Day: May 4, 2021

The Grand Opening

Fandango9 Comments

“Crap,” said Mitch.

“What’s the matter?” Frank asked.

“Basically, we’re in trouble,” Mitch said. “The health inspector came by and said that our bar has too high a percentage of bacteria and he gave us a failing grade and is closing us down until we disinfect this whole joint.”

“Dammit,” Frank said. “We haven’t even had our grand opening yet. We can’t afford to shut this place down before we even open up our doors to what will no doubt be great acclaim. Can you grab me some cleaning supplies from the back room so we can use it to swipe down the bar?”

Mitch went to the back room and came out with a couple of bottles of Barmecide disinfecting cleanser and some rubber gloves and set then down on the bar.

“We’re gonna get this place spotless,” Frank said. “I’ll set up an appointment for the inspector to come back tomorrow so we can pass and get approval to be open for business this weekend for our grand opening party.”

“Let’s do this, Frank,” Mitch said, donning the rubber gloves.

Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (basic), MMA Storytime (trouble), The Daily Spur (percentage), Hour Daily Word Prompt (acclaim), Word of the day (batmecide), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (cleanser).

MLMM Photo Challenge — The Jack of Spades

Fandango12 Comments

The queen was having an affair with the jack
All the while behind the king’s back
When the king finally found out
The jack had stolen his queen’s heart
He shot the jack with a poisoned dart
Then buried the scoundrel in the castle glade
Digging the grave using the jack’s own spade

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge. Photo credit: Mahdie Farhadkiaei.

Truthful Tuesday — Star Wars

Fandango10 Comments

Frank, aka PCGuy, has published another one of his Truthful Tuesday posts, and this week Frank wants to know…

Are you a Star Wars fan? Why or why not?

I loved the first Star Wars movie that was released in 1977. Not so much the myriad sequels and prequels.

What is your opinion of the original trilogy (Star Wars, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi)?

As I said, I loved the first movie of the trilogy. I think the follow-up movies were not as good.

As to the rest of these questions, my answer is the same: I have no opinion because I did not see any of the movies or TV shows listed below. Sorry Frank.

  • What is your opinion of the prequel trilogy (Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars, Episode II: The Attack of the Clones, and Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith)?
  • What is your opinion of the sequel trilogy (Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, and Star Wars, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker)?
  • What is your opinion of the ancillary stand-alone movies (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story)?
  • What is your opinion of The Mandalorian?
  • What is your opinion of the continued expansion of Star Wars based TV shows, such as the proposed The Book of Boba-Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi series?

Blogging Insights — Blog Awards

Fandango16 Comments

In her latest edition of Blogging Insights, Dr. Tanya ask wants to know how long we’ve been blogging and what we think of blog awards. She asks…

How long have you been blogging? Can you remember the first blogging award you received?

I’ve been blogging on and off since 2005. I did take a two year break from blogging in April 2015. In May 2017, I returned to blogging when I started This, That, and The Other. I had never received a blog award nomination until I moved my old blog from TypePad to WordPress in mid-2013. And I believe it was in December of that year, on my previous blog before this one, when I received my first blogging award nomination.

Do you still accept blogging award nominations or is yours an award free blog? If your blog is award free, what are your reasons for this?

I still do get blogging award nominations even though I have unofficially declared my blog to be award-free. I do appreciate it when someone recognizes my blog by nominating it. And I will usually write a post in response to the award nomination, in which post I will answer the questions the nominating blogger has asked. But I do not pay the nomination forward by nominating other bloggers for it. Instead, I invite any bloggers who wish to do so to write their own posts with the answers to the same question the nominating blogger posed to me and the others that he or she nominated.

My reason for declaring my blog to be award-free is that each blog award nomination comes with a detailed set of rules one must follow to “pay it forward.” These rules are similar to those of a chain letter. Someone nominates your blog for an award. To accept the nomination, you must designate a specified number — seven, ten, fifteen, whatever — of other bloggers you wish to nominate for that award. They, in turn, must do the same.

Now let’s do some math related to blog awards. I know you hate math as much as I do, but bear with me a minute while I illustrate my chain letter point.

Someone nominates you for an award and, as part of the rules to “accept” that award, you must nominate, say, 10 others. Each of those 10 bloggers that you nominated must, themselves, nominate 10 more. So just twice removed from your blog being nominated, 100 other blogs (10 x 10) will have been nominated.

If each of those 100 bloggers follows the rules (i.e., doesn’t break the chain) and nominates another 10 blogs, just three degrees of separation from you having received a nomination, another 1,000 will have received one (100 x 10).

And then 10,000. And then 100,000. By the time you reach Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, one million blogs will have been nominated. Those million nominations will beget 10 million. And those 10 million will beget 100 million. ONE HUNDRED MILLION BLOG AWARD NOMINATIONS!

These 100 million nominations can potentially be generated just eight iterations down an unbroken chain from the blog award nomination you received if everyone pays it forward as instructed.

And that’s just for one blog award. Think about how many different kinds of blog awards there are!

I read on the internet, so it must be true, that WordPress hosts around 60 million blogs, which is 40 million fewer unique blogs than the 100 million awards that just a single blog award nomination has the potential to generate!

I am truly honored when another blogger thinks highly enough about my blog to nominate it for an award, so please don’t think I’m trying to diminish the significance of being nominated for blogging awards. To be recognized by one’s peers is the best achievement possible. I truly believe that such recognition is highly valued and greatly appreciated by those who are nominated.

That said, mine is still an award-free blog. I’m just happy and grateful when people like my posts, comment on my posts, and interact with me on WordPress. No awards necessary.

FOWC with Fandango — Basic

Fandango21 Comments

FOWCWelcome to May 4, 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 “basic.”

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.