Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Garden Dawdler.” Rory is posing “nine questions once a week for your leisure or pleasure.”

You have awoken to a new day after a restless night filled with strange dreams and have discovered a dead person sitting on your toilet. They are a stranger to you. What do you do?

First of all, having awoken to a new day after a restless night filled with strange dreams happens almost every morning. As to finding a dead stranger sitting on my toilet, that is a much more rare occurrence. I’d push the body off my toilet so that I could pee and then I’d call Ray Donovan, my “fixer,” to clean up the scene.

Are you a hat-wearing person, and if you are, which style do you favor?

Yes, I’m a hat-wearing person and I wear a baseball cap.

How many posts do you create and publish each week to your blog?

So far this year I’ve published 540 posts, or about 30 a week. This is down from last year, when I averaged 35 per week. But my fractured hip and busted arm have contributed to that reduced output.

How often do you talk to strangers?

As little as possible.

How many tee shirts do you own?

I wear a clean t-shirt every day (as an undershirt) and I have a few dozen of those white t-shirts. I also have about a dozen colored t-shirts that I wear during the hot summer months as “outershirts.”

Do you or have you ever ironed socks? If so, why?

What? No! Who irons socks?

Do you spend too much time online, and would you know if you were spending too much time online?

I spend a significant amount of time online, as I have my iPhone with me at all times and it is pretty much always connected to the internet via WiFi or a cellular connection. Is it too much time? Not for me.

Does your family or do any of your real-life friends read your blog, and perhaps more importantly, do you let them, or do you want them to?

My family members do know about my blog, as do a few close friends. Do they regularly read it? Probably not. Do I want them to read it? Sure, I want the whole world to read my blog. Do I care if they don’t? Nope. Whatever floats their boats.

What do you think the secret is to living a happier life?

Stay off of ladders and hire someone else to clean your gutters.

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Garden Dawdler.” Rory is posing “nine questions once a week for your leisure or pleasure.”

I didn’t get around to responding to Rory’s questions yesterday, but better late than never, right? Here are Rory’s nine Dawdler questions from yesterday.

What is one of your deepest desires or fantasy?

As my blog is rated PG, I’m afraid that revealing my deepest desires or fantasies would not be appropriate here.

When was the last time you used a pencil to write with?

I actually cannot recall the last time I used a pencil.

How tired are you daily, or do you get sufficient sleep to feel refreshed daily?

I’d say most nights I get sufficient sleep (around seven hours) to feel relatively refreshed the next day. On those nights when I don’t get that much sleep, I will generally fall asleep during the day while watching TV, reading, or listening to music.

How quick are you at making significant vital decisions?

Once I’ve gathered all of the information I need in order to make a significant, vital decision, which could take a while, I make it pretty quickly.

Do you use a brush or a comb with your hair or never do that and have a more natural look?

I shave my head every two weeks, so I use neither a brush nor a comb on my hair.

How many true friendships do you think you need?

I have a very small circle of what I’d call “true friends,” and I think I have all that I need.

How good is your memory, and how far back in your life can you go to remember moments with clarity?

I actually think my memory of things that occurred many years ago is probably sharper and clearer than more recent memories. Ask me what I had for dinner this past Wednesday and I’d be hard pressed to give you a correct answer.

How do you keep yourself optimistic day to day?

I’ve cut way back on the news I read, watch, or listen to. I’m not unaware of what’s going on, but I no longer obsess about it because it makes me too angry or gets me depressed. So maybe that old saying about ignorance being bliss has some merit to it.

When did you last wander freely out and about with no set destination instead of walking purposefully? [A stroll with no clear A – B parameters]

It was before I busted my hip back in January, that’s for sure.

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Garden Dawdler.” Rory is posing “nine questions once a week for your leisure or pleasure.”

Here are Rory’s nine Dawdler questions today.

Do you think it helps or hinders a writer from having a big ego?

I don’t understand the question. Does what help or hinder a writer from having a big ego? Blogging? Writing? Good stats? Lots of comments? And is having a big ego relative to this question a bad thing or a good thing?

How often do you read your blog content from an outsider’s perspective?

I actually try to do that every time before I hit Publish. Will someone other than me understand what I wrote, what point I was trying to make, my sense of humor? Does what I wrote hang together? Make sense?

