The Randoms

This is the definite collection of all of my "Random Thoughts" posts. This started out as a whim one Friday in 2006 and since then it's been a staple of the site. It usually starts of with a ridiculous topic that's been bugging me all week. Then it lists 9-11 random links.

Have a scan through the archives and hopefully you'll find a link you enjoy. (or at least something that'll make you laugh)

Random Thoughts For Sh*t Someone Says Tuesday January 31, 2012

Alright, I’m sure everyone has seen the Shit Someone Says meme. If you haven’t well, I’m just sorry for you. It’s been all over the internet.

But unlike many people, who are completely burning out on the meme, I personally love it. And the main reason I enjoy it is, that unlike other image based meme where all you need is MS Paint or Photoshop. To create a really good SPS video, you’ve got to put some real time and energy into it. Film it yourself and then edit it perfectly.

Sorta like my favourite example, the Sh!t DC People Say video below.

BTW, have you heard? That place has got an amazing brunch.

First – Hey! Speaking of memes, how about a little Silicon Valley Ryan Gosling. Girl, I know you want to.

Second – Prometheus essentially looks like Ridley Scott’s Alien 2.0… but it still looks freaking stunning.

Three – One of our favourite spots in DC/VA is Northside Social Coffee House. It’s a quaint little coffeeshop that we frequent quite regularly. One of the things they do is promote local artists, by adorning their walls with art. Over the past few months, they’ve had the paintings of local Arlington artist, Chris Bishop all over their walls.

There’s something about his work that I just adore. The combination of the aesthetic and bright colours, catches my eyes everytime we walk. Anyways, it’s one of my favourite local artists and I’m hoping to pick up a print before we leave the district.

Fourth – If you haven’t heard, Twitter is now going to work with governments to block and censor some select tweets and accounts. While on the face value it’s a some what daunting development, here’s an interesting read on why it’s not that bad of a policy.

Fifth – I’ve been holding on to this for quite sometime, but this article from Eric Francis is just another example of why he’s a hack writer. I understand the hatred for this kid, but it’s clear that Francis knows nothing about Ovi… nothing… nothing.

Sixth – A couple of weeks ago, Kanye West crawled out of his online fortress of solitude to embark on one of the most talked about Twitter rants in recent history. Luckily for everyone, the sports blog Grantland has transcribed the entire rants.

Seventh – Did you know that Dungeons and Dragons is being redone? No, not the horrible Jeremy Irons movie. I mean the actual ten-side dice, playing with little figurines board game. Yeah and it’s being built through crowdsourcing. Please insert ten sided dice joke … here

Eighth – Awesome overload, AT-AT Dog eating a birthday Treat.

Ninth – A full retro-redesign of all 32 NFL logos. (via @Brennancreative)

(Even though I still despise Teebow, I’ve got to say Denver has the best redesign.)

Tenth – An interesting essay on how PRINT design, yes I just said print design, is going to be the future of the internet.

I feel dirty just agreeing with that statement.

Eleventh – Remember my little post on the Calgary food scene? No! Well then, scroll down a bit.

Anyways, it turns out that it got featured in Calgary Open file last month.

Twelfth – Reason #224 why Obama is going to win re-election in 2012, he looks far cooler as the incredible Hulk than Mitt or Newt.

Thirteenth – I’ll say this once and I’ll say this again, Detroit is easily one of the most facinating places on earth at the moment. Delapitated, desolate and depressed… Hell and that’s only the Pistons current record.

Okay, okay. Here is what looks to be a fascinating documentary on the dystopia that is Detroit

Categories: , , The ArtWorld, The Calgary Vibe, The D.C. vibe, The Football, The Humourous, The Inane, The Pop-Culture, The Ravens, The Redskins, The Social Media, The Southern Neighbours

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Random Thoughts For The Mother of All Random Thoughts Monday December 19, 2011

See, here’s the thing, as a freelancer/business owner December and late November are the worst times of the year. Sorry, scratch that August and July are the worst times of the year. December and late November are the busiest times of the year.

Hence, the lack of Random Thought updates… or for that matter any sort of update on c.t.overdrive.

But that changes today… So for your Christmas week enjoyment, here is the Mother of all Random Thoughts.

First – Music-critic.ca, the site that Armadillo has maintained for a few years now, has launched it’s Annual Top 5 Records of 2011 feature. (And of course, one day later this month I’ll talk about my picks for 2011… I promise)

Second – Um… A Steampunk Cobra Commander T-Shirt. I must have it. This I command.

Third – The Baltimore Orioles have redesigned their branding with the retro comicbook bird symbol. Thus reestablishing him as the coolest corporate branding bird over that annoying thing they call the Fruit Loops parrot. (Thanks to Cam Hoff for the link)

Fourth – Have a web designer on your Christmas gift giving list? No? Well, good lord, what is wrong with you.

For those of you that do have a Web Designer on your list, here is the definitive list of 25 books for Web Designers and Developers. It’s okay, you can thank me later.

