Volunteering was nondescript today. I would like to privately state that Prometheus does not have "myth" in its center, and "rhythmic" is certainly not "arithmetic minus the a." Also, reading a book about French people in Paris should be preceded by learning how to pronounce Monsieur, or your students are in for a bad time. It's tough not correcting this stuff, but it would be rude and disruptive during story time, not to mention uppity toward the teacher. Afterward, I walked Bitsy, who became very agitated at something I couldn't see. My father told me he saw an enormous coyote on our property yesterday, so large and graceful you might think it was a wolf. With all the problems we've been having (leaking septic tank, anyone?) the very last thing we need is a coyote attack.
Also, I was incensed by some ridiculous goings-on at gaming news site Destructoid, which apparently went thus:
1. Transgender person starts an IndyGoGo campaign to raise money for a "life-saving operation for metal poisoning."
2. A so-called journalist finds out that it's actually for a sex change operation; keeps mum because the person threatens suicide.
3. The asked-for funds do not completely materialize and the would-be subject "attempts suicide" (heavy sarcasm quotes) on YouTube, which amounts to them playing with a knife for a few minutes. (I watched to confirm this.)
4. After the fact, the "journalist" goes public with what he knows, calling out the fraudster on Twitter.
5. After repeated assurances that his job was safe, Destructoid reverses its position and fires him; a crusade begins against him for "anti-trans bigotry" and the fraudster is heaped with support.
Let's list all the things that are wrong with this: A real journalist would have exposed fraud the moment they knew about it. Destructoid fired someone for exposing a crime. Apparently some people at IndyGoGo were also aware of what was going on. The trans community has thrown its backing not behind someone worthy of praise, but a trickster who attempted to take advantage of truly charitable people. This also flies in the face of the actual situation, which wasn't an "outing" as a malicious act, but an "outing" as pertinent to a crime. The actual perpetrator doesn't appear to be facing any kind of recrimination, legal or otherwise. There are piles of images from the resulting shitstorm, but it's such an irritating episode that I no longer want to discuss it. Props to Katherine for being in chat with me while I complained about it. I guess this just adds to the saga of Video Game Journalism being a made up term, right up there with "SimCity being the best online game ever!!!!", anything said by Bioware, and "9.5/10 - IGN".
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