Archive for June, 2007


A Bridge Over Kansas?

Dear Little Bald Bastard,
  Where can I find Trolling Fundies?
- Recreant/Miscreant

Dear R/M,
  Any time a website comment warns you that you’re going to hell, you’ve met a Trolling Fundy. Whenever a forum post compares the discussion topic to Sodom (or its less famous, but still rockin’ sister city, Gomorrah), you’ve met a Trolling Fundy. When your blog host suddenly deletes hundreds of journals and communities that post fiction with naughty words in, chances are they did so at the behest of one or more Trolling Fundies.

  Trolling Fundies – short for “fundamentalists” – lurk around areas of the Interweb that they consider unsavory, clucking disapprovingly and keeping careful notes about exactly how many times Draco spanks Harry’s bare ass in your fan fiction community. At best, they’ll prissily opine about the danger to the souls of those who share your particular interest. At worst, they’ll take it upon themselves to report you to whatever authority is at hand. If your forum or blog host handles content inquiries as badly as Livejournal/Six Apart’s recent mass banning kerfluffle, the Trolling Fundy might cause you serious inconvenience.

  Unfortunately, there is no surefire way to guard against an infestation of Trolling Fundies. Unlike cockroaches, which die when you stomp on them, Trolling Fundies have a nasty way of returning after being banned/blocked/publicly ridiculed. The sad fact is, if you want to maintain a public presence online, and you aren’t willing to keep it G-rated, you’re subject to attack by Trolling Fundies. Welcome to the Internet in the new age of morality.

[x-posted from Ask The Little Bald Bastard]


The SEPTA Situation is Even More Dire than I Suspected

  I got to the Huntingdon station on the Market-Frankford line at about 2:10 this afternoon. Typically, I missed the train by about 45 seconds, but that’s a different rant. When I got to the top of the stairs, the booth which usually houses the helpful*, attentive** SEPTA employee was dark and empty. A cardboard sign stuck in the window read “USE BIG GATE TO LEFT,” and included three helpful arrows for riders like myself who, on the verge of heatstroke from walking to the train through the soup that is the summer in Philly, had a little trouble focusing on the words.

  I live and die by the Blue Line, so I’ve observed plenty of SEPTA’s worker drones. I know that they’re usually stuck in a tiny booth by themselves for hours at a time, and I don’t begrudge one of them needing to take a bathroom/snack/smoke break, especially when they leave the gate unlocked so riders who show up while they’re out of the booth can get to the platform. They get to take care of their basic biological functions, and I save a token. However, when I reached the gate area, the newly-returned attendant was berating a man who was having trouble going through the gate. He couldn’t get it to open, and she was rudely directing him to the open gate. Which was on the far right. The best part? Her parting shot at he went through the gate was “that’s what it say on the sign!”

  Apparently, the transit organization can’t even afford to hire people who know which hand makes the “L” when you stick out your thumb. I am suddenly in favor of casinos, if the state will promise to dedicate some of the revenue to ensuring all SEPTA workers have a first grade education.

*unhelpful **inattentive


I’m going to do this tomorrow.

  Click on the picture if you want to join in the fun.


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Whoops

  So I was doing some blog maintenance, adding tags to old entries. I didn’t realize it would republish huge swaths of my archives in one shot. Sorry to everyone whose feed readers/friends pages were overloaded with my drivel. I’ll go back to three posts a week now.


It’s Funny ‘Cuz It’s Wrong

  Cats that look like Hitler.

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