Finally got around to doing some blogchalking. This is my new blogchalk:
Canada, Ontario, Toronto, The Annex, English, Jen, Female, 31-35.Attendant widget is also now on the sidebar.
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Finally got around to doing some blogchalking. This is my new blogchalk:
Canada, Ontario, Toronto, The Annex, English, Jen, Female, 31-35.Attendant widget is also now on the sidebar.
Via this blog comes this report:
Procrastinators Get Poorer Grades in College Class, Study FindsThe worst procrastinators received significantly lower grades in a college course with many deadlines than did low or moderate-level procrastinators, a new study found.
The worst procrastinators were also more likely than others to use rationalizations -- such as saying "I work best under pressure" --- to justify their behavior in school.
However, the lower grades received by the worst procrastinators show that these rationalizations are nothing more than wishful thinking, said Bruce Tuckman, author of the study and a professor of education at Ohio State University.
"The results show that procrastinators don't work better under pressure, but it may be the only way they work," Tuckman said. "They don't have any idea how well they might do if they didn't procrastinate."
The most severe procrastinators earned an average grade in the class of 2.9 on a 4.0 scale. Moderate procrastinators had average grades of 3.4, while low procrastinators scored an average of 3.6.
Interestingly enough, there exists a Procrasitnation Research Group, which purports to be a "a compilation of information and research on procrastination from all over the world", although I find that much of their work focusses on procrastination in an academic context. One paper of theirs that I found interesting is titled "Are You A Procrastinator?":
A key element in both understanding academic procrastination and its treatment is the cognitive component of procrastination. Academic procrastinators typically make five cognitive distortions which promote and maintain their task avoidance. According to Ferrari et al. (1995), these five cognitive distortions are :
- overestimation of time left to perform tasks,
- underestimation of time required to complete tasks,
- overestimation of future motivational states,
- misreliance on the necessity of emotional congruence to succeed at task, and
- belief that working when not in the mood to work is suboptimal.
"....eight deadly sins of the stupid smart person... impulsiveness (doing something rash), neglect (ignoring something important), procrastination (actively avoiding something important), vacillation (dithering), backsliding (capitulating to habit), indulgence (allowing oneself to fall into excess), overdoing (like indulgence, but with positive things) and walking the edge (tempting fate). "
Couple of days ago, I stumbled across this site called Creativity-Portal.com. It features a bunch of general creativity resources and links, as well as links to a bunch of different "Arts & Crafts" resources, running the gamut from things like macrame and decoupage to drawing, painting, writing, photography, and music.
Two links in particular from the site (actually, I'd seen them before) that I like:
You might also be interested in the complete translated text of The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.
Never did get around to talking about what I thought of 24 Hour Party People.
Was great fun -- loved all the nostalgia stuff. During the scene where the Sex Pistols play in Manchester, and people got up and pogoed in front of the stage, I had a strong urge to get up and do the same. Movie theatre logistics prevented me from doing so. (Of course, seeing the film prompted me to wax nostalgic on learning to pogo.)
As I discussed with Andy, it's really a film that you go see more for the nostalgia, rather than for the plot. Graig has written up a very nice review on his site.
And if you want more linkage on the subject, check out this MeFi post.
(Oy, citing MeFi for two consecutive posts. You'd think I don't know how to come up with my own content anymore.)
Ah, another link courtesy of MeFi:
Expert warns of dangers of the corporate psychopath -- "....the arrogant, manipulative behaviour of psychopaths often makes them prime candidates for promotion within large corporations built on ruthless competition...."
The Presence of Totalitarian States-of-Mind in Institutions -- "Understanding the fear of psychosis which is present in institutional life allows us to understand something of, what I call, the 'rational madness' which suffuses the social configurations which human beings co-construct collectively. By this I mean that the human desire to have order, say, in an industrial organisation, often masks a profound madness which can never be looked at because that might lead to a deconstruction of the order."
OK, I'm not sure what to think of this....
Someone I don't know sent me this message (to my old e-mail address, no less) from the New York Times website:
Changing opinions for halflings means a new modelling career for Thailand's young folk... Any of this sound familiar?
Oh Blue-Eyed Thais, Flaunt Your Western Genes!
Increasingly, the round face, arched eyebrows and small mouth of the classical Thai look have given way in popularity to the sharper and more pronounced features of the West. There has been a similar easing of prejudice in other Asian countries, but nowhere has the look taken over quite the way it has in Thailand.
In a poll conducted two years ago to name the sexiest men and the sexiest women in Thailand, seven out of the nine top scorers were of mixed blood.
Another Thursday, and you know what that means....
