Yesterday morning I awoke at 5:30 in a totally bad mood, for many reasons. My hot water bottle leaked during the night – now often I say that I prefer hot water bottles in my bed over men – but men do not leak. I was in constant pain with my knee throughout the night. I am very angry with the mismanagement of Blueground – the company from who I lease as they suffer from bungling inefficiency in a self congratulatory fashion. (more about them later). . Then, to make matters worse, there were problems with the blog, and needed answers were not forthcoming from email recipients. But there came an instant and uplifting award- I got on Instagram. Flower Girl’s Wife posted a picture of her grand daughter holding a birthday gift to her Granny – a sort of diary,
Me: Sweet!
She: thank you x you can help me fill some of it in x
Me: I would be happy to!
She:More like to have fun and some good laughing. xx still trying to thing of things we can get up to. Can’t wait.xx
Me: The plan is to get into trouble – it will be easy! Hahaha
She is a new friend- we met in Iceland almost a year ago and have maintained a fast friendship using Instagram. In seven days she and her husband will pick me up at Heathrow and take me to Southampton and I shall have the time of my life. It is all because of Instagram.
During my time in London I will bask in the friendship and glory of Shabez. We met when I lived in London but have maintained the connection through Instagram. Our main contact is through Instagram – the immediacy makes it seem like an ongoing conversation.
The three of us respond publicly to one another’s entries and share with others – it forms a sort of community, It is a community of about twenty-five. We come from practically everywhere – Hong Kong, Australia, the UK, Ireland, Hawaii, these United States, and Canada. We comments upon each others post and daily activities. It does not take a great deal of time and it is filled with laughter and sharing. Instagram is our tool – used to forge a connection.
My current statistics are 537 followers, 586 posts and following 1,281. Whatever that may mean. I cannot imagine I am following that many people because I regularly dump people and ads. I am active that way – one can say: Hide the Ad and up and up away it goes. So out of 537 followers, about 25 regularly interact, liking what I say and do. Doing that takes no effort at all, scarcely a second. What are all of those other followers doing with their fingers? Are they picking their noses? Or something else? It rather boggles the mind. Why bother if you are just going to be a passive recipient? You get what you give. That is an adage. What is an adage? A proverb or short statement expressing a truth. Its synonyms are: saying, maxim, axiom, proverb, aphorism, saw, dictum, precept, epigram, epigraph, motto, truism, platitude, cliché, commonplace; words of wisdom, pearls of wisdom; expression, phrase, formula, slogan, quotation; rare apophthegm, gnome.
But it is not just an axion, a dictum or a truism. It is also an inspiring song by The New Radicals. Here are the words
Wake up kids
We’ve got the dreamers disease
Age 14 we got you down on your knees
So polite, you’re busy still saying please
Frienemies, who when you’re down ain’t your friend
Every night we smash their Mercedes-Benz
First we run, and then we laugh ’til we cry
But when the night is falling
You cannot find the light
You feel your dreams are dying
Hold tight
You’ve got the music in you
Don’t let go
You’ve got the music in you
One dance left
This world is gonna pull through
Don’t give up
You’ve got a reason to live
Can’t forget
We only get what we give
I’m comin’ home baby
You’re tops,
Give it to me now
Four a.m. We ran a miracle mile
We’re flat broke,
But hey we do it in style
The bad rich
God’s flying in for your trial
There is an incredibly energizing video on YouTube. Google it, turn up the volume and listen. I suppose I could link it for you but you get what you give. If you do it yourself you shall get greater satisfaction.
But here is the fascinating thing about this simple communication tool Most people have no clue about how to use it. Criminally evil deeds are committed by total losers and I have been scammed and stalked more than once. I shall speak about these people and their deeds and they ways they entrap in subsequent blogs. But in life it is best to start out positive – this I am doing with today’s blog.
But at this time, not the really bad stuff – instead let us discuss the lazy users. lI have a distant relative who suddenly started using Instagram but uses it like Facebook posting pictures of a child’s birthday – but even when I respond she never bothers to push like or do anything. Needless to say she is not part of my Instagram family. So I said in a comment: “Cat got your tongue?” Now what does that expression mean? “The idiom is used to compel someone to speak, say something, or give a response when they are (unusually) quiet. It is often said by adults to children. When someone is speechless or without words (sometimes out of surprise) you will say “Cat got your tongue?” to prompt them to react. Another source says: —used to ask someone why he or she is not saying anything”You’ve been unusually quiet tonight,” she said. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” What are the origins of that strange idiom?
“The earliest use of the phrase cat got you tongue? is found in an American magazine in 1881, where it is described as a taunt used by children. One origin theory is that cat got your tongue? stems from the medieval fear of witches and their familiars, black cats. Another theory is that the “cat” referenced in cat got your tongue? is the cat-o’-nine-tails, a vicious whip used on early sailors which would render the victim speechless. A third theory is the assertion that ancient kings cut off the tongues of liars and fed the tongues to their cats. All of these stories are apocryphal, there is no evidence that the phrase cat got your tongue? is anything more than odd, childish imagery.”
Did this distant relative respond to my inquiry? No, of course not. Do I care? Not really, as I have my Instagram community that feed my needs for affiliation. Its synonyms are:
attaching, connecting, joining, bonding, uniting, combining, associating, aligning, allying, amalgamation, amalgamating, merging, incorporation, incorporating, integration, integrating, federating, federation, confederating, confederation, coupling, fusion; connection, relationship, fellowship, partnership, association, coalition, union, alliance, alignment, attachment, link, bond, tie, yoke; communication, rapport, sympathy, cooperation, collaboration, belonging; rare consociation.
So Instagram provides me with the opportunity to connect, associate, fuse, connect, align, link and bond with certain people. We are in rapport, in sympathy and in a relationship. In a strange way we belong. We are like-minded.
More later about the users of Instagram and the fate that shall befall them.
The photo is of me in bed writing this blog. I am planning to post a video on Instagram telling Instagrammers of this blog’s content.
