Notes About Blab (@Blab)

In my quest to find a web-based platform to facilitate real-time conversation, I was referred to Blab from Bobbi Palmer who had some very good things to say about it. It’s far more interactive than Periscope without the setup of Youtube live streaming. I never got into Google Hangouts because Google keeps changing things. Skype also lacks certain features needed for group-based discussions. I’ve been using Blab for over two weeks and have spent many hours hosting Blabs or watching and participating in separate Blabs covering a variety of/ topics.

Blab does have some great features that show great promise. Hosting a Blab is easy as is participating in a Blab (video/audio or just typed comments). The Blab can be recorded and replayed at any time. There is also a tie in with Twitter so that one’s Twitter followers are notified if that person is hosting or participating via video in a Blab. Having a Twitter account, however, is not a prerequisite to lurking in a Blab. The platform can be accessed via a web browser and mobile devices, too. I’ve only been using it through a browser (Chrome).

Yet Blab is not without some fairly serious issues that need to noted:

1. No clear and cogent step-by-step instructions to either host a Blab or watch a Blab. In fact, when I sent Blab an email about the absence of such instructions, I received a rather snarky email in response. “As they say…if you need a manual..you’ve already failed.” Um, who has failed? The software developers who didn’t quite get the user experience figured out or the user who needs real help? If Blab thinks it’s the user, then here’s my message to Blab as that user:

Go screw yourselves, you arrogant nerds.

I remember such arrogance from 1999 and 2000, right before the Internet 1.0 bubble burst and you nerds found yourselves unemployed by the hundreds of thousands. (Rant over)

I understand that Blab is still in a beta release stage. This is a poor excuse for the lack of solid support other than live Blabs with Blab support people. That live support, by the way, is very cool but I question if that’s sustainable with growth. The other type of support is users helping other users. This is also unsustainable in the long run. Business users, in particular, won’t be adopting Blab for internal business purposes unless the platform doesn’t require such hand-holding, regardless of who’s hand is being held or who is doing the hand-holding.

2. Small user base. Blab has been available since May of last year. That’s an epoch in Internet time. But the user base is still too small for the platform to be compelling with solid and diverse content. There are rarely more than a few dozen or so available Blabs to join, most with under a dozen participants. Blab, the company, is not releasing its user statistics. Sure, the current users are very enthusiastic. But that applies to all early adopters of a product that hasn’t yet crossed the chasm. For Blab, that chasm currently looks like a vast gulf.

3. User-created content is inconsistent. Some Blabs are well-structured and compelling. These discussions are usually focused around nerd talk or marketing talk. That’s understandable and serve to set a solid bar for future Blabs that don’t focus on these two topics. The rest of the Blabs are usually of folks simply talking idle chit-chat about the minutiae of their personal lives. This is understandable except that new users don’t know the other Blabbers and so don’t understand the backstory behind the personalities. Think of those Blabs like sitting down at a high school cafeteria table where everyone else is happily gabbing about stuff that the newcomer knows nothing about. That’s hardly a good way to get new users engaged with the platform.

4. Technical glitches still remain because the platform is still in Beta (for eight months?!). The streaming video/audio burps and farts way too much. This requires the user to refresh, restart, clear the browser cache, or a combination of all three in order to use the video feature (the “hot seat”) or even just watch as a lurker. As well, first-time users who want to participate via video don’t always get things to work right away. These issues may not be because of real technical problems. But without clear step-by-step instructions to guide newbies through the Blab process, such difficulties might as well be the result of technical glitches. Such glitches might also be the result of poor connection speeds or inadequate hardware but the user doesn’t know that without explanation of some sort. “I don’t know what’s going with Blab today” is a too-oft heard comment.

Frankly, Blab doesn’t yet know if it’s a platform for real-time discussions or a community of users who simply happen to be using the Blab platform for such discussions. If it’s a platform, there is much room for technical improvements. If it’s a community, the users need to up their game seriously with better on-topic Blabs and less of the “we’re the cool early adopters and you’re just barely welcome as a newbie while we gossip about other Blab users you don’t know” mentality.

