@pixiesing Two kinds: butter (good) and vegan (made with vegetable shortening — no comment). Afraid I've hit my cupcake quota for the year.
An ipod that mispronounces artist and track names in a glum robot voice. This is a solution to a nonexistent problem.
Back from par-tay, KGs of unused cupcake icing in tow. What to do with it all? Squirrel-feed? Good, exhausting time.
Trapped in a Wordpress loop.
Oop, wrong Anna: actually @AnnaMRbowen
Meeting up with @nerdygirly @elaishastokes @annabowen and @ivortossell to make ten dozen cupcakes for Tuesday's @thismagazine party.
Accidentally volunteered for more work at @DeptofCulture meeting today. Must learn to keep trap shut.
Arcadia tonight at Hart House. Stoppard use words good.
@karenkho Same principle, I guess. Just add another monthly fee. Make it easy and platform-agnostic. Offer print-sub discounts to members.
@MarcoUrsi @karenkho Yes, like eMusic. $10 a month gets me full-article access. Nielsen-like ratings determine mag payouts.
@MarcoUrsi I said the same thing: none. Instead suggested a network membership granting access to 100's of mags for a monthly fee.
There is a circle in hell for web designers who resize your browser windows without warning.
What, is Facebook now going to be relevant again? I don't think I have the energy or inclination.
From that New Yorker piece: DFW calls writing third novel like “trying to carry a sheet of plywood in a windstorm.”
RT @nhunebrown: New Yorker's got a long piece on DFW that includes an excerpt from his unfinished novel: http://tinyurl.com/d93cxt.
@shawnmicallef Nice. Our Mar-Apr issue is car-heavy too, though. Spacing + This = frenemies?
@shawnmicallef Next readership survey: "On a scale of 1 to 5, how disgusted would you be if we covered a lot of outrageously pricey crap?"
@shawnmicallef Fluff/substance ratio is key. Latest issue: Pakistan TV, great photoessay on Korean shipbuilding & £125 swim trunks. Fun.
@phillipadsmith Yeah, but sometimes the music's too loud to read. Also: you kids get off my lawn.
@shawnmicallef Ditto Ivor: Monocle is ridiculous & fake. Evil-Spock universe of money and privilege, à la Vanity Fair. Entertaining, though.
One cup of coffee is not enough to get through The Guardian Weekly, The Believer, Monocle, and Wired.
Nice touch: Indian place around the corner keeps your "frequent buyer" card on file so you don't have to remember to bring it.
@shawnmicallef "Dire Straights": campy cover band name?
Feeling a tad burnt out by all the @thismagazine cupcake crosstalk. But we'll work it all out by the 10th.
@economicwoman Yes, glad not to be British. Increasingly lunatic island of quasi-fascist class-immobile anarcho-capitalism.
I find the exoticizing/fetishizing/freakifying of redheads (like me!) very strange. http://bit.ly/IanTg
"Charade": the most gripping movie ever made about philately?
Dig the new "Gateways to Geekery" feature from @The_AV_Club. Short, curated intros to pop niches. http://bit.ly/mkdPf
Memo to: Everyone Re: Gmail — Get a grip. Calm down. Go get a coffee.
A highlight of yesterday's Scottish-Anglican-Jewish wedding: the tartan chuppah!
Now: Another weekend, another wedding. Later: the Duke of York for the 0scars.
@ivortossell is #pcto09 anything? Snap judgments welcome.
@MarcoUrsi Definitely. We should rope in @kattancock and a few others, too. First week of March?
@MarcoUrsi # is useful for grouping conversations by topic or searching via http://search.twitter.com. See also: http://hashtag.org
Things that failed to cure my insomnia last night: The Guardian Weekly crossword; McSweeney's No. 30; "To The Lighthouse." #sleepysnob
If I had an iPhone, I would use this font-identifying app (http://bit.ly/15dva7). But I don't, so I won't.
Nifty term I learned today: "data moshing." Visual effect made by overcompressing digital video. eg: http://bit.ly/15Grot
Burman says Al Jazeera English to be available in Canada fall 2009. http://iwantaje.ca
On my way to see Tony Burman, Canadian boss-man of @AJEnglish, talk at Innis Town Hall.
@thismason The fascist pro-conformity message of @twitemperature creeps me out. Also I'm pissed that it says I'm 1°C.
Is it wrong to find font-purchasing such a rush? Bought Archer and two versions of Gotham from H&FJ.
I keep on mixing up my Murakamis.
Finished with the O'Farrell wedding. Tee many martoonies.
@shawnmicallef I got the new McClelland summer '09 catalogue this afternoon — Conrad's written a new book: "The Fight of my Life"
Sign of the times: Google buys Finnish paper mill, fills it with servers instead. http://bit.ly/TmIoD
@kimpittaway @kattancock @marcoursi Yes. Two conferences is already overkill. Would have to be short and sweet.
@kattancock Absolutely. If there aren't t-shirts, I'm outta here.
@MarcoUrsi Do you think it would duplicate MagNet and MagsU too much? Or is this idea really a different beast?
