reading

SoCS — Mostly Sunny and Warm

Fandango7 Comments

For this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Linda G. Hill has asked us to use the words “mostly” and “at least.” “Use one, use ’em both, use ’em any way you’d like,” Linda suggested.

Today plans are to meet our son, his wife, and our grandkids at a small amusement park. It’s supposed to be mostly sunny today, with high temperatures at around 82, so at least it won’t be sweltering.

Between the time we spend at the amusement park and grabbing a meal afterwords, I’ll probably be away and occupied for at least for four to five hours, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to read all of posts or get to your comments until later this afternoon, but I anticipate being mostly able to catch up with my reading of your posts and maybe even responding to your comments on my posts.

Have a great Saturday, everyone!

WDP — Blogging

Fandango10 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Which activities make you lose track of time?
View all responses

These are the activities that cause me to lose track of time.

  • Thinking about topics about which to post, creating drafts, previewing them, editing them, and posting them
  • Reading comments others have made on my posts and responding to them
  • Reading other bloggers’ posts and commenting on them

Oh wait. I almost forgot. Binge watching British detective series also make me lose track of time.

WDP — Leisure Time

Fandango32 Comments

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

I spent almost 50 years of my life getting up each and every day and going to work. A lot of my work involved writing proposals, presentations, analysis documents. I also interacted with coworkers, clients, prospective clients. I even tried to find some time on weekends to write The Great American Novel, but never got very far.

Then, at the end of 2016, I retired. No more proposals, presentations, coworkers, clients, prospective clients. Just me and my wife (and the kids when they found time in their own busy lives to visit with us). Suddenly I had an abundance of leisure time. An over abundance, actually.

So, what should I do with myself and all of this new found leisure time? I wondered. After a month or so into my retirement, my wife apparently got tired of me just hanging around and always being underfoot. She said to me, “Hey, you like to write. Why don’t you start a blog?” It was actually more of a demand than a question. Then she said, “That will keep you busy and out of my hair. You’re driving me crazy.”

I thought about that for a minute. Hmm, okay, I could express my points of view on the world around me and publish them on the internet, where they would be out there for anyone to stumble upon, virtually speaking. And maybe some people actually would stumble upon my blog posts and enjoy what I wrote. Maybe some would even responded to my posts. Comment on them.

Maybe not just my family and friends, whom I would tell about my new hobby, but total strangers from around the world would read, like, and comment on my posts. Maybe I could actually form connections with a large and vibrant community of other bloggers.

So I started blogging. It felt great to see my thoughts, perspectives, ideas, notions, and opinions “in print” for all the world to see. I discovered flash fiction and realized that, while I was unlikely to ever write the Great American Novel, I was a decent very short story writer and blogging allowed me to hone those skills and get almost immediate feedback from those who read them.

I discovered that there were writing prompts to help bloggers like me come up with something to write about and to post on our blogs. I even started creating prompts of my own to help nudge and inspire other bloggers to come up with ideas for their posts.

So, with all of what I just wrote as background, the short answer to today’s WordPress Daily Prompt is that what I enjoy doing most in my leisure time is blogging. And as the photo at the top of this post suggests, I do almost all of my blogging on my smartphone.

WDP — The Perfect Space

Fandango8 Comments

You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?

I already have built the perfect space for reading and writing. It’s inside my head. And the beauty of my reading and writing space is that it’s everywhere and anywhere I am.

And what facilities my highly flexible, perfect reading and writing space is that I do virtually all of my reading and writing, including blogging, on my iPhone, which is always on and always with me.

For example, right now I’m sitting on the couch in our family room. My wife is watching the latest episode of The Property Brothers Forever Home on HGTV. I’m inside my head — my reading and writing space — tapping this post out on the virtual keypad on my iPhone.

Who could ask for a more perfect reading and writing space?

Image credit: Andrea Faria at Pinterest.

Sadje’s Sunday Poser — Comments

Fandango18 Comments

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

How important it is to you to answer comments on your blog posts? Do you think responding to comments is an important part of blogging?

I really appreciate it when someone takes the time to read and comment on one of my posts. And I do read each and every comment. Sometimes, I will simply Like the comment to acknowledge that I’ve seen it. Other times I will simply say “Thanks.” And time permitting, I may respond with a longer comment.

But the point is, I will do my best to read every comment or link-back to my posts and respond with a Like and/or a comment. Because, yes, both commenting on other bloggers’ posts and responding to comments other bloggers have made on my posts are not only important, they are quite possibly the best thing about blogging.