Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Carnival of the Vanities #200 - Acidman Memorial Edition
Deb posted the above picture in 2003, by way of apology to Acidman for some prior cat-taunting. Rob sure did love him some red toenails, but until this picture, I’d been apathetic. To this one I had a visceral reaction. Within weeks of Acidman as catalyst, appropriately, we’d gone from casual virtual flirting and reading each other to falling in love, making plans to meet in person, and fully expecting to be married. Almost three years later, here we are, lives changed beyond recognition, sad that our kids will never get to meet “Mr. Rob.” There will surely be some fond memories on the part of the local kids on High Point Drive.
So here were are, hosting what would ordinarily be a special event, the 200th edition of Carnival of the Vanities, the first carnival of the blogosphere. That makes it twice as old as one of the major carnival offspring, Carnival of the Recipes, which just had its 100th edition. The second major ongoing carnival, Carnival of the Capitalists, just had its 145th edition. 200? That’s a lot. That’s almost four years, which is forever in blogospheric history. Rob Smith was around back then, too, hosting the 24th edition, now lost to a “dude, where’s my archives” mishap.
Why not make it even more special? And so, here’s the 200th edition of Carnival of the Vanities, with some amazing stuff (and maybe some not so amazing; YMMV, BIITEOTB and all that), but with the addition of a celebration and remembrance of the life and interests of Rob “Acidman” Smith of Gut Rumbles, fan of fine red-tinged female feet everywhere.
Speaking of which, Leslie not only points out Project Red Toes while remembering Rob, but also displays a whole bunch of toe pics (not to be confused with toe picks) of her own.
In another post, Leslie notes “Rob was an absolute catalyst for friendship,” which is exactly in keeping with my intro, and enumerates lessons she learned from him. There are some excellent ones. I like the part about Switzerland. See also the flying monkey quote she links to at the end.
Appropriately enough to the intro above, Joanie was, if I remember right, the first fellow blogger I told about the budding long-distance relationship between me and Deb. After Rob left us, she found peace in a poolside vision of Acidman.
Livey remembers Acidman the ham, who just loved raw oysters. Ugh. Yet he makes it almost look… tasty. Great pictures!
Dax remembers the first time he met Acidman in person, and how it paid to take a chance.
James Joyner, one of my most direct contemporaries in the blogosphere, remembers Acidman as the Tall Dog he was, with many links to other tributes and reactions, and to some significant topics Rob covered. It was on account of being “discovered” by Rob almost as soon as I started blogging that I got my first major blog boost. It was almost as much of a rush to get an Acidbath as an Instalanche, and frankly more meaningful.
Laughing Wolf shares some wiseass humor in Acidman’s memory, since it was Acidman who tried to draw more of that kind of thing out of him. Better still, gun humor.
Lynn didn’t set out to write a tribute post, but her post on age is something Rob might appreciate, or even say himself. Especially: “There’s no reason why a 50-year-old shouldn’t act like a 20-year-old if they feel like it.”
Jim at Smoke on the Water was not only one of the unknown hordes of bloggers Rob inspired into it, but also one he specifically cajoled into it. Yet another life dramatically changed... and ongoing:
Life goes on. Shitty things in the news which would’ve pissed Rob off still need ranting. The laughable idiocy of the Left still need lampooning. Bourbon needs be sipped, cigars need be smoked, hogs must be roasted and fresh green peanuts need their boiling.
Jim initially reacts to Rob’s death in Silent Echoes, which has a large number of links to the reactions of others.
Speaking of reactions, Sam’s original post with the news may be no Gatorade thread, but it was one hell of a way to pick up 564 comments and 64 trackbacks in short order. I suspect Rob would love and ostensibly hate all the attention. It was moving to read the comments as they were left, shedding many tears along the way. When I read this comment by Chris Muir:
Shit.
The good ones go.
I knew the next day to look for this:
Elisson remembers Rob’s grandest blogging achievement of all, when he was “flushed with pride” to receive the Golden Plunger Award.
Jim remembers Rob in the context of their most unlikely friendship, between a Yankee lawyer and a Jawja cracker.
Later, in one of the funniest posts ever, Jim puts us there when Rob meets up with St. Peter.
Then again, Rube was intensely funny with his tale of The New Guy.
