information

Blogging Insights — Information

Fandango17 Comments

For her weekly Blogging Insights prompts, Dr. Tanya provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is from Matt Wolfe. I Googled that name to figure out who the hell Matt Wolfe is because sometimes knowing something about who made the quote helps put it into context. But each time I Googled “Matt Wolfe,” Google kept sending me “Matt Wolff,” a professional golfer. Oh well. Anyway, here’s the quote from Matt Wolfe, whoever he is.

“There’s a lot of information out there for free, so you’ve got to figure out what makes your information different.”

Maybe I’m too literal and maybe my interpretation of this quote is totally off-base, but it seems to me that Matt Wolfe is talking about how to monetize or make money off of whatever “information” one possesses and offers.

In that context, this quote has no relevance to me, since I’m not trying to sell anything, monetize, or make money from my blog. It’s just something I do to keep the mind of this old retiree from devolving into mush.

That said, I think all of us bloggers do what we can to make our blogs at least somewhat unique because each of us is unique in our own way and our blog represents to the rest of the world — or at least to the blogging community — who we are.

Dumb and Dumber

Fandango14 Comments

2A9C450C-B8CE-4AB2-9594-43EF6E7A0781Donald Trump said in an interview yesterday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that he would accept foreign information on political opponents. He said that the origin of opposition research would not overly concern him and that he may or may not go to the FBI if such an offer came from abroad.

“It’s not an interference,” he said, describing such information as “opposition research.” “They have information — I think I’d take it.” He would call the FBI only “if I thought there was something wrong.”

When Stephanopoulos pointed out that the FBI director has said a candidate should call the FBI if approached by foreign sources with damaging information on political opppnents, Trump snapped, “The FBI director is wrong.”

Yes, that was a dumb thing for Trump to have said. Almost as dumb as when he told Lester Holt of NBC News in 2017 that he fired then FBI director James Comey over “this Russia thing.”

But as dumb as what Trump told Stehanopoulos, this post is not about that. It’s about something even dumber. I submit to you this tweet from the President of the United States of America.8AF075FE-3D58-4F1D-9370-F944734E8BF6Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you the Prince of Whales.1E8550AC-C16E-4E4F-819F-1943D322B012Okay, okay. I know this was probably a typo. Or maybe POTUS was victimized by autocorrect. Or more likely, he really does think that Prince Charles is the prince of a country in southwest Great Britain named Whales.

And that might explain why Trump calls Charles’ wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Dolphins.

In Other Words — Analysis Paralysis

Fandango12 Comments

47AA6151-DEED-468B-8C84-3BCB84FF4132
I have to gather the information

So I can analyze the implications

I need to examine all the considerations

So I can ponder the ramifications

All before I can make my decision

In other wordsThis post is written for Patricia’s In Other Words prompt from Patricia’s Place. This week’s challenge is to write a story or poem of five or fewer lines using the word “ponder.”

 

Time To Write — Back in the Day

Fandango19 Comments

5E746A8B-5A64-4071-A429-B6CF0F90F9A4

“What’s that?” My granddaughter asked me, eyeing what was in my hands.

“It’s a book,” I responded.

“What does it do?” she asked me.

“It doesn’t do anything,” I said. “It’s a book, you open it up and you read it.”

She reached out her small hands towards me and asked, “Can I see it?” I handed it to her. She examined it, turning it over in her hands several times. “How do you turn it on?” she asked.

“You don’t turn it on,” I explained. “You open it up and read it.”

“You already said that, Grandpa,” she pointed out. “How does it work?”

“Come sit on my lap and I’ll show you,” I said. I gave her a hand as she climbed upon my lap. Once she was situated, I put the book into her hands and told her to lift the cover, which she did.

She looked intently at the first page of the book. “What are these?” she asked, pointing to the markings on the page.

“Those are letters and they are used together to create words,” I explained. But I could tell that she didn’t understand. So I started reading the words on the pages. She was fascinated, but still confused.

“This is how we learned when I was your age,” I explained. “Reading books like this was entertaining as well as informative.”

“So you had to read a book like this to learn things?” She asked.

“Yes,” I said. “I read many, many books. I loved reading books. But we didn’t have eKnowlege implants like you have today. We had to read books back in the day.”

Written for Rachel Poli’s Time To Write prompt for this week.