PROMPT: Villain

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
What villain actually had a good point?
View all responses

Heath Ledger’s Joker [The Dark Knight (2008)] has a monologue that goes: “Nobody panics when things go ‘according to plan’… even if the plan is horrifying. If tomorrow I told the press that, like, a gang-banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all part of the plan…I’m an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It’s fair.”

It is definitely true that our psychology allows us to accept tens of thousands of deaths from drug interactions or auto accidents, but then we will go to outlandish extents — billions upon billions of dollars — to avoid the possibility of a couple of terrorism fatalities. We would use resources much better if we were not so panicky about uncertainty.

Sun Bands [Haiku]

Posted on by
1 
a dark cloud blocks
 the Summer sunset,
  but light won’t be pent.

Poison Ivy [Lyric Poem]

Posted on by
2 
Poison Ivy, I think you know
 that you will always be my foe.

I can slice your vine, pal-o-mine,
 and still end slathered in calamine.

Because I must haul your corpse away,
 and on my gloves your oils will stay —
 waiting that unexpecting day
 when I scratch some tender bit.

DAILY PHOTO: Hong Kong from Kowloon

Image

Reply
Photograph of the Hong Kong Island skyline taken across Victoria Harbor in Kowloon.

PROMPT: Anywhere

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
View all responses

I could happily live any number of places — e.g. several places in Southeast Asia, the Caucasus (particularly Georgia — though with language concerns,) Taiwan, and South America spring to mind. As long as it’s neither brutally hot / humid most of the time nor Winter more than three months a year (and isn’t pricey,) I can probably learn to love it.

I would point out that if this is a forever and always deal, I’m not in. I don’t want to / plan to live any particular place for the rest of my life.

Bird’s Eye [Senryū]

Posted on by
Reply 
the bird's head turns
 so one eye is upon me,
  something grows cold.

FIVE WISE LINES [July 2026]

Posted on by
Reply
Photograph of a green patch between granite outcrops at Uttari Betta (Hutridurga) in Karnataka, India.

Trust in Allah, but tether your camel.

Sufi Saying

[S]ome day you will be old enough to
start reading fairy tales again.

C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Marcel proust

Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever.

Mahatma gandhi

It took me four years to paint like Raphael,
but a lifetime to paint like a child.

Pablo Picasso

Solid [Haiku]

Posted on by
Reply 
at day’s end, 
 atop the mountain, clouds
  look like snowy peaks.

DAILY PHOTO: Gwalior Fort Greenery

Image

Reply
Photograph showing the facade of Gwalior Fort the roadway to the main entrance, and surrounding greenery. Taken from the Gujari Mahal end of the Fort.

PROMPT: Chaos

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
Is a little chaos actually good for us?
View all responses

A little of every kind of stressor is good for us. A human is a system of antifragile systems. Our bones get denser if we load them. Our muscles get stronger when we cause microtears in them. And our minds can cope with a wider variety of experiences when exposed to a wider variety of experiences.