Proof of Purchase

September 24, 2007 8:14 AM

I am a middle class 20 year old with hopes, dreams, fears, and a visa check-card.
posted by man vs sun (117 comments total)

This is great!
posted by mediareport at 8:20 AM on September 24, 2007

Neat. Thanks.
posted by dobbs at 8:20 AM on September 24, 2007

Is it bad for him that the internet now knows the last four digits of his check card number?
posted by brownpau at 8:24 AM on September 24, 2007

Adventures in creative writing or OCD?

I kid, I kid. When I as that age, I used to write short stories and poetry on the backs of unfolded Marlboro Red hard packs.
posted by psmealey at 8:26 AM on September 24, 2007

This is awesome.
posted by chunking express at 8:26 AM on September 24, 2007

I uh, can't see that it shows anything...? there's a calendar with date links - click one and ... nothing happens.
posted by eatdonuts at 8:27 AM on September 24, 2007

I don't understand. Are the "receipt" links supposed to do something? Or show me something?
posted by luser at 8:27 AM on September 24, 2007

So much better than I expected.
posted by sveskemus at 8:28 AM on September 24, 2007

Is it bad for him that the internet now knows the last four digits of his check card number?

There's a really complex algorithm for determining a card number and knowing the last four isn't going to help anyone. At least that's what I was told when I worked in the merchant account business.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 8:29 AM on September 24, 2007

hrm... not IE friendly, evidently.
posted by man vs sun at 8:29 AM on September 24, 2007

Having lived in the OKC metro for several years, his receipts are sure making me miss the place! I would kill for some Ted's! (Though not what he ordered--the mexican tacos are the best thing on the menu!)
posted by wallaby at 8:30 AM on September 24, 2007

I think this should be suspected as a self-link.

man vs sun joined a week ago and this is his first post. His profile page lists him as "3 hours north of Dallas". This post from the blog linked to indicates that the blog writer is depositing to a Tinker AFB Credit Union. Mapquest tells me that Tinker AFB is 210 miles from Dallas (3 hrs. 20 minutes, according to Mapquest). Circumstantial, but suspicious nonetheless.
posted by spock at 8:38 AM on September 24, 2007

Yeah, site is pretty broken in IE. You've got to look for the tiny little grey dots in the blank space of the entries and click on those to see the images. I'm guessing they're thumbnails in FF?
posted by cortex at 8:39 AM on September 24, 2007

I WOULD RATHER PAY FOR THE INTERNET THAN FOOD

I LOCKED EYES WITH THE FEMALE COOK - IT MAKES THIS FOOD TASTE EVEN BETTER

I am a middle class 20 year old with hopes, dreams, fears, and a visa check-card entirely too much time on my hands.

At best this is some Viral Marketing campaign, if they were trying to subconsciously guide serial killers into signing up for Visa Check Cards they really nailed it. Otherwise I'd be inclined to agree with spock's assessment, there is absolutely nothing here.
posted by prostyle at 8:41 AM on September 24, 2007

I am a middle class 40 year old with hopes, dreams, and no time for reading this.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 8:41 AM on September 24, 2007 [6 favorites]

"hrm... not IE friendly, evidently."

I noticed. Fortunately, IE is only used by a relatively small number of MeFites still mired in the arcane and out-of-touch. So screw us anyway.
posted by Mike D at 8:41 AM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Awesome. My cynicism-powered motor scooter was running out of gas. Looks like I dropped by this thread just in time.
posted by Gervais Brooke-Hamster at 8:43 AM on September 24, 2007 [5 favorites]

Fun. I mean kinda sad. I mean interesting.
posted by The Deej at 8:46 AM on September 24, 2007

I think this should be suspected as a self-link.

I agree, unfortunately, as I enjoyed reading it and it has potential. Even more damning than the descriptive location, "3 hours north of Dallas," are the coordinates: 35.316758, -97.510888, which place Trey approximately 19 minutes from Norman, OK, where Trey is attending school.
posted by anomie at 8:47 AM on September 24, 2007

I didn't notice ANY comments on this blog either, so I'm wondering how sun vs man found it, unless he is the author.
posted by spock at 8:47 AM on September 24, 2007

Is it bad that I look at this site and think, man, I remember when I was 20 and, my body still adjusting to the tremendous weight lifted off my back from graduating highschool and the haze of college just thick enough to make everything shimmer so, the optimism and newness of the world around me, before tired trends, scenes and broken hearts gave jaded frame of referrence, and everything, good or bad, seemed so damned important...

and I'm only 26?