Yep, the GTABloggers gathered once again at an establishment that serves alcoholic beverages. Things learned:
[Addendum: Also learned that Chris does not own the puppy pictured on his site. Awwwwww.]
From Cre@teOnline:
Inspiration is wherever you may find it -- Whether it comes from a bottle of red wine or by waking up in the morning; the key is what you do with it. This month our panel debates whether you can claim to truly create anything at all
This made me laugh. Does that make me a bad person?
Sad end for wild goose chase: British wildlife experts are mourning the loss of Kerry the goose after tracking him by satellite all the way from Ireland to an Eskimo's kitchen in Arctic Canada.
February, 1980. I'm in grade 7 -- just a regular kid in a regular school in a regular neighbourhood, who listens to regular mainstream radio. "Disco sucks" is in the air like a whisper, yet to become a shout. My favourite group is (please don't hold this against me) ABBA.
One weekend I'm watching Saturday Night Live. The musical guest is a group called the B-52's. They are, to say the least, baffling. There are two women in the band with the most outrageous hairdos, like something out of the 60's, and the strangest clothes. The lead "singer" is an angular looking fellow with a pencil-thin moustache. He doesn't so much sing as he does chant or squawk. He holds a toy piano in the palm of one hand. As the band plays, he bangs on the keys in time to the music with his other hand, curled into a fist.
What the hell?....
June, 1980. I'm off to music camp, where I will spend the best part of a week dutifully playing classical violin. Only thing is, I'd performed poorly at my audition a few weeks beforehand, and when the orchestra placements are assigned, I find myself relegated to the second violins. Argh. To add insult to injury, one of the first pieces we play is one that I played in my school orchestra as a first violin.
So, when not in scheduled orchestra rehearsals, I ignore my instrument, electing to draw or sculpt in the art studio, or hide in my cabin, swapping dirty 12-year-old jokes with my bunk-mates.
Night time brings the occasional faculty recital, or some other activitiy. By far, the most anticipated events are the dances for the students.
At the first dance, I and my fellow campers shuffle into the dancehall (actually the cafeteria by day) where we are subjected to -- not disco -- new wave. Edgy, raucous, rebellious punk rock and new wave. The Police. Blondie. Gary Numan. The B-52's. To hell with doing "The Bus Stop" -- let's Pogo
By the third dance, jumping on the dancefloor is banned. Seems that all us burgeoning new wavers bouncing up and down in unison is putting the building in some structural distress. But the music plays on.
I return from camp a changed person. I still look the same (except for maybe a couple of safety pins stuck in my sleeve or lapel), but something is different.
The rest of the summer is an age of discovery. The Pretenders. The Clash. Squeeze. The Monks. Elvis Costello. The Cars. The Ramones. An endless line-up of bands in white shirts with skinny ties, pumping out power chords punctured by the occasional keyboard riff.
In the following years, there will be other sounds that will capture my attention. Synth-pop. House. Grunge. Techno. These too will form a soundtrack to my then-present life, to be later recalled with nostalgia and longing.
But those first wailing bits of guitar feedback and driving chords, those haunting leitmotifs invariably playing on a Hammond B-3 or a Moog synthesizer, those discordant vocal eruptions -- for me, no other style of music is going to evoke quite the same sense of puzzlement, wonder, and awakening.
Put on those skinny ties, break out those safety pins, put on that eyeliner, and spike that hair-- it's time to pogo!
(Sigh. Pogoing is not unlike the dance-form known to you youngsters as moshing. And we slammed into each other too.)
Oh, how nice -- it's Allah's coffee cup.
Special bonus link: the Coffee and Caffeine FAQ.
Could someone please buy me a llama? Pretty please? Pretty please with sugar on top?
Aw, heck. I'd settle for one of these T-shirts. (Thanks, MeFi!)
[Goddamit, my net connection got cut off the first time I tried to post, and I lost what I'd written. What follows is a condensed version.]
Anyone tried Pepsi Blue? According to this taste test of new caffienated beverages (in the U.S. -- I don't think two of them are available in Canada), Pepsi Blue is pretty damn hideous. (Thanks to Slashdot for the link.)
Just happened to be in front of the television when Mary Walsh: Open Book aired on CBC television. The whole notion of video-taping people talking about something they've read strikes me as being really funny, in a McLuhan-esque sort of way. The production's very rough-and-ready (I guess the show's budget doesn't cover editing) and the conversation very boisterous. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again, but if I'm home and the TV's on, I'll probably do so.
(Although I just realized that I've missed the first half-hour of Little Steven's Underground Garage. Ah, s'alright. Got it on now. Yahoo.)
