If you have 35 seconds, would you mind completing my five-question survey. They're all pick-an-answer questions, and you'll help me decide which features to keep or reject in the WordPress'd version of my site.
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Apologies for the inconvenience, but it's a side effect of switching from MovableType to WordPress. Subscribing to the FeedBurner feed also future-proofs the feed (assuming, you know, FeedBurner stays in business), so you won't have to do this again.
I know I just put this site on pause for a couple of days, but something just happened that I wanted to write about.
Having worked late last night, I settled down for a little afternoon nap. I lay in bed, snoozing and listening to my iPod.
That's when my wall bed decided to eat me.
Wall (or 'murphy') beds are spring-loaded. They're designed to make it easy for anybody to lift or lower the bed. They're calibrated so that when you bring the bed down, it will stay there by itself. The bed is also fixed to the wall, to keep it open when users add extra weight to the mattress.
As I mentioned a few weeks back, we had a flood. Because of moisture in the walls of our bedroom, our wall bed had to be moved to a different wall. It was separated from the the large wardrobe that usually sits beside it (an important point, as it turns out).
I'm in bed, eyes closed, listening to The Da Vinci Code (hey, it was free). The next thing I know, the bed frame has pulled away from the wall and closed on me like a giant mouth.
It was more shocking than painful. I probably wasn't hurt because I was under a duvet, and on my back. Hence, the force of the bed frame was distributed over my entire body. Happily, there's a gap in the back of the bed frame, so my head wasn't hit. It certainly knocked the wind out of me, though.
There I am, stuck under the bed, feeling a bit, like, I don't know, Captain Hook in the alligator's mouth. Only my head, shoulders and arms are free. The bed frame is made of solid wood, spring-loaded and, you know, bigger than a bed. I've got the musculature of an 11-year-old boy, so there was no chance I was going to be able to flip the bed off me.
My phone was nearby, though, as I'd set an alarm on it. I didn't much fancy the idea of some burly firemen entering my suite to slide my unclothed body out from the yawning mouth of the bed.
Eventually, after moving aside all the bedding, I was able to squeeze myself out of the gap between the bed frame and mattress sections. Thank goodness for the regular exercise I've been doing over the past few months. Another 10 or 15 pounds and I'd have been stuck like a fat rat in a trap.
Happily, the carpenter has already arrived to resolve the issue and ensure that the bed doesn't eat anybody else. It's a cautionary tale, though, should you ever sleep in a wall bed--check how well it's fastened to the wall.
I'm 95% of the way through converting this site from MovableType (which is dog-slow) to WordPress (which isn't). I've just got a few bugs to sort out, and an incredibly tedious import process to undertake. This is long overdue. So, in lieu of blogging, I'm going to take the next couple of days to do that. More news as events warrant.
In the meantime, entertain yourselves with some links off the sidebar, or just mainline information at popurls.
Gill is participating in in The Underwear Affair, the BC Cancer Foundation's 10K run/5K walk "for cancers below the waist" on July 8:
Now, this is the first time I have raised money for a cause since maybe Girl Guides, so I put my personal goal at a modest $300 (the minimum required to be in the event). However, as incentive to those of you who read my blog to throw me your pocket change, I offer this:
- I will run in panties and bra at the event (pray for sunshine, everyone), and
- I will post tasteful photos of myself in my running outfit to this blog.
(Although I suppose if you really don't want to see me in my underwear, you can donate lots more money than everyone else. The race is on!)
If you want to pony up, her donation page is here.
I'm not in the habit of taking betting advice from an accounting firm, but here's who Goldman Sachs thinks will win the World Cup:
1. Brazil: 12.4%
2. England: 8.6%
3. Spain: 8.3%
4. France: 8.3%
5. Holland: 8.0%
The Germans, with home field advantage, are down at #8. And, of course, England is missing one of its key weapons (hilarious article about Mr. Rooney and Margaret Thatcher here). I'm not sure I agree with those odds.
