The Dawdler

Rory’s Dawdler — 03/19/23

Fandango4 Comments

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Dawdler.” He poses three questions twice a week, questions he says are “inspired by life, humor, conversations and observations, town life, blog posts, writers, gardening, news stories, television, entertainment, and human curiosity, and so on.”

Here are Rory’s three Dawdler questions today.

Are you a person who likes their life to be orderly with set routines and schedules or is that not an essential for you to worry about?

Is an orderly life with set routines and schedules essential for me? No. But is it preferable? Yes.

Are you a natural people watcher and if so what do you enjoy about the experience?

If I’m out and about and have some time to kill, I enjoy people watching. Seeing different people and how they interact and then filling in the blanks (or making them up in my mind) about the kind of person they are, what they do for a living, and what makes them tick can be entertaining — for maybe 30 minutes, at most.

Do you think your online persona is very different from the one at home or are you exactly the same as you display yourself to your readers?

I’m pretty much the same person here on WordPress (my only online “social media” presence) as I am in the real world. If anything, I may be a bit more forthcoming here. For example, I don’t go around announcing to total strangers ITRW that I’m an atheist, but most who know me through WordPress are aware of that. Yes, I blog anonymously, but that’s an attempt to hide my real identity to reduce the potential for identity theft more so than to present an entirely different persona online than at home.

Rory’s Dawdler — 03/16/23

Fandango5 Comments

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Dawdler.” He poses three questions twice a week, questions he says are “inspired by life, humor, conversations and observations, town life, blog posts, writers, gardening, news stories, television, entertainment, and human curiosity, and so on.”

Here are Rory’s three Dawdler questions today.

Do you think being outside is good for a person’s wellbeing?

I enjoy being outside and, weather permitting, try to spend as much outside time as I can. Fortunately, we have a scenic and a serene backyard, so spending outdoor time is as simple as opening the sliding glass doors from my family room to my back deck and patio.

How much of a sensation seeker are you?

If by “sensation seeker” you mean someone who goes sky diving, hang gliding, bungee jumping, or mountain climbing, the answer is no. In my younger days I used to enjoy white water rafting, taking cross-country motorcycle trips, camping, and car rallying, but nowadays sitting on my back deck, listening to the sounds of my waterfall, and taking in the views is all the sensation seeking I need.

Do you believe in blind luck?

Blind luck occurs when something good happens by chance, usually with no intention or skill involved in the outcome. Like, for example, buying a pick-six Powerball ticket and winning the big jackpot. It happens, sure, so I guess I believe in the possibility of blind luck, but not enough to build or stake my life on it.

Rory’s Dawdler — 03/12/23

Fandango11 Comments

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Dawdler.” He poses three questions twice a week, questions he says are “inspired by life, humor, conversations and observations, town life, blog posts, writers, gardening, news stories, television, entertainment, and human curiosity, and so on.”

Here are Rory’s three Dawdler questions today.

What’s a typical or average day look like for you from when you awaken to the day to when you retire for the night?

Since I fell off a ladder and broke my left hip and my right arm at the shoulder, my typical day has been very atypical compared with what it was prior to that fateful day. Now I spend a good portion of every day doing physical therapy exercises for both my hip and my shoulder. And that will change again starting tomorrow when I’ll be spending an hour three days a week at outpatient physical therapy in addition to doing my home exercises. That will last through June.

Other than that, I watch a few hours of TV, spend 3-4 hours on WordPress, eat, read the newspaper, and do whatever else crops up in the activities of daily living of a retiree. Pretty mundane, actually.

What has been your most well-received blog post to date, and what made it unique to your blog for it to become so popular?

Hmm. Well received? Would that be most viewed? Most liked? Most commented upon? I can answer two of those three — views and comments — based upon looking at my stats page.

