daveb: frivolity

blippy 404 · Aug 10, 07:56 am

enjoying the blippy 404 page

make sure you click the unicorn*.

best sentence of 2010

Categories: web / frivolity | comments?

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earth hour · Apr 14, 12:28 pm

the office shut down for earth hour this year.

here’s a fun video that illustrates the concept well

Categories: frivolity / web | comments?

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happy = ice cream. · Sep 13, 12:48 pm

the world is getting better.

mr. whippit is a machine that gives you more ice cream the unhappier you are.

Categories: web / frivolity | comments?

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thor and the mystery pants · Jun 12, 07:11 am

my brother paul and i shared an apartment for a while in the arlington apartments on 100ave and 106 street in edmonton, alberta. it was a great place with enormous character, cheap rent and very little pestilence.

along with the character of the murphy-bed-closet, enormous windows and black and white tile on the kitchen floor there were some interesting people who lived in the building. one of these people was thor. he was scandinavian and looked exactly like a storybook norseman. he was tall, blond, and was the only person i’ve ever known who could make one of those metal helmets with the two horns sticking out the top really work.

he lived in a cheap apartment because he had an interesting bachelor suite in the basement where he had fashioned a fascinating loft. i went down to see his place once and he had reclaimed scrap metal and either welded or weaved it into a sort of second floor, sort of bunk bed type landing in his apartment. there were terribly precarious edges where sharp metal poked out here and there, but every night he would climb up onto this tenuous structure and sleep. it was large enough to hold several people, and i tried it out to see how sturdy it was. the space was remarkably comfortable and peaceful. i can’t imagine what the landlord said to him the first time he saw it.

i found out through some of our conversations that he had lived in many places in the world: some exotic and some ordinary and he was currently working as an architect in a well known and established architectural firm in town. he said he knew how to do that sort of stuff.

one day paul and i woke up, bumbled around our arlington apartment a while, and one of us eventually opened the front door. outside was a pair of pants – neatly folded. it took us a while to sort out what to do. eventually (i was a student at the time) i tried them on to see if they would fit. the smart thing to do would be to wash them first, but it wasn’t that sort of an apartment, or time in my life.

they didn’t fit.

we gave it a couple of days to see if in our daily social rounds we could sort out who had dropped off pants on our doorstep.

by logical deduction of who would could gain access to our building, but wouldn’t knock when dropping off pants, we decided it must be thor who left us these trousers.

i went down to talk to him, and he said that they were a nice pair of pants, and they didn’t fit him. he thought we might get some use out of them, so he dropped them off, but it was late, and he didn’t want to wake us over pants.

thor also mentioned he hung out at the petroleum club on occasion. i have no doubt that he was quite wealthy, or could have been so if he had any interest.

he was a kind, genuine person, and one of the people i am sad i didn’t keep in touch with.

Categories: personal / frivolity | comments?

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i (heart) my mower · Apr 25, 12:11 pm

Electric Mower

last year i was mowing my front lawn and some guy in a minivan stopped in front of my house – rolled down his window and shouted “DON’T YOU KNOW THAT’S BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?!?”

i had a moment’s pause where i considered – is this guy just driving around the neighbourhood shouting at people mowing their lawns? has he just watched “an inconvenient truth” and while driving by – was seized with the impulse to stop his van and speak out?

i’m not sure what his deal was, but i noticed after a moment that his teenage daughter was in the passenger seat trying to slink as low as she could to avoid detection from the outside world next to her loud-shirt-wearing-loud-mouth-splurting father. his intentions were good, but a little over zealous in execution.

as those thoughts ran though my head i responded – taken a bit aback.

me – what?

loud shirt wearing dad – mowing your lawn, all that gas, it’s bad for the environment!

m – this is an electric mower.

lswd – oh yeah, well where’s the cord? (perhaps suspecting i would lie to a stranger driving by who questioned my environmental ethics)

m – it’s battery powered.

lswd – (honestly shocked, and turning to interest) oh yeah? does it run out of juice?

m – nope, does a great job.

lswd – where did you get it?

m – canadian tire.

this man stopped his van to shout at me, and as soon as my response interested him he switched his tone to “we’re hanging out in the garage comparing power tools.” it was very odd.

his daughter continued to slink lower, and i noticed more movement in the back through the tinted windows. i think this man had his whole family with him while he drove around IN HIS MINIVAN! saving the planet.

i bought this battery-powered mower last year expecting it to be another failed experiment in alternative energy consumption, but it’s great. it’s quiet, it’s convenient, and i only have to charge it every other mow. oh – and it’s much lighter than a regular mower.

i’ve got an average sized lawn, and it does a great job. the one complaint is that it has a very small bag. if i didn’t mulch – that would probably get to me.

if you’re looking for a mower – you should seriously consider this thing. i’ve got the 14” one, so if you’ve got a very large lawn (over 5000sq ft) or if you bag your grass check out the 20”.

check out all the mowers

or the cordless weed wackers

i love my weed wacker too, but i don’t have a story to go with that.

Categories: frivolity / general | comments?

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