2nd breakfast anyone?

 

Small things 25 Aug

• Alberta courts ruled that the Covid health restrictions put in place were political decisions, not Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) decisions. As a result, the people who were charged for violating those restrictions are now off the hook. Yet the former CMOH is still being punished by AHS by not allowing her to assume a job she got hired for? I’m confused.
• If I put a fax number on my business card, would people realize it was a joke? How about a pager number? Both?
• The airport boldly asks "What if the worst sandwich you'd ever had was $16.95". It also says “That’s a nice suitcase you have there. Shame if something were to happen to it.”
• I’m still trying to train my body that the fight or flight response doesn’t apply when I receive an unexpected email attachment.
• Whatever you think you can't do, just know that there is someone, somewhere, who is confidently doing it wrong right now. They have no plans at doing it better either and people are paying them to do it. Please believe in your own excellence as much as they believe in their Mediocrity.

"What does it mean when the orange light under the hood comes on?" 

The orange light under the hood? 

"Yeah, it’s sort of shaped like flames. Looks real too."

Typical elderly man profile pic

 

Artists that debuted in 1980

Ozzy (solo)

Joan Jett

U2

Bryan Adams (solo)

Huey Lewis and the News

Bauhaus

INXS

Berlin

Toronto

Loverboy

The Kings

Def Leppard

Kid Creole & the Coconuts

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

The Psychedelic Furs

S.O.S. Band

The Romantics

Yello

UB40

Jon & Vangelis

I would so put this on our bathroom wall

 

Print your house

Imagine designing your new house and then a giant 3D printer shows up on the property and prints it with concrete just like a typical 3D printer.

With each printed layer, you can leave gaps for windows, doors, plumbing and utility access, vents, etc. The exterior walls are built as a dual wall separated by a gap to be filled with beaded foam insulation. Even the interior walls are 3D printed in concrete.

UFO caught on tape

 

Things I learned lately 25 Aug

• Trump is the first former president with a mug shot.
• The Hudson's Bay store in Banff has closed its door forever.
• Lotus now makes an EV - The Eletre. It’s an SUV rated at a meagre 900hp (R model, Euro spec). 350kW fast charge capability. Made in partnership with China’s Geely brand.
• The Cadillac Lyriq EV and the Acura ZDX EV are basically the same SUV, the Acura making use of the new GM EV platform.
• Walmart will be experimenting with drone delivery in a small part of Dallas.
• Netflix is finally closing down their original DVD rental business. Anyone with a DVD is being told to keep it.
• There are a lot of EV models available today. I knew there were quite a few, but I had no idea just how many. What was even more surprising was the separate, longer list of EVs only available in China. This wikipedia article lists them all
• The 6 hottest small SUV EVs: Mach-E; Ioniq 5; Model Y; ID.4; Q4 e-Tron; EV-6.
• The US Army has a climate change strategy that includes electrifying light combat vehicles and establishing self-sustaining electrical micro-grids that don’t use fossil fuel or depend on the national grid.

Small things 18 Aug

• I have no idea why, I’m not even American, but the funniest thing appeared in my Facebook feed: “Renouncing US Citizenship - Questions answered live!”
• Things appropriate to say to children, but not to adults: “Look at you, you got so big!” “You’re not leaving the table until you eat those vegetables.” “When you pay the rent, you can start making the rules.”
• Drive your passengers insane by tying a harmonica to the underside of your vehicle and pretending like you don’t hear anything when you’re whizzing down the road. Just be sure to face it the right way.
• U-Haul has the worst drivers of any trucking company.
• Name for a dad blog: “Oops, I dad it again.”
• It figures that there’s no show and tell when you’re an adult. I have so much cooler stuff now.
• Am I tempting fate if I let my Roomba loose on my Ouija board pattern throw rug?
• If you own a cat and it sees you accidentally knock a cup onto the floor, you have to spray yourself with water. You know, to show that the rule applies to everyone.

I grew up here

 

Another Wes Anderson joint

Imagine a movie starring Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, and Jeff Goldblum. 

Yep, it’s a Wes Anderson movie. 

Asteroid City. 

Coming soon...

