I dressed up the blog a bit. Hope you like it. And if you don’t, who the hell asked you?
Wait.
I did, didn’t I?
Sorry about that.
New Look, Same Wordsmith.
Writing
A New Addition to the Side Column
Back in the heady days of 2003, when political blogs were all the rage, this custom developed over linking to other blogs. My old, deceased blog Rook’s Rant, had at least 250 links from other blogs. As I said, those were heady days.
As time went by, maintaining a blog became more and more of a chore. I coded my first website by hand. However, that was both too time consuming and overwhelming. Then Movable Type came along, offering a free, though a slimmed-down version of their blogging software. Over time Movable Type itself became too complicated. Also, Rook’s Rant was dying. So I bought myself a new domain name, and Guy Andrew Hall was created.
Today there is no online political blogging culture. Most of the more successful blogs converted to news aggregator sites with fees, such as Daily Kos and HuffPost. What I once called Blogstonia (there was Left Blogstonia and Right Blogstonia) no longer exists. Most other bloggers moved on as political blogging became another past fad.
That’s the way of it, though. Once capitalism becomes involved, free expression becomes suppressed. Not out of any nefarious design to eradicate free speech. It was out of a desire not to turn off readers. Money equals hits and free speech does not make money.
Anyway, this post was initially just an announcement about a new feature in the side column – a blogroll. There are a few bloggers still hanging on. My hope is to scour the internet in search of any other remaining political bloggers.
How About a Return to Blogging?
Bloggers, we need to start moving away from Facebook. Facebook is nothing more than Microblogging. It’s quick-hitting, preventing substance, and invites superficiality. Bogs of the past were able to provide the meaning beyond the one-paragraph posts we see on Facebook.
Then there is the issue of control. We can now control the advertising that shows up on our blogs if we choose to have advertising.
Finally, we can avoid Facebook jail when complaints result in that dreaded banning by an anonymous bot without any investigation or coherent guidelines. And I’m speaking kindly here.
Just Chattering Away on the Board
I do enjoy the process of writing. Well, that is, when not pressured to write for work or school. Then it becomes pure torture. Let me reiterate that – PURE TORTURE!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, right now I’m just typing away. I’ve no subject I want to elucidate upon, nor any nefarious behavior of others I want to condemn.
I am just putting one word onto the screen after another—that flow of words that occurs when I’ve no thought of the end. My writing could go on and on without limitation. It’s a worthy goal to write without any concept of the finish. Hell, I’d as soon write a whole lot about nothing than a little bit about something.
Are you with me so far?
And isn’t that a line in a song?
And does it fucking matter?
Well, it could be I’m out of fucks to give. Yeah, that’s it. I’m all out of fucks to give. And I’m not in the mood for any fucks. Not at the moment. Move along and mind your own business.
Oh, and you in the back? Yeah, the one with the shit-eating grin starting to open your mouth. I wouldn’t get caught up in any semantic antics. Sit down, resume your nose picking, and leave the sarcastic heckling to the professionals.
You know what? I changed my mind. I suggest you don’t pick your nose. I’m not sure you’re qualified to perform brain surgery.
Oh, there’s my cue to step away. Yeah, no. I’m not going to tell you the cue. Ain’t none of your business. Alright, alright. Settle down. Put your fucks away. I ain’t got the room. I told you that already. You forget what you read? Man, I’d suggest you call a neurologist. That is if you can remember how to use a phone.
Okay, okay. I’ll stop chattering on and on. Bye, you all.
Loss of Motivation
I have lost all motivation for blogging. I do not have the energy to share my thoughts with the few readers that frequent. My motivation always fluctuates in regards to blogging. However, since about October of last year, life has been handing me one challenge after another. These challenges have severely impacted my self-esteem and self-worth. It is only recently that I’ve begun to pull myself out of my morass. I have done some posts on the challenges, but I’ve not taken the time to write more extensively on them and how I’ve allowed them to beat me down. Suffice it to say that I’ve worked on self-compassion. So, this post – hopefully – is the first effort at getting myself back into a desire to write.
Sadness
I want to mourn for the world
The one we have lost
I want to wail to the heavens
Loudly
A cry of agony
To render even star song silent.
I want to mourn for the world
Sadness
Morning World
So, I’m up and at it early on a Sunday morning. I’ve finished my morning routine of mindfully writing a journal entry, read my horoscopes, and made some chess moves at Gameknot. Now I’m going to get ready to put some time on the treadmill. After that, it’s a run to the store to replace the Cream of Chicken soup I accidentally grabbed yesterday with a can of Cream of Mushroom soup that’s needed for the pork steaks. Once I get home with that, I am going to isolate myself into my office and get my school work done.
Infinity War
I’ve watched the Hulk/Thanos fight several times and it just seems there is something wrong with the Hulk. I can’t put my finger on it, but it just seems as if the Hulk is not his Hulking self. That he won’t come out later in the movie indicates there is something wrong. But I don’t think it has anything to do with being beaten by Thanos. It’s something going back a little farther.
Nor do I buy into the speculation that Loki is actually pretending to be Bruce Banner/Hulk. How, exactly, would that not be noticed by Dr. Strange – Master of the Mystic Arts? In “Thor – Ragnarok” Dr. Strange is able to sense Loki’s presence on Earth without even being in his presence. You think he’s not going to sense him from at less than 5 feet away? Exactly.
Anyway, I think the problem is that Bruce is no longer “always angry.” The Hulk will only come out when Bruce is angry. So my guess is that when Bruce finally gets angry again, Hulk comes out a hell of a lot more powerful than when he first took on Thanos.
Of course, like all the other posts on the internet about this subject, this is all just speculation. And I’m pretty sure I’m wrong. But, you know, what the hell. It’s just speculation. And it would be foolish not to speculate.
The Day After
Yeah, yesterday’s runs and walks kicked my ass. I foolishly pushed myself farther in the first run than I should have. As a result, I was exceedingly wiped out. I ended up taking over an hour nap. I also slept hard last night, dreaming for the first time in a long time. Or perhaps I should say, I remember my dream for the first time in a long time. Not that my dreams make any sense. Time and place are always fungible and hazy.
In this case I managed to get a job working for the White House. I couldn’t tell you what the hell I did. I seemed to be liked by the higher-ups, and when it was time for a new administration to come in, I was assured I would still have a job. Yet I was hesitant to accept re-employment. Eventually, after talking to Tina, I decided to keep stay with the job. That’s when things got difficult. I couldn’t connect with the head woman who did the hiring, and who wanted me to stay in the first place. She kept going from one function to another
Anyway, I finally woke up because Smokey decided it was time to play with the lampshade. So I am up, having given the spoiled felines their morning treat, set-up the coffee pots (Tina and I like different strengths of coffee), and am now typing away on this post. Well, for those of you reading it I am sure I am way past the point of typing. See, time if fungible.
I’m A Sharing!
This is just a quick post to test the social sharing of Jetpack, a plugin for WordPress that automatically shares my posts with all sorts of social media.