Tuesday, July 2, 2013

A Random Story from a Random World... Part 1


A long time ago I began to write a story about an angry, potted plant and his friends. This was one of the first stories I remember writing but unfortunately, at this point, I only really remember the basic premise. So now, about fifteen years later, I am going to use what I remember to re-write the story and find out what happens. Onward!

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Mr. Robot, the anthropomorphic potted plant, sat alone on the cold, concrete floor of his airplane hangar and pondered to himself with no small amount of steeped frustration at his predicament. It had been twelve long days since his maid had last stopped by to clean his floors and, of course, move him around. Being confined to a two decimetre high clay pot did not lend itself well for locomotion and forced the Campanula to rely on the kindness of others. An occurrence he could not reliably count on due to his disagreeable attitude. So he often resorted to intimidation instead. Perhaps that is why she hadn’t returned, Mr. Robot thought to himself, straining to even remember his maids name.
                
“Hello?” he shouted. Having no lips you’d think it would be difficult for him to speak but that hadn’t stopped him before. Fortunately, the fact that he had eyebrows helped to display his emotion; that had always been enough. His shout had echoed several times since he spoke. He had very little in the way of furniture for to absorb any sound. Living in a nearly empty airplane hangar had that effect. The large door to exit his home was several metres away; the most he could possibly travel by himself was approximately zero anythings.
               
If only my crate of dynamite wasn’t so far away, he thought as he stared at the small crate labeled “BOOM” about a half a metre away. As the tiny flower strained his light green right leaf towards the box in desperation he heard a noise. Raising his dark eyebrows in hope and anger he shot his yellow, bulbous head towards the door. Finally, she’s returned! I’ll lower her pay significantly for this... Mr. Robot discontinued his train of thought upon the realization that he had stopped paying his maid about twelve days ago, around the time she had last did something to displease him. This could explain so much.
               
His maid did not walk into his airplane hangar. A young man named Jeremy the Human did. Jeremy was human; a rather mundane and predictable title yet accurate. Accuracy was safe in this world. Mr. Robot had no time for safety and therefore no time for Jeremy. “What do you want?” he bellowed angrily at the human. Then, reminding himself that Jeremy’s human arms could be useful to him as a mode of transportation, he leveled his voice and finished, “My best friend Jeremy?”
               
“Did you know Vincent the Nameless Snake is missing?” asked Jeremy. The boy walked swiftly across the length of the hangar towards the plant. He was young for a human, Mr. Robot assumed and of average height for a human, Mr. Robot assumed and perpetually wore the same t-shirt and shorts. Mr. Robot wore nothing, being a potted plant and all, but if he did he would show some variety.
                 
By this time Jeremy had come to sit cross legged on the floor directly in front of Mr. Robot with both fists propping up his chin as his elbows rested upon his knees. Show off, Mr. Robot thought, bending those human appendages and whatnot. It was at this time that Mr. Robot had determined that the boy was waiting for an answer. “Of course I knew that!” he shouted. He actually did not know this at all but he would never let that become apparent.
                 
“No one has seen him for over a week.” Jeremy informed, “I think we should look for him.”
                 
“What a terrible idea.” The plant responded with distain. Mr. Robot did not have time to search the world for a missing snake even if this particular snake was well liked by most and worked at the post office. The post office! How could Mr. Robot forget? He had been expecting a package for days now. No wonder he had not received it. “We must find Vincent the Nameless Snake!” exclaimed Mr. Robot, stretching his little leaves towards the sky.
                 
“Huzzah!” Jeremy jumped to his feet and began to dance, “I knew you’d be the one to save the day, Mr. Robot!”
               
Mr. Robot immediately began to dance as well. There were literally thousands of rules Mr. Robot lived by and one of them was ‘never turn down an opportunity to dance’. Although his dance mainly consisted of his slender stem wiggling rhythmically as each of his delicate, light-green leaves punched the air. He held his large, yellow head back swaying it with his eyes closed. Both he and Jeremy danced for nearly thirty minutes. A victory dance! Until suddenly there rang a bell...
                
