Boneheaded Bite

Scientists this week published their findings on the biting force of Dunkleosteus the giant predatory armoured fish of the Devionian. Based on biomechanical models and simulations they have determined this monster packed the most powerful bite of any fish currently known. Coupled with that it was able to open it's month extremely rapidly which probably caused a water vaccum effect which made it that much easier for Dunky to catch its prey.

If you're looking for a fun video demenstration BBC's Chased by Dinosaurs Sea Monsters has a fantastic sequence all about Dunkleosteus and more to the point this horrific biting power. I suspect when they made the movie their advisors were the same scientific team that made this find.

To think me and peter put our lives in our hands all those summers obliviously wandering by these jaws...

"Swamped" at Work!

Today marked a first at work. I had to actually work!

Both me and my bosses (I have two of them) were discussing how I wasn't doing anything in my current scheduling. I volunteered to come in earlier for work as that was when it seemed all the guests were coming. My bosses weren't entirely certain, but asked for me to try it this week. The results:

I had a total of 2 guests come in. That's right 2 of them came in TODAY! That is exactly the same as my total guests perviously greeted!

So it is official that I now start and end work an hour early everyday now.

Other then that it was a pretty eventful day. Though the temp dropped really hard this weekend, and it is about -25 (-40 today when you factored in the windchill). One of my bosses car won't start when we got off. So I helped him out by boosting his car.

So all in all my most crazy day at work... If it keeps up at this rate I may not last :P

Life According to Mal: Betrayal

Well the entire ordeal that is Tim Hortons is COMPLETELY done as of today. I cashed my big shiny 0.05% of the job (as in % of Timmies total sales while I was there), and it feels good to be done with it.

Here's the rough story. I'm leaving out names cause well frankly I'm not holding a grudge with individuals (you'll notice never in my rants of Timmies have I used names). Tim Hortons Crowchild though is another story. However don't think I'm saying don't goto Timmies. Hell I went yesterday after this LOL just not that location. Just make sure you show the workers respect. It's a shitass job!

Of course I tell the story from a delusional Firefly or Serenity version. The reason this could have been an episode of the show...

"Why can't things just for once go according to the goram plan?"

Getting my last paycheck was something of an ordeal. I did predict it to be so. Just didn't see it being so predictable stupid. Compared to Jane these guys look like an idiots (the fact they wear hats helps with that jab I guess :P ) .

I showed up at Timmies to grab my paycheck I knew I'd have to deal with at least one of the main managers. It just so happened to be the one who "fought so hard to get me my bonus back", and he's clearly going to be a dick...

He immediately asks if I've returned my uniform, which I hadn't (was going to see if I could hold on to it, and burn it oh well...), so I grabbed it from the car, and then there was a whole cofuffle about my SIN. Finally after fixing that in a mere 30 min?!? (he was very purposfully dragging his heels, and trying to waste my time... I didn't care had nothing better to do then get PAID!) He pulls this whole "I'm not giving you your check till I tell you what I think of you and your shit" WOW big words from the man... I'm real scaried now

Okay so I'll give him this right now "Man can hold a grudge." From his point of view I will say right now I did affront him bad. Problem is I don't respect his point of view at all, and think it is really funny actually. Inspiration for some future project to be sure.

He launches on about how he went out on a limb for me, and fought for my bonus. Then I just out right quit and made "everyone else work harder to cover for me"...

Uh okay. Fighting for money I HAD earned and you took away, thanks for the favour buddy! Glad to see that with Timmies pay is just a perk of the shit ass labour, but only if your good... WTF. Making everyone cover for me oh right sorry... Seems he forgot the part where I'd already QUIT!!! I sure was feeling that I needed to contribute to the teams success. I just left a few days early.

"You come over to this side I'll see to it you get your fair share of the job."

Now call me a mercenary if you must, but I pointed out to supervisor I was offered a new job. The thing that one looks for after quitting typically. It also happened to pay almost double their salary (especially minus the bonus!). It started within my last week of scheduled Timmies shifts, but frankly I wasn't going to turn it down due to "loyality" to Timmies. I wasn't "a part of their crew".

His rebuttal. "No I'd stay here anyway cause it's what's right. Your just a coward." Uh okay. I guess he's got me there. Only way I could live with myself is take that dishonor for the price of oh I don't know double pay, better hours, and personal office. Oh wait. Darn I am a coward...

Here comes my favorite part of the exchange... Poor supervisor pulls out the "you're a son of a bitch you know that. You stand here and stab me in the back." LOL. Man not only does a Mal pop into my head at that moment I say it

"Next time you stab me in the back you do it to my face!"

