In lieu of attending Bloggercon III, which I can’t attend as it’s
happening on the weekend of my birthday and the
Wendy’s-parents-meet-mine events, let me instead give it this most
heartfelt plug:
“Go to BloggerCon. You never know who you might meet!“
…if I would be attending BloggerCon III, which takes place in Palo Alto (or “Shallow Alto” as Cory
and I called it when we lived there) on November 6th. I’d love to, but
I can’t. My birthday’s November 5th, my annual birthday extravaganza
takes place on November 6th, and that weekend is also the first time my
parents will meet Wendy’s parents. Simply put, I’m going to have my
hands full.
Duuuuuuuuuuude!
For those who were there, and for the curious: here are 210 non-hot tub
photos from last year’s birthday party, culled from my own camera as
well as those of others. You can see them in album format, but with that many photos, you might want to check out the slideshow version!
(Warning: One gratuitous cleavage shot.)
John Bristowe reminded me of the existence of the Planet Simpson blog, which chronicles Planet Simpson author Chris Turner’s adventures in book promotion. It’s written mostly by Turner’s wife, Ashley Bristowe (also a friend of mine from Crazy Go Nuts University).
I just noticed this: the cover of the book varies with region. Here’s
the Canadian cover, featuring a donut (Canadians are said to consume more donuts per capita than any other nation on Earth):
For those of you who live in the land chronicled by the Big Book of British Smiles, here’s your cover:
And for our American friends, the “Duff Beer” cover. No idea if it’s
regular Duff or one of the specialty editions such as Duff Lite, Lady
Duff or Tartar-Control Duff:
That’s right, on The Farm, my developer blog — the blog I’m paid to write — I posted one dozen articles. Click the link below to read them all!
I’m going to a launch party at the Drake Hotel for my friend Chris “Turner” Turner’s first book, Planet Simpson.
Chris is a friend of mine back from our days at Crazy Go Nuts University, where he and I were both DJs at the engineering student-run Clark Hall Pub. He later went to become a freelance writer, submitting some of the best pieces for the late great Shift magazine (a creation of Canadian Gen-X pundit and CBC fixture Evan Solomon) and later, Time magazine. Wendy and I attended his wedding in January.
I have no idea if the party is an open or closed one; if you’re in the neighbourhood, drop by and check it out!
As for the book, it’s quite thick (450 pages!) and attempts to balance popular appeal with scholarly rigor.
Booklsut has this to say:
While the book will hold on to every reader, Turner’s dense academic
feel towards the end may feel like homework, and will definitely place it in
university bookstores for next semester. Some of the chapter subtitles have
a textbook feel, for example: “Journey to the Center of the Simpsons:
Self-Awareness, Self-Reference, Self-Parody, and the perfection of the Postmodern
Aesthetic.” But there is so much to this book that everyone will love
it.
The cultural studies canon has recently expanded to include dissections of
tv shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos and
Sex and the City. But Planet Simpson trumps them all.
Turner scored a coup (hah!) by landing Douglas (“Generation X“) Coupland to write the foreword. An excerpt:
If this book were to have an alternative title, it would most likely
be, How to Cook for Forty Humans. If that makes no sense to you,
chances are you probably haven’t read this far anyway. If it does make
sense, you’ll understand the treat that’s coming your way just a few
pages from here.
I’m looking forward to sharing a Guinness with Turner tonight. Congrats on getting published, dude!
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