Adam M is 30

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2012-02-15T01:19:00.001-05:00

Click here to see my review of last night's Glee episode.

Sorry if it's a bit incoherent; I did it pretty late.

Click Here

2012-02-13T23:20:00.002-05:00

Click here to hear all the songs from the next episode of Glee.

What I Learned This Week

2012-02-11T09:45:00.003-05:00

1. They make a special kind of hanger for hanging kilts. It's like a super-strong hanger with powerful clips.

2. There are still some kind of negotiations going on with Agnes Nixon to possible bring back All My Children in all types of forms, including the possibilities of turning it into a movie or a musical.

3. Anderson Cooper's great aunt was Edward VIII's mistress and was the one who introduced him to Wallis Simpson.

4. Madonna has sold over 300 000 000 albums.

5. Suze Ormon and John Belushi were roommates in college.

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Modern Family February 8 2012

2012-02-09T02:08:00.001-05:00

From Square Eyes.

Season 3, Episode 14 "Me? Jealous?"

Notes: This was an episode that made me feel better about the show's direction. I have been a little disappointed in the formulaic way they roll out the same thing every time and this week we saw some pairings of characters we don't often see, as well as ones that we do see but in some new situations.

First of all, I think that Cameron and Gloria are a great pairing but they're too powerful/too much to put together into a main storyline very often. However getting those two together this week was just the little boost the show needed.

These are easily the show's best two comic performers and their over-the-top characters are just awesome.

Also, the show's about a large family and so the relationships between the members of the family must be at the heart of it and it bugs me that they always focus on the same pairings week after week so it's nice to see a shake up... what Gloria and Cameron have in common (besides their obvious exuberant personalities) is that they both married into the family and in a way they are both a little bit like outsiders to the family sometimes. So they have that going for them in terms of story potential.

The other thing I loved about Cameron and Gloria's storyline was that it allowed one of my other favourite dynamics to open up: Gloria's relationship to Lily.

The scene where Cameron and Gloria danced around the kitchen could have been so terrible in the hands of other people but I thought it really played off well, down to the kick at the end.

Also I love anything that puts Mitchell and Jay into a story together because those can be really challenging and they don't tend to gloss their relationship right over the way sitcoms often do with stoic father/son relationships.

I also like that they found a sticking point between Jay and Mitchell that didn't have to do with Jay being annoyed by Cameron or the gay thing in general. I'm referring to Mitchell thinking Jay doesn't value his job. Good call there. And it adds even more complexity to their relationship.

This type of relationship-based material is what the show's been lacking lately (as well as a plot).

This was a strong episode for Phil. Lately with the whole repetitiveness problem the show's been having, they've been giving Phil and Claire the same scenes and the same types of routines to play over and over again so a little change was good.

I'm not super-crazy about Greg Kinear but I always like his performances once I get into them.

I don't know why I always resist him but I do.

Anyway I was not thrilled to see him in the show but I liked him in the end.

MVP: Gloria. Isn't it always?

Best Line: "I made this for Haley four year ago. You think this got framed? She tossed it in the garbage. Right after she wrote 'Mrs. Haley Jonas Brothers' on it like thirty times."

Grade: B+

From the Next Glee

2012-02-07T00:47:00.000-05:00

I hate this song and I hate that they're doing it but there's something funny about having Ricky martin doing it on the show.

What I Learned This Week

2012-02-04T09:45:00.004-05:00

1. In the last 50 years the global shark population has gone down by 90%, much of which is due to hunting.

2. Anderson Cooper weighs 160 pounds.

3. Canadian ownership of tablet computers has tripled since last year.

4. There is a right way and a wrong way to face a chessboard. Both players should have a white square at their bottom right.

5. There is a summer version of Seasonal Affective Disorder that gives people hyper and manic symptoms.

6. Birth control pill packages contain some placebo pills. They are there to keep the rhythm of taking the pills on a regular basis, rather than skipping several days when the cycle dictates to stop to taking the actual active pills and then try to remember to start taking them a few days later. Did everyone know this except for me?

7. Antony Sabato Jr is a crazy neat freak.

8. The iconic green colour at The Body Shop was chosen because when the first store was opened in Brighton that green was the only colour paint that would cover the mould on the walls.

9. When Ben and Jerry's first went public, shares were deliberately made only available to people living in Vermont.

10. Costco was started by two guys in an old hangar in Seattle and was funded by their credit cards.

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Another Clip From the Next Episode of Glee

2012-01-30T00:45:00.000-05:00

Coming Up On Glee

2012-01-29T09:45:00.000-05:00

This is from the next episode of Glee.

It should be really cool but I find the guy can't carry it off.

I really, really don't like that guy.

What I Learned This Week

2012-01-28T09:45:00.002-05:00

1. 1/3 of Americans own a tablet or an e-reader.

2. Maple Leaf Gardens was built in six months.

3 Bill Maher and George W. Bush have the same favourite movie, Saving Private Ryan.

4. There is an unknown connection between dental hygiene and dementia.

5. Statistically and against their best efforts referees make more calls in favour of the home team. This is the only way analysts have been able to calculate the home field advantage. It is believed that this is caused by a subconscious relationship the referee feels with the crowd to need to please them. But most referees are not conscious of the effect.

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2012-01-27T09:45:00.000-05:00

2012-01-24T09:45:00.000-05:00

What I Learned This Week

2012-01-21T21:45:00.003-05:00

1. Mark Cuban owns Hdnet.

2. Rob Ford weighs 330 pounds.

3. It can be up to seven degrees colder in Gatineau than Ottawa because Gatineau is closer to sea level. The effect is called "inversion". A strong wind on a cold day counters the effect and makes the temperatures technically more equal on paper.

4. Saturday is the anniversary of the release of the first American novel. It was called Power of Sympathy and was written by WH Brown. It was published in 1789.

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Online Dating

2012-01-20T09:45:00.002-05:00

Did you see that thing on Anderson Cooper's new show where it's a website where you sign up and people offer you money to go out with them?

It's not the Sugar Daddy one it's another one where supposedly if you're tired of getting disappointed in dating from regular dating sites you won't have those problems because you know someone's going to take the date seriously if they offer to pay you for the first date? Then if you don't like the date at least you get paid for it? Well that's what they say it's for anyway.

I was so curious to see who goes on sites like those and obviously if I knew anyone on that site.

But they don't let you see without becoming a member!

I guess that makes sense. Those people probably want a little privacy.

So I started to make a basic profile just to so I could take a look.

Anyway there's two videos to help you decide if you want to get paid for a date or to pay for a date with someone else and they call them "beautiful people" and "lonely people". And I watched both videos so I could try to get into the mindset of who's using the site.

But then when I went to create a profile they make you choose if you're a "beautiful person" or a "lonely person" to categorize your profile and I couldn't decide which one I was so I got sad and gave up.

Strange Dream

2012-01-18T23:43:00.001-05:00

I had a dream that Tanya's baby had all adult teeth and they all grew in at once.

But they weren't finished there. As soon as they grew in, they all started falling out again in favour of even bigger adult teeth.

And then she came down to the store with a velvet bag... you know, the kind crown royal comes in with a gold drawstring... and it was full of his adult teeth he had lost.

And she said his adult baby teeth thing was so weird that she couldn't just tell people about it but she had to show it to people.

So she opened up the bag and it was just full of giant teeth, like the tooth fairy's back pack or something.

And then she started grinding all the teeth together in her hands because she thought that was funny.

It was pretty weird.

When I woke up I thought she had said something about the baby's teeth in her Facebook status and that was why I had dreamed about it.

But I checked and she didn't.
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Observando by Freyja* is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

2012-01-16T23:54:00.001-05:00

Yeah yeah, I know.

Hold on...

What I Learned This Week

2012-01-14T23:35:00.001-05:00

1. Bridesmaids is the #1 all-female Rated-R comedy of all time.

2. China has ninety cities with populations of over 1 000 000 people.

3. In Venezuela it is forbidden to have foreign currency. All requests to pay someone outside the country must be submitted to and approved by a government office. People whose requests are approved must pay the government office that handles foreign currency transactions in Venezuelan Bolivares Fuertes (the domestic currency) and the agency sends the money to the recipient directly. They can only choose to receive the payment in US Dollars or Euros.

