Just Finished: The Twilight Saga

Posted on August 23, 2010 by kara

Let me sum up my Twilight experience quickly.

  • Read the first so that I know would know what all the hype was about. It was terrible.
  • Started the 2nd (New Moon) because I wanted to laugh at it
  • Kinda liked the New Moon, until it got stupid at the end
  • Hated the 3rd (Eclipse) because nothing happened in it, like at all
  • Hated the 4th (Breaking Dawn) until for a brief shining moment I thought that maybe it would redeem itself by having everyone die in a savage bloodfest suddenly making it all worth it
  • Then hated it again when they all lived happily ever after

And now it’s over and may it never be spoken of again.

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Real Nerds are Not Cool

Posted on August 9, 2010 by kara

Today, Weezer unveiled the new cover art for their album “Hurley.”  Pitchfork has a short but sweet interview with band front man, Rivers Cuomo.

Say what you will about their choice of album covers, I think it fits well with who Weezer (and Cuomo) really are.  A big bunch of nerds.  They aren’t in it for the irony. They feel with their heart on their sleeves, enjoy pop music because it’s catchy, and pop culture because it’s engrossing.

From the interview:

Pitchfork: Did you work with Ryan Adams in the studio? Did you guys bond over obscure metal albums?

RC: We were mostly so excited with what we were writing that we didn’t have a chance to talk about old metal. In any case, I think his knowledge of metal lore is deeper even than mine, so I was out of my league.

If you think about the nerds you knew growing up, the truly dorky people who were outside the accepted circle, what was it that made them so?  Other than awkwardness and maybe a lack of hygiene, what really made them stick out was how much they LOVED something such as comics or Star Trek, or whatever.  Their true feelings were out there, while “cool” people were conveniently detached.

Nerd celebration has been a fad lately but I don’t think we’re really celebrating the nerd, we’re just celebrating the nerdy.  Those who get too involved and care too much are still vulnerable, while the weekend comic reader and metal enthusiastic can be “ironic” about, and still be cool.

Weezer are nerds, they love stuff without detachment or irony, and that will frequently (see Pinkerton) not make them popular.  But that’s what makes them authentic. I for one hope they never get “cool.”

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My Aardvark Answers

Posted on July 23, 2010 by kara

I’ve started using Aardvark at work during the day.  I never ask any questions, but I frequently answer them.  Here are a collection of my answers.  I think I’m quite wise, or maybe people are just asking stupid questions.

~~~
(From Gaz W./22/M/NewYork,US)
What’s the easiest, most realistic way of getting ‘rich’ or ‘wealthy’?
My Answer:
Save your money in a compound interest account, don’t touch it, and keep depositing into it.  Don’t carry a balance on your credit card, don’t invest in things that don’t go up in value (like cars), don’t accumulate needless things, in your chosen field negotiate for the highest possible wage (changing employers for a higher wage if need be) and don’t get divorced.
(From Matthew M./21/M/Sunderland,UK)
What is a good recipe for a cheese sauce that doesn’t require flour?
My Answer:
I’m not sure what you’re using the cheese sauce for, but milk or cream will thicken up when heated.  So if you’re making an Alfredo sauce, you would heat the cream over high heat just until it boils (stirring frequently) then immediately lowering the temperature and stirring for about 5 minutes.  It should begin to thicken, then add whatever cheese you like to season.  Make sure the milk is cooled a bit before adding the cheese otherwise it might separate.
(From Lalo K./21/M/Atlanta,US — sent via iPhone)
Is it best to date someone from the same race or culture?
My Answer:
There is no “best” when it comes to dating, it’s always up to the individuals.  What’s important is that you share the same values and the same things make you happy, but the exact color/ethnicity/culture doesn’t need to define that.
(From Ren W./22/F/Portland,US — sent via iPhone)
Can someone describe the relationship between the server on which a site is hosted (where the files are), a site’s IP address, the nameservers and the DNS record?
My Answer:
Pretend you’re blind.  In a room is a chair and sitting on the chair is a boy.  The boy shouts to you how to get to find him, then reaches out his hand to grab you when you’re there.   Basically, the chair (server) hosts the boy (domain & files) who’s location (IP) is given by it’s relationship to other objects around it.  But for most people they are routed to the boy via the shouting (DNS Record).  Each hand reaching out is a name server, ready to receive you, the left hand being available if the right hand is busy.
~~~
That last one got me some serious accolades from the questioner.  I’m not sure how technically accurate, but as a metaphor I think it works.
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Brasil

Posted on May 2, 2010 by kara

I’m in sao paolo this week with rotman. We explored a coffee plantation and went to an all you can eat steak house. The real work start tomorrow

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Clapping Makes Everything Better

Posted on March 18, 2010 by kara

The “RIP Alex Chilton” tweets/messages have started since he passed away yesterday.  I do not know who he is, but I know he influenced a lot of the artists that I enjoy today.

