Sharing means caring

I've been meaning for awhile to toss out a a post sharing some neat-oh things I've discovered in both my travels here in the cyber world (is that the correct term?!) and the physical world. Well, today is that day! Partially because I'm trying to win a $50 gift card from Amazon via The Simple Dude, but mostly just because I like to share. If there's something being subjected to the Care Bears vis a vis my brothers taught me, it's sharing is caring. It also taught me that bears with rainbows, hearts and balloons on their bellies are just creepy.

Anyways... tossin' out a few faves!

Blog: Simple Dude in a Complex World

Happy Blog-O-Versary Simple Dude!

Happy Anniversary Simple Dude!  I am a proud Simpleton.   

Phew!  Got that out of the way! 

Seriously though, this is a great site if you're lookin' for a quick laugh or a unique take on the world.  In Simple Dude's words, "I am a 30-something city dwelling professional living in Minnesota.  Like most guys I like cars, sports and beer but I also like movies, TV, music, reading, writing and am a fan of pop culture.  Oh, and I have a shitload of opinions on all those things. "

I'm 30-something, and get Minnesoootan's as a lot of us Canucks do.  Cars? Check. Sports? Meh.  Beer?  Yuck.  Movies, TV, music, reading, writing?  Check. Opinions?  Yup.

We got a lot in common, Simple Dude and I. Check out his one-year-old blog for a fix of funny. 

Blog: Hyperbole and a Half

Yet even more funny to be found here, and some posts even feature dogs! YAY!

This blog features funny stories, hand-drawn (well, mouse-drawn) pictures, and DOGS! Did I mention there were posts about dogs?

A few notables:
Dogs don't understand basic concepts like moving
God of cake

Enjoy!

Website: I-Am-Bored

Where do you go when you're bored? Well, if you tell Google that you're bored, this is where it tells you to go! Full of games, interesting and odd news stories, videos, pictures... you name it, it's here. Be prepared to kill HOURS on this site, or be overloaded by the content. Either way, it's a cure for boredom! 

Farmer's Market: Southwest Edmonton Farmer's Market

Seriously, for all you southwest Edmontonian's, this market is the shiz. You can go on and on about your City Market downtown on 104th, and the Strathcona Farmer's Market, but if you want your staples, and don't want to have to deal with the hassle of pay-for-parking or transit and crowds, check it out.  Great veggies and fruit, both of the organic and non-variety, a few baked goods, a local farm operation for some protein, and the mini-donut-mobile. What more could one ask for?

In the same skein, I'd also like to toss out a suggestion to check out the Salisbury Farmer's Market in Sherwood Park, the Johnson Family Farm is there every week and feature farm fresh cottage cheese, cream, butter, buttermilk and assorted offerings like pork and chicken. No word of a lie, this stuff takes me back to my Ukrainian-Canadian roots childhood and is the real deal. 

Music: Goldfrapp

Now I realize that not everyone has the same taste in music as me (we can't all be perfect, after all) but I figured I'd pimp these guys a bit because they're relatively unknown, but have some seriously great tunes. If you're into a rock/electronic kinda vibe, go preview a few songs on iTunes or your other online music service. I suggest Strict Machine and Train, both conveniently off their Black Cherry album. You may remember the songs from a couple of Nintendo commercials a few years back.  You'll also likely recognize Ooh La La from the album Supernature from a recent Lincoln car commercial. It'll get your toes-tappin' and your legs-a-dancin'!

Movies: Super 8

Now I was going to write an entire post about this movie, but didn't get around to it so I'll toss in a quick review here.  In short? I LOVED THIS MOVIE!! First off, let me say this movie was NOT at all what I expected, and Spielberg and Abrams didn't disappoint. I went in expecting another Independence Day'ish, kick-some-bad-alien-butt kind of movie, and I got...

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!....................

ET!! How awesome is that?!  My only complaint is I wanted more development of the alien's story and character, but otherwise I left this movie feeling like a kid again. It restored my faith that Hollywood can make more than just another summer-blockbuster, chock-full-of-special-effects kind of movie.  Now there are people reading this that are going yeah, whatever, chickie-poo. But seriously, this movie took me back to the 80's, when cinema (or at least the kind of cinema I enjoy) was still good, and had interesting characters, and wasn't all about the special effects.

