In bed with Canadians
Posted: February 22, 2011 Filed under: Art, Media, video games | Tags: Arts, Canada, Civilization V, Ethnicity, Hungarian refugees, Hungary, Italy, Literature, Magazines and E-zines, Online Writing, Short story, United States, Zouch 2 CommentsCheck me out! The web-based literature, arts and culture magazine Zouch has taken a shine to me. They reblogged my “Civilization 5 offends my Hungarian sensibilities” post here.
Their website is pretty… and they also accept poetry and short stories!
And, so what if they are Canadian – if I plan on achieving global dominance, I must start somewhere, right?
Also, Hungarians love Canada for some reason. When my family was waiting around in Italy and being interviewed by the US Embassy to make sure we weren’t Soviet spies, we thought long and hard about going to Canada instead – almost every other refugee we were friends with moved there.
Lady Porn Day kicks off today!
Posted: February 22, 2011 Filed under: Women | Tags: lady porn day, porn for women, rabbit write 1 CommentHead on over to the fabulous Rabbit Write’s site for more information, including porn links.
Rahm’s second fake twitter, followed (perhaps written) by Karl Rove
Posted: February 16, 2011 Filed under: Chicago, Internet, Politics, Strange | Tags: Chicago, Humour, Illinois, Karl Rove, Online Communities, Rahm Emanuel, Twitter Leave a commentThe original fake Rahm’s twitter account has been getting more press lately, following the real Rahm Emanuel’s offer of $2,500 to the author if he/she reveals him/herself. See NBC’s article about it here, and here is USA Today’s.
Perhaps inspired by the popularity of this fake twitter, a new fake Rahm Emanuel twitter was created about 5 days ago, @MayorRahmE. This newer fake twitter has a little bit more than 300 followers, and is significantly lacking the wit (or any sense of humor, really) and intelligence of the original. The very first tweet on this new fake twitter is below:
This new fake twitter writes in CAPS AT IRREGULAR INTERVALS and seems to make fun of Rahm (and his ballet skills) directly, rather than indirectly like the ingenious original fake twitter.
Surprisingly, one of the original followers of this new, bad fake Rahm twitter is Karl Rove, or who ever is in charge of his twitter. Karl Rove does not follow the better, original fake Rahm twitter.
I’ve been in three separate publications in the last 24 hours
Posted: February 16, 2011 Filed under: Chicago, Internet, Politics, video games | Tags: Chicago, Gamer, girl gamer, Huffington Post, RedEye, Video game Leave a comment….and it wasn’t because I submitted any articles!
First, I was quoted in the Tribune’s RedEye on an article about female gamers….
Eordogh, a freelance video game writer, said she used to play PC games under the screen name “Laser Kitty,” but changed it to “Laser Gandalf” because of the perverted or sexualized comments she’d receive from male players who concluded she was female.
“When I play online, I get a lot of comments like ‘Show me your boobs,’ ” Eordogh said. “If a girl wants to be sexy, that’s fine, but I wish I wasn’t held to the same standards. I just want to play games, not be stereotyped.”
– “Play girls: the life of a female gamer in Chicago“, by Ryan Smith
I say something else too, but I want you to click the link. I made sure to get 2 hard copies of the RedEye yesterday.
…
And it was brought to my attention this morning, that there is a photo of me on the Huffington Post under an article titled Ladies Love Rahm. The photograph was taken on Saturday when I got to ask Rahm Emanuel a softball question. An internet/twitter colleague found the photo in the AP database. To see a larger version of the picture, click here.
UPDATED:
And, a photo of me is on Gawker as well! (With Rahm Emanuel of course)
Art Critic cares not for Banksy, street art
Posted: February 14, 2011 Filed under: Art | Tags: Art, Art world, Banksy, Exit Through The Giftshop, Matthew Collings, Public art, Street art, Visual arts 1 CommentThe video embedded below appears to be companion footage to Exit through the Gift Shop. I pulled the quote from the footage below because I have been thinking about street art’s legitimacy in the art world, specifically the role of a street art critic –
” To me there is nothing interesting about Banksy, no…
I would never have said this 5 years ago, when there wasn’t this big thing about him. When I saw his stuff around, I thought that’s an entertaining bit of rubbish on the wall.
But now I’m supposed to take all this stuff seriously, and I don’t really know what I am supposed to say. It’s quite obvious that it isn’t really anything.
