Bah, humbug

[bladespark]

Argh.

Gone beyond grouchy into "hiss, kill" just now. When I am annoyed and upset, but am TRYING MY DAMNEDEST to keep from saying anything rude, and I am doing the best I can to be deliberately silly and light hearted, and I get taken seriously and treated like I'm making a personal attack for something I thought was patently ridiculous and couldn't possibly be taken seriously, this doesn't make me happy.

Comments

[loweko.livejournal.com]

Oh, for...

[23:30] SPark: JOKE McM
[23:30] SPark: JOKE.
[23:30] SPark: You know... screw it.
[23:31] McMartin: And my reply thus had to be dead serious?
[23:31] *** SPark has left #fleet.
[23:31] Tora-Chan: possibly
[23:31] McMartin: Geeze. I even put the tilde in.
[23:31] Tora-Chan: ~ don't sparse mentally for me. So I assume it doesn't for her either.
[23:32] McMartin: TC: Used properly, it's the marker for "Under no circumstances take this seriously."

And we were doing so well allowing political discussions again.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

You know I have NEVER seen this flipping tilde = I don't mean it thing before?

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

I use a tilde as punctuation indication that a remark is accompanied by mild emphasis, usually light sarcasm or smartassery - that's how it's generally used around me, anyway. It's not a universal marker.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

My problem with this usage is that it is VERY difficult to figure out from context when given only a single instance of it. Witness the above.

When seeing things like "j/k" or even "lol" the letters have a meaning which can be parsed by somebody who's not familiar with those usages, if given a little thought. And mid-text insertions like !thing or =/= can be readily assumed to mean something significant, and figured from there.

But a tilde slapped at the very end of a line gives no inherent clue that it's not a typo. The line makes sense without it. There is no way for somebody who does not already know to realize the meaning. And since the line does make sense without it, the line is thus interpreted without it. And given that the difference between saying something seriously and saying it as a joke CAN be a very vital difference, I really just don't like using something that ambiguous to signal that difference.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

True. I'm not arguing that you should have recognized it, just giving an instance of its usage in my experience.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Also, it's not a matter of politics. It's a matter of my disliking McM's opinions intensely. On pretty much every subject I've ever heard him venture an opinion on.

I don't dislike him personally, but we disagree about everything.

[svashtar.livejournal.com]

The Internet is SERIOUS BUSINESS.
Bah, I feel like inciting madness. It's probably why I posted what I did to Pet_snark_snark yesterday. My email isn't working correctly. Or LJ isn't. So I'm not receiving any of the hopefully pissed off responses to my post.

I guess my point is, I know how you feel at the moment. Maybe. Brain not work.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Heh. I saw that comment. ZOMG! I am so offended that you don't love the little fluffykins and dare to say so!

There's nothing wrong with everybody else going "I don't like snakes, they're creepy" but of course if one doesn't like rats or dogs or cats one is some kind of heretic.

[svashtar.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I kept my mouth shut, mainly because I felt like crap yesterday (unrelated to rats, I assure you). The hypocrasy (sic) of pet owners is staggering, to say the least.

I could also have added my buck fifty to the breeding argument. Everything we breed is for our own amusement. Leave the ethics out of the argument, because if we left things to Nature, we wouldn't have over 400 breeds of dogs, over 250 breeds of cats, however many snake and lizard morphs, or hybrids, or domestic chickens, cows, horses, and pigs.

People are just plain stupid.

Have I mentioned that yet?

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

You might have brought it up a time or two. *grins* I pretty well agree.

[svashtar.livejournal.com]

It's a subject that touches a nerve. I like to dig my fingers into that nerve to the point of getting people so pissed off that the sight of my username causes them to explode in fits of rage.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

*snickers* I've done that a few places. Well, see above. There was one person who went afk the instant I started arguing in that chan, because apparently he can't stand to listen to me talk. *shrug* His problem, not mine.