CherylNation

I’m Done Tweeting about the TV Show, Scandal

by Cheryl on January 12, 2013

I’m still hanging on and splitting hairs. I’m admitting that I got caught up in the excitement surrounding ABC’s Scandal starring Kerry Washington. And with that admission I’m also making another admission – I won’t be tweeting about the show anymore and I might not even check in on GetGlue. I said might not.

I like to check out the popular shows and see what all the drama is about. I like Kerry Washington as an actress and I like seeing her in prime time and I decided I would watch this show even though I am not a fan of any other Shonda Rhimes’ creations. A few months ago I wrote about Scandal, listing a few things that annoyed me about the show. I believe I left out the part about Olivia Pope, Kerry Washington’s character, having an affair with the President of the United States. Well, that is at the top of the list of criticisms I have about this show.

Scandal is face-paced and each week there is a different plot. So, it is possible to start watching the show from any point and catch onto the storyline. The affair bothered me from the very beginning, but I have kept watching it because a few times Olivia was brought close to redemption and no one is above making mistakes. I’m sad to say that all of the progress has unraveled and we are back to square one.

Reading tweets and Facebook during the show is interesting. The most wholesome family people, as they present themselves on social media, are in heavenly bliss watching this successful, intelligent, beautiful, independent woman yearn for a married man. And not just any married man – the POTUS. I can’t even get into how much damage would be caused if this relationship were to become public.

If I asked a half-dozen people why they don’t have a problem with the affair, I can almost certainly tell you what the answer would be – this is a fictional show. But this isn’t fiction because everyone knows someone who is or has been a willing participant in an affair with a married man or woman. And they know it is wrong. A lot of the same people are also watching reality shows and coming down hard on the cast members who make asses of themselves and rightfully so, I guess. This is Kerry Washington and she is attractive so she gets a pass.

The Scandal affair is being justified partly because the first lady is depicted as a scheming, manipulative person. The character, Mellie, is a woman who is easy for viewers to dislike and they always wish the worst for her because she is mean so she deserves whatever she gets. Too many shows these days paint the spouse as a demon, hard to get along with, an easy to disrespect type character. Although there are many spouses that definitely fit that description I would argue that it is not the only reason to give for a character to choose to go outside the marriage.

I don’t write dialogue for TV or movies and I can’t pretend that I could write for Scandal. Sometimes I wonder if it’s all the hypocrisy or just the storyline that gets to me. Most times it’s the storyline because people flip-flop or rationalize all the time to suit their needs. Or maybe it comes from being a woman and realizing that once more a female who seems to have everything she needs has to place herself in the most ridiculous set of circumstances when she is capable of better.

I know that this show could do better so why does it have to revolve around this distasteful relationship? Stop acting like it’s some fairy tale love story – it’s cheating! And for Pete’s sake can someone stop Olivia Pope from bouncing up and down so much when she walks because her hair is going to take flight.

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Want to weed out Facebook friends? Piss them off

by Cheryl on December 19, 2012

in Neighbors, Opinions, Politics

I posted the TIME magazine link naming President Barack Obama as 2012 Person of the Year on Facebook this morning. And guess what happened? Someone on my friend’s list who had not said or typed so much as a word to me in 10 years on or off Facebook decided she would comment on it. I was surprised because I had posted on her wall four years ago after she joined Facebook and gotten no response. That’s typical sometimes especially when people are new to certain apps or may not be tech savvy. So I didn’t think about it after that. I send her family a Christmas card every year because we used to be neighbors when we lived in Connecticut and they even invited us to Christmas dinner twice and it was nice.

I had a suspicion that she was a republican and for the longest time I was somewhat politically sensitive to some acquaintances regarding politics. Months ago I decided that I was no longer comfortable with that. After all, I do have a right to my views. One other point is I never really cared for Facebook and I initially had the account to play a game. I quit playing the game long ago and I kept the Facebook account and I use it from time to time.

So I figured, if it’s my Facebook account shouldn’t I post whatever I want just like everyone else does? Damn straight! And this morning I did just that, again. I guess JH (is what I will call her) decided after years of keeping mum she could hold back no longer and typed a three-word comment under the link I posted, “In whose opinion?” I stared at the comment and wondered how I was going to respond since I still had some respect for her. I hadn’t seen her in about 10 years and the last time I saw her we had a pleasant goodbye and that memory was frozen in time. That’s how I was prepared to remember her whenever she crossed my mind. Truthfully, I was busy taking that old memory out of the box and dusting it off because I was about to remold everything I thought I knew.

