july 14

happy bastille day.

today:
zdtvme

i tasted my first conflict of ideals at zdtv today. i probably overreacted.

until my show starts, i've been asked to appear on other shows, namely "call for help" a show aimed at people who can barely turn on their computers. for tomorrow, i'm supposed to do a segment, with the host leo laporte, where i teach people how to put their resumes online.:

Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 03:02:04 -0800
To: Rubina
From: justin
Subject: resume Re: call for help

rubina -

sorry i didn't get back to you today; i didn't check my email until late in the evening - i was running around a dear friend from out of town. i did think about the segment while i was two hours south of the city, and and i have some thoughts - i hope it's not to late to innovate!

Rubina sez at 14:55 -0700 7/9/98,

>Let's do a simple do a simple piece on 1) converting a word resume into an
>HTML file- (using MS Web Publisher, available on MS site) and show how
>this can easily be posted to a web site-

i'd like to do this without the microsoft specific code stuff - one because people would have to have MS Word to start with, and then on top of that they would have to download something else! putting your resume on the web can be simpler than that, using tools built into every web browser. that approach gives more control and confidence to the users, and it's definitely more accessible (i can't run MS publisher on my mac here, for example).

so keeping this second portion here in mind:

> 2) for less advanced job searchers, show how you can email an attachment of
>your resume to careerbuilder.com or some such service and they will place it
>online.

i'd like to do the following:

show my own resume as an example resume up on the web. show people how they can "view source" (a function included in every web browser), and then how they can put their information in a resume page in place of mine, using my resume as a simple template (or another resume if you prefer).

then leo and i talk about posting it to a web site

then we talk about ways to use an online resume - emailing the link to people, putting it on business cards, and various online resume spots like careerbuilder.

sound good?

i'll give you a call tomorrow am.
thanks for your patience,
justin

working there, they are definitely going to be interested in product based web production - using the latest tools, etc. it is far easier to seduce advertisers when you can promise them their products will be shown in context when the commericals are over.

but it also may just be easier for people to make more web pages with programs that do html for them:
i talk to jonathan, he suggests compromise maybe, use a netscape composer if your problem is product pushing for bill. he mentions trying to teach his father-in-law to make a web page - he refuses to open a text file. so if i insist on teaching people to view source and edit html, i'll lose touch with lay people who don't care to have control on that level?

but that's been so important for me - where do you draw the line? i use a graphical operating system, there's tons of shit i wouldn't do by hand - like programming postscript. imagine trying to do photoshop from a text prompt!

so why bother using text editing at all? why get your hands dirty with the code? because it's power and confidence. because it's a sense of control in an otherwise quite regulated atmosphere. because you can do more if you struggle through learning that basic skill.

compromise is important, right. if i intend to learn anything from zdtv i should work there for a few months.

howard saw this coming months ago;
"it's a good thing you called - this is the faustian turning point in your life."
he's been saying that tv is soul-sucking. going to his high school reunion, people remembered him not for his books or writing, but for appearing promoting kinko's during the johnny carson show.

he understood why i was opposed to the segment - it would out of character, and out of integrity.
if i stand up for myself, for my image of myself, my sense of myself in tvland, an unreal person by the name of justin hall will begin to exist alongside of you. promoting products like that does not fit in with that image, so the way to convince zdtv to let you put the microsoft stuff in context is to use your brand to argue - you are an html fundamentalist. but then i'm an html fundamentalist!

amy quotes amiri baraka from bulworth - you got to be a spirit, don't be no ghost.

all this shit swimming through my head - looking for an apartment and now thinking i might not have the right job, "stresster"

i think - maybe i should just do it, whore out my tv shit two days a week and just do bud.com with the rest of my time because that's what's fun. but that's like coppola made the godfather to subsidize apocalypse now, and now he makes stuff like "the rainmaker"

(i just read "easy riders, raging bulls," by peter biskind - a history of 70s hollywood. real interesting, to see self-determined storytellers react to the older corporate structure of hollywood. all came out changed, some came out better than others, and after some cultural high points like raging bull and chinatown, we've returned to blockbuster drek where everyone's trying to top records set by spielburg and lucas. that's his thesis anyways.)

LL from the neighborhood is knocking on the door, gimme a soda. i argue with him for a while, and then i figure, hey, i've got sodas to spare, what do i care? so i'm about to give him one, when amy reminds me that when she gave candy to the neighbor kids in another neighborhood, they always came back afterwards, asking for more. so i said, "ll, if i give you this soda, you're not going to ask me for another, right?" "right," ll said, "i won't ask you for another soda. i'll bet you five dollars i won't ask you for another soda - i'll come back in a few days and you'll give me five dollars."

then he rang the doorbell a few minutes later and beckoned me out to the front gate again. from the door i tread, still in my boxers - "ll, i work from home. when i'm home i'm workin'!" "come here!" he sez excitedly. he leans up off his little dirt bike, "tell your girlfriend i like her." "what? you tell her yourself!" "well tell her to come out here then!"

okay, i'm like whatever, so i head back inside, and he rings my doorbell every thirty seconds for twenty minutes. "i'm gonna keep on ringing until she comes out here!" fortunately, amy was conducting our apartment hunt from the bedroom and eve and radek and i were out in the living coaurelating doorbell and cranked up "big three boogie" by willie dixon.

yesterday, after picking up donnan visiting sunnyvale from dc, we went with eve and radek to big sur. actually, we didn't make it that far - we only got to what eve called "big ma'am" - greyhound rock. fun frolicking in the sand. it's nice to remember you live in california with a big empty beach, tall cliffs, windy tree lined two lane roads, and a fat sunburn.

amy has a video camera borrowed from mills, and she's always using it. when she has access to tools, she makes video. two nights ago she filmed herself cutting her hair (eve held the camera). she taped our trip to santa cruz with kathy (i held the camera during the "giant dipper ride").

yesserday: july 9