A Thing or Two

Spammer fail

Note to spammers who want their message to get through the junk filter: SPELLCHECK.

Sheez.

How is The Onion supposed to compete?

I Can Haz Writin Skillz?

In an admittedly serpent's tail-ish reference, I'm posting a link to an ironic syllabus and course overview for the Internet age, by Robert Lanham, courtesy of McSweeney's. The course is designed for students wishing to prepare for a career in writing for non-pulp fiber, short form posts, for the future "post-print era," in which there would be no more newspapers, magazines, or books.

The prerequisites.

Students must have completed at least two of the following.

ENG: 232WR—Advanced Tweeting: The Elements of Droll
LIT: 223—Early-21st-Century Literature: 140 Characters or Less
ENG: 102—Staring Blankly at Handheld Devices While Others Are Talking
ENG: 301—Advanced Blog and Book Skimming
ENG: 231WR—Facebook Wall Alliteration and Assonance
LIT: 202—The Literary Merits of Lolcats
LIT: 209—Internet-Age Surrealistic Narcissism and Self-Absorption

Workshops include sessions that help students to "perfect their tweeting, blogging, and short-form writing skills."

If it weren't so true it would be funny.

New opportunities!

I started out contracting on and off at Edge Design for a couple of years. Then I spent 4.5 years on staff. I worked with a lot of great people over the years.

My last day at Edge is scheduled for Thursday, July 31.

I don't have a firm plan for what's next. But watch this space; I know whatever comes next will be good!!

What's the overdue fine on a 20-something gang-banger?

Rent-A-Stereotype

A Dutch library has come out with a new plan to combat stereotypes: In addition to lending books, the library is lending out people. Visitors to the public library in Almelo can now borrow gay people, gypsies and Muslims for an hour and talk to them about their lives, reports the Dutch news site Nu.nl. The library's director, Jan Krol, said one of his assistants came up with the idea and everyone loved it. "It's a good way to challenge stereotypes. Clients can lend out a Muslim woman in a head scarf and ask her the questions they wouldn't dare to if they met on the street." Currently, 10 people from various backgrounds have agreed to be "lent out"—or taken to a nearby pub for a chat.

(Item appeared Aug. 23 on Spiegel Online, way down at the bottom of the page).

Alaskan elders testify to climate changes

When I was a child and we asked for a ride to school, my father used to tell us to get tough: after all, he walked 10 miles through four feet of snow, uphill both ways, to get to and from school. So when I hear that elderly native Alaskans are helping scientists understand how Arctic climate conditions have changed over the past 40 years, I have to smile.

But then I remember the rules: respect your elders. Listen to their stories.

And if the tale takes a metaphoric turn, pay attention to the nugget of truth warming the story from the inside out.

U-Dub snubs iPod; dances with the Dell-vil

The University of Washington in Seattle has made a sticky deal with Napster that gives Dell exclusive marketing rights. Under the terms of the deal, Dell will be allowed to promote their products and services to students onilne via UW-hosted content, via email, and in on-campus kiosks. From the university daily: "The agreement makes the UW the first university to offer a free, legal music downloading service in coordination with a hardware provider."

As Ashley Vance reports in the UK Register, "So students have been put on a music meat market where they're being force fed a service that doesn't work with Mac OS X, Linux or even older versions of Windows and that doesn't work with the leading MP3 player.

Credit goes to Kayla Webley of The Daily for pressing UW, a public school, to release the financial details of the deal, which Napster usually won't do.

Karl Rove: the real story, from Garrison Keillor

And now, courtesy of the International Herald Tribune, we learn the real story behind PeeWee Rove's Big Leak.

Kissing Hank's Ass - By Jim Huber

A masterfully done mockery. See how long it takes for you to figure out who Hank is.