A Post is a Post

I realized I hadn’t posted in awhile, and while I have few to no subscribers, I do feel it is my duty to continue what I started.

First, Happy Mother’s Day to one and all. If you aren’t a mother, you certainly had one. For better or worse. Give a random woman a hug and wish her happy mother’s day. If that doesn’t create social tension, nothing will.

I am going to join a gym. I have talked about it, debated it, resisted it and finally gave in. I want the equipment, the community, and the psychological boost. Plus, the gym I want to join is so cheap, I can’t even say I can’t afford it. There is probably a catch, but there is no commitment, so I can bow out if it gets too expensive.

That’s all, my duty is completed. Unless you are have bad weather, which we are not for a change, go out and have some fun. Take a walk, bike ride, horseback ride, move!

Who Knew Hair Could Be So Controversial?

This is hair, not a scalp or an atrocity

I went online to one of my favorite spinning sites, Ravelry, to find out if anyone has spun human hair, how they did it, how successful it was, etc. Little did I know, I was stepping on a landmine.  I found two forums that had that as a topic. One was locked, due to the sensitive nature of the topic! Ok, how could spinning hair be so sensitive? For some reason this topic on both threads devolve into the holocaust and scalping. We are talking about spinning cut hair that people give you because they want you to spin it. Someone gave me the ponytail that she had cut off when she was a child, to see if I could make anything from it.

That in itself might be interesting or humorous, to see how certain topics trigger thoughts and emotions in other people that never occur to you. What struck me though, was the misinformation that accompanied the opinions. According to some of the writers, white people invented scalping. I was tempted to do some research and write a bit of a rebuttal, but I read on and saw some people had already done so.

This brings me to reading articles on Yahoo. Most articles have room for comments down below. Every time I read the comments, I’m struck by how little they have to do with the topic of the article, how emotionally charged they are, and how little thought goes into them. I was reading an article on the causes of the downfall of Detroit, and suggested possible solutions. The comments were some of the most racist, hateful things I have encountered on the web in a long time. Most of the time, I am mercifully protected from the filth that can spew from the human soul.  The forums and blogs I read are moderated, so someone else is filtering the ick. The Ravelry thread, while emotional and ignorant, was not hateful, if there were comments like that they were expunged.

The lack of facts behind opinions is discouraging.  I’m thinking that maybe that is why I am not delving into political topics. When you stick to topics where the facts are graspable, there is less room for opinionated blathering. Once you get into “the big issues”, all @#$#@ breaks loose, all heat and no light. Can anyone truly discuss the “facts” of the health care bill, when the bill is over 1000 pages, and most of it based on supposition?

I’m not going to spin the hair by the way. The few threads that stayed on topic were very negative on the worth of that, it makes a coarse, scratchy yarn, not really suitable for anything. As bad as the worst guard hairs.  Please comment, but be polite, and check your facts.

Snarkiness

I had to write on this as I have very mixed feelings about it. I was thinking about all the blogs I have read. Some of the funniest are also the snarkiest.  That sort of humor appeals to me, I wouldn’t even mind being able to be funny in that way. However, I think that sort of humor is based on putting others down.

We all like  to see bad guys get it in the end, and much of the snarky humor I enjoy is focused on some ugly behavior, trying to change it or at least publicize it. “Fugly Horse of the Day” is trying to get people to stop indiscriminately breeding horses, creating a surplus of unwanted animals. (I was going to link to her site, but apparently there is a problem with it.)

Is there a point though to “the people of Walmart“? I can’t say I don’t look. It’s like watching a car crash. I laugh, I gasp, I moan in horror. I do feel a bit ashamed of myself. These are real people, with lives. That site doesn’t bother me too much, it’s like America’s funniest Home Videos, if you leave the house like that, you are in the public sphere and sort of invite public scrutiny.

It is when people talk about their private lives, and the people in them that makes me uncomfortable. I only follow and read the blogs that leave names out. Some, like the “Den of Chaos“, use cute nicknames like “Dangermouse”. Also, my favorites are not cruel to people. I read a few blogs, following links from blogs I like, that prompted this blog entry. One was wickedly funny, but it was very cruel, not to individuals, but to men in general. It was also extremely off color. That bothers me too. Risque humor is funny, but it can degenerate into crudeness very quickly.  I often picture the source of the humor reading what is said about them.

Like I said, mixed feelings. I like irony and satire, and yes, that smug satisfaction of feeling on the superior side. I doubt I’ll avoid all snarky sites, but I do think we need to remind ourselves ANYONE can read our blogs, and would the person or class we are being snarky about be devastated if he/she/they read what we wrote? Are we that certain of our position that we couldn’t have gotten it wrong, or at least gone overboard?