A day in the life

Taking Criticism

2008-07-21T15:29:06Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Here’s the biggest problem. People don’t like to be told they’re incorrect (I sure as hell don’t - I instantly start evaluating just how big the set of people it is I will have to notify of my wrongness, among other things).

This obviously gets in the way when having conversations about anything at all, and I think gets worse the more important that incorrect things it the person who holds the incorrect knowledge. Things like… I don’t know… racism?

Anyway, a John Scalzi post and followup comments from the past few days are relevant and, I think, interesting, and I’ll try to get what I can from them as I move through life.

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Giving credit where it’s due

2008-07-18T13:21:26Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

I won’t give specifics, but I want to say that H is my best friend and co-conspirator and am very happy to have her in my life.

The mere fact that when I am feeling most at sea and most doubt my own sanity, I can talk with her and be reassured that I am okay is worth, well, anything. But it’s definitely worth being able to provide the same sort of support for her when she needs it.

Beyond all her other wonderfulness, this is what I enjoy the most - simply getting each others’ backs, being able to care for each other, being able to provide the support for each other that allows us go go out into the world and do the work that’s important to ourselves and to each other.

I feel like I can never thank H enough for that.

A cool scoring system!

2008-07-18T13:03:56Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

It seems to me that this kind of system could be used for other -isms aside from sizeism, but the folks over at Big Fat Blog have a new scoring system for blog entries and other Internet sources that support reader comments. The scoring system is based on both the tenor of the original article/post/entry as well as on how long it takes for an -ism comment to show up.

Obviously the scoring system presupposes that both the scorer and the scorer’s audience have the same sort of sense of what’s pro- and anti- to whatever cause you’re talking about, but I think it is helpful to overall civil rights movements that are based on rhetoric to have a shorthand for talking about the rhetoric of the opposing side(s) when talking about those sides.

Here’s the post, and also the comment that really gives specifics on the scoring system.

In other news, my WordPress blogging host is being really slow and laggy, and I can’t honestly tell if it’s the network set up at work, or that the host is effed up. It was working fine yesterday, though, unless my time sense was a lot more screwed up from having food poisoning than I thought.

Lost my way? Help me find it.

2008-07-17T18:55:42Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Okay, so maybe I should rename my blog to Angry Halfbreed Queer Chink or something.

When it comes down to it, after the anger or frustration subsides, what I’m left with is disappointment.

(I should note that I am trying to recover from a bout of food poisoning today, so if I sound/read a bit off, that would be why. Not wanting pity or excuses, just giving an explanation.)

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Dear White People…

2008-07-16T23:10:14Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Now, believe me, I know y’all are largely intelligent, curious, moral (or at the very least, expert, differently moral) people. I know that you are good at your chosen professions and passionate and ecstatic at your chosen hobbies. I know that you are capable people who really wish to and by and large do do good in the world.

But here’s my question (as a curious, skeptical, critically-thinking non-white person):

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Anyone want some used memory?

2008-07-11T15:08:50Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

For the iBook or PowerBook (at least - try Crucial’s Memory Advisor™ tool and see if you come up with DDR PC2700 type memory and you may also be able to use it).

Details below the link/cut:

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Beautiful

2008-06-17T11:59:55Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Same-sex weddings start with union of elderly San Francisco couple (SFGate) - the slideshow is so worth it.

Questions and quotes for the Christian protestors follow… (it should be noted that I am a Christian also, but I do not agree that same-sex weddings are bad, nor do I agree that good people go to hell for following other religious/non-religious practices that are not necessarily Christian)

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Up and Running

2008-06-09T15:22:56Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

The movers are still here, moving our stuff in, but the DSL and VOIP are up and running.

I’ve got the AC on full blast and the front door is wide open.

I have to make with a wireless connection to my attic (for the video game consoles) and also make good on my plan to make a public Wireless Access Point happen.

But the infrastructure is already there.

P.S.

2008-06-08T12:53:38Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

This is a great read (from crayonbeam), which she didn’t comment much about, but which I see as a treasury of examples of privilege and entitlement, examined and unexamined, and it’s in the framework of gender, so it may be easier to take in than the scary jungles of race-related issues.

Har.

“Gentlemen, I’m History.”

2008-06-08T12:05:23Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Actually, it’s just time for our local intertubes to “go dark”.

I have been speaking portentiously all morning. I think it’s another stress symptom.

Anyhow, since the movers come tomorrow, I’m going to pack up all the associated Internet-connecting and Internet-connected devices today. The long-neglected “land line”, which is actually VOIP, so not really a “hard line” anymore anyway, will probably get enabled sometime tomorrow, or possibly later.

If you have our cell numbers, you can reach us there, and our intertubes in the new house should also get enabled sometime tomorrow.

My various gaming consoles may take a little longer to get attached. I’ll have to run cable or buy wireless equipment to get those bastards hooked up again.

Trolling and real life versus virtual life

2008-06-01T21:48:36Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Let me get to the second part first.

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Drive-by Geek Forensics: I didn’t know I was your hardware tech!

2008-06-01T14:50:23Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

So my sweetie’s Powerbook G4 is having some performance and operation problems, and I just thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about what the symptoms appear to be and what what our action plan is to get it back into operation.

Updated to make certain decision-points a little clearer.

