TBogg, on his way to another casually brilliant takedown of self-obsessed “citizen journalists” like Malkin, the Breitbrats, and “the wingnut welfare sinecure of Tucker Carlson’s play-date watering hole”:
… I will have been blogging for ten (10!) years this September and yet when I hear someone proudly identify themselves as a “blogger” I still inwardly cringe because it’s kind of a doofy thing to advertise, much like, say, telling strangers on the bus that you spend your weekends participating in Civil War reenactments or blurting out to your family and friends over Thanksgiving dinner that you’re furry-curious.
Some things are best kept to yourself.
Sherman Alexie, genuine professional writer person, in his latest “Text From South Lake Union” (blog!) column in Seattle’s Stranger:
… [L]ike other folks with lousy job histories, I have zero sense of company loyalty. I have no clue why my tech friends work 70-hour weeks for Microsoft. Or why my attorney friends work 80-hour weeks for their law firms.
And then I remember that a writer’s life has no healthy boundaries between home and work or between the public and private.
I am employed by my substantial ego. I work 19 hours a day. And my employee ID is my rage and self-involvement.
So… besides rage and self-involvement, what’s on the agenda for the end of the weekend?
jayboat
‘Graffiti with punctuation’ for the motherphuckin’ win.
Comrade Mary
How come nobody ever told me that Sacha Baron Cohen could sing?
Southern Beale
Went to the movies, saw Men In Black in 3D, nice little bit of escapism. So, hopped out to go to the bathroom and heard in the hallway a mom explaining to her 10-year-old who Vanilla Ice is. I think he has a cameo in that new Adam Sandler movie? Anyway, she said, “He’s from Mommy and Daddy’s generation.”
That made me feel really really old.
Southern Beale
Kinda reminds me that WWII nostalgia is going to become ever more mythologized as the people who were actually alive back then die off.
Yutsano
Sherman Alexie is an awesome writer. He’s very good to read if you’re ever interested in Native issues.
henqiguai
Frack! It’s Sunday evening, again.
gogol's wife
As an academic who at this time of year gets heartily sick of being asked, “So now you’re off for the whole summer?” by all the non-academics who have no idea that I have never taken even a weekend off since I was in college, I sympathize with Alexie.
Violet
I’m trying to motivate myself to go outside and work in the garden. It’s miserably hot and I don’t feel like it. But it would be a good day and time to do it, as it’s late enough in the day that the heat isn’t brutal, and the forecast calls for rain tomorrow, so those long beans I keep meaning to put in might get a good soaking if I do so today.
But it’s hot. And I’ve already taken a shower and don’t really feel like taking another shower, which I’d have to do if I do any outside work today.
So I ate some chocolate instead.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I’m a software developer who works and then comes home and reads all kinds of things to improve my programming ability. While I get paid a fairly good rate, because I work more than the typical 8/9 hour day, I feel like I should be earning more, especially when I compare what I write to what some of those around me write. There’s no way I would slack off, though.
Yutsano
@Violet:
I wholeheartedly approve of this.
Tonight is steaks and Mom bragging on her horses winning at the horse show this weekend. Oh and NYD is gone for two weeks. This is me not trying to climb the walls.
Violet
@Yutsano:
Does your mom know Ann Romney? Wait…is your mom Ann Romney?
Kristine
Squeezing the last few hours of daylight out of what turned out to be a lovely day. Out on the deck. Don’t wanna go inside. I usually try to stay out until the bats come out. I love watching them dart overhead.
Yutsano
@Violet: Fortunately not a dressage horse show. Peruvian pasos don’t bother with that nonsense.
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
distance makes the heart grow fonder? or somesuch? Hang in there, I know how hard that can be.
RossInDetroit
Working on a project for magazine publication. I can throw together a little item like this device in 90 minutes, but describing how other people should do it, with pictures, documentation and text takes weeks. But that’s show biz.
Comrade Mary
@Yutsano: Peruvian Pasos have a gorgeous natural gait, and MLP-esque manes and tails. Pretty!
ms badger
Paso Finos used to scare the crap out of my bitty quarter horse (17 H, 1300 lbs) cause they walked funny. Made him nervous as did pretty much life. Tons of fun on a terrified horse of that size.
Violet
@Yutsano: Who or what is NYD? Sorry he/she/it is gone. Hopefully the time will go fast. How’s your back.
Peruvian Pasos – lovely!
@efgoldman:
Indeed! I’m still toying with going outside since we’ve got an hour and a half of daylight left. It’s a nice time to work in the yard.
Earlier I indulged by having a bowl of Blue Bell Red Velvet ice cream. Amazing! I’ve tried the Ben and Jerry’s version and was unimpressed. A friend told me this one was excellent, so I picked up a half gallon when it was on sale. If I’m not careful, I’m going to eat the whole thing.
Josie
@Comrade Mary: My middle son was heavily involved in dramatic pursuits until he gave it up to go to law school. From my experience with him and his cohorts, it is safe to assume that anyone involved in the performing arts can act, sing and dance and maybe even wrestle alligators (just kidding about the last one). They have to be able to do any of the above at a moment’s notice to even have a chance at making a living.
