Virtual Hugs Just Don’t Cut It

         It was the third week of Church for the ward I’m in.  My sister Kayla said her ward had returned last month – or possibly in July.  She said that the members will attend every other week in order to allow social distancing.  I think that’s great that there are that many in attendance as the last time I had gone to her ward the attendance seemed even less than what this ward has been – a lot of empty pews and much social distancing – even before it was a thing.

         Wearing a mask can be bothersome, but it’s not a tremendous sacrifice on my part nor am I too proud to wear one.  I appreciate surgeons and dentists wearing masks, all the frontline workers required to wear a mask all day.  Surely if they can do it for 4 – 10 hour shifts, a few minutes to a few hours shouldn’t be a big deal for me.  The mask is not the problem.  It’s not being able to connect in the way that we did pre-COVID.  It’s a learning curve, I suppose.  Finding things that we may have been unaware of or had taken for granted.  I want to be to be fed but also assist in feeding  - which I do not.  It feels lonely like I am observing through plated glass and cannot break my way through.  But it isn’t meant for me to break through and I’m just having a hard time accepting it.

         We did have a testimony meeting today which was nice.  I enjoy hearing from those in the congregation – especially as it has been almost seven months since our last testimony meeting.  Most talked about having opportunities and finding peace within the turmoil or stopping to appreciate what strengths were learned from the trials that we’ve had.

         One sister came up to me after the meeting.  The sparkle in my eye was obviously not there and she was concerned.  I just don’t care for the distance that’s been created.  I had smiled a couple of times during the meeting.  Apparently it hadn’t reached or remained in my eyes.  I did pray that I would be spiritually fed and to a degree I was but still left feeling hungry as I had two weeks prior.  As of now I think Jenna and I will do just every other week.

         I’m supposed to meet with the missionaries which I guess is every other Wednesday prior to or right after the Book of Mormon class. Jenna had been attending with the secretary for the Young Women’s.  But YW is now the same day as Book of Mormon.  It used to be the same day as Relief Society but we no longer have activities and will meet once a month for lessons.  It will in mornings so our older sisters can participate.  Many cannot see to drive in the darkness. I can’t see to drive in the dark. 

        I look forward to General Conference next week and hope my heart is more open than it has been.  I have been so wrapped up in emotions toward the direction the country has gone.  I struggle with thoughts I had when I had learned about this revelation in primary now turned into a reality that I’m really not happy to be a part of. 

    When Jesus spoke in parables those who had the spirit with them were able to find the message that spoke to them.  The Pharisees, so set in their ways, did not recognize truth.  I am overwhelmed by how many Pharisees I encounter today.  I am shocked and I am saddened and have come to learn that I really don't know these people.  I pray that the members may be blessed as they prepare to vote in the elections that they will be open to whatever direction that God may lead us and may we always rely on him.

Hodgepodge of Thoughts

  

        I have been thinking of an assortment of things lately – none seem post worthy however.  I haven’t come up with any great ways to transfer my thoughts.  So perhaps I’ll just assign numbers.

 

1.     I’ve driven many mornings without having to deal with school buses and I always forget.  Thus I have been leaving the house a wee bit earlier in order to pick up Jenna who does go to seminary in person – at least for the time being.

2.     On our return we pass the middle school which has always had a flashing light signal before the turn.  But I have not seen the signal since mid-summer.  I told the crossing guard about it.  Thus far it isn’t working still.

3.     I’ve seen a lot more construction signs and reflective cones set up all over Myrtle Creek.  And they somehow become permanent additions as they had in Utah traffic.  I don’t like that.

4.     At the end of August Douglas County was instructed to turn all fire meters to extreme.  We’ve had over twenty-five fires across the state.  I think we are down to seven now. Our country meters have gradually gone down.  This morning the MCFD was set to moderate and now they have been set to low.  But this is still considered fire season so the restrictions are still in force.

The horrible air quality has been surrounding the state for over a month now, but Myrtle Creek got only a taste of it for two weeks or so before it rained.  The skies have been overcast and the air is more breathable and appears to be clean.  Fog no longer mingled with smoke – though there is smoke north and east of us.

5.     We see helicopters flying with their buckets.  It seems like the fires are further to make such a trip to fill the buckets and haul the water to where the fires are burning.  At least we’re told that the tough winds that we recently had did not spread the fires any.  Most of them are at least 50% contained.

6.     Before the month started the news channels started off the program with the newest and total of coronavirus cases.  After the month started fires were the leading story and cornona cases weren’t reported until after the first commercial break like it was an after thought of “oh, yea, and by the way . . .” almost as though COVID had disappeared.  But it was back to the first report and then the fires

7.     I have not returned to work.  I’ll wait until flu season and Christmas break if I do decide to return.  With these new hearing aids it is probably not a good idea as I haven’t gotten used to them yet.  Or at least the right one – which is the one I really need.  I think I’m okay without the left one right now.  As though the hearing aid isn’t challenging enough I will have to learn to wear them with a mask.  Doesn’t that sound fun?

