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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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Daily Blah for... Thursday, July 20, 2006
Steve's Secret Diary
The formula is pretty tried and tested by now. Take famous person, create blog purporting to be the secret diary of said famous person, wait for the laughs to roll in. It worked with Bill Clinton, and it worked very well with the supposedly dead Andy Kaufmann. But The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs? Not working so well. The joke appears to be that Steve is really a stoner whose life is full of pranks and whose speech is replete with California-isms. But no one would ever believe that, and the success of the Clinton and Kaufmann blogs are that they fool you for an instant. If Clinton wrote a blog, he probably would make it that simplistic and touchy-feely; if Kaufmann were still alive, he would be blogging about what a great gag his fake death was. If Steve Jobs wrote a secret diary, it would read something like this:
July 20: Plans for world domination proceeding apace. Unwashed masses acquiring iPods at record clip. Minions completely under my thumb at Infinite Loop; scared to go to the bathroom without my authorization. Entire PC industry thwarted by clever "hello, I'm a Mac" ads featuring handsome, stubble-and-jeans character obviously meant to be younger version of me.
Met with Mac group, shouted at them for a while. Felt good. Told them iMac was still not minimalist enough. In next version, keyboard should be replaced by trackwheel.
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