Abnormal definition #1:
Abnormal definition #2:
Day: September 25, 2019
In Other Words — Peanut Butter
“Okay, that’s it,” Debra said, “I can’t believe you taught that goddam bird to sing that goddam song. It’s driving me crazy and you need to do something about it or I’m leaving you.”
“But, honey,” Stan said, “you know how much that parrot loves to eat peanut butter.”
“That doesn’t mean he needs to sing about it hour after hour, day in and day out,” Debra said. “So you choose, Stan, the parrot or me!”
Written for the In Other Words prompt from Patricia’s Place. The challenge this week is to write a story or poem of five lines or fewer using the picture above and/or the words “peanut butter.” Photo credit: Mabel Amber, still incognito… from Pixabay.
Ups and Downs: An Update
You may recall my rant on Monday when I shared the fact that Comcast told me they had theoretically increased the speed of my internet service. But what happened in reality is the internet speed dropped precipitously. I shared this graphic to illustrate that point.
I ended up spending about four hours on the phone with Comcast tech support. I was instructed to reboot my laptop and my iPhone. No help. Then I was told to unplug my modem/router, wait 10 seconds, and then plug it back in. No help.
Then the tech support guy sent something (a code of some sort) to my modem to electronically reboot/update it. No help.
After several more attempts and a lot of trial and error, the guy from Comcast suggested that I might want to take my six-year-old modem to the nearest xfinity store and exchange it for the latest, greatest, most technologically advanced modem/router ever made.
The good news is that there’s an xfinity store about a mile and a half from my house, so I took my old modem, put it in a shopping bag, and took a bus to that store, where I made the exchange. Armed with my new, state-of-the-art modem/router, I took the bus home, plugged in the new modem, connected it to my laptop, and waited, as instructed by the guy at the xfinity store, about 20 minutes for the new modem to “acclimate.”
Lo and behold, half hour later I checked the internet speed on my iPhone and it was zooming. I reran the seven day speed chart and this is what it showed:
Alrighty then. My internet download speeds are lightning fast. And all it took was about six hours of my time on Monday, including four on the phone with tech support, two bus rides, and a lot of aggravation.
I wonder what will happen the next time Comcast enhances my internet service.
One-Liner Wednesday — Dad Bods
“I don’t have a dad bod, I have a father figure.”
My brother-in-law
My brother-in-law is a very funny guy. When his son told him that he was developing a “dad bod,” he came back with the above quip.
But what exactly is a “dad bod”? Well, according to the Urban Dictionary, “a ‘dad bod’ is a male body type that is best described as ‘softly round.’ It’s built upon the theory that once a man has found a mate and fathered a child, he doesn’t need to worry about maintaining a sculpted physique.”
Some argue that a dad bod is a nice balance between working out and keeping a beer gut and that it’s “built for comfort.”
It seems that having a dad bod these days is not such a bad thing. A recent survey found that Americans’ acceptance of “dad bods” is increasing every year. Survey results published by Planet Fitness show that 78% of people think confidence is king. The summary said that “nearly four in five among both women and men believe a ‘dad bod’ is a sign of a man who is confident and comfortable in his own skin.”
Men with a slight paunch and a distinct lack of cheese grater or six pack abs are officially “more attractive” these days than they were in the past.
And to prove it, just look at these recent photos of Leonardo DiCaprio and Chris Pratt with their sexy dad bods.
Written for today’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt from Linda G. Hill.
Fandango’s Provocative Question #42
Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration. 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 I am actually going to borrow from fellow blogger, Melanie, at Sparks from a Combustible Mind. In her Share Your World post from earlier this week, one of the questions she asked was, “When is censorship warranted? Ever?”
There we’re some fascinating responses to that question and, since some of you who read this post may not have read Melanie’s post, I thought I’d ask it again, but not from the prospect of censorship per se, but on the whole notion of freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate and express their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. This is especially important to us bloggers.
One example of where freedom of speech or expression is under attack is that American border patrol agents, who have the authority to search belongings for contraband, or to determine who is admissible into the U.S., have recently been claiming the right to search travelers’ devices for “general law enforcement purposes.” They claim that they can seize and search your phone, and even make a copy of it so that forensic experts can analyze its contents off-site.
The good news is that, based upon rulings in some recent lawsuits, border agents can’t search travelers’ cellphones without having some reason to believe a particular traveler has committed a crime.
The fact that they thought they had the right to seize and search the electronic devices, including social media postings, of people legally entering the country is, to me, very disconcerting.
So my question is this:
Do you feel that in today’s world — and perhaps in the part of the world in which you live — the freedom to articulate and express opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction is being threatened?
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.
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.
This, That, and the Other 