David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 223

Quebec Thinks You Should Take Your Car’s Temperature If It Acts Dizzy

Okay, back to Quebec road signs that confused me for at least a moment based on a similar yet somewhat foreign symbol language. Enough with the moose. Today: Quebec apparently thinks you should take your car’s temperature if it starts acting dizzy and/or whatnot:

Now, I realized once I looked at this sign for more than a moment that it was actually warning about icy conditions. After all, out of control car…zero Celsius, after a minute I caught on. However, it took me a minute. This isn’t the “icy road” sign I’m used to looking for (though I certainly know to be watching for ice when it’s below freezing regardless). I’m not even used to thinking normally about Celsius, being from a country that still uses Fahrenheit.

Doesn’t it kind of look like the car is dizzy as a result? Doesn’t it kind of look like they are saying that your car could be sick and you should check its temperature? Hopefully its temperature isn’t going to be freezing or below, but still. Maybe a freezing level car temperature would indicate that it was sick, something different from a fever in humans (though perhaps something like hypothermia?).

Anyway, watch out for car sickness.

Quebec Also Has Violent Moose

Still on my Quebec road sign theme, I posted yesterday about how the Quebec deer warning sign looked like the deer was going to run at your car and attack you. In the interests of being fair and balanced, I thought I should also provide the moose version:

This isn’t much different, but it seems like a moose might be much more likely to attack cars. Those things can be cranky.

This post isn’t as much on my recent theme about differences in symbol languages across even closely related cultures, but I thought it still somewhat fit given my post yesterday. Beware the moose.

Quebec Has Violent Deer

I was talking yesterday about being amused by some of the road signs I saw while driving around in Quebec. This deer collision warning one was immediately evident to me, but still struck me as a little weird:

After all, I knew it was warning that deer are likely to jump out onto the road at that spot and that this can cause terrible accidents for cars who don’t see them in time to react. However, doesn’t it look like the sign is warning you that violent, angry deer may attack your car?

Watch out for those deer! Those guys are totally pissed and will come at you for no reason! You aren’t safe in your car! They will totally get in there at you! They will MESS YOU UP!

That struck me as kind of funny, because something like that happened to a friend of mine one time. It’s been a while and I might have some details wrong, but I think he was in a rental car parked on the side of a Florida highway. All of a sudden, some kind of deer charged his car and rammed the side. Took off his side mirror. No idea why.

Anyway, this amused me. Thought I’d share. Watch out for deer attacks.

Canada’s Biggest Littering Problem Is Apparently Tin Cans

I was up in Quebec recently and I started looking at the roadsigns. I thought back to how I heard people had trouble designing a ‘danger’ sign for that nuclear waste dump they wanted to put deep in that Utah mine shaft (or whatever). After all, symbols may not involve words, but there is definitely a conceptual language behind symbols. If the waste was going to be there for thousands and thousands of years, someone coming upon it when it was still dangerous might not have the same actual language as us, or the same symbol language. They might not even be human.

I thought about this in looking at the road signs in Quebec, because though similar they definitely use a bit differently of a conceptual symbol language than I’m used to. Take this one:

I realized once I looked at it for a minute that it meant ‘no littering.’ However, my first thought was a somewhat sarcastic ‘no Popeye zone.’

After all, it’s an empty tin can. Do people really throw many of those on the roads in Quebec? Isn’t it usually drink containers and candy bar wrappers? Do most motorists in Quebec snack on cans of creamed corn while they drive?

Unlikely. Most likely this was just a deemed to be a recognizable symbol for litter even if empty tin cans aren’t actually littered very commonly. Regardless, it struck me as weird when I thought about it and the differences in a similar but still somewhat foreign conceptual symbol language. A lot of the roadsigns up there struck me as weird.

I may take a few posts to talk about this, presuming posting amuses me as much as the roadsigns did.

I Have A Snow Shovel On My Back Porch

I have a snow shovel on my back porch. I use it to clear snow so I can get to the place out there I leave food for feral cats. It’s the end of August.

I had the snow shovel out there during the winter, when it is obviously more useful. It doesn’t snow in Denver in the summer time. I haven’t used it since late April or very early May. Normally, I put the shovel inside in the basement when it isn’t winter. However, this year I forgot.

The shovel is still out there…in late August.

At this point, now that I’ve finally remembered that I should probably bring the shovel inside, we’re starting to get near snow season again. We could have snow in late September or early October. It is possible. I should probably just leave the shovel out there at this point.

Strange how time can get away from you like that.

Check Out The Facebook Games I’m Blocking

Hey, check out the list of Facebook games I’m blocking (note, some might not be strictly speaking games, but whatever):

FrontierVille

FarmVille

CityVille

Café World

What Colour Are You!!!

