Go ahead, I dare you:
Month: March 2008
According to the site, it’s “the most important questions you’ll ever ask yourself”: How many cannibals could my body feed? Answer a few questions and you’ll be given an estimate of the number of cannibals that your body would feed. Here’s my result:
Click the badge above to take the test yourself!
The “Credit Crisis”, Explained
This is just what I was looking for: a reasonably simple explanation of the credit crisis, courtesy of the New York Times. If anyone knows of any other simple explanations that do a better job, please let me know in the comments!
Scenes from the Office
My first week with b5media was my best first week on the job ever. On my very first day, I boarded a plane and flew to Austin to attend the South by Southwest Interactive conference, one of the biggest events in our industry. For a week, I attended interesting sessions, met new coworkers and colleagues, caught up with old friends, played a lot of accordion and enjoyed more than my fair share of beef, Tex-Mex and booze. We stayed on a ranch just out of town with my coworkers, where we had bonfires, a big end-of-week barbecue, breakfasts prepared by b5’s Director of Sales Chad Randall and the enjoyable company of a mellow Black Labrador named “Teaspoon”. We even saw a dead goat with a vulture circling overhead! (More about the dead goat in a later entry.)
With the conference wrapped up, it was time to go back to our respective offices, whether in Canada, the U.S. or Australia. I’m in the Toronto office, which is located in a converted warehouse building in the Queen/Spadina neighbourhood. Here’s what I saw when I first set foot in the office:
After I filled out the form for my benefits package, Darcie saw my real name, Jose Martin deVilla, and updated the whiteboard accordingly:
(Actually, it should be “Jose Martin”. It’s a double name, like “Billy Bob” or “Peggy Sue”.)
The office is similar to my first workplace out of university: a converted warehouse with hardwood floors and high ceilings in a funky neighbourhood. Here’s a shot of the main workspace:
That’s Office Manager Darcie Vany in the foreground, Server Administrator Lee Newton’s arm in the middle, and Executive Assistant Laura Keeling in background.
We have a boardroom in the back, which doubles as a place to unwind. Like a number of high-tech companies, we’ve got an XBox 360 with Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band. Here’s CEO Jeremy Wright taking a quick Rock Band break:
Here’s my desk, located near the front door. Note the wall behind the desk — that’s a baseboard-to-ceiling whiteboard:
And yes, the computer on the desk is a Toshiba — a 17″ Satellite P200 which I’ve dubbed “The Coffee Table” because of its size. Although my preference would be to get a MacBook or MacBook Pro, b5 had this machine, brand new and still in its box, waiting for whoever filled the Technical Project Manager position. Having to use Windows as my primary operating system — something I’ve done for about half my career — is a small downside compared to the upsides and many perks of working for b5. Besides, it’s one of the best specced — if not the best — specced machines in the shop. (Perhaps after some time, when I’ve proven myself and earned one, I can hit them up for a Mac.)
(Yes, I tried installing Ubuntu Linux on it and couldn’t get the sound, SD card reader or built-in camera working and it took some tweaking to get the graphics card working properly. The card reader and camera I can live without — although the card reader is useful — but I need sound because I have regular meetings with the development team over Skype voice chat.)
Tired: Juno. Wired: Jewno!
The Ginger Ninja just sent me a link to this article about Jewno, which parodies Juno by filtering it through a Jewish lens with high-larious results. The video gets bonus points for getting J.K. Simmons, who played Juno’s dad in the real movie, to reprise his role, but this time with a Crown Heights accent. The video also scores bonus points for having an accordion in it:
Keep an ear open for the musical parodies — in the video, they make fun on the Moldy Peaches’ homely alt-folk songs (which were featured in Juno) as well as Mott the Hoople’s All the Young Dudes: “All the young Jews…awkwardly schmooze…”.
The video was written by Daily Show writer Rob Kutner and created for the 92nd Street Y’s upcoming Purim Party.
(What’s Purim, you ask? It’s part Hallowe’en, part Frosh Week and part Asian guy meets cute Jewish girl.)
…(SxSARS is the official name of the flu or flu-like ailment caught by a lot of people who attended South by Southwest Interactive), may I suggest this video — the South Park episode Red Man’s Greed, in which the citizens of South Park are made ill by Native Americans who offer them SARS-infected blankets?
Waffle Tetris
I skipped breakfast this morning, so this is what’s on my mind right now: