Army getting greener

I've spent some time on Canadian military bases in the last few weeks and was pleasantly surprised to see that they have begun to switch their fleets of staff cars over to more environmentally friendly vehicles. Such as the Honda Civic Hybrid or the Toyota Yaris. Way to go y'all.

Returning nnn...ow

This clock is perfect for work. It's a functioning clock - so whenever people look at it, they'll keep seeing the current time as when you'll return. Fun.

Confessions of a DJ

There are just not enough hours in a day to do all the things I want to do. Like - listening to podcasts. An average podcast lasts 30 or more minutes and that's often a contiguous block of time that requires way too much concentration on my part. Also, if I actually listened to every podcast I wanted to - I would never get any sleep.

Now that I'm done making excuses, if you're looking for a podcast to try and you like independant music, give my friend Jeff's Confessions of a DJ podcast a try. It's an admirable thing to help out the little guy (or girl) and (music) podcasts are the future of music. That's my opinion only - as radio has really loused things up big time. Anyway, keep up the good work Jeff - you're off to a fantastic start. Maybe I can guest on your show someday.................. (hint hint)

Mmmmore pi!

Isn't that cute?

Diapers for dummies....

Hiatus

Well, 6 weeks of travel in the last 9 have tuckered me out. I almost fell asleep at the table at the restaurant today. I think I'm going to relax a bit. The posts may be lean for a few hours......... hehehehehhe

The new babylon?

If you haven't heard, Dubai is billing itself as the fastest growing city in the world right now. This slideshow illustrates some of the incredible construction going on. It's massive.

Smoke-free since 1999

This Sunday marks my 7th anniversary since I quit smoking. They say this is a milestone because after seven years, your lungs are finally clear of all the junk. I quit with the help of Zyban. This was a miracle drug for me. I'm at the point now where I can hardly believe I ever smoked - there is no chance I'll ever go back. Unlike some reformed smokers, I don't go around bugging people to quit. Everyone has to do it if and when they're ready. I was ready in 1999 and I've never looked back.

Some providers want you to pay for TV twice

There's a battle brewing over whether it's legal to watch a TV program in a location other than your home. In this article, products like Sling are shown to make it possible to access your cable box or PVR from any internet-connected device - like your laptop while you're on a road trip.

"...a cable subscriber in San Francisco who watches a Giants baseball game from his or her laptop during a visit to Chicago is stealing from the Chicago cable operator who paid to transmit MLB games in that city..."

Even though you've already paid for that content via your local cable company. "Technology is forcing changes on businesses before they have time to devise strategies to deal with them."

'Cause you know - 30 bucks is 30 bucks.....

I was helping a friend with an mp3 player purchase today. We went to a Future Shop and the player he wanted was listed at $30 more than what he had seen at another Future Shop store a mere 3km away. We had only gone to this particular store to see what colours were in stock. We asked them to check the price because we were sure it was $30 lower elsewhere. Their computer said it was $280. They also claimed the price we were thinking must have been for a cheaper model. Yeah - OK - whatever. So we went back to the other store. Sure enough, the model was indeed $250, so it was bought on the spot. Just goes to show you, sometimes you can get a better deal just by going to another store - the same Brand of store even!

"Can I scan your head?"

I'm teaching an asset management tool that involves the scanning of barcode labels. One of the students was bald. He had a barcode tattooed on the back of his head. Am I the only person who thinks this is funny?

It made me laugh - OK?

If the sound of people making fart noises makes you laugh, then you ought to watch this short clip.

Always practise safe searching

James F. Conway Sr., an entrepreneur whose Mister Softee ice cream trucks brought frozen treats to millions of customers over the company's 50-year history, has died. He was 78.

Whatever you do - do not Google 'mr softee' with SafeSearch off. No...... really.... don't do it. But the picture of the couple is kinda cute and made me laugh.

Thanks to bits and pieces.

When programs attack...

Here's a funny flash animation of a stick figure guy who battles the software that created it.

Have we been blinded by the big TV?

I'm rather confused about a trend (or lack of to be specific) in the consumer electronics universe regarding big screen video. It occurs to me, but apparently not to many others, that it makes more sense to buy a good quality video projector instead of a big screen TV. Why? Flexibility for one thing. A big screen TV is an unwieldy behemoth of a device that often doesn't produce a great image at every angle, uses a lot of space (permanently), and forces you to sit way back if you want to keep eyestrain to a minimum.