Fizzishin

 

Artists that debuted in 1979

The Human League

Joy Division

Rickie Lee Jones

The Cure

The Pretenders

Gary Numan

Madness

The Motels

Cabaret Voltaire

Joe Jackson

Simple Minds

The Korgis

Pat Benetar

The Knack

Red Rider

Christopher Cross

The B-52s

On children

"Your children are not your children

They are Sons and Daughters of life's longing for itself

They come through you but not from you

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you

You may give them your love but not your thoughts

For they have their own thoughts

You may house their bodies but not their souls

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow

Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams

You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth"

~Khalil Gibran

Bad rainbows

 

Things I learned lately 18 Aug

• The Alberta / NWT wildfires have now burned an area almost 4 times the size of the province of PEI.
• In the 14th century, “hound” was used to refer to almost all domestic canines and “dog” was reserved for breeds like the precursors to modern bulldogs and mastiffs. By the 16th century, the meaning had shifted and dog was the general term and hound was used for hunting breeds.
• Tug of war used to be an Olympic event.
• In the Game of Thrones series, over 174,000 people met their end.
• Scottsdale Arizona no longer allows grass lawns on new home builds, to conserve water.
• There are 119 legal land-based border crossing points between the US and Canada. All of them are two-way except for the points at Churubusco, New York (travelers may only enter the US) and Four Falls, New Brunswick (travelers may only enter Canada).
• Folks from the southern part of Oregon and the northern part of California have long wanted to separate from their respective states and form a 51st state of Jefferson. The separatists feel underrepresented by their state governments.
• If you unloaded all the containers from a typical Triple-E class container ship and formed them into a train, the train would be 70 miles (112 km) long.

Coffee phases

 

Small things 11 Aug

• Weirdest phrase ever: “I’m just saying.” As opposed to what? Whispering? Yodeling? Not saying?
• Immature: A word that boring people sometimes use to describe fun people.
• [Seen on a mug] Let me pour you a tall mug of ‘get over it’. Oh, and here’s a straw so you can ‘suck it up’.
• I want my navigation voice to be the Armourer from Mandalorian, and when I turn correctly, she says, “This is the way.”
• “Remember, history is written by the victors!”   “Oh great. There’s a writing assignment too.”
• I tend to avoid sufferers of Ultracrepidarianism on social media or in real life.
• FYI, politicians at every level don’t have a magic power to control real estate prices, utility prices, commodity prices, grocery prices, gasoline and natural gas prices, etc.
• Fun thing to do: listen to the lyrics of songs from the 60s, 70s and 80s and see how creepy they sound by today’s standards.
• R2D2 must have sworn like a sailor. Everything he said in the movies was bleeped out.
• Boxes of aluminum foil should say, “Free hat in every box.”

There was a young man 

From Cork who got Limericks

And Haikus confused

Did everyone have one?

 

Artists that debuted in 1978

The Cars

Van Halen 

Dire Straits 

Kate Bush

XTC

The Police

Saga

Toto

Devo

Midnight Oil

Streetheart

Nick Lowe

Prince

Flash and the Pan

Chaka Khan

Image attribution:

By https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGQt4ZdMJcZvw6FbDFsUYlxlk9WXaUibqObzJfp0qmkNlqIJZUX5OetfUlCXB6SDte_MJfjE873xL9CwjiiIKt3YU8iLJenvcJxLjRst0XqGe7r12QdaZGn_7KLBXvbSKVo0EGw/s320/sagadavdolo.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26327367

Cat rock, paper, scissors

 

Let me take you to music school

If you are as big of a fan of music as I am, you probably like to learn about the history of your favorite bands, artists and songs. rather than go through the trouble of having to dig up gems of trivia and fascinating facts in history on your own, you could just rely on the Professor of Rock. No, I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about the YouTube channel run by Adam Reader. 

Like, in this video for example, the professor talks about the tragic history behind the song Without You.

Here’s a few other classics:

Dreams by Fleetwood Mac

Hotel California

The band Mark Knopfler heard in a dive bar that inspired Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits. 

