Pathetic Whining Mode: Activated

So as the week comes to an end I've had a lot of people contact me saying "Hey, you're famous, Rush Limbaugh talked about you on the air today". And when he didn't mention me by name, he quoted my article or referred to me as an "unknown blogger" or "rank amateur" or "some nobody" whatever.

I can't say it was a fun experience.  While at work, I'll regularly listen to talk radio which includes Rush Limbaugh on occasion. It's definitely not fun to have someone totally mischaracterize ones position and then demonize you. And then repeatedly say "Some nobody" or "Some amateur" over and over. Wounded pride aside (I mean, I am worth 8 figures, have a top 100 podcast, run a website that is more popular than Rush Limbaugh's, have been on MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, PBS, in Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, wrote the most popular political game of all time, etc.) at being characterized as a "nobody", the hard part is just sitting back and having to take the "high road". I can't reach 30 million people a day like Rush so I pretty much just have to "take it".

So great, I helped inspire a new term for the political lexicon: Cut and Run conservative. Nice. How insulting. The most obnoxious thing he did was imply that I was doing this to "have influence" and "power" which is so incorrect that it makes me think he's projecting his own motivations.

The thing is, one of my favorite things to do when coding -- listen to talk radio which means Rush from noon to 3, is something I dread. I'll probably never look at Rush the same way. I wouldn't call myself a fan, but I enjoyed his show.  It would be like Bill O'Reilly or Chris Mathews trashing me on their shows without me being able to defend myself on equal terms. Think how you'd react. You'd never look at those shows the same way.

If blogging were my job, I'd be the first to say "hey, this is what the big leagues are, if you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen." But it's not. It's a blog. Rush and his ditto-heads (along with catass bloggers who confuse blogging with a life) confuse the two. Rush treats blogs as if they're quasi-columns. It's his basic misunderstanding of the nature of blogging (aka "Web logging"). We're just people posting our opinions as a hobby.  I had one ass complain that I spelled a word wrong on one of my blogs. 

For 99.9% of bloggers, blogging is the digital equivalent of hanging out in a pub and shooting the shit. 

I don't object to Rush or someone else linking to one of my blogs as part of their PROFESSIONAL performance on their show. But it would be nice if he, since he's being PAID to do his show, would have spent say the 5 minutes to look at what I write before completely misrepresenting what I wrote (i.e. Did I say I wasn't going to vote? No. I have the nerve to think that Republicans themselves are at fault for their problems, not the drive by media and not the Democrats and if they do lose that the world won't end).

Anyway, it's been a long week. Lots of work got done. Windows Vista is about to be released to manufacturing and we have been working hard to get Microsoft to get some last minute bug fixes in. Working on getting Multiplicity into more call centers (some 911 call centers use it). Trying to decide whether to push it towards MMO gamers as well. Lots of action on the GUI Championships. And of course the game stuff has been very busy this week.

I can't wait for the elections to be over.  If the Republicans are able to maintain control of congress (which I hope they do) Rush and his semi-sentient ditto heads will claim "Aha, we were able to thwart those no good cut and run conservatives" and other strawman arguments -- as if we're somehow out to get them.  If they lose, then we'll get the blame. 

Pathetic Whining Mode: DE-activated