America's Next Top Model: Groundhog's Day Edition

I was watching a rerun of ANTM and every time the show returned from commercial it started over again. The third time the show started at the beginning I gave up.

Vainty Fair's Cute Boys Portfolio

Hollywood's Next-Gen Men - Vainty Fair Web Exclusive

In other news....

I smell like burnt popcorn.

Almost an Insult to My Intelligence....

I've been playing the online game The Ultimate Search for Bourne where you are a CIA agent trying to track down Jason Bourne. I've played games like this before for the shows Alias and Lost but this one is really lacking. The last two tasks took me less than five minutes COMBINED! I realize they are trying to appeal to a mass audience and there are prizes involved but come on! Today's task they literally said go to this web page, find a picture with an encrypted message, decrypt the picture to find his last know location. The picture was a map drawn on a napkin. Anyone with a map could tell where he was, no decoder needed. These game creators are either insulting my intelligence or calling it in.

Update: The problem is other people are morons. It isn't Google's fault I got mad skills, they are only trying to make things fair.

A Fake Editorial from the Onion

I thought this was too awesome not to share:

Why Was I Not Informed About Bruce Lee?

I'm a Strange Person with Strange Dreams

Ok, try yelling "Go away!" without moving your tongue. That is what I awoke to very early this morning.

I dreamt that the Calgary LRT was now a cross Canada railway. My sister and I boarding for our trip and security would not let anyone board the train with food. All the passengers were very upset because they had just bought powdered lemon filled doughnuts at Tim Hortons (which you had to pass through to get to the train). Security was insistent that no food be brought aboard because someone had been littering small styrofoam plates all over the train. Everyone quickly ate their doughnuts before boarding.

As my sister and I board the train, all the other passengers were my former homeroom class. We were having a difficult time walking to our train car since the floors were made of rolling metal rods to combat littering (obviously). We eventually make our way to our sleeper car and quickly fell asleep.

I awoke (in my dream) to two shadowy figures, sporting ball caps and long ponytails, dumping garbage bags full of styrofoam plates all over the floor. I was too tired to get up to stop them so with all my might I shout "Go away!" without moving my tongue. I shouted so loud I woke myself up for real. It was 6:15am (prime-time for chumps to wake up).

This is second time in my life that I have woken myself up by shouting in my sleep.

QEII More Technologically Savy That You

Dude, the Queen sent her first email in 1976! That was 2 years before I was born and 20 years before I sent my first email. That Queen is a hip, hip lady.

Caught in the net: How old is the blog really? And e-mail?

What? What? What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A CSI: Miami Resurrection - Eonline

I think my sister was right all along. QWoP, you blow my mind.

I guess this means I'll be watching CSI:Miami again.

For old time sake: Lego Rory Cochrane and Janny

Big Cities Take Note (Hint, Hint, Calgary)

Montreal parking meters used to raise funds for homeless
The Canadian Press

I think using parking meters for donations is an excellent way to combat panhandling.

In other news....

I got a Flickr account (you can scroll down for my badge).

I have "Funky Cold Medina" stuck in my head. Don't know why. I'm not sure if it is better than "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees that I had stuck in my head yesterday.

I could have seen the Stanley Cup today but my desire to stay in my air-conditioned car in 35C heat (45C with humidity, that's 95F and 113F with humidity for you Roger types) was too great.

Customer Service VS Good Product

Recently I was informed by Lavasoft that my license of Ad-aware was nearly expired. You may not think that is out of the ordinary except that I bought the program when they were just an upstart company -- I was promised free upgrades for life. Their computer system does not recognize me as one of the people who purchased Ad-aware in the beginning years, these other people get the program for free. I even have proof, from their website, when I purchased the program. They sent me 30% discount (that anyone who already own the program gets) and a new username and password. Stupid. I'm considering downloading the free version.

Who's wrasslin'? Bea Arthur's wrasslin'!

