Technostress

To whomever keeps searching for “mummification” over on Planet SOMA: please stop. You’re giving me the willies…

This may be a quick posting, since my internet connection has been all but useless for the better part of five days now. It’s been ugly, I’m not sure if it’s an ISP or a phone company issue, and I’m tremendously frustrated. But I’m working on it…

I’m also working on a migration of sorts, and this one is ISP-related. Most of my sites will be moving to a new server on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. I’ll try to keep it as transparent as possible, but things don’t always work the way they’re supposed to. One word of warning: those of you who have been accessing any of my sites through long-outdated “best.com” addresses will no loner be able to do so in a few days…

Now I’m going to bed, so I can get up and get the hell out of the neighborhood early tomorrow morning, thus avoiding the annoying spectacle on Folsom Street…

Rude and Entitled Assholes

As much as I rant and talk about idiots, there are some things I would never do, mainly because I have a decent upbringing, which instilled in me a basic respect for other people’s feelings.

One of the things I would never do is to go into someone’s personal website and send him a message that his site (or he) is boring and useless and bland. The idea of intentionally hurting the feelings of someone just because he runs his own website and I don’t like the content (or his life) is just completely foreign to me. What right do I have to criticize someone’s free content, which I was not forced to read, particularly when the whole point of the site is to be a journal or expresssion of his thoughts?

It would be different if I were arguing about an issue. But unless the website in question has a message so repulsive that it’s designed to provoke a response (a Klansman’s personal site, for example), I usually respond either with praise or not at all. I limit my personal attacks to people with really offensive messages and to public figures.

I would never include a link which said “look at this stupid guy’s web journal” despite all the inane material availble online. Why bother? That person is saying what he wants to say, and no one’s forcing me to read it. He probably isn’t aiming his content at me anyway. To write him and say “your life sucks” or “write about someting interesting” is just plain rude; it shows ill-breeding and a complete lack of respect for other people in general.

And then there are the sorts who write to me, say about this site, and offer comments like “I can’t believe you didn’t include Joe’s Market in Passaic. How could you do such sloppy work?” I sometimes invite these people to go fuck themselves with the neon from Joe’s sign. More frequently, I ask them to provide the URL of THEIR great, well-researched body of work and I also offer a gentle reminder that I have a life, and that only a certain portion of it is actually dedicated to providing them with free entertainment. Funny, but they rarely respond.

These things roll off me pretty easily; I’ve been dealing with idiots and assholes for years, my all-time favorite being the one who informed me somewhat forcefully that I needed to stop including pictures of myself where I happened to be smoking. Imagine my response. But I’m always amazed at the sheer audacity of someone trying to tell me what I ought or oughtn’t say in my own web journal, particularly since they’re often too chickenshit to include a valid return address.

End of Irony?

End of irony my ass. There are plenty of irritants around who deserve ridicule on a daily basis. A tragedy of epic proportions has occurred, but just because it happens to be a completely inappropriate target doesn’t mean we have to ignore all the unrelated, lesser idiots of the world and move en masse to the freakin’ little house on the prarie…

A sense of humor, when appropriately focused, is a very useful thing to have in times of crisis. And I don’t own a damned thing in gingham…

Chris Matthews Must Shut Up

Cool. We’ve got a good old-fashioned storm going on here. It’s rare enough to get thunder and lightning in San Francisco, but to get it with a rare September rain is just sort of making my night.

It’s making me forget all about having met Windoze 2000 face to face for the first time this afternoon. After throwing things around the office and uttering (screaming?) profanities I’d forgotten I knew, it was nice to come home and hug my Mac.

It’s also diverting my attention from Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Does anyone else think he just needs to shut the hell up? He’s loud and obnoxious, but I could almost stand that if he weren’t such a miserably rude interviewer. He’s the sort who asks a question and, as soon as the interviewee opens his mouth to answer, asks another one on a completely unrelated topic. And then he complains about not getting an answer.

He’s just awful, and it’s even sadder that he’s usually hosting an interview/panel show. In an hour-long show, you can be assured of at least 45 minutes of his annoying voice. Chris really needs to move past journalistic masturbation and actually listen to someone else once in a while.

Class

Interesting documentary on class in America on KQED tonight. You know. America’s dirty little secret? That our classless society really isn’t? It was actually well-done and presented some valid arguments from both sides of this war we’re not officially having.

I was drawn to the guy who mentioned that, every time he sees a $60,000 car drive by, he wonders “what was that about?” Hit it right on the head for me. Is a $60,000 car really three times better than a $20,000 car or four times better than a $15,000 car? How much of that purchase price is primarily about the driver making a statement that says “Look at me. I can afford a $60,000 car!”

I don’t think it’s necessarily prejudice against the wealthy to look at this guy and his car and determine that we probably wouldn’t get along. It’s not that the guy is rich that bothers me. It’s the fact that his priorities and values suggest that blowing that much money on a car is a good idea. This says to me that we probably wouldn’t have that much in common.

I realize that very few wealthy people wake up in the morning wondering “how can I trample the working class today?” I also realize that too few wealthy people (and poor people, as it happens) walk around thinking how they can show respect for other people.

Also mentioned, though, was the idea of “getting above your raising”. This one, like flaunting your wealth and questionable priorities, is a disturbing class affectation, but one exhibited by the poorer classes. It’s sort of a disincentive for anyone who strives for something better, or even different. I’ve seen this one at work too, although not dramatically, and more from a geographic standpoint than an economic one.

The idea is that if you dare “abandon your roots” and try to move on to something (or someplace) which might be more suitable to your personality, you may find that family (and even some friends) back home don’t know or care how to react to you anymore. It’s not that they don’t understand your new life so much as they don’t even acknowledge that you might actually HAVE one. They don’t want to know about it, and they don’t really want to have much to do with you because you’re some sort of traitor for leaving a place which is so obviously perfect for you (because it’s perfect for them).

I’ve gotten some of this attitude from a few family members, it’s strange because I think I’m considerably less snobbish about my southern roots and surroundings now than I was when I actually lived there.

Another interesting, if a bit obvious, subject was the way class identity is largely established in high school, but that’s a subject for another time. I’m babbling and it’s time to go to bed…