Where did they go, All the Bloggers ... Hvor blev de af allesammen ... ~ A. B. C.

I've begun sorting through my unpublished blog posts. Some will be posted as is, some will be finished and published, most will be deleted. As I have more that 100 drafts expect lots of crazy, dizzy, angry, happy and hopefully funny posts to pop up over the coming weeks.

An Autumn Blog Cleaning post

Jeg er begyndt på en efterårsoprydning på min blog. Der ligger mængder af kladder. Nogle få bliver udgivet som de er, flere vil blive udgivet efter en omskrivning, og langt de fleste vil blive slettet. Da jeg har næsten 200 kladder liggende, kan I se frem til vanvittige, rundtossede, vrede, glade og for det meste morsomme  opslag den kommende måneds tid. 
    De vil få etiketten A.B.C. for Autumn Blog Cleaning = Efterårsblogoprydning (E.B.O. lyder ikke helt så sjov, vel 😉)

Et A. B. C. opslag

DANSK
Der er så mange mennesker omkring mig - både i den nærmere, fysiske omkreds og ude i internettets mang afkroge - der bliver ramt af uhelbredelige sygdomme, uheld, død, og ulykker. Det, den tilstundende vinter og livets almindelige ugunst har gjort mig forstemt.
     I går satte jeg mig ned for at rydde op på bloggen, og fik i den anledning fat i mine gamle blogrolls med links til alle mulige blogs, jeg fulgte levende med i engang. For da jeg begyndte at blogge, den 31. januar 2012, var blogospheren et myldrende sted.
    Det er den ikke længere. for der er mange, man bare ikke hører fra længere. Hvis jeg kigger på gamle blogrolls, forundres jeg. Det jeg forundres over, er så mange, der ikke siger farvel?
- Der er selvfølgelig bloggere der siger farvel og så stopper med at blogge.
- Nogle er døde og enten de selv eller deres efterladte har sat et sidste punktum. 
- Få er kronisk syge, og energien til at fortsætte er der bare ikke, efter et par forsøg, der kan læses som farvel stopper det bare - og det er helt OK.
- Men det store flertal ... de forsvinder bare i et tomrum, uden farvel, uden forklaring, uden noget. Nogle blogge bliver efterhånden overtaget af sære hjemmesider, men langt de fleste ligger der endnu. Der er så en sidste blogpost i 2020, 2023, 2025, med titler som: I morgen, Nyt projekt, Ventetid, Lige om lidt, ... Eller måske allerunderligst: Hej igen ...
Kunne men ikke forestille sig at skrive et farvel-indlæg?
      Jeg har ikke lyst til at lede efter folk på FB eler Insta. Mit forhold til FB er lidt anstrengt ... det er for svært at få lov til at se, hvad jeg gerne vil se, i stedet for det FB gerne vil vise mig. Jeg elsker mine grupper der, med inspiration, hjælp og støtte til kreative projekter af enhver art. Og jeg kan også se berettigelsen af Messenger - der kan man lige smide en hurtig besked. Men på grund af FBs algoritmer er det ikke der man kan følge sine venners liv uden at gøre en overmenneskelig indsats.
      Instagram ... de bliver ved med at slette min konto, fordi jeg overtræder deres retningslinjer (4 eller 5 gange allerede). Det er lidt komisk, for jeg har ikke en Smartphone, så jeg lægger ikke billeder op i tide og utide, jeg følger mine venner og børn og til dels deres venner, og smider dem et like eller en smiley i ny og næ. Og det er åbenbart helt galt?

      Men jeg synes faktisk også at en blog kan noget andet og mere. På en blog kan man læse i ro og mag, føle at man lærer andre mennesker bare lidt at kende, og følge deres liv gennem længere tid. Det bliver stående på en anden måde, lidt som en bog.
      Og på en eller anden måde synes jeg at vinden er ved at vende. At flere forlader Instagram og vender tilbage til bloggeriet. Det håber jeg altså er rigtigt, og jeg har tænkt mig at gøre en indsats for at komme ind i den danske blogosfære igen.
      Derfor har jeg besluttet mig for to tiltag:
- Alle mine blogindlæg bliver nu igen tosprogede dansk/engelsk med ganske få, helt specifikke undtagelser.
- Jeg har oprettet en ny blogliste med alle de danske bloggere, jeg har fundet (forslag modtages med tak!), så jeg bedre kan følge med - den vil forhåbentlig gro i den kommende tid - så vil jeg læse flere af dem og kommentere på flere af dem, og håbe på bare en lille sneboldeffekt.

