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Trolls and Wit
1. Bright hot morning (okay not hot since I have air conditioning - which has apparently become a necessity in this day and age - anyone remember not having air conditioning when they were a little kid? I didn't have it in Pennsylvania when I was little - as a result we were outside most of the time, swimming and playing. Nor did I have it the first three years I was living in NYC - which resulted in the watching of a lot of really bad movies in air-conditioned movie theaters. The movie theaters were actually cheaper back then. And no this wasn't the dark ages. It was the 1990s. Well Pennsylvania may have been the dark ages...that was the 1970s. ). Anyhow, decided to pull up the old lj to check messages prior to fixing breakfast. Mainly because fixing breakfast requires standing up and I don't want to do that right now. Skipped a shower this morning for more or less the same reason. (Well that and the fact that I took a shower last night.)
And what is the first message I see when I pull up last night's post? A troll. And a nastier hairier, smellier troll you never did see. (Apparently smellier is a word?) How in the heck this troll discovered me, I've no idea. I pride myself on keeping a low profile. Wait - it may have been that post I did recently on Buffy? As much as I love fandom, it seems to attract trollish personalities like a dirty dog attracts flies. I only get troll responses when or shortly after I post about Buffy.
Except this wasn't in response to the Buffy post. Even though I did receive an anonymous response to that post - hence the linking of the two in my brain. My brain will create patterns that aren't there. What is odd is that they posted in response to a two sentence post about Falling Skies - wherein I was asking if anyone reading me was watching it, but me. Apparently this question irked the poor thing enough that they felt the overwhelming need to verbally attack me. You know you have anger management issues, if you attack someone for asking if anyone else is watching Falling Skies.
My policy regarding trolls (and after ten years on the internet you sort of do have to create a policy) is to treat the little nits like spam. You can't engage a troll. It's pointless. I used to just delete and ban - but that only works if they have a livejournal account. If it is anonymous - you can delete, but there's not much else. Good news about anonymous though is they are always screened, which means no one has to see them but the lj owner.
So I push the spam button. It makes me happy at any rate. I know a lot of my friends flock all their posts now - better protection. But I don't want to do that. Besides gives trolls too much power. I like being open to meeting new people. Besides it's only one troll. I've gotten more spam than trolls in the last year or so. One of the pluses of not being a popular journal or blogging for a living - you don't have to worry that much about trolls.
2. Reading a rather witty and charming novel by Eloise James, entitled A Kiss at Midnight. It's basically a re-telling of the Cinderella Story, except by way of Georgette Heyer and PD Wodehouse or so it seems. James has a similar wit.
No, it's not great literature, but I'm not in the mood for great literature at the moment.
Great literature requires great concentration, of which, I currently have none. Just want light and witty.
In case you haven't noticed by now, I have a dry wit. Called snark in this day and age. But
considering the fact that up until recently snark wasn't even a word in our lexicon, dry wit works. I inherited it from my father who in turn inherited it from his. I discussed my dry wit once with my father, who stated, "Yes, but you have to be careful, it doesn't always go over that well with your fellow man." (Or woman as the case may be). This is quite true. I often have to edit myself for my mother. Not everyone appreciates it. Humor is often in the
eye of the beholder. What makes one person cackle with glee, makes another bristle with outrage or so I've discovered. Good thing to remember about Humor is something I learned ages ago - it all comes from a place of pain. It is how we handle painful situations or frustrations, in order to stay sane. Somebody somewhere once said that if a joke didn't offend or make someone bristle with outrage...you weren't doing it right. Although, if no one laughs, you aren't either - there is that. Although in some cases - we tell jokes just to make ourselves laugh.
Off to make breakfast. Was interrupted mid-post by a phone call. So am hungry now.
And what is the first message I see when I pull up last night's post? A troll. And a nastier hairier, smellier troll you never did see. (Apparently smellier is a word?) How in the heck this troll discovered me, I've no idea. I pride myself on keeping a low profile. Wait - it may have been that post I did recently on Buffy? As much as I love fandom, it seems to attract trollish personalities like a dirty dog attracts flies. I only get troll responses when or shortly after I post about Buffy.
