Rice Lake 2006

Ahh, vacation. How I needed you.

There's nothing like a week of doing nothing to recharge your batteries. I guess I shouldn't say we did nothing. We went to the chocolate factory...we went boating a lot...we imbibed the occasional adult beverage. Though the real star of the week was the cabin itself, which I started calling "Slanty" after seeing it from the outside. When I post pictures you'll understand.

We also played games...poker, asshole, this cool dvd game where you shout out answers to questions about music or tv. We also tried the "Dark Side of Oz" thing where you sync up Dark Side of the Moon to The Wizard of Oz. I always figured that this was just some stoner myth or something, but I must say there are some really strange coincidences between the music and the movie. I still think it's only a coincidence, but it's still worth doing. The best part was when we were outside the next morning and the guys from the cabin next door said to us "Next time you guys jam to Floyd, crank that shit up!".

It was a weekend without incident, except for the drive home when some degenerate decided to almost kill Jay and I. Yes, it's time to rant about driving, but I feel I'm justified.
We're driving along in moderately heavy traffic having just come through Toronto. I'm clicking along in the far left lane at 120, just going with the flow of traffic. I check my rear view mirror and see this prick in a silver 300M come flying toward me going probably 135. He gets so close to my rear end that I can't even see his headlights or the grill on the front of his car. There's traffic to my right so I can't get out of his way, so I figured I'd try and get him to back off a little bit by dropping down to 115 hoping he'd get the message (not by hitting the brakes, just by slowly letting up on the gas - had I even tapped the brakes he would have hit me which is why I wanted him to back off). I slow down, and he does too but he still stays as close as he was. Once there was an opening to my right I was about to get out of his way when he pulls into it (without signalling), passes me on the right, and pulls back into my lane (again without signalling) and comes so close to my front bumper that I actually cringed and braced myself for an accident. Right as he gets in my lane, before I'd had a chance to get some distance between us, he SLAMS ON HIS BRAKES (with no one in front of him) then floors it and takes off. Man, I've never been so pissed at another driver. Jay and I were yelling and screaming things at him, I damn near punched the steering wheel, and Jay put down his window and flipped the guy off.

He got a little bit ahead of us and started riding the next guy's tail and had to keep hitting the brakes because he refused to slow down. Watching this, I actually screamed "I hope your ________ brakes fail", and I'm not one to swear very often. Man, I'm pissed off again just thinking about it.

Luckily I have good memories of the vacation itself to make me happy again. Pictures to follow tomorrow.

Happy Little Trees in the 21st Century

Everyone's favourite painter, Bob Ross, is going digital.  Some company is actually planning a Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting video game on the Wii (Nintendo's next console).  I give these people credit for a very different idea, and one that'll take advantage of the Wii's controller. 

I remember I always watched this guy on Sunday mornings before church...he was always so calm and relaxed, it was like meditation

--

"We're just gonna put a happy little bush down in this corner, and
that'll just be our little secret. But if you tell anybody that bush is
there, I will come to your house and I will cut you!"

Game 7!

Game 7!  Go Oilers!

That is all.

"A New Look"

You know, people complain about service charges and such from their bank, but I can see now how CIBC is putting them to good use. For instance, a few weeks back I logged into my account online and found an announcement that excited me:


It appears that the sign on page would be getting a new look to make it easier to navigate. And boy did it need it, after all, look at this mess:

How anyone could figure out this mess was beyond me. The promises of having my log on process streamlined excited me to no end. Well, today I went to check my account and THE WAIT WAS OVER! I was able to see the brand new, streamlined, easier to use log in page:



Boy, what a difference! This new page is so much easier to use. Now, instead of having to type my card number and my password, I only have to type my card number and my password. Thank heaven that CIBC is here to make my life so much simpler!

Another improvement they promised was to move the "Rates, Tools, Contact Us, Help and Sign Off links to the top of the page for quick access." And indeed, they did deliver on their promise. The header for the pages went from this:

To this:


Yep, that's much better, now the links for these useful things are SMALLER, and FARTHER AWAY from where the banking is done. Good thinking on that one. I know when I want "quick access" to something I always make it harder to get to. That's why when I get home I always take my keys and wallet and tape them to the ceiling in my shower with three rolls of duct tape, that way I can have "quick access" to them whenever I want them.

I think what scares me the most, is that this was probably the result of some 6-figure study into what the best way to "serve their customers" was. It's change for the sake of change, a make-work project if you will. I have no problem with the bank trying to improve service, but when you promise improvements, maybe you should deliver actual improvements. Or is that too complicated?

