What Is Your Favourite Noodle Dish?
Sunny Side Updates with The Brain is a Noodle || Week 29
This week at The Brain is a Noodle, we have two exciting new projects officially launching!
1️⃣ The first is something that’s already “soft” launched over the past two weeks and have garnered quite some attention: the #OngoingAdventure project! This will be an ongoing project where writers can contribute to a fiction piece that has multiple potential endings, where readers can hop on any of your adventure they’d like! You can start reading here or read up on how to contribute here!
2️⃣ The second is the May Interview Challenge! I have a set of 5 questions, 5 this-or-that choices, and 5 prompts for articles to promote and I want to hear what your responses are and get to know you, dear writer, better! Click here for more information!
Shortform Theme of the Week
This week’s shortform theme is: What is your favourite noodle dish? Noodle dishes are so ubiquitous across cultures and come in many forms — dry, soupy, thick, thin! I’m so curious about what everyone’s preferences are, and what tips you guys have on making or ordering that perfect noodle dish!
Given that this is a food theme, be sure to tag these under “food” and also “shortform”!
Submit your shortform piece (<150 words) now to share your thoughts!
This is just a guideline for inspiration! You may submit shortforms related to other concepts if other ideas come to you! :)
🌠 Ongoing Adventure Fiction Series!
I’ve finally launched a project that my child self has always wanted to do: create a collaborative never-ending story with branch-offs into multiple different storylines!
I’m so excited to see what direction this story will take so please don’t be shy on submitting!
Here is chapter 1!
For the most recent chapters, search “#OngoingAdventure” below! (PC users, CTRL+F is your friend. Mac users, 🤷♀️, I’m going to guess it’s CMD+F?)
✍ May Interview Challenge
Come join me in the monthly interview challenge! In this challenge, I’ll give you 5 reflection questions, 5 this-or-that choices and 5 “prompts” to promote your articles!
Excited to get to know you as writers and overall cool human beings!
This challenge is open from now until May 31, 2021.
✍ Archived: April Essay/Creative Non-Fiction Prompt
Our April personal essay prompt has come to an end! Thank you to Courtenay S. Gray, who contributed a wonderful piece with great podcast suggestions. Be sure to hop on to see what her recommendations are!
We will now accept essay submissions that are fewer than 2500 words that fit with the monthly prompt!
TBIN will no longer accept personal essays (Age of Empathy is a great alternative!)/ listicles (Illumination is a great alternative!).
The Brain is a Noodle*
*This is factually incorrect. Please absolutely do not go out and eat brains.
🍜 Piping Hot New(dle) Pieces of the Week
Challenge: *highlight* the ones you bookmarked/ read and make sure everyone gets highlighted at least once! ❤
🧠🍜 [1] #Ongoing Adventure: Sleep On It by Jennifer McDougall ‘Waking up the next morning, you spy the haiku that is one syllable too long to truly be a haiku, staring at you from beside the empty ramen bowl.’
🧠🍜 [2] How I Got Rid of the Noise by Keegan Roembke ‘cycling through the neighborhood grinning singing along to a song no other ear could’
🧠🍜 [3] Mosaic by Josie Elbiry ‘From broken pieces I am revealed, an exalted position, lofty yet apocryphal’
🧠🍜 [4] I Need You! Yes, You. I Need You, I Do by Paola Perez ‘I have been told that I can do it all That I need no one else. I am sufficient all by myself But I know this cannot be, I need you near me I cannot do it all, not while I am all alone’
🧠🍜 [5] Poem — I Want to Be Free by Sruthi Korlakunta ‘How to be free? where are my wings? I dream about the outside when I am working. Why is the clock always counting down? when I know that at the very end, I will still not be done.’
🧠🍜 [6] My Anxiety Makes Me Obsess Over Past Mistakes by Nia Simone McLeod ‘My past mistakes haunt me all the time. The memory appears when I’m least expecting it. It’s like my brain jump scares me. I experience a horrible bout of anxiety and dissociate for a few seconds.’
🧠🍜 [7] Value of The Word of Honor by Brajendra ‘We have to let go, we have to hold for a long time and we have to go with the flow.’
