"You're not cop, you're little people"

Like your quotes do ya? Then go visit Wikiquote. And yes - they do have a quote of the day....

BTW, what movie is the quote in this post's title from?

Your next kid car trip can be more fun....

If you're tired of the traditional folksy kid's songs, give Mother Goose Rocks a listen. They have samples of some of their songs, even a few mp3's to download. The CDs offer these and more by artists that sound strangely familiar. Kids will love 'em, you'll get a chuckle or two yourself. There's even some videos (cartoons) of some of the songs.

Andy Warhol......you had no freaking idea......

Since you're here, you already know about blogs and probably podcasts. How about video blogs or vlogs? One of the most popular right now is Rocketboom and it's not hard to see why. People, this is a glimpse of the future and it means the masses get their shot at informing and entertaining each other. Watch out network TV weasels......

Future disappointment

Imagine if you will that someone from the 1960's finds a way to go forward to our time. If this someone found an average person to interview about the present, I think this is how some of it might go:

1960's person: So, do we have air cars?
2005 person: Nope
60's: No air cars!? How about household robot maids?
'05: Uh....no. We have robot vacuums....
60's: Sheesh.
'05: We have computers! And cell phones!
60's: Cell phones?
'05: Yeah. You can get a call from just about anywhere!
60's: I'm not impressed....
'05: You can even send text messages!
60's: Why would you send text when you could talk?
'05: Uhh...
60's: Are there moon bases?
'05: No.
60's: Mining colonies on Mars?
'05:No. We haven't even sent a human there yet.
60's: What the hell have you people been doing for the last 40 years?

But is it art?........encore

This is part of a painting by chimpanzee artist Congo, completed in the late 1950s, which will be auctioned off at London's Bonhams auction house.

Congo, who was born in 1954, produced some 400 drawings and paintings between the ages of 2 and 4. It was not immediately known if he was still alive, a Bonhams spokeswoman said. In 1957, animal behaviorist Desmond Morris organized an exhibition of chimpanzee art at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, including works by Congo. Critics reacted with a mixture of scorn and skepticism, but Picasso is recorded as having owned a painting by Congo, Bonhams said.

This piece is called "If he touches my banana one more time, this is what his brains are going to look like smeared all over the floor...."

I think, therefore I compute....

How do you talk to someone without opening your mouth? NASA refers to it as subvocal speech. Scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center in California have developed a system of tiny sensors that read nerve signals in the throat that control speech. You may not make a sound when, say, you read silently, but your nervous system is buzzing with activity. Recently, they used the system to make the first subvocal cell phone call.

Coming soon to a computer near you: Sub-vocal computer command interface.

Coming soon after to a schizophrenic support group near you: How to stop the voices in your head from yelling Format C! Yes!

Tut revealed

Using data from CT scans, researchers in France have created a model of King Tutankhamun as he looked shortly before dying at age 19.

That's eerie. Am I imagining things, or does His Highness look a little worried - as if he's about to die in a few days?

Spring went that-a-way

Mother Nature graced us with another Spring snowfall today. That's right eastern Canada and the US - it snowed today in Calgary. No wonder Canadians have this reputation for living in igloos and eating whale blubber....

We ROCK!

As Canadians - we are sometimes accused of having trouble with our identity. We often compare ourselves unfavourably to Americans. But we happen to have a lot of subtle, but really cool things about our culture that sets us apart quite nicely. Cases in point:

One of our TV newsmagazine programs (W5) picked the song Fool's Overture by Supertramp as its theme. Not after Supertramp became retro or clasic rock, but back in the 70's and 80's.

CBC television, often criticized for being boring and ineffectual, aired Kids in the Hall in prime time. This is something the US would never have dreamed of doing back then, what with guys pretending to be girls, being intimate with each other, etc.

I can also remember a time when the CBC couldn't air their regular programming one Sunday, so they filled the slot with Pink Floyd Live in Pompeii. I remember the day clearly and was in awe regarding this daring time filler.

Limerick dictionary

The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form or OEDILF is attempting to create an online dictionary, where each word is represented by limericks.

Pilfered from BoingBoing.

Gone to the dogs

A newborn baby abandoned in a Kenyan forest was saved by a stray dog who apparently carried her across a busy road and through a barbed wire fence to a shed where the infant was discovered nestled with a litter of puppies, witnesses said Monday.

When the mother was asked what she'd do once she got the baby back, she answered, "Woof! Bark! Rowlff! Grrrrrr!!!"

