Author: James McNally

Wikipedia = Timesink

I love the Wikipedia. I’ve spent a lot of time recently copyediting and making minor edits to articles in many different areas. But I have to wonder about the sanity of certain people when the Talk page for an extreme right-wing Belgian political party stretches to many times the length of the article itself. I mean, how many people will even read this article?

No disrespect meant to the Belgian fascists, of course.

Four Things

Oh, thank you thank you, Dan! I’ve been tagged and will finally get to fill this space with something:

Four jobs I’ve had:

  1. Door-to-door magazine subscription salesman (1980)
  2. Substitute teacher (1 day in 1993)
  3. Welfare caseworker (1994-1998)
  4. Macintosh computer salesman (1998-2000 and 2001-2003)

Four movies I can watch over and over:

  1. The Big Lebowski
  2. Withnail and I
  3. Tokyo Olympiad
  4. Cinema Paradiso

Four places I’ve lived:

  1. Dublin, Ireland (1965-1967)
  2. Toronto, Ontario (1967-present, with exceptions below)
  3. Grand Rapids, Michigan (1992-1993)
  4. Waterloo, Ontario (19 days in 1997)

Four TV shows I love:

  1. Survivor
  2. The Amazing Race
  3. English Premier League Soccer
  4. NBA Basketball

Four places I’ve vacationed:

  1. Uruguay
  2. Croatia
  3. St. John’s, Newfoundland
  4. Poland

Four of my favourite dishes:

  1. Chicken Vindaloo
  2. Steak Frites
  3. Sage and Garlic Stuffed Pork Roast
  4. Apple and Caraway Stuffed Chicken Breast

Four sites I visit daily:

  1. New York Times
  2. Wikipedia
  3. BoingBoing
  4. Soccernet

Four places I would rather be right now:

  1. Austin, Texas (soon!)
  2. San Francisco, California
  3. Turin, Italy
  4. Havana, Cuba

Four schleps I’m tagging:

  1. Neil
  2. Gord
  3. Paul
  4. Jay

Good Weekend

It started with a work excursion to see the Toronto Marlies on Friday night, which I really enjoyed (somewhat surprising when you consider how much I generally ignore hockey). Then on Saturday afternoon, Brooke and I went to Cinematheque Ontario to see The 400 Blows, which unbelievably, I hadn’t seen yet. An absolutely wonderful film. And then, on Sunday, we invited my Dad over for chili and to watch the Super Bowl, which was actually competitive (plus, my team won!).

The only black spot on the weekend? Chelsea beating Liverpool.

How was your weekend?

You’re Going Where?

Lake Bled

Lake Bled (image by Igor Modic, courtesy of Government of Slovenia Public Relations and Media Office)

Back in November, Brooke and I enjoyed our first trip south of the equator, spending a fantastic week in friendly Uruguay. In the spirit of that trip, we wanted to choose another destination for our vacation in 2006. The conditions were:

  • Nobody we know has been there. Yet.
  • It should be easily confused with another country (ie. Uruguay/Paraguay)
  • It should be small enough that we could see a few different places in a week.

And we’ve found the perfect place. Slovenia. You see? It’s not yet on the tourist radar, at least for North Americans. George Bush made a famous gaffe (another one) where he mixed up the two countries of Slovenia and Slovakia. To give credit to poor W, it’s a common mistake. In 2004, Slovakia sent 602 kilograms (1,327 pounds) of misaddressed mail to Slovenia. And the entire country just surpassed the 2,000,000 population mark, making it smaller than the city I live in. In addition, the country spans many different types of terrain, from the Julian Alps in the north to the Adriatic in the southwest. The first of the former Yugoslav republics to declare independence, it has a robust economy, and joined the European Union in 2004. In fact, in contrast to researching our trip to Uruguay, this has been a breeze. The Slovenian government has numerous web sites for tourism and other information, and they are well-organized, attractive, impeccably-translated and full of useful information.

Though our trip isn’t until late September or early October, we’re already getting excited.