Libby has an Acid Flashback, which for some reason is the first of these to really water my eyes. Included are some links to distinctive Acidman writings. Yep, Google still has him as number one for computer fucktard.
Catfish brings us a classic story of Rob, sex, and Costa Rica. Hey, it’s an Acidman tribute; old Roscoe had to show up sometime.
At Theater of the Soul, memories of Acidman and one of his best crackpot posts ever, followed by The Carnival of the Blogfaddah, rounding up submissions remembering Rob and some favorites among his posts.
James Hooker wrote a song for Acidman.
Nic presents a slideshow, featuring Acidman and friends extensively but not exclusively.
Lisa entered this particular post with Acidman in mind, because it reminded her of his “does this make me a racist?” genre of posts. And of course that would be a resounding “no.”
Elisson believes Acidman would have enjoyed this kind of cooking. Certainly he’d appreciate that kind of memory, not to mention the… motel incident.
Finally, courtesy of Elisson, we have a series of three videos of Rob being interviewed on an Atlanta Fox station. It’s part of a series on bloggers who lost their jobs due to blogging, as he so famously did. Left out was the part about the ex having the same employer and so forth.
There ends the Acidman tribute portion of Carnival of the Vanities #200. If I missed your entry, if you let me know ASAP, I will add it in.
Traditional CotV Entries - tons of them! - begin here...
Mama Duck weaves the tale of Lil’ Duck’s sudden aversion to soap, in the showers he has always loved as much as our girls do, and how she worked around it, while Daddy Duck, well, not so much.
BirdDC deviates from its usual topic of birding to point out an absolutely horrendous act of vandalism, in the form of graffiti painted over prehistoric Native American rock painting. Along with related vandalism elsewhere.
At Rigor Vitae we meet up with the intrepid Puffy Grubman, bane of bicyclists everywhere, and fine example of Greatest Generation Syndrome. While I’m glad the author was not hurt, I’m glad of the intensely humorous anecdote, quite possible the best mainstream entry of the week.
Seriously. If you read nothing else linked here, read this one. There’s also some seriously cool art. And more here and here.
Free Money Finance departs from the usual fare to elicit comments on what famous people you’ve met, and share his own list. My first thought was that I hadn’t met any, but that’s not true at all. I’ve met several authors and artists, including Bob Eggleton, James P. Hogan, and the late Jack L. Chalker, who could amiably talk your ears off at length about this and that. And what of bloggers we meet? At what point are they “famous” versus “just some blogger”?
Batya at Shiloh Musings looks back at Israel’s history, tracing current problems to the level of socialism of the founding fathers.
Peter Kua uses the example of a rudeness survey to discuss the danger of living in denial.
Zachary Moore ponders the intrusion of a naturalistic, materialistic worldview into Christianity, and whether you can be a consistent Christian while engaging in physical violence, such as a boxing match.
Francois Tremblay has noticed that some who call themselves anarchists are anything but, thus imparting a perception of violence onto anarchists in the minds of the general public. Perhaps encouraged by those who might benefit from such misperceptions?
Barry Welford discusses how you can profit from the combination of outsourcing and the internet.
Christine Kane describes the concept of a monthly Adventure Day, which sounds like a great idea for getting out of the same old rut. I did something like that briefly when I lived in Quincy, centered on trying new things at the supermarket.
Ah, memories! Of family reunions, food… and vengeance. Dazed recalls it all well.
Ruled Britannia is a book by Harry Turtledove, big name alt-history author. Shakespeare as a major character? Sounds intriguing. Doug Mataconis reviews it well.
The Liberty Papers brings us the sorry case of the nanny state versus the family, in which we learn that the government owns you and your children, so how could you possibly make decisions for them.
Metatron. Sounds modern, doesn’t it? Like a Transformer or something. But it’s not. Reb Chaim HaQoton educates us.
Dan Melson says that volatility is a regular investor’s best friend, moving from the generic dollar cost averaging concept everyone knows about through a reasonable explanation. Don’t let the presence of numbers scare you away.
Stock Market Beat reports on Yankee Candle, complete with a picture of their tourist mecca. I once lived just down the street from Yankee Candle; luckily far enough not to have to smell it in my house.