Bought myself a box of the new Simpson's breakfast cereal, namely "Homer's Cinnamon Donut" cereal, and chowed down on a bowl of it while watching telly. Is tasty enough -- stays reasonably crunchy (although I like a bit of sogginess in my cereal), is not too sweet. It's not exactly a low-fat cereal, however, and there was a bit of greasy residue on my spoon afterward. Not hideous, but I should probably stick to Shreddies.
Also bought myself a copy of cheapeats toronto, a handy little guide to (not surprisingly) cheap places to eat in the city. I'm already familiar with a number of places listed, but now there are so many more that I'd love to try out. Disclaimer: it just so happens that I know some of the people who contributed to the book. Anyway, take a look if you happen to spot it in a bookstore. I found my copy in Book City, but I imagine other shops carry it too (try one of the small independent stores).
[Addendum: if you go to the book's website, they list places where you can buy it.]
Want to try out your culinary skills on something new? Boing Boing provides this handy link to a recipe for kitty litter cake. Mmm, mmm.
And if that whets your appetite for strange foodstuffs, there exists a whole compendium of bizzare recipes for your dining enjoyment. Go give the "chunky cat barf" a try.
Courtesy of PocketGear, I've come across a nifty little free application called Metro, which allows you to carry subway and public transit information for a number of cities worldwide on your Palm OS or PocketPC device. And yes, Toronto is included.
(I'll admit I haven't actually tried it out. My Jornada is rather hurting for storage space at the moment. But go ahead and give it a whirl if you're so inclined.)
Another handy little freebie is a mobile version of the Oxford English Dictionary. This is an e-book in Mobipocket format. The Mobipocket Reader is also free -- there are a number of versions available for various PDAs as well as one for desktop PCs running Windows.
[Addendum: Merde, I posted this too hastily -- turns out the free OED includes only words beginning with the letter 'L'. Well, if you need to look up the definition for "laudanum", you're in luck.]
Interestingly, given my ramblings on blogging and business earlier today, the current number one link on Blogdex goes to an outline of some company's corporate policy on personal weblogs. This seems like a reasonably enlightened employer, which is cool.
I'm a little surprised that someone would need to be told not to disclose confidential or proprietary information on their blog (duh!), but I guess it's something that has to be included in such a policy as a matter of course.
I'm not too surprised to see a request that bloggers include a disclaimer that the contents of their blogs are their personal opinion and do not necessarity reflect the opinion of their employer. I've seen such disclaimers used on mailing lists, particulary when people post to the list using their office e-mail address.
I had to laugh at one clause, however:
Since your site is a public space, we hope you will be as respectful to the company, our employees, our customers, our partners and affiliates, and others (including our competitors) as the company itself endeavors to be.
Oopsie.
Well, clearly up-all-night-up-all-day didn't work as a strategy to shift my hours around. Did the fatal "nap" which stretched out into a full-length "sleep", or some semblance thereof.
There's still more writing that I want to do (hermitism breeds loquaciousness). Fortunately my Jornada's fully charged, so I can take it with me when I flee the hovel for a while.
In the meantime, here's a link for you:
I haven't bothered to follow the whole idea of using blogging in a business context (too much other stuff to read), but a couple articles have blipped on my radar screen.
Rannie points out a Business 2.0 article on business blogs, which provides a cursory overview of potential uses, as well as pointers to software tools available to the would-be business blogger.
A link to a longer and more informative piece on using blogs in business came to me via the Blogger homepage. It's great at expounding the benefits of blogs in a business context, but skims over the problems which may arise in getting a system set up.
Take this attempt at point-by-point refutation of typical nay-sayer arguments (my commentary in italics):
- People won't want to share. Solutions: Immediate benefits are provided by K-Logs to contributors; peer pressure; competitive instinct.
The respect of your peers will only take you so far. If management continues to reward the old knowledge-sharing behaviours, it won't matter how much of an ace the guy in the next cubicle thinks you are.
- People will publish things they shouldn't. Solution: Standard management practice will correct this.
Exactly what "standard management practice" are we referrring to here? Boilerplate HR policy prohibiting the proletariat from posting nudie pics or articles with swear words in them? Is anyone willing to formulate some "best practices" for posting information in this kind of repository? Is someone able to ensure that what's posted is factually correct? Yeah, I thought so.
This also assumes that someone's actually willing to do some managing here. My cynical instincts tell me that the average PHB would assign a minion with no real organizational leverage to "police" the blog. The managers themselves will continue as before.
- Management won't accept the new ideas. Solution: Management that doesn't accept idea flow won't deploy the tool until forced to do it by competitive pressure; most K-Logging won't be as revolutionary as many suspect, but rather dull, evolutionary knowledge transfer (the essence and the heartbeat of life in an organization).
