The 30-second bunnies theatre was nominated for a Webby award for animation. Other nominees include: the Heavenly Sword series by Ben Hibon from Blink Productions which are actually cinematics for a video game of the same name (Ben Hibon also did the short film Codehunters for MTV), New Yorker animated cartoons from Ring Tales, and Samurai from GE Imagination Studios.
Why mention these you ask? To explain how I came across the interesting Webby category of viral videos. Internet videos that have become so wildly popular so fast that it's like, well, a virus. They don't have to be good, it's a popularity contest pure and simple. Anyway, the nominees were BalconyTV, Chocolate Rain, Here Comes Another Bubble, I Got A Crush On Obama, and Tony vs. Paul.
Chocolate Rain seems to be the Mom fave pick. The Obama girl was actually featured on Saturday Night Live a while back (that's the only one of these that I've seen referenced in outside pop culture). The bubble one is fun, try and pick out how many of the pictures you recognize. I would add some videos like the Facebook Anthem, the Leave Britney Alone guy, the Daft Hands video, that kid who can play Guitar Hero on expert, and of course the Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See and those are just some of the 2007/2008 recent ones that I know of. Remember old ones like the evolution of dance, the star wars kid, or OK Go on treadmills? There are several websites out there dedicated to spreading viral videos (just google "viral video" and you'll find some). I didn't bother putting links to any of these videos because they are so extremely easy to find (that's the point so YouTube it yourself dang it). Hey, and maybe comment with your favorite viral video or any obvious ones that are sweet that I missed!
Most viral videos are either about sex (surprise surprise), or showcase some sort of football-in-the-groin-esque mockery of intelligence and have only gained popularity because of same (hey it's what sells). However, the ones that last more than a day tend to be funny (even clever), showcase some sort of obscure talent (stupid human tricks), or even make us think about issues (*Gasp*). Some have even managed to enter into more mainstream pop culture references so you end up watching them in order to avoid giving a blank stare to the world when you encounter them. It goes the other way around too, many viral videos are commercials, music videos, TV and movie clips, or spoofs of all of the above. It seems, like the common cold, you can try your best to avoid them but you'll catch one once in a while.
Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself there concert-wise. I forgot about the interesting 3 Inches of Blood experience from last weekend. 3IOB is a heavy/power metal band (taking its cues from bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden but louder/shriller) that started in Vancouver in 2000. Here is their LastFM page (you may recall LastFM from this post). Interestingly this turned out to be an all ages show (that meant no alcohol and 14-year-olds-running around playing tag). Of course 3IOB had a table full of beer during the concert (people kept shouting at them to share it but they didn't). Let me just say that that strikes me as a very unsound financial decision and leave it at that. The concert itself was good but quite short (we didn't stay for the opening bands and we missed the first song or two before we made it back to Ryly's). They played "Deadly Sinners" which is the song I know so everybody wins (except for all the scary metal guys who didn't get to drink, the people who were working the "bar" that didn't get any tips, the bar that didn't make any money, the people who got cold because of the enforced coat check, and the little underage punks whose parents let them go to metal shows at nightclubs until all hours).
This is a prequel post to the Chickens! Concert Series post about Gigantour (to come later after the concert). But first we have... Dave Mustaine from Megadeth vs. YouTube:
Dave Mustaine is all over YouTube. There are the standard concert and TV appearances, etc. as well as guitar lessons on how to play Symphony of Destruction and some picking techniques and a video of him pedaling his guitar (the ESP Axxion). Also, there is a whole series of Dave Mustaine vs. things (some of them are pretty funny for example Dave Mustaine vs guy with laser) and it turns out that Dave is good at Rock and Roll Jeopardy, but he sucks at guitar hero (on his own song no less). But the point of this post is the following video (and I think you'll see why). A video which tackles the hard topics. Topics like "What if Dave Mustaine were cryogenically frozen and then microwaved into reanimation to battle muzak-loving Martians? Will he vanquish them with his metal? Will he!? And if so, how?! A laser shooting guitar of some kind?! No! That's crazy talk!
