Day: December 12, 2018

Prom Pictures

Fandango8 Comments

A01E52DB-065B-4986-B830-D0861F04ECEBRobert had his camera ready to take a picture of his daughter, Meagan, and her date, Harry. “Daddy, whatever you do, please don’t embarrass me in front of my friends,” Meagan pleaded.

“You’re friends?” Robert said. “I thought it was going to be just you and Harry. You know it’s a long standing tradition to take a prom photo of a daughter and her prom date, not her whole coterie.”

“But Daddy, these are my best peeps,” Meagan said. “I can’t risk offending any of them by not including them in my prom pictures. That would be mega-eerie.”

“Well, I suppose I can take separate pictures of you and Harry, Kate and William, and Charles and Camilla,” Robert said. “And then one of your whole group. Will that work for you, sweetie?”

“Oh yes, Daddy, that would be fleek,” Meagan squealed.

Robert looked over at his wife and said, “Life with a teenage daughter certainly can be stimulating.”

Written for these one-word prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (camera), Nova’s Daily Random Word (date), Your Daily Word Prompt (tradition), Ragtag Daily Prompt (coterie), Scotts Daily Prompt (risk), Weekly Prompts (eerie), and Word of the Day Challenge (stimulating).

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Quit Trying

Fandango17 Comments

67BA2C17-81BB-44C4-971A-4062398EB6C2.jpegOkay, I’m addicted (or obsessed, compulsive, hooked, whatever). I went to my Reader this morning, opened up this post from Rory (A Guy Called Bloke), and saw a series of questions. I read it and then told myself to move on to the next post in my Reader. But I couldn’t. I commanded myself to step away from the iPhone, to take a cold shower, to masturbate, to do something else. Anything but answer Rory’s questions.

Alas….

What inspires you to write every day, every week or even every month in your blog?

What inspires me? Life, the news, politics, people, society, nonsense, prompts, photographs, imagination. Shall I go on?

Why do you do it? There are other ways to express how you feel, so why ‘blog it?’

As my wife said to me, “I’m tired of hearing you rant to me and the kids all the time. Go rant on your blog, where no one can hear you.”

Truth is, I spent almost 50 years of my life getting up each and every day and going to work. A lot of my work involved writing proposals, presentations, analysis documents. I also interacted with coworkers, clients, prospective clients. I even tried to find some time on weekends to write The Great American Novel, but never got very far.

Then, two years ago, I retired. No more proposals, presentations, coworkers, clients, prospective clients. Just me and my wife (and the kids when they found time in their own busy lives to spend time with us). So, what to do with myself, I wondered. After a month or so, my wife apparently got tired of me just hanging around and said, “Hey, you like to write. Why don’t you start a blog? That will keep you busy and out of my hair.”

What’s your story or is it your journey? What inspires you to reach out to an unseen audience and tell the world your innermost feelings, share your observations on life, highlight your opinions on your chosen topic or genre?

My story? It’s actually pretty average, nothing special, very ordinary. But I have opinions, perspectives, and a desire to write, so that’s why I use my blog to share my observations, opinions, perspectives, and tales. And my wife doesn’t want to hear them anymore, so….

Is your blog a message? Or is it a way to fine tune and hone your writing skills? Is there more for you with your blog, greater heights to be scaled, a ladder and doorway to success?

No, my blog isn’t a message. It’s a diversion, a distraction from the insanity that is swirling all around us since November 2016. But yes, I do use it to hone my writing skills and I’ve come to love writing flash fiction. Is there more for me with my blog? Nope, this is it. Just my way of expressing myself and hearing others do the same.

What inspires you to do so every time to sit poised ready to make a new post? 

My innate desire to not shrivel up and die.

Day 12 — Prehistoric

Fandango4 Comments

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I missed yesterday’s song post because, well, I missed it. But that’s okay because I didn’t start doing this 30-Day Song Challenge thing until Day 5, so I also missed the first four days.

860DCEB2-FB63-4E58-88D9-5C2464D3447BSo for Day 12 we’re supposed to pick “a song from our preteen years.” Wow, I’m going to need to borrow Sherman and Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine and set it to 1958 for this challenge. After all, I’m an old fart, and for many of you, my preteen years are what you might consider to be prehistoric years.

But Ooh Eeh Ooh Ah A-Ah, Ting, Tang, Walla Walla Bing Bang, back in 1958, David Seville and the Chipmunks came out with this classic, “The Witch Doctor,” a song beloved by most prehistoric preteens.

One-Liner Wednesday

Fandango3 Comments

E64A4189-4D36-4DF0-B5A9-7E3FAF367879

“A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.”

Comedian Steven Wright

Hmm. How many times did Jeff Sessions say “I can’t recall” at his confirmation hearings in 2017? So is he really the victim of a bad memory or is he just a liar with no conscience at all?

Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #5

Fandango21 Comments

FPQEach week I will pose what I think is a provocative question. By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

This week’s provocative question was actually inspired by fellow blogger Ursula at An Upturned Soul in this post in which she asked,

“These questions for “friends”… what exactly are they supposed to accomplish? Are they to get to know your “friends” better or to keep them busy while you make a run for it… to their bathroom so that you can rifle through their toothpaste and toothbrush collection?”

I responded to her question with some blather, but more relevant, she came back with this brilliant commentary:

“Blogging is a mini version of life. When you create a blog, you’re giving birth to blogging-you. Blogging-you then goes through blogging phases of development. Trying things out, learning as things are tried out. Joining groups, searching for a place in this blogging world. Getting caught up in movements, activities, trends, perhaps overdoing them or doing them until the novelty wears off. Losing interest in one thing and finding interest in another. Perhaps losing sight of why blogging-you exists, looking for a renewed sense of purpose for blogging-you and your blog. Gradually figuring out the subtler questions and their answers which are not always asked or answered openly but are always there like an undercurrent.”

So here’s this week’s provocative question (actually three questions):

“Is there a ‘blogging-you’ who is different from the real-world you? If so, how are the two ‘yous’ different? How has the ‘blogging-you’ evolved since you first started blogging?”

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ 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 most important, have fun.