Oh dang. I was trying to pop open my BelleBlogs seatmate...or whatever you call the guy who's next to you in a web ring...now she's moved...okay, it's this one: Mots de mon Coeur.
She was complaining about someone leaving psycho comments on her comments--well, I realized I'd left something out under the "irrelevant" post below.
The thing is this. Those...people...I was talking about...they never host their own "shite." They expect you to host it.
At first...in the dewy nascent days of the Net...there was this concept of "freedom of speech." i.e. that's what these people always claim. That it's your...(unpaid, mysterious) job to pay for hosting, domain, database, labor and promotion...to host their shite.
Okay there was some slight element of truth to it, before. Hosting before was free at times. Even some decent CGI hosting was free, before.
But, those days are gone.
I was going to leave a comment saying not to bother with it. It is simply a matter of deleting the...shite...I'm trying to think of a better word... And blocking the...psycho.
Are there not better terms out there for these things? We call the psychos "trolls" on Internet forums, and the shite "troll posts." But troll is so generic. Troll can mean a lot of things...and these people...simply get better and better at trolling.
But, they'll never get good at hosting their own hostility. That belongs under the reasons why it's irrelevant.
July 21, 2004
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
10:57 PM (Pacific)
I suppose I'm putting too much thought into it.
It's just that I have noticed it as an Internet phenomenon. Not that it doesn't exist in real life, of course. The difference is that the people who, ah, hate for a living, are much more concentrated on the Internet. They find each other.
At the end of the day, it's irrelevant. I would say I was surprised at first. It took me a long time to digest it. Now I've written to other people and I find it is everywhere. These same people.
These are the people who would have written anonymous letters or made anonymous telephone calls. In real life they might meet, oh, a few people like themselves. On the Internet, they meet lots and lots of people like themselves. Somehow they all end up on the Net.
Why is it irrelevant? Well, the Net hasn't played itself out yet.
For some examples, look at radio, television, cinema, or, going back further, printed books and paintings.
Each medium, in the beginning, needed creative, intellectual, even brilliant people to get it started. So at first, the investors, or sponsors, or what have you--the money people--let these brilliant people do whatever they wanted.
Starting with paintings, you had many eras of brilliant painters. Then it fizzled out. Painting became accepted as a valid form of art; there was no need to seek out and bankroll those brilliant people anymore.
Next, writing. Again there were many eras of incredible, unbelievably talented writers. But now, what is there to read? Hasn't it boiled down to mediocrity?
Radio...The Goon Show. What's on radio now? In the U.S. it all belongs to ClearChannel. It's pleasant enough, the same way those ordinary paintings and novels are. But the thrill is gone.
Television...that is where you had the Golden Age of Television, with, say, Ernie Kovacs or Jackie Gleason or Imogene Coca or Sid Caesar.
Early cinema: Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, Mae West, The Three Stooges.
Okay so now you have the Internet. It's still open. Yes, someday it will also dwindle down to Microsoft...pap. Like all the previous examples, there will still be good stuff around. You'll just have to look a lot harder for it.
As long as it's still open, then, there is no reason to spend time on these imbeciles. I know it. There's work to be done.
It has occurred to me that--as they say--everyone is good at something--well, what some people are good at, is hating.
They're really very good at it. They spend all day doing it, apparently. To them, it's a fine art...oh, the way writing, painting, etc. are to other people. They look forward to hating. If they have no one to hate, they will look around to find someone.
It used to bother me. I don't know why, exactly. I think it has to do with having a Catholic background. It's a sin to be like that.
But what if you don't believe in sin? I don't mean heaven or hell. I don't believe in those things. I do believe in right and wrong. If it's wrong, it's wrong. I may not believe in God overly much but I know that God is not a fool.
I am not breathing. I am ordering a refurbished Pocket PC off the HP site.
At first I was nervous...I know nothing about PDA's...but, about an hour later, after having my cookie cracked about a dozen times trying to order it, it all feels quite familiar now.
Before I ramble on, here's a coupon code for $10 off $50 at HP shopping: SV3425
I think it expires 8/6/2004. I'm too chicken to pop open another browser window and find out...I'm mid-cookie at ordering this dang thing.
Okayyyyyyyyy...so far so goooooood...wa'...the little colored bar at the bottom of the page is scrolling...whew.
There were quite a few other coupon codes btw...this was the only one I could use.
It's kind of like the cheap vegetable peeler/cheap can opener theory. The cheap versions of these are better than the expensive ones... We just got one of those ten-dollar toasters. We have a much fancier one...four slots...and two of the slots won't pop up.
