Social Media

Social media wasn't even a factor not that many years ago. When I first got into online conversations, it was years ago and began with chats. First a very simple format; then some more complicated, with more rules for who could (or was supposed to) join. Back then, there weren't nearly the options that grew with time-- for better or not so much?

 

1979, and it is me, but not today. If I used it as a current image, how would readers know the difference? Only if they'd seen current images that didn't look the same-- if I was wanting to be honest...

I read today that a woman sued Meta for her addiction to being online and got, I think, 3 million dollars from a jury. Not sure how she proved it as I only saw it had happened after it had.

To me, it seems juries go kind of nuts with paying out someone else's money as how can a site make someone get addicted??? I know it can be tempting to spend more time there than benefits one's life, but, addicted???

When I first got to meeting people, online, that I'd know no other way, it was fun. I used it to learn about other parts of the country, but I learned more, some not so good.

By now, most have heard of catfishing. Not the type that used catfish to keep fish alive when being shipped or the kind fishermen caught. No, this is when people took on an identity of someone else, maybe someone more interesting than they felt their life was. Also there is the use of photos of someone else, images found online usually, to create a new identity.

In those years of chats, I ran into the negative side of the internet with people who took money from others, lied about their identity, and cost innocent people a lot of unhappiness. The irony is these catfishers, I believe, came to think their created identity was real. One claimed to be crippled. He met the woman, he had tried to court with that lie. Did he think she'd not mind? I don't know, but he wasn't crippled and she did not take it well. Another guy pretended to be a woman because he wanted a lesbian. Bet you do not have to guess how that ended. 

Another word that has been more heavily used, but was first since 1938 in a play. Gaslighting is  a form of psychological abuse or manipulation in which the abuser attempts to sow self-doubt and confusion in their victim's mind. Typically, gaslighters are seeking to gain power and control over the other person, by distorting reality and forcing them to question their own judgment and intuition. This has ended up most brutal with kids, who have sometimes killed themselves over the tactic. 

Because I like reading about true crime, I have read more than a few who went somewhere to meet someone they thought would be a loved one, only to not just lose money but also their freedom.  

What's the lesson? I think be careful how much information you put out about yourself online to people you do not know. I am honest here about myself (would not have to be), but I don't tell everything. Do others even want or need to know 'everything?'

Social media is great to a point, but it has drawbacks also. People can be nastier than they would be in real life. Just don't believe all you see online even with photos, which may not be of the person at all. 

 

Iran and the West

 One thing I learned about Iran was when its name was changed from Persia. From what I read those who lived in that land never considered it Persia. It was Iran from its historic past and only Persia to the Greeks and the West, in the Bible as Persia. I guess the people are regarded as Persian but not their country, which goes back to the 6th century BCE and the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great.The Achaemenid dynasty, with leaders like Darius I and Xerxes, put Persia into history – Persia became known for its military might and artistic magnificence.

 

 from Stencil

 

The name change to Iran came in 1953 after what is known as the CIA Coup, which put the Shah into power to restore the monarchy over what had been ruling the land. The Shah aligned with the West and the United States. He changed the name to what he felt was more in line with its history. He set about modernizing the country and maybe the beginning of the Iranian people coming to resent the United States, since the Shah was an autocratic dictator and brutal in how he ruled. When he tried to change, it was basically too late.

 So, with the US connected to that when the Iranian Revolution came along in 1979 to install, Khomeini as the nation's leader, religious as well as political. the US was not seen favorably by him (the Great Satan) as well as many of the people.

That led to the hostage crisis, those who had been in our embassy (444), which lasted over a year with the last 52 hostages not released until Reagan was inaugurated.  

Some of this is, of course, historic. The US did 'bad' things, but some is religious. In Islam there are two versions (what I read), but to Iran's leaders, only one is valid. Their desire is not just to get rid of Israel, which they regularly declare, but to make all the nations follow the correct version of Islam, Shia. While many Muslims regard Sunni also as acceptable, not so for the leaders in Iran.

Where the US doesn't dress its women properly or follow the correct laws, it is a good example of evil in the eyes of Iranian leaders-- at least the ones so far. Our tendency to interfere with countries, where we disapprove of their laws, especially Sharia Law, has added to disdain for us and a feeling it's spiritual to rid the world of us.

Is any kind of joining together possible with those viewpoints? Seems unlikely though clearly many Iranians share a different view, by how over 30,000 were killed when trying to demonstrate for what they want to see.

Will a war change anything... ??? 

 

 

 

 

Current Affairs

After a negative time last week, I hoped to write something more positive this week. Well... I didn't come up with anything, and still recuperating from what went wrong. Still, this was on my mind, but it might be shorter than at a different times.