Via Waxy, here's a live concert by Nova Scotia's Leslie Feist. Though I think her album is woefully produced, she's a pretty cool singer-songwriter. I've only listened to a couple of songs so far, but the sound quality is great, and they sound much better than the album cuts. "Secret Heart" (MP3), in particular, is fantastic.
I just happened upon a stupid little hack to answer that age-old question: which of my Flickr photos does Google think is most popular?
It only works if you have a fairly unique user name. And, frankly, it only works some of the time. So, it's pretty lame.
Enter your username or, if that doesn't work, enter
Your most viewed or favourited photo isn't necessarily your most popular according to Google. Google, as you know, cares about links. Of course, a photo that's well linked to will also likely have a high number of views.
As Brian, Richard and Boing Boing point out, Lockheed Martin is the software and hardware provider for Statistics Canada's 2006 census, which Canadians are required by law to complete.
There's a website--CountMeOut.ca--protesting this relationship, and encouraging Canadians to "buy into the MINIMUM COOPERATION strategy" for the census. They've got a big list of tactics, which include:
- You may like to have a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, while you are completing your census form. Careful not to spill. But if you do, don't worry--your form can still be processed manually instead of by the Lockheed Martin scanning software system.
- You may like to add a sticker or two on your census form, perhaps a sticker with your name and address, or a sticker to promote your favourite charity.
Am I pleased that Stats Canada outsourced to the Canadian subsidiary of an American company that also manufactures weapons (their slogan: "We Never Forget Who We are Working For")? Not at all. Am I going to screw with my census form as a means of protest? Nope.
Why not?
Messing with the census form is like ruining your ballot--a protest, but not a particularly good one. Which would have a bigger impact on Stats Canada's policies: 50,000 people obfuscate their census forms, or 50,000 people call, email and fax the agency with their criticism of their outsourcing decision?
One of the photographers who works in our shared studio space is moving out, so the landlady is looking for a new tenant:
I am looking for a tenant to rent 150 square feet of office space in our 2250 square-foot, open-concept, heritage studio space at 70 East 2nd Avenue. I am looking for a tenant able to sign a one-year lease beginning on August 15, 2006.
The studio has a “Yaletown vibe” with 15-foot-high ceilings, 7-foot-high windows, exposed brick and beam structure, a funky refurbished 1950s kitchen, tons of natural light, and a spectacular view of the North Shore mountains. The rent includes shared use of a 100-square-foot, private, closed-door meeting room, a 200-square-foot kitchen/meeting space, and a 100-square-foot storage space. Current tenants include a memoir book publishing company, a marketing firm, two photographers and a translation service.
The rent is $470.00 per month plus GST. It includes utilities, wireless internet access, weekly studio cleaning, weekly recycling pick-up and weekly water delivery.
You can get a vague sense of the studio from these photos of a studio Christmas party.
UPDATE: If you're interested, email Sam at sam [at] echomemoirs [dot] com and let her know where you heard about it.
I'm up to two calls a week. It's time to change the Contact page. Here's the new addition:
IMPORTANT: I write about a lot of different things on this website. If I've written about a particular product or service, that doesn't mean that I can help you obtain it. So, please don't contact me with requests about fake IDs, surrogate motherhood, gay adoption or anything else I've written about in passing.
To get a sense of what I write about regularly, check out the categories on the left hand side of the front page.
The weirdest call recently was from a very teenage girl asking about being a surrogate mother for gay men. Admirable and enterprising, perhaps, but I couldn't help her.
RobotWisdom points to an excellent series of portraits of kids attending a karate party. This one is probably my favourite, for its similarity to Bill the Cat.
Thanks to Allison V. Smith, the photographer in question, for permission to use this photo.
Speaking of my new Nano, I'm very happy with the iSkin I bought for it. I don't care about whether my iPod gets scratches or dings (as this photo of my old device clearly indicates). I just wanted a belt clip to use while exercising, and this was the only Nano-compatible accessory the store had.
The iSkin is essentially a little condom for your iPod. It's a rubber sheath that you wedge your device into (heh). It comes complete with a little plastic window that covers your iPod screen.
