SailorJ.com

Author: sailorj

  • Message in a Bottle

    Message in a Bottle

    It did not take long for the “Twitterverse” to respond to the purchase of the platform by attempting to fragment the Microblogging community. I’ve been watching a lot of different things happening and it seems like an apropos time to talk about it.

    Should you stay or do you go?

    Isn’t that what the Clash sang? I think I’ve heard a lot of strong arguments for both, but the question in my mind is who owns the intellectual content that you have created and uploaded to the platform. The Terms of Service that you had could be changed at any time. We have already seen that policies have changed quickly by the new CEO without regards to the affect that it has on the user base.

    I have a lot of content on the platform. It consists of Posts, Media, Likes, Direct Messages (DMs). Should I be concerned? Some pretty tech savvy people, like Leo Laporte have used services to remove all of their content from the platform, including unliking tweets, unretweeting, and deleting content. I have to say I am becoming a fan of this.

    The argument to stay

    is that you just keep doing your thing and let it bother the powers that be.

    The argument to leave

    is that you don’t let one person control your content and what you see. And by leaving you hurt the bottom line of a the company’s financials, since they won’t have as many active users to market to.

    For those leaving, where to do you go?

    This really depends because people want the Twitter experience without the drama. What is the twitter experience that people want? Anonymity, conversation, breaking information, and community. I think that’s what we came here for.

    You can go back to old school places, like Tumblr, Livejournal, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, and I’m sure a lot more places are out there that you used to use.

    But there is a sort of vacuum that was created as people went into the diaspora that people leaving twitter have fallen into. So enter the biggest plan which is join the Federation, Mastodon, this link is one of many servers you can sign up for that will give you access to community and beyond. It’s a twitter-lite system. It’s missing some features, but I’m sure this will become enhanced in time. Just like any Social Media system, there are rules and moderation.

    You could go to MeWe.com, CounterSocial, WT.com, or find community in a Discord Server or Slack Channel.

    Old School Blogging

    But if you’re like me, old school is old school. Buy a web domain, and set up a WordPress or other blog and blog for real. You CAN do it! WordPress has a very large community and you can own your own content and still connect with others doing comments and liking their posts. It might not be great for following 1000 accounts and having endless scrolling, but I assure you, the quality will be better.

    Nothing Lasts for Ever

    Just remember, nothing lasts forever. There were tech giants that have come and gone. Where is Netscape, Yahoo, Excite, Ask.com, Lycos, MySpace, and AOL these days? Sure they might be around in some capacity, but they are not real players. They are the Kmart and Sears of tech. They had their day. We will continue to see the human online experience change and grow. It’s a sign of the times.

  • Can you see the real me?

    Can you see the real me?

    It is a fact that we can only see reflections of who we are. No one can see their true self.

    Recently I went on the Lensa app and let them do the deep AI art on my profile photo to see what they would come up with. It was crazy and amazing. I enjoyed seeing it, but it made me ask, how do I vision my own appearance to the world.

    Sure I look in the mirror and get weirded out about every hair out of place, but to see myself with a full head of hair and smoothed out wrinkles and just a bunch of changes and outfits was eye opening.

    Who am I?

    We always want to know if we are more than what we think we are. It just goes to show, we can visualize ourselves to be something different and embody that.

    Is any of this the real me?
  • The Value of Friendship

    The Value of Friendship

    Anyone who knows me knows that I value friendship. There are a lot of things in this world that one could talk about being important, but the bonds between people mean so much to me.

    Friendship is about giving one thing of yourself to someone else that you can never get back, and that is your time.

    We choose who and how we spend our time. Having shared experiences and recalling them with old friends over the years is more than nostalgia, it unlocks parts of our brains that make us feel alive and remember how full of life we are.

    We have acquaintances and we have friends. It is important to know the difference. If you look at a place like Facebook or LinkedIn and see your “Friends” or “Connections” you might ask yourself, are these really my friends? I think some are friends, and some are just casual online connections. Even if you’ve met them in real life.

    What is a friend?

    A friend is someone who actually wants to be part of your life. They are more than an online Facebook birthday wish (And believe me, I am all about the birthday wishes). A friend sees and hears, then picks up the phone and calls you, or drives over, or engages you. A friends checks up on you. A friend wants you in their life.

    But what about that friend that you don’t talk to for a year, then you re-connect and it’s like you bridge the gap of time and it’s like the quiet time didn’t matter? We all get busy. As we get older we do find ourselves getting busy. People have primary romantic relationships, kids, jobs, and there is only so much time to have connections; so it can be easy to think we’ll get back to that friend and forget.

