weekend everyone and a happy, carefree week to follow!

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

Standing Into Danger https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com

My next post will be

Friday, September 26, 2025 🤞

On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Friday, September 12, 2025

When Will It Be Enough?

I didn't want to write this post!

I am both sickened and heartsick.

The assignation of Charlie Kirk yesterday was horrific,

and my heart goes out to his family and friends.

Charlie Kirk

July 2025

Wikipedia

The murder of Charlie Kirk yesterday was another tragic event

in a long list of political motivated attacks and killings in recent years.

People on the "left" and the "right" have been attacking and killing fellow Americans,

because they disagree with their political views and actions.

Political violence is wrong, period.

When is enough going to be enough to promote change?

Are we going to continue to spiral down into worse and worse violence,

or are we going start reaching out to those who think differently from us

in an attempt to better understand each other better and to find common ground?

Guns and violence cannot continue to be the answer.

Our country is broken, and we need to find a way to mend it.

Tear gas outside the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021

Photo by Tyler Merbler ~ Wikimedia ~ License

Mostly lost in the atrocious news of Charlie Kirk's death yesterday

was the news of yet another school shooting in Colorado.

A high school student at Evergreen High School shot two of his classmates

then turned the gun on himself.

The unidentified shooter died, and his two victims were hospitalized in critical condition.

One student has since been released, the other remains in critical condition.

When is enough going to be enough?

Columbine wasn't. Sandy Hook wasn't.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas wasn't. Uvalde wasn't.

I have written about school gun violence in the past. Friday, May 27, 2022

I almost wrote about it again, after the heartbreaking shooting

at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on August 27, 2025.

As I see it, America loves its guns more than its children.

Actions speak louder than words.

Source

A common denominator in political violence and school violence is guns.

These aren't the only kinds of gun violence.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's

Center for Gun Violence Solution's

most recent report on gun violence in the US (2023) states:

"27,300 people died by firearm suicide, 17,927 died by firearm homicide, 463 died by unintentional gun injury, and an estimated 604 were fatally shot by law enforcement. In addition, an average of more than 200 Americans visit the emergency department for nonfatal firearm injuries each day." Source

When is enough going to be enough?

How many people have to die before we enact changes to our gun laws?

The October 1, 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, with its 60 dead, 413 wounded,

and 394 injured in the gunfire-induced panic wasn't enough.

The Las Vegas Sign on The Strip, October 9, 2017,

covered in flowers in the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas Strip shooting.

Rmvisuals ~ Wikimedia ~ License

Political violence, school shootings, and gun violence in our country

continue to shock and stun me.

Something has got to change!

We need to reach out and communicate with those who have different political views.

Not kill each other.

We need to address school shootings and find real solutions.

Not sit back and accept our children continuing to die.

We need to strengthen our patchwork quilt of state and federal gun laws

with some reasonable, research-based changes such as

universal background checks, waiting periods between buying and possessing guns,

firearms safety training, and secure gun storage.

Not wallow in the carnage and accept it as a way of life.

South L.A. residents rally to end gun violence.

Photo by Luke Harold ~ Wikimedia ~ License

I'm really discouraged right now.

Every time I think of Charlie Kirk, I literally feel nauseous

from the horror, the senselessness, and the loss of his young life.

And I feel heartsick for his wife and children.

I didn't agree with him politically, but I would have loved to have conversation with him.

No one should be murdered like that!

I feel almost hopeless over the continued school shootings

and the unending gun violence in our country.

But I haven't given up.

I'll regroup and continue to stand up and speak about my beliefs.

I have faith in our country.

We've gone through very dark periods in the past.

I believe we'll get through this difficult time too.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

Standing Into Danger https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com

My next post will be

Friday, September 19, 2025 🤞

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

IWSG: Wednesday, September 3, 2025 ~ Am I an Old Fossil?

To visit the IWSG website, click here.

To become a member of the IWSG, click here.

Our wonderful co-hosts who are volunteering today,
along with IWSG Founder Alex J. Cavanaugh are

Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, Nancy Gideon, and Diedre Knight!

Stop by their posts and thank them for hosting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every month the IWSG announces a question that members can answer
with advice, insight, a personal experience, or a story in their IWSG posts.

Or, the question can inspire members
if they aren't sure what to write about on IWSG Day.

Remember the question is optional.

This month's optional question is:

What are your thoughts on using AI, such as GPChat, Raptor, and others with your writing? Would you use it for research, storybible, or creating outlines\beats?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy September, Everyone!

