Day: April 6, 2021

I Know, I Know

Fandango8 Comments

“Have you picked your crew yet?” Drew’s boss, Aaron, the college’s athletic director, asked.

“I’ve spoken with ten guys so far,” Drew, the men’s crew team coach, said, “but I need to narrow it down to the best eight.”

“Well, you can’t just bring anybody on board,” Aaron said. “You mustn’t allow yourself to get all mawkish about it. There’s no room for sentimentality here. You’ve got to wield the proverbial ax and make sure you have a topnotch team.”

“I know, I know,” Drew said.

“And please make sure you that you review the blood tests results before eliminating anyone,” Aaron said. “Last year one of the crew members you selected had a serious bacterial infection and ended up bringing the whole team down before the season even began.”

“I know, I know,” Drew repeated.

Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (crew), MMA Storytime (ten), The Daily Spur (anybody), Word of the Day Challenge (mawkish), Your Daily Word Prompt (wield), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (bacterial).

Truthful Tuesday — Playing With Blocks

Fandango17 Comments

Frank, aka PCGuy, has published another one of his Truthful Tuesday posts, and this week Frank wants to know if we enjoy playing with blocks. He wants to know…

How have you adapted to the complete removal of the classic editor from WordPress.com? Are you managing to get by with the block editor, or are you finding it difficult to want to blog now that your trusted tool is no longer available?

Oh man, don’t get me started on the block editor. I have been very vocal about how much I hate it. The classic editor was fine. It was unobtrusive and it enabled writers to focus on writing, not on mechanics. But, for whatever reason, the folks at WordPress decided to put all of their money (and our money, for those of us who have upgraded) into the block editor.

The good news is that several bloggers have posted a way to continue to access the classic editor on wordpress.com. And that’s great for those who use their desktops or laptops to blog.

Unfortunately, most of my blogging is done from my iPhone. As of now, the option to use the classic editor is still available on the WordPress iOS app for the iPhone, although WordPress is threatening to take that option away at some point in the near future. So I may have to try to embrace the iOS version of the block editor.

Preparing for that day, I’ve been using the block editor on my iPhone for about a quarter of my posts. It’s okay, but I feel like I have way less control. And then, when I look at the HTML code, there is so much more of it with the block editor than there is with the classic editor.

In order to get the final post to look the way I want it to, I often give up on the block editor and revert back to the classic editor. And then I have to go into the HTML editor and strip away a lot of that weird code. As a result, it has taken me two to three times longer to publish a post using the block editor than using the classic editor.

So, bottom line, I have mostly stuck with the classic editor mode on the iOS app.

Now to answer Frank’s question, if WordPress dumps the classic editor in the iOS app, I’ll either have to abandon blogging from my iPhone and blog exclusively from my laptop, try to make do with the block editor on my iPhone, or maybe just call it a day and stop blogging.

I guess I’ll make that decision when the time comes.

E is for “ER”

Fandango40 Comments

“ER” was American television medical drama that aired on NBC from 1994 to 2009. The show, created by best-selling novelist Michael Crichton and producer John Wells, was one of the highest-rated programs on television.The show centered on the emergency room doctors, nurses, and staff of County General Hospital, a fictional level-one trauma center in Chicago. The show was set almost entirely inside the hospital and the series examined the fierce challenges and life-and-death decisions the staff faced on a daily basis in their busy metropolitan facility. In addition to the expected emergency room traumas, the series also focused on such issues as crowded waiting rooms, staff shortages, and training new doctors. Other plot elements dealt with the characters’ personal lives and relationships. Following the program’s debut, the cast saw a complete turnover, with character departures caused by dramatic deaths (one was murdered by a patient) and emotional (and often sudden) resignations and terminations.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, the series was the top-rated show on American television, boasting upward of 30 million viewers per episode and winning many Emmy Awards. Its following significantly declined in later seasons and after 15 seasons on air, “ER” ended in 2009.

“ER” provided a breakthrough for several of its cast members, most notably George Clooney, whose role as Dr. Doug Ross in the first five seasons propelled him to fame. In addition, Julianna Margulies’s portrayal of head nurse Carol Hathaway in the first six seasons made her a TV star. Other actors whose careers were boosted by stints on ER included Eriq La Salle, Noah Wyle , Maura Tierney, and Goran Visnjic.

Previous BATZAP 2021 posts: A B C D

FOWC with Fandango — Crew

Fandango18 Comments

FOWCWelcome to April 6, 2021 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 “crew.”

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.