Clickbait and Adbait

Public Service Announcement: The following words and phrases may actually make me LESS likely to click on your link:

• This will blow your mind
• What happened next? 
• I gasped.
• I'm SPEECHLESS
• actually, almost anything in ALL CAPS
• Lots of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Shocking
• Spread this absolutely everywhere! 
• vague comments like "he said THIS" or "THIS happened"
• using pronouns rather than specifying the person 
• Like if...
• Share if...
• Retweet/Re-post/Reblog if...
• One like/share = one prayer
• Like = ________, Comment =_______, Share = ________
• Like to show respect
• anything that tries to guilt me into clicking, liking or sharing
• Jesus says that if you deny me before men, I will deny you before God
• anything implying I am heartless if I don't click, like, comment or share
• Share this in 30 seconds or something terrible will happen
• Sadly, only 12% will share this. It should be 100%.
• anything that definitively predicts the public's reaction to this post, stating specific percentages
• This weird trick
• #25 made me react strongly (fall over laughing, pee my pants, throw something out the window, etc.)
• Excessive foul language
• Bad grammar or spelling
• anything that counts the number of words someone used to make their point
• Watch this person SHUT DOWN their political opponent
• This person sent their political opponent packing, or did anything else to defeat them (the article or video in question is often about someone making a comment that expressed disagreement, but in no way sent anyone packing, and is sometimes not even true)
• Is there room for me on your wall? (accompanied by a picture of Jesus)

If I do click on your link, the following might cause me to leave the page quickly:

• Constantly having to click "next"
• Excessive ads, especially if I can't scroll without accidentally clicking on one
• Deceptive ads that have arrows that look like a "next" button
• Ads that completely cover the screen, blocking what I'm trying to read
• Ads with videos that auto play
• Music on your web page that auto plays (even if there are no ads)
• Pages that force me to watch a video (usually an ad) before allowing me to progress to what is on the page

Note: I have nothing against ads, per se (after all, I have ads on this blog), but I do have a problem with people abusing them.

Tom Jamieson

Following is the eulogy I wrote for my uncle Tom, who passed away of a heart attack last month. His sisters and my aunt helped me with some of the details. A shorter version was printed in the program, but this is the full eulogy. 

Tom Jamieson was born to John and Helen Irene Jamieson on June 24, 1955 in Omaha, Nebraska. He attended grade school at St. Cecilia's, followed by high school at Creighton Prep. His dad died when he was 12. Tom got a scholarship when he started high school, and he worked his way through to pay tuition. After graduating high school in 1973, he attended the University of Nebraska Omaha for about a year and got a job at the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute. He got married and moved to Seattle in 1977. That marriage only lasted about three years, but his move would start a new chapter in his life.

He worked at Doctor's Hospital in Seattle, which would merge with Swedish. It was there that he met a beautiful young woman. The third time they randomly ran into each other, he joked, "If we don't stop meeting like this, we're going to have to get married." They must have kept meeting like that, because Tom started dating Lois in 1981. They were married in 1984, and their daughter Darcy came along five years later.

After working at Swedish, Tom worked 11 years at Washington Natural Gas, followed by 14 years at Microsoft.

In recent years, he has been active in politics, and he has visited the City Council regularly (much to the chagrin of some of his political opponents). He was the Republican Chair of Washington State's 32nd District, and a Precinct Committee Officer.

Tom and Lois cared for Lois' father Ken Loge until his death in May 2015. Inspired by his father-in-law, Tom started walking regularly, up to six miles a day. Tom and Lois spent what they could not know would be their last summer together walking, going on bike rides, and even sailing on the whale boat where Darcy works.

Tom loved chess, and he won a championship at the age of 16. He was talented in several areas of art. He loved to draw, and he taught himself to play the piano. As a political activist, he made several cartoon videos to illustrate his points.

He was a deep thinker, and was proud of his membership in Mensa, for people with high IQs. He was an excellent writer and researcher, and was always eager to learn more. He had a quick wit and a caring heart.

Following a massive heart attack and a week in the hospital, Tom passed away peacefully. He is survived by his wife Lois and daughter Darcy, his siblings Holly, John, Mary and Kate, and 40 nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents and his brother Bill.