I Speak of Dreams

Entitled Children #345,678

Mr. McNamar conducted an experiment with a sad outcome.  Or not, from Jumper Girl's point of view.

I merely explained the importance of adhering to the grammatical rules as well as the importance of expressing oneself clearly. I thought that my students would appreciate what I had done for them, and also what this wonderful professor had done as well. Here they were, seniors in high school, having an essay scored by a professor at a private liberal arts university. The information they received should benefit them greatly.

Apparently they all don't see it that way:

Oops

Oops.  Jumper Girl rode in two classes today, and hit the dirt both rounds.  That Claudius is quite athletic -- when he is alarmed by his circumstances, he changes direction like a fish.  Looks like it is time for some behavior modification

No injuries, except to the dignity.

Lovely Pacific Grove

We're at the second horse show of the season.  I am really impressed with Jumper Girl's riding.  Young Claudius, being young, is not marching around the fences, but she has been responding to his shenanigans with calm resolution.

Some photos later.

The last class yesterday he took objection to a dog sitting on the sidelines. 

If you come to the Monterey Peninsula, staying at the Beachcomber is a pleasant option, if you don't need golf courses and luxury.  It's right across the street from Asilomar and is I believe a bit cheaper.

Stop Cyberbullying: Is A Zero Violence Pledge The Right Way To Go?

The blogger Ron E., who writes at Brandcurve, proposes a policy of "zero violence blogging".

While I admire his sentiments, I don't agree.  I haven't searched through my own blog, but I'm willing to bet I might have said something like, "I could strangle him/her".   Or "He/She needs to be hit with the clue stick".  Or any number of other figures of speech rooted in violence. 

A friend's kid was put on "in school suspension" the other day for "aggression and violence".  What did this child do?  Using a scented marker, the child drew on a teacher's assistant.  Oh, and the child is under 7 years old.

Stop Cyberbullying: Neonatal Doc on Hiatus and Blogger Codes of Conduct

Today is Stop Cyberbullying Day

Yesterday, Neonatal Doc announced he was putting his blog on hiatus...because of a troll and threatened legal action.

This is a shame.  Not as much of a shame as the destruction of Alan Herrell's reputation, or the vile things written about Kathy Sierra*, or Eliot Stein's shameful treatment of Cathy Seipp, but a shame nonetheless.

I've been looking for an image to illustrate what I feel the underlying message of l'affaire MeanKids / UncleBobism to be, and found this at Andrew Heenan's Guide to Flaming, specifically the troll pages.

I don't agree that blogging as a whole "needs a code of conduct", as Tim O'Reilly has suggested.   Nor do I agree with Sam Sethi:

“It could be that the time has come to professionalise what bloggers do,”.... “It is up to the community to agree the rules and then it would simply be a line at the top of the blog to say only show me sites that adhere to this conduct.” 

I do agree with Denise Howell:

"I think anyone who enjoys any aspect of the Live Web would celebrate this fact, and agree its vitality would be impaired if the law expected or required these ordinary people to envelop themselves and their sites in elaborate legal provisos and conditions if they hope to be shielded from potential responsibility for the bad acts of others," she said.

The Kathy Sierra situation is, she said, "forcing bloggers to examine their moral compasses on a number of fronts". But, ultimately self-regulation is the only way forward, she believes.

I met Lisa Williams at BlogHer2005, and listened to her talk about her blog principles, which I later adopted to my own blog. 

I have time to weed my comments on a regular basis.  But Neonatal Doc makes an important point:  blogging is a hobby, and the day job prevents ND from quickly monitoring comments.  Troll- and flame-wars break out while ND is in the NICU...so what is a blogger to do?

Go Read the 58th Skeptic's Circle!

Aardvarchaeology  is hosting the 57nd Skeptics' Circle blog carnival!

The proprietor, Martin Rundkvist (who used to blog at Salto sobrius),  bills aardvarchaeology as:  the same salad of archaeology, skepticism, books, music and general psychedelic whimsy.  He says:

We've got some really good stuff on the carnival this time.

Blush.  Scuff toe.  Including a post from me.

Identity and Heinous Behavior

Pathological behavior online.

There are two examples currently: l'affaire MeanKids/UncleBobism, and Eliot Stein, the person pretending to be the late Cathy Seipp.

In both cases, persons have assumed the identities of others, and have used those identities to say hurtful, heinous things.   

Stop Cyberbullying

Andy Carvin has responded to l'affaire MeanKids/UncleBobism by starting a website/social network and declaring Friday, March 30, 2007 as "Stop Cyberbullying Day".  As Weinberger says,

Let me save you writing the first comment: Of course every day should be Stop CyberBullying Day.

Cool Cat and Beth are on board.  Won't you participate?

 

Misogyny Online: The Importance of Witness

L'affaire MeanKids-Sierra is really troubling, but I find that a post made at MeanKids about Maryam Scoble equally troubling and vile.

Again: if you are part of a conversation (in this case, a group blog) and a party to a conversation says things that are objectionable (racist or sexist or otherwise offensive) what is your responsibility?

BlogHer, You Annoy Me

I went to the first BlogHer conference, made new real life friends, was invigorated, educated and inspired.  I went to the second, and ditto.

But using the website?   Not so much.  I've been trying to link to Ronni Bennett's post about Kathy Sierra's experience all day.  No luck--the site was broken--and now I can't find the post.

The searchbox has stalled twice and broken once.  It takes forever (ok, a long time, but I forgot to time..over a minute) to load.

I'd really like to support the Blogher site, but when it is so difficult to use....why bother?