Media | Piss and Moan

34 days of Piss & Moan

Posted on July 31, 2018 by backuphill

I started this blog 34 days ago.

In that time I have pissed and moaned about something for 33 of those days (I missed one day because I ran out of time to write one before I went on vacation). Is it weird that I can find at least one thing a day to complain about?

Anyway, during the course of the last month (+/-), I have had 41 “followers” follow. Most of them are spam since they are just trying to sell me a product or push their “get rich quick” scheme on the internet.

Thanks for nothing people. Thanks for all the love you can’t muster. I appreciate it. Just for that, I am going to Piss & Moan about YOU today…or is it the lack of you?? Are there really not more people out there that can identify or relate to my pissing and moaning? Does no one else have something to complain about?

Well, I am just gonna keep on keeping on. Eventually you’ll all see this is going to be a great place to lodge a complaint about something. You just wait and see.

Photo by burak kostak on Pexels.com

Scouring history for offense

Posted on July 30, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Tracy Le Blanc on Pexels.com

I have got to say, we are some kind of stupid trend as a society.

There are people (trolls) out there scouring the historical Twitter posts (or other social media) of “celebrities and stars” so they can be “outted” as having offensive ideas/beliefs or having said something offensive.

Really? Like no one has times in their past where they said something offensive? Like no one has had an episode in their lives where they had poor judgement? Like no one has said something in jest or made a statement about something while they were showing off to their friends? Or, like no one has ever said something they didn’t believe just to get a reaction out of other people?

If this is going to be the trend and we are going to go back and vilify people for things they did in their past, then we better just fire EVERY comedian alive, even our favorite ones. We should scour every past performance and just ax them on the spot – because I am sure they probably said something insensitive, politically incorrect, racially or sexually offensive, ageist, blah blah blah…

How about we judge people on their present rather than their past? And, how about we leave history as history – then learn from it rather than scrub it clean or hide it.

#smh #thisisridiculous

Lunchroom litter

Posted on July 28, 2018 by backuphill

Why does there need to be 90 (ok, exaggeration) old magazines in the lunchroom? Why do they need to be spread out on the table like a bad potluck of 12 different kinds of spaghetti? This isn’t a dumping ground for your magazines and flyers.

Why doesn’t someone get rid of these things and just move on? Better yet, if I just tossed them would anyone mind?

#smh

Social (and media) double standard

Posted on July 27, 2018 by backuphill

I am sure you’ve seen it. You’re probably wondering how in the hell it can only cut one way…

People losing their jobs. Reputations ruined. Companies destroyed. Stocks punished. TV shows cancelled. Public apologies issued.

The media chirps about this or that, a perceived injustice or slight. Social media ablaze with trolls who spout hatred and stir fear. Both seeking “justice” but really only picking and choosing certain things to make an issue of.

Some seem to get a free pass and others are vilified. Some communities cry foul over language used by others, but then use the language they just condemned themselves.

Instagram supposedly has “community standards” but they appear to be subjective as some hate is singled out and some hate is not. Some language is banned and some is not. How can it be ok for some but not others?

If you’re gonna eliminate the problem, there can’t be a double standard. Otherwise, the problem will always exist. I have always been a proponent of free speech and I always will be, but it is frustrating to see that the freedom only goes in one direction. There is no scorn over the posts above, instead they continue to gain followers.

What do you think? Should the accounts above be given a free pass for the language they use or held accountable like the rest of society?

Buried in junk mail

Posted on July 26, 2018 by backuphill

Photo by Jaymantri on Pexels.com

Vacation usually means playing catch up at some point. If you were not on a “staycation” that means you were likely disconnected from your normal routine to some degree. As such, there will be at the very least a little catch up when you get home. For me, there was a TON of catch up since I was only able to connect electronically on a limited basis – partly because that was all that was available and partially because it was a self-imposed disconnect.

Anyway, catch up usually involves junk mail. TONS and tons of junk mail. Why is there so much of this crap?

It comes in the very real form of physical junk mail in the mailbox. Stacks and stacks of credit card offers, political campaign ads, grocery store ads, coupon packets, etc etc etc. I think after five days of being gone, I kept seven pieces of real mail (as in something I needed or wanted) out of about 50 items. At least junk mail delivered in this manner has been reduced to some degree (I swear junk mail is the only thing keeping the USPS afloat, but that is a discussion for another day).

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Then there is the electronic junk mail – at home and at work. Again, there has been a reduction of this blight since filters are getting better, but there is still a lot that makes it through. Work email literally took me TWO HOURS to get through! Most of it was dumb crap my co-workers feel the need to share with everyone in the office, but how do you know for sure unless you open it up and look? My three home email accounts, because of limited connectivity, were a little better. I was able to filter some of the junk out before I even got home. But, that still means an hour going through the necessary stuff and deleting the rest. (Three, you ask? Yes, one for main use and two for the “junk” you get from stores and memberships and the like.) I don’t delete emails until I have taken action in relation to it, so while I can sift through most of it there is that follow up that needs to be done for each one I felt the need to keep for one reason or another. That for another day…

Can people just stop talking to me? How about you stop sending me crap too?

focus photo of yellow paper near trash can

Photo by Steve Johnson on Pexels.com

WordPress Reader and stats

Posted on July 14, 2018 by backuphill

There is an innate problem with the WordPress Reader. That problem is that people can “Like” a blog post without ever visiting the site or reading the content.

Never mind the numbers. I am “new” and growing this thing the best I can. However, the WordPress Reader doesn’t help with that if they allow others to “Like” a post without, at the very least, requiring them to visit the actual post. An observation that I am sure other, relatively new bloggers have noticed. It is probably less noticeable if you have lots more followers.

What do you other bloggers think? Is this an issue you see or am I just talking to the wall?

Cultural Appropriation

Posted on June 28, 2018 by backuphill

So, there’s this thing where people get offended when other people appropriate (I guess that means “assume”) someone else’s culture. In most cases, I think it is a form of flattery rather than a form of insult. People tend to imitate that which they admire, but we don’t need to get into the psychology of it…

However, the outrage only seems to go so far as when it is someone they generally disagree with – in part or in totality. (Case in point – most people, and I mean liberals and conservatives alike watched his shows, thought Trump was fine and dandy as entertainment but make him the president and all the sudden the guy and his administration can’t breathe without being protested.) When the offender is “on your team” well, then it can be rationalized away as OK or justifiable.

Where is the outrage people? Why aren’t we seeing an uproar on this particular appropriation of culture? *I don’t think it is, but the point can prove useful I think.*