The godfather

Posted on February 12th, 2007 by Antoine.
Categories: Videos, Technology, Site Meta, Anecdotes.

A bit of a mixed bag today.

Firstly, I am proud to announce that I am the new godfather for a young lad in England who was recently born to some wonderful parents, one of whom is my best friend from high school. Perhaps when he is old enough I can communicate with him via webcam and impart my wisdom to another little being who will probably know more about computers than I ever will.

A couple of cool vids to check out today - the first is an interesting web 2.0 montage put together by a group of faculty and students calling themselves “digital ethnographers”. It’s not too long, check it out if you have a couple of minutes to spare.

If you have more time, check out this documentary on Google, which touches on the dangers of a search engine monopoly in which one company controls the flow of information.

Personally, I don’t think Google is the next big brother, although it is kind of alarming that you can see your own car parked in your driveway on Google Earth. Still, it’s not like the images are running in real-time or anything.

My posts have been sporadic because I have been working on another online project, which I will unveil soon, hopefully within the next few days…

0 comments.

I never thought it would happen to me

Posted on January 3rd, 2007 by Antoine.
Categories: Technology, Anecdotes.

I was looking around for the perfect domain name last night and I found it. I’m not going to say what it was because it was just too good. So, I rubbed my hands in glee, took out my credit card and bought it at godaddy. Then I get an email telling me that somebody else owns the name. According to the WHOis database, somebody purchased the name about a minute before I did, but I still got charged for it.

I refuse to believe this was a coincidence. While I was testing the name in Google and on several other sites testing for trademark violations, somebody got a whiff of it and literally stole the name away from right under my nose. Now when you type in the name, an amateur domain auction site comes up. Owned by the same guy who ripped my name off.

My advice: If you have a winner, don’t put it out there too much. Just buy it. I will always mourn the loss of what was probably the greatest domain name ever. Well, if I ever get a refund from godaddy, I’ll have to go back to the drawing board I guess.

0 comments.

A sour Lululemon

Posted on December 29th, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Politics, Anecdotes.

My girlfriend was telling me about her Bikram yoga class today and how you pay $20 a class to just sit there like a pretzel and sweat and feel nauseous and have acid bile rise up your throat at each contortion. Wow, what fun. Anyway, apparently all the other ladies at yoga sport Lululemon outfits. This was the first time I’d been introduced to this apparently wildly popular brand.

Needless to say, inspired by the “yes men” video, I looked into the company and was pleased to see they were based in Vancouver and produced all their clothes here. Basically, the company seemed an ethical, homegrown success that supported the local economy and made Vancouverites justifiably proud of their stylish yoga apparel.

I dug a little deeper and was dismayed to discover that Lululemon has become so popular that they have sprung up all across North America and started outsourcing all their production in China. Not only that, but according to this Tyee article, the owner, Mr. Chip Wilson thinks child labour is a great idea and that we should even implement it in Canada to give the street kids something to do.

Mr. Wilson is hardly politically correct. Here’s another example - The name Lululemon was supposedly chosen by Wilson because “he thinks the trouble Japanese people face pronouncing L’s works as an extra marketing tool for his product in that country.” “It’s funny to watch them try and say it,” he adds.

Mmmmmm… All this leaves a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. Here’s a little tongue twister for you Mr. Wilson: Lululemon is for losers.

4 comments.

Rhetoric of threat letters

Posted on December 23rd, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures, Writing, Anecdotes.

I while back I got fined for parking at work. Yes, at work. The injustice of the situation hardened my resolve to never pay this fine. After a few softcore letters I received this hardcore final notice, which I kept because it is a fine example of Aristotelian logos, pathos and ethos being used to full effect.

After reading it, I was almost persuaded to pay the fine because I thought I was being sued - at first. I then noticed all the cunningly placed “mays” and decided they were just trying to scare me.

A few months later, the case was handed over to some debt collectors, and they sent me this letter.

Needless to say, I was disappointed. After the previous rhetorical tour de force, this skimpy letter was positively anti-climatic. Not only that, but the grammar is astoundingly poor. Note the quintuplet ellipses. What did they do that for? Why did they have to be so grammatically offensive? After recieving this letter, I was certain I would never be tempted to pay this fine…ever.

(more…)

0 comments.

Toponym of the day

Posted on December 15th, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Writing, Anecdotes, Toponyms.

I’m currently writing a TOEFL textbook for Transglobal Prep school for some extra cash. Ironically I’ll be using the money I make to buy more overpriced textbooks for next semester in Print Futures (It’s going to be an awesome semester, I’m especially looking forward to the tech writing and document design courses).

Anyway, I’ve been hashing away at this 500 page book due next week and came up with some insights. First of all, let me give you some of the unobvious pros and cons of freelancing:

Pros:

• You can write all day in your pajamas
• You never have to shave any part of your body…ever
• You can take as many showers as you want
• There is no commute
• You can sleep in

Cons:

• There’s no gossiping around the watercooler
• You have to be so self disciplined that…
• you’ll realize that you’re the worst boss you’ve ever had
• If you like leaving the house now and again you’re out of luck
• When you’re done for the day you can’t leave

One slightly interesting thing I discovered while researching the civil war, the American revolution and the tourist attractions of Illinois and Kentucky (don’t ask) was…toponymy. If you don’t know what that is, go to Wikipedia. Also on the Wiki, here is a real example (WARNING: offensive language) of an unusual place name.

