White Noise

Friday, June 28, 2024

Small things 28 June

My wife has turned our printer against me. I can no longer connect to it no matter what IT black arts I try.
Does anybody really want to see the alligator later?
"Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex." ~Frank Zappa
I read this somewhere recently: If your best response to why you like Trump is “He speaks his mind”, I’m sorry, but that’s code for “I align with his racism, sexism, misogyny, disrespect of the law, misconduct, rudeness and vapid machismo.”
Come here you big, beautiful cup of coffee and lie to me about how much we’re going to get done today.
Funniest time to text “Are we still on for today?”: Your wedding.
What are Elon Musk fans called? ‘Muskrats’.
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' ~Isaac Asimov
The escape key on my keyboard at work is broken. I keep hitting it, but I don’t go anywhere.
I wonder of Pythagoras was the first person to cross an intersection diagonally>^<
I wish there was an effective way to convince people that cosmetic plastic surgery is so unnecessary. Particularly of the face. Every face is perfect just the way it is.
I'm going to write a book about all the things I should have done with my life. My oughtabiography.

You know poutine?

Then you probably know that to enjoy the best poutine, you have to go to Montreal. Here are 23 of the supposed best places to get it:

Pierrette Patates / Chez ma Tante / Poutineville / Frite Alors! / Poutine Centrale / Casse-Croûte Normand / Le Gras Dur / Main Deli Steak House / Maam Bolduc / Mon Petit Poulet / Ma Poule Mouillée / Paulo & Suzanne / Paul Patates / Au Pied De Cochon / Broue Pub Brouhaha / Restaurant A.A. / Patati Patata / Gibeau Orange Julep / Montreal Pool Room / La Banquise / Greenspot / Chez Tousignant / Chez Claudette

Chez Claudette is the place my next door neighbour and former Montrealais swears by. I looked at their menu. They have (as best as I could count) 47 types of poutine.

Here’s a short tiktok on the place

Undo it

It’s the worst kind of shaming

Tuna-shaming.....

Things I learned lately 28 June

The US will ban sales of Kaspersky antivirus software in July because it is a Russian product.
Canada's national anthem, "O Canada," was first performed on June 24, 1880. The music was composed by Calixa Lavallée, with French lyrics written by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The anthem was originally commissioned for the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations in Quebec City. The English lyrics, which are a loose translation of the original French lyrics, were penned by Robert Stanley Weir in 1908.
Dave Thomas, of SCTV fame, started at an ad agency as an ad writer for Coca Cola.
Adele, Evanescence, Oasis, Ice Cube, Eminem, Hedley, The Cat Empire, Zooey Deschanel, Beyonce, Erika Badu and Lionel Ritchie all have something in common. They all sang a song named ‘Hello’.
Olivia Newton John’s ‘Magic’; Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’; Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross’s “Endless Love’; Christopher Cross’s ‘Arthur’s Theme’; Vangelis’ ‘Chariots of Fire’; Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’; Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes’ ‘Up where we belong’; Irene Cara’s ‘Flashdance’; Michael Sembello’s ‘Maniac’; Kenny Loggins’ ‘Footloose’; Phil Collins’ ‘Against all odds’; Deniece Willams’ ‘Let’s hear it for the boy’; Prince’s ‘When doves cry’; Ray Parker Jr’s ‘Ghostbusters’; Prince’s ‘Let’s go crazy’; Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t you (forget about me)’; Bryan Adams’ ‘Heaven’; Duran Duran’s ‘A view to a kill’; John Parr’s ‘St Elmo’s fire’; Jan Hammer’s ‘Miami Vice theme’; Phil Collin’s ‘Separate lives’; Berlin’s ‘Take my breath away’; Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’ ‘I’ve had the time of my life’; The Beach Boys’ ‘Kokomo’; Bette Midler’s ‘Wind beneath my wings’; are all songs that in 1981 reached number one on BillBoard’s Hot 100, that were from movie or TV soundtracks.
If you feel unsafe privately selling your car, the police stations in Calgary (and I’m guessing elsewhere) have a special lot made just for secure vehicle transaction spaces.

