Occasionally, I Hate Blogging On MySpace

My primary blog is on MySpace (yeah, yeah, i know, MySpace is for 14 year old girls who like to spend their days taking/posting hundreds of pictures of themselves). Why do I blog there? I don't know, it's where I started and I have a steady readership over there. I have never had any hate comments (anyone who's ever blogged on MySpace knows all about those- they attack you as a person rather than what you've just written about), and I get some pretty good feedback from writers I like to read. I like how you can leave a kudo if you don't have anything in particular to say, but want the author to know you liked it. In short, it has its perks and its irritations, much like anything else in life.

Yesterday I experienced an unanticipated irritation.

Eventually, if you read the same people often enough, you start moving in the same circles as other readers of that persons blog. Sometimes, if they like your comments, they'll come read your blog. Very occasionally, someone you don't like ends up reading your blog, and you have to choose between responding neutrally to their comments, or telling them to go piss up a rope. Option 2 is the more honest, upfront thing to do, but then (depending on who it is) you risk the wrath of that person's whole blog circle coming down on you and bombarding you with hate comments/mails/messages/what-have-yous. It's an issue that seems to be unique to MySpace blogging, and I've never been bothered by it until a few weeks ago. Enter "Jane" (name changed to protect blah blah blah).

I've seen her comments on other blogs I've read before, and she'd replied to a few of the comments I'd left myself, but I don't really care for her. I found her to be a rather obsequious sycophant, and a long-winded one, at that. Anyhow, my policy for dealing with unpalatable online personalities is simply not to respond to them, and that's how I'd dealt with her in my infrequent brushings with her.

Then she started reading my blog. Fuck.

She pulls the same over-the-top OMG I AGREE WITH YOU SO MUCH type comments on mine as she does on everyone else's, and I'd decided to deal with her monosyllabically whenever possible. After all, when one kisses as much ass as she does, one gathers quite a few friends, and she sports quite a few drama bloggers as friends. Not a scene I'm interested in! I just want to post my rants about my daily life, my bits of fiction, random dreams, and be on my way. Preferably with mild interaction with my readers.

So she's been reading my blog for a few weeks now, and I popped over to her blog, out of courtesy, and read a little bit. She's an issues blogger, which is a turn-off to me in the first place, and the cause she champions isn't one that interests me. Throw in all the bad grammar and spelling, and I decided to politely unsubscribe.

That's polite, right? Unsubscribing quietly?

Apparently, it isn't. I got a message from her yesterday asking why she hadn't seen me commenting on her blog. Fuck, and double fuck! Now I'm back at my initial problem: be honest or be vague. Here's vague:

Sorry I haven't spent much time at your blog, I've got a lot of subscriptions and as much as I try to make it to everyone, I don't always succeed. I'll try to be better in the future.

Apologies,
Christie.

Then I can visit her blog daily and hit the kudos button, making it look as though i read it. But that's really WAY too much effort, and it's just downright dishonest. I already feel horrible just for having thought about it.

Here's honesty:

I don't have a lot of free time, and I'm not going to spend that little bit that I do have reading shit that I don't enjoy, by people I don't like. I don't expect people to read my blog just because I read theirs, I expect people to read it because they like it. If they don't like it? I'd prefer they politely unsubscribe and spend their time elsewhere- no drama, no flaming, no butt-hurtedness. Everybody wins! So please, unsubscribe in an undramatic fashion. You really would be doing me a solid.

Best of luck,
Christie.

And I honestly feel that way! I don't expect people to read me just because I read them. It doesn't change the fact that I enjoy their writing, and I'm going to continue reading it. I found out a long time ago that very few MySpace people feel this way- if they spend time reading and commenting your blog, they damn sure expect that you reciprocate. If you don't, most of the time, they just quietly unsubscribe (yay for quiet unsubscription!) and you stop hearing from them.

Oh, but not Jane! No, she requires explanations. I've done my best to avoid dealing with her, and that's clearly not going to work. So I think I'll go halfway between vague and honest:

I'm sorry I haven't made it to your blog, but at this time, I don't have time for additional subscriptions. I appreciate the time you take to read and comment mine, but if it isn't something you enjoy doing for its own sake, then please don't feel obligated to continue doing so. I know your time is valuable too, and I wouldn't want you to waste it on a one-sided blogging relationship.

Best of luck to you and your cause,
Christie.

