Before you start telling me how I’m suppressing your rights, and how I must be afraid to face you and your comments, I suggest you take a look at this article by Greg Finn of Search Engine Land: Beware These Comment Saboteurs In Social Media

This article outlines 11 types of commenters that have little to no social benefit. I would like to point out the “troll.”

The troll

…These users seriously dislike you and want you to know it—publicly. Maybe you created better content than they did, or you downvoted one of their articles and they found out. The fact of the matter is that they are pissed. And they are going to follow you around to pester you.

I have no tolerance for trolling. Period and end of story.

Dislike of someone can be expressed via e-mail outside the public eye.

If you don’t like the content (see “the hater”), then that has plenty of room to be addressed in the comments, but please maintain a certain respect for the author. There is no law stating that you have to agree with every opinion I, or anyone else for that matter, may have. Offering opposing views ensures that the media is not skewed in any particular direction and ensures a good balance of opinions. However, if your hatred for me gets in the way of contributing to society and only proliferates hate, destruction, and negativity, then I’m simply not going to display it.

It’s so easy for people to hide behind their computer monitors and spout hateful and hurtful garbage pretending that everyone wants to hear their noise. Please try to remember that there is a human face behind everything and perhaps then there will be much less discord in the virtual world.

Here’s the scope: I bought my MyBook back in July off eBay. The “one year” warranty expired in October. But I haven’t gotten there yet…

January 17th, while moving my computer to RugDoctor underneath it, my poor little MyBook takes a tiny little spill from the top of my computer to the carpeted floor. Two foot drop at most, honest.

January 18th at 02:00 (wee hours in the morning on my BIRTHDAY), I decide I should do a quick birthday comic to let everyone know I am well and give them something to read. Lo and behold, my little MyBook tries to tell me that my MyArt folder doesn’t exist. (“WTFBBQsauce? I just double clicked on it, of COURSE it exists!“)

I then proceed as any person who has spent endless hours on the telephone with Tech Support; I unplug the drive, restart my computer, and plug it back in. Windows recognized that there is a USB drive plugged in, but no way to access it. (“oRLY?“)

Restart again, leaving the drive plugged in. My computer nearly dies. In a panic (again, wee hours of my BIRTHDAY), I call a more technical savvy friend of mine that I knew would be awake at the time, we determine that it is in fact the drive that is the problem and my computer is not dead.

Relief washes over me, and then I realize… That I hadn’t done my annual disc back-up, and I have photos of my artwork on there that was recently destroyed in the flooding of my mother’s basement. Panic sets back in, TS (for Tech-Savvy) assures me that he will look at it in the morning.

Hours later, amid chores and preparing for birthday celebration, I hand over my drive, and we discover the warranty is up… And attempt to access the data. After a few days of scanning, TS found font files (in the wrong folder) before the hard drive nearly melted itself.

Conclusion: Externals are not a fail-safe. Western Digital makes crap fragile drives that could easily destroy everything you hold dear. Oh, and their warranty policy for a year is just lame.

Here are a few of my comments about this most recent election:

1. I like Mr. Obama; I see a lot of potential in him.  I was in awe watching the United States of America make history voting in a man who is of the top two races here.  I think he might be the one to bridge the gaps in Congress – that of the parties, of race, of social status, and more.  For the first time since I was a child, I have hope for America, and am proud of my half-American roots.
2. However, we simultaneously voted in discrimination and a bi-racial president.  Go us.
3. It is not the government’s job to save my soul and keep me from going to hell.  It is also not their job to tell me (or anyone else) who I can and cannot marry, nor what I can and cannot do to my body.  I strongly feel that the separation of Church and State has been breached.
4. For Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County: I want you to take a loooong look at the results of the state.  Yes, you were voted back into office (this is a Republican state.  It was bound to happen).  But Proposition 202 – Stopping Illegal Hiring failed.  Your job is to uphold the law, not create new ones, and not to target.  This does not mean you should “do it more.”  I ask you to target CRIMINALS, not people (read HUMAN BEINGS) that do not have the proper paperwork to be in the country.  Lack of paperwork does not a criminal make.
5. To Arkansas: Yes, you were targeting “gay and lesbian couples,” but you also made it so that a single man or woman in the nesting mode who has not found a life partner to marry cannot adopt or foster a child, either.  That means that if I lived in Arkansas and (heaven-forbid) something happened to my father or step-mother, I could not adopt or foster my much younger siblings – simply because I am unmarried.  Do you recognize heterosexual domestic partnership?  They can’t adopt or foster, either.
6. To Colorado and Nebraska: Thank you.  I am tired of being discriminated against (and punished) because I am a single white female who has not given birth to a child.  It becomes most obvious of this when I try to attend college and cannot file for my own FAFSA despite that I have supported myself since I was 14 years old just because I still talk to my parents.

I look forward to the changes to come.  Maybe I’ll even stick around to see them unfold.