Anyway, if you’re a regular reader or new to this blog, I’m a winner. I typically consider the start to be—below the line—but I’m not taking any chances with bonus points at stake. David and I are here for the last non-holiday Saturday of 2022, and we’re ready to tangle with Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt:
“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘start your post or one paragraph with the word ‘anyway.’’ Bonus points if you start your post with ‘anyway’ and regular points if you use it in a paragraph somewhere else in your post. Enjoy!”
If we were having a beer, you’d be late.
“Anyway, Dan, David’s being late doesn’t mean I can’t get you started on a beer.”
“That sounds great Cheryl.”
“Here you go. A nice cold Modelo draft. And, we have a special you’re going to like.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s served over rice. You always buy our specials when they’re served over rice.”
“That’s true. I think I’ll be taking one of those to go.”
“To go? I just got here and you’re leaving?”
“I’m not leaving, David. I’m just making plans for dinner.”
“What are you taking home?”
“I don’t know, but it’s served over rice.”
“Dan, I hate to tell you, but it could be tofu.”
“Not in this place, David. Do you want some bourbon?”
“I do, Cheryl. A John Howell’s Special will hit the spot. By the way, what is going to be sitting on Dan’s rice?”
“Chicken, zucchini, spinach, broccoli, onions, tomatoes and salsa.”
“That sounds like something Marian Allen would like, except for the chicken. By the way, Dan, why aren’t you sharing her recipes anymore?”
“She’s no longer on Twitter.”
“You could still share her blog posts.”
“You could sign-up for notifications.”
“I prefer it this way.”
“What way is that, David? Here’s your bourbon.”
“Dan subscribes, gets all the email and shares the posts on Twitter.”
“So, Dan is your blog curator?”
“Sort of, yes, I guess you could call him that.”
“That’s fine, David, but my circle of friends on Twitter is shrinking like the warp bubble that Beverly Crusher created in “Remember Me“
“I also follow you on Facebook.”
“I don’t usually share links on Facebook, David.”
“You could, it’s not a crime.”
“Facebook tracks people who click on links, and I’m not sure most people know that.”
“So, if I click on a link for this post, Facebook will start showing me ads for Chicken Con Aglio?”
“Perhaps. Perhaps it will show ads for John Howell’s Bourbon. I’m reasonably sure it won’t show you an ad for my books.”
“Dan, even I know there’s really no such thing as John Howell’s Bourbon.”
“When has that stopped Facebook?”
“You make a good point. I also follow you on LinkedIn.”
“I share some posts on LinkedIn, but they’re beginning to bother me.”
“Why?”
“Well, I changed my status to retired, but they keep sending me links to companies that are hiring.”
“Maybe your wife put them up to that. You know, to get you out of the house.”
“That could be, but they also do this creepy thing when I comment on someone else’s post.”
“Creepy? LinkedIn? Are you sure you’re not confusing it with Facebook?”
“No, it’s LinkedIn. If I comment on a post, it suggests that I share that comment to ‘control the conversation’ or something like that. It seems like stealing someone else’s idea.”
“Here’s an idea you can steal. We need another round, and someone needs to pay for it.”
“Did I hear Dan’s ordering another round?”
“You did, Cheryl. Don’t forget the cherries.”
“Did I forget them the first time?”
“No, I just meant…”
“I think you offended her, David. That’s never a good idea.”
“Make it up to her with your tip. So, Twitter is your favorite social media platform but you’re not feeling the love from it?”
“I am not. I mean, I still only see tweets from the people I’ve put on a list, but the numbers are dropping.”
“Maybe Musk wants out of the book and blog promotion business.”
“I’m not sure what he wants to promote. At least with Facebook I know they want to promote things I’ve already bought.”
“Maybe you should move to TikTok. How are your dance moves?”
“Not ready for prime time.”
If you like magical realism with suspense, action and a bit of family sarcasm, you will enjoy these books:
Knuckleheads
The Evil You Choose
When Evil Chooses You
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No Facilities 
You’ve made me even gladder I’m not on any of those things. It seems to me that everything we do on this machine is just a way of leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind our every move. Now leaving footprints in the snow is different. You’re right that the snow makes the world different — the photo of the sun and shadows on the snow is lovely. Great one of the moon! (Let’s hear it for daughters!)
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I’ve had that camera for four years. I explained what I was trying to do, and she figured it out in less than five minutes. I had done all the right things, but I failed to notice a tiny icon that showed how to adjust the focus.
Not leaving breadcrumbs is difficult. All because people want to sell you something. Our snow has been washed away by a day and a half of steady rain. It’s sad, but we take what we get.
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I left Twitter years ago and glad I’m not there to experience the Musk reign. Facebook is annoying but it’s the only place to keep up with a lot of my old friends so I stay.
