This is probably the reason God insists on separating the sheep from the goats...
"No Goat! Don't eat the Lamb of God!"
Have a Happy and Holy (but not holey) Christmas Day!
everything is different, everything is the same
2 years ago
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas! No goat!
This is probably the reason God insists on separating the sheep from the goats...
"No Goat! Don't eat the Lamb of God!"
Have a Happy and Holy (but not holey) Christmas Day!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
One Magic Christmas
For days now I have been trying to explain to my BF the absolute terribleness of a certain Christmas movie that I faithfully watched year after year as a child. But for the life of me, I haven't been able to remember the name of it!
Well, thanks to a co-worker, I have been reminded, and the memories of this movie have come flooding back. Apparently, 'One Magic Christmas' was on TV last night and ,sadly, ('sadly' with dry, sarcastic undertones), I missed it.
First of all, you need to understand that this movie was filmed in Owen Sound and Meaford. Close to home; practically in my backyard - so it was kinda a big deal. The year was 1985. As a five year old child, I have vague memories of being dragged out in the middle of the night - (understand that, to a child, any time after dark is 'the middle of the night', so it could have been 6pm for all I knew) - not to the movie theatre, but to the local high school for the screening of this hometown-proud movie.
I remember a lot of people, a dark auditorium, and a whole lot of excitement for a movie that I neither liked nor understood. I'm pretty sure everyone there was just waiting for the end scene, taken around the Christmas tree down at City Hall, in hopes of catching a glimpse of themselves on the big screen. Oh that's right! It seems that the whole town showed up to be extras in this movie! Two out of three of my co-workers who lived in Owen Sound in 1985 are there in the crowd.
For the longest time in our household, it was a Christmas duty to watch it when it came on TV. Can't say that anyone actually enjoyed it; it's sort of like watching a train wreck in slow motion - you know it's terrible, but you just can't look away. It's been a few years now since I've watched it, but it goes something like this:
Mom & Dad, who could pass for emotional-less robot actors, spend their time fighting about money, and job loss, and the crappy house they're about to lose. Meanwhile, the little boy is losing his faith in Santa and the whole Christmas Season, while the little girl is holding onto her idealistic notion of Santa saving the day with everything she's got. Santa is really her only hope for a happy Christmas.
There's a scene out on the street at night with the little girl and a Christmas Angel named Gideon. For the longest time, I thought Gideon was played by Michael Landon strung out on crack - apparently, this is false. He is, however, the scariest, grizzled and most dirty angel I've ever seen. Had it been me meeting this scary dude on the street at night, he would have sent me panicked and screaming back to my home.
Then the movie gets really good... Mom's at work at the local grocery store making less than minimum wage, Dad & kids go to town to do a few errands with the couple dollars they have. Dad leaves kids in the car while he goes to the bank. He gets shot and killed in the bank by bank robbers who run outside, steal the car, and drive it into the harbour - killing the children. Merry friggin' Christmas.
Luckily, the children are saved by Gideon, but still have to hear the news from crazy robot mom that their dad is dead and Christmas is canceled.
This obviously leads to a trip to the north pole for the little girl, through a magical snow globe, who, with Santa's help, saves the day, reminds robot mom of the true meaning of the Christmas spirit, and somehow dad comes back to life and they all live happily ever after. The end.
This movie is sooooooo terrible, that you can't help but watch it. It's sort of like watching a school Christmas production: you don't really want to be there, but you are because you feel obligated to encourage the children.
So by all means, watch it! It'll be the worst 88 minutes of your Christmas season!
Fun Fact: Mary Steenburgen, who plays the robotic mom in this film, also plays the (slightly less robotic) mom in the Christmas movie 'Elf' with Will Ferrell. She is also married to Ted Danson, which might explain why she still gets movie rolls.
Well, thanks to a co-worker, I have been reminded, and the memories of this movie have come flooding back. Apparently, 'One Magic Christmas' was on TV last night and ,sadly, ('sadly' with dry, sarcastic undertones), I missed it.
First of all, you need to understand that this movie was filmed in Owen Sound and Meaford. Close to home; practically in my backyard - so it was kinda a big deal. The year was 1985. As a five year old child, I have vague memories of being dragged out in the middle of the night - (understand that, to a child, any time after dark is 'the middle of the night', so it could have been 6pm for all I knew) - not to the movie theatre, but to the local high school for the screening of this hometown-proud movie.I remember a lot of people, a dark auditorium, and a whole lot of excitement for a movie that I neither liked nor understood. I'm pretty sure everyone there was just waiting for the end scene, taken around the Christmas tree down at City Hall, in hopes of catching a glimpse of themselves on the big screen. Oh that's right! It seems that the whole town showed up to be extras in this movie! Two out of three of my co-workers who lived in Owen Sound in 1985 are there in the crowd.
For the longest time in our household, it was a Christmas duty to watch it when it came on TV. Can't say that anyone actually enjoyed it; it's sort of like watching a train wreck in slow motion - you know it's terrible, but you just can't look away. It's been a few years now since I've watched it, but it goes something like this:
Mom & Dad, who could pass for emotional-less robot actors, spend their time fighting about money, and job loss, and the crappy house they're about to lose. Meanwhile, the little boy is losing his faith in Santa and the whole Christmas Season, while the little girl is holding onto her idealistic notion of Santa saving the day with everything she's got. Santa is really her only hope for a happy Christmas.
There's a scene out on the street at night with the little girl and a Christmas Angel named Gideon. For the longest time, I thought Gideon was played by Michael Landon strung out on crack - apparently, this is false. He is, however, the scariest, grizzled and most dirty angel I've ever seen. Had it been me meeting this scary dude on the street at night, he would have sent me panicked and screaming back to my home.
Then the movie gets really good... Mom's at work at the local grocery store making less than minimum wage, Dad & kids go to town to do a few errands with the couple dollars they have. Dad leaves kids in the car while he goes to the bank. He gets shot and killed in the bank by bank robbers who run outside, steal the car, and drive it into the harbour - killing the children. Merry friggin' Christmas.
Luckily, the children are saved by Gideon, but still have to hear the news from crazy robot mom that their dad is dead and Christmas is canceled.
This obviously leads to a trip to the north pole for the little girl, through a magical snow globe, who, with Santa's help, saves the day, reminds robot mom of the true meaning of the Christmas spirit, and somehow dad comes back to life and they all live happily ever after. The end.
This movie is sooooooo terrible, that you can't help but watch it. It's sort of like watching a school Christmas production: you don't really want to be there, but you are because you feel obligated to encourage the children.
So by all means, watch it! It'll be the worst 88 minutes of your Christmas season!
Fun Fact: Mary Steenburgen, who plays the robotic mom in this film, also plays the (slightly less robotic) mom in the Christmas movie 'Elf' with Will Ferrell. She is also married to Ted Danson, which might explain why she still gets movie rolls.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Speedy Recovery
So I just learned this morning that the husband of a very dear friend of mine was in a car accident yesterday, with a train.
From what I have gleaned from facebook, it sounds like he'll be alright and might even be home for Christmas.
Here's hoping; Speedy recovery, Mike!
From what I have gleaned from facebook, it sounds like he'll be alright and might even be home for Christmas.
Here's hoping; Speedy recovery, Mike!
Man airlifted to hospital after vehicle collides with train near New Hamburg
Robert Wilson/Record...
PERTH COUNTY – A Petersburg man has been airlifted to hospital after his car collided with a train on a farm west of New Hamburg.
The crash happened at around 9:15 a.m. on the laneway of a dairy farm that intersects with the train line, Perth County OPP said.
The single locomotive was headed east at around the permitted speed when it collided with a car driven by a man in his 30s, police said.
The man had to be freed from the vehicle by Perth East firefighters, police said. He was taken by helicopter to London Health Sciences Centre with non-life threatening injuries.
Police said the man was a worker at the farm. There are no barriers or lights at the crossing because it’s on private property, but signs are posted, police said.
OPP officers are still investigating to determine the cause of the crash.
The crash happened at around 9:15 a.m. on the laneway of a dairy farm that intersects with the train line, Perth County OPP said.
The single locomotive was headed east at around the permitted speed when it collided with a car driven by a man in his 30s, police said.
The man had to be freed from the vehicle by Perth East firefighters, police said. He was taken by helicopter to London Health Sciences Centre with non-life threatening injuries.
Police said the man was a worker at the farm. There are no barriers or lights at the crossing because it’s on private property, but signs are posted, police said.
OPP officers are still investigating to determine the cause of the crash.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Pot of Gold
Watch The 22 Minutes Christmas Special. It's fun stuff.
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/1221254309/ID=1697189656
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Imaginary Eating
So Peter Pan was right afterall!
Want to pig out on popcorn or devour a deep fried drumstick? Just imagine doing so in your mind and the desire will dissipate, a study released Thursday by the journal Science says.
“We found basically that repeatedly imagining the consumption of a food reduces the subsequent actual consumption of that food,” says Casey Morewedge, the lead study author.
“Imagining its consumption reduces one’s appetite for it,” says Morewedge, a psychologist at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University.
One obvious ramification of the research is that people may be able to develop personalized diets right in their brains, Morewedge says.
“We think it can help them reduce the desire to consume, to eat less of the bad foods that they crave…and make healthier food choices,” he says.
Morewedge says the process is psychologically driven and doesn’t alter the hormonal feedback mechanisms of physical hunger.
Instead, it seems to “habituate” psychological cravings for food, a process that decreases the mental responsiveness to any given stimulus.
“It’s like a bright light coming out of a dark room, it will seem less bright after you’ve been exposed to it a while,” Morewedge says.
What wasn’t shown was whether this habituation, in the case of a food, required exposure to its actual smell, taste or texture, or if it could be driven by pure psychological processes.
“This is the first research to show that you can find habituation to food in the absence of exposure to it,” Morewedge says.
But the psychological process must key on images of eating.
Take the case of a chocolate bar, Morewedge says.
“If you just think about the chocolate bar and what it looks like and how it tastes and where you would eat it, that should increase your cravings for it,” he says.
“But if we perform the mental imagery that would accompany its actual consumption, it appears that this kind of imagined consumption can decrease our desire for the food we imagine eating.”
And this imaginary diet has a cumulative effect, he says, with appetites decreasing proportionately to the amount you gorge in your head, the multiple part study showed.
In one part, study participants – college students who believed they were engaged in a size perception trial – were asked to perform computer tasks that included eating different numbers of M&M’s candy.
When presented afterwards with an actual bowl of M&M’s, those who had imagined eating more consumed significantly less of the melt-in-your-mouth treats than those who had eaten less or none.
But the suppression of cravings is specific to the food that’s imaginarily consumed, Morewedge says.
For example, where a similar experiment run with computer cheese cube images suppressed appetites for real cheddar, it did nothing to cut consumption of M&M’s, he says.
Morewedge says the simple, try-this-at-home technique may also prove effective for smoking and alcohol consumption.
~The Toronto Star
Just thinking of eating can help keep the pounds off
Feasting on food in your head will calm your cravings for it, new research has determined.Want to pig out on popcorn or devour a deep fried drumstick? Just imagine doing so in your mind and the desire will dissipate, a study released Thursday by the journal Science says.
“We found basically that repeatedly imagining the consumption of a food reduces the subsequent actual consumption of that food,” says Casey Morewedge, the lead study author.
“Imagining its consumption reduces one’s appetite for it,” says Morewedge, a psychologist at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University.
One obvious ramification of the research is that people may be able to develop personalized diets right in their brains, Morewedge says.
“We think it can help them reduce the desire to consume, to eat less of the bad foods that they crave…and make healthier food choices,” he says.
Morewedge says the process is psychologically driven and doesn’t alter the hormonal feedback mechanisms of physical hunger.
Instead, it seems to “habituate” psychological cravings for food, a process that decreases the mental responsiveness to any given stimulus.
“It’s like a bright light coming out of a dark room, it will seem less bright after you’ve been exposed to it a while,” Morewedge says.
What wasn’t shown was whether this habituation, in the case of a food, required exposure to its actual smell, taste or texture, or if it could be driven by pure psychological processes.
“This is the first research to show that you can find habituation to food in the absence of exposure to it,” Morewedge says.
But the psychological process must key on images of eating.
Take the case of a chocolate bar, Morewedge says.
“If you just think about the chocolate bar and what it looks like and how it tastes and where you would eat it, that should increase your cravings for it,” he says.
“But if we perform the mental imagery that would accompany its actual consumption, it appears that this kind of imagined consumption can decrease our desire for the food we imagine eating.”
And this imaginary diet has a cumulative effect, he says, with appetites decreasing proportionately to the amount you gorge in your head, the multiple part study showed.
In one part, study participants – college students who believed they were engaged in a size perception trial – were asked to perform computer tasks that included eating different numbers of M&M’s candy.
When presented afterwards with an actual bowl of M&M’s, those who had imagined eating more consumed significantly less of the melt-in-your-mouth treats than those who had eaten less or none.
But the suppression of cravings is specific to the food that’s imaginarily consumed, Morewedge says.
For example, where a similar experiment run with computer cheese cube images suppressed appetites for real cheddar, it did nothing to cut consumption of M&M’s, he says.
Morewedge says the simple, try-this-at-home technique may also prove effective for smoking and alcohol consumption.
~The Toronto Star
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Toot your horn somewhere else
This morning I was almost sideswiped by someone who, a little too quickly, decided to make a left hand turn from the right hand lane. I was minding my own business in the left hand lane and suddenly had this car cut in front of me. I hit my breaks hard enough to slam everything in my trunk around, but managed to avoid disaster.
The guy trying to turn left in front of me hit his breaks, I hit my breaks, and the two cars behind us had to hit their breaks as well. Someone also hit their horn.
