As the waves come ashore to wash away 2018, the year officially moves into our memory bank. A year that marked 10 years in my little corner of the world here on WordPress. A good year of writing, memories, and interactions with many good people.
If all goes well, 2019 means more beach walks, more travel, another musical, and the introduction of the aFa Weekend Concert Series (which starting this coming weekend). For the inaugural event, it doesn’t get any bigger than The Beatles.
Sometime in 2019 will deliver the 400th weekly edition of Opinions in the Shorts. New posts in final preparation include Oreos, shopping carts, race music, samba, water, shadows, dark, a look at me during my college days, and a toast to 66. 2019 could deliver visit #400,000.
As we say farewell to 2018 while greeting 2019 with open arms, Happy New Year to you … and may goodness continue to shine! Enjoy The Tenors.
I like walking the beach. It’s good for the mind, body, and soul – and refreshing on my feet.
I see the vast water representing bloggers. Communities as WordPress and Blogger are two hosting communities – but not the only ones.
Bloggers are across the world – just another example of the world becoming smaller and more connected. I don’t know how many people from different countries have touched my little corner of the world – but I do know that I enjoy those who interact and return – especially those who have stuck with me for many years.
Each blogger writes for different reasons – marketing, personalizing, pontificating, advocating, educating, sharing, interacting, simply writing, and more. Poems, short stories, sports, politics, photography, travel, satire, music, events, hobbies, diaries, entertainment, fitness, wellness, cooking, religion, philosophy, humor, art, and more because blog pages allow readers to decide the topics they want to engage.
Each blogger wants something different. Some want interactions, others want friends, laughs, respect, community, a voice, and/or even just followers.
Bloggers are like the rest people in our life: they came and go – there are givers and the selfish – the jokers and the philosophers – the learners and the teachers – the encourages and the downers – the inspirational and the passive – the emotional and the practical – the extroverts and the introverts – and many more – even the users and abusers. Nonetheless, I firmly believe that (as a whole) bloggers have made the world a better place. After all, we are the everyday people helping the world go around.
This is the last walk of the season. It’s been fun – so thanks for walking along. This series started in 2017 with 15 posts – but 2018 increased to 24. Our plans are to return to the beach again in 2019, which serves as my writing time for this eclectic collection of personal thoughts. Hopefully my future includes more walks to share on my little corner of the world. After all, walking the beach is good for the mind, body, and soul – and refreshing on my feet.
Some may ask, “Pronouns?”, but we at A Frank Angle say, “Why not pronouns!”
A subset of nouns, pronouns serve as a substitute for nouns and noun phrases. These bits of linguistics and grammar are versatile and can almost refer to anything.
Although pronouns can be personal, objective, possessive, indefinite, relative, intensive, demonstrative, interrogative, reflexive, and reciprocal, this musical extravaganza focuses on selected pronouns.
Program
Act 1: I
I – when the speaker or writer refers to self as the grammar object in a sentence
I – but not me (that’s Act 2)
“I am the greatest.” (Muhammad Ali)
“I shall return.” (US General Douglas MacArthur)
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” (Albert Einstein)
“I have a lot to be thankful for. I am healthy and I am loved.” (Reba McEntire)
“I am a strong woman because a strong woman raised me.” (Writing journal title)
Guidelines
Songs must have I in the title
Cautions
No duplicates songs regardless of artists
Contractions are acceptable at the discretion of The Producer
Production Note
To prevent browsers crashing from loading too many videos, please: 1) include the song title and artist in your text, and 2) paste the URL as part of your last line (not a new line). The latter will provide a link, thus not embed the actual video … but I don’t mind unembedding, so apologies are not necessary.
Announcement
Welcome to Opening Night of the latest musical by aFa Productions: Pronouns: The Musical.
Selecting the opening number for any act is difficult, but finding the starter for Act 1 on Opening Night requires extra scrutiny. In the spirit of our leader’s contrarian nature, we at aFa Productions think outside the box – and a Mummers band perfectly fits that criteria. Let’s give a rousing aFa welcome to the Polish American String Band and I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover.
