Weekly Challenge #239 “Day Job”

Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number Two Hundred and Thirty-Nine, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.

The topic this week was Day Job!

Go ahead and listen to them and then vote for your favorites (multiple selections are allowed):

[polldaddy poll=4122760]


Tony

My eyes have become bloodshot staring at this living puzzle. Shift a room a couple of inches and the user’s psychological state shifts too. Enclose a space too much and the boss gets offended. Open it up and there’s a looming Orwellian/Hawthorne effect. Jesus, this office is too small to be driving me this crazy!

At least I don’t design homes. If a closet were too deep, the bathroom might not have a bath. Expand the size of the bathroom, and you’d shrink the living room. Or kitchen. Or bedroom!

I’d be too nervous to make changes. Way too nervous

Tom

My day job is playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a Furbee bar in mythic Connecticut. A happy tree friends version of Rocky Horror Picture Show. It’s really hot, not sexual, its damn toasty wearing a corset over a chimmunck suit. I truly believe the two greatest words in the English language are “Musical Theater” It’s a bit of a drag that the pay doesn’t quite meet the bills. Thank god for my night job in The City. Senior Account for Goldman Sack lets me channel that wild and untamed thing. Don’t feel it be it. Just be it and steel it

Zackmann

Say that employment office you sent me to isn’t a job office anymore. It has been massage
parlor for over two weeks now. When the clerk asked me why I was there she wasn’t really
listening. I said I was looking for a day job since I am a writer and everyone who reads my work
tells me to keep my day job. Yes, it was one of those massage parlors. Of course I enjoyed it
but I would have really liked to have had a massage. She said “Hey, Writer Guy come back for
the Happy Ending”.

AM Earley

Claire really liked her day job. Oh sure she had to make her deliveries between midnight and eight o’clock, but she saw more morning hours than office workers.

She was liked so much, that one of her clients requested that only she delivered to them. Even over the guys who have been there for decades. She finally asked the scientist who always received that cargo why they preferred her.

“The live specimens always arrived calm when it is you driving.”

“Well,” Claire thought, “if they are calm enough that I’ve never known they were alive, I’m going to continue singing every song in my I-pod.”

Steven the Nuclear Man

I guess it sounds easy. Maybe even fun. But it’s not. I can’t do
the simplest chores – fill out your check BEFORE the cashier’s done,
you douchebag!

I’m always busy. Hey – you! You park like a douche!

And I have to explain my job – no, ma’am, it’s not sexist because
douching was developed by our patriarchal culture. Douches aren’t
healthy for women.

Some days, I wish I could just make widgets all day.

“Quit bitching about your job! You’re a douche!”

You’re a douche!

At least I have job security.

TJ

Frank made a donut. Jen grabbed it on her way to the office, where she
designed a luggage rack on a 4×4. Mark dropped some mail off at her
workstation and turned up his headphones. He was listening to Wendy
argue with Bill on the radio, powered by a wind turbine designed by
Annie and built by Warren, which Rachel had negotiated the easement for
on Harold’s farm. Harold reworked his wheat field to accommodate it
and Jake took his harvest into town. Jane milled his flour and bagged up
some of it for Frank, who made … another donut.

Norval Joe

The masked crime fighter crouched atop the bank in the moonless dark.
He watched the bank robbers back thier unmarked van up to the glass doors of the entrance.
By day, he was an unassuming Pest Control Agent.
As the would be criminals gathered and placed the explosive charge on the door, he dropped lightly onto one of them and clung tightly. One by one, the remaining three tried to pull Flypaper Man from their accomplice and joined him in his sticky fate.
Eventually a policeman arrested the clump of men and carefully peeled each criminal from the super hero.

Katwood

Most people were relieved when the governments crawled out of their bunkers and reclaimed the world. Not me. While the governments planned and strategized, I grew up in a world where fighting zombies was a given. Now, there are “too many” zombie hunters. All the agencies say they can only have “mentally stable” people in their employment. Stability doesn’t matter, killing zombies matters. I can kill more zombies in a day than those buffoons could in a week. Yet I’m stuck taking out the trash as a day job, only being able to kill zombies in my off hours. Idiots.

Planet Z

My day job was to keep the world from blowing up.

I managed the antimatter flow at New Edison Power.

The plasma ducts vibrated in unusual harmonies, and I recorded them.

My night job is with the radio station.

You’ve heard of The Doctor Power Hour?

