January 2025
More Quiet.
I was hoping by stepping away from the majority of social media outlets I would not be feeling as sullen about the world as I had been feeling since the U.S. Presidential Election in 2024. I have been concentrating on my Mastodon channel, with a little bit of mingling with Bluesky, for the past week or so.
One of the best features about Mastodon is the filtering system; I have a lot of keywords flagged to hide or completely ignore updates from other users. These filters are working great, except users have come up with so very many nicknames for the cast of idiots in D.C. that it’s nearly impossible to catch all the atrocious news coming from The White House.
It’s not good for my mental health.
I’m in full “pick my battles” mode and right now I need to scale back the interaction I am having with others through the beast known as social media. I may step back for a day, I may step back for a month, perhaps I’ll just dip my toes in the chaos just once in a while.
After all, there’s always room for caturday.
I know that consuming old style, personal blogs seem to be where my head is most comfortable in these times. I enjoy writing and I enjoy having a quiet space where I can share my thoughts and subsequently read the thoughts of others. The hit and run of 500 characters or less seems to be the culprit; people bang out something outrageous to generate the numbers they’re looking for. Putting together a few paragraphs is something that isn’t celebrated like it used to be, and I miss that.
Just as long as it’s not about the cast of idiots in D.C.
We’re at the beginnings of what was promised in Project 2025. There’s a long, unpaved, broken glass covered road ahead for the United States. I’m hopeful we’ll figure it out. I’m hopeful the car will be intact when we get to the end of this dilapidated stretch of highway. We’ll probably get a few flat tires along the way, but we’ll figure out to fix them, and keep moving forward.
It’s the only way through this chaos.
Avoid the toxic people that are just potholes in the road. Drive carefully, but keep moving forward.
And take care of yourself along the way.
Decade.
I can’t believe it’s been a decade since Earl and I took this flight. I believe it was his second or third flight ever with me.
It’s been a long time since we last flew together. Flying in the desert is unlike flying anywhere else I’ve flown an airplane.
Video: The Quiet Hike.
I decided to try a different approach with my latest hiking video. This episode has no music track, it’s just me walking or hiking and talking. All the sounds of nature (and local airports) and my breathing and my steps and everything are in this video. The whole experience feels a little more ‘raw’ to me.
Walk.
A few months ago I started bringing along Lucky and Jinx on my afternoon walks. They enjoy the exercise and reading the “news” on the area landscaping and driveways. They’re fun to watch as we make our way around the neighborhood.
They’ve now started parking themselves outside of my office door starting around 2:45 PM in hopes that I’ll come out in a hoodie, put a couple of dog biscuits in my pocket, and then saddle them up for a afternoon stroll.
It’s a good time for everyone involved.
Catnap.
I made an impromptu cat bed in my office for Truman. We have construction going on upstairs; we’re getting our bathroom remodeled at the moment. Truman has been spending most of his daylight hours with me as I work from home.
Determination.
When you share your work publicly you will run across people that are simply inclined to knock you down. The seems to be especially true in the mid 2020s, but it’s always been the case. It’s just that getting your work, or your art, or a video, or whatever, in front of the public is much easier with the advent of these series of tubes known as the Internet.
One has to have a thick skin. As my friend Shirley was fond of saying, “toughen up cupcake”. Honestly, it’s the only way you’ll successfully be able to navigate this new version of U.S. society.
A lot of users on various forums, and I suspect a surprising number of them are originating from warehouses somewhere in the middle of third world countries, will drop “hit and run” comments on videos or writings on a blog or social media posts. There are a lot of bad actors out there that just want to tear people down. This is limited to the bots in box types, there’s plenty of miserable people out in real life who like to hide behind a perceived cloak of anonymity and say rude and unproductive things to folks they would never approach face-to-face, let alone utter a word of criticism. But as the idiocy of too many folks on the Internet, particularly in the social media space, invades real life, one is left to wonder if this is just the appetizer to an American society with a complete lack of respect for one another. It’s this type of mindset that has resulted in the current political chaos we have going on.
