a99kitten's Musings

What an insane week in the stock market (also 3 day blizzard.) I mean…it’s been a bit nuts since the crash in March but this week has been bananas.

I do love this stuff. And kinda hate it – mostly because I am so tired. lol I’ve been interested in this stuff since I was 19 years old. So I guess I am a nerd. But instead if caring about video games etc, I care about Wall Street junk. Well…obviously I care about some traditional nerd stuff: Star Wars, Marvel/DC, Star Wars, Disney, and oh yeah…Star Wars.

But I think what I hate the most is NONE of my friends care. I have no one to jibber jabber about this crap with. I mean…my ex and I chit chat about it the most but beyond that – it’s a meme to people and they don’t really care. Weird. Because it effects you. A lot. Even if you do not realize it. But ok.

I’d say I need new/more friends but who has time for that. I have to trade! (and shovel snow…and collect Star Wars stuff.)

Finally watched this movie and it was cute. I didn’t think it was as good as the first Ralph but it was cute. Best part was all the Disney “cameos”. Those were fun. But not sure if the morale of the story of “the girl needs to not always be attached to friend – a male friend obvs – and search for her own thing – which in this case is rolling with a street gang that commits crime…” is the best but ok.

Altho if the internet broke…would that really be such a bad thing? Really? I mean sure – I use it daily and love the convenience in some things for sure but I tried to stay off my computer, internet and especially social media this past Fri-Mon and did a 99% decent job. And let me say – it was glorious. Social media is toxic. Humans are toxic. Allow humans on social media – ugh.

I’ll be working on leaving social media more and more. It’s clear that unity = conformity in our new magical, glorious world and I say F U to that mentality anyway. I’ll still use it (Instagram) to post happy pics of Smokey because the world always needs more pics of cute animals. And maybe pics of toys. And monitor my FinTwit lists on twitter during market hours. But that’s probably it.

I will post here as my “diary”. This allows me to vomit out my thoughts. But since I am posting no links to this blog – and not allowing comments from the unwashed masses – seems ok.

But otherwise – F y’all (I really hate the usage of y’all unless you were born and bred in the south…)

Sometimes you have no one to talk to. You realize your friends – while you love them – are not always like you. And that’s OK. Except when you need to unload. And Smokey has no interest in hearing it :)

But sometimes, I just want to shut down all social media. All text convos. Anything. Because I cannot believe you are so fn stupid. I just have no patience anymore. Would rather ignore you at this point. Sad but true. Thankfully I get over things quick. And by getting over I mean, I simply don’t care bit by bit.

Think I will go back to logging thoughts here. Not sharing these pages – who cares. But cathartic to type it out.

F**********************************************CK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all.

A tip: If you have distribution deals with Costco and Safeway (or other large grocery chains) you know we can access your product at a discounted price. You’ve given up exclusivity for mass appeal and sales.

So then do not send me OHMYGOD CAN I BELIEVE THE DEAL emails that discount your wines by a few measly percent (at best, some have no discount) plus charge me shipping when I can just pick it up literally for 30-50% less than your full price at Costco or Safeway. It’s actually insulting. Offer me free shipping, or buy 5 and get 6th free or **something**. Without naming names since I like these places and don’t want to diss them, but if I can buy something from you for $22 plus shipping or I can pick it now up at SFY for $15, which do you think will happen? Hmmm…let me think….

I’m sure I am not the only person deluged with Black Friday, Extended Black Weekend, Cyber Monday and Cyber week e-mails. But come on man. I think 100 emails every morning followed by repeated ones through the day – sometimes 3 or 4 from the same store/site is RIDICULOUS. And honestly I just delete them all and don’t even look. It’s too much. Good grief Charlie Brown. I had to turn off the volume on my laptop because of the constant alert dinging from new email coming in.

The only 1 that caught my eye had a picture of Chewbacca slippers (Hammacher). So naturally, I saved that one. But still haven’t clicked on it.

And do NOT get me started on the snail mail catalog situation which I think keeps USPS afloat (well…afloat in USPS terms anyway…)

I love Christmas. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I am also a huge capitalist who loves to shop. And loves to give gifts! But the marketing departments really need to think about their campaigns and not not just think the solution is MOAR EMAIL MOAR CATALOGS MOAR JUNK.

Sigh…I know…not likely.

So….”feminists” and the media bloated in political correctness flamed Marvel all over the internet with this VARIANT cover drawn by an artist for this Spider-Woman comic:

EVIL AND BAD!

But J Lo just tweeted out this tonight:

PRO WOMEN!

Ummm?

#stupid and #ridiculous

These shoes were $525 in 2008. They are $965 now. Do NOT tell me there is no inflation. #governmentlies

Smokey decided on a different route this morning than the last few days. As we are walking I hear coyotes going bonkers again. And we are obviously heading in their direction as it is getting louder. A thought pops into my head about the little husky girl who lives close to there. And is allowed to run free (grr.)

As I turn from the street to head onto the trails I see the lady who lives a couple streets away with 2 of her 3 dogs leaving and walking back towards her street. The lady who has the little husky girl. But the husky is not with her. So I instantly thought “ohmygosh – my earlier thought!” about the coyotes. But NO WAY could this woman just leave her little dog up there?? I must have just missed seeing her?!?!

