Tag: dailyprompt

Who is the most badass fictional female character?

~ Veselin ~ 28 Comments

Found this writing prompt on Reddit and liked it more than our daily prompt here. I wrote a list and then filtered it out by removing most superheroes. I personally believe superheroes undermine people’s faith in their own future and are just bad taste. You can rebel, learn how to shoot with a bow, endure a lot but you can’t possibly ever be Wonder Woman, Starlight, or Captain Marvel, so they were disqualified. So here’s the list.

16. Samara Morgan / Sadako (The Ring)

She’s a nightmare coming to reality and one who could make the Alien run in screams. However, being a demigod supervillain and not a positive example gives her the honorary number 16 spot on my chart. One of the few characters with superpowers I considered worthy. Don’t tell her she’s 16th.

15. Trinity (The Matrix)

Trinity stood up to the agents and helped Neo ascend. She radiated strength in every moment of her presence. Being Neo’s second rather than Neo herself gives us 15th spot.

14. Renee Ballard (Michael Connelly’s novels)

A relentless detective who stops at nothing to capture the next serial killer, often multiple at a time. Debra Morgan could’ve been on that spot but she’s Dexter’s second. Renee Ballard is independent and has to navigate difficult politics to score her wins.

13. Bones (Bones TV series)

Brilliant scientist who grows a team of unorthodox wizards around her. Her mind is her weapon and she’s not shy of touching weapons.

12. Nebula (MCU/Marvel)

Nebula survived Thanos’ parenting. She has mental endurance unmatched in the MCU by anyone other than maybe Loki.

11. Acid Burn (Hackers movie)

A teenage hacker from a time when we didn’t yet have PCs. She and Zero Cool were an inspiration for my generation. I was torn between Acid Burn and Lara Croft and decided Acid Burn is the more skillful character played by Angelina Jolie.

10. Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games)

She volunteered as a tribute to risk her own life for her sister Prim. Deadly with the bow and a symbol of the rebellion.

9. Esmerelda “Esme” Weatherwax (Discworld)

Granny Weatherwax is the only witch in the known universe who has ever mind controlled a bee hive. She cannot be seen when you don’t expect to see her because the brain refuses to acknowledge her presence. Could’ve easily been number one on the list but loses point due to having magical superpowers. Wednesday Adams, Galadriel from Scholomance, and Yennefer from the Witcher are, IMO, inferior to Esme. If not in power, at least in badassery.

8. Harley Quinn (DC Comics, Margot Robbie Version)

Chaotic and dangerous, Harley with a bat is more than most superheroes can handle.

7. Livia Lone (Livia Lone series by Barry Eisler)

Livia Lone is tiny but determined. She’s brings down traffickers with brutal efficiency that makes Dexter Morgan look juvenile.

6. Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation)

She’s a modern hero with unbreakable optimism and strong work ethics. She would be crushed in a physical fight with any of the others but I believe she deserves a spot, even if not a top one.

5. Savine dan Glokta (The First Law by Joe Abercrombie)

Born into wealth but remained in power due to her ruthlessness and skill. She bends the world with the force of her will. Her superpower is similar to Batman’s. She knows how to make money and use them but doesn’t shy away from getting her hands dirty.

4. Adjunct Tavore Paran (Malazan Book of the Fallen)

Adjunct Tavore is a mortal commander who leads armies against gods, ascendants, and mages. Unbreakable and underrated, she resists the will of gods.

3. Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica)

Fighter pilot, rebel, drinker, loudmouth—she kills Cylons and leads the humans to salvation by example. I also consider her a combined character with Bo-Katan, who is a bit less genuine than Starbuck but still very cool.

2. Makri (Thraxas series by Martin Scott)

A fierce quarter-ork-quarter-elf warrior who crawled out of the gladiator pit after massacring her captors with their own weapons to pursue career in science. In an university that forbids the admittance of women.

