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Friday Fun Link – FactoClock

[Have had a couple outages in the last couple days which were noticed by both sets of parents (and tells me I have at least somewhere between two to four readers!) 😉  Anyhow, I’ve been told it may be a conflict with a plug-in, possibly the search engine plug-in I use which has grown to have quite a large index.  I’ll try to do some testing and hope it doesn’t happen again.]

Factoclock.com displays a new fact every minute.

Here’s the one I got when I logged in just now…

The English word ‘bacon’ was derived from a word in the German language which meant ‘buttock’.

Posted 31 January 2014 § Blog § FridayFunLink § Randomness ‡ Comments (0) °

Some Thoughts on The Documentary “Mitt”

Watched the Netflix exclusive documentary “Mitt” tonight.

It promises to be a behind-the-scenes look at Mitt Romney’s rise to Presidential nominee beginning with his losing effort to secure the Republican nomination in 2008, his successful effort to gain that nomination in 2012, only to ultimately lose to Barack Obama.

You can find reviews saying this documentary could’ve changed the election in Mitt’s favour by humanizing him and reviews saying it wouldn’t have helped.

– it did humanize him (a bit) for me but, no matter how much he loves his grandkids, I still think he’s ultimately a smug rich bastard who doesn’t care about most people (or to be charitable, if he does, he thinks they don’t work hard enough or are getting what they deserve or God didn’t smile his light on them or any of that other similar right-wing dreck rather than being a truly empathetic human being.)

– I think the multiple scenes of him picking up garbage in hotel rooms was meant to humanize him but it just screamed “control freak” to me.

– a *real* humanizing moment is when he gives his wife’s butt a pat at one point as they’re about to head out to some event!

– it’s a pretty sympathetic portrayal (to be expected to get this level of access) so it glosses over a lot of his more controversial moments (47% percent comment) or spins others (the exchange with Candy Crawley about Benghazi that probably cost him the second debate)

– it was interesting that very soon after that section, they show him also “losing” a debate with his son about what kind of food is available in the Delta section of La Guardia airport.  Was the point that his loss to Obama wasn’t important or that Romney gets confused sometimes or what?  I’m not sure but it was an interesting juxtaposition.

– Paul Ryan, in only a couple appearances, comes across as a total jock-head bro.  Another highlight is somebody coming into their suite on election night saying they lost Wisconsin (Ryan’s home state although Ryan doesn’t appear to be in the room) and then the Romney family has a mini-debate about whether they want updates like this on camera

– they actually have a good answer for the “He has an elevator for his cars” slam at one point by explaining he had it put in for his wife who has MS.  He *doesn’t* acknowledge that this is still *extremely* fucking unbelievable to most normal human beings.

– speaking of swearing, I love how all the Romney family (and there are a LOT of them – what do they have? Eight boys or something?) are always saying “Oh my gosh!” about everything.  So cute.

– they’re also always praying and saying that Mitt running is God’s will and as an interesting thought experiment, I challenge you to watch these sections while pretending you know nothing about religion (Mormonism or otherwise.)  Do they sound crazy or what?

– if Romney reads this and offers me a million bucks, I will rescind all criticism of him! 😉

Posted 30 January 2014 § Politics § PopCulture § United States ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Another Great Thing About Reddit…

…it’s a great resource to get non-traditional thoughts, pictures and feedback on local news and events.

Just like my recent post on the value of Google Street Maps as a way to “travel” without leaving home, Reddit can help you do the same, especially when there is a current news event happening in a specific city.

For example, with the “Snowpocalypse” that’s happening in Atlanta, I visited /r/Atlanta to see what Redditors were saying and sharing about current events.

I did the same when the Rob Ford scandal was at its height by visiting /r/Toronto  and am now checking out /r/Edmonton regularly since we’re going there next month for a one week holiday.  (Don’t tell Pace as we haven’t told him yet!) 😉

Posted 29 January 2014 § Canada § Family § Pace § Randomness § Travel § United States ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , ,

The Greatest Software Misuses

Quora has a great question about the best software mis-uses that people have seen.

Because my family members read this blog, I won’t mention some that I’ve seen personally (ahem, Googling for a common web site instead of just typing it in the URL bar.  You know who you are!) but I will highlight a few other gems…

My grandmother would send emails by typing up her email on Word, printing it out, then giving it out to my grandfather to type into an email and then he would send it. We didn’t even try to show them the error of their ways lol.

