Also, making Captain America a member of Hydra is wrong.
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/25/captain-america-villain-hydra-nick-spencer-tom-brevoort
I'm an equal opportunity anti-change grump.
Seriously, Marvel?
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
To my unborn daughter
21-Apr-16
Dear One,
Did I mention I was terrified? It is starting to strike me randomly, flashes of fear as I ponder your arrival. I ask myself, "What am I doing?" How did I think reproducing would be a good idea? Am I going to vaccinate you? What will I do when you are crying and I've tried holding you, feeding you, rocking you, changing you, and nothing works? How am I going to punish you when you misbehave? Praise and support you when you are good? Shepherd your hear and soul toward the truth that ultimately matters?
Of all the souls in the world, suddenly yours matters most, because it was given to my care and keeping, and I am responsible for it, as much as I am your life and well-being.
How will David and I nurture your soul and guide you ever to God? Encourage you to ever walk in his love and truth?
And in this world where we are not only discarding Biblical values and norms, but traditional norms and even reality, how will I as your mother train you to be a woman in all the glory that God made us?
The modern feminist seems set on tearing down men, and abandoning all things uniquely feminine in order to take men's place. I style myself a feminist. I believe in equal rights, voting, and representation under law. But don't be fooled. Equality does not mean the same. We are equal to men under God, little one, our souls just as precious, our hearts just as dear, His love just as great. We are made in the image of God, just as men were, and we represent a part of God men do not. We are different from men, and that is beautiful.
So how do I convince you of your value as a woman in a culture that can't grasp the inherent beauty of women as God has made us? We are lionesses, the huntress who still lets the males eat first. God has made us softer and physically weaker, but with grid iron at our cores, giving us strength beyond what seems human, used for child-bearing, marriage, even fighting as a mother bear protecting her cubs. We were created as helpmeets. There is a saying that behind everyone successful man, there is a woman. As I am able to more look beyond my selfishness, I am beginning to see that I am to support, counter, complete, and help David. That we are a team and his rise is both of our rise, that we aren't competing, we are one. And I could fight him for his job, or I can use my unique differences to raise him beyond what he can achieve on his own.
And he does the same for me, encouraging me in my strengths and supporting me in my weakness. He has given my heart a safe place from which it can fly.
What if you don't get married? Fine, you are still a woman with the unique beauty therein, and God still has a calling just for you and your talents.
I don't want to raise you in all the stereotypes that people think mean girl, but I don't want to force your way either. I want you to be able to like blue and math and engineering and kickboxing if you want without questioning your femininity or abilities, but if you like pink and Barbies and English and ballet, then more power to you. I don't consider myself girly, but I liked all those things too. Except ballet, never got into that.
In short, I want to give you all the confidence to pursue the things you love or are skilled at, secure in your womanhood without feeling the pressure of culture to prove anything about your femininity.
Dear Lord,
Please soothe and take away my fear. I thank you for my little one and the blessing it is to carry her and raise her. Please protect her heart. Draw her soul to you, save her and writer her name in the book. Please guard her from our culture where we have so lost our way and let her be secure in her identity in you. And please help those of us who the truth to guide and witness to our culture, and point them back to the only Way, Truth, and Life.
Dear One,
Did I mention I was terrified? It is starting to strike me randomly, flashes of fear as I ponder your arrival. I ask myself, "What am I doing?" How did I think reproducing would be a good idea? Am I going to vaccinate you? What will I do when you are crying and I've tried holding you, feeding you, rocking you, changing you, and nothing works? How am I going to punish you when you misbehave? Praise and support you when you are good? Shepherd your hear and soul toward the truth that ultimately matters?
Of all the souls in the world, suddenly yours matters most, because it was given to my care and keeping, and I am responsible for it, as much as I am your life and well-being.
How will David and I nurture your soul and guide you ever to God? Encourage you to ever walk in his love and truth?
And in this world where we are not only discarding Biblical values and norms, but traditional norms and even reality, how will I as your mother train you to be a woman in all the glory that God made us?