A projector on the other hand, is small (You can bring it to the cottage! Or a friend's house!), can be set up any distance you want from the screen, the image can be seen from many angles. If you need a big picture, such as having the gang over to watch the game, you back the thing away from the screen and create a huge picture. But if you only want to watch a nice, crisp, clear, intimate movie with your sweetie, you can bring it close to the screen for a sharp, smaller (yet still pretty big) picture.

Logically, the projector is the better option, yet these giant-ass TVs sell like hotca..... err..... big screen TVs. Maybe some day the consumer will get it.

It's spring cleaning time

Part of the problem with Windows users (often not their fault) is that they rarely pay much attention to where their files are being stored - organizationaly speaking. This phenomenon is made worse by the oodles of files that we dump onto our hard drives - consciously (music, documents, pictures, etc) or courtesy of Windows (temp files, cached web page elements, etc). The average user typically has no idea how much crap they have on their hard drive(s), since they almost as typically don't even know what legit files they've managed to collect over the months and years.

If you're in the business of helping these users clean out their files - or learning to do it yourself, this nifty little utility could help create a visual of the wasted space (and regained space once the trash has been emptied - as it were). Spacemonger can run as a stand-alone app (making it perfect for that USB drive toolbox).

The large area of yellow in the image on the right is my mp3 collection. It was taken 'after' I cleaned out all my Temp Internet files.

Another example of the broken business model

The Who (yeah - those guys) are releasing a new album this fall. This is their first fresh material in close to 25 years? The lead-off single is a rock opera titled Wire and Glass. It's 11 minutes long.

This poses a problem. What radio programmer is going to put that into rotation? What music video channel is going to play that video? 11 straight minutes without a commercial or contest announcement? Not gonna happen. So how are the Who going to catch a break? I'm going to predict that the big bad Internet will play a role in this rock opera.....

Witty

Of all the 'demotivation' posters I've seen, this is one of my favourites.

It reads: "Apathy - If we don't take care of the customer, maybe they'll stop bugging us."

See more here.

Do they snore?

I was thinking about this the other night - what do (wild) birds do at night? Do they sleep? Where? In the trees? I don't see them. I certainly don't hear them, so they're not around doing their thing. Are they partying down at some bird nightclub somewhere? Are bird nightclubs crowded with guys pining for a mate known as foul-markets? Is there some society like the masons where they gather and sacrifice virgin worms to the eagle gods? OK, I'll stop now.............

The end (of the conga line) is nigh

Tomorrow is June 6th, 2006 - or 06-06-06. If that doesn't freak you out, maybe you'd like to join in the celebrations planned by the residents of Hell, Michigan.

Another great place to eat

Always on the lookout for great places to eat, we decided to give the Artisan Bistro a try in Bridgeland, near the site of the old Calgary General Hospital. We only found out it existed thanks to the City Palate magazine you find in some racks at the entrance to various eateries.

We went for brunch and Darlene had the breakfast sandwich and I had a regular eggs and stuff plate. The eggs were fluffy, the breakfast sausages were made in house, the coffee was superb. I saw an item on the menu I will be trying next time - cognac french toast. Their dinner menu had some gems on it too. Limited choices, but what I saw was tempting. They are only open for dinner on Friday and Saturday. Based on what we had - we'll be going back for sure.
809 1st Avenue NE

We beat Hamburg! In deinem Gesicht!

According to some people, Calgary ranked 25 in a list of the best cities in the world to live in. Considering that we have much less traffic congestion than either Vancouver or Toronto (which rated 3 and 15 respectively), I would have thought we rated higher. Watch out world - Calgary is gonna kick some ass. That is, unless the average home cost of $350,000 doesn't scare people away first.......

Calling the kettle black..... as it were

You know someone has a little too much time on their hands when they create a blog supposedly written by Captain Jean Luc Picard of Star Trek fame.......

Remember, there's always a silver lining

I've been reading up a little on the next version of Microsoft Office (2007) that will be hitting the streets some time soon. John Walkenbach, of the J-Walk blog, gets the impression that MSO2007 will be too different to efficiently switch to for most seasoned Office users. Read what he has to say here.

On the bright side, if your company buys this version, you can always use the excuse "It's this new Office - I can't figure it out!" whenever the boss asks why the project isn't coming along.......

Bonjour!

I would like to nominate the Canadian soldiers stationed at Base Valcartier (near Quebec City) as the friendliest (or at least - most courteous) people in the military. I've been travelling across our great land delivering training to technicians at various military bases. But our group noticed that only in Valcartier did practically every person we met visually acknowledge our presence with a friendly 'bonjour'. It may not seem like much, but it certainly made an impact on our perception of the place.

Top 15 songs of my life

A group of friends are busy creating their Top 15 songs of their life list. The idea is to list the top 15 songs that have influenced you throughout your life. It was very hard to narrow it down to 15, but here goes (in no particular order):

1. Eagles - One of These Nights
I discovered women to this song. I spent my summers as a kid in NJ and on one very warm, breezy evening at Seaside Heights NJ, I was suddenly very in tune with the beautiful women strolling the boardwalk. This song was playing on the P.A. at that moment. T'was very appropriate.
2. April Wine - You Won't Dance With Me
This song hits home with me on many levels, the first being that I was way too geeky to be of interest to girls in high school. However, I think I did climb a few notches on the social ladder when I became the 'light guy' for a local DJ. This song was a popular night closer at the time.
3. Vince Guaraldi - Christmas Time is Here
This is the song to get me in the mood at Christmas. I have no idea why it resonates so much for me, but it's a very jazzy, emotional, moody piece of music that just embodies the whole spirit of the holiday.
4. Pink Floyd - Great Gig in the Sky
From the greatest album ever sold, comes the most emotional vocal performance in the history of rock. Growing up in Montreal, I recall that CHOM-FM used to dub this 'The Multiple Orgasm Song". Call it what you want - it's a powerful piece. To think that Clare Torry got this down in one take - amazing.
5. George McCrae - Rock Your Baby
Since I can't pick a favourite KC & the Sunshine Band song, I'll pick a song they wrote for this artist - it may as well be them with George on guest vocals. Images of summer, youth, fun down by the river in Deux Montagnes........ good times.
6. Supertramp - Downstream
The perfect love song? Could this be a script to my life? "So down here on the ocean, we will stay..." If I had the nerve - I would sing this song to Darlene.
7. Sigur Ros - Svefn-G-Englar
While I have little respect for most of the new music coming out, along comes this band from Iceland that inspires me the same way Pink Floyd did in their prime. This is the song that began that inspiration.
8. Bee Gees - Nights on Broadway
One of my first jobs out of high school was working for Polygram Records in their warehouse in Montreal. I was initiated into the stock and shipping world of music courtesy of what was then the bread and butter of their catalogue - Saturday Night Fever. Man did we move a lot of those records people. This song isn't on that particular album, but of all their tunes, this one rocks.
9. Gary Wright - Dream Weaver
Not sure why I love this song, I just consider it perfect pop music.
10. Foreigner - Double Vision
We used to have this pool hall across the street from my high school (Lake of Two Mountains High School - LTMHS) named Mario's. They made the best home-cut french fries I can remember. Beside the door to the place was this jukebox and I'd say one of the most played records in the thing was this song.
11. Elton John - Someone Saved My Life Tonight
I heard a lot of Elton's hits while spending my youthful summers in NJ, but this one was very common and seems to be the soundtrack for those visits. Great times with cousins and days in the local high school playground.
12. 10CC - I'm Not in Love
Maybe it's my love of electronica that influences my enjoyment of this song, I don't know for sure. But it's been a steady favourite of mine since childhood. The chorus effect is sublime. In another weird coincidence, my sister Heidi likes it a lot too.
13. Beatles - Get Back
In my mind, this is the Beatles at their best. The version I prefer is the album version, with the try-out feel and John saying "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition".
14. Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Philadelphia
I'm actually not a real fan of Springsteen, but I absolutely love this song. It's simple, raw, melodic and full of emotion. Of course the association with the movie it's from helps, but this is Bruce's best song - bar none.
15. David Bowie - Fame
Have you ever had dreams so real that they registered in your mind as actual memories? I have - and the ones from my youth have this song in the soundtrack.

File under strange coincidences

One of the first jobs I had out of high school was with Polygram Records in Montreal. One of the guys I worked with, Doug Hill, used to tell me that he knew my dad from the Legion. Every once in a while he would say things like "I know more about you than you can imagine". Such a statement was so non-sensical as to be ignored by my young, naive brain.

A few years after I joined the military, I went to visit my dad, who had left home (divorce). He had a new family and I went to see him as much as to check out this new family. Guess who one of the sons in the family was? Yeah - Doug Hill. What are the odds?

Aim is everything................ or is it?

Ladies - you are warned. The article I am linking to is about a very 'guy' problem. It recommends a solution for the probem of pee backsplash while using the urinal.

I have an alternative solution as well - don't pee so hard.

Adages named after folks

Smerek's Law - Describing a video game to non-players makes you sound like an idiot.

More adages here.

I wonder if anyone hired him

More of the ad here.