Already a ten hour work day plus 1.5 hours of commute time. Plus I got there 40 minutes early on top of that jus cuz it was the first day.

Already I listened to inane conversations where people spout nonsense they know nothing about just to have something to say or assert ridiculous holier-than-thou proclimations that make me want to gag. Like the person who declares that drinking soda is disgusting and horrible and how he never does it and can’t understand the people who drink soda every day.  But then he proceeds to drink a beer and light a cigarette during his lunch break. Or the argument about whether population growth has increased or is tapering off in the US. Why not just look it up?

And yet they all seem like nice enough people. I had no real problems with them. I’d get along just fine with them though inside the conversations are boring me to death. It’s not their fault. They’re just following the social norms,

But me? I just have nothing to say during water cooler conversations. Nothing. I just don’t care.

If only it were just that…

Already I hear tell of internal conflicts. Clear, distinctive personality conflicts between one group of people and another. It includes some or more people being unjustly “rude” to one or more other people because of a perceived lack of adequate performance. No details were given. But I got the gist. I’ve been here before….

Already I overhear tell of an eternal conflict, where the question of “blame” takes center stage. Is it our fault? Is it their fault? We have to prove it isn’t our fault! It’s paramount.

I’ve been here before too…

I have a feeling that before long I’ll be giving my little speech again:

“I don’t care whether it is something you did or something we did. I don’t care about getting to the bottom of whose fault it is. I don’t care who should be held responsible. Mistakes happen. Things go wrong. All that matters to me is that it is wrong and I intend to fix it. That’s what they are paying me to do.”

But everybody will look at me like I’m crazy. As usual.

It wasn’t exactly a bad day. It was just…. all too close to what I had expected it to be. Or did I just go in there looking for things to be wrong? And of course I found them.

I don’t get the terribly bad feeling I got at the last place, but I don’t feel good about it either. I have a little bit of bad feeling. More like a suspicion. It’s a suspicion that the only difference between here and there is that the people here are a heck of a lot smarter and better educated. But intelligence aint all its cracked up to be.  I’ll like learning from them, but I’m pretty sure that’s the only thing I’ll like.

Man I never suspected I would really have such doubts about this place so soon. After three or four days, maybe, but on the first day? I would have never guessed it. Never. That makes me think that maybe it’s just going to be like that everywhere. And so there’s no point at all  in trying somewhere else.

It isn’t the place, it’s me. I am incapable of leading this kind of a life and being happy with it.

Are you a goal-driven person?

Have you ever played Simmbook?  This is a game on facebook where you
simulate real life, sort of like “the sims” only different.



I don’t get this game at all. I play it. I play it pretty regularly but
I don’t get it. There’s this checklist of things you are supposed to
accomplish with your simm based on your lifestyle choice. So it’ll have
things like “be in love” or “have 5 friends” or “get promoted” or “max
out your skills” or “receive a box of chocolate”.  And you know what? I
feel no inclination or desire to achieve any of those things? I just
don’t see much point in it. I just don’t get it.



And yet that doesn’t mean the game doesn’t amuse me. I still play. I
made my simm a cashier and I randomly interact with the game with no
real focus or goal in mind whatsoever. I’m not going to achieve all of
the checkboxes. I probably won’t even get half of them done. I’ll be
lucky if I don’t get sick and die. And so what? I sort of like the
random amusing things I encounter through the game.



Some people are different. A lot different. They play the game
seriously. That doesn’t mean they don’t have as much fun randomly
interacting and exploring as I do. Maybe they have more. But obtaining
the check points are important to them. Getting those things out for
their simm matters a lot to them. In fact from what I’ve observed,
*most* people who play simmbook are like that. They play for points or
they play to win and achieve all the things they can achieve in that
game. They are “goal-driven”.



Simmbook is exactly like real life.



I’ve met people, and interacted with people for whom obtaining their
goals, much like the simmbook goals list, is very very important to
them.  One person I even heard talking about it once described their
life as a sort of a time line. Married by age X, children by age Y,
good job by age Z, promoted to high power position in said job by age
Q, own their own business by age R, retire by age S,  etc. etc. Not everyone is that specific, but lots of people have
very substantive goals for themselves that they want to accomplish, and
they won’t let anything get in their way of accomplishing those goals.



And for those people, making a decision that leads to a short term
happiness but detracts from the probability of reaching their long term
aims is taboo. It’s frivolous. It’s impulsive. It’s irresponsible.



These people aren’t some minority. In my experience most
people are like this to some extent or another. Even people I’ve met
who weren’t like this, tended to become more like this as time went on.
Goals and ends became more important to them. They set goals for
themselves and set out to obtain those goals. They came to think that
that was really important. That it mattered.



Everybody does this.



Except me.



I have no goals whatsoever.



Really I don’t. I remember in grade school and high school we’d get all
these lectures from various people telling us how important it was for
us to learn to set goals for ourselves and then reach and strive to
obtain them.  I think back then I did set goals for myself. I did fight
to reach them. Finish at the top of my class. Get into prestigious
college. Stuff like that.  But I was never all that enthusiastic about
them. I always used to think when the teacher or whoever said that
something along the lines of “through what criteria should you choose a
goal?” and “what makes one goal choose-worthy as opposed to another?”
Basically I didn’t get this arbitrary idea of a “goal”. What were they?
Where did they come from? Why should I have them? Why should I pursue
them? 



But these were sort of the underlying principles that they thought
everyone already knew the answers to. It was just so obvious to
everyone that goals were good and everyone should have them. So go get
yourself some goals you idiot Nephyo!  So I did. But obtaining them
didn’t make me happy at all.



And it’s like that now too. I have *wants*. Like I want to be happy. I
want to have friends and family who care about me and rely upon me and
on whom I can rely upon. I want real connections with people that mean
something, not just random acquaintances.  And I want to write. All the time and always. And that’s for no
other reason than the shear joy I get out of the experience of writing.
Those are the things I want. Nothing more. I have no other goals. Long
term or short term. Everything else I do, everything, is either on whim
or because I am pushed into it by circumstances beyond my control or to
ensure that I can stay happy.  This is how I am.

I have fears too. I *don’t* particularly want to die for example. Especially if that means I cease to exist. And I sort of fear screwing up and looking bad in front of people. I don’t want to do that. But those aren’t exactly goals.



I do have wild fantasies sometimes. Random dreams of achieving near
impossible things. But these aren’t goals because I know they are far
outside the realms of possibilities. I don’t even really take them
seriously enough to think about them long enough to decide whether or
not I would really want them. Their just the crazy dreams. They don’t
matter at all.



You see? I don’t have any sort of concrete goals whatsoever.  Sometimes I try
to pretend like I do. I try to act like I have ambitions or want to
achieve some level of success in something or somewhat. But every time
I do this, I feel like I am putting on an act. I feel like I’m giving a
show. This isn’t me. I’m dong it because everybody else does, but
really I don’t care.



Sometimes, I even ask the advice on occasion of those who I know are
more ambitious than I to see what they would do. I do this because even
to pretend to have goals for myself, I need help. Because I just don’t
think like that at all, I often make decisions that are not optimal. I
am more willing to take on risk, because I have no long term ends that
I am trying to defend or protect my ability to achieve. And I usually
don’t like their advice very much. I don’t even comprehend it. I
respect them and their opinion, but it’s almost like they are an alien
species to me.

