Here’s another reason why I’m happy I grew up in the 80′s:
Archive for October, 2007
*note: the picture was actually taken at noon.. the clock is functioning… hehe)
I had one big mission over the Thanksgiving long weekend, and it was to clean my side of the bedroom. As a kid, my bedroom was a mess, but when I moved out of my parent’s house, I was very good at keeping my place clean… ish.
Since the last little while, and made much worse by my dad’s funeral, I have been really bad. I come home and put stuff on the floor by the bed and don’t get to it for days, months… I litterally unpacked my suitcase from dad’s funeral because I needed the suit for my good friend Magz’ wedding: that’s from June to September. I know, it’s sad. I just couldn’t muster the thought of it, I guess it brought back the bad memories, but now that it’s done, I decided that I really needed to do a full cleaning of the bedroom… shelves, floors, and especially under the bed and night table… Under the bed wasn’t so bad because we have those huge tupperware containers with all of our winter clothes and there isn’t much room even for dust, so that was good since we cleaned it in May… but the night table, oh my… I don’t think I had moved it since I put it there 3.5 yrs ago… Here’s what it should look like, when properly swept and cleaned:
And here’s what was under the table when I finally moved it out of the corner:
ITEMS:
Several huge dust bunnies #88
2 x play-mice for GeorgeHamilton
2 x $0.05
2 x $0.01
1 x bank receipt
1 x full roll of life savers
1 x lip balm
1 x Windstar post card
1 x water bottle cap
1 x Eyewitness Travel Orlando Guide
1 x piece of ripped package from M&M candies
1 x receipt from The Gap
A dozen cigarette burns, thank you past residents
&
Some varnish residue left from idiotic floor varnisher before us (I know, I thought it was cat piss when I first moved here, but I found more throughout the place, what a dork floor varnisher that was… so proud of his work, I’m sure)
So, not too bad after all for something that wasn’t moved in 3.5 yrs, I really was expecting worse…
What’s under yours?
I came home the other day and started complaining about how much I didn’t like the one-uppers #45, you know the people that always have one-up on yourself? If you say something like: “I think I’m coming down with a cold”, they’ll say: “I think I’m getting pneumomia”; or if you say: “I know someone who won $100,00 at 6/49 last week”, they’ll say: “My friend won $1,000,000 at 6/49 last year”; or if you say: “I saw a person get hit by a police car while riding a bicycle last night”, they’ll say: “I saw an entire Hell’s Angels clan get run over by 5 firetrucks last week”… you know the kind of people I’m talking about… Funny thing is I can’t even remember what exactly happened at work that day that riled me up and had to tell DR about it, but a new joke was born anyway.
Right away, without missing a beat, he started one-upping me on anything I’d say or do, culminating in a 30 minute talk last night about how he loved the fog more than I do, it’s even too surreal to relate, but here it is a portion I can remember anyway:
Me: I love fog
DR: I’d have sex with the fog
Me: If you would’ve have said no to me, I would have asked the fog to marry me
DR: Once I was on the Titanic, and the fog and I kissed and then I screamed: “I’m King of the World”
Me: When I lived in the South, I said something to the fog and he replied: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”
DR: I hated the fog so much that I wrote a book about it and they made a movie called: Foggy Dearest
And so on , and so on, one-upping each other, and laughing like school girls at a sleep-over…
Tonight we were watching a movie and DR cleared his throat : “ahemm”, without even thinking about it, I suddenly cleared my throat too: “AHemm” and all of a sudden I hear: “AAAHHHHEEEEEMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM”.
It took me by surprised but then I suddenly got it and started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh… He so gets me!
Last weekend, as two Marilyn Munroes walked into the rec hall for the Point’s Halloween party, Normlr and I noticed them right away. The one in the white dress was nicely made up, wearing make up and could actually walk in heels; the other, well, she wasn’t so lucky. Of course, she immediately became known as Carolyn, Marilyn’s “not-so-gorgeous-cousin“. As we kept an eye on them all evening long, Normlr turned to me and said: “Oh Carolyn, you’re NOT going to die young”. I laughed and laughed even harder.
But in fact, the real Caroline Munro has left a big impression on me as a young boy, I had seen her in a few movies and thought she was stunning. She was slim and ultra sexy with her long dark hair and cropped outfit. She could play the good or bad girl easily with the change of a bikini. Caroline has absolutely no connection with Marilyn except for their profession. She’s British and smart, and she would never compromise herself for a role, turning down many of them that could have made her more famous, for the simple reason that they required nudity, she knew that leaving a little to the imagination was better… for her.
