Why David Sedaris Doesn't Use Twitter

I was lusting after the buttery popcorn infiltrating my nostrils as I waited in line to have my book signed by David Sedaris. My eyes drifted towards the sign that read ‘BAR UPSTAIRS’ and ‘NO CAMERAS OR PHOTOS’ in threatening capitals. Devar asked me what I was going to say as he ignored the threatening sign and took a photo of the line. I didn’t know. Although he is one of my favourite authors, I assumed he would ask the typical questions authors ask their adoring fans – “know any good jokes?” or “what do you do?” – and I wanted to get it over and done with to reduce the risk of saying something foolish. Like the lady in front of me who was contemplating boasting about how she named her imaginary boyfriend after him. David started signing my book, he asked me how much money I earn and in return I asked what he thought of Australia. “It is expensive” he said, “and hot” I added, just in case he was needing another adjective to explain Australia. It had been quite humid that day and Perthians love to complain about the weather. My interaction with him was short and sweet, he wrote “I’m so happy you can walk” in one of my books and drew a dog in another book.
David Sedaris
The show consisted of David reading essays from The New Yorker, a piece he wrote for British paper entitled ‘If I Could Change The World’, diary entries and questions from the audience. The most amusing part of the show was a story about his female friend, who preferred to remain nameless, she also preferred to catch her poop in her hand when using the toilet instead of letting it make a horrid plop sound in the toilet bowl. That would be so embarrassing.

During the show Mark Trammell replied to my tweet, “Get him on Twitter!” he exclaimed. After two glasses of wine I decided to line up again after the show to ask David why he doesn’t join in on the Twitter fun and tweet about eating sandwiches, crazy dreams he had last night, how losing socks really sucks and other random observations or thoughts in 140 characters or less. I didn’t ask it in that way. It escaped my mouth in a more “me again, so that Twitter thing, a guy I follow who works there wants to know why you don’t do it?” manner of speaking. He hungrily consumed a plate of chorizo and salad had been placed in front of him while I asked my twittastic question. He made the ‘let me just finish chewing this’ universal motion and then tried to explain the Twitter predicament. Apparently someone had already created a David Sedaris account on Twitter, he then paid someone to switch the account over to him, but didn’t really know what it was or what to do with it once it was his. So there it sits, with over 4000+ followers and no actual tweets. I tried to convince him he should tweet (join the cool kids, drink the koolaid, follow the leader) but he didn’t seem convinced. I wanted to say “no one understands Twitter, David” but I didn’t want to scare him with inception like comments. I instead urged him to tweet and wrote down my username and the address of my account in case he wanted to see what it was all about and required guidance. In that moment I thought of myself as a sort of Mother Teresa of tweeting – I could guide him into over one million followers and we would DM about what type of background colour he should use. It would be awesome.

As he put another forkful of sausage into his mouth I came back to reality and thanked him for the performance as he waved on the next question. Later I pondered if he would screw up the piece of paper from the Aussie girl who totally thought he should tweet or figure out what Twitter was at least. It then occurred to me the kind of subjects I tweet about.

So if you’re ever at a David Sedaris show or book signing and he mentions this strange Australian girl who tweets too much about Skyrim or boobs and tried to force convince him that Twitter was the shit and he laughed about it later in his hotel room wasn’t convinced. Please don’t judge me. At least I’m not the girl who pooped into her hand and gently lowered it into the toilet bowl because she didn’t want it to make that socially unacceptable plop sound in the toilet bowl.

If I was her I would at least tweet about it.

Complimentary Spam

I’ve received an enormous amount of spam comments on my blog – over 740,000 spam comments have been caught thanks to Akismet – blog comment spam was a hot topic at the October Perth WordPress Meetup. I remember the days when blogs were spam free, roaming the internet without a care in the world, and you didn’t have to be concerned if a comment was real or spam. Over the last few years there has been an influx of what I like to call complimentary spam comments. To the untrained eye these comments seem to look and act like real comments, however, they are complimenting the author to try and secure comment moderation approval. The spam filled website link or fake email address is normally a dead giveaway.

“I love this site/post/opinion, you’re awesome/great/informative!”

I know a few bloggers who approve such comments and remove offending website address. A comments is a comment, right?

A few months ago I received a spam comment that caught my eye, it’s the holy grail of spam comments…

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Open For Business

Earlier this year I moved to the city to be closer to friends, study and work opportunities. My address now contains the words and numbers ‘Perth 6000’, when I was young I assumed anyone who lived in the 6000 postcode wore top hats and swam in pools full of money like on Duck Tales. Silly young me didn’t realise that anyone can live in the city, if they pay a decent amount to rent for a small apartment in a complex with a shared pool that is full of water instead of money. Top hats are optional.

