The Monday Peeve 19

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the #TMP tag, and link back to me (or not ~ I dgaf), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen! I have feelings!

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Last Monday I peeved: “Stop fawning over celebrities. It’s gross.” That was related to how people drool over pics of older celeb women and “compliment” them by saying they don’t look their age. Today I have a similar but different peeve: the continual obsession with Meghan Markle, especially with the negative conservative spin. Note: I’ve updated this post a few times since I first wrote and scheduled it last week. New info keeps coming in on this hot topic… you’d think it was more important than a war or something! 🙄

My first peeve is… why the hell do any Americans, but in particular righties, give a crap about the doings of the British Royals? Yes, MM is American by birth, but who cares? She got married in England and now lives in Canada. Yet, conservatives here are outraged that she gets any money from the Crown or whatever when she isn’t having tea with the Queen. Who gives a shit? Let them sort it out, or not.

Second, it’s clearly racist, especially for those who also carried on about Michelle Obama’s fashion choices and Barack’s golf games while staying silent re Melania’s clothing and Donald’s golfing. There have been side by side comparisons of the negative press MM received for doing the exact same things as the revered Kate Middleton (cradling their baby bumps, forex), and there is no other explanation except the difference in skin tone.

Third, there’s this whole awful underlying gaslighting thing going on and it makes me sick. On the one hand, MM is called a scheming gold-digger who plotted to nab a prince so she could live a life of lazy luxury. But when it turns out that she actually wants to work, not sit around doing boring teas, she’s lambasted for that and called a scheming hussy who only wants to trade in on her “brand.” No matter what she does, the haters will hate her, just as they hated Barack, Michelle, and their children, simply because she is not white.

It’s disgusting.

Note: the Royals and H&M have sorted things out. H&M will no longer do Royal things or be referred to as Highnesses. And they have to repay the cost of renovating Frogmore Cottage, where they live when in England. So, Fox News readers should be satisfied, right? Wrong! You can never satisfy haters. They are too deeply invested in their obsession.

~*~

Image originally from Pixabay.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

FPQ56: Drive Me Crazy

Fandango provocatively asks…

What’s something you consider to be terrifying that you have come to accept as a fact of life?

It’s probably not going to surprise anyone who knows me when I say driving. This is not an irrational fear. Let’s begin with some data.

The U.S. leads the way (rah!) on traffic fatalities. We have 12.4 per 100,000 population, about 50% higher than other Western nations. (source) Check that link for some reasons why.

Daily, I see people running red lights. Not once in a while… daily. I never see a cop chase after them, not once. Red light cameras have mostly been taken away due to cost and also there was concern they were causing more accidents (like the way Trump “caused” the Iranians to shoot down their own plane).

People speed and change lanes unsafely because… well, it’s all about them. They assume everyone else is paying close attention to the road. And whatever they have to do is more important than being safe. If they’re late, well, now that becomes our problem. God forbid people learn to leave enough time for appointments.

They tailgate because they are late and they are frustrated. Driving unsafely makes them feel better, I guess. Or they’re just not paying attention because they’re texting, chatting, eating, daydreaming, whatever. Or their judgment is impaired from drugs or stupidity or lack of sleep. Then there are the drivers who are armed, ready to shoot you over who knows what…

So, I “share” the roads with these maniacs and idiots and rage-filled criminals and hope every day not to die or get mangled in a car wreck. In 2018, about 40,000 people died in vehicle crashes ~ forty thousand (source) ~ not to mention all the injuries.

It’s weird how we’re supposed to be scared of molesters hiding behind trees in the park and bad dudes sneaking across the border to steal our lunches, but me… I’m terrified of driving, and yet I accept it as a fact of life here in Southern California. If you live in an area with great public transportation and don’t have to drive, consider yourself lucky!🍀

~*~

Image from Fandango himself.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Supplemental Peeve! 😡

I already wrote today’s peeve last week and it went live at 4am today, but as I read the replies to Dr. Tanya’s post about posting, I am feeling the need to peeve again! And I can’t wait a whole week, I’m sorry. There are times, my friends, when our peeves must be let out of their cages at once, or else… or else… idk what. BAD THINGS. 😱

Dr. Tanya asks…

1. How long are your blog posts on average?

They are exactly as long as they need to be.

2. Given the option, would you rather post long form or short form content?

I would “rather” post as many words as I need to per post until I am done ranting about whatever thing, or a piece of flash fiction is finished, or a poem has reached the end.

3. Time is short and the attention spans of social media users shorter still, why do you think the search engines prefer longer content?

My guess is that short posts are the tool of spammers and other annoying folks who like to fling out links to news articles sans commentary just so other bloggers will visit their sites and they’ll get ad click revenue. I’m pleased to learn that search engines are trying to thwart this nonsense.

