Re: Rants

[Robjection]

Eep! Stay safe Mappy!

[Guest]

Thanks for the thought, but I actually live in Melbourne - I just go to Sydney on business on occasion.

But it's scary, I tell ya. The office has been keeping a silent eye on the TV since coverage started. I've never seen anything like it outside of 9/11, which is the only time I've seen Australia just... grind to a halt.

[Jayce]

Well this is terrible. Sydney has always been a safe place to live for people of all different cultures. And then this happens. I travel around a lot in the Central Business District of Sydney and its busy every day of the week. I have never been in the cafe before but I have passed it a couple of times in the past. I just hope that the people being held hostage will stay safe.

Whats really frustrating is that there still isn't a way to protect people from this kinds of situations. Really wish superheroes existed right now

[Coin-op Adjutant]

The next time I hear/read "fake it until you make it" I swear I will punch a hole through the closest wall.

That mess is so played out it's not even remotely funny anymore.

Oooh, I get to add on to this:

• Just be yourself (yawn)
  
• Something something confidence something something eye contact something something body language uggggh
  
• Just stop giving a shit (yeah, I'm not sure how to go about total emotional dissociation from everything, and even if I could, I don't really think that'd be a good idea)
  

On a somewhat related note:  Finding hobbies that interest me to some degree isn't hard.  Finding hobbies involving other people that interest me enough to pursue them?  Fucking hard as hell.  Particularly when the urge to take up a hobby because it means I don't have to interact with other people is so prominent...

[Jayce]

Well fuck you, you had to come to our country and terrorise our way of life. You just had to take innocent people with you as well. I can't explain the amount of sadness I feel for those people and their families right now. It was too early for those people to go.

[Guest]

Well fuck you, you had to come to our country and terrorise our way of life. You just had to take innocent people with you as well. I can't explain the amount of sadness I feel for those people and their families right now. It was too early for those people to go.

I woke up to the news. It's terrible. Not only does it seem like he had been accessory to his wife's murder, but he also had to involve completely random people, getting two of them and himself killed in the process. An utter fool, and he's jeopardised the safety of other muslims in the country with this stunt by pulling this exactly when tensions are running high with the muslim communities.

I'm just thankful that, honestly, the only media I've seen trying to spin this sordid affair as 'terrorism' was US Fox News - 'Terror Down Under'. Ugh, go fuck yourselves.

[Guest]

[Guest]

The perfect metaphor for what it's like to be told to "just be myself" or to "be confident" in regards to le romance.

I, uh, tried a cold approach for the first time in a while. Things did not go well. I reverted within minutes to my awkward self, and then tried to counter irrationally by insulting her a few times, and then she just gave me the distinctive "god you're so pathetic" look, which is very similar to smelling a fart.

It's a shame, she was actually pretty fun to talk to until my brain shut down from all the stress. The more I stress out, the more I shut down as a defense mechanism.

I know what the response to this will be: "try again a thousand times, learn to love failure, you can do it!"

This actually explains why people use me as their wingman: I'm so fucking awkward and stupid that it makes them look sexy in comparison.

I don't even know how to start conversations with attractive strangers. It was a really awkward conversation, and it was pretty obvious that she was just talking to me to be polite, so after like fifteen minutes, I abruptly said bye and stormed off.

Someone fucking kill me. Please. I'll put an ad on craigslist. I'll pay you next year's tuition. I can't deal with this shit any longer. I've said that a billion times, but this is a billion and one times.

Every impulse is just to find the nearest blunt object and bash my head with it until I stop being so fucking stupid. I've just been settling for slapping myself hard every few minutes. It's a good compromise, I hurt without bleeding or doing any permanent damage.

Be yourself, unless "yourself" sucks ass. That's the lesson of today. The Doc was lying all along, you've either "got it" or you don't. At least in my case.

I'm fucking finished with dating. Metaphor: the tortoise and the hare racing, and the hare never takes a nap. I'm the tortoise, everyone else is the hare.

I give up.

This rant brought to you by Clinical Depression and a massive inferiority complex.

