Doorknob!
Here’s another game that we played that could sometimes get brutal.
While hanging out after school, if you farted, you had to run and touch the nearest doorknob. Between the time that you farted and the time that you got to the doorknob people could yell out, “Doorknob!” and pound on you.
They couldn’t tackle you to keep you from the doorknob, but they could stand in your way. Kind of basketball rules. If you were there before they got there, they had to go around you.
The best method to avoid being “doorknobbed” would be to casually walk towards the nearest door when you felt a fart coming on, and then touch the doorknob immediately after letting loose. Vince was always good at doing this, and it really pissed us off because his farts were the worst and we really wanted to punish him for making us suffer.
Ahh… Those were good times. Farting and pounding on your closest friends.
Books To Read
I saw this over at Jhianna’s Blog, and since I’m in love with books almost as much as she is, I’ll steal her borrowed idea. I love reading. It’s one of my true joys, but with my class/work load, I just don’t have the time or energy anymore to get to my books as often as I would like.
I took a whole load of books and magazines to the bookstore over the weekend, and got over $150 in store credit for the books. Sounds like a good deal, but when I think back on it, it was about $400 worth of books that I offloaded. I did accomplish my goal of freeing up some space on my shelves for future purchases. It also allowed me to spread out my “to read” stack a little, so that it is more organized. I did a count, and came up with 56 books that I need to read. Some are short, but most of them are pretty hefty. I’m hoping that most of them are good. Some have good recommendations from friends. Some are books that intrigued me from the descriptions and artwork. Most are from my my favorite authors.
I’m hoping that this blog post will remind me why I love to read so much, and it may inspire me to do more than read in the bathroom. Anyway… here goes:
Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror?: I’m a huge fantasy fan, but I’ll jump into science fiction if it’s about a future Earth where things have gone horribly wrong. I like Neuromancer, Hard Wired, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Johnny Mnemonic, and science fiction along those lines. You can take the space ships, FTL travel, space battles, and fights between men and cats and leave them on the shelves. They don’t interest me at all.
Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?: Mass market paperback. It irks me that some authors will delay the release of a paperback in order to sell more hardbacks. I’m so far behind in my reading, that I tend to wait until the series is completed in paperback form before I’ll start reading. When I wasn’t behind, I could only afford the paperbacks, so I stuck with those. Only one author, Dennis L. McKiernan, has ever made me itch so bad for the next part of the story that I would buy the hardback. However, he has, to the best of my knowledge, never done hardback, for which I will forever love him.
Amazon or Brick and Mortar?: Brick and mortar. I love being able to peruse books endlessly until I find the three or four that catch my fancy. There are times that I will shop online (usually at Barnes & Noble if I already know what I want to get.
Barnes & Noble or Borders?: I don’t really care. I’m a member of both of them. I tend to only go to Borders if I happen to already be in the mall. If I’m specifically going out for a book, then I’ll end up at Barnes & Noble instead of Borders.
Hitchhiker or Discworld?: These are both great, but I would have to say that Hitchhiker has made me laugh longer and harder than Discworld. I still love reading Discworld books, but there are just too many of them!
Bookmark or Dogear?: Bookmark! Dogearing a book is like beating a child. It should never be done.
Magazine: Asimov’s Science Fiction or Fantasy & Science Fiction?: Neither. I don’t have time for another magazine subscription, but as an aspiring author, I really should read both to find quality writing, new ideas, and to keep up with the times. Maybe after I graduate, I’ll subscribe. Dunno.
Alphabetize by author, Alphabetize by title, or random?: I group by author, but they are by no means alphabetized.
Keep, Throw Away or Sell?: Depends on the quality of the book. I have 60 or so books that I will always keep because the writing is just fantastic, and I will go back and re-read them endlessly. Those that I don’t keep go to a used book store for credit. The problem that I’m having lately is that I have a decent amount of credit at a local book store, and it goes away soon when they close their doors in two days. I gotta do two things: 1) Go to the old bookstore, and use my credit. 2) Find a new used book store that I like. I have a few in mind already.
Keep dust-jacket or toss it?: I keep it. It’s part of the book. No sense in throwing it away.
Read with dustjacket or remove it?: I always remove it. They seem to get so tattered and worn if I read with the dust jackets on.
Short story or novel?: I am most certainly more of a novel man than a short story man. You just get so much more out of a novel.
Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?: I’ve loved the Harry Potter books (although, not as much as my wife,) and I never heard of Lemony Snicket until that Jim Carrey movie a few years back.
Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?: I usually stop at chapter breaks, but not always. I like stopping at chapter breaks, but sometimes I just run out of time, and have to stop where I can.
“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?: Neither. I’ve read too many stories that start that way, and I’m tired of it. Give me a good action scene to start a book, and I’ll be happy.
Buy or Borrow?: Mostly buy in case it’s good enough to keep. There are some that I’ll borrow, though.
Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse?: I pick up most of my books through browsing, but a recommendation from a good friend goes a long way. I don’t read reviews of other peoples’ works. Movie reviews, book reviews, game reviews, etc. are all written by people that aren’t good enough to make a movie/book/game, so why I should I listen to them?
Lewis or Tolkien?: Tolkien all the way. The imagery, depth of detail, and concepts in Middle-Earth are fantastic. His writing really brings the world to life, and I deeply love authors that can pull that off.
Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)?: If the anthology has a common theme, common world, or common characters, then I can handle it. If it’s just a bunch of short stories that happen to be written in the same year, then I’ll skip it. I like consistency in my reading.
Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?: If it’s in the middle of a series, then I like cliffhangers. If it’s the end of a series, then the author damn well better wrap things up.
Morning reading, Afternoon reading or Nighttime reading?: Afternoon and nighttime are the best for my mental capabilities to enjoy reading.
Standalone or Series?: I can go either way, but I think I like series more than standalone books. It’s hard, these days, to fit a full story with full descriptions into a standalone book.
New or used?: Don’t care. There are some authors that I discovery that their older stuff can only be found used.
Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?: The Long Run by Daniel Keys Moran. It is, hands down, the best book that I have ever read. I read it every year, and love it every time. I have two copies of it because my first copy started to fall apart, and I don’t loan out either of them. I highly recommend this book, but you’ll have to go out and get your own copy.
Top 5 favorite genre books of all time?: Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks, The Iron Tower Trilogy by Dennis L. McKiernan, Magician by Raymond E. Feist, The Empire Series by Janny Wurts, any Xanth novel by Piers Anthony.
Favorite genre series?: The Iron Tower Trilogy (with a close second being the Iron Call Duology) both by Dennis L. McKiernan.
Currently Reading?: On Writing by Stephen King.
Now that I’ve finished this up, it has indeed reminded me of what I’m missing out on by not reading more. I’m not sure where I’ll find the time to do it, but I intend on trying to go through more than 1 book every 2 months. My old pace was a book ever week and a half or two weeks. I don’t know that I’ll get to that point until I graduate, but we’ll see how it goes.
Sold Our House!
Sorry for posting so late today, but I took the day off work. We closed on our house (the one that we just sold!) this morning, so I’ve been running around town. There was a potential hiccup on the part of the buyers’ finances last night, but it was resolved this morning. That’s a good thing. I would probably be in jail right now for a double murder had things fallen through.
Anyway, I’m off to class, so I don’t have much time to post. I’m just glad that we’re finally out from under the mortgage payments on that house! Woo Hoo!
Cockeye
I’m not sure who came up with this game, but my friends and I would spend hours “playing” it. The premise is that when you’re driving around town at night (which we did quite a bit of) and you see a car with a headlight out, you would declare, “Cock eye!” and tap the top of the car with your hand.
I was almost always the driver, which helps and hurts. I have to watch for more than just burned out headlights, but I also have the mirrors to help me watch behind me. I was able to use the mirrors to my advantage quite a bit while doing this.
There are two alternate rules, and we always used both of them.
The first was that if a headlight was dim, but not out, you could yell out, “Cock eye, dimmer!” and it would count.
The second was that if someone got the cock eye first, then everyone else in the car had to give that person a cigarette. Since we all smoked, it worked out well for me since I always seemed to catch more of them than my passengers. However, J.J. and Beth seemed to be pretty good at it, and they got their fair share of smokes out of everyone else. Vince was always on the poor side, and could barely afford smokes. We’d usually let him slide on handing out cigarettes because we liked him so much.
There was an alternate rule that I tried out when it was just Beth and me in the car, but it didn’t go over. I tried to convince her that each cock eye that I got, she could kiss me for a minute instead of giving me a cigarette. I never did kiss her, and I’ve always wondered what it would be like because she had the nicest set of… ummm… lips. Yeah, lips.
