hal tweets ·11:28 AM
Ghostbuster zines from the Canzine Hollywood Piracy Zine Challenge are now online! http://t.co/RoAMEQTU
2008,
20:29 GMT
Three Reasons Why I Am A Bad Blogger
Posted by: Hal
I am a bad personal blogger. It’s time to admit it. It’s not that I’m not trying. It’s just that I don’t know if I have it in me to reveal reveal reveal the way the personal blogger needs to.
I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve settled on three areas where I am particularly deficient:
1. Sex. Despite the vaunted need for honesty in the personal blog and the obvious titillating appeal of the subject, I cannot bring myself to blog about anything having to do with my sex life whatsoever. The closest I’ve come (ahem) was my commentary on attending a RedClouds online exhibitionist dinner party.
2. Professional life. I also seem to be extremely reluctant to blog about my professional life. Every time I consider a post on that subject, I pull back. Some examples: My book for teenagers about making your own pop culture won a few awards and I considered putting up a post but didn’t. The hardcover of my novel The Program was remaindered and for a few days I went around feeling frustrated and angry by the news, though it was hardly any great surprise or even anything to be particularly embarrassed about in the age of multinational conglomerate publishing. I considered blogging about it, but didn’t. Then another letter came: the University of Toronto was giving me an award for “outstanding volunteer service”, as a result of work I did as a member of an advisory board for a magazine the department of Arts and Sciences had started. Again, I considered a blog post about it, but never wrote it up. Other things happened, short stories and articles rejected and, less frequently, accepted. Again, nothing particularly shameful or scandalous, but I just can’t bring myself to put it out there in a public forum read by everyone and anyone. It’s part of the whole stiff upper lip thing. I want people to see me as a success – who doesn’t? But of course, one’s life isn’t just a string of impressive victories and I don’t want to come across as a braggart. I am too proud to write about the failures and, without including the failures, I don’t feel right about including the successes. (Perhaps having now broken the ice on this subject I might be able to include more about my professional life…probably not, though. It was relatively painless here, but I can’t see myself posting blog entries like “Hal wins award” and “Hal’s short story is rejected again”.)
3. Feelings. I am most severely deficient in this area. I blog about things that have happened to me, but not about how I feel about them. I should be doing the opposite: blogging about my feelings, and relating them to events in my life. This post is an example. The real question isn’t whether or not I am a bad personal blogger, but how I feel about feeling like I am a bad personal blogger. So how do I feel? Well, to tell you the truth, I’m okay with it. I mean, I’m trying to put myself out there, but it doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m doing my best. And does anybody really want to read about my sex life?
2008,
1:42 GMT
Lame short update
Posted by: Hal
Been furiously busy, or seriously busy, or something. Promise a longer update tomorrow on stuff I've been thinking about and doing. For now, a brief report from my pal James who's been tracking me with GPS Snitch:
1:38 pm - Hal is at Moss Park on the corner of Queen and
Sherbourne.... it is during the day, so it is less suspicious, but
still.... I'm curious as to what is so intriguing in Moss Park.
1:41 pm - Hal is apparently defying the laws of physics, by
simultaneously moving up Sherbourne St at a speed of 0 km/hour. Come
on man!
Thanks James! Looking forward to tomorrow's observations on my wanderings...
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2008,
0:44 GMT
Max Mosley and UK's anti-Peep law
Posted by: Hal
It’s anti-Peep, not pro-privacy. That’s my take on the news that Max Mosley, Formula One boss who sued the Daily News after they paid a prostitute to hide a camera in her bra while she took part in his bondage and domination orgy, has won a judgment in the case.
Why do I say anti-Peep? Because what the judge essentially says in the ruling is that, to quote the New York Times, “the ‘unconventional’ behavior that tabloid journalists in Britain have regularly chronicled among certain celebrities — adultery, for example, or visiting a prostitute — would have to involve, in the future, some element of criminality, or activity conflicting starkly with the public image fostered by the individuals involved.”
In other words, you can Peep, but only in the public interest. This isn’t a resounding defence of the right to privacy, it’s a reigning in and defining of the right to Peep. The two are not the same thing. One says, paying someone to sneak a camera into a private orgy that breaks no laws is okay so long as you find out, for instance, that it’s a NAZI-themed orgy, which is, presumably news because Mosely is the son of famously fascist parents and a major public figure. But if he’s just doing a regular old spanking orgy, well, then, the public doesn’t need to know about that. So in that case, you should just forget all about the camera you snuck into the orgy. It’s not that you shouldn’t have snuck in the camera, it’s that having failed to record sufficiently smutty and shocking material, you should have deleted the pictures and forgotten all about it.
A strange, twisted bit of law making that says more about the age of Peep culture than it does privacy.
Mosley after court, surrounded by reporters.
The original Daily News front page.