The belt clip works very well, and the condom would certainly protect my iPod from anything short of a knife fight. However, I discovered one great side effect. One of my frustrations with my old iPod was that I was constantly turning the lock switch on and off, to stop myself from erroneously pressing buttons or the click wheel. The iSkin has the same effect, as you need to exert more pressure to operate the iPod's controls. Now the lock switch always stays in the 'unlocked' position.
The one downside of the iSkin is that my condomed iPod won't fit into its dock anymore.
I was channel-surfing toward the World Hockey Championships yesterday (Canada pummelled Norway, the poor bastards) when I halted on the CBC. They had a piece about the Trappist monks at New Melleray Abbey, who make caskets:
Our caskets and urns are understated in design, showing a preference for vintage, old-world joinery. Wood for the caskets comes in part from our own forests. It is our hope that the work of our hands will help nourish a return to a dignified spirituality of death.
Running a monastery is expensive, and I'm constantly fascinated by the creative entrepreneurial spirit of monks. I know of monks who make whiskey, fudge and fruit cake, among other things.
Yesterday I disparaged Microsoft for some compatibility issues. Apple, today it's your turn.
This morning I loaded some audio content onto my new iPod Nano. Then I pulled the connection out without 'ejecting' it first. I had no idea, but doing this is tantamount to running over it with a semi.
Now, every time I choose 'Music' on the iPod's main menu, it reboots. I plugged it back in again, no joy. I've tried resetting it, no joy. I even restored it using my Apple laptop (it doesn't show up in Windows anymore). No joy on the Windows machine, where all the music is.
Apple, why do you hate me?
I could pull the plug on my old iPod at any old time, and the thing would be happy as a clam. What gives?
Here's a PR idea for Microsoft and Apple. At the next trade show, put some project managers or executives in a dunk tank. Charge everybody a dollar a throw, and donate all the money to charity. Old school, but it would play well in the press. And I'd be first in line with a handful of Washingtons (or, uh, loonies if you do it north of the border).
UPDATE: After restarting my Windows machine and once again restoring the iPod from there, things are looking up. I'm thinking of just buying a big ol' ghetto blaster and some eight tracks.
Yesterday, Steve Ballmer announced the official launch of Microsoft adCenter, their contextual ad word product, aimed at rivalling the monster that is Google AdWords:
Advertisers will also be able to see their advertisements appearing across a number of MSN & Microsoft properties in the future, including Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live Safety Center, Windows Live for Mobile, Office Live and Office Online, and the Xbox® Web site Xbox.com. This definitely ends much speculation about how many of these new free Live branded products would be monetized to make them worthwhile. And it gives adCenter a platform to test contextual targeting prior to launching a product for publishers.
We run Google AdWords campaigns for a few of our clients. Seeing an opportunity to get a jump on some of the competition, I figured I'd sign up to adCenter and check things out. Unfortunately, when I tried to sign up, I encountered the following message (here's a screenshot:
Microsoft adCenter does not currently support the web browser you are using. Please sign in using Internet Explorer 6+. More about system requirements
Ironically, the 'more about system requirements' link is currently broken.
This is old-school but not surprising behaviour from Microsoft. Normally, it would be a minor frustration. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer recently stopped working on my machine. I spent a couple of hours trying various troubleshooting strategies, but none of them have worked (Windows Media Player also broke). Because I rarely use IE, I've been unable to identify when it broke. So, it's proved difficult to diagnose. I decided I could just live without it, and am planning on getting a new desktop in the next month or two anyway.
I only hold Microsoft partially responsible for IE and Windows Media Player being b0rked. I'm not a typical user, and I install a ton of crap on my machine. Still, it's be nice if I could recover that functionality.
Of course, I also have an Apple laptop. Oops. No joy there, either. It's worth pointing out that plenty of marketers and ad agencies--prime buyers for adCenter products--use Apple products
In the meantime, I can't help my clients. Thus, no scratch for MSN. I'll just stick with Google, whose web app runs in the browsers I choose to use.
Who doesn't love maps? Via Gadling, here's the first blog I've ever seen dedicated entirely to the cartographic world:
The Map Room is all about finding maps, map collections, map-related resources, and material about maps on the web. Anything that fits under that rubric, from medieval mappæ mundi to satellite imagery, and from topo maps to Tolkien, is fair game.
