I was working a gig with some guys who are going to school to be directors at the Art Institute in Pasadena. They were young; early early 20's. And as I worked with them I just wanted them to shut up and not goof off, or disappear.
It made me wonder what kind of directors these guys would become. Because if they act this way in front of a Grip or Gaffer who is old enough to be their dad, that person will not respect them. They had no gravitas. They didn't seem to know or care what was going on, they didn't see what could be done independently without being told what to do. They were young and eager and had lots of energy to burn. But at some point stop quoting "Superbad" and do the job. (Is "Superbad" a touchstone kind of movie for these guys like Star Wars was for me? Wow, the quality of touchstones seems to have fallen.)
I was asked about how I approach acting. I answered the Spencer Tracy quote. "Learn your lines and don't bump into the furniture." (I don't think he knew who I quoted.) I have learned lots of styles of acting and it all comes down to whatever works. I have a big tool box of styles. But I got the impression from the guy that he was used to a certain style or system. He said he was shooting a short in July. I'm doing one in June. I already have a full schedule and know what day I am shooting. I don't think he is 1/10 as prepared. It's a nebulous thing.
Nebulous shoots piss off the crew. It wastes time and money and is not productive. I think they need to teach these guys how to be professionals. It will be interesting to see if I ever hear of them working as directors. Who knows, could happen.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Dumb Luck
I learned something today at a terrorism panel about the shoe bomber Richard Reid. His attempt to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb was actually his second attempt. He arrived at the airport in Paris the previous day late for his plane thinking that his lateness would facilitate a faster trip thru airport security. It didn't work. He was turned away and walked back to the place near the airport that he stayed at the night before.
In the rain.
So his shoes got wet during the walk back and that probably made the explosive wet. Which is probably why the shoe bomb didn't work. So his shoes didn't blow up. He was then restrained by the passengers and is now in prison for the rest of his life.
Dumb Fucking Luck and Stupid Terrorist beat out all the security at the airport. Hooray for our side.
In the rain.
So his shoes got wet during the walk back and that probably made the explosive wet. Which is probably why the shoe bomb didn't work. So his shoes didn't blow up. He was then restrained by the passengers and is now in prison for the rest of his life.
Dumb Fucking Luck and Stupid Terrorist beat out all the security at the airport. Hooray for our side.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Arizona, what the fuck?
I was born and raised in Arizona. It's a great place, generally. It's kind of stuck in it's morality and thinking at times. Kind of a throw back to the 50's way of thinking. But the law that was signed last week by the governor is ridiculous. I have a hard time thinking that anyone with half a brain cannot see this tough immigration law is racial profiling.
The Arizona police can ask anyone for proof that they are in the country legally. The thing is the governor couldn't say what an illegal immigrant looks like. Really? I'm thinking BROWN. Do you think any of the police will be asking tall blond people for their papers? Nope. They aren't looking for German illegals or Swedish illegals. Just brown people.
The law will not stand. It will be challenged as unconstitutional. And it will be another fuck up by an Arizona governor. 2 words. Evan Mecham. I think he was the only governor in the USA successfully recalled by the electorate. We are trend setters in Arizona.
Should something be done about illegal immigrants? Yes. What? I don't know. I do know if I were in New Zealand illegally, I would be shown the door. So to speak. It's not like there is one great big door to let you into NZ. That would be silly. And not very practical.
The Arizona police can ask anyone for proof that they are in the country legally. The thing is the governor couldn't say what an illegal immigrant looks like. Really? I'm thinking BROWN. Do you think any of the police will be asking tall blond people for their papers? Nope. They aren't looking for German illegals or Swedish illegals. Just brown people.
The law will not stand. It will be challenged as unconstitutional. And it will be another fuck up by an Arizona governor. 2 words. Evan Mecham. I think he was the only governor in the USA successfully recalled by the electorate. We are trend setters in Arizona.