Fifth – In Calgary in January? Want to join in on a killer party in the middle of a snowstorm? Then High Performance Rodeo’s Snowblower Festival is where you need to be.

And don’t give me that, but c.t.o, I hate dance music. Yes, you don’t have to be a base head to enjoy a sprawling three block dance party in the middle of the Canadian Winter.

Sixth – A creepy compilation of some classic death scenes in a wide variety of video games from the 80s and 90s… all set to a digitized version of Mad, Mad World.

Seventh – It wouldn’t be a Random Thoughts without an infographic, so check out this massive depiction of our overlord Walmart’s ever growing power from Fast Company.

Eighth – The intriguing story of one of my favourite sites on the web, Vimeo, and how it forged it’s own niche within the clustered online video market.

Ninth – Speaking of Vimeo, Sleigh Bells has released a preview clip for their upcoming album. That new record is going to be called Reign of Terror , or as I will refer to it finally a new record that doesn’t sound like the soundtrack to a damn Wes Anderson movie! (Thanks to Jim Bones for the link)

Tenth – Have a kindle? Or better yet have the Kindle app on your iPhone or iPad? Then go and down load Julien Smith’s new e-book Flinch. Long time readers, will know how much admire Julien Smith and his brand of in your face motivation, so do yourself a favor and download this fantastic book.

Eleventh – The Conference board of Canada just released an interesting report detailing the potential for 11 CFL teams. To all my American friends, the CFL stands for the Canadian Football League it really does exist.

To all my Canadian readers, the only disappointing information in this report, is that it doesn’t delve into the details of how many of those franchises will be named the Roughriders.

Twelfth – The geniuses behind Obama’s 2012 re-election team are already understanding how important visual design is to the motivation of the youth vote in America. In prep for the next election cycle in November, team Barrack is already crafting contests to get print designers and graphic designers involved in getting the ball rolling.

Thirteenth – Indie game developers, Super Giant Games have released Bastion for the Chrome Web Browser. If you’ve followed the site for a while, you’ll understand my love for this game, so it goes without saying that having this game playable through your browser is an absolutely incredible feat.

Don’t believe me. Check out the trailer.

Yes, you can now play this game … in … your … browser.

Fourteenth – Speaking of indie game developers, if you think it’s easy to launch and create a simple iPhone game and become the next Angry Birds… well think again. Local calgarian game developer, Bulletproof Outlaws, has an incredible run down of what it takes to market and launch an iPhone app.

Yeah, not as easy as you think.

Fifteenth – Chris Brett is a fantastic up and coming artist from Vancouver. And earlier this month he released a little time-lapsed video of the creative process for one of his pieces of work. If you’ve got some time, definitely check it out.

Sixteenth – Thanks to Mr. Rennie for this one.

Seventeenth – A small Canadian (actually Albertan) board game developer has broken records on KickStarter for funding of their new cooperative board game D-Day.

A couple things which makes this such incredible news. For one thing, any small Canadian company to break records on Kickstarter is a pretty incredible feat, but to do it for a dice board game in this techno-centric society… That right there, is a feat to be proud of.

Very well done guys.

Eighteenth – I was going to post the trailer for The Expendables Two, as I thought that would be the most 80s inspired sequel of all time… but then I saw the sequel for the 2nd G.I.Joe movie.

Alright, it’s rare that a movie that was such an epic (and by proxy hilarious) disaster turns into a sequel in which I can’t wait to see. I know, the director’s pedigree is Step Up 3D and The Justin Beiber Doc, but come on, it has Bruce Willis. Everyone knows that Bruce Willis is pure gold..

Well except for that whole Hudson Hawk thing in the late 90s.

Nineteenth – Speaking of Obama and print design, Shepard Fairey, the genius behind the Hope poster and one of my personal graphic design idols, was commissioned to do the TIME 2011 person of the year cover.

Twentieth – By the way, do you want to know the track in that G.I.Joe trailer? It’s Glitch Mob’s Seven Nation Army Remix.

The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army (The Glitch Mob Remix) by The Glitch Mob

Categories: , , The ArtWorld, The Blogosphere, The Books, The Calgary Vibe, The Canada Vibe, The Comrades, The Craziness, The Humourous, The Inane, The Music, The Nationals, The Political World, The Pop-Culture, The Soapbox, The Southern Neighbours, The T-Shirts, The VideoGames, The World, Want To Be A Web Designer

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Random Thoughts For The Ragin' of Brian Wilson Saturday November 5, 2011

Last week, the Cardinals won the world series. I know a lot of people watched the final two games, but again I missed’em. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy seeing a Nationals game here in DC, but for the life of me I can’t get into watching baseball live. So I’ll have to do what I did last year and catch a recap on the Sklar Brothers Podcast

Anyways, last year after the Giants won, the Sklar Brothers were over the moon raving about their down to earth players. In particular, Giants closer Brian Wilson, who now famously started off the post-game celebrations with one of the greatest moments in live television.

