Tag: Twitter

A Smile Amid Chaos

All you had to do this week was turn on the news, check your social media page, or surf the internet to see the chaos going on in the world. As an American, it makes me sad to see the state of the country. The division within the country is just sickening. Abraham Lincoln quoted scripture when he said:

Facebook was full of friends who stated that they were leaving Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms to go to MeWe and Parler (whatever those are!). I utilize the “snooze/mute” and “unfollow” features so I don’t see a lot of the content that aggravates me. However, even taking advantage of those features, I still end up seeing things I don’t want to.

When I am feeling angry or upset at the world, politics, or whatever, I need only turn to the smile of my little girl…..

Ella is oblivious to all the craziness in the world. She loves playing with mommy and daddy. She watches Elmo and reads books. She chases the cat and gets into things she isn’t supposed to. She finds joy in simple things, like me making a stuffed dog “bark” at her.

She got to go outside and sit in the snow for the first time in her life. Even though she wasn’t quite used to the snowsuit and boots – she smiled at the peacefulness of a winter day!

Having her in my life is better than any medication a doctor can prescribe! I love my daily dose of Ella – her smile is contagious!

Keep Smiling!!

Why no, I haven’t seen that …

As a morning DJ on the radio, I was expected to watch all the “hot” shows.  I was on air when the first season of American Idol was on, when Desperate Housewives debuted, and when Grey’s Anatomy premiered.  I watched most of those shows.  What made it very difficult was that most of these shows came on after 9pm and I was up at 3:30am to be on the air at 6am.  That’s where the show prep services came in handy.  Many of them had “recaps” of all the things that happened in those hit shows and we could easily sound like we were “in the loop” with them.

Now that I only do radio part time and have a full time non-radio job, I rarely watch any of the “hype” shows.  My wife, who started watching Grey’s Anatomy when it started, continues to never miss an episode (even when she has to watch it a day later online).  There are very few shows that I have any desire to watch.  If I have time to watch TV, it is usually something old that I have on DVD or watch on YouTube.

Every day when I scroll Facebook, I can see the things that are trending and can honestly say, “I’ve never seen that.”  The past couple weeks there have been plenty of memes saying “I have never seen an episode of ….” or “When you talk about _____, I honestly just nod because I don’t know what the hell you are talking about”.  Yeah, that’s me.

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That’s right.  I have never seen a full episode of Game of Thrones.  I have seen bits and pieces because someone may have been watching it at work or in a room I walk through.  I know, it’s a big deal – to some people – not to me.

Another show I have never seen an episode of is The Walking Dead, or the various spin offs.  I know that some big characters were killed off on the show and caused a ruckus on social media, but I couldn’t tell you who, how, or why.  The whole “zombie” thing is something I just don’t find interesting.

Then there is Stranger Things.  I saw an episode or two of this.  I might watch it, if I had the time, because I think the nostalgia part of it is neat, but in all honesty, I’d rather watch one of the many old shows I have at home on DVD.

Now before you get angry, let me preface this next section by saying I have seen Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man and Iron Man 2, and The Avengers Age of Ultron.  I think I saw them because my boys wanted to see them.  It’s not that I am not into the whole Marvel thing, I enjoyed some of the Spiderman films.  It’s not that I don’t like super heroes, I enjoyed a few of the early Batman films.  It just seems to me that there is an over abundance of these movies out today.

These super heroes were all over my TV growing up.  They were in comic books.  They were in cartoons on Saturday morning.  I love super heroes, but to me these stories are more and more special effects than a good story.  Yes, the effects are important, but so is the story.  Some of these stories are just rehashing of the same premise.  They did Spiderman with Tobey Maguire … did we need a new series of them?  They did Superman with Christopher Reeve … did we need a newer version with what ever the actor’s name is?  I thought Michael Keaton was good as Batman … now there is a slew of Dark Knight films.

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all a buzz about this Avengers movie coming out.  I have a co-worker who literally threatened us to not tell her what happens in the movie, because she isn’t going on the day it opens.  I don’t see what the big deal is.  It’s just another super hero movie.  It will be filled with good versus evil, loud explosions, maybe someone will die, and millions of dollars in special effects.  I won’t be seeing this in the theater.  I probably won’t even rent it on DVD or watch it on Netflix.

Maybe I should be ashamed of that.  Maybe I am a little bit.

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Maybe, I am not.  I heard someone say once “an old movie you have never seen, is a new movie”.  The same holds true for episodes of TV shows you have never seen and books you have never read.  My book shelves are stacked with books that I have yet to read.  I have complete series of TV shows that I have yet to watch.  I’d much rather be watching those.

Just my opinion.