Should something be done about illegal immigrants? Yes. What? I don't know. I do know if I were in New Zealand illegally, I would be shown the door. So to speak. It's not like there is one great big door to let you into NZ. That would be silly. And not very practical.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Space Shuttle
I remember going to Edwards Air Force Base as a kid and seeing the Enterprise space shuttle on the back of a 747. That was a prototype that never actually made it into space. It was launched from the back of a 747 to test how well it flew as a glider. It was a pretty impressive thing to watch. This year the shuttle program is at an end. All 3 shuttles are being retired.
It was a pretty amazing space vehicle. For the first time there was a reuseable spacecraft. All the Mercury and Apollo missions were a one off thing. New vehicles were made for every mission. But the shuttle could be put back into space! What a savings!
The shuttle took things into space; satellites, the Hubble Telescope, astronauts and various experiments. It was a useful thing. But I think it limited what the US space program endeavoured to do. You had a truck. A truck that could go 300 miles up. But you couldn't go anywhere new. You couldn't take it to the moon for instance. Though I think it could have done that with a little work, no one thought to try. It limited exploration. JFK announced at the beginning of the 60's that by the end of the decade we would put man on the moon. And we did. No one knew how it would happen, but we figured out all the stuff needed to take someone there and bring them back. Exploration because the moon was next.
Now, there is the international space station, but it's just a sleep away camp for astronauts. You do get to see the effects of no gravity on the human body over long periods of time, but there's other places to go. You can grow plants and flies in zero gravity, but fucking do something more.
In addition to the shuttle, I think they should have worked on a mission to Mars. Another rocket system, a long range vehicle to take some people to Mars, have them hang out for 9 months and when there is a launch window, bring them back. Make it a mutli-national thing so the cost would not be just one country. Hell, have corporate sponsors. Virgin and Richard Branson. He loves having his name on things. Mars brough to you by Mars bars. Who cares as long as we go there. That would be amazing. Something like that would spark the imagination of all the videogame playing kids out there. Instead of virtual reaity, reality would be cooler than a video game. (Okay, there's no zombies to kill, but you are on another planet! Fuck yeah!)
Now that the truck is retired, make something new. I'm not down with going to an asteroid. That is small potatoes. Go to Mars, and on the way scoop up an asteroid. A small one. Don't go crazy.
It was a pretty amazing space vehicle. For the first time there was a reuseable spacecraft. All the Mercury and Apollo missions were a one off thing. New vehicles were made for every mission. But the shuttle could be put back into space! What a savings!
The shuttle took things into space; satellites, the Hubble Telescope, astronauts and various experiments. It was a useful thing. But I think it limited what the US space program endeavoured to do. You had a truck. A truck that could go 300 miles up. But you couldn't go anywhere new. You couldn't take it to the moon for instance. Though I think it could have done that with a little work, no one thought to try. It limited exploration. JFK announced at the beginning of the 60's that by the end of the decade we would put man on the moon. And we did. No one knew how it would happen, but we figured out all the stuff needed to take someone there and bring them back. Exploration because the moon was next.
Now, there is the international space station, but it's just a sleep away camp for astronauts. You do get to see the effects of no gravity on the human body over long periods of time, but there's other places to go. You can grow plants and flies in zero gravity, but fucking do something more.
In addition to the shuttle, I think they should have worked on a mission to Mars. Another rocket system, a long range vehicle to take some people to Mars, have them hang out for 9 months and when there is a launch window, bring them back. Make it a mutli-national thing so the cost would not be just one country. Hell, have corporate sponsors. Virgin and Richard Branson. He loves having his name on things. Mars brough to you by Mars bars. Who cares as long as we go there. That would be amazing. Something like that would spark the imagination of all the videogame playing kids out there. Instead of virtual reaity, reality would be cooler than a video game. (Okay, there's no zombies to kill, but you are on another planet! Fuck yeah!)
