Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive?
I really wouldn’t know. Living on my own. I’m pretty much busy every day of the week.
I have my 8 to 5 job technical writing by day. I’m also constantly cleaning and picking up my apartment so it’s spotless.
I cook and prepare my meals and clean up as I cook.
And I’m constantly blogging and reading and reflecting on other people’s blogs so I don’t really stop much except for the occasional vacation and even then I think I’m still writing/blogging.
When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?
I don’t want to be in any way be egocentric, but I think of myself as a success. I’m not saying we need to be stuck up, but we should toot our own horns to be proud of what we do and where we are. As well as, what its taken to get here. As I am in my case.
Rebooted my life, my career, my love life, my mental state of mind all at the same time. In addition, I changed my living situation and location as well.
I started a blog just a little over seven months ago and it seems to be doing pretty well, my job is going well too, and I get to work from home. I live in a nice apartment and a nice part of town with pretty much every amenity you could want an apartment.
I feel very proud of myself and I look forward to the new adventures that await me as I continue on this exciting journey, it’s not the material things.
It’s just being a control of my life and making decisions and seeing them through. I think that is what success truly is.
Remember, no matter how hard it gets no matter how weird it seems just keep going…
I was inspired (not in a good way to write a tanka series on the lack of community and neighbors our society seems dominated by these days. Yesterday is a perfect example of selfish people and their cluelessness.
At the grocery store this woman essentially raced me to the register so she could go first with her grocery cart nearly full, and me with my eight items. She didn’t even look at me or conceive at offering me to go first with my few items. Something I often do for others when I have a lot of groceries.
Then on my way home I decided to grab a hamburger to go. Just before the driveway, a man two lanes over makes a left turn (rather than lane change) in front of me 500 feet before the light forcing me to brake. I miss the driveway and had to make two lefts at two lights to go where I needed to. I even recall him motioning with his hand as if to swat me out of his way like I was a common housefly.
The coup de gras were my very unneighborlyneighbors that live in the apartment above me. The same ones who: blast their subwoofer’s at all hours with either bass forward music or explosions from movies, enjoy the occasional 2:00 am argument they have, stomp about as if to step as hard and loud as possible, make noise sliding chairs dropping objects (with huge thuds), and are often hammering nails into the wall it seems. For an encore, until at least 1:30 am last night, a drunken stoned chorus of girls singing at the top of their lungs, and dancing and clamoring about. I did what I could to cover it up, closing my window, cranking up my fan, and my television.
There’s so many things. I’ve tried that I’ve never done before recently, a good friend go once a month to do one of those painting deals where an artist has a painting and here she teaches you how to paint it and you do it step-by-step. I’m not an illustrator or an artist by any means and painting is not my forte so it’s way out of my comfort zone, but it’s been very very liberating. Trying new things like that.
New poetry forms, I have tried about 20 new poetry formats and I intend on trying all 168 that I can see eventually. It’s stimulating and terrifying at the same time.
We all need to venture out of our comfort zones to be better people and grow and I’ve done so much of that in these last few years and I’m gonna continue doing that the rest of my life. I’ll start coming up with a list and start knocking those out!!! I suggest you all do the same if you can!
There are a few principles that I live by. Being an empath I always try to put myself in other people shoes since I can kinda sense and even feel where they’re coming from better than they realize.
Also, I believe in the golden rule, do onto others as you’d want them to do on you. And also even if they don’t, I try to turn the other cheek and be the bigger person which isn’t always easy.
I’m trying to learn how to not react and put space between me and my emotions. It’s a big challenge and it’s gonna take time. I’m still working on it. As people say things and do things that hurt us we tend to want to react which is a knee-jerk deal. I’d rather take pause and realize where things are coming from and not taking things so hard.
Another big one for me is that it starts and ends with us. We make bad choices and we pay for them. Those are our fault so we’re not victims take control of what’s happened in our lives and realize where things came from and find peace ultimately grace in the lessons. Don’t get me wrong. Those have done wrong to us their responsibility for their actions, but we also bare responsibility for allowing them to do it and putting them in a physician to do it.
