Ten Years on LiveJournal today!

Over that decade I've averaged almost a post a day and two posts a day in comments. That seems about right. I started on Xanga with a bunch of friends, and that site frankly sucked, so we moved over here. In that time, a lot of people moved to Dreamwidth et al when that censoring kerfuffle broke out which pretty much turned out to be much ado, and I think I'm now the only one of my group of friends who still posts here, and that makes me a sad panda.

Seems like most of my friends are now mostly on Facebook, and frankly, the interface of FB makes my skin crawl. I hate using it. I created an account long ago, never used it, and finally deleted it. And then less than a month later, I started selling Pampered Chef and signed up again. And I still hate the interface. But obviously I'm in the minority because of the bajillions using it, it'll be interesting to see if the predictions of a new social media mode coming along in another five years or so and FB becoming increasingly irrelevant as time goes by.

But the cool thing is that I've actually met some of my fellow LJers out there, and that's been awesome cool. Plans are developing to go to Europe next year for the bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo, and with luck we'll get to meet a couple more while we're in the area!

Looking back over that decade, a lot has changed, as one would expect. I've lost a lot of friends to Beyond the Vale -- seven relatives and too many friends, several marriages (including mine), a few divorces (not including mine), a major and life-long health crisis, four more surgeries with two more next month -- finally getting my cataracts taken care of, and I'm SOOO looking forward to that! I've definitely had to concede that I'm getting old, though frankly, I can't say that I've grown up too much in the traditional roles. And sadly, children haven't been part of that, though frankly with the state of the world that might be a good thing. I just find it sad that I haven't gotten to corrupt another generation or two directly.

The next decade will prove interesting.

The USA is a collective myth?

"I don't recognize the United States government as even existing."
—Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy

This news story has taken on an interesting life of its own. Bundy is a cattle rancher in Nevada, and for over 20 years he's been grazing his land on Federal property. To graze your land on Federal property, you must pay a land use fee. Which Bundy hasn't paid in two decades. So the Feds came knockin' for their rent, and things spiraled massively out of hand.

In due course, and in no particular order: the Feds brought in trucks and confiscated all of Bundy's cattle. Tons of "Patriots" showed up with rifles, hoping to start the next revolutionary war. One such "Patriot" said they purposely put the women up front so women getting shot could be played all over TV. Fox Newts' Sean Hannity adopted Bundy as this week's cause celebre and was featuring him in every show, UNTIL....

It turned out in a public video that Bundy is of questionable ethnological morality. Bundy is in a vid where he starts with "Let me tell you something that I learned about the Negro" and goes on to question whether or not they were better off when they were slaves. Oddly enough, after this bit of tid released, Bundy was on Fox only twice the next day.

Bundy says that the County is the only government level recognized by the Constitution, and it's the only level that he'll acquiesce to. And yet there's lots of footage of him riding around on his horse with an American flag like an 1870's cavalry standard bearer. So I guess the post office should stop delivering his mail and the state should tear out the roads and utility lines around his ranch since the Federal government doesn't exist.