Day: March 22, 2021

WDYS — The Deep Woods

Fandango12 Comments

It had been more than a year, due to the pandemic, since I’d last been in even a small group of people, so being surrounded by a large crowd made me feel as if I were inundated by a sea of humanity. But I was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and I suddenly found myself caught up in a burgeoning crowd that was gathering in the square with the statue of Robert E. Lee across from the main library.

My situation was such that I needed to get away. It wasn’t that I had no sympathy for their cause, but I was feeling suffocated, like a single little lamb in the middle of a flock of sheep. So I managed to maneuver my way through the protesters and started to walk away from the crowd.

I just knew I need some peace and quite, some solitary time. I walked without direction or even awareness until I found myself surrounded by tall trees on a path in the middle of the deep woods. I stopped, looked around, and found a place to sit just off the path. I finally felt like I could breathe again. I reached into my backpack and pulled out an apple and took a bite. It was delicious and refreshing.

I must have fallen asleep because it was dusk when I opened my eyes. I got back up and followed the path back into town, made my way to the square, and saw that the statue in the square had been pulled down. A crew was moving it to another location, somewhere I didn’t know.

But what I did know was that the impact of the past year of isolation was having a lasting effect on me. I had been politically active and never hesitated to participate in demonstrations and protest marches. But that was in the before days.

Not anymore.

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See? prompt. Photo credit: Eric Muhr @ Unsplash. Also for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (inundate/solitary), Your Daily Word Prompt (burgeon), Word of the Day Challenge (statue), MMA Storytime (library), The Daily Spur (situation/apple), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (lamb),

TMP — iOS App Changes

Fandango47 Comments

Every Monday, Paula Light, with her The Monday Peeve prompt, gives us an opportunity to vent or rant about something that pisses us off. And today I’m really pissed off. As a matter of fact, I’m standing at the precipice of ending my WordPress blog.

As most of you know, I blog using my iPhone and the WordPress iOS app for the iPhone. The block editor on the the iPhone is next to impossible to use because there is just not enough real estate on a relatively small smartphone screen to make it feasible to use. But the good news is that the WordPress iOS app has the option to create and edit our posts using the classic editor.

However, when I went to the App Store app this morning to see what updates were available for all of my apps, I saw that there is an updated version of the iOS app, version 16.9, that is available. And then I read with horror that “The classic editor will soon be unavailable for creating new posts.” WHAT?I have been sticking with WordPress since last August when it “decommissioned” the classic editor and tried to force us to use the block editor. I love blogging and WordPress is the best blog hosting site available, so I wanted to continue to blog on WordPress. Besides, the “wp-admin” site still supported the classic editor for new posts and to edit draft posts. And the iOS app for my iPhone still offered its version of the classic editor option for creating and editing posts.

As of today, if I go to my laptop, I still have the classic editor option  via “wp-admin,” although a number of my fellow bloggers have said that it’s no longer available to them, so it’s probably a matter of time (maybe days if not hours) before I, too, lose it.

But if they’re also taking it away from the iOS app, that’s the last straw for me. I give up. Trying to create posts on the iPhone using the block editor, and even the so-called “classic block” within the block editor on the iPhone is just not worth it anymore.

So if this is the way it’s going to be, I am either leaving WordPress altogether, or I’m going to cut back on blogging considerably. I won’t stop reading and commenting on your posts, but I probably won’t be posting much on my own. I’m sorry, because all of you, the community of bloggers I’ve come to know, are important to me. I consider you to be my friends. But I’m just not going to put myself through this block editor nonsense that WordPress is foisting upon us.

If it does come down to discontinuing my blog, I’ll let you all know.

Share Your World — Short Answers

Fandango12 Comments

Share Your WorldIt’s time for Melanie’s Share Your World questions. Here goes.

If not now, then when?

How about never?

Can you describe your life in a six-word sentence?

I could; I don’t want to.

Do you remember that thing people used to say, about how you swallow eight spiders a year while you sleep? It’s not true, but do you think you’ve ever swallowed any? What bug do you think you’ve eaten the most of by accident?

Actually, I never heard anyone saying anything about swallowing eight spiders a year while asleep. The only bug I ever remember swallowing is when my daughter dared me to eat a fried grasshopper. It tastes as good as it sounds.

What’s the best approach to resolving conflict?

Avoid conflicts.

Where do you find inspiration?

I’m surrounded by it.

Blogging Insights — Electronic Versus Print Media

Fandango6 Comments

Blogging insightsFor this week’s edition of Blogging Insights, Dr. Tanya wants to know…

Have you written (or do you still write) for print media? How do you find that different from blogging or writing for electronic media? Which do you enjoy more, and why?

Back when I was working I used to write and submit articles to various trade journals and had about a dozen published in several such journals. Other than that, the only published items I wrote were angry letters to the editor.

One of the things I find different about print versus electronic media is that once you’ve posted something on a blog, it’s out there in cyberspace (or the blogosphere, if you prefer) pretty much forever. But I’ve no doubt that my letters to editor that were published and my trade journal articles, especially those published in trade journals that no longer exist, have faded into oblivion. In fact, I’m sure that the courtesy copies of those articles the publishers gave me are the only ones in existence anymore. And I know this because when I Googled my name, not even one of those old published printed media articles came up in the search.

As to which format I enjoy more, it’s blogging. Why? Because it’s 100% mine. I own it. I choose what to publish and when. And there’s no one telling me I have to submit a 1,500 word article on a particular topic by a certain date in order to get it published in the next issue.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #111

Fandango23 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 Celine Ylmz at Unsplash.For the visually challenged writer, the image shows a man with longish, gray hair wearing a brown trench coat standing in a bookstore.

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.