Hi All - I Missed You n/t

[Steely_Dan]

[PatSeg]

1. Missed you too!

How have you been?

[WheelWalker]

2. Where was I ?

[Steely_Dan]

3. Sorry My Post Was...

...so cryptic.

I'm Paige Anderson. I wrote a bunch of essays on supporting Joe Biden. One was published on the Joe Biden site during the primaries.

Anyway, it has been a long time since I came to this particular part of DU. Apparently you had to donate before you could access this area. So I did.

I just wanted to say hello and see who was still here.

-P

[jillan]

4. Hi Paige!! It's great to see you!

I've seen a few of your posts out there. Don't spend as much time on DU as I used to.

:hi:

[PatSeg]

5. Oh, I'm quite sure we all remember who you are

Most of us drop in now and then. It has become a habit and many of us developed some strong bonds. A few of us get together at Facebook as well, but Gateley makes fun of us from time to time. She is such a rascal.

[Steely_Dan]

6. Ha Ha....Indeed She Is! n/t

[PatSeg]

7. Speaking of her,

I wonder where she is. If she knew we were talking about her, I'm quite sure she'd be here giving me a hard time.

[Steely_Dan]

8. Whatever Happened to Deb?

I know that I had a few "debates" with her. She was always fun to speak with.

-P

[PatSeg]

9. She spends most of her time at Facebook

these days. After the presidential election, I think a lot of people had a need to escape politics for a while.

[PhillyGurl]

10. haha, amen to that

I ditched politics the day after Obama was elected, and I am much happier now. :hi:

[PatSeg]

14. I've taken breaks,

but can't detach myself entirely. I don't post a lot these days, but I do like using DU to keep up with political and other news. I've learned how to be selective and avoid some of the more negative aspects (and people) of DU. Of course, I still like keeping tabs on what Joe is doing. God knows, we rarely hear it in the MSM.

[PatSeg]

11. Debi says to tell you "Hi"

She is no longer a donor, so she can't post at JBSG anymore. She said, "Please tell SD I said hello and I'd love it if we became friends here on FB."

[Steely_Dan]

12. Pat...do you ...

...where to find her on FB?

Thanks.

-Paige

[PatSeg]

13. Yep

I'll send you a PM.

[Steely_Dan]

15. Thank You........... n/t

[gateley]

18. May God forgive you. nt

[gateley]

19. WARNING! You'll be wearing Wellies and mucking around in

farm slop before you know it. Sending cryptic little "insider" nudges and winks or whatever. You. Will. Not. Be. Able. To. Escape. Don't say I didn't try to stop you.

[PatSeg]

21. Don't know how to break this to ya

But it appears the Farm got him already. Oh well.

[gateley]

23. Oh, Steely, we hardly knew ye.

:cry:

[PatSeg]

25. I really think it is an after-effect

from eight years of Bush. Not to mention, many of us have had a really rough time, so it is sort of like therapy. I honestly resisted the games in the beginning, really I did.

[gateley]

27. Truth be told, I'm kind of afraid I might get too into them. There's a tipping

point where I pass Interested and enter Obsessed. I was kind of like that when I first "discovered" DU. All day, every day.

[PatSeg]

28. That's how I was with DU

As soon as I woke up or walked in the door, I'd be on the computer. Now I just check in to read the headlines and see if anyone is at JBSG. As with all of my obsessions, it eventually lost its grip on me.

[gateley]

29. Yeah, that's the good thing with mine, too, instead of intensifying they kind of

just peter out.

[PatSeg]

30. In many ways it is a good thing,

but it also is the reason I never found ONE career to stick with. My interests change too often. Seems to run in the family. We tend to put all our energy and focus on one thing and eventually lose interest and move onto something else. I've always envied people who knew what they wanted to do from childhood and never tired of it. As my mother, the queen of cliches, used to say, "We are jacks of all trades and masters of none." In some respects I love the diversity, but it can be exhausting.

[gateley]

31. I'd prefer the diversity -- I've learned about so many different industries that

I never gave thought to before. There are entire worlds out there that we know nothing about. And when you get a chance to learn about it, it's interesting.

I'd rather be like this than somebody willing to stay at a job just because it's a j.o.b. There is something to be said about being certain of your path since you were a kid, I do envy that, too, but it takes all kinds (one of my mom's cliches :7).