I feel like I should go write a poem or something.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 8:48 AM on September 24, 2007

Can someone not using IE describe what we would be seeing?
posted by yhbc at 8:49 AM on September 24, 2007

I am a middle class 20 year old with hopes, dreams, fears, and a visa check-card entirely too much time on my hands.

Whoa, did you see that stone fly by? I think it came from the window of that glass house over there...
posted by hermitosis at 8:50 AM on September 24, 2007 [8 favorites]

I lean from the 'awesome' side of the fence.
posted by Alex404 at 8:51 AM on September 24, 2007

If you plug in his lat/long coordinates you come up at Moore, OK, which mapquest says is 3 hrs 3 minutes from Dallas. (What a strange way to register your location. Are Okies that embarrassed to be living there that they describe their location relative to Dallas, TX?)
posted by spock at 8:51 AM on September 24, 2007

Are Okies that embarrassed to be living there

Not all. Just me. Most Okies are that stereotype you see on reality TV with the cowboy hats and the plug of chaw in their mouth. And I think they're okay with that.
posted by man vs sun at 8:55 AM on September 24, 2007

I see it now.

I respect his strategy of posting his musings as images. It makes it that much hard to copy/paste them here for ridicule. But I will take this one for the team:

Silence is a beautiful thing sometimes.

I was hopeful of the future to come.

Ive been so far away and somehow, now, Ive never been closer.

I hesitated too much/I fear I will be tormented by my hesitence

Handwriting seems to improve my writing - and scanning receipts adds that extra bit of quirk that make a truly great blog! (My contribution)
posted by luser at 8:55 AM on September 24, 2007

Can someone not using IE describe what we would be seeing?
posted by yhbc

He writes little diary entries on his receipts, having to do with what happened during or related to that transaction. Does cortex's advice above work?

Yeah, site is pretty broken in IE. You've got to look for the tiny little grey dots in the blank space of the entries and click on those to see the images.

If this is a self-link that would be too bad. It's a worthy FPP and it would have been easy enough to ask someone else to post it.
posted by The Deej at 8:57 AM on September 24, 2007

spock = someone with more time on his/her hands than the receipt guy. ;-)

It's kind of cute, but has that "Probably fake, like most of postsecret.com is" aura to it. It was still interesting, though, as it's kind of neat to see what people pay for regular everyday stuff in other parts of the US.

$2.79/gal for gas? Wow. I wish we had that out here once again..
posted by drstein at 8:57 AM on September 24, 2007

So, man vs sun, are you the blog's author?
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:57 AM on September 24, 2007

A guy named Riley Harmon, who seems to be a teacher at OU, posted this. Gotta be a self-link.
posted by cerebus19 at 8:57 AM on September 24, 2007

I am not the blog's author. Nor am I a student at OU. Riley is an art student there and this is one of his projects.
posted by man vs sun at 9:03 AM on September 24, 2007

...that glass house over there...

Which would that be, the one with a foundation of scanned credit card receipts annotated with personal narratives? Do keep up!

Art student... that goes without saying!
posted by prostyle at 9:05 AM on September 24, 2007

Interestingly, a digg user going by "electronicghost" http://digg.com/users/electronicghost (A 20 year-old male from Oklahoma (US) who joined Digg on September 23rd, 2007) tried to seed this on digg with this description: The blog displays receipts with text written on them from an anonymous poster detailing a narrative of their life. The blog reads, "I am a middle class 20 year-old with hopes, dreams, fears, and a visa check-card." The blog poster is unknown. It reminds me of post-secret books, but more intimate, and a singular person's life.

Nice track covering! I suggest you plant it on Reddit, which is much easier to get noticed on than Digg.
posted by spock at 9:06 AM on September 24, 2007

"project" being the roundabout way of saying "viral generation z targeted ad campaign using hip acronyms and a funky/wacky angle," of course.
posted by moonbird at 9:08 AM on September 24, 2007

Hopes, dreams and the world's smallest HTML links.
posted by GuyZero at 9:09 AM on September 24, 2007

This is pretty cool. Thanks for pointing it out!

