blogosphere

One-Liner Wednesday — Open-Minded

Fandango7 Comments

2D1F4853-F74E-4C48-8566-561C9F356EFC

“People are very open-minded about new things — as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.”

American inventor Charles F. Kettering

Yeah, I know. My One-Liner Wednesday post from last week was also about open-mindedness. And truth be told, this is actually my third One-Liner Wednesday post on essentially this same topic, because I also posted this one last November.

So why am I posting so many One-Liner Wednesday quotes about being open-minded? It’s because I have recently had some contentious interactions, both in the real world and within the blogosphere, with individuals who seem to be stubbornly closed-minded. Facts, logic, reason, or rationality could not sway them or penetrate their thick skulls.

So possessing an open mind — or not — is at the forefront of my consciousness.

Written for this week’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt from Linda G. Hill.

They Just Disappear

Fandango34 Comments

Visualization of poof sound with big fluffy cloudIn the 26 months that I’ve had this blog, at least ten bloggers who I follow, and maybe as many as twice that number, have disappeared. As in “here today, gone tomorrow.” Most of these disappearing bloggers offered no notice of or explanation for their departure from the blogosphere. Just poof and they were gone.

Did they just get tired of blogging and quit? Did they lose interest? Are they having health issues? Do they have pressing personal masters to attend to? Will they be back at some point? Well, if they just disappeared one day, we likely will never know.

In a way, especially if the blogger is one you’ve followed for a long time and whose words, wit, and insights you appreciated, the blogger’s sudden disappearance is like losing a friend. A friend you “spoke” with frequently. A friend with whom you shared thoughts, ideas, perspectives, and opinions via blog posts and comments.

So it’s no wonder that these bloggers who are, for whatever reasons, no longer blogging, are missed in much the same way you miss a real world friend who inexplicably disappears without warning or explanation.

And that brings me to some sad news I received the other day about a blogger that I haven’t been following that long and really didn’t know very well outside of her comments on my posts and her prompts.

Hélène Vaillant, the blogger behind the “What Do You See?” prompt, passed away. Although I didn’t really know her that well, I felt the loss of her sudden and unexpected death not that differently from how I would feel about the death of a real world acquaintance.

52035E62-2693-4E1D-9001-4E8DE3F250BF

Disappearing Act

Fandango16 Comments

0DE6ADF4-60C2-41F7-8BD4-590D9C849F68I received a rather strange and disturbing email via my contact page from a blogger I follow, Marilyn Armstrong, over at Serendipity.

“Haven’t heard from you in weeks. You mad at me?” she wrote.

I didn’t know why the real Marilyn would send that, since I read her blog almost religiously, click like on most of her posts, and comment on many of them. I thought maybe someone had spoofed her email, and that if I clicked on her embedded link, I’d be the victim of malware.

So I reached out to Marilyn, who informed me that the email was, indeed, from her. She responded by telling me that she hadn’t seen any comments from me since early April.

What? The only explanation is that my comments were disappearing somewhere in cyberspace or getting hijacked in the blogosphere.

You know, I’ve seen other bloggers complain that their pingbacks weren’t working or that their comments weren’t showing up, but I didn’t realize it was happening to my comments as well.

So if you suddenly happen to notice my absence in you comments section, it might be due to some glitch in WordPress.

Just wanted to let you know. In case, you know, you missed me.

The Mask I Wear

Fandango16 Comments

This is the mask I wear when I wander the corridors of the blogosphere.

With it, I say what I feel deep down inside of me.

Without it, I say what people expect of me.

The true me, then, is the man behind the mask.

(Exactly 45 words)

D7A1540D-A4BE-4617-B8B4-681D7D3F0916Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where we are challenged to write a poem or piece of prose using the word “mask” in exactly 45 words.

I’ve Never Skied Naked

Fandango71 Comments

62f3e412-a061-49f0-bcab-4003b9716ea9.jpegThat is not me in the picture. Just to set the record straight, I have never in my life skied naked. Yet there is a rumor floating around the blogosphere that I have, indeed done so.

It all started when Rory (A Guy Called Bloke) posted about being nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award. In that post, he included me in the group of bloggers he nominated to pay it forward and he posed a bunch of questions, the nature of which Rory is wont to ask (i.e., weird ones).

Being the accommodating blogger that I am, I wrote a post with my answers to Rory’s weird questions. That post is HERE.

Rory’s second question asked, “What’s the most fun you have ever had without the obvious, naked?” I interpreted Rory’s question to ask about the most fun I’ve had without being naked. And so I responded, “Without being naked? Um, downhill snow skiing at Taos in New Mexico?”

Think about what I wrote. I wrote, “Without being naked?” Maybe I misunderstood Rory’s question, but my response was clearly talking about not being naked. Am I right or what?

But apparently a number of bloggers glommed on to the notion that I skied naked. I figured this misconception would eventually fizzle out.

But no. Today, Mel, over at Crushed Caramel, “gifted” me with this pair of thermal underwear. 7ADB5CB0-32D5-4A88-A7EE-ECB209E1224AShe wrote, “My first priority is a gift to Fernando* Fandango, the creator of This, That, and The Other. I would like to give the gift of thermal underwear for skiers. Specialist skiers underwear that is also aerodynamic. It won’t slow you down on the ski slopes but it will help to prevent frost bite. Frostbite can turn very nasty, so please do wear something on the slopes.”

But I already do wear thermal underwear when I go skiing because I don’t sky naked!

So, once and for all, I’ve never skied naked. I’ve been naked at a nude beach, I’ve been skinny dipping at a flooded rock quarry, and I’ve frolicked in the altogether with friends in a hot tub. But skiing naked. Uh uh!

* Don’t ask.