With the Presidential race in full swing and changes occurring hour by hour, I try to keep up with the latest election news, which itself can be frustrating. I read newspapers. I watch TV news about four times a day. I listen to news radio. I read election-related stories online...and the list goes on. The phrases and key words are what I use to create cartoon gags. Some of the election gags can be submitted now; others will be submitted later in the campaign if they're still relevant. Like I said, changes are occurring hour by hour (and sometimes minute by minute).
On the topic of staying current, I rely on (again) newspapers, radio, magazines, the Internet and new books to find out what's trending. I try to find what millennials are talking about, how they talk, and what they're buying, reading and watching on TV. All this I must do if I'm going to write about current stuff. Even though I may not have kept up with the current stuff before, I have to at least try to find out about it now. (Hey! I listen to a radio station which plays songs from the 70's and 80's, and I love it!) I still read newspapers. I use a flip phone. My home phone does not have "Caller ID." I own lots of vinyl records. I do not have satellite radio in the car. I have a VCR player that we still use. Actually, this makes it easy for me to write about how technologically "behind the times" I am, so there are rewards.
Because of all the reading I'm doing to stay current, my vocabulary seems to be greatly expanding. I'll read a story on what's trending, or what young people are doing nowadays, and, because I don't know what they're talking about, I'll have to look up definitions of words and phrases on Google. Everything gets written down in my notebook.
I'm learning so much!