This is why I have been focused on trying to be positive in my videos and talk about inspiring one another. While it may seem like I’m dwelling on the cynical here, the truth of the matter is, there’s still a lot of good people to be found from “sea to shining sea”. I’m hopeful people will burn out on being nasty all the time, or the fabled rapture will happen, or something will change this tendency of nastiness we’re seeing online and, to an extent, in real life today.
We can’t all be Nellie Oleson.
I have been reading “The Obstacle Is The Way” by Ryan Holiday. I stumbled upon a video critiquing Ryan’s book as well as his general approach to Stoic philosophy. I’m not going to share a link to the video, but the main point seemed to be that Ryan is doing Stoicism wrong.
It seems to me that if someone has shared writing the inspires others and no harm is to be found in the practice, why waste the energy of being critical of it? Can anyone in the 21st century truly say exactly, and I mean to the letter, what the Stoics said and felt and meant in their teachings nearly 2000 years ago?
Cynicism sells in the 21st century. Clicks are important and so is getting a VPN connection from our latest sponsor.
Don’t worry, nothing I do in the way of writing or making videos or anything is sponsored.
The chaotic will be chaotic and the critics will be critical. We can choose to ignore, though some will ponder why others choose to be chaotic and critical.
I’m just determined to do my thing.
Early Morning Thoughts.
It’s just after 6:00 AM as I write this blog entry. I will be working for the day in a little bit, but in the meanwhile, I like the moments of sitting in the Arizona darkness that’s typical at this time of year. Truman wants some treats.
There’s a lot coming out of Washington to distract you. Muskrot’s Nazi salute? Whether it was a true Nazi salute or not, it’s all part of the grand theatre staged by the circus acts to distract you and me and to keep us whipped up into a frenzy. These leeches in Washington feed on chaos.
Don’t contribute to the chaos.
By the way, that sentence is a reminder to ME more than it is a reminder to my gentle reader.
Trump is going to do some horrible things over the next week or two to bloviate and then he’s going to play golf. We need to get through this initial run of rampant idiocy and then he’ll lose interest or run out of drugs to keep him amped up like this and then he’ll play golf.
Social media is designed to keep us engaged, so don’t engage with social media. That’s easy for me to say and really hard for me to do. Luckily, I prefer Mastodon and that has lots of filtering options built into the chronologically based timeline. I have a whole bunch of keywords in my filtering system and lately my timeline has shown a lot of obscured posts with the words “uspol” or “the cast of idiots” instead of whatever latest tragic rumor is being bandied about this hour.
Filter your inputs and filter them really well. There is no reason for you to consume everything coming out of Washington.
Again, that last sentence is for ME more than it is for you. But I think it’s still good advice.
We don’t want to be here with Trump any more than Melania wants to be with Trump.
Melania is also a distraction and a leech, so don’t pay any attention to her either.
Frankly, and I’ve said this before when mentioning Trump, I am thankful for two things: 1. I have a memory that allows me to remember what the United States and society in general was like before this chaotic cult idiocy took over and I cherish to remember how good it was before this cancer infested everything and 2. I am really happy to be on the back half of my life. Who knows, maybe I’m on the final stretch. Hell, today could be the finish line.
No one knows when their end is arriving. Memento Mori. Live each moment as if it’s your last breath. The Great Idiocy should have no power over how you feel when you take your last breath.
Hoodie Weather.
I’m trying really hard not to get whipped up by the news. It’s going to be a long four years.
So, here’s a selfie of me, in a hoodie, on a chilly morning in the desert. It was 45ºF when this photo was taken.
I’d write more but I’m not feeling particularly inspired tonight.
Mental Health.
Today is a really good day to stay away from state social media. Little is to be accomplished by doomscrolling, and by all measures of intelligence you should stay away from properties owned by Meta: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsUp. Lean in on the opportunity to read a book or something.
The chaos officially begins in the U.S. today. I, for one, have better things to do than watch the idiocy commence on television or browse through hysterics. We’re all going to need to maintain our mental agility through these chaotic times. Don’t kick off the era by mentally burning yourself out.
