Noet All

Tweetable #Quotes of the Week:

Below are some quotes I found today that I liked. If you like any of them too, just click on the corresponding "Tweet this #QUOTE" link, and you will be able to tweet it. Enjoy!

Best, @Noetical

“The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.” ~John Locke
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“Don't wait. The time will never be just right.” ~Napoleon Hill
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“We are all geniuses up to the age of ten.” ~Aldous Huxley
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“Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule.”~Samuel Butler
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“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.” ~Voltaire
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“The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” ~Oscar Wilde
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Tweetable #Quotes of the Day:

Below are some quotes I found today that I liked. If you like any of them too, just click on the corresponding "Tweet this #QUOTE" link, and you will be able to tweet it. Enjoy!

Best, @Noetical

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them.” ~Galileo Galilei
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“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” ~Mark Twain
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“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.” ~Edmund Burke
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“War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.”
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” ~Benjamin Franklin
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So Long, and Thanks for All the @Mentions...

Dear Readers:

Yes it's true. The @MonkeyButler Bots are no longer an endangered species, they are officially extinct! They've all been SUSPENDED, thanks to all of you who have blocked them. While we've been triumphant in our efforts, I am also aware that this campaign has disappointed the tens of thousands^* hundreds of followers who sought the services of @FollowerMonitor
^*Twitter's recent follower purges of spam accounts have reduced the followers of @FollowerMonitor by tens of thousands of followers to only 1,291 as of 23 JULY 2009 at 10:55 AM PDT.

As such, I thought it appropriate to post an update and a postscript. First of all, I will begin with two comments posted by @FollowerMonitor himself. Following are his two comments:

@FollowerMonitor said on July 23, 2009 at 02:59 PM...

@Noetical, I apologise for the your @mentions getting filled but I only serve the people. What started as something I did for just my friends and me became an overnight sensation as I picked up 10,000 followers in three weeks when I was only ever expecting a dozen of friends to enjoy my unique talents.

I do encourage people not to get angry or upset when people unfollow them as one of the strengths of twitter is asynchronous connections.

In addition, while I understand why people get upset, I encourage people to have the courage of their convictions when they unfollow someone. There is no shame is unfollowing.

Again I apologise for adding noise to your @mentions.

Kind Regards,
@followermonitor

P.S. I have one point of contention and that is being called the Overlord of our little menagerie in the bunker. My pigeons and monkeys are indispensable but they are here of their own free will.

@followermonitor said on July 23, 2009 at 04:10 PM...

I would like to declare my monkey butlers an endangered species (there were only 19 of them). As unsporting as it was and as sad a day as it is, I can only extend my hand and say well played madam, well played.

Rather than continue the comment thread, I've decided to post my response here:

Dear @FollowerMonitor:

First of all, let me thank you for being so wonderfully civil in your response to my efforts to exterminate your poor little bots. In response to your civility, I have changed your title from "OVERLORD" and removed the direct link to block your account.

I have to admit that I think your concept is an excellent one. My initial response was to consider following you myself, so that I might get your alerts as well. But then, as you know, I began to feel plagued by the clutter of your tweets in my @mentions. I want to assure you that I have no actual animosity toward you. Just as you used your talents to provide your friends and others with a service, I too used mine to help others, who were annoyed by your service.

The unquestionable popularity of your service is even more evidence that your idea was and is an excellent one. On the other hand, the fact that enough tweeters chose to use this tool as a means to get your @MonkeyButler Bots suspended, proves that your implementation needs rethinking.

As I mentioned to you in a tweet, I believe the best solution is for you to DM your alerts to your followers. That would eliminate the problem of others being notified that they've unfollowed someone...which presumably they already know. I know that makes it difficult for you to use your bots to spread the load. On the other hand, I have confidence that you are creative enough to figure out a clever workaround for that. I look forward to the next iteration of your service. As soon as it is one that both serves your subscribers and doesn't annoy everyone else, I will be happy to Tweet about its virtues at the top of my lungs (or wings, as the case may be.)

In the meantime, I am still getting complaint comments about your account continuing to clutter the @mentions of other tweeters. While I've removed the direct "block-link" to your account for the time being, I suggest you regroup and figure out a better implementation before your account is suspended too. @FollowerMonitor is the perfect name for the service I hope you will create, which alerts without annoying. Whether you take my suggestion of using DMs, or find an even more clever way of acheiveing your goal, I wish you luck.

