Many years ago, I came to Joeuser out of loneliness. My husband was on yet another deployment and I was in a strange new city with two young children. I needed adult interaction online while building RL relationships in our new community. I stayed for the varied viewpoints, interesting topics and people. I don’t know if it is just me, but I tend to associate in real life with people who share the same values I do. We don’t agree on everything. Who does? But, there are fundament...

Today, strangely, the need to express the present reality in longer sentences than tweets or Facebook posts, won’t stop gnawing. This is due in part to the division in our country, but also in my personal life over politics.  It’s naive to believe our generation, our time, is somehow immune to the divisive nature of politics, the ever escalating rhetoric which inevitably leads to war.  If history shows anything, it shows the human race prospers between war, but ulti...

HAPPY NEW YEAR JOE USER!! I hope the new year fills you with hope. Resolutions seem so out of date to me, so I pick a word and make it the flag plant for the upcoming year. There were many words competing for 2017, but this year "faith" won. Faith is defined as: 1. confidence or trust in a person or thing:faith in another's ability.   2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis.... 3. belief in God or in the doctrin...

Please God please.  Let me feel it just one. more. time.  It makes me feel alive, important, loved and the white hot glow of euphoria makes all the past hurt, all the horrible mistakes, all the empty hours of breathing seem like part of a cosmic plan that feels so good, is so good, all my suffering was worth it, possibly even divine . Smack.  Dope.  Mud.  Horse.  Skag.  Junk. H. Black tar.  Black pearl.  Brown sugar. Witch hazel. Bird...

I can post articles, but for some reason I can't comment on any articles including my own.  I tried Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer.  Any suggestions?   Thanks!    Tova

  There are days I am so stressed out, tense and unable to sleep there is only one thing that can actually break through the constant barrage of thoughts and worries. ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response Videos on Youtube.  It is defined as " usually experienced through a relaxing tingling in the scalp and the back of the neck and can extend into the rest of the body."   Essentially it is audio stimulation of a sort.  Wearing a good set of ear ...

So happy to see Joeuser is still plugging along.   I've missed you!   I loved blogging here and the community.  There was a time in my life when JU really nourished my mind and spirit with community, current event commentary and flame wars! Then the world changed.  At least my world did a bit.  Facebook, Twitter. Everything distilled to tweets or posts.  Life is busy.   I co-founded an anti-sex trafficking ...

Edited 11/11/2012 for clarity and because I was really pissed off when I wrote this and it's just not very coherent. “Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.” ~ Someone in the Czech Republic via a newspaper   I’m disappointed. Yesterday the morning started out with such hope.  By the time I went to bed last night.  Crash and burn. Ohio results wer...

We have several bird houses in our yard. Every spring baby birds are pushed out of the nest by Mama and Papa Bird.  Papa almost always takes a limb on a near-by tree, Mama on a patio chair.  They chirp to each other, and encouragement to their off-spring, as they watch over the baby bird.  No matter what changes in the yard, this event takes place every year.  For a couple years, an old stray cat hung around.  Mama and Papa pushed the baby out, and more times...

Tonight is the third, and final (thank goodness!) debate. Usually, I wait until after to review it... but since this is the last one wanted to mix it up a little bit. I'm curious about three things: 1.  What do you think should be discussed tonight? 2.  Is there something either candidate can say that might make them appear "the winner?" 3.  What the hell are we doing about last month's terrorist attack?  How did that even happen?? I hav...

Last night, I didn't hear anything unexpected between the two candidates. The news maker?  Candy Crowley backing up the president during the debate, and then pulling a mea culpa after.  But personally I wasn't shocked by that.  I think Americans should expect it.  She said before millions BO was right, Romney wrong.  Then AFTER the debate said she erred.  Oops. Kind of like running a front page story with errors, and putting the correction in...

I don’t know what you saw last night, or even if you watched, but I saw Mitt Romney bring his A game to a debate.  The president however, seemed discombobulated. I predict the president will get ugly over the course of the next two debates.  Since he can’t run on his record, he will resort to personal attacks, innuendo, and repeating lies.  I don’t think the debates matter to Obama-bots.  Those people who vote for him because he’s black, or because of one or t...

I’m writing again, after a two year break.  It’s rough, like starting over.  Ugh.  But, I’m well into a tale of death, revenge, and redemption.  This chapter is a work-in-progress.  Posting it here helps keep me motivated.   ------------------------------------------------------------ Arnica slipped the black 9mm with a leather grip into the battered Nike gym bag. The sound of the zipper ripped through the silence of the motel room. S...

The summer between 8 th and 9 th grade I lived at the municipal swimming pool. One day, some friends and I sat outside the pool on picnic tables. The pool just opened so there were adults outside waiting in line with their kids. A red Camaro, music blasting, loaded with soon-to-be seniors crawled by. Once, twice, three times. It wasn’t until all the adults were inside that the Camaro screeched to a stop. Four boys, men really, approached our group. More specific...

My youngest first time climbing the big wall..  (He's in blue)