http://katerg.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/201145
for helen: australian kitkat species
i started collecting new and exciting chocolate bars (especially kit kats, they seem to be doing the most experimentation in flavours) when fono was in nigeria and had no chocolate. iapos;d go on hunts at pacific mall to find him something he hadnapos;t tried, so that heapos;d get an extra special surprise in his care package. it didnapos;t help that alex and helen brought me all sorts of new flavours of kitkats too (green tea, lemon cheesecake). as you can see, itapos;s become a bit of a habit now. fono now has quite a collection waiting for him when he gets here in a few weeks.

if anyone wants to try some of these (i recommend the cookie dough and honeycomb), let me know and iapos;ll bring you some back in december!

[click image for full descriptions, and more exciting chocolate bars]
]]> Thu, 10 May 2007 04:05:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/201145 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/199889 plazes: yet another way for self-surveillance mechanism that also incorporates the every addictive element of collection that turns games like world of warcraft into crack.

basically, you collect internet access points, and it plots it on a map and you can show your friends and have it automatically update to your msn or skype name. part of the fun is getting ones that no one else has yet. i wish i had this when i was traveling (esp in nigeria). i wouldve levelled up for sure.]]> Tue, 08 May 2007 09:05:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/199889 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/199527
once facebook reaches a critical mass and has so many people, says greg, why would anyone switch? it would be nearly impossible to compete with facebook once everyone is on it, since any SNSapos;s value is mostly derived from the size and activity level of its user base. besides, why would you give up your 7000 wall messages and 500 meticulously tagged photos that your friends tagged of you. itapos;s not like switching from msn to yahoo messenger, cuz you have digital artifacts and relationships that arenapos;t really portable. sure you can import your photos to something else, but you canapos;t reproduce the social capital created by having your friends tag you in photos and then being able to show off on your profile, the fact that you not only have friends who you do cool things with, but lots of friends who take the time to tag you in a photo.

on the other hand, toronto has the biggest facebook network in the world, so gregapos;s experience could either be the leading edge, or an exaggeration of the rest of the worldapos;s use. they donapos;t use facebook here in perth like they do in toronto, where they are absolutely nuts for it. you meet someone once and they add you. you went to school with someone when you were 2 and you havent seen them in 20 years and the add you. people who wouldnapos;t even talk to you at the mall add you (this has happened to me). here in perth, on the other hand, no one really cares. even at uni.]]> Tue, 08 May 2007 02:05:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/199527 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/199181 Mon, 07 May 2007 07:05:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/199181 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/198951 article today on the political economy of facebook, myspace and the other usual suspects written by ryan bigge (former adbusters staffer before kalle lasn went apeshit).

basically, bigge argues that use of social networking sites can actually be seen as unpaid work. in using such facebook et al, weapos;re essentially producing a stream of self-surveillance that can be monitored, repackaged and sold. for example, taken collectively, weapos;re voluntarily producing huge databases of our preferences that are a marketers dream (think recommendations on amazon.com - customers who bought this also liked...) its the darker side of web 2.0apos;s utopian wisdom of crowds that created wikipedia. but also more broadly, the entire value of facebook is entirely in its users and the networks theyapos;ve created, without any financial compensation. writing in the same vein as bigge, Fred Scharmen notes that even on flickr, the users are creating all the content that drives visits to the site, which in turn provides the eyeballs that can be sold to advertisers. did you know myspace also claims ownership of its userapos;s profiles? so even your online identity is commodifiable content.

the big takeaway for me though was the realization that this could be why we all resent facebook, but still use it. weapos;re aware on some level that something isnapos;t right, that weapos;re giving away something we shouldnapos;t be. but if we opt out and refuse to use facebook, weapos;re essentially a nobody. as bigge puts it: "In this environment [Facebook et al.], the digital enclosure generates increasingly polarized options: either the constant, self-generated surveillance of the type described by Stites or the self-negation (“You don’t exist”) that social network avoidance entails."

bigge also points out the gaming-elements in social networks that make them similar to WoW which i mentioned earlier, and brings this into his analysis of the political economy of social networking:

But digital gardening, like its soil-based equivalent, requires commitment and effort. The
question becomes: are MySpace users at all aware of the political economy of the space in
which they operate? As Kline, et al. (2003) demonstrate, the line between work and play in
the video game arena grows increasingly fuzzy. Wittel (2001), meanwhile, argues that “The
assimilation of work and play corresponds with the blurring of boundaries between work
and private life, between colleagues and friends.”