Also, time is no shorter than it ever was, fyi. An hour still has 60 minutes in it; a day contains 24 hours as it always has. Not only that, but we now have a zillion things to save us time… who churns their own butter or takes their clothes to the river to wash them anymore? Okay then.

Am I supposed to care what my readers prefer? Well, my active readers seem to like and comment on whatever silliness I write.

Thank you! ❤️✨🤩

As far as everyone else, pffft. Like it or lump it, as a famous philosopher once said.

~*~

Image credit to Bitmoji.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Monday Peeve 18

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the #TMP tag, and link back to me (or not ~ I dgaf), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen! I have feelings!

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I need to give a shout-out to Melanie (Sparks from a combustible mind) for inspiring this peeve. One of her posts reminded me that I had this topic on my mental peeve list, but so many new annoying things happened that I forgot about it. Well, before that happens again, here it is!

There’s this trend that I hate (one of) where a woman of 40+ poses nude or in a skimpy bikini and people fall all over themselves to exclaim how she “doesn’t look her age.” But let me say that I am not opposed to people posing nude if that makes them happy bla bla. That’s not the issue here.

My issue is this constant drumbeat of how if any woman over 40 (or 50, etc.) looks good, then she “doesn’t look her age.” Wtf? Maybe over 40 is an attractive age to be! Perhaps over 50 is as well! Why is ayyyy congrats you don’t look older than dirt a compliment? Eff off! Who the hell decided that only 23 year olds can look good, so if anyone older does, she must be some kind of freak of nature? Oh right. Men decided that! 🙄

Another issue is when you get someone who is clearly surgically altered and/or enhanced, not to mention richer than God, posing very very carefully on her yacht or whatever. This is the one percent of the one percent… not something any normal woman could aspire to, and it isn’t even how the celeb looks anyway. It’s all fake! So, why even comment on how great she looks “for her age” (or any age) or ogle her as if any normal man would even be able to get through security to say hello to her? It’s all so stupid!

Stop fawning over celebrities. It’s gross.

~*~

Image originally from Pixabay.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Monday Peeve 17

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the #TMP tag, and link back to me (or not ~ I dgaf), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen! I have feelings!

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So, Apple emails me to warn me I have only a lil bit of cloud left. Hey, get off my cloud! I kicked some crap off, but it didn’t help much. I saw that I could buy a bigger piece of cloud for only 99 cents a month. Good deal. I will do this!

Ha ha ha ha. First, I tried to sign in on my phone. Nupe. It didn’t like my password. Go reset it in iTunes, it said. Okies. I went to my laptop and tried to find iTunes. Where’d it go? There was only Apple Music. I spent a few minutes obsessing over the fact that most of the songs were downloaded by my daughters when they were 10/12 and I never heard of these songs. I received permission to delete them. (Songs not daughters.)

But back to the cloud. Still almost full. What to dooo? Password reset… right! A vague tidbit of memory floated back about how there was no more iTunes… I googled. Yep. Just Apple Music now. Okay. I reset my pw there and deleted (hid) the weird songs. Then I returned to my phone to deal with cloud buying. It refused to accept my new pw. So I reset it again there. Then I put in my cc info and address, made purchase.

All yesterday (Thursday) I waited for the storage bar to update with my new bigger piece o cloud, but nothing happened. My bank had no charge on my card either. Argh! Maybe it needed to connect to WiFi to update? No. Turn off and on? Nope.

This morning (Friday), there was still no update. I tried to start over. It asked for my pw and would not accept my new one. I had to reset it again! Then all the cc info, including my address, I had entered and saved yesterday had disappeared. Argh! Why won’t Apple take my money? How is their stock price so high? Insane.

But finally the whole stupid thing worked and I have more cloud. Yay technology woo hoo. Rah. 🙄

~*~

Image originally from Pixabay.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

PFF29: A Good Offense

Welcome to Paula’s Friday Flashback! This is a challenge begun by Fandango and it’s fun to see what we posted back when (as well as the comments). The below is a reblog of a post I made on December 22, 2013. I’m pretty proud of this rant. Enjoy! Warning: contains swearing.

The Defense Rests

Oh look, it’s yet another article dissing romance novels. (Ghosh offers a tepid “apology” for his diss here ~ he has clearly never read a contemporary romance novel. See my last paragraph about “journalists” who do no research.)

And so many women feel compelled to explain/justify their love of this genre. No one says to men, hey, why do you like watching those explody movies full of gratuitous violence? Or science fiction flicks with goofy aliens. And what about that TV show about zombies everyone loves? Yep, zombies are fine, no need to question anyone’s taste on THAT, but romance novels… now those are suspect.

