Tag: dailyprompt

The Nerds

Daily writing prompt
If you started a sports team, what would the colors and mascot be?
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I don’t care…

Ugh…

I told myself I wouldn’t skip any of these things but the last few have really tested my resolve. I could give a flying fuck at a rolling donut about colors and mascots. 

I’ll try, I guess… but the sarcasm will be strong with this one. The utter disdain and complete ambivalence too.

Colors… for a sports team… As a citizen of the United States of America I am (probably) legally required to suggest some combination of red, white, and blue. As a citizen of greater Boston, Massachusetts we can add black, gold, and green… and I guess silver(?) to the list. 

If I had to choose though I would go with black and white so that the teams would always look like they are living in old newspaper photographs. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. Either that or blue… and red… or whatever.

The mascot would be a lot easier to choose. It would be a nerd. The Boston Nerds. Yes. The Boston Nerds in their black and white uniforms. Epic. The logo would be a geeky looking person with thick glasses and bad acne. There would probably be some tape holding the glasses together too. Yeah, that would do it. The nerd would be smiling like a total dork. If The Boston Nerds are a hockey team then he/she would be missing some teeth too. 

How’s that work for you all? Just think of the advanced statistical analysis The Boston Nerds would beat your dumb jock teams with. Wins Above Replacement for the Win!

Anti-Fascist to the Core of My Soul

Daily writing prompt
How have your political views changed over time?
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They say that folks who look like me and have a similar background to mine are usually very liberal in their college years but grow more and more conservative as they get older. That did not happen to me. Maybe it was because I kept going back to college but for me it was the opposite. 

As my country has spiraled into a fascist abyss I have found myself growing more and more liberal. As many of my neighbors openly want to oppress more and more people, both fellow citizens and non-citizens alike, I have found myself wanting to grant more freedoms and rights and opportunities to more and more people who don’t look like me or have a similar background. As more and more of my neighbors literally embrace evil I have found myself feeling more compassion, openness, and empathy to those around me. Who woulda thunk it?

Unrelated to this questions, but coincidently related, I took an internet quiz yesterday. Remember internet quizzes? It was called the 4 Axes Test. One of the things it tested was whether your political leanings are left or right. Here are my results:

Reading/Writing Nooks

Daily writing prompt
You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?
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Wow… did the B-team write this one? Are the daily prompt writers on break this week? Did they just ask ChatGPT for a list of dumb questions? Today’s daily writing prompt thingie is just… bad. Really bad. Utterly bad.

I guess here it goes. My response today is a photography response. I took some pictures of my favorite writing and reading nooks in our house. Why? Because I’ve already built my perfect reading and writing spaces. The writing space is a desk with a laptop and the reading spaces are comfy chairs with lights. Perfect. So detailed and worthy of a writing prompt. Ugh.

Writing nook, which also doubles as a music recording nook. My home computer desk in the cellar:

As for reading nooks, I will share three. This one is my main go-to, even though it is not in the usual place due to the xmas tree. It is also missing it’s usual reading light and end table, but it still works. I just open the curtain and use the bay window for both end table needs and lots of extra light:

118/365

Reading nook number two is on the other side of the living room. I don’t use this one very often, but it works perfectly:

The fourth and final image for today’s masterpiece of a blog post is the reading nook in the bedroom. Sorry that the lights were off when I took this with the Hipstamatic app so it’s pretty dark. I don’t use this one often, but I love that it’s there. I often sack out here while I am cooking dinner in the kitchen, which is the room next door. Fascinating, I know:

There. A pointless, shitty response to a pointless, shitty daily writing prompt. Yippee. 

Cars

Daily writing prompt
What is your all time favorite automobile?
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I am not a car guy. Usually my favorite car is whatever car I am driving. I love to drive. I’d drive everywhere if I could. I just don’t care much for the details of the car I am driving. The goings on under the hood never really phased me one way or the other.

We have a Kia Niro right now that I love. 90% of that love is because our little Kia is a hybrid and that pleases me. We used to have a Nissan Altima that I loved too. Years ago I had a Buick LeSabre that was a real winner.

