%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |    My primary Writing.com blog. |
|
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics). Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:  "The Soundtrackers Group"  "Invalid Item" "Blogging Circle of Friends " "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" "JAFBG" "Take up Your Cross" Thanks for stopping by!  |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" | May 27Prompt ▼ If my life were a song, it would probably be a mash-up of genres of some kind. Both my personal preferences and the way life seems to have worked out seem to have multiple layers to them, so I imagine that a song that exemplifies that multifaceted life would similarly be some kind of crossover. I tend to like upbeat songs and ones that have really powerful, emotional lyrics, so maybe an R&B remix? A hip-hop jazz number? I'm not sure about the exact genres per se, just that there needs to be more than one. I'm not sure who the singer would be, but it would have to be someone super-talented and capable of producing music in different genres. And not knowing my specific genre makes it a little complicated. Maybe instead of a singer I could just hire a great film composer who understands all kind of different influences and styles and can create a unique sound. Actually, now that I think about it, I want to change my answer. I think my life song should be a music score composed by one of the iconic composers in the entertainment industry. A John Williams theme song would be epic. Or something by Alan Silvestri or Michael Giacchino or Ludwig Goransson. Ramin Djawadi would be a good choice too. And obviously it would be a huge hit because these guys make such iconic themes that people can't help but recognize them whenever they play. |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" | May 26Prompt ▼ Honestly, I find this prompt really frustrating. At first I kind of just wanted to throw my hands up and go, "When I'm in the mood to celebrate, nothing can stop me from... celebrating? What else do you want from me???" But then I was discussing the prompt with a friend and we decided that it would make an interesting Cards Against Humanity or Apples to Apples prompt card, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. First, I'm going to draw ten white cards from the Cards Against Humanity deck. These are my cards: 1. A sausage festival 2. An erection that lasts longer than four hours 3. Actually taking candy from a baby 4. Sniffing glue 5. Grave robbing 6. Eating the last known bison 7. Dropping a chandelier on your enemies and riding the rope up 8. Getting naked and watching Nickelodeon 9. Whipping it out 10. Waking up half-naked in a Denny's parking lot Next I'm going to choose which card I want to play. And this is going to be a tough one because there are a lot of potential great ones here. #7 is one of my all-time favorite ones to play in a game of Cards Against Humanity. The imagery is just To be honest, these would all be great cards to play, but I think I'm going to have to go with #2: When I'm in the mood to celebrate, nothing can stop me from an erection that lasts longer than four hours.  I picked this card because the idea of such an intense physical reaction to wanting to celebrate genuinely made me laugh out loud when I drew the card, and as with most games of Cards Against Humanity, I tend to pick the card that I would want to choose if it were my turn to select a winner. To be honest, though, any one of them would have made a great answer. |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" | May 25Prompt ▼ I'd say that the most valuable skill I have is my ability to adapt to whatever circumstances I find myself in. Whether it's related to the times I've been laid off, given an unexpected set of additional responsibilities at work, welcoming foster kids into our home, having to deal with home repair or auto emergencies, this whole COVID-19 situation, etc., I've always had the ability to just figure out a way forward, and to look at the situation I'm in and what I have around me, and just... figure out a way to make it work. It's something that's proven to be very useful over the years because life has a tendency to be unpredictable. It's nice to know that, no matter what's around the corner, I'll mostly likely have at least some ability to adapt to the situation and figure out a way to move forward. On the other hand, I'd say my most useless skill is a knack for remembering random trivia. And not, like, useful trivia where I know everything there is to know about multiple categories of Trivial Pursuit, or where I'd make an awesome Jeopardy! contestant and could win some money. I mean like truly bizarre and random things like being able to name all the countries of the world, or play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (or pretty much any other famous actor) for hours and hours on end without being stumped, or being able to rattle off the U.S. President's cabinet positions and line of succession, or being able to list pi to 13+ digits. I am admittedly somewhat proud of many of these accomplishments and bits of knowledge, but there's very little use for them, and showing off that kind of knowledge often comes off as being self-important or condescending. I mean, it's not as if people at a party are just randomly like, "Hey, who can name all 50 U.S. states and their capitals?" And it's not like I'll ever be in a job interview and be asked to name an animal or a fruit/vegetable that starts with every letter of the alphabet. And yet, I still spend an enormous amount of time reading about and collecting all kinds of this random information. The worst part of this useless skill is that all this trivia and these random facts stick in my brain, but things like requests to take out the trash, or remembering to stop and get some item on the way home from work often go in one ear and out the other. So while I can tell you all kinds of information about galaxies (their various shapes, how many stars are in them, how many galaxies are in the known universe, etc.), I have to ask my wife like three times, "What was it you needed me to bring home again?" I'm lucky she puts up with me.  |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" | May 24Prompt ▼ Just yesterday, I decided to support a local business by going to a coffeehouse and getting a chai tea and some breakfast pastries for my wife. Obviously the whole COVID-19 thing is still going on, so the coffeehouse had very strict rules posted: wear a mask, order inside then go outside to wait for them to bring your order out, stay six feet apart, etc. And this coffeeshop has had a lot of problems with people ignoring those guidelines. Even though they've locked up all the tables, there's a large concrete planter outside that people have been sitting on the edge of and socializing rather than taking their drinks and leaving as the business requested. Yesterday, the coffeehouse had put signs on the planter saying, "Please do not sit here. Outdoor space is for waiting for your orders only, by state order, you cannot sit and socialize." One of the patrons decided he wanted to do just that and actually tore the signs off the planter seating area and ripped them up, then proceeded to sit down with his buddies and enjoy their coffees. When someone from the coffeehouse came out and politely asked them to (a) not tear up the signs and (b) please leave now that they have their order so other people can wait at an acceptable social distance from one another, the patron leaped to his feet, got right in the woman's face (and of course he wasn't wearing his mask anymore), and screamed, "I don't have to do what you say! I work in construction! That makes me an essential worker, and it's my right to enjoy a f---ing cup of coffee out here with my friends if I want to. I followed your stupid rules about wearing a mask inside; screw you for trying to take away my freedoms out here on a public street!" (For the record, the planter seating is not on a public street.) A few people tried to interrupt and talk the guy down, but he kept yelling at the barista and anyone who came to defend her, and his go-to excuse was always, "I'm an essential worker so you should be thanking me and letting me do whatever I want rather than expecting me to follow the rules." It was super awkward and the guy, seeming to suddenly realize that he was making an ass out of himself and everyone was staring at him, suddenly collected his things and left, muttering something about going somewhere that wasn't run by a bunch of fascists. I can't imagine what it's like to feel entitled to break the rules. I'm a conformist through-and-through. If someone clearly posts expectations about how to act and interact, I try to follow them to the letter. The idea of just ignoring them and doing what I want is completely foreign to me. And then there's the whole matter of using the fact that he's an essential worker (and let's be clear, I would be shocked if he were doing any kind of public works construction project... in our area, odds are that he's a luxury home builder and is able to keep working because the entire construction sector has been preserved as essential) to justify his bad behavior and feeling of entitlement. Even if I did break the rules, my initial reaction to getting called out on it would be to conform or leave, not double down on the "I'm right and you're wrong" strategy. In situations like this, I never quite know what the most awkward part is... actually witnessing it happening, or the weird silence that descends on the group of people who remain after it's over. I don't think anyone said a word after he left. We all started staring real hard at the pavement in front of us. |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" | May 23Prompt ▼ If this were fifteen years ago, I would have said playing Dungeons & Dragons, but with the advent of popular platforms like Critical Role and other live-play podcasts and webcasts, as well as a number of celebrities who have come out as fans of tabletop gaming, it really doesn't have the same outcast status that it used to have. I mean, my wife still looks at me like I'm a weirdo whenever I say I want to spend time DMing a game, but a lot of other people are starting to come to terms with and be cool with it. So for the entry, I think I'm going to go with cataloging all the things I read and listen to. For some reason, keeping track of every book, script, and comic I've read year after year, plus all the podcasts I listen to, is something that I've come to make a habit. I'm strongly considering also extending it to movies and television I watch, and maybe even online videos or channels that I'm subscribed to. I don't know why I enjoy tracking all that stuff, but the accumulation of data and the availability of a database where I can check if and when I read something is information that I don't mind taking the time to collect, and that's definitely something that most people tell me they think is weird, because they can't imagine taking the time to maintain a spreadsheet or a database of information that nobody else is tracking or cares to track. I suppose that this mostly comes from the fact that a lot of my natural gifts are in the administrative sphere. I'm good at arranging and organizing things, I like input and having a lot of information to process things, and I collect a lot of random bits of information and trivia. So cataloging all the stuff I read and listen to makes perfect sense because I then have, at my fingertips, all the input necessary to be able to answer any kind of random question like, "Have you read this book?" Or, "How many books by this author have you read?" Or even, "How many books did you read each of the last five years, and what's the average number of books you read a year?" I'm a total nerd.  |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" | May 22Prompt ▼ In general, I find stringed instruments (especially the cello) very inspiring. I particularly love instrumental string covers of popular songs, and when popular songs feature string solos. One of my all-time favorites is from Paula Abdul's song "Rush Rush" from 1991. It starts around 3:05 here: I remember listening to this song on repeat (and even skipping back several seconds to listen to the strings piece itself multiple times) because it just has so much emotion in it. This was my go-to sad song when I was a teenager and just wanted to be sad for a while. I think strings are a beautiful way of musically communicating an incredible breadth of feelings. |