-- 🖊 --

ENGLISH
There are so many people around me – in my immediate, physical surroundings as in the internet – who are affected by incurable illnesses, misfortune, death and accidents. This, combined with the approaching winter and life’s general adversities, has left me feeling downcast.
     Yesterday I sat down to have a clear-out of my blog, and doing so I came across my old blogrolls with links to all the blogs I used to follow. Because when I started blogging, January 2012, the blogosphere was a bustling place.
    It isn’t like that any more. There are so many people not blogging anymore. When I look at old blogrolls, I’m amazed. What amazes me is that so many people didn’t say goodbye?

• Of course, there are bloggers who say goodbye and then stop blogging.
• Some have died, and either they themselves or their next of kin have brought things to a close.
• A few are chronically ill, and after a couple of attempts – which can be read as a farewell – they simply stop because they just don’t have the energy to carry on – and that’s perfectly OK.
• But the vast majority… they simply vanish into thin air, without a goodbye, without an explanation, without anything. Some blogs are eventually taken over by strange websites, but the vast majority are still there. There’s that last blog post from 2020, 2023, 2025, with titles like: Tomorrow, New project, Waiting, In a bit, … Or perhaps the strangest of all: ‘Hello again’...

Couldn’t they have brought themselves to write a farewell post?
      I don’t feel like looking for people on Facebook or Instagram. My relationship with Facebook is a bit strained… it’s too hard to see what I want to see, as opposed to what Facebook wants to show me. I love my groups there, with inspiration, help and support for creative projects of all kinds. And I also get the point of Messenger. But because of Facebook’s algorithms, it’s not the place to keep up with your friends’ lives without making a superhuman effort.
      Instagram… they keep deleting my account because I’m doing something against their guidelines (four or five times already). It’s a bit comical, because I don’t own a smartphone, I don’t post photos left, right and centre; I follow my friends and children, and to some extent their friends, and throw them a ‘like’ or a smiley every now and then. And apparently that’s completely wrong?

      But I actually think a blog can offer something different, something more. On a blog you can read at your leisure, feel thah you kind of get to know other people, and follow their lives over longer periods. Blogs stay in a different way, a bit like a book.
      And somehow I feel the tide is turning. That more people are leaving Instagram and returning to blogging. I really hope that’s true, and I intend to make an effort to get back into the Danish blogosphere.
      That’s why I’ve decided on two steps:
- All my blog posts will now once again be bilingual (Danish/English), with very few, very specific exceptions.
- I’ve created a new blog list featuring all the Danish bloggers I’ve found (suggestions welcome!), so I can keep up to date more easily – hopefully it will grow in the coming months – and I’ll read more of them and comment on more of them, in the hope of creating even a small snowball effect.

Uniqueness ~ ~ Autumn-Blog-Cleaning

I've begun sorting through my unpublished blog posts. Some will be posted as is, some will be finished and published, most will be deleted. As I have more that 100 drafts expect lots of crazy, dizzy, angry, happy and hopefully funny posts to pop up over the coming weeks.

My first Autumn Blog Cleaning post

If you're a Jew and I do not like you, I might not be an anti-Semitic nincompoop. If you're a woman and I do not like you, I'm probably not sexist. Because maybe it's not your sex or religion what's putting me off.

Maybe what I do not like about you is your political point of view, maybe your ideas about people on the dole, maybe your aggressive veganism, your view on public transportation, covid19, or a zillion other matters?

I never understood the former way of thinking. If it really is only this one thing that's defining you and who you are, I truly feel sorry for you, because we all are so much more ...

Some of our characteristics are immutable, genetic. For example: eye colour, height, skin pigmentation (the colour may change when exposed to the Sun), the ability to roll your tongue, biological gender, the ability to taste phenylthiocarbamide (FTC), etc. ect.

Others are changeable: the ability to speak Esperanto, a fondness for Brussels sprouts, wanting to have sex with men, being able to stand on one's head, knowing how to swim, having a certain job and many others.

The failure of  most ideologies is that they put a magnifying glass on one of these characteristics - be it genetic or changeable - and say this it is what defines me, what I am. But I do NOT want to be defined by this one facet of me. It is not the only one that makes me who I am.

Once, many years ago I was at a "museum" where we were asked to answer 8 simple questions, each asked by a computer, tied to a worktable, where aids to answer the questions were given. I only remember some of the questions. These were:

Are the hairs on your head straight or curly?

Are your fingerprints whorls or waves? (A magnifying glass and example of fingerprint types provided).

What is your eye colour? (A mirror and - I think - 6 different eyes given).

Can you smell this? (Two test tubes, one neutral, one stinky -  to me, but obviously not to everyone)

Are you a man or a woman (Simpler times then, today that might have to be: Are you endowed with 2 X-chromosomes? to be equally simple and unambiguous).

