Posts Tagged annoying trends
True or False: A blog is a safe place to share or rant.
Posted by crusaderjennblog in debateable, Faith, lifestyle on August 25, 2015
Years ago, I was one of those who lived on the Faceplant (Facebook). See the film “The Internship” if you’re not familiar with the Faceplant reference. I spent hours lurking, liking and responding to people’s posts. Because I was sick (really I was in a wheelchair for a while) and could do nothing, but vicariously live through other’s activities. That was years ago and over the years, that time on Facebook diminished a great deal, to now, when I can barely tolerate it. I’m on there maybe once a week and primarily to see family and like/support the Seahawks feed. I might find myself feeling like I should like friend’s posts if I happen to make it to being logged-in 5 minutes 90 seconds. I set my profile on private and all my settings are also private so people really can’t see much about me like my birthday or anniversary. If I had that information available to others, than I would feel obligated to also give people the appropriate, “Happy or Congratulatory” remarks on their walls. So I rarely log-in to the social network thank goodness because who has time? When I got a new iPhone last Christmas, much to my dismay the Facebook app came pre-loaded, but I do not use the app for the reason that I am not that important. And Twitter? I have an account, but I also don’t use that. Because I’m not that important.
My husband laughs at my attitude because he thinks I sound like an elderly person. Hush, you whippersnapper. I guess I noticed last time I logged-in that people used Facebook as a means of obtaining relationship advice. A while back, I saw the marital demise of some friends based on the surplus of their disparaging Facebook posts at each other that were out there for the world to see. Don’t people tire of notifying everyone of what they’re feeling moment to moment or capturing every second of their life through taking pictures of themselves and posting another variation of their emotions or what they’re wearing? #Narcissism
Speaking of Instagram, I joined and my husband will attest to the fact that it was while borderline kicking and screaming. Social networks elicit that kind of a reaction any more because I feel like it’s, “just one more thing” that I’m required to monitor consistently. Thank you to those who hounded me on Facebook a few years ago when I didn’t respond in your timely fashion (immediately). And I closed the social network and turned to blogging.
I read a blog the other day and the writer was annoyed by the self-appointed blog experts who condemn bloggers new and old, like me for ‘doing it wrong.’ I can accept that I don’t know a lot, but I write because I like to and am not in any way trying to reach a certain crowd or a certain number of followers through my writing. The only thing I fear with blogging is making a commitment for a daily or weekly post and may miss a day because for example, Music Monday is on Monday and God forbid I miss the right day and have to post it on Thursday. That’s failure to me and a very real fear. That silly idea happened months ago and I already failed to maintain Music Monday because well, I was busy staging our home to look like we actually live here and then the whole thing with adoption started taking root, so you may understand that life has become busy.
My social networking pages are about me or what I want to see. I have a right to post what I want to post or filter-out what I don’t want to see. I should be able to maintain a page without fear of another individual high-jacking MY post by inserting their hashtag to use my post as their vehicle to support what or who they support. I guess I have this mentality that because I wouldn’t be that selfish to use a hashtag on a friend’s page, others also shouldn’t be selfish. It’s already challenging enough for me to share / post anything on Facebook without having to monitor / censor friends comments that appear. I support the Hawks and with football season beginning shortly, I changed my page’s photos to reflect my support. A friend commented that they couldn’t ‘like’ the new photos because they support a different team – insert hashtag. I deleted the comment because the hashtag supported an opposing team. I posted those pictures for ME to support the Hawks so perhaps a better response to those mascot pictures might have been for my friend to roll their eyes and NOT comment with an opposing hashtag? I guess I fear this friend’s response if they were to read this, because I don’t believe they can separate the difference between me disliking (deleting) their response or disliking them as a person, which is not the issue because I like them very much.
I get that there’s a certain satisfaction / ego boost that goes with razzing friends who support opposing teams, but why the hashtag? Personally, I see the hashtag as a great way to categorize, but because of their over-abundant use anymore, I’ve grown to see the symbol as #anotsocleverfiller. I #rantneverriot
Of what social networking trends are you tired or bored? Thank you for reading.