Because talk of nuclear weapons has been on the table, both from Russia and now Iran, it's hard not to think of it.. I don't really think it was more than talk from Putin, but whoever knows for sure. 

The world is well armed with known nuclear weapons in 9 countries (Russia; United States, United Kingdom, France, China, Pakistan, Israel (who has never formally acknowledged they have them, but it's believed), North Korea, and India), After the US hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII, no one has used them against another nation. I think the caution hss come from concern of being hit back.

Not just the US, but other nations do not want a country to have nukes when it has no hesitance to use the bombs. There are some joke cartoons about it and here is one I found online.

Kind of humorous except nothing involving a nuclear bomb is funny. There are other kinds of attempts to get Iran to stop trying to get a functioning one. Attempts were even made to buy peace. It can't work, not when Iranian leadership sees the United States as the Great Satan; so named by Khomeini when he took power in 1979. When religion enters into, who gets killed and who does not, logic goes out the window.

So, where are we now? I found this online. As with anything we find, how much do we really know?

Again, I got the image from a newspaper; but how much do we really know, ordinary citizens in Iran or the US? Just what we are told and what we know of history. 

As a way to better understand the Iranian Revolution of 1979, I suggest: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. It gave a better understanding of what that time meant to one woman.

Why does Iranian leadership hate us so much? I can give some info on that next week. It's though like so much-- complicated.

Of course, there are more concerns where it comes to Iran. Like sponsorship for worldwide terrorism, but that's not new for the world. 

Why did Trump choose to strike now? I've read that intelligence said the Iranians have 10 nuclear bombs almost ready to go. Iran has declared they can strike anywhere in the world, at their choice. So, we wait to find out or try to prevent that strike-- if it can be done. More next week on what I know of Iranian history and us...
 

negative times

 This was a bad week for me on multiple levels, which makes doing a blog I can feel proud about not a good idea. Hopefully next Saturday will give me more positive energy. I hope you all did have a good week. If you want to know more about what went wrong for me, leave a comment. Otherwise, I'll try to move on. 

I did want to put something positive here. It's from October '23. The photo is from our Arizona home.

 

mercury retrograde?

How much attention do you pay to astrology? I've spent time trying to understand it, but came to feel it relates too much to math for me. I do know my 'sign' and it does kind of fit. As for reading daily astrology tips for what to do, I don't check that. I have visited psychics, some years back, but not for years. 

There is, however, one thing I tend to pay attention to, if I see it-- Mercury Retrograde. The warnings are out regarding it starting February 26 until I think March 20. It is supposed to be a tough one; so I looked for a link to share here,for those who may be unfamiliar with it.

If it interests you, check it out at: https://www.thecut.com/article/mercury-retrograde-february-march-2026-predictions-survival-tips.html  

 old photo looking out toward the farm and a rainbow coming to our creek

some play time

As a kind of fun break, at least for me, from a lot of the upsetting news, I thought I'd share an app i got some time ago for play. I haven't actually used it on a book cover, nor do I use AI. I just play with it. 

You order it and then can use it as you wish. FotoSketcher. It lets you alter your original photos as I have done with a recent photo of me as well as photos from our desert home and the farm. For me, it's about play with many possible options to try. 

The following are all pencil sketching, but there are many others. Sometimes play is a good diversion from things we can do nothing about anyway.

  

farm from years ago, creek and barn before it collapsed due to old age

 

I obviously have many more. Here is a simple pencil drawing example, not one of our photos obviously. I think it does its best work with animals like us. 

 

a day for love

 For this blog, I had in mind a subject, then remembered it was Valentine's Day and felt this was better. We have so much pain out there, and sometimes in our lives, that it's good to have at least one day to take deep breaths and concentrate on love. It's not about cards, flowers, candy, etc., not even about having a special one. Instead, we need to take a break from being mad or afraid and let love seep in and fill us.

Regarding love, I've had two quotes that I carried with me through life, but especially when I was raising children. The first is:

 Let my love, like sunlight, surround you and yet give you illumined freedom. Rabindranath Tagore. 

I think its meaning is pretty obvious. I wrote it on a small piece of paper for my wallet.

Then, there was this one, which I tended to keep on refrigerators.   

"If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it's yours. If it does not, it was never meant to be." the quote is often attributed, in one form or another, to author Richard Bach.

 To me, the important part is not love that profits us but rather what we freely give. If the one we love no longer wants or needs to be with us, set it free without guilt. Not easy to live, but I believe at the heart of true love. It can leave a bit of a hole.

The second quote, by the way, does not apply to pets, cows, horses, etc.