Here is their YouTube channel (they have links there to their website, etc.). The watching of these guys goes back a couple of years to when D, Kim and I watched Gonzaga RA's at D's place one night when we were bored and surfing YouTube. Recently rediscovered by bizarre coincidence because of D's post about a viral video called Daft Hands. Barats and Bereta did a response to that video called Kanye hands (but they cheated). I also really like their video called Mantage (heehee) but they've got all sorts of funny stuff.
Last time Absofunkinlutely came to Bud's there was a blackout of the entire Broadway area (the result of a nearby car crash). The power stayed on this time and now they have their debut album to sell, "Funk Shui" (which I made them sign but they were shy about it, also it was funny because the drummer was there and he signed it but I didn't recognize him because he was hidden in the back, I recovered quickly though). They are a seven piece band with everything you would expect: horn section (trumpet, sax, trombone), drums, base, guitar, keyboard, vocals and such. Played some originals and some covers (I think a James Brown song even snuck in there somewhere). They were fun-keh. Good times.
Los Lonely Boys are 3 brothers from San Angeles, Texas. Guitar, base, and drums playing bluesy, Latin-inspired, rock. Their encore was an hour long jam session! It was pretty damn sweet. I bought the CD to the right but the CD peddler said they would be coming out with a new one soon. Curiously, I like basically all of their songs except for their popular single. Weird. There is lots of videos of them on YouTube but I picked this one even though it is low quality:
p.s. They played at the casino and I broke even at roulette thanks to D. Woohoo!
Mathew Barber and his sister Jill came through Louis' on their "Sibling Rivalry Tour". Those are the links to their myspace pages. I recommend listening to "settle my accounts with you". Matthew played the first set and Jill the second though they both helped out on various songs. I must say I really liked Matthew's indy folk music. He had a relaxed and engaging voice and style and was very enjoyable to listen to. Jill was more folk/country and wasn't really my cup of tea. Often the guitar reminded me of Anne Murray lullabies and it made me sleepy. Also, she does a kind of wavering with her voice (like what female vocalists did in a lot of older musicals), it's a country thing too I guess. Anyway, I don't care for that style too much. But on the whole an enjoyable time and thanks to Leah for introducing me to some new stuff. Hurray!
Here is a video of Matthew recording "The Look of Love":
The Brooklyn Superhero Supply store is really a front for this underground lair of infamy. Click here to see a flicker page with real photos of the place. There is a Q&A about it here. Also, the 826NYC Superhero Annex in the Williamsburgh Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library houses back issues of the Williamsburgh Satellite (Brooklyn's oldest newspaper reporting on superhero activity) , geographical indices of good and evil, secret identity relocation system updates, and the latest in public service announcements for local superheroes.
Sorry about the delay on the Foo Fighters post but I wanted to let the shenanigans from the whole Earth Hour/climate change thing run its course. That was pretty sweet I'm going to have to talk about controversial issues more often, they are too much fun to pass up and you encounter so many new and interesting people. Learning is fun! Anyway, on to the Foos.
In a fit of putting my money where my mouth is I bought their new CD (pictured to the left) before the concert. I wasn't too sure about it at first but the more I listened to it the more I liked it. Echos, Silence, Patience, and Grace is the Foos 6th studio album produced in September 2007. Not long after they finished recording this album they played at Live Earth so maybe this isn't too inappropriate a follow up post to the Earth Hour stuff as I thought.
As for the concert, what a kick ass concert! Dave Grohl definitely knows his onions that's for sure! I would see them again in a second. A highlight was the acoustic set played on a platform in the centre of the arena that turned our seats from meh to awesome. There is a bunch (like 16) of YouTube videos featuring this concert from various angles at various points in time. I've decided to pick one at random from the search of "Foo Fighters Saskatoon" that I did and tack it on.
