Monday, August 28, 2017

Random Thoughts: Off Topic + A Technical Question

Random Thoughts: Off Topic + A Technical Question

We interrupt our regular programming to bring you the following 3 Random Thoughts, so feel free to skip and come back another time when we return to our regular programming.

1. Technical Question: Blogger / Follower Profiles
If I remember correctly and if I wasn’t hallucinating, Blogger used to offer an option of clicking on those generous people who “Follow” your blog and you’d be able to see the names of their own blogs. For some reason that no longer seems to be an option. When I click on a follower all I see is a list of blogs they do follow, but not his/her actual blog. Hmm; am I missing something?

2. Most Recent Story
So I posted a story recently, which seems to have attracted even less feedback than usual. I wonder if this was due to either (A) the storyline theme in particular, aka the reason for the spanking or (B) perhaps due to an additional somewhat explicit image/gif (that I have since removed) which may have been too much for some readers? If you are so inclined to share your opinion as to if either "A" or "B" is correct, please do so over at that post.




3. A Personal Update for the sake of Clarification

On a prior post, I wrote about the status of my relationship. Apparently I was too vague with the following comment.


“… to starting anew in the relationship department.”

What I meant, was not that I started a new relationship, but moving on from my past relationship to start anew. A very subtle difference unintentionally easily misunderstood.

Not sure I am ready to officially start dating again and depending on which “professional advise” you subscribe to it may or may not be time. Regardless of being ready to date or not, a man does get lonely.

For those readers out there who are not in relationships, I am sure you can relate too well to that engulfing loneliness. Granted there are a few days when I am either
a) grateful and able to find the inner peace of attending events without worrying about having to accommodate the tastes and preference of another b) or catch a glimpse other couples and their intense arguments and I am grateful I am not in those situations (in a relationship for the sake of being in a relationship).

However, as just those two simple points are stated there are the obvious flips sides to those coins;
a) it would be nice to not have to always go to places alone and therefore b) it would be nice to have companionship and to be in a consistent relationship.
Social Media's Two-Sides
With that overview aside, there were two young ladies I recently “went out” with.

I was corresponding with one young lady for the past few months (she is my age for the record, but as you know, I use the term “young lady” generally because…well it is part of my relevant vocabulary).  We were not dating per say, just talking as she needed a compassionate ear for the many life trials she was experiencing lately. We talked often and it was nice to feel “wanted”. We went out only twice, it went well overall, but nothing more than a hug happened. Well thanks to (the negative side of) social media, it appears that she has found herself a boyfriend which came to a big surprise to me. As I randomly happen to come across her posts of weekend getaways with some other guy. Okay, so that answers that.

The other young lady (who for the record is 10 years my junior), was an old friend who had moved cross country, but was in town for summer visiting family while planning for an international move. We had kept in touch over the years thanks to (the positive side of) social media. I invited her out for a friendly get together. We had dinner and a long night of talking and drinking. To say that it was awesome, despite its apparent simplicity, would be an understatement. At the end of the night after walking her home, we made plans to get together within the next two days. To condense the story I eventually received a text canceling any further get-togethers as she thought it would be too complicated to simply hang out since she will be leaving the country in a few short weeks. I was stunned, confused and disappointed.



So there you have it, an update on my personal life that you didn’t ask for, but I shared anyways. It is going to be a challenge to start anew and an even bigger challenge to find someone who shares my interests, who shares our interests. And as I've said before on this blog; at this point in my life I don’t want to settle without that which I have accepted as an intricate part of my life. That which the majority of you have and currently experience in your relationships that which brings us all to blogs and places like this. Which just makes things all the more challenging.

Oh and if you have read this far, to thank you, I’ll give you the treat of playing a game.
I found the above inspired illustration this morning simply by chance and it somehow seemed to relate well in regards to the second “relationship” story I shared above.
Can you identify the name of the movie that this image references?


Have a good week and pray for Texas!



Thursday, August 17, 2017

Intermission: Thursday Check In

It has been an especially busy couple of weeks personally and professionally and on top of that my wifi at my home has been down. (I could post from the office, but I’d rather not).

Personal life has been layered with multiple responsibilities. From the ongoing day to day, to dealing with the issues of aging parents, all the way to starting anew in the relationship department. I may talk about these things later perhaps or probably not, but definitely not on this post.


On top of all that, the ever unfortunate steady stream of bad national news has made me rethink that this blog and my posts are trivial.

As you all know there is so much going on across the US at the moment that has taken my attention and added to my neglect of this blog. I won’t go off on my political opinions for I am fairly certain no one appreciates coming to theses spanking blogs and finding political commentary as has been demonstrated by other blogs.

What I will comment on regarding the political social climate is via what I had always believed in and what my ol’ elder friend Bud reinforced for me multiple times. I am sure I have mentioned him on this blog before.

Bud was sent to some tough places and multiple fronts during WWII thanks to chance and his rare “good fortune” as he would say. His stories were always honest, not embellished nor glorified.
His orders including being sent to Germany. He wasn’t part of the actual liberation forces in Germany, but the immediate post cleanup. 

Bud was one of the strongest men I have ever known on so many levels (When they refer to “the greatest generation”, he was proof). Yet, when he would speak of things he saw and things he had to clean up, he would almost break. I’ll spare you all the details, but he reminded me often of what he fought for, of what we thought we fought for. We should always fight for that which is simply, undeniably right. No, America has never been perfect, but it has been a work in progress; ever attempting to reach a moral ideal. And those ideals are what we should continue to fight for.

.............

Done.

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I’ll leave you with some eye candy. For that is why you come here, is it not?
Perhaps this blog and these posts are what the soul needs at times; a simple distraction - and in that it serves a purpose - ?