Praise from Down Under

Eamonn emailed me earlier today to let me know that the Australian newspaper The Age made The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century their most recent “Topblog” in their tech review section. There’s a headline on the main page of the tech section of their site (for the next while, anyway) that points to an article called Gonzo with the wind:

Joey, aka The Accordion Guy, is a blogger with a touch of Hunter S. Thompson.

Take this recent manic post:

Sooner or later, you’re going to be sitting in the back of the Metaphorical Pickup Truck of Life and realise that there’s a guy in a Pikachu costume smoking crystal meth in the driver’s seat. His foot is jammed hard on the accelerator pedal, he’s drenched in sweat, he has the look of death in his soulless eyes, he’s slashing his own leg with a stiletto knife and screaming, “PAIN WILL BRING ME CLOSER TO FATHER!”

Lesser people – those who can only thrive when the cards are dealt in their favour – will curl up in a ball and wait for the truck to eventually go off a cliff or slam into a bus of orphans and puppies and explode John Woo-style.

Those who know that winning isn’t in the cards you’re dealt, but how you play them, would hop over the cab and onto the hood, Indiana Jones/T.J. Hooker style, smash through the windshield, pummel the driver into submission and bring the vehicle to a complete stop. And then take everyone out for ice-cream afterwards.

I hope to be one of those people.

Joey chronicles his attempts to grab life by the throat almost daily, with themes ranging from weirdo girlfriends to whether “echospamming” (what happens when some spammer uses your email address as their “reply to” address) should be justification for homicide.

As an internationally-known Australian is wont to say: Crikey!

My thanks to the article’s author, Jenny Sinclair, for writing such nice things about me (I’ve never been compared to Dr. Thompson before!) and to Eamonn for the heads-up!

Can anyone send me a clipping of the actual paper? I’ll cover postage…