Day: July 8, 2019

Data Breach

Fandango3 Comments

“We need a better data security strategy to protect the flow of our customers’ data,” Carl, the founder of the small financial consulting company, told his IT guy. “The survival of our company depends upon it.”

“No worries, boss,” Ivan said. “I’ll need about three weeks to lock this place down tighter than a drum. Our clients’ data will be secure.”

****Three Weeks Later****

Carl called Ivan into the conference room to make a presentation to his senior staff. “Can you give us an update on your data security project?” Carl asked.

Ivan turned down the conference room lights, turned on the projector, and opened up a PowerPoint presentation that he projected onto a screen at one end of the room. “Behold!” Ivan said as the image appeared on the screen.BA885AAF-2D3E-47B0-A245-348173B49CBE”What is that?” one of the attendees asked.

“That, my friends,” Ivan said, “is a depiction of how the new firewall I just finished installing will secure our servers. As you can see, it will protect our clients’ data from even the most malevolent fire-breathing dragon of a hacker who would dare to try to get to our servers.”

Suddenly the image on the screen disappeared and was replaced by this image.0C0E3FA5-F18E-43D9-891E-99FD24A621D1“Oops,” Ivan said.

Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (strategy), Ragtag Daily Prompt (flow), Your Daily Word Prompt (behold), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (firewall), and Word of the Day Challenge (dragon).

Share Your World — In the Summertime

Fandango4 Comments

SYWIt’s Monday and that means it’s Share Your World time. Each week, Melanie, over at Sparks From a Combustible Mind, posts four or five questions that promote sharing a little bit about ourselves with each other. You should try it if you haven’t already done so.

Are you a summer person? A winter person? Or does one of the other seasons suit you best?

I’ve always been an autumn person. I love the clean, crisp, cool air of the autumn. And it just so happens that where I live, in San Francisco, there’s really little difference between seasons. Today’s high, for example, is expected to be around 60 degrees. Winters here are usually only 5-10 degrees cooler and are a little wetter than in the summer. But typically, the sunniest and warmest weather in San Francisco is in the autumn.

What is your favorite summer time clothing?

Due to what I said above, my wardrobe doesn’t change much with the seasons. And since I’m retired, it’s made up mostly of jeans, sport shirts, and sneakers.

Do you find yourself eating out more during the summer? Or making ‘cold food’ like salads and stuff you can heat in the microwave?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, given that there’s not much of a difference in the seasons where I live, my eating habits don’t change all that much from one season to the next.

Do you like watermelon? What’s your favorite summertime treat?

Who doesn’t like watermelon? It’s sweet and refreshing.EE73C832-F3D6-4804-B45D-CA7AECBFD796

Are you thankful it’s finally (sorta) dry and warm?

It is drier here now than it is in the winter, which is considered to be our “rainy” season, but we still have fog nearly every day in the morning and at night in June and July, so I wouldn’t use the words “dry and warm” to describe summer’s in San Francisco.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #21

Fandango17 Comments

FFFCWelcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.” Each week I will be posting a photo I grab off the internet and challenge bloggers to write a relatively short flash fiction piece inspired by the photo. While there are no definitive style or word limits, I suggest trying to keep your posts to under 300 words.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who has participated in these challenges so far. Your posts have been very creative. I hope this week’s image will also generate some great posts as well.

So now it’s time for this week’s Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge. The image below is from Fidler Jan@morguefile.com.F13F64EF-ABAD-42CE-8623-EA0AEE6ED3B3If this picture inspires you and you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FFFC, and link back to this post.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

Please take a few minutes to read some of the other responses to this photo challenge. And most important, have fun.

FOWC with Fandango — Firewall

Fandango28 Comments

FOWCWelcome to July 8, 2019 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 “firewall.”

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.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

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