Do NOT feed the pigeons
August 24, 2007 5:06 pm

I have been saying this for at least a year, but now at least I have the hard facts to support why those slimy little beggers should not be fed.

The Discovery Channel website has released a news article stating that pigeon guano is one of the contributing factors to the collapse of the Mississipi Interstate Bridge that occured on August 1st of this year.

Problems with the pigeon droppings had been on-going and reports were submitted as early as 1988 stating that there was a huge buildup on the "inside hollow box sections". Screens were later installed (and I mean MUCH later, 1996!) to keep pigeons out, but they just kept popping on other parts of the bridge.

The proof is in the science. Chemist Neal Langerman says that pigeon droppings contain ammonia and acids. When it dries out it turns into a concentrated salt. When water gets in and combines with the salt and ammonia, it creates small electrochemical reactions that rust the steel underneath.

Thats right folks, pigeon droppings will rust out steel faster than you can say "hootenany". Having done my research I know that pigeons flock to big cities, where the going is good. There is an abundance of food that allows them to mate up to six times a year.

Pigeons crowd you when you are peacefully eating your lunch in the park, because they are trained to expect hand-outs from humans. They nest all over the city, leave droppings and mess up signs. The only way to get these pests back into control is to STOP FEEDING THEM! So next time, you think it is cute to feed them your hotdog, please think again.

comments (2) 

Weezer and the Muppets!
August 24, 2007 10:55 am

Just what has the GF done to me? He's got me watching The Muppets Season 2 and absolutely loving it! The episode with John Cleese had me laughing my ass off. From that moment on, my fate was sealed and I was sold.

I saw this video on YouTube, and thought that it was a good tribute to my recent watchings of the muppet show. This one is for you GF, luv you lots.

comments (0)  Video 

Mj's AFI Checklist
August 14, 2007 5:04 pm

These are the films I have seen in the AFI Top 100 Films list. My goal to watch every single one of them.

Current Total: 54

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. Casablanca (1942)
3. Godfather, The (1972)
4. Gone With The Wind (1939)
5. Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
6. Wizard Of Oz, The (1939)
7. Graduate, The (1967)
8. On The Waterfront (1954)
9. Schindler's List (1993)
10. Singin' In The Rain (1952)
11. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
12. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
13. Bridge On The River Kwai, The (1957)
14. Some Like It Hot (1959)
15. Star Wars (1977)
16. All About Eve (1950)
17. African Queen, The (1951)
18. Psycho (1960)
19. Chinatown (1974)
20. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
21. Grapes Of Wrath, The (1940)
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
23. Maltese Falcon, The (1941)
24. Raging Bull (1980)
25. E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
26. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
27. Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
28. Apocalypse Now (1979)
29. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)
30. Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)
31. Annie Hall (1977)
32. Godfather Part II, The (1974)
33. High Noon (1952)
34. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
35. It Happened One Night (1934)
36. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
37. Best Years Of Our Lives, The (1946)
38. Double Indemnity (1944)
39. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
40. North By Northwest (1959)
41. West Side Story (1961)
42. Rear Window (1954)
43. King Kong (1933)
44. Birth Of A Nation, The (1915)
45. Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951)
46. Clockwork Orange, A (1971)
47. Taxi Driver (1976)
48. Jaws (1975)
49. Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
50. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (1969)
51. Philadelphia Story, The(1940)
52. From Here To Eternity (1953)
53. Amadeus (1984)
54. All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
55. Sound Of Music, The (1965)
56. M*A*S*H(1970)
57. Third Man, The (1949)
58. Fantasia (1940)
59. Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
60. Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
61. Vertigo (1958)
62. Tootsie (1982)
63. Stagecoach (1939)
64. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
65. Silence Of The Lambs, The (1991)
66. Network (1976)
67. Manchurian Candidate, The (1962)
68. American In Paris, An (1951)
69. Shane (1953)
70. French Connection, The (1971)
71. Forrest Gump (1994)
72. Ben-Hur (1959)
73. Wuthering Heights (1939)
74. Gold Rush, The (1925)
75. Dances With Wolves (1990)
76. City Lights (1931)
77. American Graffiti (1973)
78. Rocky (1976)
79. Deer Hunter, The (1978)
80. Wild Bunch, The (1969)
81. Modern Times (1936)
82. Giant (1956)
83. Platoon (1986)
84. Fargo (1996)
85. Duck Soup (1933)
86. Mutiny On The Bounty (1935)
87. Frankenstein (1931)
88. Easy Rider (1969)
89. Patton (1970)
90. Jazz Singer, The (1927)
91. My Fair Lady (1964)
92. Place In The Sun, A(1951)
93. Apartment, The (1960)
94. Goodfellas (1990)
95. Pulp Fiction (1994)
96. Searchers, The (1956)
97. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
98. Unforgiven (1992)
99. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967)
100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

comments (26)  AFI 

Back from Vacation!
August 13, 2007 5:05 pm

I am back from vacation in Pennsylvania! I had a great time, and spent lots of time with my family, including my 2 adorable nephews and niece.

Since the boys love trains, we took them to Strasburg, on a steam engine ride. We took a nice tour of the country side, there wasn't too much to see but endless waves of corn.

We saw lots of Amish buggies prowling around on the country roads. The photo below was taken from our campground. You can see my shadow in the lower right hand corder.

We also took a day trip to Philly and saw Independence Hall. We didn't go into the hall though, at 2pm they had run out of timed tickets! We did see the Liberty Bell, and learn about the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I'm Canadian eh? I don't know these things!

In the montage below you can see a few other things we did. We went to Valley Forge where George Washington parked his army for a winter. We also hit up the Hershey Chocolate Factory (twice!) and bought way WAYYY too much chocolate. But hey, a girl can never have enough chocolate, and at $5 for a box of 24 regular sized chocolate bars, how could I refuse?

