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Tag Archives: August McLaughlin

Friday in the Park – A Christmas Stroll Through the Blogosphere 12/23/11

23 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by Tim L O'Brien in Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

August McLaughlin, blogging, Christmas, Debra Kristi, Jessica O'Neal, Julie Hedlund, Louise Behiel, Mashup, Myndi Shafer, Static in the Airwaves, Susie Lindau, Tim L O'Brien, Tim O'Brien

As we near the big day I decided to move my Saturday post up a day.  So welcome to my Friday stroll through the park, a collection of blogs from the past week that created static in my airwaves.  My mashup is a buffet of sorts from some of the best blogs and most talented bloggers I follow.  In honor of the Christmas season the following blogs are all holiday theme oriented.

Are you looking to create the ultimate Christmas card to send to family and friends?  You will be amazed at the talents of Susie Lindau in her blog titled  Cutting Up at Christmas.

Searching for the holiday spirit?  Has the overcrowded malls, long lines, and full parking lots have you down?  Check our Louise Behiel’s blog this week  Christmas Music Past and Present.  After watching these videos you will have a smile on your face and regained your Christmas magic!

Are you lost in the commercialization of Christmas?  Have you forgotten the true meaning behind it all?  Leave it to Linus in the Charlie Brown Christmas to remind us all in Myndi Shafer’s   The Reason We Celebrate.

Are you or someone close to you struggling to cope during the holidays? Read Debra Kristi’s excellent blog The Elephant in the Room: Dealing With Grief at the Holidays.

Do you still recall the magic of Christmas from your childhood?  Do those feeling come back to you year after year, or have you lost that Christmas feeling?  Check out Jessica O’Neal’s blog this week   Is Christmas Really Just Meant For Children?

Have you ever tried to rewrite a Christmas classic?  Well, that just what Julie Hedlund did!  To see what an amazing job she did, read her blog  ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas: Holiday Contest

No holiday recap is complete without a great holiday baking recipe.  The multi talented writer and healthy baking blogger, August McLaughlin shares with us her delicious ideas in Cinnabon’s Healthy Cousins.

Happy Friday everyone and may the joys of this season find you and your family!

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Taking A Chance – The Naughty List Exposed

15 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by Tim L O'Brien in Uncategorized

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

August McLaughlin, Blogs, Naughty or Nice, Static in the Airwaves, Take a Chance, Tim L O'Brien

We all take chances at some point in our life.  We roll the dice and hope for the best.

We take a chance on love.  We take a chance on that new job.  On that used car we plan to buy.  During this time of endless debates in the political arena, there are men and women taking a chance.  Each day our men and women put on the uniform, be it military or public service officials, and take a chance.  The oil and gas industry is rooted in a great game of chance.

In the pursuit of chance, we risk a lot.  Our feelings.  Our personal happiness.  Our families financial future.  We open ourselves to failure.  To ridicule.  To embarrassment.

In my pursuit of writing I was taught something that has never left me:  to be a skilled writer, you need to be unique.  You can’t attempt to write like Cormac McCarthy or even Stephen King.  You have to be yourself.  The reader has to get to know you, identify with you and believe in your words.

Easier said than done.  Writing is a lonely profession.  There are no co-workers in my office.  Just me at my desk with my computer.  Writers labor over each word, each sentence, each paragraph and with each page we reveal ourselves.  After all, it is our imagination that fuels the story.

Last week the very talented writer and blogger August McLaughlin introduced a game – a version of the Naughty or Nice List – which was a terrific writing exercise.  Making the list forced me to expose myself in ways that weren’t comfortable.  The goal of the game is for the writer to reveal things and take a chance.  Hopefully, the lessons learned will carry over into our other writing – the novel.  It was a game intended to let the reader learn more about us – good or bad!

Her blog Naughty & Nice: Confessions of a Goodie-Goodie was great fun.  So much fun, I decided to accept her invitation and play the game.  Click on her link for a better understanding of how the game works, and for an entertaining look at her naughty or nice list.

My list was of things that I MAY or MAY NOT have done.  Maybe I was guilty of everything on the list, or maybe none of it.  It was up to the reader to decide which exploits happened, and which are just a fixture of my imagination.

So to further embarrassment here are the answers to my list:

I am so naughty, I:

1. Passed out and woke up locked inside a bar in New Orléans the next morning with no way to get out.

Answer:  Ha! Most of you got this one wrong! I have been to New Orléans and did try to drink the town dry, but lost.  This happened to a good friend of mine.

2. Found myself surrounded by ten Mexican Federales, screaming at me in Spanish, with machine guns pointed directly at me while at a bar in a small border town in Mexico.

Answer:  Unfortunately this one was true.  Still have no idea why they singled me out of the group at our table, but they did.  Frightening experience.  Never went back to Mexico after that.  Even more dangerous there now.

3. Tried to take a 6 foot hotel Santa Claus decoration up the elevator with me.

Answer:  Most of you got this one wrong, as well.  I was present when hotel security took Santa away from my friend and off the elevator.

