Tag: prompts

Per last week, here’s part two of this story

After a quick brainstorming session, Nora decided to reply back to Catherine’s message. “Hey,” Nora started, “I appreciate anyone caring about me, but I promise you I am not in a position to try your products, whatever they may be. I am busy with my children and my husband, so I don’t have any free time to spend on myself.” Nora stopped for a moment to think about how she was going to word the next part of her reply. She wanted Catherine to understand that she wasn’t trying to be rude or unkind, but that she was not interested in what Catherine had to offer. “Also,” Nora continued, “if this is a pyramid scheme, I’m here to tell you right now, I am not interested. If not, reply. I would love to chat”.

Catherine sent a reply right back which made Nora laugh. “What are you laughing at,” Joe asked.

“Joey,” Nora said as soon as she stopped laughing, “look at this.”

Joe looked at the reply Nora received from Catherine which said, ” I’m not in a pyramid scheme. I’m just trying to make some extra money on the side”. Joe laughed hysterically when he read this. “Oh, boy. That’s hilarious,” he said as he continued laughing at Catherine’s reply.

Nora turned back to the email and replied, “Okay, let’s put you through a test. Name your company, how much you make, what your duties are, and list your qualifications. I’m doing this because I have certification in nutrition and the last thing I want is for some quack bitch to sell me shit that doesn’t work”. It must have taken Catherine back because she realized that Nora wasn’t going to fall for it. She turned to her upline for guidance on how to respond to Nora’s message. Her upline, Kerry, didn’t know what to do either, so she turned to Amanda, the crypto lady from earlier. Amanda sent this reply for Kerry to send to Catherine, “We partner with several Fortune 500 companies to sell amazing weight loss products that can help with losing the baby fat. We share products on social media for a bit of extra cash and we do it in pockets of time.”

Nora wasn’t impressed. “How do you know they work? Have you tried them yourself?” It would be another 5 minutes before Catherine replied back to Nora’s message.

” I’ve tried the products myself and they work amazing. I lost about 20 pounds in a month and it was so easy!”

“That’s bullshit,” Nora thought. It’s impossible to lose 20 pounds in a month. She had struggled with weight her whole life and the last 2 years were the first time in a long time that she felt great about her body. Still, she pressed Catherine for info that she did not get earlier.

“That’s great and all,” Nora replied, “but you did not tell me what company you’re with or how much you make”

“I can’t tell you that,” Catherine replied. “You’ll have to sign up yourself.”

“Wow,” Nora thought, “this girl is trying to play me”.

Joe asked, “any progress?”

“Progress?” Nora shrieked, “this girl told me she lost 20 pounds in a month and won’t tell me the name of the company”

“Yikes,” Joe replied sarcastically, “I’m sure she’s a lovely person”

Nora ignored Joe and sent another message to Catherine. “And may I ask why you won’t say the name of the company? Are you afraid that if you tell me, I would look it up to see if it’s a scam or not?”

“It’s not a scam,” Catherine replied, “but I really don’t want to get into an argument with you”

“I’m sorry,” Nora said sarcastically, “I wasn’t aware that this was an argument. Who knew getting basic info is problematic haha.”

At this point, Catherine sent one final but angry message to Nora, but before Nora got a chance to reply, she found herself blocked. She showed the message to Joe and they both started laughing.

Joe would then go on and post the interaction between Nora and Catherine on a subreddit dedicated to exposing scams.

So I had an idea on how I’m going to do this week’s prompt. I decided to combine my favorite topic to date, anti-MLM and other scams and a writing prompt to go with it. In this one, Nora (a stay-at-home mom with two kids) gets pitched to join a crypto scam company by Amanda (a rep) and then by Catherine (another rep). She consults Joe (husband), Scott (brother), and Georgia (sister-in-law) for advice on how to handle this. I might do a second part next week, but this is what I have right now.

Nora is a stay-at-home mom who just gave birth to her second child. It’s been two weeks since her daughter entered the world and she is trying to find something to do to keep herself busy. She decides to write a blog post about her experiences as a new mom and how she feels about being a stay-at-home mom. She hopes that by writing this post, it will help other women who are also looking for ways to pass the time while they are on maternity leave or just want to get some work done while their baby sleeps.

However, she received a message from an unknown woman… at least she was unknown to Nora. The woman sent her an email saying she was interested in hiring her for some freelance work. Nora was excited because she needed the money and this woman seemed like she could provide her with a steady stream of clients. The message read:

“Hey, Nora! I know you’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed right now—after all, you just had a baby and you’re still trying to figure out how to balance your crazy new life with the regular hustle of an MLM. And that’s okay. We’ve all been there. But I wanted to reach out because I think we could really help each other out in this case. You see, my name is Amanda and I’m the founder of our new crypto recruitment company. We have a unique opportunity for stay-at-home moms who are looking to recruit their friends and family members into crypto-related businesses by offering them free crypto training and access to our VIP list of investors. If you’re interested in learning more about this opportunity, please visit us at [link redacted]. We’d love to get together sometime soon so we can chat about what your personal goals are as far as investing goes (or not investing), and then see if we have anything that might work for you!”