Now that the truck is retired, make something new. I'm not down with going to an asteroid. That is small potatoes. Go to Mars, and on the way scoop up an asteroid. A small one. Don't go crazy.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Man/Dude Ratio
I was having a conversation via Facebook IM with someone who has a son. Casey is a teenager and not yet a man. In the course of the conversation with Jaz, I expounded on the concept of being a Man as opposed to being a Dude.
I may be over 30 but still don't consider myself a Man.
A Man has a certain gravitas. Weight. Responsibility and respect. A Man garners respect. A Man walks in a room and you know it. Something about him demands attention.
A Dude is a little harder to define. There is more fun involved. More adventure. A bit of the Peter Pan, but not in a bad way. Dudes are more likeable, and raise hell at times. But they don't garner much respect.
Now, no one is either 100% Man or Dude. There is a mix in any individual.
My Dad is 70% Man and 30% Dude. He owned a motorcycle for 45 years or more and went to Alaska and thru the Alps on a bike. That's kind of a cool Dude. But he also worked very hard and raised a family. When he didn't like his job he left and eventually started his own business. He's his own boss.
I know of someone referred to as "The Man." He has gravitas and an amazing brain. But he can also do Monty Python sketches from memory. So he's probably 75% Man and 25% Dude. He was more of a Dude when he was younger, I'm pretty certain of that.
I'm probably 40% Man and 60% Dude. I'm more of a Man when working because I have to pay attention. I fuck up and people can die. So for work, 90% Man and 10% Dude. But I have no wife or kids, or even a dog. I take a backpack and wander the world when I can afford it. That's pretty Dude-like.
So think about the men you know. What is their percentage of Man to Dude? How much Gravitas to Goofball?
I may be over 30 but still don't consider myself a Man.
A Man has a certain gravitas. Weight. Responsibility and respect. A Man garners respect. A Man walks in a room and you know it. Something about him demands attention.
A Dude is a little harder to define. There is more fun involved. More adventure. A bit of the Peter Pan, but not in a bad way. Dudes are more likeable, and raise hell at times. But they don't garner much respect.
Now, no one is either 100% Man or Dude. There is a mix in any individual.
My Dad is 70% Man and 30% Dude. He owned a motorcycle for 45 years or more and went to Alaska and thru the Alps on a bike. That's kind of a cool Dude. But he also worked very hard and raised a family. When he didn't like his job he left and eventually started his own business. He's his own boss.
I know of someone referred to as "The Man." He has gravitas and an amazing brain. But he can also do Monty Python sketches from memory. So he's probably 75% Man and 25% Dude. He was more of a Dude when he was younger, I'm pretty certain of that.
I'm probably 40% Man and 60% Dude. I'm more of a Man when working because I have to pay attention. I fuck up and people can die. So for work, 90% Man and 10% Dude. But I have no wife or kids, or even a dog. I take a backpack and wander the world when I can afford it. That's pretty Dude-like.
So think about the men you know. What is their percentage of Man to Dude? How much Gravitas to Goofball?
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Authorship
In the LA Times today there was an editorial about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. The guy who brought you the movies of 2012 and Godzilla is filming a movie right now titled, "Anonymous". It is about the assertion that Shakespeare did not write his plays and it was a guy named Edward de Vere.
If you are an actor in theatre and have studied Shakespeare, you have run across conspiracy theories about who wrote the Bard's plays since it wasn't the Bard himself. After looking at the different sides to all this, I have come to a conclusion.
An actor/playwright named William Shakespeare wrote his fucking plays. Not Edward de Vere, Christopher Marlowe or any of the dozen people asserted to have written the plays of Shakespeare.
There is the argument that Shakespeare didn't know the royal court well enough to write about kings and queens. That he wouldn't have had the education or understanding to write the plays about foreign countries he had never traveled to.
