Posted on 07/31/2015 11:49:41 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows
The time has come to take action against thread hijackers.
Let me begin with an example of thread hijacking:
Like most Freepers, I am pro-life. Abortion and and euthanasia appall me, and marketing the results even more so. I support candidates who oppose the culture of death, and cheer when it is thwarted.
I also do not find it necessary to mention these facts on EVERY. FREAKING. THREAD.
There is a certain type of Freeper, though, who has no such restraint. For these zealots, any thread that deviates from the pro-life cause, no matter how trivially, is a heresy that must be immediately suppressed.
You are shocked by cruelty to animals? I guess that means you couldn't care less about the cruelty of THE MILLIONS OF CHILDREN ABORTED EVERY YEAR!!!!!
You lost a beloved pet? Why can't you mourn THE THOUSANDS OF ABORTED BABIES WHO DIED THE SAME DAY?!!!!
Your car shredded its transmission and you're looking at thousands of dollars in repairs? Why aren't you thinking about THE BABIES WHO WILL NEVER GROW UP TO BE AUTO MECHANICS BECAUSE THEY WERE ABORTED?!!!!
(OK, maybe I made that last one up.)
Arguing with these people is pointless. It's the same principle as wrestling with a pig - you just get muddy and the pig enjoys it. Similarly, trying to convince them that they are being rude is a waste of time - THE CAUSE is far more important little things like courtesy and respect.
So, what can we do about it?
We can get drunk.
I hereby propose The Thread Hijack Drinking Game. The rules are simple: When a poster tries to hijack an unrelated thread to his or her pet cause, you 1) reply to the hijack attempt by quoting the text in question, followed by the word "DRINK!", and 2) Take a drink (or any volume) of your favorite beverage (alcoholic or non-alcoholic). Moderation is suggested on animal cruelty threads to avoid alcohol poisoning.
This game will not, I admit, solve the thread hijacking problem. But after a certain number of attempts we will no longer care.
And if anyone is offended by my little proposal, I can only say...
DRINK!
A classic.
Thanks for the floof! Love those little eyes and spectacular whiskers!
I resemble that kitteh.
My brain resembles that kitteh.
Nice kitteh!
Back on an ulcer cocktail. My stomach really started to hurt when I was waiting for my blood to be drawn.
I think it was triggered over the fact that somewhere, over the last several computers, I’ve lost about 5,000 entries in my genealogical files. Luckily, it’s all on paper. Unluckily, I have to transcribe it again. I also can’t find the first 15 pages of my aunt’s journal or more than the draft of Igor’s personal history.
So my work is cut out for me. I am also missing a thumb drive, and I’m sure that’s where most of the stuff is.
Oh me oh my.
And on top of everything else, the “Check Engine” light came on in the truck while I was at a stop light. I think I want to go cry. I just can’t deal with this any more.
I feel like that kitteh.
AWWW
Don’t worry about those geneological records. I’m sure the Mormons still have them.
Maybe you’ll find the thumb drive.
I’m sorry you’re having all these problems. Things are on the verge of catastrophe here, too. If I end it all, it will be because of the screaming. Or the singing. Or both.
I spent hours copying them from paper 25 years before the genealogy library in SLC went digital. When I had entered them all into the computer, there was no Ancestry.com. The only ones I got from SLC were my first husband’s maternal line. Nothing could be found on his paternal line, and ellisisland.org had not been founded, so the line on his father’s side, spotty as it was, ended at Ellis Island.
Just trying to find them and reconstruct and merge them will take months. As for the journals and personal histories, I have to start from scratch.
I don’t need this on top of my ulcers and my truck. If I keep driving the truck the way it is, it will have to be towed back home when I need it for a medical appointment this month. I will now start walking to Walmart once again.
The thumb drive is gone. I’m sure someone has “borrowed” it because it was with my computer stuff ALWAYS.
PS: Before I was able to save them to a CD-ROM, I lost them four times to computer crashes...in a period of six months.
I like everything on paper.
I went with the co-leader of one of my church committees to talk to Father this afternoon. We explained to him that we don’t think we’re the best people to be in charge of things. He replied, basically, that we should just do what we can and not worry about anything else. Not what we wanted to hear, but at least we know he doesn’t expect much from us.
He was too polite to tell you it was OK if you wanted to drop out. Once you are used to saying “no” with no repercussions, you will feel very relieved that the responsibility will go to someone who has the time to give it their all.
I’m still in awe of how much you do IN the home as well as out of it, and I have to say, if you need to sacrifice something, don’t make it your family. You and Rob are what holds your family together and once you start withdrawing from extraneous activities at church, it will be easier to do it in other areas of your life.
Your children need you, and for the next 14 years, they will continue to do so. Do. Not. Feel. Guilty. There are other people who can step in and take up the slack at church and elsewhere, so do what you have to.
You cannot be all things to all people.
(And that includes me!)
As for everything on paper, I’m dreading having to go through the three banker’s boxes trying to find the documents I need to reconstruct what is lost.
However, I also have a printed index of names (almost 100 pages long) so it will help. I can fill in the blanks. I have been ridiculed for keeping so much stuff on paper, but when it comes to genealogy, one cannot have enough copies of every kind...digital, paper and cloud.
I will check the CD-ROMs tomorrow and see what I can find.
I know it’s SOON but I couldn’t resist this tagline:
I have this problem of wanting to do whatever people ask me, especially if they tell me they’re asking because I’d do really well at it. However, there is only one of me, and there are a lot of Them!
I was ask if I’d be interested in coordinating the next retreat, and I told them I’d think about it. However, I don’t think I can do that as well as this other committee. Norma and I were hoping that Father would say he’d make a commitment to helping to find someone totally new to lead the committee, because he wanted the best person, rather than the ones who didn’t duck fast enough ... but he didn’t.
My friend Joann is moving to South Carolina next year, and she’s looking forward to starting over and trying to keep her volunteerism under control. It reminds me of a man I met in Wilmington. He said he’d been on the Board of Directors of a Revolutionary War historic site there, and “I had to fake my own death to get off it!”
I know how you are, T-c...I’ve lived in your house! You are sacrificing yourself at the expense of other people/things, and it should be the other way around. Father is doing you a disservice by not recognizing that you are over-taxed with “THINGS.”
I can see what it is doing to you, and probably a lot of other FReepers can, as well. And all I can say is, since Father gave you an inch, take it and RUN!
I don’t know Norma or what her life is like, but if you went together to petition Father, it means that her life is in chaos, too.
It goes back to “eyes being bigger than the belly.” It never works, no matter how thin you spread yourself. So beat a hasty retreat and quit volunteering. You are worth FAR more than what the committees are willing to give in return.
And besides...next time I visit, I want to see a real person, not a shell who walks, talks and acts like T-c but is really a Stepford Wife...
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