Nora was taken aback. She had no idea what this woman was talking about. “What kind of business are you running?” she asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

“Oh, it’s a cryptocurrency investment website that I run with a couple of friends,” Amanda replied back, “We call it [link redacted]. It’s like a social network for investors—we help people find each other and build relationships so they can share tips about what cryptocurrencies to invest in, etc.”

It sounded too good to be true, Nora thought. Nora’s husband Joe had been scammed before. He was pitched to join Amway with his then-girlfriend over a decade ago. Joe got out after a few months, but his then-girlfriend stayed in it. They had broken up as a result. Joe had mentioned this to Nora when they started dating. In addition, Nora’s brother Scott works on Wall Street and is NOT a crypto fan. He has told Nora that “crypto is a scam.” He doesn’t understand why people are so excited about it. Considering her husband’s experiences and the warnings heeded by Scott, Nora decided to push Amanda further about this.

“So, you run a cryptocurrency investment website,” Nora replied back, “I want to know if this is a scam, and if not, why?”

Amanda replied with a link to her website. It was another page that had been designed by Amanda for her business. She had done this herself and it was not very professional. The site looked like it was made in Microsoft Word, which might have been true.

“I don’t think this is a scam,” she replied, “But I know nothing about the stock market.”

Nora responded, “that doesn’t make any sense. My brother trades on Wall Street and he knows this is volatile and is full of scams”

Amanda replied, “I don’t know what to tell you, but I think this is real.”

Nora replied, “Well, I’m going to do some research and get back to you. It’s just strange that you thought it was not a scam when I told you it was.”

Nora contacted Scott, but it was his wife (her sister-in-law Georgia) who answered the phone instead.

Georgia answered, “Hey, this is Georgia.”

Nora responded, “Hey, Georgia, it’s Nora”.

Georgia replied with excitement, “Oh, yes, Nora. Great to hear from you again. If you’re looking for Scott, he’s on his way home from work.”

Nora responded, “Okay, tell him I need to talk to him because some lady contacted me on my blog about this work opportunity involving crypto.”

Georgia took a moment before responding, “Crypto? Maybe she’s trying to pitch you to join an MLM involving crypto”. Georgia is an anti-MLM advocate and knows all about pyramid schemes.

Nora responded, “yeah, it did sound like one of those MLM pitches. She — her name is Amanda — she told me she works with some ‘like-minded women’ trying to build a crypto empire or something crazy like that”.

A few minutes later, Scott came home. Georgia handed the phone to him.

“Here,” Georgia said, “it’s your sister. Some lady tried to pitch her for an MLM”.

Scott took the phone and said, “don’t worry. I got this.” He then turned to Nora.

“Hey, sis,” he greeted.

Nora replied, “Scott, you would not believe this”. Nora is now with Joe and their two kids. “I got pitched to join some crypto company. I was just telling Georgia about it and it seemed really fishy.”

Scott replied, “Is it the same person who tried to pitch me? If so, she works for someone else and says she’s trying to build some kind of crypto empire”.

“Is her name Amanda who runs [link redacted]?” Nora asked.

“Yes,” Scott replied, “it is the same person. In fact, she is the one who pitched me and I said no.”

“Why did you say no?” Nora asked.

“Because it’s a pyramid scheme,” Scott said, “and I’m not going to be a part of that. And she doesn’t really keep track of who she contacts since this is women-led, and I’m a guy, so…”

Nora turned to Joe, “Babe, what do you think? Should we go back and waste her time”?

Joe laughs, “whatever rocks your boat, Nora. You have a sharp mouth after all”

Nora gave Joe the dirtiest look possible and then turned to Scott. “Scott, Georgia, I’m gonna go waste Amanda’s time so that she and her fellow boss babes don’t scam more people.”

Georgia said, “I think that’s a great idea.”

Scott replied, “I mean, you know, my sister has trolled people before on social media. Never to a ‘boss babe’ though.

“Scott, Nora has a great support system. I know she can handle this,” Georgia reassured him.

“Be careful,” Scott told Nora over the phone, “you don’t want to get into some kind of war with a scammer”

Nora said, “not to worry, I can handle it.”

After everyone hung up and put their kids to bed, Nora opened up her email to see that Amanda had responded telling her not to do any ‘research’ as the company will give her all the info she needed. It was a red flag. Nora replied back, “babe, I just did and between me, my husband, my brother, and my sister-in-law, we all agree that you’re trying to recruit me into a pyramid scheme. Yeah, I’m a stay-at-home mom, and that’s who you’re targeting.”

