|
|
Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
RSS feed coming soon!
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
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
Arik
Bill
Dan
Cole
Emily B
Emily G
Helena
Jee
Jewelz
Kaila
Kathryn
Mac
Robin
Slim
Souris
Mr. West
My TIME articles
All magazine articles (subscription required for older stories)
Online column index
|
|
|
|
|
Daily Blah for... Friday, October 24, 2003
Eye of the Panther
I wait with breathless anticipation -- wait, is that really possible? Wouldn't I have suffocated by now? -- for my Mac to finish installing OS 10.3, the infamous Panther, released tonight. Funny the way we do this, every year or so, us geeks -- rip out the very personalities of our computers and start over. And we pay for the privilege. And I'm excited to be one of the first in the world to put a Panther in my Mac, ahead of the pack. Weird.
So many questions: will it have lost all my data in some bizarre hard drive wipe-over? (Of course, I told myself I'd back up somewhere; of course, I didn't.) Will it run faster? Will the new features knock my socks off? Will I have to enter my personal details all over a-freakin'-gain?
Here it comes now. A sigh of relief as I see my familiar desktop background picture has survived; a sure sign that most of my data is there, too. A brief wuh? as I see it's requiring me to send registration information -- address, phone number, occupation and so forth. I thought it was only Microsoft that did that Big Brother stuff. Steve, what have you wrought? A quick curse when I discover that two programs are missing from the dock; they're still there, I just have to go and drag their icons into the dock all over again. Why, in the name of Jobs, why? Such randomness; again, I'd expect it from a PC. A polite internal smattering of applause as I see everything is running discernibly faster, especially the Mail program. And an audible "wow" as I hit upon the one button that shrinks all open screens into manageable thumbnails. This will prove very useful -- at least, until I rip this personality out and start over with OS 10.4 in a year or so.
|
|
|
|
