The good folks at SixApart can breathe a little easier today. I am leaving.
On January 21st, Team Vox wrote their highly-informative We are listening post. Our collective disgust with Release 41 was tempered, and we were inspired to keep hoping that things would be fixed.
Today is February 21st.
I understand that changes take time, but I have waited longer than I had intended. I didn't expect things to go back to normal instantly, but I did think that perhaps some of the most hated changes would be corrected quickly. I know that you can never please everyone, and I realize that some people will always be upset with change. I had foolishly believed that the cries of the masses would have resulted in at least fixing the most upsetting issues. Everyone makes mistakes. Microsoft extended their support period for Windows XP after the yawn of discontent over Vista. Facebook fixed their highly-intrusive Beacon program after the massive user backlash. We've been waiting for Vox to take the lead. No website is perfect, but the good ones go the extra mile to keep the users happy. Remember, even Google failed at Social Networking.
I know I'm not the first to leave, and I most certainly won't be the last. Vox will continue without me, just as they have continued without the others that left, whether quietly or with much fanfare. The band will continue to play, but I'm tired of rearranging the deck chairs.
I would love to believe that we are all going to keep in touch, but in reality this post is more like a fairweather friend signing your Senior Yearbook. Take care. I will miss you guys.
And I would like to thank Miss Scotch for my newest, and final, Vox tag: Release 41 ruined Vox.
(I do, however, reserve the right to post in the future, should some projected circumstances pan out)
Who or what do you really love?
Happy FTD and Hallmark Day everyone. Since the topic of this QotD is "love," I felt inclined to share a bit from quite possibly my favorite book of all time, The Rum Diary, by Hunter S. Thompson.
"Happy," I muttered, trying to pin the word down. But it is one of those words, like Love, that I have never quite understood. Most people who deal in words don't have much faith in them and I am no exception - especially the big ones like Happy and Love and Honest and Strong. They are too elusive and far too relative when you compare them to sharp, mean little words like Punk and Cheap and Phony. I feel at home with these, because they're scrawny and easy to pin, but the big ones are tough and it takes either a priest or a fool to use them with any confidence.
I find that part pretty interesting, for a number of reasons. In my office, I have a large sheet of metal hanging on the wall, aptly titled the "Fluff Board." On this board is a collection of magnets on which are printed countless superlatives. It's basically a Magnetic Poetry kit for marketing, if such a kit existed (it may now, but there was no such kit when I first made the board). It's filled with words meant to evoke emotion of some fashion, or find some way to grasp the reader. Imagine, although passe, is on there, along with words like embrace, solace, paradise, escape, and others that, when used properly, work to make the reader believe that whatever is being sold can instantly turn their frown upside down, and revert the pear-shape of their day. And if my numbers are any indication, it certainly works.
It's truly an absurd thing, but when you think about it and take a look around, it's certainly not groundbreaking. If you consider professions that in reality create nothing concrete and deal mainly in words, you could pretty much get the same result by giving a Mad Libs book to a monkey. Think of movie reviews, and how often you see "riveting" or "a must-see." We're not inventing new words, but rather putting the same words in different order.
Okay, maybe it's not exactly that simple, but it's damn close. I mentioned this Fluff Board to a client once (after countless drinks at a lunch meeting), and he immediately insisted that I make one for him filled with business buzzwords. I told him to get me a list of words he wanted (I spent about three weeks putting together my original fluff list, and I add words constantly), and I had a metalworker friend make it all fancy. Now, when he talks to investors or even his executive staff, I'm sure he uses that board to try to rally the troops. My partner has a similar board in his office, but it's filled with marketing buzzwords. I can't stand to even think of some of the words on that damn board, but he seems to live by it.
We are wordsmiths. Like I said, we create nothing new, we just rearrange the words in the global lexicon. So as you are getting ready to cuddle beside your loved one, or perhaps down a bottle of pills and cuddle with your depression, consider that word "love." It means only what you let it mean, because it has been perverted over the years by people such as myself, who use it to make you buy something. This is best explained in a line from the pilot episode of AMC's "Mad Men."
The reason you haven't felt it is because it doesn't exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. You're born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I'm living like there's no tomorrow, because there isn't one.
Happy Valentine's Day.
A reminder to those living in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, tomorrow morning you should all get up, put a smile on the front of your head, and cast your vote for Obama in the primary. Sure, you didn't get the fanfare of Super Tuesday last week, but your time is now, so make your voice heard.
