Tag: dailyprompt

Daily writing prompt

What’s your favorite cartoon?

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Wile Coyote. That poor skinny coyote that never seemed to catch a break. Every dastardly plan he has for the Road Runner ends in complete disaster. Just to hear that “beep beep” as the Road Runner rushes away at high speed – fooled again looney Coyote.

I was going to say Wacky Races. Again, a 1960s childhood staple. That’s dated. Slightly over egged with stereotypes and lame jokes.

Wile Coyote and the Road Runner is still eminently watchable. Again, and again. Short, simple and sweet. Where would we be without the Acme Corporation? The Coyote’s favoured universal producer of useless mail-order goods. Beep beep.

POST: We do live an interconnected world. After I wrote the words above guess what turned up on my social media? Yes, the two cartoon characters in their never-ending pursuit of each other.

Daily writing prompt

What could you do less of?

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Going down the rabbit hole. Having so much information on-hand the temptation is to chase every rabbit. That is any tantalising rabbits that might provide the answers to quiz show questions of the future.

Take for example this windy wet morning. A thread from a WhatsApp group raised a question about water supply pumping stations. Why don’t they have back-ups, or do they have back-ups, and they take time to get going? This was in response to the impact of Storm Darragh and water supply problems in parts of West Berkshire.

A wise me would have thought – that’s interesting but I’ve got several tasks to do. What’s more my tap water is fine. Flowing freely. Cool and fresh.

An unwise me, as it happens, instantly started searching to see what information there was out there on water pumping stations and how they work or don’t, as the case maybe.

There’s the dangerous rabbit hole. Once you fall into it an hour can clock by easily. Time runs differently in rabbit holes. The warning is there for all to read in that popular reference book: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Daily writing prompt

Do you ever see wild animals?

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They are wild all right. Not terribly interesting though. That’s unless geese are you favourite wild bird. I counted 25 Canadian Geese in the field next door this morning. They seem to come and go in groups at different times of the day. In part nibbling at the grass and part undergoing their social rituals. Waddling around looking like they own the place.

What’s far more interesting is the swooping and diving of the Red Kites[1]. They are impossible to confuse with other hawks. A forked tail is a dead giveaway. Also, they make a distinctive sound. The Kites are graceful flyers. Their highly tuned aerodynamics allows them to circle whatever the wind. They dive towards their pray, which maybe no more than a worm, pulling-up with the utmost precision. Agile and elegant but ready to fight off other hawks in a moment.

As for four-legged wild animals, I’ve watched the smallest of Roe Deer[2] dodge across the field hoping not to be seen. They can easily hide in clumps of grass and on the riverbank. As yet, although my neighbours tell me it happens, they haven’t visited my garden.

It’s a good job I’m not mad enough to want to keep chickens. I know for sure that there’s a fox that roams the lawn at night. Next-door have a black cat but I don’t suppose the two ever come into contact. The late-night noises of foxes must be heard to be believed.

[1] https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/red-kite

[2] https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/mammals/roe-deer

Daily writing prompt

What is one thing you would change about yourself?

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I’m not going to do a deep dive on this question. Instead, I’ll be remarkably superficial. It’s part of my family tree. Generally, Vincent’s, or at least my variety of that linage, are not tall people.

Believe me there are advantages in being short. For a start, I can fit happily into most aircraft seats while watching others wriggle uncomfortably. When a photographer says, tall people at the back, short people at the front, I’m always in the frame. Squeezing into awkward spaces can be useful now and then.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be a couple of inches taller? I think so. I don’t want to be a lanky six-footer who crashes against any low roof beam. No ambition to play basketball. Or to pick apples without a step ladder. An inch or two would be handy. Size does help when standing at a lectern trying to look authoritative. In a line-up of colleagues or business acquaintance hight often seems magnified.

Put aside everything I’ve said. Because whatever the numerical facts, I am me. No way would I ever think of buying those shoes that elevate. Never would I let myself be intimated by the hight of others (mostly). And I’m no Napoleon.

And by the way Randy Newman[1] was being ironic and sending up prejudice.

[1] https://youtu.be/8bfyS-S-IJs

Daily writing prompt

Are you more of a night or morning person?

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Travel with the light. Be awake when the light shines bright. My clock does vary from summer to winter. As the seasons shift so the moment of morning changes. That comes with being up at our comfortable northern latitude.

