Pop Culture Blog: Music, Movie and Humor

Leveraging low-hanging synergies outside the vertical fruit box since 1999.

Friday’s Quizzlet: The Right to Bare Arms


in Monday's Quotelet

Appetizer: If you could live on another continent for 1 year, which one would you choose?
I am a “North American” in the truest sense anybody can be, as I am now unofficially a dual citizen. I love both countries, and would gladly bear arms on either of their behalfs because I am not a liberal, but the one other country I would (and already have) live in for a year is England. I love the music, movies, comedy, authors and pop culture in general of Old Blighty and have since I was a kid.

Soup: Which browser do you use to surf the Internet?
FireFox, 100%. I love the plugins, particularly AdSense Reader, GMail and GReader Notifier and “Copy as Plain Text”. The only exception is that I have to use IE for Quickbooks, and there’s even an FF plugin that allows you to assign specific sites to open only in IE and it does so in what looks exactly like just another FireFox tab. I suppose I should link to all of these for you, but you’ve got Google on your side, kids. I have work to do.

Salad: On a scale of 1-10 how much do you know about the history of your country?
A lot – I took several American history classes in high school in Massachusetts – a great place to be studying U.S. history because it has seen a whackload. I also had to brush up bigtime back in November prior to my citizenship test. As far as Canada goes I have been given (thanks Kate) and purchased an impressive stack of history books as I absolutely love the subject and obviously wasn’t here for the rudimentary Canuckian high school classes. The story of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and also text that challenge the myth, have been especially fascinating for me thus far. I went to a party in Ottawa a few weeks ago where the majority of the attendees were government employees spanning a wide range of departments and I asked them slews and slews of history-related questions. Particularly about how the intelligence arm of the RCMP split off into the CSIS in 1984.

Main Course: Finish this sentence: Love is…
Elusive, confusing, insanity-inducing (I speak from experience) – and that’s what makes it simultaneously wonderful and the worst thing in the world.

Dessert: Have you ever been in or near a tornado?
I’ve been in vicinities that have been warned several times but I’ve never been in actual danger or seen a tornado with my own eyes. The best story I can tell you is that of “Lost Lake” here on the Big Rideau. It’s not actually lost, nor is it a lake, nor is the area officially called “Lost Lake”. It’s spoken lake lore more than anything at this point. It’s a hard to find little inlet that was hit with a tornado back in the 70s. A woman was killed while sleeping in her houseboat, and you can still see enormous scars in the foliage where the twister twisted on through. I can find no mention of it online so I’ll take some photos the next time I sail past (the boat goes in the water tomorrow morning!) and get some more oral history from my neighbors. I hope to also get some serious sun, as my farmer’s tan is ridiculous and my arms look like candy corn.

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Reading Pye in the Face is Good for Your Career


in Endorsements, Nerdery

It’s 11 o’clock. Do you know what your search results are? It’s also 2008 and any potential employer in any industry who is seriously considering hiring or even giving you an interview is going to do one important thing first. Google you.

I was recently asked to guest post for a Boston-based search marketing blog and I have to tell you – I feel a little like Jay Leno must have before he took over for Carson full time. As I typetty-typed away, and attempted to be jaw-droppingly clever, I realized that with a slight spin towards the stupid the topic I had chosen could be extremely helpful to my friends, family and 6 other loyal readers. Pay attention, Mom.

Social media is a double-edged sword. A tri-cornered hat. A coat of many colors. Like a bag of wild squirrels. Strike that last one. You have sites like FaceBook and MySpace for social networking. Then you have sites like Digg for social voting. Then you have sites like LOTRO for social exile. And amongst the multitude of other classifications under the main umbrella you have business networking sites. Hang up your Scrabulous games and annoying FunWall forwards for an hour tonight and build yourself a profile on Plaxo, LinkedIn, Spoke, Ziggs and all of the other social business sites I’ve listed here.

social-media-nonos

“Sharon works well as part of a team“.
Enrique Gazpacho, trainee manager – Stinky Cactus Bar

Or by all means – ignore me and have the next HR person that leafs through your resume looking at your 1998 Cancun wet t-shirt contest indiscretions twenty seconds later. I don’t do this for a living or anything.

