Who are babble people?
Fri, 2006-03-03 01:55
#1
Who are babble people?
Fri, 2006-03-03 01:55
#2
Hello,
I've travelled through babble discussions a few times in the past.
I see on the home page that rabble is journalists, artists, activists etc. Can anyone tell me who the babble people are? What do many of them do for a living? Professors? Lawyers? Artists?
Of all the various media out there, babble is for the most part amongst the most intelligent and informative and I am very very curious who these/you people are.
I also wonder if many of the babblers belong to a few circles of professors, activists, etc... others who know one another. What prevents babble from becoming as stupid as discussion in more mainstream media such as globeandmail etc.?
[ 03 March 2006: Message edited by: wuruba ]
Fri, 2006-03-03 02:08
#3
thwap is a cartoonist who does other things. he studied history.
i haven't gone to many other boards. this one seemed active so i joined up.
Fri, 2006-03-03 02:44
#4
mayakovsky, is a poet who has been published and translated internationally. He likes hockey. If pushed he will tell you about the ice conditions at the local rink.
Fri, 2006-03-03 02:57
#5
Raos appears to have caught Bob Dole Disease from this thread. Raos is currently a student, a kitchen worker, and an avid cheerleader. He thinks you'll find babblers come from everywhere, and every profession.
Fri, 2006-03-03 03:05
#6
How is it that babble people are not average Canadians?
There is a world of difference between opinions of Canadians in mainstream media, general publics comments in mainstream media AND those on babble.
Fri, 2006-03-03 03:09
#7
Perhaps you would like to expand on that observation, wuruba?
Fri, 2006-03-03 03:14
#8
I think babble people are average canadians. Well, they're like most people I see in real life. Maybe I should leave campus more.
Nah.
alright, catje works in a library, makes art, tells stories, and teaches theatre on the side. she is a witch-school dropout with a degree in art history.
Fri, 2006-03-03 03:14
#9
I'm a student... right now I'm finishing my philosophy degree, and next year will be spent taking all my art education courses that I need to get into that post-degree program. I'm working on my qualifications to become a high school art teacher, but I also cook a lot for the people around me, and I take pictures of neat stuff everywhere I go.
I signed up for babble in my grade 12 year (2001), but I think I lost my password for that one and ended up with this one. I don't post to other message boards, and sometimes I get a bit fed up with this one, but I always come back. This is where I get my news, share recipes, rants, etc. I think that part of why it stays pretty reasonable around here is because it's a slowly growing site, with regulars who've put a lot into it. The people who have 'control' over the board also participate in it, and I think that's a factor too.
Fri, 2006-03-03 03:25
#10
I'm a Political Science/Labour Studies/English student, who's barely getting by [img]tongue.gif" border="0[/img] and still enjoys spending chatting time on babble.
Fri, 2006-03-03 03:29
#11
Oh yeah, I also work at a pulp mill. The union rep. for students already put her four summers in at the mill, which is the maximum, so I'm wondering about whether I want that spot for the coming summer.
[ 03 March 2006: Message edited by: Amy ]
Fri, 2006-03-03 03:29
#12
quote:
Originally posted by Raos:
[b]Raos appears to have caught Bob Dole Disease from this thread. Raos is currently a student, a kitchen worker, and an avid cheerleader. He thinks you'll find babblers come from everywhere, and every profession.[/b]
Having grown up in Saint John, New Brunswick, sgm is of the opinion that the Canadian version of this disorder should be named after Elsie Wayne, who has not infrequently referred to herself in the third person during her time as mayor and MP:
quote:
"They know that Elsie can't be bought and that I will do what I honestly believe is right," Wayne, 68, said at a news conference in Saint John, New Brunswick's largest city.
Just a suggestion.
Fri, 2006-03-03 03:34
#13
Jacob Two-Two is another library worker who works waaay too much to support his two children. He has always meant to be an artist but somehow can't get any art done. Go figure. Cutting down on babble might help. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2006-03-03 03:59
#14
NWOntario is, oddly enough, from Northwestern Ontario but is currently transplanted to London as a student finishing up a Political Science degree. Next year he hopes to be a little closer to home in Winnipeg doing an Economics/Labour Studies degree. He's a Metis, and on the side likes to write fiction.
