The Gathering of the Pod People

I don't really participate in social networking. I've always thought having a website with a valid email address was social enough for me. I don't have a MySpace page. I get grief about it all the time. One of my friends is so in love with MySpace, she refuses to acknowledge any stalker story is true, or that most user's pages could put you in a coma from the colour/image clashes. I call them MySores. She defends the service like it's her abusive husband. ::sigh::
I cannot bring myself to get a page on MySpace. I can't.

Lately, however, I've been working on a project that may require a social networking application as its base. I had to join somewhere, to have a look around. I decided to try Gather.com. A few minutes, and I do mean a few minutes, after I signed up, I got my first 'connection' request. Over the next few days, I got more. They weren't from anyone I knew. They were random people asking me to add them to my friends connections.

I wrote my MySpace friend and asked her what the deal was. Why would these strangers want me to list them as a friend? She said, she didn't know anything about Gather. I asked her why people do that on MySpace. She didn't reply.

I've been on Gather for about a month now. The people are strange. If you're on Gather, you either 1. Think I'm crazy to say that, or 2. Know exactly what I mean. If you aren't on Gather, I'll try to explain it as best I can.

Have you ever seen the movie, The Steppford Wives?
That's the best place I know to start. Everyone - everyone - is super, happy, friendly. Everything that anyone writes, uploads, thinks, is ...nice.

"Nice image!"

"Nice essay!"

"Nice icon!"

If you do a Google site search for the word 'nice' on Gather you'll get over half a million hits for the word 'nice' - that's not counting how many times it appears on each page. It can appear 10-20 times on the same page. Everyone telling someone how 'nice' their new post is. No one on Gather can do wrong. Images, almost always have a 10 rating.
It may be, Gather's unspoken motto is 'If you don't have anything nice to say, keep your mouth shut,' or it could be that Gather is a cult. I was welcomed and friended within minutes. I was told how nice my avatar is. I was told how nice my writing is. My avatar was nothing special. I wrote something off the top of my head, just to see how their posting application worked.

I am loved there. I am nice and everything I do is nice. Yesterday, I commented on how nice someone else's writing was... I tried to think of another word, but only the word 'nice' came to mind. It was frightening.

(is it just me, or does it seem like I'm ending almost every sentence with a preposition?)

One explanation for the niceness, could be a points system Gather has in place. I don't understand it. I have points. I think I can trade them for discounts, but I haven't looked into it. If people are given points for friends and writing, that could explain the friendliness. If they get points for every time they comment on something... well, eventually you run out of adjectives. Maybe, it's simpler for them to stick with 'nice', than try a thesaurus?

Yesterday, I received 17 notices from Gather users - comments, mostly. Seventeen notices on a site I've been on for a little over a month and know only one person. Someone I asked to join, because the Steppfords were creeping me out. Join us. Join us. ::shudder::

Yeah, Colouring Books

I have a new respect for 4-year-olds. I went to a party over the weekend that had a kids area. There was a colouring book left. I took it. I will not longer snicker at kids drawing outside the lines.
I haven't coloured in years. It's harder than it looks. The crayon, as it wears down, creates a new 'tip' while you're colouring! The lovely tip on the left I was using, would quickly turn into a tip on the right and the next thing I knew I was drawing dangerously close to the lines. ::shudder::


Oh, I almost forgot my point!

While flipping through the colouring book I came upon an image that looks incredibly like Mr. Hanky! This is a standard,
generic kids colouring book.











I think it was unintentional, but it seriously looks like him.







I coloured as well as I could with the crazy point-changing, then put the picture in my computer.


Playing with graphics all day, I'm use to altering images a bit. Here's the 'stained glass' version for your next Christmas card.


You're welcome!

A Positive Negative

I was working on some graphics today and realized something I'm totally excited about. If you already know this, it's cool, right? I was staring at a photo, trying to think what I could do with it. I closed my eyes to think and saw the image in my mind's eye in negative.
Negative images are always a little creepy. They're great, and I can stare at them forever, but it's the creepiness factor that gives them their appeal. I stared, with my mind's eye - which is really just some type of retinal burning of the image I'd guess - until it faded away. Then, I remembered that Jesus test. It's in a lot of books about eyes or science or something. I've come across it a few times. You see it a lot with that 'is it a vase, or two people facing each other?' image. You stare at Jesus, close your eyes, and Jesus appears to you in your mind's eye.
So, I thought, if staring at a portrait created a negative image....
I changed the image on my screen to a negative. I stared at it for a few seconds and shut my eyes. There it was! The real image! I could almost make out the colours. Have I mentioned I'm easily amused?

I'm listening to David Gray's White Ladder album. I can't let this go. If I don't have the CD nearby, I feel like I'm missing something.

"Where are my keys? Here. Where's my checkbook? Right here. Where's my David Gray???"

Somehow, it's become a security blanket for me. My most favourite part is that Babylon is on the album twice.
When I used to make cassettes of albums/CD's for my car, I always recorded my favourite song again at the end of the tape. Babylon is recorded twice, with some variance, on White Ladder. I got the CD for Babylon, but my favourite song changes daily. I highly recommend this album.
Here's a karaoke version of one of his songs for you:

Orion

Something is not right with Orion. I don't know much about astronomy, and no, I'm not going to break into song. I do know Orion. Like a lot of people, Orion is my favourite constellation. Probably, because he is so easily recognizable - or his belt, at least. My second favourite is the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters. Not as well known, but a lovely cluster to the right of Orion's belt.

Every fall, I'm excited to see Orion appear. Excited like, 'There's my man!' He's an old friend who shows up in the fall and keeps me company through the winter. Any cold winter night, when I'm out in the dead of night for one reason or another, and the world is asleep, he's up there in the sky. Orion and snow-angels are the only things that get me through the winter months without as many complaints about being cold. But, something has happened to Orion.

Last year he was in a different position in the sky than he had been in every year previous. Everyone I asked about it said I was crazy, but most hadn't paid him any mind since they were children. He was higher than he should have been - almost overhead. He's never been overhead. I've lived in the same place for ten years, and he's always been at the same degree through those years, except last year. There are tons of astronomy enthusiast. I thought I could find some mention of why the constellation was in a different position. I found only one crazy site:
http://www.zetatalk.com/index/earthrv8.htm
Last night, I was outside, late at night, and decided to see if Orion had risen enough for me to see him. I couldn't find him at first, then I spotted Pleiades. I followed it left, to where I thought Orion's belt should be, but it wasn't there. It didn't make sense, so I looked around the area, and there it was, Orion's belt. Only, it wasn't the familiar left-to-right belt we all know. It was up-and-down, like a stoplight! Impossible, right?
I've never seen Orion's belt straight up-and-down, but there it was. If I had a better camera, I would have taken a picture, but my digital is just a cheap one I got for web photos. No chance it could take a decent shot of the night sky.
I don't know why there's no mention of it anywhere. It must be some type of normal change, otherwise there would be posts by alarmed amateur astronomers all over the net. All I do know is, I want to know why.

Minature Robot

I think a tiny robot is in my house. You know how you can tell you have a pest, because they are kind enough to leave a little something behind? Mice leave little, black, 3D commas. Camel-back crickets leave something that looks like minuscule birds were around. This is what I found on my floor today:

These were sitting side-by-side - the penny is only to show their size. They are rubber. They are O-rings. They are very, very small. I can only guess they were left by a very small robot.

I don't know what a robot-trap looks like. I don't know what bait to use. I doubt a local exterminator would take my case.