It stinks going to CrunchNotes lately

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I’m one of those guys who really appreciates folks who shoot from the hip and share what they feel, especially in the face of lots of heat. That’s one of the reasons why I follow many of the writers I do on the Web, including Michael Arrington and his blog CrunchNotes.

But his latest post just won’t go away. It’s been sitting as his latest now for over a week and the longer it sits there, without correction, the further it spreads mis-information.

What is that mis-information? Well it’s one thing to dislike Shelley Powers and to back it up with facts, and even feelings.

It’s another thing to spread a falsehood, which is what the post in question does. Shelley Powers, unequivocally, will criticize anyone, regardless of sex or station. She really puts her self on the line by speaking truth to power day in and day out.

Questioning dogma is a lonely place to be sometimes.

How this happened is a mystery really.

There was an argument that erupted over the use of an image in an online video, produced by a band.

You can read about the controversy at Wired.

There was some interesting discussion about copyright, much that resembling that which followed other similar controversies in the past.

Conversation that is again springing up about Fox helping itself to someone’s Flickr pictures.

I simply feel that without a lawsuit, contrary to the opinions of folks I respect – because of lack of clarity – no one knows who was in the right and who was in the wrong.

During arguments like this, where facts are few and opinions are many, where clarity is hard to find, I tend to absorb all view points, to weigh my own opinion. This was a great opportunity for that.

That is, until it ran off the rails at at Mathew Ingrams’s blog. Normally a place, like Shelley’s, for some of the best discussion about social media and the Web.

Rogers Cadenhead said that Shelley is due an apology – I agree.

Jeneane Sessum looked at this as a bigger, cultural issue with the blogosphere:

…the larger LARGER problem for the blogosphere and twitterspehere is that a culture is developing — thanks in part to time-saving, fragment-tossing platforms like twitter, that by design silence dissenting voices — we have all become easy targets for extinction, the casualties of casual dismissal.

THAT’s what bothered me about this situation, about what Mike said to Shelley, about what Mike and others said about Lane without asking Lane anything, and STILL DOES bother me.

The “you’re just” mantra is getting way out of hand.

It is cultish and thought canceling.

The irony is that my attraction to ‘shoot from the hip’ opinions is part of the problem.

When I look around me, it seems more and more that context or historical background doesn’t matter – all that matters is the headline, the blurb, and the attention driving influence of the one sharing it.

Increasingly it seems our culture encourages ‘winning it all costs’ behavior – no matter the right and wrong.

And I guess, at Christmas time especially, these things make me sad.

Looking forward to Christmas

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It’s hard to write about looking forward to something like Christmas with joy when you know fellow friends and travelers are dealing with sorrow.

Shelley Powers last week summarized some of the tragedies that took place in the online community recently. Of particular note to me was the passing of Anita Rowland, who had been fighting cancer since 2003. Her husband put up a memorial post on his blog.

Jeneane Sessum: For Anita

GarretVreeland One of our own, Anita Rowland, has passed away

Bill Humphries: Anita Rowland

Frank Paynter: Last Dance: Anita Rowland, Rest in Peace

Frank Paynter’s interview with Anita Rowland in 2002: Settled in Seattle… the Anita Rowland Interview

Anita’s family is in my thoughts and prayers.

This will be a Christmas that will best be described as bittersweet for me. Such tremendous ups and downs.

With so much churn in my life, I know I am blessed to look at Emma and be filled with hope.

She is a true blue toddler now. She can communicate very clear what she wants, what she loves, and what she doesn’t care for all that much. That means that Christmas day will be something to behold.

Her Momom will be with her. Laughing, joking, and singing all the way.

As Anita will be with her loved ones.

When did Star Trek and Star Wars Jump the Shark?

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TechRepublic.com: Sci-fi rant: When did Star Trek jump the shark?:

…there was the Borg Queen, and that ruined everything.

The Borg were originally defined as genderless, faceless, nameless, all-consuming man-machine hybrids with which you could not negotiate, could not overpower, and only by sheer luck and creative individuality could you ever hope to defeat-temporarily. That is until First Contact, for which the producers needed a conventional villain for the “dumb audience,” so we get Alice Krige gothed up in H.R. Giger fetish gear going all creepy-vampy on Data and retconning Locutus of Borg from a terrifying perversion of our beloved Captain Picard into a spurned cyborg concubine that Miss Borgy needed to acquire some V’ger-esque spark of humanity.