4. Last week's premiere of Downton Abbey doubled PBS's average primetime audience.

5. Saturday is L.L. Cool J.'s birthday.

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2012-01-10T23:27:00.002-05:00

Don't be bored.

Watch Web Therapy!

2012-01-10T21:43:00.001-05:00

This week is the last week of One Life to Live and I really, really want to blog it over on my TV blog so that will be taking a lot of time this week.

Friday is the last episode and after that a huge blogging time-commitment will be lifted.

So if things are a bit light over here it won't be for long and everything should be on track on Monday.

Also, I'm planning to blog a few other shows, including Once Upon a Time and the Wednesday and Thursday night comedies so feel free to take a look over there if you're a TV-watcher.

If you don't know where to find it just click here.

Twitter

2012-01-08T01:23:00.000-05:00

Apparently Alec Baldwin is returning to Twitter after having left.

This does not interest me as I stopped following him onTwitter a long time ago. Originally he was one of the big people on Twitter but his Tweets got so incomprehensible and weird there was no point anymore.

Anyway it seems like everyone is dropping out of or ignoring Twitter these days. Maybe they asked him to come back.

What I Learned This Week

2012-01-08T01:14:00.000-05:00

OK, I haven't really learned that much this week but I have learned two things:

1. There's an effect called "Kevinism" where people assume negative characteristics of strangers based on their names. It's named after a German study, which attempted to measure the effect and found that Kevin is one of the male names that German people most stereotype as having negative personality traits.

2. John By's house was in an area that is now Major Hill's Park. There are two rocks in Major's Hill Park that originally were part of his house but they are not marked as such.

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Top 10 Female Girl TV Crushes of 2011

2012-01-04T02:52:00.000-05:00

In no particular order:

1. Eve Best She's O'Hara in Nurse Jackie. I know I just said it's in no particular order but can we all just admit that she was the biggest girl TV crush of 2011 for everyone? (IMDB her here).

2. Toni Collette She is Tara in United States of Tara, as well as a million other things. We know she's been awesome for years and years. And years. Going all the way back to Muriel's Wedding. Ooh! And remember Little Miss Sunshine? (IMDB her here).

3. Ginnifer Goodwin She's Snow White in Once Upon A Time. She was also in Big Love. I love her with short hair, I love her with long hair. I love her in every way conceivable. (IMDB her here).

4. Eliza Coupe She plays Jane in Happy Endings. There's nothing I find sexier in a woman than if she makes me laugh. Eliza Coupe is not just ridiculously hot (especially since her shorter Season 2 haircut) but her comic timing is amazing. I think she's my favourite girl character on that show.

5. Alison Brie She's Annie on Community. She's also on Mad Men. I'm not being sarcastic or overblowing it at all when I say she's one of the actresses that I am most constantly surprised by how talented she is. Look her characters on Mad Men and Community and you'll see someone with a real range. Also that scene from Mad Men where she does the Charleston... amazing. (IMDB her here).

6. Leighton Meester Blair on Gossip Girl. I don't know if it's the actress or the character I like so much... I never really felt one way or another about Blair but this year I've been liking her more and more. Also I think it's key that she now constantly outdresses Serena and on Gossip Girl that counts for something. (IMDB her here)

7. Susan Lucci That's right. None other than Erica Kane on my all-time favourite show, All My Children. Everyone thinks of her as always playing the seductress character but what's so remarkable about Susan Lucci and what has really made her all these years is that she's so funny. And I find funny women attractive (see above). She can out-deliver the best of them any day of the week and her timing is fantastic. In her last year on the show she had that crazy storyline where she played herself and also an identical duplicate posing as her who was really just a loser made over to look like her. And she used to have the most amazing arguments, literally with herself about how she could never get away with posing as her because she was too big of a loser. Ha! She wasn't good enough in bed, her feet were too fat, no one would believe it. Hilarious. And she actually pulled off playing a character dressed up exactly like Erica Kane, in her clothes who wasn't Erica Kane and who the audience could tell wasn't Erica Kane just from the way she was trying too hard to play Erica Kane. And she did all that while simultaneously playing Erica Kane on the other side of the screen. That was crazy! Even the way the fake Erica Kane delivered Erica Kane's iconic calling card line "I'm Erica Kane!" wasn't quite right, even though it was still Susan Lucci saying it. Also bear this in mind: that lady is 65. Not bad. Makes you want to find out about microdermabrasion! (IMDB her here).

8. Dianna Agron I don't care how annoying Quinn is being on Glee, Dianna Agron is still way up on my list. I love her little voice, I love her downplayed deliveries, I love how she's on the cover of every magazine out there. I love everything about her. (IMDB her here).

9. Lena Headey The Queen from Game of Thrones. Face it, you can't take your eyes off her. Her unexpected deliveries constantly make everything so uncomfortable and uncertain and add such a layer of mystery and complexity to her character and therefore the plot that she's all you can think about when she's on the screen. And when I'm not watching the show and I think about it the first thing I see is her. (IMDB her here).

10. Sofia Vergara I'm not as obsessed with Modern Family as I used to be, but Sofia Vergara is still one of the high points and she still delivers some of the show's funniest moments, which as we know is a great factor in sexiness for me. Also she's not afraid to be totally ridiculous, which for a glamorous star is a real advantage, she means what she's doing (IMDB her here).

Top 10 Male TV Crushes of 2011

2012-01-03T09:45:00.001-05:00

It's the time of year for Top 10 Lists so here's one of mine.

The Top Lady Crushes follows tomorrow.

In no particular order...

1. Zachary Knighton He plays Dave on Happy Endings, which is basically the same character as Ross Gellar but he's the romantic hero and a dork right from the beginning so there's no awkward transition. He's a sexy, romantic dork right from the start. I am in love with him. He has so much hair. (IMDB him here).

2. Josh Hopkins That's right. I'm not above liking the guy from Cougar Town. Pretty, a little slutty and he sings those songs. (IMDB him here).

3. Alexander Skarsgard I know, it's cheesy to say that. He used to be my least favourite thing about True Blood and now I am in love with him. When he had amnesia they took his character in a totally different direction and everything that bothered me about him was gone and he was just this ridiculously sexy Swedish movie star. What can I say? He is a ridiculously sexy Swedish movie star. (IMDB him here).

4. Chris D'Elia I have no excuse for watching Whitney; I just love it. I also have no excuse for liking the guy from that show either but I want him so bad. (IMDB him here).

5. Damon Wayans Jr. Another entry from Happy Endings. I don't care how dorky he is, I think he's very funny and he has very nice legs. And he wears those suits. However my attention wanders every time Zachary Knighton comes onto the screen. (IMDB him here).

6. Philip Winchester This guy was in two of my favorite shows this year: Camelot and Strikeback. And he was a completely different kind of ridiculously sexy in both of them. He's starting to be one of those guys who's in everything so if you've never heard of him you probably will soon. (IMDB him here).

7. Joel McHale You know it. Although I think I'll be over him by this time next year. But you never know. I love Community and I also watch The Soup every week. If you don't, you should! (IMDB him here).

8. Aaron Christian Howles OK. He's Marshall's boyfriend on United States of Tara. I know that sounds obscure but if you're up to date on season 3 of that show then you've definitely wondered why all the boys are fighting over each other instead of fighting over this guy. I don't think the photos in his IMDB really do him justice. (IMDB him here).

9. Chace Crawford So I never understood why everyone's pants were always so wet for Chace Crawford. Yes, I know: eyes, lips, chest... but it never really came together for me until this year. I don't know why. Maybe it's because with each passing season of Gossip Girl Nate gets gayer and gayer. Maybe I find him more relatable. And when are Dan and Nate going to hook up? Am I the only one who thinks this should happen? He officially bumps Penn Badgely right off my list. According to IMDB he was in something called The Matthew Morrison Story. Is that the biography of Matthew Morrison? Did he play Mr. Schuester? Does anybody know anything about this? (IMDB him here).

10. David A Gregory It's a soap star. When I first came back to watching One Life to Live this year I hated him. First of all his character's name is Rob Ford. And he had the stupidest storyline where he fell in love with Tess (which is Jessica's multiple personality) and got her pregnant and then when Tess finally went away he bothered Jessica to try to make Tess come out so he could have his girlfriend back. But then Jessica ended up giving birth to his baby and she didn't even know because he was Tess's boyfriend. Anyway, he totally turned it around for me and now I want him to be my boyfriend. I'll pretend to have multiple personalities or whatever, I don't care. I'm not the kind of person that has opinions on the way people kiss on TV or whatever but he has these giant lips that you can't not stare at and when you see him kiss Jessica (he ended up with Jessica in the end) you just want to get in the middle of their makeouts. Oh, and besides the world's biggest lips he also has the world's biggest pecs and nipples. His IMDB is a bit small so if you really want to see something amazing click here and watch the first video (where he moves in with a bunch of gay dudes). (IMDB him here).

