Five days ago I announced I finaly had a Twitter account where you could sign up to be a follower (subscriber?) of me at
and receive twits (tweets?) of the title and link to my latest blog post. It occurs to me, now, that some of you might not want to be publicly identified as a follower of Steve_Sailer. So, I've started a second Twitter account that will provide the exact same content, but the name is anodyne. Just click here:
http://tinyurl.com/3gdjxw3
When you get there, click on the Orange button on the right that reads "Sign up and follow ..."
When you get there, click on the Orange button on the right that reads "Sign up and follow ..."
By the way, is "follower" the right word with Twitter? "Acolyte?" "Cultist?" I can never remember. You know, when I think back on it, I'm quite amazed that I was a professional, full-time PC guy in 1986-87, with three PC technicians working for me. Not only was I fairly good at it, I liked new technology back then. In 1986, I would have known exactly whether I was sending out twits or tweets. Today, that past life seems as bizarre to me as if I had once been a world-class knitter.
I had a dream one night in the 1990s that I had once won an Olympic gold medal. When somebody challenged me in the dream, I explained that I had won my gold medal at the 1984 L.A. Summer Games in the Plunge for Distance, an obscure but still extant Olympic swimming / diving event in which the eight finalists stand on the edge of the pool and dive in and the one who goes farthest before having to take a breath wins. "You haven't heard about it," I explained persuasively, "because they don't put it on TV. And, yeah, maybe since it's not on TV it doesn't get the very best athletes, so that's how I stood a chance. But it's still a real Olympic event and I won it!"
(In reality, the Plunge for Distance was last part of the Olympics at the 1904 St. Louis Games. Here's a 1917 New York Times article that begins, "Several attempts have been made to induce the A.A.U. and college authorities to abolish the plunge for distance as a standard or championship event in water sports, on the plea that it is a type of contest requiring neither athletic ability, nor especial skill of any kind," which is what I like about it.)
(In reality, the Plunge for Distance was last part of the Olympics at the 1904 St. Louis Games. Here's a 1917 New York Times article that begins, "Several attempts have been made to induce the A.A.U. and college authorities to abolish the plunge for distance as a standard or championship event in water sports, on the plea that it is a type of contest requiring neither athletic ability, nor especial skill of any kind," which is what I like about it.)
Anyway, my point is that if you look at how incompetent I am with computers now, my dream about me having once been an Olympic gold medalist makes more sense than the reality that I was once a pretty handy computer guy.
Life is pretty short, I suppose, like everybody says it is. But, sometimes, when I look back at all the weird twists in my life, it can seem enjoyably long.
Anyway, you can make sure to never miss having these kind of rambling reminiscences twooted to you by going to one of the above links and signing up to be my Tweeter disciple.
Also, don't forget you can share my posts via Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. using those five grayish buttons below.
Also, don't forget you can share my posts via Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. using those five grayish buttons below.
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30 comments:
That's funny about the computer thing - I was once the go-to guy in my family, when personal computers were all new. They thought I was quite smart. Now, I have no special advantage - in fact, I am falling behind. Kids out of college can handle excel like it's a 2nd language, while I still have to think through things.
Luckily, YouTube has a video of the plunge for distance, so we don't have to miss the excitement.
The video only had 77 views when I visited it, but now that it is posted on iSteve and will be twittered about by Steve, I'm sure it will go viral overnight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LuZqvJJOt8
Luckily, YouTube has a video of the plunge for distance, so we don't have to miss the excitement.
That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen.
I could have been a contender!
I think there's a tradeoff: Twitter is simple, and therefore unintuitive. Facebook is intuitive, and therefore complicated.
An even more anonymous way to follow Sailer (since anyone could learn what that second account is from this blogpost or by looking at the public feed) is to create a private twitter list that includes @Steve_Sailer. Someone else already suggested this in the previous thread.
[self-promotion warning]. Other readers of this blog less concerned with anonymity might like to follow my curated public list of crimethink reactionaries, which naturally includes our esteemed host.
Apologies, that link was not the best to give (sometimes confusing even for an old hand!). For all your reactionary needs, click on this subtly different one.
Golly: I too was once a computer chap. Now they bore me to tears.
Dude, learn to hyperlink; taint hard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LuZqvJJOt8
With a name like that I was expecting someone jumping from a very high distance into a very deep pool. The reality is less exciting, but I suspect natural talent and training would rapidly eliminate the iSteves of the world from world competition if this were still an Olympic event. Events get eliminated from the Olympics due to politics and popularity and money making potential (yes, even way back then) and this ain't exciting viewing.
Mind you, the people running the USA and Western civilization in general also appear to be engaged in their very own real life version of Plunge for Distance, albeit they aren't in competition with anyone else. They just seem determined to crash us as deep as possible.
Real men don't twitter. Or tweet. Whatever. They just don't.
Funny remark about Twitter: There Is No Switch
Louis Manley wastes entirely too much energy defending "distance plunge".
Anonymous could be corrct with his statement that "That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen."
The thing that seems odd to me though is the demonstrator doesn't even seem to be going half the distance of the pool .... which is very weak.
Kids out of college can handle excel like it's a 2nd language
Does Excel have row or column manipulations yet?
Or do you still have to visit each cell in the row/column if you want to do anything with it?
