Sorry to just come back around here ... I'm definitely haunted by the times I was told I could do anything. I feel like I've disappointed a whole lot of people over the years, not least my parents. I was the first but not the last in the family to go to college and end up jobless or underemployed.

Hope you're doing well!

But if you keep your heart open, new people will come along. If you live long enough, you'll start wondering if this is all a play and you're getting sent character actors to fill the same archetypical roles in your life.

Or maybe that's me. I'm a little bit crazy.

Just don't get too attached.

You'll never get back all those friendships you once had. You'll never get a do-over with that person you were too shy to ask out, unless you, and then I hope that things turn out the way your nostalgia and whimsy made you think they would.

I once wished on a falling star. It came true. Damn me.

And by "gone like the leaves," I don't mean they're dead. I mean there's no real way to find out where they are, how they're doing, or yes, if they're even alive.

All of them but Brock were just words on a screen. But I remember them just like Spring, like Lori, like Josh, all college classmates.

And that's how it feels sometimes, all these changes of platforms. I remember a Russian artist who went by Katenok (sp?). That was almost 30 years ago. I wonder if she ever got out of that country.

Jenna. Kubali. A Brit named Simone. A collaborator named Brock. All gone like leaves on the wind.

But I'm still on Facebook and Instagram. In both cases, the algorithms push away content from people I know in favor of brands. It reminds me ... as the universe expands at increasing speeds, one day, all the stars will be so far apart that the light from one will no longer ever reach the next.

I found Twitter (I refuse to use its stupid current name) and Facebook around the same time. The first was useful for finding some news articles that weren't making the Associated Press feed when I was a newspaper columnist, but I never got attached enough to Twitter to miss it. *whew*

The music podcasting days (ca. 2007-2011) also led to acquaintances and friendships that have lasted long after I put down the microphone. And I'll always be a fan of @ricpeters.bsky.social, of @rhettredelings.bsky.social, and no doubt others I haven't found here on BlueSky yet.

LiveJournal was where some of my happiest mistakes and grimmest achievements were put on the public record. I learned that the name #andrewvachss is a litmus test. #iykyk and if you do, you're probably my type of people. (Add me.)

MySpace was useful in my music podcasting days. That was a fun time.

Besides the interactions I had with people when I was building my own site out of raw HTML, the deepest and richest connections I ever made were when I used LiveJournal, before it became property of Russia.

I made friendships there that have lasted more than two decades.

Then there were Webrings -- which, again, linked pages among common themes. I created an Ex-Christian ring and once struggled with whether to include a Scientologist site that had applied. (I decided that yes, they fit, even if I didn't agree with the tenets of their religion.)

Friendster. Orkut.

Remember when GeoCities was a thing, and different sites in the same city had common themes? (Sort of like Subreddits do now, but different. You had your own site others could easily discover -- just move from 1001 to 1002 to 1050.)

Remember Tripod? I briefly hosted an atheist/agnostic "pod" there.

Yes, that would be very comforting. Maybe Tim Kaine could pop in occasionally so they could swap "dad jokes."

I don't get why Love doesn't get, well, love from the radio stations. I think I've heard them twice on Little Steven's channel on SiriusXM, maybe once on Tom Petty's. So many great songs people need to hear, but ... crickets.

(Also, your username and bio brightened my day! Great tune.)

Caligula stopped at just the one horse, though. Trump's whole staff is full of horses ... the back ends, anyway.

When Sarah Huckabee was nominated as Fuhrer Trump's press secretary, my dad shook his head. "Well, we know lying runs in the family," he said.

Thanks for detailing all ... well, part of what's wrong with the Huckster for those who don't know. Yes, he loves Israel ... in the same way I love a steak.

I miss my father, who died in April, but I'm glad he's not around to see Nov. 5 and its aftermath. He loathed Trump, but he also viewed Huckabee with disdain. We're Southerners, and Dad was on the nose when he called Huckabee a jackleg preacher.

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/j...

Who could ask for anything more?