A firm Thanks-But-No-Thanks, but not a rude one. I hope she quietly unsubscribes and refrains from tossing me to the lions.

20 Questions, By Layne

I was browsing around random blogs today when i found this guy's survey. It's one well-thought out survey, too: no "What's your favourite colour" type questions here! Always a sucker for a good survey, i nabbed it, and now post it for your filling-out pleasure. If you'd like to see the original post, or share your answers with him (which would be a nice thing to do, since it's his survey) click here
20 Questions, by Layne


Here's my survey. I ask each of you to fill it out and post it either as a comment on this blog or on your own blog.

With one exception, these aren't yes or no questions. Most of them will require thought and introspection. It might not be a fun survey, but I make no apologies. I'm trying to get to know you better.

I'll post my own answers sometime this weekend.

1. Of everything you've ever done in your life, what one accomplishment makes you most proud?

I lost fifty pounds :)

2. If the person you are today could meet the person you'll be ten years from now, do you think the two of you would be friends?

I'd have to say probably not. I'm both advice-giving and advice phobic, and i'm sure Future Me would annoy Present Me to no end, even though i'm well aware that Future Me knows better. I've just always done better with learning from my own mistakes.

3. If calories, carbohydrates, and nutrition were of no consequence, what would you love to eat?

Bread, fruit, ice cream and cheese. I could live on these four items (and, in fact, tried to once, which is why i look the way i do).

4. What is your very earliest memory?

I was living in Germany, in an apartment rented from a German land lord. There was an apple orchard out back, and i really, really wanted to go back there. I thought i had my chance when i saw the land lord leading his grand children out there- i tried to follow them, acting like i was supposed to be there. They saw through my scheme, though, and didn't allow me to tag along. I was very disappointed.

5. Everybody has a silly way to waste time. What's yours?

If i'm at home, i browse blogs. If i'm at work, i walk around and tell everyone their daily horoscopes. If their horoscope is boring, i make stuff up instead.

6. What one incident do you think is most responsible for making you the person you are today?

I left. I will not explain further.

7. Do you believe you've reached your potential in any area of your life? If so, which area?

This is an incredibly difficult thing for me to think about, as most of my life, i've been told that i'm wasting my potential. I've learned on a cerebral level that this is just another way of saying, "You're not doing what i want you to be doing," but emotionally, i still feel i've disappointed those who had expectations of me.

8. If you were President of the United States, and Congress agreed to pass any one law you wanted, what would it be?

I'd like to see a plan for the complete legalization, taxation, and regulation of cannabis. I don't smoke it myself, and probably wouldn't even if it were legal, but i'd like to see the criminal aspect of this disappear. It'd also be a welcome source of income our economy desperately needs.

9. Name the aspect of your character you most wish you could change.

I would have to say my tendency to make situations that have nothing to do with me, all about me. I Know It Isn't All About Me . That should sum it up.

10. Do you believe in fate?

To a point. I think fate brings us opportunities, but it's up to us to seize upon them and make something of them. I don't believe that fate is an enabler of laziness, to avoid taking responsibility for our own happiness.

11. Life never turns out quite the way we plan it. Try to remember who and where and what you thought you were going to be. What's the single biggest difference between your current reality and what you thought would happen?

I've never really been one for planning (hence the whole 'wasting my potential' thing). I never had much in the way of My Life Is Going To Be Just So thinking, so it's hard to say what the difference between my imagined reality and my current one is, as my imagined reality didn't really exist. I can, however, say that i never thought i'd have kids in my life. I never personally had any, but step kids is something i didn't see coming.

12. Some people tell stories. Some people design clothes. Some people paint landscapes. Some people sing. Some people make up survey questions. What's your creative outlet?

I write :) I always wished i could create something tangible, but i'm just not very good at things like that.

13. Does the future hold more promise or fear for you? Why?

I'm not sure. I don't plan much, which staves off fearfulnes to a degree, i suppose. I don't fear that my plans will fall through, at any rate. I guess i fear for the future of my industry at times, for reasons that're far too uninteresting to go into.

14. Please describe an imaginary person who is your exact opposite.

He's tall and confident. He makes friends easily and is well liked immediately by those who meet him. He's comfortable in crowds, and one-on-one. Along with his obvious charisma, he's very shallow and care-free. Though he generally isn't a hurtful person, if he did hurt someone, it wouldn't bother him too much. As easily as he makes friends, someone else would take their place, and he'd forget the injured person before long anyhow. He's also a picky eater.