There was one car though that stands out. It was 10 years old when I bought it used. It had countless issues and caused me a ton of problems and it basically disintegrated all around me. Apart from all of that though, it was a killer car. It is the one car that if I could go back in time and drive again, I would. What was this magical automobile?

It was a 1985 Ford Thunderbird. It had balls. It had history, even though the 80’s were not exactly a classic T-Bird era. I really loved that car.

I was going to post a photo of a 1985 Ford Thunderbird, but Google Images is failing me so you’re not getting a look this time. Maybe some other time.

Creativity

Daily writing prompt
How are you creative?
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I like to think I can be creative, even if I am just kidding myself.

First and foremost, there is this:

Robbie, much like Ziggy, plays guitar. He also writes a lot of third rate rock songs and records demos of all of them. That’s how he gets most of his creative ya-ya’s out. Playing guitar with a band is the most fun you can have without laughing*.

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Robbie likes playing with cameras and pretending he’s creative through photography even though all he does is take crappy snap shots of everything. Once in a while he accidentally takes a photo that isn’t terrible, but those are very few and far between.

Robbie also gets to be creative with programming software but that doesn’t happen very often. He’s been a supervisor for about 10 years so he now lets his staff handle the creative stuff. Every now and then though he gets to sneak something into the works.

So there you go. I don’t know when this turned into a lame third person perspective kinda thing. Let’s blame David Bowie for that and move on with our lives.

Merry Creative Christmas.

*That’s me paraphrasing Woody Allen, which makes me feel uber gross. I try not to associate with potential child molesters, but sometimes the line just fits and it has to be used.

Influences

Daily writing prompt
Who are the biggest influences in your life?
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Really? This is the best question they could come up with on xmas eve? Looks like I’m not the only guy lacking in spirit this year.

So influences on my life… There are different categories here. Musical influences would be Rush and Throwing Muses and about 100 other bands. Guitar playing influences are the big three, the three Yardbirds. Eric Clapton (even though he’s turned out to be an anti-vaxxing, racist, putz), Jeff Beck (may he rest in peace), and Jimmy Page.

Of course the original biggest influences are the same for me as they are for most people: My parents (or for those who don’t have parents, whomever played a parental role). They taught me how to function in society, how to be a grown up, how to walk and talk and eat with a fork. You know, the important stuff.

The real answer to this question though is the same answer I give to about a quarter of these stupid daily writing prompts. The biggest influences on my life are my wife and my step kids. They are the most important people in the world to me and therefore have the biggest influence on everything I do. As it should be.

In closing, here’s hoping the xmas day prompt tomorrow is more inspiring. If not, there’s always New Years Day next week.

1971

Daily writing prompt
Share what you know about the year you were born.
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I was born in 1971. One super important event occurred that year but I am going to make you wait for it. First, I Googled “events from 1971” and figured I’d share a few things that I found.

This site gave a top 10 list. Allow me to share it:

  1. The New York Times begins to publish sections of the Pentagon Papers
  2. The Voting Age in the United States is lowered to 18 yrs old when the 26th Amendment to the US Constitution is ratified
  3. Border battles between India and Pakistan erupt into full-scale war
  4. The Walt Disney World Theme Park is opened in Florida
  5. The Soviet Union launches the first space station, Salyut 1, into low Earth orbit
  6. Ibrox disaster in Scotland when On January 2nd 66 die in stairway crush at Rangers v Celtic football match
  7. A new stock market index called the Nasdaq debuts
  8. Decimalisation in United Kingdom and Ireland both switch to decimal currency.
  9. Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher’s ends free school milk for children over the age of seven
  10. The US table tennis team visits to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) known as “Ping Pong Diplomacy”
https://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1971.html

You can click the link to get more details. Interesting stuff. Americans, you’re welcome for the 26th amendment. Also, for Disney World.

This site also gave a short list. There’s a lot of cross over, but I’ll share a few highlights.