This seriously has to be the single greatest quote of all time.

First – I meant to post this about two weeks ago, but the official trailer for The Avengers has been released

Second – For those of you who yearn for the days of making life decisions by 10 sided-dice, Atari has introduced Dungeons & Dragons for Facebook. Yes, no longer will Facebook feeds be dominated with numerous updates on the latest cow purchases or crop updates, we can now all watch our friends try to achieve level ten dork herder status.

Third – You know what’s funnier than a tumblr blog dedicated to the always dreamy Ryan Gosling? A tumblr blog dedicated to the always dreamy Ryan Gosling as a hardcore academic femenist (thanks to Mr. Rennie)

Fourth – A few weeks ago, the Globe and Mail got in hot water for a series of Celebrity Photos which also had a hysterical Occupy Wall Street tinge to them. Of course this faux controversy is only only made funnier by two things.

First, Vice magazine has been doing this same schtick for year with their amazing do’s and don’ts section. Second, the only reason why some people were up in arms about this, is because nobody actually reads the celebrity photo gallery in the Globe and Mail. If they did, they would have known they’ve been doing this for years.

Fifth – A fascinating article on businesses leveraging Gamification in the workplace.

“The reason why gamification is so hot is that most people’s jobs are really freaking boring,” says Gabe Zichermann, organizer of the “Gamification Summit” conference held last month in New York.

Gotta say, this article did really change my view on how gamification can be applied in larger corporations. This is coming from someone who has a) worked in corporate training and dealt with those challenges and b) been skeptically watching the trend of gamification for a few years.

Sixth – Speaking of Brian Wilson, I may infact have a man crush on him. Brain Wilson’s Advert for NBA 2K12’s legends series.

Seventh – This is pretty self explanitory, but you should read Bayhem, which is an Infographic set About Michael Bay’s amazing film career

8 Movies, almost 960 explosions.

Eighth – The best part about Groupon’s highly inflated IPO launch this week is that it’ll make a bunch of people a tonne of money in the first week… then subsequently, tank when investors realize that the company is doomed for failure.

Oh, Groupon, karma is such a bitch.

Ninth – It’s hard to be sympathetic during this year’s NBA Lockout, but this interesting little article from Sporstnet magazine on rising Canadian basketball star Tristan Thompson, is worth a read. Which in turn is pretty much signalling Canada’s own reverse Gretzky effect but for basketball and with Steve Nash as the centre-piece.

Tenth – Cracked.com’s 5 Most Needlessly Evil Movie Villian Plots of all-time. The synopsis of the Fifth Element evil plot is so perfect.

Eleveth – Eboy.com’s pixelated master piece of Balitmore is now available for purchase

Categories: , , The ArtWorld, The Blogosphere, The Books, The Humourous, The Inane, The Pop-Culture, The Social Media, The VideoGames

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Random Thoughts For FIFA 2012 vs. Steve Nash vs. BTTLS Friday October 7, 2011

If you’re unfamiliar with Steve Nash’s background, you probably don’t know that Mr. Nash is a pretty accomplished soccer player. Turns out that back in the day he had a few offers to play soccer with the Canadian National team, but instead decided to turn them down to go to Santa Clare University. Because of which, he’s become the defacto poster child for the EA’s FIFA Soccer franchise in North America.

So with that tid bit, I present to you the latest FIFA 2012 commercial. Yes, a FIFA soundtrack featuring Steve Nash and a track from BTTLS (my favourite prog rock band) equals pure ctoverdrive delight.

You can also enjoy this one-on-one uber nerd battle between current soccer it girl Hope Solo and Steve Nash.

First – The United Pixel workers are back at it again. This time hand crafting a series of United Pixel Worker T-Shirts for all 50 States

Not gonna lie, I’ve got my eye on the Virginia one… because as everyone knows Virginia is for Hustlers.

Second – It’s not often that I get even remotely excited about Marching bands, but this University band from the university of Ohio in Ohio and then right outside of Ohio (or something like that) is pretty impressive. Especially, since it’s a cover of LMFAO’s guilt-free hit Party Rock. (Pssst. It starts slow but gets better)

Third – Michael Lewis, of a little book called Moneyball fame, has a new book out called Boomerang: Travels In The New Third World and it looks amazing.

Fourth – Poploser (aka. Tyler Herald) has started a Grantland-esque sports blog called Fifty Mission Cap. It has a great Canadian tinge to it and it is easily RSS Feed worthy.

Have I mentioned that I’m loving this renaissance in sports writing? No? Well, it’s amazing.

Fifth – Speaking of Grantland… did you know that the NBA basketball season should have started next week? Well, you know, if it wasn’t for that pesky little players strike.

It’s okay. Don’t be ashamed. I completely forgot about professional basketball and I live in a basketball market. But it looks like the only guys that haven’t really forgotten are Bill Simmons and Jay Kang from Grantland.