PS -- I was just thinking that my mom told me my dad didn't decide to become a doctor 'til a little later in life. And once he began, he loved it and loved performing surgery and he was an exceptional doctor. I have no idea what he was planning on doing before then. One brother was an attorney, the other had a refrigeration company or something, and a sister became a nurse. Maybe he didn't like what he saw with the lawyer and businessman brothers, but thought his sister's job sounded pretty cool?

[PatSeg]

32. I too prefer the diversity

I just hate the transitions in between the obsessions. I know they are necessary to absorb what I've learned, but the nothingness can be oppressive.

That is so cool about your dad. I'm glad he found his passion and I'm sure there was plenty of diversity as well as satisfaction in his life. I'm sure there were other paths I could have taken that would have been more fulfilling, but the need to survive often kept me from them. One day I woke up and realized that yes, "life really IS short".

[CrispyQ]

16. Hey!

I've seen you in some recent posts. I think we frequent the same threads. ;)

I miss the camaraderie that DU had when we had a common enemy. It makes me wonder if that's what humanity needs - a common enemy - aliens from another planet - to bond us as a collective. We could be so fierce if we could focus 7 billion souls.

I've been so busy that my DU time is down significantly. I know I bring up that old 'ignorance is bliss' a lot, but it comes from noticing how much better I feel when I'm not so plugged in to politics. The less plugged in you are, the less interest you have & the less plugged in you become. A spiral of apathy? Or a happier sphere of existence?

Enough Saturday morning philosophy! Enjoy your weekend!

[PatSeg]

17. I know what you mean

It is hard to get a proper balance. Too much politics can really bring us down, but I'm always concerned about becoming apathetic. Been there before and I've have many regrets.

I thought after 9/11, that people would really come together and reevaluate their priorities. But in the long run, it only served to make people more divisive than before. Of course, much of that divisiveness has to be blamed on politicians. It would be nice if people came together because of a common purpose, instead of a common enemy, but don't see that happening in my lifetime.

[gateley]

20. Agree. When you're mired in it it's difficult to have a perspective

other than dooooooom. I've been apathetic my entire life, always thinking "those who are smarter than I will take care of everything". Now I'm always surprised when I meet people who are uninterested or uninformed (the majority of people I come across) and I'm almost angered that they don't care enough to learn what's really going on .

But on the other hand, it's not as though knowing = results. Health care, DADT, etc., but all in all I think I'd rather be plugged in somewhat.

DU IS the best place for breaking news. If I hear a blurb on the radio I'll check in here and there will be a post about the situation -- before it's on MSNBC, CNN, or either of their sites.

[PatSeg]

22. Same here

and sometimes I feel like a hypocrite when I judge others for their lack of involvement. Of course, I went through years of trying to raise kids with few resources and often didn't even have a TV or a car. Staying involved in current events just wasn't a top priority when I was trying to survive. Plus all the politicians were SO boring - couldn't see much difference between the Dems and the republicans back then. I started to get interested again when Clinton ran for President.

[gateley]

24. I didn't get interested until this past election -- my shock and dismay and disbelief

that Bush won a second term made me wake up. At that point I didn't know about how he REALLY retained the position.

It's odd, on one hand it's so important that we pay attention, on the other, both we and those who don't follow along end up in the same place. :shrug:

[PatSeg]

26. Oh I think all of us who awoke from our

apathy really have made a difference. Democrats are noted for having spurts of enthusiasm followed by disappointment and discouragement. Republicans tend to maintain a consistency, much like sheep. I've learned to keep my expectations realistic, which helps. All these crazy nut jobs are freaking me out though. I've never seen anything like it.

[gateley]

33. I've never seen anything like it, either. The outright hatred because you think

differently than I. Somebody posted they saw a bumpersticker that read "Peace HAD A Chance". Can you imagine? These people don't want peace? I think they want war between us so they can slaughter all us Muslim-lovers and "take their country back". What happened to these people? Have they always harbored such feelings or did Cheny, et al, create it, a la Hitler?

[PatSeg]

34. "Peace HAD A Chance"?

Okay, now that is really frightening, not to mention crazy. It is as if the country has become schizophrenic.

I think a lot of these people had latent, unexpressed feelings and beliefs, and because of people like Beck, Palin, and Rush, they feel vindicated. It is possible many of them were harboring volatile emotions, just waiting to explode. They seem to be incapable of critic thinking and are easily manipulated. John Dean really nailed it in his book about conservatives.

I guess it isn't unusual historically and happens all over the world today. We just didn't expect to see it here in this day and age. I partly blame the media and the dismal failure of our educational system. Damn, we're turning out a lot of dumb kids these days.