823 Studios

We recently had five people stay in the studios, just leaving yesterday. Scott, Kharissa, baby Emerson, Rachel, Britt and puppy Cadeau. They are documenting their journey with some great photographs and comments about their travels. We encourage everyone to check them out and offer words of encouragement.

Photos from their Journey

We would like to congratulate Morgan Mertz who correctly answered our podcast trivia question with the answer “Is Hair Edible?”

Her prize is, as described, a self portrait by one of the top three artists in the studio, Casey.

Morgan is thrilled with her trophy.

Stay tuned for future contests and ways to be recognized. Congratulations Morgan!

The podcast makes it triumphant return. This week marks a reboot of the feature with our theme being “World Travels”.

We also receive a first ever call into the podcast from a surprise guest and have a fan contest where YOU have a chance to win a fabulous prize.

Our podcast this week is brought to you by House of Hunan for their delicious catering:

House of Hunan provided us with free desert with our order

Thank you for listening!

 

 823Live - World Travels, Kidnapping, Fan Contest [47:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s been a productive one this year at the studio.  To recap, this summer 823 Franklin Avenue saw:

• Ethan Flanagan and Erin Dalton carve their way into our hearts, and then right back out the other side.
• Glenda, Joey, Glenda-Joe, Baby-Roo, said farewell.  Dean is still in trauma from that one.
• The Basement got flip turned into a semi-workable studio
• The inauguration of Bad Movie Monday! A smashing success
• Dean’s top films: Delicatessen, Me, You, and Everyone we Know, Scott Pilgrim vs. The world.
• Summer Music: Low, Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, AKron Family, Belle and Sebastian, Yo La Tengo, Department of Eagles, David Bazan, The New Pornographers
• Finished illustrating my first Children’s book (dean)
• Also attempted decorating…failed, semi-failed

So whats next for us?  Summers ending, Dean starts up his job again, and grad school.  Tomorrow he is a teacher, and has to put on his responsible trousers.  Oh there will be projects.  I started a series on the subject of Free Expression.  I’ve never really explored a subject before, and this is one I think I can learn from so…a series of projects ensues.  I’ll preface by saying…I know true free expression doesn’t exist…but it’s a nice idea to play with Here is the first piece:

As you can see..this is drawn over my kitchen sink.  Each day I will add more to the drawing, and the scene will unfold.  This is the first drawing.  I don’t know how many I will do, but I vow to do it Daily until it is finished.  Stay tuned…Oh, not sure whether they will be updated on here daily, or a different site.  I’ll have to check with the PR director on that.

Hope your summers were worth it.

Dean

Over the past month or so, I have been working pretty steadily on a novel.  Consistency in productivity is one thing in which I struggle, but recently I have been doing much better at it.  It is an bizarre story filled with interesting and unique characters and themes.  I am not 100% how long it will be, nor exactly everything which will happen in the story.  A lot of it I discover as I go along which is incredibly exciting.  Not knowing and looking forward to what the characters will do and struggle with is always something I enjoy.

Anyway, all that to say, despite my initial thoughts of part 1 being a longer, today I reached a point where it made good sense to end the section.  I feel it is a good take off to the narrative and leaves the audience with questions they want to be answered and hopefully characters they relate to on some level and wish to join them on the journey to come.  I won’t post any of the story online, but a few people have expressed interest in reading it, so if you do just let me know, and I would take it into account. Thats a little update on a bit of my creative projects.  lata.

Posting this before I regret it.

 

 823Live - Casey drunk, Glenda leaving, Ryan likes baseball [28:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For the first time since Facebookslim began, I am seriously considering ending the project early. It has reached a point where real relationships are being effected and perhaps permanently scarred.

That last statement in itself is the pure essence as to what Facebookslim has transmorphed into. The amount of personal insight and growth I’ve experienced through the project will probably never be able to be told fully, and only I will know how it has changed me.

