Green Room - Week 17 - Weekend Edition

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

When I got home last night, I saw two small wasp nest in the alcove just outside the front door.

So I went out with the spray to get rid of them.

I sprayed and then backed way off for a few minutes.

But I still had to get back in the front door, so I took a step forward and saw that there was a wasp that had fallen to the ground, but wasn't dead yet.

I stepped on it to put it out of it's misery.

Then another one started to fly, and crashed into the ground a little bit away. I went to step on that one was well.

I glanced back up to the nest, but the other three were gone. I looked at the ground underneath but they weren't there either.

So I stepped back and tried to locate them.

That's when I felt something crawling on me. I looked over and one of the wasps was on the back of my shirt. As I was shaking him off, the other two, who had gotten under my shirt, stung me.

I had gotten cocky, and paid for it. By taking my eye off the objective and letting myself think that I was in more control than I actually was of the situation, I ended up getting stung.

***

The Idol topic is up now: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/767515.html as well as a Work Room: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/767952.html

How are YOU going to keep your eyes on your personal objectives for being in Idol, and not allow yourself to get distracted?

Comments

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

THIS, my man, is an UTTERLY BRILL introspective entry for where the contest appears to be at the moment.

You know your game.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Ouch. I'm so glad I have never been stung by a wasp (knock on wood).

I am keeping my personal objectives very clearly in my sights and real life is allowed to distract, but I still carve out time for Idol and myself. :)

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Wasp stings totally suck! Ice packs help.

Right now my goal is to keep writing every week for Idol, and I'm also doing a new project that I want to finish in 30 days. I have a terrific writer buddy, who not only cheerleads me, but is finishing her own daily goals even when she doesn't want to, so that I'll feel guilty if I don't do mine!

Hurray mutual guilt and shame!

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

"Mutual guilt and shame," is a good way to keep a pair of writing friends motivated. ;) Sarah and I tried the writing together every day thing, and it worked pretty well for us -- until I started working and she changed jobs. xD Now we don't really have overlapping schedules TO write at the same time.

But weekends we usually try to do "sprints" at the same time. :)

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

You have to say this today.

The guilt. It burns.

[fodschwazzle.livejournal.com]

I will focus on my Idol goals by not grading my students' homework.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

oh why are you posting such horror stories! i can.t imagine ... some giant comes and knocks down my house and shoots my whole famikyvwith neurotoxins..... and only by great daring and luck do some surviving resistance members manage to strike back.....


[says the professional wasp exterminator]

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

My Old Man is outside on our sizable deck right now waging battle with a huge and quite social hidden nest of yellowjackets. CAN they nest in a deck? SHOULD they be removed??? I'm torn.

He just put out a poisoned tin of tuna...

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I thought of you.

Once I realized what they did, I had to admire it from a tactical perspective. They saw their chance to strike back, and they took it.

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

Ouch. I'm sorry you got stung! Although from the wasp's point of view, it was probably justified, I guess :/

Anyway, to help you feel better, I've just baked some apple and berry muffins, if you're hungry. Let me know when you'll be over and I'll put the kettle on for you.

[zhent.livejournal.com]

Keep the wasps away from me!!!

I had a paper wasp start to build a nest on my door a couple of weeks ago. I watched her fly away and knocked the start of the nest off the door. I never saw her again, so I hope she found someplace else to go...

Idol wise, I'm just taking it one week at a time, each week being longer in Idol than I have made it in the past means I've already surpassed previous performance. I do worry that shortened voting periods are hurting me since I'm the last one in every poll...

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

I think there are a lot of people who start at the end of the poll and read up. Sometimes I do it. Now I can only hope there are people who start in the middle. ;-)

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

I'm not distracted, I'm just recovering from GISHWHES and walking most of a 5k yesterday (I did two out of the 3-ish miles). Still have no idea what to do with this topic, but at least I still have some byes in my back pocket if all else fails...

Sorry to hear about your stings, Gary!

[blue-by-you.livejournal.com]

I am just back to LJ after several years absence and I don't recall what LJIdol is or why I joined but I was clearly meant to hear the story and it's an analogy that I will take into my day and my week. Thank you. Sorry you had to pay the price. :)

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Welcome back to LJ!

I checked out your profile, to see if I could figure it out for you, and we do have "3 mutual friends", all of them having participated in previous seasons.

You may have signed up to follow the community in order to vote for them! Hope you stick around to see all of the great writing that is happening this season!

[kickthehobbit.livejournal.com]

My father used to make an imprompteau flamethrower out of carburetor cleaner and a welding torch and zap their nests.

...your way is probably better, though I will note he never got stung (nor burned the house down).

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

My roomie in the dorms showed us this great trick with a can of hairspray and a Zippo and we were....asked to move out. She blew the screen out of the window and caused great chaos amongst the student body on the green.

[ryl.livejournal.com]

You are a braver man than I. If I came home to a live wasp nest on the porch, someone would have to call the fire department because I will burn the house down to get rid of those vile beasts.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Back in college somebody threw a rock at the wasp nest hanging on the corner of the library roof. At the same time I was running down the walkway hoping I wouldn't be late for a class. For some reason they decided that stinging my head was an apt retaliation.

My college roommate says she can still hear me screaming (she was in the library at the time) :shudder:

The only thing I remember was being taken to the infirmary and having a half dozen or so welts all over my scalp.

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

well,
having asthma and alergies my entire life,
artritis for over half my life,
and now having problems with psoriasis (whic I haveactualy been haveing flare ups of for a few years now)
I have come to realize that my imunesystem is out to get me.
beyound that I just keep going til i am done. I do not really get oh looke a butterfly.
I've been making wooden rings.
What were we talking about?

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Gary, that's awful! Hope you're ok! AW

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

One time while camping in the middle of no freaking where I walked into a ground hive of yellow jackets. The only other person with me was my roomie who was allergic to bee stings.

Those little buggers don't die when they sting you, and two of them got under my watch band and stung me over and over and over again while I was running and flailing.

I think you just gave me PTSD. WHERE IS THE TRIGGER WARNING?!!!! :)

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

I'm allergic to wasps. I think Gary gave me PTSD, too. :S

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

Dunno. I have so many balls in the air this month that it'll be a miracle if I'm still in next month. So ...... praying?

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

Same here.

beta readers needed

[dmousey.livejournal.com]

Oh where, oh where, can my beta be! Oh where... well you get the drift! Anyone up for concrit? Am almost ready to post and need fresh eyes...
http://dmousey.livejournal.com/4783.html.

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of an incident that occurred to me in college. I played an anonymous prank, revealed it publicly and then received some serious carnage, including someone sending me a live wasp, sealed in an envelope, through campus mail.

Naturally, I never opened that envelope, but could see the creature crawling around inside it. I was very impressed that someone was able to not only capture a wasp and get it into an envelope but that they sealed it shut without harming it.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Late random comment: never step on or crush a wasp or hornet to kill it, if you can avoid it.

When they get crushed, they release a pheremone that draws the rest of the hive down on "the enemy." I.e., YOU.

Nobody wants that!