Stupid stuff on Facebook du jour

Aren't you sick of these stupid questions on Facebook which only exist to create lists of people like "Can you name a city which has an X in it? I bet you can't!"
 
How about this one:

"Can you name a Polish city which has the letter Q in it? I bet you can't!"

Out of the mouths of babes...

The friend of mine with the 3 year old daughter was at the supermarket today. While shopping, she picked up some pasta and turned to the kid, saying that she had a recipe using this pasta, and showed her daughter the recipe on her phone (not as if the kid could read it, it was just a symbolic gesture). Without hesitation, the kid said to her in a loud voice "it's a RECIPE FOR DISASTER." Some guy walking by overhead this whole conversation and burst into hysterical laughter.

Another mindless Facebook poll: "Which Surrey community are you?"

There is yet another mindless Facebook poll making the rounds. You know, like the ones which ask "Which sexual position are you?", "Which racially-discriminated-against ethnic group are you?" and "Which bad remake of a TV show are you?"

This one is "Which Surrey community are you?"

It doesn't help that Surrey itself is so ambiguous about its communities, which officially are:

Cloverdale
Fleetwood
Guildford
Newton
North Surrey
South Surrey

Note that some of them like Whalley are not even mentioned!

Typical results from the poll, based on questions that you are asked, would be:

Crescent Beach - you live a secret life; you tell your friends you live "close to White Rock," not mentioning the "S-word."

Cloverdale - you are a nasty person, you don't see treating your pets badly as a bad thing.

Newton - you are a risk-taker, living in a place where there is a high propensity to getting murdered.

Surrey Central - you have aspersions to being a trendy, modern kind of person, living in some cool new condominium, but down at heart you are the SOS (Same Old Surreyite or Same Old Shit).

Whalley - you have serious substance problems, so much so that you cannot even walk or ride a bicycle without falling down.

New Transformers movie

I know nothing about this film. When I half-heard something about it on the radio, I thought the name of the film was "Transformers: Asian Extinction."

Vision Vancouver pushing all the right buttons

According to the June 25th Vancouver Courier, Vision has nominated "young" people for parks board, contrary to what Mayor Gregor Robertson said about the NPA being a party of "angry old men."

One of them is Trish Kelly, described as "a natural food company employee and self-described LGBTQ community member of Métis and Ukrainian descent."

Among the other Vision people being nominated for school board and city council:

Albert Akukalaqq, 28, a blind Inuit man who lost all four of his limbs in an attack by a killer whale. Despite his handicaps, he is the owner of a thriving business which creates authentic circumpolar native carvings. He has also been prominent protesting the Vancouver Aquarium's "confinement" of large mammals.

Da-Xia Xangpao, 30. She became president of the Shaughnessy Residents' Association even though she and her husband Ming-húa arrived in Canada only in late 2013. She is an avid cyclist and wants to ban all cars from her area ... unless they have a value of over $200,000.

Surjit Dhillander, 36, local vegetarian restaurateur who is at the forefront of the "Don't move to Surrey" movement among Vancouver's Punjabi Market merchants.

Favorite cereal?

Many years ago when I was working, I took a poll of the people at my company as to what cereals they liked. I was very surprised that most of the people liked bran cereals, because most of the people there were young. In my experience, bran cereals are associated with old people who have digestive problems. When I told them that I had 4-5 different kinds of cereal in the house, ranging from sickeningly organic to utter trash, and I enjoyed mixing them up with a little bit of each cereal in my bowl, they looked at me as if I was crazy.

Charity donation boxes in Vancouver under the microscope

Vancouver City council is talking about regulating the charity drop boxes which litter the city, just like the litter which is in front of many of them. This is a good thing, because this issue has been in the news for a couple of years and no one has seemingly done much about it.

There was an article criticizing these boxes in the Vancouver Courier two years ago, which produced some nervous responses from local charities that if council regulated or took away these boxes, they would suffer.

A couple of days ago, there was an article in the Province about this issue. And guess what appears in the Metro paper yesterday, a TWO PAGE SPREAD AD FROM VALUE VILLAGE saying how great they are (all of which is attached, along with relevant links to the previous articles).

Value Village, in case you don't get it, is connected with the disposition of many of these articles which are collected by the local charities.

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June 5, 2014 story, The Province

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Donation+disasters+have+City+Vancouver+working+plans+regulate+mess/9904487/story.html

[The above link no longer works.]

Courier article from March 29, 2012

http://www.vancourier.com/news/dumped-donations-soil-vancouver-thrift-store-sidewalk-1.376303

Courier article from September 2, 2011

http://www.vancourier.com/news/donated-books-for-charity-sold-for-profit-online-1.374347

Letter responding to the above Courier article, from September 7, 2011

http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/editorial-and-letters/letters-of-the-week-1.375399

Letter responding to the above Courier article, from September 28, 2011

http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/editorial-and-letters/charity-bins-play-vital-role-for-non-profits-1.382067