Five Star Friday's 110th Edition Is Brought to You By Neil Gaiman

Rule one of reading other people's stories is that whenever you say 'well that's not convincing' the author tells you that's the bit that wasn't made up. This is because real life is under no obligation to be convincing.

     — Neil Gaiman

This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by parenting, music reviews, Twilight, Gen Y, the cut-and-paste method, the Boy Scouts of America, being busy, grey hair, a sensitive disposition, death, a father's pastime, grief and healing, a near death experience, and autobiography.

Please feel free to share urls to your own good weblog writing in the comments, because there's never enough good reading.

Happy Friday!

"Life Manual: You Don’t Have To Yell" from Forty Degree Day:

I know that parenting is exhausting. I know that parenting pushes you to the brink of sanity and even over that edge sometimes. But I don’t believe it has to be that way.I almost feel as though this is some sort of process of refinement in my life- realizing my potential, and pushing my limits. I have learned that I have more of a capacity for patience, compassion, loving and forgiveness than I actually want to have. I think we would all find that we have that potential in us if we looked.

"Ordinary Lives" from Notes to Self

"Luck Be a Lady" from StudioEightOneSix

"They Don't Complain and They Die Quietly" from Derek Powazek:

This was in the 80s when my dad was working at City of Hope. My dad’s a psychologist who did groundbreaking early work to prove that cancer treatments had cognitive effects. To do this, he worked with kids who were dying of Leukemia. He watched them die, one after another. And then he came home to his kids, who were about the same age.

So he stood in his garden, still wearing his work clothes, tie loosened around his neck, and watered his plants, crying when no one was looking.

"Are You Ready to Lead Gen Y?" from Loyalty Factor Blog

"Twilight Enlightenment" from 20nothing.com

"A Scout Is Conflicted" by Holmes at DadCentric:

As positive as my experience was, I have some serious issues with the Boy Scouts of America’s politics. Don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not talking about their ideals. I’m not arguing with trustworthiness, loyalty, helpfulness, friendliness, etc. I fully support the doing of good deeds on a daily basis. And I’m definitely not worried about how dorky my kids will look in those uniforms. No, I’m talking about the organization’s politics, particularly with regard to their stance on homosexuality, which is that homosexual individuals may not serve in leadership positions or in the organization’s employ, a policy that has had a variety of repercussions over the last few decades.

"So How Busy Are You Really?" from Scribbit

"Why I Don't Mind My Gray Streak" from Life As I Know It

"The Reason I Never Say Never Anymore" from The New Girl:

I remember saying over and over, 'I don't want to do this. I just don't want to do this.' I meant, of course, that I didn't want to go through what was coming. I wanted, in the most desperate way, to go around it. To wish it away. To wake up and find it had all been a dream. You know, a bad dream. One that leaves you feeling weird, even over your morning tea. Any bad dream would be better than waking up, again, to find your reality altering itself so horribly. To find that a new normal is unfolding and there's no way to stop it. A new normal that's not going to include your mother.

I didn't want to watch my mother die. I didn't want to sit at the funeral home and hear people's condolences. I didn't want to go to her funeral.

"Dedicated to All the Mothers of "Sensitive" Children" from Classy Chaos

"Disquieted" from Spin Me I Pulsate

"I Didn’t Have Time to Get 100 Monkeys and 100 Typewriters" from Flurrious:

Ultimately, I decided to take one sentence from each of the previous month’s posts and string them together in chronological order to see if I could create a coherent narrative. Or at least bump my word count up high enough to look like I didn’t totally dog it on the last day. This is the result.

"Pitchfork Reviews 6/20/08" from 2 Year Lag

"The Story. May It Die." from 2birds1blog

"I Ate Chocolate for Breakfast Today..." from I'm Not Benny

Please come back and share good writing with us over the coming week to be featured on the next Five Star Friday. If you have read a really good piece on someone else's weblog, submit it by Thursday at midnight CST to have it featured on Five Star Friday.

