Which I hope is taken in the spirit in which it’s given…
Eugene? I’ve kept silent for too long, and I can’t do it anymore. So, hear these words: for the love of God, PLEASE remove some of the widgets on your blog’s sidebar. You write interesting posts and I like to visit your blog regularly, but when my Rogers cable Internet takes five minutes to download a single page of your blog, when my CPU usage goes through the roof just surfing to your blog, you officially have a widget problem.
Anyway, with the understanding that I’m not perfect and with an appreciation of constructive criticism, I invite you all to talk about what you like or don’t like about my blog design and offer suggestions for changes.
In other news, the latest Bloggers Hotstove is up. I returned after three weeks off, to find Jason Cherniak and Stephen Taylor acting in a lot more partisan fashion. Maybe the Liberal leadership convention is providing a sugar high? Anyway, sound difficulties aside, I had fun, and I hope you enjoy the hour.
Congratulations to Photojunkie
Not only is he up for Best Photo Blog at the Canadian Blog Awards, but he’s all set to celebrate his one millionth visitor, and he’s about to do it in style, with a big contest, prizes for which will be given out this coming January or when the millionth visitor actually arrives, whichever is first.
I don’t spend as much time as I should on Photojunkie. I consider him to be one of this blog’s fathers (although this guy has a closer claim, since he introduced me to the concept of blogging). It was Photojunkie who invited me to join the Greater Toronto Bloggers, which got me into the blogosphere community in the first place.
It’s nice to see that his blog is still going strong. Congrats again, Rannie!
So, It’s Agreed…
…we’ll never, ever, hold the APEC Summit in Vietnam again?
More photographs here. Link courtesy Stageleft.
I especially like Olaf’s comment: “I don’t think any of those leaders would know if they were just getting their chains yanked. Next time a foreign head of state shows up, I say we force him/her to dress in full hockey gear, and get goosed with the PM on rye. They wouldn’t know the difference and they’d have a hell of a time.”
Are You Serious?!
Here are some links that sent my eyebrows through the roof:
- Courtesy Jordon Cooper: President George H.W. Bush blames bloggers for the degredation of political discourse. Oh, really? And I guess attack ads like “Daisy” and the antics of the Swift Boat Veterans had nothing to do with this, eh? New flash, Bush: bloggers are individuals, and thus a product of the culture into which they are born. If politicians and backroom operatives conducted themselves better, then at least they would be seen as marginally better than the more obnoxious blogging ranters.
- Courtesy Dan Kukwa: the quotes from the movie Borat suggest something that would be a very guilty pleasure to go see. I especially like “That would be a Corvette.”
- Dave’s Blogography takes on Boing Boing in a grand cage match for apparently shoddy reporting on an ACLU situation near Dave’s home town. Dave writes an impassioned defense that’s well worth reading, and it will be interesting to see if Cory Docterow responds. Okay so this stuff is pretty serious. I still raised my eyebrows, but not as much as Dave’s eyebrows got raised by the photographs on this post. Okay, my apologies.
- That said, credit to Boing Boing and Cut the Chatter who pointed me to this article about the Bank of America setting a new low in terms of customer service: a man gets suspicious that a cheque that’s been given him is fraudulent. He brings this to the attention of the bank, and ends up arrested. He didn’t write the cheque, and now he’s out $14000 in legal fees and the Bank of America refuses to apologize and reimburse him. This deserves a boycott campaign and it’s getting one. To date, the Bank of America has lost $50 million due to customers closing their accounts in protest.
- Further reading on the Bank of America story can be found here.
- And finally, to take this blog full circle, here’s a link to an alarming post on Eugene’s blog. Well, with Bush Jr. bringing Bush Sr’s officials out to save the remainder of the administration, I guess it’s strangely appropriate that Russia is pulling out its Cold War CCCP shirts out of storage…