How detailed do we want to get? My first name (Taylor) comes from old English/French. As for why my parents chose it? I couldn’t exactly answer that, but I could tell you that my siblings and I all start with the letter “T”.
From what I was told, my parents hadn’t intended to have all our first names start with the same letter. My two older siblings might have been intentionally picked that way, but I think mine was supposedly a coincidence. After they realized what they had done, my parents decided to just stick with the trend.
I believe I’ve talked about my middle name here before, and it comes from my maternal grandfather.
My last name is supposed to come from Hungarian origins, as my great grandparents (or great great grandparents, I forgot exactly which generation) came to the USA from there, though I can’t confirm that offhand. From what I CAN tell offhand, though, is that it must have been changed prior to arrival in the USA.
Anyways, names are kind of weird. It’s also hard to come up with names for people and places in stories. I don’t know how some people do it.
I’m just like anyone else. The vast majority of my “motivations” are going to be the same as the next person.
Need to eat? Find food. Can food be easily acquired? Eat. Costs money? Pay. Need money? Work. And so on.
Too simple of an approach to this prompt? Well, maybe, but I didn’t want to overlook those basic motivations because to a certain extent they are what propels us all.
If you’re looking at this prompt and thinking more about life goals and achievements, then I can dive in a bit deeper.
Wants and desires. Or lack thereof.
Professionally, I don’t crave attention, nor have any aspirations/drive to climb the corporate ladder. So my motivations for work are simple. Keep my job so that I can maintain a steady income to pay my bills and feed me. I’ve found a comfortable and safe position to be in, and have no desire to climb higher.
Personally, I WOULD like to be a published author someday. That’s part of what is motivating me to write this blog. I know some of my shortcomings are related to habits and consistency, so I’m working to fix them, but that takes time.
When it comes to movies, I’m not exactly fond of picking favorites. I just don’t find myself wanting to go back and frequently rewatch a lot of movies. That being said, I’ll still try to come up with ten regardless of “favorite” status, and definitely won’t rank them.
The first couple movies are ones I haven’t watched in a very long time, and that’s because they just don’t hold up (in my opinion) and the last time I watched them was probably 20 years ago or more. Anyways, in no particular order:
Surf Ninjas (1993) with Ernie Reyes Jr. and Rob Schneider. I had a VHS copy of this movie, and my younger brother and I loved watching it for some reason. We still occasionally quote it!
McHale’s Navy (1997) with Tom Arnold, Tim Curry, and Bruce Campbell (among others). Similar situation to Surf Ninjas. We had a VHS copy of this movie, but I think I was the only one who really watched it a lot. My parents had given my brother and I an old VCR for the small TV we shared to play SNES games on, so whenever we weren’t playing video games, we would just put on movies while playing with LEGO’s.
Gargoyles the Movie: The Heroes Awaken (1995) was another VHS my brother and I watched a lot. It also included a boardgame of sorts that you played by watching a part of the tape after the movie itself was over.
Skipping ahead to the present for a movie. Bullet Train (2022) on Netflix. I probably could classify this one as a favorite movie. I watched it a handful of times just this year, a few times on my own and then I got some friends to watch it with me over a screenshare. Every time I watched it I noticed new little details that are kind of “blink and you miss it” but are little hints or nods to things. The soundtrack is also great, and we took some clips to put onto a soundboard for ourselves.
A list of movies wouldn’t be complete without referencing Nick Cage. So, I’m tossing in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010). Similar to a lot of the early movies, I watched it once or twice just to watch it, but extra viewings were done as background noise.
Let’s add some Hayao Miyazaki to finish things off, starting with Princess Mononoke (1997). To my knowledge this was my first Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli movie, and one of my first DVD’s. I watched it so much that there ended up being a ring lightly etched into it.
Spirited Away (2001) was not one I immediately got into, because it has a different style of action from Princess Mononoke but several years later I did come back around to enjoying it more when my “literary and cinematic palette” became a little more refined.
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) was another one of those late discoveries that ended up being watched several times and ultimately cemented itself into my memory. I probably didn’t get around to watching this until 2003? Hard to say, but that sounds about right, as I was in high school at the time.
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) would be right up there near the top (if I were actually ranking them) but probably because I read the book as well, and I greatly enjoyed both.
Rounding out the list of ten will be Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979). This was one that, when it was finally brought to DVD, I watched quite a few times. For an older movie, the English dub work is actually fairly good, which helps to enjoy it (I’m more okay with reading subtitles these days, but if there is solid dub work, I’ll watch it in English too.)