I sometimes ask these aliens (which is you recall virtually everyone other than me) questions as I try to understand where they are coming from.  I ask them things like this:

Where does your motivation come from?


And I really want to know. Maybe if I understand what motivates others, I can motivate myself too? But they never have answers to those questions that really make sense to me either. Usuually they don’t really answer it at all. And I’m left still completely devoid of any sense of self-motivation and incapable of building up the drive for it no matter how hard I try. I’m just not at all goal-driven.


And I wonder why that is?  What is it about me that makes me so
untethered? Where did I miss out on the stage when you’re supposed to
develop these oh so important goals? Was I asleep that day?  Was I
always like this? Or maybe it’s just because I’ve messed up so often
that all the normal things people declare as their “goals” seem so
impossibly far out of reach for me that I never got a good look at them
so they could never capture my imagination. Maybe I never wanted them,
because I don’t know what they really are?



But I don’t know if any of those things are the reason. My mind tells
me that there is no rational reason to preference one of these
lifestyles over another. None whatsoever that I can see. But maybe I
only think that as a means of self justification? Others say things
like “you have a responsibility to yourself to set goals for yourself
and achieve them”? Do you? I don’t get that at all. Surely your
responsibility to yourself is to do the things you want to do and if
you don’t want to have goals, why should you?



So I act on whim sometimes. I am impulsive sometimes. Sometimes to a
fault.  I still feel responsibility is important. I feel my debts to
others have to be repaid. And I feel it is really important to help the
people you care about in any way you can. I would glady do anything for
the people I care about.



But I don’t act responsibly very often at all in terms of trying to
achieve ends for myself. I won’t make a decision, knowingly, that leads
to my unhappiness or that of others even if I felt that was necessary
to obtain some long term goal. Well how could I ever make such a
decision since I don’t have any of those long term goals I am seeking
to obtain?



So…



Does this make me just deep down just a horribly irresponsible person?



Maybe it does.

* What’s the funniest joke you know?

I don’t know many jokes at all. However I once wrote a pretty funny
short story entitled “C Beast”. You have to a programmer to get it.
I’ve got another funny story I’ve been meaning to write too…

*
What is your favorite tv program of all time?

Involving Real People – Firefly
Not involving real people – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (anime),  Gargoyles (non-anime)
These answers change roughly once every five minutes.

*

What do you spend most of your money on?

right now? gas!  But I don’t mind if it reduced demand and helps save the world.

*

What is one quote that best describes your views on life?

This is the greatest question I’ve seen on the featured questions page.
But I have no idea what to put for an answer. I’m still thinking about
it. One of these I’ll answer it.

*
What do you think about the Jena 6?

I voiced all my opinions on this on various forums. It was pretty messed up.

*
Are you happy?

Does it really matter?

*
How do you handle stress?

By pretending it doesn’t exist. I don’t recommend this strategy to others.

*
What makes up a successful relationship?

Mutual respect. Just guessing…

*

What’s your record for consecutive hours spent listening to an iPod – and what were you doing?

Zero.
The ipod is NOT the only kind of mp3 player out there nor is it a
generic term for an mp3 player. Just like “google” is not the
appropriate term for an internet search, nor is “IE” the only kind of
web browser or “windows” or “pc” the only kind of computer, or “MS
Office” the only kind of office suite, or “tivo” the only pvr, etc.
etc. etc.  Stop mixing up the terms!!

if you mean mp3 player i general maybe 4. if music not through an mp3 player, something like 72 hours…

*
Has your iPod ever run out of juice at the worst possible moment? What happened?

No. See above. And how could it be particularly bad to lose your iphone
power? Is that like the end of the world? wtf? you just lose your
music! BFD!
Now if it were your cellphone, that’s a whole different story. Mine
just ran out while in the middle of a phone interview. Remarkably the
interview still went well.

*

Do you think a person can develop close relationships through the Internet? Why or why not?

I don’t think it, I know
it is possible. Experimental evidence in my own life has proven it.
I’ve developed close friends online and become closer to existing
friends through interactions online.

As to why? Why wouldn’t it be? All human interactions are meaningful
and can create rapport. The internet is just like the real world. In
some ways it’s more real than the real world. Why would anyone say a
relationship online lacks “reality” just because it doesn’t entail
biological vicinity? That’s absurd. However, it is important to
remember that just because a relationship is close over the internet
doesn’t mean that same relationship will be close outside of the
internet. And vice versa.

*

If you could be any animal for a day what animal would you be and why?

My completely unclever answer that dozens of people have probably
already said – a human being. That’s the truth. It is the animal that I
most want to be.  Unless you allow fantasy creatures. The possibilities
are near endless! But of course Dragon wins.

*
Do you think the media puts too much focus on physical beauty?

Yes! It’s a conspiracy I tell you! The media monguls meet in a room
every year and decide how much physical beauty will play a part in
media representatios this year and force it upon the unsuspecting
public! <sarcasm>

No. The media just does what the people want. The react to signals
tempered by internal biases, true, but mostly it’s the signals. You
want less focus on physical beauty? Then convince more people not to
care!

*

Would you sign a pre-nup before getting married? Why or why not?

I should hope that I would marry someone with whom it wouldn’t matter
one way or another. But overall, sure can’t see why not? So long as the
agreement is fair and equitable.

*

How often do you put new songs on your iPod – and what are the last 5 songs you put on it?

Sigh. How many times do I have to say I don’t own an f***ing ipod!
I never put new songs on my mp3 player. I should probably do that some time.

*

What is the most artistic item in your home?

My roommate is the artistic one. Ask him.

*

If you could change anything about the world, what would it be and why?

Just one thing? Anything? Well I’d change the fact that I don’t have
godlike powers. Then I’d use my godlike powers to change soooo much.
OK, more reasonably, I’d change the way the career/business/education
model works by making it more rational. Either that or I’d eliminate
the idea of the nation state. Or maybe  et rid of all illnesses. Or end
world hunger. Or eliminate nuclear weapons. Ach! There’s just too may.
Godlike powers it is!

*
What is your biggest regret?

Losing a friend.

*

What three things would you put in a time capsule that best represents you and your life?

Wow. I’d buy the biggest hard drive i can buy and chalk it full of
every digital file I’ve ever had and every record of my existence I can
find. Of course that would include all of my writing.  And with any
space left over I’d put everything I can get representing my friends
and family.  That’s one.

An island magic card (nobody will fully get this but me).  Third spot
is reserved for something as of yet to develop significant meaning.

*

What is beauty?

This is by far the hardest question so far. I feel wholly unqualified
to answer it. I’m sure I don’t know and neither does anybody else who
answered it. So does that make me the wisest one amongst you? Yep. I
think it does.

But what do I guess that beauty is? I think it is an extreme form of
the perception of preference. No I won’t explain that further.

*

Is the idea of marriage too outdated for the 21st century?

…. sort of and not really…  Basically the idea of what marriage was
is outdated, the idea of what marriage is, is of course quite in line
with the 21st century since it has become untethered to absurd
traditional hang ups and is evolving free form to fit the needs and
desires of the populace. This is as it should be.

