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Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
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Daily Blah for... Sunday, August 17, 2003
With Friendsters Like This ...
Excellent article in this week's SF Weekly on Friendster.com, taking humorless owner Jonathan Abrams to task for ruthlessly hunting down and deleting "fakester" profiles created on his site. Yes, he even deleted "God Almighty" after God offered to mend fences and become friendsters with him.
Abrams comes across as a bitter geek at the most friendless end of the Silicon Valley spectrum. His office, we are told, has not one shred of decoration, and he spends so many days and sleepless nights there that his original purpose in setting up the site -- to meet women -- has long gone by the wayside. Asking the SF Weekly's correspondent if she has any single friends on Friendster, Abrams is directed to a woman who has posted a picture of a shark on her online profile. "Oh, I get it," snaps Abrams to the reporter. "Your friends are all smartass types." Not content with this public relations faux pas, he goes on to type a pathetically snide little note to shark-head woman. "Hi Kerry," it reads. "Your profile looks interesting. Too bad you have such a silly picture." This guy could write the manual on How To Win Friendsters and Influence People.
Overheard in a San Francisco coffee shop minutes after I put down this article: a woman at another table reading that exact passage to her boyfriend. She puts down her SF Weekly and does a cat-claw sign. "What a bitch!" she exclaims.
"Yeah," mutters the boyfriend. "And his site is too slow. Friendster sucks."
This, Jonathan, is what happens when you disrespect God Almighty. Not to mention that even more powerful universal force: a sense of humor.
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