Tag: dailyprompt

Be Someone Else

Daily writing prompt
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?
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I have a hard enough time being me, never mind temporarily being someone else. There is no one else I’d chose to be. I’ll throw out a few possibilities anyway, just for shits and giggles.

  • Neil deGrasse Tyson for two reasons. First, because it would be fun to be super smart for a day. Second, because it would be fun to have the single coolest voice on Earth for a day.
  • Some amazing guitar player. In the past I would say a 23-25 year old Eric Clapton, but the racism and the anti-vax have spoiled that idea for me. I’d probably go with Gary Clark, Jr because he’s amazing and he’s not elderly and he and I are both juniors so that would be cool.
  • That Nigerian prince who keeps emailing everyone. Just imagine how wonderful it would be to be able to share all of that money with so many people.
  • Some fourth line skater on whoever wins the next Stanley Cup on the day the Cup is won for two reasons. First, it would be cool to lift the Cup and second, because it would be nice to be able to ice skate for a day.
  • Someone who is in shape, just so I can know what that feels like for a few minutes. That would be fun.

Kitchen Crazy

Daily writing prompt
Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.
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I do a lot of musical DIY projects, but that isn’t my answer today. I’m right in the grip of my 17th RPM Challenge. I’ve done the 50 songs in 90 days challenge a bunch of times and have even succeeded on a few of them. That isn’t it though.

Our kitchen is about to be remodeled. The project starts today. It is not a DIY project though. We hired a contractor this time.

This time.

The last time though… We’ve been picking at the kitchen for a few years. The last couple of little changes were DIY. One of them was hanging a cabinet and counter top that we bought from IKEA. They have a neat system for hanging things. I thought it was going to be beyond us, but we pulled it off… mostly. It was a little crooked on one section. Just a little.

I am pretty sure that counter and cabinet are not going to survive the new project. We looked into having the contractor move it, but there doesn’t really seem to be enough room. That’s okay though. It was always meant to be a temporary thing until we figured out a way to do the real project. The real project being the sucker that sort of starts today.

Big changes coming to our house. We’re pretty excited to see how it goes. Wish us luck.

Dictionary Edits

Daily writing prompt
If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?
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I don’t have the mental focus to answer this question today. I’ll try, I am just completely out of sorts this morning and I don’t know how to fix myself. Ugh… but I must try so…

One word to remove from the dictionary, as it were. Is maga a word? I don’t need to remove the word, I just need to remove the fascist philosophy, if that’s even what it is rather than just open hate and racism and sexism and general fascism out and proud for all of the world to see.

One word… crud. I can’t think of anything. There are phrases that come to mind. “It is what it is” was used by nazi trump to justify thousands of Covid deaths and therefore has been removed from my usage completely forever. Fuck that fascist fucking fuck.

People misuse the word “myself” all the time and it makes me want to punch them in the eyes. I can’t say I want to remove the word entirely though because some people actually use it correctly.

I would say the word “nucular” needs to be eradicated from existence, but it is not a word. It’s an idiotic stupid mispronunciation of an actual word, nuclear. Pronouncing nuclear as nucular is an IQ test. If you do it, you fucking fail.

I am swearing a lot in this post. Clearly that means the word fuck is not my choice to eliminate. Embrace it.

I really don’t have an answer to this one. Let’s just go with mosquito because maybe if we all stop acknowledging them they’ll just fuck off and leave us alone. Yeah, that’s what I’m going with. Fuck it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Shoes

Daily writing prompt
Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.
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Nope, I gots nothing for this one.

I’m not going to declare that this is a dumb question. I’m sure for both shoe lovers and deep, metaphysical thinkers today’s daily writing prompt might lead to a fascinating essay and discussion, but I am neither of those people.

I don’t have a favorite pair of shoes. I never have and it is likely that I never will. What I am is large. I’m somewhere between six feet four and six feet five inches tall. That’s 193-194 centimeters (or so) for our metric friends. I was hoping I would hit the magic two meter mark, but I came up a bit short. Maybe that’s the source of my deep seated sense of failure in life (he said mostly kiddingly). Who knows.

Along with my ridiculous height I also have really, really big feet. Like my feet are too big to buy shoes off the rack at any normal shoe store. When I shop for shoes at the New Balance website I need to order size 14eee. My feet are both too long and too wide for my own good. That is probably the reason why I have never had a favorite pair of shoes. I simply cannot be choosy about my shoes. If I find a pair that fits I grab them. Shoes are nothing to me beyond that.

And that, gentle readers is why I don’t have an answer for today’s daily writing prompt. Sorry, folks, but if the shoe fits…

Generate an image of a Jedi Knight trying on new shoes at a shoe store.

Best Gift Ever

Daily writing prompt
Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.
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Share one of the best gifts I’ve ever received? No. I’ll share two of them. Today’s daily writing prompt is a two-for-one special babie, yeah!

When I was a little kid one of my friends had a toy Tonka ambulance. It was awesome. It was the best ambulance on Earth. It was the best Tonka truck ever. Damn if I wasn’t one jealous miniature red head. I did what most American kids do when they want something awesome. I asked Santa Claus to bring it to me for Christmas. Santa failed me. I asked again the next year. Santa failed me again. Santa never came through at all.

Fast forward to December 2007. I’d been dating this amazing woman for about eight months. She was amazing. I was nuts about her. I think she may have liked me a little in return. I say that because she went to Ebay, found the legendary Tonka ambulance and bought it for me as a Christmas present. Holy shit, what an amazing gift! I could not, and literally still cannot believe it. I told you she was amazing. I should note that I am still absolutely crazy in love with her. We have been married since 2009. She’s the one.

The second part of this two-for-one extravaganza comes from 2021. It was my 50th birthday. Things were very tough for me that year. My father was in the hospital and my mother was dealing with an advancing case of dementia. My brother and sister and I were taking turns staying with my mother while my father was recovering. I woke up at my parent’s house on my birthday and didn’t get home until the afternoon. When I did, my wife and my step son threw me a little birthday party. I was so happy. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy they made me that day, and that was before I opened any birthday presents.

There was one gift that they were both practically giddy over. I opened it and saw this:

They bought me a guitar. Holy shit snacks, My wife got me a guitar for my birthday. What a legendary surprise! Before I even opened the case it was already tied for first for the best gift ever. Then I opened the case and found a brand new Gibson Les Paul Standard ’50s. Absolutely epic!

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There you have it. Two absolutely Earth rocking gifts. By far the two best gifts I’ve ever received. No question. I told you my wife was amazing. I told you!

Hey Gemini, generate an image of a jedi knight sitting under a christmas tree opening an amazing christmas gift.