Day: December 28, 2020

The Downpour

Fandango10 Comments

“Shuffle the cards,” Arlene said. “The rain goddess has blessed us with a downpour so I can’t go outside right now and I’m bored.”

“I can’t,” Jack said, “I’m working.”

“Working?” Arlene said. “You telecommute. You’re probably spending more time blogging or watching YouTube than you are actually working.”

“No I’m not, Arlene,” Jack said. “I’m working hard and I don’t have time to play cards with you.”

“Fine,” Arlene said. “It looks like the rain is ending anyway so I’m going to take the dog out for his walk.”

Written for these daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (shuffle), The Daily Spur (rain), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (goddess), MMA Storytime (telecommute), and Word of the Day Challenge (ending).

goddess rain shuffle ending telecommute

Share Your World — Goodbye 2020

Fandango18 Comments

Share Your WorldIt’s the last Monday of 2020 (yay!) and it’s also Melanie’s last Share Your World of 2020. Let’s see what she wants us to share.

Pick three words to describe this past year. (Please keep them PG. Thanks.)

Sucky, frustrating, and depressing.

What were the best books you read this year?Or the best movie you saw?  

All of the books I read this year were re-reads of books I’d read previously. And all of the movies I saw this year were movies I watched on TV, although when it came down to what we watched on TV, we binge-watched more shows than movies.

Because there was lots of time for looking inward, what is one big personal lesson you learned this past year?

I learned that I miss eating at restaurants more than I thought I would. We moved to a new town in February and we were looking forward to dining at some of the great local restaurants, but within a month of moving to our new town, the quarantine started, and a number of the restaurants we were looking forward to eating at have since closed.

Do you think Covid has strengthened or weakened societal bonds?

I think Donald Trump has so divided and politicized the United States that most societal bonds have suffered. Even taking the pandemic the seriously, maintaining social distancing and wearing face masks have been politicized. The societal and political chasm between the left and the right got even deeper and wider in 2020.

What is a New Year’s wish you’d like to share with the world?

I wish that people would stop focusing on what makes us different and start focusing on all that we have in common.

Blogging Insights — 2020

Fandango13 Comments

Blogging insightsIn this week’s edition of Blogging Insights, Dr. Tanya wants to know about how the year 2020 affected our blogging. She wants to know…

What can you say about your blogging experience in 2020? Has it been different from that in previous years?

Almost all of my stats are down a little in 2020 from 2019. I posted fewer posts, got fewer views, fewer likes, and fewer comments. Not by much, but still fewer. Of course, early in the year I relocated from the city to the suburbs, so my frequency of posting for about a month before until about six weeks after the move was way down. And then in August WordPress forced the block editor down our throats and, because of that, I experimented with two other blogging platforms, Blogger and Medium. And since early November a bug in the WordPress iOS for the iPhone has slowed me down. But otherwise, not much changed about my blogging experience in 2020.

What have you been posting about most frequently in 2020?

Well, now that you mention it, one thing did change about my blogging experience in 2020. I wrote more angry posts about politics, about Donald Trump, and about the 2020 presidential election. And then there was the pandemic. So one might say that I was angrier on 2020 than in previous years.

Please share links to a few of your favorite posts from this year.

I’m really not good at picking out my favorite posts. It’s like asking a parent to pick out his or her favorite child. I’ve published more than 1500 posts so far this year and they’re all my favorites.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #98

Fandango19 Comments

Welcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.” Each week I will be posting a photo I grab off the internet and challenging 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 the Google Photo Frame.For the visually challenged writer, the image is the drawing of a girl’s face. The girl appears to be lying on her side.

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 — Goddess

Fandango24 Comments

FOWCWelcome to December 28, 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 “goddess.”

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.