Sunday Click Around

Geiko has abandoned it's gecko for the Caveman. I kinda like him. Here's an interactive ad called "Caveman's Crib".

Chocolat is a new Canadian Magazine, and since I'm now looking to paint a bedroom in the near future, I'm looking at these kinds of magazines.

Here's a little colour game that is supposed to tell you something about your personality. It was mostly wrong for me, maybe you'll have better luck.

I re-found this little Former YU ad for Radenska Mineral Water that showed all the diverse parts of the former YU in less than a minute.

Here's a clip from Chinese Candid Camera.

Remember The Newlywed Game? Here's a clip from what looks like the 70's with a ditzy contestant that gives blondes a bad name.

Since I've been watching Monty Python clips this afternoon, I thought I'd share some with you. Here are: The Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook, Party Hints with Veronica Smalls, and Hitler in England.

And that made me think of Goodness, Gracious, Me...which I also love...so here are: Bharat Homes, Great Train Journeys of the World, and The Marriage Emporium done in the style of Monty Python's "The Cheese Shoppe" sketch.

Here's another Phony Photo Booth video. I love these.

Here's a collection of images From Henri Cartier-Bresson done to Edith Piaf.

And while we're on Edith Piaf, here she is singing La Foule...and while we're on foreign singers, let's spend a little time with one of my favourites, Cesaria Evora singing Sodade.

That's all for now.

Monty Python - Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclusion Visit Jean Paul Sartre



Just to lighten things up a bit.

Ayn Rand interviewed in 1959 by Mike Wallace.
Follow the rest on YouTube.

And then, by Phil Donahue about 20 years later.



I've yet to watch both of them in their entirety, but what I did watch was fascinating to me.
I didn't want to just bury this in my Sunday Click Around.
Ayn's philosophy is very interesting to me. She seemed to have softened a bit by the late 70's, but some of her logic would have made Hitler proud, other parts are pretty convincing.

Fascinating.

Learn Disco



This is for you Piika.

Thanks Harding

CNN has competition coming...

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Via: Glacia

Fashion Cares. No. Really. They do.

"This season, we created a jacket that is pleated so there is very little waste in the fabric itself. When we started the label, we began with recycled pieces and that has always stayed with us."

I imagine that most fashion houses have always made sure that they used every inch of fabric, and it has nothing to do with being green. It has to do with money, not ecology. I notice that Al Gore and his "An Inconvenient Truth" has become the fashion and entertainment world's darling...the Michael Moore of green, only slimmer, and more fashionable.

Then there was Georgina Franki:

"Fashion Nation uses caribou hides that have been tanned using traditional methods. All parts of the animal are used, including the bones for sunglasses, boasts designer Georgina Franki. Skins are bought from native men, who hunt and trap for a living."

I'd like to see PETA just try to take on a Canadian First Nation designer.
Just try it and see what happens.
I'd actually pay cash money to see that, just to see PETA get their ass kicked.
Literally.

The Dad Name Game

I often don't care for Ellie Tesher's advice.
She used to do a mother/daughter talk radio show (both are counsellors or something) but I've found their advice and the two of them rather flaky.
Ellie has a column in The Star and recently gave some flaky, new age explanation on why a couple of kids refuse to call their biological Dad "Dad". She suggested that the "kids" (21 & 18) might not want to hurt the feelings of their Stepfather.

WHAT?

She ended up having quite a response from readers.

I concur with one reader who said:
"I wonder would you be that quick to diminish a mother from being called Mom in similar circumstances? I doubt it."

...and another who said:
"What has likely happened is that the children have been made to feel guilty for calling their father "dad," and perhaps have even been alienated from their father somewhat. Some parents work long and hard to alienate kids from the other parent."

Angelina adopts another child.

"The child's name is Pax Thien Jolie, said Trevor Neilson, Jolie's adviser on international affairs. Pax means peace in Latin, but Neilson said he didn't know whether Jolie had chosen it for that reason."

I'm not even going to harp on this celebrity trend of petlike adopting of foreign children. I've said it before and I'll say it again. North America has poor children of colour too Angie.

"Your Jedi mind tricks do not work with me..."

Anna from Blackbird sent me an article headed,

"Use of ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ Too “Homophobic”, Scottish Nurses Told".

Apparently,

In "EDINBURGH, Scotland, February 16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Nurses and other health care professionals should avoid using the terms ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ to refer to family relationships since the terms could be offensive to homosexual couples with children, a new directive published by Scotland’s National Health Service recommends".

Again, people seek to change human behaviour with semantics.
It doesn't work.
In fact, those who want to see you as a crazy fanatic, now have some ammo to call your cause petty and narrow.

"Along the same lines, the directive points out, use of the terms ‘husband’, ‘wife’ and ‘marriage’ is not acceptable since such terms exclude lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Instead, health care workers should use the terms ‘partners’ and ‘next of kin’. Since ‘next of kin’ is often understood to mean nearest blood relative, however, the booklet recommends that it may be preferable to use ‘partner, close friend or close relative’ to avoid confusion".

