Day: April 27, 2020

Blogging Insights — What’s Next?

Fandango11 Comments

Blogging insightsDr. Tanya is back at it, asking for us to share with her our blogging insights. But before I share anything, I want to congratulate Dr. Tanya on having been asking us her insightful blogging questions for six-plus months. Woo hoo!

Okay, now that she’s been at it for half a year, the good doctor is asking for our input. She has asked:

What suggestions/tips do you have for improving/upgrading this series? Do you have any questions that you would like me to feature?

I am not sure I have any definitive suggestions of insightful tips to offer Dr. Tanya. I’m always interested in learning about what makes other bloggers tick. That’s not the same as asking why they started blogging or what their blogs are all about. It’s more about what purpose in their lives does blogging achieve or fulfill. What internal needs does blogging meet? What part does it play in their daily lives? How important is it to them? If they weren’t blogging, how else would they spend their time? In other words, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being blogging is their entire reason for being, and one being that, meh, they have nothing better to do, how does blogging rate?

Maybe these questions are too intrusive or personal, but these are the things I’d love to hear about from other bloggers.

Share You World — Of Guns, Respect, Ego, and Death

Fandango3 Comments

Share Your World

As Melanie, at Sparks From a Combustible Mind, pointed out, it’s almost the end of fourth month of 2020, and what an “interesting” year it’s been so far. Here’s Melanie’s Share Your World prompt for this week.

Do guns protect people or kill people? Or both?

Both. But first, let’s be real. Guns are designed to kill. Sure, they can also be used to protect and/or defend people. But in the United States there are more guns than there are men, women, and children. More gun deaths, including suicides, than any other nation (close to 40,000 a year) and more mass shootings than any other nation. And then there are the types of guns available to citizens in America: high capacity, military-style, semiautomatic weapons. These types of weapons aren’t used for protection. So, my bottom line is that guns do kill people…far more than they protect people.

Is it more important to be respected or liked?

It would be nice to be both liked and respected, but if I had to choose one, it would be to be respected.

Is having a big ego a negative or positive trait?

Ego is essentially a sense of self, a person’s self-esteem, self-opinion, and self-confidence. We all have egos, and there’s nothing wrong with having a positive sense of self. But when someone’s ego is oversized or blown out of proportion to the point of narcissism, it becomes a negative trait.

Depending on your point of view, is death a new beginning?

Death is the end, not a beginning, new or otherwise.

W is for Well Done

Fandango7 Comments

A2Z2020For this year’s A to Z Challenge I’m going to attempt to post an old saying or adage each day of the month of April (except for Sundays). I’m going through the alphabet, with the first letter of the adage beginning with the first letter of the alphabet (A) and continuing for 26 adages in alphabetical order until I get through the entire alphabet by April 30 — from A to Z.

I don’t know if it can be done, but I’m going to give it the old college try. Here’s my April 27th adage and it starts with the letter W.

Well done is better than well said.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #63

Fandango9 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 flash fiction piece or a poem inspired by the photo. There are no style or word limits.

The image below is from Tim Short at the USA Today Network.24EA7636-3C7D-49BF-AD68-D3B1E9ED8C50 For the visually challenged writer, the photo shows an orange beam of light on the horizon that is reflected in the lake water below at dusk.

If this week’s image inspires you and you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FFFC, and link back to this post. I hope it will generate some great posts.

Thanks to all of you who have participated in these challenges. Your posts have been very creative. Please take a few minutes to read the other responses to this photo challenge.

Please create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Squad

Fandango21 Comments

FOWCWelcome to April 27, 2020 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 “squad.”

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.