I answered her question about TIME’s choice and she, I, and another friend had some back and forth. I tried desperately not to get into a heated argument, but I could tell by her comments that what she was saying had nothing to do with policy and everything to do with the man holding the highest office.

What was it about this particular morning that compelled her to reveal herself as not a fan of Obama? Only speculation about that will follow. Periodically I go through my friend’s list and delete and block people who I don’t really know. I had come close to removing JH from the list several times thinking her account is just there to be there and I moved on past her picture without clicking the x never expecting to have any contact with her at all. Maybe she felt this was the morning to have an excuse to get rid of some people from her list? I’ll probably never know. What I do know is I’m not going to be intimidated by people who I thought I knew when I think they have misguided views. If you are referring to the President as The Almighty, claiming that I worship him, and demonizing poor people for getting government assistance you are not someone I want to communicate with and you are way off base.

I used to care if people liked me. I wanted to be nice to everyone. On some levels I still have those feelings, but it’s not at the expense of me denying what I believe to get along with someone who I don’t agree with. JH removed me as a friend and I’m glad she did because now when I scan my list there will be one less person there for me to ponder removing. Have a nice life JH!

P.S. The irony of this little event is JH’s husband works for General Motors and if my memory serves me I believe they were the recipients of a bailout courtesy of President Barack Obama.

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When to Keep Quiet

by Cheryl on December 13, 2012

in Neighbors, Observations, Randomness

I read an email forwarded by our neighborhood information distributor at the request of resident #1 voicing displeasure with a children’s play set structure erected on the side of another resident #2’s house. The outspoken disgruntled resident was also looking for supporters to attend the next town zoning meeting hoping to have this structure removed.

I’m not sure of the exact location of this play set, but I think I have an idea. And if the play set that I’m thinking of is indeed the one being referred to it has been there for years. Maybe zoning issues take years to address, I don’t know.

About an hour after receiving the first email concerning the perceived “eye sore” another email popped into my inbox from a different resident #3 reminding everyone on the distribution list how petty this situation is with a half-dozen pictures of destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy.

I believe that picking fights with your neighbors about things that don’t have anything to do with you is a bad idea. I want the neighborhood to remain beautiful. But kids live in this neighborhood too and a play set that is probably less that 5 years old can’t be that much of a distraction.

The concern from resident #1 is if resident #2 is allowed to keep the structure on the side of his house soon all types of other structures will be going up in odd places destroying the beauty of the neighborhood. I’ve been in this neighborhood for 10 years and I haven’t seen any hideous structures going up destroying the look of the neighborhood. I have seen neighbors make additions to their homes (yards and driveways included) that I think are unattractive, but that’s a matter of taste not legality.

Is there a lesson here? I get riled up about a lot and normally it isn’t about things going on with my neighbor’s house. I think we should let this person keep the play set in the location it has currently been in for years and move on to minding our own business. When and if a resident decides to park an RV or a rusted out car with no tires on their front lawn then I think that’s worth a fight. Until then I’m staying on the sideline and waiting for the next reply to the last email.

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STFU!

by Cheryl on November 14, 2012

in Opinions

During the day I usually go to Twitter and Facebook to see what’s going on. It helps me see the news and other happenings in real-time. So, because I choose to do this it leaves me open to TV show spoilers and information sent out from people about their meals and whatever else they happen to be doing at the time. I mostly enjoy reading random things. But it’s the people who send out tweets chiding other people for particular types of tweets that get under my skin. Such as: stop tweeting the press conference because I have a TV. If you have a TV then why the hell aren’t you watching it instead of being on Twitter trying to tell other people what to do?

Newsflash: If you don’t want to read certain tweets unfollow the people tweeting that information. But don’t sit on your self-righteous perch and think that the Twitterverse revolves around every damn thing you want it to. The same thing goes for the people who cry out saying don’t spoil their TV shows by tweeting about it. What would happen if those people would get the fuck off of Twitter if they don’t want to read certain things?

I’m waiting for an answer.

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Lies Within the Bubble Backfire

by Cheryl on November 12, 2012

in Politics

During the entire campaign I was very disgusted by all the race baiting and demonizing coming from the people on the Right aimed at us, the Left, the Democrats, and I went to bed many a night hoping that it would backfire on those who espoused it.