And in honor of that, here is a song for the evening.
(yes, I know that some people will tell you the lyrics say "get fucked up," but these people are wrong)
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/07/romney.campaign/index.html
I'll write something satirical and poignant later, but for now, CNN is reporting that Romney is suspending his campaign.
You know, I am really trying to be patient, and hold hope that SixApart will go back and correct at least a few of the things that they screwed up with Release 41. I made remarks that "A statement is not a solution," but I had imagined those remarks would be proven foolish. I've made remarks to other Voxers that I am willing to stick around under the assumption that these issues will be corrected.
I realize [TiG] is dead, and not coming back. Sadly, I am okay with that.
But what about our Vox homepage showing only a few comments, and having to rely on clicking through the different areas to see recent comments (which still does not update in real-time to this day)?! What about the points that I mentioned in my post, which was front-paged, and in which some apparently thought I presented things clearly? What's going on with those?
I mean, really, how long does it take to click "Undo"?
Ross recently wrote a nifty little script to clean up the Recent Activity page, which was listed on the Tech is Good frontpage. I think that is a wonderful thing, and this is certainly not against his work, but I personally don't run Firefox, and while I know Greasemonkey is available for IE, my experiences with it have been dismal.
Though Ross's script is genius, it actually makes me wonder something even more....
If SixApart were to correct the issues created by Release 41, why would we need the script? Sure, it would help for more in-depth activity if I have to catch up to a few days worth of posts, but I try to check here a few times a day. Under the old design, that was simple. Under Release 41, it's a nightmare. If Vox, with their recent TiG of Ross's script, is encouraging this to be a more open-source type of community, why not allow us a bit more freedom? Why not let us customize our homepage? Why not make the code more available, so we could adapt it better to our needs? I like to believe I have a fairly good understanding of code, and I don't doubt that I could mash up something that may be more convenient for my personal uses through an adapted RSS reader, but why?
As an example, let's take something simple and intuitive, like a toaster. You put the bread in and you push the switch to drop the toast. When it's done, it pops up and turns itself off. Perhaps it's because I was used to the old design, but I considered Vox to be about as difficult as a toaster. Enter Release 41. Now you can still do the exact same things, but the process is different. Instead of simply plugging in the toaster, putting in the bread, and pressing the switch, you now have to plug the toaster into an extension cord, put the bread in from the bottom, press a button to make it cook, and hit the switch when you think it is done. It doesn't let you know when the toast is finished, just like it's difficult to know when a post you are actively participating in has new comments. Everything has an extra step. Sure, I could dig through the closet, find my soldering kit, and create some new complicated way to make the toaster act like it used to, when it was simple and intuitive, but what's the point? I'll just switch toasters.
All that aside, though, I have a completely new problem to bitch about. While it may not be directly related to Release 41, it is compounded by the new process of reading posts and tracking comments. Unfortunately, though, I cannot actually post screenshots or links, due to the privacy settings of my neighbors (which I respect absolutely, and will not make exceptions in a post I am keeping public). So I encourage you to take a look at your own Vox, and see if perhaps I'm not the only one.
Tonight, someone in my neighborhood wrote a new post. It is marked Neighborhood Only. I am in her neighborhood. I know I am in her neighborhood, because when I view her Vox, the post is there. However, on my homepage, it doesn't seem to exist. It's just not there at all. At this precise moment, when I look at her Vox, it says the piece was posted 49 minutes ago. On my homepage, I can see three things posted 26 minutes ago, 48 minutes ago, and "Yesterday," which would put it about 1 hour and 22 minutes ago. The post from my neighbor that does not display (despite her actually being listed as a "Friend" on my Vox, and my at least being a Neighbor on hers) should feasibly fit in there somewhere. This has happened at least four times that I can specifically recall, though I cannot specifically recall the privacy settings on the other posts (though I believe, without directly risking the privacy settings of my neighborhood, one was from CupCate).
Now, apparently, rather than simply having to jump through hoops to find posts that are beyond my most recent three or four, I now have to consider that I am completely missing posts from my neighborhood without going to the Recent Activity page, or individually clicking on every Neighbor and Friend to view their main Vox page.
So yes, I am on the verge of either begging or leaving. The hope that kept me around this long is fading fast. I certainly don't believe that Vox would suffer some great loss if I were to cancel my account tomorrow. I don't doubt that I would lose touch with all but perhaps three of the people I have met here. Somehow, though, that is a loss I am more willing to take as days pass.
