You know it. I know it. We all know it.
Also: is this Mars, or the Canadian Shield?
The God of War is female? Not news to anyone who’s been reading raincoaster!
Category Archives: raincoaster
what did you do today, raincoaster?
Other than wonder why I have no time to write anything meaningful?
- caught up on affililate links for the blog network, which had to wait till I had a steady internet connection.
- read and responded to emails asking me why, on a weekend (which I do not work) over the holiday season, I hadn’t gotten the above links done
- deleted a couple of dozen emails from LinkedIn Groups I never should have joined in the first place
- updated Flickr contacts
- did some more promotion for my BoJo guest post. I’ll break that Dave Hill yet, you’ll see, boys and girls!
- helped beat down some annoying flightless waterfowl in the forums.
- emailed my friend
, who DOES have time to write meaningful things because he’s got two book deals, on the social media marketing plan for his his current book
- posted:
- Christmas on Acid Revisited (a classic!)
- Spork, the fanfic, the audio, the masterpiece (the greatest fanfic of all time?)
- The Facebook Warning! (check your settings!)
- Gwen Stefani’s Electric Kandy-Kolored Frootloop Parka, Baby (must be seen to be believed)
- Sarah Jessica Parker gives good taste the slip (so THAT’s where the expression “Nippy” came from!)
- Fiveheads! (they always did look a little alien to me)
- The Wisdom of the Ancients ( a great way to save time in the forums!)
- Headlines from Springfield (can you tell the difference between your paper and the ones the Simpsons read?)
I didn’t even have a chance to work on my short story setting Conrad Black in the context of the Cthulhu Mythos. Which is, after all, where he belongs.
What did you do today, raincoaster?
Nothing much. Just:
Merry Fucking Christmas and it is my goal to DOMINATE the google searches for this term, so LINK ME! LINK ME!
Welcome to Copenhagen a video my friend made of her boyfriend’s photos of protester clashes with police at the Copenhagen summit. Pretty heavy stuff, and you won’t hear about this on the news.
Olympic Mural Rises Again The IOC tried to push around a Vancouver art gallery for their satirical art, got its ass kicked!
Missed 604 in which NBC steals an entire post from a Vancouver blogger and, when she calls them out on it, removes her name but keeps the content.
BOB Coworking Space Open House Friday Birth of a funky new workspace!
RuPaul is Going Vogue! Possibly the best of the Palin Parodies
Hugh Jackman is missing something namely ME!
She’s got a good head on her shoulders and then there’s the one that picked out that hat…
Hump Day Links: Habs Edition Some Viggo Mortensen eye candy
The Bookworm’s Bachelorette world’s saddest party.
Economic Theory 101: the raincoaster index
If you’re an economist, you’ve probably heard about all kinds of bizarre and no doubt three-letter-acronymed thingies that measure vitality of the economy. If you’re not an economist (demographically speaking, it is indeed likely that people reading my blog are not economists, as surprising as that may seem) you may have heard of things like the GDP, SET index, and similiar TLA‘s, but have you heard of:
The Hotness Index
The hotter the waitresses, the weaker the economy. In flush times, there is a robust market for hotness. Selling everything from condos to premium vodka is enhanced by proximity to pretty young people (of both sexes) who get paid for providing this service. That leaves more-punishing work, like waiting tables, to those with less striking genetic gifts. But not anymore.
A waitress at one Lower East Side club described to me what happened there: “They slowly let the boys go, then the less attractive girls, and then these hot girls appeared out of nowhere. All in the hope of bringing in more business. The managers even admitted it. These hot girls that once thrived on the generosity of their friends in the scene for hookups—hosting events, marketing brands, modeling—are now hunting for work.” A Soho restaurateur I know recently received applications from “a couple of classic Eastern European fembots. Once upon a time, these ladies must’ve made $1,500 a night lap dancing. At my place, they’re not going to make that in a week.”
In the same vein, and somewhat more directly relevant, at least to MY life and probably to yours, too, since who can afford to eat out anymore, I’d like to present:
The raincoaster Index
I was invited to fourteen corporate holiday parties last year, all within walking distance of one another, all with open bars. This year, NONE! And I didn’t suddenly become more obnoxious, companies have really cut back.
