For those curious about the exploding taxi anecdote:
Like a lot of kids in urban public schools in those days, I walked to school and had to line up in the schoolyard with my class when a bell rang to let us inside at the start of the day. Public school's resemblance to prison structure is beyond uncanny.
The night before the morning in question, someone had apparently stolen a cab (most cab drivers in NYC are private individuals that buy very expensive "medallions" from the city that allow them to operate cabs, so cabs are often parked in someone's home driveway rather than at a cab company's garage), taken it for a joyride, and, as is often the case, decided to destroy the evidence. They drove it through a huge gap in the chainlink fence surrounding our schoolyard that had been there for years, torched it, and left it there. By the morning, the fire department was still milling around the smoldering wreck and bits had scattered all across the yard, so when kids arrived at school we were all lined up on the sidewalk and handball courts instead and gawked at this monument to urban life.
You must be happy that the crime-ridden NYC of your youth is making a comeback, thanks to Alvin Bragg, the BLM movement, and recent mayors. Maybe next time you're there, you and your childhood friends can get together and reminisce by torching a cab in your old schoolyard.
Interesting timing. I’m in my 50s, always wanted to write but never stuck with it due to the usual stupid reasons (I’ll embarrass myself if I put myself out there, maybe I suck…etc). Lately I feel the NEED to write, to communicate, almost like a religious calling. I have notebooks filled with observations about humans during the past 3 years, the govts, satirical drawings (I can not draw), mental health, quantum mechanics….and how all of this somehow ties together. My whole world is different now because I woke up -not to just the lies of the world but the lies in my personal life. I believe I was mentally ill in the sense that I operated completely from a bogus premise that I had no personal power. I allowed morons to call the shots and shape how I felt and most importantly, and this is key- I woke up to the fact that I was hurting myself out of habit. I was used to being hurt (abusive childhood too) and I subconsciously created situations in my life to continue the pain. I was pretty damn good at it too. Anyway, I’ve been wondering if maybe I should compile all the ideas and drawings and just put it out there somehow, but i haven’t been able to figure out what bizarre genre it belonged to. The whole theme of it is that I recognize mental illness in society because i recognized it in myself. Society on the whole behaved like I used to. Captured brain, not seeing things as they really are. Every day I think “maybe today I’ll get the guts to put myself out there…” but don’t because I say “I’m nobody! Can one person really change the world?” And I asked the universe to give me a sign if I should do it, and now I am reading this.
In part this is exactly what I was hoping my book would do: inspire people to get involved. My book is what I wanted to write. Not for everybody for sure, but you and others can grab those others that wouldn't read mine with your inspiring thoughts and ideas. Plus, I just had a lot of fun with it. I hope you put it out there.
I've heard the same, but I've had fairly inconsistent anecdotes about the manufacturing quality (someone told me their books basically fell apart when opened, for example).
The other thing I really like about them, is you can make changes while your current edition is still on sale. I already fixed a typo in Nobody (I'm always mortified when I find a typo in my book).
It is. You can upload your own designed covers or use their cover creator. I've published lots of books on Amazon in my other life. I'm not thrilled about supporting them, but they do sell lots of conservative, anti-vax books. I wondered a little if I'd have issues with I'm Nobody but it was fine.
Yeah I find their list system incredibly useful for collecting a wish list of books to buy - I would forget otherwise (and sometimes do forget regardless) but I always try to buy from alternatives whenever possible.
Sometimes it's really unavoidable. I routinely get work tools cheaper and delivered next day, even at weekends. I like to tip the drivers if I see them as no doubt they work like dogs for a pittance.
Made me think of my late adolescence and teenage years when my main inspirations were the Furry Freak Bros of ZAP Comics and Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Book" (... which I did indeed steal... ) and Jerry Rubin's "Amerika"... and to think that now Amazon has "The Complete Zap Comix Boxed Set" available for $750.00... Never mind Jerry's transformation from Yippie to Yuppie... Abbie is no doubt spinning in his grave.
Words like "favorite" are a dangerous game, sister.
I scrupulously avoided calling anyone my "best friend" until I was at least 25. Yes, I was a strategic and political thinker to the point of being a lot less fun than many of my peers.
On a timely note, I was also voted "most likely to have the ATF storm her cult compound" in high school, which gives you some idea of my age.