I first saw her in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, then shortly after in At The Earth’s Core (which I have seen a few time) and then again in the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me… It seemed she was everywhere, but in fact it was simply that I happen to have seen most of the films she made at the time… I thought she was beautiful and now I’m on a hunt to find her movies and watch them all again.. Especially Star Crash with David Hasselhof… hehe.
I’m hoping Tarantino remembers her from the 70′s and casts her in one of his next project and brings her back to the forefront where she belongs. At 57, she’s still the vixen she was in the days.
LOGO & PACKAGING
vs 
Although I like the eliptical shape of Tim Hortons logo, reminiscent of the sixties, I do not like the colour scheme, certainly don’t like the whole brown theme the logo is stuck with on every cup. I way prefer the clean white cups and the dark green contrast of Starbucks.
Starbucks = 1 / Tim Hortons = 0
STORE IMAGE
The soft lighting and the mambo beats get me everytime when I enter a Starbucks location, I feel at ease right away. The furniture is often simple, but nothing beats the leather comfy chairs they offer their guests. The artwork on the wall is most often for sale and display local talent.
Tim Hortons? That, I can’t even talk about!
Starbucks = 2 / Tim Hortons = 0
PRODUCT
Coffee is meant to be hot, and stay hot for the duration it takes to drink it – or – be iced cold. Asking for a medium coffee should not refer to how hot the drink is.
When I get a coffee at Starbucks, it stays hot throughout my drinking it. With Tim Hortons, I’m lucky if it is still hot by the time I get to work. Also, I want coffee, not diluted water with a taste that resemble it. Starbucks kicks ass in that department. And although I’ll agree that Tim Hortons has a variety of greatness when it comes to donuts, muffins and such, Starbucks has a way of making it sound like your eating healthier when you choose their snacks.
And if you want to see someone flip their lid, ask for an Iced Capucino with MILK at Tim Hortons, the server will look at you with that crazy blank stare, then call the manager over to know how to punch that in the register… it’s code 11 idiots, even I know that!!!
Starbucks = 3 / Tim Hortons = 0
SERVICE
OK, I will be the first to admit that the way they order hot beverages at Starbucks is mighty pretentious, a coffee is a coffee, mine is easy, Venti Mild, none of the half whip, no fat, chocolocoamericanialongshorttallfoam shit they like to scream overhead when someone orders, but I always get a please and a thank you and a smile, well, almost always – AND – I don’t have to repeat my order more than once. One other thing I’ll admit about Starbucks is that when you get a new barrista, it can be painful to watch if they haven’t done their homeworks and cannot relay the order out loud… but painful is the new comedy.
Tim Hortons #90? Learn. English. Please!!!
Now, this critic only applies for Tim Hortons in Toronto. I will not lie, I have had fair service at Tim Hortons outside the city. Say what you will, but the country folks are a little better to serve your Timmy.
Starbucks = 4 / Tim Hortons = 0
PRICE
Here’s one place where Tim Hortons is better at: better for your wallet. But even if Starbucks is a tad more taxing on your budget, paying for good service never bothered me.
Starbucks = 4 / Tim Hortons = 1
MERCHANDISE
All I’ll say is that Tim Hortons sells brown things… how sad is brown?
Actually, Starbucks displays their merchandise very well, it’s colourful, makes you want to buy it, they “localise” their stuff too, having Toronto skyline on their mugs, they have great refillable gift cards, etc. It’s all there for you to touch, to try, to feel… it’s not behind a glass counter like the other brand… oh how sad is brown. still.
Starbucks = 5 / Tim Hortons = 1
LOCATIONS
61 Starbucks within 5 km radius from my address
72 Tim Hortons within 5 km radius from my address
More locations means they have more chances to suck!
But… yes, they are more available…
Starbucks = 5 / Tim Hortons = 2
WEBSITE
Starbucks & Tim Hortons
I hate to admit it in front of good company, but I although cheesy, the interactivity of Tim Hortons’ site is more fun. Starbucks is actually stale, although more colourful.
Starbucks = 5 & Tim Hortons = 3
EXTRA POINTS
1 extra point to Starbucks for never doing this:
1 extra points to Starbucks for having even classier garbage than Tim Hortons:
FINAL SCORE
Starbucks = 7 & Tim Hortons = 3
Et voila, c’est ma comparaison, Starbucks est bon jusqu’à la dernière goutte!
While waiting in line for coffee this morning, I overheard the following:
Chick 1: No, I like her
Chick 2: I like her too, I’m sad she lost her kids
Chick 1: You know what it is? She’s just got so much pressure on her right now
Chick 2: Yeah, I agree, it’s hard.
Chick 1: What she needs is someone to tell her what she’s doing wrong.
Chick 2: Like that night on the VMA, it was her big comeback and she didn’t want to be there, someone should have told her not to do it.
Then I got served and left… it was very painful #99