Tag Archives: repost

athletes, book reviews, sports

Repost: A review of On the Right Track by Marion Jones…

As I’m sitting here trying to decide what I want to write about today, I decided to look at the original version of The Overeducated Housewife. Ten years ago, I mentioned I writing a review of a book about a guy who used to work for Larry Flynt at Hustler Magazine. I wanted to see if I’d reviewed it on the original blog, as I remember Epinions.com died very soon and suddenly after I finished reading and reviewing the book. I did find a mention of the book, which I didn’t like. However, it does not look like I reposted my review of that book on the original blog, which was probably not a loss.

I fell down a rabbit hole, and realized that I hadn’t yet posted my review of On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome and Succeed, a book written by track star Marion Jones. Since I’m all about preserving old book reviews, I’m going to repost it today, mostly as/is. Please keep in mind, this was originally written on May 27, 2014.

My slightly edited review of On the Right Track…

Marion Jones was a very successful Olympic athlete at the Sydney Games in summer 2000.  She won five gold medals in track and field, and was, for several years, a darling of  American sports fans.  While I remembered her name, I wasn’t particularly a fan of hers.  I bought her book because I saw her on Dr. Phil. 

Jones was on the good TV shrink’s show because she spent six months at Carswell Correctional Center in Fort Worth, Texas after admitting to using performance enhancing drugs (The Clear) at the Games. She was also involved in check fraud.  

Marion Jones went to prison on March 7, 2008 and stayed until September 5, 2008.  Jones left behind her husband and two young sons during her brief, but miserable, stay in federal prison.  After she was released, she recovered from the scandal through faith in God and support from her family.  She later gave birth to a daughter and played basketball for the WNBA.

While Jones’s book isn’t the most professionally written thing I’ve read recently, it is basically well-written. It also serves as a good cautionary tale against lying, using drugs (though she claims she didn’t know she was taking them– supposedly her coach gave them to her under the guise of “supplements”), and getting involved with the “wrong” people.

Jones apparently had an absentee father.  Her mother remarried a man named Ira Toler, who served as a surrogate to her, but he died when she was still young.  Jones was devastated.  If anything, her book shows how important fathers are to their kids.  While she didn’t really have a connection to her bio dad, she did attend his funeral and dealt with the muddle of emotions from that.  Other people described her father as a wonderful man, but she never had the chance to find out for herself.  I suspect that made her angry. 

Jones was rightfully angry that her father wasn’t there for her when she was growing up.  But I wonder if she tried to know him once she was an adult. I’m guessing she didn’t.  There’s a reason why other people loved him.  I don’t know for certain, but I get the sense that maybe the child Jones was, is yet another victim of adults being selfish and stupid.

Jones writes of the terrible conditions she and other women faced in prison.  She explains that a lot of women are locked up, serving long sentences for minor crimes.  They don’t get proper medical care and are forced to be “slaves”.  Jones also had the dubious privilege of traveling on a “con air” flight.  Apparently, it was really not fun.  She also spent some time in “the hole”.

This book is short but basically interesting.  I was glad to see that Jones was able to bounce back.  She is now an activist for prison reform.  While I don’t favor coddling prisoners, I do think that some sentences are ridiculously long, especially in the case of certain non violent crimes.  I do also think that prisoners should get basically decent medical care if they need it.  But then, a lot of Americans who aren’t in prison don’t get decent medical care.

I’d recommend the book.

Buy On the Right Track on Amazon.com.

As an Amazon Associate, I get a small commission from Amazon on sales made through my site.

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LDS, religion, social media, YouTube

Repost: Things I’d rather do than go to church…

Here’s a quick repost that originally appeared on my Blogger version of OH on January 18, 2016. Wow… this post will be eight years old tomorrow! It was kind of funny, though, so I’m sharing it again. Hope some of you enjoy it. It’s as/is, so pretend it’s 2016.

I stumbled across this beaut of an anti-coffee film last night.  If you guessed it was made by the Mormons, you’d be right.  As I post this, I am drinking a nice hot cup of coffee myself.

This is just odd… crappy acting and stills instead of motion…  and what is with the sign language?  Is that not distracting?

Now, I am old enough to have seen my share of filmstrips in class.  I don’t think I ever saw a film or “educational” filmstrip when I was a churchgoer.  This just reminds me of something they’d show in health class, only it’s basically about the sin of drinking coffee.  Technically, the Mormon church bans “hot drinks” and includes coffee and black tea in that prohibition.  But you’re welcome to drink all the hot cocoa and hot soup you want.

