sundries

[rm]

- This is sad: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/18/van.meter.obit.ap/index.html
It will also no doubt lead to speculation that teh girl came from a high pressure home, and that childhood achievement never originates in the child and is the root of all evil.

- We have been in Iraq five years.

- Bad week: Arthur C. Clarke died. I remember, faintly, a 60 minutes thing on him as a kid, which tried t make unsavory innuendo about his personal life, which I didn't understand then and do now.

- The coverage of Obama's excellent speech yesterday has been so racist. If I see one more news item that's essentially "inside the secret, mysterious world of black churches" I'm going to scream. Black people watch CNN too! And that's the tip of that "I can't believe the shit that's coming out of your mouth" iceberg.

- This is the week short-list candidates for grad school are supposed to be notified. I increasingly suspect I will not get in, because I have a long history of understanding how people react to me and my writing. If I do get in, I also don't expect to be short-listed because the application asked what other schools I was applying to and I said none -- they aren't competing with anyone for me, so even if they like me, I expect to be near the top of the long list. But really, I think I will not get in, and I think too many people here will enjoy that. The real question is what to do if I don't get in; increasingly, I think I need the degree.

- Our See's Easter order is on the way.

- I have no idea what to do about the LJ thing. I have an insanejournal and a wordpress, and I have problems with both. Insane journal offers me the features I need but is ugly and seems isolated (truthfully, anywhere seems isolated). Wordpress feels cold and anonymous and ill-suited to how I use my bog. Staying here without paying once my account runs out isn't really viable either -- the thing works badly free, I'd have to see ads, and I don't want my content helping these fuckers make money. Meanwhile, I value my friends list highly even if you don't comment that often or I don't, and I don't see any meaningful way of maintaining that at scale if I move. It's so complicated and involves both professional issues and very personal ones.

- Fencing tonight, trains be damned.

- I will probably not be attending any of the keynotes at Terminus, because despite being told that meals will accomodate my food allergies the options are currently mix your own pasta, french toast and quiche. And no, pasta mix-ins without the pasta is not a meal. I hope they step up on this, but after Terminus, I think it's canned tuna in the hotel room again. I realize this is a normal and expected thing in my life, but NYC is so easy and my friends treat me so well, I'm not used to being left out because of my disease.

- The heap of stuff that was inappropriately living in our stairwell is gone. I saw peopel clearing it -- it was a building manager and a friend. I can't tell if the stuff belonged to the friend and that's why it was allowed to stay there so long despite being a health and safety hazard, or if they'd finally just had enough and removed it. If the stuff just got trashed, I'll be sad, because there was artwork I should have stolen in that case, but I didn't want it on my conscience or karma.

Comments

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what to do about the LJ thing

I agree with you on every point in this paragraph. Trying to explain this to people who simply will not understand is so impossible.

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

I'm in the same quandry about LJ as well. Its really eating on my brain. The features I really don't care about, its the people.

I love the community and at this point there have been people I've known for 6 or 7 years. However LJ has "jumped the shark" as a college friend put it and I'm not sure if a string of RSS feeds from various pieces of scattered software is going to cut the mustard.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

I'm right there with you on the LJ thing. I used to be impressed by the icons, but I've since stopped using LJ as much, so the icons are just...there. To be honest, I don't pick them myself 99.9% of the time. Usually whatever Firefox extension I have does that for me.

In theory, we could all go back to emailing each other. In practice, that's rather isolated as well. Another theory would be to start a newsgroup of some form (of course, that tends to leave out people like rm, people who want extras, and that's NOT an option).

I agree with the IJ seeming isolated. That's mostly why I'm not active there. No one else is.

I'd suggest a massive migration move date, but I don't feel it would be practical. A lot of people say they're going to do something, or they're willing to do something, and then they don't follow through.

[magicwoman.livejournal.com]

I agree about the coverage of Obama's speech. What are these pundits thinking (or not)? I've attended my fair share of black churches - very much like the one Obama is a member of - and I think this has been WAY overblown by the media. Last night flipping through the radio dial, I heard "left" and "right" alike ripping his speech apart. It's insane. What I heard from all the shows (I couldn't listen longer than a few minutes) showed exactly how uninformed they are about black churches in America. It's such a non-issue.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

Call me crazy, but I think having an active voice in church is the right way to worship. I go to a mostly white church (there's one black family, but they stopped coming), and everyone reads the unison paragraph (sometimes a call to worship, sometimes the paragraph that leads into the Lord's prayer) in a voice that sounds dead. If you pay attention, it's hilariously sad. The paragraph may say, "I cry out to you, Oh God! For it is you, and only you who can ever know what's in my heart!" or something to that effect, and the congregation reads it in a dead, monotone type of voice. I'm sitting there all "WTF??! You're supposed to be dramatic in this recital! You're supposed to be genuinely crying out to God! You're supposed to be genuinely finding comfort in God!"

