Compilation of my short MORNING THOUGHTS.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page

I am old. I am done with anti-this, anti-that. I don’t eat that, I don’t say those; I don’t listen to that, I don’t watch those. Etc etcetera. If I can get along with the Left, Right, center, and the sides? Cool. If I don’t, I leave you alone. Arguments are so unsexy for a dude who sees, feels, experiences sexy in simple pleasures, easy cool, and accessible laughter. “You like potato and I like potahto / You like tomato and I like tomahto / Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto.” No prob. 🍅🙃🍑

I grew up watching Cowboys and Indians and war movies like “Combat!” yet I evolved into a virulent anti-war activist. I believe, our progression should course its due roads and avenues per mental transformation, emotional maturity, and physical growth. Denying children what they perceive as “child’s play” somehow alters or repositions their development grid. Hence, I never imposed my personal politics or “cultural truths” on my little kids. I let them be. ?☮️🧸

According to a study, gender-neutral words like “people” and “person” are perceived as male. Or many similar terms prioritize men over women. From now on, humanity will be fighting over these “correct imperatives” of existence. Meanwhile, 690 million people on earth are hungry, and 150 million are homeless worldwide. Six million die in Africa from unadministered diseases, annually. “Hungry” and “homeless” could mean “men.” too. Wait for the study. 😒😔😟

From 2016 to 2020, my Homepage was flooded with irate howls vs Mr Donald. Mortgage then: Around 3-4 percent. Gasoline, at $2+ average. Inflation? 2.8 percent. These days: Federal Reserve hints mortgage interest rates will spike 6 more times (from 5 percent) before 2022 is over. Inflation, 7.9 percent. Gasoline? Groceries? Yet no cussing from Biden voters. A 7-year old told me why: “It’s because Mr Joe doesn’t tweet. He just says weird stuff when he speaks on TV.” LOL! 👎👽👎

Today’s readership get/s news not from traditional news organizations but via Facebook or Social Media, where news items have already been squeezed into palatable memes and spoonfed by political angling per convenience. Also CNN, Fox, MSNBC etcetera are more popular for their opinion on issues over straight-through delivery of news info. The times when individual thinking and partisan bias are preferred over facts or truths. Even a donut choice is either Left or Right. 👍👽👎

Sports are all about business. Those who generate income due to popularity, gain most media attention—irrelevant that they recently lost or losing. As long as their endorsement deals are alive, they hug the coverage limelight. Examples. The L.A. Lakers didn’t make it to the NBA playoffs but talk is mostly on how many records LeBron James broke. In golf’s ongoing Masters, Tiger Woods is way down standings but all sports TV blahblah is him. Who is Scottie Scheffler? 🏌️📺⛹️

So popular are anti-rich memes. Just hyperventilating? There’s nothing much that we can do though about the super-rich. Pandemic days, wartime or peacetime—their profit grade exponentially grows to unimaginable levels. Elon Musk would probably be 4x wealthier next year. EVs sell faster than a $1 bag of chips. Why whine? The real problem isn’t the wealthy. The problem is a government that manages a country’s economy where the rich go richer and the poor go poorer. 🥺💵🤣

I like funny memes. But once memes start doing partisan immaturity with messed-up data or memes dwell on anti-Christianity slurs or the usual anti this and anti that whine, I just go to the dog/cat videos. Haven't seen pet videos that diss either side of the political extreme yet. But I don't unfriend "friends" by virtue of their voraciousness in sharing fantastic memes of offensive silliness. I just ignore and then type up my usual stuff as Alexa plays some Bee Gees. 👎😾👎

Many complain when they get unfriended or blocked due to disagreements. I understand. Sometimes I do, too. But as an old-school writer, I don’t really mind. Since the day I started to write professionally as a journalist (hence published, which was before the internet) or when I pursued my activism, I have been losing—and gaining friends. Didn’t even notice. Just the way life was. But I haven’t stopped writing or speaking my mind the way I was or I am. ?✍️💻

I seldom talk, especially in a crowd: 3 or more. Yet when I talk, I talk long. LOL! Same with my responses to Facebook discussion. But I don’t respond by way of the annoying laughing emoji or via cryptic one-liners. I type up long, complete sentences. And so I don’t usually respond back to a response since I already said what I needed to. Others should also say their piece. I was raised to shut it if it’s not important and say it when I need to, and in complete sentences. 👶🧒👴

About Dogs and Cats and their Buddies.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page. 

