Jim Dee
Writer from Portland and St. Louis. (Fairly new to Vocal, but well established elsewhere.) My author site is JPDbooks.com. If you're into comedic-literary adventures, be sure to check out my latest novel, "CHROO," available on Amazon!
Happiness on the Cutting Edge
I had no idea I'd fall in love. (But, that's the way so many love stories begin, right?) When a local glass shop in Portland offered an intro to stained glass class, I had no idea it would change my life, I thought it'd simply be something fun to do for a while. But wow! During the very first class, it immediately became super exciting.
Thrifting Abroad: Finding a Krishna and Crow Print
A few years back, my wife and I lived in Jaipur (in Rajasthan, India). For tourists, there’s an endless list of famous sites to take in—the famous Hawa Mahal and its 900 windows, the massive multi-level Amber Fort, the City Palace complex, the opulent Rambaugh Palace, the many bazaars within the old city, and a million other sites.
Disaster Fantasy Dating: An Evening with Liv Tyler
⚠️ NOTES: (1) Obviously, the story below is completely made-up. However, the quoted parts are from the song “Dream On” by Aerosmith. (2) The photo above is adapted from “Surreal City” by Andrés Nieto Porras on Flickr, and is Creative Commons licensed. (3) This tall tale was originally published by me on Medium.com (link), though modified a bit here for the “Dream Date” writing challenge.
Haven’t Watched Much Since Breaking Bad, and Want to Lighten Things Up?
⚠️ Note: This article contains a few spoilers regarding the shows Breaking Bad, Ozark, and Good Girls. Also noteworthy is that this article was written on Bryan Cranston's 65th birthday (3-7-21). Somehow, I found a suitable royalty-free image, above, to go with this!
Does the Moon Actually Revolve Around the Earth?
I hesitate to share this article, as I’m neither an astronomer nor an astrophysicist, though some have called me a lunatic. But, years ago, curiosity got the best of me and I went in search of some specific information — and found it! So, in the name of Vocal’s “(Un)Common Knowledge” challenge, this is my contribution. (To clarify: I certainly didn’t come up with the following! It’s pretty basic science and well known by those in the field. Yet, most normal people I’ve met definitely don’t know this.)
The CIA Monitors and Analyzes My Bejeweled Gaming Activity
I always suspected they were watching, as my frequent and fevered Bejeweled Blitz sessions routinely push the expected limits of gem-chasing intensity. Where newbie and casually mainstream players swipe at painfully obvious three-tile matches, aimlessly passing the hours of their simple lives, CIA analysis of my historic (and continuing) gameplay clearly demonstrates an uncanny propensity for setting up powerful three-plus-gem matches, exploding the board into impossibly endless cascades and prompting unparalleled, nonstop deep-voiced adulation from the game’s narrator.
