Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

I just saw a meme, which perhaps I’m taking a bit too seriously because maybe it was just meant for humor’s sake, but it’s part of a larger meme (what used to be called a meme before internet memes became a common thing and the word was stolen) about how old objects are somehow superior to new objects. It was an old-timey telephone, sitting on top of a pedestal, and on the pedestal was printed “When the phones were tied down, people were free.”
No, we weren’t. I remember having to look for a pay phone, and then you had to have change. I remember getting to a place on time and then waiting, and waiting, and having no idea if the person would show up in 15 minutes, or ever. Mobile phones, while some people might be more addicted to them than is good, have made our lives easier, by a lot.
Typewriters are another one that tends to fill people with nostalgia. I remember ribbons that got twisted constantly, using white out to make corrections, and after you’d typed something up, all you had was a paper version which, if you wanted anyone to see it, you had to show them. Today, if I write a poem, I put it online immediately, and thousands of people can see it. Mostly, they get ignored, but that’s really O.K. It is much easier to deal with thousands of anonymous people ignoring my poems anonymously than reading them aloud to friends, who would then do their best to ignore them but it could get awkward at times.
People talk about how print books are better than e-books ‘because they love the smell, and the feel of the paper, which seems a bit strange to me. The important thing about books are the words and stories they have inside them – which comes across just fine on Kindle, or any other e-book platform.
I suppose nostalgia has always been with us and childhood is one of the more popular stages of life, but to say we’re worse off because of all the cool gadgets we have today strikes me as ridiculous and unappreciative.
I must admit, I am not exactly an early adapter, and there is a lot about computers and other tech devices that I don’t understand, but I am not a luddite.
Technology, used properly, makes our lives better. Much better.

Normally, I find made up words to be kind of silly. A quick look at urban dictionary will show you literally thousands of words and phrases that people just made up and you would never have any idea what they meant without consulting urban dictionary and, after having done that, you try to use them in real life and get nothing but blank stares or the social media equivalent, which is zero responses.
But, I just saw one two minutes ago which legit needs to be a new word, and the word was legiterally, or its adjectival twin, legiteral. It is an obvious portmanteau of legitimate (or its shortened form, legit) and literal, which is one of the most misused words of all in this era of rampant misuse of words.
Since most people use literally incorrectly, to mean figuratively, or to mean ‘that’s a great metaphor and totally fits in with the stuff I agree with, it is necessary to point out when it is being used properly.
It saves us from either having to say literally literally, which could confuse people and some might think you still mean figuratively, you just mean it really, really hard, or adding an entire extra sentence, i.e. “Yes, I know the meaning of the word literal and am using it deliberately and correctly,” which is a bit overly verbose.
Legiterally explains it all very concisely. It is a word whose time has come.

The question was asked, “why is their so little intellectual content on Facebook” and most of the answers fell into two neat categories. Either “it’s the algorithm, this is all Mark Zuckerberg’s fault,” or “what can you expect, people post what they post and there are a whole lot of people out there who like cats better than thinking about stuff.”
The obvious answer is a little bit of both. I hate to say that, because it sounds like a cop-out, a common method of avoiding conflict and not pissing anybody off, but it is true.
How can we know it’s a bit of both? Because both exist. Whether it’s 60/40 or 90/10, this way or that way, that’s another argument.
Personally, I suspect that it’s way more down to the membership than the algorithm, like 90/10. Stupid, bland and meaningless comments don’t just write themselves.
Anyway, there are more intellectual sites. You can find out a lot on Quora, for instance. Or by eliminating all the obviously stupid people from your friends list. But, then you won’t have many friends.

Opinions on movies can change on a second viewing, sometimes, and it was over 20 years ago that I first saw ‘The 5th Element,’ so, I decided to give it a second shot.
I’d pretty much completely forgotten the plot, but remembered that I thought it was a ridiculously bad movie, something about the really hokey alien costumes not really fitting. Things like that work in Guardians of the Galaxy, or similar sci-fi spoofs, but this film (as I remembered) tried to tread the line between comedy and action adventure and therefore, failed on both counts.
Anyway, my estimation of it went up a bit on second viewing. Not that I’d ever rate it as a sci-fi must see. Some stuff was cool, especially when they were creating Mila Jovovitch’s character, but for the most part they had flying taxis, and a very cool resort in outer space, and that was about it. New York still looked like a slum, drive-in windows at McDonald’s were still popular, and they still used land-line telephones, for goodness sake. (which, admittedly, didn’t bother me at the time it was made, because nobody saw that coming)
But the big difference is that this time, not only wasn’t I paying money to see it at a cinema, which causes me to expect more from a film and be more disappointed if it doesn’t deliver, but also I just went into it with lowered expectations, so I kind of enjoyed the outrageous costumes and pointlessly bizarre plot contortions.
Then I watched Allegiant, which I believe was part 3 of the Divergent series. The whole violent factions fighting over a post-apocalyptic hellscape thing has been a bit overdone, but it was still a fun movie.

On the poetry site where I most often post my poems, the comments are generally of two sorts. The supportive ones, which are generally short and bland, e.g. “I loved it!,” “Beautiful!,” “Thanks for sharing!” and the negative, which are generally along the lines of “That sucks!” or “Your poems are shit” or “You’re a fucking moron.”
There is very little middle ground.
I must admit, I take pleasure in the supportive comments. But they really don’t help me improve any more than the others do.
I recently posted a poem, not one of my best IMO, but it struck a chord, much more so than average, and got a lot of comments. The vast majority were of the positive variety, and one was a gif of projectile vomiting. Not too worried, I’ve read that guy’s stuff and it’s all really depressing poetry about death and shit.
It would be good if there were more nuance. Constructive criticism more than insults. A relevant comment, or a poem of one’s own, instead of shallow praise.
Maybe I’m expecting a bit much. But for people who consider themselves poets, which implies a deeper understanding of the universe and a greater sensitivity to all things human, we sure tend to think along narrow lines.
We could do a lot better.