She Ain't What She Use To Be

 For unknown reasons, the other day I was messing around with Twitter or X or as I call it- Elon's Money Pit.  I'm not sure what I was doing, but I don't have fun on there anymore.  I've been on there for 16 years and throughout the years I've changed course a few times on my account.  When I started it was strictly to follow news accounts, mostly local news.  I figured it was good to get news fast that way.  Soon after though I started connecting with a few people on there and I expanded my uses for it.  Then I got into card collecting and started following card collectors and giveaway pages.  I also for a while admittedly was clout chasing.  Not really to become famous but to gain some followers enough so at least a few of my tweets would be reposted or quoted.  I then started to move away from the card collecting stuff and then covid happened and then people I use to talk to on there moved on.  Now I still have some people I talk to back and forth, but its not the same.  I hardly post more then links to a new blog post, retweets of something that pops up on my timeline, or just a rant about something.  What use to be multiple tweets a day has become 3-5 a month.  I don't miss posting, but I do miss finding substance on there.  Instead I get reports of politics which I long ago abhorred, reports on K-pop, which I never was interested in, and lately bitcoin and stock market news, which while I'm not against seeing stock prices, I own neither stocks or bitcoin, and no plans to.  Additionally I have no desire to find out about either on the Money Pit.  So these days I'll see wrestling news, which as a fan I'm not against, but also tried not to become strictly a wrestling twitter account.  I will also see sports news, but most is stuff I don't care about (which is easy since my sports consumption has dwindled a lot the last few years).  So at times I wonder why I stick around.  The answer is... I guess its still a source of finding information, and a chance to quickly riff or rant about something if I want to.  So much like Facebook, I'll keep it just to still have it in case as opposed to use it daily.

While looking around though, I found a link where I can download my archive.  What I wanted was an archive of my tweets maybe.  So I decided to do it.  A day or two later I got the link to download it and it was less than a GB of data, but it wasn't what I expected.  Instead of texts of tweets, it was images of videos and images I either posted or retweeted throughout the years and javascript files or other files of tweets.  Maybe I can snuff out the tweets, but I might just get bored one day to look at them on the site instead of going through those files.  However not all was lost because I was looking at the images and it gave me an idea of a post- My Twitter history through history.  Not the most exciting, but its something.  So that's what I'll do today.

Before I begin I inquired with Grok to define what my twitter account is all about.  I've done it a few times before, and each time it was fairly accurate though suffers from recency bias, but usually somewhat funny.  So here is what I just asked for and here was Grok's response:

The first part is accurate, I'm from Mid-Missouri, and blog.  Local History is mainly from my town's 150th anniversary a couple years ago, but I'm not against the connection.  I do collect trading cards, though not as much recently.  Next I take a bit of umbrage with Grok because while my most recent tweet was critiquing repetitive song lyrics, I wasn't trying to be humorous.  I was upset hearing songs on the radio that repeats the same line over and over.  I hear the song Unstoppable from Sia, where she say "I'm Unstoppable" like 30 times in a row.  Pink's song "Try" she say "gotta get up and try, try, try" for about 45 seconds in a row.  I've noticed this a lot in the last year, and it irks me.  It's not a recent thing because even Michael Jackson did it on Wanna Be Starting Something.

This clocks in over a minute of the song.  It drives me nuts.  I guess I like song-writers, especially ones who are also story tellers.  If you repeat a line 2-3 times at the end, I can deal with that.  If you repeat the chorus 4 times throughout the song-fine.  But repeating the same lines multiple times in a row usually at the end of the song or even in the chorus is just bad songwriting.  I can allow it somewhat in dance songs because the whole point is to make you dance and not care much about the lyrics.  "I Like To Move It Move It" isn't a song written to be a masterpiece.  Fatboy Slim's "The Rockafeller Skank" is another.  Its electronic and not supposed to elicit complex feelings from the lyrics.  Maybe Michael's song could fit in that category, but a minute of the same lines?  At least make a radio edit cutting it down to maybe 15 secods or so.  Anyways, I was not being humorous that day and the song in question was The Police's song "I Can't Stand Losing You".  I actually use to like the song.  Maybe because its doesn't seem to get repeated airplay so hearing it once a week isn't too bad unlike Roxanne which might come on 2-3 times a day.  Anyway's here are the lyrics to "I Can't Stand Losing You".

That's not the chorus, or part of the song.  That's the lyrics to the entire song.  There are 19 lines in that song, one of which is repeated 25 times.  I can't explain it, but hearing it on the radio I start to lose it...and I can't, I can't, I can't stand losing...... BLAST YOU STING!

As for the rest of Grok's description, as you can see my blog has a heavy influence on my tweets because it references my Wayback Files posts.  I also mentions my tweets about the Chiefs which will ramp up soon likely as football season starts.  The Napoleon Dynamite reference is because I was somewhat live-tweeting Napoleon Dynamite on the 4th of July.  Sometimes I'll do that when I've seen a movie a lot and want to have a little fun with it.  That was an actual tweet I posted so Grok does actually look at the tweets.

