Buttons: Bullies, Trolls

I finally figured out why, exactly, I am so unforgiving and hostile towards those who troll, and even those who think trolling is hilarious. It's a form of online bullying.

As one of the children who was always less well socialized than her peers in grade school and middle school, I was one of the ones who was singled out for taunting that a child who was less easily wound up would have ignored. I didn't know how to deal with this shit, and I got wound up about it and angrily tried to verbally defend myself, and I always came out the worse for it, unless I used words that the junior asshats didn't understand, and then I still came out the worse for it.

The only time I was ever physically bullied was when one kid punched me in the 6th grade (the local pathological liar, another common target of bullies and a bully himself), and I made myself get a cold the next day so I wouldn't have to face him on the bus.

Just because trolling by taunting the easily wound-up isn't face-to-face doesn't make it not bullying.

I'm trying very hard right now to not go on the offensive and try to tear trolls new ones, because that won't accomplish much of anything. I'm just sickened by people who get their entertainment from bullying the easily wound-up.

Eris vs. Troll

I see a clear distinction between the actions of a troll and the actions of a pure prankster. The goal of a troll is to incite others to fury, outrage, annoyance, bitterness, making the troll's targets look like overwrought prats (which in some cases they definitely can be). A pure prank, an MIT-style hack, is to let loose some silliness in as elegant as possible a fashion.

And as obnoxious as Raven can be when He's fucking with me, He's always got a lesson in there, and I just have to be sharp enough to catch it.

Walking/workout Monday

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Fascinating.

http://www.joinmycult.org

Wheee!

Sorcha's here! Sorcha's here! And she's sweeeeeeeeeet.

Now we're gonna set up Neo as gateway... Party time! LAN party time!

Yaaaagh. *headdesk*

1. Never trust the errors that a computer illiterate is telling you. Always double-check the errors that someone else is getting before taking drastic measures, especially when the someone is not familiar with computers.

2. Never expect a monitor to work properly if the computer is set up to expect a larger monitor.

3. Insist that you do too know better than the non-computer-specialist on a computer specialist issue, even if you have to force the issue and it makes him pout/whine/cry/throw a tantrum.

4. Use tact when saying "I told you so" when the bogus install of Windows XP does too go inactive after 30 days, rather than sailing along merrily without registration. Fail to bitchslap the one you're saying "I told you so" to.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

elance got her visa, and she'll be moving to Scotland to be with her husband!

Oh, I'm so very glad!

Wedding dress on E-Bay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4146756343

Like iroshi said, it's a decent dress, but the commentary is to die for.

The fellow's commentary, for when the auction ends...
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YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Computer errors out the wazoo.

So I try and share what model DSL modem I've got with simoncion over AIM. This trips off a comedy of errors -- the modem unplugs itself, causing an error, which cascades into a memory dump, which forces a restart, which forces a reconnect to the 'net, which takes about eight minutes now.

So I'm IMing simoncion with an explanation of all this happy shit, and of course without me even touching the modem, it unsafely unplugs itself (again) and then happily reconnects. I make angry noises, ...ah, and it looks like my whole USB hub is out. Just peachy.

*saves thing using keystrokes, takes apart spaghetti-mess of devices*

Phone Post

Heart in a box...

After today, a frustrating, head-pounding day, filled with screaming and other tasty little fun things like lack of proper drivers, lack of Windows CDs, lack of registry codes, dead hardware, stubborn kids, stinky cats, clue-negative would-be sysadmins, and far too much time on the phone with tech support and too many transfers, and much too much slamming of fist into open palm in the "zen" position (rock like an avalanche, baby...) ... I called Darkside and let go.

He knows me. I trust him. He made me smile. I forwarded him a job opportunity that I've been too busy to try and snag (but I'm planning on it, trust me).

I'm patched.