15. Everyone knows the blockbuster movies, the billboard music hits, and the best selling novels. I want to know the obscure, the overlooked, and the forgotten.

A. Your favorite unknown movie.

I don't know if it's unknown or not, but most people i know have never seen it.

B. Your favorite unknown book.

Again, not sure if it's unknown, but i don't know many who've read it.

C. Your favorite unknown song.

Om, By The Moody Blues

16. Please tell me about the best day you've ever had.

I've had a lot of REALLY good days, so i'll just pick one of them.
I was wearing a white dress, walking down a narrow aisle with my dad. At the end of it, the most wonderful man in the world was waiting for me, smiling, and sweating because it was hot in there. I passed from my dad's side to His side, knowing that i had found my place in life. I felt my soul click with his, and i felt the life flowing into a part of me that hadn't realized i was missing. And i was happy.

17. What foreign culture interests you the most?

Indian culture (not to be confused with Native American culture) is incredibly interesting to me. The religions, the food, the dress. . . It's all so exotic and beautiful to me.

18. How much of who you are is because of the decisions you've made, and how much is a result of circumstances you did not control?

I'd say an equal mix of both. After all, a lot of my decisions have arisen as a response to circumstances beyond my control, and many of the circumstances i could not control were generated as a result of decisions i made.

19. What's life about, anyway?

I think it's different things for different people. For me, it's about being happy as much of the time as i possibly can, and being with people who make me happy (whom i can, in turn create happiness for). It's like the opposite of a vicious cycle.

20. What's your country's greatest gift to the rest of the world?

Refrigeration.

Dear Tom,

You've been toying around with the blog interface off and on for a few months now, and i just have to say that i cry a little on the inside every time you put out the latest incarnation of Blog Home.

There's one feature i enjoy, and that's the one at the end of the current blog i'm reading that says "Previous blog title" and "Next blog title". I do enjoy that for those days when i don't get the chance to read my favourite blogs, and that person's posted multiple blogs.

The cosmetic look isn't much different from the old Blog Home, so i have nothing positive nor negative to say about it.

But here's the internal tear-inducing thing about the new Blog Home. It may be a simple thing, but it still just bugs the crap out of me: clicking on a blog title no longer spawns a new tab. So here i am, reading a blog, minding my own business. . . Okay, so i'm not minding my own business. If i was, i probably wouldn't be reading the thoughts of someone else, right? But i think you know what i mean here. Anyway, i'm reading along, i post my comment/kudos, i close out of the tab from force of habit, expecting to go back to the blog list and select something new to read.

Only now i can't, because the blog didn't spawn a new tab, and i just closed it, and now i have to log in all over again! Annoying, annoying, annoying! Sure, it's only one thing, and i did list a positive and a neutral aspect, so statistically speaking, that'd give you a solid C if this were a letter grade; a three out of five stars, if you will. All in all, not bad, right? Well, let me tell you, the crappiness of this far outweighs the occasionally-used previous-next blog feature you gave us to compensate.

So what exactly was the goal here? You messed with Blog Home, but didn't really DO a whole hell of a lot; certainly not enough to justify messing with it at all. So here's a list of features i'd like to see, since you're already fucking around with the interface anyway:

1. More font options, please! I know i could probably browse around and find a bit of code to change it to what i want, but i'd much rather select from the ole drop down menu, seeing as how there's already one there.

2. It'd be nice if you could access a sortable index for each person's blog. For instance, right now you can click on a person's blog title (if you're subscribed) from the Blog Home list, and it takes you to that particular blog. Wouldn't it be nice if you clicked on a blogger's name on this list, it would take you to a table of contents for that blogger? It'd also be nice if i could sort it by category, date, time, mood, whatever. So if i'm reading Bob's blog and i wanted to read all of his political blogs, i could click his name, and i would be taken to his blog table of contents. At the top would be something like a title column, date column, category column, etc. Maybe the category column could contain a dropdown box, and i could select news and politics, and it would show me all of Bob's political blogs. Or maybe there could be a side box containing all the categories underneath the box that has Bob's picture and details, and clicking one one of those categories would display everything Bob's written in that category. You've got several options, plus, you're a creative guy. You could make that work.

3. My Preferred List. This thing isn't really easy to use. Instead of searching through all the Myspacers to add someone to my preferred list, how bout starting a little more locally? Why not pull up a list of my friends, and i could check the ones i want to add? Or click their face and select add to preferred list? I mean, chances are, if i'm looking to put someone on my preferred list, it isn't gonna be some random schmoe, it's going to be someone i already know.

