The Internet: Walking on eggshells

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa

originally posted by: Staygaf
I feel like I can't speak truth about anything anymore.

Mate, your biggest mistake might be that you've convinced yourself you actually possess the "truth".

We're all born, grow old well trying to make ends meat, then eventually we die... any claims of "truth" in between that reality, is in fact just pure speculation.

Well maybe he DOESN'T have it, or maybe he is a lot closer than you think and is feeling the RESISTANCE.

Your biggest mistake is you actually believe it cannot be found.

It would take me less than a billionth of a second to see the difference and choose who I would want to speak too........

originally posted by: NthOther
Precisely the reason ATS needs to bring back the ability for members to block others who are known trolls, professional thread disruptors, and the like.

The speech-chilling tactics of the statist-humanists were amusing for a short while.

Now they're just completely f# annoying, and destructive to the quality of online discourse.

Well since they speech-chilled the site owners and the rest of the internet with VERY stern warnings, that likely is not going to happen.

But they are going to lose BADLY anyways.

The internet is itself a progressive thing (a good word actually when it's removed from red versus blue insanity) because it brings a new level of transparency to human culture. It can (can) destroy boundaries between people - it's also a mirror that shows us (forces us really) how ugly or beautiful we can be - it presents us the complexity of the human race and smashes the thought that humans can only be 'this' way or 'that' way. I think we're starting to figure this out as a species - it makes people stir crazy that want a simpler world to live in (something that's not happening whether you like it or not).

IMO had the reality of the internet and its future implications been fully realized at the beginning - we would have never had it.

And on truth - is that my truth, your truth, liberal truth, conservative truth, the seven billion plus odd random truths on the planet within every human mind, or what's actually true?

originally posted by: Staygaf
-- snip --
Quite often while I'm jumping around forums I'll find threads where it's like people are pushing the agenda. I get tempted to weigh in but past experiences online has taught me that if i share my opinion, which to me is the truth and facts of reality based on experience, that I'll often get verbally attacked with nonsense and banned.
-- snip --

You also mentioned your sense of humor. Without a doubt, I can identify with your post. Lately it seems like nobody has a sense of humor. Each interaction feels like a risk of bumping heads with someone with a big ol' chip on their shoulder. I'm always willing, at the very least, to listen to someone else's opinion and then take a bit to think about it. Even if I don't agree, I don't automatically write them off as being "wrong." Too much of that goes on.

That was the source of another of my "CornShuckerisms", "You know what they say about opinions... Every *sshole seems to have one!"

You have to consider the opinions of others in life. The smartest person in the world is ignorant of something. That's what irks me when I see someone being criticized for "flip-flopping" on something based on a comment they made years in the past. In my opinion (there's that word again), the inability to evaluate new information in terms of what you already think you know and adjust your views appropriately is a form of mental illness.

I've been trying for the last ten years, at least, to source this quotation with little luck but I love quotes that boil big meaning into as few words as possible. This applies to being convinced that a person's "individual truth" is "The Truth."

"Only a madman has never doubted his sanity." - (Voltaire???)

originally posted by: BigBrotherDarkness
ive been on the internet since suction cup modems that one stuck a rotary phone into...

So let me give some history...
-- snip --

Thank you for that!

I don't feel so alone, anymore... 300 baud Hayes & Compuserve? It made working overtime mandatory.

One of my first "jobs" in IT was as volunteer sysop for the Atari sub-forum on the Computer Discount Warehouse BBS. They didn't have any equipment or personnel to ride herd on it so I stepped up. Wasn't even compensated for the long distance charges but by then I had my 9600 Hayes so it wasn't ridiculously expensive.

I wonder what ever happened to Keith Leadbetter(sp?).

To stay on topic:

One attitude that I DON'T agree with is that of a guy on another (now defunct) forum that was responding to a bunch of other members about his over-the-top obnoxious attitude. He said, "Who gives a F***? It's the Internet!!"

