Why I do not belong in the same sentence as Paris Hilton

[cosmolinguist]

On Slashdot today I read something that amused me enough to make me giggle: Microsoft is looking to sell Slate, its news magazine. I stumbled across Slate one day and liked it; I read it for a while but stopped at least a year ago and haven't thought much of it since. The part of the article that amused me is that the Slashdotter pointed out that a few weeks ago, Slate had an article that told people to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox (which you should do, by the way; this isn't just a matter for 'propeller-head geeks,' as the article calls them, anymore; IE is not secure and Microsoft isn't doing anything to fix it, and it's easy to switch even if you're a whiny baby like the guy who wrote that artice).

Anyway, I was looking around stuff on Slate's website and came across this thing about tired.com which (as you'll see if you click on it) is just six words: 'Are you tired? Tell us why.' 'Us' is a link to an e-mail address, and people have been sending the owner of the site e-mails about why they're tired, 100 or so a week for seven years. It's the sort of thing you might hear about on NPR, and has the same 'taking itself too serioualy but still okay' feeling that I'm used to from NPR. The article waxes romantic about how people send e-mails from their actual addresses complaining about jobs, families, being in the military, being in college, being 16 and narcissistic, etc. talking about why they're tired and what they're tired of.

I mention this only because, near the end, the writer says these people are better than 'bloggers, the tell-all diarists of LiveJournal, and Paris Hilton and her ilk' because those people (unlike this other group, apparently) are not 'constantly jostling for attention.' Now, Paris Hilton (and her ilk) yes. Bloggers (probably meant in the Political Bloggers, People Who Talk about Important Things sort of way), okay. I can see how those people are jostling for attention. But hey--I'm in that third group! And I'd hardly consider myself 'jostling for attention.'

In my Modern Russian Intellectualism class, when we were talking about Tolstoy, the professor put a bunch of words on the board. One of them was 'existentialism.' He asked one of the kids, a known philosophy major, what it meant, and the kid said, 'Angsty teenagers writing on LiveJournal.' So of course evil_grapefruit and I can't help but laugh. This anecdote seems to illustrate that the impression I have of LiveJournal does not match that of people outside it.

And really, that doesn't surprise me. Jenn used to (and for all I know, still might) have a nasty habit of amusing herself by clicking on Random, which I'm not brave enough to do. I forget that not all of LiveJournal is like my friends (though I would it were!). I forget that something I like a lot is mostly seen as a way for angsty teenagers to whine, for people who think numbers are letters and punctuation marks because most punctuation marks are merely parts of smileys, for camwhores, for comment whores, for bad poets ... I forget about those things because my friends are intelligent, funny, interesting, cool people, and they have spoiled me.

Anyway, I should go to bed; I'm tired myself.

Comments

[offensive-mango.livejournal.com]

L0L OMFG!!!! ;) :) :P

u r s0 pr3++y
jus+ lik3 my
bl00d
wh3n i bi+3 my wris+s
lik3 s0m3
p3rv3rt3d
w3r3w0lf

[okokopo.livejournal.com]

Curses, I wasn't quick enough to get to that...

[kalieris.livejournal.com]

Truly, welcome to the Land of the Random Button.

Argh.

[okokopo.livejournal.com]

You have my agreement on two points:

One, LJ tends to be a great place to find people who think on a similar plane as ones self. You can meet all sorts of interesting folk out in these here parts. However, as I peruse the majority of journals out there, I have to kind of agree that LJ tends to be a sea of grievances and gripes. Some are fair (hell, I bitch on this thing all the time) but I swear I've come across way too many "my parents//boy/girlfriend just don't understand me" and "my life is a dark pit of darkness" in my bored scroungings.

And two, as a recent convert to FireFox, I must say that it does truly rock my socks clean off.

[comradexavier.livejournal.com]

You know what's sad, though: most computer users are whiny babies like the guy who wrote that article. No one seems to understand that a computer is a very capable tool—like an automobile or a chainsaw, it can help you go places and cut through intractable problems—but that like any other capable tool you have to be willing to learn to use it properly, and that you're liable to smash something or maim yourself if you don't.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

most computer users are whiny babies like the guy who wrote that article.