It likely will take the threat of extinction to make the corporate dinosaurs pull their heads out of their asses. Is that going to happen tomorrow? Next year? Is another purported KM "silver-bullet" going be developed in the meantime?
Actually, at my last place of employ, one of the developers set up a wiki on a Linux box that sat next to his desk. It was really useful for capturing project notes, interesting links, and all sorts of knowledge ephemera that might have been too fragmented for widespread use. The wiki's geek appeal also meant that the developers were more likely to actually use it -- they had a tendency to eschew regular documentation. The four of us in the IA group were big fans of the system as well.
But other areas of the company didn't take to it quite as readily. The completely unstructured nature of linking in a wiki made for difficult navigation. And authoring wiki pages required use of a different markup syntax instead of good ol' HTML. Using a blog instead would help address these concerns. First, the writing would be much easier because you could make use of simple HTML tags instead of fiddling with another weird form of markup. And, if you had a set of categories to which users could assign their posts, that would help make some sense of the muddle.
One useful thing that the wiki had was change tracking. You had a record of all changes made to a page, including when they were made and by whom. Having only a limited familiarity with blogging tools (I use Blogger here, and I have a passing acquaintance with Movable Type thanks to my posting access on thebiglist), I don't know if any of the present tools offer similar functionality. If not, I wouldn't be suprised to learn that someone's working on it.
So, my (present) verdict on blogs for business: "it depends". (How very IA of me.)
OK, this sleep thing is getting a little out of hand. A wee chronology (all times are approximate):
I have a ton more that I want to write, but I really wanna nap right now.
Here's something fun for you to try:
Happened to do my weekly pilgrimage down to College and Spadina to check out the new books at PC Maniak. Turns out that particular location is moving and is slashing their prices willy-nilly. Amazingly, I didn't actually buy anything, but all that browsing made me thirsty. Hence the trip to 7-11 for Jones', subsequently consumed on one of the benches outside the medical building at College & Major.
BTW, I asked the guy at PC Maniak where they were moving to. He doesn't know yet, but they're hoping it'll be somewhere in the area. He suggested I check out the big PC Maniak store in Mississauga for a wider selection of books.
Oh, neat! It's an online barcode generator. (Thanks, Rannie, for the link.)
This from a Salon article where an airline pilot answers your questions:
Why am I asked to store my tray table for takeoff and landing?
So that in the event of an impact or sudden deceleration you don't impale yourself on it. Additionally, keeping the trays up allows for a clear path to the aisle during an emergency evacuation. The restriction on seat recline is for similar reasons. First, it restricts head and body movement, (the high seat backs lessen the severity of whiplash-style injuries), while also allowing for a fast dash into the aisle.
Typing the words "slacker lifestyle" into my beloved Google toolbar yielded a link to rikky.net, which features various posts pertaining to music, computers, silly links... wait a minute, am I there or here? Well, "there" has a bunch of stuff (Windows applications, plus funny MP3 files) that you can download for free. And the content is different. Something like that.
Speaking of slacker lifestyles, this has been fun and all, but I'm really gonna have to get my shit together once summer's over.
That wacky Davezilla has gone and done it again -- check out "International Blog Beatup Day" (featuring GTAB's own Natalie, exhorting Dave to come visit us at the next GTAB gathering -- that'd be fun).
Been a while since I've checked out the ASIST Bulletin. The August/September issue has a special section on knowledge management. I don't recall looking at the June/July issue either, which features articles on vocabulary control and design on the web. Then again, do I really want to? Gotta watch for that IA burnout.
And, if you have nothing better to do, check out Stephen's Guide to the Logical Fallacies.
Follow-up to a couple links posted previously:
MemeMachineGo! tells me that a new "tree-ware" edition of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies is available.
The strategies are a series of enigmatic phrases, meant to be drawn randomly from a deck of cards, and used to kick-start your little brain cells, get you through a creative block, or whatever. The cards themselves only enjoyed limited release, but there are a number of software versions of the deck available. (I used to have a Windows version of it that doesn't appear in this list, which I liked, but I can't find it anymore.)
Via this blog have found Lit.Org, which bills itself as "a community for readers and writers". There are forums for site members, plus various essays, commentary, stories, poetry, etc., again submitted by members that you can read. From just glancing at a few of the works, some of the stuff is better than other stuff, but I think I'll checking it out some more.
Managed to drag myself out of the hovel to attend the second Blog Meetup. It was decidedly less well attended than the previous one, but I had a pleasant evening on the patio of the Rivoli chatting with Brent, Zhan, and Timothy over some wine, with nary a vomitter in sight.
Metafilter has tipped me off to a website documenting everything you wanted to know about the Brady Bunch variety show that dazzled/horrified many a TV viewer in the late 70s.
