Ghetsuhm's Xanga

We Have Moved

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:34:58 GMT

Due to record low levels of gruntlement with the Xanga management, The House of Ghetsuhm has moved here. We will still be reading our SIR list and maybe commenting, and certainly referring to ourselves in the royal plural, but there will no longer be posting here at Xanga.

Things which are not, apparently, true

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 01:23:44 GMT

I've been with Xanga since, apparently, the 6th of April 2001. I had Premium for I think five years of that time, though twice it was a gift.

I'm leaving.

I'm sorry, I've had it. Most of you know that for the last year or so I've been parallel posting at Livejournal, since the lovely carry-on over Blog rating. Since then, ironically, LJ has brought in flagging themselves, but you know, I thought I was just too tired to care any more. And I've shrugged when I've seen people who don't use the LJ or Facebook communities talk about how they're not as good as Xanga, and let it go. Each to their own. Change for the sake of change, that makes it HARDER to use the site? Who gives a damn, really. Still no multiple protected list like we've been asking for for years? Mmm. Popping along to the sites of people who complain and saying hey, thanks for taking an interest, we'll take that on board, and then doing absolutely nothing? Okay.

But Xanga knows its user base has been steadily dropping for two years, or they should, because if I can find their web stats, so can they. And there are things they do well. Having the people who run the site blog and be part of the community is a really, really good idea.

The Advent of True Xangans was not.

What's true about the True Xangans is that they blog and comment more than other Xangans. They are therefore, as the True site says, the BEST. Now, I'm not saying that these people don't deserve something. From Bardic Web, we know that the people who post the most shape the community. But we sure as hell don't give 'em badges saying they're our best writers, or the only 'true' members of our community, because we'd be insulting more people than we'd be complimenting, and just from a business point of view that would be stupid, let alone the divide it would drive through the community.

Like flagging, this has been implemented really poorly. 'True' is the wrong word. It implies that everyone who doesn't have the True badge is, well, false. They're false Xangans, they don't really belong. And when I read Morgane's blog this morning and felt yet again like I could have written it myself, I had mixed feelings. I'd never have met her if it weren't for Xanga, and I love her. But I'm leaving.

The only reason I still maintained a presence here was for the handful of people still here that I didn't want to lose touch with. Morgane and the_tramp and krisinluck, and my darling Foxx and Sayana... gosh I bet I just insulted someone. But I also think you know who you are. I'll be leaving this site up for as long as I can, with a link to my livejournal blog at the top, and still checking my SIR, but I won't be posting here again. And the next time people want to talk about how wonderful the Xanga community is, they may be able to reflect on the fact that they know a lot of people who've left, and they know exactly why they've left. That's it for me: True.

News: Good/Bad/Indifferent

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 07:21:23 GMT

So we met our new neighbours tonight. The good news is that they're a family, with adults and children and everything. I'm still a little concerned because we still don't know WTF happened with the sale of the house - the people living there haven't bought it. Nevertheless, we've at least had a reprieve, and at the moment that'll do me.

The... 'other' news is that they're from Indiana and they home-school their four children. Said four children, aged four to thirteen, were in the house for a good fifteen minutes and none of them spoke, moved, or made a sound. And every single member of my family promptly forgot all their kids' names. Eh, want me to remember them, have fewer bloody kids. Okay, I was just desperately trying to remember the adults' names. Tammy and Kevin.

Now, it may be that they're perfectly sane and they home-school their kids for the sort of reasons I can identify with. But I have this history of not being able to move for nut-case born-again Christian families, every time one of my kids makes a good friend.

On the other other hand, two of the three girls are around Rhiana's age. So this could work out nicely.

Aaand... David and Jennifer leave for a year the day before my birthday, so unfortunately I can't drag them to my house and show them to my other friends. (David, btw, appears to be able to do everything there is.) But on the up side of that they feel stink and we're having lunch together tomorrow.

And... yeah. The money thing continues to not be fun. I wrote a hundred bucks worth of checks today and that was just the kids' technology fees. School fees still to come. Meh.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:28:05 GMT

So my tremendous day of catching up on the boards and starting working on my spiel for the symposium didn't so much happen as not today. You know how some people get sick in the holidays? Well the kids went back to school today and I have a cold. Nothing serious but I do just want to curl up and go to sleep. So... I've written some emails, that's the sum total of my achievements today. Oh, and talked some crap, but that's no surprise.

There is a bunch of stuff in my head which seems unable to settle into coherent thought, perhaps because of the sinus pain. I'm really hoping this is going to kick off soon because, bloody hell but the next couple of months are going to be busy. By my incredibly low-energy standards, anyway.

And the kids will be walking home in the rain (we're in the middle of a freaking drought, FFS) so I'd best prepare for misery and hot chocolate...

Thinging the Thing Thing

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:13:31 GMT

So, I have an oldening coming up. Karl wanted to take me to the one-dayer against England, but that's the same weekend as the Digital Arts Symposium I'm going to. Also, we're currently a bit (like, srsly) strapped for cash right now. Car repairs mostly, combined with Christmas and then warrant and registration... and whatever ends up happening for my mother's 80th in March is going to cost us some.

