I was mortified. . .

I mentioned my reading at the Mortified show a few weeks ago but had no idea that we were going to get reviewed.

Dave points me to a writeup of the show today in LAist. While most of the details about my piece were a little off, it was great to see it written about at all.

Thanks LAist!

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I’m going to be mortified

It’s hard to believe but surprisingly I was not always the cultured erudite person you know today.  When I was 14, I began a series of high school foreign exchange programs.  At the time, I assumed I would naturally be the cool and mysterious “studying abroad” student to the people I met in Italy, Japan, Israel, and Costa Rica.  But, as it turns out, I was a lot more American than I thought.

Fortunately, I kept a journal of my time away.  So, if you’re in LA next week, I invite you to see a completely new side of me when I read from my teenage travel journals out loud and on stage.  I’ll be joined by 7 other people who will also be reading from their 100% real journals, diaries, poems and love letters from their teenage years.  It’s a hilarious show called Mortified and I’ll be in the lineup on Wednesday, June 27th at 8PM at King King in Hollywood.

Thanks for your support!

I’m like in love with I’m in like with you.

I heard about iminlikewithyou.com last week and I am obsessed. I was reading PSFK who linked to a talk by Josh Spear about the way the digital generation communicates. I was familiar with almost every reference except for iminlikewithyou so I spent some time figuring it out.

First of all for the moment, the site is invitation only. I appreciated that the main link suggested I find someone on Facebook who could send me an invite. I joined the iminlikewithyou group and voila, an invitation was in my inbox about 2 hours later. I also got an e-mail from an old friend who told me her friends started the site and she could get me an invitation if I still needed one. They might be a good interview for POTW. Now that I am a member I have invites to spare as well so if you need an invitation, let me know.

But back to my point about it being so cool. Essentially, it’s just another social networking site but I like its twist. The only way to network with, talk to, flirt with (which I assume is mainly what the site is for) or date other people on the page is by competing for their attention and winning. This is exactly what life is like, right?

Users play “games,” essentially asking questions of one another and other users “bid” (with points allotted to them when they signed up initially and have more chances to earn later) to win the game. When the game ends, the owner of the game gets to pick a winner from the top 5 bidders. It’s only at that point that users get to connect with each other: the one who started the game and the one who was picked to be the winner can now talk. The website will connect you via e-mail or even by phone without either party ever having to reveal their contact information.

Of course this game would be a lot more fun if I was single but for now I’m finding a lot of other people on it who are just like me, out there to meet other networkers.

JLR in the NYT

My Metropolitan Diary entry appeared in the New York Times and later as an ad for New York City’s subway system back in 2004. The original post is here but you’ll need a TimesSelect password to view it.

DEAR DIARY:

I was at a hip New York bar recently celebrating my boyfriend’s birthday.

At the table next to us were a group of out-of-towners discussing their plans to visit the Empire State Building the following day.

Needing help with transportation, one of the women turned to our party and said, ”Do y’all ride the subway?”

Before we could answer, she asked a follow-up question: ”Oh, wait, are y’all from here?”

Our group replied in unison, ”Yes.”

The thoughtful tourist paused for a moment and then quickly rephrased her question: ”Excuse me, do youse guys ride the subway?”

Jamie L. Rubin