Danish retail king Lars Larsen (Jysk) wrote a book about himself and the company, and *gave away* the book, mailed it free to every home in Denmark! What brilliant marketing. It cost a small fortune by Danish standards, of course, but nothing his hugely successful company couldn't easily afford, and what mind-impact this will have, if the book is anything like interesting, for many many years.
Almost anybody who reads, when getting a free book in the mail, will at least try and browse it, see what it's like. And he gets his story from his own viewpoint out to everybody. What a great idea.
The only trick, I'd guess, is to not be so arrogant or obviously self-promoting in the book that you get a backlash in the press. And if the book is actually good and has something to say, it's a home run.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Icelandic Phallological Museum
Icelandic Phallological Museum, wiki article/photo. See the big jars of non-human peni. Not sexy, I promise... OMG.
All Is Well In The Cities Of Hell
All is well
in the cities of Hell
the barking of birds has gone
One kingdom has gone
a curtain has fallen
the theatre entrance is open
"Never never sing never cry"
whispers a sad old frog this morning
looks at you through foggy spectacles
and smiles a sudden smile
There will be no more dyings
no more lyings without shame
The trusty old girl (who said "Jump and fly")
is now ahead on the road
We'll see her again
stay calm, drink your milk
hold forth your hand and bite your tongue
swallow the rightful reaction of fear
that is painfully near when your
face goes numb from the
cold wind of freedom
Jump and fly
in the cities of Hell
the barking of birds has gone
One kingdom has gone
a curtain has fallen
the theatre entrance is open
"Never never sing never cry"
whispers a sad old frog this morning
looks at you through foggy spectacles
and smiles a sudden smile
There will be no more dyings
no more lyings without shame
The trusty old girl (who said "Jump and fly")
is now ahead on the road
We'll see her again
stay calm, drink your milk
hold forth your hand and bite your tongue
swallow the rightful reaction of fear
that is painfully near when your
face goes numb from the
cold wind of freedom
Jump and fly
Eolake stobblehouse 1995
Eclipsing hearts
I had a dream that I was lying under a sheet in an informal friend's gathering, and I was singing Total Eclipse Of The Heart at the top of my lungs. My dad was hitting me up for some pills I had, they came in pill form, capsule form, and marshmallow form.
Might be something I ate.
In the (excellent) TV show Ideal, somebody was tied up and gagged for hours, and was wearing an iPod, only it was stuck at Total Eclipse... I can see that's a cruel fate, but in smaller portions, that's a durn good pop song.
Might be something I ate.
In the (excellent) TV show Ideal, somebody was tied up and gagged for hours, and was wearing an iPod, only it was stuck at Total Eclipse... I can see that's a cruel fate, but in smaller portions, that's a durn good pop song.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Persistence and intelligence
Mike Johnston has again written something insightful. Sometimes less persistence is what is fruitful.
Getting a ride
I've lost time of how many times in US movies and TV I've seen somebody using up huge portions of the plot trying to get a ride home after surgery or to the airport, or whatever. What I wonder is, don't they have taxis? Then what are those yellow cars making life dangerous on the streets of New York?
The "pussymat"
[Thanks to Benny.]
This is so "Danish" it hurts: university students have made a machine for ordinary women to photograph their pussy. The Danish word is "kusse", and it's approximately as naughty as "pussy", so it's funny to see the video where the word is splashed around like confetti after a war. All the pictures are then publicised.
The idea is to devaluate shame and inferiority complexes, and that can only be a good thing.
X100 on the street, almost (updated)
Update: this article gives reasons to use a Leica M9 camera. I put it in here because I feel that the the X100 is "the poor man's Leica". The mechanical-ness of it, the high quality, the rangefinder-like finder, etc, is much like a Leica. There may ultimately be a quality difference, but then a Leica is much, much more expensive. And doesn't have autofocus.
------
It seems the Fujifilm X100 (what a boring name though*) continues to be a hit. It is being delivered now, but I haven't got mine yet. My supplier bemoans that they got one shipping already, but the number feel far, far, far short of the que they have for the camera! (And you had to put up a deposit, so these are serious orders too.)
He also told me it looks and feels great. Something which actually had not motivated me yet, perhaps because I never was a rangefinder user/fan.
But it strikes me that this is actually the fulfilment of a plea I have written here at least twice in the past six years: I wished for somebody to make a compact, yet top-notch quality camera, which looked and felt great and delivered super quality images.
Oooh, I found it! In 2006 I wrote:
But there is one camera we don't quite have yet: the super-quality street- or travel-camera. I want something with the mechanical quality of the Zeiss Ikon or the Leica M, or the Contax T2.
I want something with compromise-free mechanical quality. Something for lovers of excellent tools. I want it to be compact and leightweight like the original Ur-Leica seventy years ago, or Olympus OM-2, or maybe even Rollei 35. ...
I want it to be really fast. Top speed and reliability of the autofocus.
An excellent imaging chip, of course. And a great lens. It does not even have to be exchangable or a zoom lens. Just a really good one. And wideangle.
And here we are! Only five years later, could be worse. (I'm not sure about the speed of the X100, but it can't be bad.)
Update:
Somebody has imagined a black one. That looks nice also!
------
It seems the Fujifilm X100 (what a boring name though*) continues to be a hit. It is being delivered now, but I haven't got mine yet. My supplier bemoans that they got one shipping already, but the number feel far, far, far short of the que they have for the camera! (And you had to put up a deposit, so these are serious orders too.)
