busy busy burbling (and a rambling rant)
Oct. 28th, 2003 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciroccoj::happy sigh::
Tuesday is my "Good MORNING!! How would you like to start off the day with 3 straight hours of Contracts and PROPERTY?!" day.
Which is normally enough, in and of itself, to put me in a pissy mood. And yet it's been a good day anyway :)
For one thing, Chris came in to my Property class, where our prof was wrapping up IP, and was pretty interested in it. Then we had lunch together, then went to the Rideau Centre, went to the Body Shop, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkles, Chapter's, and finished off the afternoon with an incredible sushi in the Rideau Centre food court. It was like a date, in the middle of the day.
Partway through the date I realized how nice it was to feel energetic and interested in stuff. And capable of doing things, where I've felt helpless and overwhelmed for so long. Looking back on lj entries, there's quite a few "accomplished" mood icons, because I can look back on my day and realize I've actually achieved quite a bit.
And I can look forward to being at home for the rest of the afternoon and getting stuff done - doing the second coat of paint in the boys' room, finishing some readings, laundry, finishing the costumes, etc. Without having to drag myself to do any of it. It's a wonderful feeling.
On the not so wonderful side, I've been reminded yet again of why me and online discussion groups just don't mix.
Very polite comment from one of the moderators on the Alhena discussion that I got bitchy in the other day, which pretty much cemented my nebulous wish not to return to the board. It's a nice place, and I've had fun, and there's plenty of very nice people there, but I've been getting increasingly disturbed by the racism and ignorance of some of the frequent posters and... enough. Don't have time to deal with this kind of thing.
What I found particularly interesting was that the comment had to do with "off-topic"-ness. A general discussion had turned political, I took issue with some of the political opinions, was told that my answer was off-topic (because apparently the initial opinion was not), and... yeah.
And one of the things that really made me think was in response to me saying that "... mostly I'm angry that this keeps coming up, in topic after topic, and nobody says anything about it. Because bringing up the 'fact' that whites, men, etc are oppressed is 'on-topic'. But arguing against it is not."
The response was, "The lack of response to comments briefly made in various threads probably is to respect the thread originator in keeping the thread on-topic, and not because anyone agrees or disagrees with the comment made. But it also might indicate the others didn't feel strongly enough about the topic to put forth the effort for a whole new thread."
Hm. That's food for thought. And she's probably right. Nobody else does seem to find those kinds of statements offensive, if the utter lack of response is any indicator. I'm not sure "wishing to respect the moderator's opinions" is a reason, because frankly... a whole heck of a lot of discussions end up having little or nothing to do with the original thread, and people don't seem to mind.
Another thing that made me think: I was quite aware that I was getting rather more personal than I usually get in these discussions, because frankly I was sick of (trying to) take the high road. Other posters regularly put out statements like... well, like, "Nor is now the time for me to bring up that the topic of blacks getting reparations for slavery is the biggest load of shit I've ever seen attempted to be shoveled." Somehow, they're not seen as "personal". Even though many of them, frankly, have hurt or insulted me personally, because I happen to believe in the political stance being ridiculed. But when I turned it around and commented that I felt those statements showed a remarkable ignorance, that was seen as personal.
Interesting. "Focussing on racism all the time is a load of shit" = not personal. "Thinking that focussing on racism is a load of shit is ignorant" = personal. I see.
Anyway. Link to the whole sorry discussion here. It started innocently enough as a discussion about Dr. Skoda's comment on L&O that "male opinions can't be expressed ... their visceral behavior is no longer tolerated".
BTW, if anybody thinks I'm saying this is a bad board, I'm not. I know I've expressed frustration about it before, but really - it's fine, mostly. There's interesting discussion about Law & Order, politics, current events, even (a teeny bit) of fanfic. If anybody bothers to follow the link, take a look around. It's a cool board, mostly, especially if you're just lurking.
It's just not for me. I don't have the time.
