Trolls

I've given up on so many forums already that it's ridiculous. Trolls who have nothing better to do than, well, troll–and through that chase people off. The result is an empty forum, where those same trolls get to rant to themselves about how everyone else sucks.

A thing as bad as a troll is a smartarse. Someone who believes (and isn't afraid to say, i.e. type it under a nickname) they're the only ones with the right opinion, everyone else is childish and inexperienced, they know better than everyone else because of XY etc.

I don't really mind as there will always be trolls, but when it reaches a certain point, is stops being annoying and starts being hilarious. Yes, in that order. I've had people cornered because they came to the point where they'd run away from a discussion by saying you're stupid or something along those lines. Very mature indeed.

The funny thing is I thought that sort of behaviour ends when people are 19, but obviously not for everyone. Living a couple of continents away, the biggest chunk of me communication happens over the internet. And, boy, do I run into piles of crap there!

A recent (for the lack of a better word) discussion made me feel like slapping the person across the forehead with a wet, old, stinky stuffed bunny for all the disrespect, annoyance, egotism and what not she's launched in my direction. I'll simplify the conversation that extends through fifteen or so posts over several weeks.

XY asks me: So how does that work with people?
Me: Well, in my experience, it's like this and this.
Mrs Buttwad: No [corrects my spelling], it's like this [totally different].
Me: Sorry, but I don't like you correcting me on something that's clearly a personal opinion and correct spelling.
Mrs Buttwad: Well, I know better because I've lived here longer. You're a newb.
Me: Yeah, but the literature says that's wrong.
Mrs Buttwad: Well, I don't care about that. And those people [talking about a whole nation with a 50,000 year old culture] feel like this and this and that's why they use this term. If you check Wittgenstein [and the Little Book of Bullshit], you'll see that bla bla...
Me: So you've characterised a whole nation in one sentence. Right. Well, you're wrong about this and–again–please don't correct me unless I'm wrong. I'm done with this discussion because you're disrespectful and we're going in circles.
Mrs Buttwad: Shut up.
Me: Very mature. Thanks for explaining things you have no idea about.
Mrs Buttwad: Well, I'm glad I saved you from the ignorance. [My jaw hits the keyboard at this point.]
Me: Yeah, good thing you know better than all the experts in the world.
Mrs Buttwad: That's better. Now you still have to mean it and then mind it. For your sake.

Something totally different

I'm a bit of a geek. Not the classic type though.

I don't get numbers. I have no strategy. I react too slow.

People play with me and go bonkers when, instead of taking part in the fight, I start waving my hands when I'm talking about something of interest to me.

I've played one game for almost eight years now. And that was, until a couple of months ago, the only one I've ever played (not counting playing Playstation with mates).

I know people I play it with in person and it's turned out to be more of a chat with a game running in the background than anything else. And even though I don't play that often anymore, I go online every couple of weeks and check what the guys are doing.

I play Panda in game

It's a bit of a connection with a bunch of people I don't have as friends on Facebook too, and it's always fun hearing what's going on where they live. Especially now I've moved, it's like another level of keeping the communication running.

I've dealt with some assholes, but I've also met one of the smartest, nicest and genuinely good people in it. Even though work keeps me busy, I still try to keep a steady and constant contact, and it gives me pleasure in hearing back from people.

It's a place where you chat to people and do your own thing, but you also help each other out and do things together. There is much more to it than just clicking the mouse, maybe because it's quite similar to the real life - only it's virtual.

People who don't believe in online friendships will never get it, but that's not the point.

There's nice people out there, and there's assholes. You'll have plenty of the latter, I'm sure - or I just attract idiots most of the time, have to be rude and then it's all okay. People are sometimes scared of meeting weirdos online, while I can say the most of them I know spend their lives right next to me - on the train, in the store, at a concert...

The problem with online communication (gaming, social networks and especially forums) is that people suddenly have the stones to say anything they want when they're behind the keyboard. That makes my stomach churn. I just despise it.

Forums are, as I mentioned, the most fruitful soil. I've experienced situations where people would shit on me online and smile widely in person. Ewww. It makes me shudder.

And it happens all the time. Then I tell them they're boring, but they don't give up. They go around in circles and keep proving my point, but they don't get it themselves.

Meh.

There is a difference between being honest (which I respect and appreciate, even though it might bruise my ego) and not being capable of shutting your mouth. And, even worse, meeting up in person and being all lovely.

Stab.

