The Elders Don’t Emotionally Blackmail Using Their Elderly Statuses, Can Cause the Disagreements to Decrease by a Whole Lot

And so, it’s still, ALL in your, ATTITUDES, old people, no offense!  Observations from the Front Page Sections, translated…

I’m about to enter into the “elderly” group, and recently, there’d been cases of the matter of disagreements over the “priority seats”, with the elders demanding the younger generations to stand up, but the younger generations didn’t, and the younger generations were, physically, attacked, and being a member of the elderly population, other than feeling upset, and shame, I want to call out to my peers to, stay calm, to “not emotionally blackmail anyone because you’re elderly”, to reduce disagreements of this sort.

I want to share a story of “letting up your seat”, the writer, Lin in his lecture, told that one day, his mother-in-law came home upset, “whoa!  The younger generations are totally, without any sense of, morale, seeing me get on, nobody stands up.”  Lin consoled with her, told her that it was because of how youthful she’d, appeared, so nobody stood up!  And a few days later, she’d returned home, furious once more, soon as she’d entered the door, she’d started, stating, “the younger generations really need their eyes, checked, they don’t see how young I appear, and soon as I set foot into the trains, a lot of those whom were originally seated, stood, up.”, on seeing the same situations, there would be a different attitude to interpretations, and different outcome, with the mindset not being, the same.

this is the news footage of WHAT happened in the case, off of YouTube

the reporter on how the 29-year-old younger male got beaten by the elderly, off of YouTube

I want to commend the Department of Health & Social Welfare for their spirits of going for an amendment on everything, but, expanding the definitions of priority seating does NOT solve the problems currently.  Because the matter of conflict caused by the priority seats is NOT on who’s fitted to sit, but the personal moral, general courtesy, and mutual respect we have for each other.

To keep a harmonious society, it’s up to everybody, the elders should NOT use their elderly status to emotionally blackmail the younger generations, and the younger generations should also, have more respect, more empathy for the needs of the elders, and seeing the elderly person, and let up their seats immediately, this would then be, the most beautiful sight in the public transportation systems.

Yet, not EVERYBODY is courtesy, by socialization or by nature, and so, the disputes continues, and primarily, it’s based off of the elderly individuals’ attitudes of “I’m old, so you MUST respect me!”, says who, huh???  Why do we, the younger generation need to RESPECT you, the older generations, because you’re older, is that it?  What if, we’re having the health difficulties like CRAMPS, headaches, that’s NOT visible like being crippled, or old age we have the needs to, so, why can’t WE, sit in the, priority seating sections, this is still, too, selfish, and this is the problem, we all consider things from OUR own angles, and we don’t and can’t, and won’t, EMPATHIZE, and that can’t be changed, because, this is how we’re, socialized to interact with the world…

The American Master Student Had Her Boyfriend Murder Her Father, Because He’d Stopped Paying for Her Living Expenses, in the Second Trial, She’d Still Escaped the Death Penalty

This is, the residuals of the DDP’s plans to, ELIMINATE the DEATH penalty altogether, started back in Tsai’s REIGN of TERROR, with the DDP, kidnapping the seats of the Grand Justices, by placing all their members into the “slots” to do their, biddings FOR them, and there will NEVER be, justice again on this island!  The murderers that escaped DEATH, after HAMMERING the father to death, and this is, a CONSPIRED murder case too, where the DEATH PENALTY is JUSTIFIED, and yet, this was, what happened in this case of MURDER of her own father, with her boyfriend…off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The Justice: there’s still a Chance for Her to be Reformed

The woman, Jiang when she was in her graduate studies in the U.S, got upset over how his father who works in an elementary school as a security guard had cut her off, as she’d returned to Taiwan, she’d murdered her father with her boyfriend, Chang with a hammer, then, disposed of her father’s body in a deserted location.  In the first trial, the courts found that they “both had possibilities of being corrected and socialized”, given both life sentences, the D.A. filed for an appeal, yesterday the Taichung High Subsidiary Court tossed back the appeal of the district attorney’s office, and this can still be appealed.

