Defining everything?

I've had tons of experiences online. Some good, some not so good, some terrific and some terrible. Being online (even on sites with good moderators) is still a bit of a free for all. But that's what I love about it. I love to hear others' viewpoints, and it is boring to always hear what I already think. But when does diversity become only disruption? I don't know. All I know is that it's like pornography. I know it when I see it.

Signed,
A possible smidge

What is it about April?

How appropriate that during a month that's historically one of our most violent, the SCOTUS should rule in defense of people who make videos that perpetrate cruelty to animals.

I would wax on about this, but my friend, Jack does
a much better job than I could.

Oh, and it's Hitler's birthday too.

Valentine's Day Massacre

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone, and I am unfazed. For most of my life Valentine's has meant exactly nothing romantically; however, there was a year (1984 to be exact) when I really let it get to me. Valentine's rolled around and all the women I knew were talking about it. But the day after Valentine's reached a crescendo. My newlywed status seemed to generate a lot of interest from other women wanting to hear about my husband, still in the idiot honeymoon stage, manifesting his love in gifts of chocolate, flowers, jewelry and other products marketed to be the zenith of love expressions. But the women were to remain unsatisfied because frankly, nothing of that sort happened. It was just another day at our house.

So my pout started about half way home from work. By the time I walked through the front door, I was pretty frustrated. All those years of never celebrating Valentine's and now that I had a great guy, I still didn't get to celebrate it! Never mind that I had never thought about celebrating it. All of a sudden something was wrong with the universe, and I had to ask myself why I wasn't worth some chocolate and flowers or at least an expensive card. Didn't he love me enough to do that? I was so hurt, and I worked myself into a real snit by the time he got home. It took him about an hour to figure out what was going on, and then he got mad at me! After getting over the shock, he called me a fraud and asked what happened to the girl he married? The girl who was not like everyone else? My response was to say that she was a woman, so why was he so surprised? I just dug in my heels and let him know that I wasn't settling for less than other women got. I'll never forget the stunned look on his face. It really shook him up that I had such a visceral reaction, but he dropped it.

We went to bed mad that night and didn't talk about it again. February ended and the first two weeks of March came around. I was eating lunch in my office when I got a call from the receptionist in the main lobby. "You need to come down here!" she said. Even a couple of my co-workers coming back from lunch had mentioned something unusual in the lobby. I was so busy that day I didn't really pay attention to them. But as soon as I rounded the corner from the elevator bank on the ground floor, I could see what all the fuss was about. There in a gargantuan vase were five dozen roses. The thing was almost as tall as I am. It was absurd. As I got nearer to it, everything seemed to slow down. There was a kind of buzzing in my ears, and I don't remember the receptionist saying anything. She just grinned (along with others standing there) and pushed the vase toward me. I hoisted it up and kind of held it in front of my face as I made my way back to my office. I thought for a moment about taking the stairs so I didn't have to run into anyone. Since it was quite a few floors up, I realized I wasn't that embarrassed. Somehow I made it back to the office without being stopped, and I shut the door and fished out the card to see who it was from. No, I did not know. Then I read the words, "Why does it have to be February?"

I'll never forget laughing. I'm laughing as I write this. Those words flowed over me and reminded me why I am so in love with my husband. He is clever. Oh, is he clever. Even more than that, he is sincere. No marketer can sell this. It is priceless. I am so cynical, and even was at that young age, that I would have never believed my husband if he had celebrated Valentine's. I would have chalked it off to obligation. My husband was clever enough to realize that and not succumb to its power, and I have long since gotten over my succumbing. But it really did make me miserable for a few weeks, and this was in the face of my husband often expressing how he feels about me. He has written me love letters and poems and taken me on trips and sat and listened to me and just generally been a great guy, and that started before Valentine's 1984. And yes on occasion he's given me flowers and candy. But never on Valentine's.

I respect him so much for flouting the marketers -- for smashing those false notions of love to hell. I have thought often about the power it had over me and what it produced, and I hope I never forget that it was hollow. So here I sit on the 15th. Glad to have something much more important.

Now if we could just break the power of Mother's Day.

Jesus on Aisle 6

The consumer mentality is such a part of Americans that we can't check it even when considering God. For many of us (yes, including some who name themselves Christians), He is like any other good or service, i.e., how's it workin' for me? is it hassle free?

Man, nothing is new. I can't help but think of this:

19...their god is their stomach,.. Their mind is on earthly things. (Philippians 3)

May I always heed the Holy Spirit with respect to my "stomach."

I love this blog post I found this morning: Leave Us Alone Jesus

If it's Cool, You Win?

The video below is of a young man who will explain in three to four minutes how social media really works on the web. So why do you care? Well, he's explaining the shift in the nexus of ideas. The nexus or core is no longer rooted as much in places like the university classroom but moving towards the web with its quick transmission of memes (pieces of cultural information or thoughts). The often fast and furious transmission brings a kind of high that is not necessarily bad because it can be inspirational. That many ideas floating around bouncing into each other is bound to encourage something significant.

But there is a shallowness to it. The medium may have changed and now facilitates some ideas that possibly never would have occurred in our lifetimes. But the impetus of people hasn't changed one whit. They are not necessarily driven by what's best but sometimes by what's cool. For me the real question is whether or not the volume of their exchange inspires more depth. I have thoughts on that as well, but I'll save it for another post.

Hope you take a look at the video.



In case the intro blipped by too fast or you didn't see the ending, "TedTalks" which he refers to is a series of videos designed to spread great ideas. These are fascinating, and I highly recommend taking a look at them if you're interested in what you and others, and probably especially your kids, are going to be seeing and hearing and influenced by.

As for reddit, it's also fascinating, and "fast and furious" is sometimes not sufficient to describe what goes on there. At times I think of it like the trading pit at the NYSE.

I should be...

cleaning or baking some sort of masterpiece for Christmas (in my dreams) or listening to my child read. What am I doing? Listening for the phone. I'm such a gadget freak that I have all sorts of ringtones for family and friends, and then there's the ringtone for those I don't know (or at least don't know their numbers). I keep listening for that one to know if I do or don't have a job. So it rang a few minutes ago, and when I sprinted (uh, moved really fast :D) to pick it up, on the line was a pleasant voice saying: Congratulations, You've won either a trip to the Caribbean or... [click]

My husband, God Bless that wonderful man, will actually listen to sales people on the phone and respond politely. I guess I'm not nearly as polite. I used to be (a hundred years ago), but now I guess I've gone the way of so many who have had one too many jarring moments and all for what? Someone who pesters people for a living. Maybe I'll get back my joy of considering someone's humanity no matter how I'm presented with it. I envy Doug's ability to remain joyful in the face of even a telemarketer's call though I used to think he was naive. No, he's just really nice.

If I'm candid with myself, having time to write this blog of complaint could have been spent listening to some person on the phone who's just trying to get by -- even if sometimes they're involved in a scam for a living? I would love to be that nice again.