For years, my siblings and I would quote the show South Park, and specifically the episodes dealing with World of Warcraft.
One of those quotes is about the character Butters going to play Hello Kitty Island Adventure, which wasn’t a real game 19 years ago.
Well, that fictional game became a reality a couple of days ago on Steam.
The fact that it now exists was a wake up call for just how long ago that episode of South Park was, and I feel OLD. Which is sad, because I’m really not that old (I turn 37 next month.)
Honestly, I don’t know! I’m not sure if this means I don’t get out enough or if my understanding and standards of everyday heroism are super high because of super hero stories and such.
Guess I’ll have to keep an eye out for these kinds of people.
I hate to think about it because it kind of makes me feel old now, but I graduated from high school almost 19 years ago (which means next year would be my 20 year reunion, yikes). Looking back at the years I spent in two very different high schools, and the class offerings, it’s hard to decide what kinds of classes I wish I had available to me. Of course, things have likely changed since my time.
I remember seeing people on social media bringing up this kind of idea many times before, and one of the usual requests/recommendations is that they wish they had classes for things like Personal Finance or something akin to Home Economics. While I agree that those would have been very beneficial, I also think that some of those topics should definitely come from parents because they would have a better understanding of how to handle their own unique living situations, and the classes would just be an extension of that knowledge to help improve things. (Personally, from what I’m hearing these days, parents need to be more involved in their children’s lives in general, but that’s a whole different rant.)
As for my own personal answer to the prompt, I’d have to say I wish there was a class focused on diet and nutrition. Home Economics classes might teach a lesson or two in cooking, and I was fortunate to learn a few things in the Catering classes that my first high school offered, but none of that covers diet and nutrition, or eating healthier and developing healthy eating habits.
Well, that’s just what I wish for, but again, it could fall in the category of Parental Responsibilities like I was touching on earlier. And who knows, maybe there are some high schools out there that do offer diet and nutrition classes. If there are, they weren’t anywhere near me.
Just as I titled my post, I don’t believe it is possible to have a truly perfect day.
Something is bound to go wrong, even in the smallest way possible, and that would automatically disqualify the day from being perfect. That being said, you can still have a really good day, especially if you have a good mental state/approach to everything.
That’s what I believe, and anyways it’s all subjective so it’s not like it matters. Just worry about the things you have control over and make the most of the day.
One thing this prompt doesn’t factor in is the horizontal dimensions of the building, only the vertical. So, I’m going to play with that! I know several buildings in my local downtown that are interconnected, so technically we could take one as an example or just use the full length/width of the downtown city block (minus the alley ways). I think I’d have it be the full length of the city block and only go up to the alley on the width. This would make it roughly 150 feet long from East to West, and roughly 390 feet long North to South. Quite a lot of real estate, especially if it’s five stories!
Personally, I’d start with living quarters. The building is mine to do whatever I want with it, so I might as well live in it. I’d like to have a two- or three-story segment on the south side of the building as my personal space. Maybe 50 feet long, with that longer side facing south, and then 25 feet wide. I could have a massive home in there, with an open concept loft design in part of it. The rest of the third, fourth, and fifth levels throughout the building could be apartments.
Next would be some other form of revenue generation. I’m thinking a bowling alley and arcade could occupy the space beneath my home. I wouldn’t want to subject that kind of noise to the other tenants, so I’d probably make the remainder of the space above it into something other than apartments. Maybe offices? Then I could put restaurants or boutiques/shops on the first two levels beneath the remainder of the apartments.
Okay, so really I just ended up designing my own downtown building that’s very similar to others here. Except the bowling alley. We don’t have one downtown.
Now that I think about it, maybe I’d do a multi-story laser tag arena in part of it? Oh, or maybe multi-story indoor paintball! I’ve always wanted something like that.
I have a bunch of ideas, and now I can’t decide what I would really do with my fictional building.
Sometimes, when I’m having a conversation with people, I feel the need to relate to others in the conversation when they share something that makes them feel insecure or less about themselves in some way. This leads to me sharing a personal experience in hopes that we can connect and they don’t have to feel alone.
Unfortunately, these conversations are usually text-based through services like Discord, and I feel like my responses are often followed by silence from the other person and this makes me feel insecure in a way that says “they feel like you’re trying to one-up them”.
Because of this feeling, I sometimes just don’t share anything anymore and internalize feelings that MAYBE I shouldn’t, because then it starts eating away at me.
I stumbled across this site with some journal prompts that I wanted to explore, but I wanted to start with the appropriate date instead of just grabbing one at random. Unfortunately for me, today’s prompt is related to goals and goal-setting, which I suck at doing for myself.
I’m going to do it anyway.
This December isn’t going to be super productive for me in the writing space. Half the month will be a normal work schedule, so I’ll probably be okay there, but the other half I’m actually taking off of work for a combination of travel and family time. I think somewhere in all of the time I’ll probably try to think a bit further ahead and do some better goal-setting for next year, so I can at least try to accomplish things I keep putting off (or at least the things I keep dragging my feet for because “slow and steady wins the race” means stuff still gets done.)
Also, since we’re talking about goal-setting and how I may not be productive in the near future, fingers crossed I can still push my personal projects over the finish line soon!
Before making a phone call, do you ever rehearse what you’re going to say? Why?
I saw this question and felt like it deserved to be answered here.
In the past, I’ve talked about how I’m kind of a mixed bag on consistent planning. I’m good at planning at work, or for other people who are dependent on me for something, but terrible about developing and sticking to plans for just myself.
Except when it comes to conversations.
Rehearsing is technically a form of practice and not strictly a form of planning, but that doesn’t mean you don’t continue planning DURING the rehearsal. You have to try out different phrases, plan for responses, and so on and so forth.
Personally, I go beyond just phone calls. I’ll play out entire potential conversations with different people in my mind and try to anticipate what they might say so I can respond accordingly. I’ll plan for different timings and environments. Like if I’m having the conversation at home or in the car. I try to consider the circumstances as much as possible, like if they’re having a good day or a bad one.
I do this because sometimes I’m not in the right emotional state of mind and I don’t want to spontaneously direct anger at someone. I want to approach things calmly and rationally. Nobody wants to be yelled at or chewed out, but I still need to vent a little and process my emotions so that I can think things through. I think about how to present any arguments or complaints I might have so that I’m getting the most out of the situation without hurting the other person in the same breath, and I try to anticipate different possible directions things can go so that I’m not getting caught off guard.
Sometimes having a conversation, whether in person or on the phone, is tough, but we have to go through it anyways. Might as well plan it out.
What are the most important things you have learned in life so far?
I’ve got a few I can share, and I’ll keep this post simple by not going into too much detail or history behind what they mean to me.
You are the center point of your own world, but you are not the center of THE world or anyone else’s. Every step of the way through your life, you are the only person guaranteed to always be there, so remember to take care of yourself.
We may not always have someone else around to be there for us, but nobody gets through life alone. Unless you are somehow making absolutely everything you own from scratch, someone else is always providing something you have/want/need, so be grateful for the things you have that others put time and effort into making.
Don’t assume that everyone has their eyes on you, cares what you do, or even knows you exist. Don’t worry about what other people are thinking or doing except when you know your behavior/decisions will have an impact on the outcome of whatever you are doing, and vice versa.
I think about these few things near daily so as to remind myself of how to act as a decent person and not be a greedy, selfish, and cynical asshole.
The Dragon's Grove 