The above commentary doesn’t have that much to do with today’s blog post.  I just felt like writing about it because it’s so weird.  The main idea of the above video is not so much that you shouldn’t drink coffee.  Instead, it’s more to remind people that things aren’t always what they seem to be.  And some heathens out there aren’t LDS and drink coffee.  Oh, and the church is true… 

Most people who commented listed all the things they’d rather do.  My comment was that there are a few things I can think of that would make church more appealing.  For instance, I’d rather go to church than visit a gynecologist.  I’d rather go to church than eat mushrooms.  I’d sooner sit in a pew than spend a night in jail.  But yeah, I can think of many things I could do that I would choose over church.  We had an interesting discussion going.  And then I got a visit from Papa Smurf, who responded when I wrote that church was forced on me when I was a kid.  

Yes, Jenny, church has “bored” many. I can understand that. It is how I felt when as an adult I went to church with my wife to appease her. I learned much though once I allowed myself to be aware of and open to the greats and wonderful deeds we, as church, can be capable of. It is a place where many believers gather and do good for the world. Sure, we read much of what evil can and has happened via “religion” yet church is a place where people of faith gather for their own spiritual growth and to use the message of “Loving others as we love ourselves,” and combined resources to help others. Are we perfect? Absolutely not!…and we know we are sinners. It is together though that we can provide a better community, church, with positive goals. 

As examples it was through our church that we started a sort of meals on wheels when people here in our village were devastated by Sandy. They had no electric or kitchens throughout the winter. 

We have another group, again started through our church, that goes down to missions in other countries to help others who live in conditions far worse than anything we have here in the states. Nine of us, along with supplies and funds from others leave next Tuesday. The best part is that there is no overhead, those we help draw no salary. They have dedicated their lives in poverty to help those who are severely deformed, the destitute, the dying and the throw-away people of society. 

It is a shame that “church” gets a bad rap and there are some good reasons for it. That said, there is much good with unbelievable amount of good done through the faith-filled in church. 

Church isn’t always fun. It is in many ways a commitment. That said, church is a part of my life. 

Next month my wife and I along with friends will be in an absolutely wonderful snorkeling spot in the Caribbean. Hey, it doesn’t get better than this with great weather, sandy beaches, fun socials at night and swimming with turtles daily. Even with all that we will be sure to go to church on the two Sundays we are away. For us it reminds us of a greater being who gave us all and keeps us focused, as with the others who gather in the church from many different places, that we need to love one another and spread that message to the world. Whoa! Did i write all that? Glad that i did.
In other words, if you don’t go to church, you’re pretty much a heathen… 😉

Church wasn’t horrible for me, but it usually bored me.  What I got out of it was meeting good people and learning music.  Every once in awhile, a good minister would impart words of wisdom.  By and large, though, it wasn’t an activity I enjoyed.  Now that I’m married to Bill, who had a bad experience with the LDS church, we don’t attend at all.  Before he was Mormon, Bill was Methodist, Episcopalian, and Catholic.  If I had to guess which church he identified most with, I’d say the Catholic church.  And that makes sense, because I have always attracted Catholics.

As for Papa Smurf’s comment, I’d say that much of what he gets from church, one could get elsewhere in a non-religious setting… except maybe the part about the greater being…  although if I’m honest, I’m not sure one needs a church to believe in a higher power.  Church provides a good social outlet and perhaps business connections.  Church provides a place to serve others and an outlet for using talents.  But you don’t have to go to church to find those opportunities.

I see that I didn’t bother responding to Papa Smurf’s comment.  I think I was annoyed by it, mainly because it was one of many he’s left on my page that seemed an attempt to school me.  Since I’ve achieved middle age, I don’t necessarily appreciate schooling from other adults, unless I’ve asked for it.  Also, he has a tendency to take jokes too seriously, especially if he thinks they’re tasteless.  Then, if  I respond to him with annoyance when he gets sanctimonious, he accuses me of taking things too personally.  