Living in the city has its pros and cons…

Pro: Ten minute walk to Murray Street.
Con: Ten minute walk home at 1am will might result in a brisk mugging or assault.

Pro: Closer to friends.
Con: Further away from family.

Pro: The man with a cockatoo in a basket on his bike is cool.
Con: The crazy flag lady is not cool. Run away.

Pro: The apartment is nice and has faster internet.
Con: IT DOESN’T HAVE A BATH TUB, WHY DID I AGREE TO A BATHLESS APARTMENT? NEVER EVER AGAIN. EXCLAMATION POINT. ANOTHER EXCLAMATION POINT.

In the end the pros and cons level out. Except for the bath. I’m so traumatised about my lack of ability to relax in a bath that I ask everyone I meet if they have a bath that I could use. So far, only one person has said yes.

Although my mother worked in the city when she was in her early twenties, it didn’t help her come to terms with the CBD I now live in, full of crazy people, one way roads and stairs. Oh, don’t get her started on the stairs. There are nearly 40 of them leading up to my front door and she hates every single one of them.

As I was riding shotgun in my mothers shiny new car we passed two of the local whore houses. I gather one is like the Hungry Jacks (Burger King if you’re American) of hookers, while the other is like McDonald’s – both serve the same items and one always claims their burgers taste better.

 

“What is that place with the flashing lights?” asked my Mum.

 

“It’s a whore house” I replied, as if whore houses are on every street in every neighbourhood and everyone is cool with it.

 

“A what house?” she exclaimed, as if whore houses are not on every street in every neighbourhood and everyone is not cool with it.

“Hookers.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“A brothel… a place where men visit prostitutes.”

 

I wanted to elaborate more about the penis goes into the vagina and money is exchanged perplexities, but decided not to, I was riding in her shiny new car and she would never forgive me for tarnishing its innocence. I had already told it the petrol fairy wasn’t real when she wasn’t listening. My mother was quiet for a moment and then, in a nonchalant tone said…

 

“Oh, I thought it was a cafe.”

Fake Boobies

Have you ever wondered what I would look like with massive boobs? I’m not talking about a cup or two, I mean, MASSIVE BOOBS! Wonder no more, internet, because someone has stolen my photos, photoshopped huge boobs into the photos, and then posted them on various websites to reap the comment rewards.

Stolen Photos - Fake Boobs

The photos appeared on Model Mayhem, MySpace and BodySpace profiles a few months ago. One commenter even remarked, “Your breasts are amazing! Real breasts look better than fake ones!” and another left a compliment “you have a great upper body!!” followed by a smiley face. After lodging complaints the photos were removed from the profiles, I felt kind of cyber dirty and flattered at the same time over the photoshopped boobies incident. A few months passed. I assumed the faker had learnt their lesson about stealing photos and photoshopping fake boobs into them.

Stolen Photos - Fake BoobsStolen Photos - Fake BoobsStolen Photos - Fake BoobsStolen Photos - Fake BoobsStolen Photos - Fake BoobsStolen Photos - Fake BoobsStolen Photos - Fake Boobs

Until a few days ago, when I received an email from Eric, who spotted the photos being used again on another BodySpace profile. The boobs are back and they’re bigger than ever!
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Wheels & Dollbaby

I attended the Wheels & Dollbaby show during Perth Fashion Festival 2010, excited to see the latest collection from local designer Melanie Greensmith. The Wheels & Dollbaby fashion parade is one of the most popular events on the Perth Fashion Festival calendar and is always an instant sell-out. I wasn’t on media, so I decided to leave the 7D at home and take the G10 instead, but my inner photographer couldn’t resist taking a few quick shots while enjoying the sexy show.

Wheels & Dollbaby - Perth Fashion Festival 2010

The section I was seated in was close to the band, we were given earplugs for protection, which gave the area a music-pit feeling. “Free earplugs?! That’s the strangest thing I’ve seen in the goodie bag so far!” remarked one confused lady seated a row behind me.

