Everything, well that’s far too vague for this group.
I enjoy writing prose and seeing my emotionally charged words affect readers. They either can relate it to their own life, or they empathize for the other.
The bottom line, writing is to reach your audience and, in a way make them feel, something.
Anytime I achieve that, I consider the written work I created a success.
That’s why we write in the first place, to convey our point of view and reach people.
One other aspect I enjoy, is experimenting with different words, poetic forms, and pentameters.
I have lived through many natural disaster emergencies and experienced:
Small and very large earthquakes
Three tropical storms
Three close encounters with tornadoes
Lots of severe weather
A strong dust storm/haboob
Numerous dust devils
Major windstorms
Flash floods
Brushfires
My 28 years experience working and information technology I have written numerous business continuity plans (DRP/Disaster Recovery Plans) as I have lived most of my life in California, Texas, and Arizona, where many different natural hazards can happen.
In the interest of not putting you to sleep, I’m not going to include them here.
There are several words that many people use incorrectly or dishonestly. Not by ignorance but rather omission/manipulation.
Some people will say just about anything to make themselves appear more desirable to other people.
People need to say what they mean, mean what they say, too much hypocrisy in the world I think, and a lot of self-service.
Love
Many people say the word many people express the word, but they don’t mean it. Many are just going through the motions. This word means something important, but it’s just just an auto pilot thing for many. Bottom line don’t say it unless you mean it I always do. 
Empath
Many men and women claim to be empaths. I think this word has become quite fashionable. I don’t think people realize how difficult it is to be an empath and that most empaths if not all of them wish they weren’t. From my dating experience, I think others use it as a means to make themselves appear more attractive to potential mates.
Narcissist
This is another word that is become overly used on people. A narcissist when labeled as such by me, is someone who suffers from narcissistic personality disorder. They gaslight people they manipulate and they absolutely loathe themselves so much that they make others feel worse so that they might feel better. This is more than just a selfish person. This is the person that will happily destroy your life to make themselves feel better.
I don’t wanna get on a ranting rave here, I could list a whole bunch more, but I think a few are enough to make my point.
If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?
If I were to open the store, I’d be very akin, to the store that John Cusack owned in the movie High Fidelity. Which is consequently one of my favorite movies ever too by the way.
It would be a record store, and me and my friends would be there all day long being music snobs about all we know, and determining whether some of the customers are qualified to buy the music or not.
In an alternate universe I get it right far earlier in my life. I sort of see this is what if I did everything the way I was supposed to in my life instead of so late.
I’d take the chances I didn’t take earlier and make things happen and be brave from day one rather than far beyond that.
I meet and fall for my soulmate at age 20 rather than after age 52+. We’d marry, have kids, nice house, the white picket fence, etc.
I’d’ve gotten my degree in English as a bachelor’s and start writing/ blogging in my 20s rather than my 50s.
I’d achieve financial stability in my 20s or 30s rather than living paycheck to paycheck into my 50s.
I’d value myself and know my worth far far earlier in life than past middle age.
What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?
This isn’t the easiest question to answer because it requires a long story which I’m not interested in writing just now.
I will go so far to say the most expensive meal I ever paid for, was my ex stepson’s wedding dinner in Las Vegas. My ex-wife had the brilliant idea that we would have it at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse at Harrah’s Las Vegas. Not the cheapest place to eat by far.
The wedding party was pretty small and not a lot of people attended so she figured it wouldn’t be too much money. However, everyone ordered pretty much everything they wanted, (appetizers, drinks, seafood, steaks, and dessert) except for me, my ex-wife, and my ex mother-in-law (we all shared dinner).
We had thought that people would be picking up their own meals aside from the bride and groom, but in the end, I got stuck with the entire bill. When the bill finally came to me, it was $2200 for the dinner. Truly, the most expensive meal I’ve ever paid for in my life.
Was it worth it? Well I know they (the bride and groom) are now divorced as am I. There’s a whole stressful story that goes along with this meal that I am again, am not gonna go into right now. So, I say no, it was definitely not worth it.
Having to ask the mother of the bride for a loan to cover this meal is and was the most embarrassed I have ever been, but that’s another story for another time.
