Tim and the Tin Titan

The Evil You Know...

2006-04-05T15:45:00.000-04:00

If recent short-term trends continue, the number of U.S. troops killed as a result of George Bush’s order to invade Iraq will exceed the number of people killed as a result of Osama bin Laden’s order to attack the United States in February 2007.

I think that says it all. While the author says that this is at best a straw man and intended to be partisan, it makes a point.

Proportional

2006-03-30T17:10:00.000-05:00

Interesting fact: according to the CIA's World Factbook entry on the whole world, there are ten times more Atheists than there are Jews. That is a lot more than I would have thought

New Musical Talent

2006-03-16T20:26:00.000-05:00

The reason I know who Jesca Hoop is is because of this comment Tom Waits made:

"Her music is like a four-sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch, or a red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night.”

I liked the mp3 samples so I ordered her demo cd for all of 5$. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[from the Tom Waits For No Man blog]

It's All In How You Look At It

2006-03-15T16:00:00.000-05:00

From the comments in a Metafilter thread discussing the fact that Isaac Hayes has decided to quit South Park after the show made fun of Scientology:

Don't disrespect Scientology | MetaFilter: "Face it. You believe in little green men, you're crazy. You believe in little green men creating the universe, you're religious. There is no line."

For the record, co-creator Matt Stone responded sharply in an interview with The Associated Press Monday, saying, "This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology... He has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians."

Serial Number For Fruit

2006-03-15T15:24:00.000-05:00

A very intersting post from megnut.com about a passage she read in a book:

Read the numbers on your fruit - megnut.com: "[T]he sticker labels on fruit: The numbers tell you how the fruit was grown. Conventionally grown fruit has four digits; organically grown fruit has five and starts with a nine; genetically engineered has five numbers and starts with an eight."

I don't know if this applies in Canada as well. I'll make sure to check next time I'm at the grocery store.

Quote of the day

2006-01-20T11:06:00.000-05:00

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys
on a minor planet of a very average star.
But we can understand the Universe.
That makes us something very special.

Stephen Hawking

Bad Bonhomme!

2006-01-20T09:42:00.000-05:00

The Carnaval de Quebec are having an auction as a fundraiser:

Look familiar?

They use the same "Up and Down" layout, similar fonts (notice how close the "a" is) and just shifted the tints of the colors a bit. It's almost like XPUB, the marketing company that did the site, wanted to copy the eBay logo but modify it just enough so they don't get sued for trademark infringement. That's called lazy design. Oddly, on their list of realizations, the auction site is not listed, only the online store. Could it be that they are ashamed of such a blatant rip-off?

Jarhead

2005-10-31T22:14:00.000-05:00

I finished reading the book this weekend. I had wanted to read it for a while and now I really had to read it before the movie came out. I am really glad I did. While not a masterpiece, it is clearly a well crafted memoir, entertaining and involving. It makes you see the glory, absurdity, ferocity and boredom of war. I am really curious to see how this will be translated to film. The director is the same as American Beauty, a movie I really like for the way it took a different look at the "ordinary" lives of people all around us. This will probably a bit of the same but cast in a military light. And if they stay true to the character of the book, Jake Gyllenhaal (who I first saw in Donnie Darko) will be a great fit for the role. And I really do hope they stay close to the original spirit. It is not an activist's book, not an "agenda" book, it's one person's war, internal and external.

Anthony Swofford is a grunt, a jarhead, who reads the Iliad and The Stranger while his comrades play poker or peruse smut mags. He doubts the validity of his involvement the Marines, defending not countries but oil companies. While he may not be a typical marine, he is one who has the background to tell a story in a compelling manner. He closes with memoirs with an extract from and Ezra Pound Canto:

Some wars are unavoidable and need well be fought but this doesn't erase warfare's waste. Sorry, we must say to the mothers whose sons will die horribly. This will never end. Sorry.

That should give you a feel for the tone of the book. Now please don't screw-up the movie version.

Toot Your Own Horn

2005-10-31T22:07:00.000-05:00

I wish the horn on my car had two settings:

First setting, a little toot that says:
"Excuse me kind sir, I would like to bring to your attention the fact that traffic signaling device has changed state. While I have no desire to precipitate your departure, I would like to proceed with my journey as expediently as possible. I thank you for your promt reaction in this matter."

Second setting, a fog horn that screams:
"HOLY CRAP WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

That should cover most situations...

The Other Mike

2005-10-24T09:46:00.000-04:00

On Metafilter, While discussing a tile floor that Michelangelo did that was covered up and just recently rediscovered:

Looks awfully mosque like... Was Michelangelo a Muslim?
posted by Balisong at 11:26 PM PST on October 23

No, he was a turtle that used nunchukas.
posted by chasing at 4:14 AM PST on October 24

The Future Of Music

2005-10-04T19:18:00.000-04:00

Two things this week in music news, both diametrically opposed

First, one person sued by the RIAA is finally standing up to them. In this article, they detail how the RIAA operates. What they do is sue "John Does" as a list of IP addresses. They use the court procedure to gather personal information on persons behind the IP addresses. Once the lawyers have the information, they pass it on to the company's representative.

The record companies provide the personal information to Settlement Support Center, which engages in prohibited and deceptive debt collection activities and other illegal conduct to extract money from the people allegedly identified from the secret lawsuits. Most of the people subjected to these secret suits do not learn that they have been sued until demand is made for payment by the record companies' lawyers or Settlement Support Center. Basically they are using the legal system to blackmail and intimidate people to make payments that they do not legally have to make.

This bullying cannot possibly legal. Now there just need to be one district attorney brave enough to bring charges.

Second, the band Harvey Danger just released their new album "Little By Little" for free and without DRM. It's available for download and on BitTorrent. Their reasons for doing this can be read here. And you know what? The album is damn good, not all hits but a solid album.

