Dand—-

Posted on March 5, 2006 by Arthur

The other day when watching commercials, I came to the conclusion that one of most innovative products of the Eighties must have been ‘anti-dandruff’ shampoo. Think of it: when is the last time you have seen a commercial featuring a guy or a woman complaining about dandruff? I haven’t seen any, hence why the only conclusion can be that thanks to ‘Head and Shoulders’ a whole generation of X-ers has magically got rid of the evil of dandruff. (Dandruff at Wikipedia)

Or just maybe the shampoo industry has moved on to fight the hair insurgency, or rather, brought the fight to the dead-enders, strands and that.

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to mesmerize, -ized, -izing

Posted on March 4, 2006 by Arthur

to mesmerize, – ized, -izing
v 1. To be in a deep daydream, or specifically, 2. To overthink the past events that may (or may not) have had a profound effect on one’s personal experiences or beliefs.
ex – Ms. Moneypenny was mesmerizing about mr. Bond.

Origin: The actual meaning of the word is described as ‘to hypnotize’, or the ‘state of being under a heavy spell’. I’m pretty sure, I’ve always used ‘mesmerizing’ in the context as explained above. In a way, I truly think mesmerizing should mean what is described under ‘2’, above. Maybe this may happen in another 20 years.

Earlier mentioned on xsamplex.

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Pouring snow

Posted on March 4, 2006 by Arthur

“It is pouring snow”
coll. 1.A storm that appears to be dumping that much snow, that it is almost ridiculous.
ex. Today, the snow was pouring over the car.

Origin: Made up colloqual: when experiencing the first Nova Scotian snowstorm (which happened to last a couple of days) and seeing the snow accumulate to a 20 or 25 centimeters, I was not able to explain this behaviour in regular Dutch. See also, ‘freezing rain’ (another weather concept I was not familiar with until I actually seen it).

Pouring snow vs. freezing rain.

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Something Awful

Posted on March 2, 2006 by Arthur

Hey! I can do that too!

F5 to continue

The cover reminded me of the game Nemesis. In this game, if you wasted your last ‘ship’, a dreaded message would appear asking if you wish to continue.

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Knife, snow and spore

Posted on March 2, 2006 by Arthur

Remarkable news item: the Canadian Supreme Court overturned a ban on a ceremonial dagger. A school in Quebec was apparently wrong in telling a 12 year boy that he could not wear his dagger in the classroom.

Once again a snowwarning in effect in The Netherlands. Hey, it’s March, right? Almost time to find a terrace in front of your favourite cafe! (I remember a nice warm March 2000).

Via Digg, I was notified of this Spore video (Wikipedia on Spore), which apparently is an old video anyways. While the concept is interesting, I keep wondering what the point is: it’s a sort of pacman and ‘destroy and ha-ha-ha’ god-level game. Did hear Will Wright mention the game Populous in that video? Populous!

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Roll up the rim 2006

Posted on February 28, 2006 by Arthur

Once again, Roll up the rimHortons Roll up the Rim contest has just started and we at xsamplex are once again at the forefront of analysing your chances to win a donut.

This year seems to be marking the rise of ‘large cups’ in each part of the country (with less medium and extra-large winners). Generally all provinces seem to have been losing winning cups particularly Eastern Ontario. Overall winner (all size cups) seems to be Manitoba and portions of Central and Northern Ontario. (Notice that the 2006 layout seems to be missing the approximate number of cases per store, which you’ll find on the previous years schemes). There are still the same number of grand prizes (30: the Rav 4 this year, vs. last years GMC Envoy). The rest of the prices appear to be evenly distributed. But. Hey: great news, there’s a bigger chance in winning a BBQ set!

Previous entries: 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002.

Note: data for 2002 seems to be missing.

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Copyrights

Posted on February 27, 2006 by Arthur

I cannot find the right answer to the following question: If you’re allowed to record fragments of a radio show on cassette-tape (being either any brand of C-60, C-90, C-120 cassettes1), why wouldn’t you be allowed to record the music (using any wave editor/recorder, like Audacity) of a videoclip and put that recording on a CD for personal use. Is the latter actually illegal, and if it is, does it contradict the fact that ‘taping’ was always allowed (‘fair use’)? I’m not a copyright expert, so I might be missing the point.

