Porthole

June 20-26

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: JUNE 2020
"Ye are all leaves of one tree and the fruits of one branch.”
- Bahá'u'lláh

MY THOUGHTS

June 20: The dictator has consolidated power. It's up to the people to vote him out or overthrow him.
June 21: The slightest thing will bring out tears. I'm not 'well'.
June 22: I'm overheated and it's only 27 ... outside. *melting*
June 23: Very tired. Didn't sleep as well as I wanted, plus it's 'toasty'.
June 24: Desperately catching up on writing due by the 30th.
June 25: Anxiety rising. Deadlines looming and I may have to just ignore some.
June 26: More covid-19 cases locally. July will be spent inside.

WEATHER

June 20: 18° cloudy, sprinkles ; 19° cloudy in Cartago, CR; rain later.
June 21: 20° and very pleasant; 16° in Cuenca, Ecuador.
June 22: 17° sunny at 10 a.m., going to be hot; 29° in Jamestown, NY, already hot.
June 23: 12° and going up to 32; 36° and falling to 30 in Dubai, 40° next week.
June 24: 16° but will warm up to 30; sunny 24° in Bergen and Tallinn.
June 25: 28° near the high for the day; 29° in Taipei ... the low for the day.
June 26: 28° 31% humidity, going up to 32; 11° in Wangi Wangi, NSW, a cool damp sunrise.

IMAGES

June 20: gritty (espresso) salted caramel milkshake.
June 21: peonies of all colors and types. Some nicely fragrant.
June 22: chicken, boiling chicken.
June 23: shiny new-to-me silver-plated utensils. 4 of the 5 I did not already have.
June 24: man in a blue shirt loaded down with green bags. A friend! Lightning. One clap of thunder.
June 25: TMI: I'm hot and stinky (yes, I showered). Sitting at home means allspice in my coffee.
June 26: Perfect warm weather... in the shade. Hills still green.

CONTESTS

I've decided to enter "Musicology Anthology"  LATE! I only have 21 days to write 11 pieces. *sigh* I can do it.
I'll be putting them all in the folder: "Days of Future Past" 

[A] "The Day Begins" ""The Day Begins" [A]" 
[B] "Morning Glory" "Morning Glory [B]" 
[C] "Dawn: Dawn Is a Feeling" ""Dawn is a feeling" [C]" 
[D] "The Morning: Another Morning" "Another Morning [D] " 
[E] "Lunch Break: Peak Hour" "Lunch Break: Peak Hour [E]" 
[F] "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)" "Tuesday Afternoon [F]" 
[G] "(Evening) Time to Get Away" "Evening, Time to Get Away [G]" 
[H] "The Sunset" "The Sunset [H]" 
[I] "Twilight Time" "Twilight Time [I]" 
[J] "Nights in White Satin" "Nights in White Satin [J]" 
[K] "Late Lament / Resolvement" "Late Lament [K] (Can be part of J)" 

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!

"No Dialogue Contest-CLOSED"  Monthly prompt: DAD. No dialogue. "Bluegill [177.99] (323 words)" 
"Poetic Traditions Poetry Contest "  Old or new not awarded. Limited to 20.
"The Writer's Cramp"  Daily noon to noon WDC = 10 a.m. MTT. Must be an item.
"The Taboo Words Contest ~ On Hiatus"  Monthly. Beach and avoid certain words? "Wavelengths [105] (17 lines)" 
"Invalid Item"  June. It's a dark month...
"Journey Through Genres: Official Contest"  until June 30. Genre fan-fiction. <2k story. Huge prizes!
"The Contest Challenge"  A contest of contests... every month.
"Second Time Around ~ Birthday Special"  Old non-winners! Got lots of those (poem/ss) June 15th-14th
"Share Your Faith"  until June 30. Story or poem. Prompt: dealing with anger.
"Inner Strength Contest "  until June 30. Theme: Resilience Flash <500 or poem 15 line max.
"Kittiara's Writing Contest"  until June 30. 1 short story, 1 poem. Theme: renewal
"The Random Poetry Contest"  through June 14. (closed for now)
"Invalid Item"  until June 25. Must be 13+, tell a story, new. "Anaconda (40 lines)" 
"Invalid Item"  Round 73. Until June 30 hokku/renga
"The Humorous Poetry Contest"  Humor. I'm not funny so I doubt I'll enter ... "From Missoula with Love (15 lines)" 
"Verdant Poetry Contest"  Nature. Summer. Form and words by June 30. in NyN
"Shadows and Light Poetry Contest"  Round 85 15th to 14th. Old or new. Free verse <40 lines.
"Write from the Heart Poetry Contest"  Romance. Prompt an admirable couple. By June 30. 12-20 lines
"Butter My Buns Contest"  Erotica! Prompt 'passion'. Until June 30. Isla and cake? 500 words or 15 lines.