She didn’t get a reply until the middle of the night when someone else in Amanda’s circle replied with another pitch, this time for a multi-level marketing company involving… weight loss. It seemed that Amanda had visited Nora’s Instagram and Facebook profiles linked to the blog and noticed her pregnancy pictures. She then told another hun, Catherine, who is not involved in crypto, about Nora and essentially made fun of Nora’s weight, prompting this pitch

“Hey, Nora” the message started, “I saw your post about your baby and it made me think of you. I’m in this amazing company that helps moms lose weight while earning money, as well as helping other women feel beautiful. If you’re interested, let me know!” Just then, the newborn baby girl woke up crying and Joe had to run to the bedroom to calm her down. He brought the child over to the bedroom to soothe her. For Nora, this is just the beginning.

Cassie, a reporter in Washington state, got a call to compete in her state’s selection to find an act to represent them in the nationwide contest. Her song is halfway done and the submission deadline is set in one week. After she filed her final live shot of the day, she went home to finish her song.

Her song is a mid-tempo pop song with 4 verses, a chorus, two bridges, a hook, and an outro. Her producer George, who frequently works with her in day-to-day reporting, helps produce the song. Within a 3-hour session, they manage to get a rough draft. Still, Cassie isn’t totally satisfied.

Cassie: Okay, I’m listening to how the song sounds on the beat, and I don’t think the hook fits well enough.

George: You mean, like…

Cassie: It’s off the beat. It sounded like a 1, 2, 3 when it’s supposed to be a 1, 2.

George: Can you sing it out?

Cassie: I’ll try.

(Cassie sings it out, and it confirms her suspicions)

Cassie: Yeah, I figure.

George: Okay, we can shorten it.

(They shorten the song a bit. Then they played it out. Cassie sang while George puts on a timer and played the beat. The song still needed to be shaved by 5 seconds as it is over the limit of 3 minutes)

Cassie: How long is it?

George: 3 minutes and 5 seconds.

Cassie: Aww, man. Do we have to take off another 5 seconds? I don’t know where to cut.

George: I mean, we can shorten the intro.

Cassie: Why? The intro is perfect.

George: It may be perfect, but I think it’s a little too long.

Cassie: Actually, my attention is on the bridge before the chorus. I feel like it’s a little too long.

George: Well (looking at the lyrics) I think we can shorten the bridges a bit. Do you still want to do 4 lines, or 2?

Cassie: Two lines is fine. It just gets to the point faster, I feel.

George: I’m trying to get the beat format correct on this. I mean, we got all week to do this anyway.

Cassie: It’s a good thing I have the week off next week.

George: Yeah, I think we have a lot of time on our hands on this project. This will be good.

Cassie: I know.

(George and Cassie work on fine-tuning the song, and with the help of another producer, who is friends with George, they were able to complete the song, record a demo, and sent it to the TV station responsible for fielding entries)

To be continued…

I decided to switch it up for this week’s writing prompt and react to a bunch of quotes. I was searching for something to write about for a writing prompt and after thinking about writing another story, I decided against it. I’ve done two scripts, a poem, and something written by an AI bot, but this week, it’s 5 quotes and how I feel about them

By the way, the quotes are from Hubspot

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. -Walt Disney

Yes, we like action. We love people talking the talk and walking the walk. But you can’t get a blueprint for starting things unless you voice it out.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. -Benjamin Franklin

Yeah, that’s pretty much how I learn to do things these days. I get that some are more visual learners, but if you ask me, unless I can get involved in it, my brain would not process it

Whoever is happy will make others happy too. -Anne Frank

I would subscribe to it 100% if MLM huns didn’t drill that “if you hang around with 5 millionaires you’ll be the 6th” nonsense. At least it’s the vibe I’m getting

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. -Dr. Seuss

I will subscribe to this quote only because people who don’t have brains have tried to cancel Dr. Seuss. I like the rhyming tho

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” –Abraham Lincoln

Oh, yeah, there are some notable people that we can apply this too.

By the time you see this, my area will be under a hurricane, so apologies if I don’t get to you.

This week’s prompt is: It’s noon. There’s bright sunshine. You’re in a national park. There’s a peaceful feel to the place

Normally, I would do a script, but I’ll make it a poem this time.

I’m bad at poems, please don’t kill me lol. Ian is not making this shit easier

The time is 12 noon

The flowers are in full bloom

I find myself at a park

But soon I see a spark

The water is pristine

The sun is everywhere to be seen

I feel at peace

As the grass is under a breeze

I looked at the manatee

The kids saw him with glee

Then there are two

And it quickly became a crew

They swam in a stream

It’s almost like a team

Finally, they swam away

And I go on about my day