That may not seem like much, but after you read Courtney Love's "Artist Rights And Record Companies" comment, you understand that if an artists has negotiated a great contract, they may make one dollar for each CD they sell. If they get a bad one, they may only get 25 cents. Imagine a band with 5 members having to split a quarter for every album. Also, most of the time, a band has to borrow money from the record company to be able to record their album traditional way. Once they pay a producer, a recording engineer and a studio for a year, they can be in debt for a quarter to a half million dollars to the record companies. Even if they have a best selling record, they can still be in debt once it's done. They then have to go on tour just to be able to pay off their old debt. If the tour is not completely successful, they then again have to borrow from the record company to be able to record their second album and the cycle continues.

So if I give Harvey Danger 5$ (which I did) for their latest album, not only do they get between 5 and 20 times more money in their pockets but this distribution method costs them almost nothing. They can also now make their albums on home computer mixed on pro-sumer software like PRO Tools. They are cutting out the middle man by doing it themselves. They may not sell as many records because they do not have the huge publicity machine of the record companies behind them but then again, they don
So is this the future of music? The RIAA so pissing off artists and customers that they jump ship en masse and artists completely bypassing the traditionnal system. If the future of music sounds more like Harvey Danger and less like blackmail, I'm all for it.

A Thousand Pictures Is Worth How Many Words?

2005-09-19T13:07:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I'm on a music video kick. Here is another original one. It's by Sia (full name: Sia Fuller), a ex-member of Zero7, from Australia.

She once told her friend Daniel Askill that the only visual medium she ever looked good in was Polaroid pictures, so that is what they made the video out of.

Have a look here. Check out the fade in on the opening shot.

I had never heard her music before, this song reminds me favorably of Tori Amos.

An Original Creation

2005-09-19T12:50:00.000-04:00

This is the story of how two cartoonists, Raina and Dave, met, fell in love and finally, how they got engaged.

And of course, being cartoonists, the story is a comic.

Very cute.

Feel The Beat

2005-09-15T16:01:00.000-04:00

Most music videos don't do much for me. They often times take themselves too seriously or try to me too cool. The hip-hop videos are especially bad at this. Most of the time I need something original or at least artistic to catch my attention. It also doesn't hurt when the song is actually good. Money or a famous director does not make a good video.

This is why it's so refreshing to see that the band OK Go have made what is probably the best video in recent years, A Million Ways. Here is a link to the 16 megs .mov. Smaller size and other codecs can be found on their site.

Apparently it's all amateur: one camera, their own backyard, their own clothes, choreographed by the lead singer's sister, that's all.

All you got to do is feel the beat.

New Expressions

2005-09-12T12:54:00.000-04:00

Two new expressions, at least for me:

Sub-porno: Acting so bad that it makes porn actors/actresses look like they are delivering Oscar worthy performances during dialogue scenes. Said of this movie by my friend Francis.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: A camouflaged way of saying WTF.

Them

2005-09-12T09:36:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading Jon Ronson's book, Them. In it he talks with all different kinds of extremists, from Muslim hardliners to the "new" KKK.

One person in the story is David Icke. Icke believes that twelve foot tall, blood drinking, shapeshifting lizards secretly control the world and particularly the WTO. The fact that he seems to gather more supporters against the WTO than those who use "ordinary" arguments to justify their opposition to the WTO is very irritating and alarming for the long time activists.

One "regular" anti-WTO activist, Michael, says:

"He can discredit the whole movement," said Michael. "I can see the WTO saying, 'If you oppose us you're just scared of some lizard conspiracy' and that's the most scary thing to me"

The author goes on to say:

I think that in David Icke, Michael was seeing an omen of the blackest kind. He was seeing the future of thought itself: a time when irrational thought would sweep the land, much as racism had done the previous century when Washington, D.C. was a blaze of white, the white of a million Ku Klux Klansmen marching past a Klan-friendly White House and a Klan-friendly Capitol Hill.

While this is not something that will happen tomorrow, I think it is something to be aware of and to guard against. I guess the point here is that the reasoning and the methods should count as much as the results.

Disposable Tax

2005-08-29T14:38:00.000-04:00

I get a bit pissed off at all these new breeds of disposables replacing non-disposable options. There have been disposable razors for a long while but we are now treated to disposable cutting board, disposable toilet brushes and disposable bathtub scrubbers.

I just think it's wrong to introduce yet another item to fill up our landfills while another option exists. I understand that for the companies, it makes financial sense: If the sell you a cutting board, they make 7.99$ once every 5 years. If they sell you a pack of 20 disposable cutting boards, they make 4.99$ every month.

I suggest a "Disposable Tax". If you want to introduce an item on the market that is a disposable alternative to a permanent item and does not offer an advantage other than "you can toss it instead of cleaning it", you should have to pay a "Disposable Tax" or "Landfill Tax".

So if 3M of Johnson&Johnson want to make a disposable toilet seat or whatever, they can. But 10% of their sales have to go to recycling programs or other similar causes. It would make them think twice about it and maybe make the venture not financially viable.

But that is why I could never be in charge, I would piss off too many corporations.

Signs Your Pants May Be Too Low

2005-08-29T13:11:00.000-04:00

I concede that MODERATELY low waist pants can be attractive but here is how to tell when they are too low:

When you are sitting on a stool and your pants are so low that I can not only see more than two inches of your ass crack but I can almost completely see the birth control patch you stick on your butt, then they are way too low.

Just a friendly tip.

XtremeZ

2005-08-29T13:02:00.000-04:00

Taking a walk in a provincial park, we see some signs for areas that are closed for "Restoration". We then spot one area that is close for "Extreme Restoration".

I just had an image of a park warden trying to do his job ridding a flaming skateboard and juggling chainsaws.

Not So Random

2005-08-04T12:05:00.000-04:00

I recently loaded my complete mp3 collection in one WinAmp playlist, all 5000+ songs, and set it on random.

Sometimes, I think the random engine has a mind of it's own. For example: after it plays Nirvana's Lithium, the next track is Hole's Celebrity Skin. Or it plays a Fifty Cent song twice in 15 minutes (it's on two mix cds, so twice in the playlist).

