Aren’t people just the worst? They really are. Recently someone on social media posted that a huge corporation was cutting thousands of jobs, much to the celebration of friends and followers who shared and liked the post, all so they could blame the politician they felt was to blame. I informed the poster that it wasn’t true, that those jobs weren’t being cut, and that it was misinformation. I know this because I work there. You would think that would be something to celebrate, thousands of jobs NOT being lost. My response was met with nothing. Not a like, not a “that’s great!” reply, not a word. Not another comment was made on the post, which tells me they all saw my remark. What is it within us that would have us celebrate such a terrible event, and disregard such a great one? We are terrible humans. What’s scary about social media is that it allows us all to be ourselves, that’s what you are seeing every day, the true nature of people. Not the people they pretend to be at the store, or at church, or any public place where they have to face others. The stupidity, the ignorance, the hate, as well as the genius, the insightfulness, the love, all of it you see on social media is who those people are. It’s easy to hide behind a screen, isn’t it? I have found that the smartest people I know, checked out long ago. I find myself getting farther away, but the trainwreck that is our society keeps pulling me back in. I will get away sooner or later. The terrible humans will remain forever, arguing over arguing. I suspect one day, there will be a single user left on social media, with multiple accounts, just so they have someone to fight with.

I’ve been wondering when this country decided it loved stupid so much. If you think about it, it’s true. At some point, and I don’t know exactly when, we started mocking college education, promoting characters in television and movies that were portrayed as dumb, and even subscribing to stupid ass ideology that no reasonable person would believe, we have science deniers and conspiracy fliers. People complain that men have been portrayed as stupid on television, but if we are honest with ourselves, that’s what the people want to see, it’s entertaining to them, and most can relate. That’s a separate issue though, aside from the bigger one. That issue is, we love stupid because it makes us feel superior, or so I believe. It should be no surprise that our recent infatuation with stupid, has created a dumbed down society. Politically speaking, those on far sides of the left and right both are dumber, far dumber, than I can ever remember. Much like COVID, the virus of stupidity does not care about your race or religion, your gender or your sexuality, and especially your political leanings. What the virus of stupidity does recognize though, is weakness. Those on the fringes of the right and left, are the weakest among us, there is no doubt about that. It doesn’t take a great deal of strength and fortitude to fall in line with your “side” and promote every ridiculous whim they come up with. I often find myself an outsider and being accused of speaking out of both sides of my mouth, because I see the stupidity on both sides and won’t toe the line or fly right for either. Things should just be what they are, if it’s stupid we should say so, regardless of which side it comes from. We have gotten so committed to winning or being on a side, we have abandoned our values and common sense, it’s time we get that back, especially if you are truly concerned about our country, and not just concerned about your team.

