Ed Hillary, the only New Zealander to appear on a banknote during his or her lifetime
30 July 2010
A gaggle of geese, a nest of rabbits... #6
Ed Hillary, the only New Zealander to appear on a banknote during his or her lifetime
29 July 2010
Not funny
A cruel juxtaposition in my news-feed aggregator.
Founder of the Aldi discount chain dies
Number of Love Parade fatalities rises to 21
Stop the world, I want to get off...
Apart from the fact that half the world would be night and you'd be stuck with whichever season you were in at the time, the oceans would be drawn to the equator and would disappear polewards.
Which is good for BP, of course.
All of their off-shore wells are suddenly on-shore.
But if you have ocean-front property in Malibu, you're stuffed - it'll take you a good couple of hours to dip your toes into whichever ocean it is now.
You can drive to Hawaii, though...
28 July 2010
And I thought it was junk mail..
I wish I did.
I think I'd like him
Hi jb
Way back in 2006-2007, you bought some CDs from my store, CD Baby.
(NILS LOFGREN: Breakaway Angel, NILS LOFGREN: Nils Lofgren Band Live, and 3 others. Remember?)
So you might be interested in my new free projects to help musicians:
MusicThoughts: inspiring quotes about music
http://musicthoughts.com/c/Km5mg
MuckWork: assistants to do your dirty work
http://muckwork.com/c/Km5mg
Derek Sivers: my personal site, with articles
http://sivers.org/c/Km5mg
SongTest: a free, open song contest
http://songtest.com/c/Km5mg
They're all free, open-source, and non-commercial (except MuckWork), so I'm not emailing you for any business reason.
But since we've emailed in the past, I thought I should let you know what's new.
I sold CD Baby two years ago, so this is the last time you'll hear from me, unless you reply back or click those links.
Though if you do reply, please let me know what's going on with you (really!), in case I can help in any way, and to keep this from being a one-sided conversation. :-)
Thanks!
--
Derek Sivers derek@sivers.org http://sivers.org/c/Km5mg
P.S. Why I sold CD Baby and where the money went: http://sivers.org/trust
26 July 2010
The way things go. Reloaded.
First, there was the 1987 original - "Der Lauf der Dinge" from Peter Fischli and David Weiss.
Then there was Honda's homage - "The Cog"
And THEN there was OK Go.......
Then there was Honda's homage - "The Cog"
And THEN there was OK Go.......
25 July 2010
It's a bit rough...
...when you have to declare your sexual preferences in the program....
- Posted using BlogPress
Eh?
Looking to rock on over to Vietnam next year for a week or so.
The Mui Ne beach website invitingly says:
Mui Ne Business Owners Band Together to Stop the Killings
Broken Promises Lead to Public Health Threat
Two Boys Drown in Construction Site
100+ Tourists Hospitalized For Food Poisoning
Binh Thuan's Volcanic Zone Spawns Earthquake
What's REALLY put me off, though....
Gordon Ramsey Films in Phan Thiet
24 July 2010
I just see myself performing a Sisyphean task in a futile attempt to compensate for the extravagant spending patterns of the wimmin of the tribe.
Hence my constant requests for OAP discounts.
Normally don't have much luck at the Museum of Applied Arts (they've got a choice exhibition on Dieter Rams, the head designer at Braun for over 40 years), but the lady kindly ran through the discount opportunities.
Unemployed?
Mobility challenged?
Student?
"Educator" I said.
"Educator?"
"Yep" I said with as much nonchalance as I could gather "Guest lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Pforzheim"
"Well, that must be worth something" she said
The ultimate discount....
Free.
23 July 2010
I write like Arthur C. Joyce...
One of my ..ahem... many Professor acquaintances pointed me to "I write like", a website that uses cutting edge (not to mention robust) algorithms to
"analyse your word choice and writing style and compare them with those of famous writers."
So Virginia writes like Chuck Palahniuk (whoever he is when he's at home....), Bat writes like Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemingway writes like Ernest Hemingway (always do a validation, I say...), Kate writes like Bram Stoker, Helen writes like Cory Doctorow (praise indeed...) and Gerald England writes like Arthur Conan Doyle.
Depending on what sort of mood I'm in, I appear to be a reincarnation of either James Joyce or Arthur C. Clarke.
