January 13, 2008

• Internet Island Topic Post #31

  Internet Island Topic Post #31: New Year’s Potpourii

  31.1: A New Year, A New Page: Each passing year is literally a “page” on your blog. You can go back and “relive” your “Xanga life” if you haven’t deleted the posts. What is different or similar about the “page” that is turning now, in Jan. 2008? Are you writing a “new book” or is this year just another chapter in a long, meandering novel? Be creative.

  The women in my family go white, not gray. I’ve noticed a lot more white hairs lately. I’ve always had them, as far back as high school, but now they’re all converging right in the front as if there’s a magnet hidden in my brow. Except where those little whites are gathering, they can pass for blonde elsewhere. I don’t feel old. For a 33 year old (34 in a few months), I am not really showing my age, aside from those hairs. I don’t have wrinkles, not even crows feet. I’ve been considering getting some henna, but that doesn’t really do anything about the fact that I am getting older and I have nothing to show for it. I should have been published by now. I resolved to write more in my blog this past year and I have been, but it’s not enough. I need to write more. Those white hairs are telling me to get off my butt this year!

  31.2: The Internet Island: Why did you join this blogring? Are you satisfied with the topics? Do you have any advice for me why there isn’t lots of participation among over 130 blogring members? Do I write too many topics? Too few? Let it all hang out.

  I joined this blogring for writing prompts. The topics are alright for the most part. I do think that you try to cram too many topics into the post sometimes. At most, I’d post two distinct topics and possibly expand on those, but giving people so many options can be overwhelming. I usually end up posting an entry for every subtopic you post, but I’m sure there are others who become intimidated by the plethora of options.

  31.3: Pet Peeve: When I edited our high school newspaper, there was a feature called “Senior Celebrity”, in which the reporter asked prominent seniors a series of questions. One was always “what is your pet peeve?” What really peeves you the most? (it can be about anything)

  My main pet peeve is ignorance. I define ignorance as arrogant disinterest in the facts, a willful blindness. I try to be patient with people, but when they express a belief that is completely unfounded in fact or reason, I wash my hands of them. I can’t stand to talk to people who won’t think through their beliefs, who won’t consider the impact of their actions, who seem to think the sun rises and set upon what they think and everyone else be damned. They frustrate me and rather than argue with them and get angry, I walk away. I don’t have the time to make them look in a mirror to see the face they are presenting to the world. I feel sorry for them, but I’d rather not be gored by the horns of their bullish personality.

  My secondary pet peeve is typos and bad grammar, but that’s entirely on me. When I am reading a book, if I find a typo in the first few pages, it’s almost enough to make me put it down. Unless I’ve read the author before or the idea really intrigues me, a typo is sometimes enough to make me lose all interest entirely. If I find a typo in my own work, it’s almost enough to make me pop a blood vessel. I am quick to fix it if I can.

  31.4: Happenstance/Predestination: Do things “just happen” or do they happen for a reason? Are we on a rollercoaster which seems to be a crazy ride but is definitely on “track” or are we on the bumper car ride, with no direction at all save what happens when we turn the wheel?

  Reality is mostly too complex for us to know what will happen all the time. Depending upon our reaction to events, occurrances that were likely at one point will never happen afterwards. Things happen because of what has gone before. There are so many factors in why things have happened that it can be a real puzzle trying to figure it out, let alone if we try to discern what will happen based on unknown or as yet unlived events. There are many things beyond our control, but we mostly refer to them as natural disasters or “acts of god.” What is not beyond our control is how we react to them. In such circumstances, we can track what may occur after the event based on the choices we make in dealing with the event. Ripples of our actions move out from us and affect others who make choices based on their experiences and desires. The farther our ripples spread out, the harder it is to examine the long term ramifications of our choices. This is the butterfly effect, chaos theory. In the short term and microcosm, we can determine the most likely results of the choices we make when faced with unalterable or inscrutible events. What we cannot predict is how our actions or words may eventually affect others. We can only put out our best of intentions in our words and actions and hope the spirit of our desires will be taken to heart by others.  

  31.5: Write a “Dear Xanga” letter: Communicate with the “Xanga Gods”. I know you can actually contact John or other members of the Xanga team through their blogs, but compile a list of your likes and dislikes. Do you really like “Themes”? Do you have suggestions or criticisms of how the site works?

  Dear Xanga, I know the bare minimum of what it is possible to achieve with html, so I don’t know if my desires are even possible, but I wish there was some way to format tables within a post. Maybe there is and I just don’t know about it. It’d be kind of neat if we could post a picture and then type over it partially, or overlap pictures like a collage.

  I also wish I could track how long people stay on my site, so I’d know if my posts are grabbing their interest or if they are just clicking through after a glance.

