Happy New Years

The last post of the year would normally be some sort of top ten list, or perhaps some new year’s resolutions.  Not here though.  Here’s the past year of the blog, highlights and lowlights.  Mostly it’s just the stuff that jumped out at me today scanning back through the year’s posts.

First off we have perfect hindsight.  This one really smarts.  Looking back at January I was excited about the new Apple TV and thought it was ready for prime time.  Flash forward to just this past week and it seems that I am as stupid as can be.

I debated my increasing maturity because I realize I am now capable of listening to cover songs without instantly rejecting them out of hand based on some sort of naive sense of purity.  I noted that the music industry continues to die without many other signs of life, in spite of some really excellent advice available for free.

Technology was still of great interest of course, as it always will be.  The ever increasing use of social networks to keep in touch with people led to greater and more intricate knowledge of your network of friends, ambient awareness was the term coined.  It’s continuing, and the Friendfeed sidebar is a good example of how that will grow even more.  This year led to even more robots designed to assist humans live every day lives, which I noted would inevitably lead to the death of us all.

I spent quite a bit of effort trash talking Mexico and Winnipeg for their attempts to make their mark on the skating world, even thought I didn’t have to defend Ottawa all that much.  We still win.  Similarly, the LimerickDB is still the best place on the web for rhyming jokes, and we sampled a few of my favourites.  Also, we were privy to the most private thoughts of a monster, disturbing stuff though it was.  I had lots of fun with rubber truck nuts, not directly however.  It doesn’t hurt that they are silly beyond belief in the first place, but then the legislation starts and things get really weird.

It seems that a series of gun-related events cause me to post about them far more often than I normally would.  One gun post even actually resulted in a series of (gasp!) comments from actual other people.  Most often it was just me complaining about them and the people who are clearly not wise enough to be holding them, especially in public.

Speaking of people not wise enough to protect anybody, how about those TSA airport screeners?  It spawned a whole new category of posts that will no doubt continue to grow.  Similarly I particularly enjoyed myself writing about a certain monkey-smuggler who succeeded and then failed in remarkable fashion.  Also we saw a family who was too stupid to protect their dog from a hungry snake, although they had several days to do something about it.

The financial crisis and subsequent auto bailout wasn’t funny, but that didn’t stop me.  It lasted a few days, but we aren’t done with it yet since there’s more to come.  Finally the strangest news story to hit here must have been the multiple feet washing ashore in B.C. I stopped mentioning it, but the story continues to this day.  Crazy.

Finally, some of the more personal posts that kept me amused over the year, I mentioned Nikki’s growing fresh laundry addiction, just one of the hazards of staying home to watch the kids.  Similarly, I revealed how she is a heat vampire bent on freezing me solid.  She also laughed heartily at me for this little escapade with the Stratus, where I learned to use the Force to drive the car.

So there you go, it’s the past year of the blog condensed for your convenience.  Hope you had a good year, I think we did.  All the best to you and yours, see you next year.

Finally

Bush finally announced the US auto deal, 17 billion to GM and Chrysler, who chortled and rubbed greasy chubby hands together and smacked lips in anticipation.  Ford declined, apparently watching it’s fiscal waistline this holiday season.

Bailout buffet

Now we wait until March to see what they are going to do with all of that taxpayer money.

Ottawa Bus Strike

Haven’t written anything about this yet, I have been trying to stay objective and fair, but man if there is something I need to comment on, it’s the media image that the Transit Workers are delivering.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr9l8B-Z5Ms&NR=1

I’m not even going to get into what I think about the terms of these negotiations, but instead let’s discuss having Andre Cornellier represent the drivers in the media.  Clearly he has very little experience in front of the camera, that much is obvious.  He is basically trying to have an argument with each interviewer.  His demeanor should be carefully controlled so that public opinion might sway in their favour, but instead he generates very little sympathy.  His quote from this video is the most telling:  “Inconveniencing people.  What’s wrong with that?”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN9U9lSOpMo

That is exactly the wrong approach to take, in my opinion.  In the mind of the average commuter it’s pretty hard to imagine that it’s the city’s fault that the buses aren’t running.  It’s obvious that the bus drivers are striking, not the city.  So it’s the union’s job to make sure that they come across as the reasonable side of this argument, hopefully generating goodwill and some support from the average person.  We all know the strike is about money, despite Andre’s feeble efforts in the next video to convince Micheal O’Byrne it’s not.  The opportunity to select their shifts is the oldest trick in the book, allowing senior members to maximize their overtime, working in teams to call in sick at just the right moment to let their buddies get maximum pay.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkBIsGTlUT8

I would be really concerned if I was a union member that this guy was representing me.  Making the bus drivers to be the bad guys in the eyes of the city will only hurt them in the long run.