So I can never keep my hormones under control enough to only have crushes on ten guys from TV at the same time so I have three honourable mentions:

One is Marshall Allman, who played the brother who was also a dog on True Blood. There were not enough scenes of him naked and chained up on a giant leash for my tastes though.

Also Keir O'Donnell who played Kate's boyfriend on United States of Tara. So cute!

And the third is Bryan Greenberg. I know no one watches How to Make It In America except me but you should just for how much your heart will ache for this guy. He's the cutest. (IMDB him here).

And I have one more thing for you. David A Gregory has two hot brothers on One Life to Live. A lot of their scenes take place in saunas and rightfully so. You won't regret it if you click here.

Any additions to the list? Add them to the comments at the bottom!

What I Learned This Week

2012-01-01T23:30:00.000-05:00

1. Moon Boots still exist. Don't believe me? Check this out.

2. Blackbeard's cannons shot pieces of glass and jagged metal to terrorize his targets.

3. The TSX finished 2011 11% lower than it began.

4. 46% of Canadians who are unemployed are getting Employment Insurance benefits.

5. Ottawa's first tavern was opened in 1819 on what is now Lebreton Flats, then a separate town called Richmond Landing.

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Oops

2011-12-30T11:38:00.003-05:00

We were hacked last night but are now running again.

Playbook

2011-12-28T18:14:00.000-05:00

Did I mention that I got one of those Blackberry Playbooks when they were $300 off?

I would never pay the real price for it but for $200 it was a steal. It's cheaper than a netbook (if you get the sale price) and unbelievably smaller.

Also it has this really great Hi-Def screen.

Anyway I don't have all these fancy uses for a tablet people use iPads for so this thing does everything I need, including Word and Excel and you can even get a mini keyboard for it if you want to.

I am currently typing this on my Playbook from work. This is much better than Twitter, which no one really reads anyway.

I love you, Playbook!
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Frank Thinks The Playbook Sucks by keepitsurreal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Holiday Baking

2011-12-28T09:45:00.000-05:00

I did not have a lot of time for holiday baking this year.

But if you still have some you need to do or any events or get togethers where you'd like to bring something, keep it simple.

The last two years I have made Canadian Living's Snowballs and they are so easy and delicious you won't believe the reaction you get for the amount of work.

Everyone loves them and they won't drive you crazy with the effort necessary to make them. Although they're quick there is chilling involved in the middle of the process so you need to give yourself a few hours in the middle to let the dough refrigerate before you can use it. But the other thing that's good about that is you can make the dough one day, refrigerate or freeze it and then come back for it when you actually want to make the cookies.

You can find the recipe for that here. You will not regret keeping this recipe handy throughout the holiday season.

In the picture we are seeing the most amazing and unexpected little thing.

This is toffee with salted chocolate from Laura Calder's new cookbook (check it out here).

Basically it's a layer of caramel (you know, like the kind you get on Hallowe'en wrapped up in the clear plastic paper) and then it has semi-sweet chocolate on top and I added sea salt because that whole salt and chocolate thing is so big lately.

You get this big sheet and then you just cut it up into little cubes and it is the best thing.

It was also really easy and is so impressive, people can't believe you made it.

I prefer a lot of salt but some people found it was too strong (wimps!) so it may be good to do a section of no salt, a section of light salt and a section of heavy salt and when you cut it up, keep them in separate bowls so people can decide for themselves.

This also took very little time and effort and made almost no mess except for melting the chocolate.

If you're lucky I might give you the recipe but you really should check the book out, it's quite great.

Boxing Day Shopping

2011-12-27T01:23:00.000-05:00

So just like Christmas morning, I got up super-late on Boxing Day, which means being late for Boxing Day shopping. But I refused to be rushed and had my breakfast and morning chill-out as usual... except instead of in the morning it took place at 1 PM.

Liberte lemon yogurt (if you've never had it you're literally crazy... it's the best thing ever) and my new Happy Endings DVD.

So I busted my way down to St Laurent with only a few hours left of usable shopping time and went to Mexx... one of the only stores in Ottawa that actually makes clothes in my size that are actually for adults... and that took about an hour. I just grabbed everything that had a label that promised to fit me, tried it on and then threw everything into "Yes" and "No" piles.

Then I went around the store again because my first pile was so big I couldn't carry it around the store anymore so I had given up.

Anyway, I won't tell you how much I spent at Mexx because it was ridiculous but I will tell you that everything in that store is 50% off and also that since it is one of the only places I can shop and it is too expensive for me I put a bit of money every week into a bank account specifically for Boxing Day shopping at Mexx each year, starting in around November. This year it was October.

Anyway, I had the money saved, so there.

Also I've been going through this thing I went through last winter as well where I keep going into my closet and realizing I only ever wear the same three sweaters and I need to mix it up a bit so this cured that.

I took a run into The GAP and I'm not sure if anyone actually still shops there. Their prices haven't gone down any over the years and I don't know about women's stuff but the men's stuff is all really plain and kind of boxy.

They barely even had a sale.

And the people working there are all dressed like really tall 12 year-old's.

How does that place stay open?

I guess Banana Republic is sort of what The GAP used to be like twelve years ago or something when everyone loved The GAP. Also they didn't have much of a sale and the place was a mess.

They had a really great sale on jeans and cords and I saw some Cords that I liked but they didn't have my size, so there you go.

All the displays were all torn apart too. Some of the mannequins were actually broken in pieces and just lying around the tables. I took this picture of a pile of pants where somebody had picked up one of the display hands and set it up to look like it's reaching out of the pile.

The staff was so attentive that I used a flash for this photo and even the flash didn't get any of their attention, nor did they do anything about the hand.

I saw online that Place d'Orleans was open until 9 so I went down there but I didn't see anything I liked, although there were better prices and less crowds than at St Laurent.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-27T00:47:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas!

I know, it's December 27 but I've been busy, haven't you?

I can tell you that after all my moaning about the weather Ottawa did indeed have a white Christmas... very white. Not only was there snow on the ground since the 23rd (and a very bitter cold to go with it) but most of the day on Christmas there was a light, soft but very present snow falling, just to make everything look perfect outside.

Apparently this was very uncommon and most places didn't get it, so sorry if you missed out where you are.

I missed most of it though as I was completely tired and slept in until 2 PM. This led to some complaining as everyone had eaten breakfast and lunch and also run the dishwasher before I woke up and anyone got around to actually opening any presents.

Despite that it was a great day all around.

Gifts well received and whatnot, which was great because I felt like I didn't know what I was doing in terms of gift-giving this year... something that doesn't happen to me very often as someone who spends all day every day of the week helping people pick things out in stores.

Ever since Christmas morning (with a few breaks) I've been playing the Wii game that I got, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, which is hilarious. You can check it out here.

Had a great dinner and followed it up with a game of Blokus.

I hope everyone's had a great holiday so far this year and that all your Christmases are white!

If you were wondering, I took this picture in Westboro while Christmas shopping. Somebody hung Santa's laundry out to dry on the balcony. Aaaaawwww...

What I Learned This Week

2011-12-25T00:47:00.000-05:00

1. Household debt in Canada is at another all-time high. It is currently at 153% of income.

2. There ar an estimated 30 000 drug dealers in Ottawa. That includes large-scale as well as independent ones.

3.The Halifax fire was the largest man-made explosion of all time until Hiroshima.

4. There is a shortage of Mistletoe due to poor growing conditions. The current price of Mistletoe is unusually high.

5. The Soup was originally supposed to be called What The until the E! Network got a new chief who hated the name and changed it.

6. A dollar-for-dollar donation matching plan encourages people to give to a cause most. Offering more matching than that does not encourage any extra donations, statistically.

7. There is an urban legend in Korea where people believe that sleeping with a fan on can be fatal because of various supposed causes. Because of that fans with sleep-timers are popular in Korea. The legend is known as "Korean Fan Death".

