Haven’t posted in ages. Haven’t had much interest to post in ages actually. Got to post #700 and then just set it aside.
I think part of the lack of interest is in rebellion of social media. We live in an age where it is so easy to share ourselves to the world. We can exclaim our uniqueness to the world like no time ever before. Yet, more and more, I see more of the same.
It got me to wondering. Perhaps we don’t really want to show our individuality after all. It’s in our brain that that’s what we’re doing. You keep hearing celebrities urging us all to “just be you”. But I wonder if really, we’re hard wired to simply try to fit in? Find a “club” and become a “member”. Maybe that’s why we see so many posts of gselfies. To proclaim “this is the club I belong to.” And gain of sense of satisfaction when others click the “like” of acceptance.
I mean it’s a world of social media clubs now. The middle aged wine guzzling lady. The dyed black bearded muscle guy. The look what my kid is doing now parent. The 5k runner. The traveler. The drama hounds. The right wing political junkies. The left wing political junkies. The Praise Be religious people. The Science is everything people. There are so many different categories out there but social media seems to lure us in to one of them. And once we’re there, pictures and posts are largely geared towards acceptance from that group you’ve joined.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with these clubs. Anyone not identifying with some club or another are likely societies outcasts. But we’re likely fooling ourselves to think we’re showing our uniqueness or individuality.
All this said, I find that, in my social media world, I don’t identify very much with those I’m connected to. And rather than try to post selfies of myself sitting at a ball game, I just watch the ball game. I have no hair style left to change and show off. I mean, really… “Behold! Still bald!” I’ve no dog to boast about. No child to show off. Running kills my knees and politics simply turns to shouting matches.
So I don’t post. Perhaps my silence is my club. The social media invisible. I still exist… but am now easily forgotten. A memory of a News Feed.
Anyway. That’s that.
A few thoughts over the last little while…
News anchors need to stop telling us they have reporters on the ground. We’re all on the ground. 99% of the world’s population is on the ground at any one time. Just say “There in Israel” or “We now go to Bob, in Cleveland.” We don’t need to know that Bob is on the ground, in Cleveland.
News people and politicians all need to stop calling everybody “folks”. “Folks in New York are voting Democrat.” “Folks are asking what’s next?” “I tell folks I meet that I believe in free health care.”
Seriously, what is wrong with calling people “people”?
Speaking of people and the news… I wish natural disasters were covered simply as a natural disaster. Every hurricane aftermath leaves a town “like a war zone.” A tornado goes through a neighbourhood and it was “like a bomb went off.” Can’t we just say it looks like a tornado went through the neighbourhood?
With that,
A Squirrel Morning
Bounding across the branches and twigs
Tree la la tree la la
Bounding across the branches and twigs
Tree la la in the morning
Snatch a seed and grab a nut
Tree la la tree la la
Chew chew chew and down in my gut
Tree la la in the morning
Scream out loud and a flurry of chatter
Tree la la tree la la
Cause bunny and bird to tuck tail and scatter
Tree la la in the morning
Curl my tail and have a sit
Tree la la tree la la
Built a leaf nest and snooze for a bit
Tree la la in the morning.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Friday, July 13, 2018
Making It Up As I Go Along #700
Been a long time since I’ve done the blog. Long enough that I thought I’d share it to Facebook again this time… so that people know I’m still doing it. And this is post number 700. I’ve been weeks thinking how it’s kind of funny to just stop right before a milestone… but there you go.
I generally have found a lack of interest to share anywhere lately. The whole world seems to be about sharing every little thing these days… and I haven’t been dying to be a part of that. What I had for supper? Who cares? A selfie while stopped at an intersection? Really? And I have no kids to boast about after they’ve lost a tooth or finished in fifth place in a race, but at least had fun doing it.