My megapixels eyesight picks up any hint of the rising Sun. Every day, I like to celebrate Ra’s[1] daily journey across the sky. Light and life are one and the same. The Sun provides life and heat as it banishes the dark of night. We are solar powered.

How could I be anything other than a morning person? Almost medieval, the night is a place of hostile forces and mysterious unknowns. I like to see with full resolution the colours of the universe and all its glory.

Moods swing. To me, most emotional harmony is to be found in sunlight. Even on a dull wet cloudy day when morning creeps slowly into consciousness. That’s still better than watching the Moon’s sombre glow or a distant star set against the emptiness of space.

[1] Of Egyptian mythology fame

Daily writing prompt

What technology would you be better off without, why?

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Not such an easy question to answer. Most technologies are a two-edged sword. That is that they have both benefits and costs. Advantages and disadvantages. Good uses and bad uses.

And technology itself is usually agnostic. It’s more about how we use it rather than what it is. It’s the application of technology that is of greatest concern. That puts the question back on us. Add to that the fact that technology is not only the new stuff. Achimenes Screw[1] is technology. Archimedes was one hell of a classical technologist. Equally, I could call him a scientist or engineer. Innovator or problem solver.

Let’s put global considerations aside. The question is a personal one. My assumption being that the question is about the rapid removal of a named technology from my life. One of the three wishes I might ask of a friendly genie.

So, I’m going for the Microwave cooker. Reason being that it makes it easy to eat too much chilled highly processed food. The trend is towards more and more convenience[2]. Time poor becomes health poor. Maybe that’s a big reason why “big” is becoming a problem.

[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lift-water-with-an-archimedes-screw/

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-data-reveals-the-nations-changing-tastes

Daily writing prompt

If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?

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Easy. Lot’s more time for social media. No! I joke. I’ve worked hard to resist accumulating hour after hour of screen time. But that addiction will carry a lot of people through an endless night.

Sleep is a luxury. It’s a wonderful restorative time. I’m glad we don’t hibernate like a bear. That would be too much life spent out of touch with the spinning globe. It would be sad if a meteor hit the Earth while I was slumbering. Although, what world I know?

If our bodies were equipped to live without sleep, we’d be machines. Even machines need down time for maintenance. Best resist doing anything productive with that extra time. Maintenance of the mind and body will always be needed. So, better spend that extra time in an activity that keeps the whole person together and sane.

By the way, when I wrote: sleep is a luxury. I was channelling John Cooper Clarke[1]. His line was that not getting sleep is a quick preview of death.

[1] https://johncooperclarke.com/

Daily writing prompt

Beach or mountains? Which do you prefer? Why?

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Even if I wanted to answer “mountains”, I couldn’t. You see my early years were spent paddling on the Dorset coast. Not that I’ve got anything against breathtaking mountain walks.

I did all the classic summer things a boy might do in the 1960s. Ride donkeys and build sandcastle on Weymouth beach. Tried stop the tide coming in. That never worked. Ice cream and newspaper wrapped fish and chips. Picked-up seaweed and shells in Swanage.

Idyllic. Not always. Dad driving around forever trying to find a parking space in Bournemouth. Stuck in sweltering hot traffic jams around Corfe Castle[1]. Sunburn.

For me, favourite of all was Studland Bay[2]. Wide open spaces and rolling sand dunes. Those were summer moments that flashed by but last forever in the deep corners of my mind.

[1] https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/dorset/corfe-castle

[2] https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/dorset/studland-bay

Daily writing prompt

What’s your favorite month of the year? Why?

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Beware the Ides of March. What nonsense. March is the start of the New Year. Spring has sprung. Meteorological spring starts on 1st March[1].

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris. I wonders where the birdies is.

They say the birds is on the wing. Ain’t that absurd?

I always thought the wing was on the bird.

That little ditty always reminds me of my father-in-law. Spring has got to be the best time of the year. March is its herald. In ancient Rome the traditional New Year celebrations kicked-off in March. That is until Julius Caesar changed the calendar[2]. Look what happened to him.

Above and beyond all this history, my birthday is in March. So, what better month to celebrate.

[1] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/seasons/spring/when-does-spring-start

[2] https://www.britannica.com/science/Julian-calendar