About the band: Dave Grohl (of course) on vocals, guitar, drums, and piano. He spent 3 and 1/2 years as the drummer for Nirvana but wrote songs on the side the whole time. He formed the band in 1995 naming it after the World War II term "foo fighter" used to by the allied forced to describe UFOs. Dave Grohl played every instrument (except for one guitar part on "X-Static") and sang all the vocals on the Foo Fighters first self titled album; Taylor Hawkins used to be Alannis Morrisette's touring drummer. He replaced William Goldsmith on drums and percussion in 1997 when Dave Grohl decided to re-record "The Colour and The Shape" album with himself on drums and didn't tell William about it. Taylor also does vocals, piano, and guitar; Nate Mendel plays base and he's been with the band since the beginning in 1995 when the emocore band he was in (Sunny Day Real Estate) disbanded; Chris Shiflett replaced Franz Stahl on guitar and vocals in 1999 (who replaced Pat Smear in 1997 but Pat still tours with them). Pat Smear used to be an unofficial member of Nirvana back in the day, when he left the Foos he found his own replacement. Franz Stahl toured with the band for several months but soon left citing creative differences prior their 3rd album. After producing their "There Is Nothing Left To Lose" album (and doing some label jumping). They recruited Chris, initially as a touring guitar minion but then as a full member before the 4th album came out.
The Foos are currently touring with several other members that were brought out for the centre ring portion of the show including Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee, Drew Hester, and Jesse Green (this video shows him introducing them in California and complaining about the pot smoke, I highlight this video because he yelled at us for the exact same thing). Drew did a sweet triangle solo. I will forever after lament the lack of triangle solos in rock concerts. Here is the video of the triangle solo from the Edmonton concert (here is the triangle solo from the California concert, ours was better). Hey wait a minute...he told us we were the best city!
You may remember I posted a video called "How it all ends" as part of my "reply to Sean" post stemming from my Earth Hour post. Wonderingmind42's project is the most accessible (to laypersons like us that is), logical, and thorough study of science, the climate change "question", and everything in between that I've seen so far. Interestingly, a lot of the arguments he deals with in these videos are surprisingly transferable to a lot of other scientific (and non-scientific) debates too. You could also go to the wonderingmind42 webpage or The Manpollo Project, which are external sites that have all the videos organized and ready for watchin'.
The first video he made was entitled "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See" which was submitted to all the hypercritical scrutiny that the interwebs could muster. There are quite a few response videos on YouTube too. I know far too many of them use swears or other such indignant fiddle faddle but a lot of them are very thoughtful and helpful attempts to provide constructive criticism. Anyway WM42 then put out a series of 3 videos called "patching holes 1", "p.h.2", and "p.h.3". These were much much less popular than the first video but they did get some video feedback too.
He then asked his subscribers for help on how to propagate the videos in the next project.
The second incarnation of the most terrifying video was called "How It All Ends", which digested all that previous stuff and reexamined the argument after the public flogging of the original video. There was even a preview for it. One critique of the video (it is actually one of many similar critiques) I found was particularly astute. Why does doing something to prevent climate change have to be an economically bad thing. Environmentally sound technology and ideas should save money and resources in the long run so why can't we have "doing something" be an economically viable option as well. Perhaps we could transfer some of the billions of dollars being thrown down war's cake hole and apply it to environmental issues.
To complete the How It All Ends video project there came a multitude of "expansion pack" videos, which strive to address every coherent critique argument or comment (and some incoherent ones) about the video, it's logic, science, and arguments. Like I say there are a bunch of them (see the video below) so I figure the best thing to do is refer you to one of the links in the first paragraph so you can check them out. I have only watched the first few so far because there is over 6 hours of video but I plan to get through them all eventually (after certain writings are out of the way). Anyway, he also made an index video which describes what is going with these, the final installments in his project.
Three months later, a series of 4 vidoes called "Operation Saturation" provided an update. Operation Saturation: On the Threshold Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 1: This post was stepped up a bit by the "reply to Sean" update. I decided I wanted to throw a little more info out there and then leave it be for a while. The other Sean did point out a website in his reply called climate audit which discusses the Hockey Stick controversy (the Wikipedia article is as good a place to start as any if you are interested in this). While it is sometimes touted as an important argument by climate change skeptics, it is in fact a single study done 8 years ago dealing with palaeoclimate data and the methodological discussions surrounding it are mute (although the strenuous deconstructive studies of the hockey stick graph are clear evidence of how minutely climate change studies are analyzed and critiqued for errors). It is only one of a great many studies using many different data sets which all say the same thing. The graph above is a new and improved "hockey stick" graph employing multiple studies (Gavin Schmidt, Michael Mann, and Stefan Rahmstorf from REALCLIMATE). So, I'll say it again, the fact of climate change is NOT based on any single study it is based on hundreds of studies and an overwhelming preponderance of supporting data which has been checked and rechecked by skeptics, scientists, scientific institutions, governments, and companies. All pointing to the same conclusion. Basing one's stance on climate change solely on whether one is "intelligent enough to follow and understand the math presented at climateaudit.org" (as other Sean puts it) is nonsense.