Goat affection

 

Things I learned lately 12 Aug

• The Pony Express (a speedy horse-based mail delivery service that linked California to the Midwestern United States) only operated for 18 months before it was superseded by the first transcontinental telegraph system.
• Potato chip bags are filled with nitrogen gas to prevent spoilage and soggy chips. The extra air also helps protect the chips from being damaged by rough handling during the shipping process.
• Roughly 9000 Boeing 737 aircraft have been built since 1967.
• Aboard the International Space Station, astronauts wear clothing until it is too dirty to wear any more, then shoot it out into space to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
• In the original script for National Lampoon’s Vacation starring Chevy Chase, the family never make it to Walley World, instead confronting Roy Walley at his house. It didn’t test very well, so they rewrote the ending and cast John Candy as the security guard that Clark takes hostage so they could ride the rides.
• The Washington Monument was not built at the original proposed location, at the intersection of a straight line from the middle of the White House and a straight line from the middle of the Capitol building. The ground wouldn’t support the weight. So it was offset slightly and the Jefferson Pier Stone was placed there instead.

Small things 4 Aug

• “I find it so nihilistic and disappointing that the wealthiest and arguably the most intelligent among us decided to devote their resources colonizing other planets, as opposed to just trying to make this place a little more fucking habitable.” ~NYU Marketing Professor Scott Galloway
• To be clear, the whole we can disagree and still be friends is for stuff like pineapple on pizza, not the systematic enslavement of an entire demographic.
• I’m having difficulty understanding why not every pharmacy has an automated system where if your prescription is ready, you get notified right away.
• April fools fodder: Bose announced they will be selling a noise cancelling toilet.
• At the bovine cafe, tipping is not appreciated.
• If you think I’m rude, you should hear the little voice inside my head…
• If your neighbour came over and asked to borrow your ketchup and then they got an attitude because it was French’s brand, not Heinz, would you still give it to them?
• Me: sometimes I talk to myself   Me: OMG same
• When you want to jump into the conversation, but the topic changes before you get a chance.
• Remember when we couldn’t sit close to the TV, and now we wear them on our heads?
• Star Wars is, at its core, daddy issues in space.

Guy who invented the clock: There will be 12 numbers on it

Friend: So the day will be divided into 12 segments?

Inventor: No, 24

Friend: So will the day start at 1

Inventor: The day will start at the 12, which is at night

Friend:

Inventor: The 6 means 30

[Screams]

 

Artists that debuted in 1977

Peter Gabriel

Talking Heads

Ultravox

Prism

Elvis Costello

Bob Welch

George Thoroughgood

Foreigner

Eddie Money

Chic

The Clash

Cheap Trick

Kenny Loggins

The Boomtown Rats

FM 

Bjork

Meatloaf

38 Special

Wife discovers his browser history

 

Sinead’s letter to Miley

After Miley Cyrus said she was inspired by Sinead O’Connor, Sinead was prompted to write a letter of caution to Miley via her blog:

"Dear Miley,

I wasn't going to write this letter, but today I've been dodging phone calls from various newspapers who wished me to remark upon your having said in Rolling Stone your Wrecking Ball video was designed to be similar to the one for Nothing Compares … So this is what I need to say … And it is said in the spirit of motherliness and with love.

I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way 'cool' to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos. It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether it's the music business or yourself doing the pimping.

Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited, and it is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent.

I am happy to hear I am somewhat of a role model for you and I hope that because of that you will pay close attention to what I am telling you.

The music business doesn't give a shit about you, or any of us. They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think it's what YOU wanted … and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, 'they' will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone.

None of the men ogling you give a shit about you either, do not be fooled. Many's the woman mistook lust for love. If they want you sexually that doesn't mean they give a fuck about you. All the more true when you unwittingly give the impression you don't give much of a fuck about yourself. And when you employ people who give the impression they don't give much of a fuck about you either. No one who cares about you could support your being pimped … and that includes you yourself.

Yes, I'm suggesting you don't care for yourself. That has to change. You ought to be protected as a precious young lady by anyone in your employ and anyone around you, including you. This is a dangerous world. We don't encourage our daughters to walk around naked in it because it makes them prey for animals and less than animals, a distressing majority of whom work in the music industry and its associated media.

You are worth more than your body or your sexual appeal. The world of showbiz doesn't see things that way, they like things to be seen the other way, whether they are magazines who want you on their cover, or whatever … Don't be under any illusions … ALL of them want you because they're making money off your youth and your beauty … which they could not do except for the fact your youth makes you blind to the evils of show business. If you have an innocent heart you can't recognise those who do not.