the protests against the DEATH PENALTY, because this person did NOT lose anybody he loves to MURDER, Y-E-T! Photo from online

The justice, Chang told, that Jiang and Chang’s murder of Jiang’s father used a most cruel method, and their committing the murder showed NO signs of humanity, the families can’t ever forgive them; but in the first trial, both perpetrators were sent to get evaluated at the Taiwan Justice Psychological Evaluation Foundation, and the second trial, they were sent to the Christian Hospital in Changwha to get evaluated, and both times, the results came out as Chang and Jiang have the possibility of getting reformed, and the evaluations showed that there’s no need to keep them locked up forever, or to sentence both to death.

The indictment stated, that the thirty-three-year-old Jiang and the thirty-four year-old Chang went to the U.S. to study in 2014, Jiang’s father had helped them get the loans, and supported them, but started in 2016, he’d cut them off, the two had a hard time getting bad, and started hating Jiang’s father for not continuing supporting them; in November of 2020, the couple returned to reason with Jiang’s parents, and they were, locked out.

The two then coconspired to murder Jiang’s father, bought the tape, the knife, the ropes, hammers, and scissors, on December 26^th, 2021, they road to the elementary school where Jiang’s father worked as a security guard to ambush, and in the midnight hours of the twenty-seven, the two broke into the school’s courtyard, with Jiang holding her father down by the hands, and Chang using a hammer, and struck Jiang’s father down, as Jiang saw that her father was still making the noises after he’d fallen, told her boyfriend to continue to assault her own father, Jiang’s father was brutally beaten to death with a broken skull and a severed cervical spine.

The two washed the blood off, Chang used the scooter, to dispose of Jiang’s father’s body, with Jiang riding another scooter right behind him, on the way, Jiang’s father fell to the ground, and got dragged until the bones showed, in the end, Jiang’s father’s body was disposed of in the rural area of Taiping.

The Taichung District Court in April of last year, sentenced Jiang on murdering of her own next-of-kin, disposing the body of her next-of-kin, to a life term, a year two months, and sentenced Chang to murder and disposing of the body to life term, and a year.  Both are to serve out the life-terms, with their government positions stripped.

and, these people “marching” for the “cause”, had NEVER lost ANYBODY they CARED about to MURDER!!! Photo from online

The first trial found that the means of murder they used being too cruel, especially how Jiang disregarded how her father had raised her up, there was severe maliciousness in her murdering her own father, both her mother and her younger sister told the justice that they’d wanted her to get the death penalty.  But considering how both Jiang and her boyfriend, Chang had no priors, and admitted to what they’d done, and after the psych evaluations, it’d shown that Jiang has a “moderate to high chance” of being corrected, and Chang has a “high chance” of being corrected, and “high chance” of being reformed, that was why both were sentenced to life-terms.

And all of this, is THE, sorry EXCUSE of the courts, following the bad means of how the DDP wanted to ELIMINATE the DEATH penalty altogether, an the court system still became, nothing MORE than, a SUBSIDIARY of the corrupt political party.  This showed, how FAR the political party can go, to GET what they want, with a total disregard of the victims’ of the families’ losses, and, how can a government that TOTALLY DISREGARDED the RIGHT to LIFE like this, have the people’s BEST interest in mind?  Yet, the majority of voters still, voted them into office this time…

Eighty-Three-Percent of Polled are Against Doing Away with the Death Penalty, the Polls of Keeping the Death Penalty Intact or Get Rid of it Showed

Despite how MORE than the majority (that’s what, fifty-percent!!!) had shown, that they wanted the death penalty to stay, the DDP still, tries to, take it away, see how this corrupt political party would go the distance, to GET their laws passed, disregarding the opinions of WE the people?  And we still, allowed them to, REIGN over us, like we’re, slaved!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

There’d been the long-time debate of whether or not the country should do away with the death penalty, the newest polls were posted yesterday, as high as 82.3-percent polled are against doing away with the death penalty, another 16.7-percent believed that the Grand Justices should decide whether or not the death penalty stays, showing, and there were only 16.7-percent who believed, that some of the Grand Justices’ handling of the matter of doing away with the death penalty lacked the justifications.