Yeah, yeah, that was my excuse for not having best friends too! It wasn't really that I was too hyper to be a hippie and too flat-chested to be one of the popular kids. It was just strategic semantics on my part ;-)
But seriously, this is some great writing. I too remember when 'zines were trendy but from the age-perspective of The Inmate's author. And I relate. My first YT (now hidden) on What & Why & Who Am I? made the point that I'm a Nobody and Nobody is Perfect: https://youtu.be/oc4w9Do_tSQ.
Did you move the bong and the beanbag chair out of the background there or has the decor just not been touched since 1971? 😈 Welcome to the Gutter where everything resonates, per your YT #1 suggestion.
hahaha. The upstairs has teal shag carpet that may yield finds like the La Brea Tar Pits if I ever take it out. Thanks for watching ... and reminding me why I hid it!
I was born in the fifties and subjected to multiple psychological abuses, also a high IQ (which in my humble opinion was not a good thing) and eventually left home at thirteen. A different life. I am glad you survived....
Your recommendations hold weight. Purchased immediately, during a 4am bout with insomnia. Now next time I can't sleep, I'll have something to read! I'm hoping this book will help remind me I'm not alone. I've always been a little counterculture, but in a weird niche Catholic rebel sort of way. (Like when all my friends were on the pill and sleeping around in high school, I eschewed dumb teenage boys. Then I got married young and had lots of kids and avoided the public school system by homeschooling them. So like different than my neighbors, but not punk rock different.) But since 2020, I've felt like an alien in a strange land. Who were all these Stepford Wives, with their glazed, crazed eyes glaring at me over their useless cloth masks? Why was I, a middle-aged mom, the only one in my entire town with a set of balls? I needed/need the united non-compliance crowd, from all walks of life. It's still lonely out here because I can't unsee the insanity that lies just below the surface of the supposed return to "normal." They're all lizard people to me now.
There are two types of teachers: one is those that become it because they are insane and seek to use teaching and the (theoretical) control and authority being a teacher is supposed to bring you (Ha-ha as Nelson Muntz would say).
The other are those that go insane from working as teachers. That's me by the way, worked my way into a full-blown Combat Psychosis as PTSD was called here before it was labelled like some abbreviation from a fetish-zine. Being assaulted at work, stabbed, having to save a female colleague from getting raped by four teenaged arab boys, being "sent to the principal's office" for the offence of telling a student to shut up or leave the classroom, not participating in the mandatory voluntary school Pride parade, and much worse things might have helped.
As for books, the more you get a kid to read books- physical books! - or even comics if they are from before 1995, the smarter the kid will get within the genetical limits of intelligence (if we stick to IQ at least).
Especially the classics with their far more advanced grammar, sentence/text-structure and more obscure phraseology. Starting with the Iliad and working ones way forward from there, so to speak.
Burning cars... we never burned them. We sometimes filled the exhaust-pipe with styrofoam and/or golf balls, and then plugged it with a potato jammed in with a stick.
Sometimes nothing happened. Sometimes the car wouldn't run. And sometimes the potato would shoot out with a roar followed by a bluish flame and wads of burning liquid styrofoam.
For those curious about the exploding taxi anecdote:
Like a lot of kids in urban public schools in those days, I walked to school and had to line up in the schoolyard with my class when a bell rang to let us inside at the start of the day. Public school's resemblance to prison structure is beyond uncanny.
The night before the morning in question, someone had apparently stolen a cab (most cab drivers in NYC are private individuals that buy very expensive "medallions" from the city that allow them to operate cabs, so cabs are often parked in someone's home driveway rather than at a cab company's garage), taken it for a joyride, and, as is often the case, decided to destroy the evidence. They drove it through a huge gap in the chainlink fence surrounding our schoolyard that had been there for years, torched it, and left it there. By the morning, the fire department was still milling around the smoldering wreck and bits had scattered all across the yard, so when kids arrived at school we were all lined up on the sidewalk and handball courts instead and gawked at this monument to urban life.
You must be happy that the crime-ridden NYC of your youth is making a comeback, thanks to Alvin Bragg, the BLM movement, and recent mayors. Maybe next time you're there, you and your childhood friends can get together and reminisce by torching a cab in your old schoolyard.