Each question was asked by a computer, and as you put in your answer - the man/woman one was the first - it told you: "You are visitor number 845,372 since we opened this exhibition, and 410,785 were like you". Every time I typed in my answers at one of the stations, the second number plummeted. Until at the last station I was told: "You are visitor number 845,372 since we opened this exhibition, and 0 were like you - you are unique!" And this was with only 8 simple questions.

How come some people think that gender, or religion, or skin colour, or intelligence, or eating preferences, or whatever, is the only determining factor?

BLOGGER for &%¤#"!!s sake!!

My blogroll has not updated for three days now.

Sorry everybody, I'll try and visit, but visiting is a bit of a bother when I can't see if there's anything new anywhere!

Sunday Selections ~ Steel Blue Søndagsbilleder ~ Stålblå

Today it's still August, the Colour of the Month is still Steel blue. I do not find this blue very steely. But I'm not one to complain over any blue.

Det er stadig august, så månedens farve er stadig stålblå; selvom jeg ikke synes, der er meget stål over den fine blå her. Men den er blå, så ingen brok herfra.

All the photos are from today  ~  Alle billederne er taget i dag.

Starting with today's mug. Today my favourite supermarked would have celebrated its 130th birthday.

- 🔷 -

Vi begynder med dagens tekop. I dag ville Irma være fyldt 130 år.

Then off we went for mass. At the station the weather could not make up its mind. Looking to the Vest

- 🔷 -

Så tog vi til messe. På stationen kunne vejret ikke beslutte sig. Vi kigger først mod vest

... and twards the East  ~  og så mod øst.

We had sunshine and heavy showers before we reached church. It was the same on our way hime. 

- 🔷 -

På vej både til og fra kirke havde vi solskin og kraftige byger.

- 🔷 - 🔷 -

We brought a mint plant for a couple of good friends.

- 🔷 -

Vi medbraget en mynte til et par gode venner

This photo also makes me a bit grumpy. The "Blue spot" is meant for the old ticket system, and no longer in use. It seems to me that every time they make a new system, it's more expensive and less user friendly and practical than the old one.

- 🔷 -

Billedet her gør mig også lidt trist. Det blå punkt er til det gamle Rejsekort, der ikke virker længere. Det synes som om at hver gang de ændrer systemerne, bliver det ringere og dyrere.

- 🔷 - 🔷 -

And in the news: A campaign against drunken drivers. I find it refreshing that it's an old woman being asked to "please breathe into this", instead of the stereotypical young man.

- 🔷 -

Og i nyhederne. Jeg finder det forfriskende, at de er en ældre kone, der bliver hevet ud og bedt om at puste, i stedet for at det altid er den unge mand.

Using the Words ~ Rantipole ;)

A partial repeat - and using the Words. The Wednesday hex hit again. I copy/pasted this from River's blog Tuesday evening, fully expecting to write something Wednesday - which was then tomorrow, now it's the day before yesterday ;)

River wrote:
Since it becomes Wednesday in some parts of the world while it is still Tuesday here, i am providing the prompts now, so you can work on them and post them when it's Wednesday where you are.

This week’s prompts are:
Mood
Peanut
Weakness
Novel
Ride
Jump
    and/or the following archaic or seldom used words
Asunder (apart)
Nary (none)
Rantipole (behaving in a romping or rude manner)

I also made the mistake of reading Mimi's story ... I might succeed in writing something later on ... well Peanuts sparked off this rant!

I'm not in the mood to write anything. I'm bothered and bitter and someone even ate all the peanuts. Peanuts are one of my weaknesses, I have loads of weaknesses, but none of the others are to be found either - of course. This is not novel, as I do the shopping, and know what not to stock. Now if I want something to munch on, I'll have to go for a ride on my bike, or jump on the bus to town.
    Well nothing is falling asunder just because there's no peanuts, or crackers, or gummies for me to munch on. Nary a person ever died from no crackers, and no matter how much I'd rather sit here or go and be the proverbial old rantipole down at the bus stop because my bus line is temporarily re-routed (the water-works digging) I'd better get off my behind and go paint my bathroom where I repaired some holes, cut down the creeping vine threatening my spouts, bake a cake for tomorrow, or some of the gazillion other things on my to-do list.
    Ahh! this rant helped. I feel better now, and off I'll go and paint. See you, and thanks for reading.

 

Fredagsfrustration - eller snarere -undren Friday Frustration -- or rather Astonishment

I går løste jeg Wordle med bare grønne bogstaver, og det gav mig et badge, "Sea of Green".
I dag løste jeg Wordle med bare gule bogstaver. Hvorfor er der ikke et "Sea of Yellow" for det?

