Still Figurin' Out Who I Think I Am

This one's about prompts.

"Blog prompt for February 11, 2015"  

What's the good word tonight? Very kind of the homie Brother Nature to use me as a reference point for one of his prompts tonight...and if you're feeling lazy and don't wanna sit through his introduction (which I recommend you do anyway), here is the gist of it: "Talk about the different types of prompts. Tell us how the prompt helps or hinders your blog entry writing. Which types of prompts are your favorite or least favorite to write on? Blog group leaders can write on this from the 'prompt writer's point of view on prompts'."

Well, I consider myself one of those "group leaders", even if I technically have the shortest tenure of anyone else in charge of their respective organization...but I'll tackle this from my own perspective, ok Joel? Thanks.

The truth is that I've never really thought of "types of prompts". First, for me, there are "prompts" and "no prompt". Then it became "prompts I really like" and "prompts I don't like". And asking me to describe them in detail is hard, because it's one of those things you just know.

Oh sure, I'll bet if I were given a list of all the prompts I've ever seen, and had a month to break them down into three or four different categories, I probably could. Anyone who writes like this could. But it's not something I think about when I open an email with a subject of "Today's prompt...". I don't judge them and say "this is a valedictorian prompt style" or "this is from the second class of third-citizenry set of prompts". Naw man...I'm just worried about whether or not my fingertips have the game to keep up with whatever my brain wants to spit out. I don't wanna know if there's a certain guideline I should be following because "this is to be written in goat cheese staccato"; I wanna know if it contains a theme that I can find relatable enough to make it relatable to you. I'm just the translator...the go-between. I fill in the spaces- lots of spaces- with words and anecdotes and stories. That's all.

I'm not in the business of overthinking the one thing I'm actually supposed to be overthinking. Just gimme my hard hat and lunch pail and let me get to work. I'll take out my aggression (metaphorically) where it matters most...where people wanna know how I feel about something, and not my opinion on the statement itself. That makes sense, right? It does in my head.

Now, with that said, sure there are some prompts I'm not into...and depending on my mood you'll hear about it, because I'm an equal-opportunity prompt offender. But if I'm particularly fond of your prompt, I'll be sure to mention that as well. For example, I've made it clear several times that I'm not crazy about prompts that drag me too far away from reality. If I were meant to write fiction and short stories, I would've started down that road a long time ago. But ask me anything that I can attach to a funny and/or self-deprecating story from my life, and you won't get me to shut up. That's just how I work.

And I guess I will cater to the "prompt writer's point of view", since I do that too now, a lot more than I used to. You've all probably heard me piss and moan about having to write prompts, because in my opinion I feel like the ones I contribute are generally pretty terrible. And it's true...if I had to write for a month's worth of my own prompts, I'd just as soon rather learn Mandarin or how to fold a fitted bed sheet properly in less than thirty seconds (because you know when you put me in charge of that shit, you're getting one giant ball of sheet). I try to be fair, but it's not easy coming up with something that 8 or 20 people are gonna all be comfortable with...and writing on my own ideas now almost feels like liking my own Facebook posts. It's uncomfortable and self-serving and kinda awkward, like watching a dad kiss his daughter on the mouth for more than .000001 seconds.

Not sure I could say anything more about this; I'm actually surprised I even said this much...which is kinda funny since I'll be sending this out to two other blogging groups with the NP ("no prompt") designation.

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I did a quick Google search today using the keywords "songs about writing", because I wanted my music to tie in with the 30DBC portion of today's entry...and it returned one of my favorite sites, Consequence Of Sound. Here's a list of 10 songs that are about writing  . Lotta good songs there.

And I'm glad Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds shows up twice on this list, because he's a fantastic writer. Dark, twisted, thoughtful...his albums are as incredible as his voice is deep and distinctive. "There She Goes, My Beautiful World" isn't my favorite Nick Cave song, but it deserves a spot in this year's playlist.

I don't struggle much with writers' block, but maybe that's because besides blogging I don't write nearly as much as I used to. There has been so much said over time about the subject, but this comparison is one I think is the most widely used: to that of a lover left behind. I think plenty of us have felt that pain at some point in time, and Cave's lyrics touch on it in a way few have in the past. My opinion of course, but something to consider.

"Well, me, I'm lying here, with nothing in my ears."
Lyrics.  

You pretty much shouldn't eat anything anymore. Sucks too that I love most of this crap  .

So ya know what I did today? Something I swear I probably haven't done in like 15 years...I bought a big-ass bag of Skittles. I don't eat a lot of sugary garbage that often, but awhile back I had something- don't remember what- that tasted like Skittles, so I decided I needed more Skittles in my life. And ya know what I learned from the experience? Life is too short to waste it on people who eat their Skittles one at a time. In fact, if you don't just shove an entire handful of assorted flavors in your mouth at one time, I don't think I can even trust you. I'm pretty sure that it's unspoken-yet-common-knowledge that you're supposed to eat them in mouthful-sized servings. Isn't that what "Taste the rainbow!" means? It's a marketing campaign designed to incite a child (or me, a child in a tiny man's body) to ingest large quantities of rainbow-flavored sugar pellets, so follow the directions. Don't waste your time or my time being all definitive and shit..."Oooh! Save me the orange ones!" "You know what they say about the green ones! ". No, and GTFOH with that. People who don't know the difference between Skittles and M&M's don't need to be a part of your life.

Finally, some sad news...as you may have heard yesterday, Jon Stewart announced this will be his last season anchoring The Daily Show. I have to admit...I've only started watching regularly in the last year or so (I know...what was wrong with me?), but Comedy Central's gonna be hard-pressed to replace someone of his caliber. Let's take a moment and reminisce over some of his best quotes  .

And that's where I'm gonna leave you kind people at tonight. Peace, buggered off man, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!