There are a number of subjects of which I am most passionate.
Music
I’ve been passionate about music at least since age 4 maybe longer. I’m decently knowledgeable in the genres I like most.
Percussion
I played drums and various percussion instruments from age 8 until age 24. Playing in but not limited to: drum-line, marching band, percussion ensemble, Latin Band, Big Band, Jazz Band, Symphony, Concert Band and Wind Ensemble.
Reading
I love classic fiction, modern fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, philosophy, horror, mystery, and noire.
Writing
I love to write poetry (many forms), essays, autobiographical short stories, and interesting anecdotes.
Technology
I have worked in Information Technology for over 28 years working in: data conversions, help desk, systems analysis, programming, QA, technical writing, training, systems implementations, technical support, and Sarbanes Oxley risk assessments and audits.
Diagraming and Prototyping
In my current job I work so much in Visio that my teammates call me the “Vizio Wizio” 😂
Video Games
I am pretty decent at most classic video games and consoles.
Trivia
My extensive music knowledge, entertainment, science, and history make me a threat at any bar trivia contests.
People
I am good at reading people which has greatly aided me in my career and writing.
Computers
I can fix/diagnose many or most issues, as I have worked on thousands of computers with issues.
I’ve been on the fence on whether I would answer this question or not as I feel again it is a data mining, marketing poll type of question, but I’m gonna do it anyway what the hell?🤣
Thirty Things That Make Me Happy:
1) The smell of rain when it first starts to fall.
2) the sound of the ocean
3) the sound of rainfall all night while I sleep
4) making passionate love
5) writing
6) music
7) playing the piano by ear
8) live music
9) musicals
10) streaming my favorite shows without commercials or interruptions
Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.
I don’t even need to pull/scour a story. I can tell you right now, pretty much all political posts news, articles, stories, video, etc. is completely uninteresting to me. From all sides, Democrat, Republican, independent, etc.
Loads of vitriol and anger and hate and I’m done. We need to relate to each other. We need to stop trying to find everything wrong with each other and try and find what’s right. Find common ground embrace our differences and find strength.
I think in media, social media and other circles we lost our way and we need to find our way back before too late. Just my $.25.
How would you describe yourself to someone who can’t see you?
In the words of the great Popeye, the sailor “ I am what I am and that’s all that I am”
Sort of a simplified version of Descartes’s “ I think therefore I am”  how we look isn’t nearly and as important as what is inside of us, and this is true for me as well.
Several my friends, call me Ants for short for Anthony.
As I am a junior, my father’s name is also Anthony and we both go by Tony too, my paternal family often referred to me as “Little Tony” because I was the younger.
My favorite person on earth who no longer hear my godmother my aunt Linda she used to call me Tone Balone. Which is sort of a version of Tony baloney.
My Nana when she was alive would call me Tonüts (TOW-NOOOTS) or Tonino, sighs I miss hearing that 😢.
One gal I dated for a while used to call me Hemingway, since I wrote here and there lol.
What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?
My best strategy of all is not answering questions of the day that are just ridiculously repetitive or trying to mine marketing information from a bunch of great writers out here .
Let’s just say doing what feels good and makes me feel good and not doing what does not which is a double negative of course 😂
In the interest of myself and my readers and choose not to provide marketing information on this question of the day.
Many of us have plans to do fun things in the future, but we don’t need to share them for “data mining purposes” to quote one of my author friends here.
I pull no punches here, when I say everything, I mean everything.
Our society has become a selfish narcissistic, self oriented, pigheaded group of people. uncompromising and unchanging and frankly ignorant. Anybody not agreeing with somebody else’s politics is automatically hated friendships have died, relationships have died, over the stupidest trivial things.
I hope one day they wake up and get their heads out of their nether regions, or else we’re flat out doomed…
What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?
I’m not going to elaborate again for all your sake, but I am gonna list several categories of games I enjoy.
I broke them all down into some meaningful categories.
Arcade Games: Star Wars, Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man, Tron, Tetris, Bloxeed, Battle-zone, Missile Command, Discs of Tron, Galaga, Galaxian, Black Tiger, M.A.C.H. III, Halley’s Comet, Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, and Dig Dug.
