Good Lord.
want to laugh?
http://etrata.home.attbi.com/flash/banana.swf
Go ahead. Defy "peanut butter and jelly time."
Need I ask the obvious question?
Friday, May 03, 2002
I just sent this to the other Scott Stein:
*********************************************
Subject: This is the other Scott Stein
I met Scott Stein a while ago. I am also a writer, of the San Diego/Los Angeles persuasion (although born and raised in NY).
I had just read the article Scott Stein had written about me, the other Scott Stein, after we had talked when he sent my production company a pitch for the novel he had written. How unusual. I never knew he wrote about it, but I had a similar reaction after the experience. Ideally, I'd say, we should both have perfectly fine Scott Stein careers, and maybe even be subject of a trivia question of two. Right now I am working at Sony Online Entertainment and writing a screenplay for Silver Dreams Productions. Check out jeopardy.com for an article I wrote.
At any rate, it was good hearing from the other Scott Stein once again.
As long as we don't both disappear if we end up in a room together.
Best,
Scott Stein
*********************************************
Subject: This is the other Scott Stein
I met Scott Stein a while ago. I am also a writer, of the San Diego/Los Angeles persuasion (although born and raised in NY).
I had just read the article Scott Stein had written about me, the other Scott Stein, after we had talked when he sent my production company a pitch for the novel he had written. How unusual. I never knew he wrote about it, but I had a similar reaction after the experience. Ideally, I'd say, we should both have perfectly fine Scott Stein careers, and maybe even be subject of a trivia question of two. Right now I am working at Sony Online Entertainment and writing a screenplay for Silver Dreams Productions. Check out jeopardy.com for an article I wrote.
At any rate, it was good hearing from the other Scott Stein once again.
As long as we don't both disappear if we end up in a room together.
Best,
Scott Stein
A post of the whole article by Scott Stein, from When Falls the Coliseum:
The question is, which Scott Stein wrote this?
I’m Number One
by Scott Stein
I had a Twilight Zone experience the other day. My inbox contained a message from Scott Stein. I didn’t remember sending myself an e-mail, but it wouldn’t have been the first time, so I wasn’t frightened. Then I read the message. It said, "Hello. I am also Scott Stein." It was signed, "Scott Stein, another author."
A writer’s needy ego aside, I had even before this no delusions of the uniqueness of my name. There are a lot of us. I don’t envy people trying to find me in a phone book. And since you can’t throw a stone in most major cities without hitting a Jewish writer (not that you should be throwing stones at Jews or Jewish writers), it should not have been a shock that someone out there also pursuing the literary arts had my name. The other Scott Stein, it turns out, is primarily a playwright, and received a nice review in the San Diego Tribune for a recent effort. We exchanged cyber-pleasantries and both acknowledged that it was weird to find someone with the same name, then got on with our lives.
Now, if we were circus clowns, you might say that having the same name is professionally meaningless. Who knows their names anyway? Name recognition is important in other fields, but even professional athletes have it easier than writers do. There’s a young basketball player named Michael Jordan. Unfortunately for his bank account, no one is confusing him with the original. Pretty much everyone in the world knows what the MJ looks like. But we two Scott Steins are writers. Readers on the Web or in bookstores, not knowing much about us or what we look like, generally search for us by name. Someone recommends a writer by saying, "You’d like Scott Stein’s new book … what is it called? Oh, well, just ask for his new book. They’ll find it for you."
Great. You go into a store or search on Amazon.com because a trusted friend told you how much fun Scott Stein’s writing is, and end up buying the new book by some other Scott Stein, the one about gardening. This does my own career very little good. Plus, you don’t have a garden. No one wins.
As the animated banners on this site shout to the world, my first novel is now available. In case you couldn’t tell, I have put lots of energy into building name recognition and an audience for Scott Stein. Not the other Scott Steins, but this one. This isn’t vain posturing or existential crisis (oh, poor me, I am not unique). This is real. If there are other Scott Steins out there feeding from the trough I am working each week to fill (don’t ask where that metaphor came from), it could cause problems. The kind of problems that could lead to headaches. No one likes headaches.
After a swig of Tylenol, I bravely ventured back on the computer. There were a lot of Scott Steins, it was true. Was a pen name necessary? I needed to know where I ranked. Trembling-with-fear fingers typed S-c-o-t-t S-t-e-i-n into Google.com’s search. As had been the case a few months ago, I was expecting famous author Gertrude Stein and game show host Ben Stein to top the listing, even though they each only shared half my name. I was hoping to land on page two, or three.
I was number one. According to Google, my new favorite search engine, Scott Stein, this one, is first. This was better than a Grammy (they give those to practically anyone). But Google is serious business. And I was number one. Flush with my initial success, I checked other search engines. A toiletries marketing vice president somewhere had me beat on Altavista.com, but I was a respectable number five, with no other writers ahead. Excite.com, on the other hand, did not list me for several pages. I think their programming is faulty.
