I’m holding an intervention for myself today concerning my lifelong addiction to all things science fiction. I’m not proud of that obsession because I’m not entirely sure that it hasn’t been a monumental waste of my time.
I was born in 1946 and was eleven years old when Sputnik made it’s famous flight on 10/04/57. My entire young life consisted of satellites, cosmonauts, astronauts, rocket ships, space travel, and the creation of NASA. Up to and including the Mercury and Apollo programs and eventually the moon landings. I was enthralled and spent a great deal of my spare time reading everything I could lay my hands on about science fiction and space travel. Over the years I’ve read hundreds of novels and scientific journals and attempted to stay up to speed with NASA, its failures, deaths, and many successes. Many years later I was finally forced to admit that sci-fi for me breaks down into two parts. Technology on one hand and space exploration on the other to include all of the craziness and misinformation on UFO’s and alien visitations. Technology continues apace and many things I read or thought about as a kid are slowing becoming commonplace. But continuing technological improvements are man-made wonders and unrelated to the science fiction that I’m interested in.
The UFO phenomenon is a sticky subject that’s been bastardized by numerous authors and movie makers. I suspect the vast majority of information contained in them is nothing more than exaggerated fiction aimed at increasing ratings and/or ticket sales. I gave up on live TV years ago and became somewhat taken with Netflix and other streaming services. That’s when I became overwhelmed with an ungodly number of videos and movies concerning UFO’s. I made a point to watch everyone I could find hoping that there might be a shred of evidence that could convince me that UFO’s were real and visitations to this planet were occurring. Sadly I found nothing at all that convinced me of anything.
It seems that a group of well funded and fervent believers reappear in most of the videos repeating their theories and suppositions. Believe me, I would love it if aliens decided to visit. But to believe the outlandish nonsense in these videos does more to convince me that it’s all so much BS and hucksterism. Most of the contributors on Facebook and other social media lead their posts with outlandish headlines to sucker us into reading further. It’s just more nonsense and half truths.
I have some serious questions about all of this UFO nonsense but the answers I’m getting are mostly silly and ridiculous. It seems highly unlikely to me that any aliens from an advanced civilization should certainly be able to fly their ships around this planet without crashing them in virtually every country. Most countries seem to have a Roswell type incident of their own and a crash sight to keep their conspiracy theorists busy. With that many crashes there’s no way any one government could retrieve and hide every single scrap of evidence. Most governments can’t operate anything without screwing it up. Why would this circumstance be any different. Why would we want their technology anyway if they can’t even keep them in the air. More silliness and nonsense.
I’ll be convinced aliens are here when I see a scene as seen in the 1950’s movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still. A giant alien ship landing on the White House lawn looking to chat with the President. Hopefully not Biden. Until then I am a disappointed unbeliever.
Being the cynical bastard that I am and having less love for our human race than most, makes this topic concern even me. Most of my life and career has been involved with close personal communications (interviews and interrogations) with hosts of diverse individuals. I’ve been able thanks to years of training and experience to read them exceeding well, hence my overall dislike of so many. Granted a majority of people come across in a good way but once pressures and stresses are introduced to the mix, all of the negative reactions become easily recognizable. My educated guess is that the best people are those with a much stronger control of their basic instincts. I can’t blame the negatives on emotion alone because we all deal with them equally.
The Pandemic has brought us all to the emotional edge in a number of ways through intense worry and fear. It’s interesting in the extreme to recognize both the good and the bad effects and who handles them the best. I won’t even try to explain the negative behaviors of people whose lives are completely consumed by politics and the media. They come to this discussion already biased and flawed. Then we have the medical professionals and first responders who as they always do show us the way things should be done. Compassion, caring, and fearlessness are their norm. A few bad apples have been observed through this horrible period but overall we as a people owe them praise and thanks. Fortunately the negative and selfish people with concerns only for their personal agendas are easily and quickly identified. I’m not here to name names but you already know who they are if your paying the least bit of attention.
I fear that the pressure of death, serious financial ruin, job loss, and long periods of isolation have begun to take their toll on all of us. I’ve noticed in recent weeks the edginess of ordinary citizens doing ordinary things and showing a total loss of patience for each other in a mean and nasty way. All that tells me is that the Pandemic is having a much deeper and long-term harmful effect than I first thought. Returning to the new normal still requires a huge change for all of us from the old normal. We humans are not big fans of change, large or small. This intolerance for each other will hopefully wan as time goes on but who knows for sure. We’ve been told for more than a year now to stay the hell away from each other or else. Some of the incidents I’ve observed lately fill me with doubt that there is a short term solution. We must all wait and see and then do what we can to help remedy this confusing situation.
