Les contretemps du blog

I don't know if my French is correct- but I figured I'd get in a few thoughts before the internet as we know it is taken down tomorrow (1 April)- at least for us Windows users

I've been writing this blog- in one form or another- for a little less than the past three years- There have been some conventions and a relative set of mores I've tried to adhere to for that time- One of which has been to never attribute anything I write directly to people I know or their identities here on the internet- lest I be accused of unfairly characterizing someone or an event they were involved in- or writing anything that could be taken as cheap shots or unfair slagging

Anyhow- there have been a number of occasions where I've written about stuff that I then opted to characterize to anonymous friends and associates of mine- or I've flat-out passed on writing about certain events here to avoid any amount of possible misrepresentation of either myself or those involved- Its common sense to a certain degree- I'm not going to turn my mundane existence into a homeless man's version of TV favorites like "Gossip Girl", "Sex in the City" or some other crap like that

With that said- I unwittingly found myself embroiled in a situation like that a week or so back- A female acquaintance of mine had a sort-of worst-case scenario-level story that happened to her- one I will not recount here- and shared it with a few people over various means of communication- including the instant messaging feature of a popular social network

One of those she did that with took it upon themselves to take screen captures of their conversation- featuring this girl's name and photo- and post them to their blog- with minor edits
-which then led some of the people who commented to address their feelings on it to the person in the story

The whole point of the screen capture and ID of this person was more for the writer to show off a witty quip they delivered in the IM exchange that was a play on something else on this person's social profile- than to express any kind of either empathy or disdain for the person telling the story- which in a weird way, to me, is even worse than doing it out of disdain or disapproval- It was sort of using her as the platform or butt, so to speak, for the one-man Algonquin Round Table to show off the funny they made- sort of at their expense

Anyhow- the subject of this told me about it and sent me a link to the aforementioned blog- which I read, then anonymously posted a comment telling the writer I thought it was rather uncool of them to post someone's private IM's without their consent and to use their name and image as an accompaniment- I did it more out of a feeling that this was somewhat unfair to my friend and did such the same I would do any friend

A day or so later- the blog writer responded- in their comment section- by telling me- in short order- that they knew my last name started with a 'G'- inferring they'd looked up my IP address, that I was only doing that to impress this girl in some form and he wasn't trying to be cool anyway- so "uncool" didn't register as an insult

I thought about respondeing- but decided not to bother- I figured out the person didn't have the goods on my internet presence and decided I didn't want to get into what would be no better than an internet pissing contest with someone who seemed to be courting the attention- when all I merely meant to do was state my case that their actions weren't really kosher- not trying to declare myself Arbiter of the Internet or try to engage someone who's deluded themselves into fancying themselves as some type possessor of a rapier wit

-I still cannot get over the media free ride the local sports teams here in New England get- particulalry the Red Sox- who last week announced they were freezing their 2009 concession prices at 2008 levels and were treated by the local media as though it was going to be free food and nickel beer down at the old ballyard this summer- My response to this can be summed up by the classic quote from the former New Jersey Nets star Derrick Coleman -"Whoop-de-damn-doo"

-Speaking of the news media- I've been wound into this confickr frenzy and feel like I'm chancing fate by merely being on the internet here at 12:15AM ET on 1 April- If the interwebs manage to survive- then I'll see you on the other side