So I’m on this CBC show Test the Nation on January 20th. I’m really not sure what it’s about, but it’s with a ton of other bloggers including Amber Mac, Andy Nulman, and tons of others (there is, in fact, a whole blogger ‘team’). I imagine I’ll basically annihilate any chance of my team winning.

Anyway, it’s being filmed live, so I won’t get a chance to see it. If someone from Montreal could TiVo it or whatever, it would be awesome.

Update: Hugh McGuire would also like to inform you that he is also on the show. So there we go. So is Craig Silverman, for that matter, and we’ll probably get wasted while we’re there if he has anything to do with it. :)

Filed by Julien at 12:01 am under projects
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Probably the best gift I got this Xmas was Phaidon’s amazing book, Sculpture Today. For anyone that doesn’t know, Phaidon books are unbelievable– well made books that discuss art and design at depth. Great stuff– get one for the art lover in your family.

I’ve been interested in sculpture for a long time. In college I pursued a brief Fine Arts career, which ended with me pussying out over the amount of sweat involved in sculpting metal. But I’ve been impressed by large-scale stone, concrete, and metal work since I don’t know when.

Last year, because of my girlfriend (who also gave me the book this Xmas), I became interested in Land Art as well. I knew then that my passion for this kind of stuff hadn’t died. I don’t know where it’s going, either, but I do feel like it’s going somewhere.

Filed by Julien at 2:49 pm under random
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Check out the number of birds that show up in Austin, TX, during this time of year. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Filed by Julien at 3:49 pm under video
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Sorry, this is just copied from Hugh’s post, but I have no words for this. (More here.)

Alive in Baghdad correspondent Ali Shafeya was killed on December 14th, details are still coming in. He was 24, survived by mom and sister.

and:

but is that worth even one human’s life? We are still not 100% sure its not the assignment we gave that killed him.

and:

We’ve raised $90, can anyone else help Ali’s family pay for the funeral? his brothers and father are all dead. survived by one sis & mother

and:

you can make a donation to suport his family to smallworldnews@gmail.com via paypal, please note that it is for Ali’s family.

Filed by Julien at 5:39 pm under podcasting
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Ok, so Hugh’s new site EarIdeas has a challenge: Name the best podcasts you know of, and Hugh promises to listen to them and add them if they’re up to par. (EarIdeas wants to provide novices with great first experiences when listening to audio on the web.) So, here we go– I’ll tag a few people afterwards to keep it going.

1. Search Engine: Full of awesome ideas, incredibly well-produced, etc. Altogether favourite show right now. (Thanks to Mitch for the reco.)
2. The Nothing Show: Tim Coyne and Dave Delaney talk about whatever shows up on their twitter lists. I know this sounds idiotic, but it’s fucking hilarious. Just trust me.
3. DYKC: Do You Know Clarence is under 10 minutes of just straight talk. Short podcasts have been having their way with me these days, so Clarence has my respect for producing good content without needing to listen for 45 minutes.
4. Creepy Sleepy Show: Dan Patterson has been doing this forever and hasn’t gotten enough respect. It’s the only political show I can actually listen to. The latest show was over an hour, which breaks my “short podcast” rule, but it was still really good.

I know I should have five right now, but I’m in a kind of rush, so four will have to do. And since I’ve named five people already in this post, those will be the people I tag: Mitch, Dave, Tim, Clarence, and Dan. Move it!

Filed by Julien at 1:58 pm under podcasting
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If you know Chris Penn, you probably know about Myspace friend adder applications. Basically, these applications log onto Myspace for you, add friends, comment on their pages, etc. I don’t know who uses these anymore, but guess what? Now you can get one for Twitter.

I’m not going to link to the site (remember, every link is a vote), but by typing in wwwTwitter.com into your address bar (no dot between “www” and “twitter”), you can find it.

It adds 20 random Twitter friends for you. Imagine that.

Filed by Julien at 3:11 am under random
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I just placed an order for the One Laptop Per Child program. It’s 400 bucks well spent, and I recommend you do the same. It’s available as of today for the US and Canada. You get two right now under their Give One, Get One program.

In addition, if you Canadians can find a way to get an American to place the order (like I’m doing), you’ll get yourself free wifi at T-Mobile hotspots for a year. If you travel enough, that alone is worth the price of the machines.

Also, as Chris Penn put it, marketers have yet another reason to buy the machines: Thousands of them will be coming online during the holidays, so getting to know them is a great idea.

Anyway, so I get one of them, and the second one I buy is automatically going to someone in need, which I feel great about. Go and order one today.

Filed by Julien at 4:48 pm under random
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This video was made after breakfast, reading Sylvain Carle’s chapter from the book with the coolest flash widget EVER (which you can see on the right if you’re on the blog).

Anyway, check the fucking video.

Filed by Julien at 1:36 pm under video
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Took a quick video in a dark bar last night where we were hosting FacebookCamp. I’m starting a Youtube channel, I think, so you can go see it there (or here on the blog, obviously).

I honestly think we need to reinvent the *camp. So do a lot of others. So let’s talk about it.

Filed by Julien at 2:06 pm under random
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Last month, there was this meme floating around– what would happen if Google had to do SEO for its own homepage. It was all a big joke, but now take a look at what they’re testing for China.

I think watching what they do is going to be really fascinating. They’re the underdog over there (with only 22% market share– Baidu has over 50%), so they have to try a bunch of different stuff. They’ve already basically admitted that their untouchable homepage may not be the best answer– it worked for the Western world, sure, but it may not for China. And their population is going to be undeniably powerful in the coming few years.

If you’re interested, take a look-see over here every few days. I’m sure it’ll be changing as they try and figure out what works. What’s really fascinating is that the page is starting to look a lot like Yahoo looks right now– trying similar tactics, maybe?

Filed by Julien at 11:11 pm under random
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