As a blogger and Tweeter with a community of readers, Twitter followers, and blog commenters, I’m keen to have discussions within my community and invite others to join in. Right now, I don’t think Blab is the platform for that, yet. I’m going to keep trying with Blab. However, I will also be trying other platforms that seem less like a boot-strap endeavor and more like an effort with clear progress towards maturity and milestones of good software development.

[If you liked this post, click the Donate button or support me through Patreon. Many thanks!]

Lurkers Of The World, Unite! (Again)

It’s been three years since I asked for my blog’s lurkers to “out” themselves here in this digital auditorium. So, I’m doing it again. Because this blog has been around for awhile, I strongly suspect that many of the readers since my last call-out of lurkers have moved on and a new group has moved in.

I want you lurkers to identify yourselves. You don’t have to say anything except the following:

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Location
4. How you found my blog

If you want to give compliments to my blog, I won’t say no. If you have suggestions, speak up. If you think I’m just an old windbag, get off my lawn. If you’re a hater, your comment won’t make it through moderation.

I’ll leave this post up for a few days so folks have a chance to comment. I also hope to respond to each comment.

You regulars, stay out of this. This is between me and my lurkers.

[If you lurkers want to donate or support me, the Donate button is on every page and it’s easy to get to my Patreon page]

Suggestion Box – A Request To My Readers

I’ll make this brief. Since I started blogging back in 2011, I have never reached out to my readers and commenters to ask them what they wanted. That was egotistical of me. So, to rectify that situation, I ask my readers and commenters what they want from my blog. To wit:

• Do you find what I write useful?
• What editorial changes do you want to see in my blog?
• What other subjects to you want me to cover?
• What page layout changes to you want to see? (that includes graphics)
• Any other input you want to offer?

I’ll be reading every comment and approved commenters will have their comments published automatically. If a regular commenter has a suggestion that he/she doesn’t want published publicly, reach out to me via email.

I’m well aware of the concept of the vocal minority. This means that the vast majority of my readers don’t typically comment. This is a chance for those readers to make their voices heard.

I really do appreciate the input and, as always, very grateful for my readers. I’m especially grateful for my commenters.

Thanks in advance!

501 Blog Posts

Yeah…

Top that, motherfuckers!

[Inside joke…but still…]

P.S…. it’s my birthday… I’m now 53

And my dog is still ugly.

Online Dating… The Phony Profile

This post is a quick one.

I haven’t stopped online dating. In fact, I’ve upgraded my membership to both PoF and Ourtime (I’m 52, no apologies given).

Looking at the Viewed Me list in Plenty of Fish, here are the first eight dames who have.

Spot the fake profile/photo. This… is online dating.

#gamergate (Yup, it fits here)

Note: This is an unfolding story. Anytime 4chan is involved, the origin of things can get murky. Even if 4chan started it, this story has picked up serious momentum and the attention of the mainstream media.

As an oldster, video games and I go a long way back. In my youth, our family actually owned an Atari gaming console. It had one game: Pong. It was an idle distraction for Private Boy and his older brother. More sophisticated games could be found in video arcades and those were busy places. I spent quite a few quarters in such places, particular at the game room on Massachusetts Avenue next to the Orson Welles theater in Cambridge, MA. I noticed that some of the MIT kids from up the road were totally into such games and their conversations were all about technology that I simply couldn’t fathom. This was the beginning of gaming culture.

Going forward, I played some Doom on a PC, some Team Fortress, and later some Call of Duty on a Playstation. Enjoyable and a distraction, but I didn’t jump into the gamer culture. But I was aware of it because of my ex’s youngest son was quite the online video gamer and I asked him lots of questions while I watched him play some really cool first-person shooters. I overheard the audio as digital characters ruthlessly murdered each other. Good times.

There’s a stereotype of video gamers in that they tend to be younger men, socially awkward, white, heterosexual, and generally bereft of female attention. The female attention is the key element to the stereotype because it represents an exploitable emotional vulnerability. Demented female Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) moved in to maliciously exploit gamer guys in order to advance a cultural ideology. These puritanical scolds immediately started pushing their ideology with shame, anger, threats; all the usual tricks used by Internet bullies.