As I went through this trip down movie memory lane, I started to come up with more, but I’ll leave it at the ten because that’s all the prompt asked for, and I don’t want this post getting wildly lengthy.
Again, not a top ten favorite list, because I’m sure there are movies out there that are objectively better, but these are the ones that at the time I watched them I did end up watching repeatedly over the course of year (not daily, though).
Okay, maybe one more.
Akira (1988, the year I was born) and it has an interesting history for me. I believe it was my older brother’s VHS copy, with English dubbing, that I watched so many times as a kid. I went back a few years ago to try and find a copy to watch, to relive some nostalgia, but I couldn’t find a version with the English dub I remembered. Turns out, there are two English dubbings. Given the fact I watched it on VHS, it was obviously the 1989 version and not the 2001 version. (Sorry Johnny Yong Bosch fans! No hate, the older version just holds a special nostalgia for me.)
Writing, as a high level topic of discussion, is such a fascinating thing. There are so many ways of categorizing or classifying a piece of writing that it’s almost mind boggling. From short, dry technical documentation to fantastical long form narratives. Massive compendiums filled with real world knowledge to serialized collections of short stories. Fiction, non-fiction, biographies, recipes, obituaries, and so on. Then there’s the next level deeper. Different authors have brought their writing styles, word choices and written dialects to life, and there is so much variety for people to discover.
One of the things I personally enjoy most about writing, when considering all of those things, is that anyone can find a place they feel they belong with their writing. That I can take my thoughts, put them down on paper or type them in on my phone (as I’m doing right now, laying in bed) and have the choice to share them like I do here.
I also enjoy the ability to take my imagination and give it a life outside of me, to create worlds in writing. To find new ways to describe something. Rewriting and clarifying the details.
This post is, I believe, the 308th daily prompt I have answered on my little journey to building my writing habits. Looking back on all of them, I can’t even begin to tell you just how many I’ve rewritten, whether in part or entirely. Along the way, though, I’ve found that I’m going to have good days and bad days. I’ll write short posts and long ones. That some will be serious while others are more light hearted or even comical to some degree, and I’ve come to enjoy all of that as well.
Writing is whatever we want it to be. That’s what ultimately makes it enjoyable. (At least, that’s what I want to think of it.)
There are quite a few things I can choose from for this prompt. The only problem is where to start?
I live in a decent sized city (compared to others within a few hundred miles) so there are plenty of options for restaurants and stores. Yet, we’re surrounded by open farm land, so I live close enough to get OUT of the city and see a change of scenery (and get away from the people).
My family lives outside of this city in rural communities, but because of the way everything opens up when you leave the city it doesn’t feel like they’re far away. The time it takes for me to travel those distances here might otherwise double or triple in other parts of the country because of traffic.
We get four seasons here, which is great, but sometimes the snow and ice can get bad. (Not Dallas Icepocalypse bad, mind you, because our local DoT absolutely has to be prepared for those situations and our infrastructure is set up appropriately.) Thankfully, I now have the option and ability to work from home if the weather gets bad, so that kind of makes up for it.
I think those are probably the top of the list of things I “love” about where I live. There’s always room for improvement, or I could work towards moving somewhere else if I REALLY felt the need, but beggars can’t be choosers, right?
Emotions are a weird thing to think about. At least, that’s just how I feel about the subject, given that I’m no psychologist or anything. So, I’ll keep my answer today a bit shorter.
I like to think that as far as positive emotions go, I feel happiness more often than others. I encounter plenty of opportunities to laugh at jokes and enjoy those little moments of success when playing games.
That being said, I’m usually in a kind of neutral mood/mindset the vast majority of the time, and I try not to let negative emotions take hold and control me. I don’t let the temporary absence of positive emotions control me, either, because life is a rollercoaster of experiences. I accept that I’ll have good days and bad days like anyone else, and I don’t put unnecessary effort into chasing happiness because it will come and go.
If we’re talking personal goals? I’m terrible at planning for personal goals. I look at the things I want, I get all wrapped up in my head around a vague goal for those things, and it usually falls apart. Occasionally I will make a more focused attempt, but not too often.
Work goals are usually a lot more solid. We define the goal, we break down the relevant activities and divvy them out, then set a timeline. That is the way a goal needs to be planned out, in the simplest description, and we do well with it.
