by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I used to work in technology back in the late 90s until the need to be a professional journalist ate itself out of my psyche. In hindsight, of course, I should have tried to be a novelist or screenwriter back then. But I love writing and at the time I thought I had what it takes to be a journalist.
I *do* have what it takes to be a journalist, but I think it would be a freelancer. Anyway, I left the company I was at where I worked as their “technology manager” and ended up at a small, but very influential community newspaper. The guy who ran the thing was kind of the Lorne Michaels of the Virginia publishing industry.
Of course, I was in a very, very bad place at that point in my life and promptly totally and completely bungled the whole thing, getting fired in short order.
Flash forward, and I’m obsessed with Nick Denton and Gawker Media. I have an obsessive personality — that helps when you’re writing a novel, but can cause problems with anything else.
Anyway, last I saw, Denton had blocked me on Twitter. This really made me wince. I feel so bad. It’s an example of what I call “the Kook tax.” When you’re a kook, sometimes…you screw up. And you have to live with the consequences. Being blocked by someone you otherwise really admire is an example of that.
Lulz. Moving on.
