The Internet Scares Me

Woah. I read this story about this crazy chick who goes by the handle MsScribe. I can't get my mind off of it.

Before anyone asks, I'm not her in any way shape or form. I'm just an innocent bystander who found her story via hitting random on TV Tropes and coming across the sock puppet page. ( The MS Scribe tale is compiled wonderfully here: http://www.journalfen.net/users/charlottelennox/784.html.) Honest, at that time my involvement in fandom meant checking Mugglenet once a day (if not more) and Going to my first Midnight Book release. In 2003 I was 12-13ish, and far too shy on top of the fact I wasn't really allowed to join any websites at the time.

For those of you who subscribe to the TL;DR (Too long; didn't read) method of internet inquiry I'll do my best to summarize:

One Woman to Rule them all. One Woman to Find Them.
One Woman to rule them all and in the Darkness bind them.

I'm not exaggerating. One woman created (hold on let me tally) HOLY SHIT! Nearly 30 (probably more though as I'm sure I'm missing some) sock puppets. That's fake accounts for all those internet illiterate or naive. But not just the normal "OMG this person (who totally isn't me) is so fantastic isn't she?" way (which is usually executed with 1 puppet, of course she had many more) but ALSO in the "Wounded Gazelle" way. Self attack in order to gain sympathy (again usually one, maybe two. Oh no she had far more).

Why? For the sake of internet celebrity of course. Now, I'm sure we all want a little attention or 15 minutes of fame now and then. Some people are willing to go to more extreme lengths (Ala Baloon Boy, the White House gate Crashers, I call that Gate Gate).

But even in typing that I realized something. Now is the rest of the world interested in people doing stupid shit for the sake of fame. It's been happening on the internet for YEARS! Literally! Earth to real world, you think the internet is backwards and misinformed, look at yourself in comparison to what fandoms have been dealing with.

Which brings me to the title of this post, "The Internet Scares Me."

Because it does. In real life you have to do major stuff that can get you caught and reprimanded easily. The internet, not so much. All you have to do is not be overly obvious about the whole thing and you can become a BNF, which in the grand scale of internet celebrity I'm not sure where this lies. It took a grand total of six months for people to get suspicious of MsScribe and one more month to get serious accusations leveled at her. And THEN it takes a grand total of 3 1/2 years for her to finally disappear for good (kinda). It also takes about that long for people to accept and/or realize she's been pulling these stunts.

You know when your teachers told you the internet is the underbelly of society and that the worst of the worst are there and you scoffed? or at least were dubious because of the friends you made? Sometimes I wonder if that's true.

Yes, I know I can't trust EVERYONE out there, but I used to be optimistic.

I used to sit quietly in the back and observe to learn the rules of the game and be a respectful observer.

Now I'll sit back wondering how many of you are the same person.

Stage Fright

SO I have my camera. Now I'm not sure I want to do this whole video blog thing. I know I can do it. I just feel uncertain of myself randomly.

Text provides anonymity that a video blog does not.

Yet, on the other hand, I'm an actress. Performing is nothing. I have a feeling I'll do this anyway. Just needed to write it out.

Moving Goalposts

I wanted to be a Theater Major. My mother wanted me to do something practical.

I decide to be an English major, because I enjoy it and I can do anything. My mother decides I we're not getting any loans, because it would be silly and I couldn't do anything with an English Degree.

I took a journalism class and enjoyed it and the fame it brought. My mother took the credit and only enjoyed two of my videos.

I was going to pay for my own camera to start my vlog, but found a better model for cheaper online. My mother won't let me buy myself a camera until I actually put forth effort into creating it.

A Bigger Fish has just appeared in the area

I'm going to start vlogging. Video Blogging for the hermits of the world.

Why? I hear some of you crying. Maybe...

Well, I'm funny when I get angry and when I gush. It shows in my writing, but I'm a better speaker than writer. This is the wise decision.

