Category: Generic

Grow Up

Daily writing prompt
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
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I don’t think this is a terribly interesting question, but I do think it’s a good writing prompt. Why? Because I would never ask myself this question. Does that make sense? Okay, that is the end of my philosophical discussion on writing prompts. Now let us answer the dumb sucker.

When I was a kid I used to play with Star Wars toys, virtually around the clock. I was probably 10 or 11 years old when I outgrew that activity.

I used to play baseball as much as humanly possible. If I wasn’t playing Little League I was playing wiffle ball with the other kids in the neighborhood. If I wasn’t playing wiffle ball I was just hanging out in the back yard hitting the wiffle ball out of my hand and then chasing it down. Sometimes I even used one of those pitch back things that let you play catch with yourself by throwing a ball off of it and then instead of catching it, I would hit it. I spent a lot of time tracking down wiffle balls or tennis balls in the back yard. I was done with all of that when I aged out of the town Little League when I was 15 years old. 

On my 15th birthday my Uncle Johnny gave me a guitar. I have yet to outgrow that one.

Those are the first two kid-level activities that I can think of that were incredibly important to the little guy version of me that, as I grew up, stopped being important.

Hey Google Bard (it’s not Bard anymore, apparently it is Gemini now… okay, whatever) generate an image of a Jedi Knight playing baseball…

Litter

In between contractor consults we did something huge. Something… Earth shattering. Not for us, but for the cats.

We have replaced the two litter boxes with one new box. The Earth shattering part? It’s a self cleaning, automatic litter box thing.

It has an app. A litter box app. Literally a shit app. It told us that one of the cats has used the box. Based on weight we are guessing it was Robin. 

We are going to know everything about our two cats’ bathroom behaviors.

Like I said, Earth shattering.

Give Me a Break

Daily writing prompt
Do you need a break? From what?
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Give me a break. Give me a break. Break me off a piece of that kit-kat bar.

You deserve a break today at McDonalds.

I hate myself for typing the two previous lines.

Do I need a break? Yes. Of course I need a break. Who, living in the American capitalistic rat race (see the first two lines of this post), doesn’t? I need a break from work, from stress, from guilt, from pain, from thought (sort of), from… well… life. Take me and my wife and my step kids and put us on a plane heading west. Drop us off in San Diego, CA right on the shore of the Pacific ocean and let us flake together for a few weeks. 

That’s the kind of break I need. Just leave us alone and let us… be. Just for a little while.

Hey Google Bard, generate an image of a Jedi Knight relaxing by the shore of the Pacific ocean…

I asked for a Jedi and it gives me red light sabers? I don’t recall asking for a Sith Lord, thank you very much. Oh well. Close enough for a Wednesday morning.

PC

Daily writing prompt
The most important invention in your lifetime is…
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I don’t know every invention that happened in my lifetime. I’m sure the military has some crazy stuff that would blow all of our minds if we knew about it. My lifetime started in May of 1971 and there have been a lot of things that have been invented over that time. There is one that stands out to me though.

The personal computer. Whatever it may have been. Google tells me the first PC was invented in 1971 so we may have to squint a little to put it into my lifetime, but you get the deal. IBM and Apple had the first consumer level computers that I knew of. The Apple II was everywhere when I was in school. Microsoft’s deal with IBM to license their Disc Operating System (DOS) rather than sell it allowed for IBM clones and soon enough they were everywhere too.

DOS led to Windows, the Apple II led to the Macintosh which eventually led to the iPhone which more or less brought us to where we are today. Everyone in the civilized (or should I write that as “civilized” because, ya know… nazis and shit) world has some sort of computer or smart phone. The internet is essential to operating our society now. Computers are basically our lifeline.

On a more personal note, the invention of the Personal Computer led to me having a career as a programmer. It led to my wife having a career as a software engineer and a software architect. It led to our family earning a living. I would call that a pretty important development, wouldn’t you? Damn right.

Hey Google Bard, generate an image of a jedi knight using a macintosh computer.