Category: Generic

Exercise is Fun?

Daily writing prompt
What’s the most fun way to exercise?
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Wait a tick here… you put the word “fun” into the same sentence as “exercise”? That does not compute. Exercise is fun in the same way that breaking bones is fun. In the same way that surgery without anesthetic is fun. Am I being over dramatic? Yes, of course I am. Does that make my prior statements false? Absolutely not.

I do 45 minutes of exercise each day at a minimum. I jog (pronounced “yog”*) in place for what my Apple Watch tells me is about 10 kilometers worth of trotting steps and then I stop. As the day goes on I will do a little more jogging (yogging) in place to try to get my daily calorie count higher and higher. Sometimes I’ll walk in place while doing other things. I just picked up one of those stair stepper things too in the hopes that I’ll use that for at least a few minutes each day. I have an exercise bike and I look at it every day, but I haven’t been able to make it part of the daily routine. I want to move it next to my work from home desk in the hopes that I will be inspired to jump onto it for a few minutes a day. We’ll see.

Is any of that fun? No. Not even a little bit.

I guess there are some things that are fun to do that also just happen to be exercise. Walks in the woods. Visits to theme parks. Stuff like that. Want to know one super fun thing that shouldn’t really be thought of as exercise but always gets my heart rate up nice and high and works up a sweat and leaves me worn out like I’d had a major workout? Band practices. Yes, you read that right. I’m not the jumping around rock and roller type, but it does work as an aerobic workout somehow.

I guess what I am trying to say is that exercise in and of itself is never fun for me, but some things that are fun sort of double as exercise? Yeah, that’s the ticket.

*I make the “pronounced yogging” joke on this page all the time. I stole that from a movie. If you aren’t familiar with it, go watch Anchorman with Will Ferrell (and about 100 other A-list comedy celebrities). It’s one tiny throw away line that bares no significance for the rest of the movie, but it’s a funny movie so it’s worth a watch.

Re-Reader

Daily writing prompt
What book could you read over and over again?
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I could give you a list for this prompt. A long list. I’m not one of those folks who reads a book once then never returns to it. I am a regular re-reader. I don’t re-read everything, but there have been a lot of books that I’ve read multiple times.

Stephen King’s Dark Tower series is probably the big one. Every time he added a book to the series I would re-read all of the previous books in preparation. After he finished the seventh and “final” book of the series I went back and tore through the whole thing again. I may have actually done that 2-3 times. The only book I haven’t re-read is the one he wrote after he finished. The eighth book in the seven book series. I’ll get to it some day.

The Harry Potter series has been re-read a bunch of times. The Lord of the Rings has too. All sorts of Clive Barker and Stephen King books have had many reads. When it comes to scary, those two are just the best. Just within the last couple of weeks I’ve re-read a book. I picked up an audiobook copy of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments which is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Before I started digging into it I went back and re-read The Handmaid’s Tale so that I could be clear on the differences between the book and the Hulu series (even though the second book is sort of more a sequel to the show than the book… sort of).

To sum up, there have been so many books that I have re-read over the years that I can’t even remember them all. There have been some books that I have read through five or six times, or maybe even more. Why not? A good movie is re-watchable, right? Why not a good book? There’s always more to dig in to. Always.

What a Character

Daily writing prompt
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
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I’ve read so many books in my life. Like, tons of them. I need to pick just one character? Not likely. I’ve read so many books that I can’t even think of single, specific characters. Huh. This is a tough one.

Most of the lead characters that come to mind are normal every day folks who find themselves faced with a supernatural something or someone (I have read a lot of horror and science fiction). Being one of those heroes wouldn’t be interesting, but being the villain might… although I don’t want to be the bad guy.

I’ve read a few Star Wars and Star Trek novels in the past. I could pick Luke Skywalker or Captain Kirk. I could pick Harry Potter too but his young life has been a bit on the crappy side so I’ll pass on him. I could stay in the Potterverse and pick Ron Weasley. I won’t though. If you take out the magic you’re left with a red head who lacks self confidence which is pretty much me as a teenager already so… pass.

The one that keeps coming back to me is Gentle from Clive Barker’s novel Imajica. He was a super talented magic user type guy. He was a complete screw up in life, but could be redeemable. There is a bit of backstory that (Spoiler Alert – Skip to the next paragraph to avoid a potential spoiler) includes being a blood relative to a psychotic thing that thought it was… maybe… ya know… god. Yeah, I’ll pass on that baggage.

Okay, let’s go with Luke Skywalker. That way I could be a Jedi and any time I walk toward a super market’s automatic doors everyone would have to wonder if they opened because I hit the doors’ sensor, or did they open because I used The Force.

ADDENDUM: I just reread the question. I totally missed the part about “book or film” and only read books. Oh well. The answer is the same either way.