November 27th, 2007, 17 Comments »
There isn’t a ton of English-language media floating around our village. However, some ex-pat friends of ours (she’s from Vancouver, if you can imagine) lent us season 2 of The Wire. I’d never seen an episode of the show, but a couple of people had recommended it to me, and it’s quite popular over at TVTorrents.
We watched episode one of season two, and I’ve got to admit that I was pretty lost. There seemed to be no affordances–to borrow a term from usability–for new viewers. And frankly, we were pretty bored. ‘The Wire’ is the talkiest cop show I’ve ever seen.
The show definitely seemed very gritty and realistic (I’ve never worked on the docks in Baltimore), and strongly influenced by the men-with-men tone and dialogue of David Mamet. Plus, the acting was strong. Still, it didn’t really float my boat. I guess I like my TV more in the middle-brow escapist mode of Weeds or The West Wing.
If you’re a fan of “The Wire”, why do you like it?
17 Comments »
September 26th, 2007, 12 Comments »
I had a difficult time finding a reliable source for this information, either on the Web or from sundry government agencies. I finally got an answer from a police officer in Rabat who sounded convincing, so we’re going with what he says. I thought I’d post it, as I imagine there are web searchers in the same boat.
What if you want to stay in Malta longer than three months (the standard length of a tourist visa), but don’t have a working visa or want to apply for a permanent residency visa? You have two strategies:
- Every time you leave the country and re-enter, you automatically get a fresh three months of tourist visa. This is a reasonably common immigration practice. I gather there’s an accommodation industry on the Nicaragua side of the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border dedicated to this phenomenon.
- You can apply at a police station for an extension. I have a friend who did this ’several times’–I’m not sure how many times it’s possible to do this. On Gozo, you need to go to the police station in Rabat (aka Victoria, if you prefer). Don’t go to the station on Republic Street. You want the station on the road to Marsalforn, about two blocks from the traffic circle. It’s on the left, and has big red garage doors
UPDATE: Coincidentally, I just read Leif Pettersen’s article about Malta, and left a comment advocating that he visit Gozo for a different taste of the country. He left his home in Italy because he’s American, and needed to renew his 90-day tourist visa:
As I’ve mentioned previously, homeless Americans residing in Europe that have failed to convince Michelle Hunziker to marry them for EU citizenship are put in the position of always keeping one eye on the clock as their 90 day visa limitations inexorably run down. Though the last time I entered Italy the immigration officer failed to/forgot to/couldn’t be bothered to stamp my passport, meaning I might have easily over-stayed my 90 days with no one being the wiser, I deemed it necessary to do a border hop and, at least symbolically, renew my privilege to stay in the country.
12 Comments »
March 26th, 2007, 7 Comments »
I don’t have all the facts straight yet (somebody ought to write a WikiNews or Now Public story about this), but marketing genius Kathy Sierra has apparently been receiving death threats from other bloggers.
As I type this, I am supposed to be in San Diego, delivering a workshop at the ETech conference. But I’m not. I’m at home, with the doors locked, terrified. For the last four weeks, I’ve been getting death threat comments on this blog. But that’s not what pushed me over the edge. What finally did it was some disturbing threats of violence and sex posted on two other blogs… blogs authored and/or owned by a group that includes prominent bloggers. People you’ve probably heard of. People like respected Cluetrain Manifesto co-author Chris Locke (aka Rageboy).
There’s plenty of evidence in her blog post and the comments to suggest that this isn’t an isolated incident or just a little flame war gone awry. It’s really awful, and just shameful that so-called professionals apparently are involved (I’m hesitant to name the alleged perpetrators until fact is sorted out from speculation).
I first read about this on Lauren’s blog, but have since seen it on Robert’s, Tim’s and a dozen others. Once the culprits are clearly identified, I imagine they can expect a visit from the local constabulary.
Aside from the occasional, random flammage, the only threats of abuse I’ve ever received are from Harley Davidson enthusiasts. They apparently didn’t like being called ‘asshats’.
7 Comments »