  I wish I could upload my favorite songs to Xanga. I don’t understand why I shouldn’t be able to since I paid for them and I’m not reselling them. You’d think music companies would be happy for the free advertising. In fact, I wish that if we posted a link to something we were “currently listening to,” it would automatically create a link which would play from that cd when someone clicks on the post. If we posted a book we were currently reading, there should be an excerpt or there should be a way for us to post whatever excerpt that we fancy. It’d be kind of nifty if we could post other things which we are currently doing…. eating (and post a recipe or link to the brand… hey! would that make revenue for Xanga? Bonus)… creating artwise and have links to things that inspired the creation or supplies used…. or currently looking to buy, sell, trade (and have more interaction with our fellow Xangans). It’d be great if we could start a bartering system here since I think there are a lot of “grassroots,” back-to-the-basics type people here at Xanga who would participate. I’d love to start a book/music swap.

  It would be really cool if there was some kind of function which allowed us to search for pertinent links for our topics from the Weblog entry page, but that’s just the nerd in me talking. I usually just open up a separate google page and search from there. Still it would be convenient if mousing over a word would create a little popup with links on topics pertaining to the word. We could still use the “add link” button, but have the option of putting multiple links in there.

  okay… I think I’m done lol

  31.6:Politics: If you were running your country, what would you do to insure that things get better instead of worse?

  I would ensure that everyone had a voice and that all things were subject to public vote, not to representative vote. Having representatives is all well and good, but they don’t necessarily vote the way the people who voted for them would like. They have their own ideas about what is good for people. I would have representatives who do what the people dictate, not what they want to do. We have the computational ability to collect and utilize votes from the general public at least on a weekly basis. As more people get personal computers, it becomes even easier for a true democracy. Our representational system is currently rather unweildy. Public vote would be so much faster and truer to our supposedly democratic system. For those afraid of people hacking to alter the popular vote, I’d have an entire department like the CIA or FBI to police the voting system.

  As a rule, I would spend more money on education and healthcare than on the perpetuation of warfare. An educated populace is an informed populace, better able to think about and vote on the issues. It might make me unpopular, but I would alter how kids went to school. Children could start preschool and continue going through kindgarten parttime (morning or afternoon only) as some already do. Grades one through five would remain essentially unchanged, though I’d place greater emphasis on homework, kind of penalizing parents who didn’t make sure it got done by penalizing the kids. Starting in sixth grade though, I’d alter the schedules to be more like college semesters, without the long summer break, but with short breaks in between semesters, particularly during the holidays to make sure every religion got its due instead of just the Christians. Basically it would work out to the kids going to school about a month more than they do now, but the short breaks instead of the long one would ensure that the teachers were continuously employed and that the children forgot less between grades. Children would also have more supervision than they might normally if their parents work during the time the kids would normally be off during the summer and they would have at least one meal a day, which is another concern for low income families in the summer.

  31.7: Financial Straights: I recently read that I’m not the only one whose income doesn’t cover his monthly bills. Talk about your personal financial picture. Do you have advice or fears about the future, the falling value of some currencies (like the American dollar), recessions, the downward spiraling housing market, the fluctuations of the stock market, etc. Are you able to do anything to make your life better or to maintain your lifestyle in these seeming perilous times?

  Coming from a family which has always been lower middle class to poor, I’ve learned to stretch my dollars as far as they will go. I don’t buy new clothes aside from undergarments and shoes. If something is slightly damaged, I try to repare it or make do. I don’t have to have name brand anything, not clothes or food. Buying things dried or fresh is a lot cheaper than prepackaged, one-serving portions in the long run (and a lot healthier) if you’re willing to prepare the food and freeze it. I have one credit card and only ever have had one. If I get a new one with a lower credit rating, I cut up the old one and cancel it. I always pay a little extra on every bill (phone, car, insurance, credit card), even if it’s only to round it up to the nearest $10 bucks.

  I also have a little charm that I use to keep me from worrying about money. I have a little metal box where I put all silver coins as I find them. I also keep little worry people in the box and keep the box closed so none of the worries escape. The worry people worry about my money for me. I was feeling anxious about my money a little while ago and when I checked the box, I discovered that the lid had come open at the corner somehow. Since I fixed it, my worries have faded. I worry still if things are getting tight, but I don’t worry needlessly.

  31.8: Popular Xangans: I’ve been reading about how services like MySpace and YouTube are now being bombarded with “professionals”. Television stations, movie studios, stars, prominent writers all are establishing webpages on other services, and the established entertainment giants are getting lots of hits. I’ve even seen some “big stars” with blogs on  Xanga. I like the fact that “regular folks” can become extremely popular if they write or present something interesting and entertaining. Who are your “popular Xangans”. Whose blogs do you read because you want to read them, not just because you’re “exchanging comments?” If the commenting feature “disappeared” who would you still visit and read?

  I prefer not to say. I don’t want the people I subscribe to, but visit less, to feel hurt. I read a lot of people from my subscriptions page, but I don’t always visit to comment if I have nothing pertinent to say.

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  January 13th

  Frigg is honored today by her followers, the Freefolk from Frigefolc or “Frigg’s People.”

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  In Austria, the final Witchcraft laws were repealed in 1787.

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  • 1:04 pm
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