Merry Christmas from the American Family Association

Check out this festive item that the American Family Association is selling on their website:


Plant this puppy on the lawn of your favorite neighbor to spread a little holiday warmth!

Speaking of dumb...

I put an item up for sale on eBay last week... a Bamboo MTE450 drawing pad. I bought it for a good price in Chicago last July, and was going to give it to Aaron for his birthday. I ended up picking up a different model for him though, and since I couldn't return the one I originally bought I thought I'd sell it.

You can get this drawing tablet for $80 from FutureShop or any other electronics retail store. My tablet hasn't been used, but I did open the box, and all I really wanted was to get back most of what I paid for it. I figured I'd set up my auction with a Reserve price of $50 and a Buy It Now price of $65. For anyone that hasn't used eBay, that means that at any time, an interested party could end the auction and purchase it outright for $65.

Well, my auction ended yesterday, and the winning bid.... $76! Why anyone would bid more than the Buy It Now price, I have no idea. With the $13 he paid for shipping, his grand total is $10 more than he could have bought it for from FutureShop.

I am perfectly happy to take his money though, and I do hope he enjoys his drawing pad!

Somebody get this guy a research grant, quick!

As seen today in FailBlog:



There sure is a lot of dumb floating around out there. I did a bit of looking around and found the original post here.

Pardon Me

George W. Bush started issuing his exit pardons yesterday... so far he's issued 14 pardons and commuted two prison sentences. I don't recognize any of the names on the list so far, but usually the big controversial ones don't come until the last few days of the Presidency.

No murderers on the list yet, but quite a few drug dealers and environmental offences. There's one that I don't understand at all:

Brenda Jean Dolenz-Helmer of Fort Worth, Texas, for reporting or helping cover up a crime.

Well, which is it? Reporting a crime, or helping cover up a crime? They seem pretty opposite to me.

There's been speculation that Bush will preemptively pardon some of the Gitmo torturers to prevent possible prosecution by the Obama administration... we'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

The Earth according to Facebook

This is ubercool:



This app was developed at a recent Facebook Hackathon.

What to get that special someone

What do you get that special someone for Christmas when they seem to already have everything? How about some of the fine literary treats you can buy at your nearest web-store:

Natural Harvest - A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes

by Fotie Photenhauer

Printed: 61 pages, 22.86 cm x 17.78 cm, perfect binding, full-colour interior ink Description: Semen is not only nutritious, but it also has a wonderful texture and amazing cooking properties. Like fine wine and cheeses, the taste of semen is complex and dynamic. Semen is inexpensive to produce and is commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants. Despite all of these positive qualities, semen remains neglected as a food. This book hopes to change that. Once you overcome any initial hesitation, you will be surprised to learn how wonderful semen is in the kitchen. Semen is an exciting ingredient that can give every dish you make an interesting twist. If you are a passionate cook and are not afraid to experiment with new ingredients - you will love this cook book!

Wednesday

I've posted this before, but I was watching the news tonight and I see Lloyd never got the message. So, in the hopes that some big-shot CTV producer with a lot of clout happens to see this, here it is again:

For those of you that don't know who Lloyd Robertson is, let me introduce you. As the Chief Anchor of CTV news, he does a pretty good job.... I've always thought he wears a little too much makeup, but that's really neither here nor there.

There is one thing about him, however, that drives me absolutely nuts: he pronounces the 'D' in "Wednesday". Instead of saying "wenz-day" like every other English-speaking person this side of the Atlantic, he says "wed-ens-day".

Lloyd, please stop. You're making my ears bleed.

Election Reflections

It's been a couple weeks since the US elections, and I've had some time to reflect on the results.

• Barack Obama - I'm elated that Obama had such an overwhelming victory! After eight years of utterly failed policies, near-complete incompetence, and possibly criminal activities, it's exciting to know that real change is close at hand. Barack Obama is one of those rare politicians that has the ability to inspire people with his passion and eloquence, and I think that that is exactly what the United States needs right now. Ideologically, he's vastly closer to my own values than Bush was, and I'm hopeful that his administration will be able to pick up the pieces of a broken nation and put them back together again. It's going to be hard work and take a long time, but I believe that Obama is in the process of surrounding himself with the right people that will be able to help him do just that.
  
