Category Archives: Entertainment

pic o’ the day: stormwatching in Ucluelet

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Do ya ever chat with Europeans and listen to them complain about “wilderness” and “wild animals?” A friend of mine lived in Heidelberg for a year and during that time she noted several occasions on which the populace was encouraged to go out into the forest and “Pick up the garbage, like fallen leaves, branches, etc”. Can’t have that messing up the forest, nosirree!

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

Hedgehogs are not the same as grizzly bears. If your country does not support wildlife that can kill you, it has no wilderness. It has parks.

A friend of mine used to say that if you go camping and shoot a gun off and anyone else can hear it, you’re not really camping.

Welcome to my world. This is nine hours drive from here, including ferry time, but I can walk from my apartment downtown to an area with bears in it in about two and a half hours. Forty minutes on the bus if you’re lazy.

Behold Ucluelet, world-renowned destination for stormwatching, for obvious reasons:

Ucluelet by Sherri Boe

jellyfish invasion!

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Yes, we have had a lot of videos today, but this just popped up on YouTube‘s featured vids and I’ll be damned if I’m missing a jellyfish-themed music video. We are, as we have said, all about the jellyfish on the ol’ raincoaster blog.

snakes on a plane: the auditions

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From DCLugi, and also Christopher Walken, Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, Joe Pesce, and a special guest some of you might recognize…

lessons from a Japanese chopstick master

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“Ah, Grasshopper, when you can snatch the chopsticks from my hand…”

Learn how to use Chopsticks from a Japanese Chopstick Master!!!

Lesson 1: How to split apart those cheap wooden chopsticks
Lesson 2: How to eat Japanese soba noodles
Lesson 3: How to eat a McDonald’s Cheeseburger

Great, now I’m hungry. Anybody know a good noodle place around here?

the wit and wisdom of the Simpsons

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to alcohol!

Parents are always complaining that there is nothing educational, life-affirming or decent in children’s television programming. Usually right before they fire up yet another round of Grand Theft Auto.

In any case, we here at the ol’ raincoaster blog beg to differ. There is, in fact, an excellent cartoon show which teaches kids the real life lessons that they will come to rely on as they learn to make their way in this crazy, mixed-up world we live in.

Lessons like “When adults hate their jobs they don’t quit. They just do them really, really half-assed.”

From West Egg via Fark:

Homer to Billy Corgan (of the Smashing Pumpkins): “Thanks to your gloomy, depressing music, my children no longer hope for the future I can not afford to give them.”
Corgan: “Yeah, we try to make a difference.”

Homer: The code of the schoolyard, Marge! The rules that teach a boy to be a man. Let’s see. [enumerates them on his fingers] Don’t tattle. Always make fun of those different from you. Never say anything, unless you’re sure everyone feels exactly the same way you do. What else…
The whole cast

Lisa: [sigh] I’ve got to stop being so petty. I should be Alison’s friend, not her competitor. I mean…she is a wonderful person…
Bart: Way to go, Lis. I mean, why compete with someone who’s just going to kick your butt anyway?
Lisa: [pause] I prefer my phrasing.

Homer: So, I realized that being with my family is more important than being cool.
Bart: Dad, what you just said was powerfully uncool.
Homer: You know what the song says: “It’s hip to be square”.
Lisa: That song is so lame.
Homer: So lame that it’s… cool?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Good. I’m glad. And that’s what makes me cool, not caring, right?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we’ve tried everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you’re truly cool, you don’t need to be told you’re cool.
Bart: Well, sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?