(BTW, if you make it through that entire renegade league rambling you deserve a special status on the Internet. I thought the article was really funny and even I couldn’t get through the reasoning behind the naming of the Kansas City Klondike Bars)

Sixth – Techland (which appears to be a Time’s bush league version of Wired) has a great article on the world’s greatest 404 page.

It comes from nosh.me and it’s worth the watch.

Seventh – If it wasn’t a) 220 dollars and b) completely sold out, the new Deftones 15 year Vinyl collection would be number one with a bullet on my Christmas list.

Eighth – You can probably place this tidbit in the you know you are old when series of posts, but if anyone is looking for an amazing spice company (for slow cooking, BBQ, or making a 2 dollar piece of chicken taste like something), check out Calgary’s The Silk Road.

It’s a fairly new company, but they’ve been making some amazing headway locally and nationally. And I know talking about spices is about as lame as discussing baby formula or the latest children’s toy that is covered in arsenic , but hear me out.

These spices are amazing! just check out their Sea Salt Chili & Lime Seasoning and St. Laurent Steak Seasoning…. ummm salivating.

Ninth – Hey, I’m as guilty as anyone for lovin’ me some Daft Punk. That being said, does the world really need a limited edition Daft Punk collectable Coca-Cola bottle series?

Tenth – last and not least, one of the forefathers of the Hacker movement gives some quick opinions on the resent surge in hactivism.

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Random Thoughts For The BBoy Stance Tuesday September 27, 2011

Umm… Yeah this video from The Notorious IBE Championships is just… absolutely… sick.

That’s all I have to say. (Thanks to my new favourite site Devour.com for the link)

First – I’ve actually never played any of the Fallout series , which is a shame because I hear that Fallout 3 is based around the District.

Anywho… even without playing the game or being an extreme fan boy, anyone can truly appreciate this handcrafted Fallout Monopoly Game board

Second – It’s been a while since Michael Moore has even appeared on my radar, but this excerpt from his new book – Here Comes Trouble – is pretty gut wrenching.

The agency protecting me had a threat assessment division. Their job was to investigate anyone who had made a credible threat against me. One day, I asked to see the file. The man in charge began reading me the list of names and the threats they had made and the level of threat that the agency believed each one posed. After he went through the first dozen, he stopped and asked: “Do you really want to keep going? There are 429 more.”

Regardless of your own personal take on the man, no one deserves that much hatred. (P.S. If you read the entire excerpt the story does turn out to be a positive)

Third – Umm… Keep this on the downlow, but Myp2p is now Wiziwig. If you are unsure of what that means, don’t worry about.

You’re probably not a broke sports fan.

Fourth – Umm… Retro World War Two Captain America promotional posters… don’t mind if I do.

Fifth – Oh geez, won’t someone think of the KIDS… and of course their ez-bake ovens.

What am I talking about?

Oh, sorry. Does anyone remember that earlier this year, during the middle of the budget crisis, the US Congress made the critical decision to ban incandescent light bulbs. Well… it looks like nobody thought about older versions of the Ez-Bake Oven. So, if you happen to have an Ez-Bake Oven in your garage, you better stock up on incandescent light bulbs or your going to be in trouble.

Sixth – You can all thank Cam Hoff for this heads-up. But just in case you were wondering how the Florida Marlins could possible come back from relative baseball obscurity, then you clearly underestimated the pure stupidity of the marketing department and their ability to create a branding disaster of such epic proportions.

Yes, that’s right, this is the new logo for the Marlins…

Two things to think about.

1) At least the London 2012/Lisa Simpson doing something inappropriate logo, has something to feel better about.

2) Remember when the Marlins were cool and were even featured in Seaquest:DSV… Oh yeah, those were the days.

Seventh – Well that was quick. It appears that the big Gooooogle machine is now throwing some of it’s immense lobbying funds towards Republican lobbyists.

From a political standpoint it makes sense. A big corporation like that does have to cover it’s bases. It’s just, that I kinda yearn for those days when they truly believed in the philosophy of do no evil.

Eighth – Speaking of Google… Well I guess they’re not completely evil.

Ninth – And because I probably destroyed your palette for decent Baseball logo redesigns, here’s a look at the new-old-new Toronto Blue Jays logo.

The best part about this logo is that it’s retro, but not in the horrible-pastel-shoulder-pads-miami-vice Florida Marlins sorta way.

Categories: , , The Blogosphere, The Craziness, The D.C. vibe, The Humourous, The Inane, The Nationals, The VideoGames

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Random Thoughts For Taking The Cake With County Carnies Friday September 16, 2011

Earlier this summer, the city of Arlington held it’s annual county fair.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Arlington area, this probably sounds quite normal. For those of you who know of the Arlington area, this concept is quite comical.

