We Saw a Chicken …

Tag: ack

  • we’re shite and we … invented the modern world

    (a rant for St Andrew’s Day)

    It must have been great to be part of the Scottish Enlightenment. This wee country seemed to blossom, from a muddy backwater to a world leader in economics, philosophy, mathematics and engineering.

    And yet, for the average Scot, all that was a long time ago. All it seems we can manage now is to churn out neds by the million. So how did we get from the place described (rather breathlessly) in Arthur Herman’s How The Scots Invented The Modern World to the place where the football fans chant “We’re Shite, And We Know We Are.“?

    Urban disenfranchisement of the formerly agrarian workforce, perhaps? Who can say. We even chose the darkest, grimmest part of the year for our national day (hint: St Jean-Baptiste would make a smashing national day …). So, have a happy St Andy’s, get properly munted, and wha’s like us, eh?

  • Goodbye, Star Wars Tree

    burnt-out mini mall, Kennedy & Eglinton
    The mini-mall burned last night. Looks like the centre of the fire was the gift shop in the middle of the block. The rest of the block is pretty badly damaged, though. It looks like the place will have to be rebuilt — or replaced with a condo block, which seems to be the fate of shops in Scarborough.

    I hope that noone was hurt.

    So, goodbye Yoga’s, with your selection of teas and Sri Lankan groceries. Goodbye Star Milk, the mom, pop and smiley baby store with your VLT in back and dodgy videos over the drinks cooler. Goodbye Poondy Bread, purveyors of that which has paneity. Goodbye Amma, ace Sri Lankan takeout food shop, the place where I developed a taste for really spicy food.

    But most of all, goodbye to the gift shop. Even though I never went in there, I’ll miss the sun-yellowed unsold toys in the window; the almost-Transformers and plastic racing cars.

    One toy, unsold through two summers, perplexed me most. It was a cardboard tube wrapped in tinsel. Cardboard tags with pictures of Star Wars characters were attached to it with those nylon annoyances you get on new clothes. It resembled more a christmas decoration than a space weapon, which I think it was supposed to be. We called it the Star Wars Tree, and I’m guessing it wasn’t officially licensed from Lucasfilm.

    It’s all gone now, washed away by the fire hoses.

  • music of 2005

    It’s getting towards the end of the year, so I’m thinking about what albums I enjoyed most. These are the 2005 albums I have in my collection:

    • A Hawk And A Hacksaw — Darkness At Noon
    • Aimee Mann — The Forgotten Arm
    • Animal Collective — Feels
    • Beck — Guero
    • Bettye Lavette — I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise
    • Bright Eyes — Digital Ash In a Digital Urn
    • Bright Eyes — I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
    • Calexico / Iron & Wine — In the Reins
    • Caribou — Marino Audio
    • Dan Jones — Get Sounds Now
    • The Decemberists — Picaresque
    • Deerhoof — The Runners Four
    • Devendra Banhart — Cripple Crow
    • Dressy Bessy — Electrified
    • The Duhks — The Duhks
    • Eels — Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
    • Fiona Apple — Extraordinary Machine
    • Gorillaz — Demon Days
    • Grandaddy — Excerpts From The Diary Of Todd Zilla
    • Jennifer Gentle — Valende
    • John Parish — Once Upon a Little Time
    • Kate Bush — Aerial
    • Kate Rusby — The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly
    • Kimberley Rew — Essex Hideaway
    • Lazerlove5 — Flicker Mask
    • Lemon Jelly — ‘64–‘95
    • The Lollipop People — We Need a New F-Word
    • Malcolm Middleton — Into The Woods
    • Marbles — Expo
    • The Mountain Goats — The Sunset Tree
    • My Morning Jacket — Z
    • Of Montreal — The Sunlandic Twins
    • Sigur Rós — Takk …
    • Sleater-Kinney — The Woods
    • Sufjan Stevens — Illinois
    • The Vanity Project
    • Wolf Parade — Apologies to the Queen Mary

    I know there are some that won’t make my list (Aerial, for one) but the rest of them all have their moments.

  • Ontario RFP II

    Ontario RFP II Winners are announced. Congratulations to all the successful parties.

  • completely not feeling the love for the iPod Shuffle

    Shuffle mode on the iPod Shuffle isn’t random. It seems to play the same tracks in the same random order every time you restart the device. It only seems to get a new randomization when you sync with iTunes.

    Oh yeah, and it’s too wide to fit alongside a standard USB plug on an iBook. I’ll check the BestBuy returns policy, ‘cos this thing just ain’t doing it for me.

  • no, I don’t get this, either

    BBC NEWS | Scotland | Crews face bonfire night attacks:

    Firefighters and police faced a series of attacks from gangs as they attended bonfire night call-outs in the Strathclyde area.

    When I read this, I’m glad I left the Land of Ned.

  • What’s with the Council of Canadians, eh?

    Every couple of months, the Council of Canadians sends me a large and visually unappealing (1986 called; they want their typewriter font back) mailing, ranting about how those pesky Americans keep stealing our water.

    Close reading of the mailing (which is hard, given the woeful typography) shows that the initiatives being railed at are either:

    1. run by Canadian companies, or
    2. are part of legislation voted for by Canadians.