Shakespeare was the son of a wealthy man in Stratford upon Avon. He was educated better than most people at the time. In other words, he went to school. He learned Latin and from there the other romance languages of French and Italian are easily learned. He learned histories. When he left Stratford to go to London he got hooked up with the Chancellor's Men and later the King's Men. Acting troupes that were sponsored by, wait for it, the royals of the time. They had wealthy patrons supporting the arts and the actors mingled with the aristocracy of the times. Kind of like pretty and amusing pets.
So would Shakespeare have had the opportunity to learn of royalty? Absolutely. Would he have watched and listened. Absolutely. That's what actors do. We watch and listen and when we get the chance, use what we saw on stage. Sorry, you are not just people we talk to, you are research.
So how did he write 37 plays and maybe a few that were lost to us? Well, they weren't all original. He took plays from other sources, either stories he heard and re-worked them, or he took other plays and rewrote them only better. Romeo and Juliet is based on an Italian story from years before. The history plays he worked on from the history of England! Wow, who would have thunk?
Are all his plays brilliant? No. Some are bad. Timon of Athens? A play about a guy in a cave? Cymbeline? It's a rework of other plays, but not very well done. His plays are long, over written and are made workable for todays audience by editing them down, cutting out the references that we don't understand anymore. Cutting the third plot lines that don't further the story. In Hamlet, how often will you see Fortinbras or any of the impending war. Rarely.
The reason I think there is skeptcism that he wrote his plays is for a few reasons.
1. People have a hard time with genius. How can anyone be that good? There has got to be a trick. Someone else wrote it. Really? Does anyone question the authorship of Christopher Marlowe or Ben Johnson? Or how about Sophocles or Euripides? There's even less proof they wrote the plays attributed to them. Why do people believe they wrote those plays?
2. Conspiracy theories are sexy. It's pretty boring to think that a single actor with an imagination wrote Shakespeare's plays. It's more sexy to think that it was Edward de Vere who wrote the plays, and they were autobiographical because he had be abducted by pirates, just like Hamlet! Problem is, de Vere died in 1604. Shakespeare died in 1616. 12 years is a long time to be hanging onto scripts for plays just to be perpetuating a fraud that Shakespeare was writing plays and not de Vere.
3. There are character types that are in several plays; Hotspur, Laertes, Tybalt, MacDuff, Don John. Characters that are so similar in temperment, they seem to be written for the same actor. Which a resident playwright would have done. He did it with the clown parts too; Dogberry, Aguecheek, and others. A nobleman writing under an assumed name would not know actors well enough to tailor make parts for them.
So what do we end up with? The hack who brought us Godzilla in 1998 selling fiction that the uneducated and school kids will think is fact. Well, let me tell you, there isn't an island off of Costa Rica with living dinosaurs regardless of what Michael Crichton wrote.
Though I do think dinosaurs would be very cool...
If you are an actor in theatre and have studied Shakespeare, you have run across conspiracy theories about who wrote the Bard's plays since it wasn't the Bard himself. After looking at the different sides to all this, I have come to a conclusion.
An actor/playwright named William Shakespeare wrote his fucking plays. Not Edward de Vere, Christopher Marlowe or any of the dozen people asserted to have written the plays of Shakespeare.
There is the argument that Shakespeare didn't know the royal court well enough to write about kings and queens. That he wouldn't have had the education or understanding to write the plays about foreign countries he had never traveled to.
Shakespeare was the son of a wealthy man in Stratford upon Avon. He was educated better than most people at the time. In other words, he went to school. He learned Latin and from there the other romance languages of French and Italian are easily learned. He learned histories. When he left Stratford to go to London he got hooked up with the Chancellor's Men and later the King's Men. Acting troupes that were sponsored by, wait for it, the royals of the time. They had wealthy patrons supporting the arts and the actors mingled with the aristocracy of the times. Kind of like pretty and amusing pets.
So would Shakespeare have had the opportunity to learn of royalty? Absolutely. Would he have watched and listened. Absolutely. That's what actors do. We watch and listen and when we get the chance, use what we saw on stage. Sorry, you are not just people we talk to, you are research.
