Porthole

August 8 - August 14

A weekly blog that starts skinny on Saturday and fattens up by Tuesday and is ready for slaughter by Friday ... if not before.

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  ███████          PORTHOLE           ███████

SUMMER/WINTER: AUGUST 2020

"A kindly tongue is the lodestone of the hearts of men. It is the bread of the spirit, it clotheth the words with meaning, it is the fountain of the light of wisdom and understanding." - Baha'u'llah

"Una lengua amable es el imán de los corazones de los hombres. Es el pan del espíritu, reviste las palabras de significado, es la fuente de la luz de la sabiduría y el entendimiento." - Baha'u'llah

MY THOUGHTS

August 8: Do I have the right to complain about the party outside my window at midnight?
August 9: Misted the plants in the hallway. I need to shave off my beard. Dust to dust.
August 10: Dull ... as if I have a headache. I'm going through the motions, feel abandoned.
August 11: To learn a language use it everyday. Time and patience brings rewards.
August 12: It's nice to have my table cleared off so I can use it. Much easier to type.
August 13: I'm making progress around here in spite of my self. That must suffice.
August 14: I know it's bad when I want to clean to avoid writing...

WEATHER

August 8: 24° pleasant, dry; 25° in Siem Reap, Cambodia. 32/24 and rainy all week.
August 9: 26° and perfect; 21° in Cartago, Costa Rica. 23/17 all week with afternoon rain.
August 10: 19° but going up to 32, dry; 26° in Pak Chong, Thailand. 31/23 and rainy all week.
August 11: 23° but going up to 33; 29° in Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam. 31/26 and rainy all week.
August 12: 21° and cloudy; 18° in Newark on Trent, UK must feel pleasant after the heat.
August 13: 14° before noon; 27° in Sabetha, Kansas.
August 14: 13° and may go as low as 6, high 28; 29° in Agra, UP, India 35/26 and rainy all week.

IMAGES

August 8: multi-colored gondolas in the river south channel, fireworks at night.
August 9: didn't go out. Does scraping my feet while sitting in the tub count? (no pics)
August 10: there was barely a sunset out there. Just a calm non-descript day.
August 11: not bad. stayed in. geraniums moved. still blooming.
August 12: macaroni and tuna in adobo. A friendly orange color point himalayan.
August 13: twilight fading to night. Shadows of leaves made by lamplight.
August 14: too busy to look. peach, melon.

CONTESTS

It's increasingly obvious that I will NOT do all of these in any given month. Priorities are given to sporadic contest. Blink and I may have to wait 3 months!

FICTION:
"No Dialogue Contest-CLOSED"  SS <700. No dialogue. B/E (no August yet)
"Invalid Item"  FF < 300 Flash Fiction Romance/Erotica by 7/14(Freedom) B/E "Before the showing (300 words) [139] (13.July.2020)"  July 15-July 29: Non-Fiction (Food)
"The Dialogue 500"  SS <500. Covid-19in-progress "the certainty of water" 
"The Science Fiction Short Story Contest"  SS <2000. August: heat {bitem:}
"WEIRD TALES CONTEST "  SS <1000, August: The phantom hand. CLOSED "Invalid Item" 
"Distorted Minds Contest"  4 prompt ss 500-5000
"Invalid Item"  ss >4 font. AUG 15th "Letter to María Celeste [176] (coffee) [431 words]" 
"Invalid Item"  Weekly horror <1500 ss: 1-8 Romance; 8-15 Supernatural; 15-22; 22-29

POETRY:
"Stormy's poetry newsletter & contest"  "Summer's storm [177]"  By 8/8. "From the grave, a voice [237] (10 lines)"  By 9/9
"Poetic Traditions Poetry Contest "  <50. Old or new not awarded. Limited to 20.
"Shadows and Light Poetry Contest"  Round 86 to August 14th. Old or new. Free verse <40 "Smoke" 
"Shadows and Light Poetry Contest"  Round 87 August 15th to September 14th.Old or new. Free verse <40 lines.
1 "Invalid Item"  Round 76: triveni. "Quepos in June [186]" 
2 "Invalid Item"  Round 77:
"Invalid Item"  August New or old <50 lines
"Invalid Item"  <60. It's a dark month... State Fair

Whenever: "The Random Poetry Contest" 
September: "Verdant Poetry Contest"  Nature. Autumn. Form and words by Sept. 30.
September: "The Humorous Poetry Contest"  <15 Humor. Round 33. B/E
Closed: "Write from the Heart Poetry Contest"  Romance. 12-20 lines

BOTH:
"The Writer's Cramp"  Daily noon-noon WDC = 10 a.m. MTT. Must be item.
"The Taboo Words Contest ~ On Hiatus"  Monthly. <750 <40 August - Cookout In progress: "What is this? [202]" 

"Kittiara's Writing Contest"  1 ss, 1 poem. Theme: renewal
"Second Time Around ~ Birthday Special"  Old non-winners! Got lots of those. Round 17: Aug 15th-Sept 14

EITHER/OR:

"Invalid Item"  Erotica! <500 words, <15. August?
"Invalid Item"  <1000 or poem August?
"The PET NEWS CONTEST"  SS <2500, P <40. August?

