Opinion

I posted a few weeks ago about how I was addicted to Instagram after discovering the app for my Razr and have been hooked ever since.  So much so that I am constantly using it to check for new photos posted by those I follow and then check the popular tab for new interesting pics to look at.  Obviously Instagram is on par with Facebook, MySpace (anyone still use that?), Google+ in that it is a haven for all those that want attention from the masses from every little thing that they post on the internet.

Which is fine for them, they are allowed to do what they want with their lives but when should they start to think twice about what they post?  Celebrities can pretty much post whatever and their fans will gobble that shit up and ask for more, never tiring of seeing Justin Beiber's face plastered all over their screens or Snooki's for that matter.  At what point does the care-free postings of a new pair of shoes or pose with a fan slide into posting pics of them rolling a fattie or celebrating some stupid act by some idiot?  

Does anyone even care?  I know I used to but then celebrities that I actually liked came out that they had a different ideology than I about certain things and I decided then, that life was too short to care about what another person believes in seeing as they personally cannot affect me with that thinking.  Sure, they can influence many of their fans into seeing things their way but there is an opposite to their yin that will hold just as much sway with just as many fans that will be just as involved with spreading their views as the first person is.  So now I just don't care if some celebrity is into Obama or another one is into Romney or someone likes chunky salsa or another like guacamole.  I have more important things to do with my time than have a running list of what celebrities I like/dislike based upon their personal beliefs, they just like us have the same freedom to share those feelings as everyone else.

It still won't stop me from looking at the pics.

Time

We always seem to think we don't have enough time to do the things we want or need to do.  There just aren't enough hours in the day to do all of this stuff that need has to be done.

But...

Have you really thought about all the wasted time that is used up without thought?  All the time we spend on Facebook, texting, being bored and avoiding other things, could be better off spent doing things we would like to do.

I know for me, Facebook is a large time waster, as is Cracked.com.   Which tends to cut into the time I could be updating this thing, as opposed leaving it sitting in the cold dark confines of the internet being visited by Brazilians with their amazing asses.  The problem I tend to have, besides general laziness in banging something out to post, is the fact that I have trouble finding something to write about.  When that spark of an idea comes to me, I tend to be still lazy and unwilling to go get something to write the idea down with or even jot the idea down into my phone so I can expand on the thought or idea when I might be more so inclined.

Oh, these are usually great ideas that I have, that I flesh out completely inside my head but my laziness, keeps me from utilizing the means to keep me from forgetting them for future reference.

Take this update for example, it only came to be as I was sitting at my computer bored, trying to decide what it was I wanted to do at that time.  Read a magazine, Playboy, mess with Tarot cards, stalk on Facebook or read more articles on Cracked.com.  Tarot was about to win out, but in my head, I said, "I don't have enough time to do that right now."  Enough time, was the key that got the ball rolling on this right there and then.

Which to add, I managed to finish even with a text message waiting to be read.

Day 4: No Phone

My Droid started messing up a couple of days ago to the point it became unusable.  The problem was that the screen would not register on the right quarter side any touches, which made typing messages or emails or Facebook posts next to impossible, especially if I wanted to use those letters.  So I checked into the insurance that I was supposed to have through Verizon and I am told that I do not have any, even though it was supposed to on there when I got the phone but no amount of arguing would fix that.  Then I remembered that when I got the phone through Wirefly, that there was some sort of insurance through them.  I looked online, found the website and sent the phone off on Monday.

Monday was my first day really without the phone.  I was still dicking around with it on Sunday trying to get it to work throughout the day, so that doesn't count.  Monday I was at work, cut off from FB, as the phone was my portal to that dirty world of attention whores but I managed to keep my mind off not having a phone.  Monday afternoon I went to the gym after work.  That is where I really noticed the lack of phone, since I use the Droid as an MP3 player at the gym.  I can listen to my music and not whatever pop crap they are playing that day.