-- 🟨   🟩 --

Yesterday I solved the Wordle with only green letters, and had the badge Sea of Green to show for it.
Today I solved the Wordle with only yellow letters. Why am I not given a Sea of Yellow badge for this?

I går / Yesterday:

Wordle 1.853 3/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I dag / Today:

Wordle 1.854 3/6
🟨🟨⬜🟨🟨
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Gårsdagens / Yesterday's Sea of Green:

Fredagsfrustration ~ Friday Frustration

Once again a change in the lay-out of our bus stops and the information contained there is frustrating me. For a small English summary scroll down.

Når jeg står ved et stoppested, og bussen ikke kommer som den skulle, er der nu ifølge teksten på stoppestedet to muligheder for at få besked om, hvornår den kommer:

1. At downloade en app, Buster. Men det kan jeg ikke, når jeg ikke har en Smartphone.
2. At ringe til 70 15 70 00, og lytte til ... Vælg 1 for ... i det uendelige, og så vente på en ledig medarbejder. Det tager undertiden lang tid - og en af grundene til. at jeg ikke har en Smartphone er, at jeg ofte glemmer min telefon, eller glemmer at lade den op, så det er ikke så smart heller.

I "gamle dage", ikke så længe siden endda, kunne man sende en SMS til 1250 med et S plus stoppestedets nummer - det nummer står altså stadigvæk på stoppestedet - og få en svar-SMS med kommende afgange fra det relevante stoppested med forsinkelser og det hele. Den mulighed lader så til at være afskaffet ... eller er det mon kun annonceringen af den på stoppestedet, der er væk? Jeg har spurgt trafikselskabet, og venter nu pænt på et svar.

Det er træls at jeg føler mig som en andenklasses borger fordi jeg ikke vil have en Smartphone.


In English:
Before the new bus stops were put up, they contained an information about an SMS service for checking when the buses left from there. There's no timetable on any bus stops since 2019.
After the update, you're only told about an App called Buster.
I have written and asked the bus company if the SMS service is still available, if not I feel angry that you're almost forced to buy a smartphone to go by bus in Denmark.

Fredagsfrustration AI & GMO/NGT Friday Frustration

Snart integrerer Google AI i deres browser, så nu kan man snart ikke længere hverken vælge det fra i Firefox, eller skrive -ai efter søgeordene for at slippe for AI-svar. Kilde.

EU ændrer lovgivningen for genmodificerede varer. Efter at forbrugerne stort set har valgt det fra i 20 år, laves der nu nye regler for NGT - det skal ikke længere lovpligtigt at fortælle at en vare er fremstillet af planter, der er ændret ved hjælp af genteknologi - eller om dyrene er blevet fodret med dem.
    Det kan man slippe uden om ved at købe økologiske varer, så længe altså der ikke forekommer krydsbestøvning fra de nye planter. Kilde.
 
Smart nok, man gør ting frivillige, GMO-mad og AI søgninger, men hvis folk ikke vil bruge det, så ændrer man da bare produkterne og reglerne, så vi ikke længere kan slippe.

-- @  -- 🌱✂ 🧬 -- @ --

I just read the news about Google integrating AI in their browser. Soon we can no longer end our internet searches with  -AI in order to not get AI generated results, or ask Firefox to please exclude AI from the results.

After the consumers in EU have largely avoided GMO-food for 20 years, the NGT comes with new rules, making it legal not to tell if food is made from NGT plants, or animals fed with them. Buying Organic will be the solution - as long as no cross pollination happens.

Really smart. They make something optional, and if we then chose not to use it they'll see to that we do.

A-Z Challenge ~ Reflections Part 2

⚠ Warning! This post contains the answer to today's Wordle ⚠
⚠ Proceed at your own risk ⚠

Today's Wordle says it for me - only the solution does not count:

This was my last year participating - at least the last year signing up. I like very much to force myself to blog almost every day for a whole month, I've found a hopefully entertaining and fun, but still easy to do challenge with the day's Wordle and some telling. I really find participating in the A-Z Challenge to be a fun thing to do.

Why then do I stop? I stop, because I find the downsides to be too many. Bear with me for some ranting.

The trouble with the master list:
When the sign-up had ended, I made my own copy of the spreadsheet. After a quick visit to most of the blogs, I had found double or triple signups, non-participants, broken links, and a blog or two where you had to sign up ... leaving me with 125 of the original 144 on the list. A bit worse than last year actually.

I still find that a wee bit of policing from The Crew would wastly improve the fun to be had from this challenge. But it's not that bad, I could totally live with it ... if the rest was fun.

The not-for-fun-any-more in Blogland.