“You don’t have a door bell.” said Jeremy halting his dance immediately and shooting a surprised look at Mr. Robot.
                 
“I don’t have a door bell.” echoed the plant with incredulity and wonder.   “Quickly, human, to the door!”
                
Jeremy nimbly grabbed the plant and balanced Mr. Robot on his head. Then the young man darted across the room and with one swift kick leveled the door with explosive force.
                 
From his vantage point Mr. Robot, having first been pleased with Jeremy’s brash action and show of incredible, super-human strength, suddenly became alarmed at what he saw having just now been crushed by a large, metal door of an airplane hanger, “Human, what have you done?!”
                 
“On noes, Mr. Robot where did you go?!” shouted the human.


TO BE CONTINUED



Sunday, January 13, 2013

Jonathan Troke's Christmas Entry Extravaganza!

Thus concludes my 29th Christmas Day. Do you know what comes next year? My 30th Christmas Day. Because, you see, I'll be 30 years old at that time. However, not only is that not important right now it's a topic for another blog entry. Therefore it goes back to the desert I refer to as my "blog entry idea depository" or BEID which is pronounced like the word "bed" after you've been punched in the mouth. Regardless, just a point of fact I thought I'd mention to create the setting for what you're about to experience as "Jonathan Troke's Christmas Entry Extravaganza!"

See that? Bold typography and over-exaggerated descriptive. Now that's how you sell a blog entry, folks. You don't come here for understated font and nap-inducing narrative. Think of the setup for what follows as if it were directed by Michael Bay. In fact, it would greatly help me out if you wouldn't mind grabbing the nearest box of household explosives and detonating them as you read this introduction. There. Are you sufficiently pumped? Concerned that I won't be able to deliver on what has now been built up in your mind as the end all Christmas themed blog entries of this young century? I know I am! Onward!

In the last few seconds or so I've arbitrarily decided it would be best to narrow down my thoughts on the Christmas of 2012 into three concise paragraphs. Paragraph the first:

My wonderful wife created a new Christmas tradition this year. She decided to view one Christmas themed movie or show beginning on the first of December and leading up to Christmas Day. While she succeeded at doing this I failed to match her enthusiasm on occasion and didn't watch each film with her. (Although I did managed to see most of them) On Christmas Eve we watched one of my favorites; A Christmas Story. Since we don't have TBS and exist in the late 90's anymore with their near constant showing of this classic we had obtained our own DVD for just this occasion. Other notable mentions from this tradition include Christmas Vacation, Muppet's Christmas Carol and the Muppet's Family Christmas. Of which my favorite line is delivered from the stoic Sam the Eagle: "Why am I here?"

As I've grown older and wiser I've come to appreciate Christmas in new ways. There was a time when I was a wee lad that lil'Troke could barely sleep on Christmas Eve night. At this point I don't have that problem anymore. But despite the absence of insomnia inducing glee I now look forward to the time off work to spend with my wife, going to church for the Christmas Eve service, and the Christmas turkey... and turkey sandwiches and turkey salad and turkey gravy and Turkey Hash and Turkey a la King and gallons of turkey soup!  The point is that I like turkey and quoting movies.

Finally, my final thought on Christmas, finally: Receiving new underwear is the gift that keeps on giving all year 'round.

Well, there you go. Did I deliver? Don't answer that. It was a rhetorical question. Besides, it isn't important right now. What is important is that it is now the year 2013. I expected, as did we all, to be able to hop on my hover-board and ride to the hover-store and pick up some hover-milk by now. But can I? No! If any of you know of way that we can speed up the process for inventing a non-lethal form of hover-milk I'd greatly love to hear of it. Which is why from this point forward, beginning in 2013 and beyond my readership will henceforth be known as Jonathan Troke's Personal Think Tank Extravaganza! So pull together and get this figured out. It's up to you. My part is only to write about it when you're done.