bemused. geek. nz
The ramblings of a bemused geek from NZ
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Bemused Tweets
- Good dusting of snow on the southern Tararuas! 03/09/10 07:41 PM
- The #Christchurch #earthquake must be a media disappointment if they're covering 'could-haves'. 03/09/10 05:27 PM
- There's a short code for NZ users? Let's see if it works. 03/09/10 04:13 AM
- It's not a #mosque, it's two whole blocks away, and Hitler would love you like #godwin loves me. http://tinyurl.com/3xghtdo 01/09/10 05:19 PM
- BGNZ: Vote for SVC-6194 and Protect Your Name! http://tinyurl.com/26um3tq 31/08/10 05:41 AM
- BGNZ: Facebook Needs Qualifiers http://tinyurl.com/2aq79np 27/08/10 02:25 AM
- Cool puzzler! "Ka-Bloom!" ( http://bit.ly/bQGseO ) 26/08/10 06:56 PM
- BGNZ: Up a Hill With a Monster http://tinyurl.com/266hk7x 15/08/10 06:35 AM
- Looking at: How to Turn Carrots into Bacon! ( http://bit.ly/91kHsX ) 10/08/10 01:40 AM
- BGNZ: We need more 'meh' options http://tinyurl.com/2cffod9 09/08/10 05:00 AM
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Facebook Needs Qualifiers
This list was inspired by Mark Dery’s essay, Facebook of the Dead.
Mind you, there are a lot of social networks that need qualifiers.
Instead of the boolean Like:
ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
OMG we like the same thing/think the same way, friend me now!
Yeah that’s nice, now let me add you to my friends list so I can skite to everyone that I have so much more friends here than them
Yeah, that’s nice
That’s nice dear…
Whatever
Meh.
BORING!
Why would anyone care about that?
You idiot
TMI, oh God, far TMI
You fucking idiot
I hate you. You are an idiot. Die.
Instead of just “friending” people:
OMGBFF
I LOOOOVE YOU
My soulmate
Friend
We share stuff in common
Acquaintance
Just some guy who said something I like
Friends list stuffer
Some moron who did something I found dumb
Total idiot
Enemy
I AM GOING TO DESTROY YOU
I’m sure you can think of more.
Up a Hill With a Monster
Sound boring? Guess again. The “hill” is Pike’s Peak in the USA, your driver is Monster Tajima.
We need more 'meh' options
“Meh.” Try saying it without shrugging. It’s a gesture in verbal form.
It’s a perfect anodyne to our social networking world where we’re squeezed into binary Like/Hate decisions. It’s acknowledgment without artificial enthusiasm — or artificial frenzy, for that matter. Actually, it can also function as an antidote to excessive attitude too: “Yeah, that’s fairly interesting, but not worth getting that hyper about.”
It also indicates a killed-off interest. “Yeah, that’s interesting, but your hysteria puts me off.” Or, “That’s interesting but overhyped.”
We need more ‘meh’ buttons. We need to provide alternatives to the binary hysterical world we’ve lumbered ourselves with. We need to be able to let the screamers know that we’d rather mull it over for ourselves, and discuss it in moderate tones, and will you kindly STFU and stop yelling before we rip your tongue out and strangle you with it.
That’s one definition of meh. “It’s interesting, but not that much.” e.g. A lot of Flash games I see on Newgrounds can be described as meh — they don’t live up to the hype.
Which is what ‘meh’ is all about: Denying the hyperbole being stuffed up our arses from every direction. Because, really, there’s a lot of garbage out there not worth getting excited about.
And not even worth the implicit lie of clicking “Favourite” or “Like”, for that matter.
Meh. When “Like” is too intense.
A Weekend in the Western Ruahines
On Saturday I was off north to Rangiwahia Hut, which is outside the small settlement of the same name. So here’s the report, complete with 14 choice piccies.
Read More41st Anniversary of the Moon Landing
Boing Boing observed that on Tuesday 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men on the moon.
In the comments, this anonymous lament:
On this date last year, I was in a check out lane at a drugstore, filling out a check when the friendly teenage clerk volunteered the date.
I replied “Thanks, but I know this one. Big Day in History.”
The nervous look I got in return made me pause. I asked her if she knew what had occurred, and she stammered “No Idea”. I asked her if she’d ever heard of “One Small Step For Man, One Giant Leap For Mankind”?
“No.”
How about “The Eagle Has Landed”?
“No.”
“Neil Armstrong”?
“Who?”
I told her that on this date, forty years ago, man first set foot on the moon. She stared at me for a few seconds and then burst out “Get OUTTA Here! We ain’t been to no MOON. You CRAZY!”
Randall Munroe’s cartoon uses the moon landing as an example, and unfortunately the actual comments are just as bad.
People these days. They just want to be Right, even if they’re not even wrong.
Literalist consumeroid cattle, trampling god, history, family, even reality into the ground as they race to their slaughterhouse Paradise.
Sometimes I think there’s a conspiracy to keep people earthbound in both mind and body.
That, or people really are that small-minded and desperate for some, any, authority.