Day: May 3, 2021

A to Z Reflections

Fandango14 Comments

So the sponsors of the A to Z Challenge have asked us to reflect upon our experiences participating in this year’s challenge and to post our reflections. But before I begin, I want to thank those of you who ran the show. You put a lot of time and effort into it, and I’m sure those of us who participated in this year’s challenge appreciated your work.

Anyway, here are my reflections.

For my challenge, I posted each day in April — except Sundays — about mostly vintage or classic TV shows in alphabetical order, from “All in the Family” to “Zorro.” I had a lot of fun doing it and the response I got from readers was mostly positive. Many remembered watching the shows and appreciated the trip down Memory Lane.

Is that true? Did you like reading about those old TV shows? Do tell!

One aspect that surprised me a little was that my blog’s traffic didn’t pick up this April as it had in April in past years. In 2019, I had 12.4% more views in April than I had in March, even though March has one more day than April. In 2020, I had 10% more views in April than in March. But this year, I actually had 1.6% fewer views in April than in March. Well, it’s no biggie. I’m not about to start bawling over it.

I certainly can’t blame the drop in traffic to people spending more time at the mall because, due to the pandemic, haven’t most malls closed? In fact, even though restrictions have eased up a bit since last year, my guess is that most of us are, like me, still spending more time inside of our own houses than we are being out and about. Right?

I did get a glimpse at a lot of other bloggers’ A to Z posts, but most of those bloggers whose A to Z posts I read were bloggers that I’m already following. Hey, there are only so many hours in a day. Right?

That said, I did enjoy this year’s challenge and this makes it four years in a row that I’ve participated. I enjoyed being a part of the A to Z Challenge and encourage others to do so in the future.

See you back here next April.

Written for the A to Z Reflections post and for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aspect), Word of the Day Challenge (traffic), Your Daily Word Prompt (bawl), The Daily Spur (mall), MMA Storytime (house), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (glimpse).

TMP — The Down Side of Streaming

Fandango19 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. My peeve today is not so much about something that pisses me off as it is about something that surprised me.

Back in late March I decided to “cut the cord” with my cable TV provider. I switched to streaming using a Roku Streaming Stick and streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Prime TV, HBO Max, etc. It was a lot cheaper than it was to pay for the cable TV package from Comcast/Xfinity. The monthly cost would be less than half about of what my cable TV bill was running.

Of course, I still needed an internet service provider (ISP) and because the only game in town is Comcast/Xfinity, I must use that for internet access.

Here’s the rub. I found out that my internet plan “limits” me to 1229 gigabytes of data per month, a fact I wasn’t aware of before I started streaming instead of using cable. It was never an issue. But then I received this email on April 29th: What? Holy shit. That’s a lot of data usage. And the only thing I can attribute it to is the switch from cable TV to streaming TV.

I checked the status of my account this morning and saw this:My first thought was “Phew, I came in just under the wire in April.” My second thought was that I used 64 gigabytes of data in just the first two days of May. And that was over a weekend when I watch much less TV than I do during the week. At this rate, I’m going to have an overage in May.

Okay then. I guess the lesson here is to turn off the goddam TV and read more books. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

Share Your World — Binary Questions

Fandango11 Comments

It’s Monday and it’s time for Melanie’s Share Your World questions. So let’s get right to it.

Would you rather be a super nice person and be depressed all your life, or be happy and a total asshole?

This seems to be a rather binary question. The notion that being kind and being depressed are linked, or that being happy and being an asshole are linked, is unrealistic. One can be a nice person without being depressed and one can be a happy person without being a total asshole. And one can be both nice and happy or both depressed and an asshole.

Have you ever made someone cry?

I have no doubts that I have made someone cry. Most likely, multiple someones.

Are you a dreamer or a go-getter?

Again, this, too, is a binary question. I like to consider myself a little bit of both. Although now that I’m a retired old fart, a lot of the go-getter in me has gotten up and gone.

If you were in a band, what instrument would you play?

Piano or electronic keyboard, although I’ve never been in a band and I don’t know how to play a piano or a keyboard.

Do you feel gratitude is necessary?

I think it’s nice to show gratitude and appreciation for what you have and toward those you love. Is gratitude necessary? Well, food, water, oxygen, light, shelter, clothing, and sleep are necessary in order to survive. One can, I suppose, survive without feeling or demonstrating gratitude, but failure to do so will likely result in a lonely, unfulfilling existence.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #116

Fandango14 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 agevla77 at DeviantArt.For the visually challenged writer, the image shows a man dressed as a clown with a sad expression walking outside in a wintry storm.

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.