Why I Finally Had to Unfollow Someone on Social Media

 I recently had to unfollow someone on Instagram, Facebook and a Group we were in together. Now I don’t do this…ever! If I don’t like what someone says, I just disregard it because I know that I can’t agree with everyone 100% of the time, we are all individuals. If we just get rid of everyone in our world that doesn’t agree with us, what a boring world it would be.

But I just couldn’t in all good conscience continue to follow this person or her group. She’s had quite a rant about Donald Trump in the past, but on the day of the chaos that happened at the State Capitol, Wednesday, January 6, she just came unglued.

Let me go back to the beginning, she has a YouTube channel, which I have also unfollowed. She’s growing quite a few subscribers and with good reason as she’s fun, funny, smart, creative and has a “no fear” attitude that I love when it comes to creating Art, she just dives in and hopes for the best and 99.9% of the time it’s a work of Art!

She also has a Facebook Group for all those that follow her YouTube channel and want to share their art and get together with like-minded art loving, creative types. The group was fun, I enjoyed sharing my art work and getting feedback and I loved seeing everyone else’s art because it was inspirational.

On the day of the Capitol Riots she came online into the Facebook Group…which is her Facebook Group, she started it, she’s the administrator and I suppose she felt she had the right to express her political opinion on it. I didn’t copy down her exact words and now since I’ve left the group, I can’t go back to see them, but the gist of it was “Oh my God, Trump and Trumpers are the worst, this is disgusting and if any of you reading this are Trumpers then just get the hell out of my group or tell me and I will automatically ban you!”

Several people took offense and left a comment only to receive such vile and vicious replies from her and from others in the group that it was sickening. As if what was happening to the American Way and Democracy at the Capitol was not disheartening enough, she had to bring that hatred and single-mindedness into what was/is an Art Group for Creative people, not that creative people can’t and don’t have opinion, but “time and place” people, “time and place”.

I was saddened by her anger and hatred and even more so by the way she personally attacked and let others attack people that did not think like her.

I’m not saying that I am on the side of Trump, or the Republicans, or the Democrats or that I even have any political affiliation, that is my own personal private business, I believe what I believe and I don’t force my beliefs on others, unless someone asks my opinion.

Regardless, moving forward to a couple of days ago, I went to her YouTube channel during my lunch hour and was watching a video she posted recently and in it she said, and I paraphrase “I have not posted since my rant on Facebook and whoo boy, all I can say is Sorry, Not Sorry.” So, which is it? Sorry? Why say Sorry at all if you are going to follow it up with Not Sorry. Because of course, she is not Sorry. She felt justified in vilifying and attacking supporters of Trump.

I don’t understand how someone can justify hatred of a group of people, whether those people are members of a particular political party, race, gender, etc. I just could not in all good conscience continue to listen to her spew such venom and while I will miss her videos and her creativity and her group and the friends I have made in the group, I just can’t stomach hatred.

The Problem with Homemade Food!

      Recently one of my readers (Urspo of Spo-Reflections) left a comment about the home-made tortillas I made a few weeks ago. He had never made them and he wondered if home-made was better than store bought. Definitely they are better, but here's the thing...

     Growing up everything we had was home-made. Mom made home-made tortillas, usually flour but often corn tortillas as well. 

     I can remember she would give me a little round ball of flour masa (masa=dough) and I had my own little rolling pin and I would roll out my tortilla over and over again, often times dropping it on the floor and by the time I was done, it was dingy and dirty and mom would cook it for me on her comal, see photo below. (Comal=Cast Iron Griddle) 

     I don't think she actually cooked mine, I'm pretty sure when I wasn't watching she would throw it away and give me one of her tortillas that was clean and perfectly round. She would place a big pat of butter in the middle and I would cut little pieces of the tortilla and dip it in the butter which was starting to melt and it was the best thing I ever tasted in my whole life. Same thing with the corn tortillas...nothing better than a fresh home-made corn tortilla with butter!

     Fast forward to the introduction of the flour and corn tortillas in the stores. I'm not sure exactly when that was but whenever it was, that was when my mom decided that the tortillas she could buy in the store were healthier than the home-made ones, and you want to know why? Because when you buy them in the store, you don't see the flour and lard that goes into them, so of course they seem healthier.

     So we went from having home-made tortillas made simply with flour, lard, salt and baking powder (and my mother's love), to having commercially made tortillas made with Enriched Bleach Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vegetable Shortening (interesterified and hydrogenated soybean oils), Salt, Sugar, Baking Soda, Sodium Acid, Pyrophosphate, Distilled Monoglycerides, Fumaric Acid and Calcium Propionate and Sorbic Acid (to maintain freshness).