Tuesday was went it got real.  I started to detox.  Cold sweats, sick to my stomach and the shakes were all there.  I looked like a heroin addict that hasn't had a fix in a few days, people were worried.  I left work early to sleep it off.  A barely managed to get out the door without pushing some lady down and taking her phone away from her just so I could play some Angry Birds.  It took all I had.

Wednesday, I was off work, which made the whole not having a phone much, much worse.  I could access FB at home but texting someone was still not available to me.  I check the status of my phone almost hourly for any updates but nothing new.  To ease my mind, I mow the backyard.  That takes all of thirty minutes before I am done.  It helped a little.  I take a shower then go to the gym.  Again, I have to listen to some John Mayer crap coming across the speakers instead of some AC/DC blasting in my ears.  I press on.  The rest of the day is easier.  I stopped into a gun shop looking to end it all but there is a 3 day waiting period.  I guess if I don't have my phone back by Monday, I can end it all.

Thursday, still no phone or update.  I have been sitting at the house sore.  Must've overdone it at gym or mowing on Wednesday or maybe still detoxing.  I'm going stir crazy.  Alcohol hasn't eased the pain of withdrawals.  I just stare at the bottle pushing imaginary buttons thinking I'm making phone calls or sending off texts to someone.  I think I need help.

I am hoping that the phone is unfixable and they have to send a new one.  Perhaps a Droid 2 or something of that nature.  I do hope that they don't open it up and 'find' water damage or excessive corrosion like I've read on the internet when looking at information of the insurance company.

I'm going to lie down now, maybe ease this headache I've got coming on.

Facebook Is Making Me An Asshole

Facebook is making me an asshole.  It truly is.  It has taken my normal caring and concerning attitude towards my friends and has slowly begun eroding it down to the level of 'I don't give a fuck.'

How has this happened?

Like most things within the world of Facebook, it starts of innocent enough.  You make posts, friends comment or like what you have to say and everyone has a jolly good time.  In time, however, things start to change and that you become tired of some of the drivel that comes across your newsfeed, most of it usually pertaining to somebody's drama dealing with family, wife/husband, boyfriend/girlfriend, work, friends and of course, friends on Facebook.  All of this usually by the people who claim they do not do drama.

Unfortunately, they have more drama than TNT.

After this long exposure of reading through other peoples craptastic, worthless posts, I have become jaded to the whole thing and no longer care.  I no longer care that your family are a bunch of losers; you can choose your friends but not your family, so get over it.

I no longer care that some bitches are talking shit about you; maybe there is a reason, if not, then delete them and forget about it.

I no longer care about the next big medical non-issue you have; it's called being a hypochondriac, look it up and stop watching all those shows about parasites living inside you.

I no longer care that you do not have the wherewithal to go out to find a job; it's warming up, so get off your ass and go find a job, there are places hiring.

I no longer care that you are a lazy, slovenly, slob that cannot motivate yourself to lose weight; put down the fucking video game and go for a walk, the fresh air will do wonders.

I just no longer care that once a month you post that it is time to 'clean house'; if you delete me, boo-fucking-hoo, you weren't a true friend to begin with.

See what I mean, I am being turned into an asshole.

Women like assholes, so maybe my love life will start to liven up.

Techno Date

Here I am sitting at another upscale chic bar with another date hoping that this one goes somewhere other than nowhere as all the rest have.  Unfortunately, the girl I am with is one of those obsessively materialistic persons that has the newest of the new whiz-bang cool phones that can do anything you ask it to and if it can't there is probably an app for it do so.

In a nutshell, she is sitting across from me eyes glued to that tiny screen, thumbs moving at a speed that can best described as a Jackrabbit on speed, completely ignoring me.  She is probably tweeting, texting or updating her Facebook telling the world how much of a sucky date this is.

