The Saga of Melanie Jones

It all started with a (supposedly) 'bot account on Google+: Melanie Jones. Who, as it turns out, is not a 'bot, but rather a real live girl who claims to be a social media and personal branding expert.

Go look at her Profile, she posts only pro-Romney/Tea party posts, which is fine, each and every person on social media has a right to curate their own mini-blog of their own material. Sometimes these posts are overtly pro-Romney and sometimes they're very disparaging towards the current sitting president, Obama; sometimes going so far as to make them racist.

But that wasn't enough. What really annoyed the Google+ community is Melanie Jones does not allow commenting on any of her posts by dissenting opinions. Sure, they're all public posts (she wants them to be seen by the entire internet) however she restricts commenting to those people who agree with her or who will reinforce her opinions. That's right, she does not allow dissenting comments or opinions on her pro-political stance posts. Anyone who posts political (or religious) content should automatically expect dissenting opinions. The internet wasn't born yesterday and most of us over 10 years old have been using it for quite some time. None of this is new.

She then went on a tirade against people who created their own content-postings questioning her facts and opinions since they are not allowed to post on her items. For example, she might claim oil drilling under Obama is the lowest it's been in decades. Which anyone with a search engine can prove is blatantly false. However, if you believe her content is false and come to her posts ready to comment armed with facts, she does not allow you to comment on her posts. Only pre-approved and, one must assume, like-minded people are pre-approved to comment on her content. So, people have making their own posts, linking to hers, plus-tagging her and making their own comments.

She didn't like that and decided to play the victim, claiming the entire internet was bullying her. 

Such as Alex, who was blocked for tagging her in a post to question her anti-Obama claims: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/BD9RfjMmhNk

And Sven, for the same reasons: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/hip79kvAPez

And Tiffany: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/jZAaSBPPVnr

And Lucius: : https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/7bzEutmALXq

And Rory (Papa) Swan: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/DzPNCF1apVQ

And Dominic, whom I'm not connected to, but who dared question her: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117281774754537171340/posts

And here she is playing the victim: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/A8t5VyBz1iZ

Anyone else want to pick on me today??? We will probably never see things the same way... You post hate and I post the truth!!!! :) 

As we all know, truth is subjective. Only facts aren't questionable. Most of Melanie's posts are devoid of facts and many of those that do contain facts are usually wrong or questionable.

Another post calling out someone who questions her validity: https://plus.google.com/106653678649405633861/posts

And calling a nice guy a bully because he dared question her, again not on her posts since she doesn't allow non-conforming commenters: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/AyoL7sG62RK

And asking others to report Alex on her behalf which is again claiming the victim and asking her "white knights" to save her by reporting him: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/T1NNHcejq52

And asking Alex to be reported and blocked by her followers again: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/GoKefHDSh1S

Again, asking her followers to report and block Alex: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/5vsfCorUVsz

I came on Googe+ this morning to find Alex had his account suspended or taken down due to Melanie's self-declared victimhood and asking her followers, people who do nothing but reinforce her beliefs, to report and block him en masse. [note: at the time of this writing it looks like his profile is back up, but restricted].

The ironic part is, she's so upset with Alex, she made his image her profile picture and at one point she even listed Alex's workplace address since his employer was listed on his Profile. That post as since been taken down, whether by her or by Google, I don't know. (http://goo.gl/NMwI8 not listed anymore)

Then her followers started flooding other people's streams with pro-Melanie hate speech. One such example is Lucius' post calling Melanie out: https://plus.google.com/116553149107505884077/posts/g62vvHUBZvB. If you scroll down you can see where  Michelle Howell tells people they need to grow up:

Michelle Howell12:47 AM

She is not talking shit!!!! You guys are the one who started shit with her. 

Her followers are full of people trying to defend her honor. But, is she a Trollbot or something? Joe wants to know and asks the internet for help.

Yet her followers, those who lean more Tea Party than moderate or even sane right, jumped on the bandwagon and took the requests for blocking another level, even going so far as to claim people Melanie Jones has outed (see above) are child pornographers to get their accounts flagged and removed more quickly:

Blatant lies and abuse of the system, an abuse that can ruin relationships, careers and online reputations, all in the name of defending a person who might not even be a real person. And yet, somehow those people who have questioned Melanie Jones are the bullies. 