8.     Saw the black flag as a symbol of our divided nation (politically) and had some Pharisees (my new nickname for Trump supporters) rattle on about the evils of abortion if I voted for Biden as though that is the one and only thing his campaign is built upon.  Beats dictatorship.  But I never said anything about Biden.  I never said anything about race.  But the Pharisees don’t understand that the definition of a civil war is a war between two organized groups living in the same state or nation and does not necessarily have to do with race.

9.     I’ll go on facebook to post a little trivial fact about a past president or presidency.  I will no longer be viewing news feed.

Servants, Masters and Manipulation

            I had graduated from high school in 1980 and had signed up for college the following year.  I did not have the internet or Google to help me with assignments.  I used whatever reference books I could find at the library.  It wasn’t until after Corey returned home from his mission that we purchased our first computer and added AOL dial-up.  It wasn’t much longer before the Google search engine was introduced.   

            I marveled at how quickly Corey could find references without ever having to leave the room.  Before that he had been a whiz at searching the card catalogues and familiarizing himself with the library as though it were his profession.  Google seemed to make life so much easier in some ways.

            I had not familiarized myself with the search engines or internet as quickly as he had.  I’m still not nearly as advanced or well rounded as he, but I have learned a lot more about how to navigate than I had just ten years ago.

            I went back to college and got my degree in accounting.  My courses were online and I was required to provide references for not only my assignments, but discussions as well. I spent more time on the internet than ever before.  I would normally turn to Google or YouTube to assist with my research.  I did not feel manipulated so much as annoyed with advertisements and pop-ups and YouTube’s suggestions of 60-minute videos on how to start my own business.  Okay, maybe they weren’t 60 minutes.  It just felt like they were as the demonstrators would prattle on and on before I had the option of clicking “skip.”

            Advertising, marketing - I didn’t even realize that whatever I might be Googling would also be advertised in my facebook newsfeed.  That was because I rarely ever looked at my newsfeed.  I would look at notifications and sometimes I would look at individual walls.  I did not make the connections until this pandemic.  I have discovered quite a lot during this pandemic—not all of it pleasant either.

            The Facebook novelty wore off about two months after I opened my account.  There was more than one time I thought about deactivating my account and had even attempted to do so at one time, but could not figure it out.  I remained on Facebook mostly to keep in touch with family members living in a different state than I.  Both Corey and my youngest son deactivated their accounts.  My sister is rarely on and my middle son is never on. 

In the beginning of the pandemic there seemed to be more posts created than what gets posted now.  That is a good thing that others have gotten on with their lives by abandoning Facebook or rely on values that cause them to realize that being on Facebook is not good for them.  There are pros and cons to the technology that we use.  One pro that I really love about Facebook is creating groups which allow sharing information with several people at once (such as church activities or family events—depending on the group).

Netflix’s Social Dilemma provides a huge amount of cons (see trailer here).  Those with ethics relate information about how things are.  They went into more detail than what I had already observed.  Good and bad, but most of it seemed to focus on the market manipulation and provided ways that we as users might protect ourselves. MIGHT.

Artificial Intelligence doesn’t know the truth.  Posts get shared and reshared and sources aren’t being checked.  Trump is itching for another civil war (which has already taken place on social media) pitting the red states against the blue.  What the hell?  We are NOT in a marriage contract.  We DON’T have to vote for a certain party.  We are allowed to vote for (or against) the issues at hand.  We even have the option of voting for a third party as I had four years ago.  The mascots of each party are the elephant (Republican) and the donkey (Democrat) as that is how someone had referred to Andrew Jackson (according to this article) and Jackson ran with it.  I think it’s now more appropriate to use for the Republicans as Donald Trump is the biggest jackass the nation has ever had in office.  Still don’t know who is responsible for having elected him in the first place.  He’s a monster who is interested only in himself—and actually so are many of his followers.

I apologize for not finding the original source

original facebook share posted by Ron Olesko

Another Ignorance Learned

            I have not unfriended or blocked anyone due to political views although I have unfollowed people due to their ignorant and often offensive memes.  My eldest son is the biggest culprit.  But then I never have shared in his sense of humor (or lack thereof).  I have family members who have unfriended him. He is not the same person he was at one time.  He has forgotten that he lost a wife and has developed into quite an insensitive person.

Masks are now mandatory in at least half the states – some are resorting back to lockdown.  I have heard that only USA has made the coronavirus and mask requirement a political issue.  For the most part I have viewed the anti mask wearers or Trump supporters as “me” people.  They abuse their freedoms at the cost of other people.  They are bullies.  Not all of them are Republican.  Not all supporters are Democrats.  What does that even mean to affiliate yourself with a party?  Shouldn’t we vote for the individual and not worry about what party they supposedly represent?

When I looked up the definitions of each, the answers seem to apply to the last four years.  So does that mean the definition changes each time we get a new president?  That seems lame.

