I received two email questions:
1) How did you get into freelancing?
2) What is the most unusual way you scored a job?
Oddly enough one story answers both questions!
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Pouring myself a cup of ambition.
2 Sep
Don’t Bring Me Down!
1 Sep
Reader and donor Ashley sent me this email:
I’m wondering if you could do a post about your biggest letdowns…movies or books or albums or meals or anything really for which you had high expectations that were completely busted. I suspect you’re not the sort to get your hopes up too high, but I thought it would be interesting regardless.
Surprisingly, I do occasionally get overly excited only to find my excitement far exceeds the actual entertainment value of whatever it is I’m excited about.
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Fashion is a maze in which we are all lost.
20 Aug
A reader/donor asked:
Snarky, you are fashionable! Hopefully you can solve my fashion dilemma. I love faux fur vests, but wonder if they are still in “style”.
Flattered as I am, I don’t know if I am still all that fashionable, but I will try to answer the question as best I can. Continue reading
This Writer’s Life
17 Aug
Donor and Loyal reader Alicia emailed me this:
An early assignment I have my students do is a writer autobiography of sorts, telling about an important experience they had with writing, or describing a memory they have about feedback they received, or telling the story of a piece of writing that was important to them as a writer. I would be really interested in hearing a story like that from you. Did you ever have a teacher that pushed you and your writing in just the right (or wrong) way? Or is there a contrasting set of experiences as a student writer between when you were in the US and Germany? Can you isolate a time when you thought, “Yeah, this writing thing is what I need to be doing”? Or is there a piece of advice you wish you had gotten as a young writer?
Paint Misbehavin’
16 Aug
Another reader/donor requested post. For the lovely Octavia!!!
Decorating media rarely agrees on much, with the exception of painting, which most tout as the panacea for all your redecorating woes. Whether they are budget woes, design fatigue woes or prepping your house for sale woes.
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The Passionate Ones: A review of The Expendables
14 Aug
Midway through The Expendables there is a scene where Sly, Mickey and Mickey’s ridiculous manweave have a conversation about regrets, relationships and duty. In most dude-bro action films these conversations serve as reminders that despite the absence of humping, bumping and skirt chasing, these are men who love women. However, in The Expendables ruminations of love and regret serve no such purpose. For these are men who love action and each other. No illusions of some great love awaiting the heroes. Not even Christmas’ (Jason Statham) whining about the girl from Buffy who had another dude all up in the crib seem to be about relationships with women.
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You Are the Wind Beneath My Keyboard
12 Aug
Thank you to everyone who donated to my quarterly beg-a-thon. I am humbled and a bit misty eyed – if you want to know the truth – at the display of generosity and kindness by y’all. It means so much to me. So let me give a run down on what all this giving means for your weekend:
Starting next week, I will devote TWO half days per week solely for blogging.
That means ALL the blogs – even my woefully neglected pen blog Does This Pen Write – will get regularly scheduled love. It is my goal to bring fresh, fun, engaging content to Snarky’s Machine five times a week, Does This Pen Write three times a week and I Fry Mine in Butter four times a week. That’s twelve fresh blog posts PER WEEK. It’s buckets of awesome.
I am donating a heap of time to several non profits.
Either via grant writing, envelope stuffing, project management and workshop facilitation. I’m also going to create a sliding scale – based on need – in order to make quality grant writing accessible to cash strapped orgs who have strong, sustainable missions, which are in alignment with my own values, which are: inclusion, accessibility, diversity and compassion.
I’m gonna actually stage my one woman show – The Intergalactic Diva Network
The Intergalactic Diva Network is autobiographical show, which combines story, song and TAP DANCING to explore my Huxtablian upbringing overseas and how it has informed my understanding of race, class, gender, sexuality and pop culture.
I’m going to stop worrying about “when” it’s all going to happen.
You have spoken. All of you. Whether through your cash, your comments, your eyeballs or all of these above. You have said in a loud voice, “Snarky has a unique, refreshing perspective on pop culture, activism, and artistry.” I’m going to stop wondering when it’s gonna get noticed by more people and just focus on making my content all bad ass.
I’ll going to take a post a week to answer a question posed by you!
Please send some to me. Use my contact form to send me thoughtful questions and I will explore them in a post. Seriously, do it! I would love to interact with my readership much, much more. Also, I am so excited about the posts I am writing in response to donor request for content. Excellent prompts!!!
In the meantime, I’ll leave up my donation button. Thanks so very much to everyone. Thanks to Adrian. You guys are so very good to me.
5 Foodie Memories of My Childhood Overseas
11 Aug
Another donor requested post. If you donated to the the pledge drive, then consider a post on any topic of your choosing to be your pledge drive travel mug! I would love to do a requested post for every single person who donated, so please drop me an email and let me know what you want me to write about.
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Okay Fine, For Sure, For Sure
10 Aug
Now that I’m seemingly caught up on everything, it seemed like a good time to answer questions I receive via email.
Sad Men
7 Aug
[the pledge drive is in full effect here. Please consider a donation to support the ongoing artistic and philanthropic mission of Snarky's Machine. If I raise 50% of my goal - $750.00 by Wednesday, August 11, 2010 - my generous reader Adrian will match the rest, thus concluding the pledge drive. ]
I tried. Really, I tried. I wanted to enter the world created by Mad Men, but after nine episodes, I can’t invest anymore time or brain power. It’s disappointing because I was looking for a richly textured, well written show with complex characters with engaging storylines. Unfortunately, Mad Men don’t offer much of what I’m seeking and is – well – boring. I don’t need to care about the characters to invest in their conflicts, but I do need to care about their conflicts. And dinosaurs unaware of the coming paradigm shift is a totally snooze festival.
