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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:
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Daily Blah for... Monday, March 22, 2004
Vietnam Redux
Here's my Battlefield Vietnam review. At the end I had "all that's missing is the smell of napalm", but my editor cut it.
Y O U R T I M E / T E C H N O L O G Y
The Horrors Of An Electronic Vietnam
By CHRIS TAYLOR
PC war-game makers have tended to avoid the swampy waters of America's painfully controversial conflict. But Battlefield Vietnam (Electronic Arts; $39.95) wades right in with the most harrowing historical multiplayer game yet created. Playing it feels like wandering onto the set of a chaotic Vietnam movie. The ambiance is pitch-perfect; EA licensed original period antiwar hits like Fortunate Son so the tunes could blare ironically across the jungle. As in its predecessor, Battlefield 1942, players compete with strangers over the Internet on an intricate 3-D map (representing the Ho Chi Minh Trail, say, or the city of Hue). Your aim is to capture as many flags and annihilate as many opponents as possible. But in this game, jungle-shrouded snipers are among the features that heighten the anxiety level. The game's best moment comes when you launch a chopper attack to the strains of Ride of the Valkyries — a tip of the hat, of course, to Apocalypse Now.
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