Tag: dailyprompt

Typical

Daily writing prompt
Was today typical?
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Seeing as it’s only 7:30am right now, I don’t think I can call whether today has been typical or not. How about yesterday?

Yesterday was pretty typical. Jen and I both worked from home and had quiet days over all. That was fairly typical. I hit all of my health goals. That was pretty typical, thankfully for my health I guess. Jen and I had dinner together. That being typical is the one shining up side of the pandemic sending us all home. Now we get to have dinner together almost every night at a nice decent hour. The atypical days being the days where one of us has to work from the office.

The atypical stuff revolved around my stomach. I had a bad issue at lunch and another one at dinner. I can’t say such a gastric bypass side effect fun is uncommon, but as I get better at all of this it is thankfully becoming less common. That is good over all, but yesterday was annoying. Neither issue was too bad yesterday, but they were both there.

So over all, everything was pretty typical yesterday. I’ll take it.

Describe Myself

Daily writing prompt
How would you describe yourself to someone?
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How do I describe myself. The answer to that question has actually changed quite a bit of late.

Traditionally the answer was really tall, really fat, really red. The really tall still applies. Thankfully for my middle aged hair the really red applies too. For now at least. I have to think the days are numbered on that front though.

The really fat piece of that though… after over 50 years I can’t really describe myself that way anymore. At least not outwardly so. While the gastric bypass surgery has had the desired effect on my actual weight, there is still the question of my mental state. I still feel like that morbidly obese guy I used to be. Is that body dysmorphia? Probably. It’s just harder to change my mindset than it was to change my actual weight.

Those are just a few of the things that define me enough that I would describe myself that way to someone else. There are other things as well. I’m a husband, a step father, a son, a brother, an uncle. I am a computer programmer. I play guitar, I like to mess around with photography. I live in Massachusetts and am fiercely proud of it.

I would like to describe myself as a good person, but am I? I see myself failing in that respect often. I hope that I have an accurate picture of myself, though they say that people who suffer from depression often have an accurate view of themselves while people who don’t often have a too rosy self view. I’m not sure what to make of that, but you can do whatever with it. I try to be a good human. Sometimes I pull it off. Sometimes I don’t. I guess I see the attempts as a defining characteristic of myself.

Really though, all you need to know is that I am really tall and really red and I used to be really fat. That should suffice.

Dinosaurs?

Daily writing prompt
If you could bring back one dinosaur, which one would it be?
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First off, as a caveat, I have seen Jurassic Park. I have read Jurassic Park. No way in hell I would ever bring back a dinosaur, no sir, no how, no chance.

Having said that…

If I had to bring back a dinosaur I would want to find something small enough that if I needed to I might be able to kick it’s ass in a fight. Given, as previously stated, that all of my dinosaur knowledge comes from reading Jurassic Park, I would probably go with the Compsognathus. That’s the little guy in the movie that acts as a scavenger. Sure there’s a scene somewhere in the book, and the second movie I think, where they eat a person, but they are supposed to be the size of a turkey.

Here’s what the wikipedia has to say about them:

Compsognathus is a genus of small, bipedal, carnivorous theropod dinosaur. Members of its single species Compsognathus longipes could grow to around the size of a turkey. They lived about 150 million years ago, during the Tithonian age of the late Jurassic period, in what is now Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compsognathus

That is my first thought. I wonder though, is there a small plant eating dinosaur I could go with? Let’s ask the google.

Acrotholus audeti is a plant eating dinosaur, about 40 kilograms and about six feet long. That’s a bit bigger than I would like, but it’s a veggie-saurus so maybe it evens out. It could take me in a fight, but it wouldn’t eat me. So maybe that’s the winner.

Still though, as previously stated. Don’t bring dinosaurs back. Just because you can do a thing, doesn’t mean you should. Just like Ian Malcolm said.

Where Would We Go?

Daily writing prompt
If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?
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There are two answers to this question. One is the obvious answer that would absolutely happen. The other is the what else could we do answer.

The obvious answer is I would take two tickets to Orlando, FL and my wife and I would go to Disney World. That is her favorite place to travel to, so that is absolutely where we would go.

The what if answer is tougher to decide on. What if meaning, what if Jen for some reason didn’t want a free flight down to Disney World. I would probably say London. That way we could see a legendary, epic city and also take a ride up to Scotland to see the land where my wife’s family comes from, and also take a boat over to Ireland to see the land where my family comes from. That would be pretty neat, right?

There’s also France. We could see Paris and maybe train around to other major cities on the European continent. My step daughter’s travels during her study abroad program have opened my eyes to just how many amazing options there are on the continent and how all of them are seemingly in reach of each other.

If we decided to stay in the US though it would be San Diego. That would be my first choice. We’ve also been thinking of maybe visiting the Grand Canyon or some places in Arizona or Utah or Nevada. Natural wonders type things rather than cities. Those would be options.

We would totally go to Disney World though. Without question. Without hesitation.

Nickname

Daily writing prompt
What’s the story behind your nickname?
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Let’s start this from the very, very beginning. My father’s name is Robert. Folks call him Bob. When my mother was pregnant for the second time she and my dad decided if they had a boy they would give it the same name as my father. That boy would be Robert, Junior. That boy ended up being me.

So my name is Robert. There are two syllables in the word Robert. To shorten it down to one syllable , thus making it easier to say, people started calling me Rob.

In other words, I don’t really have a nickname. Sorry, daily writing prompt.

Strategies

Daily writing prompt
What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?
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I tell you what, one strategy I should start using to maintain health and well-being should be to stop using the WordPress.com MacOS app to write posts because it doesn’t have a built in spell checker like the browser app does and I am just not that skilled a speller to be flying without a safety net, you know what I mean?

