“I remember a time, long long ago, when tech companies spent their own venture capital on each other, so revenues were all booked from the same small pool of money. Yeah, as I recall, it didn’t end well.”
We’re not suggesting that social networking sites are totally useless or are going to disappear anytime soon (Friends Reunited is still around? Who knew!) – they’re a boon for prying journalists and recruiters for sure, and damn it, Scrabble is a good game. But today’s shocking confirmation that their “phenomenal” growth isn’t impervious to human nature does make the $15bn valuation Microsoft slapped on Facebook when it paid $240m for 1.6 per cent equity seem even more preposterous, if it were possible.
My day job includes working with a rag-tag group of English, Australian and Italian contractors. They’ve had to move here, as they’ll be working on big construction projects with our company for at least the next five years. One of the British guy’s wives sent us the following poem to express her sadness with the weather:
It’s winter here in Canada
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At twenty-five below.
Oh, how I love Canada
When the snow’s up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.
Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I’ll hang around
I never could leave Canada
I mentioned before that my car bit it the other day. A broken thermostat (I think). A $30 part.
Here’s the problem, though: I could totally replace it myself. Except I don’t have a garage, and the prospect of working on my car outside in this weather is less than ideal, especially because I’d have to drain the coolant before doing anything. Drive it to a garage? Tried it on Tuesday. This is how it went:
Adam gets into car, starts it up fine because it was plugged in. Adam scrapes off windows, making it almost possible to see out the windshield. Adam climbs into car and scrapes inside of windshield as well. Adam begins driving, hunching over with chin almost resting on steering wheel so he can see through the narrow gap on the windshield that isn’t completely frozen. After about 600 metres of 20 kph through the neighbourhood, Adam realizes there’s no way he can get his car the 13km to the west end to have it serviced. Sadness abounds. Adam turns back, parks car, and spends rest of the day in his pyjamas.
I might have my brother pull the car to his house with his truck, put it in his garage (which is about -10°C rather than -27°C) and work on it there on the weekend. Or I’ll have her towed to the dealership sometime in the next few days. I haven’t decided yet. Either way, my car—dear, sweet Chloe—is parked. I need to go out there later to see if she’ll even start. I’m not hopeful.
Thank gods the bus service is superior in my neighbourhood, or else I’d be right fucked. Also, I need to buy cat food.
An old colleague of mine recently started a new blog called Chamber of Comics. He’s now turning his cartoons into video. Here is his most recent foray into the genre of “full-motion cartoons”:
Yesterday was a bad day for me. I was snowed in, in a sense—stuck at home waiting for a tow truck to bring my car to the dealership. This never happened. And it won’t. I was home all day. And I ate too much.
What I consumed yesterday:
Five cups of tea
One bowl of Raisin Bran with milk
A bowl of Butternut Squash soup (low sodium)
An open-faced tomato and tuna sandwich
A handful of granola
6oz of beef, some potatoes and green beans
four beers
two slices of pizza
There was a hockey game on, and my roommate brought home beer and ordered pizza. Two things I clearly don’t need, but ate nonetheless. I paid for it:
Starting weight: 85.4kg
Today’s weight: 85.0kg
Total lost: 0.4kg
So, a definite setback. But missteps are to be expected. More discipline is needed. I didn’t even feel happy after I ate the pizza; I just ate it because it was there.
Wired Magazine is hosting a contest to name the current geological period—you know, like Triassic, Cambrian, and Pleistocene. the unnamed period is the one we’re in now, defined by the impact humans are having on the planet. You can vote for them here.
The top votes right now include:
Jackassic
Anthropocene
Obscene
Only one of them is serious. The other two are very serious. Anyway, click the link to cast your votes, or come up with your own suggestions.
Because of the awful weather, I’m stuck at home until I can get a tow-truck to my house to take my car in to have the thermostat fixed. Right now, my windshield is just a thick layer of frost. So, no coffee for me today. Just tea. I’ll give you my end of day notes, and hopefully you’ll see a trend of me not eating terribly.
It’s cereal time!
