views

WDP — Changing Perspectives Over Time

Fandango11 Comments
Daily writing prompt
How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?
View all responses

I used to host a weekly prompt called Fandango’s Provocative Question from November 4, 2018 through August 30, 2023, almost five years. One of the reasons I finally threw in the towel on that prompt was because it was becoming more and more difficult to come up with a new and different provocative or interesting question each week. So I can appreciate what the folks at WordPress are struggling with trying to come up with new and different prompt questions each day. But apparently they have stopped trying and are recycling them, sometimes verbatim, and sometime not exactly the same but close enough.

For example, the WDP question on December 30, 2022 was, “How have your political views changed over time?” I posted my response here.

And then, on December 28, 2023, the WDP question was exactly the same: “How have your political views changed over time?” I posted my slightly different response here.

Today, the WDP question doesn’t specifically ask about political views, but it does ask about how significant life events or the passage of time influence our perspective on life. And since I just posted about how a significant life event (falling off a ladder and fracturing a hip) influenced my perspectives on the passage of time and life, I’m going to put a link to that post here. Feel free to read it if you’re interested in knowing my response.

Thursday Inspiration — Part Two

Fandango8 Comments

In my first response earlier today to Jim Adams’ Thursday Inspiration prompt, I mentioned that Jim had written a few things lately that really got me thinking. In my last post I mentioned that Jim commented that my blog had lost some of its zest, and I agreed that Jim’s assessment was accurate.

But Jim opened my eyes to something else yesterday in his response to JYP’s Provocative Question post. I responded by featuring the three posts that got the most views in 2023. But then I read Jim’s response to JYP’s Provocative Question. In his response, Jim wisely said…

I looked for the 2023 post which got the most reader interaction. I found a post that received 47 comments and 27 likes. To me, blogging is about the interaction that I am able to achieve between myself and my readers, so although this may not be my favorite post from 2023, it did achieve the desired effect and I would term it my most popular post of 2023.

So where I featured the posts that got the most views in 2023, Jim featured the post that generated the most comments, indicative of interactions.

My post on this blog that got the most comments since I started it was a FOWC With Fandango post from July 30, 2020. The word was “Dogma” and that post generated 179 comments.

But in terms of posts published in 2023, these are the three that produced the most comments:

On April 26, my Fandango’s Provocative Question #211 in which I asked…

Do you believe that Joe Biden, at 82 shortly after Election Day 2024, is too old to seek that office. What about Donald Trump at 77? Most important, do you think there should be a maximum age set for an individual to run for President of the United States?

As you might expect, that question generated a lot of discussion, resulting in 91 comments.

Next two most commented-on posts were posted on January 16th — Hip Hip Hurray! — and January 21st — No Energy.

That January 16th post was all about how I fell off a ladder and busted my hip. That generated 89 comments, a lot of which were expressions of sympathy and get well wishes. The January 21st post, in which I was whining about being in the hospital and having no energy, got 71 comments.

None of those posts were among my most viewed this year. “Hip Hip Hurray!” amassed 163 views, “No Energy” had 103 views, and the Provocative Question post received 211 views. None was even close to the ones that got the most views in 2023.

So, Jim, thanks for pointing out that the interactions between bloggers through comments beats just looking at views to reflect successful posts!

Sunday Poser — Stressed Out

Fandango3 Comments

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

When under stress, or not feeling 100%, do you take it easy or challenge yourself?

Interesting timing on this question. I guess the first thing I will point out is that I’m retired, so I don’t have a job that stresses me out. I also pride myself on being a relatively mellow guy whose feathers don’t get ruffled very often.

That doesn’t mean I never get stressed out. I do. But I have a of way of dealing with stress that makes it feel less stressful. As a matter of fact, I posted about it earlier today: my waterfall. I go outside to my backyard, sit on the swing chair hanging from the pergola over my back deck and savor the view as well as the soothing sounds of the waterfall. It relaxes me and makes all my troubles melt away.

And yes, if the stress has built up to a certain point, I may occasionally indulge in a cannabis-infused gummy or marshmallow to chase the stress away.

February 2023 — Meh!

Fandango25 Comments

February 2023 was not a very good month for me. And no, I’m not talking just about my efforts rehab from my busted hip and fractured humerus. That’s been tough and this whole thing knocked me for an unexpected loop by draining my energy in a big way. But what really has me glum is that my blog’s views this month were only 10,620. That happens to be my lowest number of monthly views on my blog since June of 2018, when it received 10,001.

I can easily explain the drop in views. Before I had my accident, I posted almost every day a combo post using my own daily FOWC with Fandango one-word prompt plus one-word prompts from up to five other bloggers, but I’ve given that up since the day of my stupid accident.

I posted my Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge and my Fandango’s Story Starter prompts on Monday and Tuesday mornings, respectively. But Paula Light has taken over FFFC and Jim Adams has been keeping FSS alive, and I really appreciate them doing that until I’m ready to take them back, hopefully sometime later this month.

I religiously responded to Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday prompt, but that, too, fell by the wayside since my injury. I hope to get back to that again soon. And there have been other weekly prompts, like Sadje’s What Do You See, that I normally participated in, but since January I have only done so occasionally.

I also haven’t kept up with a lot of the posts that bloggers I follow have posted, therefore I haven’t commented on other bloggers’ posts as much as I used to.

Oh, and I only posted 101 times this past month, the fewest posts in a month since I posted just 91 in February 2018.

I don’t know if or when I’ll resume blogging at the same pace and with the same regularity I did before I broke my body. But given my lack of energy, I’m doing the best I can and I hope that, as my body heals, my energy will return and I’ll get back to my old form.

Where is Everyone?

Fandango58 Comments

Hello. Did I write something, say something, or do something to offend you? Hey listen, I know it’s early. It’s a Sunday morning, and it’s your day off, your day of rest. I get it. But still.

I always check my stats when I wake up in the morning. How many of my fellow bloggers viewed my posts while I was sleeping? How many comments did my posts get that I need to read and respond to?

On a typical morning, when I look at my overnight stats at around 7 am, I have anywhere from 100 to sometimes as high as 200 views. And usually around 30 to 40 comments.

But this morning, when I opened my eyes and looked at my stats page at around 10 past 7, here’s what I saw:

Only 83 views. Only 13 comments. Did everyone on my side of the globe oversleep? Did all of you who live on the other side of the globe decide that today was the day to boycott my blog? Where are you?

Even now, two hours later, I’ve only received 112 views and 15 comments.

Don’t you love me anymore?