I missed this in January, but here you go. A hit song in Germany (which was posted as a joke on a blog like site) beat out the top music makers in Germany. A six year old girl sang a song about Snappy, The Little Crocodile and made it into the top 10. Wow. The power of the web, man. The power of the web. And some people think I am crazy. Here. And here (scroll down).

Initially, I thought this news story was a joke, but I was happy to learn that I was incorrect.  Back in June, US Scientists revealed they had brought dogs back from the dead.

US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years.

Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.

The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity.

But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.

It is official - zombie dogs are here to stay.  Of course, the scientists want to try this on human beings. 

"Hey, Ted.  You were dead last week?"

"Yah, as a doornail."

"So, now, you're a zombie, huh?"

"And you're looking very tasty.  Oh, and here's my dog, Lucy."

Last night, my better half and I were leaving our favourite video store - the Happy Bats Cinema. Or, as I like to call it, the "store with everything I could ever want to rent". They are located on West 15th Avenue at Main Street. The store has been open since May of this year and is now our exclusive video store. (We are kind enough to allow others to rent from them too!) The store is awesome and the best part is - if they don't have it, they will buy it and have it come in only days later! I love the fact I can give advice in their stock choices. I can't think of any other video store like that.

As I was saying, last night we were walking across the street after having rented a couple of movies, Manufacturing Consent and Love Liza. I was the one who rented the movies.

Why?

I don't normally carry cash (being an Interac kid) and when I do have cash Allyson looks so amazed. Her eyes open wide and she looks at me like I had never handled cash before. Well, such was the case when I pulled out some money and handed it to the cool people behind the counter.

As we walked away from the store and crossed the street, I said: "I rented the movies."

"SHUT UP!"  Allyson then hit me on the arm.

I was very confused at this reaction.

"What?" I said.

"I said SHUT UP!"

I was all proud of myself for having had cash on my person.

As we continued our way to the car I was still confused.

Allyson was looking at me with a horrified look.

"What? What did you think I said?"

"You said you play with my boobies! And you said it in public!"

"No, I didn't! I said I rented the movies! I never said that I play with your boobies!"

I laughed and Allyson went red with embarrassment.

"These movies had better be good." I said.

Tags: happy+bats+cinema, boobies, funny+conversation

A week or two ago, I was over on View-Askew and noticed that Kevin Smith has a blog called "My Boring Ass Life". His style for the blog is like any other, a typical run down on things he does, opinions, etc. But, what I have found interesting is his view on Vancouver, B.C. (incidently, he seems to be staying at a hotel near to where I live, Kevin - let's hook up). But, what I found hilarious was his post from June 5th, 2005, when he refers to Vancouver as a "crank-head littered town".

I wake up around ten thirty and Jen's already up. It's yet another rainy, shitty day in Vancouver. We talk about last night for a while, which leads to a long discussion about the assholes in the car who harassed Jen and how it affected her to the point where she had to prove to herself that she wouldn't let those fucktards take a piece of her away like that. I say that's totally fine - I get that. But it's fucking wrong of her to put herself at risk in that fashion when - if something bad happened - I'm left Jen-less over something so stupid as walking to get a pack of cigarettes at ten o'clock at night, in a crank-head littered town, when she could've simply waited 'til after dinner and gotten her smokes safely. We both have valid points, so we let the whole thing go and opt to get some food.

Priceless. Now, keeping this in context, there was some incident (which you can read about on his site) on Granville St. with some "Yah-Hoos". I would have reacted the same way. But, this brings up an interesting topic. Is Vancouver really that bad? I have noticed in the last year (and I live near the "East Side") the positive changes going on with new construction trying to reclaim some run down areas of the city - but is that enough? It seems with all of this revitalization and buzz about the 2010 Olympics the problems will just "go away". The excitement surrounding the business world is wonderful but what about the true issues going on in Vancouver? Maybe I am missing something but I don't see any part of Vancouver finding real solutions. We just seem to want to push the problems towards Burnaby. Maybe I am wrong. I hope I am wrong. But, if someone like Kevin Smith (who has been to this town more than once) can see the problems we suffer with - what are we doing about them? Safe injection? Cool. Helping those who need it. Cool. Still seeing an increase of homeless and drug addicted people. Huh? How does that happen?

