Normally, I’m a pretty egalitarian guy, but I did major in applied sciences. Hence the current Dilbert online comic amuses me to no end. If only it were around when I worked at Mackerel Interactive Multimedia, where I was a computer science grad surrounded by people who studied underwater basket weaving graphic arts…
Oh, and I drank a lot of beer in University anyway.
I’ve got a fever…and the only prescription is more Hurka! Click the picture to see the commercial.
Otto von Bismarck is credited with saying “Laws are like sausages. It’s
better not to see them being made.” Apparently, it’s also better not to
see this 1980s Hungarian TV commerical for them either [6.4MB, MPEG].
Want more? Got a whole evening to kill? Perhaps you might find this page of 101 Hungarian TV ads from the 80s amusing.
Ah, what fortuitous story placement. Here’s one bit of hot man-on-man marriage that I do believe should be classified as some kind of sin:
“Oh Georgie, it’s not just oil production I’m boosting!” Click the picture to…heh, heh…enlarge it.
I spent most of this weekend alternating between a groggy wakeful state
and passed out in bed. I felt pretty out-of-it on Friday evening and
decided that it might be best to sit out my burlesque-dancing friend Penny Whistleton’s birthday party seeing as I was driving to Detroit to attend Penguicon the next day.
I woke up on Saturday morning feeling a bit better. I joined my friends George
and Leesh, their son Henry and Leesh’s parents Gerry and Allison for
Dim Sum lunch after which I planned to mosey on down to Motor City. I
began spacing out about halfway through lunch and soon went home
afterwards, where I passed out until about 8 p.m., well after my
schedule departure time.
After trying to see if there was a chance that anyone would drive me in
my car to Detroit — hey, I’d do it if I was free and someone
asked me — it was clear that I wasn’t going to make it. I gave Bill,
one of the organizers, a call and sent my regrets, and he was quite
nice about it. A couple of days later, another one of the organizers,
Matt Arnold, IM’d me just to say hi.
I’d like to send my sincerest apologies to Penguicon. I was honoured to
be invited as a “Nifty Guest”, the enthusiasm with which my
presentation suggestion was received was flattering and the way with
with you took my cancelleation was very gracious. Thanks for being so
understanding!
Cory tells me that it was a fun conference, and extremely nerdy. (Yes, “nerdy” is a good thing in our books.)
(Penguicon organizers: Keep watching your mailbox. A package of Tucows swag is headed your way.)
Whenever I travel down to the US, I sometimes get “caught” using the
quintessential Canadian expression “Eh?” The expression is so linked
with the stereotypical Canadian image — lumberjack shirt, toque (and
according to South Park, beady little eyes and flapping heads) — that Wendy couldn’t stop laughing when she heard some goths on Queen Street use the word.
Now, according to BlogTO, one of Accordion City’s local-happenings blogs…
Smarties, the candy-coated chocolate candy that has been winning over
Canadians (and Americans with peanut allergies ’cause M&M’s aren’t
peanut free) are finally showing their true colours.
Eh” is a limited edition release of the candy where the pieces are red
& white with little maple leaves stamped on.
As we say in rural Canada: Give ‘er!
Maybe it’s been part of the “Superman” meme that’s been going around the ‘net lately (for starters, see the excellent online retrospective, Superman is a Dick), but lately I’ve been fascinated by Superman
comics, especially the old “Silver Age” ones (which date from 1959 to
1970). They were oddly, if unintentionally prescient, what with what is
probably the first use of the word “blog” in mainstream media, or their daring-for-the-time repeated use of cross-dressing.
Here’s another instance in which Superman comics unwittingly ride the cutting edge: he’s a follower of the Getting Things Done
(often called GTD for short) methodology! Like any good GTD’er, he’s
taken his undone tasks “out of his head” and put them into a master
list, or what followers of the GTD methodology would call the “Inbox”:
Apparently, Supes isn’t an “under-promise and over-deliver” kind of guy. Click the picture to read the comic!
Note that a real GTD Inbox is isn’t ordered — you simply just add
undone tasks to it as they come in. Mind you, Superman’s list must be
unordered, seeing as his primary mission, “Wipe out crime and evil”
come third, after the self-serving “Find antidote to green kryptonite”.
Unless, of course, he’s a dick (which apparently, he is).
For those of you interested in reading the rest of the comic, you can read it in its entirety online! Marvel at the completely ludicrous story in which Superman accomplishes his super-tasks by duplicating himself and giving each duplicate 100 times his original already-super-brainpower! Gasp as how both Supermen’s sattelites of anti-evil rays make Kruschev and Castro give up their evil ways! Chortle at the
super-dumbass solution these two super-geniuses devise to figure out
which one gets to marry Lana Lang and which one gets to marry Lois Lane!
Starting tomorrow evening, I’ll be at Penguicon, a convention for both Linux and science fiction enthusiasts…
AT Penguicon, I will be a “Nifty Guest” as well as a speaker, where I will be presenting the following talk:
Interactive Fiction: Down and Out in the Grue Kingdom
Sun 2:00 to 3:00 pm
Kensington
Interactive Fiction, also known as “IF” and formerly known as “text
adventure games”, has a history spanning over 30 years and thrives even
in this day of console games. If you are (or hope to be) a game
developer, an author, or both, join us as we show you how to develop IF
using the Inform programming language. We’ll implement a game/interactive story based on a scene from Cory Doctorow’s “Down and
Out in the Magic Kingdom”.
Yeah,
I’m shamelessly borrowing some of Cory’s mojo to get people to come to
my talk. You gotta understand — I’m scheduled at the same time as the Tron Guy.
In addition to making the presentation and quite probably playing the
accordion, I have secured a small number of Tucows T-shirts and the
coveted SquishyCows™ (a herd of which you can see here). I’ll give ’em away at the presentation.
P.S. I’m driving from Toronto to Novi, which is just outside Detroit. Anyone who wants a lift, let me know…