The site does have the puzzling URL of http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/, but we'll let that pass. They linked to the second blog I've ever seen concerning maps, where there's a cool entry about map tattoos.
Via Digg, I read about this effort to restore family photos damaged by Hurricane Katrina:
In an effort to help the residents of Pass Christian, MS in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, photojournalist Becky Sell and photo editor Dave Ellis have embarked on a mission to recover the photos and memories that would be lost to the storm.
It's a great idea. I could easily imagine 500 people fixing 10 photos each. That's 5000 photos restored for free, and at nearly zero cost to the organization itself.
Judging by some comments on Digg, I'm guessing they're going to need to build out a more robust volunteer infrastructure.
Being from Canada, we're always tinkering with our sports. Heck, check out what we did to hockey last fall.
I've always been under the impression that football (meaning soccer) was a gift from God, unchanged since it alighted on the Earth. That is until I read this Guardian article, which reviews the historical changes to the sport, and suggests some radical rule changes. The rule changes are:
Video review: "Ah, splutter the luddites: wouldn't technology slow the game down? Perhaps, but not by much. The ball is only in play for 60-odd minutes, and double-checking contentious decisions - a goal-line clearance, penalty or offside appeal - would add seconds not minutes."
Clearly this writer hasn't watched enough North American sports. I'm in favour of using view reviews to make the right call, but the decisions rarely take seconds. They can, on occasion, take 8 or 10 minutes. If you introduced this rule, you'd also have to introduce a clock stoppage policy.
Penalty boxes (or, uh, 'sin bins'): "The almighty gap between a yellow and red card actually makes it rational for defenders to body-check, scythe and take out opponents in promising positions, picking up a professional yellow, because conceding a goal is far worse. That can't be right. The possibility of 20 minutes in the sin bin - with a yellow card chucked in - for cynical fouls would change a player's incentives and, ergo, their behaviour too."
I don't watch much rugby, so I don't understand the amount of impact this penalization has on a large team. In hockey, a powerplay results in a goal roughly 1 in 5 times. Mind you, in hockey, one team has 80% as many skaters as the other. In football, it'd be 90% as many, uh, out-players.
Bigger goals: "After all, the average man stood at just 5ft 2in tall in the latter part of the 19th century when goalpost sizes were laid down in law - while the average Premiership keeper is now 6ft 3in. At the very least you could test it at semi-professional level, with perhaps a minor adjustment to move the posts six inches higher and a yard wider."
This seems like too simplistic a change, and will do nothing to address the turgid play and professional fakery.
Travis found this amusing introductory ad at www.shaveeverywhere.com, a product site for the Philips Bodygroom, a, uh, all-over razor. I encourage you to click the 'Where to Shave" item off the main main menu, and then click 'Groin and Posterior'.
Do any Seattle residents have a good suggestion for a hotel to stay at in June when we're down for Gnomedex? Ideally, it's close to the Bell Harbor Conference Center and less than US $200/night (a surprisingly tall order for a town like Seattle).
UPDATE: Having never done the pick-a-random-hotel thing, we decided to take Derek's advice (see below) and try Hotwire. We ended up with the Sheraton, which seems satisfactory. It's less cool than last year's hotel, the Vance (now called Hotel Max), but also a little cheaper at US $155 per night. In terms of distance from the conference centre, it looks like the Max and the Sheraton are equidistant. Though, that's driving as opposed to walking.
From my big list of 2006 movies, here are the three latest--the good, the bad and the fugly.
Hard Candy - 9/10 - A gripping, closed-room psychological thriller with fantastic acting. Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson offer great performances, making fully-realized, truthful characters out of potential stereotypes. The direction is dead-on, using narrow focus and small rooms to achieve an original, claustrophobic look and feel. Aside from the implausible premise and a couple clunkers, the script is tight and pacey. It's a hard film to watch, and I'd recommend reading a couple other reviews before seeing this one. Interestingly, there are literally five people in the cast.
