• From August of 2017 until August 2018 I took a Facebook break. All that hate was just more than I could take. I thought it be interesting to make a list (extremely incomplete) of news events and personal experiences during that time. Here it is:
    • Total Eclipse of the sun and we were there
    • Hurricane Harvey in Texas
    • My brother in law, Steve Mincey, dies
    • Family members: Melissa, Phillip, Summer, Christopher are in a car crash
    • North Korea fired a ballistic missiles over Japan
    • Hurricane Irma hits Florida
    • Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
    • Las Vegas country music massacre 58 dead over 500 wounded by one insane man my age
    • Tom Petty died
    • California burned (three times)
    • Facebook splits feeds for profit
    • Puerto Rico without services months later, yet Trump gives himself an “A” for crisis management
    • Lots of sexual harassment charges and men fired
    • Spain starts to unravel, then dissolved government of Catalonia
    • Trump’s Twitter account was shut down for 11 minutes
    • Half the people in a Texas church are killed by a gunman and the other half wounded
    • Roy Moore runs for US Senate denying charges of molesting teens, then gets beaten by his Dem opponent
    • A puppy showed up at Tsegaye’s window at 3:00 am and stayed
    • I stumbled down 6 or six rows of bleachers at a basketball tournament until a young man from Konawa named Cody offered a hand and saved me from a hospital trip or worse.
    • Oklahoma government continues to demonstrate total incompetence and down-right contempt for its people
    • Trump (who calls himself a stable genius) tells 2000 lies in his first year then refers to Haiti and African nations as “shit hole” nations.
    • Three Native American girls disrupted Gov. Mary Fallon’s last state of the state address with a banner stating “State of Despair”
    • Elon Musk sent a Tesla Roadster into the asteroid belt. Don’t know why.
    • In Parkland, Florida, 17 students killed and 15 injured by AR-15 wielding by former student, but Paul Ryan said “Now is not the time…” to talk about it.
    • West Virginia teacher strike lasted nine days but they got the 5% they asked for. Sadly, that money will come from “very deep cuts” to entitlement programs.
    • Oklahoma teachers give state lawmakers an April 1 deadline to fund education and are joined by state workers. Walkout looms.
    • Facebook comes under fire for allowing malicious use of personal data by firms like Cambridge Analytica.
    • A pedestrian is hit and killed by a self driving Uber car in Arizona.
    • Tsegaye and I joined friends in “March for our Lives” in Oklahoma City.
    • Oklahoma teachers are finally so fed up with lack of funding that they walkout.
    • This book was published: Jaron Lanier’s argument for getting off Facebook https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/jaron-laniers-argument-for-getting-off-facebook
    • Eight to ten students and adults shot to death at Santa Fe High School by a seventeen year old male student. NRA worshipers double down.
    • I retired.
    • Trump finds a kindred spirit in Kim Jon Yung at a summit in Shanghai, while making enemies of all our allies.
    • Trump administration begins separating immigrant children and parents at border crossings – blames it on democrats.
    • We traveled to Tennessee where my granddaughter was dancing. Got to tour Parkin Archeological State Park, Jack Daniel Distillery, Buford Pusser’s home, Rock City, Ruby Falls, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cumberland Falls State Park, the National Corvette Museum, and South Union Shaker Village historic site.
    • July is warmest month on record for US.
    • California burns again- worse than last year.
    • Linda and I see the sights in Enid.
    • Oklahoma legalized medical marijuana.
    • School starts and I didn’t…
  • The relevance of these items are, of course, entirely subjective – one should never turn to Facebook as a news source. I’m hoping FB has improved the interface so I can filter out the politics and hate. We’ll see or it will be a short reunion. Peace, brothers and sisters!