I wonder how many guitar nerds are buying maps and hiking boots?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Just for shits and giggles, here are the top ten search engine hits on my blog in the last year:

  1. coniption fit tim adam
  2. protestant whiskey
  3. “______ _______”
  4. this day is bananas
  5. sh735026
  6. “this day is bananas”
  7. upcountry bankrupt
  8. thundercats are go
  9. fucdown
  10. ode to lrc

Those are, in order:

  1. Something Tim pointed me to at ScienceBlogs that asked bloggers to find five search terms that brings up their blog as the first Google hit. This hits my blog first every time, probably because I misspelled “conniption fit”, but that was kind of by design. I guess people at ScienceBlogs must keep testing it, ’cause I keep getting hits for it.
  2. A line from The Wire, maybe one of Jimmy McNulty’s best. A good Irish Catholic/alcoholic/cop, McNulty turns up his nose at the offer of Bushmills from a bartender, replying “That’s Protestant whiskey!”
  3. A friend of mine whose name I’ll not display here. Apparently she’s being stalked. Awesome.
  4. A line from The Office (I tend to put lines from TV shows, songs and movies in the title field of my blog posts…just a habit). Kelly Kapoor sings it (to the tune of the the Gwen Stefani song) on the day she’s put in charge. I assume people search for it because they want the ringtone. That’s a recurring theme here.
  5. According to The Onion, “a Welsh countryside house known as Bron-Yr-Aur, at the rock-grid coordinates SH735026…contains the never-before-heard Jimmy Page riff, hidden for decades in a mythic, impenetrable vault…the planet’s last, best hope for saving rock music.”
  6. See #4.
  7. We bought a bed around the time that UpCountry went bankrupt, and I blogged about the massive problems we had. Apparently others had some issues as well.
  8. A line from the film Juno. I suspect these were also ringtone-seekers.
  9. A word invented, as far as I know, by a former co-worker. We were in a particular situation deemed so bad that he considered it even worse than a fuckup…it was, in fact, a fucdown. Perhaps the missing “k” is meant to indicate even more dischord. I believe that I am the only hit Google finds for “fucdown” (along with the pingback from my brother’s blog, Technorati, etc.) so I think I own this bad boy now.
  10. The title of a Band Of Horses song.

If you want to see messed up, you should see the bottom of the list.

[tags]top ten search results[/tags]

Public Enemies

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The upcoming Michael Mann film (which I would go see simply because it is a Michael Mann film) Public Enemies keeps adding to a stellar cast, the kind of cast that grabs the audience’s attention during the preview. It’s also the kind of cast that makes my wife kinda swoon-y: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Billy Crudup and Giovanni Ribisi. Not to mention Marion Cotillard, David Wenham, Lili Taylor and Stephen  Dorff.

2009? I do not care to wait that long.

[tags]public enemies, michael mann[/tags]

Things I realized today

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment
  • Quickest way to make friends with the neighbourhood homeless guys: take pictures outside at night. Like moths to a flame.
  • I can write a 4-page marketing assignment in one day if I need to, even if I couldn’t possibly care any less about it.
  • Enough people listen to the request show on my old home town’s community access radio show via the web that the server was choppy. Also: requesting Nicole Atkins and The Thermals will probably confuse the locals; they did come hot on the heels of a request for “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison. Thanks for playing them anyway, Andrew.
  • Seeing the Canadiens finish first in their conference is surreal. The last time this happened was 1989, and I wasn’t even that into hockey yet (it hit me two years later), so it didn’t mean that much. Now, after watching them struggle for so long, it’s just…weird. Nice, but weird. Come Wednesday (or Thursday?) I’ll be so amped up I won’t care about my next marketing assignment.
  • I’d pay somebody $100 if I didn’t have to go to work tomorrow.
  • It may have been 11 degrees somewhere in the city, but down here by the waterfront, t’wasn’t.

[tags]parrsboro, nicole atkins, thermals, canadiens, toronto weather[/tags]

Get your finger off the comm button

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Big sports night tonight: the Habs close out the season against the Leafs. The Raptors try to reverse their recent slide. Toronto FC is hoping to score a goal. And the Final Four semifinals are played, giving me at least an indication of whether I’ll have a 50-50 shot at some pool money come Monday evening.

The NHL sprint into the playoffs is high drama; Washington’s playing just to get in (and I hope they do) while Montreal’s playing for top spot in the conference. Depending on how they do tonight and how Pittsburgh does tomorrow, Montreal will end up against either Philadelphia or Ottawa in the first round; obviously I’d prefer Philly; though the Canadians have throttled the Sens in their last two matchups, Ottawa seems like a more dangerous opponent.