So how did he write 37 plays and maybe a few that were lost to us? Well, they weren't all original. He took plays from other sources, either stories he heard and re-worked them, or he took other plays and rewrote them only better. Romeo and Juliet is based on an Italian story from years before. The history plays he worked on from the history of England! Wow, who would have thunk?
Are all his plays brilliant? No. Some are bad. Timon of Athens? A play about a guy in a cave? Cymbeline? It's a rework of other plays, but not very well done. His plays are long, over written and are made workable for todays audience by editing them down, cutting out the references that we don't understand anymore. Cutting the third plot lines that don't further the story. In Hamlet, how often will you see Fortinbras or any of the impending war. Rarely.
The reason I think there is skeptcism that he wrote his plays is for a few reasons.
1. People have a hard time with genius. How can anyone be that good? There has got to be a trick. Someone else wrote it. Really? Does anyone question the authorship of Christopher Marlowe or Ben Johnson? Or how about Sophocles or Euripides? There's even less proof they wrote the plays attributed to them. Why do people believe they wrote those plays?
2. Conspiracy theories are sexy. It's pretty boring to think that a single actor with an imagination wrote Shakespeare's plays. It's more sexy to think that it was Edward de Vere who wrote the plays, and they were autobiographical because he had be abducted by pirates, just like Hamlet! Problem is, de Vere died in 1604. Shakespeare died in 1616. 12 years is a long time to be hanging onto scripts for plays just to be perpetuating a fraud that Shakespeare was writing plays and not de Vere.
3. There are character types that are in several plays; Hotspur, Laertes, Tybalt, MacDuff, Don John. Characters that are so similar in temperment, they seem to be written for the same actor. Which a resident playwright would have done. He did it with the clown parts too; Dogberry, Aguecheek, and others. A nobleman writing under an assumed name would not know actors well enough to tailor make parts for them.
So what do we end up with? The hack who brought us Godzilla in 1998 selling fiction that the uneducated and school kids will think is fact. Well, let me tell you, there isn't an island off of Costa Rica with living dinosaurs regardless of what Michael Crichton wrote.
Though I do think dinosaurs would be very cool...
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Filibuster
The Republicans trot out this threatening delaying tactic when there's something about the President's agenda, policies, or anything they don't like. They threaten to filibuster.
Go right ahead. Please. Please filibuster.
Please, stand up on the floor of the Senate and talk non stop for the time of the filibuster. You can't drink, you can't sit, you can't stop, you can't go to the bathroom. If you do anything that stops the flow of words from your mouth, it's over. Try standing for two hours without touching anything leaning on anything for support.
The Senate leader can require it to be an old fashioned filibuster. Now it can be one or a series of Senators. Let them filibuster. For as many days as they want to. After a 30 day filibuster, see how the people react to the party of "no". See if the people don't vote out these obstructionist bastards. Make them stand and talk.
The threat of a filibuster should be called. You want to do it you will have to do it the old fashioned, Jimmy Stewart, "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" way.
Go right ahead. Please. Please filibuster.
Please, stand up on the floor of the Senate and talk non stop for the time of the filibuster. You can't drink, you can't sit, you can't stop, you can't go to the bathroom. If you do anything that stops the flow of words from your mouth, it's over. Try standing for two hours without touching anything leaning on anything for support.
The Senate leader can require it to be an old fashioned filibuster. Now it can be one or a series of Senators. Let them filibuster. For as many days as they want to. After a 30 day filibuster, see how the people react to the party of "no". See if the people don't vote out these obstructionist bastards. Make them stand and talk.
The threat of a filibuster should be called. You want to do it you will have to do it the old fashioned, Jimmy Stewart, "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" way.
Friday, April 9, 2010
SCOTUS
Since Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is retiring President Obama is going to be looking for a new associate justice.
I think I should have the job. I know right from wrong. My Mom and Dad taught me that. And I learned from watching Magnum PI and other shows about how justice works. It seems pretty simple. Big corporations are bad, protecting the rights of individuals is good.
