The past week or so at the day job has been ridiculous. Huge deadlines on a huge project that’s really too huge for the timeline it was scheduled for.
Of course, it does look like we’ll be close enough.
It also looks like it’s driving me utterly mad with stress.
So, the feed is a bit… odd. Because that’s how my brain is working (when my brain is working).
I’ll let you see for yourself.
Here’s the feed…
It’s been a little trying here in the real world. Lots of not-so-great things going on if you pay attention to the news. More not-so-great things going on for some people I give a damn about. ANd my own feelings of utter stagnation really aren’t helping any.
So… To The Internet!
There’s no shortage of feel-good, restore your faith in humanity, mind blowingly cute, utterly hilarious things out there. Thankfully, a lot of those turned up over the past few days. Seems that sharing them has done more than a few people a bit of good.
Of course, there’s also the real world news stuff that I can’t in good conscience completely ignore. (Once a news guy, always a news guy.) But there’s also some genuinely good news of good people doing good things (that whole ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has been a small goldmine of creativity and good will) some even doing good things at great risk to themselves (like they guys running aid and rescue missions in the mountains of Iraq).
The world can seem to be a really nasty place. It’s what we’re sold on TV–both in the news and in our entertainment. Visible, violent conflict is exciting (when it’s not happening to you or people you know). It gets eyeballs on the screen, which means eyeballs on the ads, which means money in someone’s pocket. “If it bleeds, it leads” remains true no matter where things are showing up.
But that’s not a fully accurate representation of the world. If it were, we’d all have been dead of one thing or another long, long ago. (And anyone who thought it was a good idea to bring a child into that fully bad world would be struck down by appalled mobs… who’d only be proving how bad things are.)
We’re still here. We’re still moving forward. There are still people fighting the good fight and many, many more quietly changing the world for the better.
Little by little, if we look, the light is there, holding the darkness at bay.
It’s still up to us to look, though. At both sides. To find the balance.
Here’s the feed…
One of the strangest bits of news that came through today (amid a crazy work schedule and some really annoying Facebook problems), was the story of two 12-year-old girls who stabbed another 12-year-old “friend” of theirs in an attempted murder.
They did it, the article said, to gain the favor of the Slender Man and earn the comfort of getting to hang out with him in his mystical mansion in the woods.
In a word, that’s crazy.
For those who don’t know, Slender Man is a meme that kind of got out of control. Started in a “make something creepy” flavored thread on an online message board. He’s kind of taken on a life of it’s own, growing far beyond the confines of that one thread and making appearances in videos, art, and even computer games.
Apparently now he’s a focus for human sacrifice, too.
And that’s just sad.
Delusional is as delusional does, but at least most delusions in the past have been based on things that aren’t as easily dismiss-able (or searchable) as being, well, genuine fakes. Angels, demons, aliens, even most other urban legends, all have their origins buried in generations of ambiguity. Slenderman’s creation is documented on a Wikipedia page that’s one of the first things that comes up when you search for him.
If these kids can’t make the distinction between something that obviously made up and reality, it’s no wonder they have no problem with the idea of killing someone they called a friend.
There’s no connection to reality, let alone real-world cause and effect or empathy, to be found here.
At least not yet.
Maybe something more… human… will emerge if the case proceeds and the media covers it with any sensibility.
The one vaguely positive thing here is that it’s not the media fishing for a cause… this whole Slender Man motivation is apparently what the girls explained when they were caught.
Sometime, my mind does really awesome things at night. Like craft amazing worlds and situations that put any movie to shame with their expanse and visual wonders.
Last night was not one of those night.
Last night the dream that my mind generated was, at best, a B-grade rode trip rock ‘n’ roll farce. Likely brought on by going to bed really wanting to watch Get Him to the Greek.
Mine involved some wild huge group trip to a big deal concert by some big name band. A total experience thing that involved staying up all night before in an airport before getting on board the secret plane to the concert location.
Well, hilarity ensued and there were baggage problems, missed connections, and a lot of running from point A to point B only to find out we actually needed to be at point C. Two of my friends made an appearance in the dream, on definitely as themselves, the other cast by whatever third rate casting director my brain employed for nothing more than their enthusiasm (because the character they played most certainly didn’t have the brains my actual friend does).
And just when all seemed lost, the hero arrived to save the day.
Billy Joel!
As played my Michael Keaton.
Seriously.
WTF mind? You couldn’t use the actual celebrity? It’s not like dream him is busy somewhere else. Right?
So, yeah, I woke up right before the (inevitable) big turn around in the brain film, so I was even cheated out of what would surely have been an epic (or epicly bad) grand finale… likely on the level of Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.
~sigh~ Here’s hoping there’s more of a budget for tonight’s slumbering entertainment.