Do my opinions offend you?

Americans love their free speech. But only to a point. One reader of a blog named Bedazzled complained:

"I would like, however, to see the music postings somehow seperated (sp) from your other postings. I, like many others, do not hold with the same political views as you and I would like to not have to sift through your vitriole (sp) simply to access the better materials you offer. Perhaps a seperate site or some kind of sorting method can be implemented?"

Check out his answer. Beware the vitriol.........

Politically Correct Seasonal Greeting

From me ("the wishor") to you ("hereinafter called the wishee"). Please accept without obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, politically correct, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all...

... and a financially successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but with due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures or sects, and having regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform or dietary preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting you are bound by these terms that-

* This greeting is subject to further clarification or withdrawal
* This greeting is freely transferable provided that no alteration shall be made to the original greeting and that the proprietary rights of the wishor are acknowledged.
* This greeting implies no promise by the wishor to actually implement any of the wishes.
* This greeting may not be enforceable in certain jurisdictions and/or the restrictions herein may not be binding upon certain wishees in certain jurisdictions and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wishor.
* This greeting is warranted to perform as reasonably may be expected within the usual application of good tidings, for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first.
* The wishor warrants this greeting only for the limited replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wishor
* Any references in this greeting to "the Lord", "Father Christmas", "Our Saviour", or any other festive figures, whether actual or fictitious, dead or alive, shall not imply any endorsement by or from them in respect of this greeting, and all proprietary rights in any referenced third party names and images are hereby acknowledged.

We miss you John..................

Pie in the sky

Are you into skyscrapers? Then the Skyscraper page is definately for you. Check out the Buildings Under Construction page if you want to see what's on the horizon. There's some pretty tall buildings under construction around the world and most of them are either in China or the Middle East.

File under redundant

You have to give the Japanese credit - they build some great stuff. But now they've outdone themselves with Ocean Dome at Seagaia. $50US will get you inside, but you'll still have to pay for the rides ($5-10 each). It's currently the world's largest indoor waterpark with the largest retractable roof. White sand beach, wave pool, water slides, flame-spitting volcano - and from the third floor balcony, you can see the real ocean - a mere 300 metres away.

Good times..........

Just for fun, I decided to train Google Maps onto the area where I spent much of my youthful summers (early 70's), Trenton New Jersey. I wanted to see if I could zero in on the area where my mother's family lived. I have awesome memories of that time and place. Trenton is very different from the outskirts of Montreal. It's very industrial (by comparison) and the time I spent down there was very special. In particular, I recall spending the days in a high school yard, being entertained by local teen girls (I would have only been there maybe while I was 8 til 13 or so). The locals were employed by the government to essentially run a day camp of sorts, with a refrigerated truck showing up each day with box lunches for everyone. Every few weeks, a bus would round us up in the morning and take us to places like the Naval Yards in Philadelphia, or the Benjamin Franklin Institute, or Fort Dix. I'm going to guess that this type of summer government program hasn't existed in the US for a long time.

There's too many people to thank........

I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself.

I'd like to thank God, my Mom, my brother and sister....... the good people at Sony........ maybe they'll send me some free stuff............. ummmm.............. gee, this is really unexpected.............. to my wife, "I love you baby". I'd like to say 'hi' to all my peeps.

Forget the diet!

If there's one thing we all obssess about - it's our bodies. In particular, our weight. There are as many diets as there are cities in the world, yet most of them don't work. Why?

I think part of the reason is we eat for different reasons and most of them are damned near impossible to overcome. In fact it's this obssession with what we eat that actaully makes matters worse. You see, it's really not so much 'what' we eat, as it is 'how much'. Here are some non-diet tips that have made a difference for me. Maybe they will for you too.

• Eat only when you're hungry and stop when you're not hungry anymore, versus eating til you're stuffed. You do not have to finish everything on your plate.
• Eat less, but more often.
• Never skip breakfast.
  
• Chew more.
• Try - at least try to get more fibre, fruit and vegetables into your diet.
• Variety is key. Don't say 'no' to treats - just don't make them your sole source of calories.
  
