VALENTINE’S DAY

Loyal readers, another Valentine’s Day is upon us and rather than write a new VD-themed post, I’m gonna phone it in and direct you to the ones I’ve written in the past. There are a few gems in there and certainly a few misses but think of it as browsing a thrift store… a complete waste of time. Look for your Valentine’s Day posts here, here, here, here and here.

THE VERY FIRST VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

The video above is apparently the very first video to have been uploaded to YouTube on April 25, 2005. It appears to have been edited at least once since being uploaded because it contains an annotation near the end which was not a feature until later. This was long before YouTube was acquired by Google. One could say this video has a place in Internet history. Also of note, the video, if you go to it on the actual YouTube site, has the very first YT comment as well. It has over 50,000 likes.

SHEETS

So in the above picture, you see what my bed sheets looked like this morning. Yes, I wore holes into my bed sheets. So here’s what happened. Since I don’t get a lot of visitors in the bedroom (tee-hee!) I’ve been just using a single set of sheets for about the last two years. I liked the colour and the 600 thread count made for a silky smooth sleeping experience. I also washed my single set of sheets on a regular basis.

The ripped part of the sheets is about where my feet wind up when my legs are slightly bent when I’m in bed. Who knows, maybe I have active legs when I sleep. I must have just worn down the fabric in that area until there was just no more integrity in the sheet.

So I decided to remove the sheet today because the hole would just get bigger and then I’d be rubbing against the actual fabric of my mattress. I only had a flat sheet from the set so I decided to put that thing on. Flat sheets are stupid. I know hotels might use them but for a civilian like me they’re just a pain in the ass. It took me a while to center the sheet properly because one side wouldn’t have enough sheet to tuck under the mattress. The sheet also isn’t long enough to tuck in both the top and the bottom of the mattress. I wonder if these sheets will stay in place tonight. If not, I’ll probably have to go buy another fitted sheet.

Does anyone else wear holes into their bed sheets?

FAMILY DAY

Tomorrow marks the first ever Family Day in the province of British Columbia, which is a public holiday here. For years and years, people complained that going between New Year’s Day and Good Friday was too long of a stretch without a public holiday, the beginning of January to usually sometime in April. When you also consider that stretch is also pretty rainy and miserable for the most populous areas of the province, people were hurting for a day off.

The holiday was signed into law more than a year ago to allow businesses and public agencies to prepare for the extra day off. I’m glad it’s finally here. As such, we here at et.com are observing the day off and all the staff are at home with their families. We’ll be back tomorrow with our regular programming.

YOUR DAILY DOSE OF WTF

Look into the madness

Some of you may know of actress Janine Turner who starred in the show Northern Exposure. Turner is one of those rare Hollywood actresses or actors who are conservative and aligns themselves with the Republican party. She also runs her own fan page on Facebook.

The page on Facebook is interesting to say the least. Turner herself writes posts about keeping American conservative, protecting the American constitution, frequently quoting passages from the Bible, and fearing that liberals and the President Obama are going to destroy the United States from within. Of note, is the blurring of lines between the Bible and government issues, as if she and her followers would prefer if America were to be guided and laws made according to what’s in the Christian Bible. Turner and most right-wing conservatives love to rally behind the American Constitution but conveniently pass over any part that mentions the separation of church and state. Like most of their type, they pick and choose parts of the Bible and Constitution for their own benefit.

The most entertaining and perhaps somewhat scary part of her Facebook page are the comments from her followers. The comments almost always fall into one of a few categories: something about the Constitution being neglected or destroyed, a quote from the Bible, something pro-gun, and last but not least something criticizing President Obama. The comments about President Obama have their own subtext as you can tell some people just don’t like him because he’s part African-American. They don’t exactly have the cojones to write that publicly but you can tell they kinda want to write it.

I encourage you to go read some of the comments yourselves but if you’re like me, you might be able to read just a few comments before you get a case of the sads. If you want to see a little insight into what is wrong with the United States today, that page is a good start.

CHEAP SUBS

As you can see above, if you live the province of British Columbia, all six-inch Subway sandwiches are just $4 for the month of February. I can understand if some of you aren’t the biggest fans of Subway. Personally, I believe the quality of their product has gone down substantially in recent years. Nonetheless, there can be considerable savings to be had here. Ordering the most expensive sub is the best way to take advantage of this deal. On the weekend, I ordered a steak and cheese which saved me about $2. As expected, they weren’t very forthcoming with the amount of steak on the sub but that’s to be expected with Subway these days.

Anyways, if you’re into subs, this might be the month to take advantage if you live in BC.

FEBREZE

I tend to think I keep a pretty clean household so in the three years I’ve lived in my current apartment, I’ve never had to buy an air freshener. That changed this evening.