P.S.: My point of contention with you is being called "unsporting." The "tool" I have offered here is merely a way for others to block you and your @MonkeyButler Bots easily. I could have devised an auto-block anti-spam bot that didn't rely on the preferences and actions of other tweeters. That would have been unsporting. Your bots were suspended because enough tweeps were annoyed to the point that they were willing to go through the process of blocking each one. As a test, I used my own tool to block each @MonkeyButler myself. While it made it easier, it took 15-20 minutes to go through the entire process of blocking each one. Anyone who went through that entire process must have been committed to eliminating them from their twitterverse. In addition, I'm sure there were plenty who blocked your @MonkeyButlers manually, without my help. The market has spoken: Excellent product, poor implementation. The ball is in your court. ;^D

Best regards, Noetical

UPDATE:

In order to facilitate more input regarding the @FollowerMonitor Service, I've created a TwtPoll with a few of the modifications suggested by both me and @FollowerMonitor. Please vote on the solution you believe would make you most likely to use the service yourself. For those who would never use this service, there are options for you too!

Help Stop @FollowerMonitor SPAM:Simple Fix for Blocking #MonkeyButler Bots

For those of you who were annoyed because your @mentions were suddenly cluttered with a bunch of tweets from the @MonkeyButler Bots, run by @FollowerMonitor, I created a series of links for you to use to block them. In less than a week, tweeps utilizing this page, as well as those who have independently blocked each one manually, have managed to eradicate the @MonkeyButler Bots from Twitter. They have all been SUSPENDED! As such, this page has served its purpose well and is largely unnecessary. I've kept most of the original page for archival reasons, but I've crossed out instructions that are now moot.

UPDATED RESULTS FROM BLOCKING:

First up is the OVERLORD^* Mastermind of the Menagerie: @FollowerMonitor. For a look at our ongoing dialogue about how he might modify this service such that it doesn't annoy non-subscribers, please see my next post: "So Long, and Thanks for All the @Mentions...". Please feel free and encouraged to leave your comments and suggestions there, as he is reading them. It is an excellent way for you to provide input and express your concerns, such that a site like this will not be necessary as he moves forward with a modified implementation of the service.
^*Per a profoundly civilized request in my comments area, @FollowerMonitor requested that I not refer to him as the "OVERLORD." So as not to confuse people reading his comments, I've crossed out the word and replaced it with something nicer ;^D 

This is a list of the first 28 MonkeyButlers. Here is a list of the Twitter Accounts that have been SUSPENDED,^** with help from this site to BLOCK them:

@MonkeyButler01 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler02 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler03 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler04 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler05 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler06 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler07 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler08 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler09 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler10 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler11 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler12 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler13 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler14 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler15 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler16 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler17 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler18 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler19 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler20 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler21 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler22 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler23 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler24 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler25 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler26 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler27 SUSPENDED!

@MonkeyButler28 SUSPENDED!

^**(SUSPENDED status updated daily)

Once you've blocked these, they will stop showing up in your @mentions. I hope some of you have found this useful.

Best, @Noetical

PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD:

http://bit.ly.com/SpamTool

The more "BLOCKS" an account gets, the more likely @Twitter is to SUSPEND the account. Since I first posted this, ALL of the active @MonkeyButler Bots have been SUSPENDED!

To make it even easier, I've included a RT link:
CLICK HERE to go to Twitter with these words in your tweet:

"RT @Noetical: Help STOP @FollowerMonitor SPAM—Easily block
ALL #MonkeyButler Bots at: http://bit.ly/SpamTool Plz RT—Thx!"

>Once there, feel free to edit if you wish, then press "UPDATE" and you're done.

Thanks for your help!

Have You Voted Yet? My Early Voting Story...What's Yours?

So I finally voted. I live in Los Angeles County in California, and there is only one place to vote early here:

   

It was an interesting experience to say the least. First of all, it was a pain to go there, as the only place to early vote is about an hour from my house. Once I got there, the line took me two hours to get through...that's two hours exactly to get to the part where I was given my ballot. Then it took another half hour to find an open booth, vote and double check my selections. While standing in line, I talked to the various people standing around me. Most were Obama supporters, as you might expect in Los Angeles County. The guy standing in front of me was very nice and wore an "Obama for President" T-shirt until we got close enough that he was required by law to remove it. At first, we talked generally about why we supported Obama. He was an African-American male in his 40s, I'd guess. Nonetheless, he was adamant that Obama's superior intelligence was the primary reason for his support for Obama. (For the sake of the remainder of this post, I'll call him ObamaShirt.) Here's a picture I posted on twitter from the early vote line of ObamaShirt:

   

One of the crazy realities about voting for the first African-American to run on a major party ticket for President is that many people feel the need to defend their vote in some way. I suppose as a white liberal woman, I should feel defensive myself. I should feel the need to explain that I'm voting for Obama for reasons other than "liberal guilt." Were I a black woman, I might feel the need to explain the reasons for voting for Obama other than his race. Perhaps not. 

