BellGab.com Archive

Quote from: Catsmile on May 20, 2018, 09:55:31 PM
This is why I don't put people upon pedestals, because they are good at their jobs.

Wisdom.

Placing hopes in anything but principles (particularly personalities and parties) only leads to disappointment.

Quote from: Kizuna Ai on May 20, 2018, 09:06:40 PM
In the end Art was just a huge let down and a piece of shit human.

Like the rest of us.

Quote from: rangerdavid on May 06, 2018, 05:02:20 PM

Where is the link to the download of this megapack please??

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:5ec9255fb9fe4587ffc908bdcab893388b33979b&dn=The%20Ultimate%20Art%20Bell%20Collection&tr=udp%3a%2f%2fopen.demonii.com%3a1337%2fannounce

Wonder if he went TOWARDS or AWAY from the light, was always a big concern of his. RIP Art.

That was a beautiful bit of naval gazing, thanks for it.

Quote from: Seraphim27 on May 14, 2017, 03:50:52 AM
Please allow me (or skip) this long-ass, self-indulgent, navel-gazing post at this moment in time.

I recently got a pretty decent job with a major wireless service provider. Its current marketing campaign centers around the fact that we stole the "Can you hear me now?" guy ... and that's all I'll say about that. If you watch commercials, I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Anyway, after years of sickeningly stressful jobs in the PR/Marketing industry -- meeting with clients, making sure they're happy and all the "low-hanging fruit" has been grabbed and our "success metrics" have been met ... and all the while, billing and billing and billing by the hour until I met my billing quota -â€" this current gig is exactly the job I thought I always wanted: a low-stress, assembly-line-type job, a corporate writer (drone) in a sea of corporate writers, plugging away at mindless work and, in turn, getting a paycheck that's so excessive, it's guilt-inducing.

Specifically, as a former journalist, I'm now tasked with trailing along behind the technical writers and making their copy relatable to other human beings. I write, I rewrite, I edit, I punctuate. It takes almost zero brain power on my part and I get to use my skills to make another decent writer look extraordinary, which puts an altruistic spin on the whole thing. Meanwhile, I'm one of a large pool of "lifestyle content specialists" and we all telecommute from all over the country. I work from home. I work in pajamas. I vape while I write. If the work gets too tedious, I can toss back a vodka-and-grapefruit juice or catch up on the latest episode of "Better Call Saul" and no one would know. I am hashtag-blessed for the moment.

So here's where I'm going with this: Recently the company offered me a $20K bonus with an oh-so-corporate catch: It's got strings attached. I have to go off-salary and earn it during the hours when I'm not making my actual salary, and I have a window of six weeks to do it. I did the math and I believe I have to work about 19 hours a day, every day, including weekends, if I want that $20K. And hell yes, I want that $20K.

Don't get me wrong: The bonus isn't all or nothing. Every Friday I get a check with a portion of that $20K -- whatever I've earned that week. And that's been glorious. This past Friday, my "extra check" was $2,200. So yeah, sleep is for the weak. I need a new car.

So tonight I'm sitting here at 4 a.m. on a Sunday -- although to me it's still Saturday, as I started clocking these hours around 6 p.m. It's lonely as hell, editing all these documents, tweaking their HTML codes, adjusting fonts and formatting them, here alone in my house in the dead of night.

I have a list of documents from which I'm working. I doggedly plug away at them. And then suddenly I realize the list is changing. Someone out there -- some technical writer -- is ADDING more documents to my folder. Like, right now.

The action in itself isn't out of the ordinary -- the technical writers always add their work to this particular file and my job is to grab it, clean it up and pass it along down the assembly line of words to another file, where someone else will grab my stuff and review it, etc. etc. etc. It's just the TIMING right now that's weird -- this lonely, lonely time in the middle of the night and suddenly I see that another human being is out there, somewhere, working with me.

I want to reach out to her. According to the metadata on the doc, her name is Meredith. I want to boot up our intraoffice messaging system, find her name among the thousands of people in this company and shoot her a message. Because what's her deal? Is she also chasing after a $20K carrot that's being dangled in front of her? Or does she just have a shitload of work to do and she's sick with stress about getting it done? Maybe she came home late from a bar, tipsy, wired and unable to sleep and thought, "Well hell, I guess I'll write some technical documents." Or maybe, like me, she lives alone with a couple of cats and her Saturday nights kind of suck like mine. If she throws herself into her work in the middle of the night, maybe she won't feel like she's the only one in the universe who isn't sleeping in the arms of another human being or out on the town having a blast. At least that's how I deal.