| size:3.5} "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" | May 21Prompt ▼ Taking away my phone and computer definitely removes the top two most useful items I own. I'm going to draw a distinction here for my list of items, and that's that I'm not going to include anything that is dependent upon either of those two things (e.g., specific apps or things that I've created using those two devices), but I am going to include things that interact with both devices. In particular, the first item on my list:Apple TV. I'm really late to the Apple TV craze, but I'm a big fan. For the longest time we used my Playstation 3 for all of our streaming apps and disc watching, but when it started to go, we replaced it with an Apple TV and now I can't see us ever going back. Sure, we lost the functionality of having an actual disc player hooked up to the TV (which, honestly, has only been an inconvenience a handful of times in the past several months since the switch), but we gained some key new functionality like the ability to play our iTunes library through our entertainment center, and - even better - the ability to share our computer, iPad, and even iPhone screens on the television. And it's small enough that we can stow it in a backpack and take it with us on trips so we have access to all this functionality and all our streaming options anywhere we have wifi. Car. This item has climbed in the rankings since we got kids. While it's always been a glorious convenience to be able to get in the car and drive to wherever we need to go at a moment's notice, the importance of that freedom has proven super-important with children. We can go get food, run errands, etc. whenever the timing works for us without being beholden to someone else or a public transit schedule, and we can leave whenever we need to. The ability to drive around at our discretion, if not a necessity, is pretty darn close in this day and age. Kindle. Technically this applies to my iPad and iPhone as well, but the ability to own an entire library of reading material in something about the size of a single thin paperback is life-changing. I love reading, and I read voraciously. Being able to go through a hundred books a year and not have to figure out where to find the shelf space to store them (even temporarily) is amazing. Being able to go on vacation and only take one book that contains a library of material rather than filling up my carry-on bag with hard copy books is incredible. And being able to purchase electronic versions of books for a fraction of the price of a hardcover or paperwork is the way of the future. Amazon Prime. I know that there are a lot of reasons to dislike Amazon, but I'll admit that we're Amazon junkies. Our Amazon Prime subscription just provides so much value for the money. Rush shipping on almost anything we could want to order from their extensive website, access to a number of streaming options (including add-ons like HBO, and the ability to rent or buy most movies), access to their music streaming services, the ability to order groceries online, etc. While we have a number of subscription services and each have their strengths (Disney+ is easily the movie and television content we're consuming most now that we have kids, for example), our Amazon Prime subscription and its features affect nearly every area of our lives, from grocery shopping and running errands to consuming entertainment. We still refuse to get an Echo, though. We don't love Amazon so much that we're okay with them spying on every word that we say.  Inflatable Wading Pool and Water Table. This one is quarantine-specific, but after over two months of staying at home and struggling to find new and interesting things to do within the confines of our <1,000 square-foot apartment, my wife's idea to order a little 36" diameter inflatable wading pool and put it on our tiny patio has been a game changer. Our son, who loves to swim, has been in such a better mood since he's been able to resume splashing around (our apartment community's actual pool remains closed for the time being), and our daughter is enjoying the water table we got to accompany the wading pool, giving her all kinds of fun hands-on activities to do with water. While we wait for our state and local officials to reopen things, this has easily been the thing that has improved the kids' moods the most significantly outside of using electronics. |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" | May 20Prompt ▼ As tempting as it would be to indulge my vanity and choose to have a thirty-year old body for the final sixty years of my life, I'd choose to keep my thirty-year-old mind instead. Yeah, that's right. I'd forego all the Dorian Gray jokes, then wondering whether I'm some kind of immortal vampire, all the money I'd make as a spokesperson for some anti-aging supplement, and instead I'd choose to have a sharper mind and the full clarity of a brain at its prime. Mostly, what it comes down to is the kinds of activities that I enjoy. If I were a more outdoorsy person or enjoyed physical activity, I could totally