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Genius costume

Small things 22 June

I challenge everyone to find a dentist that’s been asked for their opinion on toothpastes.
The Kentucky Derby, aka Amish Nascar.
Nostalgebra. Thinking back to when you hated math in school.
The first two kids on the block in any Canadian neighbourhood to get a hockey goal net suddenly became very popular.
You might think that it isn’t possible to throw out the uneaten part of a cinnamon bun into the garbage. But it very much is possible. I have witnessed this horror show with mine own eyes.
Fortune cookie: You will continue to interpret vague statements as uniquely meaningful.
Don’t we have the technology now to fix bacon packaging one and for all? Why do I still have to rip that thing apart and get bacon sweat all over me, just to get at a couple slices and then find some odd shaped container to preserve the rest?
Remember when you could slam the phone down to hang up on someone?
They have ice cream trucks roaming around in the summer. Why can’t they have soup trucks roaming around in the winter?
You can be the whole package and still end up at the wrong address.
Celery. When you’re in the mood for crunchy water.
"Whether they become a musician or not isn't the point. The point is to instill them with a love of music. The point is to give them the ability to take a musical instrument wherever they go in life and use it as a means of expression, connection, and comfort. That's the point." ~Vaughan Fleischfresser

Mom, get out!

'Hi' in mandarin

Misinformation about electric car batteries

No matter where you try to get information about electric cars, whether it’s the news, YouTube, Reddit, or whatever your choice, you’re going to come across retorts from armchair experts who have all of these preconceived notions about why battery powered cars are bad. For example, you can’t charge them to a 100% state of charge. The batteries lose a lot of their capacity after a few years. Fast charging is bad for the battery. You’ll never get 160,000 km out of a battery.

Well, here’s a YouTube video dealing with those mistruths.

Some disabilities cannot be seen

Not that gays

Like father, like daughter

David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd, has finally included his daughter Romany in a song, on vocals and harp.

Between Two Points everyone!

Romany looks so much like her dad.

Tokyo trains

This is a map of all the train lines in Tokyo

Tokyo transit

This is a map of all the train lines in Tokyo

Just kidding, this is just the Tokyo Metro

Things I learned lately 22 June

ICE vehicles have a fire rate of 1,530 fires per 100,000 ICE vehicle sales. EVs have a rate of 25 fires per 100,000 EV vehicle sales.
Based on over 70 factors that measure for quality of democracy, here are the top 10 rated democracies: 1 Denmark; 2 Sweden; 3 Estonia; 4 Switzerland; 5 Norway; 6 Ireland; 7 New Zealand; 8 Finland; 9 Costa Rica; 10 Belgium. Canada was 25th. Notable fact: every country in the top 10 have proportional representation in their governments.
5-pin bowling originated as a Canadian invention and it has remained largely confined to Canada over the decades.
The story behind the development of Good Will Hunting makes for a great read (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Will_Hunting#Development).
An apple brown betty, an apple cobbler, an apple crisp, an apple buckle, an apple crumble, an apple grunt, an apple sonker and an apple pandowdy are NOT the same thing.

Saturday, June 15, 2024

Old timey maple syrup

Photo taken from inside a violin

Small things 15 June

Mama bear: The porridge is ready. Papa bear: Perfect. Let’s leave for a couple of hours.
A nice thing about reading a book is that when you’re finished reading it, there’s no collection of obnoxious negative comments at the end.
If someone accuses you of swearing too much, tell them you’re speaking fluent veteran, using a soldier dialect and a military accent.
The restaurant that served Kentucky Fried Chicken in Canada in the 70s was named Scott’s Chicken Villa Family Restaurant (or La Villa du Poulet in Quebec). They served a lot more than just KFC products.
I wonder, if you pour root beer into a squared glass, are you just left with beer?
Some days I wonder if we’re being punked by our bank. Witness a statement screw-up that took many calls, a few branch visits, 3 years and 2 forms to fix. A credit card replacement incident that took 4 phone calls and a branch visit to fix. And finally, a simple call to ask a simple question about fees that lasted 30 minutes, 28 of it on hold, with no resolution and a CSR that had an accent thicker than Jackie Chan.
Here’s hoping more young girls aspire to be like Alyssa Carson (youngest person in history to pass all NASA's aerial tests) instead of Kendall Jenner.
None of your problems are because someone is on welfare.
None of your problems are because of an immigrant.
None of your problems are because of anyone who identifies a certain way.
A woman gets married and changes how people address her and nobody bats an eye. Someone who identifies a certain way wants to change the way people address them and some people lose their minds.

The original Winnie and friends given to Christopher Robin Milne

He remembered

“Don’t think that when you get fired or laid off, it’s an assessment on you”

Every year, Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business, makes tech and business and cultural predictions. In this talk, recorded in May 2023, he examines current trends like AI, the metaverse, wealth inequality, and loneliness, and shares his vision of the greatest opportunities coming up in the near future.

His humour is dry and he solicits a few laughs from the crowdHis humour is dry and he solicits a few laughs from the crowd. You might not be into the stuff at the start, but it gets better. Watch it to the end for some personal insights that might blow your mind.