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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... Saturday, October 25, 2003
Here, There and Everywhere
So yes, I'm convinced There is going to be huge. Although it probably needs a new name: There is just a little too generic, hence my need to put it in italics every time I mention it. (How about iThere?) One friend, whom I'll identify by his There avatar Purple Platypus, spends an enormous amount of time in There and has already plonked down pictures of dead presidents to buy a virtual hoverboat. Strange as it may sound, it's worth it. The other night, PP and I took a stars-and-stripes hoverboat out for a cruise above a canyon with a large emerald tower and a harvest-yellow moon. In the other passenger seats sat three blue-haired, self-described goddesses. We'd met them at the bottom of the canyon, after we both jumped off the tower to see what would happen. The goddesses, whom at that stage all looked alike, were chasing each other round the circular canyon walls. At first, because you never saw two of them together, they looked like one person doing laps at a breakneck speed.
I jumped off the hoverboat and quit There shortly after the goddesses joined us (I had a pressing engagement in Here, the real-life non-virtual world with over six billion members). I'm kicking myself that I did, because according to PP, a paintball fight broke out with another hoverboat shortly after, and they had to ... wait. Does this sound interesting? Does it sound crazy? Are you getting that it really seemed like I was there? That the graphics are so delightful, simple, and amazingly seamless that it's impossible not to feel immersed?
As for PP's wife, known in-world as Persimmon, she's on the verge of potentially working at There. I'm wracking my brains to see if I've ever heard of a more cool-sounding job. And a third friend whom I showed round There today -- a hardcore Mac user and PC hater -- sat there with his jaw hitting the floor. "I have to get a PC," he said. "I have to get a PC just for this. I've been waiting for this kind of thing forever." So, I have to admit, have I, though I didn't truly know it until this moment. I've spent far too much of my life in Here. It's good to take a break.
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