Day: March 26, 2023

Sadje’s Sunday Poser — Favorite Topic

Fandango4 Comments

For today’s Sunday Poser, Sadje wants to know…

One way to answer this question is to show my tag cloud, where the size of the tag indicates how often that tag was used in my posts.

Of course, the largest tag is #FOWC, my Fandango’s One-Word Challenge, which I’ve been posting daily since June 2018. Some of the other “larger” tags belong to other daily prompts that, up until I busted my hip two months ago, I was responding to almost daily.

You might also notice the rather large tag, “Donald Trump.” That’s because that asshole took up a lot of my headspace in the first four years of this blog.

Another way of identifying my favorite topics to write about is to look at my categories, or what I list as “Topics of Interest” on my side panel. Here are my top six:

  1. Flash Fiction (2,791 posts)
  2. Life (2,047 posts)
  3. Politics (871 posts)
  4. Blogging (780 posts)
  5. Humor (528 posts)
  6. Music (401 posts)

Bear in mind that some posts might have two categories, like “Life” and “Humor.” But based upon this list, it seems that I do a lot of flash fiction, and write a lot about life, politics, and blogging.

Did I answer Sadje’s Sunday Poser question to your satisfaction?

WDP — My Favorite Weather

Fandango11 Comments

What is your favorite type of weather?

Actually, my response is not what my favorite type of weather is, but where. And the answer is San Francisco.

A lot of people are not fond of San Francisco’s weather. Mark Twain was alleged to have said, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” He never actually said that, but if he had, he would have had a point. For people who like hot summers, San Francisco is not for them. Highs during the summer months average from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies. It only occasionally gets into the eighties and rarely in the nineties.

And even when it does reach the nineties, it’s not humid or muggy, so it’s not that uncomfortable. Our home in San Francisco did not have air conditioning. It didn’t need it.

Conversely, winters in the city by the bay are relatively mild. It never snows, temperatures rarely get down to freezing, and the highs range from the low-fifties to the upper-sixties. We did have central heating in our San Francisco place, but rarely needed it. If there was a particularly chilly night, we’d light a fire in the fireplace and that was more than sufficient.

What I liked about that kind of weather was that I didn’t need a summer wardrobe or a winter wardrobe. I could pretty much wear the same kind of clothing all year round. Also, my utility bills (gas and electric to cool and heat the place) were really low.

Three years ago we moved from San Francisco to the East Bay, about 35 miles inland from the San Francisco Bay. The climate here is totally different. It’s not unusual to have weeks of 100+° days here in the summer and a few below-freezing days in the winter.

The weather here is not terrible, but it’s not San Francisco.

Cellpic Sunday — 3/26/23

Fandango7 Comments

John Steiner, the blogger behind Journeys With Johnbo, has this prompt he calls Cellpic Sunday in which he asks us to post a photo that was taken with a cellphone, tablet, or another mobile device. I thought this might be fun so I decided to join in.

I took the photo above with my iPhone at the San Francisco International Airport in February 2013. I was flying somewhere for business and a lot of outbound flights were delayed. I can’t remember why. A few of us were sitting in the gate area waiting to get updated on when our flights might be departing when this guy I was sitting across from pulled out his acoustic guitar and started playing. It was very pleasant and helped kill the time until I was finally able to board my flight about a half hour later. He was still strumming his guitar when I left.

If you wish to participate in this fun cellphone photo prompt, please click on the link to John’s post at the top of my post to see his photo and to read his instructions.

The Garden Dawdler — 03/26/23

Fandango16 Comments

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Garden Dawdler.” But Rory likes to change things up. He started out this series posing four questions three time a week. Then he switched to three questions twice a week as part of his Aloha series. And now he has switched gears yet again. Now it’s “nine questions once a week for your leisure or pleasure.”

Here are Rory’s nine Dawdler questions today.

Is the WHY to everything important?

I believe it is important to understand not only the why of what has happened, but how it happened.

What would you list as your Top Five Fun Things?

  • Blogging
  • Spending time with my grandchildren
  • Spending time on my deck enjoying the serenity and the views of my backyard
  • Watching a well-done, truly engrossing TV series
  • Going on long walks with my wife and dog (before I broke my hip)

Should we care about the dreams of others or only our own?

I’m not sure if by dreams, Rory is talking literally about dreams that occur while one is sleeping, or if he’s using the word “dreams” to mean hopes, plans, goals, ambitions, desires, etc. If it’s the former, no. if it’s the latter, and you care about the person, yes.

How well do you deal with criticism from others?

I’m perfect, so I don’t pay any attention to criticism from others.

Do you say YES or NO more often, and which is it?

Yes. Or No. I don’t know.

What is nose hair for?

To give purpose for a device like this:

What is the funniest comment you have ever received?

I must get a spam comment almost every day that says something like, “Your weblog is, how do you say it…relevant.” Yeah, I would hope so.

Novels or Netflix?

I’m embarrassed to say Netflix. And Hulu. And Prime. And HBO MAX. And Apple TV+. And Discovery+. And….

Do good things come to those who wait?

So they say.

Spam Comment of the Week — Week 12 2023

Fandango7 Comments

I get some interesting spam comments on my blog, most of which are captured by Akismet, WordPress’ spam blocker. I generally do a mass delete of all of my spam comments after checking to see if any legitimate comments got caught up in Akismet’s spam-catching net.

I thought it might be fun to select a particularly interesting or unique or outrageous spam comment and highlight it each week.

I didn’t get any AI-like spam comments this week. And for those of you who read my Spam or Legit post, Dante Trimble never responded to my reply to his comment.

Anyway, here is this week’s Spam of the Week comment. This one is from Hansin Landos. It was posted in response to my FOWC with Fandango — Profession post.

I do consider all the ideas you have offered on your post. They are very convincing and can definitely work. Still, the posts are very short for beginners. May just you please prolong them a little from next time? Thank you for the post.

You’re welcome Hansin. I’m pleased that you considered my ideas and found them convincing and workable. I’m not sure what you mean when you ask me to prolong my posts. Do you mean you’d like me to write longer posts? Sorry, dude, that’s not my jam.

What about you? Have you read some catchy spam comments that you’d like to share with us? If so, put them in the comments or create your own post and tag it #FSCW.