• Say 'no' to soft drinks as often as possible - rediscover good ol' water.
• Stop treating stress and depression with food.
• Feel like a good ol' pigout? No problem. Exercise more that day too and you'll be fine.
  

Like my blog? Tell your friends!

To all my regular readers, this message is for you. If you enjoy reading this blog, I humbly ask you to help me improve its visibility somewhat by rating it on Blogs Canada.

Unfortunately the method won't be easy, thanks to the awful layout - but it'll only take a moment of your time if you follow this process. Go to this link. From here, select the 'Personal' category. By default the list is ordered by 'hits'. Change that to by 'Name', 'descending'. There's 737 pages at last count. Go to page 4 (ish - it's gonna change over time). White Noise is there - twice. I'm the one from Alberta. Click the 'rate' link to rate the blog. And thank you for your support. There is no prize if my rating gets better, it just makes it easier to find - and that's what I'm hoping for........

"We need better tape"

It's been a while since I mentioned one of my favourite cartoons online, Odd Todd. The new contributions were rare, but I've been back today and there's new stuff. In particular, the Tuesday Morning Coffay Show. Check 'em out!

"It was hot back then too......."

Have you seen Will Ferrell play "dubya"? In this clip, the Commander in Chief of the world weighs in on global warmings (sic). Excerpt:

"I start my day and I think about the warming of the globe..............and how we could get it warmer."

"Liberals are trying to make me look bad, by using things such as 'facts' and 'scientific data'."

Fun with computers

My CD won't read......!"

Yo! Corporations! Pay attention.....

Some day more and more companies will understand the value of good customer service. Case in point - when I had decided to buy my latest car, the Acura dealer closest to me treated me like a second class citizen. Not only did I have to go on my test drive accompanied by a salesperson (understandable for a $50,000 car, but not a $35,000 one), but he didn't even let me leave the residential area the dealership was in. Did he honestly think he was going to sell me the car without getting to take it out on a road where the speed limit was more than 50km/h?

Anyway, a friend of ours recommended the other Acura dealer in town and what a difference. To this day, the salesperson calls us to wish us a happy holiday and got us a great deal on our car (so much so that I was able to afford it 4 months ahead of schedule). He did what was necessary not only to secure a sale from us, but to ensure that we'll probably buy from the same place again in the future.

Freaky

Do ya like illusions? Sure, everyone does. This is the best one I've seen in a long time and the best part? You can make it yourself! I kid you not. Watch the video of the illusion.

Best of 2005

Well, the year is almost over, so naturally it's time to list things. Best of What's New; 100 Best PC Products; 10 Most Dangerous Toys........ get the list of the lists at Fimoculous.

Built like a brick sh........... never mind

There was a time that technology analysts looked into their crystal ball and saw the parts of a computer migrate out of the traditional case and evolve into an even more modular 'brick' style system, where the pieces were scattered around and only the pieces you needed to touch were in sight. Well, we're still a little ways before that type of system is common, but in the meantime, LaCie has built external hard drives that look like Lego bricks. They're stackable, connect via USB and are colour-coded according to capacity. External hard drives make more sense today due to their low cost, making them perfect for archiving, backups and bringing that 10GB music collection to work.

Back in the day.....

If you long for the video games of the 1980's, give 1980-games.com a look. They've got Space Invaders, Galaxian, Pacman and many more.

Holy Googlebots Batman!

Google sure has grown. If you're still just using it for a search engine, you've got some catching up to do. Google Maps; Blogger; Picasa; Google Earth; Google Talk........... the list goes on and on. The complete list here, courtesy TipMonkies.

Dave Barry is very dumb.... come on - 50 years?

