Black And White

I managed to find the beads I was looking for and believe it or not they worked out real well and I ended up using exactly what I had in mind. That hardly ever happens. So I am happy to say the little pink bird will be done soon.

I like pink, it's a happy color. They have started painting the inside of prisons pink in order to have a calming effect on the prisoners. I wonder if that really works?

It's a shame that we can't have more pink and happy colors on the internet. Sadly everything seems to be black and white. I am sure right about now you're sitting there thinking...hey Kel, you need to adjust your monitor!

That's not the kind of black and white I am talking about. I have had the internet for 12 years now. There are a couple things about it that will forever puzzle me. One is the inevitable need for someone to come in and 3rd party moderate a dispute that has been over for hours or even days. The only outcome of that is making it worse. When something has been resolved why can't people just let it lay there and move on? Coming in after the fact and trying to fix something that has already been fixed only stirs the pot.

The next thing...as we know you can't hear voice inflections on the computer. Keeping that in mind, people always choose to interpret anything said in the most negative, worst possible meaning. I say choose, because that's exactly what happens. I try very hard to choose to think someone didn't mean something the way it reads. Sometimes I do it too, although it's usually when I know the person in real life and know how they would say it. But hey I never claimed to be perfect either. I am simply working to overcome doing that and try...I say TRY to give people the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand people expect you to always be nice and never express an opinion that might be negative. If we never hear a critique or opposing idea, then how do we grow? Sure it's not fun to hear, but we all need it sometimes. Keep in mind there is a vast difference between voicing your own opinion and giving constructive criticism, and just flat out insulting someone else.

People use two phrases on the net a lot that I really find pointless. One is; "I knew I shouldn't have done this." Ok well if you knew ahead of time, why did you do it...no really...why? The other phrase is; "Can't we all just get along?" Why do people even ask that? Of course we can't all get along. If we did we would all be mindless drones without any differing opinions. While I am no fan of drama, I would hate for no one to ever stand up and voice their thoughts. How boring would that be?

Then there is a strange phenomenon that occurs. Computers are complex machines with motherboards. People are complex machines with brains. But yet...everything is read in a black and white context. What I mean by that is we tend to think that people on the internet say things with one of two emotions. Euphorically happy or intensely angry. No one ever thinks there might be shades of grey...subtle nuances to how things are said. Now this one I just don't get. We don't wander through our lives in one of those two states thankfully. We would overheat and our brains would explode! *giggles at the thought* Maybe we do it because the written word is black and white so we revert delightfully complex human beings to black and white concepts? Maybe it's because communicating on an emotionless machine dehumanizes us? I still don't understand texting. You're holding a phone, why wouldn't you want to just call the person and hear their voice? Interact with them.

I miss bear shows for this reason. We don't get to interact with the customers on the personal level through the computer that we did at shows. I liked meeting my customers and seeing the delight in their face as they looked at a bear. We are in tactile business. Sadly doing business on the computer has taken so much of that away.

I am off to work on my pretty pink bird. Why not reach out and touch someone today? Either with your voice or your hands, or even a bear. Until next time! *Hugs* Kelly