🧠🍜 [8] Heal by LS ‘It would seem the more we “fix” ourselves the closer we’d get to intimacy’
🧠🍜 [9] Something I held On To -But No Longer by Dr. Preeti Singh ‘For many years, I collected beautiful artefacts from wherever I travelled and my house was full of beautiful curios like flower vases, figurines, clocks, photo frames, lamps, table cloths, napkins, napkin rings, crockery, cutlery and so many other things.’
🧠🍜 [10] New Hipster Album Shocks Music World by Jennifer McDougall ‘Recent shockwaves have been radiating through the music world as a not-so-newcomer band transforms themselves into a Top 40 sensation. ‘
🧠🍜 [11] From The Heart by Alan Henley ‘Today I plan to fall in love with everyone I meet, see the face of The Beloved in all my eyes may greet- to use each precious moment to make a brand new start and learn the truth of what it means to smile from the heart.’
🧠🍜 [12] My Own Time by Jupiter Grant ‘I never seem to have a moment for spending my own time; For simply sitting with myself in headspace that’s just mine.’
🧠🍜 [13] A Verdict by Will Hull ‘Fireworks and gunfire A national crier Shouts that herald For justice, a choir’
🧠🍜 [14] #OngoingAdventure: What a Dream by Adam Deitsch ‘You had hoped for a bit more help from Reveille. As you turn to walk away, you notice something had changed.’
🧠🍜 [15] Blue Bowl of Soup by Matt Ray ‘Sailing in the South Atlantic Ocean Different shades of blue and green As far as eye can see’
🧠🍜 [16] The Death of Perfection: The performance that only takes place in dreams by Samedra Carter ‘It was all a dream that I finally woke up. The aim to obtain perfection was dreadful. I’m not sure if I was presumptuous or apprehensive. Let’s go with the latter due to my brittle ego.’
🧠🍜 [17] How I Feel by Adam Deitsch ‘I don’t feel good Not at all I cant even play ball I’m so sick’
🧠🍜 [18] We Love Our Two Dogs by Michael Hollifield ‘We love our two dogs Combined they are man’s best friend They are yin and yang’
🧠🍜 [19] Beauty Of A Blank Page by Pretheesh Presannan ‘wow, finally, a blank page a blank page can be soothing if you can tap into it it is free from the burden of past it is open to new a fresh beginning a new path’
🧠🍜 [20] #OngoingAdventure: The Hunt by Adam Deitsch ‘You’re staring at the paper and shaking. You quickly turn around and look out the rear window. Nothing. “What,” Gail asks earnestly, “What is it?!”’
🧠🍜 [21] #OngoingAdventure: Run For Your Life by Jennifer McDougall ‘The odd sensation still wriggles through your bones as you recall your dream. Was it a dream? It vividly reminded you of the time you and a prepubescent friend snuck into the movie theatre and left trembling after watching Psychadelic Film.’
🧠🍜 [22] #OngoingAdventure: Call The Police by Jennifer McDougall ‘“Okay, so this is weird but I received an unsigned letter telling me to bring someone a McMuffin.” I hear what sounds like a stifled cough. Oh, poor person, I hope they aren’t suffering too badly from seasonal allergies.’
🧠🍜 [23] A Short Poem About School by Anthony Jackson ‘You wake up in the morning to dress and eat breakfast. You’re wearing the school uniform and you think It’s horrendous. A journey through the road to meet your destiny again. Sitting on a chair for god knows how many hours.’
🧠🍜 [24] My Love Affair With Fried Chicken by Kasun Ranasinghe ‘We didn’t plan to meet, Then again, affairs are never planned, It was your pretty picture online, A moment of weakness, you must understand.’
🧠🍜 [25] To Have, To Hold — For a Moment by Dana Sanford ‘7+ decades so many things held so many people so many loves slipped through the fingers even memories fade and change’
🧠🍜 [26] Parameters by Fatima Imam ‘Emotional health gets hijacked without well-demarcated boundaries. Erect them as early as possible in relationships. Control the arena of personal space as quickly as possible. Set up the accountability protocols sooner than soon.’
🧠🍜 [27] Pushing Westward by Matt Ray ‘From 2016 to 2019 I sailed around the world by crewing on sailboats or what I call Global HitchHiking. I ended up circumnavigating on 8 different boats. This part of the journey was from St Helena to Brazil. I have written several articles about St Helena if you are interested, and will include one here.’
🧠🍜 [28] #OngoingAdventure: Don’t Go To The Meeting by Jennifer McDougall ‘Your stomach stuffed with ramen and your head resting against the faux camel hair pillow, you sink further into the couch. Briefly, you consider the letter and then decide it is time to let it go.’
