How many times do you read and edit your posts before publishing them? Do you have to correct an error after you have posted a blog post?
I would say that I proofread and edit my posts at least two or three times — and more for longer posts — before I hit Publish. And yet I still occasionally end up with typos and misspellings on my published posts. Why? Because the eyes often see what the brain expects them to see, not necessarily what they are actually seeing.
I also try reading my drafts out loud to see how they sound and if the sentences as written make sense. That sometimes leads to major rewrites, including moving paragraphs around to improve the flow.
And yes, even with my best efforts to make my posts perfect — at least from a grammatical, spelling, and punctuation standpoint — some still get published with errors. When that happens, all I can do it is go in and fix whatever needs to be fixed.
And I hope that my fellow bloggers understand and forgive me. After all, unless you’re using some generative AI engine to write your posts for you, we are all only human — and to err is human .
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday challenge, Jim Adams has asked us to find a song written or performed by someone who was born in the month of April.
The artist I’ve selected to feature was born on April 2nd in 1942 in Oklahoma and grew up to be one of rock and roll’s great behind-the-scenes architects who also became a distinctive solo star. Known for his long white hair, beard, and gravelly voice, he blended rock, blues, gospel, country, and soul into a sound that was uniquely his own.
Do you know who I am talking about yet?
He moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and quickly became a sought-after session musician. He played piano and guitar with the legendary studio collective known as The Wrecking Crew, before stepping into the spotlight around 1970 with his solo work and his role in organizing the landmark tour and album Mad Dogs & Englishmen for Joe Cocker. The project showcased his musical direction and energetic piano style.
His music fused his Southern roots with rock sophistication. His piano playing could swing from delicate gospel phrasing to thunderous boogie-woogie. He was equally comfortable writing introspective ballads and gritty rockers.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. His influence runs deep, with many artists crediting him as a bridge between genres and a master songwriter’s songwriter. He passed away in 2016.
So, have you figured out who he is? His name is Leon Russell, and his song I am featuring is “Stranger in a Strange Land.”
“Stranger in a Strange Land” was a 1971 song by Leon Russell, co-written with Don Preston, and released on Russell’s album Leon Russell and the Shelter People. It’s a reflective, gospel-tinged song that uses the idea of being an outsider as a way to comment on confusion, human suffering, and the search for truth.
The song’s lyrics ask big existential questions like how long a life lasts, why people hurt each other, and how to make sense of the world. Its repeated “stranger in a strange land” refrain frames humanity as spiritually disoriented, with a mix of weariness and hope.
The song takes its title title from the 1961 science-fiction novel “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert A. Heinlein. It’s not a direct adaptation, but it borrows the phrase as a metaphor for alienation — feeling out of place in the modern world, disconnected from society, or spiritually adrift.
I relate to this song because I feel, as an American, that the country I have lived in and loved my entire life no longer exists and I feel like I am a stranger living in a strange land.
Listeners often point to the song’s powerful vocal delivery and its mix of soul, gospel, and rock influences. It’s one of the songs that shows Leon Russell’s ability to turn a simple refrain into something emotionally and philosophically expansive.
Here are the lyrics to “Stranger in a Strange Land.”
How many days has it been Since I was born How many days until I die Do I know any ways That I can make you laugh Or do I only know how to make you cry
When the baby looks around him It's such a sight to see He shares a simple secret With the wise man
He's a stranger in a strange land Just a stranger in a strange land Tell me why He's a stranger in a strange land Just a stranger in a strange land
How many miles will it take To see the sun And how many years until it's done Kiss my confusion away in the night Lay by side when the morning comes
And the baby looks around him And shares his bed of hay With the burro in the palace of the king
He's a stranger in a strange land Tell me why He's a stranger in a strange land Just a stranger in a strange land
Well, I don't exactly know What's going on in the world today Don't know what there is to say About the way the people are treating Each other, not like brothers
Leaders take us far away from ecology With mythology and astrology Has got some words to say About the way we live today Why can't we learn to love each other It's time to turn a new face To the whole world wide human race
Stop the money chase Lay back, relax Get back on the human track Stop racing toward oblivion Oh, such a sad, sad state we're in And that's a thing
Do you recognize the bells of truth When you hear them ring Won't you stop and listen To the children sing Won't you come on and sing it children
He's a stranger in a strange land Just a stranger in a strange land
Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “complain.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.
I do not suffer from abibliophobia, the fear of running out of reading material.
I have never been faced with such a fear, as I always have plenty of reading material handy, whether it’s physical books, magazines, or newspapers, ebooks on my Kindle app, the newsfeed on my iPhone, blog posts, or articles in online journals.
It seems that the supply and availability of reading material these days is almost endless and even overwhelming.
But I do suffer from something known as lobattaphobia, the overwhelming fear when the battery on my iPhone runs out.
Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the challenge is “abibliophobia” in exactly 94 words. Photo credit: dreamstime.com.
For his Writer’s Workshop this week, John Holton gives us six writing prompts and we are tasked with choosing one of the prompts (or as many as we want) and writing a post that addresses that prompt (or those prompts). I am responding to three of the prompts this week:
Write a post inspired by the word forget.
