Category: Generic

Challenges

Daily writing prompt
What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?
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There are a couple of things I could use for today’s topic. The one I am going to pick is going to sound a little silly, but it is valid.

We have a home improvement project on tap. Our kitchen cabinets are going to be replaced. This has been a hypothetical kind of thing for us for years, but a few days ago it instantly ramped up from hypothetical to oh-my-god-it-is-happening-right-now kinda thing. We have started prepping for it and it is my entire to do list for the whole weekend. The delivery is going to happen on Monday and Tuesday and the demolition starts on Friday.

It’s not what you would call an Earth shattering challenge, but it is quite clearly a challenge. It’s going to suck but it is absolutely going to be worth it in the end. We just need to hang in there while it happens.

Challenges build character, or some shit like that. Bring it on.

Album Title

My wife, Jen, just accidentally named my RPM Challenge album.

She was reading over the instructions for one of the dinnerly.com dinners that was delivered today and she mentioned:

The Potato Situation.

Oh, hells yes! Album title confirmed! I expect I’ll take a photo for the cover at the grocery store this weekend.

Bad Advice

Daily writing prompt
What advice would you give to your teenage self?
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This is a repeat question, isn’t it? It feels familiar. Was it maybe something I saw on Threads? I’ll answer it without bitching about it. I just wonder if my answer will be different than before.

Advice to my teenage self… there are a lot of things, most of which I know my teenage self would ignore.

First, stop being afraid of everyone. No one gives a shit about whatever it is you are worried about. There are worse things than being embarrassed about stupid things. Get over it.

Second, you’re in high school. There is going to be a magical moment, that you won’t even be aware of, when all of the things you stress about and think are immensely important stop mattering to you at all. You will realize that all of your fears and worries are totally meaningless. Strangely, this magical unobservable moment coincides precisely with your high school graduation. Years down the line you will realize it happened, but before it happens just relax. None of it matters.

Third, I know you love music. I know you love playing the guitar and playing the saxophone and playing with the band and writing music and recording demoes and all of that wonderful stuff. I know you want to be a music major. I know you’re not going to take my advice here, but majoring in music is the waste of time and energy that you already know it will be. It’s okay. You will continue to play as much as you can well into middle age (and counting). There are other things you can focus on as a career path. You know that Basic programming class you took in high school? Hint hint, dude. If you aren’t ready for that yet (you will be, in about eight years) then might I suggest a field that has always fascinated the shit out of you while also intimidating you to no end. Astronomy.

You need to do something in school before you jump on that bandwagon though. Your math skills are crap. You have the ability to do it all, you just need to improve your foundation. Talk to your academic advisor and tell them you need to start from Algebra and work your way through every level of math courses. You can and you will do it and you will learn a ton and you will have excellent grades. You just need to start over. Once you rebuild the math foundation you’ll eat the science courses for breakfast. I promise. Physics, Astronomy, it’s all there for the taking. Computer science too. On that one I know from personal experience. You can do it, even though I know for a fact you don’t believe me.

Forth, stop drinking Coca~Cola by the gross. Drink water instead. Coke is the ground floor of a weight problem that is going to spiral out of control and will require scary surgery to straighten out. I promise. If you can get off of that road then you should do everything you can to do it. Your health will thank you.

Fifth, be patient. Her name is Jennifer. You’ll see a photo of her wearing a fun hat that will be utterly adorable. She’s out there and you’ll meet her. Just be patient. She’s totally worth the wait.

Welcome to the Moon

The Odysseus lander is on the moon! Nice job, everyone!

Granted, according to the article I just linked, there were issues. The system that was meant to determine if the lander was right side up or not failed and they had to improvise an alternative. It might have worked, but as of the posting of said article, they aren’t sure if the lander landed on it’s feet or fell over onto its side or what.

We’ll find out soon enough. Here’s hoping we get good news. Also, here’s hoping we get pictures. It’s been a long time since we’ve had new pictures from the moon. The last US lander was in 1972, but there have been others since then. Other countries have had more recent successes. I think India sent the last lander to land near the South pole. They were 600 kilometers away and this new one is shooting for about 300 kilometers away.

Pics or it didn’t happen, right?

Moon Landing: Imminent?

There is about to be an attempt to soft land a lunar lander onto the moon. 300 kilometers from the South pole. If it is successful it will be the first time a private company pulled it off, and it will also be the furthest South anything has landed. Given that there appears to be ice in a crater at the South pole, that’s pretty gigantic in its significance.

The lander was sent up by a company called Intuitive Machines and of course it will be timed to happen while I am stuck in traffic on this evening’s commute so I won’t be able to try and follow it live.