[Robjection]

OK, serious question you guys. Do any of you have any contact details for whoever is behind the website yourstoreinc.com? Because I and the company I work for have a bone to pick with them.

You know those link exchange things where you link to someone else's website, they link to yours and it's supposed to boost search rankings or something like that? Well today we decided to cut down on the number of links we had on our page because many of them, including this particular website, were doing more harm than good. Now, I don't know if this is just a courtesy thing or if it's a legal requirement but I was told when removing the designated links to check their websites to see if they still had a link to ours or not, and to ask them to remove it if they did.

With this particular website, however, there was no contact page and there were no contact details given on the site. The closest thing there was to any means of contacting the webmaster was a help desk which had a series of links regarding various issues, none of which were related to the link exchange thing and all of which linked to the corresponding page on Amazon's help desk (because the site's affiliated with Amazon or some shit like that). I contacted Amazon to see if they could do anything about this but I genuinely expect them to turn around and say that they can't.

But seriously you guys? No contact us page? Get me a jury and show me how an online shop is supposed to work without some means of contacting the guy in charge or any of his underlings and I'll go down on you!

[Gentleman Johnny]

Depends on your definition of work. I know several sites that will give you a "free 30 day trial" where making it as difficult s possible to contact anyone is part of the business model.

[azazel]

Maybe try info/postmaster/admin@site.com ?

Those most often go /somewhere/

[Gman]

I sprained my leg yesterday. So pissed off, because that basically ruins any dancing plans for at least a week...
It's nothing major - I can still drive, walk (while limping, but still) so I don't think there is any major damage. But still

[nearly_takuan]

Claiming that men communicate through (and respond to) actions while women favor words is exactly as foolish as trying to pretend that women always care more about people's personalities than their appearances and that they are the only ones who do so. Beyond the inherent sexism in making such generalizations, the comparison it invites is unproductive—while philosophically, it seems easy enough to say/promise one thing while intending to do another (thereby demonstrating hypocrisy), that isn't actually what we'd be talking about if we said a given individual prefers to communicate through words. Because one can select genuine words and speak them sincerely, and that can be every bit as difficult as trying to "show" how you feel through some sequence of minor performances. And again, I'm pretty sure the whole "actions speak louder than words" thing is intended as a direct comparison between promising to do a thing and actually doing that exact same thing; it does not at all describe the difference between saying "I'm sorry for continuing to play music that you strongly disliked after you asked me not to" vs. creating a ceramic lamp in the shape of a pelican and offering it as a gift in hopes that the message is clear enough.

[Guest]

Nothing like a tightly packed train to remind you that you loathe touching other people.

I'm happy that doesn't happen to often.

[BasedBuzzed]

Observation that is generalized enough to probably fit a lot of people: edgy no-manners teen and sensitive Weltschmerz teen flip around into their adult years and then believe this is what constitutes maturity.

-------
1a)In more detail:

What they say: "I used to not give a shit what anybody thought of me. But you know what, then I grew up."

What they think they're saying: "Try to be a little more empathetic and less judgemental."

How most people read it: "You are a bad person for not considering the feelings valid which I see as valid."
---------
1b)What they say: "I used to hate peole who didn't like  what I liked, or shared my worldview. But then I matured and learned to live and let live."

What they think they're saying: "Try to be a little more empathetic and less judgemental."

How most people read it: "You are a bad person for bothering me with your points. Peace and quiet is more important than confronting bad ideas."
---------
2)Principles based on rationality that also takes emotion into account, and realizing your own shortcomings are the true hallmark of Maturity(tm). This also allows me to feel superior to both camps, which is the real purpose of the concept.

---------
3)And for an additional layer of recursion, calling others posturing phonies who only hold onto beliefs to feel smug about them and indirectly calling oneself authentic is also classic teen behaviour.

[Guest]

All righty, fine. Fuck it, you win HP, I'll install your piece of shit software so I can scan my drawings. Fine.

Fuck you, HP.

[Gentleman Johnny]

Internationalization - here, take every piece of text in the app, replace it with a variable and move it to a table so we can send the table off to be translated. Necessary to be sure but dull, dull, dull. We need an intern for a week so I can push it off on him.