I'd like to think there is a little sprite named Gary that is responsible for picking songs for me and that he has his own preferences and biases.

Or, you know, it could just be coincidence.

To Wish Ill Onto Others

2005-07-26T13:47:00.000-04:00

I have been having a problem for a couple of weeks. I am getting tons of email bounces because some asshat has decided to use my email address as the forged "From:" of his spam operation. After some investigation, I found that the spams originate from China, advertise a site hosted in Taiwan and are mainly directed at Russian users. No contact info for the hosting, no response to abuse emails. Try to get anyone to do anything about this jurisdiction mess.

When I heard that a Russian kingpin of spam was savagely beaten to death earlier this week, I wondered if it was my guy. Sadly no, the bounces keep on coming. Gives new meaning to "Spam Assassin".

Lance... A Lot

2005-07-26T10:56:00.000-04:00

I am a great fan of Lance Armstrong's, but I was a bit worried when the rumors that he was contemplating politics began to appear. I was wondering what kind of a politician he would be, coming from conservative Texas and knowing the Bush family (To be fair, he also know John Kerry and Kerry was in Paris for the win on Sunday).

But look like my fear are unfounded: Not only is Armstrong against the Iraq war, he is an atheist [as pointed out, technically he would be an agnostic since he does not explicitly say he does not believe in god. I have ordered the book, final judgement to come...]

He can be president any day as far as I'm concerned. He certainly can't do a worse job that those in power now and if Arnold can be a governor, he can surely pull it off.

He actually laughs away the suggestions that he would run for governor (but does not deny them), saying he now wants to concentrate on his foundation to help find cures for cancer.

The More You Fight Technology...

2005-07-20T13:32:00.000-04:00

... The more it comes to bite you in the ass.

The latest Harry Potter was scanned and proof-read less than 12 hours after it was released. Looks like plenty of users split up the book among themselves, fired up their OCR and assembled the whole thing.

This is after the author categorically refused to release a digital version for fears of piracy. Considering she personally made something like 36 million dollars in one day, I'm not crying for her.
MobileRead Networks - Harry Potter 6 e-book already being pirated!

It's The Little Things

2005-07-15T15:38:00.000-04:00

Biking in to work today, I came to an overpass that, at it's top, runs parallel to the commuter rail line.

I got to there just as a train was passing by, heading in the same direction. As I looked up, I saw a woman with a dull look on her face, the standard blank commuter stare. She was looking down in my direction so I waved at her. Her face brightened and she flashed me a HUGE smile. I smiled back. The train pulled ahead and I lost sight of her.

That made my day, I hope it made hers.

TDF Madness

2005-07-11T09:43:00.000-04:00

Yeah I'm a Tour de France Maniac these days. It's been the usual stuff for the first week but this weekend was great.

First on Saturday we had a great solo effort by Weening of Rabobank on the final brutal climb and an exciting finale which gave us this extraordinary photo-finish between Weening and Kloden.

Then yesterday, we had Rasmussen, also from Rabobank leave the peloton at the 4km mark and ride by himself all the way to the finish line throught a stage that contained many climbs. I guess it's no surprise that Rasmussen is a one-time world mountain bike champion, he's that good on the solo climbs.

Yesterday was also about Armstrong loosing the yellow jersey and 2 and a half minutes on the CG yet the team seems to be saying it was planned. It's shaping up to be a good one.

Zombies!

2005-07-07T13:40:00.000-04:00

Local hipsters decide to put the smackdown on LARPers in my hometown by dressing up as zombies and crashing the party:
the scourge :: Hipster zombies versus knights of the nerd table!!!

Another Great Google Hack

2005-07-07T13:27:00.000-04:00

Now this one does not come from Google itself but rather form people doing great things with the GoogleMaps API.

GMap Pedometer.

Just double click on the map to put down a point and it will calculate the distance between those two points. Keep on putting down point and it will keep a running count. Great for planning bike or running routes.

Another Review Of Something That Does Not Exist

2005-06-30T09:59:00.000-04:00

There are a thousand and one people on the Global Frequency.

A worldwide independent defense intelligence organization with a thousand and one agents, all over the world. Anyone you know might be with them. It's the world's little open secret.

Global Frequency is series of graphic novels, I have read some and it's pretty good stuff with a very interesting premise. Recently, someone made a pilot TV show out of it for Warner Brothers. WB passed on it. And reminiscent of the Fiona Apple album, it was leaked to the internet and is now all over in BitTorrent.

People are talking about it on Metafilter and Wired, just to name a few. Most agree that it's a great show, a mix of the X-files with Alias, but is not in the identical, safe formula as most of the crap on TV these days. Warner Brothers, instead of seeing this as a loyal fan base that could spread the word for a new show, is seeking to prosecute and punish those who distribute it. They just don't get it...

Get your hands on it if you can, worth the download.

Raz doing his thing

2005-06-30T09:55:00.000-04:00

A funny quote:

Also, asside from the monkey fucking, am I missing something?

posted by delmoi on Metafilter in reference from this picture.

Notice that this is a .mil site, an official gallery of the United States Army 3rd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, Charlie Battery, Afghan Theatre.

2005-06-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

Yeah, Another One
Another quote. What can I say, most of the good stuff i read these days are comments from select sites:

The different services have varying approaches to securing things.

If the Marines are ordered to secure a building, they blow in the doors, go room to room and kill everybody inside.

If the Army is ordered to secure a building, they build a wall of sandbags around it and hunker down to wait.

If the Air Force is ordered to secure a building, they call up their real estate broker and get a 99-year lease on it.

from warbaby on Metafilter

2005-06-14T14:20:00.000-04:00

Quotes
Today seems to be particularly ripe for funny quotes:

My friends and I always spend long car trips either debating things like five-hundred-dachsunds-vs-a-tiger or trying to outdo each other with heinous choices ("would you rather have to take all of your nourishment for a month by suckling from a miraculously-lactating Andy Rooney, or appear as the anonymous third star in a 3-hour pornographic epic starring Whoopi Goldberg and Randy Quaid?").