Moving and Teaching
My dream started with me standing between an office building and a moving truck. I was sweating profusely and hurting quite a bit as I hauled large, heavy boxes from the building to the truck. I would talk to the building, pick up a box, and heave it to the truck. The people that I was helping to move weren’t lifting a finger to help because they were busy with closing on their house. Oddly enough, they were doing it at a cheap folding card table that was piled high with papers. Their real estate agent kept telling me that I had to go away because they were going to discuss the purchase price, and she didn’t want me to be privy to that information for some reason.
I constantly told the real estate agent to blow off because I was busy moving stuff. She finally got to the point in the paperwork where they were discussing numbers. That’s when the three of them (husband, wife, and agent) approached me, and told me that I would have to leave. That’s when I realized that I didn’t know any of them, and I blew up. I started screaming and cussing at them because I was busting my ass moving for people that refused to help me, and I didn’t even know them!
I told them that I had other things to do, and that they were on their own for the rest of the move. That’s when I walked into the office building, and down a few hallways. I finally entered a room that was laid out exactly like my algebra 2 classroom that I was in when I was a sophomore in high school.
Instead of walking to one of the student desks, I walked to the teacher’s desk and sat down. I looked down at a syllabus that suddenly appeared on the desk, and I knew that I was going to have to teach the class what was on the syllabus. I looked up from the paper to find that the classroom had filled with students.
I took the syllabus and started walking around the room with it. I kept reading from the syllabus, and telling the students what we were going to cover for the semester. The syllabus made no sense, but I went through it anyway. There were entries on the syllabus that looked like:
- Discuss the philosophical meanings of grok.
- Formulate a thesis on the hidden values of cromulant.
- Find three unique snowflakes and photograph them.
- Learn to ride a horse backwards.
- Grapple with a fellow student until you find a way to choke them out.
- Write a software routine in PHP to generate Fortran code that can be converted to assembler for the development of an artificial intelligence.
It just went on and on like that. None of it really made much sense. As I was explaining it to my students, I could tell that they were just as befuddled as I was.
Before I could make any sense out of the class objectives, my alarm went off. As I was getting ready to go to work, I was still trying to process the syllabus. I finally decided that it would never make sense to me, so I put it out of my mind on the drive into work.
Missing Them
While growing up, I spent most summers with my grandparents. I also spent most spring breaks there as well. Some of my earliest memories of them are at their house on Kentucky St. playing in their backyard.
My grandfather had setup an old Honda 50cc motorcycle with no wheels or engine on blocks. I’d spend hours on the thing making motorcycle noises with my mouth, and pretending to race it. I’m sure that, somewhere, there are photos of me wearing an oversized helmet while “riding” the motorcycle. My grandfather always made sure that I wore a helmet while riding motorcycles, and this was ingrained into me at a young age on a motorcycle that wouldn’t even move.
I also remember painting the wooden fence at my grandparents’ house white one summer. I must have been around 5 years old, going on 6. I don’t remember how much my grandfather paid me to do the work, but I do know that it was the first money that I ever earned.
While I was going to kindergarten, my mom would drop me off at my grandparents’ house in the morning. I’d crawl into bed with my grandfather, and we’d watch the morning news while my grandmother made me some oatmeal and toast for breakfast. We’d sit in bed while eating breakfast and talk about the news. I remember that my grandfather would always ask me what I thought about various news articles. We would sit and have intelligent conversations about world events. Looking back on it, this was a great thing that my grandfather did for me. It helped me develop an open and analytical mind at an early age. This really helped me in later years when I was on the debate team in junior high and high school.
When I was around 6, my grandfather bought an old Air Force barracks from the city, and had it moved out into the country. He worked on it for over a year to install walls, flooring, plumping, wiring, carpet, stairs, and everything else that goes into making a building a home. When I was 7, they moved from their small house on Kentucky street to Rankin Highway. I remember going out there to visit my grandfather while he worked on “The Big House”. I probably wasn’t much help at my young age, but I would follow my grandfather around while he did all sorts of tasks. I just wish that I had been more cognisant of events. I could have learned so much from him while he was doing his tasks.
Once my grandparents moved into The Big House, I’d spend countless hours there. The motorcycle that had its engine and wheels missing was rebuilt by my grandfather. He got me a helmet that would fit properly, and I’d spend hours racing around the teardrop shaped driveway that they had on their property. I would always imagine that I was in a motorcycle race with various cartoon characters. I’d have a running commentary in my head, and I didn’t always win. It seems like Scooby Doo always won the imaginary races. I think he somehow cheated.