The Sentinel - 4/10 - Old-school political thriller, with little tension and a predictable conclusion. Michael Douglas is 62, looks 70, and is about 10 years too old for this role. Are there really 62-year-olds actively protecting the President? Eva Longoria is another charisma-free zone. She doesn't so much light up the screen as conceal seams in the backdrops.
Stick It - 1.5/10 - I know, I should be ashamed. The wife and I went hoping for some campy fun, a la Bring It On ("it's already been broughten"). Alas, I've seen better acting, writing and direction from an 8th grade improv group. It's astonishing that they green lighted the script, and more astounding that they didn't halt production when they saw the dailies. I was convinced that most of the cast were actual gymnasts--thus explaining their incredibly poor acting. As it turns out, most of them weren't gymnasts, and the actual gymnasts offered the (relatively speaking) best performances. And how big a bet did Jeff Bridges lose? My shame in seeing this film was only increased when I ran into Gillian and Sue in the lobby afterwards, and I had to admit my sin.
Martin writes with a roundtrip translator he put together:
Using Really Magazine’s new 2Xlation facility , you can view English-text websites and see how they might pan out after a round trip though the current state-of-the-art translation engines . . .( caution: may cause dismay / amusement / confusion etc etc )
It currently translates to Korean and then back into English. Here's what the Guardian's website looks like ("Blair shouts well! Bows in sack"), and here's what my site looks like. Tod Maffin's message about the CBC's podcasting effort now reads like this:
The CBC the knock-down road or the contribution where the radio is free hazard the program which is effective now it is manufacturing the possibility which there is not a historical example, “ The best it includes the of” and for the thing in order total Hoeg, training, software advancement and the consultation— but I’ M it has a many month, for It?
I'm sure Tod Maffin is entirely responsible for this, but the CBC has significantly expanded its podcast offerings. Here's what he has to say:
It’s taken many months of planning, training, software development, and consultation--but I'm finally pleased to announce that CBC Radio is now making an unprecedented number of programs available for free download or subscription, including "best of" editions from THE CURRENT, DISPATCHES, DEFINITELY NOT THE OPERA, IDEAS, OUTFRONT, AS IT HAPPENS plus comprehensive highlight packages of regionally-based radio programs.
I've enjoyed listening to Quirks and Quarks over the past few months on my iPod, so I look forward to a more diverse selection.
The one item I'd like to see are movie reviews. I don't listen to the CBC enough to know this--does Rick Staling (sp?) still do movie reviews on Friday? Does somebody else do movie reviews? Another request would be for Tapestry, which is a great program.
Here are a few quick comments (some of which I emailed to them already) about the site:
Regardless, strong work and keep it up.
My friends Lee and Sachi continue their trip around the world odyssey. It's been pretty fascinating to read their reports from the road, which have been consistent and full of great photos. Here's an amusing bit on the ferry trip from Ko Lanta to Bangkok:
7:58AM: Arrive at boat, both whacked with motion sickness, sweating and feeling green. Banana shaped boat departs into moderate swells and a cloud of diesel exhaust.
8:35AM: Thanks to the heat and exhaust fumes, Sachi promptly tosses breakfast out the starboard side window and returns to seat, refreshed.
9:15AM: Arrive in Ko Phi Phi, switch to larger, air conditioned boat. Lee contemplates the adventures of his right flip-flop after a mix up last night that resulted in a mismatched pair of footwear.
They're troopers. It sounds like they had a pretty tough time with illness through India and Sri Lanka.
I don't have a lot to say about the new federal budget (Lord knows if I were a First Nations person I'd have a ton to say, and none of it good), but it's worth pointing to the research I did about cutting the GST. The vast majority of economists' opinions indicated that it wasn't a particularly wise tax cut.
Napster has more staying power than Chris Chelios. Chris Pirillo writes about their latest wrinkle. I've gotta admit--it's pretty innovative:
You can listen to every track in our 2,000,000 song catalog up to 5 times for FREE. That's 10 million free plays! After the 5th free play of any single track, you can either purchase the track or become a Napster subscriber. As a subscriber, you can download an unlimited number of full-length songs to your PC. As a Napster To Go subscriber you can transfer those tracks to your compatible portable player without paying per track.