There’s a separate question of whether marriage is good for society and
what forms of marriage can and can’t be beneficial. That would lead us
to determine what public policies should be enacted with regards to
marriage to encourage its evolution along certain lines. That’s much
more complicated and I have a lot of thoughts on it. Respond to this
message or pm me, asking me, and if you want I’ll get into it.  It is
an essay I’ve always wanted to write, just haven’t had the time and
there hasn’t been any reason to.

*
Which deceased or living person would you clone and why?

I don’t really believe there’s anyone alive now or who has ever lived
that is so great that it would necessarily be a good idea to clone
them. Environment plays such a huge role in people’s lives that there’d
be no guarantee that person would accomplish anything. Plus it’s not
like those genes are just gone. There’s plenty of extroardinry people
alive and around right now! We just have to harness their abilities.

*
What things do you say, think, or do to help you get ready for the new work/school week?

I wonder if the fact that I didn’t say, think, or do anything in
particular was the reason I was never particularly ready for the new
work/school week?

*
What was the best birthday present you got?

You know… I’ve never gotten a particularly memorable one. Get
cracking you guys!  (yes I would say this no matter what i had gotten
in order to encourage better gifts)

*
Do you think religion should be taught in schools? Why or why not?

The practice of religion should *not* be taught in public free access
schools. The history of religion can be taught. So can the philosophy
of religion. You can even teach what the practices and beliefs of
religions ARE. So long as you do it neutrally and objectively. You just
can’t teach students TO practice those practices. You can’t
indoctrinate them into holding those beliefs. But all other schools can
do whatever they feel like. We need people with variant thoughts and
different backgrounds in order to encourage lively debate and a fuller
understanding of everything. Even though I personally think any school,
private or public that indoctrinates its children into a particular
belief system is not only doing something stupid, but something
reprehensibly morally wrong, others might disagree and I would not
interfere with their ability to act in accordance with their own
morality.

*

What is the most creative Halloween costume you’ve ever seen or worn yourself?

They all seem so boring to me. I like anime cosplay better.

*

Why do people follow trends?

Uhhh this question is sort of backwards. The trend exists because
people followed it. It wasn’t a trend until people followed it. In
order for it to be a trend it must be followed. Get it? Why do trends
become trends?  Well each one is different right? People liked whatever
it was for whatever reason and so they did it and it became a trend.

*
Are you concerned about your weight?

Sort of. I’m very concerned about my lack of energy which may or may
not be correlated with my weight. I’m not concerned about any other
aspect. I don’t really care that much about the other health issues
associated with weight or with the visual significance of weight. If I
die, I die.

Of course, I suspect I’m lying.

*

What inspires you? What gets your creativity-engine roaring?

Observing people. Listening to people tell me their stories Also
sitting in the park or walking through the park watching people.

*

What is the one thing you have always procrastinated doing since forever?

There’s a short story I’ve been writing for almost 7 years now but I
keep refusing to finish it. I think it will be awesome but I fear it
will suck.

*
How do you feel about divorce?

I don’t have any feelings toward the concept “divorce” whatsoever. It’s
just a concept. I do have strong feelings about particular instances of
the concept divorce. But each case is different.

*
Would you become an organ donor?

Post death. Sure.  While alive… I doubt I’m healthy enough, but if I am, I don’t know, maybe.

*

What do you most want to change about your life?

Well I thought I wanted to become more connected with the experience of
living. I want the things that happen to me to matter to me more. Well
I’ve been trying to make that the case for the last few months anyway.
But heh, now I’m not sure how much I want that change to occur any
more. It’s a pain in the ass.

*
Should torture be an acceptable method of gaining military intelligence?

The term itself necessitates the answer. The term “torture” exists to
represent intolerable mechanisms to attempt to extract information.
Anything that falls into the category of torture is necessarily them
unacceptable. So what is meaningful is to look at individual
techniques, determine their efficacy if possible weight that against
their humaneness and determine if society deems them acceptable. If
they are then they aren’t “torture”. It just so happens that most of
the extreme techniques that are used are high inhumane and ALSO high
ineffective. So there’s no point in our government demanding that we be
able to do them. That’s idiotic.

*
What do you remember about your first day of school?

I don’t remember anything about that day. Was I even fully self-aware then?


*

Would you ever consider plastic surgery, why or why not?
Sure if I received some deformity that required it in order to live a
semi-normal life then I’d consider it. But it depends a lot on whether
it is perceptions of others that I am concerned about or some personal
discomfort on unpleasantness that the surgery would correct. If the
former, there’s a chance I’d just say to hell with anyone who dislikes 
the way I look, I aint changin’.


*
What would be one moment that you would cherish the most in your life?
I can’t imagine ever putting so much stake in any single moment. I want
to cherish lots and lots of moments in my life. And I don’t feel one
cherishable moment should be put up against another in a sort of
competition to say that it is *better* than another.

*
Is the UN really effective as a peacekeeper?
It appears to be. But over the long haul if the underlying problems are
not resolved, no peacekeeping force can really be effective at “keeping
the peace”.

*
Why are many people against homosexuals?

Because…. people are idiots.
There are lots more complicated reasons but they all end up reducing down to this.


*
If you had the choice, how would you want to die?
Can I set *all* the circumstances surrounding my death?  OK then, well
after I’ve ruled the world and created a perfect utopia on Earth (and
wherever any other sentient species reside), traveled to and fully
explored every planet and seen every star in the universe, written and
published millions of novels, short stories, poems, video games, songs,
learned every learnable skill that can be learned, tasted every
possible good tasting food that exists, experienced every imaginable
pleasurable experience that can be experienced, seen every work of art
or beauty that exiss, traveled through time and observed all historical
phenomena that hold even a shred of interest to me, and discovered the
answers to all of the important questions such as the meaning of life
then I’d like to die surrounded by all my friends and family 100%
totally content, happy, and satisfied and fully having not the faintest
clue that is about to happen.


*
Can men and women ever be completely equal? Should they?
Some people seem to take in this question the word “equal” to mean “the
same”. If that’s what you mean then no of course not. That’s absurd.
It’s a strict logical impossibility in fact.

If you mean anything more rational by “equal” then I’d say yes they can and yes they should.


*
Where do you want to travel most in the world?
I can’t think of anywhere. I’m a little curious about everything, but
usually I’m satisfied to stay right where I am. Except these days I
feel increasingly restless with my surroundings.


*
Is the death penalty a reasonable way to punish criminals for their actions?
Maybe. “reasonable” I take from a shear practical standpoint. In that
case it’s possible that the cost/benefit analysis to society of
committing the death penalty might, and I stress MIGHT, come up in
favor of the death penalty.
But who gives a fuck? It’s morally wrong for a society to apply the
death penalty. That’s the society saying “sorry dudes, we failed you
utterly, but it’s all your fault so go die!” Society has a
responsibility to protect, defend, and promote the safety and happiness
of all of its citizens, not just the ones that happen to be in its
favor at the moment.

*
Do long distance relationships work?
Experimental evidence suggests: sometimes.