Even though SJWs are mentally ill and have a pathological hatred for gamer guys, they had a degree of success. Enough White knight gamers and game journalists fell for the manipulation and at least one high-profile SJW was actually taken seriously. Behold the power of ladyparts on guys who normally don’t get female attention. This is emotional exploitation of the highest order. “I don’t like guy gamers but in order to impose my ideological control on them, I’ll hold my nose and wade into their filth”.

But when ethical lines regarding trading sex for influence were crossed, the gamer community took a stand and basically told the SJWs and the gamer media who supported the SJWs to fuck off with #gamergate #notmyshield. Now the lines are drawn. White knights and SJWs on one side, informed gamers who hate being told what to do on the the other. The informed gamers are also not all white, male, and heterosexual. Oh, the conundrum; it turns out that gamers are not a monolith of white, cis-het scum.

I’m following this whole thing because I know that the SJWs continually try to influence normal and natural attraction and dating between the sexes. There’s a SJW-oriented dating advisor who floats around the Evan Marc Katz blog. In comments, he pushes back with political correctness against the sound and correct advice the EMK dispenses. EMK had to deliver a return comment smackdown at some point. That’s just one example. Every time a guy hears “you should be attracted to…”, there’s a SJW at work, either directly or indirectly through the politically correct media. Attraction isn’t a choice.

SJWs will always be needling the culture in order to fulfill an ideological agenda. Fortunately, they are operating in the context of a relatively free market capitalistic system. Financial profit will determine successful gaming content. That same profit will also determine the successful approach to attraction and dating advice. This makes SJWs seethe with rage and I rather enjoy that.

[If you liked this post, please consider supporting me through my Patreon efforts. Many thanks.]

A Blog Milestone

Hooray, Me!

Actually, it’s hooray to my readers and commenters. It’s been three and a half years of blogging. This project started almost as an impulse. I didn’t have any huge plans. It started because writers write. With print publishing dying, writers like me need a place to showcase the words. My portfolio of printed words is large but that goes back to pre-Internet days. When writers toiled for printed publications, the money was short and the editorial supervision was heavy handed.

Very, very few bloggers make a living at this. I don’t even try. The donations have been  welcome, of course. Basically, I just like writing the words of a middle age guy going through some stuff and sharing ideas with the Manosphere. I do enjoy being part of this fractious community.

My involvement in social media is mostly focused on this blog and Twitter.  My Facebook account has cobwebs on it. For some reason, the thought of Instagram sickens me. I only think about Tumblr when I’m on the toilet. But I do participate in Reddit. I even did an “Ask me anything” (AMA) event there. I also check out the Roosh V forum. There are some very intelligent guys there.

As for Twitter, I think it’s great. Being limited in characters means having to be very careful with one’s words and punctuation. I’ve been on Twitter for about three years. I thank Sean Connery for letting me use his image. According to one female acquaintance, I actually resemble him.

Blogging is rewarding for me. Of course, I need more comments! Um, that’s a hint.

 

 

 

Remember Danny From 504?

“Editor’s” Note: Danny has pretty much given up blogging on his primary website. That’s his choice and I respect it. But his life has moved on. Gone is his military career – he retired at 40 – and a new career, after vocational school, will soon begin. But in the meantime, his life is interesting and I’ve agreed to post some things of his. This is his post. I’ve not corrected or edited anything. It’s copypasta at his request.

it’s been a while since i thought about writing something. to be honest, i really didn’t have anything to write about. well that’s officially changed.i got a job.i placed applications at damn near every place that has radiology. i STILL haven’t gotten a call back and when i call they refer me to HR. so i placed applications at every restaurant within 15 minutes of my house. 2 places called back. long story short, i’m now a kitchen guy at hooters. yes, hooters. they let the fox into the chicken coop. been there about 2 weeks. and let me tell you, it’s been fucking interesting. for now, i can really only do dishes, but that means i ALWAYS have the girls coming up to me.first, one of the girls came to the back and made a smart ass comment, a shit test. i called her out and told her she was on planet danny, and on planet danny i’m the sun and she’s the moon, and moon revolves around the sun. she laughed it off and gave me a, “yeah, ok.” and walked away. the next day she came in about an hour into the shift and asks me, “so i’m the moon and you’re the earth?” i laughed and told her i was the SUN. now when she comes in and drops off shit for me to wash i tell her, “thank you my moon.” and she answers with, “of course my sun.” tonight i got her number and going for drinks wednesday. she’s easily a 7.