This year the A-Z Challenge felt more like an extra job. Not the writing of the posts, even if this is a labour, it is a labour of love, as I do enjoy blogging.

As said more times already I find the challenge in itself fun, but the social media hype and the assertive and truculent challengers not so much. There's plain too many in it just to promote something, and too few in it just to tell a story, to goof around, or for plain fun.

Not taking into account the blogs I follow regularly, during the challenge in former years I've always found some blogs I looked forward to visiting every day.
    This year ... I found a couple that was really fun, and a few more that had me reading every day, but of the rest I felt that too many were promoting something, be it themselves, their books, thier products generally taken, or some spiritual well-being stuff.
    And if not, the subjects did not catch me, or the graphics were so messy that I could no read it. These two last are of course on me. 

I might just have grown old, disillusioned, bored, and bitter,

It might also be a clash of cultures. I do not know.

All I know is that I'm not going to sign up again next year

Wordle 1.780 6/6
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Fredagsfrustration ~ Store Bededag

I dag er det fredag i fjerde uge i påsken. Tidligere var det Store Bededag. Men det er det jo netop ikke længere. Suk. Jeg savner i den grad det åndehul i foråret den dag gav.
     I år er det igen en ganske almindelig hverdag. Ugleungerne og Skribenten er væk hjemmefra, arbejde og uddannelse kalder.

Jeg savner Store Bededag!

Store Bededag var en fridag, der betød meget for mig. Det var så at sige en "gratis" fridag. Butikkerne var lukkede, så vi kunne ikke tage på indkøb. Vi fik ikke gæster, vi skulle ikke i kirke. Kort sagt, vi havde bare fri, og der var ingen, der forventede noget af os, ingenting vi skulle.
Det savner jeg i den grad ... den her lette, boblende frie fornemmelse, når dagen ender af "Tænk, det er kun lørdag i morgen!"

Jeg bliver altså ikke mere produktiv af at savne den!

Today is Friday in the 4th week of  Easter. Until now it was a holiday, Common (or great) prayer day, but again this year it is just another Friday. The Owlets and the Writer are off to jobs and training.

I miss this holiday. It was a breathing space in the busy spring, the period for exams, digging, doing ...

It was so to say a "free" holiday. Nobody expected anything from us, the shops were closed, so no shopping, we were not having any guests, we were not supposed to go to church (this was a Protestant prayer day only 😉). Not a thing in the calendar, and when the day ended, I always have had this light, bubbly feeling: Tomorrow is only Saturday! This feeling - of a week with two Saturdays - I am sorely going to miss in years to come.

I really do not think that this feeling of frustration and loss will make me a better, more industrious citizen!



Men stadigvæk:
Når Store bededag nu falder på 1. maj er det rødbededag.

Derfor måtte jeg, der ellers ikke bryder mig særligt om rødbeder, bestemt så enrække eller to  af dem i dag. For at det hele ikke skulle blive for rødt, valgte jeg en bolchestribet sort.

God rødbededag.

- o O o -

A Danish pun, that led to MotherOwl sowing beetroots.
And yes the beetroots are supposed to be striped inside, like a candy cane. 

A to Z ~ Some thoughts and misgivings

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M -N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

A-Z? Will I do it this year or won't I? Here's some of my not so positive musings, still comparing with 2025.

First of all the challenge itself. I think it has changed over the years from a simple "can you do this blogging marathon?" to something else.

 The stress on visits and numbers
There's too much stress on the SoMe part of it, too much self-promotion, too much "how many comments", "how many followers" and so on. 

  The non-participants
Last year too little was done to exclude the non-participants, and those having a "registederd users only" comment form.  I hope this will be better in 2026.

  The over-achievers
Some people plan almost a year in advance - this is not really the problem itself. But it sets the bar so high, that many give up participating because they of course cannot do as well on a day-to-day basis. Many also stop because of the pressure to visit and comment on others' blogs, which can be quite time consuming (and more so because of the non-participants).

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M -N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

I felt some misgivings when I looked at the list I made after visiting all the Theme reveal posts.
I visited all the blogs, read, or at least skimmed through the theme reveal post, and marked them either Green for interesting, Yellow for maybe interesting (or interesting but with bad graphics), or Red for not interesting at all. 

I had by the end date for the theme reveal read and marked a total of 65 blogs:
  6  Green   only!
31  Yellow   of these just 3 because of bad graphics
27  Red   of these 4 with no theme reveal posts before the end of the Theme reveal sign up, March 14. 
        (This only makes 64 - one was a double entry.)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M -N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

But my weightiest complaint concerns the content of the blogs.