From Ask.Metafilter.com

Anything goes in the world of Ipods. I carried my Ipod around in the stomach of a comatose possum for a week and I was the coolest kid on campus.

From Gizmodo

2005-06-10T11:31:00.000-04:00

Quote of the day
Timoneira: hey sorry there was a phone call...
Tin Titan: no problem
Timoneira: then i got distracted and took a shower :)

2005-05-06T15:10:00.000-04:00

(Un)Bonus
Getting a very nice 2005 calendar filled with great pictures from your magazine subscription: Great.

Getting it in May: Sucks.

2005-04-22T17:31:00.000-04:00

Overheard
Two girls bombing down St-Cat on old ten speeders:
Girl1: "We could get ice cream as an appetizer"
Girl2: "Where?"

2005-04-11T15:03:00.000-04:00

The Rise Of Taliban America?
It was reading about the The Constitution Restoration Act from ZNet . Full text here. This is some scary stuff, it basically wants to ensure that divine right will have precedence over any legal, democratic process.

One example given is that, were this bill is passed, a god-fearing public servant could mandate chrisitan prayers in his department and no one would have any legal recourse to fight it because he is "acknowledg[ing] God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government".

They also want all previous laws and supreme court decisions pertaining to this subject matter rendered non-binding at the state level, basically annulling them.

It also has provisions for removing judges who would dare to hear such future cases.

I am just a baffled as the author about the complete lack of coverage for this in the mainstream media. Words needs to get out about this. The most scary thing is that it actually has a chance of passing in the House and Senate.

As the article headlines:
Say Hello To Taliban America

2005-04-11T13:34:00.000-04:00

Follow the Leader
During a break on a road trip this weekend, I saw a 50ish Caucasian couple getting a minivan with Ontario plates. The bumper sticker on the back read:

Jah is my co-pilot

I wish I could have gotten a picture before they pulled away...

2005-04-11T13:08:00.000-04:00

Subway Scoop
I went to get my usual Subway fix for lunch. I hand over a card full of stamps to the manger/owner. I know him well enough and we often make small talk. As he take it, he says to me:

"If you have any more of these, better use them before the end of the month"

Apparently, there are so many fake, counterfeit or stolen stamps being sold on the internet that it is causing enough losses that they will be phasing out the program. I am actually not too surprised if a bit disappointed. Subways says that they are the second largest restaurant chain after McDonald's. If that is so, then it is not surprising that someone would find a way to profit from a reward program with so few security measures in place. It was quaint and had a nice local feel to it. You were not logging onto the website to check your points or swiping a card to get skymiles. They just handed you a coloured stamp you licked to put on a card. It reminded me of something your neighborhood ice cream parlour or pizza joint would do.

I am curious to see what actually happens. Maybe they will replace the system with cards, like Timonera suggested.

2005-04-05T15:01:00.000-04:00

Reviewing Something That Does Not Exist
Fiona Apple's "latest" album was leaked on the internet a while ago and it's good. You can get your copy from Bleeding Is Believing (click on the album art to download a .zip of the whole thing). I was surprized to see it in the NTY. They gave it a good review but it's this quote that was of particular interest:

The New York Times > Bootleg Review: The Lost Apple :

Had it been released, "Extraordinary Machine" would have been a fine counterbalance to a pop moment full of monolithic, self-righteous sincerity. As it stands, mysteriously leaked and proliferating, the album is an object lesson in how an Internet that's not controlled by copyright holders can set artistic expression free.

Use BugMeNot.com to get a login for the NYT site.

This reminded me of when Entertainment Weekly named the Grey Album Best Album of 2004.

2005-03-31T16:29:00.000-05:00

Pop Wisdom And Logic
Moby's opinion on the debate:

My note to the far-right would be: you can’t have it both ways. If you genuinely believe in the sanctity of life then you cannot support the death penalty and you cannot allow people to buy automatic assault weapons and you cannot support wars that result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. And if you genuinely believe in states rights then you can’t pass intrusive federal legislation when the states do things that you arbitrarily disagree with.

And on a funnier note, Gawker's take on the whole debate:

If god existed, would she make Vin Diesel a star? No she would not. Case closed.

2005-03-31T15:40:00.000-05:00

It's All In The Angle Of The Story
From a discussion on Plastic on the possible ban of .50 caliber rifles, someone points out that a shotgun can fire a slug of roughly the same weight as a .50 bullet.

Here is one humorous reply:

I think this whole discussion is a classic tempest/teapot scenario, but given your knowledge of the subject I think you're being a little disingenuous in suggesting that the weight of the slug makes a 12-gauge shotgun comparable to a rifle firing a .50BMG round. There is some difference in muzzle velocity, is there not? And a corresponding difference in the energy of the round? And consequently of effective range?

I'm by no means an authority on firearms or their use, but I would suspect that the best way to kill someone with a shotgun from 1500 meters away would be to convert the range entirely into the vertical axis and drop the weapon on his or her head.

2005-03-31T11:20:00.000-05:00

Just One Thing To Say...
About yesterday's episode of LOST:

Someone installed a Clapper inside the hatch!

2005-03-29T15:17:00.000-05:00

Path Of The Pedal
I have often wondered what It would be like to ditch the cube for a bike courier job. This guy: A Coder in Courierland, actually did it.

The story is very interesting, detailing what is involved in the courier life. Interesting bits like what they deliver (most often legal paper but occasional odd things like film reels and bags of blood), nicknames for pedestrians (Flesh Pylons) and what they ride (everything from fancy dual-suspension rigs to 30 year old fixed gear bikes).

Not something to try while paying a mortgage but it still makes me dream. Although in my dreams it's never -20, so I guess I need to move to San Francisco.

