Category: humour

move to Bamfield, British Columbia

On By Rick McIn humour, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

If you’re shopping for investment retirement property you could check out 3 peninsula towns on the rugged west coast of Canada:

  • Tofino (expensive)
  • Ucluelet (getting expensive)
  • Bamfield …

    • In remote Bamfield, I can put you into a little fixer-upper on the east side.

    fixer-upper.jpg

    To sweeten the deal, I will throw in a skiff to get you across Bamfield harbour.

    skiff.jpg

    They say Bamfield is so depressing during the long, wet winter that the 250 permanent residents cannot muster enough passion to commit suicide. But a cheery person like you could handle it!

    My campsite on the beach near town.

    campsite.jpg

    more Bamfield photos on flickr.

    Bamfield – Wikipedia

    confused by the SOCIAL NETWORKING thing?

    On By Rick McIn humour, internetLeave a comment

    Skip this post.

    It’s just going to confuse you further.

    Chris Brogan of Lifehack.org (not the more famous Lifehacker):

    Why so many? Because there are different reasons to be part of different groups. And all of these groups drive one thing: connection to other people who share similar interests.

    If you haven’t figured this all out, the reason the world is going all social networking happy is because this is your means to connect to people directly and get away from the rigid structure of corporate ladders and protocol and hierarchy.

    It’s a way to extend your audience of friends, colleagues, business partners, and teammates. The whole point of this is to build your new world map from the digits and bits and free hugs left floating out there on the Internet in search of you. Did you know that? People are trying to find you and connect.

    Why so many platforms?


    Just like in real life, there are tons of networks, and they each have their own spin. There are presence networks like Twitter and Jaiku. There are broader platforms like Facebook or the less elegant MySpace. And there are networks with themes like Flickr for photos, or LinkedIN for business. There are do-it-yourself social platforms like Ning. I could name tons more sites (and all those links are to my profiles on all those sites), but you get the point. …

    Social Networks are the New Chambers of Commerce

    I believe if you’re a business, or belong to a certain profession, that joining the trade organizations and consortiums and chambers are all important duties to continue doing in the “real world.” But it is just as important to establish your footprint in virtual spaces, like Second Life, where plenty of real world business is being transacted every day. On top of this, these personal social networks like the Twitters and the Facebooks are important ways to reach out and establish relationships. And if you join some of the non-work-heavy sites like a Flickr, you get the added benefit or proving to prospective customers, clients, and colleagues that you’re a real human being, talented, and not just some kind of corporate robot.

    That Whole Social Networking Thing – lifehack.org

    I love flickr and am learning to love Facebook. So far, it looks to be the one social network to rule them all.

    I love YouTube, as well, but their social networking system is lousy.

    facebook.gif

    Downtown Ronnie is more into it than I:

    Right now I have usernames on Skype, Linkedin, Facebook and Myragan, plus of course I spend time keeping this blog going, not to mention trying to work for a living.

    It’s no wonder my barbecue podcast is on hiatus. I’m feeling social media burnout, and I’m far from being a super-user.

    For Your Approval: A social network for communicators

    I Hate Social Networks

    dare deny spontaneous human combustion?

    On By Rick McIn humour, moviesLeave a comment

    Bullcrap?

    That’s what 17-year-old Jacqueline Fitzsimon thought in 1985 before she burst into flames in front of witnesses, her life extinguished 2-weeks later.

    It’s rare, but the mechanism is described in long, scientific-sounding words on Wikipedia:

    … burning of a person’s body may occur without an external source of flammable ignition.

    … many theories and hypotheses have attempted to explain SHC’s existence and how it may occur, some grounded in current scientific understanding. The two most common explanations offered to account for apparent SHC are each discussed below: the non-spontaneous “wick effect” fire, and the rare discharge called “static flash fire”.

    Spontaneous human combustion

    Personally, I think it must have something to do with radio waves.

    Some of the American Presidential candidates have denied spontaneous human combustion — but they’re the same ones who deny evolution and gay soldiers.

    (Not “you don’t have to be straight, to shoot straight” Hillary.)

    I first learned about the phenomenon from an important 1984 documentary.

    Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

    video – hilarious Mac PC Spoofs

    On By Rick McIn Apple, humourLeave a comment

    The best spoofs I’ve seen.

    Click PLAY or watch PC vs MAC – At work on YouTube.

    Microsoft should hire Laurie McGuinness.

    Click PLAY or watch PC vs MAC – Money on YouTube.

    >> MORE Laurie McGuinness | Mac PC Spoofs
    Laurie McGuinness

    robots with weapons = progress

    On By Rick McIn bad news, humour, robotsLeave a comment

    I’ve cautioned that robots will take over the Earth.

    In fact, Battlestar Galactica may foretell the future. The Cylons are yet taking baby steps:

    The bad news: the U.S. military has commissioned a robot helicopter equipped with a rifle capable “of tracking and killing a particular individual.” The good news: the “particular individual” could be Geraldo Rivera.

    And in what it calls an effort to “ease tensions,” South Korea is moving ahead with plans to post robot sentries along its border with the North — because really, nothing eases tensions between two historic rivals quite like the deployment of robots equipped with night-vision sensors and machine guns that open fire at the slightest hint of movement.

    … The big hit of the recent RoboBusiness Conference in Boston was the unveiling of the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot, or BEAR, from Vecna Robotics. This robot has a balancing system that allows it to crouch and race across a battlefield at up to 35 km/h to retrieve a wounded soldier and bring him to medics, before going back to fetch the four other soldiers it ran over and crushed while saving the first guy.

    Macleans.ca – Canada – Opinions | Ladies and gents, I present to you: the apocalypse

    Robocop Trilogy

    Bush Is Back! – Colbert gleeful

    On By Rick McIn government, humour, product endorsements, TVLeave a comment

    It’s getting easier and easier to watch Colbert and Jon Stewart clips on the internet.

    Newscloud.com is the best yet.

    These are legal clips from Comedy Central.

    Here’s a sample:
    Bush Is Back! – The Colbert Report – NewsCloud.com

    Rick as local cable Access TV commentator

    On By Rick McIn gymnastics, humour, TVLeave a comment

    One of my favourite movies is the first Wayne’s World. Mike Myers and his nerdy pal Garth (Dana Carvey) are “teens who live at home and have their own low-rent cable-access TV show in Aurora, Illinios, in which they celebrate their favorite female movie stars and heavy-metal bands.”

    This past week-end I lived Rick’s World.

    One minute I was a volunteer Floor Manager at the Canadian Gymnastics Championships in Regina — the next, called up to the VIP mezzanine, suddenly moderating a live-to-tape 3hr broadcast of the Finals.

    (Pretty boys like Bart Conner and myself are often asked to be TV sport commentators.)

    I had a number of expert assistants in each of the gymnastics disciplines. Even Olympic Floor Champion Kyle Shewfelt stopped by for a chat.

    What I like about cable TV is that it’s unscripted and irreverent. The more blatantly amateur and “real” the coverage, the more I appreciate it compared with professional Network TV.

    Now that I am a celebrity of the Canadian gymnastics media elite, I’d like to thank the little people: athletes, coaches, judges and volunteers without whom there would be no local cable TV coverage.

    Bad on those jealous few who complained I disappeared completely from the Floor after being called upstairs.

    515639025_0c4e9429b1.jpg

    more random photos from Nationals 2007 – flickr