  The not-for-fun-any-more in Blogland.
I find that in all this planning and socializing and promoting and fighting for ... the fun and camaraderie has dissipated. I do not really know how to say this without sounding like an old, grumpy person. The world is a tough enough place, unhappy, dirty, abused - you name it - and for this reason I think we should make challenges like this a place for smiles, flowers, puns, fun and positive vibes ... A place where everybody can say what they like as long as they do it in a civilized way and are not mean to anyone. I find too many of the blogs to be militantly pro-something, or bland or having an edgy undercurrent, or even all three - and this makes me apprehensive and disinclined to continue - or at least to sign up.

   Militant
  Many participants write in their header something like My blog is a place for mystery and creativity, fairy dust and bright woods; while reading on I find them militantly fighting for some -ism or alternative world view.

  Bland
The blandness ... It's a serious kind of blandness, a smoothness of expressions, like a mask or a facade of some kind.  I think a part of it at least comes from the self-censorship caused by the ubiquitous readiness to take offence. This blandness, smoothness, edge-lessness ... I don't know how to say this properly  (I never read any of the participants with adult contents, so that's definitively not what I'm lacking ;) ) bothers me and leeches the joy.

  Or aggressive
Aggressivity might be the key to my second complaint. People are aggressively healthy, pro-pets ... pro-something.
There's no harm in having a topic, but the lashing and kicking out, or the more subtle condescending tones pointed at everyone, or the passive-aggressively always reminding the reader of [Whatever the author is fighting for or part of].

Passive-aggressive might be the description, I'm looking for. It hurts me. I am curious, I like to read what people say and tell. More so when they tell me something new, or write of circumstances, places, cultures and so on I do not know much of - and also when I do not agree, but I do not like being told explicitly what to think, always to be reminded of the wrongs done to this group.
Show it, don't tell it. Blast it! ... and not interspersed with wagging fingers.

  To sum up
For me challenges like the A-Z Challenge thrive on fun, good natured banter, and the telling of tales with no hidden agenda.

Will I sign up? I still do not know. I find the challenge in itself fun, but the social media hype and the millitant challengers not so much, there's plain too many in it to promote something, be it themselves or some -ism, and too few in it just for fun.

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M -N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Friday Frustrations ~ Wordle Badges Fredagsfrustration ~ Mærker i Wordle

Yes, I know, I said I'd never play again. Citing myself from December 30, 2025.

Wordle, Spelling Bee, Strands, Connections, and Tiles - I have enjoyed solving these four for the past three and a half years, I even based this year's A-Z Challenge on Wordle, but now it's over. Tiles, The Mini Crossword and Letter Boxed are only for subscribers as of September 1st. I know that Wordle, Strands and Connections are still free to play, but for how long? For me making Tiles pay to play was the last straw.

But I cannot keep away from Wordle. I made a promise never to log into my free account ever again (meaning I have no acces to my stats or the Wordle-bot, but also that NYT does not have the pleasure of seeing me log in).

Wednesday I felt sorely tempted, as this popped up.

 --  A  --  B  --  C  --

Ja, jeg ved det godt. Jeg sagde at jeg aldrig ville spille nogen af New York Times mini-games igen. Men Wordle er for fristende.
    Mit kompromis var, at jeg ikke ville logge ind (hvilket betyder at jeg ikke kan se statistik eller få nogen form for hjælp eller feed-back, men også at NYT ikke har fornøjelsen af mig).
    I onsdags var det bare lige før jeg faldt for fristelsen, da denne her poppede op efter at jeg havde løst dagens Wordle.

It seems they added badges to Wordle. I love achievements, ergo I checked it out.

Fortunately I soon realised that I would not break my promise to myself, even for this. Some of the badges were streak badges.

 --  A  --  B  --  C  --

Det lader til at de har lavet mærker i Wordle og de andre spil. Jeg elsker den slags, så jeg måtte lige se, hvad der ellers var.
    Heldigvis at jeg gjorde det, for jeg fandt ud af, at jeg ikke skulle bryde mit løfte til mig selv. Mange af mærkerne var nemlig for streaks.

They are even awarded retroactively, so no way I could avoid them. As I despise anything streaky, I had no problems closing the else very tempting log-in pop-up.

 --  A  --  B  --  C  --

De bliver også tildelt på bagskud, så de ville ikke være til at undgå for mig. Og da jeg hader alt, der har med den slags at gøre, lukkede jeg prompte den fristende log-ind pop-up.

 --  A  --  B  --  C  --

Here's the solution, that would have earned me the green badge

~

Her er den løsning, der ville have givet mig det grønne mærke.

Words for Wednesday 19 November 2025

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over as a moveable feast with many participants supplying the Words.
    When Delores closed her blog forever due to other problems, Elephant's Child (Sue) took over the role of co-ordinator.
    Now, after Sue's demise River at Drifting through Life has taken over as our new coordinator. Thanks!