Edit: for you more visually inclined folks, the graph:
2½ cups of coffee with two creams each (throughout the day)
One serving of Quaker brown sugar oatmeal
250g of cottage cheese and two mini-oranges
A small bag of mini-eggs
A small Voortman cookie
1.5L of water
2 glasses of red wine
One spinach salad with a salmon filet
This really goes to show you how bad I am with my eating. And this is better than most days!
The wine was drunk because I was at a business meeting. I have no excuse for all that coffee, the mini eggs or the cookie. And I didn’t drink enough water (but I’ll have at least two more glasses before bed).
I expect that I will weight 85kg tomorrow morning. And by expect, I mean hope! There’s nowhere to go but down!
I came across this gem browsing the web when I should have been working. It’s just a short list of strategies for managing and deflecting verbal intimidation. Check it:
Much like fishing, the bait is used to lure you in for an off handed attack. The attacker’s aim is to plant hurtful or accusatory phrases in seemingly innocent conversation to lure you in. Here’s an example:
Hi Sophie, I know you’re busy but I need this document written up before noon. It’s so easy, even you could do it. Thanks Sophie.
The bait here is “even you”. If Sophie is like most people, she will take the bait and respond with:
What do you mean even I could do it? I’ve been working here for 8 years and …
Sophie took the bait, and now she is justifying her existence to the instigator. To which the instigator could simply reply, “you’re over reacting”. Sophie will lose her power in this conversation. Her aim, and your aim should be to NOT take the bait. Ignore it. Pretend you didn’t hear it.
This will make your verbal attacker recoil. You did not give them the response they were expecting. You do not need to explain yourself to anyone. If someone throws in a bait, they want you to get upset and emotional – sometimes make a fool of yourself. You simply respond to the question or statement, ignoring the bait altogether. If you repeat this process with serial verbal offenders, they will soon give up entirely.
I weighed myself this morning after I showered. It was bad, but not as bad as expected, given the gourmet meal of stuffed chicken breast, stuffed potato, tiramisu, and a pail of cookie dough that Fish and I consumed on Saturday.
Current weight: 85.4kg
Goal weight: 73kg
Left to lose: 12.4kg
I should elaborate on my goals: I plan to lose 5.4kg by February 14. By the time March 31 rolls around, I will weigh 73kg. I anticipate that if I’m eating properly and exercising regularly, I should be down to 73kg long before the end of March, but I’m giving myself some wiggle room. Click on the graph below to see how this will trend out. Yes. I made a graph.
Like I said, not terribly difficult. But changing my bad eating habits (late-night snacking on garbage, lots of beer and wine) is going to be the biggest challenge. So is getting to the gym, especially when there’s a high of -27°C today. Yeesh. Also, my car is broken.
Meth is, I’ve just now read, a bad way to lose weight. Not because you don’t lose weight—you do—but because you’re, you know, a shell of a human being after getting hooked. Like one of those zombies from 28 Days Later, except rather than try to eat people, you try to score and smoke more meth.
Marijuana is equally ineffective, though that particular drug renders you more like one of those zombies from Night of the Living Dead—slow-moving, moany (or giggy, depending on the type of zombie we’re talking about here), and downright snacky. You can see how this isn’t terribly conducive to weight loss.
For my purposes, I would need a weight-loss narcotic that would make me more like a zombie from the MJ’s Thriller. Hot, super-dancy, a lady-killer (j’aime le double-entendre!), and with a life narrated by Vincent Price, who I believe is also, now, a zombie. A thin one.
In the last two months, I’ve gained about 6kg which is astonishingly bad. I’m about 13kg away from my target weight of 73kg (that’s 27lbs for you haters of the metric system). By February 14, I want to weigh 80kg (a baby-step goal for myself), a feat I believe is totally doable. I just need to hold myself to account, which is why I’m filling the rest of you in on this little goal of mine.
So, the next little while will be interesting. Through a combination of better eating and working out, I’m going to achieve my goals so I look like a fucking Adonis the next time I don my red cap and Speedos. I’ll post my weight every few days, beginning tomorrow.
I was referred to this site today. Man, there are some interesting profiles on VC firms here. If you’re looking for venture capital, you might want to have a peek at www.theFunded.com first.