4. Played naked red rover at a house Christmas Party.

Answer:  Happy to report to all, including my mom, that I never did this one either.  It just sounded funny so I included it on this list.

5. Bribed my high school biology teacher into giving me a “C” in his class after catching him smoking pot after school.

Answer:  Yes we did catch the little orange-haired teacher after the Friday pep rally smoking a joint!  Later that night, or the next night, my friend and I confronted the teacher at our high school dance.  We had a few beers in advance and decided to take a chance. We confronted him, and after a series of denials (his) and threats (ours) he relented.   At the end of the year my friend and I got a ‘C’ in the class, as promised.  How stupid was I back in high school?  I didn’t ask for an ‘A’, thought it might be a little too obvious, and the parents would think something was amiss! 

6. Wahoo’d beer from the same convenience store week after week while in high school and never got caught.

Answer:  This happened as well, and to this day we still marvel out our luck at never getting caught.  I guess the Houston police had bigger things to worry about.  I forgot to mention in the original post, that we would also place a couple of burritos in the microwave oven next to the door, and heat them up before giving the Wahoo yell.  A free dinner of bean and cheese burritos and beer!

7. Drove a jeep off a cliff.

Answer:  Long story, but yes this happened.  There were four of us in the jeep.  We bailed out just before it went over the cliff.  To this day we never admitted who the driver was – until now I guess.  Seconds after the jeep went off the bluff someone is the group asked, “Did anyone see were the ice chest landed?”  Out in the middle of nowhere in the South Texas brush country, we walked home.  Along the way we were partially  sprayed by a skunk.  Once we arrived back to the house a rain storm hit, the power went out, forcing us to ration the ice-cube trays in the freezer.  By the way, the Jeep really didn’t have any brakes, really.

8. Broke wind at Sound Warehouse and when the attractive girl across the record aisle looked up, I pointed at my friend Chris, without him seeing me.

Answer: Remember Sound Warehouse?  We would spend hours in there after school.  Now is as good a time as any to finally apologize to my buddy Chris for this one.

9. After a dare and several beers bunji jumped at the state fair.

Answer: Oh hell no!  I have a total fear of heights.  Bunji-jumping would be the ultimate in torture for me.  Putting my life at risk with a heavy-duty rubber band and Carney worker?  Me stupid?  Yes.  But not that stupid!

10. Ate cow tongue at a pub in London and like it.

Answer:  I can thank my Father for this one and his tricky ways.  We were sitting in a pub in London on a fine afternoon and doing as the locals do, having a few pints.  The pub had some sort of sandwich spread thing going and my Father brought to the table samplings of the meat and some bread.  We ate away and washed it down with the suds.  He asked if we enjoyed the food.  We all replied that yes indeed the food was pretty good.  He then told us we were eating cow tongue!  

11. Fed the homeless in Chicago on Thanksgiving one year.

Answer: Yes!  Even a crowned dunce can do something selfless now and then!!

12. Had dinner and drinks (lots of drinks) with a King in Dallas, Texas.

Answer:  This was sort of a trick question. In Oklahoma, the number one pastime (besides making meth and chasing tornado’s) is college football.  Former coach Barry Switzer was nicknamed, “The King”.  Upon my graduation from college, I worked in the Media Relations department of the Athletic Department while Switzer was still the head coach.  Following his career at the University of Oklahoma he coached the Dallas Cowboys.  He was part-owner of a restaurant in Dallas.  We happened to both be there at the same time one night, and he invited me to his table.  The two of us had a great dinner together and finished the night with drinks at the bar. He is the nicest King you will ever meet!

13. Got tongue-tied when author Harlan Coben said “How you doing, Big Guy”

Answer:  Yes, my oversized inner dork made an appearance at the wrong time.  

14.  Broke into the Priest’s supply room at my all-boys high school and ate all the unblessed communion wafers.

Answer: Yes, this happened as well.  That was so many years ago I can’t remember why.  Maybe, just because!

So there you have the answers, the truth revealed, and the shame begins.  I am not proud of some of the things on this list.  The list was not an attempt of boasting or bragging about past exploits.  I have opened myself to the reader, and quite frankly, I honestly don’t like how it feels!
I’m just glad I never got a phone call from my Mom after she read the list!

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Making a List…Naughty or Nice – You Decide

13 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by Tim L O'Brien in Uncategorized

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

August McLaughlin, Blogs, Naughty or Nice, Santa's Making a List, Static in the Airwaves, Tm L O'Brien

When your children were at a young age, the age when they still believed in the big red guy, did you ever use Santa to help discipline your child?  Did the threat to call Santa ever work?  During a recent tantrum by my daughter, a simple “Maybe we should call Santa and see if you are still on the nice list” was all it took.  The tizzy was over just as fast as it started.  Over the years I owe Santa a lot of thank you cards.  I don’t think Santa ever intended for parents to use him as a disciplinary tool, but hey, if it works I will use it for all it’s worth!