I take a long draw off of the beer that sits before me and with a clinking, return the bottle back to the table.  I get a quick glance from her in a moment of complete stillness from those lightening thumbs for me to give her a half-cocked smile, only for her to just as quickly return back to the never ceasing thumb action.  I bet should could whip a middle schoolers ass in thumb wrestling.

"Put the phone down," I say to her with a slightly annoyed tone hoping to maybe salvage what sanity I have left from sitting here essentially by myself drinking alone.  She looks up at me again, though this time with a little less brevity than before.  An opening that I gather to use to further, perhaps even to, continue a conversation with another living, breathing, human being that isn't on the other end of some battery powered device.  "I would like to do more than sit here while you do whatever it is you are doing and perhaps get to know each other through talking."

"So talk, I'll listen." As she glances down back to the soul sucking device designed by Hell itself, gives it a quick little smile and engages the turbo thumbs once more.

"I'm not sure you are or will, you seem a bit distracted."  No reply comes from the zombie sitting across from me, just a glazed look staring down at the succubus held between her hands.  I swear I see a small trickle of drool forming at the corner of her mouth. "I hit a homeless man on my way here but I didn't want to be late, so I kept on driving.  I'll check on him on my way back home to see if he is still there or at least crawled off into the brush to die like some wounded deer after being hit by a tractor trailer loaded down with pig heads nailed to a flatbed."

"Heh."

Heh? Was that a laugh at what I just said or was it some primal guttural response to some inane thing she just read on that infernal device? I glance around the bar noticing all the other couples, talking, laughing with each other, not through some Hell Spawn but genuinely looking at each other, eye to eye, holding genuine conversations!  This is Hell or some sort of Bizarro World or the Twilight Zone.  I can hear the music now ringing in my ears.

I look back at little Dorothy of Droid, still thumping that phone with those hammers she must call thumbs.  I believe the world could come to a cataclysmic end and she would only learn about it through some update on Facebook to which her reply would be, "OMG!"

At this point I am done trying to pry little Miss Gollum's attention away from her Precious so I get up to go the restroom, say nothing to her upon leaving and receive nothing of any sort of acknowledgement that I left or a questioning of where I am going.  She is totally drawn in to the bright artificial glow of the tiny screen of doom.

Upon returning, I stop on my way back to survey the situation and see the same thing I have been seeing the entire evening.  I tell the waitress that I have to go, but my date has some friends on the way and that she offered to pay for my drinks even though I was uncomfortable with it, though she totally insisted.

Then I left to go home to have some meaningful conversation with some peeps playing Halo on the Xbox.

Losing Us

I wrote previously on how technology can help us find that one true love that is for us, rather than having to settle for something that is just right there. Which I believe wholeheartedly, but I believe that technology is destroying us as a peoples.

Anymore we are too connected to the internet via laptops, cell phone and tablet PCs. We over-share our lives to all of our ‘friends’ on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. We forget about people till we see them post on those sites, then we hijack that status just to interject how we miss them, ignoring the whole point of their post that states how their house just burned down. We as a people have become too shallow towards our fellow man or woman. We only care about a quick 180 character response on how you are doing or feeling, not bothering to get to know anybody as a person or individual but just as a status that does only to cover the right then. Quick pleasantries have become the norm, not for reason of a busy life, but for the simple fact that we only care about ourselves rather than the person that is in front of us right then.

When out with significant others, friends or family, we check our phones constantly while in conversation for texts from someone else or Facebook updates; either from friends or to update our own. No longer can we just be in the moment without sharing with the world, a world that does not care unless you are talking about it.

We have become a ‘give it to me now’ instant gratification society, no wanting to wait for something. Patience has become an antiquated virtue to us and has become thought of as a weakness or of being slow. Move quick, go now, speak fast is the law of the land. A New York minute is the new standard of time that we all have incorporated into our lives.

The easy going carefree-ness of youth is being lost by our constant busy lives. Our own hurriedness that our children see becomes learned behavior for them. Children no longer imagine, they do not have time for such childish things; they are too busy absorbing someone else’s pre-packaged imagination while updating their own Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

We are losing our humanity by keeping everyone at arms length but simultaneously letting everyone know what we are doing on a constant basis.

We have chosen this life.

We will lose ourselves if we continue down this path of self-absorbedness.

Offender

Once again I am back to express my views on social things like some talking head on an all news channel.

I knew you wouldn't mind.

It is a slow day and I am on Facebook perusing my friends pages; (ok, stalking is more like it) and notice a group that is 'keep sex offenders off of Facebook' and think to myself, why? Is it to protect the kiddies? If so, kids should not be on any social site to begin with. That includes FB, MySpace and any other similar sites that may be out there. I know it would be hard to keep kids off of these sites, since if a kid really wants to be on there, they will find the ways and means to do it; no matter how much mommy and daddy say no. Even though all kids' internet should be closely monitored these days with all the scams and weirdos out there.

How would you do it?

Compare names to a list of sex offenders based on location?

Never mind the obvious fact that one could be a victim of mistaken identity or that one could lie to be able to access the sites to begin with since these sites have such a strenuous background checking system. Of course the sites could implement a strict background criminal check to really be thorough in keeping those individuals off of the sites, but who would allow them to have that kind of access or give them permission to check to see if that individual would be allowed?

Did you know that in most states that if caught urinating in public, you can be arrested, convicted and then be labeled as a sex offender?

All for taking a piss.

We all have done it; public urination that is, so we are all sex offenders to some degree. At least in the eyes of the law that is.

You may be a member and wish to remain as such, but I will no longer join them or be a part of them since there is no clear indication of the severity of offender that should be removed.

What do these groups accomplish but by spreading fear amongst members of the social sites they are apart of?

Perhaps we as a public should educate ourselves before reacting in a knee-jerk way. We should find out why someone is an offender first rather then forcing them away when their biggest crime was having a full bladder.

Till that fateful day I have something more to say, I bid you adieu.

Disposable

Another week, with more drivel for you to become nauseated by after reading.

Kind of been struggling this week to come up with something to post this week, had a couple of ideas earlier but failed to write them down, even tried to go the lazy route by looking through somethings that I've jotted down before but either those were already posted or didn't fit the bill for what I am feeling this week. No worries though, I have some life drama to throw out to you to roll your eyes at, sigh a heavy breath of disappointment, because you just don't care and trust me, neither really do I.

So here we go.

Recently I have had the honor of being deleted as a friend on MySpace and Facebook. Now usually this would not really garner a second look or thought from me; especially if it was from someone on MySpace since I do have some people on there that I have never met, nor probably never will. This was someone that I thought was a friend, someone that we hung out together for quite a bit of time, someone that I considered a friend, even still do. Obviously this deletion was a shock and a bit of a heartbreak considering neither of us have had contact in about a month and if we did exchange words or talk, it wasn't of a negative nature. Now this came without notice or fair warning and after the deed was done, no word as to why or a reason given.

Now on to the crux of this diatribe.

Seems some people have disposable friends. Friends that are true to them, but once they become tired of you, you are tossed to the side like a toy by a spoiled brat that has lost interest. This doesn't have to be from the result of a difference of views, an argument or one having killed the others father, but mostly from the simple fact they got what they wanted and have no further use of you.

I disagree with this line of thinking.

If I am your friend, then I am YOUR FRIEND. Meaning that I am not going to toss you to the side after my use for you is done; since really I have no agenda for befriending you to begin with. I will stay with you through what ever trials and tribulations that you may end up going through during our friendship. This what being a friend is all about, being there for each other and helping the other in their time of need; not to just use someone under the moniker of 'friend' for your personal needs.

I have many friends, some that I am close to and some that are more acquaintances; which just means that we don't keep in touch all that often or hang out as often as some of my other friends. Any of these friends can call me up for some sort of help and I will do what I can to help them out.

That is what friends are.

Til our next endeavor into this wacky mind.