I'm in agreement with SisterDelirium, I never deliberately hurt anyone whether on the 'Net or out here in the physical world. If it turns out that I've unintentionally offended someone, I'm quick to give a sincere apology. That said, I'm not a doormat for anyone, either.

originally posted by: SisterDelirium
a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

That was absolutely glorious. And wow, nostalgia. I remember IRC and newsgroups and must give you big fat brownie points for mentioning Zork!

:

Your post has me walking on sunshine, unless of course theres no actual brownies then shame on you... are you saying my butt looks big of not? Now if there are actual brownies? Can I pls haz one of the corner pieces as dried out and burnt and carcingenic as possible? Thats the most tastee of all pieces because it embraces ones mortality and has some bite to it and makes life worth living... like a big thick cracker brownie.

Of course people oh noes what about cancer and health? None of us are going to live forever so stop playing I like my risk... and if I accidentally lose a finger on a circular saw? Just like whoa cancer im not going to waste peoples money and have no frankenstien finger all John Wayne Bobbit style to make porn with... I will apply pressure wrap that sucker up til the heart beat goes out of it give it a quick scald and wash, then bandage it up and then get to stare at my sweet nub and remember the valuable lesson learned in using that ting a bit more safely adapating to adversity is evolution... running to the ER going insurance kiss it and make it better and btw opiates are great thanks FDA for being a legal pusher and thanks DEA for keeping it on the downlow so big pharma can make it into an over medicated zombie state that doesnt think.

Brownie points thought Id look past the finger on that one? Ha!

The truth is illegal. It's also illegal to criticize any race but white people are open season always. If you even try to have any dialogue on these topics you are a racist. It's also illegal to be patriotic and love our flag and country. I don't hate any race but I can't even address problems that I have seen or encountered. We are already in prison. You just can't see the bars yet.

a reply to: CornShucker

Oh youre quite welcome... name dropping baud modems? It was actually some no named black brick government hardware business since my uncle worked on a military base and before auctions used to throw everything in a huge pile or dump and then burn the hell out of it... he would go there having clearance and plunder like a 3rd world child.

Did you have to make your own punch cards? One of my college professors hated that, everyone had to always make their own punch cards in the big tape reel to reel days... im sure that one fembot on futurama brings tears to his eyes.

But yeah, ive no criminal record never even been arrested... been peppered by an a hole cop because I said it was private property without any no skateboarding signs... he gave me a dose of respect my over stepping my authoratae then bailed because he knew he was wrong.

But anyway, its about freedom and all this fear mongering and trying to make what was an entire free space to be anything or anyone wanted away from the structured into nothing but structured are of course going to irritate every one on the web before all of that... and of course thats not a wise thing to poke the the hive calling it your hunny when the very people that blazed the trail maintain all of it for them...

Its silliness and it doesnt have to be so serious but coming at everything seriously is a serious problem... especially when the god of the internet has 9 lives and is a feline entity if anyone ever wondered why cats rule the internet its because they are calm cool and collected yo, but mind that under belly.

a reply to: corkUSMC

Youre free to spite those chains, tats why lady liberty out in the harbor has walked out of oppression and broken hers yet those fancy braclets are a reminder of the past she walked out of... and heres a ton of people trying to reattac them out of greed? Shame on them.

originally posted by: Staygaf
Does anyone else feel similar?
I feel like I can't speak truth about anything anymore.

Nope. Speak your mind. Who cares if someone is offended? Being offended isn't a crime and that's their problem, not yours.

So long as you're not trying to incite violence or infringe on the freedoms of others, what's the big deal?

I say lots of things that people don't like. Like...

- Young criminals should be stripped naked and kept in isolation for 2 weeks, see if that changes their perspective.
- I believe Israel is just as bad if not worse than those countries they themselves accuse of atrocities and I have no sympathy for them.
- I'm pro choice and I couldn't care less at what stage a woman decides to terminate a birth.
- I think organised religion is for scared, frightened children.
- The earth is round, not flat; it isn't hollow and not run by Reptile people or the Annubukakke aliens.

