/dev/random: A Blanket Stack of Today

I think the name of it is rather interesting - a Blanket Box, because the various blockquotes stacked on each other might look like a stack of blankets. I might be prompted to this connection between blockquotes and blankets in that the thing I was linked to exists at Pillowfort, so I might have been a bit more primed than if I had seen it in some other context.

In any case, it's a prompt sequence to get someone to talk a bit more about something. The one I saw is "Today", and its original post is at thursdayj's pillowfort. There's a building masterpost of the blanket boxes at iimpavid's pillowfort.

1. Five Things about your surroundings:
   
   1. There's a mountain when the sky is clear. If the skies are clear enough (which has been a problem recently), there's a volcano-mountain that you can see from here. Which means I'm within the danger zone of said volcano should it decide to go off.
   
   
   2. Many corners and underpasses are inhabited. And a significant number of the signs around talk about military veteran status in their please to have enough to eat and be housed. This is not surprising, given the proximity of the fortress, the airfield, and the shipyard.
   
   
   3. Most houses and apartments have fireplaces or wood stoves. I still don't actually understand why, but that seems to be a fixture of the fixtures around here. Perhaps they think it is a necessary and romantic thing to have in all the houses. (I can see the practicality of the wood stoves in a place where the electric grid extends, but there might be a few acres of woodland between you and your nearest neighbor.)
   
   
   4. I have my art on the wall. Not my art, as in "art I've created," but my art as in "subjects and pieces of art that I own and can display proudly." That wasn't the case some time ago, when I was being actively suppressed into corners and basements. I like things better now.
   
   
   5. There is a cat. The cat is yelling at me because she believes she's hungry. The cat's yells will not influence the speed at which the food comes out. When not being hungry-yell, the cat is a lovable purrball that enjoys snuggles and pursuing all sorts of toys across the floor.
   
   
2. Four things about yourself:
   
   1. I am not left-handed. Other than being a great reference, a very-young me appeared to favor the sinister, but was also impatient to learn various techniques, like writing, from the elder sister, and therefore I taught myself how to do those things with my right hand.
   
   
   2. I play an instrument. How well I do so is up to the listener, but yes, I do play an instrument on the regular in a group.
   
   
   3. Knowing about shipping helped me make a friend in graduate school. Specifically, the person in question was a Harry/Hermione shipper, and knowing what it was and that there were ship wars going on at the time helped out. Knowing what I do now, I mostly ship Luna with various people. Neville, Hermione, both good choices. Hermione shouldn't have to deal with Ron or Harry, and Ginny, I think, will figure out something sufficiently polyamorous with Harry, if she chooses to keep him. (She probably will, because he has status in the Wizarding World, but also because she's going to have a hell of a career with the Harpies.)
   
   
   4. I unintentionally frighten very small children. It's a consequence of being someone who looks like a giant that then focuses their attention (and sometimes gets on eye level with them. That often causes some hiding behind the legs of the grownup the small child has been accompanying. I'd like to believe I'm friendlier than that, but I seem to have the knack for frightening them all the same.
   
   
3. Three things on your to-do list:
   
   • Take the recycling to the curb
   
   
   • Schedule car maintenance
   
   
   • Ask for readers on a piece of prose
   
   
4. Two things you've accomplished:
   
   1. I put myself into the love meme recently
   
   
   2. I found a plot thread and am pulling on it to see where it goes.
   
   
5. One thing on your mind:
   
   1. The interplay between a thing I've written, whether it would be appropriate for the call that's been pt out for it, and the fact that the call itself isn't offering any monetary recompense, and so it probably is silently excluding the audience that it would most like to hear from, because it's not paying people for their work. It hasn't yet cooled into a thought that might turn long-form or something like it, but it's congealing somewhere.