The C.E.O. of the Chinese Association for Human Rights, Kao pointed out, that the survey showed that the debate of whether or not to keep the death penalty intact, was not only just a political tool, but very connected to people’s beliefs about ethics and our values too, and that’s why the public are so affected by the debate of whether or not to keep the death penalty; from the polls, it showed, that people are in agreement about doing away with the death penalty, that the Constitutional Courts should take this into consideration when they make the decisions.

There are 3,003 valid samples from this poll, including the polls from the calls to the members of the public’s homes, and cell phones, there are 83.2-percent of those who’d answered the polls who are against eliminating the death penalty, seventy-six-percent who’d agreed that “getting the death penalty for murder is just”, eighty-five percent believing, that “the courts should be given the choice of handing down the death penalty to the severe crimes, and taking into consideration of how the families of the victims and the society wanted to see justice served.”

The results of the polls showed, that more than seventy-percent of the people believed, that death penalty has the efficacy to prevent the serious crimes from being committed, “there should be the votes by the people to decide whether or not death penalty should be kept”, and only 16.7-percent believed, that “it should be up to the Grand Justices to decide”, showing the public’s distrust of the Grand Justices, another sixty-three-percent stated that they lacked the faith in the justice systems in Taiwan.

the highest court became SPLIT up, due to the Executive Branch, political cartoon from online

Kao, the former legislator of the KMT, Kao told, that death penalty is the view of ethics that people kept for long-term, the polls showed, that to change the system that’s currently in place now, it should be up to the legislature or the people’s voting on the issues publicly to decide, instead of leaving the decision up to the Grand Justices only.

The former Grand Justice, Su pointed out, that during the arguments of the Constitutional Court, there was a grand justice who’d inquired of how the questioning of the law being unconstitutional, and using it as a way of explaining the constitution, does this need the input of the majority of the public opinions, seemingly questioning the polls, but based off of his experiences, what this particular grand justice wanted to know, is what the meaning of eighty-percent of the people’s opinions mean, because it’d become, quite impossible for the Grand Justices to base whether or not something is unconstitutional on simple logic, and the principles of the constitution, but using a combination of considerations of things happening in society, public opinions, and the values of the constitution to decide.

He said, that this latest poll had been more thorough than the past of the same kind of polls on death penalty, more in depth, which showed, how the people took into considerations, the feelings of fairness of the families of the victims, if death penalty is, completely unconstitutional, if the right to life is absolutely protected by law, he’s sure, that the latest poll will help the grand justices make the right decisions.

Yeah, and at the very end, these polls and the results became, RUBBISH, and people’s opinions still get, overlooked, because the DDP already, dipped its filthy hands into the JUSTICE department, like it’d done, tried to control the legislature, and failed, and the president’s still of the DDP ticket, so, the DDP now has, two of the three major branches of government on its side, because the DDP mindset is “We want the DEATH PENALTY O-U-T” for whatever politically motivated reasons they may have, therefore, we will, have it, O-U-T.  With the Grand Justices all from the DDP, there’s NO way, that all the laws that the DDP want to pass, won’t pass, and that, is how the branches of government became, completely, tilted, because we (the majority) voted for the DICTATORSHIP party as president!

