Panda Sneeze

I browsed through a whole lot of videos on College Humor today and this is the only one that made me laugh. It's short and awesome.


The sneeze rocks, but it's Mama Panda's reaction that really cut me up.

Fog Drawing

Sitting in my car, bowl in hand, watching planes land in heavy rains at the airport. Waiting for the next plane, I haphazardly draw a plus sign in the fog of my window with the tip of my pinkie. It ended up looking like a cross instead of a plus so, to cover the error, I tried to draw a pope under it. Instead it turned into a large snouted, four-legged beast wearing a pope hat. I'm terrible at portraits.

Canadians And War

It has come to light that disrespectful humans enjoy travelling to the Canadian War Memorial at Vimy Ridge in order to perform lewd acts, film them, and post them online. It's not the porn that bothers me, it's that people would find it appropriate to do it at a freaking war memorial. It's incredibly insulting to humanity, and we all know it, so I'll let the Canadian security detail work out what they'll do about it on the land that France gave us.

But there's another thought that was sprung after reading the article: the Canadian perspective on war and memorials.

"In 1940 Hitler, responding to allegations in the Canadian media that German forces occupying France had destroyed the memorial, toured the site and posed for photographs.

A veteran of trench warfare in France during the First World War, the infamous Nazi leader insisted that the memorial be protected, even though German soldiers had destroyed other French war memorials.

Vimy, unlike the other memorials, didn't carry a message of French triumph over the Germans.

"It was dedicated to sacrifice, loss of life, and remembrance," University of Ottawa historian Serge Durflinger told Canwest News Service last year. He added that Hitler admired the memorial immensely, and so the Germans respected it as well."

This idea comes up a lot from the Canadian perspective; we honour Remembrance Day (as many other Nations do) as a day to ponder loss and sacrifice, to remember what was being protected and the people who did it, rather than glorify battle or victory. Because there is no victory in war. The American National Anthem sings out proud of "the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air" - we would never boisterously celebrate such things! We pride ourselves for being International Peacekeepers and even print it on our money - along with a verse of Flanders Fields.

I don't have any real point to make here, it's just a thought that passed by my cubicle door and ended up on my screen.

Serious Discussion

I can't believe that I just read an entire article, covering several laws, energy conservation legislation, comments from the World Wildlife Fund and Ontario's Energy Minister that is all about ending a ban on clotheslines.

Yes, clotheslines.

"Peter Love said clothesline bans were passed at a time when priorities were different, and the time has come for people to "have the right to dry their clothes outside.""

For some unknown archaic reason, having clotheslines out to dry laundry is currently illegal in many areas of Ontario. There seems to be entirely too much discussion, consultation, sound and fury, and expounding experts for such a simple and rather unimportant issue. Should we allow clotheslines? Consumer's can save up to $30 a year in energy bills if they hang 25% of their laundry outside! "Before clotheslines can become legal, Phillips said the province is asking for public input over the next two months."!

"The Liberals passed an energy conservation leadership law shortly after their election in 2003 that included a clause allowing the province to abolish local bans on clotheslines imposed by residential associations or developers through sale agreements."

This is serious business!

For frak's sake just change the rules! What is the big deal? It's clotheslines! And now I've wasted my (and your) time with even more discussion on clotheslines. Yeesh.

"The province is asking the public for input on how best to end the clothesline bans through a 60-day posting on Ontario's Environmental Registry."

My suggestion? Just end the ban. Plain and simple. Much like a clothesline.

Letters from Edmonton

I spent the last few days in Alberta's capital for a Multigenerational Workplaces Forum. There was interactive polling with real time manipulation of data, guest speakers weighing in on Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation Xs and Generation Ys in the workforce, recruitment and retention strategies, "Conversation Cafés" to get the brain juices flowing, and a whole lot of moderators.

Here's what I took home from the Forum:

-The Public Service will not be motivated to adjust the status quo by hiring true Gen X and Ys when they can hire people of Gen X/Y age who have Traditionalist and Baby Boomer values and attitudes.

-Edmonton is too cold, flat, and empty.

-And many quotes...


"Before the average was 2.5 children per family. Now it's 1.2 children. A full child and a coupe of legs running around."

"Powerful right? You hear a song, 'Ah yes, I remember that summer...' Or, as many Boomers remind us, 'We don't remember that summer.'"

"People are not like rocks."

"These generations don't respect people in their positions unless it is earned. Just because you exist, it doesn't make you competent."

"It's the 'Bums In The Seats Principle' - if I can't see you, you're not working."

"And this is what we call being professional? All dress in the same suits, don't show too much emotion, don't use too many adjectives..."

"Boomers are about 'Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll', and Xs are about the fear of sex, drugs and rock and roll."

"You can get this free encryption service. Now, this is basic encryption: the CIA can break it, the RCMP can ask the CIA to break it..."

Too Many Idiots

I know I harp on stuff like this a lot, but it's just too disgusting!

At the day job I'm collecting data on the children and youth programs we are running in some communities in British Columbia. One thing we ask for is a list of staff positions on site and their qualifications.

One of these reports has the Early Childhood Educator attempting to tell us that they have two Educators and a Program Coordinator. This person listed them as such:

Program Coordinator

Eductor

Educdtor

And they also failed to list the qualifications. Well, these Educators are clearly not qualified!

Seriously, Eductor and Educdtor?? What the fraking hell is an EDUCDTOR??

South Dakotan Plate

It reads, "A Man & His Toys, Such A Beautifull Sight"

Agree or Disagree? And is the double 'l' at the end of 'beautiful' meant to make it innuendo?

01/09/67

Happy 40th Birthday to Dave Matthews!

Below, some videos to pass the time today. The first two can't be embedded because they are official DMB vids - which means, they rock. Plus, Timmy inexplicably wields a banana.

How Dave met Tim.

Dave + Tim on their early collaborations.



Cornbread at Hollywood Bowl 2007.



Shotgun at Gorge 2006.




So Damn Lucky - Dave Matthews and Trey Anastasio with Orchestra Baobab (In Senegal)




Can't Stop in Phoenix, 2006.

A Conan WGA Strike Vid

His wailing on the Beastie Boys' Sabotage?...oh man, you'll see.

Guess Who?

I have to post this old celebrity blog post on Jessica Biel because the reference to that old phat game is hilarious!

"I don’t know what Jessica Biel is thinking here, but those 99 cent glasses she got at CVS are not working. She looks like a character from the game Guess Who. Does your person have a smoking hot ass? Yes. Yes she does."

For you Canadians, CVS is like an American Shopper's Drug Mart.

Entering The Armpit Of The Year

So we've just come off the Holiday Season where we are forced to spend consecutive hours with people we normally never would (family), TransLink raised transit rates again, our bank accounts are down, our credit card accounts are up, the rain has settled in for the long haul, the avian flu has been transmitted human-to-human, we don't have any statutory holidays until the end of March, and this morning the CanWest News Service tells me that "by 10:33 a.m. today, Canada's top 100 CEOs had already earned the same amount of money that will take the average full-time worker all year to make."

That's just great.