**More posts on this topic here and here and here and here.

Detroit Three two-step

Tomorrow the three Detroit car companies get to come back to Congress and try to ask even more politely for $25 billion in order to keep the lights on in some way or another.  While I had lots of fun the last time they came to town, they really need to get this right.  The impact of even one of these companies failing outright is massive and (for me at least) unmeasurable.  Whole towns will suffer if the local plant closes, as at least some surely will.  These guys have to show some real willingness to change everything about their companies, or they will be laughed out of the room again. 

I think that the right approach by the car companies will tip things even farther towards wise energy use, renewable technologies and a better environment.  Cars and transportation are big energy consumers of course, but I think that the sheer visibility of cars and trucks on the road will help to change the day to day thinking of people for the better.  

I think that later we will look back on events like this with a different perspective.  Like maybe we will look back in awe and say wow, those guys were in a tight spot and they really made the right decision and look at how much better things are now.  

Or you never know, they might take the frigging private jets again.  Actually it seems that at least the Ford CEO learned his lesson, and will be driving to Washington this time.  Probably in a huge honking special SUV that runs on baby seals and styrofoam.

My wallet’s too small for my $50s and my diamond shoes are too tight

I really loved the delicious part about how the heads of the big three American car companies showed up at a meeting with congress last week to beg for money and every one of them flew in a private jet.  Not together, but three separate private jets.  The media went nuts (as it should).  It takes clanking big nards to do that, I just think they are so out of touch with reality they had no idea what that looks like to normal people.  

(Ford CEO) Mulally made his case Tuesday before the committee saying he’s cut expenses, laid-off workers and closed 17 plants.

 

“We have also reduced our work force by 51,000 employees in the past three years,” Mulally said.

I’m sure those people you laid off are very happy to see that your life hasn’t changed one iota, and you couldn’t even manage to pretend to care.  Even on the most crass, corporate level this makes no sense that they didn’t see this coming.  I mean, these guys have media handlers, don’t they?  Maybe they should after this debacle.  Somebody to say;

“Uh maybe the private jet’s a bad idea today, Rick.”

“Whaat?  How will I get there?”

“Well we do make lots of vehicles, you could probably find one of our cars around somewhere…”

“Drive?  Aw, come on!  That’s like a whole day… Besides, our cars suck.”

“Ok, well how about a first class plane ticket then?”

“What, like with other people in the plane at the same time?  There might be someone else using my bathroom!  Eww!”

Methinks with this kind of razor-sharp intellect at the helms of these behemoths we will be seeing nothing in the way of hope anytime soon for the American car makers.  They can’t even beg smart.

Now the spin begins of course, as GM loudly trumpets that they are getting rid two of the seven(!) jets it had at the start of this year.  That will really resonate with the average homeowner, for sure.  I had to get rid of three of my very own jets just last month, as they were just too dirty to bother with cleaning ’em.

What a joke.

Nutritional Nostril News

Some nutritional information today, as I snarf down some leftover cold pizza for lunch.  Apparently a new study shows the liquids we drink in a day could add up to another whole meal, if we aren’t being careful.  

“What you drink is basically the same [amount of calories] as what you eat for lunch.”

Some other revelations of the study include:  teenage boys drink more soft drinks than is exactly a good idea, teenage girls should drink milk more, adults drink too much alcohol and caffeine.  Not exactly a revelation, perhaps, but good to know.  

Then we move onto the coolest cooking utensil I have seen in a while, it’s a hands-free whisk.  As the reviewer on Boing Boing Gadgets pointed out, it’s basically right out of Harry Potter, which is just too cool.  Not sure how practical it is, since as the video shows it doesn’t really whisk, but rather sort of just rotate around very very lethargically.

Finally, we have something that the kids would probably love, and parents almost universally find revolting.  The SpreadHeads are an attachment you screw onto your ketchup and mustard bottle, and then it appears as though the mustard is vomited out of the little guy’s mouth, and the ketchup streams out of the other’s nose like a nosebleed.  

Brilliant.  It’s more than a little disturbing, for sure, but the company is missing out on the real marketing angle here.  Kids are drinking too much soda, right?  How much soda would you drink if you had to french kiss a little plastic man to drink it?  Or if you prefer, slurp it right out of a little gnome’s nostrils?  Yum!  The revulsion factor alone would surely curb even the strongest craving.

Then again, putting a gagging face on a beer bottle probably wouldn’t really stop me for long.  Besides most people make that face when I offer them a 50 anyway….

I should mention that the products mentioned here were seen by me on Boing Boing Gadgets.