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Let Me Save the B.C. Taxpayers Some Money.


in Canadiana

I just read an article on CNN entitled “Fifth severed foot found on Canadian coast“. It gave me pause for thought, as you might think, and I read through it in its entirety. Basically there is an island in a normally very peaceful and picturesque coastal area of British Colombia that seems to attract floating tootsies. Here are the poignant bits…

  • Since last August, a total of five severed feet have washed up on the same small island near Vancouver.
  • The first four were right feet, this one was left. Daniel Day Lewis could not be reached for comment.
  • Some locals think it’s a serial killer.
  • Some locals think it’s due to gang violence.
  • Some locals think they are the remains of several men who were killed in an airplance crash shortly before the first foot was found almost a year ago.
  • Although tests are underway, there have been no DNA results to link the owners of said feet or establish identity.

These are all terrific theories, my brethren with badges to the far West – but I already covered and predicted these very events in your specific area several months ago. Let me save everyone on Westham Island, or the “Canadian Amity Island” as I am going to call it, some valuable time. Your suspect has a beak, tentacles and a penchant for ink. And I’m not talking about tattoos.

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Deer in the Headlights. Literally


in Animalistic, Canadiana

These Ontario deers will be the death of me. 3 times I have had them dash in front of my car since I’ve lived up here and 3 times I narrowly managed to avoid the collision. As it tends to do, my luck ran out Monday night.

A big ass Bambi’s mama doe ran right out in front of me while I was on a dark rural highway going the speed limit (thank God. For once.) of 80km which is about 54mph. I went from bopping along to Feels So Good by Mase like it was 1998 again to violently slamming on the brakes as its head hit my left headlight before the whole beast went below the car and tore up the undercarriage. Deer was spit out into the woods and not seen again, but I doubt it survived.

I found part of my wheel well 25 feet behind the car (it was pitch black – I have since added a flashlight to my auto toolkit) and put it in the trunk. I walked back a little further and squinted for the deer but I could hardly see my hand in front of my face. It was eerie and incredibly reminiscent of the opening scenes of most horror movies. I won’t even mention the blood. But only because I don’t have to. I have pictures.

IMG 1918

Talk about remote – I was at the side of the road for an hour and not a single car drove past. Friggin’ spooky and my thoughts turned to the as of yet undiscovered communities of Kingston-area Sasquatch more than once. After slowly attempting to drive about 5 feet and hearing a loud scraping noise, I scooted under the car and tucked the torn edge of the plastic undercarriage cover under another part and drove very slowly, finally making it home around 2 a.m. My ABS light was on the whole way home and Tuesday morning I discovered a lot of loose wires hanging down from the engine block, so I assume there is some serious electrical repair needed in addition to the nonsense underneath.

IMG 1909

So yeah – That was the 4th time in the last year a deer has run out in front of my car. I bought these deer whistles that you attach to your bumper which supposedly scare them away as wind blows through them a few months ago but never stuck them on. Wicked smart. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration there are about 1.5 million car accidents with deer each year that result in $1 billion in vehicle damage, about 150 human fatalities, and over 10,000 personal injuries. So have a think about that the next time you give a hunter the evil eye. Deers: So cute. So, so very stupid.

IMG 1921

I’m sad about the car but grateful I walked away. The damage has not yet been fully assessed as I wait for a call back from the insurance company. The bumper is covered in blood and hair and was definitely pushed in before popping back out – but the “krinkling” is very minimal. Aesthetically, the car got off extremely lightly and the Charger will charge again. Like the Light Brigade. Eventually I’ll add my photos to this post but I gots to get to work now because my deductible is $500. Poppa needs a brand new insurance company.

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