I’ve been blogging for eight years, and I just passed 20 followers.  I am on a roll.  Poppyseed, I think. ☺

Went here:
http://www.age-test.com/

Discovered my real age is 28. Some days it’s 12, though, I’m positive. 🙂

on a blog I came across, wherein the blogger hates ‘liberals’ because some people have found justification for the horror going on in France right now. Blaming the victims, as it were. This bothered me, so I felt the need to express my view. I am posting it here because I’d like to know what other people think of what I said. I have my opinions about things, but sometimes I wonder if I am completely off the mark or right on. I think it’s easy to get into a certain mindset and not be able to see where you have gone wrong, something I frequently think has happened to people who watch Fox News. So anyone? Opinions, people?

Here’s what I said:

Do you not think that condemning an entire group based on the remarks of some is part of the problem? Liberals? I consider myself a liberal, and I am appalled at what is going on in France. I am appalled by anyone killing anyone in the name of whatever today’s cause may be. Wouldn’t ‘ignorant’ be a better name for those who see justification in killing for any reason? Uneducated? Misinformed? Even ‘brainwashed’ (probably by Fox News) could apply. Or maybe just ‘stupid’?

Unfortunately, we cannot go back to the days when everyone lived in a country that fostered their own values. People are mobile. We are all way behind in figuring out how to mix cultures peacefully, instead we call names, and group people into categories, and discriminate against those who are different, and we also, unfortunately, move into a new country and expect the citizenry in it to conform to our old country’s mores, rather than learning to tolerate and adapt to those of our new country. Seems to me that expecting a new country to instead adapt to your culture is just another way of invading and taking over, things humanity has been doing since we developed brains, apparently. I don’t know how to fix things, but contributing to the problem by condemning an entire group based on the actions of some, seems not to be the way to go

I saw on the news that the brothers involved have said they want to die as martyrs.  So they can go to heaven and have access to a lot of virgins, if I understand Muslim martyrdom correctly.  So it’s really all about getting some?  Seriously?  Here’s another good quote from Salman Rushdie that I came across in the blogs:

“I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. ‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion’. Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.”

I’ve wanted to post about this all day, but I’ve just been so angry, I can’t really find the words. Right now, jury selection is ongoing for the Boston Bomber trial. Relative to this, I was recently discussing with a friend the whole terrorism model. I don’t get it. How did killing people out for a fun day running or watching the Boston Marathon fix any of the problems in the Middle East? How did murdering what, eleven people, in cold blood in France help the Islamic cause? Did either of these acts make us feel sympathetic towards their cause? I don’t think so. Did it magically fix the problems? No. So what is the point? I do not understand how anyone can think that indiscriminately murdering and maiming innocent people helps their cause in any way. What kind of human being can do such a thing and think it is the right thing to do? How can you be that twisted? I despair for my species more and more as time goes on. Some of us make me ashamed to be human.

About making “Twelve Years A Slave”: ‘These days America’s changed. Black people can be anything they want to be, as long as it’s President or….shot.’
Quote starts 8:57.

An infomercial shown on PBS for pledging is still an infomercial.

http://www.newnownext.com/14-best-lgbt-commercials-of-2014/12/2014/

After hardly blogging at all this month, I seem to be trying to make up for it in one evening. 🙂

Besides, this guy is great in any context.

I started on Blogger eight years ago today. Did not know if I’d have anything to say, but apparently I did. This is my 954th post. I’ve gone through the whole range of emotions during this time. Happy, depressed, angry, puzzled, you name it. I hope that the miserably angry and/or depressed posts haven’t been the most I’ve done. I do get discouraged sometimes with the stupidity of my fellow humans, get sick of being sick and in pain, get lonely and weary of being alone 90 or more per cent of the time, but basically, underneath it all, I am a happy person. I have a good life, with enough to eat, cool or warm air at the touch of a dial, protection from the storms, the internet, some good friends who I don’t get to see often enough, and a couple of really great kids who I see even less often. And my cat. Can’t get by without my cat. Having another living thing around makes a huge difference when you’re alone, even if she refuses to make a cup of tea for me when I can’t get up to do it myself. Hey! I clean out your litter box, lady.