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Still Awake

2011-12-23T02:52:00.001-05:00

They've been threatening a green Christmas all week but as of 2:30 AM it is snowing!

It's a world of white out there right now.

Whether it's still there by tomorrow afternoon remains to be seen...

2011-12-22T23:50:00.000-05:00

Super busy at work with the whole Christmas thing. Be back before Christmas!

Hope everyone's having a great holiday so far!

2011-12-18T01:35:00.001-05:00

1. Fed Ex believes last Monday was their busiest day of all time. They estimated that they shipped 17 000 000 packages in one day alone.

2. Phyllis Diller is from Lima, Ohio, the small town where Glee takes place.

3. Rick Perry's anti-gay ad is the most disliked (by "dislike" clicks) YouTube video of all time.

4. Debt in Canadian households is at another all-time high. It is currently at 153% of income.

5. 2/3 of Canadians haven't finished their Christmas shopping. On average this year so far, people in Atlantic Canada spent the most and people in Quebec spent the least.

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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Click Here

2011-12-14T09:45:00.000-05:00

Click here to get advice from John Stamos on what to do in bed when you're feeling romantic.

Not Subtle

2011-12-13T19:01:00.000-05:00

People at the store think I don't know they're reading my blog even though I've told them many times that I don't want to combine my personal life with what happens at work and that's why I don't have any of them on Facebook.

Because that kind of behaviour isn't professional.

So thanks, guys.

Mentally Ill

2011-12-13T12:48:00.002-05:00

So the other day my dad and my mom's friend's husband went to a Senators game.

My dad is obsessed with getting out of the parking lot at Scotiabank Place as quickly as possible at the end of games... because if you don't plan it exactly perfectly it can take hours of sitting in that parking lot just to make it out onto the street with all the cars that are there trying leave.

So planning this out is his personal climbing of Everest.

When you go to a Senators game with my dad that means you have to get there like two hours early and then sit around so that you can get the strategic parking spot necessary to get out of the parking lot at the end of the game first. If you don't that means sitting in your car for up to an hour, trying to get out of the parking lot in a giant line of cars because despite having been built in the middle of nowhere when it was new, Scotiabank place has really terribly designed entrances and exits to the outside roads.

You'd think the fact that they had no neighbours when it was built would mean they had a blank slate for however many entrances and exits they wanted, designed in any way they wanted, but nope.

Anyway, once you get this highly important strategic parking spot you get to order a coke and then sit in your seats and stare at the ice for around an hour until the game starts.

Then five minutes before the end of the game, even if it's tied, you have to run out of there like Spartacat was shooting hotdogs from a cannon right at your face and get in the car and book it out of the parking lot before everyone else gets in their cars and the craziness begins.

I don't know if my dad has ever seen the end of an NHL game that he's gone to.

Anyway, my mom's friend's kid (this guy's son) has this crazy case of OCD. Like crazy, the kind you see on Oprah. You know, where he won't touch anything and whatnot.

So I get home and there's this car in the driveway and I ask whose car that is and my mom says it's her friend's husband's car and he came here and my dad drove.

Fair enough. I was about to move on from that question when she adds that he also has OCD.

I didn't know that.

So he would have drove them except that because of his OCD he is afraid to drive with people in the car that aren't members of his immediate family. He can only drive with them or by himself and with no one else.

Strange.

Oh, and one other thing.

Her friend also asked her to tell my dad that because of her husband's OCD... when they get up to leave their seats at the end of the game and once they get outside (probably running, according to my dad's rules) he'll have to go back to their seats that they just left up to four or five times to check that he hasn't forgotten something.

I can just picture how this played out:

I'm pretty sure ten minutes before the game ended my dad declared that they were leaving and started running out and then the other guy announced that he had to go back because he forgot something... and then my dad just left him there.

2011-12-13T12:22:00.004-05:00

What I Learned This Week

2011-12-10T17:40:00.000-05:00

1. Purdue produces about 12 000 000 chickens per week.

2. The mass of the Empire State Building is about 300 000 metric tonnes.

3. Anderson Cooper wears the same thing to work every day: white sneakers, jeans, a white T-shirt and a hoodie.

4. Erika Slezak (Viki on One Life to Live) is the most-awarded soap opera actress of all time.

5. Today is the anniversary of the first-ever college basketball game played between two different schools. It was in 1896. Yale played Wesleyan. Wesleyan won 4-3.
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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

What's Going On With These Blogs

2011-12-05T00:40:00.002-05:00

You may be wondering why if I'm too tired to do very much blogging I'm doing it less over here, where the action is, and why I've instead seemingly transformed what was supposed to be a TV blog into a One Life to Live blog over at Square Eyes.

I'll tell you. The main reason is I didn't want to mix the subject of this blog too much... if I posted everything I wanted to say about every TV show I watched over here then this would turn into a TV blog and on top of everything else would have a hazy, unclear subject.

So why am I only talking about One Life to Live over there?

Good question: as I've said, I'm super-tired. The good thing about One Life to Live is that it's on every day. So it gives you something to blog that's concrete on a timeline that's pre-determined. You don't have to get yourself going to blog every day... the show's on every day and keeping up means blogging the show almost every day.

The other thing is with how tired I am keeping up with ABC soaps is a lot of work. They may be soap operas in every sense of the word, but one thing they are not is the kind of soap operas where nothing ever happens and if you don't watch for three years the same stories are still playing and nothing's changed. They move very quickly, to the point where if I fast forward through the commercials I sometimes miss little bits that change the whole story. The other thing is they're notorious for drawing on their decades-long stories and rosters of characters to make more complex and interesting soap opera plot lines and surprising twists and all the rest of it and gets to the point where you have to start Wikipediaing the story just to catch up on the parts you missed when you weren't watching eight years ago for a few years. Actually, I've lately taken to Wikipediaing stories I actually did watch just to see if I remember them correctly.

One Life to Live is especially complicated. That show is a real maze of forty-three years of incest, murder, marriage, infidelity, mental illness, patricide, false identities, family trees, babies switched at birth and so on and so on and so on until you can't even tell who's related to who anymore. Did you know that Jessica and Natalie are twins but only Natalie is Clint's biological daughter and that Jessica's biological father was a cult leader? That's complicated enough before you start to take all of Jessica's multiple personalities into account. Or Jessica's mother's multiple personalities into account (that's a real can of worms that only One Life to Live could create).

Anyway, the point... it keeps the habit going of blogging every day (or nearly) and it's a subject I'm interested in but it is time consuming.

The other thing is that I sometimes post here the most popular Google searches that lead people to this site... well of all the things I blog about, One Life to Live is about the most popular single Google search of all of them bringing people to my blogs.

That show has almost no viewers but apparently every single one of them is an incessant Googler. I know they're incessant tweeters. How do you think they got to be the stars of that reality show Dirty Soap? Their viewers, as I have found out, are as a group as hardcore into that show as I am.

Anyway so it keeps focus and it actually brings readers to the site, which I love because soap opera fans know that they're part of a sort of community and when you find out you like the same soap opera as someone you sort of feel a connection so it's very personal... like discovering you have a friend in common.

If you're a Galactica fan you may know what I mean... when you suddenly discover someone that you would never suspect is a Galactica fan actually is one and you get both so excited because there are no small Galactica fans, only obsessed Galactica fans and it's such a thrill to find one at random throughout your day when you don't expect it. I think this also happens to fans of Gilmore Girls and The Comeback.

So blogging that show every day is very time-consuming when I'm already very tired.

But I'm super into it so I'm enjoying it as well.

I do intend to widen it out to other shows (I watch a million shows... I love TV) but it might take a few weeks and also One Life to Live is over in about six weeks anyway (after 43 years!) and that will force the blog into opening up.

So hopefully that will make things make a little more sense in terms of what I've been doing and why and it has been my intention for a while to open up that and this blog to more subjects and more postings.

I've actually been mulling over something kind of extended for over here that I've been thinking about for a while but again, I've been so tired.

Also it's quite personal so I don't want to just rush through it.

So things are in the works and I'm hoping to get things moving again in the very near future.

If you're wondering what the next most popular single search is on the blogs after One Life to Live it's "Man Love Thursdays". You can Google it but you won't like it when you find out what it is. So prepare yourself.

Oh, and if you work for the government, the military or an NGO do NOT Google it on your computer at work.

Google One Life to Live instead.