Act 2 – You – Next Saturday @ 1:00 am (Eastern US)
On August 28, 2008, my first post appeared on these pages. Eight years later,
1,853 posts
266,745 visits
69,786 comments appear, but probably half are mine because I believe hosts should interact with visitors
Proudly, I covered a wide-range of topics.
My biggest pride lies in the fact how I reciprocated visits with so many bloggers. I’ve outlasted many bloggers, while others chose to no-longer visit. Stats here have been spiraling downward for some time, but my lack of visiting others in recent months is evident.
Many thanks to all the visitors here, but especially to the long-time visitors who have stuck with me for many years and took time to comment. Although I’m still in the process of change, time will tell what is ahead for these pages. However, I’m not done yet!
My golf league ended with a thud. After leading the first 4 weeks of the third 5-week mini-season of the year, I didn’t get it done on the last week. To make matters worse, a bizarre rule kept me out of the final 4 playoffs for the season. I took the high road by not complaining, but I foresee a rule change in the future that would prevent a situation like this in the future.
In this election, I think the partisans are making a big mistake with the true independents. I’ve noticed many partisans spending more time trying to convince someone not to vote for the other candidate (as opposed to reasons to vote for their candidates). What the partisans don’t realize is that their approach encourages contrarians like me to go in the opposite direction of their desires.
This election is ridiculous in many ways, mainly the lack of discussion about important issues.
Earlier this week I listened to an interview with Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein. Yes, I didn’t make it to the end of the interview.
To me, one thing scarier than Donald Trump is the number of people who cheer when he says something totally stupid. However, I realize that this is not true for all of his supporters.
Because of the toxic political climate with the USA, I will continue to hope that the November election yields divided government – that is, one party does not control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
President Obama’s Five Faults of the Week
Mistakes made by Donald Trump
All events in Rio when the US didn’t win the gold
Approaching hurricane season
Forming ISIS
Ryan Lochte
Weekly Headlines from The Onion (combos welcome)
Gifted, Passionate Student Really Stretching Limits Of School’s Resources
Olympic swimmer admits the Rio pool much wetter than expected
Humanity Hoping It Only Has To Put Up With Few More Millennia Of This Shit
Scientists Confirm First Case Of Zika Transmission From Article To Reader
School Of The Arts Aims To Transform Boys And Girls Into Insufferable Young Men And Women
Although the weekend is already upon us, I still have to end this post with a song. Interestingly, this blog shares a birthday with one of my long-time favorites. Hope all is well with you, and in the words of Garrison Keillor, Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.
With my wife’s retirement and our wedding anniversary, last week was huge for us. Tuesday afternoon was her retirement party at work, then Tuesday night came my salute to #31. She appreciated the many comments from my blogging community, so here’s her comment late in the string.
Thanks to all of you bloggers for the kind wishes in my new retirement life. If the Frank Angle disappears from the web for a while, it will either because we’re having such a good time that he’s never home, or our constant togetherness resulted in a homicide! I’m hoping for the former.
Here’s a snapshot of our happenings
Thursday
Her last work day, so she was home by noon
Walking our typical 2-mile loop … but in the afternoon
Dinner at Seasons 52 to celebrate her retirement and our upcoming anniversary
Friday
Breakfast out (@First Watch) to celebrate her first day off
Walked our loop
I worked 3-7
She went to dinner with neighbors who invited her
We met at the dance studio where I planned a surprise retirement celebration
Saturday
Official 39th anniversary day – but in the evening we attended a birthday gathering for a friend
As I’ve written on these pages many times, Blog breaks are good. I try to take several per year, and I know the time for one is now. For me, the break won’t be one of total avoidance because I want to spend time visiting others. After all, I’ve been very negligent recently – which is one of the signs I use to determine the need for a break.
I’m envisioning two weeks, but time will tell. Because of the positive response for featuring Pink Martini, here’s a live version of Amado Mio to send you into my blog break. Meanwhile, remember these words from a great American storyteller – Garrison Keillor – Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.
A Frank Angle 