Well. That was longer than I expected. Must go paint room now, get back to happy thoughts :)
Tuesday is my "Good MORNING!! How would you like to start off the day with 3 straight hours of Contracts and PROPERTY?!" day.
Which is normally enough, in and of itself, to put me in a pissy mood. And yet it's been a good day anyway :)
For one thing, Chris came in to my Property class, where our prof was wrapping up IP, and was pretty interested in it. Then we had lunch together, then went to the Rideau Centre, went to the Body Shop, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkles, Chapter's, and finished off the afternoon with an incredible sushi in the Rideau Centre food court. It was like a date, in the middle of the day.
Partway through the date I realized how nice it was to feel energetic and interested in stuff. And capable of doing things, where I've felt helpless and overwhelmed for so long. Looking back on lj entries, there's quite a few "accomplished" mood icons, because I can look back on my day and realize I've actually achieved quite a bit.
And I can look forward to being at home for the rest of the afternoon and getting stuff done - doing the second coat of paint in the boys' room, finishing some readings, laundry, finishing the costumes, etc. Without having to drag myself to do any of it. It's a wonderful feeling.
On the not so wonderful side, I've been reminded yet again of why me and online discussion groups just don't mix.
Very polite comment from one of the moderators on the Alhena discussion that I got bitchy in the other day, which pretty much cemented my nebulous wish not to return to the board. It's a nice place, and I've had fun, and there's plenty of very nice people there, but I've been getting increasingly disturbed by the racism and ignorance of some of the frequent posters and... enough. Don't have time to deal with this kind of thing.
What I found particularly interesting was that the comment had to do with "off-topic"-ness. A general discussion had turned political, I took issue with some of the political opinions, was told that my answer was off-topic (because apparently the initial opinion was not), and... yeah.
And one of the things that really made me think was in response to me saying that "... mostly I'm angry that this keeps coming up, in topic after topic, and nobody says anything about it. Because bringing up the 'fact' that whites, men, etc are oppressed is 'on-topic'. But arguing against it is not."
The response was, "The lack of response to comments briefly made in various threads probably is to respect the thread originator in keeping the thread on-topic, and not because anyone agrees or disagrees with the comment made. But it also might indicate the others didn't feel strongly enough about the topic to put forth the effort for a whole new thread."
Hm. That's food for thought. And she's probably right. Nobody else does seem to find those kinds of statements offensive, if the utter lack of response is any indicator. I'm not sure "wishing to respect the moderator's opinions" is a reason, because frankly... a whole heck of a lot of discussions end up having little or nothing to do with the original thread, and people don't seem to mind.
Another thing that made me think: I was quite aware that I was getting rather more personal than I usually get in these discussions, because frankly I was sick of (trying to) take the high road. Other posters regularly put out statements like... well, like, "Nor is now the time for me to bring up that the topic of blacks getting reparations for slavery is the biggest load of shit I've ever seen attempted to be shoveled." Somehow, they're not seen as "personal". Even though many of them, frankly, have hurt or insulted me personally, because I happen to believe in the political stance being ridiculed. But when I turned it around and commented that I felt those statements showed a remarkable ignorance, that was seen as personal.
Interesting. "Focussing on racism all the time is a load of shit" = not personal. "Thinking that focussing on racism is a load of shit is ignorant" = personal. I see.
Anyway. Link to the whole sorry discussion here. It started innocently enough as a discussion about Dr. Skoda's comment on L&O that "male opinions can't be expressed ... their visceral behavior is no longer tolerated".
BTW, if anybody thinks I'm saying this is a bad board, I'm not. I know I've expressed frustration about it before, but really - it's fine, mostly. There's interesting discussion about Law & Order, politics, current events, even (a teeny bit) of fanfic. If anybody bothers to follow the link, take a look around. It's a cool board, mostly, especially if you're just lurking.
It's just not for me. I don't have the time.
Well. That was longer than I expected. Must go paint room now, get back to happy thoughts :)
