PROMPT: Outgrown

Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?

Well, having an imaginary friend is adorable at nine, but at ten they institutionalize you. So I would say, yeah.

PROMPT: Break

Do you need a break? From what?

I travel for a break from the ordinary. I spend time at home (wherever that might be) for a break from novelty.

PROMPT: Invention of a Lifetime

Daily writing prompt
The most important invention in your lifetime is…

If “most important” means having both a broad and profound societal impact, then the answer would have to be the internet. [Though I learned through said internet that Arpanet was already operating before I was born. So, if you consider the internet to be a simple progression of Arpanet, then my answer would be a lie.]

If “most important” means having the greatest benefit to mankind in terms of improved quality of life or lifespan, then it’s probably some medicine. Which one? I have no idea. [Maybe that breakthrough that both won the Nobel and made it much easier and quicker to get the COVID vaccines out (mRNA translation, or whatever it was called.)]

PROMPT: Cook

Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite thing to cook?

Thai curry — red, green, massaman, it makes no difference. It tastes good, smells good, and is nutritious — at least in the way that I load it with vegetables. And it requires all those satisfying cooking actions — i.e. slicing, dicing, etc. Also, it’s simple and mistake-forgiving to an extent that even someone unskilled — such as myself — has a hard time fouling it up.

PROMPT: First Computer

Daily writing prompt
Write about your first computer.

My first computer was my brain interfaced with a No. 2 pencil. Yes, I date that far back in the technology stream.

PROMPT: Sports

Bloganuary writing prompt
What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

Combatives: i.e. Boxing, Wrestling (real, not acted,) Muay Thai, Judo, etc.

PROMPT: Lottery

Bloganuary writing prompt
What would you do if you won the lottery?

The first thing I would do would be to say, “How did I win the lottery without buying a ticket? That is some fine luck.” Then I would get paranoid that it was like one of those Korben Dallas, “Fifth Element,” set-ups.

While I do admire how Voltaire became a wealthy man exploiting the mathematical ineptitude of his nation’s “lottery authority,” I’m pretty sure the kinks have all been worked out such that the house always wins.

PROMPT: Books

Bloganuary writing prompt
What books do you want to read?

I’d love to read all the good ones, but even with my voracious approach to reading I barely make a dent.

Here’s the top of the list of books I’m excited about right at the moment, by category:

Travel lit related to an impending trip to the Caucasus region: “A Man Was Going Down the Road” by Otar Chiladze; “Ali and Nino” by Kurban Said; “The Burning Tigris” by Peter Balakian; and “Kvachi” by Mikheil Javakhishvili.

Related to a Chinese literature (in translation) kick that I’m on: “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” Luo Guanzhong; “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio” by Pu Songling; “In the Thick Woods a Deer Is Seen at Times” and “A Pair of Swallows Fly” [The latter two are bilingual poetry translations of works from the Tang Dynasty and the Book of Poetry, respectively.]

Books and editions coming out this year: “Judo Unleashed” by Neil Ohlenkamp; a new verse translation of Kamo no Chomei’s “Hojoki” translated by Matthew Stavros; “Nuclear War” by Annie Jacobsen; and a new translation of Natsumi Soseki’s “Kokoro.”

Related to things I’m working on presently: “Thinking, Fast and Slow” Daniel Kahneman; “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell; “Gut Feelings” by Gerd Gigerenzer; and “The Meaning of Travel” by Emily Thomas.

Long overdue: “Metamorphoses” by Ovid; “The Decameron” by Giovanni Boccaccio, and I should probably finish Joyce’s “Ulysses”

Odds and Ends: “Rental Person Who Does Nothing” by Shoji Morimoto; “Is This Anything?” by Jerry Seinfeld; “Sick in the Head” by Judd Apatow.

Are you sorry you asked yet?