Speak your mind. People won't like it. But who cares?

originally posted by: BigBrotherDarkness
a reply to: CornShucker
-- snip --
Did you have to make your own punch cards? One of my college professors hated that, everyone had to always make their own punch cards in the big tape reel to reel days... im sure that one fembot on futurama brings tears to his eyes.
-- snip --

I haven't but my employer/professor of years gone by related many stories of the horrors of punch card programming and waiting your turn to "feed the beast." For someone who had nearly NO sense of humor, I was surprised at the story he told of the time he'd been given the assignment of a priority project. None of his co-workers were in on it, so you can imagine the reaction when his stack of cards "got away from him" and went flying as he was on the way from his office.

I AM old enough though to remember the ominous warning not to "Fold, Spindle or Mutilate".

Just to stay on topic, I HAVE become more cautious about some topics on the 'Net. The first time you have to have your cable modem replaced because of external attacks could be a coincidence but the second time, especially if there is reason to believe there might be a pattern, I counted myself lucky and have been a good boy ever since!

a reply to: CornShucker

Theres a backdoor through the bios from the very drivers themselves... no system is secure. Take over your own bios and delete those drivers through DOS then ip config release or renew install not blah drivers it varies by DOS version do that and theyll brick the damned thing and lock your bios... thats all windows is or was btw graphics on top of DOS commands... I hated it so much I dropped out of computer engineering with one class left... 30 mintues to boot on state of the art... class was nearly over before the stupid thing even fired up when a shell program took 10 mintues to write and boom instant load whatever program on the hard disk.

But oh man I hope he wrote an order for those cards to be in... talk about hanging chad determinations.

How it is now even if you have an operating system, its clouded and youre on a virtual machine... through that nice youre an idiot system called remote assistance protocol they can sit there and watch your screen and record it like television.

weeee transparency.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

Your post has me walking on sunshine, unless of course theres no actual brownies then shame on you... are you saying my butt looks big of not? Now if there are actual brownies? Can I pls haz one of the corner pieces as dried out and burnt and carcingenic as possible? Thats the most tastee of all pieces because it embraces ones mortality and has some bite to it and makes life worth living... like a big thick cracker brownie.

While burnt, carcingenic brownies are my specialty (owing partially to forgetfulness), alas, there are no real brownies. I've learned from my children's school that giving out brownies of any kind is a punishable offense (an act even more terrible and terrifying than handing out birthday party invitations to the whole class). No, these are only virtual brownies, which can only be mentally consumed once the proper permission slips/waivers have been signed in triplicate and reviewed by the staff of at least one Vogon Destroyer after a poetry slam.

Of course people oh noes what about cancer and health? None of us are going to live forever so stop playing I like my risk... and if I accidentally lose a finger on a circular saw? Just like whoa cancer im not going to waste peoples money and have no frankenstien finger all John Wayne Bobbit style to make porn with... I will apply pressure wrap that sucker up til the heart beat goes out of it give it a quick scald and wash, then bandage it up and then get to stare at my sweet nub and remember the valuable lesson learned in using that ting a bit more safely adapating to adversity is evolution... running to the ER going insurance kiss it and make it better and btw opiates are great thanks FDA for being a legal pusher and thanks DEA for keeping it on the downlow so big pharma can make it into an over medicated zombie state that doesnt think.

I somewhat routinely play with band-saws and lasers. I have yet to get any cool scars or opiates, sadly. Although, every time I see my GP (who diligently studied and graduated, I believe, bottom of his class in the West Indies while on vacation a few years back) he does complain about the fact I haven't requested any of the funner drugs during my visits. I'm always wondering silly things like why the hematologist wants to do a leukemia and lymphoma panel or what those lumps are or why I'm coughing blood and not asking for Oxycontin or for a nice codeine cough syrup instead. So, I can't say the opiates are out of reach, just that I haven't been offered any for a lost appendage.

