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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.
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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.
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
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My TIME articles
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Online column index
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Karaoke Expansion Packs
I don't think I've ever had quite as large a BLPM (or Belly Laughs Per Minute) as I did last night. Half-a-dozen good friends and I were road-testing the latest Karaoke Revolution games, Party and Country, with an assist from the Sierra Nevada brewery. The microphone-driven part of the game has lost none of its vast amusement potential -- witness Aaron singing all his songs in the voice of Elmer Fudd, and winning -- but the character creation bit has been kicked up several notches, and was enough to have us rolling on the floor by itself. You can now control every aspect of your singer's body and wardrobe -- and though, alas, you cannot get their wardrobes to malfunction, you can create caricatures of such grotesquerie that Fellini would be proud.
Katey, intrigued by what would happen if she increased the "curvy" quotient of her character, ended up with the most ridiculously distracting pair of pendulous breasts ever seen on a singer. Later, she was making a serious plea for more songs: "what this game needs," she said, "is more expansion packs."
"Oh honey," I said eyeing her character, "I think you've taken care of that already." We fell about the place. "Expansion packs" instantly became our new favorite euphemism.
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