I predict this artist will do very well

I'm always on the watch for unique gifts, especially kooky art. So Bent Objects really brought a smile to my face.

Very cool stuff.

Who wants a Wedgie?

Either the advertising gurus at Pizza 73 are geniuses with a great sense of humour, or they're crazy bunch of mofos who have no idea what they just let out of the bag. Their latest special product is called Wedgies. I'm not joking. In the TV ad, a dude in the commercial asks, "Who wants a Wedgie!?" I damn near lost it right there....

So I decided to go to their web site and get proof, because I knew some of you wouldn't believe me. Then I laughed even harder when I saw the Extreme Wedgie deal and the Atomic Wedgie deal. [I can't breathe.... I'm laughing too hard]

Nice..........

100 things in 100 days - number 30

30. I can sing (well at one time I could).

Most folks have never heard me sing. But the ones that have were astonished. Back in 1994, my brother-in-law started up a karaoke business in Ontario and he invited me out to a bar one night to help him warm up the crowd. When the night was over, he privately said to Darlene, "Holy shit! I didn't know Karl could sing..!" Now of course my pipes aren't anywhere near as good as they would have been 20-30 years ago, but if there was an Old Farts Idol contest....... I'd kick some ass.

Picture by this person.

As a blond............. I'm hot!

You may recall that I was invited to participate in a performance as part of Law Day this year, thanks to new connections with an acting classmate from my last 2 courses (thanks Alison). I only managed to get a picture of the whole cast today (thanks again Alison). So now you can see the characters that performed at the courthouse, including yours truly. Yes, Calgarians - that's Ian White from CFCN News playing the judge.

I'm the dude in drag with the blond wig. I played the pirate princess's mother.

100 things in 100 days - number 31

31. I believe everything happens for a reason.

I could go on at length. Coles Notes version - life is a river of lessons and happenings that you are meant to experience. Fight the current and you just make things harder for yourself and/or lengthen the journey. So if you ever get the feeling of synchronicity when events and people come into alignment, it's not a coincidence. Karma? Yeah, I'm all over that. My most recent motto in life has consistently been "go with the flow".

Busy busy

I don't have a lot of time tonight to scour the tubes looking for blog fodder for my loyal readers - I'm out giving an Ubuntu Linux demo. So allow me to update the world on "Life with Karl".

It's a mere week until my next acting class starts, this time at a new venue - Company of Rogues. I'll likely see a few classmates from the Epcor Centre classes and some new faces too. I'm very curious exactly what this course will offer, but I'm sure it will be fun.

The Bob & Doug special is this weekend. I haven't seen CBC speak of an actual time yet, but insider info last told me it's slated for Sunday at 9pm - hockey series permitting.

Hope everyone's having a great week. See you tomorrow.

100 things in 100 days - number 32

32. I have no tattoos. Or piercings. This will not change.

Not much to add to that. I've said this before - I don't have anything against tattoos. I do not judge people who have them. I'm just not interested in getting one. They're too................... permanent. As far as piercings go, again - I'm just not interested. But I have nothing against them. In fact, I think they're cool....... I just prefer them on other people.

Don't try to understand, just try to accept it.

Truth in advertising

If WestJet Airlines could get away with it, this is the slogan they ought to be painting on the side of their fleet of aircraft.

Because I'm sure their success owes a lot to that other airline.

All pictures all the time....

This has potential to become the ultimate time waster. Or at the very least - the ultimate animated wallpaper. It's called Flickrvision and it basically displays a random Flickr image every 3 seconds or so from around the world. These seem like just-posted images too.

Now look with your 'inner eye'

This is a most interesting optical illusion.

You know............. if you're into that sort of thing.

When bureaucrats act to hastily....

This happened in a neighbourhood in Ottawa recently:

Kids drew hopscotch patterns in chalk on sidewalk. More kids joined in. Next thing you know, 2020 hopscotch squares are covering four city blocks. Yay kids!

Then, a resident of the neighbourhood called the City and reports graffiti all over the streets. An anti-graffiti squad showed up and washed all the fun away.

In protest, at least one mystery artist (now being referred to as The Friends of Hopscotch) went to City Hall and in protest drew hopscotch squares in chalk on City property to demonstrate the absurdity of it all. Messages included "solidarity with the chalk artists of the Glebe"; "be active on your lunch break, come hopscotch"; "Play. Live. Dance. Hopscotch"; "take some time to smell the flowers". There was a chalk arrow pointing away from City Hall labelled "fun".