An excerpt:
Allen Frazier brought Jon Gilbert from Arthur Anderson with him when he formed Frazier Securities. Jon is a former cop, who despite getting an MBA is better suited eating donuts and drinking bad coffee. Allen puts Jon on the boards of his companies, even if the CEO’s [sic] have never met Jon before. Jon destroyed our $150 MM company, just by his actions on our board. His constant whining and squealing at board meetings eventually worked, as he undermined the CEO, and forced the company to be liquidated for $15 MM.
I know I’m getting carried away with the YouTubes, but this was too good to pass up. If there are any Japanese speakers who can translate this, please comment if anything hilarious is being said. Otherwise, I think the video speaks for itself.
Above is one of my favourite Bonobo songs. It’s called “Pick Up,” and it’s from the album Dial M for Monkey It’s the jazz flute, don’t you know.
Electronic music is probably my favourite genre, because as music goes, it has the ability to conjure a plethora of images. There’s no way in hell I would ever have conceived of this video had I been asked to produce it. This song manifests images of old jazz clubs in the 50s and 60s, people picking fights, panning cameras, sweeping views, and tableaux with a million details in a dim, smoky room.
That’s the beauty of electronica, and I guess of music in genre. It’s different things to everyone. What’s it to you?
It’s remarkable, and sometimes puzzling, to see what queries people use to stumble across Pseudo Psyence. Some are completely mundane, like “cowboy billy.” Others bear a malicious tinge to them, such as “allergies Harper’s broussard evil demon woman.”
But some are so bizarre as to be, perhaps, a window into the psyche of people who maybe shouldn’t be allowed to use the Internet. Or are in an institution that permits limited web access. Like the person who stumbled across this blog by searching for “Inuit Culture Toilet.” Whoever you are, welcome to my quaint blog; I seriously doubt you came close to finding what you were looking for. Like your Prozac.
And what of this culture toilet? Presumably it seeks to devour Inuit culture. Or, uh, something? The person who entered this search term no doubt found a post on being afraid to go to the washroom in public, and another on that quintessential Inuit signpost. But a 2000 Flushes in the shape of an inukshuk? Shit, I don’t know if those exist… yet.
For curiosity’s sake, this is what you get from Google Images when “Inuit culture toilet” is entered. The first image:
It’s true… the Inuit Culture Toilet is Megatron.
So, given the weird confluence of search terms and blog posts here, I will report in the next few days what additional searches on Autobots, Megatron, Toilets, and other random words brought strangers to this place.
An excerpt from a discussion between Fish and myself. Her cellphone randomly freezes and shuts off; mine sometimes delays receiving emails. I, apparently, have nothing to complain about:
please. you’re basically saying “my 60 gold nuggets aren’t shiny enough” and I’m saying “my brown piece of shit is too stinky” at least thats my dumb analogy for me being annoyed that my phone DOESNT WORK, and you being annoyed that your blackberry hasn’t made your coffee yet after you asked it like 78 times in the past 4 minutes gosh.
Mattel & Hasbro are trying to get the makers of Scrabulous to take their application off Facebook, as the two companies believe it infringes on their trademark and copyright. And it just might…
But here’s the thing: Mattel & Hasbro have done sweet fuck all to get their popular boardgame online. The creators of Scrabulous saw a hole in the market and they filled it. Mattel & Hasbro should be talking to the creators—two Indian brothers—about working for Scrabble. They should be bought out and hired on to help Mattel & Hasbro get their shit together putting their most popular boardgames online.
But they’ll sue instead. Because of principle. And because they were too slow to put Scrabble online. Fools.
Some said the decision to launch the legal action was “short-sighted” and could only damage their reputation. In one discussion thread more than 100 people said playing Scrabulous had led them to buy a copy of the board game.
“Never played Scrabble until I played ‘Scrabulous’,” wrote Alexandra York. “This is the best application on Facebook and has brought Scrabble to many people who have never played before whilst allowing friends and family to enjoy the game in spite of living far from each other.”
Incidentally, the save Scrabulous group on Facebook has over 13,000 members. 13,000 people who signed up in one day.
The Onion’s more or less accurate take on a few select countries:
The USA: “The United States was founded in 1776 on the principles of life, liberty, and the reckless pursuit of happiness at any cost—even life and liberty.”