Update 2: Check out Gristmill's "How to talk to a climate skeptic", also recommended by WM42. I should point out that here is a sub-article with that series discussing the hockey stick controversy and it deals with the crux of McIntyre's (from climate audit) problems.
Update 3: In all fairness, also check out the British "documentary" The Great Global Warming Swindle (though it has been largely discredited it is the most popular skeptic movie I can find, here is the Wikipedia article). It was kind of a response movie to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Even better though is the "Great Global Warming Swindle Debate " an ABC program which discusses this film and some of the issues raised in it with input from both sides (Part 0, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8).
Update 4: I forgot to give a shout out to Updog&Indy's post about crazy environmental shit going on right now.
Let's all join the politeness on blogs challenge! March 31st for 24 hours. Thanks to Saskboy again for pointing out Canadian Cynic's idea. We shouldn't let anonymity rob us of our civility and we should remember to try not to say things on the internet that we wouldn't say if we were talking to people face to face.
p.s. The Wikipedia article about politeness is very interesting.
p.p.s. My goodness there is a surprisingly large amount of controversy about this! Check out some of the links to Canadian Cynic's posts. Yeesh, times like this I'm glad my blog is relatively insignificant and uncontroversial.
I'm pleased with how much discussion is going on in the comments of my Earth Hour post. I thought I would make a reply post for this comment though because I had a lot to say.
It's really none of your business how much energy I use - if I want to crank up the power, then that's my decision, not yours. Climate change is a fantasy you and your ilk have cooked up to make yourselves feel like superheroes. Instead, in reality, you behave like fascists, complaining about the harmless actions of others, and attempting to impede modern conveniences and slow down progress.
March 30, 2008 6:37 PM
Really Sean? What makes you say that? I mean, I know why I said what I said. I know that climate change is happening based on abundant research (if you want me to give you articles I can but you may have to wait a little). The only question is the degree of influence that we are having on it. If we set aside the issue of climate change (which I realize is controversial), I know that non-renewable resources are finite so we shouldn't waste them. I know that pollution befouls the environment and hurts plants and animals (including people). I know that environmentally sound technology is cheaper and more efficient and the very definition of technological progress. Think about what London was like during the industrial revolution (pollution was so thick that people would get rickets because they never saw the sky) and what it’s like now, or look at the picture of Mexico City to the right. That's pollution, does that look like a fantasy to you? I also know that unless you somehow produce your own natural resources then quite frankly how much energy you use IS my business (for that manner how much I use is your business too). I’m not talking about you personally of course but as a group we are all responsible to each other for how much we use and how much we waste. Obviously no one person is expected to change the world by themselves (even though some do). Most people aren't even expected to do anything that is moderately difficult or even inconvenient. The point of Earth Hour was to raise awareness and show how easy it is to do little things and be sensitive to these concerns. Then maybe people in power will see how important this is to so many people. It does not make sense to just say environmentalists are making everything up and your actions are harmless with no explanation.
It also does not make sense to just accept what we are told without evidence. I always try to back up my opinions with reason and logic and I hope that I did just that in my previous blog post and in this one, but if I have not please let me know and I will try harder. I feel that if you are going to have an opinion you should be educated about the topic (as much as possible) and talk to people who have differing views than you and learn about them instead of judging them based on limited information. To that end I must admit that I have never actually had the opportunity to personally speak to someone with views like yours (only read their opinions and struggle to find reason in them) so, I think it might be constructive if you tried your best to educate me about your views in an open manner. That way I can learn why you think the way you do and hopefully understand you better. As I pointed out in an earlier post about anonymous religious comments, random spurts of opinions in comments on blogs are counter-productive. They'll only make my friends angry at you and no one will come away learning anything. Everyone will just end up with the same opinions as before and if anything there will be even less understanding. So please respond to this and explain your views to me so that I can try to see where you are coming form. I promise I will try just as hard (or harder) to understand you as you did to understand me and my views. I say this for two reasons: 1) I am responsible for what I say on my blog and I assume anyone who reads it is curious about my opinions so I will respond to any comment with as much thoughtfulness as I can; 2) you took the time to read and reply to my blog but I am unable to do the same. I understand if you would rather not make your profile public but I hope you comment back and please let me know your blog address so I can visit it sometime.
Update: Turns out I committed a case of mistaken identity. I hope there are no hard feelings. Sean (another Sean) was even kind enough to reply and I got to learn a little bit about him and his art so all is well that ends well I guess. I will take it as a lesson in not assuming. Anyway, thank you to the other Sean for replying and I'd like to say I appreciate your photography a lot more now that I better understand the meaning behind it.
The project is meant to raise awareness and it shows how easy it is to reduce consumption, I doubt anyone will suffer because of the lack of lights for one hour. And maybe one person doing it won't matter, just like maybe one person attempting to offset the project by consuming even more won't matter. But what if everyone, everywhere did it?
The info in the following two adds is basically the same. Which do you think is more compelling?
Update Part 1: Check here if you are curious about Lurker's reference to the Facebook Earth Hour group in her comment.
Update Part 2: Even Google "turned out its lights". I think it's important that influential sites like Google to promote awareness of issues and to have a social conscience. Further, companies will reflect what the public demands. However, I am always in favour of considering opposing views on any issue (it's the basis of science after all) so have a look: here and here (these are just two that happened to pop up associated with the Google lights out thing). The former laments all the conformist idiots who are going along with Earth Hour (what a beacon of original right wing fundamentalist thought, no blind conformity there) and the latter, well he showed us because he turned on his house lights and went for a drive to see all the lights that were still on in Saskatoon. Well he may have a point that a lot of lights stayed on in Saskatoon but he derides the integrity of a couple who had turned out their lights and were sitting in their window with a candle. If these people were doing this so that others would see them don't you think that they may have been doing it because the whole point of the movement is to increase awareness by making a statement? Besides who are you to judge people whom you've never met and know nothing of other than they live in a nice house? Do they drive a hybrid and keep the temperature at 15 degrees in winter? Do they have energy efficient appliances and buy organic local produce? Maybe, maybe not the point is you don't know do you. I also Googled anti-Earth Hour and here is a person who actually started an anti-Earth Hour petition! What is that supposed to accomplish? Lousy Earth! What has it ever done for us eh?!
Update Part 3a: As part of Earth Hour SaskPower has promised to measure today's power use and compare it to another typical Saturday. I'll keep track of the results of this and post it later.
Update Part 4a: The more I think about it (the people trying to "offset" Earth Hour by using more energy) the angrier I feel and I have to rant about it otherwise I won't be able to go back to work. But, before I do, let me say that no one is perfect, and sometimes everyone forgets to turn out the light or leaves the computer on or takes a longer shower than they needed to. It happens because if we perceive an excess of available resources then we want to use them and we tend to waste them, it's human nature. We forget, we are careless, we are human. That doesn't make us bad and everyone does it. But, like many stupid or careless things that we do, we do know better! We know we have to conserve resources so there will be more for later (that's why we have things like agriculture and freezers and Tupperware) and we all know that resources aren't infinite (we've killed off enough tasty or furry or otherwise useful or in the way animal species to know that). If you don't "believe" in global warming or in the Earth Hour movement well whatever, that's up to you, you don't have to participate just go on with your life. Whether you are protesting Earth Hour because you think it is hypocritical or it is useless or you just don't care, you've made your point. Good work! You're a savior of humanity and its right to rape and pillage everything in it's path! We're all free now! Hurray! But where do you get off actually trying to use MORE energy than you would have normally!? What is wrong with you!? That goes beyond jaded or apathetic or indignant (those are at least understandable, there is hypocrisy out there on both sides that fuels it and we all feel it sometimes). It's downright petulant, selfish, and even cruel. Just think about what you are standing for! Even if you don't believe in global warming do you believe in wastefulness, exploitation, or greed? Obviously those are things you proudly stand for. Do you believe that there are people in the world who don't have access to all the same resources that you do? Does it make you feel good to show them that you can choose to maliciously piss away these resources if you feel like it? Do you realize that every bit of energy you waste represents time, effort, and money that could be better spent being actually used for something!? Maybe if more people thought about those things before they acted as childishly as you are acting then we wouldn't need Earth Hour.
