Day: July 23, 2018

Cee’s SYW — Puzzles, Treats, and Dogs

Fandango2 Comments

2D3E9FA1-AC8D-4248-A8AA-43765A5629A9Here are this week’s Share Your World questions from Cee Neuner.

In regards to puzzles, what’s your choice: jigsaw, crossword, word search, mazes, logic or numeric puzzles, something else, or nothing? Well, I’m not sure it’s technically a puzzle, but I’m almost addicted to the solitaire game on my iPhone. My wife, on the other hand, can’t let a day go by without doing our newspaper’s daily crossword puzzle.52A40A3F-649C-4B63-AD4D-F66AFEF98F34

List at least five favorite treats and it doesn’t necessarily have to be food. Ice cream, Maryland blue crabs, key lime pie, and tiramisu. But best of all, a good night’s sleep.

What is your favorite type of dog? (can be anything from a specific breed, a stuffed animal or character in a movie) A rescue dog.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? I loved playing tour guide to our out-of-town visitors last week, but I appreciate life getting back to normal now that they’re gone. Does that make me a bad person? If so, too damn bad.

#FOWC — Father and Son

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C0F7A0FC-8902-4AE7-A6B1-2A775DE0F3F1“Why do I always feel like you’re trying to compete with me?” Danny asked his father.

“Son,” Danny’s father said. “Life is a zero-sum game. If you don’t win, you lose. It’s as simple as that. You can’t afford to make any accommodation for your competitor.”

“I’m your son, for crissake,” Danny said. “You should be encouraging me, supporting me, not competing with me, not denigrating me.”

“Son,” Danny’s father admonished, “You need to stop being so insipid. “There are times that you seem to move like a caterpillar. You need to put some zing in your step.”

Danny was silent for a moment, contemplating what his father had said. “Dad, you’re a successful, wealthy lawyer. I can’t compete with that. I don’t want the same things you want. Danny grabbed his coat and started to leave.

“Where are you going?” his father asked him.

“I got a job as a bartender at the new hotel downtown,” Danny said, slamming the door behind him.

“He’s such a loser,” his father muttered.

Written for Teresa’s Three Things Challenge, where the three things are caterpillar, silent, and hotel. Also for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge, “compete,” Your Daily Word Prompt, “accommodation,” the Word of the Day Challenge, “insipid, and for the Ragtag Daily Prompt, “zing.”

Write About What You Know…or Not

Fandango21 Comments

6BD0137E-85D8-4FDD-9CE2-FBD0B72A0BAFYesterday I was nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award by the lovely blogger over at Magnoliajem. I really do appreciate the nomination, but I have declared my blog to be an “award-free blog.” That said, it’s nice to be recognized and I’m happy to answer questions asked by such nominations.

In the case of this award nomination, we are asked to give a brief story of how our blog started and to give two pieces of advice to new bloggers. So here goes.

How this blog started

I started this blog in May of 2017. It’s not my first blog. I started my first blog in 2005, but quit my last (fourth) blog in 2015 when it began ruling my life. I needed to break away from blogging in order to maintain both my sanity and my marriage.

By May of 2017, I was obsessing about something else: Donald Trump as President of the United States. My obsession with Trump was driving my wife crazy and she suggested that maybe, as a distraction, I should start a new blog. But she also suggested that I avoid posting about politics and Donald Trump.

So I started this blog, “Fivedotoh,” so named to reflect that this was my fifth iteration of blogging. It served as a way to escape some of what is going on in Trumplandia, especially when I write flash fiction in response to prompts or to whatever other ideas pop into my imagination.

But, unfortunately, the insanity of Trumpistan has permeated my blog and far too many of my posts are rants about our Moron-in-Chief. But I think my wife, at this point, prefers that I rant about him here rather than while sitting at the table across from her at breakfast and dinner.

Two pieces of advice for new bloggers

In my opinion, the best part of blogging is interacting with the community of bloggers. When you’re new to blogging, it takes a while to build up an audience. Sometimes it can feel like you’re talking to yourself, but if you write well, and have something to say or stories to tell, you’ll be discovered and become part of a community. So my first bit of advice is to stick with it.

My second piece of advice is to write about what you know. Or if you don’t want to do that, just make shit up and write stories.

Thanks, once again, to Magnoliajem for the honor of the nomination.

FOWC with Fandango — Compete

Fandango28 Comments

FOWCWelcome to July 23, 2018 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “compete.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.