On Tuesday night, attendees of the PDC were treated to a night at the Universal Studios Hollywood amusement park, which was closed off to everyone but us. Everything was free: rides, food and drinks, and the park was dressed up for Hallowe’en, complete with horror movie characters including Freddy Krueger, skeletons and chainsaw-wielding zombies.
I’ll post [...]
Monthly Archives: October 2008
Oct
30
2008
Slice of Life from PDC, Part 3: The Simpsons Ride
Oct
28
2008
Slice of Life from PDC, Part 2: Channel 9 Guy Meets Accordion Guy
Click the photo to see it on its Flickr page.
[This was originally posted on my tech blog, Global Nerdy.]
Oct
27
2008
Slice of Life from PDC, Part 1: Choose Wisely (or: The Snack Tables)
One nice thing about PDC: there are plenty of free snacks, some of which are healthy, some of which, well, not so much…
Choose wisely, my geeky friends.
[This was originally posted on my tech blog, Global Nerdy.]
Oct
27
2008
Ooh! New Accordion! / Ooh! Newly Married!
It’s a SIlvetta 60-bass piano accordion, which is much smaller and lighter than my other ones. It’s perfect for schlepping to conferences, like the one I’m attending right now, as it’s easier to carry and fits very well within just about every plane’s overhead compartment:
Oh, the “Phileas Fogg” outfit is from Cory Doctorow’s wedding, [...]
Oct
27
2008
Leaving for L.A.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
I leave for L.A. at a reasonable time this morning and land at 11:00 Pacific, after which I shall check into my hotel and scurry down to the Los Angeles Convention Center to catch the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2008. It won’t be all geeky stuff, and I’m bringin’ the [...]
Oct
26
2008
Warming Up for PDC2008
I leave for Los Angeles tomorrow to attend Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference (a.k.a. PDC2008). It’s typically the conference where Microsoft makes major tech announcements. I’ll be posting a slice-of-life travel diary here on the Accordion Guy blog, while the geekier stuff will end up in my tech blog, Global Nerdy, where they’re tagged PDC2008.
Oct
23
2008
From my Misspent Youth: “Since Yesterday” by Strawberry Switchblade
This song, which I’d forgotten about, just popped up on my speakers thanks to “random shuffle” and I thought I’d share it with you. It’s a cute little synthpop track from 1985 called Since Yesterday by Strawberry Switchblade, who had the “Gothic Lolita” look at least a full decade before the Japanese invented the subculture.
Oct
23
2008
If You’re Throwing a Hallowe’en Party…
…you might want to include this with your invitations. The U.S. election campaign is giving hallowe’en-ers a lazy costume option; use this notice to head them off at the pass:
Image courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Oct
22
2008
They Know Their Market
The folks at the Las Vegas tourism site Vegas.com have done their homework. They understand that a large number of people who come to visit fall into a very special demographic:
Yup, it’s real. If you go to vegas.com/douchebag, you’ll hit their page catering to the douchebag demographic — those guys who “love clubbing in Vegas, [...]
Oct
22
2008
Oddball Book on Drinking Your Own Pee
Original photo taken by “counterclockwise”.Click the image to see it on its Flickr page.
“Auto-urine therapy” is just a nicer way of saying “drinking your own pee”, which some people believe has healthful effects. There are a number of famous people who tried auto-urine therapy for health reasons: Gandhi did it, as did Idi Amin, Steve [...]
Oct
22
2008
Licence Plate of the Day
I saw this on Queen Street West yesterday. Maybe “GULLIBLE” was already taken:
Oct
21
2008
Cars You Can Live In After Your House Has Been Repossessed
Since the “financiapocalypse” threatens to leave some people homeless, the car blog Jalopnik has put together a list of cars that they consider habitable should you be forced to live in them after your house is repo’d. Here’s their list:
10. Volkswagen Golf/Rabbit
9. Mazda Mazda5
8. Ford Econoline
7. Honda Element
6. Chevy Suburban
5. Volvo 740 Wagon
4. Dodge Caravan
3. [...]
Oct
20
2008
Hail Satan! (or: Day 1 at Microsoft)
Many cultures have “big players” that form part of their collective demonology, symbols that are reviled, yet envied at the same time. Small-town folks in the U.S. point to New York City and Los Angeles as bad places filled with bad people who get a disproportionate share of the pie; small-town Canada does the same [...]
Oct
17
2008
And Now, the New Job
An apt metaphor for the new job.
As promised, I am announcing my new job today. But not here: you’ll have to go to Global Nerdy to find out what it is.
