Day: January 2, 2024

WDP — Playtime

Fandango11 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
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It’s not regularly scheduled as much as it is spontaneous, but nearly every day my wife and I will sit across a table from each other and play some games. These include card games like Crazy Eights or Rummy 500 or dice games like Yahtzee and Backgammon.

If we’re with another couple, like our son and daughter-in-law or our daughter and son-in-law, we enjoy playing Hearts or Spades. And, if we want to do our own thing, I play solitaire on my iPhone competing against myself, while my wife prefers playing hearts on her smartphone, competing against three computerized opponents.

These are our “playtime” activities.

One-To-Three Photo Processing Challenge — January, 2024

Fandango15 Comments

For this monthly prompt from Kate at XingfuMama, the idea is to pick a photo we want to play with and process it using three different methods.

Just FYI, all processed photos in this post were made using apps available for the iPhone at Apple’s App Store. Also, all images, including the original, were resized (shrunk) to make them quicker to load (and to take up less space in my WordPress media folder).

The photo I’m featuring this month is one I took back in September of 2020. When we moved into our house in February of that year, our backyard was nothing but a black tarp from the back of our house to the back property line. Our first project was to construct a recycling waterfall in our yard. This photo was about a week into the four week project.

Original photo

Processed using the Waterbrush app

Processed using the Prisma app

Processed using the Distressed FX app

Which image do you like best?

JusJoJan — Gregorian. Really?

Fandango13 Comments

Linda G. Hill is once again sponsoring her JusJoJan daily prompt for 2024. Today’s word is “Gregorian.” It was suggested by Willow, who resides here. Seriously, Willow? Gregorian? I know of the Gregorian calendar. I know of Gregorian chants. But I’m at a loss to figure out what to write in my own post using that word. Should I write about a bunch of monks chanting?

Nah, that’s not me. So what else? That today is the second day of the first month in the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar?

Boring!

So I decided to enlist the help of three different artificial intelligence (AI) engines: Bard (Google’s chatbot), ChatGPT, and Genie. I posed this task to each one:

Write a 60-word, free-form poem using the word Gregorian.

Here is what Bard came up with:

In the belly of stone, sunbeams filter thin,
dust motes waltz to chants that never end.
Hooded shadows, whispers carve the air,
Gregorian sighs on incense-laden stair.

Cold fingers trace worn pages, worn with prayer,
each flourish echoes on the vaulted nave.
Stone saints, with eyes of frozen rain,
witness the dance of light, and sorrow's stain.

Here is what ChatGPT came up with:

In the quiet chambers of time's embrace,
Gregorian whispers weave a sacred grace.
A tapestry of moments, woven in song,
chanting the cadence where echoes belong.
Through centuries' dance, a rhythmic refrain,
echoes linger, a harmonious chain.
In the hush of ages, their melody weaves,
Gregorian hymns, where eternity cleaves.

Here is what Genie came up with:

In the hush of midnight, Gregorian chants rise,
Echoing through time, a sacred guise,
Their solemn notes, a timeless prayer,
Lingering softly in the midnight air.
Through centuries past, their melodies endure,
A timeless echo, solemn and pure,
Gregorian hymns, a whisper from the past,
Guiding our souls, in peace they steadfast.

Any thoughts?

Fandango’s Story Starter #130

Fandango4 Comments

It’s time for my weekly Story Starter prompt. Here’s how it works. Every Tuesday morning (my time), I’m going to give you a “teaser” sentence or sentence fragment and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that sentence/fragment. It doesn’t have to be the first sentence in your story, and you don’t even have to use it in your post at all if you don’t want to. The purpose of the teaser is simply to spark your imagination and to get your storytelling juices flowing.

This week’s Story Starter teaser is:

“If I asked you to do something for me, would you do it no matter what?” Jessie asked.

If you care to write and post a story built from this teaser, be sure to link back to this post and tag your post with #FSS. I would also encourage you to read and enjoy what your fellow bloggers do with their stories.

And most of all, have fun.

FOWC with Fandango — Responsive

Fandango9 Comments
FOWC

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 “responsive.”

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.