I want to message her: "Meredith! HEY, MEREDITH! I'm here too! You're not alone at 4 a.m.! Who are you? Why are you here? Your writing is good! I'm happy to be editing it!"

But I don't. Because that would be weird. And really, I'm projecting my own shit on poor Meredith, whoever she is. She and her husband probably just got done having hot sex. He went right to sleep. She tossed and turned and finally decided to get up and work. Tomorrow they're going to a Mother's Day brunch. He'll give her flowers. Her kids will give her cute gifts they picked out themselves. So she's working late because she knows she'll be cherished tomorrow (today) and doesn't want work looming over her and spoiling it.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here with questions like "Are all my Saturday nights going to be like this?" and "Who's going to take care of me when I'm old?"

I went to the liquor store today to get a bottle of rosé and some Bailey's. The cashier handed me a rose. "Happy Mother's Day!" he said. "We're giving complimentary roses to all of our customer-mothers." I didn't want to make it weird and tell him that I'm not a mother and I can't have kids and it breaks my heart every damn day. So yeah, there's a rose in a vase on my bedside table now. I should toss it, but I love flowers. I wonder if Meredith is also single and childless and if people mistake her for a mother every year on this weekend too.

So yeah, kids, welcome to the inside of my head. It was shocking as hell tonight to see another person online working a few minutes ago. In a company with thousands and thousands of people, it looks like we're the only two people who are logged into the company intranet. So, being the "OHMYGAWWWWWD I'M SOOOOO BORED IN THIS JOBBBBBBBB" soul that I am, I couldn't help but wonder: "Who the hell is Meredith and what's her story?"

Unfortunately, I'll never get up the nerve to ask her. We can only imagine though.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading. I guess I'd better get back to work. But to make this post relevant, yeah, that's why I always loved Art. No matter how lonely I felt, he was always a voice in the dark ... and he was as weird as I was. Noory is .... fine ... but it's not the same.

Happy Mother's Day to all you BellGabber Mothers!

X-Grub.

Quote from: analog kid on July 23, 2015, 09:59:18 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykEpCbQ7cAM

Very cool, kid, thanks for that.

Welcome back Bart Ell.

Quote from: Rockaria on July 20, 2015, 01:57:19 AM
Thanks for that, Basswood. I thought the "test" was about the technical aspects only.

I think the "test" also applied to having a guest on the line (Redacted) while taking calls and we saw that he needed to do that to figure out that he's got a problem that has to be fixed.

From Art's FB page a few minutes ago: "Ok, I get the message, you do not wish me to have a co-host, no problem. It was only a Test show."

Quote from: WebGurl on July 20, 2015, 12:06:12 AM
It is too distracting and loses the mystery.

It's true. Nothing against Redacted, I don't think there could be anyone sitting next to him that wouldn't be a distraction.

Quote from: Willis on July 19, 2015, 09:34:55 PM
Stream not working?

Try this:

In VLC go to Open Network Stream
Then enter this: http://dmr.streamguys1.com/darkmatter-mp3

Just clicked right on the link and am hearing somebody talking now, I guess that's good
Thanks!!!

Nope. Not on DMNetwork or anywhere. Nothing working for me all evening. Ironic, can't even get U7 Radio to load anymore on TuneIn. All other stations come in fine, just none with Art.

Woe to you, o earth and sea, for the Devil sends the Beast with wrath...


http://youtu.be/cBkWhkAZ9ds

Quote from: maureen on June 21, 2015, 05:24:12 PM
I called it the Fairy-Spoon Daisy!

Perfect name for that, I like

Quote from: nbirnes on June 21, 2015, 05:43:07 PM
For sure, that's what we in the East call a passion flower. They are wildly interesting.

Nancy, that is the same flower as the one that was pictured earlier but it's not a Passion Flower. Passion Flowers are totally different animals than daisies.

Quote from: maureen on June 21, 2015, 03:13:54 PM
is this the same family? in my garden here in Mexico...

So gorgeous   So it grows as an annual for you there? Going to have to order some, they're just too unique.

Quote from: HorrorRetro on June 21, 2015, 10:29:46 AM
Thanks! Those are Osteospermum or generic name of African daisy. I had never seen them before, but they are apparently really catching on here in the PNW.

