feel like stopping in your tracks?

to watch this (from ozvault1 on YouTube) from the 2nd Melbourne show.  Three shows were not enough:

and from the beautiful Brisbane show, the audio recording on this one is wonky but it sounded great on the night and the clip gives a feel for the moody lighting and gorgeous suit and beautiful night outdoors, from wildhoney2204 via YouTube:

Car love, Motorhead love and my fickleness

Last night I hopped in the car to quickly pop up to Thornbury to a friends place to give her my ticket to MOTORHEAD and borrow a DVD (Gods Little Acre) from her massive collection.  In the last couple of days I’d noticed my car was idling slowly and put it down to my newly serviced generator and made a mental note to check it out.  On Queens Parade at Clifton Hill I got all green lights and was zooming when just before McDonalds my car seized into high revs like it was screaming at me. I was on the inside of 3 lanes.  Immediately I turned the ignition off and glided across two lanes (and traffic, and note my car hasn’t got hazard lights, but people tend to know it’s there) to the side of the road, and then into a car park, starting to smell that awful burning odour of metal friction without oil.  Sadly my car glided to a stop right out the front of one of the largest McDonalds in Australia.  It’s in a particular art deco building that I adore and was irritated when it was converted into a McDonalds.  I hate McDonalds and have boycotted them all my life. I refuse to go near one not even to use their toilets.   So I found myself parked immediately out the front of one.  Once I had adapted to that horror I returned my thoughts to the car.  I congratulated myself for defensive driving and successfully getting it off the road – that could have been nasty, especially as my steering wheel tends to lock when the motor is off.  

Rang my motor club and then opened the bonnet to investigate while waiting for help to arrive.  I could immediately see the problem.  The metal casing for the stud that holds one of my air filters in place has had a tiny nick of metal removed – no idea how or when it happened but it’s something on my list of things to fix – take off the metal casing and solder a little chunk of metal onto it.  I keep putting it off as it’s the sort of thing I could do myself at the farm with a soldering iron, and fortuitously I’m going to the farm this weekend.  But meanwhile, the stud that holds one of my air filters on the carburettor in place had worked it’s way off.  It must have happened quickly as last weekend I gave my motor a check and saw nothing wrong.  It was 8pm and light was fading but I retrieved the air filter, lid and nut from various places under the bonnet. Couldn’t believe I found the nut. But I couldn’t see the stud and, given the high revs I knew where it was but hoped not.  Instead I walked back to the road to see if any other engine debris was there but saw nothing and returned to sit in the car.  After an hour outside McDonalds my motor club man arrived. My motor club men (they are never female) are always quite affable and chatty, maybe because they like my car.  With him as moral support (and torch) I opened the air valve and ….. JOY!! The stud was sitting just inside it. Phew, it hadn’t gone into the engine.  BIG sigh of relief, we may be able to fix it.  Hopes rose, we both grinned. So the motor man got long thin pliers and I held the air valve open and shone the torch while he tried to remove it.  It was fidgety and slipped a little further into the manifold. We took deep breaths and I remained calm. It was like heart surgery, one false move and all would be lost.  He went to his toolkit and got out a magnet thingie and pushed it down into the manifold. But the stud wasn’t taking it.  It slid further away. We could still see it but there was no way to reach it.

“It’s a tow truck job now,” I sighed.  The motor club man stopped trying and agreed.  So he booked one, said it will be “20-40 minutes” and left and I waited outside McDonalds, breathing in that strange smell emitting from the place, looking at the "Angus Beef' poster and thinking of the pretty faces and funny characters of my parents Angus cattle. I scoffed and thought 'our Angus cattle would never go to McDonalds', but then I remembered one of our animals, a massive bull, that survived the drought and we kept hand feeding every day so he'd survive. One doesn't hand rear a 2-ish tonne bull without some love on both sides, he was a gentle giant with a sweet character yet also the leader of the pack.  But by the time we sold him at the end of the drought, only McDonalds would buy him.  I still remember Dad's disappointment and sadness.  RIP 'Bull' you're not forgotten, and we are very very sad that you became McDonald's burger, but you had the best life we could give you in a difficult drought.  But back to last night, I looked at people as they’d go in and out, only because there was nothing else for me to do - my phone battery had flatlined.  McDonalds is definitely not a place I want to loiter outside.