Was that really necessary? The horn, I mean. Really. It was blatantly obvious who was at fault, and we were all 'inconvenienced' by it - that whole coming to a complete stop must have set my drive to work back by about 5 seconds! But it didn't even cross my mind that I should also be hitting my horn.
My understanding of the car horn is that it is a safety feature required by law on all vehicles. It is there to serve as a warning of impending danger. That danger does not include "UGH! YOU just did something INCREDIBLY STUPID and inconvenienced ME and if I wasn't inside my awesome car that is SOOO much better than yours, I would PUNCH you in the FACE!!" Contrary to popular belief, the horn is not an angry button. And quite honestly, when you hit your horn out of anger, it just makes you look like an ass. In fact, the guy with the horn was exponentially more annoying than the guy who almost ran into me - and dude! What the heck were you honking about anyway?? *I* was the one who almost got hit, not you.
Do me a favour and show a little compassion for your fellow human being; the next time you go to hit your horn, take half a millisecond to ask yourself, 'is this really necessary or am I just being a tool?' Cause next time, it could be YOU I write a blog about.
The guy trying to turn left in front of me hit his breaks, I hit my breaks, and the two cars behind us had to hit their breaks as well. Someone also hit their horn.
Was that really necessary? The horn, I mean. Really. It was blatantly obvious who was at fault, and we were all 'inconvenienced' by it - that whole coming to a complete stop must have set my drive to work back by about 5 seconds! But it didn't even cross my mind that I should also be hitting my horn.
My understanding of the car horn is that it is a safety feature required by law on all vehicles. It is there to serve as a warning of impending danger. That danger does not include "UGH! YOU just did something INCREDIBLY STUPID and inconvenienced ME and if I wasn't inside my awesome car that is SOOO much better than yours, I would PUNCH you in the FACE!!" Contrary to popular belief, the horn is not an angry button. And quite honestly, when you hit your horn out of anger, it just makes you look like an ass. In fact, the guy with the horn was exponentially more annoying than the guy who almost ran into me - and dude! What the heck were you honking about anyway?? *I* was the one who almost got hit, not you.
Do me a favour and show a little compassion for your fellow human being; the next time you go to hit your horn, take half a millisecond to ask yourself, 'is this really necessary or am I just being a tool?' Cause next time, it could be YOU I write a blog about.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Dec 1 already?! ACK!
Most Advent calendars start today. I've considered writing a blog a day from now until Christmas as my Advent gift to all 7 or 8 people who read this blog, however... I'm pretty lazy, so don't hold your breath.
I've noticed that the Advent Calendar seems to be in vogue this year. Many people seem to be getting into Christmas mode with their own variation. Chocolate calendars, of course - at one time or another, haven't we all been excited about opening that little cardboard flap everyday to eat the tasteless, made in China waxy excuse for chocolate found inside? I had one once or twice as a child. I had no idea what it had to do with Christmas, but it was the most exciting 30 seconds of my day! (Topped only by looking at the toy section of the Sears Wishbook for hours on end.)
But if waxy chocolate isn't really your thing, well, I saw a Christmas-cookie-recipe-a-day calendar on the Toronto Star website. Oh, and the Hubble space telescope calendar for all those star gazers out there. And a really cute baby zoo animal calendar... And of course, if you've got a million dollars you don't know what to do with, you could buy one of the 5 advent calendars made by Porsche. Apparently it's filled with kitchen renovations, and gold watches, and yachts and things.
To me, Lent is a much easier season to celebrate than Advent. Preparing for the impending death of our Saviour on Good Friday is all about sacrifice and going without, being a little uncomfortable - things that good Christians are generally really good at! "I'm a good Christian because I'm suffering and I'm giving out of my suffering." It's easy to find Christian identity in that. Unfortunately, carving a Christian identity out of suffering makes the whole 'secularized', joyous, materialistic, gift receiving, Santa Claus and snowmen part of Christmas a little too much to handle sometimes. Where's the suffering in receiving gifts or singing 'Deck the Halls' for the 150th time?? How can I be a good Christian if I'm not suffering?!
It has given me cause to take a closer look this year and to realize, perhaps for the first time, that there isn't supposed to be suffering in Advent, and that's ok. Sometimes it really is ok to be Christian without suffering! Advent, after all, is the liturgical season of preparing for the coming of the Christ Child, the Messiah, our Saviour. How can we even think about suffering and sacrifice when God's ultimate game plan is about to begin? He's about to deliver to us this tiny little baby that will eventually grow up to repair the damaged relationship between God and His people. We need to prepare for that, we need to get ready for that, we need to be damn happy about that!! If not for Christ's coming at Christmas, we wouldn't be able to have any sort of personal relationship with God. By all rights it should be a festive celebration of joy and giving! So get your Advent Calendar, eat your waxy chocolate, bake those cookies, decorate the tree, buy those gifts, sing the songs! And if buying a $1,000,000 Porsche Advent Calendar is how you celebrate it, well, can I at least have a ride on your yacht?
Hallelujah!
I've noticed that the Advent Calendar seems to be in vogue this year. Many people seem to be getting into Christmas mode with their own variation. Chocolate calendars, of course - at one time or another, haven't we all been excited about opening that little cardboard flap everyday to eat the tasteless, made in China waxy excuse for chocolate found inside? I had one once or twice as a child. I had no idea what it had to do with Christmas, but it was the most exciting 30 seconds of my day! (Topped only by looking at the toy section of the Sears Wishbook for hours on end.)
But if waxy chocolate isn't really your thing, well, I saw a Christmas-cookie-recipe-a-day calendar on the Toronto Star website. Oh, and the Hubble space telescope calendar for all those star gazers out there. And a really cute baby zoo animal calendar... And of course, if you've got a million dollars you don't know what to do with, you could buy one of the 5 advent calendars made by Porsche. Apparently it's filled with kitchen renovations, and gold watches, and yachts and things.
To me, Lent is a much easier season to celebrate than Advent. Preparing for the impending death of our Saviour on Good Friday is all about sacrifice and going without, being a little uncomfortable - things that good Christians are generally really good at! "I'm a good Christian because I'm suffering and I'm giving out of my suffering." It's easy to find Christian identity in that. Unfortunately, carving a Christian identity out of suffering makes the whole 'secularized', joyous, materialistic, gift receiving, Santa Claus and snowmen part of Christmas a little too much to handle sometimes. Where's the suffering in receiving gifts or singing 'Deck the Halls' for the 150th time?? How can I be a good Christian if I'm not suffering?!
It has given me cause to take a closer look this year and to realize, perhaps for the first time, that there isn't supposed to be suffering in Advent, and that's ok. Sometimes it really is ok to be Christian without suffering! Advent, after all, is the liturgical season of preparing for the coming of the Christ Child, the Messiah, our Saviour. How can we even think about suffering and sacrifice when God's ultimate game plan is about to begin? He's about to deliver to us this tiny little baby that will eventually grow up to repair the damaged relationship between God and His people. We need to prepare for that, we need to get ready for that, we need to be damn happy about that!! If not for Christ's coming at Christmas, we wouldn't be able to have any sort of personal relationship with God. By all rights it should be a festive celebration of joy and giving! So get your Advent Calendar, eat your waxy chocolate, bake those cookies, decorate the tree, buy those gifts, sing the songs! And if buying a $1,000,000 Porsche Advent Calendar is how you celebrate it, well, can I at least have a ride on your yacht?
Hallelujah!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Maybe all dogs really do go to heaven...
| Kijiji Ontario > Owen Sound > pets > dogs, puppies for sale > Ad ID 244747849 |
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
re-connected
One day late last week a construction worker digging a hole at a new bridge site in Owen Sound accidentally severed some 2000 Bell telephone lines. It has caused quite a stir around the town as some people and businesses have been without phone service for the better part of a week. Phones, faxes, internet, debit machines, and even cell phones have all been affected. The rumor mill is already reeking of 'class action lawsuit' for loss of business, but I really don't think it's something that would actually fly in any court.
Unbeknown to me, anyone trying to call my Rogers cellphone, (my only line of communication), over the past 5 days have just been getting a busy signal. I've been able to make outgoing calls, and send/receive text messages; just no incoming calls. Weird, eh? Apparently cell phones rely on more than just towers. I had no idea.
Can't say I really noticed that my phone wasn't working - it's pretty typical for me to go weeks between phone calls. However, if you were one of the few trying to get through, it seems to be working again so feel free to call away.
Unbeknown to me, anyone trying to call my Rogers cellphone, (my only line of communication), over the past 5 days have just been getting a busy signal. I've been able to make outgoing calls, and send/receive text messages; just no incoming calls. Weird, eh? Apparently cell phones rely on more than just towers. I had no idea.
Can't say I really noticed that my phone wasn't working - it's pretty typical for me to go weeks between phone calls. However, if you were one of the few trying to get through, it seems to be working again so feel free to call away.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Cloudy with a 50% chance of broken toe
"Ouch" is when you miss that last stair step and land, with your full weight, square on the end of your big toe.
On the plus side, it's a pretty shade of blue now.
On the plus side, it's a pretty shade of blue now.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
It just breaks your heart (*sob*)
Today is the day that every 25-30 year old female has dreaded for the past 20 years.
The hope, the thought, the dream of a fairytale life has been brutally crushed.
We all take a collective deep breath in to calm the twinge of pain in our hearts; for on this day, we have all been stonewalled with the terrible news that we will never get the chance to marry a prince!
That ass Prince William has announced his engagement to his so called 'girlfriend'!!
What a Jerk!
(I bet that's not even her real hair colour)
The hope, the thought, the dream of a fairytale life has been brutally crushed.
We all take a collective deep breath in to calm the twinge of pain in our hearts; for on this day, we have all been stonewalled with the terrible news that we will never get the chance to marry a prince!
That ass Prince William has announced his engagement to his so called 'girlfriend'!!
What a Jerk!
(I bet that's not even her real hair colour)
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Well, you get what you pay for.
I'm sure I've written about this before:
Back when my camera was still new and shiny (and under warranty) I took a lot of photos. Like, thousands. Really. Thousands. And once in awhile, one or two would look really awesome! So I would take these few outstanding photos and put them on display where other people could see them. And then the comments would come: "Amy! Your pictures are amazing!" "Wow! You've really got an eye for this!" "You should be doing something with your talent!" "You should think about doing this professionally!" And yes, someone even asked me to shoot her wedding (which I respectfully declined).
The 'talent' I have is called 'dumb luck', And this is actually what would happen if I were to listen to those people encouraging me:
That's right. I'd be the $25 photographer. I hope I get a brand new DSLR for my birthday! (but not really)
Back when my camera was still new and shiny (and under warranty) I took a lot of photos. Like, thousands. Really. Thousands. And once in awhile, one or two would look really awesome! So I would take these few outstanding photos and put them on display where other people could see them. And then the comments would come: "Amy! Your pictures are amazing!" "Wow! You've really got an eye for this!" "You should be doing something with your talent!" "You should think about doing this professionally!" And yes, someone even asked me to shoot her wedding (which I respectfully declined).
The 'talent' I have is called 'dumb luck', And this is actually what would happen if I were to listen to those people encouraging me:
That's right. I'd be the $25 photographer. I hope I get a brand new DSLR for my birthday! (but not really)
Monday, October 25, 2010
All Signs Point to Crazy.
I don't often remember my dreams long enough to recount, but when I do, wow! Do I sound like a crazy person! If dreaming is genetic, I can safely blame my mother for my occasional night of the crazies - she has had some whoppers herself.
In recounting my dreams from last night, I had this epiphany (which seems so blatantly obvious that I don't know why I've never considered it before) that nightmares are so much more scary than your typical horror movie because the characters are real. Whereas the people in the movies are just fictional characters with no connection to you or your life, the people in your dreams are actually real people that you know and care about and the threats on them seem real enough to cause a genuine fear for their safety. A horror movie can only go so far to draw you in, but when people from your real life are involved - ACK!
But I'm jumping ahead of myself...
I don't put much stock into dream interpretation. For the most part dreams are just those random miss-firings in your brain late at night which can cause some *ahem* interesting stories.
So, I'm driving down a street on my way back to work after a lunch break. I didn't actually recognize any of the streets though and I accidentally missed the street that I should have turned at. Rather than turning around, I simply turned at the next street in an attempt to reconnect to my original route. That street (of course...) snaked around into a part of town where I felt completely lost and I ended up at a road that had the asphalt all ripped up and was under construction. There was no obvious sign of any construction workers present though, and no cars driving on the road at that moment either, so I took my chances and carefully pulled out onto the road. Within minutes I had cars barreling towards me and had to do some fancy maneuvering to avoid being hit. Turns out that the road had been narrowed to a single lane with construction workers on either end directing traffic. They had neglected, however, to block off the intersecting side streets and unbeknownst to me, I had pulled into oncoming traffic. *sigh* So, I pulled a U-turn right there in the middle of the road and headed in the opposite direction with the flow of traffic ....all in plain sight of a cop.
The cop follows me but doesn't put on his lights. Thinking that he chose to ignore my little traffic incident, I relax a bit and and pull up to a stop at a red traffic light with the rest of the vehicles. At this point, the cop is right behind me, and what does he do? Right there at the intersection he puts his car in park, hops out, and comes to my window for a chat. By now, the light has turned green and the rest of the traffic is long gone.
"Ma'am" he says, "Do you know that on August 8 you were clocked on radar going 170km/hr in a 40km/hr zone?"
My heart was beating between my ears so loudly that that I don't have a clue what he said after that - fines, charges, speeding, racing, way more than 50km/hr over the limit, court, license suspension, vehicle impoundment, jail?.... Holy crap! How? I don't remember doing that. Why would I ever do that?? How am I going to pay for it? I don't think my car will even go that fast. How am I going to get to work? And why did it take 2 1/2 months for them to tell me that I had a speeding charge?