But it strikes me that this is actually the fulfilment of a plea I have written here at least twice in the past six years: I wished for somebody to make a compact, yet top-notch quality camera, which looked and felt great and delivered super quality images.
Oooh, I found it! In 2006 I wrote:
But there is one camera we don't quite have yet: the super-quality street- or travel-camera. I want something with the mechanical quality of the Zeiss Ikon or the Leica M, or the Contax T2.
I want something with compromise-free mechanical quality. Something for lovers of excellent tools. I want it to be compact and leightweight like the original Ur-Leica seventy years ago, or Olympus OM-2, or maybe even Rollei 35. ...
I want it to be really fast. Top speed and reliability of the autofocus.
An excellent imaging chip, of course. And a great lens. It does not even have to be exchangable or a zoom lens. Just a really good one. And wideangle.
And here we are! Only five years later, could be worse. (I'm not sure about the speed of the X100, but it can't be bad.)
Update:
Somebody has imagined a black one. That looks nice also!
* Why can't the Japanese think up good names? It's not hard. The Fujifilm... MetaScope... SteelBird... RangeClassic... Finnigan'sWake... LimitBuster... RetroFuture... FantaOptic...
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
"Office Space"
I'm re-re-watching Office Space, and it's such a damn funny movie.
It's about a guy, Peter, in a big office, with real Dilbert-type problems, and he is totally fed up. One day a hypnotist makes him relax totally, and then dies of a heart attack before getting around to waking him up. As a result Peter is now completely relaxed and carefree in his attitude, and this solves all his problems in hilarious ways.
It's about a guy, Peter, in a big office, with real Dilbert-type problems, and he is totally fed up. One day a hypnotist makes him relax totally, and then dies of a heart attack before getting around to waking him up. As a result Peter is now completely relaxed and carefree in his attitude, and this solves all his problems in hilarious ways.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Travel brushes
Thanks to Shawn.
25mm F:1.4
Panasonic says they'll come out soon with a 25mm F:1.4 lens. This is equivalent to a 50mm lens in the old 35mm format, or a "normal lens".
Many companies in recent years are making fast normal lenses like this. I don't understand it, who has asked for them? They are not all that useful, and I think they only became "normal" because they, on a 35mm camera, are about the easiest focal length to make in good quality and cheaply too. ("Around the length of the diagonal" would actually be 43mm, not 50.)
But what I want is not a normal lens, my first two choices are 1) a slight wide-angle lens for general scene photography, and 2) a portrait lens for people and compressed-perspective photography. Those are really useful lenses. To me, a 50mm-equivalent is sat between two chairs.
...Of course some people have used those lenses to great effect, and if it was the only one I had, it would be a good choice for a universal lens (though I think around 40mm is better). But with a changeable-lens system, I don't see the great need for it, certainly not before anybody makes a good portrait lens (for the M4/3 system for example). Panasonic, I'd much rather have a 45mm F:2.0, please (90mm-equivalent). (There is a 45mm 2.8, but it's expensive and does not have the same background blur a 2.0 would give.)
Many companies in recent years are making fast normal lenses like this. I don't understand it, who has asked for them? They are not all that useful, and I think they only became "normal" because they, on a 35mm camera, are about the easiest focal length to make in good quality and cheaply too. ("Around the length of the diagonal" would actually be 43mm, not 50.)
But what I want is not a normal lens, my first two choices are 1) a slight wide-angle lens for general scene photography, and 2) a portrait lens for people and compressed-perspective photography. Those are really useful lenses. To me, a 50mm-equivalent is sat between two chairs.
...Of course some people have used those lenses to great effect, and if it was the only one I had, it would be a good choice for a universal lens (though I think around 40mm is better). But with a changeable-lens system, I don't see the great need for it, certainly not before anybody makes a good portrait lens (for the M4/3 system for example). Panasonic, I'd much rather have a 45mm F:2.0, please (90mm-equivalent). (There is a 45mm 2.8, but it's expensive and does not have the same background blur a 2.0 would give.)
Monday, March 07, 2011
About the celebrity of the day
Update: Watch the video low on this page. Charlie might just become a tad more interesting than the typical imploding celebrity.
He was forthcoming on his affinity for porn stars, saying "it's exciting" and "you already know what you're getting before you meet them."
Porn stars? Really? OK, some european ones are attractive, but all the American ones I've seen have been seemingly made of plastic inside and out. Paint and silicone all the way, and not a glimmer of personality.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Digicams ten years ago...
Not the high point of comedy perhaps, but fun to see how things have progressed.
My first digital camera, around 1998, had truly awful image quality, and the battery lasted like half an hour. But it was still fun even so.
My first digital camera, around 1998, had truly awful image quality, and the battery lasted like half an hour. But it was still fun even so.
Naked therapists? (updated)
I've no doubt I'd be quite interested in this lovely lady undressing, but I do have doubts about whether I would be able to think clearly about mental issues while it happened.
Update: I wonder if anybody is taking this seriously? Meaning does anybody believe that her nudity will aid the therapy? I think naked news anchors is fine, nobody has to pretent they only watch it for the news. But for a person in therapy it's usually a pretty serious area which should be treated respectfully and ethically.
[Update: I figured out how to turn off the durn auto-play. Yeah me!]
Update: I wonder if anybody is taking this seriously? Meaning does anybody believe that her nudity will aid the therapy? I think naked news anchors is fine, nobody has to pretent they only watch it for the news. But for a person in therapy it's usually a pretty serious area which should be treated respectfully and ethically.
[Update: I figured out how to turn off the durn auto-play. Yeah me!]