We got rain and slush from this storm. Heavy, wet and dangerously slick.
😠
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I remain on all three platforms, but I try to avoid the crazy folks. So far, I’m doing OK, but as more of the sane folks boil off, I’m worried about what will be left at the bottom of the pot.
We got a ton of rain. All the snow has washed away.
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I avoid the crazies at all costs. Even if they’re family. 😉
We got about an inch and a half of wet nasty slush this morning. What a mess.
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Ugh, that’s the worst – the slush, not the family-crazies, although…
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Love the moon shot! Thank you Faith for showing dad how to do it! I like the shot of the snowplow
piles. Interesting.
The squirrel in his treehouse is adorable. I think he wants home delivery Dan.
Old Glory with just enough sun on her to brighten her up. Beautiful image.
Stay warm. More of the white stuff coming next Thursday/Friday. Yuk!
Ginger
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Thanks Ginger. It didn’t take Faith long to figure it out (I’ve only had the camera four years…)
That squirrel does get home delivery. I’ve never been able to get a picture, but if my aim is good enough, he/she doesn’t even have to touch the ground. Still, it’s a bargain when I get to see that adorable little face. By the way, I’ve seen Smokey in there, too–hmmm.
More snow would be OK. It’s time. The only think I dread is freezing rain.
Take care, and I hope you have a great weekend.
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I’m not on any of them and that’s fine with me. Being as tiktok is owned by a Chinese-controlled company, why do so many Americans trust it?
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I don’t know, GP. Granted, only the worst of tiktok makes it to the news, but those stories are pretty crazy. I don’t think I need to be there.
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Applause to Faith – great moon shot! I signed off of LinkedIn when I retired, quit Twitter a couple of years ago. If not, I would have surely done it now because I think he’s totally nuts. I’m still on Facebook because of family and old friends, and I use Instagram now and again. The ads they send always make me chuckle. I pushed snow yesterday that was so full of water I could barely do it. Then it dropped a few more inches so I’ll be out there again this afternoon. Happy weekend, Dan.
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I am seeing tweets from different people lately, but they are people I know, and they relate to subjects I’m interested in. The algorithm seems like it’s looking in the past, though. The new faces are people I used to work with, and the subjects are technical in nature. I enjoy staying current, so I guess it works.
We got all rain here. Thursday night until very early this morning. I was able to walk today, but all the snow is gone. I hope you enjoy the weekend.
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I only do Facebook, and only to keep up with family and friends. There is no such thing as privacy in the world anymore. Makes one feel like a frog in a pot of water.
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Exactly. I’m just not sure what’s going to be in that pot as the water boils off ;-)
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An interesting discussion about the state of social media, Dan. I dropped Twitter a couple of weeks ago, and I’m not on FB much either, though now I might need to focus there more. And I heard that BookTok is wonderful. And you don’t have to dance! I might lurk over there for a month of two this winter to see what it’s all about. Anyway, I might just help myself to a John Howell Bourbon and wish you a Merry Christmas!
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You can’t go wrong with that bourbon, Diana. I haven’t hear much about BookTok. I might look into that. It’s hard for me to consider that Facebook might be the better platform, but…
I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
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Here’s a great article on Tiktok’s booktok, Dan, if you’re interested. It’s the one that made me consider looking into it. https://annerallen.com/2022/10/tiktok-works-for-all-genres/
There’s a learning curve, for sure, but it might be worth learning. Enjoy.
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Thank you so much, Diana!
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Gorgeous photos Dan. Yeah LinkedIn has been doing the same thing to me even though I go into settings and turn off the job notifications. The thing I hate most is their trying to ‘hook me up’ with people they think are a good match for me. Paleease.
Don’t even get me started on Musk’s Twitter. I left the second he squeaked about buying it. Let’s face it, Guys. We’ve reached the ‘things just aren’t like they used to be’ stage of our lives. 😩
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They aren’t like they used to be, and they’ve only been a thing for 10-12 years! It’s truly crazy, Cheryl. I avoid most of LinkedIn’s suggestions regarding connections, and when someone wants to connect but obviously hasn’t read my profile which says “Retired” – I avoid them, too.
I hope you have a great week. Things will be slow at the bar next week, and Skippy has agreed to work for you on New Year’s Eve. Of course, you can drop by for a bit of holiday cheer.
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Thanks Dan. I might just do that. In case Skippy needs a hand. 😉
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Hey Dan, happy Saturday! I’m sorry, but not sorry, I left Twitter. I have no regrets, and will not be back until the social media platform is sold to someone else. The only thing I am bummed about is not being able to share blog posts or interesting articles. Not that I did it as much as you, but still…
Anyway…I see that you have snow in your neck of the woods. It’s winter! And just in time for Christmas. Here too and I’m glad as I no longer wanted to look at dead grass and brown trees.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday with food, family and presents under the tree.
