Let's make a big deal out of it in this thread!

Chaos! Clamor! Cacophony! Crepuscular gatherings!

At least some of these things are bound to happen when the Helpy-Chalk Clan, Cyrus, E. Messily, YK, and innumerable lurkers (who support this post in email) show up at Local 16 this evening. 7pm.

Cummerbunds strongly recommended.

The golden age of blogs came and went, and after a lot of pruning and dead blogs, the blogworld seems to have stabilized. The manic blog energy poured into Facebook, which now seems to be in decline, and while Google+ is certainly making a bid to capture the energy, it's not obvious to me where the energy will park itself now.

In the heyday of blogs, I set up a secret identity for myself, ie hello everybody, and I've doggedly maintained the two lives. There are only two people who knew me in real life before knowing my blog identity: the friend who told me that LiveJournal exists, and Jammies. There are a handful of people who met me first as Heebie, who now lovingly humor my web of lies when they hang out with people who know my other name.

Facebook discourages secret identities, and I've never felt like I could freely use it as a platform to say what I'm thinking.

Lately I'm wondering if future platforms will be increasingly inhospitable to secret identities. LizSpigot shared with me in Google+ the other day (originally written by a third party)

In the hangout earlier today someone asked if Google+ was taking down profiles when users didn't use real profile pictures.

I said I didn't believe we were but would check. It turns out we are not currently taking down profiles with profile pictures of non-people unless they otherwise violate our community standards (example: they shouldn't be obscene).

At the same time, please remember Google+ is committed to helping people connect with people they know and to feel safe sharing and communicating. We believe using real names and real profile pictures is the best way to create that kind of environment. Thanks for the great questions today!

(First, fuck you Google for feeling entitled to decide the question on my behalf.)

I've always operated under the premise that secrets are black and white: if you don't want it known, do not tell anyone. But there's a fuzzy middle ground - if you don't want it widely read, make it slightly cumbersome to find. Lately I'm wondering if I'd find it hard to write if I ventured into the fuzzy middle ground of secret identities.

The problem, of course, is that it's a genie in bottle, and I'm heavily invested in Heebie Geebie, so it would make me sad to start over.

A mother in Georgia has been convicted of vehicular homicide for crossing the street on foot with her kids when a driver struck and killed one of them. The hit-and-run driver has served six months and been released; the pedestrian mother may be sentenced to up to three years. (From Tedra's FB feed.)

Holy crap, panic!

"Internet Use Affects Memory, Study Finds"

I forgot what I was going to say.

A colleague told me that when she worked in a bank, it was a problem that Hispanic women would turn down raises because they didn't want to bring home more money than their husbands. They had to get creative and compensate the women with extra vacation time, or benefits, or something. Typically the woman had been at a desk job for a few decades, while her husband was a blue collar worker.

I can believe it would be destabilizing to a marriage. On the other hand, how nuts is that, that bringing home your due compensation would be destabilizing? (And this is a perfect example of why economists are terrible at predicting economic behavior.)

Meetup in NYC the night of July 31? Since I will have insane jet-lag I can stay up aaaalllll night long. Karaoke time! With the minor caveat that I have to get up the next day and fly to Martha's Vineyard, but at 8 pm, so wev.

The CIA may have set up a fake vaccination clinic in Pakistan to get a sample of Osama's family's DNA.

But this phony vaccination campaign, if true, really pushes the boundaries of "almost." Around the world this will touch the very deepest sources of mistrust, fear, and hatred of the big, technological United States. We will (in this narrative) lie to people about basic questions of family health; we will prey on parents' concern for their children to lure them into situations where we can take samples of their tissues and fluids; we will say one thing and do another -- under white medical-technician jackets and a humanitarian guise. We will suggest that no aspect of our international presence is immune to penetration by spies.

They did give out real vaccines, though. When I started posting this, I thought they hadn't, which seemed truly heinous. In contrast, this is no big deal!

I'm really curious to see what he does with the money. On Monday's show he said he might use it to "help" his favorite conservative candidates.

I take all manner of drugs, partly because I am just generally ill with some poorly-defined immune system ailment. This causes doctors to think I am crazy instead of sick, which is irritating. Bounce with me, people. "Can I get a fuck you to these doctors from all of my bitches/who don't love hos, they can't diagnose?" Yeah, anyway. Being in serious pain is just depressing, not being able to do stuff you want to do. That's related to real-world concerns, and it's possible that that sort of depression is rational. But the doctor should still try to get rid of it or you won't do your physical therapy and will just lie in bed taking morphine and watching CSI: Miami. Additionally, old-school anti-depressants can have a pain suppressing effect taken at lower doses, so you might as well take those too. If you're me, say, or my sister.

Sometimes one's partner doesn't want to hear all the things the dentist said about tongue scrapers. I'm just saying: it happens.

The other day I found out a friend had never heard of Eritrea. Just had totally missed that there was even a place in the world with that name.

I was surprised but quickly realized there are undoubtedly places in the world I've never heard of. Only recently did I actually learn some actual things about Bhutan. I definitely couldn't have put it on a map a year ago.