COASTing Over The Line

Sep 11, 2011 by Ben Sherman

(note: since the time that I originally assembled this post, COAST has apparently apologized for their “stupid” and “insensitive” tweet, but have stuck to their guns on their lies regarding the funding, without citing evidence, of course. Vice Mayor Qualls reiterates (again) that the money has all come out of the Capital Improvements budget. Frankly, the apology doesn’t really change my take on things)

Update 14 Sept: Mark Miller has essentially admitted that his tweets were misleading in an interview with Channel 12. “Yea, they can’t take fire department salaries and go out and buy rails with it. I admit that. That’s exactly right, but that’s not what they’re doing. They’re taking money that should be spent on salaries and buying a study.” That’s not what you’ve been saying though, Mark. Hat tip to 5chw4r7z for pointing this out.

 

I’ve seen my share of offensive things on Twitter. It’s likely that I’ve posted a few things myself that people found distasteful. That being said, yesterday I saw something that seriously boiled my blood. Honestly, I waffled on writing about it at all. I’d hate to contribute to getting them any publicity, but I think it’s important for everyone to see exactly what lengths COAST will go to in their attempt to win fraudulently sway hearts and minds to their side.

I understand that the streetcar is a contentious issue. I happen to support it, but I’ll also be the first to admit that it’s possible for a rational person to oppose the idea, and that’s fine. That’s what debates and public forums are for. However, COAST has dedicated itself to flat-out spreading lies regarding how the project has been funded up to this point. Funds for construction come of out of a fund that cannot legally be used to to fund firefighting (or police, etc and so on). Fire companies are not being browned-out to support streetcar construction. It’s simply not true. This is, quite simply, a step too far in the debate (if it even continues to be a “debate” once you’ve lied as much as these guys have). Having an opinion and spreading lies about it is one thing. Co-opting a national tragedy and diminishing it by dishonoring it’s memory through associating your lies with it is quite another.

It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any fallout for them from this, particularly among the politicians they endorse. I suppose it all depends on whether or not the media picks up on it, and I doubt that a lone Twitter shenanigan, no matter how vile, will hit the radar. If it does though, I wonder if the council-people they back will start jumping ship, or at the very least ask them to keep their endorsement to themselves. Personally, I’d have a pretty tough time voting for anyone who knowingly associated themselves with this garbage, but maybe that’s just me. I hope that it isn’t.

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Mea Culpa and Something Positive

Jun 27, 2011 by Loki

Sometimes people stumble using social media, even those of us who work with it day to day. It can be anything from making a statement without thinking about the possible interpretations to a simple typo, and it can mushroom rapidly.

I inadvertently had one of those instances today. I saw a fantastic tweet run across my dashboard:

The true tragedy about SCOTUS blocking California’s violent video game law is now parents will have to pay attention to what their kids buy.

This was tweeted by @ChooChooBear who writes the wonderfully demented Something Positive web Comic. Being fully in agreement I retweeted it. Now you might notice that the tweet was exactly 140 characters long, which did not leave me room for the obligatory “RT @ChooChooBear.”

So I retweeted it without attribution so as not edit it and weaken the comment. Just as I was typing a “The prior was an RT from @ChooChooBear” I lost electricity for about twenty minutes. When the lights and Internet came back up I found a wave of justifiable outrage. I quickly tweeted apologies and credit to the originator of the tweet and we ironed things out rapidly. Once I explained he was really great about it and actively used his tweet stream to call off the dogs.

There are LOTS of nimrods out there passing off the content of others as their own. If I had not been dogpiled about this I would have been shocked. As a content creator myself I consider plagiarists to be parasitic scum. Even thought the situation was caused by something out of my control it still calls for more lengthy apology as it was my account.

I’d also like to actually thank those on twitter who leaped into the fray when they saw someone else’s work seemingly plagiarized. You are some of the good ones! No offense at all taken on my part, you did the right thing under the circumstances. Huge kudos to @PopeRichardCory @Radelin @DUSTINFRIEL @devlogic @jer_ @muymanwell @lisafunone1 @scorpstar77 @sonochamp @RunsLikeBadger for stepping up! While the circumstances could be better I’m always happy to cross paths with people of integrity.

Take note people, if you screw up online take ownership and make it right. It really is that simple.

Now, go and embrace some twisted humor over on Something Positive!

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Support Tuckers in the Wake of the Violence: Tweetup Saturday

Jan 18, 2011 by Loki

I was sitting on my couch trying to put together a belated post for MLK Day when the news rocketed across Twitter and Facebook: two people were shot in broad daylight at Tuckers in the OTR. My jaw dropped. Even by the standards of  someone like myself,  who grew up in a much more violent city, this was horrific.

I watched as waves of fear and remorse rippled through our local online community, made even worse by the fact that flying bullets are so rare here by comparison to what I’m used to (one of the reasons we ended up here). Then I started to see the type of reaction that warms my heart. In short order a Tweetup was conceived by Kate the Great (details below), a show of support for both this historic eatery and the neighborhood in which it resides.  Let’s pack the house this coming Saturday, shall we?