Now I put it as "well I'm stabbing you in the face dude. To do it in the back I'd have to not be here, and listening to this" I also managed to get another firefly line in... what can I say I was a geek having fun being a jerk "I haven't even said anything while you been saying some unkind words as to my character"

Well here's where he tries to pull a Badger on me with an attempt at superiority

"{You're} a man of honor in a den of thieves. Well this is my goram den, and I don't like the way you look down at me. I'm bigger then you, better then. Legitimate business man see. Respectable, roots in the community"

He tries somehow to shame me with "I feel sorry for the place your working at now. They've made a big mistake." Sure they probably did, but that just makes me all more proud... Suckered another poor hapless victim and getting twice as much for it LOL. Not that I ever did a bad job for supervisor WHILE I was working at Timmies... I think he missed the point of "I QUIT" again

Then he releases his big bomb. What a clever little 22 year old he is. He definitely learned a lot being the captain of the football team (he still wears the jacket...). "You know when you said you didn't want to drop the "over qualified" for this job when we talked. Well I think your "underqualified" for this job fucker!"...

Wow with this one had supervisor put me in my place? Taking my statement of insult about timmies being beneath me, and suddenly turning it cleverly into an insult about it being above me!!!

Well I was surprised by my reply. I'm not one for confrontations as many know. This whole Timmies ordeal has probably been the most in anyones face I've ever been. That line with it's absolute stupidity, "your underqualified" wow good one! I've had 8 year olds insult me better (seriously)...

I laughed in his face. More of an evil cackle. It was just natural. Not planned, and not one of my acted drama ones. A really condescending one. In my head I was a little stunned. Supervisor sure was too... Till this point I'd been just standing there passive aggresively taking his insults with little retort.

"I'm here to talk about this like civilized men. I'm unarmed..."

"GOOD!" *BANG*

Well with the laugh I turned into more of a Mal then I thought I could... Typically I'm more the Wash type. Supervisor tries to regain the ground... He realizes that I haven't been silent due to shame more just waiting him out. "I'm glad that your leaving..." he starts, but I interrupt him.

"No they'll never see this coming"

At this point I notice the whole confrontation has resulted in our body positions shifting away from the check on the counter. I snag it. He is even more baffled stopping in the middle of his wanting me to go. "Well that's great {supervisor's name} cause now you won't have to see me again." I wave the check in the air. Just to be an ass "Though if you have anything more to get off your chest I've got a few more minutes to kill..."

"No I've got work to do." again all I have to say is WOW. That sure turned the tables.

Now I did feel bad about the whole affair in a way, but only a way. It summarized the whole Tim Hortons franchise. This supervisor did play a big part in getting my money. I'm sure he felt hurt. The problem is he missed the point. Just like his fellow managers. There is a verse beyond Timmies... "Where's it written we have to lay down our lives for her?!?"

This supervisor was the son of the owner, and as of such was in an odd position.He wanted to do the right thing. He just is so brainwashed by Timmies he couldn't see the difference between the business and personal ends of this affair. I do appreciate he's efforts. At the same time I'm not feeling bad for getting on with my life, and more to the point screwing them back a bit.

I've never been this stressed by work in my life. Earl's is a utopia compared to this place.

The moral of this according to Mal you leave Badger's den, and find work on the border worlds... and in the end...

"I did the job and I get paid!"

Aquariums I HAVE to visit!

So was poking around on wikipedia, and like usuaul I made a really amazing factual discovery.

Would you believe that there are at present 3 aquariums in the world that hold Whale Sharks as part of their displays! This just blows my mind with its immensity and coolness!

Four live at the "World's Largest Aquarium" in Atlanta, three in Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, and a singleton at Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. So I now have a real reason to visit Japan!

Anyways moral of the story if you have time to waste don't watch TV (well except maybe Report on Business TV so that I get a raise :P ), check out Wikipedia instead! You're bound to find something immensely cool AND educational in about 5 min tops...

The CFCN Gig

Due to the somewhat heavy events of the last few days I've been delayed on the long overdue entry on my new job...

Okay so I work for the Report on Business Television division of CTV. I'm of course posted in the Calgary branch that is located at the CFCN station. My job title is Guest Greeter, and in a moment you'll get the details of my taxing task...

The CFCN broadcasting tower. A landmark in Calgary since well before I was born.

So the daily drive to work isn't too bad in comparison to some you can make in Cowtown these days. What makes this so isn't the distance to work, as the station is actually a little ways from my current home. It's the proximity in the valley alignment.

What I mean by this is that I am directly across from the station on the river valley that makes up the core of Calgary. Making this fantastic for efficent commutes is we're on the far West end of the valley. Meaning that the major roads that connect us aren't the most busy...