I'm just waiting for one of these receipts to have a full credit card number on it....
posted by JDHarper at 9:12 AM on September 24, 2007

"project" being the roundabout way of saying "viral generation z targeted ad campaign using hip acronyms and a funky/wacky angle," of course.

If so, it's the worst viral ad ever. The Visa logo isn't on the page anywhere. I think this one is legit.
posted by JDHarper at 9:16 AM on September 24, 2007

At best this is some Viral Marketing campaign

Reeks of viral marketing.

I don't understand why this man's writing on receipts would make anyone want to go out and get a visa check-card any more than psmealey's comment makes me want to buy a pack of Marlboro Reds.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 9:20 AM on September 24, 2007

It's a charming little OCD experiment. People really need to get a grip with the ZOMGSELFLINKB& thing, its tedious.
posted by Aversion Therapy at 9:22 AM on September 24, 2007

I am a middle class man in my early fifties. My hopes and dreams all lie behind me, but my snark muscle remains strong.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:23 AM on September 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

self-link or not, viral marketing or not, I think it's beautiful. Art student? I'd give him an A.
posted by lucia__is__dada at 9:28 AM on September 24, 2007

meh.
posted by malaprohibita at 9:29 AM on September 24, 2007

Totally enjoyed your post man vs sun. Thank you and welcome to Metafilter. :)
posted by nickyskye at 9:34 AM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

OK, using the coordinates listed in this thread, I called in some favors from my friends in the US Federal government, where I work. They were able to repurpose a satellite to zoom in on the location, and it revealed man vs sun writing on receipts, scanning them, and posting them to a blog. Yes, the handwriting matched!

BUSTED!!!!
posted by The Deej at 9:34 AM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

"BUSTED!!!!"

Wouldn't "BURNED!!!" be more appropriate for man vs sun?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:37 AM on September 24, 2007

I think think the most fascinating parts are the things he DOESN'T say. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
posted by blue_beetle at 9:40 AM on September 24, 2007

Yeah, the WHOIS info is a bit fishy considering the kid refers to "home" in the blog as being Shawnee, which is about 45 minutes east of here. Maybe the domain name's borrowed or purchased from someone else and the WHOIS info hasn't been updated. Crazy kids and their domain names. Still, I can't hate on a student art project, so thanks for the post man vs sun.

Are Okies that embarrassed to be living there that they describe their location relative to Dallas, TX?)
posted by spock at 10:51 AM on September 24

Not all. Just me. Most Okies are that stereotype you see on reality TV with the cowboy hats and the plug of chaw in their mouth. And I think they're okay with that.
posted by man vs sun at 10:55 AM on September 24

I suspect any Oklahoma dwellers who choose to identify themselves in relation to Texas will suspend this position on October 6th during the OU/Texas football game, in which the Longhorns will likely be handed their proverbial arses. Because, apparently, there are at least a few souls who've taken off the hats and spit out the chew long enough to get the Sooners an pretty decent offense this year.
posted by Dr. Zira at 9:42 AM on September 24, 2007

Reminds me of Derek's Walmart Receipts.
posted by aerotive at 9:43 AM on September 24, 2007

I have a hard time picturing why an art student would only document things he'd purchased using a Visa check card. Surely he's had interesting moments concerning purchases made with cash. Also, I don't know if I've ever heard anyone other than a Visa commercial refer to that type of card as a "check card" rather than a "debit card" or "ATM card".
posted by the jam at 9:43 AM on September 24, 2007

Wouldn't "BURNED!!!" be more appropriate for man vs sun?

At the very least, he should get his ass tanned.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:43 AM on September 24, 2007

God this site is full of assholes.
posted by serazin at 9:43 AM on September 24, 2007 [9 favorites]

Are things so bad these days that we have to assume that anything which seems unique has got to be the product of some Karl Rove type motherfucker sitting in a corporate penthouse, eating babies for lunch?
posted by fusinski at 9:44 AM on September 24, 2007

Yes.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:46 AM on September 24, 2007 [3 favorites]

Maybe the viral subtext is: even wistful art students qualify for visa check cards.