     And we wonder why we are so much more unhealthy than our ancestors? 

     So yes Urspo, home-made tortillas are better, they taste better and they are actually healthier for us. But of course the best thing is not to eat them at all, but c'mon...who are we kidding, we're not going to stop eating them, they are just too good!

     I had never heard the word "interesterified" and google is telling me it's misspelled, but it doesn't offer any meaning or corrected spelling, so I googled it. don't Google it, sometimes what you don't know can't hurt you.

Live - Laugh - and Love

 I was just getting ready to start a post about Christmas being over and my day yesterday spent putting everything away.

I have the TV on watching the Baltimore Ravens play the Tennessee Titans, yes...I am a hardcore NFL football fan.

A Progressive commercial came on. I love these new commercials with Dr. Rick. No offense to Flo, but I'm a bit tired of her.

This is the commercial I just saw. What caught my ear was the beginning when he says we don't need a sign that says Live, Laugh, Love to Live, Laugh, Love. I beg to differ! I need that sign, I have that sign, I love that sign!

I'm a huge believer in the written word. If I see something in writing, it sticks in my head, especially inspirational words, quotes, sayings. When I wake up in the morning I see the words, Live Laugh Love and it's a reminder that I've been given another day to do just that. Sometimes of course, like anyone else I, Waste Growl and Dislike, but I always have the next day to do better.

I also have another sign over the door heading out of my bedroom that says "It's a Wonderful Life"...many, many times I need that reminder, especially during these dark days of Covid. 

I have to see things in writing for them to stick in my head. So with all due respect to Dr. Rick, I will keep my Live, Laugh and Love sign!

So yesterday I put away the Christmas Tree and all the decorations. Since I was already in the shed where I store all my decorations, I went ahead and took out my Valentine's Day decor and got that all set up.

Yesterday was the first day of the NFL playoffs so I watched football while I did all this. Then as usually happens, I nodded off briefly and took a quick cat nap on the couch. Aren't those the best naps? The unexpected ones on the couch? I woke up so refreshed that I made a big pot of soup and some homemade flour tortillas! 

The last time that I had made them was in November of 2008 and I did blog about it, see that post HERE. If you want to make them, I share the recipe and the how-to. Wow, I just went back to review that post and I even did a video! 

This was in my previous home, I loved that house, I loved the kitchen in that house, the old-school green tile and the sink that sat in a corner. I miss that house!

I can see that the ones I made back in 2008 were a lot better than the ones I made yesterday, well they looked prettier anyway.

Back to watching football and working on coloring in a Mandala I drew Friday. 

Books Read in 2018, 2019 and 2020

 I just came on in here to do my Books Read for 2020 and realized I never did the one for 2019 or 2018! I have no clue what happened and why they did not get done. I thought I was keeping such good track. 

The great thing is that Goodreads keeps track of all my challenges for me. This post is basically just for my own personal history. I don't review any of the books, I just want to keep track.

~~~~2020~~~~

The Year of COVID-19. Let me just say I killed it! I'm sure the reason was because of COVID.

The goal I set for myself was to read 12 books in 2020. Drumroll please! I read 34!!!

Below is the list of all the books read. I will say that many of these were amazing! My favorite though would have to be THE HOME FOR UNWANTED GIRLS by Joanna Goodman. It was so good that I'm now reading the follow up book to that one THE FORGOTTEN DAUGHTER also by Joanna Goodman.

~~~~2019~~~~

In 2019 I again set a goal to read 12 books. I'm not even going to drumroll this one because it was only just adequate, I read 14 books.

My gift and my curse is when it comes to books and movies once I am done I completely forget them, so I couldn't even tell which of these was a favorite, but I do love Jodi Picoult, she's always been my favorite author. 

~~~~2018~~~~

My goal in 2018 was to read 25 books, sadly I only read 10. I think this was the beginning of my YouTube affair. I just love YouTube and watching artists create and watching tutorials. So a lot of the time I would have spend reading was spent watching others live their lives creatively!

In looking at my list below I see that I read a book called The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison and in 2020 I read The Silent Wife by Kerry Fisher, I find that funny. The one by Kerry Fisher is still fresh in my head and that one was pretty amazing and I highly recommend it!

Here's the total of books I've ready by year since 2009.

For those keeping track, that's 265 books!

For the year 2021 I've decided to set a goal to read 40 books! So far I've read one. I may even try to review a book now and again when I read one I really like.

So that's it for now, Happy New Year people and get reading!