When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?
Before I share my answers to this daily question, I want to put a qualifier out there. I’m not casting any aspersions or negativity on Millennials or Generation Z people out there. This is just from my experience and it’s a very very humble opinion not fact, and not any kind of judgment. That being said let’s get started.
I feel like I’ve always been an adult. I know it’s a sad thing to say but things we grow up and go through in our lives can make us into adults very young.
I was incessantly picked on as a young man, and that made me learn to grow independent and have to deal with things on my own.
Dealing with death for the first time at age 6 (my paternal grandfather), and many others before I even hit young adulthood, also aged me considerably.
Having some relatives that were alcoholics or addicted to drugs, also forced me to grow up very young. 
Finally, being an empath, and realizing I was one now in retrospect at age 6 after my paternal grandfather, passed away. I was picking up on emotions around me by adults and not understanding what they were, also forced me to grow up very young.
I feel like this being a member of Generation X pretty much destined us all to becoming adults, young. That’s why I find it so shocking that a few Millennials and definitely many Generation Z’s I’ve encountered in my life, can’t seem to adult even when they’re over the age of 18 or 20.
If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?
This is again a hypothetical that’s really difficult because you kinda need to think about what you do for yourself and those nearest you before you take care of those furthest from you if you had a large excess of money like $1 million.
I would definitely help many if I did have access monies though and in that vein, I will share a fun little song by a band. I’ve liked for a long time and it always makes me laugh when I hear it.
As always, thank you for reading, seeing and listening…
What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail.
There’s no such thing as a guarantee to not fail. But nonetheless, I’ll try writing anyway as well as blogging. I’m a musician and will definitely be playing music again soon.
Whether I succeeded or fail, it doesn’t matter as long as I’m doing what I love and it makes me happy and fulfills my life.
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?
The hardest personal goal I’ve ever set is to love myself. It’s also my greatest accomplishment in my life. Because with self love, I can do anything and become the absolute best version of myself.
A lot of my life people around me treating me like I was less than great in the I assumed that I was for a long time.
I had to get out of my head and I had to realize that what they think doesn’t matter it’s only what I think that matters about myself.
It took a lot of self-love and strength to leave my last ex-wife. It was hard and scary. A lot of change a lot of venturing out of my comfort zone, but it was worth it. That’s where growth is that’s where the answer is lie are outside of our comfort zones. If we want to be better, we must challenge ourselves.
Just remember everything starts and ends with us. That’s become one of my credos. We make bad choices and we pay for them. And that’s how we learn. If you love yourself, you will not tolerate less than great treatment by those around you.
I’ve heard the expression that if you don’t love yourself then nobody will love you. I’m living proof that that’s true. I picked (in the past) people that didn’t care about me (unconsciously) since I didn’t care about myself. once I figured out that cycle, I broke it forever.
To drive the point home, with some music, my favorite track off of Hatful Of Hollow by The Smiths:
I’ll have to break them down by categories. I’m not gonna go into a great deal in detail at this point in the interest of saving you all some time and having to read all my junk (lol).
MUSIC:
The Beatles are my favorite band. always have been always will be.
ART:
Pablo Picasso is my favorite artist. Ever since I studied with him in art history and learned how to view his paintings and art I love his work.
AUTHOR:
Stephen King is my favorite author. been reading his book since I was 11 years old and I love them.
POET:
It’s a three-way tie for favorite poet, being Robert Frost, Shel Silverstein, and Walt Whitman. These three are giants in the poetry world for me.
ACTOR:
It’ll probably have to be a tie between Tom Hanks, and Robert De Niro.
ACTRESS:
It’ll be a tie between Julianne Moore and Rachel McAdams.
There are probably other artistic categories, but I’m going to keep things simple tonight.
I’m reforming this question to what are my favorite hobbies or past times because there are quite a lot of them.
I’m self taught on piano, so I can somehow read the music and I play by ear and do my own arranging. That’s a lot of fun.
