Well, for your viewing pleasure, I bring to you How a Construction Crane is Erected.  I know I enjoyed it.

~ Jason

It’s my favourite time of year again… well, one of my favourite times of the year.  It’s Roll up the Rim to Win time at Tim Hortons.  Every year, I get so excited about possibly winning a kick-ass prize that I go at least once or twice a day to get my double-doube.  It seems to me, though that the prizes are getting crappier and crappier.  I remember a few years ago that you could win a bike, and a big screen TV and other nifty stuff.  This year, all they have is cash, cars, a laptop and their silly pre-paid cards which is basically the same as winning a food prize in my book.

I gotta tell ya, I’m a little dissappointed.  The only thing on the list of prizes that I actually desire to win is the laptop… I guess.  I suppose I could use another laptop. I could turn it into a picture frame or something.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d take the cash or the car if I win, but the excitement just isn’t there.

~ Jason

I’m proud to announce that we have a new home for our Podcast, Renerd Radio.  Every Monday, my good friend Chris (his site) and I get together to podcast about Movies, TV, Video Games and whatever the hell else we feel like talking about. 

Have a Listen.

~ Jason

Here are some pictures of me and Lilly.

~ Jason

Check it out here.

~ Jason

Every other drama on the airwaves at the time had good characters, strong writing and plot lines that would keep you talking at the water cooler for days but they also had internal character conflict. Man how we hated Dr. Romano on ER. The West Wing was very much an us-vs-them type show. The main cast were all on the same side of every issue. Sure there were internal conflicts but there was no big-bad adversary that we loved to hate. I’ve always been partial to banding together as a team and having trust and faith in your coworkers/friends/family. The nature of this show just spoke to me.

Well, for the last few years, CLT has been playing episodes of The West Wing at 7pm and 11pm. The nice thing about CLT is that they showed (from what I can tell) all the episodes, in order. I had my PVR set up to record it every day and I very much looked forward to catching up on a few episodes every couple of days.

I’m sad to say that as of September, they’ve changed their line-up and stopped playing them. This saddens me greatly… for one, I won’t be able to get my daily (or bi-daily) fix of my favourite show… but the kicker is that they stopped airing the show in the middle of the last season! They didn’t even have the decency to finish out the series. For crying out loud, the stopped after playing the first half of a to-be-continued episode. It was election day and we didn’t even get to find out how it turned out… and OMG something is wrong with Leo!!!!

Now, I’ve seen the whole series and I know exactly what happens (Santos wins and Leo died… RIP John Spencer). I’ll have to rent or buy the last season just to exercise my need to see what happens. I’ve been meaning to pick up the series on DVD and this just may be the kick in the pants to do it.

I’m disappointed in TV today… and that doesn’t happen often.

~ Jason

Well, they’re back. I’m not sure if I’m embarrassed or proud, but I can happily say that Jenny and I got a complete set. We ventured down to Yorkdale Mall this afternoon (braving the crowds of Sunday shoppers) and picked up the only set of Queen sheets they had left. Now, I ask you, what is the Pottery Barn Kids doing offering these in a Queen sized option… if not for us 30 something folks?

And, I didn’t even have to convince Jenny that this would be a good idea. Yesterday, at a house-warming BBQ at our good Friends Dave and Grace (shameless plug for www.renerd.com), the sheets came up in conversation. Jenny looked at me and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about this?!?”. A plan was hatched right there and then to go to Yorkdale and get them as soon as possible.

As soon as we got home, they went into the wash and now, they’re ready to be put on the bed.

How nerdy are we?

~ Jason

If we humans are capable of abstract thought, logical reasoning, and complex language, then how come I can’t find my keys or remember what I did last Friday night?

Dr. Marcus spoke about our brains as marvelous reasoning machine built on top of an unreliable memory system. We have a hard time remembering specifics, but we’re great at making decisions and reasoning things out.

Luckily, we can and do compensate for our lousy and unreliable memories. If we absolutely need to remember to bring something to work, we hang it on the door. Decision making and reasoning overcomes bad memory.

I found it fascinating and I’m going to look for this book.

Here’s a link to the mp3 of the interview.

~ Jason

[Update: July 14th, 11:19am]  I bought the book over the weekend and I’m enjoying it very much.

The difference is in their relationship with the truth.

Lying is saying something that you know isn’t true. You know full well that what you’re saying isn’t true. Taking the last cookie, then telling your mom that it was your sister, is a lie… hands down.

Bullshit is saying something without any regard to the truth whatsoever. In this case, it’s possible that what you’re saying is actually the truth. When asked why the sky is blue and you launch into a lecture on the the particles in the upper atmosphere being more able to scatter shorter wavelengths of light (blue) and therefor making them dominant when we look up, blah, blah, blah… this could be true, or it could be wrong, who knows. It doesn’t matter, it’s still bullshit.

I’ve always been pretty good at lying and pretty good at bullshitting. I decided a long time ago that from then on, I would only lie for good and not for evil. I’ll still bullshit every now and again. And, I’ve been pretty lucky with bullshitting in that more often then not, I turn out to be right…. or at least within arms reach of the truth.

I just thought I’d share my thoughts.

~ Jason

We have a lovely 2 bedroom in the same building that I’ve been living in for the last year. After looking around Toronto at apartments, all we ever saw were dirty, smelly ones. Being discouraged, we simply asked our super if there were any vacancies. Luckily, there was a vacancy.

Click the picture above to see the pictures.

~ Jason