Has Facebook gotten too grandiose?

When I signed up for Facebook, I thought - "Wow, cool! I can keep up with friends, find people I haven't talked to or seen in a while....." I also appreciated that you can post unlimited pictures. Just an all around decent social application. Then I started getting requests to add all these extra applications. I went along with it until I realized I was taking an online application that was using up some of my online time and evolving it into using up a great deal of my online time - with nothing extra to show for it except the ability to lick, throw bombs at, review movies for, tattoo, IM or get the horoscopes for people.

Pass. I've uninstalled pretty much all the extra applications and left Facebook as clean as the driven snow. About the only application (that don't ship with Facebook by default) I like is iLike. Call me old fashioned.

"I was robbed! They sold me fake drugs, man!"

They say drugs affect the reasoning part of your brain. Fake drugs seem to do the same thing:

A woman was arrested after she called police to help "get her money back" after she was unhappy with the crack cocaine she purchased.

Yummy

Who doesn't love the smell of fresh baked bread? Every time we've been passing by this new(ish) bakery in Calgary, the crowds there kept indicating there's something good going on inside. So today, we stopped in to one (we have 3 in Calgary). Cobs Bread is a chain of bakeries in Ontario, Alberta, BC and Washington State (for now) that makes some awesome breads and treats. Treat yourself and give it a try.

(I am not affiliated with Cobs Bread........... yet)

A night with good friends

So last night we hosted another gathering of the Epcor gang (I like the sound of that). Terry, Scott, Heather, Andrea, Levi and Georgette came by. A big thank you to those who came. There was a lot of comparing notes about the courses and auditions and projects we were involved in. The conversation was rife with talk about life, love and the pursuit of happiness. Heather announced that she's engaged and found a new job close to home. Georgette told us about her latest trip to Spain. Scott lamented about someone he has a crush on. Terry told us about his upcoming stint at Heritage Park and his trip to London. Andrea told us about how she met William Petersen in Rhode Island at one of his plays.

We even watched the first episode of the original (Brit) series The Office. Next thing I know, it's 1am and the crowd filed out pretty much all at once. Weird. Anyway, it was a great time. Next time it's my turn to host, I'm thinking about using up some comps and treating the Epcor gang to a free night at Loose Moose.

Blimps are pretty pimp

I love the occasional stupid distraction (remember Weebl & Bob?). Well, here's the next one - Blimp (by the folks who brought you Weebl & Bob).

My fave part? Where it shows a periodic table of elements and declares: 'Hydrogen is kept so far from Helium in case Helium kicks Hydrogen's ass'

Das ist unglaublich!

If you're any kind of science geek, you may want to buy this. An engine.......... made of die cut cardboard, that runs off of the heat from a cup of coffee. Or the cold from an ice pack. Ultra-cool!

German site.

BoingBoing post with the best parts translated.

Plastic scourge

If you've been paying attention, you already know that one of the drawbacks of plastic is that it isn't biodegradable. Years ago there was talk about how the plastic in our landfills will outlast us.

That's not the half of it. Plastic that hasn't been recycled isn't ending up just in landfills. Salon has an enlightening article on what's happening here. (Pop up ad alert)

What troubles me the most is this trend:

...San Francisco and Oakland outlawed the use of plastic bags in large grocery stores and pharmacies, permitting only paper bags with at least 40 percent recycled content or otherwise compostable bags. The bans have not taken effect yet, but already the city of Oakland is being sued by an association of plastic bag manufacturers calling itself the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling.

Give me a bloody break! Is this what our society has come to? First it was the clean air act in California being sued out of effectiveness by car manufacturers (which led to the recall of the ever popular EV1 electric car showcased in 'Who Killed the Electric Car'), now plastic bag makers hope to derail sensible measures to clean up the environment? I for one am not impressed.....

I'm psychic

A class full of international improv students has been studying with Loose Moose for the last 2 weeks and last night was their last hurrah - they exclusively made up the cast of Micetro Improv. Before the competition started, I made a friendly prediction (not wager) with a couple of people (not part of the group) on who I thought would win. There were 14 competitors and I chose 2 possible contenders for the last person standing. Amazingly enough, the 2 people I chose were the last 2 standing at the end of the evening and one of them went on to win. I was totally impressed with myself for that prediction. Oh - they were both women.