With all of the room that my grandparents had at The Big House, they got a pool table setup upstairs. I’d spend hours shooting pool and learning the skills necessary to become a good billiards player. I’m rusty these days, but for as long as I was tall enough to see over the edge of the table, I was shooting pool. My arms were too short to use a full-sized stick, so I would take the front half of a stick and use just that. It severely limited the shots that I could take, but I learned to adjust for my restrictions. Years later, at a family reunion, I remember sharking a table and beating all comers. The deal was that the loser had to buy the winner a beer. I was underage, so the deal was if I lost, I bought a beer for the winner, but if I won, the loser had to give me five dollars. Over the course of the week, I ended up with almost $200 in my pocket.
Another thing that the extra room in the house gave me was the ability to wrestle with my grandfather. We’d get on the floor and grapple. We’d roll around on the ground, and have a good laugh while doing it. My grandfather could have easily pinned me and declared himself the winner, but not once did he do that. He always let me win. This is just one small example of the generosity and kindness that he showed me over the years. Growing up, I never did know that he let me win. It wasn’t until I was in high school, and I was thinking back on things that I realized this.
We’ll fast forward to when I was 12, going on 13, and I decided that I didn’t want to live with my mom any longer. I won’t go into the details, but I will say that I had finally grown old enough to realize that I didn’t feel safe in her house. Don’t worry. My mom has cleaned up her act, and is now one of the greatest people that I now these days. Anyway, I moved out of my mom’s house, and in with my grandparents. I never did ask them if I could do it. I just moved in during the summer, which was normal. When it came time for school to start, my mom showed up to take me home. I, being a typical teenager, rebelled against my mom. I demanded that she let me stay with my grandparents, and I made a big show over it. Not once did I ask my grandparents if I could stay with them. I just assumed that they would let me. I assumed correctly, but I wish that I had at least asked them if it was ok for me to stay with them. My grandfather calmed us both down, and told my mom that I would be staying with them for the first week of school. We could get together and talk it over on the weekend when everyone was more calm and collected. I nervous the whole first week of eighth grade that I would have to go back to my mom’s house. When the weekend came, we all sat down around the table and talked things over. My grandfather’s patience, wisdom, caring, and reasoning won the day. I got to stay with my grandparents, but I would have to visit my mom (who lived maybe a mile away down the road) on a regular basis because I was an important part of her life.
I lived with my grandparents until I was almost 19 years old. I decided to try to make it on my own, and I think that they were heartbroken that I was leaving. I know that my grandmother was crushed, but my grandfather knew that it was time for me to try living on my own. I had my ups and downs (more downs that ups, really) over the course of the next four years. Every time I did something good, my grandparents were there to congratulate me, and tell me what a good job I was doing. Every time I did something bad, they were there to rescue me (mostly with financial help,) and to tell me that I hoped I had learned my lesson, and that I wouldn’t do it again.
It wasn’t until I was 23 that I finally started to get my life on track. I moved to San Antonio from my home town to be with my mom (who had moved there 8 years prior.) My grandfather gave me a few hundred dollars and told me that it would have to last me until I got a job and started earning my own way. The money barely lasted me until my first paycheck, but it got me there. When I finally got a job in San Antonio my first call was to my grandparents to tell them the good news. They could tell how excited and happy I was to finally get back on my feet. I could hear in their voices how proud they were of me. I could also tell that they weren’t as excited as I was because I had gone through quite a few jobs in the previous year.
A year later I was still at that job, and I had fallen in love with Kiara. I was planning on moving to Montana to be with her, and when I told my grandparents about this, they were hesitant. Moving to Montana for someone that I had only met once in person was a huge leap. However, my grandfather told me that it was a good thing that I was getting out and exploring the world. He had lived all over the United States while in the Army, and while doing oil exploration all over the place. He knew that it would be good for me to get out of Texas, and see more. When I moved to Montana, my grandfather told me that I may not be able to find a job right away, and he gave me some cash to tide me over. I had pre-paid a month’s rent up in Montana, and I had some money saved up, but the extra really helped.
When Kiara and I got married in Montana, we had a reception in Texas for my family to meet her. It was held at The Big House, and I got to see quite a bit of family that I had not seen in years. It was a good time, and I think Kiara made a great impression on my family. When Kiara and I left my grandparents’ house to head back to Montana, I sat down with my grandfather and told him, “Thank you.” He asked me what I was thanking him for. I swallowed my tears, and told, “For everything. For everything you’ve done since before I can remember to this very day, and for putting me on a road to success and happiness. There’s no way I can repay everything that you’ve done, but I can at least say, ‘Thank you.’” We got up from the table and hugged. It was the best hug that I’ve ever received.
