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 My primary Writing.com blog. |
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Welcome to my regular Writing.com blog! Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics). Blogocentric (adj). A portmanteau of "blog" and "logocentric" devised by a word nerd with way too much time on his hands. Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, mostly sourced from the following:  "Blog Harbor" "30-Day Blogging Challenge" "Blog City Prompt Forum" "Blogging Circle of Friends Prompt Forum" "Take up Your Cross Blog Forum"      |
| WDC 48-Hour Challenge: Media Prompt | Prompt ▶︎ I can't pretend to be the biggest fan of Weezer. In general, I'd describe my thoughts on their music as generally "meh," with very few songs I truly like, and a whole lot of songs that I'm mostly ambivalent about. Weezer was really popular when I was in high school, but I never really got into them. One of the fun facts that I learned while listening to the song and researching it for this month's Media Prompt is that Weezer has been a band since 1992 and took a brief hiatus from 1997 to 2000 ... but according to Wikipedia, the group was — from 1998 to 2000 during their hiatus, as well as briefly in 2002 and 2022 — also known by the name "Goat Punishment" apparently.  |
Prompt #180: You’re offered the chance to remember everything you've ever forgotten. Do you accept? Absolutely. No deliberation needed.  I've always been fascinated by people who have an eidetic (photographic) memory and can perfectly recall things they've read, experienced, etc. I love learning new things, and it would be incredible to pull up information and details on a subject years later with flawless accuracy. As an avid reader and writer, it would be an invaluable resource to draw from, and if I did have that ability, I imagine I'd spend even more time reading, learning new things, etc. in order to build my skillset and learn about all the various things I'm interested in. The flip side of this coin is that it would also mean being unable to forget "bad" things in your past, but I've never really been of the opinion that forgetting the bad things in life is the way to go. Even the really awful stuff that has happened to me are things that I can look back on and recognize as being influential in who I am today. And since I'm pretty happy with the person I am today, I often look back on the bad times not as things to be ignored, forgotten, repressed, etc., but as things to reflect on and analyze and consider. If I could recall those things with perfect clarity, I don't think that would fundamentally change anything for me, except maybe replacing "rose-colored glasses" memories with more objective, analytical data points... which honestly, I don't think is necessarily a bad thing where memory is concerned. I know some people might see this question as a "devil's bargain" kind of thing, because a perfect memory would also mean perfectly remembering the bad stuff in their past... but honestly, it's a no-brainer for me. Sign me up! Prompt #190: Describe your ideal morning routine in a world without time constraints. In a world without time constraints (or, perhaps more appropriately, without demands on my time), I would ideally start the morning waking up without an alarm — whatever time that might be — and heading to the gym right away. I'd do my usual daily workout (about 20-30 minutes of weight training, followed by 30 minutes of cardio) to get the blood pumping. I'd come home, spend about 30 minutes on mindfulness practices to get into the right head space for the day — journaling, Bible reading, prayer — and then I'd do the usual morning routine (shower, breakfast, etc.) before moving on with whatever I needed to get done that day. My routine currently is doing the exercise component pretty much whenever I can manage to find the time (often at the very end of the day), and I don't spend nearly enough time on mindfulness practices, so if I could design an ideal morning routine, it would be to probably structure those things at the top of the day so I can get them out of the way and enjoy their benefits for the rest of the day. I suppose I could probably accomplish that by simply getting up earlier in the morning even with my current schedule and demands on my time... but I'd probably have to get up at like 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning to make sure I wasn't rushing through anything and my body tends to rebel against regular wake-up times that occur before 6:00 a.m. |
Prompt #152: What’s an opinion you held ten years ago that you’ve completely reversed? Ten years ago, if we were to discuss the merits of capitalism and socioeconomic issues, I probably would have defended the idea of wealthy people being wealthy. If you start a profitable company and then capitalize on stock grants, or sell it for an obscene sum of money or whatever, I would have thought "good on you" and defended your right to be a millionaire, decimillionaire, centimillionaire, billionaire, etc. as the result of capitalizing on your own success. But, especially in the past five or six years where income inequality has become exponentially worse (and the world has seen not just a rise in the number of billionaires, but multiple centibillionaires, and the world's first (brief) trillionaire — and seen most of them use their fortunes primarily for further their own self-enrichment at the expense of others — I'm more and more of the opinion that there should be some limits on the financial resources someone can accumulate with the intention of keeping it for themselves or using it to secure even more wealth. Before the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court, billionaires made up 0.3% of election contributions in 2008. In 2024, it was 19%, with