Except this wasn't in response to the Buffy post. Even though I did receive an anonymous response to that post - hence the linking of the two in my brain. My brain will create patterns that aren't there. What is odd is that they posted in response to a two sentence post about Falling Skies - wherein I was asking if anyone reading me was watching it, but me. Apparently this question irked the poor thing enough that they felt the overwhelming need to verbally attack me. You know you have anger management issues, if you attack someone for asking if anyone else is watching Falling Skies.
My policy regarding trolls (and after ten years on the internet you sort of do have to create a policy) is to treat the little nits like spam. You can't engage a troll. It's pointless. I used to just delete and ban - but that only works if they have a livejournal account. If it is anonymous - you can delete, but there's not much else. Good news about anonymous though is they are always screened, which means no one has to see them but the lj owner.
So I push the spam button. It makes me happy at any rate. I know a lot of my friends flock all their posts now - better protection. But I don't want to do that. Besides gives trolls too much power. I like being open to meeting new people. Besides it's only one troll. I've gotten more spam than trolls in the last year or so. One of the pluses of not being a popular journal or blogging for a living - you don't have to worry that much about trolls.
2. Reading a rather witty and charming novel by Eloise James, entitled A Kiss at Midnight. It's basically a re-telling of the Cinderella Story, except by way of Georgette Heyer and PD Wodehouse or so it seems. James has a similar wit.
No, it's not great literature, but I'm not in the mood for great literature at the moment.
Great literature requires great concentration, of which, I currently have none. Just want light and witty.
In case you haven't noticed by now, I have a dry wit. Called snark in this day and age. But
considering the fact that up until recently snark wasn't even a word in our lexicon, dry wit works. I inherited it from my father who in turn inherited it from his. I discussed my dry wit once with my father, who stated, "Yes, but you have to be careful, it doesn't always go over that well with your fellow man." (Or woman as the case may be). This is quite true. I often have to edit myself for my mother. Not everyone appreciates it. Humor is often in the
eye of the beholder. What makes one person cackle with glee, makes another bristle with outrage or so I've discovered. Good thing to remember about Humor is something I learned ages ago - it all comes from a place of pain. It is how we handle painful situations or frustrations, in order to stay sane. Somebody somewhere once said that if a joke didn't offend or make someone bristle with outrage...you weren't doing it right. Although, if no one laughs, you aren't either - there is that. Although in some cases - we tell jokes just to make ourselves laugh.
Off to make breakfast. Was interrupted mid-post by a phone call. So am hungry now.
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I wonder about people sometimes.
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I remember one day in July was 115. 115 here in Arizona isn't fun, but it's nothing like 115 was in humid St. Louis. Mother cooked dinner outside and we ate outside. The mosquitoes were coming out as the sun set. But no one wanted to go in because it took a long time to get the hot air out of the house with fans.
When we finally got A/C it was big window units back in the bedrooms. We had to keep the bedroom doors open so the rest of the house would get some cool. A few years later, I helped my dad tear out the old furnace in our house so they could put a new one in that included central air conditioning.
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No one in PA had air conditioning. You didn't tend to on the East Coast in the 70s..because it rarely got above 80 during the day, and was in the 70s and 60s at night.
When we moved to Kansas City - in 1978, everyone had to have A/C. And my mother told me tales of when they didn't. Although she got a sinus infection in Texas, because the air conditioning was 64 degrees and the outdoors was 100.
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You should be able to change your comments setting to block anonymous comments if you so desire.
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People!
As for Falling Skies I watched the two first seasons last year and rather enjoyed it. The writing is far from being perfect, and as much as I like Noah Wyle (my years of ER fan are showing!) they made him voice so many platitudes in many speeches that I rolled my eyes more than once, but it was balanced by the character of Pope so it remained totally watchable. Their dynamics did work well. Without Pope I would probably have given up on the show. I haven't watched the third season yet, I'm currently catching up with The Borgias, and I plan on watching The Sopranos at last!
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You haven't seen the Sopranoes? Oh you will love the Sopranoes. The Sopranoes is basically the template for Breaking Bad, Rescue Me, and all the other anti-hero series that popped up afterwards. I got bored somewhere between the second and third season, prior to a much discussed and beloved episode apparently. So I suggest you push your way through and not give up like I did. Although - the reason I gave up had more to do with the fact that I could no longer afford HBO at the time. Stopped watching Six Feet Under for the same reason.