Chee, the Poli-Sci Professor of National Taiwan Normal University: the President Elect, Lai Won’t Have His Honeymoon Period as He Continues the DDP Governance

Unlike his predecessor, Tsai, who TOOK the presidency from the KMT’s Ma, Lai won’t have the honeymoon phase like she had from eight years ago, and this would be harder on this new president elect for sure!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

It’s been a month since Lai came into office, and the major events of Communist Chinese armed forces closing in on Taiwan in the military drills, the Executive Department’s discussing the matter of legislative reform, and other major events.  the scholars told, that compared to other presidents, and the honeymoon phases that his predecessors had had, the many challenges from internal and external departments, caused the president elect, Lai to not get his honeymoon phase of presidency; the Lai government, as a minority executive, Lai didn’t play the role of mediator, instead, he’d made the environment of the legislative and executive branches to get filled with the conflicts, which will, alternatively, cause negative effects in the future, as he implements his policies.

The poli-sci professor from Taiwan Normal University, Chee stated, that the president elect, Lai had almost no honeymoon period to help him ease into the role of president.  On the external environment, during the Ma presidency, there’s the amicable enough relations with China, the former president, Tsai after she took over, in her inaugural address, she’d, stated the positions of the two sides, at the start, China gave her enough “leeway”; and as Lai continued after Tsai, with the DDP, already deadlocking the relationship of China and Taiwan, plus Lai in his inaugural address, stated that he believed Taiwan and China aren’t unified, and Beijing immediately reacted negatively, and soon as Lai entered into office, tensions began building up higher and higher between China and Taiwan.

Chee pointed out, the troubles of the DDP government is that now, the DDP is the minority of legislature, the new government, the elected officials had disagreed on the issues of reforming the legislature with the parties that aren’t in power, and, the opposing parties, naturally, didn’t give the Lai government a buffer period; and on top of that, Lai is extending the governance of the DDP, and naturally, the people have a tougher demand, and we are bound to have a smaller leeway for the government led by Lai as well.

Chee stated, that as the full month in power that the former presidents, Ma and Tsai had passed, the polls showed a higher rate of support compared to Lai’s polls, “this is the hard proof, of the president Lai, not having that honeymoon period.”  He recommended Lai needs to reduce friction, whether it be on the means of relations with China or his ruling over Taiwan, otherwise, filling the spectrum of the government with, hostilities and objections, this is nothing good for his future as president.

The honorary professor of Poli-Sci Graduate School, Liao told, that Lai won the presidency with forty-percent popular votes, plus the DDP losing out on the majority of legislative seats, it’s a classic minority government; at the beginning of Lai’s getting into office, he’d needed to make more friends, but the president, Lai didn’t have the statures of the “president of the people”, playing that needed role of a mediator and consolidator, instead, on the matter of legislative reform, he’d allowed the parties to stand opposite, to the point of the DDP, labeling the parties out of power, stating that the parties are leaning toward Communist Chinese government, and all of this, filled the political realm with, that air of, war.

And so, this is, the aftermath of what was left over by Tsai’s TWO terms as president, and this time, the DDP president, Lai got voted into office again, but the DDP became the minority party in the legislature, which will in turn, make it even more difficult, for Lai to get his policies going, because, we the people, still hold the grudges of the past, remember WHO was it, that blocked out the BioNTech vaccines, because the agent in the Greater East was a pharmaceutical company from Shanghai???  Exactly, and now, the people start FIGHTING BACK!

The Hearts that Broke Over the Pacific, a Poem

On losing that someone you’d played with as a young child, that very first friend of your, younger, childhood, years…translated…

With the Adolescent Girl that Belonged in the Blue Mountains Behind Her on the Island on Her Mind

Not Allowing Me to Compare the Mountains of Hong Kong with That of Taiwan’s

The Adolescent Girl Loved Her Sisters, Candy & the Island Where the Games of Soccer Were Played

She’d Sucked on the Honey from the Seas, & Recalled the Language She’d Understood Before She Was Two

what the two of you, became…without any, dry land in sight! Photo from online

But She’d Loved the Island that Allowed Her to Play by the Day, the Island She Grew up by the Seconds on, And

Comparing to All of Us, She Refuses to, Leave that, Island,

Her Accent, Soft Like the Sticky Rice, Also from that Island………….