One can draw parallels between the effort required to invite friends into your MySpace
network and the repetitive work involved in collecting gold in online gaming environments
like EverQuest or World of Warcraft. Cassidy (2006) quotes different Facebook users:
“I remember people competing to see how many ‘friends’ they could
accumulate and how quickly, and tracking how many ‘friends’ they shared in
common with other ‘friends’,” [Olivia Ma] said.

Hilary Thorndike, a schoolteacher who graduated from Harvard in 2005 and
still uses Facebook, has more than eight hundred friends on the site. “I always
find the competitive spirit in me wanting to up the number,” she wrote in an
e-mail.

Williams (2005) underscores this narrative of accumulation:

Seabron Ward, 19, a student at the University of Colorado at Denver, said that many students consider it a status symbol to build a big friend list. ‘This one guy on my list has a thousand,’ she said, a bit enviously. ‘I only have 79.’

so while the gaming element explains why weapos;re all addicted, the problematic political economy of facebook is what makes us hate it.]]> Mon, 07 May 2007 05:05:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/198951 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/199289 has a facebook.

i wonder what his policy is on friending. will he just add anyone who adds him, or do you actually have to have met him or know him? and is it his profile as jack layton the person, or jack layton the politician? he has over 2000 friends, but his profile is private, so maybe its personal. but on the other hand, his image shows him in the role of the NDP party leader. hmmm. i dont envy the context fuck he has to navigate.

i wonder if he thinks about losing votes if he doesnapos;t friend you back.

UPDATE: fono tells me that olivia chow, stephan dion and stephen harper (ew) are there too.]]> Mon, 07 May 2007 02:05:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/199289 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/190843 panel i was on at sxsw. overall, most of the comments were pretty good. but my jaw dropped when i saw this...two people asked why the panel was all women. another said "donapos;t invite these soccer moms* again."

wow. somehow i donapos;t think the numerous all-male panels got any comments like that. because those are normal.


(*soccer mom is another one of those special female-only put downs that have no equivalent male insult, like cougar or bitch, that are used to put women in their place.

also, iapos;m not even old enough to be a soccer mom)]]> Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:04:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/190843 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/189949
so we went to a bar in northridge, the funky part of perth. there was a 10 dollar cover unless you wore a "uniform".. so we got a bit dressed up but the bouncer guy was like no thats not good enough, even though i had an army jacket and bandana. but he let in some guys barely dressed in uniforms (or dressed at all, really) so jen was like wtf this is lame and we left. clearly they were only letting hot boys in for free. we were not impressed. i think jen wanted to pound them.

then we almost got a massage from some sketchy asian place next door but they wouldnt show melody their certificates so we didnt (not for you! not for you!)

then we took jen home but jen was locked out so she climbed onto her roof and somehow got in by removing some of the roofing tiles.

then me and melody went to her place and i met her neighbour the israeli surfie who had pink little kids pillow and duvet covers.

the end.]]> Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:04:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/189949 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/185915
i had this revelation as i read this line from the semiotics of simcity "The moment [the game] is no longer interesting is the moment when all its secrets have been discovered, its limitations exposed"

both world of warcraft and facebook are so addictive and absorbing because the limitations of both are few and ever expanding. world of warcraft has an insane amount of armor/weapons/clothes/pets/food to find, monsters to kill, lands to visit, and quests to complete. and once youapos;re done all that, you can get the newly released expansion pack. similarly, facebook offers the promise of finding or being found by a new friend, or having another photo of yourself tagged, or being mentioned in a note, or having something new written on your wall. but in both facebook and world of warcraft, its no a known, specific goal that is appealing, but the endless stream of new and unknown potentials, of rewards that we can display for everyone to see, but only by continuing to log in. these rewards big enough to keep us interested, but small enough to leave us unsatisfied. and we keep at it because if we donapos;t, thereapos;s the possibility of missing something.