*
What career would you pursue if money was not an issue?
In the anime Fruits Basket, there’s this guy who all he does is live at
home and walk around in a kimono all day. I want to be just like him!
(except with a laptop)

*
Do you think arranged marriage is an outdated cultural tradition?
Traditions cannot become “outdated”. Traditions are by their very
definition homages to the past. The question is whether or not there is
still nay value to society to pay homage to the past.  If there isn’t,
that doesn’t mean ” arranged marriage” is outdated, it just means that
society shouldn’t continue to encourage and support of it. Obviously
society shouldn’t force people to do anything. People are welcome to
preserve whatever traditions they like that do no harm.  In this
case… I think there is a moral quandary here. Involuntary arranged
marriage is in fact a moral wrong somewhat akin to slavery and should
be illegal. Voluntary arranged marriage however, society should be
neutral about. I doesn’t seem to cause any harm  to the society as a
whole nor do any particularly great good.

* 
What is something you wish you were better at doing?
Just pick one? Cuz I could fill an encyclopedia with them. If I had to
pick one, it’d be writing. I  could always use being better at writing. I also wish I was better at helping people, but that’s a little too nebulous to be an answer.


*
What is your favorite part about the holidays?
cookies.


*
What is your definition of a real friend?
I wish I knew so I could be that for more people.


*
What would you do if you were the last person on earth?
Answer a bunch of xanga featured questions. Then write a book. It’d be sure to be a bestseller.

*
What was your favorite childhood game to play?
The implication of this question is that it is sort of a game you
played in childhood that you stopped playing as you grew older. The
games like that, I didn’t really like – like hide and go seek or 7-up
or dodgeball or musical chairs  or something. I didn’t like them, that’s
why I stopped playing them.

The games I played that I liked, I still like now. Like D&D. Chess,
Magic:The Gathering, RISK, Monopoly, and an endless supply of video
games. What’s my favorite of those? Too hard to say.

*
How do you deal with criticism?
I don’t seem to get directly criticized very much at all. And that sort
of pisses me off. If you think I’m doing or thinking or saying
something stupid for christ sake tell me! The only things worst than direct criticism are unspoken  felt criticism and criticism spoken behind your back.

*
Do you think a person’s looks affect his or her success in the job market?

Uh probably. Someone should just study this and find out. It isn’t
particularly hard to design an experiment to determine it. Poor
appearance I think is already documented to have a negative consequence
during the interview/hiring process at least. But how far this goes can certainly be studied in more depth.

*
Are you brand conscious?

No. Brands are overtly a way that companies try to fool consumers. They
say it outright. Seriously read their business statements and mission
statements and how they talk about brands. It’s all about getting you
to think in terms of the “brand” as a substitute for the underlying
thing hence giving the company security against negative perception as a
result of failures in the underlying thing. It’s quite corrupt.

*
What is the meaning of life in your eyes?

I can honestly say that the life within my eyes,
bacteria and whatnot I’m guessing, have no meaning whatsoever.

*
What makes a happy marriage?

constant effortless effort. Just guessing.

*
Do you think Christmas’ central focus on materialism takes away from the ambiance of the season?

I don’t really know what ambiance means in this context. But
materialism sucks. But whatever. If people didn’t want it, it wouldn’t
exist.

*
Who is one person in your life that has influenced you the most, and why?

I don’t know. I’m hard to influence. I pretty much do the same thing I
was always going to do no matter what.  I just bitch and moan about it to different extents to different people. But probably my Mom influenced me the most I guess. We
talk a lot or rather I listen a lot and her thought process effects
mine.

*
How interested and/or involved are you in politics?

I alternate in interest from repulsed to enraptured. I alternate in involvement from not at all to barely.

*
What motivates you to give to a charity?

I almost never give to charity. I have a thoery that the existence of
charity does more harm than good. It’s one of those blogs I always
wanted to write but never did. I do sometimes give to radom projects that I think are cool because I think they are cool.

———————————-

God damn there’s a lot of these featured questions. Still 2 or 3 more of these to go before i’ve answered them all!
 

I just answered these Featured Questions, you can answer them too!

There’s a big problem.  It’s huge! We’ve gotta fix it right away!

English has too many letters! And it takes too damn long to type. In the age of mobility that’s killing us. We have these clunky devices with full keyboards build in that take up way too much space. We have all this annoying software to try and make it easier on us.  It’s all so troublesome.

There’s a better way. Let’s just fix English. We can make it simpler! We can make it smaller!  And all we have to do to achieve this is embrace the principles already inherent in that most beautiful of spontaneous inventions of man – textspeak!

Step one. Get rid of extraneous letters.  First of all we don’t need “c”. We also don’t need “x” or “q” either. The sounds represented by these tokens can be represented by other tokens and token sequences.

“c” is a special case though. We will get rid of the concept of the letter “c” but we will keep the token “c” and the word “see”. Instead well will get rid of the letter s. The c will now make the s sound. Period.  We could have replaced k instead, but k is used in common pseudo-words like “okay”. So the x become “kc” in most cases sound and q “kw”. I know that’s more letters which runs contrary to our goal but we’ll find more savings elsewhere and this makes the keyboard smaller.

Step two. Replace number symbols with letters or vice versa.  Basically since letter and number contexts are virtually impossible to confuse, we don’t need two sets of symbols for them. Let’s just use one and depending on context you can tell whether someone means a letter or a number. If it is ambiguous at any time let’s just use the # symbol prior to any invocation of a number. Just like we use $ to denote currency.

I suggest the following equivalence:

0 == o
1 == l
2 == r*
3* == e
4 == a*
5 == c*
6* == g
7 == t*
8 == b*
9 == p*

Note 5 is “c” since there is no “s”. And note 1 is always “L” never “i” and 7 is always “t” never “L”.  This is one way this differs from l33t. 

We can pick either token in any of these cases. And we should pick the easiest to write. I’ve starred the one that seems so to me.

(Ideally we’d just start from scratch, have precisely 16 letters each of which denotes a number from 0 to 15 and just do all our math in base 16 which all know is a fairly useful base. We can pick which 16+ sounds  to be represented by these characters by studying the phonetic alphabet and coming up with a reasonable distribution. Or any base will do so long as it’s a power of 2.  Even powers of 3 would work since we can do yes/no/maybe logic.  But 10 and 26 are madness!)

Step 3. Eliminate capitalization as a “rule”.  That is you don’t capitalize names or places or the beginning of sentences. Why would you need two place holders to indicate when a sentence starts. The ending punctuation has more utility and is sufficient. And of course you don’t have to capitalize the word “I”!

Step 4.  Eliminate separate tokens for capital letters versus lower case. Instead letters just have different sizes. Small letters represent normal speech. Larger exact replicas of those letters represent emphasis or “shouting”. The larger the letters, the bigger the emphasis.

Step 5. Eliminate unneeded punctuation and symbols.  The semii-colon byes the dust. As does the colon. Get rid of “&” cuz “+” is good enough.  We keep single quotes and drop double quotes. And no more apostophes or accent symbols. And do we need four different grouping indicators? Let’s drop curly braces and leave [], (), and <>.  Maybe we’ll drop braces too.  Long hyphens and underscores get the boot too. As does the tilde. In logical notation “not” will be “!”.

Step 6. Eliminate words fully represented by existing single tokens. We will determine meaning based on context.
So the word “and” ceases to exist. It’s just “+”.  Likewise the words “number”, “dollar”, “times”, “minus”, “percent”, “at”, “equals”, “greater”, “less”, “not”, “star”, “see”, “plus”, “be”, “too”,  “to”, “pee”, “are”, “oh”, “you” and “why”. Similarly with all the numeral name words and all of the alphabetic character name words. And so on and so forth.