I am sure the headline only readers will tear me apart, but that’s part of the deal. I dont just write headlines, and if that’s all you read, it doesn’t really matter what I write anyway. That being said I will take my chances. Remember twenty years ago? I do very much so. We had a national tragedy, 9/11. One of the things I remember most about that time was how we as a country set aside our differences, set aside our politics, and focused on unity and coming together as a country to persevere. That was truly beautiful, America The Beautiful. Fast forward twenty years and here we are on the cusp of another national tragedy, well a world tragedy, the Coronavirus. By now I am sure you are all sick of hearing about it or reading about it. But I would ask how have we responded? Has it been beautiful? Have we come together as a nation, unified to fight the pandemic? No, not at all. What we have done is we have taken our cues from our preferred media outlets and are completely divided over what to do. We are tearing each other down, fighting each other, and fighting over toilet paper. Our response to this has been nothing short of ugly, extremely ugly. As conspiracy theories run a muck, and everyone suddenly becoming an infectious disease expert, here we are looking like fools in front of the world as we argue over percentage basis points of mortality rates. Today I was ridiculed for quoting the world leading expert on infectious disease during a discussion of mortality rate. I was called a leftist idiot who gets all my information from fake news media. I was further discarded when my response was that not only am I not a leftist, but that i get my information from the CDC and the World Health Organization. “Lies! All lies I tell you!” How did we get here? I know people love their pundits, but are we really going to rely on Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity for facts on a pandemic outbreak and the potential consequences? Can we not have a civil discussion about what is the right and wrong thing to do in this situation? I’ve also heard this, “Well I am not in the age group that dies so why should it affect me?” This general train of thought has come from many people, and it astonishes me. Are we not to care about those who are elderly or may have immunity problems anymore? Are we to just discard them and not make any sacrifice for those people who spent their lives sacrificing for the younger generations? Do you know who’s in that group? Grandmas and Grandpas, the people who raised a lot of us! What about the Vietnam Veterans? They are all in the high risk group, are we saying to hell with them now? When they may be in the hour of need? The willingness to spread misinformation about a deadly disease is mind boggling. Did you see the NBA player intentionally touching things to spread it? Because he heard it was harmless, just a common cold….wtf people. “Well I saw a video of someone who had it and they said the symptoms weren’t bad at all, they said it was just like a cold.” Said another online genius. I chose not to reply, I wanted to say “Dead people don’t make videos Einstein”, but I restrained myself. Here’s another good one, “Does anybody even know anybody that has had it? I didn’t think so!” Well, give it a couple of weeks dipshit and I am sure you will know a few, will that make you happy? The point is as you have already figured out, right now we are being very ugly during a time we shouldn’t be, and for what? He who thinks he has won a political argument has neither won, or gained an ounce of knowledge. That’s my take anyway. Right now we are America The Not So Beautiful….

Matt Randolph

I often see things that make me wonder, and for some reason these things tend to take up to much space in my brain for too long, when it really doesn’t matter. I’ve decided the best way to stop wondering about these things (as they are pretty silly) is to get them out of my head right here and now.

1. The ‘Separated’ FB relationship status. What exactly are you doing here? What is the point in this? Is this like a heads up to the people that may be interested in you in the future? Is this a way to show your spouse you want everyone to know that you are separated? Is it an invite? Do you think people care? Am I the only one that doesn’t get it?
2. Young women wanting gray hair. What in the actual fuck is happening here? Why do young women want gray hair? Also, what are you injecting into your lips? They look awful, has nobody told you? Do we have an entire generation of young women having a premature midlife crisis? I kind of feel like we do.
3. Bull Nose Ring. Every time I see one of these, I want to pull it out. I have never once seen one of these on a person and thought good things. Maybe I’m judging, but if you get to look like that, then I get to say something about it.
   
   

Well, that’s about it for now. If I take notes I am sure i could do this weekly. Maybe I will!

Matt

Do you remember that show Punk’d? If not that’s okay, you know what it means to be punk’d I’m sure. I’m here to tell you, and you may already know this, but we have all been punk’d. Let me start by giving you an example of something that happens that we all see. You ever search for something online and then suddenly you see ads for that item for months on your social media? We all see this right? Big tech companies collect our data, they sell it, they know everything about us and they even use that data to try to shape our preferences as consumers. At the end of the day that’s what we are here folks, just a bunch of consumers, buying a bunch of junk. Everybody know this goes on, people that I have had conversations with about this all think it’s spooky, or a little invasive, somewhat creepy maybe? Well what if I told you that it isn’t just Amazon and Google doing this to us? What if I told you that in addition to being viewed and targeted as consumers, we are even more viewed and targeted as VOTERS. Has it ever occurred to you that everything you see on your phone or device concerning politics is basically sent to you or funneled to you based on data collected about you in the past? I’m not talking just about advertisements. I’m talking about everything. New stories? Yes. What does this mean? It means that if you ever wondered how someone could support a certain candidate, it’s because they only see positive things about that person every single day on their phones. Trump supporters only see pro trump stuff, Bernie supporters see pro Bernie stuff and so on and so on. The problem is what you are seeing is mostly misinformation, you are being targeted by groups to receive a certain message, and that’s what you see on your phone. When people say, “Russia didn’t convince me to vote for Trump.” I am sure they actually believe that, but many people are influenced daily by the managed flow of misinformation people see every day. If a Trump supporter and a Bernie supporter switched phones for a week I am sure both of their minds would be blown by what they see. They see different sets of ‘facts’, they see stories spun different ways. This should be scary to folks who understand what this means or could mean. Many people wonder how others can believe the things they do…the answer is on their phones. They believe what they see every day. Truth holds no value in digital ad campaigns, NONE! Digital ads gives the person sending the message enough distance from it, that they can literally say anything, no matter how crazy and get away with it. Our country is literally steered by misinformation campaigns. Those who control the information control everything, can we all agree? I think everyone would agree with that. Where are you getting your information from? Some web page you never heard of plastering some crazy story you would never believe, but it supports your candidate so you help them by spreading it out over the internet? We are all responsible for making sure we have the best information we can get so we can make informed decisions. Stop letting strangers you don’t know dumb you down, simply question everything. If it doesn’t seem to make sense then it’s probably fake. We have to catch up to technology, it outran our ability to learn about it’s pitfalls.