So, what does this mean for here? I will write either transcriptions or commentaries of the video blogs (like the commentaries for my old fanfic). I'll keep my personal life stuff here primarily. I have a feeling my friends will be more likely to see the videos, not these ramblings. Some of these rants I don't want friends seeing. Simple enough really. And I'll be doing my fanfic updates and reminders through here.

Day of the First blog? When I get my new camera.

And Now I'm Back, from Outer Space...

I just walked in to find... nothing.

I apologize for not writing in.... 10 months. I have been writing, just not here. I was told that my blog hasn't updated recently enough and needs a refresh. I would like to point out that my twitter is linked and it updates regularly. :P Also I didn't go over a year without an update. I'm actually impressed.

I'm still writing fiction. That fanfic that attacked me a while a go is still being written. I had to take some time off. I thought taking a Creative Writing Class would help create writing time. It didn't. I didn't even finish my assigned writings for that class. I also hit a stumbling block on that story. I wrote a crap chapter that I just need to scrap and start over. I haven't yet because I keep hoping I can salvage it. I'll try and pull something out.

Been toying with an original series. It would need multiple books. Mystery/Scifi/Thriller. I've been watching a lot of X-files so you can probably guess what the Scifi aspect will be... If not, then you've been missing out.

Also I'm probably going to write an X-files/Doctor Who fic. I only found 4 on fanfiction.net. What I've got planned is fairly different from all of them. Mostly it'll star 9 instead of 10.

SO I'm procrastinating something else: ACC lit. I hate that class. I don't know why. I had a love/hate with ACC Rhetoric (writing) but this class is just pure hate. The only thing I'm looking forward to is starting Othello this week. And THAT'S only because I love Shakespeare and the Othello Rap.

EDIT: I just noticed a gross grammar error, that I fixed myself. I'm even getting better at grammar.

Cue Abortion Rant:

To understand the following rant please follow these next few facts:

1. I HATE MASS EMAILS! Plain and simple, they rub me the wrong way. I don't send 'em (all but once). I don't like gettin' em. Sure I'll respond if I know something (for a survey) but usually it's a waste of my time. They are some of the first things to get deleted even when I'm not cleaning out my inbox.

2. I don't like misrepresented and/or falsified facts. I don't like 'quote mining.' I don't like not being able to believe something because an organization uses above tactics to try and prove another point. I also don't like it when people buy into said "facts" at face value.

3. I don't like it when people assume one thing automatically equals another. As it pertains to what I'm about to rant about I'll use the old AntiAbortion ALWAYS=ProLife. It doesn't. Being "ProLife" really means that not only do you think abortion is wrong, you refuse to believe in euthanasia, capital punishment (of anyone). You should also practice what you preach by, adopting a child of any age and of any ethnicity. You believe in Health Care for all, no matter what. Unfortunately in America many people don't see past the "oh dear we're killing cute little babies" part of the all inclusiveness of "Pro Life." A cute baby is easy to defend, grizzly prisoners...not so much. Some people just do the easy part and call it Pro Life.

So those facts being said I check my email today (after a loooong day), and what do I find? A Mass email, about how we should all send President Obama an empty red envelope with a cutesy little note on the back, urging him not to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (with an equally cutesy name of FOCA... makes me want to do jazz hands for some odd reason).

Now we get to the misrepresentation of facts bit (my favorite part): Anti Abortioners (I'll call them this because I don't know where most stand on other life issues) LOVE to cite the fact that Barack Obama once said "Well, the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act" at Planned Parenthood. Iz teh evil demon and he shud be aborted rite? Uh no. While said quote is quoted correctly it should be looked at in the context of the (I assume) evening. He was asked a question about how he as President would protect a woman's right to choose, keeping the decision in her hands as opposed to the Previous Administration's "choice" to leave it to a bunch of politicians. The above is his response to the question. So his response means that it would be the first thing he'd do as President about abortion. AS of late he's been busy with the economy and hasn't dealt with FOCA or abortion much lately has he? So this point shouldn't even be a point, but it still gets brought up in annoying emails.