The modern feminist seems set on tearing down men, and abandoning all things uniquely feminine in order to take men's place. I style myself a feminist. I believe in equal rights, voting, and representation under law. But don't be fooled. Equality does not mean the same. We are equal to men under God, little one, our souls just as precious, our hearts just as dear, His love just as great. We are made in the image of God, just as men were, and we represent a part of God men do not. We are different from men, and that is beautiful.
So how do I convince you of your value as a woman in a culture that can't grasp the inherent beauty of women as God has made us? We are lionesses, the huntress who still lets the males eat first. God has made us softer and physically weaker, but with grid iron at our cores, giving us strength beyond what seems human, used for child-bearing, marriage, even fighting as a mother bear protecting her cubs. We were created as helpmeets. There is a saying that behind everyone successful man, there is a woman. As I am able to more look beyond my selfishness, I am beginning to see that I am to support, counter, complete, and help David. That we are a team and his rise is both of our rise, that we aren't competing, we are one. And I could fight him for his job, or I can use my unique differences to raise him beyond what he can achieve on his own.
And he does the same for me, encouraging me in my strengths and supporting me in my weakness. He has given my heart a safe place from which it can fly.
What if you don't get married? Fine, you are still a woman with the unique beauty therein, and God still has a calling just for you and your talents.
I don't want to raise you in all the stereotypes that people think mean girl, but I don't want to force your way either. I want you to be able to like blue and math and engineering and kickboxing if you want without questioning your femininity or abilities, but if you like pink and Barbies and English and ballet, then more power to you. I don't consider myself girly, but I liked all those things too. Except ballet, never got into that.
In short, I want to give you all the confidence to pursue the things you love or are skilled at, secure in your womanhood without feeling the pressure of culture to prove anything about your femininity.
Dear Lord,
Please soothe and take away my fear. I thank you for my little one and the blessing it is to carry her and raise her. Please protect her heart. Draw her soul to you, save her and writer her name in the book. Please guard her from our culture where we have so lost our way and let her be secure in her identity in you. And please help those of us who the truth to guide and witness to our culture, and point them back to the only Way, Truth, and Life.
I need to stop reading Twitter hashtags
Maybe you've heard of the "Give Elsa a girlfriend," or more accurately #GiveElsaAGirlfriend trend. "Because we want our daughters to know it's ok for a princess to love another princess."
I'm rather hoping this Frozen nonsense will be over before my daughter is old enough to have opinions. Yeah, the movie was amusing, but the resulting explosion of Frozen related stuff was way unexpected. By me anyway. We already have a full set of Disney Princesses, why is this one this popular? I like Mulan better. And the original story "The Snow Queen" that Frozen was, well, not based on. Maybe more like a mild nod in the general direction of the title of the story. It's a good story, though.
And I really don't want to reach the point where my husband is going to have to explain to our daughter why she can't watch Frozen, or dress up as Elsa, or whatever. Cause it's going to be David explaining that.
Why? I personally don't care what consenting adults do with each other, although if you wanted what I believe is moral or right, we'd have to look at the Bible, which seems pretty clear on the subject. Is it a sin? According to the Bible. Why is it a sin for two people to love each other? I'm sorry, culture, I didn't write the rules. Regardless of how you or I feel on the subject, the Bible is clear. We might think we've evolved beyond it, that the Bible is outdated, or unreasonable, or something, but the Bible is clear, our feelings notwithstanding. I don't understand everything God has told us, but it seems a bit pretentious to be like, "Oh, this doesn't make sense to me. God and His word must be wrong." Take it or leave it, but don't try and blur it or outreason it.
What starts to bother me is when it goes beyond consenting adults who "just want to love each other in peace" to what we currently have, which is a huge cultural push to have their actions validated by larger society. All of society. It is no longer, "just let us love in peace," it is, "If you don't approve of or validate our love, you are guilty of thoughtcrime and should be punished." And in this agenda push is a focus on messaging that admittedly seems created to cram the "approved" opinion down the rest of our throats. "It's ok for a girl to love a girl."
