Comments on: Who needs a hug...

Who needs a hug...

drpynchon — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 08:21:56 -0800

Grandfather of the personal blog freaks out at age 30, after spending 11 years writing about the most intimate details of his life. From the beginning, he was always brutally honest in a time long before it became so commonplace, before any of us knew where this internet business would take us. Naturally he recorded said freakout on video for the world to see, and more or less shut down his storied site. Can we take this kind of display at face value? Is it a bad case of someone substituting net life for the real thing? Is it all just effete whining? Or is this a genuine case of two loves colliding, and a man forced to make a difficult choice?

By: drpynchon

drpynchon — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 08:23:24 -0800

Sorry about the lateness here. But I just couldn't let this go unnoticed by a site chronicling the best of the web. I went to school with Justin, ran (literally) with him for a few weeks, and I've watched him mature for a decade now. And really, I'm just sad to see him go, but hope he finds happiness.

By: AMWKE

AMWKE — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 08:39:40 -0800

Wow, it seems he was genuinly struggling with some intense personal demons. I can see where he was coming from, there is a certain sense of not being alone on the web, but in the end his diatribe is pathetic. just because he makes art he cannot go to the bar and meet a girl?

By: gramschmidt

gramschmidt — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 08:44:18 -0800

Your last three links are bum, by the way.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 08:48:00 -0800

There is a parody of the video - from Waxy's Jan 21 links.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 08:50:11 -0800

Man, that video's kinda painful to watch. Reminds me of some of my own dark nights of the soul. Still, I've learned that prolonged navelgazing is just self-indulgent (even though I haven't been entirely successful putting that into practice).

By: analogue

analogue — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 08:54:00 -0800

It sounds like Vonnegut was right after all... He grabs my arm. Eyes wild, he grabs my hair, shakes it, "Can you get this from a computer?"

By: five dollars worth of thank you cake

five dollars worth of thank you cake — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 08:57:12 -0800

And all this time I thought robot wisdom was the baby's daddy. "Who is that woman outside my window?"

By: cedar

cedar — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 08:59:10 -0800

Grandfather of the personal blog? Well, that's one down leaving only 97 people vieing for the exulted patriarch position. While I didn't watch the video, I have enough angst in my own life that I don't need to seek out the misery of others, I gather that his meltdown was a result of posting intimate details about his life on a public website. It strikes me as odd that after this epiphany he would feel compelled to continue in the same vein. This seems common with webloggers and makes me wonder why they are so utterly incapable of finding the little button labeled 'power'.

By: damnitkage

damnitkage — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:02:13 -0800

On one hand, I want to say, wow, this is intense and I feel sorry for this guy. On the other hand, I want to say shut up, buck up and quit crying. Jesus. "I'm alone because of what I did and I'm gonna be alone because of what I'm doing..." Well, get the fuck out from behind the computer. Go outside, meet people, talk to people, live a life. There's a pisspot of us that are in much worse situations. Many of us have no jobs, serious social issues, etc. And this isn't to belittle his issues. The serious of his issues are relative only to him. Still I'm saying, look, you're pretty fucking talented, obviously in somewhat decent shape and so you freaked. Move on. Pull your goddamn pants up, blow your nose and move on.

By: emptybowl

emptybowl — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:09:16 -0800

That parody video is hysterical. "I am calling Papa John's Pizza"

By: jsavimbi

jsavimbi — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:12:26 -0800

serious social issues what did you mean by this, damnitkage?

By: idontlikewords

idontlikewords — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:13:34 -0800

Argh, I feel bad for Justin, but I have to second what everybody else says about the angst and navelgazing. (Or at least about the public display of said angst and navelgazing.) That being said, I was having kinda a crummy day today, and the parody video from Waxy has improved my mood about 1000%! Thank Jeebus for Brian! (I mean, the "innernet..." =)

By: five dollars worth of thank you cake

five dollars worth of thank you cake — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:16:48 -0800

The parody is very funny. "Internet! Internet! INTERNET! OH MY GOD!"

By: chaz

chaz — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:17:00 -0800

The thing is, Justin does have a life offline. A pretty busy one from what I can tell. I think the breakdown has more to do with the chronicling of his life (and probably issues that were there all along) rather then just being chained to a machine. And of course, it was recorded and posted to the site, so obviously he still has some need to communicate through his website. And I would say he is the Abraham of blogs-- he may not have called it blogging, but he was the first to combine personal homepage with daily links to stuff all over the web. I also am pretty sure that bud.com was the first group blog.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:23:44 -0800

I've read some cathartic stream of conciousness type writing in the past, but shooting and uploading a 70mb video for people to download? Dunno...

By: idontlikewords

idontlikewords — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:24:41 -0800

Oh, also... I wanna touch people... I wanna touch people... And I want them to touch me!!! via vice

By: quonsar

quonsar — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:26:08 -0800

i discovered justin early in my surfing days. he always told me more than i wanted to know. i soon realized i didn't give a shit about his nakedness or his lovemaking habits or his drunk dad or his girlfriends or his professors or his daily epiphanies and that he probably shouldn't either.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 10:18:36 -0800

the real problem seems to be that he doesn't like himself very well ... and some discretion is a good idea ... not to mention not being focused on autobiographical stuff all the time

By: MaxVonCretin

MaxVonCretin — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 10:18:43 -0800

The parody was indeed very very funny, but the original was HILARIOUS! Wow, that guy is the quintessential caricature of pseudo-philosopher, proto-mulleted poseur - and he's a terrible actor to boot. Somebody get that boy a reality show!

By: photoslob

photoslob — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 10:33:09 -0800

Am I the only person who wishes 2005 is the year the personal blog dies a horrific and painful death. I mean, I'm pretty sure that even teenage girls quit writing in their diaries at some point. Yeesh.

By: ericb

ericb — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 10:52:39 -0800

Be sure to read the comments posted at Justin's site regarding his "breakdown". Among the comments: TheMystic posts: Dog and music remix of your misery. Arlos posts: Audio from this video set to music.

By: jon_kill

jon_kill — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 11:09:36 -0800

Jesus, dude, cheer the fuck up.

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 11:12:37 -0800

--> January 2005 : 14:26, cj sez: I know exactly what you're feeling. Remeber man, there is a God who cares very deeply for you. So much so he gave his life up as a sacrafice [sic] for you. Email me if you want to talk about it. *sigh*

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 11:18:06 -0800

Ouch (no permalink, dammit):

I think Justin is finally growing up. He's been a dilettante, a superficial person who never thought of anyone but himself, for his entire life. He's not a narcissist, as others have proposed.. true narcissists are cruel to others... justin is a kind soul at heart. Yet he has finally seen that a world exists outside his own world. Actual, real people work actual, real jobs and earn their own money. He's prattled about his "art", where no such art exists. He's never had a real job or ever had to support himself at the ripe old age of 30. Yet reality has caught up with him. I like Justin, I really do. He's realized that a big world exists outside his own existance, and it kicked him in the ass. Most of us have these histrionic hissy fits when we are 15 or 16... Unfortunately justin learned it later in life. But he's finally growing up a and becoming a man. He's giving up his childish toys (this journal) and venturing into the real world. We may never hear from him again, and that is a very good thing. He's going to take AT LEAST a year off of posting here and hopefully take this site down forever.

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 11:19:48 -0800

LOL. Noooo shit. jon_kill got it right. We have word for that Justin guy. "loser".

By: Mo Nickels

Mo Nickels — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 11:19:51 -0800

Grandfather of nothing.

By: meehawl

meehawl — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 11:25:45 -0800

It's a bit like LiveJournal, but with sound and less funny "Ratings" boxes. Or maybe DeadJournal? I get them confused easily. I did my ob-freakout on Usenet - thankfully for posterity Google has not archived much of the .ie domain from the 1980s. Mr Hall does not live in an era of luxuriously patchy digital amnesia. Then again, isn't this a promo/homework video for his multimedia course?

By: mikeh

mikeh — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 11:48:03 -0800

Living the examined life has its pitfalls. Especially when you spend more time examining your life than living it.

By: idontlikewords

idontlikewords — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 12:34:42 -0800

Plot Summary for Deconstructing Justin: Justin Hall is a well-regarded blogger whose tendency to thinly-veil his own experiences in his work, as well as his un-apologetic attitude and his proclivity for pills and whores, has left him with three ex-wives that hate him. As he is about to be honored for his writing by the college that expelled him, he faces writer's block and the impending marriage of his latest flame to a writer friend. As scenes from his stories and novels pass and interact with him, Justin faces the people whose lives he has affected - wives, lovers, his son, his sister.

By: Mean Mr. Bucket

Mean Mr. Bucket — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 13:00:40 -0800

This guy is a joke. Give me Murakami or Durrenmatt, thanks.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 13:15:39 -0800

Never heard of this guy. I'll have to check this stuff out when I get home to my sound-card enabled machine.

By: Termite

Termite — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 13:46:45 -0800

This, from the comments page on Justin's site, gives me the creeps: I want to put you in a nest, so all your fans could nurture you. You could look up and see the hundreds of faces that hold you in their thoughts and prayers...