Later that year found Kiara and me in Colorado, and I talked to my grandparents on a pretty regular basis. I went to visit them a few times over the years, and I could tell that they were growing more old and infirm. I wished that could move back in with them at The Big House, but there’s no way I could convince Kiara to do that, so I never brought it up to her.
A few years later, my grandmother passed away. She had a debilitating stroke a decade earlier, and had struggled with poor health ever since. She always wanted to drive after her stroke. Her freedom and independence had been stripped away from her by her stroke, and all she wanted to do was get out of the house on her own. That never did happen. Some people picture their lost loved ones running, jumping, playing, and skipping through Heaven. Not my grandmother. She’s driving through Heaven on the way to the Great Shopping Mall In The Sky!
The next year, my grandfather passed away. I knew that he wouldn’t be too far behind my grandmother. They had been together for almost 60 years, and I could tell that the only reason my grandfather was holding on was to care for my grandmother. I’m really amazed that he made it the year. I was expecting it to be closer to two weeks, but that just goes to show how strong of a man my grandfather was. Shortly before my grandfather passed away, he called me. When I answered the phone he clucked his tongue at me. I knew right away who it was. That’s how he would always get my attention. He told me that it was the first sound that I would respond to as a baby. He would always pick me up and cluck his tongue at me, and that would make me smile. It still does. Sometimes, when I’m feeling down, I cluck my tongue and think of my grandfather.
It’s now been five years since my grandfather’s passing, and this is the first time that I’ve really written anything about them with any substance. I’ve shed tears for their loss over the years, but never as much as I have while writing this entry. The emotions that I’ve felt during this writing have ranged from loss to happiness to pain to compassion to hurt to warmth. There have been a handful of times that I’ve typed blindly because I couldn’t see the screen through my tears, but I had to keep going for fear of stopping because of the sense of loss.
I miss my grandparents horribly, but I still carry with me their memories, (some of) their wisdom, their kindness, and their love. No matter what happens to me I’ll never be alone. I just have to close my eyes, cluck my tongue, and thank God that I had such wonderful people in my life.
To Granny and Papa,
Thank you.
You grandson, J.T.
Oi vay!
Things for today:
Too many meetings.
Meetings too long.
Had to go to bank.
Had to get caffeine.
Had to fix a few bugs before a meeting, but didn’t get a chance to test them until after the meeting. That meeting was the longest of the day, and it sucked because all I could think about was my bugs.
Deadlines looming at work for large projects. I’m on course for hitting the deadlines, though.
Deadlines looming at school for final projects in my classes. Not sure where I’ll find the time to do them by Monday.
Deadlines looming for my writers’ group for doing reading/critiquing of work. Not sure where I’ll find the time to do them by Saturday.
Ubuntu Upgrade
I spent a good part of the weekend upgrading my work laptop from Ubuntu Breezy Badger (5.10) to Edgy Eft (6.10). Like with most operating system upgrades, I chose to backup my important stuff, format the drive, and do a clean install.
Everything went well, and I got all of my applications reinstalled and reconfigured. There were a few hiccups here and there, but it was much easier than upgrading from Windows 2000 to Windows XP (which I’ve done a few times.) The main problem that I had was that I forgot to backup my VPN settings for work. Fortunately, Shinto came to my rescue with a document that he had written ages ago. He emailed it to me, and it got me going in a matter of minutes.
I also discovered a few new things about starting/stopping networks under Ubuntu (like the use of /etc/network/if-up.d/ and /etc/network/if-down.d) that made getting my VPN up in a reliable way. It took some tinkering with my scripts, but I managed to get everything working smoothly.
The interface for Edgy is much faster than it was under Breezy. Windows alt-tab faster, scroll faster, update quicker, and are generally more crisp. I’m quite happy with the way things are working now. My sound card (which required some tinkering under Breezy) worked out of the box with Edgy. That made me very happy since I couldn’t recall exactly what I did to get it working before, and I didn’t want to spend the time to re-research it.
One of the main reasons that I upgraded was so that I could try out a new window manager called Beryl that Shinto highly recommended. This was a total failure. I got it installed, but when I would boot and log in, the window manager would not launch. I’m not quite sure why, and it was in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday morning/Saturday night, so I uninstalled it and gave up. I’ll have at it again later, but I emailed Shinto first to see what process he used for getting it installed. I’m going to see what he says before I give it another shot.
