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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.
Arik
Bill
Dan
Cole
Emily B
Emily G
Helena
Jee
Jewelz
Kaila
Kathryn
Mac
Robin
Slim
Souris
Mr. West
My TIME articles
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Online column index
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Daily Blah for... Thursday, November 30, 2006
I feel a new slogan coming on: the only blog written by word-of-mouth
Many of you may be wondering whatever happened to my plan to write a novel by voice recognition software. Well, you're listening to it.
That's right. Daily Blah is now being composed by word-of-mouth. For one entry only, unless this blasted thing starts working better.
You see? It responds to threats. I say "unless this blasted thing stops working better" after 15 wrong words or so. I get angry. I get genuinely angry at how little the software lives up to its promise. And lo and behold, it suddenly seems to understand the tone of voice. This, I surmise, is an honesty machine.
Only the things I am supposed to write, that seem clear and forceful, words that are supposed to be there, emerge from the other end of this microphone. It is, you might say, an exact replica (in the real world) of my inner censor.
This makes it a hideous device to write a novel with. A novel requires searching sentences, sentences that don't quite make it, that spring from the mind half-formed, half-baked. And yes, sometimes stillborn.
I am however having second thoughts on the overall worthiness of this software. An honesty device might be a pretty good thing to write a blog through. It might not produce a blog with much literary merit. It would be a blog very much in my own voice. A blog very appropriately titled Daily Blah.
Problems with Dragon NaturallySpeaking persist. I have been unable to write 50,000 words in a month. Part of the problem is that I'm laughing all the time. For instance, when I just tried to write "in a month", the software wrote "in her mouth". I was rolling on the floor for several minutes at this.
But the largest part of the problem is the deadening effect it has on creativity to have to have your left brain so focused on whether its language is being understood. You see, even now I am writing clunky sentences like the one above, which, like the rest of this blog, I refuse to edit by hand. Actually I spoke that last sentence slightly differently, in the past tense. Dragon NaturallySpeaking heard the present tense. I prefer the present tense. This would be a good device to write a letter, and the letter-like essays I call my blogs. I'll try it for now, and let you judge the result.
So what fate befell the novel? It languishes still. I got much further using the excellent Google docs and spreadsheets, and simply typing a stream of consciousness description of my day and my inner thoughts, Mrs. Dalloway style. There- Dragon NaturallySpeaking redeemed itself by understanding Mrs. Dalloway on the first try. My own Mrs. Dunaway got to a very respectable 25,000 words before fate intruded space in the form of my girlfriend, who flew all the way from New York to surprise me for my birthday. It worked. I've never been so surprised, no so unable to keep my resolve stuck on any noble efforts of my own. Nor have I ever had a happier birthday.
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