Is it still a blog if commenting is turned off?

I'm so used to blogs that allow readers to leave comments that when there is no such option, it's odd to me. The commenting is the interaction between blogger and readers (and sometimes reader to reader) and that's what makes a blog a blog, at least, that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
    As a blog reader, I don't want to be sending emails or filling out a message box to make a comment on a post. It creates a detachment from the post. Also, without comments, you don't get to see what others said nor interact with them. It feels like there are no readers or that everyone's invisible except the blogger and that's weird. But maybe it's a matter of preference?

What do you think? Is it still a blog if commenting is turned off?

Nook in the Universe - Spot the Difference

Here is a new-ish art titled Nook in the Universe which I turned into a Spot the Difference game. I worked on this for months using Affinity Designer which I'm still learning how to use but I think they turned out pretty good. Can you spot the 12 differences between these two drawings? Answers are here.  (Click on images for a larger view) (M. Faith is my pen name in case anyone is curious.)

Here are the individual drawings:

Fiction: The Fighting Lodge

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by David M. Gascoigne and is hosted at Elephant's Child's blog over here. An additional prompt from Charlotte (MotherOwl) is bright red orange. This week's prompts are: decent, necklace, ecosystem, money, ground and/or armed, way, lodge, willing, guardians.

Fiction: The Fighting Lodge

Everyone was armed or it seemed but Eva didn't see the need but then again, her weapons weren't the kind you kept in holsters or pockets. Fighting wasn't her way as she came from a long line of natural pacifist or so her grandmother used to remind her. Generations of their families were against all forms of violence but that didn't mean she should stand still and let herself get hurt.
    The lodge used to be a haven for visitors and tourists but now it was a place for fights and misdemeanors. Of course if you named the place The Fighting Lodge, who wouldn't feel the need to fight? Everyone — tourists, visitors, regulars, locals — was willing to defend themselves even for the most trivial matters. This, of course, go against Eva's family's stand on violence but then her grandmother was the one who renamed the lodge to The Fighting Lodge.

Seven Things

01 - I've been reading nothing but book samples and that's okay — I guess I'm not interested in reading much these days. Reading slump, reading fatigue, reading pause, whatever you call it, is not something to make a big deal of. I'm a moody reader who don't always want to read and there's no changing that. Reading is reading even if you never finish a book.

02 - A book I'm never going to read: The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud — Why are there cannibalism in a children's adventure book? I was going to read this but decided I can't deal with the above matter. One reviewer said it was intense and in real time - just no to this. This is not a spoiler. I guess this is content awareness of a sort. But what's irks me more is the wholesome cover - the girl is blowing bubblegum for goodness sake. See the cover here.

03 - A book sample that I'm not sure I should have read — A book started in the point of view of a 2-year-old but his age wasn't mentioned in the beginning so when he mentioned soiling himself, I just go what? He may be a baby genius but I just cannot believe his brain would be that developed that he can understand what he sees or thinks in a comprehensive way although judging by the writing, it seemed to try to make him a bit dumb about things but at the same time, not really. Was I prejudiced because of his age? Maybe. I don't know. I just found it kind of unbelievable. So, yes this is fiction but if I can't even believe it on a general level, then what's the point? Is this author reaching for the way-way-way youth market? Baby geniuses aside, if the author had made him 4 or even 3, I might believe it more. Even though this was a prologue (the rest of the book is told from his adult view), I still don't like this introduction to this main character enough to read the book. (I can't remember the title but it was the first book of a series.)

Signal the movie

04 - Recent film I watched: Signal The movie: Cold Case Investigation Unit > link
This was okay although I wondered why the policeman (Saegusa) went to battle three guys while his fellow two policemen are in the control room staring at screens. Saegusa got stabbed, shot at, punched and pretty much almost died but no one was there to help him. What is the point of being in a team when your team members aren't doing anything while you fight like crazy with the bad guys? In the end, Saegusa dragged himself to where the culprit was, all bloody and wounded, why? So he can be the sole hero? But no, the solution is something else which means his fighting was kind of in vain. I'm not going to spoil it for you but if you have seen the show, then you know how this movie would end. Watch this movie for free with commercials at youtube here.

05 - It's kind of odd the way Blogger now only works with tracking protection off. You can't sign into other Blogger blogs to comment unless you turn off tracking protection. I don't know why that is when it wasn't like this before they changed spam filters (or whatever it was changed that had to do with spam). Of course my browser remembers my options so I don't always have to turn tracking protection off but why do we even have to anyway? You can leave comments without signing in (assuming the blogger had chosen to allow anonymous commenting) but I don't like using anonymous to comment when I have a Blogger account. (To turn off tracking protection in firefox, you just click on the shield icon next to the url address bar.)

06 - Because of region restrictions or region block, I cannot watch the last season of Vera. The company that mades the show didn't allow digital purchases in the U.S. which was how I watched the show but I didn't get to watch all the seasons because of region restriction. So yes, I can subscribe to Britbox to watch the episodes I missed and the last season but I refused. I'm not going to subscribe just to watch one show. I guess I'll have to read episode recaps to find out what happens or maybe not.

07 - Firefox keeps asking me to update even though I have updated a million times already — Why don't they just make it that you update to the very latest version whenever you update? Why does it work in increments? So yes, apps needs to be updated for security reasons and such but come on, how much update can they do anyway? I can download the latest, greatest version but then I would have to rebuild bookmarks and preferences but that won't solve the update problem because there will always be updates. Why did firefox removed the option NOT to check for updates? Why don't users have a choice to check for updates and then choose when to update? Why are app makers (and computer makers) keep removing options that allow users to make choices? Are users so dumb that the choices have to be made for us?

What's on your mind these days?