Seems mostly believable, right? And then the scene changed.
I was at church. There were a lot of people there - many more than normal. Lots of kids too. I was sitting near the front, and it seemed to be at night. Our church pastor was standing in front of a projection screen telling a story. I was still thinking far too much about this speeding charge to pay any attention to what he was saying, but I was starting to wonder why the picture on the screen had a cartoon version of a meadow with a bunch of bunnies on it. And then one of the bunnies started changing shape because it was holographic or something. Seemed perfectly normal.
He may have been telling a story about some trip he had been on somewhere. He caught my attention when he mentioned that moose droppings, when placed on an incline will roll downhill at an ever increasing speed without stopping. Seriously. That's what he said.
Suddenly, I realized THAT'S what must have happened the day I was clocked driving so fast! I was driving along at a perfectly acceptable speed and just as I passed the radar gun, a speeding ball of moose poop flew by and threw the radar gun out of whack! I'm not guilty! Praise God!
And then my alarm clock went off. It was 7:30am and dark, so naturally I hit the snooze button. I hate waking up in the dark in the morning. More often than not, I transport myself back to dreamland almost instantly.
Unfortunately for me, my 9 minute snooze turned into 9 minutes from hell with myself, my mother, and my bf frantically running from a big black tornado of doom bearing down on the local Sears store. This particular dream was cut short by that pesky alarm clock and simply ended in a total state of panic and terror. What a great way to wake up on a dreary Monday morning! The ensuing dream related brain haze left me so bewildered that I didn't remember where I was and had trouble finding my own bathroom. Suffice to say, it was scary.
It's too bad that I don't have a very active imagination while awake, otherwise I could write the next big Halloween horror flick and make millions!
In recounting my dreams from last night, I had this epiphany (which seems so blatantly obvious that I don't know why I've never considered it before) that nightmares are so much more scary than your typical horror movie because the characters are real. Whereas the people in the movies are just fictional characters with no connection to you or your life, the people in your dreams are actually real people that you know and care about and the threats on them seem real enough to cause a genuine fear for their safety. A horror movie can only go so far to draw you in, but when people from your real life are involved - ACK!
But I'm jumping ahead of myself...
I don't put much stock into dream interpretation. For the most part dreams are just those random miss-firings in your brain late at night which can cause some *ahem* interesting stories.
So, I'm driving down a street on my way back to work after a lunch break. I didn't actually recognize any of the streets though and I accidentally missed the street that I should have turned at. Rather than turning around, I simply turned at the next street in an attempt to reconnect to my original route. That street (of course...) snaked around into a part of town where I felt completely lost and I ended up at a road that had the asphalt all ripped up and was under construction. There was no obvious sign of any construction workers present though, and no cars driving on the road at that moment either, so I took my chances and carefully pulled out onto the road. Within minutes I had cars barreling towards me and had to do some fancy maneuvering to avoid being hit. Turns out that the road had been narrowed to a single lane with construction workers on either end directing traffic. They had neglected, however, to block off the intersecting side streets and unbeknownst to me, I had pulled into oncoming traffic. *sigh* So, I pulled a U-turn right there in the middle of the road and headed in the opposite direction with the flow of traffic ....all in plain sight of a cop.
The cop follows me but doesn't put on his lights. Thinking that he chose to ignore my little traffic incident, I relax a bit and and pull up to a stop at a red traffic light with the rest of the vehicles. At this point, the cop is right behind me, and what does he do? Right there at the intersection he puts his car in park, hops out, and comes to my window for a chat. By now, the light has turned green and the rest of the traffic is long gone.
"Ma'am" he says, "Do you know that on August 8 you were clocked on radar going 170km/hr in a 40km/hr zone?"
My heart was beating between my ears so loudly that that I don't have a clue what he said after that - fines, charges, speeding, racing, way more than 50km/hr over the limit, court, license suspension, vehicle impoundment, jail?.... Holy crap! How? I don't remember doing that. Why would I ever do that?? How am I going to pay for it? I don't think my car will even go that fast. How am I going to get to work? And why did it take 2 1/2 months for them to tell me that I had a speeding charge?
Seems mostly believable, right? And then the scene changed.
I was at church. There were a lot of people there - many more than normal. Lots of kids too. I was sitting near the front, and it seemed to be at night. Our church pastor was standing in front of a projection screen telling a story. I was still thinking far too much about this speeding charge to pay any attention to what he was saying, but I was starting to wonder why the picture on the screen had a cartoon version of a meadow with a bunch of bunnies on it. And then one of the bunnies started changing shape because it was holographic or something. Seemed perfectly normal.
He may have been telling a story about some trip he had been on somewhere. He caught my attention when he mentioned that moose droppings, when placed on an incline will roll downhill at an ever increasing speed without stopping. Seriously. That's what he said.
Suddenly, I realized THAT'S what must have happened the day I was clocked driving so fast! I was driving along at a perfectly acceptable speed and just as I passed the radar gun, a speeding ball of moose poop flew by and threw the radar gun out of whack! I'm not guilty! Praise God!
And then my alarm clock went off. It was 7:30am and dark, so naturally I hit the snooze button. I hate waking up in the dark in the morning. More often than not, I transport myself back to dreamland almost instantly.
Unfortunately for me, my 9 minute snooze turned into 9 minutes from hell with myself, my mother, and my bf frantically running from a big black tornado of doom bearing down on the local Sears store. This particular dream was cut short by that pesky alarm clock and simply ended in a total state of panic and terror. What a great way to wake up on a dreary Monday morning! The ensuing dream related brain haze left me so bewildered that I didn't remember where I was and had trouble finding my own bathroom. Suffice to say, it was scary.
It's too bad that I don't have a very active imagination while awake, otherwise I could write the next big Halloween horror flick and make millions!
Friday, October 22, 2010
Highspeed hangup
The trouble of moving from a city to a very, very small village is that you can no longer take high speed internet for granted. Where there is a plethora of highspeed (DSL, Cable, Fibre Optic) choices in the highly-populated places, there is but a small handful of options in the boondocks.
Now don't get me wrong, I love living in the boondocks. One could even say that I feel no shame, I'm proud of where I came from; I was born and raised in the boondocks.
However, I've also come to love highspeed internet.
So, here are my choices:
1. Dial-up. My parents cruise dial-up at a whopping 14.4kbps. It is like watching paint dry, except more boring. It takes half an hour to check their email, and they've literally never run a computer update.
2. There is actually free access to Satellite internet at my new place of residence; one of the perks of living above a coffee shop. Satellite is incredibly expensive and not something I would ever recommend to anyone. We get average download speeds of something like 500kbps. Faster than dial-up; it's tolerable if all you want to do is check facebook over and over and over again. (honestly, that's about all I do anyway...) However, if you want to, say, stream video, watch youtube, download computer updates, sign up for NetFlix, or shop for a new game on a Wii, well... there's this thing called 'throttling' that kicks in after about 5 minutes and grinds your internet connection to a halt. It's the provider's way of making sure that everyone gets equal and fair access to the satellite signal. It sucks. Mostly, this form of internet is tolerable because it's free to me. If I had to pay for it, I would not be a happy customer.
3. Broadband internet is something the county has been funding in order to bring highspeed to the rural people of Southwestern Ontario. If you're willing to pay $85/month, you can get really great speeds of up to 5mbps. It's a good choice if you don't mind putting up a $700 tower/lightening rod on your roof. Unfortunately, one company hired by the county to provide this service oversold the bandwidth, didn't invest enough into equipment to keep up with demand, and actually went bankrupt. Is that something I actually want to invest $700 in? Not really...
Which leads me to my last choice for highspeed in the boondocks:
4. The Sony Ericsson W35. AKA the 'Rogers Rocket Hub', or the 'Bell Turbo Hub'. The idea being that you take this little unit, plug it into an outlet, and it uses the local 3G cellular network to create a wifi hotspot in your home. It's a great idea. They promise speeds of up to 7.2mbps. It costs as little as $35/month. You can connect up to 15 things to the internet all at once. [Internet sticks are currently boasting speeds of up to 21mbps but can only be attached to one thing at a time, and are significantly more expensive.] The hub even has an option to add a phone (VoIP) for a reasonable $20/month - which would be great because we're currently working with just cellphones.
The BF and I decided that the Hub would be a viable option. So, today on my lunch hour, I went to the local Rogers desk in the mall with the intentions of purchasing one of these units. To my benefit, the sales guy was in his early 20's - so you know that he knows a thing or two about the system and how it works.
Upon my request of a Rocket Hub, he immediately told me, (without even showing me a unit), that they are currently experiencing huge network problems and, during peak demand times, it is very unlikely I'd even be able to connect to the internet. He said that he himself can rarely access the internet over his own personal Rogers cellphone between the hours of 8am and midnight. He also said that that it is not just a Roger's problem, but an industry-wide problem. Essentially, the popularity of accessing the internet through cellphones, smartphones, internet sticks, and hubs has created such a strain on the network that nothing is getting through. Obviously it's a problem they're working on, but I bet it's not one they'll readily admit.
Would it be a surprise to know that I walked away today without a Hub? Strange that I didn't want to shell out $150 and sign up for a 2 year contract at a minimum of $35/month for something that can't guarantee me internet access, eh?
So my question is, where is the CRTC in all of this? Shouldn't they, (or someone, anyone), be governing the sale of these devices to ensure that demand doesn't outpace supply? If I'm going to purchase a service, shouldn't the provider actually have to provide the service? Shouldn't that be, like, law or something? Or at the very least, good business practise.
For now, we'll just keep limping along with satellite internet.
Now don't get me wrong, I love living in the boondocks. One could even say that I feel no shame, I'm proud of where I came from; I was born and raised in the boondocks.
However, I've also come to love highspeed internet.
So, here are my choices:
1. Dial-up. My parents cruise dial-up at a whopping 14.4kbps. It is like watching paint dry, except more boring. It takes half an hour to check their email, and they've literally never run a computer update.
2. There is actually free access to Satellite internet at my new place of residence; one of the perks of living above a coffee shop. Satellite is incredibly expensive and not something I would ever recommend to anyone. We get average download speeds of something like 500kbps. Faster than dial-up; it's tolerable if all you want to do is check facebook over and over and over again. (honestly, that's about all I do anyway...) However, if you want to, say, stream video, watch youtube, download computer updates, sign up for NetFlix, or shop for a new game on a Wii, well... there's this thing called 'throttling' that kicks in after about 5 minutes and grinds your internet connection to a halt. It's the provider's way of making sure that everyone gets equal and fair access to the satellite signal. It sucks. Mostly, this form of internet is tolerable because it's free to me. If I had to pay for it, I would not be a happy customer.
3. Broadband internet is something the county has been funding in order to bring highspeed to the rural people of Southwestern Ontario. If you're willing to pay $85/month, you can get really great speeds of up to 5mbps. It's a good choice if you don't mind putting up a $700 tower/lightening rod on your roof. Unfortunately, one company hired by the county to provide this service oversold the bandwidth, didn't invest enough into equipment to keep up with demand, and actually went bankrupt. Is that something I actually want to invest $700 in? Not really...
Which leads me to my last choice for highspeed in the boondocks:
4. The Sony Ericsson W35. AKA the 'Rogers Rocket Hub', or the 'Bell Turbo Hub'. The idea being that you take this little unit, plug it into an outlet, and it uses the local 3G cellular network to create a wifi hotspot in your home. It's a great idea. They promise speeds of up to 7.2mbps. It costs as little as $35/month. You can connect up to 15 things to the internet all at once. [Internet sticks are currently boasting speeds of up to 21mbps but can only be attached to one thing at a time, and are significantly more expensive.] The hub even has an option to add a phone (VoIP) for a reasonable $20/month - which would be great because we're currently working with just cellphones.
The BF and I decided that the Hub would be a viable option. So, today on my lunch hour, I went to the local Rogers desk in the mall with the intentions of purchasing one of these units. To my benefit, the sales guy was in his early 20's - so you know that he knows a thing or two about the system and how it works.
Upon my request of a Rocket Hub, he immediately told me, (without even showing me a unit), that they are currently experiencing huge network problems and, during peak demand times, it is very unlikely I'd even be able to connect to the internet. He said that he himself can rarely access the internet over his own personal Rogers cellphone between the hours of 8am and midnight. He also said that that it is not just a Roger's problem, but an industry-wide problem. Essentially, the popularity of accessing the internet through cellphones, smartphones, internet sticks, and hubs has created such a strain on the network that nothing is getting through. Obviously it's a problem they're working on, but I bet it's not one they'll readily admit.
Would it be a surprise to know that I walked away today without a Hub? Strange that I didn't want to shell out $150 and sign up for a 2 year contract at a minimum of $35/month for something that can't guarantee me internet access, eh?
So my question is, where is the CRTC in all of this? Shouldn't they, (or someone, anyone), be governing the sale of these devices to ensure that demand doesn't outpace supply? If I'm going to purchase a service, shouldn't the provider actually have to provide the service? Shouldn't that be, like, law or something? Or at the very least, good business practise.
For now, we'll just keep limping along with satellite internet.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Kindergarten Angst
My boyfriend's nephews went to their first full day of junior kindergarten yesterday. They seemed to have fun. Here's to you little dudes! May the next 15 years of your lives be filled with easy homework assignments and lots of pizza parties!
I have very little memory of my early childhood - heck, I have very little memory of yesterday! Unfortunately for me, my most vivid memories involve instances which scarred me (both physically and emotionally) and fed my incredible shyness and low self-confidence like the fiery monsters that they are. Although I don't wish it on anyone, I'd like to think that this happens to all children, and that we usually come out the on other side as well-rounded and stable individuals.