Anyway…  

We have had a pretty boring MLK weekend.  We usually try to get away for MLK day, but I wasn’t sure how I’d feel after my sinus lift.  As it turned out, the weather was pretty severe.  We had snow all weekend.  Yesterday, the weather was downright bipolar.  It snowed, then the sun would come out.  Then it would snow again.  This cycle repeated all day.  Since it was Sunday, no one plowed our street.  We decided to stay in and Bill tried a recipe from the Irish cookbook I got him for Christmas.

Tomorrow, I get the stitches out (ETA in 2024: I had dental implant surgery in January 2016).  Can’t be too soon for me.  I am ready to put the surgery in the past.

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movies, sports

Repost: My review of I, Tonya…

Apologies for the repost on Boxing Day. I had a pretty terrible night. I woke up at about 2:00 AM with a really bad stomach ache, and spent the next couple of hours trying to expel the contents of my digestive system from both ends. I feel much improved now, having finally managed to dislodge what was backing up my system. My stomach still hurts a little bit, but it’s a lot better than it was a few hours ago.

I slept for a couple of hours and took Noyzi for a walk. Then, as I was looking for an old post I wrote about a TV judge, I noticed that I’d written a review of I, Tonya, which is a great movie starring Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, and McKenna Grace (who has recently been on The Handmaid’s Tale).

So, in the interest of preserving this post, I’m sharing it again. It was originally written March 17, 2018. I’ll probably leave it mostly “as/is”, with minimal editing. Maybe if you don’t have other stuff to do today, and you haven’t seen it, you’ll check it out yourself. At the very least, I recommend going on YouTube and checking out the real Tonya Harding’s amazing 1991 era athleticism, when she landed a triple axel. 

My thoughts on I, Tonya…

I remember exactly where I was on January 6, 1994.  I was in my parents’ living room, watching figure skating on TV.  I was home from college for Christmas break.  It was my senior year and I was about to start my final semester before it was time for me to launch into adulthood (which would take me a few more years to successfully complete).

It was just weeks before the ’94 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway.  Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan were competing at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, Michigan.  That night, Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right thigh by a man named Shane Stant.  He had deliberately attacked her with a police baton to take her out of contention at the Olympics.

Shane Stant was hired by rival figure skater Tonya Harding’s now ex husband, Jeff Gillooly (who later changed his name to Jeff Stone).  Harding claimed that she’d known nothing about the attack.  She was still later punished for her role in the crime.  Although she did compete in Lillehammer in 1994, as did Nancy Kerrigan, Harding’s performances there were disastrous.  She was subsequently banned from competing in figure skating for the rest of her life.

Tonya Harding has been a pariah for years.  Many people still think she’s “trash”.  Some people are pissed off that a movie was made about her life.  The rather black comedy stars Margot Robbie as Tonya and Allison Janney as Tonya’s abusive mother, LaVona “Sandy” Golden.  The film, entitled I, Tonya, sheds light on Tonya’s side of the story.  Love her or hate her, it’s a fact that in the early 1990s, Tonya Harding was an amazing athlete.  She was the first American woman to successfully perform a triple axel at an international event.  In 1991, she won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships after landing that amazing jump, which she went on to successfully complete again at 1991 World Championships.

I always liked Tonya Harding.  She was different.  I loved watching the raw power of her performances and admired her guts.  I was truly disheartened about what happened in 1994.  Her story was one of a poor girl who made good and it was disappointing to me that she would be caught up in a scandal that would ruin her career.  That being said, back in ’94, when this was going on, this was a story that wouldn’t die.  It took a long time before Tonya and Nancy faded out of the press.  I was pretty sick of hearing about both of them by the time 1995 rolled around.

Some time ago, Tina Turner’s life story was published.  The name of her bestselling book was I, Tina.  I don’t know if Tina Turner’s book had anything to do with the title of the film about Harding’s life.  Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but think of it when I heard about I, Tonya.  I sat down and watched the movie the other day and, I have to admit, I really enjoyed it.

According to the film, Tonya Harding grew up the daughter of one hellaciously abusive bitch.  LaVona drove her daughter to succeed from the age of 3 and a half.  Still, there was no mistaking Harding’s talent and she was coached by Diane Rawlinson for many years, wearing ugly dresses her mother made for her.  Harding learned early that she had to go out and get what she wanted.  The film depicts that, although Harding has said there are a few embellishments in the film version of her story. 