  • Most viewed was a post call Tygpress.com posted on 8/2/2019. It had 735 views, 77 likes, and 93 comments. It was about a site that was screenscraping WordPress bloggers’ posts without permission and publishing them on its own site. I think this post was popular because it affected a lot of us.
  • Most commented on post was one of my FOWC with Fandango posts with the word Dogma posted on July 30, 2020 It received 179 comments, 134 views, and 26 likes.
  • As to likes, I can’t seem to sort my stats by number of likes. At least not on my iPhone. Maybe later today I’ll go to my laptop and see if I can download my stats to an Excel spreadsheet and sort by likes. If so, I’ll come back and update this post.

Do you trust the internet?

If I know the source to be reliable, yes. But when it comes to social media sites, no, not at all.

Rory’s Dawdler — 03/09/23

Fandango21 Comments

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Dawdler.” He poses three questions twice a week, questions he says are “inspired by life, humor, conversations and observations, town life, blog posts, writers, gardening, news stories, television, entertainment, and human curiosity, and so on.”

Here are Rory’s three Dawdler questions today.

Have you ever watched a long-running televised series from start to finish, and once you have reached the end, you wanted to watch it again or is once enough for you and time for a new long-running series?

I’m assuming Rory is talking about binge-watching a long-running show rather than watching current weekly episodes of shows that have been on air for a long time (e.g., “NCIS,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” or “Law and Order: SVU”).

My wife and I binge-watched 22 seasons of a British detective series “Midsomer Murders.” It took us around three months to get through all 22 seasons and as much as we enjoyed it, we were ready to move on to something different.

Do you think traditions are essential to society – if so, why and if not, why not?

I had no idea how to respond to this question so I went to an AI chatbot and asked it the question. Here’s the chatbot’s answer, which I actually thought was pretty good.

Traditions can be important parts of any society. They can help create memories, teach cultural values, and bring individuals together in a common community. Most societies rely on traditions to connect people and give them a sense of identity and belonging. Some traditions are necessary as they help teach important life lessons and reinforce social values that ensure stability. Other traditions may provide comfort and stability to a society as well as a source of entertainment and shared experiences.

However, it’s important to note that not all traditions are positive or beneficial. Some may perpetuate harmful or discriminatory practices, while others may not be relevant or meaningful to contemporary society. It’s important to critically examine traditions and evaluate whether they still have value in modern times. Ultimately, it’s up to individuals and communities to determine which traditions they choose to uphold and which ones they choose to let go of or adapt.

What would be easier to throw away, deep love or deeply lined rich pockets? Flip side: can money buy love?

I suppose the right answer should be deeply lined rich pockets. But if one is used to a certain life style that only deeply lined rich pockets can provide, it might be hard to give that up. How many soap operas or novels have been crafted around this dilemma?

Can money buy love? That depends on how one defines love. Have you ever seen a drop dead gorgeous young women on the arm of some fat, ugly, old geezer and wondered what she sees in him? The answer is his money. So, draw your own conclusions.

Rory’s Dawdler — 03/05/23

Fandango9 Comments

Rory, the king of questions, also known as the Autistic Composter, has come up with a new series of questions that he calls “The Dawdler.” He poses three questions twice a week, questions he says are “inspired by life, humor, conversations and observations, town life, blog posts, writers, gardening, news stories, television, entertainment, and human curiosity, and so on.”

Here are Rory’s three Dawdler questions today.

How long will you be remembered once you are no more?

I would say that I will be remembered for the lifetime of my children and, depending upon how old my grandkids are when I die, to some extent, through their lives, thanks to all of the photos and videos they will be able to view.

Considering that only 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored and charted, what do you think lurks in our world’s hidden and unknown waters?

I know that most sources suggest that only 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored and charted, but I came across one website claiming that about 20% of the global seafloor had been mapped with modern high-resolution technology. Still, whether 5% or 20%, a lot of our oceans remain hidden and unknown. What do I think lurks in that vast unexplored, uncharted, unknown seas? Probably some strange underwater life forms that we haven’t yet discovered, but I don’t think there are any sea monsters that once found will become a threat to human life on the planet. We humans are enough of a threat to all living beings on the planet.

Are soulmates a real thing?

Sure, if you want to believe that soulmates are a real thing, then, you know, whatever floats your boat.