Some Blogs I Didn't Post in 2019 (Happy New Year)

First there's the round-up of "Shittiest Twitter Takes," where I post tweets displaying the dumbest shit I have ever heard in my life. Like when Donald Trump Jr. threw himself into the Pocahontas attack on Elizabeth Warren by feigning wonder (unconvincingly) as to why people aren't protesting Disney, too. He was trying to push the idea that Disney is just as offensive as president Trump because Disney made an animated story of Pocahontas. Then there's world class boneheads Diamond and Silk, defending their idiot president on the matter of racist terms he used. These two clowns are suggesting that the dictionary must also be racist then, as it contains the same words that Trump used, so they'd like to challenge us based on "Is the dictionary racist, too?" There's about ten more of these shitty takes, but five or six of them are related to our embarrassment of a president, and I don't want to waste my time with words about him. So I didn't write that "Twitter Shittiest Takes" blog post.

Another blog post I didn't write is my round-up summary of all the ways people use Facebook and how there's one particular style of Facebooker that I find interesting. It's all the people who rush to write a post every time some little thing goes wrong or is inconvenient, it's like they cannot WAIT to tell us all about their hardship (they got the wrong coffee order, or the car needs a new tire) and these outrages are often marked by an exuberant FML or TFW. Everything else is a piece of news, a sweet photo, an adorable anecdote, or a lovely memory. These are like micro newsletters.Taken all together, their posts comprise an authentic micro-blog. Coming back to Facebook, I see how much I've missed. I didn't know Adam and Maureen got married. I didn't know Brian moved to LA. I didn't know Lisa switched to a new job, or has a podcast. I didn't know Walter has become slim as a blade! Inspirational! I didn't know Max has had poems published, how big Archer has grown, or that Cynthia has a new book out. I didn't know Amy is baking amazing breads. Scrolling back through posts, it's a composite, authentic sketch of how your friend has been doing. It's not practical to sit and write letters back and forth to each other...we are not permitted that kind of time anymore. Facebook posts take the place of correspondence, and I find it a bit nice. So now I'm torn about deleting my account as planned. Fucking Zuckerberg. I'm having a moral dilemma over walking out on this twerp?

I didn't write the blog post about returning to therapy last May and all that entails. As it turns out, I still need help. I'm on a new medication since October, actually on two new ones...three if you count trying out Prazosin. That one's for nightmares. It didn't seem to work for me at all, so I stopped taking it. There's been a lot going on with my mental health this year. I miss my brain. I'm tired. I'm broke. I can't focus, I can't work. I need help.

Finally, I was thinking of writing a blog post about Family. Lack thereof, more specifically. My grandmother Maggie had eleven siblings which would have been my mom's aunts and uncles, and they all had kids who would be my mom's cousins, who have kids who would be my second cousins, who have kids who would be my second cousins once removed if I understand how that works. In theory there's a big rollicking family on my mother's side who don't know who I am or that I even exist. As a child I had met few of them. But as I sit here, I don't know their names or where they live. Why didn't I get to have that family? I don't know the answer to how did that happen? Isolation from the family has never been adequately explained to me. I feel robbed of this thing I never had. In addition to that, then there's the two fathers and their families, these relations I can't even begin to explain. Most I have never met. More recently, there has been Joe's family, who don't really like me all that much, but at least they go through the motions, more than I can say for the vast family who didn't know me, didn't want me, never attempted to even try. Before this expanse of relations, I stand alone and confused and wonder if there's anything I could have done about it, but fret what would that have possibly been? 👪
Image: coloringpagesfortoddlers.com

...more of this post

BLOCKED ON TWITTER: I Finally Made It?

They say when someone blocks you on Twitter, it is some kind of honor. People out here bragging about "I got blocked! I made it!" Having experienced getting blocked for the first time, gotta say, that's not what it feels like at all. Maybe it feels good if it's a certain kind of Twitter personality. In that case I think mine is a dud.

Here's what happened. This young woman posted on the topic of UnFriending over Politics. Her very strong stance is that, if you UnFriend due to difference in political opinion, that means you are, and I quote, "an imbecile." She insists that "Political opinion doesn't define character."