Or a hybrid.
And Professor Fish and Chips could be - based on her dissertation - mistaken on a dark night for Dan Brown.
I'm not sure if that's good or bad...
21 July 2010
20 July 2010
Reinventorising the language
Sarah Palin tweeted that "peaceful Muslims" should "refudiate" the New York mosque being built near Ground Zero. This prompted plenty of retweets at her expense --"refudiate," of course, is not a word.
After deleting the offending tweet, Palin replaced it with another, calling on "peaceful New Yorkers" to "refute the Ground Zero mosque plan" -- although the word she was apparently (still) looking for was "repudiate."
Then came the kicker: To quell the ribbing she was receiving on Twitter, Palin posted another tweet: "
'Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.' English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!"
As someone wrote:
"To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous liberals, or to quit halfterm, and by opposing, rake in speaking fees."
The law rules. OK
Thinks: Cool MDP image with a witty "push bike" title.
Click. Done.
"What do you think YOU'RE doing?" yells the policeperson (female) and rockets over to where I'm standing.
"It's forbidden to photograph police on duty. I DEMAND that you delete the image in my presence THIS INSTANT"
I tell her that a) she's wrong, b) she can't demand that I delete the image and c) she's not identifiable because she's facing the other way.
Tells me that she doesn't want to be photographed, that I need press credentials to photograph police and demands again that I delete the image.
I tell her that I won't delete the image, that I'm allowed to take photographs in a public place and that I'll ascertain my rights from police headquarters on Monday.
"You do that" she says.
Speak to an apologetic and frustrated spokesman who agrees fully with my position that:
1. I may photograph in a public place without restriction.
2. I may photograph people.
3. I may photograph police except if by doing so I interfere with their activities.
4. A court order is required to delete an image.
5. Publishing images of people is governed by civil law and restrictions only apply if the person is the principal subject of the image.
6. I don't need press credentials
7. The policewoman is inventing the law as she goes along
"They must KNOW this" he says "Do you want to participate in a remedial session of legislative knowledge for the two officers (i.e. stand there while he rips into them...) or do you trust me to do it?"
The latter.
The law rules. OK
19 July 2010
So that's alright, then
It's zero.
I knew this already, because it's been in all the papers and all over the radio and all over the TV for BLOODY MONTHS.
But we - all 16 million of us - get a letter telling us to use teabags twice and not to go to the movies more than once a year.
Even if they got a deal on the postage, it cost them all of €5m.
That's almost 30c each.
Better than nothing......
A gaggle of geese, a nest of rabbits... #3
"Long graceful fingernails of dancers in Thailand wait to perform the tradiional "fingernail" dance - John Everingham
17 July 2010
A gaggle of geese, a nest of rabbits... #2
I've got songs called "Stop you in your tracks" tracks. Great songs that pin you to the wall and that you never forget when you first heard them.
EVER
I started a series on YMBFA, but the RIAA and its fiendish lawyers were a bit dark on the idea, so I packed it in.
These are the equivalents in 15*10.5 format - postcards that jumped out of the rack and into my hands for whatever reason.
Maybe the Rule of Thirds, maybe the colour combination, maybe the sheer starkness of the design.
You work it out.
#2 - "Jawlensky and Werefkin" by Gabriele Münter 1908/09
16 July 2010
15 July 2010
A gaggle of geese, a nest of rabbits... #1
I've got songs called "Stop you in your tracks" tracks. Great songs that pin you to the wall and that you never forget when you first heard them.
EVER
I started a series on YMBFA, but the RIAA and its fiendish lawyers were a bit dark on the idea, so I packed it in.
These are the equivalents in 15*10.5 format - postcards that jumped out of the rack and into my hands for whatever reason.
Maybe the Rule of Thirds, maybe the colour combination, maybe the sheer starkness of the design.
You work it out.
#1 Vineyard in South Tyrol
10 July 2010
"Reduced from the outrageous...
Walking past Daniela Diehl, a flash boutique in Mainz's Altstadt, and Mrs jb spies a pair of purple shoes.
"Oh" she says " I like THOSE! You've got your glasses on - how much are they"
"200 reduced to 120 reduced to 39"
"And which size"
"39" I say "How cool is that? Do the size 38s cost €38 or what?"
