15000 Tweets and Counting!
With some 70-odd followers (I've cycled between 70-75 since my spring protest hiatus over perceived censorship), my tweeting is back to normal (I've gotten over 30K impressions/views over the past month). Granted, my numbers wouldn't even be a rounding error of Trump's numbers. But none of my followers at last check include family or friends. I don't know what motivated them to follow me: maybe my pro-liberty themes, sense of humor, ab libs, participation in hashtag games. I'm fairly articulate, and I think my tweets are signature and interesting, even to those that disagree with me. Twitter is still doing weird censorship stuff (for example, my reply to a recent Cherokee Lizzie (Warren) tweet seemed to disappear).I'm trying to tone down sniping at clueless progressive or Trumpkin trolls, the liberal use "economically illiterate" or "left-fascist", the occasional use of profanity (which I use as sort of a rhetorical device urging trolls to snap out of it. I just think it's a lost and inefficient cause going after individual trolls, so I've started directing independent tweets at hashtags over recurring themes.
Hallmark's Summer Christmas Break
I've now been back in Maryland a year. It seems everyone celebrated my anniversary with a price hike: my rent went up; my cable went up; my self-storage rate went up. I have had a very weird cable bundle almost sports-free. I apparently still do--I don't have TBS, TNT, FX, CNBC, ESPN, SciFy and other channels which I've always seen forever. (It's not like I ever really watched these channels; I remember watching the reboot of "Dallas" on TNT and maybe a few college football games. Probably the one that stands out most is Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (although my cable package does include the signature hub Hallmark Channel, and they've been promoting a third Drama channel). It really deals with how Hallmark redistributes its movies among its channels. After initial runs on its hub channel, Hallmark seems to filter romantic comedies for its home channel and other dramas or fantasies (which tend to be my preferred) for HMM. So some of my favorites (like "Farewell, Mr. Kringle" and "Christmas Magic") run exclusively on HMM. (Of course, Hallmark does offer its own streaming content network.)The cable service annoys me because there have been a few times I've landed on channels, including HMM, and I will get a message of the sort "this channel is not part of your package; consider upgrading your service". (It really doesn't tell you exactly what bundles include the channels, of course.) And then I search the vendor's website for upgrade bundles, and I always seem to get the inevitable "we are running into technical issues; please call one of our sales agents". Hell no! I have ZERO interest in getting a sales pitch for high-price bundle packages. Quite frankly, I no longer watch national programming (ABC, NBC, CBS)--maybe occasionally an episode of "Blue Bloods". I'm usually doing something else, like surfing the Internet, writing blog posts, etc., when the TV is on. And sometimes, like today, I go to watch Amazon Videos. I've been seriously considering
There's a reason I mentioned Christmas movies in describing HMM above. Hallmark usually has a "Christmas in July" week during which it announces its Keepsake Ornaments. I think HMM has a bit of a jump on HC. I was dumb-folded to find myself landing on HMM. So over the past week, I've seen some of my favorites and some new ones I hadn't seen--I particularly liked the one where the female TV star protagonist is saved from a pedestrian auto collision by a middle-aged woman Joy. The protagonist's producer turns out to have been adopted as a child. Long story short, Joy, then a struggling single mom, gave up her baby son to a wealthy, childless couple who could offer him a financially secure life. It turns out, of course, that the producer's birth mother was Joy. There's a scene I particularly love where Joy starts playing "Christmas Memory" on the piano and her son joins her playing and sings the song.
I still haven't seen some favorites like "A Christmas Visitor", "Christmas Card" and "Angel in the Family", but it could be they've played at inconvenient times.
I still would like to see Hallmark acquire rights to some of the classics (like "Miracle on 47th St", "A Christmas Carol", "It's a Wonderful Life", etc.), and I think, even though promises some 22 new holiday films during the upcoming holiday season starting in late October, there isn't a sufficient library to run content without boring repetition/rotation on either channel. (That's why I went on Amazon Video to watch "Love at the Christmas Table" which follows childhood sweethearts through the years to around the turn of their 30's.)
It's been a nice change of pace, but I'm ready to get back to regular content, including catching up on "Suits".
A Follow-Up
A few weeks back I wrote a post asking for prayers for a highly competent government client manager, a man of color, who resigned his leadership position so he could spend more time with his family, including a wife with cancer who seemingly has lost the will to live and fight the disease and a daughter who is dying of some unknown condition which hasn't been diagnosed yet. He left his position earlier this week. He's not the kind to wear his heart on the sleeve and was clearly uncomfortable at being the center of attention at an informal sendoff. (They may have had sendoffs when I left prior jobs, but I wasn't there to get a piece of cake.) Tongue-in-cheek decorated cake summarizing his accomplishments, etc. He made brief comments at a more formal all-hands meeting and made a passing reference to his struggling daughter.It seems like he's transitioning to a different role because he briefly mentioned some business travel plans in the near future with unspecified federal projects; I'm not sure of the nature and extent of the work, e.g., government or contractor, part-time or full-time. I was a little surprised because he had earlier brought up his heavy travel schedule in deciding to resign his position. I'm not really surprised because healthcare costs for his family must be staggering, and the bills don't stop coming in if you decide to leave your job. I would hope his new role is more flexible in tending to his family's needs. My thoughts, prayers and good wishes for this good man and his family.