this type of collection-based game design has becoming increasingly popular too... think nintendogs, animal crossing and of course pokemon. its interesting to see it employed in a non-game website such as facebook.

in an even further blurring of games and "real life",justin hall, one of the pioneers of blogging, created a game that kind of runs between WoW and facebook. he calls it passively multiplayer online gaming. basically it keeps track of what websites you look at and you level up based on certain criteria, such as how many reference sites you look up. its super alpha right now and appears to be down as i write this, but check it out. its a really interesting idea.]]> Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:04:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/185915 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/185215 genius description of facebook friending "as a quick consumption deal rather like Pokemon."

its funny cuz its true. gotta catch em all!]]> Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:04:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/185215 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/184755
on the eve of fonoapos;s return to canada...eddie just told me that me and fonoapos;s old kensington apartment was destroyed by a fire. took 100 firefighters to put it out. those were fonoapos;s windows in the middle, mine on the top floor (photos stolen from blogTO). it was one of my favourite and most treasured spots... beautiful sunny windows, a third floor hideaway for thinking and dreaming as the streetcars clatter by... just steps from the lcbo, the best vegetarian restaurant in toronto and my favouritest crazy mash up market in the whole world. an eerily close call, even though we are both thousands of miles away.

whats even more eerie was that our crazy landlord was obsessively paranoid when it came to fire, verging on a total phobia. she had our tiny apartment stuffed with about 10 smoke detectors and had all these insane clauses in the lease that we couldnt use electrical cords or heaters or any electrical appliance that she hadnapos;t personally inspected. she also talked about fire a lot, so she was probably thinking about it all the time. the word on the street was that her dad died in a fire in that same building years ago. i guess there are dangers to living above a sketchy restaurant. she must be freaking out right now.]]> Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:04:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/184755 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/184607
question: if one is a vegetarian for ethical reasons, is it wrong to eat a meat sandwich that one has rescued from the trash? hum.]]> Wed, 18 Apr 2007 05:04:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/184607 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/184549
the student guild guy gave me a cup that tells me when iapos;m drunk.
"but canapos;t i tell when iapos;m drunk on my own?"
"no"
"okay... thanks"

then another student guild guy gave me one of those beer sleeves to keep my cold ones cold.

"thanks. iapos;ll use this to keep my cup-that-tells-me-iapos;m-drunk cold"

i love australia.

i also helped out with a petition to the university to get recycling on campus. cuz they dont have any. its funny, the entire initiative is being run by canadians. i think its cuz we get angsty when we cant recycle something. "where do i put this? what? uhhh i guess ill just carry it around with me until i can recycle it."

most people were really happy to sign, but some people refused without giving a reason, even after a long conversation with them explaining the benefits. some even said "im against recycling." i mean, its not a controversial issue, like nuclear energy. its straightforward common sense that has many clear benefits, such as reducing the amount of stuff we have to mine, reducing the stuff we put into landfills, saving energy and thus reducing climate change etc etc etc. i canapos;t even think of any cons.

baffling.]]> Wed, 18 Apr 2007 04:04:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/184549 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/183947 ]]> Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:04:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/183947 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/177661
in other bird news, i thought it was starting to rain but actually it was just a bird shitting on my arm.

and in totally unrelated news, i left all my bras in nigeria and it sucks.]]> Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:04:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/177661 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/177501
...they have drive through booze stores called bottlemarts. you drive into what looks like a mechanics garage, and they fill your car with drinky poos, and then you drive away.

...there is a way more suburbia than urbia and it is impossible to get a cab.

... qtips are called cotton buds, americans are called seppos (after septic tanks), yeast infections are called trush, and pitchers (of beer) are called jugs.

...burger king is called hungry jackapos;s and uses the old school "two bun" logo. mcdonaldapos;s is the same, but more expensive and has an aussie burger. how come we donapos;t have a canuck burger?

...boys (even the more geekily inclined ones) try to impress me with their carapos;s "system."


...the internet sucks. even at the massive lan party i went to last weekend. i have to go to the library just to play WoW. but this matters less because its always nice outside, and there are beaches.]]> Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:04:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/177501 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/171203 The Websense category "Message Boards and Clubs" is filtered.

URL: http://www.livejournal.com

You are attempting to access a site/material that belongs to a category that may not be associated with your teaching and learning, research and development, consultancy and administrative support requirements. If youapos;re confident that what you are about to view does constitute appropriate use of Curtinapos;s resources, please click the "Continue" button.

You should be aware, however, that your Internet accesses are monitored and in accordance with University ICT use policies and procedures action will be taken for inappropriate use of this resource.

You can find out more about whatapos;s known as the Web Traffic Management solution at the Information Management Services website.

If you would like to contact IT support staff, go to OASIS central (for students) or your local IT support (for staff).

Click more information to learn more about your access policy.

Click Continue to view the material you have requested for study or work related purpose

Flickr is categorized as "Personal Network Storage and Backup"... the same people behind this mustapos;ve been the same genii behind DOPA]]> Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:03:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/171203 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/171153
i live across the street from a supermarket. i now have a shopping cart in my living room.

the campus is a cross between microsoft corporate housing, queenapos;s and stanford.

i am supposed to be doing internet research here, but funnily enough, curtin internet access (which is basically the only i can get because i live in campus housing) outright blocks msn, pop email, irc, youtube, google video and world of warcraft. i get to use flickr for a total of 60 minutes for the entire semester. and whenever i access livejournal or twitter, it gives me a warning saying iapos;m not supposed to be using it unless its for real serious biznass and then i have to click yes, i am doing real serious biznass. facebook doesnt even load.

and i cant use my voip phone or wireless router. and the people i talk to in tech support have no idea what these things are. iapos;m beginning to freak out, just a little tiny bit.


"yeh of course you can get internet, no worries mate!"]]> Thu, 22 Mar 2007 09:03:00 EDT http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/171153 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/165461 secretsoflife sent me this. its a new campaign to try and convince kids not to share their personal info online. they'll even send you a ring to help you remember. a real ring. not a ringtone, like i originally thought... like one that plays some cheesy message every time your phone rings telling you it might be an internets predator calling. no. kids these days don't want digital assets! they want real shit.

but the irony of the whole thing is that to get the ring to remind you not to share your address or name or birthday with people online, you have to give them your address, name and birthday, online. 2 SMRT 4 U!]]> Wed, 07 Mar 2007 08:57:00 EST http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/165461 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/165463
1.) 40 degrees below with windchill. downtown toronto. a citytv reporter, following her camera man down the street. in her left hand, her citytv microphone. in her left, a giant purple-two-scoop ice cream cone.

helen says its very canadian to eat ice cream in the winter.


2.) a lady driving her giant suv, talking on her cell phone with her left hand, checking her email on her crackberry with the right. driving with ?]]> Wed, 07 Mar 2007 06:43:00 EST http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/165463 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/164691
sorry, i couldn't help it. i've been obsessed with this all week]]> Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:56:00 EST http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/164691 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/164693 on the internet everyone has aspergers

K4T3: adventure over
thats getting blogged

Batturai (fono@cs.*****)
I could tell as soon as I said it

K4T3: adventure over
and then im gonna put the meta conversation too
about it. cuz its funny and self referential.

K4T3: adventure over
and this too

K4T3: adventure over
oh where does it end]]> Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:28:00 EST http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/164693 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/164695
i went to work the morning after i got back. everyone wanted to know how nigeria was. all i could really say was "crazy and awesome." i realise that whatever i say will not ever properly convey what i experienced, especially since it goes directly against what most canadians probably think about nigeria and africa in general. all we know is what happens on tv. and according to that, africa is one big homogenous place (see survivor: africa) filled with exotic animals, war and starving and voiceless objects of suffering waiting to be saved by the rich westerners.

