Why Is This So Effective?
A long-time friend of the family, Mrs. C just forwarded me this video and for the life of me I don’t know why it is so moving. Any suggestions? Am I the only one that gets a little choked up by this?
Currently Browsing: Fun and Inspiration
May 1, 2012
Apr 23, 2012
The Queen and Obama
As Air Force One arrives at Heathrow Airport, President Obama strides to a warm and dignified reception from the Queen.
They are driven in a 1934 Bentley to the edge of central London, where they change to a magnificent 17th century carriage hitched to six white horses. They continue on towards Buckingham Palace, waving to the thousands of cheering Britons; all is going well.
Suddenly the right rear horse lets fly with the most horrendous earth shattering fart ever heard in the British Empire.
The smell is atrocious and both passengers in the carriage must use handkerchiefs over their noses. The fart shakes the coach, but the two dignitaries of State do their best to ignore the incident.
The Queen turns to President Obama, ” Mr. President, please accept my regrets. I am sure you understand there are some things that even a Queen cannot control.”
Obama, always trying to be “Presidential,” replied: “Your Majesty, do not give the matter another thought…until you mentioned it, I thought it was one of the horses.”
Feb 29, 2012
Lessons from a Mutt
The title of this post is a play on the old book title, “Letters from a Nut” which may or may not have been written by Jerry Seinfeld. Either way, it was a great read. That, however, is not the point of this post.
This little furball to your right is. His name is Bobby McGee and he is Mom’s nearly one year old puppy. Having spent a couple of weeks with young Bobby McGee, I’m saddened to say that I’ve learned quite a bit.
First off, you need to know that Bobby is perhaps the most likeable creature on the planet. He isn’t hyper and he doesn’t make a lot of commotion but he is always there. I call him a little Plodder. He gets into everything (like the fridge in this picture) but he does it in such a way that it is impossible to get angry with him.
Last night I was babysitting, Mr. McGee and made the mistake of taking him out for a run. We’ve both beefed up a bit and could definitely use more time exercising and less time treating ourselves to un-deserved treats. The problem isn’t the run so much as the fact, that Bobby gets a little rambuncious upon his return from a run.
So last night I warmed up some chicken stir-fry and discovered that it was too hot to eat after nuking it. I placed it on the table and visited the washroom. Whilst in said washroom, I heard some commotion coming from the kitchen so I hiked up and hustled out to discover Bobby McGee had hopped up on my chair to the table. From there he had found a bag in which Mom keeps his treats and had pulled those out and dumped them on the floor. He had then lept off the table (presumably via the chair) and was about to tear into the bag o treats.
He may or may not have indulged in my stir-fry along the way but I skimmed the top layer off of it just to be safe.
You’ve seen him, it is impossible to get mad at him so I ate and left it at that. Ten minutes later I was on the computer and heard but yet another crashing sound. This time he had ventured up to Mom’s kitchen counter (again via a carelessly displaced chair), had dumped the butter tray on the floor and was chowing down on lard when I arrived on the scene.
Again, nobody could get mad at this face, right? Wrong.
Shortly afterwards, still irked by McGee’s behaviour I recieved a text from mom saying that she and her friends were ready to be picked up. I was putting on my boots alongside Bobby McGee when he took off downstairs. I called a few times before I begrudgingly removed my boots and went to see what was holding up the parade.
Bobby McGee had found my headphones and was finishing off the ear that he hadn’t already destroyed a few days earlier. Again, when I took them away, he looked at me like I was the one in the wrong. Like he was the parade and I was peeing on it.
Not a bad analogy, actually.
In any event, B-Mac’s behaviour got me to thinking. He isn’t obnoxious. He isn’t over zealous. He just does exactly what wants to do, regardless of what others think. He’s a Plodder and he can’t be stopped. He doesn’t hurt anyone. He just does what he wants.
Imagine if we all lived like this?
Feb 7, 2012
Socialnomics by Erik Qualman
I know I’m behind the times in my reading material but I’ve just started reading “Socialnomics” by Erik Qualman. So far it is a fascinating read and I suspect it will only get better.
Right out of the gate Qualman talks about the demise of traditional newspapers and media channels as we know them. I recently posted very similar thoughts on my post after the Vancouver riots a few days ago.
I haven’t read enough of the book yet to intelligently comment on it but I did want to mention one thing. Qualman cites Dancing Matt early on as an example of the potential power of social media and more importantly, the potential of social media to allow people to make a living doing what they love to do.
If you’re not familiar with Matt, he is a dude that was famous among his friends for a goofy dance that he did. He got sick of the rat race and started travelling for fun. One of his buddies asked him to do his dance “over there”, filmed it and eventually put it on YouTube.
Long story short, Matt’s videos became wildly successful and Stride gum approached him and now sponsors his travels. Matt is doing what he loves to do and Stride gum is getting MASSIVE exposure for very little costs. Last I checked the video below had nearly 38 million views. That is just one of Matt’s many videos. Amazing!!
Dec 17, 2011
New Danny Wallace Book Out
If you’ve never heard of Danny Wallace before, shame on you. He is a British author that wrote Yes Man (which was turned into a movie starring Jim Carrey) and a whole whack of other books. He has a very dry and very strange sense of humour which I find hilarious.
I stumbled across his work when I was in a thrift store in Nottingham. I picked up a copy of ‘Yes Man’ for less than a dollar and I must have read it 3 times before giving it to a friend of mine. It is that good.
In any event, Danny has come out with a new book called, “More Awkward Situations for Men”. Obviously, this is a sequel to one of his earlier books. I haven’t read it yet but I’m sure it is going to be just as good as all of his other stuff.
The thing that I really like about Danny is that he writes about his own life experiences. He’ll put himself into all of these awkward situations (which of course, turn out to be hiliarious) and gets you sucked into thinking “What if I was to do something like that?”
For example, the premise of “Yes Man” is that Danny commits to saying ‘yes’ to everything for a year. As a result, he gets himself in some fine messes but he also opens himself up to a world of possibilities that he never knew existed. While the book is funnier than a fart in a space suit it is also very much a self-help resource.
If you’ve ever read any of A.J. Jacobs’ stuff – especially “My Life as an Experiment” – you’ll find their writing styles and the situation they put themselves in quite similar.
Anyway, I haven’t read it yet and all of Danny’s stuff is hard to find in Canada so if you have had a chance to read it, please let me know how it is.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with one of Danny’s videos but beware, this tune is addictive and you might find that you’ll be humming it for days.
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