As always I will remain the pragmatic cynic.
That being said its now time for a little humor. Anyone who follows this blog knows of my deep appreciation for really erotic limericks. I’ve delved into my archives and found this little ditty. Enjoy!
There’s a feckless young fellow named Goody
Who insists that he wouldn’t, but would he?
If he finds himself nude,
With girls in the right mood,
The question is not would he, but could he?
Surprise…it wasn’t quite as erotic or lewd as you were expecting. Next time it’ll be a doozy.
I seem to be having something of an identity crisis these days. We as a people insist on labeling damn near everything and everybody we come in contact with. I have no idea why that is but I’m beginning to feel left out. I was tagged with the Baby Boomer handle many years ago and never thought it was all that accurate or even “cool”.
Then comes the Generation X, or Gen X Americans born between the mid-1960s and the early-1980s. They were the newly crowned “cool” generation until just recently when the Millennials began taking over the spottlight on social media. They are the current darlings of the media and I’m not sure why exactly.
As I sit here in my favorite chair (a boomer specialty), I’m trying to come up with a way I can climb out of the Boomer ranks and once again become part of the “cool” generation. There must be a few Millennial’s out there who can explain to me how I can make the change. I want to become what could be called a Senior Millennial in training. I’ll return soon after I do some research ……
It’s been a few hours since the last paragraph was written and I’ve been in constant contact with a few of the more forward thinking Millennial’s that I know. They agreed to assist me in compiling a list of things I must do and trends I must partake of to meet their high standards for membership. The first requirement was to always have a truly authentic fake smirk on my face any time the terms Baby Boomers or Gen Xer’s are mentioned. I put on my best smarmy face, made a couple of wise cracks about middle aged or old people, and stopped at a Starbucks for a half-caf, soy milk mocha latte, with just a hint of cinnamon sprinkled on top. I passed their temporary entry exam and was immediately supplied with this list of 20 things I must do to gain admittance into their “cool” generation:
Buy some overly tight skinny jeans.
Make friends with at least four hipsters.
Make friends with at least four hipsters.
Eat no sugar.
Eat no sugar.
Eat no carbs.
Get a good job with high pay working less than 10 hrs per week.
No more cooking…takeout is the rule. With delivery of course.
Hash-tags and Emogis whenever possible.
Amazon is God,
Have a minimum of 5 social media accounts.
Abbreviate as many words as possible to as few letters as possible:
OMG = Oh My God LOL = Laugh Out Loud LMAO = Laughing My A** Off JK = Just Kidding BRB = Be Right Back NVM = Never Mind TTYL = Talk to You Later NBD = No Big Deal TBH = To Be Honest JOMO = Joy of Missing Out (opposite of FOMO) BAE = Before Anyone Else TFW = That Feeling When TMW = That Moment When SMH = Shaking My Head V = Very (“I’m v excited”) P = Pretty (“I’m p excited”) WYD = What (Are) You Doing MCM = Man Candy Monday WCW = Woman Crush Wednesday RN = Right Now TN = Tonight BC = Because Thx = Thanks @ = At (but used in a sentence, not in an email address) L8 = Late OMW = On My Way Bye = Get Out of Town (girl, bye) OOTD = Outfit of the Day (akin to SOTD, Shoes of the Day and POTD, Photo of the Day) FTW = For The Win HBU = How About You WBU = What About You FWIW = For What It’s Worth YOLO = You Only Live Once BTW = By The Way ICYMI = In Case You Missed It TY = Thank You YW = You’re Welcome IDC = I Don’t Care FB = Facebook IG = Instagram SM = Social Media DM = Direct Message (like on Twitter: “dm me”) TBT = Throwback Thursday FBF = Flashback Friday NSFW = Not Safe For Work LMK = Let Me Know HMU = Hit Me Up RT = Retweet IRL = In Real Life TIL = Today I Learned IMO or IMHO = In My Opinion or In My Humble Opinion:-):-P
After reading all of that nonsense I’ve decided your generation is not for me. To much BS to deal with and life’s way too damn short. I’ll be around in ten years or so when the next generation of self-rightous windbags take over. I’ll be more than happy to help all of you in readjusting to the new reality.
I’m now considered by most people that I know to be an older citizen (fart) that should be respected and taken care of. Of all the things I’ve had to adjust to that is the hardest. I understand that kind of pity is accompanied by a lot of love and caring since I went through the same thing when my parents reached their platinum years. That’s right, PLATINUM. The golden years end at 70 and then the platinum years kick in.
