Saturday, March 31, 2007

The Blog Show Reminder

There are exactly five weeks until the deadline. As it stands as of 5:55 tonight, the people who have already entered have a verrrrrrrrrr *gasp* rrrrrrrry good chance of winning the grand prize. Get your tickets in!

Click the ticket on the right sidebar for more info.
It's under prizes! you in?

Thursday, March 29, 2007

"Not The Teeth, Tammy"

Biscotti and I went to see Fido today at SilverCity Riverport. We caught a matinee and we were the only two people in the entire theatre for the entire movie. It was sweet. I could actually laugh outloud unselfconsciously. Has anyone else seen a movie in the theatres with no one else in the room?

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

PostSecret

"Every single person has at least one secret that would break your heart. If we could just remember this, I think there would be a lot more compassion and tolerance in the world."

That is a quote from the PostSecret page, which has a link under my cool sites - it's the bottom one. Every week, thousands of homemade postcards are sent in anonymously from all over the world, each one displaying a secret which is sometimes funny, often sad, always poignant. The guy in charge reads each one and narrows them all down to a few dozen for the website, updating the page each Sunday. Many more appear in book form. Check it out.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Two Questions

  1. Do you think it is appropriate for an adult to take a nine-year-old boy - unrelated and dealing with significant family issues - to see the movie 300?
  2. If you could press a button that would instantly put $3,000,000 into your bank account while simultaneously killing a random person on the other side of the planet, would you press the button?

Monday, March 19, 2007

Provincial Park Pay Parking Peeve

Many months ago, October I believe, Biscotti and I drove to Mt. Seymour to take the dogs for a hike to one of the pumps. We were surprised to see that it was now a pay-parking endeavor. We'd already made the long drive so we decided to pay. In calculating how much we should pay, we anticipated being back to the car 3-4 hours after starting the hike. However, our payment options were as follows: $1 for the first hour, or $5 for all day. No option of paying $3 or $4 as we knew we'd be less than 4 hours.

The majority of people who make the drive up to that parking lot are going to be spending more than an hour recreating. Less than the majority will spend more than 5 hours. Some - many - will spend less than 4 hours; some - not as many - will spend less than 3 hours; but they all must pay $5. I understand the need to get money to maintain parks, but at the same time, people need to be encouraged to enjoy BC's parks. Stanley Park, for one, has options of paying for as many hours as you think you'll need. Why not at Mt. Seymour? Annnnnnd, as a bonus, the payment machines at Mt. Seymour only accepted loonies and quarters. No toonies, no paper money, no credit cards.

As I said, this was many months ago, but I bring it up now because this past weekend we encountered the exact same thing at Alice Lake. We had no coins and there was no one else around to get change from, so we just didn't pay. Our only other option was to drive away without recreating there; after the long drive up, that really wasn't an option.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Excuses Excuses Bloody Excuses

"Hi, we have a placement for you. We know the next one is supposed to go to the other place, but...

  • ...you've had this one before so it's best for them."
  • ...the weather has made the road conditions very unsafe and you're much closer."
  • ...they are very high energy and we know you can handle that better than the other place."
  • ...they may be returned today, so it's better for us to make the short drive twice to you rather than making the long drive twice to the other place."
  • ...the other place doesn't have the proper accomodations needed for this placement."
  • ...we suck and don't care about you in the least."

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Kings & Ducks in London

In this week's Georgia Straight, Jeff Paterson criticizes the NHL's decision to have two California teams play two regular-season games in London, England next season. Article.

Excerpts:

If the NHL was really, truly serious about promoting its product and its image around the world, it would have Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin and their teammates on the first flight overseas. They're the face of the game going forward; they're the biggest names in the game right now.
...
The NHL would have been much better off blowing its marketing budget actually promoting the fact that a new season was starting in Los Angeles and in Anaheim. Take all the bells and whistles that will be trotted out in London and make the same splash right there in Southern California—and then do the same thing in Chicago and Nashville and Phoenix and Atlanta and New Jersey, for that matter.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Translate This?

A few years ago, I was given a t-shirt by a standup gentleman after he returned from a trip abroad that included a visit to the Great Wall of China. The front of the shirt displays what he says is a famous Chinese poem. I've wanted to get it translated but haven't actually done anything to achieve that goal, until now. I took the shirt into work where there are some ESL kids but they couldn't help me out. So now I ask you, can you help me out? Click the pic to enlarge it. If it contains offensive language, I apologise.

added later: I emailed this post to my friend Jason, who teaches ESL students, and he emailed a same-day response. My shirt has these six poems by Mao Zedong, check them out. Thanks Jason!