1234567890

This Friday at 6:31 (exactly when this post was put up) is 1234567890 Day.  At 6:31 pm EST the Unix time will have been 1234567890.  I have no idea what that means exactly but I did find this description online:

"Unix time [is] defined as the number of seconds elapsed since midnight Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of January 1, 1970, not counting leap seconds. It is widely used not only on Unix-like operating systems but also in many other computing systems."

Does that explain it better?  Yeah, me niether.  But happy 123456789 day anyway

Searchlight:Best Live Music Club

CBC is currently doing a web pole to find the best live music club in Canada.  The list was recently whittled down to the Top 20.

You can view the list and vote here.  I, of course, will be voting daily for the Black Sheep Inn which should give a good run.

There is currently a small controversy going on around the internet concerning this contest because the larger cities (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver are underrepresented in the top 20 list. I think this is slightly ridiculous because it was clearly done by voting.  More people voted for the smaller town venues.  I think people are not going to pick the most well known place that has the most shows with the biggest bands (like the Horshoe Tavern in T.O.)  because they aren't as memorable or special.  Everyone has a special show that was really memorable and usually that is partially because of the atmosphere.  And usually that special show was not at the place that everyone goes to all the time.  I am pretty sure that none of the venues on the list hold more than 200 people.  That just makes the show more intimate and the people who run it more down to earth.  Sure it is wierd that Winnipeg has 3 and Vancouver has 0 but they were voted by radio3 listeners.  

I hope the Black Sheep wins but even if it doesn't I think each of the other places are probably similar scenarios.  Now I know where to see a show anywhere in Canada.

Oh Wikipedia

I came across this story on Slashdot about Wikipedia which illustrates exactly why it can backfire on itself even with it's relatively good checking mechanisms.

Here is the story:

'Germany has a new minister of economic affairs. Mr. von und zu Guttenberg is descended from an old and noble lineage, so his official name is very long: Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. When first there were rumors that he would be appointed to the post, someone changed his Wikipedia entry and added the name 'Wilhelm,' so Wikipedia stated his full name as: Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Wilhelm Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg.' 

What resulted from this edit points to a big problem with wikipedia:

Several reputable media outlets started using the wrong name from Wikipedia.  Although wikipedia had been corrected it was looking for proof of the correct name.  The proof was quickly found on the same newspapers and internet sites which had used the wrong name in the first place.

In short, this is what can happen:

Wikipedia states a false fact, a reputable media outlet copies the false fact, and this outlet is then used as the source to prove the false fact to Wikipedia.

The first problem here is a reputable media outlet getting it's info from wikipedia.  But the real issue is that we may have so much info at our fingertips but that info is doomed to be forever flawed with errors.  Oh well that is life I guess.

Crazy Cat People

Cats have never really bothered me with the exception of being allergic to them when I was younger.  It is really the cat owners that can be pretty messed up.  You get this with dog owners too but not near as often.  I am not talking about people who just have pets and treat them as pets.  No, I am talking about those people who not only treat their cat as a child but take it to the extreme and dedicate their life to all things 'cat'.  Everything in their life is oriented around their cat and cat related items.

Well this has got to be the most ridiculous cat related item I have ever seen! 

So many questions immediately fill my head after the shock and horror and vomit pass through first.  WHAT? WHY? WHO? HOW? WHERE? WHEN? And then I continue to feel sick.

I'm not even going to go into trying to answer those questions.  But I guess it might make sense because maybe the same people who buy those 'plates' that are always advertised in magazines are probably generally crazy cat people.

And while we are on the topic of cats, check out the cat remote.  As the link will tell you, "Cats are not known, however, for their ability to learn and obey the commands of their owners. That's where the Control-a-Cat Remote Control can come in handy." The remote also does not require batteries but relies on the power of 'wishful thinking' in order to get your cat to 'Stop Scratching', 'Show Affection' or 'Remain Aloof'.

What a fantastic invention.

The Beams are GONE! aka Free Wood

Yes people, we are finally taking the plunge and starting the renovation of the main living space of our house. We have never painted it because the tape joints were so bad and we simply had to fix those first.I decided that the first step would be to remove the crazy 'beams'. They were definitely a talking point/conversation starter but you never quite knew what people thought of them. Some people tried to make compliments about them but you were always pretty sure that they were thinking the same thing we were: Why?
What had always held me back from ripping them out right away was the question of what they were covering. I wanted to do the whole room at once instead of having some glaring ripped up ceiling to look at for half a year. And my suspicions were correct. They were covering up some seriously mangled tape joints in the stipple ceiling. (Stippled ceilings, if you must know, are another one of the reasons I hate suburbs - more on that some other time.)
One was even glued on.And this the end result....Does anybody want some free wood? I'm serious, I'll be throwing it out but it is perfectly acceptable burning material for people who do that kind of thing.The next step: Scraping every bit of stipple off that ceiling. I sure hope it comes off as easy at the tape joints did.

One Scary Watermelon

Currently Listening To:

Bruce Peninsula

A Mountain is a Mouth

I have now stumbled across the most insane fruit picture on the interwebs.

I am not sure if it has been photoshoped but even if it has, who would want to give everybody watermelon nightmares for the next few weeks.

It actually reminds me the Monsters Inc. movie.

On Driving

I have doing a lot of driving lately (due to the bus strike of course) and I am starting to get all my bad habits back again. I don't know why it is so important to get to work so fast but sometimes the guy in front of me is just driving insufferably slow. The most annoying are those guys who slow down 100 cars at a time by driving less than the speed limit. What is up with those guys? Do they ever look in their rear view mirror and notice the caravan of cars stretching into infinity? What do they think? Are they trying to be control freaks? Do they just not notice? Sheesh.

Now that the transit strike is over traffic should be getting better though. For a while there it was like living in Toronto. I'm glad we won't have that problem again until the next transit strike. I found the comic below on the city of Ottawa website which is pretty amusing in itself.On a more mellow note, I have been enjoying some good tunes on my drives. If I crank the volume usually it can mellow me out and I forget about that slow guy. There is this fantastic radio show on CBC Radio 2 called 'Drive' with Rich Terfry aka Buck 65. It is like having a bit of Radio 3 music plus some American tunes and then some wierd stuff. Basically I love 60% of it and like another 20%. This is pretty good for me and radio. With typical commercial radio I love maybe 20% and like another 30% plus you have to deal with commercials.
Recently I was in someone's car who was playing Live88.5 (probably the best commercial station in Ottawa) and I realized I had not heard commercials on the radio in a reaaaaaaaally long time. It sounded wierd. Maybe I should occaisonally listen to 88.5 just to keep my knowledge of pop music more current. I always just feel that most of the bands on that station have already been discovered and if I listen to more obscure stuff there is a good chance I will find some diamond in the rough. There are tons of obscure bands who I am more passionate about than the latest Killers song.

Sorry for the rambling - I'm off to work now.