No monthly fees, no equipment to install
Cats. I love 'em. We used to have 2 before the allergy situation got out of hand. Fear not - they both ended up with good families, thank goodness. Taz, the one on the left, was the only cat I've ever known who played fetch. Ash, the one on the right, had this anatomical anomaly that allowed her to splay her rear legs straight behind her (I don't know - is this normal for a girl cat?). The two had a love/hate relationship with each other. We always accused Taz of bullying Ash until we caught Ash doing the teasing. I loved the way Taz would talk back to us when we'd tell him it was time to vacate the bedroom (if we didn't kick the cats out, we'd never get any sleep).
Calvin & Hobbes (the comic) is a riot. But my favourite series has to be the snowmen art series. I just can't get enough of it. Now you can enjoy it too.
I loves me a great concert. But it's also gotta 'sound' good. Enter the DVD. I've seen a few concert DVDs, but just recently I saw one of the great ones: Eagles - Hell Freezes Over. That was some amazing sound. I was just a tad disappointed at some of the songs they selected to play (I would have liked to hear New Kid in Town and One of These Nights), but I can't find fault with the quality. If you're one of the 15 people who haven't seen it yet (on a good entertainment system) - you ought to go get it.
You would think liquid dishwasher detergent would be better than powder. That's the assumption I've made for the longest time and that's what we've been using. But I've never been satisfied with how some of our loads turn out.
So the NHL season is about to start (5 Oct) and the CBC lockout is still on. So if the football game broadcasts to date are any indication, we are likely to see hockey games televised sans commentators. With the exception maybe of Bob Cole, not hearing any chatter may not be a bad deal. It could be very atmospheric to actually hear what's happening on the ice. I will miss the banter between Don and Ron during Coach's Corner though.
Brian Wilson (of Beach Boys fame) wants you to donate to the hurricane victims' cause so much, he's made a deal. If you'll pledge $100 or more, not only will he match it, he'll call you on the phone and chat for a few minutes - answering your questions. I'm not making this up. Is that freakin' cool or what?
Here's another splendid movie, this time an animation called Krapooyo. Click on the flower to choose a Quicktime (mov) or Divx version. Very clever.
Want to see why you don't wanna hire nerds to make a music video? Here's why. Check out Astronomyx's Really Big Universe.
Well, I think I have an explanation for why the Mozilla Firefox browser doesn't show up with a huge share of the browser market. It's because there exists a Firefox extension called "Firesomething" that randomly changes the name of the browser every time you load it. You can even add your own words to the extension, so it's quite possible to load Firefox and have it call itself "Mozilla Spacemonkey"......
In the market for a castle? This site lists a few. The pictured one would be cool for a mere 1.5 million Euros. Or rent it for 1500 Euros a week.
OK, here's something I never knew about - banned books (in the US). The American Library Association is trying to get the word out about books that have been banned or challenged (recommended to be banned). All so that you are aware why books have been deemed 'offensive' and so that maybe you can do something about it.
A great story on the history of Canadian comics - if you're into that sort of thing.....
From the Calgary Sun:
The marketing weasels got me yesterday. Oh - they got me good.
Now, is this a cool lookin' car, or what? It's called the "Moovie", it's the winner of the 3rd Peugeot Design Contest.
If you like claymation cartoons, then give this Creature Comforts clip a look-see, in which zoo animals discuss what it's like to live there.
Perhaps I am too optimistic, but there are things I figure should exist by now - but alas, they do not:
Calgary has been running a pilot curb-side recycling project for a few months. This is to study the effectiveness of instituting a city-wide program. Currently, you have to bring your own recyclables to various drop points. Unfortunately, quite often the bins are full. I'm thankful we have a program at all - but I eagerly await the day when they pick it up at all of our homes.
From what I hear, there is no other place on earth that takes their vending machines as seriously as Japan. They have vending machines for everything! Eggs, rice, cell phone recharging station (shown), toilet paper, kid's toys, flowers, porn - they even have machines that will take your pop can and give you your recycle deposit back. The Japanese are heads and tails ahead of us technologically, and this is just another example. While you're at the site (follow the link), check out the parking garage!
Need some foolishness to distract you for a while? How about Buddy Lee - Guidance Counselor? You can even write on the blackboard! Hard to believe this is just a viral for Lee Jeans....
Isn't it ironic that an area which has the largest concentration of oil refineries in North America (the Gulf coast of Texas) can't provide enough gas for the residents of the area trying to escape hurricane Rita? I've been reading stories of people trying to escape Houston by car and running out of gas long before reaching their destination. These cars are blocking highways, forcing even more people to run out of gas. One woman didn't find gas until she reached San Antonio - almost 200 miles (320km) away, normally a 3 hour drive that took about 8 hours. Update: another family travelled from Houston to Palestine Texas (170 miles or 274km) in 30 hours. They still had 1/4 tank left. They were driving a Prius hybrid.In light of the fact that these oil refineries are shut down until Rita passes - which will create yet another gas crisis, maybe it's time to consider that permanently located industrial facilities (like refineries) are no longer viable and must be designed to be movable under certain circumstances. Either that, or they have to be built to be hurricane-proof. Or someone has to do more to deal with the kind of mandatory evacuations that are being forced upon these residents.