Update Part 5: Saskboy also had a few things to say about Earth Hour (I like to give shout outs) and he links to someone else who found the same anti-Earth Hour blogs that I've talked about. I appreciate the irony that people who are against these fools (like me) but went to the sites out of curiosity helped to increased their popularity. Oh irony you're a fickle bastard!
Update Part 3b: Here's a news update, looks like Regina actually used a little more power. SaskPower suggests a cold night may have had something to do with it. I wonder how much power would have been used if it hadn't been Earth Hour? More? Maybe, but if that's true I also have some elephant repellent to sell you. They say they are working on some provincial stats and I'll post that when I find it.
Update Part 4b: I got noticed by the smalldeadanimals website that I linked to about the anti-Earth Hour petition mentioned above. I actually ended up having quite a few people visit my site from the link on her post (see Update 5 re:irony). Anyway one comment specifically mentioned me:
Who knows Johnny, but at least our Kate can count. Unlike the author of chickensinsaskatoon, updates part 1,2,3,4,5,3? Did we annoy her that much that she got lost after she ran out of fingers and thumb on one hand? Posted by: Jim at March 30, 2008 8:40 PM
Jim had a problem with my use of the designation 3' (ie. Update 3 prime indicating a sub group of or linkage to the original Update 3). Mathematical symbology is obviously not his strong suit. Since this is the closest thing to actual legitimate criticism of any of the content of the post, I have altered the post so that it is now the more idiot-friendly "Update 3a" and "Update 3b". I assumed Jim was literate since he reads blogs and wrote the comment so hopefully this will alleviate the confusion.
I'm pretty sure the following comments were about me too. The middle one definitely is anyway, but the first and 3rd may have been general. For the record I clearly refrained from implying that the SaskPower results would show anything (positive or negative). In 3b I called attention to the Regina results on purpose, I didn't hide or avoid the issue (I didn't even mention how Canada's larger participating cities all showed a marked decrease in power consumption i.e. Toronto's was 8.3%) because I thought it was interesting. I simply relayed what the article said and I was even sarcastically pessimistic about it. In addition, I wasn't actually mad at people who were refraining from participating in Earth Hour (they have the right to be conscientious objectors if they wish, for whatever reason), I was mad at people trying to actively offset Earth Hour. There is a difference and I believe I specifically belabour this point in the post and in my replies to the comments (even expressing my respect for a skeptical individual who did not feel the need to "offset" Earth Hour like some petulant child). If you are going to criticize me, at least criticize me for things that I actually say (like that petulant child remark, you can go nuts on that, hey it isn't politeness on blogs day anymore so what the heck). Is this a commentary on the reasoning behind "skeptic" arguments perhaps? Nah, that would be an unfair generalization so let's not interpret too much from these:
The leftist bloggers sure work themselves up into a frenzy over SDA. Their foot-stomping overwrought emotionalism is something to behold. How dare we not get with the program? It's offensive enough for a complaint to the HRC.
Yikes - the left is really up in arms about this aren't they? All high and mighty and huffy that people would dare NOT participate in Earth Hour. I found it funny how the first leftie blogger was all excited over how Sask power would PROVE that it had been a success, then the justification of colder temperatures when it wasn't. And - I thought RT had quit blogging - Is this not about his 5th reincarnation? He is as indecisive as the hapless Dion. Posted by: Alberta Girl at March 31, 2008 9:22 AM
The lefties, the gaia followers, have went right off the deep end about this. To work themselves into a lather because someone told them they didn't want to sit in the dark like a mushroom, because they didn't believe in that shit, is sending them over the edge. I am having a hard time believing something as stupid as not participating in a gaia celebration, is enough to make them want to throw stones at us. Posted by: Honey Pot at March 31, 2008 9:34 AM
Wow look at that propaganda! Its got everything! Mounties wearing dress uniforms all the time, intolerantly stereotypical depictions of native people, helpless women folk wearing off the shoulder dresses whilst crossing the plains in a wagon. I don't even know where to start with this! Wait, yes I do...why is Saskatchewan in the Rockies? Bah!Update: Here is a link to an article in the Globe and Mail about this and a few other similar misrepresentations of Canadian geography and history. Neat.