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Five Star Friday's 109th Edition Is Brought to You By Mark Twain

Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

     — Mark Twain

This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by a job in the service industry, teenage parties, rock, Match.com, health care reform in the United States, a father, a reading list, international adoption, oversharing, a modest proposal, daddy issues, depression, belief, college days, and adulthood.

Nobody ever does, but please leave urls to your own good writing in the comments, because show-offs are awesome, and it also delivers extra good reading to me for those times when I need good reading. Thanks!

Happy Friday!

"A Lesson" from Fly Girl's Travels:

The comments made to me involved the lack of skill, the lack of intelligence, and the lack of importance reflected in a Flight Attendant’s job. It hurt. Mainly because I am SO proud of who and what I am. Partly because people close to me should KNOW. Partly because I let myself believe them, and allowed myself to assume if those closest to me believe that, then probably most people do as well. I will admit that I care what people think of me. I shouldn’t, and I know that, but I DO. I spent the week believing everyone around me figured I was stupid, that my job was for idiots and that I wasn’t worth much for choosing this life. I spiraled down into what a horrible wife and mother I am for loving something that takes me away. I allowed myself to believe the worst about myself – I allowed myself to doubt who I am.

"Once It's Gone, It's Gone" from Centre of the Universe

"Rock Idiots" from thea lux (dot) com

"Change" from The Sweet Life:

Is this what Rachel deserves, America? Is this the kind of healthcare that anyoneshould have to live with? To die with?

"Happy Happy Joy Joy" by Jennie at The Collective

"Father's Day" from Dave1949

"Indescribeable" from But Why Mommy:

You can not describe the joy you feel because of your son. Your heart leapt out of your body when you saw the face you had only seen in pictures. His face. The feel of his body in your arms was the most beautiful feeling ever. Even as he cried and pushed you away, you knew that this boy was meant to be yours. You saw glimpses of it in his eyes. You waited patiently, knowing that he would understand. You knew that he would feel it to. The moment he first smiled at you, the moment he touched your face, the moment he fell asleep in your arms, the moment he began to trust you. These moments are what you had longed for. These moments made the months of agony, of waiting, disappear. These moments made you a family. You are blessed because of them.

"Books 2010: Part 1" from This Quarter Life

"On Oversharing" from Sweetney

"Living In the Presence of God" from Owlhaven:

I remember sleeping with my babies sometimes when they were sick. They were so emotionally fragile, so clingy, that it wasn’t enough to be snuggled next to my side as usual. They wanted to drape their little bodies across my chest, to be wrapped in both my arms, head tucked under my chin. And still the little feet scrambled, restless to scoot higher, closer, deeper, into my arms. I was right there. But they wanted more. They seemed to want to crawl under my skin.

I get like that with God sometimes. I want to see Him, to feel His arms around me. He’s there all along, of course, whether or not I feel the weight of his arms. But in my human fragility, I want that clear sense of His guidance, His presence. His caring.

"A Modest Proposal" from Mocha Dad

"Facing Depression" from artistmotherteacher.com

"I Just Wish We Were an Old Couple So I Could Do That" from doobleh-vay:

But really the one thing I was thinking about today was the time near the end of college (It may have been the real end- like when we were all living some sort of giant ridiculous substance fueled pretend version of Kicking and Screaming ) that all of us unplugged the really heavy coin operated kiddie ride from the Dollar General store directly across from Jenn's apartment and carried it into the living room at 3 am. In a haze of the most random friends I ever had until social media hit my life recently we plugged it in and rode it all night long like little kids.

"June 19" from Moosehead Stew

"This Is Why I'll Never Be an Adult" from Hyperbole and a Half

Please come back and share good writing with us over the coming week to be featured on the next Five Star Friday. If you have read a really good piece on someone else's weblog, submit it by Thursday at midnight CST to have it featured on Five Star Friday.

And because you are a fan of finding good new writing on the internet:

Subscribe — Subscribe to this website to keep up with us every week.