billionaires spending an estimated $3 billion (and the top 100 ultra-wealthiest families accounting for $2.6 billion of that). What did that money go to? And most of those election contributions went toward candidates that already had or were willing to change their policy positions to give these billionaires' companies and their industries favorable treatment in order to create more value and wealth for their owners. Those company valuations often increase and translate into more wealth for top executives because the companies engage in stock buybacks, reducing overhead (often in the form of salaries, which means layoffs). Companies are often chasing stock prices and quarterly earnings reports in pursuit of maximal profits on the shortest possible timeline, rather than making an effort to be a modestly profitable company with long term reserves, and a reputation for taking care of its employees. There's an anonymous quote that says: "Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich." And as the years go on, that quote has become truer and truer. Billionaires are competing with each other to see who can have the biggest and best toys. They're always competing to see whose company can have the highest market cap, who has the most impressive real estate portfolio, which of them can commission the largest or most well-appointed super yacht. Since very few of them seem willing to spend some of their excessive wealth on, you know, actually helping people, that's where I start to think that sayings like "billionaires shouldn't exist" maybe have a point. I think it's realistic to tell someone, "At a certain point, you have enough money. Congratulations, your company is so successful and you've been so great at finding tax loopholes... you've won capitalism." And then, at the same time say, "Now that you're so rich, we have certain expectations about how that fortune will be put to use for the common good. You can keep $999 million for yourself (that's the equivalent of making $27,000 per day, every day, for 100 years... if you can't figure out how to live a good life on that budget, hire a business manager to help you), plus 10% of everything you make beyond that. The other 90% will be applied to government programs and initiatives that help people. As of December 2025, the wealthiest 25 Americans (according to Forbes) were worth a combined $3.239 trillion. If you left them each a billion dollars, do you know how much would be left after you took that $25 billion away? There would still be $3.214 trillion left. And what would that amount of money buy us? It could pay down 10% of the national debt to help start to get our out-of-control deficit trending in the right direction again; or it could cover more than three years of interest payments on that debt, freeing up that money for other programs. $3.2 billion could also fully fund income security and public assistance programs for those in poverty for five years. It could cover veterans benefits for almost a decade. It could fund free public college in the United States for over forty years. And yet we can't afford to do any of those things, because we currently live in a society where all of that money is held by a number of people that would all comfortably fit at the same time inside a single luxury box/suite at a sports arena. Ultimately, I'm not sure "billionaires should not exist" is the specific line that we all need to draw. But I do think a line needs to be drawn where income equality is concerned, where we tell someone that they have enough money, or that their CEO pay being 100x that of the median worker is plenty and they don't need more. If the quote I listed above is true (and I think it is), then we need to do a better job of telling the rich when they should be satisfied and when enough is enough, so that we can start to better care for the poor and do things with that wealth that will accrue to the benefit of our whole species, and not just a handful of individuals among us. |
July 20, 2026: Genesis 3:6 ("And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.") This is when sin entered the world, the reason Christ died; all were guilty. My question: was Eve the only one at fault here? It seems to me she is the one most blamed for sin entering the world. What do you think? I think taking the position that Eve is solely responsible for introducing sin into the world is a classic example of men blaming women for their own poor choices. Those who point to Eve's sole responsibility for the Fall based on Genesis 3:2-3 (The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'") are missing a key piece of text back in Genesis 2:15-17 before Eve had even been created. Back when it was just Adam and God, the Bible says: The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Adam knew that the tree was off-limits before Eve offered him the fruit from it. Does she bear some responsibility for listening to the serpent as it tempted her? Sure. But not all responsibility because Adam also knew what God's plan was for their time in the garden and chose to ignore that plan. It's not like Eve was the only one who knew what the rules were and chose to deceive Adam; her male counterpart knew what was allowed and not allowed and went with it anyway. In this type of situation, claiming that Eve is the one at fault for Adam's independent actions is the same type of messed-up logic that women have been subjected to across the spectrum for years. Two people have consensual sex and conceive a child, and it's somehow the woman's fault for "getting pregnant," even though the man shared equally in the act of conceiving that child and had the option of using protection themselves. Even in cases of sexual assault, abuse, etc., the most depraved rationale by those perpetrators falls into "victim blaming" where the woman is accused of seducing the aggressors who was "helpless" to stop themselves. I can't imagine a world in which God's Word, given to us in the form of scripture, would be intended to be weaponized against an entire gender of God's own creation. Was Eve the only one at fault for the Fall? Only if you believe that men aren't required to or able to be held accountable for their own choices and actions. |
