Archive: Posts from April, 2004
April 30th, 2004, 4 Comments »
What else is there to do when it’s quarter to 4 in the morning, and you’re stuck cram…er, studying for an exam that is to take place at 10AM? Why, construct a blog entry that is full of distracting links.
First of all, allow myself to introduce … myself.
My name is Becky. I’m 26 years old, and I’m a terminal procrastinator. I’m also posing as a graduate student in Rhetoric and Communication at the University of Saskatchewan. What makes this even more interesting is that I call Savannah, Georgia my home.
Upon hearing where I’m originally from, the inevitable question that follows is “why are you in Saskatchewan, of all places?!” Good question. The five cent answer is that I wanted to get far away from Georgia, school tuition is way cheaper in Canada, and I wanted to truly experience biting -50 degree windchills.
So far, so good.
Alas, the stacks of notes and books on my desk beckon — but here are the aforementioned random and distracting links:
Read more…
4 Comments »
April 29th, 2004, No Comments »
While we’re talking about bad writing, I have a favour to ask of Darren’s readers. I’m going to be developing and delivering a workshop on business writing for entrepreneurs, and I need fodder for the cannon.
Do you have any examples of absolutely hideous (or just moderately incompetent) writing in a business setting? You don’t even have to tell me WHO wrote it, and you’re free to deny, deny, deny if you wish. I will remove all identifying material before teaching the class, to protect the guilty.
If you have something truly juicy, you can send it to my “work” email address: sue at directis period ca.
Read more…
No Comments »
April 29th, 2004, 28 Comments »
I often see ‘bated breath’ written as ‘baited breath’. I can see how that happens: you hear the term, and the only word you know that sounds like ‘bated’ is ‘baited’. It makes a certain amount of sense, too, imagining a person waiting with bait in his or her mouth for some form of prey to come by and wander in.
Read more…
28 Comments »
April 28th, 2004, 5 Comments »
As it says at the top of the page, a number of veteran and noob bloggers have volunteered to post in my stead while I’m abroad. I fear that they may be so fascinating that I’ll lose all my traffic when I return.
Ultimately, we decided to bring a laptop along for the trip. We actually ordered a 12″ PowerBook, but Fedex has managed to lose it, so we’ll probably end up bringing Julie’s 15″. I do hope to post occasionally, but it will depend upon Internet access. I’m not optimistic about Wifi on safari, but you never know.
5 Comments »
April 28th, 2004, No Comments »
As I’ve mentioned, this Friday I’m heading off for nearly a month in Ireland and South Africa. I won’t be posting much between now and Friday, as I’m insanely busy and fighting a pitched battle against illness. The following is an itinerary for my travels, should you wonder where I’m going:
April 30: Depart Vancouver for Ireland (via London)
May 1 – 7: In Dublin and surrounding area
May 7: Depart Dublin for Johannesburg
May 8: Pretoria
May 9 – 12: On safari in Kruger National Park
May 13 – 14: On safari in private game reserve
May 15: Pretoria
May 16: Fly to Cape Town
May 16 – 20: Hermanus (near Cape Town)
May 21 – 22: Arniston
May 23 – 26: Cape Town
May 26: Fly home (in one massive flight to London and then Vancouver)
No Comments »
April 27th, 2004, 4 Comments »
Via BoingBoing, we learn of Operation Take One For The Country (safe for work, especially if you’re in the US Army), an effort to provide soldiers heading to Iraq with free sex. Apparently OTOFTC women (organized into small ‘battalions’) go to bars and clubs frequented by military personnel, pick up those who are shipping out, and, you know, think of England.
OTOFTC is a movement of like-minded women (women predominantly as of right now) who have covertly organized into groups to frequent eating and drinking establishments near armed service bases where troops are preparing to ship out overseas, and take one for the country, so to speak. We are a virtual organization and have no official headquarters or charter. We believe US service men and women deserve our support and we are willing to make caring choices about making them happy.
This originally comes via Fleshbot (not particularly safe for work), who aptly remarks ‘we have a slight issue with the name of the operation: wouldn’t giving one for the country be more appropriate?’
UPDATE: BoingBoing has a further post on this subject, discussing this phenonmenon in a historical context. Apparently the practice reaches back at least as far as World War II, where these patriotic souls were known as khaki-wackies, victory girls, and good-time Charlottes.
Read more…
4 Comments »
April 27th, 2004, 1 Comment »
Last month I wrote about Navigate the Streets, which looked like The Amazing Race on a local level. Now, via Alan, I read about The City Chase, brought to you by Bell Canada:
The City Chase is part urban obstacle course, part scavenger hunt. It’s a one-day, real-life version of televisions Survivor, Fear Factor and The Amazing Race rolled into one. The 2004 City Chase series will be limited to the first 250 registered teams in each market.
The use of ‘market’ instead of ‘city’ or ‘region’ in that last sentence is no doubt illustrative of this game’s true motives. At least Navigate the Streets was associated with Right to Play. The best this race can offer is, ick, the Toronto Sun. It costs $75 per person to enter, which is pretty steep, given that it’s a brand-new idea.
I should have seen this trend coming–reality TV games on a local level. Everyone likes the shows so much, they want to play in the games. How long before we get a local version of, say, The Bachelor?
1 Comment »
April 26th, 2004, 4 Comments »
Via Slashdot, I read this story about the one-year anniversary of the iTunes music store. The article is more or less a puff piece for Apple and other online music offerings, and fails to discuss the stores’ apparent success in context. There’s a highly visible pull-out table which propoounds the fact that, in March 2004, the iTunes store sold 4.7 million songs. That number looks impressive, and dwarfs the competition, but how impressive is it really?
In the past year, iTunes has sold a little over 50 million songs. That’s equivalent to about 4.1 million CDs. In 2002, record companies in the US sold about 900 million CDs. iTunes, therefore accounts for roughly 0.5% of all music sold in the US. Add the rest of the world’s CD sales, and it probably gets reduced to about 0.1%–barely a drop in the music industry’s massive bucket.
This is an important fact that this article totally ignores. Iceberg journalism at its best. The story also fails to mention that CD sales are generally increasing.
I’ve said it before and I’m probably beginning to bore you, but I’ll say it again: there’s a better way than DRMtastic downloads.
4 Comments »