Sidekick

This page is making the rounds on the internet pretty quick, but I thought I'd point it out to those who haven't seen it.  Basically this guy's friend left her sidekick (mobile phone, camera, etc) in a taxi and the people who found it decided to steal it instead of trying to return it.  Long story short they found the people that took it and those people refuse to return it.

So now they've tracked down where these people live, their myspace accounts, etc.  It's a great use of the internet, trying to embarass the hell out of these people to get them to do the right thing.  If you haven't seen the page yet, go check it out.

Linkage


Oh, and check out the R/C plane demo video on John's blog (aka CobbleDick Potter).  Very cool as well.

The NHL's low ratings

So the NHL playoffs are generating essentially no buzz in the U.S., which is a bit surprising since Carolina has appeal in the south as well as in New England (from when the team played in Hartford). So I decided to check NBC Sports' web site to see what kind of hype they're giving the NHL finals, and see for yourself:


The first two sports that are billed on the top of the page are baseball and basketball. Way to advertise the competition num-nuts! I'm sure FOX and ABC respectively like the fact that you give precedence to their programming over your own. In fact, the first mention of the NHL is the sixth bullet point down in the "Other Top Sports Stories" section. This is the flagship sports programming on your station, and this is how its treated? No wonder no one cares.

You think they'd be hyping that the "new NHL" has produced some fantastic hockey, and that game 1 was one of the best games of the season. But what do I know? I'm not a big shot advertising executive.

Diet Coke and Mentos

Did anyone ever notice that when you drink diet pop just before or just after you've had a mint that you get hiccups?  I always thought it was just me, but it seems that I'm not crazy this time.

Video

It's interesting to think that this is what's going on inside you although on a much smaller scale (thankfully).

Why are we so surprised?

I know I just posted, but I've got a week's worth of thoughts to get through :)

What my title is referring to is the (in my opinion) surprising number of people who are surprised that accused terrorists were found in our own backyard with plans to attack Toronto/Southern Ontario. Should we really be surprised about this? I know there is a certain shock value to a story like this and there's no question that it shook me a little bit, but that wasn't out of surprise, it was out of a sense of realism. The threat of a terrorist attack on Canada has been, in my mind, a real possibility since September 12, 2001. Why did people think we were immune here in Canada?

This is the same Canada that was part of the coalition that brought down the Taliban in Afghanistan. The same Canada that vocalized the denouncing of terrorism worldwide along with everyone else. This is the same Canada that's now leading the fight in Afghanistan, trying to restore peace by chasing remnants of terrorist cells out of caves and tunnels. Tell me again why we're any different than anyone else?

For whatever reason, people thought that terrorist attacks were only a problem for the U.S. Tell that to the citizens of Bali, Madrid, and London. Sure we didn't join the war in Iraq, but that didn't stop attacks in Indonesia did it? (And I know that they were targeted because Bali is a tourist destination, but that doesn't change the fact that locals were killed as well).

And now we're hearing calls that we need to "toughen our stance on terrorism", and how "we're now a target". Now a target? The fact that these 17 people have been arrested should prove that we have been a target for quite a while. People are more concerned about their own security now than before, shouldn't we feel safer now that these alleged terrorists are in custody? Albeit, we're only incrementally safer since for every one of these cells we find I'm sure there are 2 more to take their place. That said, I think we need to commend law enforcement officials for doing a great job in apprehending these alleged terrorists. These are the people responsible for our safety, and I feel good knowing that they're working at this problem.

The thing that concerns me the most about this whole thing is that many of the accused are homegrown Canadians. I know that being born here doesn't stop someone from adopting another ideology, but I'd always hoped (against my better judgement) that thoughts like that wouldn't be passed down through generations or spread among our own citizens.

Oh, and just as a note to end on, would someone take these idiots who are vandalizing mosques and throw them in jail too? It's not the religion of Islam that teaches hatred, it's a certain ideology that some people adopt. Timothy McVeigh was raised in a Catholic household, so does that mean all Catholics were responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing? Of course not. So why is it any different in this case?

Hedging your bet

I just heard that odds makers in Vegas are giving 10-1 odds that the world will end tomorrow.  For those that haven't noticed, tomorrow will be 06/06/06.

Anyone who would seroiusly place a bet on this should immediately be locked up for the safety of the rest of society.  People that dumb are a threat to us all.  Talk about a lose-lose situation.

Blogging from Banff

I'd like to share pictures, but I don't have any camera hardware here so just take my word for it for those who haven't been here before: Banff is awesome.

The weather is great, the air is clear, the views are unbelievable, and these last few days have been so unreal. And if it makes you all jealous that I get to spend tomorrow morning being a tourist in Banff before going to the hot springs in the afternoon, well...tough...I'm going to enjoy myself anyway. :)