Kid Nation is Entertaining: Deal With It!

Alternative Title: If you enjoy Democracy, whatch Kid Nation.

 

"If you are obsessed with improving the society in which you live, Kid Nation is an inspiring show." (Altavistagoogle).

 

When I was 10 I had a paper route. I did not enjoy it. To this day I dislike dogs. But what I disliked the most about delivering papers was all the preparation involved.

 

My younger sisters helped me discover something important. Kids will work for free. And when someone (my babysitter) introduces the idea that they should be getting financial compensation, they will literally work for pennies. No I didn't send my 7 and 8 year old sisters out into to minus 20 winter to deliver papers, but they were quite willing to help their big brother insert all those flyers into the papers. And it was good preparation as a couple of years later they shared a route together.

 

It is with this in mind that I thoroughly enjoy, almost guilt free, CBS's Kid Nation. Growing up I enjoyed "You Can't Do That On Television" (filmed in Ottawa). I don't think that show was any more exploitative than "Kid Nation". Granted, the kids on Kid Nation are apparently working for free...

 

Kid Nation is as good or better than any other reality program I've seen. You want sex and violence free TV, reality TV delivers (not to mention the merciful lack of pretend lawyers or police). I really enjoy the town council and how they "deal" with power. That 10 year old Taylor, telling 14 year olds to "deal with it", is my hero.

 

Lite entertainment, to be sure, but that is what you need TV to be sometimes. Although if you believe in democracy and are obsessed with improving the society in which you live, perhaps Kid Nation is actually quite an inspiring show.

 

-Kid Nation

-Kid Nation - Are You Watching

-Kid Nation

-The "Kid Nation" kids want to run your life

-Kid Nation Debuts on CBS

 

Alternative view: Kid Nation is Pretty Much the Most Awful Thing on Television, Ever

AOL Moncton Yanks Yank Jobs

(2008-01-15 UPDATE: AOL Moncton appears to be closing completely)

I was offered a job with AOL in January, but thankfully turned it down. This is not going to have a positive impact on tech support salaries in Moncton. I'm thankful I speak French and Quebec still uses the Canadian dollar... My employer already pays unilingual French speaking employees 70 cents more per hour!

The following has not been confirmed by any other source, but obviously firing 2000 AOL employees will have an impact in high dollar Canada/Moncton.

And for the love a goodness, please stop arriving at my blog with the Google search ("name of my employer" Moncton closing). I just bough an Ipod, I can't afford unemployment! (granted, I seriously consider resigning daily)

From the Silicon Alley Insider:

Moncton Hit Hard

Showed up to work at AOL in Moncton this morning, to find 25 security guards. AOL has decided to axe all positions for their US Win Tech queue. (For those of you in the US, when you were speaking to a technician if you use AOL, and they were in Canada - you were likely talking to one of us.) Effective 30 Nov 07, the Moncton center will no longer be in operation for the "US Business". In total, about 140 technicians will be cut, as well as management and support staff. Overall count for Moncton is approx 175 people as of 30 Nov 07.

Related previous post:
- ALTAVISTAGOOGLE: Moncton is the Help Desk Capital Of the World

The Ipod itouch is amazing!

I suffered from buyer's remorce when I realized it didn't have a
camera. I was miffed that I could't use it downtown Moncton (the free
wifi was down).
Yes, the picture quality of the ipoded youtube puts the rest of the
Internet to shame.

I spend my entire day starring at a computer screen. Yet, when i get
home, i can surf on my itouch for hours!

If the itouch could play flash video, it would be perfect.

The itouch is so amazing can literally be a religious experience (i've
read parts of the bible on it).

The adapted Safari browser is without equal.

I feel I should have paid more for this device.

Permanent Resident Admits on Blog to Voting Illegally in Ontario Election

Subtitle: is calling Canadians cheap in violation of Canada's hate law?

I had a good chuckle reading the comment section of one of L-girls' blog posts. She called Canadians cheap (I'm assuming she was referring to the English speaking variety) and, as predicted, there were a bunch of polite comments telling her she was nuts (she finally admits to having father issues).

But what is worth checking out, is the comments "removed by author". Based on the comment on the comment by L-Girl, we can guess that "Alex" admitted to voting in the provincial election, then realised he wasn't allowed to and retracted his comment.

If I didn't have to work tomorrow I'd use the wayback site to figure out who this Alex guy is... OK, turns out doing so only took me two minutes (but if I'm tired tomorrow it is all your fault). The mysterious Alex can sleep sound in knowing that the wayback machine has no records of the post.

However, speaking of immigrants committing illegal acts, I would submit that L-Girl violated Canada's Hate Law by stating that English (assumed) Canadians are cheap.

PS. L-Girls wouldn't know a Canadian if one smacked her across the face. You see, in the two years she has been blogging in Canada, the only part of Canada outside the GTA she has been to is the QEW to Buffalo. So really, she is calling Torontonians cheap. And with the rents those people are paying, I'd be cheap too.

Correction (2007-10-18): L-Girl has actually been East of Toronto. Extra points for doing so in the winter.

Four Lanes from Halifax to San Diego

As of last week, you can drive from Halifax to San Diego without ever crossing an intersection. Four plus lanes of controlled access the whole way. You will have to stop at the border and at a couple of tolls, and at immigration and fruit control points in California, but otherwise you can speed 110km/h ish the whole way.

 

Put it an other way, you can now drive from Halifax to Vancouver (via the USA) and not have to worry about oncoming traffic. Ditto for Halifax to Miami, Halifax to Mexico, Halifax to Toronto (via the USA).

 

Never has the human being able to travel between two points as far away without crossing an intersection (or worrying about oncoming traffic). This isn't exactly man on the moon, but still.

 

Don't you find in odd that you can drive from Halifax to Mexico on four lanes (two in each direction), but, in the Summer, you can't drive AT ALL to Canada's Arctic ocean! Worse, you can't drive AT ALL from Labrador's Atlantic coast to Ontario without taking long ferry trips (to be remedied when the now rich Province of Newfoudland and, ahem, Labrador gets its act together and completes the Trans Labrador Highway (supposedly some time in 2009)).

 

Also odd, you can't drive to South America. We can land on the freaking moon, but, thanks to the Darien Gap, we can't take a drive to see Hugo in Venezuela.