Circling back to personal goals, you would think that I could apply the same structure to those, right? I suppose there have been a couple of times that worked, but usually it’s because someone else is involved and they’re depending on me (whether they realize it or not) to make things work out. I can step things out for some goals, put that structure in place, but then it falls apart because I’m putting it all on myself and I’m only accountable to myself. So, the natural assumption is I’m probably not too concerned with the success or failure of said goal.
I don’t have the same drive or ambition as others, and that’s okay. I like to remind myself that goals are good to have, even if you stumble or fail. You can always pick yourself up and make a new goal and go at your own pace based on what you learned last time.
How detailed do we need to get? What’s the emergency? Not all plans are going to cover the same things.
Emergency medical care? Sudden death in the family? Got laid off? Car breaks down?
You get the idea.
The biggest hurdle I often see or hear about with these circumstances is probably related to money. If you have enough to cover yourself, initially, no matter the emergency, you’re probably going to be okay.
But you need to have that money, and in today’s world that isn’t always the case. I’ve been there. Emergency medical care involving surgery? Huge bill, no insurance, and a low paying job with no savings. I got through that by reaching out to different people, asking questions, and finding the right resources to help mitigate the issue (no money).
Keeping that in mind, I think the best “emergency preparedness plan” needs to start with knowing who to contact when the shit hits the fan. That could be family, friends, coworkers, or some kind of official who is responsible for the area that owns whatever emergency it is.
So, who DO you contact? Not everyone has family or friends they can trust. Or coworkers, I guess.
My medical emergency started with asking my sister-in-law about how I could afford something serious, and her knowledge (at the time) helped me get to a hospital that would work with me on the financials without screwing me over.
Car emergency? I’ve called both friends and family before to get a ride or help contact people who could reach us.
Sudden death in the family? Well, this one is a little awkward to walk through. Am I going to be responsible for paperwork and following up with legal entities, or am I just attending a funeral and helping my family through the grieving process? The latter is easier, because in my case I just need to make sure my manager knows that I’m going to be unable to work for a short period (and thankfully she is wonderful and understanding) but the former is something I’ve not experienced personally. I suppose the funeral home might provide guidance on how to handle things (so if this is your situation, I’m sorry, but that’s the best I could brainstorm this morning.)
Job loss? Again, I’ve asked friends and family, and somehow I also ended up on the radar of a job placement agency, but ultimately I just looked for a new job (which, admittedly, is easier said than done and not everyone is going to be mentally equipped to handle the shock and uncertainty.)
In each case, though, money is still a big part. Medical bills need to be paid, cars need repairing or replacing, funerals cost money (and have you seen the prices on caskets/coffins?) and even without a job you still have bills to pay and you have to eat. Not sure I can give anything solid for a plan in this case except to say “fingers crossed it’s cheap/affordable and you have some kind of savings.”
Emergencies suck, and plans can fall apart no matter how detailed and potentially responsive they are. I’m not going to advocate for NOT having a plan, but I will advocate for going with the flow and rolling with the punches that life throws at you.
I’m not sure how I should be interpreting this prompt, and by that I mean “what was the original intention”.
So, I’m taking a slightly different approach. What is a word that too many people use incorrectly because they don’t understand how to proofread for spelling.
From a written word perspective, when people type “defiantly” but context clues always point to them meaning to use “definitely”, that drives me nuts.
When people are actually talking and they say “condiluted” (which isn’t even a word!) and they mean “convoluted”, my brain twitches a little. I hate it.
Maybe that’s just a me thing, and I know that the English language is tough, but I’m usually speaking/working with educated and well-read individuals who should be able to make the correct distinctions between these words.
I probably could have used this as an answer to an older prompt about pet peeves, but I don’t actually encounter these instances of improper English all too often, and I know that they happen to many other people, so I feel like it properly applies to today’s prompt.
One of the things I appreciate most about my manager is their dedication to the idea of respecting work/life balance.
“Take the time you need.”
“You really should take some time off.”
The first one is used often because someone on my team always has something going on that requires our time and attention. Whether that be taking time off during the day for an appointment, for some other extenuating circumstance, or simply because we’re not feeling well, we know our time is protected.
The second one is because my manager has an acute awareness of burnout and cares for each of us.
This all leads to being able to get the rest we need, when we need it most, and not worrying about what’s to come. It gives us the peace of mind we need to properly take care of ourselves. That peace is what makes it easier to recover and rejuvenate after stressful projects or major life events. It means we know we can rest without feeling guilty, because we have our managers faith and trust backing us through it all.
The Dragon's Grove 