The show was fantastic.

Taking the day off

Major house cleaning in preparation for a gathering of actors this weekend.

I'll catch up tomorrow.

Is the internet really that bad for kids?

We have this stereotype of how awful and unsafe the internet is for kids, but it seems educators are asking to give it back to students.

This BoingBoing post is enlightening as is the article it links to.

Toyotas are irresistable....

Best ad seen in a while: Selling Toyotas in Scotland.

Too funny.

My 8th MacBook report - iTunes

Having been a fan of 3rd party music player applications like Winamp for Windows (in place of the default and DRM-ridden Windows Media Player), I was wary of the default music player that is part of the Mac OS - iTunes. But I made a promise to myself that I was going to give the inherent applications a try, so I copied my entire mp3 collection (2265 songs and counting) onto the MacBook to import into iTunes. The process was uneventful, if not lengthy - it seems iTunes does a measure of processing on the songs it imports into the library. After I was playing around on the MacBook for a while, I noticed that a lot of hard drive space was in use that I couldn't account for. At first, I chalked it up to my video project, but even after that was finished and deleted, I still couldn't account for all the used space. By accident, I discovered that when you import music into iTunes, it actually copies the files into a particular folder. So I ended up with 2 copies of all my music and didn't even realize it. Once I realized that peculiarity, I just deleted the original files and presto - there was all my space back. Just a tip to any new Mac iTunes users.

As far as usability is concerned, no problems to report yet, but I don't buy my music from the iTunes store, so I shouldn't have to deal with any DRM woes. I'll let you know if I discover anything else worth reporting about iTunes.

Gene pool

My latest motivational poster.

You like?

Where is it - Edition 32

Name the city.

Click the image for a bigger view.

Good hunting.

It's part of our culture now

Latest funny Lolcat.

Courtesy icanhascheezburger.

You may have missed something....

There's one thing about Blogger that bugs me. If you work on a post and come back to it later, the draft is saved with the date you started the post. So when you finally get around to posting the finished post, it gets tucked below everything you may have posted since.

Why am I mentioning this? Because I just posted another edition of If I Had My Own Radio Station, but it got lost under yesterday's date.

I'm just sayin'.................

My 7th MacBook Report - Making Movies

One of the reasons I was so curious about the Mac is because of its reputation as a multimedia wizard. So, having just filmed most of the Calgary Stampede Parade on my new camcorder, it was time to put the Mac to the test. The video files that my camcorder produced didn't seem compatible with iMovie, so I tried importing it into Windows Movie Maker. Same difference. So I pulled out my handy dandy Super conversion utility and converted all of my mpg-1 files into mp4s. iMovie had no trouble importing mp4 clips. I managed to import the clips, arrange them how I wanted and add video transitions, titles and credits with absolutely no outside assistance. But all iMovie does is create a movie project and save it as a computer file - in this case I chose Apple Quicktime .mov file. This produced a 300MB file containing over an hour of video, but contained in a player window about 300 by 300 pixels. In order to make this into a DVD, I would need iDVD. iMovie exports movie projects right into iDVD. Unfortunately, I did not find the interface extremely intuitive. But after doing a little research, I managed to create a title screen and encode the project for burning to DVD. Since my MacBook does not have a DVD burner (reader only), I chose to burn the movie to an image. I then copied that image to my Windows computer and Nero made it into a DVD flawlessly.

That's a wrap.

How do these people get their license?

Here's some great footage of someone who just can't seem to drive their way out of a parking lot.

At least, not without great difficulty and damage to at least one car.

Comet dust

If you like watching meteor showers, the August spectacle Perseides is coming next weekend. NASA details what to look for and when here.

I have a feeling I'll be getting up early Monday August 13th and heading north of the city to get away from the city lights to catch part of the show, then head to work at sunrise. Should be fun.

Animation Zen

Here's a bunch of animations built around short audio recordings of Alan Watts.

