Welcome to The Daily’s — my personal sandbox of ideas, reflections, and writing challenges. This is where I meet the prompts head-on, whether they come from WordPress or the strange corners of my mind. Some days, it’s a piece of fiction; other days, it’s something raw, real, or maybe just a rant wrapped in a metaphor.
What you’ll find here is a little bit of everything: moments of introspection, bursts of creativity, slices of life, and stories that refuse to behave. This space lets me stretch as a writer — experiment, connect, and sometimes just make sense of the day.
Every post is a snapshot of where my head (and heart) was at the time. Thanks for reading. Dive in. Stay a while.
Latest posts
What Happened?
Which outdated technology do you miss the most, and why? When you live long enough, the list of answers to this question becomes long. Hours have been spent discussing the way things used to be, the way things should be,…
Apparently, Nobody Told the Laptop
The conspiracy theory I find most believable is planned obsolescence. Now, I don’t believe there is some mysterious timer buried deep inside my refrigerator, laptop, or television counting down the seconds until the warranty expires. Although, some days, I wonder.…
All It Must, but No More
Young people sometimes have this notion that the information we know is obsolete. In some ways, they are absolutely correct. We elders have a similar notion: What the hell are these young people doing? I wonder if their mama knows…
Baldwin, Ursula, and My Good T-Shirt
Most people would probably choose an author and spend dinner asking about books. I’d invite James Baldwin. I can see him sitting across from me, cigarette balanced between his fingers, legs crossed. His forehead creases as he listens to my…
Time Was Never the Problem
There was a time when I worried there simply weren’t enough hours in the day. Like many people, I believed the more I could cram into those hours, the more productive I was. We celebrate being busy, glorify multitasking, and…
Dropping Jewels
The prompt asks for a quote that describes my outlook on life. I could easily borrow one from Marcus Aurelius, James Joyce, or any number of great thinkers whose words have influenced me over the years. They all deserve a…
The Compass I Was Given
If someone asked me what gives me direction in life, I could point to many things. My faith. My family. My career. My writing. All have shaped the man I am today. Yet, if I’m honest, the compass that guides…
The World Is Larger Than We Think
I’ve been fortunate to travel throughout much of the United States and around the world. Along the way, I experienced different cultures, languages, traditions, and ways of seeing life. If someone asked me for my top ten travel destinations, I…
Before You Decide What to Think
People often ask for one piece of life-changing advice, as though wisdom were a key hidden beneath the right rock. I don’t think life works that way. Most of us have heard the advice we needed years before we were…
The Difference Between Knowing and Thinking
I think thinking is a basic skill. The older I get, the more I realize it isn’t. Early in my military career, I learned to stop chasing symptoms and start looking for root causes. A single fault could be produced…
The Older I Get, the Quieter My Heroes Become
The fictional character I relate to the most is Walt Longmire. I first met him through Robert Taylor’s portrayal in the television series. It was his manner that caught my attention. He never seemed in a hurry to speak. He…
The Things We Keep
I don’t really have a decorating style, and I’ve never wanted one. Well… unless mystery storage totes count as a decorating style. I have a few tucked away, and I’m not entirely sure what’s in them. Doesn’t everyone? Over the…
Every Ending Has a Name
If you could rewrite any book’s ending, which one would you choose? I’ve read books with endings I hated. I wanted another chapter. Another conversation. Another chance for a character to choose differently. I closed the cover convinced I knew…
The Charge
One song lyric has stayed with me for decades: “You’ll take my life, but I’ll take yours too.” — The Trooper by Iron Maiden. When I was younger, it sounded like defiance wrapped in a heavy guitar riff. As I…
The Promise to Remain Curious
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, boy.” “I know you mean well, but all you have is your word. So do what you say, and say what you mean.” Those were lessons instilled in me as a child. It’s hard…
Dinner with Ursula
Most people would probably invite Sherlock Holmes, Gandalf, or Atticus Finch to dinner. Me? I’d invite Ursula. She’d arrive late—not because she was careless, but because she enjoys making an entrance. Lime green from head to toe, fedora tilted just…
Worth Every Penny
People usually expect an answer like a house, a first car, or some piece of technology that made life easier. Mine is much simpler. A wedding ring. Not because it was expensive. It wasn’t. Gold is just metal until we…
A Day Wasted
Kindle and Audible easily consume more of my screen time than any other apps. Between history, philosophy, literature, and biographies, I’m almost always reading or listening to something. Do I feel bad about it? Not at all. I constantly read,…