This husky is small. I’ve actually never seen such a small husky but she is feisty. She is literally about 1/3 the size of Shadow. But what she lacks in physical size, she makes up for in sass. She doesn’t ever back down from any dog and walks up to everyone. And basically is Queen of her street. She used to love Angelus (who didn’t?) but she gives a little grief to Shadow and Smokey. She likes them – tail wagging, follows us – but she treats them a bit differently than she did Angelus. More like she asserts her Queenliness to them.

Anyway, she is tough. But still – she is small and 1 dog. I could hear at least 2 coyotes. And there was no way I could just walk away thinking that all day. So up we went into the forest – getting closer to the coyote yipping. Smokey was excited actually. New forest to smell is always a good time :) He was on leash and frankly I was not too worried about him and I but I was really hoping I didn’t find any coyote den or a hurt dog.

Then I saw 1 of the coyotes who kept howling and yipping as he saw me approaching. I walked kind of closer but around and that scared the other coyote who was closer to us but hidden. He/she shot up out of the bushes towards the the other coyote. Then I saw a white butt and tail tear out of the bush and down the hill. And the 2 coyotes took off up the hill.

I tried to follow the white butt and tail but no way we could catch up (Smokey said he could have easily caught up if he was off-leash!) So we got out of the forest and headed towards the house where the husky lived. And there she was – sitting right in front of her driveway – in the street as usual (again…grrr.) She had dirt all over her head and paws.

I have no absolute proof that was her up there. But all circumstantial evidence points to it. It also points to the fact that her mom left her up there to deal with the coyotes on her own. Something that I cannot even fathom. But I hope I helped anyway. Perhaps it wasn’t her at all. Or perhaps the husky does this all the time and is fully capable of taking care of herself and I wrecked her fun time. But leaving your dog alone in the forest with 2 (or more) coyotes is disgusting. I want to go back over there with a bat and knock sense into that stupid woman. Sigh.

Smokey had a good time though :)

Every day over the last 2 weeks, I have seen news “news” stories about why people will argue over Thanksgiving because of discussing politics, healthcare, etc, etc. Things are pretty polarized right now and the media loves nothing more than to stoke that even more.

How about this? Apply the old adage of do not discuss politics (or religion in some cases) at the dinner table. If you know people disagree with you, and you won’t be changing anyone’s mind just like they won’t be changing yours, why ruin a family holiday/dinner/get together with subjects you KNOW are bombs.

Yes, it’s nice to be right. And of course you feel you are (I know I do!) :) But entering into a losing battle is stupid. And throw in alcohol consumption and you’ve got yourself a doozy. So just stop. Even if that ignorant, know-nothing uncle, aunt or in-law keeps pushing your buttons. It’s not worth it. Because then everyone gets angry. And looks dumb. And there is a good chance those people will leave early anyway to make sure they get in line for their cheap junk because THAT’S what the holidays are all about – not enjoying the day spending time with family.

And all the kids listening to the bickering? They will have another memorable family get together. Which is why when they grow up, they have Friendsgiving.

Cynicism: a Greek philosophy of the 4th century B.C. advocating the doctrines that virtue is the only good, that the essence of virtue is self-control and individual freedom, and that surrender to any external influence is beneath the dignity of man. — Cynic, n. — Cynical, adj.

I was catching up on my Vanity Fair reading in the sun yesterday. Actually just my legs were in the sun. It was so hot that my head felt like it was going to spontaneously combust after 15 minutes. And just why exactly are calves the hardest part to tan?!?! Anyway…

I have not read my VFs since last year so I have a stack of them. They are more of a summer time in the sun reading item for me. I like to page through the entire thing including the Letters section. I noticed 2 people wrote in about inaccuracies from an article about King Tut. It happens all the time and usually the pat response is “we stand by the author, the end,”

But in this issue, someone pointed out that the packing and shipping of the artifacts wasn’t entirely explained (having to do with political upheaval, the navy, etc. not just packing tape issues. Actually interesting details.)

The second letter pointed out that the article stated that the “Treasures of Tutankhamum” tour concluded at the Met in NYC when, in fact, it went on to the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco afterwards and that the attendance surpassed that of all other shows. And even that the museum stayed open longer several days a week (until midnight) to accommodate all of the visitors.

VF replied that the original article by the author included all of these details but they were cut due to space constraints.

Really? It’s a 13 1/2 page article (about half were photos.)

So a couple details about a subject you were writing about were just cut? And by cutting the SF detail, you could say the article stated a falsehood by saying the show concluded in NYC. I assume anyone taking the time to read the article was doing so because they are interested in the subject and wanted to know about it. So who decided these were insignificant details to simply cut?

But I’m not some huge Tut fan or SF museum tour fan insulted by this slight. No, my bigger question is how many times does this happen in more “important” articles such as Vanity Fair’s tiresome Obama and liberal ass-kissing/bashing anything and anyone not drinking the Kool Aid being force-fed to everyone.

The media’s job now is to sell magazines, newspapers, ad clicks, get eyeballs on the site and unique visitors up. The truth? Include all the facts? That’s just silly and old-fashioned. We report what we want to report. What we think you should read.

This is why I never, ever, ever just believe anything I read in a magazine, paper or anything from any “news” outlet. But you’d hope that at least the fun/fluff subjects would be easier to be honest about. I guess not.