Hope you all are having a lovely day today, whatever this day means to you (or doesn’t). Consider this an open thread, to discuss whatever, from presents to politics to cats to whatever holiday stress you might be feeling.
And here’s some stuff I found on the Twitter.
— David, who is hanging in there
Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄🎅 pic.twitter.com/YfyTsQ95de
— Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) December 25, 2017
At this time of year, take a few moments to remember who Christmas is truly about… pic.twitter.com/TQ9tSP5EED
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) December 24, 2017
I haven’t laughed this hard in a while. I needed this. pic.twitter.com/2aQFpugdis
— deray (@deray) December 7, 2017
Brian Eno, Paris, 1973 (with Christmas 2017 augmentation) pic.twitter.com/hRwMDTOUKv
— Brian Eno News (@dark_shark) December 25, 2017
“Fun” pic.twitter.com/tsAdsZeez8
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 24, 2017
#MerryChristmas 🎄🤶🏻 pic.twitter.com/IahMZhf5gc
— Melania Trump 45 Archived (@FLOTUS45) December 25, 2017
Same. pic.twitter.com/kcNPdrLy6R
— Adrenalin (@adrenalindenver) May 24, 2017
🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅
All of a sudden …
🐾🐾🐾🐾 pic.twitter.com/fza8NZioI0
— The Cult Cat (@Elverojaguar) December 25, 2017
Human: My cat has an easy life
Me: pic.twitter.com/e8kvlVhUdR— Curious Zelda (@CuriousZelda) December 20, 2017
https://twitter.com/awwcuteness/status/945193410662682624
Thank you all for you thoughts! 🙂
I do feel better now, I think the biggest issue with me is anxiety. I worry a lot. I am experiencing a money crunch and need a new job.
Which was in the works regardless of my mom’s passing.
It’s a lot at one time. And too many constant problems. If there’s anything to the spirit world, it’d be great if the shit could stop hitting the fan, thanks.
@Z&T
I’ve been thinking about you and am glad to hear you’re feeling better. The death of a parent is a big deal, and you’re faced with other challenges as well.
Is it winter where you are? If so, that doesn’t help matters.
I experience anxiety pretty often. Deep breathing helps me, as does soothing jazz or classical music on the radio. Baths. Petting my cats. A cup of tea. A walk.
Stay strong. Get help when you need to.
Short rant: *&^%* the republicans and double-&&%$^&### dRumpf for ^%$$&ing with the #@$%^^& tax code at the end of &*%%^#!!ing December.
Goddess only knows how many people I’m going to have yelling at me next Friday when they don’t get their massive $#@$%^ing “tax cut.”
Twitter thread about Simon and Schuster’s rebuttal to Milo’s lawsuit over his book
It quotes from their editorial concerns with the manuscript. Turns out that Milo’s writing (or that of his interns, I suppose) was poorly argued, full of bombast and trolling, unfunny, and superficial. Umm… yes? Your point? Guys, had you read any of his stuff before giving him that advance?
@Z&T
No advice, you’ve probably got that running out of your ears, but you have my sympathy. You’ve had a rough go recently and there is nothing at all wrong with feeling like checking out for a while. Saying “fuck it, I’m going fishing” is an ancient and respected response to overload! 🙂
Be well.
@Brony
Social media is inherently negative, for the same reasons news media is inherently negative. Happiness is not news. Gratitude is personal and private. Good deeds rarely get mentioned – they’re something you do, not something you brag on in public.
All this makes it so that what you read slants to the bad, and that’s before you take into account the loss of some ridiculously high amount of non-verbal communication imposed by using text. (I’ve seen lots of different figures for the percentage of communication between people which is non-verbal, all of them are well north of 50% ).
An interesting case in point, if you want: You know the site Not Always Right? Devoted to complaining about bad customers, bad employers, bad employees, bad lecturers. They have a section now – several years after they launched – called Not Always Hopeless, a place for good news, happiness and thanks. It’s a ghost town compared to the other sections. People prefer to complain.
Still, meatspace is different, and, as you rightly point out, it’s definitely possible to be positive there! Some online communities are different too – take right here as an example. Sure, people fight, (we’re still human!) but if someone’s feeling like crap folk rally around and support. If someone has had something nice happen – even just a good day – they’re not diffident about telling about it. Reminds me of a pub with a good guvnor. 😛
@Moggie
Don’t know the person who posted “Defendant was aware that Plaintiff is a vicious troll with the brains of a clam and the writing skills of a drunk pig…” ? on that thread, but they’re my new favorite person. 🙂
Z&T
I understand what you mean about anxiety. Also for me this is what makes everything worse. When you think about things again and again and it become like obsession.
