Burgers with interesting toppings. Home made buns, too!
I really could go on and on about the many different foods I would like to make. The most important one right now is Red Beans and Rice, because I picked up most of the ingredients already. I think I’ll make that tomorrow.
I also really want to make pretzels and beer cheese dip because we’ve had a can of Guinness in the fridge for a while leftover from the time my roommate made something for St. Patrick’s Day back in March.
Honestly, I just need to get back in the kitchen a lot more often.
I probably like cats more than dogs, as I primarily grew up with them, but I do like dogs as well.
The first cat I remember my family having was a female cat named Milo (I make the distinction because last year my Dad got a male puppy he named Milo) when I was growing up in Colorado. She was an indoor/outdoor cat, sweet and very independent. At some point we took in a kitten that was part of a litter that a friend’s mom had rescued. We named him Otis (as in The Adventures of Milo & Otis) but unfortunately he didn’t seem too bright. Where Milo had been with us for several years and was smart enough to always come back safely when she was let outside, Otis wasn’t with us very long as he never came back one day. We never learned what became of him.
Within the few years after my Mom passed away, my family had gotten two dogs, starting with the German Short Haired Pointer we named Greta (and my poor Grandma couldn’t get her name right, always calling her Gretchen). Then there was Sophie, who was very much another Otis. Very sweet, but not too bright.
Then there are the many dogs my Stepmom had rescued, and all the farm cats we had when we moved to South Dakota that became partly domesticated. All were named, but combined there were probably more than 30 over the years, and I don’t remember the majority of them (especially since we’ve had so many horses on top of all of that!)
I was originally going to keep this post short, but I couldn’t immediately decide one way or the other. I was then hoping that by the end of writing it I might reach a conclusive answer, but unfortunately I can’t pick one or the other. So, it’s both.
I like to think that there are two categories of activities for this prompt: where time is completely ignored, or where I’m subconsciously aware but not actually paying enough attention to care.
The former category is easy enough. Video games, reading, and painting miniatures. I can really lose myself in those activities. There’s always a “just one more thing” or “after this I’ll check the clock” but I inevitably fail at least once to follow through. Next thing I know it’s 2:00AM on Wednesday and I have to be at work in six hours.
The latter category above will take just a tad of explanation to understand. If I happen to be listening to music while I’m painting miniatures I will sometimes become conscious of the fact that I’ve listened to a handful of songs and feel the need to check the time. Songs aren’t all the same length, but they do have durations. I’m not sure how accurate this is, but I loosely associate one song to being three minutes long (as an average across all music, and not necessarily an average of all songs on the current playlist.) So when I realize a handful of songs have gone by, I assume it’s probably been about 15 minutes. Similarly, when I’m binge watching something, I have a rough estimate of how long each episode is after cutting out intro/outro time, so when I realize I’ve just watched three episodes in a row, it’s probably been an hour.
On rare occasions, when I’m at work, I can run into a weird blend between the two categories. I have caught myself getting so engrossed in whatever I was doing that I miss a meeting by a few minutes (Outlook reminders sometimes pop in the background for some reason and on Windows 11 the flash on the taskbar is kind of subtle) or the next time I look at the clock it’s after quitting time. Listening to music doesn’t always help, either, because I usually use it to block out the noise from all the other people working around me.
I’ve got a lot of minis to paint, so maybe I’ll spend time getting lost in that activity soon.
People who lack even a small amount of critical thinking skills bother me to no end when I have to work with them, and even more so in the age of social media where information is so rapidly spread that people eat it up without so much as a second thought.
There is nothing wrong with asking questions.
Let me repeat that.
There is nothing wrong with asking questions!
The problem comes from people who refuse to learn and just continue to ask questions expecting others to do ALL of the thinking for them.
People who believe in easily debunked misinformation or conspiracy theories are also part of this problem. However, the source of their lack of critical thinking is being too prideful to accept that they’re wrong, admit it, and change. Everyone else is wrong but them, and they only listen to the one source of information they agree with (but likely that source is the one that fed them the idea in the first place.) These people aren’t actually helping anyone.