I've never *been* to a black church, but from the stereotypical things I've seen on TV, it's okay to be *HAPPY* and emotive in a black church. It's okay to take God's "Rejoice in the Lord" phrase at face value (as opposed to "rejoicing" in the Lord by staying still, and staring at the pastor).

I went to a Shabbiss (it's late, I'm tired, I don't recall the correct English-ized spelling of this word. I'm guessing RM knows, since NYC has a bigger Jewish influence/population than Rochester does) service once, and I liked how at the end there was a Q/A thing. It mostly had something to do with the Torah and keeping track of history that's currently in the making (Darfur, perhaps? Not sure, I can't really remember. Did I mention it was late? No, I don't know why I'm commenting on LJ now, when LJ will obviously still be here in the morning, when I'm much more coherent). I liked it because I was able to answer the pastor's questions.

I'm a big hater of the rhetorical questions in sermons, and an even bigger hater of said questions existing in a lecture. I mean, I know some of the questions are things we're supposed to ask ourselves, but I've always wanted the "floor" (so to speak) to be open for discussion (I guess that's what bible study is for).

[rm.livejournal.com]

Shabbos is the accepted spelling. Since you're not dealing with an English-language or Roman-alphabet word, there's some room for variation, I'd imagine, but Shabbos is what you're looking for.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

Thanks =) I totally wish I lived in NYC and could get that kind of education (I suppose I could move to Brighton, but it wouldn't be the same).

Random: Is it hard for you to sleep at night, or do you get used to sleeping through all the noise?

[rm.livejournal.com]

It is hard for me to sleep in totally quiet places. I find the noises that houses make in the night terrifying, because I have never lived in a house and I don't know what they mean.

Our apartment is in teh back of our building, which minimizes the street noise and it is quieter here than when I lived in the East Village, for which I am glad. Biggest issue is car alarms, which do wake me and do drive me nuts, and a few odd species of birds that ldrive us crazy and are loud in the mornings (there's also a confused owl that hoots from 7am - 10am every day and a cat in heat that yowls all night and I sometimes post about as Mystery Cat Howls at Mightnight). Osscassionally I'll hear a car crash or some sort of domestic drama (there was a lesbian breakup across the courtyard involving clothes being thrown out windows last summer), but the main noise problem is during the day in the summer, when music that I can only describe as Mexican Polka is often blasted on the street and in backyards so loud that up here on the fourth flor, I can't hear my own music or watch TV without it as a soundtrack.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

Do you have a link to an example of what Mexican Polka sounds like?

[rm.livejournal.com]

No. I mean, no idea. I don't know watch it actually is. Mariachi music I guess, but less good, more electronic.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

So techno then? How electronic is electronic? Is it something like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iczqb3sF4Hs)?

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Echoes, except I will probably still be posting on Friday.

A large part of it is about getting my "issues/things/ideas" on the table and I to me that's more important than a strike I'm not sure is going to have the "critical mass" to be effective.

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

I won't be posting Friday. Not because I'm actively protesting, but mostly because I probably won't have anything to say (I think I've written 2 or 3 LJ entries within the last month. That's it. When you think about it, I boycott better than you all! Well, once you ignore my commenting on other people's entries, that is).

[alabastard.livejournal.com]

I hope you stay. LJ never really disappoints me anymore because I fully expect them to act like the faceless corporations out to make a buck that they are. For now I simply use their service to keep in touch with a large group of wonderful people. They will continue to be pricks I am sure, but there really is no better option at the time.

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

I share your LJ quandary.

I really believe it's going to get worse here - but this is Home.

I'm curious about the idea of Elsejournal, and I do already have an IJ account, and a barely used DeadJournal; migrating content and doing cross-posting is on my list of things to do; but...*helpless shrug* My brain is screaming 'get out', and my heart is saying 'nononono'.

