Category Archives: activities

BOOKS: “Swimming” by Roger Deakin

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Swimming: Vintage MinisSwimming: Vintage Minis by Roger Deakin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Vintage Minis

This book contains a collection of excerpts from the book Waterlog by Roger Deakin. It’s one volume from a series of short books that contain essays, stories, poems, or book excerpts that is put out by Penguin under the imprint “Vintage Minis.” The book describes the author’s experiences of wild swimming throughout Britain. The description of nature and of the exhilarating experience of wild swimming are beautifully composed, and it’s an all-around pleasant read.

If you’re interested in wild swimming, I’d recommend this book.

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PROMPT: Career Plan

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Daily writing prompt
What is your career plan?
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Hah. That ship has sailed. But I could say that it’s to still have something to offer when machines / AI can do all productive tasks better and / or faster than humans — i.e. to be able to convey something of the art of being human. Even though, I suspect, I won’t be around to see that day, it will be catastrophic to the species if people don’t figure these things out in advance — i.e. if we don’t figure out human roles and purpose in a post-human industrial landscape.

PROMPT: Live Performance

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Daily writing prompt
What was the last live performance you saw?
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A local theater group’s performance of “My Fair Lady” a couple months ago… Unless, you count several minutes watching a group of fire jugglers on the beach in Krabi.

PROMPT: Camping

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Daily writing prompt
Have you ever been camping?
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Many a time, and I hope to do more. I highly recommend the experience. Nothing like sleeping close to the Earth to realize that there exists no patch of ground on the planet as flat and rock-free as one’s mattress.

PROMPT: Productive

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Daily writing prompt
When do you feel most productive?
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Uhh… when I’m being most productive, which is to say when I’m producing something in an efficient manner. (Not sure if it’s a trick question.) Obviously, if I’ve felt the need to check my phone, social media, etc. it’s not a highly productive time because I’m not engaged with what I’m producing. Also, I have lots of time when I’m intensely engaged with an activity, but I’m not producing anything, and so that isn’t being productive per se — though it may be highly beneficial and essential to well-being. (Although, my dictionary / thesaurus have definitions of “productive” that equate it with “constructive” which changes everything. Though it also equates “intelligence,” “erudition,” and “wisdom,” which is a highly suspect understanding of wisdom.)

PROMPT: Lose Yourself

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Daily writing prompt
What activities do you lose yourself in?
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Lately, swimming… and, of course, rap battles.

PROMPT: Failure

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Daily writing prompt
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
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If one fails and one tries again, one will make course corrections. Keep repeating that cycle, and one is bound to home in on success.

Psychologically, I think juggling is a fantastic skill to practice because one must fail a million times and keep going. Furthermore, one must learn to choose failure over a spastic success (and condition that behavior in on the fly.) By this I mean, one must learn to let the ball drop rather than lunging to make a frantic catch, because if you are always making wild reaches, you’ll never achieve a smooth, natural rhythm. In other words, a catch that keeps the ball in the air for one or two more throws is not truly a success if it trains a wobbly, unsustainable movement pattern. More generally, one must redefine what constitutes success or failure at a fundamental level.

PROMPT: Grow

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What experiences in life helped you grow the most?

The ones that involved repeated non-catastrophic failures (e.g. martial arts practice.)

Also, the ones that confronted fears (e.g. open sea swimming.)

PROMPT: Ideal Day

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Daily writing prompt
Describe your most ideal day from beginning to end.
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Hiking in the mountains (at most, low- to mid-VHE [Very High Elevation].) Wake at sunrise, walk, pitch camp before sunset.

PROMPT: Scared

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What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

Going to a cocktail party with no one I know in attendance. FYI —Things that would generate less anxiety include: cage-fighting, gator-wrestling, skydiving, and (admittedly with the appearance of irony) giving a speech to a large audience.

A battle-hardened phalanx with pointy sticks.