Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Distractions


Never mind why this is here...
Check out today's blog post Good Deeds & Old Jobs
or
Imported from our recommendations page:
Some of our writing on this blog we like to promote (consider them highlights), these are those entries since mid-January 2011. There are bits of writing in this blog that we do not actually promote due to embarrassment over things that some have written - they are here for our own tracking - they are angry, mean, scary things. If you feel like it you can find them on your own (they are in the What We've Been Up To over on the left). Here are the highlights of what we have written so far this year. There are some repeated under different subjects because some blog entries deal with more than one subject matter.



The Mental Health Entries:
Dissociative Identity Disorder/Multiple Personality Disorder
Health:
Work:

Opinion:
Art/Poetry:
Humour/Random/Fun:

Guest Bloggers:
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To Whom It May Concern

To Whom It May Concern,
It goes without saying that I don't like you. You know I don't.
I tell them all the time that you shouldn't come live with us. I try to get them to tell you not to come. Why do you think they are so frantic to get you back here? Why do you think they were almost feverishly trying to find a cheaper ticket and trying to get you here by the weekend?
It's not that they don't deserve you. They don't deserve anyone, or anything.
And you make me want to scratch my eyes out, nay, your eyes out, with all the sappy shit you say to them.
I told them that when you didn't say anything last night about them saying they shouldn't write a book, but were only silent, it's because you don't think they should either. I told them that all their fears about not being good enough, not having anything new to say, all of their fears about writing a book were true, and that you not saying a word only proved it...same with how they joked about the author you are reading tonight, and said you could have saved a lot of trouble by researching and finding another sick girl (<-my term for writing, not the exact words they said) only a couple hours away. And you were silent...so I told them you probably agreed.
They're never going to be happy, you know that right? I'll make sure of it, and if you live with us I will make you watch me keep them from being happy.
Look what they've done to men, to people...to themselves; they don't deserve anything.
I hate you.
Now if I could just convince them that all their Twitter followers hate them, and are only nice in writing, that they are all pretending to find them interesting. Then my life would be complete, and we could stop fucking around on Twitter.
~"Brooke"
You know, I kind of like that name. Think I'll change it. Thanks for naming me, James.
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Good Deeds and Old Jobs

We're not going to say what nice thing we did. But we did a good deed this afternoon after work.

This may confuse people (who follow us on Twitter). It shouldn't; perhaps you just don't know all of us.

Look. We're not ALL angry and hateful. We're not. It would be easier if we were, there would probably be less fighting. (less anxiety too)

Did you know we used to work at a soup kitchen that not only served free soup but also whole meals for very little money to the homeless and low income people of our neighborhood? They also had a food program where low income locals could buy food at low wholesale prices, but not in wholesale sizes; fresh foods like meat, fruits and vegetable and dairy. We were in charge of the food there, making menus, helping with ordering and inventory, as well as being manager/director of the social media. We all think food for everyone is very important (though some of the others don't like to eat very much).

We always had to be very careful what we said about our job; but since we don't work there anymore...and we never signed a confidentiality agreement, we can say what we want. It's been over a month now too, since we worked there.

Yes, those who used to follow us know that some of us used to say some pretty mean things about some of the people we encountered on a daily basis, from volunteers to the people we were serving (and sometimes about co-workers who deserved it *coughs* Fuck Face *coughs*)

There is a reason for that, for our anger. It's probably not a good reason though, so maybe it's an excuse.

Some of the people we encountered on a daily basis were on government assistance and not because they were mentally ill; some of them were lazy, or decided to be a baby making factory (you could tell the difference between the woman who hadn't planned on having a child, and those that were perpetually pregnant by different "baby-daddies").

They also acted like they were entitled to everything (mostly the "welfare" mothers). We knew the ones who were too mentally ill to work a regular job, and even some of them would help out by volunteering...they were beautiful tortured souls.

We interacted with people who were schizophrenic on a daily basis, people who would give tours to imaginary people outside our office, tell us at least once a week that there was "feces on the mirror in the washroom", when in fact, there was nothing. These people we're not on street drugs.

We also interacted with people who's minds were so addled by drugs and alcohol that they could barely walk and/or speak...and it was hard to tell if they were on the drugs to "scare off" their mental illness, or the mental illness came from the drugs and alcohol. Sometimes it really is a "what came first" situation.


Some of them were on prescription drugs that were supposed to help them get off of street drugs, drugs that they got addicted to instead. Clearly the governments of the world think it better we be addicted to something approved of by society, not to mention taxable...then some "dirty" drug.

