Day: June 14, 2021

TMP — Heat Wave

Fandango17 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 about the heat.

It’s not even the middle of June and in a few days we are going to hit triple digits (Fahrenheit). And, no rain in sight. So, it’s going to be a long, hot, dry summer. And that means a summer and fall prone to wildfires. Isn’t that special?

I guess I’ll be staying inside most of the time between now and October with the air conditioning on full blast. I have to ask myself at times why I moved from San Francisco to the East Bay, just 35 miles to the east. Especially when it’s forecast to be 103° on Thursday where I live now and the high in San Francisco is only forecast to be 73°.

Share Your World — 6/14/21

Fandango20 Comments

Melanie is going deep with this week’s edition of Share Your World.

What did you learn the hard way?

I learn best by doing, so I’d say most of what I learned I learned the hard way.

Which activities make you lose track of time?

Writing and reading blog posts.

Why do we seem to think of others the most after they’re gone?

I assume, by “after they’re gone,” Melanie means after they’ve died, not after they’ve left your house after a visit. I’m also a little confused by the wording. Does Melanie want to know why we think the most of people after they died (i.e., think more highly of them), or why we think of people the most after they’ve died (i.e., think of them more often)?

I’m going with the former because I probably don’t think of people more often after they’re gone than I did before they died. And my answer to the other interpretation is that it depends upon what I thought of the person when they were alive. If I liked and admired the person, I will feel a loss after their death and will focus on the best aspects of his or her life. But if I neither liked nor respected the person in life, I won’t think better of them in death.

And if I either misinterpreted Melanie’s question or overthought it, well, never mind.

Is it possible to know the truth without challenging it first?

“Truth” is subjective. Truth can be like faith, in that it is often based upon beliefs rather than demonstrable facts. I know that I can’t challenge every “truth” I’ve ever been taught. For example, I accept the fact that the planet on which we live is basically round and I accept that as the truth. But there are others who inexplicably believe that the Earth is flat, and that truth is their “truth.” My bottom line, as a pragmatist, is to follow the evidence, understand and accept what is demonstratively factual, and that will ultimately lead me to the truth. Or my truth, anyway.

Blogging Insights — The Unusual

Fandango3 Comments

For this week’s edition of Blogging Insights, Dr. Tanya poses her third in a series of questions about what inspires us to blog. She wants to know…

What are some unusual or out of the way sources of inspiration that get you writing?

This is a toughie because for the past 15 months or so, thanks to the pandemic, I haven’t been to any unusual or out of the way places to find unusual or out of the way sources for my writing. Most of my inspiration comes from the usual sources: news, prompts, or my personal life experiences.

That said, when I write flash fiction posts, my inspiration often emanates from inside my head via my own imagination, which can, at times, be a very unusual and out of the way place, with myriad catacombs, dark corners, bright flashes of light, and continuously firing synapses.

Bottom line: I have no good answers to Dr. Tanya’s question this week.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #122

Fandango8 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 Nicolae_Balt at Pixabay.com.For the visually challenged writer, the photo shows two men in a field on a windy day attempting to inflate a hot air balloon.

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 — Flutter

Fandango15 Comments

FOWCWelcome to June 14, 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 “flutter.”

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.