I repeat, you have enough talent that you don't need to let the music business make a prostitute of you. You shouldn't let them make a fool of you either. Don't think for a moment that any of them give a flying fuck about you. They're there for the money… we're there for the music. It has always been that way and it will always be that way. The sooner a young lady gets to know that, the sooner she can be REALLY in control.

You also said in Rolling Stone that your look is based on mine. The look I chose, I chose on purpose at a time when my record company was encouraging me to do what you have done. I felt I would rather be judged on my talent and not my looks. I am happy that I made that choice, not least because I do not find myself on the proverbial rag heap now that I am almost 47 yrs of age … which unfortunately many female artists who have based their image around their sexuality, end up on when they reach middle age.

Real empowerment of yourself as a woman would be to in future refuse to exploit your body or your sexuality in order for men to make money from you. I needn't even ask the question … I've been in the business long enough to know that men are making more money than you are from you getting naked. It's really not at all cool. And it's sending dangerous signals to other young women. Please in future say no when you are asked to prostitute yourself. Your body is for you and your boyfriend. It isn't for every spunk-spewing dirtbag on the net, or every greedy record company executive to buy his mistresses diamonds with.

As for the shedding of the Hannah Montana image … whoever is telling you getting naked is the way to do that does absolutely NOT respect your talent, or you as a young lady. Your records are good enough for you not to need any shedding of Hannah Montana. She's waaaaaaay gone by now … Not because you got naked but because you make great records.

Whether we like it or not, us females in the industry are role models and as such we have to be extremely careful what messages we send to other women. The message you keep sending is that its somehow cool to be prostituted … it's so not cool Miley … its dangerous. Women are to be valued for so much more than their sexuality. We aren't merely objects of desire. I would be encouraging you to send healthier messages to your peers … that they and you are worth more than what is currently going on in your career. Kindly fire any motherfucker who hasn't expressed alarm, because they don't care about you."

Who gets to represent?

 

What Pee-wee meant to me

I was 25 when Pee-wee’s Playhouse came on TV. It was the weirdest thing I ever saw in my life (at that point). I didn’t know many people who liked it as much as I did. But I loved its wackiness, its artistic style. I liked that the show’s music was created by Mark Mothersbaugh, also of the weird band Devo and Cyndi Lauper. I can’t listen to the Chaps song Tequila without seeing Pee-wee doing his trademark dance on the table.

I found it interesting that the show always had a positive message, even if it was wrapped in wacky delivery. Every time I read an anecdote from a friend of Paul’s, it always seems to have the same common theme. “He looks you in the eye and makes you feel loved and important.” 

RIP Paul Reubens. Thank you for making it cool to be original. [SCREAMS] Oh no! I said the secret word… original.

Remember this guy?

 

Things I learned lately 4 Aug

• Pee-wee Herman actually appeared on The Dating Game in 1979. He appeared 3 times, lost twice and won once.
• Time to 1 million users: Netflix - 41 months; Twitter - 24 months; Facebook - 10 months; Instagram - 3 months; ChatGPT - 5 days.
• One Grand Big Mac has 850 calories, 940 if you get the bacon one.
• In a pilot project conducted by 4 Day Week Global, where 41 companies in Canada tried out a 4 day work week but still with full pay, 35 said they are keeping, planning to, or leaning toward keeping a 4 day work week. Most of the companies in the study had fewer than 25 employees.
• Rock band Boston’s first album was mostly recorded in Tom Scholz’s basement. The record company was fooled into thinking the music had been recorded in a studio in LA. So you could say that Boston’s debut album is the biggest selling home recording of all time.
• In Whittier, Alaska, most of the residents live in a big 66 year old, 14 floor condo building called Begich Towers.
• Everyone has heard about Woodstock. But Summer Jam, at Watkins Glen NY in 1973 brought nearly 600,000 people to the raceway concert. It featured The Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead, and The Band.
• By the time that first McDonald’s opened, there were already over 100 Dairy Queen outlets.
• The first Dairy Queen in Canada was in Melville, SK.