    Forgiveness

    Friendship is about knowing you have an amazing history of shared experiences, and a breadth of life that at one point you intersected with and sometimes that intersection will diverge. That’s ok. But forgive yourself for not being as engaged. Forgive your friend for not being as engaged. When the opportunity comes, and there is time, make it happen. Forget the past, and let bygones be bygones. Holding on to hurt feelings will never let you move forward, and you’ll only have bitter memories.

    Don’t have disposable friends

    I do not have disposable friends. I would like to believe that I would go out of my way for my friends. Sometimes I have not be able to be where I wanted to be to help a friend, but life hasn’t always workout in the ways that I think they would. Be consistent. Show up as much as possible. I saw a meme that said, tell your friends you love them and make it weird. I agree. Why spend time with people you just tolerate, that’s work.

    I have been very fortunate to have people in my life that have shared the path on my journey, and stick with me. These are the people I value, they are in no way disposable. Sometimes they are distant, and sometimes they engage me in ways that make all the difference in the world. There is nothing more appreciated than someone who takes the time and reminds you that you are important to them. Take the time and be a friend.

  • America on the Brink

    Facts 

    January 6th, 2021, Congress and the Senate (Collectively known as the Congress), was to come together with Mike Pence, the current Vice President to count the electoral college votes. They did come together in the people’s house on the Hill in Washington, D.C. to carry out that very important final step in declaring the next President of the United States.

    It’s safe to say that this is a very divided country between Democrats and Republicans. But there is a very dark hard right element in America led by the current President, Donald Trump. He held a rally in the morning and directed his supporters to march on the Capitol. The result of that continues to be documented in the annals of history.

    1000’s of Make America Great Again, Trump loyalists and followers breached the Capitol building and stormed in with the intent to disrupt the counting of the electoral votes, and some have evidence to believe they were going to kidnap or kill the Vice President. 

    The angry mob, which meets the definition of domestic terrorism vandalized the Capitol Building, Office Space, including smearing feces in the building.

    There is a lot to read and understand about what happened. A lot can be read in the Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol

    Commentary

    I am extremely concerned about conspiracy theorists having a foot hold in the minds of Americans. They present ideas that have no facts to support them. In this case that the election was rigged. Trump kept pushing that, with no factual evidence to suggest that any of it was true. Georgia manually recounted their ballots twice. It was not rigged in any sense. Our electoral process is one of the most secure and watched in the world. I have confidence in the system here in Florida where I live and in all the other states.

    Public Service is something that we have stopped believing in. There should be a requirement that to be President you should have to have given the oath of office somewhere in this country. Whether you are a city council member, join the military, or appointed to an office where you hold accountability to the public trust. It is a privilege to get to serve this country. We have to do it for selfless reasons. If we are not working on helping to lift up each other and do the right things that help every American, regardless of Race, Religion, economic back ground, etc, then we are failing as a country.

    This country is not very old, really. America is only 244 years old. Governments change, the world goes through changes, but watching our country, our Democracy tested by someone who would be a dictator if given the chance, and enabled by almost half the country is very sad. We have seen this in Germany in World War II. This is not a reach, this is historical fact. If you do not realize that the people that are involved are White Supremacist, then you are failing to understand that so many people are driven by hate and fear.

    Will America Survive?

    America has the right people in charge, because they believe in the rule of law. There are Democrats and Republicans that both believe in the rule of law. Anarchy can not rue the day. We fought a Civil War, we survived. Can Joe Biden be the man who brings us together? Will going after Trump as harshly as planned help people understand that America doesn’t allow itself to be ruled by despot leadership?

    I do think we will survive. I think we will be better for it. I believe that there will be sweeping changes in things like accountability, transparency and governance.

    SailorJ

    Democrats are not bringing in Communism or some radical socialism from a Soviet era as many on the right would have you believe. People need to get over it, and understand we will get through all of this if we work together. We will get past the Covid-19 epidemic, and this election, and we will see great days ahead. I have to think positive because what is the alternative?

    Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? I hope you see yourself happy.

  • Being a Best Friend

    So I really don’t do casual friendship for the most part. You’re either my friend or you’re not.

    You could be a. Acquaintance but that may just be a social connection. I have a lot of those for sure.

    But to be a FRIEND, that’s sort of being elevated to a level of importance in my life. It means I will connect with you, as my empathetic mind works.

    Friendships are relationships. Like it or not they are, and so much more. They are the place where we store secrets and they are the place where we laugh. It is the place where we smile and the place where we cry. 

    Friendships are the real connections that mean we help each other for no other reason than because we are friends. 