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Important note: I have enjoyed getting to know you through your LJ and I think your loss here would be a shame.

I hope you stay.

[mobobocita.livejournal.com]

If you don't get into the grad school, why not just apply somewhere else? Or is it a specific program you need?

As for LJ....I'm a permanent account. I'm not going anywhere. I find their actions horrible lately, but it is my home, it is where I've connected to so many people and lived through some really hard moments. I'd hate to throw that away. If you go, I'll miss you.

Does Terminus just not understand your issues? O_o I'd think in this day and age, it wouldn't be so complex!

[rm.livejournal.com]

I think Terminus views accomodating me as good, and doesn't see the nuance in a good accomodation.

[tdanaher.livejournal.com]

Thanks to Obama's perspective, I'm coming to see LJ as the racist grandmother who says and does inappropriate and even repulsive things, but people still live with her, eat the dinners she cooks and refuse to leave her house and move out on their own, because they have to honor the fact that Grandma LJ introduced them to online journaling and the ability to form a community around one's own thoughts, and sacrificed her own time and money to give them free bandwidth and server space to distribute and store that content for years and years. Grandma LJ isn't doing things to make herself beloved and is even becoming a liability, but she's family, so what do you do.

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

On the LJ thing, while I'm still inclined to see mass migration as the way to go, I agree that there are desirable things here that you won't find elsewhere.

So I also continue to say to one and all: Firefox. With NoScript and Adblock Plus. People should really be running NoScript anyway as a basic precaution -- there is malicious scripting out there, and plenty of it -- but it also puts a stake through the heart of virtually all ad serving that Adblock hasn't already gotten rid of. Why let SUP decide what you see, when you can have all that lovely control yourself?

[ithinkitisayit.livejournal.com]

1) NoScript is pretty much nagware, in my book. But that's mostly due to the massive amounts of websites that now use code that NoScript is harassing me about protecting me against. Or, at least, it was, until I got tired of its nagging and uninstalled it. If I get a virus, I get a virus. If I get spyware, I get spyware. I've got 2 or 3 spyware scanners, so I'm good, I figure. If not, I don't really care anyways, since I'm not revealing anything worth stealing from me (such as a credit card, social security number, debit card, debit account, etc.). Most of what I do on the computer doesn't even involve payment of any form (the sole joy of having no money!).

I do have to give my SS# through the computer at work (well, I did once), and I'm rather leery about that, considering that the manger just clicks "OK" on whatever pops up, without reading it (which, hey, I can't blame him, but DUDE! that computer has MY personal information on it! I'd prefer a fuckload of security and precaution with MY information, mkay? If you want to have your own identity stolen, have fun. Me? I'd rather my identity remain to myself only).

As for Adblock Plus, Element Hiding Helper is an awesome plugin for AdBlock Plus! You can use it to select the ads that AdBlock Plus seems to be unable to hide (things like certain frames, text ads, etc).

totally unsolicited comment from a perfect stranger

[eqfe.livejournal.com]

"I increasingly suspect I will not get in, because I have a long history of understanding how people react to me and my writing."
WTF you are an intelligent woman, obviously possess great writing talent, and you are writing about how the entrance committtee will react to your application. Should one write an application (and that is what attached portfolios of any kind are) in such a manner as to gain admittance. None of my business at all, just felt compelled to comment.

[rahalia.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

Just FYI, InsaneJournal does have one relatively nice new site scheme, called Worksafe (Sidebar). I've been using it for a while over there now and it's very similar to LJ's old Dystopia scheme. You can set your theme here (http://www.insanejournal.com/manage/siteopts.bml).

[placate-me.livejournal.com]

Just tell me where to keep up with you if you let LJ go. I've already let my paid account go but I still read daily.

I haven't had time to comment much as I've been working now that the strike is over. I'm doing ATWT again.

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

Please don't commercials and mass crassness, bad business practices and what might be some unscrupulous issues bring you down. Especially when the community sense of it all still exists.

When they finally start charging for the community part? I think most people would bolt for wherever.

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

I can't believe we've actually been in Iraq for five years.

I think I'll stay on LJ, but stop paying for my account. It's been a long time since I've had a free account, so I don't know how bad it'll be. But all my friends are here, and I do have an insanejournal but nobody on my flist there seems to actually update much. Unfortunately no matter how much LJ management may suck or piss people off, the critical mass still seems to be here.