Thank goodness indeed!

The Noodle Soup

My calls for contributors to a communal blog did not go unheeded as Kelly and Carley's cousin Kaylyn has shown some interest. Kelly actually had the same idea I had so we put our two "Noodles" together and created a new blog called Noodle Soup. That's probably where I'll be doing my postings from now on. Kelly will be posting there as well but I'm not sure if he'll be abandoning Traces of Nuts (FYI, he has several GMail invites to give away). I'll be sending Kaylyn an invite today to get her to start posting.

I hope you guys will join us at the Noodle Soup. E-mail me if you are interested.

Contribute To This Blog

I want to get some input on the idea of having you guys, my faithful friends, contribute to this blog. I had this idea for a couple of days now because for the most part, I am like you. I have a blog or have started a blog (I know, some of you have abandoned your own blogs some time ago) but don't seem to have enough creativity to post something on a regular basis. Which kinda defeats the whole point of a blog, which is to make regular postings. So I figure that collectively, we could have a pretty active blog as I'm sure some of us lead interesting lives and would like to share it with other people. But of course it doesn't even have to be something personal. You can post things like stories or cool links (to porn...ok maybe not porn but something of interest). Whatever you want.

Let me know if you are interested and I'll get the ball rolling on setting you up with an account. Email me at binfordha@gmail.com. I hope you can participate. It would be cool. You too Kellford. Eventhough you have a superb blog already.

Ouch!

This is almost too painful to post:

A 24-year-old woman has admitted tearing off her ex-lover's testicle with her bare hands after he refused to have sex with her.

Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage after her ex-boyfriend, 37-year-old Geoffrey Jones, rejected her advances at the end of a drunken house party.

She yanked off his left testicle, which was later handed to him by a friend with the words: "That's yours."

Full Story

The Weight Loss Challenge

Apparently, other people's New Year's resolution to lose weight has somehow sparked a contest of 'Super Size Me' proportions. A friendly wager to see who could lose the most weight in 10 weeks. It seems Carley and Amie decided that certain remnants from their pregnancy had to go so they have issued a weight loss challenge throughout the Charlebois households. The weigh-in was this past Sunday and included Carley, Amie, Lee, Mom and Pop-inlaw and myself. The challenge is to see who could lose the most weight in ten weeks, with the prize being the accumulated financial penalty of each week's failure to lose weight. You see, each week there will be a weigh-in in which any person who have not lost any weight or have gained weight, will have to pony up $1.00 into the prize fund. Those that have lost weight do not have to pay this penalty.

I'm not insecure about my weight so I will tell you that at this moment, I am at a buff 217 lbs. Actually it's probably up to 218 lbs with me having just ate lunch about an hour and a half ago. So stay tuned for weekly updates. GO BINFORD!

An indoor tropical paradise. Too bad we don't have one here in Canada.

AntiSpyware

Microsoft enters the spyware removal fray with their own tool. You can download it here. Another good and popular spyware removal software is Spybot - Search and Destroy. You can download that here.

And for those with Windows XP, Sarah Lane of TechTV points her readers to a great Windows XP theme, taken from the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 OS. I'm currently using this theme and it's pretty.

Ottawa Radio War

An interesting look at where the various Ottawa radio stations rank among listeners:

CHUM radio station MAJIC100 locked up the top radio position while all-sports Team 1200's ratings were down 45% due to the NHL lockout, according to yesterday's BBM Canada fall 2004 ratings. The perennial adult contemporary giant, MAJIC100 narrowly beat out CBC radio affiliate CBO-FM with 274,994 listeners, compared to CBC's 272,010.

Full Story

Seems like there is an older radio listening audience in Ottawa as Majic100 and the CBC station are at the top of the ratings list. Not surprising that the Bear is number three and the oldies station (Ottawa has an oldies station?) is at the bottom. Too bad for The Team 1200 and their poor showing, but what can you do when most of their schedule and talk surrounds the NHL.

In Response To Stupid Lawsuits

I'm loving this idea:

The sign on the toilet brush says it best: "Do not use for personal hygiene."

That admonition was the winner of an anti-lawsuit group's contest for the wackiest consumer warning label of the year.

The sponsor, Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch, says the goal is "to reveal how lawsuits, and concern about lawsuits, have created a need for common sense warnings on products."

The $500 first prize went to Ed Gyetvai, of Oldcastle, Ontario, who submitted the toilet-brush label. A $250 second prize went to Matt Johnson, of Naperville, Ill., for a label on a children's scooter that said, "This product moves when used."