I was running an applet that I'd written...years ago. Poor Java. It's a great language but not for the Net.
Anyhow this applet writes some HTML pages, based on some data in a text file. I made it an applet simply because it was convenient (i.e. get some other applet code you wrote, change a few things around, etc.).
I should get back into writing applets. I got discouraged actually since IE is so...poor at running them.
Actually I should finish the Code Guide. Ugh. I'm so bored.
July 15, 2004
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
10:08 PM (Pacific)
How come he don't come and PLP with me
Down at the meter no more?
...He sure has acquired this kinda cool and inspired sort
of jazz when he walks...
Heh heh...I remember when it was a very big deal to get a lyric sheet with an album. Because if there wasn't one, then you had no real way of knowing what the words to the song were, unless you saw them published somewhere. Now you can just Google it all.
Downstairs at Danny's All Star Joint
They got a juke box that goes doit, doit...
Cecil gives me coffee
And he won't never take my coin
I said, "I got thirty dollars in my pocket!
Whatchoo doin'?"
I holler "Come on, Cecil, take a dollar!
Come on, Cecil, take a ten!
I've finally geared up into a whole bunch of big ones
And you're acting like I'm down-shiftin'"
July 14, 2004
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
6:05 PM (Pacific)
A quiet day today, just me and my daughter.
I got some yard work done...mostly trimming. Everything needed trimming.
I do realize that I'm not painting an accurate portrait of what it's like to be a stay-at-home-mom. If you read my blog, you'd have no clue what that was like.
So...it involves...laundry. Lots and lots and lots and lots of laundry.
Before, I could do the laundry once per week. Just the old man's clothes, my clothes, sheets and towels, yadda yadda...
Now I do it practically every day. A full load. That means I'm usually at some point in the laundry cycle at all times.
It's irritating in a purely psychological way. I mean it's not strenuous work, what with having a washer and dryer at home. It's robot work, that's all. Robots can and should do it.
I'm at the point now where I can...actually...clean house once per week. But keep in mind my younger kid is five years old. So that would be at least five solid years of not being able to do that (somehow one kid never creates the sheer, mind-boggling volume of mess that two do).
I feel basically as if I never stopped working. I just stopped getting paid for my work. I work for room and board and for the privilege (in the U.S. it is a privilege) of raising my own kids, rather than having them raised institutionally.
I am very, very lucky. I'm knocking wood furiously but my kids are healthy and they're here.
My son learned to talk late...as in, he didn't talk at all for the first three years of his life. To the non-parent, that doesn't sound like a big deal. But to the parent...you do not want your child classified as autistic. Autistic means endless expense and heartache and stress and worry.
Changing diapers for five years straight...starting with one kid, then doing another three years with the other, made it five years...it is still harder for me to clean the house than it was before I had the kids. I never minded getting my hands dirty before. Now it is hard for me, it still bothers me.
You can't force kids to train. Some train early. Most imo don't. They train because they have to, then have a bunch of accidents. It still involves cleaning...I let my kids train when they were ready.
I have never regretted having both kids. They're wonderful. I was never happy in my life before I had my kids, I didn't know what that was like. Now, no matter what happens, I am never really unhappy. I look forward to seeing them.
There is a link there to an illustrated Smiths site.
July 13, 2004
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
3:32 PM (Pacific)
Well I went out today with my gloves, trowel, bucket and trap...let's see what happens.
I have read up some on pocket gophers over the years...it seems that only a few of them, can destroy your yard. i.e. it looks as if there are hundreds of them there but it's really only one or two.
July 12, 2004
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
4:39 PM (Pacific)
I looked around today for fresh gopher holes in the yard...there weren't any.
Not that I've gotten all of the gophers...I got only one, but I think I knocked out the biggest, baddest gopher in the yard.
I'm not flying down to Home Depot to stock up on plants yet. My next move will be to try out a bulb garden. Gophers don't seem to like bulbs. They've eaten our alliums but have never touched our lilies, daffodils, irises, etc.
It's a little hard for me to plan such a garden. I lived in apartments for most of my life; I had no yard. So I'm starting from scratch.
I have some crocus, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips and asiatic lilies picked out. Expensive...but...? What if it works? That'll be the only way we'll have flowers in that yard without having to stress that some gopher is going to destroy them.
It also has to do with my kids. It is important that they have a yard, with lots of flowers in it.
I'm still shaking my head...can't believe I actually got one.
