Disqus - Latest Comments for letters

Re: Ich werde ein Berliner - 24. Underdogs

letters — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:45:51 -0000

I'm not much of a footie fan but having been to a game each at the Hamburg HSV and St. Pauli, my lasting impression is how much more fun it was to watch the game at the St. Pauli stadium. Smaller, more packed in, more down-to-earth. The HSV's stadium is huge, antiseptic, soulless. And it used to be called the AOL Arena, which will forever stain its image.

Re: whywhynot? - Blatent ballet porn part 2 - what I would do to...

letters — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:28:46 -0000

Your post title reminds me of one of the funniest commercials I've seen in a long time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmizveWpKOk

:-)

Re: Plagiarism Today Now on Twitter

letters — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:10:21 -0000

I suppose there are people who wonder how modern civilisation managed to advance to the point we are today without Twitter, but I bet they're outnumbered about a billion to one.

Re: Copyscape Premium: An Epic Letdown

letters — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:30:13 -0000

Your experience is about what I went through with Copyscape's free service. I was at first excited that such a site even existed, and was impressed at how they had sniffed out a few thiefs, but later when I had a second look, I thought: there must be a problem with their system. It simply doesn't do the job.

Re: 5 Steps: How Not to Look Like a Spam Blog

letters — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:31:21 -0000

Wordpress.com is definitely not immune to spam blogs. A few months ago wp.com was awash in a splog shower, a huge dump of spam sites all pushed out there at once.

But a great feature of wordpress is tag surfing - sort of like an internal stumbleupon where you can click through a selection of blogs that match your selection of tags. If you come across a spam blog, you simply report it to wordpress.com as spam for a modlook and it gets zapped over the following day. During the height of the splog storm I was doing my part, helping to zap 15 - 20 a day - didn't have time for more.

Re: Hear Ye! Thy Blogging Commandments

letters — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:56:27 -0000

Hi,

Did you try to leave a comment on my blog about that post? I would like to approve it, but it looks a lot like an automatic comment - ie spam. If you would like to leave a personal comment, please try again.

thanks,
Ian

Re: Brand Your Site With a FavIcon

letters — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:14:33 -0000

One day my favicon just started to show up. Maybe I signed up, but I don't remember. If it's that easy, why pay for it?

Re: Top Twelve Reasons to Twitter

letters — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:54:15 -0000

Did you know that many people suffer from Social Media Avoidance Disorder? They would never touch Twitter.

Re: CelebrityTweet: Twitter Without All You Non-Famous People

letters — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:24:19 -0000

I'm so glad I don't
recognise a single
name on that whole
list.

Re: 2009/02/12/twitter-t-shirt/

letters — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:33:35 -0000

Those t-shirts are another sign Twitter's popularity is peaking.
One day after a few dozen washes people will be too embarrassed to
wear the. Sooo 2008.

Re: Escaping the Amish - Part 1

letters — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:22:29 -0000

Torah,
Have you ever thought of writing a book about your life? If so, this post is a pretty good start. Looking forward to reading more.

Re: The truth about traffic on the Internet

letters — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:42:34 -0000

Maybe there aren't many people there... but those who count might be linking to your blog. I've never been on digg or stumbled upon much, but one link to pharyngula and wham! hit count hit the roof. It was fun.

Re: What to do if you’re laid off in 2008 recession

letters — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:59:35 -0000

Then again, if you have the money and the time, are single with no commitments, take a couple of years out and go travelling around the world.

At the end of the road, say when you're 85, you'll treasure the memories much more than the extra money you'll have made.

Re: Are you breathing while emailing or Twittering?

letters — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:55:20 -0000

To your last question: yes. Through the mouth, as usual.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

letters — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:05:52 -0000

Twitter is getting cluttered with newsfeeds and other crap, and will soon be taken over by the corporations and the marketers. Yuck.

Re: Am I going to write a blog posting about P.M.#15, Pierre Trudeau? Just watch me!

letters — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:00:16 -0000

Truly a great Canadian.