Considering how much I slept yesterday, I should've known that it would be a while before I slept again. Sure, I could do something else with my time, but why not websurf some more?
This video is just fucked up. (Link via Nonsense Verse.)
Here is a picture of a wombat.
This site has a ton of stuff about the KLF / Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, including a bunch of rare MP3 mixes.
And here's a picture of Homer Simpson in a mumu.
Am slightly drowsy. Maybe I'll try this bed thing again.
Is nearly 5 am. Will go to bed soon and see if I can get a wee bit of sleep. Seeing as there's a Blog Meetup thing happenin' later today, I intend to get out of my pyjamas at some point.
One more thing:
Good morning, Jayme!
Because I'm just a sad human being who's been in her pyjamas since Sunday, I type "i like toast" into the Google toolbar to see what would come up.
Among other things, I found Dr. Toast's Amazing World of Toast, featuring haiku, recipes, and links to other web pages about toast-y things. A number of links are now 404, but I'm so glad that the document on Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches is still online after all these years. If you haven't seen it before (and even if you have), go visit it now.
One link that didn't turn up on Dr. Toast's site is to an MP3 of a tune that got played on the old CFNY, called "Toast" -- you might remember it if you were a listener in the days of Pete & Geets.
Blackmask has added George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" to its collection. I know a number of Orwell writings (including this essay) are available online elsewhere, but I like the variety of formats that Blackmask offers (including several PDA-friendly versions).
Uh, right. Now I remember why I don't read The National Post.
Multiculturalists are the real racists
Woke up at 6 today. Unfortunately, it was 6 pm. Oops. Have not left the hovel since Sunday. This needs work.
A bunch of links for your edification:
Another Sunday night, another helping of Little Steven's Underground Garage (airing on Q107 here in the GTA). Damn, I like this show. Are you listening? Why the hell not?
In other music news, Scott of Rare 80s MP3 of the Week reports that he's moved the MP3s to a new server, so that we can hopefully now download all those tasty tracks that much faster. (The feed's been pretty damn slow these last few weeks) Yippee!
I learned from Follow Me Here that the blog portal Eatonweb has added a wackload of features, including the ability to update your blog listing. I've updated mine and added another "rate my blog" widget plus Eatonweb button to my sidebar.
Over at MetaFilter, someone's gone and propagated the link for the CBC Radio Ideas episode "Tick Tock Bang". As longtime readers of my humble little blog (all two of you) will recall, you heard about it here first.
(And, to be fair, I must credit my friend Martin for bringing it to my attention a few years back.)
There is one advantage to sleeping through most of the day and not emerging from the hovel until late afternoon / early evening -- it's not so bloody hot outside. Man, this weather is something else.
Yesterday, joined my fellow bloggers to celebrate Rannie's birthday. Things learned:
I discovered today that the little variety store up at the top of St. George now stocks Cherry Bomb Jolt (they didn't the last time I was in there). Of course, they also charge 20 cents more per bottle than any other place where I've seen Jolt sold. But it's nice to know that the beverage is available in close proximity in case of an emergency.
'Tis a slow night on the web -- not much happenin'. Out of sheer boredom, I typed woof into Google (via the trusty toolbar). The first item in the results is:
Category: Society > People > Men
The September issues of New Architect and Fast Company are online. Go read 'em yerself.
BTW, Fast Company has rolled out a new logo and site re-design. There's also a Flash presentation which "explains" what's changed and what hasn't, but it's just marketing fluff which translates into "we're gonna get way more 'edgy'" or something like that. I really hate the use of the phrase "editorial architecture". Ick.
Finally got around to taking a look at Gizmodo, especially the sections on PDAs and peripherals. I wish they'd break out the items on tablet PCs into their own section, instead of lumping them in with the laptops and desktop PCs. So many toys to drool over. Not enough cash.
Linkage:
Good news for us sinners: you can now buy "Get Out of Hell Free" cards. (Thanks, Boing Boing!)
Here's a neat collection of graphic symbols -- there's a set for hospitals and a set for railway and bus stations. (Thanks to Elegant Hack for the link.)
We all know about The Road to Hell, don't we? Would you take on any of the design jobs that are listed? I find I start getting squeamish around item #5. (Thanks to meryl's notes for the link.)
Have discovered another nifty little page of doodles -- check out toothpastefordinner. (Thanks, BoingBoing)
All this talk of Madchester lately has gotten me way nostalgic. Burned a CD last night which I've titled "Anglo-Mix #1"
Whoo!! Heard a super-neato track on the radio this afternoon by Elv1s vs. JXL called "A Little Less Conversation".