Harding also praises Allison Janney and Margot Robbie.  She’s particularly full of praise for Janney, whom she says portrays her mother masterfully.  Tonya’s mother had the opposite opinion.  She thinks the film is full of falsehoods and complains that Harding “hates” her.  Harding now has a son who has never met his grandmother.  While I can empathize with Tonya’s mom on a human level, I also think that she sounds like a lot of abusers who make excuses and don’t take any responsibility for their part in a bad relationship.  I’d have more regard for LaVona’s protests if I heard her express some regret for Tonya’s bad memories, even if she remembers them differently.

One thing I loved about I, Tonya, besides the sly black humor, is its fabulous soundtrack.  There are quite a few excellent classic rock tracks on it including songs by Heart, Cliff Richard, and ZZ Top.  I am about Tonya’s age, so the songs featured in her life story bring back a lot of my own youthful memories.

This film includes a lot of cussing.  In fact, Harding has said that she doesn’t cuss as much as the movie depicts.  I can empathize with her on that point, too.  People think I cuss more than I actually do.  On the other hand, I’m immature enough to think cussing is funny… especially when it’s directed at anal retentive ice skating judges.  By the way, Harding claims that infamous scene in the film never actually happened… though she wishes it had.

Anyway, although a lot of people seem to think Tonya Harding should fade into obscurity, I, for one, enjoyed I, Tonya.  I am not one of those people who thinks that someone should necessarily pay for the rest of their lives for every crime they commit.  Tonya Harding has mostly stayed out of trouble and I think it’s time she’s able to redeem herself.  It seems to me that Harding had the misfortune of having bad people in her life.  Some of that was beyond her control.  So I think I can cut her some slack… and I hope this film helps her and her family enjoy better lives.  I recommend I, Tonya.

Even in her 40s, Tonya Harding can skate!

Featured photo is courtesy of Amazon.com. 

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condescending twatbags, language, social media

Repost: Dissecting hate mail from “pro-life” men on social media…

This is a repost. I wrote this post for my original OH blog on February 21, 2018. I am sharing it again, and leaving it as/is, because this issue is hot again, and because it illustrates just how hypocritical and unhinged some men on social media are. It’s only gotten worse since 2018, although at least now, people I’m not connected to are prohibited from contacting me on messenger. Hopefully, I will be back later with a fresh post. Please be advised, this post includes some especially raw language, since that was what was in the “hate mail” I received.

A few days ago, I read a news article on the Army Times about a woman who left her newborn infant out in the cold.  The baby girl, whose mother called her Parker, later died.  Her mother was arrested and charged with murder, which was eventually reduced to a conviction of manslaughter.  She was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Posting this photo because the other photo in this post includes objectionable language.

A man decided the comment section would be a good place to spout off his anti-abortion beliefs. Several women piped up, including yours truly.  My first comment was “What the hell does this have to do with abortion?”  Basically, the guy had said that if the mom had aborted her fetus, we’d all be applauding her choice.  But to me, there’s a world of difference between abortion and murder.

I was going to just leave it at that, but several more men chimed in about how abortion is akin to murder.  They had awful things to say about the women who choose abortion.  I started thinking about all of my friends, single moms, who don’t get any support from the fathers of their children.  I thought about my friends who have struggled through the physical, emotional, and financial demands of pregnancy.  I thought about the women who died during childbirth or were even artificially kept alive after having collapsed from a medical condition while pregnant, basically being used as a vessel and referred to as a “host”.  I thought of all the girls– still children– who get pregnant due to rape or incest and are forced to give birth even though they were barely out of babyhood themselves.  It pissed me off. 

So I responded that I don’t think men should have a right to an opinion about abortion, since it doesn’t directly affect them.  That’s pretty much all I wrote, although I will admit to referring to “pro-life drivel”, because that’s pretty much what it is.  I simply don’t believe men have any right dictating that women must remain pregnant on their say so.  Especially since so few of them really care that much about supporting women or babies or even social programs that would help them get by if their partners don’t stick around.  If they do support social programs, they tend to be religious based programs that promote their conservative ideologies.

A woman who gets pregnant out of wedlock might be called all kinds of insulting names with people making terrible assumptions about her character.  If she decides she wants to have an abortion, for whatever reason, some people will try to shame or bully her, but they won’t offer her any help, other than to suggest giving the baby up for adoption.  And it’s not their health or life on the line, is it?