But seriously folks…

I never really thought about strategies yadda yadda. I clearly have them but I just never spelled* it out like this.

There are two types of well-being in play here. Physical and mental. The physical health strategies are, like everything related to my physical health these days, come to me via the weight loss clinic and their instructions to keep me healthy post-gastric bypass. Exercise every day, at least 64 ounces of water every day, at least 80 grams of protein every day, no sugar, small bites of food, chew every bite until it’s obliterated, don’t eat too fast. Those are the big ones. There are also things like keeping in touch with the clinic and not blowing off my regularly scheduled follow up appointments.

So that is the physical question, what about the mental well-being situation? I don’t think I have any specific strategies. It’s more like things that make me feel like maybe I deserve to be thought of as a not-so-terrible human being. That combined with things that just make me feel good in general will have to suffice. I treat my wife with the love and respect that she deserves. When I do that my well-being feels pretty well. When I fail… everything about me fails. Same with the kids. Treat them the way they deserve to be treated. For me that includes loving my two step kids as if they were my own. I do, so that’s pretty easy.

My family is the biggest part of this, but what else is there? Doing a good job at work is important. Helping my staff be the best they can be is incredibly rewarding. I’m honestly surprised by how good that can make me feel. Playing guitar, writing shitty songs, playing with home recording projects. All of that is good for my mental health. Taking a lot of pictures, writing on this silly blog. Those are important too. They help me to keep my head on straight.

I’m sure if I took more time to think about this topic I could add one or two hundred more things to this list. What I have here will do for now though. Hopefully everyone is able to answer this one for themselves, and in doing so keep their heads on straight for another day. This is a good thing.

*See what I did there? Spelled it out? Spell check? Get it? Yeah, I’m so damn clever.

Travel Plans

Daily writing prompt
What are your future travel plans?
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I feel like I just wrote this post. What was I talking about then?

Travel plans! There were three, there are now two.

Next month, Jen, Bellana, and I are going to a wedding in Bar Harbor, ME. We are turning it into a long weekend kind of trip. Jen and I have been there once before. It was a Memorial Day weekend visit that was also celebrating our anniversary. It was a good weekend trip.

2012-05-26 to 28 - Bar Harbor 186

The second trip is another Disney World trip in September. It’s just me and Jen this time. We were reading up about crazy people who book short, weekend style visits to Orlando and it inspired us. Granted, the weekend has turned into a four or five day weekend, but that’s okay with me.

243717450014_16

There was also a possible trip to Dallas, TX that was built onto of a business trip for Jen, but that appears to be off now. The business plans are still on but our personal travel is off for now. We’ll see if we can come up with something to replace it. I’ve never been to Texas and really I am not exactly dying for a visit… unless it’s just me going to music stores looking for cool guitars.

And that’s it for travel plans for the moment. I am hoping we’ll be able to sneak in another weekend get away or two before the summer ends. We’ll see.

Changes to Society

Daily writing prompt
What would you change about modern society?
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Would I change anything about modern society? Yes. If I could I would probably change just about everything. There is so much wrong with our world right now. I don’t have any solutions, but I know what isn’t working when I see it.

I think if it were up to me I’d rearrange society to be more like Star Trek. Money would no longer be the driving force. Instead, we would work to better ourselves as a species. Science would be trusted over superstition. Religion would be gone. Journalism would have integrity. Fact would be accepted as such and not ignored when it didn’t suit your bias.

You know… little things like those.

Background Noise

Daily writing prompt
What do you listen to while you work?
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When I am working from home I almost always have some audio something or other playing in the background. I think of it more as background noise than anything I am actively listening too. When I am in the office I sometimes try to do the same thing with headphones on but somehow it’s harder for me to do that. I feel like I need to be more aware of what’s going on around me when I’m with my staff. Sometimes I give in and pop in some ear pods and add some background noise.

That’s not the question today though. The question is, what do I listen to? More often than not it’s podcasts. Podcasts recapping TV shows I’m actively watching, guitar playing and guitar gear podcasts, podcasts about playing in bands, podcasts about photography, podcasts about politics. Lots and lots of podcasts.

Given all of the posts here lately talking about music, you’d think I would listen to music while I work. I do sometimes, I just find it more distracting. Every now and then though I feel the need to put on an album or a playlist and let it run. I can’t give a percentage of podcasts vs music or anything. I don’t think about it that analytically. It’s just podcasts most of the time and music some of the time. That’s all.

Fascinating story, eh?

Comfort Food

Daily writing prompt
What’s your go-to comfort food?
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Wow! This is a major question. I could go really deep into this. I won’t, really, but I could.

Pre-Gastric Bypass surgery in May 2022 the answer here was all junk food. Anything with chocolate would qualify for the win. Sour cream and onion potato chips could do it too. Chocolate though. Candy bars, cookies, ice cream, anything with chocolate served as a comfort food, and served extremely well. My weight topping 450 pounds was evidence of that.

Today, post-Gastric Bypass surgery in May 2022 is a much harder question to answer. Not because I don’t have an answer, but because my diet has changed constantly over the last year and two months. Immediately after the surgery the answer was water. Shortly after that it changed to hot chicken broth. Eventually it became an actual food, scrambled eggs. Things have gotten weirder and weirder since then. At various times the answer could have been one of a number of protein bars. Atkins Pretzel bars, Atkins Cookie Dough bars, Quest Cookie Dough bars, Quest Cookies and Cream bars. All of those had there moments (and some are still really close to winning today).

The current answer though, which might be a surprise I guess, is Ore-Ida Golden Crisper frozen french fries. These things are absolutely heaven and at this point in my life I don’t think I can live without them. Love and thanks and respect to the folks at Ore-Ida for coming up with this culinary masterpiece that I can crank out in the air fryer in almost no time at all.