If I peruse my 6000 track iTunes library, there are only a handful of songs with more than five listens. Mind you, for the past few months, I've been slowly plowing through the 3500 songs that iTunes has never played.
Currently this offer only appears to be available in the US. Napster Canada's site makes no mention of it.
Via the Moxie blog, this is the most interesting article I've read about movie economics in a long time. It's written by Lynda Obst, a veteran Hollywood producer, and echoes the media balkanization message we've been hearing for the past few years:
So we can't put a bad blockbuster over anymore, as in the golden era of 2002, when The Scorpion King could open at $36 million, or Blade II at $33 million. And we have to kill our singular addiction to teenage boys. We need to diversify the meaning of "our audience." We have a few audiences. Baby-boomers have a movie habit and an IV hooked up to pop culture (look at Inside Man or The Interpreter).
She certainly sounds authoritative, even though her numbers are anecdotal. This comes on the heels of this well-linked article about how theatres hope to lure audiences back to the movies.
Via John Baker, I watched Pink perform "Dear Mr. President" from her latest album. You can watch too:
Yes, it's got a rousing, anthemic chorus, but the lyrics are very, very bad. Consider this Dylanesque bridge:
Let me tell you bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
I wonder if Pink learned about hard work and minimum wage while attending the exclusive Moore College of Art and Design? As John puts it, "if she wants to be taken completely seriously she would have to stop advertising Pepsi."
I'm all for criticizing the President (pretty safe to do these days, given his approval rating), but man, aspire to write a better song than, say, Phil Collins. In the meantime, perhaps she ought to stick to, you know, getting the party started.
This morning, via RobotWisdom, I read about this amusing retail intrusion (site appears to be dog-slow at the moment) from Improv Everywhere. It's a flash mobby type of thing, but pretty hilarious. They got roughly 80 people to dress in the ubiquitous blue golf shirt and khakis of the Best Buy employee, and wander around the store:
I then revealed the plan, "We're heading up to the Best Buy on 23rd Street. We'll enter the store one by one. Once inside, spread out and stand near the end of an aisle, facing away from the merchandise. Don't shop, but don't work either. If a customer comes up to you and asks you a question, be polite and help them if you know the answer. If anyone asks you if you work there, say no. If an employee asks you what you're doing, respond 'I'm waiting for my girlfriend/boyfriend who is shopping elsewhere in the store.' If they question you about your clothing, just explain that it's what you put on when you woke up this morning and you don't know any of the other people dressed like you."
The entry on Improv Everywhere's site includes a lengthy description and plenty of photos and videos.
In related news, you'll be pleased to hear that charges were dismissed in the no-pants-on-the-subway incident.
Thanks to Chad Nicholson for letting me use his photo. He's got selected and complete photo sets from his time as a secret blue agent.
A reader writes with a request for film recommendations against some pretty specific criteria. I'm crap at recommending films when put on the spot, so I thought I'd open things up to you, my dear readers:
We watched Hotel Rwanda last night for the first time. It's the first movie I've really enjoyed since The Pianist (though it's probably one of only movies I've seen since The Pianist). I would put these two films in a category along with (though I haven't seen) Schindler's List. Stories that dramatize historic events, with main characters displaying extraordinary survival/humanity in a milieu lacking in humanity.
Given that I've been raising children over the last few years, I'm worried I've missed similar films. Would you add any others?
At the moment, I'm pretty much coming up empty. I pointed him to Participant Productions, as they produced created Murderball, Syriana, North Country and Good Night, Good Luck.. None of those quite fit the criteria he outlines, however.
Back in April 2005, Technorati started automatically tracking the primary language of each blog that we tracked. We did this so that we could easily allow people to filter out posts in languages other than their native language. This is available in a pull-down menu on every search results page. We also wanted to get some idea of where the worldwide growth of blogging was taking place, and what trends we could glean from the data.
He includes a bunch of caveats in his report, but he also includes a bunch of awesome charts.
