Ramble on: Just talking about stuff. "Facebook Talk." "Away from Home."

Response friends’ post on Facebook, slightly edited. 

Facebook Talk.

MY pragmatic take. Many "friends" on Facebook are just there, lifeless. Some respond just to tell you they disagree (or agree to disagree) with smartass language that'd ruin your next 3 hours. So I try my best to avoid falling into that waste of time/energy trap. 

       Meanwhile, ads are ads. Lifeless billboards. I still read those glossy magazines which are basically ads. One or two good articles emerge. On FB, I basically interact with maybe 10 people or less. Online or offline, I can only handle 3 (the most) to a meaningful, focused, grownup and sustained conversation, anyway. Most in here butt in with that annoying laughing emoji, throw links or memes probably made by high school nerds, toss juvenile one liners to, as I said, mangle your next 3 hours. 

       I post or write old- school. Then, before the internet, it was simpler. Write, submit, print. Do it again tomorrow. Subscribers to the newspaper or magazine number in thousands (beyond FB's max of 5k). Do they read me? Maybe. I didn’t really care. That was the marketing/circulation department’s worry.

       There were also pass-on readership and random buyers of the paper who may have read me. But I don't think about those a lot. I just wrote, breathed, and got paid. The past.

       These days, I still maintain a personal deadline or methodical, structured system of writing. I try not to get distracted by ads or rabble rousers. I start posting on a routine-like framework. Not impulsive. When I am done, I am done. FB is just FB. I got a dog and two cats and an old life to deal with beyond my political rants, grumpy thoughts, and sappy poetry. Still, Facebook is fun to me, therapeutic. Better than pills. 🗣📲💻

Away from Home.

I STILL read stuff that tend to, maybe unknowingly, offend foreigners like me. “Aliens” are normal people, not weird. They are in "abnormal" situations being away from home and family and estranged from their cultural identities. So when they try to live some traditional ways which are not illegal anyways, it's okay. If those don't "harm" the next person, apart from some occasional irritation, it's okay. 

       Unity in diversity isn't a cool vibe that one gets because they listen to Mexican music, eat Ethiopian food, or watch k-drama. Coexisting with ways and realities by people who seem different is the true meaning of cultural interface. It is not what we say and write, but how we project these in practice. 👲🧕👳‍♀️