NEITHER:
"The 4 Controversies Contest"  Opinionated non-fiction essay >1200. Round IX?

VARIES:
"The Contest Challenge"  A contest of contests... every month.
"The Bard's Hall Contest"  SS <1000 GC+ August 31 Pet/human. "PET/HUMAN DIALOGUE"  Needs to be s/s

"Share Your Faith" 
"Journey Through Genres: Official Contest" 

POULTRY

THREE DAYS A WEEK: "Invalid Item"  by midnight WDC by: 10th 12th 14th

"Summer's storm [177]" 

* "At Tussaud's [179] 24σ" 

"But in the end, a passing thing [183.zm]" 

"MLK coming down the tracks 1963 [182] 24σ" 

"de Sade lives! [184] 24σ" 

"Quepos in June [186]" 

Boiling:

"this our fairy tale [175] a song" 

"From the grave, a voice [237] (10 lines)" 

Cracked:

"Ombra mai fu" 

Not yet laid:

PORK

DAILY: "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge" 

STATIC

Pool bot [172] (237 one syllable words)  (18+) < 300 words prompt: wind, three, grass #2228387 by Kåre เลียม Enga

STATIC

Blue Tower (Space Cadet)  (18+) Everything was beautiful. Every morning was sunshine and unicorns if that's what we chose. #2229048 by Kåre เลียม Enga

"Radish patch [178] (615 words)" 

Baking:

"Yokai 8/15" 

"Turn, turn, turn ... on me [181] (698 words)"  by 8/15

"Hemorrhoids "  only-dialogue-July

READING

MOVIETIME

I can't focus on audio-visual! I need to finish one movie and find one that works for me. I have 200 to choose from. May need to go on-line and watch some East Asian love story serials.

LEARNING NORWEGIAN

NoW: 5KAMP , 5 Listening , 5KV , 5AE , 5M , 5P , 6KAMP .

EDITING PHOTOS

8: 2/16 (Kaohsiung), 9: 2/16 (Kaohsiung), 10: 2/16 (Kaohsiung-fin), 11: 2/17 (Taipei), 12: 2/17 (Taipei-fin), 13: 2/18 (taipei-fin), 14: 2/19-20 fin.

CHORES

8: 20 min, 9: , 10: 20 min, 11: 30 min, 12: 20 min, 13: 20 min, 14: 20 min.

OUT/WALK

8: walk, 9: , 10: out, 11: , 12: walk, 13: walk, 14: out.

MARKET SENIOR CENTER COFFEEHOUSE

August 8th: Stopped at N Higgins to get cantaloupe and peaches. Talked to McCormant; everyone fine. Chocolate-coconut shake at Butterfly Herbs.
August 10th: Sat outside the Senior Center eating mac&cheese.
August 14th: Ham and cheese sandwich. Chatted with Dalton, Laxmi and others.

MY FORMER LIFE

August 10, 2012: Day of the Writer in Costa Rica.
August 11, 2012: Wrote "Future imperfect. "Mold will move"" 
August 11, 2018: Torino, Italy.

WATT'S GNUS

Teen wins transgender rights suit in federal court (NBC) 11th Circuit Florida for the win for Drew Adams.
What Fauci says the U.S. really needs to reopen safely (National Geographic) Fauci being rational and common sensical.
Postal Service Warns States It May Not Meet Mail-In Ballot Deadlines (NY Times) Because they can't plan and hire people just like they do at Christmas?

WATT'S GNUS INTERNATIONAL

Mauritius declares environmental emergency as shipwreck leaks tonnes of diesel and oil into the sea (CNN) France has agreed to help. Easy to forget how global these issues are.
Azar arrives in Taiwan amid tensions with China (The Hill) Talk about covid-19? Too little, too late.
Taiwan finalizes $62bn purchase of F-16 jets from Lockheed Martin (AFP) The country we do not recognize but use as a pawn to annoy China.

