Day: August 18, 2021

Sheesh!

Fandango22 Comments

Monday night at around 11 pm, right before I shut down my iPhone and went to bed, I permanently deleted the 253 spam comments plus the 75 comments in my trash folder.

I usually check my spam and trash folders first thing in the morning to clear out whatever came in overnight. And then again, before I go to bed, to get rid of what came in during the day.

But I forgot to do that cleanup on Tuesday morning, forgot on Tuesday night, and forgot again this morning. It’s 2:50 pm my time on Wednesday afternoon and, realizing that it had been a while since I last checked my spam and trash folders, I went to see what it looked like. Here’s what I found:

That is almost as many spam and trash comments in less than two days than the total number of legitimate comments so far this month. Sheesh!

Oh well. I suppose I can take some solace in the fact that Akismet is capturing a whole lot of spam on my behalf.

#WDYS — The Buccaneer

Fandango16 Comments

It was a tradition in Roland’s family to read books and he embrace that tradition with gusto. He always thought of books as a conduit that connected his very pragmatic brain to the luminosity of his vivid imagination.

Roland was driven to read as if reading was his mistress who he found irresistible. But poor Roland soon found that he was having trouble distinguishing between reality and the world he experienced from within the pages of his books.

Suddenly he was a buccaneer standing on the seashore of a deserted, tropical island. He was guarding a chest full of treasure from a pirate ship anchored just off shore.

Roland heard an eerie, far off voice seemingly carried by the breezes. “Close the book, Roland, while you still can. Close it before it’s too late.”

Roland saw pirates leaving the ships in row boats, heading in his direction. “No, I cannot close the book. I am the protector of the chest,” he said to the strange, far off voice. “It is my duty, as the King’s buccaneer, to defend his royal treasure, even if it portends my end.

“Close the book,” the voice insisted. “It’s not real. It’s your imagination. But if you don’t close the book, you will never escape.”

Roland sighed. “I’d rather remain locked within my imagination than return to a depressing reality.”

And with that, the book slammed shut. So, too, closed the book on the reality of the young man once known as Roland.

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See? prompt. Photo credit: Tumisu @ Pixabay. Also for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (tradition), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (gusto), Your Daily Word Prompt (conduit/portend), Word of the Day Challenge (driven), Ragtag Daily Prompt (luminosity/mistress), and My Vivid Blog (seashore).

One-Liner Wednesday — Communicate

Fandango14 Comments

“More and more we are into communications; and less and less into communication.”

Studs Terkel, American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster

Do you know the difference between communications and communication?

Communications is the technology and systems used for sending and receiving messages via, for example, mail, telephone, radio, TV, and the Internet. It’s the act of, and the vehicles for, mass communications.

Communication is the exchange of information between individuals by means of speaking, writing, or using a common system of signs of behavior. It’s the conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings.

Given that, how do you feel about Studs Terkel’s quote?

Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt. Image credit: Subhamoy Das.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #131

Fandango20 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

I recently read some interesting statistics regarding how Americans perceive climate change. In a poll by The Economist/YouGov, 72% of Democrats believe governments can take actions to slow climate change, compared with only 24% of Republicans.

More than 80% of Democrats, half of independents, and less than a third of Republicans believe that human activity is warming the planet. Two-thirds of Republicans say massive wildfires, prolonged droughts, and severe hurricanes are events that “just happen from time to time.”

So with this in mind, my provocative question this week is this…

Do you believe that human activity is a significant contributor to climate change or do you concur with those who believe that changes to the climate naturally occur from time to time?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Awry

Fandango16 Comments

FOWCWelcome to August 18, 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 “awry.”

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.