So what is it about Santa’s naughty or nice list?  Was the intended purpose of the list nothing more than a means to bribe to our children to keep them orderly?

Last week blogger extraordinaire August McLaughlin made her own version of a naughty or nice list.  Her blog Naughty & Nice: Confessions of a Goodie-Goodie was great fun.  So much fun, I have decided to accept her invitation and play in her game.  Click on her link for a better understanding of how the game works, and for an entertaining look at her naughty or nice list.

Picture this as an adult version of the naughty or nice list, only this time, you get to play Santa and decide.

Now this game is not quite so simple.  I will list things that I MAY or MAY NOT have done!  Maybe I am guilty of everything on the list, or maybe I didn’t do any of it.  It is up to you the reader to decide which exploits happened, and which are just a fixture of my imagination.  (Note to my Mom who reads this: I did not do any of these things. This is just for entertainment value.)

I am so naughty, I:

1. Passed out and woke up locked inside a bar in New Orléans the next morning with no way to get out.

2. Found myself surrounded by ten Mexican Federales, screaming at me in Spanish, with machine guns pointed directly at me while at a bar in a small border town in Mexico.

3. Tried to take a 6 foot hotel Santa Claus decoration up the elevator with me.

4. Played naked red rover at a house Christmas Party.

5. Bribed my high school biology teacher into giving me a “C” in his class after catching him smoking pot after school.

6. Wahoo’d beer from the same convenience store week after week while in high school and never got caught.

7. Drove a jeep off a cliff.

8. Broke wind at Sound Warehouse and when the attractive girl across the record aisle looked up, I pointed at my friend Chris, without him seeing me.

9. After a dare and several beers bunji jumped at the state fair.

10. Ate cow tongue at a pub in London and like it.

11. Fed the homeless in Chicago on Thanksgiving one year.

12. Had dinner and drinks (lots of drinks) with a King in Dallas, Texas.

13. Got tongue-tied when author Harlan Coben said “How you doing, Big Guy”

14.  Broke into the Priest’s supply room at my all-boys high school and ate all the unblessed communion wafers.

So guess away!  In the comment section below let me know which things you believe I did or didn’t do.  The winner gets….well, nothing.  The correct answers will be revealed in next Tuesday’s blog.

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Saturday in the Park – A Stroll Through the Blogosphere

10 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by Tim L O'Brien in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

August McLaughlin, Debra Kristi, Kristen Lamb, Lisa Hall-Wilson, Mashup, Myndi Shafer, Static in the Airwaves, Susie Lindau, Tim L O'Brien

Happy Saturday everyone.  Join me for a stroll through the park, a collection of blogs from the past week that created static in my airwaves.  My mashup is a buffet of sorts from some of the best blogs and most talented bloggers I follow:

Looking for a different take on Santa’s naughty or nice list?  Check out August McLaughlin’s Naughty & Nice: Confessions of a Relative Goody-Goody.  This “adult” version of Santa’s list is terrific fun.  August lists several outrageous and daring stunts that she may or may not have committed.  You, the reader are given the task to pick which are true and which are not.  This talented writer’s blog was a favorite this week.  August is a former model and some of her exploits are rather revealing.  Or are they?  On Tuesday she will reveal the truth.

Some of you may be aware that I took an on-line social networking class taught by the Jedi Master of all social networking guru’s – Kristen Lamb.  She is the best-selling author of two outstanding books: WE ARE NOT ALONE – The Writers Guide to Social Media and ARE YOU THERE Blog? It’s Me, Writer.  If you are searching for a little inspiration on this Saturday and if the stress of the holiday season is getting to you, read Kristen’s latest blog Great Expectations.  When the world has you waist deep in horse sh*t look for the pony!

Did your honeymoon goes as planned?  Was it everything you envisioned?  For one nervous woman’s tale read Lisa Hall-Wilson’s blog Ceiling Mirrors and Faux Fur.  Lisa’s blog will have you rolling in laughter as she recounts that memorable night.

If you’re in the holiday spirit and looking for a nice, heartwarming story then head over to Susie Lindau’s Wild Ride and read A Christmas Tail.  Everyone loves a story with a happy ending!

Are you a parent dealing with the when do I tell my children the truth about Santa?  Head over to Myndi Shafer’s blog and read the guest post written by Debra Kristi – The Time of Innocence Lost.  Debra does a wonderful job with her article and truly captures the spirit of Christmas and what all parent’s eventually go through.

There you have it, a sampling of the best of the best out there in the blogosphere.  I hope you click the links and read from these immensely talented writers.  If you like them well enough, and I think you will, click their follow icons and you won’t miss another blog!

Happy Saturday in the Park everybody.  Only 15 more days till Christmas.  I hope you have all your shopping done and aren’t spending the weekend in a mall parking lot!  Unfortunately, I still have a bit more to get, so if you see me out and about, and if I look a little disheveled, stop me and let’s go have a beer.

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