Jesus, R.E.M. broke up. I don't normally care about shit like that, but I guess I'm old enough that instead of my parent's youth disintegrating, it's starting to become mine. So yes, I may have spent two days listening to the same three songs on repeat. I think two days is an appropriate amount of grieving. It was their time. I can't believe that companies think three days funeral time is enough if your family member dies, when I mourn a band for two days? Man, someday Vampire Weekend is going to break up and I'm just going to freak.
"I just teared up thinking about the day Michael Stipe dies. & Thom Yorke. What if it was them on a plane together flying it into a mountain?"
"I have to wonder where everyone that is always at Deagans went before there was Deagans."
Deagans is this bar in Lakewood. I like it well enough. The servers are always on happy pills and no matter how crowded it is, they always find me a hightop twotop. The food is pretty reliably good. They have a vegan night. So yeah, Deagans is good. But every time I go I get thrown off by the crowd. I didn't think any place in Lakewood got crowded like that. But then I sat and thought through that statement and decided that was false, lots of places get crowded by that exact same crowd. I just don't know ANY of them. My whole experience in Lakewood has been at high school friends' houses and the Cllifton Ave Mile of Apartments with goth kids and record store co workers. This, coupled with the R.E.M. thing, really threw me off that day.
"Its as if everyone in the country under 50 just realized that the death penalty exists."
"I want people to be educated, I want them to get upset, but then I want them to REMEMBER it three days later."
This was about the Troy Davis execution. Just now, instead of execution, I accidentally typed education, which would be appropriate. I learned a lot from this particular thing. I mean, not about the death penalty, I don't believe in that. I won't argue it with anyone though, because logically if I go too far down the rabbit hole of my personal morals in regards to the Empire and How To Run a Populace, I get disturbingly conflicted about it. But the fact that I get that disturbed, and that I know in my heart it's wrong as sure as I know it's wrong to be anti-choice and anti-queer, I think that's enough. It's just one of those things.
I also learned that it comes to human rights issues, I care more about the ones that affect massive amounts of people instead of a relatively few number, like healthcare and education. I realize that you should not forgive or ignore even the smallest cruelty, but in this world of constant dramatic inundation, of one atrocity after another after another (the way the world always worked but now just so more visible as a whole global dark cloud, a poisonous black fog covering our countries) a person has to actually choose which terrible thing is going to break their heart that day week month. Or, if you're going to acknowledge all of it all at once, you have to shut down a part of your soul and get colder. I guess I hop back and forth across that line. I think it's driving us all crazy but I'm not saying I'm sure that shouldn't happen.
The last thing I realized was that I like twitter just fine for funny little bon mots and making plans, but when it comes to getting your news? It is the scariest fucking thing I have ever seen. It is tapping in the the terrifying power of a collective "OMGWTF" reaction, a feeling that the human race has apparently been storing up for centuries, waiting to be unleashed on the Electric Brain, so much so that it spills into their trips to the morning coffeeshops and opinions about office supplies. The Human Race is so stressed out, we have the same reaction to terrible service in a restaurant or a football player as we do to a man being executed without justice, one of panicked outrage. And worse, this panic is so manic, we jump from topic to topic, "news addict" now also maybe meaning "looking for that outrage high". Otherwise, why not stop every once in a while? I fear our heads will someday explode all at once, or our hearts, but probably those particular organs will be withered and black with gerbil-like worry by then. Listen, I can agree that people should worry, have reason to worry greatly, while also acknowledging the mental and physical small deaths that worry causes.
"HEY #Twitter! The fact that you banned #TroyDavis from trending, but #OnlyFatPeople is okay? IS OFFENSIVE AND HORRIBLE YOU ASSHOLES."
"Look, I realize this is not a #twitter democracy, but when you pick and choose trending topics, and leave offensive ones in while..."
"...taking out important relevant ones, then what is the fucking point? It isn't an actual picture of what's trending at all."
So an aspect of Twitter is that there is a sidebar which shows you topics that are trending in your city, what people are talking the most about. A nasty little thing that happened during the Troy Davis shitstorm is that Twitter "removed" the topic #TroyDavis from that list. You could still see it if you actually manually searched for the tag, but it was not shown to anyone else who might see it and just wonder what it was about. Twitter does that, they edit. Apparently #JustinBieber was also removed, I imagine because it had been trending for what seemed like a fucking year.
Now I'm not claiming a Twitter conspiracy and I'm not even calling Twitter racist. I think they probably removed it for reasons they didn't think through enough. But you know what? If you are going to edit topics that are trending, could we please also maybe take out the Constant misogyny and racism that occurs on a daily basis? Like, you want to keep things civil and PC? Fine, you're a free private service, do whatever you like, but if you want to try, put more effort into actually being PC then and don't take out the stuff that is actual relevant news.