I write a lot, I write poetry, short stories, essays quotes, music analysis, and share them in my blog.
I love to play the drums and eventually I will have a digital set in my apartment, but I have to save up right now.
I love, listening to lots and lots of music and have it playing all the time.
I go once a month with a good friend to do those painting events where there’s a person they’re showing everybody how to do the same painting. It’s way out of my comfort zone, but it’s very good for me to become more balanced creatively.
I also love live music and concerts. I haven’t been to one in a year plus but I intend to get back out there. 
When I’m in a little bit better shape I love playing tennis, walking, hiking, and working out.
I love swimming and going to the beach body boarding.
I love to read and have read many many books.
I love to stream all kinds of great entertainment all the time.
And of course I love video games. I guess I’ll always be a big kid inside.
What would you do if you lost all your possessions?
This has happened to me many times. I go on. I move forward. I start over.
I’ve been through two divorces, lost two of my storage units, and I’ve had to start my life a new three times now.
I find that we got a lot in ourselves and our friends and possessions just way down. John Lennon had it right “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man”
Possessions are just things they come they go. It’s people that stay and that are important, friends, family, colleagues, mentors.
I’d honestly, have to say pretty much since consciousness.
Being an empath and a male is very difficult and challenging. You’re different than most men in the world and you feel it and you’re different than most people in general.
You feel what they feel and they get freaked out by it and they push you away. What’s worse is at the time there was no term for what this was and I just thought I was going nuts.
I’ve always wanted to fit in and be like everybody else, but I realized that it will never happen. So instead, I’ll happily be myself and those that want to be in my orbit will be nearby and the rest can be by the wayside.
I’m happy being me even if I am weird, different, odd, eccentric, gauche, etc. It’s taking me 52+ years to get to this point and I am not ever going backwards.
Ergo, being/feeling out of place is OK because some of us I’ve always been there. As always, thank you for reading…
Your life without a computer: what does it look like?
I was born in 1972, so I spent most of my life without technology, other than video games (Intellivision, Atari, ColecoVision, Apple IIe, and arcade games like Pac-Man), and some very, very low level computers at the time.
When I wrote poetry and prose, I wrote it on a spiral bound notebook. I’ve unfortunately lost those notebooks when I lost one of my two storage units years ago. I used the VCR and VHS tapes analog video and was happy to do so.
What limited technology we were forced to use our imagination imagination, and we went outside a lot. You’d find children playing outside a lot rather than on their phones are playing in their homes.
These days there are even grown adults that would rather play a virtual world game, than live in the real world. I find that to be very sad very sad indeed.
That being said my career of 28+ years has been all computer and technology related, including now. I work from home as a technical writer and obviously blog as well so it’s like two jobs. Without this technology, I guess I just could be a writer, a teacher, and a musician.
Very important to say, I do not regret starting up my life without technology and learning how to responsibly utilize it rather than let it take over my life like the younger generations do these days. I think they can do without it for a while too, and start using their heads again thinking for themselves for a change.
Social media and status has taken over so much of what people think are important and it really isn’t. It’s all just trivial BS.
Just my humble opinion, and as always, thank you for reading…
What details of your life could you pay more attention to?
It’d be very easy to go into all kinds of different things we need to pay attention to: our physical health, our mental health, gratitude, goals, maintenance, every day important things, and so many others.
But when you’re an over-thinker like I am, you really need to pay less attention to yourself and more to the beauty of the world around you.
Our society these days seems very self oriented and very narcissistic. You see it on the road, you see it in stores, you see it in the lines. People are very self oriented and selfish right now (in general).
I think we could do for a little less of that. Just a different perspective from me. As always, thank you for reading. 😊
In what ways does hard work make you feel fulfilled?
Seems like a blatantly obvious question. How about, it depends?
Obviously, getting something accomplished is always satisfying, working hard, and getting nothing accomplished is not satisfying.
So if you get something accomplished, completed, etc., it can be very fulfilling. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time or beating your head against the wall.
