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| My relationship with Xanga has come to a messy end. It started deteriorating when they tried to have a facebook/MySpace/heaven knows what makeover. The hostility was fomented by the addition of the featured posts page, but the site plugs were the straw that broke the camel's back. I packed my bags and relocated to blogspot.
My new blog is here: http://silentonthesubjectofcheese.blogspot.com/
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| Since I've already started talking about it, I should probably make it official (since, of course, one's life isn't real until it's written down =P): I will be living in Austria for the next year, as an Au-Pair. It will be an amazing, terrifying experience, and I'm alternately excited and daunted by the prospect.
The really awesome thing is I know I made the right decision. And that's not a feeling I get very often. :) | | |
| I'm seriously considering leaving Xanga, if only because then I would never have to look at the stupid "Featured" page again, full of crap written by people who think the phrase "everyone's entitled to have an opinion" means that everybody should have an opinion about everything in the world (from what kind of toothpaste movie stars should use to whether or not global warming is true) and that reason need not come within a ten mile radius of the entire process.
And when somebody has an opinion and really defends it, suddenly their post is swarmed with comments about how bigoted and evil it is that they FORCE their opinion on others. It basically goes like this:
#1: I think porn is unhealthy and here's why.
#2: You wicked person. Everyone should be allowed to watch porn if they want to.
What if it had gone like this?
#1: Smoking is unhealthy.
#2: You nazi! Everybody has the right to smoke if they want.
Wait, what about everyone being allowed to express his/her opinion? What about freedom of speech, and all that stuff about diversity? Apparently, everyone's allowed to have their own opinions, so long as they don't contradict anyone else's. Because merely by having a dissenting opinion, they're forcing other people to agree with them.
Translation: the disagreement you express makes me feel uncomfortable about my own opinion, and since I'm not able to defend my opinion (having not put any thought to the matter, since I assumed everyone who disagreed with me was stupid), I have no recourse but to blame you for mentioning the subject in the first place. Shame on you for making me doubt my emotional snap-judgments!
And they blame religious groups for "not being able to handle dissension". Well, at least we dialogue about it, instead of sacrificing our principles for that "warm fuzzy feeling" of fake unity. Really, it's just a unanimous agreement to ignore the important issues because they're difficult.
Xanga will never be intellectual -- it's just an outlet for all the random joe schmoes of the world. So can they STOP trying to pretend they're some kind of community of thought? Come on, everybody and their pet canary has a blog, and you're not going to tell me that a common feature of people today is devastating intellect. Most everything I've seen is from people who just want to be featured, and the comments are from people who just feel like they ought to have some text with their name attached appended to this post, regardless of whether it says anything useful.
It wouldn't annoy me so much if I didn't have to see it everytime I signed in. Maybe I'll just rig my browser some way. I don't know.
Anyway. Here's a thought -- an opinion is not an arbitrary choice between two alternatives. Nor does it need to be completely original. To opine is merely to reason without certainty of knowledge. More cynically: it's not enough that your thoughts are YOURS (and anyway, having random and inexplicable tastes, fears, likes and dislikes does not give you identity, though it might distinguish you from others). In fact, there's nothing wrong with having the same opinion as somebody else, as long as you really THINK about it. The faculty of reason is a precious gift -- do put it to use occasionally, if you can. =P
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| So, I have been giving an inordinate amount of serious thought to the question of which are my favorite animated movies. Here is the result:
1. Treasure Planet. The best. I mean, it's got everything -- supernovas, space pirates, a dysfunctional robot, a mutinous cyborg with one laser eye and a morphing pink blob for a pet -- and as if that weren't enough, Emma Thompson plays the captain! XD
2. The Road to El Dorado. It's like The Man Who Would Be King, only with Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh. Need I say more? =P
3. Beauty and the Beast -- a classic. The Beast is still the coolest Disney prince EVER.
4. The Adventures of Robin Hood. You know, the one with animals. Robin the Fox is my hero!
5. Rescuers Down Under. Another childhood favorite.
6. Anastasia. I hate Meg Ryan, but I love everything else. Dmitri is awesome. :)
See what happens when I don't have school to keep my mind on the higher things? *g*
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| The Undefended City
This article is brilliant. Read it and pass it on to as many people as possible.
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