Oops

2011-12-05T00:07:00.000-05:00

OK, I know I said I'd be back days ago but I'm still way behind on my sleep.

Although this week the store starts its Christmas hours so I'll be going in an hour later and that should help... although I'll also be getting home an hour or more later so I don't know if that will help.

We'll see!

Anyway, I would like to propose this post as what I would be saying if I had posted something in the last few days.

Anyway I'm planning to actually sleep tonight so it shouldn't be long.

What I Learned This Week

2011-12-04T00:07:00.000-05:00

1. Of all the homeless families in America, 1/3 live in Flordida.

2. The massive sale on Blackberry Playbooks is expected to cost Research In Motion half a billion dollars.

3. Jane Lynch is deaf in her right ear.

4. All My Children and One Life to Live each cost $50 Million a year to produce.

5. The episode of Happy Days in which the famous "jumping the shark" scene took place was based on an idea by Henry Winkler's parents. When the show was shooting scenes in California, Henry Winkler's parents insisted repeatedly that he should tell the show's producers he knew how to water ski. Eventually he showed the producers one of their letters as a joke (because they kept bugging him about it over and over) and that created the idea of doing the water skiing scene in which Fonzie jumps the shark while water skiing, thus creating the expression "jump the shark".

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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Sleep

2011-11-30T01:42:00.000-05:00

If I haven't been around it's because I haven't been sleeping very well and am very tired.

I got some of that sleeping spray you put on your pillow from the Body Shop.

That normally does the trick so I plan on being back tomorrow night sometime or Thursday.

What I Learned This Week

2011-11-26T01:35:00.000-05:00

1. The Tim Horton's in Kandahar (soon to be closing down) has served over 2.5 million customers.

2. The next most inhabitable place after Earth (so far as is known) is Titan, a moon of Saturn.

3. Nickelback did not get paid for that controversial performance at the NFL game. It was to help promote a fundraiser for the United Way.

4. Tina Turner is 72

5. Paula Deen has severe agoraphobia and went through a period in which she almost never left her house for twenty years.

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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Winter Part 2

2011-11-26T01:31:00.000-05:00

OK, the snowman melted outside and it is unseasonably warm again for November 22.

However it's Black Friday and people have started buying everything in cash so that means the Christmas shopping season has begun and that means it is now officially winter.

Winter

2011-11-24T01:50:00.001-05:00

It snowed today.

And I mean it snowed like crazy.

It wasn't exactly a soft introduction... it was barely two weeks ago you could sit outside and talk about how unseasonably warm it was and this morning you could have used the words "winter wonderland."

But no one did because they had to drive to work through it.

Why is it that the first snow of the season makes everybody so mentally incompetent? The second more than a centimeter of snow lands on the ground people start thinking they've never seen snow before and drive like maniacs? Or think maybe the snow will be different this year?...

Just bust right ahead there and and double the speed limit in you summer tires. Don't pause before that left turn; the snow's not slippery.

The traffic was ridiculous. But some kid built this snowman outside the store. They put branches in it and everything.

2011-11-24T00:48:00.002-05:00

Click Here

2011-11-21T00:11:00.000-05:00

Click here to find out about a guy who was straight and then had a head injury and turned gay. I'm not even kidding!

2011-11-21T00:09:00.000-05:00

What I Learned This Week

2011-11-19T09:45:00.003-05:00

1. Glee's mash-up of Adele on Tuesday was the show's 300th performance.

2. Two thirds of the land in Denmark is used for agriculture.

3. Bette Davis Eyes is a cover. (Hear the original here).

4. Cinqo de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. It commemorates the victory of Mexico over France at the Battle of Puebla, which Mexico was not expected to win.

5. Christopher Walken was on the boat the night Natalie Wood died.

6. Prince Charles's birthday was last Friday (November 14).

7. Today is the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address (1863).

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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Click Here

2011-11-18T09:50:00.000-05:00

Click here to see Sarah Silverman sing On My Own from Les Miserables. Really.

(Via The Huffington Post).

Real Conversations From Work

2011-11-18T09:45:00.002-05:00

Today a lady came in looking for a shoe rack.

I couldn't say how old she was... she was at least in her 70's, maybe her 80's.

She lives with her daughter and they recently moved from a house into a condo and are going through a bit of a hassle trying to downsize everything into the condo.

She knew what she wanted but wasn't sure her daughter would agree with her about everything so she was wondering out loud what her daughter would think about one item or another since they would both have to use some of them.

Lady: We are always having to compromise on how to set things up. You know, we have two walk-in closets but we still disagree on how to set them up, although she has one and I have one. But still we always tell each other what to do in those closets.

Still, at least we don't have to share any closets and we each have one.

People always say "How long ago did your husband pass away?"

And I tell them "Sixteen years. And I miss him terribly. But..."

And then they want to know, "Haven't you met anyone else you like in all that time?"

And I say "Yes, but the one thing I don't miss is all that compromise. The one thing I would not do is give up my independence again and have to compromise on every little thing."

You know, for women of a certain generation this is a very big thing to think about because of how we always used to do things and it's not the same for girls now. It's not so simple for women who used to do things that way.

Girls now would never dream of being told they couldn't do things exactly the way they wanted because they had to compromise with someone else.

I tell you, ever since women got the vote it's all gone to hell.

Ever since then it's been all showing off.

I laughed so loud the staff all over the store stopped what they were doing and looked over. And it's not a small place.

She laughed too so I guess she was kidding.

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Photo:
I'm Confused by Brian Lane Winfield Moore is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Click Here

2011-11-17T09:45:00.000-05:00

Click here to see Saturday Night Live doing the Kardashian divorce.

2011-11-16T21:45:00.000-05:00

Click Here

2011-11-14T09:45:00.000-05:00

Click here to see an unexpected cover of a Lady Gaga song.

Out All Day

2011-11-13T21:45:00.000-05:00

So I had a big day planned for going downtown today.

I was supposed to go on a date, go visit Adeline (Tara and Tim's baby) and then hang out with Allison.

I accomplished two of three.

So this guy I was supposed to go out with bugs me incessantly to go out with him... but we haven't seen each other in years, actually.

We hooked up once after meeting at a bar years ago. And I mean years ago... like maybe eight years ago.

So somehow we stumbled upon each other online and he's always wanting to get together and it involved going downtown so I shrug it off a lot of the time because it seems like a big time commitment.

But since I was going downtown anyway we arranged to meet in the afternoon. And he bailed! He didn't even respond to my e-mail to confirm that we'd be getting together this afternoon. Boys.

Anyway I went and visited the baby and brought the gift in the picture. I took the picture with my phone so maybe the black background makes it seem a bit less festive than it really was.

So that was fun and we watched a few episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia while I was there as that is Tara and Tim's new obsession. It was actually quite funny.

I ended up being quite late to meet Allison but she put the time to good use by getting engaged this afternoon.

So I crashed their engagement celebration and we went out and had some drinks in Westboro.

And now I am home and I have to get to bed since I work on Sundays.

What I Learned This Week

2011-11-12T23:38:00.000-05:00

1. By the end of 2011, the total student debt in America is expected to reach $1 Billion.

2. Indigo plans for books to represent only 50% of its business in the next few years.

3. TD is now the most valuable company in Canada by market value. (Before it was RBC)

4. Modern Family is the #1 show recorded by PVR's.

5. One Life to Live and All My Children each only needs to attract 10% of its previous TV audience to be profitable on the internet, according to the company that is planning to produce them online (that would be about 250 000 viewers per show per day).

6. Facebook is mentioned by name in 20% of American divorce cases.

7. According to a recent survey, Ottawa is the most liked city in Canada by Canadians. Toronto is the most disliked.

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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

7 Days of Autumn Songs Bonus!

2011-11-12T09:46:00.001-05:00

I found this little gem when I was looking for the songs on YouTube. Somebody made this video for Something To Believe In by The Bangles with all Barbie dolls. They even dressed them up to look like The Bangles. Interesting.

See it here.

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81/365 by sneakerzoom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

7 Days of Autumn Songs

2011-11-12T09:45:00.001-05:00

People have a hard time with this band.

They used to be the best thing and these days they've been lame for a long time so people like to argue about them, depending if they choose to think of them as the great band they formerly were or the ridiculous over-marketed concoction they are now.

