Faryna
Bucharest
- 327 comments
- 198 likes given
- 199 likes received
Looking for a retired Tardis Model TT Type 40, Mark 3. Email me at your convenience.
@AlaskaChickBlog Big hug to you, Amber Lee!
@BelindaSummers Thanks for saying so, B. Anyone can bring something amazing to the table. It's what makes the internets and social.
@wonderoftech You rock the potato, Carolyn!
@RachelintheOC I see a potato portrait in your future, Rachel. [grin] Maybe with horns?
@PaulBiedermann One of the very best and awesome things about social is the opportunity to curate people - as opposed to content. And you, Paul, are a force of potatoey goodness, indeed.
@Mark_Harai Good to see you here, Mark. And if you still need help with the new website, let me know.
@BruceSallan Can there be social without Bruce?! [grin]
@Harleena Singh Have a great weekend Harleena. And keep on writing those posts that make me think!
Betsy did a wonderful job! And I think she had a lot of fun too.
If you can do more good doing something else (occasionally or frequently), don't let social media distract you.
On the other hand, too many of us spend more time than we should (or need to) spend on the internets. If you find yourself in that situation where you can't go a four hours without checking your "inbox" (email or otherwise), that's a personal problem. Been there and done that - more often than I want to admit.
[hug]
Your questions about what connection remind me now of Michael Robert's poem, Ultramarine - in which Solomon searches, foolishly and heroically, for the 'perfect blue.' Perhaps, Nietzsche would say, "it's all too human." But not in fist-banging-on-table, contemptuous defiance of our humanity!
Ultramarine
Looking for the perfect blue,
water to swim in, not through,
to fill his sea, his massive bowl
of hand-thick bronze which should hold
more than light (its dozen
compass-pointing bearer oxen
braced in constant expectation),
Solomon scoured every nation
for a colour that was right.
Now and then he would catch sight
of utter blue as he bent down
in some remote spice-scented town
to wash a day's heat from his face,
but when he moved the dish - no trace.
If water needed Autumn's slant,
the market traders' day-long chant,
a smell of orange, sandalwood
elusive as the blue in blood,
then he would reproduce it all -
and this was wisdom. Some would call
it waste, a bad example;
some will never build a temple.
- Michael Symmons Robert
None of us have all the good answers - not even a good number of tentative good answers. Some don't have even a few tentative, good answers. But we're all searching - more or less - for something that works for us. Our methodologies, however, vary widely. For all the right and wrong reasons.
We all need teachers, mothers and paths. And we will choose them according to where we are. Sometimes where we are is a bad place and we will make the worst choices: follow false teachers, embrace savage mothers and walk dark and broken paths.
I feel great sympathy for those captured in the cunning nets of vampires and sorcerers.
That's awesome, Jill! I've taken a break from MAA. But if you don't know about it, I founded the Facebook group, Marvel Universe Gazette. It's a good group to learn and share about the game with thousands of members.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/424345640918346/
But for all the glory, wins and badges in MMOs, social games, and some online communities, I have no delusions of grandeur. Perhaps, because a confession will remind me, loud and clear, that my struggle against my own lesser nature is constant.
Of course, I have no super powers and I would make a sorry weekend warrior. [laughing]
If anything, I bring much of me into the online game world and other online activities - compassion, conscience and hope among other things. Speaking of Marvel Avengers Alliance (in the previous comment), I went through much disappointment and frustration outing a violent-psycho-pedophile.
And the reward for my effort was a death threat from a man with a violent criminal history. But it wasn't the first time. [grin]
Do people become absorbed in games or social in an unhealthy way?
Some do.
Some come broken, disappointed, and desperate for something more. Some find love, friendship, trust, inspiration, and respect which is lacking in their offline life. Some try to take it by force or deception and that's a shame. Because we all want these things and virtue is the best approach - as Aristotle pointed out so long ago.
@margieclayman @JillKroppManty
Once I was a mighty troll warrior champion that wielded two blood point daggers and wore a flaming cloak looted from the corpse of a mighty dragon. None could fell me in PVP. But my greatest joy, I admit, was in serving my guild and being the first to hit our targets - even though it often meant death and the agony of regaining lost experience and level. And the pleasure of meeting brothers and sisters with a true warrior spirit - was awesome - from the C-suite to grocery store baggers.
