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In the News

In this Battle of Wits, the Fox News Anchor was Unarmed

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Here, thanks to

the file sharing site that I’m not allowed to talk about, is a video of an interview with Vanity Fair contributing editor Judy Bachrach and empty-headed “Faux News” drone Brigitte Quinn [QuickTime,

9.7 MB, included as an enclosure]. It was supposed to be an

inconsquential “isn’t it great that Dubya got re-elected?” interview

about the inauguration, but it didn’t end up being the fawning Bush

love-in as planned and Bachrach took the opportunity to burst Quinn’s

bubble. Quinn, who shows herself to be clearly incapable of independent

thought, went down with the first verbal blow and proceeded to get

beaten like a rented mule.

Here’s the transcript:

Fox News: We were noticing all the snow in Washington, boy

it’s

really coming down! I hope that doesn’t put a crimp in anybody’s plans.

Look at that gorgeous shot of the White House…

Judy: Well I, I have a feeling that maybe it should put a

crimp, or at least something should put a crimp in the plans of the White

House to have such a very lavish inaugural at a time of war.

Fox News: Really?

Judy: Yes. What I’ve noticed is the worse a war is going, the more

lavish the inaugural festivities.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President, during a time of war, of

course as you know,

he had a very modest inauguration and a very tiny party where he served

chicken salad, or where chicken salad was served. And that was when we

were winning a war.

Fox News: Right, but, well, no, I, look, I mean, the President

has, has addressed

this, hasn’t he, he said that this is a, I believe the quote was that

we’re

celebrating, we’re celebrating

democracy, we’re celebrating a peaceful transfer of democracy. What’s

wrong with doing that?

Judy: Have you noticed any peace or any transfer of democracy

in Iraq? If you have, you’re the first person to have seen it.

Fox News: Well, I’ve noticed the elections coming up, and, to

be honest…

Judy: They don’t seem very peaceful.

Fox News: ….I didn’t want to argue politics with you this

morning.

Judy: Oh really? I thought I was allowed to talk about what I

wanted to talk about.

Fox News: You certainly, you certainly have that right. Let me

ask, let me ask you this: what, I mean, what — what should they have cut

back on? I mean we…

Judy: How about $40 million.

Fox News: All right, well…

Judy: May I say something? May I say something?

Fox News: Sure.

Judy: We have soldiers who are incapable of protecting

themselves in their humvees in Iraq.

They have to use bits of scrap metal in order to make their humvees

secure.

Their humvees are

sitting ducks for bombs. And we have a president who’s using $40 million

to have a party.

Fox News: What would you suggest for the inauguration? How would

you do it?

Judy: How about a modest party? Just like FDR. I’m sure

you’ll agree he was a pretty good President with a fine sense of what’s

appropriate and what’s not. And during a time of war, 10 parties are not

appropriate when your own soldiers are sitting ducks in very, very bad

vehicles.

Fox News: Well, don’t you think that the President has,

has given

his

proper respect to our troops? I mean yesterday, as far as I can tell,

the festivities opened with a military gala, they ended with a prayer

service. There does seem to have certainly

been a tremendous effort over the past couple of days and more

than that to honor our troops!

Judy: Well, gee, that prayer should sure keep them safe and

warm in their

flimsy vehicles in Iraq.

I’d rather see that money going to them, rather than to a guy who already

is President, for the second time.

Quinn on the ropes. The lesson to be learned: don’t shoot off your mouth when your brain is full of blanks. Click to see the video.

Fox News: All right, well, Judy Bachrach, I think we’ve given

you more than your time to give us your point of view this morning.

Judy: Thanks for having me on.

No, Judy, thank you.

Categories
Uncategorized

Perhaps You Can Help

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Eldon has a question and I’ve been unable to answer it. I thought this

might be a good time to tap the collective intelligence of the internet

and post it here:

Do you know the term for when you become suddenly aware of something and start seeing it everywhere?

For example: “I had never heard of this band, XYZ. Today I read about them in the paper, and then my

friends told me about them. Then I saw a poster for them…”

Another example: “I’d never heard of the book ABC, but today everywhere I went I saw it for sale and

people seemed ot have it”

Yet another example: “I only recently heard the word ‘blog’ for the

first time, but I’ve heard it in so many conversations this week.”

He’s looking for the term that describes this phenomenon: learning

about something and then suddenly seeing instances of it everywhere. I

vaguely remember hearing that there was such a word. Any ideas?

Categories
In the News It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

In Response to the Comment That May Have Come from Russell Smith

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Photo: Poncey boy Russell Smith.

Someone who might be Russell Smith wrote in a comment:

Well, I am disappointed with you. Last week I committed an outrageous

rant against not only the cinematic arts but indeed against the whole

of humanity, hoping to at least provoke some angry justification for

film or for happy communion with normal people or whatever. I was

begging for a brilliant demolition. At the end of my column I asked

readers to explain to me what was attractive about the movie-going

experience. I thought I knew pretty well what the answers would be (in

fact, I will list my expected arguments below, if you won’t do it for

me).

To which I replied with equal snark:

Sorry, fella, but I’ve been quite busy, what with a lot of extra work

at theoffice (including a change of desks) and a weekend trip to

Boston, where the snowstorm has delayed my return flight.

There’s also the matter of having a real job.

But I promise, comments soon!

