@IssamHeddad

I am addicted to the Internet. Among other things, I like to see what people are saying about me, but also like to see what people are saying about food in general. One of the sites I visit regularly is Chowhound, where food-obsessed people like to talk about what they ate last night or where they are going to eat or where they can go for a specific food. It seems as if the majority of the entries read something like "I'm going to such-and-such restaurant. What's the best thing on the menu?"

When I read that, I think: Why should you give a shit what the best thing on the menu is? Maybe you don't like the best thing on the menu. Maybe the so-called best thing is deep-fried yak brains, and maybe, just maybe, deep-fried yak brains don't appeal to you? Why don't you just order what sounds good to you? Well, I already know the answer. It is because people are afraid of being mediocre, of being ordinary.

It wasn't that way twenty or thirty years ago; it was easier to be satisfied. People didn't have cell phones. There were no flat-screen televisions. They didn't feel the need to indulge in eighteen-course dinners that some jerk-off restaurant reviewer describerd as "orgasmic." They didn't have any of the media hype we have now that is supposed to make us happy or even contenders for happiness. People were more content with their ordinary lives and with their mediocre desires.

Eat Me - The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin

Read it for free on Google Books.

The way a Digital Native see his (or, once for all “her“) environment is deeply shaped by computer games. “When he is buying something”, says Edouard Le Marechal who engineered the survey, “finding the best bargain is a process as important as acquiring the good. The Digital Native enjoys using all tools available in his arsenal to outsmart the merchant system and to find the best deal. He doesn’t trust the brand. Like in a game, the brand is the enemy to defeat”.

According to the study, brands face a serious challenge from the Digital Native. Not only does he gets a kick out of triumphing over the brand, but he is not deceived by the marketing pitch. To make things worse, he’ll become an expert, he’ll achieve more knowledge than the merchant trying to lure him. That’s part of the game. Reading the GENE-TIC survey, brands and their vector (advertising), appear under siege in multiple ways. They look increasingly disconnected and outpaced by their target. In addition, advertising is reduced to its utilitarian dimension: if an ad message does not carry an explicit promotion, it is unlikely to lead to a good bargain.

Selon GENE-TIC, une étude sur les 18-24 en France par BVA et analysée par Frédéric Filloux de l'excellent blog Monday Note.

Au coin de la rue où je travaille.

Je viens de découvrir le Music Animation Machine, un projet de visualisation de données musicales qui permet de décoder les éléments d'une partition en solfège et les retranscrire en éléments visuels compréhensibles par le commun des mortels. Le résultat est une simple et élégante animation qui permet de "regarder", comprendre et apprécier la musique classique. À voir en HD et plein écran.

D'autres vidéos sont disponibles dans le canal Youtube.

Thanks to @JPBarlow for the inspiration.

Je me suis abonné au Bixi malgré le fait qu'il boude encore mon quartier (St-Henri). Pour pouvoir rentrer à la maison en vélo, je suis donc obligé de m'arreter au marché Atwater et continuer le reste à pied (entre 5 et 10 minutes). Ce qui n'est pas si mal sachant que mon coloc et son frère travaillent au marché, respectivement dans une boucherie et une fruiterie. Sauf que, fainéant comme je suis, je me démotive toujours de faire tout ce chemin à vélo.

Mon chemin alternatif, comme a été le cas aujourd'hui, est de m'arrêter au Quartier Chinois, faire quelques courses ou m'acheter des mignardises. Miam!

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