Category: Generic

My Favorite Game(s)

Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?
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A little vague on the question end once again. Favorite game to play? To watch? Board game? Video game? So many options.

Overall I think we need to go with favorite sport, meaning favorite spectator sport. It’s a toss up between baseball and hockey. Red Sox and Bruins, babie.

As for games that I actually play, I think the winner would be EA Sports NHL hockey games for the Playstation. I haven’t played much in the last few years, but it’s still my #1 video game.

Board games should come next on the list. There are a lot of board games I like to play, but do I have a favorite? When I was younger it was Life. More recently it is probably Ticket to Ride. Today? It’s probably both.

What about card games? There are many that are fun to play but nothing that I would consider a favorite. I’m just not that much of a card game guy. If I had to pick one I would say Draw Poker. That’s a fun game.

What about sports that I actually play? I played baseball when I was a kid and loved it. I never played hockey because I can’t skate. You may have heard of me. I am the one guy from New England who never learned to skate. Yup. I’m that one guy. I played soccer and basketball when I was a kid too and had a lot of fun, but they were never even close to as important to me as baseball. Now that I am an old person? I think we have to go with ten-pin bowling. Would that be a sport or a sport-adjacent? Maybe sport-ish? Whatever, it wins.

Well, there you have it. My favorite games. The Red Sox play the Mets tonight at 7:00pm. They also have to finish the game that was suspended due to heavy rain last night. I don’t know what time that’s happening.

The Land of Never Ending Rain

I wanted to cook a hamburger on the grill for lunch today. When I went upstairs to start prepping it started to rain. Figures. No cookout for me. I thought to myself, maybe I’ll cook dinner on the grill instead.

After I punched out of work I went upstairs to start prepping for dinner. The sky was almost pitch dark. Within minutes we were in the middle of a major thunderstorm. The sky opened and the rain fell in sheets. The lightning was close by and nearly constant. The thunder shook the entire house. No cookout for me.

Friggin’ rain. Mother nature is a complete jerk.

Three Hours to Go

Three hours left in the work week.

180 minutes.

10800 seconds.

It’s a long weekend for me too. The company I work for puts a cap on how much personal time you can accrue and as your bank builds up you have to take time off to stay below the cap. It’s not as bad as the Boston Bruins salary cap woes right now, but it will get there if I don’t use time regularly. Because of that, I took two days off next week. Monday and Tuesday. That all means that ol’ Robbie has himself a four day weekend coming up.

Sadly, Jen was not able to take the two days off too, so that means I am on my own for the second half of my super long weekend. That means there will be lots of personal creative project type stuff. I checked the weather at the ocean for the next few days and both Sunday and Monday are looking like good candidates for sunrise photos. At least one of those mornings will be Photography Day where I will grab some sunrise at the beach and then hit a few places on the way home. Film and Digital. Bank on it (weather permitting).

There will also be a lot of music. As much as I can stomach. I plan on making gigantic progress on the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. That includes guitar tracking, vocal tracking in the car (because I have a weird mental block that won’t let me sing when people can hear me unless I am playing guitar with a very loud band), and mixing songs as I finish recording them.

There will also be progress on the current Doctor Who series binge watches. I finished season one of the original show this morning, and I am almost done with season four of the current show. So very many more seasons of each show to go. Progress will be made. I fully expect to move from the 10th doctor to the 11th doctor in the new show but I expect to still be on the first doctor in the old show. Like I said… so much Who to watch.

I am also thinking that I will be back on the couch to 5k wagon next week. It’s been a couple of weeks since I stopped. I want to get back into it, even though I am very doubtful I will ever run that mythical 5k. It’s still a goal, I just don’t know if it’s an achievable goal for me.

I have two days off booked in August too. They are for a weekend trip to Maine for a wedding. Bellana will be joining us for that and I expect lots of photos from Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor. Again, film and digital. That include Cadillac Mountain, which is the first spot in the continental United States that sees the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean. It would require a SUPER early wake up to see, but I want very much to see it and photograph it. Now that I think of it, I should replace my broken tripod before we leave for that trip. The broken guy is good enough for this weekend, but for Cadillac Mountain? I’m going to need something that works. I’ll take care of it.

Okay, my late lunch break is over now. Time to get back to work and finish off this work week on a high note.

Chef Robbie

Daily writing prompt
What foods would you like to make?
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Cooking is fun, but I am not terribly creative. I learn how to make one simple dish and then I make it over and over again until my beloved bride gets queasy at the very thought of it. I am also traditionally a very picky eater so having the same simple thing over and over again for weeks or even months doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

My wife, on the other hand, is brilliant in the kitchen. She’s very creative and intuitive. She can take a complicated recipe and alter it, upgrade it, improve upon it, on the fly. It always comes out fantastic. I help her when I can but she’s just a natural. It’s pretty amazing to witness.

So I guess the answer to the question is that there really isn’t any food I would like to make. At least not until Star Trek’s food replicators become common household appliances, at which time I am going to make everything under the sun, so long as it doesn’t have sugar in it.