Diner Dash

Games by GSN

It Girl

Salon Street

Causes

Zynga

Mafia Wars

Treasure Isle

Top Words

Zombie Lane

Ravenwood Fair

Randomania

Friend Questions 2

Animal Party

Birthdays

The Smurfs & Co

Pioneer Trail

Empires & Allies

Ravenskye City

Mafia Wars 2

Gardens of Time

Social Empires

CastleVille

BINGO Blitz

Truths About You

My Holiday Cards ★

Yearbook

Social Wars

Bingo Bash

Birthday Calendar by Davia

Slingo

BranchOut

Hidden Chronicles

Klout

Flixster

Answers™ About Me

Angry Birds Friends

Magic Land

Fish World

Mobsters 2: Vendetta

Treasure Madness

Glassdoor

Bubble Safari

Happy Aquarium

Zynga Bingo

Ruby Blast Adventures

The Ville

I want to add your birthday

SimCity Social

ChefVille

Cheezburger

Solitaire Blitz

YOU DON’T KNOW JACK

Press Your Luck

FarmVille 2

Pyramid Solitaire Saga

Happy Pets

Bubble Safari Ocean

CoasterVille

The Sims Social

Lucky Slots

Dragon City

Best Casino Slots Bingo & Poker

GameHouse Slots

Jackpot Rush Slots

3D Slots

QBet Casino

House of Fun – Slots

Slot Galaxy

Sync & Swim

Zynga Slots

GameHouse Casino Plus

City Girl Life

Village Life

The Price Is Right Slots

Pengle

Lucky Play Casino

Bubble Witch Saga

Buggle

Running With Friends

Pet Rescue Saga

Candy Crush Saga

Bubble Island

Diamond Dash

Criminal Case

Solitaire in Wonderland

Best Friends

Words of Wonder

Jackpot Party Casino Slots

Towers

Circle – The Local Network

Picture IQ: Guess the Word

Papa Pear Saga

Monster Legends

CBSSports.com Franchise Football

Mahjong Trails

Solitaire Castle

Diggle

Birthdays

TripAdvisor

Farm Heroes Saga

Slotomania Slot Machines

Jelly Splash

Diamond Digger Saga

Bubble Witch 2 Saga

Gold Fish Casino Slots

Criminal Legacy

Stormfall: Age of War

You can send me all the invites you want, but what are the chances that I’m going to accept? This list doesn’t make your chances look good.

You Should Look Into “The Memory Hunter” by Jon Konrath

Jon Konrath has a new book coming out called The Memory Hunter that you should look into. This is the Goodreads site and here is the Facebook page you should like to get updates. You can also check his web site for updates, though I think it releases 9/1.

It looks different from his usual bizarre free form stuff (such as Thunderbird, The Earworm Inception, Sleep Has No Master, Rumored to Exist, Atmospheres, or Fistful of Pizza; all of which I loved) and his more realistic stuff (such as Summer Rain, which I also loved). An entirely new beast that seems just as difficult to classify. Sci-fi, noir, and god knows what else. It looks interesting to say the least.

Just check out this description (and then go like the Facebook page and whatnot to stay informed as this gets closer to release):

By 2007, after the nuclear war with the Soviet Union, Japanese mega-corporations run America. In this dark never-future of hovercars, ‘droids, and Mars colonies, the oppressive corporations rule the overworked occupants of the mega-cities with an iron fist. And a mysterious disease called IDES is causing people to lose their implanted synthetic memories.

John Bishop makes his living on the fringes of the mega-corporate society that disgraced him and reduced him to a repo man of brain implants—a memory hunter. Bishop, with the help of beautiful dissident scientist Dr. Amy Alexander, unravels a conspiracy of corruption and horror, and in so doing he just may find the redemption that has eluded him from the bottom of a synth-alcohol bottle.

Mixing elements of classic science fiction, Chandleresque noir, and absurdist dark humor, the author of laugh-out-loud cult classics The Earworm Inception and Rumored to Exist creates a retro future world of classic cyberpunk. The clever twist of wry humor and science fiction predictions from the 1980s gone wrong offers a satirical look at a future that never happened.

I’m certainly going to get a copy.

I Got A Mango

I worked at a coffee and sandwich shop up by the beach in West Seattle for a while. One of the things we served was smoothies. To prep for this, we had to portion out various frozen fruits into little bags, each bag of mixed frozen fruits corresponding to a smoothie we would later make. Some of these smoothies involved frozen mango. I mention this because of Johnny Bravo.

At the time, I was watching a lot of cartoons. Yes, I was in my mid twenties. There was a commercial I kept seeing for a Johnny Bravo deal of some kind that featured the following quote:

Johnny Bravo: Hey, look everyone, I got a mango.

Bunny Bravo: That’s a telegram, sweety.

ohnny Bravo: Right, what did I say?

Bunny Bravo: Just read it, dear.

Anyway, I saw this commercial a lot at that time. A lot.

So, as I was portioning out the frozen mango into the little baggies I kept mumbling: “Hey, look everyone, I got a mango.”

I have no idea why I’m bringing this all up now, but it struck me as really funny at the time. I’m guessing I needed to get more sleep, or something like that. I certainly wasn’t thinking clearly.

Pudding In Disguise?

A friend was recently commenting on fruit roll-ups, saying that we should use this form for other things…like meat. I, of course, mentioned the long gone pudding roll-ups. I even linked to the old commercial from the 80s.

After watching the commercial though, I got to thinking. The slogan for pudding roll-ups was “pudding in disguise.” Were they really in disguise?

After all, they were just a flat sheet of what claimed to be pudding. There wasn’t really anything disguised about it. It wasn’t dressed up as another substance, or even wearing a fake mustache.

Heck, it probably wasn’t even pudding, much less pudding in disguise. It was likely some pudding-resembling substance disguised as pudding by the mere fact that it was referenced as pudding.

Not that any of this matters, the product being long, long gone. I was just thinking about it.

Rocky Road Cereal Tasted Horrible

I’ve talked before on this blog about discontinued cereals from my childhood that I miss, but let’s talk about one I don’t miss: Rocky Road Cereal:

I remember getting a box of this one time. I was really looking forward to it. What’s not going to be good about “sweetened corn cereal with marshmallows covered with a chocolate-flavored coating and nuts?” However, I’ve never been so disappointed by a cereal experience in my life.

I know that sometimes compromises have to be made on ingredients put into breakfast cereals. Marshmallows, chocolate, it’s generally not feasible to use real stuff. Fake stuff instead. Odd flavors, often feeling stale. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.

In this case, it didn’t. No matter how much sweetener, chocolate, and marshmallows drew me to Rocky Road Cereal, the taste was just too off-putting. Even as a sugar craving kid, I thought this was kind of rancid. Some people dug this one, but personally I’m kind of glad it’s gone.