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| April 4, 2017

Blue.

That’s one of the colors a Jedi’s lightsaber might be. To be more exact, it’s one of the possible colors of the Kyber crystal. 🙂

The sky is blue for Earthlings.

Blues music can correspond with a blue mood. Sometimes it doesn’t though.

Some things only happen once in a Blue Moon (which is more often than one might think!)

OK, enough of that. I’m definitely not is a bad mood or anything. The local sky does need more blue, however, and less of the cloudy color.

I also favor starting portal pairs with the blue portal as my play style. There are also few gaming moments greater than when a blue shell appears in your item box.

Can’t get this song out of my head for some reason…

You’re welcome. 🙂

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I’m participating in the A-to-Z Challenge! Today’s letter is B. You can find out more about it here:

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ryan

| April 3, 2017

As I write this, I’m coming off a great weekend. One of the local comic conventions had its annual visit, and I even had a very enthusiastic companion along for great company.

I am glad this convention is still one of the great value decisions for attendees, with a fairly affordable price, even for all 3 of its current span of days. This is even with the convention being a stone’s throw from a well-known premium family theme park.

One of the neat things is that I’m really starting to see some of the artists as more familiar and actually look forward to visiting with some of them to see their new work. When I first started attending conventions, I had trouble really focusing due to the sheer numbers even a modestly sized convention can have. San Diego is still colossal, when I’m able to go, but 4 days makes it somewhat manageable (although the huge number of attendees makes the outside events and attractions more attractive. At any rate, I’ve got a long-awaited convention coming up and a bit more involved plans for that soon. I would not call the upcoming trip affordable, unless one is able to save for nearly a year, a bit at a time, but it’s also a bit of a vacation as well, so it’s not just a convention trip. That’s how I look at the reasonably high cost. It’s worth it though, for the sheer fun factor.

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I’m participating in the A-to-Z Challenge! Today’s letter is A. You can find out more about it here:

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ryan

| March 17, 2017

As I write this, it’s Saint Patrick’s Day again. What a coincidence that I’d choose this topic on this holiday. 🙂

I don’t really believe in luck. The scientific side of me definitely sees “lucky” events as just very low-probability occurrences. I’ve seen evidence that that’s all such events are.

For example, I read a story that, years ago, a group of people bought a huge number of lottery tickets (5 million!) in a drawing since it was guaranteed by probability that many potential winning tickets would be in that batch and they’d make a profit. Them winning wasn’t lucky at all, just smart application of math. It also forced a rule change to give such investment groups a harder time at winning.

The lotteries of the world aren’t the only such gambles to get such attention. The bottom line though is that probability says something that’s possible is likely to occur, and with enough tries at some event, it will.

I suppose that when I feel lucky, I’m really feeling glad that the odds worked in my favor, but it’s often due to taking measures to improve them, so what’s really happening is the result of some focused effort. Being in the right place at the right time does matter. We make our own luck, in other words.

What do you think? Is there something you feel lucky about?

Daily Prompt: Luck

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ryan

| March 10, 2017

Ian D. Keating via Compfight

If there’s one thing the entire world needs more of, it’s empathy. There are too many people who are completely unwilling to put themselves in others’ shoes, too often. They’ll dish out crappy treatment to others around them because they feel more important, or are afraid of them, or any other reason that overrides the basic emotion of empathy.

They forget to think to themselves “if somebody did this to me, would I be happy with it?”

So, if I had the epic power of worldwide emotional improvement, that’s the one I’d boost in all humans. It won’t instantly solve all the ills of the world, but perhaps it would ease the struggles of quite a few groups of people who don’t seem to be getting a fair share of love.

The realist in me knows that it starts with myself, though. I’ll keep trying my best to boost my own empathy, as much as safely possible. Now, it’s your turn.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be? Why would you make this change?

Source: 180 Journal Writing Prompts, #59

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ryan

| March 9, 2017

Mics make me nervous – Photo by Kane Reinholdtsen

Being nervous. That’s something I know about. It happens basically any time I’ll be in the presence of any person who I value or care for. It also sometimes happens when around complete strangers, especially when I’m unexpectedly put on the spot.

I think that’s normal. I also think it’s normal to feel nervous when she is about to arrive. This is even after longing for the moment to arrive very badly because the nervousness vanishes nearly instantly these days.

Even when I think I’m calm and relaxed, sometimes my body will give away subconscious clues. The bouncing leg, the cold sweat, or any other manner of fidgeting are things I sometimes need to be more mindful of.

I’m aware of exercises or meditative tools for dealing with this, but I usually just try to breathe and speak slowly in order to fight it. It works pretty well, most of the time. I don’t think I’ve ever panicked, but perhaps I’ve been rescued and didn’t know it. Who knows?

How about you, dear readers. What makes you nervous? Let me know.

Prompted by: Nervous | The Daily Post