- You knew it all along, didn’t you? Those crosswalk buttons don’t change the lights. Elevator “close door” buttons don’t close doors, either. They’re just there to make you feel empowered and more patient.
- Man, that’s one clever bear. (From Irons in the Fire)
- Oh gads, this is sooooo true. Self promotion is HELL. (H/T to Jim Bovard, who’s heard me whining about that often enough.)
- Yuppies in prison. Increasing in real life — and now on TV.
- More on that dirty business of child porn being sent to liberty activists. Including a lawyer’s tips on what to do if it happens to you. (But OMG, that’s more contact with the FBI than I’d ever want to have in 10 lifetimes.)
- We communicate differently when we’re keeping secrets. Dull article. Interesting topic.
- Mike Vanderboegh rants about political attacks on the Gadsden flag which some New York ignorami have tried to ban. As usual, Mike is right on. But the best thing is this photo:
I want one of those! It’ll go right beside my traditional Gadsden and my DullHawk flag.
Wow! That flag looks lots more vicious! I want one too.
Hope it goes into production. Does anyone have a link to obtain one?
The flag was painted by Scott Lobaido. Didn’t find it for sale anywhere. Maybe he could be convinced… http://www.scottlobaido.com/patriotism-gallery/
Oh, yeah, the book promotion thing, ugh. Stuff of nightmares.
Writers (most of whom are introverted) having to promote themselves is terrifying. That is the main reason I have Facebook and Twitter accounts, both of which I loathe. Last night after I submitted a novel to my agent, I started thinking that if she sells that book, I’ll have to start the promotion thing, and I didn’t sleep too well. The words “writer platform” give me the shivers.
I have a writer friend who is more introverted than I, and when she has to do a book signing, she gets physically ill the night before. Her publisher does NOTHING to promote her book except give a few advance copies away for review.
I long for the good old days before computers, when writers sold books by word of mouth and by bookstore perusers, nobody needed a website, a blog, a book trailer video, a platform, book signing tours, social networks, etc.
Love the flag.
Liked the bear, btw.
Self-promotion makes me feel like a swine. I tell myself that my failure to do any of it is the sole reason people only buy my books out of kindness – and there’s not that much kindness in the world – and then don’t read them.
It’s got nothing to do with lack of talent or taste, no; if only I could self-promote.
And yeah, I want one of those flags. Or better yet I want the artist to show up and reproduce it on the side of my cabin.
Regarding the malicious email attachments; If you get an email that you think is suspicious just delete it. Why mess around? If you use web mail to check your email the file was never on your computer to begin with. If you don’t download the attachment there is nothing to find on your computer. Any involvement with the feds is bound to be unpleasant. Just delete the emails unread and move on. If you somehow manage to open a malicious file that could get you years in prison remove and destroy your hard drive immediately. The inconvenience involved will be orders of magnitude less than dealing with a child porn wrap.
Welcome to dystopia.
Make that rap not wrap. ;-(
“In fact, I’m almost certain my years-long squat of self-promotion has been entirely pointless.”
Not sure how meaningful my own experience is, since I’m simply not that good a writer and I wrote for a darned dmall niche market (people who read, read SF, and aren’t socialists) but I tend to agree. I’ve pushed free review copies. I tried Twitter, Fakebook, Blogspot, my own site blog… I’ve bought banner ads. The only thing that — temporarily, a week at most — spikes downloads is a review from someone who gets a fair bit of web traffic on her own. And I can get very nearly as large a spike just from mentioning the free downloads in a blog comment like this.
(Heck, here’s the link; I bet I’ll see the usual spike in the stats tomorrow morning: http://www.bussjaeger.org/index.html#freebooks)
If only the spikes in downloads were matched by spikes in donations. Ghu knows I need the cash.
The oathkeepers have a great deal more trust in FBI integrity and effectiveness than I do…
As for promoting my books… I decided long ago not to sell them. I don’t want to become involved with the tax swine ever again. I give them away… I’ve given away thousands of copies of my little self defense book, “I Am NOT A Victim.”
I’ll still give it away… Read about it here and learn how to receive it in email: http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/?page_id=846
I have other books to give away as well. Request a copy of “Consequences” when you send for the self defense book. Post SHTF fiction about how people might organize their communities, with a lot of serious challenges and troubles explored. Also available: “I Remember Earth” – colonists on Mars relearn the necessity of RKBA and the evil of “the state.” There are others… just ask. 🙂
Possible hint re the child-porn hacks and Tormail.
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rlo0uu
I have no idea whether this is related at all to the situation with Oath Keepers and other activists. But definitely something to be aware of.
When I was getting my masters there was an office in the Architecture Building for two secretaries. One was always too hot, the other was always too cold. After months of conflict they worked out a compromise. When both were there they’d set the thermostat in between what they each wanted, and one would wear a sweater, the other a light blouse, and both would be only a little uncomfortable. When either one was gone the other adjusted the thermostat to where she was comfortable.
After a couple of years the area was renovated. Turns out the thermostat in question had been improperly hooked up, and had never had any effect on the temperature.
Now yuppies?
Once upon a time the typical federal felon was Al Capone. Now it’s Martha Stewart.
Tormail stuff:
http://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/rfi-arrest-of-heinous-criminal-or-opfor-strike-against-anti-tyranny-comms/#comment-50383
I predict noscript will become more popular. Is this a Windows only thing? Some links implied it. If so, more people will look at linux. Maybe smaller, less popular browsers will become fashionable.
People will pick themselves up, dust off, and patch holes and continue all the various darknet stuff (I’m intrigued to hear what is going on there, never visited it myself). “You can’t stop the signal.”
Do people really cruise around such sites with javascript enabled? :-O
NoScript has been part of the Tor Browser Bundle for some time, but for some reason it ships with “Allow Scripts Globally” as the default setting. I always thought that was pretty stupid…
I completely agree with Woody on this one. Besides, why would the Oathkeepers recommend to their members to MAKE A REPORT TO THE FBI?! Have I entered the Twilight Zone or something? What is the rationale behind that little piece of advice? Or did Ruby Ridge, Waco, etc. just not matter anymore?
[If you somehow manage to open a malicious file that could get you years in prison remove and destroy your hard drive immediately. The inconvenience involved will be orders of magnitude less than dealing with a child porn rap.]
Well, there is this thing called “dd”. With it (say, after booting Puppy Linux) you can wipe every bit off that hard drive, or fill it with the phrase, over and over, “Fuck the state and the pukes who work for it!”. Hope you have backups… But there is no need to go around throwing away hard drives. 🙂
For an additional layer of security, use whole disk encryption. Hard to prove you did anything if you won’t let them see what’s on the drive. Also makes it harder for minions of the state to plant stuff on it, clearly a concern these days.
When I heard that freedom activists were getting child porn in their email, I just assumed it was the FBI that sent it. I mean, who else would be against being against the NDAA?