Ask questions, get lots of answers, piece the information puzzle together with proven data from multiple sources that can independently corroborate one another. Now more than ever, THINK CRITICALLY!
Change will always happen, just maybe not in ways you expect nor understand
We all have to eat
We all have to drink
We all die someday
The world has finite resources
The world has LESS resources today than it did 60 years ago
The person is smart, but people are dumb
Individually, we do not survive on our own
We can never truly be “perfect”
Time only moves in one direction
I’m sure there are some points that could be argued, conditions or considerations that could be applied, but I think anyone would be hard pressed to do so.
I think everyone wants security in their lives. It’s just a matter of how much, especially compared to the desire for adventure. There are also the added layers of emotional, physical, spiritual, and/or intellectual security or adventure.
Personally, I’m in the situation where I want to go places and try new things, but not without some measure of security. I don’t like the idea of trying to find a new job and figure out how to fit into whatever structure or dynamic is already in place just so I can be secure if I decide to adventure out of state.
Maybe I’ll figure out the right balance someday. Who knows?
If you could host a dinner and anyone you invite was sure to come, who would you invite?
I’m not entirely sure how I want to answer this prompt, but I’m taking the approach that even fictional people would be guaranteed to come. My dilemma now is…who? There are so many people in sci-fi and fantasy that might make great dinner guests.
Maybe a bunch of the Lord of the Rings characters? Gandalf, for sure, and the hobbits. That could make for a fun dinner party.
Honestly, I could pick just about anyone, provided I had the space and enough food.
It could really get out of hand. I think I’ll limit it to them.
I’m not a wine drinker but I’ve heard some wines (and a lot of casks/barrels of alcohol) get better over time, and cheese’s too. Those are probably the most commonly known things, though.
Some pieces of pop culture age really well, like TV shows, video games, and music. Some people might disagree on the grounds that “aging means they change over time” but I have a different approach. Think cartoons from the 90’s. The references and jokes that flew over our heads as children that we now understand as adults. Now, I don’t have specific examples for music, but video games have some classics like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6. The stories and decisions that you have to make in those games can change how things progress, and sometimes the ramifications escape our notice as children, but if we go back to play them again years later we likely uncover something new.
Take some time to look back at those things you enjoyed as a child, and see what you can find that might have a different feel today.
“Bedtime” is supposed to be between 10:00PM and 11:00PM but often times I’m awake later. Once I’m in bed, sleep usually hits anywhere between 11:30PM and 3:00AM. Obviously, that’s not good, especially when I typically have to be up by 7:30AM to get to work on time. Though, I usually make up for it (a smidge) by going home over lunch to take a nap. Sometimes, I just lay there, and other times it’s actually a very restful power nap.
That’s all during the week. Weekends are worse, sadly. Depending on the weekend’s priorities, I’ll still fall asleep at the same times, but waking up is a whole different story. If I have something important going on and it happens before Noon? Then I usually am awake an hour or two beforehand (unless I fell asleep REALLY late, and then it’s more like 30 minutes.) If I have nothing going? I’m most certainly sleeping in. I’ll TRY to be awake before Noon on those kinds of days, but it isn’t uncommon for me to sleep until 1:00PM.
It’s not a very healthy sleep cycle, but such is life.
What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?
Where do I start? What even is a “strategy for comfort”?
I buy clothes I find comfy for work that still fit the business casual criteria so that I can just wear them for a couple extra hours at home, no need to go through extra effort to change. Does that count?
I have a tendency to sleep hot, so I installed a wall mounted fan that sits above and on the side of my bed that I use to blow air across my head and shoulders. I keep the remote for it next to my pillow so I can turn it on when I start getting warmer. I also keep three different kinds of blankets on my bed to shift between as needed for the same reason. (A comforter, a fleece, and a thin cooling blanket.)
I guess that’s about it? Maybe include naps? Naps are always good, even if you end up just sleeping. (I call those napcidents.)
The Dragon's Grove 