Spring Semester is coming to a close. I’ve finished one of my classes. It was a Journalism class about how social media has drastically changed the news industry. My other class, an intro to art, also had a module about the possibility of social media engaging in behavioral modification and the art community’s protests against the commodification of personal data used for that supposed modification.

I’m not a big believer in Behavioral Psychology, which is the basis for some people’s fear of social media. Despite the claims of its founder and the researchers who followed, Behavioral Modification has never achieved its promises. So, I’m not particularly worried about “Big Other” replacing “Big Brother” as the new, scary monster. Facebook and Twitter are showing cracks. Impermanence is ever showing it is the only thing permanent in existence.

Anyway, I’ve decided it’s time for me to make an effort to resume blogging. I know it’s been a hell of a draught. Until the breakfast post of the other day, I’ve not put out anything for months. I’m not going to make any promises of newfound motivation. Hell, this might be the last post for months to come. Still, I’ve got a feeling Blogging will find its way back from the brink of obscurity.

Yeah, uh……. not sure what I am going to write. I honestly have no point I want to make. I’ve no grip. Not a bitch to voice at all. So, you’ve got to be wondering what the hell I’m going on about? I just had a hankering to post something on my blog. It has been a while. Some people manage two, three, or even ten posts a day. I’m lucky if I have the gumption to create two posts in a week. Most of them are about running. Sometimes they are about our cats. On occasion, I voice some political or social opinion. However, they tend to be loosely formed and without specific evidence to support them. It’s not that the evidence doesn’t exist; it’s that I’m too damn lazy to research, instead just surfing the headlines of the major news outlets.

Oh! There it is. I heard it. Did you? The collective gasp as people clutch their pearls because I dare to surf the headlines and not dig deeper. Whatever. I don’t dig deeper because most headlines are misleading; the stories focus on generating fear to suck the readers deeper and increase clicks or drive up ratings. If I’m going to post a political or social opinion, I want it guided by facts. I’ll scour a few stories to see what facts are consistent across the media landscape.

However, I avoid religious sites. They are notorious for cherry-picking only those facts that support their ideology and denigrate all other doctrines. Once upon a time, the Christian Science Monitor was a great news magazine. They had enough faith in their beliefs that exposure to other facts did not threaten them. But that was a different time before planes hit buildings and the nation collectively shit its pants. Faith that all is part of a bigger plan got lost. Suddenly, the Children of Creation started pointing their fingers, denying each other that status. We all are of Creation. We are all part of the Whole. The belief that all are belonging to the whole weakened.

And that’s the problem today. Many peoples’ beliefs are weak. They do not have enough faith in what they believe, afraid of any information which counters what they desperately cling to in a vain effort to avoid the perception that their religion, ideology, or doctrines are false. But these constructs are not fact-based. Metaphysics is about accepting we have very little knowledge about life and the universe. Ultimately, it’s about our lack of facts. Scientific methods work towards changing how we understand life because of the realization we lack facts. Religions, ideology, and doctrines also need to be about dealing with and accepting change. Change for which we have no understanding. To embrace change without facts showing how and why it is needed is not only reasonable; it is necessary. Those people desperately clinging to their way of thinking without allowance for change seem always to be the same who are afraid and angry.

Permanence is an illusion. Impermanence is the foundation of life. The only permanence in life is that it changes. Grasp the paradox that life changes is permanence, and we all might find the peace we seem to have lost.

Well, would you look at that. Seems I found a point.

As you can see, a new theme has been employed at this here old blog. I hope you enjoy the new look. If you don’t, what do I care. Like your opinion matters to me?

Really, it doesn’t.

No. Really.

Just keep it to yourself. Okay?

Whatever. Bite me.

Sleep well. Watch out for those creepy bed bugs. Don’t get caught up in any nightmare conspiracy theories. But do have nice dreams. Well behaved dreams.

Wait.

Nevermind.

I forget who I am talking to. The fact that you read my blog is the first hint that you’re incapable of behaving, let alone have well behaved dreams.

Anyway, good night.

Oh, and don’t tell anyone that tomorrow’s Monday.

I dressed up the blog a bit. Hope you like it. And if you don’t, who the hell asked you?

Wait.

I did, didn’t I?

Sorry about that.

Back in the heady days of 2003, when political blogs were all the rage, this custom developed over linking to other blogs. My old, deceased blog Rook’s Rant, had at least 250 links from other blogs. As I said, those were heady days.

As time went by, maintaining a blog became more and more of a chore. I coded my first website by hand. However, that was both too time consuming and overwhelming. Then Movable Type came along, offering a free, though a slimmed-down version of their blogging software. Over time Movable Type itself became too complicated. Also, Rook’s Rant was dying. So I bought myself a new domain name, and Guy Andrew Hall was created.

Today there is no online political blogging culture. Most of the more successful blogs converted to news aggregator sites with fees, such as Daily Kos and HuffPost. What I once called Blogstonia (there was Left Blogstonia and Right Blogstonia) no longer exists. Most other bloggers moved on as political blogging became another past fad.

That’s the way of it, though. Once capitalism becomes involved, free expression becomes suppressed. Not out of any nefarious design to eradicate free speech. It was out of a desire not to turn off readers. Money equals hits and free speech does not make money.

Anyway, this post was initially just an announcement about a new feature in the side column – a blogroll. There are a few bloggers still hanging on. My hope is to scour the internet in search of any other remaining political bloggers.

Bloggers, we need to start moving away from Facebook. Facebook is nothing more than Microblogging. It’s quick-hitting, preventing substance, and invites superficiality. Bogs of the past were able to provide the meaning beyond the one-paragraph posts we see on Facebook.
Then there is the issue of control. We can now control the advertising that shows up on our blogs if we choose to have advertising.
Finally, we can avoid Facebook jail when complaints result in that dreaded banning by an anonymous bot without any investigation or coherent guidelines. And I’m speaking kindly here.