It took me way too long to stop being terrified into obedience to authority and larger people and embrace my inner urban jungle gorilla.
When many people bemoan their misspent youth I am often bemoaning the exact opposite of the thing they are.
Interesting timing. I’m in my 50s, always wanted to write but never stuck with it due to the usual stupid reasons (I’ll embarrass myself if I put myself out there, maybe I suck…etc). Lately I feel the NEED to write, to communicate, almost like a religious calling. I have notebooks filled with observations about humans during the past 3 years, the govts, satirical drawings (I can not draw), mental health, quantum mechanics….and how all of this somehow ties together. My whole world is different now because I woke up -not to just the lies of the world but the lies in my personal life. I believe I was mentally ill in the sense that I operated completely from a bogus premise that I had no personal power. I allowed morons to call the shots and shape how I felt and most importantly, and this is key- I woke up to the fact that I was hurting myself out of habit. I was used to being hurt (abusive childhood too) and I subconsciously created situations in my life to continue the pain. I was pretty damn good at it too. Anyway, I’ve been wondering if maybe I should compile all the ideas and drawings and just put it out there somehow, but i haven’t been able to figure out what bizarre genre it belonged to. The whole theme of it is that I recognize mental illness in society because i recognized it in myself. Society on the whole behaved like I used to. Captured brain, not seeing things as they really are. Every day I think “maybe today I’ll get the guts to put myself out there…” but don’t because I say “I’m nobody! Can one person really change the world?” And I asked the universe to give me a sign if I should do it, and now I am reading this.
This made my month, and possibly my year.
I will take that as another sign!
I'd be happy to help edit if it reaches a serious kind of phase. Reach out.
Well, damn you with your encouragement and kindness! Now I have to do it. Shouldn’t be hard, only been procrastinating a few decades. 😉
In part this is exactly what I was hoping my book would do: inspire people to get involved. My book is what I wanted to write. Not for everybody for sure, but you and others can grab those others that wouldn't read mine with your inspiring thoughts and ideas. Plus, I just had a lot of fun with it. I hope you put it out there.
I had a lot of fun doing it too, especially the demented drawings. It’s cathartic. Thank you for the encouragement
I hear Amazon's self authoring system is surprisingly good. You can even do the cover art and what not.
I've heard the same, but I've had fairly inconsistent anecdotes about the manufacturing quality (someone told me their books basically fell apart when opened, for example).
My wife and I have sold tens of thousands of books printed by Amazon. Very few complaints from our customers.
That's good to know, I have friends that are dissatisfied by their current print-on-demand solutions.
The other thing I really like about them, is you can make changes while your current edition is still on sale. I already fixed a typo in Nobody (I'm always mortified when I find a typo in my book).
It is. You can upload your own designed covers or use their cover creator. I've published lots of books on Amazon in my other life. I'm not thrilled about supporting them, but they do sell lots of conservative, anti-vax books. I wondered a little if I'd have issues with I'm Nobody but it was fine.
Yeah I find their list system incredibly useful for collecting a wish list of books to buy - I would forget otherwise (and sometimes do forget regardless) but I always try to buy from alternatives whenever possible.
Sometimes it's really unavoidable. I routinely get work tools cheaper and delivered next day, even at weekends. I like to tip the drivers if I see them as no doubt they work like dogs for a pittance.
Thank you!
Thanks for this. You are exactly right: I tell Dad jokes and I'm well aware of it and I still do it anyway. It's a problem.
I personally see nothing wrong with telling corny jokes if you own it.
Did you know neutrons are Catholic?
They have mass.
Not as much as your mom.
My mother is very devout.
Dad jokes are the best jokes.
Made me think of my late adolescence and teenage years when my main inspirations were the Furry Freak Bros of ZAP Comics and Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Book" (... which I did indeed steal... ) and Jerry Rubin's "Amerika"... and to think that now Amazon has "The Complete Zap Comix Boxed Set" available for $750.00... Never mind Jerry's transformation from Yippie to Yuppie... Abbie is no doubt spinning in his grave.
Just got one...
I just told Conspiracy Sarah that she was my new favorite writer and there you go IMMEDIATELY making a liar out of me. Sigh.
Words like "favorite" are a dangerous game, sister.