4. My Readers. I should be able to decide if i want someone to be subscribed to my blog. Right now, i can't edit that at all. If JohnBoy and i have a falling out, and we can't mend fences, i should be able to remove his subscription to my blog in the event he chooses not to unsubscribe just to irritate me.

5. My Subscriptions. Some people here (i'm not one of them, but i figured i'd bring it up anyhow, seeing as how ideas are being bandied about) have literally thousands of subscriptions. Let's pretend for a moment that i'm a top blogger, and i'm a nice girl and try to subscribe to everyone who subscribes to me. Now let's say i stopped enjoying some of the blogs i've subscribed to, some have stopped posting, and some are those irritating post-dating assholes who put their stuff up at the top of the list for the next eight fucking months, and now i want to clean house. It sure would be nice if My Subscriptions had a search field so that i could just type in the names of the people i no longer want to read, and i could unsubscribe from there. Yes, i know, i could always just click on the blog and hit 'unsubscribe', but what about those people who've been struggling with estalkers and now have private profiles? I'm not on the friends list, and now i've got no access to the blog, because everytime i hit the blog, i get the annoying "This Blog is set to private and only their friends can read it. Sucks to be you." message. I can't ditch their subscriptions now, even though i REALLY want to. So consider a search field in the My Subscriptions page.

6. Speaking of irritating post-daters, please disable the ability to post blogs in the future. It's Myspace, not time travel, for fuck's sake.

7. "Rich text is editor currently disabled. We're working on a fancy new one". I call bullshit here. You've been working on a fancy new one for the last twoish years, and from what i can tell, you've either stuffed it on the back burner and turned off the gas, or you've hired some really incompetent fucks to work on the rich text editor. How bout instead of mucking around with the Blog Home interface for no discernible reason, you deliver the fancy new text editor? Personally, i don't care if it's fancy and new or generic and old; i'm just sick of the message. So please, Tom, don't be a cocktease with the promise of better things to come, and then leave us hanging with the same old crap.


I think that's a good enough list to start with. I hope to see some actual improvements with all the muckings about happening with the blog interface. After all, what good is changing things simply for the sake of change? If it's not you, but one of your code monkeys you've hired, then i'd look at how that guy spends his day, because it looks suspiciously like he's jerking off and trying to look productive at the same time.

Love,

Christie.

Who I'd Like To Meet (Myspace Blurbage)

Now there's a field of text on my profile that's given me pause for quite a long time. Who I'd Like To Meet. I've always wondered if it means celebrity-wise? Or just a type of person i may feel i'm lacking in my life? You know, in case that type of person happens to be browsing my profile; then that big, overhead light bulb could go on, and that person could clap their hands together decisively, saying aloud, "Why! That's me! All that's missing is my name!" It's more possible than the former, i'm sure. After all, this IS a social networking site.

But if it's a rhetorical question, asking me if there were any particular person of fame i'd like to meet (you know, just to see what type of person i am), then i'd certainly have to say no, for a couple of different reasons. People judge you based on the answer to that question, and i'm going to pretend for the moment that i care what The Random Masses think of me.

Let's say i proclaim wanting to meet a long-dead poet, or famous peace maker, or philosopher. Let's say i put in that field "Gandhi", and then i make my case for why i want to meet him: great man, want to pick his brain, ask him what he thinks of modern society, all the usual blah-blah. Now i look stuffy, possibly a little snobby, and certainly more than a little trite. While it may be 100% true that i want to meet Gandhi, saying so has the quality of a fake answer, and gives the appearance that i'm trying to impress someone.

Since i want to avoid looking boring and trite, i decide instead to be modern and trendy. Let's say i enter "Miley Cyrus" in the Who I Want To Meet, and then i briefly make my case for why i want to meet her: omg, so cute and talented and her dad is SOOOO hawt! Now i'm putting off a vibe that clearly says Not To Be Taken Seriously (unless i'm a guy, then it puts out a vibe that clearly says Stalker-Creep with a Lolita Complex).

But in truth, it's not the judgment aspect that prevents me from putting a celebrity into Who I Want To Meet. There are a few movie stars and musicians/singers that i truly enjoy. I will go and see a movie of dubious potential if Samuel L. Jackson is in it. I love that guy, and generally even when the movie itself is sucking like a strung-out crack whore, his parts are blissfully unsullied by the smut that is the rest of the movie (primary example: The Spirit). I love Bjork's music and her voice gives me those chills along my scalp and arms that generally accompany a soundgasm. MGMT takes me to a whole different plane of consciousness without chemical assistance. But i don't want to meet these people.