  1. The total number of American troops in Vietnam dropped to 196,700, the lowest amount since January 1966. On the other hand, the number of British troops stationed in Northern Ireland increased to 11,000.
  2. The Supreme Court “unanimously upheld the constitutionality of busing as a means to ‘dismantle the dual school system,’ of the South.”
  3. Charles Manson, along with three of his female followers, were convicted of the Tate-LaBianca murders.
  4. Here are some sports facts from 1971: The Pittsburgh Pirates won their 4th World Series, the Baltimore Colts were the Super Bowl champs, and the Montreal Canadiens clinched the Stanley Cup.
  5. Satchel Paige became the first African-American MLB player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
  6. The first Starbucks opened at the historic Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington. The coffeehouse chain was founded by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker, and Zev Siegl, who later sold the company to Howard Schultz. Today, Starbucks has 32,938 retail locations worldwide.
  7. The South Tower of the World Trade Center “topped out at 1,362 feet, making it the second tallest building in the world.”
  8. In 1971, Amanda Holden, Corey Haim, Denise Richards, Justin Trudeau, Lance Armstrong, Mark Wahlberg, and Ricky Martin were all born.

Yup, my birth year sent Charles Manson to jail for what turned out to be the rest of his psychotic life.

So what is that one huge event that I teased at the start of this post? It’s mega. It’s universe altering.

In July of 1971, Rick Wakeman joined Yes. By the end of 1972 the universe had been granted the musical masterpieces that are the albums Fragile and Close to the Edge.

You’re welcome.

No… or Yes?

Daily writing prompt
Are you a good judge of character?
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When I read today’s question I immediately had an answer. A gut response, if you will. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that gut reaction was wrong. Or it might be wrong. 

Am I a good judge of character? No. No way. Or am I? I tried to think of an instance where I clearly misjudged someone. Either I thought a good person was a bad person, or a bad person was a good person, or any kind of error in judgement. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I can’t think of one. I can’t think of a single occasion when I completely misjudged someone. There are times when my perception might have been off a little. A good person with a negative trait, or vice versa. Overall though… I think I generally get things mostly right on the first try.

So is that a good thing or a bad thing? Neither, I guess. What this does point out is that I seem to lack self confidence in my judgements of people. I feel like this little exercise has just shown me that I should have a little more faith in myself. 

Fat chance of that.

When is Your Happy, Happy?

Daily writing prompt
When are you most happy?
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As daily writing prompts go, this one is pretty lame. I could answer this in all the depth required with one sentence. I guess I’ll try to expand a little and give you a little list. Will that work for you all?

A list of things that make me the most happy. The first two are the important ones (can you guess what they’ll be?) and the rest are in no particular order…

  • Being with my wife, Jen
  • Being with my step daughter, Bellana, and/or being with my step son, Harry
  • Playing guitar
  • Taking photos
  • Visiting with my extended family
  • Traveling
  • Live music, both watching/listening and playing
  • A good book
  • A good movie
  • A really good TV show
  • Cats, when they are in a particularly friendly mood

I could add more. Probably hundreds more. These will do for today though. Enjoy.

Fun Times

Daily writing prompt
What was the last thing you did for play or fun?
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There are varying levels of fun, right? Last night I watched some Star Trek. I did that for fun. I hung out in the living room with my beloved bride watching that show about Julia Child (which is surprisingly wonderful so far) and that was fun. Any time spent with her is fun.

The last major-ish event was going to Vermont to see a hockey game with my step son, Harry. Before that was Thanksgiving and putting up a xmas tree with Jen and the kids. Before that was the Letters to Cleo/Gigolo Aunts show at The Paradise with Mike.

I can’t overlook last weekend when Jen and I went shopping for little pieces of furniture for our home office spaces, and then rearranged everything in her office. That doesn’t sound like your typical fun activity, but it really was. Like I said, anything Jen and I do together will qualify as fun.

Of course the next big thing for us is xmas. I am ready for the holiday to get here so that it can be over, but that doesn’t change how much fun it will be. Xmas day with my wife and step kids followed by dinner at my sister’s, then the next day will be xmas-continued with my in-laws. All three events will be excellent fun. HoHoHo and stuff.