Less than sixty seconds before they decided to go ahead with a scheduled fire drill at work, a bolt of lightning blinded Production, and the thunder hit only a second later.
When the fire alarm rang my options were thus:
Option 1) Stay inside with fake fire, or
Option 2) Go out in rain with very real lightning.
Considering how the building emptied out, I fear for our collective survival instincts.
While bathroom graffiti is usually of some entertainment, it has become rare to find anything of note. Although my first interest is often sparked by the inexplicable concept that someone went to the bathroom with a pen-in-hand, most of this modern philosophy has been reduced to three words or less.
When was the last time you saw a paragraph (ie. more than one sentence) composed on the toilet stall? For me it’s been a while. It occurs to me that with the proliferation of Web 2.0, everyone in the blogosphere is simultaneously getting their fifteen minutes of fame. Instead of this resulting in the celebrity of a singular “You”, it instead results in the celebrity of the collective “You” as observed by the Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year for 2006.
We have a louder voice, but our thoughts are more anonymous than ever.
The bathroom walls are more barren than they once were. Perhaps people are carrying fewer pens than they did in the 90’s? Instead of searching for the longest restroom comprehensive effort, I find myself instead looking for the ones written in Sharpie instead of ballpoint.
I figure that someone who brings a Sharpie with them to the washroom must have a piece of momentary universal clarity that could be lost before he reaches an Internet connection, allowing it to fade back into the cosmic ether from which it spawned.
Unfortunately, since I usually only frequent pubs and sports bars, that ‘clarity’ is often nothing more than “HABS SUK BAWLS”
I’m just writing a short prologue to my usual Preview, since I haven’t the time to dedicate to this quite yet.
The release of Summer blockbuster movies are one of the few reasons I’m willing to release my grasp on the Winter season. Every year it seems to get earlier in order to avoid a crowded, multi-release weekend. While the “Summer blockbusters” are being released before Memorial Day, they’ve been lasting shorter into the Summer months themselves… often petering out shortly after the July 4th weekend.
While this year has no shortage of early starting movies (Iron Man, Speed Racer, Narnia 2 and Indiana Jones all released on subsequent weekends throughout May), the big releases will continue well into August - typically a month reserved for tired franchises. Well, Star Wars will be releasing a feature-length TV show episode from the new series in August, so that could qualify.
<rant>
For the record, anyone who complains about Episodes 1-3 isn’t allowed to see the Clone Wars movie. If you’re psyched up about it, then calm yourself down. It’s a fact that Lucas will never satisfy your lofty requirements for perfection. Just don’t bother sitting in the same theatre as me, or claim that you want your money back via online forums. And while you’re at it, stay away from Indiana Jones too.
Like it, or don’t go see it. It’s that simple.
</rant>
We’ve already got our first $100 million opening weekend with Iron Man, and there’s still the Indiana Jones movie (wide audience) and Batman movie (very high anticipation) to come out.
I wonder if I can get Air Miles with all the tickets I’m going to be buying?
Not that I’ve ever considered the Toronto Sun to be anything more than a cartoon version of a daily newspaper, but the last three days they’ve been running front-page articles on saving reindeer at the Toronto Zoo.
Canada lost another soldier to the war in Afghanistan, the Democratic nomination is coming down to the final stretch, and the Toronto Blue Jays had two players go on the disabled list last night. The Toronto Sun continues to play the holier-than-thou card and insist that the Toronto Zoo not euthanize overpopulated species in the budget-locked zoo.
It’s not a surprise that they could get the public behind this cause. Each day the cover page says “Rudolph” instead of “reindeer”, adding a childhood emotional personification of the young animals.
If they held a charity drive to save the animals, people would donate. If they insisted that people go visit the Toronto Zoo more, they would promise but I don’t think you’d see the turnout necessary once Summer hits. If they insist that the city raise taxes by 10 cents per-person and generating $300,000 so they could afford to keep them, there would be an outrage.
Of course killing reindeer isn’t a good thing, I’m not heartless. However I also have faith that the people who work at the Toronto Zoo are ‘animal-people’. They wouldn’t euthanize an animal unless it was essential… and it is. Reindeer, in spite of their cute, cartoon selves, are highly territorial. Too many males in a group and things get violent as well as dangerous for the animals and staff.
In a similar way, I pulled myself out of the CBC Radio2 protests when the organizers refused to listen to reason and hold protests outside 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. Face it, the kind of person who listens to symphony music tends to have an office job. I wouldn’t generalize, it’s not everyone. However, I’d be willing to bet serious money that the vast majority of listeners do work those hours.
The response from the Facebook branch organizing the cross-country event was that there would be enough “musicians, students and mothers(?)” out to support the group.
It seems that even the sophisticated protest-hippies don’t want anything to do with us ’suits’ who work day jobs. I had first considered switching my stance after reading the point that an in-house orchestra was once a necessity when recording equipment was heavy and expensive. Now a recording studio can be set up wherever a performance is held. The illogical actions of the protest organizers secured my position on the other side of the fence.
This was another situation where the masses want it all, but are not willing to accept that there are real costs involved… often tax-funded costs.
However, in the end, “Rudolph” was saved. This time. So my question is simply this:
For those of us who wish to be logical and reasonable in our efforts to better the world, does aligning ourselves with front-page grabbing, strategy-free neanderthals hurt or help?
An open letter to the Ontario NDP:
At 8:48 pm on October 9, 2007, I received a call from an answering machine representing the NDP asking me to vote for Howard Hampton because the Liberals “broke their promises”.
On July 22, 2003, Howard Hampton put forward a proposal cleverly nicknamed the “Eating Supper In Peace” act, which would create a Do Not Call list and allow people like myself to avoid annoying and unwanted impersonal phone calls.I will not vote NDP tomorrow.
I assume that the NDP maintains a Do Not Call list? How do I get myself on that list?
-Stephen Clark
Davenport Riding