It was essentially an inner city fair. It had rides, deep fried Oreos, local politicians (I met a real live Republican Politician… He frightened me), piglet races, a series of rides, and of course CARNIES. But not just any kind of carnies, you’re east-coast carny variety. Let’s just say, Conklin carnies have nothing on creepy east-coast carnies.

Anyways, it also made me yearn for the majesty that is the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede.

First – I’m not sure who they got to do the voice over for this game, but it really does sound like they found a hobbit from underneath the bridges of county Kerry.

Anyways, I digress. The games is called Oil Rush: A Naval Strategy Game and the concept is sort of a Command & Conquer type game, but you goal is to battle for control of the World’s Off Shore oil platforms and production. Just please don’t show this to GreenPeace about this one.

The funniest thing is that for the past 40 years the great Gerry has been working on Offshore Oil rigs across this great world he’s never mentioned anything about all out warfare. Sure my dad has told me stories of exploding oil rigs, knife fights, fist fights and… wait a second…

Second- This could be one of the few moments, where I will disagree with The Weakerthans leader singer, John K. Samson. Yes, we all know that the Jets new logo is somewhat controversial, but I’m still not buying the whole vibe that it’s a recruitment tool for a political secret military agenda.

I grew up watching hundreds of hours of World War Two documentaries and I have always loved the RAF/CRAF imagery. In my opinion it’s simple and beautiful design aesthetic and one that really transfers over to an NHL logo. And considering the team was handcuffed with the Jets name by the Winnipeg faithful, I really don’t think this was some altruistic military coup (and that’s coming from someone who is definitely not a fan of Prime Minister Stephen Harper). Anyone who has followed the developments in Winnipeg will tell you that the owners didn’t even

So why can’t a logo just be a classy homage to Manitoba’s cherished military history? And if we’re gonna get our knickers in a twist regarding the combination of sporting teams and military names, why don’t we go after The Columbus Blue Jackets, The Toronto Maple Leafs or The Brampton Battalion (which in all fairness is one of the sharpest uniforms in the Hockey world).

end rant

Third – This gem comes from Poploser and is quite possibly the single most surreal story about a baseball game of all time. It involves Kevin Costner, Jose Canseco, an entire team trade and pitchers playing in the outfield

Fielders hitting coach Pete LaCock, a former Cub who has seen many strange things, took over as interim manager. He put all listed pitchers in positional spots for the game. Non-pitchers pitched. To even out the playing field, Scorpions player-manager Jose Canseco did the same. He also named himself starting pitcher.

Fourth – I’ve always been a huge Ray Emery fan, even when he foolishly painted Mike Tyson on his goalie mask, so if you want to read a remarkable story take a gander at this article from the Sporting News on Ray’s incredible recover from a potentially career ending surgery.

Once it collapses, you’re done, Ruch said. It was a critical time for him. He could have played on that season with the Flyers and it would have collapsed and that would have been it. … The solution wasn’t any more pleasant. The corrective surgery replaces the dead bone with living bone — in this case, bone from the middle section of Emery’s fibula. Surgery meant the removal of dead bone from Emery’s hip and the extraction of healthy bone from his leg. It also involves cutting through muscle just to get to the femur.

It’s absolutely incredible that this guy is even still able to walk, let alone play Hockey at the world’s most competitive level. I guess the whole fighter imagery, is kinda fitting.

Fifth – Nothing makes me happier than to see karma come back to bite Groupon in the arse.

Sixth – So wait, the video for Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Otis was shot by Spike Jonze… Oh yeah, I need to change my pantaloons. (via. XOXOjes)

Seventh – Wait a second. On second thought, strike that last thought out… That wasn’t nearly as cool as this typographical rendition of Jay-z & Kanye’s N###as in Paris by Joseph Maruca. (It also helps that it actually includes the snippets from Blades of Glory) [NSFW]

Seventh – Some one with a lot of time on their hands has gone and converted all 30 NHL teams in to European Football jerseys. The results are pretty interesting, some are questionable at best, but a few are pretty sharp. To be honest, I’d love to see these Flyers jerseys in real life.

Eighth – You know what’s better than making fun of Neo-Nazis… tricking Neo-Nazis. Which is exactly what this local activist group in Germany did with these innovative T-shirts that revealed a secret slogan after being washed.

Ninth – I’m gonna steal a line from Jay Dorn, who provided the original link, but the news of Jack White teaming up with the Insane Posse just means that the guy really doesn’t give a damn of what anyone thinks of him anymore.

Insane Clown Posse – Leck Mich Im Arsch by Third Man Records

Tenth – Now this is good, ex-Blackhawks superstar and NHL loudmouth Jeremy Roenick reenacting the famous NHL94 scene from Swingers. (Again via. poploser)

Vince Vaughn would be proud.

Eleventh – The Legend of Zelda’s Link… as an 8-Bit Model Breakaway package.

Twelfth – And last but not least, for all you Washington Redskins fans… or the two of you I do know, here is the legendary sexy Rex Grossman article. [NSFW]… That’s right it’s sexy Rex… sexy, sexy Rex.

Categories: , , The Blogosphere, The Flames, The Football, The HomeLand, The Humourous, The Music, The Ravens, The Redskins, The VideoGames, The World

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Random Thoughts For Garfield As Spiderman Tuesday August 2, 2011

Alright, so it’s quite publicly known that I’m a bit of a Spiderman freak. (see my epic Bachelor Party photos for evidence). So it goes without saying that I am pretty skeptical about the Spiderman reboot . In particular, the casting of Andrew Garfield (the dreamy looking kid from the Social Network… no not Zukerberg or the dude from Napster… The other guy) as Peter Parker.

Sure the third Spiderman movie was an atrocious flick and was clearly influenced by the studios, but Spider-man 2 is easily one of my favorite superhero movies of all time.

Anyways, this clip of Gardfield at Comic-con is starting to warm my cold, dark heart to this somewhat adorable little English nerd… even if Sam Raimi isn’t involved.

First – Kanye West and Jay-Z over top an Otis Reeding track… please, please make sweet, sweet love to my ear drums.

Second – Well if you haven’t seen the article on the Apple store knockoffs then you are probably living under the internet equivalent of a rock. But just in case, here’s a neat article on the plague of Apple store knock-offs popping up all over China.

Hmmm… I do have to wonder though, is the Genius bar appointment system just as ridiculous in China as it is in Suburban DC?

Third – Mashup album of the week Fugazi vs. The Wu-Tang Clan… We taking this mashup to the 13 chambers kids.

Don’t thank me kids, thank the earth’s gravitational pull and of course Mr. Rennie for the link.

Fourth – Now I know that it can be somewhat depressing when a beloved story comes to an end (see my FNL lights thoughts below), but do you really need to purchase a reborn Harry Potter baby to keep the dream alive? No seriously, can’t you just re-read the books? Do you really need a life-like rendition of the characters as a vinyl baby.

I’m just throwing it out there, but purchasing one of these ‘reborns’ is a one-way ticket to becoming a cat lady.

That being said the Dobby creepy baby is pretty twisted… in a good/bad way.

Fifth – Well it’s a good thing the NFL finally came to an agreement and gave all their players universal health care … well… unless of course, you’re one of the employees or angel investors in Sports-themed Foursquare/Gowalla start up Fanvibe, which had to shut it’s doors with the uncertainty of two major leagues being out of business for over a year.

Sorry guys. It always sucks to hear about a great idea being derailed by the foolishness of others.

Sixth – Courtesy of LaughingSquid we have a series of WWII-era Social Media inspired propaganda posters.

Seventh – Furious Tactics , a new game from local developers Broken Kings came out this past week. While there are a few great games and apps coming out of Calgary at the moment, I’ve had my eye on this one for a while, as it’s this awesome blend of Shining Force and Starcraft, but with steam-punk inspired Mice vs. Cats vs. Dogs vibe.

It’s an absolute gorgeous game to play and a fun little time killer.

So if you have a moment do check it out. It’s a lot of fun and will only get better as through updates and more aspects of the game are added

Eight – Last week, my wife and I finally watched the series finale of Friday Night Lights.

You probably won’t ever understand the importance of this show on our relationship. Because in a weird way, FNL has been with us every step of the way.
So to say that it wasn’t hard to watch the final episode and to pretend that I didn’t weep like a little boy would be a complete lie. One day, I’ll probably write a full post on why this show was so amazing, but in the mean time watch the compilation of Tammy’s entire five seasons of Y’alls below and read the incredible oral history of the show from Grantland – called Clear Eyes, Full Hearts. (thanks Lyndise and Poploser for the various links)

And with that I’ll leave you, with one piece of advice… WWCTD

Categories: , , The Blogosphere, The Humourous, The Inane, The Social Media, The VideoGames

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Random Thoughts For The Mother of All Stampede Dogs Thursday July 14, 2011

And here you thought I was going to talk about the super dogs… Yeah, I know you did.

But alas, I’m talking about Tubby Dog and the infamous BUCK MCOY DOG.

Yes, kids this is all that is good, bad and awesome about the stampede, all rolled into one.

First – For all you budding iPhone Photogs out there, this list of must have photo apps for the iPhone. Please note that Instagram, my favourite love and hate app, is at the top of this list.

Second – You know, I really thought the corporations introduction of QR Codes in to Mike’s Bloggity Blog adverts was pretty cutting edge… Apparently I was wrong.

The Tescos Supermarket subsidiary in Korea, has incorporated augmented reality Grocery Shopping in a number of subway stations.

Bloody hell

(via. alfgoetz)

Third – Hey Calgary… The Food Trucks are a coming, the food trucks are a coming. And luckily for everyone they are kicking off with a bang, especially with two food trucks from Diner Deluxe and CHARCUT…. You are one lucky city, you sexy beast Calgary.