But people who use plastic for purchases totalling $1.60 piss me off.

Also, dude needs to learn to cook.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:47 AM on September 24, 2007

Can you buy babies for lunch with a Visa Check Card?
posted by Dr. Zira at 9:48 AM on September 24, 2007

Metafilter: "The site's hollow -- it goes on forever -- and oh my God, it's full of assholes!"
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:49 AM on September 24, 2007

Are things so bad these days that we have to assume that anything which seems unique has got to be the product of some Karl Rove type motherfucker sitting in a corporate penthouse, eating babies for lunch?

Unfortunately, yes. Advertising has done that to us, which is why I always recommend marketing people to follow Bill Hicks advice.
posted by DreamerFi at 9:51 AM on September 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

Can you buy babies for lunch with a Visa Check Card?

My understanding is that Visa is accepted EVERYWHERE.
posted by fusinski at 9:51 AM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

WTF, Viral Marketing? Self link? Track covering? Jesus Crispies, y'all need to settle down.

This is an interesting site, we could be talking about it.

Instead I'm defending someone for having the poor foresight to post an item to Metafilter while possibly living within 20 miles of the blogs location. If that wasn't enough s/he actually used the tagline from the item itself as the body of the post and "someone else" posted an item to a different website and ALSO used that tagline. AND AND AND that tagline has a word in it that happens to represent an item that is found in the pocket of half the population of the United states!!!

THIS CAN'T BE A COINCINDENCE!
posted by dirtdirt at 9:59 AM on September 24, 2007 [3 favorites]

Also, I don't know if I've ever heard anyone other than a Visa commercial refer to that type of card as a "check card" rather than a "debit card" or "ATM card".

Ugh.

Someone here should post about my site where I write amusing anecdotes on the backs of receipts -- for transactions paid in cash. Er... but they're all from HMV.
posted by dreamsign at 10:00 AM on September 24, 2007

I really liked this. Life is better when you seek the joy in things.
posted by Sfving at 10:04 AM on September 24, 2007

Can you buy babies for lunch with a Visa Check Card?

No. The saying is "For everything else... there's MasterCard."
posted by sephira at 10:07 AM on September 24, 2007

I liked this.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:08 AM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Seems made up.
posted by iconomy at 10:11 AM on September 24, 2007

Wasn't this just deleted? Saved from the scrap heap!
posted by absalom at 11:07 AM on September 24, 2007

So fake! You can tell it's not real receipts because that one kid is retarded.
posted by The Deej at 11:09 AM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

I like this, because I love to create, and most of the time I think of reasons NOT to... too busy, no inspiration, nothing interesting. And in his case, he writes things which may be relatively mundane individually, related to his transactions. It turns out to be greater than the sum of its parts. And it makes me think of how little time and effort it would actually take to write my stories or take my pictures, without having to set aside hours at a time.
posted by The Deej at 11:12 AM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Being in your twenties used to be about finding a new way in a new world, now it's about using your visa check card.

Meh.
posted by elwoodwiles at 11:12 AM on September 24, 2007

Surely he's had interesting moments concerning purchases made with cash.

Maybe his dad doesn't give him cash, but just keeps his checking account up.
posted by elwoodwiles at 11:14 AM on September 24, 2007

The first few are a bit pretentious but they incrementally better as you down the page. I like.
posted by slimepuppy at 11:18 AM on September 24, 2007

Now requires "Clusterfuck" tag.
posted by adamvasco at 11:20 AM on September 24, 2007

I thought this was a cute site. Sheesh, some of y'all need to put your Sherlock hats and pipes down. Not everything is a conspiracy to muddy the waters of the precious blue.
posted by Peecabu at 11:50 AM on September 24, 2007

Not the same, none of the creative writing, but not entirely dissimilar.
posted by dersins at 11:59 AM on September 24, 2007

Wow, some of us seem really cranky today. I wonder if I shove a jar under the upper teeth of a Mefite I can extract venom like they do with snakes.

You all invited to my house for mushrooms and back rubs till you remember what it is to be happy on the Internet.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 12:08 PM on September 24, 2007 [3 favorites]

Can a 20 year old really have anything that can be called "the ghost town of my past" to explore?
posted by sourwookie at 12:12 PM on September 24, 2007

I can understand not liking it, but I'm really not seeing the evidence for self-linkage or for it being a viral campaign.