Prompt #179: What movie or television series would you want to live out in real life? There was a show that aired in the late nineties (1995-2000) called Sliders, starring Jerry O'Connell and John Rhys-Davies about a group of kids who have access to a countdown timer that opens wormholes to parallel universes. The premise of the show is that they have to find their way back to their own home universe while experiencing jumping into other ones where the world turned out drastically differently. It's kind of the spiritual successor to Quantum Leap, except they jump to alternate realities rather than different lives in history on the same timeline, and a group of them traveled instead of just a single guy. Those two elements would be an important differentiation to me, because I wouldn't want to travel alone, and the fun of the concept would be to see different iterations of how the world could have turned out. At least, that's what I'd choose on a purely conceptual, premise-driven level. If we're talking about movies or television with fixed worlds/settings to live in, I think Star Trek would be up there, along with any of the resort locations where multiple White Lotus seasons have been filmed. I've also always had a particular affinity for the small town of Stars Hollow featured in Gilmore Girls, which always seemed like such an idyllic, charming place to live. Prompt #183: What’s the most spontaneous decision you’ve ever made? About twenty years ago, my wife and I took a trip to London for the first time. We had traveled internationally only once before — to Madrid, with cousins to visit my cousin-in-law's parents who were missionaries — and we loved the experience so much, we were excited to travel internationally by ourselves. We thought the United Kingdom would be a good place to visit since everyone speaks English there, but were pretty quickly disappointed by our choice of lodging. Without realizing it, we had booked a hotel in a very "Americanized" part of the city, where we'd walk outside and see a Best Buy, a Whole Foods, etc. and it didn't feel like we'd left the United States at all. After a couple of days of taking the Underground to other parts of the city to see the sights, I felt like I wanted to do something spontaneous to really give us some great core memories for the trip, so I booked train tickets and a hotel stay in Paris and surprised my wife with it. We just packed a day bag with toiletries and a single change of clothes and left everything else in London as we took the Eurostar train and found ourselves in Paris a couple hours later. (That was also our first experience with how close all the countries are to each other in Europe; a two-hour trip wouldn't even get us out of our home state of California back where we live!) We spent the night in Paris, ate at some great restaurants, and took a city bus tour where we saw some sights and made a note of all the places we'd want to come back and visit with a proper trip, which we ended up doing the next year. |
Prompt #134: Which fictional villain do you secretly sympathize with, and why? There are three villains that I not-so-secretly sympathize with: Magneto from X-Men. While his methods and his rigidity are not exactly points in his favor, it's hard not to have sympathy for a villain whose goal is honorable (for mutants to be free of oppression from humans and able to co-exist peacefully), and whose lived experience (a victim of the Holocaust and having repeatedly experienced persecution at the hands of humans) has given him valid resaons for not trusting humans and resorting to violence to achieve his ends. Adrian Veidt (a.k.a. Ozymandias) from Watchmen. In a lot of ways, I think the most sympathetic villains are the ones who are smart enough to realize that hard (even monstrous) decisions sometimes have to be made for the greater good. In the Watchmen comic, Ozymandias is a horrendous villain for orchestrating a plot that results in the deaths of millions of people, but then you learn the point of the plot was to unite the world governments against a common (imaginary) enemy to avert nuclear annihilation (and it actually works!) so I have a ton of sympathy for someone who has the foresight to see horrible inevitabilities that other people can't see, and then carries the weight of knowing he can do something to prevent it, but it'll come at a great personal cost. Killmonger from Black Panther. Similar to Magneto, I'm very sympathetic to the fact that Erik Killmonger grew up seeing the worst of racial prejudice and injustice, then realized he had access to technology and resources (Vibranium) that would allow him to even the playing field and let oppressed people all over the world rise up against their oppressors. It's a noble goal hedged in questionable methods and a willingness to let others suffer (and a whole lot of rage), which makes it difficult to fully get behind him, even if his goals are understandable. Prompt #138: What kind of ghost would you be? I think I would be a mischievous ghost. The kind of troublemaker that's always causing weird and unexplained things to happen to people who aren't aware that I'm there. As a current non-ghost, I like to be mischievous and silly, so I can't imagine why I would change that just because I suddenly become incorporeal. I also think it would be fun to be a ghost that frequents a specific place, although even if I did have an entire abandoned manor house, or castle, or Hogwarts house to myself, I can't imagine that I would want to spend an eternity being tethered to the same geographic location. Maybe I could be the kind of ghost that follows people (and their descendants) around so I could go on vacation with people, or to new places whenever they moved, etc. Every time I got tired of a place, I could just make it seem extra haunted so the people I'm attached to try someplace new for a change!  |
