I just wanted to take a moment to thanks the few people for checking in with me the past few weeks to see if I was ok, since I haven't written any blogs (No WCW/Pink Magic blogs, no personal updates, etc.) in about a month and haven't been very active for longer than that.
Thank you @asteria, @zen, @nebula and @skisby for that. I really appreciate that you took a few minutes to write and see how I've been doing. Helped me decide to renew my SG account at the end of February for another year (more about this below).
There are a few reasons for my lack of activity here on SG...
First, I felt I needed a break from social media, which for me was primarily Facebook but also SG (although I have Twitter and Instagram accounts, I don't use them as much as FB and SG, though that's changing). I purged almost everyone from my Facebook friends list, except family and a few friends I've known for more than 30 years. While it was just a select few that I really needed to purge due to my perception of their intolerance to differing political opinions, the fact of the matter was, many of my FB friends were people I haven't had much, if any, contact with in years. Even though some of my family fits the part about intolerance of differing political opinions, I didn't de-friend them, but I did stop following some of them so I don't have to see their misplaced rhetoric in my feed. My wife's family (maternal grandparents, her mom and aunts) immigrated from what once was Czechoslovakia during WWII to escape the Nazi ethnic cleansing and persecution so comments about anti-immigration are rather offensive (not to mention that unless you are full-blooded Native American, you are a descendant of at least one immigrant). And, since my brother is gay, any anti-LGBTQ talk really pisses me off.
But that doesn't really explain why I, more or less, disappeared from SG. Part of the reason is that I was beginning to realize I was spending too much time on SG.
Another reason for my absence is that I was having second thoughts about how I fit in here. I had a really fun time meeting @nebula, @zelena, @bluering, @kiley, @lyxzen and @philly2hb in person on 05 February 2017. The girls all know each other and are friends, and I felt rather like an intruder, an outsider, and felt a bit excluded and ignored. But that probably wasn't anyone's fault but my own, so ladies (and gent), don't take this as me criticizing you for not including me more in conversation and taking this the wrong way. After all, I was entering into your world. And I often find it difficult to get and/or stay engaged in social situations for a few reasons:
1) I am a social chameleon. I am naturally introverted when I meet new people, even though I do try to step outside my comfort zone to meet people. Once I know you better, I become more extroverted... but meeting people is sometimes hard for me to do;
2) I am somewhat socially inept when comes to casual conversation, especially with new people. I never know what to talk about, though I know enough not to talk about myself unless asked... no one likes to listen to someone who only talks about him/herself all the time; and
3) From the 9+ years I spent around loud jet aircraft while enlisted in the USAF (despite double hearing protection) and years listening to loud rock & roll and heavy metal music, I have tinnitus and diminished hearing. I'm in no way close to being deaf, but I do have trouble differentiating background and foreground sounds when they are approximately the same volume. I have difficulty following along with a conversation if the speaking volume is rather low (due to tinnitus and the hearing loss incurred as described above). Next, if there is more than one conversation going on at the same time within a group, I often have trouble focusing on just one of them... wanting to keep up with them all so I don't miss something interesting. Lastly, one of my biggest pet peeves is being interrupted when I am speaking (I will disengage from all conversations if this happens to me repeatedly) so I try very hard not to interrupt someone else when s/he is speaking. Sometimes, this actually shuts me out of contributing to a conversation as I sometimes can't find an appropriate opening in which to begin speaking.
This caused me to question my involvement with SG, whether it is a worthwhile use of my time and had me seriously consider whether or not I should renew my subscription. In the end, the comments I got on the few blogs I have written during my reduced time on SG the past month and the personal messages asking about my well being (noted above) or two made me realize that I have made some lasting impressions and friends here. So I renewed my subscription and will be more active going forward.
However, I won't be writing PINK MAGIC regularly. I know that many of you enjoy reading PINK MAGIC and may even look forward to it each week, but to write it in its current form takes me 2-4 hours (or more) to select ladies, research for content, select photos and write the blog. I could write them in advance, but that won't reduce the time it takes to create it each week. That doesn't mean that PINK MAGIC is gone completely. I will still write one now and then when someone really strikes my fancy, just not regularly.
The last reason for my self-exile is that I've been struggling with lack of sleep and extreme tiredness. Part of it is solely my own fault: staying up way too late at night (like tonight, though the switch to daylight saving time has something to do with that) and not sleeping in bed (and using my CPAP) every night (instead falling asleep on the sofa in my man cave/office most nights), and elevated blood glucose levels from not eating as well as I should. I am working on both of those and was less tired this past week than I have been in a while.
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I hope I didn't offend anyone with what I just wrote. If I did, I'm really sorry. I was just being honest with myself and expressing how I felt, which is not something I do often or well.
On to another subject briefly...
Mrs. DeadGuitarist is doing much better. She saw an orthopedic specialist a little more than a week ago. He did a complete rib x-ray panel, which showed the breaks in her rib are healing well... there's no sign of the breaks in her rib any more. The continued pain she was having was due to muscular imbalances in her torso, which was due to the inactivity required for the healing process. Now the pain is going away and she is becoming more active. Thank you everyone who sent positive vibes, good karma and healing prayers to her. Very much appreciated.
That's it for now... there have been quite a few blog homework subjects recently that I find very interesting that I will be writing (or maybe video blogging) about very soon as well as other interesting personal things and experiences. I'll also be spending more time practicing my fretboard work (guitar) and working on unfinished songs and song ideas and getting them recorded for upload to Reverbnation, Soundcloud, Fandalism and/or Bandcamp. More photo safaris... I am planning to go out to Death Valley later this month to hopefully catch the projected super bloom following all the rain California received this winter. Valley of Fire, Zion National Park and other more local points of interest are also on my to do list over the next few months. Maybe the start of a new tattoo too. And there's an Iron Maiden concert (with special guest Ghost) coming up on 03 July 2017.
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Stay Tuned...
DeadGuitarist
Besides Suicide Girls, you can find me on various other social, photography and music sites, as well as career oriented sites:
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | REVERBNATION (ARTIST) | SOUNDCLOUD | FANDALISM | TUMBLR | FLICKR | 500PX | VIEWBUG | GURUSHOTS | WASTED YEARS (MY PERSONAL WEBSITE)| YOUTUBE | LINKEDIN | AMAZON WISHLIST
I'm also on SnapChat (Gri11Sgt), Periscope (GrillSgt) and Uenme (RhythmGuitarist). I usually have my status on Uenme set to unavailable because of work and I forget to change it when I'm available. I'll try to get better about that.
I'm not super active on all of them, but I add stuff to each of them occasionally that you won't necessarily find on my SG profile page.