But that's just my opinion. I encourage you to check it out for youself.

Book: The Story of Stuff

Last pimp, I promise. In fact, I won't even write a lot about this book, I'll just leave it at "It's a great read!". For more, check out my Martha-Stewart-personalities review of it on my other blog, located here.   

The coffee-stain monster

As you may have surmised from a previous post recommending actions to do and not do at 4am, I am a shift worker.  Often-times on night shifts, my brain goes some pretty weird places, and during zombie-walks (walks in which one stumbles along in a (usually) vain attempt to wake oneself up) the office building that I work in can be a pretty creepy place.

 For a few weeks now, this lovely coffee stain has greeting me at the entrance to our work area, and ever since it appeared, I've been thinking this stain is really not what it seems.

 This, dear reader, is what you might see upon viewing it:


This, however, is what I see:

Yup, the night shift does some really strange things to one's brain.  Although I should add the caveat that I see this stain the same way during the day too. 

 What can I say?  Random...

The end of an era...

Space Shuttle Atlantis makes the final trip into orbit.

Recently, the final space shuttle mission blasted off from Cape Canaveral and marked the end of a very cool era. Being a child of the 80's and having a lifelong fascination with the heavens above us, I had always wanted to go see a shuttle launch and once I realized late last year that this was it for the shuttle program, I decided to get down to see one of the final few launches.

Alas, however, it was not meant to be partially due to circumstances which I had little control over.

My disappointment as I watched the shuttle launch live via the internet on Friday morning was extreme, and melancholy followed me for a small portion of the day.

I wanted to have been there, and should have tried harder to make it happen.


Then, a little lightbulb representing a reality check slowly started to come on in my head.

For starters, yeah... it would have been hella cool to be there. But I had tried twice to get a coveted viewing position on the causeway, and had not been chosen for the lotto. This means I would have been delegated to viewing areas along the coast just like everyone else. Given that the day of the final launch was somewhat overcast and quite hazy, I'm doubting that too many people got the spectacular photos they would have liked. Even the footage that NASA broadcast live over their HD channel was not that great, and they have the best camera locations possible. So really, all I missed out on was the sound reverberating deep in my chest, which although disappointing in itself is not the end of the world.

The second little tidbit of reality that permeated my brain has pretty much completely killed any lingering disappointment that I had over not being able to go, and it's this:

When I think about my Grandmother, who was born in the 1930's, and all the amazing, really cool shit she has seen come to fruition in her lifetime, and then think about all the amazing, really cool shit that has even just come to fruition in my shorter lifetime, I now know that the shuttle program ending is not the end at all.

I have read somewhere that science and technology grow exponentially... in other words every cool, amazing breakthrough paves the way toward other cool, amazing breakthroughs, and they in turn do the same for the next leap forward.

To put it simply, the shuttle program was just a starting block... NASA is already talking men on Mars with the next generation of spacecraft that they intend to develop. And you know what? I intend on being around when they launch that particular puppy into the wild blue.  And the cooler thing yet?

It will be yet another starting block for a whole new host of ideas...

Here's to living to 150 years old, my fine readers!

Random commentaries from a random mind - June 2011

Another month (approximately), another round of happenings and goings on to comment on.  Let's start with a little celebutard, shall we?

Lindsay Lohan, perpetual jail (avoidance) bird

How does this girl do it?  She routinely breaks the rules, flaunts the law, and just generally makes a tabloid-lover's wet dream of herself, and yet she still isn't in fucking jail!  Are you kidding me?!  Honestly, there are few words to describe my complete lack of understanding of this situation and lack of balls in the justice system when it comes to celebrities in general.

Heaven help all those little girls that she is a 'role model' for, can't wait (well, yes, I can) to see what she has up her sleeve next.

'Nuff said.