Listen, I don't see the issue.
If you're admitted to the hospital, whoever sees you and fills out the form should have your information there. Anyone of importance will read the file and know who the important person in your life is.

I was in the hospital with my sister-in-law when both my nieces were born...the nurses all assumed that my husband was the father.
I'm white, he's black...the pregnant woman in the bed is black...that white woman couldn't possibly be his wife.
Black, white and Filipina nurses, all assumed my husband... was his sisters husband.
People make assumptions all the time.
You correct them as you go. They apologize, correct their behaviour, and we move on.
We don't stomp our feet and demand that everyone change how they wish to be addressed in order to suit us.

Frankly, when I hear the word partner, I assume that the partner is gay.
It's going to take a while to get this word into the mainstream.
When I do hear heterosexuals using it, it's mostly women using it to describe their live in boyfriend. When you think about it, "boyfriend" is a stupid word too, especially when you're out of high school...but don't listen to me.
I hate the word fiancee, and whenever I say it, I can't help but say it in a nasally, whiny voice, dragging out the "aaayyyyy".
I've never used that word, even when I had a "feeee-on-saaaaayyyyy".

I don't know, language is a living thing, and it's constantly changing.
Does language change the way people feel about things. Does a homophobe stop being a homophobe by choosing his or her words while addressing a parent they aren't sure is straight?
Does not using the word "nigger" stop people from being racist?

I'd prefer to be able to identify them more readily, rather than let them hide behind politically correct words...but, I've got to say, this Scottish LGBT initiative is the ultimate in tail wagging the dog mentality.

According to The Pink Pound, 6% of the UK is gay.

Perhaps forcing their point down the throats of the other 94% is not going to help their cause as much as they'd like.

CFRB 1010 has recently taken the "interview" approach with advertisers.

You'll be listening to the radio and it might take a second to realize that some guy is being "interviewed" by a talk radio show host about flooring or water purifiers.

How lazy is that?

I won't buy from them on principle.

Entertain me, or piss off with those boring interviews.

White Chicks & Gang Signs



When I see middle class, suburban white kids flashing gang signs, I can't help but laugh.
Because it's funny.

To me it's humourous because if any of them ever jumped out of their parents Subaru Legacy or Range Rover onto the sidewalks of a real 'hood, they'd shit their pants.

If there's no other redeeming value for the online parallel life of Second Life, what it's doing for the disabled community is enough to make it valuable.

CBC did a report on Second Life, and starting at 6.43 in the video report, you'll see what I mean.

Sunday Click-Around

Can we talk about how disconcerting it is to lose an hour? As though I don't already feel like there aren't enough hours in the day....However, it'll be wonderful to have light late into the day again. YAY, spring is on it's way.

The photo to the left is from portraits.org. It looks like a compilation of portraits from various Photographers. I'm not really interested in the fashion photography (which there is plenty of), I'm more fond of the photos of children and interesting faces. The site is heavy on the model end though, so I'm sure that lots of guys will like it anyway, but for us women, looking at photo after photo of beautiful women is akin to straight guys looking at photo after photo of buff, good looking men. 

Here's another site with 158 great photos.

I'm not all that knowledgable about meth. I know that meth labs have been popping up in residential areas, and that they damage property, and put people in danger that is not covered by insurance.
I know that it ruins people's lives like most drugs do...but, this article on The Faces of Meth, is scary...then, just for good measure, read this article from The NY Times about one family's experience with their son who is addicted to meth.

If you've ever thought that those who've said "people should require a license to have children" were fascist and going too far, this site will bring you onboard with those of us who don't think licensed parenting is such a bad idea.  
There are individuals who have no right to even be able to pro-create.
I'm not sorry for them because they were abused, and that's why they do what they do, and we should feel empathy for them, and pay for their counselling.. blah, blah, blah...
There are plenty of people who were abused by their parents who didn't grow up to be monsters. This website is a horrific compilation of why there should be some sort of law in place to stop some people from having children.  For someone who kills their own child in a horrific manner, I'm not adverse to sterilization...hell, I'm not adverse to the death penalty.

I used to love Pingu.
The Eastern European in me got a kick out of Communist Pingu.

Bollywood Beatles (YouTube to your right) that I got from Cynical-C gave me quite the giggle. That spastic dancing chick in the video was about four decades ahead of beyonce in the booty department.

Apparently, over March Break the Toronto Zoo is having a bug exhibit, starring the hissing cockroach of Madagascar. They've done all these little cute videos with these cockroaches...but, hey...they're still cockroaches...I must say though, the accent they gave the star is pretty cute. The accent they gave his buddy saying good-bye is some sort of west indian mix, which is a little disappointing.

Here's a little video of some Guyanese guys catching hassa fish and peeling coconut that The Mister got a kick out of. For those of you who have never seen hassa fish, it looks like some sort of Klingon delicacy. From this video, they're pretty slippery to catch too.

Devvo's Corner is a collection of mini-documentaries on the life of a Chav.

For those of you who are Russell Peters fans, here's "Show Me the Funny", the entire show..it's about 45 minutes long.

Where you from? You sexy thing.


Ok, I think that's it for now...

