My longest entry ever: Facebook and Pluto.
For those of you who either ignore the news, or have yet to be roped in by Facebook here's what I'm annoyed out: the eradication of Pluto('s title) and the new Facebook Notes feature.
First of all, I'm concerned about Facebook. One of these days their just going to find a way for people to inseminate each other over the site, thus eliminating every possible reason for real face to face interaction. A blog is one thing, but Facebook continues to come up with creative new ways to horrify me. But I digress. In my opinion, the more planets the better! It's more back-up terrain for once we master terraformation. Personally, I've been waiting for them to discover planets Mickey and Goofy, for quite some time, getting the number up to a nice round 10. Perfect for the obsessive like myself.
I was originally going to post the above paragraph in response to my friend's note about Pluto, but I decided I was too fond of the very heart of blogging itself, that I had to put it up here. The idea of being able to post whatever you want on a sort of community net (perhaps a world-wide web?) is in theory a good idea. My problem is the import blog feature which could if enabled place the very words I am typing this instant in my notes section of Facebook. Who cares? you might ask. Well if there's one thing I hate, it's things that go against my set of established norms, as defined long ago by my now undeniable OCD. Syrup is one then that goes against my idles, but only when it gets on my hands. That is but on example of what I like to call my physical obsession, something I can't stand the feel of. The other aspect of my self-diagnosed OCD is the mental obsessions, which this whole facebook thing goes up against. Anyone who read my blob in the good old days (May) may remember it several weeks of constant insignificant changes to the template design of the site, for example the use of links that change color, and become lowercase after being visited once. Don't know what I mean, well: CLICK HERE but then come right back. These and the many other subtle changes I believe are due to my mind needing things to look a certain way. My former roommate, though I doubt he reads this, would remember my purchase of a level, so that every poster and object in my room could be perpendicular to.. well I dunno, the magnetic center of the earth? Now of course, I have no real evidence to say I'm OCD aside from similar examples, but as have done no research on the disorder, and call myself an expect only because I saw the 20/20 special at my grandmother's house, oh I'd say a shade over a decade ago. Once again.. I digress. What Facebook is doing could very well led to more people seeing these entries, if I play into their hands and make it visible to my entire community, but at the same time I am bothered by people reading my blog, while not really being at my website! I spent a many hours getting the color scheme and page layout the way it seems most acceptable to me (granted it is formatted to my own screen, and none of your's) and I'm not about to start letting people read on a dingy Facebook notes page.
Maybe I'm just crazy. Yeah... deal. So my final thought on Pluto, I know for a fact the tubes of the internet are clogging up with people debating a completely arbitrary and human term, but I believe an article from Yahoo news best describes my concern for the loss of planethood, saying something along the lines of: We all learned of the nine planets as school children, and thus they hold a certain familiarity for us. I'd add that it's a lot like in middle school when my science teacher told me that the image of the atom we had been shown for years, the round ball nucleus surrounded by electrons traveling in perfect symmetrical orbits, was nothing but a simplified lie. I suppose it's similar to the four food groups that I learned in second grade, Meat, Fruits and Vegetables, Breads, and Dairy. It was soon after this image, another arbitrary system of classification, was replaced by the Food Pyramid. I can actually remember being sad because Fruits and Vegetables had broken-up. But here was something bigger and better, more classifications, and a streamlined design: the aerodynamic pyramid shape. Does having one less planet make our solar system "blue and pure"?
If it does it shouldn't, because it's mostly gas and garbage out there.
First of all, I'm concerned about Facebook. One of these days their just going to find a way for people to inseminate each other over the site, thus eliminating every possible reason for real face to face interaction. A blog is one thing, but Facebook continues to come up with creative new ways to horrify me. But I digress. In my opinion, the more planets the better! It's more back-up terrain for once we master terraformation. Personally, I've been waiting for them to discover planets Mickey and Goofy, for quite some time, getting the number up to a nice round 10. Perfect for the obsessive like myself.
