Subject: Chat with Seb Gillen
From: Seb Gillen <sebgillen@gmail.com>
To: barriticus@gmail.com

me: Do you live in NYC area?
Seb: yep
me: Clark has sent me your speech at the cancer event as well as the one you've written
me: I'd like you to present a five-minute version of the latter at the rally
me: Afterwards, you may be able to present the whole speech at a follow-up event in the park
Seb: awesome
me: we only have steps for an hour
me: Still trying to figure out details but at any rate we'll be having a series of meetings that week and other such things
me: So to the extent that you can attend everything, try to do so
Seb: do you think you could give me any tips on what I should cut out?
me: Yes, we'll get to that soon
me: I have to go to this thing in a bit but also Clark is good with editing and he might have good suggestions
me: but I'll assist as well
me: I haven't written my speech yet but it will consist largely of notes I've been writing over the past year
Seb: sorry one second
Seb: back
Seb: yeah, that sounds good
Seb: sorry I haven't been able to make any of meetings, I've had a rough week.. I had a colonoscopy, then $6000K worth of fraudlent charges from paypal, and then spent the past few days in the hospital with a kidney stone
me: 600k?
Seb: oops
Seb: 6k
me: still wacky
Seb: yeah it's been a pain in the butt
me: I can't even imagine
Seb: luckily the manager at my local BofA is a really really nice lady, but paypal has just been totally not helpful
me: I feel bad about being healthy because I shouldn't be based on my past lifestyle
me: got an old friend who never even spoked and is about to die of spinal cancer
me: or some such thing
me: uncle's about to die of lung cancer, too, which is how his father went and how I'll go unless I'm shot
Seb: as much as I understand what you're saying...don't feel bad, feel awesome, you're healthy! better to at least take advantage and enjoy it than deprive yourself out of guily, I think
me: I don't actually feel bad, lol
Seb: *guilt
me: I'm not that good of a person
Seb: hahaha fair enough
Seb: you're better than many, at least
Seb: at least you're trying to do something to make things better
me: not saying much
me: useless fucking generation
Seb: yeah
me: we've got a 60 year old vet organizing these rallies instead the million twenty-somethings in NYC who don't give a shit
Seb: there's a lot of shitty people in the older generations too
me: I should have more young people and less middle-aged people in this organization
me: I've noticed
Seb: I mean, the one 60 year old who's helping doesn't make up for all of his peers who have been aggressively screwing us over since before we were born
Seb: I agree about more young people, though
Seb: (even though I don't really know anything about the ages you've already got)
Seb: I think there are a lot of people in the younger generations who have just lost hope and faith that anything positive can be accomplished
me: suffice to say I managed to recruit almost no one from NYC's youthful population
me: no activists
me: or the type who are always screaming for change
me: I've got a financial guy, Scott, and a retired lawyer serving as my top guys
me: Obviously I'm happy for everyone's help but I'm just very disappointed in the refusal of more than a handful of young people to get involved
Seb: yeah that is disappointing
Seb: I think it's in large part a matter of momentum, though
me: Luckily, an efficient operation with top-notch people can tackle tremendous challenges thanks to the new environment
me: yeah, we'll get them later, once we're popular
Seb: right
Seb: sorry if you've told me before, how old are you?
me: 29
Seb: is there anyone else involved who's younger?
me: yep
me: Sundeep is youngest
me: 16
me: tim is my age, Scott's a bit older
Seb: wow, awesome!
me: Campbell's a bit older
me: a few others
Seb: so how long have you been working on all of this?
me: about a year
me: I first conceived it while finishing this book on pundits after deciding that a book wasn't going to do the trick
me: was originally to be a limited effort intent on coordinating bloggers in such a way as to produce critical mass of buzz on the failures of a particular pundit sufficient to provoke MSM coverage
me: expanded from there
Seb: pretty cool!
Seb: so did you finish the book or just move on?
me: finished the book, choosing an agent now, never had one before because last book was commissioned directly by old publisher
me: I'll send it to you
Seb: awesome!
me: this is not a final edit
Seb: alrighty
Seb: what was the first book?
Seb: that sounds like a blast