Day: April 4, 2024

Writer’s Workshop — Lack of Energy

Fandango6 Comments

For his Writer’s Workshop, John Holton gives us six writing prompts and we are tasked with choosing one of the prompts (or as many as we want) and writing a post that addresses that prompt. The prompt I chose this week was: Tell us about the most exhausted you’ve ever felt.

I’d had some broken bones in the past — a broken rib, a broken finger, a broken toe. But those were relatively minor breaks compared with fracturing a hip in January 2023. I fell off a ladder and landed in such a way that I fractured my left hip and my right humerus at the shoulder. I underwent an emergency partial hip replacement on the day of the fall and spent the next two weeks in the hospital: three days in acute care and ten days in the physical rehab wing.

After being in the hospital for a week, I felt exhausted almost all of the time, especially after undergoing four physical and occupational therapy sessions a day. I was struggling, not only physically but emotionally, and was even having a tough time finding the energy to blog.

I wrote a post titled “No Energy,” expressing how I was feeling at a period of time when I felt totally exhausted.

Here it is:

No energy
No energy to talk
No ability to walk
Can’t get in and out of bed by myself
Can’t go to the bathroom on my own
My left leg feels like dead weight
Muscles not responding to instructions from my brain
Physical and occupational therapy sessions four times a day
Painful, grueling, and exhausting
But as they say, “no pain no gain.”
Who the fuck are they?

All I do is eat a little
(No appetite for this hospital food)
Between therapy sessions
Spend most of my time trying to sleep
Lots of weird, strange dreams
Where I’m able bodied
And then I wake up in this place
In the middle of my nightmare
Is it any wonder I’m depressed?

They say they’re sending me home next Friday
For the next phase of my recovery
I’m doing what I can
Fighting through the pain
To be ready for that
In the meantime
No energy to open WordPress
No energy to write
No energy to read, like, or comment.
No energy to thank all of you
Who have wished me well
Wished me a rapid recovery
Thank you
Badge by Patty, http://anothercookieplease.com

Thursday Inspiration — Father and Son

Fandango7 Comments

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has asked us to write a post using the prompt word old, or going with an image of an old man that he posted. Just a few minutes ago, on the Classic Vinyl channel on SiriusXM, I heard a song by Cat Stevens from 1970 titled “Father and Son.” So I replaced Jim’s old man image with one I created on Bing Image Creator using the phrase, “A young man tells his elderly father that he’s leaving home to find himself.”

In this touching song, a father and son are having a conversation. The father is advising his son to stay home, find a girl and settle down. According to the father, who is now an old man, this is the path to happiness, and it worked for him. However, the son wants to leave and is feeling frustrated because his dad is not making any effort to understand why he wants to go or even listen to him.

Stevens made up the story, but his relationship with his own father, Stavros Georgiou, was an influence on the song. His dad owned a restaurant in London, and Cat (known to his dad as Steve) worked there as a waiter right up until he signed a record deal at age 17. Stavros was hoping his son would join the family business. “He was running a restaurant and I was a pop star, so I wasn’t following the path that he laid out. But we certainly didn’t have any antagonism between us. I loved him and he loved me,” Stevens said.

Stevens sings in a deeper register for the father’s lines, while using a higher one for those of the son. The dialogue is an interesting lyrical trick with the father and son expressing different perspectives on the situation.

In a 2020 interview, Stevens said, “The song is a testament to the differences we represent to each other, especially in age and traditions. Traditions have a big impact on our lives, and sometimes you’ve got to walk away.”

It's not time to make a change
Just relax, take it easy
You're still young, that's your fault
There's so much you have to know
Find a girl, settle down
If you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy

I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy
To be calm when you've found something going on
But take your time, think a lot
Why, think of everything you've got
For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not

How can I try to explain? 'Cause when I do he turns away again
It's always been the same, same old story
From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away
I know, I have to go

It's not time to make a change (away, away, away)
Just sit down, take it slowly
You're still young, that's your fault (I know)
There's so much you have to go through (I have to make this decision)
Find a girl, settle down (alone)
If you want you can marry
Look at me (no)
I am old, but I'm happy

All the times that I cried (stay, stay, stay)
Keeping all the things I knew inside
It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it (why must you go)
(And make this decision?)
If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them they know not me (alone)
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away
I know I have to go

Answer Me This — Social Media

Fandango8 Comments

Suze, over at Obsolete Childhood has introduced a new prompt called “Answer Me This.” Suze says it’s “an alternative daily prompt” to the WordPress Daily Prompt, which she characterized as “ones that totally suck and are focused upon the young people here.

