Death by blogging

I was recently having a chat with some friends (and my dad as well) on the subject of the history of monetized writing (e.g. how writers have made money over generations). My point was something to the extent of bloggers are the new novelists in terms of what's hip and what is commercializable (sorry business side revealing itself). My point was that blogs were the new (ish) way that writers could expect to ply their trade and expect reasonable compensation. I believe I even said that bloggers now can run mini media empires.

What I forgot to mention was that bloggers are killing themselves doing it:

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/insight/story.html?id=85f81527-dcdf-4ea4-8f25-2109c1540518

Interesting that in the modern day, one man armies of data miners and web surfers have usurped news bureaus and pools of foreign correspondents. Evidently this responsibility takes it's toll. So please blog responsibly, I need to go see about this pain shooting up my left arm...

Ode to a blue collar Urinator

For about five months I have been reasonably convinced that I have been chosen to be part of some sort of social experiment, and the experiment has been constructed thusly: get an ordinary joe (your humble author) to move to a quaint little town, tax the hell out of him and then provide him with city services that are not just poor but actually value detracted. Somewhere, a municipal government has commissioned this experiment to try to establish just what level of abysmal service can be offered before an average citizen tries to stage a town hall coup. It just so happens that I am in the test group.

So, I guess I would have been surprised, recycling man, if you had not urinated on my street last Tuesday morning in plain view. I understand that any city service which is not an insult to my intelligence and senses might not be consistent with the experiment that is being conducted…I am almost comforted that I was disappointed, as per usual.

Perhaps the problem lies with me… I am too harsh on this town and those who work for it…you are not just a guy with a small bladder and an utter disrespect for the neighborhood that you serve. Your act was actually symbolic: you are demonstrating the cycle of consumption and return of waste to the earth in a piece of inventive street theatre. You are the ultimate environmentalist acting out against the wasteful practice of employing indoor plumbing for human waste disposal. I am one of the honored citizens lucky enough to see your act of urinary rebellion.

“subject has shown high level of aggravation, has not yet acted out against city property and continues to fabricate wild stories to rationalize deplorable city services”

My inbox owns my life...

Great article from one of my friends shared Google items on controlling the "efficiency tool" that is email:

http://lifehacker.com/357666/how-to-stop-checking-email-on-the-evenings-and-weekends

It is a quaint and totally impossible plan to implement without getting the shakes, cold sweats and convulsions.

Funny though how some managers actually equate productivity with email volume. By this logic we should all have a dashboard that measures our email sends. I will need toread up on mass email marketing strategies to have any hope of career advancement... Maybe I need to hire someone in the Ukraine to create a ryan johnson email-bot

Email is also the soap box of the modern office...even the shy types can get in on the office politics from the safety of their cube. I wonder how many office coups are coordinated by Microsoft Outlook on a daily basis? Maybe MSFT should create an advertising campaign touting this fact... "Microsoft Outlook: ensuring that management lives in fear since 1997"

ok I need to check my 3 email accounts...maybe, just maybe someone has sent me mail...