I saw him twice in my life in person. First time was as a first-year university student in 1978 when he gave a speech at the UBC Student Union Building. Place was jam-packed. There was this real jerk a row over from us heckling him all through his Q&A. As Trudeau tried to answer a difficult question - what he attributed voter apathy to - the heckler piped up: Selling fear Mr. Prime Minister, selling fear!

Trudeau burned in to him with: look, if you don't want my answers, don't ask me question, you creep. He was directing his anger at that one heckler, but in a TV ad during the next election, the Tories claimed that Trudeau called ALL college students "creeps."

Second time I met him was many years later, while skiing in the Eastern Townships - 1992 or 3 I think. He was still a great skier - we got some photos of him for the paper I was working for - Sherbrooke Record.

Thanks for the look back.

Re: Am I going to write a blog posting about P.M.#15, Pierre Trudeau? Just watch me!

letters — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:56:06 -0000

That "just watch me" clip is pretty well-known to anyone who's ever watched a documentary on the October Crisis. It was a pivotal moment.

Trudeau also had his fans from Western Canada - as you can probably tell, I'm one of them. The anti-Trudeau pack is mostly Alberta, which went uninterruped Tory for ages. Trudeau's goal was always a strong federal government to help keep the country breaking apart, which is why he brought in official bilingualism and a break on oil prices for all Canadians. That Albertans didn't like to share doesn't surprise me, but that says more about them than it does about Trudeau.

Re: A news story you will only get in Vancouver

letters — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:27:41 -0000

Hey man, where did the sun go? Pffffff.... dunno. Hey, pass it around, willya?

Re: Did you blink? If so, then you missed the tenure of P.M. #17!

letters — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:00:11 -0000

Princess Margaret? Say No More!

Turner was unfortunately very un-telegenic. He licked his lips and cleared his throat very often while speaking - it was like an annoying tic.

Re: P.M.# 18. Something about rats and sinking ships

letters — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:49:13 -0000

That satirical magazine was known as Frank. They were relentless on the Mulroneys, but with so much great material to work on, who can blame them? My favourite front page about Mila: Got up Late, Went Shopping.

Re: Do You Go By Your Real First Name?

letters — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:55:39 -0000

EVERY first day of school and university was plagued by having been called out by my first name. Since every kid in our family is called by the second name, I had to do the same routine over and over. Some of the kids had to hear my schpiel about as often.

Finally as an adult one passport renewal I simply dropped the first name. Nobody noticed, and have been living without it ever since.

Re: I can has Zazzle?

letters — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:56:15 -0000

The eyes have it! Use the brain ones for writing short shopping lists on the other side. Seriously, they don't look good, at least not in that photo!

Re: Goreme Valley, Cappadocia

letters — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:23:17 -0000

Hi,
Just arriving via your link on lonelyplanet.com. Great pics! We were in Cappadocia last October for eight days and loved it. Stayed in Uchisar. It was actually my second visit to the region, having backpacked through there as a 21-year-old in Spring, 1981. Göreme, like the entire region, has changed immensely since then. No hot-air balloons, no luxury cave hotels, but then again, no ugly white tour buses and getting jostled by rude tourists while trying to see the caves. We were all alone in the undeground cities back then, and it cost all of a dime to enter. I've subscribed to your blog and am looking forward to more of what you have to say about the area.

I don't link drop, but if you want to see some new and old pics of Cappadocia and Turkey in general, head back to mine and type either one of those in the search box at right.
cheers,
ian

Re: Assistance?

letters — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:52:31 -0000

Had they left out the -istance part in that newspaper cutting, the message would be quite different....

Re: Ihlara Valley, Uchisar Castle and Derinkuyu Underground City

letters — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:01:50 -0000

Amazing you did so much in one day. I wish we'd have had time to do the Ihlara Valley, but maybe I'll make it back for a third time when I'm old and grey...