8.13.2005

Funny shit


Free to good Home
Originally uploaded by SoftStone.
This is a great photo from one of my contacts at Flickr, the best photo-sharing site on the internet. In my opinion. Which is correct. If you want to see my photos, click here.

8.10.2005

PWM Fiasco Revisted

Well, you may have read my tirade about local band Playing With Matches a few weeks ago. I'm revisiting this because I had a huge altercation with one of the mods from Mo Rawk (a local music messageboard), and the more I think about it, the more angry I get. So I decided to make this a multi-part blog post (and I need more posts, so nyah!).

After my blog entry, I knew I wasn't going to be satisfied with the hundred or so people who visit my blog every day, I needed everyone to know what PWM was doing, and hopefully inspire a movement against arrogant no-talent assclowns upstaging the band(s) people paid to see. Where, I thought to myself during my morning blood-letting sacrifice to pagan gods, could I post a message that would be seen by the people it would matter the most to, the kids in the music "scene" here in Springfield. Ahh, the Evil One must have been pleased with my offerings, because - BAM! - inspiration: Mo Rawk, our local music scene messageboard. Ye-ah! I rushed to my computer (concientiously wiping the blood off my hands) and registered for an account at once.

At the registration screen, I was buffeted by the canned disclaimer that phpBB packages with its BBS software...South Park styly, I clicked "I agree and am over or exactly 13 years of age" (like 10 years ago). There I chose my screen name (can you guess?), entered my information, and waited for the confirmation email. As soon as I had it in my hot little Gmail inbox, I activated my account and got ready to post in the "Music & Culture" topic.

Okay, if you know me, you probably know my most favorite word is "fuck," and not in a slutty way (at least, not all the time). But, because I was posting to a public forum, I held my tongue on the f-word, because, hey, there might be kids listening. Besides, I'm not so self-absorbed that I think everyone wants to hear (or read) me saying fuck every third word. Or agrees with my opinions, for that matter. The most profane word I posted on Mo Rawk was "assclown." Which I think describes PWM perfectly. C'mon, "assclown" is totally PG-13!

I also posted a poll, and this was a piece of work, if I do say so myself:

Do you think the local band Playing With Matches are assclowns?

  1. Yes
  2. Yes, but their music is ok.
  3. No
  4. Who?
  5. They're a band? That's supposed to be music coming out of those amps?!
  6. No, and I don't appreciate you having an opinion.
So, along with a toned-down yet still angry version of my blog post, I had this poll. I'm not stupid; I knew I was going to get reamed by PWM fans (all 5 of them) after they got out of school, but I wasn't expecting what actually happened. I received a message from one of the mods in the forum about my post:
From: Helmut Grokenberger
To: xtoq
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 9:43 am
Subject: posts

Thanks for your input to the board, I checked out your blog and I agree with you on the PWM scenario, however. I had to edit some of your post.

We try to draw the line at personal "attacks" and namecalling, or else things get a little crazy. I do not object to the topic of sharing opinions no PWM, but please keep the "ass clown" stuff out of it.

Thanks and hope you post more.

If you have any questions, please PM be back.

_________________
Here we are in our summer years / Living on icecream and chocolate kisses

Pretty civilized and polite, eh? I thought so too, and not just because he agreed with me. Okay, that was a little of it, but take that sentance out and its still a professional way to handle an "offensive" post on a public messageboard. Presented this way, Mr. Grokenberger could have completely deleted my post and banned me from posting and I wouldn't have been angry, I would have been cowed. Which I was anyway, even though he simply deleted the poll and all mentions of the word "assclown." My main beef was what PWM did, and I'm articulate enough to express myself without excess profanity. I responded immediately:
From: xtoq
To: Helmut Grokenberger
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 10:01 am
Subject: Re: posts

Thanks, sorry, guess I didn't read the rules too closely. I understand.

_________________
There is absolutely no evidence to support the theory that life is serious.

Next episode: the mod from HELL.

8.08.2005

Subdivisions are the new trees

Everywhere I go, I am beseiged by the sight of "development." They are "developing" nature into suburbia. Just today, I drove by a driveway with an old house at the end of it, bulldozers knocking on the door. Its neighbors were six-figure cookie cutters arranged eighteen inches apart on a couple of dozen acres. Shit, they could fit five houses on the generous lot of the farm house. Did someone really build and care for this house only to have it demolished because it was a square peg in a round hole?

I live in a rural area, where agriculture is the primary means of support. Families have been farming and raising livestock in this area for over two hundred years, passing their land and possessions down through the generations. Now, with agriculture in the slump that it is, big-time developers are coming forward and offering farmers and their families crazy amounts of money for their prime farm land. They buy thousands of acres of forest, forest that is just beginning to recover from massive logging trauma in the late 19th century, then tear down the trees, build a million houses, and plant trees. Why? Those trees will take at least a decade to be of any use to the owners. Wouldn't one or two of those trees be useful, or God forbid, asthetically pleasing?

If you can't agree with anything else, agree with this: if you pay six figures for a house, your yard should be at least as big as the square footage of your home. Burn suburbia!