Blog :: Random Rambles
May 2008
Constantly Amazed by the Online Experts
You probably think this will be about people trying to spout training techniques over discussion boards and blogs, but it’s much simpler.
I am constantly amazed, just absolutely astounded, at the number of people who are rock-solid certain they can divine a person’s meaning, intent, and tone based on a few words on a blog post or discussion board.
True: a talented writer can convey meaning, intent, and tone. A talented reader can divine something of the writer’s meaning, intent, and tone. Probably. Depending on what literary theory you subscribe to, anyway.
Also true: the vast majority of bulletin board posters are not talented writers. Even when people are writing informally, you can generally tell who has a good grasp of language and who does not. And, frankly, if someone does not have a good enough grasp of language to write intelligently enough to get their point across, I have a hard time believing their “analysis” of what other people said (or, even better, meant to say).
Which is why I love, absolutely love, the discussions that devolve into arguments like this:
Person 1: I like X.
Person 2: I don’t.
Person 1: Why do you have to be so nasty about it?
Person 2: How is saying I disagree with you nasty?
Person 1: Here, I’ll quote you: ‘I don’t.’ If you can’t see that you’re being nasty, I can’t help you.
Person 2: It’s a free world. I’m allowed to state I don’t agree with you.
Person 1: I wish you would just go away. What are you, a troll? (joke!) [laughing icon]
Person 2: Wait, so I can’t disagree with you, but you can call me a troll?
Person 1: It was a joke! Look, I put a laughing icon up! God, you’re so dense!
Person 2: No, I’m trying trying to understand why you can make jokes at my expense but I’m not allowed to disagree with you.
Person 1: There you go being nasty again. Why can’t you be civilized?
And on and on. Of course, it goes the other way, too, with people who claim “free speech” and “just telling it like it is” as a cover for being unnecessarily rude (all under cover of being “witty” of course).
The amazing thing here is how everyone is an expert at determining what other people meant, even if they can barely write a coherent statement (and if you misinterpret their self-proclaimed meaning, then you are the idiot, of course, because it’s clearly stated in their post. They can’t help if it you don’t know what “grzzzfartzik horse pffilsblu ride hoggrottdisk stirrups” means.).
Have you ever watched a group of English majors arguing over the meaning/tone/intent of a text? You should, sometime. It’s great. It’s like the most heated of the discussions on horse boards, but with even bigger egos. Really. If you want to see some serious online catfights, go read a writing board. It’s not just the topic at hand that gets debated, it’s peoples’ ability to interpret what’s going on. And since their career path is dependent on their ability to interpret, well, you can imagine how personally they take it. (They, we, whatever. I like a good literary discussion as much as the next person, and I have no small ego with regard to my abilities.)
Thinking about this makes me itch to go write a thesis on interpreting online discussions. I suspect my background in psychology is not quite strong enough for this, but it could be amusing to interpret exchanges using multiple literary theories. Hmm. Yeah, in all my spare time.
At any rate, I doubt this is all going to change soon, which means I can continue to be amused by these arguments. And attitudes. And the complete disconnect between apparent writing and analysis ability and apparent belief in one’s writing and analysis ability.
Now to post this and then discover the thousand and one mistakes in it, because if Murphey’s Law #637 is that you will always type your password incorrectly when someone is watching, Murphey’s Law #638 is that the person who sets themselves up on a high horse over any sort of writing skills invariably makes the stupidest mistakes of all.
How strange
This last week I’ve received notices of three class action suits I might be eligible to join. I’ve never in my life been part of a class action, so I’m a little bemused at the sudden onslaught. Who turned on the lawyers? I’m actually only eligible for two, which would pay out a grand total of $10 between the two of them. That’s not even worth the time it would take me to fill out the paperwork.
The third I’m not technically eligible for, but it relates to my Mac laptop, and gives me hope that I’ll actually be able to repair the computer after all. Yay! Now to find a Mac store.
In other news: the blog carnival is coming up fast. Submit your entry here; it will be hosted by Rising Rainbow.
Anyone want to beta test?
