Tag: Writing

Cats Need to Listen to Me

Bloganuary writing prompt
If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?
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There are a few potential responses to this one, but if I had to narrow down to just one thing I want my cats to understand it would be this:

Just because you can see the bottom of the food bowl, it doesn’t mean that you are about to starve to death. There’s enough food in there to keep you alive for a while, and I will top off the bowl soon enough. Calm down.

Now having said that, Robin Sparkles has an interesting response to the food bowl getting low. She gets extra super friendly. Where she normally barely acknowledges my existence, when the bowl is even slightly less than full she comes to me practically begging for attention. She rubs up against my feet when I am walking by, she head butts me when I am sitting down, she meows at me, the whole works. All the things that cats do to remind you that they are there and to trick you into thinking that they love you. All of it. It’s not enough to make me purposefully let their food get low… but it’s a close call sometimes.

A couple of honorable mentions include the following:

Yes, cats. I am aware of the state of your litter box. I am always aware of the state of your litter box. Relax.

No, cats. You are not allowed in the cellar. Not since Lilly tried to claw her way through the central air duct or when she tried to climb over the top of the ceiling to get behind the wall board where she would get stuck and I would never, ever be able to find her or rescue her. Get out of the damn cellar, both of you.

This last one is going to come up tomorrow, and then again on Thursday. Yes, cats. We have to put you into the cat carrier in order to take you to the vet. It is not punishment or torture and I am not some kind of nazi death camp guard. Stop making me feel like one. It will all be over soon enough. Just be patient and accept my apology. Good kitty.

144/265
144/365

Robert

Bloganuary writing prompt
Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.
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I’m American and I speak English. We generally don’t name our children based on the literal meaning of the word. It is more often based on how the name sounds when combined with the family name, and family history. My name is Robert because my father’s name is Robert and my parents wanted to name me after him. That’s it. My brother was named after our grandfather. My sister isn’t named after anyone directly, at least not that I know of, she got her name because my parents liked it. That’s it.

Having said all of that, I figured in the spirit of the daily prompt game I would Google the origin of the word Robert. What does it actually mean?

Robert is an old German name that means “bright fame.” It’s taken from the old German name Hrodebert. The name is made up of two elements: “Hrod” which means fame and “Beraht” which means bright. The name was introduced to the people of England by the Normans in the middle ages.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/robert-name-meaning-origin-popularity-5181543#:~:text=People%20Named%20Robert-,What%20Does%20Robert%20Mean%3F,Normans%20in%20the%20middle%20ages.

Bright Fame, eh? Okay. I guess. There’s no fame here, and there’s certainly no bright fame. It’s interesting to know, I guess. It may be what my name means, but it certainly doesn’t relate to me at all. Maybe if I had known the meaning when I was little I would have changed my life’s path a little. Of course I am not serious at all. I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I didn’t know it when I was young, but Jennifer (which The Google tells me means “fair one” which I will absolutely buy) was in my future and I wouldn’t change anything out of risk of not making that myspace.com appointment back in 2006, you know?

Love

Bloganuary writing prompt
Can you share a positive example of where you’ve felt loved?
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I am not going to share too much on this topic (shockingly) but I will give a short answer.

One year ago my mother was coming to the end of her life. It was awful. She was in hospice and fighting hard for each second. The pain of knowing we were losing her and the guilt at not being able to do anything more to help her combined to pretty much crush me.

My wife was there for me. My wife was my support. My wife was my rock. My wife was my heart and soul. I have never felt more loved.

My two step kids were in Vermont through the whole ordeal, but they were there for me too. Remotely at first, but then after my mother passed away they came home and were there for me in person as well. Again, I have never felt more loved. 

My wife and my step kids. My family. I would not have made it through that experience without them. I am so thankful for the love they give to me and I will never be able to show them how much they mean to me. I love them all so much I cannot put it into words. I need to do an infinitely better job showing them how much I love them and how much they mean to me. My heart aches at the thought of it.

ClutterBug

Bloganuary writing prompt
Where can you reduce clutter in your life?
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I’ve done a pretty good job of reducing clutter over the last 5-6 years or so. We’ve already cleaned out most of the books, CDs, DVDs and such. You know, the things that fill up a lot of space. We cleaned out most of the storage space in the cellar after some annoying flood experiences. Granted, we’ve filled a lot of that cleared space back up, but it isn’t enough to require any decluttering yet. 

The real pressing need is the cardboard collection. With most of the holiday season having been delivered by Amazon, we have tons of empty boxes in a huge pile in the cellar. That is the only pressing need as far as clutter is concerned. One of these weekends I’ll chop it all up and send it out with the recycling a piece at a time. 

Other than that? I suppose my desk(s) are a little cluttered, but I kinda like it that way. I like having various nick knacks and desk swag around me. My guitar and camera gear collections definitely qualify as cluttered. There’s no way I am reducing though. None at all. Quite the opposite. In fact, I want them to grow and possibly become more cluttered. Oh, hells yes I do.

That’s about all that comes to mind right now. Is that good enough? Bloganuary post is in the books, kids! Time to click that ol’ publish button and start perusing everyone else’s posts.

Love Must be Earned

Bloganuary writing prompt
What is your favorite animal?
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You don’t have to look far to find my answer to this question. Literally the post before this spells it out nicely.

122/365

It’s cats, of course. Obviously. Cats of all shapes and sizes.

There is none of that unconditional love crap with cats. You have to earn their love. You have to earn their respect. I mean, it’s not that hard to do… just keep their food and water bowls full and their litter box clean and you’re most of the way there. Still, it’s the effort that counts. It’s the process that makes it worthwhile, you know?

