[MR] Random thoughts on recent postings - 2 topics

[Karen Summerfelt-Hume]

Greetings All,

    After spending some time reading through a majority of the recent posts
I thought I'd share some ideas/comments on them.
1. The assorted versions of the Merry Rose thread.
     We ran the gamut on levels of courtesy on that one and that's actually
quite natural.  What is frustrating is the inabiity, in many cases, of
reading into the post the proper nuance and emotion behind the senders
post.  It is not always obvious to the casual observer that the writer is
joking.  You can only do so much with punctuation, full caps, abbreviations
(many of which make no sense to some of us) and  other methods of attempting
to get across a message that is meant to be read as something other than
just a statement.  The simple solution is to think before you respond and
always respond in a civil fashion.  I would suggest putting the disclaimer
JUST JOKING FOLKS in large letters and full caps at the end but that seems
silly and not everyone reads every message in its entirety.  Mostly I think
too many people shoot from the lip and the fires start.  Just think before
you hit SEND, please.

2.  The flurry of 'How To' comments for dealing with everything from cooking
to flushing caused me to think we just might do ourselves a kindness for
future emergency situations if folks collected and compiled solutions and
suggestions for dealing with disasters such as floods and hurricanes.  One
thing I noticed was the difference in how people could deal with emergency
situations depending on where they lived and what resources they could tap
into.  SCAdians live in all forms of housing and neighborhoods, at varying
levels of financial status and varying physical capabilities. Wells vs
public water, apartment to suburban home to farm, pets and children or not,
Coastal or inland, high ground or sea level - those are all things that will
affect how you need to respond to an impending disaster. So it should most
likely be a broad spectrum list.  If folks would be interested in such a
list I'd be happy to get it started.  It wouldn't be fancy unless someone
with lots more computer savvy than I have would help but perhaps it would
help someone next time Atlantia experienced a natural disaster.
    * I was delighted to see how many folks found ways to reuse items like
the 5 gallon plastic buckets or kitty litter containers as opposed to going
out and buying something similar that was created and labeled for a specific
situation.   For those who haven't had or used one - the portable, chemical
camping toilets are wonderful!  The only drawback to them is they've
streamlined the design so you really need to put the potty on a raised
platform or stand for ease of use.  So sayeth one whose knees are creaky and
cantankerous.

Just my 2 Tugriks worth.  I also have my own collection of helpful hints to
share.... it's a start.  It's 3:00 in northern Bright Hills and the sun is
out but the wind is frisky, still.  We've had a lot of wind and rain but not
overwhelming stuff.  Minor power blips - just enough to have to reset the
clocks, again.  Time to look to those who got hit badly and see what we can
do for them.

Chagan