A few things I learned while I was away:

1) I'm allergic to horses! I got very bad asthma and a runny nose after 10 minutes with them.

2) My tent is NOT completely drip-proof during heavy rain storms.

3) If you are in a restaurant in the US and you ask for "tea" you are asking for "unsweetened iced tea". If you want anything other than that you have to specify either "hot tea" or "sweet tea".

4) The King of England found out about the Declaration of Independance from the local newspaper.

5) Explaining the intricaces of Star Wars on a level that a 4 year-old can understand is a very daunting task.

6) The Mason-Dixon line is the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland. That explains what the name 'Mason-Dixon Knitting' is all about.

7) Air-conditioning in a tent-trailer works fabulously well! It is also a great thing to have when it is a humid 40 degrees Celcius in the shade.

8) 1 year-old Jazz can eat more food than her 3 year-old brother any day of the week.

9) I may sleep like the dead, but lightening striking 300 meters away wakes me up everytime.

10) Coco beans are white and goey when you first take them out of their seed pods. The tree they grow on, is the Cacao tree, NOT the Coco tree.

11) Kids are much more resilient than I think they are. Jazz was leaning against the inside of the door to the tent trailer when I opened it and fell out. She did a somersault and landed on her back with her feet away from the door. I thought for one insane moment that I had killed her, but she cried for a few moments and then get back to the busy job of playing. She only had a scratch on a her chin!

12) I learned ALL the words to numerous children's songs including Pat-a-cake, Aunt Rhody and If you are happy and you know it.

13) When your sister or your brother-in-law ask you to pick a side in an argument they are having - stay on neutral ground. Just say "Switzerland".

14) Intercourse and Bird-in-hand are legitimate town names in Pennsylvania. I took a picture of the sign to prove it! (see above)

All in all, it was a great vacation and I had an outstanding time. Many thanks to Ksis2 and BIL2 for taking me along for the ride!

comments (0)  Travel 

Spendin' lotsa money
July 25, 2007 9:00 pm

Today was a money spendin' day! I went out to lunch with the GF and we ended up at ROOTS where I shelled out my first bit of cash for the day on a newsboy hat. I have wanted a cool hat for ages and ages, so it was about time that I finally got one.

It all goes back to a grey, felted, wool hat I bought last fall. It was really nice and warm, and for several glorious months I wore that thing every time I went out into the cold. I remember when I had first tried that hat on in the store thinkin' that I wasn't too sure if it was me or not. See it was different than the kind of hat I would usually wear, it was a bit funkier. I decided to take a chance, and it ended up being one of my favorite hats!

Back to ROOTS - The GF swore up and down that this newsboy I tried on looked really good on me, so I took his word for it and bought it. Maybe I'll end up really, really loving it too!

My cowboy hat is my other favourite hat. I still have that one - thankfully! It came all the way from Texas just for me!

After work, I stopped by Toys R Us to buy lots and lots of toys! I went on a complete spree - it was so much fun! I am going away for 2 weeks with Ksis2, BIL2, nef1, nef3, and my niece! My sister told me I was in charge of toys for the car ride, and boy is that job that I take seriously! It is much more fun to be in charge of toys than to be in charge of food. I think I spent a good 45 minutes in that store, going over every little thing and making sure that I had a good assortment for a 4-almost-5 and a 3 year old.

This is what I got:

That should help keep them occupied - don't you think?

comments (1)  Travel 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
July 18, 2007 6:18 pm

I finally dragged myself to the theatre to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. While I am glad that I went to see it in the theatre, I am most certainly paying for it today. The GF and I couldn't make the 8pm show last night, and our only other alternative was 10pm! After all the previews and commercials, etc, etc and finally the movie, it wasn't until almost 1am until we got home. Oh well, all in the name of good movies!

Having just finished books 1 though 5 in the last 2 months, the novel is still quite fresh in mind, so I can compare the two easily. There are a huge number of differences.

In the interest of saving our rear ends from going numb, I understand that the script writer has to pare out as much as possible to keep the film length down. But what a pared down script it was! Anything that was not directly related to the furthering of the plot was chucked right out the window, and even some things that were necessary were handled as though not to be necessary.

Luna Lovegood was introduced, and Neville, Ginny and Sirius finally played bigger roles which was quite refreshing. The actress playing Luna is Evanna Lynch who has never acted in television or film before making this movie. She was the perfect space-case, exactly as I imagined her in the book.

The movie delivered exactly what I expect, but nothing more. It is without a doubt another good addition to the set of films already released but no where near the best of them.

comments (0)  Opinion 

Merriam-Webster adds new words
July 13, 2007 6:43 pm

If you think that someone who plays the word ginormous in a game of scrabble is cheating, thing again. Merriam-Webster has recently added the word, made up of a combination of gigantic; and enormous, and several other pop culture words to the 2007 edition of the dictionary.

Several of the other words added include:

"There will be linguistic conservatives who will turn their nose up at a word like ginormous," said John Morse, Merriam-Webster's president. "But it's become a part of our language. It's used by professional writers in mainstream publications. It clearly has staying power."

The new tombe goes on sale in the fall of this year with 100 new words added.

comments (0)  Misc 

Breaking glassware makes for beautiful photography
July 13, 2007 6:34 pm

I happened to come across a group of photos of breaking glassware by Steve Strawn at www.splutphoto.com, and thought that they were absolutely outstanding. They are certainly photos that I could see hanging on my walls.

It must have taken quite a bit of skill and one heck of a quick camera to capture these images. Click on the image to be taken to the site in a new window.

Breaking Glassware

comments (0)  Misc 

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