I agree, the reason Falling Skies is watchable is Professor Mason (Noah Wyle)'s character isn't really central - we have Pope, Dan, Maggie, Hal, Ben,
Ann, Lourdes, etc. He's in about 5-10% of each episode. And his platitudes actually get made fun of or diminish as time goes on. (Also, I'm a fan of ER and Noah Wyle, if someone else was playing the role it would probably grate more, Wyle plays it with more a pseudo-humility. He doesn't come across as holier than thou - also he has Pope and Dan constantly challenging him).
It's enjoyable and well written. There's a great scene in the 3rd season between Pope, Max and one of the women Bezerkers (an excellent character whose name I forget) that is worth watching. I don't find I have a lot to say about it though. Which is admittedly odd.
Question? Is the Borgias more entertaining than the Tudors. I'm trying to watch the Tudors based on a friend's rec...and my attention keeps wandering.
It may well be that I'm not a huge fan of Jon Rhys Meyers. Not sure. Considering trying the Borgias next.
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The show improved a great deal after season 1. Season 2 and 3 have been excellent, writing-wise. It's a shame they cancelled the show. IMO it's better than Game of Thrones...
I haven't tried Tom Fontana's Borgia (starring the gay cop from The Wire, the one who was awful towards McNulty, as Rodrigo) but the European critiques weren't very good.
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Yeah, well, Game of Thrones has zombies, dragons, and dismemberment - sort of hard to beat.
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I guess there must be people just surfing the internet (or trolling, we could say?) for someone mentioning their favorite show so they can attack them? It really makes you wonder. *eyeroll*
And I also remember no a/c... in fact I don't think I ever had a/c until after I graduated from college... When I was little we slept outside a lot, in college we suck a fan in the window to try to get some air moving, but I remember how grateful I was for actually getting a window unit a/c for the very first time! Sweet relief!
There was a book about the fact that so many people died in the big Chicago heat wave of 1995 (750 people died), more than the number who died in the previous Chicago heat wave of 1936 because back then people felt safe to sleep out doors, while in 1995 they didn't even feel safe enough to open their windows!
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I went to check to see if I could ban anonymous comments then decided not too - because I probably would end up banning myself. There are days that LJ goes wonky and tells me that I'm an anonymous poster when I'm responding to a comment in my own journal. Did discover something odd though...apparently our journals are being rated and ranked - social media score and page score? I'm at 130 out of 4 million ranked. Not sure what to think of that.
I didn't have AC in my dorm in college either. Not that I remember at any rate. They have heat advisories in effect at the moment - and it is only 93 degrees.
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Air conditioning is still exotic to me. Nobody has it here. (Then again, we don't need it the way you do; I was very grateful for AC when I was in NYC at the end of May...)
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A/C is sort of necessary now in NYC. Particularly in Manhattan - there's little wind and the concrete plus cars just bakes the city, plus the air quality...yuck. Brooklyn is slightly better as is Long Island. But even in Brooklyn you need A/C because again, concrete jungle. May was actually sort of pleasant here, June's been soggy and hot.
Does Sweden get hot?
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I was there right at the end of May/early June, so it was kind of nice when I got there and baking hot as I left. By my standards, at least. It never really gets hotter than 25-30 degrees in Sweden (75-85 Fahrenheit), and even then, our cities aren't built like concrete pits with 8 million people on top of each other... :) Though when it does get really hot, you notice, since our houses are built to keep heat in during long winters and AC in private homes is, like I said, almost completely unheard of.
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While it's tempting to blame TWOPY for the emergence of trolls...they existed prior than that.
Normally it doesn't get hotter in NYC or the East Coast than 25-30 (75-85) degrees. It's odd when it does and commented on endlessly. The rest of the US looks at us like we are crazy, because they are suffering (45) 115 degrees.
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This means trolls. On the one hand - your popularity rating goes up and you get more people friending you (well until they realize that you rarely talk about what they friended you for - people really should read more of a journal prior to friending - don't friend just on one post), and you attract trolls.
I discovered this when I wrote meta on the boards. I'm not sure the same thing happens with fanfic, I think it's just meta that attracts the crazy. But I could be wrong.