Here’s another great one…

My mom confirming her password:

Password: password1
Confirm Password: yes

..and to be fair, a response to the pet peeve I mentioned of family members who Google the names of web sites they could just enter directly, this is actually a great way to ensure you end up where you want to be:

This is not a direct answer to the question, but a response to the most popular response [about Googling for web sites you could just enter directly]. I too used to laugh at people who did this. But it’s actually pretty smart behavior. An easy kind of malicious behavior is to squat a mistyped name (and think of a company like the erstwhile Sovereign Bank: would you trust the general population to always correctly type “Sovereign”?). By typing into a search box, you get spelling correction and thus, for the vast majority of popular sites, will be guided away from malicious ones that might cause you harm.

Of course, this hands information to search engines, suppresses sites with similar names, etc. But it’s also very smart consumer behavior. Basically, Internet DNS is an idiot savant: it’ll do exactly what you ask for (modulo DNS record poisoning). Think of a search engine as an intelligent DNS.

Posted 28 January 2014 § Family § Humour § Internet § List § Shea § Technology ‡ Comments (0) °

Music Monday – “It’s the same hate that’s caused wars from religion/Gender to skin color the complexion of your pigment/The same fight that lead people to walk-outs and sit-ins/It’s human rights for everybody/There is no difference”

In our digital age, where we are (or should be) trained to be skeptical about everything we read and see – was that model photoshopped? Was that anti-vaccine information published in a scientific journal or by a non-PhD holding, former Playmate?  Was that B-level celebrity’s meltdown just an attempt to gain publicity and attention? – I especially enjoy coming across moments that reveal genuine emotion.

Last night, the Grammy Awards had just such a moment.

Macklemore & Lewis took the stage to perform their equality anthem, “Same Love” and near the end of the song, Queen Latifah came out and performed a brief ceremony to wed 35 couples – gay straight, inter-racial, young and old – all at the same time.

Witnessing the emotions of the couples getting married would’ve been enough (er, if you can overlook the Moonie overtones!) but even better was seeing the celebrities in the audience, most of whom have been probably been media-trained to be near robots (“when you see a camera – any camera – big smile!”) crying and hugging and smiling widely.

“Same Love” – Macklemore & Lewis

On a similar note but focused on humour, I love this parody of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” performed by a “unique” looking man on ChatRoulette.  Normally, ChatRoulette videos result in a range of emotions.  But usually that range is limited to horror, revulsion and disgust.

The beauty of this clip is not one onlooker, no matter how “cool” or “detached” they try to stay, ends up doing anything but smiling, laughing, or singing along when they see what’s popped up on their screen.

Again, I just love the genuine humanity of the reactions in this clip – no cynicism, no attitude, just pure unfiltered human joy…

“Wrecking Ball” (ChatRoulette Parody) – Steve Kardynl

Posted 27 January 2014 § Humour § Meme § MusicMonday § PopCulture § Sad § United States § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Travel The World Without Leaving Your Laptop

The day before we left for Hawaii a couple years ago, I did a post summarizing how much of a role various web sites – from Google to Reddit to Trip Advisor – played in helping to plan and just generally build excitement for our trip.

I mentioned Google Maps in passing in that post but didn’t really talk about the best feature of that service – the Street View option which allows you to drop yourself right on any street, pretty much anywhere in North America and beyond.  From there, you can use your mouse or keyboard to move or look in any direction.

I have to admit I’ve become a bit addicted to this site.  It started awhile back when I decided to try to see if I could find a White Castle fast food restaurant Shea and I stopped at when we passed through Detroit.  (Why trying to find this restaurant occurred to me, I have no idea!)  😉

I couldn’t find the White Castle but while looking around, I stumbled upon some streets in the Motor City that shocked me.  I knew the economy was hurting in Detroit but there were images of burned out homes, people (with their faces obscured as per Google’s privacy rules) using drugs and in one case, apparently urinating on a dumpster!

Seeing that inspired me to jump to Beverly Hills California and “walk” around looking at various mansions, trying to wrap my head around the disparity in wealth that exists in the United States (unsuccessfully, I might add.)

Since then, when bored, I often jump into Google Street View, sometimes when a specific location or landmark occurs to me, other times, by dropping myself at a completely random location.

Last night, I had a very similar experience to that first “trip” from the mean streets of Detroit to the golden streets of Beverly Hills.

I looked up the location of Dodger Station to see where the first NHL outdoor game in a warm weather location was being played in front of a wide range of celebrities and wealthy fans.

Looking at the stadium’s location on the LA map, I saw “Skid Row” labeled on a nearby section of the map, directly south of the stadium, and had the strange realization that Skid Row, a place I knew of conceptually and which has come to be short hand for any destitute area of a city anywhere in the world was an actual real place that not only existed but even showed up *as* Skid Row on a map!

I likely wouldn’t do it if I was physically in Los Angeles but I was able to spend some time “walking around” the area to see (again, with faces obscured) the reality of life in that area.

