On Accounts

   I finally ended the "will they or won't they" with TV Tropes yesterday, and made the relationship official by getting an account. I'm a troper now, officially, which give me mixed feelings but "never miss the opportunity to do something you'll regret later...!" If Randall Munroe, who's generally accepted to be awesome (though depending on whom you ask there's also that sense of smug superiority, which I'll let slide) can admit that he's addicted to TV Tropes and Cracked, then, yes, I will say it too. I am proud to say, however, that for the past 3-4ish months, I've been almost entirely Cracked-free! The withdrawls aren't as bad as you'd expect.

   You know the way I got this blogger account on the same day as I got my Facebook, because, hey I've got a cyberpresence now anyway? Emboldened by this move, and fearing my wicked-sweet handle may get snapped up elsewhere, I also came within, somehow literal inches of getting a Twitter account as well. Turns out you need a cell phone to finalize getting your account for some reason, though, and still I'm quite happy not to have one of those, thank you very much. Even for emergencies.

   I mean, Kitty Genovese made it out just fine without those, didn't she?

   If anything, all I need is a pager. I think they meant cell phone, but all they put was "phone..." Does a pager count in such instances?

   I know, I could have just used someone else's phone number to be sure, and, I don't know, disabled the feature that automatically sends tweets to your phone, but before I did that I realized, why do I need a Twitter in the first place, and what the lanta would I tweet? The only reason I' keep my Facebook is (aside from the fact that I'm not the one who got it for myself but was given it by friends who wanted to "friend" me in VR as well as meatspace) so I have a place to store all the things I like in real life, and remember that I like them in cyberspace. (aah, yes, Dave Devries, the Monster Engine himself, yes... The Museum of Bad Art, quite good, quite good...)

   Meanwhile, is it even the best time to get onto Twitter? If Penny Arcade is to be believed, Joss Whedon-- the Joss Whedon, the one whose name is a measurement for how many people "follow" you-- has quit Twitter, because (according to PA) he was getting zergswarmed with hatetweets about Avengers 2. I'm not sure how accurate this is, as from what I've seen everyone on Twitter loved Age of Ultron, while it was on Tumblr that people caused controversy about some of the choices he made. Now, I'm not entirely sure I understand the mechanisms of TUMBLng-- it blogs and generates memes?-- but, I don't think it's connected to Twitter, is it? So, I don't know. I am regularly fascinated by the mechanics that operate a toaster, though, so I don't think I'm quite the man to comment on, anything, vaguely, technological.

   There's a tingle at the edge of anything you do in public, especially online. A fear. Quasianonymous forums can do that-- what if I do something noobish, and they can tell I'm a noob, and decide I'm not worthy of life, and track down my IP address and identity on the internet, and come to my house and murder me in the middle of the night? It sounds kind of ridiculous when put that way, but would seriously make a good horror movie if done right: kind of far-fetched, but based off a common enough experience so as to be seriously "it could happen" freaky. Beyond the idea of being murdered bysstrangers in your sleep (which plays into common human vulnerabilities) it taps into deeper vulnerabilities and fears as well: what if I'm inadequate, what if they don't accept me. What if I mess up and I'm the only one who doesn't realize it, and everybody mocks me.

   Frightening stuff, no?

   Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to dally with the toaster.