Daily writing prompt

What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?

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A little vague on the question end once again. Favorite game to play? To watch? Board game? Video game? So many options.

Overall I think we need to go with favorite sport, meaning favorite spectator sport. It’s a toss up between baseball and hockey. Red Sox and Bruins, babie.

As for games that I actually play, I think the winner would be EA Sports NHL hockey games for the Playstation. I haven’t played much in the last few years, but it’s still my #1 video game.

Board games should come next on the list. There are a lot of board games I like to play, but do I have a favorite? When I was younger it was Life. More recently it is probably Ticket to Ride. Today? It’s probably both.

What about card games? There are many that are fun to play but nothing that I would consider a favorite. I’m just not that much of a card game guy. If I had to pick one I would say Draw Poker. That’s a fun game.

What about sports that I actually play? I played baseball when I was a kid and loved it. I never played hockey because I can’t skate. You may have heard of me. I am the one guy from New England who never learned to skate. Yup. I’m that one guy. I played soccer and basketball when I was a kid too and had a lot of fun, but they were never even close to as important to me as baseball. Now that I am an old person? I think we have to go with ten-pin bowling. Would that be a sport or a sport-adjacent? Maybe sport-ish? Whatever, it wins.

Well, there you have it. My favorite games. The Red Sox play the Mets tonight at 7:00pm. They also have to finish the game that was suspended due to heavy rain last night. I don’t know what time that’s happening.

Daily writing prompt

What foods would you like to make?

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Cooking is fun, but I am not terribly creative. I learn how to make one simple dish and then I make it over and over again until my beloved bride gets queasy at the very thought of it. I am also traditionally a very picky eater so having the same simple thing over and over again for weeks or even months doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

My wife, on the other hand, is brilliant in the kitchen. She’s very creative and intuitive. She can take a complicated recipe and alter it, upgrade it, improve upon it, on the fly. It always comes out fantastic. I help her when I can but she’s just a natural. It’s pretty amazing to witness.

So I guess the answer to the question is that there really isn’t any food I would like to make. At least not until Star Trek’s food replicators become common household appliances, at which time I am going to make everything under the sun, so long as it doesn’t have sugar in it.

Daily writing prompt

Which activities make you lose track of time?

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There are a ton of things that I can get lost in and completely lose track of time.

• Spending time with Jen. We used to call them flake days. We just plop down in the living room or something in the morning and just hang out and next thing you know it’s evening. I love that sort of thing.
• Music. Playing music. Listening to music. Music for me is pretty much the ultimate time distorter. Hours can feel like minutes.
• Television. Getting lost in a good TV show can cause me to lose track of time. That goes for movies too, but the real danger is binge watching a full series. I sit down thinking I’ll watch an episode or two and next thing you know I’ve watched an episode or five or six and half the day is gone.
• Driving. This is a big one for me. I love to drive. I love to drive long distances. I love to just get lost on the highway, both figuratively and literally. Just point myself in a direction and see where I end up and when I end up there. Fortunately Jen feels the same way. There have been many a time where we have been hours away from home and still decide to take the longest route imaginable. If the longest route isn’t long enough then we take an extra circuitous route and make it longer.

There are probably a hundred or so more things I could say that are just as important and just as valid, but these are the ones that immediately spring to mind. What can I say, I enjoy losing track of time and I am pretty good at it.

Daily writing prompt

What bothers you and why?

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I would like to give a sarcastic answer to this question. What bothers me? Yankees fans. Why? Because they are Yankees fans. I can’t though. I have to give a serious answer.

What bothers me? The rise of fascism in the United States. My great uncle fought in the second world war. My grandfater fought too, but he walked out on my father’s family in 1950 so I don’t put a lot of stock in him as a human. My uncle though, he was good people. He fought against the fascists for years. He sacrificed so much, but not nearly as much as those who went to war and didn’t come home. Our entire nation stood together against fascism and won.

Now? Half of the population is willing to support clear nazi policies and tactics with smiles on their faces. I’ve said this many times before but all the nazis had to do was be patient. All they had to do was wait and eventually the US and many of the allied nations would just naturally come around to their way of thinking. It’s disgusting. It makes me want to vomit. I go outside and there are safe odds that one out of every two people I see are at best nazi sympathisers. The Constitution of the United States? It only applies to them, not to everyone. Fascists. Evil.

That’s what bothers me.

Daily writing prompt

List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.

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10 things? Are there really 10 things of which I am absolutely certain? Are there 10 things of which I am subjectively certain?

• I love Jen
• I love Harry and Bellana
• Healthwise, gastric bypass surgery is the best thing I have ever done for myself, even though it is a complete bitch to maintain.
• Historically, chocolate and coca~cola are my two favorite foods to eat and post bypass surgery I cannot eat either one anymore without getting seriously sick.
• Boston, Massachusetts is my favorite city on Earth but I am willing to accept the possibility that the reason I feel that way is because I was born and raised and still live 20-30 miles north of the city and therefore I am just biased toward the place where I live.
• I can say without a doubt the finest electric guitars ever made are Gibson Les Paul Standards made between 1958 and 1960. I, however, am willing to admit that I say that without ever actually having played one.
• All of my favorite cameras are Nikons, but I am willing to admit that they may not be the best cameras. I just like ’em.
• I have written literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of songs and not a single one can objectively be described as “good.” Having said that, I do not care.
• This is the ninth entry on this list of 10
• The Rush album catalog stands as the high water mark of popular music post-Beatles.