I don’t recall sharing political memes until the after we had returned from New York.  Most of them have had to do with “freedoms” and “mask wearing”  My latest (and probably last) one features three bee keeper – two are wearing masks and one has bees buzzing around his exposed face.  The caption reads: “I told him as an expert in the field I strongly recommentd wearing it, but he just kept bringing up his ‘rights’”  My caption was “notice the freedoms enjoyed by the guy with the bees”  I had also made a similar comment on another post regarding life jackets.

One of my facebook friends pointed out that she felt like she was being harassed.  She doesn’t agree with me.  She’s a frontline worker who doesn’t enjoy wearing a mask all day – which I get – but you would think a front line worker would want others to keep their faces covered as it seems to be the frontline workers who are getting sick.

I got the message loud and clear. I have been doing to same exact thing as those that I have stopped following.  I have putting up reminders to those who agree or that fall upon deaf ears – so what’s the point.  My friend is right.  I have been just as ignorant as those that I have been calling ignorant.  How many people have I offended?  This crises should not be about who is right or wrong.  We need to support and lift one another.  Neither pro or con memes are uplifting.  Sure, some of them can be funny.  But they can also be hurtful.

Constitution Day - My First Online Assembly Experience

Well, the assembly was mostly on our voting responsibility - or at least that's what I got out of it.  The instructor asked.  What is November 11?  Here are some of the answers:

"Doomsday"  

"the best liar wins"

 

"Election hot mess, the day of voting"

We were referred to this website and quote.

John Adams said:

"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."

We watch a less-than-exciting video and then the conversation starts up again:

"I've heard that many reports say that the voting system is rigged, can be hacked, is faulty, that is fixed, that we just show up with false hopes in that the decision is already made by the 5 big families"

"The election is like, you have to pick your poison. My question is this. If the votes do not go the way that the ones who govern our land. Who has overall finally say so?"

"Trump is going to make our country file for its own bankruptcy"

"you can vote for any one even Mickey Mouse"

"there is a city in Georgia in which it's illegal to vote for Mickey Mouse - I don't know how they enforce that as our ballots are supposed to be private"

"what happens if someone gets the most votes to be president and they weren't running or don't even want to be president?"

The instructor didn't know, as it has never happened; perhaps we'll learn this year?

"So basically make sure you complete your ballot and won't no one vote for you, pretty much is what you are saying?"

"I get my ballots mailed to me...so I'm definitely voting"

"When did the popular vote start?  Article II Section I talks about electorates, equal to the number of reps and senators per state, and they vote.  So why do we even have the popular vote?"

"Utah is a Republican State.  I only know of one time when all 5 electorial votes weren't all Republican.  One time.  If I were to vote Democrat, I feel like it's such a waste.  It's like my vote doesn't even count.  Heck, just in my own household we seem to cancel each other out."

". . . but if almost the whole republican state vote democrat than what? because i know Idaho is a Republican state but I remember a year we were blue so that confuses me a little"

"At the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin stated his belief that public servants should not be paid a salary, for in paying the civil service, our government would not be made of "the wise and the moderate ... the men fittest for the trust" but instead by "the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions ... in their selfish pursuits.'"

"funny how I learned all of this in government and i don’t remember anything and everything you are saying right now is like a reminder of oh yah we learned about that."

Our instructor asked the question, which constitution states: “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,”

"15

no"

"i honestly have no idea"

"How 14"

"the one in the Constitution"

"14"

The next set of comments were made during the second video.

" i like Donald Trump's hair!"

" Isn’t that awesome??"

"exactly

lol"

"Donald Trump and Martin Van Buren.  Fine hair."  

"This is true; They might be related lol"

"There is a lot of awesome Presidential hair out there- Van Buren and Buchanan both had Presidential hair!"

"What happens to the money left over after they get the job? It is not going towards the US debt. Which I think It needs too. Since getting a government office is just pretty much based on

how much money you can raise."

"It goes onto a server in their basement..."

". . . fine haircuts"

"Elvis has left the building!"                       - I don't know why that got put in there

Now, this video and comments

"blast from the past"

"Please say that is the Steven Crowder video..."

"now that takes me back"

"I love this!"

"omg i member watching this in government class lol"

"i watched this in high school"

"Really school house rock....lol"

"I love SNL version better lol"

"This used to be on Saturday Morning cartoons.  I loved this!"

"i watched  this as a kid every sat morn"

"Saturday morning cartoon were the best!"

"yea i watched in a history class my Junior year"

"I know they should put these back on for our children"

"yup...good ole Saturday morning cartoons...and Reading Rainbow...<shutting up before my age starts shining thru"

"LOL…me, too"

"great and fun way to learn"

"hahah!!"

"Everything I know about history, I learned from schoolhouse rock"

"The good way to Learn"

LOL…. I hope you learn more here!"

Of course that was only just some of the dialogue.  Conclusion.  Class members said their good-byes and the assembly was over.  90 minutes after it started. 

Expressions

This is my face when I'm watching a video explaining absolute value:

This is my face when I'm listening to the the lecture for my management class:

This is my face for the presidential candidates this year: