Photography with Joe

  Six Months with Michelle: A Friendship Beyond the Screen For the past half-year, I had the rare privilege of developing an online friendship with Michelle Trachtenberg. It’s a strange thing, getting to know someone who has already lived in the public imagination for decades. To most, she was a familiar face—whether as Dawn Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Harriet in Harriet the Spy , or, perhaps most famously, Georgina Sparks in Gossip Girl . But to me, she became something else entirely: a presence beyond her roles, a person whose complexities couldn’t be captured in a script. The details of our conversations are private, but one thing was clear—Michelle was nothing like Georgina Sparks. And yet, she played that character with such conviction that it was easy to believe otherwise. Georgina was chaos incarnate, a woman who thrived on manipulation and disruption, always two steps ahead in a game only she knew she was playing. She wasn’t just an antagonist—she was the unpred...

Ghosting   The act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone the subject is dating, but no longer wishes to date. This is done in hopes that the ghostee will just "get the hint" and leave the subject alone, as opposed to the subject simply telling them he/she is no longer interested. Ghosting is not specific to a certain gender and is closely related to the subject's maturity and communication skills. Many attempt to justify ghosting as a way to cease dating the ghostee without hurting their feelings, but it in fact proves the subject is thinking more of themselves, as ghosting often creates more confusion for the ghostee than if the subject kindly stated how he/she feels. Carmen: How was your second date with Kyle?   Beth: I thought it went well, but I've texted him a couple of times since then and he's been ghosting me.   Carmen: What? I thought he was more mature than that Neotech - refers the the 21st century culture and norm changes cause...