You're not still here are you? Holding the Empty is over, and the new incarnation is called Right to Bleed. In just a few days, I'll be deleting this blog, so you need to head over there to keep reading. The blog is at RightToBleed.com and the RSS feed is here.
The clock is ticking!
Hey! Holding the Empty has metamorphisized, and you're missing out! It's now called Right to Bleed.
If you'e reading this in an RSS reader, you'll want to click here to subscribe to Right to Bleed instead.
If you're reading it at the main page, click here to visit the main site of Right to Bleed.
All my new content is going up at Right to Bleed, so YOU need to be over THERE!
Since making the switch, I've posted Issa's Top Five Ways to Question Authority, Banned Articles on Women's Health and the Environment, Why Everyone Else Sucks, Shut The Fuck Up About Guns, and What Are They Telling You When They Tell You About Swine Flu. Have you read them?
Next week, I've got a post coming up called All I Have To Do Is Look Like Me, which might include a picture or two from my porn photos of myself.
See ya at Right to Bleed.
Changes are coming! I've decided to change the name of this blog and move it to its own URL! I started Holding the Empty when I moved into my van, but the direction of my life and the topics I'm writing about have changed somewhat since then. I wanted to self-host my blog, and I've also been looking for a different name that suits my space right now. The new name is Right to Bleed, which you can read about at my new About page.
I hope you'll all come with me to the new home of this blog! Subscribe to the feed or just follow along at the main site. Wondering what will be different? Take a look at some of the changes:
- Gravatars are now supported in the comments. Head over to Gravatar.com to set yours up!
- Comments are also nested now. You can reply directly to someone else, instead of your comment appearing at the bottom of the heap.
- Comment moderation - It's set up so that the first time you comment, it has to be approved by me, in order to avoid spam. However, all your subsequent comments will go straight through.
- Each post contains and easy button for adding a post as a bookmark, saving it, or submitting it to Twitter, Facebook, or other social networking sites.
- Posts are followed by suggestions for other related posts you might be interested in.
- You can see my crazy-long list of tags on the sidebar, but posts are also organized into larger categories.
- All the old posts from Holding the Empty are still there, including all your comments.
You know what the new site doesn't have yet? A blogroll! What else are you reading these days? Anything I might be interested in? I'm always looking for great stuff to add to my reader.
I'll probably post here another time or two, to help remind you to come join me at Right to Bleed, but that's it! Right to Bleed has a few little tweaks yet to come, like redirecting all the internal links, but from now on, you can expect to find me over there. Come on over!
A collection of links that are interesting to me, but didn't make the cut for full-blown commentary:
- Have you read the article Deadly Force at the Washington Post? Read the whole thing, every single word, and think about who the victims are in the War on Drugs. (Answer: all of us.)
- An interesting Zero Waste project in Atlanta.
- A long article from Glamour where women share their abortion stories.
- From Friendly Atheist, an interview with bananaman which should make you furious or rolling-on-the-floor laughing.
- Company name denied due to blasphemy laws. Blasphemy laws?! What century is this? (Via)
- A custody agreement prohibits man from exposing children to his gay friends. (Via)
I like clever little lists that validate choices I've made. I ran across this one recently: The 10 Most Successful Potheads on the Planet. I don't even like pot and haven't smoked it in a long time, but I strongly support those who do and support and end to drug prohibition. One of the stepping stones to accomplishing that is taking a hard look at the myths and fears about drug use. One myth, of course, is that your life won't amount to anything if you do drugs. So, I appreciate this list, which says, look, you can do drugs and still be a multi-billionaire or a star athlete or a president of the United States or whatever.
Another set of bullet points that I enjoy has people who didn't go to or finish college, such as 15 Successful Entrepreneurs Who Didn't Need College (which includes at least one crossover with the former pothead list). This list says you can not go to college and still be innovative, rich, and world-famous. As someone who hated college and flunked out spectacularly, I appreciate this attempt to validate the decision to reject college.
So, these little lists give me a little sense of glee. BUT.
I don't actually think they're helpful to the "cause", and, in fact, point to and contribute to a larger problem. That problem is the worship of "success", which is strictly defined along monetary and popularity lines. These lists say that it's okay that these people smoke/d pot or didn't go to college because now they're successful, and that means their choices were obviously fine.
What if I'm NOT a millionaire, though, and I also didn't go to college or didn't stay sober my whole life. What then? THEN is my choice the wrong one? The answer from the masses is probably yes. Whatever my choices were, if they didn't lead to success, they were wrong.
I'd like to reject the idea that there's an all-important standard of success that's anything other than "you're happy." I think it's perfectly acceptable to be a pothead AND a dropout AND lay about your house in your pajamas all day doing whatever the fuck you want. OR to be a billionaire who never did drugs and loved college. OR anywhere in between. "Success" should mean something much closer to "happiness", and there are an infinite number of ways to get there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