Anyway, I've tried some games, partially because a friend of mine started playing one and partially because it's a bit of a mind meadow for me, and it always beats the TV. I just started playing, so I'm a noob, but I have to say I've never felt so unwelcome.

I understand that it's probably kids playing the game, with no idea of real life whatsoever, and I get it. But I'm also not going to keep quiet. It's always easy to blame someone else (apparently), but I've never done it. I'm the maximum level in this other game, I've played for so long, and yet I'm still okay with helping nubs because I was given help a long time ago.

It just makes me wonder what does kids think and how they deal with issues in the real world? Just spamming the chat window and acting like brats? Good luck with that.

I'm not so comfortable in conflicts, be it in person or something else), but I'm also not going to let myself be stepped on. And if I'm playing with my best mate, for fun and for chats, and someone keeps being an asshole, so my mate becomes an asshole as well, yelling and asking stupid questions, am I going to listen to it?

No.

Am I going to be seven and act like a brat after school and before I finish my homework?

No.

Am I going to look forward to finally skyping my mate and talking about what's happened in the last couple of weeks, and instead be yelled at?

No.

Fuck that.

And fuck you, little French brats whose English knowledge boils down to 'nub'.

Va te faire foutre, connard...

I ain't gonna be getting none of that shit!

Especially not from my mate.

An update on life

Well, I just move into the new apartment!

I'm waiting for the Internet and it's not the best time. Even the server at work went bust.

Talk about work, I'll be super busy in the next couple of weeks. I'm going out to two heritage surveys in the next two weeks, so I'll talk to you guys around mid September, when I'll surely have a lot to say.

Here's just a couple of photos from the new place. Enjoy!

Argh!

It's a bit painful to realize that one of the things that piss me off the most is non-working Internet.


The thing that pisses me off even more is the fact that it always fails when I need it the most.


I've been skyping and dealing with some translations and über-weird requests,  correspondence and all kinds of shit for hours now and then, when I needed to check something really important, it dies out and it isn't showing everything.


Wanna check your Visa status? No can do.
Wanna check your flight booking? Tough luck.


What's important is that all kinds of bullshit celebrity news, penis enlargement ads and lose-weight-by-going-to-the-theatre are popping up from all sides.


Maybe that's why it's not showing anything important.


Fuck you, Internet!

I do *not* look good in sunlight

I'm awake.


Of course. Mum's neighbour friend sits on the door bell with the crack of dawn. I can't blame her 'cause she's always so nice, but do not ring my bell before eight!


So I go back to bed and I can't really sleep, but I'll doze off a bit more since my neck is stiff and I press it and squeeze it to prevent the nerve inflammation I'm so wonderfully prone to, but my hand is tired and it's too painful and I just give up and roll over, trying to find a position which is the least disturbing.


I manage to doze of, only to get awaken by a Skype call. I'm on Away, but that's OK. It's my officer from Perth. I sit up in my bed and can't even come to my senses, so I contact her to call me again.


After a total of two minutes, the electricity goes out and the call is terminated. So third world.


I slip on a pair of trousers and a shirt and run to my friend's house. Being that he lives in Austria and that no one seems to be at home, I subtly stand in his front yard, leeching off his WiFi and trying to explain to my co-worker-to-be two continents away why there's cars and buses passing me by.


Mental note: do not stand in the sunlight with a camera showing how you look close up in the morning.


And the day has only just begun...

The Internet

There's not much that can piss me off more than a non-working Internet.


After billions of [insert currency] being invested in it, after decades of making it better, after years of paying for the fucking provider and the traffic and the speed and what fuck not, it's not working.


You open five tabs and it all gets blocked up. Some it opens with no problem, some it just won't and thus breaks the whole CPU usage, crashes everything and makes me flip out like I rarely do.


Fucking Internet!


Fuck fuck fuck! Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!


I look around and there's not enough swear words. I yell, but I restrain myself, because I think someone might hear me and think I've got my leg clenched in between two trucks. Or my scalp stuck in the over doors. Something like that.


The windows are simply not closed enough.


Maybe I could rent a recording studio once a month and just scream there until someone kicks me out.


I get that feeling I get when I see a fly come into the room and bang against the glass window a hundred times. It won't learn. It sees what it wants and it knows it's freedom, but it can't get there.


I think to myself oh man, how stupid are these flies and I help it out by trying to get it to fly under the window and out into the garden.


They really are that stupid.


And then it hits me that I might be that fly. That someone else is looking down on me and laughing at my silliness.


Look. What a stupid boy.


Surely someone with a CRS-3 connection.