He currently has no fixed employment, but has in the past been a hospital labourer, librarian assistant, cabin cleaner, environmental/occupational health worker, bar promoter, and receptionist.
Fri, 2006-03-03 04:01
#15
cutting down on babble? never! just work part time
Fri, 2006-03-03 04:02
#16
hmmm, libraries and labour studies.
i think we are developing some themes in this search for the Babble Demographic.
just don't tell the advertisers.
ETA ohmigod! maybe wruba IS doing a marketing survey! Quick! Hide the stats!
[ 03 March 2006: Message edited by: catje ]
Fri, 2006-03-03 05:03
#17
quote:
hmmm, libraries and labour studies.
i think we are developing some themes in this search for the Babble Demographic.
just don't tell the advertisers.ETA ohmigod! maybe wruba IS doing a marketing survey! Quick! Hide the stats!
That's funny and I'm going to guess a great deal of babble people are healthy cynics if not healthy conspiracy theorists, so just in case, I am not doing any marketing survey. I should have just looked at the advertisers as a hint as to who babble people are.
They seem to be creative and quite open minded. What's that all about?
Fri, 2006-03-03 07:26
#18
Common threads and uncommon posts. Finding the UR-demographic for babblers is a piece of cake.
-=- One slice of the gateau, though, contains the golden ring. -=-
-=-
Up above we see catje in a mood of irony:
quote:
I think babble people are average canadians. Well, they're like most people I see in real life. Maybe I should leave campus more.Nah.
alright, catje works in a library, makes art, tells stories, and teaches theatre on the side. she is a witch-school dropout with a degree in art history.
Then Amy, in the most prosaic terms describes herself (just out of high school) in terms of her educational goal PLUS SOME interesting slice-of-life stuff she shares with the board. On top of it she works in a paper-pulp mill and is tight with the union steward (a woman).
These and other autobio posts add up to the mix of what being one of a club of Canadian progressives means in the contemporary scene.
What I find that divides babblers is not the socio-econo-educational or even political nuances but the wide margins between members who post in the ironic mode and those who are more straight laced in their posts and who take themselves seriously 90% of the time.
I like the style that catje displays: the ironic. There's a double-twist to it when you start seeing her self-description fitting into the 'campus-normal' mould (a zone populated on this board by oh so many others).
But something is odd. It's becoming apparent to me that when a thread is running in straight discourse the posters go nearly totally into one mode or the other. Most of the time, irony and innuendo, even sarcasm, is lost on the majority of participants. The denizens of morality's strait gated garden on all the serious threads are missing something when they refuse to knock down that gate to breath the fresh air of irony and converse productively with individuals who are tuned into the absurdity of all of our self-selected self-defined self-righteousness as Lefties.
Fri, 2006-03-03 07:38
#19
No Bob Dole for me, thanks. I work in an office as my day job, moonlight as a babble moderator, and pursue my passions as hobbies - singing (in the bath and with recordings), and writing (which I don't do enough of, probably for the same reason as Jacob Two Two).
I think I'm an average Canadian.
[ 03 March 2006: Message edited by: Michelle ]
Fri, 2006-03-03 07:39
#20
'lance is Spartacus!
[i]ETA:[/i] [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
Oh... and Heph is a smartass! [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
[ 03 March 2006: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]
Fri, 2006-03-03 07:44
#21
quote:
Originally posted by sgm:[b]sgm is of the opinion that the Canadian version of this disorder should be named after Elsie Wayne[/b]
The only thing Elsie Wayne should have named after her is a communicable disease. Or maybe we could re-name Tourette's Syndrome after her...
Fri, 2006-03-03 08:23
#22
skdadl has often had Bob Dole disease but is happy to find a Canadian name for it. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
skdadl has worked as an editor in book and magazine publishing for too many years and now freelances, although for the last five years or so she has been preoccupied as a primary caregiver.
skdadl's background is entirely literary, which makes it odd that she should now be doing research on health care, odder still that she should have anything at all to say about politics, and yet she does. Life, eh?