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Five Star Friday's 108th Edition Is Brought to You By Honore de Balzac

If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work, as Curtis flung himself into the yawning gulf, as the soldier flings himself into the enemy's trenches, and if, once in this crater, he does not work like a miner on whom the walls of his gallery have fallen in; if he contemplates difficulties instead of overcoming them one by one...he is simply looking on at the suicide of his own talent.

— Honore de Balzac

This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by an ageing mother, failed expectations, an alternate use for a chicken nugget, camping, farting, self-acceptance, the cool kids, finding yourself, Challenge Day, mortality, social media, quitting, a crush, and ideas.

If you've written something good, please share it in the comments. Braggarts welcome!

Happy Friday!

"Standing Tall" from Hanner Cymraes... Means Half Welsh Woman:

Saturday you walk to the letter box, it takes time, but your mum makes it there and back. Very slowly, and so terribly afraid she might fall. But that's her limit. In the afternoon, she curls up in the chair for a nap. You watch her lined face soften. Her body balled up and old in the green recliner chair. You wonder where she's gone, that woman who used to be nine feet tall. The one who coped after you emigrated, though her husband failed to adjust. The mum who stood up to bullies and nasty teachers and then turned around and insisted you always be polite. The one who came to Melbourne, time and again, when your own children were little, who sent you money and flowers, just to buck you up.

"All Undone" from Pretty All True

"Video: I Quit" from Knotty Yarn

"Flashes Before Your Eyes" from Awkwardly Social:

I don’t often think about the end. We will get there when we get there and I’m ashamed that there are days when I wish I could get there sooner, but most days I am glad I’m laughing and crying and strong and weak and here. It’s so short. We’re here so briefly.

"Personal Training-Session 1 - Goal: Don't Pass Gas" by jenniefromthe603 at Skirt!

"Reputation: Safeguarding Your Equity In Social Media" from Notes to Self

"The Cool Kids" from Stop Motion Verbosity:

There are no Cool Kids.

It’s true. It really is. What some people peg as “cool” is just people who have nothing much to prove, don’t bother sweating the littler things and are all right with being themselves and they can laugh at themselves. That’s it, that’s the whole secret.

"Pendulum" from Raising Zoeyjane

"Crossing the Line" from Mocha Momma

"Nature Boy" from Sweet Juniper!:

I never went camping as a kid. My dad had a saying: "Until somebody can explain to me why I would want to pay a fee to sleep on the ground, get bit by mosquitoes all night, pee in the dark, and eat lousy food in front of a fire when I could get a hotel room for $40 and eat dinner in a booth at an actual restaurant, we're not going camping." The thing is, you never could explain it to him, because halfway through any paean to the simple joys of a campfire and a can of beans or the stars above and the sounds of the forest in the middle of the night, his mind was already wandering to what was on HBO at the nearest Red Roof Inn and what the nightly special was at the Sizzler.

"When Your Nethers Itch: A Cautionary Tale Involving Chicken Nuggets" by Shauna Glenn at The Bad Moms Club

"Refined By the Fire" from Schmutzie.com

"Practice Crush" from Bacon Is My Enemy:

...I may still not know if I have what it takes to make a relationship last though – I have a wandering eye, I have a secret obsession with celebrity gossip blogs and Jay-Z and I am terribly clumsy in most situations. I drink my coffee black and my bourbon neat, which is considered unladylike in many parts of this country. And sadly, I’m stubborn and have an enormous ego when I am not suffering from moments of self-doubt. I am a hot mess. But after growing up the way I did, raising a kid and being alone, I know what love means. I also know what it does not. And I am good at love.

"Ideas and Arms" from B. Hockey J.

Please come back and share good writing with us over the coming week to be featured on the next Five Star Friday. If you have read a really good piece on someone else's weblog, submit it by Thursday at midnight CST to have it featured on Five Star Friday.

And because you are a fan of finding good new writing on the internet:

Subscribe — Subscribe to this website to keep up with us every week.

Show your pride — Take one of our badges for your website and spread the word.