Clickbait garbage articles deriding oldsters.

 

I work to teach my writing students to not make sweeping statements. I'm baffled by the sheer dreck churned out here by one Erika Salen or Sallen-- it was written both ways on the hyperlink attached to the author's name (below). I'm not a baby-boomer, and I'm not her target for derision, but I also realize the only point of articles like this is to get people to hop on their site to scroll through (hopefully, for them!) hundreds of ads. Still, articles such as this aren't well written, are rife with logical fallacies, and their overall theme seems to be that Baby Boomers are stupid and have terrible taste in food. It's going to be fun for them when they're the oldsters. "NO!" they will insist, "we were the COOL ones, and we have great taste!"  Their condescending progeny will tell them how hackneyed and sad they are, because they will have learned how to respect older generations from their own parents, i.e., not at all. 

Impudent upstarts gotta impugn, I suppose. It's really sad what passes for professional writing, of late. I'm too busy now, but I may come back to pick this apart.  The sheer amount of things they get utterly wrong is staggering, perhaps most especially the idea that the 1970s alone were solely responsible for any kind of food suspended in jellies. Hello? Aspic? From times before electricity and modern refrigeration? If one is going to write about historical periods of food production, one should, ya know, do a little research. If only there were some readily available compendium on the history of everything that the author could have consulted for some facts, instead of this judgey screed.

Oh, never mind. What an absolutely ignorant load of twaddle!

Tragically Gross Foods Baby Boomers Wont Let Die – Herald Weekly

Okay, zoomer. "How dare I?"  

You should be in school.

Make a joyful noise.

 To be called the superlative version of anything is a mighty feat. I just have a problem with people saying crappy things about a bunch of kids who dare to get out there and try something despite not being the most polished presentation ever. 

Tonight I watched a few high school marching bands on YouTube and then I had my heart a little dashed by the sight of my old high school band circa Fall 2022. Back in the day, we were a strict military marching style band, and the sloppy masses were corps style, which is pretty much everyone these days. I can forgive the corps style. I can forgive many things, even the spats, but capes? I admit that the capes sort of broke me. 

Then in my feed came this video, which I'm sharing not to mock these kids, but to say good on you for putting it out there. The video has a terrible title, and it's interesting that the video is still on YouTube, but... 

Were these young people the first ones in their school to even have a marching band? Did they have million$ in band booster supports, with luxury transport to and from the game? I think it took a lot of heart for them to get out there. I'll bet they got better and better with each performance. Most likely this was a marching competition (based on the fact that this was during the daytime, and the opposite stands are populated by groups that look like other bands. Competitions are nerve-wracking for young performers, and no one hits it out of the park every time. I say good for McAdams High School Band, and I hope they kept trying.

I guess this rant is simply to say that people are told to "make a joyful noise" and I take that literally. We may prefer if the noise is tuneful, well-rehearsed, and delivered by someone at the top of their game, but most performers have to go through the baby steps of some awkward performances before they get to that polished state. It's great that we have the means to record everything in the world these days, but it's also important to remember that the awkward performances we'd perhaps prefer to forget are still crucial for our development from ugly ducklings to the big sassy swans we're all meant to be. 

I say good on this group of musicians. I hope they went on and got their moves down pat. I hope they showed everyone how to haul off and win, even if they didn't on this day.

Sing quietly along...

 

Fuel to Fire by the exquisite Agnes Obel

Thank you, drive through!

I'm super-busy.

I've said that many times before, and it's always been true, but never to this degree. Each day is consumed with teaching full time, keeping my online selling business rolling, and working to get my next story completed to publish online. I'm also trying to be a decent human being, a task at which I feel I often fall short. But I try to be kind, and considerate, as much as I am able.  Even when I'm pulled in many directions and there aren't enough hours for all my obligations and so I have to cut out sleep and down-time for myself, I try to be kind and polite to friends. 

However, my wish to be pleasing and kind does not give anyone license to treat me as a doormat. 

People who want to see the worst in the world are guaranteed to find it. People who go around spoiling for a fight will, likewise, always find one or drum one up. I would never claim to be perfect, but I'm doing the best I can, here. Two people in recent times have come to my door spoiling for that fight. I didn't let them walk all over me, and yet I didn't engage in nasty personal attacks.

Indeed, I feel sad for their desolate states, that they should hold our friendship so cheap that they would try to turn their angst at others/the world/life's unfairness into a fracas with me. 

Not sorry, I simply don't have time for that. I wish you all the best. Thanks, but no thanks. Not interested. I will help you if ever I can, I hope to always be kind, but I'm disappointed. And with that, I have no more time to think about this.