Last night, I dressed in a skin tight black undergarment that showed off my size 4 curves and pushed up my C-cup breasts. I slipped into black fishnets and fuck-me pumps, and painted my face, neck & chest in effective smears of black, red & blue (bruiseprints around my esophagus) and freshly-stitched, slightly bloody scars (including one that ran down my chest, as if my heart had been cut from me); like a woman beaten to death by love. I billed my Halloween self a “zombie whore,” and received delicious appreciation from all species at both big soirees.
Boo.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Friday, October 28, 2005
There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws..."
"...would not deserve hanging ten times in his life." -Michel de Montaigne
Monday, October 24, 2005
Any small contribution I can make to the proud and burgeoning tradition of Procrastination in America...
WHAT BLOGS COST AMERICAN BUSINESS
In 2005, Employees Will Waste 551,000 Work Years Reading ThemOctober 24, 2005
By Bradley Johnson
LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Blog this: U.S. workers in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years reading blogs.
Currently, the time employees spend reading non-work blogs is the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs.
About 35 million workers -- one in four people in the labor force -- visit blogs and on average spend 3.5 hours, or 9%, of the work week engaged with them, according to Advertising Age’s analysis. Time spent in the office on non-work blogs this year will take up the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs. Forget lunch breaks -- bloggers essentially take a daily 40-minute blog break.
Bogged down in blogs
While blogs are becoming an accepted part of the media sphere, and are increasingly being harnessed by marketers -- American Express last week paid a handful of bloggers to discuss small business, following other marketers like General Motors Corp. and Microsoft Corp. into the blogosphere -- they are proving to be competition for traditional media messages and are sapping employees’ time.
Bosses accept some screwing off as a cost of doing business; it keeps employees happy and promotes camaraderie. Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, said blogs have become the favored diversion for “office goof-off time,” though he notes it’s hard to segregate blog time since blogs often bounce readers to professional media sites.
But at the end of the day, more blogging means less working. Jonathan Gibs, senior research manager at Nielsen/NetRatings, said at-work blog time probably comes in addition to regular surfing -- meaning more time on the Web but less time on the job.
Expansion of online behavior“Since for the most part blog readers tend to be the most engaged readers of online content,” he said, “they do not appear, at least for now, to be sacrificing time from their favorite news sites. Instead, it looks like blog usage is in addition to existing online behavior.”
Some blogs do relate to work, but deciding just how relevant they are to the employer is open to debate. For this analysis, Ad Age chose a simple score: Count all business blog traffic, half of tech and media blogs and one-fourth of political/news blogs as directly related to work.
Based on ComScore’s tally of blog categories, this suggests just 25% of blog visits directly connect to the job. Employees this year will spend 4.8 billion work hours absorbing wisdom from other blogs that may enlighten visitors but not amuse the boss.
Wasted time
Hard and detailed data on blogging time is limited, so Ad Age’s analysis is a best-guess extrapolation done by reviewing blog-related surveys and data. By Ad Age estimates:
Work time spent reading and posting to blogs this year will consume 2.2% of U.S. labor force hours.
Work time spent at blogs unrelated to work will eat up 1.65% of labor force hours.
There is strong evidence of workday blogging. Server traffic for Blogads, a network of sites that take ads, spikes during business hours, reflecting page views on about 900 blogs. FeedBurner, a blog technology company, also sees a jump in work-time hits.
Workday traffic patterns
“Traffic rockets at 8 a.m. EST, peaks at 5 p.m. EST and then slides downward until L.A. leaves the office,” said Blogads founder Henry Copeland. “You see the same thing in the collapse of traffic on weekends. … Bottom line: At work, people can’t watch TV or prop up their feet and read a newspaper, but they sure do read blogs.”
And they create and post to them. Technorati, a blog search engine, now tracks 19.6 million blogs, a number that has doubled about every five months for the past three years. If that growth were to continue, all 6.7 billion people on the planet will have a blog by April 2009. Imagine the work that won’t get done then.
In 2005, Employees Will Waste 551,000 Work Years Reading ThemOctober 24, 2005
By Bradley Johnson
LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Blog this: U.S. workers in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years reading blogs.
Currently, the time employees spend reading non-work blogs is the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs.
About 35 million workers -- one in four people in the labor force -- visit blogs and on average spend 3.5 hours, or 9%, of the work week engaged with them, according to Advertising Age’s analysis. Time spent in the office on non-work blogs this year will take up the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs. Forget lunch breaks -- bloggers essentially take a daily 40-minute blog break.
Bogged down in blogs
While blogs are becoming an accepted part of the media sphere, and are increasingly being harnessed by marketers -- American Express last week paid a handful of bloggers to discuss small business, following other marketers like General Motors Corp. and Microsoft Corp. into the blogosphere -- they are proving to be competition for traditional media messages and are sapping employees’ time.
Bosses accept some screwing off as a cost of doing business; it keeps employees happy and promotes camaraderie. Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, said blogs have become the favored diversion for “office goof-off time,” though he notes it’s hard to segregate blog time since blogs often bounce readers to professional media sites.