Her Most Widely-Used Phrases and Her Tone of Voice, Also, Came from that, Island……….

She Will Become Another Adolescent Girl Who Rides the Scooters Across the Land

With Her Hair in the Wind, Dyed to the Colors of the Pacific Ocean

Every Fish, Every Seahorse, Became What Tiny Complaints Between Us

You & I, with the Waters from the Oceans We Can’t, Swim, Across………

This is on how the two of you were originally, so very close to each other, but as the two of you grew older, you’d, slowly, drifted apart, like how those childhood playmates that moved out of the neighborhoods we grew up in one by one, and lost contact with us through the, years…

The Necessity in Custom-Made Moral Education

How the socialization of morality starts at home, and is, reinforced in the schools, the classrooms, but the individual personality traits of children also plays a vital part too…from the honorary professor of Chingwha University, Lee, the expert in education, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

In the academic subjects, we are told of the importance of making the lessons more customized for the students, same of moral education.  First, I’m sure that we all agree, that there are, many faces of moral education, the various cultures all mentioned the many kinds of virtues.

Think, if we ask our students, “Should you abuse animals?”, any child would tell you that you shouldn’t; then, if you ask the children, should you treat your parents kindly?  All children would tell you yes.  But I believe, that moral education is not this simplistic.

Most children, if they grow up in normal conditions, they would have good characters, we can’t guarantee that they will be saints, but, we don’t need to worry that they will do something awful, wrong, or bad.  I believe, that moral education is vital to the high-risk children, what we need to do, is to make sure that the students don’t, stray from the right paths of life.  If in the middle school years, the students started getting involved in the bad crowds, after middle school, they stopped going to school, gotten into the gangs, in the end, they head down that path to crime.  These are the children we should pay the most attention, to.  To these students, giving them the ultimatums would never work, we need to understand WHY these kids have the inclinations to turn bad.

Kohlberg’s theory of Moral Education, from online

If a child has no worries of the most basic needs, has the love s/he needs from the parents, and is doing okay in school, there’s no need to worry.  But if a student grows in a family that’s lost its, functions, and can’t catch up in school, with almost NO allowances, and there are the bad gangs locally, then, these bad gangs would do all that they can, to attract the child to them, giving the child money, and as this student couldn’t withstand the temptations, slowly, the student will become, an individual who walks on the boundaries.

And what this group of children need the most is care and concerns, if we show that to them, other than giving them the monetary assistance, most importantly, to get them to improve in their schoolwork, to help them understand what the instructor is talking about in class, to make sure they catch up to the rest, then, they would feel that they have a hopeful future that will be available to them, and not hang around with the bad crowds.

We need to understand that there’s that connection between the moral characters and the academic performances, those students who are performing well enough in school, most wouldn’t go down the wrong paths of life, so, in the moral education of children, we must, also pay close attention to if the students are, catching up in the academia.  For those children from the families without the normal functioning, and not doing well academically, if you try to reason with them, it would be completely, ineffective.

For children from ordinary upbringing, the most important character education is to help them learn to have compassion for others, meaning, that they need to learn to empathize.  The teachers should realize, how easily the students receive violent messages from the environment, how the games they play had violence in them, how violence is in the movies as well.  This is a huge challenge for the school instructors, because our society placed less and less emphasis on love, and focused more on competition to survive.

starting small with something like this…photo from online

As educators, we should work harder, to let the students understand how violence harm people, we should not reinforce our students’ interests in war, but to teach them to despise it.  We should NOT worship the heroes in the wars, but instead, let the students know, how these leaders of military had caused, too many, orphans and widows.

In summation, moral education should be personalized, and NOT a one-size-fit-all.