Over an hour later the tow truck arrived.  During this time I’d phoned my friend to apologise that I’m a no-show. When I mentioned ‘tow truck driver’ I sensed a sharp intake of breath from her.  But I’m not one to judge and kept an open mind about the impending doom.  He arrived in a shiny new tow truck and parked across the exit. Remained in the truck cab eating a falafel looking at me with a blank expression.  I remained standing next to the car, but eventually walked over to the truck.  He got out and said “sorry love I have been on the run working all day”. No you haven’t, I thought, you are sitting in a cab eating a falafel and you’re very late.  I smiled and replied ‘no worries’. He was short, stocky and had a black curly mullet, and gold chain necklace under his overalls.  He was also either grimy or sweaty or maybe both, with an odor of armpit and falafel.  But I too had engine grease smears so wasn’t one to judge.  I was wearing a red cardi with two embroidered rifles on the chest.  When he spoke to me he looked at them with an unaverting gaze, even when I replied to him.  “You need to tell me about your car,  what’s wrong with it? is it front wheel drive?” began the rapid fire questions and I answered them and he seemed offended that I knew the basics of my car and got a bit weird.  He started saying he’d been working all day and to tow it he’d have to push the car backwards (easily done as it was flat there and my car is easy to push, I've done it many times) and he was tired and 30 kms is a long way to tow a car……  I got his gist.  I was going nowhere with him. I then decided I didn’t want him to tow my car, I wouldn’t let my precious car anywhere near his carelessness.  So I pointed out where in the manifold the stud was and said if the car is towed from the front at an angle the stud might fall further back into the engine (=catastrophe) and did he agree it would be safer if it was lifted backwards onto a flat top tow truck.  He seemed relieved and went back to his cosy truck cab (and maybe desert) and radioed for a flat top tow truck.  Came back and said I’m a high priority so it shouldn’t be long.  Etc etc then gave me and my rifles a final narrow-eyed glare and drove off. 

I got back into my car and over the next hour started to need a toilet, looked into the windows of McDonalds thinking they allegedly have clean toilets but remaining resolute.  I will not enter under the golden arches.  Over an hour later a bigger tow truck arrived.   This time I was delighted in that the driver was polite, efficient, moved quickly, asked questions and didn’t flinch when I answered and in 10 minutes my darling car was secured atop the flatbed.  I felt a pang of heartstrings looking at it there.  It’s been towed before once about 12 years ago and I felt a similar pang.  I gave the driver the address and instructions of my mechanic.  He wanted me to come with him but I felt OK with him handling my car and really wasn’t in the mood for the badlands of the Moorabin industrial area after dark. So he left me there and I started the several kilometre walk home at 10.45 pm, carrying the contents of my car.  I felt like a Cormac McCarthy character, dirtied, sullied, bereft, and with a mobile phone with a flat battery.  But grateful to the second tow trucker.  

Walking home I thought long and hard about my car.  I've been with my car longer than any of my relationships, I love my car, we’ve had great road tips together, seen and done many things, I look at him and I smile.  I felt a real pang.  I’ve recently been thinking of selling him for a 1960's EK station wagon, now that I’m getting older and more sensible.  Perhaps the stud in the manifold was my cars’ way of telling me not to. Perhaps breaking down was his way of telling me I really should  hold onto the Motorhead ticket and go to Motorhead this weekend and not up to the farm/ Chris Isaak show.   I’m heartbroken that I can’t go to Motorhead, truly, I am a huge fan not only of their music but of the ethos of Lemmy.  I've even made a book about Lemmy. But family comes first, and there’s family issues and farmwork to do up north and I have to be there (and by the by I have 2nd row middle seats to Chris Isaak in Brisbane....). And I'm going to try and get to the Gold Coast Motorhead show.   I kept walking and pondering.   I haven’t been driving him as often as I should, he got dirty last weekend and I haven’t washed him.  Yes I had new carpet put in recently but then my Miss Melody Mae cat got in and clawed a little section and I didn’t chasten her, just removed her and swept it over…..  I’ve been fickle, negligent recently, inattentive, distracted from my car.  I've not given him the care and attention he deserves.  I live in a converted garage and my car sits behind a glass wall. As I move around my home I glance over and ..... he's not there.

I resolved my desire to keep life simple.  Buy the best once only and keep it for life.  And I'm so bonded with my P1800 that to me it is the best.