I don’t have so good advice as what others already said, but I can say to break this anxiety thoughts I usually listen to music or watch comedy or Disney movie. something which feels good to listen or watch. Also eat something super nice.)
I hope 2018 will be bright for you ?
Newlyweds discover they were childhood sweethearts two decades later
Because sometimes it’s nice to read nice things, instead of the usual.
I saw the Simon & Schuster extracts re Milo’s book this morning. I humbly submit that the people on Twitter responding with “Well, what did you expect ffs?” are missing the point here, which is that the response is freaking hilarious. I hope these pics aren’t ridiculously over-sized:
@Shadowplay
Beware of the quasi-not-actually-science stuff on nonverbals! These are often the same people who insist that women talk far more than men! Joking aside (’cause I’m sure you’re well aware of this already) – each time I teach a class on nonverbal comm, I start with debunking that old “90% of communication is nonverbal” chestnut that will not die.
Quite right that the online context presents unique problems with this, however 😀
@Mish
Always thought the 90% figure was rather far fetched, to be polite about it! I’m more comfortable, personally, with working with around 50% of communication in person to person being nonverbal or semi-verbal (tone, for example – I mean, it’s verbal, but it’s not words, as are the filler noises.). You going to tell me that’s on the high side too 😛
I’d love to sit down and study it formally though, especially the differences in nonverbal communication across cultures. Tone seems, in my experience, to be almost universal though – bored in California and bored in the Congo don’t have a Rizzla’s width between them. 🙂
In other news of the fools, Moore has filed a lawsuit to prevent the Alabama results being certified today. Guy really doesn’t know how to quit.
@ Mish
Milo would have nothing left to bring to the table.
@ Moggie
… not very thoroughly…
Missed edit window: Lawsuit is mentioned here, in the story about how he apparently took a polygraph test after the election to prove he wasn’t a predator. * massive eyeroll”
@ Shadowplay
The Roy Moore link is wonky (… fitting, it’s Moore!), here’s one from NPR
Kayla Moore looks like she’s waiting for Roy to deliver the words that god is OBVIOUSLY saying to him here….
E.T.A.
@Shadowplay, in the Moore link, it looks like you grabbed the address from the address bar of “We Hunted the Mammoth” page, instead of from the page where the article you were linking was found.
Moore polygraph story link
… and “election fraud”
… and “irregularities”
gotta watch those “irregularities”….
Aw, dammit. Thank you, Weird Eddie – I meant to link to the Hill story and must have copied the wrong one (it’s fortunate it wasn’t one of the other tabs 😛 )
@Mish
Damn, Simon and Shuster knows how to throw some shaaaaaaade!
@ Shadowplay, Yw!!
awww… c’mon, link us to the OTHER tabs!!!!!
E.T.A…. waitaminnit, I’m at work… on second thought, don’t
Christ, I wish the polygraph would die. It’s largely snake oil.
😛 the poking through some code on github, trying to find out why a mod has broken my mod tabs, or the tab of a stripper?
(damn my inner geek) I want the github code!!!
Shadowplay:
Aww, I guessed that would be TomSka’s NSFW “Christmas Delivery” video (which I won’t link directly).
On Milo: I can believe that Simon and Schuster thought they would be getting something better. After all, why would Milo pitch it to them honestly? That’s not in his nature. He may have said something like “you’ve seen that I have an audience for my provocative and entertaining writing online, but now I want to produce something more substantial, something which will stand the test of time”. S&S, thinking that they would capture the next stage in the career of someone who was inexplicably part of the political zeitgeist, went for it. But it was always his intention to deliver the same old shit, his unshakeable self confidence telling him that either they’d accept it, or he would be able to exploit the subsequent controversy to boost his profile.
More editor’s comments on Milo’s manuscript. The entire MS, with comments, is available in the court documents, and she’s posted a whole load of them. It’s brutal.
Milo can go sit on a cactus.
@ Moggie
‘scuse me, I’ve laughed so hard I peed m’self….
waitaminnit, is he talking about the book, or about Milo???