Yesterday as I was on my computer doing whatever I was doing, I got a notification on my phone. I looked at it and saw a name I haven’t seen in about 17 years. It was an old boss of mine, and I had no idea why he would be messaging me as we parted on not the best grounds. I opened the message to see a lengthy and thoughtful apology. Let me back up a little. In 2002 I was working for a great company and I was up for a pretty big promotion, but it did not come, instead my boss who already had the job got the promotion and was assigned to two positions. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed, so what did I do? I went out and started my own company and competed against them, and I have no problem saying that I kicked their ass almost clean out of the state. When I left that company they had about 15 employees in that district, I had myself and one guy I stole. Within 18 months they had 3 people and I had 4 yards and 30 employees, so my revenge was sweet, especially since I apparently wasn’t even qualified to manage a yard.

Now back to the apology. As I suspected back then, and was the case my boss at the time did not communicate my skills up the ladder to ensure I got that position. His words. This is really a sugar coated way of saying “I needed you and wasn’t willing to let you go even if it meant furthering your career and making my job tougher.” That’s the hard truth of the matter. He then told me he had been carrying this guilt with him all of this time, and that’s why he reached out to apologize. I found his apology sincere and thoughtful and truly appreciated it, I also apologized to him for making his life hell when I left, we both agreed we were young at the time and are now much wiser.

Now comes the interesting part of the story….for the last couple of months I have once again been waiting to hear about a promotion. I have an amazing job now, much better than 18 years ago, but I’m still hungry and climbing that ladder. I thought for sure I was the person who would get this promotion, but I was cautious because we have world class talent on my team and no shortage of highly qualified individuals, and this was/is to me a big promotion, but just another rung on the ladder in my career. Last week I found out I did not get the promotion, but I did get a different one, just not as big. This news came with much frustration and grief, and I began looking for a professional resume writer and LinkedIn page creator. My thoughts were “someone will recognize what I have to offer, even if this company doesn’t.” My frustration comes from this being the second time I failed to land the promotion, as well as most of my co-workers reaching out to me telling me I am getting hosed. Whatever. What’s important to note here is that I do have a great job that most people would do about anything to have, what’s also important to note is that I’m not most people, if I’m not moving up I’m moving on, I always find my own path to get where I want to be. The interesting part though is that while I am upset and fed up, I get this message from my old boss apologizing to me. It’s almost as if someone knew I needed to hear it and made it happen. To read his message and see those words, “you were the best, brightest and toughest employee that ever worked for me, and I’m sorry.” in an instant made me forget about the current situation. I guess I have been seeking validation of some sort, I don’t know. To hear it from someone I worked for so long ago didn’t really matter, it still felt great, it made me feel like for once someone was acknowledging my contribution. The most unexpected thing happened at just the right time, once again. I have realized that this has happened a few times in my life, I have also realized that every single time I wanted something really badly, it would have actually hurt my career in the long run had I gotten it. So I can only assume that this is the case still today, and me not getting this promotion is probably simply an opportunity that I haven’t recognized yet. I guess in conclusion, what this means is I still will not wait for opportunity, I will still seek it out and find it wherever it is, but while I am doing that I will not beat myself up or feel sorry for myself when it doesn’t come when I expect it to. Based on history I can only assume one thing, and that is something unexpected will always happen at just the right time.

