Month: September 2008

[This article was also posted in Global Nerdy.]

After “a much-needed summer hiatus” (which you can read as “the complete implosion of Toronto’s worst-run software development shop, which used to host the event”) Ruby on Rails Project Night makes its comeback this Friday, September 19th at its new home at the Rich Media Institute in Kensington Market.

Event organizer Corina Newby promises that it won’t normally be on Fridays, which should the minds of your significant others, party-going friends or World of Warcraft clans at ease. The event is being held on a Friday this time to accommodate the schedule of special guest James “Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants” Robertson, who’ll be there to give us a presentation of the Smalltalk-based web application framework Seaside and the Seaside-based Smalltalk development environment WebVelocity.

Also scheduled is local Ruby on Rails developer Paul Doerwald, who’ll be doing a presentation on insights he gained from working with ActiveRecord validation.

As always, one of the greatest benefits of these gatherings is actually meeting local developers who work with or are interested in working with Ruby and Rails. It’s good for you, your software development career and the future of Accordion City as a hub for high-tech when gatherings like this take place, so be a part of it!

By the way, did I mention that the event is FREE?

Once again, the date is this Friday, September 19th at the Rich Media Institute (156 Augusta Avenue). The presentations will start at 6 p.m. and run until about 7:30. If you’re planning to attend, let Corina know at corecorina@hotmail.com.

In Monday’s edition, the Dallas Morning News placed an article about David Foster Wallace’s suicide beside the continuation of an article titled Career Suicide was a Good Move. Ouch.

Today is rich in irony!

Smart: The Republicans are holding a rally to reach out to minorities.

Not-so-smart: One of the speakers is former Virginia Senator George Allen, of the infamous “macaca” slur, an incident caught on video:

Your Irony is in the Mail

The guy who runs the I Poop Daily blog got this mailing from AIG yesterday:

Click the photo to see the original.
Photo courtesy of I Poop Daily.

Chalk it up to hilariously bad timing coupled with the “lag time” between planning an ad campaign and executing it. It would be a more amusing joke for anyone who got this package if only AIG didn’t have its tentacles everywhere.

Canary Wharf’s Unlucky Landlord

In other funny-but-sad bad timing news, it turns out that the rent on Lehman Brothers’ London office in Canary Wharf — the one featured in the picture in this blog entry — is insured by…AIG. I’d hate to be that landlord right now.

What a day Gabriel Schwartz had! First, he gave this classy interview at the Republican National Convention where he said:

• “More war, less taxes”
• We should take out Iran’s “nukular” facilities and send them the bill (“Plant a flag, take the oil, take the money” were his words)
• Protestors outside the convention should “get a job”

…all the while never losing that smug, self-satisfied smirk.

Here’s the video:

It took karma mere hours to jazz Schwartz up the gunga. Later that night, he met a woman (well, he says it was a woman, but you never know with these Republicans) at the hotel bar and took her back to his hotel room. The last thing he remembers is her mixing some drinks and telling him to get naked.

Had this been the classic urban legend, he would’ve woken up in an ice-filled bathtub with a missing kidney. Instead, he woke up to find that this sexy hero gal (or guy) had made off with:

• A Prada belt valued at $1,000
• A $1,000 “purse or wallet” (Seriously, dude? A murse?)
• A cellphone valued at $1,500
• Earrings prices at $4,000
• A necklace values at $5,000
• A ring valued at $20,000
• A watch valued at $30,000

Schwartz says that all told, he lost $120,000 in the robbery. Who knew being a douchebag was that expensive?

To twist a line from Spaceballs: “May the Schwartz not be with you.”

Read the full story: GOP delegate’s hotel tryst goes bad when he wakes up with $120,000 missing.

One man’s pain is another man’s publicity stunt: “Sal the Stockbroker” and Richard Christy from The Howard Stern Show making out in front of Lehman Brothers in New York on CNN.

“When life gives you a lemon,” the adage should’ve gone, “have a simulated gay make-out session on CNN.”

“Shock Jock” Howard Stern sent Sal and Richard, a couple of his boys, to Lehman Brothers’ HQ in Manhattan to make out behind a CNN reporter as he filed a live report from its front doors as employees carrying boxes made their way out of the building. They quickly cut away back to the news desk where the anchor tried to keep a straight face as she described the prank as two men “pretending to console each other”. Here’s the clip:

This would’ve been my name, had I been Sarah Palin’s (possibly illegitimate) child.

The Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator takes your name and converts it into something more akin to what Sarah and Todd Palin would’ve named you had you been their child.

Entering “Joey deVilla” into the generator spat out my Palin name: Gravel Blood Palin. Sounds pretty badass!

Here’s what it spit out for other names:

• Accordion hero Jose Martin deVilla: Fire Patriot Palin
• b5media CEO and my uberboss Jeremy Wright: Rifle Panzer Palin
• Sarah soon to be second-in-command John McCain: Steam Fangs Palin
• Her esteemed opponent, Barack Obama: Tarp Lazer Palin
• Adult film star Jenna Jameson: Turbine Yukon Palin

And just for kicks, I entered the name of one of her kids, Trig Palin, and got the considerably more macho Molten Contra Palin. The Name Generator even out-Palins Palin!

Go hit the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator and tell me what your Palin name is in the comments!