Hurray! I was hoping someone would make a comment like this. It looked like no one was going to but then BAM someone did! What fun!
Anonymous said...
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.
It's awesome whether it was serious or not! And it's all the more amusing in the wake of my "Anonymous" post. So, whoever you are Anonymous commenter, I have this to say (Note: if your comment was serious please go directly to Response #2):
Response #1: if you were being facetious you should have left your name because you are hilarious and I want to thank you for renewing my faith (ha!) in the ironic sarcasm of my readership (I hope you will find response #2 amusing, I figured I should make an alternate response just in case and it's funnier with the contrast).
Response #2: if you were serious thank you for your opinion. I'll certainly take it under advisement. However, obviously you don't really care about my soul or you would have left your name so that I could get in contact with you and follow up on the wonderful world that your two sentence anonymous comment has opened up to me. It is clear you are very dedicated and passionate about your religion based on the time and effort you put into crafting it. Thank you so much for your intriguing and original ideas, but you gave only a taste of your genius and I crave more! I have so many questions! Like what hand is the kingdom of heaven at? Is it the right one? It's the right one isn't it? Also, what religion are you? Your conscientious and articulate assessment of my opinions has won me over and made me realize that I am clearly in need of some conversion and repenting and must follow your religion (you shining representative of whatever religion you are! You represent it so well!), but to whom do I repent!? Sweet zombie Jebus I need more instructions! Please comment on this post because I am in need your guidance and I would love to debate the pros and cons of various religions with you in a frank and open exchange of ideas.
p.s. In retrospect, even though I have been morbidly curious whether some religious nut(s) would take an interest in my ramblings, it's a bit of a mixed blessing (ha!). Like when you think that someone is a moron and then find out you were right but realize that that person probably has 10 kids. Even if it wasn't serious (which I realize it probably wasn't because I know a lot of people who like to take advantage of how gullible I am - but whatever, I think it's funny either way), it easily could have been real since there are tons of serious examples out there. It makes you wonder at the mental state and motivations of someone like that (I really hope they respond to this so I can ask!) and what do they hope to accomplish with a random anonymous comment? But mostly I just hope they understand sarcasm.
p.p.s In future let's all try to keep the anonymous comments to a minimum (unless it's really obvious who you are). I'm still worried about having to go on the lamb from the "Anonymous" people and I don't want to get any more paranoid than I have to.
Why mention these you ask? To explain how I came across the interesting Webby category of viral videos. Internet videos that have become so wildly popular so fast that it's like, well, a virus. They don't have to be good, it's a popularity contest pure and simple. Anyway, the nominees were BalconyTV, Chocolate Rain, Here Comes Another Bubble, I Got A Crush On Obama, and Tony vs. Paul.
Most viral videos are either about sex (surprise surprise), or showcase some sort of football-in-the-groin-esque mockery of intelligence and have only gained popularity because of same (hey it's what sells). However, the ones that last more than a day tend to be funny (even clever), showcase some sort of obscure talent (stupid human tricks), or even make us think about issues (*Gasp*). Some have even managed to enter into more mainstream pop culture references so you end up watching them in order to avoid giving a blank stare to the world when you encounter them. It goes the other way around too, many viral videos are commercials, music videos, TV and movie clips, or spoofs of all of the above. It seems, like the common cold, you can try your best to avoid them but you'll catch one once in a while.
It's really none of your business how much energy I use - if I want to crank up the power, then that's my decision, not yours. Climate change is a fantasy you and your ilk have cooked up to make yourselves feel like superheroes. Instead, in reality, you behave like fascists, complaining about the harmless actions of others, and attempting to impede modern conveniences and slow down progress.
March 30, 2008 6:37 PM