I have loved and hated this band, I've seen them live (and loved it) when they were the real thing and no matter how much they irritate me now, nothing can undo my feeling that no matter what I still love them... especially their older stuff... and that would include this.

Everyone who knows this song loves it (but not everyone seems to know it). If you don't love it you might actually not have a heart!

There, I said it.

This song goes way back to 1988 and it was part of a concert movie... I remember when that movie came out the posters were everywhere. And those posters stayed there for years... people never got over how obsessed they were with it, they talked about it like it had just come out for so long.

I didn't see it when I was a kid but about eleven years ago I worked at a store that only had an audio cassette stereo system to play music in the store and we only had two cassettes: Mama Said by Lenny Kravitz and this one. Guess which one we listened to the most...

Hear it here.

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81/365 by sneakerzoom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

7 Days of Autumn Songs

2011-11-11T10:49:00.000-05:00

I never liked this band either, but all of my friends did.

Then when this song came out I loved it. And I got the album and was totally surprised by the album and loved it too.

And every October I faithfully took that CD out and listened to it over and over over for years.

It's the only album I've ever owned by them and still every October I get the urge to take it out and listen to it, but I haven't in a few years because back when I was really into it I was having a hard time and it made me sad (you know... in a good way... like the sad songs that help you get through rough times) and although I love to listen to songs that remind me of Autumn (and old times in general) every year as soon as the leaves start falling, I always worry that listening to this one will make me feel sad.

I think that may mean that I've been sadder lately than I've been willing to let on to myself.

Maybe I should just listen to it and see what happens.

Anyway, if nothing else the lead singer of this band is hot so you'll get that out of seeing the video.

See it here.

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81/365 by sneakerzoom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Click Here

2011-11-10T22:31:00.002-05:00

If you know Heather, click here to see her mom argue with Kevin O'Leary on TV on The Lang and O'Leary Exchange.

That's the national business news on CBC, if you missed it!

Oops

2011-11-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

We were down this morning due to some technical difficulties but we're back now.

Sorry about that!

7 Days of Autumn Songs

2011-11-10T09:57:00.000-05:00

I used to hate this band at the time. And then one Autumn night (maybe in 1995?) I was sitting outside a club in the market with Leanne, looking into one of those cobbletone courtyards and we were looking up at the stars talking about how we hated this band and how we always made fun of the kind of people that liked them.

And then we both admitted to loving this song, which had just come out at the time.

It was the first song by this band I ever liked and I ended up totally liking them once they had stopped being popular (something I do a lot).

I feel all their songs have an Autumny essence to them.

I love the now as a retro thing... in the way I love a lot of things from the 80's and 90's that I hated at the time (see: Bel Biv Devoe).

Anyway this song invariably reminds me of that night in the mid-90's, sitting on the stone steps, the trees in the market falling down onto the ground and looking up at the stars.

Hear it here.

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81/365 by sneakerzoom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

7 Days of Autumn Songs

2011-11-09T09:45:00.002-05:00

I was an angsty teenager in Canada in the 90's and so I loved Jann Arden. Get over it.

This song was there at a very difficult time and when I hear it I go right back there. I still actually repeat some of the lyrics to myself in my head to this day when I think I've forgotten what this song gave me way back then.

You'll probably know it.

Hear it here.

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81/365 by sneakerzoom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

7 Days of Autumn Songs

2011-11-08T09:45:00.001-05:00

Some people know this guy, but not the band he plays with on the side, less famously.

Some people love this guy, some people hate this guy but I love this band he plays with and I love, love, love this song.

I think this guy's had an album out every fall for the last nine years or something (sometimes to his credit, sometimes to his detriment) and he has a way of putting out five albums in a year as well, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes just a rush job that should have taken a little more time.

Anyway, I love this one and I hope you love it too, regardless of what you think about him.

Hear it here.

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81/365 by sneakerzoom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

7 Days of Autumn Songs

2011-11-07T21:45:00.002-05:00

This one takes me all the way back to 1990.

Remember in the late 80's when pop music took a sort of moody turn with Circle In the Sand and Martika and Shakespeare's Sister and all that?...

This is from that period.

My favorite pop band when I was a kid and maybe still...

Hear it here.

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81/365 by sneakerzoom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

7 Days Of Autumn Songs

2011-11-06T09:46:00.001-05:00

OK, we'll start off easy with one everyone knows.

This one brings me right back to 1995 every single time to Grade 12 English homeroom class.

All the songs from this album were big but I think this one was a real standout.

Hear it here.

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81/365 by sneakerzoom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

7 Days Of Autumn Songs

2011-11-06T09:45:00.001-05:00

So everyone knows that Autumn is the most nostalgic time of the year.

And there are certain songs that I always associate with autumny memories... songs I loved one year in the Autumn and always listened to or just songs that have the feeling of Autumn infused right into them.

Every Autumn I think about these songs, even if they're really old.

I think any one of them is really great to walk around to on a fall day, looking at the leaves, thinking about getting a coffee because it's just slightly too cold, watching people go about their Autumny business.

And also it's true that I express most of my memories through music, which I think is true for all of us.

So while these aren't songs I necessarily listen to all the time, they always make me think of fall leaves or things I've done over the backdrop of fall leaves at one time or another (some of them go back well over twelve years) and the fall leaves make me think of them.

Hope you like them (and that you're enjoying your Autumn)!

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81/365 by sneakerzoom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

What I Learned This Week

2011-11-05T18:10:00.001-04:00

1 There are 51 births per minute in India.

2. In 20 years, the number of dairy farmers in Canada has gone from 30 000 to 13 000.

3. Muammar Gaddafi had a song written for Condoleeza Rice called Black Flower In the White House.

4. Patrick Stewart did not want to do the X-Men movies and had to be convinced to meet with one of the producers. At that meeting the producer changed his mind simply by throwing a copy of an X-Men comic book on the table, causing Patrick Stewart to exclaim "What am I doing on the cover of a comic book?"

5. It's technically true that Rick Perry was Al Gore's "Presidential campaign chairman" but the way that statement is left hanging to make it sound like he was Al Gore's campaign chairman against George Bush is false. It was in the 1988 presidential primary race and Rick Perry was only the state chairman for the campaign in Texas.

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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

It's Done

2011-11-02T00:21:00.001-04:00

Back to work Wednesday.

I'm so depressed.

Click Here

2011-10-31T14:50:00.001-04:00

Click here for a preview of tomorrow's episode of Glee.

Great Expectations

2011-10-31T02:26:00.001-04:00

I just Tweeted Oprah.

Do you think she'll Tweet me back?

I'm sure she's got lots of time and she always seems so chatty on TV...

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blackberry torch keyboard detail by viskas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

And That Wasn't All

2011-10-31T02:21:00.000-04:00

I also made homemade chicken soup... from bones and water and everything.

It was amazing.

And then for dessert I had homemade vanilla ice cream from my ice cream maker and caramel sauce that I made myself.

It's been quite an evening.

Staying In

2011-10-31T02:16:00.002-04:00

So tonight I stayed in (a big surprise, I know) and I made baked Camembert with garlic and Rosemary while I watched Once Upon A Time.

Man, that show is cheesy but I love it.

In case you're wondering, I did in fact eat this whole loaf of bread. So there.

Annoying

2011-10-30T18:26:00.000-04:00

Def Leppard is so unnecessarily impossible to find on iTunes! All I can find is cover versions, accoustic tributes, the lullaby version and live albums.

I just want the stupid album. Is that so hard?

The Legend of Zelda

2011-10-29T18:54:00.001-04:00

So I downloaded The Legend of Zelda (but not yet Def Lepard).

I didn't think it would be impossible or anything but it was a little easier than I thought I would find it... in an hour I already had three Triforces.

Except now I'm not sure what to do; I'm kind of stuck.

When you download the games on Wii you don't get the manual or the map that goes with the game and I don't like to use those walk-throughs on the internet unless I really have to so I spent a lot of time wandering around.

I found a map for the game online that's already been labeled with what's where and I found out after the fact that I actually did the Triforces in the wrong order (not that it stops you from using them).

Surprisingly I still have some instincts in this game... there have been two times that I walked past a certain part and thought that if I bombed it there would be a secret passage and I turned out to be right. And that's just from really, really old memory from the 80's.

Not bad!