I’m Doctor Power.

I mix my recordings, weaving the whistles of release valves and other generator sounds into trance music.

The audience grew quickly, and I started doing weekend concerts to hundreds… thousands…

Instead of keeping it safe, I tuned the Generator for music.

It exploded.

Oh well. I still have my night gig.

The Council

The Emergency Council of Hedgehogs was convened under the giant oak tree in the deepest part of the woods.
Panic ran rampant as teddy bears were stumbling around drunkenly after their picnic, grabbing hedgehogs and tossing them around.
It was decided that an emissary would approach the mommies and daddies of the teddy bears, pleading for help.
But instead of putting the teddy bears to bed to sleep off their stupor, the mommies and daddies got drunk and threw the hedgehog emissary around, too.
Angered, the hedgehogs burrowed deep under the giant oak tree and set the woods on fire.

The Angry Birds

I use my iPhone to play Words With Friends, but all my friends have given up on this Scrabble variant for a game called Angry Birds.
Apparently, these birds are angry because a bunch of evil pigs have stolen their eggs, so they attack various structures built by the pigs trying to kill them and take all the eggs back.
I loaded the game and tried to negotiate a settlement between the birds and the pigs.
And then I killed them all.
I smiled, had a huge plate of bacon and eggs for breakfast, and sat on a feather-filled pillow.

Where did the turkeys go?

Strange things are happening these days.
The strangest?
Where did all the turkeys go?
That’s the question everybody’s asking.
All of the grocery stores are out of turkeys.
There isn’t a turkey to be seen at any farm.
And if you bought a turkey already and put it in your freezer, you’re probably wondering why there’s a huge empty space in there now.
Even pictures of turkeys have vanished from everywhere. There’s no entry for it in the dictionary.
Oh well. I didn’t like turkey anyway. Forget it.
Pass the mashed potatoes and gravy, please. That roasted eagle smells wonderful.

The Games People Play

“O the games we play” reminisced Joey readjusting his titanium visor. As kids Frankie and Joey had invented the game GUNS. It came out of that totally symmetric kid logic that in kid game theory weather Cowboys and Indians or Cops and Robbers no one wanted to be the stereotypic bad guy. So the game was everyone shot at everyone.
“I got you”
“You missssssed”
They quickly run through rubberband guns, bb guns, paintball guns. Finally live ammo. Thank god for Kevlar thought Joey drawing a bead on Frank.
“I got a new game.”
He turned.
“I call it BAZOOKAS”

Poetry In Motion

After watching girls roll around the track and beat the crap out of each other in what was billed as “Poetry In Motion”, we walked out of the roller derby and put together our own sport:
Rollerpoetry.
Instead of helmets and pads, we handed out berets and copies of Allen Ginsberg’s book “Howl.”
Poets would circle the track, sharing the verse in ways that teachers and Kindles couldn’t.
Opening night, the crowds gathered around the track and booed the circling poets.
One bumped into another. They started throwing punches.
My friends, there’s no avoiding the truth: Culture truly is dead.

The Balloon

There was once a balloon in Balloon Land who was unlike the others.
He was filled with mustard.
They all floated around and laughed at him.
So he rolled away, far away, until he reached the Kingdom of Hot Dogs.
Frightened, the balloon began to cry, and mustard dribbled on to a hot dog.
It made a pretty yellow squiggle.
Another hot dog saw this. “Put one on me!” it said.
All the hot dogs wanted squiggles, and eventually the balloon ran out of mustard.
“What good am I now?” it cried.
The hot dogs sacrificed it to their god.

I Am Cancer

I am cancer.
I will take your hair and drink your strength.
I will use your body as a battlefield, fighting you to the death.
I will hide behind you as doctors try to kill me, and you will suffer along with me.
I may take your skin as a trophy, rob you of your eyesight, and maybe take an arm or a leg if I feel like it.
I can take everything you have and everything you are.
Except one thing: those who love you.
I can never take them from you.
But I can take you from them.

Welch’s Brigade

22nd of January 1879 Rorke’s Drift South African John Chard of her majesties 24th regiment foot in command. Word has reached us of the Isandhlwana massacre. 2000 souls lost. Retreat unlikely will make last stand at the mission ….
Chard lay down his pen looked to the west. “Damn, Rain,” Colour Sergeant Bourne stated “That wasn’t thunder, that was 1000 infantry helmets being struck. The Zulu are sending a message. The storm is upon you.” Chard rebuttoned this tunic “I will met that storm with a hail of lead.”
11 members of the 24h were awarded the Victoria Cross for valor.