How tough would it be? It's a steady gig, more time off than a school teacher. And you get to were a robe. I like wearing robes. I look good in black too. But if I'm wearing a robe, I'm going commmando underneath it. It's not like anyone is going to see, right?
The confirmation process might get a little tough. I did drugs in college. And when I had sex, I was never married to any one of those girls. And that whole Vegas thing... I just don't talk about it. Hmmm... But I never cheated on my wife. Sooo, that's a plus. Dogs and children like me. And they are usually good judges of character.
And I'm sure I can prove I have sound judgement. Except for the whole wanting to be an actor thing.
I better send in my resume fast.
I think I should have the job. I know right from wrong. My Mom and Dad taught me that. And I learned from watching Magnum PI and other shows about how justice works. It seems pretty simple. Big corporations are bad, protecting the rights of individuals is good.
How tough would it be? It's a steady gig, more time off than a school teacher. And you get to were a robe. I like wearing robes. I look good in black too. But if I'm wearing a robe, I'm going commmando underneath it. It's not like anyone is going to see, right?
The confirmation process might get a little tough. I did drugs in college. And when I had sex, I was never married to any one of those girls. And that whole Vegas thing... I just don't talk about it. Hmmm... But I never cheated on my wife. Sooo, that's a plus. Dogs and children like me. And they are usually good judges of character.
And I'm sure I can prove I have sound judgement. Except for the whole wanting to be an actor thing.
I better send in my resume fast.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Um... What did you say?
Someone I know has a IPhone app that annoys teenagers. I think that might even be the name. What the app does is it plays a high pitched noise only people 18 and younger can typically hear. In the room of 6 adults 3 could hear it.
I couldn't.
He changed the pitch. One person couldn't hear it but she was aware of something bothering her. 2 others could still hear it.
I couldn't.
He tried another few settings. Only when it got to a certain level was I able to hear the tone. What have I learned? 200 + rock concerts have fucked up my hearing. I worked these things with earplugs in my ears. I thought I had good hearing, but I seem to be missing the high range sounds. I still hear most sounds annoyingly well. But I am missing some of my hearing. I really had no idea.
So if you want to do something without me hearing, do it in a range only teenagers can hear...
I couldn't.
He changed the pitch. One person couldn't hear it but she was aware of something bothering her. 2 others could still hear it.
I couldn't.
He tried another few settings. Only when it got to a certain level was I able to hear the tone. What have I learned? 200 + rock concerts have fucked up my hearing. I worked these things with earplugs in my ears. I thought I had good hearing, but I seem to be missing the high range sounds. I still hear most sounds annoyingly well. But I am missing some of my hearing. I really had no idea.
So if you want to do something without me hearing, do it in a range only teenagers can hear...
Monday, April 5, 2010
Self Help Me
Someone recently invitied me to an introductory seminar for a thing. The kind of self help, you can do it!, course you pay for, then there's an intermediate class, and then the advanced course. There are DVDs, and CDs and books to buy. And the national conference in Hawaii, you wouldn't want to miss that!
I said I wasn't interested and emailed to elaborate more on why I wasn't interested.
I work around 5 self help seminars a year. I don't remember what they are called, it doesn't matter, I am there to take down motors and get paid. The conferences are very similar to religious services; many of the things are the same: Whether its faith in you, the self help program or God.
I watch the as the seminars are ending from the back of the room. I am always early for the call time, and these things tend to run late. A magnetic speaker, personality is making the room full of people feel good about themselves. They give all the people around them big hugs and then later give those they missed big hugs. And for a little while these people who are hungry for something; they may have low self esteem, crappy jobs, feel alone or isolated, for a little while they feel good about themselves. They feel like they can go out and conquer the world!
We should all feel good about ourselves. We should feel like we can conquer the world, like we are in charge of our Destiny. But I have a problem with self help seminars that make big promises for big fees. We should all have unconditional love and acceptance, but we shouldn't have to pay to get it from a room full of strangers.