  
• John McCain - I don't mind John McCain as a person or even as the politician that he used to be. In order to become the Presidential nominee for the Republican party, however, he had to pander to a lot of groups that I have absolutely no time for. I think that he'll soon fade away into obscurity, so I won't spend a lot of time talking about him other than to say that I'm very glad things turned out the way they did.
  
  
• Anti-Gay Ballot Measures - This was the area of real disappointment. Out of the four anti-gay ballot measures (Prop 102 in Arizona, Initiative 1 in Arkansas, Amendment 2 in Florida, and Prop 8 in California), all four of them passed. Now those first three, I can at least understand: it's the Deep South and people are still conditioned by entrenched religious "values" to be ooged out by the thought of two men or two women in love. Unfortunate, but we can't expect that these ideas that have been pounded into the social consciousness for hundreds of years to be changed overnight. But then there's California. California! Long thought to be the most progressive state in the Union, the population of California actually voted to recind a right that already existed. Unbelieveable.
  

What if The Matrix ran on Windows XP?

This made me laugh, and seemed like a good follow-up to last night's post.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Well THAT can't be good

I saw the most hilarious Windows error message on Failblog the other day:



Three cheers for Windows Vista!

I was also looking at a flyer for computer/electronics site Tigerdirect.ca today, and glanced at the current pricing for Windows Vista. Between the ridiculous pricing and the error message above, it got me wondering why more people aren't migrating to other operating systems yet.

10 or 12 years ago, Windows was definitely the way to go. With Windows 95, Microsoft built on (read: "completely plagiarized") the fantastic work done with Apple's Ma cOS and found a way to market it to the masses. Compared to Macs, PCs were relatively inexpensive, and now that they had a graphical interface they were simple enough for non-geeks to use every day. Windows 95 was still much buggier than Mac OS 8, but it had mass appeal due to price, availability of software and the ability to run legacy DOS programs.

How things have changed. MS's most recent OS, Windows Vista, has been a relative flop. Prone to odd quirks and outright crashes... difficult to use (for the average Joe and the IT Pro alike)... too expensive and actually confusing to buy due to the number of different versions... and of course Apples genius "I'm a Mac" marketing campaign... Windows Vista never stood a chance.

Why This Blog Is Just Six Words Long

Well, first of all, it's a tribute to an under-appreciated musical and comedic genius, the one and only Weird Al Yankovic. I've been cracking up over Al since my friend Glen played his "Weird Al" Yankovic tape for me back in Grade 5.

This Song's Just Six Words Long is kind of a poke at song writers who don't put any thought into their lyrics and just churn out whatever they think people might buy. I'm looking at you, Pop music. Plus, it's unbelievably catchy and gets stuck in your head.



So anyway, that got me thinking about how it's so easy for anyone to post anything they want on the Internet. There are so many blogs out there (present company probably included) that will blather on about nothing, and just post whatever their opinion du jour is without ever putting much thought into it.

I'm going to try not to do that, but no warranty is expressed or implied. If you feel that any posting has not lived up to your expectations, feel free write to me about getting a full refund.

Number 2

I needed a second post to help me play around with the page formatting. Also, I like to hear myself talk. Also also, I think I'll store images in this post when the need for them arises.

Move along, nothing to see here.

Blog Virgin No Longer

I have various places around the Net where I've posted thoughts before... message boards, Yahoo 360 for a while (until my Yahoo decided to delete my account one day for no apparent reason), Facebook more recently. And while Facebook is great, it's not really intended to function as a blog... you get a bit of control over how your Notes look, but there's no real way to make them stand out from everyone else's Notes. I guess I feel like they lack any identity.

So anyway, here it is: my shiny new blog. There's not going to be any real theme to it, just random thoughts that I feel the need to share with world.

Enjoy.