***

on my last day in kagoro, the little village fono lives in, we spent a good part of the day sitting out the front. i cut fono's hair and drank orange fanta. it took a good hour and a half because i did it with swiss army knife scissors. people from the village popped by to say hi or talk about politics. even if they didn't come over to chat, they'd wave as they walked by. the kids were particularly amused by the haircut - i am told that women usually cut women's hair, so this was a particularly exciting spectacle. they hid behind the fence and peered out as us, giggling. at the end, fono stood up and went over to them, talked in a silly voice and then bowed as they howled with laugher.

the day before, fono and i walked partially up the mountain that the village sits at the bottom of. we followed the pipes that supply the water that comes down from the mountain. on the way back, the security guard from the water treatment plant came out and invited us in to get an impromptu tour of the facility. it was really funny when he actually turned off the water for the whole village to demonstrate how it worked. unfortunately, even though the water is treated, the pipes still re-contaiminate the water so it has to be boiled and filtered by non-locals who don't have an immunity to the fun organisms hanging out in it.


we had another generous security guard experience a few days earlier, when i was taking photos of the semi-abandoned rail yards in kafanchan. i wanted to go inside one of the huge buildings housing two damaged engines. as i was gingerly peering inside, the security guard showed up. i'm used to being thrown out of places, but the guy (pictured right) was really nice and actually invited us inside and gave us a tour. it was quite refreshing to be allowed to do something that was slightly dangerous, rather than having the decision made for me because of safety or legal reasons. of course the flip side of that is that you get crazy things like 16 people riding in a subcompact car down the highway at 100km an hour.


so yeah. all i can say is nigeria was awesome and crazy. nigeria is a young democracy and rich from oil, but the government is still corrupt from years of institutionalized corruption and dictatorships. so the officials steal most of the money and most people don't get to see any of it. so you get things like awful healthcare and bad water. but in kagoro, you know your neighbours and theres a strong sense of community. people talk to each other. and everyone seems pretty chill and laid back. there are parties and festivals, fueled with palm wine. and rock and roll gospel church. and cute animals everywhere. but most of all, i made some good friends and some wonderful adventures with fono. i really miss it.]]> Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:11:00 EST http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/164695 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/164697
he's gotten really intense and has bulked up a lot. he drinks so much water now i think he might explode. he licked the water drippings from the faucet for about 10 minutes today while i had my bath. he also won't sit still and is a lot pushier with his mootching activities. it's like he's on ritalin.]]> Sat, 03 Feb 2007 20:03:00 EST http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/164697 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667 http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/164699
the second day i was here happened to be a sunday. this meant that the children had nothing to do and were bored out of their minds. fono, being the town batturai/paris hilton, was already a favourite source of entertainment. but now, fono had a new companion. this powerful combination of factors lead to a near riot outside our house (think: what happens when paris hilton gets a new beau. paparazzi shitstorm!)

we were walking back to the house and children ran at us from everywhere and attached themselves to us. it was cute, especially this one little girl who i had met the day before. but then it just got awkward, especially because i haven't really interacted with little kids since i was one. especially because i was all fucked up on my anti-malarials. so there i am, dazedly walking down the path with 5000 laughing children attached to my arm and touching me all over with all the adults smirking. when we reached the house, the large mob and i stood awkwardly looking at each other. then, there was almost an incident involving a larger more surly girl with a voice like an android who suddenly turned up wanting to pick more oranges even though she had picked them all already. we eventually went inside. but the children - now lead by android girl - camped outside the house for the rest of the afternoon. every time we looked out the window, they would get very excited and call for us to come out. it was when i decided that living with fono here was like living with paris hilton. i never want to be famous]]> Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:34:00 EST http://katerg.tigblog.org/post/164699 43.6666667 -79.416666743.6666667-79.4166667