The Twilight Exit

Do you live in Seattle and sometimes feel disconnected from the other people who live in Seattle all around you? This happens to me sometimes, sitting in my chair in front of the computer alone in my room on a Friday night wondering what I am going to do with myself and in the end resolving to go to a bar, which isn’t bad per se but surely expensive and disappointing on many levels. Help is here.

Introducing: the Seattle Show / Fun Stuff Calendar, which can be found at the link as well as on the left hand side of this blog. The Seattle Show / Fun Stuff Calendar is intended to be a resource to those who are looking for more out of their Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday (as well as Saturday / Sunday) nights. The SSFSC is also intended as a resource for those who want to publicize their event to the Internet. (Though, to be completely honest, I have no clue how many Seattle readers we have. This calendar is further intended to attract Seattle readers to RPP. Does Seattle read blogs?)

As its creator has lived in Seattle only since July 2009,  the SSFSC acknowledges the irony inherent in its creation, and furthermore needs y’all to help out. If you know of an event that you want people to go to and think it’s worth the trouble of emailing us, please do!

Help us get people to your fun show / opening / fundraising kegger / munch / dog and pony show / popcorn galleria and mustard exhibition / bar stool liquidation sale / post ironic grunge party – we can’t make this happen without y’all.

I hope it is OK that I am not on the road to becoming a lawyer or doctor. I think blogger should be enough, as it ends with ‘er’. I wonder if she reads this. Mami, if you are reading this you should know that I am currently in a coffee shop being very productive and looking for an excellent job / girlfriend / quitting smoking / taking the LSAT / taking the MCAT / finding religion / just chilling. You should also know that the more I engage the Real World as an independent actor the more I realize and appreciate what you have done and continue to do for Raf and me. Especially as a ‘single parent’. I try understand what it means, having responsibility like that, and all I can come up with is, “Damn, seems hard”. You should know that for this and other reasons I am intensely concerned with doing well by you, to do good work. To try and become, in general, a responsible and self sustaining human being.

If someone who is not my mother is reading this please join me in saying the following:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WE LOVE YOU VERY VERY MUCH

If you are a hiring manager or human resources person who received a resume from José Díaz, you may also have been directed to this site. I have linked you to Rub Paw Press because I feel that it is the best example of what I have to offer as a writer/blogger. Rub Paw Press is intended to be a Unique Generator of Culture through Engagement with Internet Media (UGCEIM)—this engagement tends towards a discussion of popular music/mp3s as well as literature. Rub Paw Press is also intended to be a Unique Generator of Cuture through Engagement with People, Places, and Things In Real Life (UGCEPPTIRL). Please remember these acronyms. There will be a short quiz at the end of this post.

Rub Paw Press is in part meant to show you my abilities to create content for an internet audience. The site is furthermore intended to demonstrate my ability to construct sentences and paragraphs of flawless written English—this ability makes me an ideal candidate copywriting and editing work.

The following is my Online Writing Sample, wherein I answer the question, “Define Internet Culture”, as presented to me in an application for employment with a popular meme-generating website. My answer was originally submitted in plain text, and as such I felt sort of bad, having been denied my compulsive link/embed habits. Links or no links, I acknowledge the following comments are by no means complete; a proper discussion of Internet Culture could very well fill several blogs, maybe even a book. I am not ready to write a book.

Though I would like for all rubpawpress-authored content to be regarded as constituting a writing sample, I understand if you are looking for something specific and can furnish a traditional writing sample at your request. Please direct inquiries to my personal email.

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I would define Internet Culture as referring to a society whose forms of cultural and economic production are being fundamentally reformed by the Internet, which offers new ways to create and disseminate public culture (e.g. media products; audiovisual representations of the world; memes).

Bands become famous on the merit of a few mp3s.

Photo via gorillavsbear

A 3-minute YouTube short results in a multi-million dollar Hollywood deal.

An author gains an audience for his books by annoying a New York gossip blog.

photo via Anne J Regan

Real-life events are repackaged into visual one-liners, becoming something like a “meme creation kit”. Juxtapose one image of Kanye West, one background image (preferably another meme), one caption saying, “I’mma let you finish…” in reference to the background image: hilarity!

Photo via I’ma Let You Finish

An Internet Culture is a society where individuals conduct their social business (e.g. meeting; flirting; flaming; organizing) on the Internet as much as they do In Real Life, where social networking becomes a norm for social inclusion. Social interactions are given a new stage and new problems as Facebook users subject themselves to hypervisibility and awkward wall posts from parents. Whether “authentic” personal interactions are enhanced or supplanted by online interaction, it is clear that the ways we speak to and get to know each other have changed.

I experience Internet Culture as writing this response while switching back and forth between Word and Firefox. I go to my Tumblr feed and see that somebody customized her credit card with an image of Ceiling Cat (Ceiling Cat is watching your interest rate).

via Neatorama

I consider reblogging it, but instead I go to my running Gchat conversation and watch a YouTube video sent by my friend. In the video, a news anchor gets Rickrolled live on TV.

I reply, “lol”.

I Google “iPad meme”. I check Google Reader. I see that the Justice mp3 that I downloaded from Stereogum and posted on Tumblr is a fake.

[(not really)Justice - Beginning Of The End]

I post a retraction, which Tumblr then broadcasts to my Twitter and Facebook. One of my Facebook friends comments on my status update, saying, “that song was boring anyway”. I think about checking my Facebook messages, but then I remember that all 19 of my unread messages probably relate to events that I don’t want to attend.

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QUIZ (no looking!)

Short Answer:

1) What is Public Culture?

2) What is Ceiling Cat watching you do?

3) What is the purpose of this post?

Definitions:

UGCEIM:

UGCEPPTIRL

Fill In The Blank:

An Internet Culture is a society where individuals conduct their __________ (e.g. meeting; flirting; flaming; organizing) on the Internet as much as they do In Real Life…)

a) Risky Business

b ) Social Business

c) None of Your Business

d) Takin’ Care of Business

BONUS QUESTION:

What is the real life referent of the Kanye West “I’ma let you finish…” meme?

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Sincerely,

José Díaz

view related samples here

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