1. 22 October 2006

    808 days ago

    Doonesbury's War

    Piece on Garry Trudeau, the guy behind Doonesbury. I’m not entirely sure why I clicked onto it, or why I started reading it, or why I kept reading it; but it did a good job of pulling me in.

    It turns out he’s not afraid of publicity so much as he’s horrified at being perceived as the kind of person who wants publicity.

    I can empathize with that. I’ve never been one to attract attention to myself. But one of the things I wonder all the time is whether I’m just fake timid1. I mean I have a fricking public journal up on the internet for anyone to read2. I go out and play soccer on a field in front of fans, and although I hate to death the thought that people are watching me, I do sort of like it.

    So do I maybe try not to attract attention just because I’ve never been paid tremendous amounts of attention? Or do I tend to deflect whatever attention I do get, thereby discouraging it from coming? The chicken or the egg.

    There’s a difference between reputation and image, Trudeau explains. “These get confused in people’s minds,” he says, but one involves character, the other public relations.

    “I just refused to get entangled by issues of image maintenance that fame implied. I made a deliberate retreat from a publicly visible life.”

    It’s the stem cells. I hear their cries.

    1 Here meaning that I don’t want too much publicity/attention focused upon me.

    2 People can read it if they wish, but I haven’t ever told anyone about my site, it’s linked from a few other places. But I don’t at the moment have a link to it on facebook, where of my friends would likely find it.

    If you google for me it comes up, and if you see my station11.net email address (I mostly use my umn.edu addy for stuff relating to school) you might be inclined to see what site that is. But otherwise, the only reason someone would come here is because google led them, and there’s ostensible something I’ve put down in which they have interest.

    via Kjell Olsen808 days ago
  2. 16 May 2006

    967 days ago

    Spinning the tires

    Sources within the gov’t leak to reporters that the gov’t is breaking the law. The gov’t is mad. The gov’t claims not to be breaking the law. The gov’t refuses to allow any investigation of said law-breaking. The gov’t breaks the same law in the same way to discover which of it’s members originally leaked that the gov’t was breaking the law.

    More sources leak to more reporters that the gov’t is more and more egregiously breaking the law, fostering more and more illegal activity, and thusly more egregious leaking of it’s illegal activities. Is anybody else’s head spinning yet? FBI Acknowledges: Journalists’ Phone Records are Fair Game

    via Kjell Olsen967 days ago
  3. 18 April 2006

    995 days ago

    The Hijacking of Reality

    Disneyland is as fun as Des Moines is dull, just as Michael Jordan is as rich as a Nike sweatshop worker is poor

    via Kjell Olsen995 days ago
  4. 20 October 2005

    1175 days ago

    Why Are You So Angry

    Jon: Are you still doing the boycott of France?
    O’Reilly: Yes, we’re boycotting France. That’s, that’s why we can’t watch Colbert.
    Jon: [Incredulous stammering]
    Audience: [booing]
    O’Reilly: [to audience] Oh, stop, stop it, will ya? What, people from Marseilles? What? [impersonating a marseillaise] Whooo, Whooo, give me more wine [imaginary glugging of wine]. [serious now] I mean these are our enemies over there! What is the matter wi…
    Jon: France?!!
    O’Reilly: What is the matter with you!

    People actually watch O’Reilly’s show? This country must be stupider then I could have ever imagined.

    I’ll admit to enjoying the Daily Show, there was a time that I wouldn’t miss an episode. But I’ve never watched Fox News. And holy shit – this guy has the biggest show on fox news? A fucking childrens book? A following?!

    via Kjell Olsen1175 days ago
  5. 03 October 2005

    1192 days ago

    Ike Was Right About War Machine

    and video. Not a happy man.

    We had a great commander in WWII, Dwight Eisenhower. He became President and on leaving the White House in 1961, he said this:

    via Kjell Olsen1192 days ago
  6. 26 September 2005

    1199 days ago

    You Are the MPAA: A Broadcast Flag Update

    The Brodacast flag: in 10 words, it is a standard pushed by big media that would render tv (and even radio) completely incomprehensible to devices without the proper liscense.

    It was thrown out of court earlier this year, but the RIAA and MPAA are still want to ensure their stranglehold on the commons.

    Mostly, the broadcast flag would make it a real bitch to record television/movies to anything. Surely no more making your own MythTV box.

    This goes against the old Sony vs. Betamax case, in which Sony asserted that Betamax shouldn’t be allowed to sell VCR machines, because that could possibly allow copyrights held by Sony on video products to be infringed upon. Sony lost, and people have enjoyed the convenience of VCR’s ever since.

    via Kjell Olsen1199 days ago
  7. 30 June 2005

    Monk

    1287 days ago

    I heartily recommend Monk, the t.v. show, for a little summer relaxation. I just heard about it a month or two ago, but have been compulsively working my way through the first three seasons. They’re great, and I finished them just a week before season four will start, next friday. Can’t wait!

  8. 18 June 2005

    1299 days ago

    (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything... (plasticbag.org)

    The simple addition of structure and mechanisms for ease of publishing have made the comparable form of expression on weblogs so fluid and quick that it borders on speech. In terms of self-representation, the homepage is like a statue carved out of marble labelled carefully at the bottom where the weblog is like an avatar in cyberspace that we wear like a skin. It moves with us – through it we articulate ourselves. The weblog is the homepage that we wear.

    via Kjell Olsen1299 days ago
  9. 08 January 2005

    1460 days ago

    'iHome' pictures and video

    iHome? Looks like some guy snuck into an elevator and stole some pictures of a new apple box… or photoshop. I guess we’ll see on tuesday.

    via Kjell Olsen1460 days ago
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