NOTHING IS, one-size fit all, because there are the considerations of the children’s differences of upbringing, their family backgrounds being, diverse, and the personality traits of every child is also, different, and considering ALL of this, you CAN see, how difficult it is, to teach a class of say, thirty students, and, there’s NO easy FIX of this problem of the world heading down the immoral path of things, with all those bad things broadcasted on the news media, the violence in the games that children are playing, and moral education, just like everything, starts in the, nuclear, families, if you give your kids a good background to grow up in, socialized them to be, caring, loving toward others, the general values of what good people should be when they’re younger, chances are, they won’t go bad, even IF the outside world is, trying to, turn them toward the WRONG directions of life.

The Elderly Woman Let Up Her Seat to Someone Else Who Needed it More, the Final Touch of Gentleness in the Whole Train

This is, such a wonderful sight for sure, but it also, rouses up the questions of W-H-Y, would this, seventy-something ELDERLY person need to do it, she DESERVED to be seated in the, priority seats already…off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

Two days ago when I was on the trains, I saw someone let up her seat to someone else.  The one who’d let up her seat was a woman of about seventy years of age, she originally sat herself on the priority seats, noted how a woman in her thirties, holding to the railing, but kept switching her legs, noted that something was up with the younger woman, the elderly woman immediately got up, and had the younger woman sit down.  The younger woman originally turned her down, but as the elderly insisted, she’d, sat herself down to rest.

There were the younger generations who sat on the seats that weren’t labeled as priority seats, and saw that many elderly were standing, but nobody stood up.  I’m guessing, that it’s the beliefs of how only those in the priority seatings should let up their seats, that it doesn’t work for the regular seats.  It’s just, that in the aging community, with a few numbered seats per train, that’s not enough for the elderly who are in need, or for the women with the children in their arms.

the current “system” of priority seating arrangements on the MRT trains, photo from online

marked by the color differences…photo from online

There’d been many cases of conflicts regarding the priority seating in Taipei M.R.T. of late, one of the cases, the older man told the police, that the younger generation SHOULD let up their seats to the elderly population, and the police told the older man, that priority seats are for those who need, NOT a specialty for the elderly populations.

The priority seats had been in place for many years on end, and yet, many still mistakenly believed, that the seatings are specially for the elderly population, clearly, there’s not enough, awareness.  While letting the seat to someone who’s in need, is a virtue, but it is gone away, because of the setting up of the priority seating.

Seeing the elderly woman, letting up her seat to the younger woman, it’d, reminded me of that song, “That Final Gentleness”.

So, that would be the problem with the priority seating, because, we are socialized to believe, that this special seating is saved for the elderly, the ill, the pregnant women, and the children ONLY, but, sometimes, someone has a need, and it’s not visible to the rest of the public, and there’s that need for socializing the society on how the meaning of priority seating IS for those who are in need, NOT just a targeted small portion of the population, like the handicapped persons (that are visible…), the elderly, the pregnant women, children, etc., etc., etc., the seating showed the general civility of a culture.

Eight Years Since the Case of Murder of Little Light Bulb, Taipei and Hsinbei are Still, Patching Up the Lacking of the Net of Social Security

The changes in the systems, still comes, too, slowly here, with the factors of not enough employees who are driven to work in the departments, the low pays, and not enough assistance money to the local government agencies, and all of it added up to, too many HOLES in the NET of social security!  Off of the Newspapers, translated…

It’d been, EIGHT years since the murder of the young girl right outside the MRT Station, the net of social security is still, with too many, holes, not close to getting, patched up yet, the mother of the child, the chairwoman of Times Power Party, Wang yesterday thanked the United Daily News for reporting, and stated, that on the communications whether it be the horizontal, or the vertical, all needed a ton of work.  The Taipei Social Services pointed out, that due to the low wages, and the contents of work, there are next to nil graduates out of the social work departments who wanted to work as social workers, hoped that the Central government can increase the incentives, the Hsinbei Department of Sanitations also promises, make up for the lacking of personnel in the various agencies.

the “areas of expertise” of these, trained, professionals…chart from online

“It’s been eight years, I’m still Wan-Yu Wang, still the mom of Little Light Bulb”.  Yesterday Wang stated to the press, that to this very day, she’d still reviewed over the past deep in the nights when it got quiet, about why the changes in the society can only come about, through the never-ending occurrences of, tragedies?  She also feared, that even with the tragedies, nothing will ever be, changed, so she’d done all she possibly can, whether it be pushing forth the law, or the policies to create the changes, “this is one way I have of, memorializing my daughter.”