So we have another plan. It involves something I haven't been so good at for the last decade or so: socialising.

We are having a foodening for my oldening on the 17th of February (that's Sunday after next) from 3pm onwards. We're hoping for good weather and a barbeque, and a very kid-friendly set-up. Christchurch peeps, we'd love to see you. I'm hoping to use this as an excuse to put some effort into some friendships I've been sadly neglectful of.

And of course, you lot should turn up cause you love me. Unless you don't love me? Hmm?

Iz not so bad, akshully

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:12:55 GMT

I'm fine. I know everyone else is crappy, but I'm okay. I mean, I'm dead sick of it being holidays and not being able to concentrate. And ownership of next door passes over next weekend, so we might know how bad things are going to be shortly, and when I mentioned moving to Rhiana she was NOT happy at all, but hey. And I'm tired and my dry pithy sense of humour seems to be getting me into trouble, but I'm okay.

Karl went back to work today, again, and I think it was a bit of a struggle. I've got the kids' stationery sorted, though I've no idea what state their uniforms are in. I have... an opportunity in the offing I'm really freaking out about, and which I might chicken out of. Also pondering the irony of the fac that when people want my special skills, they never quite want to accompany said request with a big truck of money.

I ran out of stuff to do, can you tell?

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 02:19:34 GMT

So, I've been on my own since Saturday, and it's been great. Not that I'd like to be alone all the time, but in little oases like this, it's just great. Tomorrow, both Karl and the kids, and my mother, will be arriving. The house is clean and tidy. I was going to hit the garden today, but it rained.

And I got caught up at BW. Then I went round and checked the boards where I vaguely recalled having posted a bit back, and found three other places that had just fallen off my radar. One down, two to go. We have a particularly active new user there running round like a bunny on crack, and y'know, it's nice to be able to 'kick it in the guts Trev' a bit.

I managed to divert a System thread onto 'Kiwis swear more thank Americans', and it's been a lot of fun. From Russell:

I've interviewed Brent Hansen, the New Zealander who ran MTV Networks Europe for years, and he said that when he behaved like a New Zealander on meeting the American executives -- ie, spoke frankly and disagreed with his seniors when he felt they were wrong -- people were gobsmacked.

Before long, it was recognised as a virtue, and became the basis of a long and successful tenure with the company. He probably didn't swear so much, but the attitude that he was as good as his master did work out well for him.

And from Stephen (whose blog I should really read more):

I used to know someone who once addressed some visiting US businessmen more or less thusly:

"Welcome to New Zealand. We say what we think in meetings, we swear a lot, and you can't sue us. Understand that and we'll get along fine."

So yeah, I'm in a good mood, slightly hyper, and chatty. I should get myself into major trouble any time now.

ROFL

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:55:01 GMT

Okay, it doesn't answer the 'can he act' question, but here's the trailer for Eli Stone:

What might answer that question is this, George Michael in the Extras Christmas Special. He's playing George Michael, which is what he'll be doing in Eli Stone.

Okay, so I'm going to be downloading at least ONE episode. But boy does it look David E Kelly. Still. Boston Legal works...

It must have seemed like a good idea to someone

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:31:35 GMT

Oh dear. Heard about Eli Stone?

Co-written by Marc Guggenheim and Greg Berlanti, the series was described by Berlanti in Variety magazine as "a Field of Dreams-type drama set in a law firm where a thirty-something attorney begins having larger-than-life visions that compel him to do out-of-the-ordinary things."^[8]

Pop Star George Michael will also appear on the show and each episode will be named after a song of his.

George, it transpires, will be playing Eli's Guardian Angel. I'm sure it will be 'quirky' and 'ground-breaking' in a sort of sub-Ali McBeal kind of way, but holy crap. He can't need the money, wtf is he thinking?

I guess it could go either way, and the song titles they choose would be something of an indication. I'm picking they're going more for the Careless Whisper / A Different Corner end of things, and not say...

I Want Your Sex (Parts one, two, and three)
Monkey
Love Machine
Wham! Rap
Club Tropicana
Bad Boys
Freeek
Shoot the Dog

Heh, you know, maybe I should write this...

And further to families

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:36:48 GMT

One of the reasons my mother rang last night is that this year is her 80th birthday, and she wants to 'do something'. And fair enough, too: we don't celebrate her nearly enough, or at all.

What she actually wants to do is go somewhere: get the lot of us and hire a couple of holiday homes for the weekend. The place she suggested was Hanmer, which is nice and close for us, has lots of stuff to do, and is really well set up for this kind of thing.

Just one problem. Mum's birthday falls at Easter this year, and every single one of those holiday homes is already booked.

So we started talking about places on the Peninsula (Mum used to teach at Diamond Harbour), but again, nowhere over there seems to be as well set-up for this as Hanmer, and we're going to run into the Easter Problem everywhere we try.

And somehow, this got to be my problem to solve, even though my solution (going a week out) is off the table.