OMG

Oh my god. It's snowing. I think i'm going to puke.

Can't seem to get enough of Google

This laziest of all lazy posts is coppied verbatum from here. Boing Boing is truely a directory of wonderful things and i recomend it to everyone with a way too much time on their hands. Please don't judge it solely by the Suicide Girls plug in the right hand column; it has so much more uselessness to offer. What are suicide girls you ask? I don't really want to talk about it. [As angst swells in my belly and just how degenerative the world - and yes even the alt world - have become.] Thank heavens that I've still got this bowl of macaroni and cheese, and author Meghann Marco to cheer me up:

Writer begs publisher to give her book to Google Print


One of Kottke's readers is a writer named Meghann Marco whose publisher is joined to the suit against Google over the excellent, writer-friendly Google Print service. She has written an amazing open letter to her publisher:

I asked my publisher, Simon and Schuster, for my book to be included in Google Print. I was told they did not do that.

Lack of exposure is the primary reason that a book like mine would fail in the marketplace. I spend most of my day trying to get attention for my book. Not for the money, but because I believe that it is well written and funny. Very few authors will become rich writing books. We do it because we have something to say. If we wanted to be rich, we'd have invented a search engine!

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. After all, it's perfectly free to check out a book from the library. I have no problem with my book being indexed by your site. In fact, I wish it was!

Someone asked me recently, "Meghann, how can you say you don't mind people reading parts of your book for free? What if someone xeroxed your book and was handing it out for free on street corners?"

I replied, "Well, it seems to be working for Jesus."

Link

(And back over to chuk.)P.S. Oh, and while we're still on the topic, on the news last night they mentioned that the verb 'Google' has in fact been added to the Webster's Dictionary. (And what the hell does 'P.S.' stand for anyway?)

I can dream can’t I?

Go here, read the post, then read a bunch of the comments. Can you imagine? This totally blew my mind; I doubt your mind even cares.

*******

So imagine - I start this blog in my first year of university and keep it up for the next ten or so some odd years. One day I actually start making sense, and people start thinking things like, “wow, I like the way he thinks.” Then, when my tenure gets revoked all these people seem to care, and I’ve already got his crazy reputation setting me up for the next leg of my journey… ok ok… but a guy can dream – right?

An ode to Google

I came across something interesting while skimming through an article at BBC News Online about Google starting a charity organization. It turns out Google's corporate motto is "don't be evil." I thought this was kind of a funny, since Google is one of the largest and richest corporations in America. However, there is something rather charming about the conglomerate; I fell in love with the unobtrusive search engine sometime ago - my browser has called it home ever since (it had been yahoo). I remember thinking it was some kind of indie/alt search engine - no adds, few links, and a simple layout. They decorate their banner on holidays, kind of like the old couple that stick turkey cutouts on their front lawn for thanksgiving. If you've never used Google images or maps you're missing out.

Google is accomplishing much more than just offering a convenient service, it's infiltrating my day-today living. It's so convenient - it pops up every time i open my desktop - I use it without even thinking, as naturally as I would my right hand. I'm sure that the verb 'google', if it isn't already, is only a stones throw from werming its way into dictionaries. Today in Greek philosophy class I received a handout on satyrs with an image on it titled, "random Google image for satyr." A blog I frequent, Total Drek, recently innitiated a new contributor with a Google images produced pictorial history.

That all being said, despite their motto, I’m pretty sure Google is evil. It's stocks are sold publicly, thus it has share holders, and thus it must keep their interests in mind at all time, thus profit above all else, thus, thus, thus. That's as far as I’m going to go with this post but, it's a little frightening isn't it, that even the phrase "don't be evil," has been co-opted by evil. On a lighter note, wikipedia is still "good" right... right... is there anybody out there?

CELEBRATE!!!

The CBC strike is over. The National is back!

What about Surrey?

Found this floating about on the net. Thought it sort of summed up the whole surrey stigma thing.

[I'm] Relatively new to Vancouver and then I heard this Surrey slut/bum/trash....etc jokes from all walk of life. Went to Surrey twice and it looks like typical American car-friendly suburban to me...... Where is this Surrey slut thing come from?? Actually I start to notice on my job that people said they live in White Rock are actually just in Surrey! I thought that there was a municipality called South Surrey... as there are North Vancouver, West Vancouver.....etc because some people emphasized their address are in South Surrey (which never exist in official post code). When I asked folks in my office that anyone want to go to Surrey with me, my co-worker were puzzled and said "Why would anyone wants to go to Surrey?"

Am I the only one!?!

While keeping on the topic of current fashion trends, 80’s fashion revival, WTF!?! Why in gods name? I mean I suppose it was inevitable. I can only tell my lady friends so many times about how gross spandex under skirts, leg warmers and big hair are, without jinxing the entire world. Sigh. Maybe this is just a Montreal thing… Is there anybody out there? Who am I kidding I saw this coming, I watch enough CBC Newsworld to catch the occasional Fashion File, I just tried to block it out of my head. And it almost worked too… That is until they started sitting in front of me in class and beside me on the bus!! Someone the other night broke things down for me, I thought pretty well. We all had a blast in the 60s and got wasted, we didn’t know to stop while we were ahead in the 70s, and so the 80s ended up being those hours from 2-5 am that we don’t remember. The 90s were just one long hangover. Am I the only one that doesn’t want to relive Saturday morning’s three-hour blink around the water cooler Monday morning? Please, I can’t remember them just let it be. Out of sight out of mind.

note: I tried finding a bunch of images for this post but apparently this trend is so 'NOW' that the web hasn't had a chance to respond yet. Or maybe it's always been like this, like montreal has just been stuck in some kind of time warp, and i'm just new here. Or maybe i'm just lazy and didn't search hard enough.

Well it's been a month...

Well it's been a month since my last post, which is pretty pathetic, especially considering my previous post of resolutions. Just think if I’d never written down maintaining this blog as one of my goals, I wouldn't be obligated now, and i wouldn't look like such a cunt.

Well, alas, to get us back on track, here's a weak excuse for a post: a link to someone else’s post who seems to be quoting someone else. A Gauche is bang on though for fishing this little ditty on blue collar style out of the water.

You want to wear a trucker cap? Go on and wear it. Relax. Wear it right. Don't be shy. Downward mobility - unlike access to higher education or to white-collar wages - is free of charge.