I took this picture just before we went to bed for the night last night. I forgot to post it but thought it was worthy because Robin Sparkles is adorable and this (and all) blogs need to have a healthy dose of adorable.
Forgot This One
Author: robertjames1971
I'm wicked tall.
ClutterBug
Where can you reduce clutter in your life?
I’ve done a pretty good job of reducing clutter over the last 5-6 years or so. We’ve already cleaned out most of the books, CDs, DVDs and such. You know, the things that fill up a lot of space. We cleaned out most of the storage space in the cellar after some annoying flood experiences. Granted, we’ve filled a lot of that cleared space back up, but it isn’t enough to require any decluttering yet.
The real pressing need is the cardboard collection. With most of the holiday season having been delivered by Amazon, we have tons of empty boxes in a huge pile in the cellar. That is the only pressing need as far as clutter is concerned. One of these weekends I’ll chop it all up and send it out with the recycling a piece at a time.
Other than that? I suppose my desk(s) are a little cluttered, but I kinda like it that way. I like having various nick knacks and desk swag around me. My guitar and camera gear collections definitely qualify as cluttered. There’s no way I am reducing though. None at all. Quite the opposite. In fact, I want them to grow and possibly become more cluttered. Oh, hells yes I do.
That’s about all that comes to mind right now. Is that good enough? Bloganuary post #16 is in the books, kids! Time to click that ol’ publish button and start perusing everyone else’s posts.
Guess What I Did Not Do
Want to take a guess as to what I did not do this morning before work? Also, what I didn’t do at all over the weekend or during last week?
Go on and take a guess. I bet you’ll never get it right. I won’t be able to do anything about it for the next two days either, but I bet you still can’t guess.
It’s a super secret. No one will ever know.
(insert frustrated sigh of failure to play any guitar or work on any music projects or ideas here)
(Non) Daily Haiku for You #128
After calling in sick with huge stomach pain issues on Friday, how are we doing on this Monday?
Back at work today,
Stomach still acting funny.
Knock it off, you jerk.
No pain like last week, but still not 100% right. Lots of churning and bubbling. I feel like if I try to fart I might launch into low-Earth orbit. It’s one of those days.
Too much information?
Love Must be Earned
What is your favorite animal?
You don’t have to look far to find my answer to this question. Literally the post before this spells it out nicely.
It’s cats, of course. Obviously. Cats of all shapes and sizes.
There is none of that unconditional love crap with cats. You have to earn their love. You have to earn their respect. I mean, it’s not that hard to do… just keep their food and water bowls full and their litter box clean and you’re most of the way there. Still, it’s the effort that counts. It’s the process that makes it worthwhile, you know?
Here’s to cats. Also, here’s to easy to answer daily writing prompts that I’m pretty sure are repeats of old prompts that don’t really inspire a lot of… writing.
Meow, brothers and sisters. Meow.
Cats
Your daily dose of cats.
Robin watched Deep Space Nine with me and she seemed to enjoy it even though it was one of those stupid section 31 episodes. Puh-leeeeze.
A short time later the cats rough housed a little, as they often do. No hissing this time and that is nice of them.
And there you go, folks. Your daily dose of cats.
Oppie
We just completed the Barbenheimer film festival. We watched the Barbie Movie yesterday and we watched Oppenheimer today.
Wow. What a movie.
I had a really hard time with some of it. When I was a kid I was terrified of nuclear weapons to a degree that I am nearly embarrassed by. I know we all were. It was the early 80’s and the end of the Soviet Union was unimaginably far away, but something about nuclear weapons both fascinated me and terrified me and left me confused and scared and basically a mess throughout my teen years.
Watching this movie brought all of that back to me and hammered me right in the face with it.
Yeah… Oppenheimer was hard for me to watch. I am very glad I did though. Let that be your spoiler free review. Go see it.
(Non) Daily Haiku for You #127
Today’s haiku brought to you by the quest for more and more guitar (or camera) gear.
Gear acquisition:
The syndrome that drives me nuts.
Is there no relief?
Online Communication
In what ways do you communicate online?
The simple answer is that I don’t. Outside of this blog, that is.
I stopped using facebook. I stopped using twitter. I’ve been trying to find an app to replace them both but nothing really gets there. Threads is okay, even though it’s another evil zuckerberg product. Mastodon is okay. So is bluesky. Unfortunately few if anyone from my actual social network is on any of those social networks so I end up just responding to guitar and photography (and sometimes political) posts from other people and it’s like I am talking to the void… which I sort of am.
At work there is Google’s chat and Google Meet and Zoom and other things like that, but that is work communication, not online communication. It’s the same but very different, you know? Within the family we use FaceTime and I love every call, as well as group texts. Again though, that’s sort of different. I think it is at least.
This little blog gets a pretty healthy amount of engagement. Not compared to real blogs, but for a 52 year old introverted doofus in Massachusetts, it feels pretty engaged. At the same time, none of my actual social network, apart from one or two people, follows this at all so there isn’t any real world tie in. Mostly, at least. I had a few real world friends and family members following when I first started posting publicly back in 2008, but I doubt any of them are still coming around.
It’s kinda sad, really, you know, when you stop and look at it objectively the way this daily writing prompt is forcing me to do. I often think about stopping all together, which given that I post about 6-8 times a day doesn’t quite seem possible. Still, it is like shouting at the void… but maybe deep down I enjoy shouting at the void? I don’t know.
Photo a Day Catch Up
While I was getting my ass kicked via my stomach yesterday I wasn’t thinking about taking pictures at all. Then there was this magic moment. I was in my step son’s room on the day bed we put in there after he took his bed with him to his apartment in Vermont. It was one of only two places where I could lie down and somehow get some relief from the stomach pain. It only worked if I was laying on my side, and it only worked if I was on the couch in the living room or the day bed. Well, the floor in the living room worked for a while too, but I didn’t want to go back there.
Jen was in the living room watching TV and I was in a cycle of sleeping for a half hour or so, then waking up because I was uncomfortable, then rolling over onto my other side, then sleeping for another half hour. I want to say it was sometime after 8:00pm but I am not sure. As I was entering the wake up and roll over stage it occurred to me that my photo a day challenge was in jeopardy. I had my phone with me but I didn’t have the energy to think of something to snap. That’s when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, Robin Sparkles was in the room with me.
BAM! The Photo a Day Challenge survived! Then this afternoon I chased it with this one, again with thanks to Miss Robin Sparkles.
And the Photo a Day Challenge survives through another day. Maybe tomorrow I will come up with a different subject. Like, the other cat. Get ready, Lily Pad!
Inside the Red Head's Head 