Can’t Buy Me Love

On September 30, 2012September 30, 2012 By MaryIn Observations & MusingsLeave a comment

Please pardon me for waxing sarcastic and cynical, but we’re all allowed a little bit, aren’t we? You may want to prepare yourself for even more in the future…

Money can’t buy me love. Why not? It can buy me anything else I want. What’s so fucking special about love? Here’s some money…now love me dammit! It turns out that even love can’t buy me love. It doesn’t matter how much you give away, you still come up empty on the returns at the end of the day.

Oh well, fuck it. I don’t care anymore anyway. Who wants love anyway? How many times am I going to use “anyway” in this paragraph? I don’t know. Anyway…

Gimme a cigarette.

Now, there’s love for you.

But, once again, only on my part.

I love my cigarettes, but they don’t really love me.

They just pretend.

But, really, they secretly want to kill me. I know this. And yet I continue to spend time with them.

That’s real love for you.

Heartshine

On September 1, 2012September 1, 2012 By MaryIn Observations & MusingsLeave a comment

I recently suffered the loss of my little furry friend and companion with whom I had shared my life for the past 17 years. Needless to say, I was very sad and depressed to have lost my little cat-friend, Sissy. I have had and lost other cats in my life, but she was really someone special and the loss of her left a large hole in my life and in my heart.

I posted about my loss on Twitter as a simple expression of my grief. What I received back from people on Twitter – all virtual strangers who I will probably never have the privilege of meeting face-to-face in the “real world,” was nothing short of life and heart changing.

My Twitter friend, @SimonDevon75 sent me the following beautiful piece of prose that broke my heart all over again, while at the same time healing that broken heart:

What moves through us is a silence, a quiet sadness, a longing for one more day, one more word, one more touch, we may not understand why you left this earth so soon, or why you left before we were ready to say good-bye, but little by little, we begin to remember not just that you died, but that you lived. And that your life gave us memories too beautiful to forget.

Another Tweeter whom I have come to know over the past year, @Kilanalu, also sent me her love and support even though she, herself, had just suffered the loss of her brother.

This morning, I had a beautiful and life-changing exchange with a few other Twitter friends, some that I have known for awhile and some that I just met this morning through this exchange. My friends, @Atomic_Honey & @Atomic_Twlrbee, along with new friends, @Ravenval & @Marousia shared their special “garden” with me and introduced me to the word/concept of “Heartshine.”

Heartshine, to me, represents the wonderful and warm feeling that occurs in one’s heart when the outpouring of love from others is shared and received in one’s own heart. That is certainly the feeling that I experienced this morning. Sometimes, especially at times of loss, we can feel like life has lost its meaning and/or specialness. My experience of “Heartshine” this morning has given me a renewed sense of what life is really all about. In the end, the only thing that really matters is love – and love can only be expressed and experienced when there are others to share it with.

Thank you so much, my beautiful friends. I truly love you all.

Why I Love Follow Fridays on Twitter

On July 8, 2012July 8, 2012 By MaryIn Observations & Musings, Social Media1 Comment

Occasionally, I will see some criticism of the common practice of using the #FF, or “Follow Friday” hashtag on Twitter followed by a list of people that the Tweeter is encouraging others to follow. The main complaint about this practice is that it clutters up one’s Twitter timeline with basically useless and uninteresting content. This is not an entirely unfounded complaint as any Twitter user will see when perusing their timeline on any given Friday. However, I have looked past the “clutter” to the original intent and purpose of the Follow Friday tradition on Twitter and have come to love all of the little hashtags and lists of Twitter “handles.” Following are the main reasons why I have come to love Follow Fridays on Twitter:

Sometimes, I have a really busy week and don’t get onto Twitter that often, if at all. This makes me feel a little guilty because I have neglected my Twitter friends. However, because #FF has become such a tradition, I NEVER miss it. This gives me an opportunity to let my followers and followees know that I am thinking about them even though I haven’t participated with them on Twitter for a few days.
Another reason that I love Follow Fridays on Twitter is that the people that I follow and who follow me have some really interesting things to share and I really do want others to follow them so that others can enjoy the same benefits and interactions that I enjoy.
Finally, I love Follow Fridays most of all, because, instead of seeing the hashtag clutter, I see other potential interesting people to follow. If someone that I enjoy following is suggesting that I follow these other Tweeters, I want to check them out to find out if I too would enjoy following them. In this way, I have connected with even more interesting and wonderful people on Twitter.