Just my humble opinion, as I have experienced complete fulfillment from hard work as well as zero fulfillment.
Feelings are just like colors on a painter’s pallet. Each quite vivid and unique.
What a value most about myself is a very very double edge sword. My empathy is what I value the most about myself. It is also what I have despise the most about myself too. Many or most people throughout my life, haven’t understood what this is or how it works. Something I make it up, or other others think I’m a drama queen which I’m not. However, I really get a good read on people, and that comes in very handy and lots of situations like meetings and work and other things. Also, it helps me with my friends. I know when to say and what to say at most times because I can read them. Not 100% sometimes I make mistakes we’re all human, but my empathy does help a lot.
Any of my friends and ex spouses, etc. have never understood how this works. Some were afraid, and others thought I was just full of BS.
The hard part is most of my life going back to my young young years. I’ve had this, and there was no definition or explanation for what it was or what it meant.
Until more recently, when the terms empath or sensitive person became part of the current lexicon of our language.
It also I realize it has helped me with my writing, creating much more vivid imagery in it, as well as with my musicianship. I always seem to know the right time to come in how loud how much just by feel. I can read the music fine and I can read very well, but I can also play by feel something I couldn’t do without my empathy.
I also have love for everyone, this is often abused and taken advantage of, but all impacts really care about everybody. I think in some ways we are healers as well as storytellers and even life coaches from our mistakes.
The hard part of being an empath as you know when people are lying to you were about 100% accuracy. And I’ve seen some of the closest people to me in my life lie to my face over and over and knowing they were lying. Also, people hate you. You can feel their hate and it’s the worst.
I feel we do help a lot of people they just don’t realize it, but that’s OK. As long as we know. As challenging as it is to have this gift, I have found that it has actually assisted me and almost every aspect of my life, and I’d be blind without it. 
List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.
Blogger (I’m doing that here and now).
A writer (I’ve always been one).
A musician (I was a musician from age 8, to age 24, I still know how to play percussion pretty well, can play piano by ear, and can hear in thirds and harmonize vocally).
What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?
I’m proud of all of my family heritage and am glad I am here to talk about it.
My paternal heritage is Italian so I am half Italian and I do love Italian cooking, the art, history.
My maternal heritage is a little different. I am a quarter Armenian and a quarter Lithuanian.
I am very proud of my Armenian heritage and glad that I am talking to you now. As my great grandparents were both murdered in the 1917 genocide in Turkey. I hold no hatred towards those that killed them. If anything, I have learned the art of love and tolerance of all races and creed and beliefs. Provided they don’t hurt anybody. I’ve been that way ever since childhood. I feel that when atrocities happen we all must learn to tolerate other people and their beliefs.
Massive wars and death have resulted from intolerance. Hatred bigotry all those terrible things. That’s a lesson that I have learned from what happened to my family and my inherited trauma from what happened.
Someday the world will learn and understand that hatred is stupid. That we all bleed the same red all have the same organs and are all part of the human race.
I humbly apologize to all my readers, but I will be abstaining from the question today. This feels like a marketing/data mining ploy in my humble opinion.
As always, thank you for reading hopefully we’ll get a better question of the day tomorrow.
I could write more, a lot more, but then I’d never do anything else. I could work out more but then I’d be sore all the time. I couldn’t get on a more strict diet, but those are hard to maintain and I end up breaking them.
The Law of Diminishing Returns proves (in theory and graphically) that too much of anything is never good. I do understand that this is applied to the principle of production and management, but you could easily apply it to almost anything.
Be it something extreme, or something even moderate. Too much of anything is never a good thing.
Life is a balance with: balance in your work, balance in your play, balance in your love life, balance in your diet, how complex you make your drum solo on a music chart, etc.
We could always do more of everything, but that could be too much and that’s all I’m saying. Ergo… “everything in moderation”. 😀
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I ever received was from myself. Some crucial lessons I’ve learned are listed below:
1. Be present never get caught up in the past or worry about the future so much.
2. Whatever is meant to be will happen and the rest will never work out so don’t sweat it. Trust in God/Universe/Source that what is meant for you will find you.
