More Than Just a "Comment"

Why.

Why, why, why, why.

Why?

Why do I read the comments?

It's not like I'm ever going to be pleasantly surprised.

I must just like to torture myself.

I'm reading an article, watching a video clip, looking at a blog. My head says NO but my rebellious finger scrolls down the page anyway to view the comment section.

Horrifying insults. Disrespectful words. Vile language that few would have the guts to say to anyone's face.

The internet is typically a pretty cool place. Information. Shared ideas, words, creativity. Easily accessible. You can say what you want to say. Everyone has an audience.

But. People are so quick to type out a scathing opinion. So eager to engage in a pointless argument. So ready to gang up on someone with a different point of view.

We all know bullying is wrong. Parents, teach your children to be nice! Be polite! Use your manners! The golden rule!

But I'm not reading comments by children. I'm reading comments by adults.

People who write those comments: Is it brave, what you do? Is it sticking up for yourself? Is it helping someone understand?

It's teaching someone a lesson. It's belittling someone's point of view. It's stepping on someone's feelings.

It's setting yourself up above someone else. By pushing that someone down. That's bullying. It's always been around, but now it's different. It's online. It's fast, it's easy, it's widespread, it's anonymous. Mocking, biting sarcasm that not everyone is strong enough to withstand.

People are killing themselves after being torn down online. Kids are growing up typing, hammering out their blunt feelings on issues because they are learning that they are valuable and important only at the expense of others who are not as coolsmartfunfashionablesexy as them.

This should not be okay. THIS SHOULD NOT BE OKAY.

Source

Haiku, Youku, We All...Um...

My blog makes me work
Thinking, staring, what to write?
Just type anything.

This is my haiku. I wrote it in honor of National Haiku Poetry Day, which was on Tuesday. I also wrote it in honor of writer's block.

Man, keeping this blog is tough work. I try to write on it on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week. I write my library's blog on Tuesday and Thursday. So yeah; that's a lot of ideas.

Sometimes I hit on something excellent and popular and perfect. Sometimes I string just the right words together, develop interesting ideas, passionately argue.

Other times, I write about bobby pins.

It's a discipline, I must say. Obviously I wish that all my blog posts are spot-on works of genius. But I think it's better to be writing something than nothing. Who knows? Something wonderful could come out of my ramblings.

Grouchy Old Librarian

I’m in charge of a Wii game night for tweens at the library. The other night, I got to sit in a dark room with 7 kids who were NOT using their library voices. They make me feel old. To them, I’m a grouchy old librarian. I’m not young enough to be cool.

So throughout the night, kids kept using a word that sounded like “pone.” As in, “You just got poned!” This sounded familiar to something I’d seen online, so I looked it up on one of my faithful sidekicks, Wikipedia, to see what it was all about.

As I found out, the word is “pwn.” It means “own,” as in, to dominate your opponent. It’s a term used mostly in online gaming.

But guess what? It started out as the word “own,” until it got spelled wrong. Apparently, this is because “o” and “p” are right next to each other on the keyboard. That’s right; here we have a new word that came about as a result of a MISSPELLING!

That’s a little frightening to me. Now hey, I’m all in favor of new words. I admitted my love for “googling,” and, though I think certain words introduced by pop culture can be kind of silly, it’s still fascinating to think that the English language is always changing.

But seriously? Is this what we’ve come to? New words are going to be used because people are too sloppy to spell things correctly?

Our language will change and evolve and that’s all natural and good. But a couple of us grouchy old people like to hold onto SOME rules.

Okay, that’s my rant for the day. And don't anyone try to debate me on this, because I will pwn you.

Word.

Don't you just love how certain words sound? Or how some words just fit perfectly with what you want to express?

I found this excellent site where people post their favorite words and what they mean to them. For example, Mark-from-California says that his favorite word is "indefatigable," because "it just sounds like a word you don't want to make angry." I have to admit, that is an awesome word. Say it. Out loud...

I want to post a word on there, but I have to give it some thought first. It certainly won't be "velcro," which I can NEVER come up with right away. Without fail. It's the one word that I have to stop and think of every time I try to use it.

And it won't be "necessary." Because I couldn't spell that word right for years.

Oh, and here's the site: http://www.myfavoriteword.com/