I’m hoping this is the best year yet for all of us, and I’m really hoping this is the year humanity finally gets a brain, but it’s not bloody likely, I fear. I’d like to resolve to do a post a day, or something else positive, but some days I don’t even turn this thing on.

If you’re out there reading this, I can only advise that we all be kind to one another, and do the right thing, and stand up to those who don’t. Prejudice, greed, bigotry, homophobia, racism…none of these involve doing the right thing. We need to work on this. Differences are what make us interesting. We could celebrate those differences, instead of persecuting those who are different. Besides, from their view, we are the ones who are different. We’ve all heard variations of ‘Treat others the way you want to be treated’. Why is that so hard to do, people? Make it a good year, a kind year, a tolerant and accepting year, and most of all, a happy year, for yourselves and everyone around you. Happy New Year, everyone.

This:

The final fortress, with the exception of South Carolina, is the Deep South. That is where the last legal battles are likely to be fought, and it is precisely the sort of place that gay-marriage opponents say shouldn’t be rushed by the courts, because it’s “not ready.”

Is from here:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/05/southern-honeymoon?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email

I couldn’t help thinking that since they don’t seem ‘ready’ to give up racism, hatred and bigotry, it’s not surprising. Since when do we have to be ‘ready’ to do what is right and allow others the same freedoms, rights and considerations we hold? What a ridiculous argument. ‘Not ready’. Disgusting people disgust me.

Hoping everyone has lovely day.

I am having an amazing day. I have actually moved (small) furniture, among other things. ????? It’s mostly true that I cannot do things most of the time, but sometimes I think I just don’t care enough to push myself when I’m not having a really good day. Those days when I maybe could, but eh! Who cares? you know. Just need a reason to push myself to do things and I usually don’t. Someone was coming today, and I didn’t want it to be the cluttered mess it was, so I did stuff to at least make it look more like someone lives here who cares. If you know what I mean.

We are getting mostly rain, but found this on Tumblr, and it made me laugh. Laughing is always a good thing.

See: lego-note

Went to dermatologist, don’t have skin cancer after all. Yay. Nurse Practitioner was mistaken, I am happy to say.

I am very, very troubled by the Grand Jury decision in Ferguson. I listened to the statement last night, and I was struck by the fact that twelve shots were fired into a boy who had stolen cigarillos. Some of those were fired while he was bent over and far away from the shooter. This isn’t worth further examination? Is this not excessive force? I think if Michael Brown was white, things would have gone very differently. This is America, after all, where we only pretend to not be racist.

The other thing that really bothers me is Google. I love Google. I use a lot of their products. I have, use, and love their Nexus 7. But they seem to have abandoned their motto of ‘Do No Evil’. I just read yesterday that they have had a game on Google Play for some time that allows the player to kill naked gay men who are ‘attacking’ the player. Seriously, Google? If that’s not evil, tell me what is? This is appalling.

Then there’s the immigration thing. The reaction disturbs me, but is not really unexpected. What can you do? Not much, apparently, about any of it. Too bad.

On a better note, it’s going to snow tomorrow. I like snow. And rain. Not like Buffalo, but reasonable amounts of either. I kept thinking, upon seeing the pictures from Buffalo, ‘aren’t those roofs going to collapse?’, and some did. Dig out your car first? NO! Clean off your roof, people. Use your brains. It was pretty, though.

Update: From the National Bar Association re Ferguson Grand Jury decision:

NBR/Ferguson

Brain fog so bad I not only didn’t put the grocery check in the purse for my homemaker, I forgot to write the check in the first place.  Luckily she had enough cash to pay for the groceries.  She was going to the drugstore as well, hence the cash.  My friend Tess and I went to the drugstore this afternoon instead.  LOL  Lovely, cold and breezy day.  Good to get out.  Am having the worst allergy day in ages and ages.  Going out didn’t help.  Allergy season is forever, it seems.  Thank you climate change. 

Edit: Stupid video didn’t work, so I removed it. Sorry about that.