Japan: “In 1945, two atomic bombs were dropped on the nation of Japan, destroying entire cities and instantly killing millions of citizens. However, some survived, and from the radioactive ash rose a mutant race of super-submissive, ultra-vulnerable people able to feel 100 times the shame of any ordinary human.”
India: “Mired by rising poverty levels, polluted groundwater that threatens the lives of millions, and a rapidly crumbling infrastructure, the nation of India has every intention of addressing these problems just as soon as it finishes telling Midwesterners how to install Windows XP on their home computer.”
England: “For nearly 200 years, England ruled over 500 million people on six continents—a time in which it was commonly said that the sun never set on the British Empire. Today, however, the sun sets on the British Empire at precisely 5:47pm GMT.”
Italy: “Italy is known as one of the most racially intolerant nations in the world, where citizens base their opinions of other ethnicities on appearance and stereotypes alone. But then, what more do you expect from a bunch of greasy, filthy womanizers?”
Toilet Phobia can affect anyone at any time and ranges from a mild disruption through to a significant disruption of daily life.
Causes of Toilet Phobia
Toilet Phobia can be caused by a variety of factors including anxiety, fear, specific experience or trauma and learnt behaviour from someone close. Causes of Toilet Phobia can often be a combination of these factors or none of the above.
Treatment of Toilet Phobia
It is generally accepted that CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) is the recommended treatment for Toilet Phobia due to the fact that it is an evidence based therapy, however, many individuals cited Clinical Hypnotherapy, Counselling, guided self help and other lifestyle changes as being helpful in providing benefit to managing the condition.
I never really realized it, but I’m fairly curious about Inuit and First Nations spiritual and tribal symbols. I remember coming across a Haida artwork print of a frog when I was in Tofino one summer. I meant to buy it but never did. Regretted it for the longest time. Then, in Waterloo, Ontario of all places, I came across it again about three years later. I bought it.
Three years after that, and I still have the print. I’ll never lose it:
Frog is often associated with copper and great wealth. Legendary Haida princes are said to have attended feasts wearing necklace chains made of living Frogs. The Haida carved Frog on house pole to prevent them from falling over. They also included them in many other carvings, from feast bowls to totem poles.
Dave, an acquaintance of mine from the university, has been threatened by Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach for registering “edstelmach.ca” and using it as a redirect to his blog. Before this threat letter, he had had no contact with the premier’s office. Snippet:
This letter was sent to me regarding my ownership of the domain name edstelmach.ca, which I purchased for approximately $14.00 on April 4, 2007 (four months after Mr. Stelmach became Premier of Alberta). The letter accuses me of interfering with and misappropriating Ed Stelmach’s personality (I’m really not sure where Ed Stelmach’s personality is, but I certainly didn’t take it).
It’s being covered quite heavily by local media, and there are lots of comments at Dave’s blog. Some expound on the legal virtues of Dave’s case—i.e., that there are none and ICANN rulings on the issue mean Stelmach might win this fight—but I think there’s something even more interesting here that Dave touches on: the ridiculous route the premier’s office decided to take with this.
Rather than try and get in touch with Dave to see if they could get him to somehow hand the domain over to Stelmach, they’ve gone ahead with all their muscle and are threatening to sue him. For someone who isn’t doing so hot in the polls, this is an absurdly shortsighted direction to take. Whatever your politics, you can certainly appreciate that the optics of suing a starving student over a $14 domain name aren’t terribly positive.
Good luck to you, Dave. And shame on you, Stelmach.
I’ve always been enamoured of this symbol. When hiking was a weekend ritual for me a few years back, I would create one along the way, or at the terminal end of a hike to signify my having been there. Fitting, then, that the word inukshuk translates to “substitute for a person.”
Inuksuit differ from some cairns in significance. The Arctic Circle, dominated by permafrost, has few natural landmarks and thus the inuksuk was central to navigation across the barren tundra.
Inuksuit vary in shape and size, and perform a diverse array of tasks. It is a symbol with deep roots in the Inuit culture, a directional marker that signifies safety, hope and friendship.
