Improv AtWork and AtLife

Crank Up the B.S. Meter

It seems I've had my head up my ass...inine schedule for the past year because I've just discovered Andrew Keen. If truth be told, I'm just not that plugged in but when I saw a column by Steven Levy in Newsweek that mentioned Keen (yeah, I still read hard copy), I checked him out.

I love a man who's got an opinion, even though I might not embrace it. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that - according to Keen - I'm either irreverant, narcissistic or pornographic because I offer self-authored content on the internet. Wait a minute - he said "contemporary internet". You've read me - I'm not that contemporary. Big relief - he's not talking about me.

But he rails on a lot of people. He finds that most of them have little talent and shouldn't be encouraged to think of themselves as writers, musicians or porn stars. What should they be encouraged to think of themselves as? And are there really people who wear the mantle of "porn star" with pride? I've never met one but I think we've established that I don't travel in fast circles which is surely where these people congregate.

After sampling Keen, I respect that he's put so much time and thought into the 2.0 dark hole. But it seems to me that all each of us needs is a bullshit meter and the courage to use it. I don't want somebody else telling me what knowledge is worth sharing...especially some guy who trusts Hollywood to find him the best movies to watch. I'll just crank up the old b.s. meter and surf the waters, looking for the truth. What about you?

MySpace Addiction

Okay, so I haven't written much lately. I've been busy checking out the answer to that burning question "Whatever happened to ?" on MySpace. A friend got me hooked - we've been trolling the site, looking for people we went to grade school with to see how they turned out. We haven't uncovered anything as dramatic as Barak Obama. The guy he referred to as "Ray" in his book - someone he looked up to and considered a sort of mentor when they were in school together - is now an ex-con and homeless. But we tracked down Susan (names have been changed - you know why) who we met at 10 going on 40. She's a pediatrician now which strikes me as odd - never really being a child herself, I wonder how she relates to her patients. Mark is a doctor/medical research mucky muck whose list of publications is longer than I am tall (I'm 6 feet). Michael - we 10 year old girls thought he was hot at the time - is a J.D. now, no kids, has pets. There's no pic on his MySpace page, which makes me suspect. But he's got guts 'cause he put his real first name on his MySpace page. I can't tell you what it is but I get why he didn't use it in school. Mary Ann's a champion quilter now - I'm not sure how you medal in that event, but her quilt samples are extraordinary and I admire her most of all since I can't sew a straight line. I remember in Home Ec we had to make a dress and wear it in a fashion show (please tell me education's moved past that) and I picked a shift with no sleeves and a drawstring neckline and I still screwed it up.

Another friend told me I was wasting time in the wayback machine. Wasting time would have been comparing where I am to where my fellow classmates are. I flirted with MySpace to remember where I've been - and sometimes that can be as important as thinking about where I'm going.