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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.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
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"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
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My TIME articles
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Daily Blah for... Friday, September 05, 2003
Time Gadget Guy
Some months ago I blogged about this guy who seemed to be sending out e-mails asking, quite seriously, if any one of his readers happened to be from the future. And if so, could they lend him a couple of gadgets that were capable of traveling in time. Specifically, he wanted an "Acme 5X24 series time transducing capacitor with built-in temporal displacement" (wasn't that in a Road Runner cartoon?) and an "AMD Dimensional Warp Generator module containing the GRC79 induction motor" (of course, if AMD built one, you can be pretty sure Intel would bring out a cheaper model a couple of months later). I never found out if he was for real -- until I read this Wired News piece. It turns out Robby Tordino, a 22-year-old Massachusetts resident with some psychiatric problems -- is the source of the time travel e-mails, of which he sent out 100 million. It's one thing to be delusional; it's quite another to share your delusion with 100 million of your closest friends.
On the other hand, who knows? I've watched and read too much science fiction to be the guy who scoffs at evidence of something apparently wacky and out of the ordinary. What if there were men from the future among us? Certainly, their e-mail addiction would be worse than ours. And who wouldn't want to get some antique greenbacks from the gullible residents of this time by peddling a Dimensional Warp generator or two at way over the asking price? You can probably pick those things up from Best Buy in 2159 for $5.99 a dozen.
(Thanks, Arik!)
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