o/` Duran Duran – Careless Memory o/`
I’ve heard a number of people put down this whole “September 11th Rememberance” thing. Their excuses range from the always wonderfully liberal “but there are much worse things happening in other countries” to “i just don’t care.” 2 years ago today our country had the most damaging attack in a peacetime ever (even pearl harbor only had 2,403 casualties, most of them military). These people who died on September 11th, 2001 were mostly civilians. It is a bloody historical event in our nation’s past. Something we should never forget. Something that I hope people stop and think about every year. Maybe I don’t want to see all the specials that will be on tonight, maybe I criticize the government’s actions since then as much as the next person, but I can understand and respect that our country lost something big during those attacks. I do understand that much worse things have happened elsewhere in the world, but does that mean I should not respect the things that happened in my own country? I’m an American. I’m happy, I’m healthy, I’m save. This country has provided a comfortable life for me, and I try never to take that for granted.
I am in a much better mood right now. Of course that could probably change at a moment’s notice.
I missed the Philly Chix meeting last night. It turns out that two people showed up (one who was new to the group!) but they missed each other (one was there from about 8-8:15, one from 8:20-8:30). *Sigh* The first complete failure of a meeting! I’m very disappointed. I think a few people might get together and have one next week instead, we’ll see. I was able to get a discussion going on the list about meeting with the DC linux chix chapter. It seems hopeful, someone even suggested that we all take a bus down to DC itself and visit the Smithsonian museums and stuff. That’d be so fun %) I looked at Greyhound for rates, looks like $40 for a round-trip ticket, it’s a bit pricey, but I don’t really see any other options, unless we drove (ugh). I think I’d prefer to go to DC than Baltimore, most people say that Baltimore is yucky %)
I left #deep13 this afternoon. I guess I’ll drop by from time to time if I feel like it, but I dont want to deal with the daily crap that goes on there. Today just pushed me over the edge. It’s amazing that any channel would so aggressively drive active users away. That channel had a lot of potential, and I tried very hard to help them gain users, to keep the channel active when it normally would be dead, but it was all useless. I already sent an email to a few people who I actually cared about there (and who I won’t see elsewhere) who do deserve and explanation.
I have learned a lot from my experience in #deep13, mostly about how NOT to run a channel. #13thHour has successfully grown over these past few months because I have taken the lessons learned elsewhere on IRC and put them into making #13thHour thrive. I give any of the users I can even remotely trust operator status (as well as a list of rules to follow), I listen to everyone’s ideas for the channel equally, I try to make sure personal fights don’t cause trouble for the general health of the channel. Have there been people who didn’t like #13thHour? Sure, there are those who are upset that we don’t allow scripts, but as a whole I am quite pleased with the atmosphere of the channel. I am pround to call #13thHour my IRC home.
Last night was nice despite missing the Chix meeting. We ordered a pizza and watched the west wing. At 9 we watched a rerun of west wing from last season, getting all geared up for the premiere in two weeks, yay!
Oh! And I dug up those “conditions for asking me for help” … I was reminded by a friend’s entry recently that I should probably put them up on my site:
*wanders off*