Today is another day.  Rang my lovely mechanic this morning who said yes my P1800 was there but the tow truck driver had left it across the driveway and he couldn’t get past it (I’d left a big note on the dash: “DON’T TURN THE ENGINE ON”, so they had to push it out of the way - but my mechanic is fine about pushing cars).  As always he was affable and happy to fix it today and I’m to call him tonight about the surgery outcome.  He also mentioned that he’d like me to put it in a car show at Flemington next Sunday April 3 (some European historical car show thing?) to commemorate 50 year birthday of P1800s.  Sheesh is my car really that old????  Mine is probably the oldest one in Australia -1963, 48 years old.  My poor little 48 year old car had the life thrashed out of him last night.  Yes dear old car, you WILL go to the show Sunday fortnight!  (will need to get new rubbers around the windows beforehand…..  ) . And then hopefully I can fly back up to Queensland and MOTORHEAD!!!!!!!

Narcissism

6Apr11 update: ANOTHER study has found a correlation between Faecebook and narcissism.   Flagler College psychology professor Meghan M. Saculla and Western Kentucky University psychology professor W. Pitt Derryberry set out to discover whether there was a correlation between moral judgment development, narcissism, and technology use.  The study population was students - probably because they are captive.  Saculla and Derryberry found that students who use technology for self-promotion tend to be more narcissistic than those who simply use technology to connect to others.  The researchers focused on narcissistic and self-promoting behavior, as well as moral development based on the research of Lawrence Kohlberg.  


The researchers' main finding confirmed their previous suspicions: students who used technology and social media tools specifically to promote themselves and attempt to gain popularity tended to come off as narcissistic. Those students also tended to self-report as narcissistic, showing a correlation between perception and self-reporting. Importantly, Saculla and Pitt Derryberry note narcissistic people may find that technologies help amplify their already existing behavior, especially if those devices are used "as a replacement for face-to-face peer interactions or other venues that are beneficial for moral judgment growth." If students are able to use technology to accompany their normal interactions instead of replacing them, they don't have much of a problem. 

A new study has found that users of Facebook had higher self esteem after 3 minutes compared with participants who sat in front of a blank or mirrored computer screen.  The study titled 'Mirror, Mirror on my Facebook Wall: Effects of Exposure to Facebook on Self-Esteem' was by Cornell University researchers Amy Gonzales and Jeffrey Hancock.


Fair enough.  


A possible explanation for the rise in self esteem may be narcissism.  Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, said a study she conducted of 16,000 university students across the US showed 30 per cent were narcissistic in psychological tests.  


In a keynote address to the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders Congress in Melbourne, Professor Twenge will say that celebrity culture and the internet are among the causes of the emerging narcissism epidemic.  


Narcissists had an inflated sense of self, lacked empathy, were vain and materialistic and had an overblown sense of entitlement. Some resulting social trends were a greater interest in fame and wealth, more plastic surgery, and an increase in attention-seeking crimes.  


Professor Twenge was concerned about a culture ''that seems to not just accept narcissism but finds it laudatory … But the problem is that narcissism doesn't help you compete. It blows up in your face eventually.''

something to get excited about

I've been watching slowly getting excited about the futurist idea of 'diy manufacture', or 'personal fabrication on demand', 'atom based manufacture' and 'micro factories'.  What I'm thinking of is that in some futurist utopia (think Jetsons), if a consumer wants an item they just download a design, adjust it if they wish to personalise it or modify it to their taste, then put it into a 1mx1m box that will then manufacture it.

While in the early days designs will be restricted to available materials, in the future surely with nanotech and dna and stuff the opportunities are limitless? Think of the impact that will have on the global order of supply and demand. Supply will become limitless so there potentially would be no 'unmet demand' for material products.  Instead, in the utopia, people may begin to value more highly non-materials such as experiences, ethics and values.  Utopia indeed.

These articles allude to it:

Kurzweil says:
A lot of pioneering work was done in this area by Eric Drexler in the 1980s and 1990s.  His work included designs for many of the essential nanotech building blocks – including machines which can pick and place single atoms as part of the building process (picture a device which looks like a crane with a single arm which can ‘pick up’ a single atom using a chemical process).
Since then various nano-scale devices have been built in the lab, including a molecular sized motor created out of fifty eight atoms by Ben Feringa at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
As I mentioned in the first post of this series the key feature size of technology is shrinking at an exponential rate.  At the current rate of approximately a factor of four per linear dimension per decade the feature sizes for most electronic and many mechanical technologies will be in the nanotech range (under one hundred nanometers) by the 2020s.  The picture above shows a nano-robot at work in the bloodstream – something Kurzweil believes we will see in 10-20 years from now.