According to Google Image Search, all use of her Twitter profile picture is associated with Melanie Jones, who is a self-described social media expert and personal branding coach. With how she handles her own branding and social media accounts, I can only guess she's terrible at her job. Knowing, as we all do, our public G+ posts are collected and indexed in Google's searchable database. This means anyone searching for her name, or the term "Melanie Jones" isn't going to find a social media and personal branding consultant, they're going to find political hate-rhetoric. Not the sort of "personal branding" I'd expect a consultant to be publishing all over the Googleverse. Usually social media experts and online branding coaches keep their content non-controversial.

Supposedly this is her Twitter account, which is Private. While she's not shy about posting publicly on Google+, apparently she's not proud enough of her opinions and Romney's chances are winning this coming election to post publicly to the Twitterverse. I'm not entirely sure the Profile pics on Twitter and Google+ are the same girl, but they could be -- the nose ring is in the same spot and both 'girls' are pretty blondes.

Let's forget about Twitter for a second and look at her Blogger page where she claims to be a branding consultant. I'm not sure about you, but I don't know if I want this blogger to be my 'social media extrordinaire.' If you can't have a good clean Blogger then what kind of "extrordinaire" are you? You know what, seeing her Google+ posts and her Blogger and I think I'll "extrordinaire" myself, if you please. I'm not going to follow her on Twitter for two reasons: (1) I don't use Twitter that often and (2) I don't need more of her hate speech filling my view.

So really, who iss the bully? The people who wanted to have a conversation about the subject-matter of her posts or the people she blocked and reported for bullying as a result of her being plus-tagged over and over? Who's the bully, people who wanted to know why she didn't want to defend her positions or the people she encouraged to lie for her and block on her behalf? 

But perhaps Melissa Bryan said it better than I could ever say what I attempted to say.

[note: this blog post started off with me just trying to catalog all the vitriol I saw being posted by Melanie Jones and her brood. If it doesn't flow very well (which I don't think it does) it's because I haven't eaten anything yet. ;) ]

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Library, Library, I Want my Library!

In my (feeble) attempt to blog more often, I give you, my fans, this:

My Pick-Ups From the Library

10-16-2012

From Reserve:

Random Pickups:

and one CD set:

Leonard Cohen

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Chrome History

Google Chrome annoyed me. 

A couple of weeks ago I read this article on time.com's website: Is Human Nature Fundamentally Selfish or Altruistic?

Therefore, that website URL should be in my Chrome history. Since I wanted to refer back to this particular article for a comment I was making on Google+, I went to Chrome ==> History and used the search function to search my Chrome history. I tried searching 'time.com" and Chrome could not, or would not, find that page in my history. I tried searching "children behavior," also with no success. I tried searching "time" and still couldn't get the time.com page to show.

So, having loaded the Time.com page today (for my reference and for this blog post) I went back to Chrome History and performed another search of "time.com." I could see the article's URL page listed right there, maybe the fourth or fifth page down on the history. 

This article was not found. Nothing from time.com was found. What's the point of a searchable history is the searching doesn't come up with your history? And how could Google not find "time.com" when I could see the article page right there on my screen?

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Tethered

I walk the dogs in the morning, I walk the dogs in the afternoon and I walk the dogs in the evening. Sometimes they're more than an hour walk and sometimes they're about 20 to 30 minutes. Each and every time, though, I feel naked if I don't bring my cell phone along with me.

Not that I cannot be without my phone. I think it has more to do with watching Law & Order franchises and other crime dramas. It's not that I cannot be untethered from my phone it's that feeling that Murphy's Laws will take the reigns and that one time I'm without contact to the police or other emergency services I'm going to need to call for help or to report something.

That feeling kind of annoys me. Didn't we all, well most of us all, used to live without cell phones? Didn't we used to have to walk or run to the nearest phone when an emergency occurred? I remember in the late 90s (pre cell phone) when I was walking near my mother's house in Florida when I noticed across a canal a fire consuming a tree. I had to run to the nearest house, knock on the door and hope someone answered before I could dial 911. When the old lady finally did answer she wouldn't dial 911 but instead handed the phone's handset through the small gap she left between the door and the house.

How much damage happened and how far could that fire have spread had I been able to dial 911 right away instead of wasting 10 minutes or so finding a phone?