I mean, what would it be an ad for? Visa, I guess?

Wouldn't that make every time somebody parodies the "$THING. $OTHER_THING. Priceless." ads part of an insidious viral ad campaign for one of the two most well-known credit card brands on the planet?

I have days where I see viral ads everywhere (generally the same days my teeth are picking up CIA transmissions...), but usually I just need to not go outside for a while and things will calm down eventually.
posted by sparkletone at 12:17 PM on September 24, 2007

"Can a 20 year old really have anything that can be called 'the ghost town of my past' to explore?"

Well, this one time at band camp ...
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:18 PM on September 24, 2007

Rather interesting, but that poor kid is SO asking for it.
posted by chlorus at 12:20 PM on September 24, 2007

I think only a 20 year old can have a ghost town of his past.

At 40, I have entire teeming ghettos of my past.
posted by psmealey at 12:27 PM on September 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

Oh yeah, well I have whole fallen civilizations of my past.....
posted by elwoodwiles at 12:31 PM on September 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

Riley Harmon is a slightly locally-known filmmaker and University of Oklahoma undergrad. man vs sun is apparently a recent OU graduate in a different department. The lynching case pretty much comes down to "Poster and site author were possibly at the same 30,000-enrollment university at the same time."

I mean, yes, the other 22 of us here 3 hours north of Dallas may all be Riley Harmon's sockpuppets, but man vs. sun is a completely different guy.

I suspect any Oklahoma dwellers who choose to identify themselves in relation to Texas will suspend this position on October 6th during the OU/Texas football game...
posted by Dr. Zira at 11:42 AM on September 24 [+] [!]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Not that I did.
posted by ormondsacker at 12:46 PM on September 24, 2007

I liked this, thanks for the post. I think it's important to do things like this in order to avoid letting our lives become one-dimensional narratives consisting of self-selected "important events" and only vague recollections of what happens in the interstices.

And gosh some of the snark in this one is weak. Exhibit A:

Can a 20 year old really have anything that can be called "the ghost town of my past" to explore?

...and thus concludes today's session of "how to seem curmudgeonly and patronizing without actually saying anything." See you next time!
posted by ludwig_van at 12:53 PM on September 24, 2007

I'm sure Adorno has something to say about the injection of material transactions and the patronization of wal-mart into the self

but I'm not sure what.
posted by duende at 12:59 PM on September 24, 2007

I am a middle class 20 year old with hopes, dreams, fears, and a visa check-card entirely too much time on my hands.

I'm sure I've griped about this before, but it bears repeating.

The worst creative endeavors are a better use of time than watching tv, reading US Weekly, wallowing in relationship drama, playing video games, and so on, etc. I would argue that even angsty cliched teenage girl heartbreak poetry is a more worthwhile use of personal time than 99% of what passes for acceptable pastimes in this day and age.

Please, please, please people, erase the phrase "too much time on your hands" from your minds. It is small minded and weak. Obsessive, time-intensive, overly detailed hobbies are the antidote to the evils of marketing. They should be encouraged, not ridiculed.
posted by billyfleetwood at 1:01 PM on September 24, 2007 [49 favorites]

erase the phrase "too much time on your hands" from your minds. It is small minded and weak.

Not to mention coming from a MeFite, it is profoundly hypocritical.
posted by psmealey at 1:04 PM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm right there with you for the most part, billyfleetwood, but I don't think it can be left quite that cut-and-dried. Having written angsty highschool poetry, having read same and known said poets, I think I can safely say that some folks grow more as people and creative thinkers from watching a decent TV show than some other folks ever do from writing the yards of utterly self-involved, unreflective poetry they write.

Which is neither here nor there in this case, because I'm entertained by the site in question. But let's not conflate the crap/quality continuum with the consumption/creation continuum, or we could end up never having anything good to read or watch or listen to ever again.
posted by cortex at 1:12 PM on September 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

Ok, I'm confused. On one of his receipts he writes that epoxy is better than mayo (see the WalMart Supercenter receipt). Isn't epoxy what you use to coat the floor of your garage? I can't imagine a scenario in which the two would be interchangeable.
posted by The Gooch at 1:26 PM on September 24, 2007

Doing things trains you to do.

