Sparticus

I'm getting really tired of privacy issues on the internet. Being in a position where I may one day be working with minors I hear a great deal of conflicting instructions, but the one I am going to talk about is the issue of being somebody.

We talk a lot in the Education Department about being a person, being relatable, being careful, being conservative, being experimental, being professional, being ourselves, and so on. So, where does that put me? Am I supposed to be careful of every little thing that I post on the internet? I haven't got any posts of illegal drug use, pornography, hate crimes (at least I don't think my "People I Hate" segments are considered hate crimes) or illegal activity (someone took down the picture of us walking left out of a parking lot that had a Right Turn Only sign), so what's the big deal? Sure, I drink and I swear and I make the occasional wild accusation, but the people that don't do that kind of stuff are the people who hide the fact that they do. So, should I join the conservatives and the cowards and try and erase my existence on the internet? I have two problems with that.
1) I'm not that good at the internet. It'd be like trying to clean up an oil spill with my bare hands.
2) Fuck that!
Why should I spend the time and effort to make myself digitally invisible? Why should the only information be an e-portfolio? Should I make all of my friends and colleagues sign confidentiality agreements before I act like myself? If we're going to let our potential employers dictate how we act, then we let them dictate who we are. And if we all tried to present ourselves as hard working, innovative, creative, involved cardboard cutouts, then future employers will just have to dig deeper to find out who you really are.

Many of you may already know my opinions on public and even private surveillance, but for those of you who don't, here's the truth: we all do things we wouldn't want other people to see. We all do things that we think separate us from everyone else. But, when everyone is doing something wrong, who's to say that it is wrong? If we were all seen as ourselves, then all the 'unacceptable' things that we do would be entirely normal.

So wouldn't it be great if we all let ourselves be who we are? What are our future employers going to do? Not hire anyone? The problem is, "I am Sparticus" doesn't work in this case when some people don't participate. Those people are fake. But maybe that's what you have to do to play the game.

People I Hate Part 5

People who say "Ciao!"

Go fuck yourselves.

You're not Italian, and you sure as shit don't actually speak fucking Italian, so get off your high horse, tone down the pomposity, and stop acting like you're so fucking worldly because you say goodbye the way the Italians do!

After a little wiki-research I have found that a number of cultures use a similar sounding word to say goodbye, but it still doesn't make you fucking worldly! Just because you've been somewhere doesn't mean you're suddenly a part of that culture. You're still a North American, and your still an asshole.

In fact, the part that makes you an asshole is that everybody fucking does it. "Ciao" is so prevalent in our society that some sources would say that the word has been adopted into the English language, and that pisses me off.

I'm not afraid to be proud and say that we have a culture! We have a great number and variety of ways to say goodbye! We say goodbye, later, see ya, so long, talk to you later, peace, catch you on the flip side, and an incredible variety of deviations within that small list (see "catch you on the flippy floppy"). Ciao is not our word.

And if you are going to steal a parting phrase from another language, then pick something original! If someone said "auf wiedersehen" before they hung up, I'd let it go. I might even find the novelty entertaining! But seriously, "Ciao" has about as much novelty as Nicholas Cage.

I fucking bet Nick Cage says "ciao."

Race and Racism

Okay, I'm sick to fucking death of this. I found this picture on the internet and it's supposed to be hilarious.
Okay, seriously, guys. "There's no race but the human race" is fucking bullshit! Does no one else realize this? It's a system of description! When you use it to be prejudicial, it's racism, and that's bad. But when it's a fucking question on the census, it's just a question! If the census asked you what type of hair you had, you wouldn't say "I have hair! The only hair is hair! It doesn't matter what kind of hair we have, we're all equals!"

No one is denying that you're equal! They're just trying to describe you! And don't say that no one gets judged by their hair. We all know the stereotype that blondes have more fun, or that blondes are dumb, just as well as we know the stereotypes about black people being good at sports, or having an affinity for robbing liquor stores. But some people just have to get all uppity about describing someone as "black" but have no problem with calling someone "blonde". I know what you're thinking: we have the power to change our hair colour.

1. Hair dye doesn't change who you are,
2. Michael Jackson

And we all think that guy was messed up for trying to become white, not because he couldn't be white, but because he didn't need to be white. Therefore, race isn't a problem; it is, like I have said, a descriptor.

If you don't like the use of "race" to describe the colour of a person's skin or their ancestry, then fight the semantics. But I dare you to come up with a term as brief and succinct as "race" to describe what a person looks like and where they have descended from.

Twitter is to the Blogosphere as Video is to the Radio Star

What the hell, guys? What happened to the art of the blog? A fleeting thought could have less than 140 characters, but what ever happened to the more complex ideas? Don't we have anything more important to say? Hell, importance isn't even the issue; it's the depth. What ever happened to our thoughts and ideas and stories about our lives? Have we all become that boring?

Now don't get me wrong, I've been twittering as much as the next guy, and I don't hold myself above the lack of blog that I talk about. I know I've come up short on the blog front as of late, but we all know the circumstances. Responsibility will cool off in the summer as things start to warm up. The weather will change, we'll be outside, and we'll have time to relax and time to think and time to blog (with the exception of all the time we will spend hanging out).

In short, blog or hang out. Excuses will be validated on a per case basis.

Layout Problems

Why is "Add to Dictionary" the option right by the suggested spelling when you misspell something?

Now "percipitate" is my my dictionary as the most common misspelling of "precipitate" and I don't know how to purge my dictionary of accidentally misspelled words.

I'll be just another asshole who doesn't bother to spellcheck his shit.

David Hume Can Suck, comma, a Dick.

It has come to my attention that the creators of Malcolm in the Middle have based one of their characters on one of the most noteworthy philosophers of the last half millennium.Though one might not see the obvious resemblance of David Hume in the popular sit-com character Stevie, it is clear that the dialogue of the character was modelled after Hume's own work.

Here's an example:

Hence we may discover the reason, why no philosopher, who is rational and modest, has pretended to assign the ultimate cause of any natural operation, or to show distinctly the action of that power, which produces any single effect in the universe. It is confessed, that the utmost effort of human reason is, to reduce the principles, productive of natural phenomena, to a greater simplicity, and to resolve the many particular effects into a few general cases, by means of reasoning from analogy, experience, and observation.

That has twice as many commas as necessary. They don't even make sense! It's like he puts in a comma to breathe.

Skip to 3:50 to hear how I read Hume in my head.

English

"Charged with sexual battery" can so easily be misread as "charged with a sexual battery."

We need some new words up in this bitch.