I bought a flip video camera on Monday (as seen on Oprah).

The Flip video camera is a compact video camera made by Pure Digital that makes shooting web video easy. It was introduced last year, but only became widely-available in Canada in June.

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The walrus made some, I assume, unintentionally funny comments quoted in TGAM today about some Quebec sovereigntist opposition to him playing in Quebec at the city’s quatercentenary celebrations.

“Quebeckians” should smoke “the pipes of peace,” Sir Paul McCartney proclaimed yesterday, after nationalists criticized the decision to invite the former Beatle to celebrate Quebec City’s 400th anniversary.

[…]

The Quebec painter Luc Archambault launched a protest petition, but yesterday, Sir Paul responded: “Come on Quebeckians [Quebeckers], love me, baby.”
— Sir Paul to ‘Quebeckians’: Smoke ‘the pipes of peace’ TGAM

I just finished basic conflict and crisis resolution that they require volunteers to take.

Chuck, my coordinator, was there. Robin taught the training. There were 13 volunteers there to get trained.
We covered methods for dealing with conflict like authority, assistance, or avoidance. Robin is good. He appears relaxed and keeps it fun with self deprecating jokes.

This hippy-looking guy also told an interesting story:  (more…)

This was on the UW Daily Bulletin last week, and now it is on TheRecord.com.

Several UW administrators, faculty members and student leaders […] appearing in the “Streets of Waterloo Part 2,” […] by University of Waterloo rap phenomenon Baby Buddha. Rappers Raymond “Rayman” Chan and Yuvraj “DJ Fobulous” Goel have a CD available at the UWShop for $10 with the proceeds going to charity.

— UW Daily Bulletin, July 11, 2008 Yo, check this out! 11 Jul 2008

The brief at the Waterloo Region Record says similar things UW professors, students appear in Baby Buddha rap video for charity and links to the video The Streets of Waterloo Part 2 rap video.

These are the type of fun things that I did when I was a lad. Well, I didn’t make rap videos, but I had fun.

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Strawberry season is done for another year around here.

The photo is from last week showing me picking a berry from or feeding it to the camera.

Back in March a friend of mine asked me what names I would suggest for his yet to be born son.

I suggested 11 cool names and at the top of the list was . . . Knox. The list I gave him was mostly a list of names I would want for my own progeny, but I was willing to let him use them.

Now Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt used the name for their baby boy twin, and now celebusessed fans will ruin the name by using it for their kids.

It’s like five years ago when Rebecca Eckler wrote in the Post about naming her baby “Apple,” which Gwyneth paltrow ended up using for her baby.

Last weekend I dug up the potato harvest from potato sprouts I planted in the early spring.

I had left the potatoes in the ground for later, but when I dug them up again several were missing and I saw a chipmunk peering at me from the the cover of the grass.

I think that little guy had been tipped off by the soil i disturbed and grabbed some easy energy. I don’t know if chipmunks would eat potatoes though, so it could have been something else.

I decided I would go ahead with the two leftover potatoes and make some chips.

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Bellmo and Telmo plan to introduce fees for receiving text messages on mobile phones. It is silly because users don’t received messages because of any action on their own.

• Incoming text messages will cost for Bell and Telus clients without bundle TheRecord.com 9 Jul 2008
• Prentice calls Bell, Telus to task for decision to charge clients without bundle TheRecord.com 9 Jul 2008

If a user receives spam they have to call in to get the charge reversed, which is another cost of the person’s time. It is like in the mid-1990s when cable companies introduced negative billing.

Around 1995 cable companies would upgrade the service they provided to customers without being asked and start charging them more. Customers would have to call in and cancel service they never asked for to avoid having to pay the higher bill.

There was a controversy about it and now in Ontario the practice is illegal.

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Jason at National Post is saying that Feist may play at the festival in a few weeks.

Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Amy Millan, et al. will take the stage to close the festival on Sunday, July 27, honouring one of the venues that originally helped put them on the Canadian musical map.

[…]

All we can be left to wonder now is whether Feist […] will join her old bandmates at Ontario’s premier hippy love-in
— Broken Social Scene to break hiatus for Guelph’s Hillside Festival 27 Jun 2008

The post also speculates about whether Arcade Fire will play on Saturday.

Regardless, I plan to be there and hopefully I will get mobile connectivity to be able to report directly from the pen-island.

• Weekend on the island in a lake 31 Jul 2007

My poorly-named soccer team, Merkins, despite its name is leading the divisional standings. It is the halfway point in the season.

Though we have done so well, the other teams don’t seem to think so. In skill ratings by opposing teams we have the lowest.
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