I Found A Picture of You...

"I found a picture of you, oh-oh

Well, it hijacked my world at night"

(The Pretenders, Back on the Chain Gang)

If you are a consumer of The Facebooks, you no doubt see these challenge postings, whereby someone posts something and then asks others to do the same.  I really enjoy these kinds of things, by the way.  Well, more precisely, I really enjoy seeing pictures, and it's neat to learn about others I've met or interacted with over the years.  In a world that seems ever so large, complex, and harried, these small acts of connection can, I think, help re-ground us.  At least for me.

The above noted I don't do these kinds of things very often.  That's less about a refusal on my part and more about the fact that, well, I don't get asked to participate.  Trust me, that's not a cry for attention on my part.  I don't have a thousand Facebook connections, so the odds just don't align to make these kinds of things happen.  That makes the times when they do kind of neat.  As such, I was invited to participate in a photo-sharing challenge.  I make it a policy to not reference other (private, as opposed to public) people in these postings, well outside of special occasions, so I'm not going to mention names.  What I will say this:  The person who nominated me is someone I have an incredible amount of respect for, and I am honored that she thought of me.   

This particular challenge involves posting photos that "bring me joy", without any explanations.  This really is a challenge for me (pun intended) for two reasons:

1. I struggle with a concept like "joy".  Struggle as in "what does joy really mean"?  How would I know if something "brings me joy" in the first place?  Now reading this you may think "what the heck is he even talking about?", but it's a genuine thing for me.  In a way, I don't process very strong emotions well.  I know where this comes from...a childhood where a premium was placed on not expressing myself very often.  
2. I also struggle with not being able to describe things.  It almost goes against my nature to not write about things like important pictures.  In a way, I'm using this blog posting to kind of circumvent the rules of the challenge itself.  Yes, guilty as charged.

So, how do I find pictures that bring me joy if I'm not sure what joy means?  Well, I ended up not dwelling on the word "joy" and instead thought to myself "okay, what pictures can I find that have some deeper meaning to me?".  That was easy.  The next step is going through the 10,000+ digital photos I have on file.  

I actually came up with a strategy of sorts:  This is a 10-day challenge, so I decided to pick an underlying theme for each day.  For example, the second day was about my daughters when they were younger.  Day 3 was about some of the vehicles I owned.  Day 4 was about JeanLuc the cat, who meant the world to me and helped me, in a very real sense, get through one of the most difficult times in my life.  Finding JeanLuc pictures to share was a mixture of fond memories and sadness that he's not here with me now.  To the extent that anyone can actually love something other than another person, I loved JeanLuc.  

Today is Day 4, and I'm still thinking about the theme.  Rest assured though, there will be a theme.  I literally can't do the whole random thing.  It's as if my mind is always trying to create some sense of order in everything I do and around me, so the idea of just randomly posting photos seems nearly impossible.  Emphasis on "my mind", as I think an ongoing theme of my life has always been the idea of my trying to make some sense of the constant, bordering on chaotic, noise of thoughts in my head.  As a side note, that's also a damn fine explanation as to why I've never had a really good relationship with sleep...getting that constant noise in my head to quiet down takes some work.

Finally, these postings are shared publicly on Facebook, so if you want to see them, just view my profile.

From Russia, with Vitriol

I saw a graphic similar to this in one of my Facebook groups:

I believe that it was actually taken down after myself, and several others complained.  

So, why did I complain?

First, the group in question is about anthracite coal mining.  Not politics.  Not the NFL.  Not patriotism.  Not the president.  Not Joe Biden.  It is about, for me, a subject that I have had an interest in for most of my life.

(photo from the site of the former Hughestown Breaker)

Sadly, I am sure this kind of stuff creeps up in other groups as well.  

Second, there is actually zero.point.zero connection between NFL players and 9/11 first responders.  

The creator might as well said "Not one Russian Orthodox Priest ran into the WTC..." or "Not one member of the Trump family ran into the WTC..." or "Not one Turkey Breeder ran into the WTC...".  This is nothing more than stringing two thoughts that some people feel passionate about together simply for the purpose of inflaming tensions.  Nothing else.  

Third, this has all the hallmarks of being a part of the Russian campaign to just generally destabilize the United States ahead of the November 3rd general election.  

I will note that I find people who are preachy distasteful, but I'm going to do it myself anyway:  Don't fall for this nonsense, and when you do see it and call it out for the Russian garbage that it represents.  

