I recorded another interview for the World Vision Report about Where am I Wearing?. We recorded this one from Ball State’s David Letterman communication center. If you’ve listened to the previous interviews there’s not much new in this one, but it is much clearer. All of the other interviews were recorded continents away over the phone. This one was recorded over an ISDN line in the studio and it sounds like I’m in the same room with Peggy, the host, even though she was in Texas. It’s part of a one-hour special on fashion that will appear on many NPR stations across the country.
I’ve yet to hear myself on the radio, which would be a hoot. But last week a fella…
Kosovo has officially declared independence from Serbia. WAIW? would like to officially recognize the country’s independence. After all, if you don’t like me and I don’t like you why should we live together.
In honor of their move from “semi-autonomous province” to nation here’s a story I wrote four years ago about an overnight bus from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo:
No Boundaries
By Kelsey Timmerman
Cold colorless concrete. Oil stained pavement. Barred windows. Communism is alive and well at many bus stations across the world, but perhaps even more so here in Belgrade where efficient inefficiency, for the people, is at its finest.
“Pristhina, Kosovo, one-way, please.” I hold up one finger to signify one-way…
The BootsnAll gang updated their blogging software so things are a bit strange around here: Comments are going to SPAM even though I have the filter set on “Lovey Dovey” (and yes that is the actual setting’s name); and the Latest Comments section of the home page is empty for some reason. Here’s what they said:
The initial step is moving your current blog over. We’ve done enough testing that this should be a seamless process and you should barely notice a blip. Of course, now that we’ve said that it could all come crashing down 🙂 We’ll be making the switch later this evening (Tuesday, Feb 12th).
To which I thought: “Crap it’s the 14th and I’m still having issues.”
Apologies to Rachael who continues to be banished time…
This one is Nannygate and the object of my ire is ESPN journalist Jayson Stark. While blogging at the Clemens-McNamee hearing, he used “Nannygate” in reference to the controversy of whether Clemens’s nanny kids and himself attended a party hosted by Jose “Juiced” Canseco.
Stark’s misdeed:
1:36 p.m. ET
Nannygate erupts again.
Rep. Tom Davis asked Clemens to clear up how he came to invite the nanny back to his house last week and we learned from Clemens “it was great to see her.”
But as the Nannygate questioning rolled along to center around whether Clemens’ family was at Canseco’s increasingly famous party, Clemens did suggest he came to “believe…
…but I just spend 1.5 hours watching the Clemens-McNamee hearing. I don’t even like baseball!
The sad thing is that someone could and (probably will) bind the transcript of the hearing, put Clemens on the cover, and sell a hundred times more books than the book I’m supposed to be writing.
Of course, maybe if I admit to using HGH to enhance my thumb-twiddling abilities, which fuels my creativity, I could sell a lot more books.
How about this for a title:
Where am I wearing?: a global quest to meet the people that made my clothes…I use HGH…
You gotta give Scalzi some credit, few people talk about money, especially writers who often work a lot to make very little. Although, I suspect, it’s easier to talk about money when you make as much as Scalzi. But Scalzi has paid his dues. Here’s a list of his Science Fiction earnings. In 1999 he earned $400 in 2007 $67,000. (Note: he supplements this income with a fair amount of corporate writing, blogging, non fiction writing, so he was able to feed his family in 1999.)
Anyhow, here’s my favorite point of his unasked-for advice:
8. Unless you have a truly compelling reason to be there, get the…
I can look out the window of my day job’s office in Greenville, Ohio, and see the company (Tiger Eye Design) that’s printing and shipping T-shirts, buttons, key chains, and other swag to Obama-backers everywhere. All the products are made in the USA by union workers.
The people that make our flip flops often work 15-16 hours per day seven days a week. I don’t imagine that this complies with any worker laws, regulations, or compliances anywhere in the world. That’s why I gave the passage below from Deckers Outdoor’s webpage the ol’ “bullshit” sneeze.
Deckers We do not manufacture our footwear. We outsource the manufacturing of our Teva, Simple and UGG footwear to independent manufacturers in China. We also outsource the manufacturing of our UGG footwear to independent manufacturers in New Zealand and Australia. We require our independent contract manufacturers and designated suppliers to adopt our Factory Charter and to comply with all local laws and regulations governing human rights, working conditions and environmental compliance, before we are willing to place business…
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