Anyways.... I think I derailed this post because of song lyrics, but I'll try to move on.  So after I sifted though all the videos and pictures I posted or retweeted on Twitter, I figured I'd show some off.  Some are humorous, others might be sad, some just a relic in the time it happened.  But I'll explain some of them and others probably won't need explanation.

The first one is the first image it says I posted.  That may be true but I must not have posted pictures and videos much the first few years.  Sometimes I would think of something and quickly try to make it and post it.  This one I thought was funny and made with MS Paint.  BTW, I'm not expanding these much but if you click on them you might get a bigger picture.  I'm sure I made the Playoffs one, only because I didn't upload videos, and just used the image and meme'd it.  I had an app that could make meme's easily and would often do that.  I also created the What Is A Ute on which I always say when Utah football games are on.  I also created the That escalated quickly one which was during the 2014 Royals playoff run.  I think 2013-2014 was when my picture and videos started picking up.  Before that they were few and far between.  I have made similar ones to the glue sniffing one but may not have done that one.

I just happened to retweet the Family Circus and Word of the Day ones because I thought they were funny (and I still do, though one may not be too pc).

For a time I would listen to a good comedian named Spanky Brown.  He had a radio show which was basically a live podcast that was done on the internet and for a while actually was on a radio station or two.  He got with a couple other comedians and friends and would chat mostly sports stuff and other celeb news, but it seemed different than other shows that did the same.  Anyways using the meme maker, I would create meme's for their show and so here are a few.

I would mainly use clips of TV shows and movies and put some variation of The Spanky Brown Show on it.  Some may seem a bit over the line (like OJ), and without knowing the show White Folk Music Wednesday would too.  However that was a day they'd play music that as they described "Black folk ain't listening to this stuff", and they'd take requests.  It was actually quite funny and occasionally they'd argue over if a song really qualifies or not "I know plenty of black folk blasting this song".  What I always liked was that he would always thank me whenever he would use the images I created.  I don't think they probably gained him more listeners, but I had time and it was fun to do.

I didn't create the top one.  That was his show's logo for most if not all of his run.  I did create the next two, the Starbucks one was around the time of the cup controversy and he really seemed to like that one.  The second was I think something they started on the show and it kind of got into a collaboration.  They were talking about how they have the ribbons for all kinds of causes and they thought it would be funny to make up some of their own.  This was one of them they did and I created the meme for them.  I think I did 1-2 others but this was the only one I could find.

In 2014 after hearing and communicating with him for 5 years I finally got to meet Spanky Brown, when he performed at a local comedy club.  It was during the Royals World Series run, and might have even been during one of the games.  He joked a bit about that with me.  He was a big sports fan and a fan of the Dallas Cowboys and Memphis sports.  With us is another comedian (his opener for the night) and a good friend of his Greg Henderson.  Greg is also real funny and would be on the show if not all the time quite a bit.  I still get Facebook posts from Greg as he still goes on the road doing standup.

The last picture is one that was quite sad.  It was posted on a few twitter accounts and was one of the worst tweets I saw.  Greg Henderson later told a bit too.  On May 11th, 2018 Spanky Brown passed away.  He was on the road set for a weekend set of shows and he died I think of a heart attack.  Greg recounted on his Facebook that they would talk to each other every day, and on that day he had called him before he went on stage and Spanky didn't answer.  He figured it might have been a time zone difference and he was already on stage or something and didn't think much of it.  He found out the next day he had passed.  Comedy clubs and radio stations from all over sent out condolences, even the Bob & Tom show which Spanky frequented a few times.  7 years later and at times when something goes on in the sports world or news in general, how Spanky would make a joke about it.  A few years prior another comedian named Tim Wilson passed away and I think the same about him.  Spanky once talked about Tim Wilson, and it seemed like they were somewhat similar in terms of comedians although they didn't look or sound like they would.  I miss Byron Yeldell very much and when he passed it almost seemed like that might have been when Twitter started to become less fun.

Another loss I took quite personal was Terez Paylor.  Terez spent many years covering the Kansas City Chiefs, and was a good sportswriter.  His sudden passing in 2021 just really shocked me.  Terez would also tweet about wrestling from time to time, and he is one of a few I would sometimes tweet out that had a level of notoriety (besides Spanky).  He was very nice and usually replies when I'd tweet him, and from all accounts one of the nicest people anybody ever met had the chance to know.  Somedays just randomly I think about people like Spanky or Terez and just get sad they are no longer around.

Not everything is sad on Twitter, and sometimes I even show my face on there.  I mean I'm not like Marshmello and hide my face, but I don't like posting it online too much.  My profile pic doesn't even show me.  Here were a few times though I showed myself.  The top one is Christian recording artist Rachael Lampa.  I met her at a show in a nearby town, and I told her to make a funny face.  She was very nice and I've always liked her music, so it was fun to not only see her but meet her.  My friend took the next photo, back when we would go to a lot of Mizzou games.  Since I wear glasses I don't wear sunglasses much if at all but those were a giveaway item we got entering the stadium or nearby and it was a fun photo.  I still have those cheap plastic sunglasses too.  The next one was must be 2014.  My friend went to San Diego and went across the border into Mexico and he got me a wrestling mask.  I have a fat head, so I can't wear it much, but time to time I put it on.  This occasion was during the 2014 or 2015 Royals playoff run.

