Sometimes it’s good to sift the chaff from the wheat.  This one’s about the chaff.

My un-favorite things:

My #1 these days is those TV ads that play across the bottom half of the screen during the programs or movies.  Getting more and more aggressive.  Sometimes even mistaken as part of the movie plot!  I refuse to read or watch them.  Did you ever buy something because you saw it there?  I think not.

The cardboard pull-tabs on cardboard boxes that don’t work and break as you pull them.  I know, pull slower.  But sometimes that doesn’t work either.

People who interrupt.  It’s simple, really.  Listen to the other guy.  Pretend you’re really interested in what he has to say.  Let ‘em finish.  It’s a sure sign of a whopping big ego.

TV news commentators who have taken the above to a sad art form.  For me, it’s an immediate change of channel.

The American penchant to put someone up on a pedestal, then to immediately begin trying to knock them off.  Make up your mind, folks.

Telephone ad interruptions.  We get as many as 15 a day now and no end in sight.  About my house mortgage (I don’t own a house), my car warrantee (I don’t own a car) and numerous other things I have absolutely no interest in.  There oughta be a law.

The line at the post office.  The U.S. Postal System must really be taking a bath nowadays with the internet and email.  You’d think they would work a little harder to make the customer happy.

Epson ink cartridges.  Who are they kiddin’?  There’s no ink in there.  Think Canon.

People who steal my favorite pens.  How dare you.  It’s called stealing.

Violence in movies.  OK, it’s gone waaaaay too far now.  Simply boring. No longer impactful in so many cases.  You’d think Hollywood would figure this out.

Speaking of Hollywood…  What is it with our American culture that our movie stars are our heroes, our nobility?  What’s with this celebrity craze we’re going through?  Are we so dumb to think that actors who play noble parts are therefore noble themselves?  The great American confusion.

I used to get paid to beta test for a software company.  Then they decided not to pay me, but instead just offered me their new product early.  But then since the product didn’t work so well I stopped being a beta tester.  I want a product that works.  Now these companies just put the product out on the market before they’re ready and let the public do the beta testing.  The other day I called a company whose product was faulty and they wanted me to pay them for tech help.  A strange reversal going on here.  “I’m mad as hell an’ I’m not gonna take it anymore!”

Telephones.  We’re now so far out on the cutting edge with telephones – they take your picture, they go on line, they buy your groceries, they wake you up, they stir your soup – but, unfortunately, they no longer work as telephones.  You used to be able to hear the other person when they spoke.  You used to be able to make it through calls with out being cut off.  Granted, they’re cheaper.  But they ain’t better.

My bank and the way they have to protect my debit card in so many ways now from fraud, stealing, pilfering and theft that I basically can’t use it myself anymore.  I went to Brazil.  It wouldn’t work.  I went to Cape Town.  It wouldn’t work.  I went to Macy’s.  It wouldn’t work!  And the money was in the bank.  But I couldn’t use it because I was being protected.

Staples.  Give me paper clips any day.  Staples drive me crazy.

Oh dear…  I’ve just demonstrated clearly why we’re in the business of all things inspirational.  Because there’s just too much of the above.  More than anything, more than any time, the world around us needs to be inspired, inspired to think more deeply, to be more considerate, sensitive and giving.  Complaining aside, let’s focus on what works.  Identify the problem, yes, but then move on and demonstrate the healing.

This is the purpose of Watchfire Music – to be a trusted destination for all things inspirational centered around music.  I don’t know if I can solve all the above complaints, but I do know that I must rise above them in my life and focus beyond if I’m to hold on to my sanity.  I do know that I must lift my frazzled thought up and beyond the banalities of these limitations.  I do know that these are my problems to solve and that I, alone, must solve them for myself.  It is my job to overcome.

Think I’ll go listen to a little music.