So Elsa didn't have a love interest in the first movie and it somewhat makes sense they'd give her one down the road. Whatever. I'm sorry, daughter mine.
Today I was on Twitter and I saw #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend. There was also #MakeMarioKissWario, so I'm like, is this a joke? I clicked on it. It was not a joke.
I'm rather hoping this Frozen nonsense will be over before my daughter is old enough to have opinions. Yeah, the movie was amusing, but the resulting explosion of Frozen related stuff was way unexpected. By me anyway. We already have a full set of Disney Princesses, why is this one this popular? I like Mulan better. And the original story "The Snow Queen" that Frozen was, well, not based on. Maybe more like a mild nod in the general direction of the title of the story. It's a good story, though.
And I really don't want to reach the point where my husband is going to have to explain to our daughter why she can't watch Frozen, or dress up as Elsa, or whatever. Cause it's going to be David explaining that.
Why? I personally don't care what consenting adults do with each other, although if you wanted what I believe is moral or right, we'd have to look at the Bible, which seems pretty clear on the subject. Is it a sin? According to the Bible. Why is it a sin for two people to love each other? I'm sorry, culture, I didn't write the rules. Regardless of how you or I feel on the subject, the Bible is clear. We might think we've evolved beyond it, that the Bible is outdated, or unreasonable, or something, but the Bible is clear, our feelings notwithstanding. I don't understand everything God has told us, but it seems a bit pretentious to be like, "Oh, this doesn't make sense to me. God and His word must be wrong." Take it or leave it, but don't try and blur it or outreason it.
What starts to bother me is when it goes beyond consenting adults who "just want to love each other in peace" to what we currently have, which is a huge cultural push to have their actions validated by larger society. All of society. It is no longer, "just let us love in peace," it is, "If you don't approve of or validate our love, you are guilty of thoughtcrime and should be punished." And in this agenda push is a focus on messaging that admittedly seems created to cram the "approved" opinion down the rest of our throats. "It's ok for a girl to love a girl."
So Elsa didn't have a love interest in the first movie and it somewhat makes sense they'd give her one down the road. Whatever. I'm sorry, daughter mine.
Today I was on Twitter and I saw #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend. There was also #MakeMarioKissWario, so I'm like, is this a joke? I clicked on it. It was not a joke.
The argument is that Captain America and "Bucky" from the movies should be a thing. I haven't seen Civil War yet, so I don't know where that goes (and hopefully it ain't there), but I was rooting for Captain America because he represents the libertarian freedom ideal from the founding of America, not the American Government. I'm sorry, Iron Man. I guess you get to play the bad guy again.
Ok, look. I am against things that fundamentally change the nature of pre-established characters. I've mentioned this before. I am against Thor being a woman. I am against Captain America being black. I am against Superman being from Soviet Russia (although that was an entertaining read as an alternate reality). I wasn't even sure I was for recreating Catwoman to not fight in heels. It's part of her charm. If you want to create a new Norse god who is a woman, be my guest. If you want a new defender of libertarian limited government foundational American ideals to be black, be my guest. Don't go changing the ones that already exist because they are important and beloved by people for who they are and that includes how they look, their race, their gender, their personality, their sexual orientation. They are imaginary characters. Go imagine some new ones for your agenda.
"Anyone against this is a homophobe. It doesn't matter at all if Captain America is bi." If it doesn't matter, why are you trying to change him?
Because this movement is trying to force anyone who doesn't agree with them to be bullied until they all go and hide away from the PC crowd and let the PC crowd run the show. "Take our opinion and like it." And eventually, all the narratives will say the same thing, all opposition will be whitewashed away to hide in shame and the PC crowd will have the total victory they were asking for. How can you commit thoughtcrime when there are no words for it?
They can't have their own heroes because ours still stand on their own. So they have to change ours, taking away the things we care about, any difference in opinion, any last bastion of our values until they have infected everything.
Friday, May 6, 2016
Never... someone.