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I miss seeing you on Twitter,Mary, but I understand. I hope he’s forced to have a fire sale and sells to someone with a conscious. So far, I haven’t seen incursions into my space by negative people or ads. If that happens, I will leave or at least go dormant.
Unfortunately, our snow was washed away by almost 48 hours of continuous rain. Bare and sunny today.
I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. Those cookies you’ve been baking look pretty good.
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The cookies ARE good, Dan. I keep up with quality assurance just to make sure they are okay for everyone else to eat.
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That’s important ;-)
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Your photo gallery is extra wonderful today–the contrails, the adorable squirrel peeking out, the moon (Faith, I need help with manual mode on my camera!). That first photo is so pretty. It looks like red Christmas ornaments are gently blurred out among the tree limbs. Nice!!
The only platform I am on is this one, although I do follow some people…OK, cats and dogs…on TikTok. No dance moves required. 😉 Happy weekend, Dan.
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I’m glad you liked these photos, Lois. Apparently, I had completed the steps to get to manual mode, but I didn’t understand how to make the adjustments. She figured that out very quickly. The squirrel poses for peanuts, and I’m happy to pay the price. Cats and dogs are often better content providers than people.
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You got the bonus, Dan. I think social media is imploding. Nothing is as satisfying as it used to be. Great photos. Thanks for the mention.
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So much of the social media experience has been co-opted by commercial or political (or flat-out absurd) special interests, John. It’s like walking through a dangerous neighborhood. I am still flooding Twitter with interesting blog posts and new book mentions, in case there’s anyone left out there who can read.
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I’m doing the same.
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I must need more coffee, Dan. I couldn’t figure out what the Sam Hill a “social warp bubble” was. Star Trek — I should have known. LOL. I had forgotten that episode.
It seems all the outlets we use to promote one another have jumped into the handbasket bound for the Hot Place. I’ve seen a number of credible articles about TikTok being a very bad problem. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1137155540/fbi-tiktok-national-security-concerns-china#:~:text=TikTok%20has%20long%20said%20that,access%20to%20U.S.%20user%20data.
I had already put aside the idea of BookTok, because I couldn’t use my existing videos (because BookTok requires very short videos). Sigh… I don’t know how to proceed with a zero dollar advertising budget.
“Anyway” here’s to entrees served over rice! Hugs.
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TikTok scares me a little. I might look at BookTok, but I’m not sure if I can meet the requirements. I already post as often as I dare on this platform. I’ll just keep plugging away. Advertising has to return much more than it costs, if it’s going to be worth your time. I don’t see that happening with any of the options I’ve considered.
I hope you have a good weekend. Maybe queue up that STNG episode and watch Westley lose his mom ;-)
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“Facebook tracks people who click on links,” does not surprise me. I’ve noticed for a while that posts with links don’t get as many likes or comments. Maybe it’s a control thing. FB will not let me share a link to my blog because it violates their standards or something. Maybe too many Good News links. If I want something noticed, I share it as a personal photo, so I guess memes would work best. Glad I never got into linkedin and losing interest in twitter. Now, I’m wondering if it’s time to reclaim some of that time we had before social media.
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Facebook broke the connection between WordPress and Facebook, unless you set up a page for your blog. Then, once people Like your page, FB starts reducing the number of people who see it, and starts offering to send it to more people for some cash. Of course, if people click on the ad, FB knows even more about them. Now, when I try to reply to a comment someone leaves on my FB post, FB switches my identity to that of my blog page. So, No Facilities is replying instead of Dan. I have to jump through hoops to avoid that. It’s not to hard on my laptop. It’s much harder on a tablet and nearly impossible on my phone. They did that, because they think it’s easier to sell an ad to No Facilities than it is to sell one to Dan. It seems that if you find something that works, they will break it in favor of something they hope you’ll pay for.
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I bought a FB ad once for my author age. They said I had some big number of engagements from it, but I didn’t see evidence of that. Yeah, FB was more fun in the earlier years when things were simpler. Social media is such a strange phenomenon when I think back of the old days before personal computers.
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You’re definitely a winner in my book! I love to see a clean winter and that’s what your pictures show. Comforting.
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Thanks! Today, we’re back to green/brown and bare, Pam. Two days of rain washed it all away.
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I am not on any of those platforms anymore. I used to tweet mostly about military veteran’s help etc but no longer.
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
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You’re missing less and less every day.
