Category: It Happened to Me

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In the News It Happened to Me

Another member of the Crazy Go Nuts University "Media Mafia"

I always noted that there was something familiar about the writings of one Father Raymond J. De Souza — he read a little bit like one Ray De Souza, an economics major whom I knew from my old days at Crazy Go Nuts University. Ray and I met through our work at the Queen’s Journal

and if I recall correctly, I believe he enjoyed my comics (a

free-for-all equal-opportunity skewering of the student government),

and I think I remember saying something complimentary about his “the

Conservative Party will rise again” op-ed (written just after the 1993

elections, when they were reduced from the majority party to one with

two seats in the House of Commons).

(I think I also used to razz him with economist jokes.)

A little Googling confirmed my hunch: Father Raymond De Souza, contributor to the National Post, National Review

and other right-of-centre publications is the same guy as Ray De Souza,

Young Conservative About Campus and fellow member of the Crazy Go Nuts

University Media Mafia (a more politically-diverse group than you might

believe).

Ray’s still as strident as ever, and thankfully he didn’t become an economist. I’m going to have to drop the old boy a line!

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

Paging Mr. Godot [Updated]

I’m still awaiting a return message from Russell Smith’s friend. Russell, if you recall, is the Globe and Mail columnist whom I excoriated in this entry.

In a comment not related to the entry for which it was posted (a number

of people are using comments as a means of just dropping me a line —

guys, that’s what email is for), a friend of Russell’s wrote:

Not related to the topic but I’d like

to respond to something you wrote in September (I just found it):

“Here’s the deal. If you see Russ in some bar, go buy a drink. Then

walk up to him and throw it in his face. I’ll reimburse you and take

you out for drinks. Sound cool?”


I’d like to invite you to have a drink with Russell and I.  I

mentioned your blog to him, yesterday and he’d like to meet you. 

We’ll buy you a drink and I promise we won’t throw it in your face.  So. If you’re not a big pussy please respond to [email address]

to arrange this.  (I don’t know if you currently live in Toronto

or not but if you don’t but you’re planning to visit just set the time

for us).

That comment was posted on February 16th, and I replied via email the

next day (I’m not a “big pussy”, after all). A month and a half has

passed, and still no reply. Really, I’d love to meet Russell and hear

his side.


Update:

Russell’s friend got in touch with me, and he’s got a lot of stuff to

do for the next little while, so the meeting of minds will have to

wait. Perhaps later this year, when patio season truly begins!

Another email I sent that has gone unanswered went to one Andrew Babian, whom you might remember from this blog entry. I sent him a very short message:

Would you mind not calling my girlfriend, Wendy Koslow, a slut?

I thought I’d go the polite route, letting the proverb about flies,

honey and vinegar be my guide. I fired off this message yesterday, and

it may be too early to expect any sort of response. An apology to The

Redhead would satisfy me.

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It Happened to Me

What a punkass

Part of my morning ritual is to check The Redhead’s blog

and see what my special lady has written. One of entries today points

to some guy who writes out her full name in his blog and then writes:

i wrote a comment on one of her wishes for men .

she sounded interesting, but now i’m thinking a bit of a slut, and her

personality type seems to explain it–enfj, like aimee.

It’s that comparison at the end that explains everything: what we have here is displaced anger

combined with ungentlemanly behaviour. “Slut” is a guy’s classic “sour

grapes” remark about a girl. As a DJ at a popular campus pub, I heard

that all the time from guys who’d been snubbed and were retreating from

the dance floor to the comfort of their beer.

It’s also Penny Arcade’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory in action:

It’s dirt easy to write something about a stranger online, but another

thing to say it in a face-to-face situation. One of the best examples

of this I can think of was at LinuxWorld Expo NYC 2000, during Jon

Katz’s appearance at the Slashdot booth. Slashdotters had made a hobby

of excoriating Katz online, but in meatspace, everyone was polite and

showed deference. I got to chat with him after his presentation, and he

said that that sort of thing happened all the time: he was treated

rudely online, but nicely in real life.