Fri, 2006-03-03 09:29
#23
I'm a regular guy with a wife and son (and a baby on the way) who considers himself one of the luckiest people in the word (sorry Lou G.).
I'm also an architect and the executive director of a company who, shockingly, is good enough at what I do that people are willing to pay me to do it. I'm forever fearful that someday, someone will discover that (due to my booze-soaked education where I invested more time avoiding work then doing anything productive) I'm actually incompetent, and barely able to walk and chew gum.
Babble is pretty much the only board I haunt, due to time (which is often short), and the quality of discussion I find here. For better or worse this is where I usually end up.
Haha, see what I mean. I can't type world and I'm too lazy to spell-check. lol
[ 03 March 2006: Message edited by: Tommy Shanks ]
Fri, 2006-03-03 09:36
#24
Congratulations on the new (well, the incipient) baby, Tommy Shanks. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2006-03-03 09:44
#25
i'm an admin officer at a small charity in hillfields, coventry, that helps the long-term unemployed and community groups and provides IT and community radio training. i'm the media officer for the local branch of a political party. i'm 33, and i'm 5'5. i support manchester city fc.
in terms of past employment, i've been a hospital clinic co-ordinator, a web editor for a national magazine, a lifeguard, an ice skating supervisor, an admin officer for a charity, a temp worker, a volunteer coordinator for a gay and lesbian small press, a freelance writer, a think-tank researcher, and rabble's Columns Editor … not in that order.
i'm getting married in august [url=http://www.places-to-go.org.uk/Photos/leamington_jephson_temperate.jpg]in this greenhouse.[/url]
![http://www.places-to-go.org.uk/Photos/leamington_jephson_temperate.jpg]in](http://www.places-to-go.org.uk/Photos/leamington_jephson_temperate.jpg]in){kind=link}
Fri, 2006-03-03 09:45
#26
Congratulations indeed, TS!
'lance is not, in truth, Spartacus, though he did once star opposite Sir Laurence Olivier -- Larry, as he then was -- and rarely speaks of self in third person.
He is, however, another of the luckiest people in the world, with a wonderful wife, two cats and a guitar, and works as an environmental consultant in Vancouver.
Fri, 2006-03-03 09:47
#27
Thank you skdadl and 'lance. (and congrats WW. I'll steal 'lance's line and chalk it up cross posting).
[ 03 March 2006: Message edited by: Tommy Shanks ]
Fri, 2006-03-03 09:51
#28
I'd say that WW deserves some congrats, as well:
quote:
Originally posted by Willowdale Wizard:
[b]i'm getting married in august [url=http://www.places-to-go.org.uk/Photos/leamington_jephson_temperate.jpg]in this greenhouse.[/url][/b]
Fri, 2006-03-03 09:53
#29
Rats! I missed that. Well... er... we cross-posted, yeah, that's it! That's my story (etc., etc.)
Congrats, WW!
Fri, 2006-03-03 09:54
#30
Diane Demorney is an oft-wed very well off, devastatingly handsome woman, who lives in a small village, drinks martinis the size of her head, hangs at the local, and knows one fact about everything, thus make it seem she is more erudite than she actually is (she's quite dim, in fact)...
Babble Diane Demorney is a fiftyish single woman, without two pence to rub together; lives in a basement suite; does not own a car; and works for pittance. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
[ 03 March 2006: Message edited by: Diane Demorney ]
Fri, 2006-03-03 09:54
#31
Yes - WW, that looks like such a wonderful spot to be married. Congratulations - it makes me feel all warm and leafy just to look at that photo. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2006-03-03 09:56
#32
Stereo Type is the uber urban stereotype. He lives in the downtown core of Toronto, works on Bay Street, doesn't own a car, and lives in a trendy loft with his partner of many years. He enjoys the theatre, the symphony, and seeing obscure art films with his filmmaker boyfriend.
Fri, 2006-03-03 10:08
#33
quote:
The only thing Elsie Wayne should have named after her is a communicable disease.
Thanks Hephaestion! I woke up sulking because it wasn't Saturday, but having now laughed so hard coffee came out my nose, I think I may actually go do some work. Good morning world!
PS My boss thanks you also.