I was in a particularly random mood and completely bored this evening. I thought to myself, "Self, you need to find out what Bea Arthur has been up to." According to Google, she has been wrestling velociraptors (obviously, like what else would she wrestle).


You can own a print of this lovely painting for only $45 US (the original has already been sold).

Note to sister: Who would win in a fight Bea Arthur or Nicole? If Bea Arthur can wrestle dinosaurs (albeit small ones) and Nicole can wrestle bears, does that mean Nicole could beat up Bea Arthur? That seems illogical. I'd put my money on Maude.

Note to Family and Friends:

Buy Janice Dinner for Five: The Complete Series

Joblessness continues....

There hasn't been a job prospects in weeks. Last week I thought there was s potential job but then once I got more details I realized I was completely unqualified and uninterested. The strange thing is that of all the teachers leaving the school, I am the only one leaving on good terms and with a good job evaluation. I have friends who received disciplinary letters (albeit undeserved) and they got jobs before the school year was out. This is ridiculous and discouraging.

Rainn Wilson waxing nostalgic

Rainn Wilson: Emmy Nod Is Best Thing Since Sting

THURSDAY JULY 19, 2007 04:45 PM EDT

By Stephen M. Silverman

Canada's Black Heart

The New York Times Op-Ed Contributor

Canada’s Black Heart

By WILL FERGUSON

Published: July 18, 2007

On a deeper level Conrad Black represents that most Anglo-Canadian of conceits: the blustering royalist, the imperially infatuated capitalist.

Classic Americana

Houston, we have a typo -Todd Halvorson, Florida Today
Someone at NASA misspelled Endeavour on a banner.

The most understanding wife, ever

Life in a Cage: Baby Sleeps, Mom Cooks, Dad Bats
By LEE JENKINS
For three years, Angels outfielder Reggie Willits has chosen to live with his family in an indoor batting cage.

Rantings of the Officially Unemployed

You'd think I'd be happy that the school year is over but I'm not. I'm too freaked out about not having a job for next year.

There are people who just don't get why I quit my job including people at the school. Hello? Where you not there this year? Are you completely oblivious to the working conditions? This school has a greater than 50% staff turn over rate year to year. Only 3 out of 11 teachers are returning next year. Two of them are only returning because they are so close to retirement they are too costly for other school divisions. When is admin going to clue in that they are the problem?

The thing that has bother me the most lately is the lying from administration. Two teachers and one teacher assistant were lied to about jobs for the future. The teachers were told that their services would not be needed because there would not be enough students next year (neither were planning to return anyway). A couple weeks later their jobs were advertised in the the newspaper. They were lied to because they spoke up about things going on at the school and administration did not have just cause to fire them. The teacher assistant was hired for a summer program then was told the summer program was canceled. They really had offered the job to someone else.

Blah, blah, blah....

I'm really down in the dumps. I'm still sick (actually worse than my last post) and I'm one day away from being unemployed. As much as I want the school year to be over, I don't want to stop seeing my friends all the time. I've made some great friends at this school and it will be really hard not working with them anymore.

Last week I interviewed at two awesome private schools and the interviews went great. I had a good feeling that I would get at least one of the jobs. I was so wrong. Today I found out from both of them I did not get the job. Ho hum.

One good thing about today was the teacher versus student basketball game. There were 5 teachers so we had to play the whole time and we still won. As I am still not feeling well, I told everyone ahead of time I was going to play the thug. As a fellow teacher put it "The part of Charles Barkley with be play by Janice ______". (Ok, that is only funny if you know basketball). Tiny, little me was totally pushing those boys around. I don't think the boys were expecting it. One boy in particular who probably half a foot taller than me constantly complained about it. My response: "If you're not going to do anything about it, quit complaining about it." He started pushing back when he asked another teacher if he was scared of him. I told him I wasn't and then gave him a shove. Oh yeah, I'm really good at trash talk. It was lots of fun especially since we won.