🧠🍜 [29] #OngoingAdventure: Toasted by Adam Deitsch ‘This whole situation has made you more uneasy than the time that professor defended slavery. You look back at Gail. What was going on? Why were you being dragged into all of this? Gail was staring ahead, her mouth agape, and pointing at the dog as it ran.’
🧠🍜 [30] Locked In by Courtenay S. Gray ‘Walked into Paperchase before it closed. The clubbers and pub-goers flooded the streets. The origami sheets hanging from the ceiling, untouched and pure.’
🧠🍜 [31] Mirror, Mirror by @afreshpotofcoffee ‘That look of me in the mirror Why is that different from what I expect it to be?’
🧠🍜 [32] #OngoingAdventure: Meet The Anonymous Person On Your Own by Jennifer McDougall ‘You can’t get the invitation out of your head. Egg McMuffin, a lunchbox, and a strawberry marshmallow? How did the note’s author even get into your apartment complex without a key? Do they live on one of these fourteen floors? ‘
🧠🍜 [33] Letting Go of My Happily Ever After by Divina Grey ‘You couldn’t pay me enough money to convince me that in the year 2020, my whole life was going to fall apart, and everything I had ever known since the age of eighteen would be ripped from my clenching fists like a fairytale gone wrong.’
🧠🍜 [34] The Penultimate Day by Adam Deitsch ‘the week comes to an end everyone prepares’
🧠🍜 [35] Have you ever thought of joining a drinking club with a running problem? Yeah, me neither. by Matt Ray ‘You may be surprised to find a local club near you. Also, that they’ve been a club since 1938 and they started in Malaysia of all places. You can read all about it in this article.’
🧠🍜 [36] Dark Energy for Breakfast by Adam Deitsch ‘ran out of oat milk my coffee is not the same wrong color and taste’
🧠🍜 [37] A Buttery Poem by Pretheesh Presannan ‘Still, his coffee remained buttery — his audacity.’
🧠🍜 [38] Muse, Karma and The @ Symbol by Will Hull ‘My old thinking said, ‘write when inspired’ I now find inspiration when I write Fellow writers, photos, travel, Even a weathered clown aerial’
🧠🍜 [39] Solo Retreat by Rachel Ramkaran (she/her) ‘When I think of the end of social distancing, the obvious longings come to mind — boisterously bouncing at a concert with a crowd or sharing gourmet spreads with family and friends, perhaps even tasting from each other’s plates.’
🧠🍜 [40] Rebel by LS ‘I live below the rules reaching up only for the suitable ones when the loneliness’
🧠🍜 [41] #OngoingAdventure: The Past is the Present by Adam Deitsch ‘You stare uneasily into the glow. It seems as if the glow is not a part of this world… as if it doesn’t belong and you are staring into something deeper than you can understand.’
🔊 Voices to Amplify
We don’t have to leave it to the algorithm to suggest our favourite pieces! Here are some of my archived faves!
Thank you to Jennifer Clinehens, Rochelle Silva, Savannah Worley, Tee, WEOC - Writer & Editor of Color, Aditi Ramaswamy for writing these pieces!
The Eggcademic Corner
🥓 Quick brEGGfast Bites
What I’m watching: Tale of the Nine-Tailed
What I’m reading: Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
What I’m listening to: Chasing Pavements by Adele
S🍳mething to chew over
Normalize not expecting a reply after hours. — 2021.04.24
🎊 Top 3 articles of the week
Celebrate with me!
The problem I want to highlight here is how often filial piety or any community-based values are immediately labelled as “toxic” in Westernized therapy that centers on individualism.
The usual way: Cook the egg separately and then add it to the stir-fry later. This creates the chunks of egg that harmoniously mingle with other ingredients. The downside to this is that you have to commit to washing more than one bowl, and I firmly believe that our cooking lives can be more streamlined than that.
A quiet afternoon away we thought about exploring the outdoors, the sights we flew so far away to see
😭 Flop 3 articles of the week
Give these a little love, will ya?
Work the science I do complements nicely with the art I create.
Today I reclaim my power by pinning responsibility rightfully back on those who perpetuate harm — it is your duty to change your nasty ways, not mine to dance on eggshells so that you may exist as if nothing is wrong.
