What the Internet is like for me

[christopher575]

When I first started using an RSS reader, my biggest complaint was that the blogosphere (yes, I hate the word too, but it's so appropriate here) only has so many sources of new material. You see something on one site, you'll see it on all the other sites you read. They all get their ideas from each other, and they're just racing to be the second one to post about it.

It was really bad back then, because there were a lot more link blogs like Exclamation Mark out there, who finally threw in the towel when they realized that link blogging is best left to the masses at sites like Digg and del.icio.us.

But still, it's not great. People would still rather link than take a photo, or copy and paste rather than type. The icon I chose for this post is a great example. Wow, the world's smallest bodybuilder. Every site has something to say about him, and every site that didn't probably tried and failed. Wired was probably all, "FUCK, I wish he had a PDA so we could write a story about how he uses it to plan which acorn to lift! Can we send him an iPhone?"

This is another good example:



I saw this FOUR TIMES in 9 minutes or so. Talk about a slow news day. It's been done hundreds of times.

And nobody has ever done it as well as Calvin (of "and Hobbes" fame). His were drawn onto cut halves of ping pong balls, so it looked like he was really paying attention.

I'm kinda glad I'm going to Canda for the weekend so I won't have access to the Internet. It'll be such a nice break.

And it will take so long to catch up. Shit.

[Edit to add: This post was actually inspired by something else that's been all over the place today (even more than this thing), but I figured if I complained I would seem insensitive to the item that has been posted. But really, it makes no sense that it's getting so much coverage, when stuff like it happens all the time and nobody says a thing. It makes you wonder, who is behind this blog blitz? Anyway, if you can guess which "hot topic" I mean, you win today's prize, which is an all-expense paid (by you) trip with me anywhere (I choose).]

Comments

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

The Bear 411 fiasco? Or the Hate-On-Jameth club?

[leolz.livejournal.com]

That's kinda why I enjoy photo blogging. I often find myself in places where none of my flist has been or goes, and it's all my own experiences and things that I find funny rather than simply regurgitating what's been found 20 times already.

I mean, seriously. I love lolcats as much as the next, but I never blog 'em.

[jedi-iwakura.livejournal.com]

The college shooting?

[popcultureicon.livejournal.com]

The dude who was declared missing in under 24 hours?

[monsterbrain.livejournal.com]

The sick Samoan baby that came to Hawaii for surgery and died while Homeland Security had it detained?

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

Dingdingding. I never really thought of all the local blogs as a missing persons locator service. I also think they should realize that we read their competitors, so it's not like every single site needs to have the poster up. I saw it in real life at a bus shelter on Thursday night and reposted ad infinitum ever since.

It's a bummer that nobody knows where he is, but please.

[popcultureicon.livejournal.com]

Seriously.
72 hours is the minimum for even considering a person missing.
less than that and it's meerly an "existential crisis"

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

I saw one mention on lj about 411 and nothing out of the ordinary for jameth tonight. Neither of these items have ever had more than a whisper on any local blogs outside lj.

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

Several people often tell me I post too many pictures. Even tonight, one of them said I didn't post enough text when I was in India. Huh? That's almost all I posted when I was there because I couldn't use my phone while I was there.

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

I saw surprisingly little coverage of that compared to how much I would have expected. I still don't know much about it.

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

I wish I hadn't slept through the wonderful comment spree on seattle. It's really too late now to chime in and play the "what if he's trying to get away from you people" advocate.

I do appreciate that people picked up on the "people with children are more important" implication.

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

I actually look forward to more coverage of that. I also wish that the presidential candidates would be asked serious questions in interviews about the "value" of TSA, because I think it'll be important for the next administration to unravel that mess a little bit.

What is that icon, btw?

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

And yes, please continue to post funny and interesting things that you see.

[monsterbrain.livejournal.com]

Icon is Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh, in "No Country for Old Men." He's on the floor as he strangles someone.

I won't give any more detail about the scene, in case you haven't seen it.

Go see it, if you haven't.

[jameth.livejournal.com]

ninaf's cat

[cmorley.livejournal.com]

What happened on b411? This time I mean.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

Oh, I was just thinking of LJ. Doh.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

Everyone's messages just got delivered to random people!
Ha ha ha. Imagine the chaos with a world of bears trying to hook up...

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

Even the nightly news had this story on for less than 2 minutes. Isn't it kind of a big deal?

[cmorley.livejournal.com]

Mwah ha!

[cattycritic.livejournal.com]

don't agree. depends on circumstances.