{"id":70,"date":"2002-03-25T21:37:42","date_gmt":"2002-03-26T02:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/wordpress\/quit_slashdot"},"modified":"2002-03-25T21:37:42","modified_gmt":"2002-03-26T02:37:42","slug":"quit_slashdot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/2002\/03\/quit_slashdot.html","title":{"rendered":"Quit Slashdot!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThe other day I stumbled into the Quit Slashdot!<\/a> home page.
\nAll I have to say is: right on, brother. The thing about
\nSlashdot<\/a> is that
\nevery time that they post an article on a subject that I know anything<\/em> about (such as
\nastrophysics or “nanotechnology”), the commentary is so riddled with inanity and
\npseudoscientific blather that I can’t help<\/em> but read it. Maybe some
\npeople are hardwired to like awful, awful things. I wish I could get over it, like
\nthat guy in that old Onion article,
\n“Aging
\nGen-Xer Doesn’t Find Bad Movies Funny Anymore<\/a>“:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nErdman, however, is not so certain about his changing sensibilities. “I used to be able to
\ntake great pleasure in not enjoying things,” Erdman said. “But these days, the only things I
\nlike are things I like. Christ, I feel so old.”\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nIf only I were in Erdman’s (fictional) shoes. Sigh.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe sad thing about the Slashdot science articles is that occasionally some poor sap of a
\ngraduate student gets fed up with this foolishness, damnit<\/em>, and
\nposts a reasonably literate critique of whatever nonsense the Slashdotters are debating.
\nIt’s irrelevant, of course. Like passing out copies of Our Bodies, Our Selves<\/em>
\nat an NRA convention. I want to scream at these grad students, “Stop wasting your
\ntime! Get back to work on your thesis!” But what’s the point? I can’t save the
\nworld. I can’t even save the Johns Hopkins University Physics Department. Bleah.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat else? Saturday night I went rock climbing<\/a> with Brian and about 60 friends from
\nOne Brick<\/a>.
\nI had never really done any serious rock climbing — not anything with ropes and all —
\nso it was pretty fun. However, it was a mistake to allow myself to get cajoled into
\nparticipating in the boys vs. girls speed-climbing race. Picture me in line, arms all noodley
\nfrom three previous climbs, hemmed in by seven or eight bad-ass climber dudes.
\n“You’ll do fine!” Brian said. Clever bastard — this was just his way of getting me back for
\nrefusing to go to our five-year college<\/a> reunion.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn the good-news department, I went to Target this weekend to buy a lamp for the
\napartment — one of those mix-and-match the base and lampshade dealies. Anyway,
\non my way out, the security guard complimented me. “Nice lamp,” he said. And as
\nI walked through Macy’s to get to the parking lot, one of the makeup ladies flagged me
\ndown. “That lamp is so cool!” she said. “Where did you get it?” So things are
\nlooking up, career-wise. I clearly won’t make a very good fireman, Army Ranger, or
\nEmergency Mountain Patrol Rescuer, but I might very well have the potential to be
\na fabulous<\/em> interior designer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…occasionally some poor sap of a graduate student gets fed up with this foolishness, damnit<\/em>, and posts a reasonably literate critique of whatever nonsense the Slashdotters are debating. It’s irrelevant, of course. Like passing out copies of Our Bodies, Our Selves<\/em> at an NRA convention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}