By: filchyboy

filchyboy — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 13:49:22 -0800

It won't help delmoi.

By: drpynchon

drpynchon — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 13:56:36 -0800

I dunno.. I think you guys are being kinda harsh, no? I mean to a degree, this is ultimately about a guy who defined himself in a very unique way for over a third of his life, but then suddenly came to realize that his self-definition was destroying him -- keeping him from finding the very human connections he sought through his endeavors. Is it the same as being homeless or getting diagnosed with a brain cancer? Obviously not. But I think it's fair to call it an existential crisis that shouldn't be snarked at. You may well be seeing bipolar disorder in action, and I assure you that it's more tragic than funny (though there is plenty to laugh at, and the parody is clever). Perhaps kicking someone while he's down is a pleasant way to blow off steam for the more conventional among us. And believe me, as much as it seems like he lives on the net, the content there is real, so if you actually read his blog, its hard to see him as a shut in. If anybody's sucked some marrow out of life, it's been Justin.

By: bingbangbong

bingbangbong — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 14:02:05 -0800

I started reading Justin's site in 1996, after seeing a link in Newsweek of all places, and it was pretty fascinating stuff back then. He'd already been chronicling his life online for a few years, and as far as I could tell, he was the only one doing it at the time. Now everybody's on board. His site was compelling, especially because of his writing skills and the ferocity of his commitment. He literally put everything up there, just to see what sharing everything with the world was like. Some of it was incredibly embarassing stuff, but you had to admire his courage. It's pretty sad that this guy, who basically came up with the idea of a blog out of nowhere in 1994 and pursued it for 11 years, can't get any love from Metafilter.

By: hex1848

hex1848 — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 14:03:29 -0800

I remember justin. IIRC I started learning HTML using the tutorial he had on his site. Actually I think I started going to the site for his sex links....

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 14:19:34 -0800

Just as funny now as the first time I saw it. The cake, however, is quite rich... I can only handle a few bites at a time.

By: VanRoosta

VanRoosta — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:34:25 -0800

"on 31 January 2005 : 15:16, good citizen sez: For those of you who have said "at least he's stopped posting," he hasn't. After this, he posted three more times. On the 15th: http://www.links.net/daze/05/01/15/as_down_so_up.html On the 19th: http://www.links.net/daze/05/01/19/wow.html and then again just this past Saturday: http://www.links.net/daze/05/01/28/hoodoo_you_love.html"

By: tss

tss — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 20:50:48 -0800

It's easy to be dismissive, but I think Justin has some claim to the "grandfather of blogging" title. Certainly he was preaching the potential of web journals with fundamentalist fervor long before the term "blogging" ever existed---when I first encountered his page in late '97/early '98, this exhortation was already there:

my biggest piece of web advice, to have a well visited, throbbing trafficked site work on it every day. put in just a half an hour and see if you can keep yourself to just that.

And there you have it. He was responsible for a pretty strong interest in the web at Swarthmore, where I began my freshman year the year after he left. You got differing views on him depending on who you asked. As a new sysadmin for the SCCS, I spent a lot of time with folks who had to deal with the technical side of his ministry, and drpynchon's links show that there was little love lost between him and them.

By: mikojava

mikojava — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 01:19:38 -0800

Hmm met him one time, he was exploring using voice software because of carpal tunnel. If you're reading this Justin, not to be flippant, but get some help. Youre a talented guy, but not making yourself happy. You dont have to go there.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 14:35:34 -0800

I think Justin's work is interesting. It's strangely quaint, somehow, like some relic from a more hopeful era of the internet, when it was going to bind the world together. Reading his stuff, and even watching this .mov, fills me with hope, that the internet is ultimately not neutral but a force for good... these are fleeting emotions, but ones that nevertheless are there. I remember this time of the internet and it's good to know that the spirit still exists, even if I no longer feel animated by it. I read through his entire site once way back in 97 or 8 (possibly earlier, possibly in 96). I never checked back, but it was one of the first indications that I saw that the internet could be something bigger than IPO's and cat pictures. If he wants to quit, he should quit, he can still keep links.net existing, as a record of an era, a work of art. Perhaps on the web, perhaps simply as a bunch of cd's/dvd's. It reminds me of Tolstoy's autobiography, the unflinching want to be honest, truthful, to not hide anything. Of course it's an impossible task doomed to failure, but it's still an interesting perspective.

By: obloquy

obloquy — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 11:32:46 -0800

'Time To Get A Life': SF Chronicle, Sun. Feb. 20, 2005-- Page A1