Something smelled terrible in my garbage can underneath my kitchen sink. I’m not sure what it was but it smelled like a combination of sweaty body odour mixed in with decomposing meat. My plan was to take the garbage out and then buy a container of Febreze.

After dinner, I bundled up the garbage bag and tied it up nice and tight, and proceeded down to the garbage room. The bag smelled the entire time I rode down the elevator. I was very glad to dump it into one of the dumpsters. I then headed back upstairs to the Safeway to get the Febreze.

Once back in apartment, I was going to spray the bottom of my garbage can to clear it of any remaining odours. As I looked into the can, however, I noticed a gross yellowey liquid at the bottom. It smelled terrible! This was the source of the odour! I guess one of the garbage bags had leaked and this had been festering in the can for who knows how long. I quickly poured this foul liquid into my toilet and then tried to wipe the can down without touching any of the liquid residue.

Then came the Febreze. I sprayed a moderate amount into the garbage can and then place a fresh new bag in it. I also opened up the area under my kitchen sink, which still smelled, and gave it a good blast.

I then left it for about an hour for the Febreze to do its thing. When I returned to assess the results, I came away with a few conclusions. First, I believe Febreze does actually eliminate, rather than cover up, odours. I’m no chemist but if those doughnut shaped Febreze particles indeed bind with the stinky ones, then that’s awesome science going on. Second, a little bit of Febreze goes a long way. I thought I was pretty conservative with the amount I used but the scent of “fresh linen” was a bit overpowering for a good hour or so. I think I could have used a lot less spray. Alternatively, the makers of Febreze could probably dial down the intensity of the scents.

Overall, my kitchen doesn’t stink anymore which was my primary goal. I didn’t get a sense that the odour was being masked but that it was genuinely gone. Thumbs up for the Febreze.

LAZY?

So I have a few dishes, bowls, and a saucepan in the sink. It’s too small a number to be really used in the dishwasher but I don’t want to leave them in the sink any longer. I do, however, want to finish a few more things before going to bed. As a compromise, I’m just going to wash the two dirtiest items in the sink. Lazy or smart?

UNBLOCK IT ALL

The Internet has made the world more accessible, brought people together, and removed boundaries. Of course, there’s the whole porn thing too. Unfortunately, some artificial borders still exist, namely legal issues. For example, geographical-based content access has been driving me mad for years. You know what I’m talking about. You click on a video and you get a message saying “this video is not available in your country”. For me, the biggest offender has been sites like Hulu and Netflix. Because of some legal restriction, content that is visible to one country is not visible to me.

There have been ways around it. Some software will trick these sites into thinking you live elsewhere. It’s a bit of a hassle though so I personally have not explored those options. Last week, I was given a link to a solution I think works better than anything I’ve seen. Hola Unblocker is a simple and easy to use extension for your web browser. There is nothing to set up and no fiddling around with settings. You just install the extension and that’s all that’s required from you. You can toggle it on and off if you want.

I tested it with Hulu, Fox, and CBS. It works great with those sites. It did not work with Comedy Central. It’s not perfect but there’s a ton of content that’s available to me now that was blocked previously. I didn’t try it with Netflix but it’s supposed to work with that site as well.

If you live outside the United States, the above video won’t be playable. Let that be a test if you choose to install the browser extension. I can see it!

LIMPING INTO THE NEXT GEN

It’s been over seven years since the Xbox 360 debuted and over six years since the PS3 launched. Since then, the video game industry has experienced a global recession and the emergence of mobile gaming as a genuine platform. It’s time for console gaming to refresh itself with new energy once more and hopefully bring the industry back to where it was before things went wrong.

Personally, I’ve been hoping for both Microsoft and Sony to do this for more than a year now as portions of the industry seem to be falling into a stagnant state. It looks like 2013 will be the year we move forward. Both companies have now released tantalizing hints that they’ll finally show their hand in the next several months.

First up was Microsoft who waited until the second day of this new year to show off a countdown clock to E3. E3 is the industry’s largest exhibition by hype and exposure. Normally Microsoft hasn’t done anything like this before where the clock counts down to nothing specific. It is widely believed that Microsoft will use the June show to announce and show off the successor to the Xbox 360, which some have codenamed “Durango“.

Not far behind is Sony, who just this week made a post on the official Playstation blog. The post features the date for a Sony announcement on February 20. It’s almost guaranteed that Sony will use that time to debut the successor to the PS3, codenamed “Orbis“.

I’m extremely excited to see what these announcements will hold, both as someone who works in the industry and just as a regular gamer. Perhaps this is just what the industry needs to going forward.