Social Hygiene

17:48 Thursday, 21 April 2022
Current Wx: Temp: 68.47°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 18.41mph
Words: 991

A long time ago, in a blog not far away, I wrote about something I called "social hygiene." The idea was based on the conventional, non-controversial notion of "personal hygiene," the customs and practices we observe to help preserve and promote physical health and social acceptance. Things like washing our hands before preparing food, or after using the toilet, bathing regularly, brushing our teeth, etc. These practices help keep us from getting physically ill and make us less unpleasant to be around other people.

Well, social media, combined with other pernicious aspects of our attention-based economy, can make us mentally ill and unpleasant to be around other people. So we need a new set of customs and practices to help protect ourselves, hence "social hygiene."

It's a key part of trying to remain engaged at some level in public discourse, without coming to hate other people.

The news has been so bad of late, that I've had to kind of up my social hygiene game a bit and actually perform many of these practices, and it does help.

So, a few tips.

First, I try to pay attention to how much social media I'm consuming. I'm only on Twitter these days, but if I'm not paying attention, I can get sucked into any number of threads and find the first three or four hours of the day gone, and feeling as though life isn't worth living anymore. So I try to spend only an hour or so in the morning, and then dip in here and there throughout the day in between other, more healthy, activities.

Second, I've been doing about five minutes of morning meditation. I intend to increase that, but my practice is quite rusty. Nevertheless, five minutes is enough to arm myself to be mindful of my interior state as I peruse my Twitter feed. I find I can let many things go without a hot take, or a like or a retweet. I can more judicious in how I'm contributing to the energy. This can be hit or miss, so I'm trying to improve my meditation practice. Back in the days when I was struggling a great deal, 20 minutes was my regular practice.

Third, find other, more productive things to occupy your attention. I'm reading more books now. History is a worthwhile subject, because you can look at periods of crisis and turmoil at some remove from yourself and, well, you're still here.

So maybe this too shall pass. Who knows?

The dopamine thing is real, so you need to do something that provides that little bit of reward buzz that a reply, like or retweet can offer on the twitters. Some months back, I signed up for a 1-year subscription to brilliant.org. Didn't do much with it at first, but lately I've been working my way through the math courses, trying to get my math game back up so I can tackle Maxwell's equations. I don't know if the courses they offer will help me achieve that, but I've only completed pre-algebra and I'm in mathematical fundamentals now.

The presentation can often leave something to be desired; and sometimes the biggest challenge isn't solving the problem, it's trying to understand what the problem is asking. But I find that I'm enjoying working the problems and the more I do them, I'm getting familiar with how they're presenting things; so I'm not getting problems wrong, simply because I didn't understand the question. I've correctly solved 212 out of 229 problems presented; and with the most recent chapters in the logic and reasoning sections, I've been getting them all right. It's been challenging and fun.

They offer feedback and encouragement to get you to engage daily. I try to complete a chapter or two each day, though I've missed some days here and there.

I'm also taking some online courses on apps from MacSparky and MacMost. Those are also worthwhile attention sumps.

I don't watch the news on TV at all. It's intended to be more arousing than informing. I'll watch documentaries, movies and streaming series. Comedy news like John Oliver or John Stewart; but I'm not even watching PBS's the NewsHour these days.

For the "social" part, which is one of the nice things about social media, I do have some people I interact with regularly on Twitter, and it's usually fairly non-toxic and pleasant. But I also monitor a few discussion boards for apps I use, like Tinderbox. They have a weekly Zoom meetup that I participate in. I usually learn something and it's just nice to interact with other people on a subject that usually has nothing to do with politics.

Oddly enough, the forums at camera websites like DP Review can be just as tribal as politics, and people can and do bring their own toxic personalities to those discussions. So it's not just politics that brings out the tribal in people.

Take walks! Ideally, exercise in general, but definitely get outside and take a walk at least once a day, twice is better.

I'd like to be doing more photography, but I don't care for my surroundings that much. They're uninspiring. It's not that "there's nothing to shoot," it's just that it would all look like a sales brochure. I have to walk almost a mile to the back gate just to get out of the development, so that's been something of a barrier. Should just use the golf cart and drive out to the preserve and walk from there before it gets too hot and humid to ever enjoy it.

Since I've been making more of a conscious effort to do all these things, I've been feeling a little less hopeless about everything. And I think I've been a little better about not adding to the negative energy and despair.

Peaks and valleys, strikes and gutters.

Your mileage may vary, mine does. Hope this helps.

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Back In Florida

13:07 Sunday, 21 April 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 79.7°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 70% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 215

Another early morning, though not as early. 0400 instead of 0300. It's also cool that the Albany airport is only 15 minutes from Mom's (and the hotel where I was staying). It was 33 frickin' Fahrenheit this morning. The Chevy Malibu I rented had a heated steering wheel and heated seats, and I was grateful for it.

An astonishing line at TSA at 0430 in the morning. Very pleased that I had pre✅. Crowded at the terminal gate as well, and every cough and sneeze make me wish I'd remembered to bring a mask. We'll know in a couple of days. Solid overcast from Albany to Detroit, and much of the way from Detroit to Jacksonville.

I've had days arriving in Jax when it felt as though you were stepping into a sauna, as if a blanket of oppressive, wet heat just surrounded you when you stepped outside. Not so today. It was a welcome relief to step into sunshine (mostly) and warmth. But the sauna will be here soon enough.

Anyway, I'm back now. Caitie's coming over later this afternoon. Did some grocery shopping on the way home. I'm unpacked, laundry is underway and I'm going to take a nap. It's nice to be home, as qualified as that may be in Florida.

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A Little Ray of Sunshine

14:12 Sunday, 21 April 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 83.61°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 60% Wind: 14.97mph
Words: 81

My representative, Republican John Rutherford, voted for military aid to Ukraine. This is noteworthy because John is ordinarily a moral coward, as well as a seditionist and a liar. His two nearby colleagues, freshman Aaron Bean (R) and "just the tip" seditionist Michael Waltz (R), both voted against it, which makes Rutherford's vote even more extraordinary.

I don't know if he's growing a spine or what, but it is refreshing to see him do something not bone-headed stupid for once.

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Cloudy

05:50 Monday, 21 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 68.5°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 185

Hazy.

Blurry moon, so no moon this morning.

Anyway, if it's Monday, there's another embarrassing Mad Orange King story. Pete Hegseth, talking head Secretary of Defense, kept his wife, brother and personal lawyer in the loop on ongoing operations over Signal from his personal phone. Awesome. Still "clean on OPSEC," are we?

The Mad Orange King is incapable of embarrassment. He has a thin skin and is easily offended, but he lacks the capacity to be embarrassed.

It's the United States Senate, specifically the Republican members of the Senate, who have embarrassed themselves and all of the United States.

Imagine casting a vote that pretty much tells the world that you are a dumbass! I guess "fool," would be more polite.

To their credit, it kind of took longer than I expected for Hegseth to implode. But it was an absolute certainty that he was going to fuck up massively. The only question was whether or not he was going to get anyone killed in the process.

And I just watched the 60 Minutes story on bird flu, because I'm not depressed enough or something.

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