We can be pulled into the vortex of the online universe, even by the non-concrete sphere of this blogging world. More than a few people, however, will be cunning enough to render this hemisphere tangible; the cleverest of whom will carry the stealthy purpose of making a buck out of you, if not now, hopefully in some near future.
What happens when a Freshly-Pressed God gets wind of your misgivings about him? Panic ensues. After all, Mr. Nice Guy image must be preserved; even though his demeanour in private correspondence compared to his online persona has the difference between night and day. So bullying follows – with it a threat.
I don’t like being bullied nor threatened.
Now it makes me wonder, how does Mr. Freshly-Pressed God plan to pulverize me?
Let me ponder on the possible ways:
- Maybe he’s planning to bring out his bazooka from the basement of his charming house in Canada and aim it at me all the way here. I bet he watched the movie “Wanted” where a bullet could bend and zigzag like crazy before reaching its target miles away.
- Or maybe toughboy aims to knock me out by swinging his arms ala Manny Pacquiao. Ok, c’mon granpa, hit me with your best shot. Surely your 58-year-old fists still pack a wallop. Hoosh huk huk. Oouch….that hurts. Happy now, señor?
- Or Maybe he’d ask the WPress office to send hail on my site instead of snowfall right this very minute – to annihilate and bury down all my posts. There goes my blog then. Kaput.
- Or maybe he’s planning to broadcast what a schnook of a writer I am who releases the soggiest, schmaltziest romantic essays. But everybody already knows that, including my cats Coby and Bodie.
- Probably, too, he works for the CIA and would pass on to all the embassies in the world I used to be a visiting showgirl for OBin Laden during his exile in Pakistan. OMG, so I am a suspected terrorist now?! That will surely be a problem as I plan to tour Zimbabwe soon.
- Or, it’s more likely he’d be sending his flying band of die-hard followers who’d each bonk me on the head because I made the “mistake” of questioning their Freshly-Pressed god’s sincerity and real objective. All 13,000 of them! Just imagine.
I guess I’m doomed….
Seriously now, I am simply tired of blogging politics, not to mention how most WPress writers handle the false sense of superiority and superstardom blogging fame accords them. It’s appalling when EGOs that have ballooned as big as CHICAGO cause Freshly Pressed Senior Citizens, I mean Freshly Pressed Gods to turn cockier and grumpier.
I started abstaining from email exchanges with any blogger pals several months ago, after the consecutive demise of my email “friendships” with two highly excellent writers in their late 50s (well, I figured then there’s a lot of wisdom to cull from these older folks – Boy, was I dead wrong). I just lost interest. Three years ago when I kick-started this blog, I was a schlemiel who hardly knew anything about relating with residents of the blogosphere. My lack of writing skills, in addition, resulted to my generation of lame and third-rate posts with the substantial understanding nobody would bother to read them anyway. Unknowingly, zero readership and my inferior blogging facility rendered me an easy target. Male bloggers of a certain age know who to mark on by going over one’s past entries and assessing how malleable, unstable, or vulnerable they are. The first blogger – who instigated an email friendship with me – wrote long, beautiful letters that entertained me for three months. The cyberworld, however, does not inform its inhabitants enough about each other so…. But he has already apologized – and my heart isn’t made of stone.
Mr. Freshly Pressed god, who initiated my 2nd e-mail camaraderie, is a lot cleverer and, in my opinion, more pernicious. At first I was impressed he didn’t badger me that I send him photos wearing my birthday suit. Little did I know he was gunning for something else. The motive would stay carefully hidden; his execution smooth and subtle. The Mr. Clean projection has already been laid out in his blog. Now it’s clearer to me why he usually fixes on old pliable women who make up the majority of his so-called “friends.” He’d insist he sincerely wanted a pure, real blog and email friendship with you; fake a modicum of concern for your welfare; pretend he does read your entries – despite dropping forced, obligatory, lacklustre comments on your blog. You’ll stay on his special networking list – as long as you don’t make it obvious you are nurturing an ascetic soul and are completely useless to him. He eventually found that out about me and extricated himself swiftly barely five weeks after a personal loss hit me a year ago. Not a single friendly note whatsoever from him for months on end. Then came his surprising missive of “concern” last November – one week before launching his new product of greeting cards. Unbelievable.