I scrupulously avoided calling anyone my "best friend" until I was at least 25. Yes, I was a strategic and political thinker to the point of being a lot less fun than many of my peers.
On a timely note, I was also voted "most likely to have the ATF storm her cult compound" in high school, which gives you some idea of my age.
Yeah, yeah, that was my excuse for not having best friends too! It wasn't really that I was too hyper to be a hippie and too flat-chested to be one of the popular kids. It was just strategic semantics on my part ;-)
But seriously, this is some great writing. I too remember when 'zines were trendy but from the age-perspective of The Inmate's author. And I relate. My first YT (now hidden) on What & Why & Who Am I? made the point that I'm a Nobody and Nobody is Perfect: https://youtu.be/oc4w9Do_tSQ.
I don't know about you being too hyper to be a hippie. "I'm a Nobody and Nobody is Perfect" sounds like some grade-A hippie shit right there.
Yeah, I stole it from the guy I make fun of in Tonic Masculinity & Feminine Wiles, before the wolf pack ran off with THAT term. What goes around...
...REALLY goes around.
Did you move the bong and the beanbag chair out of the background there or has the decor just not been touched since 1971? 😈 Welcome to the Gutter where everything resonates, per your YT #1 suggestion.
hahaha. The upstairs has teal shag carpet that may yield finds like the La Brea Tar Pits if I ever take it out. Thanks for watching ... and reminding me why I hid it!
I was born in the fifties and subjected to multiple psychological abuses, also a high IQ (which in my humble opinion was not a good thing) and eventually left home at thirteen. A different life. I am glad you survived....
Dresden Dolls, "The Perfect Fit"
https://open.spotify.com/track/00wj7uXIbVEVX6ZfD2DZy6?si=p-yZeh1HTu-Yw083BJIQKg
Basically my theme song, and no, I'm not proud of that.
Enjoyable except for the memories that bubbled up...
Yeah, Dresden Dolls is that class of music that's "good" rather than "fun."
I think you changed my music taste for a while....I have been listening all day!
Noice.
Your recommendations hold weight. Purchased immediately, during a 4am bout with insomnia. Now next time I can't sleep, I'll have something to read! I'm hoping this book will help remind me I'm not alone. I've always been a little counterculture, but in a weird niche Catholic rebel sort of way. (Like when all my friends were on the pill and sleeping around in high school, I eschewed dumb teenage boys. Then I got married young and had lots of kids and avoided the public school system by homeschooling them. So like different than my neighbors, but not punk rock different.) But since 2020, I've felt like an alien in a strange land. Who were all these Stepford Wives, with their glazed, crazed eyes glaring at me over their useless cloth masks? Why was I, a middle-aged mom, the only one in my entire town with a set of balls? I needed/need the united non-compliance crowd, from all walks of life. It's still lonely out here because I can't unsee the insanity that lies just below the surface of the supposed return to "normal." They're all lizard people to me now.
We are out here (the non-compliance crowd). Great comment. I hope you enjoy the book.
You voluntarily did a book-report!
>ahem<
There are two types of teachers: one is those that become it because they are insane and seek to use teaching and the (theoretical) control and authority being a teacher is supposed to bring you (Ha-ha as Nelson Muntz would say).
The other are those that go insane from working as teachers. That's me by the way, worked my way into a full-blown Combat Psychosis as PTSD was called here before it was labelled like some abbreviation from a fetish-zine. Being assaulted at work, stabbed, having to save a female colleague from getting raped by four teenaged arab boys, being "sent to the principal's office" for the offence of telling a student to shut up or leave the classroom, not participating in the mandatory voluntary school Pride parade, and much worse things might have helped.
As for books, the more you get a kid to read books- physical books! - or even comics if they are from before 1995, the smarter the kid will get within the genetical limits of intelligence (if we stick to IQ at least).
Especially the classics with their far more advanced grammar, sentence/text-structure and more obscure phraseology. Starting with the Iliad and working ones way forward from there, so to speak.
Burning cars... we never burned them. We sometimes filled the exhaust-pipe with styrofoam and/or golf balls, and then plugged it with a potato jammed in with a stick.
Sometimes nothing happened. Sometimes the car wouldn't run. And sometimes the potato would shoot out with a roar followed by a bluish flame and wads of burning liquid styrofoam.