“I’ve survived a lot of things, and I’ll probably survive this.”
—

J.D. Salinger

in a Buzzfeed article. Buzzfeed is crazy. Anyway, I call it “There’s a big crack in the world, people’. Well I like it.

And Music, you’re going to love this:

Had a couple of good, getting-things-done days, then a couple of ow, ow, ow pain days. Better this afternoon. Actually cooked dinner. Pork chop with cider sauce. Oh, so easy. Baked sweet potato, applesauce. Yum. No green veg. Oh, well. Didn’t go with the color scheme.

Came across an article about Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (disorder, human variation, whatever), which I didn’t know was a thing but is what I have. There are articles about how to correct it, all of which things I have done and none of which worked, so I am going to give one of the things one more try, and if it doesn’t work yet again, I am just going to relax and accept that I sleep from 4am to 10am or so. Get over it, world. I already have most people trained to the fact that I am NOT a morning person, so don’t try to make an appointment for me then, or call me, either. It’s myself I need to work on. I always feel guilty for getting up so late, and it’s worse now that it gets dark so early. I could live in Finland, next door to my friend, and get about as much daylight as I’m getting here now.

Some people think this is a disorder, and some think it’s just a variation of regular human circadian rhythms. Someone suggested we start our own town, with business hours starting at ten am. Sounds good to me, and we would have to also outlaw Daylight Saving Time, which I hate, hate, hate.

People are so different individually, and yet we are all of us expected to conform to some ‘norm’ in whatever behaviour is in question. If we learn differently that the ‘norm’ we have ADD and must be drugged for it. If we love people of our own gender, we are ‘deviant’ and must be punished and ostracized and even killed for it. If we learn better by doing it rather than reading about it, that causes its own problems. We are forced to ‘fit in’ by some nameless majority who get to set the rules for all of us, not just themselves and those like them. Screw that! Take your rules and your written-in-stones and… okay, I won’t say what they can do with them. I am a family friendly blogger (I think).

My youngest daughter, who is quite brilliant /we all are, actually. ;)/ had a terrible time with school. She used to say that they wanted her to just sit still for long periods of time, and she needed to move. They wanted her to do hours of dull and very mind-numbingly boring homework, when she knew the subjects and didn’t need the rote learning and whatever else was forced on her. I wished I was rich enough to send her to Montessori, but that was waaay beyond our budget. I wish I was a smarter parent and understood what the issues were and had the wherewithal to do something about them, instead of just going with the current mindset promoted by the schools. She suffered a lot because of me as well as because of the schools.

I would bet that most ‘troublemakers’ in school have similar issues. Either sitting for long periods is impossible, or they are very smart and get bored to death. When I was in school in Colorado, lo these many years ago before the dinosaurs, I was given extra work when I was done before everyone else. I could read faster than anyone in class, so was given extra books to read. Once we moved to Massachusetts, it seemed my kids only got the ‘you have to do things this way or else’ type of education. If you don’t learn that way, if you don’t work that way, you don’t fit in and are punished for it. I really hope we wake up some day to the wealth of resources and brilliance that are there in people who do not just ‘fit in’.

We were supposed to have high winds tonight, as well as the rain we’ve been getting, but so far there doesn’t seem to be any wind at all. I love weather. It’s so unpredictable, in spite of all the technology. Too much predictability is just boring, which is why living in New England is so great. There are even sayings about it. If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. I like that one, because it is so true. Even though I am not ‘from’ here originally, I definitely belong in New England. It’s a good thing.

I am waiting with great trepidation to find out what the outcome is in Ferguson. They police are armed and ready to put down a revolt by the revolutionaries who are trying to take over the country….I mean by the people who are angry and protesting the lack of any kind of punishment for murder-by-police. Who are exercising their constitutional right to protest, but are being treated as terrorists. It really does make me ashamed of my country, and disgusted by those in power locally. Give small-minded people a little power, and they lose all perspective. It’s just wrong, and I have no idea what to do about it, which just leaves me feeling helpless. Guess I’m done here, readers.