Day: December 14, 2022

WDP — Speaker in the House

Fandango15 Comments

Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?

Back in my working days, I used to write articles that would be published in various business and industry publications. As a result, I would periodically be invited to speak at conference and seminars to make oral presentations on one of my papers or on related topics.

Another part of my job was to demo our software products to prospective clients and to discuss how they would affect their internal administrative processes. Often this required me standing in front of a large group of people and doing my song and dance. Not literally, of course. I can neither sing nor dance.

I was a pretty effective speaker, even if I do say so myself. Well, with one big exception. I was the speaker immediately after lunch at a large annual conference in front of about 400 people consisting of both clients and company associates. I spent most of the morning practicing my presentation in my hotel room. I had a light breakfast at around 7 am and a large carafe of coffee. I decided to skip lunch to do one last run through of my presentation.

The time came. I climbed onto the stage, stood behind the podium and started my speech. Next thing I knew I was in an ambulance being transported to a local hospital. Apparently about three minutes into my presentation, I passed out and took a dive off the stage, which knocked me unconscious.

Turned out, drinking five or six cups of coffee and skipping lunch was not such a grand idea. My blood sugar had dropped, and I fell like a tree onto the hard wood floor. Fortunately, I learned from that experience and never had another calamitous incident like that one.

I retired at the end of 2016 and have not had an opportunity to get up on stage and to make a presentation since then. Which is probably a good thing. A very good thing, I think.

Written for today’s WordPress Daily Prompt.

Renegade Reader

Fandango18 Comments

I’m having some strange issues with my WordPress Reader. To put it in context, I use my iPhone and the WordPress iOS app for everything I do related to my blog: writing posts, reading and commenting on other bloggers’ posts, etc. So perhaps the strange issues I’m having are specific to the WordPress iOS app. But I am curious if anyone else might be having the same things happening to them, whether using the Reader on their smartphones or using their web browsers.

Here’s what’s happening. I usually start my day by going to the Reader to see what the bloggers I follow posted while I was sleeping. When I open the Reader on my iPhone, it usually takes me to the last post I read before going to sleep the night before.

Then I start reading the posts in my Reader, sometimes linking to the actual post. So far, so good. But then, without warning, my Reader will jump forward or backward. Sometimes it will jump to the very latest post, zooming past posts I haven’t yet looked at. Other times it will jump way back to posts I’ve already read.

I know that having my WordPress Reader unexpectedly zoom forward past posts I haven’t yet read or suddenly jump back to posts I already have read is not, in the big scheme of things, a major issue. But it’s just one more annoyance among a list of other annoyances. Like having bloggers I have been following for a long time inexplicably disappear from the bloggers I follow. Or not being able to comment on and/or like certain bloggers’ posts. Or having draft posts suddenly vaporize into the ether never to be seen again. Or having the WordPress app freeze in the middle of a post I’m composing, requiring me to shut down my iPhone and turn it back on to unfreeze the app.

But, since there’s no real, viable alternative to WordPress, I guess I’ll just have to learn to cope with these annoyances, including my renegade Reader.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #194

Fandango35 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.

The other night I went to brush my teeth before going to bed and I looked at my toothbrush and saw how frayed it was.

I thought back to the last time I replaced my old toothbrush with a new one and I realized that I couldn’t remember. After brushing my teeth, I wrote myself a reminder to go to the grocery store and purchase a new toothbrush.

That experience led me to this week’s provocative question, which, I admit, is not very productive.

When was the last time you replaced your toothbrush with a new one? Do you have a regular schedule for getting a new toothbrush? Or like me, do you wait until you notice that it’s seriously frayed to start thinking about replacing it?

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 — Rack

Fandango23 Comments
FOWC

It’s December 14, 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 “rack.”

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.