Search Results for 'nG'

[JoB]

JT.. i like the high road… i believe that if you treat anyone with respect.. you will eventually earn theirs.. and that includes trolls.

if bertha is right and lattemom is an honest personality then that person needs to know that they have exceeded the boundaries of acceptable behavior. we can’t help them unless they want help.

if they are a mischief maker.. then they also need to know they are exceeding the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

sometimes people just don’t know when enough is enough.

besides.. i did label this a rant…perhaps mild for a rant.. but that’s my way.

and as a last resort.. there is always shunning. i would hate for it to come to that.

[Anonymous]

JT – I, too, think this particular poster is reaching a breaking point. It’s strange to see someone’s anger escalating like that(if it’s real).

JoB – Are you implying that lattemom is House? I don’t think I would be that surprised if that was the case.

[JoB]

it occurs to me that a little basic dog 101 might be useful here…

dogs don’t really like to be petted. at least not the way most people approach and pet a dog.

reaching out to touch a dog’s head without an invitation from the dog is seen as threatening behavior by most dogs.. especially if you are taller than they…

dogs don’t really like to be hugged… at least not the kind of bear hug around the neck that most children give dogs… it is seen as a challenge to dominance.

that many dogs will submit to this behavior from their humans is a testament to how much they want to hang out with us.

in most cases, their acceptance of that kind of behavior is simply showing submission in their pack.. and anything that upsets the pecking order in that pack could signal to the dog that they do longer need to put up with that behavior.

dogs don’t like to fight. dogs will threaten and cuff one another around and soft bite to show dominance… but the moment one dog shows submission … the mistreatment ends.

dog fights generally only happen when neither dog will submit… and even then are generally short lived.

smelling each others hind ends is what dogs do… they don’t touch noses. if they do, it is likely you are about to witness an altercation.

most dogs are all bluff… they make themselves as big and fierce sounding as they can to avoid a fight.

a wagging tail doesn’t always mean a dog is glad to see you. it could also signal distress and a desire for you to back off.

a wise person ignores any new dog until that dog comes up to them and sticks their nose under your hand.. then back petting or belly rubbing is preferable to head petting.

Don’t ask people to pet their dogs. If you must, don’t just ask the owner… ask the dog… and if the dog doesn’t come to you.. don’t go to it.

If you fear dogs.. don’t try to overcome your fear by approaching them. dogs will read the tension in your body language as a threat and are likely to react in negative ways.

overcome your fear of dogs by going to a dog park and standing outside the fence and watching dogs play.

sooner or later some dog will come to the fence to see who you are and if you are fun. keep your hands to yourself and just talk to the dog.

after you are had lots of conversations with dogs some human will wander over to see what his dog is up to. talk to them and still keep your hands to yourself.

Once you have made friends.. this may take days or weeks… sooner or later you will relax and will find a dog’s nose poking through the fence to touch you….

unless you want to be around dogs badly enough to take the time to get comfortable around them so they can be comfortable around you.. leave them alone.

if you get a dog.. get some good training. the local animal shelter (or your breeder) is a really good place to get referrals for reputable trainers. There are a lot of people training dogs these days who don’t even like dogs. you are unlikely to learn anything more than a few commands from them.

Don’t buy dogs from pet stores unless that store can provide you a pedigree and you check out the breeder (this is unlikely to happen so you will be unlikely to buy from pet stores). Pet store puppies are generally too young and unsocialized when they are separated from their mothers and don’t get the kind of care and exercise they need for healthy development. (there are exceptions.. but they are rare). Go to an animal rescue organization, the local dog shelter or a breeder for a dog.

don’t buy a dog unless you will be able to spend a considerable amount of time with it. dogs are social animals and do not like being isolated.

and don’t buy one pet as company for another you are willing to spend time with them as puppies. All you are doing when you stick two puppies in a house alone is creating an unsupervised pack… and an invitation to mischief…

Owning pets is sort of like marriage. Unless you can’t live without them… it’s not a great idea.