No matter what, how, where or who the aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to our mind.

This month the words are again supplied by Sean Jeating, who thankfully stepped in when our regular supplier was MIA, and can be found at River's blog.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please leave a comment on River's blog, then we can come along and read it and add a few encouraging words.

 It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

So Please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

We were given these words:
Squad 
Cemetery 
Flowers 
Painted 
Cross
    and/or:
Barely 
Money 
Eat 
Freedom 
Courage

The election yesterday gave the expected outcome. So excuse this dreary monologue. My municipality is as yet undecided, but it'll be right-wing and nationalistic. 

The squad I expected to be in, is in and the powers of the dark dance at the cemetery and kick the flowers away. The crosses are painted dark or red and white (national colours of Denmark).

The powers that be share the fame and the money among themselves, growing fat and bloated like the tyrants of old, while poor people barely have enough to buy something to eat.

We need to find the courage to once again fight for our freedom, for the nature, for the needy, and for the future.

Words for Wednesday ~ on a Thursday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants. When Delores closed her blog forever due to other problems, Sue of Elephant's Child took over the role of co-ordinator. Now, after Sue's demise it is still to be discerned who will take over this role, River is doing it for the rest of 2025, but maybe Lissa will eventually be our new coordinator.

No matter what, how, where or who the aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to our mind.

This month the words are supplied by Sean Jeating and can be found at River's blog.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please leave a comment on River's blog so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words.

 It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

So Please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

We were given these words:
Hear
Modern
Influenza
Physical
Organs
Original
Pea
Human
Rather
Size

I'm not in a nice temper in these days. It's not only Elephant's Child that died recently, others did too, touching upon my circles. On top of that I have a game leg and a toothache - grumpy is a mild word for to describe how I feel. My outpourings may be touched, just a teeny tiny bit, by all this grumpiness. Read at your own risk. 

We hear about Covid now and then, the modern influenza that impinges on our physical wellbeing, attacks our organs and make us generally miserable for days, if not weeks on end.
I think we need to focus more on the digitally transmitted diseases, that make our brain shrink to the size of a pea, and even make us forget that others are as human as we are.
I'd rather we all had old-fashioned flu that modern brain rot.

Fredagsfrustration ~ bagerier Friday Frustration ~ Bakeries

Da vi flyttede ind i nærheden af Helsinge for snart længe siden, var der - ud over supermarkedernes bake-off og et bageri i Kvickly - et herregodt bageri & konditori ved Gadekæret.

  - 🥨 -

When we moved here, long ago now, we had an excellent bakery, called the "Village Pond Bakery & Tearoom". Of course the local supermarkets also sold baked goods, but for cakes, this was where you went. 

Det er der ikke længere. Efter en periode med skiftende ejere - hvoraf den sidste var den fantastiske Sir Bake-a-lot, der åbnede i september 2018, men måtte lukke på grund af helbredsproblemer i juli 2019.

  - 🥨 -

This was long ago. After a period of rapidly changing owners the last and best - Sir Bake-a-lot - had to close down for health reasons in 2019.

Kun kringlen er tilbage    -  🥨  -   Only the pretzel remains

4. maj 2023 åbnede så den polske bager. Han lukkede for godt en uge siden, 6 august 2025. Der var åbenbart ikke kunder nok.

  - 🥨 -

In May 2023 our Polish bakery opened. But sadly he had to close about a week ago. People did not buy enough bread and cakes there.

Det synes jeg er sølle i en by af Helsinges størrelse. Byen selv er på knap 10.000 indbyggere og har et stort opland. Der burde være basis for en god bagerbutik her.

  - 🥨 -

I think this is lousy. Helsinge is not the largest of towns, but it has almost 10,000 inhabitants in the town proper and a big hinterland - lots of rural area surrounding it - and it should be possible to run one real good bakery here.

New Computer Troubles & Wordle

Now I have some new, innovative, creative, hitherto unknown, ... troubles with my Blogger.

• This browser - that I normally use for blogging - do remember who I am, but keeps on crashing whenever I delete anything, and the Ad Blocker does not work with Windows 11.
• My other solution, Firefox, is stellar when it comes to AdBlocking and deleting. but it cannot remember who I am, forcing me to log in every single time I want to comment somewhere, or write a blog post, or ...

I do not know what's worse, and I have tried all the usual things to solve this, restart, clear cache and so on, log out and in again, and any combinations of these you can imagine, to no avail. My tech savy son, who helped me install it all, is on a holiday, so ... I'll just have to wait till he returns, I suppose.



