Disqus - Latest Comments for abartelby

Re: Connecticut Church Posts Controversial Gay Exorcism Video on YouTube

abartelby — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:51:32 -0000

You cannot exorcize desire.

Re: mayjah in C minor - Helmet Newton. Catherine Deneuve. I don’t even...

abartelby — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:14:31 -0000

This is my favorite Deneuve photograph EVER. Thanks for posting it and reminding me. :-)

Re: The Curious Addenda

abartelby — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:05:01 -0000

Riiiiight?!

Re: The Curious Addenda

abartelby — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:57:24 -0000

I KNOW, RIGHT?! That is EXACTLY what I thought when I saw this image! ;-)

Re: Date Conversation: What Are Your Hobbies?

abartelby — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:23:37 -0000

I could not agree with you and @flyguytray more; I have never been able to properly process the "hobby" question, because I so do NOT consider things I do in my spare time "hobbies" so much as I consider them "things I could not imagine NOT doing every day," e.g., reading all the time, on pages or in pixels, listening to constant soundtracks, writing, critiquing, gourmet cooking, etc. I don't think of these things as "hobbies" at all, so that question always kind of throws me off. (Especially, I might add, in the context of a date, in which it always reminds me of the awkward "So um what's your major?" of dates in college, another question to which my response was usually, "Whaaa...how do I answer this?" Ha.)

I love your "Fun Sail" suggestion, and thanks for the tip! I've been thinking about getting back into sailing, as well, and this summer seems like the perfect opportunity to do it. I've also been thinking of taking trapeze lessons, to get over my fear of heights and also just because it sounds quirky. Ha.

Re: The conditioner bottles at The Hampton Inn

abartelby — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:46:13 -0000

What an excellent (and humorous) rumination on the age-old conflict between aesthetics and usability. I would have been beside myself with shock and awe when presented with the cylindrical bottle in the sundries shop, seriously. :-)

Re: The Twitter Followholic: An Epidemic

abartelby — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:46:32 -0000

It's definitely no secret how *I* feel about following and not following on Twitter, so I just had to leave a comment in praise of your points, and to heap the most praise of all on your statement, "If I’m following you, it’s because I would pay for your updates," since I could not agree with it more. I recently embarked on a "Twitter House Cleaning," of sorts on my own follow list, and this was the tenet with which I led my own clean-up, so I applaud its sentiment.

I guess the one quibble I would leave with you, with regard to all of the (mostly quite useful, I think) Twitter applications and tools that you list, is that (for me personally) I've noticed them not being as reliable lately, throughout the recent population explosion of the Twitterverse. To me it seems that, while tools such as Grader and Mr. Tweet were simply fabulous only, say, three months ago, they seem to be finding it more challenging to weed out the "Twitter Detritus," as I call it, so that the only *real* way to be sure one is building the highest quality of network is to do the work to get to know one's network the old-fashioned way: through genuine interaction and engagement with them.

But perhaps that's just me being an old. :-)

Anyway, fabulous article!

Re: http://www.jackcheng.com/guestbook

abartelby — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:22:40 -0000

Hi Jack! I'm Atherton Bartelby and I'm currently a graphic designer who moonlights rather frequently as a writer / journalist. I've been a fan of your site for quite a long while, now, since it is one of the few that truly inspire me each time I pop in for a visit, no matter what your chosen topic may be for that day. I'm currently working on a complete redesign of my own personal website, which has been offline for an embarrassingly long time, and am incorporating a design portfolio, a professional blog, and more in the site's architecture, so I'm very excited to launch it, hopefully before the end of spring.

Again, love your site and keep up the fabulous work and innovation.

Re: Face pics are the new logo

abartelby — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:48:09 -0000

I think face pics on blogs are tremendously important. The advent of social media and networking sites, and the general public's increased participation in / on these networks, has made having visual access to what an online contact / friend looks like very important, I think. Also, as a long-time maintainer of a blog and reader of other blogs, I personally feel that it is nice to be able to connect the "voice" and thoughts of who I am reading with a face. I've always thought this lends a certain (if digitally manufactured) intimacy to the exchange of ideas in what is usually the very cold realm of the internet.

Re: DesignNotes is 4 Today

abartelby — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:56:00 -0000

A very happy blogiversary to DesignNotes and to you, Michael. Your blog is a constant source of information, inspiration, and creative meditation, so many, many happy returns and years to come!