(P.S. In case you can’t wait, Fries N’ Dolls is already rolling around the city#.)

Fouth – Here, for your sportscastor obsession, is the unofficial soundboard of the Score’s legendary announcers… Tim McAllef and Sid Seixeiro.

Which happens to go really well with the old c.t.overdrive’s bush league Tim Mcallaf impersonation.

Fifth – I meant to post this about a month ago, but I just never got around to it. It is io9.com’s which Aliens movie are you survey? Which for me is easily, Aliens, with a giant dash of Fischer’s Alien 3.

Sixth – It’s a really shame that Julien Smith has slowed down on blogging.

Frankly, his posts are easily some of the best ‘motivational’ posts on the net. In particular, because of their unique frankness and the combination of their ‘balls to the wall’ attitude. If you have a moment, you should really read his latest post on why no one cares if you succeed or fail: or why [he] walked 500 miles barefoot

… At first, this [walking 500 miles] is depressing. “I did this epic thing and no one really cares.” But it isn’t that they don’t care at all– it’s that there’s no way for them to understand the epicness of the experience. The experience is unique and spans a week, a month, a year, or whatever, and it can’t be distilled into one sentence. It’s like a joke. You had to be there.

Seventh – Yes, yes, yes… TheHoodInternet takes one of my all time favourite Lupe Fiasco songs and cuts it perfectly with the Handsome Furs … You can thank me later.

Eighth – If you’ve been following my blog posts and flickr photos, you’ll have noticed a glowing trend. I’ve kinda taken to MLS Soccer. It’s not that I was never interested before, but with a couple of good friends who cheer for their own home teams (Portland, Toronto & New York) and DC United a few metro stops away, it’s kinda been my summer distraction.

If you haven’t heard about the Portland Timbers and the atmosphere going on in the Rose City, you have to check this article out from The Grantland.

It’s absolutely fantastic.

Maybe they realized that you can wear scarves and sing songs and warn one another about not interacting with the opposition support, lest there be some kind of throw-down in front of Powell’s. But for football to become football in America what you really need, most of all, is more games like that, more players like Montero and Marcelin, and more 3-2 thrillers in which one set of fans get their hearts broken. Because when you see something like that, even if you’re a Timbers fan, your heart might hurt. But you can’t really say you lost.

Ninth – True confession, I’m obsessed with the News Corp/News of The World fiasco in Britain. I’m sure you’ve all heard of it and if not, well I just feel bad for you. But this article from Boing, Boing on how Fox (Faux) News is handling the scandal is choice.

In particular, this video is great example of how peculiar this whole scandal is quietly becoming. Give it a watch and we’ll discuss the funniest part a bit later on.

Did you watch it? (Or at least see the Boing, Boing article and figure out the punchline?)

But how did CNN on the fact that she said I’m not going to touch that with a Ten Foot TURBAN.

Like, was it really so hard to say pole? Like really, you had to say Turban.

Tenth – In honour of the final episode, of what is the single greatest TV show to appear on primetime (and not watched by millions of people), Grantland has an oral history of Friday Night Lights.

(via. Poploser)

Categories: , , The Blogosphere, The Canada Vibe, The DC United, The Food, The Humourous, The Inane, The Music, The Political World, The Pop-Culture, The Social Media, The World

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Random Thoughts For The Greatest Image Of All Time Sunday July 3, 2011

Alright, everyone has probably already seen this.

I know I’ve posted it at least a dozen of times since I stumbled upon it from CalgaryPuck.com… But it’s just too good not to officially post on the old c.t.overdrive.

I know it’s probably totally not appropriate, but hey, Happy Canada Day kiddies.

First – This come via JimBones, but it’s a fantastic sneak peak at the rebranding of Canada’s Olympic Team

My favourite part has to be the evolution of the Maple Leaf from 1920s to the 1970s. So there you guys go, there’s my Canada Day present.

Second – I featured this story and the game on the yycapps.com web site, but CBC Calgary has a great interview with Rob McCready (A brooks iPhone app developer) on the development of Infinity Control and his battle with the West Nile Disease.

If you want to hear an impressive story, please check out this interview from the CBC. Rob’s determination to get Infinity Control into the Apple iTunes store is a great inspiration.

Third – I love the new simplified versions of the Nashville Predators Branding, especially the fantastic new gold and blue colour scheme

Fourth – If I was about 10-12 years younger I’d be all over these Marvel Superhero Hoodies… Although, I’m pretty sure that the only one I might be able to pull off without looking like a complete Muppet is the Venom hoodie.

Fifth It’s fifty kids that are far cooler than you will ever be… Just like this kid. (NSFW)

Sixth – From what I can heard, of course only from a distance, Sled Island was a smashing success. Even better it appears that for the first time in a long time, the entire Olympic Plaza main stage was open to serve alcohol (i.e. no restrictive beer gardens)… Which is awesome news for the city.

