Month: October 2018

NoJoMo Prompts

November is tomorrow.  I’m sampling some prompts this year from a Teachers’ site. https://www.dailyteachingtools.com/journal-writing-prompts.html
  1. Intro and what I’m doing.  This marks the ninth straight year.
  2. Are you listed as an organ or bone marrow donor? Why or why not?
  3. Free-write
  4. Write a bit about your drivers’ licence. How old were you, where did you get it? What kind of car did you drive?
  5. What are some qualities of bad bosses? What would you not do if you were supervising others? (No, I won’t aks for you to make your worst bosses, but you can write about why they sucked.)
  6. Election Day.
  7. What is the most expensive thing you have ever bought for yourself?
  8. Is there an outfit, a meal, a drink, a style, a whatever, that you feel is the quintessential “you?”
  9. Write about someone who is no longer a part of your life. Could be a love, a friend, a relative. Why aren’t they a part of your life anymore?
  10. What would you do if you could travel into the past?
  11. Veterans’ Day.
  12. What has been the biggest disappointment in your life that turned out to be a blessing in disguise?
  13. What is your favorite kind of weather?  Why?
  14. Compile a list of words that describe you as a child.  Compile a second list that describes you as you are now.  How are these lists the same?  How are they different
  15. Halftime.
  16. What was the last thing on your mind as you fell asleep last night?
  17. Tell about what triggers anger in you or someone else.
  18. What is on your bucket list? (A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die)
  19. What would you do if someone just gave you $1 million?
  20. Recap of your year month-by-month.
  21. Write a bit about what you do in a “normal” day.  What do you do?  Where are you?  Are you satisfied with your current situation?
  22. Thanksgiving
  23. Do you think steps should be taken by government (local, state or federal) to help curb the obesity epidemic currently happening in the United States? If so, what steps should the government take? If not, how do you feel the problem of obesity can be addressed?
  24. Small Business Saturday. Write about small businesses you frequent.
  25. Football.
  26. Thanksgiving leftovers — what do you have, and what are you doing with them?
  27. What places hold particular allure for you; where might you like to live?
  28. Free-write
  29. What are your holiday plans for Christmas?
  30. Wrap-Up.

Withdraw

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve really made an effort to really withdraw from social media.  There are many reasons for this.

  1.  Google and Facebook.  I was utterly disgusted listening to the Senate testimony a few weeks ago.  The company who used to have the principle of “don’t be evil,” is now okay doing things with repressive governments.  I also noticed that GMail, and Facebook were suggesting friends I’d never even considered connecting with apart from private emails on 757.org.  So, the bits of doubt were planted early.  The testimony, the actions of perhaps less-than-honest mining, and politicans who purportedly represent me, I decided to really curtail things.  Well, that combined with;
  2. Politics.  I am at odds with the strains of jubilation from people who view me as a heretic, as well as the even older people who trot out other stupid stuff.  I don’t care.  Really.  Everybody thinks I’m evil because… Again, I don’t care.  I am who I am.  I explore ideas that are contrary to my conclusions.  But I shouldn’t be able to do that.  That I might access things not approved by the commissars is a problem.  I’m free to leave. Well, for now.  The strike-through is intentional;  I can leave, and there’s nothing that can stop me.  This is a problem for both businesses and governments.  Sorry.  The Internet, and the math that underlies it, are things that business and government can’t surpress without resorting to the ultimate weapon of government — force.  Fine.  Whatever. 
  3. When I chose to withdraw from FB, I jettisoned also G+, and LinkedIn.  G+, of course, had a similar data breech to FB.  I was tempted to say, “purportedly it’s shut down,” but i looked around, and it’s still up.  For now. I’ve complained about LinkedIn before, but it seems to be nothing but recruiters these days.  (Aside:  the legion of corporate recruiters is likely attributable to the major increase of folks graduating with Arts degrees.  Spell too well to work as a Barista?  Don’t worry.  You can work in tech staffing!!1!)
  4. Google’s decision to push all traffic in Chrome to SSL is a really bad idea.  Hey, it’s sekur, so nobody can look at it.  Except, of course, the totes didn’t use to be evil company, and the NSA.  You’ve also killed off all the sorts of things developed to make Intertubing faster since the web came into being.  I really don’t care that my people can see what banner ads I’m seeing, and those might be cached somewhere else.

I’m preparing to write again in November.  The summer writing went well this year, but I didn’t feel the need to do it.  There’s periods at work when I’m very busy these days, and don’t have the urge to write to kill time.  But I do miss writing.  As the year ends, I might have more to say.ca