15 Sep
Hamlet, stop that.
Hamlet needs to not talk to reporters about me while drunk. Seriously.
Update 16/09/06:
It seems some people have gotten the wrong idea here. Allow me to explain:
- Yes, I was homeless. However, what Hamlet is talking about in that video happened in February of 2003. In fact, his original story about it even notes that I hadn’t been homeless for some months as of its writing.
- I did not build a laptop; I had one with me. Hamlet is drunk and mixing up his words. Besides, have you ever looked inside a laptop? Not gonna happen.
- I did build much of the computer I actually used to connect to SL from parts I scrounged up, both before and after I became homeless.
- “Hacking” into wireless networks is more a matter of antenna strength than software. The software is a matter of point-and-click.
- Picking power supplies out of a dumpster is not a feat of unparalleled hacker skill.
- I have been living well out of slum conditions for over three years now.
- Had I been homeless for the past four years, there is almost no way I could have continued to enter Second Life during this time. Computers break. Computers are stolen. Computers are sold for crack.*
- I attended SL Views at Linden Lab earlier this year, without anyone suggesting I might be homeless.
- There are numerous photos of me circulating around the internet, with clean clothes and skin, my hair cut and styled, in an apartment I claim to be mine.
- Homeless people tend to be homeless for a reason. People homeless for more than a couple weeks tend to be homeless for a very good reason, that frequently precludes their ever escaping poverty. Society sucks.
* I am not on crack. I was not on crack. After four years on the streets? The odds are pretty good I would be.
31 Responses
to “Hamlet, stop that.”
2 Trackback(s)
- Sep 25, 2006: SecondCast Metaverse Podcast Network» Blog Archive » Secondcast Episode 34: “Grief Counseling”
- Dec 5, 2006: Omega Point » Blog Archive » Second Life: The Official Guide ships!
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I just had two beers beforehand I SWEAR. Any slurring was due to a contact high off Irina. Or something.
I’m thinking some sort of warning label could help here in future.
“You must be THIS sober to talk to Irina Slutsky.”
Hamlet? Drunk? Nooooooo. ;)
Hamlet needs to get over the dumpster diving thing. And the giving drunk interviews thing too.
When Hamlet said beers, he meant rootbeer. These crazy americans can get drunk on anything!
I can attest to the fact that everyone was drunk…
I think I was drunk once, that contact high spread to Irina who spread it to Hamlet. But then I’ve been drinkin with Hamlet in Texas so, ok no I had nothing to do with it, really.
one thing i make sure to do is drink sodas all night long every event i attend. i do not remember hamlet’s alcohol intake however, so it must have been a contact high from sitting next to me :) he did seem a bit woozy in the head, i just assumed he was excited to meet me
i must add i was woozy in the head from meeting hamlet!
Hamlet makes me woozy. He’s so dreeeeamy.
So you left Gay 4 Philip to get with Hamlet?
Baba, stop turning this into a forum. Forums–
This is about how you have been flip flopping all over on this relationship with Philip.. He’s my friend and I won’t have you treating him like meat.. He’s got feelings too… If you’re in love with hamlet then cut it off clean with Philip and stop these games.
;0
I dunno about this contact high theory, Irina. I know we haven’t ever met in person, but from your photos, you don’t LOOK like your skin exudes hallucinogenic toxins.
She shoots happy gas from her boobs..
Did someone say forums?
“you don’t LOOK like your skin exudes hallucinogenic toxins”
lol cat, we ARE in a william gibson novel!!
yes forseti, cat omega *is* william gibson
Where can we get more of those pictures of you, Cat?
Cat Omega pimped her way out of poverty. She now lives a life of luxery on the backs of her broken hos and gifts from the numerous political figures whom she blackmales.
When I have time to not look like a complete bum AND find my battery charger for my camera, Johnny. Or when I go to something that someone Flickrs. So there. :P
When details of your life get warped so much, in the positive sense, that’s how you know you’re a legend. And you don’t have to blush. And you have great, slender fingers, Cat. I can only imagine what another Cat is doing in a parallel universe, playing piano better than that 12-fingered dude from Gattaca. :)
Thanks, Torley! The secret is being really tall and skinny.
Well, in the US, being homeless is something that’s a bit harder to solve — without a home, it’s nearly impossible to get an address, if you have an address, you /might/ be able to get a job… But without a place to sleep and daily food — foodstamps don’t do anything ut keep you from starving — keeping a job is difficult. The daily ‘job’ of survival eats away at what you can accomplish.
But being homeless doesn’t mean being dirty or hair unstyled or not being online. It’d be near impossible to keep a computer — but libraries, stores, lots of places have computers you can use. Couch surfers are homeless as well, but they’ve managed to ingratiate themselves to a place to sleep.
Such is pretty common in the US; and it’s a difficult, and usually long process to get out of it.
This is, of course, from first-hand knowledge :P
I will say this, Crissa: if I hadn’t had people to go to bat for me, I would likely still be out there now — or worse.
I’m reading this a long time after it was new news. But when I first watched that Hamlet Au video and it came to the part about Catherine, I saw it as not unlike his recounting of the ex-military guy who blew his knee off. That is, it was a re-telling of an old story. Not an description of current reality. Sort of like stories about how such and so a billionaire started out as a poor slum-dweller whose drunk father used to beat him. The billionaire is no longer a slum-dweller, and his drunk father may be long gone, but its still a good story.
Catherine’s story, the part I take away about it at least, was more about how we can be something completely new and different in Second Life, regardless of our real life circumstances. I had long assumed that the story was a bit exaggerated, and that Catherine had probably (hopefully) improved her situation in real life.
So…I guess I can understand why hearing the same no-longer-accurate story over and over could get irritating, especially when people think it is current news. But its also understandable why Hamlet would bring it up: It really is a good story, and is tremendeously illustrative of one of the reasons some people find Second Life so compelling. The ability to be so much different and possibly better than you are in real life– a second chance, so to speak.
I think its a good story to tell– if Hamlet can find a way of prefacing it so that its clear that Catherine is doing well now, thank you very much.
Well, it’s not so much that it’s irritating that people think that story reflects my current situation; it’s more that they think it was EVER accurate. Or worse, that I ever claimed it to be. Make no mistake, Hamlet’s story is correct — aside from basically all the details. However, it’s those details that separate the typical responses from “Huh, really?” and “No way! You are SO full of shit.
Every time this story comes up, I get a few accusations of trying to make up some crazy story — and with good reason, in this latest incarnation. And THAT’S what’s really annoying.
Uh, Catherine dear, not that I’m a snoop or anything… but about that spreadsheet shot? Please, IM me in world and tell me WHAT was going on there?