I watched and listened daily as people tried to marginalize minorities. Republicans made it part of their daily jobs to find ways to disrespect President Obama. They were inventing new ways to show that their party was not inclusive. It was a free for all clown show. It reminded me of bratty kids trying to one up each other for the jackass award. And millions of Americans were all too happy to jump on board with that destructive behavior with no shame at all, about 57 million to be exact.

Republicans could not have engaged in this type of behavior for as long as they did, and I’m sure it will continue, without having an audience willing to listen and follow along. And to that I would like to say shame on those who soaked up that message and asked for more.

The election results showed that the Republican Party’s message was heard loud and clear by the people it demonized. President Obama’s re-election was complicit in exposing the hatred bubbling up right below the surface. The Republican Party tried to suppress the vote in states and counties with the majority of minority voters. So many shenanigans were taking place thanks to Republicans, that it was hard to keep track.

But the satisfaction received from the re-election of the President was the reaction of the shellshocked Republicans, some of who still remain in a daze. They had bought into their own spin. In the last couple of weeks leading up to the election Republicans were inviting silly stories based on their gut feelings for why Romney would win. Facts didn’t matter. All that mattered to them was lying and creating conspiracy theories about the President, trying to paint him as some foreigner that wants to destroy America. So it came as a surprise to me that Republicans were baffled when their wishful thinking failed to propel Mitt Romney into the White House.

It was stunningly unbelievable to learn that the Romney campaign along with the candidate himself was unaware of the math and facts. Their entire organization had bought the lies from inside the bubble they hunkered down in. You see the Internet along with multiple newspapers and alternate networks exists so you don’t have to be lied to.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were defeated. I was and still am shocked that they did not believe it was possible that they could lose. How is that even conceivable when they only campaigned for a certain segment of the electorate?

I’ll just end this right here. Since most of what I’ve seen from the Republicans for the last five years has been crazy lies and conspiracy theories galore there is no end to what I could talk about. But I will say this, for a campaign that spent absolutely zero time caring about minorities in any way, I find it appalling that the Romney campaign claimed to know whether minorities would turn out to vote. As it turns out the 47 percent wasn’t so lazy after all.

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The Blame Game

by Cheryl on November 7, 2012

in Liars, Media, News, Politics

Norah O’Donnell from CBS This Morning grilled political consultant Frank Luntz this morning over erroneous polling data from the Republicans. Luntz is famous for assigning fancy sounding words to unpopular republican policies in order to trick people into buying what they are selling. I thought the whole conversation was stupid because each network had their own polling data and day after day they refused to use it. Instead, news organizations like CBS, NBC, and ABC chose to repeat information fed to them by Republicans.

For months the Romney campaign made no secret, even announcing it to the press, that “their campaign would not be dictated by fact checkers.” I don’t know how much plainer that message could have been. But the networks didn’t want the truth, the networks wanted ratings and thereby they created a “tight race” myth.

When you take a position that you will not report facts and information supported by math you get up with egg on your face. And according to Luntz there is nothing wrong with the Republicans’ positions on the issues they just didn’t state those positions correctly. I beg to differ. If you say that women don’t have the right to contraceptives, people shouldn’t have equal rights, you want to repeal Obamacare so people with pre-existing conditions won’t have coverage, if you try to gin up hate for the president by race baiting, and you try to suppress the vote, your party’s message is pretty clear. No amount of repackaging is going to change that. Oh, and the fact that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan lied constantly on the campaign trail and aired false ads didn’t help.

Long story short, this victory is sweet, but don’t think the republicans are going to be more cooperative and that they will stop making shit up. It takes a long time to weed out this kind of toxic mentality and the fact that whatever network news you are watching doesn’t give a damn about reporting the facts about issues that affect you add to the madness. The worst part is the news media never seems to suffer consequences for lack of doing their job. The networks were willingly duped by the Republicans again and they tried to take the public along for the ride, nothing new.

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Cute and Funny Video of the Day

October 31, 2012

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9 Things I Don’t Understand Because They are Illogical

October 31, 2012

If you have ever relied on government assistance to get on your feet and now that you are doing well you are against that same government assistance for others. If you are against higher taxes and you still believe that we shouldn’t ask everyone to purchase healthcare because you would rather pay for the uninsured [...]

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