You got it, someone's gone and remixed The King. Think a combination of Vegas flash, 70s funk, and 90s Madchester -- damn, this thing is catchy. You can download a lo-fi MP3 of it here.
Or, you can visit Lycos Music, where they have links to the video and to a higher quality Liquid Audio download for $1.99 (US, I presume).
InfoDesign has a link to a whole wad of sample IA deliverables and a paper that explains the relationships between them.
The latest featured link on the Blogger home page is Badgett's Coffee eJournal. As one would surmise, "It's All About Coffee!!!" Interesting bit of caffeine trivia: Twining's English Breakfast Tea has more caffeine in it than coffee does.
Speaking of caffeinated beverages, I've been drinking a lot of Vanilla Coke lately, just for the hell of it. Obviously I like the stuff, but I have the same complaint with it that I do with Cherry Coke: it tastes too damn much like regular Coke. I want to taste vanilla in it, goddamit. At least with Cherry Coke, there are viable (and superior) alternate beverages, namely Dr. Pepper and Cherry Bomb Jolt.
My quest for Cherry Bomb Jolt somewhere within reasonable walking distance of the hovel continues. My local Food Depot briefly reinstated the beverage to its shelves, but it's gone again. I've now discovered that the 7-11 at College & Spadina carries it; still a bit of a hike but a vast improvement over hauling my ass all the way down to the Eaton Centre for it.
I wonder if Jolt will add a vanilla cola to their product line....
Credit to v-2.org (who in turn credits Elegant Hack) for this handy link to Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. I'll have to try following them sometime.
I wonder if this lawyer named Jill Jacobs is really hating her job right now. If I had to sign my name to such a lame ass cease and desist letter, I know I'd hate my job. Luckily, Dave has plenty of support. Go, Dave!
If you have the Google Toolbar installed in your copy of Internet Explorer, you might be interested to learn that it may leave you vulnerable to hackers. Affected are all versions of the toolbar up to and including version 1.1.58.
A fixed version of the toolbar is now available.
Thanks to Boing Boing, I've discovered this delightfully subversive "comic strip" called Get Your War On. Go read it. 'Sfunny. And you'll never look at mundane old office clip art the same way again.
And this from the Blogger home page:
Interesting factoid I just calculated for a journalist: During the month of July, there were 1.5 Blogger blogs created per minute (on average).
? Ev. [8/6/2002 09:53:33 PM]
Did you know that there was such a thing called the Journal of Mundane Behavior? Me neither, but thanks to this blog, I have found it.
From the site's mission statement:
"Investigations of social life often begin with that which is already visible and named because of its 'exoticness' or its heavily articulated moral and political significance. Although there are many deviance journals to analyze socially unusual behavior there (was) no Journal of Mundane Behavior to explicitly analyze conformity."
Some of the papers look interesting enough -- a sampling:
Oh, god. My age is showing....
I've realized that some members of our viewing audience might not have gotten the reference to ACIEEEEEED in my last post.
Well, children, here are a few bullet points for ya:
However, as much as I would like to be able to regale you with tales of going to those early raves, dropping E, and all that (technically, I was old enough to have done the early Manchester scene), sad to say I misspent those two summers earnestly working in a bank (ugh) and going to summer school at U of T (calculus the first summer, physical anthropology the second).
But dammit, I had a radio, and stations like CJRT, CKLN and CBC-Stereo (during "Brave New Waves" and "Night Lines" in the midnight to 6 am slot) were pumping out this totally amazing shit. That whacked-out squeaking and squonking of the 303; that beat just pounding, pounding, pounding (and in those days, kiddies, 120 BPM was considered plenty damn fast); the samples of air-raid sirens and traffic horns -- man, that stuff just grabbed me by the ears and didn't let go.
And so it was.
Of course, electronic dance music has been through a bazillion mutations and permutations since then, but I still like that four-on-the-floor beat, which explains my preference for trance and for gabber over drum 'n bass, and jungle. Of course, I can't get my head around how you youngsters dance nowadays, but that's another story....
Oddly enough, now there's that film 24 Hour Party People that's gonna take us all back to those heady days in Manchester. I, for one, am looking forward to the trip.
ACIEEEEEEED!!
Oh, this looks really frigging cool....
Slashdot links to an article that covers high-end audio applications for Linux, including various audio editors, MIDI sequencers, and ReBorn. ReBorn (a clone of ReBirth, available for Windows PCs) is a synth emulator that can recreate the sounds of the Roland TB303, TR808, and TR909 synthesizers.
Everybody say ACIEEEEEED!!!
Late-night link-o-rama:
Well, thanks to this post and resulting comment thread on the GTA Bloggers site, I've got balut on my mind. As featured on Fear Factor, balut is partially formed duckling cooked in the shell, and is considered a delicacy in the Phillipines.