POULTRY

"Anaconda (40 lines)"  [104]

"Wavelengths [105] (17 lines)" 

Not yet laid:

PORK

June 18:

STATIC

Bluegill [177.99] (323 words)  (18+) A fishing trip to the lake. Revised from 299 words; prompts: shell, hand, window, Dad. #2224702 by Kåre Enga in Montana

June 20*:

STATIC

In Frobysher Hall [101] (249 words)  (18+) < 300 words: eyes, glass, paintings #2224918 by Kåre Enga in Montana

June 21*:

STATIC

Brilliance [102] (300 words)  (18+) <300 words "the sun is coming up". #2224993 by Kåre Enga in Montana

June 24:

STATIC

The Red Chair [103] (296 words)  (18+) <300 words. Prompts: face, chair, red... Resilience #2225219 by Kåre Enga in Montana

READING

Utopia, poesia de Costa Rica

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.

MARKET SENIOR CENTER COFFEEHOUSE

June 20th: Didn't bother going through empty farmers market. Sat in Butterfly Herbs and wrote postcards and had a salted caramel milkshake. $4.50.
June 23rd: Sat at the Center in the hot sun with Laxmi. Lunch was enchiladas. Bought 5 kitchen utensils including a 'spaghetti grabber' and a huge salad spork.
June 25th: Sat in the shade. Didn't remember that Kathi had a fruit & nut farm in Idaho years ago. Lunch was bacon and cheese sandwich.

MY FORMER LIFE

June 1970: high school graduation
June 2004: leaving Oklahoma for Colorado.
June 2005: started my blog "L'aura del Campo" 
June 2010: bus trip to Kansas (36 hours?)

WATT'S GNUS

Barr Abruptly Seeks to Fire U.S. Attorney Who Investigated Trump Associates (NY Times) Shades of Watergate.
John Bolton exclusive interview: Trump does not represent the Republican cause that I want to back (The Telegraph) Will he vote for Biden?
"If it’s clear the ship is going down, people will want to get off of it. Loyalty to the king does not matter if the king is going to be dethroned." (Perry Bacon, Jr. FiveThirtyEight)

WATT'S GNUS INTERNATIONAL

Coronavirus: Brazil tops one million cases (Al Jezeera) Just letting folks die ... imho.
Hungary's main online news site says independence in danger (AP) Plausible as attacks on independent media spreads in authoritarian states.
Coronavirus Races Across Latin America, a Warning to Poor Nations (Wall Street Journal) Becoming quite obvious that it's out of control in many places due to government policies or cultural realities.
Norway starts digging up first Viking ship in a century (AFP) Gjellestad ship may not be in great shape but what else may it contain?

OPINIONS

I've been keeping copies of my facebook rants. Truly I have. I need to look at them again and link it when rethought and edited. My non-rant insights I tend to post in my 'normal' blogs.

SPACEBOOK quotes (you can guess context):

Kathleen laughed when I commented to her post:"So ... I'm a writer ... are you saying I should write "The Girl With Six Penises"?" I just might...

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)
BHC: "The Bard's Hall Contest"  using my Tlog (travel blog) "On The Write Path"  Theme: June is blog month.
JAFBG: "JAFBG"  (open rants)
JI: "Journalistic Intentions"  using my Blog "Enga mellom fjella"  (8 blogs from 16 prompts till 7/4)
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 (2023-2024)"  my Plog response to prompts as I missed the sign-up date.
Real: "Welcome To My Reality Forum"  75 prompts
SB: "Space Blog" 

June 20th SB: "4157 05-06 "Twice upon a time"" 
June 20th JI: "Invisible me" 
June 21st SB: "Brilliance [102]"  (revised as flash fiction)
June 22nd JI: "Missing the Moon" 
June 22nd SB: "4157 07 Mothering " 
June 23rd SB: "In between stars" 
June 24th BCOF: "Endings" 
June 24th SB: "4157 09 I wish..." 
June 25th SB: "4149 303 On a wagon" 
June 26th SB: "4149 304 Swallowed" 

Visited this week so far and commented: SandraLynn Team Florent! Elisa the Bunny Stik Robert Waltz Sorji Chris Breva Joy Lilli 🧿 ☕ Lyn's a Witchy Woman lizco252isback Satuawany hullabaloo22 🌸 pwheeler - love joy peace Princess Megan Rose 22 Years Elle - on hiatus L.A. Grawitch tah2o Prosperous Snow celebrating Jay O'Toole Kit_Carmelite QPdoll IceSkatingSugarCube WakeUpAndLive️~🚬🚭2024 SB Musing Brian K Contest Judge-y Elycia Lee ☮ Ned QueenNormaJeanGreeneggs&vegham Sum1 Charity Marie - <3 PureSciFi Kate - Writing & Reading Cheddah

Trying to keep up on blogs. Over 30 last week but 10-15 is a better goal.

Postcards:

#3 to Ofelia in Florida. June 20
#4 to Michael in Colorado. June 20
#5 to Gary in New York. June 20

I'm hoping Glacier doesn't open this summer:

                                                                                                                                           

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