Social Media Unites to Feed The Hungry With #HoHoTO

Image by Matthew Burpee via Flickr

In 2008 some twitter friends decided to do something about people who couldn’t afford to eat. Through social media connections HoHoTO was created, and was a big success.

HoHoTO is a big party held each year in december to raise money and collect food donations for the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank so people who can’t afford a Christmas (or any other holiday) dinner, can have one. Each year millions of people go to the Daily Bread Food Bank and HoHoTO is a great way for you to help out… and attend a great holiday party.

So get tweeting, blogging and networking, donate if you can, or find some other way to help out. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #HoHoTO. Lets make the world suck a little less.

What Makes A Good Horror Movie?

Halloween is just around the corner (it literally is, go look) and that means its time to dust off all the scary movies and hide behind the couch while you try to watch them. But not all horror movies are really scary. A really scary movie is one you can barely watch and then later makes you leave the lights on when you go to bed.

What makes a movie like this?

Many newer mainstream horror movies aren’t like this. They lack that lingering horror that many classic movies have. It is the unknown that makes you scared. When there is an evil murderer on the loose (which seems to be a classic horror plot) it is more scary if the murderer is a tall shadow that hides around corners then if he (or she) is seen in full from the beginning (in a mask, or occasionally you actually know who the murderer is). This is because only your mind knows what makes you scared. If you see the murderer then your mind knows what is happening. If you only see a shadow or get the suggestion that there is something hiding around the corner then your mind creates something which is scarier to you then anything that can be created by something else.

Let this be a lesson to movie writers, only you can truly scare yourself, there is always an initial fright but true horror lasts longer then the movie.

Movie Remakes: Good or Bad?

Are remakes of classic movies better then the originals? In a word, no.

Of all the remakes I’ve seen I haven’t found one better then the original. They might be better visually but there aren’t any where the story is better. Mainly because the story is the same. Also because they aren’t true remakes. The new ones might have the same name and might resemble the old movie but they aren’t the same. Wether the person who updates the script changes scenes or modernizes movies, they just can’t compare. Too much changes. All we’re getting is new movies.

Then there are the people who think they know something about the classic movie because they saw the remake and then talk about scenes that weren’t in the old version. Ask anyone who knows anything about movies. They’ll probably agree with me.

Remakes can be good movies. But they aren’t better then the original.

What do you think?

Social Media I Just Don’t Get

On the Internet today there are countless types of social media. There’s twitter (my favorite), facebook, google+, YouTube, news site commenting and of course, blogging. I have tried all of the above. All but one I have been able to use properly and do relatively well in. That one is blogging.

Blogging is the one form of social media I have just never managed to get the hang of. I write and write but get about a month or two in to it and then just stop. Don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because all the others don’t require much thought or time. Twitter is only 140 characters which is a thought with perhaps a picture or link. Blogging on the other hand requires more than a couple of seconds thought. It needs an idea and then you have to expand on it slightly. Then add a picture and links.

I guess I’m just a bit too fast paced for blogging but I’ll try my best. Let’s do this.

Magic and A Few Laughs

I found a few clips from various Penn & Teller magic shows on YouTube a few days ago. Then I found some full episodes from a show they did in England called “The Unpleasant World of Penn & Teller”. They are good for that gory magic that Penn & Teller are known for and if you are going to watch “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” a new show thats in production. I suggest you check them out.

Look in the related videos for more episodes.

The Future of Hard Copy Media

Image via Wikipedia

First Blockbuster went broke and closed, and now this.

Struggling British entertainment retailer HMV has sold its 121-store Canadian unit to Hilco UK, raising 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) to cut debt and help the firm stay in business.

The move by the 90-year-old firm to sell the Canadian business comes days after HMV’s shareholders backed the 53-million-pounds disposal of its Waterstone’s book chain to Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut.

Earlier this month HMV, which has issued four profit warnings this year, secured its immediate future with a 220 million pounds refinancing deal that will effectively involve the British taxpayer taking a stake in the group.

“The board has fully explored the options available to it for HMV Canada, and believes that a sale to Hilco is the correct decision for the business at this time, whilst reducing the operating leverage in the continuing group,” said Chief Executive Simon Fox.