People there would steal, even though they were getting an amazing and inexpensive service; and when we would confront them, they would get pissed off at us. One time we were told "why don't you get a real job?" by a snarling woman who looked like she was going to spit on us, when we confronted her about an apple her kid didn't hide fast enough, that he was trying to steal. She got very angry and defensive, and acted like WE were in the wrong. Poor behavior begats poor behavior (yeah, we like that word lately, begat), and she taught her child a very bad lesson that day...and it probably wasn't the first time.

Another example; we overheard a young man, no more than 23 years old, who was a frequent visitor, talking to another "guest". He said the reason he doesn't have a job is because he is lazy and has poor work ethic. We've see him as a volunteer there, and he was right about himself; but hearing him say that that day made us beyond angry, mostly because the day he was tasked to help us as a volunteer we were in so much pain we could barely move and he was a pissy little baby about having to stand while he waited on customers.

Some of the people there made us sicker.

So, sometimes we would say mean things at that job in tweets because the people made us angry. Angry that sheer laziness got them off the hook at being responsible, that THEY were okay with their laziness...and having other people pay for their laziness. We were angry because we were struggling every day to make it to work, to function and be coherent, when much of our day was brutally difficult for us to manage, and we were the sickest, mentally AND physically, than we'd even been in our life. In addition, they money being lazy, living off the government, than we did working...and then we got fired from that job.

Back to why we do nice things. Back to why I do nice things (or rather, Catherine and I).

At any point in our life we could have been/could be that person who is hungry on the street corner...we could be that person dining in a soup kitchen...sleeping on a cot in a shelter. We've been lucky to not ever have to do that. The same can be said for anybody who is barely scrapping by on a day to day basis. All it takes is one wrong thing to happen and you are the guy sitting on the corner with a sign that simply says "Hungry".

So tonight, we did a nice thing and we were told we were awesome. And while we thanked him we know we're not awesome, we didn't do it just for him. We did it for us, to remind us to be thankful...even if some of us are a bitch most of the time. Our life isn't great, most of the time, by any stretch of the imagination...but it could be worse.

Now having said that, we don't give change to bums. The local downtown security group advises against it, citing that over 70% of the time it's for drugs and alcohol - and we agree and have seen it in action; but we will offer food if we have it on us, bus tickets if we have them and they are asking for change for the bus. We offered a lady an apple one day, after she said she wanted money for food. She declined it, of course, she didn't want money for food after all. Probably if some guy walked up to us and said "I want money for a fifth of whiskey", we'd walk him to the liquor store (if we had the money ourselves) and buy him some whiskey, because with us honesty works. The people we don't like are the people who try to scam for anything. We'd sooner spit on a person in need who is being dishonest.

Over the years we've gotten smart about it. They (the beggars, bums, what have you) are not asking for money to pay their bills (likely), they are not asking for money to pay rent (you have to have a job in order to have a place to rent)...if they are asking for money to get to a different city (like a young couple who hangs around in our neighborhood) you have to wonder why they don't just get a job for a couple of weeks, rather than beg for a month. They are probably asking for money for food, drugs or alcohol. Surely you can provide them one of those things, just a little of it...maybe just once; because wouldn't you want someone to show you a little kindness if you were legitimately in need?

~Cassandra and Catherine (and we're the reason that kid didn't take our "death stare" seriously on the bus...we almost started giggling at him, and our eyes give everything away, always. *blush*)
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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

So, You've Been Unfollowed and/or Blocked

Update: April 14, 2012 - Blocking now blocks the RT's of the person you blocked, (but not of the person who blocked YOU) so some of this entry may no longer be correct. You can read it anyway if you want, everything else should be accurate.


We were gonna totally do a blog post about unfollowing...but, halfway into it we thought "who the fuck cares", then we wrote that sentence and started trying to do a condensed version of what we had already wrote...now who the fuck knows...

So, You've Been Unfollowed...
All you need to know is that there are lots of reasons people unfollow; suspended accounts, legitimate Twitter glitches** (yes, they exist...and Twitter has NOT fixed them despite what they say), accidentally (people are drinking and on drugs on Twitter!).