Updated 2 with alterations suggested by ckd, some wording corrections and some price estimates.

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Interesting geek knowledge

2008-05-30T14:32:54Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

I didn’t know this before, and it could conceivably help if you happen to be trying to track down a troller by incoming domain name or e-mail address and you find inaccurate WHOIS information.

There is a way of dealing with false WHOIS information. You can report it to the InterNIC and they will process it and try to rectify it.

You start with this form (the Whois Data Problem Report) and follow the directions there.

The form does require your real name and a functioning e-mail address, so it will leave a paper trail that could conceivably implicate you should someone track it back, but it’s a good tool to know about.

Privilege 201: My answer to a straight white guy about privilege

2008-05-30T13:14:00Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

I’m copying/pasting the entirety of my answer here because sometimes comments are deleted from Ask Metafilter if they’re deemed “off-topic” by the moderators.

Anyhow, the original question is here. Essentially this straight white guy read “Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” and is looking for more resources to self-educate, having had eyes open a bit.

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More coverage of the WisCon troller

2008-05-29T12:23:37Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Interestingly, all of these links were on the first three pages of Google results from the phrase “rachel moss wiscon”

A post on SeeLight goes into a discussion of fat politics and the author’s emotional reaction.
Seeking Avalon comes down in support of Angry Black Woman.
Almost Diamonds rounds up articles read by this post’s author.
popelizbet on LiveJournal talks about our troller in context with Mallorie Gareis’ passing.
David Anthony Durham talks a little bit about the incident, and talks about Angry Black Woman’s post.

Things 1 and 2

2008-05-28T12:52:34Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Thing 1: Regarding the troller who took pics of WisCon attendees and contrived to have them posted (unsure whether this was intentional) on Something Awful and mirrored on various Something Awful radical splinter sites (along with sparkling commentary, real names and sometimes also the names of children also in attendance), I was remarking to my sweetie how unlike Geeky Slashdotters the victims behaved. On Slashdot this person would have been treated a lot differently.

In my experience in most Slashdot encounters with slimy people, within a few hours, that person’s identity and contact information is posted to the Slashdot thread. This posting is generally emphatically not posted with any exhortation to do anything with the information, just posted, in full, sometimes with Social Security Numbers and other sensitive information. Geeks seem to feel this evens the score.

Updated: Here’s a good summary link about the person involved in the initial trolling report on Wiscon.

Update 2: Apparently the troller has had previous issues with bulimia and anorexia, which inspired badgerbag to post a fairly sympathetic post about the troller’s behavior and deeds regarding WisCon 32. Interesting reading both in the post itself as well as in its comments.

Thing 2: The Telectroscope (official site) reminds me of the giant puppetry exposition that happened around Jules Verne’s birthday (a few years ago?). Like the crashed space vehicle that started one of the puppetry exhibitions, the telectroscope started with some drills coming up out of the ground in London and New York and went from there.

A New Hope

2008-05-27T18:18:16Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

from garrity (mostly a locked LJ, unfortunately for you)

Very cool. Apparently a dust derived from pig can stimulate body part regrowth. Still in planning/testing, it’s being tested with a veteran who needs to grow a finger.

Actually, I am going to say this again

2008-05-27T12:27:00Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Or at least it feels like again, though maybe it isn’t actually again. Maybe only in my head. It echoes a lot in there when I think stuff like this because it should be obvious, and it never actually seems to be, so the echoing is usually due to the strident rage that’s incipient.

Unfortunately, I can’t even say this on Daily Kos or anywhere else that’s a collaborative blog other folks own, because they sensibly have anti-trolling rules, and this would probably count under those rules.

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Daily Kos - I created an account there

2008-05-27T11:58:01Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Can’t do much with it for 24 hours (comments)/a week (diaries), but I do have more political things (about race, about party unity) to say and I think I need to say them there.

Here’s the account.

This year in politics, we get to find out just how racist all the liberals/Dems are

2008-05-27T01:58:37Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Apparently a liberal pink blogger posted a photoshopped picture that featured Michelle Obama tied up and terrorized by Ku Klux Klan folks.

Link updated. Sorry about the protected LJ entry.

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Julia Nunes

2008-05-25T16:20:14Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Cute, and I think, good. Ukulele and guitar and voice. She has lots of YouTube videos, some of which I think may be non-singing.

Her contribution to the Bushman Music World Ukulele Video Contest is quite entertaining.

And, via glitter (LJ), her rendition of Her Majesty (Beatles) is also quite entertaining.

Rage transforms to hope

2008-05-25T13:33:00Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve always had trouble staying angry. At worst, I think, I’ve been angry for 2 hours-long. 2 hours. Some folks make it last a lifetime.

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My Google Analytics hacks in MediaWiki and WordPress appear to be missing

2008-05-22T14:39:30Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Which is, I guess, okay, since I upgraded them both recently.

But it’s gonna bother me until I fix it all.

Work meme from LJ

2008-05-20T20:42:36Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

vi bearsir

Following are my paid jobs in chronological order (to the best of my ability to recall, earliest to latest). For some of these I may have done them multiple times. Time for a trip down memory sewer:

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Dear Lucas, Speilberg and Paramount

2008-05-20T13:23:17Z

Originally published at perigee's WordPress Blog. Please leave any comments there.

You are losing out on a free revenue stream because of your focus on hard media.

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