Intellivision Console: Astrosmash, Burgertime, Space Spartans, Tron: Deadly Discs, The Dreadnaught Factor, Atlantis, Demon Attack, Baseball, Football, Space Hawk, and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: The Treasure of Tarmin.
Atari 2600 Console: Star Raiders, Pitfall, Enduro, Megamania, Wizard of Wor, Berzerk!, Yar’s Revenge, and Demon Attack.
Xbox/Xbox 360 Console: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2, Fable 1 & 2, Star Wars Battle Front 1 & 2, Counterstrike, Halo, and Topspin Tennis.
Wii Console: Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, The Sims: Kingdoms, Dawn of Discovery, Mad World, a boy and his blob, and Orbitol.
PC: F15 Strike Eagle 2, Hyperspeed, Starcraft, StarCraft: Brood War, Duke Nukem, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, and Quake.
This is a simple question with many answers for me. In the interest of everyone and all the stuff we have to read today I will not digress on these. I’ll just list them.
Activities during which I lose track of time include:
I appreciate anybody putting forth the effort to create these daily prompt questions.
However, I’d say I am currently seeking some better daily prompt questions.
This could qualify as an adventure for many of us as it’s a means of us to share personal information about our lives, possibly pick up some new subscribers from getting examples of our writing, our wits or lack there of.
I think who put together these questions and posers, etc.
As always, I thank you for reading and taking a moment to look at my writing and hope you have a great rest of your day or evening.
I’d have to say me, lol. I get better with age in many or most ways.
My writing is much better. My technical/business writing skills are better. My understanding of human nature and emotions are far better. My perspectives on my life and the past also much better.
The only things that aren’t as great are my physique as age starts to flush out all those bumps, scrapes, falls, nicks and sprains.
Time really does change things with the wisdom it bestows upon us all…
This is a difficult question to answer so I’ll grab some “artistic license” and will change it to “What are your favorite genre(s) of music”. This is a more answerable question, one that will allow some digression on my part. Of course what I listen to depends on my mood. It varies greatly. Sometimes I wanna rock out with rock ‘n’ roll, other times I wanna chill with Jazz, and other times I want the gentle finesse of classical.
I have a myriad of genres of music that I love as well as sub-genres of music as well. Many or most of you will recognize most of these but some may not, so enjoy. 😊
I love Rock ‘N’ Roll, Joan Jet was onto something there but just to say I love it is far far, too vague. So, please let me elaborate, a lot on that genre and many others.
Alternative Music
I’ve always been somewhat not into mainstream music as I myself am fairly unique myself.
I love Alternative Rock ‘N’ Roll but there are many genres and there are subs here too. Genres of Alternative Music I love include: 80s New Wave, 80s Techno Pop, 80s Electronic Music, Classic Punk Rock, Hard Core Punk Rock, Modern Punk Rock, Protopunk Rock, Thrasher Punk, industrial, mid, Grunge Rock, Indi (Grunge Light), 90s alternative, Goth Rock, Alternative Country, Retro, and some Emo.
Crossover Rock Genres
There are some music genres I love that crossover across many others including: Power Pop, and BritPop. Bands like Oasis, XTC, Coldplay, Blur, Gorrilaz, and Radiohead exemplify both of these styles and others.
Bands like The Beatles, Queen, The Electric Light Orchestra, Yes, Jellyfish, and Sloan exemplify the big guitars, big drums, and big vocal harmonies of Power Pop and other genres as well.
Classic Rock Genres
I have and forever will love Classic Rock and its sub genres including: Folk, British Invasion, Psychedelic, Fusion, Experimental, Rhythm and Blues, Blues, Yacht Rock, Garage, Jam bands, Progressive (Prog), and Hard Rock.
Heavy Metal
I like many forms of metal genres including: Speed Metal, Death Metal, Hair Band, Progressive Metal, Doom Metal, and Stoner Metal.
Jazz
As a former musician and music aficionado I love: classic jazz, jazz fusion, and modern jazz.
Classical
Again as a musician I love many forms of classical including: chorales, sonatas, baroque, romantic, opera, suite, arias, orchestral, chorale, movie/musical soundtracks, and toccatas.
