the slack daily

So, the Cast of LA Metblogs Walks Into a Bar...

Last night, I had the pleasure of tagging along to an LA Metblog author/reader meetup at Father's Office in Culver City.  I say "tagging along" as although I am a reader of LA Metblog, I was there to support my husband, also known as the 8-Track Kid (because there are multiple Wills who write for them - in addition to my Will there's Will Campbell, Wil Wheaton, Will Keightley and...I think that's it.  Mea culpa if I missed a Will.)  We ran into the lovely and charming Tammara in line, and once inside found David Markland and Will Keightley. 

Once inside, I attempted to purchase my own libations of the alcoholic variety until David told me to shut the hell up, there was a tab open.  When David tells you do to stuff, you listen. Refreshments procured, we began the process of looming menacingly over people's tables, and like the Germans, slowly invaded seat by seat. 

I had the opportunity to finally meet the Travis Kaplow (she'll always be Kerplow! to me) and the Mike Winder, and I saw the Sean Bonner and the Matt Mason from afar (apologies if I missed anyone!), but the picnic-style seating wasn't conducive to large-scale mingling.  Toward the end of the night, David Markland said that he had a surprise...

He was raffling off a Los Angeles Moleskine.  Slips of paper and pens were handed out.

I couldn't possibly, I don't even write for Metblogs, I said as I handed the paper down the line.

Oh, you're fine, everyone assured me.  And you comment! Just enter!

But I'm a freeloader!

Shut up and enter, David told me.  If you win, then you have to mention LA Metblogs on your blog.

Okay.

Your most popular blog.

Mention LA Metblog in my most popular blog?  Done! I handed my folded slip of paper with my name on it back.  There were close to ten of us sitting there when Will Campbell (have you seen his Tortoisecam?) reached into the hat.

And the winner is...

He looked at the slip of paper.

Slackmistress!

Okay, so maybe there is such a thing as a free lunch.  Or free drinks and prizes.

Thanks, LA Metblog!  (And did you know they're on Twitter?)

No Free Lunch.

One of the benefits of being an unemployed writer is that people always offer you writing work.  It's rare that a week goes by that I don't field some sort of offer to ghostwrite a book, pen a screenplay, assemble a television pitch or rewrite dialogue.  They've always found me through LinkedIn or MediaMatch or Variety's the Biz.

This week's contestants:

1. Person #1: 

Respectful, returns emails, inquires about my rate, is eager to discuss the project.  

2. Person #2: 

Offers me work on an "exciting project" that happens to be their screenplay. Does not inquire about my rate, tells me "it's all there except the story."  When I discuss payment am simultaneously told that a "writer" should work for "art's sake."  Explain that landlady is not willing to be paid in half-finished screenplays and discuss my hourly and project rate.  Receive an email in return insisting that they can hire the guy who works at the gas station for $5 an hour.   Respond saying that I hope to see him and Union 76 on the Oscar stage next year.

I'll let you guess which offer I receive more frequently.

I've done some writing work for causes I believe in, but that's a case where I've intentionally donated my time in a volunteer effort.  But why do people expect writers (and artists, and web designers, and filmmakers, and bloggers, and etc. etc. etc.) to work as a hired gun for no money?

Do you work for free?

...

Me to Will, last night:

You know what I think one of the secrets is to a healthy relationship?  You hate the same people.

...

Elsewhere around the web:

• I am anti-education. (See the comment on the left, and my response.)
• Will has Things To Do on a Friday Night.
• I can only offer you things to do on a Saturday night: BetheMarriage LIVE! (On Ice!) will be headed your way Saturday night, 9PST.  Check it out at Stickam.
• Tomorrow night The Doctor is In with yours truly.
• When Good Things Happen to Good People:  My friend Tomas' movie The American Mall is almost upon us - and is already in Sears!
• When Good Things, Part Two: TC gets into Moorpark College's Exotic Animal Training Program!
• Piglet reviews our first LiveCast.
• I've got stuff going on over at Antisocial Networking.  No really, go see!

My New Blog!