P.S.: This new and frustrating version of blogger might force me to move. I'm really starting to hate it.

Tempura and Spicy Eggplant at Papamo.

Listen, I'm all for cycling. If you can get around the city without having to pay for a license, tags, parking, insurance and a car...great!
More power to you.
What I have a problem with is a surly cyclist who thinks that they don't have to follow the rules of the road.
You know, the ones who weave in and out of traffic, go through red lights, and stop signs just because they don't see cars coming, and don't stick to the side of the road but ride dangerously close to moving vehicles, and sometimes in the middle of the road.

Now, I realize that in the downtown core there is a sub-culture of environmentally dedicated anti-carists, who are indulged by our money wasting office interior decorator of a Mayor, whose answer to traffic congestion is to make it harder to drive downtown.

He does this by proposing to increase bike lanes, suggesting downtown closures and tolls, taking down the expressway, and making sure that the downtown airport has as hard a time as possible accommodating business people who use it so they don't have to drive the 25km to Pearson Airport from downtown for short flights to Montreal, NYC, Thunder Bay and wherehaveyou.

Our Mayor passes his time with these things rather than focusing on building more roads, or amalagamating transit systems so that it doesn't cost commuters the equivalent of a tank of gas a day to get into the city by public transit.

But, I digress...

Back to cyclists.

I'm consistently amazed by how many are willing to take their lives into their hands by not obeying the rules of the road, and not only that...but with a total attitude as well...as though their own personal safety is not primarily their own responsibility.

Last year I read about a motorist who threw food out of his window. The courier, disliking littering, picks up food and throws food back in car. Motorist dumps coffee on courier. Courier scratches car with key. Road rage ensues.

The driver got out to give her a proper ass whuppin'.
I must say, that I would never throw anything out of my car, and he's an asshole, but she had equally no right to throw the food back into his car and damage it. In my opinion, she provoked the driver.
What's wrong with just calling him a jackass?

Out in public, you really don't know if you're provoking a Tony Soprano wannabe, or a lunatic.

I'll say right here and now, though... if anyone scratched my car...I believe I'd get out to put a Nine West heel up her ass too.

Is Spring Rolling in?



I took this picture on my way home tonight.
I don't think that the photo quite captures the magnificence of the blanket of rolling clouds as the sun was setting in the west.
It looked like an ocean in the sky.

Just beautiful...not captured correctly through my windshield.

Homemade Marshmellows




They're not kidding.
I've made homemade marshmellows before, and there is no comparison.
Here's my recipe at Papamo.

Stranger Than Fiction




So, I watched this movie last night, and I quite liked it.
The only problem I had was during the bakery scenes with Maggie Gyllenhaal. All that handling of dough with no gloves, the licking of the fingers, the handling of the baked goods with her bare hands, and the dogs in the bakery.
Screw the Taxman, public health should have been auditing her.

Yuk.

I cringed everytime they did a scene in the bakery.

I love old cartoons...when they were clever, and drawn well.

Sunday, Almost Monday
Click Around.

Recently, on a whim...I bought a Rat Pack CD. I'm too young to remember them performing, but if I was to find one famous person that looked like my father, it would be Dean Martin. And my father loved him. Listening to the CD, I realize that they were pretty racy. Here's Dean singing "Ain't That a Kick in the Head".
Here's "The Rat Pack in One Minute". From the same era, here is Shirley MacLaine in "Sweet Charity", and Jack Lemmon in "The Out of Towners".

Here are some vintage drug ads that are pretty scary.

I caught this kid on YouTube and laughed my ass off. I'm certain that this isn't an actual meltdown, but a perfect parody of self-absorbed youth who put themselves in stupid positions and then cry about how they're made fun of and not accepted.

Here is a beautiful photo essay on Iran, and another on China.

The Mister and me will be travelling to Cadiz, Spain in June, and we're both very excited. Neither of us has ever been to Spain, and look forward to a couple of nights in Madrid, and a day trip to Morocco and perhaps even Portugal. We're told by friends that The Mister will be looked upon with much interest in Cadiz...so, he's decided that he'll have to brush up on his smiling and waving skills. Either way, we're really looking forward to this trip to a place neither of us has been before with old friends of mine that I love who know their way around, since one is from Cadiz. Can it get any better than that? I think not.

Jigsawland lets you do puzzles online, if you like that kind of thing.



Make your own tombstone at Make Your Own Damn Tombstone.

I recently read that Marianne Faithfull was recovering from breast cancer. I remember her best for "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" during the days that I loved Chryssie Hynde, and The Clash, and The Specials, and Madness, and Third World...and Truths and Rights where my old friend Rudi "Quammie" Williams (He's the bald one in the middle)  got his start. I'm proud to say that Rudi is running The Theatre Passe Muraille now ...damn, I'm so proud of him...Oh, I could go on and on.

Anyhow, I love the art of Mehndi, and here is a great link to The Art of Mehndi.

Here's a great link to Iraqi police"gettin' jiggy wid it".

I watched this "Cyber Lovah" video and couldn't help but think of this In Living Color parody of Shabba Ranks "Mr. Lover Man".

Ok, kids...that's it.