Yutsano
@Valdivia: It’s advancing his career and will facilitate his MOS change. So my mind totally understands why this is good. But this will be the longest time I haven’t talked to him. I’m trying like mad not to let that get to me.
@Comrade Mary: The best part of the gaits are how smooth they are riding. And they can go for hundreds of miles in that gait. Plus they’re all nuzzlers.
kideni
@gogol’s wife: Seriously. I’m a freelance editor and I don’t think I’ve taken a vacation without a manuscript in the entire fifteen years I’ve been doing this — my family members joke about it. And in the six years before I got into publishing, I was a grad student and never had a summer off in any recognizable way. I get to spend my weekends trying to fix sentences like “The 70sih Reynolds 70 at the time, hit crashed the ball a drive to the green” (nouns and verbs modified to protect confidentiality, but cut-and-paste errors preserved in their essence).
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
I so so get that. We are here for support whenever you need.
gogol's wife
@kideni:
But somehow when you say, “I’m working at home,” they get this little smirk that says, “Oh, I get it.” That’s not really work!
Yutsano
@Violet: NYD means New York Dawg. He’s from the city and he’s a Marine. But NYD is easier to type.
JPL
@Violet: Blue Bell used to make the best peaches and cream. The reason I said used to is because I haven’t had it years. Now I just add my own peaches.
BGinCHI
@gogol’s wife: True that. Summer is for writing and recharging of batteries. Oh, and summer teaching, advising students, working on departmental things for next year, and a lot of other stuff.
I wish I was sipping rose in the Pyrenees or at a cafe in Collioure, but it just ain’t reality.
Violet
@Yutsano:
Ah, okay. I don’t think I was aware of a Dawg of any kind, let alone a New York variety.
SiubhanDuinne
@Southern Beale:
Here’s how old your anecdote made me feel: I thought you were talking about Milli Vanilli.
Violet
@JPL:
Blue Bell is just darn good ice cream. Their Peaches ‘n Cream is excellent.
So Rodney King is dead.
And the Southern Baptists are electing their first black president. Where will all the racists go now?
Anne Laurie
@Yutsano:
Seconded. And if you haven’t seen Smoke Signals, you’ve missed a great movie.
Mr Stagger Lee
@Violet: First a Black President of the United States, now a Black President of the Southern Baptist, if I live to see a Black President of the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints(and my head would explode at that news),I truly will have lived in interesting times.
kc
I can’t figure out how to convert my rage and self-involvement to cash.
Linnaeus
@gogol’s wife:
The best thing about being an academic is that you can work 16 hours a day anywhere you want.
PurpleGirl
@Violet: Eating chocolate is always good.
burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
Dude, are you back in town? Free for dinner on Wednesday? The kid and I are flying in late Wednesday afternoon for registration and related crap at Cornish on Thursday and Friday.
burnspbesq
I may have to go watch some NBA Finals. Apparently my boy Shane is doing shit. I may have to root for Miami, just to see all the Dook-haters’ heads explode when Shane is named MVP.
jesus h. tapdancing christ
Rage and self-involvement.
I think we have a new tagline.
gwangung
@burnspbesq: Your kid is going to Cornish? Congrats. May they do well enough never to get cast in any of my shows….
Schlemizel
I envy bloggers who are secure enough to step out as themselves. Life has led me to a career of contract work and I really do not feel like I can be myself if I am myself. All it would take is some yahoo that would google me & decide that he doesn’t like my opinions so no contract for me.
I don’t keep a facebook acct in my real name so the only thing you will find with my name on it is some older papers I wrote when I worked for NASA years ago and a linkedin account I use to seine for work.
kindness
Grilling pork ribs. St. Louis cut.
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
He was at the LA Times Festival of Books years ago and did a hilarious speech about how he could understand all of the hatreds except anti-gay hatred. After all, whites would beat the crap out of blacks, so blacks would retaliate, and so would whites and Indians, whites and Hispanics, etc. So there was always someone who was trying to get revenge for what the other guy did. But who was retaliating from the gay community? Why did attacking them make any sense at all?
Okay, my summary of it doesn’t make it sound very funny, but his speech was great. The crowd was rolling in the aisles.
Jamey
Sorry, rage and self-involvement are all I got. That and two kids whom I taught how to canoe earlier…
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@kideni: Freelance editor? How do you get a gig doing that? I’m the rewrite man for proposals and reports in my division, and I’d be interested in expanding my horizons. (Also an English Lit sorta minor way back when.)
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@BGinCHI:
It’s still a better setup than the rest of us professionals have. For me, Summer is just the same old grind: chasing work, writing proposals, managing staff, trying to keep the billable hours up, keeping clients happy. A summer to do a little research, catch up on what’s going on in my line of work, and maybe write a paper? Without sweating where I have to charge my time? Even at 50 hours a week, that would be heaven.
JGabriel
Sherman Alexie:
Wow. I have the temperament to become a professional writer!
I need to get on that. Seriously.
.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: I shan’t be back until the 26th. However after that I’m good. Probably won’t get the driving clearance until Friday.
JoyfulA
@kideni: I’ve been a freelance editor for nearly 30 years and remember hauling around thousands of pages of work wherever I went. Word files are easier!
It’s a good life, except for having to acquire health insurance.
S. cerevisiae
Sherman Alexie fucking rocks. That is all.