Idiot Banter

Because it’s business not people….

Posted By:

Matt

Posted On:

September 28th, 2008

Posted In:

Blog, Music, Nonsense

Comments:

No Comments

The lyrics to one of my favourite Hot Water Music songs seem very relevant to me right now. Everyone should step back and think about others before they act.

Hot Water Music - At The End Of A Gun

We can waste we can come and go
We can act like we don’t know about suffering and pain
We can live our lives in shame for never helping anyone we know, or don’t
But we need to recognize that we are dying if we live alone
Let’s send our energy out with what we know and unify today
Because our freedom sits at the end of a gun
We’re all here getting beat up and held back
We’re all here digging knives from our backs
We’ve all been betrayed
Because it’s business not people
It’s always take and it is never give and that’s not the way I want to live
Because that’s nothing but dying and we’re nothing if we sell ourselves
Close your eyes never hear never cry for living an empty life

Everyone Should Have Sick Days

Posted By:

Matt

Posted On:

January 10th, 2008

Posted In:

Nonsense

Comments:

2 Comments

I think it’s safe to say that most full time, salaried employees in Canada are allowed to take a few days off with pay when they are sick. This is a good thing, if people come to work when they are sick they are not productive and they get everyone else sick, that can cost a company a lot of money. I currently work on contract which means I don’t have sick days, if I have to take a day off I don’t get paid.

I’m getting sick!

If I had sick days I’d go home now, sleep for 20 hours, drink lots of fluids and come to work tomorrow refreshed and hopefully not sick. Instead I am going to wait until it’s really bad. I’m gonna unintentionally pass it around to my co-workers (I hope not) and hope that I’m sick on the weekend so I don’t have to take any time off. If I had sick days I could beat this cold before it gets bad and not pass it to my co-workers. Giving one person a half day off with pay (even if they’re on contract) is a lot cheaper than giving 4 people half days off with pay, right? I’m delusional due to this cold, what do I know?

I’m Gonna Email Santa

Posted By:

Matt

Posted On:

December 15th, 2007

Posted In:

Nonsense

Comments:

1 Comment

How’s this for an amazing/disgusting marketing plan?

1. Buy the domain santa.com
2. Let kids create wish lists on santa.com
3. Load up santa.com with referral links to Amazon, iTunes, and Google ads.
4. Send the wish list full of referral links to the parents and encourage them to buy everything their kids want online using your referral links.
5. Get some superstar country singing kid (Billy Gilman) to sing a song called Santa.com all about emailing Santa your wish list on santa.com.
6. Get this song played on the radio over and over all holiday season.

Who is behind santa.com? At first I thought it was Amazon until I saw the iTunes links and the Google ads. Amazon probably wouldn’t need Google ads and they sell music now so they wouldn’t be linking to iTunes. It’s gross but I wish I had thought of it. It must have cost a fortune to buy santa.com.

I Am So 1994

Posted By:

Matt

Posted On:

November 28th, 2007

Posted In:

Nonsense

Comments:

5 Comments

It has recently come to my attention that everything I associate with my childhood happened in 1994. Everything from movies to albums to significant events happened in 1994.

Below you will find 3 lists. These lists are all things that happened in 1994 that I strongly associate with my youth. Sure there are other things in other years that I associate with my youth, but I feel that 1994 contains the highest concentration, especially musically.

Significant Events

Everywhere I went, these are the things people were talking about.

• OJ Killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman and was chased down the highway in his Bronco a few days later.
• NAFTA took effect on Jan. 1st
• Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the leg by someone working for rival Tonya Harding and went on to recover and win a silver medal at the Olympics a month later.
• Lorena Bobbitt is found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of mutilating her husband John… in the crotch.
• Major League Baseball Players went on strike and Toronto decided that that meant The Blue Jays won the non-existent World Series by default.
• The U.S. begins to deploy troops to Kuwait.
• Boris Yeltsin orders troops into Chechnya.
• The Whitewater scandal investigation begins in Washington, DC.

Music

Loser (Beck), Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden) and The Man Who Sold The World (Nirvana) were constantly on the radio. At every school dance they played All That She Wants (Ace Of Base), Amazing (Aerosmith), No Rain (Blind Melon) and When I Come Around (Green Day). It’s too much, I can sing almost every song on this list of popular songs in 1994.