I think it’s very offensive to compare abortion to the murder of a person who has already been born.  If any of those guys had the opportunity to either save a child or a petri dish full of embryos, they would likely choose the child, right?  The embryos have the potential to become a living person, if the right conditions are met.  The child has already survived birth and therefore has personhood.  An embryo doesn’t have personhood; it has the potential for personhood.  It doesn’t seem right to me to consider an embryo’s rights over its mother’s, especially when we can’t even offer mothers affordable, accessible medical care.

Anyway, I made that post a few days ago and had pretty much forgotten about it until someone asked me to PM them some information about apartments Bill and I found in France.  I took a look at my filtered messages and found this:

Poor Jason.  He can’t handle a woman with opinions.  Maybe I should have sent him a thumbs up to make him feel better?

Now let’s dissect this message.  I don’t know Jason and Jason doesn’t know me.  I did not specifically call him out in my comments.  I did say that I don’t really care about the opinions of men who want to force women to be pregnant, since they aren’t the ones who will be dealing with the consequences of pregnancy.  But I didn’t directly insult Jason, nor did I invite him to “die”, publicly or privately.

He called me a “fat murderous cunt”, with the word “cunt” all in capital letters.  He didn’t call me ugly.  He didn’t call me stupid.  He called me fat.  For the record, it doesn’t bother me that he called me fat, since I am  admittedly pretty fat.  However, I don’t think he could necessarily tell that by my profile picture.  He probably only wrote it because there’s a false perception among men that that’s currently the worst thing you can say to a woman.  Personally, I think a person can be both fat and beautiful, but then I’m open-minded like that.

I don’t think I’m a cunt, though, and I’m certainly not murderous.  I have never killed anyone, nor have I ever had an abortion.  I probably wouldn’t choose to have one, even if I managed to get pregnant at my age.  I would probably only consider abortion if the fetus I was carrying had severe medical problems that would make giving birth crueler than having an abortion.  Oh… and it’s likely I would abort a fetus that was conceived due to rape, even though I recognize that it wouldn’t be the fetus’s fault.  But even in that circumstance, I couldn’t say I would definitely have an abortion.  It would depend on how I felt.

I do think it’s odd that someone who is apparently pro-life would invite me to “go die”.  What does he mean by that?  Does he want me to commit suicide?  It seems counterintuitive for a pro-life person to tell someone to “go die”.  If you feel so strongly about protecting the unborn, why wouldn’t you feel similarly about those who managed to be born?  Do these men have some sort of pregnancy fetish?  Do they like unborn fetuses because they can’t express opinions?  Why are these men more invested in the lives of the unborn than they are people who have been born?  And… here’s another question.  How many special needs babies have Jason and his ilk adopted?  How many needy pregnant women have they supported?  Do they vote for politicians who support the needs of women and children, so that choosing life over abortion would be more feasible for them?

Immediately calling a woman you don’t know a “fat cunt” says a whole about your attitude toward women.  Why would I want to bring an innocent baby into a world where so many men feel free to use such filthy, misogynistic language toward women they don’t even know?  Why would I even want a man like Jason within a hundred feet of an innocent baby?  He clearly doesn’t recognize that I was once myself someone’s unborn baby.  Would he have defended the unborn me, even though he apparently wants the born me to “go die”?  Jason may not like my opinions about abortion, but that doesn’t give him the right to try to debase me with abusive language.  

I am tired of reading outraged comments from men about abortion.  Men do not directly have to face abortion.  They don’t have to face pregnancy or any of the major life upheavals that can come from pregnancy.  Therefore, in my view, when it comes to abortions, they shouldn’t have a vote.  Now, once the baby is born, then hell yes– they have equal rights.  But until that fetus turns into a live baby outside of the womb, then no.  It’s not their body.  It’s not their health.  It’s not their business.  If stating that makes me a fat murderous CUNT, so be it.

Would Jason really like it if I did “go die”?  How would he know?  He wouldn’t, because we don’t know each other, just like he doesn’t know the vast majority of women who are contemplating having abortions.  It’s none of his business, just like my life or death is none of his business.  I’m puzzled as to why my comments inflamed him so much that he felt compelled to swear at me in a private message using the most vulgar terms possible.  Did it make him feel better to do that?  Especially since it took me three days to find it?  Does he want the world to be full of pro-life people who continually reproduce?  Does he just want meek, submissive, docile women to populate the world with more people who will never have all they need?  