I said I wasn't interested and emailed to elaborate more on why I wasn't interested.
I work around 5 self help seminars a year. I don't remember what they are called, it doesn't matter, I am there to take down motors and get paid. The conferences are very similar to religious services; many of the things are the same: Whether its faith in you, the self help program or God.
I watch the as the seminars are ending from the back of the room. I am always early for the call time, and these things tend to run late. A magnetic speaker, personality is making the room full of people feel good about themselves. They give all the people around them big hugs and then later give those they missed big hugs. And for a little while these people who are hungry for something; they may have low self esteem, crappy jobs, feel alone or isolated, for a little while they feel good about themselves. They feel like they can go out and conquer the world!
We should all feel good about ourselves. We should feel like we can conquer the world, like we are in charge of our Destiny. But I have a problem with self help seminars that make big promises for big fees. We should all have unconditional love and acceptance, but we shouldn't have to pay to get it from a room full of strangers.
Friday, April 2, 2010
A Week Without Facebook
Not quite the Year Without a Santa Claus, but impressive I think.
I got to admit there was a deep compulsion to look at FB this past week. I had to go there 2 times because it had information I couldn't get from any other source, but as soon as that was retrieved, I was gone. I didn't look at any postings and didn't spend more than 3 minutes on the dreaded time waster. I was trying to recall recently, what I used to do just 6 scant months ago when I wasn't on FB. Where did I spend my time?
Yahoo, MSN, Huntington Post, Politico. In other words, News. I went back to Yahoo and noticed that there is now the ability to comment on news stories. I remember a number of years back when Yahoo suspended the comments on news stories. There were abuses and escalating attacks by people on the topics of reproduction and religion and politics so Yahoo just pulled the plug. I was surprised by that.
That several year hiatus didn't change much. The crazy bigoted, racist, conservative and liberal wingnuts are still out there. And then there are a few Pollyannas wondering why we can't all get along?
Funny thing is, I traded the FB posts for the coments on Yahoo. And I got to say, I find the ones on Yahoo far more entertaining. I am amazed at what people think. The posts on FB seem even more innocuous and vacuous. I'm not trying to be mean. I rarely post on FB and I am a FB voyeur more often than not, but the stuff on Yahoo would be inflamitory if on FB. Or maybe it is on FB and I am not looking in the right place. Or my friends are not wingnuts.
I think I will go another week without it. Maybe 2. One thing is for sure, my email is a lot less busy than it was. I find that refreshing.
I got to admit there was a deep compulsion to look at FB this past week. I had to go there 2 times because it had information I couldn't get from any other source, but as soon as that was retrieved, I was gone. I didn't look at any postings and didn't spend more than 3 minutes on the dreaded time waster. I was trying to recall recently, what I used to do just 6 scant months ago when I wasn't on FB. Where did I spend my time?
Yahoo, MSN, Huntington Post, Politico. In other words, News. I went back to Yahoo and noticed that there is now the ability to comment on news stories. I remember a number of years back when Yahoo suspended the comments on news stories. There were abuses and escalating attacks by people on the topics of reproduction and religion and politics so Yahoo just pulled the plug. I was surprised by that.
That several year hiatus didn't change much. The crazy bigoted, racist, conservative and liberal wingnuts are still out there. And then there are a few Pollyannas wondering why we can't all get along?
Funny thing is, I traded the FB posts for the coments on Yahoo. And I got to say, I find the ones on Yahoo far more entertaining. I am amazed at what people think. The posts on FB seem even more innocuous and vacuous. I'm not trying to be mean. I rarely post on FB and I am a FB voyeur more often than not, but the stuff on Yahoo would be inflamitory if on FB. Or maybe it is on FB and I am not looking in the right place. Or my friends are not wingnuts.
I think I will go another week without it. Maybe 2. One thing is for sure, my email is a lot less busy than it was. I find that refreshing.
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