16 THINGS THAT IT TOOK ME OVER 50 YEARS TO LEARN:
by Dave Barry , Nationally Syndicated Columnist

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word would be "meetings."
3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
5. You should not confuse your career with your life.
6. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
7. Never lick a steak knife.
8. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.
9. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
10. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
11. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.
12. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.
13. A person who is nice to you but rude to a waiter is not a nice person.
(This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)
14. Your friends love you anyway.
15. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.
16. Men are like fine wine. They start out as grapes, and it's up to the women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

Thanks to Petra for the find.......
P.S.: I'm joking.... he's not dumb

2 peas in a pod

Artist Marilyn Manson married Heather Sweet, aka Dita von Teese. What a pretty face. A face any mom could love. Heather's pretty cute too.

"i only teach internetional student from U,k."

Oh this is so totally awesome! Before, I was just a wanna-be, but now I can truly say that I have been initiated into the exclusive world of 'the scam'. I'm selling something on Craigslist - I'm not going to tell you what it is. But I received my first query on the item from................ well, you read it for yourself:

Hey,
How are you doing today?My name is Mrs Miller Jonathan from Ewa Beach,Hawaii in Usa, Actually this is my first time i will inquiry for item's on internet,even on craigslist and i don't know much about internet.actually am a Female teacher and am purchasing some item's on craigslist for my student as a chrismas gift and for the best student as a end of the school year party gift. My main purpose of writting you this message is concerning your (item for sale copied and pasted here) placed for sale on internet ,and which i will like to know if it's still available for sale, and also i will like to know the actual selling price of it including the shipping cost of their parent in Lagos NG 23401,Because i only teach internetional student from U,k.So i look forward to read back from you with the recenty condition of the Item's.
Write Soon.
Mrs Miller Jonathan.

PS: LIKE HOW MANY DO YOU HAVE FOR SALE??

Isn't that special? I find the spelling mistakes charming. A woman from Hawaii, who can't speak English, who teaches kids from the UK, whose parents live in............... you guessed it.............. Nigeria. I feel so........................ complete.

Keep your iPod

If you're thinking about getting an mp3 player this year, stop limiting yourself to thinking only about the iPod. There are other great players out there - many of whom sound better, play more types of music files, aren't tied to the DRM nastiness of [cough] iTunes [choke] - and - are cheaper. The site Anything but iPod is a wonderful place to see for yourself. I have the Creative Zen Touch and I love it.

They'll sell like hotcakes.....

The new gift from Staples (Business Depot) that is all the rage is the Easy button. All it does is say "That was easy..." when you press it. Moment of comedy zen:

My friend Jon at work grabbed the button off the owner's desk, started walking away as he said, "I wonder how easy it would be to steal this from Gord's desk?" By the time he got around the corner and just out of sight, he pressed the button....... "That was easy....."

It's knot that hard......

Need help learning your knots? What if an animation showed you how to do it? I wish I had this site when I was a cub scout.......

Best line read on another blog this week....

On discussing their son's ever increasing vocabulary:

"He's been cranking out words faster than global warming can produce hurricanes."

Classic Canadian Comedy

As mentioned here, I had the pleasure to see Ron James in concert back in September. The resulting television special will air on CBC this Friday, December 9, around 9pm (check your local listings for actual show time). Do yourself a favour and watch this dynamo in action.

Trash the joint....

Here's another fun advertisement for you to see, for the Gap, of all places.

Political gifts

See - the problem with having an election campaign over Christmas is the public wants gifts and the party leaders want to be percieved as Santa Claus:

Liberals: We're cutting personal income taxes.
Conservatives: Oh yeah? Well, we'll cut the GST.....
NDP: Well, we'll improve health care substantially.
Liberals: We're helping poor people with the cost of fuel.
Conservatives: You so totally stole that idea from Ralph Klein.
NDP: Free Tim Horton's coffee for everyone!
Bloc Quebecois: Habs tickets! Get your Habs tickets!

My hard drive is smaller than.......never mind

Have you seen how small external hard drives have become lately? I can remember when they were the size of a pile of 3 or 4 DVD cases, now they're barely bigger than a cigarette pack and they don't need a separate power source - they'll draw all the power they need from your USB port. I just bought me one of these babies, described here.

Oh Christmas tree........oh Christmas tree....

Here's the story of the origin of the Christmas tree. Click the 'Main' link and find lots of background history on Christmas in general. Very nice.