Vancouver riots

My favourite image from the many taken during the riots.
Make love, not war people!!  Photographer: Rich Lam

Ignoring the obvious question of why was there was a riot in the first place, the recent media frenzy has shown that it wasn't just "criminals and miscreants" that were looting, vandalizing, and just generally making asses of themselves, which comes as no surprise to me.  Have you ever seen a pack of dogs?  You can take any one of those dogs by themselves, and they are the sweetest, happiest-go-lucky pup on the planet, but put them in a pack in a situation that is exciting to them, and it's a mob mentality baby (unless maybe you're a part of Caesar Milan's pack, but I digress).  People are no different.  The miscreants may have started it, but they aren't the only blame to lay here, even some well-heeled, (apparently) upstanding citizens have been pegged in pictures.  

I'd also like to point out that the frenzy surrounding the identification of the troublemakers via photos and video on social networking sites is really no different than the mentality that prevailed during the riots.  Only difference is no cop cars are being burned or overturned.  Vigilantiism, while seemingly honorable according to Hollywood and whether through implied threats or actual actions, is still illegal.


Seriously people.  There are better things to riot about in this world than your team losing the Stanley Cup.  Those that started the riot and participated may want to move to a location where they would have good reason to riot.  Might make them appreciate what they have here more.

THE Royal Wedding

Honestly, while not participating in the frenzy surrounding the wedding of Will and Kate, even I have to admit it was a spot of 'happy' in amongst all the 'sad' that generally dominates the news.  So I really got nothin' bad to say here other than congrats to the couple.  I'm sure you've fuelled the dreams of a new generation of little girls who want to find that prince someday, and may you be/become fantastic role models to those that are still entranced by royalty.


Gas Prices

Compliments of:
http://cheezburger.com/Asset/View/4708796928

They're up, they're down (kinda), then back up... where will it end?!  Oil companies try to blame federal and provincial taxes, governments try to blame oil companies and greed... reality is it's the consumer getting screwed in the end.


Just a few points here...

1. Somebody is getting rich (not me or you I assume... well, maybe you).
2. The government tax rate on fuel doesn't vary on a daily or weekly basis.
3. It's all based on supply and demand (maybe mostly... there's other theories out there).

Solutions?

1. Drive less.
2. Develop an alternative fuel source.
3. Become an oil baron (or baroness).

Myself?  I've adopted the 'drive less' philosophy (the others are beyond my mental capacity), which is hard because I live a good half hour drive from the nearest major centre.  My appointments and errands are now all co-ordinated, and there has been a lot more "I don't need that right now, it can wait for another day" conversations in our house.  The bonus?  My car will last me a lot longer as well.


Beyond all that, I got no other opinions on going-on's recently.  May you all have a fantastic Canada Day/Independence Day long weekend.  

Ciao!

It's a rainbow-rific kinda day

God/the Universe/<insert your deity/power here> decided this morning that I needed a bit of a pick-me-up and presented me with a very lovely rainbow. Now I did need a pick-me-up (see previous post on this subject), and it was appreciated. Way to go God/the Universe/<insert your deity/power here>, you rule! 

The well of black gold at the
end of the rainbow.

As I was driving, however, I started wondering just where the end of the rainbow and promised pot of gold was. Initially, as evidenced by the picture on the right, it appeared there was no pot of gold but perhaps a well of black gold at the one end.  I'd have taken that in a pinch, but I'm sure the company that owns the well may have taken issue. So then I started contemplating the other end of the rainbow, hoping that it held better promise.

Much to my excitement, the other end appeared to be somewhere near my work!! How fabulous would that be if I came into work and found a pot of gold?! I sure as hell wouldn't be hanging around for the rest of the day, I tell you what!

Sadly the further I drove, the more it became apparent that the other end of the rainbow was nowhere near my work, and my hopes of walking out the door with a big ole 'sayonara!!' were dashed. I'm thinking the end was maybe a Tim Horton's or something, although those places are more gold mines than pots thereof.

Curse you, optical illusion!!! Oh well, at least the colors were pretty.


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The census man

Recently, our federal government decreed that by law every Canadian citizen had to fill out their census form. The goal? To be able to more accurately gauge our fine country's demographics, and ergo, our needs.

Now while I have other theories about the actual goal of this new law, I'll keep them to myself and instead leave you all to exercise your imaginations and speculate wildly.

This all seemed like a fantastic idea at the time, but the department tasked with the census, Statistics Canada, has epically failed on the follow-through, given our experience and those of our friends and neighbors that we have talked to.

