Day: May 17, 2021

Share Your World — Dammit, Melanie, You Got Me Talking Politics Again

Fandango20 Comments

It’s Monday and that means Melanie is here with another one of her Share Your World set of questions. So let’s give it a go.

What inanimate object do you wish you could eliminate from existence?

Fox News, Newsmax, OAN News, and any and all of the other far-right news media outlets that continue to spew the Big Lie, conspiracy theories, and Trumpish propaganda that is designed to promote and elevate Donald Trump and to further split, divide, and ultimately destroy our American democracy.

What tells you the most about a person?

Their eyes.

What is something you thought would be easy until you tried it?

Downhill skiing.

What ridiculous and untrue, yet slightly plausible, theories can you come up with for the cause of common ailments like headaches or cavities?

Hearing, watching, and reading about how congressional Republicans, right-wing pundits, and other deranged Trump supporters attempt to justify Trump’s claim that the election was rigged and that he is the legitimate president, and who continue to kowtow to a man who was unquestionably the worst president the United States ever had.

What are you grateful for since they ‘cured’ Covid? (Yeah, I realize it’s not cured. But at least the vaccine is available and restrictions have eased up in many places. If that’s a good thing or not remains to be seen I suppose).

I am grateful that my wife and I are able to invite a group of about a dozen and a half family members and friends (all of whom are fully vaccinated) to our home on Sunday to celebrate our grandson’s first birthday with us.

Blogging Insights — Writer or Blogger?

Fandango17 Comments

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

How do you see yourself primarily, as a writer or a blogger, and is there a difference?

Writing is a form of human communication that involves the representation of a language with written symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation, and spaces). It requires at least a basic knowledge of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. Vocabulary is also necessary, as is correct spelling and formatting.

Blogging is also a form of human communication that involves the representation of a language with written symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation, and spaces). It requires at least a basic knowledge of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. Vocabulary is also necessary, as is correct spelling and formatting.

So is there a difference between writing and blogging? Yes, the primary difference is the medium in which writing and blogging appear. Writing typically appears in printed form, whether in books, magazines, or newspapers, although these days, most books, magazines, and newspapers can also be read via electronic media. Blogging is predominantly electronic, able to be viewed exclusively on the internet.

All that said, I distinguish between being a writer and a blogger in the same way I distinguish between being a professional and an amateur. Professionals get paid for their work. Amateurs do not.

True writers make their living by being writers, authors, journalists. They get paid for writing and for having their writings published. Most bloggers cannot earn much of a living by blogging. They blog for their own pleasure, to pass the time, or to engage with other bloggers.

You need to be a decent writer to be a blogger, but you don’t need to be a blogger to be a decent writer.

I consider myself to be a blogger primarily. It’s a hobby, a pastime for me and I am neither seeking nor receiving compensation for blogging. In fact, I pay WordPress an annual fee to have my own domain name and to remove those tacky advertisements from my blog.

But I also think of myself as a writer because blogging is primarily a medium that uses the “written” word, albeit in electronic format, at its heart.

So, bottom line, I’m both a writer and a blogger, but I’m primarily a blogger.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #118

Fandango7 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 photo below is from Dmitriy Ganin at Pexels.com.For the visually challenged writer, the photo above is a glass of drip coffee maker with a paper filter with coffee grounds in the neck and streaming coffee filling the bottom.

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 — Nefarious

Fandango16 Comments

FOWCWelcome to May 17, 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 “nefarious.”

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.