If you don't know who he is (I didn't) - he's a philosopher and writer who has turned people on to Zen Buddhism.

They're not that long, so you won't be converted to Zen Buddhism before you're done.

For a wine, it's a little fruity....

Last night, Darlene and I went out for dinner with some friends, then on to a night at Loose Moose. When we got back, they brought out a bottle of something I had never tried before - fruit wine. It turns out we have a cottage winery not far from Calgary that specializes in wines made from strawberries, raspberries, Saskatoon berries, bumbleberries and cherries. The place is called Field Stone. We sampled the Saskatoon Berry Dessert Wine and it was delicious. Sweet, but not sickly sweet.

We'll definitely be going to this place to get some.

Wanna buy a DVD?

I'm cleaning house. Some DVDs gotta go. Here's what I've got for sale on eBay at the moment:

• Peter Gabriel - Secret World Live
• Sex and The City - Season One
• Million Dollar Baby
• The Pink Panther
• School of Rock
• The Jackal
• Birth

If you search on these titles, it should be pretty obvious (by username) which one is me. If you buy and live in Calgary I will waive the delivery charge - heck I might even deliver!

"Captain! The ego is damaged pretty badly!"

Dennis, the guy who runs Loose Moose, told us at the orientation, leave your egos at the door. He wasn't kidding. That shit is hard!

I attended the warm-up class last night and got to try a few exercises with the company. I sucked. Big time. Nerves, inexperience, thinking too much, 3 things that will sabotage your efforts right off the bat. I'm not worried - things will come around with training, experience and confidence, but whoa - if anyone ever tries to tell you that improv is easy, just laugh knowingly........ they have no idea what they're talking about, dude.

But I wasn't just there for warm-up. Last night was my inaugural night as usher. Usher rocks! The beauty of being usher is that you get to see the show for free. Last night, I got to see the Micetro Improv format for the first time. This is a neat venue. You start with 15 or so players. The director brings them on stage a few at a time and directs them in scenes. Then the audience gives them a score. Each player gets up at least a few times, accumulating points with each scene. At the end of the round, the players with the lowest scores are out. Then it continues. By the end, only one player remains - the Micetro. Last night, one of the international students lasted to the end. It was fun to watch. Some true brilliance was evident in the performances - I have a lot to learn. But I'm still up for it.

"I have take-aways"

Almost everyone's seen this by now, but just in case you haven't - a kid calls 911 for some help with his math.

No minced words here

It's not without some cursing, but what else would you expect from Henry Rollins? More importantly, Henry rails against the impending hijacking of the internet by government and telecoms. Food for thought.

Schmoozing at the Moose

Last night I attended a reception for a gang of international improv students who are taking a several week course at Loose Moose. This finally gave me a chance for some face time with the members of the company. I got to chat with some of the veterans for a while and meet more members. Lots of names to recall. I've found a way to cheat in that regard. I've been keeping a list of names on my PDA and assigning everyone with attribute words to help me remember who is who. The latest batch of volunteer-friends that I was adopted by got a kick out of that. Speaking of which, one of said group was an evil little monkey and tried to convince some of us that the reception was a costume party. I almost fell for it too. Retribution will be mine to serve for that one I tell ya.

But back to the party. Met loads of cool folks from around the world and I realized last night how nice it is to finally feel like I belong to a group or organization that will lead to many friendships and opportunities. The next improv course is running in October and I'm signing up for it. Tonight, I'm working the theatre as usher / door person. So, if you're going to the Moose tonight - we'll be seeing ya!

Takin the day off

Crazy busy tonight.... Loose Moose private reception. I'll fill in the details tomorrow.

No posts today.

Oh Ca.... na.... bis...

Word has it that Canada has the highest (no pun intended) percentage of marijuana users of any industrialized country.

I'm tellin' ya, if we ever get it legalized, my Mr Munchie idea is gonna make millions.

Which one pertains to you?

Cool washroom male / female indicator signs from around the world.

Walken can cook!

Apparently Christopher Walken posted a video of himself cooking a chicken dish to imcooked.com without telling anyone.

Well....... that spread like wildfire.