This is a tale with a feel-good ending and a lesson. What I learned from all this is that it doesn’t matter what your name is, as long as you’re not the other Michael Jordan. Or an aspiring young scientist also named Albert Einstein. Or, poor soul, some Neil Armstrong who not only didn’t walk on the moon but doesn’t own a car. Sharing names isn’t too bad, as long as the Scott Stein people are looking for is me. That is what I learned. That, and Google.com is a marvel of technology unrivaled on the planet earth.
The question is, which Scott Stein wrote this?
I’m Number One
by Scott Stein
I had a Twilight Zone experience the other day. My inbox contained a message from Scott Stein. I didn’t remember sending myself an e-mail, but it wouldn’t have been the first time, so I wasn’t frightened. Then I read the message. It said, "Hello. I am also Scott Stein." It was signed, "Scott Stein, another author."
A writer’s needy ego aside, I had even before this no delusions of the uniqueness of my name. There are a lot of us. I don’t envy people trying to find me in a phone book. And since you can’t throw a stone in most major cities without hitting a Jewish writer (not that you should be throwing stones at Jews or Jewish writers), it should not have been a shock that someone out there also pursuing the literary arts had my name. The other Scott Stein, it turns out, is primarily a playwright, and received a nice review in the San Diego Tribune for a recent effort. We exchanged cyber-pleasantries and both acknowledged that it was weird to find someone with the same name, then got on with our lives.
Now, if we were circus clowns, you might say that having the same name is professionally meaningless. Who knows their names anyway? Name recognition is important in other fields, but even professional athletes have it easier than writers do. There’s a young basketball player named Michael Jordan. Unfortunately for his bank account, no one is confusing him with the original. Pretty much everyone in the world knows what the MJ looks like. But we two Scott Steins are writers. Readers on the Web or in bookstores, not knowing much about us or what we look like, generally search for us by name. Someone recommends a writer by saying, "You’d like Scott Stein’s new book … what is it called? Oh, well, just ask for his new book. They’ll find it for you."
Great. You go into a store or search on Amazon.com because a trusted friend told you how much fun Scott Stein’s writing is, and end up buying the new book by some other Scott Stein, the one about gardening. This does my own career very little good. Plus, you don’t have a garden. No one wins.
As the animated banners on this site shout to the world, my first novel is now available. In case you couldn’t tell, I have put lots of energy into building name recognition and an audience for Scott Stein. Not the other Scott Steins, but this one. This isn’t vain posturing or existential crisis (oh, poor me, I am not unique). This is real. If there are other Scott Steins out there feeding from the trough I am working each week to fill (don’t ask where that metaphor came from), it could cause problems. The kind of problems that could lead to headaches. No one likes headaches.
After a swig of Tylenol, I bravely ventured back on the computer. There were a lot of Scott Steins, it was true. Was a pen name necessary? I needed to know where I ranked. Trembling-with-fear fingers typed S-c-o-t-t S-t-e-i-n into Google.com’s search. As had been the case a few months ago, I was expecting famous author Gertrude Stein and game show host Ben Stein to top the listing, even though they each only shared half my name. I was hoping to land on page two, or three.
I was number one. According to Google, my new favorite search engine, Scott Stein, this one, is first. This was better than a Grammy (they give those to practically anyone). But Google is serious business. And I was number one. Flush with my initial success, I checked other search engines. A toiletries marketing vice president somewhere had me beat on Altavista.com, but I was a respectable number five, with no other writers ahead. Excite.com, on the other hand, did not list me for several pages. I think their programming is faulty.
This is a tale with a feel-good ending and a lesson. What I learned from all this is that it doesn’t matter what your name is, as long as you’re not the other Michael Jordan. Or an aspiring young scientist also named Albert Einstein. Or, poor soul, some Neil Armstrong who not only didn’t walk on the moon but doesn’t own a car. Sharing names isn’t too bad, as long as the Scott Stein people are looking for is me. That is what I learned. That, and Google.com is a marvel of technology unrivaled on the planet earth.
http://www.wfthecoliseum.com/articles/endsodd/number_one.html
Recounts an experience I had with another writer named Scott Stein.
Strangely enough, he had written about it. I didn't realize it until today,
when I had searched Google for "Scott Stein, playwright". And he had been
doing the same thing.
I had also thought it was a Twilight Zone-esque experience.
Are we dealing with two of the same people here?
How strange to find it written about.
-Scott Stein
The REAL Scott Stein
Recounts an experience I had with another writer named Scott Stein.
Strangely enough, he had written about it. I didn't realize it until today,
when I had searched Google for "Scott Stein, playwright". And he had been
doing the same thing.
I had also thought it was a Twilight Zone-esque experience.
Are we dealing with two of the same people here?
How strange to find it written about.
-Scott Stein
The REAL Scott Stein