I’ve got to get the hell off Facebook

I’ve got to get the hell off Facebook

Posted inRants, Uncategorized
More and more these days, I'm finding myself reconsidering my relationship with Facebook. It has nothing to do with privacy issues (though they are quite real), Facebook's sketchy business practices (ditto), or a desire to have a smaller Internet footprint (as an author, I actually need a larger Internet footprint). It's not even because I do social media marketing on a freelance basis, and hence burn myself out on surfing Facebook (I do it under a different account than my personal account, anyway). It's because the atmosphere is turning me into the kind of negative, cynical, angry person I long…
George Lucas is the Internet’s most undeserving punching bag

George Lucas is the Internet’s most undeserving punching bag

Posted inFilms, Rants, Uncategorized
A movie comes out today, a small little thing that may have slipped past your notice. A few people might go and see it. The release of the first new Star Wars movie in many years makes today something of a geek holiday, but amid all the glee and celebrating the movie is going to be something else. Something far less positive: incessant bitching about what an awful person George Lucas is. Because on the Internet, no mention of Star Wars is complete without also mentioning how George Lucas, the man who created Star Wars, ruined everything you hold dear…
News & Media Overload: Living in fear is no way to live

News & Media Overload: Living in fear is no way to live

Posted inRants, Uncategorized
Read the comments on any news story involving a violent crime or follow any active news feed, and you will see comment after comment lamenting the state of the world and talking about how fearful we have to be of, well, pretty much everyone. If the comments at your local news site are anything to go by, you could be the victim of a home invasion at any moment. Your children are in danger of being snatched up 24 hours a day. That guy in your neighborhood taking a walk is probably a rapist. And so on. The problem with…

Twitter hashtags are (still) not news

Posted inRants
A few weeks back, I ranted a bit about Twitter hashtags being mined for shitty "news" by shitty websites. It's more than a pet peeve. Pet peeves are minor annoyances. This isn't a minor annoyance. This is a form of Internet cancer. Today, thanks to the wonders of Farking, I came across a great blog post by someone whose Tweet became the "THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!" social media story of the day, a minor nothing that was turned into yet another misleading and false tale of Internet anger thanks to shitty news on shitty websites. You might remember a story…
TWITTER HASHTAGS ARE NOT NEWS, DAMMIT!

TWITTER HASHTAGS ARE NOT NEWS, DAMMIT!

Posted inRants
Unless you've been unplugged for the last 24 hours or make it a policy to ignore anything related to geek stuff (in which case why would you be reading this blog?), you've probably heard about the #BoycottStarWarsVII hashtag making the rounds on Twitter. Stories about it are blowing up social media right now, and understandably so, given how shockingly offensive and ridiculous the movement behind "Boycott Star Wars VII" seems. The story goes like this: there is a growing movement to boycott Star Wars: The Force Awakens because, those behind the movement say, it's an anti-white movie that glorifies minorities…