I come in contact with a lot of people. I work with a lot of people, I meet a lot of people and I talk to a lot of people. What I don’t do, is talk to hardly anyone online, not anymore anyway. I am fairly certain I can speak for as much as 80% of the world when I say this, people truly show their ignorance when they discuss politics online. I am also certain that the vast majority of us, are really sick of looking at your ignorance. We have entire generations of doctors, lawyers, teachers, and engineers….all of the people we generally consider super smart, who have been turned into dullards overnight. Before I walk off into the fray, let me be clear, I could not care less about your beliefs. You can be a member of any party, you can support whoever you want, I dont care. Where I do take issue though, is when you allow your support, or your hate for a party or a politician or an idea, to completely destroy your judgement. I once had someone tell me “Did you hear? Democrats are eating babies!” This is a true story. Not the baby eating part, just the fact they told me that. Typically I would follow up on a declaration like that with a series of sarcastic questions designed to get the person to elaborate further, not so I could understand better, but just so I could entertain myself with their stupidity. I did not do that on this particular occasion, I just told them not to talk to me anymore and walked away. I have to say, it really pisses me off that people can become so beholden to someone else’s motives. What does that mean? ( people can become so beholden to someone else’s motives.) It means we are being made fools of. There are people all over the world and in this country, who are creating memes, fake stories, fake events. What is really bad, is most of these things are so ridiculous that nobody in their right mind would ever believe it. I read a meme today “The governor of Virginia has stated he will execute anyone who doesn’t turn in their guns.” There are now probably millions of people who believe this, because it’s on a meme. Face-palm. This stupidity happens across all spectrums of ideology. What has happened though, is that all of these people who engage in this thickness, have essentially turned all of us normal people off from the potentially great experiences we could have with our friends and families through a digital medium. I don’t know how many more people I can unfollow. I guess the silver lining in all of it is that we are spending less time unengaged from the people who are important, the people right in front of us.

It’s Christmas night, and for our family that means the holidays are over. We had three Christmas’s this year, all of them at our house. For our family this has been a great holiday season. My wife Chelsea did an amazing job and worked really hard making it great for everyone, and that is what this blog is about. I think far too often we take for granted what others in our lives are doing and the efforts they are making, I believe it’s because it’s expected of them. We still have these little bits of our past, traditions from a time gone by that cling to us still today. Typically the women are expected to prepare the meals, do most of the Christmas shopping, and for the most part the clean up. I always find it fascinating even tonight, maybe I’m weird, but I believe this happens in most families. You have all the family together, Grandparents, Parents, Aunts and Uncles and all the kids. At some point you will find three or four women in the kitchen, cleaning up the mess. It’s interesting to me how they all just automatically do it, they team up and go knock it out. That’s sort of a tradition, and I think they enjoy it when they get to do it all together, I don’t know I could be wrong. The thought crossed my mind tonight….What if I called on the men to come into the kitchen and help me with all the dishes? I don’t have a problem cleaning up, but I wonder what the older generation of men would do? My guess is they would laugh at me. I wonder if as the generations pass that this sort of behavior will change? My wife thanked me tonight for helping her throughout the holidays, but it’s really her that deserves the thanks. She goes all out, I wont even get into it, but trust me she does. And here I sat this morning, complaining that I had to listen to her Christmas music yet again. (Yes, it pretty much plays all day in the house on any day we are celebrating a Christmas.) When I should have been thanking her for creating an amazing memory for so many people in our families. Thank you Chelsea for all you did this year, I love you for all you do and truly appreciate your hard work. For those of you that read this, if you have a wife or significant other like mine and you haven’t thanked them, you should probably think about it, they certainly deserve at the very least a sincere thanks. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Matt