I was originally going to post the above paragraph in response to my friend's note about Pluto, but I decided I was too fond of the very heart of blogging itself, that I had to put it up here. The idea of being able to post whatever you want on a sort of community net (perhaps a world-wide web?) is in theory a good idea. My problem is the import blog feature which could if enabled place the very words I am typing this instant in my notes section of Facebook. Who cares? you might ask. Well if there's one thing I hate, it's things that go against my set of established norms, as defined long ago by my now undeniable OCD. Syrup is one then that goes against my idles, but only when it gets on my hands. That is but on example of what I like to call my physical obsession, something I can't stand the feel of. The other aspect of my self-diagnosed OCD is the mental obsessions, which this whole facebook thing goes up against. Anyone who read my blob in the good old days (May) may remember it several weeks of constant insignificant changes to the template design of the site, for example the use of links that change color, and become lowercase after being visited once. Don't know what I mean, well: CLICK HERE but then come right back. These and the many other subtle changes I believe are due to my mind needing things to look a certain way. My former roommate, though I doubt he reads this, would remember my purchase of a level, so that every poster and object in my room could be perpendicular to.. well I dunno, the magnetic center of the earth? Now of course, I have no real evidence to say I'm OCD aside from similar examples, but as have done no research on the disorder, and call myself an expect only because I saw the 20/20 special at my grandmother's house, oh I'd say a shade over a decade ago. Once again.. I digress. What Facebook is doing could very well led to more people seeing these entries, if I play into their hands and make it visible to my entire community, but at the same time I am bothered by people reading my blog, while not really being at my website! I spent a many hours getting the color scheme and page layout the way it seems most acceptable to me (granted it is formatted to my own screen, and none of your's) and I'm not about to start letting people read on a dingy Facebook notes page.
Maybe I'm just crazy. Yeah... deal. So my final thought on Pluto, I know for a fact the tubes of the internet are clogging up with people debating a completely arbitrary and human term, but I believe an article from Yahoo news best describes my concern for the loss of planethood, saying something along the lines of: We all learned of the nine planets as school children, and thus they hold a certain familiarity for us. I'd add that it's a lot like in middle school when my science teacher told me that the image of the atom we had been shown for years, the round ball nucleus surrounded by electrons traveling in perfect symmetrical orbits, was nothing but a simplified lie. I suppose it's similar to the four food groups that I learned in second grade, Meat, Fruits and Vegetables, Breads, and Dairy. It was soon after this image, another arbitrary system of classification, was replaced by the Food Pyramid. I can actually remember being sad because Fruits and Vegetables had broken-up. But here was something bigger and better, more classifications, and a streamlined design: the aerodynamic pyramid shape. Does having one less planet make our solar system "blue and pure"?
If it does it shouldn't, because it's mostly gas and garbage out there.
So Said - View this Entry
3 Comments:
Firstoff, its not OCD, it's a power trip... a control issues. Okay, the syrup thing is just weird, I feel the same way about greazy things that touch my face. It just freaks me out in a physiological way. But this thing about the color of the font, and the level thing.
Thats you:
1)needing to have control over "your" things and
2)seeking to locate your patterns of control in a seemingly objective, absolute "right way for things to be".
As for pluto, why should your nostalgic memories be the standard by which other people's be set? Why were the food groups changed? And why does it matter if Pluto is a planet or not? Politics.
The original four-food-group chart was created by the USDA in an attempt to boost the sales of US Meat and Dairy. They wanted to have meat and milk concidered as equally essential parts of a nutritious diet so that the American agrobuisness industry could flourish, despite its unsustainable practices.
And pluto being a planet, that was so the dude who discovered it could have his name made famous... his name which I can't remember but a brief wikipedia search would no doubt reveal. It was also likely a ploy to justify and legitimize the eggregious amount of tax money being spent on fruitless space research in an era when social problems were escalating and the U.S. needed to save face and bolster support for its agenda during the Cold War. Can't waste money on social programs , we might seem too communist, and its too hard to get rich... must spend more on pointless technology, inflating the coffers of the Nazi Industrial-Military Barons.
So, your inflexibility in regards to these topics reveals your latent desire to control your possessions, and to have your right to do so justified by some imaginary universal order. And it reveals your flagrant dismissal of the democratic process for establishing mutuable, politically relevant social norms.
Diagnosis: Fascist.
I can live with that, after all when has fascism ever hurt anybody?
Also, I never meant to say everything must be my way, with the exception of the contents of my own blog which I will gladly assume supreme control over. The original motive behind my rant about Pluto was to share my opinion about why so many people seem upset about as I called it "a completely arbitrary and human term." I had no intention of saying the solar system or Facebook for that matter must be the way I say it is. Finally, no one who has ever seen the way I shower can say that I'm not at least obsessive-compulsive to some degree, although perhaps you're right about my style of webdesign being a "power trip."
All-in-all thank you for the well thought out comment, but I dare you to come call me a fascist to my face. At least then I won't be alone on my birthday.
happy birthday....
Post a Comment
<< Home