3. You are not the sum product of your mistakes, you are made up of the lessons you learned.
4. Love yourself if you want to be loved by others. If you don’t, you’ll choose people won’t.
5. Divine timing is real and happens everyday.
6. Karma is real, do good by others, even those that have wronged you. Trust me you’ll get what you deserve in the long run and so will they.
7. Forgive all who’ve wronged you, not doing so doesn’t punish them, it punishes you instead.
This is a simple question. Each morning I combine one White Monster Energy Ultra Zero 16 ounce can and 1 two ounce packet of Energen-C Super Orange. I call it my “Breakfast Cocktail. 🤣
I love music questions and I cannot put one album on. I will put my favorite album and probably my top 9 other favorite albums are nine I guess.
He will be the type of things you’d wanna have on a desert island on the planet on the moon and orbit, etc. etc. you could listen to over and over and over.
I won’t digress on the content of the albums again or this will turn into a monster post. You don’t wanna read.
My all-time favorite album of all time by my favorite band as well is Abbey Road by The Beatles.
Another favorite of mine is Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys.
Another one of my top albums is the Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd. I mean anybody who doesn’t recognize this album cover is dead inside in my humble opinion.
I love Rumors by Fleetwood Mac.
A band that has stirred up plenty of controversy, Oasis, made a great album called. What’s the Story Morning Glory.
Kid A by Radiohead is a fantastic, Grammy award winning album.
Whatever and Ever Amen by Ben’s Fold Five, is yet another amazingly interesting album to check out.
Morrison Hotel is still my favorite Doors album.
I’ve posted about this one before, it’s the greatest Genesis album that I’ve never heard before that’s absolutely amazing and become my favorite, The Wind and the Wuthering.
And I could add like another thousand albums here I’m gonna end it with Replicas by Gary Numan’s Tubeway Army.
As always, thank you for reading and for listening 🎵🎼🎶😊
Let’s just say it wouldn’t happen. Music is a language of my soul. And it accompanies everything I do: work, play, driving, exercise, showers, baths, and even sleep.
Anticipation of this question I wrote this little ditty as well:
Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.
My epic fail is pretty funny. I love irony in life and this is one of those cases.
So I work with my Nana and I was going to make a poundcake, it was very careful about all ingredients and preparation and baking, and she watched over my shoulder as I cooked and prepared it.
All seemed great and everything looked good as it was baking, however, I missed one key ingredient and it’s a biggie, baking powder.
As a result, my poundcake collapsed in the middle and it look like somebody had pounded their fist through the center of the cake.
Hence, my “poundcake” became a “pounded cake”. it still tasted good. It just didn’t rise properly and as a result, this was an epic fail, but a funny and delicious one.
Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.
There’s so many things I could write here, but I’m gonna try and keep it very simple this time. I’m gonna talk about the greatest lesson. I wish I taught myself in my youth. This lesson was to have a love for and belief in myself.
I had such a doubt on myself in my younger years, and as a result, I picked terrible partners, lovers, friends, and my career.
I was convinced I had to settle for whatever I can get rather than choose and discriminate my tastes.
I don’t do that anymore. I have boundaries, love for myself, self-respect, and I have a career, I love now. Also I have self-love and self-respect and dignity that I’ve never had before. I had to build it work at cultivate it from nothing.
The only regret was that it took me to age 50 to finally figure it out. But I guess that’s part of life’s rich pageant. We have to learn our lessons the hardest way possible and repeat them over and over until we master them.
Remember no matter what just keep going I tell myself that many many times when I’m not sure what’s gonna happen next.
I definitely see myself as a leader in many situations as they dictate the need to. I also try to lead by example as often as I can.
Whenever we have an earthquake or natural disaster for whatever reason, I step up and help other people and try to keep them calm.
As a musician, I was a very strong site, reader and reader of my music, and as a result was a first chair or a captain in percussion for many years spanning: elementary school, junior high school, high school, and in college as well.