When I started people were upset over the possibility of “being removed”, as we went deeper into the rabbit hole, more people got upset. Exponentially the closer I got to zero, the more upset some people got. We may have reached a peak. I’ve said previously that eventually I would reach a point where I’d be readding everyone I’m removing, so what was the point in removing them? I still wrestle with that. I want to see the bottom of the rabbit hole and see what artifacts are there. Plus, as emotions rise, am I getting out easy by ending the project before I get to the people closest to me?

However, through talking to a couple close friends (which wouldn’t have been possible if I had removed them from Facebook) I may be leaning towards the project ending tonight. I have learned so much already but perhaps I have learned a few things that I was overlooking.

A friendship is a two way contract, an agreement that you mutually care about one another. However, this isn’t always a 50/50 split. Often times it sways back and forth for when a friend is in need, going through a rough patch or needs support. During those times the other friend must put aside their feelings, their needs and be there for their friend. Whether that’s a kind word, an optimistic comment or a physical shoulder to cry on, that’s why we surround ourselves with trusted companions upon the path of life.

Humans are pack animals. We aren’t meant to be alone.

I had hoped that, while I knew I’d ruffle some feathers with removing people, people would see how important this was to me and support me in my emotional growth. However, I had completely overlooked something else.

How important we were to each other.

I had brushed the whisper of it aside with excuses that we can always communicate in other ways, Facebook is not a crutch we need. However it went beyond that. The desire to have each other in our lives, the not willing to sacrifice any part of it, is overpowering. We know there are other paths to each other, we know there are other ways to do everything we do on Facebook but we don’t want to sacrifice that. And we can acknowledge that.

I never wanted this to be about “ranking” people as important in my life. I never wanted to give off a “God complex” where I was picking and choosing who was worthy of remaining. It was difficult to avoid those two perceptions and I think that is where a lot of negativity came from. I view this project as one of the most positive and optimistic things I’ve ever done. I know I value my friends a lot more today then I did before and it makes me want to solidify my fading relationships to create a strong core of trusted and loyal connections. I had too many casual acquaintances before that I provided no support for. I realize now everything has a level of upkeep and I want to put forth the time/energy to make it work.

The most frustrated I was during this project was when people were close-minded to their own feelings. When people would not give Facebook the credit it deserves in their life. I will go on record as saying Facebook is quite possibly the greatest innovation of our generation. I don’t want to live my life without Facebook. I know dozens more who would say the same thing. However, those people who go on Facebook everyday and are truly happy using it. What is the same in admitting it? Why won’t you be honest with yourself in saying that it is a great resource and you wouldn’t want to give it up? The people who would bash Facebook and say how pointless it was, were often times the most vocal about their displeasure on being removed as my friend. It remains one of the most overwhelming consistencies of the entire project.

While some people may view only reaching 39 friends, and not 0, as a failure. Or as not completing the project. I disagree. I think it was never about the conclusion. It was always about the experience and the information gained along the way. In that way, it’s been an overwhelming success.

To the 360 people I deleted before today, you’ve all touched my life in so many different ways. All positively. I am who I am today in some small part because of you, for that I am eternally grateful. I would accept any of you back in a heartbeat, and many I will be the one reaching out to you. If any of you have hard feelings or feel truly hurt, I beg of you, please talk to me and let’s talk it out. I want you to see my point of view and more importantly, I want to understand yours.

I may, and probably will, write more on the subject in the upcoming days, weeks and months. Someday I hope to compile all the information into a more readable format, but for now I encourage you to read back over my path and see how much it’s changed and where I am today.

The project will officially end tonight 11:59 PM ET, where I will begin the joyous occasion of reaching out and reconnecting with my friends. I hope they will still have me. I know there are bridges I need to repair with some and I look forward to doing that.

Thank you all for being a part of this project the last 11 days. It’ll last me a lifetime. Please feel free to comment or speak to me directly.

Love,
Casey

As purges have now become daily and feedback from people continues, the attention has moved from people wondering/asking about their own dismissal to asking why the entire project even exists, often times in hostile ways.

The original intention of the project is out the window. It was originally called a “contest” amongst my two housemates and I, simply seeing which one of us had the smallest social circle. Based on the reactions and emotions that it brought up, it expanded into something greater.