But, if you are like me and can’t resist those soulful eyes.. and have time to spend with them… they add a lot of delight to your life…. even if they are your own tiny cujos:)

[Anonymous]

Bertha’s post makes me assume she has actually MET lattemom. Is this true?

It is very obvious that lattemom’s post’s are intended to get people riled up. I can’t help but notice how many times she brings up her husband’s and her enthusiasm for hunting and mounting things on their wall. I’m really enjoying that no one is responding.

Berth – I’m sorry to hear about your nephew. And you have a point about the little dogs. We have a tiny chiuahua (s?) and a lot of people don’t trust her because she’s little and they have that reputation. She’s, of course, the sweetest dog ever, just don’t take her to get her nails trimmed!!

[Ken]

My house has two 6 x 8 picture windows that now look onto a three story McMansion under construction. It is 5 feet from the fence, 15 from the window and 3 stories tall. There will be 3 of them, all identical on what was two lots.

I have another picture window that used to have a view of the entire cascade range with Mt Rainier off to the right. The SHA rebuild of Highpoint took care of that view as if they had stood in the window and made sure to build a large tall townhouse in any small space that was left open.

The Lawyer Stepdaughter confirmed that there is and was nothing we could do about this after our offer to buy the lot next door was refused and sold to the neighbor for less than we offered.

(It seems I annoyed the republican who owned the lot when he last ran for office :)

Ah well…

umm Who mounts a beaver? And why? And how did they treat it to get it to not smell like a beaver? You can smell them at a 1/4 mile in the wild. Castorium I think is the marking scent they excrete.

Expect some reflexive anti hunting replies btw. Several of my relatives are subsistence hunters who would be just as mystified by the taxidermy though.

[JoB]

lattemom.. who got got here? Your part in this conversation is over unless you are on topic.

There are people who actually want to talk about dogs

Bertha.. the truth is that i don’t think any of us really knows what we are getting into when we adopt a dog… it’s worse with a rescue.. but the basic concept is the same.

And people are no different. A cousin of mine was shot in her bath and two of her children murdered by a disturbed teenage boy she had taken into her home… his note said he was removing them from misery because he loved them so much.

Bad things can happen to good loving responsible people… the child that killed her could as easily have been her own.

i think at some point you have to open your heart and do what you can and simply hope for the best.

When you take an animal into your home, you have to remember that it is an animal and has needs/perceptions other than your own.

Training isn’t nearly as important for the animal as it is for the humans who own the animal.

Dogs that attack humans do so because they have been trained (generally by humans) to see people as predators.

Dogs who attack other dogs do so because they have been taught that they have to attack to survive… by other dogs or by people.

And some larger dogs will hunt small dogs because the people in their lives used small dogs as bait to teach more aggressive dogs to fight to kill.

And of course, some dogs.. like people… just have problems and can’t be saved. I had to put one dog like that down for the safety of those around it.

Those of us with our own little cujos are well aware of the risks we take… but are very careful to be sure that anyone interacting with our animals are also aware of the risks they are taking.

A lot of really well meaning people just aren’t aware of the risks they take… or that the largest risk is to their unleashed dog.

There is more danger that their unleashed dog will be attacked by another dog or somehow injured by humans (unleashed dogs are exceedingly vulnerable to poisoned bait) than their dog injuring another…

And a lot of really well meaning people don’t understand basic canine behavior … dogs correct one another or show their displeasure at being disturbed by biting. Any human who interacts with a dog is risking being bitten… and most dog owners will at one time or another be bitten by their dogs. thankfully it usually doesn’t have as bad an outcome as your nephew’s.

No dog … regardless of their breed… is the terror inducing nightmare of cujo.

dogs have to be taught to be hostile to humans and to do real damage to other dogs… and that is done by their owners.

[Ken]

What person or persona are you talking about? I don’t go into every thread here, just the ones that interest me so maybe I have missed it.