Here’s to cats. Also, here’s to easy to answer daily writing prompts that I’m pretty sure are repeats of old prompts that don’t really inspire a lot of… writing.

Meow, brothers and sisters. Meow.

Online Communication

Bloganuary writing prompt
In what ways do you communicate online?
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The simple answer is that I don’t. Outside of this blog, that is.

I stopped using facebook. I stopped using twitter. I’ve been trying to find an app to replace them both but nothing really gets there. Threads is okay, even though it’s another evil zuckerberg product. Mastodon is okay. So is bluesky. Unfortunately few if anyone from my actual social network is on any of those social networks so I end up just responding to guitar and photography (and sometimes political) posts from other people and it’s like I am talking to the void… which I sort of am.

At work there is Google’s chat and Google Meet and Zoom and other things like that, but that is work communication, not online communication. It’s the same but very different, you know? Within the family we use FaceTime and I love every call, as well as group texts. Again though, that’s sort of different. I think it is at least. 

This little blog gets a pretty healthy amount of engagement. Not compared to real blogs, but for a 52 year old introverted doofus in Massachusetts, it feels pretty engaged. At the same time, none of my actual social network, apart from one or two people, follows this at all so there isn’t any real world tie in. Mostly, at least. I had a few real world friends and family members following when I first started posting publicly back in 2008, but I doubt any of them are still coming around. 

It’s kinda sad, really, you know, when you stop and look at it objectively the way this daily writing prompt is forcing me to do. I often think about stopping all together, which given that I post about 6-8 times a day doesn’t quite seem possible. Still, it is like shouting at the void… but maybe deep down I enjoy shouting at the void? I don’t know.

Snack Irony

Bloganuary writing prompt
What snack would you eat right now?
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A day late and a dollar short. Sounds like me.

I had every intention of answering Friday’s writing prompt question on Friday, but I woke up sick and my whole day went down the toilet (literally and figuratively) and I never got around to it. That means that you get Friday and Saturday’s writing prompts on Saturday. I can see how amazed you are.

I will keep this one short and painful and hyper focused on the goings on in my stomach yesterday. The answer to the question at it’s basic level was I couldn’t eat a snack if I tried.

I woke up a little late and my stomach was a little sore. As I started to go about my morning routine that soreness became major pain. I tried to have some water, as I always do at the start of my morning, and had to stop after a small amount. I got my first round of vitamins in at least. I was curious if the pain was due to hunger, which sometimes happens, even though I knew it wasn’t. I tried to eat a protein bar but had to stop after a few bites. 

That was it. I had another little bit of water later in the day but that went badly too. All in all I finished the day with about eight ounces of water (the goal is 64) and maybe five grams of protein (the goal is 80). I couldn’t have had any more if I tried. The very thought of food made me feel nauseous. 

So the literal answer to the question of what snack I could have eaten at any given moment yesterday was none. Today might be a different answer, but I am going to take it as easy as I can. I probably will stick to protein bars until dinner just to make certain that everything is okay now.

I’m sure I will let you all know how it goes as the day rolls on. stay tuned?

Buzz

Daily writing prompt
What is your mission?
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If there is one thing I hate, apart from snow and winter and TV commercials pimping medications, it is corporate buzz speak. Mission? Buzz buzz buzz. Ugh. So today’s daily writing prompt is to write a corporate mission statement. Hows aboutcha blow me, Bloganuary?

My mission (I feel gross just typing that word in this context) is to do whatever I can to make Jen happy. She’s the love of my life, my soulmate, and my wife and it is my job to make her happy. I fail a lot but I will never stop trying to be better at my one job. 

There. My mission. If you didn’t see that coming then you haven’t been paying attention, and that is okay. We’ll get through this together, friends and neighbors and kind readers.

AI Assistant?

WordPress.com let us know via email last night that there is now an AI Assistant available in the blog post editor. At least if you are using the Block Editor format. I don’t know if it’s there if you’re writing HTML code or anything else, but if you’re using blocks you can add an AI Assistant block and ask it to do stuff for you. 

For example, I asked the AI Assistant to write a paragraph about using AI to write a blog post and it came up with this absolute fucking masterpiece:

AI has revolutionized the way we approach content creation, offering unprecedented efficiency and creativity. By harnessing the power of advanced algorithms, AI can rapidly generate compelling blog posts on a diverse range of topics, tailored to specific audiences. Moreover, it can analyze trends and audience engagement to optimize content, enhancing its impact. While AI streamlines the writing process, it also empowers human creators by providing valuable insights and freeing up time for strategic thinking and ideation. Embracing AI in blog writing opens up exciting possibilities for innovation and scalability in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

How cool is that? Now I don’t have to go to Google Bard or Chat GPT when I want to add something fucking stupid to my already lame-ass blog posts. Hurrah!

Play

Daily writing prompt
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
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So… “Bloganuary.” Okay. I wonder, did someone get paid to come up with that name? I mean… if so, I hope they didn’t get paid much. Whatever. 

Do I play in my daily life. I play guitar. Once in a while I play a video game. I guess the answer is yes then. I guess I can stop writing about today’s writing prompt then, eh?

What says playtime to me? This:

123/366 - January 1st

Honestly it’s a pretty good thing that today’s prompt was uninspiring. It is the first post-holidays work day today and I overslept a bit. Not enough to make me late for work, but enough that I have to hurry through my morning routine. I ran in place (yogged) for 45 minutes and I am eating a little breakfast as I type this. Next up is to shower and shave and then punch into work for the day. It helps that I won’t be spending much time on this post. 

Bloganuary, indeed.