The year was 1985...
I remember sitting cross-legged on the carpet in front of the teacher with my 30 other classmates. We were having a discussion about what ingredients we could put into cookies or on top of cupcakes. Chocolate chips, nuts and raisin had all been covered - now the teacher was testing our creativity! What else, what else....?
I knew. I had a great idea! Ah! It would be soooo good on top of a cupcake! And no one else has said it yet! I've got this in the bag! Oooh.. should I put up my hand?! Too shy to say anything for fear of getting the answer wrong and being laughed at (I had yet to learn that adage that 'there are no wrong answers when you're brainstorming' bs), I sat squirming full of excitement and trepidation. Finally, the teacher eyed me.
"Amy, you look like you've got an ingredient to say", said the teacher.
"MUSHROOMS!", I said excitedly. They would be awesome in cookies! But my teacher's face said otherwise. Starting to worry, my mind started racing. But... my mom uses mushrooms all the time when she bakes! [editors note: dear Lord, yes, I realize now how bad this sounds!] I love mushrooms; everyone loves mushrooms! All white and puffy. Is this teacher off her rocker? Does she not know what a mushroom is?? I feel like an idiot! Panic.
"Mushrooms are good Amy, but I don't think they'd go very well in a cookie." Shot down by my favourite teacher, I was confused and just a little hurt. ...but... they're mushrooms....
The very next kid to answer shouted out "MARSHMALLOWS!!".
And the teacher breathed a sigh of relief - not all her students were mentally deficient in the baked goods category, "Yes, Marshmellows would be great!"
But... I just said that, I thought to myself. That's what I said, he just copied me! Why is it right when he says it but not when I....
Oh. Crap.
Had I known what swearing was at the time, I probably would have dropped my first f-bomb right there. Marshmallows, of course, is what I meant to say, but not what had come out. Idiot.
I didn't willingly provide an answer in class again until 1998.
I have very little memory of my early childhood - heck, I have very little memory of yesterday! Unfortunately for me, my most vivid memories involve instances which scarred me (both physically and emotionally) and fed my incredible shyness and low self-confidence like the fiery monsters that they are. Although I don't wish it on anyone, I'd like to think that this happens to all children, and that we usually come out the on other side as well-rounded and stable individuals.
The year was 1985...
I remember sitting cross-legged on the carpet in front of the teacher with my 30 other classmates. We were having a discussion about what ingredients we could put into cookies or on top of cupcakes. Chocolate chips, nuts and raisin had all been covered - now the teacher was testing our creativity! What else, what else....?
I knew. I had a great idea! Ah! It would be soooo good on top of a cupcake! And no one else has said it yet! I've got this in the bag! Oooh.. should I put up my hand?! Too shy to say anything for fear of getting the answer wrong and being laughed at (I had yet to learn that adage that 'there are no wrong answers when you're brainstorming' bs), I sat squirming full of excitement and trepidation. Finally, the teacher eyed me.
"Amy, you look like you've got an ingredient to say", said the teacher.
"MUSHROOMS!", I said excitedly. They would be awesome in cookies! But my teacher's face said otherwise. Starting to worry, my mind started racing. But... my mom uses mushrooms all the time when she bakes! [editors note: dear Lord, yes, I realize now how bad this sounds!] I love mushrooms; everyone loves mushrooms! All white and puffy. Is this teacher off her rocker? Does she not know what a mushroom is?? I feel like an idiot! Panic.
"Mushrooms are good Amy, but I don't think they'd go very well in a cookie." Shot down by my favourite teacher, I was confused and just a little hurt. ...but... they're mushrooms....
The very next kid to answer shouted out "MARSHMALLOWS!!".
And the teacher breathed a sigh of relief - not all her students were mentally deficient in the baked goods category, "Yes, Marshmellows would be great!"
But... I just said that, I thought to myself. That's what I said, he just copied me! Why is it right when he says it but not when I....
Oh. Crap.
Had I known what swearing was at the time, I probably would have dropped my first f-bomb right there. Marshmallows, of course, is what I meant to say, but not what had come out. Idiot.
I didn't willingly provide an answer in class again until 1998.
Monday, September 13, 2010
"Instead of Burning..."
Not that I want to dwell on the subject, because quite frankly I think we can all be a little immature when the subject turns to religion, and who's is best, but... I happened across a blog post on Facebook this morning that falls in line with what I've been trying to say all along.
Brian McLaren is a very well respected pastor/writer/theologian/speaker in the evangelical church, and a forerunner in exploring the Christian faith in a postmodern world.
Essentially,his blog and my thoughts intersect at these points: How can we judge either the Koran, or the Bible, without having actually taken the time to read it and learn about it? How can we fairly judge another religion if all we're ever doing is comparing our best aspects against their worst aspects? And why would we bother taking offense when one is burned? If you're carrying your holy text around with you on paper, then you're doing it wrong. Your holy text should be carried with you in your mind and in your heart - that way it can influence your life and your interactions with others. A paper copy is no more than a reference book, and an easily duplicated one at that. The bible is apparently the best selling book of all time; I'm sure there are millions of copies of the Koran floating around too. Go ahead and take my paper copy, tear it apart, burn it if you must; it can easily be replaced. I'll probably be a little annoyed at you, but it's not going to ruin my day, or my faith, because I carry around the essentials with me, within me, and the rest I just Google!
Brian's whole blog post can be read here: "Instead of Burning, try Learning"
Brian McLaren is a very well respected pastor/writer/theologian/speaker in the evangelical church, and a forerunner in exploring the Christian faith in a postmodern world.
Essentially,his blog and my thoughts intersect at these points: How can we judge either the Koran, or the Bible, without having actually taken the time to read it and learn about it? How can we fairly judge another religion if all we're ever doing is comparing our best aspects against their worst aspects? And why would we bother taking offense when one is burned? If you're carrying your holy text around with you on paper, then you're doing it wrong. Your holy text should be carried with you in your mind and in your heart - that way it can influence your life and your interactions with others. A paper copy is no more than a reference book, and an easily duplicated one at that. The bible is apparently the best selling book of all time; I'm sure there are millions of copies of the Koran floating around too. Go ahead and take my paper copy, tear it apart, burn it if you must; it can easily be replaced. I'll probably be a little annoyed at you, but it's not going to ruin my day, or my faith, because I carry around the essentials with me, within me, and the rest I just Google!
Brian's whole blog post can be read here: "Instead of Burning, try Learning"
Friday, September 10, 2010
Maybe a little better use of your energy?
By far, the best comment I have heard regarding this whole Koran burning thing went something like this:
If these idiotic religious extremists (the ones who fly planes into buildings, and burn books/flags, kill people, or play with little boys) would focus their energy on something useful like feeding starving children, or helping the homeless, or drilling wells in Africa, this world would be a much better place.
Ain't that the truth.
If these idiotic religious extremists (the ones who fly planes into buildings, and burn books/flags, kill people, or play with little boys) would focus their energy on something useful like feeding starving children, or helping the homeless, or drilling wells in Africa, this world would be a much better place.
Ain't that the truth.
Because of a comic, I have learned that Emily Dickinson's poem, "Death", can be sung to the tune from Gilligan's Island. I now have a new found appreciation for poetry.
Here, try it yourself:
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
Here, try it yourself:
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
How many politicians does it take...?
This article showed up on my news feed today:
Really?? Really, really??
It takes 30 seconds to make a phone call.
Maybe they just can't find the phone number? Well, here:
Dove World Outreach Centre
5805 Northwest 37th Street
Gainesville, FL 32653, United States
(352) 371-2487
...a name like 'Dove World Outreach', you'd think they'd be a little more peaceful.
And from here, this blog could turn to any number of subjects such as:
a) Muslims are wrong
b) Christians are wrong
c) Book burning is wrong
d) This is why people hate religion
e) Leave it to a 'Bible-thumping, USA-loving' Southerner
f) Violence begets violence
g) Tolerance & goodwill & grace
But, really, what's the point? It doesn't matter what is said in regards to this, differences of opinion abound and we'll all just end up fighting with each other. Call me a pacifist if you like; I'm not the one who's going to be getting myself killed over arguments in which no one actually wins. It's not like any of this bickering and fighting and book burning is going to do us any good when an asteroid smashes into the earth anyway!
The silly thing is that this could have all been avoided if only Abraham hadda been a little nicer to Ishmael instead of making Isaac the favourite son!
Obama administration mulls call to Florida pastor over Koran burning
The Obama administration is discussing whether to call a Florida pastor to ask him to call off plans for a Koran-burning day that U.S. leaders have warned could endanger American troops abroad, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
“That possibility is currently under discussion within the administration,” Pentagon spokesman Geoffrey Morrell said when asked whether U.S. leaders would call the head of the small Florida church. “I don’t believe they’ve come to any resolution yet.”
Really?? Really, really??
It takes 30 seconds to make a phone call.
Maybe they just can't find the phone number? Well, here:
Dove World Outreach Centre
5805 Northwest 37th Street
Gainesville, FL 32653, United States
(352) 371-2487
...a name like 'Dove World Outreach', you'd think they'd be a little more peaceful.
And from here, this blog could turn to any number of subjects such as:
a) Muslims are wrong
b) Christians are wrong
c) Book burning is wrong
d) This is why people hate religion
e) Leave it to a 'Bible-thumping, USA-loving' Southerner
f) Violence begets violence
g) Tolerance & goodwill & grace
But, really, what's the point? It doesn't matter what is said in regards to this, differences of opinion abound and we'll all just end up fighting with each other. Call me a pacifist if you like; I'm not the one who's going to be getting myself killed over arguments in which no one actually wins. It's not like any of this bickering and fighting and book burning is going to do us any good when an asteroid smashes into the earth anyway!
The silly thing is that this could have all been avoided if only Abraham hadda been a little nicer to Ishmael instead of making Isaac the favourite son!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Back to School! (suckers!)
There's something about this time of year that makes me want to go out and buy pencil crayons and new erasers! I want to get a whiff of a UHU Glue stick, and open a brand new binder. Find a bargain on lined paper, and buy a new ball point pen!
Then I could spend an afternoon organizing my pencil box; throwing out the stumps of old pencils and sharpening new ones. Colour coding my binders to my classes (red = english, blue = math, green = science); filling my backpack to make sure everything fits....
Yes. I love back to school.
Ok, mostly I like organizing and having new things.
I disliked school. Well, the idea of school - no one in their right mind would admit to liking school!
Yep. I'm glad that part of my life is over. And hey, now that I'm a responsible adult with a job and a car and all that, I can go buy office supplies anytime I want!
...I think a trip to Staples in order. I could use a new box of crayons...
Then I could spend an afternoon organizing my pencil box; throwing out the stumps of old pencils and sharpening new ones. Colour coding my binders to my classes (red = english, blue = math, green = science); filling my backpack to make sure everything fits....
Yes. I love back to school.
Ok, mostly I like organizing and having new things.
I disliked school. Well, the idea of school - no one in their right mind would admit to liking school!
Yep. I'm glad that part of my life is over. And hey, now that I'm a responsible adult with a job and a car and all that, I can go buy office supplies anytime I want!
...I think a trip to Staples in order. I could use a new box of crayons...
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Stuff it Canada Post!
Recently, there was an article in the local newspaper about our local MPP being incredulous that Canada Post postal works suddenly cannot deliver mail to Rural Route addresses. (RR# - essentially just large geographical areas assigned to mail carriers who deliver mail, by vehicle, to mailboxes at the end of peoples' lane ways.) Instead of delivering this mail in the same manner as they have been for the past 100 years or so, they have started returning letters back to the sender as 'address unknown'.
Our politician, who is speaking for the people (after having received a number of complaints), has a point. After all, what has changed between yesterday and today that has caused the mail carriers to suddenly forget where 'Mr & Mrs Smith of RR2 Somewhereville' live?
The thing is, a Civic Address System, (a process of naming all the roads in the County, and assigning numbers to every property), was put into place in this area close to 10 years ago. At that time Canada Post told us that they would eventually expect those civic addresses to become part of the daily mailing routine. Now they're following up on that, and people are surprised, shocked and angry. ...gasp...
Realizing that I send out a lot of mail from my office to RR addresses, (a large majority of people in the area have these addresses), it is possible that I could suddenly be flooded with returned mail - costing me time, and my employer money. So I did what any good bookkeeper would do, wrote up an 'addressing 101' memo, and emailed it to the staff. Here it is for you:
The rules for properly addressing an envelope have changed over the years; Canada Post has an extensive addressing guideline which can be found here: http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGaddress-e.asp
Here are the basics:
- Use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. For the name, street address, province, postal code - everything.
example:
AMY BEIRNES
ST MARYS CHURCH
554 THIS ST E
TOWN ON N4K 1X3
(make sure to include one space between the town and province; two spaces between the province and the postal code; and one space between the first 3 digits of the postal code and the last 3 digits)
- DO NOT use punctuation (unless it is part of a proper name ie: LION'S HEAD)
example:
Don't do this: R.R.#2. Instead, write it like this: RR 2 (make sure to include one space between 'RR' and the number)
Don't do this:842 2nd St. S., Apt. #2
Instead, write it like this:842 2ND ST S APT 2 2 - 842 2ND ST S
- Civic Addresses (or street addresses) are written on the line above rural route or PO Box addresses.
example:
AMY BEIRNES
623460 REALLY LONG RD NAME RD
RR 2
TOWN ON N0H 1B0
or:
AMY BEIRNES
123 LOUKES LANE
PO BOX 123
TOWN ON N0V 1E0
This example, (with only the rural route listed):
AMY BEIRNES
RR 2
TOWN ON N0V 1R0
will likely be returned to you as 'unknown address'. You MUST include the civic address.
This is especially important in our area as many, many people live on rural routes. If someone gives you a rural route number as an address, ask that person for the full civic address.
- The Town, Province, and Postal Code all go on the same line. Always.
example:TOWN ON N4K 1X3
Remember to put 2 spaces between the province abbreviation and the postal code.
If you are sending mail out of the country, the country name goes under this line.
TOWN ON N4K 1X3
CANADA
- Provinces are written with the 2 letter abbreviations, not the old 3 letter abbreviations
example: AB, MB, BC, NB, NL, QC, SK, ON, YK, NT, NU, NS, PE
NOT: Ont, Que, PEI, etc...
- Return addresses should be formatted in the same way, and be placed at the top left hand corner OR on the back of the envelope at the top.
Happy Mailing!
Our politician, who is speaking for the people (after having received a number of complaints), has a point. After all, what has changed between yesterday and today that has caused the mail carriers to suddenly forget where 'Mr & Mrs Smith of RR2 Somewhereville' live?
The thing is, a Civic Address System, (a process of naming all the roads in the County, and assigning numbers to every property), was put into place in this area close to 10 years ago. At that time Canada Post told us that they would eventually expect those civic addresses to become part of the daily mailing routine. Now they're following up on that, and people are surprised, shocked and angry. ...gasp...
Realizing that I send out a lot of mail from my office to RR addresses, (a large majority of people in the area have these addresses), it is possible that I could suddenly be flooded with returned mail - costing me time, and my employer money. So I did what any good bookkeeper would do, wrote up an 'addressing 101' memo, and emailed it to the staff. Here it is for you:
-------------
The rules for properly addressing an envelope have changed over the years; Canada Post has an extensive addressing guideline which can be found here: http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGaddress-e.asp
Here are the basics:
- Use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. For the name, street address, province, postal code - everything.
example:
AMY BEIRNES
ST MARYS CHURCH
554 THIS ST E
TOWN ON N4K 1X3
(make sure to include one space between the town and province; two spaces between the province and the postal code; and one space between the first 3 digits of the postal code and the last 3 digits)
- DO NOT use punctuation (unless it is part of a proper name ie: LION'S HEAD)
example:
Don't do this: R.R.#2. Instead, write it like this: RR 2 (make sure to include one space between 'RR' and the number)
Don't do this:
Instead, write it like this:
- Civic Addresses (or street addresses) are written on the line above rural route or PO Box addresses.
example:
AMY BEIRNES
623460 REALLY LONG RD NAME RD
RR 2
or:
AMY BEIRNES
123 LOUKES LANE
This example, (with only the rural route listed):
AMY BEIRNES
RR 2
TOWN ON N0V 1R0
will likely be returned to you as 'unknown address'. You MUST include the civic address.
This is especially important in our area as many, many people live on rural routes. If someone gives you a rural route number as an address, ask that person for the full civic address.
- The Town, Province, and Postal Code all go on the same line. Always.
example:
Remember to put 2 spaces between the province abbreviation and the postal code.
If you are sending mail out of the country, the country name goes under this line.
TOWN ON N4K 1X3
CANADA
- Provinces are written with the 2 letter abbreviations, not the old 3 letter abbreviations
example: AB, MB, BC, NB, NL, QC, SK, ON, YK, NT, NU, NS, PE
NOT: Ont, Que, PEI, etc...
- Return addresses should be formatted in the same way, and be placed at the top left hand corner OR on the back of the envelope at the top.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Won't someone please think of the Children?
AND LEAVE THEM AT HOME!!!
So, I've been playing ball this summer. On a team. We have uniforms and everything.
I haven't played ball on a team since I was about 16. It's good times. I was pretty rusty at the start of the season, but I'm back on my game now.
It's slow pitch, ('fag ball' as some lewd people like to call it), which is remarkably harder than it seems. I used to play softball - you always knew where the ball was going to go when it was pitched to you. In softball a strike is a pitch that crosses over the plate between your knees and your shoulders. It comes in pretty straight, and it's roughly in the same place every time. In slow pitch, on the other hand, the pitch is lobbed in (with a minimum 6ft arc) and as long as it lands somewhere on the 2 x 3ft board, it's a strike. Totally different ball game.
We also pride ourselves in losing every. single. game. It really takes off the pressure when you know you're going to lose! It's good fun though. We're not wrapped up in the score, we're there for the fun.
And the cold beer. We've even got a 'club house' overlooking the ball diamond.
It's a great night out with the girls!
Until the children ruin it.
Most of the girls play ball for the very reason to get out of the house, away from the kids or dirty dishes or whatever, and have a fun evening.
Now, I don't mind kids showing up to watch the game - as long as they behave and are supervised.
But it's really hard to concentrate on the ball game when you're standing out in the field and your child is over in the dugout crying.
*sigh* We had a soccer ball land in the middle of our game the other night.
We had a kid standing on the field.
We had a kid trying to go cry on his mom's shoulder while she was playing 3rd base.
We've had so many kids in the dugout at one time that there isn't room for the players.
We've had the dugout bench fall over on top of a kid on more than one occassion.
We let one kid keep score, but he gets distracted halfway through every inning and screws up the score sheet.
They take over the clubhouse after the game, sit in our chairs, and eat all our snack food.
And they're mouthy. Not all of them... but some of them.
So, How do you tell a mother to leave her annoying kids at home?
So, I've been playing ball this summer. On a team. We have uniforms and everything.
I haven't played ball on a team since I was about 16. It's good times. I was pretty rusty at the start of the season, but I'm back on my game now.
It's slow pitch, ('fag ball' as some lewd people like to call it), which is remarkably harder than it seems. I used to play softball - you always knew where the ball was going to go when it was pitched to you. In softball a strike is a pitch that crosses over the plate between your knees and your shoulders. It comes in pretty straight, and it's roughly in the same place every time. In slow pitch, on the other hand, the pitch is lobbed in (with a minimum 6ft arc) and as long as it lands somewhere on the 2 x 3ft board, it's a strike. Totally different ball game.
We also pride ourselves in losing every. single. game. It really takes off the pressure when you know you're going to lose! It's good fun though. We're not wrapped up in the score, we're there for the fun.
And the cold beer. We've even got a 'club house' overlooking the ball diamond.
It's a great night out with the girls!
Until the children ruin it.
Most of the girls play ball for the very reason to get out of the house, away from the kids or dirty dishes or whatever, and have a fun evening.
Now, I don't mind kids showing up to watch the game - as long as they behave and are supervised.
But it's really hard to concentrate on the ball game when you're standing out in the field and your child is over in the dugout crying.
*sigh* We had a soccer ball land in the middle of our game the other night.
We had a kid standing on the field.
We had a kid trying to go cry on his mom's shoulder while she was playing 3rd base.
We've had so many kids in the dugout at one time that there isn't room for the players.
We've had the dugout bench fall over on top of a kid on more than one occassion.
We let one kid keep score, but he gets distracted halfway through every inning and screws up the score sheet.
They take over the clubhouse after the game, sit in our chairs, and eat all our snack food.
And they're mouthy. Not all of them... but some of them.
So, How do you tell a mother to leave her annoying kids at home?
Thursday, September 2, 2010
TOU
It is currently 12:36am. Instead of going to bed like I should, (I'll pretend that my apartment is too hot to sleep just for argument's sake), I have just created my online account at Hydro One in order to view my 'Time of Use' electricity usage.
It's interesting. I'll give it that. You can view your hydro usage by the hour, day, or month. It's also all broken out into off-peak, mid-peak, and on-peak times so that you can see exactly when you are burning up energy.
I have these strange peaks in my hydro throughout the day (even when I'm not at home) that I can only contribute to my computer. Or maybe my freezer - I don't know, maybe it defrosts a lot while I'm at work (maybe it just permanently defrosts... that would explain why my ice cream is always soft. ...ANYWAY The point is, through the week I seem to be using more hydro between the hours of 9am-11am than at any other time of the day. Hot water heater maybe? Trying to heat up all that water I misplaced while showering? Or is someone living in my apartment while I'm at work?
I also get these spikes during the weekend. 4 or 5 times during the day my hydro usage just shoots up in a big spike. I'm assuming its my computer turning on and doing computer-y things.
The BEST part about seeing my hydro usage, (isn't it great that we Canadians have so many words for that juice that keeps our lights on? 'Hydro', 'electricity', 'energy', 'power'....), is that Hydro One has so graciously included calculations of the cost of the energy you're using. For example, in July, I used $5.29 during on-peak, $9.36 during mid-peak, and $7.95 during off peak. For a grand total of $22.60.
SO WHY THE HELL WAS MY BILL $59.94?!?!?!
If you're going to charge 'delivery' and 'debt retirement' fees which amount to MORE than the actual energy usage, do us all a favour and build those fees into the price of the electricity!
If I could go off-grid I would.
Edit:
Ok, I know that it's no surprise that we get billed the extra fees like 'delivery' and 'debt retirement'; it's not new. It just really ticks me off that it makes up 2/3 of my bill and I have no control over it.
This whole Time of Use thing was 'supposed' to allow us to look at our energy use patterns and encourage us to change our habits, thus lowering our energy consumption and costs. At least, that was the story they've been feeding us.
Last month, according to my smart meter, I burned about $23 worth of electricity. That's 75 cents a day; 3 cents an hour. It's pretty much completely impossible for me to lower my energy consumption habits any lower than they already are. Unless I want to unplug my fridge. Maybe I should just start flipping my breakers off when I leave for the day...
And no, I don't really think that going off grid is the answer either. The capital expenses and equipment maintenance costs involved in that make it pretty much out of reach for the average person. I'm sure there are reasons for that - if there was a mass exodus of people from the grid, there wouldn't be enough customers left on the grid to maintain it. Hydro costs would either skyrocket, or the whole system would collapse.
Maybe we should be stockpiling candles and kerosene.
It's interesting. I'll give it that. You can view your hydro usage by the hour, day, or month. It's also all broken out into off-peak, mid-peak, and on-peak times so that you can see exactly when you are burning up energy.
I have these strange peaks in my hydro throughout the day (even when I'm not at home) that I can only contribute to my computer. Or maybe my freezer - I don't know, maybe it defrosts a lot while I'm at work (maybe it just permanently defrosts... that would explain why my ice cream is always soft. ...ANYWAY The point is, through the week I seem to be using more hydro between the hours of 9am-11am than at any other time of the day. Hot water heater maybe? Trying to heat up all that water I misplaced while showering? Or is someone living in my apartment while I'm at work?
I also get these spikes during the weekend. 4 or 5 times during the day my hydro usage just shoots up in a big spike. I'm assuming its my computer turning on and doing computer-y things.
The BEST part about seeing my hydro usage, (isn't it great that we Canadians have so many words for that juice that keeps our lights on? 'Hydro', 'electricity', 'energy', 'power'....), is that Hydro One has so graciously included calculations of the cost of the energy you're using. For example, in July, I used $5.29 during on-peak, $9.36 during mid-peak, and $7.95 during off peak. For a grand total of $22.60.
SO WHY THE HELL WAS MY BILL $59.94?!?!?!
If you're going to charge 'delivery' and 'debt retirement' fees which amount to MORE than the actual energy usage, do us all a favour and build those fees into the price of the electricity!
If I could go off-grid I would.
Edit:
Ok, I know that it's no surprise that we get billed the extra fees like 'delivery' and 'debt retirement'; it's not new. It just really ticks me off that it makes up 2/3 of my bill and I have no control over it.
This whole Time of Use thing was 'supposed' to allow us to look at our energy use patterns and encourage us to change our habits, thus lowering our energy consumption and costs. At least, that was the story they've been feeding us.
Last month, according to my smart meter, I burned about $23 worth of electricity. That's 75 cents a day; 3 cents an hour. It's pretty much completely impossible for me to lower my energy consumption habits any lower than they already are. Unless I want to unplug my fridge. Maybe I should just start flipping my breakers off when I leave for the day...
And no, I don't really think that going off grid is the answer either. The capital expenses and equipment maintenance costs involved in that make it pretty much out of reach for the average person. I'm sure there are reasons for that - if there was a mass exodus of people from the grid, there wouldn't be enough customers left on the grid to maintain it. Hydro costs would either skyrocket, or the whole system would collapse.
Maybe we should be stockpiling candles and kerosene.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Stuff
Life is good, and I've lost my desire to blog. But here I am with a quick update of my life...
Went to African Lion Safari last weekend. That was fun.
Watched my little brother get married last weekend too. That was more fun!
Avoided spending time in my apartment all week while we suffer through this 30C + heat wave. I like summertime, but man! Enough already. Save a bit for the rest of the summer.
Taking next week off work. Not to do anything special; just because I can. Actually, I have a list as long as my arm of stuff I should do - probably won't do half of it. :P
And... the chipmunk is still roaming freely throughout the office.
It's too hot to blog.
Ciao
Went to African Lion Safari last weekend. That was fun.
Watched my little brother get married last weekend too. That was more fun!
Avoided spending time in my apartment all week while we suffer through this 30C + heat wave. I like summertime, but man! Enough already. Save a bit for the rest of the summer.
Taking next week off work. Not to do anything special; just because I can. Actually, I have a list as long as my arm of stuff I should do - probably won't do half of it. :P
And... the chipmunk is still roaming freely throughout the office.
It's too hot to blog.
Ciao
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Chipmunk: 14, Church Staff: 0
Chipmunk: 14 - that's about how many days the furry little critter has been living in the Rectory.
Church Staff: 0 - that's how successful we've been at getting rid of the little bugger.