I think The Redhead’s list of what she wanted in a guy both interested

him (she’s into geeks) and spooked him (she stated out loud what she

wants in a man, and she’s quite frank about her dating experiences in

her blog). Personally, I like the Redhead’s openness — it’s one of the

things I love about her. To borrow a phrase from Maya Angelou, she’s

the kind of person who grabs life by the hand and says “You’re with me,

kid. Let’s go!”

A quick scan of his blog

reveals what seems to be a guy who likes to think about things who had

a little bit of a lapse in etiquette. I think that this was more

tactlessness than malice. We all make a faux pas every now and again;

let’s let him off with a slap on the wrist (this blog entry) and move

on.

I’ll close with this: Dude, don’t you ever call my girlfriend a slut again. Not if you wish to continue converting oxygen into carbon dioxide.

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Accordion, Instrument of the Gods It Happened to Me

Really, no apology is needed.

I just got this virtual bouquet of flowers…

…from a nice young lady who wanted to apologize for hanging off my accordion last Thursday night.

Really, you needn’t apologize. That’s exactly the reason I walk around with the accordion in the first place!

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It Happened to Me

"Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers"

Alan Graham and Bonnie Burton’s review of the best blogs out there, Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers: The Best of Blogs, is out! And among the blogs featured in the book is…The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century!

As one might expect, the book also has an accompanying blog.

I’d like to thank Alan and Bonnie for considering me worthy of

being included in a book that contains the “best of blogs”, and

congratulate them on a job well done!

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It Happened to Me

The Lessig Audiobook Project

Last night at 11 (my timezone, Eastern Standard Time, a.k.a. GMT -5), AKMA wrote:

Anyone feel like recording a chapter of Lawrence Lessig’s new book?

The license pretty clearly indicates that, so long as we’re not

making a commercial venture of it, we can make a recording of

(“perform”) the text. There are a Preface, Introduction, fifteen

chapters, a conclusion and an afterword. If you’re willing to

contribute an MP3 recording of a chapter (ideally, hosting it on your

own server — but I’ll bet we can gird up the Disseminary

to host chapters for you, if you can host it yourself — drop us a

comment and let us know which chapters you’ll take. Heck, we could have

duelling chapters; which version of chapter 5 do you like, Accordion Guy’s or Jenny the Shifted Librarian’s?

(Disclaimer: I just typed their names in there. They haven’t offered or

anything. Yet.)

12 hours later, this item has already appeared on Boing Boing and

received 26 comments on AKMA’s site, and a flurry of email has appeared

in my inbox regarding this project. All on a Friday night! I have deduced two things from this:

  • Lessig’s work is important to a lot of us who work in that strange intersection of creative and technical.
  • I clearly need to teach my fellow bloggers how to party. It’s Friday night, people!

I have signed up to read a chapter, but haven’t chosen one yet.

I’m going to go look over the book and see if there’s one that tickeles

my fancy or if there’s one that nobody’s volunteered to read yet.

I will see if I can convince Boss Ross and Boss Ross’ boss Elliot Noss

to contribute a chapter. They’ve got great speaking voices and their

contribution to the ‘Net at large is far greater than mine. I write a

blog and helped generate some buzz for P2P; they’ve helped make the

Internet work.

But not today. I’ve got an aunt and uncle from the Philippines whom I’m joining for lunch at the St. Lawrence Market, followed by catching up with Cory’s book reading, a haircut, a couple of birthday parties to attend and a friend from out of town who need to sample some more of the local night life.

While I laud my fellow bloggers’ industriousness, I suggest that they

turn off the computer and get some fresh air. And a double rye and coke!

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It Happened to Me

Lovely evening last night

Last night, I stepped out with Eldon and Dave “Dave’s Picks” Polaschek, who came here all the way from Minneapolis for a little vacation. We took him to Smokeless Joe’s, tried to get into The Drake for a Vice Magazine karaoke party (some karaoke fans put me on the guest list), hit the Gladstone instead and wound up the night at the Cadillac Lounge. It was an evening of drinking, mild geekery, waiting in line, more drinking, conversation and the requisite women-fondling-my-accordion thing.

Details to follow. Gotta work.