Watching things trains you to have opinions.
posted by hermitosis at 1:30 PM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

And yet, writers who read voraciously; directors who are obsessive students of film; musicians who have teeming record collections, who go to every show they can; etc. The isolated creative genius is great and all, but most folks who like making a thing like consuming the thing, and get better at the former in no small part by engaging in the latter.

Watching things trains you to do.
posted by cortex at 1:53 PM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm so glad I burnt my teenage poetry.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:41 PM on September 24, 2007

Yeah, what IS a "check card"? Is that what Americans call debit? I thought Americans called spades spades and debit debit.
posted by bicyclefish at 2:46 PM on September 24, 2007

I thought this was cool.

Therefore it is cool.
posted by tkchrist at 2:48 PM on September 24, 2007

Can a 20 year old really have anything that can be called "the ghost town of my past" to explore?

That made me chuckle. Then I realized... yes. Yes indeed you can. At 20, I certainly had at least a couple, which I would rather have had flame-torched into ash.

In his case, maybe he was just waxing poetic. Or maybe he had, you know, ghost towns of his past.
posted by The Deej at 2:56 PM on September 24, 2007

Watching trains does things to you.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 3:04 PM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

You train watches to do things.
posted by cortex at 3:07 PM on September 24, 2007

if you had told me the idea, i would have scoffed. but this is strangely compelling.
posted by blendor at 3:29 PM on September 24, 2007

The Gooch: Ok, I'm confused. On one of his receipts he writes that epoxy is better than mayo (see the WalMart Supercenter receipt). Isn't epoxy what you use to coat the floor of your garage? I can't imagine a scenario in which the two would be interchangeable.

I work part time putting down epoxy floors and that confused the hell out of me as well. Maybe an attempt at a joke? Not sure. The two aren't even similar... if anything I guess epoxy would probably be more like honey.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 3:42 PM on September 24, 2007

Funny shit with the added bonus that the Dude goes to school nearby, thus making his adventures very macromicro pour moi.
posted by HyperBlue at 4:05 PM on September 24, 2007

Thanks for this. A cool little post.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:28 PM on September 24, 2007

viral marketing for new Wal-Mart exclusive Eagles CD out on Oct 30.
posted by pokermonk at 4:54 PM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

RE: Epoxy - If you notice, he has something called "ham white" and the epoxy arrow is a typo... of sorts.
posted by subaruwrx at 4:56 PM on September 24, 2007

I like this, but I cant help wonder...
Sausage links...
BBQ
Fast food
Sugar loaded coffees from Starbucks

I wonder just how fat this kid is.
posted by subaruwrx at 4:58 PM on September 24, 2007

I suspect any Oklahoma dwellers who choose to identify themselves in relation to Texas will suspend this position on October 6th during the OU/Texas football game

Is it finally time for the OU fan nearly castrates UT fan in bar fight story?

Sadly, OU gets to warm up for the game in Dallas by beating down my alma mater Saturday. Sigh.
posted by dw at 5:01 PM on September 24, 2007

Can a 20 year old really have anything that can be called "the ghost town of my past" to explore?

Some 20 year old's can have ghost towns in their past that are bigger, scarier and darker than any 40 year old. But yeah, simplistic assumptions like that are real good.
posted by liquorice at 5:20 PM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

There are a number of reasons I like proof of purchase.

It's interesting to see another person's journal in whatever form it takes, their private daily choices. It's just interesting to know about people's lives, it's the allure of biographies of all kinds.

On the one hand is the banal aspect of the anonymous receipt, public, anonymous, devoid of any character but put next to his emotional life, his mundane choices add another sensory dimension. With his writing added those slips of paper become a three dimensional narrative in minimal form, a sensory track and an emotional voice-over.

The dehumanising barcode aspect of life is made more organic, more personal. When the receipt and writing are combined, there's the existential aspect, the proof of purchase and proof of his life.

It's all done without much hullabaloo, just slips of paper with a bit of writing on them. No thunderclaps but some quiet transformation going on there. Likable.
posted by nickyskye at 5:38 PM on September 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

Can a 20 year old really have anything that can be called "the ghost town of my past" to explore?