Real trolls say provocative things in inappropriate places or threads. I may not have noticed any here or ignored them so completely that I don’t recall the conversations that some of you do.

Take a look at this essay on wikipedia named “What is a Troll?” to see if anything here reaches the current consensus view for wikipedia specific trolls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_is_a_troll%3F

Wikipedia also has a very interesting history of trolling as it relates to the Internet at this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29

And finally, this essay on identity and deception on the Internet may be useful to readers of this and other threads on this forum.

http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html

[BB]

Westcrest certainly has it’s issues. I’m thankful for those who wrote in to the Parks dept. to shed some light. I started parking in the lower lot and found it to be much less “icky”. No strange people waiting in cars, plus you don’t have to walk by the trails.

[WSB]

And by the way if you are interested in ever saying hi to us (or each other), our next official event will be the second quarter West Seattle Community Recognition Awards get-together early next month. Date and time to be confirmed shortly. We had a cozy cordial crowd with free brownies at the first one at Capers in January.

[WSB]

Unfortunately pretty much any open forum will attract trolls. And like I always tell my kid when he heads off to school and gets pestered by such people, if you completely ignore them they will eventually go away. That said, I am still working on the ignore plug-in. Can’t guarantee it but in the short run, I really highly suggest just completely acting as if someone who bugs you doesn’t exist. I see which posts you’re referring to and while they are extremely annoying, they do not violate any rules at this point and there is nothing I can do about that, aside from trying to help you by installing a filter.

[Ken]

I am in my 50’s :)

And yet those “kids these days” that many think of as so tech savvy because they have a myspace page, have to pay me to fix their computer or recover their data.

That might be one reason why I get a kick out of the suggestion that “millennials” are so in tune with the “new media”. Some of them are. But I find them to be just as rare as they are in any other generation. I learned a lot about BGP routing from a then 19 year old in the late 90’s. He got hired by google in 2000 and vested his stock options before they went public. Maybe he will hire me when he starts his own company :)

For example, on Daily Kos, the political blog the corporate media keep describing as “those kids on the blogs” the majority of users (who respond to a poll) are between 35 and 60 with 9% between 60 and 90.

The reason I describe myself as an old fart is because I still go out into the world and try occasionally to get a real job and get depressed by the incredulity of the 20 something HR drones I have to deal with, who seem to think I cannot possibly have all the experience on the resume or that my experience could have any relevance in the current job market.

Still, I get called in to fix stuff the new college degree crowd can’t figure out.

[Anonymous]

JoB – you’re taking the high road here and attempting to appeal to someone’s sense of decency. And maybe you truly believe there is a more intelligent person attempting humor behind these posts, but what if you’re wrong? Bertha, on another thread seemed to know this person is real. Our original introduction via the swearing construction worker fiasco seemed pretty genuine also. If this is a joke, I’d be just as concerned. What kind of person would it take to think this is funny? And would that person stop just because we don’t like the joke? To me, it seems like the altercations are escalating and I’m not thrilled to see where it will end.

[Anonymous]

We cut down a whole side of trees for our beautiful 5 story house overlooking alki. It is glorious to see this view each morning! We did for a time live in Arbor Heights. We also donated the lumber fro the trees we cut down for habitat for humanity.

Side Note: My husband just got selected for the hunt in Wyoming so another mount is likely on our wall to join the 7 point elk, the whiutetail deer, the beaver and the cougar. Cool!!

[JoB]

the matrix is real …

ok.. i can’t help being serous about this one. Some of us from this matrix have met.. and strangely enough.. agree or disagree.. we like one another.

of course this is self selecting. we only choose to meet those who intrigue us… but it is after all just another form of communication for those of us who might never stop to speak on the street.

and the recommendations have been very useful to me… they have helped find resources i would never have considered.

this matrix is a real as we choose to make it. if we participate honestly… it is real. and if some of us participate dishonestly.. it is still real as that simply mirrors the real world.

the real question.. i couldn’t resist… is not one of reality but one of honesty.. which is the essential question in all human communication

[JoB]

You can’t know how much i like a good joke…

and as a writer i can truly appreciate the skill required to construct an online personality and stay true enough to it to post for long periods of time…

but there is a point where the deception moves from a good joke or “put on” into malicious mischief.