The next one is an old one pre-Twitter days back in 2005.  I met Harley Race, Mick Foley, and Terry Funk on the same day, yet the only one I have a photo with is Terry Funk.  He's another guy I randomly wish was still around.  It's been just past 2 years since he's passed and I still think of him.

I forgot the year on the cereal picture but it was the first time I tried Mahome's Magic Crunch cereal.  It wasn't a bad cereal, though it was a bit more sugary than I was use to.  I wouldn't buy it again (though actually I did) but it was good to try once.  The last picture is maybe 2016 or so, and its with Chiefs superfan X Factor.  In recent years its come to light he's not the nicest person and some people have issues with him (I forgot what specifically, not criminal I don't think but more of being a jerk), but at the time I was happy to get a picture with him.  I don't regret it now, but its nice to have a photo.

Sometimes I just retweet funny stuff or at least stuff I think is funny.  I didn't create any of those except the last one.  I liked using the Sweet Brown meme a lot for stuff, but this one might be my favorite.  The donut one above it is a T-shirt I have from the Woot shirt site.  I have a few shirts from them, but this might be my favorite.  The rest of them I don't really remember but looking back I still chuckled so I decided to keep them.

I had like 600 images and videos and I kept just shy of 150 so most didn't make the cut.  I'm not sure what I'll even do with some of these, but figured I'd keep them for now.

Sometimes I even showed off cards.  Some were real, others were customs I created.  Aside from the Paulo Orlando and Chuckie Jones custom cards I have all the other cards.  I still don't have much info on the softball one aside that it was a set honoring stamps or something.  I won a couple Twitter giveaways one of which was that Cal Ripken rookie.  It was fun but at the same time, I still never got into the card twitter aspect like others did.  That's not to say I didn't and still don't enjoy card bloggers on there.  In fact I still follow quite a few on there.  I like seeing tweets from Billy at Cardboard History because he has a lot of stuff related to racing.

Another giveaway I won on Twitter was this Funko signed by Gabriel Iglesias aka Fluffy. He does a lot of giveaways and after a couple years I finally won one.  What I liked most was not only did I win, but it was also basically a normal one.  He has a lot of different variations from hot sauce ones, mexican wrestling ones to more but this is the one I like most.  It is the first and still only Funko I own, and I'm not upset with that.  I don't like most Funko designs but a rare few I do.  I have my eye out for a few and still have 5 or so protectors for them if I ever get them.

A few more things I found on Twitter I may not have seen elsewhere and ones I decided to keep.

Here's a few more before I wrap things up.

A few more creations.  I liked to make Trump themed songs.  For better or worse, I guess.  Now when I get bored with songs on the radio sometimes I imagine Trump singing them.  I end up ruining the songs, but at least they are songs always on and were pretty much ruined anyways.

The papercut one is recent and it did happen to me while at Walmart a few months back.  The Too Short one I just thought was funny.  He had a song called "Can't Stop Rapping" and I listened to it and thought I would google search it knowing the answer.

I even have a few videos or GIFs to show.  Not sure how this will work because I hardly do videos but the top one is the first pitch at a Royals game a few years ago, as Ryan Lefebvre says, I'm not sure if that's the best or the worst first pitch ever.

The second on is from Liar Liar and I think I used it in reference to Rashee Rice of the Chiefs.

This is one of my favorite SNL commercials they ever did.  I actually just saw it on the ROAR channel the other day.  It was for Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor.  "You might know my wife, the pancake lady".  Tracy Morgan was so funny in the sketch and so was Tim Meadows.  "Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor has a 95% alcohol content, and that's per volume"  Which Tim Meadows rightfully asks "What the hell does that mean?"  I just laugh everytime.  To see the full video here it is on reddit.

Uncle Jemima

At this point I guess I'll wrap things up.  Maybe I'll do a part two but there's not much else to show.  Maybe one day I'll do a followup.  I'm seriously thinking of either scrubbing my account or starting a new one but I'm not sure.  I'm not worried about losing the followers or anything but at the same time I do have some celebs that follow me.  Johnny Damon, Paul Abdul, Fluffy, Sgt. Slaughter, and Susan Bennett (the original voice of Siri) among others.  Some just randomly followed me, others I might have begged.  Maybe I'll keep it and just start a new account from scratch just to see if I want to keep it.  I just want the algorithm to not skew too much into a direction I either don't care about or to a point it oversaturates my viewing.

I hope you enjoyed this post, it was a bit fun to go through my archive.  I don't think I can do the same for facebook because I don't post randomness as much and I also scrubbed a lot of that a couple years ago.  Thank you all for reading and hope you have a great week.  I'm not sure what my plans are yet but I still have some projects to do and the weather is tolerable so I can do outdoor stuff if I choose to.  Thanks for reading.