Ladies and gents, I present to you the blog that I've been cheating on you with:

 

Antisocial Networking

It's part Geeks' Guide to Girls, but instead of just talking about Nerdboys in the dating world, it's about online (and offline) socializing for the socially awkward (or shy!)  Specifically:

Remember when the Internet was a safe haven for the socially awkward? With the advent of social networking, we're expected to be honing our social skills online and off.    Antisocialnetworking is a little bit of Nerdvana: a place to ask questions and wax poetic about the politics of dating and relating in a social networking world with your host and Nerd Yenta, the slackmistress.

For anyone who's ever said to me man, I wish I could help you with that whole writing thing, here's your chance.  I pitched this idea to the fabulous folks at Uber.com and they created the site for me.  I am not getting paid, but this is my first opportunity to prove to a company that I've got an audience out there who's interested in what I say.  (As opposed to this blog and The Post-Apocalyptic Workout, which is really just about impressing my mom.

So check it out and pass the word!  You don't have to be an Uber.com member to read it, but if you love me, you'll set up a profile and join in the conversation.

Yes, I will still be blogging here.  (As if I could stop!)

 

Loveyoumeanit,

the slackmistress

 

These are a Few of my Favorite Nerds.

My friend, fellow blogger, and career Democrat Greg Dewar has more blogs than I do.  There's Greg Dewar.com, the N-Judah Chronicles, and the N-Judah Sideshow.  However, it's his latest blog that I believe that will be of some interest to my readers who are fans of the BSG.

My fellow Americans, are you unhappy with our current crop of Presidential Candidates?  Are you looking for a leader with a larger worldview?  Look no further:

Adama for President!

Separated at Birth?

WLTV's Gary Vaynerchuk brings the thunder:

UFC's Matt Serra will hopefully bring the thunder in the next couple of minutes:

Edited to add: damn, that was BS. Yeah, he was losing, but they called it way too early. 

For the Birds!

This morning, Will and I collapsed on the couch with the remnants of last night's dinner and a Wonderdog, watching Nature's Engineers 2 on the History Channel.  We learned about Trapdoor Spiders and Naked Mole Rats, but it was really the behavior of the Great Hornbill that I found the most intriguing. 

According the show, when building a nest, the Hornbill creates a cavity in the trunk of a tree with its impressive beak.  While the female waits at home, the male goes out, swallows mud, and regurgitates it b to the female.  She will then mud-vomit to seal the opening to the nest, proving that nature is eerily similar to a sitcom family where mom knows best and dad's just a buffoon mud-puker.

The female Hornbill leaves only a small slit in the opening to protect her brood from the outside world, while dad is charged with the responsibility of finding food and bringing it back to the nest.  Mom can stay inside for up to three to four months.

How does she not go crazy? I ask Will.

So you don't want me to go out and swallow mud?

I thought about it for a second. Y'know, with the kids it sounds like a hostage situation.  Without, it sounds like heaven.

...

Things have been teetering on the edge of crazy here a Slack World Headquarters.  Remember how I wrote the other day about losing my freelance job?  I managed to pick up another freelance gig with them.  But it's one where time is of the essence, and I'm essentially on-call.  My friend S. also hooked me up with her husband's company, making sales calls and helping them with their online marketing.

Nina's List of Jobs:

1. Gym, part-time at the front desk.
2. Bill Foundation, Volunteer Coordinator.
3. Unnamed Website, Customer Service Rep.
4. Phone Sales, medical software.
5. Online Marketing, medical software.
6. Printing scripts, mailing scripts, emailing people about upcoming pilots, pitches, etc.

Nina's List of Blogs:

1. The Slack Daily.
2. The Post-Apocalyptic Workout. (With accompanying workout)
3. New blog, to premiere soon, half Geeks' Guide to Girls  and half Social Networking Yenta.

What Nina should really be doing:

1. Writing.
2. Writing.
3. Writing.

I've wondered to myself if it would make more sense to just get a regular full-time job, and write on the side instead of trying to fit it into the various nooks and crannies that I now use to sleep.  Except that finding a full-time job is a full-time endeavor.  While there are things that I think I can apply my skill set to, there are plenty of people that don't believe that it translates.  I've dug myself into odd little hole of a whole bunch of odd jobs.  Which pretty much makes me like the majority of writers out there: figuring out a way to balance earning a living and making time to write.