H:LOTS – S04E18 – Requiem for Adena
6 Aug
When Pembleton and Bayliss catch a murder of a 12 year old girl, the memories of the still unsolved Adena Watson case creates friction within the partnership. Continue reading
Snarky’s Cinemachine: No Country For Old Woman
6 Aug
In the early ’90s–before Goldeneye–I created a silly ‘zine called “Judi Dench: Action Hero.” In it I presented an alternate universe where Dame Judi Dench was a cheeky action hero in the manner of Bruce Willis or Jason Statham, complete with fake film posters, movie reviews and interviews with the woman herself–fashioned from my vivid imagination and repeat viewings of 84 Charing Cross Road and A Room with a View. Refashioning A Room with a View into A Room with a View to a Kill, Dench starred as Jane, a fashionable aging assassin – with the charm of Auntie Mame and the skills of The Jackal, who reflects on her life as a mother, lover and highly coveted assassin while sitting in a high rise, waiting for her final assignment. I would tell you more, but the film–as I conceived it–has a great trope-a-licious twist…
read the rest of this entry on Bitch Media
Snarky’s Machine’s Quarterly Pledge Drive
5 Aug
Hey there, Machinists:
Please consider a generous donation to Snarky’s Machine’s Quarterly Pledge Drive to support the ongoing work of this blog. Every single donation is welcome and greatly appreciated. Thanks for helping to keep all the sites I maintain ad-free. Machinists, you are truly the best!
Design Dilemmas #1: Fearful Symmetry
3 Aug
via - House of Turquoise
As a design element, I find Symmetry – the arrangement of paired decor items – both seductive and frustrating. When it is done well – as in the above photo – it lends drama and structure to a space. But when done poorly (as in the case of one of my living room incarnations) the space feels unfinished and drab.
Getting My (BlackBerry) Curve On
3 Aug
My relationships with cell phones have been riddled with terrible mishaps, fuzzy reception and lackluster performances. Most of it has come at the hands of LG phones; while I take responsibility for my part in the dysfunctional relationship, that still leaves plenty of blame for the phones themselves. I am all about the $0.01 phone, which apparently went out with penny candy. I cannot bring myself to pay cashmoney for a cell phone, which might the culprit in 95% of my cell phone issues. With upgrades and freebies, why should I have to pay for a phone, which I’ll either a) wear out with daily phone calls to La Mommie and other beloved persons b) drop or c) no longer be able to find replacement parts for? I shouldn’t and therefore I don’t. Unfortunately, that leaves me at the mercy of whatever fly-by-night freebie phone my cellular company overstocks. I’ve had some of the worst! I don’t get it. I use my computer more than I use my phone and a computer can last me YEARS (and usually well beyond its planned obsolescence sell-by date), but a phone won’t. Hopefully, armed with ten years of painful cellular lessons, I’ve scored the right phone this time. Here are a few of the not-so-great ones.
Phones of Doom
- LG VX8500 – Chocolate
I wanted to love this phone so deeply and I did for about three months! Acquired during the big blizzard of 2007, I was so grateful to have working service that I actually gave my cellular company cashmoney (the first and last time) to own the phone. Well that mutherfucker gave me all kinds of problems, namely the charger port up and quit my ass about ten minutes after the 90 day (fix that shit for free) warranty lapsed. Three times, I went in for repairs before I finally said, “Fuck it.” - Verizon Blitz
My first decent looking free phone, scored from Best Buy. Actually, it wasn’t free – more like twenty bucks. That one was okay for nearly six months, but it really loved hanging up on people – particularly boyfriend type people – and so it had to go. It also got really, REALLY hot if used for more than ten minutes at a time. - LG Chocolate Touch
Having not learned my lesson – chocolate is BAD for me – I was seduced by another LG phone because it was really shiny and I thought a touchscreen was a good choice for me. Turns out I was wrong! The touchscreen is for people who don’t actually need to touch the screen, so after less than six months in my possession, the damn touch screen up and died. I couldn’t initiate calls! I had to wait for folks to call me and either hope I got to the phone in time or quickly hit the send button so I could talk to them. It was a shiny mess.
I am in love with my CrackBerry Curve, which I got on Saturday. Despite being a reasonably busy person, I previously saw no need for a “smart phone”, especially since my history with phones has not been all that spectacular. Yet, after spending 48 hours with Halle (get it?) I don’t understand why I didn’t snag one earlier! The upfront costs – free – didn’t hurt either. Please, Halle, don’t break my heart! And if you are going to quit me, please have the decency to do so before the warranty is spent or during an upgrade eligibility window.
Meta than Chocolate
30 Jul
- I concluded my guest blogging stint with Bitch Media and I had a really wonderful time. It was challenging, interesting and definitely helped me up my blogging game. I apologize for my absence here. I know I’ve been neglecting you awesome readers.
- Homicide comes back in a big way next week. I know, I know… How long have I been hinting (or threatening, depending on your view on such things) about this? Well, I finally have time to edit those neglected entries and post them here. Ditto for the rest of the Michael Caine and The X-files content – including SCANS of my journals.
- don’t forget to check out the happenings (and comment) over on I Fry Mine in Butter. It’s been happening like whoa all summer long. Great writing and excellent content.
- I promise there’s more great content in store for this blog. There’s still some life left in the ol girl. I’m also considering getting a new layout. Getting some nice responses from our revamp of Fry Butt.
Thank you so much for sticking with me and I can’t wait jump back in with more posts and interactions with all of you!
Hear Snarky Talk About Action Movies
28 Jul
Here’s the audio interview from Bitch Media. Spread the word!
There is also a transcript available for download. Please be sure to comment and THANK Kjerstin because she had a chatterbox for a subject (I guess I don’t get out much!) and had a lot to transcribe!
Machinists