Anyway, her prompt question today is this:

Why is it so easy to spread misinformation on social media?

I’m not active on social media, other than WordPress, which is, arguably, a form of social media. But from what I’ve seen and read, there are four reasons why it is easy to spread misinformation on social media.

  1. People can post to social media accounts anonymously, which allows them to post anything they want, including misinformation, without attribution.
  2. False news spreads faster and deeper than credible information, especially among partisans. They create an echo chamber of like ideas, regardless of accuracy, by sharing content that reinforces their beliefs.
  3. Social media lacks rigorous fact-checking mechanisms, allowing false information to circulate unchecked. Misinformation often spreads faster than accurate information due to sensationalism, emotional appeal, and provocative content.
  4. Due to having short attention spans, users don’t take the time to validate what are often clickbait headlines and then share contents without carefully assessing its accuracy. 

And then there is the “I read it on the internet sonig must be true” phenomenon.

A2Z Challenge — The Letter D

Fandango32 Comments

I am unofficially participating in this year’s A to Z Challenge. My theme this year is girlfriends.

A note about today’s post. Back in the early days of this blog, in August 2017, I wrote a post titled “Dollars and Degrees.” I labeled it as flash fiction, but the post was a recounting of an actual conversation I had with a girl I was going out with at the time whose name was Debbie. The only change I’ve made in what follows is to shift from third person to first person, since I’m now confessing that it wasn’t really a work of fiction as much as a recollection.

D is for Debbie S.

“Dollars and degrees. That’s all you care about, you self-centered bastard,” she said before turning away from me and taking a large sip from her martini glass.

I took a swig of my beer. We were sitting next to one another at the bar of the Tomfoolery, a popular pub in the Foggy Bottom section of D.C. “It’s Wednesday night, Deb. You know I have that urban planning paper due for tomorrow night’s class. I really need to head back to my place to finish it up.”

“You’ll use any excuse to get up and leave me here by myself,” Debbie slurred. “I swear, you don’t give two shits about me. All you care about are dollars and degrees.”

I liked Debbie. She was attractive, reasonably bright, and quite accomplished in the sack. But I was working on my master’s degree at night while holding down a full-time job during the day. I was barely half way through my 54 credit-hour curriculum, and completing my master’s program by the end of the following year was my highest priority.

“I think you’re a little drunk, Deb,” I responded, finishing up my beer.

“And I think you’re a selfish prick,” she snapped back.

I turned toward her and, affecting my most sincere, genuine manner, I said, “I really do care about you, Debbie. I enjoy our time together. A lot, actually. But I have to finish this paper tonight. I’ll probably be up quite late and I have to be at work again by 8:30 in the morning. So even though I’d much rather stay here with you a little while longer and then head over to your place and spend the night, I’ve got to go.”

It was only a little white lie, I told myself.

Debbie moved her bar stool closer to mine, snuggled up next to me, and while running her hand up and down my inner thigh, whispered in a low, throaty voice, “I’d rather we head over to my place, too. We can both call in sick for work tomorrow.”

“I can’t,” I said, removing her hand from high up on my thigh. “I’m sorry, Deb, but I just can’t. Not tonight. I need to get this paper done.”

I stood up and retrieved my jacket and backpack from the hook beneath the bar. I leaned over toward Debbie and kissed her on her cheek. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” I said, and headed for the door.

As I was leaving the pub I heard her yell after me. “Dollars and degrees, you fucker! That’s all that’s important to you. Dollars and degrees.”

Previous 2024 A2Z posts: A B C

FOWC with Fandango — Fling

Fandango14 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 “fling.”

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, ÿplease 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.