July 11, 2005

Brief Holiday

Crazy boyfriend bought spur-of-the-moment tickets to come see me (bless you, Southwest Airlines). Gets in tomorrow. Blogging will be light.

And naturally the carpet needs vacuuming and the bathroom needs cleaning and the cat box, we're just not discussing the cat box. No.

Meanwhile enjoy the hard work of others. Some things I've been meaning to link to and haven't:

  • Geek Empire backs me up on my theory that the biggest security leaks come from within. Security's his line of work, so he ought to know.

  • Cassandra has an eloquent defense of the womanly arts:

    My Mother and my Mother-in-law are both homemakers. They both work hard. They have always worked hard. If you do the job right, it is time-consuming and difficult work. Scrubbing floors and toilets is not what I would call a hoot and a half. Cleaning a dirty oven is not exactly a yuck-fest. Laundry and ironing are not fun. My mother hand-irons all my Dad's shirts, and they always look beautiful. She does the painting when their house needs it every few years. And all the gardening for their enormous yard. She is in her seventies.
  • From the traditional to the progressive: Ms. Lauren has a request:
    I know there must be some dudes out there that blog, but I can’t think of any. If you can think of any blogs written by people with external gonads, please leave them in the comments.
    I think the problem may be that men just aren't wired for dialogue, for the open communication style of the internet. The dudes, you know, they tend to be more visual, less verbal. I'm frankly not surprised that most of them prefer gazing at porn to maintaining weblogs. But if you find any, Ms. Lauren, let me know! It's not like I'm sexist or anything. Posted by Ilyka at July 11, 2005 04:42 AM in navel gazing | TrackBack
    • Comments

    Yes, that's why the Internet was created by men, so they could not communicate with each other.

    I have to laugh at the idea of blog as "open communication." The blogosphere is just like open communication -- with bullhorns, that is. People converse, but they're not so much conversing with each other as they are putting on a show for the audience. What's wrong with direct, targeted communication? What's wrong with message boards? That's a truly open forum, where someone starts a conversation and everyone is invited to join in. A blog is more like shouting your conversation starter from the rooftop. Your audience is invited to shout their responses back up at you, but they're never quite as loud. Meanwhile, people on other rooftops shout about what they think about your original shoutings, but they're more talking to the folks surrounding their building than they are to you.

    Posted by: sansioy at July 11, 2005 06:27 AM

    Tell you what then: Next time I'll have you write the joke. Which, incidentally, is what that was: a joke. An attempt to parody the equally-ridiculous reasons often given for why there are "no women bloggers."

    Posted by: ilyka at July 11, 2005 06:33 AM

    Hmm...can't think of any offhand. Might need to initiate some outreach.

    Have fun with your boyfriend.

    Posted by: Hubris at July 11, 2005 02:22 PM

    WHAT?! There's p0rn on the internet!

    Screw this blogging bullshit. I am so there!

    Posted by: Jim at July 11, 2005 04:24 PM

    Och, Captain! Someone needs a humor implant, right away!

    Posted by: Scotty at July 11, 2005 08:44 PM

    I guess I wasn't aware it was a joke since I didn't realize there was a perceived shortage of women bloggers. Perhaps among political bloggers that is true, but if you were to look at statistics for, say, Livejournal, I think you would find that it is overwhelmingly female.

    Posted by: sansioy at July 12, 2005 04:05 AM

    Jesus, this joke is even funnier. I mean, people usually end up getting the point eventually.

    Don't they??

    Posted by: Andrea Harris at July 12, 2005 04:40 AM

    What exactly am I saying that you have a problem with?

    Posted by: sansioy at July 12, 2005 06:21 AM

    Let it go, sansioy. Just let it go.

    Posted by: Moira Breen at July 12, 2005 07:18 PM

    Very amusing.

    Posted by: Ith at July 12, 2005 09:22 PM

    "I think the problem may be that men just aren't wired for dialogue, for the open communication style of the internet. The dudes, you know, they tend to be more visual, less verbal."

    When was the last time you visited livejournal? Plenty of people with 'external gonads' writing there. I'm gonna leave your other statement about the porn gazing alone.

    H.

    Posted by: Hal at July 16, 2005 09:28 PM

    Sansioy? Halatos? I am talking about something other than LiveJournal, okay?

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_03/005865.php

    Just out of curiosity, didn't the part where everyone else seemed to get what I was on about bother you at all?

    Posted by: ilyka at July 16, 2005 09:35 PM