Weekly Challenge #238 – Potato Peels

Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.
The topic this week was… was…. um…
It’s Potato Peels!
VOTING

Which were the best stories this week?
Steven
Tom
Zackmann
Katwood
Danny
TJ
Norval Joe
Planet Z
  
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Go ahead and listen to them and then vote for your favorites (multiple selections are allowed):


Steven

“We will find a way out of this. I promise.”
She slapped my hand away from her face. “How stupid do you think I
am? There’s only a hundred words in this story. Then we’re gone.
Forever.”
I looked around the sparsely-described kitchen, desperate for a way
out. My gaze landed on the bucket of potato peels Ma had left.
“That’s it!” I kissed Sally.
“What are you doing?”
“Remember when Ma had you peel potatoes? The thin peels would fill up
twice as many baskets, right?” I held the sharp peeler up to the
words. “Let’s get started.”

Tom

I uses to operate the missile systems on a X1 tank Could drop one of those puppies through a NBA hoop no net. So why you might ask am I sitting next to a mountain of potato peels of my own making? In a word: Willie. General Jack Rippers prize Jack Russell Well it use to be his prize Jack Russell. Who’ve guessed that a X1 heat seeking missile could’ve profiled a dog and Frisbee as a Russian with antitank rocket. When I pointed out the we needed an anti-dog over ride is the moment I got my new job.

Zackmann

Peelings, nothing more that peelings
trying to forget those peelings of spuds
Memories of French fries, scallops, and hash browns
she cooked but never shared with me
potatoes cooked by my love.
woe woe woe peelings
in the mulch pile becoming nutrition for the garden I love.
woe woe Peelings like my galley duty never ended
Peeling those spuds
Teardrops like I was cutting onions
because I cut my finger peeling those spuds
feeling like you never cook for me
feeling like I wish you never put me and a low card diet
but made me keep peeling those spuds.

Katwood

I’ve been peeling potatoes for months, years, I don’t know. I lost track long ago. It’s hard to remember a time when I wasn’t peeling. They’re everywhere, the peels. I can’t stand them. I once had a bin for them, but that’s buried somewhere in this mess of peelings. I peel and peel and peel, but there are never any less potatoes, only a growing sea of peels. Am I supposed to drown in them? I don’t know. I do know that I need to get out. The potatoes have to come from somewhere. I just have to find it.

Danny

Potato peels, the best part of the potato. Most full of nutrients, the peel is the only part of the potato that interacts with the soil, absorbing all the nutrients as the potato grows, making it the best tasting part of the potato. Fried, baked, or roasted, the peel is the most discarded part of the potato. A total waste. Ever notice the best mashed potato’s have the peels within it? Please, cherish your potato peals, spare them from the landfills whose space we need for our discarded alkaline batteries.

TJ

When you see potato peelings in the Great Pyramid, you don’t
immediately think, “It worked!” and that the great king Cheops
sprang to life and began peeling potatoes for his feast of the
afterlife. You assume a shepherd sheltered from the heat and grabbed
himself a snack. And in very nearly every other instance you’d be
right. However, when the guide, Denali, encountered a fortunate rat
nibbling on a fresh rind, his attention was drawn away from the bandaged
figure looming behind him … long enough for him to extend a bony
finger and drain him of his life force.

Norval Joe

“We have ways of making you talk,” the criminal mastermind said.
The agent silently sneered back at his captor, and shook his head.
The bald man laughed, “You’re all so brave when we start, but we’ve broken all of your predecessors before you.
“Agent X we soaked in olive oil until the truth slipped out of him. Agent M we buried in potato peels until he begged for mercy. I don’t think you will be so strong,” he said and turned on the TV.
“We have “The Wiggles” on an endless video loop. Call me when you’re ready to talk.”

Planet Z

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so it’s time to grocery shop.
We both like turkey, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.
But when it comes to the mashed potatoes, we have our disagreements.
I like to leave the potato peels on when boiling the potatoes.
She doesn’t like the peels.
I like to add rosemary and roasted garlic. Adds a little aroma to the meal.
She doesn’t like them. Just adds butter and milk before blending everything up into the white gloppy mush.
So, instead of arguing, we make two batches of mashed potatoes.
Sadly, both gave us food poisoning.