There. That’s 10 things of which I am absolutely certain. Bring on tomorrow’s question!

Daily writing prompt

Are you seeking security or adventure?

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Interesting question here. Am I seeking security or adventure? The answer is yes.

I am seeking security in that I want my family to be safe and secure in terms of health and finances and safety and everything. I want that for all of us. I really need it for all of us from a mental health stand point. I’d go friggin’ nuts otherwise.

I am also seeking adventure. I mean, in all fairness, family life is an adventure for me. Not only that, it is an adventure that younger me was convinced he was never going to experience. I was 36 when I met Jen. Prior to that I had no hint in life that I would ever meet someone and fall in love and get married and have a family. I didn’t think I was physically capable of any of that. So that’s the main adventure for me.

On top of that, Jen and I are constantly planning trips and mapping out ideas for new experiences. Just yesterday we bought PowerBall tickets. Jen decided she was going to manifest a win and I jumped right on board. She planned out all of these wonderful things we were going to do when we win. It was silly but it was fun, and we WILL win eventually. I don’t think we won last night’s drawing, so maybe the whole manifesting thing just takes more practice before it works, but we will win.

We’re going to Florida again, that’s an adventure. We’re going to Maine for a long weekend next month, that’s an adventure. We might have a trip in October that is work related, but we could turn it into an adventure. So the answer is yes, we’re seeking adventure.

There you have it. Are we seeking security or adventure? Yes, yes we are.

Daily writing prompt

If you could host a dinner and anyone you invite was sure to come, who would you invite?

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Once again, super vague. What are the rules? Is this an alive or dead, any humans in history kind of dinner engagement or is it just living people?

Regardless, it’s going to start with my wife and step kids. They are a given.

Who else? The Beatles, of course. But which era Beatles? 1964 Beatlemania Beatles? Pre-fame Hamburg, Germany Beatles? 1966 post-weed, pre-LSD Beatles? Probably that one. Maybe. I don’t know.

World leaders from history? Abe Lincoln and John F Kennedy, obviously. Partly because I could go over all of those weird coincidences between their two presidencies and see if they get a laugh out of it. Teddy Roosevelt would be a good one. He was a fascinating guy. Biden and Obama, of course. Not for political reasons but just to witness the bromance in person.

I would invite the three members of Rush, of course. I would let them sit at their own table though, separate from the rest of the group. I wouldn’t want Neil to be uncomfortable, you know? I would invite the classic 70’s line up of Genesis, but I would be afraid the three private school guys would be savagely fighting all the time the way I have heard they often did, so maybe not?

I would consider inviting Trump and Musk and Besos (sp?) and Zuckerberg (sp?), only to kick them in the balls and then throw them out on their asses. That would be immensely satisfying.

This is a pretty dumb question, but it is slightly amusing to think about. I guess.

Daily writing prompt

What do you think gets better with age?

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Okay then, this is an interesting question. I am not sure how to respond. The standard answer is booze, right? I don’t drink though so I can’t use that as the answer.

Star Wars. That keeps getting better with age, doesn’t it? Odd that the prequels are getting more popular and more widely accepted as time goes by. Does that mean they are getting better?

It goes against popular convention but I feel marraige gets better with age. Hollywood tells us that the fire and the passion go out after a while, but to me the connection grows deeper and that makes things better. The longer we’re together the more I love my wife and the better our relationship feels. When I come home after a day in the office, the feeling I have when I see her… It’s magic. Truly. I don’t tell her this enough and maybe that’s a negative change, but inside? The way I feel? Yeah, it gets better with age.

We got a pretty late start. I was 36 and she was 32. That was 16 years ago. We didn’t have a wild youthful relationship period the way younger folks in their 20’s do, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I just need to do a better job making sure my beloved bride knows how deeply I love her, and how that love continues to grow with each day.

That’s something that keeps getting better with age.

Daily writing prompt

What time do you go to bed and wake up currently?

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I have been hyper aware of this for the last few years. Ever since I started sleep apnea therapy I have gone a little nuts keeping track of my sleep.

Ideally I would go to bed at around 10:00pm and wake up around 6:00am. There literally aren’t enough hours in the day though so that rarely happens.

Realistically, I got to bed at 11:00pm, or even a little after. Jen has an alarm set on our Amazon Echo for 6:00, but I have one set on my Apple Watch for 5:00am. Most mornings I hit snooze for nearly an hour, but I would prefer not to. Six hours of sleep isn’t really enough, but it gets the job done for me most nights.

Checking my sleep stats from last night, I went to sleep at 11:05pm and woke up at 5:45am. I was also awake from 4:40 to 4:50am as I needed to pee. I was asleep for 6.5 hours, 74% of which was in restful sleep. My sleeping heart rate dip was 19% and my average sleeping heart rate was 52 beats per minute. My sleep distruption was 2.5%, or 10 minutes.

Like I said… I’ve been sort of hyper focused on this for about four years now.