Category Archives: Entertainment

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First World Problems: the PowerPoint Slideslow

sad walrus is embarrassed for you

sad walrus is embarrassed for you

Of COURSE it’s a Powerpoint.

PowerPoint, which can be found on two hundred and fifty million computers around the world, is software you impose on other people. It allows you to arrange text and graphics in a series of pages, which you can project, slide by slide, from a laptop computer onto a screen, or print as a booklet (as Sarah Wyndham did). The usual metaphor for everyday software is the tool, but that doesn’t seem to be right here. PowerPoint is more like a suit of clothes, or a car, or plastic surgery. You take it out with you. You are judged by it—you insist on being judged by it. It is by definition a social instrument, turning middle managers into bullet-point dandies.

 

I am proud to say that I have stuck firmly to my Never Learning Powerpoint policy and am instead learning Prezi. I think Malcolm Gladwell would be disappointed and Marshall McLuhan would be proud, and that’s enough for me.

Speaking of First World Problems!

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Contest: win 4 tix to the Mosquito Creek Marina Boat Show in North Vancouver

Vangroover, people. Yeah, this is the view

Vangroover, people. Yeah, this is the view

Oooh, we’re back in Vangroover and feeling our oats (or maybe those were just the complimentary beverages at Social Media Week) and it’s no wonder: since we landed, we’ve been buried in swag, and it’s time to share the luv.

We have, on that note, four tickets to give away to the Fifth Annual Mosquito Creek Marina Boat Show that’s opened today and is on right through to Sunday. We’re lazy, and we assume you have either friends or family (not taking any bets on both!) and can roll with a posse. To win the tickets, you have until midnight Friday to post the best pirate joke in the comments here. I’ll email the winner shortly after midnight and you’ll be able to pick up the tickets at the gate.

Here are all the deets. Boats, by the way, rule: just ask Captain Jack Sparrow!

I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours

I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours

Thursday, September 22 – Sunday, September 25 •  Mosquito Creek Marina, North Vancouver
Mosquito Creek Marina and the British Columbia Yacht Brokers Association present the 5th Annual Boat Show at the Creek. Known as one of Vancouver’s largest floating boat shows, this event is great for families and all ages . There will be hundreds of boats on the water for viewing, marine vendors, yacht brokers and live performances by Jim Foster. Stop by on Saturday for a BBQ with the JRFM RoadShow Crew, enjoy a beer at the beer garden aboard the Celebration on Water, catering by Fishworks Restaurant and four full days of family fun. For more information, visit us online at mosquitocreekmarina.com.

WHAT: Boat Show at Mosquito Creek Marina, North Vancouver

WHERE: 415 West Esplanade, North Vancouver, BC

WHO: All ages – fun for the family and kids

WHY: Destined to become Vancouver’s largest floating boat show

WHEN: September 22-25, 2011

Thursday – Friday: 12 noon – 6 pm

Saturday: 10 am – 6 pm

Sunday 10 am – 4 pm

HOW (MUCH): $12, children under 12 accompanied by an adult are free

Oh. So if you have you, a partner, and two kids, you can bring your babysitter and her boyfriend/girlfriend too!

Follow along on Twitter:

or check out the Facebook event page too.

Ladies and gentlemen, hoist your sails, weigh anchor and comment away!

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Enjoying First Nations/Aboriginal Summer

Car Free Day Vancouver

Car Free Day Vancouver

I understand Summer has come late to the Southlands, and that they are currently reveling in hour after hour of sunlight, near-perfect temperatures and cool, meadow-scented breezes. When this rare occurrence … um … occurs, there’s only one thing to do: ditch the vehicle and spend as much time as possible en plein air, as enthusiastically demonstrated by the hero of our little video here:

Tragically, he is stopped in his tracks by an architectural befuddlement so befuddling it has foiled such capable combatants as the Police and the Daleks! That’ll teach him to play in the shade when the sun is out!

Daleks rule the world but only on the ground level

Daleks rule the world but only on the ground level

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Harry Potter’s Day Off

The Harry Potter saga, if it had been filmed by John Hughes. You know, there’s a certain part of me (the 80′s part) that can’t help but think this would have been way better.

according to the YouTube, I’m supposed to credit this to ’Thewlis Rox’ @ davidthewlis.net so, thereyago!

In related news, click over the jump to today’s celebrity gossip links.

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and fur wat?

and now, for a musical interlude…

what did elise ever do fur this?

what did elise ever do fur this?

Which reminds me of the time I lived in a basement apartment, underneath the living room of a woman who was practicing hard for the extremely, extremely, Southern girls you’re not even in it; you don’t have Tiger Mothers, EXTREMELY competitive Miss Chinatown contest.

Every night, she would play the piano; just one piece, over and over, loudly, with an oompah beat and great gusts of ambition, although apparently no past history of experience with the instrument. She practiced this bouncy Germanic tune nightly for about six weeks before my roommate looked up from her book, turned to me with tragic spaniel eyes, and said, “It’s the Moonlight Sonata.”

And so it was.

As if that weren’t soul-killing enough, here are your celebrity gossip links for the day:

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