Several months ago, a friend recommended ‘Open Salon’ (open.salon.com) as a place to write, be read, get feedback, and be part of a community of writers. I gave it a try. It didn’t work out as I had hoped, and overall it was a somewhat negative experience for me, although other people seem to enjoy spending time there.
I could write about what I think is wrong with Open Salon (or “OS”, as it is known to people who like to acronymize everything possible), or at least why it doesn’t appeal to me, but I can’t think of anything constructive to say yet. Perhaps later.
In the meanwhile, I’m going to excerpt some of my surviving posts from Open Salon and post them here, for the benefit of future Danny O’Bigbelly scholars. Some of these postings are in response to other postings or open calls for essays, and I realize that without context, they’ll probably just seem like random and arbitrary self-indulgent ramblings of an incoherent mind, instead of what they really are–precisely targeted, timely and topical self-indulgent ramblings of an incoherent mind.
Fair wages for illegal aliens
June 23, 2010
I don’t usually rise to the bait when my more radically conservative friends post links to astigmatic polemics, but I will today. As a moderate, I feel that they need a nudge in the right direction.
The newest thing that they’re focussed on are the stories coming out of Washington. Hilda Solis, the Secretary for Labor, and long-time advocate of low-wage earners, has mentioned in a public service announcement that all workers in the USA, documented or not, should be paid “fairly”
The focus of the announcement is that the government can help wage-earners who are not being paid fairly, but many people who saw it (or people who didn’t, and are just reacting to reactions of others) imagine that this is nothing more than a gift by Obama to illegal immigrants, who will all suddenly be earning minimum wage.
They’re wrong.
This announcement is a call to arms against companies that methodically recruit, hire and exploit illegal aliens.
This is a brilliant idea, and will do more to curb the influx of illegal immigration than building walls, hiring more border guards, or attempting to legalize illegal search and seizure.
It’s not complicated. Illegal aliens come here because they can find jobs. They can find jobs because employers are willing to hire them, even though employers do face certain risks in employing illegal aliens. The employers are willing to take those risks because the aliens are willing to work for less pay and benefits than Americans.
Take away the financial incentives for hiring illegals, and introduce new laws that provide additional ways to penalize companies that hire illegals, and the jobs go away.
Regretting things undone versus things done
July 28, 2010
Someone once wrote that in old age, most people have much more regret about the things that they hadn’t done than about the things they had.
I’m pretty certain that whoever wrote that wasn’t thinking about facebook status updates, however.
The genius of Donald Fagen
July 29, 2010
I was going to write an essay praising the genius of Donald Fagen’s music and lyrics, but then I realized that this would be as effective as drawing a smiley face with my pinky in the dust on the rear window of a Suburu station wagon to praise the work of Picasso.
Good intentions are not enough–one must also have skill and the medium.
I have a video camera, for what that’s worth
August 4, 2010
But just because I have a video camera doesn’t mean that I’m there when my daughter learns to ride her bike.
A lot of interesting things happen when I’m not there.
And when I am there, I often forget the camera anyway.
The obvious confession
August 24, 2010
There seems to be a lot of discussion on OS about identities, pseudonyms, noms de plume, and, in a related vein, charlatans of various sorts. I feel that I have a serious responsibility to participate in this discussion, because obviously these discussions are really all about me.
“Danny O’Bigbelly” is not my “real” name. It is, however, the name by which I am known on the web, where by “known” what I mean is “the name associated with me by the several people who have heard of me.” In cyberspace, it’s more real than my real name, which you would never recognize (and which, ironically, sounds even more like a pseudonym than “Danny O’Bigbelly”).
I do not have multiple identities. I have opinions about people who do have multiple identities here, but I’m sure you’ve already made up your mind what you think, and I will not claim that my opinions are better considered than your own. While I’m fairly confident that people who “rate” their own posts cry themselves to sleep–if they can sleep at all–with shame every night, I’ve never actually seen them do it. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking that the thought of contrition would enter their heads, but I enjoy the image of guilt slowly turning them inside out.
I don’t write under my own name for two reasons. The first is professional: I can’t write anything under my own name, for reasons that have to do with the conditions of my employment, except on a small number of topics. It’s too much of a pain in the ass to deal with the review process every time I want to write a few sentences in my blog, although it would dramatically increase the number of my readers if it had to go through the legal department.
The second is personal: my wife would be very unhappy if any of the things I write about were ever associated with her, and when she is unhappy, I am unhappy. She makes sure of that.
The more things change
August 7, 2010
You might wonder, as did my wife, why I bought a 1955 encyclopedia at a yard sale last week, when there are perfectly adequate encyclopedias available online or at the local library.
It’s because I’m interested in the way that people write and think about key topics or seemingly pivotal historical events has changed over time.
And how it hasn’t.
Challenges of being a parent
August 26, 2010
It’s tough being a parent these days, raising children in a world where the best movies about surfing star Keanu Reeves or animated penguins.
Children need role models.
Those were the days
September 26, 2010
Flipping through the channels recently, I saw a few minutes of a James Bond movie from the 1980’s, back when Roger Moore’s stunt doubles still looked plausibly like him.
The simple pleasures are the best
September 28, 2010
If there’s a simpler, more profound, and pure pleasure than writing a heartfelt, sincere, and perfectly-crafted response to the thoughts of another human, posting it for all to see, and then having him or her capriciously delete it, I’d like to know what it is.
No, seriously; I’d like to know what it is, because this seems a little too much like total bullshit.
In search of lost comments
September 29, 2010
When people leave OS, their comments disappear as well, but their comments leave behind evidence of their truncated existence: the total number of comments on each post still counts them. The number of people who comment on my posts is small enough so that this is very easy to see. If the thingamabob says that there are three comments on a post, and there are only two in view, it’s obvious.
I don’t have any data on the OS membership as a whole, so I can’t say whether my readers are more (or perhaps less) likely to quit, but it’s clear that people who comment on my postings do tend to vanish. Please take that into consideration.
Rethinking my strategy for using craigslist
September 30, 2010
I tried to sell some stuff on craigslist, but the people who answered the ads were a bit odd and it made me uneasy to let them come to my home. The next time I want to get rid of a set of red leather chaps, an inflatable Bullwinkle doll, or an XXXL latex bodysuit, I’m just going to donate them to the local church’s rummage sale.