Pop
Though I am not a big fan of current pop I do love 70s and 80s pop as well.
My music tastes are out there but I do love a lot of music and many genres that are not as well known. I create intricate playlists assuring my work, travel, and play have the best soundtrack around.
As always thank you for reading, and keep listening to amazing music…
What do I think romantic is? This is not a simple question. It’s not a straightforward answer either.
I’m gonna digress like everybody else and it say that it’s not all about candlelight dinners and walks on the beach though those can be part of it, romance is a whole lot more.
Spontaneity
Unexpected surprises and fun events that take place during time out as a big part of romantic.
An unexpected storm something goes wrong with the meal. That’s not our fault. Something crazy happens in the restaurant. A full moon a meteor shower. Any unexpected surprises will add to romance.
Surprising somebody with a last-minute getaway and taking them and having everything all planned out and laid out ahead of time is always a good idea. Especially if it’s a getaway.
Its the Small Things That Count
Little things make a huge difference. If it’s just a little chivalry by standing on a slide of traffic while you hold their hand. Ordering the meal, after finding out what your date likes.
Flowers are nice, but they’re very unoriginal in this day and age. I find writing a poem or sharing that just before we leave is interesting and different. I am a writer so I guess that kind of helps.
Getting the doors, pulling out the chair and pushing it in, these finer points are important and that you care and that you want your date to feel special.
Lots of surprises anything you can do to surprise your date is a great idea and I think very romantic.
Location Location Location
Places of natural beauty. Lovely, quiet sidewalk cafés with sweeping people watching views. Dark candle-lit restaurants. These are the ocean sunsets sun on the sea are all nice and add to the ambience.
Pay Attention (read that again!!)
Most important, pay attention, take someone to their favorite restaurant, for their favorite dessert, their favorite place to go and visit, or their favorite destination.
People want to know that you’re paying attention to them, but you know what they like that you listen to what they say demonstrating that on a date you plan out to me is very romantic.
Everything will work out for the best just take it one step at a time and be present the entire time and romance will flood through.
I do so by being thankful of everything I receive and get in life. So many have done nice things for me and I always try to share my gratitude with them each. 
Either if it comes to me randomly or from a friend or from a family member or a lover, I always appreciate it.
I’m working on being more being grateful, it’s tough sometimes. Writing on this blog here I have to work on my gratitude. I’ll take lack of response for one thing I write more seriously than the great response I get for almost everything else. I write and I need to stop doing that.
But I continue to try and improve on this and be happier in and of myself. always start up my day simply by being grateful for being alive and waking up and for having all that I have in my life right now and all that I’ve earned in my life right now.
I worry that my writing won’t be a success. I put a lot of my heart and soul to everything I write. I want people to feel something with everything they’re right. As I’m obviously feeling tons when I write it.
I just never know how it’s gonna work out. I write many poems every day and get great responses and comments.
Then I release a short story broken down into 9 parts for the first time and I got one single comment.
You just never know you have to be determined and try and do your best and if nobody reads what you’re working on, keep writing anyway.
Another worry is that I won’t be able to enjoy my life until it’s too late. I’ve really really sacrificed a lot of happiness and joy and money for people that didn’t care. I spent 26 years with these people that I’ll never get back.
I’ve rectified that issue but now you know I’m 52 trying to figure it all out and I want to do a lot of fun and great things in this lifetime.
All teachers that I have had from elementary school through college, and even my masters degree, have fallen under one of the three categories: motivators, mentors, or megalomaniacs.
Motivators
Great teachers will motivate you and what they are teaching you. Their enthusiasm and knowledge of their subject matter is infectious. They invite you into their world to be part of what they know and find wonderful and beautiful. The symbiotic relationship in these classrooms is fantastic and rare, unfortunately in my education career.
Mentors
Great teachers, instructors, professors, mentor their students, and lead by example and teach by example. They make you feel like you’re equals and that you’re on this journey together. Even to the point they you talk to them on a first name basis. Leaving by example and bringing you to new places as all what a mentor is all about and the best teachers are mentors.