Time

Daily writing prompt
Which activities make you lose track of time?
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There are a ton of things that I can get lost in and completely lose track of time.

  • Spending time with Jen. We used to call them flake days. We just plop down in the living room or something in the morning and just hang out and next thing you know it’s evening. I love that sort of thing.
  • Music. Playing music. Listening to music. Music for me is pretty much the ultimate time distorter. Hours can feel like minutes.
  • Television. Getting lost in a good TV show can cause me to lose track of time. That goes for movies too, but the real danger is binge watching a full series. I sit down thinking I’ll watch an episode or two and next thing you know I’ve watched an episode or five or six and half the day is gone.
  • Driving. This is a big one for me. I love to drive. I love to drive long distances. I love to just get lost on the highway, both figuratively and literally. Just point myself in a direction and see where I end up and when I end up there. Fortunately Jen feels the same way. There have been many a time where we have been hours away from home and still decide to take the longest route imaginable. If the longest route isn’t long enough then we take an extra circuitous route and make it longer.

There are probably a hundred or so more things I could say that are just as important and just as valid, but these are the ones that immediately spring to mind. What can I say, I enjoy losing track of time and I am pretty good at it.

What Bothers Me

Daily writing prompt
What bothers you and why?
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I would like to give a sarcastic answer to this question. What bothers me? Yankees fans. Why? Because they are Yankees fans. I can’t though. I have to give a serious answer.

What bothers me? The rise of fascism in the United States. My great uncle fought in the second world war. My grandfater fought too, but he walked out on my father’s family in 1950 so I don’t put a lot of stock in him as a human. My uncle though, he was good people. He fought against the fascists for years. He sacrificed so much, but not nearly as much as those who went to war and didn’t come home. Our entire nation stood together against fascism and won.

Now? Half of the population is willing to support clear nazi policies and tactics with smiles on their faces. I’ve said this many times before but all the nazis had to do was be patient. All they had to do was wait and eventually the US and many of the allied nations would just naturally come around to their way of thinking. It’s disgusting. It makes me want to vomit. I go outside and there are safe odds that one out of every two people I see are at best nazi sympathisers. The Constitution of the United States? It only applies to them, not to everyone. Fascists. Evil.

That’s what bothers me.

10 Things

Daily writing prompt
List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.
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10 things? Are there really 10 things of which I am absolutely certain? Are there 10 things of which I am subjectively certain?

  • I love Jen
  • I love Harry and Bellana
  • Healthwise, gastric bypass surgery is the best thing I have ever done for myself, even though it is a complete bitch to maintain.
  • Historically, chocolate and coca~cola are my two favorite foods to eat and post bypass surgery I cannot eat either one anymore without getting seriously sick.
  • Boston, Massachusetts is my favorite city on Earth but I am willing to accept the possibility that the reason I feel that way is because I was born and raised and still live 20-30 miles north of the city and therefore I am just biased toward the place where I live.
  • I can say without a doubt the finest electric guitars ever made are Gibson Les Paul Standards made between 1958 and 1960. I, however, am willing to admit that I say that without ever actually having played one.
  • All of my favorite cameras are Nikons, but I am willing to admit that they may not be the best cameras. I just like ’em.
  • I have written literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of songs and not a single one can objectively be described as “good.” Having said that, I do not care.
  • This is the ninth entry on this list of 10
  • The Rush album catalog stands as the high water mark of popular music post-Beatles.

There. That’s 10 things of which I am absolutely certain. Bring on tomorrow’s question!

Security or Adventure?

Daily writing prompt
Are you seeking security or adventure?
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Interesting question here. Am I seeking security or adventure? The answer is yes.

I am seeking security in that I want my family to be safe and secure in terms of health and finances and safety and everything. I want that for all of us. I really need it for all of us from a mental health stand point. I’d go friggin’ nuts otherwise.

I am also seeking adventure. I mean, in all fairness, family life is an adventure for me. Not only that, it is an adventure that younger me was convinced he was never going to experience. I was 36 when I met Jen. Prior to that I had no hint in life that I would ever meet someone and fall in love and get married and have a family. I didn’t think I was physically capable of any of that. So that’s the main adventure for me.

On top of that, Jen and I are constantly planning trips and mapping out ideas for new experiences. Just yesterday we bought PowerBall tickets. Jen decided she was going to manifest a win and I jumped right on board. She planned out all of these wonderful things we were going to do when we win. It was silly but it was fun, and we WILL win eventually. I don’t think we won last night’s drawing, so maybe the whole manifesting thing just takes more practice before it works, but we will win.

We’re going to Florida again, that’s an adventure. We’re going to Maine for a long weekend next month, that’s an adventure. We might have a trip in October that is work related, but we could turn it into an adventure. So the answer is yes, we’re seeking adventure.

There you have it. Are we seeking security or adventure? Yes, yes we are.