Day: November 22, 2021

TMP — WordPress Is At It Again

Fandango39 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. What pisses me off today is that The WordPress iOS app is screwing with me again.

It was almost 13 month ago, shortly after Apple introduced iOS 14 for its iPhones, that WordPress launched version 16.0 of its iOS app. Suddenly the WordPress app didn’t recognized that I was logged in to WordPress, so I could neither like nor comment on posts because the app didn’t recognize me.

Last November and December, and even three or four months into this year, I spent a whole lot of time exchanging messages with the happiness engineers trying to get them to resolve these issues. Unfortunately, to this day, while it now works most of the time for most posts, there are still some situations where I am unable to like a post or to leave a comment.

But most recently, apparently with the latest update to the WordPress iOS app, if I visit a site, either from my reader or from links in my notifications, when I go to like a post, I get a message saying “You and X other bloggers like this.” But my Gravatar doesn’t show up, as it normally does after I like a post. See below.

So then I refresh the page to find that my “Like” is no longer showing up!

Then I go to the Reader and read the post there (as oposed to visiting the actual site). On the Reader I tap “Like,” and go back and visit the site again. This time, my Gravatar shows up, but it doesn’t say “You and X other bloggers like this.” But it does show that 6 bloggers, rather than 5, liked the post.

I’m really pissed that, after more than a year, WordPress can’t seem to figure out how to get its iOS app to work correctly when it comes to liking posts and leaving comments. And it requires more steps and more time for me to try and like and comment. And even then, it doesn’t work, more often than not.

Share Your World — 11/22/2021

Fandango19 Comments

It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and Melanie has another edition of Share Your World. Let’s get to it.

What are some red flags to watch out for in daily life?

For me, the biggest red flag is what is happening to my country and to the American democracy. In a way, I am happy to be an old fart because I probably won’t be around long enough to see the total collapse of democracy in the United States and the American society dissolving into chaos. But unless things change significantly, such a collapse is almost inevitable, in my opinion.

What obstacles would you include in the world’s most amazing obstacle course?

I would prefer to remove obstacles than to include them.

Who is the best movie or book villain in your opinion? (Book is included because some folks don’t watch movies.)

I think it has to be Hannibal Lecter from “Silence of the Lambs.”

What, in your opinion, is the most beautiful/handsome part of your face? (No dissing yourself please, we’re all beautiful/handsome!)

My eyes?

This Thursday, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. What are some foods you enjoy for your festive celebration dinners?

I’m not a fan of traditional Thanksgiving fare, like turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc. This year we are having Thanksgiving at our son and daughter-in-law’s place, along with her family, and we agreed to go Italian. Seriously, who doesn’t like Italian?

Blogging Insights — The Right People

Fandango13 Comments

For her weekly Blogging Insights prompts, Dr. Tanya provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is unattributed.

“Blogging is a beautiful skill to express your feelings and emotions to the right people out there.”

I am not sure about this quote. I wouldn’t necessarily say that blogging is a “beautiful skill.” I have run across a lot of blogs that are neither beautiful nor skillfully crafted. But there are many skillful bloggers out there who do write interesting, engaging, informative, funny, provocative, and perhaps even beautiful posts.

I do agree that blogging is a way to express yourself, be it your feelings, emotions, thoughts, perspective, and/or opinions, or to just write whatever occurs to you.

I am bothered by the part of the quote that talks about “the right people.” Who are these “right people,” anyway? When I first started blogging, I didn’t really have a target audience in mind. And even now that I’ve been at it for a while, I would be hard pressed to define who “the right people” are to whom I should be directing my beautiful blogging skills. Should I be upset if “the wrong people” are reading this post? How dare they?

As far as I’m concerned, anyone who appreciates my posts and my efforts to motivate or inspire other bloggers through my prompts, is “the right person.” In fact, all of you who are taking the time to read my response to Tanya’s Blogging Insights prompt are, to me, “the right people.” And I thank you for reading this.

Anyway, I think this was a rather dumb, meaningless, and patronizing quote. But maybe I’m not one of “the right people.”

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #145

Fandango11 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 Jessica Gale at Morguefile.com.

For the visually challenged writer, the photo shows two musicians playing musical instruments at what appears to be a food court inside an airport terminal building, while other patrons are sitting at tables eating and socializing.

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.

Please create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Skyline

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FOWC

Welcome to November 22, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “skyline.”

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.