Will said I reminded him of Hey, Mon:

So I'm here, I swear.  I'm trying to keep up with your blogs and your twitters and your email, but mostly? I'm just working.

If You're Not on the Internet, Do You Really Exist?

Last night Will and I had the pleasure of meeting up with James, Eden, and Marjorie for dinner and bubbly to toast James' new digs. Partway through the evening Marjorie was lamenting the fact that she had a on of photos to upload to Flickr.  I mean, just because I didn't put it on Flickr doesn't mean it didn't happen! 

I laughed, but agreed.  It hasn't been my intention to post less and less, although I feel like it more and more.  I wonder when I drop off for a couple of days if readers think I'm doing less, which is ludicrous because usually bloggers drop off the landscape because they're doing more.  Because attempting to balance living one's life and recording it is a never-ending teeter-totter, attempting to be both Boswell and Johnson.

I thought about this all this morning as I caught up on the previous week's blogs and ran across Sue Shellenbarger's Wall Street Journal profile of the incredibly-popular Dooce, aka Heather Armstrong.  The article discusses the fact that  Dooce sought therapy to deal with hate mail (she now prints it out and runs it over) and how being a living, breathing commodity has put a huge strain on her marriage and her family.  Shellenbarger writes:

But less obvious is the behind-the-scenes price an at-home mom pays to shoulder her way to prominence in the blogosphere -- giving up her privacy, sustained time off and any remnants of work-family boundaries at all.

This isn't just about Dooce, this is about all of us.  In a technological landscape where privacy is a hot-button topic, I feel like bloggers/Twitters/Social Networkers/Flickrers forget that you don't have to do this.  Your life can still be full and wonderful and meaningful if you don't share it with the Internet.  We choose to do this.  We are our own first defense.  We decide what we share with Internet-Community-at-Large (don't make me say blogsophere!) 

Sure, sometimes the seeds we plant grow relationships and causes and communities. 

But if you chum the waters, don't be surprised if you attract sharks.

That's not to say that hate mail is okay or warranted.  I've received a disproportionate amount for my level of visibility in the blogosphere. (There, I said it! Happy now?)  But if blogging is detrimental to your mental and physical health? The computer does have an off switch.  Use it.

Not Truthy, Just Lazy.

Notes:

1. Dear Crafters: I kid because I love. I am crafty only in the Beastie Boys sense, so I am jealous of people who can Make Stuff.
2. As if the screen grab above isn't hot enough, check out the one at YouTube.
3. JustJENN Designs can be found here.
4. The Self-Portrait Truthiness Project can be found here.
5. I am trying out Viddler, because you can make comments within the video, and I think that's just peachy.  However, I will continue to use and upload at YouTube and blip.tv if you'd prefer to watch there.  I'm good that way.

All in the SlackFamily.

Saturday, 2:34pm.  Duke's in Malibu.

SlackDad: We've been here before.

Me: A couple of times.  We used to always come here when you guys visited.

SlackDad (opening menu): What did I get last time?

Me: I think you had the Shrimp and Crab Louie.

SlackDad: Did I like it?

Me: I don't know.

SlackMom: You won't like it.

SlackDad: How would you know?

SlackMom (reading menu) : It says that it has egg, tomato, peppers, avocado, black olives, and shellfish.

SlackDad: So?

SlackMom: You don't like egg, tomato, avocado or black olives.

SlackDad: What are you getting?

SlackMom: I'm getting the Coconut Shrimp.

SlackDad: That looks good.

SlackMom: Why don't you get that?

SlackDad: Don't tell me what to get! I'll get what I want!

SlackMom: Okay.

Waiter: Can I take your order?

SlackDad: I'll have the Shrimp and Crab Louie.

After lunch...

Me: How was your food?

SlackDad: It was good.  But I think next time I'd get what your mom got.

SlackMom: /headdesk


...

I'm honored to have the slack daily included in the"Life" section and The Post-Apocalyptic Workout in the "Health" listings at Guy Kawasaki's new project, Alltop, which he's described as a sort of online magazine rack.  Make sure to check out the other Alltop sites (including friend-o-slackmistress Citizen of the Month!)

Miss My Face?

Then check The Post-Apocalyptic Workout.