I’d say that my true Facebookslim number, the amount of friends I felt completely comfortable with, may have been around 125 when the project started. Now, however, my entire way of using Facebook has changed. The remaining 9 days of the project is just for me. My own growth and acknowledgement of my friends. “If you’re just going to add them all back, why do you bother deleting them?” It’s a valid question, one I’ve thought myself several times. I think it comes down to a combination of things.

Validation. When I unfriend someone, I hope that they have followed my status updates enough to know it isn’t personal but I know plenty do not. Most will never notice unless I re-add them, but a few I hypothesize do realize, don’t realize why, and have negative/hurt feelings about it. If our relationship wasn’t strong enough to survive an arbitrary, online connection then perhaps we weren’t truly beneficial to each other’s lives. If they send me a request back, with my new outlook, I will know they validate our friendship and they want it to continue.

Strengthening our connection. As I go through my list, I am thinking deeply about each person I browse over. On a friends list of 399, this isn’t possible without an enormous time commitment. Now, with 1/10th that, I could literally visit every friend, every day, and give them complete attention on their thoughts and actions. Previously I had a dozen people hidden on my newsfeed, if I don’t wish to see their information it was pointless to even have it part of that group. It cleans out my news to only what and whom I want to see which would encourage me to comment, like and interact more often.

See if I can do it. I love Facebook and use it several times a day, the thought of having 0 other friends on there is awful. Even though I know it’s temporary, it is a huge part of my life and would completely change how I go about my world for that time period.

August 11th. Finally, I do it for the end. I do it for the day I can finally get back to using Facebook how I want to use Facebook by accepting my piling up friend requests and to send friend requests back out to the world. Fresh connections, newly formed bonds, I anticipate a lot of activity and joyous reconciliations. I’ll feel like I just returned from a long journey…

… and in a way, how I feel, I have.

Quietly and without much fanfare, the 4th purge took place this morning. It was a little different then the others since we were not all together and Ryan will be doing his later tonight.

Dean, since he will be out of town until the 8th, deleted everyone down to his scheduled amount for the 8th which is Eight people. He said it is a “very random number of people” and according to my browsing, it appears to be mostly woman from his past. Hopefully he will expand when he gets back and discuss it a bit more.

I deleted another 32 today, including my first family members. Not my immediate family, but cousins, aunts and uncles. We’re starting to get to the people who may be legitimately hurt about being removed. I don’t know how I can explain the project to my Aunt whom I speak to only a few times a year, but I know checks Facebook regularly. My hopes are they request my friendship back, no questions asked.

With whom I have remaining, I am a little surprised as to who lasted as long as they have and who didn’t make it. Some girls who have really meant a lot to me were some of the first to go, more of a forced removal to help me forgive and forget. Some people who remain are online friends whom I haven’t seen in years or may not have ever seen in person. A lot of times I felt it was simply because they had commented on a post of mine earlier and showed me some activity. Meanwhile, I deleted a close friend merely because I was reminded about something else from our past… a lot of these decisions are spur of the moment and could’ve been completely different if done earlier or later.

When I started this project I thought there would be no way I would get under 150, then no way under 100. Here I am, sitting at 93. An “Elite 93″… made up of close friends, old girlfriends, professors, coworkers and people I’ve never even been in physical contact with. What a diverse bunch. Where else would I choose to remove a cousin over someone I haven’t seen in over four years?

Yesterday I was committed to getting down to 0 by August 10th, and I still am, but another part of me is saying not to. According to our schedule, I’d be under 20 by Tuesday and would have to go a week with barely any. I would miss the comments, the chats, the connections.

Although, for those couple dozen people, be prepared to be bombarded with activity. The quality of our Facebook friendship is going to skyrocket. Would it be out of boredom? Maybe at first, but I hope it’ll get to a point that I’ll truly want to communicate to you about what you share with me. It’s only fair. Even if you’re broadcasting to a wide audience, I will initiate the one on one.

I hope you return the favor as well.