It’s that time of year again for the soon-to-be denizens of The University of Western Ontario. Time to load up the overly expensive SUVs and move into residence for their first year at UWO. That means Frosh Week is here again. Of course, the frosh don’t have much of an idea of what they’re in for over the next stretch. Having done this once before and witnessing it on three more occasions, I think I have a handle on what’s important for the frosh to know as they head to London and UWO. Continue reading
Columns
The Humanoids: Bright Lights, Bigger City
As I’m wont to do when I get to travel to the centre of the universe, occasionally also referred to as Toronto, today’s column focuses on the small town perspective of the big city. I don’t really get to Toronto very often but I find it such a fascinating place to go. It’s so different from what I’m used to in my daily routine that it really can be a bit of a shock. After all, I come from a town where public transit consists of bus routes where you see the bus once an hour. Toronto has buses, subways, GO trains and streetcars. The big city certainly is a strange place. Continue reading
The Humanoids: 27
You ever write something and think, “this seems controversial for the sake of controversy but this is actually what I think?” If you said yes, then you’ll get where I’m coming from in this week’s Humanoids. I wrote the first two parts of this column and immediately thought about pulling them because I thought I went too far in trying to say that Western society’s priorities are very wrong. But here we are with an uncut column. I know I’m asking for trouble but I’m not trolling here. There’s a reason why censors are nervous around here. Continue reading
The Humanoids: +1
I went 15 weeks between Humanoids columns between the last column and the one previous to that. So if you’re surprised that I’m back one week later with a new Humanoids column, it’s completely understandable. In fact, I’m surprised that I came up with enough crap to write to warrant posting this. But here we are but we’re not throwing out +1s in this edition. Then again, when do I ever. Continue reading
The Humanoids: New and Improved Flavour
With the return of summer, I figured that July was a good time for the return of The Humanoids column. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s been missing from the blog and I’m selfishly thinking that my rants are part of it. Well, I’ve decided to revive The Humanoids with a new format. The format is more question-based than topic-based so I can go on a few more tangents than I used to. Will this new format actually get some traction? The only way to find out is to hit the jump. Continue reading
Best of The Telegraph’s Sign Language (Part 5)
Every week, the website of British newspaper The Daily Telegraph runs a feature called Sign Language. In this, they run the funniest signs that their readers spotted around the world. Most are examples of signs getting lost in translation but others are just plain confusing or ironic. So as part of our continuing best of the interweb series, here are twenty of the best sign fails that Telegraph readers have come across in recent weeks. Continue reading
The Humanoids: Back To T.O.
I consider it an event whenever I get to go to the big city. When you live in a city of some 70,000 people and you go to a city of some 6 million people, I think it qualifies as an event. Granted, I was just there about three weeks ago so maybe a return visit to Toronto isn’t as special this time around. But that doesn’t mean I can’t take another look at Canada’s biggest city which we derogatorily call “the center of the universe.” Continue reading
Thirteen Things I Learned About Facebook In Thirteen Days
If you follow my Twitter feed or read enough of my musings here on the blog, you would know that I recently bit the bullet and opened up my own Facebook profile. Even though everyone has been talking about it for the better part of the last six years, I really had no idea what Facebook was or did. So I thought it would be fun to let you folks in on the 13 lessons I’ve learned in my first 13 days on Facebook. Continue reading
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: How TV Forces the End of Jury Trials
It’s not often I go into heavy stuff like this but reading an article about a brewing scandal in Formula One got me thinking about trials. The article made note of the fact that the law says that all people are considered innocent until proven guilty. But I think that the idea that people are always considered innocent until a judge or jury of their peers says otherwise has become antiquated and no longer holds true in modern society. I think that TV crime dramas and the 24/7 news media obsession with crime stories means that most people think that a person must be guilty if the police have charged them. I think that means we should soon see the end of jury trials in our innocent until proven guilty society. Continue reading
The Humanoids: A Trainwreck Society
Amazingly, The Humanoids is back for the second week in a row. There’s a lot of really screwed up things in the world. With the exception of one subject this week, all of my targets are in the media/entertainment industry. That exception would be the BCS which has completely screwed up college football. Not only is the media an utter trainwreck but some of the people following them are trainwrecks as well. Since we’re a society that’s far too enthralled with the lives of celebrity, obsessive behaviour is really screwing up people’s minds. Continue reading
The Lowdown 