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!
Yeah, but that’s ultrasonics. You would be using chemicals, presumably.
Making fireworks is like making sand-paintings, except that the work of art is four-dimensional, and evanescent.
I’m now of the opinion that my old original MIDI sound module has really expired. It was in my rack at church and one Sunday some time ago it quit producing output. At the time I figured that the 2032 had expired (yes, volatile system memory from the days before flash) and I unplugged it and revised my patches to utilize sounds in the three modules that continued to work - all newer and with flash memory so they wouldn’t die in that manner. That wasn’t too hard to do since about the only sounds from the expired module that I used with any frequency were the ‘Hammond’ sounds, and I had a ‘B3’ module in my Proteus 2000 box..
Flash forward now several years with the still dead module sitting unused and unconnected in my rack on a ‘I’ll replace the battery when I get a round tuit’ schedule. A keyboardist at a church down the road inquired as to whether I had a spare keyboard he could use. Since the two keyboards at my church (well, technically one keyboard and one MIDI controller with an internal module to double as a stage piano) are pretty much tied down in the setup, and my traveling keyboard is here at home for away gigs, I told him ‘no, sorry’. About a half hour later my brain said, ‘Hey, wait a minute’ as it remembered the nonused and nonfunctional MIDI module (and the MIDI controller that is extremely functional and newer but with less bells and whistles than the one on my double tier stand.) I mentioned that there was this possibility that if I could get that module to work, I would let him borrow it and the unused Roland A37 controller, a possibility that he was really glad to hear.
Earlier on Friday I picked up the old, nonfunctioning MIDI module from the rack at church and brought it home. For the past few hours I have been futzing with it which included replacing the 2032 (required opening the module, removing six screws from the board mounted with foil side up, flipping that board over to access the component side, removing the old battery (which was leaking - yuk), cleaning up battery yuk, installing a new battery, reinstalling the pcb, reinstalling the six mounting screws, replacing the cover with its eight screws, and then connecting power, MIDI, and audio.
It still doesn’t do anything. I’ll give it another try later in the daylight just in case I forgot something but unless my keyboard here isn’t sending midi messages properly (verified keyboard xmitting on channel 1 and module set to receive on channel 1) I think the old module is toast and the battery wasn’t the problem (unit never displayed the ‘lo batt’ error code.) I do have another keyboard here to try just in case this unit is messing up midi messages (I have never used the midi on this keyboard so it is a remote though doubtful possibility.)
I’m afraid I will need to disappoint my fellow keyboardist. Since I have no doubts that the A37 controller will work, I am now debating whether I want to offer him my Alesis module - which I sometimes slave off my Alesis QS 7 - but again, not all that often that I couldn’t do a workaround. The issue there is that Roland and Alesis is not an intuitive fit where the Rolland module and Roland MIDI controller had a lot in common. When I was using the two together, I could ‘dial’ a lot of things right on the controller without needing to bend over and make changes on the module. I would need to try that Roland/Alesis setup before I even mentioned it to him, not that it wouldn’t work, but the programming part would be more at address level than patch level due to the different ‘cultures’..
However.. I really need to invent some time to visit my A70 controller at church. It is also an older unit with volatile memory and I know I haven’t changed the battery since I have owned it and that’s about eight or more years. And to change that battery I need to do a system dump to save the setups I have. Or maybe I should just reinvent some of my patches from scratch..
But not today. I’ll think about it tomorrow. < /Scarlet O’Hara>
Thus ends another of my 3AM ramblings.
Good morning kitties
Sinatra kitty with such pretty blue eyes?,
Sorry offline I had a wicked tummy bug and yesterday I’m off the computer. I don’t watch the news, it’s too much of a trigger for me.
Debating if I should go to WW at 8:30. I can’t be away from the toilet for too long. I just want to be well for tomorrow night. It’s a holiday and mom is such a good cook.
Better make a cup of coffee and read three days of undead fun.
Good morning.
I’ve seen cats do that.
I have days when I can’t be more than a few steps from the bathroom.
I’m enjoying the quiet, since I didn’t have to get the kids up this morning.
They’ll drink the coffee, too.
And tea, hot chocolate, soda.
Basically anything their human is drinking “must” be theirs too.
And when they’ve had enough, they knock it over.
“An offering to the gods of fur, claw, whisker, and meow!!”
Ah, that makes perfect sense!
So much for peace and quiet: it’s time to get Sally up so she can meet her carpool at 8:00 ... and Kathleen to use the bathroom.
I worked for a news agency. I don’t want to get into details but I was working - and because of the news we didn’t go home. The story demanded we worked through, I checked stories before posting them, we just got numb. I remember crying so hard I threw up when I found out someone from our company who I knew was in there and died,
By the time the other two planes happened I was convinced the world was ending, but we soldiered on because that’s what you do when you work in a newsroom.
I went home about 30 hours later and slept for about 12 hours. My cat was very very hungry, because she missed a few meals.
What is weird is because I was living it in real time but not experiencing it like everyone else, I was kind of detached. About a week later I went into the city with a few people from work to volunteer, and it hit me. Hard. Really hard. Ended up with a three month leave of absence because of PTSD.
That’s why I don’t listen to news or go to the TV or computer on sept 11.
My godson was born a few years later on September 11. I saw him and held him when he was a few hours old. As much as I adore kittens, he was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my whole entire life. I got him a gift certificate to Game Stop. I can’t keep up with all the video games.
Kathleen is using the potty?
Hurray! Hurray! hurray!
Oh yesterday’s sleeping kitten
Head exploded. So squee.
I would adopt Thursday’s baby in a heartbeat.
Want. Want.
I have to eventually upload the pics of my Ceirdwyn.
I did email some to TC, but...
...not the same as putting them where others can see them too.
I would love to see Ceirdwyn.
Please give her a kiss from me.
I’m up, I’m up.
No good explanation why, but I’m up.
Will do.
She’s laying claim to my pillow, and I need it.
Rough night at work.
The annual idiot migration on the highway has begun.
A series of flop eared visitors at your door, all asking if you have cookies.
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