Write a post in exactly 9 sentences.
Do you have any special plans for April?
I didn’t intentionally forget to write a post this week for John’s weekly Writer’s Workshop prompt.
I have just been very busy doing things like working on my taxes, which are due to be filed by April 15th.
And, since I am going to have to pay Uncle Sam and the Golden State a lot of shekels this year due to dipping a little to deeply into my 401 (k) accounts last year, I have been trying to come up with some schemes to reduce my tax liability.
To no avail.
Plus, it’s Blogging from A to Z in April time and, even though I am an unregistered, unofficial participant, I am trying to be diligent in posting an A to Z entry every day this month at 6 am my time.
Except for Sundays.
As for plans for April, I have a birthday later this month.
I would prefer to low key my birthday this year as I usually try to do every year, but it’s a biggy — my 80th — and my wife insists that we have a “proper celebration.”
So she has invited friends and relatives over for a backyard party that includes grilling steaks, baby back ribs, and salmon, and guess who has grill duty — it’s the birthday boy!
Did you know that dongles come in all shapes and sizes? Would you like to see a photo of my dongle?
I didn’t think so. But here it is nonetheless.
Yes, that’s my dongle. Not what you were expecting? Well, my dongle enables a wireless mouse and keyboard to communicate with my laptop.
Dongles are small hardware devices that plug into a computer, phone, or other electronic device — usually through a USB port — to add a specific function or capability. You can think of my dongle as a little “adapter” or “key” that expands what my device can do.
As I said earlier, dongles come in all shapes and sizes:
Common types of dongles include wireless adaptors that can be used to add Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to a device that doesn’t have it, or media streaming sticks that let you send video to a TV (e.g., Roku), or port adapters that can be used to convert one type of connection to another (e.g., USB-C to HDMI).
For example, my old laptop didn’t have an HDMI port, so I had to use a dongle to connect it to a large, external monitor.
By the way, the word “dongle” is informal, but widely used in tech — sometimes affectionately, sometimes with mild annoyance (because they’re easy to lose).
And now you know all about dongles. Who said you can’t learn anything by reading my blog.
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Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “bolster.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.
For sixty years, the old hat tin sat atop the wardrobe, patient as stone. Inside, Margaret’s mother had kept memories, but not love letters, as one might imagine. Instead there were receipts, train tickets, and a single pressed violet.
When Margaret finally climbed the stepladder, she expected dust. Instead, the brass handle turned cool and familiar in her palm, like a handshake from someone long gone.
Margaret lifted the lid.
The violet had turned to powder. The tickets listed cities she’d never visited. And tucked beneath everything was a photograph of a woman laughing — someone nobody living could name.
(100 words)
Written for Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers prompt. Photo credit: Roger Bultot.
My mother used to keep tin and cardboard hat boxes on the top shelves of a closet in the basement of our house. I am not sure if the item in Roger’s photo is a tin hat box or some other item, but the story that came to my mind was built around what my mother might have kept in a tin hat box in a closet in the basement that my father would never think to look inside of. Hmm.
For this monthly prompt from Kate at XingfuMama, the idea is to pick a photo we want to play with and process it using three different methods.
Just FYI, all processed photos in this post were made using apps available for the iPhone at Apple’s App Store or AI art programs. Also, all images, including the original, were resized (shrunk) to make them quicker to load (and to take up less space in my WordPress media folder).
The photo I’m featuring this month was originally taken on March 1st. It’s actually a screen shot of the image seen from my Ring doorbell camera taken at 7 am. My house faces East and there is a wood fence and gate surrounding my front porch and the angle of the early morning sun created an interesting geometric pattern of shadows on the concrete front porch floor.
Original screenshot through Ring doorbell camera.
Processed using the Prisma app Oil filter.
Processed using the Waterbrush app Detail filter
Conjured by Copilot when I asked for a Cubist/Picasso-like image.
Have you ever had anyone draw a caricature of you? You know what I’m talking about, right? A caricature.
It’s a drawing that exaggerates a person’s distinctive features or traits, often for humor, satire, or criticism. It usually means a recognizable portrait with intentionally exaggerated features such as a big nose, chin, or smile.
A street artist creating a caricature of a random person
I asked Copilot to put together a collage of caricatures of famous entertainers and here is what it came up with. Can you name them all? I can, except for the guy in the lower left corner. Who the hell is that?
At street festivals and county fairs over the years I have had many caricatures drawn of me, but I apparently never kept any of them to share with you.
So, as a special treat, I asked Gemini to create a caricature of me, and here is what Gemini conjured up:
Okay, wait. That’s kind of scary and I don’t want you, my readers, to have nightmares when you think about my blog.
So then I gave ChatGPT a photo of the real world me and I instructed ChatGPT to create a caricature of me as a blogger who is sitting in an easy chair tapping away on his iPhone producing a blog post.
Here is what ChatGPT came up with:
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Facts, Fictions & Fantasies 