Wang stated, that the government’s cross-agency communications still need a ton of work on, “only when everything’s connected together, then, we can, actually, catch them all, who’s, falling, fast through the holes.”

The experts believe, that there’s the imminent need to fill up the holes the lacking in staffing in social workers, to effectively patch up the holes in the net of social security, Chiu of the social workers’ department of Taipei Social Services told, that it is really difficult to find the social workers, hoping that the central government, other than to promote the necessities of these employees, that the job expos, sharing the experience by the professional social worker staff members to the students, will hopefully, increase the willingness of the graduates to work in the area, and hoped that the Central government can also, raise the payrates of social workers higher too, so the local governments will have more funding, to increase the overall benefits of social workers.

Chiu stated it truthfully, the more important part of patching up the holes in the net of social security lies in the social policies, and the health sanitation policies being tied  in with each other, in the past, the cases are sorted through independently, it would take over a whole month, after the paper work had  been, completed and filed; that in the futures, the health centers, the social welfare centers, if the cases with the issues are discovered, then, the calls can be made, and the case be worked in immediately, so the individual receives the needed care and medical treatment means.

So, this is where the problems are: there’s NO connection of the various agencies, when everything should be better connected, so everything runs, smoothly down the line, but, it isn’t, because the systems are never perfect, and, there’s, this reduced drive to work in social work, seeing how the job is low pay, and with, tons of, work, and it was, one social worker overseeing, how many cases again?  Too many, and all of this added up to, how there is NOT enough of train professionals to patch up the holes, and so, more tragedies are going to, recur.

These Boring, Pursuits

The members of the groups that the writer is into, aren’t aimed at getting the hits, but in expressing themselves, just, living their, ordinary, lives…translated…

Of the mainstream social media cultures, I’m a member of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, which was just out last year.  FB allows for the space for the written and the illustrated, many of us had been using for more than a decade on end, and now, it’s said, that only old people use it. IG is mostly centered around the images, and in wholly, it’s appeasing to the visual more, from the highlights that began with IG, the uniqueness about this, is that in twenty-four hours, whatever on the highlights would be gone out of other’s sight, totally in contrast with FB’s functions of “This day last year”, one was gone without a trace, the other, worth remembering.  As for the newest Threads, it’d felt more like that rushing river, next to impossible to find what we’d once, posted on it, and at the same time, it’d allowed for the in-the-moment communication means.

Although, many would say, that FB is a thing of yesteryear, but, the group function can make me feel, that I’m, irreplaceable.  It extended to almost, every area of, interests, you can find someone to connect with based off of the interests that you have.  Recently, I’d gotten into a group that look up at the clouds, and every day I’d turned on my cell phone, then I got a glimpse of the clouds everywhere in the world.  The clouds were sometimes cute, at others, majestic, the rainbows, the clouds getting dyed by the light of the sun, and the “Light of Jesus”, it occurs daily, like the buffet, never ending, with a wide variety.  It’d taught me, that other than the skies I’m living under now, the heavens are putting on that show every second of every single day, free of charge.

the group’s “cover page” on FB, I think, and it’s called “Dull Women’s Club”…photo from online

Another group that kept my interest was “The Must-Share Weird (but Interesting) Findings of the Second-Hand Discoveries”.  There’s a group of Europeans and Americans who loved shopping at the flea markets, the secondhand shops, who’d shared passionately their findings.  Some of the items that were worn out, were aesthetic to breathtaking.  And the finders would tell where the items were spotted, the cost, and if they got the items home or not.  And if they took the items home and photographed the object, they would measure the items by the length of a, banana, that seemed to be the unwritten rules of Europeans and Americans.

