Random Thoughts vol. 1

So I passed this today while driving and felt like making it into a meme. And before you say it, I know, I know, my meme is bad and I should feel bad. Rest assured, I do.

I think the format/culture of Steem clashes with the way I generally have liked to write. I like to ponder over a topic, select one thoughtfully, do some research, and type out a fairly well-written post. The simple fact that there is no "save draft" button in this editor is reason enough to be discouraged from this approach. I spend way too long on these posts, and my total blog posts number is suffering for it. I figured for today I would try something different and just throw out a few random thoughts I've had the past few days. Sound good? OK, go.

I got into a little back and forth with my good Steem-friend @janton on this thread, and while I would love to do a full post on the idea, I will save that for another time. What I do want to mention now, though, is that we need to start policing the usage of the term "Millennial" when the target is college students. Millennial != College student. Baby Boomers were college students once. Then they grew up and now most of them are grandparents or retirees. Millennial are growing up too, and now most of us are young parents and professionals with careers. I couldn't resist some research:

Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 22 to 37 in 2018) will be considered a Millennial, and anyone born from 1997 onward will be part of a new generation

Source: Pew Research Center

Apparently Time, The New York Times, and USA Today are all on board with this, so that seems good enough for me. A college freshman is 18. It is 2018. Easy math. Now stop calling campus crybabies "Millennials" please. In case you can't tell, it's a pet peeve of mine :)

Other thoughts I've had... oh, I opened Steemit in private browsing mode for some reason on my phone, and quickly had a moment of panic as my personal feed popped up. I thought for sure that I had found some kind of security exploit. Then I realized that your feed is a static URL that anyone can access, whether they are logged in to Steemit or not. No career for the NSA for me after all, I suppose.

I was in the liquor store picking up my prescription the other day and I saw that they offered gift certificates. I thought this was strange, since it was strictly a beer/wine/spirits type store, and it wasn't even a chain. How odd of a gift would that be to receive? And what kind of message are you sending with a present like that? My only conclusion is that the gift cards are never purchased by legitimate customers, and their only purpose is to help the store launder money for a criminal syndicate. I have watched Breaking Bad too many times.

I just paid my property taxes for the year. I then proceeded to go to the library and check out some books. I am not sure if my love of the library is subconsciously fed by the fact that I know I am paying for it. I have noticed the same phenomenon with parks lately, although I chalk that up to having a 2 year old.

I have about $500 worth of Litecoin sitting in a Coinbase account, languishing away. Should I use it to buy STEEM and power up my vote? Obviously your opinion is a little biased if you are commenting on this, but your thoughts are welcome.

I think we are all have more in common with one another than we realize. Or more accurately, that there are more people like us out there than we think. A few things that another good Steem-friend @fromage has written have really resonated with me. I could have written these exact lines, but he beat me to it:

I am something of a feckless dabbler.

I'm pretty obsessed with what other people think about me in general.

There's just something in me that wants so badly to connect with other human beings, to have what I am known. It's silly and stupid and lizard-brainy but it's there all the same.

Now to wrap things up on a downer. Another idea that warrants a post unto itself, especially with Father's Day coming up... I feel like I often live in a state of constant terror at the thought that something might happen to my kid. That he might get sick or get into an accident. That he could die. I can't imagine what it's like to go through that. It must be the worst kind of emotional pain a human can go through. The threat of something like this happening drives me to live in the moment with my son. I'm not saying that this is always on my mind, but at the end of a particularly stressful day with him, it keeps me tethered to my love and helps me reset any anger or irritation. Is it strange or even wrong to value someone so much in part because there is no guarantee they will always be there?

OK, enough for now. Dangit, that ended up way longer than I intended. I have a problem with brevity and succinctness. I could have made this into 6 separate posts and made $0.54 instead of the $0.09 this might hit.