But at the end of the day, more blogging means less working. Jonathan Gibs, senior research manager at Nielsen/NetRatings, said at-work blog time probably comes in addition to regular surfing -- meaning more time on the Web but less time on the job.
Expansion of online behavior“Since for the most part blog readers tend to be the most engaged readers of online content,” he said, “they do not appear, at least for now, to be sacrificing time from their favorite news sites. Instead, it looks like blog usage is in addition to existing online behavior.”
Some blogs do relate to work, but deciding just how relevant they are to the employer is open to debate. For this analysis, Ad Age chose a simple score: Count all business blog traffic, half of tech and media blogs and one-fourth of political/news blogs as directly related to work.
Based on ComScore’s tally of blog categories, this suggests just 25% of blog visits directly connect to the job. Employees this year will spend 4.8 billion work hours absorbing wisdom from other blogs that may enlighten visitors but not amuse the boss.
Wasted time
Hard and detailed data on blogging time is limited, so Ad Age’s analysis is a best-guess extrapolation done by reviewing blog-related surveys and data. By Ad Age estimates:
Work time spent reading and posting to blogs this year will consume 2.2% of U.S. labor force hours.
Work time spent at blogs unrelated to work will eat up 1.65% of labor force hours.
There is strong evidence of workday blogging. Server traffic for Blogads, a network of sites that take ads, spikes during business hours, reflecting page views on about 900 blogs. FeedBurner, a blog technology company, also sees a jump in work-time hits.
Workday traffic patterns
“Traffic rockets at 8 a.m. EST, peaks at 5 p.m. EST and then slides downward until L.A. leaves the office,” said Blogads founder Henry Copeland. “You see the same thing in the collapse of traffic on weekends. … Bottom line: At work, people can’t watch TV or prop up their feet and read a newspaper, but they sure do read blogs.”
And they create and post to them. Technorati, a blog search engine, now tracks 19.6 million blogs, a number that has doubled about every five months for the past three years. If that growth were to continue, all 6.7 billion people on the planet will have a blog by April 2009. Imagine the work that won’t get done then.
Friday, October 21, 2005
"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes." -William James
At the behest of many friends over the past year, and because I'm embarking on the creation of a couple of documentary features and am viewing as many others as I can, I finally screened "What the Bleep Do We Know?" tonight.
You all were right.
You all were right.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
"Bang bang, shoot shoot." -Happiness is a Warm Gun
Not one minute ago, while I was doing a quick websurf before sleep, I heard a gunshot from the street below my loft. Someone who's lived in my 'hood for over 10 years recently told me he used to hear several gunshots a night.
So, one every few weeks is a big improvement.
On a completely different note, I saw a photo of my former lover taken last week at a screening of one of his films. I haven't seen him in a couple of years; he's sporting a moustache and beard these days. He looks like Salvador Dali. Or The Devil.
So, one every few weeks is a big improvement.
On a completely different note, I saw a photo of my former lover taken last week at a screening of one of his films. I haven't seen him in a couple of years; he's sporting a moustache and beard these days. He looks like Salvador Dali. Or The Devil.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
"Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain." -Billie Holliday
I'm not happy that it's stopped raining; there's nothing you can say that will make me feel otherwise. Please let it rain for, say, three more weeks. I'll see the sun at some point tomorrow and it will make me sad. I have nothing against the sun, mind you; I understand its place in the grand scheme. I just appreciate it so much more after a good, long soak.
I wrote this to my friend today, inspired by a cool, gray Downtown LA morning:
"Lulu and I just came back from our morning walk. This time, instead of 6th to Spring to 7th to Main to home, we walked down Main to 7th, down 7th and into Santee Court (the building with the Rite Aid). They've made a few interesting modernist choices in there -- next time you come down during the day, I can show you -- but it's NOWHERE NEAR as cool as where I live. My place is the center of cool. (Okay, that's now officially where I live. Anyone asks, that's what you tell 'em: got it?)
I love walking these streets in this weather; it's like being home...like I've discovered a section of New York I'd never accessed before. Just now, I felt like I did earlier this year, that killer cold February morning I walked from the Twin Towers footprint up through Soho...I'd been there, but i'd never been there. Invigorating. Fresh, liberating. God, i'm such a city girl.
Down here, I walk past underpaid seamstresses, newsstand guys, greasy spoon operators, and the aimless homeless...and every once in a while, I see one of us, like just now: a hip, upscale artist-type dude, walking down Los Angeles Street to his car -- he passes me and we share this look, like a secret handshake with the eyes. Hey, nice to see you -- you live in the center of cool, too, huh?
And Lulu makes sour downtown faces go sweet. That's the best fun to watch."
I wrote this to my friend today, inspired by a cool, gray Downtown LA morning:
"Lulu and I just came back from our morning walk. This time, instead of 6th to Spring to 7th to Main to home, we walked down Main to 7th, down 7th and into Santee Court (the building with the Rite Aid). They've made a few interesting modernist choices in there -- next time you come down during the day, I can show you -- but it's NOWHERE NEAR as cool as where I live. My place is the center of cool. (Okay, that's now officially where I live. Anyone asks, that's what you tell 'em: got it?)
