27 June 2009, no comments
This post bugs me. It’s still bugging me 10 days later.
When someone says “FAIL”, what they’re really saying is, “I’m failing to understand a creative person’s constraints.”
This is a bold claim, too bold for my liking. When I say Fail, I’m saying ‘this doesn’t work as advertised’, ‘this isn’t doing it for me’. Such a response is impermissible? Really?
I like that I can tell the IT department or the TV network to go back to the drawing board when they get it wrong, and that I can do this with just four letters. I wouldn’t use Fail to criticize art—because I’d rightly be ignored—and I wouldn’t use it to criticize an individual—because I try not to be a dick.
Fail
marks a lack of human empathy, and signifies an absence of intellectual curiosity
Maybe. There is an empathy problem on the web—people forget pixels represent other people—and intellectual incuriosity remains a lousy basis for criticism in any medium. But watch the words ‘marks’ and ’signifies’ here. The problem here isn’t slang, for that’s all Fail is.
Slang is fine. Slang is, dare I say it, creative:
Attack the real problems, not the markers, the signifiers. Wood’s not trees.
20 May 2009, Comments Off
For the first time in years, I have no library books out on loan. Not one. On three successive visits, I’ve returned my books and walked out the front door without picking up something new to read.
This strenuous effort is so I can tackle the great pile of non-library books still awaiting reading. They were Christmas presents. Birthday presents. Job-leaving presents. A birthday present from 2007, come to that.
But I’m not proud of achieving the goal I set myself. While part of my mind dedicated itself to virtue, another part has sneakily, surreptitiously opened a blank TextEdit file, titled it ‘To read’, and added more books.
I’m not even fooling myself.
12 May 2009, Comments Off
Lyrics tweets again:
And tweet tweets too:
I think I just still enjoy wordles, and this is the corpus I have to hand.
Also, too many of my tweets are moans, and from this I can tell that they’re often moans about London, the office, the weekend not arriving soon enough etc. I’d suspected as much, but here’s graphic confirmation. I will stare at this image next time I think of tweeting the same moan twice.
25 April 2009, Comments Off
If (i) trainspotters are discouraged from trainspotting, and (ii) police are being reminded of their longstanding obligation to wear identification numbers, perhaps trainspotters could turn to taking down police numbers instead?
I imagine a collaborative website might work here, e.g. “SO 543 was very kind in showing me the way to the station”, “Think SO 258 might be racist”, “SO 330 just attacked my newspaper-vending friend in cold blood” etc.
Obvious problems: police will game the system, police will break their own bloody rules anyway. Needs more thought…
13 April 2009, Comments Off
Bob Dylan Willis, grumpiest man alive, offers his predictions for the County Championship 2009, second division:
Derbyshire: Look a little light as a lot of experienced players have gone since the end of last season. … the bowling attack is not good and I predict they will once again finish in the bottom half.
Essex: The loss of Graham Napier to the IPL is a blow but they should have him for the rest of the summer.
Glamorgan: Matthew Maynard has got to do something down in Wales this season. … the pitch favours batsmen and this season could be another hard slog. I think they will struggle.
Gloucestershire: They simply have to perform better than they did last year, be that in the one-day or four-day form of the game.
Kent: Stuart Clark may yet be a great signing …
Leicestershire: The Foxes are still nowhere near being major candidates for silverware or promotion. They are a middle of the road side and simply do not have enough money to improve vastly a squad that is too reliant on young players.
Middlesex: They will be stronger when Shah is available.
Northamptonshire: It’s hard to see any progress at Wantage Road this season. … They could struggle to improve on last season, when they won only three out of 16.
Surrey: They need to plan what they want to do and how they want to do it. … I’m not sure they can be promoted straight back.
Yes, I’m cherry-picking, and yes, this is shooting fish in a barrel, but golly is he grumpy. He’s ‘nice’ about three of the nine counties, and even there you can hear his bored, boring tones. I find him so hard to reconcile with the legend of ‘81. Maybe he’s been jealous of Botham’s fame ever since?