Thank you It appears they might do well down here in Texas which makes we wonder how they are becoming popular in the PNW. Supposedly they don't do well with moist soil (root rot) and prefer Zone 9 and above. Are they used mostly just in pots as a summertime color splash or do people actually have them planted as an annual?

Quote from: HorrorRetro on June 20, 2015, 11:57:30 AM
Close up shots.

http://ginagothejackson.smugmug.com/Pacific-Northwest-Nature/i-Q6P6JQf/A

http://ginagothejackson.smugmug.com/Pacific-Northwest-Nature/i-C9rcxtb/A

Architectural shot.
http://ginagothejackson.smugmug.com/City-Scenes/i-kKRFXqn/A

My view from downtown.
http://ginagothejackson.smugmug.com/City-Scenes/i-WX5QSNb/A

Wandering through the forest under Mt. St. Helens.
http://ginagothejackson.smugmug.com/Pacific-Northwest-Nature/i-MLDMv3v/A

And a fun shot I took of the Goodyear Blimp as it was above my house on Thursday. It's in town for the US Open, which is just 2 miles from my house. I also caught an orca fin as I was taking shots of the golf course from across the bay. Bad quality, since I was so far away.

http://ginagothejackson.smugmug.com/City-Scenes/i-dh9tBMD/A

http://ginagothejackson.smugmug.com/City-Scenes/i-4PzzMnW/A

Fantastic photography as usual. Jeez... What kind of flowers are those purple and pink pinwheels?

“Pastor Russell lived in nearby Pittsburgh and said that there was no hell. This was terrible for we all knew that everyone but the Baptists were going there, so to believe there was no hell upset all the countryside theology.” ~ Ammon Hennacy, The Autobiography of a Catholic Anarchist

Quote from: Camazotz Automat on June 17, 2015, 10:40:28 PM

Grubschach test.

LOL Now you're getting it.

Quote from: HorrorRetro on June 17, 2015, 08:52:49 PM

I really love the Grub series. 

Thanks. It takes a certain mind...

Starry Starry Grub.

Quote from: Camazotz Automat on June 17, 2015, 09:30:40 PM
It's almost a form of sabotage/contamination to make a request of an artist, but I can't help but ask, basswood, if there's any possibility of "This is your grub.  And this is your grub on drugs. Any questions?"

Well, it would mean having to put on hold my life's work of The Night Watch featuring grubs but I'll consider it.

And for those who share my love of grubs, here's a few more recent ones: "Zydegrub," "The Wooly Grubboth," The Persistence of Grubs," and "This is not a Grub."

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on June 10, 2015, 02:18:12 PM
I wouldn't worry; the world is getting obliterated by an asteroid in July.

July 19th, I'm guessing?

Quote from: Camazotz Automat on June 08, 2015, 07:49:08 AM
According to comment #333, I was completely full of bison hockey regarding the gum. 

Glad someone called you out on that  . Don't know how I missed that after scrolling through that page four times, it was only two posts down. So much for my powers of observation ... Lol Anyway, pretty cool.

Quote from: HorrorRetro on May 30, 2015, 04:24:29 PM
I've been into photographing roosters lately. This guy was a pro when it came to modeling.

http://ginagothejackson.smugmug.com/Pacific-Northwest-Nature/i-JWvLXWD

http://ginagothejackson.smugmug.com/Pacific-Northwest-Nature/i-stfk9fJ

Such gorgeous animals, hard to take a bad photo of them but yours are phenomenal. Jealous. I've been keeping city chickens for about 6 years now but opt not to keep roosters for the sake of my neighbors.

Quote from: Camazotz Automat on May 25, 2015, 04:57:38 AM
One of my mini sculptures.

Gargoyle : A Study in Gum

(As a practicing exorcist, I always chew three sticks of Juicy Fruit.)

Did you really make that from gum? lol

Quote from: PathoJen on May 31, 2015, 12:51:59 PM

LOVE!

Quote from: Camazotz Automat on May 31, 2015, 01:00:07 PM
Holy grub shots, Batman!

The guitar grub has an almost Gary Larson Far Side quality to it.

The owlish Piñata could be hanging on a wall at the Double R Diner in Twin Peaks. The grubs are not what they seem.

And the Pico grub eerily reminded me of the grave site on the Sgt. Pepper album.

These are great grubs.

Thanks Jen, thanks Cam

A few of the latest grub paintings:

"The grub with the blue post-modern fragmented neo-traditionalist guitar," "Piñata Larva," and "Pico de Larva."