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Ny Original Zelda Cartrage by carianoff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

What I Learned This Week

2011-10-29T18:40:00.002-04:00

1. Almost 3000 people who applied for gun licenses in Canada last year were denied because of concerns about their safety.

2. The original name of Google was going to be "Back Rub".

3. There are approximately 894 million people in the world over age 60. That number is expected to increase to 2.4 billion by 2050.

4. All Tweets are saved in the Library of Congress.
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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Vacation, Day 4

2011-10-28T17:46:00.002-04:00

OK, so I'm not going anywhere for my vacation, so what am I doing?

Nothing, y'all!

It's the best thing.

Yesterday I did take some time out to get laid. There, I said it.

Yes, it did take most of the day... I'll let your imagination do with that information what it will.

The truth is I've become a born-again virgin lately and I really needed a little something. Also as someone with a persistent case of adult acne I am aware that one of the (many) kinds of acne I get is hormomal... that's one of the kinds you get when you're a teenager and you can't do anything about them. Anyway, I get them when I'm stressed out or I haven't had sex in the appropriate amount of time.

Often times getting laid starts to banish those acne on the same day.

I'm pleased to report that 24 hours (or so) later they are now disappearing, and doing so quickly.

Also it was just a good thing in general.

So for today I have exactly zero planned.

I'm thinking about making risotto, something I have never done. Also complicated by the fact that I've never actually had risotto (I know, strange). So I won't know if it's not right... anyway there's a recipe for it in my Italian cookbook that I love so much so I'm thinking about it.

I'm also thinking about getting pizza from the place we used to get it from when I was 7. I don't think I've had pizza from that place in at least 25 years but I was walking past it yesterday and it smelled exactly like I remember it so even though Gabriel's pizza rules all (and I have some Gabriel's pizza in the freezer) I'm thinking about ordering my early childhood pizza.

For the record I've loved Gabriel's since I was about 7, so it is also my childhood pizza, as well as current pizza of choice... the very first Gabriel's is not too far from here and it was the pizza of choice since my childhood (after 7)... if you've ever been in an argument with me about where to order pizza from and wondered why I am so psychopathically insistent on Gabriel's that is part of the reason... the other part is just that it's the best).

I am also giving serious consideration to using some leftover Wii points to download the 8-bit Legend of Zelda from the 80's onto my Wii and playing that while listening to 80's Def Leppard and Bon Jovi albums.

Vacation.

Vacation

2011-10-26T00:14:00.000-04:00

I am now on vacation!

Not that I'm going anywhere.

My parents are in Mexico and I have the house to myself.

So far I have gotten my haircut (something I have been meaning to do for weeks) and Keith came over for dinner.

Tomorrow I plan to get up on time and reset my inner schedule to not get up at 11 and go to bed at 3.

We'll see how that goes...

What I Learned This Week

2011-10-22T16:16:00.001-04:00

1. There are 1091 GAP stores in North America but they plan to shut down 20% of them before the end of 2013.

2. People who reduce the amount of protein they take in when they go on a diet can end up gaining weight instead. The ideal balance is 15% of calories from protein.

3. People with store credit cards spend up to 30% more.

4. There are approximately 1.4 million gang members in 33 000 gangs known in America. They are expanding most quickly in the Northeast and Southeast states.

5. 41 out of 54 members of the Commonwealth consider homosexuality to be a crime.

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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Survey Says...

2011-10-21T01:06:00.000-04:00

The most common Google searches bringing people to the blog are:

1. "taylor lautner gay"

2. "ty burrel gay"

3. "serena van der woodsen"

4. "is ty burrell gay"

5. "gossip girl characters"

In general, all the major ones are for Taylor Lautner, Ty Burrell, and Gossip Girl, which is odd because none of these things appear in the Google searches for my TV Blog, where overwhelmingly the #1 search is "who killed Victor Lord JR?" and other searches for One Life to Live.

Some more interesting ones over here are "don't send me anymore farmville invites angry", "gay strippers", "snoky porno" (I assume that' "Snooky porno"), "goes barefoot constantly" , "30+ big ass", "famous homosexuals, "gay farmville neighbours" and "tyra blank".

Click Here

2011-10-21T00:38:00.000-04:00

Click here to see a dance song about the movie The Dark Crystal. Obviously only funny if you've seen The Dark Crystal.

Via The Nerdist.

Click Here

2011-10-21T00:36:00.002-04:00

Click here to see the new anime-punk-tattoo Barbie doll.

Rain

2011-10-21T00:29:00.003-04:00

It rained like crazy Wednesday night and well into Thursday.

All Thursday morning it was insanely windy. You could almost feel yourself blowing away in it.

When I went over to Starbuck's they were closed.

Then someone rushed over and unlocked the door and said they were open.

"Were you closed?"

"Yeah, this whole side had to be evacuated because there was a power line blowing over and they thought it was going to hit the roof of the building."

Yikes.

On my way over there I went through the parking lot and there was a car that had been parked in a regular parking space but it had been pushed almost twenty feet out of the space and into the middle of the parking lot.

OK, I suppose the car could have somehow rolled there and the wind was just a coincidence.

But after walking in that wind and getting pushed all over the place by it, I know what I believe.

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Rain in the city by niubunu.photo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Best Band Ever

2011-10-20T11:45:00.004-04:00

OK so check it out...

Maybe everyone knows about this except for me but have you ever heard of a band called The Minibosses?

They're a rock band that plays the songs from old 80's Nintendo games.

If you're a big Nintendo nerd you know the best all-time video game music comes from the Mega Man games and I heard this track of them playing all the songs from Mega Man 2. It's the best thing ever!

Click here to listen to it. It's completely amazing. It's everything you love about the Mega Man 2 songs, only real. If you want to hear the real songs from the levels fast forward it to about 45 seconds in.

If you're not big on Mega Man click here to hear a surprisingly nice version of the theme from The Legend of Zelda.

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E3 2005 G4's giant NES controller by PopCultureGeek.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Starbuck's Again

2011-10-20T00:56:00.000-04:00

Today the guy in front of me at the cash at Starbuck's was just saying he was having a bad day when a $5 bill fell out of his wallet.

It fell in a really awkward way so that he didn't see it and probably no one would've seen it to the end of the day.

So I pointed it out to him and he was confused and tried to give it to the cashier.

Anyway I convinced him it fell out of his wallet and he took it and they gave me a free peanut butter cupcake!

Then the guy who made my drink asked me if I was ever going to stop ordering Iced Tea Lemonade's on account of the weather getting colder and I said no.

I'm not letting go of those things until it's too cold to carry them across the parking lot back to the store.

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February 6, 2011 by Jeremy Jenum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Shopping Spree

2011-10-19T01:19:00.001-04:00

I decided to get all new socks and underwear today as I've had it with trying to string along what I've already got.

Anyway, despite all the old jokes about how they're a bad gift, new socks and underwear is actually one of the best things if you do it right.

This is not an easy thing for guys. There aren't all kinds of mens' underwear stores competing for your business in Ottawa. It's especially hard if you're my size and too small for an adult size small but too adult-shaped for a child's size large.

I tried at the GAP but they didn't have any underwear I liked in my size and they had no socks I liked at all... what happened to the good old days when the GAP used to have all these amazing socks?

Anyway I ended up only getting socks for work (that I really need) so that means getting rid of all my old ones. Yay! I just wear generic black CK ones but they're sooooooo good.

Actually I'm a bit of a fanatic of CK underwear in general. It just fits me exactly right (I guess that's personal and depends on your size and shape) so I also got some CK underwear.

There's one exact type I've been wearing for years and I refuse to give up on. Each pair costs $30... that's more than the price of the pants I was wearing when I bought them but I don't care because they're amazing.

Some people may think spending $100 on socks and underwear is a bit excessive but they last forever and they always feel as comfortable as when you first got them so it's not like you're constantly replacing them or embarrassed of them if you suddenly have occasion for someone to see your underwear unexpectedly.

I'm already imagining putting those socks on tomorrow.

Redeemed

2011-10-19T01:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday when I went into Starbuck's the manager was standing near the door and as soon as I walked in the door she yelled out "Venti Green Tea Lemonade" so that they were making it before I was even totally inside.

I guess they really do know me by my drink.

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February 6, 2011 by Jeremy Jenum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Kinder Surprise

2011-10-17T00:44:00.000-04:00

I'm always surprised by how good Kinder Surprises are. I always expect them to taste like Dollar Store chocolate but they're not bad.