I'm sorry, but I don't work for the circus. There are only so many hoops I am willing to jump through before I'm over it.
I certainly welcome any and all feedback on this. I sincerely doubt it will get listed as a Tech is Good, but that's not my intention. I am not pointing out things that are good. I am pointing out problems, and hoping for solutions. And for those that want to respond (specifically anyone from SixApart/Vox), or even to keep in touch if this becomes the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back, my e-mail address is listed over there to the right, below the Charlie Chaplin quote. chasingthedollar at gmail.
Please, Vox, just give us what we are asking for. It's not such an absurd request. It's merely what we had prior to Release 41. Don't leave us with the impression that we have to develop our own solutions to get the convenience we had mere weeks ago.
I was trying to post a cheeky thing about how the Vox Political Editor (or whatever that job title is) knows more about Electric Firefly than I do (the "more" being that she is apparently a man), when something decided not to work. Sure, I could probably blame it on a million things, but since the only programs open on my computer were Outlook, Media Player, and one single IE window, I am going to blame it on something screwy with Vox.
Blah.
I just came across the perfect example of why everyone needs to get out and vote. It's not necessarily so your voice can be heard among the millions, but specifically so your voice can counteract the voices of some of the more radical.
Now, as much as I want to make this a lengthy commentary comparing (once again) Religion and/or Politics, I am fighting the urge very, very hard. So I will leave you with two quotes from this person's post, and allow you to take from it what you would like. I am not going to link to this person's post, because I do not want to make this some sort of juvenile intarwed war, but I will say that if you look not very hard, you may happen to find it somewhere on your homepage.
And here are the quotes...
I am deeply invested on turning social issues in America away from a Left Secular Humanist slant back to a Conservative Christian Values slant.
Left Social Issues is an agenda that is nearly had success in transforming America into a society that accepts hedonistic social relativistic moral values as the norm. For my point of view that is reprehensible.
Anyone? Hello? I know you're out there! Hello?!
Right, I know I may have been the only one (at least in my 'hood) that watched the game for the sake of the game itself, despite practically hating both teams for one reason or another, but I honestly expected to read a post or two that touched on it.
Well, maybe not on the game itself, but at least on the ads? Anyone? Bueller?
Okay then. I should get around to writing something about it tomorrow. Well, maybe not the game itself, but at least the ads. And yes, I am comfortable with the idea that nobody in my neighborhood will bother to read it. But rather than just write some babble about what company made what ad, I am tempted to actually post an in-depth piece on both the element and its possible impact on the audience.
Or I may just get drunk and forget about all of it. We'll see in the morning.
I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before, but I am actually a huge fan of auto racing. Now, before you click away from this, delete me from your neighborhood, and make snide comments to others, let me clarify.
I think Nascar is a joke. Driving identical cars around an oval, even at speeds of 200mph, is hardly sporting. It's not a test of man or machine, but rather hitting your competitors and cheating. You could easily put the top "drivers" in some cars, and a variety of kitchen appliances, deceased classical poets, and free-range bison in others, and the results would be about the same.
But I do watch some auto racing. I watch Formula1 religiously, and I am looking forward to being in Australia in March to watch the season opener, as I did last year. I also went to Indy to see the US Grand Prix last year, but I won't be doing that this year, because apparently I am one of about five Formula1 fans here in the states.
I watch the Dakar Rally, and I had planned to attend this year as a photographer. I would love to actually drive it, but I am also a realist. Sadly, though, there was no Dakar Rally this year, due to terrorism fears along the route. Dakar itself is a drastically different type of endurance race, with classes for bikes, cars, and trucks. It runs through multiple countries, with the course changing a bit each year. It goes through populated areas and vast stretches of desert.
I also watch two key endurance races, the 24 Hours of LeMans, and the race that is coming to a close right now, the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Any time you put a bunch of cars on a modified road track and see which one can race for 24 hours will captivate my attention (though, admittedly, not for the full 24 hours, unless I am watching it in person).
And right now, I am getting ready to watch Doctor McDreamy, Patrick Dempsey, cross the finish line. I guess this WGA Writer's Strike really is good for something. Now, before I go into detail about where Dempsey is finishing, I should clear something up in case you don't know. There are two classes of vehicles, DP (Daytona Prototype) and GT. GT-class cars are Porsches, Mustangs, a BMW here, a Corvette there, a Ferrari, and because they are unbelievably reliable at running distance races, a few Mazda RX-8's. Patrick Dempsey is driving a Mazda RX-8. Because the DP class cars are heavily modified and extremely fast, they have a winner for each class, but the main timing is based upon every car.
