Being Me

Being me. I’m being me. Hot messed, pugnacious, ever hopeful me. Let’s establish something. This site is not where you should look for facts, journalistic integrity, reliable opinions or good behavior. Nor is it a self-revealing autobiographical spillage of our deepest feelings. It is craft. It is the work of a bard who is using a medium for his own dissident, arrogant purposes. Some of those commenting or writing here are not even actual people. Did you really think a drunk alien named Ray(Ro)bert))a was someone you could find on Tinder? Even if you could, he has a girlfriend. Or that Eugene Lefkowitz was the real mayor of the city of Berkeley? Fooled you. We may write things that are self-revealing. We may not. It feels more honest to say that we lie than to put on an honest face and claim that we do not lie when clearly we do.

I see no point in worrying about being fact-checked. It feels a lot healthier to me to just be pugnacious and declare at the outset that this space works to tell a good story and perhaps enlighten. Where fact or orthodoxy interferes with our ability to tell a good story these will suffer. So, stop being mad that this site is a bit daft. The writer is at least a bit daft. You should expect his writing to be equally so. We good? No? Oh well.

There are enough malcontents like me out there that we can build a community through this site and be the sideshow for those who still imagine themselves to be the sane ones in the asylum. I’d much rather be here, among the repentant sinners and odd, than behind a white picket fence worrying that Mrs. Kopakowski across the street has better carpet than we do. We hot messes know we are trouble. It’s a given. So, we don’t worry about it and get on with it.

Also . . . if you are currently being seduced by the lie that you are alone, that nobody else suffers like you do, and that you are the lone hero who must triumph over evil by him or herself, knock it off. Even those who imagine themselves to be normal or are celebrated as privileged and beautiful have their issues. Come join us odds. We have warm food and a place at our table. It’s nice here and you can be your odd self. We know what’s in your closet and we are good with it.

A word on the images on this site: many of the images I use are taken from search results on Google Images. I try as best I can to attribute the original creators and link to appropriate URLs. If you are a content creator and object to my use of your work I am happy to take it down upon being notified.

Getting Comments Approved

This site is a somewhat benevolent dictatorship. We amuse and annoy. Comments that further the goal are more likely to get approved. Though, being pugnacious, we may at a whim just not approve any comment for arbitrary reasons. So, if you have a comment that was approved, lucky you. Don’t let it go to your head. And don’t expect any trends based on our prior behavior. We might just stop approving your comments precisely because it starts to seem like we are becoming predictable. Some of us are gamers. We get that people will attempt to sort out our gameplay and try to beat us. Game on. We usually win. We have a SPAM filter that doesn’t show us any comments that it believes are only SPAM and not worth our time. Your first hurdle is that filter. Ok, enough rules. Please do comment and participate in the sideshow. We are where the odd ones are.