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Methodology ▶︎ Movies  Bohemian Rhapsody David Disclosure Day Flow Masters of the Universe Matilda Supergirl Swapped Toy Story 5 TunerMost of the movies I watched this month ended up being new (except Matilda, which for some reason I hadn't seen until now). Supergirl and the new Masters of the Universe were the two I saw in theaters that I thought were just okay. I much preferred Tuner and Disclosure Day and Toy Story 5, which were much better. Of all the theatrical movies I saw this month, I'd probably have to go with Tuner as my favorite; it's about a piano tuner who has the auditory and tactile ability to open a combination safe by touch and who gets recruited by criminals to help them out. For an independent crime drama, it was really good. Swapped and David were two animated movies we watched with the kids. The former was a Skydance Animation feature that debuted on Netflix and it matched their previous efforts (Luck and Spellbound) where the worldbuilding was good and the animation was impressive, but the story itself was a little simple and just okay. David was the animated story of King David from the Bible, and it was just okay. My two favorite movies from the month were Bohemian Rhapsody (the Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic) and Flow, which was a remarkable animated feature film that featured no dialogue and followed a group of animals trying to survive a flood. Both of them were captivating. Bohemian Rhapsody was a great reminder of just how popular and impactful Queen was on the world of rock music, and Flow was a truly original film that was riveting to watch. TOP PICK: Flow (Available on HBO Max) Television A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (DNF) Dungeon Masters (Season 1) I Will Find You Maul: Shadow Lord Nemesis (DNF)A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and Nemesis were both shows that I tried out and gave a couple of episodes' time to see if they caught my interest, and they just didn't. The former was really slow and the latter was really melodramatic. I can't say that I see myself returning to either one anytime soon. I Will Find You was another crime drama from Harlen Coben and Netflix. Like most of his book-to-Netflix-show adaptions, it was ridiculously well cast and compelling enough, especially toward the end. If you like crime dramas where one of the characters has a hidden secret in their past that comes back to haunt them in the present, you could definitely do worse than this one. My two favorites this month were Dungeon Masters (a new live-play TTRPG show) and Maul: Shadow Lord, the newest offering from Lucasfilm and focusing on the years after Darth Maul became the head of a crime syndicate and then lost everything. I enjoyed the new entry in the Star Wars canon (Maul is one of my favorite villains), and I thought the Dungeon Masters show was a little lacking in terms of substance (the players and the storyline were clearly designed to promote recently released products from Wizards of the Coast), but otherwise was a great intro to the game, especially the on screen graphics and information they would show during the game to help people understand the effects of rules, spells, etc. was really great. TOP PICK: Maul: Shadow Lord (available on Disney+) |
Prompt #50: What type of story (specific narrative, not just a general genre) do you never get tired of reading or hearing about? The two types of stories I never get tired of are crime stories either featuring heists or long con. There's just something about watching a plan come together and be executed, often in the face of unexpected complications. No matter how many movies I've watched and books I've read with the same basic plots (i.e., the criminals are introduced, explain their plan, encounter a complication, then still have to find a way to pull it off), I'm always a sucker for the next book or movie that has basically the same plot template. A couple months back, I had the opportunity to watch The Sting at a movie theater, which was a real treat because that's an absolute classic of the long con genre. I also have a soft spot for the Michael Caine and Steve Martin two-hander, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. There are a bunch of other modern classics like Confidence, Matchstick Men, Focus, Shade, and particularly The Usual Suspects as well, which is a personal favorite. For heist movies, I love the Ocean's Eleven remake (the originals, not the sequels) with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, as well as Inside Man, The Score, Heist, and Ronin, along with some modern guilty pleasures like Swordfish. Prompt #106: What's a superstition you actually follow, even if you don't believe in it? I used to have an all-black cat, so that's definitely not one of the superstitions that I followed! In general, though, I tend to follow the advice of not walking under a ladder (more for general safety reasons than because I think it's bad luck), and knocking on wood as a way of averting bad luck. I'm not even sure why the "knock on wood" idea ever took hold, but I'll often say it when I don't want to jinx myself by pointing out that something hasn't happened yet. I've found four-leaf clovers before, but I don't recall any particularly good luck I received as