Author Archives: Rob MacD

I received an email today from “PayPal”, telling me this was my final warning about the safety of my PayPal account.  Usually, I just delete these pieces of garbage, but I decided to read through it first.  Turns out, it’s a pretty poor piece of forgery.

Some highlights of ineptitude:

Misspellings:

“If you
do not update your billing informations…”
“Submiting invalid information…”

Totally ridiculous email link to respond to (PayPal uses AOL?):

Please update your PayPal profile in order to restore your online access:http://www.aol.com/redir.adp=1001 blah blah blah _url=http://201.155.199.155/icons/www.paypal.com/managament/cgi/

When did it start?
When was the first time that someone sang a national anthem (or the like) at a public event, but instead of singing it live, moved their lips to a pre-recorded version.
That’s what happened at yesterday’s SuperBowl, when American Idol winner What’s Her Name came out on to the field, took the stage, and began to move her lips around, pretending to be actually singing.

When did this start?
When did it first become more important to someone to sound good rather than to sing live?  When did a competent, mistake-free pre-recorded lip-synch performance become more important than a live, mistakes-be-damned, honest performance?

Why are more people not insulted at this type of performance?  What does it say about a society where a pre-recorded lip-synching of THE NATIONAL ANTHEM is tolerated over a live in-the-moment performance?

Hopefully, Barack Obama will put an end to this, if he becomes PotUS.

Here’s the link to the article below

2,200 customers still without power

Maritime Electric is warning those without power that complete restoration may not happened until the weekend

BY STAFF
The Guardian

The number of P.E.I. customers without electricity has plummeted to
approximately 2,200 by 6 a.m. Friday, a drop of almost 20,000 in a
24-year period as 38 Maritime Electric crews were able to take
advantage of better weather conditions Thursday to restore power
disrupted by a major freezing rain storm which crippled the province
earlier in the week.

The remaining outages are scattered across central and western Queens counties and West Prince.

Maritime Electric is warning those without power that complete
restoration may not happened until the weekend but the company is
hoping to have most outages repaired today.

For the first time this week, there are classes in the Western School
Board. But exams in the four high schools in the Western board have
been delayed until Monday.

The forecast is ominous as another bout of freezing rain is imminent.

Today will start out sunny but then clouding over in the afternoon.
Snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and rain, accompanied by high winds,
are in the forecast for tonight and Saturday.

Go back and re-read the first sentence of that article again.  And be appalled.

Here’s the link to the article below

2,200 customers still without power

Maritime Electric is warning those without power that complete restoration may not happened until the weekend

BY STAFF
The Guardian

The number of P.E.I. customers without electricity has plummeted to

approximately 2,200 by 6 a.m. Friday, a drop of almost 20,000 in a

24-year period as 38 Maritime Electric crews were able to take

advantage of better weather conditions Thursday to restore power

disrupted by a major freezing rain storm which crippled the province

earlier in the week.

The remaining outages are scattered across central and western Queens counties and West Prince.

Maritime Electric is warning those without power that complete

restoration may not happened until the weekend but the company is

hoping to have most outages repaired today.

For the first time this week, there are classes in the Western School

Board. But exams in the four high schools in the Western board have

been delayed until Monday.

The forecast is ominous as another bout of freezing rain is imminent.

Today will start out sunny but then clouding over in the afternoon.

Snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and rain, accompanied by high winds,

are in the forecast for tonight and Saturday.

Go back and re-read the first sentence of that article again.  And be appalled.

They happen. Those “I can’t be satisfied until I get a shot of KFC” feelings come over me maybe once a month or so.
I’d been having the craving for a couple of days, ever since someone casually mentioned KFC to someone else near me. I wasn’t even in the conversation, merely an unintentional eavesdropper. I heard the letters KFC and immediately had that feeling.
Tonight I got home from work, and as there wasn’t really time to get supper ready (Karyn was working ’til 8) before I took Cameron to his table tennis (well, there was time, but you know – that feeling makes one’s sense of time and rationale wonky), so I suggested I pick up K, then aFter pick up C, then after that, get KFC. So, that’s what we did.
I gotta say, I feel guilty enough getting KFC at a meal-time, but there’s something really disturbing about getting it after 8:30pm.
Anyway, we drive to the KFC in East Royalty, go to the drive-thru window and begin to place the order:

Me: I’d like a one-piece chicken, with wedges, please.
Him: Actually, we don’t have any wedges.
I take this in stride, as the wedges were for K, so I order crispy fries for her.
Him: What kind of chicken do you want for the one-piece?
Me (to Karyn): What kind?
K: Breast.
Me (to speaker): Breast please.
Him: Okay.
K’s order is in.
Me: I’d also like a popcorn chicken combo, sweet’n’sour sauce, crispy fries and a 7-Up.
Him: Actually, we don’t have any sweet’n’sour sauce.
I take this in stride, as the sauce is for C’s chicken, so I get Plum sauce instead. C’s order is in.
Me: And I’d like a 4-piece chicken combo–
Him: Actually, if you want a breast for the one-piece and fries, it’s gonna be about twenty minutes.
Me: Okay, then, I guess we’ll cancel our order.
(pause)
Him: Okay.

Now, I do a weird thing: I’m in the drive-thru, right, but instead of driving forward (there was nobody ahead of us) and thru, I decide to back out (there was nobody behind us). I do so rather awkwardly. Before I get all the way backed out, I begin to turn the car, and I get kind of wedged in the drive-thru. It takes, like, a 7-point turn in order to get out and get away. I was aware that it would have been easier, and possible at any point, to drive straight through, but I guess I couldn’t bear to drive by the drive-thru guy after canceling our order.

Anyway, we got away. Got Wendy’s instead.

I’m really enjoying the work of the people at the Onion News Network. Here’s an example:

http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/videoplayer/flvplayer.swf
Child Bankrupts Make-A-Wish Foundation With Wish For Unlimited Wishes

This is funny.  I think so.  nsfw words.

http://www.youtube.com/v/DNORxrSK01k&rel=1&border=1

I wanted to like the movie Juno more than I ended up liking it. 
I had heard so much positivity about it from pretty much everyone.  Knowing that, I was prepared to take all that hype into account as I sat down to watch it.  I lowered my expectations, knowing that the movie couldn’t possibly live up to all that hype.
I had seen clips of the movie, and found the dialog in them to be somewhat too precious.  I had read reviews and blogs etc that said once you get past the first few minutes, the cleverness of the dialog stops being a bother.

So, knowing all that, and wanting to like the movie, I watched Juno.  I liked it, but I didn’t like like it, like everyone else.  I found I couldn’t get past the too-cool-for-school hip quips that all the characters had at the ready for all those little moments in their lives.  I disliked the convenience store scene with Rainn Wilson as the cashier.  Its verbal tete-a-tete left me cold, and I had a hard time recovering.

My biggest problem with the movie, though, is that I didn’t really like Juno as a character.  I didn’t find her sympathetic really.  I found her to be too aloof and too detached from her emotions.

But that final scene where she and Michael Cera sing on the front step, that was fantastic.  So, this will make it sound like I really disliked the movie, and that’s not the case.  It left me feeling a bit “meh”, but I enjoyed it.

Honestly.

So, my brother had this really old vhs video camera that he found in his attic.  There was a tape inside.  One segment of the tape features me.  I believe this segment captures one of the first times I was drunk at a bar.  In this video, I think I am patiently waiting for the waitress to return with another shot of tequila.

Rob’s First Drunk?

I’m guessing the bar is GJ’s, but I don’t remember them playing such au curant music.

Honestly.