You see this incident, while hideous, is colorful enough that detractors of the urban core will immediately rally around it. Residents of the area will be justifiably freaked out, and the reputation of this rebounding neighborhood will suffer a blow. While this incident is high profile, and injured people beloved by the community, it is not indicative of the OTR as a whole. If it were no one would be shocked by this outburst of violence. An outburst, I might add, that while uncommon could happen in any densely populated urban area.

Rather than allow this to strike a blow against the burgeoning Renaissance of the OTR let us instead stand up for our home and our fellows. This should become a rallying point for people to come together and enact a change for the better. Residents should look out for each other more and begin neighborhood watch groups. Bloggers and journalists need to ask “cui bono?” and track where our law enforcement budget is being deployed and with what results. It is a call to action, one I hope is heeded.

In the meantime a show of community, a show of faith, and a damn good meal are in order. Join us at Tucker’s on Saturday. We cannot let fear, violence and cynicism win out over intellect, community, and hope.

-Loki, Founder and Curator

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What Do You Mean, “Social” Media?

Oct 4, 2010 by Nathan

“Do you ever put that phone down?” “Are you Twittering again?”

These are questions I am familiar with. Usually asked at a dinner where the dialogue is lively, the good food is abundant and the wine is flowing. And like instinct, it beckons. As if some force suddenly animates my body for me, I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. Immediately I’m taking pictures, touchscreen-tapping away, head turned down in a blank un-blinking gaze at the glowing vice in front of my nose. When confronted with these questions – usually after the full minute of silence from the head of hair staring back at my dinner companions – I presume their words enter my ears and eventually reach my brain, where a tiny blip of self-control appears and disappears at the same moment in a microscopic fizzle, the byproduct of which is expelled from my lips in a mumbling guffaw, trying desperately to resemble a somewhat intelligent response. In this thing normal, healthy homosapiens have collectively agreed to refer to as a Human Conversation, my eyes have never blinked, despite the chemical reaction happening directly behind them, and this physiological response has been unable to alter the flow of undoubtedly useful information rocketing from my brain cells to my fingers, translating those bytes of data into thumb spasms, performing their dutiful expression on a bright digital keyboard:

“im gonna eat the crap outta this chicken, yo lolz”

Hit send. Pure poetry.

Satisfied at my soliloquy, I return my phone to its resting place and gaze upon the empty table in front of me, as my guests have certainly left hours ago. In fact, I think the restaurant’s closed.

I have no doubt this is exactly what happens. In moments like these, what force is it that navigates my body, telling me that internet conversations are more important than the actual conversations happening right in front of me? I wondered out loud “could I actually control it? Is it ADD? ADHD? Stupidity?” Clearly all of the above. So after one or two episodes similar to this not-so-exaggerated story, I decided to take a week off to test my discipline. No Twitter. No Facebook. No Phone. No Internet.

Now before you go and shout “BORING!!!” or “SIMPSONS DID IT!”… I know. Of course it is. It’s been done. This is stupid…. but then again it isn’t. It depends on you as a person, no? Some people do multiple things at once, be the effortless multitasker, juggling puppies and swords while reciting War and Peace from memory. On stilts. On a treadmill. (anything else?) Then there’s me: while typing, I get distracted from the letter N by how cool the letter M is. So for me, naturally, trying to carry on a conversation while a.) watching anything on the TV, b.) reading anything on a page, or c.) holding my iPhone, is an attention-loss guarantee. Some people can do it. I can’t. Also, I lack discipline, and I needed to see if this would “cure” my procrastination.

Planning ahead, I decided to test my habit-breaking skills on a Monday to Monday schedule. This would give me a full work week and full weekend to see if my lifestyle was altered. When Monday finally came around, I noticed how drastically it affected my morning routine. Usually the first thing I reach for in the morning is my iPhone to check my news alerts and RSS feeds, and of course say something profound on Facebook or Twitter like “good morning!” or “RT if you hate mondayz lol rofl bbq”. This is usually followed up at work with a more thorough scouring of news and commenting on local blogs and articles, but mostly sharing on the Networks, with my morning coffee. These were the most difficult habits to break: reaching for my phone, and opening web browsers in the morning. I also found I had to turn off notifications on my phone and email, as they informed me of social mentions and news.

So there I went. And believe it or not, I didn’t break out in a cold sweat, shuddering in a corner. By Wednesday, I didn’t even miss it. I found myself frequently hearing something, and thinking “oh man, that needs to go on Twitter!”, but then I remembered my commitment and purposefully forgot it. More than that, I really, really had a hard time refusing to visit my regular news pages. In retrospect, I believe I lost whole minutes devoted to making myself not instinctively switch over to Google Reader. I know. It’s sad. I recognized exactly what I was addicted to: not people… but information. I’m  an information junkie. A knowledge junkie. I just gotta know.