I’m really impressed with this group of curious, observant, full of humor strangers-friends on FB. Several years ago, at the height of the pandemic, they couldn’t go out anymore, but, someone from the group had a brand new, idea, they’d turned to treasure hunting when they’d gone out on the strolls.  During that period of time, in the group, they would share the broken limbs of the dolls they’d discovered, walking into the woods, the ancient toys, or the accessories, it was kind of funny, yet, moving, and it’d made me understood, that the optimistic and the curious, no matter what sort of an environment they’re living in, spending money or not, they can still find something interesting and fun, and live according one’s own, personality, traits.

The most recent group I got involved in was the “Boring Women’s Club”.  As the members introduced themselves first, they would usually open with, “I’m bored out of my bones, living an ordinary life.”, but maybe, it’s this, sort of a making fun of oneself, the sense of humor, that’s drawn me into reading the profiles of these members.  A woman told, that she lives in the distant country side, and is living on a farm with the animals and plants, day after day, didn’t make any changes, felt, that it would be fine, if she’d stayed there forever.  Another woman from a small town, told that she worked during the daytime, and watched T.V. at night, then, went to bed early, her hobbies are knitting and reading, and she felt that it was, enough, she’d not wanted any, excitement at all.

The ladies would post pictures of themselves doing things at random, like that half-finished bowl of cereal from their breakfasts, the potted plants in their gardens, to stress, just how boring their lives, are.  Then, someone posted a recently purchased vacuum, and chimed, that this was the most exciting thing that’s happened in her life of late.  There were sometimes the selfies with the postings, the way these individuals all appeared natural, with that confidence in their smiles, that friendliness about them.  This made me feel, that in this world of famous online persons, those who want to exaggerate things to get attention from the online community, those photos that people take of their gourmet dining experiences, how they got the best of the deals, this group was like that breath of, fresh, air.

It’d made me think, how is boring or fun defined?  Must we, have a ton of things on the schedules, go to many places, to live a life that’s not in vain?  No matter what your choices are, if you can be like these ladies, who set their own selves, free, and living life in enjoyments, then, that would be the most comfortable, and the, freest.

So, this is on how we’re all, looking for a place to express ourselves, and, in this modern day of FB (or it may be out???), IG (that’s in, right???), or Tinder (maybe, wouldn’t know…), if you try to appease to everybody, to get the total number of views, and you only feel good about yourselves, as the meter start getting higher and higher one day, but you feel disappointed on another day, when there aren’t, that many, “visitors”, then, you would’ve, LOST your own selves, besides, in this day and age, everybody is online, and we all want to, express something, but, do we have the audience???  Is an audience, really, THAT, important for us, and what does, having an audience do for us, besides, giving US, that boasted sense of our own selves, as if the egos aren’t, INFLATED enough these days already…

The Air, My Friend

We often need to witness someone in distress, to feel good about our own, selves, that’s just how it goes, and, that’s still NOT because we’re EVIL or anything, it’s simply, human nature, sometimes…the column by Jimmi Liao, translated by me…

Seeing that Naughty Kitty Getting STUCK,

the artwork of Jimmi Liao, courtesy of UDN.com

With that Look of Fear in its Eyes,

Not Knowing How to Break Herself Free.

Why is it, that I’d Felt

That Was, Somehow, Comforting?

And, if you think on this further, you may develop that ambiguity inside of you, and if that starts to grow bigger, than, eventually, you will, become, split minded, because you KNOW you should NOT get off on someone else’s miseries, but you can’t help but feel glad, that something or someone else’s is in trouble, that’s just, the conflicted nature and mind of human beings…