The $%*! frustration thread

[tushantin]

I'm really sorry to hear that, RW. I wish I had some advice for you, but my experiences themselves don't weigh as much in terms of employment.

Although, FW has a good point: Indie game development and reviewing is plentiful and rising at the moment. Besides that, I've no data on your current employment, so unfortunately I wouldn't be able to suggest alternatives. The "General Category" you speak of, and its "erosion", can you give me some examples? Does your work appreciate original articles / writings over standard cue of work transferred by your employees?

[ZeaLitY]

I will never get why people find Natalie Portman attractive. She looks like an emaciated little stick-child. I'm not advocating voluptuaries with this, but I am seriously questioning if her BMI is over 18. Eww. Her face looks like a leering skull.

[Thought]

Uhm...why the fuck can't I download stuff anymore?  It worked with the finale of Doctor Who, but now I can't download anything else.  ><

Clearly, the internet knows that nothing else compares to Dr. Who, so once you've been exposed to that, why waste time on anything else? The internet is trying to save you from disappointment

[Lord J Esq]

I will never get why people find Natalie Portman attractive. She looks like an emaciated little stick-child. I'm not advocating voluptuaries with this, but I am seriously questioning if her BMI is over 18. Eww. Her face looks like a leering skull.

It's been a long time since I've seen the word "voluptuaries." I'm not sure you're using it correctly. If you meant "fat people," then your usage is mistaken. If you meant "hedonists" or "gluttons," you're on firmer ground.

Anyhow...

I don't talk about it much, but I generally avoid public commentaries on my personal views about the attractiveness of individual celebrities. These kinds of opinions sometimes find a place in private discourse, but the pursuit of the popular opinion of the beauty of a public figure--though romanticized in literature and commercialized in pop culture--is the kind of destructive judgmentalism that doesn't do anyone any good, other perhaps than to fleetingly buoy the financial fortunes of some of the celebrities whom the public judges favorably. A society maybe cannot bring itself to fully eschew the practice, but as citizens we can starve the glamour beast by investing our public energies elsewhere.

I understand that your real target here was not Portman herself but our national glorification of extreme thinness. That's an injustice worth opposing. However, by singling out individual people for their supposed ugliness, you distract from the goal. I'll give you that she's extremely thin, although she does not seem to be in a state of actual starvation. Perhaps, if you had wanted to make your point and still use a photograph of somebody, you could have chosen Portman and done so in a less personally disparaging way. Better still, you could have chosen someone who isn't a female of reproductive age, as that particular class of people seems never to be able to escape being judged and appraised by their bodies--another legacy from our animal ancestry.

It should also be worth noting that not only for a celebrity's thinness do people find her or him attractive.

[ZeaLitY]

Oh, I know. It's also slightly patriarchal to single out particular people and critique their appearance. But I was hitting on that damn thin obsession.

By voluptuaries, I merely meant to criticize men who must have G-cup breasts and Kardashian buttocks to find women attractive. Another shallow spectrum.

[Syna]

What freaks me out is the response to Black Swan: there were so many "how to get Natalie Portman's ballerina body" articles, and apparently the pro-eating disorder crowd looked to her for "thinspiration."

You could see ALL OF HER RIBS. It was a horror movie. She has a symmetrical movie-star face, but seriously, she was at moments in the film unquestionably meant to be grotesque.

[tushantin]

Biggest frustration for today: it's nearly impossible to (practically and ethically) distinguish between Dark Cyan and Teal. Agreed, Teal is only 22 bytes darker that Dark Cyan (11 for Blue and Green hues), but try to figure the colors out in real life. You'll see what I mean.

[ZeaLitY]

What freaks me out is the response to Black Swan: there were so many "how to get Natalie Portman's ballerina body" articles, and apparently the pro-eating disorder crowd looked to her for "thinspiration."

You could see ALL OF HER RIBS. It was a horror movie. She has a symmetrical movie-star face, but seriously, she was at moments in the film unquestionably meant to be grotesque.

Oh god, yes. When she won the Oscar I wanted to weep.

[tushantin]

Oh god, yes. When she won the Oscar I wanted to weep.

Pardon my ignorance here, but don't people win Oscars for their best performances and their relevance to the scenes? I haven't seen Black Swan yet, but from the discussion here it seems that her "look of malnutrition" may have been a requirement for skeletal aesthetic purposes. So why weep?

Here's something to think about. When someone tells a woman to drop the jeans and wear "feminine clothes" it's sexist and denies individuals their fundamental rights. But when someone tells a Sardar / Sikh to drop the turban, cut their hair and shave their beards, suddenly it's the Sardar at fault?

[Syna]

I was laid off today -- on good terms; they just lost the projects I was going to work on.

I'm alarmed about it, but it's not too bad. They liked me enough to give me a month of "work" in which I can freely job hunt as much as I like; I have unemployment for half a year after that; and two years at this job means I've accumulated valuable experience in media production.

I'm telling myself this is a good opportunity to explore freelancing, which would give me mobility and time for personal writing endeavors, and apply to the jobs that really appeal to me.

I suppose this isn't frustrating so much as a bit scary, but you know what, bring it the fuck on.

[FaustWolf]

...but you know what, bring it the fuck on.

Hell yeah, that's the attitude! Good luck Syna. Here I was thinking you had one of the more awesome jobs in the world, but perhaps awesome-er opportunities await. You could always join the Compendium's growing ranks of freelance article writers, mwahahaha!

[Thought]

Faust, you had mentioned that the country needs the ol' grister spirit, but you know, I think we might have it already. By my count Syna makes five compendiumites who are either making their own work, or about to embark on that journey.

Anywho, good luck Syna.

[tushantin]

I suppose this isn't frustrating so much as a bit scary, but you know what, bring it the fuck on.

Faust, you had mentioned that the country needs the ol' grister spirit, but you know, I think we might have it already.

That's the first time I've seen Syna bring in her Springtime of Youth. I say, HELL YEAH!

She's not the only one going through this, I suppose. Syna, ZeaLitY, FaustWolf, Thought, and my buddy Vick (RL friend), all are currently hanging in pandemonium, desperately seeking a way out. But we aren't the ones to give up easily; we'll steal destiny from the devil's own lair, and look stylish while doing it!

[Lord J Esq]

We ought to form a freelance group and pool resources. The content mill I work for has been implementing new policies over the past few weeks that tell me they're trying to get rid of most of their writers in the course of changing their business model.

Myself, Syna, rushingwind, and Thought, at least, I understand to be paid writers of some kind. Are any of you interested in collaborating? Is there anyone I'm missing? Send me PMs rather than distracting this thread, unless it's just to say you're not interested.

Edit: Just to clarify, I'm talking more about forming an informal partnership to share resources and techniques, and less about co-writing assignments together (although there's no need to rule out the latter entirely).

[Lord J Esq]

Sorry for the off-topic post here. To follow up on my previous post, more people than I expected have expressed interest in the working group. Large groups are unwieldy, so I'll be capping participation at seven people, at least initially. There are a couple of spots left so send me a PM if you are interested (and have not done so already). Again, this is open to paid or otherwise experienced writers interested in freelancing for $$$ THE BIG BUCKS $$$, and I conceive of it as a resource-pooling and professional collaborative group. If nothing else, we'll be talking about how to advance ourselves.