Step 7. As with step 6, replace parts of words or phrases that have single character representations based on sound with their short word equivlaence.  So “before” becomes “b4″  or if we recall our number replacements “ba”.

Step 8.  Whenever single character words appear in sequence it will be a rule that you can eliminate the space and just write them together. As in you can write “and you too” as “+ur”

Step 9. Any word or expression that can be represented by an emoticon is replaced by the emoticon if  and only if the smallest form emoticon is smaller than the word.  So “smile” becomes “:)” and “frown” become “:(” and “love” becomes “<3″ More elaborate emoticons represent subtle shifts in meaning and these should all be in standard dictionary.s

Step 10. Replace multi-letter sequences that represent a single sound with the single letter that represents that same sound wherever possible.  So “ph”  becomes “f”.

Step 11. Add all contractions as actually words to the english language and remove their now defunct apostophes. If nothing else this will get rid of the confusion called by the abomination called “won’t” and allow me to play words like “dont” in scrabble.

Step 12. Add a set of words to the english language that represent acronyms for very common expressions.  So “lol” will be a real word. So will “idk”, “brb”, “lmao”, “rofl”, “ty”, “imo”, “afk”, “wtf”, etc. etc.

Step 13. Drop off common letters on words that are commonly failed to be pronounced without ambiguity resulting.  So most words that end in “ing”  can just end in “in”.

Step 13. It will be acceptable to chain abbreviation words together and together with single character words dropping the spaces. So I can say “and I don’t know what the f*** you are talking about”  something like “+idkwtfur talkin about”.

Step 14. Eliminate cursive representations of characters. Really does anybody still use that stuff? And no I don’t care about signatures. The practice of requiring signatures should have died long long ago.

And there you have it. 14 steps to make English cool and fun, easier to use, easier to learn, and more effective for hand held communication!

Some people can’t take tests. They just can’t do it. I mean it’s not like they can’t sit through the event and put answers down if they have to since undoubtedly they will sometimes in their lives. But that doesn’t mean they are really taking the test.  They get nervous. So nervous their brain shutdowns. Every single time. They could know every answer but their score will be atrocious. This is just a block for them.

Other people I’ve noticed have a block around mathematics. I mean the very thought of being introduced to numbers creates a wall within their mind.  It’s not that they can’t carry out simply subtraction or multiplication, they undoubtedly *can* do it. They’re not dumb. But the numbers make them nervous. They make them second guess themselves. They make them get the answer wrong, even though deep down they know the basic concepts and could derive the answer correctly. Math is their block. Numbers is their barrier.

I never really fully got either of these types of people. Math has always come easily to me and I get excited at the thought of taking a standardized multiple choice test even if it is on subject matter that I know nothing about. For me, it’s fun.

But now I think I’m starting to understand them.

I walked into the office. I stumbled in telling the secretary my name. Completely forgot the name of the person I was supposed to see. I sit down avoiding everyone’s gaze. First I fidget. My eyes keep darting around the room. I can’t seem to figure out what to do with my hands. I move them to ten different positions. before setting eyes on the nearby magazines. Aha! That will give m something to do with my hands AND my eyes. Oh how clever of them to make them available.

I nervously stand up and walk over to them feeling like I’m creeping along like a kid trying to sneak a cookie out of a cookie jar. I catch myself and on the way back to my chosen seat make a conscious effort to try and walk normally but this only makes me look more goofy.  I sit down and start reading, only my eyes aren’t picking up the words, my brain isn’t comprehending their meanings.

I notice my hands are shaking. I can’t hold the magazine steady. My eyes are watering. My palms are sweating. I forcefully hold my hands against my legs to keep the magazine from visibly shaking. And I stare unseeing at the page taking deep breathes telling myself over and over again that this whole experience doesn’t matter.

People keep asking me if I’d like a glass of water. I stammer out my declination. They think they are being nice, taking pity on me, but no I don’t want any damn water. What I want is for this to be over with as soon as possible so I can go home and crawl into bed and try as hard as I can to forget it ever happened.

Finally the person comes. I go into their office. They are smiling and being jovial doing their best to put me at ease. They ask questions. I try to answer. But I fail. I stumble. I can’t seem to explain the things I want to say. The words won’t come. This is stuff I know. Stuff I know so well I could write dissertations on it. But I end up seeming like the most rank novice.  My mind just can’t seem to form the connections it normally would. My brain just won’t start moving.

It ends soon after. I am ushered out quickly having been a complete disappointment to everyone most of all myself. 

And then as soon as I leave the building. The feelings gone. It’s just gone. Just like that. More often than not it’s quickly replaced with plain old fashioned depression which is hardly better.

People say to me fairly frequently things like “you just need to go talk to people more often” and “you’ll get more comfortable with experience”.  I know they mean well. And I want to believe them. I try to believe them. But deep down I know it’s not true. This is just a block for me. And it won’t get better. Not after 100 experiences or a 100,000 experiences.

The only thing that changes is as I get older I become more skilled at hiding the signs of it. Sometimes I only come off as seeming “a little” nervous. But my brain still falters. Inside, I’ve still lost total control. Every time. If I tell you that an experience I had “went well” what I generally mean is that I only stumbled and said the wrong thing half a dozen times and only managed to forget to say about 2/3rds of what I wanted to say. You don’t want to hear about the bad experiences. This is not going to get better. This is just the way I am.

People who have a block in math have it easy. Carry a calculator. Problem solved.  If your block is tests, your schooling will be a pain in the ass but take heart in that some point you’ll reach a stage in your life where you most likely will *never* have to take another written test if you don’t want to. (Unless you’re a teacher because our government is filled with a bunch of bone heads.)  But what if talking to people is your barrier? What if interaction is your block?  Somebody tell me how exactly does one avoid that?

Sometimes people will say things like “I understand” and “I get nervous too” or even “I’m an introvert just like you.” And I don’t doubt them. I’m sure they get nervous in their own way. But it’s not the same. They know it. I know it. They may very well be an introvert.

But not like me.

Bored… I’ll answer a bunch of featured questions I haven’t answered yet. Starting from the beginning.

*What’s your favorite childhood memory?
Final Fantasy VI

*Which Simpsons character would you be and why?
Herman  – The one armed guy who owns the military antiques store. He’s a brilliant tactician and owns a nuclear bomb. Both things I aspire toward. 

*
If you were reincarnated, would you want to come back as a man or a woman … and why?
A man. More experience means better outcomes. If I were a woman it would be like starting over from scratch.

*
Michael Vick has been indicted for running dog fights. If guilty, what should his punishment be?
A pat on the back? I honestly didn’t follow this scandal and didn’t care about it in the least.

*
Which celebrity would you most want to do volunteer work with?
Honestly the requirement that I had to work with a celebrity would make the volunteer work much less palatable to me. But if I have to pick a name  I guess it’d be Morgan Webb.

*
Based on your experience, can men and women ever just be friends?
Of course. The human mind is capable of astounding things.

*
When was the last time you cried?
I came very close a couple of days ago. But it was about a week and a half ago. I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote a short story. And then I starting writing an email. Both made me cry.

