In through the Out door

 

Woke up Monday morning and was traumatized.

In accordance with my regular routine, I put on a pot of coffee. Downed two Advil to ease my creaky joints. As well as one low dose Wellbutrin to ease my creaky grief. Then logged on to the computer to begin another week of digital seeding.

I guess I look at social media a bit different others. Though I'm sure my fellow bloggers will concur on this: blogging, posting, grooming a presence on these interweb pages is a precursor to putting food on the table. 

In other words, we're not just here for fun or breakfast pictures or nefarious narcisism. We're here to make money. Because eyeballs can turn into assignments. And assignments, if we overdeliver and bite our tongue when the feedback comes around, can lead to more assignments, aka paychecks.

Imagine my surprise and dread Monday morning, when I could not log onto Linkedin, where I have somehow accumulated more than 10,000 followers. Friends/followers/connections, I'm not clear on how any of that works. I do know being denied my platform on Linkedin could mean no work.

I was Out.

I chalked it up to synching issues with my new Mac Laptop (see Monday's post). But upon sifting through my email Junk folder, discovered once again I had run afoul of the Community Standards people. (See it's not just right wingers or anti-DEI Neanderthals who get flagged or told to "Sit Down and Shut Up")

A slight case of panic began to overtake my body. 

If denied my opportunity to share my half-baked thoughts and self promos, how would I secure new work? More importantly, how would I maintain the luxurious lifestyle to which I have become accustomed?

I quickly went through the procedures necessary to unblock myself and verified I was human being by correctly identifying the animal standing in a normal position. Then I was told to wait until the board gave my case another review.

Wait? You want me to wait?

That's not really one of my strong suits. 

So I began thinking, "How can I take this seemingly existential dilemma and turn it into an opportunity or at the very least, a positive?" I also gave pause to the calming thought, "so what if I get booted off Linkedin, I'm old. And after a lifetime of working, working, and working, I deserve some down time before the Eternal Dirt Nap."

The gloom of the morning turned into the joy of the afternoon. I got pinged by Linkedin and informed that my account had been reinstated. This allowed me to investigate the egregious offense I had been investigated for. 

Are you ready for this?

Turns out I had made a comment that had been deemed to constitute: Bullying and Harassment. Earlier in the weekend I had responded to Mr. Jeff Hills, who was responding to one of my comments with...

Jeff: Why should I listen to a Liberal idiot from California?

Whoa, them's sparring words partner. I might have been intimidated by the fact Jeff was a Vice President at some corporation. Then I remembered that I too was once a corporate Vice President. A Senior VP, at that. And a lot good that did me.

So I went to one of my reliable standby retorts, which you can see here.

For those who don't recall, our former president once challenged Rex Tillerson, the Secretary of State he chose and then fired, to an IQ Contest. 

Which is funny in a Meta kind of way. But it is doubly funny considering the mental gauntlet being laid upon the rocks is coming from the PERSON WOMAN MAN CAMERA TV guy.

That's the LEGO bit I stepped on that almost landed me in a dirty nursing home?

I certainly won't be making any political commentary again on Linkedin.

Lesson learned.

Maybe.