F**k Everything

In more than 25 years of being online I have figured out a few things about what it takes to get people to pay attention to you on the Internet even though I will never be able to make it work myself. The number one thing you have to do is be negative. Rant, swear, criticize... hate something. I have generally been positive. Certainly not always. No one is positive all the time and if they are it's 99% certain they're faking it.

I have always been mostly ignored and even though I know that's no different from the majority of people it still hurts. On the other hand, there are certain advantages. I am also mostly ignored by the trolls and that's a good thing.

After getting frustrated with blogging and several other social media things I found my place on Twitter. Still not popular but I got enough interaction with other people to make it satisfying. It's true what I considered my most "important" tweets have always been ignored but a few likes and replies every day is way better than I ever got blogging and, more important, I feel like I have a few actual friends there. But now a ridiculous billionaire man-child who never developed emotionally past the age of 3 years is wrecking it all because he, who is constantly in the spotlight, is somehow even more attention starved than I am.

So all the "cool" kids are moving to something called Mastodon. Why Mastodon? Why such a complicated and buggy platform? Maybe there are no other choices? Anyway, no one would follow me even if I knew of somewhere else to go so I follow the crowd. Or I would but Mastodon itself is blocking me from joining. I know it's just technical growing pains and it's stupid to take it personally but being ignored and left out for most of your life affects you that way.

I actually did sign up at Mastodon about six or seven months ago, fooled around with it for a bit but there was no one there I knew and not a lot of interesting activity so I stopped going there and of course I forgot my password. So I click on the Reset Password link and nothing happens. I try again. Nothing happens. I try several times a day for 3 days. Nothing. Someone suggested I create a new account. So I try that. I type in my email address and... it asks for my password. Not a new password but the password for my existing account! It knows my email address and will not let me create a new account without my old account password? What the hell?!

So I don't know. Maybe my online life is over. Maybe I give up on ever again hanging out with my online friends. And honestly, they probably don't like me as well as I like them. All the signs are there; I just never wanted to admit it. I'm annoying and boring.

I guess I'll stick with Twitter as long as it lasts then I don't know. Maybe do something useful with whatever's left of my life. Or more likely just veg out in front the TV steaming crappy movies on Tubi.

Me, the Return

Am I back? I don't know. I was considering it but I see my last post was about starting blogging again and... I didn't.

People on Twitter are talking about its imminent demise or at least its transformation into a conservative free-for-all hellscape. And some people are leaving and going... where?

I'll be honest, I'm more angry at the people leaving than I am at the new guy. Cowards! Twitter isn't one guy, not even if he's the owner. Twitter is all the people who use it to share their thoughts and interact with each other.

I said it in a tweet a few days ago and I'll say it again here, not that anyone will pay any attention either site: Why would you leave when you could stay and make yourself a problem for the narcisistic asshole?

Thoughts on Quitting and Starting Again

They tell you, "Don't be a quitter," but if quitting makes your life better then by all means quit! But this is only a blog and anyway, I never intended to quit so this doesn't apply here.

Spending time on Twitter instead of blogging has made my online life better though. On Twitter I get some feedback - likes and retweets and replies. On the blog, for the last few years I have felt like I was talking to an empty room. But sometimes I have things to say that are easier to say in a blog post than in a tweet thread. Still, what's the point of saying it if no one is reading it?

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely do not want to be an "A-list" blogger, even though I have things I wish I could say to the whole world. Popular bloggers get trolls. All I want is half a dozen to a dozen comments from half a dozen or more people on most blog posts. The bloggers I envy are the ones that attract a pleasant little community of commenters.

But whining about being unpopular isn't going to make me popular, right? So I don't know, I'm thinking I want to try this again, not every day but maybe one or two blog posts a week, but no promises.

The crazy thing, is that for a long time, even before I "quit," I have been thinking about starting another blog, one with a political focus. Haha, another blog to abandon. Oh, and then there's my (also unpopular) sewing blog which I have also semi-abandoned and would like to get back to. But we'll see what happens. One day at a time, as they say.

Lilacs

These smell soooo good!

Wild Plum

Welcome Spring

I think this is a wild plum but I'm not sure.

Companion Trees

Nature is fascinating.

Snow

October

Vintage Japanese Illustration

I found Kogundou on Twitter. The text is all in Japanese but there are many lovely images from old books, most of which seem to be children's books.