My Gnomedex Talk: 1100 Stacies
August 11th, 2007, 26 Comments »
Depending on the topic and audience, I sometimes first write my talks as essays. It helps me clarify my ideas, and imagine the talk’s pacing and tone. I subsequently distill the essay down to some bullet points on index cards, and refer to them as needed during the speech.
There’s some video kicking around, and I’ll post that and the slides when it shows up online. I’ve embedded a few photos from the slides into this text where they’re pertinent.
One
A few years ago my grandmother passed away. I recently found this telegram among her possessions. It’s from her uncle to her father. If you can’t read it, it says “Dad died yesterday. Burial Tuesday, two o’clock, Aurora.”
That economy of language. You paid by the word, so condolences could wait until next Tuesday.
This was sent in 1954, and at the time it cost about $2.50 Canadian. That’s about $2.57 in US dollars. Yes, our currency was stronger until about 1960. I don’t know if you’ve looked at exchange rates lately, but we’re coming for you.
In 2007 dollars, $2.50 is worth $19.84 Canadian. Imagine if you had to pay nearly two dollars for every word you wrote in an email. What would spam look like?
Send $ to Nigeria. Thx.
If we think of it in some different ways, $19.84 in Canadian dollars is also…
$18.64 US dollars
¥2,214 Japanese Yen
£5.84 in Maltese Lira (I’m living in Malta right now, so I like to convert to the local currency)
Do you hear that sound? That’s half the room hitting up Google Maps to find out where Malta is. It’s here, incidentally:
It also works out to…
L$4,986.62 Linden dollars
249 World of Warcraft Gold
The second number is black market, so rates may not be very stable.
My great-great grandfather dies. My great-grandfather sends a telegram to my great-great uncle. My grandmother keeps the telegram. She dies, and I get it.
It’s enough to make you think about your own mortality. Read more…