You can greatly admire the first responders on 9/11 and find the "taking a knee" protests by NFL players inappropriate.  I do the former, but not the latter.  They aren't, however, even remotely connected.  The 9/11 first responders didn't rush into buildings because they were patriots...they did it because that was their job, and they are heroes for risking their lives as such.  Conversely, it's my opinion that NFL players who "take a knee" are not unpatriotic; heck, you can make the argument that protesting in order to make the United States a better place is an example of patriotism at work.  You can also disagree with me about the NFL players, but you can't disagree with the ridiculously disjointed nature of the graphic.

Regardless of who you support in the November election, no one is well served by playing into disinformation campaigns created by enemies of this nation. 

We should be smarter than this.

Voting By Mail & Social Media Flamethrowers

You've probably seen this little ditty floating around social media:

Personally, I think it's a great example of the kinds of things foreign agitators are doing in order to sow seeds of doubt in our political system.  The fact that the president has "mail-in vote fraud" as a standard talking point doesn't help either.  

Personally, I think the very idea of comparing voting to shopping is a load of rubbish.  Here's why:

• Civil Responsibility - I don't have a civic responsibility to go shopping.  I do have a civic responsibility to vote.  In fact, I'd call it a civic obligation.  Comparing voting to shopping is simply ridiculous.
• Choice - I can get toilet paper at any number of places.  If Walmart happens to be unusually wackadoodle on a particular day, I can go to Walmart light, a.k.a. "nameless __________ Dollar store".  I have no choice come election day.  I have to go to the one and only place where the government says I need to cast my ballot if I am to vote in person.
• One Day of the Year - I can go shopping at Walmart 7 days a week if I so desire.  In fact, if I go into Walmart and see that it's too crowded, I can simply come back the next day.  No harm is done.  Primary election voting however is only one day during the year.  The powers that be have also seen fit to make it on a work-day for most.  This means that, for many folks, they may not be able to come back to a polling place if it is crowded.  None of us can come back the next day and vote.
• Health & Safety - Walmart, for example, makes some kind of effort (laughable as it may seem at times) to keep their stores clean and to enforce mask and social distancing rules.  I have no idea though whether local poll and government workers will do the same on election day.  If the enforcement of mask-wearing by local governments is any indicator, we could be in for some trouble come election day at polling places.

The final point is the most important one for me.  I am, generally speaking, a pretty healthy guy, all things considered, & high-milage noted.  However, I did develop asthma in my 40's.  Among other things, this means that on those rare occurrences when I do get a cold (for example...which occurs about once every 18 months or so), I get really sick.  Sick as in I end up having to take steroids for a few weeks.  Trust me when I say that two weeks of feeling greasy and bloated is not all that much fun, but it's better than hospitalization.  What's more, COVID-19 is no Cold, and I'm not about to throw months of being extraordinarily careful about hand-washing, mask-wearing, and avoiding crowds away just because of some Russian troll farm-produced and widely circulated a social media piece.

By all means, vote in person if you are moved to do so.  That's your right, and honestly what's most important here is that you simply do vote.  However, an entire state (Oregon) has been voting by mail for years now without any issues.  In fact, the president himself and, as I understand it, all of the senior members of his administration, have regularly voted by mail without issue.  A mail-in ballot goes through the exact same United States Postal Service channels whether it is an absentee ballot or a mail-in ballot.  

The bottom line is this:  The arguments against voting by mail don't stand up when you think about it logically, which is precisely why these kinds of things are designed by Ivan and his comrades to elicit an emotional response.  I'm voting by mail in the November election because it's simply safer for me to do so and because it is proven to be a secure way for me to exercise my civil obligation.  

Don't be so willing to take social media bait.  

Think about these things logically, not emotionally.  

What we should be passionate about here is encourage everyone we know to vote in November, be it in person or via the mail.

Old Facebook Photographs

Facebook has simply grown too large, it has become too influential, and some of its practices are questionable at best (current reference HERE).  That noted, it's too late to turn back the clock on social media, as it's really become an important part many lives.  Where are the alternatives?  I've done some research, but nothing stands out. 

Anyway, I was looking over some old photos I've posted on Facebook over the years.  There were a few that brought back some memories and others that are just good photographs.  Here are a few I'd like to share.

