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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
Oh My God, the RSS Feed Actually Works!
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.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
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.
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Dan
Cole
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Mac
Robin
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Souris
Mr. West
My TIME articles
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, November 23, 2005
The Lazy Man's Content Creation
I haven't bothered to buy a new digital camera in ages, not since a gorgeous seven-megapixel Casio broke down a few months after I bought it. The few occasions I've needed a camera -- showing the family my new house, for instance -- a cheapy-cheap five-megapixel model some no-name company sent to me has sufficed. Its washed-out colors are far from ideal, and I know in the long run I'll want better. But there is little incentive to buy a new model, just as there is little incentive to carry a camera around any more. Why? Because so many friends -- indeed, so many strangers -- are willing to share their snaps with me.
If I go to a weekend campout, I know there'll be whole heaps of pictures posted to the group email list by the time I get back. If I go to a more public event, I can just Flickr the thing. Hell, sometimes I don't even need to go to the public event to create memories of it. I know, for example, that if I download a bunch of Dan's pictures of the Flock sculpture unveiled at City Hall last Friday and stick them in iPhoto, I will in years hence believe that I went to see it myself (instead of going to a learn-how-to-cook-gourmet-style event at Sur La Table).
What's the lesson here? That memory is fickle? Nope, it's that the content-creation community we call the Internet has the power to fill practically any gaps in your life that need filling. At some point in their Googling, every user has the following epiphany: if I think of something cool, chances are someone else thought of it first and made the damn thing already. This is especially true when it comes to free software, useful services, and scale models of San Francisco made out of Jello.
The next phase, perhaps, is that this rule will apply to blogging. As more and more people set up their blogs, there'll be less and less need for any one of us to bloviate about particular events in our lives. For example, thanks to Helena, there's no need to tell you about the time we accidentally discovered kalaidescopes on the new Octavia Boulevard. She's already done the experience justice, and there's little I would add. (The money quote from her blog: "My friend Chris stuck his tongue out, and it became a sunset.") Meanwhile, my friend Linda just started a blog called All Things Melted Cheese, so there's no need to elucidate on the Mac and Cheese interest she awoke in me. It's a perfect set-up for a lazy blogger like myself. I'll just link to my friends' write-ups, add a quick "I was there too" or "yeah, what she said", and only post here when I feel like sharing something internal; a dream, an opinion, something only I know.
Of course, the idea can be taken too far if we all get lazy about it. That seems to be what happened last night, when I threw a fabulous birthday and housewarming party, a delightful, never-to-be-forgotten, three-storeys-of-fun affair that nobody remembered to bring a camera to. Hmmph. Maybe it's time to replace that Casio after all.
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