Well, well. The reports of Talk Lubbock's death were mistaken. http://www.talklubbock.com/index.php?sid=0c6b0ff7418ef144d155fe1c8f17590f Either that or it underwent resurrection.
That is one of my greatest fears, to be mistakenly pronounced dead.
My worst nightmare is to be standing on a subway or train platform and to get pushed off with the train coming on. (There are those who get their jollies that way, you know? Stand behind someone on a crowded platform and give a little nudge at just the right time.) Remember that TV episode where a man was trapped between train and platform, his lower body crushed to jelly, so he stays there conscious and saying his goodbyes before the train is moved and he bleeds out. Awful!
Second worst is to be pronounced dead and wake up in a coffin, trying to breathe. Which is not likely to happen these days, given our curious funerary practices.
If the pronouncement of death is wrong, draining the blood and injecting embalming fluids will do you in. Death by embalming.
(I have this vision of an undertaker finding to his dismay that he has a live client on the table. A live client means the undertaker is out of a job and down a fee with respect to this particular client, y'know? Economic considerations rule, and so the undertaker reaches for a hammer kept under the table for that very purpose, and conks the undeceased on the head and proceeds with his work, whistling. Wonder how many times that occurs.)
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
New Discussion Forum part 2
Been posting some over at that new forum, Views n News or whatever it is. I want it to be a success and to participate but don't want it to overwhelm it. So I'm gonna keep clear and not frighten new members away. At Talk Lubbock there were enough members from the outset to get the ball rolling. Still, it took close to three years to achieve critical mass. Most "members" were spammers. Genuine members were far fewer and those actively posting fewer still.
Critical mass means enough members, comments, and views to get the site to snowball.
You can recognize a dead discussion forum when all the posts are old.
The forum I started, http://lbkactives.forummotion.com/, "West Texas Active Adults" has never gotten rolling as far as members go. I hoped it would replace a fairly active site called the "Caprock Multi-Sport Forum" that got taken down along with West Texas Cycling. A couple of those guys came over, but that's all. Most cyclists and athletes are too busy doing stuff to worry much about talking about it.
Still, I don't consider "West Texas Active Adults" a failure because it does provide useful information to those looking for it. For example, the thread on cycling links has over 1300 views. The information about ride routes in Lubbock is likewise useful.
I try to keep active links there, so my forum acts as a gateway to other Lubbock/West Texas sites pertaining to cycling, running, climbing, caving, etc.
That site needs little maintenance so far. Only one spammer discovered it. So it's tempting to just neglect it. But I do drop by once in a while to check for spam and broken links.
If I'd thought about it, I'd have called it something else. "West Texas Active Adults" sounds like a swingers website. It isn't; just about G-rated types of exercise like walking, running, cycling and weights.
Think I'll go back and start keeping a weblog of my exercise activity there. :)
Critical mass means enough members, comments, and views to get the site to snowball.
You can recognize a dead discussion forum when all the posts are old.
The forum I started, http://lbkactives.forummotion.com/, "West Texas Active Adults" has never gotten rolling as far as members go. I hoped it would replace a fairly active site called the "Caprock Multi-Sport Forum" that got taken down along with West Texas Cycling. A couple of those guys came over, but that's all. Most cyclists and athletes are too busy doing stuff to worry much about talking about it.
Still, I don't consider "West Texas Active Adults" a failure because it does provide useful information to those looking for it. For example, the thread on cycling links has over 1300 views. The information about ride routes in Lubbock is likewise useful.
I try to keep active links there, so my forum acts as a gateway to other Lubbock/West Texas sites pertaining to cycling, running, climbing, caving, etc.
That site needs little maintenance so far. Only one spammer discovered it. So it's tempting to just neglect it. But I do drop by once in a while to check for spam and broken links.
If I'd thought about it, I'd have called it something else. "West Texas Active Adults" sounds like a swingers website. It isn't; just about G-rated types of exercise like walking, running, cycling and weights.