Fri, 2006-03-03 10:21
#34
I'm a I.T. project manager for an oil company and a political organizer. I have a beautiful red-headed wife who has horrible taste in men, one dog and three cats all of whom prefer my wife to me. I own a small house in the burbs that I don't really like and dream of a downtown condo that doesn't cost three times what my house is worth.
Fri, 2006-03-03 10:53
#35
I'm an articled clerk, and will be called to the PEI bar around the end of June.
Fri, 2006-03-03 11:02
#36
Anne cameron is an old woman living in a village of less than three hundred full timers. Mom, grandma, dyke, writer, she shares the modular with dogs, cats, a turtle and a crow, none of which would qualify for the term "well trained". She very recently became the less-than-impressed host of a titanium steel implant to replace a smashed left hip which unfortunately didn't happen while practising her triple loop Immelman for the Olympic figure skating team. (I could'a bin a contendah!). She is younger than Elsie Wayne and if she ever gets her novel about coal mining on Vancouver Island to the end of the first draft would like to have Skdadl for editor. Don't hold your breath, Skdadl, the characters are no more controllable than the real coal miners were.
Fri, 2006-03-03 11:09
#37
Hey - skdadl would be honoured. And think of the expense accounts anne and skdadl could run up. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
skdadl may need anne cameron to edit her memoir. skdadl is not all that stiff and given to the proprieties in person, but there are these really dull, sludgy, polite, overly correct passages she can't seem to beat out of her prose.
Fri, 2006-03-03 11:15
#38
There are some would say what Anne Cameron writes hardly qualifies as prose!!!
Fri, 2006-03-03 11:21
#39
The Wizard of Socialism is a handsome man, and recently single, since his charming and beautiful ex-girlfriend moved to Kitchener to pursue her career. Although his heart has been crushed by this turn of events, he nonetheless refuses to be downtrodden, and still has time to offer a cheerful word to those more in need of it than himself.
He is a long-time supporter of the New Democratic Party, having served a distinguished and colourful apprenticeship in the SYND. That's Saskatchewan Young New Democrats to you. During the last federal convention he stood as a stalwart defender of The Party against those who would poison and destroy his brothers and sisters. (You know who I'm talking about...)
He loves the little kitties, and is a vocal supporter of the Regina Humane Society. He reminds you of the dangers of pet overpopulation and asks that you have your cats spayed or neutered.
Fri, 2006-03-03 11:22
#40
All the better?
A question, anne: have you ever read either of two American writers, mother and daughter, Mary Durant and/or Eleanor Cooney? I think you would like them, Cooney's memoir of her mother especially. It's true that it is an Alzheimer's memoir, but in some ways, that hardly matters. The headlong narrative just left me rigid.
Fri, 2006-03-03 11:24
#41
Och, Wizard. skdadl is sorry to hear that.
As Wizard knows, skdadl thinks that Wizard has written the single most affectingly romantic passage ever on babble, and skdadl feels for Wizard right now. [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img] *hugs*
Fri, 2006-03-03 11:31
#42
Pogo
Kind of like writing an obituary...
Pogo is a husband, father, and community activist. My day job was as a purchasing manager, but currently is undefined. Though I live in an affluent city (Richmond BC), I see more and more poverty which is the impetus of my community activism.
Fri, 2006-03-03 11:46
#43
This thread is a good idea. It adds to the picture I carry around of babblers on babble.
faith is a wife and mother, community volunteer worker, arts advocate and an artist that works in watercolour and pastel. I love to take long walks and observe the natural landscape.
Fri, 2006-03-03 11:49
#44
Thank-you Skdadl. Your kind words have helped make this difficult transition a little easier. It is one of life's many great ironies that to feel complete love is to feel complete loss. The only thing I ever wanted more than her was for her to be happy. And that's what keeps me getting up in the morning.
Fri, 2006-03-03 11:52
#45
AE is the token American (at least on this thread) and is an accomplished formerist.
That is to say, he's a former: sportswriter, news journalist, Republican, Democrat, radio talk show host, government accountant, US Army Reservist, religion writer, Ohioan, Illinoisan, sports enthusiast, infatuation junkie, Catholic, Lutheran and Army PR flack.