Most people even accept that men enjoy pr0n. Some women might not like the fact that men enjoy it, but they aren’t puzzled by the idea. It’s not confusing. But people who don’t read romances act confused about women who do read them. “I don’t get it. They’re formulaic. You know how they’ll end.” And so? We always knew Columbo would get the bad guy, yet we liked watching him anyway.

I’m not sure why people have such a problem with romance novels. If you don’t like ’em, don’t read ’em. It’s fairly simple. I dislike all science fiction except the original Star Trek, so I avoid it. That works. I have no interest in any zombie type stuff, so I don’t read or watch it. No problem there. But people who don’t read romances seem to feel a burning need to continually diss the genre.

Beyond that, we have the explainers and the analyzers. Must don Freudian cap and tell you vhy you like zeeze books. You had a strained relationship wiss your fadder, yes? Zomg. SHADDAP.

You know what the problem is? Too many fucking “journalists” and not enough topics. Every week these explainer dorks are scrambling for something to write about, but they don’t go out and actually experience anything, interview anyone, take photos, etc. They just yabber away from their armchairs and make shit up. Hopefully something annoying that people will click on so they’ll see some dumb ad.  Many are still sailing in the faint breeze from that Fifty Shades book  and trying to make a penny off discussing erotica erm blah yip yap SEX whatever.

Leave us alone and let us enjoy our bodice rippers in peace.

/end reblog

~*~

Image from Pexels

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Monday Peeve 14

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the #TMP tag, and link back to me (or not ~ I dgaf), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen! I have feelings!

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Spam again! This is of the textual variety. So, I give the pet store my phone number to text my receipt because that’s convenient for me. No piece of paper wadded in my purse, ya know? Less waste! I’m all about that waste, that waste. 🎶

But then they start pestering me on a daily basis about their stupid specials. I mean, how freaking clueless is this? I’m not gonna go running back there 20 times a week every time they mark down cat treats ten cents a package. For Pete’s sake! Inevitably, I have to completely block them, which is so dumb. Why can’t these businesses get a grip? No one wants to be bombarded with constant texts about sales at the pet store, or any store. It’s just such an idiotic way to do marketing. I’m so mad at them now.

My dentist, on the other hand, texts a couple times a year to remind me of my appointments and maybe one or two other things, like teeth whitening for Valentine’s Day. Well, he’s not a moron. 😁

~*~

Image originally from Pixabay.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Monday Peeve 13

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the #TMP tag, and link back to me (or not ~ I dgaf), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen! I have feelings!

This is an old peeve, but I would like to take the opportunity to remind my peeving pals that Monday Peeves do not have to be freshly baked. Old moldy peeves are totally fine around here. If, for whatever reason, an ancient annoyance springs to mind, feel free to rant about it. Declutter that dusty mental peeve shelf… air out that grievance corner in the emotional attic! Ahhhh!

What the hell was I even gonna talk about today? Oh. People who act like they want to chat, but really aren’t interested and/or don’t have the time. It’s cool… don’t bother private messaging me then! I have loads of people to confide in, most especially my two wonderful daughters. I mean, it’s great to make new friends, should that come to pass, but I don’t crave it. It’s not a burning need. And, in fact, I’m pretty busy… I don’t have time for all my projects in progress. So if you aren’t interested in real chat, don’t be a pest in the first place. Geez!

~*~

Image originally from Pixabay.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Monday Peeve 12

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the #TMP tag, and link back to me (or not ~ I dgaf), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen! I have feelings!

I could do all my peeves about driving, but I don’t want to be a boring boring. Now, I’m not the world’s greatest driver. I don’t have the fastest reflexes. My depth perception has never been fab. I make up for these things by being more cautious, which is a good trait in any case. I don’t mean I drive way under the speed limit, but I do stick pretty close to the speed limit, which in California makes other drivers really angry. Nothing makes some man in a truck more enraged than having to obey the law as he exits the freeway. What a horrible inconvenience! Why, I might have delayed him by a fraction of a second. He’ll show his displeasure by aggressively tailgating me. That’s so dangerous, but I don’t speed up to make him happy. I just get peeved.

~*~

Image originally from Pixabay.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Monday Peeve 11

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the #TMP tag, and link back to me (or not ~ I dgaf), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen! I have feelings!

This week’s peeve comes from Linda’s SOCS post this past weekend with flyer/ad as our prompt. Now I grok the marketing concept that you have to blitz a gazillion people with your ad to get one buy, and that’s fine for email, where peeps can delete spam no muss no fuss. But it is not fine for regular mail. It is not fine to continue to waste all that paper week after week month after month year after year that just gets stuffed into the trash. Not fine at all! It’s pollution and it needs to stop. Everyone should have the opt-out option for paper ads. Most of my snail-mail is garbage and I have to be careful that a piece of real mail doesn’t get buried in the middle of flyers for all the local promos. Grrrrrrr!

~*~

Image from Pixabay originally.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.