~Jenn
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Engaging with people is so much work
Posted by crusaderjennblog in debateable, health, Inspiration, Jesus on January 26, 2015
Friendships require work and openness. I’ve been very guarded where friendships are concerned because I have been open to a fault with a few who I believed were ‘safe’ only to regret sharing when I experienced their over-developed sense of superiority due to their own perfection, which apparently made it allowable for them to judge me. In WA, I had a smallish group of females I trusted with whom I’d go out for a girls night like for drinks and music or a movie, but upon our relocation to NV, I’ve been closed-off to making more friends. Knowing our time here is short-lived, I’ve failed to pursue making friends with anyone beyond an acquaintance level because my outlook has been, “We won’t be here long enough to make it worth the effort.” Shame on me. No, BIG SHAME ON ME and please forgive me for not bothering to be friends with you.
For many years when we committed to going-out with, for the purpose of cultivating friendships with other couples, we were always on time and to cancel last minute was never an option. Although we were consistently on the receiving end of other’s flakiness because for some and you know who you are, being a flake is a lifestyle choice. Emergencies happen and those are excusable, but failing to plan, “Our plans slipped my mind,” is NOT a reasonable excuse when you know the date of said plans. Maybe you commit, but by committing perhaps you should always provide this disclaimer, “I commit right now, but what I really mean is I’m selfish and I’ll cancel at the last possible moment never giving a thought to any arrangements you might make in the hope that I might show-up and grace you with my presence for the evening, when my regretful decline could have given you an opportunity to do something else,” is what you should say.
But then after some reflection of last year, I have clearly become a poster-child for flaky as I have became somewhat of a borderline agoraphobic. My home is my safe and happy place. I get up. I shower. I read my Bible and pray. I take care of our pets. I exercise. I bake goodies. I drink wine and even catalog it in my little black book of Wine Notes. I read books and I might play an Ap for fun on my iPad. I run errands as needed. These activities became MY own little self-created-safe-zone when I determined that 15 minutes from home is the furthest and safest acceptable distance I can be from home at any time. Our church’s small group fits that, but I’ve rarely attended any more.
Being budget-conscious and to save money, we quit using full-time air-conditioning and as a result, our home becomes suffocating hot during summer. If it’s 108 degrees outdoors, it’s around 87 indoors and multiply that if it’s humid. Just a touch hot and with MS, the heat renders me useless until the AC comes on for a couple of hours each morning and then again in the evening and when the AC comes on, I’m in recovery mode, which has been my ongoing excuse for not attending our small group except that now that we’re out of summer, there is no viable excuse for my non-attendance, which means that I evolved into what I detest and became a flake! Our small group from church started a new study last week and I attended, but came home feeling convicted for many things one of which seems to appear in red flashing bold letters, “Making excuses for not attending our small group when I can during these cooler months,” or was that flashing in red just for me?
So now that I’ve explained why I have become what I’ve become, I’m actively working to change my habits. It’s not a New Year’s resolution per se as my followers may have already read about in https://wordpress.com/post/81313185/142/ but I guess I’m reaching-out as a means of publicly recognizing I must stop my hermit-like habits, which also equates to fostering friendships and getting together for things like coffee or being friendly instead of remaining holed-up in a book or a game Ap. Step 1 was the easiest in recognizing I had a problem. It’s the next stuff that’ll present the biggest challenges for me because I can be very content with operating within my little world. Yes, I know it’s not healthy, but it’s comfortable and that’s become the biggest challenge for me with our new small group study: to go beyond my comfort-zone. I’ll keep you updated in how I fare through this what I suspect will be an uncomfortable process.
Do you have a comfort zone? Do you have a negative habit? Did you create a positive habit to replace your negative habit? Or how did you overcome it?
~Jenn
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Free-bleeding is a hoax. Or is it?
Posted by crusaderjennblog in debateable, growing-up, life, trends to consider on January 5, 2015
I rarely spend longer than a few minutes on the social network, and by a few minutes, I mean a few minutes because I learned years ago that the social network is a time-sink that draws me in to absorb irrelevant news when I don’t set limits. All that to say imagine my surprise when during those allotted minutes yesterday I saw a ‘friend’s status about free-bleeding. Questioning my eyesight I cleaned my glasses and reread, free-bleeding. I hoped this wasn’t what I thought it might be, but it was and I’m thankful that there wasn’t an excessive number of comments supporting this. For a second I asked out loud, “Are you kidding me? Have I somehow surfed a time-warp that took me back 100 years? How did I miss this?” See the above answer to first appear in bold font in paragraph number one – why I do not spend excessive hours on the social network, The internet is an invaluable resource of true, but sometimes false information, therefore, I did a lot of research. About a year ago, apparently ‘this’ is when ‘this’ became a ‘this’ and there were definitely those who support(ed) the free-bleeding phenomenon and up to the last few months, there were also a great many comments on blogs from those who questioned the idea that perhaps this was a joke. There were also those who concluded that this ‘free-bleeding’ thing might take females backward, which is a correct assessment. Because it would take us backward to where we would have a surplus of blood-borne pathogens related to menstruating females who put everyone at risk because wearing a pad or tampon is too much of a hardship for their underdeveloped sensibilities.