Well, why the hell not?!, you may be demanding right now. And even if you're not, i'm going to tell you.

In my own mind, Samuel L. is a brilliant, hilarious mixture of different tones of all of my favourite roles he's played. He's edgy like Jules, tough and resourceful like Neville Flynn; he cares, but brooks no bullshit like Lorenzo, and is an evil genius like the Octopus. Bjork is every bit the angel she sounds like. MGMT is a small group of wise children, with an insight into life that belies their youth.

But we all know it's not true. Samuel's got a personality that has nothing to do with the ones he portrays on the screen. Bjork is a bit of a nutcase, and MGMT is just a group of kids who like to get high and play music well. And i don't want to meet face to face with any of these realities. I guard my fantasies jealously, and i doubt any of the celebrities i enjoy could live up to who they are in my mind. No, i can't enter a celebrity into Who I Want To Meet.

That leaves real people.

But how real can this person be, if i decide to enter in all the qualities i'd like to see condensed into one human being? Let's say I'd Like To Meet a person with a sense of humour (not just any sense of humour, but the RIGHT kind of humour that would make everything that this person uttered a piece of comedic genius to my ears), not too tall, but not too short, of average build and level of goodlookingness, that enjoys online gaming, reading, movies (not just any movies, mind you, but the kind of movies i like), and casual dining. S/he'd have to be witty, but not so witty that i felt inferior in their presence; her/his social views would have to be moderately left; s/he'd have to be undecided on important topics like gun control, the death penalty, and religion, so that we could stay up late talking about their pros and cons.

And so on. It seems to me that even if i put all this into Who I'd Like To Meet, this person couldn't possibly exist. And if they did, and through some cosmic miracle, that person was on Myspace, tripping over my profile with the time to read Who I'd Like To meet, what're they odds that my personality matches THEIR Who I'd Like To Meet? Not that it matters, seeing as how it's my Who I'd Like To Meet we're talking about here, but those odds are looking a lot like lottery odds, therefore rendering the whole purpose of that blurb moot. And let's face it: even that level of compatibility could get old after a while. Small incompatibilities make friendships interesting.

Alas, after all this musing, i still have nobody to put in Who I'd Like To Meet. I guess i don't really want to meet anybody in particular.

Hello, it's nice to meet you :)

I Don't Have Time For This Shit!

Myspace breeds some rather interesting individuals. I'd heard/read of others coming across these strange people, but had yet to encounter any myself. I just had my own close encounter with the semi-obsessive Myspacer, and, consequently, my first experience with blocking someone.

Around Thanksgiving, i wrote a blog and made it friends-only. Out of this action, i got a friends request from someone, and to my surprise, he was honest in his reason for requesting me:

I read your blog and noticed this one was friends only, and i want to read it.

Something along those lines. So i accepted, and over time things got real interesting (or annoying, depending on your perspective).

For one thing, Myspace seemed to be the focus of his daily activities: I got more comments and messages than i could easily keep up with. I do my best to return comments and, though i like them a little less depending on who they're coming from, messages in a timely fashion. However, when i'm bombarded with either one, i start picking and choosing which ones i respond to. I don't mean to be offensive, it's just that my time to spend on Myspace is fairly limited, and the thing i like to do best here is read (and sometimes write) blogs.

At one point, he deleted me from his friends. Not really a big deal, though i did wonder briefly if i was being too unresponsive. A couple of days later, he requested me back, i forget the reason he gave for deleting me in the first place.

After that, it was pressure. Pressure to change my song, my profile, remove videos, add videos, read this blog, try this game. . . So much so that some of my other friends started sending me "What the fuck is with THIS guy?!" messages. My husband absolutely loathed this guy. It was eStalking, in his opinion. I didn't really agree, though, because i'd cruised the profiles of other people on his friends list, and he seemed to pay them the same amount of overbearing attention.

He deleted me again. This time it was because i had told him i liked to read, but i had failed to make it to a blog he had recommended. Uh, okay. He and i obviously had different ideas on what "recommended" means. And it isn't that i blew it off, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet.

And then re-added me. Hmm. I should have just said no, but i accepted. After all, it's just Myspace.