* What’s the most mischievous thing you remember doing as a child?
I can’t remember doing any mischievous as a child. Man I missed out!

*

If you could apologize to one person you’ve hurt, who would it be and what would you say?
I would say: “I’ll come home now.”

*
If your life was made into a movie, what would the movie trailer be like?
It would be the most awesome kickass trailer in the world. Filled with action and suspense and drama. It would make you desperate to see the movie. And, as with all trailers, you’ll be utterly disappointed when you see the real thing on which it is based. But I won’t care. I’ll already have your money.

*
What sort of worries keep you up at night?
Nothing keeps me up at night. I sleep through everything. I just have nightmares.

* What are the top three things you want to do in your life?
Do they have to be within reason?  If not then – save the world, change the world, rule the world
If yes then – ensure the happiness of all my friends and family, become a published author, have fun

*
If you had one minute with President Bush, what would you tell him?
hmmm, how much profanity can one fit in a minute?

*

Which part of your job do you find most enjoyable on a daily basis?
I find every part of sitting on my ass quite enjoyable.

*
What is your greatest fear?
That I will disappear and be forgotten.

* What’s the oldest thing you own?
OK Some of these questions are just too hard.

*
If there’s one thing you couldn’t live without, what would it be?
Just one?  I guess I’d have to say my family and friends. But I’m not sure those counts as a “thing”. So I’d say the internet. Does that count? Because I seriously could not live without it. You’ll have to rip that out of my cold dead hands.

*

Who do you look up to and why?
I look up to my little brother because he’s the strongest person I know.

*
What is one thing you’ve learned today?
That what counts as a lot of money seems to differ from person to person.

*
If you had the chance to have three wishes (no wishing for more wishes) what would they be and why?
1. The power of interdimensional travel
2. The power to locate and enslave non-sentient creatures from other dimensions
3. If non-sentient creatures with godlike powers do not exist in other dimensions for me to enslave, I would wish for them to exist so that I can enslave them.

*

What is a good featured question?
I like the ones that are controversial. Basically a good featured question should force you to write more than a short one line or one paragraph answer. In short, responses like all of these should be impossible for a good FQ.

*

Do you believe there is a soul mate for you, somewhere out there?
Nope. I don’t believe in the idea of uniqueness of affections. But even if I did, I’d doubt it.

*
What’s on your playlist?
A lot of Utada Hikaru – Utaada United live tour, random singles. Some Dido. A bunch of Nobuo Uematsu final fantasy music. Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger soundtracks. Prince of Egypt Soundtrack. Boyz II Men. Disney Music. And lots and lots of random Anime tracks. Ask me and I’ll elaborate.

*
What’s a good way to cure a broken heart?
Don’t cure it. Keep it. Cherish its pieces. Make them a part of you. And then build yourself a new heart. Maybe a few new hearts. Can’t hurt to have a spare.

*
Does your Internet persona differ much from you in real life? Why or why not?
When you meet me in real life, you tell me! Personally I think I am the real me online. I’m not pretending. But sometimes maybe it’s hard to get to know that real me in real life since I am very shy.

*

Being honest with yourself, do you judge others by their outer appearances at first glance?
Judge is a strong strong word. Know I don’t judge. I don’t presume you are a bad person or that something is wrong with you because you don’t meet a visual standard. But yes of course appearances influence the way I interact with people. This is just biology.

*

What are you most proud of?
Those times I’ve been able to be there for my friends and family when they needed me.

*
What qualities are most important for a political figure to have?
You have to know WTF you are talking about.

*
What is one song that has affected your life and why?
Life For Rent by Dido. Blogged about it under protected.

*

What are you thankful for?
Xanga. My friends. The Internet. My Family. My Car. The existence of awesome games, cool anime, and good food. That I’m a genius. That I’m dumb enough to believe that and say it with a straight face.

*
How has 9/11 changed your life?
It hasn’t appreciably. And that terrifies me.

*

Are you photogenic? Do you like having your picture taken?
I have no idea. And no not really. I secretly believe that cameras steal pieces of people’s souls. OK not so secret anymore.

*
What did you want to be when you were a child?
My parents swear I wanted to be a garbage collecting man at one point. I can’t remember having any ambitions other than a general desire to change the world.

I just answered these Featured Questions, you can answer them too!

I never really got patriotism. Just like I don’t get a lot of sports fandom. People tend ot be a fan of certain sports teams largely because they live in the area or they attended the school of the team and not for any other reason. Likewise, Patriotism is supposed to be like support of your country just because you happened to be born there.

And I don’t think international politics really is or ought to be a game of “my country is better than your country!” Demanding patriotic loyalty of the populace seems to make it into one. And it divides peole from disparate backgrounds. People from other countries can’t be patriots of yours nor will you ever be a patriot of thiers. That will always be something you disagree on.

That doesn’t mean I don’t like the United States. I like it well enough and I’m certainly grateful to have been born here and lived here.  But there’s lots of stuff I don’t like about the United States and lots of stuff I like more about other countries. I’m quite the fan of a lot of countries even though I don’t know that much about them. But I can only be patriotic toward the US? That’s silly.

When the US does something wrong, I won’t support them. And when other countries do something right, I’ll support those endeavors. Maybe it isn’t very patriotic. But it’s certainly moral.

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

Of all the online communities I’ve been a part of, the
people on Xanga are by far the nicest. 
And that’s a problem.  It’s got to
stop!

Take Xanga’s direct and indirect competitors for
contrast.  I don’t have any experience
with LiveJournal so I’ll leave them out.

Blogger -  Everyone
seems isolated and an island unto themselves. People only interact directly
with the people that they know and don’t seem to care in the slightest about
strangers.

MySpace – A community in which greed dominates. And I don’t
just mean the money grubbing, spamming, advertising bots and sick twisted
individuals preying on children either.  There’s a hoarding factor on MySpace. You’re
sort of greedily collecting junk to show off on your page!

Facebook – Again there’s a sort of show off attitude, but it’s
more of a preppy sort of aloofness here than greed. With facebook it’s all
about saying my applications, my groups, my networks, my gifts, my photos, and
of course my friends are  better than yours. Mine are cooler! See come look at how cool they are!

YouTube –  YouTube
users are just plain mean. There’s no other way to describe it. If you put your
heart and soul into making a video blog to post on YouTube but your sound
quality isn’t up to snuff, if anyone even notices you at all, expect to get
riddled with messages filled with hate filled bile. Not to mention your video
will get many many low star ratings and you’ll probably even get reported as
inappropriate content. That’s just the way YouTubers roll. People don’t think
of the people posting videos as people with feelings that might get hurt. It’s
all impersonal.

Xanga’s different. 
Xangans are, for the most part, just nice guys and girls. Pure and
simple. That’s what makes the community tick.

Nowhere is the overwhelming, almost sickening, kindness of
Xangans more evident than when you look at the evaluation schemes Xanga has
tried to employ to try and bubble up the best blog content to higher levels of
visibility.

Take eProps for example. 
It’d be a great system right? If only people would just give 1 eProps to
entries that were, you know, good.  And if only they would reserve 2 eProps for
entries that were exceptionally good.  But
we don’t.  We give 2 eProps to
EVERYBODY.  Without exception. If I read
your blog and leave a comment, I’m leaving 2 eProps. And everybody else does it
too!