1. Ellen Ripley (Alien)

Facing the Alien and surviving. Who does that? Outwits, outlasts, and takes on the perfect organism with nothing but brains.

I feel like the final 5 can be shuffled and any order would still be fair.

What would you do if you won the lottery?

~ Veselin ~ 12 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What would you do if you won the lottery?
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A fellow blogger Dr. Victor Bodo wrote about the types of happiness. He identified 4 types of happiness by origin – coming from pleasure, from purpose, from spirituality, and one from following a wise path. Lottery winnings can greatly impact the first type of happiness. However, I don’t think they can make me younger, smarter, healthier, wiser, or more connected to the family and community, leaving the 3 other types of happiness unchanged or at risk.

I once met a lottery winner while standing in line for bread. Those who have lived in communism know that shortages were common, and waiting in long lines for basic stuff was a daily chore. In my case, it was bread. An old man stood in front of me, loudly sharing the story of his life. Years ago, he had won the national lottery, with the prize being a large apartment. Winning didn’t spare him from aging—or from standing in line like everyone else.

So, in case I won the lottery, I think I’d rather invest the winnings and live a normal life than surrender to a life of luxury and riches. I might get myself an electric car 🙂

Last year I blogged that I think money can’t make you happier beyond a certain limit. I still believe it.

If you could un-invent something, what would it be?

~ Veselin ~ 9 Comments

If you could un-invent something, what would it be?

I believe information exists without observers. A human noticed that we can burn fossil fuel to drive ourselves around instead of riding horses at some point. By that time, cars might’ve already existed for billions of years in galaxies far, far away. We just didn’t know about them. Uninventing cars wouldn’t make them go away, it will only postpone their appearance. They will reappear because they can satisfy the demand for fast transportation.

So removing inventions sounds pointless to me. Certain human behaviours or use of the inventions – sure! I’d make people commute by walking or using bicycles, for example, but I wouldn’t uninvent cars. Cars have legitimate use cases.

Same with other things like nuclear weapons or multi cookers. All of that can be described with numbers, and all numbers already exist.

Do you play in your daily life?

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment
Daily writing prompt
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
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I do some football with the kids in warm months. I also play some bullet chess. I used to play more but kind of gave up my favorite 5-minute blitz games after my second kid was born in 2018. Don’t miss it, TBH. 1-minute chess is sufficiently good and the game ends before it becomes boring. I have no defined time but I sometimes alternate chess with reading after everyone is in bed.

I avoid playing addictive video games. I’ve been addicted to mobile or computer games several times in my life and do not enjoy it. For example, I got addicted to the Bulgarian MMORPG Imperia Online around 2005. Woke up at 4am every night to manage my armies. This pissed off my wife so much that she gave me the talk. I stopped immediately and it was empowering, gave me the tools to interrupt emerging game addictions on demand, which I used a couple of times in the later years.

In 2011, at a company meetup, I met two of the authors of Triple Town, a highly addictive mobile game. They explained how gamification works and how the drops are optimized for producing small amounts of dopamine in your brain to hook you up. I didn’t believe at first and tried their game. Surprise, surprise. I got addicted to it and had to use my painful tooling to stop it. So, whenever I feel the need to play a new game, I try to find puzzle-like games rather than games where you collect items, merge groups of items, or raise stats.

The last game I tried to play was Puzzle Star Battle. It is very difficult, though, I couldn’t solve a single 10x10x2 puzzle.

My own sports team

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment
Daily writing prompt
If you started a sports team, what would the colors and mascot be?
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Given my current limited interest in sports, I would do a hiking club. White and green.

My grandmother was a founding member of the tourist club Sarnena Gora, Stara Zagora (in the mid-50s) and remained a member until she passed. I associate these colors with her former club. I was also a member but lost my membership card several decades ago. Of course, there’s no point in establishing a club like that – tourist clubs already exist and carry over 100 years of tradition.