Blogging environment

One of the reasons that I stopped blogging and reading so much about politics is that I was just tired of being angry. There's only so much you can write and talk about, and that's hardly ever enough to convince anyone who isn't already leaning toward your side that you are 'right'. It's very easy for that conviction and intellectualism to go the downward spiral to virtriolic rants that could be juxtaposed with the most recent jihadist speeches. I know of one friend (who shall go unnamed) that nearly starts frothing at the mouth and, by her own admission, cannot listen to reason, once politics come up. It's scary stuff (but, not nearly as interesting as religion, sorry).

The Washington Post ran an article about an angry lefty blogger, one that is such a pathetic angry caricature of bloggers that it is sadly hysterical. The photo they ran with the story is a perfect visual:Should get a Pulizter for rendering the article of a 1000 words perfectly captured. Caught in mid-jab, face contorted about the latest 'injustice', smokes at the ready, disheveled and wild-eyed. There's the face of your blogging nation. Yikes. I still can't believe the Washington Post, a liberal read, published this article, but there it is. Here are some excerpts:

In the angry life of Maryscott O'Connor, the rage begins as soon as she opens her eyes and realizes that her president is still George W. Bush. The sun has yet to rise and her family is asleep, but no matter; as soon as the realization kicks in, O'Connor, 37, is out of bed and heading toward her computer.

Out there, awaiting her building fury: the Angry Left, where O'Connor's reputation is as one of the angriest of all. "One long, sustained scream" is how she describes the writing she does for various Web logs, as she wonders what she should scream about this day.

She smokes a cigarette. Should it be about Bush, whom she considers "malevolent," a "sociopath" and "the Antichrist"? She smokes another cigarette. Should it be about Vice President Cheney, whom she thinks of as "Satan," or about Karl Rove, "the devil"? Should it be about the "evil" Republican Party, or the "weaselly, capitulating, self-aggrandizing, self-serving" Democrats, or the Catholic Church, for which she says "I have a special place in my heart . . . a burning, sizzling, putrescent place where the guilty suffer the tortures of the damned"?

The most startling thing is the way this angry person will get even more riled up on purpose. How'd you like to be growing up as this kid:

The front door opens and in comes her 6-year-old son, Terry, home from school, who starts batting around a blue balloon at the other end of the living room, batting it closer to her, closer, closer. She searches through her iTunes library until she finds one of her favorite downloads -- not music, but a speech by a character named Howard Beale in the movie "Network." She presses "play" and turns up the volume. "I want you to get mad!" Beale shouts at one point. "I want you to get mad!" she shouts along, startling Terry. "What?" he says, backing away with his balloon.

Show and Tell Day in class for Terry, it'll be soon time to talk about how 'mommy scares me'.

Believe it or not, though, this is NOT the point of this post. The was brought to my attention by the talented Wretchard, who, though amused by the rants of the 'Angry Lefty', noticed that his own work environment was pretty similar to hers, and posted some pictures and descriptions of it, and then wrote it would be interesting to see what kinds of setups others have going on.

Seeing as how I do 99% of my blogging at work (be it during lunch, the smoke-breaks I don't take, or the time between work), I thought it appropriate to take a picture of my little space here rather than in my basement at home. In all its glory:Ah, in all its' bland, spartan glory. The movers box still in the background (I keep it for sentimental reasons) shows we just shuffled over from another cube area next door, but it would be about the same. A phone, a note pad, a water bottle, a towel (to rest my elbow), the company-provided laptop, a Penn State mousepad, earphones for listening to streaming music, and two reference books. Otherwise completely devoid of human touches. Here's a bonus angle:Pull back to reveal... a box of tissues and a chair. I like to keep my work areas clear of unnecessary things, and toss anything I won't need later. Since I am a technology contractor, I have very little use for paperwork or reports (or meetings for that matter), and since I am temporary, I don't have much use to put any 'personal touches' in my cube. I found an old picture from last year when I had an office at my former job (where I also did most of my blogging), and you can see its similar spartan nature, accented nicely by my attitude:You may not realize it now, but you have all learning an invaluable life lesson from this post. If you don't understand now, think long and hard until your brain hurts from it and you will be rewarded. Probably.

Note that I am really only doing this to bait The Ultimate Evil to show his computer area, which I imagine to be as cluttered as his devious mind, but he's probably already done that in some obscure post from god-knows-when.