After a few days, he deleted me again, citing the reason as someone was posting things about his personal life, and he didn't know who it was, so everyone had to go. I found this to be both laughable and insulting at the same time. After all, i knew practically nothing about this guy, and even if i did, i didn't know ANYONE who would have given a rat's ass about the details of his life. He didn't seem to get that i had better things to do than to spread e-rumours about people i barely know.

Then he re-added me with an interesting message about someone having hacked his account, and sending a bunch of fucked up messages to his friends, and that if i had received one, i was to disregard it. My repsonse was that i got a message, but it sounded EXACTLY like something he would have said, but if it made him happy to delete and add me daily, then to have at it, because i didn't much care at that point.

Of course, after a week or so, he deleted me again. I could always tell when he'd deleted me because he would go to my profile and delete all the comments he'd left. Odd behaviour, i thought, but i wasn't in the habit of deleting people, so maybe this was typical Myspace break-up behaviour. It seemed like a waste of time to me. Before he could decide to re-add me, i decided to block him.

I just don't have time for this kind of drama. So if you're reading this (you know who you are), i'm sorry you found me to be a less-than-satisfactory person. I'm sure you'll construe this as spreading rumours about you, but rest assured, this will be the last twenty minutes of my life i waste on you in any form. I just thought the whole two-month experience with knowing you was beyond a doubt, the strangest Myspace experience i've had to date.

The Video Message Blogger

Yes it's a free(ish) country, and your blog is your blog to do with as you see fit. Unfortunately for you, that also means i get to rant about it if i dislike it. So i'm now going to bitch about the Video-Message Blogger.

If you're one of those people who finds themselves posting a blog with several videos with a few sentences in between them exclaiming that you think this video says exactly what you want to say, then perhaps you aught to just comment on the video itself and forgo the "blog" altogether. Maybe embed it in a bulletin, if you feel the need to share. But if you have something you want to say, SAY IT! Don't get something/someone else to do it for you. It just makes you look like you can't articulate your own thoughts.

There's nothing wrong with doing that, i suppose. I'm not even sure why it annoys me so much. Maybe it's because if i wanted to watch videos, i'd cruise over to Youtube. It doesn't bother me at all if there's ONE video or a few pictures thrown in to emphasize or illustrate a point (example: The Mad Goat's Moment of Zen is fine with me).

But when it's [video] Omg, this expresses how i feel so much! [video] and this one is so expressive it's exactly what i mean [video] and so does this one omg! [video] and in conclusion, [video] omg do you see what i mean?

Congratulations, you've said absolutely nothing, and taken up a bunch of my time in doing it.

"So skip the blog and don't read it if it bothers you so much! And for the love of God, quit whining about it!", you may be saying to yourself right about now. And, in reply, i say 'reading' it is a bit of a stretch; it's more like 'watching'. I do skip those blogs now. And fuck you, I'll whine all i like.

The Ethics of De-Friendsing Someone

Are there any?

Say it's someone i don't personally know, and never rly got "close" to. Do i send a message explaining why i no longer want to see their annoying updates and bulletins?

What if they're the people-collector types? Do i de-friends them and hope they don't notice? I doubt they'll miss me out of their 6000 "friends".

What if they're drama-queens? Is it okay to just snub a drama queen?

I've been de-friendsed with, and i never lost any sleep over why it used to say 88 and now it says 87. I didn't obsess over who let me go. I'm probably making too much of something yet again, but i'd like to know if there's a right way to kick someone out of your online life.

Racial Pride?

I recently received this blurb as a bulletin here on myspace (my retorts/remarks/comments are in purple):

Proud To Be White
Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying
attention to this?

There are African Americans,
Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans,
Arab Americans,
Native Americans, etc.
And Irish Americans, and French Americans, and Italian Americans. . . What's your point?

...And then there are just -
Americans.
This is what we all are, IMO

You pass me on the street
and sneer in my direction.

You Call me 'White boy,'
'Cracker,' 'Honkey,'
'Whitey,' 'Caveman,'
... And that's OK.
I confess, this hurts my feelings.

But when I call you Nigger,
Kike, Towel head,
Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey,
Beaner, Gook, or Chink
... You call me a racist.
. . . but on the other hand, i don't do this as a retaliatory measure. In fact, these are words not generally found in my vocabulary at all.

You say that whites commit a lot
of violence against you,
so why are the ghettos the most
dangerous places to live?
As if anyone WANTS to live in a ghetto.