Here’s your challenge: Based on my faded memories and poorly described minor aspects of the story, help me locate this book!
🧠🍜 Thank you to the Noodle Team!
challenge: pick 3 writers you haven’t met yet and get acquainted with their pieces!
New writers: Josie Elbiry | Anthony Jackson | Hannah M. Moore | Michael Hollifield | Yana Bostongirl | TC Hails | Orla Kenny | Samedra Carter
Tatum Hamernik | Thalia Dunn | Nia Simone McLeod | Josie Elbiry | Keegan Roembke | Noorain Hassan, BMS | Humaira Iqbal | Zachary Burg | Bob Pepe | Will Hull | Jason | Courtenay S. Gray | Sahil Patel | Meenal Gupta | Amy Lee Kite | Evan Wildstein | Hilda Carroll | Chloe Hill | Paola Perez | Matt Ray | Wolfie Bain | Dena Ogden | Tasneem Kagalwalla | Yan Huang | Tree Langdon | Stuart Englander | Jennifer McDougall | Aaron Kemp | Rachel Ramkaran (she/her) | LS | Lori Welch Brown | Nicole Jiang | Crystalclearcandace | Em Unravelling | Jupiter Grant | Elle Beau ❇︎ | Suman Sandhu | Adam Deitsch | Mia Z. Edwards | David Majister | JF | Zach Neuman | Chris Mooney-Singh | Toya Qualls-Barnette | Karen Lappa Haas | Alan Henley | Michelle Bonfils | Zach Klebaner | Anna | Deepshikha Bhagat | Carlos Garbiras | Katrina Bos | Lisa Bolin | Sohaib Roomi | The Dozen | Malik Bellamy | Olivia Th | Shaista Malik | Emily Wilcox | Brajendra | Eva Rotolo | Bhavna Narula | Shannon Hugman | Ryan DeJonghe | Ryan DeJonghe | Dennett | Swagat Choudhury | Vivian | Mark Tulin | Arslan Mirza | Amber Carlson | Urfa | Whatsinanaim | Amy Pierovich, Ed.D. | Carolyn Riker | Tally | Shivangi Patel | Giulia | ScienceDuuude | Rachael Ann Sand | Divina Grey | Sarah Paris | DISHA GARG | Jen Kleinknecht | janny’s heart | Penofgold | Blank Voice | Kele Mogotsi | Jessie London | Indubala Kachhawa | Radhika Ghose | Mil H. | Zeno Faber | Maziar Ghaderi | Julia Appa | Campbell Christensen | Allison Gaines | Lori Lamothe | Tima Loku | Kim McKinney | Baye Amina | Tom Fenske | Johannes Mudi | Kasun Ranasinghe | Just a Slytherin hissing | Dr. Fatima Imam | Ntathu Allen | Somsubhra Banerjee | Veronica Georgieva | Life is Amazing with Books and Writers | Dandy Lioness 🌻 | Mindsmatter | Michael Ranjitsingh | Anjali Samaraweera | Krupesh Raikar | Rusty Alderson | Jen | Dr. Preeti Singh | Punch Drunk Cola | Melissa Speed | Ntathu Allen | Denise G | Carolyn Hastings | Tej | Vijini Mallawaarachchi | Amy Marley | Jac Gautreau | Erivaldo Ricardo | Roz Warren | Melissa Bee | Pretheesh Presannan | Daniel A. Teo | Anuradha Wickramarachchi | Niru | Priyanka Mane | Em Hoccane | Synthia S. | Alexandra Forsyth | R. Rangan PhD | Jacobo the First | Connie Song | Fathiyah Zb | Not quite Steve Fisher | Amna Asif | Aimée Gramblin | A Fresh Pot of Coffee | Rebecca Stevens A. | Imad | James G Brennan | Mary Keating | Jay Avery | h.a wadi | Pablo Pereyra | Isaac | jenine bsharah baines | Rochelle Silva | Jade-Ceres Violet D. Munoz | Ruchi Thalwal | Clare Almand | Dana Sanford | Naomi Leilani Acosta | Dr. Jackie Greenwood | Fathiyah Zb |
Ps, had to redo the list via tags this week because quite a few folks had changed their usernames so I did one-over to double check I had everyone correctly!
🧠🍜 Join us at The Brain is a Noodle! 🧠🍜
Last but probably most important
Hop on the jumbo thread!