Here’s hoping that when I get home I will learn about the first USA based craft to soft land on the moon since the last Apollo mission back in 1972.

Fingers astronomically crossed.

Boring

Daily writing prompt
What bores you?
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Lots of things bore me.

  • Fascism bores me. Especially American fascism. Doesn’t it bore you? We fought a war back in the 1940’s to put an end to bullshit like this, didn’t we? How did we forget about that? Boring.
  • The maga cult and the qanon farce bore me. Reality is a thing. Facts are things. Everything that maga and q stand for are fictions. There’s a difference, you know? Claiming that idiotic fictions are facts is just boring.
  • Racism is boring. Thinking someone is less than you because of their skin color is the dumbest thing humanity has ever dreamed up. It bores me to tears.
  • Denying Americans their civil rights is boring. I mean, we have these documents that define everyone’s rights. Taking those rights away is both un-american and painfully boring.
  • Denying Americans healthcare is disgustingly boring, especially when the basis is gender. I mean, what part of the bill of rights gives you the right to tell an American woman what she can and cannot do with her own body? What part of the bill of rights gives you the right to tell another American what their gender is or is not. Fuck you and stop being so idiotically boring.
  • Denying the opportunity to immigrate into the United States when the United States is literally a nation built by immigrants is just ridiculously boring. Your family came here from another country (and unless you’re a native American that applies to all of us) but if someone else tries to come here from another country they can’t. Screw you, you boring nazi filth.
  • Country music bores me. BORING!

How is that for a list of things that bore me? There are a lot more things I could add to the list, but this will do for now.

Caught Up

It’s a work in the office day today so my morning is all messed up.

I did manage to get caught up on Star Wars: The Bad Batch though. Sigh of relief, kiddos.

I also have a photo-a-day pic, but only because I know I’m not likely to make any progress on the RPM Challenge today.

Working in the office tends to mangle my plans for the full day, not just the morning. Worse? Starting next week I’ll be in the office twice a week instead of once. Insert the sigh of frustration here.

Drink Up

Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite drink?
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As with all food related daily prompt questions there are two answers to this. One from before I had gastric bypass surgery and one from after.

Is the implication here that the answer is an alcoholic beverage? Am I just reading into it because I live in a booze friendly society? Maybe, maybe not. I’ll just state for the record that my answers do not involve alcohol because I don’t drink. I never have. My Uncle was an alcoholic and I’ve always assumed that was the hidden reason for my complete and total lack of desire to ever get drunk. I’m 52 years old and I have never been drunk. Never. Somehow though, I don’t think my Uncle is the reason for my disinterest in the bottle. I think I just don’t like the idea of losing self control. I don’t know. Maybe I should talk to a shrink about it. One of the post-gastric bypass diet restrictions is never drinking alcohol again. Many patients struggle with that. I don’t. Nothing changed for me.

Okay, back to the question. Post surgery, my favorite drink is probably water mixed with Crystal Light sugar free lemonade mix. Most days see me drinking at least 64 ounces of it. It is my go-to drink in these crazy new world times.

Prior to the surgery there was one clear favorite. One undeniable winner in the beverage sweepstakes, unfortunately for me. It was Coca~Cola, babie. I drank it by the truck load. I bought it by the gross (no I didn’t, but it often felt that way). Seeing me without a can or bottle of coke was a rare occurrence. Unfortunately, I have the mangled, screwed up teeth to prove it. Oops, I guess. In later years, as my weight problem spiraled out of control, I switched to diet cola. I preferred Diet Pepsi to Diet Coke. It was the only Pepsi product that I preferred to the Coca~Cola analog. I never loved it the way I loved coke though. It was there for me when I needed it, but it never spoke to my soul the way my caramel colored, caffeinated, carbonated drug of choice did.

Do I miss drinking coke? A little. Caffeine and carbonated drinks are also on the post surgical no fly list so unless I am willing to risk getting sick I will never dabble again. I am okay with that. I will continue to be okay with that for the rest of my days. I lost 220 pounds. The sacrifice is more than worth it.

Hey Gemini, or whatever you’re calling your bad self these days, generate an image of a Jedi Knight enjoying a tasty beverage.

My Favs

Daily writing prompt
Who are your favorite people to be around?
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I’m not going to complain about how familiar today’s daily writing prompt feels. Nope. I’m just moving on with my life.

There’s Jen, my wife.

There’s Bellana, my step daughter.

There’s Harry, my step son.

They are the A list. There is also a group of friends, family, bandmates, co-workers, and acquaintances who rate mention too, but the honest answer is The Big Three. My family. The people I love the most. Literally my favorite people.

This photo is the wallpaper on my phone

Generate an image of a Jedi Knight visiting his favorite people.