i have a large rack above me to the right that the girls put cups in. when the racks are full, i wash them. when they’re done, i stack them to my left for the girls to take back out. i think it was day 2 or 3 that a girls came in and placed cups in the rack and said, “we always have cups.”. i told her they weren’t cups, they’re  love. i pointed to girls rack above me and told her that the girls love me, then pointed to my stacked cups and told her that i love the girls back. she laughed and walked out. same girl was placing cups in the rack and was standing very close to me; she’s about 5’8″. i turned my head to the right to grab shit and i got a face full of tit. i backed away and apologized- she was laughing. i told her “thank you” while making a voice like my face was buried in there still.

the girls HATE getting wet, and i have the hose. the girls know if they stay in my section too long they may just end up getting a little water on them. so they unload their shit as quickly as they can and hurry away. i now know how to cause just enough spray to get a little on them. when i do they squeal and talk shit. i give them a side glance and point the hose right at them. they yell playfully and run out the kitchen.

and then there’s the best part about being in the wash station. when the girls come in and leave for the night, they change in a corner behind me. well, when we close, and they’re rushing to get out, they change out of their shorts and shirts in front of me. one new girl asked why they change with me the there and one girl said dismissively, “he works here, he doesn’t doesn’t count.” then one girl called my name, i looked ad she was standing there without her shirt and asked me if i liked her bra. i laughed and told her if she kept it up she’d end up pregnant. all the girls laughed.

the other night, while the girls were changing to go home, a girl mentioned, “i finally got my clit pierced. i love it.” this led to a brief conversation about best sexual positions for clit piercing, which led to favorite sexual positions. and it wasn’t a conversation that was had in a hushed tone. they were VERY vociferous about it.

they just hired a new girl- solid 8. when we were starting the shift she was pretty chatty with me. i don’t know her, so i said little more than to answer her questions. as the shift went on, every time she came to the back, she’d stare me down for a good 4-5 seconds. prolonged eye contact- classic IOI. as we were closing one of the kitchen guys told me that girl liked me. i told him i knew. he looked at me weird and i explained the eye contact shit.

he laughed. this guy is banging the hottest girl in the kitchen (she’s WAAAAAAAAAAY too young for me). but i call his chick my little mermaid. she LOVES it.

my girl was changing and i told her we needed to hang out we have a day off. i copped her number and we did a little text flirting after i got home. and let me tell you, the girls at work are 7’s MINIMUM.

they feed me free food, give me a beer after shift, and i get paid to neg 7’s+. and if you don’t neg the girls, you’ll get rolled by them. i LOVE this job.

stay up.

Pretty Lie Nuked – Nice Guys

This one is easy.

The dames completely loathe and despise nice guys. If a man is nice to a dame, she will instantly hate him. If she had a gun, she will kill him.

Actually, the word “loathe” isn’t strong enough. Give a dame a gun and she will murder a “nice guy” in a skinny minute.  She will take that gun, point it towards his head and blow his brains out without hesitation. Then she will hit up some Tinder dick to hamster away her homicidal act because she’s so empowered. But if that Tinder  guy is short, he’ll be on the low end of the “Fuck, Marry, Kill” game. Yes dears, men know this game. The ‘Net shows all.

Ladies, you hate nice guys. Please be honest about it. You ladies want a confident, cocky guy. If you want to kill off the nice guys, there are lots of guns available. Oh, and white knights should be the first to go. Thankfully, such guys will line up for the slaughter.

