On The Love of My Twenties: An Unexpurgated, Factual Account
This is one of those times when I'm grateful for how deeply and fundamentally uncool I am.
Also, nothing about "43 ... smelled like homemade deodorant and old paint and well whiskey; he had needle marks on his arms, and a line of brown dirt under his fingernails, and one missing front tooth" has anything to do with "that boy is fucking beautiful." I know beauty is a social construct and all, but DOES NOT COMPUTE.
Writer, I respect your unique world view!
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On Ask Polly: My Boyfriend's Ex Is Making My Life Hell
Oh man, LW2 is really hitting home for me. I'm not in such dire straits, but I'm finishing up my PhD now and the whole "no marketable skills" is so scary and true. I applied for part-time jobs constantly last year, and apparently being 27 with no retail experience is uninspiring to chain stores. I finally got a "job" with a private tutoring company, but every time it seems like they have a job for me it falls through. My committee is made up of kind people who never respond to or acknowledge my quarterly update emails and I doubt are writing me impassioned letters of rec.
LW2: Academic politics are weird and terrible, but you have a finely honed, very particular skill set. Don't undervalue that. What's your area? What can you do? Maybe a lot of knowledge of 16th century Russian legal disputes isn't transferable, but research skills, good writing, and intellectual rigor are useful things to have acquired! Also, have you read this? http://theprofessorisin.com/its-ok-to-quit/
Or this: http://chronicle.com/article/But-I-Have-No-Skills-/44924 ?
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On For Those Who Have Asked Politely About My "Novel"
@alorsenfants I also have two unfinished novels! One made it to 250 pages before collapsing under its own weight, one stalled at 130, and a novella (less ambitious goals!) broke down around 30 pages. I did, however, finish one rather overwrought short story. But who buys short stories?
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On 'Stranger In A Strange Land': Can You Grok That?
@Aumeh Alert THANK you. I read this when I was 14, and it filled me with blind rage. Possibly I was a somewhat conventional child and the idea of The Nest was unsettling to me, but I still maintain that there is nothing utopian about people's features gradually becoming the same (because how we look is exclusively relevant to who wants to have sex with us); that is creepy as hell. I also, to this day, do not understand whether the marvelous money-free cult, the existence of which depends upon the guy inheriting a jillion dollars from his parents, is intended to be ironic or not. Everything would be better if we didn't use money, so lets have a bunch of money so we don't have to use money? What political system does this reflect?
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On Twenty-Seven
I juuuuust turned 28, and I now find this article very depressing. It was... ok?
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On How Did You Get There, Vegan Fashion Designer Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart?
@Leanne Mai-ly Hm, ok, thanks! I buy 95% of my clothes secondhand, which makes me feel a little better, at least, about my money not going to support terrible industries (because practically speaking it's almost impossible to buy anything that isn't screwing someone somewhere: sweatshops! child labor! Dov Charney! single crop agriculture that rapes the earth! alternative materials whose production relies on awful chemicals! shipping companies where employees are virtual slaves!) but I see how that wouldn't cut it for some folks! ... I cannot fix anything.
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On How Did You Get There, Vegan Fashion Designer Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart?
Vegan fashion aficionados, educate me. I don't understand how wool is cruel to sheep. I feel like certain attitudes about animals are predicated on a Romantic pastoral narrative about Nature before the interference of humanity, when practically speaking a lot of domestic animals have evolved with/through the active interference of humanity. Sheep have been selectively bred to have extra thick warm wool. I was under the impression it was kind of crummy to have to scratch it all off on branches during the summer. If the problem is that wool comes from giant awful wool farms, then we should worry about making farms like that better, and not wearing wool at all is a more personal, political statement than it does practical good. So, why? Genuinely interested, here.
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On How to Watch "Battlestar Galactica"
@Bobby Womack I especially like when Fat Apollo gets in shape in maybe days and Adama shaves his mustache, signalling the end of BSG's THE DARKEST TIMELINE.
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On How to Watch "Battlestar Galactica"
SPOILERS. (VAGUE SPOILERS)
I want to do a different version of this, where we flat out rewrite the show (I'm sure this exists on the internet) starting with Completely Useless Characters: Dee. Anders. Cally. Tory. The whole concept of the Final Five, really, was kind of lazy. By Useless, I should say, I don't mean necessarily that I didn't like them, just that their entire point on the show was to prop up some ungainly corner of plot or serve as an obstacle.
I shipped Apollo and Starbuck hard in the miniseries, as I was intended to obvs, and I am a little ragey that the series mostly abandoned that in favor of Obstacles (pointless marriages to other people) and inconsistent character motivations.
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On The Love of My Twenties: An Unexpurgated, Factual Account
@bluewindgirl Awww, I just realized this is (obviously!) satire. I lose at the internets!