I had spent the morning at the cafe, where the wifi is free. This is habitual, and will remain so, at least until I get Internet at home. I was working for a while, and then just the usual: facebook and twitter, with some tunes playing on youtube. This is where I am while writing this blog..... at some point in the last day or so Walter Becker, co-founder of Steely Dan died...so I am listening to a Steely Dan playlist on youtube at the moment.
In the Steely Dan playlist from youtube....
rolling stone article: Walter Becker dead at 67
I have been spending more time on Twitter...mostly reading other people's tweets. I enjoy some occasional humorous repartee with others there. Some are clever, many are mundane, a few smutty,...too smutty, but such is the world we live in.... those who are not "snowflakes" dissolving into tears at any wrong word are boldly politically incorrect to the point of being vulgar. Apparently I prefer the vulgar... it is true. At this point in my life I do spontaneously laugh at the pithy, dark, vulgar tweets. To be as candid as many tweets: I do not fully understand twitter...what's it for? A lot of banter with total strangers who are cloaked in the bizarre trappings of the internet.... what the heck! i get a charge out of conversing with complete strangers.... and twitter keeps it even more anonymous. Yes, some of us do know each other, and a handful of us have actually met each other in person. This is a crazy-ass world we live in.... I cannot even imagine what my parents would think about all of this "internet business".... since my dad was a "tv head" I think he might rather enjoy certain things on the Internet,..and for certain he would be someone who would get lost in youtube and spend hours watching every next thing coming up on the list.... it's endless....
Thinking of my dad, who died a long time ago, I am quite certain that, had he not passed so long ago, the price of television would have killed him... "You PAY for television!? WTF!!! it was free! free, I tell you!" My dad? he was one of the first people in that town to get a tv,...he listened to the radio shows, and when they moved to tv they stopped being on the radio all together... he had no choice but to buy a tv to keep up with the storylines. Kind of amazing, when I think about it.... dad worked all day long - he raised hybrid carnations, his favorite flower..... but when he came in the house at the end of the day we ate dinner, in the large kitchen, and then we adjourned to the living room and gathered round the television set. That TV was only turned off when there were no broadcasts (yes, they used to go off the air for a few hours every single night).... or if we were not home. I have clear memories of hearing The National Anthem and the dull buzz of the test pattern playing, waking me from sleep, in my bedroom which was adjacent the television end of our living room. I can still conjure the sound of my mother's whisper, "Jim, wake up and come to bed." These are pleasant memories of my childhood.
Myself, I used to be tv addict,... got that from dad.... At the same time, I could take it or leave it. While I did follow certain tv programs, I was equally able to shrug it off and go outdoors. But, in the end, I have cancelled television service to my home. It is about 16 months on now.... no more satellite, no cable, no antenna. I watch dvds, and I have plenty to keep me occupied for quite a while into the future from this writing. It is peaceful in my home. I do not turn on the radio, I do not have Internet there, but for the cell phone, and my use of that is limited. And if you check the date of this blog, you may recall that the world has taken a turn for the worst,... there is a great deal of turmoil, much of it spurred by the media bias -they only tell one side of the story, they create divides, and stir conflicts.... we are not in a good place, humankind. All the more reason that I am very satisfied believing that I will NEVER again pay for television broadcast into my sanctuary. Not to say that I will not eventually have Internet service and subscribe to netflix, hulu, or whatever the current site is that gives low cost access to the largest number of old television shows and movies. Because I do have lists of shows that I am missing, or that sound interesting...... I am really only missing about 4 or 5 shows at any given time..... like Better Call Saul, The Walking Dead, Life In Pieces, Fargo.... it's been so long that I am starting to forget what I did like. I am ok! (If you had told me, 10 years ago, that I would be perfectly satisfied with NO television broadcast into my home --I would have laughed in your face and called you INSANE. --- imagine.....)
I have had an interesting year, so far... I have been unemployed for a while.... thus I have spent huge amounts of time sitting in this cafe. Free wifi, and a little coffee-- I am not really a fan of coffee...(unless we are talking about Breyer's Coffee Ice Cream)..... Not a coffee drinker,.. it does NOT taste good to me,..no matter what I add to it, it's just tastes nasty to me.... but I buy a cup of coffee, and often get the free refill...because they let me sit here all day long, if that is what I end up doing. I lose track of time, I get occupied, like I am now -writing,... sometimes reading, occasionally watching a video on youtube. I must confess to being addicted to Titus,... the comic Christopher Titus's television show (fox, early 2000's).....
"Papa" Ken Titus, delightfully portrayed by the amazing Stacy Keach -- it's TOO FUNNY to me. Funny, inappropriate, politically incorrect, irreverent --it makes me LAUGH OUT LOUD! .... I like Becker (starring Ted Danson) too.... look those up on youtube and have a look.... that is what makes me laugh. I will not apologize for any of it --it's FUNNY! I have to laugh at something, because life is not really funny.. ..... I mean life is funny, but it's no laughing matter when you are unemployed and struggling and afraid of losing everything.
I have begun a new business venture,... but it is straight commission work, so I am without income currently. I have say that fear becomes motivation at the point when all income ceases and fear of losing literally everything sets in.
So, please, for me, turn to whatever deity you pray to... God or Buddha or the Goddess,....whomever,... or just think good thoughts ..... because I really need for life and the universe to cut me some slack.... maybe I could have things go smoothly for the rest of my life... Nah, probably too much to ask....
what I need is to make enough money, each month, to pay my bills, and maybe a little more for food, clothing, basic necessities..... and if I could earn enough to take a trip once a year that would be nice too.
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