I view my blog as an allotment garden. How do you view yours?

This may sound unimaginative, but I view my blog as a blog. It’s a place where I can express myself, my thoughts, observations, opinions, and perspectives, and where I can exercise my short fiction writing chops.

What’s the first book you ever remember reading way back when?

I dunno. Maybe it was one of the “Fun With Dick and Jane” series of books.

Were you ever read to as a child, and by whom?

I don’t remember my mother or father ever reading to me, but I had two older sisters and I have some vague recollections of them reading to me.

Where do you like to read? At home on the couch? While traveling? In bed? Where?

Yes.

What are the most significant barriers to your creativity?

Time, and particularly since I busted my hip in January, focus and energy.

Do you think blogging is essential, and if you do, why?

It is essential to me. I’m a retiree and blogging is my only real hobby. I started my first blog as an outlet back in 2005. I was working and traveling a lot, and used my blog as a way to kill time at airports and in hotel rooms. I took a two year hiatus from blogging in 2015 for personal reasons, but after retiring at the end of 2016, and with Donald Trump as president, I need way to vent my outrage, so I started this blog in May 2017. It was essential (and still is) for my mental health and well-being.

There are many benefits to blogging; however, what are the three top downsides of blogging, in your opinion?

According to my iPhone’s screen time stats, I spend an average of nine hours a day on my phone and half of that is on my blog. So one downside is the amount of time I use up blogging, although I don’t know what else I’d do with that time were it not for blogging. The other two “downsides” are the effort it takes and energy blogging consumes. I’m on a streak of 2,144 consecutive days of having published at least one post a day. And while there are days that I don’t feel like making the effort or lack the energy, I want to keep that streak going. So I just do it!

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Garden Dawdler.” Rory is posing “nine questions once a week for your leisure or pleasure.”

Here are Rory’s nine Dawdler questions today.

Are you utterly minimalistic in your lifestyle, an absolute clutterer hoarder, or just messy?

None of the above. I am neither a clutterer nor a hoarder. I’m not messy but I’m not obsessive or compulsive when it comes to tidying things up. As to my design aesthetic, I do tend toward minimalism.

Do you prefer to sit on a chair, cushion, bench, floor, or something else for comfort and which?

Right now, with my busted hip, I really do need something soft and cushiony to sit on. Preferably a chair. The floor, even with a cushion, is not good because I can’t get my legs and hip to sit that way and I’d need assistance getting back up. And a bench without a cushion, would hurt.

What is the most challenging part of your writing process?

I’m still expending a lot of energy in the broken hip, broken arm recuperation process, so finding the energy to think about topics for my blog, to do any research necessary, to sit down and write, proofread, edit, etc., and to post my work is draining what little energy I have left. Add to that, reading and commenting on the posts from other bloggers, leaves me exhausted.

Do you think you are an addictive or non-addictive personality?

I am addicted to blogging, but otherwise, I’d classify myself on the non-addictive end of the spectrum.

Do you feel in any way, shape, or form threatened by the arrival of AI [Artificial Intelligence] opportunities or do you welcome the progression into your life with ease?

From what I’ve experienced so far in reading AI-generated text or in using an AI chatbot to write a post for my blog, which I’ve done several times and noted in the post that it was the work of an AI chatbot, I am not threatened by AI. At least not in its current state.

I have used AI to generate illustrations for some of my posts and most are okay at best. Not the quality of photographs or images created by humans. To give you two examples of text-generated AI art, I gave two different AI art apps this instruction: An artist painting a picture on a canvas at an easel. Here are the results:

What do you think?

What subjects or topics inspire you to create the most concerning your writing?

This is a bit oddly worded, but I’m going to assume, with respect to my writing, Rory wants to know what subjects or topics inspire me. I can be inspired by almost anything in life. Current events, politics, human nature, my own personal experiences, or prompts from other bloggers.

When was the last time you walked through a graveyard?

Decades ago.

What are your top five favorite flowers?

I don’t know much about flowers so I’m just going to name, in no particular order, five different flowers that I know of: roses, irises, orchids, daisies, and chrysanthemums.

What would you say would be your writing quirk?

When it comes to my writing, what you read is who I am. Is that quirky? I dunno. Is it?