But if I did, I'd probably want some kind of cool bionic replacement more than opiates. Not for porn, though. That'd just be weird and cut down on my virtual brownie baking.

a reply to: SisterDelirium

So I do have a big butt! I knew it... so big it needs release forms? Chutulu lied that 3 eyed squid bastard... still a sweetheart though as hes always got a tight grip on things.

Eh when I got a huge cold pocket of wind stuck in my shoulder joint this past winter... I was given some of those things, took about a quarter of them and upped the warming foods to pull the cold wind out and that worked like a charm. So 3/4 of em hanging out for in case crap... Ive a very high tolerance for pain so some thresholds you get used to and that tolerance just builds and builds and builds as the middle ground always shifts over time of getting used to adversity instead of whinning about it... as in full on kick the edge of a coffe table walking by flipping the nail and its like reflexes jump back occurance too late then surveying the damage to see if walking around getting blood everywhere is an inconvienance that needs fixing.

But bionic parts? Dang I used to have tom bosley on speed dial he could have for sure gotten ahold of Steve Austin not the wrestler that knows exactly what the Rock was cooking... but yeah the dunnna dunnna dunnna noise when jumping around one he might have been able to Jamie Summers you some um bionic brownie tins or some sort of time keeping device that makes a noise or something that could alert or alarm of sorts...

But anyway thanks for the brownie thoughts but ill just keep my big butt to myself... oh that reminds me since the topic keeps butting in... I did insinuate some forum guys when I modded a chopper web site should go on mass produced multi branded sites and ask questions about their motorcycle seats... like does any know if this will make my butt look big? I dont know if they did but it was kinda a hoot at the time, sorry that was a bit random.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness
a reply to: SisterDelirium

What a nice way to start my day! Laughter is the most cost effective medication ever invented. For years I've made it a point to share a smile with at least one stranger a day. They cost me nothing and pay dividends somewhere down the line whether I see them of not. (It's always a bit sad to see someone so overwhelmed by what society has become that they don't know how to respond to a genuine smile. Just like saying thank you to someone working the cash register. Had a lady start crying on me! When I told her I hadn't meant to upset her, she told me she wasn't upset. She had worked there three years and that was the first time a customer had ever said thank you...)

I do plead guilty to being a bit on the puckish side with my humor, though.

Back when I was still young and foolish (I'm much older now), a friend of mine made it his mission to try and get me into cognitive therapy (as a profession not a customer. My wife doesn't pay me $125 an hour to lay on the couch, I'm not about to pay someone else to lay on theirs!).

Some of the professionals he introduced me to seemed nice enough, I guess, but I kept thinking, if they were that reserved sitting at a table sharing burgers, beer & talk, their day jobs of listening to endless tales of woe & personal turmoil might possibly have damaged the ability to "turn it off" at quitting time and just be normal (whatever that is) people.

The preceding was to give the context in which this happened. We'd been there a while and drank a few and shared some stories and I said:

"What I don't get is this whole responsibility thing... It hasn't been so long ago that I've forgotten what school was like and, besides, every time the school calls the house one of my kids is responsible."

Suddenly it was like everybody found a baby Butterfinger floating in their beer!

Btw, I gave up on the idea. We couldn't afford for me to go back to school, plus I don't think I'm cut out for that kind of work, I'm too much of an empath. I'd never be able to be detached enough to survive long.