Patrick Dempsey finished 39th. He was 143 laps behind the leader.
But honestly, that is not a bad finish for a GT car, much less a GT car driven by an actor. Apparently, Dempsey aspires to be like Paul Newman, and have a successful racing career along with an acting career. I respect that a lot. Most celebrities are merely vapid shells of their respective roles, or Scientology shills, or tragedies, so it's good to see when someone goes beyond acting. After all, isn't it expected to be known in some manner beyond just your job?
Other than that, it's a Sunday, there is no Football on TV, and it's just too damn cold outside to be too productive.
At the office, I almost always have the TV on, usually turned to Headline News (unless Magnum PI is on, of course). Now I'm not an expert on TV network naming schemes, but I always thought that Headline News was, well, news reports, focused primarily on headlines, meant to be brief yet informative stories. If I really cared about celebrity "news," I would shoot myself in the face. But Headline News apparently believes that their viewers really, truly need to know what is going on in the world of celebrities, illustrated by their decision to air "Showbiz Tonight" in the 11:00am slot. I'm not entirely sure their justification for this (as I wondered their reasoning for briefly re-airing Larry King Live at 10am), but I do know one thing that has been impacted. Before this Showbiz Tonight crap started, nearly everywhere I went (doctors, banks, restaurants) would have a TV playing CNN Headline News during the day. Now, not so much.
But my real bitch is not with the format of Headline News, rather with the full hour of this wretched Showbiz Tonight "episode" being all about Heath Ledger. Yes, I realize he is dead, and that is sad. But despite the belief of CNN, there is absolutely nothing new in the story that will be released at 11:03 that I couldn't wait until Noon to see. Plus, if there was something new released, they would talk about it on the regular Headline News anyway. So, essentially, this hour of programming is dedicated to filling space.
They keep talking about the "six types of prescription medication" found in Ledger's apartment. Even more important, they continue to mention that some of these medications were "prescribed in Europe," as if the housewives that are watching at this hour believe that Europe is some uncontrolled drug haven where you can walk into CVS and buy medicinal heroin and cocaine. I know this is not the case, because I have been to Europe, and yet I still live in the US and get my drugs from the pharmacy here.
So I challenge you, dear Voxers, to go to your medicine cabinet and count how many "prescription medications" you have. Considering the ubiquitous nature of the statements, those medications could be anything, though some were given damning names like sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medication, and antihistamines. I was unaware that antihistamines were such deadly things that they deserved extra attention (I'm not talking about mixing medications, because there is no proof as of yet that this happened).
My medicine cabinet has at least thirty. Most of those are various antibiotics and allergy pills. I also have chronic pain from breaking my back, so I have a healthy dose of opiates. If I died today, and they searched my house, would they publicly assume that I mixed percocet, vicodin, oxycontin, fentanyl and morphine? Would I be chastised for having a Z-Pak and various other antibiotics? I also have prescriptions filled in other countries. Heath Ledger had pills from Europe, but remember that he was apparently just filming a movie there. I have pills from Australia because I ran out of pain medication during an extended vacation.
As for the anti-anxiety pills (likely Xanax) and sleeping medicine (probably Ambien), ask your friends how many of them have prescriptions for those. I have friends that have prescriptions for Ambien, Ambien CR, Lunesta, and Rozerem. Just like my various flavors of pain meds, they have different types of sleeping pills because they lose their effectiveness the more you use them, and sometimes you have to switch for a while. Before the government crack down on proper pain management, it was not uncommon for me to switch pills every week. Though, admittedly, I have never been on either anti-depressants or anti-anxiety pills.
Every third person takes some sort of drug regularly, because that's what the drug companies want. Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Effexor, Xanax, Vioxx, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Cymbalta, Provigil, Ritalin, Requip, Flexaril, Xenical, Valium, Halcyon, and pages and pages of names I could continue listing. Maybe you're one of those two people that don't take something regularly, and maybe you're that third person that has half the list in your desk drawer (don't worry, your secret is safe with me). What would the police think if you died tomorrow?
Why are we being subjected to this Heath Ledger Six-Med Story? Is anyone really that dense to think that famous people take horrible drugs, without realizing that your neighbor is probably on half the same shit?
Though nothing, and I do mean nothing, can compare to the type of hateful nonsense that John Gibson spewed.