Two Pretty Lies Addressed

TRIGGER WARNING – There are some truths in this blog post that might cause offense (That warning inserted because irony)

In the effort to make us all feel good about ourselves, we tell each other very pretty lies to cover up the ugliest of truths. This is the conundrum of “polite company”. We seek to soothe, not to confront. When the merest whisper of confrontation surfaces with unpopular ideas, there are now some very politically correct ways to scream “shut up!” without actually screaming or saying the words “shut up”. Oh crap, I forgot to check my privilege. I am so sorry for causing “offense”. Regardless, I’m going to plow ahead.

The First Pretty Lie: “Accept yourself”

This is the prettiest of lies. It’s also a meaningless statement if a person, man or woman, seeks self-improvement in order to meet relationship goals. That phrase is actually damaging. If a person has accepted himself or herself then there is little motivation to adapt to Dating 2.0.

Self-acceptance results in too much personal stagnation. When relationship goals are not met, that’s incentive to cast off that self-acceptance and work on personal development. “Personal development” is the clever euphemism for “I suck at meeting my relationship goals and I have to change myself”. Hence, we have the dating coach industrial complex.

There are certain elements of life where acceptance is the only way. Consider the situation of the short man. Shoe lifts might help but he simply cannot grow taller. With the self-acceptance of his height, he can go on to improve his charisma and confidence. The ability of a human being to adapt and change is remarkable. Even after decades on this planet, a person can change himself or herself if the incentives are strong enough. Meeting relationship goals is a very strong incentive indeed. Did I mention the dating coach industrial complex? Actually, the whole life coach concept arose because traditional psychology hasn’t done particularly well. These types of coaches work to remove the cultural fog of the pretty lies.

There is a terrible social expectations that work directly against men and women working to improve their behaviors and personality to be more attractive to the opposite sex. Women are encouraged to appear more attractive physically but are actually dissuaded from working on their personalities so as to be more feminine. Worse, women are encouraged to be brassy, aggressive, and opinionated. That type of personality is hardly feminine and actually quite repellent to men with confidence and charisma.

Men are also encouraged to work on their appearance to be more physically attractive – though less than women – but are dissuaded from working on their personalities to be more masculine and therefore more attractive to women. Should a man work on his personality and communication skills to be more attractive, it’s somehow considered cheating or manipulative of women. So, men and women are strongly urged toward self-acceptance. The result is an unhealthy and static attraction and dating scene where relationship goal frustration is the norm.
The second pretty lie: “Love yourself”

Um, no. This pretty lie is simply an expression of the feelz over the realz. This lie is most often directed at women by well-meaning but hopelessly naive friends and advice-givers. Telling a woman to “love herself” should actually be considered a back-handed insult. Women tell each this lie because of feelings and not truth.

Similar to the lie of “accept yourself” some dissatisfaction with one’s self is necessary for growth and change in order to meet relationship goals. But loving oneself has some very unpleasant unintended consequences. For men, it’s insufferable arrogance and all the unpleasantness that goes along with that personality characteristic. For women, the unintended consequence is an insufferable entitlement complex. Such an attitude results in complete selfishness along with strong narcissism. A woman’s online dating profile manifests such an entitlement complex with long lists of requirements and the statement of “Don’t message me if…”.

The female ego run amok is terrible and terrifying thing. Younger men deal with this much more than men in my demographic. The stories. The stories of demanding, shrill, unpleasant young women are legion and frightening. To be sure, there are women over 40 years old who act like spoiled children and thankfully, those women are few and far between. “Love yourself” results in consequences divorced from actions along with a “I can do no wrong” mentality. When a woman “loves herself”, humility – a very attractive feminine quality – simply evaporates.

Pretty lies must be exposed so that the truth about attraction between the sexes can be revealed. With those truths revealed for all the see, it’s possible to engage in some meaningful personal development to increase attractiveness to the opposite sex. Let’s review some noble truths of attraction and dating:

• Men and women are different
• The masculine attracts the feminine
• The feminine attracts the masculine

Have I mentioned the dating coach industrial complex?

(H/T Heartiste for the phrase “Pretty Lies”)