Category: Fourre-tout

“Social media are computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests (love life) and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.”

You are not on social media? What’s wrong with you? How the hell are you keeping track of your exes? Boyfriends, girlfriends, and all significant others? Aren’t you curious to see how they fare without your beneficent patronage?
Are they as miserable as you or did they already “hook up” with some insignificant nobody? And did they change their status? Already? Bitches… assholes!

Because that’s what social media are for… To keep track of friends… or that miserable jackass/bitch you were so fond of…

With Facebook, for instance, you don’t have to keep calling your ex and humiliate yourself anymore. Any social medium will tell you the story; with color pictures to emphasize how well these losers are doing without you. And if you don’t see what you are looking for in Facebook, turn to another medium. They are now a dime a dozen.

But everything about social media is not negative. They allow you to keep in touch with friends or relatives living or traveling abroad. I recently discovered that some of my friends were vacationing in Japan, Sweden, Peru, Israel, Argentina…

Now that postcards and letters are “passé”, how would you know that your dentist is gallivanting in Patagonia?

Besides love matters, you can also give free rein to your political views… But don’t do it immediately after breaking up with a wanton woman or an insensitive jackass.

You could go overboard… And political analysts (or worse) will duly record it. Just be glad that you are not living in a totalitarian state where speaking up could be hazardous to your health.

“Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it.”
Erin Bury, Sprouter community manager

You can also use social media to advance your career. Well-crafted resumes could do wonders for you.

So social media are not really that bad. You just need to learn how to navigate them. And use paddles and safety jackets. Do not provide too many details about your private life or your habits; you could be stalked.

Social media are here to stay. For a while. Until a bright whippersnapper comes up with a new brilliant idea. Then social media will disappear as quickly as flip phones or answering machines did.

In the meantime, enjoy it and stop stalking your good-for-nothing, two-timing, miserable, slutty EX-girlfriend.

Alain

Here we go again… Another mass shooting! Same old futile hand-wringing, ineffective speeches, and useless prayers…

After years of relentless bloodshed, we are still facing the same old problem. The unwillingness of American elected officials to ratify laws outlawing murderous killing machines.
The main and only obstacle for not banning assault weapons is MONEY.

Legislators are pressured (or rewarded) to vote against a bill that would stem the proliferation of guns in America. Whenever there is an effort to reduce the flow of weapons, money is changing hands and the initiative magically fails.

Some kind of “ectomy” (the surgical removal of some organ) needs to happen to resolve this problem; cephalectomy (the surgical removal of the head) seems like a good choice. The head of the Grand Dragon (NRA) has to be cut off and cauterized to stop this murderous madness.

We need to unmask the elected officials benefiting most from the largesse of the gun lobby. And then bring hundreds of reporters armed with microphones and cameras, and shame those venal mercenaries into forging a desperately needed amendment.

Asking everybody to surrender their guns is not realistic, but banning sales of automatic assault weapons is. Especially when it can be sold so easily to immature young men.

According to University of Rochester medical center, “the rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so.”

So let’s stop immature grownups from purchasing killing “toys”. Let’s stop anybody for that matter from obtaining highly automated killing machines. And let’s regulate the number of bullets sold to a single individual.

America is by far the country with the most guns (112.6 guns per 100 residents) and where it is so easily recklessly sold.

It can be done

Many countries around the world have successfully restricted the sale of guns.  It could be done in America as well.

Alain

What is the most popular sport in the world? Baseball, football, basketball, curling?
Wrong my unlettered friends!

“According to a FIFA survey, over 240 million people regularly play soccer in more than 200 countries, in every part of the world”, and the sport enjoys an estimated 4.0 billion (4,000,000,000) person following.

The 2018 World Cup final will be watched by an estimated 600 million people and yet, none of the Big Three American television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) bothered to broadcast the games.

WTF? Too busy with POTUS antics?

Today, soccer is played in the most remote corners of the world and its popularity has never been so great. Even among women, who are making great strides to be recognized as the equals of male players.

Soccer is one of the most demanding sport in the world, requiring a lot of strength and stamina. A match is played in two 45-minute halves with a half-time period of 15 minutes. Basically, all the players run non-stop for 90 minutes with a very short break in between.
Useless to say that there are no chubby players in that discipline!

But what used to be a well-regulated sport has degenerated in some kind of grotesque wrestling contests.

While watching some of the matches on Fox or Telemundo, I was aghast by the tactics employed by some players. The Beautiful Game is now more like wrestling, with a series of tripping and body slams occurring every 5 minutes. And very few of these transgressions are penalized! Very regrettable!

The chances of injuries are high and many players leave the field on a stretcher. But the financial rewards and glory are so great that all players will risk it all to come on top.

Once you have made it to the finals, you become an iconic figure in your country, and if you happened to be on the winning team, you are demigods.

❤ ❤ ❤

If I had young children with a surplus of energy, I would definitely stir them to soccer instead of American football. It is somewhat safer and more strenuous in the long run than briefly trying to contain a massive offensive lineman.

Alain