To no-one in particular.
Mrs jb's already in the shop, trying them on.
I drift in and mumble something about people with large feet being marginalised, because size 40 would cost €40.
Blank look from the sales
"So that's €120, but you can have them for €100"
Penny drops.
My fault of course and we haven't really saved €161 (which we would have spent immediately on some other fashion item), we've only saved €100.
So I've somehow lost €61 along the way.
Typical
09 July 2010
Bean there, done that....
I tend to buy generic stuff via the web - books,
With other stuff, I figure that you should support local people.
I've changed my mind.
My barista course taught me that I need a coffee grinder.
So I ask the guy at the place where we buy our coffee which model's best for our purposes.
Demoka M207. Best on the market. Grinds the coffee right into the filter group. Infinitely variable grinder setting. €259.
He'll check delivery times and let me know before we order.
Meantime do some research to confirm his assessment (mixed reviews, but it's probably the one I want...) and the price (I can get it on-line for €215 shipped, but he's local, I'll give him the business. With a bit of haggling)
No return call to tell me whether it's available. Wait 2 days. Wait 3 days. Wait 4 days.
Figure it's not available and on the verge of ordering on-line when..... get an email saying it's there for collection.
This is magic. I haven't ordered it, but it's there.
We would have bought it anyway, so I figure that I'll at least get a chance to work out the right grind setting with him and maybe get 250gm of free beans (€5 worth ...) for free.
"So which setting on my machine (he has a demo machine all set up) corresponds with the espresso grind on your machine?", fully expecting him to grind a few beans on his machine and show me how to set it up on my machine.
"Oh", he says " you just have to play around with it until the grind feels about the same".
I was just too gobsmacked to suggest that he does what I figured he'd do in the first place - provide some after-sales service.
So I pick up the box and drive home.
If I'd ordered it via the interweb, I'd have got exactly the same level of service (i.e. none) for cheaper.
And I would have had it delivered to my door.
Makes one think....
Postscript: I'll need a second espresso machine in the fairly near future.
Two guesses where I'll be buying it
Hint:
First word. 5 letters. A football team in Milan
Second word. 3 letters. Spiders weave them.
07 July 2010
If that bastard Paul is right....
05 July 2010
Oi! Be careful....
In a previous life, I worked in the UK.
Only for 5 years between 1969 and 1974 (Google "Winter of Discontent", factor in constant power cuts and inflation pushing 25% and you'll know why I wanted to skedaddle rapid-like..) and I was earning bugger-all-and threepence.
So my contributions to the company pension fund were minimal and the ensuing years hadn't grown them significantly.
35 years later, I was looking down the barrel of retirement and thought I should perhaps research the various pittances on which I'll expected to eke out my days. ("Live" isn't the appropriate word - "exist" expresses it better.
After a long silence (embarrassment, probably) the pension fund management people come back and say it's going to be £4.31.
Annually.
Or 8p weekly.
I suggested a lump sum payment due to triviality (now, THERE'S a useful word you learn in business...) and after much "hum, hah, oooh, inhale loudly through the teeth, never done that before" noises, they agreed on £124.20.
Which means I'm likely to kark it at 20 minutes and 30 seconds past 2pm on 25 April 2037, if the insurance actuaries have worked it out correctly.
So I thought I'd buy a pot with my pension.
And who better to buy a pot from than Geoff Fuller, a unique character who runs the The Three Stags' Heads in Wardlow Mires.
The first time we went there, someone said "I wouldn't order anything exotic. And a gin and tonic is probably exotic.."
There are frequently more dogs than customers, he sells 8% beer, he used to to be terminally bad-mooded and reportedly had a "Fucked if I know" stamp made in order to respond to people who wrote asking how he made his pots.
But we've got to be sort-of mates over the years, he's mellowed with time and it's a never-ending joy to see how he interprets traditional designs and slips in his work.
So I discovered to my joy a choice crimped bowl at "Earth and Fire" in Rufford last year.
£135.
I said "Geoff, I'm spending my entire company pension on this. I've got exactly £124.20"
"Sod it" he said "If that's the case, just give me £100...."
03 July 2010
01 July 2010
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