And sometimes people are just offended by something you said, sometimes your content is not what they are looking for. Sometime people are using some of those applications on the net that "help" you "clean" your following, find more followers, manage them, find who doesn't follow you back, who stops following...who is "spam", etc., some of those applications offer an automatic unfollow feature and sometimes regular people (not spam, sometimes your "friends"!) get caught in the swoop. (The only application we use for these purposed is 'Refollow' http://www.refollow.com/refollow/index.html - NOT A PLUG)
It's why we have a list to track "unfollowers" (Twitter Glitch List [revision: This list no longer exists])...because they are not all legitimate unfollowers....if we recognize an account who has unfollowed us "toss" them in our net (list). We've had people thank us for it.
You can also get unfollowed for not talking to a person, we have (sorry, but with as many followers as we have we can't talk to people every single time they @...but we try to at least acknowledge by starring [favorite-ing] the @). We've been unfollowed for offending people, we've been unfollowed, not surprisingly, for tweeting "too much", and sometimes it's a Twittercide*.
Oh, and the newest one, for those "Favstar whores" (which is an actual thing in Urban Dictionary...but what isn't), is to unfollow people who don't RT/star/favorite their Tweets in Favstar enough...we're planning on an entry to talk about Favstar.

Believe it or not we get DM's asking us questions about a lot of this stuff, and most recently some questions about Favstar.
Bottom line on the unfollowing? Take a deep breath. Relax. Unless it was someone you recognize and talk to (a friend) then it shouldn't be too big of a deal, right?
Oh, and if you unfollow someone you have never talked to...don't bother fucking sending the person a DM to let them know why because a) they can't respond to you unless you are still following them and b) they probably would rather you keep your yap shut and move on to finding someone who is as lame as you are.
But why care, you ask?
Well, most people don't and that's cool, because people are on Twitter for a variety of different reasons.
However, depending on what you are on Twitter for, sometimes you deal in high numbers of followers, and want to follow a lot of people who are not going to follow you back, such as publishing companies, celebrities, news accounts, magazines, and television shows, for example.
Twitter has a following/follow ratio (limit) that's we've written about before...we're not going to rehash it, we'll just show you the snip that is in the entry where we wrote about it:
So, to be able to follow the people who follow you PLUS follow people you want to follow, no matter if they follow you back, you have to be able to unfollow the unfollowers.
Also note, some accounts prey on the fact that people aren't paying attention and do not bother to find out who unfollowed them; they follow you, you follow them, and then within two days they unfollow you. You don't remember who they are so you are stuck following them. Bait and switch. They do it for whatever reason, we figure to make themselves look more important.
"I've Been Blocked!"
Now...here's some information about blocking people...because it's not really blocking much other than being THEM receiving YOUR @'s. (they can still talk @ you, you just won't "hear" it)
To illustrate...
We had a follower who loved our Tweets, then he unfollowed us and blocked us. When we used our choice application for such matters (finding unfollowers) and found out he unfollowed us, we went to his Timeline (we always check out what people have been saying, sometimes they say things to people they unfollow, sometimes they leave Twittercide* notes)...this person wrote an @ to us (stating in case we see this message, you know, in case we stopped by) saying he had blocked us because while he liked our Tweets, he had read our Timeline @'s and said they were "fucked up". Not sure what he meant, BUT he could write to us, have it in HIS timeline and we never would have known but for going to his profile.
Blocking someone does NOT...prevent the person you blocked from looking at YOUR tweets. Nor does it prevent that person from saying things @ you...it prevents You from seeing what THEY are saying about you. Like talking behind your back. (but you can probably find out if you search your name on Twitter, then the things recently said about you can be found, even if you are blocked by that person)
We're not really sure the point in this blocking thing, though we have blocked a couple people so we didn't have to be harassed by them. Generally if you want to block someone it would be because you don't want them to see you, or the things you are saying in addition to not wanting to see what they are saying.
Furthermore, blocking sometimes doesn't work because you can still get those annoying Tweets, that maybe you put the block on for in the first place, when people you mutually follow RT the asshole that you blocked (or blocked you, in some cases. We have a few who blocked us and it pisses us off every time they are RT'd into our timeline)...there they are...in all their douchebag glory.
Also, Twitter may state they do not notify you that you have been blocked, but let's say a random Tweeple blocked you, one you never followed them, who never followed you but for some reason they saw you and blocked you...if you try to follow them you'll get a popup saying you can't follow this person because they blocked you. (totally happened to us in the last week)
Unfollowing and blocking...they're just not that into you...but who the fuck cares...as long as you can unfollow them back if you didn't want to be following them in the first place. Or maybe it was an accident.
As with all our social media blog posts we hope this was helpful to someone.
Other Social Media Posts We've Done:
*Twittercide is when someone closes their account...they're account remains a ghost for around 24 hours, all of the people they follow are automatically unfollowed, and all of their following and follower numbers go to zero. The person in question can elect to have all their tweets removed, or to leave them on the Timeline. There is also a period in which a Twittercided account can reclaim their account and "come back to life". People Twittercide for a variety of reasons.
**Twitter glitches are sometimes caused by using certain applications, but Twitter also has a glitch in their website/system whereby it unfollows accounts on your behalf...it's a real pisser.
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