Think I'll go back and start keeping a weblog of my exercise activity there. :)
Sunday, January 22, 2012
New Talk Forum in Lubbock
I hear there's a new forum in town at http://lubbockvoices.proboards.com/index.cgi . Haven't signed up yet, but may do so.
Flying Saucer Departure
Remember that movie where benevolent aliens come to earth? To find that humans are ,,, human: at best suspicious, disagreeable, back-biting, sly; at worse, murderous and cruel; that you feed humans at the risk of losing a finger, a hand, or the whole arm. Finally, the aliens sigh at human foolishness, pack up their spaceship, and go back to where ever they came from.
From the time Talk Lubbock came into being, I suspected that it was run by aliens. I looked at the sky last night and saw no mysterious lights or flying saucers, but what occurred bore the marks of alien visitation, here, then gone.
From the time Talk Lubbock came into being, I suspected that it was run by aliens. I looked at the sky last night and saw no mysterious lights or flying saucers, but what occurred bore the marks of alien visitation, here, then gone.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The Demise of Talk Lubbock
For three years most of my idle time on the internet has been used in a local forum called "Talk Lubbock," posting under the names Ironfoot McGurk and Inmate #24602. It's been fun, both stimulating and irritating, by turns and often at the same time.
To my regret, it looks like that forum is being discontinued. It is also to my regret that I may have had a hand in precipitating the decision to discontinue it.
Free speech is that way, not really free. Each gruff or aggressive word or conflict is remembered, at some level, and eventually comes back to cloud any continuing relationship. Like others, I have not been shy about speaking my mind. I've hurt and been hurt, but it may be that my skin is thicker than most. To those I have offended unfairly, I apologize.
The folks who were kind enough to provide the forum for us and who did the work and bore the expense growing the forum, weeding out spam and policing TOS violators, have on this day deleted their accounts and posts and gone home. Sad.
My thanks to them for sticking with it while it lasted. You did good, fellas. I never meant to say that you didn't.
The shame in the way it ended is that a certain ill-mannered blogger on a vendetta can claim a hand in ending it.
Catch you on the flip.
To my regret, it looks like that forum is being discontinued. It is also to my regret that I may have had a hand in precipitating the decision to discontinue it.
Free speech is that way, not really free. Each gruff or aggressive word or conflict is remembered, at some level, and eventually comes back to cloud any continuing relationship. Like others, I have not been shy about speaking my mind. I've hurt and been hurt, but it may be that my skin is thicker than most. To those I have offended unfairly, I apologize.
The folks who were kind enough to provide the forum for us and who did the work and bore the expense growing the forum, weeding out spam and policing TOS violators, have on this day deleted their accounts and posts and gone home. Sad.
My thanks to them for sticking with it while it lasted. You did good, fellas. I never meant to say that you didn't.
The shame in the way it ended is that a certain ill-mannered blogger on a vendetta can claim a hand in ending it.
Catch you on the flip.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Lubbock Homelessness-- Where I'm Coming From
My opinion about homelessness is this. Some need help and shelter; they are candidates for programs to put them back into the housing/job/consumption rat race. Others have mental problems or various dependencies; they need more than a simple leg up; you are spinning your wheels if you try to fix things by putting them into a shelter only. Still others are homeless by choice, by lifestyle, what we used to call hobos.
Tough love implies that we don't coddle those in categories 2 and 3. It is a long term problem, and a few nights shelter won't accomplish a damn thing besides providing a few nights shelter.
I believe that there ought to be places to go and to stay with minimal strings. A sort of hobo incampment or Hooverville (Obamaville or Bushville depending on your persuasion) where the homeless can fend for themselves with only a smattering of rules for public health and safety.