Part of this is that it’s the default and people just aren’t
thinking about it. And part of this is also the self advertising aspect of it,
since posting eProps puts your name on a visible list making your site more
visible.  But these are clearly not the ONLY
reasons.  We can tell because actually as
the 2 eProp list grows enormously, you’d actually be better off joining the
relatively sparse 1 eProp or 0 eProp list from a shear advertising exposure perspective.
Your site would stand out more that way. But most people don’t. They still give
2 eProps.  Not only that, but people will
go around to all their friends just giving 2 eProps on all of their entries.
Why? Because it’s nice!

Take stars as well. It’s sort of the opposite issue. It’s not that people star too much, it’s that they star too little.

Here’s
the thing about blogs. They are personal.  Sometimes very very personal.  So when somebody poors their heart out in a
blog entry, talking about some terrible time they are going through or the
troubles they are having and whatnot, even if they write it with terrible
grammar and it’s barely comprehensible to the reader, nobody wants to say “Sorry
my friend, I feel for you, but your entry only deserves 1 star!”

So most posts don’t get starred at all. Most people even
forget that the Stars exist. I know I sure have. There have been lots of really
good posts I’ve read that I just forgot to star. When I’m reading blogs the
last thing that is on my mind is the objective quality of the post.  I’m curious about what my friends are up to. Or I’m worrying about how my friends are doing.
What is their state of mind exactly? Or I’m looking for new friends with similar
interests. Or I’m just looking for a momentary distraction satisfying my curiosity.  I literally have to make myself switch
mindsets when I think about starring and it’s tough.

As a result of that there aren’t enough ratings to provide a
sufficient average of the quality of a blog entry.  And that means high star ratings stand out a
lot. And LOW star ratings stand out even more! If there were thousands of
ratings of every entry, nobody would care if somebody went in and unjustly down
starred your entry. It would disappear in the midst of the on average accurate
starred ratings.  It would be
statistically insignificant. But since sites don’t get a lot of ratings, if you
have made an enemy on Xanga who down stars your entries out of spite it’s a big
deal. And it feels bad too. Most Xangans are far too nice to do that to
somebody!

It’s like that for other things too. Subscription alone
would be a decent metric of what blog sites are best in a normal rational world
right?  But nobody wants to unsubscribe to a site.  That’s like saying, sorry, I think your blog
sucks these days! Write some better content! 
Nobody wants to send that
message to their subscribers!

So even though there are many blogs I subscribe to that
haven’t updated in months, they are still on my subscription list.  They will probably always be on my
subscription list.

Similarly we also subscribe to blogs we don’t even like or
want to read. We subscribe just to be nice! Sometimes people comment on your
blog and you’re so grateful that they took the time to read and to comment that
you want to show them a kindness in return! 
And you don’t want to say that their blog isn’t interesting enough for
you to subscribe too. So you subscribe anyway. And you just ignore the entries.

Many Xangans end up with sickeningly large subscription lists this way. And friending is pretty much identical.

Comments themselves would probably serve as a good metric too,
except again we comment too much out of shear kindness. Xangans comment
absurdly in fact. We so often comment when we’ve got nothing to say! We comment
just to say “hi”. We comment because we are bored. We comment in hopes of
making a friend. We comment because we want to get into a discussion with
someone. We comment to join the bandwagon when everybody else is commenting on
some popular blog.  We comment to reply
to someone else’s comment. We comment when we see that someone hasn’t gotten a
lot of comments.  We comment because we don’t want to be rude. We comment to make a new user feel more at home. We comment to
remind our friends that we are still out there and still their friend.  In short, most of the time we comment just
because it’s nice.   And
nowadays we comment just to earn points too!

And likewise we want these kinds of pointless comments. We
thrive on them. It’s a big part of what makes Xanga feel like a close knit
community. But that of necessity means that comments don’t work at all as an
evaluator of community interest in a blog post. Far too many comments are not
based on whether someone is interested in what a blog post is actually saying.

That’s the thing though isn’t it?  Whenever you are trying to evaluate
something, you are implicitly or explicitly making a comparison and every comparison has two sides.  If I am saying I like A better than B, I am
also saying I like B less than I
like A.   And the latter isn’t always the
nicest thing to do. But for an evaluation scheme to work people *have* to do
that. People have to do it a LOT.

So I wonder, can any evaluation scheme that Xanga chooses to
implement, defeat the inherent kindness of the Xangan community?

It will be interesting to watch and find out.

So when I first heard about the Welcome Wagon, I thought it was a great idea and I’ve been playing with it all this time. It’s one of those great concepts that really makes Xanga stand out amongst online communities. Unfortunately I think it also has some problems and I’ve been thinking about them a lot. I’ve got too many thoughts on it in fact to fit into a comment so I guess I’ll just blog about
it.

The main thing that’s turning me off from it right now is
that it doesn’t interact well with the starting and returning user blurbs.  The idea of meeting new people through the
Welcome Wagon and earning more points in the process sounds really cool. But
that’s the thing because of the way the blurbs are everywhere it doesn’t feel
like I’m meeting new people at all. It feels like I’m interacting with a bunch
of automatons. My attention span isn’t that great. There’s only so many times I
can give an empty “hi” before I get bored.

Another problem with the Welcome Wagon ironically also
results in that feeling of being surrounded by a bunch of machines.  That is the point bonuses being applied in
conjunction with the ability to purchase premium accounts for users seems to
have resulted in some users spamming the welcome wagon with the same redundant
message over and over again on everyone’s blog. 
Maybe they think they’re being nice and all, but that’s not cool.  I honestly would not feel particularly
welcomed at all to join a community and receive a bunch of form letter messages
saying “hi”. One or two is ok, but I’d get bored rather quickly.

 Here’s how I think it
is best to address these issues.

By default the “blurb” post should not be added to the
welcome wagon.  Rather there should be a
checkbox that you explicitly have to select in order to add a post to the
welcome wagon. It should include a link to an explanation of what the welcome
wagon is  This way users can ensure that
they are actually presenting content that they would like to illicit response
from the community on when they are added to the welcome wagon. I think fairly
frequently that won’t be their “welcome blurb” post. Instead they might want to
come back a little later and write up a nice little introduction to themselves
maybe after they’ve gotten their theme and their layout just right and know
exactly what they want to say and can present the face they want to present to
the world.

And users should have this option to add their first few
posts to the welcome wagon, Not just their first one of course.  Sometimes people don’t get to the content
they want to share right away. Sometimes it takes a little while for people to
build up the courage to start interacting with the community. And some people
just really don’t want the exposure of the welcome wagon. This would give them
the ability to opt out just by leaving that check box blank on all of their
first few posts.

This shouldn’t be time dependent by the way. It shouldn’t
matter if they make their first welcome wagon post a week or even a year after
they sign up.  Rather it should just be
say something like only your first three or five posts can be added to the
welcome wagon whatever they might be. And you can add all three too. People
will feel more welcomed if they get responses to more than just one of their blog
posts.

Defaulting posts to *not* being put on the welcome wagon has
the added benefit of causing *fake* users to not show up by default. That is,
if someone creates a new blog just to test out a theme or to play around with
some sort of module or something, they don’t end up wasting space on the
welcome wagon which exists for real new and returning users to actually
communicate with the community.