The Borg Queen single-handedly diminished the Borg from a personification of everyone’s secret fear of the dehumanizing power of technology and conformity run amok into two-bit techno-zombie henchmen of everyone’s un-fondly remembered codependent ex-girlfriend. (It’s worth noting that in First Contact, the Borg assimilate you vampire-bite style, rather than through the slow, tortuous process seen in “The Best of Both Worlds.” These are B-movie monsters now, not powerfully terrifying metaphors for identity-stripping monoculture.)

TechRepublic.com: When did Star Wars jump the shark?:

…Phantom Menace came along and, with all due disrespect to Jar Jar Binks, gave us the single worst Star Wars moment in a rapidly expanding history of awful Star Wars moments: Midi-chlorians.

Jedi, you see, aren’t made, they’re born. They’re of the blood, nobility, maybe even a master race. If your midi-chlorian count isn’t high enough, don’t even bother to apply. Anakin Skywalker was basically the equivalent of a can’t-miss basketball prospect from the mean streets of Tatooine who got a Jedi Academy scholarship despite being a punk. Yeah, that’s going to resonate with all the athletically addled dorks who used to idolize the franchise.

Yoda wasn’t awesome because he was a zen-master adept who spent centuries honing his communion with The Force, but because his little frog-pig body was jam-packed with psionic parasites. That single slap in the face to Star Wars fans was the first of many attempts by Lucas to expand and explain the mechanics of his franchise, and in the process he knocked out the foundations of what was once the coolest character concept in all of sci-fi. Thanks, George.

Fun, worthy of argument 🙂

In Passing: Quiet Riot’s Kevin DuBrow dead at 52

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Metafilter: cum on feel the noiz – Quiet Riot’s Kevin DuBrow dead at 52.

It was Quiet Riot on Solid Gold that introduced me (well.. re-introduced me) to Metal and Hard Rock. His MySpace page is filling up with condolences.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Quiet Riot deserves the evolutionary credit for 80s Metal, from Ozzy’s 80s success, to Guns N’ Roses.

Thank you Kevin DuBrow.

NYTimes: Kevin DuBrow, the Leader of Quiet Riot, Dies at 52

LATimes: Singer for 1980s heavy-metal giant Quiet Riot dies

Blabbermouth: Classic QUIET RIOT Broadcast To Re-Air Today – Nov. 27, 2007

Thanksgiving 2007

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It’s been a challenging year. The herniated disk (I’m still suffering with it). The Comcast.net reenginerring and relaunch effort (we launched successfully and they promoted me the same day Mom was diagnosed with cancer). Handling various stability issues with Philly Future that nearly killed the site. Being with Mom as she ended up in the hospital more and more (look on the archives here – a pattern emerged from back in 2005). Learning to be a dad.

So while it’s been a struggle – I have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and every day.

This is my last post on Mom for a while. I mentioned I would share some pictures and Richelle did prepare a terrific slideshow for her memorial service, but I think this recent one says it all.

I Fooled Myself

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In the past, I fooled myself into thinking I could not miss what I did not have.

I grew up without a father.

Looking at many I grew up with, sometimes I thought I had it better. I had quite a few friends with dad issues that haunt them to this day.

But now, upon reflection, it feels like I’ve simultaneously lost a Mom and a Dad.

What a strange thing to write. I must be entering the so called ‘anger’ phase.

If only life were that sequential, I could expect the emotions to wash over me, to pass me by on my way towards ‘acceptance’.

But our lives aren’t really like that are they? They happen, in a cosmic kinda level, at something resembling all at once, and our minds attempt to give it order and structure, if there are such things, they are beyond our current understanding.

All I know is that Mom did exist, and she left a legacy in me, in her other sons. Her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I’m rambling on my blog. Not like me at all. I’m trying to reach for something in writing I can’t quite get to yet. And my guitar is failing me on some level.

So good night folks.

Halloween Pictures

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It may have been the day before Mom’s funeral, but she wouldn’t have wanted us, especially Emma, from having some holiday fun. We may have been harried making arrangements for that Thursday, but we had a good time. I feel particularly blessed to live where we live – a true blue old fashioned Philly neighborhood. It’s a great place for Halloween.