+ 


how a new manufacturing technology will change the world

+

 “How cool would it be if, in the near future, we all had machines that would manufacture any products we need? Already, there are inklings of that possibility” 

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In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits, and volunteer community design

+

personal fabrication on demand

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open source hardware

=

    

Give the NBN a chance

Artists tend to flock to big cities where their art can be bought and appreciated, but economic hard times are sending artists fleeing towards cheaper rents on homes and studio space.

''Where can artists find arms welcoming enough to provide a chance to sustain their careers? Well, as it happens, perhaps sensing an opportunity in the leveled fields of the current economy several of America’s bleakest, and most economically depressed, cities—Detroit, Baltimore, and Cleveland, among others—have begun making their case to become the next American artistic epicenter. All of these places have begun offering incentives like housing allowances (or otherwise cheap housing options), grants and other competitive awards, and other support to artists, even as they promise at least some of the cultural amenities—museums, arts events, and the like—that one can find in the Big Cities.''

US Midwest is making a comeback - get the NBN up and running in Australia and the same resilience  may happen in the Australian outback

Queensland: all systems red

BORING

I am utterly BORED with the news out of MIDEM, the European music industry conference.  In fact I'm BORED with all the music industry news I'm reading at the moment.  It's more of the same stuff we've been hearing for years, and being broadcast as if it's a new finding.


It appears the industry has reached a stalemate, and it's STALE, mate.  There's lots of innovative digital startups, but they are frozen by major label licensing tactics and neanderthal legislation.  The law cannot keep up with technology, and the major labels have been using that to their advantage for years to shore up their falling revenue streams.  


WHAT CAN BREAK THIS STALEMATE? The failure of EMI? I don't think so. The rise and replacement of the majors by new majors (Live Nation etc.)? I don't think so.  Apple tried. Consumers? I don't think so, although this has promise but will stall for years in court.  I need to think on this more, but so far the only thing I can see changing this scenario is musicians leaving the majors?  Or everyone leaving the industry out of BOREDOM or frustration.  And what will happen then? The market for music still exists.... need to ponder more.  


The global copyright database project is interesting but can't see it contributing to innovation because it will,no doubt, use a sample technique when the technology exists to be all inclusive. Apart from that I just can't see anything ahead that can break this stalemate and effect sustainable change for the better.

Queensland floods

My family are now all safe and have food etc.  Some precious items lost and fences to rebuild but all livestock and pets accounted for.  But on the other side of the mountain is the Lockyer Valley......

I've had the Dirty Three / Chan Marshall song 'Great Waves' in my head today:

Last boat, stand in a river;

Muddy river, how I love her

Hawk flying is fooling his folly

Gas hurricanes spray over Heaven

Weeping willow is bawling the light

On fire.

Humans running for cover,

Wishing for life, gripping the light

House lift up, trees lift up

Cars intersect in the middle of the sky.

O time before, no pull, no gravity on the ground

Givin' up--it's over

The world's weight is over

The limit

Our bodies are exploding

As the sky spills through our mouths.

All the blue blood is flowing

The cities, its contents have been ripped out.

The world is gone.

Did you know it would last this long?

You made it to the dark, now you're gone.

You are gone.

Great waves

Frozen in a secret space

A great big place,

Dark-spilling universe.

Reverend Horton Heat

Whoooarh!  I have several Rev songs and have been a longtime fan of their music. But never seen them live (being too far away in Australia) and their live stuff on YouTube leaves me uninspired (I've subsequently realised it was because all I can find on YouTube are those handheld amateur recordings).


So went along to their show with expectations of a nice night out. Nice.  But from the SECOND they started playing it was captivating.  There's no fancy stage props, the focus of their show is on the music, despite very nice attire worn by Jim Heath. It was fast, crisp and at the right volume. They did song after song of fast fabulous Gibson guitar sounds. They did 3 songs from each of the first albums up to 4th and then the new one which has a slower country feel, even if the lyrics rail against Hollywood and misinformed artistes who think the Saguaro cactus grows in Texas.   


But although the focus of the show was very much on the sound, they did some smooth moves eg: the bass guitarist threw his double bass up in the air and caught it.  And it was nice to see the singer looked in fine health, tanned and he even had arm muscles. They came across as a band who have been doing this for 25 years over and over and over and have it down pat, professionals but also they seemed to be having fun given it was the last show of their Australian tour.  


