Category: Uncategorized

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.

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.

http://twitter.com/Subway_BC/status/297446217477152768

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.

Lincoln might be a bit of a dry subject for a museum but Conan pulls through and makes it entertaining. Of note, stay tuned for when Conan brings in his version of Mary Todd Lincoln.

After talking to one of my friends who is much smarter than I am, I have deduced that my last supposed episode of “food poisoning” was actually a norovirus infection.

At the time, I blamed it on some bad pineapple which was the last thing I ate before getting sick but that doesn’t really make any sense. It was fresh pineapple that I had cut myself from a whole pineapple and I’ve been eating pineapples like that for years. The flesh of the fruit didn’t smell or taste bad at all. When you think about it, a fresh pineapple is pretty damn hard to get sick from especially when you consider it’s covered and protected by a thick rind.

I’ve also taken into account that there’s a current outbreak of norovirus illnesses in the Vancouver area. Norovirus is easily spread and extremely contagious so it’s quite likely I caught the illness that way. I also found out that at least one other person at work was also felled by this virus and had to stay home for several days.

If you’re in the Vancouver area, make sure you wash your hands frequently and stay away from people you think might be sick. If you yourself have been infected with this illness, stay home! Your vomit and diarrhea is extremely contagious. If you share a home with others, isolate yourself from your housemates. If possible, don’t share your bathroom with anyone.

Welcome to another edition of Did You Know?!?!?! Did you know it is illegal for non-US citizens to look through third generation night vision goggles manufactured by the United States? Doing so is subject to fines and/or incarceration in prison. I wasn’t able to find the exact wording of the law but I’m guessing the person in trouble would be the US citizen who supplied the equipment to the non-US citizen.

I discovered this while shopping for night vision goggles on the Internet. I’m guessing the US doesn’t want anyone to know how good their technology is in this area.