2005-03-16T21:50:00.000-05:00

One Made Up Story Fighting Another
So the vatican is denouncing the NOVEL "The Devinci Code". My mother told me they put it on "The Index", I had no idea what she was talking about. Once I looked into it and found out that they want to put this book on the same list as philosophers like Locke, Kant, Rousseau and authors like Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Balzac, it just seems to put Dan Brown on a whole other level. This is not a dig at Mr. Brown's work (I devoured this book as well as Angels and Demons) but I just can't place him in the same category as those authors. Like my friend dante said, this just seems to give more legitimacy to the book than if they had just ignored it.

2005-03-11T14:58:00.000-05:00

Techno Lust
Oh! I think I just had a little techno orgasm...

I may be behind the times for some but this combo is new to me:
- Take digital pictures
- Import pictures into Picasa
- From within Picasa, email the pictures using GMail to your Flickr upload-by-email address
- Setup Flickr to automatically post your picture to you Blogger account (also works with TypePad, LiveJournal, Movable Type and many other).

That is some great inter-connectivity between some of my most favorite applications. This is what the Internet/Technology is about, allowing you to do great things like this. Yeah, I know I am blowing this out of proportion but it's just very cool.

Long Exposure Fun

2005-03-11T14:14:00.000-05:00

134_3420-1
Originally uploaded by emineau.

5 second exposure, looking west from downtown Montreal

2005-03-11T09:55:00.000-05:00

Sureal Moment of the Day
A consultant that brings in pictures of his wife and kids to put on his desk on the second day of a two month contract: a tiny bit unusual

A consultant that logs into an online dating website (ReseauContact): unexpected but still ordinary

That they are both the same person: Weird

2005-03-10T10:21:00.000-05:00

Wierdest Spam Ever

Subject: Gouranga
Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ....
That which brings the highest happiness!!

Sounds like Engrish to me.

But apparently it's Hare Krishnas: UrbanDictionary.com, fourth definition. More info on this site: "Gouranga" spam - who's behind it and what it's about. It seems it can be blocked easily as it is coming from one address.

2005-03-09T16:31:00.000-05:00

Homebrew Lasertag
Having played a lot of LaserQuest, this project was very impressive to me:
MilesTag - DIY Laser Tag System. From the electronics diagrams to the syntax of the IR transmissions, all home made. It has many possibilities that surpass most of the commercial systems available. Watch for the Trogdornator gun.

2005-03-09T15:52:00.000-05:00

Observations From The Passport Office
- It opens at 7:30 am, really early for a federal service
- I though I would be smart and and show up just at opening time. I showed up at 7:36, I was 50th in line
- The office is on the eight floor of the building, they make everyone cute down stairs and then make people go up in groups that fit in the elevators after giving them a ticket to make sure they get back in line in the same order after you get off the elevator
- They have two people who make sure your application is complete with all the paperwork needed before they make you go into the waiting room. Once they have checked your application is complete, they give you a numbered ticket.
- The passports are no longer made locally. They are all issued and mailed out of Ottawa to your home, unless you pay extra for the rush version where you can come pick it up in at the office
- Total time from queue up to exit: 50 minutes. Considering the amount of people, I found this system highly efficient. Bravo

2005-03-09T11:40:00.000-05:00

Plastic: Boeing, Boeing, Gone - CEO Ousted For Workplace Affair: From the comments:

personally, if I was owner of a business I would positively encourage affairs amongst my workers.
Gives them an incentive to drag their arse in every day, and there is no better team building exercise than regular sexual intercourse. - by chatsubo

2005-02-18T11:45:00.000-05:00

Conservative commentary As Comedy
You know, I should really push for CCAC (Conservative commentary As Comedy) to become a standard expression. It would be used anytime a super-far right wing commentator makes a statement so grossly exaggerated or all encompassing that it become funny.

As my first exhibit, I would like to present: More Aircraft Laser Incidents Pinned on Gay Club-Goers

Homosexuals, terrorists, or both? [...] Fans of the pocket searchlights are also quick to draw a distinction between red lasers, typically used by teachers in a classroom lecture setting, and the green lasers used by homosexuals and terrorists.

Green laser are only used by homosexuals and terrorists? Really? Somebody better tell ThinkGeek! I just had to laugh at that generalization. If that were true, imagine the following scene at an airport check-in:
TSA Agent: "Sir, we found this GREEN laser pointer in your bag, is it your?"
Traveler: "Yes it is"
TSAA: "Are you gay sir?"
T: "Hum, no?"
TSAA: "GET HIM, HE'S A TERRORIST!"
Bah, just so over the top you have to laugh.

2005-02-18T11:39:00.000-05:00

How Can Playing Records Be Regarded As An Art Form?
A new great mix from The Outlaws called Too Many Fools Following Too Many Rules is available for stream or download from their site. It is a bit more approachable and more pop oriented than most hip-hop accented mash-up mixes. It's got a great beat and I particularly like the second track, Chemical Donor. Check it out.

2005-02-18T11:32:00.000-05:00

The Art Of The Review
This mock review of the new restaurant Masa in New York (Lunch or dinner for two can easily exceed $1,000) called Your Table Is Ready by John Kenney is pretty funny. The writter tries to imagine what goes on in a restaurant so exclusive:

Unfortunately, we were running late. This worried me. I had been trying to get a reservation at Masa since 1987, seventeen years before it opened, as I knew that one of the prerequisites of dining there was a knowledge of the future. I also knew of the restaurant’s strict “on-time” policy. Babette and I arrived exactly one minute and twenty-four seconds late. We know this because of the Swiss Atomic clock that diners see upon arrival at Masa.
...
Thirty-five minutes later, we met our wait staff: nine people, including two Buddhist monks, whose job it is to supervise your meal, realign your chakras, and, if you wish, teach you to play the oboe. Introductions and small talk—as translated by Aki (which, we later learned, means “Autumn”)—lasted twenty minutes. I was then slapped again, though I’m not sure why.