Today somebody handed them out at work and mine contained an orange replica of Cat Face!

Don't tell me you've never seen Cat Face! If you haven't, just click here.

What I Learned This Week

2011-10-15T19:46:00.001-04:00

1. There are over half a million children in foster care in the US.

2. Today is Global Handwashing Day.

3. The richest man in the world is Carlos Slim, from Mexico. He is estimated to be worth about $74 Billion. #2 is Bill Gates and #3 is Warren Buffet.

4. Warren Buffet made $39 814 784 last year.

5. "Peggy" is a nickname for "Margaret".

6. 1 in 6 cellphones have fecal e-coli on them.

7. In Renaissance England mathematics was considered to be closely tied to sorcery and there was an actual crime called "Calculating".

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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

2011-10-14T13:30:00.000-04:00

Scratch That

2011-10-14T01:13:00.001-04:00

OK before I said Starbuck's knew me by my drink but yesterday I went in there and all the usual people were there and I even specifically ordered a "Venti Green Tea Lemonade" and they still gave me a Venti Iced Green Tea.

By the time I got to the store it seemed like it was too much effort to return it so I just took it but I didn't finish it.

The iced green tea is made with this "Zen tea" that I do not like because it contains mint and I do not like mint... actually real mint upsets my stomach but the taste of even artificial mint if it's at all realistic sets off a mental warning so that I hate eating things that are mint-flavored. Ironically, there are lots of mint-flavored things that taste totally fake that I don't mind... like mint candies or some kinds of mint chocolate. If it's mint but tastes like it was made in a factory it doesn't bother me.

Anyway I drank almost all of it but was not impressed.

I consulted the side of the cup and it did say "GT" not "GTL" so it was marked wrong.

I should have thought something was wrong when they asked if I wanted it hot or cold... because as far as I know they don't serve hot green tea with lemonade. But now I think I'll try making that at home because it sounds amazing.

But not with Zen tea.

For the record they use the Zen tea even when you get lemonade in it but the lemonade covers up the taste of the mint.

I do make a great Green Tea Lemonade at home but I'm too lazy to make it in the morning and just bring it with me.

I even have one of those plastic fake Starbuck's cups to put them in but I haven't used it in sooooo long.

I love that cup because it's double-walled so it's Venti on the inside and then even larger on the outside so when people see you on the bus with it they stare and you can just hear them thinking "What the fuck size is that?"

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February 6, 2011 by Jeremy Jenum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Click Here

2011-10-13T00:02:00.000-04:00

Click here to see a hilarious but gross tattoo. You will regret it but still pass it on to everyone you know to see.

Via The Nerdist.

Survey Says

2011-10-11T01:29:00.002-04:00

I never get enough sleep Saturday night to work all day on Sunday, and I work Sunday every week.

Starting at 9:30.

I know.

So I always try to get myself a Venti Green Tea Lemonade from Starbuck's right at the beginning.

It's sugar and caffeine and cold. It's the perfect thing.

But this Sunday morning I forgot my wallet at home!

I was so depressed.

Then I realized I had one of those surveys in my bag... you know if you're the 100th customer it prints out a link to a website on your receipt that brings you to a survey and if you fill the survey out you get a free drink?

So I raced to the office and tore through everything in my bag (there's a surprising amount of receipts in there) and I found it but realized it says the offer expires in fourteen days and I had no idea how old the receipt was. So I was afraid they wouldn't let me use it.

You're thinking "Couldn't you tell how old it was by looking at the date at the top of the receipt?" Try being that smart at 9:30 AM on Sunday morning.

I gave up and opened a bottle of water from my stash. After two boring sips of that I decided to try the survey website anyway.

So I booted up the survey online and it worked.

Then I realized they were probably going to let me do the survey and then at the end tell me the free drink part was expired. But I persevered.

Partway through doing the survey questions some girl who was supposed to be working but didn't show up called to act like she didn't know she was supposed to be working and I pretty much hung up on her since A) I'm tired of her crazy stories about why she can't come in at the last minute B) she was standing in between me and my iced tea.

I filled in all the questions, giving my Starbuck's pretty high marks for everything... except it asks if they know you by name, which none of them do. That was the only thing I had to answer "no" to.

Actually none of them know my store's name, even though it's across the parking lot from them and is visible from their cash register and has been there for years. I think my store's been there longer than Starbuck's.

One time I told them the name of the store and they said "Where's that?"

So I said "It's across the parking lot. I'm looking at it right now."

They said they never heard of it and they didn't even look!

Anyway I did tell the survey that they know me by my drink, which they do (Venti Green Tea Lemonade).

And in the end it still gave me a code for a free drink!

But it was only a tall, which is like 1/3 of the size of a Venti.

But that was better than nothing and since I didn't have my wallet I couldn't complain. I had already begged someone to buy me a donut earlier in the week so I couldn't ask someone to buy me an iced tea now (especially since an iced tea costs four times more than a donut, which seems strange.)

So I went in to Starbuck's and they saw me come in and started making me a Venti Green Tea Lemonade and I was trying to tell them from the line up that I only had a free survey thing for a tall (because if they see you coming they start making it when they see you to speed up the line so it's ready before you get to the cash register).

But they gave me the Venti anyway!

Yay!

When I got done telling everyone at work how excited I was, I reached into my pocket and discovered that my bank card had been in there all along.

It wasn't in my wallet at all but I had been carrying it around on me all morning.

Oops.

But hey, that was a free iced tea so why complain?

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February 6, 2011 by Jeremy Jenum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Click Here

2011-10-10T23:13:00.003-04:00

Click here to see Sesame Street doing a takeoff of Glee.

Strange Dream

2011-10-09T20:00:00.001-04:00

I had a dream that went all night (or it felt like it did) where I was married to Seth MacFarlane.

I barely remember it. But I do remember that he didn't make a lot of jokes or anything in person but he was quiet and romantic. I was always wondering where he was and every time he would show up it turned out he had been looking for me the whole time.

I think there ended up being some kind of murder mystery toward the end of the dream and I was wondering if Seth would find some way to keep the whole situation away from me because it was pretty terrible... although I don't remember any of the details of it. I thought that was what a good husband should do and he seemed like he'd be that kind of husband.

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Observando by Freyja* is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

What I Learned This Week

2011-10-08T15:20:00.000-04:00

1. Galen Weston (the guy in the Loblaw's commercials) is worth $8 Billion.

2. "One nation under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954; it was not part of the original pledge of allegiance.

3. Sarah Palin's maiden name is "Sarah Heath".

4. Jellyfish propel themselves forward by contracting their bodies into a ring, thereby expelling the water inside them, creating the thrust that moves them along.

5. The human brain doesn't fully develop until most peoples' early 20's. It is able to imprint new neural pathways related to different subjects until certain ages before they become permanent. If it matured to its adult level at a younger age, people would have less experience by the time the connections were permanent and therefore there would be less possibility in terms of how any person's brain could shape his or her personality, abilities, opinions, etc.

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Photo: IMG_4873 by bionicteaching is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Fall

2011-10-06T00:42:00.001-04:00

I took this photo on August 30 of the first leaf I saw on the ground and thought fall must be already coming.

Then to my surprise most of September was quite warm and summery.

And now it is unquestionably fall.

The heaters are on, sweaters are out and I'm actually already seeing some windows fogging up.

I heard that Saturday will be 26 degrees though so that's not bad. It may be Summer's last big day out so I hope you're planning to enjoy it.

2011-10-04T16:00:00.001-04:00

Click Here

2011-10-04T12:55:00.000-04:00

Click here to read an article about the controversy around a gay six year-old.

Always Be Prepared

2011-10-04T03:04:00.000-04:00

I didn't have my buspass when I left work tonight. I had a feeling I might have forgotten it when I left this morning.

But no worries, I had lots of change. I even checked my pockets to make sure I had enough before I left the store.

But when I got to the bus stop to go home the change was gone and all I had was a $10 bill. And it was way too late to break it. I could have broken it at the store but I had change then (I still don't know where all of this change went!).

And I had nowhere else to go because everything else was closed.

So I paid $10 to take the bus home tonight because I forgot my buspass!

Surprisingly, the bus driver didn't react at all to putting $10 in the box.

You would think that would register as unusual.

Glee

2011-10-04T03:01:00.001-04:00

Catch the new Glee songs here.