And now, thanks to Chris' challenge, I'm actually contemplating eating the stuff.
Here are some particularly graphic pictures of it. And here are some tips for eating balut and its rather more benign sister delicacy, penoy.
Am I nuts?
[Addendum: 'Twould appear that "Duck-Off 2002" has been post-poned indefinitely. So it'll be just blood pudding for me on the weekend.]
Had lunch with some former colleagues yesterday. Another former co-worker of ours recently landed a new job in a company that monitors employee internet usage. Various anecdotes on this topic sprung up, including the story of yet another company where, if you were web-surfing and clicked on a link leading to an MP3, you were instead taken to a page written by HR, telling you that you were a very bad person and the incident would be noted on your employee record.
The lone sys-admin in our group pointed out that many of these companies have very limited bandwidth relative to the number of employees who have internet connections, so it would be important to restrict traffic to business-related use only. OK, I can accept that.
But it reminded me of a situation at a former workplace of mine, back in the the days before I became an aspiring IT nerd. I was working in a large corporation doing very corporate things. The VP in my department (we're talking clueless3) had instructed the IT people to disable the functionality on Windows 95 that allows you to change the colour of your windows desktop.
Seems that having the colour purple/green/orange/whatever displaying on your computer monitor was unprofessional, so having the default colour scheme (grey windows, toolbar, buttons, etc., with blue window title bars) was our only choice. In addition, only company sanctioned wallpaper (bearing the corporate logo) was allowed. And you can forget about screen savers with things like, omigod, fish swimming across the screen. That was extremely unprofessional.
This VP couldn't make a decision on anything important to save his life, but he had plenty of time to issue decrees like this. And I'm sure there are others like him out there.
I don't really have a point here, except that I'm damn glad that I'm out of that sort of environment. Thanks for letting me share.
I don't usually post anything related to war/politics/etc., but thought I'd pass this link along:
Friendly fire deaths linked to US pilots 'on speed'
..."When you look at the original story of the [Canadian] friendly-fire incident it seems that the pilot was being inexplicably aggressive. It goes beyond fatigue or lack of experience or [being a] cowboy or trigger happy or any of the standard prosaic explanations. The simplest explanation is that the guy had eaten too much speed and was paranoid."...
Been a while since I posted on anything vaguely work related. Last couple days I've been slogging through Hackos & Redish's User and Task Analysis for Interface Design, and it's every bit the rip-roaring barrel of fun that you'd expect it to be. Have yet to reach the section on conducting studies of actual users "in the field" (as we used to say in anthropology class), or in H&R parlance, conducting on-site visits.
Stumbled across some material that would likely be useful, if and when I ever possibly got around to reading the stuff. It's the complete text (PDF) of a book called Action Science: Concepts, Methods, and Skills for Research and Intervention, by Chris Argyris, Robert Putnam, and Diana McLain Smith. To crudely paraphrase, action science is a methodology to facilitate learning and problem solving by individuals and in groups. I can see how this would be good to have as background knowledge when designing a knowledge repository or decision support system for a large organization, but again, when the hell am I going to read it?
(BTW, link to the book obtained via the update blog for OnePine, a resource site on organizational theory.)
It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who feels overwhelmed. Take, for example, this post and resulting thread on IA burnout. Quote:
... I've been feeling really burned out lately. Tired of keeping up -- I abandoned reading SIGIA-L a few months ago, although I still receive the mail... Since I have it filtered, I never have to look at it, so it goes unread while I spend more time reading papers and articles. Where is this heading?... It takes so much energy to investigate and try to understand things like computer science and what's happening with ontologies, topic maps, etc. This is the problem with being a generalist and trying to have your hand in so many things -- at least in trying to understand so many things.
Of course, any strength taken to an extreme becomes a liability (quote taken from a book called Type Talk at Work -- authors' names escape me at the moment), and I can't help but think that we inflict this information anxiety upon ourselves. We (I) just want to be so bloody competent at everything: graphic design? check. relational database modelling? gotcha. ethnography? OK. semiotics? go for it....
I suppose a little self discipline is in order. Focussing on goal-directed learning, instead of trying to cram all this stuff into your head because it'll probably come in handy "sometime". And once in a while just stepping back from it all completely and giving the ol' neurons a rest. Something like that.
BTW, there's a previous post of mine that has more Information Anxiety links. There's also a tangential discussion following the burnout rant over on Lou Rosenfeld's blog which focusses more on knowledge sharing/management within the IA community itself.
I've come across a site called Gorelets: Unpleasant Poetry. Here's a description from the site's author:
Think Jack Handey Meets Stephen King.
