ROLEY

Author: Kris Roley

  • This Used To Be My Playground. Or Drug Of Choice. It’s One Of Those.

    I realize that it might be a bit counterintuitive to talk about overusing social media on social media, but let’s talk about overusing social media on social media.   

    This has been weighing on my mind ever since Elon, who I will from this point forward refer to Incelus Maximus, Sooooper Geeeeeenius, bought Twitter.  It’s clear to me that he wishes to normalize the kind of toxic wasteland you’d find on 4chan or 8chan or worse.  Yes, I’m pretty sure there’s worse even if I’ve never seen it AND WHY WOULD I WANT TO SEE IT?  This rant is about not social media-ing, for crying out loud.  

    Grover Norquist, on an NPR interview in 2001 famously said “I’m not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”  That’s what Incelus Maximus is doing to Twitter, or X, or whatever he needs to call it to make himself feel like a man.  He bought the playground we all use, and he’s systematically taking away the swings, the slides, the merry-go-round, and the see-saw, until it’s a bare patch of land that he can pave over. 

    As a result, I’ve been roaming around all the new playgrounds to see what I like, but then I had a thought.  Why am I doing that?  Why do I feel like I have to find a new place?  I’m not sticking around the old one much longer, but who says I have to *go* anywhere?  

    I know, I’m telling you this on a podcast that I also post to TikTok and YouTube.   Not the LEAST bit hypocritical.  Hear me out.  There’s a difference between creating content and consuming it.  One actually puts something out into the universe, the other will take your time and your health if you’re not careful.   I think one of my problems has been the mindless consumption of social media instead of sitting down at my desk and creating something.   You know how this goes, right?  Sit down, pull out your phone, open a soul-stealing app, and then the next thing you know the kids have Masters degrees and you’re in a home needing a wipe and the nurse can’t understand front to back like the rest of the staff.  

    The only solution that makes sense to me is to create before I consume.  I will pick a home for social media, but create my content primarily for my own website instead of giving the techbro of the month the fruits of my labor.  

    On a completely unrelated note, there should be some labor.   Some kind of labor.  

    Any kind of labor.   

  • Shutter Saturday: Girl In The Dunes

    From our trip to the Outer Banks, this person was just sitting in the grass on top of the dunes reading. She began to turn her head as I started taking pics, I don’t think she was aware I was shooting her. The other two shots have her looking up into the sky with the back of her head towards me. But this…

    I am the last person to tell you that my photos are worth a damn, but I love this shot.

  • Friday, September 29th, 2023

    As long as there is an older generation hanging on to what they know, there will always be a conflict with a younger generation that sees a new path clearly.

    Even my generation is not immune. We were quite aware of what we were going through, but we need to know that the new children are the ones we’ll be spitting on and as much as we might like to break that cycle, it seems like this is just a circle of life kind of thing.

    The best we can do is Our Thing ™, and let them do Their Thing ™.

    And so it goes.

  • Thursday, September 28th, 2023

    There are times when I wonder whether or not the whole economy hangs on by a thread, that thread being ‘the way we’ve always done it’. Uncertainty and unpredictability throws the status quo for a loop.

    I’m not sure that’s the way a global system should work. I am sure that’s the way it’s designed.

  • Wednesday, September 27th, 2023

    If anything, the Work From Home movement proves that we don’t need to look a certain way to perform. But of course, that causes another problem. I’ve talked about this before. If we’re not in the office, then not only is the company wasting money for office space they’re not utilizing, then all the other things around that office suffer. The gas station, the coffee shop, the fast food restaurants, the bars. The folks that are supposed to be making the money at the worker’s expense are taking a beating.

    You’re not doing as you’re told. You’re a slow learner.

    “You must try harder. It’s not easy to become sane.” — O’Brien

  • Tuesday, September 26th, 2023

    Standards could also mean professionalism. That’s how the Boomers and older try to dress it up.

    If you want to be considered a professional, then be professional. A colorful swath of fabric around the neck is irrelevant.

  • Monday, September 25th, 2023

    There’s been a lot of talk about ‘standards’ lately. Many people of a certain age are lamenting the loss of standards. They are also crying about kids on their lawn, I suppose.

    They’re not mad about standards. They’re mad that a new generation of people aren’t listening to them when they stamp their feet and yell that it’s always been done a certain way, and opt instead to come up with a new way to do it.