Pirates, Blueberry Muffins, and What’s the Next Story
Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind. People say, “Write down the first thing that comes to mind.” I don’t think my mind works that way. It’s more like… How can I feed my mind today? As…
Beyond City Limits
I never had a single movie or book that inspired me to travel. Instead, it was the cumulative effect of reading books and watching films that changed my perspective. They taught me that the world was far bigger than the…
The Way
If I could have dinner with any philosopher, I would have a difficult decision to make. John Stuart Mill would speak of the greater good—the idea that our actions should produce the greatest benefit for the greatest number. Immanuel Kant…
The Inheritance of Strangers
If she could have reached back through time, Marianne thought, if she could have plucked a single thread from the sprawling, snarled tapestry of human behavior—one of those thick, nearly unbreakable cords running from the earliest campfires through the neon-lit…
The Wisdom of Fear
We are taught from an early age not to be afraid. Stand your ground. Face your fears. Conquer them. Somewhere along the way, we decided fear was a flaw to overcome instead of a part of ourselves to understand. I…
Just Don’t Confuse It with Tomfoolery
Is a little chaos actually good for us? When I look at this question, I can’t help but chuckle. Personally, I have no time for tomfoolery. I don’t think there’s much room for it in this world, and I certainly…
I Earned My Words
Absolutely. I believe we’re born with two identities that never leave us: teacher and student. Not one replacing the other but existing simultaneously. Learning didn’t begin in a classroom, nor does it end with a retirement party. Our lives are…
The Stories That Never Really End
In reading Count a Lonely Cadence, I’m reminded why we write. Some stories change the world by quietly changing the reader. They ask us to confront the things we’d rather leave alone—the quiet wounds, the private failures, the moments that…
The Villain in the Mirror
Most people will probably answer this question with Magneto, Killmonger, or some other modern villain whose motives were understandable even if their methods weren’t. Those are good answers. Mine is different. I would argue that Professor Moriarty had the best…
I Vote for Lady Polgara
My challenger? Lady Polgara, the Sorceress from David Eddings’ Belgariad and Malloreon series. Most people would nominate someone capable of defeating Vader in combat. I’d rather nominate someone capable of defeating the very idea that fear is the best way…
Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body… Or So I Thought
One of the biggest lies I carried from childhood into adulthood was the idea that “pain is weakness leaving the body.” It sounded noble. Tough. Almost heroic. So whenever I got hurt, the response was automatic: “I’m good.” “I’m alright.”…
Choosing What Matters
Growth Isn’t Always Loud One way I have grown this year is learning to be more deliberate about where I invest my time and attention. For a long time, I believed productivity meant doing more, chasing every idea, and saying…
The Whammy
I know many of my friends view our childhood obsessions through the lens of Lincoln Logs, Stretch Armstrong, G.I. Joe with the kung fu grip, Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, and Spider-Man. For me though… Girls. I’ve spent years gathering…
The Things That Made My Hands Shake
On love, fear, and the risks that matter most What makes me nervous? Not snakes. Not heights. Not public speaking. I’ve stood in enough strange rooms under bad lighting to know fear wears many costumes, and most of them are…
Something Else Held the Pen
Notes from a Night I Don’t Fully Remember I didn’t notice it at first. Change doesn’t announce itself. Not really. It doesn’t kick the door in or make promises it can’t keep. It just… arrives. Slips into the empty seat…
The Quiet Things That Shape Us
There’s a certain kind of moment you don’t recognize until later—the quiet ones that change your direction without asking permission. Mine came in a used bookstore. The owner didn’t say much. He just walked up, placed Bad Haircut in my…
The Knucklehead Wing
They gave the museum to Travis Hanson. He gets the parts that make sense. I get the parts that happened anyway—the ones that didn’t ask permission, didn’t check the manual, and definitely didn’t end with applause. Right at the entrance,…
Tailfeather Jenkins and the Widow Jones
The rain didn’t fall. It hovered—like it had somewhere better to be but couldn’t quite commit. Hung there in the air, thinking things through. I respected that. Commitment’s a tricky thing. People talk a good game until it’s time to…
Still Not Convinced
When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up? When I was five, I wanted to be something. That’s what people expect you to say. Something simple. Something you could draw with a thick crayon…
The Illusion of Language
Most people think language is simple.You open your mouth, words come out, someone else hears them, and the message lands exactly the way you meant it. That’s the illusion. Language feels precise, but most of the time it’s anything but.…
The Tools Changed. The Job Didn’t.
