Category: Raw

Raw, Thoughts

Quarantine Week #10

FanTC

This is normal.

I don’t know why conspiracies bother trying to stay hidden. They inevitably crawl out of the woodwork and blow their cover. I’m friends with hard rightists and hard leftists, and it’s been whiplash watching them battle it out on social media. I’m not sure I prescribe to the political religion, but I do think there’s always something going on behind the curtain which certain persons don’t want the general public to see. This I believe all day long. But there are other people more gifted in this field of study than I, so we won’t get into it here.

I had a strange encounter with political religion the other day. I made a light-hearted comment about modern plumbing on a friend’s meme they reposted, and one of their acquaintances made due purpose to comment on my comment. Again, I was talking about plumbing. They made it about capitalism shaming. I’m not sure the point they were trying to achieve, because I was in no humor to humor them.

If we were in a cafe – I and my friend – and one of her friends happened to show up, overhear our conversation, and decided in that moment rather than introduce himself politely, talk of the weather, the coffee, any number of other pleasantries, he decides to immediately conversation shame someone he has never met before and turn a half-heard subject into his political platform, it would be like that. It would be exactly like that.

We comment on other people’s comments all the time, sometimes positively, but sometimes negatively. Social media has put all of us into one big room together and provided permission for us to talk to anyone we want without proper introduction or pleasantries.

I suppose it would be odd if everyone went about introducing themselves and providing small talk on Twitter…

“Good day! My name is Robert. How do you know Anne?”

“Hello! I’m Clara. Oh, Anne and I met at the library. We shared a love of dragon fiction!”

“Jolly good! I love dragons myself. The meme she just posted on which we are both commenting rather makes me envision Capitalism as the great evil dragon of our time!”

“Oh… You’re in the camp of depicting dragons as evil villains? That’s really disappointing. I don’t like you. Good bye.”

“Well, if you didn’t want to get hurt, you really should have private messaged Anne rather than comment on her meme!”

 

This has been,

Fanny T. Crispin

Raw

Quarantine Week #8

FanTC

These are getting a little droll, aren’t they? Someday our kids might stumble upon these accounts, and it might help them to understand what we’re all going through.

 

After 8 weeks of the stay-at-home orders, the governors seem to be going back and forth about opening up shops and stores. The economy has taken quite a hit. There are so many Americans on unemployment, some may never regain their jobs, and small businesses are going bankrupt. My husband and I are so blessed and fortunate to be able to keep our jobs – for the time being.

That’s been 2020’s motto, hasn’t it? FOR THE TIME BEING. We are truly in the black hole of the unknown. We simply can’t predict anything for the future. I just received an alert of the airlines that they changed up our flight itinerary to Ireland (which totally screws with our work schedules,) and our only option is to cancel or…wait. Wait 10 days or 30 days prior to the flight to change anything. They’re so overwhelmed by flights cancelled, changed, rearranged, and passengers calling in to get resolution, they simply won’t accept a call/respond to an email until its your turn.

The flight isn’t for another 3 months. That’s how bad this unknown is. The government keeps extending this stay-at-home order by 30 days at a time. The frustrations are rising. The death toll is real.

I pulled some images from the John Hopkins University website. You can see the full reports here.

Covid-19

With so many different opinions firing off at once, it’s difficult to form your own opinion about all this. But the facts are something is happening. We can’t deny this. No one has experienced a pandemic like this before. We’re all just doing the best we can with the information available to us.

I’m sure reports will come out and documentaries made years from now explaining how our leaders could have performed better. But when those reports come out, their makers will have privilege to data we’re lacking right now. We are responding to each bit of information as we receive it and praying it was the right choice.

Stay safe, dear readers. Use your best judgement. And maybe send up a little prayer.

This has been,

Fanny T. Crispin

 

 

 

 

Mind & Body, Ponderings, Raw

Quarantine Week #7

FanTC

I think this “empty inspiration” – as my sister calls it – is the worst mood. Have you gone periods without writing creatively in which you’re out of practice and lack motivation to start? Yet when you watch a movie or read a book, you might be jolted with sudden inspiration! So you grab a notebook, laptop, tablet and open a fresh page, document, note and…nothing. There was no substance to the mood, just empty inspiration.

I feel this more often than not because I’m not actively working on any projects. I might pick up a chapter here or there when I feel the aptitude, but nothing substantial. So I end up with more notebooks than I need filled with barely begun projects started from “empty inspiration.”

You may have noticed a lot of creativity has been borne of this quarantine. Some people are finding extra time and boredom to create art. I’ve always felt art is a result of conflict and desperation. Desperate people feel extreme emotions, and these can often translate into masterpieces. Many people are feeling extreme emotions – fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, grief to name a few. And some of us who are not so terribly off and really don’t care to watch the news are just bored.

It’s true. It’s difficult to create when you’re bored, because everything you create feels boring. It’s a viscous cycle. You might have lost interest in your favorite shows and books, and hobbies or games offer no distraction for your mind. What’s to be done about such uselessness?

I practice yoga. It’s the most productive form of nothing a body can accomplish, and it rewards a listless mind with tranquility. I don’t feel like doing anything, and yoga can sometimes feel as easy as doing nothing. This is just my alternative to boredom.

How are you coping through it all?

This has been,

FanTC

Raw

(DON’T) Take the Survey!

FanTC

…

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Have you noticed?

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They’re everywhere.

They’re in your school.

They’re at your work.

They pop up in web browsers and emails.

They’re at the end of phone calls.

“Please take a moment to fill out this brief survey.”

I literally googled how to block email surveys. But that’s just the thing. There isn’t ONE survey server. There are literally DOZENS of them, and everyone is using a different sever, so even if you block one, it doesn’t block them all.

How much time are we spending filling out these statistic catchers? It’s all a marketing gimmick. They sell your statistics across the web to suppliers and vendors wanting to sell you something. Yes, they do want to improve your experience – then drop you in a bucket with your peers and turn you into a number.

Surveys. Man. I just don’t like them.

But if you take the survey, you could win something. If you offer up your information, it could be worth your while. Or you’re doing it to improve someone else’s experience. Because with enough surveys, companies can make an educated decision on what their consumers really want.

Surveys drive the numbers. If there aren’t enough numbers, then they issue more surveys. Push the surveys. Make people take them. It’s optional, but they’ll figure out what makes you tick, and eventually you’ll cave.

I wrote to my insurance agent begging her to take me off the survey list.

I really don’t like them.

They seem so harmless at first. They seem like such a good idea. Surveys drive the numbers. Everyone wants the numbers to be good. Everyone wants to be a part of something good.

“I took the survey. They improved their quality because of my contribution.”

Stuff and nonsense.

I will not take your surveys, ma’am.

I will not take them, Sam the Man.

I will not fill them out today.

I did not fill them yesterday.

I will not, would not take them now.

I cannot, could not like them how.

This has been,

FanTC