Best,
Atherton Bartelby

Re: Will Facebook Be The Death of Twitter?

abartelby — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:30:05 -0000

I agree with all of your further points, but particularly that of your last paragraph here and the "connecting with hundreds of complete strangers" aspect of Twitter, because I think this is a very important difference between Twitter and Facebook, and the reason why I think we "need" Twitter to fill a "role."

While I am not so concerned with keeping my professional and personal contacts separate within Facebook, I am concerned with ensuring that only the more trusted members of my social network make it into my Facebook network. I find myself using Twitter as a "first barrier" for this, actually. Not only does Twitter allow me to meet hundreds of strangers on a daily basis (granted, only one or two of whom may eventually make it into my Facebook network), but it also allows me to get to know these people on a less intimate network before deciding whether to invite them into my closer network of friends and colleagues that is Facebook.

So while I would applaud Facebook implementing the features / tools you remark on in order to make Facebook itself a more comprehensive service, I actually kind of like the idea that I have Twitter as a "first defense," so to speak, of my Facebook environs.

Re: Will Facebook Be The Death of Twitter?

abartelby — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:39:34 -0000

You make some very interesting observations, most of which I agree with, so it will likely sound odd when I go on to say that I disagree with your larger argument. I do not think that we can place either Facebook or Twitter above the other in terms of which is better, more useful, will outlast the other, etc. I do not think that we can do this (outside of purely personal opinion, obviously) because each social networking platform serves a different purpose, provides different tools, and attracts different user bases, so I always think it unfair to qualify or value one above the other.

I use Facebook in a wildly different way than I use Twitter, reserving for the close family, friends, and peers / colleagues who populate my Facebook audience my more pondered responses to news of the day and my life. Whereas my Twitter use is primarily used as entertainment (both for myself and others), and literally the fastest mode of communication and information dissemination I have ever known. Sure, I may have to sort through useless retweets in order to filter through to the good / useful bits, but I know my Twitter network, so those bits are easy and quick to find, and this kind of "flash" information sharing does not happen nearly as quickly in Facebook as it does in Twitter streams.

I guess I would liken my experience of the two platforms to a Saturday morning in the city: Facebook is the leisurely brunch with select BFFs, relationship conversations, and strategizing our social calendars for the week; Twitter is the post-brunch frenetic dash through streets, errands, and sound bytes of information throughout the rest of the day. For me, a perfect social network couldn't survive without either of those components, and I don't think either of these platforms could ever provide both of these polar opposites of experience to the grand degree they provide them now.

Re: rizzn's socnets: Twitter is the New MySpace [You’re Doing it Wrong]

abartelby — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:29:08 -0000

Thanks for posting this, and for providing a different perspective of a MySpace user than the one I provided in my own piece. You were not the only reader of my piece who for some reason took great offense at my words regarding Twitter users who list MySpace profiles as their "websites," but you were definitely one of the more articulate, so your post is most informative.

First of all, my piece goes out of its way, several times, to make it clear to readers that I am not advocating a "right way" to do anything, on the Twitter platform or on the Internet in general; I do use the phrase "my own personal reasons" several times throughout the piece. Secondly, I do not entirely discount those users who do list a MySpace as a point of contact, and I believe I stated as much in my piece. Even now I have several current followers / friends on Twitter who are serious musicians and for whom MySpace works for their Internet demographic. I never discounted entirely MySpace profiles, but merely listed them as one of the many factors I consider when deciding whether or not to follow someone in return.

If anything, I am thankful for discovering that there are still so many seemingly rabid MySpace proponents out there on the web. For, as you so helpfully point out, that will keep me more in touch with "most of the web's userbase." So thank you for that!

Re: http://jackcheng.com/maxing-out-your-triangle

abartelby — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:13:35 -0000

What a perfect way to describe / visualize a situation that we've all faced at one point or another (and, obviously, what perfect advice). Awesome post!

Re: Brooksbayne, after seeing my response to his For Prop 8 blog, invited me to discuss:

abartelby — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:09:42 -0000

I just wanted to stop by your blog and applaud you for your arguments, with which I certainly agree, and your commitment to debating such an important issue as this one. I've followed the discussion thread over in Baynes' blog, and sadly I won't be continuing my contribution to it because I am frankly unwilling to expend additional intellectual energy trying to persuade someone whose arguments are so glaringly homophobic and set in concrete. But I am happy that the entire debate introduced me to you and your blog, so that's something good to come of it.