Ted Cruz dropped out. "Suspended his campaign," which is more or less the same thing, leaving Donald Trump to be the presumptive nominee. Really the only reason he wouldn't be is if the non-Trump delegates go to convention and make a stink and suspend the rules and basically burn the party to the ground. Not much to gain beyond a temper tantrum.
Me, I'm just quitting the party. Again. I was going to do it after I finished being a delegate anyway, and now there's no point in going to state convention either. I don't care about the Republican platform and committees. They aren't my party. Hopefully, things will change after this and something will break the back of the two party system, but that seems optimistic.
As far as this election season went, I am disgusted. Trump is a horrible human being and yet he is the favorite, and Ted Cruz was a strong conservative with very few negatives and he was character assassinated severely. I remember thinking, "Ugh, Ted Cruz, well, he's better than Trump," and then trying to figure out why I had a bad feeling about Ted Cruz. Most of what people were saying about him was a lie or gross exaggeration. Trump has been calling him "Lyin' Ted," for months without solid proof that wasn't just Trump bloviating, and this coming from the man whose positions on issues could change hourly. Cruz's character was so much a part of his appeal that they couldn't let it stand, and they had to destroy him on his strongest pillar. And frankly, I find that revolting. Any speck, any spot, and people would write Cruz off and dump him, whereas Trump could probably "shoot a man in the middle of a street" and it wouldn't change people's opinions of him one bit. It's disgusting and unfair.
And these extended to completely unfounded and stupid arguments, such as sorting Cruz into "Slytherin" and other idiotic Facebook-graphic style attacks that apparently need little in the way of logic or proof. A lot of our reasoning is being reduced to comics, memes, and pathos-based anecdote, and that is a scary scary way to form opinions and make decisions.
On the other hand, Cruz was not libertarian enough for me, but I felt that he would have been a decent president, a constitutional conservative, that might have prevented the implosion of our culture and civilization for another four to eight years. His foreign policy wasn't good, but at least he realized our interventions and meddling could do harm and Assad, although also not a good human being, had positives over unknown radical who would replace him if we toppled him. So, I'm sorry, Cruz. I went as far as I could in the system for you. I'm sorry that America rejected you. I'm sorry that apparently our majority is motivated by and believes in something I just don't understand. Don't blame me for this one. I can't figure it out. Apparently, I still had faith in humanity. I should have known better.
So where do we go from here? I read a comic that said, "I'm still undecided between Never Trump and Never Hillary," and that appears to be where maybe half the country is sitting. Remember, even though Trump is the "winner" of the Republican Nomination (most likely), he rarely got over 50% in any given state. That means over half the state didn't want him, so please, stop telling me that this is "the will of the people." Plurality is not majority, and under half of the voting Republicans in most of the states voted for him. He represents them, not the other +50%. And the Democrats are having their own problems on that front, with a lot of passionate people going for Bernie Sanders and watching the system keep them out. The Democrats are slightly more advanced in their ability to manipulate their outcomes than the Republicans. That puts probably more than half the country watch their options diminish to the worst case of "lesser of the two evils" that I have ever seen.
I do not believe I could vote for Trump. I'd say "Never Trump," except there is one tiny tiny chance that won't happen that could influence me: if he made Ron Paul either vice president or secretary of state. Then at least someone I trust would be having some influence on foreign policy.
But aside from that, why would I vote for Trump? Just to avoid Hillary? They're both terrible options. Really, who is worse? Hillary is a leftist warmonger crook. And Trump is a... [unknown][unknown]crook. Seriously, we don't know what Trump would do. His answers to things have deviated into taking both sides at the same time. If Russian jets buzz a US ship, will he call Putin to ask him to stop or shoot it down? Both, apparently. Some libertarians think that siding with Trump will delay World War III. Optimistic lot, they are. I don't know if it will. Obama was supposedly a candidate of peace, and he's expanded the ability of the president to wage unlimited war like nobody else before him. The office seems to have that corrupting influence, and Trump's positions are rambling and confused enough that I think it would destroy even his "good" ones.