Cool search portal

If you do a lot of searches online, Sputtr might make life a little easier. It has buttons to search 36 different resources, from Google to eBay and almost everything in between.

The only thing I wonder is since they take suggestions, how long will it be before Sputtr has too many buttons?

Yo! Passport Canada! Get your act together!

1. Need to renew passport.
2. Decide to save time and effort and try online passport application.
3. Fill in all required information.
4. Print completed document as instructed.
5. Run around to obtain signatures.
6. Bring pictures and passport forms to government office.
7. Wait in line almost 2 hours.
8. At your turn, see government employee.
9. Get rejected - form is last year's. Was replaced with new form 2 weeks ago.
10. Get told not to bother trying to get form from Post Office, it's too old too.
11. Get new version of form in hard copy only from employee after much grovelling.
12. Go home.
13. Contact passport people who support online application method - explain that online form is obsolete.
14. Get told (in essence) "Sucks to be you".
15. Go back to step 3.

Yeah, it's a spam message, but it made me chuckle

A couple planned to go south to Florida and thaw out during a particularly nasty winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel.

So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday. His wife would fly down the following day. The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in the business centre,
so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the email.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He had died following a heart attack. The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted. The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read:

To: My Loving Wife
Subject: I've Arrived
Date: October 16, 2004
I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here, and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in. Just wanted you to know that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

P.S. Sure is freaking hot down here!

It was inevitable, no?

Remember my post about lolcats? There is an inherent limitation there, in that there are only so many cute pictures of kitties, etc. But there appears to be no end to the number of pictures of geeks doing geeky things on the internets, so............ Sha-zam! lolgeeks!

100 things in 100 days - number 33

33. My team is the Montreal Canadiens.

I was born and raised in the Montreal area, so of course I am biased. But I have to tell you, it was grand growing up with the dynasty that was the Canadiens of the 1960s and 1970s. Although those days are gone, it's still fun watching this team surprise even the staunchest anti-Canadiens fans from time to time. But the two most recent proud moments for me have got to be the comeback from two potentially career-ending ailments. First his battle with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, then the injury to his eye - I'm talking about their current team captain, Saku Koivu. This guy is an inspiration to all.

My stand regarding who should win the Stanley Cup has always been the same - if the Habs can't do it, at least let it be a Canadian team.

Except Toronto....... [heh]

If your mouth isn't watering by the end of this post - you're dead

Or a vegan. I try to keep my intake of unhealthy foods to a minimum, but once in a while you need to spoil your taste buds and that's what we did this morning. I made a batch of bratkartoffeln - German pan fried potatoes.

I vary the recipe oh so slightly to make it as easy as possible. Use a deep skillet if you have one, it keeps the mess down. Get 4-6 pieces of bacon and cut them up into square pieces. Cut a medium onion into medium sized pieces (not diced but not whole rings either). To cheat the most, buy a package of pre-cut potatoes in a bag that they sell at Sobey's in the salad area - they're sliced super thin and cook fast. Otherwise, cut your own potatoes, but realize this will add to cooking time. I start by getting the bacon going and when there's a decent amount of bacon fat in the pan, I add the onion. Once the bacon and onion are beginning to brown, melt a little butter (that's right - go big or go home) and throw in the potatoes. Turn every 5 minutes and cook to taste. Some folks don't like their potatoes crispy and brown. I do not fall into that category. If you time everything right, the potatoes will be cooked, the bacon will be crispy and the onion will be caramelized.

One word......... YUMM!

I am now officially a member of the club

I just got my first Nigerian Scam letter! Me! This is wicked.

There must be a pin or something that I get now, right?

100 things in 100 days - number 34

34. I love teaching.

It might be related to the fact that I love an audience, but I really do love to explain stuff to people. It all started back in the military, while I was attending a rather in depth technology course. The class just wasn't getting a certain concept and I tuned out the instructor to see if I could figure it out on my own. I could and then volunteered to show the class just how simple the concepts could be (on our own time - my last desire was to make the instructor look bad). That's when I knew. I have a knack for simplifying complex topics, distilling them into something people can understand. And I love using analogies. I taught in the military for more than 7 years (that's me in 1987 in front of the classroom). Once I retired from the military, I got a job teaching technology for 3 years and currently teach on the side for Chinook Learning Services, not to mention that I develop and deliver training as part of my current day job.