My theory is that as cute as the little thing is, once he's become a nuisance (and eaten all your cookies), it's time to use some force. Specifically, the sort of force found within a rat trap. However, others in the building think we should be gentle to God's little creature and let him be free outside where he belongs. Honestly, I don't live there, so I don't really care what they do with him. Not only that but he has definitely provided some entertainment as we chase him through the office and down the halls.
We've managed to scoot him out the door once, and I have almost trapped him under an empty garbage pail, but other than scare him a little, we're not on the winning side. It's an old building with holes in it big enough for a house hippo to get through, and an abundant supply of Chippy's favorite food; aka: the bag of sunflower seeds in the closet. He's not going anywhere. Rodents are cheeky little buggers too, and once they've stared death in the eye and won, they have no qualms about perching upon the back of a couch in the morning sun to eat breakfast - in plain sight of the receptionist.
Personally, if it were my house, I'd have a $2 rat trap and a bit of peanut butter out so fast that he wouldn't even know what hit him. And I made my feelings quite clear as I helped push the couch out the front door because 'the chipmunk might be in the cushions'. I wish I was joking, but that seems to be Fr's solution to most of his problems around the rectory - shove it out the door.
I understand the desire to not kill him, but this thing has become a pest. He knows where all the holes are; he knows how to get in and out of every room; he knows where all his favorite food is; and he has some great places staked out to sleep in (you can tell by the little piles of sunflower seed hulls). If you were to live trap this little thing, you would have to release him 20 miles away just so he wouldn't come back again - he knows he's got it good!
I may have likened the situation to having a nuisance bear - there's only one way to really permanently deal with a nuisance bear, and that's to kill it. I was laughed at because 'Amy, you silly girl, there isn't a bear in the house, just a little chipmunk'. Laugh if you want, Fr, but I wasn't the one who suggested calling the exterminator now was I? Do you have any idea what it would cost to get an exterminator in to deal with that little chipmunk?!
RAT TRAP. Problem solved.
Gah, it's a good thing I don't have to work for the next four days. And there'd better not be an exterminator bill waiting to be paid when I get back!
Church work. Never a dull moment.
Church Staff: 0 - that's how successful we've been at getting rid of the little bugger.
My theory is that as cute as the little thing is, once he's become a nuisance (and eaten all your cookies), it's time to use some force. Specifically, the sort of force found within a rat trap. However, others in the building think we should be gentle to God's little creature and let him be free outside where he belongs. Honestly, I don't live there, so I don't really care what they do with him. Not only that but he has definitely provided some entertainment as we chase him through the office and down the halls.
We've managed to scoot him out the door once, and I have almost trapped him under an empty garbage pail, but other than scare him a little, we're not on the winning side. It's an old building with holes in it big enough for a house hippo to get through, and an abundant supply of Chippy's favorite food; aka: the bag of sunflower seeds in the closet. He's not going anywhere. Rodents are cheeky little buggers too, and once they've stared death in the eye and won, they have no qualms about perching upon the back of a couch in the morning sun to eat breakfast - in plain sight of the receptionist.
Personally, if it were my house, I'd have a $2 rat trap and a bit of peanut butter out so fast that he wouldn't even know what hit him. And I made my feelings quite clear as I helped push the couch out the front door because 'the chipmunk might be in the cushions'. I wish I was joking, but that seems to be Fr's solution to most of his problems around the rectory - shove it out the door.
I understand the desire to not kill him, but this thing has become a pest. He knows where all the holes are; he knows how to get in and out of every room; he knows where all his favorite food is; and he has some great places staked out to sleep in (you can tell by the little piles of sunflower seed hulls). If you were to live trap this little thing, you would have to release him 20 miles away just so he wouldn't come back again - he knows he's got it good!
I may have likened the situation to having a nuisance bear - there's only one way to really permanently deal with a nuisance bear, and that's to kill it. I was laughed at because 'Amy, you silly girl, there isn't a bear in the house, just a little chipmunk'. Laugh if you want, Fr, but I wasn't the one who suggested calling the exterminator now was I? Do you have any idea what it would cost to get an exterminator in to deal with that little chipmunk?!
RAT TRAP. Problem solved.
Gah, it's a good thing I don't have to work for the next four days. And there'd better not be an exterminator bill waiting to be paid when I get back!
Church work. Never a dull moment.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Enough's Enough already.
I have avoided blogging about BP for some 55 days or so. Really, what's the point? Just Google 'BP Oil Spill' and you'll get some 61 million results. There is much information, and much opinion, already floating around out there - there isn't anything I can say about it that hasn't already been said.
But come on! First they told us that it was leaking a mere 1000 barrels of oil a day. Then it was 5000. But then somehow within the last month or so, BP has magically started collecting 15,000 barrels of the mess every day. Three times more than what they were letting on was leaking. Huh. Someone's math was wrong. Today's Globe & Mail reports:
'No guarantee of collecting all the gushing crude.' I think it's pretty safe to assume that this thing is leaking at least 100,000 barrels of oil each and every day. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez (seemingly, the most notorious oil disaster of the past century) was a total of 271,000 barrels. Deepwater Horizon is leaking 1 Exxon Valdez every 2-3 days. For the past 56 days. Some 5 million barrels of oil.
And yet, that merely puts it in third place in the list of the world's worst oil spills! According to Wikipedia, (I know, I know... an excellent source of valid information), The spill during the Gulf war could have leaked as much as 11 million barrels, and a spill in California in 1911 leaked 9 million barrels. Actually, I don't know why we compare spills to the Exxon Valdez, aside from the fact that it's just plain hard to compare the size of a spill to anything. The Exxon Valdez ranks 17th on the list of worlds worst spills. By the time this is over, I'm sure that BP's Deepwater Horizon will be #1.
As much as they say that this spill could have absolutely unheard of consequences to our environment - and I've even come across some 'the end is nigh' rhetoric - this is the beginning of the end! This oil spill is going to kill us all!! - Obviously, it's a mess. It's gross, it's sticky, it's suffocating, it's going to kill a lot of things. But the world has already lasted through worse spills. Not to take away from the significant disastrous effects of this particular spill, but over the past 100 years, humans have been responsible for dumping 45,600,000 barrels of crude oil on the surface of the earth - (a sum of the worst 17 spills only). And we're still here. We're messy idiots.
1 barrel = 42 US gallons
1 US gallon = 3.75 litres
46 million barrels = 1,932,000,000 gallons = 7,245,000,000 litres.
That's the stuff that was accidentally spilled (that we caught companies red-handed accidentally spilling). And it doesn't include the disaster of the Alberta Tar Pits with their constantly open pools/lakes of useless waste gunk. Nor does it include the unimaginable amounts of crude which have been pumped, captured, refined, and burned in our machinery. It's disgusting to think about. And yet, someone said it right when saying that even a disaster this large doesn't make us blink at the gas pump while filling our cars.
Seriously though, why are we ('we' as in the human race in general) even drilling that deep? Setting aside the fact that Deepwater drilled 5000ft deeper than the equipment was designed to drill... I'm no scientist, but I do recognize the effects of pressure and what can happen when a substance is under pressure with only one way to escape. Ask a 5 year old to put his hand over a running water hose, and he'll quickly get the idea that a) he's going to get soaking wet, and b) it's not going to stop the flow. If you'd like a really great pictorial example of the earth, and atmospheric pressure, and just how deep the ocean is compared to this oil well, check out this link to 'Our Amazing Planet.com'. It's pretty cool.
I'm sure it comes down to greed and mismanagement and all those things that we've been hearing about for the past month. The Rolling Stone magazine recently posted a very thorough investigative report piecing together all of the events to date concerning BP and the governing bodies controlling the oil wells. It's an 8 page article, a bit of a read, but very informative. Did you know that BP was responsible for bungling the initial cleanup of the Exxon Valdez? It's ridiculous that this company is even still in business.
The final paragraph of the article:
along with my simplistic idea that putting an oil well into the earth is sort of like jamming a straw into a water balloon (unless you keep your thumb over the end of the straw, you're going to end up with no water left in your balloon!), led me to doodling.....
Take from it what you will.
a) Greed will destroy the earth
b) Natural disasters are the handiwork of the devil
c) BP is the devil
d) I have too much time on my hands...
e) etc, etc
In conclusion, I promise I won't blog about BP and their oil spill again
...unless it's really good
...and they don't kill us all first.
But come on! First they told us that it was leaking a mere 1000 barrels of oil a day. Then it was 5000. But then somehow within the last month or so, BP has magically started collecting 15,000 barrels of the mess every day. Three times more than what they were letting on was leaking. Huh. Someone's math was wrong. Today's Globe & Mail reports:
BP said it could increase the volume of oil it was capturing from around 15,000 barrels a day now to 40,000-53,000 barrels by the end of this month and 60,000-80,000 by mid-July – but it could still not guarantee collecting all the gushing crude.
'No guarantee of collecting all the gushing crude.' I think it's pretty safe to assume that this thing is leaking at least 100,000 barrels of oil each and every day. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez (seemingly, the most notorious oil disaster of the past century) was a total of 271,000 barrels. Deepwater Horizon is leaking 1 Exxon Valdez every 2-3 days. For the past 56 days. Some 5 million barrels of oil.
And yet, that merely puts it in third place in the list of the world's worst oil spills! According to Wikipedia, (I know, I know... an excellent source of valid information), The spill during the Gulf war could have leaked as much as 11 million barrels, and a spill in California in 1911 leaked 9 million barrels. Actually, I don't know why we compare spills to the Exxon Valdez, aside from the fact that it's just plain hard to compare the size of a spill to anything. The Exxon Valdez ranks 17th on the list of worlds worst spills. By the time this is over, I'm sure that BP's Deepwater Horizon will be #1.
As much as they say that this spill could have absolutely unheard of consequences to our environment - and I've even come across some 'the end is nigh' rhetoric - this is the beginning of the end! This oil spill is going to kill us all!! - Obviously, it's a mess. It's gross, it's sticky, it's suffocating, it's going to kill a lot of things. But the world has already lasted through worse spills. Not to take away from the significant disastrous effects of this particular spill, but over the past 100 years, humans have been responsible for dumping 45,600,000 barrels of crude oil on the surface of the earth - (a sum of the worst 17 spills only). And we're still here. We're messy idiots.
1 barrel = 42 US gallons
1 US gallon = 3.75 litres
46 million barrels = 1,932,000,000 gallons = 7,245,000,000 litres.
That's the stuff that was accidentally spilled (that we caught companies red-handed accidentally spilling). And it doesn't include the disaster of the Alberta Tar Pits with their constantly open pools/lakes of useless waste gunk. Nor does it include the unimaginable amounts of crude which have been pumped, captured, refined, and burned in our machinery. It's disgusting to think about. And yet, someone said it right when saying that even a disaster this large doesn't make us blink at the gas pump while filling our cars.
Seriously though, why are we ('we' as in the human race in general) even drilling that deep? Setting aside the fact that Deepwater drilled 5000ft deeper than the equipment was designed to drill... I'm no scientist, but I do recognize the effects of pressure and what can happen when a substance is under pressure with only one way to escape. Ask a 5 year old to put his hand over a running water hose, and he'll quickly get the idea that a) he's going to get soaking wet, and b) it's not going to stop the flow. If you'd like a really great pictorial example of the earth, and atmospheric pressure, and just how deep the ocean is compared to this oil well, check out this link to 'Our Amazing Planet.com'. It's pretty cool.
I'm sure it comes down to greed and mismanagement and all those things that we've been hearing about for the past month. The Rolling Stone magazine recently posted a very thorough investigative report piecing together all of the events to date concerning BP and the governing bodies controlling the oil wells. It's an 8 page article, a bit of a read, but very informative. Did you know that BP was responsible for bungling the initial cleanup of the Exxon Valdez? It's ridiculous that this company is even still in business.
The final paragraph of the article:
...the disaster in the Gulf will serve as a lasting and ugly reminder of the price we paid for our addiction to oil. "It was a bargain with the devil," says Steiner, the marine scientist who helped lead the response to the Valdez disaster. "And now the devil is gloating."
along with my simplistic idea that putting an oil well into the earth is sort of like jamming a straw into a water balloon (unless you keep your thumb over the end of the straw, you're going to end up with no water left in your balloon!), led me to doodling.....
Take from it what you will.
a) Greed will destroy the earth
b) Natural disasters are the handiwork of the devil
c) BP is the devil
d) I have too much time on my hands...
e) etc, etc
In conclusion, I promise I won't blog about BP and their oil spill again
...unless it's really good
...and they don't kill us all first.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
G8 Bomb Threat? Don't we all have better things to do with our time?
Bomb fear after mystery man missing fingers buys fertilizer
Seriously? Thank you Toronto Star for that fear mongering headline! I love that 'missing fingers' seems to imply a devious bomb-building mastermind. Like seriously.... I hope he 'turns himself in' and is just an average run of the mill farmer, or super crazy gardener, who happens to have a few fingers missing.
Seriously? Thank you Toronto Star for that fear mongering headline! I love that 'missing fingers' seems to imply a devious bomb-building mastermind. Like seriously.... I hope he 'turns himself in' and is just an average run of the mill farmer, or super crazy gardener, who happens to have a few fingers missing.
Don't we all know someone with missing fingers? Off the top of my head I can personally think of 5 or 6 people I know with missing appendages - I don't think any of them are evil because of it. Heck, my own father is missing the top of one of his fingers - and he regularly buys fertilizer! Oh no!! oh, wait. He farms. It sort of comes with the territory.
Anything for a good story though, right?
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
At the top of the hill
I'm 30 now. To anyone under the age of 20, I'm old. (to anyone over the age of 50, I'm still a kid though, so that's something I guess.)
