Category Archives: Video Diversions

Bad Kid

Posted on by

Well, I can honestly say from the bottom of my heart that I am glad this kid is not mine.  Man, that is one bad-ass 7 year old.  I can sympathize with the grandmother’s heartfelt desire to whup his behind, I only saw him for 2 minutes on screen, and I wanted to “correct” him myself.  What a kid….

In short: he stole his grandmother’s SUV and took it for a ride with his friend (more than a few miles), hitting several cars in the process, and eventually wrecking the SUV.  He seems mostly mad that he can’t play video games for the weekend.

Wow.

Belated Earth Day

Posted on by

Blast and damn.  I had a couple of things I wanted to mention on Earth Day and didn’t get a chance to do so.  Must be the viral invader in my system messing with my synapses.  Anyway, first a good article about how the biggest question we all face when thinking about doing something about climate change is “Why Bother?“.  It’s a good piece, and makes a fairly strong case that if we each do something, everybody bothers to do one little thing, then we create a sort of social pressure to do more, like a positive feedback loop.  Individual efforts hardly matter at all to the environment directly, but maybe our example to others will help start a wave of change that will actually make a difference.  His favourite personal act seems to be starting a vegetable garden in your yard.  Anyway it’s a good read, check it out.

Then we have a feel-good commercial for the Discovery Channel, I Love the Whole World.  Catchy and fun.

Happy Belated Earth Day folks.

Klaus the Forklift Driver

Posted on by

Don’t be like Klaus.

Hard to imagine that this is actually a work safety video and not a joke, but if it is for real, it is definitely the most memorable safety video I can recall.

A little gem I saw on Neatorama.

*** Update

 My good man Wilson actually did some honest to goodness research and came up with some background on the video, which is most definitely a parody.  But why aren’t real safety videos like this?  They would be a lot more effective I would think.  The videos that are dry and serious probably wouldn’t be remembered as well, and certainly not as fondly.  Anyway, here’s the skinny on the movie:

“Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job (in German, Staplerfahrer Klaus — Der erste Arbeitstag) is a short film from 2000 about the first day of Klaus’ work as a forklift driver. The film is a parody of work safety films from the 1980s. The film was written and directed by Stefan Prehn and Jörg Wagner. Konstantin Graudus plays the role of Klaus, and Egon Hoegen is the narrator. It adds to the air of authenticity that the narrator’s voice is well known from road safety films.”

Thanks Wilson.

The Boss is hawking stuff?

Posted on by

First, it appears that Bruce came out in favour of Barack Obama on his website.  Nice, I personally think he’s the best choice for president myself.  Not Obama, Bruce of course.  Wouldn’t he just be totally cool as President?

Then I see that maybe his credibility is not quite what it used to be, since here he is selling us on Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1….  doesn’t quite have the same zing.  I should mention that I can only assume that this is in fact a video of Bruce Springsteen, I can’t actually watch it since I’m at work and I should be working instead of writing this.

Enjoy.

***** Update

Oh lordy, now that I have actually seen this video with my own eyes, my weak take on sarcasm above does not cover it.  This video is so bad I couldn’t watch more than 40 seconds.  I can’t believe they made this.  It makes Microsoft look so uncontrollably bad, so much worse and uncool (if that was possible), just producing this video just sold at least 2 million more Macs.  Oh my god.  I’m ashamed to say that this stuff pays the bills for me….

I will not complain about crowded buses again

Posted on by

That is all.

Notice the quiet determination to just get squished in there, nobody gets all that upset or concerned. There is just the certainty that all of those people will fit, even if only with the gloved hand of the pusher assisting. Talk about claustrophobia, that would make anybody freak out. Notice the windows when the train goes by, everybody is exactly where they got smushed when the doors closed.

And the bonus round of extreme claustrophobia goes to this poor man.  He went for a smoke and ended up stuck in an elevator for 41 hours.  I don’t think I would be quite the same coming out of there.  The security camera footage is difficult to watch….

Saw that one on Neatorama.