Complex Numbers

That's Nice

Fun fact: the word "nice" used to mean "stupid." It comes to us from Middle English, by way of a Latin word meaning "ignorant."

Just something to keep in mind the next time someone calls you a nice person.

PROMPT July 9th

Write about the last time you did something nice for yourself.

I suppose many people live for others, always trying to be thoughtful and doing stuff to please other people. Some take it to an extreme, thinking that they don't have to do anything to please themselves.

I'm not one of those people.

Don't get me wrong; I try to be considerate of others' feelings. I'm not always successful, but I'm working on it. Slowly. I certainly don't go out of my way to make other people miserable or be rude.

Point is, a much harder prompt would be "Write about the last time you did something nice for someone else." Well, I shared my beer with my housemate yesterday; I suppose that counts. If that's tomorrow's prompt, though, it's probably still going to be the same thing.

Contrariwise, I can always find something I do for myself. For instance, in the Before Time, I used to get a massage every month. Some might call it decadence; I call it physical therapy.

On Tuesday, I walked up to the local taphouse and got lunch (and beer) there, on their patio. And just yesterday (Wednesday), I had More Beer, here at home. This is the beer I shared, but mostly it was for me. So that's the direct answer to the prompt: indulging in malt beverage this past afternoon.

But I can't do the one thing I really want to do, which is travel. I had all kinds of plans to go on a road trip in August. Well, that's not happening. Part of the point of traveling, for me, is visiting restaurants and purveyors of fine fermented beverages, and while some of those may be open, I have no desire to potentially spread a dread disease.

I'm nice like that.

And I'll leave you with this Buddhist monk covering Judas Priest. Just because.



And now I've done something nice for all of you.