Some 20 year old's can have ghost towns in their past that are bigger, scarier and darker than any 40 year old. But yeah, simplistic assumptions like that are real good.

Indeed. I know quite a few people around my age that have been through more than myself and most older people I know.

However, I can see how one could assume that older people might have more "ghost towns" than younger people from a statistical standpoint, i.e., the person who has been alive longer has had more days in which some bad things could have occurred. However the act of being young does not make you any more or less likely to have to deal with some terrible things in your life.

That said, I'm not sure how I feel about the site. I'll take another look at it tomorrow, but I wasn't immediately turned off by it. It isn't as pretentious as I thought it was going to be.

It's all done without much hullabaloo, just slips of paper with a bit of writing on them.

Bingo.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 5:55 PM on September 24, 2007

The isolated creative genius is great and all, but most folks who like making a thing like consuming the thing, and get better at the former in no small part by engaging in the latter. I agree fully.

Cortex, I wrote my initial post in a hurry because I am on vacation in the most beautiful place I've ever been, and have way too much time on my hands, most of which I'd rather spend on the white sand beach that doubles as my front yard...

But yeah...Given the choice between writing bad poetry and watching The Wire, I'm gonna choose the Wire every time. I am an avid consumer of things. I am a champion waster of time. I firmly believe that sometimes doing nothing at all is the most worthwhile of pursuits. It's just that the "too much time on your hands" retort is becoming a de facto response to creative projects.

What I'd like to hear more of is "That Lindsay Lohan really needs to try her hand at crosstitching life-size replicas of Jackson Pollock paintings"
posted by billyfleetwood at 6:04 PM on September 24, 2007

I like this, but I cant help wonder...
Sausage links...
BBQ
Fast food
Sugar loaded coffees from Starbucks

I wonder just how fat this kid is.

If he's anything like I was at 20, he may still be at that wonderful point in life where you can eat anything you want and never gain a pound. It was only after college that the strict french fries, pizza, Ben `n' Jerry's and Marlboro diet stopped working for me.
posted by The Gooch at 7:33 PM on September 24, 2007

The worst creative endeavors are a better use of time than watching tv, reading US Weekly, wallowing in relationship drama, playing video games, and so on..

Amen, billyfleetwood. I suspect much of the predictable mefite venom for posts like this reflects less on the posts themselves than it does on the snarkers' secret frustration that shooting down those who attempt something authentic or clever is easier than, well, attempting something authentic or clever.
posted by applemeat at 8:50 PM on September 24, 2007

Yeah, what IS a "check card"? Is that what Americans call debit? I thought Americans called spades spades and debit debit.

An ATM/debit card requires a PIN, can usually only be used at the point of sale, and is linked to a debit network that not all merchants support (although many do). A check card is an ATM/debit card that is also linked to the Visa or Mastercard network, supported by any merchant who is also linked to the network, and has the little logo in the corner. So you can use your check card as a credit card at the point of sale or over the internet, signing the receipt instead of entering a PIN, and the money is deducted from your bank account directly like a debit card.

They're riskier than credit cards, since if someone steals the card or the card number the money comes directly out of your bank account (and this has happened to me twice - it sucks tremendously) and you have to go through a big process with your bank to get the money back.
posted by cmonkey at 9:48 PM on September 24, 2007

I think this site is pretentious and stupid.
posted by chillmost at 1:42 AM on September 25, 2007

great
thanks
posted by nicolin at 3:17 AM on September 25, 2007

Google our young 'Holden Caufield lite's given name, and you'll find a myriad of interesting information. "No fatties!" "I hope you get AIDS!" As the owner of one myself, I have no problem with an off-kilter sense of humor, but I think this is an attempt to see how easy it is to pull one over on the artsy types.
posted by biggity at 10:50 AM on September 25, 2007

Oh, and congratulations on being ugly. From myspace.
posted by biggity at 10:52 AM on September 25, 2007

...and 26! Okay, I'm done.
posted by biggity at 10:54 AM on September 25, 2007

Wait, biggity, don't be done yet!

Given name...where?!?

I've missed an essential clue in the hunt, dangit.
posted by batmonkey at 3:11 PM on September 25, 2007