Monday, October 25, 2010

Closing troll doors

It is simple and helpful and the trolls appreciate it. Less confusion and more order all around.

But how to find them? What makes a troll door?

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

In which Neil Gaiman pins down exactly the power dynamic of anonymous online ganging-up:

You know, last year, or about eight months ago, there was a point where somebody said something I thought was really tacky about me, and I posted a grumpy tweet. And people started coming in by the thousands and defending me, and a very wise friend of mine said, “Neil, that’s bullying.” And I suddenly went, “Oh, fuck, you’re right,” and deleted my tweet and apologized. And it was bullying. It was bullying because it’s not actually a level playing field. I can get angry, and if I get angry and upset, fifteen thousand people may get upset on my behalf. That’s great if you’re somebody who’s been screwed by a big company and they’ve stolen your design and I happen to tweet about it. And I wake up the next morning and it’s hitting the newspapers, and actually the company has pledged to fix it, and things are going well. My ten thousand people then expands into millions of people across the web, and that’s great. If you’re one person who posted a thoughtless or a mean or even just something that I disagreed with, and I mobilize such hordes — it’s bullying, because it’s not equal. It’s the equivalent of getting into an argument with the federal government. They win. 

Monday, October 18, 2010

$var-o-Matic

There is a Kermit's Panic List.

Two lists. Both fit on a 3x5 card.

They list fewer than eight do-able things each.

(One only has two things.)

I am going for a walk in the sunshine. Then there will be lunch.

After lunch, some cheerful list-thing-doing.

And then a dance.

Very Personal Ads: Iguanaville

In the tradition of Havi Brooks' very personal ads...

Je veux:

The front porch & back porch iguana (conjoined twin iguana?) to separate and saunter off.

(Iguana WTF? See: http://www.karenjlloyd.com/photos/InowannaIguana.jpg)

Ways this could happen:

* Just talking to Greg about it made the separation happen! Joy. We can take care of the front porch roof & combine it with the garage cleanout, freeing up time and savings to plan for the back porch over-winter. Aaah.

* There is a small cheerful list of things to do that will make the front porch very close to finished without any sort of awfulness at all.

* Paper list can go here too.

Commitments:

* I will make phone calls this week from the cheerful list of things to do.

* I will make cinnamon sugar toast for Greg and tell him it will be okay.

* This weekend will be kept free for garage-clearin'.


Je veux:

Radiators that all work and are happy and steamy (but only on the inside). This has been a hissing, fat, un-moving iguana -- quiet mostly, but kind of in the way of my feet being toasty.

Ways this could happen:

* Find a radiator repair/supply shop

* Get great advice from a radiator-smart repairperson at the shop of radiator happiness

* Get great advice from the radiator-smart handypeople on the internet

* Gather supplies and tools, put on David Bowie, and play with radiators until they are sound and tight

That sounds like an awesome afternoon, actually.

Commitments:

* Find the shop

* Let everything after that fall into place on Saturday afternoon

* Make an apple pie on Saturday morning

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Meeting with the Board

Are you aware of your "Inner Committee"? Who sits on it? In the past, when you've tried to imagine the responses of your allies and authorities, have their real responses been the way you imagined them?