Archive: Posts about Uncategorized
January 4th, 2006, 1 Comment »
Paul and Gary Constant are an Australian couple who are walking from London to Cape Town. Yes, that’s London, England to Cape Town, South Africa. How incredibly insane is that? Now, I admire my sisters’ Dad for sailing around the world, but he’s got nothing on these people. According to their blog, they started in August, 2004.
They’re currently in the Sahara Desert. Apparently one of their porters has got a bum camel toe (sorry, couldn’t resist) at the moment:
We no sooner came to terms with the erratic weather than Mimi, one of the best of our four camels, injured his foot; it is not a huge problem, according to the combined wisdom of the many nomads who have examined it, chewed their pipes thoughtfully, drunk tea and delivered a verdict, but nonetheless our Mimi is not in a condition to walk for a couple of weeks.
I make that journey about 9700 kms. My admiration for these people knows no bounds. Thanks to Lee, who’s on a lengthy if less-strenuous journey of his own, for pointing me to their site.
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January 4th, 2006, 1 Comment »
Apparently there’s a growing trend in suburbanites raising miniature cattle in their backyards. Who knew?
While some people look to save money by buying an entire cow or a side of beef, it can be difficult to store the meat from a 600-kilogram steer, of which about 40 per cent makes it to the freezer. Miniature cattle, which weigh about 270 kilograms, provide enough meat to last a family of four six months. That’s just about the freezer shelf life of beef, said Bryan. And the meat tastes the same, depending on how the cattle has been raised and fed.
Ironically, the smaller the cow, the more expensive it is. Apparently this is due to rarity, not novelty. Want to know more? Why not visit the best URL I’ve heard in a while: miniaturebull.com. They’ve got some charming photos of mini cows and their mini owners. There’s also the Miniature Cattle Coral.
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December 31st, 2005, 1 Comment »
Tod Maffin (apparently a raging metrosexual) has done a great, 10-minute interview with Canadian radio institution Michael Enright. Interestingly enough, it’s about the art of the interview:
Enright: We rely too much on what we think the listener wants to hear, rather than what the interviewer wants to hear. It’s a conversation and the listener is eavesdropping.
This ought to be essential reading for aspiring journalists (in any medium), and anybody who ever might give an interview in the media. There’s also a couple of bizarre interviewing anecdotes that will be amusing to just about anybody.
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December 30th, 2005, 2 Comments »
Man, I just can’t stop with the silly lists. Regardless, today I bring you the top 25 viral videos of 2005. If you’re a full-time netizen, you’ve probably seen most of these. Of the few I hadn’t seen, my favourite is this guy who danced his way around the world.
Speaking of videos, here are the top 50 music videos of the year. I’m both pleased and ashamed to admit that I’d seen almost none of these.
2 Comments »
December 14th, 2005, No Comments »
On a mailing list I’m on, there’s been some discussions of a particular business strategy. I didn’t know, but this is the business model of the Underpants Gnomes:
- Collect underpants
- ?
- Profit!
This formula is frequently sarcastically applied to Internet businesses, such as:
- Build a site with rounded corners
- ?
- Profit
You’ll find the gnomes in episode 17 of season 2 of South Park. Niall Kennedy has kindly collected an explanation and a video clip. Caution: Kenny may die in the aforementioned clip.
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December 4th, 2005, No Comments »
From a post I wrote on Saturday, but didn’t get around to posting until now:
I’m on the ferry coming back from Victoria. I’m sitting in one of those little study carrels, listening to music off my laptop and reading Wired. Hence, multiple items from the magazine.
I just read about ‘mountweazel’ in the Jargon Watch section. It refers to:
noun. Fake words or names invented by a reference-book publisher to detect plagiarism of its electronic databases. the term honors Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, who was fabricated for the New Columbia Encyclopedia 30 years ago.
I was reminded of other words based on proper names. Spoonerism, for one. Douchebag, for another.
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November 6th, 2005, 3 Comments »
I stumbled across this piece of paper while out walking one day. It was actually folded up into a pretty slick paper airplane. When I unfolded it, this message was inside:
Dear: Mr and mrs, I am so happy to talked with you and what a beuteful day and Here’s a maze. rules: you Have 30 minites to go so Hurry up!
Admittedly, the maze is pretty Dadaist, but I was pleased to be the recipient of this serendipitous flight.
3 Comments »
October 28th, 2005, 5 Comments »
The folks at Simon & Schuster contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in reading and writing about Degrassi Generations: The Official 411. What the heck, I said. I was a pretty loyal watcher of “Degrassi Junior High” and “Degrassi High”, and I’d seen a couple episodes of “Degrassi: The Next Generation”.
The book covers all the shows, from their origins in “The Kids of Degrassi” to TNG. Predictably, there’s a heavy emphasis on the latter–the book’s obviously being published based on the current success of the show.
It’s your bog-standard guide for fan-boys and fan-girls, covering everything you’d expect to find in a thorough who’s-who and what’s-what about the shows. There are detailed profiles of the casts, an episode guide, and short essays on show elements like the music or set. My favourite bit was the “where are they now” section on the original cast. Stephanie has a band in Toronto, Rebecca works in child mental healthcare, and the twins are both teachers.
Kevin Smith, of Clerks and Chasing Amy fame, is an original fan-boy, and wrote the introduction. Smith and I shared (well, we’ve still got it) a deep affection for Caitlin, played by Stacie Mistysyn. He writes:
Caitlin Ryan was the girl of my dreams: she was smart, soulful, beautiful, socially-conscious, and handicapped (if, indeed, epilepsy can be categorized as handicapped). That combination meant that she could stand on her own two feet, yet still needed to be cared for and protected from the cruel, harsh world as well.
Smith, of course, went on to direct and star in three episodes of TNG.
For the hardcore fan of either shows, The Official 411 is probably worth picking up. The Internet offers up a lot of the content in this book, but it’s sometimes hard to find, and hardly works as a collector’s item.
Bonus Link: A charming musical summary of the new show (thanks to Lex).
5 Comments »
October 16th, 2005, 2 Comments »
Just a few notes about yesterday’s successful Tech Camp. It had just enough organization–sessions were fluid and lively. The facility–the Northside Civic Centre–was great, though it’s in a pretty grim neighbourhood on Dublin’s northside. Here are some photos from the event.
Two sessions I enjoyed in particular were the aforementioned spiel on Digital Rights Ireland, and Gavin Byrne’s session.
Gavin’s an IT guy at the Centre itself for Near FM radio. One of their outreach programs involves delivering Internet access to ’sheltered housing projects’, mostly seniors who aren’t particularly mobile. They’ve whipped up this van with a huge antenna. They drive it around to local neighbourhoods, and wheel out some laptops on a cart for people to use. The antenna needs a line-of-sight with the antenna on top of the Centre, and they’ve got a range of three or four kilometres. Compared to all the geeky tech-talk of the rest of the day, the van represents a real improvement in normal humans’ lives.
Gavin also talked a bit about the podcasting they do at the radio station. He noted, interestingly, that this, as far as he can tell, is the first podcast in the Irish language.
Though my speaker’s notes on Web 2.0 marketing are on the Tech Camp wiki, I thought I’d dump them here as well [more].
Read more…
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September 22nd, 2005, 3 Comments »
Though I’ve been helping clients with Google AdWords for a while, I recently made my first venture into Yahoo’s Search Marketing (formerly Overture). Unfortunately, I’ve been totally disappointed by their customer service. Unless you’re interested in dubious customer support stories, you may want to abandon this entry here, before it gets tedious [more]:
Read more…
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