Angela Nissel’s latest book, Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom Is Dead, is a memoir about caring for a terminally ill parent - but it's delivered with the kind of gallows humor that makes you wonder if she's okay and also if she's taking requests. Nissel first made a splash with The Broke Diaries, which grew out of a college blog detailing her daily struggles and, at times, embarrassment at being a broke student. She went on to produce and write for hit shows including Scrubs and The Boondocks, and co-founded Okayplayer with Questlove - a groundbreaking site in hip hop that, as we'll learn, is a bittersweet memory for Nissel.

In a chat with The Verge, Nissel shared her favorite gadget (her first Fitbit), her preferred apps (Craigslist, obviously), and her deep-seated frustration with butt dialing - because apparently, a phone can recognize your face but not your wallet. She also revealed her fondest game memory: Castle Wolfenstein on the Commodore 64, which felt like the future but now looks like Pong compared to modern games. Still, she says, it was fun killing Nazis from the past.

Nissel's wit extends to her advice: 'Be interesting and interested!' which means getting offline and having things to talk about besides social media. She suggests local community college classes and free birdwatching groups - because nothing says 'loneliness cure' like mutual bird watching. When stuck, she gives herself permission to relax and take in someone else’s creation, or, as she puts it, 'Take an edible. I’m an experienced user now.' She's learned to dose just right so her anxiety disappears and she can make art without the voice in her head saying, 'This sucks! Everyone is going to hate this, and you’ll die broke!'

But not everything is laughs. Nissel reflects on Okayplayer with a heavy heart: for 25 years, she's had to answer questions about why the only woman involved isn’t mentioned in the site's creation, why the man she hired replaced her, or why she doesn’t know who owns it. She's learned how many women - mostly of color - have been erased from their creations as the Internet became a corporate megamall. She's proud of her part in Internet hip-hop history but hates how many women she meets who've been erased.

Her biopic tagline? 'She had jokes, trauma, and a very suspicious relationship with pigeons.' We'd watch that.