I ended up using Reddit and a few other sources to do some more reading and learning about the area.  Reddit led to all kinds of articles and even a YouTube vlogger – not sure if he’s a homeless guy or not but definitely seems to live in the area – who posts clips of his experiences on the street.

Google Street View is an amazing resource – to experience both the best and the worst of our world – without leaving the comfort of your computer.

I’d encourage you to try Google Street View out yourself sometime if you haven’t – just go to Google Maps, find a random location and then drag the “Pegman” figure onto the map to got to Street View and begin exploring.

Posted 26 January 2014 § Canada § Internet § MemoryLane § Randomness § Technology § Travel § UK § United States § Video ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Saturday Snap – What a Crappy Game!

I recently bought Pace the Lego “Creationary” game.  Basically, this is Pictionary but instead of drawing different things, you try to build them with the various Lego pieces that are included with the game.

I have to admit I was a bit surprised by one of the game cards (although Shea and I did have a good laugh joking “Well, at least there’s one thing that Sasha can create – and she doesn’t even need Lego!) 😉

20140125-211916.jpg

Posted 25 January 2014 § Family § Humour § Pace § Photo § Sasha § Shea ‡ Comments (0) °

Friday Fun Link – Cards Against Humanity (Library Edition)

I haven’t had the opportunity to play Cards Against Humanity but have heard enough about it to know that the Library Edition would be especially hilarious, at least for a small subset of people I know! 😉

Here’s a demo of the original game so you can get a sense of how it goes…

Posted 24 January 2014 § FridayFunLink § Humour § Meme § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

The Correlation Between Unionization and Poverty Rates Around the World

(h/t to MF on FB)

Posted 23 January 2014 § Canada § Infographic § Jobs § Politics § UK § United States § Wisdom § Work ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Restoring Classic Film Theatres in Saskatchewan: Rural and Urban Success Stories @officialrpl #sask #yqr #indianhead #wolseley

The Nite Hawk Theatre that I grew up with in my hometown of Indian Head, Saskatchewan was recently facing the threat of being closed and sold to developers after the long-time owners decided to retire rather than pay for the necessary upgrades to digital equipment.

This would be a terrible loss as the theatre is a major part of the town’s (and indeed western Canada’s) history.  Depending on which article you read, the 110-year old building was the only opera house west of Winnipeg at the turn of the last century or the only one between Toronto and Vancouver.  Either way, it’s the longest continually operating theatre in western Canada. Beyond that, it’s a great source of entertainment, employment (both my sister as well as a couple cousins and many friends worked there over the years), and a gathering spot for the local community, especially the young people who are so important to having a vibrant rural community:

According to Neill, 65 per cent of the patrons who had been using the theatre were under 18 years old.

A group comprised of local fans of the theatre, arts lovers and former residents banded together raised nearly $100,000 of the $150,000 required to buy the building in which the theatre is located, with the local Credit Union underwriting the rest.

A similar story played out just down the road in Wolseley where that community was able to also raise a six figure sum to upgrade their drive-in to digital (one of the few remaining drive-ins in the province, if not the country) and, as with the Nite Hawk in Indian Head, allow it to continue to play an important role for in the lives of the people of Wolseley and surrounding communities.

Finally, here at RPL, we also have a similar success story of moving from outdated to new technology.  The Regina Public Library is very fortunate to have a single screen art house cinema that also needed upgraded to digital to meet the needs of today’s film industry.  This was done in December and although I haven’t had a chance to attend a showing in the new theatre, I’m sure it’s a great improvement.

This post makes me realise that you can draw a pretty straight line through all three of these theatres and how they’ve played a role in my life – the Nite Hawk is where I saw some of my first movies on the big screen (I still remember “ET” being so packed that the owner *must’ve* broken fire code to let people sit in the aisles) to the Wolseley drive-in, which became my movie viewing destination of choice when I was older and had a driver’s license to the RPL theatre which was a popular place to go when I was doing my undergrad degree – especially for their annual showing of “The World’s Funniest Commercials” as well as being memorable as the first place I saw “Clerks” by Kevin Smith, the first film to ever garner an NC-17 rating just for the language it contained! 😉

Here’s a great article from The Walrus about the transition from 35mm theatres to digital with lots of info about the Nite Hawk and featuring quotes from a high school friend of mine who still works at the Nite Hawk as well as with a Indian Head-based film restoration company.

Indian Head, population 1,815, sits forty-five minutes east of Regina. Motorists speeding along the Trans-Canada Highway might recognize its grain elevator from Little Mosque on the Prairie, which was filmed here, but they have little reason to stop. Life was different in 1904, when the town boasted one of the first opera houses west of Winnipeg. Back then, it presented everything from chamber music and The Pirates of Penzance to the Chautauqua circuit.

Posted 22 January 2014 § Family § MemoryLane § PopCulture § Saskatchewan § Work ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,