People like to say technology changed my job.That sounds neat. Clean. Logical. It isn’t exactly true. The job itself hasn’t changed much at all. I still sit in a chair, stare at words, move them around, delete half of them,…
I Had a Plan Until My Brain Got Involved
Saying no to everyday distractions has never been much of a problem for me.Noise, nonsense, people wanting your time for things that don’t matter — that part is easy. By trade I’ve always been a troubleshooter. Something breaks, you figure…
Everybody Knows One Superpower Isn’t Enough
As kids, we carry around a whole warehouse full of fantasies. I never really understood why superheroes stick in our heads the way they do, but every child has one. I remember reading a line once that always made sense…
I Haven’t Slept Since the First Bush
If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time? I had to laugh when I read this question.Asking an insomniac what they would do if they didn’t need sleep is cute. I haven’t slept since…
Where the Alchemist Disappear
What activities do you lose yourself in? You look at social media long enough and you start to think everyone is happy.Every picture has a smile. Every post sounds like a greeting card. Nobody wants to show the parts that…
Nobody’s Counting Out Here
First day on the dock, they stuck me with the two oldest guys in the place. Nobody told me their ages, but you could tell by the way they moved. Not slow exactly. Just careful, like every joint had a…
Be Careful Not to Slip
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence? “I write stories with a certain rawness that tends to make polite people uncomfortable—and after years as a miscreant, I’ve learned the quickest way to shock someone is simply to tell the…
Ghostman
“Pepaw, it’s like you forgot you are Pepaw.” My granddaughter said it casually, like she was pointing out something obvious. I laughed. But the words stuck. Because she was right. For a while there I had forgotten exactly who I…
The Missions That Matter
People ask what experiences in life helped me grow the most. They usually expect a defining moment. A clean story. A single event you can point to and say, That’s where everything changed. The idea that one or two experiences…
Normal Never Fit
“If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be?” No one. That’s the answer. There’s a line people like to quote as if it’s decorative wisdom: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”— Oscar Wilde When…
Because It’s Steady
My favorite drink? Easy. Black coffee. It’s the only drink I’ve had consistently for most of my life. No cream. No sugar. No adjustments. Just heat and grit in a chipped enamel mug. I’ve changed cities. Jobs. Beliefs.People have come…
Straight with No Chaser
Before I started drafting this essay, I was on the phone with my partner at House of Tunage. He was giving me a ration of crap because I hadn’t followed through on something he asked me to do years ago.…
The Last Pair on the Rack
For most men I know, it’s sneakers or loafers or some polished thing they save for church. For me, it was always boots. I spent most of my adult life laced into combat leather. Jump boots. Jungle boots. Different brands,…
A No. 2 Pencil and Common Sense
My Approach to Budgeting on a Fixed Income Budgeting, for me, isn’t about color-coded spreadsheets and financial influencers telling me to “manifest abundance.” It’s about math. Cold, unbothered math. Money doesn’t care how motivated I feel. It responds to numbers.…
No Soundtrack for Service
Am I patriotic? That depends on who’s asking—and what they think that word means. I spent years in the military. Long enough to understand that patriotism isn’t always loud. It isn’t always wrapped in flags or shouted over fireworks. I…
Truth Over Popularity
A Life Without Applause I learned early that rooms love agreement more than honesty. Agreement makes people comfortable. It keeps the temperature even. It oils the machinery of belonging. You nod, you smile, you say what fits, and the world…
Fortress of Solitude
I have lived in a chaotic world for most of my life. Not poetic chaos. Not inconvenience dressed up as hardship. Military service. Noise that never really stopped. Orders that shaped your days and sometimes your thoughts. Rooms where you…
Perforated Silence
I don’t tell people this, because it sounds like a lie when you say it out loud—but the work goes better if I chew while I draw. Not gum. Never gum. Gum is too clean, too polite. It doesn’t fight…
Nothing Demanded
My ideal day doesn’t announce itself. It starts quietly, without alarms or obligation pressing its thumb into my chest. Morning light slips through the blinds like it knows better than to be loud. Coffee comes when it comes. No rush.…
No Headline for This