Posted in 2013:  Pretty much the only photograph I have of my mother smiling.  This photograph was probably taken in the late 1950's.  I posted it shortly after she passed away.

Posted in 2013:  Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia.  This was an intriguing place, and I took a ton of photographs.  You can learn more about Eastern State Penitentiary HERE.

Posted in 2012:  My 1974 Chrysler Newport, parked at my apartment at Meade Heights, Penn State Harrisburg, in 1985-1986.  I loved that car, in spite of the less than 10mpg I would get in local driving.  The car literally died as soon as I got home from my last trip back from college in 1986.

Posted in 2010:  A church being remodeled in Pittsburgh.  I love this photo, in spite of the obnoxious overhead wires.  I don't normally shoot photographs in black and white, but this one really worked.

Posted in 2010:  A hawk sitting on a branch at Lake Scranton.  I was walking around the lake right after a rainstorm, and this beautiful creature was sitting on a branch about 20 feet away from me.  My wife loves this photograph so much that she had it printed and framed, where it hangs in our dining room.

Posted in 2010:  A salamander at Lake Scranton.  I took this during the same walk where I took the hawk photograph.  I love the contrasting color of the salamander and the dark soil.

Posted in 2009: Me at college in 1984.  This was taken in Wrisberg Hall dormitory by a fellow student who was taking a photography class.  I had built a wall of stereo equipment because of the fact that room-mate seemed a bit, well, unstable.   This is one of two photographs in the posting that I did not take.

Posted in 2009:  One of the best photographs I have ever taken.  The location was the Kinzua Dam.

Transition

Since I am in currently in a graduate finance class, I don't feel bad about conducting some basic accounting.  Here we go.

In the last four months...

...I was retired from an employer where I worked for nearly 28 years

...My 51 year old younger brother passed away

I've also read a potentially life-changing book (that I'm starting share with others), and I've had far more time to think than which is probably good for me.

Oh, and I'm finishing up my graduate degree (hopefully by mid-year).  A lot of stuff.  The word "unpack" comes to mind when I think about all of it.  In fact, all I think I need to do is add "heart attack" to the list and I get some kind of prize from the government.  Just kidding, about the heart attack (my heart is in good shape) and the prize.  

Now none of this is intended to illicit anything even remotely resembling sympathy (which, as we all know, sits squarely between "sh*t" and "syphilis" in the dictionary*), as I'm busy enough without it, and truth be told, I just don't like the attention.  Pretty odd from a guy writing a blog, huh?  Life is never without its contradictions. 

Anyway, I had planned to write about government funding for the arts, which has become something of an issue in northeastern Pennsylvania.  I even have the posting titled, but I just can't seem to start it.  It's as if I need some kind of transition space within my own head, something to take me away from the above list, back into more of a normal way of thinking.  Not that there has ever been anything normal about how I think...about anything.  My head is, at any given moment, not a place that anyone else would ever want to visit, filled with tons on random thoughts swirling around, mostly all at the same time.  I'm just lucky whatever voices I hear are my own.  Scratch that; I sometimes can hear my Mom's voice...but it's always yelling for some odd reason.

Thinking again about the idea of transitions, I think we all have this odd relationship with change.  We hate it when we feel bombarded by it, but yet we'd probably die of boredom without it.  I know that's true for me.  Now granted that I do wish some of the change in my life didn't actually involve other people dying, but hey, I didn't get a vote in the matter.  Whomever does make those decisions is a bit higher up on the celestial organization chart than your's truly.  Along those same lines, I'll share that there hasn't been a lot of action of the career front for me, but more than one person has said to me that this is because there is a plan...a larger reason...if you want to call it that...for me to have been unencumbered over these past few weeks, so that I could attend to other things.  I'll confess that I don't know if I believe that to be true, in part because I just don't see some kind of larger power in the universe actually caring all that much about this kind of detail.  However, I may be falling into the trap of trying to explain, in human terms, something that is infinitely impossible to understand in human terms.

In any event, I've burned through several paragraphs now without saying an awful lot.  This posting has been the Captain Crunch, if you will, of Internet content.

By the way, I love Captain Crunch, even if my wife says that it taste "like cardboard".

Which makes me believe that I need to end things on a somewhat more weighty tone.  So how about this:

5 Things I Have Learned Since October, by Steve Albert

1)  Friends.  Nothing exposes the fallacy of social media "friendship" quite like a personal crisis.  I am deeply thankful for the condolences (both on-line and off-line) offered by so many; I am bewildered by the fact that I didn't hear from others.

