| January 13, 2010 | Snuggie Shenanigans |
 For Christmas this year - as something of a joke - Chris' sister Elizabeth got us Snuggies. (Mine is a stylish leopard print.) Elizabeth has a great sense of humor, and she is the person who convinced us we should dress up as Nadya Suleman and Kate Gosselin for Halloween this past year. Between me and the dawgs, I'm not even ashamed to admit that my Snuggie is getting some serious usage. Yes, the rest of our living room decor is solidly mid-century modern (to suit our tastes as well as the extreme mid-century modern styling of our 1969 townhome). But if you look beyond the cream-colored flokati shag rug, atop the low Italian leather modular sofa you will find one of the greatest home decor/clothing inventions of the 21st century - the Snuggie. So, needless to say, Snuggies have been on our minds. (Come to think of it, from the Radiskull and Devil doll doll (circa 2000) on my dresser, to the pair of Thinkgeek Tauntaun sleeping bags I purchased for us this Christmas, we *do* have a lot of internet phenomena ephemera around in our house.)  Yesterday Chris found this photo and posted it to Facebook with a link to this blog post on "The Baby Snuggie". Chris wrote: "Pure genius - It's like the Snuggie is giving birth. I know a couple of people who need this now, and some who'll need this VERY soon."Eighteen people commented on his "Baby Snuggie" Facebook post, and Chris wrote, "Hell, you might see me carrying Jess around like this before too long." And then while we were watching the season premier of "American Idol" he was inspired to create this image which he posted to his Faceobok wall last night. Being engaged to a creative guy with serious graphic design skills has its advantages. For example, say you want to take a picture of yourselves in an authentic Sid and Nancy pose when you're dressed up for Halloween. Or if your mom just graduated nursing school and you  want to make her a personalized "Nurse Jackie" poster. Also, he might be inspired by seeing a "Baby Snuggie" and decide that he would want to carry his fiance around inside one. When Chris posted this picture to his wall on Facebook, he wrote: "Jess is totally at home in our new Baby Snuggie... she can't wait 'til it comes out in the zebra pattern." Mindy's response was, "now i know what NOT to get jess for her bday!" THEN, Joanna (another talented graphic designer)  created this "Baby and Bunny Snuggie" and posted it to Facebook, with the message:"chris, if jess ever decides to adopt a bunny you will be all set with this snuggie." Chris wrote back, "Forget going into outer space or widening the 405, this is truly one of the best things humans have ever created... genius." Now this "Baby and Bunny Snuggie" is Chris' current Facebook profile pic. Should I be afraid, or just give in to the lahv of Facebook and graphic design shenanigans? Labels: chris, elizabeth, holidays, internet posted by Jess Barron @ 5:00 AM 
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| June 1, 1999 | Did Pynchon Prophesize Cyberspace? |
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The other day, I read an academic paper that presents the idea that Thomas Pynchon prophesized cyberspace and The Web with "Gravity's Rainbow." Of course, this is an idea that I, of all people, enjoy latching on to. In my re-reading of the book, I happened upon a passage (which the author of the paper points to) that, to me, really supports his hypothesis. It is a dialogue between Tyrone Slothrop and his father that occurs toward the end of the book when Slothrop's consciousness has pretty much dissolved. The fragment begins with the father saying: "Son, been wondering about this, ah, 'screwing in' you kids are doing. This matter of the, shooting electricity into head - ha-ha?" The son replies: "Waves, Pop. Not just raw electricity. That's fer drips!" They talk about "keying waves" and comparing it to dope and "vacations" away from "Realityland." Then the father says: "Listen Tyrone, you just don't know how dangerous this stuff is. Suppose someday you just plug in and go away and never come back? Eh?" This sounds exactly like any paranoid technophobe's argument in the 1990s about limiting kids' use of computers, video games, and the Internet. The best part is Tyrone's final response in this fragment: "Ho, ho! Don't I wish! What do you think every electrofreak dreams about? ... Maybe there is a Machine to take us away, take us completely, suck us out through the electrodes out of the skull 'n' into the Machine and live there forever with all the other souls it's got stored there... Dope never gave you immortality. You hadda come back, every time, into a dying hunk of smelly meat! But we can live forever, in a clean, honest purified Electroworld -" Perhaps plugging into "electrofreak dreams" and is what I'm looking for in my projecting of pieces of myself into cyber/hyperspace via the Web. Labels: book, internet, web, writing posted by Jess Barron @ 8:01 PM
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