Category: Generic

History

Daily writing prompt
Who is your favorite historical figure?
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I don’t have a single favorite historical figure. I have a bunch of them. It is time for a (partially satirical/sarcastic) list!

  • Abe Lincoln, of course.
  • Niall of the Nine Hostages – He was an Irish king. DNA tests imply that the overwhelming majority of people of Irish descent are descended directly from him. Respect, bro.
  • I would say the Yardbirds Big Three, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, but Clapton turned into an anti-vaxxing, racist prick, Jimmy Page had that whole thing with the “relationship” with a 13 year old girl, and Jeff Beck died before I could ever see him live and I would be too embarrassed by that to face him.
  • Barak Obama. Yeah. Eight years in the White House and the closest we came to a scandal was that one day he wore a tan suit.
  • Ted Williams. Maybe we could go fishing.
  • General William T. Sherman of the March to the Sea fame. He just seems like he’d be a fun guy to hang out with. As if he was a little unhinged, but in a good, funny way.
  • Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart.

That list is just off the top of my head. I’m sure if I spent more than 0.68 seconds thinking about it I would come up with more. Also, better. This will do for now though. Happy Thursday, everyone.

It’s a Hot One Out There Continued

The current temperature is 95 degrees. Hot enough for ya?

A few minutes ago I went outside. Today is trash day and I walked out to the street to bring in the barrel.

Woah! It’s hot out there, kids. It’s steamy hot.

I love it.

On an unrelated note, I just got another notification stating that the 9-1-1 service is up and running again. Good job, whoever it was that fixed whatever was wrong. We can now easily call for emergency services in Massachusetts again. Thumbs up.

It’s a Hot One Out There

The heatwave has arrived. It’s 93 degrees outside. Wait, don’t you have to be over 90 for three days to officially rank as a heatwave? So maybe it’s more correct to say that the potential heatwave has arrived. Whatever.

I still have the windows open in my little office space. My Nest app is telling me that it’s 81 degrees in this room and 76 degrees in the living room. It’s definitely warm enough to approach being uncomfortable, but given that since losing weight I find myself really cold all the time… it’s kinda nice right now. For the first time in months I don’t feel cold at all. Not even a little bit.

I just got a public safety alert on my phone. Looks like the 9-1-1 service is down for the entire state of Massachusetts. Here’s hoping none of my neighbors need to call for emergency services any time soon. It would suck to dial 9-1-1 and get a busy signal or some sort of error message.

Similar to yesterday, I am still exhausted. I failed to get six hours of sleep yet again last night, though I only missed it by about five minutes this time. I’m really tired. Really, really tired.

Three hours left in the work day. Fingers crossed I can make it through in one piece. Also, fingers crossed we don’t melt in the heat today, and fingers crossed we don’t need to call for an emergency service. Hang in there, Massachusetts.

Global

Daily writing prompt
What countries do you want to visit?
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Is it a cop out of an answer if I say all of them?

Why limit yourself to a subset of the globe when you can see it all? This is all hypothetical, isn’t it? Spin a globe, stop it with your finger at some random spot, go to that place. That’s how it’s done, folks.

If we are going to limit ourselves to some hypothetical subset…

I’ve only been to one country outside of the United States and that was Canada. As I am a little on the lazy side when it comes to traveling, all of my top choices of countries to visit would likely be places where most folks speak English, and most road signs are also in English. The UK and Ireland would all more or less tie for first place on the big destinations list. Australia and New Zealand would be on the short list too, but only after the British isles. After that, how about literally everywhere in Europe. Start in the West and work my way East. Simple.

After that? I really don’t know. Brazil, Morocco, India, Japan. Maybe a road trip from the Southern tip of South America all the way home. That would be pretty fantastic. Then we could rerun the plan starting at the Southern tip of Africa and ending in France or Spain, and then fly home from there. Just imagine how much the rental car would cost for a trip like that. Yikes, but totally worth it. It would make our epic drives to and from Disney look like a walk around the block.

I’ve kinda gotten off subject though, I think. The short answer to the which countries would I like to visit question is every country in the British Islands and more of Canada. I want to go to Newfoundland, where my maternal grandparents came from, and Ireland, where my paternal grandmother came from, and Scotland, where Jen’s family came from. I want to trace our roots, as it were. That would be fun.

We have to go back to Disney World twice before we leave the country though, and after that we need to go back to Southern California which will likely include a day trip into Mexico… which just implies that any plans I have for international travel are likely to never get too far beyond hypothetical. It’s like John Lennon said, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

Champs

I live in greater Boston. I don’t follow the NBA or the NFL. I do follow the NHL and MLB.

While I don’t really care about the Boston Celtics, I am pleased that my city apparently just won another pro-sports championship. The Celtics just won it. Game five ended a few minutes ago and the Celtics won the game and the series. That’s 18 NBA Championships.

Congrats, Celtics. Now I just have to avoid sports radio for a couple of weeks as they aren’t going to cover anything other than the Celtics.

Oh well. Hey, the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays tonight too. That’s good, right?

Stuff

All this talk of the new Pentax half frame camera has me wanting stuff. What kind of stuff? I don’t know, stuff.

I’d like a bunch of new lenses for my mirrorless camera. I’d like a bunch of new lenses for my two film cameras. I’d like to get my hands on a decent medium format camera. Rather than stepping down the resolution with a half frame camera, let’s up the resolution with a great big honkin’ 120 film. Maybe a Pentax 67 or something. I think an old (ancient) folding camera would be cool. Maybe a Zeiss Ikonta. The downside being that these cameras were initially manufactured in Germany prior to World War II which means there may have been slave labor involved. I would have to make sure the manufacture date of any camera I bought would be post-war. Just for my own piece of mind.

I want a new guitar. A Les Paul Junior. A Les Paul Special. A Les Paul Deluxe. A Firebird. An ES-135. An ES-125. An ES-355. I want a new amp. A Marshall 1962. A Marshall Plexi. A Mesa Boogie California Tweed. A tweed 4×10 Fender Bassman. A tweed Fender Deluxe.

I want a new MacBook Pro. I want a new iPhone, but not a 15. I’m willing to wait for the 16.

Forgive the conspicuous consumerism. I am just in a retail therapy kinda mood for some reason. Not honestly though. I’m saving my pennies for not one but two future trips to Disney World. Well… that and getting film developed. There won’t be any money left over after those two things.

Still…

I want. I want. I want.

Me

Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite thing about yourself?
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My favorite thing about myself, clearly and by far, is my deep rooted sense of self loathing.

I’m being sarcastic of course.

Or am I?

I want to stay on the surface level (literally) and say it is my red hair. Unfortunately at my ancient age of 53 years it is a very safe bet that my days as a red head are numbered and that number is pretty small. My older sister and fellow red head had her hair turn pretty much white by my age (I think). I feel lucky to still be red at this point, but I see white in the mix and I know that soon enough the white will take over. It is inevitable.

Like most red heads, my childhood was rough. I was always picked on for being different. There aren’t many of us out there and we’re all targets. It’s still a sore spot and a trigger for me. Call me ginger and I will fucking slay you. That’s sarcasm too… or is it. Once you get into the deep end of puberty though suddenly having red hair is an asset somehow and all of the little kid abuse suddenly seems worth it. It’s like running a gauntlet and coming out the other side 10 times stronger.

So, keeping things light and not getting too psychologically daring here, my answer is my red hair… and my deep rooted sense of self loathing. Sarcasm… or not.