2)  Routine.  Even in the midst of seeming chaos, I'm always trying to create a new routine.  We humans seem to be wired for wanting the predictable.

3)  Being Present.  Being fully present in the moment actually does help when things get tense and tough.  Oh, and I'm the last person in the world to advocate anything new-agey or tragically hip.  Study this stuff, as it's worth it.

4)  Job Search.  Looking for a career opportunity in 2017 is a heck of a lot different than it was the last time I checked.  Then again that was 1988.

5)  Your Kids Get Older.  It's great to be proud of your son or daughter when they do well in school (for example).  As they get older and become concerned about your well being and offering you sound advice?  Well, that's pride elevated to a whole new level.  It almost makes getting older worth it.


* * * * * *

(*) Dictionary:  A book that defines words, PG (pre-Google). Used in a sentence:  (Steve) Mom, how do you spell cataract?  (My Mom, Yelling) Look it up in the dictionary!

Things a 51 year old white guy learns (from Mediatakeout's Facebook feed)

Mediatakeout on Facebook

In no particular order, for no particular reason.

• However many rappers you think exist is wrong; take that number and multiply it by about 125 to get a more accurate count.
• There are a lot of fights in fast food establishments.
• Someone named "Meek Mill", who is from Philadelphia, is having a feud with rapper Drake, who is from Degrassi High.
• Rappers have a shelf life somewhat shorter than that of your average can of tuna.
• Every single fight in every single school is now recorded via cell phone video.
• "Atlanta Housewives" is a real thing.  And they fight too, just not in fast food establishments.
• Rapper Rick Ross is different than Rap Mogul Suge Knight.  
• Spelling isn't being taught in schools, and auto correct is apparently broken.
• 'Lil Wayne is apparently very sad these days.
• Never, ever wear your weave to a fight.
• BAE does not stand for "British Aerospace Marconi Electronic Systems", rather I think it means boy/girl friend.
• The young folks love to fight on Twitter (as well as in fast food establishments).
• There is genuinely some sad stuff going on in the world today.

Facebook Graphics: Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients

I see these graphics on the Facebooks all the time, and for the most part I don't give them so much as a passing thought.  However, mostly for my own ammusement, I'm going to give this one a passing thought (or two).

For the record, I don't believe that drug testing "Welfare" recipients is unconstitutional.  Also, for the record, I don't believe that there is a federal program called "Welfare" any more; the current program is called "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)".  However, I do believe that it is:

1) Potentially a waste of money, if done haphazzardly.
2) Harmful when children are involved.

To point #1:  I'd like to see a cost/benefit analysis of a potential drug testing programs.  What would it cost, and how much would be saved in terms of denied benefits?  I imagine the testing could be done in a random manner, and if there was competitive bidding for the testing contract(s), then maybe the overhead would be sufficiently low.  But there are a lot of "if's" that last sentence, and let's face it:  governments are not known for either efficiency or the low bidding of contracting.

To point #2:  What happens if, under a testing program, an adult with children is denied benefits?  Would not innocent children be negatively impacted?  If parental benefits are reduced, but benefits maintained for the children, then what's to stop the parent from taking money designated for the children and using it to buy beer and menthol cigarettes instead of food and clothes for the kids?

In the end, the issue here isn't one of constitutionality, it is a matter of common sense and compassion.

It is common sense, in my book, for those receiving governmental support to basically be held to a minimum standard of "you can't break the law".  The real question is this:  so if you catch them breaking the law, then what happens?  That's where the issue of compassion comes into play.  I don't have a ton of compassion for people that make the choice to use illegal drugs, as adults are responsible for their own behavior.  Children, however, are NOT responsible for the behavior of their parents, and they should not suffer because Mom and/or Dad are mentally weak and therefore feel compelled to take drugs in order to escape reality.

This is a classic "knee-jerk emotional reaction" kind of thing.  We can do better.  Now what would "better" be?  Well I don't really know, and to be honest, any solution drummed up by an idiot writing a blog probably wouldn't be all that helpful anyway.  However, at the core of any solution is to first identify the real issue to be solved.  In this case, I can guarantee you just one thing:  the REAL issue is absolutely, positively isn't "angry taxpayers".