Just because I haven’t posted any in a while, and this selection is beyond bizarre, and I’m trying to think if there’s likely anyone in the world who might be interested in all of these services:
Mr. CollateralDamage is a writing partner and a friend. He came to my mother’s memorial service. Until I saw a sign on his car last night, I didn’t know that he had a brother in the military in Iraq.
Now Mr. C has written this, which you should read:
http://collateraldamage.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/iraq-my-10-lessons-learned/
You have nothing to lose but your descenders.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo
Members of the club who are dead are excused from attending meetings. So Italo Calvino is off the hook. I mean, he was already like totally off the hook, but he’s also clear on the Oulipo meetings, as well.
Also, pataphysics, sourcing a line from "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer" that always puzzled me, but not enough to look it up.
I’m surprised that I’ve never heard a Lent joke about this stuff. You know, "I’m giving up lipograms for Lent," that kind of thing.
In the Boston area, where Catholics assume that everyone is Catholic, including Jews, this is the time of year for giving up stuff. My wife’s hairdresser solemnly assured my six-year-old that he was going to have to give up meat on Fridays, "except for chicken. It’s just red meat that counts."
My wife’s family are Unitarians. Unitarians give up committees for Lent, or will, once they reach consensus.
As an atheist, I gave up a long time ago.
According to Pew, I’m a Connector. Or, as we say it around here, I’m a Connecta.
http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/results.asp?c=1
I was baffled at not being an Omnivore – it’s really, really hard to use more technology than I do, or at least, so I had thought. So I gamed the survey – if you max out technically on all other questions, you still need either to have a webcam or send instant messages on your phone. Pew dudes, I have an iPhone – I send e-mail on my phone.
Fah. It’s ageism, pure and simple. E-mail is for old folks, you know, IM for kids.
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=125890
This is really interesting. Three-year study compares buying patterns of people with DVR’s (TiVo is mentioned in particular) to those of people without.
People with TiVo’s bought five percent less of new products than people without, and 20% of all brands lost volume in DVR households.
Food products took a big hit:
Among IRI’s top-selling Pacesetters … All of the impact was on food brands, which allocated more of their budgets to TV and saw new-product trial volume decline 7.5%
This was my favorite observation from the story:
…Research has shown that when ads mesh with a program’s subject matter, e.g., do-it-yourself fare on HGTV, they tend to get fast-forwarded less often.
Go figure – if I’m watching a home-improvement show, I’m likely to watch an ad for the new Black & Decker whatsit. If I’m watching The Office, I’m likely to fast-forward over an ad for Hot Pockets. For the first time, I understand how Google’s foray into TV advertising might be able to succeed, by making it possible to dice ad placement logic more finely than this obvious cut.
It’s obvious from show content alone that advertising goes with home-improvement television like Gorilla Glue goes with, well, anything. DVR usage patterns suggest that traditional entertainment programming may suffer badly if ad viewing becomes a uniform choice
Match it for Pratchett – and I – would like you to contribute to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust to help match Terry Pratchett’s million-dollar donation.
Terry Pratchett, a writer of astounding humor and humanity, is two years into his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
My father’s mother was destroyed by Alzheimer’s long before her death.
Let’s all do what we can.
SK
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/03/daily-lego-worl.html
Photo by Hirotaka Hatayama.
If only Gaudí had had access to Lego…
Lots more of the collection here.
Made a little progress this past week.