For my 30th birthday, my bf got me a brand new ball glove! Now, you're probably thinking, 'what in the world does someone that old want with a new ball glove??!' Well, the truth is that never in my life have I had my very own brand new ball glove. For the past 20 years I have been using my uncle's old (and small) ball glove, and previous to that, I was using my dad's old (and even smaller) ball glove. These gloves are older than I am, and I'm old. It was awesome to go to the store and try on all the gloves - ones that still have padding in them, and that actually fit, and are longer than my own fingers! I'm pretty happy with the one I got; I've been carrying it around for days :)
Oh. I've joined a womens slo-pitch league. That's why a new glove was a great birthday gift.
I just got home from my first practise with the new glove. I missed a few balls I should have got, caught a few I would have missed with the old glove, and lost the ball more than once inside the new glove! (It's so much bigger than my old one!) All in all though, it's breaking in really nice and I'm ready to kick some butt for the rest of the season! ...right after my shoulder stops hurting.
Maybe I should mention that our team has had somewhere around 40 runs scored against us this season. In two games. We're there to get out for a night or two a week, have a few drinks, and have some fun - not nearly as competitive as some of the other teams in the league, and therefore, we get trampled on. Frequently. It's pretty good fun!
For my 30th birthday, my bf got me a brand new ball glove! Now, you're probably thinking, 'what in the world does someone that old want with a new ball glove??!' Well, the truth is that never in my life have I had my very own brand new ball glove. For the past 20 years I have been using my uncle's old (and small) ball glove, and previous to that, I was using my dad's old (and even smaller) ball glove. These gloves are older than I am, and I'm old. It was awesome to go to the store and try on all the gloves - ones that still have padding in them, and that actually fit, and are longer than my own fingers! I'm pretty happy with the one I got; I've been carrying it around for days :)
Oh. I've joined a womens slo-pitch league. That's why a new glove was a great birthday gift.
I just got home from my first practise with the new glove. I missed a few balls I should have got, caught a few I would have missed with the old glove, and lost the ball more than once inside the new glove! (It's so much bigger than my old one!) All in all though, it's breaking in really nice and I'm ready to kick some butt for the rest of the season! ...right after my shoulder stops hurting.
Maybe I should mention that our team has had somewhere around 40 runs scored against us this season. In two games. We're there to get out for a night or two a week, have a few drinks, and have some fun - not nearly as competitive as some of the other teams in the league, and therefore, we get trampled on. Frequently. It's pretty good fun!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
The trip to Vegas which was not.
Right now, I am supposed to be at a hotel in Las Vegas Nevada getting ready to go on an evening of batchlorette fun, starting with a 3 hour tour of the Vegas Strip in freaking SUV STRETCH LIMO!!!
I hope that the other 10 girls are having an awesome time, and living it up, and doing all those crazy Vegas things - cause I am not. I am not there. I didn't make it to Las Vegas. And I have no one to blame but the airline. From here on out, I don't fly Delta, and I only make direct flights to my destination. Not really a good experience for my 'first flight'!
Oh, we went to Buffalo, parked the car, got to the airport in plenty of time, got to the checkout counter, and were told that our flight to Atlanta had been canceled due to severe thunderstorms. The entire Atlanta airport was shut down - no flights in or out. Hard to be upset about that really. That was supposed to be a 6:30pm flight leaving Friday night - we would have been in Las Vegas by midnight. (Buffalo-Atlanta-Las Vegas)
The best they could do for us was re-book us on a 4pm flight leaving Saturday afternoon to Detroit (then to Las Vegas). Grumbling at our lack of choice, we took it, and found a hotel in Buffalo. We made the best of it, my mom and I; the rest of the girls were all on different flights which didn't have to go to Atlanta, so they had no trouble getting to their destination.
Day two in Buffalo, we went shopping, out for lunch, etc, then headed back to the airport, happy that we'd finally be on our way. Checked in, got our boarding passes, went through security, found our gate, bought some reading material for the flight, and went to wait.
Then we noticed a pattern of a lot of passengers going to the gate desk with problems. Like... almost all the passengers. Turns out, our plane was late. And there was no way on God's green earth that we were going to get to Detroit in time to make our connecting flight to Las Vegas. Like, they figured we'd land in Detroit at 5:35pm - the exact time the doors would be closing on the plane we were supposed to be getting on (THREE TERMINALS AWAY).
They could give us a new flight (Buffalo-Cincinnati-Las Vegas) at 7am Sunday morning. We'd just have to spend another night in beautiful rainy Buffalo. This is the point where we said 'This is enough, let's go home'. We weren't very interested in spending half of our Vegas Vacation in Buffalo. Something about coming all the way back to the airport yet again for another chance to possibly, maybe, get on a plane just wasn't something we wanted to do.
I'm not really upset about not making it to Vegas - crap happens. I'm sad that we missed the limo ride, and that we'll be missing a tour of the Grand Canyon on Monday... But it just wasn't meant to be I guess. Maybe it's God's way of telling us that gambling is really, really bad. The annoying thing is the amount of planning and preparation that went into this trip, only to have it all unravel in a matter of minutes.
Much to my BF's happiness, I'll be spending the rest of the long weekend in Sunny Southwestern Ontario.
I hope that the other 10 girls are having an awesome time, and living it up, and doing all those crazy Vegas things - cause I am not. I am not there. I didn't make it to Las Vegas. And I have no one to blame but the airline. From here on out, I don't fly Delta, and I only make direct flights to my destination. Not really a good experience for my 'first flight'!
Oh, we went to Buffalo, parked the car, got to the airport in plenty of time, got to the checkout counter, and were told that our flight to Atlanta had been canceled due to severe thunderstorms. The entire Atlanta airport was shut down - no flights in or out. Hard to be upset about that really. That was supposed to be a 6:30pm flight leaving Friday night - we would have been in Las Vegas by midnight. (Buffalo-Atlanta-Las Vegas)
The best they could do for us was re-book us on a 4pm flight leaving Saturday afternoon to Detroit (then to Las Vegas). Grumbling at our lack of choice, we took it, and found a hotel in Buffalo. We made the best of it, my mom and I; the rest of the girls were all on different flights which didn't have to go to Atlanta, so they had no trouble getting to their destination.
Day two in Buffalo, we went shopping, out for lunch, etc, then headed back to the airport, happy that we'd finally be on our way. Checked in, got our boarding passes, went through security, found our gate, bought some reading material for the flight, and went to wait.
Then we noticed a pattern of a lot of passengers going to the gate desk with problems. Like... almost all the passengers. Turns out, our plane was late. And there was no way on God's green earth that we were going to get to Detroit in time to make our connecting flight to Las Vegas. Like, they figured we'd land in Detroit at 5:35pm - the exact time the doors would be closing on the plane we were supposed to be getting on (THREE TERMINALS AWAY).
They could give us a new flight (Buffalo-Cincinnati-Las Vegas) at 7am Sunday morning. We'd just have to spend another night in beautiful rainy Buffalo. This is the point where we said 'This is enough, let's go home'. We weren't very interested in spending half of our Vegas Vacation in Buffalo. Something about coming all the way back to the airport yet again for another chance to possibly, maybe, get on a plane just wasn't something we wanted to do.
I'm not really upset about not making it to Vegas - crap happens. I'm sad that we missed the limo ride, and that we'll be missing a tour of the Grand Canyon on Monday... But it just wasn't meant to be I guess. Maybe it's God's way of telling us that gambling is really, really bad. The annoying thing is the amount of planning and preparation that went into this trip, only to have it all unravel in a matter of minutes.
Much to my BF's happiness, I'll be spending the rest of the long weekend in Sunny Southwestern Ontario.
Monday, May 17, 2010
When (life) kicks you in the face
It's one of those things that, *sigh*, just deserves a blog...
"You beat that video game? What are you going to do with your time now?"
"I don't know... I guess it's suicide again for me"
[disapproving look, which was ignored/missed, followed by a double handed shove to the shoulder]
---------------
Things I learned from this encounter:
1. 'I guess it's suicide again for me' is a quote from The Simpsons.
2. Just because your boyfriend frequently calls you a weakling doesn't mean that once in awhile a good unsuspecting shove won't knock him right off his bed.
3. Big guys fall hard.
4. Beware the flailing feet - they'll get ya in the face.
Yes, I almost broke my bf's ankle by shoving him off his bed. Yes, he kicked me in the face on the way down. Yes, we're both bruised. Yes, we're ridiculous. And yes, I felt really, really, really, really bad.
Luckily, his ankle isn't broken, and didn't swell, and I didn't get the shiner I thought I might.
"You beat that video game? What are you going to do with your time now?"
"I don't know... I guess it's suicide again for me"
[disapproving look, which was ignored/missed, followed by a double handed shove to the shoulder]
---------------
Things I learned from this encounter:
1. 'I guess it's suicide again for me' is a quote from The Simpsons.
2. Just because your boyfriend frequently calls you a weakling doesn't mean that once in awhile a good unsuspecting shove won't knock him right off his bed.
3. Big guys fall hard.
4. Beware the flailing feet - they'll get ya in the face.
Yes, I almost broke my bf's ankle by shoving him off his bed. Yes, he kicked me in the face on the way down. Yes, we're both bruised. Yes, we're ridiculous. And yes, I felt really, really, really, really bad.
Luckily, his ankle isn't broken, and didn't swell, and I didn't get the shiner I thought I might.
Monday, May 10, 2010
What is going on in this town?
Ok, so the 25 seater big bike rolling down main street blaring 'Tutti Fruiti' isn't completely unheard of.
And.... I suppose when you have to move a king sized mattress to your new home, on top of the van, with no straps or ropes, will do - as long as both the driver and passenger are hanging onto it...
But come on! Middle aged man in a clown outfit standing on the street corner having a chat with a lady and a dog? Really??? A dog? *sigh*
This town forgot to take it's crazy pill today.
-----------
So what's new in my world? Well.... My bf turned the big 3-0 yesterday. He's so old now :P I thought I might list the top 30 reasons why I love him, but decided that it would cost me too much in postage to mail you all vomit bags.
We walked through a house for sale the other day. Mostly because it's well within an acceptable price range (basically, that works out to when buying is cheaper than renting). Unfortunately, it was a little more run down than expected and it would cost more to fix up than the house is really worth. Oh well. Not really too serious about buying right now anyway; I was more or less just curious to look through the house cause my grandmother lived there 20 years ago.
Also, I think it's time to throw away the Toshiba. No, like literally THROW it. I was trying to watch Grey's at lunch today and between trying to ignore the lines which have taken over half the screen, and becoming increasingly annoyed every time the computer randomly shut down on me, (no less than 4 times within 20 minutes), I was just about to shove it off my coffee table and stomp all over it. (even more annoying - it shut down while I was typing that last sentence - nail in the coffin, computer, nail in the coffin.)
That is all.
And.... I suppose when you have to move a king sized mattress to your new home, on top of the van, with no straps or ropes, will do - as long as both the driver and passenger are hanging onto it...
But come on! Middle aged man in a clown outfit standing on the street corner having a chat with a lady and a dog? Really??? A dog? *sigh*
This town forgot to take it's crazy pill today.
-----------
So what's new in my world? Well.... My bf turned the big 3-0 yesterday. He's so old now :P I thought I might list the top 30 reasons why I love him, but decided that it would cost me too much in postage to mail you all vomit bags.
We walked through a house for sale the other day. Mostly because it's well within an acceptable price range (basically, that works out to when buying is cheaper than renting). Unfortunately, it was a little more run down than expected and it would cost more to fix up than the house is really worth. Oh well. Not really too serious about buying right now anyway; I was more or less just curious to look through the house cause my grandmother lived there 20 years ago.
Also, I think it's time to throw away the Toshiba. No, like literally THROW it. I was trying to watch Grey's at lunch today and between trying to ignore the lines which have taken over half the screen, and becoming increasingly annoyed every time the computer randomly shut down on me, (no less than 4 times within 20 minutes), I was just about to shove it off my coffee table and stomp all over it. (even more annoying - it shut down while I was typing that last sentence - nail in the coffin, computer, nail in the coffin.)
That is all.
Friday, May 7, 2010
"Careless Women never appeal to Gentlemen"
"Man needs it in driving"...
Wouldn't this guy just roll over in his grave if he saw a woman driving a man around! Ooh, the horror!
For more great dating tips, go here: http:meagainstthem.com
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Grand Ole Opry *tear* :*(
You've probably heard that Nashville has been hit with massive thunderstorms/rain/tornadoes/flooding over the past couple days.
The Grand Old Opry is not immune to disaster either. If I was there right now, sitting in the same seat I sat in two years ago, I'd be sitting underwater.
I've walked through that stage door; I've stood on that stage - no one's standing on it this week, it's all underwater.
Grand Ole Opry Moves This Week's Shows To Other Nashville Venues Due To Flooding
Also, the stocks for Gaylord Entertainment (the owners of Opryland) have tanked. People are so fickle. It's probably a really good time to buy some of that stock, cause this is just a minor setback for that company; things are going to soar once it's all fixed up again - you can't kill country music that easily!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
I am still a (Christian) because...
Being an employee of the Catholic Church, I have managed to accumulate a number of priestly facebook friends. A number of these Catholic Priests are exceptionally young for their profession, (they're in their 20's & 30's whereas the average age for a priest these days is about 65 - no joke), and seem to be feeling very exposed/vulnerable over the sex scandals of the Vatican. For whatever reason, a few of them have been fiercely facebooking any little tidbit of information which defends their faith. And really, who can blame them? If someone attacks my very way of life, I'm going to do my damnedest to defend my beliefs as well.