And the world of politics? Oh goodness no. There is simply no agreement in that world anymore. You’re either conservative and think all liberal minded people are “snowflakes” who live in a dream world. Or you’re a liberal who thinks all conservatives are the devil. Donald Trump and his lackies go off on Trudeau and there are people on twitter blaming Trudeau for provoking Donald, followed by a horrifying “I wish he was my leader.”
So I’ve been living the quiet life. Mom and dad are back in Newfoundland and I’m left back doing my own thing in Ottawa. I do love having no plans during my four days off. In fact, I love it so much that, back in June, I took a block off work and had twelve days of no plans. It is the heights of relaxation. To get up when you see fit. Go for a 45 minute to 1 hour long walk. Take a drive to the grocery store. Go to a movie. And go on to bed whenever you feel like it, at the end of the day.
Oddly, I guess I blame it on aging, these days now have me getting up and going to bed earlier. Extended vacation used to mean staying up until 2:00 or 3:00 AM and waking up around 10:00 the next morning. But I’m not more likely to be in bed around or before midnight. And up somewhere around 7:00 in the mornings.
Another thing I’ve been doing quite of a bit of during my time away from the blog. Gardening. My parents have a garden plot at the condo common space. And, with them away, it’s for me to tend to.
I generally haven’t minded it. It’s become part of my days off routine. Walk over with a couple of grocery bags… check their mail on the way there… pull weeds and deposit them into one of the bags… tear off some pieces of lettuce for the other bag… check on the condo… water the garden… and head home again to deposit the weeds in my green bin and clean the lettuce for my salads. Lots of salads this summer. There’s a constant supply of lettuce and the little roadside market supplies all the rest of the ingredients. It’s been a nice enough thing to do that I may set up a bit of a garden in my yard too, next year… though with mom and dad in Newfoundland during the growing season, I don’t know what I’d do with more lettuce.
I’m booked for a trip home. I’ll be there for a few weeks from the end of August to the middle of September. It’ll be my first time home in a year. One of the downsides of parents spending half the year in Ottawa… less reason to head home for a visit. On the positive side, it has probably saved me between $1000 and $1200 this year. With mom and dad in Newfoundland year round, I was heading home three times a year, instead of the one.
I enjoy being home in September. The tourist season is pretty much over and trips to Fogo Island and surrounding areas are usually fairly quiet as compared to heading there in July or August. It seems, though, that the second part of my traditional September trip home is becoming a trip of a less enjoyable kind… a trip to the attic. Last September mom drove me up there. “Size up what’s still up there? And maybe we can clean it up!” Twenty minutes brought buckets of sweat and aches in my feed and legs as I balanced my way upon the narrow beams, careful not to fall through the ceilings below, and in a constant hunch in an attempt to avoid clocking my head off the boards above. Well, this year, mom seems to want what’s up there gone. Which probably means any of my St. John’s friends would be wise to avoid picking up the phone or responding to my texts during the September days… I may be looking to put you to work.
After a pretty crumby spring, this summer has been fairly dry and hot. Canada Day’s humidex hit 48. The hottest ever measured in Ottawa. We had a full week of humidex readings in the 40s. And even though that is now broken, most days remain sunny and into the high 20s or low 30s. There’s been so little rain through all this that lawns all over are becoming vast stretches of low lying hay. Daily watering keeps my back yard green and my front yard greenish. There is so little shade in the front that I think I’d need to water twice daily in order to keep all the brown at bay.
So that’s about it, for now. A general look at what I’ve been up to since last posting. I’ll try to post more regularly again now but I still think I’ll keep most of my posts off of Facebook. Every time I use facebook I feel a little dirty for doing it. And I don’t want to be promoting myself to the Russian bots. They may steal one of my pictures of a beaver or turtle and use it to reelect Trump somehow.
I generally have found a lack of interest to share anywhere lately. The whole world seems to be about sharing every little thing these days… and I haven’t been dying to be a part of that. What I had for supper? Who cares? A selfie while stopped at an intersection? Really? And I have no kids to boast about after they’ve lost a tooth or finished in fifth place in a race, but at least had fun doing it.