The last time I tried to goof around with Excel [three or four years ago], you couldn't write code at the "meta" level of e.g. adding two columns together; instead, you had to write code to visit each cell and add the cells together [within a FOR loop]:
C3 = C1 + C2;
-vs-
for(i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
C3[i] = C1[i] + C2[i];
}
When I saw that, I threw my hands up in frustration, and swore I'd never again play with Excel until M$FT could give me some halfway decent "meta" functionality.
"It occurs to me, now, that some of you might not want to be publicly identified as a follower of Steve_Sailer"
Good grief, have things really come that far now?
I think the world needs an 'I'm Spartacus' moment here.
I'm Steve_Sailer.
Some people say "tweeps" instead of "followers," as in
"How are all my tweeps today?" and "Good night, tweeps, talk to you tomorrow!" I guess it's thought to be cute but I think it's also to use a less cultish-sounding term than "followers." I prefer "followers."
"An even more anonymous way to follow Sailer (since anyone could learn what that second account is from this blogpost or by looking at the public feed) is to create a private twitter list that includes @Steve_Sailer. Someone else already suggested this in the previous thread."
This is why we suck. We are so chicken. Sailer ought to have some chutzpah and say IF YOU'RE TOO CHICKEN TO SHOW YOU READ MY BLOGS, SCREW YOU, PUNK!!!
Everyone be sure to keep an eye on
@mattyglesias' follow list to see if he follows the Steve_Sailer account or the anodyne one.
The onus should be on the follower to create a separate anonymous account. Not the other way around.
The onus should be on the follower to create an additional anonymous account if they so choose. Creating a duplicate twitter account that tweets the same thing as another is not the solution.
I like the way Snrub thinks.
"I had a dream one night in the 1990s that I had once won an Olympic gold medal. When somebody challenged me in the dream, I explained that I had won my gold medal at the 1984 L.A. Summer Games in the Plunge for Distance, an obscure but still extant Olympic swimming / diving event in which the eight finalists stand on the edge of the pool and dive in and the one who goes farthest before having to take a breath wins. "
OK. You can probably help me disambiguate the term "California Dweebin'". Is it what Steve was doing when he had that dream or is it the new penalty to drinking games when an otherwise hot chick has to take the virginity of a dweeb upon losing?
"I had a dream one night in the 1990s that I had once won an Olympic gold medal. When somebody challenged me in the dream, I explained that I had won my gold medal at the 1984 L.A. Summer Games in the Plunge for Distance, an obscure but still extant Olympic swimming / diving event in which the eight finalists stand on the edge of the pool and dive in and the one who goes farthest before having to take a breath wins. "
Freudian interpretation: Sailer imagined himself to be a penis penetrating a woman's vagina deeper than all the other guys.
"I had a dream one night in the 1990s that I had once won an Olympic gold medal. When somebody challenged me in the dream, I explained that I had won my gold medal at the 1984 L.A. Summer Games in the Plunge for Distance, an obscure but still extant Olympic swimming / diving event in which the eight finalists stand on the edge of the pool and dive in and the one who goes farthest before having to take a breath wins. "
Political interpretation: Sailer chose politically incorrect line of thought that is not allowed to wade and make splash on the surface. So, he imagines working under the radar but eventually pulling ahead of everyone else.
"I had a dream one night in the 1990s that I had once won an Olympic gold medal. When somebody challenged me in the dream, I explained that I had won my gold medal at the 1984 L.A. Summer Games in the Plunge for Distance, an obscure but still extant Olympic swimming / diving event in which the eight finalists stand on the edge of the pool and dive in and the one who goes farthest before having to take a breath wins. "
Cinephile interpretation: Sailer saw DAS BOOT and imagined himself to be a submarine.
"I had a dream one night in the 1990s that I had once won an Olympic gold medal. When somebody challenged me in the dream, I explained that I had won my gold medal at the 1984 L.A. Summer Games in the Plunge for Distance, an obscure but still extant Olympic swimming / diving event in which the eight finalists stand on the edge of the pool and dive in and the one who goes farthest before having to take a breath wins."
HBD interpretation: As a believer in biology, Sailer remained submerged under water--the source of life--to study the origins and processes of life. It was like FANTASTIC VOYAGE.
Sci-fi interpretation: As a fan of Heinlein and Cameron, Sailer wants to escape into other worlds or different lifeforms. It was his ABYSS adventure.
Name interpretaion: His name is Sailer and he just feels close to water.
Steve, I've never laughed so much at one of your posts before - great stuff.
Well, if you like it so much I'll have to post, one of these days, a rambling reminiscence about how when I was a kid I had five successive identical blue parakeets named Tweeter. I disapproved of death on principle, so whenever a Tweeter would die, my parent would have to buy me another one exactly like the last one.
Instead of 3gdhxw3, perhaps Plunge for Distance would be catchier.
"Does Excel have row or column manipulations yet?"
Yes, it has had this capability for decades. Look up array formulas.
Yes, it has had this capability for decades. Look up array formulas.
URL?
Thanks.
I just sent a tweet showing one way (among many others) I use Twitter. I also sent a link to a group that you should avoid pandering to very a large number of reasons.
I've tweeted almost 11,000 tweets from one account alone, and I wouldn't do that if it weren't at least occasionally effective at achieving various goals.
As for FB, I've written several FB apps and I've tried to "get" it and I just can't. Unless you're social and you're there for social reasons, or you're a company building a brand and have lots of customers, it just leaves me cold. Their privacy/control issues and attempt to be an alternative to the open web are also very creepy.
the history of the plunge for distance, i just wrote it. enjoy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plunge_for_distance
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