Overall, I’m quite pleased with the results of upgrading my laptop to a more recent version of Linux.
Homework
My history and astronomy classes were kicking my ass until about Wednesday of this week. I somehow managed to get a little ahead of the game. I feel good about it, but it’s too bad it won’t last. There are only two weeks to go in the classes before they’re done. I finished all of my homework for the week for my astronomy class (including a 10-page essay) on Wednesday, and I just polished off the last bits of homework for my history class for this week.
That means that my weekend is free! Yay!
I still have a presentation in my history class due a week from Monday, and I’m going to see if I can knock it out Sunday. Depends on the weather, really. If I can get the presentation done, then I’m done with the class, except for taking a couple of tests that I need to study for. Not a big deal.
I have some forum posts for my history class over the next two weeks, but they’re pretty simple and I can knock them out in under an hour. Lastly, I have a 3-5 page essay for my history class where I have to interview an immigrant. Good thing there are a few at work that I can talk to. Should be cake.
The end of these two classes (which have been quite tedious, time-consuming, and requiring lots of work) is in sight, and I can move on to my next two classes.
My next two classes are computer security countermeasures and speech communications. I did 3 years of speech and drama in junior high and high school. I can talk circles around most people, and I can handle almost any type of speaking engagement. Speech communications will be a snap. You may think that the computer security countermeasures class will be boring, but I love learning that kind of stuff. I’m really looking forward to the class. I’m taking it “guided independent study”, which means that the teacher gives me all of the reading/homework assignments up-front, and I get them done by the end of the 8-week class. I tend to blow it off for a few weeks, and then I really get into it. Depending on how things go with the history/astronomy stuff, I may try to get a jump-start on it, and get it knocked out early. Probably won’t happen, but it’s a good thought.
Learn To Quote
I’m tired of laziness on mailing lists. Some of the ones that I’m on are good, but most of them are populated by inconsiderate people that don’t give a whit about bandwidth, mail usage, storage, or time.
Lazy bastards…
When I reply to a post, I only quote the relevant parts of the original post. Below the quoted material, I put my response. That way someone can read what I’m referencing, and then read what I have to say about the topic. It just makes sense.
All of these people using Outlook to top-post on mailing lists really piss me off. I have to scroll down to the original post, read the entire thing, then scroll up, read the next reply (which involves scrolling back down), scroll back up, and repeat until I get to the most recent part of the conversation. This breaks up the flow of the conversation, makes it difficult to read, and often leads to confusion. Most of the mailing lists that I’m on are technical in nature, so a lack of confusion is necessary to those people trying to find a solution to a problem.
Also, some mailing lists that I’m on put a footer at the bottom of every email. It’s usually a link to the archives, FAQ, rules, or other necessary information. I have two bitches about this. Everyone on the list sees this multiple times a day, but there are still people that refuse to at least read the links. They end up asking questions that are in the FAQ, or have already been asked/answered in the archives. The links are there for a reason, people! My second bitch is when people quote the footer in their reply. This means that I now have two copies of the footer in a single email: the one they quoted, and the one that was automatically added to the end of the list. Please be considerate enough to snip that out since you should obviously know that everyone on the list will see it again.
Also, if you join a mailing list, lurk for a while and learn the methods, etiquette, attitudes, and general environment of the list. For a really busy list this may only take a day or two. For a slow list, it may take up to a week. If you’re really in a tight spot, and must post a problem right away, please state so.
When posting a problem, please clearly post what you are experiencing (point A), what you expect to experience (point B), what you tried to do on your own to get from point A to point B, and then ask for help. Everyone on the list is very busy, and they don’t have time to travel to Narnia for a crystal ball that works to attempt to decipher your problem. When someone posts on a list, and they don’t include this information, I delete their email. I don’t have the time or patience to blindly troubleshoot a problem that is not adequately described.
Now to avoid the “You’re a hypocrite!” comments. I have top posted in replies in the past, and I still do it sometimes to this day. It’s usually small, personal mailing lists where someone asks, “What are we eating at the game tonight?” I’ll top post with a quick, “I’d prefer pizza.” reply. However, if the post is substantial, and some frame of reference is needed for the readers, I’ll always quote properly, and put my comments in the middle of the quoted material.
Ok. I’ll get off my high horse now. Sorry for the rant, but this has been eating at me for a long time now. I feel better now.