And the world of politics? Oh goodness no. There is simply no agreement in that world anymore. You’re either conservative and think all liberal minded people are “snowflakes” who live in a dream world. Or you’re a liberal who thinks all conservatives are the devil. Donald Trump and his lackies go off on Trudeau and there are people on twitter blaming Trudeau for provoking Donald, followed by a horrifying “I wish he was my leader.”
So I’ve been living the quiet life. Mom and dad are back in Newfoundland and I’m left back doing my own thing in Ottawa. I do love having no plans during my four days off. In fact, I love it so much that, back in June, I took a block off work and had twelve days of no plans. It is the heights of relaxation. To get up when you see fit. Go for a 45 minute to 1 hour long walk. Take a drive to the grocery store. Go to a movie. And go on to bed whenever you feel like it, at the end of the day.
Oddly, I guess I blame it on aging, these days now have me getting up and going to bed earlier. Extended vacation used to mean staying up until 2:00 or 3:00 AM and waking up around 10:00 the next morning. But I’m not more likely to be in bed around or before midnight. And up somewhere around 7:00 in the mornings.
Another thing I’ve been doing quite of a bit of during my time away from the blog. Gardening. My parents have a garden plot at the condo common space. And, with them away, it’s for me to tend to.
I generally haven’t minded it. It’s become part of my days off routine. Walk over with a couple of grocery bags… check their mail on the way there… pull weeds and deposit them into one of the bags… tear off some pieces of lettuce for the other bag… check on the condo… water the garden… and head home again to deposit the weeds in my green bin and clean the lettuce for my salads. Lots of salads this summer. There’s a constant supply of lettuce and the little roadside market supplies all the rest of the ingredients. It’s been a nice enough thing to do that I may set up a bit of a garden in my yard too, next year… though with mom and dad in Newfoundland during the growing season, I don’t know what I’d do with more lettuce.
I’m booked for a trip home. I’ll be there for a few weeks from the end of August to the middle of September. It’ll be my first time home in a year. One of the downsides of parents spending half the year in Ottawa… less reason to head home for a visit. On the positive side, it has probably saved me between $1000 and $1200 this year. With mom and dad in Newfoundland year round, I was heading home three times a year, instead of the one.
I enjoy being home in September. The tourist season is pretty much over and trips to Fogo Island and surrounding areas are usually fairly quiet as compared to heading there in July or August. It seems, though, that the second part of my traditional September trip home is becoming a trip of a less enjoyable kind… a trip to the attic. Last September mom drove me up there. “Size up what’s still up there? And maybe we can clean it up!” Twenty minutes brought buckets of sweat and aches in my feed and legs as I balanced my way upon the narrow beams, careful not to fall through the ceilings below, and in a constant hunch in an attempt to avoid clocking my head off the boards above. Well, this year, mom seems to want what’s up there gone. Which probably means any of my St. John’s friends would be wise to avoid picking up the phone or responding to my texts during the September days… I may be looking to put you to work.
After a pretty crumby spring, this summer has been fairly dry and hot. Canada Day’s humidex hit 48. The hottest ever measured in Ottawa. We had a full week of humidex readings in the 40s. And even though that is now broken, most days remain sunny and into the high 20s or low 30s. There’s been so little rain through all this that lawns all over are becoming vast stretches of low lying hay. Daily watering keeps my back yard green and my front yard greenish. There is so little shade in the front that I think I’d need to water twice daily in order to keep all the brown at bay.
So that’s about it, for now. A general look at what I’ve been up to since last posting. I’ll try to post more regularly again now but I still think I’ll keep most of my posts off of Facebook. Every time I use facebook I feel a little dirty for doing it. And I don’t want to be promoting myself to the Russian bots. They may steal one of my pictures of a beaver or turtle and use it to reelect Trump somehow.
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