Maybe it's in the genes, because my sister Heidi is a teacher too.

Too much information I guess

Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies out there.

Last night I tried to turn Dar... umm................ never mind.

Do you smell something burning?

Go Senators!

Wow, I can't believe I'm saying that. At least I'm not having to chant - Go Leafs! That would be beyond brutal.

Yeah Buffalo, I know you did great this year, but Stanley has to come back to Canada.

Excerpt from a dog's blog

• 8:00 am - Dog food! My favourite thing!
• 8:15am - Went outside to pee. My favourite thing!
• 8:30 am - A walk in the park! My favourite thing!
• 9:45 am - A car ride! My favourite thing!
• 11:30 am - Got petted! My favourite thing!
• 12:00 pm - Lunch! My favourite thing!
• 1:00 pm - Played with the cat! My favourite thing!
• 1:15 pm - Wagged my tail! My favourite thing!
• 5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favourite thing!
• 7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favourite thing!
• 8:00 pm - Watched TV with people! My favourite thing!
• 10:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favourite thing!

Where is it - Edition 22

Maybe I need to post the next edition of 'Where is it?' before Jim and Pam catch their breath. This time, you'll get a bigger picture if you click on the picture in the post.

Name the city. Good luck.

From the 'you can find anything on the net' file:

This gets annoying in approximately 10.2 seconds. Give or take.....

At least it eventually stops. Until you hit refresh that is.

100 things in 100 days - number 35

35. Pink Floyd is my favourite band. Dark Side of the Moon is my album of all time.

I was a late bloomer when it came to music, insomuch as I never owned any music until after I left home to join the military. But once my collection started, not only did I get into the current artists of the day, but I began a pilgrimage to the musical past that I missed out as a teen. The band that made the biggest connection with me was the Floyd. I already knew about the song Money - who didn't? The time it became a hit my friend Claude Tellier's older sister Sandy was listening to the 45rpm single and I had a (secret) crush on her. But I never really paid much attention to Pink Floyd until I was introduced to their whole albums. Starting with The Wall and working my way back in time. Now I own 12 of their albums and 3 DVDs.

If they ever invent time travel, my first trip will be to go back to Abbey Road Studios from June 1972 to January 1973 to watch the lads record and mix the album Dark Side of the Moon.

My very first lolcat!

My own private jukebox... anywhere there's an internet connection!

The jury is still out on this service, but it does have potential. Lately, I signed up with MediaMax. For free you get online storage for your files, pictures, but more importantly (for me), music. I've always wanted to have access to my music from another internet connection and now I can have it. I am limited to download capacity per month, but if I need more, I can just pay for it. This is OK by me. It means that while I'm at work or on the road, if I'm jonesing for a little Feist, I can log in and start playing. No having to carry any extra devices around (other than my laptop).

It's gonna take a while to get my entire mp3 collection uploaded (I had 2254 at last count), but I've got the time.

Episode 21 of Great White North II is up

In episode 21, the hosers talk about the tradition of Canadian ceremonial drumming.

Look it up on Hoserpedia if you don't believe me, eh. Is it dumb? Of course. You wouldn't expect anything less from us, right?

Video.ca link .

My new motivational poster

You like?

Copyright is so broken right now....

You know, I'm getting really pissed about the way big companies are trying to screw little people with their our lawyers will make mincemeat out of you - because we can tactics.

Here's yet another fine example. A pub in the UK (the Tan Hill Inn) has an item on its menu called the Family Feast. It's only available on Christmas, but KFC decided this was copyright infringement and sent a law firm after them to cease and desist. Come on!

I don't think companies should be allowed to trademark or copyright English words out of context. If you want to protect Family Feast, you should only be able to protect it with your company name in front of it (or part of it in some fashion). Did you know that the folks running the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 are trying to convince the Canadian government to pass legislation that would protect the words winter, gold, silver, bronze, sponsor, Vancouver, Whistler, 2010, tenth, medals, and games from businesses who would try to fraudulently associate themselves with the Olympics. Give me a break! Nobody should be allowed to claim the rights to simple words. You want to protect The Olympics? Fine. But use your heads people.

It turns out that KFC backed down from their demand, but how many of you wanna bet it's because of the growing backlash and publicity?