All Eyes on Me

Haven't posted about Hipster Feminist in a while, but things have gone well since my last mention. I am up to 94 followers, woo! STILL waiting for it to go viral, grumble grumble, but hey, it's nice that my number is growing, albeit slowly, and that many people find it funny enough to subscribe. I haven't been particularly inspired in it lately, though I did like today's-- "At my wedding, my husband's mother will walk him down the aisle to me. And to complete the symbol, I will give his mom a goat in exchange." I'm actually doing that, by the way, when comes my time to get hitched. But even when I don't feel like I'm full of great ideas for it, I am glad that I've been making myself put something up there every day, feeling it or not. It's a great exercise in writer's discipline to just freaking write.

And sometimes even a blind pig finds an acorn every one in a while; so too do I occasionally stumble upon a real gem. I was pretty proud of, "Oh, dudes SAY they're all about equality, but the looks in their faces when I try to use the same bathroom as them says different," and "I like my men how I like my cigarettes. I don't really like them that much but I have an inexplicable craving I hope to be rid of one day," and, "Mainstream feminism is so classist. I mean, I live in a studio and nobody listens to me."

I've also had her talk about Tumblr and participating in fandom a lot lately. Partially because I've recently become addicted to Tumblr and it's on my mind, but also because I find it really funny how she's a hipster who is OBSESSED WITH POP CULTURE. Unironically, even. :-)

Thank you to everyone who is kind enough to already follow. But if you don't yet, go here to do so, because her second anniversary is coming up in July, so subscribe before it becomes too cool. :-)

Yesterday, July 26th, 2012, marks the one year-anniversary since I first started doing @HipsterFeminist, my once-daily joke Twitter feed. I have missed a few days here and there, as evidenced by the fact that one year later Rhoda has 358 tweets rather than 365, but I've been pretty good about posting something most days-- even if it's not the funniest thing in the world, I try to put up SOMETHING. Lately I've even managed to be topical!

I am currently up to 59 followers, which I think is the highest stable number I've ever had. Sadly the number goes up and down with ad accounts appearing and disappearing, and I lost a handful-- including Holly Pervocracy, alas --I think when I tried to do my first attempt at a plotline, when Rhoda stalks her ex's new girlfriend. I'm just guessing, but I think the humor may have gone to much to the "haha, Rhoda's actually a crazy woman" with that string for some people's taste. I want the joke to be primarily "Haha, Rhoda's doing feminism wrong!" and come off that way rather than implying to anyone "Ha, feminism!" or "Ha, women!" Ah, well, I did my best. But it's made me reluctant to try another plot thread for fear of resorting to lower-grade humor out of the need to keep the story going somehow in the very limited 140-characters-a-day format.

Not sure where I'm going from here. I do plan to continue, as I am enjoying the challenge and that fact that 59 people do in fact find it funny. If you are among the subscribers, thank you very much for indulging my little project. I am always interested in suggestions if you have any, and of course joke ideas. blendedchaiteasuggested I have Rhoda read Fifty Shades of Gray, which could be really funny... except it might mean I have to read it myself. And even for the sake of my art, I'm not sure I could subject myself to that...

For the second round of Festival I got into Folding the River. I was torn very much between it and High Rollers, but I'd already told the GMs I would be signing up, so I decided to let that decide for me. Neither Paranoia or The Stand have filled yet, but neither are in the time slots that people tend to prioritize, so I am hoping that once signups go open on Monday night we will get our full complements. Paranoia was in theory supposed to be modular, so it might be able to work if we have to excise parts, but frankly I think that fell by the wayside enough that we'd have to do a lot of fixing to make it work. The Stand is not really able to work without pretty much the entire cast-- I could maybe cut out two roles, max, without having to do major surgery --so I really really want it to fill.

In other news, I have finished my first screenwriting assignment and have decided to declare my afternoon and evening free. I am now making a list of things I'd like to do with that open time. I would like to take a walk into town, maybe run an errand or two, maybe just walk. It occurred to me recently that even if I get back to going to the gym as often as I did in undergrad, back then I was also walking across campus three or four times a day in addition, which I am definitely not getting now. So I am determined not only to make time for workouts, but also just get off my lazy ass and walk during the day. It means a significantly greater time commitment, unfortunately, but I think if I schedule correctly I can make it work. It would be worth it to shape up a little. 

I want to finish another scene for Tailor that I've started but not yet made much progress on. It's the confrontation between Tom and Kenneth where we finally learn why Kenneth's been hanging around with so much interest in the Lorings. We recorded a scene between Plesser and Jared this week, which has inspired me. I would also like to have it for the Artist Meetup morethings5 and I have planned this weekend, where we use each other as accountability partners to keep us working on our artistic projects. Maybe I'll noodle a little on my short-quick-easy larp idea, since I'm feeling particularly engaged in larp production right now.

Finally, it'd be nice to make a little more progress with my new beginner sewing text, Sew Everything Workshop. I've gotten a little ways in and so far it's exactly what I was looking for. It starts with the basics and explains them very clearly. So far I haven't learned anything I didn't already know, but I like things that emphasize the foundation and confirm that I understand correctly before moving on to what I don't already grasp. I'm anxious to get to the part where it actually walks you through a sewing project, which is what I think I really need.

Oh, and one last thing. I recently decided that the first "plot line" I'd like to feature on Hipster Feminist is a story about Rhoda stalking an ex-boyfriend. Not sure how that's going to work yet, but I think it has the potential to be very funny. Maybe I'll do a little work figuring out the storyline and seeing how I can chunk it out into individually funny, one hundred and forty-character pieces.

I have been really loving doing Hipster Feminist lately, my once-daily joke Twitter feed on the thoughts of Rhoda, a girl who finds the only thing more exhausting than the patriarchy is the mainstream. I'm enjoying the challenge of having to come up with an on-point joke for it every day, and even though not everything I've come up with has been comedy gold or trenchant commentary, a handful of them have turned out to be really fun and funny. I am getting interested in developing the character of Rhoda (given that name by morethings5, along with some my favorites of her jokes). She needs a funny last name, and funny life details, and I might just do my hair up stupid and get a pair of black plastic glasses and skinny jeans and take a picture of myself as her. As it is, her character is kind of inconsistent, particularly in how much she flips between being a good feminist and a bad feminist, depending on what joke I want to do on a given day. But perhaps that in itself is funny and a comment on her nature; in case it's not obvious, she is not intended to be a bastion of self-awareness or true social consciousness. Having to stay within a hundred and forty characters does of course make it tough to really deeply explore her, but it's a good format for one-liners, and I like the challenge of working within the limitations.

I just got a whole bunch of new followers lately, too, bringing me up to an awe-inspiring twenty-six! ;-) This is special if only because these new people are people who don't know me and most likely aren't following me to throw me a sympathetic bone. One of those followers is, amazingly, Holly Pervocracy, who write an excellent feminism blog that I started reading a few months ago. She also writes a great deal about sex and kinks, which is fine but not really my cup of tea, but even so it's totally worth following if only for the feminist writing. I wonder how she found it! I also wonder if she noticed that a couple of my HF jokes were drawn from things I read on her blog. :-) At any rate, I'm flattered that she's interested, because she's pretty funny herself and definitely knows her shit when it comes to feminism. Gives me a little confidence that my jokes are sharply observed.

Only mainstream hegemonic assholes don't check it out. ;-)