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Daily Archives: February 9, 2011
12 posts
I know how excited everyone is to jump into the fray here, and write posts, and add cat videos and help us find the location of Osama bin Laden.
I like your enthusiasm! (Slaps you on the butt.)
That said…. please, please, please try to be patient with little bugs you find or requests for author accounts or whatever issues you’re having. This isn’t Gawker Media. We don’t have a team of incompetent professionals handling technical issues. We have a team of one incompetent amateur working on solving all these problems. So bear with me.
- If you requested an author account, I’m not ignoring you. I’ll be setting you all up tonight.
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I just saw a comment on Gawker CT, wherein I got name-checked by someone I’ve largely considered to be an obnoxious troll. (She was addressing the CT community at large.)
I have to admit that what she said made sense to me. There is a fine line between enjoyment and addiction, and maybe CT was more of the latter for many of us.
I feel very grateful to Botswana and everyone else who has been sustaining Crasstalk, because this seems like it might be a more creative (and more balanced) alternative to Gawker.
After you read the following quote from Total Package (!!), I would appreciate it if you would share your own thoughts/insights regarding the fine line between enjoyment and addiction. (Does not need to be specifically related to the internet; any life experiences you’d like to share are most welcome.
“You people are all acting like a bunch of low rent, trailer trash tranny hookers who just got their dimebag of black tar heroin taken away from them by their pimp for not turning enough tricks. LISTEN TO YOURSELVES!!! You can’t tell your anus from your mouth cause you are spouting shit out of both of them all day long!!! You are totally addicted to this site!!! (And I dont mean just you Salome Valentine…we all know how many times you’ve tried to pull yourself away.) Why not use this screwup as a final attempt to break free from your addiction. Otherwise if you are willing to stick with Gawker even after this mess you are slaves for life.”
What do you think?
A few years ago, I decided to stop being a hopeless fuckup. “But SiS,” you might say. “You seem so smart! You know so much! You’re definitely a contributing member of society!”
Except when I wasn’t. I spent years being what might charitably called “a gigantic fucking mess.” A trainwreck, if you will. So when I discovered science – first molecular biology, and then neuroscience – it was a little like if dead John Candy dug himself out of the ground and decided to become a figure skater. My friends laughed that humoring, slightly sarcastic laugh you laugh when your couch potato friend announces she’s going to start going to the gym every day. A 1 in 10,000 chance. Maybe 1 in 100,000. Maybe lower.
But fuck those guys, and fuck my natural tendency towards intellectual sloth, and fuck my natural sleep schedule of 4 AM to noon, and fuck the fact that I’m so distracted I frequently forget to eat or shower, and fuck the fact that my hands used to shake so bad I could barely tie my shoes, let alone direct a miniscule pipet tip into a tiny well in a block of gelatin. Fuck difficultly. Fuck self-doubt. Fuck embarrassment over asking a dumb question, over showing up at a professor’s office hours to ask him if he believes in free will, over needing help, over failure, over crying from stress and exhaustion, over saying no to every offer to go out during the week, over lifting my legs up to let the library janitor vacuum under me at 1 AM.
I didn’t find Jesus. I didn’t get myself a boyfriend. I didn’t start with a new therapist. I didn’t do it for my family, or my friends, or my (theoretical) kids. I didn’t make excuses. I didn’t listen to anybody.
If I can go from a druggie waste of oxygen to a neuroscience student, then you can do anything. You just have to find what you love. It’s out there.
Hi all. Welcome to Crasstalk. Here’s a couple stories from the usual sources. Continue reading
Your place for NSFW hump-day posting below! Continue reading
To know me is to know that I’m a big fan of Pete Yorn.
While flipping through a music magazine, I discovered the then-new artist thanks to an advertisement for his album, musicforthemorningafter
After listening to the album, my shallowness was set aside because I fell in love with the music and lyrics. From start to finish, songs such as “Life on a Chain,” “Lose You, ” and “For Nancy (‘Cos It Already Is)” are so good that even my friends who aren’t huge PY fans will admit. To think this album was his debut effort is somewhat unreal when looking back.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve seen PY perform all over the U.S. in small bookstores to large venues. He started out with a small group of very loyal fans and that base has grown significantly over the years. Fortunately, he’s still a great friend to his fans via Facebook and Twitter. Plus, he’s a really nice guy and you have to root for the nice guys in the music industry. He also puts his albums out on vinyl for people like me who still own a turntable and actually use it.
In March, as part of the 10th anniversary of MFTMA, PY will be performing the album in its entirety as part of his setlist during his spring tour. Thankfully, the shows I’m attending are part of the stops where the album will be played.
Hearing the album in its entirety means I get to relive some of the fun live moments I’ve had over the years. There are some songs that aren’t regularly performed during his shows that will once again see the light of day.
Still, what I’m most excited about is the ability to return to that time 10 years ago when I was just listening to the album for the first time and slowly, but surely becoming a PY fan for life.
This may or may not become an ongoing series, depending on what info I can get away with posting about showbusiness without blowing my anonymity or getting in hot water with industry types. I figured I’d start out with something quite tame: the great Bette Davis discussing the biz with Dick Cavett.
After the recent incidents with Spider-Man on Broadway with actors getting flung about like so many water balloons at a sugar jonesing 4-year-old’s birthday party, I do agree with Ms. Davis’ assertion that it is important for actors to be very firm in stating what they will or won’t do, otherwise producers will absolutely take advantage of you. I understand all too well the burning desire to land roles – any roles – but at some point you remember your dignity and begin to fear for your sanity and safety, and realize that it’s not worth sacrificing anything for what is sometimes only dubiously called “art.”
And isn’t the internet magical? Ms. Davis talks about late-night television giving her a second wave in her career. Now clips like this live online for as long as there is server space to keep the tide rolling.
Great news, folks! Now you can embed YouTube videos in your comments. All you have to do is click the little “Embed Video” button right above the reply box and paste in the video’s URL.
Enjoy!
P.S. If you’re still having trouble posting images in your comments, know that it’s SUPER easy. All you have to do is type in:
<img src=”URL OF IMAGE”>
That’s it!
Good Morning gang. Continue reading