Oh Yeah!! Almost forgot again! (They told me the memory goes first, just can't remember who...) I forgot the most important part of my former employer/professor story. The stack of punch cards that went flying were all old, unrelated cards he'd been saving up for just that type of situation. Regardless of what I thought of the guy as a person, I readily admit that he WAS a brilliant programmer. He'd become frustrated at how management gave run of the mill stuff to others, for the most part, and always came to him in an emergency. That was the inspiration for his fumbled punch card stunt. The actual program was safely back in his office. (Like I said. I'd never seen that side of him so it made the story just that much funnier. Needless to say, he caused a major disruption in the office. Really lucky he didn't cause any heart attacks or strokes! [Big Grin])

a reply to: CornShucker

Odd I dont know were you live but it sounds as if people are either so convoluted about their past or too busy with mind going whats next they forget the moment right then and there and forget common courtesy... and people are concerned about unfeeling unthinking robots taking jobs?(seems like that could be anywhere though right) of course thats about as bad as the fake putting on airs type plastic smile and thank you instead of a genuine heart felt one. Glad your day got a kickstart on the right foot to get things in gear for a nice day.

Sometimes I think thats why some men all all about some womens rights... if women are equal fellas hey hey we get hung up in that meat market deli and dont have to try so hard or is it lie so hard these days? Ive been gilded caged several times, but thats been appreciation of skills, like no issue cleaning gutters, or keeping their motor running, like a good male Donna Reed with cooking skills Betty Crocker would faint over... of course some of that is washing enuendos... as that all a couple wanted a muse to sit or hangout and look sexy for me. Women have tons of lessons and if men would learn to stfu and take that medicine theyd be a billion times better than they think they are already.

Well in any profession requiring a heart its good people that manage that tug and stick it out... I know several nurses, they manage that by having a very active life of hobbies to push that emotion, one performs cabaret and acting in indy films, one loves baking and video games... but they have a life outside of that work. So kinda odd employers etc want to horn in on that private life like they own you 24/7 and if they dont agree with who you are fire you out of bias, just the same way you said do they take their professon with them after they punch out... its seems thats what corporations of various types are expecting them to do... if it was a passion then likely thats all theyd do, but not everyone employed is working their passion, they are unhappy unsatisfied and just trying to make ends meet the best they can... and those that just do that come home and stare at the tv, drink, yell at kids or slap a wife... are hating the very responsibility they themselves chose... then end up going 3 years without thanking someone at a register.

Sad but true... when obviously its easier to whine and lash out instead of use that spare time of unwinding by getting more wound up only to pop and lose their proverbial sheight, to hone a skill or hobby they have an interest in and build it as a transition to someting else... if college takes 4 to 10 years and 10s of thousands of dollars imagine if they slowly invested in themselves over tat amount of time and didnt have to pay that much to do it? Then theyre living the quote DREAM.

Some very stern sorts have a very passive agressive side and some of them dont use it to lash out in a child like ouch my repressed feelings... but point to actually how valuable they are when being taken for granted. The strange thing as been for the longest time... those paid the most do the least amount of work, and those paid the least do the most work or at least the hardest. Lemme sit here with my drunk feet on a desk and wait for corporate to call and say are they on time and meeting budget yup click then saunter around the whole place like they own it for a few 100k or more a year(thanks fraternity I owe you one) its kinda rediculous but the opposite of that whole entrenched nonsense is the progressive business and those yelling at the TV are pandered to support that whole entrenched scheme.

Sigh... you had to go and mention psychology, and yes its better to be an armchair sort when doing so... cause laying down on the job can get you fired unless its one of those sicko types with hidden cameras taking advantage of the emotionally distraught and weak willed or addicted and thats the price... not much difference in sociopaths seeking a psychological degree than child molesters trying to get jobs near children. Those are of course the hidden hobbies that rarely make it to facebook pages or twitter... that everyone blames on lack o morals when its just as mentally ill as belief.

Turns over carton... hmmm no eggs at least the tempura now has a pallette, walking on the shells purposefully however can build character.

now to insert a happy lil beer right there

a reply to: Staygaf

Yes. I find that I can't say all I want on here because most are just too PC. Can't do it on FB, because I work with people, and some are gay. That could get me fired.
I do however cross over on ATS and say a few things that are not popular. Make a thread called "Worst ATS Posters"...I will be at the top of that list, I assure you. Popularity is popular, however things that are not popular are just considered anti-PC. Only stupid people fall for that government tactic.