[nearly_takuan]

In light of this article, my concerned white female Facebook friends want to know: how, then, can we be more culturally sensitive and avoid being hypocritical?

A: You can't. You can try to be, as BasedBuzzed put it, a little more empathetic and less judgmental. But you also need to realize that when you just say something about what you think you believe in or value, at absolutely no cost to yourself, you haven't actually succeeded at anything.

You're doing your best. You're doing the best that someone in your exact circumstances could possibly be expected to do. You're doing as much as you can. You're probably doing more than I would if I were in your position. Just don't delude yourselves into thinking it'll ever be enough. There's no prize at the end for the one who rolls the most boulders.

[BasedBuzzed]

This why you focus on practical aspects. The inner thoughts and turmoils of that person are something she has to figure out on her own. Her notion of an empty gesture is another minority person's source of validation and safety. They each self-select for folks they are comfortable with anyway.

[eselle28]

Interrogating someone about why she can't attend your party when you know perfectly well she's not doing anything that night (how do you know that for sure?) is already sort of rude. Doing so when your invitation specifies a dress code is downright obtuse. I've already gone to several Christmas parties this year. I don't really want to spend the time or the money to acquire an Ugly Christmas Sweater for yours. Yes, I'm aware that makes me a Grinch. If you'd like, I can hold a Grinches' Night In party next year. Green clothes and undersized hearts required.

[BasedBuzzed]

Nothing is more embarassing than creating a deliberately obtuse Poe post, someone running with it and then finding out you can't make up a good argument against your own parody.

[Gman]

Well, this is going to be a little mopy rant, so be warned.
I just came back from hanging out with a friend at 2 places. The first was this really cool home party, kind of small but with cool people and great music and I was really having fun. But my good friend, who isn't a big party fan, wanted to cut early - so I agreed to it, even though I REALLY wanted to stay and he even said that if I want to stay it was totally cool with him, he'll just move along on his own. But I wanted to be a good friend, so I left with him early. We went to a nearby bar and it was totally LAME. We met a friend of his there - and then they started to have this philosophical debate about the message behind the movie "Her".........

That's when I lost concentration, because while the subject itself was an interesting debate in general, I couldn't focus, because all I could remember was the fact that I watched it with my ex back in the day and how we thought it was kind of a lame movie.... which threw me into a "thoughts about the ex loop".... and yeah 

It's been a rough week in general. I sprained the palm of my foot, which means no dancing for at least a week - and dancing to me is pretty much kind of like therapy for me in general, not dancing is really stressing me out... Iv'e been crying myself to sleep for 3 days straight now... I just feel so lonely all of a sudden and I just can't realize why I can't find someone new to be with. I don't even expect it to be a full on relationship - I wouldn't actually mind a "friends with benifits" situation, but I just feel helpless. I'm still my awkward self just like before, so creating connections with other women is still E-X-T-R-E-M-E-L-Y difficult for me. The saddest part is that I feel like something is ripping my soul from the inside bit by bit.... the thing that's helping me keep my head up is the reminder that Iv'e been through some shitty feelings/episodes before so this is nothing compared to that, but it's still just so freaking hard to have this feeling and not being able to share it with anyone around me......   

I'll be fine, I just needed to vent a bit. Maybe it'll help somehow.....

[Guest]

WARNING: PATRIOT RANT INCOMING

I know a lot of you guys aren't American and that's cool, but understand that this affects not just the U.S. but Western nations with some notion of freedom speech. Whether or not you think The Interview would have been good or not, this is no longer about the movie, but about what we can make movies about.

Yes, I'm upset by this. Yes, we're not a perfect country. And yes we need to show no fear. I'm not afraid and nor should you, Sony, or anyone else for that matter. I'd rather die on my feet than on my knees.

Go America.

END RANT

[Gentleman Johnny]

Word has it that George RR Martin is trying to get a screening at the theater he owns in Santa Fe. Might be worth making Christmas plans to fly out there.

[reboot]

Prior to this I had no desire to see that movie, but now I would pay for it (but maybe not watch it because it sounds painfully dumb)

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