STFU, M.

A.K.A. Why I'm Giving Up Politics on Facebook

The short answer?  Because I want it to be fun again.

The longer answer?  Well, the longer answer has to do with several things.  .  .

STFU:  I'm a huge fan of STFU, Parents. The other day, I was preparing to share yet another article and I paused.  Because, for serious, STFU.

Family:  When I took my first focused history class, I studied the Reconstruction period.  It was a fascinating class with much to learn and an amazing instructor - and I was haunted in the class by the individual and family reconstruction and healing that must have had to happen in the post-War period.  How did those families function during the pre-War times?  Were there fistfights and fueds?  Did they sit calmly around the dinner table and simply not talk politics?  I don't know, I really don't.  What I do know is that social networks have given me insight into an ugliness in several family members (and they would say an ugliness in me) and I have no use for it.  Am I being naive by refusing to look at it?  Probably.  But battling it has failed - so perhaps the best thing to do is to keep my side of the street clean and push forward.

Friends: I have awesome friends.  Many of whom don't agree with me politically.  They've been respectful in their disagreements with me, but have grown tired of seeing a litany of prickly diatribes in their Facebook feed. More than a few, I'm sure, hid me from their feed because they just didn't want to see it anymore.  And that's fair.  But I miss my friends. I want them back. A recent Pew Study shows I'm not alone in being hidden (or hiding others).

Excellent examples: Some of those friends I mentioned?  They're amazing examples - examples that it is perhaps better to quietly live what you believe rather than bleat what you believe.  I admire them. I want to be more like them.

It never, not EVER, changes people's minds: For a few reasons.  I'd say this Cracked article does a good job of covering them: Five Logical Fallacies That Make You Wrong More Than You Think  And don't think for a moment that I'm ignoring my part.  Nobody on FB is going to change *MY* mind.  Why in the world would I believe I could change theirs?  In essence, it's nothing more than a simple fight and I don't like to fight.

So here I go, back over to FB, where I will try to be more Takei and less . . . not Takei.  Because who doesn't love Takei?

Goodwill Exchange for Change: Pure Awesomeness.

Anyone who knows me knows how cheap I am.  How super mega cheap I am.  And how, strangely, I've developed a love and appreciation of fashion while remaining cheap.

And you probably know by now that I'm a ridiculously huge Project Runway fan. And since he's a Denver guy who makes amazing stuff (that I'm not sure I could ever wear), I'm a Mondo fan.

So imagine my glee and joyful delight when I learned last year that Mondo was teaming up with Goodwill to do a fashion show and appearance and clothing exchange!  Yet I missed it:  Elsa was so young and I wasn't ready to leave her yet.  But this year, I was in.  And so was Lilly, the 2nd biggest Project Runway fan in this house.  The tickets were more expensive this year - $25 instead of $10.

Still - it was fun.  Parking wasn't terrible - we walked about a block from our spot to stand in line on a red carpet.  Checkin took awhile, but that's OK. We dumped our bags of donated goods (10 items per person for the exchange). Inside was a nice atmosphere - appetizers, a cash bar, a large runway, and some booths selling various items.  There was a cool photo booth there as well - with all sorts of props for folks to use to create a fun and memorable picture.

But nothing compares to this one:

"And what is your favorite color?"
"uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuoooohhhhmyyyyygoooooddddddd"

‎( █ ) ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██. This comment has been found in violation of H.R. 3261, S.O.P.A and has been removed.

Contact your Representative and Senator today:  Stop SOPA and PIPA. 

In an effort to organize my life a bit . . .

I'm killing off my craft blog and reorganizing over here a bit.  Bear with me, I'm sorry about the mess.

To write. . . to write. . . to write. . .

This is among my biggest personal commitments in 2012.  I need to write again.  I was strolling through old e-mails and happened upon some old poems and oh my goodness.

They were solid first drafts of poems that could become so much.

Additionally, I have my NaNoWriMo pieces from 2009 (or was that 2008? Gosh, I can't even remember) sitting in a folder here that need to be revised and compiled.

And a universe that could benefit from my spending less time screwing around online and more time making things - creating things - crafts, poems, baking.  Whatever that is - whatever it is that needs to be created - that's where I need to put my energy.

And so I shall.  But I promise I'll stop by here and let you all know how it's going.  :)