“Alex Chilton” by the Replacements is an homage to him and if Wikipedia is correct (who knows) he actually played with the band for another song.  Either way, this song proves that including claps makes a good song great.

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New Bathroom

Posted on March 14, 2010 by kara

It seems my whole life had been derailed for the past few months by the renovation of our master bathroom.  What with contractor delays, parts that weren’t right for our space and not having a shower for 2 weeks, the last little while has been really stressful.

There were a lot of compromises made in the final result, and some of our really expensive pieces were damaged during installation.  This means that while I am totally relieved to have a clean and decent place to prepare for the day, the idea that this is a “dream” bathroom is out the window.

I was also thinking of having a before and after series on the reno, but the pics of the old bathroom are so embarrassingly disgusting that I want no record of them to exist anywhere.  So here, then, is just the new bathroom.

Ironically, the best part of the whole thing are the “clever hooks” we bought at Design Within Reach. They look like dinosaur jaws and when you hang something on them, they clamp down to grab it.  Then to take it off, you just lift up.  I sometimes play with them for a few minutes at a time.  It’s ironic that they’re the best thing, because they were also the absolute cheapest.  At $10 a hook, they’re a steal.

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Let it Be Known

Posted on January 29, 2010 by kara

How long could you survive after punching a bear in the balls?

Created by Oatmeal

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Sick of Bad Ads? Does clicking help?

Posted on January 21, 2010 by kara

I work in advertising. I make banner ads for a living and thus when I’m working I click a lot of ads, my own and competitors. I’ve noticed that at work, when I surf the good sites, I see a lot of high quality advertising from major manufacturers. When I go home I see ads for Evony, teeth cleaners, and “how to get ripped”. CRAP.

Now, a few things might be happening here. I might go on sketchier sites at home (very likely), but it also might be true that I’ve been cookied by the ad servers at work and they know that I actually click on ads. While at home I surf click free.

Because they know their clients are looking for clicks, they serve the good stuff to “clicky me” at work, and the crapy to “non-clicky me” at home.

I have no proof. But the experiment begins now…. cache cleared!

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Microsoft Wins, Loses

Posted on January 8, 2010 by kara

Having just finished doing an MBA I can tell you in no uncertain terms that MS Office is an amazing suite of software. Powerpoint has a lot of the basic functions of Photoshop, yet is simple enough for the non-techy to use. Sure, they are really overly “interfacey” preferring sub-menus and wizards to more natural usage, but these are to meet the needs of the non-tech-savvy who use the software, and I’m prepared to power through that and learn the keyboard shortcuts that will make my use of it fast and easy.

With all of that said, the programs could be so much better! The feature that seems like the biggest missed opportunity is SmartArt in PowerPoint. If you’ve never used that feature before, basically it’s a little menu that will help you make the nice graphics that make bullet points so much easier to digest. The problem is there are only 88 that come by default. After 2 years in school, I had pretty much exhausted all of the good ones.  For people who make presentations as part of their full time jobs, I imagine they got sick of them within months.

But there is an easy way to fix this. If they had included a way for a person to build their own SmartArt and then share it with others, then we could all design our own, or for the less image-inclined, browse a site with thousands of them. Open source or creatives commons licenses lead to free exchange and lets users “remix” to customize their experience.  Who would have thought that PowerPoint had a potential social media angle, albeit an unexploited one?

However, MS is so controlled with their products that they don’t have the imagination do this.  I’m not an MS hater, but I wish they would take more chances on their products in favour of openness. I think in this case we’d all be better served.

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Not Soulless, It's Life

Posted on January 5, 2010 by kara


I was having a conversation with a friend of friend the other day and he was asking me about my MBA. It was basically the question “so why an MBA?” As if the MBA is the height of disgust. (This was implied, not explicit.) My answer to him was simple. Because what you learn in business school are lessons that can be applied to the rest of your life. What is business but an institutionalized version of things that we do everyday? The give-and-take, the working together, the borrowing and saving. (i.e. economics, but in a more social context.)
Sure, b-school graduates get a bad rep because they go into finance and build a giant house of cards that collapses to destabilize the economy, then still take their big bonuses.  Yeah, I think we can all agree that those people aren’t heroes.
But understanding business helps you to gain perspective on the decisions you make and the decisions that get made for you. Although b-school trains you to think in dollars and cents about even human lives, more importantly, it teaches you to think about it.  It teaches you how to dissect and evaluate the problem and think about all the parts that go into it.
The analysis may be soulless, but its the person applying it to life that makes it interesting.

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