The major events in our lives announce themselves. They arrive with names, dates, diagnoses, anniversaries. We can point to them cleanly and say, That’s when things changed. They’re easy to catalogue, easy to explain, easy to remember. The little things…
The BASIC and Fortran Blues
We were too poor to have a computer when I was a kid. That’s not a metaphor or a badge—just a fact. Computers existed, sure, but they lived in schools and offices, not houses like mine. I worked on them…
Clues Left Behind
What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time? I enjoy tracking down television shows that only survived a single season. There’s something fascinating about failure that almost worked. Sometimes the reasons are obvious—bad writing, wrong casting, a network…
The Method
I live a simple life.Apparently, this confuses people. Some assume “simple” means boring—that if I’m not broadcasting joy at full volume, I must be missing out on something essential. Chaos. Noise. The approved version of fun. I’ve even been told…
I Always Come Back
If I could make my pet understand one thing, it would be this: I’m never leaving you. Not when I shut the door in the morning. Not when the bags are packed. Not when my voice sounds distracted or tired…
Listening to Madness
The clutter I’m learning to reduce isn’t physical—it’s internal. For years, I filled my creative process with unnecessary layers: over-explaining, over-structuring, and second-guessing instincts that were already sound. What looked like discipline was often a lack of trust. As I’ve…
The Middle Is the Hard Part
My biggest challenge isn’t discipline. It’s discernment. I have no shortage of ideas, responsibilities, or obligations. The challenge is knowing which ones deserve my time, my energy, and my attention—and which ones are just noise dressed up as urgency. Not…
Still Working
I haven’t posted here in a while. Not because I ran out of things to say. Not because the work stopped. I just wasn’t standing at the microphone. The last couple of months were spent doing the unglamorous things I…
Signal Through the Static
I was never a cartoon kid. The bright colors, the slapstick chaos, the noise—they all felt like they were shouting past me. But every now and then, something stranger slipped through the broadcast. Clutch Cargo. Space Angel. The 70s Spider-Man…
The Discipline of a Quiet Man
There are words we use carelessly, scattering them across people who haven’t earned them. Honor is not one of them. Honor is not a word; it’s a state of being. Many treat it as a relic from old books, a…
Instincts, Echoes, and the Work of Coming Back
Of course I trust my instincts. These instincts are the reason I’m still here. They’re the early warning system that kicked in long before I had the language to explain what was happening. They’ve pulled me out of bad situations,…
The Line Between Us and the Wild Is Paper-Thin
Some days, I feel like the unofficial understudy for Marlon Perkins from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom—minus the khaki shorts and the camera crew. No judgement here, khaki’s are so comfortable. Wildlife keeps showing up in my life like it’s…
Skills from a Graduate of the School of Hard Knocks
If I’m being honest, the things I’m good at didn’t come from any classroom with fluorescent lights and tidy rows. They came from life pulling me aside, usually at the worst possible moment, and saying, “Pay attention—this part matters.” Most…
The Boy Who Wasn’t Afraid of the Dark
There’s something about the night I’ve never managed to explain without feeling like I’m circling the real truth instead of touching it. It isn’t just the absence of light. It’s the way the world exhales after midnight, how everything settles…
The Hardest Decision Was Saying Yes to Myself
The hardest decision I’ve made recently wasn’t life-or-death. It was deciding to release my work—actually release it. Not hide it in drafts. Not polish it into oblivion. Not drop something small into the void and pretend I didn’t care about…
The People I Keep Close
These days, my favorite people aren’t the loud ones. They aren’t the ones chasing applause, reposting their virtues, or building entire personalities out of whatever trend is paying attention this week. I find myself drawn to the honest ones—the people…
The Draft 2
Chapter 2 The Magnificent Seven, Mangus Style I’m sitting at the table, drinking coffee, smoking a cigarette, waiting for the liquor distributors to show up. The invoices are spread out like old confessions. Ursula drops into the booth beside me,…
Fuzzy Creatures, Women, and the Truth
I’ve been to several corners of the world. I’ve spent time in places that would make people cringe—hell, they make me cringe when I let my mind drift back there. But when I look at these two choices, it feels…
Can You Read a Person’s Soul in Five Seconds?
