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A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Trapped Inside ... Something ...
Last week, I had a short play of mine performed in a festival in New York. The festival producers had asked me to supply a short bio for the program, and I sent them something which began like this:
Anyway, when I went to see a performance of the festival, this is what was written in the program:
See, I'm a writer. I think about the words I'm writing. Even when I write a bio, I'm careful about my words. Words are all I have. Screwing up an actor's bio would be bad, but not nearly as bad as screwing up a writer's bio.
Anyway, of course I know they didn't do it on purpose. Someone clearly typed my bio into the document for the program, and made an honest mistake.
Since I sent the bio to them over email, however, it kind of baffles me that Copy and Paste seems beyond their comprehension ...
(as does actual proofreading ...)
No, it's OK. I'm over it now. Really. I didn't even mention it to them. I only blogged it for the whole world to see!
No, really, it's OK. The medication will kick in any moment now ... really.
(mumbling to self:) "trapped inside a computer programmer." Oh, hey, that's a great joke. Yeah.
0 comments
Last week, I had a short play of mine performed in a festival in New York. The festival producers had asked me to supply a short bio for the program, and I sent them something which began like this:
Patrick M Brennan is a playwright trapped inside the body of a computer programmer...I think that's a pretty good joke. At least it's a not-bad joke. All right, it's a joke!
Anyway, when I went to see a performance of the festival, this is what was written in the program:
Patrick M Brennan is trapped inside a computer programmer...ummm... What?!? I'm trapped inside a computer programmer? What the fuck is that supposed to mean? They took my joke and they turned it into a confusing non-sequitur. Thank You! I'm sure that made a terrific impression on the audience!
See, I'm a writer. I think about the words I'm writing. Even when I write a bio, I'm careful about my words. Words are all I have. Screwing up an actor's bio would be bad, but not nearly as bad as screwing up a writer's bio.
Anyway, of course I know they didn't do it on purpose. Someone clearly typed my bio into the document for the program, and made an honest mistake.
Since I sent the bio to them over email, however, it kind of baffles me that Copy and Paste seems beyond their comprehension ...
(as does actual proofreading ...)
No, it's OK. I'm over it now. Really. I didn't even mention it to them. I only blogged it for the whole world to see!
No, really, it's OK. The medication will kick in any moment now ... really.
(mumbling to self:) "trapped inside a computer programmer." Oh, hey, that's a great joke. Yeah.