Anyone use writing prompts to kickstart the day?

[Jason]

I teach a class called Write Right Now which is basically a four-week, pretty intensive writing course aimed at trying to break down your writing style and giving you some tips to jump start the writing process. We do a lot of prompts in class - seven minute speed writing exercises where I hand out little slips of paper and tell folks to pick up their pens. We then read the pieces and discuss the process and what we learned about ourselves moreso than the content of the pieces.

Due to this class I'm always looking for new prompt ideas. One of my favorites is to go to Wikipedia, click on "Random Article" and commit to writing a short piece of flash fiction inspired by whatever you get.

If anyone has any favorite prompts I'd love to hear about them...

(BTW, I posted the first two lesson plans on-line if anyone's interested. Here's #1 and #2. I think I'll post #3 and #4 this semester. I hate people having to miss out because they don't live in Arlington...)