You have the United Negro College Fund.

You have Martin Luther King Day.

You have Black History Month.

You have Cesar Chavez Day.

You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi.

You Have Yom
Hashoah.

You have the NAACP.

And you have BET.

If we had WET
(White Entertainment Television)
... We'd be racists.

If we had a White Pride Day
... You would call us racists.

If we had White History Month
... We'd be racists.

If we had any organization for only whites
to 'advance' OUR lives
...
We'd be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce,
a Black Chamber of Commerce,
and then we just have the plain
Chamber of Commerce.

Wonder who pays for that?

If we had a college fund that only gave
white students scholarships
... You know we'd be racists.

There are over 60 openly-proclaimed
Black-only Colleges in the US ,
yet if there were 'White-only Colleges'
... THAT would be a racist college.

In the Million Man March,
you believed that you were
marching for your race and rights.
And white civil rights were in danger WHEN in this country?!

If we marched for our race and rights,
... You would call us racists.

You are proud to be black,
brown, yellow and orange,

and you're not afraid to announce it.

But when we announce our white pride

... You call us racists.

You rob us,
Again, as if the only people who ever rob white people are nonwhites.

carjack us,
and shoot at us.

But, when a white police officer

shoots a black gang member
or beats up a black drug-dealer
who is
running from the LAW and
posing a threat to ALL of society
... You call him a racist.

I am proud.

... But, you call me a racist.

Why is it that only
whites
can be racists?

There is nothing improper about this e-mail.

Let's see which of you
are proud enough to send it on.


I must confess, i don't understand racial pride at all. Race isn't an accomplishment! You don't work really hard for years, scrimp, save and sacrifice to finally achieve your race as a reward for all your efforts; it's an accident of birth. So i had mixed feelings about this bulletin when i initially read it. While it's true, if there were a White Entertainment Televison, all kinds of action would be taken against it, but on the other hand, why would a white person feel the need to make his own Million Man March? Since when have whites' rights in particular ever come under fire? The programs the author of this bulletin is so derisive of (NAACP, United Negro College Fund, etc) were put in place for a reason: that was the only way an impoverished black child could afford college, and most blacks' lives needed advancement because they weren't getting the same advantages afforded their white contemporaries (this is history, my misinformed author-friend, not opinion or something other races are doing specifically to piss you off). Whether or not these programs are still relevant or necessary in this day and age is a subject for a different discussion.

I guess my basic problem with a post like this is my same problem with the whole racial issue in the first place. Racial hatred is never going to die unless people give it a rest (i.e. stop making the comments, stop teaching the sentiments to your kids, stop using the slurs). I also believe racial hatred is being partly sustained by this concept of racial pride. People of all ethnicities need to come down off their Pride Pedestals and start working toward the equality we all claim to want.

Myspace Girl Lips

You know the kind i'm talking about. Pursed- sometimes off to the side of their faces, sometimes not. Like they're expecting to be kissed literally at any second. They all look at you with liquid eyes and pursed lips with an "Aren't i just the cutest thing you ever saw?" look on their faces (incidentally, the answer is no). It just makes you look vapid and (sometimes unjustifiably) conceited. Anyway, it makes a lot of otherwise unrelated girls look like they could all be first cousins or something. It's irritating as hell! Here's a bright idea for you simpering twits out there: Smile! Or don't! But quit with the smug little smirks!

The Ole "Extended Network"

Okay, what's the deal with the 'extended network'? Everyone seems to be in it. How extensive is 'extended', and 'extended' compared to what? So far i haven't seen anyone in my local network...or anyone NOT in my network (extended or otherwise), for that matter. Now i admit, i don't have that big a friends collection on myspace (I say collection because i've seen people with upwards of 5000 'friends', and i don't believe they all actually know each other...it's more like a race to see who can collect the most people on a single list. But that's another subject entirely), but the ones i do have are pretty varied in their locations. Some are closer than others, but no matter how close or how far away, we come back to this whole 'extended network' thing. Did Tom, when he was playing Creator, look at his creation and notice a big empty space at top and wonder to himself, "Hmm. What could i put there? There's already plenty of ads: banner, box, and pop-up. Maybe people want to feel like they're part of something more than just this little miniverse i'm creating for their amusement and wasting-of-productive-work-time. I know! I'll also make them part of a Network!"?

Us lesser amusees and wasters-of-productive-work-time may never know.