The last thing I realized was that I like twitter just fine for funny little bon mots and making plans, but when it comes to getting your news? It is the scariest fucking thing I have ever seen. It is tapping in the the terrifying power of a collective "OMGWTF" reaction, a feeling that the human race has apparently been storing up for centuries, waiting to be unleashed on the Electric Brain, so much so that it spills into their trips to the morning coffeeshops and opinions about office supplies. The Human Race is so stressed out, we have the same reaction to terrible service in a restaurant or a football player as we do to a man being executed without justice, one of panicked outrage. And worse, this panic is so manic, we jump from topic to topic, "news addict" now also maybe meaning "looking for that outrage high". Otherwise, why not stop every once in a while? I fear our heads will someday explode all at once, or our hearts, but probably those particular organs will be withered and black with gerbil-like worry by then. Listen, I can agree that people should worry, have reason to worry greatly, while also acknowledging the mental and physical small deaths that worry causes.
"HEY #Twitter! The fact that you banned #TroyDavis from trending, but #OnlyFatPeople is okay? IS OFFENSIVE AND HORRIBLE YOU ASSHOLES."
"Look, I realize this is not a #twitter democracy, but when you pick and choose trending topics, and leave offensive ones in while..."
"...taking out important relevant ones, then what is the fucking point? It isn't an actual picture of what's trending at all."
So an aspect of Twitter is that there is a sidebar which shows you topics that are trending in your city, what people are talking the most about. A nasty little thing that happened during the Troy Davis shitstorm is that Twitter "removed" the topic #TroyDavis from that list. You could still see it if you actually manually searched for the tag, but it was not shown to anyone else who might see it and just wonder what it was about. Twitter does that, they edit. Apparently #JustinBieber was also removed, I imagine because it had been trending for what seemed like a fucking year.
Now I'm not claiming a Twitter conspiracy and I'm not even calling Twitter racist. I think they probably removed it for reasons they didn't think through enough. But you know what? If you are going to edit topics that are trending, could we please also maybe take out the Constant misogyny and racism that occurs on a daily basis? Like, you want to keep things civil and PC? Fine, you're a free private service, do whatever you like, but if you want to try, put more effort into actually being PC then and don't take out the stuff that is actual relevant news.
To top it off, if your "trending topics" aren't actually the most popular topics, than what is the point of that feature? It takes all the coolness out of it.
And of course my personal issue is with that Fat People tag. It is NOT okay to make fun of fat people guys, anymore than you would make fun of ugly people or single moms. It is ignorant and mean. If your version of humor is based on exerting your own superiority, you aren't funny. I don't need to win anyone over to fat acceptance, I don't particularly like it and yes it's unhealthy and it's my own private business what I do about it. Humor about fat people reminds me of gay bashing, its heavily focused on being disgusted about sex. And you know what, if you're not physically attracted to me, fine. Guess what, I don't want to sleep with you either. I probably didn't before you even opened your mouth. But if you are going to write me off as a person because you don't want to sleep with me? You are a terrible shallow awful human being. And you are probably pretty stupid. There are other nicer complex smart wonderful people who I would much rather fuck, and frankly, I get quite enough action without your approval. Also, if you yourself are fat, it doesn't give you license to make fun of anyone but yourself. I had this boyfriend who was also fat, and he loved to watch Biggest Loser and make fun of the fatties, and I argued a lot with him about it because you know, if you're black, it doesn't mean you get to go around calling every black person n----. It's a point of decency and correct behavior. I don't care what you think about it, keep it to yourself. Show me some respect.
Of course after I write this, I am chastised by a moment where I think about stealing the pics of the visitors to my okcupid profile and using them on a post about serial killers. But the point is, I won't do it. Cause that would be mean.
"Please let me be hit by molten satellite debris."
Exciting science stuff happened this week, like a satellite falling to earth, and a new dinosaur was discovered, and something about translating brain waves into visual images which I can't even bring myself to read yet. I'm saving it for a day when I need reassurance that wonderful things still exist in the world.
"Let's all pledge to try and find a way to reanimate and elect Jim Henson as president by his 85th birthday."
Cause I'll be honest, I think that may be our only hope some days.
"Please let me be hit by molten satellite debris."
Exciting science stuff happened this week, like a satellite falling to earth, and a new dinosaur was discovered, and something about translating brain waves into visual images which I can't even bring myself to read yet. I'm saving it for a day when I need reassurance that wonderful things still exist in the world.
"Let's all pledge to try and find a way to reanimate and elect Jim Henson as president by his 85th birthday."
Cause I'll be honest, I think that may be our only hope some days.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Who wants to fuck the Editors?