I hope all is well with each of you.

I am conflicted about this month's question, after my experiences visiting

all the casinos in Colorado with our friend Jon in late August.

Furthermore, I am not very knowledgeable about AI Apps like GPChat,

and I thought a Raptor was a dinosaur.

img.flip

I have not deliberately used AI, but I know that I am using it unwittingly,

and I'm quite certain it has been using me.

AI is everywhere! I google anything, and an AI summary pops up.

I thoroughly researched the origin of the gold deposits in Cripple Creek last week,

and now Google is interrupting on my iPhone with alerts about mining all around the world.

Actually Google's AI summary of the origin of the gold in Cripple Creek

is pretty good, if you can look past the fact that it changes slightly every time you ask.

(And, whatever AI puts together, you should verify with other sources).

911metallurgist.com

And where do you draw the AI line?

I was struggling to smooth out a sentence for something for the IWSG a while ago.

It was late at night, I was wiped out, so I typed the truculent sentence into Grammarly,

and voilà!

A smooth sentence appeared, which I immediately used.

Then, recently, I discovered Grammarly uses AI, and it leaves a detectable footprint.

Now that sentence likely has been tagged for AI content. 😵‍💫

(Not that I mind. It just never occurred to me that that was AI at work).

In my IWSG post last month, I was convinced that using AI to create content was unethical.

Then our longtime friend Jon came from San Diego

to tackle the next state in his creative retirement quest, Hit 'Em All...

Jon and Terry

Aurora, Colorado USA

August 22, 2025

I watched him create his Hit 'em All Colorado series

of four half hour vlog posts in four days as we traveled about

from Central City and Black Hawk to Cripple Creek and Aurora.

I'm talking serious work: photos and short videos of twenty-five casinos,

brief videos of almost all his bets, a Dick-Tracy-like series of cartoons,

running commentary on the historic towns, critiques of various casinos,

and three or four original songs!

Plus a cameo of moi and numerous glimpses of Terry trying to dodge his camera.

Jon and Terry

Cripple Creek, Colorado, USA

August 20, 2025

Terry and I traveled back in time, compliments of Jon and AI.

Colorado, USA

August 2025

Original photo by Jon McGuffin

I quickly noticed two things.

Jon is not cursed with perfectionism,

and AI Apps helped his creativity and output immensely.

He got her done before he flew back to California on the morning of the fifth day,

and the first post was live on YouTube

when we arrived home from dropping him off at the airport.

A lightbulb went on!

Whose productivity is flourishing and whose is floundering?

Who's embracing the future and who's an old fossil?

Perhaps I need to be more open to using AI, such as applications like GPChat, and Raptor.

quickmeme.com

Olga Godim, a longtime and active IWSG member,

left a thoughtful comment on my IWSG post last month.

She wrote, "I think humanity is still floundering with AI. We are learning how to use it and how not to. It will take a while, I suppose. But AI is here to stay, in one form or another. We need to harness it to our needs."

Perhaps I need to harness AI to my needs more, rather than avoiding it.

Also, I definitely need to ease up on perfectionism. 😂

I wrote that Jon included original songs with his vlog posts.

As a former frontman for a band in San Diego for twenty years,

Jon is a talented musician and song writer.

He writes the lyrics, and has AI come up with a number of song versions.

Then he chooses the one he likes best for his post.

When he was doing his Hit 'em All Nevada series,

his daughter Tracy challenged him to write a rap song.

And, he did: "Winnemucca and Me."

This isn't his best song, but it's my favorite,

because its catchy beat and clever words always put a smile on my face.

And I've wanted to visit Winnemucca forever!

If you'd like to hear this song, go to 11:04 minutes on this video:

Hit 'em All Nevada Compilation of Songs.

It's about two minutes long.

Jon McGuffin ~ YouTube

I'm looking forward to seeing how others respond to this month's question.

Have a healthy, happy, and creative September!

Take care!

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

Standing Into Danger https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com

My next post will be Friday, September 12th 🤞

Just so you know, I monitor my comments before publishing them. This means your comment won't appear immediately. I will not publish mean spirited or commercial comments.

Pages

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

IWSG: Wednesday, October 1, 2025 ~ Gingerbread Girl

Friday, September 26, 2025

Shocked!

Friday, September 19, 2025

Sometimes We Just Need to Laugh!

Friday, September 12, 2025

When Will It Be Enough?

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

IWSG: Wednesday, September 3, 2025 ~ Am I an Old Fossil?