The idea of patriotism

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Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

Honestly, no. And before anyone figuratively jumps down my throat let me explain.

The first entry of the Dictionary.com definition of “patriot” is “a person who loves, supports, and defends their country and its interests with devotion.”

If you were to dissect that definition into discernable criteria then I would only partially represent it. Then again, pieces of that criteria would also be subjective based on someone else’s values and logic.

If I were to take the word “country” out of the definition and replace it with “community” then I might fit more criteria.

Unfortunately, as things stand today, regardless of politics, our country is kind of fucked. We’re fortunate it isn’t worse (no matter what anyone else says) but we could be so much better.

All that being said, the second part of the prompt asks what being patriotic means to me. If I take THAT piece and run with it then I’m left with my own subjective values to define patriotism within the realm of ‘me’.

For me, just “sticking to my values” isn’t enough. I would want to look at the world around me and see that what I’m doing is having a positive impact. To recognize that it isn’t just me in this world, and that while I might be walking a different path in life, I won’t get through life alone. None of us will. We don’t think about it enough that someone, somewhere designed the smartphone I’m using to type this up. Someone else had to make it. Yet another person had to participate in its delivery. When I think about things from that perspective, I don’t automatically apply the word “patriotism” to it but it still feels like that’s what it should be. Love and support the people around you, and the people around them, and so on.

Unintentional lawbreaking

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Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?

Nice try Feds! You won’t catch me admitting to something I may or may not have done illegally!

Alright, jokes aside, I’m sure there are some laws I broke unintentionally just like anyone else. Like speeding. Sometimes you find yourself going over the speed limit and realize you need to sloooooow dooooooown. Funny enough about those times, it is generally acceptable that you can go up to 5 mph OVER the speed limit and the police or highway patrol won’t stop you. At least, that’s the case here. Still, a lot of people will see a police cruiser and slow down to the speed limit anyways.

I couldn’t say if there are other instances of unintentional lawbreaking, because if I was aware of it having happened then I would assume that means I know what’s against the law in the first place, like trespassing, jaywalking, etc.

What’s in a name: biography edition

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If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

This must be like one of those jokes I used to see on social media, like “that’s the name of my next emo band” or “that’s the name of my sex tape”, something like that?

I never got into the habit of making those kinds of jokes or thinking about my life in the context of “name of my next whatever” so I have no idea how I would give an answer.

Let’s name my biography Active Mediocrity.

Why? I don’t know, because my life is mostly unremarkable and I semi-actively maintain a boring and mediocre lifestyle? That’s the best I’ve got at the moment.

Maybe I should ask my friends.

(Also, Active Mediocrity sounds like a good band name, or at least an album. I looked it up, nothing in the top handful of search results for it being used as a name.)

When my parents were my age

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What were your parents doing at your age?

Well, this is going to be a short answer because to be perfectly honest, I don’t really know! When I was born, my parents were roughly the same age as I am now, so Dad was likely working and Mom was taking care of me and my two older siblings.

My parents were the tail end of the good old American Dream. Dad was still in the military but in the Reserves, so he was also working in his first non-military job as I understand it. Mom was the homemaker and never took on another job except raising us kids. Other than that, I couldn’t say.

Rewriting Laws

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If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?

I read this prompt and my first thought was how to cause a lot of chaos with changing “gravity” or the laws of physics, or even the law of equivalent exchange. (Full Metal Alchemist, anyone?)

I let it sit and here I am nearing the end of the day and I don’t have a solid answer even though I read the prompt shortly after midnight when the new one was presented.

The largest problem with why I couldn’t think of any law to change is because I’m not sure I’m educated enough on what laws we ACTUALLY HAVE. I could just as easily pick a law pertaining to major current events in our world, but I don’t want this blog turning political.

Maybe I would just change one of those antiquated and silly laws that were very specific about something. Like that tree that has its own land rights and the city or state can’t do anything to it. I wouldn’t change that exact one because I think it’s amusing that a tree (and actually it’s the tree’s offspring now) that owns the land it grows on. You get the idea. Something like “no hats on Tuesdays in August” or some equally bad law.

That special dream home

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Write about your dream home.

Everyone has ideas on how they would like to have unique things in their home. I’m no exception. I’ve already talked about the ideal location for where I would like to live, and the ideal office type arrangement, in previous posts. Now I can go through the rest of the house!

I’m not entirely certain I would want some absolutely massive mansion, but depending on the “sum of its parts” it might just turn out that way. The reason I wouldn’t want such a large house is because of the need to clean it. I’m not made of money and can shell out for a cleaning service, but I guess if I had the money for this dream home then I probably have the money for the service.

Anyways, let’s dive in!

The entryway to the home would have a nice open space with a large closet for guests to hang coats, and a couple of chairs or a bench that people can use to sit on when they need to get their shoes on. Oh, and a shoe cubby. Can’t forget the shoe cubby. There would be stairs on one side that go up and stairs on the other side that go down. Not sure of the exact layout or design there but you probably get the idea. Then a couple hallways that branch off.

The kitchen and dining room would share a partially open layout somewhere in the middle of the house down the hall directly ahead of the entryway. A simple living room would be next to that space, and somewhere between the two would be a way to the backyard patio.