Interesting blog entries are great conversation starters,
but there’s another obvious one that could be integrated into the welcome wagon
as well. Profile edits!.  When users
first sign up, the first time they edit their profile, putting in their
interests and whatnot, is a *great* opportunity for people to reach out to them
and say hi.  Rather than just “hi”, you
might see someone put down that they love this movie or that movie that is also
your favorite so you go in and tell them that! And hopefully that will lead to
new members entering into meaningful interactions with existing members that
build a deeper sense of community. To that end, the first time you edit your
profile you should also get an option as to whether you want your profile edit
to show up on the Welcome Wagon!

The other issue, with the spammed impersonal “welcome”
messages that I was seeing people post, can easily be fixed just by having a
visible point cap on how many messages you can post to the welcome wagon and
get bonus points for. After people reach their cap, they’ll have no incentive
to continue to spam. If they continue to spam, the points gained could and
should drop to zero and there should be a visible message telling them that
they aren’t earning any more points. Maybe in big red letters or something J  Actually maybe that’s already been fixed, I
haven’t seen any spam on there recently.

I have some other thoughts too.  For one thing I can’t imagine anything more
depressing than if I were a new member and I went through a lot of trouble to
make an interesting first post and added it to the welcome wagon in the hopes
that I’d get replies and finding that I don’t get any anyway! To see lots of
other welcomes users being commented on, but for some reason people don’t find
my post interesting enough? If I’m the kind of person who wants that form of
interaction, it would suck hard.  That
might be the kind of thing that would make me quit Xanga.

Maybe to address this, the points bonus given out should
grow over time based on how long it has been that an entry has been in the
welcome wagon and the number of comments or lack thereof.   That is
the longer it takes for you to get comments the bigger the incentive for new
users to give you a comment.  At  the same time the welcome wagon should
prioritize low comment entries that have been around for a long time so that
they show up first making it more likely for them to spark comments.

The Welcome Wagon system as it is or with my suggested
changes makes a great incentive for existing users to start interacting with
new users, but what about the other side of the equation?  Surely Xanga should also consider creating
greater incentives for new users to interact with the Xanga community! By that
I mean, incentives for them to create interesting blog entries and add them to
the welcome wagon, to reply to messages posted on their welcome wagon blog, and
of course to browse around to other people’s blogs and start reading and
commenting!

I have a few ideas for that too.  First, maybe once a week, there should be one
post of the Welcome Wagon posts chosen as a Featured Weblog.  This should be very explicit and should stand
out amongst the other featured content. It’s sort of like a featured N00B award!
This would give people a lot of interest in making interesting first posts and
adding them to the welcome wagon.  And
always having that Featured N00B weblog visible on the home page would keep the
community aware of the existing of the Welcome Wagon and spur continued
interest in it.

Next I think that new and returning users should have a sort
of super charged point bonus period during which EVERYTHING they do earns them
bonus points. And this should be very visible too. Like a banner on the top of
the page or something that says they are “supercharged” or some such adjective.
And when they click on that to figure out what it means they should see a page
that explains to them what the point system is, what they can do with it (such
as buy premium), and why it is in their best interest to start going around commenting
on people’s blogs *right now* because they only stay super charged for a
limited period of time.

During your supercharge period things that don’t usually
earn you points should earn you points too. I’m not entirely sure the exact
nature of what gives you points  but
certainly things like filling out your profile, making blog posts and pulse
posts, posting pictures, friending people, subscribing to blogs, getting subscriptions to your blog, recruiting new
people to join xanga, and replying to comments should all give you points
during the supercharged period even if they ordinarily wouldn’t.

The supercharge bonus should stack with the bonus provided
for commenting on new and returning user blogs. So to maximize one’s point
gains, one should post a lot of comments on other new users blogs. And hence
both systems help perpetuate one another.

Of course to prevent abuse, the total number of supercharged
points should be capped too. Otherwise I could see someone writing a script
that just creates a bunch of new xanga accounts and spams all over the place to
amass points enough to buy many premium accounts.

OK, that’s all my thoughts on the Welcome Wagon for now.  Just one more thing though. If this is
successful, I think it’d be a really good idea to start thinking about finding
ways to expand the concept for the rest of us! 
I mean there are a lot of Xangans who bemoan daily how few comments they
get on their blog. If someone hasn’t gotten a lot of comments and *wants* to be
more involved in the community, a little help from Xanga in doing that would
not go unappreciated I think. I’m not sure exactly how that would work, but it’s
definitely something to think about.

Anyway, I really like the idea of the Welcome Wagon and I
hope that it works out well.

Actions.

Now if you know me, right now you’re probably doing a double take. What the? You’re thinking. How could I, who live and breathe on words, who love words deep down to the bottom of my heart, who could easily spend every second of every day of all my life simply writing words and be totally happy. How could I of all people say that actions are more powerful than words?

Several of my friends have already chimed in, in favor of words too. They think actions are important but words are more powerful overall. A reasonable perspective, it sounds.

But sorry guys.  You’re all wrong.

And you know what, I didn’t even have to read your posts to know that you were wrong. There’s simply no argument that you could have made that could possibly be convincing.

You see, this isn’t a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of simple logic.  And I’m way too much of a logician to commit the fallacy of saying that words are more powerful than actions.

Let me explain.

Words do not exist in a vacuum. Every instance of a word is a case where it is being spoken, heard, written, typed, read, thought about, used, considered, measured, tasted, spit in, or sucked out.  In short, words are intrinsically tied to actions. They are so very closely related to actions that it is not unreasonable to say that words are actions. That’s not precisely accurate, but suffice it to say that if you are talking about words having “power” at all you are of necessaity speaking of the action association of words. IE using, saying, thinking, or otherwise interacting with words. Words independent of actions are not only less powerful than actions, they have no power whatsoever. They cann’t properly be said to really have any substance whatsoever. They can’t even be conceived up or understood since those too are actions.

So for shorthand we’ll talk about words-in-action using the term “words” for the rest of this piece.  OK, now let’s ask the question, “are words more powerful than actions?”

Here’s the thing though. We already established that words ARE actions.  So it is logically strictly IMPOSSIBLE for words to be more powerful than actions. Period.

The only possibilities that remain are that either words and actions are equally powerful or actions are more powerful than words.  To prove that actions are more powerful than words we need only find one SINGLE example of a non-word-action having a power that words lack. (Because of necessity all powers that words have, actions have too)

OK. HEre we go. There’s a pen lying on the floor next to my desk. I lean over pick it up and put it on my desk. Easy enough. That was a non-word-action. OK, I’ll drop it on the floor again.  Now I need to replicate that same effect using a word action.  Here we go.

“Up You!”

“Get on the table you damn pen!”

“I said arise my beautiful wondrous pen and come to me to do my bidding!”

Huh. The pen’s still lying on the floor.

And there you have it.  Actions are more powerful than words. And everyone who said words is simply dead wrong.

Of course your correct response to this post should be somethign along the lines of

“Oh stop playing with words!”

And you’d be right. I should be being more serious. I should be answering the question in the spirit in which it was asked.  That would be a more meaningful action as it were.

Eh. I don’t really feel like it. Maybe tomorrow.

Guess I’m just too lazy. I’m really a word lover at heart.

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!