I am actually relieved the bogus association with Mr. Freshly Pressed God has finally ended. I want to put that unpleasant episode of my bloglife behind me. There’s really nothing wrong with cultivating a livelihood through blogging means. It’s just that I don’t want to have anything to do mixing this art with money. More emphatically, I’ve no plan to dole out my little hard-earned dough to anyone out here. My November post of 2012 had tried to impart that. https://justmarj.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/november-babe-musings-random-ruminations-about-blogging-and-a-nondescript-existence. I thought he understood its essence at the time.
My life story has been shamelessly spread out through the pages of this blog. It may seem I’ve lost my halo and wings and have fallen from the sky, but I was never an angel to begin with. I never pretended I was. Still, I don’t think I deserved Mr. Freshly Pressed god’s conduct towards me for the promotion of his own ends.
Perhaps it wouldn’t have come to this sorry ending if he had been upfront about his true intentions in the beginning. He could have forgotten a few bloggers aren’t so dumb as not to know networking is on no account synonymous with the fostering of genuine friendships.
And I guess I just don’t take well to threats and bullying, too. Unless not a whit did I come to care – ever. What a fool I’ve been.
Bohemian Sentiments 
Okay…. sounds like someone has a bone to pick in the new year!
You have a Birthday Suit? Cool! I usually just wear jeans and a tee-shirt to my birthdays.
When I was much younger, I heard jokes about sex symbols wearing their “birthday suits” every now and then. My English was limited at the time so I truly thought it’s some special kind of tiny clothing worn by someone on their natal day. 🙂
There are “swaddling clothes” so why not a “birth day suit”?
Some people are so slimy. I am sorry you had this experience but I am glad that you recognized this person’s falsehood for what it was. And I am proud of you for standing up for yourself! Fuck that guy!
PTFT, oh how I love you, dear friend of mine.
This reminds me of Ragnorak the twilight of the Gods. Well it also reminds me of the short story by Borges called Ragnorak:
It all began with a suspicion that the Gods did not know how to talk. Centuries of fell and fugitive life had atrophied the human element in them; the moon of Islam and the cross of Rome had been implacable with these outlaws. Very low foreheads, yellow teeth, stringy mulatto or Chinese moustaches and thick bestial lips showed the degeneracy of the Olympian lineage. Their clothing corresponded not to a decorous poverty but rather to the sinister luxury of the gambling houses and brothels of the Bajo. A carnation bled crimson in a lapel and the bulge of a knife was outlined beneath a close-fitting jacket. Suddenly we sensed that they were playing their last card, that they were cunning, ignorant and cruel like old beasts of prey and that, if we let ourselves be overcome by fear or piety, they would finally destroy us.
We took out our heavy revolvers (all of a sudden there were revolvers in the dream) and joyfully killed the Gods.
great post !
😀 Dave, your comment is even greater and much awesome than my post.
I didn’t want to kind of drag any of my other (blogger) friends into this so I tried to remain uncommunicative to them before publishing this post. You know me – I just have to somehow express what I think and feel inside.
My broadband is expiring any minute now. I’ll get back to you this weekend.
I’m sorry to hear this has happened to you. I hope you won’t let it keep you from writing. People can be unpredictable. I had an email correspondence with an old friend, it turned strange, though I don’t know why, but that guy continues to stalk me. It’s very traumatic. I am sorry you experience this betrayal. To me it is aabout regret. I thought we were friends, but the guy fell off the wagon mentally. For months I blamed myself for emailing with him, we had a common traumatic past experience, and I’d never been able to discuss it with anyone. So it was just horrible when he turned on me, calling me the most vile names, searching my blog with profane words associated to major themes on my old blog. It’s been over two years and he still drops me mean and obscure emails. So… This is to say, I am sorry and also to say I think I partially understand. You’re right about this place being a prime hunting ground for abusers and users. Thankfully u still have great folks following you who care about you. I honestly think the freshly pressed thing is highly over-rated.