Working in technology, I often lead meetings and projects using my expertise and ability to bring people together and rapidly create and rollout new information systems.
As an empath, I often have to help others deal with feelings and emotions and lead by my heart and gut instincts.
I find myself often volunteering in my jobs to learn new things and take on new responsibilities to make me stronger and more versatile.
Anybody can be a leader and what they work in or what they find most passionate. They just have to be brave and trust themselves and just go with it.
If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?
This is one of the easiest questions you’ve ever asked.
Words that I rarely use or say these days are “politics” or “political”.
Over these past 12 years plus there’s been so so much divide among people of differing political views more than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime or even read about.
It’s disgusting and Divisive in our society no matter if it’s America, Europe, Africa, South America, Canada, or any other part of the world.
It is true that the difference is between us all are what make things better and make us better. That’s why different political views are great or at least they used to be.
Now it appears that many believe they are working for their respective candidate, which is simply not true. An attack on Trump is not an attack on you or Biden or Harris or anyone.
We need to get over ourselves more sooner than later.
Again, none of us are working for the candidates, they work for us. We vote for them we elect them. We select them not the other way around.
Different perspectives and points of view, lead to solutions to problems it will never be met any other way. That’s the beauty of multiple political parties, reaching across the aisle and coming up with solutions, reaching across the multitudes town, city states nations, and finding the answers.
We don’t get back to that place we’re doing as a society and as a race known as humanity.
As I stated at the beginning, I don’t use the word, “political” or “politician” as much anymore as those words are now divisive rather than unifying.
Thank you for letting me put in my $.25 and as always, thank you for reading…
First, to share my writing with a real audience. Second, so that I might receive feedback on my writing. Finally, through blogging I will (hopefully) create enough works to publish several books and reach an even larger audience.
I have mixed feelings right now. My girlfriend is here from Texas for a week. We are headed to Vegas today for fun and games. I am very very happy about that. 😊
I am also feeling frustrated with blogging. Despite my usual output of 6-8 writings a day and over 940 subscribers my numbers for views and such have been down and I don’t know why. I think my material is still good so it’s a mystery.
What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?
I was double checking colors that start with the letter “i” as I’m creating a limerick that is for that letter.
I settled on “indigo” but then and decided to go a different direction with the limerick.
I often look up words, letters, annunciations, and other things just to be sure I’m getting things correct in my writing just double checking, really. Coming up with some interesting adjectives and words and animals that go with some of the letters, the alphabet that we don’t use as often as a common practice for me.
There are a great many shows I liked as a kid and I’m very nostalgic in my older years now, as I still love many of these shows. Some were in syndication mornings and afternoons. Others were part of prime time TV. And still others were part of daily or Saturday morning cartoons.
Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s afforded me a lot of great television.
I humbly apologize to all of my readers and subscribers, but this really is not in my wheelhouse. I’m not a city planner designer, so I must abstain from this particular question of the day.
This is an identical question to what was asked in June 07, 2024, so I’m pasting my answer from then and here…
This is an intriguing question. I have a very straightforward answer. My name comes from my father, grandfather, and great grandfather.
Anthony Andrew Aquino Jr.
I will share a quick tidbit about the origins of my shortened first name as my Great Grandfather told me years ago.
When many of the Italian immigrants came to Ellis Island long ago, since they didn’t speak English they sported a tag that read “TONY” short for “To New York”.
Love moves me to do anything and everything for all I care for and even strangers. I’m an altruistic, empathetic soul, to the core.
Music
Music is truly everything to me. I love listing to it, playing it, and seeing it live. I love many forms and always have something playing in the background.
Literature
I love reading as much as I do writing. It provides: knowledge, and escape, answers, and adventure. I love many forms of literature in fiction.
Art
I love art in many forms: painting, architecture, theatre, music (see above), sculpture, and of course writing. I love most forms of art from classical to art nouveau.
Nature
The beauty in nature always amazes and touches my heart. All living things and just being outside really helps recharge my batteries.
Anthony’s Crazy Love and Life Lessons in Empathy 