@kattancock I'm curious too, but I'm not sure there's a critical mass of people wanting this. It'd just be you, me, and @economicwoman.
Would a #changecamp -like unconference on the future of print media (#printcamp) be worthwhile, or just a lot of bitching and moaning?
Why is it that logos for social service agencies are always groups of stick people with their hands in the air? (e.g. http://bit.ly/euNw)
Aw, Blossom Dearie died. Obit: http://bit.ly/Yr69 // Best song: http://songza.com/z/49hg62
I won't claim that e-books will never catch on. But seriously: the Kindle looks like a junky prop stolen from the set of Space: 1999.
@lisamurphyTO Google is shuttering Notebook, though: http://bit.ly/Cg5W. I suggest Evernote instead (http://bit.ly/3sv1NV)
@MissStaceyMay Does that mean you managed to get through it more than once?
Has anyone else noticed that 1966's "Alfie" is a sickening hellscape of misogyny and nihilism?
Came to work in the dark. Leaving in the dark. Sigh.
Visceral nostalgia moment this afternoon: Reminded of cherished childhood book http://bit.ly/fgZj (by @Canadianmags, natch). #proustian
@typeter Hey, thanks, that's perfect, since I'm expecting a message from 1985.
No internet at home until next week due to ISP screwup. Bah. What, am I supposed to use the phone, like a sucker?
I wanted to buck the trend and say something nice about the Juno nominations. No dice. International category especially unforgiveable.
Some crazy at this Real News event at the Gladstone just stood up and asked a question about the New World Order. I'm out of here.
Sending out good-interview-vibes to roommate Susan, who is talking to the Yale admissions committee right this second.
@shawnmicallef I'd even settle for Mia Farrow or Jill Clayburgh. What's Diane Keaton up to these days?
@UnionSt How did this Jane Fonda thing happen? Is there a story here?
@Canadianmags It's more like it's aggregating activity that is already public in one place. No creepier than Twitter itself (i.e., kinda)
Anyone else having weird twitter behaviour? wonky follow numbers, inability to unfollow users?
@kattancock Bingo. Sounds like we need a Java developer. (ba-dump!)
Want: web-based editorial workflow app w. hooks to InDesign layout. AIR desktop client. Temp. accounts for freelancers. 1-click web-publish.
I don't believe in writer's block. But if it existed, it would feel like this. Coffee break.
@shawnmicallef Never!
RT @thismagazine: Introducing This Magazine's new logo http://bit.ly/17aJs (last spam about this, promise.)
Trying to buy a domain name from someone is discouraging work.
@ivortossell Blasphemy! We can no longer be friends.
Children of Men remains a remarkable movie. And the DVD comes with a commentary from Slavoj Žižek! Bananas.
Recommend CBC's Ideas series "Climate Wars." I'll boil it down for you: we're screwed.
Recycling bucketloads of old paper. Spring cleaning feeling struck early.
QuicK: name a band or musician that is perfectly emblematic of the scene around Dundas and Ossington.
When crazies call the office threatening to sue the Queen and the U.S. Senate, I should just hang up. But I never do. #trainwreckgawking
RT @AdamSchwabe: I miss Pepsi's 1971 branding and I wasn't even born yet. http://is.gd/eXmq Pre-natal nostalgia?
@DominiqueJarry I moonlight for xyyz.ca from time to time. Gotta keep my freelance writer muscles from atrophying, you know?
Was out reviewing a bar that almost, but not quite, entirely failed to achieve the English pub atmosphere they aimed for.
@typeter Found Hector. Someone stowed him in my bag—unbeknownst to me. Everyone's a suspect.
Wingman on a pantsuit-shopping trip. Not how I pictured my Sunday.
Tonight's cabdriver: 2.5 racial slurs per 1/4 mile.
@jasonmeyers I really must protest the existence of the word "crisistunity."
#changecamp Population of Canada: 33 million. No. with good web access at home or work: 22 million. How do we embrace the other 11 million?
Best #changecamp meme so far, IMO: how to enfranchise people on the other side of the digital divide.
Comical omelet disaster: overzealous wrist-flick flips egg out of pan, straight onto hot element. Tasty.
@catesimpson. Done. "Shock Troops" is all yours. Email me and we can find a way to make delivery.
RT @thismagazine: Need two book reviewers to read Charles Taylor Prize nominees (http://bit.ly/Oma5). "Sugar"/"Shock Troops." DM interest.
All I want is to be able to write in the author's name on a #wordpress post. Do I honestly have to use a plugin or a custom field for that?
Feeling a little interwebbed out after this morning's excitement. Going offline for a bit.
@economicwoman I prefer to think of blogs as Victory Gardens...
@ivortossell Journalism analogy: 20th c. farming. Some got big, industrial, nutritionally empty; others got small, pure, delicious.
@ivortossell Email Susan.
Related note to book marketers: I really dislike buying books that have "Now a major motion picture!" stickers on them.
Bought "The Road" and "Tree of Smoke." A very Dude-Lit pair of purchases.
Normally I'm oddly proud of the fact that almost no one I know has cable TV. Not so great when #BSG is on, however.
@ivortossell The Star has the Radio Room, not the Twitter Room.