I love walking these streets in this weather; it's like being home...like I've discovered a section of New York I'd never accessed before. Just now, I felt like I did earlier this year, that killer cold February morning I walked from the Twin Towers footprint up through Soho...I'd been there, but i'd never been there. Invigorating. Fresh, liberating. God, i'm such a city girl.
Down here, I walk past underpaid seamstresses, newsstand guys, greasy spoon operators, and the aimless homeless...and every once in a while, I see one of us, like just now: a hip, upscale artist-type dude, walking down Los Angeles Street to his car -- he passes me and we share this look, like a secret handshake with the eyes. Hey, nice to see you -- you live in the center of cool, too, huh?
And Lulu makes sour downtown faces go sweet. That's the best fun to watch."
Sunday, October 16, 2005
My Random Death #1
It's almost 1am. I went to a rooftop party earlier this evening, ate quite a bit of fine food and mingled with my co-loft residents. Then I drove over to the Little Tokyo Starbucks and read/evaluted three feature scripts for the CBS Diversity Mentorship Program. Then I walked Lulu on the slick city streets of my neighborhood, among the vagrants, crackheads and drunken clubhoppers. And I just took a large handful of Chinese herb capsules and vitamins that all seem to have stuck somewhere in my esophagus. No matter what I do, they won't break apart and slide into my stomach. I don't think I should lie down until they've moved out of my throat, lest I choke to death on a collection of substances designated to keep me healthy.
I adore irony, but that would just suck dead bears.
I adore irony, but that would just suck dead bears.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
A poem from my past that feels very much like the present.
Some looks,
gazes and glances too,
are one-person; are
private, delicate, fragile
things which
brook us interference.
Interrupted, they dissolve.
-click-
End of signal.
Something is lost
(Einstein notwithstanding)
But no one mourns
except the one whose
eyes could have completed
the circuit and saved
(for once)
something rare,
something of value.
gazes and glances too,
are one-person; are
private, delicate, fragile
things which
brook us interference.
Interrupted, they dissolve.
-click-
End of signal.
Something is lost
(Einstein notwithstanding)
But no one mourns
except the one whose
eyes could have completed
the circuit and saved
(for once)
something rare,
something of value.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
"You can't be wise and in love at the same time." -Bob Dylan
I'm in the middle of watching the Scorsese documentary on the artist's early years. The quote is a response to Joan Baez's disappointment in Bob when, 'way back in '64, he didn't ask her to join him onstage in London, even after she had graciously, lovingly invited him to join her in concert at Carnegie Hall the year before. In her interview for the film, it appears she's found some measure of mature reconciliation -- but it's clear her ageless heart is still hurt by his slight after all these years.
Joan had reasonable expectations, based on her respect for him as an artist and her love for him as a man. And, while he clearly loved/loves and respected/respects her, too, and is obviously sorry about the choice he made so long ago, leave it to Dylan to make a poetic, but painfully honest, observation in apology.
I know this one. Maybe you do, too.
Joan had reasonable expectations, based on her respect for him as an artist and her love for him as a man. And, while he clearly loved/loves and respected/respects her, too, and is obviously sorry about the choice he made so long ago, leave it to Dylan to make a poetic, but painfully honest, observation in apology.
I know this one. Maybe you do, too.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Achilles' heels scraped soft.
Early last month, I offered here a litany of "faults" which I have carried around with me much of my adulthood and blamed for certain "failures" in my life.
> Short (the preferred term: "petite")
> Very little in the way of formal higher education (but, hey, I'm considered quite intelligent, have a higher-than-above-average IQ, and did attend art and graphic design classes at UCLA for 2 years)
> Never been to/lived in Europe. Or Asia. Or Africa. Or any other continent other than North America (but I've seen, and lived in, quite a bit of that)
There were a couple of others, but why dredge? I only bring this to your attention because the self-deprecating list has disappeared...as has happened with a few other entries in the past couple of years.
As I am given to extracting metaphors from virtually every situation, I'm less perturbed than pleased by this disappearance. Because, if it's gone, then perhaps my attachment to it is soon to follow.
Again, the lesson: progress, not perfection.
> Short (the preferred term: "petite")
> Very little in the way of formal higher education (but, hey, I'm considered quite intelligent, have a higher-than-above-average IQ, and did attend art and graphic design classes at UCLA for 2 years)
> Never been to/lived in Europe. Or Asia. Or Africa. Or any other continent other than North America (but I've seen, and lived in, quite a bit of that)
There were a couple of others, but why dredge? I only bring this to your attention because the self-deprecating list has disappeared...as has happened with a few other entries in the past couple of years.
As I am given to extracting metaphors from virtually every situation, I'm less perturbed than pleased by this disappearance. Because, if it's gone, then perhaps my attachment to it is soon to follow.
Again, the lesson: progress, not perfection.
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