…
When people queue up to see a Banksy show or they’re paying hundreds and thousands of pounds at Sotheby’s, I don’t feel disparaged, or bewildered or baffled, I mean it’s a sort of social phenomenon. People suddenly get a craze… it’s a combination of accessible and weird and exotic ”
note the vimeo user name
Chicago is a hot-bed for start-ups after all!
Posted: February 9, 2011 Filed under: Business, Chicago | Tags: Chicago, Groupon, New York, new york city, RedEye, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, tech startups Leave a commentTracy Swartz wrote a whole article in the RedEye I can use as ammunition against the New York and San Francisco tech-snobs:
These young up-and-comers said they prefer Chicago to start-up hotbeds such as San Francisco and New York City because office space and payroll are cheaper, talent is easier to find and keep, and top business schools at universities including Northwestern and the University of Chicago are nearby.
The increased recognition has brought benefits. One of the problems Chicago entrepreneurs used to face was little access to funding. West Coast investors now are recognizing that Chicago firms are worth the investment, Rudnick said, and they’re not requiring these companies to move to Silicon Valley.
I am also partial to this article because Tracy highlighted non- Groupon start-ups in a positive light. Hot.
Does the apocalypse begin with a food shortage brought on by bees?
Posted: February 8, 2011 Filed under: Science | Tags: Bee, Citrus, Colony collapse disorder, Food, Genetically modified food, Honey bee, United States Leave a commentThought Catalog has a brief post about bees dying all over the world, and how this effects the global food supply. Specifically:
citrus fruits, apples, onions, broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, courgettes, peppers, aubergines, avocados, cucumbers, coconuts, tomatoes and broad beans, as well as coffee and cocoa
That is a pretty diverse list of yummy foods – and I don’t want to imagine a world without those foods.
Because I hate being all doom and gloom, I am hoping the esteemed scientists will figure out how to genetically modify those foods like they did the banana.
As for why bees are disappearing, my guess is either messed up electromagnetic fields, pollution, or the Black Eyed Peas.
Groupon’s bad writers need to be fired
Posted: February 7, 2011 Filed under: Internet, Media, Techology | Tags: Chicago, Google, Groupon, Jimmy Johns, on a horse, Super Bowl, Super Bowl advertising, Tibet, Timothy Hutton 5 CommentsGroupon’s “Super Bowl Ad” was obviously a miss. This writer explains it why, perfectly. I, as a Chicago resident and occasional (recent) purchaser of Groupons, personally feel let down by Groupon’s failed commercial simply because Groupon is one of the few tech start-ups in this city. Chicago is not known for tech start-ups, but Groupon is our saving grace against tech snobby East and West Coasters. Groupon is big and scary, and recently said no to $6 billion from Google. Is there another tech start-up in Chicago that defends this city’s honor? No.
“Oh, you’re a couple years behind…. no more than a decade” with a pat on the head. “Chicago is sooo cute, with their little knock-off start-ups”… That’s what East and West Coast techies say about Chicago. Yeah. I don’t appreciate the patronizing tone either.
Now consider the recent corporate income tax increase (Jimmy Johns wants to leave because of them!), and the chance of Chicago creating additional start-ups gets smaller and smaller. Chicago can and should be so more than second fiddle to the East and West Coast.
So Groupon, when you’re on the national stage, representing this fair city, can you make sure your commercials aren’t poorly executed and/or multi-layered with personal jokes? I know you have some smart and humorous people in your ranks – as you seem to snatch up quite a few local comedians. You have no excuse, unless your excuse is… your staff just isn’t funny.
I am laughing out loud now, because of personal experiences with Groupon comedians. (insert link to recent local blogger complaining about a not funny groupon which I currently cannot find because of all the Super Bowl chatter)
This post may, or may not have, been written on a horse.
Civilization 5 offends my Hungarian sensibilities
Posted: February 4, 2011 Filed under: video games, War | Tags: architecture, atomic bomb, Bucharest, Budapest, Civilization V, einstein, European Union, feud between Romania and Hungary, Firaxis, Firaxis Games, hungarian pride, Hungary, nationalism, Rubiks Cube 130 CommentsThis post was written on a horse, while reading about Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary.
I understand Americans learn very little of Eastern Europe, so I don’t hold it against Civilization 5 for making Budapest a city-state instead of an actual civilization. Sure sure, it hurts, but Americans get such lousy education these days I can’t expect the Firaxis team to know that Hungary is one of the oldest and best countries in Europe.
What I absolutely cannot dismiss, for its outright heart-piercing egregious nature, is the kind of city-state Budapest is: …militaristic. How is it that Bucharest, of Romania, is a “cultured city”, but Budapest is not? What has Bucharest contributed to the world?
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