Re: How I'm Voting On California's Ballot Initiatives/Propositions

abartelby — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:19:11 -0000

I want to preface my comment with the caveat that I was not a California voter, and as such did not as fully research the language of Proposition 8 as I would have had I actually been tasked with voting on it.

Regardless, your decision to vote for Proposition 8, and your rather vehement defense of it for several weeks prior to voting, disturbs me because it has always been based on your ludicrous analogy to the "no shirt, no shoes, no service" signs displayed in restaurants. Your logic behind voting for Proposition 8 never relied on economic reasoning, which I had heard from several other more conservative-leaning friends and which frankly made more sense to me than your current flawed logic, which, really, makes you sound like an unapologetic homophobe.

(Thankfully, you were careful, in most of your arguments on this topic that I read, to specify that marriage has always been between a man and a woman in this country. If you had not added the "in this country" qualifier, there are a host of modern and classical historians, namely the late John Boswell of Yale, whose work "Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe" would take you to task on your argument had it not.)

But I digress. Your argument implies, basically (and do feel free to correct me if I am misinterpreting it), that homosexuals knew what we were getting ourselves into in America with regards to marriage before we were even born. Your reblogging dissenter Paul Gulyas was in fact correct when he observed that homosexuals are not afforded the luxury of leaving the restaurant, donning a shirt and a pair of shoes, and returning to receive the proper service. For us, in terms of marriage (and quite a few other civil rights afforded other Americans, I would remind you), there is no proper service, shirt and shoes, or no shirt and shoes. This issue has always been, is, and will always continue to be, a matter of extending everyone in American society equal civil rights under all laws. Homosexuals did not choose to be Americans, nor did they choose to be born into a country whose laws might eventually deny them a rather basic right afforded to heterosexuals.

So what your argument does, basically, is state that, because homosexuals have never had the right to marry in the past, that they should never have the right to marry in the future, because that is the way it has always been "in this country". Well, my friend, if our country operated under that logic, women would have been prohibited from voting yesterday, and Barack Obama and his family would be slaving on a cotton plantation in Georgia and not on their way to The 1600. That is why your argument is a dangerous one: because it does not account for the changing of cultures, for the metamorphosis of societies, over the course of history.

Cultures change. Societies and their mores change. People change. And that is why whereas ten years ago I may have become as irate as our friend Mr. Guylas was when he reblogged your comments upon reading your reasoning behind voting "yes" for Proposition 8, I didn't. Because I've every confidence that some day, some way, legislation like Proposition 8 will NOT pass, will NOT require months of legal battles in order to be enforced. Because eventually, our American culture and society WILL change, and homosexuals WILL be afforded the same civil rights as their heterosexual neighbors.

We're already on our way.

Look who we just elected President.

Re: What kind of skin type are you?

abartelby — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:05:28 -0000

That is really quite beautiful; its simplicity speaks volumes.

Re: What’s your internet?

abartelby — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:53:16 -0000

I could not have composed a more perfectly accurate list for my own internet. Thanks for finding and sharing this.

Re: The Curious Addenda

abartelby — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 03:20:22 -0000

I completely agree. I still say it's a shame that my philosophy instructors at Sarah Lawrence never did cover this in their seminars. Ha ha ha!

Re: Social Media Overload: Thinking Through Facebook Friend Requests - mediabistro.com: PRNewser

abartelby — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:07:57 -0000

Perhaps it's my age, as well, but I also agree with Acumen; although I may be a bit more reserved in terms of befriending people on Facebook after only a first meeting, I'll generally sense if they're someone worth adding right away.

Additionally, perhaps it's my particular industry, which tends to be more laid back than most, but I've found that I make FAR more exciting (and useful) professional contacts on Facebook than I ever made on LinkedIn, so I rarely distinguish between professional and personal contacts when befriending people.

Re: The Curious Addenda

abartelby — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:10:19 -0000

HA HA HA! It's a hell of a story!

Re: The Curious Addenda

abartelby — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:03:02 -0000

I know, right?! Way wicked awesome!