Caitlin: Hey Meg? I had a question for you about your *system proposal*.
Meg: Sorry, what? I was evacuating the dance floor over here.
Why I Wear Headphones At Work
Posted in New York City
Tagged headphones in the office, Lady Gaga, my awful musical taste, New York City
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Bohnhoff
Stick lived in Germany for a couple years before we met, but he was on an American base, so the only German he knows is Where is the train station? and potato. (Ed. note: Stick would like you all to know that he can ALSO say Mein auto es kaput) This is plot exposition more than second-language mocking, I mean, I lived in China for two years and my Mandarin taps out at reading a menu and ordering dinner. (But, Stick, Mandarin is MUCH HARDER! Compared to Mandarin, German is practically English!)
I love my walk to work, through Koreatown, commuting though tourists taking pictures of the Empire State Building. (Plot exposition. Really. Stay with me here.)
The other day, I was walking in, when a German man stopped me to ask if I was from here, and if I could give them directions.
“Could you tell us the way to….” The husband stopped here and turned to his wife, they had a rapid discussion in German. I recognised the facial expressions and body language from my years teaching ESL, they were stuck on the next word. Actually, now that I think about it, German isn’t practically English. I couldn’t make out anything they were saying…except….
Bohnhoff.
Which means train station, and is therefore, one of the four German words I could possibly know.
So I told them where to go, and then called Stick to ask if he just pulled a really elaborate prank.
Communicating By Voice
Harold recently switched to an iPhone, because he really wanted to get Siri, the voice-activated assistant. He set it all up, and then showed me how well the voice commands and speech recognition work by sending me a voice-activated text message. While sitting next to me.
In case you’re wondering, a voice-activated text message from someone right next to you is a lot like, well, talking.
LitStack Reviews In the Snake’s October Issue
Just heard that LitStack reviewed the October issue of In The Snake (and used my favorite pullquote):
“The Age of All Nighters” by Meg Stivison was perhaps my favorite; in it, a muse remembers her youth and the many men she loved and inspired. She wistfully reflects on how they parted; sometimes she abandoned them; often they left her to pursue more upstanding, middle class lifestyles:
She didn’t mind the presence of girlfriends and wives in the lives of her men — she was a muse, she didn’t pick up socks — but she felt her age as the poets and playwrights of her youth turned practical and became mid-level managers, talking about maintenance of cars and lawns. Once she met an old lover, and when he mentioned his insurance deductible, she felt she was slipping slowly from a statue back into a block of marble.
The selections are brisk, delightful reads, each capturing something simple yet resonant about our human experience. With solid and straightforward prose, neither the language nor the intent are so stylized or esoteric that the reader need puzzle his way through to find meaning. It’s all right there to be enjoyed…so go enjoy!
via In the Snake Magazine, October 2011 Issue | LitStack.
LitStack’s Jennifer Kaufman has thoughtful and positive comments on Keith Apland’s Daisy in a Sandbox, Marlene Caroselli’s Vittorio, and Frances August Hogg’s Cherish (my personal favorite) as well. I’m so pleased and flattered to be in this group!
Not Entirely Flattering
Stick and I are on the phone talking about work, which is a lot better for both of us now than it was in Raleigh. It’s better because we’re both working in games now, instead of stopgap jobs, and also because we’ve regained the ability to have a real conversation, without underlying hostility and annoyance. He mentions that his game’s community manager ends up working with QA a lot, and he starts to explain about the particularities of a persistent multiplayer situation.
“And I told my community manager what you do,” he ends.
“What’s that?” I grumble. “Listen to the players tell me how much they hate the game, triage the players with valid problems from players who just like to complain, format that into a concise summary, and send it out, so that management can tell me that other projects take priority, and my programmers can tell me how many weeks my quick fix will take?”
“I said you make things happen.”
“Oh, Stick.” I tell him, “Only you would make ‘my ex-girlfriend doesn’t know what she does for a living’ into a compliment.”
Squad Eli
I’m at a pub with some friends, when I find myself chatting with a girl near me about sparkly vampires. She shares my views that the Twilight leads showed up to film so they wouldn’t get cut slips, while the supporting cast, the human high-school kids, Bella’s father, etc. acted circles around the supernaturals. She also shares my views that the last book read like Twilight fanfic. Which means…. we’d both read all of the books….
There’s a lull in another conversation, at which point we totally get caught talking about teen vampire romance.
“Twilight! Seriously, ladies? But are you Team Jacob or Team Edward?” we’re asked.
“Team Bella’s Dad?” I suggest.
“That’s who you think she should end up with?”
“Oh, is that what the teams are? I thought we were voting for most believable character.”
“I thought it was who would win in a fight,” my new friend says.
Apathetic Protest
As seen in Chapel Hill.
Some Thought Involved
Caitlin, our brilliant QA lead, is testing one of the quests I wrote. Working in games has been my dream for a long time, but having a mission I designed currently in testing is sort of like the ego-bruising of an editor critique mixed with the frustration of locating all the usual options in a brand-new software version.
A couple hours into our shared rather unpleasant grind of sorting out what’s broken because of me, what’s the platform, what’s me, what’s programming, and what’s me, Caitlin stopped by my desk.
“It’s pretty smart,” she said, “how the end of the mission gives players *interactive item* that will prompt them to engage *overall game goal*!”
“Don’t sound so shocked!” I said, “There was actually some thought involved!”
