fandomhigh | Dealing With Stupid People [Monday, 2nd period]

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Dealing With Stupid People [Monday, 2nd period]

Instead of telephones, the students in Josh's workshop would find laptops set up.

And coffee, naturally.

"For some reason, people think that because they're hiding behind a keyboard, they're not accountable for what they say," Josh began, taking a sip from his mug. "That's clearly stupid. There are entire websites devoted to mocking such stupidity--not that I've ever gone to them, of course--and I'm sure those of you more technically minded will help out your fellow students from less advanced civilizations."

Josh clapped his hands together. "Because today, you are starting flamewars."

He gave a brief--well, for him--explanation of flamewars, with tangents about Fox News, the Republican party and the general evil of people who put up websites about Bartlet and can't be bothered to learn how to spell his last name correctly, then let them loose on the internet.

Heaven help 'em.

Blackbird - The Beatles

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Isabel took a seat next to her and smiled. "That's a laptop computer. It's an electronic machine that helps you access and send information."

"I thought that's what telephones were for?" Aravis said, confused.

"This is another way and it lets you access even more information." Isabel brought up Google. "Tell me something you'd like to find out more information about."

Aravis thought for a moment. "Chocolate."

"Like it do you?" she grinned. "So do I." She entered chocolate into the search bar and then pointed to the search results (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=chocolate&btnG=Google+Search). "Those are links. It's probably best to think about this as a type of library. And clinking on a link will bring you to certain book. Does that make sense?"

Aravis nodded, staring at the screen. "I'd never had it before," she said absently. "I don't know what a lot of these words mean, but does that work with anything? You just...write a word, and it tells you things about it?"

"Chocolate is one of my favorite things. I spent six months somewhere that didn't have any. It was hell." Isabel nodded. "Pretty much. Although you do have to be careful. Some words can lead you to links that are a bit explicit. Not a good thing when you're using school computers."

"Explicit?" she asked, blinking. "There...there are tawdry things on computers?"

Isabel tried really hard not to laugh. "Not on all computers. Mine doesn't." She wasn't going to tell Aravis about her fanfic collection. "But when we go here, the internet, well, some people claim that more then half the stuff on the internet is porn. You just have to know what to not look at to avoid it."

"Porn?"

Aravis could guess the meaning of the word, yes.

"...I should be safe just looking at the chocolate, shouldn't I?"

"As long as you stick to the first few pages of links," Isabel nodded, pointing the the numbers along the bottom of the screen. "You'll be fine. They're listed according to relevance. So when you get beyond the first few pages, you're liable to find people doing things with chocolate that you'd rather not know about."

Aravis stared.

"...I had never even thought you could do that, though it makes sense, considering the tales I've heard about honey back home."

"Yeah, I suppose in theory, a little chocolate syrup and the right person would be kind of fun but I have no desire to see anyone else having that kind of fun," she nodded.

Aravis wrinkled her nose. "I am Aravis, forgive me for not introducing myself earlier," she added, ducking her head slightly.

"Isabel," she said. "It not a probelm. Things are pretty casual around here. What do you think of Fandom so far?"

"It is...unlike anything I've known," she said thoughtfully. "Very, very different from my home."

"Oh? What's home like?" Isabel asked. "Do you miss it?"

"A bit," she said honestly. "Archenland, where I have lived the past year,is wildly different. It's lush and green and less warm, and I am the only lady of the entire court. It's odd, meeting other girls here."

"Only lady? That had to have been difficult," she said. "Why did you come to Fandom?"

"I was sent here as a contact," she said with a smile. "There is already a representative from our ally, and it was decided that another should come from Archenland. How did you find yourself here?"

"Oh? Who's that?" Isabel asked. "I came here thinking I was coming to a nice normal boarding school where I could pretend I was a nice, perfectly normal girl." She laughed and shook her head. "Boy was I surprised."

Aravis's smile tightened slightly. "Peter Pevensie. He is king, in my time, of the country adjacent to my own." She tilted her head. "Why would normality need to be a pretense?"

Isabel smiled, "Peter's a friend of mine. We were on StuCo together this past year. It was a lot of fun." She looked down, bringing up Fandom Wank. Reading about flame wars would count wouldn't it? "Mostly because I'm not a perfectly normal girl. And I didn't feel like dealing with it anymore."

"Why be normal, anyway," Aravis asked, peering at the screen, "when you can be extraordinary? Doing the expected is dull and usually not the most self-beneficial course of action."

"I like the way you think," she smiled. "Extraordinary. I'll have to remember that. Unfortunately being extraordinary where I'm from is a good way to wind up dead. Thus the desire to just be normal."

Isabel pointed at the screen, "This is a website devoted to mocking flame wars and other bits of internet stupidity usually related to the fandom of a particular book or movie or other entertainment related thing."

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