July 8, 2004
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
1:03 PM (Pacific)
whew! I am actually almost finished with the site overhaul.
I'm still working on the Code Guide. Most of it consists of applets, if you can believe it.
I'm also redoing some of my old Josephine's Fans of the Beauty Boards Page. I haven't decided whether to continue with that site or not. It was one of my first sites, it has sentimental value to me...but it would make more logical sense to transfer whatever features I do want to update--cosmetic look-alikes, eye looks by eye color--to LP somehow.
How about that Michael Moore? sigh What a system we have.
Thirty years ago, it would not have been a big deal to make a protest film of any sort. It would not have even been an issue. It would have been routine.
Now only one guy makes a protest film?
I realize I haven't written much about our political system. It's not that I don't care or don't have opinions. I suppose it's because I'm inside it to the point that I don't realize that people outside of it, can't make heads nor tails out of it.
I think people outside the U.S. think Bush is, well, a crackpot, and they're fervently hoping that Kerry will win the election.
The problem is not Bush, or not entirely Bush. It is easy to stick everything to Bush. But it is our system that put Bush in power in the first place.
Okay who is running for President? Bush and Kerry?
There is Ralph Nader. You never hear about Ralph Nader. You would not even know he was running, if you were inside the U.S. He's seldom televised or even mentioned as a candidate.
The Republicans and the Democrats, get their money from the same sources. Unless we have other choices, there cannot be that vast a difference between the two parties.
It is like two merchants pretending to fight with each other, then after you buy something, they split the money.
What happened to Howard Dean? It was ridiculous. He had a legitimate lead in the race--up until the moment it went out of the hands of the Internet, and into the hands of television.
Dean was crucified on television. Not because there was a scandal or any dirt on Dean. He was made a fool of on television. And we, the American people...we bought it. We knocked him out of the race.
So there is not much choice for people who don't fall under the heading of "conservative."
There is Ralph Nader. I like Ralph Nader. I think he has brought at least a little bit of interest to what would otherwise be the world's most boring election. But voting for Nader...? Nader can't win.
There is John Kerry. It is hard to espouse the virtues of Kerry. To me he's conservative...more conservative than, say, John McCain or other moderate Republicans.
Then there is Bush. Bush is Bush. You already know if you're going to vote for Bush.
Can't Lou Dobbs run for President?
July 3, 2004
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
10:01 AM (Pacific)
Poor Graham Norton.
He really is a very funny guy. "So Graham Norton," the English show, is a freewheeling talk show that keeps you laughing out loud the whole time.
"The Graham Norton Effect" though--the American show--feels...restricted. As if he has to watch what he's saying. I suppose we always were more puritanical.
Still "The Graham Norton Effect" is funny and I hope the show goes on.
July 2, 2004
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
5:03 PM (Pacific)
It is interesting how, even though you quit smoking, you never actually quit smoking.
I haven't smoked since...I can't remember. I had quit before I got pregnant the first time in 1996. I'm really trying to remember. I started in 1986. I started quitting some time in the early to mid 90's. Not cold turkey, just cutting back and cutting back and cutting back until finally I stopped.
It didn't bother me to quit. By that time, I already disliked the habit. I just didn't like the idea of dying of smoke-related diseases.
The craving itself, that has never left me. It is not that I want to smoke anymore, exactly. I can't see going out and buying a pack of cigarettes. If there were a pack in the house, I still don't see getting it out and smoking.
It is just really odd, I don't know why I still see myself smoking. Part of it has to come from everyone smoking when I was a kid. Kids smoked when I was a kid. Virginia is the tobacco heartland, so nobody bothered you if you wanted to buy cigarettes "for your parents."
I shouldn't be. I haven't finished redoing the site. I just finished Tech, HTML for the Clueless. Meh. And I just found another blog...a good one...where I could not see the entire page.
It's a nifty blog, with real-world experiences...and she had the good taste to link to our LP *g* But I can't see the left-hand side of the page at all. Can't scroll to it.
I feel kinda guilty adding this blog to our list of bloggers, since I can't actually read part of it. But it is good. Oh well. Let's add it.
There, that's done.
July 1, 2004
posted by Colleen Shirazi at
9:35 AM (Pacific)
How about that Saddam?
I can't say I'm surprised, whatsoever. He knows it's the end. He knows he's out and he ain't coming back, he has lost his power and that is not coming back.
So, he's got nothing to lose, and he is not known to be particularly thin-skinned to begin with.
What's funny to me is how many real-life Saddam's there are. I'm looking at this guy...and there is so much of a microcosm in my own life.
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