Play it away. Be ceremony.

Two very different shows I’ve been watching, both featuring interesting writing that also happen to provide incisive and hilarious social commentary: What We Do In The Shadows (also recommended: the film) and Los Espookys (the weakest link in which is Fred Armisen). I am watching these shows because they are great and entertainment is wonderful, and also because I am trying to become a better and more effective writer.

It’s been another hell week of misinformation and psy-ops on Twitter (and Facebook, but I don’t go there anymore) and a thing that stands out every time is the defensiveness.

If you think you are too smart, too progressive, too knowledgeable, too much of a good well-meaning person to be manipulated online, I regret to inform you that you are the perfect mark. And the reverse is true: just because you have been manipulated into doing something or sharing something does not mean that you’re an idiot or a bad person. It means you are a person. What you do next or the next time, how you react and reflect, is the thing that legitimately makes you harder to target. But not immune. None of us are immune. And all of us are being targeted.

This week I experienced my first “real” earthquake, surreally enough while reading real-time reports of another aftershock - the couch started shaking as the 7.1 rippled across California and Nevada. Out came the packing lists for the go-bags, though if and when the (Really) Big One hits no preparation in the world will help. For the smaller ones in the meantime, why take chances.