When I was young, they drilled it into us: “First impressions are lasting impressions.”Dress right, talk right, act right.Show people the best version of yourself and they’ll treat you accordingly. Then I stepped into the world as a Black man…
What We Pretend Not to See
It’s never as simple as answering, “What book are you reading right now?” I usually have four or five going at once — most of them nonfiction. Histories, craft books, philosophy, the “how did this happen and why does it…
The Bookstore I Never Opened
What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in? When I think about alternate paths, I don’t lean toward regret so much as curiosity. I made the choices I needed to make—provide for my family, show up when…
I Didn’t Grow Up — I Got Drafted
Some people swear I was never a child. They talk about me like I came out of the womb already irritated with humanity—scowl pre-installed, voice warmed up and ready to yell at strangers. And honestly? I get it. I spent…
The Place That Doesn’t Ask Anything of Me
If I could live anywhere in the world, I’d choose a place that doesn’t demand explanations or performances. I’ve lived in cities, deserts, the deep woods — turns out I can settle in just about any landscape as long as…
What I Found, What I Kept, What I Became
A simple sewing kit, a lifetime of inherited rhythm. I ended up with my mother’s sewing kit after she crossed over, though “kit” might be too generous a word. It was a simple plastic box the color of old Tupperware,…
Confessions of a Horrible Student II: The Connie Winford Diabolical
“Because sometimes the lessons that shape you come folded, ink-stained, and intercepted by your parents.” The last time we talked, I narrowly escaped the fallout from The Battle.I still don’t know why my father even put up a fight. In…
The Negotiation of Light: Notes on Screens, Silence, and Stillness
In the mornings, when I sit on the porch with my coffee, I watch the world before it fully wakes. The birds navigate from post to post, wings catching the soft light as if they were practicing choreography from a…
Everything Must Go… Time Is Running Out
The Time Machine Files, Vol. 3 Depends. You selling or giving it away? People love to talk about time like it’s a membership program — renewable, limited, and probably ad-supported.“There’s not enough time in the day.”“I wish I had more…
Oh Look, Another Time Travel Question
They asked what my life will be like in three years. I told them I’m still trying to figure out next Tuesday. Some men build time machines. Others read about alien pods and synthetic sheep, hoping to understand what went…
International Chucklehead Day
No one remembers who started it. Probably someone who said something so catastrophically dumb that laughter was the only way to keep the world from collapsing in on itself. That’s the real magic of it — turning foolishness into fellowship. …
Do’s, Don’ts, and Dumbshit: A Brief Guide to Time Travel
This could be an interesting question, depending on how you look at it.If we’re talking about glory days—back before the gray, before the knees filed for early retirement, before hangovers started needing a recovery plan—then no thanks. I have no…
The Price of Stolen Time
As a lifelong student of history, I’ve never been able to pull one event from the timeline and say, “This is my jam,” or “This right here—this is the shit.” I’ve said it, of course. Probably said it too often.…
No Cheap Shit
The Lab’s gone quiet tonight. Just me, a dead desktop, and the taste of old regret. Turns out, every shortcut comes with a bill — and this time, I paid in time I can’t get back. NO CHEAP SHIT.That’s my…
Well Shit, There Is Never Enough Duct Tape
Weathered, Hard Knocks Wisdom Well shit. There is never enough duct tape. Guppy and I are sitting in the middle of chaos again. She’s perched on the edge of the desk, licking her paw like she’s above it all. Around…
Tell Yourself Whatever You Need To
Most people think I’m loud — the kind of person who fills a room just by showing up. The one cracking jokes, telling stories, holding court like I was born to. I let them believe it. It keeps things easier,…
The Geography of Silence
A good neighbor knows when not to wave.They nod from across the street, maybe lift a hand if the mood strikes, but mostly—they stay put. They don’t wander over with gossip wrapped in small talk or ask what that noise…
When Nobody’s Watching
On the kind of truth that doesn’t need an audience. I’ve always felt that people who do things “as a matter of principle” are full of it. Too often, they cling to their moral code like a lifeboat, even when…
When the Words Stop Belonging to Me
Somewhere between the promise to finish and the fear of release, I found the echo of a voice that used to steady me. Maybe finishing isn’t the victory—it’s the letting go. The hardest personal goal I’ve set for myself was…
Detention, Da Vinci, and the Making of a Misfit
I wouldn’t know the names of the masters if you paid me a million dollars. I can’t look at a painting and tell you who brushed what stroke or why it matters. There are a few comic book artists I…
The Stories That Yearn to Be Told
I didn’t set out to be a writer. It happened by accident, somewhere between a half-finished sketch and a notebook full of half-thought ideas. Back then, I was a teenager with more curiosity than direction, filling pages because it felt…
One Size Fits Nobody
When I was young, we didn’t know anything about bipolar, ADHD, or OCD. For most of the kids who looked like me, we were troublemakers. Lazy. Not living up to our “potential.” And my personal favorite — “at risk.” I saw things that…
Well… You Know
What it means to be labeled, to mock, and to finally understand. There’s something about that question — “Tell us about a time when you felt out of place” — that stirs up more than I want to admit. For someone like me,…
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Memoirs of Madness 