Hillary would elect leftist judges to the Supreme Court. Trump would... well, he wouldn't elect another Antonin Scalia, he'd probably elect middle-to-leftist judges to the Supreme Court. So much different in outcome. Hillary would continue funding Planned Parenthood. Trump would... I forget, is he punishing the woman for having abortions, changing the Republican platform to included exceptions, or praising Planned Parenthood on all the other "good" things they do? Hillary would increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. I don't know Trump's position on that one. Hillary would wage war. Trump would... well, is he going to make "good deals" or is he going to destroy ISIS and show the world who is "winning" again? Basically, we're trying to choose between a bomb that is visibly counting down, and a bomb that may or may not have a lit fuse. Some stinkin' choice.
And either way, we're probably going to get more trans bathroom bills, the draft extended to women, and continued abortion.
It's like in Independence Day where David is drunk and hopeless and kicking over trash cans to try and pollute the planet in hopes the aliens will give up and leave them alone. His father is trying to comfort him and tell him that they still had to be thankful. David asks, "What is there to be thankful for?" Julius seems stumped for a moment, then adds, "Well, you've still got your health."
Cause that's going to do a lot of good when the aliens finish eliminating all life from the planet.
I guess I've still got my health. Hey, maybe I'm being overly melodramatic. Maybe it's not quite the end of the world. I guess we'll see.
Me, I'm just quitting the party. Again. I was going to do it after I finished being a delegate anyway, and now there's no point in going to state convention either. I don't care about the Republican platform and committees. They aren't my party. Hopefully, things will change after this and something will break the back of the two party system, but that seems optimistic.
As far as this election season went, I am disgusted. Trump is a horrible human being and yet he is the favorite, and Ted Cruz was a strong conservative with very few negatives and he was character assassinated severely. I remember thinking, "Ugh, Ted Cruz, well, he's better than Trump," and then trying to figure out why I had a bad feeling about Ted Cruz. Most of what people were saying about him was a lie or gross exaggeration. Trump has been calling him "Lyin' Ted," for months without solid proof that wasn't just Trump bloviating, and this coming from the man whose positions on issues could change hourly. Cruz's character was so much a part of his appeal that they couldn't let it stand, and they had to destroy him on his strongest pillar. And frankly, I find that revolting. Any speck, any spot, and people would write Cruz off and dump him, whereas Trump could probably "shoot a man in the middle of a street" and it wouldn't change people's opinions of him one bit. It's disgusting and unfair.
And these extended to completely unfounded and stupid arguments, such as sorting Cruz into "Slytherin" and other idiotic Facebook-graphic style attacks that apparently need little in the way of logic or proof. A lot of our reasoning is being reduced to comics, memes, and pathos-based anecdote, and that is a scary scary way to form opinions and make decisions.
On the other hand, Cruz was not libertarian enough for me, but I felt that he would have been a decent president, a constitutional conservative, that might have prevented the implosion of our culture and civilization for another four to eight years. His foreign policy wasn't good, but at least he realized our interventions and meddling could do harm and Assad, although also not a good human being, had positives over unknown radical who would replace him if we toppled him. So, I'm sorry, Cruz. I went as far as I could in the system for you. I'm sorry that America rejected you. I'm sorry that apparently our majority is motivated by and believes in something I just don't understand. Don't blame me for this one. I can't figure it out. Apparently, I still had faith in humanity. I should have known better.
So where do we go from here? I read a comic that said, "I'm still undecided between Never Trump and Never Hillary," and that appears to be where maybe half the country is sitting. Remember, even though Trump is the "winner" of the Republican Nomination (most likely), he rarely got over 50% in any given state. That means over half the state didn't want him, so please, stop telling me that this is "the will of the people." Plurality is not majority, and under half of the voting Republicans in most of the states voted for him. He represents them, not the other +50%. And the Democrats are having their own problems on that front, with a lot of passionate people going for Bernie Sanders and watching the system keep them out. The Democrats are slightly more advanced in their ability to manipulate their outcomes than the Republicans. That puts probably more than half the country watch their options diminish to the worst case of "lesser of the two evils" that I have ever seen.