ALCOHOL contain/s ethanol and grain, which are toxic to cats. Alcohol poisoning can occur when your cat ingests just 1 teaspoon. When ingested, your cat's kidneys and liver will work to get rid of the poison. But if they ingest too much, their kidneys and liver can get overworked. Just like you, although you identify as a cat. You have been ingesting too much Maker’s Mark and PBR. Ingest fresh fruit juice, instead! 🐈🍻🐈‍⬛

CATS may not seem to appreciate the gifts you give them unlike dogs. Dog: “OMG! You don’t have to buy me a gift?!? But that is so sweet! I love you.” Cats don’t do drama. Meanwhile, cats are pack animals who want to share their bounty with their family. When a cat brings you an animal he/she caught, alive or dead, they consider you a part of their family. Now, you may check your kitchen counter drawer for a baby rattlesnake that your cat may have caught for you. A special gift. 🐈🐍🐈‍⬛

CELLPHONE addiction can turn into an obsession to check messages and reply immediately and lead to social isolation and a poor academic performance. It may also increase anxiety by creating an illusion that they had received a message even when there was no message, making them frequently check their phones. Yes, that’s the devil in your cellphone whispering into your digital brain. To fight the devil, you need to challenge and defeat him in a fiddle duel in Georgia. 👨👩‍🦱📲

DIGITAL refers to electronic technology that uses discrete values, generally zero and one, to generate, store and process data. In digital technology, data is transmitted and stored as strings of zeros and ones, each of which are referred to as bits. Most of the young these days think digital, you know what I mean? You must know how to act and react around them or you’d hurt their feelings. You dig? 👧🧒📲

ANY change to cat behavior can be a sign that something is amiss, and if you notice your cat pacing, it may be due to one of a few reasons: stress, boredom, pain, hormones, pregnancy, or a health issue. Or maybe she is stressed out because she couldn’t find her cellphone? 😼😾📲

IN comparison to dogs, cats do often enjoy more solo activities such as self-grooming or discovering their newest hiding spot. This independence could be tied to their wild ancestors, who were solitary animals. Just like the ancestors, the ninjas. Isolation, that’s how cats perfected their skills in siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts premiumPlus+, including claw ninjutsu. 🐈🥷🐈‍⬛

MANY cats like to bat at ornaments, pull things off, claw at presents underneath, and try to climb the tree. There have been many trees that came crashing down well before Christmas morning. As I previously noted, this is fake news. Cats don’t destroy Christmas trees as a “rule.” This info came from influencers who will later categorize cats who destroy and those who don’t as belonging to this political party and that. Uh huh. 🐈🎄🖐

IN order to reduce shedding, help your cat out by brushing them daily. Cats naturally self-groom though. Or ask them what’s wrong. They’d probably say they need to go to a spa for extra grooming. Fizz told me, some special foods may help. Like Chicken & Salmon Rustic Blend or Homestead Turkey Rustic Blend, with a high-protein content from quality meat sources like chicken, fish or turkey. Fizz has an endorsement deal with the manufacturer of this food, by the way. 🐱🥫🐱

CATS and Christmas trees don't mix? Natural curiosity makes it hard for cats to resist the decorations as playthings. Nobody wants a toppled tree! For Fizz and Ching, or Cyd then, that is all BS. Fake news. These koolcats never destroy/ed a Christmas tree in the house. If ever one ornament is missing and they are blamed, they’d produce a DNA analysis, physical evidence + photo exhibits from CCTV to prove that Arrow (or Georgia and Chloe then) stole the thingy and ate it. 🐈🎊🐈

WHY do people stare at their phones so much? It's a neurotransmitter that makes you feel good. Our brains are designed to release dopamine when we do something that meets a survival need, like eating or having sex. Countless studies have shown that phone activity causes the release of dopamine in our brains, making us feel aroused, motivated, and happy. Dopamine, get that? Neurotransmitter, remember that. 🥹📱📲

Facebook conversations, chats, and talks.

Previously posted on my Facebook page. Or written years ago, unedited/not updated.

I HAVE been reading thoughts and discussions/debates from FB page/s of friends and acquaintances—mostly former professors, writing mentors, editors and media colleagues, emanating from four corners of the universe. Facebook, thank you for this one-click wonder... 

       Interesting, intriguing, endlessly enlightening. I recall those days of yonder as a zealous youth hungry for knowledge and adventure, reading up on stuff from Freire to Nietzsche to Thoreau to Sartre to Camus to Mao to Toffler to Dylan to just about anything that is worth food for thought, chased down by a bottle or two of scrounged cerveza. It's always cool to sit down over a drink, whatever drink, with anyone who knows some—not simply a smartass agitator or trickster devil's advocate. Even in heated and intense joust, lessons are harvested. I learned a lot from those... 

       Meantime, it is kind of easier now to engage in a discussion since words and stuff are easily double-checked via google. Yet if a prospective conversant reasons, “I don't believe in Wikipedia anyways...” or “I don't google...” and we ask, “So what do you know?” and get, “I don't need to know...” then what is the point of a talk, right? I say, what we get on the internet are all 2nd or 3rd or 4th hand data. However, it is a common progression in knowing stuff and things to follow through—get out, go to the library, talk with people, visit places. But who wants to do that these days? 

       Ah! Still though I like talking with someone who has a baseline info about anything. Where did CD originate, are the Bee Gees British or Australians, what is Treaty of Paris, how significant is WTO, who is Sylvie Legere, was Genghis Khan really a jerk, how dumb was Columbus, how powerful was Isabella I of Castille, who is Tom Joad, how good was Duane Allman on slide guitar, what makes Ho Chi Minh a military genius, does fortune cookie exist in Beijing? But it is sad that today's humanity is generally interested in cryptic, 3-word lines only—short attention span earthlings who are so busy yet they haven't left their seats in the last 14 hours. Anyways… 🗣👥📲