I'm very proud to be a native Texan but that doesn't mean I am a stereotypical Texan. I don't have much of a Texan drawl because my mom was a Shakespearean actress and taught me proper diction. Occasionally I will betray my roots by saying "y'all" or calling something "big ol'" or beginning or ending a sentence with "I tell you what" I don't say "fixin' ta" and I don't pronounce the "h" in vehicle. I don't wear blue jeans much, I don't own a pair or cowboy boots, and though I used to own a gun I sold it to buy another sea kayak. I didn't shoot it much anyway. I drive a nissan altima, not a pickup. I'm not into Country & Western music, at least not the Nashville sound, but I do like a few Texas musicians like Robert Earl Keen. Other than that, my musical taste is pretty varied - Sinatra, House Music and other Techno, classical, Jazz, esp Thelonius Monk and Miles Davis. I don't care much for sports but I'm actually more physically fit than most sports fans.

I dress conservatively but don't consider myself a conservative. I have a relationship with my God but he is the same God Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus and everyone else talks to, even if they don't know it. I don't need to go to a big building every Sunday (or ever) to keep this relationship up. I am an environmentalist, but also an environmental scientist, so I'm not one of those hippie freaks who doesn't know what he's talking about. Sometimes I side with the republicans (Limit welfare, Maintain free market capitalism with reasonable controls, Abolish Social Security), sometimes with more liberal groups (allow gay marriage, protect the environment)

My Rating Philosophy I joined Epinions just because I had a bad experience at The Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas and wanted to vent. Everyone else had focused on how shabby the hotel is, so I focused solely on how rude the staff is. I didn't want to invest any more time in the Riviera than I had to. I didn't care what rating or comments I got. I got a lot of SH's, a few H's. I eventually deleted the review, not because of the ratings, but because Riviera finally responded to the complaint letter I sent them with a free 2 night stay. I won't be using it, but they get an A for effort.

Now that I embraced the Epinions culture...I still don't care what people rate my reviews. Sure, I will look at a review and see if there is anything I missed, but if I think I covered the topic how I wanted to cover it, I won't knuckle under to all the SH's in the world. Look at my Joe's Stone Crab review. With the exception of a few VHs, it was rated H. I think part of it is I attacked an institution, and people didn't like that. That must be why no one left me any comments to suggest what the review was lacking.

Here is my take on Epinions after feeling like of got my feet under me now and am getting mostly VHs on my reviews. A lot of times people are more influenced by the ratings they see you've already gotten than their actual opinion of the review when they rate you. A couple of advisors give you am H (I'll deal with advisors later), and everyone else already decides you deserve and H, without a lot of independent thought. And as much as Epinions says it values negative opinions as much as positive ones, it's likely that your negative opinions will usually be rated lower than your positive opinions. I think this goes to human psychology. If people see that you like something they liked, or even something they didn't, they don't usually care. But if you didn't like something they did like, they will read your review, not like it just because they don't agree with it, and give you an SH or H. They will also leave comments. I'm not sure how Epinions can fix this anti-Negative Review bias. They probably can't.

I don't believe in giving you an SH or an H just because you blasted my favorite restaurant or vacationing place. I won't write you a nasty comment, either. What I will do is write my own competing review, and I'll make mine better than yours, poring over your inaccuracies and incomplete information. No, it won't be a direct attack or refutation of your review, but it will be a positive review that covers everything you attacked, and makes sure it also talks about points you missed. I think that is more potent than a bad rating of your review or a nasty comment on your review anyway.

Here is my take on the Advisors. Some of them are fair, intelligent, and openminded, and I add these to my web of trust. Some of them though, seem pretty pedantic, unwilling to accept correct but unorthodox writing styles, and often seem to glory in their own perceived power. Also, Advisors are human beings, and just as prone to bias against negative reviews of their favorite things as anyone else. I've learned to take advisors' advice for what it is worth - some give very good advice, some do not, but it is yours to take, they couldn't force you to take it and most probably wouldn't want to. I don't get like a treed possum if I get some criticism, I stop and consider whether or not the criticism is fair.