Contrary to popular opinion… conversation doesn’t have to become combative to expose both sides of an issue…

And the emotions that combative conversations provoke obscure true disagreement with emotional rants.

Someone is playing on our boards… and they aren’t playing nice. They have crossed the line between provocation and goading.

The thing is… i could care less that they have assumed personalities. I truly enjoy conversing with the provocative side of those personalities… have in fact… when they add to the conversation i admire them…

but goading is just plain rude. It is malicious mischief because it’s only intent is to cause discomfort to someone else.

it’s too bad because i have glimpsed the personality beyond those posts and have often wondered if one of those who post regularly is actually our mystery poster. I think there is someone with a real sense of humor behind those posts… but any joke can go too far and this one has.

This blog is West Seattle’s living room. It is personal to those of us who participate. Real (real time) connections and friendships are forming here. And the discussion often generate constructive action. This forum is far too important to lively dissenting discourse to degenerate into childish theatrics and emotional rants.

This isn’t disturbing my sleep but i do think it prevents people who might want to join in the conversation from doing so for fear of being publicly spanked by our malicious mischief maker or caught in the crossfire he/she can generate.

Enough already! Troll if you want.. but be a nice troll. There are plenty of bridges here and i have always enjoyed a bit of mischief. Those you want to impress noticed you long ago… And sometimes even laugh at the joke.

Keep your personalities if you like.. but stop goading. It isn’t nice. But worse, it just plain isn’t worthy of your talents!

[Anonymous]

Barmargia – I was thinking the same thing. If this is a real person, they seem to be getting closer and closer to the edge….On topic, I’m still worried about the “we will use any force necessary if an aggressive dog comes near us” comment. Since we’re obviously dealing with a very unbalanced person, does this mean she’s going to shoot my dog if it growls? What’s her definition of aggressive? Her threat was stated for a dog on the street , in a park, or even passing her house. This kind of paranoia really unsettles me.

[JoB]

i have to agree with Ken.. we are all real.. one way or another…

i have enjoyed the lively exchange of the recommendations… you generally end up with more than one… and as consumers, it’s our job to check them out further.

once in a while you can tell someone is promoting a business… sad for them that they think deception is the way to gain business… it just makes me want to ignore them.

ken.. would you enlighten us about the telecom utility bill in another thread?

[WSB]

I can tell you that we watch pretty closely for signs that somebody is using recommendations to shill for a particular business, stuffing the ballot box if you will. If you are even remotely familiar with how websites run you know that no one is really anonymous … we see everyone’s IP address which at the very least tells us what your ISP is – maybe your employer if you check in from work – at the very least we know if one home or business is posting under multiple names – And we have to say, in general, people have behaved pretty well. (And yes, we know the ways in which people can try to escape that sort of detection, and are fairly hip to that sort of analysis too.) By the way, we never exploit that info in any way shape or form but it is helpful to have to make sure things aren’t getting out of control. FYI, we’re real too. — TR, WSB editor

P.S. We check the user database at least twice daily to watch for spammers. Every day we have to kill a couple of signups. So far they have made themselves fairly obvious (they put spam URLs in their profile, to gin the search engines apparently) – but help us be on the lookout – if anyone SEEMS suspicious to you, please e-mail us so we can check:

editor@westseattleblog.com

[Ken]

Yes we are real people. There are those who believe in the myth of anonymity on the Internet which might make some feel emboldened, but those of us who are former system administrators, know that there is no anonymity without some active measures, and pretty esoteric ones at that, being taken by the parties involved.

I still have contacts in the NOC’s of local and national ISP’s that could give me info if I had a good reason to ask.

What protects most people is that no one in a position to know the details of your real name and position, gives a rats patoot who you are or what you say or do on the net.