A close up for the tower as it is seen from the front door of CFCN. Unfortuently I can't quite connect these two properly. Though the trees lineup you'll notice the tower actually connects to the left of the bottom picture.

So the typical routine is get to work for 3:15pm. Head inside the front door, and hang a left right away to get to my desk. Located in the CFCN news room...

The Newsroom! Normally packed with reporters and anchors. I'm not supposed to take pictures in the building, so I snapped this when I was't going to get caught...


Here is my little corner of the news room.

So thus far the majority of my shifts up till the present have been spent here. Typically I've been working on my homework for my New Zealand internet prereq courses. Once and a while when I'm a bad boy or just lacking disipline also a bit of blog work...

My "office"

On the days I theortically have a guest I then have to head down stairs into the bowels of the station to the ROB (Report on Business) studio.

First I'd have greeted the guest at the front door (hence my job title), and then bring them to the studio. Once here I get our guest to sit in the chair there in front of the camera. I straight out their tie and jacket. Hook them up with a microphone and ear piece, and then call Toronto to let them know that we're good to go on the interview.

My "office" from the camera's point of view

Once the interview is done I do the reverse. Remove the tech gear. Mess up their jacket and tie (okay if they don't tip me :P ). Take them up to the front door. Thank them for coming, and that is that. Back to my desk in the newsroom in theory waiting for the next guest.

In total I've had 1 guest in two weeks. That's right. I'm super overworked here. I can't believe the unhumanity of it all!

Amazing view of Calgary from anywhere in the station!

Yeah so that's life at moment. I love it! Compared to Timmies where I was up all night, and had to waste my days off on homework. Now I get paid to do my homework, and can fool around in the evenings (and I've been good, and haven't wasted that much money!).

Fun closing bit of trivia from the set of ROBTV. They have this backdrop of the city to establish where the interviewee is located. They used to have a window with the previous amazing view. However on days like all of last week where the station is in thick fog you can't see anything. So they made this backdrop.

My boss on the first day noted me looking at it curiously and she says "DON'T look to closely at that or you'll go mad!". Indeed I'd noticed the problem. This isn't a real photo of Calgary rather a composite of all the landmarks. Calgarians are probably noticing this too. For those of you from elsewhere you can see the reflection of the Calgary Tower in Bankers Hall (the tall scrapper on the right) from where the tower should be!

I thought that was funny, and figured I'd share this one funny showbiz tidbit with you.

Kiwanis United

Well today was the day. Twig's funeral, and what an experience that was.

There is any number of things I could bring up, and essentially whine about. The traffic jam I had to navigate to get to the funeral on time. The parking lot being full, and my getting pinned in by monster trucks. Not managing to get a seat with my fellow Kiwanians...

Funeral home where the service was held at

However this is all trivial in comparison to other people's ordeal today, and the lead up since last wednesday.

What a powerful and well done ceremony. The turnout was unbelievable. The venue had a capacity of 350, and I was like at LEAST 200 other people and forced to stand in the lobby due to that many more showing up. It was a real testement to Twig's (Mark) impact during his 21 years of life.

Though again I didn't have the privelage of knowing him well I can say this after hearing the stories, seeing the 4 panels of pictures with him doing his kamp thing, and talking to my fellow Kiwanians I feel that Twig was a kindred spirit. In the sense that we are both hardcore summer campers. We put our fellow kamp staff and kids first while there, and we will be remembered for it!... It made me truely sad I didn't get to know him better.

Insert picture with your imagination here

Among the most powerful moments was Kiwanis' own Raven (Chris) talking of his dear friend Twig. Me being the morally questionable person I am I snapped a pic mid service, which I probably shouldn't have done, but in my defense my camera had a better point of view then I did... This way I at least know where the audio being projected into the lobby was coming from.

Though I felt a sense of tradgey and loss during the service it was immediately after the service concluded and we all gathered outside I was truely hit by the gravity of the day. This tradgey had gathered 6 generations of Kiwanis Kamp Staff! Many of my closest kamp friends were present. Including a few surprises.

You'll note I wore my Kiwanis name cookie

The biggest shocker of which was Moose (Tom) had flown in from Britain! More to the point he hadn't told anyone! It was good to see him. Especially since as fate has arranged it I won't be able to see him in Jan when he comes for his official visit as I fly out 12 hrs before he arrives...

Falcon (Brad) who I haven't seen in almost 2 years...

I think perhaps the most telling thing was the effort ALL the former kamp staff put into show their sympathies. In total there was nearly 30-40 of us (I couldn't be entirely sure as I don't know all the new staff by sight... though many of them knew who I was), and though out of the grand 500-600 who showed up that may not have been a giant group, but our presence was to be felt everywhere.

