Sometimes I’m forced to watch Global TVs 5:30 news. Sometimes I linger long enough, past the dire Global Warming footage, and “green” energy announcements, to catch the promo for the six o’clock Global Toronto News. You know, the promos where the local figureheads are walking around Toronto, touting about how much they know about what’s going on. What I saw last night had me falling off my chair.

The promo starts. Here we have the two figureheads, Anne Mroczkowski and Leslie Roberts. They are in a gym and an irate guy comes up to them with a bill complaining about how expensive it has gotten. The figureheads reply (paraphrasing):

Oh, yes, the bill has gone up another 8% when the HST was read more

When we moved into our rural home over 5 years ago, there wasn’t much choice concerning the Internet. It was either slow dial up over bad quality country phone lines or expensive line-of-sight wireless (microwave) Internet by either Storm or RipNet (out of Brockville, ON).

We got both Storm and RipNet in to do a sight survey, and Storm wanted $1200 to put up a tower, while Ripnet wanted just some $200 for a small tripod to put on top of the roof. Naturally, we went with Ripnet in August 2005. In order to minizime the cost to us, we signed up on a three year contract so we would not have to pay any installation charges. The fee for Internet read more

… it better not be David Suzuki.

He is BC’s pride…

Ontario’s summer, so far, has been so cold and damp that it is now very hospitable to Heracleum mantegazzianum, also known as the Giant Hogweed, which is native to Russia, and thrived in the early 1970s in (also) damp and cold Britain. Ontario’s summer has been so cold and wet that it closely resembles Britain’s, and as such, the Giant Hogweed is quickly spreading.

The Giant Hogweed is a plant that can grow up to 7 meters tall, and it’s 3 cm thick stems have a clear liquid that, combined with sunlight, can make your skin boil. It was introduced to Britain by a victorian explorer, planted in the Royal Gardens at Kew, and quickly took over the countryside, prompting my read more

When KISS comes to town, you gotta go. You just have to: it’s the greatest rock show on Earth. You’re not going for the fine musicianship, you’re not going to hear the crystal clear soprano-like voices. You’re going to watch an extravaganza. And when it comes to putting on a good show, KISS is second to none. No other band comes even close to giving you your money’s worth of sheer entertainment.

Their music may not be appealing to most people, and the make-up and costumes may put a lot of people off, but when they take the stage and play their hearts out for a solid 2 1/2 hours, together with explosions, pyrotechnics, lighting and confetti, it somehow all comes together read more

The facts are these: this quirky show has been on the air for one year, three months, twenty days, six hours. It has won 3 Emmy’s and it has been nominated for twelve, and ABC found the Neilson ratings too low and cancelled it this week.

In case you don’t know, Pushing Daisies is a comedy unlike any other: it’s new, fresh and quirky. It looks almost cartoonish in production and the humour is great as well. The premise is this: Ned, a pie-maker gifted with the mysterious ability to bring dead things back to life by touching them. However, Ned quickly learns that if something is revived for more than exactly one minute, something of similar “life value” in the read more

Next Survivor is to be filmed in China. What, they are going to make all the candidates pactise Falum Gong in public, and then we’ll get to see who will survive? Or maybe they’ll send them grocery shopping and show them the shortcut through Tiananmen Square. How about converting them all to Buddhists and have them visit the Dalai Lama for tea and scones? Surviving in China, that should be fun.