Anyway, Fr Adam made a very poignant remark today which went like this:
Anyway, I like what Fr Adam has to say, and it reminds me of a quote I once heard - "The Church is a whore, and yet, she is my mother." No one really knows who said the quote, but St Augustine generally gets credit for it.
The Church is a whore. It is flawed and dirty and sinful. It makes mistakes and doesn't always have a very good reputation.
And yet, she is my mother. The church, despite all of its flaws, has raised me and nurtured me and taught me everything I know about the glory of God. There is still good to be found within the church, and that is why I keep going back.
Anyway, Fr Adam made a very poignant remark today which went like this:
Attached to this was a link to a National Post article (which I thought overly wordy, but still worth a read).I am still a Catholic because if these scandals shook my faith in the Church, then I would also have to abandon all my confidence in the school system, the medical profession, the boy Scouts, sports, the family, etc; for one can find at least as much scandalous behaviour in those as well. Plus, our saint to sinner ratio still beats them all.
Anyway, I like what Fr Adam has to say, and it reminds me of a quote I once heard - "The Church is a whore, and yet, she is my mother." No one really knows who said the quote, but St Augustine generally gets credit for it.
The Church is a whore. It is flawed and dirty and sinful. It makes mistakes and doesn't always have a very good reputation.
And yet, she is my mother. The church, despite all of its flaws, has raised me and nurtured me and taught me everything I know about the glory of God. There is still good to be found within the church, and that is why I keep going back.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Food Inc
I don't have TV. That doesn't mean that I don't watch TV, just that I don't find TV important enough to pay money for (rabbit ears don't work where I live, so it's cable, satellite, or nothing). So I watch TV online - legally, streamed from the television station websites themselves. It gives me the freedom to watch tv shows pretty much whenever I want, and mostly commercial free. It's a pretty sweet deal actually (as long as the internet is running smoothly).
Anyway... I was browsing the CBC website and they had last week's episode of The Passionate Eye advertised (April 11th). They were playing 'Food Inc', which is a documentary about where our food comes from. This documentary was even nominated for an Oscar, so to find it playing on CBC was a small miracle. Naturally, I started watching it at lunchtime just to see what it's all about.
I've only watched about 20 minutes of an 1 1/2hr long film, but what I've already seen is enough to make me start to question the food I put into my mouth. If you get a chance to watch it, do. Just the fact that there is corn by-product in just about every single bite of food we eat makes me wonder what we're doing to ourselves. :S
I was a farm kid. I've seen where good food comes from. There is a huge difference between the way food on the family farm is produced and the way food on a factory farm is produced - and it is gross. Makes me really appreciate picking weeds by hand out of the garden and chasing cattle around. When I grow up, I will have a garden of my own. A big one.
If you missed the show, you can watch it here:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/ID=1464545109
Anyway... I was browsing the CBC website and they had last week's episode of The Passionate Eye advertised (April 11th). They were playing 'Food Inc', which is a documentary about where our food comes from. This documentary was even nominated for an Oscar, so to find it playing on CBC was a small miracle. Naturally, I started watching it at lunchtime just to see what it's all about.
I've only watched about 20 minutes of an 1 1/2hr long film, but what I've already seen is enough to make me start to question the food I put into my mouth. If you get a chance to watch it, do. Just the fact that there is corn by-product in just about every single bite of food we eat makes me wonder what we're doing to ourselves. :S
I was a farm kid. I've seen where good food comes from. There is a huge difference between the way food on the family farm is produced and the way food on a factory farm is produced - and it is gross. Makes me really appreciate picking weeds by hand out of the garden and chasing cattle around. When I grow up, I will have a garden of my own. A big one.
If you missed the show, you can watch it here:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/ID=1464545109
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
What's the catch?
A fellow blogger passed this video along to me today:
Events like this stir up emotions of happiness and excitement but also leave a sour taste of skepticism and annoyance in my mouth. On the surface it looks like something that was done for fun, for laughs, for putting a smile on people's faces, and out of sheer goodness. Makes you smile, doesn't it?
But I know better. I was a business student once. I took marketing courses. And I hated them. Blatantly, outright, hated them. The pursuit of money; the spin to make a sale. Evilness I tell you! Evil. It made me cynical and always on the lookout for the catch.
This Coke stunt is just one of those marketing schemes wrapped up in a warm and fuzzy package, tied with a pretty bow. But it's still a marketing scheme, a gimmick, a stunt, pulled off by a large corporation all in the effort to gain customer loyalty. I'm sure they made more than a few lifetime Coke drinkers out of that crowd of college kids - and what'd it cost them? A few hundred bucks worth of pop and food? Well played.
And then there's the part where it's a multi-tiered marketing scheme. There's the original group of people they were marketing to directly - the couple hundred college kids. And then there's the 2 million people who have viewed the video on youtube (a free avenue of advertising which directly reaches their target demographic - bonus for them). And then, who knows how many more times this video has been passed around through MSN, or email or, sadly, even my blog.... (I'm not proud of that - but I trust that if you're smart enough to read my blog, then you're smart enough to be a little bit discerning about the products you purchase). Suddenly, the little college cafeteria stunt which probably cost less than $1000 to pull off has reached literally millions of people with a message that Coke is a fun, spontaneous, and giving company. Bravo Coke, bravo. I bet the Marketer who came up with this one got a big bonus.
Events like this stir up emotions of happiness and excitement but also leave a sour taste of skepticism and annoyance in my mouth. On the surface it looks like something that was done for fun, for laughs, for putting a smile on people's faces, and out of sheer goodness. Makes you smile, doesn't it?
But I know better. I was a business student once. I took marketing courses. And I hated them. Blatantly, outright, hated them. The pursuit of money; the spin to make a sale. Evilness I tell you! Evil. It made me cynical and always on the lookout for the catch.
This Coke stunt is just one of those marketing schemes wrapped up in a warm and fuzzy package, tied with a pretty bow. But it's still a marketing scheme, a gimmick, a stunt, pulled off by a large corporation all in the effort to gain customer loyalty. I'm sure they made more than a few lifetime Coke drinkers out of that crowd of college kids - and what'd it cost them? A few hundred bucks worth of pop and food? Well played.
And then there's the part where it's a multi-tiered marketing scheme. There's the original group of people they were marketing to directly - the couple hundred college kids. And then there's the 2 million people who have viewed the video on youtube (a free avenue of advertising which directly reaches their target demographic - bonus for them). And then, who knows how many more times this video has been passed around through MSN, or email or, sadly, even my blog.... (I'm not proud of that - but I trust that if you're smart enough to read my blog, then you're smart enough to be a little bit discerning about the products you purchase). Suddenly, the little college cafeteria stunt which probably cost less than $1000 to pull off has reached literally millions of people with a message that Coke is a fun, spontaneous, and giving company. Bravo Coke, bravo. I bet the Marketer who came up with this one got a big bonus.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Bible Fail
The latest in the line of bible/pop culture crossover fails:
"Apples to Apples - Bible Edition"
Seriously?
Apples to Apples is a decent game. If you've never played, basically, you've got a stack of cards with adjectives on them (those are the ones that describe nouns, right?), and each player has a handful of cards with nouns on them (people, places, things, events). An adjective card is flipped, and each player throws down a noun card out of his/her hand which best fits the adjective. The judge for the round gets to pick the winner (funny or serious, which one fits best) and awards the winner for the round 1 point. For example: the card reads 'smelly', and the players throw in 'feet', 'ape', 'the super bowl', 'Gandi', and 'prunes'. Which do you pick as the winner? Good game. The tag line for the game is 'the game of hilarious comparisons' - which it is; it can get pretty silly.
So why ruin that game with a bible edition? Really?
The example play shown in the ad I saw was this: "amazing" - "Michael the Archangel", "Prince of Peace", Nicholas Copernicus", "Isaac", and a couple others I couldn't read. Wow, can you feel the hilarity? I am so excited to play this game. It might just be the most fun I've had all day* - but I doubt it (I do work in an office punching numbers into a calculator all day after all).
The marketing doorknob who thought up the brilliant scheme to mesh 'Christian' and 'bible' with successful pop culture games should be locked in a room and forced to play these terrible games for weeks at a time. They're not good. They're not fun. And, generally, they just add a whole bunch of awkwardness to the game as players carefully sidestep offending other players. For example... what if in that play above, someone threw in 'Satan' into the mix? Play that with Gramma in the room; someone would have some serious explaining to do! (Unless of course, 'Satan' isn't even a word on any of the cards... which I wouldn't doubt.)
These games are made for one reason - to make some schmuck more money (and possibly to make Christians look like morons who don't know how to have real fun). Please don't ever purchase one of these 'bible' games for me, nor ever ask me to play (unless of course there's alcohol involved... that might help a little bit... maybe, but I doubt it).
*remember? blue = sarcasm
"Apples to Apples - Bible Edition"
Seriously?
Apples to Apples is a decent game. If you've never played, basically, you've got a stack of cards with adjectives on them (those are the ones that describe nouns, right?), and each player has a handful of cards with nouns on them (people, places, things, events). An adjective card is flipped, and each player throws down a noun card out of his/her hand which best fits the adjective. The judge for the round gets to pick the winner (funny or serious, which one fits best) and awards the winner for the round 1 point. For example: the card reads 'smelly', and the players throw in 'feet', 'ape', 'the super bowl', 'Gandi', and 'prunes'. Which do you pick as the winner? Good game. The tag line for the game is 'the game of hilarious comparisons' - which it is; it can get pretty silly.
So why ruin that game with a bible edition? Really?
The example play shown in the ad I saw was this: "amazing" - "Michael the Archangel", "Prince of Peace", Nicholas Copernicus", "Isaac", and a couple others I couldn't read. Wow, can you feel the hilarity? I am so excited to play this game. It might just be the most fun I've had all day* - but I doubt it (I do work in an office punching numbers into a calculator all day after all).
The marketing doorknob who thought up the brilliant scheme to mesh 'Christian' and 'bible' with successful pop culture games should be locked in a room and forced to play these terrible games for weeks at a time. They're not good. They're not fun. And, generally, they just add a whole bunch of awkwardness to the game as players carefully sidestep offending other players. For example... what if in that play above, someone threw in 'Satan' into the mix? Play that with Gramma in the room; someone would have some serious explaining to do! (Unless of course, 'Satan' isn't even a word on any of the cards... which I wouldn't doubt.)
These games are made for one reason - to make some schmuck more money (and possibly to make Christians look like morons who don't know how to have real fun). Please don't ever purchase one of these 'bible' games for me, nor ever ask me to play (unless of course there's alcohol involved... that might help a little bit... maybe, but I doubt it).
*remember? blue = sarcasm
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Tearing it Down
This is the Williamsford Arena:
Built about 60 years ago (my grandfather helped).
Skating, baseball, hockey, curling, dances, weddings, buck & does, garden parties, garage sales, farmers markets.... It's had its fair share of activity.
I've been on the roof (in the wintertime the snow piles up just right for climbing on).
I've climbed to the top of the baseball fence and jumped off the peak (again, in the winter).
I've snuck up to the storage area above the skating rink.
(I know 'snuck' isn't a real word)
I've protested about learning to curl there (and eventually did learn).
I used to buy 24 cents worth of penny candy at the snack bar (because if you buy 25 cents worth, you had to pay GST)
I've had refreshingly cool drinks out of the outdoor water tap after a long ball game in the scorching sun.
I've eaten potluck meals and too much pie; I've shaken the vending machine, quietly asked for my skates to be sharpened, and misplaced my boots in the change rooms.
I even knew where the light switches were.
I say 'knew' because yesterday, it was torn down.
Old and condemned, unsafe for snow load on the roof, it's being torn down to make way for a new building.
The new building won't have change rooms or a skating rink. The new building will only have 2 curling rinks and only room for about 100 people. There won't be room for big dances; the new building won't even have outdoor access to the bathrooms.
But people will still meet there, people will have a good time, and community will happen. Not only that, but everyone directly involved with it seem to be happy with the decision. This change isn't a bad thing, it's just part of life.
Built about 60 years ago (my grandfather helped).
Skating, baseball, hockey, curling, dances, weddings, buck & does, garden parties, garage sales, farmers markets.... It's had its fair share of activity.
I've been on the roof (in the wintertime the snow piles up just right for climbing on).
I've climbed to the top of the baseball fence and jumped off the peak (again, in the winter).
I've snuck up to the storage area above the skating rink.
(I know 'snuck' isn't a real word)
I've protested about learning to curl there (and eventually did learn).
I used to buy 24 cents worth of penny candy at the snack bar (because if you buy 25 cents worth, you had to pay GST)
I've had refreshingly cool drinks out of the outdoor water tap after a long ball game in the scorching sun.
I've eaten potluck meals and too much pie; I've shaken the vending machine, quietly asked for my skates to be sharpened, and misplaced my boots in the change rooms.
I even knew where the light switches were.
I say 'knew' because yesterday, it was torn down.
Old and condemned, unsafe for snow load on the roof, it's being torn down to make way for a new building.
The new building won't have change rooms or a skating rink. The new building will only have 2 curling rinks and only room for about 100 people. There won't be room for big dances; the new building won't even have outdoor access to the bathrooms.
But people will still meet there, people will have a good time, and community will happen. Not only that, but everyone directly involved with it seem to be happy with the decision. This change isn't a bad thing, it's just part of life.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Base Tan
It's perfectly acceptable to sunburn your face on a sunny Easter Sunday, right?
*sigh*
Other than the 'tomato face', great weekend! Lots of family, lots of driving, too much food, and awesome weather!
Woo!
ps... Yes Dave, He IS risen.
*sigh*
Other than the 'tomato face', great weekend! Lots of family, lots of driving, too much food, and awesome weather!
Woo!
ps... Yes Dave, He IS risen.
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