Not that I’ll be able to pay a lot of attention tonight. I have a marketing assignment to write.

[UPDATE: the Habs beat the Leafs, finish first in the east and will play the Bruins in the first round, which is good, since Montreal was 8-0 against them this year. The Washington Capitals won and they’re in…in fact, they’re 3rd in the conference. Stupid southeast division. The Raptors continue to suck it hard. Ditto Toronto FC. Kansas won but UCLA lost, meaning I’m out of the money, but Nellie still has a shot at 2nd if Kansas wins.]

.:.

Battlestar Galactica started off pretty strong in last night’s season kickoff (I think Nellie was right when she said they blew their special effects budget in the first ten minutes) but drifted a little. I’m so very tired of Baltar.

[tags]nhl playoffs, montreal canadiens, toronto raptors, toronto fc, battlestar galactica[/tags]

"I'm no monkey!"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Esquire has a new column called “What the hell is wrong with people.” Based on the first entry (that I’ve seen, anyway) I think I’m going to like it. A lot.

.:.

Via OpenCulture I found this site called BigThink. Looks like lots of interesting podcasts.

Speaking of podcasts, I feel like I should be taking advantage of more. I spend 15 or 20 minutes each day listening to random music on my Zen on my way to work, and I could be using that time to, I don’t know, learn French or investigate Utilitarianism or something.

.:.

I upgraded this blog to WordPress 2.5 last night. While it doesn’t change the appearance to you, Joe Internet, the admin looks awfully spiffy. One little problem though: a lot of stuff doesn’t work. I can’t add URLs, for example; none of the pop-ups work. Good thing I know HTML, otherwise it’d be a little tricky to post.

[tags]esquire, evolution, open culture, bigthink, podcasts, wordpress 2.5[/tags]

Stuff I like. 'Cause I'm a white people.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment
  • My new mouse
  • The Montreal Canadiens clinching their division for the first time since 1991-92 after pounding the Sens 3-0
  • BSG returning this Friday
  • Tomorrow’s forecast: 10° and sunny
  • The new, not-quite-released-yet Constantines album Kensington Heights
  • Income tax returns

[tags]logitech wireless mouse, montreal canadiens, ottawa senators, battlestar galactica, spring, constantines, kensington heights, income tax return[/tags]

Including the phone call where they pretend the band has broken up?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m now more than 90% of the way through my MBA program. To tell you the truth I haven’t been thinking about it much lately. I haven’t worked on it — no reading, no writing, no ‘rithmetic-ing — for about a month, but I have an assignment due six days from now, so I think I know where my weekend is headed.

.:.

Man, would I love to go to Summercase in Spain this July. I have no desire to see an outdoor music festival, but Sweet Screaming Jesus would I ever love to see Mogwai play the entire Young Team album live.

.:.

This Richard Florida blog post contains three things that shock me:

  1. there are 17 large American urban school systems which have an expected high school graduation rate of below 50%;
  2. the average for the fifty largest American cities is 51.8%;
  3. the Detroit city school district — worst in the country — projects that less than one student in four will graduate.

Toronto, by comparison, runs about 75%.

[tags]mba, mogwai, young team, summercase, richard florida, american school system[/tags]

Hey look

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

…it’s spring.

While I don’t expect it to last, it’s 12 degrees and sunny outside my window right now, so I’m calling it. Printemps, enfin.

This better not be an April Fool’s joke. Same goes for the long-range forecast, which says sunny and ten degrees on Saturday. I may just buy a frickin’ party hat.

[tags]spring, april fool’s[/tags]

Wait…wasn't she some kind of Russian witch?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

While walking to work today I noticed a sign in a store window that read, “Clinical strength Cutera Yag.” I thought to myself, That’s good, ’cause when I eat* Cutera Yag I’d only want the strongest, most medicinal kind.

Seriously, I don’t know why anyone would even bother with the mild version. What’s the point of buying some Cutera Yag if it’s just weak-ass shit that won’t do the job. I mean, really. I should also point out that the store was in/near Yorkville, so you just know that all the crazy plastic ladies who lunch who hang out around there wouldn’t be having no substandard Cutera Yag.

* It should be obvious by now that I haven’t a fucking clue what Cutera Yag is. I also have no idea what one does with it…does one eat it? Smoke it? Rub it on one’s skin or else it gets the hose again?

UPDATE: a Cutera Yag is some kind of laser that destroys hair and veins. Or something. So there you go. You learn something new, expensive and retarded every day.