The backyard patio would almost be like a large three-season covered space. The walls would be similar to those garages that have the two layer doors where there is an interior one that’s a screen. There would be a section of the patio that is setting up for cooking/grilling with a few different implements. A standard grill, a big flat top, and a smoker to start. There would also be some seating and small tables.

Back inside the house again, the upstairs would have bedrooms with a couple of bathrooms, one of which is in the master suite. The master suite would also be connected to that really cool two story library, which would also be connected at the first floor through the kitchen.

Downstairs would be a large entertaining space with a secondary office for streaming, because honestly if I have the kind of money for this dream house then I probably can afford to stream for fun more. The main area of the downstairs would have all of the tabletop gaming space for my friends and I to play D&D or whatever else (probably Frosthaven, which we still need to start.)

Somewhere in the mix of all of this house would be a fun slide or something, and a couple of secret rooms or passages. That would just be amazing.

Well, I’ll stop there with the dreaming because otherwise I could probably just go on writing about it for ages, and I’ve already tried to keep myself from getting TOO detailed. So that is that. Just going to leave it there for now.

How do you share great news?

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Daily writing prompt
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?
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I feel like this prompt approaches the idea too simplistically. Personally, if I’m getting amazing news it would really depend on the kind of news it is to determine what I would do first.

If the news I got was something along the lines of winning tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars from the lottery then I already have a plan thought out, and it wouldn’t involve telling anyone close to me right away. If I found out I was going to be a father (which isn’t likely to ever happen under current circumstances) then I would probably also consider the ramifications of how I got to that place in my life, like if it was an accidental or intentional pregnancy. Do you see where I’m going with all of this?

You can’t just ask people something so vague and open ended without expecting a variety of answers. Unless, of course, someone is at a point in their life where there is literally only one possible thing at that given point in time that would qualify as “great, amazingly fantastic news”. But really, how likely is that?

To be honest, I don’t even know what kind of news I could receive right now that would even be remotely considered to be THAT good, but I can tell you that one of the first things I would do (but maybe not the FIRST first thing, just one of them) is write a post here about it. Unless I won the lottery, because I’m not opening up that Pandora’s Box HERE.

Loss of interest in a hobby

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Daily writing prompt
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
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Thankfully the prompt is automatically at the top of the post or else I would feel the need to start with “Nobody panic, I’m not losing interest in a CURRENT hobby.”

Now, to be honest, I don’t have an exact answer because I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things, but yes there are definitely activities I’ve grown out of over the years. As a kid, I used to love riding my bike all over the place, playing with LEGOs for hours, probably some other things that kids typically lose interest in as they get older. Moving the clock forward to college, there used to be more alcohol in my life. More parties with friends. Not anymore, though, because I had a great (negative) role model about alcohol and I came to realize that I didn’t like the way it made me feel. All of those things are activities or hobbies I outgrew or lost interest in, although I really should consider getting a bicycle again and just riding the bike trail that loops around my city.

Funny enough, there is one hobby that I “outgrew” that ended up coming back. Pokémon cards. Unfortunately, when you’re a kid you don’t have a disposable income, so I couldn’t feed that cardboard crack addiction of buying booster packs. I didn’t come back to the game until more than 20 years later when my niece and nephews started to get into it. I don’t actively buy packs for that game these days, so I guess I still sort of outgrew it, however I do collect and play Magic: The Gathering instead so I would say I came back to the hobby eventually. Just in a different way.

It’s interesting how life changes like that.

Satisfying the sweet tooth

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What’s your favorite candy?

I’m terrible with sweets. I have so many that I enjoy that I don’t know if I could pick just one as a favorite. Plus my preferences have changed with time.

Primarily, I love chocolate based candy products, and more specifically from the Reese’s product line. So, if I had to pick one above all others from THAT grouping, I would probably pick either the Reese’s Sticks or the Reese’s Pieces. I did at one point really like the Reese’s Fast Break bars, but after a while I got tired of them.

I did recently discover the joy of Kinder Chocolate bars and Bueno bars, and I would say the Bueno bar is a solid contender against the Reese’s Sticks.

Sadly, as much as I enjoy these different candy snacks, I have to heavily moderate myself or else I end up buying them daily. That’s not really healthy for me, and not kind to my wallet.

Sometimes you just need a break

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Do you need a break? From what?

Yes.

I most certainly need a break, but not exactly from any one thing.

It’s more like I just need a break from EVERYTHING. I say it that way because even when I’m “taking a break” from something in particular I’m still thinking about it in the back of my mind.

Work, for example, is something that I have to plan my life around to a certain degree. What does my work schedule look like for the week? Do I have meetings right away in the morning that require me to be in a little earlier to attend? Did I remember to have laundry ready or do I need to do some in the middle of the week? The weekend rolls around and I still have to consider that I need to be in the office Monday morning, so no crazy plans or screwing up my sleep schedule. Did I plan accordingly for my PTO so that nothing gets missed while I’m out? I think you get the picture. Now, apply that to hobbies.

When you have a limited time for hobbies and some of them overlap with having a social life you run into similar issues. Am I going to off work on time? Did I underestimate how much time I would be spending with family? So on and so forth.

So really, I just need to find time to drop everything and go off the grid for like two solid weeks. Maybe someday.