Now comes the "Oh, you're just ProChoice/ProDeath" bit. Well, no I'm not ProDeath, that would be highly illogical of just about anyone. I just can't in GOOD CONSCIENCE make abortion illegal for several reasons

1) Illegal abortions=dangerous abortions. In some ProLife tainted religion class we were told that abortions now are dangerous and can result in sickness or even death. Gee, what happens when they're no longer being performed in safe clinics or hospitals but in back alleys, backs of vans, peoples homes? Simple MORE people get sick or die because things are no longer sterile.

2) Let's say a woman has one or two illegal abortions. The maximum sentence in the State of Missouri(where I and my one reader live) for a premeditated murder is...Capital Punishment! I smell hypocrisy already. Some have argued, to me, that you should punish the doctor or whoever performed it, to which I point out anyone who hires a hit man also gets punished, usually worse.

3) I know that these are getting to be rare but if a mother would die in child birth leaving kids behind I think, as sad as it is, she should be able to choose to be a mother to the children she's already had instead of dying. Do I think it's the best situation (or even likely)? No, but should it occur a mother should be able to not have a baby.

4) If someone is raped they should be able to have an abortion. I've heard the 'destroying the evidence' argument, but listen: there are seminal fluids, pubic hairs and all sorts of other pieces of evidence the police find in a simple rape kit. Second even if all these other traces of evidence were not present DNA could probably (I'm not sure, but I think we can do genetic testing on unborn babies such as Downs Syndrome testing) be extracted before or (probably less likely) after abortion. And as my brother has said if a fourteen year old girl is raped she shouldn't have to carry the shame around for months. I've heard the "having an abortion causes twice as much pain" argument, but the only people I've heard it from have gotten so many other facts wrong I can't take it at face value anymore, and it disheartens me. I've heard the "there is only a 10% chance a woman can actually get pregnant while being raped" argument too, to which I respond, why yes 10%, doesn't sound like zero and that too has the taintedness of other wrong facts.

5) We don't adopt what kids we do have. I know several families who consider themselves "Pro Life" but haven't adopted a single child who needs a loving stable home. There are some who adopt a BABY from a foreign country, but we have several older children in need of homes in our own country as well who are left in the system until they are turned out on the street at 18. As cute as foreign babies are, we need to be able to provide homes for children in our own country as well.

Back to FOCA. I've heard FOCA is supposedly going to wipe out everything from freedom of conscience laws, sterilization of instruments and other crazy things, all of which is untrue, I'm not gonna go into it myself, the people at Snopes do a much better job= http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/choice.asp
Does it get rid of lots of limitations? Yes, but to me these only seem to be helping people stuck in bad situations. This Link also addresses common issues such as Catholic Hospitals and their stake, parental consent, partial birth abortion, and taxpayer funding. Really worth the read.

This is where I should end with either something witty or something powerful, but I suck at conclusions. They are my weak point.

If you want to argue, feel free. I am always up for a debate, but a few requests: when finding facts try to find them from a third party source, not a religious pamphlet (I'm sorry I just have issues trusting things that have lied to me); use facts not just beliefs (it'll be hard I know, really not trying to be facetious); read the snopes link (so I don't have to end up quoting it back to you anyway). That's about it. Also I don't take kindly to statements such as: "You should be aborted." etcetera. That only shows low brow hypocrisy and I won't have any of it.

Twittering away

Okay so I officially have a twitter now:

https://twitter.com/Yarsian

Check it out if you like will try to update once or twice a day. Even if I don't update this quite as often I will make sure I twitter plenty

I haven't been updating 'cuz I've been told/assigned to write in a journal everyday (I Don't). I feel I should keep that updated first and foremost. But this is a link and this is therefore an acceptable update. So I keep telling myself.

Getting off Now!