• Maria_B
      • hello Maria B.
      • Username: Maria_B
      • In response to: "What's the one thing you're never gonna give up?" Love reading and following instructions, taking direction. Follow laws and rules. And there are times when I want someone to just tell me what to do. But I will never wholly give up my free will.
  • Maria_B's latest answers
    • A Must-Heed "Documentary"

      • Just because it's set in the future (and not quite a documentary format), doesn't mean that this isn't something frighteningly close to reality...


        2009_05_wk5_DSC03555

        What our intrepid hero, "Not Sure", encounters when he wakes up from a 500 year sleep in "Idiocracy" is something out of my nightmares... and something that's not too far off from reality...
        Imagine if we continue our technological advancement to the point where the general public doesn't have to think anymore... eventually, the people who created & improved tech will be bred out by the people who just use it... no new innovations... no people trying to be creative... no people who even know how to problem-solve ("Why? I can just google it!")...
        Now imagine you're in the upper third of that downward slope into social chaos... Everything is beginning to fall apart because no one knows how or cares to do things 'right'... maybe 2-3 generations before we enter "Mad Max" times...
        The only thing more painful than watching the train-wreck that is America's future is dealing with all the advertising that they've got EVERYWHERE... (incidentally, check out "Pom Wonderful's The Greatest Movie Ever Sold", another documentary reality-check worth your time :D)

      • answered by Maria_B on 08/30/2011
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    • Yes, I've Only Learned How to Ride a Bike in the Last Year

      • Usually the Plinky prompts that I receive I usually use as just food for thought... It's a funny coincidence that today's prompt is what it is considering the milestone I reached just yesterday, and this is something I've been meaning to gush over since Memorial Day so...


        Genesee River Trail

        A few months ago, on a Monday morning at the break of dawn, I snuck out of the house with my roommate's cruiser bike.
        As a child growing up in NYC, I never had the chance to learn how to ride a bike; lots of traffic and too many news reports of injured and killed children had shut both me and my parent's minds off to the idea of my learning. With the increasing number of bikes in my house and my desire to not voluntarily exclude myself from household social situations, I felt it was about time I got to learning...
        So, at 5:30am (an hour that gave me a near guarantee of no cars to run me over nor other people around to look at me like I was nuts), I pulled the bike over to an empty and reasonably wide side street and spent a half hour learning all the wrong ways to ride a bike. First, it was getting my feet on the pedals right. Then it was trying to balance myself. Then it was figuring out how to stop without ramming into a car. Then it was back to getting my feet on the pedals right... By the time 6am rolled around, I had pretty much gotten the hang of balancing myself right, save for the rare occasion where a parked car was like a magnet for my bike and I'd freak out...
        Tuesday morning's outing had more 'failing to start' issues, but thankfully one I was able to get going, I could balance myself pretty well as long as I was going in a straight line. So I made it a point to try and practice turning. It wasn't so bad until cars started slowly popping up. My nerves, towards the end of the half hour, were so wound up after a while that I couldn't get my feet on the pedals again for the life of me.
        Wednesday morning again entailed turning practice and learning to deal with traffic; I also learned how surprisingly short some distances can feel while riding a bike. Without realizing it, I had ended up at the playground where I take my almost-3-year-old. It's a walk that usually takes us 20 minutes, and in my half-hour I went there and back twice!
        By Thursday morning, save for starting, I felt I had a pretty good handle on riding a bike. Rode around the neighborhood and even made my way towards the hospital, where I spectacularly failed climbing a hill and had a 'too fast' moment going down it. Despite that, I still had an 'OMGFREEDOM!' feeling that had me beaming the whole day.
        Friday morning came around, and I had to run to the bank. Despite my worrywart screaming "just take the car!", I chose to take the bike instead. Fear of dealing with traffic floated around, but I beat that back as best as I could even though I did ride most of the time on sidewalks (and EVERYTHING had a bike-magnetic field...). Save for restarting at some intersections and a random "No Parking Sign" springing up from nowhere, I survived the trip...

        Hadn't done the early morning thing since that week, but I haven't really had a need to. I had finally learned the skill enough to at least putter about for fun. Yesterday, I rode the entire 7-mile Downtown Loop of the Genesee River Trail. A beautiful day, a beautiful place, and a beautiful experience I'm sure I wouldn't have had if I hadn't said "enough's enough" and finally learned how to ride a bike!

      • answered by Maria_B on 07/25/2011
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    • A memory of my father

      • My father always had a thing for home remedies. One that I still use to this day is his remedy for colds. I remember, as a kid, whenever I or either of my two younger sisters got coughy, my father would run to the corner store of of our New York City apartment building, bringing back a lemon, a hunk of ginger, and if we were out, a jar of Goya honey. He would then head to the kitchen to lovingly prepare his concoction (which is about the only stove-use I've ever witnessed of him; he was a griller). Not much to it: small pot of water, crushed ginger, lemon juice, juiced lemon halves, all brought to a boil. Honey to taste. That comforting warmth that would flood my chest, sour but sweet. And it always does the trick. A pleasant memory and a practical remedy. :)

      • answered by Maria_B on 11/14/2009
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    • "What would you do with an extra three hours today?"

      • There's a funny question... honestly, considering how much I do in the day as it is with baby, comic (yes, I'm still drawing, if anyone cares), house, school/work (when they come), if I got an extra three hours today, I'd probably just turn in early...

        Actually have 7 hours of sleep in one night? Hell, yeah!

      • answered by Maria_B on 05/28/2009
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    • The kind of friend I'm having the damnedest time trying to find...

      • Ah, the perfect friend. There's something I'll never find... I doubt I'll ever find anyone close... not that I think I'd be able to bring myself up to speaking to them. (Damned shyness... I need to be reprogrammed...)

        Anyway, if I had to pick a few traits that would make a really good friend, they would include being:


        Sociable
        I love to listen, but I'm also kind of hard to get to talk. A friend would not only have a passion for sharing their opinions, but also engage me as well, make me feel comfortable in sharing my own opinion.


        Knowledgeable
        Though I do enjoy listening to people talk, I do get bored after a while, and pop topics don't really satisfy me. I love to learn, too, and I always tend to attach myself to those I know my brain can soak info from.


        Open-Minded
        I'm odd. I'm also insecure about my social image. My closest friends are those who are open to pretty much anything, including accepting the person I am.


      • answered by Maria_B on 05/25/2009
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