Megalomaniacs
My least favorite, and unfortunately majority of educators, especially in the college level or megalomaniacs. Being educated and an accredited instructor can lead to a really big ego. Some of us feel like why are we wasting their time when they know more than us? or they talk down to us like we’re stupid just because they know more than we do about the subject matter. The professors, many of professors, I’ve had no less about human nature than anybody. And if you don’t care about your audience, they’re not gonna care about what you have to say and I’ll just ignore you and give you very poor reviews at the end of the semester.
I think I’m very effective teacher or professor mentors, their students relates to them and leads/teaches by example.
This is similar to other questions of the day we received, but I’ll do my best to come up with something here.
Each day I get up and I think of 10 things that I’m grateful for opening my day with gratitude.
Next, I make my bed and check-in with work for any early emails or messages on teams for my projects.
Next, I make my breakfast which consists of: eggs scrambled with cooked onions, jalapeños, mushrooms, and bell peppers; along side with toasted cracked wheat sourdough toast with European style butter and 1 white low carb monster energy drink, and a 1/2 cup of V8 spicy vegetable juice.
I work throughout the day. I have meetings and teams, and I do technical writing for the gas company.
I also between everything come up with some poems and different writings and I scheduled them for release on WordPress.
In the evening I make myself dinner take a nice hot bath and relax and enjoy the evening.
Spirituality is critical in my life. I don’t just mean religion. I do have my beliefs raised Roman Catholic, but I have a lot of other beliefs. I know there’s so much more out there than meets the eye. I can feel it touch it taste it.
I’ve seen things experiencing things in life that show that there’s so much more in the world in the universe and I love that.
I’ve learned a lot about myself and how we’re all connected and I believe spirituality has a lot to do with that and I’m very thankful to have it in my life. In this phase of my journey, it’s become much more important than ever.
Having a sister that dances and competes as a dancer is never ever easy. In her younger years, I was bored to tears watching a bunch of girls dance, and I thought girls were icky at that time was very very boring.
Then, at age 11, I realized girls were not so icky and then I had crushes on the worst kind of girls in the world, the kind that were beautiful, fit, talented, the kind that would never give me the time of day to save my life.
One such girl was a year younger than me and competing with my sister for many years dancing. Not to mention she was also a very, very good singer, brownish blondish, hair and beautiful, brown eyes. I was completely smitten with her.
I remember playing basketball and doing layups professing my love to her as I ran up to the basket. The dumb things you do when you’re 11 and in love, I remember drawing a bunch of three-dimensional squares on a piece of paper and connecting them to other squares and other squares and other squares. Sort of an art project. not a very good one but when you’re in love, you’ll do anything.
I remember I gave it to her. She was with two other girls that were also pretty popular. I remember my head was down. My face was burning red, and I gave the paper to her and ran away.
I remember it always ask my sister if she was interested my sister danced with her and she always tell me these lines that were horrible put off lines like “that’s nice” or “she kind of likes me “. I sort of felt like Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber when he presented with 1 million to one odds of being with the girl he loved, and he said “ so you’re telling me there’s a chance”.
There were some things we had in common though that was nice we both like Pac-Man and used to play doubles. I loved that being so close to her and that small space and she not minding and we cuss out the monsters when we played the game. Those are the moments I try to remember where we are all the same like in the same kind of things at that time video games MTV movies the one time we were all the same at least in that way.
I’d look for any small piece of hope, and I grabbed on it no matter how slim. This girl will go on to perform in starlight Express and Vegas for a while while at least I picked a good one for my first. I had a slight crush on her older sister in high school, singing and dancing. Boy does it capture my interest in fancy. I seen you recall another girl from the dance studio that was on commercials for Strawhat pizza and I had a crush on her for a while too. I think her name was Jennifer as well cruel how fate had me around these beautiful girls they were so talented and so uninterested in me.
I want to retire a successful writer with many books published living my dream life traveling the world, cruising and having the best time. With a fantastic woman by my side.
I’d have to say it was getting 50,000 views on my blog as of today. I have been working very hard these first 89 days of blogging.
I want to be a successful writer in blogging and hopefully through books as well.
Today was pretty huge for me. I remember the feeling of excitement at my 100th view in the beginning each step along the way has been exciting (including this one).
Anthony’s Crazy Love and Life Lessons in Empathy 