At the reception afterwards the overall theme and lesson is that though many of us have gone our own ways, and it seems that we have lost touch when it comes down to it the Kiwanis Kamp Krew is as tight and as strong as ever. When the call for strength and support for our own and their loved ones came the Kiwanians responded!

That was a powerful and signficant event in my life today. Though I'd put myself into self imposed exile, and cut much of Kiwanis from my life, that changed this afternoon. A tacit peace occurred today, and past misunderstandings and conflicts were buried. I'm a Kiwanian again today for the first time in 4 years, and my only regret is that it took the lose of a fellow Kiwanian to cause this.

This however was the one thing that was said throughout the day. Twig's greatest wish would have been for his death to at least cause all those around him to grow closer. I think that this may indeed be the case...

You'll note the addition of a new link in my link bar to Kamp Kiwanis. In honor of Twig...

STUPID DINOSAUR!

Well today has been quite the shocker!

Logging in to my blog today I made a extremely alarming discovery. My old acquaintance (some of my friends would even say adopted son. An accusation to which I take great insult!) Traumador the Tyrannosaur has somehow hacked my blog, and incorporated it into his own profile!

When I emailed him about this he said it had something to do with his new special talent agent Peter Bond telling him to get as much publicity as he could. So the stupid little Dinosaur thought that hacking my blog and getting his name all over it was just the means to do this!

If I didn't have to goto work today I'd track him down, and get him for this. After all the stuff I've been doing for him too. Lesson being if you goto the bother of raising a peanut sized-brained dolt from hatchling don't send him off into the world where he can be influenced by gods know who.

So this looks like it is the new permenant state of the Insanity for now. Hopefully that's all the deranged little T-Rex does. He now techincally has administrative capacity on this site so I'm naturally a little worried about what he might do.

Pulp Craving

Well my creative efforts on legitimate projects like Delta Patrol or getting Dan's sisters wedding fully edited (so close on this one) keep getting intreupted either by homework or my parents. Today my first weekend day free of internet course work, and my parents get me to sort boxes of my stuff... grrrrrrrrr


Though I wish I could claim some sort of Indiana Jones type discovery whilst going through the 5 boxes of my crap I did make a cool find today. Sadly during the internet break I snuck in. It was this picture of a pulp era heroine and here crew at the center of the earth hunting trilobites!

Now I'm sure some of you know my weakness for this particular genre. I've read the majority of the all the prominent such series and stories throughout my childhood. This picture captured all the cool elements from these childhood memories and impressions. The exotic prehistoric ecosystem, alien inner core environment (in this case complete with cavernous roof of the Earth itself), and of course hot babes!

Just makes me want to go film a pulp style center of the earth story. I've even got the components in the works for such a project...

Trilobite for a nice any lass whose brave enough to hunt them (and star in one of my movies :P )

Pterosaur which would of course not only have to attack the heroes in the core,

but if I can manage it be ridden by an evil barbarian at some point too

Ceratopsian (Centrosaurus in this pic, but I can rearrange horns and such) that must have the dynamic herd shot, and at some critically inconvient point have a massive stampede

Of course the Tyrant King Lizard King himself ready to rule over and plague the inner world kingdom he so rightfully deserves!

I also have my own threads should I manage to get cast.

Also might be fun to sepia the film for added effect...

Oh well this is all sadly conjecture. I just needed to get some creative energy of a Center of the Earth variety out of my system, and this was as good a venue as any. Too bad this is the best I'm able to do at moment.

Today it was -5 outside, and there is snow on the ground. Added to this Alberta isn't the most suitable prehistoric looking filming location. If only I were moving somewhere in oh I don't know let's say 2 months that was not only warmer, like say summer, and had ferns and crazy greenery. If only. It might give me something to look forward to.

That and a new camcorder LOL

Tweeked the Blog

As I was forced to goto the Beta version of Blogger (not sure why that happened on JUST this account?) I started playing with it's capabilites. Was able to adjust a few things on the formatting of the template more. I like it more now. The Beta is fairly useful, but still more limited then I'd like. Wasn't able to adjust things quite as much as I'd like. I'm just going to have to learn HTML I guess.

Let me know what you think of this new look for the Insanity

Panda Breeding LOL

Okay this is too funny, and you have to read it to believe it...

Zookeepers in Bangkok (which just makes this funnier LOL) while having trouble encouraging their two Pandas to breed have devised a solution you have to read the full article on or you won't believe me. Their going to show the male big screen video of Panda mating so he learns how. Panda porn... In an actually institution. I'm crying right now having just read this a minute ago... TOO FUNNY!