“The group is focusing on clear and tightly defined plans for transforming HMV into a broad-based entertainment business.”

(Article from Reuters)

I’m hoping this doesn’t mean that HMV is closing too. Although I do watch the occasional movie and tv show online, I still prefer having a hard copy and I usually buy them from HMV. Although things are looking up with the line about “transforming HMV into a broad-based entertainment business”. I’m guessing that means adding new products and services.

When was the last time you changed your mind?

About two minutes ago. I wasn’t going to sit and write this post but changed my mind at the last minute and decided I probably should.

It’s a bit silly asking when you last changed your mind. You change tour mind loads of times every day. How many times do you think “I should…” and don’t? That’s changing your mind. Or if you are about to do something and decide it’s a bad idea, that’s changing your mind.

In the time you wasted reading this drivel, you probably thought of a thousand things to do but changed your mind and decided to keep reading.

Now for gods sake stop reading and go do something productive.

Do you think you’d make a good president?

No. Of course I wouldn’t be a good president/prime minister. I’d be an awful choice.

Sure I have lots of ideas, and suggestions about what to do to change the country for the better. Or at least ideas that I think are good. And how hard can it be to stand in front of the camera and look good an say a few words in a commanding and political way?

The thing about being president/prime minister is that everyone thinks they will be good at it. We all have these ideas of things we want to do and things we want to change. But what about all the other things you have to do. Being president is more than just saying “let’s do this” and smiling for the camera.

But we all know that all we would do is screw up the country even more. There are people who are professionals for that. Let’s leave it to them.

Canada Post: Making Itself Obsolete Since 2011

Canada Post has finally started the final few steps to becoming obsolete. They have gone on strike. Well, actually the bosses locked out the workers until they reached a contract agreement but to you and I it is the same thing. We’re not getting any mail.

Or are we?

By going “on strike” Canada Post has effectively sealed its fate as a company. Just the threat of going on strike showed a 16% drop in use of Canada Post so you can imagine what this full blown strike has done.

This is the problem with unions. I understand the need for them but they are not helping the workers any more. All they seem to want is as much money as they can get and they won’t stop until they get it. The whole purpose of the union is to protect the worker from the business owners. They make sure that working conditions are good, wages are paid, people aren’t getting dismissed for unfair reasons, and they negotiate contracts on behalf of the workers. This seems to be too difficult for them to do nowadays.

By going on strike in a business like Canada Post, a business where their are other options to choose from (Email, FedEx, UPS, paying bills online) you aren’t acting in the interest of the workers. Canada Post has probably lost so much business that it might have to cut jobs. Jobs that might not have to have been cut if there hadn’t been a strike.

So, good luck Canada post. We all enjoyed having you around but if you keep up like this, everyone is going to use online bill paying, email, and FedEx. Which is where most of your workers will be too.

Why You Always Want To Drive Yourself

The Concept Image of The Autonomobile

I was watching Top Gear recently, and they mentioned a proposed car called the “Autonomobile” which is proposed to be build by 2040. It’s an electric car made to go low speeds and… it drives itself.

Now you might think this is a great idea. You never have to worry about the strain of driving, you can just sit back and relax while the car takes you there. But it is a terrible idea. It has been said that half of all plane crashes are caused by pilot error. We all know that planes can fly by themselves and they can take off and land using instruments. So theoretically, planes should be able to take off, land, and fly, on their own. And this should theoretically lower plane crashes by 50%.

But…

Would you want to get on a plane without a pilot?

Its the same thing with cars that drive themselves. No matter how smart the man or woman who designed this is, you still don’t have control of the car. I don’t know about you but I kind of like being in control of machines. There have been too many movies about machines trying to kill us for us to really trust machines that much. And as Jeremy Clarkson put it,

“its a brilliant idea, designed by very smart people, but one day you know that this will be bought by a man named Keith, and he is going to wake up one morning and think he can service it himself and you won’t be able to relax in your autonomobile because you know that Keith is in his, coming the other way”

And you won’t be able to steer out of the way of Keith because the car is driving itself.