My Vizify Bio (cool concept)

Buzzfeed Would of Course go on to Become a Highly Respected News Source (Hindsight in 2023)

For a long time, I’ve thought it would be my dream job to work at BuzzFeed. I mean, it wasn’t really about BuzzFeed itself. It’s more that I’ve always really wanted to be an Internet “curator”, and BuzzFeed is one of the few sites that I’m aware of that’s successfully monetized the business of funny cat picture lists.

But today I read this, the Oatmeal’s response to an article published by a staff writer at BuzzFeed. I love the Oatmeal website, I think Inman is a great writer, and a great comic. I was actually unaware of the “rape controversy” that spawned the Jack Stuef article; I just read the comic, and thought it was hilarious. It was one of my favourite comics ever, actually, and I didn’t find the last panel (now removed) unusually offensive - especially not by Oatmeal standards.

Sidebar: this is one of the things I’ve never understood about the Internet. I like the Oatmeal, so I read the Oatmeal. Things I don’t like or care about - ultra-conservatism, sports, stocks - I don’t read. If you find the Oatmeal so offensive, just don’t read his comics! Why would you read them, and then get your knickers in a twist about the fact that they exist? The internet can be whatever you want. Just make that happen. Or go outside, or something.

All this is to say the Jack Stuef article is one of the worst researched, most poorly written things that has ever been called to my attention on the internet. I find especially baffling the repeated references to the Oatmeal’s republicanism, since he is a very public Democrat.

Also, way to pull up some fake Oatmeal profile from a “social networking” site no one has ever heard of. Great move there. Did you have trouble finding his readily available verified social media pages? Or did you just want to ignore them because they didn’t support your bullshit point.

I’m surprised that there were no fact-checkers, no one to say “stop” before this error-riddled article got published. But I’m even more surprised I ever got excited about the idea of working for a place that would allow something so blatantly wrong to be published by a columnist. Poor job, BuzzFeed. If you want the Internet to look at your lists of cat pictures and cute animals, you should make sure you’re not also publishing “articles” about something just straight up false.

definitelyraining: Whenever somebody tells me Vancouver has an amazing nightlife scene.

Pretty vegan cupcakes via DailyBuzz - Healthy Living

What the shit is this? Isn’t the point of Cake in a Mug that it’s way easier to make than regular cake? What do I need cake in a mug mix for?

Yeah, of course I bought it. Duh. Shut up.

Chocolate Sensation Mug Cake -OetkerMoments.ca

But why were we down on Geocities? Or people hand-coding? I regret this exchange in 2023

Me: I know you don’t like, look at my twitter or whatever, but did you see this
Adam: holy shit that is geocities as fuck. I think that’s indicative of something. it’s not that geocities cites are terrible by nature, it’s that people can’t design for shit. and since geocities had no templates, like tumblr does, it was just abundant
Me: Yes. When people don’t use templates, tragedy strikes.

Why do some tumblrs look like they’re geocities pages from 1998? (note from 2023 Rachel - because they were rad)

Gateway 2000 Colorbook

Today I was remembering my very first laptop; a Gateway 2000 Colorbook that my father cast off and gave to me. I used it from about 1999 - 2004. All I remember about it is that it had a 512MB hard drive, a floppy disk drive, and Spider Solitaire, so it must’ve been running Windows ‘98. I mostly used it for word processing (and solitaire), and using it made me feel like a real writer (which I am not and have never been). I began many a terrible novella on that computer. I even used it to take notes during my first year of undergrad, although by then it was obviously past its prime. I bet it would still boot if I tried (/if I knew where it was). 

My very _first _computer was a TI-99/4A, which I mostly used to play TI Invaders and Sneggit, and frankly I wish I could go back in time and not throw it away.

Note from 2022 Rachel, I Don’t Feel Like Hating Two and a Half Men Took up This Much of my Brain

Having a meltdown over how cute these are. via Breakfast Buddies on Laughing Squid

This T-Shirt is like a Coffee version of our Cafe au Ladies project. (via laughingsquid)

via The Pitt-Pollaro Collection, High-End Furniture Designed by Brad Pitt and Laughing Squid

omgthatdress:

Dress

1920

Whitaker Auctions

Note from 2022 Rachel: Okay what this is about is that I read an old post from a guy who ate only potatoes for two weeks and lost weight (this isn’t the post, but similar) so I tried it and lost absolutely nothing except my taste for potatoes.

Had to go to the washroom, paused my tv. This is what it paused on. Gordon, you da best. #fuckyeahgordonramsay