The boring details of your life pretty much hold no interest for me so until there are credible threats or evidence of a crime, you can continue to feel anonymous.

Real threats via the internet are from spyware, malware, rootkits and zombies but these are not really aimed at you personally. They are more like a net cast to scoop up the slow or unwary fish.

The congress is about to make legal a very real and yet, to most, abstract threat to us all collectively with the telecom immunity bill, but that is unlikely to become evident to most until it is too late. I don’t understand why Republicans want the telcos or the government to have this abrogation of the 4th amendment when there is a very real chance of a Democrat in the white house soon. I don’t want any executive to be able to ignore congress or bypass the judiciary.

If someone was a shill for a roofer, they have more to fear from being exposed as such in this forum than they have the chance of gain from one or two roofing jobs.

Never take recommendations as the only criteria for choosing a building trades contract. Always check the license data against the state database and get a list of references from the company or contractor.

[Kayleigh]

Jerald, a couple months ago I was researching reviews for a particular brand of makeup. I found the exact same review, word for word, on three different Internet sites…obviously somebody paid by the company to write it. I didn’t buy the product.

I try to judge reviews and recommendations by the smell test—if it smells fishy, I figure it probably is a shill. Like if it sounds like ad copy, or is too stilted or formal, or uses words everyday people don’t usually use.

I get the feeling most of us here at WSB are pretty real, though.

[Kayleigh]

Thanks, JoB, but I didn’t blow my cool. Having someone who doesn’t actually work for a living talk about what’s professional was pretty funny.

But now I hope everybody sees what some of us have been saying: she/he is here because she has so little going on in her own life that she needs to create Internet drama. That makes her a troll (ie trolling for reactions and discord.)

[barmargia]

you know, “hehehehe” doesn’t bother me, but lattemom’s maniacal “LoL!!!!! Heh Heh” creeps me out.

In regards to lattemom not being a troll, at least if she was a troll we could say she was saying all of this stuff because she was trying to get us riled up. But if she is indeed not a troll and she is still saying all of this and she truly believes it then I’m pretty sure that just makes her an bigot. So I hope she is a troll because bigots are much more dangerous.

Everyone have a great day at work, me, my jeans and tattoos will be.

[Anonymous]

When my nephew was 10 months old he was attacked and bitten by the family dog. He needed to plastic surgeries to repair the damage to his face. The family bought the dog from a breeder (a long time friend of the family) with a good reputation when it was 8 weeks old. The dog was trained, well loved and never abused and yet for no apparent reason the dog seriously injured a child who had nothing to arouse the dog except walk by at the wrong time. The dog was a labrador retriever one of the most popular dog breeds for families. You cannot judge an individual dog’s temperament on breed (just as you cannot judge an individual person on race). Kudos to those of you who recognize your Cujos and deal with them appropriately. The sad reality is some people do not make informed decisions when choosing a pet. All dogs can be dangerous (personally, I am far more fearful of the toy or miniature breeds than I am of the large breeds) and should never be off-leash in a public place unless it is in an off-leash dog parks. I know I will receive flack about this but let’s face it folks dogs are predators we have domesticated. It is a tribute to the canine’s good-natured acceptance of us that we don’t have more bites and attacks.

And in reference to Lattemom I know she is NOT a troll. She truly believes what she writes. She will always attack when she feels cornered i.e., whenever anyone disagrees with her. Trying to have a reasonable discussion with her on any topic is impossible. She is incapable of seeing anything beyone herself. Let us all hope she gets the help she truly needs.

[Anonymous]

We’ve noticed it too, consistently actually since we moved in. It actually is a little alarming since it reminded me of how the house smelled years ago before we had our furnace checked and found out it wasn’t venting properly and could have killed us! But maybe it’s just someone’s old oil heater?

[Anonymous]

Is your house by any chance on 37th? There are several gigantic tacky houses that are completely out of character with the charming bungalows around them. (Columns? Seriously???) But I guess it’s true of everywhere in Seattle.