There's a reason for that, you know. It's that most PEOPLE are whiny babies like that.

[cosmolinguist]

His reasons not to like Firefox were all quite silly:

Be aware that getting started with Firefox isn't a one-click operation. After installing the browser, you'll need to reinstall plug-ins for some programs, as well as Sun's Java engine for any Java-powered pages ... Once you're set up, it still takes a day or two to get used to the interface and feature differences between Explorer and Firefox, as well as the fact that your favorite sites may look a little different. That's why I left it out of Slate's 20-minute anti-virus plan. But if you've got time to make the switch, the peace of mind is worth it.

Is it too much to ask someone to spend more than 20 mimutes learning how to use their computer? And I don't remember it taking me any time to get used to Mozilla instead of IE. Mozilla isn't just for geeks now, like the GMC commercials, 'this is not more than you need, just more than you're used to.' It's not a big deal to learn something new that's better than what you had; that'd be like saying 'I don't want to learn how to drive a car. I have this riding lawn mower and it works just fine for me, thanks. I can't be bothered.'

[comradexavier.livejournal.com]

...that'd be like saying 'I don't want to learn how to drive a car. I have this riding lawn mower and it works just fine for me, thanks. I can't be bothered.'

It's completely unlike that, actually. It's much more like someone who has seen a car but never ridden in one going to a dealership, buying a car, and expecting that they should be able to get in and drive. Oh, and the car should tell them how to drive, do all the hard work—like merge with moving traffic and make left turns onto busy divided highways—automatically, keep people from stealing itself, and repair itself when it breaks. Furthermore, they expect to be able to add functionality to the car—like four-wheel drive and a rear-window wiper—without having any engineering or mechanical knowledge whatsoever.

[the-steelmare.livejournal.com]

You right, Cap, the majority were either given a machine at work and superficially taught how to do two or three things with it or they bought one that was advertised as something easy to use like a microwave oven. The same folks who stiil can't get "defrost" to work.

Have You Dropped Off The Earth?

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, Holly, I hate to break in on your blog, but I wanted to let you know I am A) wondering what happened to you and B) hoping you write back to me (you know the addresses). Please respond--I've missed you.

Re: Have You Dropped Off The Earth?

[(Anonymous)]

and I should have mentioned it's Ed

[karaksindru.livejournal.com]

'and they have spoiled me.'

Come to Colorado and I will spoil you rotten ^_^

Hrm... thinking back on that, I don't know if it's promising that I'll give you all the love and affection you could want, or if it's trying to be some sort of sexual innuendo ...

I think I fried my brain this weekend ...

Love you.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Darling, intelligence is high, but clearly reading comprehension is low. You are not part of that third group. The SECOND group is 'the tell-all diarists of LiveJournal' (I'm assuming that you meant the second group, and not that you're included in the Group of 'Paris Hilton'

Last I checked, you don't tell-all. of course, Livejournal being a blog community, you're still in the first group.

[cosmolinguist]

I meant the one I hadn't mentioned yet. Yes, I realise it's second in his list and that's confusing, but I was really tired when I wrote that.

In his sentence, 'LiveJournal' was a link to the home page, so I think he was talking about all three million or whatever of us as a collective. Hence I was irked. But that's all.

[stealthmunchkin.livejournal.com]

Trust me,s ince she's been here, she has indeed 'told all'. It's just that there's been very little 'all' to tell....

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

Obviously, the writer of the tired.com article never bothered to notice that some of us use LJ as an alternative social venue. You're right to get a little indignant over it, but you can console yourself with the fact that he's not a real journalist. Real journalists research their subjects, so they don't make stupid mistakes like that.

I use the hell out of Firefox. I even installed it on my computer here at work. My only complaint involving Firefox has nothing to do with Firefox itself. It's the Windows bits and third-party programs that are hard-wired to use IE, and don't bother to look at what you've got your default browser set to.