    Some friends don’t connect for a long time, but when they do, it was like they never skipped a beat. 

    Some friends check in regularly because they know they need that heart beat. 

    Friendships do change as we grow older, and time marches on. 

    We are busy with life and things that make it seem so hard. 

    But I am sure with the few friends I have, they are my diamonds in the rough, the realist friends that help me out when things are really tough. 

    Sending so much love to my friends. ?

  • Meme Thursday

  • Exploring your Authentic Self

    I think it is damn hard to have a conversation with yourself and say, this is who I am. We are put into boxes in this world. People tell us that we need to act and behave a certain way. Love a certain way. This is society and the importance to fit in has always been something to strive for just to have some peace in your life.

    But we are not all the same.

    -SailorJ

    We come from different backgrounds, genders, races, ethnicities, cultures, identities. And yet we are funneled into the homogeny that says we all are the same.

    I have lived the life of conformity. You learn to speak in a certain way. Walk in a certain way. You are focused to get married, get a house, have kids, the dog and cat and goldfish. I escaped from some of that, but something inside me has always said that I’m different.

    I believe that we all go through moments in our lives when we think maybe our calling, our direction should be one way. When we look back as I can do now, it is crazy to think how my life would have been different if I followed another path. If I did not have the burden of society and what others said and thought driving me away from my authentic self.

    Acceptance is so important to allowing people to be their authentic self. We are living at a time in the world where people have had the opportunity to explore and be themselves and in a blink of an eye, the world changed and tried to take away the individuals right to be who they are and love who they want.

    Society plays a role in an individual’s ability to be who they were meant to be. Even just allowing someone to exist without fear is a very important thing. People need to be able to exist in the comfort of their own skin and in their own mind. When they are, they are the most productive and their love is at its highest.

  • Moments in History

    There are a lot of people who are “losing their minds” over this election.  Personally, I am impressed by how many people voted in this election.  There were around 150 Million Americans that participated in the 2020 Presidential Election.  This didn’t just include electing a president, but also congress and most importantly, so many local elections and ballot initiatives.  

    But here we are, in a divided country.  As I see it, the country is split between Trump Republicans and Democrats of many different flavors.  By some slim margins, Biden won a few states that took him over the top, such as in Georgia, which went Democrat or “Blue” for the first time in over 30+ years.  

    What is different this time has been how the current President is treating this election.  He is fighting the results, unlike every other President and Presidential candidate before him.  We are seeing just about every challenge to the election process squashed and courts siding with election officials as there simply is no evidence of election fraud.

    Our Country needs to get together.  We have spent a lot of energy on both sides saying things like he’s not my president, regardless of party for at least the last 25 years as I know it.  Bush wasn’t your President, neither was Clinton, or Obama, and Trump.  So Biden isn’t your President either.  You may not like the person, but that person IS The President.  And yes, while I write this, the electoral college still has to cast the official votes for President, those electors are selected through a process that is from the victors of each state.  So basically those electors have an obligation to vote for whom their State has decided to cast its ballots for.  If they don’t they are faithless electors and there are consequences possible for doing that.

    At this point in history, I’m ready to move on with a new vision.  If the Democrats can bring all the factions to the table and work as a team, they have a real chance.  If they use a bully pulpit, like Trump has done, they have no chance.

    I know a lot of people think that we have been standing on the precipice of history, and I agree.  There are a lot of people with hate in their hearts, and I do believe that Love did Conquer Hate during this election.  Decency beat misery.  The problem is, it only barely beat it, and we are all left scratching our head asking why.  Over the next 4 years, maybe minds can be changed and we can return to normalcy.  If we can’t, the world may become a much darker place.  I’m going to look forward towards the light.

  • A Hard Talk

    Pandemic

    It is June, 2020. The United States of America and the World are going through some fundamental core shake up moments.

    The Corona Virus or COVID-19, has been a world wide pandemic causing people to social distance, work from home if able, and millions have become unemployed as a result. This has led to diminished incomes, and increased poverty throughout the world.

    Many businesses won’t come back from this, while new opportunities will reveal themselves as we get moving into the next year.

    George Floyd

    In late May, a black man, George Floyd, was detained by police officers in Minneapolis, pushed to the ground, handcuffed and an officer placed his knee on his throat an kept it there for over 7 minutes while George pleaded for mercy and his life. All of this was photographed.

    The outrage has been felt like a shot heard round the world. People are protesting and marching in the name of George Floyd, but also the many other Black lives that have been killed in police custody. The Black Lives Moment is actively drawing attention to this in a way that sadly, Colin Kaepernick could not do.