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Thanks for the shout-out, Dan! I’d leave off the broccoli and/or the zucchini, though, unless you vouch for them. I don’t like them just any ol’ way. Beef O’Brady’s seems to have stock in a broccoli farm: Order any dish with broccoli in it, and that’s half the dish. Of course, I can always pick the broccoli out and make something else out of it.
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The broccoli was pretty good. I’ll vouch for it. The zucchini was sliced a little thin and, as a result, was cooked a little more than I would like. All in all, the meal was quite good.
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Dan, I gave Twitter a shot on two separate occasions about ten-fifteen years ago and just found I was spending too much time on it. There was also a lot of negativity, even back then. Never got on Facebook. Besides blogging, it is just LinkedIn for me, and now that’s just to keep a “professional” profile on-line after retiring back in June. Who knows – might “need” it again someday. I only ever used it for making connections and job-hunting. Lately it looks like it has gotten more social…less business-like…so we’ll see how that turns out for that platform.
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I remember once being chastised by a follower on LinkedIn for posting a link to a blog entry. He told me, “this platform is for business.” These days, things seem to have loosened a bit. I was about to give up on Twitter several years ago until I discovered TweetDeck. I have established several lists on Twitter, and TweetDeck (which Twitter purchased) lets me view those lists. I don’t get the random (mostly unwanted) stream and I don’t see many ads. Twitter is in a freefall, Facebook is getting hammered by privacy advocates on all sides. Microsoft bought LinkedIn and Google+ folded. Maybe it’s time for something new, but I’m not sure I care to experiment.
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The Washington Post apparently ran a big article today about how to get started with Mastodon, calling it a Twitter alternative. Sounds a little “quirky” in that when you sign up you have to choose a server to join.
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I have given some thought to it. It’s a distributed service. Many of my connections on Twitter are creating accounts there as well. I haven’t yet, but if/when those people start dropping Twitter, I might have to.
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I had a very old, very unused, Twitter account so I won’t be missed… but, I still got pleasure out of deleting it for good. I used to like IG but it’s turned into just another form of Facebook. As the various social media platforms continue to become more uninteresting to me, fingers crossed that blogging will remain my favorite way to connect.
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I think you’re safe, Janis, as long as WordPress doesn’t ruin this. I have an account on Instagram, but I don’t use it much. It seems I’m always being nudged to expand my presence, when I really just want to follow the people I know. I’m sure it felt good to delete it.
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Social media is a pain in the ass.
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Indeed, John.
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Thanks for these suggestions and I indeed agree with your point about links we press coming back to haunt us.
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My pleasure
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I’m sure you’re going to find the bubble that works best for you. I’ve never entered the Twitter world. I did enjoy reading the book about its beginnings but still didn’t want to add to the SM noise already existing in my life due to Facebook (which I do only because of work) and Instagram where it was just so much fun to share photos, especially back when it started. No TikTok for me, even if the platform seems to generate some fun little videos.
I enjoyed your photos, I hope you get more snow to capture new ones. The bright sun on the flag is so pretty!
Stay warm, stay hydrated, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
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Thanks Shelley. It looks like we will be getting more rain before Christmas. Right now, you might be better off having not joined Twitter. I am only recently on Instagram, but I find it confusing in that it shows me so many accounts that I don’t follow. If I accidentally click on them, it shows them again, saying “you recently viewed…” I hope you have a great week ahead and a very good Christmas.
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Aw, rain at Christmas just doesn’t seem so Christmassy to me. But, bitter cold and snow doesn’t either 🥶🧊🥶🧊🥶
Yep, I’m thankful to not have a Twitter account.
Instagram was/is confusing. There is a way to look at your own personal algorithm to see what you do like according to IG. I’ve forgotten how to do it now, but it was quite enlightening.
I hope you have a special Christmas too!
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Great post, great photos Dan 💜💜
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Thanks Willow.
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The dish over rice sounds and looks delicious. Your snowy photos are lovely! That squirrel peeking out of the tree is adorable!!
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The Chicken Con Aglia (I had never heard of that before) was very good. The snow has been washed away by relentless rain, but that squirrel peeks out every time I walk by.
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😂 It’s so cold here 12 degrees now we have hoar frost! It’s gorgeous!
Smart Squirrel!! 😃🥜
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I’d hate to ask you to go out, but if you do, I’d love to see a picture ;-)
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Me too! When it’s warmer I hope the sun comes out I’ll be able to.
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So, how is it that Hubby gets ads on his computer from some ‘like’ or comment I made? It’s creepy how social media tracks people. Best to you, Dan!
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I get text messages on my phone that are directed (by name) to my wife. She has absolutely no social media presences. I don’t get it.
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I don’t get it either. Sigh!
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After Musk took over Twitter, I decided it was time to get rid of twitter. I had stopped looking at twitter a long time ago and I didn’t really use it.
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