A better position

The sleeping position works well for me. I’m probably in the sitting position too often too.

I’ve had positions of some authority somewhere in my past, I’m sure of it.

a bed or a bench?

A few thoughts to nibble at before I offer a more consequential one. Grab a drink, some might be a bit dry.

Walking on sunshine - certainly more stable than walking on moonshine.

Facebook confession: Bless me Facebook, it’s been 14 minutes since my last reaction to someone’s rant.

Poor Renee - So many people telling her to walk away. Wow, such a multitude of “Walk Away Renee” covers. And when I see the sign that points one way, I’m going to just stand, stare and cause a traffic jam.

Start playing bridge - I just discovered the game of bridge uses the terms, no-trumper and dummy. I’ve never even tried to play bridge but our dummy president doesn’t even make a good joker. It would be nice to have a no-trumper day.

When you retire you work by the hour. You punch out when you die.

I was just a kid with black and white TV when JFK was shot. I didn’t need technicolor to eventually learn that our world should not be viewed as black and white.

a sign found at an art museum

Now a slightly more serious thought regarding position. Are we/world/you/family/anybody in a better position today than a generation ago? Looking backwards can distort your view. The good stuff will appear larger in the rear view mirror. What exactly was better back then?

There are a few books out about this idea (I have not read them but did read a magazine article on this subject). Here’s my short take - yes in general we are in better position regarding life expectancy, crime, education, air quality and other stuff like availability of flavored yogurt. However, the better positions/conditions are not evenly distributed. Also, the billions of connected internet users become more aware of news. (first quarter of 2018, Facebook had 2.19 billion monthly active users - I didn’t know the number was that high) Since stories of tragedy, threats, disasters, deaths, and general awful events sell much better in the news business than the wonderful stories there are more people than ever before learning about awful stuff. It makes us think our world situation is very bleak.

One more thought about viewing/remembering the past. Often the bad times are forgotten more than the good times. (let the bad times roll??) The result of this is the past looks better than now. I reason this is because if the bad didn’t actually happen to you, you probably were upset because of its uncertainty. Uncertainty of possible bad events can be very scary. If that possible bad event never happens or at least if it doesn't happen to people you know, then later on you forget about it.

I recall a time when news organizations and government would worry about spreading a panic. Do they still worry about panics or have they discovered there is revenue in little panics?

Certainly we are better off. We have youtube. Ok here’s a cover (from Ally McBeal soundtrack) of that simple song about Renee and a street sign:
 

signs you are reading this

What you need a sign? 

How much would you pay for a guidance app for the rest of your life’s path?

Too often the spam email subject line reads 10 signs of blah blah blah. Typically the number of signs offered is between 3 and 10. I have yet to see the 37 signs of you are reading too much spam. (I suspect posting about “signs” might be a sign of that) People avoid a large number of signs to read, so 7 is good number of signs. 

Everyone is selective. You will read the 7 signs you are chaetophobic but you will tell the officer standing outside your car window that you never read the speed limit sign.

Of course I employed google searching for more information on signs. You know how google offers you suggestions to fill out your search words? Here’s a little time waster for you to try (how many signs would you need to determine you are wasting time). In the search box start with “signs of a”, then “signs of b” and proceed through the alphabet. You will find plenty of suggestions for every letter. Signs of the zodiac is a sign you reached the end. 

“Signs of q” had an interesting list of suggestions. Have you ever heard of a quarterlife crisis? Midlife is well known to be full of crisis. Midlife probably offers more than 10 signs of crisis. C’mon a quarterlife crisis? Really? Do we need a special name for each phase of everyday living? 

I was married with one child when I stumbled through my mid twenties. Sure a crisis could come at you whatever your age. But naming a crisis based just on your age is different. Life is a series of events. A bad event could be called a crisis but not every broken nail, nothing-to-do weekend, or bad date is a crisis.

Usually the "top some number" signs are offered.  How about the bottom two signs you don’t know Jack? 

1. You read these two signs. 

2. You want more signs. 

Does our world have too many mamby pamby lands?





another circus 

two questions for tuesday

If you could start a rumor about yourself what would it be?

If you were granted a superpower, which one would it be?

Please share in the comment section or keep it to yourself because why would you want to control rumors about yourself or grant yourself superpowers. Now if you are really quick thinking and efficient, you might combine the two answers and start a rumor about your superpower.

My answers:

• A rumor of my CIA agent days including fast cars traveling through the Alps.
• The superpower of being able to fly without any TSA security screening or confining airline seats.

Yes I know it’s still Monday in much of the world. But you see, now you have plenty of time to think about this and come back with your answer.

OR

Just leave something off the top of you head because what’s the hole in there for anyway?

another circus 

10 million a year

If you have been reading this blog for awhile you know the posts are typically not very serious. Today, a friend passed along a story link to me that was interesting and SERIOUS.

It's a story of Identity Thief that took place in San Francisco. here's the link.

The 10 million ? - That's the number given by the FTC of the number of ID victims per year. I had to get new cards issued because of a detected loss of records. My name was on that VA laptop that was taken a year or so ago. It's a big problem. Luckily for me, only the hassle of a new card (updating numbers at place with auto withdrawal) was the most I had to go through.

You remember that commercial - "what do you have in your wallet?" well the message should be about ID theft and why you should take unnecessary things out of your wallet.

There's an informative video about this problem on the FTC site. Check it out - you never know.