Back in 2006 when I began thinking about homelessness and posting about it in a forum (the old Lubbockonline forum, now defunct), I envisioned a tract of land with concrete pads partly covered by a metal awning, with bathrooms, showers, and lockers big enough to accomodate duffels or sleeping bags, all under the occasional eye of one of Lubbock's finest. The only rules being no booze, no drugs, no weapons, and don't bother anybody.
Residents/campers would be free to build their own abode out of scavenged cardboard, plywood, whatever, without code restrictions.
It's a matter of freedom. Those who are homeless need to be free to be homeless, without being preached to or looked down on or changed.
And for the rest of us, it is freedom too, from the responsibility to provide for those who do not provide for themselves. It is the libertarian approach to homelessness. We don't want to be too nice to the homeless. Respectful, helpful, but not too nice.
So, I imagined an incampment in Lubbock, not too far from a free meal or public transportation, in the canyon off East 19th Street, down in the canyon out of the wind. Peppermint Trees, after the hobo song.
As it turned out, the location I liked for the incampment is a few hundred yards south of what is now Tent City. Tent City is not what I imagined, but it is mighty close.
Tough love implies that we don't coddle those in categories 2 and 3. It is a long term problem, and a few nights shelter won't accomplish a damn thing besides providing a few nights shelter.
I believe that there ought to be places to go and to stay with minimal strings. A sort of hobo incampment or Hooverville (Obamaville or Bushville depending on your persuasion) where the homeless can fend for themselves with only a smattering of rules for public health and safety.
Back in 2006 when I began thinking about homelessness and posting about it in a forum (the old Lubbockonline forum, now defunct), I envisioned a tract of land with concrete pads partly covered by a metal awning, with bathrooms, showers, and lockers big enough to accomodate duffels or sleeping bags, all under the occasional eye of one of Lubbock's finest. The only rules being no booze, no drugs, no weapons, and don't bother anybody.
Residents/campers would be free to build their own abode out of scavenged cardboard, plywood, whatever, without code restrictions.
It's a matter of freedom. Those who are homeless need to be free to be homeless, without being preached to or looked down on or changed.
And for the rest of us, it is freedom too, from the responsibility to provide for those who do not provide for themselves. It is the libertarian approach to homelessness. We don't want to be too nice to the homeless. Respectful, helpful, but not too nice.
So, I imagined an incampment in Lubbock, not too far from a free meal or public transportation, in the canyon off East 19th Street, down in the canyon out of the wind. Peppermint Trees, after the hobo song.
As it turned out, the location I liked for the incampment is a few hundred yards south of what is now Tent City. Tent City is not what I imagined, but it is mighty close.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
More on Tent City and Homelessness
There was a fine letter to the newspaper here: http://lubbockonline.com/editorial-letters/2011-10-23/letter-solution-homeless-tent-village-zoning-sorely-needed#comment-194107
Here's my comment:
If it can be shown the city council on Thursday that crime has not increased in the area, then surely the council will see that the objections of nearby business owners are based on smoke.
There is a valid argument that the presence of Tent City reduces crime in the area.
Paul Beane is pushing for 4 walls and a roof. Well, 4 walls and a roof mean more expense, more regulation, more rules for the homeless to follow and thus more selectivity.
Even Tent City is not for everyone, and park benches downtown are occupied at night, as are sheltered spots under certain trees or against certain walls.
What is needed is a way of helping without enabling and without strings. Tent City comes close to that.
Here's my comment:
If it can be shown the city council on Thursday that crime has not increased in the area, then surely the council will see that the objections of nearby business owners are based on smoke.
There is a valid argument that the presence of Tent City reduces crime in the area.
Paul Beane is pushing for 4 walls and a roof. Well, 4 walls and a roof mean more expense, more regulation, more rules for the homeless to follow and thus more selectivity.
Even Tent City is not for everyone, and park benches downtown are occupied at night, as are sheltered spots under certain trees or against certain walls.
What is needed is a way of helping without enabling and without strings. Tent City comes close to that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)