A $100 third prize went to Ann Marie Taylor, of Camden, S.C., who submitted a warning from a digital thermometer that said, "Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally."

Full Story

The Reality of Bad Drivers

Not a bad idea for a reality show:

There are some bad drivers in Canada.

But who is the very worst?

A new reality show aims to find out.

An eight part series called "Canada's Worst Driver" is shooting across the country looking for the best... of the worst.

Contestants compete in a series of challenges including parallel parking. Every week, the person who does the best job gets to leave the show -- everyone else will have to keep practicing until they get it right.

A panel of experts including driving instructors and traffic cops will help bad drivers become better.

There's no big prize for being on the show - the goal is simply to change bad habits and shed some light on the dangers of getting behind the wheel.

In Alberta alone, four-hundred people die in vehicle related crashes.

"Canada's Worst Driver" will air on the Discovery Channel in the fall.

Anyone who wants to nominate someone for the show can call 1-877-598-9120 or send an email to driver@propertelevision.com.

Why are they talking about Alberta? Are they excluding Quebec drivers from this show?

Bad Manager

I cannot disagree with this assessment, considering the state of the NHL:

As if the National Hockey League didn't have enough to worry about, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has been rated one of the worst managers in the United States by a major business magazine.

In its recent issue, BusinessWeek put Mr. Bettman fifth on its list of the seven worst managers of 2004. He joined the leaders of some of the business world's most troubled companies in the magazine's annual rankings. Also included were Raymond Gilmartin, chief executive officer of Merck & Co., the makers of Vioxx; Scott Livengood, the CEO of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, which faces a regulatory probe into its accounting practices; and Disney chief Michael Eisner, who was forced to step down as company chairman amid a shareholder revolt. Frank Dunn, former chief executive of Nortel Networks Corp., ranked third on a separate list of "fallen managers."

The magazine said Mr. Bettman was selected because: "Arenas have been empty since Sept. 15, when National Hockey League owners locked out the players."

"NHL finances are in shambles, and the weak TV deal signed with NBC last spring suggests the league has little leverage and is now a second-tier sport. . . . Under Bettman, the NHL has been skating on thin ice for years."

The ranking brought a sharp rebuttal from Calgary Flames co-owner Harley Hotchkiss, who is also chairman of the NHL's board of governors.

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Although you have to cut him some slack as he is not the sole person to blame for the plight of the league.

Ridiculous Lawsuit of the Day

The media should stop giving these people coverage everytime they want to sue for some stupid reason:

Watching contestants eat dead rats on NBC's gross-out stunt show "Fear Factor" so disgusted a Cleveland man that he has sued NBC for $2.5 million, saying he could not stomach what he saw.

In a handwritten four-page lawsuit filed in federal court in Cleveland on Tuesday, paralegal Austin Aitken said, "To have the individuals on the show eat (yes) and drink dead rats was crazy and from a viewer's point of view made me throw-up as well an another in the house at the same time."

His suit added, "NBC is sending the wrong message to its TV watchers that cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond reasoning (sic) and in most cases against their will."

I haven't watched the show in awhile, but if I'm not mistaken, the show is known for it's disgusting stunts. If he knew about it and had a weak stomach, why did he watch the show? Also, you can tell by this comment what he's really after:

In a brief telephone interview with Reuters, Aitken said, "I am not at liberty to discuss the complaint unless it is a paid-interview situation."

Full Story

Allison Maddison

A couple of days ago, my buddy Jason and I got into a discussion about old high school and elementary school friends. It was interesting to exchange stories about what our old classmates were up to these days. It seemed the consensus was that everyone had either started their own families or are leading successful careers. Some in Cornwall, others elsewhere. I also found out that one of those classmates had cancer. Today I found out that she had passed away from the disease.

Allison Maddison, like so many of my other elementary school classmates was one of those friends that I had lost contact with as soon as high school started. After elementary school, we all went our separate ways. Some of us stuck together and went off to St. Joe's while others departed for St. Lawrence, CCVS or GV. The most remarkable things I remember about Allison was her energy, enthusiasm, kindness and the way her face turned bright red everytime she laughed. I feel a deep regret that our shared experiences ended some 14 years ago. My deepest condolences and prayers goes out to her family.

Note: Allison's obituary can be found here.

Unbelievable!

Check out this clip of a couple of guys flipping a girl into a basketball net. It's unbelievable!