OPINIONS

"Homeless shit ... again and again. "  closed

SPACEBOOK quotes (you can guess context):

BLOGVILLE

Reference to challenges, contest and prompts (not all appearing on the same week):
BC: "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  (daily) (I'm not a member)
BCOF: "Blogging Circle of Friends "  using my Nlog (nature blog) "Nurture your Nature"  and "Hoarfrosts from Hell"  (daily)
JAFBG: "JAFBG"  (open rants)
JI: "Journalistic Intentions"  using my Blog "Enga mellom fjella"  (8 blogs from 16 prompts) "June post. I'm finished. "  
30DBC: "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  (July)
MHA: "Invalid Item"  weekly prompts starting June 14th.
OP: "Invalid Item"  using my Plog "L'aura del Campo" 
PP: "Promptly Poetry Challenge (2024-2025)"  my Plog response to prompts as I missed the sign-up date.
Real: "Welcome To My Reality Forum"  75 prompts August Prompts "REALITIES ... prompts and ideas" 
SB: "Space Blog" 

For August: 30dbcof is a combo of 30DBC and BCOF in my Tlog (travel blog): "On The Write Path" 

August 8 SB: "4157 55: My beautiful world is a paradise" 
August 8 30dbcof: "Perth on a bicycle? Not! " 
August 9: "Me and cleaning: the truce "  (closed)
August 9 30dbcof: "Siem Reap and Battambang" 
August 9 SB: "Blue Tower"  closed
August 10 SB: "4157 57: On wings of wind" 
August 10 30dbcof: "thailand"  closed
August 11 SB: "4157 58 Facing it" 
August 11 30dbcof: "Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam: "Lost to time" [182]" 
August 12 SB: "4157 59 The Morning, afternoon and evening after." 
August 12 30dbcof: "Islands in Ha Long Bay (caves, seafood, coins) "  picture of Vrelo Caves in Makedonia.
August 13 SB: "4157 60"  closed
August 13 30dbcof: "Bhutan" 
August 14 30dbcof: "Everything has a meaning in India (Agra, Delhi) "  closed
August 14 SB: "4157 61"  closed

Visited this week so far and commented:

Sorji is Novelling! Only good news as job, writing, house-hunting coming along fine.
Beholden Muses about the usefulness of various prompts.
Robert Waltz Merit badge mini-contest re 'consciousness' till 8/11 midnight "Once More With Feeling" 
Chris Breva loves chocolate! So do I. Which is why I don't buy it often.
~Brian K Compton~ wrote an absolutely beautiful poem: "Invalid Entry" 
Lyn's a Witchy Woman Just another C-day? A fierce warrior woman is defiant!
QueenNormaJean maybesnow?! Cooler weather and grasshoppers. Small town drama.
Eric Wharton 12 years = a Jovian cycle, by Jove! Eric is jovial.
IceSkatingSugarCube Could use some help in promoting her romance trilogy.
BlueMoon Mentions taking a hot air ballon ride. I'm full of hot air, so maybe not!
Prosperous Snow celebrating Wrote a poem about Angor Wat and points out climbing up on ones knees.
Apondia Linked some Cambodian instrumental music. I linked some vocals of Sin Sisamuth.
Charity Marie - <3 Is sounding so much better! Burdens lifted.
SandraLynn Makes riding a bike sound like so much fun. "Mirth In Perth" 
Kit_Carmelite I made a long comment to an excellent essay on "Invalid Entry" .
hullabaloo22 Managed to fit the line "the Dalmatian with the balls," into a poem.
lizco252isback Is thrilled about Kamela! "Invalid Entry"  and includes a video sowing why.
Joy Would love to go hang gliding. Would you join her? Me? Terra firma.
bobturn Writes a lot of HORROR. A short but great example: "Invalid Entry" 
Future Mrs. Boo To understand 'vaginismus' read "Love as a Change Agent" .
Princess Megan Snow Rose "I have beautiful memories of friends and family."
Scottiegazelle Has been missing due to gallstones! Excuses...
StephBee A stunning doppelganger of a WW2 WREN photo dated 1941. "I Wish I was a Genealogist " 
L.A. Grawitch A very rainy birthday.
ridinghhood-p.boutilier A happier poem than I can write at the moment.
Charlie ~ Covering up for others takes its toll, even when you are 13.
⭐Princette♥PengthuluWrites Has been dealing with depression napping. I can relate.
💙 Carly-wrimo 2024 Is taking photos on her virtual trip to Viet Nam.
Richard ~ Thankful!! A bit of a rant about family and expectations.
Cappucine Being a teacher with unenthusiastic students? Yeah.
innerlight Processing, always. "November Blog" 


Trying to keep up on blogs. Maybe 30 last week but 15-20 is a better goal.

Postcards:

Aug 8: Gary in NY
Aug 8: Ann in WA

Sunset coming down the old railroad tracks, August 3, 2010 at 21:00.

                                                                                                                                           

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