In Star Wars Galaxies, I was the richest merchant in the universe. For a time. But I enjoyed most the equipping of worthy companions - beyond their wealth and imagination. Again, I met good people. C-suite people too.
In Travian, I pitted my wits against formidable strategists - especially the German industrialists. For years! I commanded the actions of thousands of players - to attack. To defend. For glory!
Travian was brutal and exhausting but I learned much that I would apply to online strategy and drive impossible client victories.
In Marvel Avengers Alliance, I ranked first in PVP more times than any other player, but I enjoyed most being a player advocate and challenging the game developers and producers to fix the bugs, create a better game experience and live up to their service commitment.
All of which (and more) has contributed to my person and, hopefully, my evolution.
It is worse than you want to suggest. And yet there is also great beauty - a beauty that is deeper and truer than you may recognize or want to admit. Such is the human experience. Why should it be any different online?
Are you still caught up in those illusory distinctions that suggest that the online experience is not true? [grin]
I don't imagine you are.
The grandeur of an online personality need not be a fiction - unless, of course, it is a deception. The heroic leader of a top alliance in World of Warcraft serves the members of his/her alliance with passion - we can presume. And that is not something to shake a stick at. The social celebrity with one million followers must be saying enough of the things that people want to hear - that does not mean, however, that what they are saying is good or true.
Social media provides us with an opportunity to connect and share with others - especially those who share common ideas, feelings, interests, aspirations, hopes and prejudice. Some bring more of themselves to their online activity than others. Some express themselves more fully or capably than others. And, yes, there are attention whores too.
Social media is as good and evil as the people who come to it. And that is unavoidable and inescapable.
I'm concerned by several problematics of CNN's coverage.
1. The constant referral of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as Suspect 2 seemed an unnecessary dehumanization of the suspect.
Suspect 1 was dead and yet the reporters and anchors continued to refer to the deceased Tamerlan as Suspect 1 - almost as if he was still living. All of which reminded me of the scene from Silence of the Lambs where the sociopathic, serial killer instructs the victim to use lotion.
"It rubs the lotion on its skin..."
2. The complete lack of interest/discussion of the suspension of the usual civil liberties in the pursuit of the suspect.
People were arrested on the spot for refusing to fully cooperate with law enforcement searching their homes and property. Furthermore, the press never made public announcements/explanations regarding the new laws where search warrants are not required and miranda warnings are not issued to ordinary citizens. There is also a question about what discoveries made (unrelated to the terrorist search) can be used against ordinary citizens.
3. The heavy handed "leading" of character witnesses (including Tsarnaev's mother and father) to speak in a manner that presumes the guilt of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
All of which suggests to me that mainstream journalism is unapologetically aligned with the financial mission of the news corporation and the politics which allow it access to official information and insight. My indictment does not simply suggest an irresponsible, sensational journalism that lacks objectivity - but a license to advance a politically correct and state-sponsored point of view that denies contradictory facts, opinions and questions. This is not an original insight.
In a 2010 op-ed, NY Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas Friedman made the same indictment of mainstream journalism. Nor is Friedman alone in the criticism of mainstream journalism.
Good journalism will not diminish our sorrow for the victims of the Boston marathon bombs. It will not diminish our sympathy for the families of the victims. It will not diminish our pride in the first responders, law enforcement personnel and medical personnel who served/serve with courage and energy. Good journalism will not prevent the nation's search for answers, understanding, justice and healing.
The irony is not lost on me that CNN displayed the same tweet from the Boston Police Department (about Dzhokhar's capture) - the same tweet that I had posted a minute faster on my Facebook account. What great value did CNN bring - if they only fact they knew was a fact available to the ordinary citizen?
Amber-Lee is amazing. I hope she feels herself to be amazing, too,
And she's right on in her want to remind us to re-focus on being the amazing that is in each of us.
A network ping tests whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network. A ping tritely searches and verifies route, connection and presence; it also signals the presence of the pinger.
The ping in active sonar can provide considerable information - presence, distance and, sometimes, three dimensional descriptions.
The social ping, it means as little or much, as we make of it - pinger and pingee. Which can be quite confusing. [grin]
As you know, I am want to be a gentle advocate of likes, +1s, trite and positive comments, and whatever as positive ping backs (whenever possible) - not necessarily as affirmations of content, judgments or qualitative assessments. Of course, that does not prevent conversations and engagement in which affirmations, contentions, judgment and qualitative assessments are exercised.