First, read the criticism, and

First, read the criticism, and flame up inside. Like a gas burner that you turn the gas on first, and then strike a match--you see the flame catch a bit, then a split second later you see the rest of the gas catch in a small explosion. Poof. Next, think of revenge. How to make the poor sucker pay. This step is the fork in the road, which I've taken both ways recently. To react to criticism poorly, act on these thoughts of revenge, call them a loser, stoop to their level, be what we expect you to be. Or, instead of trying to make the sucker pay, imagine that somehow you yourself had come up with the criticism, and that you were just pondering it for a bit. Would it be as offensive. Why make a sucker pay when they're offering you something for free. If the sucker's goal was to take you down a notch, what would be the best revenge than to actually take the criticism for what it is worth and first see if you should go down a notch (that would solve a lot of problems just by actually taking the person's advice, because some of the time they're right to some degree). What's so bad about the notch below that I get all snobby and self-righteous when someone tells me to go there. No, usually, I stay on my notch and pretend like I've gone down, see like now, I'm still sounding exactly the same as I've always sounded, and I can understand how it can sound pretentious. ... This is getting dull. The next step, after all this nonsense, is to of course give some outward sign of how you're going to respond to the criticism, with either a mean email, or a smoking post, and then people come to your defense and the critic retreats, most likely to watch on for a bit in hate and then to move on, la la, what's the point of all this. Well, if I'm going to sound pretentious I should at least try to back up my grand assumption of myself with some proof, and that will be happening soon, in the form of the redesign and with bustercafe. If at that point I still sound lame, then something will have to change.