Min Jung Kim’s Friends and Family

Maxwell, "Simply Beautiful"

nobody@vox.com(Anil) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:42:57 -0700

Duringi the Al Green tribute on this year's BET Awards, one of my favorite singers performed one of my favorite songs.

Maxwell covers "Simply Beautiful"

As with when he covered Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work", Maxwell's got the chops to actually best an artist while covering their work. And, as I was explaining the other day, I basically only use MySpace as a dedicated Maxwell blog-reading service. Hooray!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

they don't run these ads in the U.S.

nobody@vox.com(Anil) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:59:30 -0700

yahoo mail mj ad

As ever, Yahoo's latest efforts are baffling, inexplicable, but still somehow charming. It's like the place is run by an overeager six year old who has no ability but lots of enthusiasm. Anyway, Yahoo Mail's latest brilliant marketing move is "hey, remember Rocketmail? No? Well, good news -- it's back! Also, YMail! or Y!Mail. Which is nothing like Gmail, except that it's exactly like Gmail!"

The campaign, in Canada at least, features shoddy, third-rate Michael Jackson and Madonna lookalikes explaining that they, respectively, want the "Jacko" and "Madge" Yahoo Mail addresses under the new domains. Even if you could get past the idea that you're supposed to identify with people who want to adopt the identity of insane 50-year-old pop stars, the worst part is that both "Jacko" and "Madge" are names bestowed upon the singers by the British tabloids, and both epithets are detested by the singers they've been applied to.

It's a win all around, really.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

photo of the day

nobody@vox.com(Cecily) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:04:48 -0700

Because I haven't done one of these in a while, either.

wall of pocky

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

customer service @ your library

nobody@vox.com(Cecily) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:27:26 -0700

library, originally uploaded by jessiqua.

(It's been a minute since I posted over here in Vox-ville, but seeing as how I haven't had the "how much can I talk about the things about my job that annoy me" discussion with my boss yet, "better safe than sorry" is the order of the day. )

As many of you know, I made the transition from corporate life to public librarianship. While the transition has been largely smooth, and while I still enjoy my job very much, every day I come into contact with a service ethic that stands in opposition to my own. This is the latest example: while working at one of the library's information desks, a customer came up and asked for a sheet of paper. Because I didn't know where we kept spare reams of paper, I reached inside the printer, pulled out a sheet, and handed it to him. After the customer walked away, a colleague pulled me aside and said "We never give up the paper. Never."

Now, I'll grant that we have a recycling bin at the end of the desk for scrap paper (which I completely forgot about), but I couldn't believe that this was the one element of my job performance that the staffer chose to criticize.

When I read through library listservs, or when I encounter images of librarians in popular culture (Buffy's Giles excepted), I often encounter the image of the library as a foreboding, unwelcoming institution that is more concerned with keeping order and adhering to arbitrary rules than it is to delivering top-notch customer service. It's no wonder that some people prefer bookstores, and why some others would rather turn to Google for quick information service. We seem to be a surly, stuffy bunch.

My idea of customer service and end-to-end user experience was shaped -- for better or worse -- by four years spent slogging through corporate trenches. I ultimately learned that I didn't belong in the corporate world, but the one valuable lesson that I did learn was that it is much easier to say yes than not, particularly for requests that can be carried out with a minimum of effort. The patron asked for paper, and I gave it to him, an exchange that took no more than 10 seconds from start to finish. Compare it to the alternate scenario: The patron asks for paper, and I say "No, but if you look at the end of the desk, you'll find a recycling bin with scrap paper in it, and you can have as much of that as you want." At this point I've introduced a level of unnecessary complexity, created a barrier for the patron, albeit a small one, and this barrier has an impact on the patron's ability to complete their task quickly and easily.

I haven't worked in a library long enough to understand the reasons behind this particular rule, but it seems to me that library service would become more efficient -- and friendlier -- places if we just did away with those insignificant service policies and developed a culture of customer service.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

the one where i jump ship (sort of)

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 19:31:21 -0700

Look. I'm back with a real live site using traditional blog type software. I've been doing this for awhile so we'll fore go all the pleasantries and just reference a post I wrote on vox back in December. Speaking of vox, i'll probably keep it around when I want to write stuff that is for specific eyes only or if I want to post some random music in an easily playable format. I probably won't clutter up the sidebar with a bunch of links and things either. If you want to find me all over the web, check my friend feed.

But, for those of you looking for semi-regular ramblings from me, jasontoney.com is what's happening.

Oh, one more thing - the negroplease archives, after an 18 month hiatus, are live.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

tyrannosaurus dash

nobody@vox.com(Anil) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:21:33 -0700

My wife has me doing the holy shit 100 pushups thing, which basically ends every other day with doing pushups until you collapse. as a result, my arms are now useless and vestigial, like a tyrannosaurus, and my giant head has only a walnut-sized brain with which to understand why the heck we're doing this.

However, join our Vox group, and then some day soon a pile of us nerds will show up in a park, set aside our smartphones for a few minutes, and then drop and throw down 100 pushups. And that will be awesome. :)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

about:robots

nobody@vox.com(allaboutgeorge) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:39:23 -0700

About_robots

George Kelly

(We have come to visit you in peace and with goodwill!)