Here’s the other thing I noticed about me:  at the office I found other ways to screw around and avoid doing things, but I did work at home… just on things I wanted to. I got more done on my backyard in one week than I had in the whole previous month. So I wouldn’t conclude that Twitter & Facebook affect my work performance… because I have a fundamental issue doing other people’s work. I also noticed that I can’t commit to personal goals. When Sunday came around, and I considered breaking my fast early because it was so soon till it ended, a gentle nudge from my wife reaffirmed me… and that bugged me that it was needed. What if no one was there to do that for me? Even though it’s stupid, and not a problem for most people: to me it was and is, and I don’t want it to control me.

Some final  thoughts (because I want to keep this short): we live in an amazing time in history; technology has allowed us to involve people in our exchange, even though they’re not physically there. I take my virtual conversations seriously, because usually I’m talking to people I know and love, just like you at the table in front of me. So I don’t feel bad in the least taking a second to share what I feel’s important with my other friends. More often than not, I’m with people who are doing the same thing too, usually with mutual friends. I think it’s pretty damn cool.

But please: slap me across the head if I start to drool, because my brain’s probably come dislodged again.

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How To Not Take Things Seriously

Jul 13, 2010 by Nathan

Over the past few months I have met a whole heck of a lot of new friends. The majority of them I’ve actually taken to the next level, the “second base” of friendship, some more than others. A select few I regard as close as friends I’ve known almost my whole life. I feel accepted. They accept me. We have our differences, some similarities, but mostly we just enjoy each other’s company, enjoy each other’s humor, definitely enjoy each other’s booze and grub, and generally respect each other for who we are and our individual choices of lifestyle, however alternative. This is the opposite of xenophobia. Coincidentally, this is also the result of Twitter.

Rewind to two years ago. My wife and I are in the midst of a spiritual and emotional 180, trying to undo a generation of straight-and-narrow thinking and assumption-based philosophy. We found ourselves in a place where we were very afraid but willing to go to, to open our minds to questions, reason, and insight not explored often enough – and in some not-too-rare cases, not allowed – in our past lives. The smallest belief was tore down, dissected, and partially reconstructed in agonizing and humiliating introspection. This may seem glib to you, but it was huge to us. I know much more about myself now than I ever wanted to before. Believe me, the lady and I have had plenty of awesome, ripping good fights over our battling egos, but ultimately have been each other’s compliment through it all. In summary, our fight was one of a philosophical transition from “I know a lot of things” to ” wow, I really don’t know anything.” Profound, huh? It was. Like a kick in my big dumb head. But believe it or not, in this new found self-awareness, it turned out to be social suicide for the both of us. Gradually, we lost a lot of old friends, as if we were never friends to begin with. It was heartbreaking, and a bit revelatory. I mean who really wants to be friends with the walking dead, the zombified personification of discontentment? Not many do. But some people did, mostly because they understood, but more likely because they may have been going through the same I-don’t-know-jack-shit scenario that we were. Those turned out to be the defining friendships. Quality over quantity.

What you can’t decipher from text on a screen is the intonation and intention. I cut up a lot and I excel at leading a crowd. You may see the guy making penis jokes, but when you look, actually look in his eyes, you’ll see the conflict behind the mask: a man limping from years of being hidden from truth and reality, repressing his childhood, feeling responsible for his parent’s faults, favoring the gathering of friends for fear that moments of solitude would force him to look in a mirror and see himself. Alone. Afraid. Lately the mask has become a lot thinner, but it’s still there. The difference now is I see the conflict, and rise above it with pride: I’ve screwed up and people still like me. I’ve faced my faults on my own cognizance. I actually am comfortable when I’m alone. I can actually let people see my imperfections and survive.

I don’t take myself so seriously.

My and anyone else’s emotional complexity can’t be translated to Twitter, a meaningful social experience but ultimately a glorified text-message conversation. But it’s a means to an end, the end result being real people with real lives and real voices who have thoughts, a sense of humor, and compassion, and yes, imperfections. So my minority viewpoint is this: in this narcissistic, aggressive, self-deprecating bubble that is my freethinking world, I have managed to arrive at the conclusion that it is better to first handle other narcissistic, aggressive, self-deprecating people with some semblance of finesse, empathy and compassion. Of course if that fails, then it’s obviously time for them to become a responsible, contributing adult like everyone else. Especially if it means walking away from some meaningless talking points stand-off on a computer screen.*

I’m a self-inflated, over-analyzing snob that some people tolerate and a select few actually don’t mind being around. Most, not all, but most of these weirdoes have a bunch of shit they drag in from their lives or past lives too, but everyone is cool with it. Sometimes, though… myself included… we can potentially be dicks. If you screw up royally, apologize sincerely and people will eventually move on. It’s not worth it, because it’s not what matters. What does matter are the real conversations, not defining yourself or others within the confines of 140 characters.

So come join the circlejerk. Some chaffing is inevitable.

#iheartboobs

*Note: paragraph edited. Some words were too inflammatory and childish, but more important, not constructive to the goal of reconciliation.

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