• Kurt Cobain is found dead.
• Nirvana released Unplugged in New York
• Green Day released Dookie
• The Offspring released Smash
• Weezer released The Blue Album
• Blink 182 released Cheshire Cat
• Woodstock ‘94
• New Kids On The Block broke up.. haha
• Live released Throwing Copper
• Beastie Boys released Ill Communication
• NOFX released Punk In Drublic
• That huge Hootie and the Blowfish album was released (Cracked Rear View)
• Sloan released Twice Removed (one of my top 10)
• Jamiroquai released The Return of the Space Cowboy (one of my top 10)
• Megadeth released Youthanasia (one of my top 25)
• Bush(x) released Sixteen Stone (I didn’t care but every 12 year old girl did)

Movies

Movies everyone was talking about. Some I liked.

• The Lion King
• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
• The Mask
• Dumb & Dumber
• Forrest Gump
• Drop Zone (I don’t remember the movie but I remember seeing it at a birthday party)
• Pulp Fiction (My parents didn’t let me watch it when it came out but it is now my #1)
• The Crow (”Did you hear the dude died while filming it?!”)

Wow

My childhood really was all about 1994. Were you born on or around 1981? Do you also link 1994 so strongly to your youth?

New Office Space

Posted By:

Matt

Posted On:

November 14th, 2007

Posted In:

Nonsense

Comments:

1 Comment

We recently moved down one floor in the Much Music building at 299 Queen. We went from a sweaty box with no windows to a comfortable open space with huge windows. The desk, the dudes and the view.

New RSS Feed Options

Posted By:

Matt

Posted On:

October 20th, 2007

Posted In:

Nonsense

Comments:

No Comments

This morning I set up a few new feed options and put all of my feed links on a separate page. You now have the option to receive updates for the entire site via RSS or email, just posts about Snowboarding vis RSS, just posts about CSS & XHTML via RSS, or just posts about Music via RSS.

Check out the new feed page.

Hollywood

Posted By:

Matt

Posted On:

July 22nd, 2007

Posted In:

Nonsense

Comments:

1 Comment

This past Friday night I decided to stay in and watch a movie. Let’s take a look at my options for obtaining a movie to watch.

I could “rent” a movie from Rogers On Demand but they have a pretty limited selection, and the movies have failed to download on a couple of occasions forcing me to call Rogers to make sure my account wasn’t charged for a movie that I didn’t get to watch.

I could download a movie via Bit Torrent which I’d get to keep for as long as I like and could even pass along to friends, but that’s illegal!

I decided to go the old fashioned route and rent a DVD from the Mr. Movie just a few minutes walk from my apartment. This was the only option that required me leaving my apartment, not a huge deal on a nice summer evening, but might suck in a blizzard in February. This was the only option that allowed me to pay cash/debit. This was also the only option that allowed me to ask for advice from an employee that hopefully knows a thing or two about movies (not always the case).

Renting a proper DVD seemed like the best, legal option until I got home and started watching the movie only to find the disc was scratched and skipping all over the place. This does not happen with digital files on a hard drive. The video store had closed for the night and I was stuck with a scratched disc that was skipping all of the scary parts!

Here’s my beef. I would love to be able to download movies legally. iTunes offers this service in the USA, but licensing prevents this same feature from being offered in Canada. That same licensing put in place to protect copyrights will probably lead me to Bit Torrent the next time I feel like a quiet night in with a movie.

This is a classic case of large companies rejecting new technology instead of properly embracing it. I don’t think Hollywood is in as much trouble as the music industry, look at the lines for Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers. But as TVs and surround sound audio systems get bigger and movies are leaked on the internet faster, it won’t be long before people decide not to deal with some inconsiderate jerk kicking their chair and just stay home. If Hollywood isn’t ready for the internet it’ll be in serious trouble.

Sure, if people don’t pay for movies Hollywood won’t be able to make them anymore. Fine. Someone will come along who makes movies AND understands the internet and what consumers want. They’ll take over, it’s really not that big of a deal.