culture | Michael R. Barrick

2016-12-13, 4:25 pm

One in a Million

In Classical times, being "one in a million" at something meant having about 170 peers in that field, spread out all over a world that took months or years to traverse such that the chances of directly interacting or competing with one was next to…

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2016-02-05, 8:18 am

Lunar New Year

It bugs me when Chinese New Year is called "Lunar New Year" (as the City of Vancouver is wont to do). Areas with large populations of Chinese ex-pats follow lock-step with the timing as it applies to the Chinese time zone, so calling it "Chinese New…

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2010-08-29, 9:33 pm

On the Value of Zombie Walk

Culture Jamming with a Meaningless Mob instead of a Pointless Protest

Ask the average zombie, "why?" and the answer will be something along the lines of "for fun." Thousands of people will spend hours preparing and then give over more hours to the…

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2010-05-19, 1:26 am

New Delhi Cabaret, Vancouver

New Delhi Cabaret, 544 Main Street, Vancouver

I was on a mission tonight to find old photos of a friend from the ancient days before digital cameras and was therefore rooting through ye olde banker's box of photos. In the course of doing this I found the above cabaret ticket with the photos I…

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2010-03-09, 8:40 pm

Synchronized Peeing, New Olympic Sport

I bet, if you tried, you couldn't get a herd of sheep to all pee at the same time. I'm just sayin'…

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/909630.html

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2010-02-03, 10:50 pm

It's a Sad State of Affairs, part 4: I Have a Phone Again

Continued from It's a Sad State of Affairs, part 3: See, Blair, Anything is Possible

My replacement phone arrived today. This is good. But first let me back up a bit...

Some of you suggested I send my blog posts in to Rogers, and I was planning to…

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2010-02-01, 7:55 am

It's a Sad State of Affairs, part 3: See, Blair, Anything is Possible

Continued from It's a Sad State of Affairs, part 2: Rogers was Predictably Useless:

Since Rogers' head office is in Toronto and in a time-zone three hours ahead I got up an hour and a half earlier than usual today to call in at 9:00 a.m. their time…

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2010-01-31, 3:10 pm

It's a Sad State of Affairs, part 2: Rogers was Predictably Useless

Continued from It's a Sad State of Affairs:

And, as expected, my attempt to get someone to resolve my problem at a Rogers Wireless outlet was useless.

I went to the nearest Rogers outlet identified by their website as dealing with wireless and…

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2010-01-31, 11:21 am

It's a Sad State of Affairs

I have pretty low expectations in the integrity and competence of others. I didn't always, but being repeatedly bludgeoned by scenarios like the one that is currently playing out have slowly inverted by approach to other people from one of "benefit…

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2007-08-01, 11:23 am

Clowns

Why are 21st century clown costumes still locked in appearing like homeless men from the 1920's and 1930's? What kid is going to every going to get that reference? And even if they did, who finds an alcoholism induced bulbous red nose and the look…

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