But Seriously
My blog has recently received a criticism that I feel necessitates a response.
Note: when I write that my blog has received a criticism, what I mean is I’m choosing to focus on one criticism from the myriad of criticisms I have been inundated with. Criticisms of a variety and amount, they compel the use of the words myriad and inundate.
I have a meticulously constructed an eight-step process for dealing with criticism.
- Dismiss it initially with a forced chuckle.
- Allow it to slowly creep back into my thoughts.
- Push it to the dark recesses of my brain where it will exist as a tiny glowing ember.
- Consciously ignore the fact that the glowing ember is growing into a substantial blaze.
- Remain in a state of denial as the blaze turns into an inferno.
- Enter a state of white-hot seething rage.
- The sudden realization that I’m just being silly and I need to relax.
- The next day I drop a package in the mail to the criticizer. The package contains a colony of Crazy Stinging Amazonian Bastard Ants. The label on the package reads: shake roughly before opening.
Note: Crazy Stinging Amazonian Bastard Ants hate to be shaken; they especially hate to be shaken roughly.
What was the criticism that triggered this post?
This blog isn’t serious enough.
Ridiculous. Here are some of the serious topics this blog has tackled:
- The growing garden gnome menace.
- How to deal with unruly neighbors without leaving evidence.
- How to destroy evidence.
- The plight of our nation: the great mime scourge.
- How to remove white face paint from your hand.
Note: I am by no means advocating that anyone slap a mime in the face. Violence is wrong.
- The horror of being attacked with a dead weasel.
- The horror of being attacked with a Justin Bieber doll.
- The less horrific nature of being attacked by Justin Bieber himself.
- The ongoing feud between Justin Bieber and Beaker the Muppet.
- The embarrassment of being beaten up by a piece of felt.
- How French fries cause cancer in lab rats.
- How everything causes cancer in lab rats.
- Why it sucks to be a lab rat.
- Why bulls have names like Destroyer, The Mauler, and Widow-maker.
- Why bull-riders have names like Bucky, Earl, and that guy who used to have testicles.
- Why rodeo clowns smell like hay, manure, and quiet desperation.
- Boy bands and why badgers hate them.
- The ongoing search for the existence of Bigfoot.
- Lady Bigfoot, her breasts and the ongoing search for their existence.
- What to do if someone accuses you of being a leprechaun.
- Why crack cocaine is bad, and prompts others to accuse you of being a leprechaun.
- Why crack cocaine causes others to brandish a weapon as they make wild accusations.
- How crack cocaine can lead to your arrest.
- Why people hate raccoons and their creepy little people hands.
- The end of the world on December 12, 2012.
- Other crap the Mayans got wrong.
- Why Tom Cruise thinks we have aliens inside of us.
- Other possible titles for Katie Holmes autobiography.
- The discovery of a unicorn lair in North Korea
- Other things weird little dictators believe in.
- The correlation between great literature and monkeys throwing feces.
A veritable cornucopia of pure seriousness.
I think I’ve made my point.
Addendum
Another critic accused this blog of being almost funny. This person’s opinion almost matters.
His opinion walks right up to the edge of mattering, but just doesn’t quite get there.
His opinion sticks its toes in the ocean of mattering, but decides the water is too cold and probably filled with parasites and medical waste.
Instead of taking a nice swim, his opinion decides to go cliff diving.
The cliff diving almost goes well, but not quite.
His opinion ends its existence impaled on a jagged rock.
It’s a pity…almost.
I’m with you! I always enjoy it when someone complains about my blog in the same way. My blog title should explain to the reader what my blog is about.
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Most people complain about my blog because of the content, just the way I like it.
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I find your Blog very Serious! I learn a lot every week, very educational, better then Wiki leaks!! I know of your wrath, so I’m being very polite tonight! I have nightmare’s of bugs crawling up the side of my bed, I don’t need Crazy Amazonian Bastard Ants also! Also, I take heed to your warning about Smoking to much Crack! lol….
Oh by the way, I love Raccoons, even though I was growled at and chased one night! Maybe it was the Crack again.??
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You don’t want to mess with crack-raccoons, they’re dangerous.
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No! and I don’t want anything in the mail from you either! ha! ha! 🙂
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Can this blog please address the issue of what to do if others accuse you of being a genie? I promise you, this is not at all the same as the leprechaun issue. My friend’s daughter is convinced – without any provocation on my part, mind you – that I am a genie, and if I’m not going to beat her with a dead weasel then I just don’t know what to do.
Also, raccoons are not creepy. Their hands are the cutest bit. You’re just flat-out wrong on that one. It’s okay, I’m prepared to forgive you, if you can help me with the other thing.
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I’ll see what I can do, but only if you grant me three wishes.