2005-02-15T16:37:00.000-05:00

What Am I Forgetting?
A hilarious post about that special time when we completely forget the obvious until it become painfully clear to us:
That "oh-shit!" moment

You've seen it in the movies; that precise moment when the protagonist comes to a startling discovery, and the camera starts zooming in on said character, a stunned look on his/her face, as the background seems to fall farther into the distance and the score erupts in a crescendo of doom. Well, I shall describe exactly what that feels like in real life.

2005-02-15T16:35:00.000-05:00

Anti-Social Medicine
I knew that healthcare was expensive in the US but this is ridiculous:
Half of Bankruptcy Due to Medical Bills

2005-02-15T16:28:00.000-05:00

Two More Craiglist writing Gems

From a very disgusting story about anal sex gone wrong:

Thinking she was close to orgasm, I pumped that ass even faster, faster than Amish meth-head churns butter.

From a story about Christmas presents:

5. One of my female co-workers gave me a Jan. Playboy with a packet of Nuveen hand Cream taped to it. I was going to get her a sexual harassment suit...but then I realized my Christmas gift to her was a box containing a Gift Certificate to Victoria's secret, a Disposable Camera, and a Stamped Envelope addressed to me.

2005-02-15T16:12:00.000-05:00

Patriot Act
A picture of an excellent poster in NYC during the campaign.
[Kerry in vietnam gear = Patriot, Bush in flightdeck photo-op gear = Patriot Act]

2005-02-15T16:10:00.001-05:00

Dirty Music
ComfortStand.com has release an MP3 album called
Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka, Porn Music For The Masses Volume 1. Not all the songs are good but I particularly enjoy "The Love God" by Mantinibomb. I took Mr.Juno's "Hate Sex" out of the playlist. The mix is very eclectic but worth the download.

2005-02-07T16:48:00.000-05:00

Stolen Sounds
The Kelptones have a new "Bonus Winter Collection" out: From Detroit to J.A.

Get it here, courtesy or Waxy.org

Comments coming soon.

2005-02-07T16:45:00.000-05:00

Silver ladle
A great quote about the smugness of Bush when he gets applause at speeches, taken from the Yeti:

Or, as Jim Hightower succinctly put it, "He is a man who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple."

2005-02-07T16:40:00.000-05:00

Hey There, Cowboy
Rustlin' up Respect with J.Upton Dogwalker:

Sexual harassment in the workplace can sneak up on you like a Commanche in a creek bed! How do you know if you're harassin' someone? How do you know if you're gittin' harassed? Have a gander at this here instructional video to find out.

A hilarious spoof of sexual harassment training films. It was made as part of the National Film Challenge, which required the inclusions: Genre - Western, Line of Dialogue - "You caught me at a bad time.", Character - J. Upton, Dogwalker, Prop - Map.

2005-02-07T16:31:00.000-05:00

Another Nice Video
Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar by Michel Gondry. Details:

"The video describes a journey as seen from a train window, only the disposition of each passing element in the landscape is positioned exactly in sync with the music.
"Every sound from the track will be illustrated by an element of the landscape that appears each time that sound is heard. As the song becomes more elaborate, we will create a more and more complex landscape."

Very well made and a true work of patience and minutiae

2005-02-07T15:17:00.000-05:00

Stop! Thief!
The Neistat Brothers often make small quirky movies, including the iPod's Dirty Secret video that some credit with making Apple modify their battery replacement policy.

Their latest one is about bike theft in NYC (but is really applicable anywhere). They locked up their bikes in public places then proceed to steal them using bolt cutters, a saw, a hammer and chisel and even a angle grinder (complete with eye, ear and hand protection).It is really incredible to watch how easy it is to steal a bike and no one will interfere with you while you are doing it. The only person who intervenes actually gives them advice on how to do it better. There is also a police van that drive right by while they are in action. Watch it then think about how secure it is when you lock up.

To help you along, some tips on how to properly lock up your bike.

Also, I had Kryptonite locks that were affected by the bic pen exploit and were recalled. I am happy to report that the company has made good on their promise and I received 2 new locks last week. Gotta love a company that stands behind it's product even when there is a problem. Might have cost them a lot, but they bought my loyalty.

2005-02-02T11:39:00.000-05:00

DnD Through And Through
Mail form dante:

Perhaps the weirdest way to make clear you're a hard core gamer:
"Motherfucker, my balls have twenty sides."

Origianlly from Penny-Arcade

2005-02-02T09:05:00.000-05:00

All Buffy, All The Time
I posted a entry in the reference section of Toolwerks about someone that has compiled a complete Buffy The Vampire Slayer Database called Buffyology. It has: "Every Buffy character, episode, cast member, writer and director and every word of every show, in a searchable database".

Amazing work of dedication and patience.

2005-02-01T16:51:00.000-05:00

Telephonic Plague
A small village in Louisiana gets telephone service for the first time ever earlier this week.

"It wasn't 15 minutes after that phone was in before a telemarketer called me," Edwards said. "But that wasn't really a problem. I just told him I wasn't interested and hung up."

One thing that I particularly appreciate since I switched to VOIP service (from primus.ca) is that I have not received a single telemarketing call in 4 months. I'm sure this is mostly due to the fact that my new phone number is in a range that resembles cellular phones, but it is a nice, if unintended, side-effect.

2005-02-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

Great Videos
I recently came across two great videos:

YE-YE - Eurostar.mov (.mov, 11.6megs) by Gabriel Malaprade at Bikini Films. I don't know much about this one as both the band and director are unknown to me but it's a great concept, kind of a reverse job swap... Funny too.

Markus Nokolai - Bushes(Norman Cook remix) (.mov, 6.5megs) by Matt Kirkby. Very simple: the song is called "Bushes", he makes a video of women removing their bush, by going Brazilian. No nudity, although the audio may not be safe for work (screaming and swearing). Norman Cook is an AKA for Fatboy Slim. Vice magazine recently had an article about how he is shaking up the UK with him pranks. What he has to say about this video:

As soon as I heard the title "Bushes", I faxed off the concept. We called in the official Guinness nurse and got about 400 girls in to get it done. It was so perfect because Markus Nicolai's original track and Fatboy Slim's remix had that typical house thing going where it builds to a climax, so I designed the video around that. You get all the tension of the girls lying down, and most of them had never been waxed. Then as the track breaks, all hell tears loose.