We were all supposed to receive a paper survey in the mail, along with a secure access that allows one to complete the survey online. Why a secure access code? I have no idea.

Well, we received neither. Instead, we received a politely worded little reminder reminding us it was law to complete our survey.

Not wanting to spend the rest of my days incarcerated, I phoned the number provided to see what was up. I was told that yes, there had been a big screwup, and a secure access code would be arriving in the mail shortly, and would I mind completing the survey online? No problem.

Fast forward approximately three weeks, and still no access code, nor paper survey. One afternoon there was a knock at the door and lo and behold, it is some poor unfortunate soul from Statistics Canada. Once we were done pulling the dogs off him (they were happy to see him, honest), our names were recorded and we were handed a paper survey to fill out.

And then he was gone.

Gone, unfortunately, before I realized there was no magic code on the paper form he had left us with so I could dispense with the annoying paper and do our survey online. Not only that, but we didn't even get a return-addressed, postage-paid envelope in which to return our paper census survey.

This is shades of the recent correspondence we received from Canada Post regarding a change our rural address is undergoing for which we had to return a form. It did include a return-addressed envelope, but no postage (which, ironically, it did require). But I digress...

So a week later I still have not bothered to fill out our census form, waiting in (likely) vain in the midst of a rolling postal strike for a magic secure access code which may never come. Might be time to bite it and fire up the pen and pony up some dough for a stamp.

I tried calling one more time, however after being informed the wait to speak to an agent would exceed 10 minutes I decided I had better things to do with a beautiful afternoon.

My tax dollars hard at work.

Fantastic!






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Misunderstood song lyrics



See, even ol' George W gets stumped
by the lyrics sometimes...



You know how sometimes you listen to one of your favorite songs, and on a lark Google the lyrics only to find out they were not at all what you thought?  Here is a short list of examples I've run across recently.  I have to admit that now that I've actually discovered the correct lyrics, these songs make a lot more sense.  Of course, sometimes they make less sense as well.  And the one thing I've discovered is my hearing (or my comprehension?) has improved with age, how very odd...



The Smiths - How Soon is Now?

Apparently one is not the sun and air, but son and heir.  While the correct words make more sense, and being a son and heir to a mega fortune could have it's benefits, being the sun and air just sounds so fun and, well... airy.

Supertramp - Blinded by the Light
Now while the actual lyric is "Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night...", this is certainly not what I have ever heard.  My rendition of this song generally included mentioning something about a douche and a bunch of mumbling.  But given that the rest of the lyrics to this song don't really seem to make a lot of logical sense (especially given I'm pretty sure I know what he's referring to with the 'deuce'), I won't smack myself in the forehead over this one.  Let's just enjoy the catchiness of the tune and pretend to sing along.

The Who - Behind Blue Eyes
No one knows what it's like... to be the Batman.  Actually I have to confess I've always known the correct lyric to this particular tune, but being Batman instead of the bad man is just so much more fun.  That has got to be such a rough gig, fightin' bad guys night after night, and havin' trouble with the ladiez too!  It's gotta be the right kinda gal to dump a secret like that on.  Two thumbs up to my favorite superhero for keepin' it all together and making the streets of Gotham a little safer from the likes of scumbag criminals.  No one really does know what it's like to be him.

You can also check out a more modern take on this song by Limp Bizkit if The Who aren't really your style.  Special props to the Speak & Spell by Texas Instruments for adding it's own styling vocals to this particular version.  You rocked my world as a child, nice to see you're still in the business.

Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton - Islands in the Stream
Don't laugh too hard, but for a small chunk of my childhood I actually thought the lyrics were 'cottage industry' as opposed to 'islands in the stream'.  I blame the fact that we were learning about the industrial revolution in Social Studies at the time...

Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Now the lyrics (or at least the title of this song) are like a pop cultural icon.  The challenge isn't so much singing them, but in actually spelling them which is why I included it in my short list.  I copied the above for my title, thank goodness for Google.

I'd also like to mention I have the original vinyl for this album at home (I'm likely much younger than you think!) and the one side has the 'full' version of this song, which clocks in at something around 17 minutes.  Epic.  The perfect soundtrack to your next weekend bender.