    #blacklivesmatter

    You can not hold up a bible and claim to be a good person. Love your neighbor as yourself is fundamental to scripture, even with all the horrible things that is written in that book. It takes more than standing in front of a church with a book in your hand to bring people together. After all, it is written, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The really story about that passage comes many verses before that, because Cain kills Abel due to his jealousy. This issue is about how we treat our fellow human beings. This issue is how Black people are treated in our society.

    Protesting

    I have heard it said, or seen it written, that no one gets to tell you how to protest. I agree with that sentiment, and I agree with it because unfortunately the biggest changes in this world have come from violence.

    Consider these Articles:

    Let’s face it. This country was founded on violence with a revolutionary war. Then we had a civil war. We fought in Wars around the world, in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East. Whether the violence is internal or external, it seems that violence is part of our history.

    In one of the articles above, they explain that while Martin Luther King used non-violent protests as a method of creating change, he did it in a way to provoke violence from his adversaries, to create sympathy for his movement.

    The Outliers

    If you saw any of these types of Memes on one of your chosen social media platforms, understand that this isn’t coming from the black lives matter groups. Trust me, there are a lot of people who are using this protesting time as an opportunity. There are rogue players out there that want to see us all at odds with each other.

    To think that Black American’s are not veteran’s, and equal members of our society is the problem. The meme above disgraces Blacks, Whites, Asians, Hispanics, and all other ethnicities and creeds. But this meme was meant to divide us. Don’t be fooled.

    The Biggest Change will come in your Heart.

    There is a reality that many of us live in a semi segregated society. Sure we encounter people who look different than ourself on occasion. But how many of us have neighbors that are People of Color? What are your experiences with Black people, or if you are Black, of White people? People who live in more densely populated areas probably have more regular interactions with people of all ethnicities, and that is a good thing.

    We have to remember that people are individuals, Love each person for who they are. Get to know your neighbors. Get to understand that people have different life experiences that have brought them to this moment in time and you may very well be fortunate enough to make this friend.

    It’s not easy to change decades of prejudice and hate over night. But we can do it.

    BLM, Kaepernick and the Police

    Just in case you thought I missed it, let’s highlight one important thing. This issue is about institutionalize racism in police departments nation wide. This is the problem that the Black Lives Matter group is trying to solve. People are tired of police officers killing Black people. There simply is not video after video of other minorities that have been brutally mishandled by police officers in the way that Black people have in the US, nation wide. Kaepernick tried to highlight the problem protesting in the NFL, but audience which tends to be Conservative White men couldn’t hear the message, and just saw him spitting on their beloved flag, which of course he did NOT do at all.

    Was this the catalyst to bring the change in America that is needed? I hope this is it. I really hope we don’t need another Black person to die at the hands of police to fix the problem. Police should be there to uphold the law. They should protect and serve. We need police in our society, just as we need firemen, and all other public servants. But they work for us. When I was in the Navy, I remembered that it was an honor and a privilege to be a member of the Armed Forces.

    There needs to be a national code of conduct for police. Treating everyone fair and equally under the law. Should be part of it.

    This moment in time

    It’s hard in this moment in time. There are so many moving parts to the world happening. It is not just this one thing and sometimes it is just one thing. But the barrage of imagery showing violence can bring you down. The barrage of imagery of people losing their jobs, and masks and isolation can bring you down. We are more divided than ever.

    In this moment in time, say no more.

    In this moment in time, say I will not let hate divide me. In this moment in time be the best human being you can be, and bring about the positive change in the world that helps the betterment of all humankind.

  • New Rules

    Pandemic blues have hit me hard. It’s tough being alone, and sometimes you really need a single person in your life. There are lots of jokes about how there will be a lot of divorces after this pandemic is over. I don’t know if that is as true as it seems. Life can be hard and cruel when you have no one.

    So at the moment, I have space for a best friend. I need someone life in person, whom I can look in face, whom I can spend quality time with. So I’ve got some rules about this BFF in the future based on what I know I need.

    • Be ok with making plans. Friends should see each other with the future in mind, and not just a distraction.
    • Call me up for fun times. Not just when they need something.
    • Communicate clearly. This is hard because we don’t like to hurt each other’s feelings, but it’s something that we need to do, and sometimes it may mean telling it like it is.
    • Talk about, Philia: Affectionate love, because the longer we are friends, the closer a bond will form between us. Love is an important glue for deep friendships. But with love comes the potential for a broken friendship and a broken heart.

    I don’t know if it is that difficult to find someone who will see things the same way I do, but I know I need to ensure that I’m making sure that these are on the radar, because if I don’t, then I will fall into the same situation again and again.