Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

15 Jun 2009, 23:34 p.m.

Who Needs Reddit

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2009 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

For about seven years, after college, I felt my glibness slipping away. Words escaped the tip of my tongue. I thought I was getting older and dumber.

Since WisCon, I haven't had that sensation once. I've been writing more and making more intellectual connections, and my speech is denser and more allusive. I can expand on fancies more easily. Who needs ginkgo biloba?

In my hyperlinky mood, then, selections from my linkfeed as stored on Delicious.

Actual Manuscript Workshop Comments reminds me of Billy Collins's poem "Workshop".

Medical identity theft is the ID theft that can kill you.

Pre-Loving v. Virginia, my marriage to Leonard (who is white) would have been illegal in some US states.

Comparing personals sites: "On Craigslist, people say what they want; on Nerve or OK Cupid, they say who they are, and you infer the rest."

You can sing "Brain in a beaker" to the rhythm of "Smoke on the Water."

FutureMe lets people write letters to be delivered to their own email addresses at a set future date. Some letters are public. Teenagers and deployed military personnel show up a lot. A heartbreaking story with a funny postscript, one in which the author refers to past & future selves together as "us" (as opposed to the 1st-person-singular and 2nd-person-singular modes that most authors use), and a really dark one.

Kris's chilling and effective horror story about children's TV and internet forums.

If you deal with nonprofit logistics, you should know about CiviCRM, a free and open source web-based membership and donation management system designed for non-profits.

And I'm too late to Daisy Owl to be cool, but a couple of my favorites: Movie Night and Hey Now. Apropos of the latter: the best way you can spend $5 at a bar (such as Sissy McGinty's on Steinway in Astoria) is to put it into the internet jukebox and queue up 12 iconic pop songs from the 1990s. Green Day, Smashmouth, 4 Non Blondes, Nirvana, Billy Joel, and No Doubt selections will ensure that an entire table of twentysomethings will sing together and bond for half an hour.

Comments

Riana
16 Jun 2009, 2:35 a.m.

Bunnnsen and Beeeeker<br/>Muppet/Muppet slash<br/>duh-NUH-nuh-NUH-nuh-nuh