    Like most environmental things, Canada has an appalling record of looking after its abundant water. I think we think that the rest of the world thinks better of us than they do, or maybe even frankly cares about Canada.

    I’m a bit worried by the CoC’s use of the n-word — nationalist — since it has unpleasant connotations, like the BNP and SNLA. Also, at least half of the mailing could be summed up as The Maude Barlow Fanzine, with only slightly lower production quality than the average zine.

    And anyway, pesky Americans haven’t been stealing our water. Catherine hasn’t been sneaking any more out of the house than usual …

  • canwea over

    Well, that’s CanWEA 2005 fully over. Yes, I’m still sifting through the contacts, brochures and swag I picked up, but it’s back to work for me.

    I met a lot of people (including, quite unexpectedly, Stuart Hall of Natural Power in Scotland, whom I hadn’t seen in about 8 years), and the show seemed to be absolutely jumping. Could 2005/2006 be the year that Canada gets wind energy?

  • decemberists

    The Decemberists were as great as ever last night. We snagged comfy sofas up on the balcony at The Phoenix, so it made up for the usually dire venue.

    I’m definitely showing my age, though. When they played a demento-rock version of ELO’s Mr Blue Sky, I was about the only person who could sing along.

    Hope that Derek got his laguiole back; it was confiscated at the door …

  • the “do not clue” list

    Ever get one of those sales call-centre calls where you get some automated message before an operator picks up? We get a lot of those, and usually it’s fairly easy to tell they’re automated.

    The one I just got was somewhat lacking in clues of configuration: “This is the default message for the live person message.”

    I so hung up on them.

  • geourl


    GeoURL

  • ex dexit, or trying to be

    Coo, was I really all fired up about Dexit, like I appear to have been in January 2004? ‘Cos, basically, Dexit sucks.

    The coffee place I get my morning fix got rid of its unreliable Dexit machine when it changed hands. So I’ve got nearly $70 sitting on the useless Dexit tag, doing nothing.

    Today I called for a refund, and discovered that Dexit won’t refund your balance. I wouldn’t have signed up for it if I’d known there’d be this in the ultra-sneaky Dexit user agreement (PDF):

    Only in the event of your death (and upon receipt of such documents as Dexit reasonably requires in such circumstances as to whom is entitled to your estate funds), or Dexit closing your Dexit Account without cause, will the remaining funds in your Dexit Account be repaid to you. “Cause” will include any violation of this Agreement, any fraud or attempted fraud, any other operation of the Dexit Account or use of a Dexit Tag in an unsatisfactory manner, or non-use of your Dexit Account for over three (3) years.

    So, do I hafta kill myself to get my money back?

    Oh, and Dexit’s phone support staff are untruthful. I needed to speak to a supervisor. They promised one would call before 8pm this evening. It’s 9:55 now, and I’ve heard nothing.

  • i didn’t throw the pebble

    I walk through a Ford dealership every day to and from work. Last Thursday, going home, my eye was caught by a tiny round black pebble dropping onto the hood (= bonnet) of a nearby car.

    A salesman was near, and saw the pebble. He yelled at me, asking if I’d thrown it. I said that I didn’t. He didn’t seem mollified. I better watch out for him.

  • dvds by mail

    I’m thinking of subscribing to zip.ca, the Canadian DVD-by-mail company. I’ve browsed their catalogue, and they have some good things. But they’re not very clueful with computer security — they just sent my trial password in plain text back to me over e-mail.

  • it’s toast

    It seems that the concept of a toast rack is alien to Canadian kitchen retailers. Y’see, the parents are visiting soon, and last time they were here, there was a minor scene over toast sogginess. I tried two large kitchen shops; neither had heard of the concept.

  • I (still) believe in bugs

    mantis

    We found this praying mantis at the back of the office. Paul picked it up, but it flew off. It didn’t seem to mind having its picture taken.

    This (my second) mantis sighting was much more interactive than my first.

  • keyed up

    Aiee, I forgot how a keyboard under Windows works! I’m hitting Backspace when it’s wanting Delete, and Alt when it wants Ctrl.

    Macs’ll do that to ya, eh?

  • tim test

    Yesterday’s Tim‘s coffee, black, reheated from cold, is as identically mediocre as when drunk fresh. It’s a whole new meaning for Always Fresh.

  • great work of fiction

    MS Backup\'s not-so-accurate time assessment
    We use MS Backup. This is the typical output of a run which took — at the very outside — 90 minutes. Where it gets its figure of 11½ hours, I’ll never know.

  • my lappy is not well

    My ThinkPad T21 is dying. Well, its processor and interfaces are fine, but its backlight is erratic, the battery lasts about 20 minutes, and the case is badly cracked. Because it takes so long for the screen to come on, it’s almost no use as a portable computer.

    It’s a shame; it has been a nice machine. I’d prefer not to have to buy a new machine — it’s a toss-up between another used ThinkPad, or a new iBook — but this gets me very frustrated. Catherine has been complaining about how tetchy I am about it.

    I’ve probably been very bad at responding to e-mail over the last few weeks because of this. Apologies.