And then there's the other side of the coin. I like to walk when I talk. Don't ask me why, I just do. If I'm on the phone with anyone I am most like walking around. These days I'll put the dog on leash and go for a walk, but in pre-cell days I'd walk around the house in the limited range of cordless phones and (gasp!) clean the house.

Anywho, I hate the idea of being tethered to my cellphone and yet the idea of not having it available annoys me even more.

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That Moment When...

So, I watched this video this morning and it made me think of all the relationships I've had at various times and what ended them. There were a few that ended just because our futures didn't line up and a few more that ended because the Universe hates me. But what about all the failed starts?

What about all those first and second dates that, when that one thing finally happened, there were no more dates? There are a lot of those moments, many more than there are relationship ending moments.

I went out on a date once where the girl was just rude to everyone around us. That ended that.

Another date where the girl couldn't have a conversation about anything at all. Done.

In the course of a conversation the girl said she didn't like dogs. Yep, that was over.

Most notably there are a lot of girls who didn't make it past their first light-up of a cigarette or who drank to excess. 

What are your "make it or break it" moments?

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Theocracy in America

Take one asshat who thinks children should be murdered if they're unruly, add one moron who thinks parents of illegitimate children should be murdered and their children should be adopted out to "legitimate" families and you have yourself a nice foundation for theocracy in America that would rival the wackos over in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran(istan).

People like these, people who believe in Biblical law over secular law are the exact reason the founders of this nation put the separation of church and state into the very first of the Bill of Rights.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

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Lucky Number 7 Psychopaths

On Tuesday night I had a chance to see this movie in a sneak peek thanks to my friend, Andrea, who had an extra ticket. Or rather, thanks to Andrea's husband who had a Crossfit class to attend thus leaving her with an extra ticket. 

Starring just about every white male in Hollywood, this movie was fairly entertaining with some humor and gratuitous gore. The story unfolded much like Get Shorty unfolded, it seemed that the end "movie" was based on the lives of the characters of the movie in a whole 'chicken and egg' scenario with a Pulp Fiction essence. And I couldn't help but think of The Mexican, either, a movie that showed us, if it can go wrong, it will go wrong. Usually because someone lacked basic common sense skills. Not in a (modern) stupid comedy format where they just try and throw characters into ridiculous positions for the quick laugh, but more along the lines of waking up one day and realizing that friend you have who always seems to be a little "off" is somehow in control of your life.

The trailer (above) does the story of the movie no justice. 

Seven Psychopaths is about Marty, a scriptwriter who wants to write a movie about (you guessed it) seven psychopaths. Actually, at the beginning of the movie the title of his screenplay is the only part of the script he has written so far. Coincidentally, the writer/director of the movie is also named Marty (or, Martin). So, is this movie a reflection of a couple days of his life in a semi-autobiographical sort of way, or did he just want to be portrayed on screen by Colin Farrell? Who knows? Maybe there is some fact in this work of fiction. 

But Marty is stumped until his friend Billy, played by Sam Rockwell, shows him a story in the newspaper about, what could possibly, be his first psychopath. One story of a psychopath leads to another which results in a dognapped Shitzhu who belongs to yet another psychopath. Like I questioned earlier, did Martin (the screenwriter) just have a very bad week and write a script about it?

Oh, and there's a Vietnamese priest who probably represents some form spiritual growth or other quasi-metaphysical underlying meaning that I just didn't get. 

I can't really say too much about the movie without giving away the plot points and spoiling it for anyone who really wants to enjoy sitting in front of the screen and watching it for themselves. It's a fun film and while there is some comedy, I didn't think it as nearly as hilarious as the rest of the theater-goers apparently thought. I did find it nearly breaking the 4th Wall, or at least bumping up against it a few times, when the characters in the movie were giving plot points and critiques on the characters and the script the movie was (supposedly) based upon. 

Yeah, it was like that, chicken and eggy.

My friend, Andrea, said it reminded her of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, a movie I haven't seen since probably 1999, therefore I can make no comparison.

Spoiler Alert:  There was a "French" moment, a peyote moment and an "easter egg" in the credits.

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Social Media Rule #37

Social Media Rule #37

If you're going to post pro-Candidate items to your "business" Page, you need to expect to see unflattering responses.


re:

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