Paul’s Tips gives you cautionary help in the form of seven simple ways to ruin your friendships. I found myself thinking of examples of most of them, as I read through, and there are people who really have no idea they’re doing whichever one, or that it can be so offensive. Everyone slips sometimes, but you know the people who talk at you, always complain, are difficult in the face of group plans, and so forth. Great post!
Supermom talks about how to turn weaknesses into strengths when operating, or contemplating, a home based business.
Adam Gurri has read Glenn‘s book, An Army Of Davids, and reviews it for us. Mainly positively, and with consideration of how webcomics are a part of the trend.
Gnotalex points out a site where waitresses tell their war stories.
Some Christians are apparently elated by Middle East bloodshed, shedding compassion for the victims in their eagerness to bring on World War III (IV, by many counts, V or, yes, III, by others) and get the proverbial end times over with. Ah, the joy. Ooh, the rapture. Jon Swift has all the details.
Miriam warns us that if we have tax business with New Castle County, we’ll need to ask for Betty, who she knows remarkably well. I just hope Patty can handle it when it’s Betty’s time to go.
Jack Yoest watched a lawyer get beat up and describes for us the gory scene, in the form of the Jim Haynes confirmation hearing. He really doesn’t sound like he ought to be a judge.
Wayne Hurlbert tells us about activist blogs, ones operated for a cause, and offers advice for them.
Jon Anderson has the goal of one million visitors, and an associated scheme in which you can essentially bet on when that will be reached, if I follow correctly.
Nubricks outlines good and bad reasons for cashing in on accumulated equity in your home.
In an excellent post, Water Causes Cancer!, ultimately about our perception of risk and nature of worry, Brad Warbiany looks at the history and nature of testing of chemicals as mutagens and carcinogens.
David St. Lawrence makes an excellent observation about doctors and similar care providers, noting the disparity that often exists between those with technical but no social skills, and those we find pleasant but who might be less competent. There’s a marketing lesson in here, for those who would accept it.
Daniel Collins notes the recent designation of the Aflaj Irrigation System of Oman as a UN World Heritage site, launching from there into the technology, history, and potential future benefit of these types of water systems.
Tam Hanna passes on customer service lessons inspired by bad experiences at a doctor’s office.
Leslie Carbone writes on the power of the market and the subjectivity of value as lessons of the famous red paperclip series of trades by Kyle MacDonald. This is similar to what I had in mind to write myself, when I saw the guy had succeeded far more quickly than I had expected. Which goes to show that the invisible element of the series of trades was publicity value, as noted in a less positive post by Warren Meyer. Less positive due to the final trade, fueled with taxpayer money. Still, it’s a pretty remarkable story, and economic/commercial lesson.
Basia asks ”who needs an SUV?“ An amusing pictorial of the alternatives is provided for your entertainment edification.
Neal Phenes compares Euro critics of Israel to teenagers, in complaining about proportionality, and likens Israel’s response to punitive damages.
At Debt Free there are questions about whether our soldiers deserve the best, and why they appear not to be getting it.
Adam Graham reflects on his call center experience - all very familiar to me, the time when the worst was happening, and the opportunities we get now and then to make a real difference to other people.
Soccer Dad promotes the library as a resource for accessing paid online sources that you might not want to subscribe to personally.
Western Resistance brings us another best post of this carnival, this one somber rather than funny, and long but worth every moment to read. In her own words, Flora del Mindanao tells us why she could not remain a Muslim. It’s a horrific tale of being enslaved and abused as an imam’s household servant, amazingly lucky to have escaped and lived to tell the world about it.
Dad at raising4boys.com reflects on a study that shows fraternal birth order affects sexual orientation. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Finally, Nickel would like us all to know that Dish Network customer service sucks. But do they at least have good hold music?
That’s it for the 200th edition of Carnival of the Vanities. If you entered and weren’t in here, you missed the deadline, I goofed, you entered multiple times and I only used one of them, or you were not a blog. You can probably figure out which applies.
Next week’s scheduled host is Siempre, Cait. After that, nobody is lined up until the special 208th edition, that is, 4 years, which will apparently be hosted by the guy in charge, per tradition.
Want to volunteer to host CotV one week? E-mail host [at] firstcarnival [dot] com if you’d like to sign up. Remember that it can be a lot of work, even without being a special edition, depending on how you choose to approach it. Intentional verbosity will slow you down every time.