1. Writing: I begin most of my days writing using the day's prompt to guide me. I find the prompts useful because I am not always inspired to come up with my own ideas. Inspiration comes when it will, and cannot be forced. These prompts can also be a catalyst for inspiration for other topics I feel passionate about expressing. I also enjoy writing poetry. Playing with words is very stimulating for me.

2. Audiobooks: I love immersing myself in a good story. Being read to feels comforting to me. Some very talented storytellers really know how to captivate a listener. I enjoy a variety of genres and I go through phases of which kind of audiobooks I am most drawn to. I listen to a lot of children's and youth fantasy books. I like funny, whimsical, stories. I love Terry Pratchett and Diane Wynne Jones. I love Terry Pratchet's series with the "Wee Free Men" about a young witch in training. Those books are ever so funny and the narrator does a brilliant job. I do read as well. But listening to a story is an experience. The story comes alive through the narration.

For a while, I listened to nothing but books about the holocaust. The stories of love in those books are what drew me to them. How much injustice and adversity really highlight our human capacity to love one another. The stark contrast between love and hatred really got into my soul. I learned so much about the goodness and the evil that exist in our humanity. How some weaker-minded people can be drawn into fascism so much easier, becoming active participants in inflicting atrocities. 

That normal, everyday people can so easily become hoodwinked under the right conditions. I have written a long poem about this topic. It was a great obsession of mine for a while. I needed to understand what makes us do such abhorrent things to each other. I think it all comes down to who you are around every day. Constant messages of hatred are streamed into their subconscious. Perhaps it is a lack of critical thinking skills and a poor quality of education, making their minds malleable to manipulation.

3. Watching funny movies and shows with my family: We are a family who loves to laugh. I wish I could watch The Office for the first time. We rewatch it though. Usually every day. We like movies such as Step Brothers and Anchorman. We like Ace Ventura. We watch Arrested Development and Parks and Recreation. My partner and I like Ricky Gervais. He has a couple of very good heartwarming series. We like SNL. We also watch other things besides funny stuff. The thing is, it has to be a very well-made film. We research what to watch and make sure it will be something we can enjoy. 

4. Watching YouTube: This is a guilty pleasure of mine. I love watching how we behave deviantly in public. I watch true crime stuff. I watch channels that discuss societal topics. Usually, I enjoy the younger people talking about social issues. They are a lot more woke than many people my own age. I like watching Family Court. People are so goddamn interesting to me. YouTube is a place to people watch. Since I rarely leave my home, I don't get to watch people the way I once did. 

5. Daydreaming: This has been my greatest hobby since I was a child. Daydreaming allowed me an avenue to escape reality. Reality is not always pleasant, is it? I daydreamed through my entire education growing up. The teacher would be droning on, and my eyes would just glaze over and I'd be transported to an entirely different world that was a lot more interesting than the world I was currently living in. My teacher once interrupted me, and I became a feral animal. I stood up and swore obscenities at her.

I think I was so deep in my alternate world that the teacher's interrupting created a flight-or-fight response in me. Normally I was left alone. It was thought that I was slow and not academically inclined so the adults never had high expectations for me. This gave me a great deal of freedom to retreat deep into my mind whenever I was bored. 

At home, I rode my bike around in circles for hours. Our driveway was large enough, and I wasn't allowed on the highway. That is where I would daydream. Riding my bike around in circles. As an adult, I dreamed pretty much anywhere. Going for walks, on the bus, in the car, outside in my yard. Daydreaming is highly underrated as a fun and creative way to pass the time. 

Anyway. Those are the simple things that I do for fun. I also have fun socializing with my family and going on trips. It is uneasy for me now, being reclusive for so long. But I have enjoyed road trips a lot, in my younger years.

Thank you for reading this!