If that's the best you can make up, at least act like you mean it.
Conversation overheard at Borders:
Girl: What's the difference between Emily and Charlotte Bronte?
Girl's Mother: Hmm. I don't know.
Girl: Maybe they're like sisters or something?
I was standing in the same section as these two and I could not stop myself from laughing. It's one thing to have no idea who either of them are, which could be understandable considering how lax the American educational system is, but to think that two authors with the same last name have no difference between them? How much of an idiot do you have to be to even ask something like that aloud?
In other news, apparently, the world as we know it has come to an end. I haven't had the time to read through the hundreds of posts and comment threads on the subject, but I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, I'm somewhat appalled that some fringe group is able to wield enough influence over a corporation to cause them to suspend journals. Not to mention, what ever happened to free speech? On the other hand… Take this analogy:
You and your friends are heading on Spring Break. You're at the airport and you're all excited and getting along as you stand in the endless security lines. Suddenly, just as you're about to make it through, one of your friends takes off his jacket to reveal a shirt that proclaims: "I Have a Bomb in My Suitcase!" You think this is amusing, a pointed jab at The Man. The rest of your friends range in reaction from apathy to mild amusement to horror. You and your friends know that none of you possesses a bomb, nor do you wish to harm anyone. However, the NSA sees this slightly differently. They haul all of you off to some dungeon in the bowels of the airport where you are interrogated for hours. Eventually, they let all of you go, except for your friend, who is arrested and fined and ends up with a giant FBI file. Yours is slightly smaller and you missed your flight.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Just because a bunch of corporations got together to create a website for fanfiction does not mean that every aspect of it is suddenly accepted and mainstream. Why oh why would you want to attract attention to something that you know could eventually be used as evidence against you? I really cannot understand why someone would list "incest" as an interest. That's like painting a target on your back and saying, "come and get me!"
I know there are some people out there who think we should unite and shout at the top of our lungs until someone understands that we have rights and are just expressing ourselves, etc. etc., but, c'mon. Even if fandom-related journals do make up 1/3 of the currently 13 million journals here, that's only about 4 million journals. Journals, I say, not people. Most of us out there have multiple journals. Assuming the average fandom person has 2 journals, that cuts us down to less than 2 million. Considering that the population of the world is over 6 billion and America alone has over 300 million people, well. Our voices are just one of the many minority voices out there. Considering that we can't even get 2 million people to march in protest against a war or poverty or anything else for that matter, I highly doubt that all 2 million of us are going to march down to Six Apart's headquarters and demand our journals back. Or whatever the agenda is for today. Since, you know, given the level of wank in fandom, it appears that most of us can't agree on anything.
And, yeah, I know. My opinion isn't popular. I'm a cynical, cold-hearted bitch and you're all going to come after me with giant, pointy sticks and kick me out of the sandbox. Strangely enough, I've heard this one before.
Also, for those that skimmed past the fandom crap, anyone who has ever worked in a corporation needs to read Company by Max Barry. It's funny 'cause it's true.
Girl: What's the difference between Emily and Charlotte Bronte?
Girl's Mother: Hmm. I don't know.
Girl: Maybe they're like sisters or something?
I was standing in the same section as these two and I could not stop myself from laughing. It's one thing to have no idea who either of them are, which could be understandable considering how lax the American educational system is, but to think that two authors with the same last name have no difference between them? How much of an idiot do you have to be to even ask something like that aloud?
In other news, apparently, the world as we know it has come to an end. I haven't had the time to read through the hundreds of posts and comment threads on the subject, but I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, I'm somewhat appalled that some fringe group is able to wield enough influence over a corporation to cause them to suspend journals. Not to mention, what ever happened to free speech? On the other hand… Take this analogy:
You and your friends are heading on Spring Break. You're at the airport and you're all excited and getting along as you stand in the endless security lines. Suddenly, just as you're about to make it through, one of your friends takes off his jacket to reveal a shirt that proclaims: "I Have a Bomb in My Suitcase!" You think this is amusing, a pointed jab at The Man. The rest of your friends range in reaction from apathy to mild amusement to horror. You and your friends know that none of you possesses a bomb, nor do you wish to harm anyone. However, the NSA sees this slightly differently. They haul all of you off to some dungeon in the bowels of the airport where you are interrogated for hours. Eventually, they let all of you go, except for your friend, who is arrested and fined and ends up with a giant FBI file. Yours is slightly smaller and you missed your flight.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Just because a bunch of corporations got together to create a website for fanfiction does not mean that every aspect of it is suddenly accepted and mainstream. Why oh why would you want to attract attention to something that you know could eventually be used as evidence against you? I really cannot understand why someone would list "incest" as an interest. That's like painting a target on your back and saying, "come and get me!"
I know there are some people out there who think we should unite and shout at the top of our lungs until someone understands that we have rights and are just expressing ourselves, etc. etc., but, c'mon. Even if fandom-related journals do make up 1/3 of the currently 13 million journals here, that's only about 4 million journals. Journals, I say, not people. Most of us out there have multiple journals. Assuming the average fandom person has 2 journals, that cuts us down to less than 2 million. Considering that the population of the world is over 6 billion and America alone has over 300 million people, well. Our voices are just one of the many minority voices out there. Considering that we can't even get 2 million people to march in protest against a war or poverty or anything else for that matter, I highly doubt that all 2 million of us are going to march down to Six Apart's headquarters and demand our journals back. Or whatever the agenda is for today. Since, you know, given the level of wank in fandom, it appears that most of us can't agree on anything.
And, yeah, I know. My opinion isn't popular. I'm a cynical, cold-hearted bitch and you're all going to come after me with giant, pointy sticks and kick me out of the sandbox. Strangely enough, I've heard this one before.
Also, for those that skimmed past the fandom crap, anyone who has ever worked in a corporation needs to read Company by Max Barry. It's funny 'cause it's true.