Wheels & Dollbaby - Perth Fashion Festival 2010-2Wheels & Dollbaby - Perth Fashion Festival 2010-6

Highlights include the gorgeous Tiah Delaney opening and closing the show in leopard print ensembles, the models wearing cute pink robes that everyone instantly wanted to sell a kidney for, girly gingham dresses, dastardly denim, hot leather shorts and the guest appearance of Leah Wood, the daughter of Rolling Stones rocker Ronnie, performing ‘Call Me’ with Mark McEntee. It was a perfect mix of fashion and rock and roll.

I’ll have one of everything, please.

Continue reading “Wheels & Dollbaby”

Red Dusk Photoshoot

I’ve spent the last week sorting through photos from a photoshoot I did with Red Dusk Jewellery, an online boutique based in Perth that specialises in vintage, classic, pin-up & burlesque inspired handmade head wear, jewellery, bustiers, corsets, masquerade masks & other accessories. I recently wore the black Encore top-hat to a friends Suit-Up themed birthday party.

Miss Yolie was our lovely pin-up model, she did a fantastic job modelling the sexy Red Dusk corsets and accessories. I used a basic set-up for lighting/backdrop and I’m quite happy with the results. I’m slowly sorting through the photos, but here are a few behind-the-scenes shots and a sneak preview of one of the photos featuring the divine My Little Show Pony corset.

[flickrset id=”72157624204555659″ thumbnail=”square” photos=”” overlay=”true” size=”large”]

HCl Tastes Like Pop Rocks!

Pop Rocks

Today was my first day back in class in for the semester. It was fun and interesting, in a brain melty kind of way. The units I’m studying this semester are a mix of chemistry, OH&S, testing procedures and various lab techniques. I’ve set the Periodic Table as my desktop wallpaper in hopes it might sink in.

The units seem spilt into two categories of students; older people who are retraining and school leavers. I’m stuck in the middle. I spent lunch with two older ladies, they chatted about bad sex and their multiple boyfriends, I nodded at various points while eating my fruit salad and thinking about Protons.

Things I learnt in lab today…

  1. Sucking up Hydrochloric Acid from a pipette with your mouth, instead on using a valve, will cause your teeth to fizz. My lecturer did this back when he was a student.
  2. That the emergency eye wash station isn’t adequate and to use the one in the lab down the hall in an eye emergency.
  3. That we get to play with awesome acidic chemicals soon.
  4. That my bad hard writing and poor memory are traits of a good scientist.

Things I didn’t learn in lab today…

  1. The weird name of the woman who sat next to me, even though she told me it five times. Sounded like Rohypnol.
  2. How we’re meant to find the lab down the hall that contains the proper emergency eye wash station if our eyes are being burnt by chemicals and we’re screaming “fuck, my eyes, they burnnnn!” I’ve never had dangerous lab chemicals come into close proximity with my eyes, but I assume it would be hard to see in that instance.
  3. Why we were forced to endure a lab safety video that was filmed in the 80’s and clearly targeted at high school level or really stupid adults who should never set foot in a lab.
  4. Why Michael Jackson is white.

Attack of the Show

A friend sent me a SMS today, “Holy crap!!! You’re on G4tv!”

Holy crap, I am featured at #2 on G4tv’s Attack of the Show Women of the Web segment this week. I don’t think there is an appropriate swear word to really express what I went through my mind when I watched the above video.

I did spot two mistakes; my domain isn’t kitta.com (last time I checked it’s owned by a Russian company that makes warheads for submarines and I’ve tried to contact them about buying the domain for years) and it’s spelt ‘Nikita’, but all is forgiven because they said I’m a nerds dream. 😉

Kitta Version 2.4

Yesterday I turned 24 human years old – Kitta version 2.4 Alpha in net years – I celebrated my day of birth with my family and became quite tipsy while drinking some strange pink fizzy wine that I was informed I had to drink. I was suffering from a slight hangover today because of said pink fizzy wine. My family says I was drunk, I say I was tipsy, because I refuse to admit that pink fizzy wine can make you drunk. It’s just too girly.

Speaking of girly, one of my birthday presents was a pink camera.

camera

It all started a month ago when my family asked me what I desired for my birthday, besides an electron microscope, I told them I wanted a shiny new camera. My family took me camera shopping after I had a few glasses of wine at lunch and I started flirting with the sales guy to obtain a further discount on the sale price. It totally worked. But the only Canon IXUS80 IS (also known as the Powershot SD1100 IS) in stock was in pink.

kitta

It does take nice pictures (of my tipsy self) though.

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who sent me birthday well wishes via email, Twitter, Facebook, DM’s, PM’s, SMS’s, flying monkeys, phone calls, etc. You made me feel very loved and I’m grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life. :mrgreen: