Kids These Days*

*The title is to be read with an accompanying eyeroll and/or sarcastic sigh, at the reader's discretion

A bitmoji rendition of a fair-skinned, brunette-with-blue
ponytailed woman in back and blue-floral print,
looking at a smartphone askance.

I'm finding a number of random irritants here lately, in addition to the usual idiocracy and late-stage capitalism and f*ck the patriarchy suspects. One of these, as I have stated before, is that Grammarly needs to learn that my default writing style is casual and conversational, and now would be a good time to lay off the "want to sound more confident/professional?" suggestions, because the answer is no. No, I do not want to sound more confident, or more professional right now, and please take my word for it the first time I tell you in a given document, okay? Thanks.

There are others, of course.

Millennials are not children, for instance. Even allowing for the latest possible birth years across the variable definitions, these "kids" are now in their mid-to-late twenties. Allowing for the earliest commonly accepted birth years, they're in their early forties. Also, they never asked for the participation trophies; the elder generations thought it would be good for their self-esteem. Stop denigrating them as entitled special snowflakes when they just lived up to the expectations given to them.

The same goes for later generations as well. Is it a little sad that many GenZ folks only know enough cursive to sign their names or can't read an analog clock or need to take "adulting" classes? Sure. Lost skills are often sad, though there was certainly a resurgence in things like baking and crochet during the height of covid. But a) many of those things are not that important right now, and b) again, who neglected to teach them these skills? That's right, the same people who unkindly make fun of them for not knowing what to do with a rotary-dial phone. 

I don't know enough GenAlpha kiddos (and these ones are literally children as I write this in 2024) to have an opinion on their slang and skills and so forth, but I have had more than one tell me I'm the "cool bus driver" because I know about Bluey and superheroes and Minecraft.

But don't worry; it's not only unkindness to younger generations than mine that irritates me. I'm an equal-opportunity leftie cranky GenX lady over here.

I have no patience for the people who support those who not only don't care about them as individuals (that's most politicians, to be honest) but who actively and vocally hate them. How do LGBTQIA+ folks or Mexican-Americans or people whose actual religion says to love everyone support the likes of you-know-who? I do not grok.

Why do some people think that people playing dress-up to read to littles are more dangerous than people who take rapid-fire weapons into public schools? I mean, I can only assume that they are the same folks who think that death from measles is preferable to autism, even though vaccines do not cause autism. These are also the people who talk over disabled people and heaven forbid a neurodivergent or LGBTQIA+ person or wheelchair user speak for themselves. That is evidently too scary. And they think we're the soft and fearful snowflakes.

And I keep seeing horror stories about parents tearing up English homework because they're "teaching about pronouns." As though pronouns haven't existed as long as language has. I have finally learned not to be a grammar notsee in public, but my patience is tried by such statements as "u dont see pronouns in the bibble." 

I'm pretty sure "I am he" contains two pronouns.

In linking older articles, I see that I have definitely touched on these topics before. But they're still out there annoying me, so here we are.

Plague at Chez GamersBabes

A Bitmoji rendition of me, a chubby brunette-with-blue
 woman wearing black and florals, looking tired.
She has an empty battery icon above her head.

Don't worry. We're all sick with Covid-19, but this strain - while apparently extra-contagious - is only miserable rather than hospital-worthy, even for my AARPy, fat, asthmatic self.

But let me start at the beginning, and give you the timeline.

Day One (Tuesday):

Tuesday morning at 4-ish I got up to use the bathroom. When I went back to bed, I got a phone call. From my elder daughter, Abby. The call was coming from inside the house. She felt punk and had done so since about 11PM Monday when she took a covid test, which was negative.

So Lizzy went to school (she masks at school anyway) and Abby and I went to urgent care at 8am (masked). Yep, the clinic's test showed positive. Damn. We got home from the clinic at 10-ish, and by 11am I felt crappy and my temp was climbing (high of 102F) so I also took a home covid test. The results were negative, but I didn't trust it; it could've read negative if it's expired, if there wasn't enough viral load for it to detect yet, or if the test isn't able to detect whatever the current flavor of covid is. So we waited for Lizzy to get home from school to take Liz and me in.

Didn't last; Lizzy was not feeling great and has some medical anxiety on top of that, so she called and asked to come home. Apparently, a student feeling ill is not enough to send them home as the school nurse in charge on Tuesday told Lizzy that "covid is just like the flu or a cold now." Lizzy doesn't want to risk spreading the flu or cold either. When I went to get Lizzy in the nurse's office, the nurse informed me that it "isn't that serious," but asked me to get out of her office when I said I was sick too (Lizzy and I were both masked, KN95, as usual). Sorry, but Lizzy's mental and physical health is more important than you wanting her to go back to class because you think covid "isn't that serious."

{Aside: I'm not a fan of this school year's one-size-fits-all policies or the assertion that cell phones and social media are the One True Cause of Anxiety in Teens... but that's another post.}

So off Lizzy and I went, to the same urgent care clinic, same doctor, same receptionist, but a different nurse. My test came back positive. Lizzy's took a little longer (maybe because she seems to be a couple days behind us on the symptoms), but hers was too. Oh well, at least we don't have to isolate from each other, just from the rest of the world.

Day Two (Wednesday):

Everyone called out sick (Abby's not in school until later this month, but Lizzy and I called out to the appropriate places), so we mostly spent Wednesday making my killer soup and doing Not Much Else.

All: fluctuating temps from 98F to 101F

Me (55, asthmatic): cough, sneezing, headache, wheezing (controlled), low appetite, body aches and chills, irritability, and serious fatigue

Abby (21): headache, scratchy throat, stuffy nose, sniffles, low appetite

Lizzy (17): headache, sneezing, scratchy throat, irritability.

Treatments (doc said we don't need paxlovid because my asthma is well-controlled and we are otherwise low risk): Rest, fluids, Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, my awesome soup, and more rest & fluids.

Day Three (Thursday):

All: fluctuating temps from 98F to 100.6F

Same as above, except that Abby and I feel slightly better (still very tired though), and Lizzy feels somewhat worse. Liz seems to be two days or so behind me, and I'm approximately twelve hours behind Abby. Because of my age and existing conditions (like asthma), the doctor expected me to take longer to fully recover than the kids. 

Given that he didn't know a lot about Lizzy's sensory hellscape where a stuffy nose or a sore throat makes her want to cut off her own head (he's urgent care, not her regular doctor), this was a fair statement on his part. She went to bed before four PM.

Treatments: Rest, fluids, Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, my awesome soup, and more rest & fluids. And rest. And fluids.

Also judiciously applied blue hair dye for me (thanks, Liz) during that portion of the morning when we were all upright at the same time. See? [image of a tired-looking brunette woman with blue streaks in her hair]

Day Four (Friday):

Our knockoff 🌟 💵 💊🏀 drinks were yummy. Lizzy's fever is up; mine and Abby's are down.

Abby is feeling better. Mostly just sniffly.

Jenn feeling ick. Stuffy nose, ouchie sinuses, cough, a little wheezing, fatigue, temperature floating around 99F when not treated. I could live without the back of my throat itching. 

