ABSILVER's World

A few lessons learned from not being on Facebook: For 7 days, I had to search for new cat videos and cute dog pictures, as they were not served up on my news feed. Missed the ease of hearing and seeing what others are up to, and the ease of communicating with friends and family. It is not easy to block websites on Chrome, and so I only hit the URL twice last Friday by mistake. As Hurricane Dorian approaches, I have not been in as much contact with friends and family in Florida as I would if hovering over Facebook. Overall, though, I would say the experience being disconnected has been most enjoyable. What I am realizing is that Facebook can be, for me, a distraction from my day to day life.   That may be more than welcome at times, but it also can also cause me to not be as focused on life choices and decisions as maybe I should be.   It is also interesting because I am also less focused on what other people are doing and celebrating in their lives and having to be more

OK, so here I am, August in Austin.   It is our third summer in Austin and the 100-degree days don't seem so bad although they shorten Daisy Belle's adventures in the daytime.   Maybe it is the heat, but it is time to shake things up! As I walked around Lady Bird Lake before the sun rose, this morning, I thought about what I could do to be more in the present and change things in my life.   Already have a dog and a cat, not looking for fish or rabbits, so I think we have all the pets we can handled.   Maybe a new hairstyle?   But being bald what could I really do so radical, I have already shaved my head at times, and nobody even noticed.   I thought about learning a new language or how to paint.   How, when and where would I find the time for that! Then I read this op-ed piece in the NY Times on DataInternet Privacy Tracking .   All these sites, advertisers, and social sites that are eager to track my every move.   Sort of made me want to run and hide from the

I slept well last night... and woke up mad as hell. There is a mass shooting in El Paso, 20 people dead and 26 injured, and the next story in NY Times,  is another shooting in Dayton Ohio 9 are dead and 16 injured and I slept well last night. I continue to sleep well at night, while We the People have detention centers, or dare I say concentration camps at our borders that are treating human beings less than animals.   My sweet DaisyBelle has more rights than they have.   Think about it, you can go to jail for killing and torturing animals in this country.   But who will go to jail for allowing the treatment of people and their children whose main crime is looking to escape violence and poverty for a better life in the country that is known for the free and brave?   Somewhere we should remind ourselves that they are human beings and deserve to be treated with kindness and care and not as an evil invasion. Apparently as the killer in El Paso showed, we are c