ROLEY

  • Thursday, October 5th, 2023

    Social Media Warriors. Keyboard Commandos. People who don’t know how to human.

    Chaos Agents, bomb throwers, soundbite seekers, world burners.

    This is what we’re dealing with if you let it in.

    Do we need to? That’s the question.

  • Wednesday, October 4th, 2023

    Here’s something to think about: Did the anonymous nature of Social Media make it harder for us to let stuff go? Hell, even work from home might play a role. The cocooning we’ve done the past few years may have weakened our ability to human. So we lose our filters and we say what we think without giving a rat’s ass about the effects.

    We all might be an island, but we’re all islands on the same damn planet. We need to remember that.

  • Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023

    Here’s something I forgot from the corporate world: If someone has a job that centers around one thing, without which they would have no purpose, expect that they will fight like hell to keep that one thing to themselves.

    I forgot that’s a thing.

    When I offered to help someone by doing that one thing one time before they arrived, that person taught me how to do the thing, and then added several steps to the process that I am unable to do, so that I am unable to do the thing.

    This is the only thing this person does.

    It took me a minute to let that go and not take it personally. It’s not personal. Not to me. It’s deeply personal to that person. Let them have it. It’s not worth the fight.

    Just get on about your business, and thank your lucky stars that your job doesn’t revolve around one specific task.

    Right?

  • Monday, October 2nd, 2023

    “When two control freaks fight, one is killed and one is injured, but nobody’s giving up a goddamn thing.”

    I think that’s in The Art of War, Cubicle Farm Edition.

  • 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.