I thought I’d start a toponym of the day, where I present the origins of a placename that I’ve come across in my research. Geeky, but what else can I do with all the useless facts that I’m learning?

So, without further ado, today’s placename is…

Winnipeg:

Winnipeg, in Canada, owes its name to the Algonquins. Winnipig was the Algonquin word meaning dirty water, a possible non tribute to the Red River, which flows near Winnipeg (Source: Turnip Smith).

I checked this out, and according to the official Winnipeg website, “the name WINNIPEG has its origin in the Indian Cree name given to the lake 64kms north, meaning “Win”, muddy, “nipee”, water”.

Either way, Winnipeg means dirty water. Sorry guys.

0 comments.

It ‘aint over till the fat lady sings

Posted on December 1st, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Anecdotes, The Arts.

This phrase now resonates with new meaning after watching tonight’s performance of Verdi’s Macbeth at the Vancouver opera. There’s nothing like the tortured soul of Macbeth as he struts about the stage moaning in Italian and secretly wishing he’d never married Lady Macbeth. Seriously though, this was a solid opera, even although Carmen is still my favourite, it was my first time seeing an operatic adaptation of Shakespeare. I quite enjoyed it. One of our classmates was Witch No. 3. I didn’t recognize him in tights though.

Here’s the promotional poster, but who these people are is a mystery, because they weren’t in the show. I don’t think the actual actors are as photogenic as these sombre folks.

2 comments.

Art, science, or just plain twisted?

Posted on November 28th, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Pictures, Anecdotes, Science.

It’s been a wild weekend for us. Record snowfalls hit the western seaboard, burying the lower mainland under two feet of snow. It’s all anyone’s talking about, and rightly so, Vancouver usually gets a light dusting, if that. I attribute these strange weather patterns to climate change, but that’s probably because I also watched An Inconvenient Truth this weekend, which everybody must see. It just came out on DVD, so you have no excuses.

I also got to see the Body Worlds 3 display at Science World. I can’t say that it was my cup of tea. Can somebody please explain what is so artistic or scientific about a real corpse holding up his own skin? Or for that matter, an unfortunate body that has been neatly cut into three pieces from head to toe. Or a dead guy doing the splits while balancing his own innards and internal organs in one hand? Or a skeleton kneeling at a cross while cradling her own heart in her hands?

It’s almost as if the scientist who did this is saying “See what modern man can do. Severe the skin so cleanly from a man that people will actually pay $30 to see it.” The look of pride on the skinless man is palpable, but it is the arrogance of Guther von Hagens that shines through the dead man’s plastinated eyes. In my opinion, the whole display was designed to shock, not to educate.

Yes, you can argue that these folks donated their bodies to science, but nowhere on the consent form does it say mention what weird position your body is going to be contorted into. You can argue that it teaches people about the human body. I certainly didn’t learn anything. I don’t remember any of the Latin names for the various muscles that were printed on the little plaque next to the corpse. In fact, I don’t recall anyone at the exhibition reading them. There is just no justification for putting corpses on display except for self-edification. Would you want to be immortalized as the skinless man?

2 comments.

Shhhhh! It’s a Government secret

Posted on November 21st, 2006 by Antoine.
Categories: Politics, Anecdotes.

I recently received a letter from the provincial government telling me that I was disqualified from receiving a student loan. You can imagine the horror this letter inspired at this point in the semester. Anyway, sleepless nights aside, I called up the Student Loan centre today and I spoke to a robotic young lady called Angelina. She told me that I was in good standing and that I should call the CIBC student loan centre to see if the restriction originated from there. So, she gave me the number and I called up CIBC, and guess who took the call? Angelina! So, I asked if we had not been speaking a moment ago and she mumbled something noncommittal and proceeded to give me the same drill we had just gone through. You know the one: has your address changed recently, has your phone number changed, etc, etc. I felt like protesting that we already had gone through this rigmarole a few minutes ago, but she wasn’t having it. So, Angelina told me that there are no problems at CIBC. So I said “So, there are no restrictions on Canada Student loans and CIBC loans?” Then she said “CIBC is ok, but I don’t know about Canada Student loans, you would have to call them.”

I just called them, and I talked to you there! Yes you! Angelina the robot girl. If the government student loan division and the CIBC student loan centre are the same entity, why do I have to waste money on postage stamps to two different addresses? Everyone knows government institutions don’t communicate with each other, but did you know government employees are prohibited from communicating with themselves? What a schizophrenic bunch.

We were told that CIBC was taking over loans negotiated before 2000, but guess what people. It’s the same damn bureaucratic department, they just don’t want you to know about it. Think you’re dealing with the bank?

Think again.

1 comment.