Since I'm not black, it's hard to suppose who I would be if I were. As it is, I find it difficult to feel anything that would necessitate a justification for my Obama support. I'm not saying that I'm immune to liberal guilt, I'm just saying that it isn't something that overwhelms my consciousness to the point where I notice it as a primary motivator. 

In fact, my support for Obama as a politician and leader is the strongest I've ever felt in my adult life. This support is grounded in an appreciation for the breadth of knowledge, keen insight and wisdom he has exhibited during his public life. The confidence I have in his abilities is too strong to stem from guilt or obligation. 

Now, before you go running for the antidote to the Kool-Aide you're now convinced I must be drinking, I will say that I have much lower expectations of what Obama will be able to accomplish as President than I do of what I believe he has the capacity and desire to do. Much to the chagrin of most candidates over the years, a President does not have the power to unilaterally execute his promises. Even with an expanded definition of the powers of the Executive Branch, Bush was unable to push though 100% of his agenda (thank goodness.) 

I believe Obama will be a more effectual leader than most, however. One thing that he seems to have an innate sense of, is the fact that the power of a President flows from his connection to the people. As such, I believe he will utilize his exceptional communication skills to rally the populace behind his political agenda. But I digress... 

So, I'm standing in line with Obama supporters in front of and behind me. At one point, I take a moment to discuss Proposition 4 with a woman standing a few people in front of me. It requires a waiting period and parental notification before minors can obtain abortions. We discuss the ways in which that might be problematic for girls who have abusive parents and; we agree that someone considered old enough to take responsibility for a child should have the right to decide if that is something she is willing and ready to do. 

Not long after that exchange, ObamaShirt brings up Proposition 8, which essentially eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry in California. Turns out, that like many people, ObamaShirt has eclectic political views and; not all of his views were "liberal." By the way, I'm fine with that. While it is true that in general I consider myself a "liberal," my politics are not "liberal" down the line, as I take each issue as its own question. I find labels to be ambiguous at best and misleading at worst, especially considering the ways in which the meaning of this word and its opposites continually evolve. 

I'm "conservative" when it comes to many economic issues, "liberal" on many social issues and "centrist" on various other issues. For instance, I strongly believe in a person's right to believe that the first woman was made from a man's rib, but I don't want my tax dollars to be spent on teaching that to children in our public science classrooms. I think it is more appropriate to teach the Bible in church sermons, Sunday school classes and in the home...which by the way are the places I learned about God growing up. But I digress again...one of my bad habits =-) 

I won't go into the discussion we had at length, but suffice it to say that the conversation included him retrieving his Bible from his backpack to read Leviticus 20:13 to me:

"If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them."

I with the old "slavery is in the Bible" argument. When that didn't work, I countered with Leviticus 20:18:

"If a man lies with a woman during her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has exposed her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from their people."

This passage basically means that it is also an offense to God for a man to sleep with a woman when she is having her period, even if that woman is his wife. Since most Christians don't consider that to be the taboo that they believe homosexuality is, this seemed to be a legitimate route. Unsurprisingly, this line of reasoning failed to sway him as well. Ultimately, I grew tired of the argument and moved on to crowd watching. 

Happily, I noticed at that moment that Larry Wilmore, regular contributor to the Daily Show was standing about ten people behind me in line, waiting to vote. I walked back and accosted him for a photograph. As someone who has spent most of her life living in either Los Angeles or New York, and who has worked in the entertainment industry for many years, I've met quite a few celebrities, including Jon Stewart several years back. Nonetheless, I've never asked someone famous if I could take their photograph before. I guess I've been socialized to leave celebrities alone for the most part. 

The thing is, it was just too perfect that I had been standing in line, waiting to vote for an hour and a half, trading Leviticus passages with a stranger, and one of the guys from the best political satire show of our time happened to be standing in line with me. Had to ask him! He was very nice about it. The photo didn't turn out, because the light was bad and I had to take it with a borrowed cell phone...but at least I have the story! 

So that's my story of voting early. I don't know if it's worth it for everyone to vote early...but I'm happy I did. It was certainly an adventure...one that could only happen in this crazy democratic experiment they call the United States of America! 

Whether or not you vote early...DO vote. You'll never wait in line for a ride or movie or concert that makes more of a difference in your life than the vote you wait to place in this election. And who knows...you may just get a few great stories out of the experience!