I’m not complaining but just stating the obvious. The biggest blessing that I’ve discovered in my platinum years is my continuing education supplied to me by my grandchildren. They see me so much differently than their parents and sometimes it makes me laugh out loud and other time brings tears to my eyes.
During my year of hell with surgeries and chemotherapy I made sure to keep the oldest grandson (age 5 at the time) aware of what was happening. He examined my stitches and staples and was more than a little interested in the chemotherapy and all the tubes and pumps I was required to wear. I didn’t want him to be frightened by all of it and he paid very close attention and asked a million questions. Towards the end of the chemo I was feeling extremely sorry for myself and was bitching and complaining about my horrible life. He brought a shot of reality into the conversation very quickly. He lightly touched my hand and simply stated “All of this is better than dead grampa.” From the mouths of babes.
His younger brother missed out on most of that but has since brought his own way of seeing things to my attention. He is quite the artist which pleases me so much. We have something in common which is a great place to begin a real relationship. I’m sure the fun with him has just begun,
Then comes grandson number three who is all of 1 1/2 years old now. I was worried how I’d be able to connect with him since I only met him for two days when he was a new born. His arrival had me a little apprehensive since he lives in California and is someone I won’t get to see all that often.
I don’t know why I was so worried. He arrived with his parents and stole the show. He isn’t talking much but he gets his message across very quickly. I was a little standoffish at first but he was having none of that. He kept smiling at me every chance our eyes met and he teased me along until I loosened up a little. On his last day here he walked over to my chair and indicated he wanted to come up. I picked him up, he laid down his head, and went to sleep. I held him for two hours and I was in heaven. My education continues….. lucky me.
Over the years I’ve wasted a great deal of my valuable time and efforts arguing about politics and political strategy. How stupid am I? Don’t answer that. It always feels good at first when your spewing your expert opinions to anyone who will listen. Fifty percent of them listen politely, smile, and later talk about what a bore you’ve become. The other fifty percent listen politely, wait until you’ve stopped talking, and then begin filling the air with their opinions and nonsense. They’ve listened to none of your ideas but waited patiently for you to shut up. You just gotta hate those A Type personalities.
I’ve always enjoyed finding and reading quotations from deceased politicians and a very few politically deceased politicians. Some are inciteful but many are not. The current hoard of elected officials never have quotes that are even a tiny bit interesting. Realizing that has forced me to find some lesser known politicians and journalists with quotes from the past that could actually impart some information that’s worth reading. You may not recognize some of the names but the quotes will speak for themselves.
“A politician must often talk and act before he has thought and read.” Thomas Babbington (1859)
“A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation.” James F. Clark (1888)
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.
Bertrand Russell (1951)
“The press conference is a politician’s way of being informative without saying anything. Should he accidently say something, he has at his side a press officer who immediately explains it away by “clarifying” it.”
Emery Kelen (1960)
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” Groucho Marx (1977)
“I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.
Adlai Stevenson (1952)
These kinds of quotations were once plentiful but no longer. With newspapers losing readership there’s much less chance of any pearls of wisdom making the headlines. It’s truly a damn shame. Here’s one last and extremely old quote which remains as true today as it did in 1947.
“Politicians . . . rise predominantly from . . . the “lower middle class””; most are self-made men . . .; most depend on their political jobs for a livelihood and most have little time, inclination, of opportunity for adult education; hence the dominating qualities of so many are greed, vulgarity, attention to special interest, avarice, and selfishness.
I haven’t been blogging for a while, just laying back and enjoying my summer. I’ve been avoiding the news and current events as much as possible because so much these days is fake or just plain BS. I see things slowly returning to normal but I remain wary. Many people think the pandemic is over but I’m not a believer just yet. I honestly have difficulty believing anyone these days. I’ve decided that I’ll continue to mask up in crowds and in buildings until more time has passed. Booster shots of the vaccine will probably be in our immediate future and I’ll wait it out with my mask firmly in place.
“HOPE FOR THE BEST AND PREPARE FOR THE WORST”
I can’t resist taking a shot at the anti-vaxers. My suggestion to them is that they be as careful as possible when spreading their propaganda. They could easily end up with a seriously sprained neck. It’s hard to make a believable point with your head shoved so far up your ass. And please don’t waste your time or mine sending me any of your bullshit emails because as I’ve stated many times in the past, I.D.C. ( I Don’t Care) about anything you have to say.
Now I’ll return to my new deck and have a serious alcoholic beverage to celebrate the day.
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