Company intranet

I work for a rather large company with its own intranet. It has some cool features. Keep in mind, I've never worked for a company with its own (well used) intranet before, so these may seem ho-hum to many of you out there:

• A buy and sell area, with 'items for sale' and 'items wanted to buy'
• A forum where you can ask the executive about anything (and we use it too)
• The cafeteria menus for the week
• The corporate phone directory (searchable by first name even)
• All policy documents online
• All human resources info online (including benefit info)

Does your company intranet have anything cool?

Question everything

Brainboost tries to answer your questions in plain language instead of just in links. Of the few I tried, I was impressed. Give it a try, this could be one to watch....that is until the big giant Google Head takes over....

Smarties, eh?

A coworker brought these in to work last week. I didn't even know they existed. Not every store sells them either. I had to visit three 7/11s til I found them. Get 'em while you can.....

Kooky Kats

I found this great article on Rules for Cats. Sample:

ONE LAST THOUGHT: Whenever possible, get close to a human, especially their face, turn around, and present your butt to them.
Humans love this, so do it often. And don't forget guests.

Speaking of cats, we used to have a male named Taz (pictured above) and we had one of those automatic water feeder thingies. He liked the "glug-glug" sound it made when the bowl was empty and would fill from the reservoir. Since he didn't always drink enough to empty the bowl enough for the "glug-glug" sound, he would swipe water out of the bowl with his paw until the bowl would fill, giving him that sound.

Junk joke e-mail

I have a message for people who send joke e-mails to other people. STOP! I'm not talking about people who actually send conversational messages mostly and just send the odd joke every now and then. I'm talking about those who only send joke messages.

It's time people started treating e-mail addresses like phone numbers. Would you send me a voice mail or call me live and tell me the latest joke you've heard? No you wouldn't. You might mention it in the middle of a conversation, but that's about it. So why is it OK to fill my inbox with crap you must know I've likely already seen or heard elsewhere? If the only kind of message you want to send me is one that's been pre-packaged and copied like a bad virus, then I don't want you to have my address anymore - just delete it from your address book. I've even seen joke mail come with a disclaimer - "I send you this message not to 'spam' you, but to show you that you're still in my thoughts" or something to that effect. Bull.

Wait - I know what you're thinking. "What about your blog dopey? You just yesterday posted a funny joke commercial clip. Isn't that the same thing?" No, it's not. Reading a blog is a choice. Polluting an inbox is just lazy. Wow, am I a whiny bastard today or what, eh?

Thanks to Jon and his podcast for the train of thought

Worse than kids

I'm not a politician (although some people have told me I could be) and I don't have all the answers, but I think something needs to change to prevent the nonsense that's occurring in the House of Commons right now. The opposition party is trying to bring the minority government down even before the budget has been passed. The proposed budget is full of money that some people have been fighting for for a long time and the opposition seems quite willing to abandon all that for the sake of political expediency. "Oh don't worry, we'll fulfill these deals if you elect us..." Yeah, whatever. Even mayors across the country are speaking out, saying "pass this budget before you take the government down!"

Personally, I don't see the benefit of ousting a government before their term is up. I mean seriously - if we have another election this summer, it will costs millions. All the things the current government has proposed to do during their term will be lost. The public has already spoken and said they don't want another election right away, but the opposition doesn't seem to be listening. I'm not suggesting that a minority government should be allowed to run amok for 4 years unchallenged, but challenges should be reasonably paced. The opposition made it very clear they were going to topple the current government at the earliest opportunity, instead of the tact the NDP have used, which is to use their influence to massage policy more to their liking.

If I was Mr. Speaker, I'd stand up in the House and say, "get back to work!"

Pump up the volume!

OMG! If you've been blocking spam and jokes from your friends you may have missed this classic clip. Those Krafty Krauts genius Germans have made an awesomely funny commercial for Blaupunkt car stereos. This should win an award. I laughed so hard when I saw this at work, I almost peed my pants.

Boo ya!

Canada beat the US in IIHF Hockey! Nah nah nah nah...

Sorry, it's pretty exciting for a Canadian hockey fan

Before we were peacekeepers, we were liberators

Today is Liberation Day in the Netherlands. It is the 60th anniversary of the end of the German occupation during WWII. The nation was liberated largely by Canadian troops. Contingents of serving Canadian troops go over there every year to march at Nijmegen during the celebrations. I never had the chance to go, but I've been told by fellow soldiers who went how emotional an event it was for them. I would venture to say that if you needed a boost of Canadian patriotism, you'd only need to visit the Netherlands at this time of year to appreciate how much we are loved and respected.