I do not believe I could vote for Trump. I'd say "Never Trump," except there is one tiny tiny chance that won't happen that could influence me: if he made Ron Paul either vice president or secretary of state. Then at least someone I trust would be having some influence on foreign policy.
But aside from that, why would I vote for Trump? Just to avoid Hillary? They're both terrible options. Really, who is worse? Hillary is a leftist warmonger crook. And Trump is a... [unknown][unknown]crook. Seriously, we don't know what Trump would do. His answers to things have deviated into taking both sides at the same time. If Russian jets buzz a US ship, will he call Putin to ask him to stop or shoot it down? Both, apparently. Some libertarians think that siding with Trump will delay World War III. Optimistic lot, they are. I don't know if it will. Obama was supposedly a candidate of peace, and he's expanded the ability of the president to wage unlimited war like nobody else before him. The office seems to have that corrupting influence, and Trump's positions are rambling and confused enough that I think it would destroy even his "good" ones.
Hillary would elect leftist judges to the Supreme Court. Trump would... well, he wouldn't elect another Antonin Scalia, he'd probably elect middle-to-leftist judges to the Supreme Court. So much different in outcome. Hillary would continue funding Planned Parenthood. Trump would... I forget, is he punishing the woman for having abortions, changing the Republican platform to included exceptions, or praising Planned Parenthood on all the other "good" things they do? Hillary would increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. I don't know Trump's position on that one. Hillary would wage war. Trump would... well, is he going to make "good deals" or is he going to destroy ISIS and show the world who is "winning" again? Basically, we're trying to choose between a bomb that is visibly counting down, and a bomb that may or may not have a lit fuse. Some stinkin' choice.
And either way, we're probably going to get more trans bathroom bills, the draft extended to women, and continued abortion.
It's like in Independence Day where David is drunk and hopeless and kicking over trash cans to try and pollute the planet in hopes the aliens will give up and leave them alone. His father is trying to comfort him and tell him that they still had to be thankful. David asks, "What is there to be thankful for?" Julius seems stumped for a moment, then adds, "Well, you've still got your health."
Cause that's going to do a lot of good when the aliens finish eliminating all life from the planet.
I guess I've still got my health. Hey, maybe I'm being overly melodramatic. Maybe it's not quite the end of the world. I guess we'll see.
Monday, May 2, 2016
Internet Ghosts
As long as we have an official legal presence, we always leave remnants when we die. I bet some deceased people still get junk mail and phone marketer calls. I've heard of social security still paying out benefits to deceased people.
There's sometimes bills to pay, property to deal with, services to inform. I've never had to do it, but I would guess it is similar to trying to prove your last name is different, which usually takes a copy of my marriage license.
But the Internet makes it weird to another level, where people set up a shade of themselves without much accountability. I probably still have a MySpace account, but for all they know, I've died. In trying to find an email address I like, I went through several, or set up anonymous email addresses, and forgotten all the passwords. Those could still be floating around somewhere. I don't know Hotmail's policy. Is Hotmail still a thing?
I play World of Warcraft. In one of my guilds (voluntary online community within WoW), there was a man whose avatar's name was Wrecker. He was older, and I can't honestly say I knew much personally about him, but he was involved online and a pretty good warrior. I'm not sure who in the real world passed it to our guild leader that Wrecker had passed away. But WoW doesn't delete accounts, and his name still sat there in our guild roster. Out of respect, our guild leader moved it to the position of assistant guildmaster (ousting the person holding that position without so much as a by-your-leave, but I'll refrain). For all I know, that account is still there.
Someone showed me a news story about a girl who committed suicide. It was sad, she'd gotten in some minor trouble for underage drinking and a talking-to from her parents. I'm guessing there had to be more, because underage drinking doesn't have a lot of stigma unless you kill someone and her parents didn't even seem off-the-hook upset. Which still shouldn't warrant killing yourself, pretty much nothing should do that. And there was a link to her Facebook page and I asked what it was if she had passed away. The person who showed it to me explained it was sort of a memorial where friends left memories.