Okay, gripe over. Fucking cheapskates.
@raincoaster: I’m convinced that your drinking binges are a better measure of the economy than the number of advance durable goods shipments.
Questions? Challenges? Drink offers?
Open House: BOB Coworking Space Saves Digital Nomad from Homicidal Rage
We also have an Open House this coming Friday, December 18th, from noon onwards
163 East Pender Street, Vangroover, BC
and yes, we DO have cookies. Or at least apple tarts.
Speaking of which:
Donations to the Food Bank encouraged.
There are some great suggestions for practical, welcome donations in my post at Miss604.
If I do say so myself.
Here’s Muskie’s much-more-dignified article on the new coworking space at BOB. If you prefer your news with a side of funky, read on here.
After months of digital nomadism (entirely overrated, thanks for the brainwashing, Fast Company!) bravely trekking my gear from web cafe to web cafe, always seeking that elusive chair with a view, a plug, free wifi, decent coffee, and at least one sturdy wall between me and any obviously dangerous lunatics, I’ve finally found a home.
And no, I won’t get Dooced this time. We already worked that out. “We don’t really care if you say anything nasty about us” is sort of a precondition of working with me, as some of you may have noticed.
I’ve found my new home just down the street from my house; in fact, it’s between my house and the Irish Heather, which pretty much guarantees I’ll drop in from time to time and get some work done. It’s on the ground floor of the offices of BOB, Building Opportunities for Business, which basically exists to attract and support business on the Downtown Eastside without displacing, well, the people who live here.
Like me.
So, BOB is my homeboy, and he could be your homeboy too, since there are 20 19 18 spaces left for people looking for a great place to work on their own stuff. In the tradition of the late, lamented Workspace, the BOB co-working space (which really needs a snappier name and I’ll get on that as soon as I’ve settled in) offers a variety of free-range desk space, a kitchen, a lounge area up front with a window seat (DIBS! DIBS!), some funky local art on the walls, secure bike storage, and all that a young genius might require in the way of whiteboards, projectors, inspirational company, etc. It’s fully accessible for the handicapped, and the ceiling is lofty enough that you could, without inconveniencing anyone on the ground level, comfortably house a family of tented Bedouin nomads on the ceiling, camels and all, provided they didn’t mind being upside-down.
I guess they’d have to be Australian Bedouins, then. But anyway…
The amenities, etcetera:
Access to the coworking space at all hours from 9am up until I decide it’s time for me to go home (and we all know that normally happens around sunrise) with a desk, wifi, and use of common areas like kitchen, bike parking and lounge: $200 per month. The layout was designed by grad students from Stanford, if memory serves, for maximum Satori-nosity and efficient use of space, which means basically if somebody sneezes no-one ELSE has to shower knowwhatimean?
It’s also available for meetings and special events, which is I believe $300 a day standard rate, or $200 for nonprofits, or if you’ve got a compelling reason for BOB to want your event in their space, pitch them. Or me. Because they are me and I am he and we are all together.
We’re looking at installing lockers, which would be available for a small extra fee. There are no assigned desks; you move around to where you feel comfortable and there’s room on any particular day. And a coffeemaker is on the way, although buying the coffee is up to the coworkers: shall we collectivise? or shall I just take that over and call up Guido the Collections officer to make sure everyone puts some coins in the tin?
An espresso machine is being discussed, but no guarantees yet.
BUT…here’s the best part. Which is sort of the worst part, but bear with me.
The entire space is going to be taken over for an art project during the Cultural Olympiad. This means that working there will not be possible. So, why should you sign up now if you’ll have to go back to that crappy coffee shop for the entire month of February?
Because if you do sign up, you won’t be charged until March. And if there’s room for you upstairs during February, you can work at a spare desk in the BOB offices, just like a real BOBie. And if you do sign up for a 6-month stint, raincoaster here gets a small donation to the “anger management pharmacopia” and becomes, ever so slightly, more Sandra Bullock and less Joan Crawford.
So come by on Friday and say hi and eat all the free food and drop off your own donation to the Food Bank; cash or noms accepted.
raincoaster 