This year is also the year of the veteran, which is why you're likely seeing a lot of veteran's plates on vehicles this year - including mine.

Man I loves me some good tunes

More witty lyrics discovered embedded in the songs of a class act:

She’s gotta mortgage on my body, got a lien on my soul.

wwwdotwebdotcomdotmedotdotdotdotorg

Email addresses it would be really annoying to give out over the phone:

mikeunderscore2004@yahoo.com
mikeatyahoodotcom@hotmail.com
aaaaathatssixas@yahoo.com

ripped from the pages of Wired magazine

Bad cheerleaders! BAD!

Texas lawmakers would like to ban all forms of inappropriately erotic cheerleading. How would inappropriately erotic cheerleading be determined? "I'll know it when I see it. Girls can get out and do all of these overly sexually performances and we applaud them, and that's not right," said Democratic Rep. Al Edwards, who filed the legislation. Edwards argued bawdy performances are a distraction for students resulting in pregnancies, dropouts and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Ribald performances are not defined in the bill. "Any adult that's been involved with sex in their lives, they know it when they see it," he said. The bill passed.

Makes me wonder what led to pregnancies, dropouts and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases before cheerleaders started dancing erotically. Methinks Rep. Edwards has visited too many strip joints and feels a bit guilty. Either that, or a large dose of stupid pills fell into and contaminated the water supply at the Texas State government facilities. Just a theory....

More of life's unanswered questions

I don't know if this just happens to me, but every once in a while I get the urge to glance down at my odometer. I don't know why. But what's even freakier is that most often when I do get that urge, the odometer is displaying a very non-random pattern of numbers. Like 42424.2, or 264462 and stuff like that. Now I know I'm focusing on my driving most of the time, so why is it that when I do get the urge to look down, there's a pattern?

(just sing the Jaws theme in your head)

This first-ever undersea restaurant is at the Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa. It sits five meters below the waves of the Indian Ocean, surrounded by a vibrant coral reef and encased in clear acrylic, offering diners 270 degrees of panoramic underwater views.

They better not serve sushi, or there's gonna be some pissed off sharks trying to break through the glass.....
stolen right from J-Walk

I'd like to teach the world to blog....

Remember that old Coke commercial that ripped off the tune "I'd like to teach the world to sing....in perfect harmony"?

My turn!

I'd like to teach the world to blog
In perfect HTML
I'd like to podcast via RSS
And download casts as well

I'd like to build the world a home
And wire it for sound
Grow server farms with Google bots
To see what they have found....

That's all I got so far....

7 deadly sins - in Gummi Bear

I can't explain why I find the 7 Gummi Sins funny, but I do......
via BoingBoing

Something for free

Paint.NET v2.1 is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows 2000 or newer. It started development as an undergraduate senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is being maintained by some alumni. It's meant to replace MS Paint that comes with Windows. Paint.net is free yet has many of the powerful features that expensive commercial applications have.

My rant

Hey, I don't look anything like the people in the ads,
nor does anybody I know.

I would not like fresh ground pepper on that
and no I don't want to super-size it.

No more $20 for a burger and fries at the local Tommy Rutabaga's.
I don't care how beautiful the hostesses and servers are.

If there can be hundreds of stores for women's clothes,
there should be at least a few dozen just for men.

Stop labelling something "new" when it's been on the grocer's shelves for over a year.
And if I wanted a Fivebuck's coffee while I was grocery shopping, I would have got one on the way over.

I don't want to have to go to every store on the continent,
to find something I saw in a magazine or on the Internet.

If you want me to buy music instead of download it,
then start stocking someone other than who won Idol in the music store.

If the price of gas is 88.9 in my neighbourhood,
it should be 88.9 everywhere.

My name is Karl.
And I am a consumer.

Brush with greatness

Here are the celebrities I've run into so far (I'm not including politicians in this list):

John Candy - rode the elevator at the Delta Hotel in Montreal with him, then got his autograph.
Dan Aykroyd - bumped into him coming into a Consumer's Distributing in Kingston Ontario.
Dave Thomas (of SCTV fame) - saw him on the main drag in Kingston.
Kim Mitchell (musician) - passed him walking on Queen St in The Beaches area of Toronto.

How about you? Had any brushes with greatness?