Well done Calgary, we’re one step closer to being all grown ups.

Seventh – OffTheBeatenTracks.tv is back and with it, one of my favorite indie Canadian Darlings is featured – Montreal’s Winter Gloves.

Eighth – Because it’s the start of the Holiday/Party season, it’s Girl Talk’s Summer BBQ Mix. 140 odd tracks of rump shaking goodness.

Ninth – If you’ve ever read the site, you’ll know that I pretty much despise the daily coupon trend… well unless you’re company’s name is Living Social… but this sounds intresting. Yipit is a daily aggregratitor of all the Hyper-Coupons in your specific city. So instead of signing on to 6 different email chains you can instead, sign-up for Yipit and get access to dozens of coupon sites in your area.

See now that’s the thinking that will push the Coupon industry in the right direction.

Tenth – Found this via the Globe and Mail, but it’s the new ‘it’ Post Secret called “Dear Photograph”:
http://dearphotograph.com/. You can read the incredible story via the Globe and Mail … or you could just look at this photo.

Categories: , , The ArtWorld, The Blogosphere, The Canada Vibe, The Flames, The Humourous, The Inane, The Urban

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Random Thoughts For The Burger Tri-fecta Tuesday May 31, 2011

Last week I posted a link to an article comparing the Tri-fecta of big name burger joints against each other. The article went through each burger, awarding the big prize to Shake Shack.

Now with a new Shake Shack in The District, I finally got to personally complete the Tri-fecta of Burger joints this week. And the verdict…

Well In my opinion it’s a two-way race between Five Guys and Shake Shack. Which will upset a few of the In-N-Out faithful, but hear me out.

Don’t get me wrong Shake Shack was awesome – juicy patties, a load of cheese and a great sesame seed bun – except in comparison to Five Guys the toppings were a bit of a let down. Nothing in my books beats a Five Guys Burger loaded with Jalapenos. BUT on the other side, Shake Shack does Gluten Free burgers, which is freaking HUGE for us. So while I’d gladly gorge on a Five Guys Burger, the experience of Shake Shack of having a fantastic Gluten-Free option propels it into another atmosphere.

So yeah, that’s my take on the Burger Tri-fecta.

First – If the annoying kiddies at the mall weren’t enough to annoy you, it appears that there is another reason to hate Urban Outfitters. It appears that the underground trend store likes to rip off etsy artists. (Thanks to Mr. Arnott for the link)

Full Disclosure I’ve purchased quite a few things from Urban Outfitters, from my Lumography camera to dinner plates and dishes for our apartment, so it pains me to see such shitty business practices.

Second – For all you music lovers out there, Calgary’s Michael Bernard Fitzgerald is releasing a live album. It’s hard not to love MBF, god knows with his ravenous support from hipster teens I’ve tried my hardest, but there’s just something endearing about this guy.

Third – I’ve been raving about this game for months (probably a year), but Bastion is starting to get some RAVE reviews at E3.

I’m no longer a BIG gamer, but this is one game I can’t wait for…

Fourth – Have I talked about Shauna Mae Luedtke’s Slipoffs? No? Well I should have.

Yes, I just found out about this, but Shauna is a designer based in Calgary who does custom-painted slip on shoes, where are pretty awesome. (It also looks like she was featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show).

Fifth – I tweet this out last week, but it’s so good it deserves another round of promotion. It’s a great post on how to live in Washington, DC. It’s so dead on it hurts.

Go to a “networking” event. Drink too much wine and eat too many hors d’oeuvres. Listen to the person speaking incessantly about themselves and what they do. Want to punch them. Want to jump out the window. Leave feeling defeated. After meeting 100 new contacts and handing out dozens of cards, realize you have not had a substantial conversation in what feels like days.

Sixth – Personally, I’d rather see a Gowalla and Living Social team up, but this is a good article on why Groupon & Foursquare should team up to try and take on the Social world.

Seventh – A big shout out to Dublin for taking out President Obama’s Beast of a armored Limo. I can’t embed the video, but please watch it. It’s hysterical.

Eighth – Thanks to @Shandro for the link to Desingers.Mx, which is a series of playlists created by a variety of web designers.

If you have some time, please check it out. It’s a great idea, for anyone who has been struggling to find some new and accessible music.

(P.S. This has to be my favorite mix on the site… Sawyer Hollenshead’s Go With The Flow.)

Ninth – A neat article on how two Calgary-based promoters helped fund Kevin Smiths (Clerks, Jay & Silent Bob, Clerks The Cartoon, etc) latest movie – Red State.

Tenth – You can all thank Mr. Rennie for this great link – Literally Unbelievable – Which catalogues people’s serious reactions on Facebook to clearly made-up Onion articles.

The stuff about the Abortion Mega-complex is priceless.

Categories: , , The ArtWorld, The Canada Vibe, The D.C. vibe, The HomeLand, The Humourous, The Inane, The Music, The Pop-Culture

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