I’m about halfway through getting the next version of Horse Bloggers ready to go. If anyone is interested in beta testing, there are a ton of new features in this version and it would be helpful to have extra people poking holes in it before it goes live.
If you don’t have a HorseBloggers account already, you can register for one or I can set you up with a test account.
I anticipate having it ready for testing around, oh, Friday or Saturday of this week.
HUGE thumbs down for Macromedia/Adobe
My lovely Mac laptop died and so now I’m forced to transfer everything over to my PC, because a new Mac is not in my budget at the moment.
Among other things, this means transferring over Macromedia Studio, which I use mainly for Fireworks and Dreamweaver.
After a very long phone call with their customer support person, we finally were able to dredge up my serial number (and I have to say, whatever I feel about the company right now, the customer support service person was great—she looked up every single number I have on my packing list until we were able to find my account information, which is something like four years old and apparently not in any of their primary databases).
We finally get the serial number, and then I find out that since I installed the software on a Mac first, I’m not allowed to install it on my PC.
I’m sure this was in the original license somewhere and so there’s nothing I can do about it, but, seriously? WHY DOES IT MATTER if my one copy of the software is on a Mac or PC? My Mac is dead. Kaput. One fancy paperweight. My PC is alive and being a PC, which means it’s not healthy but it’s probably not going to die today. The software runs on either platform; I know, because the trial version is working on the PC right now. But I’m not allowed to switch my license over because I switched platforms?
What a crock.
My choices are to spend $2000 on a new Mac, or spend a couple hundred on a new license for Fireworks. I would really rather spend $2000 on a new Mac, frankly, because I prefer the Mac to the PC. And this licensing rule is just stupid. As much as I love Fireworks, I’m not sure I love it so much that I need to pay for two licenses so I can use it on one computer, you know?
I guess I’m going to have to learn to use Gimp, which I hate, or else I’m going to have to go find another graphics program. Unfortunately, I think Photoshop is now owned by Adobe as well, isn’t it? There goes that option.
Anyone have suggestions for a non-Adobe graphics program?
It’s Friday Night. Do you know where your sanity is?
My cat hates me because I cleaned the whole house before I fed her.
I do not understand this apparent love fest with the phrase “He’s a good handle” in classified ads. Is this a Texas thing? Are horses naturally knobby things that open doors? Are they the wooden ends of sweeping implements? Have we forgotten the difference between the noun “handle” and the verb “to handle”? Am I just a grammar snob?
I went shopping for groceries, came home, and discovered the only thing I didn’t buy was anything I wanted to eat right this moment.
The cardboard boxes in my living room are now broken down and stored away. Does this mean I’m finally moved in?
Why do people refer to their horses as a “YYYY model”? Do all horses born in 1996 have three white socks? Were all 1988 horses a little nuts? Do all 2003 horses have bad pasterns? Do we secretly wish our horses were cars?
Should I buy a house? Will any bank lend to me?
If I clean my half chaps, will they darken at all? I have nothing to oil them with, and although a pass a tack store daily(!) on my way to work, it’s never at a time when I can stop and buy some oil.
Why do I love awful teen flick movies so much?
Has anybody ever had a good experience with Ariat boots? I hate mine with the fire of a thousand suns. I want new boots.
Is it horribly wrong that I am reveling, yes, reveling, in the fact that I don’t have to wear those puke-green hunter breeches any more? God, I hated them.
At what point does one become the crazy cat lady? Can I have a certificate when I become one?
Can you go crazy from looking at software specifications for nine hours in one day?
How can I own hundreds of books and yet have nothing to read?
What do you do when you discover the super-secret horse name you’ve been treasuring for years has awful connotations that you never knew about?
Where are my glasses? I cleaned the whole house, and I can’t find them.
What is it about human nature that makes us say, “Wow, that’s potentially dangerous. I should be really careful…. oh, ####. ####. ####. Oh, ow, ow, ow, #### ow.” I think I’m going to end up with a new scar, all because I decided to pick up a broken glass vase last week instead of sweep it into a dustpan.
It feels like forever since I’ve ridden. Thank goodness I have a lesson this weekend.
Thank goodness it’s the weekend. I think my head’s going to explode.