Memories of my youth were evoked by mohawks crowdsurfing in the moshpit, but it was all safe and noone was being annoying.  My nephew who came along said it was awesome and exceptional.  Another friend who went is still raving about it.  I think it was the show of the year for me.

I AM NOT COOL

I'm a long time user of last.fm ( http://www.last.fm/user/MelodyAngel ) and in late November I was looking at the rockabilly interest group on last.fm and saw someone there had posted this:

http://www.last.fm/group/Rockabilly

Oh OK, I hadn't checked coolsville.org out so did so.  I later discovered Michael_deluxe (who made that post) is the owner moderator of coolsvile.org.

So, because my interests veer towards rockabilly and I recognised someone on the site I know (even though she isn't rockabilly) I registered to have a look around because that last.fm comment said I should check it out. OK. So I took some care over my profile, used the same pseudonym (Melody von Rock) I use everywhere, answered the questions thoughtfully eg:

(q) what is your dream destination?

(a) hearst castle

etc etc. i wrote a couple of lighthearted silly answers because I wasn't taking it too seriously.

For favourite music I linked to my last.fm page, because it shows the music I listen to.  I also linked to this blog even though I'm not active on it, because it too provides more detail on my interests. I uploaded a photo of me that I’ve used across a few sites with no problems, where I’m in one of my favourite frocks - a Shaheen original – in an art deco-ish pose and it doesn’t show my face.  The profile asks for age, so I entered a blatant lie (13) that anyone would recognise as a lie.

A quick digression from the story to list 3 points for context:

1. as part of my work  couple of years ago I spoke with someone who works for a large Australian social network. She told me that participants use codes to communicate certain things, for example, if someone writes ‘Shawshank redemption’ in the favourite movies section it means they are swingers who want ‘sex with no strings attached’.

2. it's commonly considered impolite to ask a lady her age.

3. I was an 'early adopter' of social networking and learnt from real world experience (1 stalker, 1 hacked computer) how ugly it can be.  These days I walk a fine line between protecting my privacy and rarely participate in online spaces. Heck, I even wrote on the site profile that I’m a private person.  I'm a longtime participant in one niche music site and as a general rule the longer I'm on a site the more trusting of it I become, and consequently more open about who I am. I was also wary of posting private details on coolsville.org because it's not a 'commonly known' site. I rankled at putting my real age - not because I'm an old duck but because too much accurate personal information on the net is risky, especially on a small site I know nothing about.

So my profile was setup and over the next couple of days (20+21 of Nov) I logged in about 4 times to respond to comments from men (only men – why is that?) on my page, all funny, welcoming and pleasant. One wrote:

"Hi Melody...quite an interesting blog for a 13 year old lol, welcome to Coolsville!

To which my reply included friendly humour, something about how I saw Robert Gordon recently (the writer was a Robert Gordon fan) and something like:

‘a lady never tells her age, and if I’m under 18 there’ll be no rudeness’,

His reply was:

"me, rude? never! you have quite the resume for someone under 18.it just doesnt seem to add up, but ,hey, thats life. right? im glad you liked roberts show. hes my buddy and its always good to hear nice things about him. ciao"

he he he and I thought nothing further of it.  Then I didn’t look at my messages or the site for a fortnight, I saw on my phone the headers of 4 friend requests and a message that came through but didn’t read them and just thought ‘low priority, will look at later’. 

5Dec I logged in to find something about a rockabilly restaurant in Melbourne that I had seen when registering on the site and saw this:

‘Michael deluxe’ sent a message 29Nov titled ‘hey’:

It's great that you have other pages and want to link to them, but if you only want to be on here to promote your other pages, please don't bother. I'm sure you're older than 13 since one of your other sites say you're 40. Please be honest and fill out your info on here.

On the day I logged on ‘Scatman’ wrote a comment on my profile page:

"hi im sorry but your clearly not a 13yr girl,what are you trying to achieve by saying that,your blog puts you as a very intelligent adult,this site is for cool gals and dudes,dont spoil it!!"

‘Scatman’s profile says “My Turn-Offs: people who say they are rockin and have modern pop bands on thier profiles” (sic their), although he watches X-factor...... So I decided he was a judgmental purist and it wasn't worth a response. 