And I want to show off
Thursday's Wordle 1.496 2/6
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
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Today’s average difficulty is 5.2 guesses out of 6, or very challenging. It was a lucky guess, but I'm happy!

Happy 4th of July

Today is the 4th of July. Independence day. In 2022 this was a Monday, and for Poetry Monday that year I wrote the following. I think it could do with a repost.

I feel attached to this day in special ways. One paternal great aunt went to America, and often came visiting, so we celebrated July 4th. This day is also celebrated in Denmark in Rebild Bakker - the largest celebration of July 4th outside of America.

For me this day also commemorate the value of human rights.
  Even if I'm not American, these sentences from the  Declaration of Independence make me go misty-eyed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
  I'm appalled at how many are ready to only let some, select individuals have these Rights. They should be for everyone; refugees, sickly, unborn, disabled ... And I feel chafed and hurt by the discrepancy between picnics,  fireworks and buntings on on side, and digital dehumanizing, shootings, abortions, neglected sufferings of refugees and elderly ... on the other

---  🟥🟥◻◻🟦🟦◻◻🟥🟥◻◻🟦🟦◻◻🟥🟥🟥 ---

---  🟥🟥◻◻🟦🟦◻🟥◻🟦🟦◻◻🟥🟥 ---
---  🟥🟥◻◻🟦🟦◻◻🟦🟦◻◻🟥🟥 ---
---  🟥🟥◻◻🟦🟦🟦◻◻🟥🟥 ---
---  🟥🟥◻◻◻◻🟥🟥 ---
---  🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥 ---

I am going to publish my verse, for keeping silent is just cowardly.

The 4th of July is a day of fun
We picnic, we celebrate, drowse in the sun.
But we should be re-thinking it all
Our freedom for old ones, for young and for small
The freedom to live and to play
The freedom to eat every day.

The 4th of July is a day of rest,
a day of putting our beliefs to the test.
Do we believe in justice for all
For old ones, for young ones, for even the small?
In freedom to do and to don't
In liberty also to 'won't'.

The 4th of July is a day of joy
But so far not a day to be complacent or coy.
Do we really believe that ALL folks are free
And not only those created as we?
The freedom is not ours to give
The freedom to be and to live!

Uncle Sam tells Lady Peace: "It's all right. There's no fighting. The noise you hear is just my family celebrating!" (1902 Puck cartoon - source: Wikipedia)

A Question and a Service Announcement

A Question:
- Is anybody ever using the colour codes for the colour of the month?


A service announcement:
- Due to strange happenings in the interweb, my comments on most blogs, including my own, seem to disappear in thin air between my pressing Enter and their publishing.
I try to copy/paste before pressing Enter, mostly it looks fine in my end, but when I return - hours or even days later - the comment plain is not there any more.
This is a major P.I.T.A, not least because it makes me seem discourteous, not commenting on any of your blogs.

And I looked. Nothing in the spam-comment place either.

I Quit! ~ Jeg giver op!

     Den 4. maj skrev jeg om at jeg havde fundet nummer 014 hos naboen og set nummer 015 - hele to gange faktisk. Lige siden har jeg ledt efter 016 uden held - altså over en måned.
     I fredags så jeg 017, 018, 019 og 020 i den rækkefølge! Så er det nok!
     Og måske ser jeg nu den bil senere i dag, så ombestemmer jeg mig nok.

-- 🚙 --

In May, May 4th actually, I wrote about seeing car 014 at a neighbour and the 015 twice. Ever since I have of course been on the lookout for 016 over a mont now, and I haven't seen it.

This Friday I went shopping and I saw 017, 018, 019 and 020 in this order! That's it. I quit!

And just maybe later today I'll see this car and re-make my mind.

Kajkage & Wordle og Store bededagssuk Frog Cake & Wordle

For River and other Australian readers. Snapped in a bakery near me yesterday.

Kajkager. Kaj cakes.  Named after Kaj from the puppet duo Kaj & Andrea. But the actual cake is older, probably first made in the 1950es by the baker Kristian Hansen from Ry.

River told us about Australian Frog cakes here.

And here we have Kaj & Andrea:

Andrea, the charming, cautious parrot
and Kaj, the jazz-loving boisterous frog.

Vi skulle have haft varme hveder i aften og fri i morgen. SUK. Det er 4. fredag i påsketiden og altså skulle det have været Store bededag i morgen, den 16. maj.

Today's Wordle a big Fail. It was a totally normal word! And I could not guess it! I made stupid guesses, with bad letters or right letters in bad places.Yuck!
Looking at the Help page for Wordle, I feel a bit consoled: Today’s average difficulty is 7 guesses out of 6, or very challenging.

Wordle 1.426 X/6
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⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