Tag: daily prompt

Bachelor Summers

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"Time for a Drink" USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2016.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO6400
 “Time for a Drink” USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2016.

こんばんは！How are you doing today? Have you already started the weekend?

As you can see from today’s photo, we had a couple of drinks this evening. Do you know shōchū? It’s a drink popular in Japan, stronger than saké but not as strong as hard liquor. It’s got an ok taste… I prefer saké, but I’ll pretty much drink anything!

Earlier today, I went out to lunch with my friend and coworker to a pizza place that serves Chicago-style pizza. It was so good, but I ate so much that I skipped dinner. I often skip meals, but I think it is ok to do so if you are getting enough nutrition. (my nutrition intake is questionable, however!) But I do enjoy fasting too. I believe the longest I fasted was about three days. Once you get over the initial hunger (which hits me in the afternoon of the first day), I think it is pretty easy to fast for two days. And you really do feel good and alert, although maybe a bit weak as well.

Well, on to today’s question:

My Favorite – What’s the most time you’ve ever spent apart from your favorite person? Tell us about it.

This one is an easy question to answer. My favorite person(s) are my wife and kids and they usually go to Japan in the summer to visit my wife’s family. So, for at least a month I am apart from them. I believe the longest time apart has been 6 weeks!

During that time, I have my “Bachelor Summer” which is a term that my friends who are married to Japanese wives use. Each summer there are a few of us temporary bachelors who will get together for barbecues, to watch a ballgame, or celebrate the 4th of July. 🎆 It’s a time when I eat no-so-healthy foods, but I also exercise a lot more since I have plenty of free time. And I also have time to go on day-long motorcycle rides, which is so fun!

But I do miss my family of course. It’s nice when they return – absence really does make the heart grow fonder!

Well, I have to wake up early again tomorrow, so I’ll end this post here. Please stay warm, especially if you are in the Eastern part of the US! ❄️

おやすみなさい！

-バロン Barron Fujimoto

This post was prompted by The Daily Post from WordPress.

Sunrise

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"Sunrise" USA. Texas. Austin. 2016.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/320 sec, ISO400
 “Sunrise” USA. Texas. Austin. 2016.

こんばんは！How are you? Today’s photo is of the sun just rising above the clouds. I took it from my office this morning. I usually arrive early to work which is nice because I can really get a lot done in the hour or two before meetings start. I really am a “morning person”!

( YAWN ) What bores you?

This question (from WordPress’ Daily Prompt) is a tough one to answer for me… I can’t think of anything that really bores me! My kids often will come to me and say, “I’m bored”. This happens towards the end of long weekends or vacations when they get tired of their video games or computers. Luckily school will start soon for them!

I guess I used to get bored sometimes when having a conversation with someone, and the subject matter is just not interesting to me, or if I’ve heard the story before. (I feel a little bad about saying that!) But that was ages ago! If the subject of the conversation is not so interesting, I focus on the way the person is saying what they are saying, their conversational style, or imagine the reasons why they are sharing the information with me. Sometimes I will try to pinpoint the interesting things about that person (there’s always at least one thing!). I believe that you can learn something from anyone or any situation, so I am always trying to find value. If there isn’t something to learn externally, I try to internally observe what I am currently feeling and maybe I can improve myself in some way.

But back to the original question… I honestly cannot remember myself every saying, “I’m bored”. It’s really odd… I have a hard time imagining what boredom feels like. It’s like the part of my brain that activates the boredom emotion is just not there anymore. (insert joke here!)

By the way, I haven’t written anything from a Daily Prompt in a loooong time now, but it’s fun! I guess I might start doing it again every so often. You can go back and read my other Daily Prompts by sorting on the category if you are interested.

Well, Friday is almost here! I hope you have a good one!

I’m going to get some rest. おやすみなさい！

-B Barron Fujimoto

An Ounce of Home

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An Ounce of Home – You’re embarking on a yearlong round-the-world adventure, and can take only one small object with you to remind you of home. What do you bring along for the trip?

This is an easy question for me to answer – I would take along my ugly doll that my wife made for me. In fact, it’s already in my daily bag! I like to pack light and my ugly doll probably doesn’t even weigh an ounce, but it would remind me of home, or more specifically, of my family.

I’ve lived in several different places, and it’s hard to really know which place I would call “home”. I’m thinking that there is more meaning to “home” than just where you return to every night. I like to think that “home” is equal to a happy place, and that happy place would be where my loved-ones are. Hopefully they would be with me for the round-the-world trip, but if not, this homemade ugly doll would remind me of them.

There’s a song by Everything But the Girl (one of my favorite bands since 1984) that this Daily Prompt reminds me of. It’s called “One Place” and one of the lines in the song is, “In the end if you take care, you can be happy or unhappy anywhere.” I really believe this is true. I guess the saying “Happiness comes from within” has some truth to it. It isn’t the external situation that causes happiness (or unhappiness), but the determining factor is your interpretation and reaction to that situation. With that in mind, I’ve been trying to look for happiness and a positive angle no matter what situation I am in at the time. Is this part of “living in the moment”?

Homemade Ugly Doll
Homemade Ugly Doll

This post was prompted by The Daily Post from WordPress.

Terminal Time

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Terminal Time – You’re at the airport, your flight is delayed for six more hours, and none of your electronic devices is working. How do you pass the time?

Ugh, all my batteries are dead! So… I reach into my backpack and pull out my sketchbook/notepad and either sketch what catches my interest, or work on a blog post, a story, or ideas for a story. Speaking of sketches, if you don’t follow Hamahouse yet, his Instagram feed is wonderful! It’s full of cool (and quick) sketches he does, and a photo of the sketch with subject in the background. I wish I had his talent!

I went to art school from High School through college, but I am not a good illustrator. I have always envied people who can draw. It’s something that many people misunderstand about creative types – a graphic designer, painter, sculptor, etc. is not necessarily good at drawing. I remember once in a drawing classes in college, there was a particular student who could accurately sketch just about anything that was in front of him. His sketches were technically accurate in proportion and lighting. His work was amazing! Our instructor (whom I greatly respected) said he had a real talent for drawing, and said she wished she had that talent. That kind of stuck with me… that a talented painter might not be great at drawing. By that time in school, I knew that I didn’t have that same level of talent in drawing, however, my instructor’s comment gave me inspiration to keep up with what I was specializing in, which was painting. I must say though, that it is a little deflating when I have to admit to someone that I cannot draw so well, even though I have a degree in art.

At any rate, here’s a sketch I did while at one of my son’s piano lessons. Not nearly as cool a Hamahouse’s, but I am trying!

A Sketch at Bay's Piano Lesson
A Sketch at Bay’s Piano Lesson

This post was prompted by The Daily Post from WordPress.

Longing for Gravity

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Longing for Gravity – You are on a mission to Mars. Because of the length of of the journey, you will never be able to return to Earth. What about our blue planet will you miss the most?

One of my favorite types of photography is landscape photography, especially landscapes that feature beautiful or interesting clouds. Although I am sure I will be able to view unlimited amounts of photos via electronic communication, I will miss being able to actually take them and post-process them. These days, the post-processing (in Lightroom mainly) is maybe 80% of the fun of photography for me. I see the camera as just a tool to capture the light, so I can get that light into the computer to do the post-processing. Although I am sure there will be interesting things to photograph on Mars, I’m sure it will lack the diversity of our home planet.

You can see some of the photos I have made at my Flickr page or Instagram feed.

This post was prompted by The Daily Post from WordPress.