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2008,
14:18 GMT
Snitch Update: James follows Hal/Brother tracks Hal in Moment of (semi) Crisis
Posted by: Hal
Here’s text from my friend James, who has been following me online via the GPS Snitch which fits in my pocket and tracks me wherever I go:
Hal is on the move – its 2:30, I’ve over slept from a nap, so if missed his departure.
currently Hal is heading NE at 30km/hour by King & University (strangely I am home, but I work right by there – bad timing for a Hal spotting)
Hal is obviously heading east at the moment, located at Church and Carlton – heading to the rainbow cinemas? But its such a nice day.
I’m not sure what he’s doing now – he’s headed way out, and is either on car or speedy bike and is past Carlton / Yonge….. what are you up to Hal?
Hal has parked himself at Heydon st. A boring st if there ever was one, but something has caught his attention enough to stop his travels.
Hal, at 2:58, now, according to the GPS, is on the railroad tracks….. I think he’s in trouble. But apparently still traveling only 0 km/hr.
3:24 error in locating snitch – something is definitely up
Pretty funny stuff. Thanks James! Of course in reality I was dropping zines off at the Toronto Reference Library where my magazine Broken Pencil helps add to the periodic growth of the zine collection. I was also dropping off 3 boxes of books, doing some grocery shopping, and otherwise running a few other errands. So there you go. Someone asked in a comment last week how I felt about being tracked. Truth is, the person being tracked doesn’t really pay attention or even notice. It’s the person who is tracking who does the work and generally has, as you can see from above, all kinds of different reactions. When I was tracking W., I felt mainly paranoia and anxiety. Now that I’m being tracked by James and my brother, I don’t feel, really, anything.
One other interesting thing about being tracked on Friday: Not long after I left the house to run my errands, my mom went to the hospital after experiencing some scary symptoms. Naturally, my dad called both me and my brother. My brother was at work, plus he has a cell phone. I was driving around, and I don’t have a cellphone. My brother tracked me to the aforementioned Heyden Street (just north of Yonge and Bloor) and told me later that since he was soon to be in that area, he actually contemplated looking for me there. In the end, he just left several messages for me and then yelled at me for not having a cell when I finally got home and called him back. So, in this case, Snitch provided some interesting possibilities: it’s less intrusive than a cell since the user just has to carry it around passively, it never demands that you answer it or check up on it. But it still gives you some modicum of connection to the rest of the world. So long as Snitch is in your pocket, if someone really has to find you, they will. It wasn’t really a major emergency: mom lives in the Washington DC area, so it’s not as if I would have been able to rush to the hospital anyway. And, luckily, after spending the weekend in hospital she’s back home now and it seems like she’s going to be fine.
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2008,
20:14 GMT
My Brother Does Snitch
Posted by: Hal
Just noticed my brother isn’t where he’s supposed to me. He’s moved from his office to somewhere in the King and Adelaide area. What’s he doing down there? He’s just joined a gym and apparently he’s pretty obsessed with it, so maybe that’s where his gym is? Anyway, gotta find out. Yes, I’m tracking my brother via the GPS Snitch Blip program which lets people with GPS enabled Blackberrys share their location and track each other. He is also tracking me on his Blackberry and online, following me as I move around with the Snitch. He was very curious what I was doing at the Moss Park Armory for two hours yesterday. I didn’t want to tell him, but finally admitted I was playing hockey. If anyone else wants to follow me, get in touch via email and I’ll set you up.
Speaking of my brother, a few people have asked about how things are between us after my post about refusing to go to his house because he refuses to go to mine. Before I give an update on that, I’d like to just note that it’s really interesting because the people who asked me if I was still squabbling with my brother were friends/acquaintances with which I would never discuss my relationship with my brother normally. But since they read the blog, they are privy to the info and I guess they felt there was nothing wrong with bringing it up face to face, since I’d already shared on the subject. These are the kind of weird things you notice when you blog about your personal life.
Now for the brother update: on Sunday I’m supposed to go canoeing with him and his 3 kids. I’ll have to drop by his house to transfer to the mini-van, but even if I go inside for a minute, it doesn’t count. The cold war continues. Other than that, our relationship is pretty much the same as always. We only actively fight every month or so, which isn’t that much when you consider we talk on the phone almost every day. The house thing is a power struggle that has to do with how he tries to dictate everything about how, when and where our family gets together, which I find really annoying. Anyway, I know he’s reading this, he eventually got around to leaving a passive aggressive comment the first time I blogged about it. So we’ll see what he has to say. In the meantime, E.‘s 3rd birthday is coming up and this year we’re gonna have a family gathering. Guess where it’ll be? Yeah, you got it. My place.
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The Bloggist
Hey, I’m Hal Niedzviecki. I’m a writer/thinker who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wife and daughter. Up till now I’ve always considered myself a private person. But at the same time I’m fascinated by people who effortlessly open themselves up to the whole world. So I’ve… more...
Ghostbuster zines from the Canzine Hollywood Piracy Zine Challenge are now online! http://t.co/RoAMEQTU
EXPOZINE 2011, Montreal’s 10th Annual Small Press, Comic and Zine Fair—http://t.co/3ISW3Ovx http://t.co/FlLfB6hk
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