Political discourse

The Pink FEAR-ies Strike Again

by Bill Brenner April 15, 2011 Children's issues

Since Duncan’s favorite color is pink, I get pretty pissed when I see stories about the high-and-mighty going nuts because they mistake a color for a gender or sexual orientation. Mood music: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwQ0fVShIZk&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0] The latest example is this J. Crew ad, where a mom is painting her son’s toe-nails hot pink: People have been going absolutely crazy over this, suggesting that the boy will be scarred for life and need thousands of dollars of…  [Read More]

Change Is Pain, But Not Impossible

by Bill Brenner March 28, 2011 Addiction

Last night’s 12-Step meeting reminded me of just how hard real change is. I used to measure change by who won the next election. I’ve realized that the only real change that matters is within myself. Naturally, it’s the hardest, most brutal kind of change to achieve. Mood music: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqkxDgCIsOw&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0] Last night’s AA Big Book reading focused on steps 8, 9 and 10: 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and…  [Read More]

Sometimes, Un-Friending Is The Right Thing

by Bill Brenner March 15, 2011 Communication Skills

A friend of mine is angry and hurt because another friend deleted him and me from his Facebook friends list. The hurt is understandable: We grew up in Revere with this guy, and we went through a lot together. Mood music: [spotify:track:3XGbYvyi3sW9L5fzWluoAv] I sent our friend an e-mail asking why he un-friended us. His answer to me specifically was that this blog is dredging up too many painful memories from the past: Bill your OCD…  [Read More]

Hackers Are People Too

by Bill Brenner January 29, 2011 Communication Skills

Written after ShmooCon 2011… I have a bit of an anti-social streak in me tonight. Since I’m at a hacker conference in D.C., some might say I fit right in. But then those people have a narrow, bullshit view of the hacker community. For those not educated in the ways of the hacker crowd, you have the good guys, who break stuff so it can be fixed and made more ironclad so the bad-guy hackers…  [Read More]

Stupid Talk and the Tucson Massacre

by Bill Brenner January 14, 2011 Political discourse

I’ve held off for almost a week. I didn’t want to write about the events in Tucson because I felt a lot of folks were already exploiting the tragedy for page views. Plus, I’ve written already about mentally sick people who turn to murder. Mood music: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxJOpr6Y5yI&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999] I also found the Tucson case too upsetting to write about. I usually need time to process upsetting events. I don’t know any of the victims, but my…  [Read More]

A World Without Facebook

by Bill Brenner January 12, 2011 Addiction

A few days ago, rumors wafted around the Internet about Facebook shutting down in mid-March. Panic ensued, illustrating just how addictive this thing has become. Mood music: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm7KUQ_uXK0&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999] Call me nuts (well, I am a little nuts). But as a guy who’s recovering from a runaway addiction, I know it when I see it. And since an addict is forever playing a frustrating game of whack-a-mole, I admit the thought of Facebook going away panicked…  [Read More]

Narcissism Inc.

by Bill Brenner January 10, 2011 Mental disorders

I’ve always wondered if I was a narcissist. I’ve been wondering even more since last week, when someone asked me when I reached a point in my recovery where I stopped being self-absorbed. I had to be honest and tell her I still get self absorbed. All the time. Mood music: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOivymp6rto&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999] People with obsessive-compulsive tendencies are basket cases about being in control. Maybe it’s simply control of one’s sanity. Usually, it’s control of situations…  [Read More]

From Confusion to Wisdom

by Bill Brenner December 26, 2010 Communication Skills

I’ve crashed many times while blasting down the road of life. The car is in one piece now and I’ve learned to throttle back some. And when I hear the following words of wisdom, I KNOW it’s the truth: Mood music: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agn4y-M1rjA&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0] ACCEPTANCE ?”Holding onto resentment is like drinking poison and expecting it to kill someone else.” – Matt Baldwin, Snow Rising (thanks, Cheryl Snapp Conner, for pointing this one out. “People are like stained glass…  [Read More]

Those 70s Cartoons and Child Abuse

by Bill Brenner December 4, 2010 Children's issues

There’s a thing going on this weekend on Facebook where people are changing their profile pics to a 70s cartoon of their choice to raise awareness against child abuse. It’s an admirable thing, but there’s also a downside. Mood music: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5P8lrgBtcU&fs=1&hl=en_US] I did bite, though. Here’s what I am for the weekend: When I was in the hospital six weeks at a time for Crohn’s Disease, Tom and Jerry was a welcome distraction. I used to…  [Read More]

Asking to be Assaulted?

by Bill Brenner November 7, 2010 Communication Skills

Sometimes people say things that make me feel sorry for them. A few years ago I might have called them an idiot or something more Revere-like. Today I can only shake my head and feel pity. Here’s an example from the NerdChic blog. Mood music: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie3NinwlX6A&fs=1&hl=en_US] Noirin Shirley writes in her blog, NerdChic.net, that she was sexually assaulted during a conference late last week. She names the guy who allegedly did it to her, and goes…  [Read More]

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