"Use the loofah."

Unfortunately, I really don't have much more to say about this than a suggestion you watch it. It's hilarious and has had me laughing all day long.



There's a larger discussion to be had (thanks to Jeff and Alan, of course) about the efficacy of public service announcements. Do they simply exist to show off great creative or do they actually make a difference?

After watching the video a few times, I can't say I'm any more an advocate for the message than I was before I watched it. But am I in the minority? Hmmm... a question for a broader population research, I suppose.

And maybe I'm just getting way too deep for a blog post about a video that makes me giggle. So, go ahead and watch it and discuss amongst yourselves.

Remembrance Day photo

We went to the ceremony at Memorial Park. I didn't expect so many people there. The highlight of the ceremony was the bugler that was on the balcony of the a nearby building. He played the Last Post and it was perfectly quiet so you could hear the echoes. It was weird to hear almost complete silence downtown.

Anyways, I snapped a photo of the cenotaph and people's poppies and I tweeted it (see my tweets to the right). CBC saw it and put in their story. Cool beans, no? It's the second photo.

We've joined the crew

Yar, there be a pirate joke in that headline... something about Natalie not being a wench.

For those who haven't heard, Natalie and I have joined a crew. It's like a gang, but geekier... much, much geekier. It's the type of crew that appreciates a photo of Natalie with a character from Katamari while at PAX.

This new crew is The Review Crew: an online magazine/blog of cool things and, well, reviews of games and gadgets.

It's lead by CityTV journalist and Gadget Guy Mike Yawney and we originally connected through work. It seems that, during a talk about a client, I may have mentioned some of the geekier aspects of my lifestyle that may have tipped him off that we might be fit to join the crew.

We're currently contributors to this little project. That means regular articles that are both pretty brief and kinda neat. Aside from the news briefs, we also produce some original stuff. For example, I recently wrote a story of a trio from Edson who are trying to break that world record for consecutive hours playing first person shooters. Natalie, on the other hand, was the first in our household to review a game: Dragon Age: Origins. She's still playing it, so I guess she liked it.

And what do we get out of this? Well, for one, we get to do some writing we don't normally get to do. A blurb about a cool ad campaign for a game is a change from writing news releases (which I like, don't get me wrong) or technical manuals. Plus, we do get a chance to get our hands on new games (and the odd gadget) that needs reviewing. There's no money in it, but there may be... we'll see how the advertising strategy pans out.

But, bottom line: it's fun. Not exactly world-changing literature we're creating, but fun. We play games, write in a different style and hang with a cool crew. Just like pirates.

A Glorious Dawn

Before you click play, a little intro. Obviously, Carl Sagan never sang any of this stuff so the creator, John Boswell, ran Sagan's voice through a vocoder. The singing is a little cheesy, a little weird, but the lyrics are awesome. The chorus gave me the chills.

Nick Sagan, Carl's son, posted on his blog regarding this video: "So, yeah, my dad put out a new music video."



And the sound Sagan does at the beginning of the song is a whale song.

I can't get this song out of my head so it's been on repeat for the last week. An awesome, awesome song.

Upside-down Pear Gingerbread

Courtesy Starting Out: The Essential Guide to Cooking On Our Own. I was going for a CBC exploded pizza logo effect.

In which we visit that bridge

Our first partial day with Nicole we finally rode the cable cars.

Here we are waiting for the cable cars. This is Nicole's waiting face. See, I don't need a Facebook account to post goofy pictures of people.


Going up

Nicole had scoped out a wicked restaurant to eat at and on the way we saw the picture below (a restaurant we did not eat at). The concept of the wicked restaurant is that you share each dish. We had an amazing halibut, scallop, and a tomato salad. We also had goat cheese which not everyone liked and, in my opinion, an overdone yellowtail. But wow, it was great and definitely the food highlight of the trip.

The next day, we wandered through Haight Ashbury, where I bought an awesome fall coat, and then went to Golden Gate Park and saw these animals.

Then we headed toward the bridge and took a billion photos.

I'm not sure what prompted Daorcey's confused face.

You'd think with the three of us and two cameras in our possession, we'd have many photos with the three of us in them. Here is the only one.

Finally on the bridge, we have the following.

It is a loooong way down.


And up.