Here's part of the publisher's summary: "Sylvia argues that by better understanding LiveJournal as an early battle in this new digital arena, we can document the tactics at play and identify just what is at stake."

Oh my god, that's amazing. There was so much about that era I didn't see or notice even though I was in the thick of it. Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out for sure.

Oh yes, this movie is SO good!

SO good! You all told me, and I knew you must be right, but I didn’t *know*.

do you think it would be good as a pre-grilling bratwurst soak?

It’s tough to say -- I’ve never made beer brats and rarely eaten them, because I don’t normally like the taste of beer. This one is VERY much the exception to the rule and makes me wonder if I shouldn’t be trying more light craft beers. 

In my extremely limited experience, I would compare it to Dos Equis in terms of lightness and flavor; it’s extremely easy on the tongue, but it has a savory finish instead of the sweet finish Dos Equis has. Speaking theoretically I think it would probably be too light -- you want a pretty strong beer for a brat, yes? 

I really think this is more of a drinking beer -- I don’t think you’ll get that hit of mustard unless the beer is what’s touching your palate. But I DO think it would make a GREAT drinking beer to pair with brats, especially if you’re eating them with a nice mustard. 

perevision replied to your post “mcroft: copperbadge: shawkela replied to your post:  The...”

Sam, the Iglesia ni Cristo sect in the Philippines has very strict tithing and a huge budget for chapel maintenance because they believe that when the time comes they will all get in the church and the building itself will literally rise up to heaven with them in it

Oh neat! I mean. Kinda culty sounding so maybe not neat, but conceptually neat. And I suppose they’re employing a lot of construction workers, so there’s that. :D

perishedoffits replied to your post “mcroft: copperbadge: shawkela replied to your post:  The...”

I did not get the alien part. Just an eldrich, but earthborn, diety.

I mean, it’s not really vital to the story whether it is or isn’t alien, so I kind of leave that up to the reader :D 

tygermama reblogged your post and added:

H-‘Andy’ Solo? because you only got one?

Beat me to it! I was gonna ask Sam the same thing! XD Go sniff your fill, because the episode says that that chocolate smell is going away soon--it's pollution!

So I hear. I’m sure it’s a net gain -- there are probably negative environmental impacts to the smell -- but I’m sad that one of those unique only-in-Chicago aspects of life downtown will be going away. Though it will be funny to be able to say to the younger generation someday, “Ah yes....the city...it used to smell like chocolate....”

yee-jun replied to your post “Today my realtor sent over the approved bylaws of the condo...”

I assume that 'Condo Association Hijinks' will be the tag ;)

I was thinking Sam Owns A Home but if the condo association gets especially exciting I will consider a hijinks tag :D 

yee-jun

I wish I could be bothered to add a zip and shoulder straps to a tote bag and turn it into the worst backpack ever. (Ignore me, I've been in this sort of mood for about 4 days now and started pissing myself off 3 and a half ago O.O )

Aw, I hope you get out of your funk soon! But see, that’s the thing -- if you add shoulder straps (or even better, a messenger-style chest strap) and a zip top, you have fixed what was wrong with the tote bag:

1. Shit could and did fall out of it because the top didn’t close securely 2. The handles were inconvenient for carrying long distances and it took up a free hand (I don’t like to have my hands full when walking). 

I still wouldn’t need like ten of them, but I would accept that object as a perfectly useful bag; especially if it had a cool design on it, that might be quite novel. The conflict for me came into the fact that even after I explained exactly why I couldn’t use tote bags, Mum still kept sending them because SHE found them so useful, how could I NOT?   

Mum tends to get a little fixated on an idea sometimes.

larathia

You're welcome to ship me tote bags too. Especially if they're snarky. I use 'em all the time until they go threadbare.

wandererriha

You can send me the tote bags!  :D  I love tote bags!

See, that’s the thing though, the thrift box postage is free (paid by the thrift shop) and you just print out a label and leave it for the postman. And I’m sending a bunch of stuff at once, which ameliorates the packaging cost. 

So if I send them to other people, in individual packages for which I have to go to the post office and pay postage, at this point? A gift I did not want and explicitly told people not to send me is now costing me money and time. 

Sure. So, a little context -- I work in a research office, and our clients are mainly fundraisers who are asking their donors for LARGE donations -- generally $100K at minimum, and up to hundreds of millions of dollars. So the stakes are relatively high. 

A great example for your students is the “one pager” we do. One of our main fundraisers attends a lot of galas and events, and he needs to know who will be there and how to interact. So he’ll send us a list of, say, 20 names. Our team will prepare a one-page biography on each person, which includes: 

-- Name of donor and anyone attending with them, how they’re related to our organization, and their photo-- Full but brief work biography including college degrees-- Spouse or co-attendee’s brief work biography, if any-- Children, if any-- Their previous giving to our organization-- Their giving to other organizations -- Their last meeting, if any, with the fundraiser who will be reading the bio

This is all stuff that takes maybe an hour to assemble per person, but finding some of it takes some fairly specialized skills, and it’s also an hour that the fundraiser doesn’t have to spend on it if we do it. Additionally it means they ONLY get the information they need -- no extraneous facts sloshing around in their heads. The document serves as a record of the person’s current situation, so if in the future they try to remove a portion of their work or giving history from the internet, we still have that information in the document (and in our database, where the info is usually entered once the document is finished). 

Another different less literary example is what we call “prospecting” -- using a database of thousands of constituents to find new prospective donors. We are trained to take a list of between say, fifty and five hundred names, “pull” their info (giving to us, giving potential, interests, location, position and place of work, last time they spoke to us, etc) and pick out the best perhaps twenty names; we might do a little additional research to make our case, then present those names to the fundraiser who asked for them, who then goes out and asks them for money; what we’ve done is heavily increase the odds they’ll ask the richest people with the most interest in our org, giving them a better chance of landing a major donation. 

Both the one pager and prospecting are different forms of information synthesis we perform, but the business applications are obvious -- this synthesis is how you break down vital information to offer to your clients, employers, and colleagues. It’s the most concise way of reporting information, but also the most convincing, because you go straight to the heart of what they need to know. 

Clarity in writing is so important for our job that I have literally been told in job interviews “We asked you to this interview because your cover letter was so much better than anyone else’s we saw”. I literally landed an interview on the strength of my business writing; they didn’t care that my degrees are in theatre or I started with the org I’m in as a receptionist. That’s how important it is to be clear and convey information well in prose.  

I hope that helps -- I think good information synthesis is the root of good communication, getting both what you know and what you need across as clearly as possible. 

You know it’s one thing I haven’t examined much, so I don’t really have any expertise to offer. Most of my hiking has been on bare trails so I haven’t had to worry much about protecting the ankles; interestingly, I also prefer a high-ankle boot but ended up with a no-ankle hiking shoe simply because it was what was at the intersection of available, well-fitting, and affordable. 

I will say that having worn several different Sorel boots and hiked in some of them, Sorels are super comfortable if you get the right fit. I hiked in my calf-height snow boots when I was in California and it was awesome. But Sorel boots are pretty expensive (my calf boots were on sale at REI for super-cheap). With camping, I feel like you really do get what you pay for; it’s not a cheap hobby but you’re paying for really good quality.

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