Take Digg back!

I used to be one of those guys who just read the stories on Digg as they hit the front page and never noticed who submitted them. Then I started paying more attention to the Upcoming section and noticed a disturbing trend. When I went back to the front page, that trend was confirmed. I finally noticed what others have known for a long time: Digg has been overrun by a handful of elite users who have gamed the system in order to get their stories to the front page. To make matters worse, they deliberately post duplicate stories knowing that their story will get more Diggs thanks to their large circle of sycophantic friends who blindly Digg them up.

Well, I say, "No more!" We, the general populace of Digg, the common proletariat, must take back what has been corrupted. If those users can game the system to their advantage, we can band together to game it back to the advantage of the average Digg user who strives in vain to get a story to the front page.

Join me in my quest to ungame Digg. We need to do this diligently and systematically. We need a team of people who will visit the Upcoming section of Digg and bury (as a duplicate) any story by the following major offenders:

* MrBabyMan
* MakiMaki
* SirPopper
* KevinFederline
* Optimusprime01
* msaleem
* Burento
* MediaSight
* upick
* Diggboss

That's a start, but there are more to come. If you know of any other major abusers, then let us know so we can start burying them, as well. Let's do this, people! I know there are a lot of us who are quite tired of their crap.

In addition to burying those stories as duplicates, start digging up other people who haven't had as much of a chance to get stories to the front page. Let's get a little more variety on Digg. Take it back from these asshats who think it's their own personal playground and, in some cases, money machine.

So, who's with me?

The Pointlessness of Smack Talk

Football season is upon us and the smack is flowing. It's always entertaining to read the comments section after articles in the local news rags. They're bursting at the seams with smack from Broncos fans as well as the occasional Raider, Charger or Chief fan. Perhaps it's just me, but I find this very annoying. What's the point of smack talk between fans? Some of these guys act as if a win by their local team represents some grand personal accomplishment. If you're not out on the field contributing to the victory, keep your mouth shut. For the large majority of the fan base, the only relationship you have with the team is an accident of geography.

Now, I'm not against sticking up for your team by defending them against naysayers. But that's not the same as wearing blinders and completely ignoring their faults. Every teams has pros and cons (and some teams have more cons than others, if ya know what I mean.) Rationally discussing how each team's strengths match up against their opponents is enjoyable. Smack for smack's sake is pointless and boring as hell.

On Being Offended

I just ran across a quote that I think is absolutely true:

"You cannot be enlightened until you cannot be offended."

I've been reading a book called The Intimate Enemy. I'm simultaneously reading another book by the same author called The Essential Laws of Fearless Living. One of the golden nuggets of wisdom I'm getting from this author is that events in our lives are generally neutral. Any pain caused by those events is in our own minds. We control how we react to situations. The events themselves have no power over us except that which we give to them.

As new situations arise in our lives that are potential causes of stress, we should strive to take the perspective of the enlightened observer. Step back from ourselves and view it neutrally. Reach inside yourself to your true, unblemished and whole self, and see how it would react to that situation. The true you is perfectly strong, whole and healthy. If you allow it to be in control of your life you cannot be offended. You cannot be hurt by the actions or words of others. You realize that the way others think about you or treat you has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on you or your true identity. You can interact with those people neutrally. They lose the ability to "push your buttons" because you'll have no buttons to push.

Once you learn this, and I mean *really* learn it, freedom and enlightenment follow.