    I hate to be dark about it, but eventually the annoyance will cease. Luckily, it will never have stopped us from the work.

  • How I Manage To Make It Through Christmas Alive (Or, Roley’s Christmas Club)

    I don’t think I’m telling you any tall tales when I say that a lot of us have trouble putting a little something away.   I remember seeing a story on more than one occasion that a good chunk of us in here in America would be in some real trouble if we got sick, or if we had a car break down with something major, or a major appliance breaks down and need replacing.   I’ve certainly been in this place, I feel like a lot of us have.   On a related note, no matter how much our young folks save, it seems like simple housing—even a studio apartment—appears to be out of reach of the younger generations.   I have three kids, my youngest is gonna be 24 in October.  They all still live here at home, because they can’t afford to live anywhere else.  It’s at the point where I feel like the best course of action is to pay off this house and give it to them with the understanding that you keep a room handy for Kim and I, and we go traveling in our later years.  That’s the goal.  

    For those of us who have children, we are now entering nervous season.  For me, Fall has meant the anxiety of thinking about Christmas.  Putting stuff under the tree.  Now, I have long since passed the age where Christmas has thrown up all over my Living Room.   I still get gifts for everyone, but nowhere near the tonnage I used to.  The anxiety of putting that money away has lessened a great deal, but I still get pangs as we get closer to Christmas.   But I have found a solution that works for me and mine, and I want to share it with you.    I call it my Christmas Club account.   If you don’t know what that is, I’ll explain.   I don’t know if this is a thing anymore, but you used to be able to go to your bank and set up an automatic deposit into a savings account to have that money there when it’s time to go Holiday Shopping.    

    But let’s say you manage to put some money away for Christmas.  I have a wad of money that needs something to do, but I generally have no idea what the kids are into at this moment in time.  If you’ve bought toy horses for the daughter because she told you she liked horses in May, but has moved on to Anime in September and never mentioned it, you might know what I’m talking about.   So, I’ve devised a solution that makes everyone happy, and I get to take care of Christmas with as little anxiety as possible.  The only thing I have to deal with is the usual Holiday Gloom that I get every year, but that’s another story for another time. 

    The main ingredient you need for this recipe is Amazon.  If you object to Amazon for whatever reason, that’s fine.  I understand, and there’s no hate from me.  Vaya con Dios, compadres.   It’s simple.  First, everyone in the house has a wish list that they’ve shared with me.   Over the year, they can put whatever they want on it.  Second, you have a gift card account with your Amazon account, and it’s reloadable.  I use it as a savings account.  Every paycheck I put a minimum of 25 dollars on that gift balance.  Just using the minimum if you’re paid twice a month, you have 500 bucks in that account by the end of October.  Of course, you need to make sure that you don’t use that gift card if you buy something on Amazon in the interim, so make sure you check how you’re paying for something before you place that order.    

    You must do this first.  Don’t think about it, just do it.   If you sit there and think about it, you’ll find another reason for that 25 bucks.   If you do it and don’t think about it, you may find that you don’t miss that 25 bucks, and it’s residing in a place where it can do some good in the long term.   Of course, you may find that you can contribute more, but I would say this.  If you can find you can contribute more, then your brain has made the jump into knowing you can put money away.   Take that extra money that you’re thinking about putting in the Amazon account and put it in a savings account for when you’ve got to replace that refrigerator.   Like you do.  I hope this helps, and if you have other ways to handle this, I’d love to hear about them.  

  • Shutter Saturday: Hatteras Surfers

    Right across the parking lot from the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum is a BEAUTIFUL beach, that has had less than ten people on it every Saturday Morning I’ve been there.

    One surfer totally made me as I was taking photos. I wanted to call him Ken, but he had a surfboard, his job is more than beach.

    However, I thought you might like to see these since this is one part of my trip to OBX that didn’t flame out.

  • Friday, September 22nd, 2023

    I guess there’s a broader lesson from my little OBX misadventure. I had a vision for what I wanted, which turned out to be beyond my knowledge of the tech I had in front of me, my imagination always appears to be beyond what is possible at my skillset.

    The lesson is that If you’re going to do it, then start with what you have and what you can do. Then work your way up.

    Now all I need is a plan.

    Famous last words, right?