You can imagine our delight when a reader alerted us to the fact that Sony tacitly recognizes the inconvenience caused by its DRM usage and even recommends that iPod users circumvent some of its own DRM.
Even better than that, though, is this Business Week article, quoted in the same Ars story. A snippet:
In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is finalizing plans to sell songs without the copyright protection software that has long restricted the use of music downloaded from the Internet, BusinessWeek.com has learned.
I came across The Office Newb blog today, and have thoroughly enjoyed the posts I’ve read. An excerpt:
After all, who would you rather trust to get your important project done? The person with the great hair and coordinating accessories (shoes, necklace and purse) who was thoughtful enough to detail to make it all match or the person who shows up to work in sweatpants and their college sweatshirt who couldn’t get it together long enough to put on a decent pair of pants before leaving the house?
I have to admit to sharing some (most?) of her views on dress code. Incidentally, she’s now on the blogroll.
About six months ago, I worked for another subsidiary of the parent company I currently work for. Call it GasCo. I’m now at ElectricCo.
While at GasCo, I would frequently whinge about the dress code: the expectation was that you would always wear a tie (for the men, anyhow), and there was no such thing as casual Friday. When I started at ElectricCo, I lauded their relaxed dress code… until I saw some people wearing crew-cut sweatshirts with stains on them and dirty jeans. It occurred to me that this simply wasn’t right.
I had a conversation with my boss about this. She reminded me that people are judged by how they dress, and she suggested people should dress “how they want to be paid.” You want to be paid a six-figure income? Dress the part, buddy-boy (or buddy-lady).
I actually enjoy wearing nice business attire to work, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch for me. But for the first week, everyone kept asking me if I had a job interview, which speaks volumes of the corporate culture at ElectricCo. Still, one day when I’m running my own company full-time, I’ll dress relaxed: jeans and a sport coat, Hank Scorpio-style!
The Edmonton Investor Group (which owns the Edmonton Oilers) has a 10-member board that reports to twenty-something other investors. This board has recommended that the EIG reject Daryl Katz’s offer of $188 million to purchase the team. The question everyone on the planet seems to be asking is this: double-youteeeff?
(This image shamelessly stolen from the OilersNation)
I’m hoping this lapse in judgment for the EIG, who clearly can’t see an opportunity and the sweet plum of their return on investment. Set ego aside, and consider what’s best for the city and the team, instead of trying to hold onto the crown jewel of owning a pro-sports team.
Fish uncovered this most sinister (though honest) of advertisements on Craigslist:
I have an apartment. You need a place to live. Seeking Relationship. – 23 (Upper East Side)
————————————————————————
Reply to: pers-526674625@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-01-02, 11:39PM EST
I live in a nicely sized apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I’m financially stable, pay off my credit card in full every month, and am successful. I’m also fucking good looking.
You’re a student, or just plain poor. You wish you could move out or your parent’s house, but you’re just… too poor. It’s fucking pathetic.
E-mail me. We’ll skip the dating and you can move in with me and be my girlfriend.
Why was my girlfriend looking up roommates ads in New York city, a place a full 4,000kms away from where we live? Uh, good question. Fish?
[Ed - looks like the ad is no longer up, which leads me to believe that the item sold, or this was a hoax. Does anyone have any information on this one?]
So, this guy’s pissed at his roommate for ditching out on his share of the rent, and then dropping $300 on a copy of Rock Band. Some people’s children…
First of all, yes I know this falls in the really mean category and yes I know they’re supposed to really be hard to come by, but you’d be this pissed too. I can understand paying for plane ticket to see fam during Christmas, but dropping $300 on a video game while skipping out on his share of the rent during a really expensive time?!?!?! WTF?
Well payback’s a byatch. I will consider this as the December rent. Highest bidder gets a PS3 Rock Band Special Edition. Comes with drums, a guitar, and a mic apparently. I need this done by next week, for obvious reasons.
Yes it’s been opened and he played for two hours before having to leave for the airport. But Mr. Anal actually packed it away because he didn’t want anyone else playing it while he was gone. *Are you kidding me? At least it saves me the trouble.
Oh and if you’re reading this, consider this your last payment. To everyone else, have a happy holidays.