So, if you are annoyed by all of the Follow Friday hashtags on Twitter, or if you are wondering what it is all about, check them out. Follow some new people and suggest great people for others to follow. Join the community spirit and find out what Twitter is really all about!

Follow Friday: Gratitude for New Twitter Followers (suzettemariel.wordpress.com)

The One or The Many

On June 19, 2012 By MaryIn Observations & MusingsLeave a comment

The One or The Many. The debate has raged for eons in philosophical and religious circles – and even in movies. Today, I was once again faced with the question myself: Should I continue to post about MANY topics on my blog, or should I narrow it down to ONE topic? Or, posed another way: Should I continue to have only ONE blog, or should I separate my topics out onto MANY blogs?

Today, I actually purchased two more domain names and pulled my Naked On a Strange Planet blog off of WordPress.com in order to host it myself so that I could “redirect” some of my posts to my new domains. I spent a good part of my day copying, pasting, and redirecting; as well as selecting new themes, plugins, etc. for my many blogs. When 5:00 pm rolled around and I realized that I had spent my entire day on this insane task, I said, “STOP! What are you doing and why?”

Do I really care how large my readership is? No, it’s the quality of the interactions that I have with people on my blog, and not the number of readers that I have that brings joy to my life.
Do I really think that I’m ever going to make tons of money from affiliate advertisements on my blog(s)? No, not really. Besides, we all know that’s not what it’s about, right? It’s about being able to express yourself and share your thoughts, interests, etc., with the wider world out there. I know for a fact that I will make more money actually working than I will ever earn by spending hours tending to MANY blogs instead of ONE.
Do I really suppose that if one of my readers has no interest in a particular blog post that they will unsubscribe from my blog? I would hope not. Just delete the email and don’t read the post – knowing that the next one will be right up your alley. Or…try something new and different on for size, you might be pleasantly surprised!

Finally, I decided that I had simply succumbed to a case of temporary insanity brought on by the ever-present, evil desire for MORE, MORE, MORE. More domains. More blogs. More readers. More search engine hits. More obligations. More time spent. More money spent. More aggravation, headaches, and…. You get the picture.

So, it is after much wasted time and effort, that I have finally decided to have it both ways: I will continue to have ONE blog with MANY topics.

Doc Daneeka is Dead

On September 16, 2011September 16, 2011 By MaryIn Observations & MusingsLeave a comment

One of my favorite books is Catch-22by Joseph Heller. In the book, the military insists that one of the characters, Doc Daneeka, is dead simply because his name was on the flight roster of an airplane that crashed, despite the fact that Doc Daneeka, himself, was standing right there insisting that he was not dead. But government paperwork does not lie, does it? Unless the government says it’s true, it’s not true.

Case in point – my local newspaper has a story titled: “Possible Tornado Strikes OC” – they have photos, video and dozens of eyewitnesses, but the tornado is still listed as “possible” because they are waiting for the government to tell them if there really was one or not. How pathetic have we all become? This just goes to show in a very obvious way how dependent we have all become on government and government agencies to the point of no longer trusting or believing our own eyes, ears or intuition.

Do you know someone who has no self…

On September 4, 2011September 4, 2011 By MaryIn Observations & MusingsLeave a comment

Do you know someone who has no self-confidence? Here’s how to help them feel good about themselves and gain confidence in their own problem-solving skills:

1. Call them up constantly complaining about all kinds of (non-existent) problems that you are dealing with.
2. Ask for their advice
3. Call them back a day or two later and tell them how great it all worked out for you.

If their advice is REALLY bad, though, you don’t want them using it themselves, so make sure to let them know of some “small” ways in which you “adjusted” their advice to really make it work. Hopefully, they will then take YOUR advice all the while thinking they are following their own.

Before you know it, your friend/acquaintance will be brimming with self-confidence and will stop calling YOU for constant advice!