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I’ll give you one wish up front, but it has to be a martini. Deal?
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I can live with that.
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As a new reader of your blog, I must respectfully disagree with your critic. Considering the crazy world we live in, it seems your blog is just serious enough.
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No ants for you.
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🙂
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Great post! I like your approach to criticism 🙂
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Of course you would say that, no ants coming your way.
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I think I have some of those Crazy Stinging Amazonian Bastard Ants lurking in my yard. Here in Florida, we simply call them fire ants. If you ever got stung by one, you’d know why. What you propose is stinging humor skillfully delivered from the vengeful comedian. 🙂
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Fire ants will work in a pinch.
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Y’know, it took me a sec to get that white-paint thing. See!? Your blog performs a valuable service!
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You have obviously never slapped a mime.
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No, I haven’t. Sort of a pacifist…
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Greetings furiend… I have a surprise fur you in my blog post tomorrow…(I purromise it doesn’t involve angry stinging ants)….. MOL!!♥
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For what it’s worth, 1. some people get off on harsh critique. They think it makes them seem smart. They are mistaken. Also, 2. I adored your response with a white-hot love that knows no bounds. And finally, 3. Mimes deserve slapping. It’s good for them. Like fiber.
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I glad you liked it. Feel free to adopt my eight step process for dealing with criticism.
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I’d like to follow your 8-step program, but I don’t know where to get Crazy Stinging Amazonian Bastard Ants. (Other than by insulting your blog, which somehow seems like a bad idea just now.)
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From the Amazon, it’s so obvious.
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Gaaah!!!
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Ah you can order them on Amazon? Critics beware!
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Martha Stewart also sells them.
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Like a BOSS
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Somebody really said that? Seriously? Well whoever said that is probably spinning in his/her grave figuratively speaking because this post killed figuratively speaking.
I had a lady take umbrage with one of my 70’s posts because she liked the 70’s as she was busy accomplishing things while I must have been sitting around on my butt.
I handled it very maturely by telling her to go away and never come back.
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She’s probably watching reruns of Starsky and Hutch right now.
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Hah!
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And macremeing a cover for her TV Guide.
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Obviously these people have no idea what they’re talking about. I read this blog BECAUSE it’s so serious.
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Exactly.
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Dis prufs yu ar idiot
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Well said.
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The person is wrong. I think your blog is very cereal.
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I was going for Fruity Pebbles.
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like 🙂
http://eenendangsarielmuhyiblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/gamis-rompi-cantik/
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And now you have seriously discouraged any comments … 😛
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I feel as though I’ve let you down. Let me send you something in the mail.
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A virus? A trojan? … I am a little paranoical, when it comes to strangers sending me something in the mail 😉
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As well you should be.
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Thank goodness my mailman will not deliver any living beings here – it is forbidden, to send animals per mail. Animal cruelty.
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Hear! Hear! Well put!
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I try my best. or I at least try to fake it really well.
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Your package of ants sounds pretty serious so it should take care of that criticism quite nicely. I commend you on your handling of it.
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I just do whatever it takes.
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You are brilliantly amusing! I love your blog!!! But I do wonder how one would determine the parentage or lack there of with regards to the Amazonian ants?
Is the mothers marital status at the time of the ants hatching a matter of public record or do you just assume their bastard status based solely on the
sheer disgruntled behaviour they demonstrate during the selection process.
I think I just answered my own question as I read up on the life cycle of an ant.
I really need to get out more.
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Since I know little about entomology or etymology, it’s difficult to say how the ants received their name. My best guess is they just had that look about them.
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MOL! LOVE it human….. I’d love to see the look on that human’s face when he gets that package of angry ants!! *(purrs)*
Shrimp
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Crazy Stinging Amazonian Bastard Ants go for the face first.
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Efficient little devil’s….
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That’s why I use them.
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MWAHHHHAAHAHAHA!!! I like the way you think, human…
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I love your writing. No criticism here. LOVE.
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You’re too kind. No ants for you.
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I love it. I’m too afraid to say anything critical… 😉
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Beware my wrath.
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I already have an ant problem, so no worries. 🙂
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But do you have a Crazy Stinging Amazonian Bastard Ant problem.
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If I say “yes” with that keep me safe from reprisal? 🙂
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You can only hope.
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Then hope I shall. 🙂
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I might adapt your eight step process for dealing with criticism. I was stopping at number seven.
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You have to go all the way.
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The blog isn’t serious enough? Hmm, given the nature of your blog’s title and sub-title, I think it’s safe to assume this is not a serious blog. Apparently who ever left that remark takes life (and blog titles) at face value and without any dash of humor.
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This was actually a criticism said directly to me.
Bob Newhart was once criticized for never doing a serious episode of his shows, so I guess I’m in good company.
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Yeah, I’d say so!
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