2 hours after the scatman comment, Michael Deluxe sent a message with a header ‘please read’:

After 7 emails I am forced to address this situation. The people on this page all share a common interest. I am not too positive that you share any of these interests, so I am asking you to UPDATE you profile, including your age. You claim to be a teenager, although your blogs so otherwise. I ask that you also use a real photo of yourself, showing your face as the other users have done. If you refuse to do this, I will have to ban you from using coolsville.

What emails? Who? What? I took affront:

(a)    I HAD spent time putting my interests on when I signed up, a lot more than others on the site;

(b)    Plenty of users on that site didn’t have photos of themselves (not just new profiles but old ones too); and

(c)    it’s rude to force someone to supply their age. 

I looked at Michael Deluxe’s profile, in it he lists his favourite movie as ‘Shawshank Redemption’.   And because I had registered just as a bit of lighthearted fun I felt suddenly uncomfortable, I deleted my profile.  In response Michael deluxe put this on my page:

"I asked this person to update her profile with her real age and interests, so she deleted herself. good."

Charming.  I then remembered I had also added details of a rockabilly event in the ‘events’ section. A bit awkward…  So using the ‘feedback’ function I explained I had deleted my profile because I consider it rude to force a lady to disclose her age, and politely asked if he could also delete the event, which was still on there with my avatar attached.  I was polite despite the circumstances, and added that if he didn’t I would take further action.  The reply from Michael Deluxe was:

Your event was deleted last night, it takes up to 24 hours for deletions to show.  As for the other profiles, they have uploaded photos of themselves, just not as a main picture. The one who have not, I emailed along with you.  You're going to "take further action"? How so? I own the site, I pay for the site, I run the site, and the terms that YOU agreed to when signing up state that you will provide your real age, a photo, and profile info. you did not follow the rules, so you are history.

I’m history, rejected from coolsville, I am DEFINITELY the least cool person I know.  Michael Deluxe, the site moderator wrote: "The people on this page all share a common interest. I am not too positive that you share any of these interests.” He somehow judged I do not have ‘common interests’ with rockabillies hahahahaha……….. well I admit I have no interest in Shawshank Redemption.   

For the record:
(a) the site requests that the user supply only basic info and I supplied quite a bit about me and my interests;

(b) a quick scan of the earliest 30 participants on the site shows no photos on many of them (NO photos, not just ‘no main picture’) eg:

http://www.coolsville.org/members/profile/15  (no photo, no interests);

http://www.coolsville.org/members/profile/2 (photo of a kid wearing a mask);

http://www.coolsville.org/members/profile/28 (no photo, no description); 
http://www.coolsville.org/members/profile/34 (no photo and flogging a product)………….


I could go on but have made the point – these people have not been banned. In particular the last profile above is flogging product, but Michael Deluxe, who used last.fm to promote his site, wrote to me:

“if you only want to be on here to promote your other pages, please don't bother.”

Umm, like what other pages am I promoting? I’m not a heavy internet user and definitely don’t flout my blog or last.fm page.  So within 2 weeks of next to no activity on a social network I was threatened with being banned.  What a load of misdirected crock.

I told some friends about this tale and all had a good chuckle and then thought no further on it.  It’s unimportant, despite my ironic pride that I was threatened with banishment on a site for cool people.  One (very cool) friend took it seriously and offered advice:

(1) I gather they didn't get your tongue-in-cheek answers.  One's sense of humour often isn't shared, or at least doesn't always come across via email with strangers.

(2) The online playground is not worth worrying about.

(3) You're smarter/better than this!

However one friend who has an interest in the site emailed me today, 16 days later, to tell me that on ‘Scatman’s board there is a recent comment by ‘Rockabilly Richie’:

 http://www.coolsville.org/members/profile/135

that says “I think they mean iq when they say 13, not their age, lol”. What? I do not know 'Rockabilly Richie' and have no idea what that comment is in relation to, but it's close enough to this issue for me to guess it is about me.

So some clearly are not going to let it rest and are still talking about it two weeks later! Michael Deluxe wrote to me “you are history” but apparently not, they can’t seem to forget me…..    I don’t know whether to be flattered or flabbergasted at my new infamy and have certainly never received this treatment before.  I pay no attention to IQ, but for the record my IQ qualifies me for mensa. 

Assumptions made about me were very wrong and it bordered on online bullying.  I still don't understand why supplying my age was so important.  But I politely decided to overlook this rudeness and forgot it. Unlike them.  Hence why I have detailed it here so I can refer to it later if they continue. I hope their pathetic pack mentality will cease and desist.