Or Edward Gorey at his most disturbing. Gone digital.
Gorelets are horrifying, disturbing, or darkly humorous little poems, no larger than the teensy screen of a Palm Pilot.
Another fun feature of the site is the "Refrigerator of the Damned" -- a virtual version of those poetry fridge magnets that are so much fun to mess around with. If you're particularly inspired, you can post your creations for the rest of the world to admire.
Thanks to Pocket PC eBooks Watch for the link.
I think it's been years since I've checked out a site called Writing On Your Palm, but thanks to a tip from Pocket PC Magazine I've revisited it.
The site's target audience is PDA users who write and who publish and/or read e-books. I could've sworn it had a different look before, but the layout is now PDA friendly (so that you can actually read it on your mobile device) and the site has become a blog (it's powered by Blogger Pro). There's also more coverage of MS Windows-based Pocket PCs in addition to coverage of Palm OS PDAs.
Of note is a recent column that enumerates a laundry list of features that would make up the ideal writer's PDA. It's a mostly sound list, albeit one geared towards hard-core mobile writer-types rather than dabblers like me.
There's also an older column that eulogizes the HP Jornada. As I've mentioned previously, I'm now stuck with a bunch of accessories for my Jornada 540 that aren't compatible with the iPaqs. Just for kicks, I decided check out FutureShop to see if prices have fallen any on the Jornada 560 series PDAs. Turns out FutureShop doesn't even carry Jornadas any more. You can still find the keyboard in the clearance section, but that's it.
Anyway, I think I'll be revisiting Writing On Your Palm again in the near future.
Oooh, this is fun....
It's Text to Speech Synthesis:
My head feels like it's stuffed with old wet socks. Boo.
On the other, decongestants are way fun, especially when mixed with coffee. Wheee!
Been messing with my blogrolls. Added a new category called "Mutual Appreciation Society" which contains links to people who link to me and/or read my blog on a (semi-)regular basis.
Ugh. I've been sneezing like mad, and my nose has been runny all day. Last few hours, my head has started to ache in that dull, feverish sort of way.
I am not sick. I Am Not Sick. I AM NOT SICK.
Must keep repeating....
12.30 am. The start of a new day, the end of an old, the hinge on which the door swings between late and early and late and early...
I'm reading But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer. A series of vignettes, snapshots, episodes in the lives of jazz greats like Lester Young and Thelonious Monk. It waxes lyrically, sadly; small, still moments tinged with isolation and brooding; beautiful statues lying smashed on a rained-out sidewalk, utterly destroyed yet still beautiful in their desolation and anihilation.
Take this long moment of a performance by Bud Powell:
Touched the keys a few times, squared yourself and plunged into "Nice Work", not pausing to think your way through what you were going to play, everything happening instantly. Your fingers moved like you had played Gershwin's tune ever since you were a baby and could take it anywhere you wanted...And then, like the tightrope walker wobbling, the first hint of uncertainty, hesitating over a note, faltering, recovering your balance then hesitating again... Then stumbling, your hands becoming tangled up in each other...
...then hitting a few notes but losing it, drowning in the tune like it was an ocean swallowing you up... Then then then. Then there was no point even touching the keyboard...
...as they applauded, everyone in the audience, everyone, understood that there must surely be something terrible about a form of music that can wreak such havoc on a man. It was like watching a gymnast and taking such agility and strength for granted until there was a fraction of an error and he crashed to the floor. It was only then that you realized how ordinary the barely possible had been made to appear -- and it is the crash rather than the perfect somersaults that expresses the truth.
But Beautiful, indeed.
Ugh. Finally nodded off 'round 7am, only to be woken up by the phone at 11.30. 'Twas Mom, leaving me a message. Mom's a day person. My brother and I are both extreme night owls, and I'm sure she never ceases to wonder how she wound up with these two vampire children.
Ah, well. On with the day.
awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake awake
"Coffee! You can sleep when you're dead!TM"
Ah, another Thursday, another gathering of GTA Bloggers. Was loads of fun, and I don't think any embarassing facial expressions of mine were captured on camera.
Lessons learned:
The folks at the Social Issues Research Centre have published a Guide to Flirting.
I feel obliged to insert witty commentary at this point, but the ol' brain isn't kicking up a damn thing. So I'll simply thank brightlycoloredfood for the link and be done with it.
Damn, it's August 1st, isn't it?
Happy Confederation Day to all the Swiss people out there.
I have no specific plans to celebrate. I don't even have any cheese in the fridge. Or chocolate.
Of course, what I have to do today is write a rent cheque. Boo.
For lack of anything else to say, I'm just gonna throw a few links atcha:
