Jon’s blog

Man. I talk a lot about change. How global change can only result from individual change, how individual change occurs when we are authentic and fearless. I talk a lot about this here and in person and I carry these ideas into action as best I can in my personal life, but I have got nothing — nothing — on the Yes Men.

If anyone is sincere it’s these guys. If anyone is fearless. If anyone has balls of goddamn titanium-plated diamond it’s these guys.

The Yes Men are just a couple regular dudes who use cheap suits, painstaking research, and visionary wits to purport themselves as spokesmen for corporations and organizations. (More accurately, they purport to be assistants or deputies of actual spokesmen, who unfortunately had to cancel at the last moment.) They appear at trade shows, conferences, even on television, and deliver statements on behalf of these companies and organizations. The statements they make are not the usual corporate evasion, buck-passing or blame-laying, but admissions of guilt and pledges of reparation. Eventually they’re found out, and the organizations they’ve (mis)represented are left to either step up to the plate and do the right thing, the thing which has been promised and which ignites fires of surprise, gratitude and progress in peoples’ hearts, or to whine about being the victims of a cruel hoax and shouldn’t we all feel sorry for them ‘cause their wallets aren’t bursting quite enough to afford ounce one of compassion or justice.

For example, in 2004 they landed a TV interview by creating a website for a non-existent DOW Chemical ethics department, then waiting for someone to notice. Someone did. The BBC. The BBC was putting together a report on the twentieth anniversary of the catastrophe at Bhopal, India. Union Carbide owned the chemical plant that leaked, but since then DOW bought them out. DOW immediately settled Union Carbide’s debts in the US. Three years passed without any word on a settlement for the survivors and families of the dead in Bhopal. The 18,000 dead. The Yes Men agreed to appear on the BBC News special. I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil it. Except that when they were ridiculed for giving false hope to the people of Bhopal what did they do? Hang their heads and say sorry? Shit no. They did what DOW wouldn’t: they went to Bhopal to find out what the people really think, really feel, and really want.

If you’re interested. No. If you’re interested or not, even extremely not, I encourage you to watch this documentary the Yes Men have made and distributed of their work. It is incredible. It is massively inspiring. The video is freely available to watch, to copy and to distribute. Get the torrent right here, or buy the DVD from their website. The video begins with an introduction explaining that the US Chamber of Commerce has demanded all copies of the video itself be collected and (I may be recalling this wrong) destroyed, as part of a lawsuit filed by the Chamber against the Yes Men. I’m delighted to do my part by spreading it.

If this kind of thing suits you to the core, you can also get involved by signing up at the Yes Lab. The Yes Men are looking to breed in a cellular, Improv Everywhere sort of way. Their mission is geared specifically toward financial corruption, so I can’t imagine it as the be-all end-all answer to the world’s problems, but damned if it won’t wake a lot of people up to the idea of change. Especially change as an individual pursuit. Hell, an individual responsibility.

Do yourself a favour and watch. Do the world a favour and get in the spirit.

~J

Well. I started a new job today and it went quite well and as a result I shelved the longer but unfinished U of J: 201 post I’d planned for today. That means, you guessed it, it’s time for a visit from the Holiday Animal! This holiday season it comes bearing some pretty keen gifts indeed.

1. Start.io. I’ve never been a homepage kinda guy, more an about:blank kind. This service has very swiftly changed my mind.
2. Teux Deux. Likewise, I’ve never gone in much for to do lists. I keep them and forget. I remember but don’t heed their articles. This service may be changing my mind. It also may not be. A few minor enhancements would change that and they’ve even provided a simple feedback interface so, who knows, maybe they’ll adopt my suggestions.
3. Friend plug, I: A longtime writer buddy of mine is running a kickstarter drive to raise funds for a top quality second edition print run of his self-published novel, A Life Transparent. The goodie bag rewards for donations are copious and generous. If you’re into supporting indie lit, this is about as independent as it gets. Check it out. (Another dear friend put together that book trailer. I’m undecided on the idea of book trailers but no bones about it she did a classy job.)
4. Friend plug, II: Another longtime writer buddy is running a very intriguing essay series on video games as mediums of fictional storytelling. I should say active and interactive storytelling, collaboration between audience and what you might crudely lump together under the title author. I’m quite enjoying it so far. He’s captured a number of ideas I’ve flirted with over the years but have never been able to articulate. For those of you daunted by the word essay, don’t worry, it’s got pictures.
5. Khan Academy. Apparently some guy thinks he can revolutionize education by providing it for free online? Apparently it’s he’s right? It’s heavy on the maths and sciences at present, but the potential is astounding. I’m not sure how similar or dissimilar it is to Open University — I have yet to give that more than a cursory look.
6. Game Seeds. This is too cool. A game about making games. It’s designed with video games in mind but I envision applications well beyond. With a few simple alterations this could easily be a fun, simplifying, routine-breaking way to plot out stories and novels and any other form of narrative. My birthday is totally coming up, hint hint.
7. Last but not least a J Designs plug. I finished this sample a while ago, I just haven’t mentioned it. Bitmap. Cute and fun but also functional, built to showcase features of HTML5. Try the stage select!

Today is my dad’s 67th birthday and yesterday was my baby sister’s first wedding anniversary and next month I turn thirty. I still get schoolchild-giddy over robots, though, so I don’t feel old yet.

~J

We’ve got a Tooth Fairy, an Easter Bunny, some Dia de los Muertos Catrinas, animals and anthropomorphised mascots for all sorts of festivities all over the globe. Even a few Baha’is out there have tried to get an Ayyam-i-Ha Camel to catch on, which I think is ludicrous given the faith’s caveats about manmade traditions. Anyway since I tend to agree with those caveats and think of myself as a non-denominational guy I’m going to institute the least-denominational holiday animal I can think of. The Holiday Animal!

If you’ve been good, or bad, or I feel like writing a low-key post, the Holiday Animal will appear with an unmarked container full of links. Hopefully shkle will have something for everyone to enjoy. If not, it’s your own fault for being jaded and the Holiday Animal couldn’t give a rat’s ass.

In the Holiday Animal’s container on this its inaugural visit:

1. How To Be Awesome. A young podcast by a couple of long time friends from the old hometown, Sondra and Kim. They’re gaining steam and vision quick and it’s a lot of fun to listen while they do. Note: I generally dislike podcasts. I don’t even like the word.

2. Hateris. Ha! Tetris that conspires by clever javascript to thwart your every move. Personal high score: 5 points. This is my kind of game.

3. 7DPro. I’ve recently begun experimenting with my camera’s video recording feature. The possibilities of in-camera colour profiles and prime lens aperture are wild, beyond the ability of top of the line film studio cameras. That is, if you know the tricks to using a DSLR like a studio camera. I do not. This is where 7DPro comes in. It’s run in part by a friend of mine back east, who comes from a TV studio background and is quickly becoming a guru of DSLR film techniques. The site is geared toward Canon users but the principles and knowledge are helpful no matter your brand. You can bet I’ll be reading up.

4. Awesomest zombie T-shirt ever? Quite possibly. Buy one for me while you’re at it. Men’s small.

5. Diaspora. In response to Facebook’s recent privacy rollbacks, a crew of college nerds set out to revolutionize social networking by decentralizing it, making you the party responsible for what you share and with whom. They’ve gathered the necessary funds via Kickstarter and will soon (or perhaps, at the time of this writing, already have?) withdraw from the world of sunlight and sleep to the insomniac dream that is fulltime computer programming. I for one am holding my breath for the results.

6. Ozone. Why, what’s this, Holiday Animal, a plug for yours truly? Aren’t you generous. Ozone is the latest, fullest, and coolest design in my line-up of samples. This one is properly copyrighted and for sale. The others, since they’re compact and not so full, are CC-licensed for free use, modification and redistribution.

In other news, my dear Auntie Mamie has for years been compiling a family tree. The internet, being the internet, has opened bottomless vaults of info previously unavailable to her. As a result, she’s traced our direct ancestry back fifty nine generations. Fifty nine! I went plumbing along one of the indirect roots and got as far back as the fifth century — to one Theodoric, King of the Visigoths. What really tickled me was to learn that I’m a direct descendant of certain Kings of England, namely Edward I and III. Edward I, “Longshanks”, you may remember as portrayed by Patrick McGoohan in Braveheart. As if that’s not enough villainy to have in the old blood, Edward I’s grandfather was King John, who we see depicted in his pre-coronal days as Prince John in the Robin Hood legend. So much villainy. I love it. I also don’t mind the dash of Richard I and Edward III to round it out. Also the Black Prince, who wasn’t as sinister as I’d hoped but just wore black armour into battle. Close enough.

On the one hand this is all very cool. On the other, it just goes to show how caste and other old-world standards of inequality are bunk. Still, on the gene-spliced third hand, I’ve got a lot to live up to. I kind of like having those legacies over my shoulder to help motivate me to kick ass on my terms. Not like I’m about to wear black armour to my writing desk or anything. Just the cod piece.

~J