Hellos, and goodbyes. Goodbye, Facebook and X. Hello, BlueSky. If you’re looking for me, read this post to find out where to find me, out there on the Internet.

Posted on 22 November 2024 by RobertLovesPi

Like many people, I’ve lately become sick of so many things. It isn’t just Donald Trump and Trumpism, nor toxic forms of religion, nor anti-science attitudes, nor Elon Musk, nor the website X (formerly known as Twitter), nor Facebook, nor Mark Zuckerberg, nor billionaires in general, nor political parties, nor the war on women, nor anti-vaxxers, nor fascists on the far right, nor Communists on the far left, nor mass incarceration, nor the wars at home and abroad, nor people who hate friends of mine just because they want to change things about themselves, such as their own bodies and names. I’m sick of people trying to destroy public education and teachers’ unions. I’m sick of all these things, and more.

Quite frankly, if you’re friend-requesting me on Facebook just to immediately send me a private message, which I call “flirtspam,” I’m sick of you. I’m married, and am not looking to change that. I’m sick of people posting advertisements on my Facebook wall, without even asking for permission first. I’m sick of of Trump and his MAGAs. I’m sick of proselytizing, for or against religion. Frankly, if you’re part of any of these problems, I’m sick of you.

It’s all these negative things, and more, that I want to leave behind. There’s poison in all this hatred, and I don’t want to die from it. Therefore, just like I left the toxic practice of drinking ethanol behind (hopefully for good, this time), on July 20, 2023, I am now leaving my negative social media exposure, with this post.

This is my last post on Facebook and on X. I’m not going to deactivate them; I just won’t be posting anything new on my own FB-wall or Twitter-feed any more. My blog is staying right where it is, at http://www.robertlovespi.net. You’re welcome to follow it, “like” my posts, or comment on them. I usually respond to my blog-comments, especially if I’ve been asked a question. More blog-posts are coming; they just won’t be shared on Facebook or X any more. My blog even has a tip jar, if you’re so inclined, but it’s completely optional and voluntary. You can see everything there for free.

You can also interact with me, if you’re seeking to form or maintain honest, healthy friendships, in one other way, on a new social media website. If you’re also sick of all this toxic hatred, which is literally poisoning our minds, our society, and our world, I will let you know where you can find me. I’ve got a lot of friends on Facebook, after all, and a few on X/Twitter, and I invite those friends to join me in the mass exodus away from those two sites, and toward the new social media platform known as BlueSky. It’s a little bit like Twitter, and a little bit like Facebook, except that it is, so far, not infected with any terminal disease. My profile page there is at https://bsky.app/profile/robertlovespi.bsky.social. All I ask is that you be willing to “give peace a chance,” if you look me up there.

Hello, BlueSky!

Happy Beethoven’s Birthday!

Posted on 16 December 2023 by RobertLovesPi

Happy Ludwig van Beethoven’s Birthday! For those keeping track, it’s his 253rd. A good way to celebrate is to listen to one or more of his symphonies, and I’ve chosen the Ninth to post here, as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Charles Schulz’s Peanuts provided my earliest education regarding Beethoven. Here are some samples of this work.

Monday’s Holiday

Posted on 6 October 2023 by RobertLovesPi

Banks, the U.S. bond market, and the U.S. Post Office will all be closed on John Lennon’s birthday this year (Monday, October 9th).

On “Meeting” Lou Reed

Posted on 25 February 2023 by RobertLovesPi

So I just dreamed that Lou Reed was in our house, resting on the couch, having come to Arkansas to make preparations to play a concert in Fayetteville, the city where I was born. I went to the couch, saw Lou, and softly squealed, “Lou Reed!”

He woke up a bit, then grumbled, “I’m sleeping, man,” and so I turned down the TV, pulled down windowshades, and tiptoed out of the room.

I then woke up (in a nested dream, but I didn’t know that yet), and said, “Aw man, Lou Reed is dead!” I went and checked the couch, found the pillow and blanket Lou had been using in my dream, but the couch was otherwise empty. I then woke up for real, and wrote down what had just happpened. There was nothing left to do except listen to Lou’s music, which I’m doing now.

Perhaps You Shouldn’t Judge a Book by its Cover — However….

Posted on 21 July 2021 by RobertLovesPi

When Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon was released, in 1973, I was five years old. I saw the cover for a cassette tape of the album in a store, grabbed it, and wouldn’t let go. Apparently, I’ve always liked triangles.

My parents had to pay for the tape, just to get us out of there. My father tried to turn this into a little life lesson for me (“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” or some such crap). When we got home, we played it, and everyone involved had to admit that picking music based on cover art does, sometimes, actually work.

COVID-19, Interpreted Through the Lens of the Flaming Lips, in Cartoon Form

Posted on 12 April 2020 by RobertLovesPi

Flaming Lips in 2019 and 2020

I did not draw this cartoon. The source for it is Wayne Coyne’s Instagram account (here), and my guess is that he is the cartoonist. If I’m wrong about that, though, please let me know in a comment.

Holy Saturday with COVID-19 and “Jesus Christ Superstar”

Posted on 11 April 2020 by RobertLovesPi

I’m spending this odd, COVID-19-dominated Holy Saturday inside, watching Jesus Christ Superstar. This was actually one of my primary information-sources regarding Christianity before it occurred to me to read the New Testament for myself, in my early twenties. If you’d like to watch it with me, here’s a link to the 1973 film-version, as a YouTube playlist.

The Flaming Lips Meet Calvin and Hobbes: A Music Video for “Love Yer Brain”

Posted on 23 November 2018 by RobertLovesPi

The Flaming Lips wrote and recorded this song, and Bill Watterson drew this cartoon of Calvin and his brain. All I did was put the two together.

“Feeling Yourself Disintegrate,” by The Flaming Lips, and the Inevitability of Death

Posted on 10 November 2018 by RobertLovesPi

I used to have serious ambitions to achieve immortality, first by having my brain transplanted into a cloned body, and then eventually having the information in my brain uploaded into a computer. Basically, I had a severe case of thanatophobia. The music of The Flaming Lips, and this song in particular, helped me to eventually accept the inevitability of my own death.