About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots, about about:robots

I downloaded Firefox 3
because all of the people I obsessively read
were doing it too, not doing-it doing it
'cause that would mean taking their hands off their mice

Dday_badge_fox

I downloaded Firefox 3
because I heard they want a world record
for most-downloaded browser as if a browser
is the right tool for keeping up with fights between Scoble and Eric Rice

And then I learned about:robots, about about:robots
About:robots (the one with the colon in between)
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots (the one with the colon in between)
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots

I downloaded Firefox 3
because I wanted to see how well it performed on my PC
Then I saw it really was a mess,
kinda slow, really not a success (all right, I'm kidding)

I downloaded Firefox 3
because I didn't want to be left behind with an unpopular browser
The kind you use to access the Net
in my cubicle when I'm learning

About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots
The one with the colon in between
The one with the colon in between
Put it in your browser, see what I mean
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots
The one with the colon in between
About:robots, about about:robots
About:robots

Robots may not injure a human being
or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Robots have seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Robots are Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun To Be With.
Robots have shiny metal posteriors which should not be bitten.

Step one: open up a Firefox 3 browser
Step two: Type the word "about" and then a colon
Step three: Type the word "robots"
Step four: Hit return, and learn!

Shout out to all Bay Area nerdcore crew
Doctor Popular
MC Slutsky
I see you
I'm'a see you
And we have a plan.
Seen!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A theory: Hillary's Dean Scream

nobody@vox.com(Anil) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:47:33 -0700

I should blog this idea while it's still (barely) timely. Yesterday, I was on a plane home to NYC and everyone on the flight had CNN on and was watching, first, Hillary Clinton's non-concession speech and then Barack Obama's acknowledgement that he's going to be the Democratic party's presidential candidate. Pretty amazing, historical stuff.

But the vast majority of people I talk to (understanding and acknowledging that there's no small amount of selection bias here) feel that Hillary's speech was off, being insufficiently conciliatory towards Obama and a bit too aggressive about puffing her own chest out regarding "her" 18 million supporters. That's probably true.

The thing that I think has been misdiagnosed, though, is the case of the problem. Basically, everyone wants to say that Hillary is a dick, who was being a total sore loser. I am not so sure that's what happened.

I'm a little bit familiar with trying to communicate complicated, nuanced messages to the public, though of course no where near on the scale of a presidential campaign. I have had a bit of a glimpse into campaigns in the past, in the tiny capacity of having friends or colleagues working on the technical part of such endeavors. But I understand the machinations of press and publicity very well, and I also happen to live just a few blocks from Baruch College, where Hillary made her announcement.

A few bits of background info:

Most of the attendees at Hillary's rally had likely lined up hours and hours in advance, well before the day's primaries were called or the superdelegates began piling on to Obama's count
Baruch College's auditorium is underground, as I was reminded by seeing Choire tonight and re-reading his piece on Hillary's speech
As a result, Hillary's diehard supporters in that room had almost no cell phone coverage or data plan coverage with which to receive updates on the day's progress as they waited, relying instead on word of mouth and (likely skewed) reports from organizers
The bulk of Hillary's speech was her standard stump speech of the past few days and weeks, delivered with such familiarity that supporters were able to chant along with signposts such as her recitation of her website's address

So here's what I think happened: Hillary said, "we're not going to plan for failure", and had only prepared what was basically a standard stump speech/victory speech. When it became clear Obama had a lock, whomever (if anyone!) is in charge of communication said, "just preface your comments with a nod to his success".

Hillary did exactly that, opening with a (likely genuine) tribute to Obama and then launching into her traditional schtick. But the people in the room, remember, were underinformed, extremely zealous, and word-for-word familiar with everything but her comments on Obama.

So, the points that seemed most inflammatory and aggressive got amplified by the reaction of the crowd and the energy of the room. Moments that seemed surprising or even irrational, such as the chanting of "Denver! Denver! Denver!" may have seemed entirely plausible to that crowd. And the impression of the crowd and Hillary amplifying each other played worst of all on television and on replay on the web.

In some ways, right down to the recitation of a list of states where she'd seen primary success, this was kind of a mirror-image of Howard Dean's fateful scream. It was a perhaps-canny reading of a room at the expense of being extremely off-putting in all the living rooms where she was also appearing at that moment. And it was, like Dean's scream, a moment that seemed to confirm everything that opponents or the unconvinced might have feared about her.

There's one shot at undoing that legacy, and we'll know this week if it's going to happen.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

On being Boddhisattva of the gender non-Euclidean

nobody@vox.com(allaboutgeorge) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:44:55 -0700

(inspired by Sarah Dopp)

If gender hath its own geometry,
its Euclidean arc the eye can mark,
then the non-Euclidean girl or guy
may also some new queer discussion spark.

If boddhisattva be what you are called,
it's not a label I'd consider dumb
for those Nirvana-bound are not at fault
for existing in that continuum

So those who classify and catalog
all people as they live and love and play
with every Twitter or post to their blog
they doth inform and lighten others' way,

thus broader bound be how we all exist,
how we are kith and kin, but also kissed.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The only problem with Andrew Anker...

nobody@vox.com(Anil) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:42:26 -0700

...is that you can't make a joke about him that's as good as the truth.

"How would you define sexually explicit?"

Read and post comments | Send to a friend