He probably says the same thing to all the women who turn down his advances, and I’ll bet more than a few of them have.  He seems to have the personality of a pissed off rattlesnake, which probably affects his love life.  His mommy obviously never taught him to respect women, which in turn, probably means that he doesn’t get the chance to spread his seed very often.  He’s just a pathetic example of a man.  I’m glad I have Bill around to remind me that there are real men out there who can handle and even love a fat murderous cunt like me.   

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communication, psychology, safety, social media

Repost: Reach out and touch someone…

I’m having issues coming up with a compelling topic today, so here’s a repost from the original Overeducated Housewife blog. It was posted April 25, 2018, and appears here mostly as/is.

Back in the 70s and 80s, AT&T had a very successful ad campaign, complete with a memorable jingle.  It was called “reach out and touch someone.”  If you were around during that time, you’d hear lots of cultural references to that campaign.  For instance, I remember in the 1985 film, National Lampoon’s European Vacation, the character Audrey misses her boyfriend in the States.  She tearfully sings, “Reach out, reach out and touch someone.  Reach out, call up and just say ‘hi’…”

For some reason, that ad campaign was on my mind this morning.  I actually went looking for the ad that was on the brain.  I didn’t find the one I was looking for, but I did find one from 1984 that I had long ago forgotten.

“Hey, Peeper!”

It wasn’t so long ago that communicating with people who didn’t live near you meant sending a letter or calling them long distance.  We had no email, Facebook, Skype, or cell phones.  Sometimes, I think I’m lucky I got to live in a world without those modern conveniences.  Hell, sometimes I feel lucky that I experienced what it’s like not to have electricity or hot water.  I won’t say it was the most pleasant thing in the world, especially since I don’t actually enjoy roughing it.  I will say that I know I can survive it.

Sometimes, I think all of the conveniences we have for communication have actually made communication more difficult.  I spend a lot more time alone today than I used to before the Internet. I don’t have to go out to see anyone.  I can sit at home and type on my computer, post on my blog, put pictures on Facebook… and get into some really ridiculous arguments that are ultimately pointless and aggravating.

On the other hand, if it weren’t for social media, I would have less reason to write.  I get inspired by it almost every day.  Maybe instead of writing blogs, I might be doing something else with my time.

Speaking of reaching out and touching someone…  yesterday, someone shared the below post.

Some guys are hunters, and they aren’t hunting game.

This post reminded me a lot of a story I read in one of the local Facebook groups.  A father was upset because his daughter was being harassed by a man as she was trying to walk home on post.  Most everyone was supportive of the man’s anger.  But there was one guy who questioned the father’s story and gave him a hard time about it.  

Later, I noticed the guy, who had been so unsympathetic to the man who was posting about his daughter’s harassment, had a very disdainful attitude toward women.  I had a run in with him myself.  I almost wonder if he’s the type of man who hangs out on message boards like the one above.  I noticed a lot of the guy’s posts gave off a misogynistic vibe.  He’s probably the kind of guy who enjoys scaring women as they’re trying to walk home.

I almost wonder if there is an “instinct” in some people– males especially.  They enjoy stalking and hunting animals.  Maybe some feel the same about women, for whatever reason.  They like unnerving them; it gives them a charge.  Some people enjoy the feeling of power they get intimidating other people, even innocent people who are just going on about their lives.  At least now, people who are stalking and harassing others run the risk of being photographed, videoed, or having the police called on them.  So maybe for that reason, the advent of cell phones and the Internet was a good thing.

I guess the moral of this post is… “Reach out and touch someone… but only with your words.”  Otherwise, you might be labeled a creeper.  Unfortunately, Facebook is full of people who are a little off kilter.  In fact, a college friend told me last night that one of my Facebook friends, a guy I don’t know offline, was “stalking” her.  The guy does have a habit of excessive PMing that is very annoying.  He mostly leaves me alone now and my friend has him blocked.  But it does make me wonder about some people.  The Internet makes it easier for everyone to reach out and touch someone… and sometimes in places they don’t want to be touched.

ETA: The guy who was harassing my friend in 2018 eventually got pissed off and blocked me, because I unfriended him during the pandemic (2020). He kept sharing inflammatory political bullshit that I found upsetting. If he’d been an actual friend, he would have understood that the constant stream of politics was causing distress. Instead, he just got really mad and hit the block button. Suits me fine. I don’t miss him, or his off kilter behavior.

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