[I’m usually opposed to poetry. I’ve written my fair share of corny and depressing rhymes. But, every now and then, I opt out of writing my thoughts as a novel. This is one of those occasions. In this first incarnation, it’s a negative outlook. In my effort to cheer myself up and think more positively, I will endeavor to let my imagination run wild and write an uplifting alternative afterward.]
There’s a bed waiting for me,
Waiting to catch me when I fall,
Waiting to offer relief when I grow weak,
Waiting to make promises it can’t keep,
Waiting for me to fail,
Waiting for me to make another mistake,
Waiting to put up with me quitting too soon one more time,
Waiting to turn every “right” I do into one more “wrong.”
Waiting to tell me how to do better,
Waiting for me to spill my tears and share my woes,
Waiting to tell me my misery is my own fault,
Waiting to badger me about how I fail to respect it,
Waiting to ignore my feelings in favor of its words,
Waiting to taunt me with unsettling silence,
Waiting to remind me why it should be number one in my life,
Waiting to tell me it’s okay to be without friends and lovers.
I can fill it with dreams,
Dreams others might think foolish or immature.
Meanwhile, it threatens me with nightmares,
Nightmares others may simply say are part of life.
This matter can not be resolved with sex or drug use.
A one night stunt won’t make the troubles go away.
And, violence is out of the question.
It may not be the worst.
But, it gets its share of negative looks and gossip.
It may not be the most spacious or comfortable.
But, it’s currently free.
For all its worth, the tempting covers are laced with poison.
The frame likes to stick me in the back when my guard is down.
It changes when I expect consistency and reassurance.
It picks at my confidence and robs me of trust.
And, it often makes a terrible sound to disturb my slumber.
Still, I sleep in this bed…alone.
I doubt anyone would want…choose to share it.
A sickness creeps into my gut.
I have a choice.
But, the options are just as daunting and uncertain.
There’s a bed waiting for me,
Surrounded by menacing laughter and potential booby traps.
I can hardly rest with both eyes closed.
And, when morning comes, I struggle to plan my escape.
~Writingbolt, 7-30-2014
WordPress Usage Observations, 8-25-2013
Tags: blog, comments, community, data, heavy, interaction, like, media, negative, no, none, observations, opinion, personal, positive, psychology, report, response, site, social, statistics, suggestion, usage
In the past month or more of reconnecting with this blog website, I have made some observations about the quality and quantity of people and/or activity. Here is my assessment.
90 percent of posts I viewed receive 0 comments but at least 1 to 5 LIKES.
[Now, that just sounds cold and impersonal. So many go around clipping posts like articles, photos or videos to use as they please. If your post is meant to be like a professional newspaper column and/or you don’t like/want comments, read my suggestion below. Likewise, if you don’t give a hoot about this trendy LIKE system and would prefer people respond on site, you can turn that off in editing the post mode, too.]
50 percent of comments I gave received fair to positive response.
[A fair amount of the good, social, polite and educated people of the world. These are the people that generally stun me with their manners and intimidated by their success/happiness in life. In a way, they are hope for the future.]
25 percent of comments I gave received negative and/or unrelated response.
[Granted, not all of my responses have been the nicest of words. And, I’ll gladly except responsibility for upsetting someone for a good reason. But, for the responses I get from names I don’t even know/see as IDs here who snarl and hiss like gargoyles or bridge TROLLS about going away under threat of fire and brimstone, where is this coming from?
Sometimes it’s a bipolar response. The first response is genuinely nice enough for me to respond a second time. But, the following response comes with a stick of TNT and a note which reads something like: “Today’s disapproval of your vile words is brought to you by the letters F and U.” How do people turn a 180 like that?
There’s nothing nicer than getting online to find mud and bird poop on your page. I say that with the finest of sarcasm. I’ll just go get my hose and scraping tool, now. Meanwhile, you who are so irked by public response and/or do not know how to politely respond, read my suggestion below about turning off comments.]
25 percent of comments I gave received no response.
[In general, these are people not interested in comments or comments from people outside their inner circle. Their blog was designated as a “family sharing page” so that all the people they know personally and professionally can gather in the center of their Whoville and sing carols to irk all the grinches in the outer reaches of the Whotherenet. They come without explanation. They come without visible designation. But, they come with firm reservation in the clique unknown to the outsider. It’s like talking to a TV set without realizing it’s just a TV.]
Here is one SUGGESTION for using the COMMENT feature to those who post here: If you’re not going to respond to comments given by the few daring readers (like myself) to say something and not simply tie a string to what wrote (hoping someone on another trendy website will give a damn about the person LIKEing what you posted while going through every other bit of daily updates and whatnot for all the many “friends” they’ve collected like trading cards, can’t you turn them off? I know some have found a way. Then you can be like a paper newspaper (columnist) and avoid any public response unless someone can email you or figure out where you live and throw something rotten at your door.
Lastly,
98 percent of the time I come to visit this place, I struggle logging into it, posting something new, getting to my comments and navigating in general. [Yet, if I want to log out, that takes no time, at all. That feature is always ready, willing and takes a fraction of the time.]
[Ever since I received my first negative comment from a total stranger with a strangely non-existent ID/source, I have had to go through a gauntlet just to log in. I feel like the uncool guy trying to get in the exclusive nightclub. And, when it comes to making a post, the darn SAVING POST button spends more time spinning its wheels than letting me do anything else. The tools don’t even appear sometimes until I refresh. ]
In summation, while the site appears to be of higher class than some–as with any reputation–appearances are deceiving.
This concludes this report on the status of WordPress from one writer’s perspective. We now return you to regular blogcasting already in progress.