Oh dear. Well. I've recently written on the topic after much thought, and my thing is that we have to stand up for what's right. We're in a time when there need to be consequences. Friendship has to matter. If you place value on the idea of Friendship, presumably you think yours is worth something. Your time, attention, care and kindness...those matter. I wanted to say, "I used to be like you" and then share what I have learned over the years. I thought, a possible teachable moment in action. Once you cruise past the age of 40, they give you the Experience Card and you can pull it out and lay down some sweet Elder Magic. The disconnect is that, while you get to pull your Experience Card, that doesn't mean shit to Arrogance of Youth, on social media or anywhere else in life. I know it didn't mean shit to me when I was young and arrogant. Well sometimes, but not in most cases—I rolled my eyes at certain advice from older women that, boy howdy, do I wish I'd taken. So I get it. 

I replied, "Political opinion does in fact define character. In rather large part, actually. You're young, you will learn. Took me awhile too. It matters, kiddo."  Okay, I could've been less of an Old Auntie with the "kiddo" but I was feeling it just then. Still: THAT gets a block? What I'm feeling now is, after she blocked me, is...Hey kiddo, you just posted with a great urgent insistence, doll-face, that a person who can't simply disagree with another opinion is an imbecile, buttercup. Take a selfie, champ, that's a photo of a person who doesn't know how to disagree politely, love. Trust me. Honey.

Alright, that's out of my system. As you can see, I was a bit hurt.

But can we discuss the irony of being so quickly blocked. If stepping away from a Friendship because of "political opinion" means you're an imbecile, then what are you for blocking a total stranger for suggesting there might be some validity to it...I mean...?

I have been singed and suffocated by the heat of the exhaust from the energy expended trying to remain friendly with terrible, awful racist, self-centered assholes who call their bullshit "political opinion" and just call everybody else rude names. I'm done. The whole "He's my friend, not my fault" stance, well it's hard work for me, not for them. They get to be simply terrible, while I have to keep working to burn fuel keeping the peace, keep making excuses for their awfulness. Years, I did this. Then, I got some self-respect and simply stopped making excuses for keeping these people as friends. What for? We have to stand up for what we believe in. It matters. Stand for something, or sit the hell down. One thing this Trump beast has done is bring them all scurrying out into the light. I learned I don't have to stand by and abide "Friends" behaving in this terrible way, trying to "other" and marginalize other people. So, political opinion very much does, in fact, define character. We ARE our politics. In my opinion, it matters. ∎

Related: Yes, I UnFriended You

...more of this post

I will never

ever, ever forgive any person(s) who is still supporting this lunatic. Where. Is. The. Goddamn. Cavalry. For the love of all that doesn't suck, somebody do something.

Related: Dude, I Told You

...more of this post

#BeatTHAT

I responded to this ridiculously good looking and brainy news dude with a naughty zinger.
Or as my husband calls him, Your Boyfriend Ari Melber.

...more of this post

Flood Warned By Duckie Ahead Of Tornado Sirens

#NobodyGetsMe

...more of this post

Peak Gen X...Blossom & Luke & Duckie & ME THIS TIME?!

I'm just happy to be in there somewhere.

This is an incredibly romantic moment, and you're ruining it for me!

...more of this post

PEAK GEN X: "I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle."

@DannyDutch

...more of this post

They just don't get it, do they.

...more of this post

"...see because cloaking was a Romulan technology..."

Telling Joe about the online discussion I'm in, started by a dude who finds parallel between Star Trek TNG and Harry Potter. Mostly based on the Starfleet uniform colors and Hogwarts houses, the fun ideas being raised are, for example, that the Hogwarts green (Slytherin) aligns with the Romulans. I explained, "By that logic, a Slytherin must have originally charmed the Invisibility cloak---" That's as far as I got before Joe's eyebrows did the thing. 🚀

...more of this post

Rose Marie is on Twitter and She Is A Delight

This photo of Rose Marie is everything tonight.

Advise following Rose Marie on Twitter.
What a great lady.
@RoseMarie4Real

...more of this post

One Wolf

@MJMcKean

...more of this post

H/T @Kate_Hart

...more of this post

H/T @SaveTheMayotee

...more of this post

#CoolerInTheShade

Black ink drawing + Paint Shop Pro

...more of this post

#RedNeckParadise

...more of this post

#BLM

...more of this post

If You're Not Following Cher, You're Twittering Wrong

I love Cher. I love that sonorous voice. I love her brass balls attitude. I love her in every movie she's ever been in, especially The Witches of Eastwick. I love Cher so much that I even love total strangers who also love Cher. Whether or not you're a fan of this perpetually raven-haired Gen X icon, you're missing out if you're not following Cher on Twitter. The key to Cher's Twitter brilliance? Chick's got some serious emoji kung fu. It's only like the best thing ever done with 140 characters.

...more of this post