Both are worth talking a look.

2005-01-31T14:59:00.000-05:00

High School Confidential
I guess I probably had a rather sheltered time in high school and was not very wild at all. But reading this Metafilter thread about someone mapping the relationships in a student body of 1000 at a high school. Take a look at the graph: That is one huge circle. I mean, I always knew that there was the "Popular" crowd and they mostly stayed within themselves but still...

Also here are some interesting bits:
- I can find two same sex couples (male in upper right of the main group, female in the center of the upper middle group).
Timonera sights a third (male in the lower left of the main group, on the circle)
- There seems to be no circles, indicating that switching couple is not done.
- Male with most direct links: 9
- Female with most direct links: 6

Interesting stuff. It also makes you see how things like the 1996 Syphilis outbreak in Rockdale County can happen. PBS did a great documentary on this called The Lost Children of Rockdale County. They even had a graph (done by the CDC, no less), but did it did not distinguish between male and female.

2005-01-25T16:54:00.000-05:00

Feel The Rhythm
dante and I are talking about tastes for music. I am a crazy about it, he doesn't care much for it. About whether his parents had music aroudn the house:

I have a few vague memories of my mom playing classical music when I was a kid. That and showtunes from Cats. And some Kenny Rogers... Come to think of it maybe it explains my lack of interest in music. :)

Awesome reply.

2005-01-25T15:35:00.000-05:00

Looking Where The Light Is Good

This post by Jacob is a great take on the strategies used by the MPAA:

[F]irst, I'm going to tell you a joke.
Late one night, a drunk guy is crawling around under a lamppost. A cop comes up and asks him what he's doing.

"I'm looking for my keys," the drunk says. "I lost them about three blocks away."

"So why aren't you looking for them where you dropped them?" the cop asks.

The drunk looks at the cop, amazed that he'd ask so obvious a question. "Because the light is better here."

...

So why do the studios do it? Why do they hassle voters, piss off filmmakers, and risk losing awards (and the financial rewards thereof), just to prevent piracy in a group that isn't likely to pirate in the first place? It's because breaking international piracy rings is hard, and stopping individuals from swapping MPEG files on the Internet is impossible. But hassling people who love movies--be we awards show voters or just ordinary moviegoers--is easy, because they know where to find us. In short, the studios are looking for their keys where the light is best, even if it's miles away from where they dropped them.

2005-01-25T15:10:00.000-05:00

A Great Idea
You take a camera, tape it to a cardboard sheet with instructions asking postal employees to take pictures along the way, you get this (from verba.chromogenic.net).

Pretty amazing. Here are two more examples:
Kyle Van Horn
p22.com

And a DIY page:
Camera Mail Tips

2005-01-25T15:02:00.000-05:00

Ocean Men, Part II
After some light digging on IMDB.com, I found out that the distribution company for Ocean Men is nWave Pictures. I decided to try my luck and email one of the contacts. I got a very helpful yet response from Antonietta Pennella:

No, unfortunately I do not foresee OCEANMEN being released on DVD. We did
not produce the film, we are only the distributor of the film to large
format theaters and we do not have the rights to put the film onto DVD. The
producers of the film, never released it onto DVD and I don't think ever
will.

Sorry, I wish I could be of more assistance.

So if you were looking for the Ocean Men DVD as I was, here is your definitive answer: It does not exist and likely never will. Sad but at least I have an answer.

2005-01-25T15:00:00.000-05:00

I Want It To Be Real
Even if it is not real, this essay is awesome. The kind of thing you wish you had the guts to write in school.

2005-01-24T10:47:00.000-05:00

New And Improved
Scenario: Watching television, a commercial for a new, softer brand of toilet paper comes on.
Her: Do you think it makes a big difference?
Me: Don't know, I guess it could, I'd have to try it..
Her: It's what we've been using for a month
Me: Oh, then, no.

2005-01-14T11:54:00.000-05:00

Who you calling a Twat?
Alteration of an Atwater metro station sign:

2005-01-14T11:52:00.000-05:00

S l o w
Taken when we had been almost completely stopped in traffic for 45 minutes during a snow/ice storm:

2005-01-14T11:49:00.000-05:00

Honesty?
Does the food at KFC make you fat? Well, if the pictogram depicting an employee bringing you food to your car is any indication...

2005-01-14T11:43:00.000-05:00

Ski or Sex
What is it with the ski hill advertisement and sexual innuendos? In my last serie of pictures, I had one from a ski hill suggesting a foursome.

In this one, it's the double whammy of a threesome and a sixty-nine.

("Trip à trois" is slang for a threesome in French)

2005-01-14T11:40:00.000-05:00

Pranks revisited
As I said before, my office is fond of pranks. Here is one of the latest one I help pull off.

Yup, we planted clover in my boss' keyboard...

Don't worry, we got him a brand new one instead.

2004-12-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

Let's Not Even Try To be Subtle
While looking for a giant fishing lure gag gift after a cowoker made a comment to the fact that you need a big "lure" to find a good man, I stumbled onto this ebay seller's item page.

If you notice, every single one of his giant lure (and fish mailbox...) auctions are posed with a more or less scantily clad women, some young some not so young. And this guy seems to have the market of novelty giant fishing lure cornered. Just a weird marketing strategy.

2004-12-17T11:40:00.000-05:00

Nice Clip
Take a look at this short called Elimination Dance, quirky little alt-retro story about a fantasy dance craze that has deeper implication. Great ambiance with just that touch of surreal.