A little over 5 years ago, I had just retired from the Armed Forces and was attending courses to acquire the papers that proved I knew a couple things about computers. I was attending a program during the day (partly taught by a former colleague in the Forces no less) and I was also attending a night course called Net Prep. This was a networking course sponsored by 3Com and was designed to lead you to a type of networking certification. Unfortunately, it was a total waste of money. I was pissed. The instructors were (for the most part) third rate, they didn't even know their subject matter very well and I really felt I had been swindled out of several thousand dollars. I wrote a letter to the school explaining my issues and they basically excused the course as a "beginner's course" in networking. Yeah. A beginner's course that leads to "industry recognized" certification. It must have bombed 'cause they don't offer it anymore.
Habs fans used to chant "Guy! Guy!" for superstar Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens back in the day. Then the "Guy!" chant passed to Guy Carbonneau, perhaps the best penalty killer of all time. It may be too early to tell, but based on the renewed chant last night during Montreal's clobbering of the Tampa Bay Lightning during exhibition play, Guillaume Latendresse may be the next player to earn the call. He earned the first star and got 2 goals and an assist. He could be the first 18 year old to crack the Habs' lineup since Petr Svoboda.
I was wondering when advertisers might risk ditching the "100lb-models-as-normal-women" portrayal and start using "real" women. Looks like Dove is steering in that direction with their "Real Women have Real Curves" campaign. But I think we'd agree that these women are still on the "model" side of average. Oh well.............baby steps, I guess.
Last night Darlene and I went to see Ron James in concert. He was being filmed for a CBC appearance that will likely air later this year. OMG he was freakin' hilarious! I've always liked his material and last night the theme was Western Canada. Nobody was safe. It was a 90 minute laugh-fest. Here's an excerpt (paraphrased from memory, of course):
You think you know dangerous intersections? Have you been to Saigon? No? Then you are in for a ride my friends. I think the rule here is - there are no rules. But everyone amazingly seems to make it through the intersection in one piece. How do they do it?
On the local news they did a study on travel across our fair city by car versus transit. The first trip studied was from the far southwest to an industrial area in the southeast. The car trip took 30 minutes. The transit trip took 2 hours.
Trouble waking up? This alarm clock hangs above your bed. After you've set the alarm, the glowing Sfera gradually dims and the music fades as you drift off. When the alarm goes off, you must reach up and tap it, which triggers the snooze function and makes the alarm rise higher. As each snooze interval runs out, you must reach further each time to gain another ten minutes of snooze. When it reaches the ceiling, you have no option but to reach for it and drag it back down to your bed - an action which switches off the alarm and forces you finally to get up.
Well lookey what I found. The definitive collection of SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy clips. Finally, I get to see them all......
It's silly - sure, but I howled nonetheless. Chris Tallman's Batman (with toy action figures).
Let me outline my business model and when I finish, you can tell me whether I'm criminally insane.
If you're into CG (computer generated) art, I recommend this site. The artwork is incredibly life-like. I'm quite convinced we aren't very far from realistic movies that don't need live actors anymore (except for voices). Final Fantasy was just (by future standards) an amateur preview. Perhaps it's close to the time when fantastic sci-fi movies based on books like Rendezvous with Rama can be made. Actually, if this can be believed, the script is already being written and the movie will be produced by Morgan Freeman.
You've seen Wikipedia, right? It's the free online encyclopedia that people can contribute to. It's most cool.....
I'm sure when the state of Arizona created this LawforKids site, they didn't intend for the material to be funny. Unfortunately for them, it's freakin' hilarious! Bad acting / voiceovers combined with lame story lines adds up to produce some of the finest fun-fests ever. For starters, take a look at 'Toons', then browse to "T.P. Spells Trouble". Classic! Hehehehehe.
I love stumbling upon great web design. So I flipped when I saw this AgencyNet Interactive site. Good use of Flash. This is how it's done.....
Bill Gates meets Napoleon Dynamite. What could be funnier? Who's nerdier? This movie (hosted at ifilms) is a capture from an audience member at PDC 2005, so the quality ain't that hot. IDIOT! Unlike other snippets you may find, this is the whole clip.
Very witty photos of miniature people posed with comparatively giant sized every-day objects. Excuse the slightly cumbersome flash interface. Very cool......
The VCR is a dinosaur. Enter the PVR, like a VCR, but a lot smarter and it records your TV shows to a hard drive. So what? So, that means you could then save the recordings to a DVD. It also means you can skip ahead instantly, unlike a tape.
So our Alberta government has hinted they might issue us a "dividend" cheque, but there's no specifics yet. I've heard rumours of $300 per taxpayer. Ralph - if you haven't decided yet, consider the following rules of eligibility:
Oh my! Samsung has made a 57" LCD HDTV. Only available in Korea for now. Excuse me - I need to get a mop.........
I was hoping this day would come. Not so much for me, but for my "goth-loving reader" (you know who you are). Worth 1000's "If Goths Ruled". Very nice.
I don't like tatoos - at least not on me. I agree that some tatoos look neat - for now. But seriously, I don't think they'll look neat forever. I am horribly biased. I base most of my tatoo opinion on my dad's tatoo. He got it in the Navy and of course it looks awful now. I know tatoo quality has come a long way, but I'm still convinced those things are going to look pretty dumb (and probably pretty bad) as you get older.
I stumbled upon an amateur gallery of photos - a fantastic timeline of how things unfolded in New Orleans. This is a gem of a find for one simple reason - it is not tainted or motivated by press sensationalism. It is honest, unbiased and moving.
David Zamos learns the hard way what kind of company Microsft is - but he takes them on and gives them a taste of their own medicine. This is almost a carbon copy of the kind of tactics the RIAA have been using to get music sharers to settle. In this case though, Davis didn't actually do anything wrong. There's hope for all of us.