I’m saddened by your experience with that guy who fell off the mental wagon. Sometimes, we feel glad thinking we’ve found true friends – in spite of our abstract realm here – who do care about us. It’s crushing to discern the reality, especially in my case, I am not special enough or have nothing to offer to merit some people’s friendship.
My episode with Freshly Pressed God had been hurtful because its inception came at a time when I was smarting from my fall-out with the first blogger. I was way too happy a blogger God like him would even pay attention to me that I overlooked the fact he might have had an axe to grind. His sudden abandonment during my most trying times was painful because I thought we were friends and would understand what I was going through. I repeatedly apologized for things I imagined to have offended him, commented on his blog posts to please him – although we let the email correspondence between us become a thing of the past. Until the message from him last November that made me realize what the “connection” was really all about.
He eventually removed me from his blogroll because of my silence. He also sensed his shtick and everything about his continuing agenda had worn me out.
Not to mention, of course, how totally useless I am to him now.
Even in my real world here, I walk away from fellowships in which we constantly have to prove our usefulness to one another. It’s just not my style – and I’m glad.
Thank you for visiting and commenting, dear blogger.
I am in the process of updating my blogroll, and found a link to your blog. I apologize up front that it has been some time since I’ve visited your blog, and I’m not even sure why. Sometimes I think we get stuck visiting with the same few people over and over again, and the other conversations fade away, but I’m glad I came here today to read this post.
It is sad that you’ve had to experience such deceit and dishonesty in the blogging world, and even though there can be great connections to be made and developed between bloggers, there can also be those total jerks out there that are simply trolling for “networking purposes”. I wish there was a “drop him like a hot potato and burn his a*s on the way out” button, but alas, we are stuck having to go through the motions of figuring out who is authentic or not, and sometimes, in this world of blogging, we will get disappointed.
I once had the immense pleasure of crossing paths with someone who was a certifiable genius. The guy’s mind was just astounding to witness, and I was so hooked in the first few minutes that there was just no going back. He wrote of the tragedy that he had endured, and we shared some similarities in how we dealt with the tragedy in our lives. Carrying on a conversation with him was like entering another plane of existence. It was the most real form of expression I’ve ever been lucky enough to participate in, and yes, we transitioned from blogging platform to exchanging private emails. There was nothing even remotely romantic about our exchanges; we were simply two souls on a similar quest for survival. And then, one day out of the blue, he turned on me. Attacks and plunges straight to the heart, using information he had gained in our private conversations against me. And then he disappeared. It all happened so fast, I didn’t even have time to react. To this day, I don’t know what set him off, nor do I understand how someone I knew to be so touchingly encouraging and kind could suddenly become so violently cruel. It was a painful lesson, and it has shaped EVERY future online friendship that I’ve experienced since that time.
Again, I’m sorry that Mr. Freshly Pressed God took his turn at twisting your life into uncomfortable pretzels of confusion and pain. It all turns out to be a learning experience. Even though my own version happened more than six years ago, to this day, I swear if the guy showed up again suddenly one day, I would pick up where I left off, and all would be forgiven. Or not. I guess it would be a test of how much I’ve learned, and whether I was willing to walk away in order to avoid being hurt all over again. I hope I would. I sure hope so. But thankfully, there is little chance I’ll ever have to answer that question.
Hi! It’s feels good to have you back. Pardon me for the tiny delay in my response: I go online only on weekends these days.
I am surprised by how some bloggers, specifically the male ones, are unaware in compromising their dignity just to have their ends met. The kind of connections like the ones I mentioned above somehow dragged down my self-esteem here for a while yet I am glad I had been wise enough that neither of them got what they really wanted from me.
I get flak for being outspoken and blowing the lid off certain people’s intentions these days – as well as denials from both sides fly left and right naturally as a consequence. But I know what I’m talking about. And what one chooses to express in their blog is their prerogative. There are times I get concerned about other bloggers who fall for their pretense but it’s how the world works and I’m too tired to save anyone now.
The experience you had with your former friend is a good example of the evanescence of blogging friendships yet there’s hope we can find real connections here because our love for reading and writing is non-transience.
Your writings and comments are always abundant of wisdom and sensibility. You know I’ve valued the things you shared with me and to your other readers. I am honored and inspired by your visit once again.