I shall comment soon, but here’s the abbreviated version:

I largely agree with Smith’s sentiments about present-day movie-going (in fact, I generally agree with his sense of style and his articles on men’s fashion, save for his unwinnable fight to make capri pants for men acceptable).

Going to the cinema is a

carnival of bad manners from both theatre and audience. The

advertisements are an insult after the ridiculous admission prices and

exorbitant snack bar markups, and getting shown an anti-piracy ad after you’ve paid to see the movie is enough to make one want to see the entire MPAA

board drawn and quartered. As for the boorishness, yes, there’s nothing

like the annoyance of some idiot in the theatre uttering every stray

thought that comes to him. I remember one particular instance while

watching Hannibal with Cory Doctorow at the Metreon

(back when we both lived and worked at his dot-com in San Francisco);

during the really intense dinner scene with Ray Liotta, the guy behind

us blurted out “Daaaa-yum! Hannibal be eatin’ his brain!

I take issue with the tone: snotty, condescending, downright prissy and

completely bereft of any suggestion towards ameliorating the problem.

It’s just plain ranting, and I expect that from LiveJournal, not The Globe and Mail. I also expect better from Smith, who’s an excellent writer when he’s not getting up my nose.

I have a few suggestions in an attempt to find a solution, but they’ll

have to wait until I have a little more time. It is, after all, Muy Muy Rapido Tuesday!

Categories
It Happened to Me

The Last of the Bill Gates Photos…I Think

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Far be it for me to flog a dead meme, but I couldn’t pass up Darryl Wiggers’ (he’s the programming director for Scream, the horror movie channel) Photoshopped images of those Bill Gates photos featuring Yours Truly and his fiancee

Photo: Yet another remix of that 'Bill Gates posing on the desk' photo.

Photo: One more remix of that 'Bill Gates posing on the desk' photo.

Thanks, Darryl!

Categories
It Happened to Me

In Response to the Question About Tucows’ Breakout Year

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On January 11th, I wrote about how FindProfit.com had listed my employer, Tucows, Inc. as one of its Top Five Internet Stock Picks for 2005. One of the main points of its analysis what that 2005 might be a breakout year for Tucows.

In response, an anonymous reader asked in the comments:

If 2005 is a breakout year, what is Tucows doing to justify the breakout? Just curious.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say this was a trick question posed by

Tucows’ Legal department to see if I’d leak insider information. Nice

try, ambulance-chasers!

But seriously: rather than speak about what Tucows is doing to justify

the breakout, let me very concisely say what I am doing as Tucows’

Technical Community Development Coordinator, a one-man task force

within the Research and Innovation Department with a fair bit of

autonomy, influence and chutzpah:

Working very, very, very, very hard.

How hard?

Hard like diamonds.

Hard like Shaft.

Hard like Chinese Math.

Just watch the Tucows blogs I write — The Farm and IndieGameDev — for some of the results.

Categories
It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

PyGTA Meeting Tonight

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Accordion City Geek Alert: Please note that this entry will be of interest to you if and only if:

  • You live in Toronto
  • You have an interest in the Python programming language


PyGTA, the Greater Toronto Area Python Group, is meeting tonight at the Givex offices (366 Adelaide Street West,

just east of Spadina). The meeting runs from 7 to 9 p.m. and will be

followed by the usual pub gathering, but at a new pub as the usual

hangout, The Charlotte Room, has closed its doors forever.

Tonight’s speaker is Dr. Greg Ross from the University of Toronto; his topic is Using Python in Undergraduate Education. Dr. Ross is the recipient of the largest of the first three grants ever to be awarded by the Python Software Foundation for his proposal, titled Software Engineering with Python for Scientists and Engineers. Hopefully, he’ll talk about this proposal as well

Catspaw tells me that he’s a

pretty cool prof, and oh, how I wish Python was one of the languages we

could’ve used for our assignments back at Crazy Go Nuts University.

I’m sure there will also be some discussion about the upcoming PyCon conference. I’m thinking about going this year.

Categories
It Happened to Me

Nominated for the 2005 Bloggies!

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As I write this, the official site for the 2005 Bloggies is down, so I’ll simply quote the entry from Rannie “Photojunkie” Turingan’s blog:

To my surprise, Photojunkie has been nominated for Best Canadian Blog in the 2005 Bloggies.

A title that I won in 2003. I never expected to be nominated again but

I am in good company this year and would be happy to lose to any of

these fine folks.

Kelly at Marmalade.ca

Kim and Darin at Bacon and Eh’s

Joey at Accordion Guy and

Frank at Chromewaves.

One thing is certain, we are bring this one back to Toronto!!!

And since we are discussing Toronto pride. take note that Sam from Daily Dose of Imagery and Matt from The Narrative are also up for Bloggies in the Best Photography category. As well as Antony from Siteway who is up for Best Non-weblog content.

Go Toronto Go!!!

Rannie’s right — all the blogs nominated for Best Canadian Blog are

solid choices. To borrow (and edit slightly) a quote from an episode of  The Simpsons: “Congratulations!

You’re all winners!”

To borrow (and edit slightly) the Simpsons quote that follows the

quote above: “But in another, more accurate, sense…I am the winner!”

But seriously, folks: as soon as the Bloggies site is back online, I’d rather you votecd The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century for Best Canadian Blog!

Perhaps I shall bribe you with the continuation of the Best Date Ever story…