Now, I realize that radical groups believe they are progressive in their idea of free-bleeding, but for a moment, let us utilize those critical thinking skills. In 2015, when we have the ‘technology,’ if you will, to make our monthly a private event, which no one, but the bleeder must be aware, doesn’t that equal forward thinking? But rather than going forward, it appears that some feminists want us to regress and treat this as something, a ‘right,’ to handle publicly, all because there were some males behind the development of pads and tampons. In the midst of this research I read that some feminists believe tampons ‘rape’ us. Now that’s a bit extreme, don’t you think? I guess I’m modest and I love the fact that as a female, I don’t have to make it public knowledge or write a PSA with commonly excused and irrational PMS induced behavior when the monthly arrives. Life goes on, up to, during and after the event because we have the appropriate ‘equipment’ to manage the event. Free-bleeders take your radicalism, your mess and your stink back out to the barn or back to the jungle because in 2015, ‘this’ should not even be a thing. If it is. But then, perhaps the whole thing was a marketing ploy to sell feminine products, which might be considered genius… What do you think?
~Jenn
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Happy New Year, but don’t waste time with resolutions
Posted by crusaderjennblog in family, Football, Inspiration, Jesus, life, lifestyle, marriage on January 1, 2015
As we kick-off 2015, many will make their annual list of resolutions that they will only achieve success in breaking. So, congratulations. For some, creating a resolution list is personal, familial, or it might be a communal, societal expectation that gives the resolver warm-fuzzies for consideration of the resolution. For some that’s where it ends, but for others, they will hit the ground running and maintain their resolutions(s). Why? Because the resolute are committed to and intentional about being successful whether it’s for themselves or their family. Why does the calendar have anything to do with making positive changes in one’s life? Because for now it allows people to keep doing whatever they’re doing. The term now is too much of a commitment for those who really don’t desire change. What if people just make up their minds to begin making changes NOW instead of making the excuse to start making changes tomorrow, next week, next month or next year? Why not start now? A calendar has nothing to do with anything and if it’s important, I’ll borrow the old Nike slogan and suggest, JUST DO IT.
Here is my list of things that I would like to see some become intentional about in 2015:
Learn the proper spelling of homonyms and learn to use proper punctuation before posting statuses and comments on social networks or blogs.
Stop posting relationship grievances on social networks and instead of depending on social network ‘friends‘ to provide advice, get professional help.
Stop saying,amazeballs, YOLO, I know right? and like before every like word in your like repertoire and get a word of the day calendar because a limited vocabulary is a clear sign of ignorance.
Protests – Nothing changes because of protests and riots are the stupid, drunk uncle of protests. Both of these behaviors are a pathetic excuse to make bad decisions.
Everyone is a winner is a problem because it is a false assessment. Why? Take a step back and observe cause and effect. Because groups and schools awarded the population (MILLENIALS) with silly awards, many now perceive they’re entitled to things like cars and jobs, despite being unqualified. Stop awarding silly ribbons and trophies. Imagine if all Olympic participants were entitled to receive awards – there would be no incentive to improve their skill.
Selfie-sticks are real. I see these on the Las Vegas Strip. Selfies are already narcissistic and now there is a device to encourage more of them. I’m fairly certain this product is Satan’s handy work…
Being offended – Anymore, it seems that people are very easily offended by everything. Just stop! If you don’t like it then don’t support it and move-on because not everything is personal or about you.
I like New Year’s because for us that means we celebrated another anniversary yesterday and a new year is always refreshing. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions because I don’t need a particular day to motivate better choices.
What words or trends are annoying for you?
Back to watching football and Happy New Year!
~Jenn
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