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Lifestyle & Culture

Sofa Surfing USA

[ Comments Off ]Posted on April 25, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

I’m working on a project that I hope to spin into a book and/or documentary. Do you have a sofa I can sleep on for 3-4 days?

I’m not sure if it’s the recent economic situation, or my general ongoing distaste for reality, but lately I keep fantasizing about becoming a freegan (even job sites are getting hip to this) or a hobo. I’ve actually discussed going to live this way as part of a documentary project, but ironically one of the parties most interested in that idea works for a TV station that’s being shut down because of the tough economic times! The fact is that if I chose to live on the road, I’d probably start whining about the coffee and laundry facilities after about three weeks. So lately, I’ve been thinking more along the lines of “sofa surfing”. And apparently I’m not the only one. CouchSurfing.com, for instance, has 1,084,323 “surfers”, and claims to be “Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time”. Noble of them. Also with the aim of creating a better world (although they don’t specifically promise you the couch) HospitalityClub.org operates along similar lines. And if you’re in a band, there’s BetterThanTheVan.com, which at a quick glance looks more like “Stay-At-My-Place-Im-A-Desperate-Groupie.com”. Personally, that all looks a little too structured for me. I’m just gonna put it out there: can you put me up for 3-4 days and show me your city? If I can get a solid string of commitments, I’m writing a book and pursuing a publishing deal. And if I don’t get a publishing deal, I’ll self-publish through Blurb.com or something. To show a little commitment, I actually just bought the domain SofaSurfingUSA.com. If you’re interested in my little project, just contact me. Surfs Up!

Five Effective Habits Of Highly Annoying People

[ 3 Comments ]Posted on April 14, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

You’re probably too busy to read this, but these are excerpts from a draft of one of two books I’m working on.

1.) Not Having Time

I’d love to! But I’m just buried
with these spreadsheets!

How many times a week does someone tell you how busy they are? I mean, you yourself are probably busy, right? Admit it. At least once in the last two weeks, when someone asked you if you want to have lunch or coffee, you’ve probably hesitated, and said something like “I’d love to, but I’m SO BUSY lately. Can I get back to you?” Well. Where the hell did you find time to read this crap I’m typing right now? I mean, I’M busy. I’m writing crap for YOU to read, so you can tell people you’re too busy to have coffee with them.

And what about the people telling you that THEY’RE too busy? Well, they’re lying. I caught them on Facebook. They really should ponder the fact that when they take a “What Kind Of Intestinal Microbe Am I?” quiz, it shows up Read the rest of this entry »

Is Your Virtual Life Better Than Your Real Life?

[ 6 Comments ]Posted on April 3, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Or: Why I’m Probably Getting Married On Facebook

Tell me if you’ve noticed any of the following in your behaviour over the past couple of years: You no longer bother remembering phone numbers, you just put them in your phone. You’re talking to a friend about a movie, can’t remember the star, and turn to Wikipedia or the IMDB. Someone has seemed annoyed that you actually phoned them instead of texting or “Facebooking” them. You can’t seem to get into books like you used to. You’ve joked that you have a disorder because of your poor recall or attention. Nicholas Carr has written a few articles addressing this topic, including Is Google Making Us Stupid? in the Atlantic Monthly, and Computing The Cost in The Sun Magazine. This topic is nothing new, this 1998 Science Daily article touches on it. And the book iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, by leading neuroscientist Gary Small actually brings some hard science into the discussion. What’s new is that we’re seeing and experiencing the results of the theory every day. You can for instance (you Facebook test addicts will love this) take this quick on line test to see if you’re addicted to the Internet. Personally, I feel like I have this under control; I scored a 41. My frustration is that I’m convinced that technology is affecting my love life. I’m pretty sure I haven’t “dated” anyone since 2005. I mean, I’ve gone on “dates”, I think, but actual courting (flowers, gifts, etc.) seemed to turn women off, and whenever I phoned, they’d seem annoyed. The texting would occasionally get hot and heavy, but would always devolve into dialogues like “OMG UR SO HAWT<3″ and “<3 U2″. I used to blame this dating failure on losing my looks, or the basic math involved. I’ve since become convinced that it has more to do with the fact that all the intelligent chicks are playing word games on Facebook, and not answering my pokes as a result. That’s part of why, although I think I’m falling in love with someone in real life right now, I’ll probably just get married on Facebook instead.

How To Win At Monopoly: Always Be The Banker

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on March 22, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

Printing your own money, for fun and….well, probably just fun.

I’m no expert on the economy, but I did play Monopoly as a kid. I learned a lot about money that way. Like how to broker elaborate side-deals with other players that would eventually break them. And how pointless that was, since once you have all the money, it really has no value, ’cause no one wants to play with you. Because you’re a jerk, and have all the money. It also doesn’t do you much good when you go to the store afterwards and have to hustle up real money to buy a candy bar. Given the game’s obvious parallels to reality recently, I’ve been surprised that the game hasn’t popped up in conversation more. Especially in light of things like the Banker’s Rules, one of which is: “The Bank never goes ‘broke’. If the Bank runs out of money it may issue as much more as may be needed by merely writing on any ordinary paper.” Sound familiar? It should, the game first gained real popularity during the Depression, when real money and Monopoly money probably had about the same value. For some amusing takes on Monopoly as reality, start with the Washington Post’s Econopoly, which uses a Flash-based Monopoly board to explain some of the current economic problems. Just click the dice and learn. McSweeny’s has The Economic Crisis Hits The Markson Family Monopoly Board, which tells the amusing tale of a family torn apart by Monopoly and real-world finance. And if you’re actually weird and obsessed enough with simply winning the game, see the disturbingly serious in-depth analysis How to Win at Monopoly – a Surefire Strategy. You’d think someone with that kind of attention to money-making might focus on the real thing. And on a slightly serious note, we might do well to deal with our addiction to US Currency in general. Not only can you print your own Monopoly money, you can print your own real money. After a fashion. Check out concepts like the Complementary Currency Resource Center or TimeBanks, which highlights the fact that time is indeed money. Anybody got a Get Out of Jail Card to sell to Bernie Madoff?

Visualizing Your Facebook Network

[ 3 Comments ]Posted on March 16, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Four cool apps for graphically viewing your Facebook network

I’ve been fascinated with the visual mapping of networks of people ever since I ran across TheyRule.net in 2003. TheyRule is, on the surface, a fun, Flash-based way to see how the powerful and wealthy in America are connected. In their words, TheyRule “aims to provide a glimpse of some of the relationships of the US ruling class. It takes as its focus the boards of some of the most powerful U.S. companies, which share many of the same directors“. This kind of information mapping has come a long way since then (we’ve touched on Fleshmaps, Heatmaps, and Tag-clouds here before), to the extent that if you have a Facebook account, with the click of a button you can activate a variety of visual tools for sorting and viewing your network of friends. Visualiser, for instance, allows you to see how your contacts are connected to each other, and do filtering based on things like sex or relationship status. Facebook Mutual Friend Network Visualization seems to offer fewer sorting tools, but has a simple and attractive interface that shows friends as nodes that you can click on to change the focus of the network. FavMapper lets you explore a map of your friends’ favorite music, movies, and books with interactive animation, and lastly, TouchGraph Facebook Browser displays similar connections from your Facebook account, but does it based on the photos that friends have shared in their accounts.

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