Day: August 19, 2020

Pay to Play

Fandango23 Comments

Imagine my excitement when A.M. Moscoso, who blogs at My Enduring Bones, commented on my rather whiney post about the WordPress Block editor that has been foisted upon us. She wrote:

“I went to the Dashboard and went to the Plugin category and found the classic editor plugin. It says it extends the screen, but all I know is my classic editor screen is back and I don’t see the block style. I think if you search for Classic Editor Plugin you’ll get more info. I found it on accident. But if you install it, you’ll be back to the format we like!”

Woo hoo! My prayers have been answered. All I have to do is go to my dashboard, click on Plugins…
…and I’m off and running, right?

Well, not exactly. You see, WordPress plugins are only available if you have the Business Plan.And the Business Plan is only available if you are willing to fork over $25 a month! Well guess what, WordPress, I am not a business. I blog for fun, not to make money. I’m not selling anything. I don’t even have ads on my blog because I pay $4 a month for the Personal Plan precisely so ads don’t show up on my posts.

Come on, WordPress. How about cutting some slack to your casual bloggers instead of catering to businesses and professionals. Don’t foist things on us that we don’t want or need (e.g., the Block editor). Just give us what we hobby bloggers need to enjoy blogging instead of making it burdensome. Whaddya say, WordPress?

One-Liner Wednesday — Lies and Truth

Fandango8 Comments

Truth and Lies“A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.”

Edgar J. Mohn

It’s very true these days, with Twitter and the always on, 24×7 internet, that lies have speed. I used to think, as did Edgar J. Mohn, (whoever he is — I looked him up but, other than this quote, not much is known about him), that truth will endure. But Adolf Hitler was the first to express the notion that…

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

This is a philosophy that Donald Trump has embraced “bigly,” as he tells big lie after big lie and his rabid supporters buy into his every word and believe every lie he tells.

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

Fandango’s Dog Days of August #19

Fandango22 Comments

Fandango’s Dog Days of AugustDo you need a muse to get your creative juices flowing during these hot, sultry days of August? Try a dose of Fandango’s Dog Days of August prompt.

At 6:00 am Pacific time each day this month, I will be posting a new theme. Today’s theme is “hate.” Hate is a strong word, but I have no doubt that there is something or someone each of us hates. Is it a person? Food? Some aspect of society? Your job? Share a story, a poem, a photo, a drawing, some music, or whatever you wish to share about hate.

If you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FDDA, and create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.

And, of course, take some time to read the other responses to this prompt. See how other bloggers are coping with the dog days of August.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #83

Fandango35 Comments

FPQWelcome 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.

My provocative question this week is about technology. I have been attempting, over the past 24 hours since WordPress forced me to use the Block editor, to try to figure out how to make it work on my iPhone, which is the device I use for my blog. So far I have not mastered it, and even when I attempt to use the so-called “Classic” block, I end up getting an error message and basically have to use the wp-admin version of the Classic editor, where it takes me way longer to write a post than it did on the good old Classic editor that the geniuses at WordPress decided to “retire.”

As a result, I’m thinking about ending my blog, or perhaps finding another platform, like Blogger or Medium. So that got me thinking about whether or not we, in this information/technology age, are subservient to the technology we depend upon. So my provocative question to you this week is this:

Do we control technology or is technology controlling us?

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. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Missing

Fandango28 Comments

FOWCWelcome to August 19, 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 “missing.”

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. Please 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.