Interesting developments around: The initial posting that made me consider the problem (Niels’). Others: Michael Geist on Canadian levy on blank CDs, Dan Brown being sued for copyright infringement and last but not least Google’s problems with copyrights.

1 Old technology: Cassette tapes!

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And behold: Winter

Posted on February 27, 2006 by Arthur

Just tonight, it Snowsquallstruly feels like Winter: temperatures will go down to minus -17 tonight and stick around those temperatures for a couple of days. Add to that the (sudden) snow blast. It’s going to be some shoveling for tomorrow morning. Unless a friendly Samaritan decides to do it for me.

Word of the season is ‘snowquall’. I can’t remember it ever being mentioned before, on either radio, TV or internet relay station. Hey, even Merriam doesn’t know what it is. (Wikipedia to the rescue)

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Huzzah (II)

Posted on February 26, 2006 by Arthur

Around last year, I reported about one of my bonsais: it happened to start growing its leaves around March 15th of 2005. That very same tree is still alive and once again, it went through the normal process of losing leaves. It actually stayed for the longest time outside.

Earlier this week, I noticed that it was already growing its knobs and actually, I expect it to complete the process of extending its leaves within a couple of days. Which is way too early.

Where it is now (the porch once again), it happens to be a lot more warmer than before, which tells me that this year we already had a lot more sunny days than last year. The good thing is that it’s still reasonable cool during the nights, which hopefully delays the foilage process.

As a matter of fact, this year, I’ll think twice before I decide to bring it outside again: during last Summer, the bonsai happened to be one of the most popular destinations for the ants and their aphids. And earwigs. And wasps.

Posted in Truro NS | Comments Off on Huzzah (II)

How did you…

Posted on February 25, 2006 by Arthur

I saw the following question in one of the server logs: ‘how to put picture on blog header?’. That’s easy: most WordPress templates already come with a ‘header image’ (see for example the Kubrick template), and it’s just a matter of renaming files (this is the easiest part). Most likely you’ll need to change one of the php-files that comes with your template of choice. Look for a ‘header.php’ file.

So, how did I put that little logo at a fixed position in the header? Simple (once again): since I have no background image defined for my header, I positioned the image using the CSS background-position properties:

#header {
border-top: 3px double black;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;
background-image: url(tamarinde.jpg);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: 98% 10%;
}

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Internet Safety

Posted on February 25, 2006 by Arthur

On The Internet
Your browser surfs without you.
Please wear your seatbelt.

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Unpimp your ‘auto’

Posted on February 25, 2006 by Arthur

A couple of weeks ago, Alfons introduced me to the term ‘pimp your car’. I had never heard of it before, but after explanation, I understood it had something to do with adding fancy accessoiries to your car. Or rather, as a highly popular MTV show calls it: ‘Pimp my ride’. Obviously, we’re missing out over here in rural Nova Scotia. First of all we don’t have MTV because we only have the package that comes with CNN. Secondly, I always thought pimping had something to do with ‘selling ladies’ services to third parties’. As in suply and demand economics. You get the picture.

Anyway: this morning, while browsing the YouTube site, I ran accross these (cleverly named and absolutely hilarious) VW commercials called ‘Unpimp your car’, it finally occured to me what exactly Alfons was talking about.

I’m also pretty sure that that actor in that commercial is a well known actor. Did he play in the Meyer movies? VW is in da house!

Posted in Hyperlinks | 2 Comments

Doris Day

Posted on February 25, 2006 by Arthur

A couple years ago, a CD sampler of ‘Doe Maar’, a Dutch Ska band, Doe Maar was given to me for Christmas. Without a doubt, in the late Seventies/Eighties, Doe Maar was one of the most influential bands in The Netherlands. I was never really into the music myself, basically because of either their use of Dutch lyrics and controversial topics. And ska, apparently while being the right (musical) vehicle those days, it wasn’t a music style that really attracted me.

Doe Maar didn’t stay together for long mainly because the band wasn’t really used to overcrowded concerthalls and fainting fans. But naturally, wherever there’s a split, there’s always a reunion. If I’m not wrong, the band decided to play together (once again) around the mid Nineties to separate ways (once) again afterwards. So: today’s ‘Past The Bridge’ sample comes from the song Doris Day, one of their bigger hits [among the many they already had] and apparently a song about the film icon Doris Day.

And don’t bother asking me what they sing about.

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