2004-12-10T13:56:00.000-05:00

Comics
Now, I was totally consumed by the 90's comic craze: I own multiple copies of comics just because of different covers or promisses of valuable #1's

Take a look at this thread: Quarter To Three Forums :: View topic - My experiences as a comic/card dealer and read the posts by the user "noun". Very interesting account from the inside.

Also from the MeFi coments, a page dedicated to artists who swiped a pages layout from earlier works: Swipe of the Week Archive

And here is a site dedicate specifically to Rob Liefeld, in spanish: Comparaciones

2004-12-10T13:49:00.000-05:00

In My Spam Folder

Tin Titan, wanna look young like Oprah?

Hum, NO!

2004-12-09T12:45:00.000-05:00

Great Quote

While talking about a "Game Optimized" router.
Anybody that's ever been to a LAN party knows they are really just cover stories to meet away from significant others and transfer herculean mounds of porn for later use. It's like mid-air refueling for pornhound gamers—it really sucks if you're trying to lase someone out of their mech when palm pilots are saturating the Ethernet.

From Gizmodo

2004-12-08T13:12:00.000-05:00

Pictogram Extravaganza

I am fond of weird pictograms. It makes me wonder what kind of a though process comes up with these designs a the best simplification of an image.

In a hotel shower, should read "No Breakdancing Allowed" instead of "Anti-Slip Treatment Applied"

Men's bathroom (for amputees?)

(Amputee) janitor's closet?

The Flash!

Advertizing for skiing passes 4-packs, "On s'met a quatre", basically translates to "Let's have a foursome".

"Your urinal will tell you when you are done" Also notice the "Zero Hands" urinal technique in use...

"Now, let's see what we can find under here..."

2004-12-08T13:06:00.000-05:00

Who Is Getting Screwed Here?
The owner of this car:

wants the world to know how he likes to fuck:

but he's the one getting fucked today:

2004-12-08T11:51:00.000-05:00

Pranks
My office is pretty fond of pranks. It helps that my boss is a jokster. Here are some that happened in the last couple of years:

For someone's birthday, just before Christmas.

Old backup tapes that are to be destroyed, but not before baricading someone's office.

For some reason, one of our colleagues had pine cones on all the tables at her wedding. So of course, when she came back from honeymoon, this is what she saw:

What my boss finds in his office when he comes back from a week away hunting:

And of course, the masterpiece, the tin foil wrapped cubicle:

2004-12-08T11:48:00.000-05:00

Anthropomorphic Associations
For some reasons, when I see a urinal grate that looks like this:

It makes me think of this movie

2004-12-08T11:40:00.000-05:00

Democracy(?) on Exhibit

A State of Florida 2000 voting machine, on Exhibit a my local American Apparel Store. The sign states they bought it on eBay after the election.

Thanks to dante for the heads-up

2004-12-08T11:38:00.000-05:00

Sultry VW

Sticker on a 10 year old VW Golf

2004-12-08T11:34:00.000-05:00

Only A Little Naughty

Maybe this adult store wanted to attract a tamer clientelle so they opted for "Double X" instead of the "Triple X"...

2004-12-08T11:22:00.001-05:00

Picture Flood

Ok bear with me: I had a ton of backlogged pictures I've meant to put up and they will come all in a big bunch. These will be quirks and oddities I have seen around town. So here we go.

This is a great piece of graffiti that was on my bike route to work for the summer. The weird thing is that the rest fo the house if perfectcly normal, even boring, but that garage door, wow!

2004-12-02T13:06:00.000-05:00

Clutter Chaos
Just taking a look at the Crazy Mom Gallery makes me want ot clean up my desk, for fear of becomming like that.

If there ever was someone in need of Peter Walsh from Clean Sweep, this is it.

2004-12-01T15:28:00.000-05:00

Sound Station
Keeping up with many prolific MP3Blogs can be confusing. The MP3Blogs Aggregator provides an easy rss feed that compiles the feed from more than 50 different MP3Blogs including my two favorite: Scenestars and stereogum

2004-12-01T15:13:00.000-05:00

Sound Archeology
Having recently found an old audio tape of my sister and I as children talking and singing about everything, I can relate to sweet thunder - tape findings, a site dedicated to the sounds from found tapings. You can download them in mp3. It's worth a visit just for the Radio Shack pre-recorded answering machine messages, they put George Costanza to shame...

2004-11-25T16:13:00.000-05:00

New Expression I Invented This Morning

It's raining shit and I'm driving a convertible

How to descrine those situations when nothing is going your way. It could also serve as lyrics in a Country ballad... C'mon, that rocks!

2004-11-25T14:56:00.000-05:00

Message To The Media Industry

Dear Media Industry:

We lied to you. In the golden 80s and 90s we told you micropayments and content protection would work; that you would be able to charge minuscule amounts of money whenever someone listened to your music or watched your movie. We told you untruths which we well knew would never work - after all, we would've never used them ourselves. Instead, we wrote things like Kazaa and Gnutella, and all other evil P2P applications to get the stuff free.

...

The whole thing is here: We lied to you

2004-11-25T14:49:00.000-05:00

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
American senator's stocks outperform the market by 12%. How do they do it? That is what a lot of people would like to know. But like the linked post says:

they are too busy going after Martha Stewart to have the time to look into evidence that our leaders are using their political power and influence for personal gain.

2004-11-25T14:34:00.000-05:00

Climbing Links

Ice climbing conditions around the province of Quebec: IanBergeron.com

Rock climbing spots: RockClimbing.com

Free guides and topos, including l'Ile st-Helene: DrTopo.com

Apparently Dawson College has a climbing wall: P.A.R.C.. Very limited hours of operations (Mondays and Wednesdays 6pm-9pm, Saturdays 9am-12pm) but it is close to/in downtown and metro accessible. I have not yet been but would be interesting to check out.

2004-11-15T16:12:00.000-05:00

Quotes

Affluence separates people. Poverty knits ‘em together. You got some sugar and I don’t; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flour; well, I’ll give you some of mine.
- Ray Charles, 1930-2004

Poverty is a career for lots of well-paid people.
- Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004