I had something happen today that really made my day, I got a message from someone who follows my page and is currently reading my first novel, A Killer’s Heart. It was an unexpected message because it came from someone outside of my inner circle of family and friends. I won’t put the whole message on here but a couple of snippets. “You are an extremely talented writer” was one and the other was “I have been thrilled and scared by Stephen King novels but I have never had a book get inside my head like this one!” Now this person probably doesn’t realize this, but this unsolicited message from out of nowhere is probably the most satisfying thing that has come out of my leap into writing. I have book sales and great reviews on Amazon and blah, blah, blah. I like the reviews because they lead to more books sales, but there is nothing personal about them, so there is no real sense of gratification from them. This was different though, and it gave me a sense of validation that I needed. When you try something hard and you finish it, you expect your family to be supportive of you, and they totally have, but it’s different when these things come from a place you dont expect them to come from. It was the first time I felt like I had achieved success, I guess that is what success is for me. It also made me stop and think about if I had done something similar lift up other people. People that would not expect it to come from me, people that I didn’t feel any sense of obligation to reach out to and say Hey I see what you have done here and it’s awesome.

I have to admit I could only think of one time that I had done something like this, some of that is because my memory isn’t what it used to be, but some of that is certainly because I don’t do it enough. I don’t do it enough with my family, I don’t do it enough with my peers, and I don’t do it enough with strangers. This realization has inspired my one and only New Years Resolution, (and I have never had a New Years Resolution by the way). That is to promise myself to be more encouraging of others, and to give more recognition to those I care about. I just don’t do it enough. Who knows, the encouragement and recognition I give someone may prevent them from just quitting, or it may just like in my case make my day, and it also may encourage them to do the same, creating a bit of a ripple affect. I still don’t believe I am an extremely talented writer, but truthfully, I don’t have too as long as somebody else does.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Matt

I was sitting here working on my 3rd novel titled Resurrection of America, when I got to a point where I didn’t know what to write, I realized I need a break. Ironically my break consists of my logging into my blog and writing because apparently my need for useless expression is greater than my ability to come up with what happens next in my book. That being said, as I sit here I am reminded that we all need breaks. We need breaks from work, from family, from stress. I currently need a break from Christmas, even though it is still 5 days away. I think we all manage to take breaks when we can, although it may be too late and too short most of the time. One thing I think our country needs is a break from politicians, a break from social media, a break from the television. Yes I realize that a blog is a social media type of structure, but I can assure you nothing in my blog is going to depress you about the current state of our country, or more importantly the people in it. I wish social media would go away, I wish 24 hour news channels would go away. These are the two main driving factors in what has divided our country. Remember when the internet was labeled the information superhighway? We whiffed on that one, but not by much. It’s the misinformation superhighway, and misinformation is dangerous, as you can see by what is happening all around us. One of the main complaints from people around the world about Americans is that we are arrogant and we think we know everything. That being said, what happens when 300 million arrogant people who think they know everything start getting fed misinformation on a daily basis? Well, what you see today is what happens. We are all fighting with each other, and we all think we are right. The truth is, there is just enough truth in each of our arguments to make us justify why we are completely right. What is disturbing to me, is the damage that is happening, I have seen life long friends not speak to each anymore because of a person that neither of them knows, will never meet, and could not care less about either of them. Isn’t that strange? My wife asks me often about politics and the things going on, I always say to her. “This is what you will see and read on social media, and this is what I think.” What I think is almost never on social media, the great thing about being an independent is that I am free to think for myself, while everyone else looks like robots just regurgitating the same shit everyone else that agrees with them spits out. When this happens you tend to lose the ability to think, you become part of this collective group think phenomenon, group think is something that every successful corporation in the world tries to avoid, generally because it’s disastrous. Yet here we are, with probably over 80% of the country engaged in it. I wonder how that will work out? I have to say, I feel great! Because I have no anger or ill will towards either side of this discussion, it simply does not matter to me. What our government does and has done has never had any real impact on my life. I just go to work, spend time with my family, and do what I do, live my life. Every second wasted on political hate or arguments is a precious second of your life that you gave away for free, remember that, stop giving away the only seconds you have, give those seconds to the people that have earned them.