A couple of days ago, this would have been my post about my war with Toshiba Canada and Staples Canada. Unfortunately, I am forced to take it all back because, as I was writing the following post, I was on the phone with Toshiba Canada and they changed their flippin' minds:

Over the past seven or so weeks, I have been at war with Staples Canada and Toshiba. In February, we purchased a couple of Toshiba laptops that were on sale at Staples (yes, I know, I wouldn't normally order something from them but the deal was just too good!). They were new machines, so, we bought them. One of them had a problem on the screen, so, I happily sent it in for repair. It was fixed and I got it back. The keyboard on the second laptop had some sticky keys. I sent that in for repair. It didn't come back because it was not in warranty. "What?" I said. "It expired last year." The nice technical repair guy said. "What?!" I said. What followed was not pretty. When I get screwed, I like to make sure I have a good time - so, one must watch out when they sell me something and, if you are a huge corporation that spans the globe, even better for my day in the fun and sun. I called Toshiba. They said: "So, what is the problem?" I explained it calmly...almost. Three Toshiba departments later (which I had to call all individually because they apparently can't call each other), and a call to the Staples store, I again said: "What?!" Anyway, it has been resolved now, but I will never buy anything at Staples again. Why? Because it has been discovered by myself and Toshiba that the sales people were not selling stuff "above board". It has all been deception, lies and plain ignorant, mindless stupidity. I also must make mention of DTM Systems, a company that has been holding on to my poor machine and tolerating this whole mess. They rock! Thanks go to Barry, Paul, Wayne and Dave - without their help on this matter, I might be stuck with a busted machine that no one wants to repair. And, Toshiba, bless their hearts, has taken this all in stride and supported their product regardless of this situation....

My post trailed off somewhere around here because...Toshiba revoked their promise! Two of the people I spoke to at Toshiba told to me that everything would be taken care of. But, at the last minute, a decision came down from Toshiba's head office to deny me what I wanted (a new keyboard). They feel they had fulfilled their promise and they had no further obligation to satisfy me. I called Staples head office cheesed off and ready to kill. But a nice executive lady answered and explained to me what was going on.

"Toshiba and Staples have an agreement that their product, no matter when sold, is covered under their 12 month warranty. No problem. They are obviously violating that agreement in this case. We will sort it out, you don't need to worry about a thing. I am sorry you have been mixed up in this dispute. It has been ongoing between our two companies for some time."

So, Staples Canada customer service (with the exception of the local store jockeys who were nice but a little clueless) provided me with some satisfaction. And, yes, the keyboard was repaired. I hope that Toshiba can do the same in the future - but, somehow, I doubt it.

Tags: toshiba, staples, toshiba canada, staples canada, poor service, customer service

It looks like the most evil person in the Star Wars universe, Darth Sidious, has his own blog. He just started it in March, so, he doesn't have a whole lot of posts, but check it out. Ever wonder what the Emperor listens to on his iPod?

What's on my Ipod? 1. Reign in Blood - Slayer ( gets me going in the morning) 2. Clones- Alice Cooper ( Vince is a golfing buddy) 3. Killing Moon - Echo & the Bunnymen (That's no moon, it's a space station) 4. Mr Roboto - Styx (actually that is one of Greivous's faves) 5. Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler (Turning to the dark side was never so sweet ) 6. You're Havin my Baby - Paul Anka (Anakin Skywalker loves this, don't know why) 7. Dust in the Wind - Kansas (so, so true) 8. Theme from Shaft - Issac Hayes (Mace Windu turned me on to this, I must remember to thank him) 9. Breaking us in two - Joe Jackson ( I miss Darth Maul) 10. My Way - Darth Sidious (couldn't help a little self-promotion, my new single is gonna drop in June)

As I mentioned in my other post about the BCMP (which had a slight political bent to it) I present for you the The Official Monster Raving Loony Party based in the UK and Northern Ireland. They are worth a look as their platform is quite interesting.