a result of finding it. I also used to pay particular attention to the time 11:11, although I don't think I ever associated that with good luck. Like walking under ladders, I think it's just good safety practice not to break mirrors if you can avoid it. I don't think I've ever found superstitions particularly compelling. Chain letters, lucky symbols, etc. have never been things that I've been particularly focused on... although I did go through a phase when I was younger where "step on a crack, break your mother's back" was a thing I figured better safe than sorry about and I spent almost a year stutter-stepping to avoid stepping on a crack and arriving home to find my mom had a back injury. Overall, I can't say that superstitions take up too much space in my head, but I've definitely developed certain habits and practices based on stuff that can probably be traced back to superstitions at some point. |
Prompt #98: Do you exercise regularly (i.e., at least a couple times a week)? If so, what's your typical exercise routine? I do exercise regularly (as of about two months ago). In an effort to finally lose some weight and get healthier, I'm currently exercising five days a week. Each day starts with 30 minutes of cardio and then a weight program four days a week (with extra cardio on my off-weight day). I was previously using weight machines, but just switched to free weights on the advice of a friend of mine who takes his personal training pretty seriously. My current workout plan is as follows: Monday Incline Treadmill (moderate 3pm walk at a high 12% incline) — 30 minutes Plank — 30 seconds Reverse Plank — 30 seconds ISO Dumbbell Bench Press — 4x10 ISO Dumbbell Military Press — 3x10 ISO Chest-Supported Row — 4x10 Leaning Lateral Raise — 3x10 ISO Overhead Triceps Extension — 3x10 Tuesday Incline Treadmill (moderate 3pm walk at a high 12% incline) — 30 minutes Plank — 30 seconds Reverse Plank — 30 seconds ISO Narrow Bulgarian — 3x10 ISO B Stance Romanian Dead Lift — 3x10 Heel Elevated Goblet Squat — 3x10 Single-Leg Calf Raise — 3x10 Dead Bug — 3x10 Wednesday Incline Treadmill (moderate 3pm walk at a high 12% incline) — 30 minutes Additional Cardio (elliptical, swimming, etc.) — 30 minutes Thursday Incline Treadmill (moderate 3pm walk at a high 12% incline) — 30 minutes Plank — 30 seconds Reverse Plank — 30 seconds Low Incline Dumbbell Press — 4x10 Single Arm Row — 4x10 Lateral Raise — 3x10 ISO Dumbbell Pronated Skullcrusher — 3x10 Prone Weighted Angels — 3x10 Friday Incline Treadmill (moderate 3pm walk at a high 12% incline) — 30 minutes Plank — 30 seconds Reverse Plank — 30 seconds Wide Bulgarian — 4x10 Single Leg Hip Thrust — 3x10 Single Leg Calf Raise — 3x10 Sliding Hamstring Curls — 3x10 Reverse Crunch — 3x10 I'm definitely sore after my first full week with this new routine, so hopefully after another week or two, it'll start to become more of a routine. When I was using the weight machines I was sore for about a week, so I'm hoping it'll be a similar adjustment to the free weights. Prompt #100: How many siblings do you have (if any)? Given the choice, would you prefer to be an only child, or have several siblings? I have one sibling, a younger brother who still lives in the same suburban area outside Sacramento where I grew up. When I was growing up, I definitely appreciated having someone close to the same age to play with, but I never really wanted more than one. I was good with it just being me and my brother and our parents. I had friends with big families with lots of siblings and it always seemed like a pretty chaotic upbringing to have a bunch of kids running around. And now that I'm a parent, I definitely have similar thoughts; I can barely keep track of our two kids and all their activities and interests! There is a part of me, though, that wishes I had more siblings as an adult. Now that we're all grown and have our own lives, it'd be kind of nice to have a larger "extended family" to visit, get together with, celebrate holidays with, etc. It'd be fun to have siblings living in different parts of the country (or world!) and have the opportunity to visit them and see what kinds of lives they live. But aside from silly, romantic notions like that, I'm quite happy with the one sibling I have. I'm not sure I'd have wanted the attention of being an only child, and I'm not sure I'd want to get lost in the shuffle of multiple siblings. |
| WDC 48-Hour Challenge: Media Prompt | Prompt ▶︎ This is a fitting song to be listening to right now, because my family is just now getting into the swing of summer. We took off right after school and spent the better part of a week in Sacramento visiting family, then the kids came right back home and started a week's worth of camps. This week they've had no camps, so they're discovering what it means to "entertain themselves" during the day. SPOILER ALERT: It's not going well. We ended up deciding not to take a vacation anywhere this summer (it was starting to feel like we were trying to shoe-horn it in between camps and other things and the idea of taking a trip was starting to lose its luster), and are going to focus on a trip during the Fall instead. My wife and I have always wanted to visit New England when the leaves are changing, so we might plan for that and do a drive from New York to Boston or something like that. In the meantime, summer is going to hopefully involve a lot of time swimming at the pool, and playing with the kids. I'm hoping my new workout routine will start to get a little easier and I'll start seeing results by the end of the summer, and there's a good chance my weekly game night will finish its current D&D campaign before school's back in session as well. Lots of good things to look forward to over the coming couple of months! |
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