understand wanting the resilient body of a thirty-year old so you could run a marathon every year for sixty years, or so you can play pick-up basketball games every weekend with your friends forever. But the things that I enjoy doing (reading, writing, watching films, thinking, etc.) are all things that don't necessarily require a clear mind, but are definitely enhanced by one. I'm the kind of person who can enjoy just sitting there and reading a good book, and gets an enormous amount of satisfaction out of thinking through a problem, or typing at a computer and making up stories. I could do those things forever, so I'd love to have the mental acuity to be able to continue doing those things as well at 80 as I was in my prime at 30. These kinds of "either/or" questions always make me wonder whether my answer would change if the particulars of the scenario changed. For example, would I still take the mind over body option if I knew I was only going to live to be sixty? What if it was the body and mind of a forty-year-old? What ratio would I choose if I could take 60 years off my mind and body (e.g., would I rather have an unbalanced 30-year mind and 90-year body, or would I split the difference and go with a 60-year mind and 60-year body at the age of 90)? Honestly, I think that would be kind of a fun way to go through life, if rather than a dramatic 60-year difference between one or the other, if I was just perpetually 30 years younger in mind and body than my chronological age. To be physically and mentally 30 at age 60, 45 at age 75, 50 at 80, etc. would be awesome. |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" | May 19Prompt ▼ If I only had a year left to live, I would probably spend a lot more time focusing on making sure my family is taken care of after I'm gone. I'd probably sign up for a bunch of life insurance, make sure I'm spending as much time with them as possible rather than working so I can make as many memories as possible with them, etc. I would also probably make a more formal bucket list and try to spend time doing those things that I've always wanted to do. For me a lot of it is travel-related, but I'd also want to pick up a few skills (playing an instrument, try a bunch of different foods, etc.). Part of me would want to work hard to get to an idealized version of myself (finally lose the extra weight I've been carrying around for years, improve my understanding of spiritual concepts, etc.), but that would be a "ten years left to live" thing. With only a year left to live, I'm not sure I'd want to put a bunch of miles on the treadmill at the gym, or stuck with my nose in a dense philosophy text when I could be spending that time with my loved ones and enjoying new experiences for as long as I possibly could. Among things on my bucket list would be to have a book published (for which I'd most likely go the self-publishing route for the sake of expediency). I'd probably also try to make a movie of my own, even if it was a low-budget one, since I've been meaning to do that again. There are a ton of books I want to read and movies and shows I want to watch. Most importantly, though, I think I'd just want to spend as much quality time with my friends and family as possible. It would probably be lots of meals, coffees, and outings with everyone that's important to me. |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" | May 18Prompt ▼ If I were choosing one particular chore, it would be cleaning the bathroom. But the biggest dislike I have about cleaning is more a general category than a specific task. I hate doing the detail work. I'm more than willing to clean up big mess. Sweeping or mopping the floor? Cool. Wiping down the mirror and scrubbing the toilet and the shower? Fine. I'm all about doing the heavy lifting and getting it 80% of the way to being spotless. It's that extra 20% that kills me. The scrubbing every crack and crevice, or the spending several minutes on one particularly stubborn stain on the carpet. When I clean, I'm all-in for quantity over quality. I want to do the biggest and dirtiest jobs that, after twenty minutes, will have the greatest visible indication that I have accomplished cleaning. I love to clean off the counters, or pick up clothes off the floor, or put the kids' toys away because all of those things give you a huge return on your investment in terms of making the house visually cleaner. Not so much with the grout work, or getting those final pesky streaks off an otherwise clean window. And while this might sound like a cop-out, I'm not going to tell a story about how to get out of doing a chore I hate because I'm a freaking adult and my choices are either to buckle down and get the cleaning done, or live in squalor. When I was a teenager living at home I might have tried to come up with some creative excuse to avoid responsibility, but as an adult with my own place, I honestly don't want to get out of doing the thing that I know will make me happier and more content to live in my home. If there's one thing that quarantine and shelter-at-home has taught me, it's a renewed appreciation for tidiness and how much more relaxing it is to live in a space that's clean and not overflowing with junk. It's not particularly creative, but if I wanted to get out of doing a particular and specific chore that I didn't want to do, it would involve trading something else with my wife or kids. If I don't want to clean the bathroom, I'll scrub the food spatter off the stove. Or sweep off the patio. Or vacuum under the loveseat and the sofa in the living room. The thing I've come to learn about being an adult is that it's not about getting out of doing something you don't want to do... it's about tradeoffs and figuring out what you're willing to do (or pay) in exchange for getting someone else to do it for you. Not doing it isn't an option. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