Lizzy is feeling bleargh. Sore throat, sniffling, sweating, headache. Slept for 15+ hours and temp still up hovering on either side of 100 when not treated.

~~~~~~~~~~

I've already had a few (online and random) people saying (smugly), "See?! You still got sick, even with your precious masks and bogus vaccines and all that stuff Big Scary wants you to believe in. Sheeple."

Yes, but we got what feels like the flu (miserable and annoying but not deadly), and I'm not afraid to grocery shop without an arsenal, scared of my kids reading and thinking, or frightened of people in costumes reading to children.

In Name Only

A photo of part of the French opening ceremonies for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. It bears a resemblance to the painting The Last Supper, which apparently has never ever been done before (sarcasm) and is therefore heresy.
The performers say that it is meant to depict a feast of Dionysus (as an homage to a different painting), from Greek mythology, as the Games are of Greek origin. Dionysus (Greek God of Wine, Revelry, and Theater) forbid that they should be creative.

You know the sort of “Christians” who are mortally offended by another country’s opening ceremony for the Olympics, because everything in the whole world should cater to them? There is a lot of overlap with the kind of “Christians” who think banning books and actual people is more important than following the teachings of the One they say they follow.

I’m all for drag performances and while this is not my preferred type, I’m not going to completely lose my mind because other people (especially in other cultures) are doing something I find personally distasteful. Same with the Marie Antoinette sequence. Ick, but also, you do you, France.  It’s not my call. 

It’s not a personal insult, either. It’s not always about you, “Christians.”

Why is “Christian” in quotes here?

Because they’re not acting like actual Christians (no quotes), are supposed to, what with the judging not lest they be judged and all.

Yeah, those people are now known as “CINO” (Christian In Name Only) on my page at least.

Note: these are NOT the people who are actually trying to walk the walk. I know some of them too, and they’re lovely people. What with the judging not and all.

Observations

 Jenn's Observations for Facebook:

1) If it's a public post, especially by a politician, people will weigh in on completely unrelated topics, usually their own pet peeves.

2) If it's a public reel, and the OP is LGBTQIA+, Jewish, a POC, a parent, obese, or otherwise not a cishet, ostensibly Christian, physically fit white male, some people will say they're doing it wrong/abusing their child/should get a real job.

2a) Other people will call these folks out on it.

2b) The people saying the OP is doing it wrong will then accuse the folks calling them out of being woke, stupid, fat, ugly, mean, abusers, predators, groomers, communists, or man-hating, whether or not these things are demonstrably true.

2c) Someone will chime in with a comment about hard work or bootstraps.

 

3) If it's a post about Star Wars or Doctor Who (and I'm sure there are others that I don't follow), someone will accuse the OP or the page of "pandering to Disney," being too woke, being weak, crying too much, "ticking all the DEI boxes," or "turning everything into that musical song and dance crap that the fans don't want."

3a) They claim to speak for all fans, even when other fans disagree.

3b) Star Trek is the same, except that they blame "pandering to the woke left" instead of "pandering to Disney."

3c) Someone will claim "Go woke, go broke," while simultaneously complaining that the "woke left controls everything."

 

4) If it's a post or reel about a person (usually a child, teen, or young adult) with a difference or disability, able to at least partly support themselves, someone will inevitably remark that said person is "being manipulated for clicks" or taken advantage of by their parents or caregivers.

4a) Or that the person in question is incapable of doing anything for themselves. Which they can, with a few accommodations, which is the point of the post.

4b) Or that the disability or difference should not be mentioned because "labels are unnecessary."

4c) The people who do this generally appear to be the "poor things can't speak for themselves" types... who talk over them when they try to speak for themselves.

 

5) Everyone on the internet knows better than teachers, other school personnel, epidemiologists, foreign relations experts, professional nutritionists, and sports coaches.

Alone Time Thoughts

Look, a post from my desktop computer! 

A bitmoji cartoon of a chubby, gree-eyed
brunette woman wearing a rainbow tie-dye tee
under an open blue shirt

At my desk!

I can now sit here comfortably for about an hour and a half at a time without my leg swelling up like a balloon.

This is progress.

And it's useful, because I have that remote summer job I was looking for, researching for (and once I'm more familiar with the subject matter, revamping) a website to be better with SEO and so forth. Reading (or watching documentaries) about metaphysical toolsets of self-knowledge is something that can be done from my phone or my TV easily enough, but as stated in the link above, taking extensive notes and web design and those sorts of things are very difficult on the tiny screen on my phone, but can be done pretty easily on the Windows 10 machine, even at 90 minutes twice a day.

I have the basics, as I do yoga and meditation (and tai chi 22 years ago or so) already. At the moment, I'm still learning to speak the myriad metaphysical dialects of American English. I'm pretty good with this sort of thing - I write for fun, after all - but I still need to get up to speed before I will feel confident messing with the website and search terms and all that.

And Grammarly is still complaining that I don't sound professional or confident enough. It's my personal blog here, Grammarly; you should know by now that my personal writing... meanders. You should also know that I can switch that off when appropriate or when requested by an employer.

Anyway... I'm sitting here with a bum knee and a head cold (negative for covid, and so were both the kids when they had it last week), sucking down soup and juice, bumping up against that 90-minute comfort window, and ready to go back to my spot on the couch with my feet up now.

Until the kids (both of them!) get home from work.

It's been nice being at my desk, though. Normal. I like that.

Not a Bum Knee in Sight

Oh, my knee is still in recovery, but the point here is that this

Flying saucer with rainbow beams
from a free photo site

post is not about that even though I’m still writing on my phone. So enough about the knee(s).

What I’m talking about today is something that I have touched on before, but mostly it’s this: If you don’t like it anymore, stop watching/playing/reading/listening.That’s what adults do, instead of all this whining and trying to ruin it for the rest of us. It’s those sour grapes that make me want to slap y’all.

At this point, I’m tired enough about this whole process that I do not care if you’re an outright bigot (on race, gender, sexuality, whatever) or if you’re just not good with change. I’m not great with change in real life, but I don’t spend all my time screaming down the house (in other people’s houses) that things in fictional universes “just aren’t the same as they used to be” and clutching my pearls because “history isn’t like that” (of course it’s not; this is a fictionalization of history. That’s why they call it historical fiction) or because two characters kissed or one character cried or whatever.

Note: this is not anll about Doctor Who or Star Trek, although those franchises are two that I see subject to this often.

For me, it falls in the same category as what they call “hate following,“ which is when you follow someone (usually a vlogger or a politician) on a social media platform just so you can bring your favorite pet peeve up every time they post anything at all. This gets really really old. Sure, I’m complaining here, but this is my own platform; I’m not going to other people’s posts just to assert that my personal opinion is fact.

And if you don’t like it anymore for whatever reason (for instance, I don’t think that certain show runners were particularly good for a few of my favorite series) that’s fine. As I said above, you don’t have to watch/play/etc. Or if you do want to watch just to see whether it improves or through some sort of personal issue you have, fine. Why do you have to keep on and on and on and on about it on every single post you see on a given social media platform? 

Honestly, just shut up and let people enjoy things. It’s not that hard.