I'm experiencing that now. An old family friend of ours, known fondly as Uncle Manny, who I haven't seen in a long while, suffered a heart attack and had a triple bypass. Over ten days later, he still hadn't woken up and his family, who had time to gather, decided to pull the ventilator. All of us were kept appraised by his wife on his Facebook, and each post was flooded with prayers and comments and well-wishers. And people started posting pictures, writing stories. It was weird, knowing he wasn't awake, but seeing pictures of him pop up on my newsfeed. It was surprisingly intimate, not so much with the posters, but with Uncle Manny himself. I often didn't read who put the story up, but I relived some of my memories, and enjoyed some of other people's memories, expanding the view of the man in his final hours.
What happens to our Internet shades when we die? They're just fragments of ourselves, like finding a notebook we wrote in or a treasure we stashed and forgot, but at one point they stood in for our actual presence, and sometimes they continue to stand unsupported, even though the person behind them is gone. Someone said if they hadn't talked to a Facebook friend in six months and saw a birthday notice, they'd check their Facebook before commenting, to make sure nothing had happened to them. Because Facebook will still keep telling you their birthday.
Goodbye, Uncle Manny.
There's sometimes bills to pay, property to deal with, services to inform. I've never had to do it, but I would guess it is similar to trying to prove your last name is different, which usually takes a copy of my marriage license.
But the Internet makes it weird to another level, where people set up a shade of themselves without much accountability. I probably still have a MySpace account, but for all they know, I've died. In trying to find an email address I like, I went through several, or set up anonymous email addresses, and forgotten all the passwords. Those could still be floating around somewhere. I don't know Hotmail's policy. Is Hotmail still a thing?
I play World of Warcraft. In one of my guilds (voluntary online community within WoW), there was a man whose avatar's name was Wrecker. He was older, and I can't honestly say I knew much personally about him, but he was involved online and a pretty good warrior. I'm not sure who in the real world passed it to our guild leader that Wrecker had passed away. But WoW doesn't delete accounts, and his name still sat there in our guild roster. Out of respect, our guild leader moved it to the position of assistant guildmaster (ousting the person holding that position without so much as a by-your-leave, but I'll refrain). For all I know, that account is still there.
Someone showed me a news story about a girl who committed suicide. It was sad, she'd gotten in some minor trouble for underage drinking and a talking-to from her parents. I'm guessing there had to be more, because underage drinking doesn't have a lot of stigma unless you kill someone and her parents didn't even seem off-the-hook upset. Which still shouldn't warrant killing yourself, pretty much nothing should do that. And there was a link to her Facebook page and I asked what it was if she had passed away. The person who showed it to me explained it was sort of a memorial where friends left memories.
I'm experiencing that now. An old family friend of ours, known fondly as Uncle Manny, who I haven't seen in a long while, suffered a heart attack and had a triple bypass. Over ten days later, he still hadn't woken up and his family, who had time to gather, decided to pull the ventilator. All of us were kept appraised by his wife on his Facebook, and each post was flooded with prayers and comments and well-wishers. And people started posting pictures, writing stories. It was weird, knowing he wasn't awake, but seeing pictures of him pop up on my newsfeed. It was surprisingly intimate, not so much with the posters, but with Uncle Manny himself. I often didn't read who put the story up, but I relived some of my memories, and enjoyed some of other people's memories, expanding the view of the man in his final hours.
What happens to our Internet shades when we die? They're just fragments of ourselves, like finding a notebook we wrote in or a treasure we stashed and forgot, but at one point they stood in for our actual presence, and sometimes they continue to stand unsupported, even though the person behind them is gone. Someone said if they hadn't talked to a Facebook friend in six months and saw a birthday notice, they'd check their Facebook before commenting, to make sure nothing had happened to them. Because Facebook will still keep telling you their birthday.
Goodbye, Uncle Manny.
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