Day: April 13, 2022

Hiding in Plain Site

Fandango22 Comments

Did you see what I did there with the title of this post? I used “site” instead of “sight” because I blog anonymously. I have a moniker for my blog. It’s Fandango. I use it instead of my real name for security purposes, as I’ve had my identity stolen from me three times already. I know that’s not a record, or anything, and it’s not something that can’t be undone by canceling all of my credit cards, changing all of my passwords, and making a lot of phone calls to resolve bogus charges and get my credit rating straightened out. But it’s time-consuming and it’s a hassle and I’d rather not have to experience it yet again.

Unfortunately, it’s something that we need to deal with in the online, connected world. As Marilyn Armstrong pointed out in this post today, “Humans seem unable to create anything without also weaponizing it. No matter how much good it could do, we always find a way for it to do more harm than good, or at least as much harm as good.”

So the wonderful technology that enables us to do almost anything online — shopping, banking, streaming movies and music, using social media, and even blogging on WordPress — can, and likely will, at some point, be used against us.

And as taciturn as we may wish to be, we can’t not talk about it. We cannot ignore it. We have to protect ourselves, even if it’s just being amenable to using a moniker for our blog.

Besides, you can make it easy on yourself by doing what I do. I put all of my various passwords on stickers and attach them to my monitor. That way I don’t forget them. Smart, huh?

Written for these daily prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (moniker), Ragtag Daily Prompt (security), The Daily Spur (record), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (undone), Word of the Day Challenge (taciturn), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (amenable), and My Vivid Blog (stickers).

K is for The Karate Kid

Fandango31 Comments

For this year’s A-To-Z Challenge, my theme is MOVIES. I will be working my way through the alphabet during the month of April with movie titles and short blurbs about each movie. Today’s movie is “The Karate Kid.”

“The Karate Kid” was a 1984 American martial arts drama film written by Robert Mark Kamen and directed by John G. Avildsen. It starred Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue, and William Zabka. The movie was also a commercial success, grossing over $130 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing films of 1984 and Hollywood’s biggest sleeper hit of the year. It also revitalized the acting career of Morita, earning him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Daniel (Ralph Macchio) moves to Southern California with his mother, but quickly finds himself the target of a group of bullies who study karate at the Cobra Kai dojo. Fortunately, Daniel befriends Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), an unassuming repairman who just happens to be a martial arts master himself. Miyagi takes Daniel under his wing, training him in a more compassionate form of karate and preparing him to compete against the brutal Cobra Kai.

“The Karate Kid” is an ’80s classic, an inspirational film that’s fun and enjoyable. It delivers an entertaining story about the bonds of friendship, and there’s a sincerity and earnestness to both the story and the characters that really comes through.

Sadly, the same can’t be said for three sequels it spawned: “The Karate Kid Part II” (1986), “The Karate Kid Part III” (1989), and “The Next Karate Kid” (1994). I haven’t watched “Cobra Kai,” the Netflix series, yet another Karate Kid sequel, that debuted in 2018, so I can’t comment on that. But if any of you have watched it, feel free to share your thoughts.

Previous A2Z 2022 posts: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Fandango’s Provocative Question #37 Revisited

Fandango21 Comments

Note: Because I am participating in the A to Z blogging challenge this month, I will not be posting any new provocative question until May. Instead, I will be revisiting some previous provocative questions that you might have missed. This one was originally posted on August 21, 2019 and can be found here. Please feel free to respond to it if you haven’t already.

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.

For this week’s provocative question, I am concerned about how partisan just about everybody appears to be. We seem to have reached the point where everyone behaves as if “you’re either with me or you’re against me,” and there is no middle ground.

I remember that there was a time not that long ago when people could disagree about specific issues without animosity, but those days seem to be over, particularly in the areas of politics and religion.

So my question to you this week is simply this:

Is it possible anymore to disagree without being disagreeable?

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 — Amenable

Fandango18 Comments
FOWC

It’s April 13, 2022. Welcome 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 “amenable.”

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. Show them some love.