Saturdays are busy, even though they're supposed to be the relaxing day we catch up with things. Quarta has to clean Winky's cage, which means there is a mini-hamster ball bumping around the downstairs while she does that, terrorizing the cats. Both inside cats show great curiosity about this little furry creature, but are spooked by her plastic casing and sometimes jump quite high if it happens to touch their outstretched paw unexpectedly.
We went bowling this afternoon; Tertia has been enjoying bowling for her school's team, but it had been about 10 years since the last time I went. Secundus was working, so it was just the parents and daughters, but it was fun. Lots of '80s music. No scores over 100, but everyone except Tertia got at least 1 spare, and Tertia has a good attitude no matter what. We played 2 games at Crosley Lanes.
I started quilting Easy Street yesterday afternoon. It's almost 25% done now. I'm using a squiggle-loop-flower allover design. I decided on blue thread, but the fabric store had only three 250 yard spools. I hope it will be enough. I may need to fill some bobbins with other thread to make sure.
School continues. The third quarter is always a marathon, but this year it seems to be a fast-paced one. Third quarter is flying by. That doesn't lessen the amount of stress any, but it does put a definite end in sight.
In probably the most random event of the week, I have acquired yet another troll on an internet site. I seem to collect them. It started years back with Ravelry, where I identified myself as a conservative before I realized the "disagree" and "funny" trolls would start dogging my steps wherever I went, and encountered plenty of people who seemed to live only for the chance to belittle those knitters of different political persuasions than themselves. Then there was Pinterest, where I pinned a couple of books by Ann Coulter to my "books worth reading" board and got several nastygrams from one disgruntled Ann-hater. So my latest borderline obsession online is the
Cryptograms website. Logic, quotations of great (and some not-so-great) literary value, pattern recognition, wordplay -- what's not to like? They let you comment on a quote after you solve it -- and there have been plenty of nastygram comments on quotes by people like Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, Dan Quayle, etc... and plenty of nasty comments insulting them even on unrelated quotes. So when I came across this quote:
"What this country needs is radicals who will stay that way regardless of the creeping years." — John Fischer
I marked it as "confusing," because, I mean, really? More radicals would be good for the country? Any country? And I commented, "So he's saying that all those aging lefties are good for the country?" I was thinking of a conversation Steve and I had recently about aging hippies. Neither of us think they age well, usually, and keeping the same radicalism they had in their youth would be downright frightening.
Well, apparently there is zero tolerance for tweaking the liberals on the cryptogram site, because I happened to check out their chat forum yesterday, and a safely anonymous "Guest" had cited my comment and called me out by name. I recap the rest of his/her comments for your amusement:
"Since when 'radical' is the same as 'lefty'"
"?"
"Ever heard of the 'radical right', you amoeba?"
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_right"
And another, perhaps less cowardly member commented under his own identity,
"If you are a radical idealogue, you are on the right regardless of your allegiances. Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin, Rush Limbaugh, Joe McCarthy, all on the right."
Then there were a few confusing attempts by other members to either divert the conversation or gently say that calling out someone in public wasn't ideal, and maybe the insult "amoeba" was a bad move, etc. There was a particularly confusing bit when two "guests" were arguing with each other and one of them, apparently the original one, was trying to stir something up with me. I didn't even see the conversation until probably a few days after it started. I might have remained safely oblivious if I hadn't been wasting time. Now it's a matter of personal pride. I do not suffer trolls or fools, whether they haunt Ravelry, Pinterest, or Cryptograms. And I can make a snappy comeback with the best of them, but I can do far better than calling someone an amoeba. I can only imagine how nasty things must get on Twitter or other sites where politics is the main topic.
Just another example of the intolerance of the left for free speech. And the downright nasty thug tactics of internet bullies.
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