Daily writing prompt

What is a word you feel that too many people use?

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There are some words that people use that just bug me. More it’s words that people misuse. I’ll share a few and you all can get cheesed off at my insolence.

• Brand. People don’t misuse this one, they just use it in corporate speak mode and it makes me want to punch a puppy in the face. I need to promote my brand on twitter. Bite me. Call it your business like a normal friggin’ capitalist and stop being so damn pompous. I sort of blame Mashable for this one. Not because it’s their fault but because that was the first site that I read regularly that used that word in this way all the time and it sort of spun up this particular annoyance in my tiny little brain.
• Myself. There is nothing wrong with this word, but people use it incorrectly all the time and it makes my skin crawl. Joe and myself are going to the store. No, assmunch. Joe and I are going to the store. You would never say “myself is going to the store” would you? No. So stop using it wrong, you pricks. It’s English, do it correctly or shut the hell up.*
• Nuclear. I am looking at you, George W Bush, you effin’ moron. Nu-Clear. Not Nu-Cular. Asshole. There is only one “u” in “nuclear”. Stop pronouncing it as if there were two. It’s a tiny little two syllable, seven letter word. STOP FUCKING IT UP!
• Irregardless. That is not a word. If you use it you should be punched in the face. Simple.

Rant over. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

*In the interest of fair play, I did not proof read this post. Why? So all of the spelling and grammar errors will be posted and all you folks can have a good laugh at my hypocrisy. Enjoy!

Daily writing prompt

What brings you peace?

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So here we are again with another question that is new, but still sort of the same as a couple of prior questions. Oh well.

What brings me peace. I don’t know of anything specific that brings me peace. Being with Jen. Being with Bellana and Harry. Being with my niece and nephews, though I am an atrociously bad uncle. I was doing a shit job being there for them prior to the pandemic. Since the pandemic? I don’t think I could suck at this more than I do. I am terrible. I am awful. I am unforgivably shitty. When I am around them though, it is pretty life affirming.

Other non-family type things? Music. Even when the music in question is aggressive and anything but peaceful, it just works for me.

What else… sleeping? Sure, that brings me peace. Am I being too literal?

Okay, here’s one that might be uncommon. When cats go out of their way to show you a little attention. The best best best example is when you are just standing there doing whatever and a cat comes over and rubs against your legs. That’s wonderful. Similar is when you’re sitting on the bed and they jump up and rub against your back. Similar again, when you’re on the couch or a chair and then just jump up and sit on your lap, or sit on the chair with you. I actually posted a picture of Lily doing that with me last night. That’s great too. Definitely a source of inner peace. How can you be a bad person when a cat gives you a little love for free?

Okay, I am sure there are 10000 other things, but these will do for now. In closing, this is where I took the post title from. Just in case you were wondering…

Daily writing prompt

What profession do you admire most and why?

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There are a lot of professions I admire but not a single one that I admire most. At least not that I am aware of.

Doctors, specifically surgeons. I have some recent personal experience in how the right surgery at the right time can change a person’s life for the better in practically unimaginable ways. It’s borderline magic. That has given me a new admiration for that particular field of human endeavor.

Teachers. This will feel a little like sucking up as my sister, my sister in law, and a bunch of my friends are teachers, but when it comes to brutally difficult, high stress, thankless jobs, teaching has got to be near the top of the list. It’s also critical. I have infinite admiration for teachers.

Software architects. I can write code. I am a programmer. Building a large system from the ground up though? Designing a full system? That’s so far over my head I can’t even fathom it. It’s beyond impressive to me.

This sounds like a suck up, but I’m going to mention it specifically for the twist I’ll put on it. Musicians, artists, photographers. Anything in any creative or artistic field. Not because of the skills required to do the job, which are definitely admirable and in my case often enviable, but for the 99% of the profession that goes along with it. If I had the self-promotional skills, the marketing abilities, the political savvy, whatever you want to call it, to function within the music industry I absolutely would have. Playing an instrument? Making music? I can do that and on good days I can do it well. What I can’t do is everything that is required to sustain yourself within that industry. I can’t sell myself in the necessary ways in order to juggle the 300 different jobs per day that a professional musician (or artist, or photography) needs to, and that put an end to my music career before it even started.

Probably the profession I most admire though is medical researcher. Somewhere out there some scientist in a white lab coat is studying the human body, looking for a way to beat diabetes (or cancer, or MS, or whatever illness or condition you can imagine) and will someday come up with something that makes my step son’s life healthier and better, if not cure his condition outright. When that colossal breakthrough comes, that particular scientist is never going to have to pay for a drink in my town again.

Daily writing prompt

If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?

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I have never really considered this question before. Most of the shops I would like to open are part of a dead industry now and would be guaranteed to fail within days of launching. Book stores? Dead. Record stores? Dead. Used record stores might be able to hang on for a while but new release stuff? No way, dead and dead. Musical instruments stores? Dead. Hell, even Guitar Center, the biggest of the big chains is dying on the vine as we speak. Maybe I could do a vintage guitar shop, but I would never have the zillions of dollars that would be needed as up front capital to stock a whole shop with vintage guitars. That’s sort of how the used instrument economy has played out in recent years. Even shitty old guitars are worth a ton of money, just for being old.

So if I were going to open a shop of my own, what would it be? I guess I could try to go with a Stephen King’s Needful Things kinda place. You know, a curiosity/antique shop where all of the items are cursed and pre-destined for each customer so that they can suffer their own specific trauma? Something like that.

No, that wouldn’t be it. I’ll tell you what I would open. Hey customer, have you had Gastric Bypass surgery? Do you have Type 2 Diabetes and are you struggling to keep your numbers under control? Well come to my shop where we sell nothing but Sugar Free Candy.

Boom. Million, dare I say billion, dollar business plan. Sign me up, babie!