What I am is a full time shit disturber, rabble columnist and podcaster (having been run out of the American media on a rail, I have found a home), hopefully soon to be landed immigrant in Canada, currently working at a bookstore as a holding job until the next phase of my life begins.
I'm also writing a book about it all which will ensure I'll need to leave the country. My mum has already retained legal counsel.
I like Trailer Park Boys, playful kittens (like Bubbles), beautiful sunsets, cuddling up with a good book (like Kurt Vonnegut's "Man Without a Country"), romantic sonnets, dirty limericks and long romantic walks on a beach looking for used hypodermic needles.
And as for my time spend on babble, he would have to honestly say that Bob Dole wouldn't understand that.
PS: Wizard, I'm sorry to hear that. [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]
[ 03 March 2006: Message edited by: Amйricain Йgalitaire ]
Fri, 2006-03-03 12:08
#46
Husband, father, photographer, writer, part time political activist, part time babble news service, full time malcontent, Transplant is a transplanted ex-American, exx-German national, who ever since high school knew that he would someday end up being a Canadian. On his third country it looks as if he has finally found a home.
Fri, 2006-03-03 12:22
#47
The Hegemo is also a token American, although The Hegemo lived in Canada for seven years, and has two degrees from two different Canadian universities. The Hegemo now works as a research analyst for a union local.
The Hegemo lives in the blue enclave of downtown Columbus within the reddish state of Ohio, and apologizes profusely for 2004. She lives with her two cats, a whole lot of books, and a monthly cable bill that no normal person should have.
The Hegemo has posted several hundred times on Babble, which is a lot, but pales in comparison to the 5000+ posts on the on-line Columbus Blue Jackets message board on which she is a moderator.
Fri, 2006-03-03 12:46
#48
quote:
AE is the token American ...
quote:
The Hegemo is also a token American...
Howbeit that he lives in the Lower Mainland of BC, where one of the local cash crops... er, I trust I need go no further with that thought -- 'lance suggests to AE and The Hegemo that they not bogart those tokes.
(He also wonders how Humphrey Bogart's name came to be taken in vain so).
Fri, 2006-03-03 12:53
#49
What a lovely thread!
I can't work anymore because of all sorts of pains in all sorts of body parts. So I pester other babblers with my posts.
[img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
I've never been lazy though and have worked as a waiter, counterman at Honey Dew's (remember that one?) taxi driver (earned my BA that way), model for painting classes, teacher, community activist (unpaid except for the Canda Works project I put together), writer of many unpaid articles (to no surprise of many babblers, I mean the 'unpaid'), three and a half years of a weekly community radio program. I also set tiles and worked with natural stone for many years. After doing a Master's in economic history (having decided before finishing my BA in economics that it is BS) I went back to setting tiles because nobody seems to need a historian, especially an economic historian.
I wish I had never left setting tiles .... in a way ... but not really because of what going back to school (dropped pout of high school) meant to my personal development.
Now I have a hard time lifting a sauce pan off the stove and looking out of my window I see the distinctive roof of the Pinnacle (a high rise downtown Vancouver). It was the last place I worked in (setting tiles) and it's kind of ironic.
Fri, 2006-03-03 12:57
#50
quote:
Originally posted by The Wizard of Socialism:[b]against those who would poison and destroy his brothers and sisters. [/b]
Did they know your name was THE LORD when you laid your vengeance upon them?
Fri, 2006-03-03 12:58
#51
I am an ex Calgarian who thinks that our country should not be for sale purely as a commodity. Defining ourselves as being for sale to anyone with a chequebook grates, some days it grates a lot, like today. Doesn't anything matter these days other than how much?
The Jumbo Pass development decision will be made today and now we have consortiums of investment bankers who probably have seen grizzlies in the New York zoo buying up our most pristine parts, thankyou Mr Campbell for all those janitorial jobs.
Why you mentioned the Globe and Mail and not the National Post, might leave Mr Frum offended. I also have concerns about concentration of the media in the hands of a magnate or two.
Rabbling and babbling connects us all, rural and urban, and I very much appreciate the level of the discussion and the occasional scintillating wit of the participants [img]tongue.gif" border="0[/img]
Thanks for letting me have a minor rant.