Today I look back at the year that was for Matt's Blog is Stupid(ly Awesome) and list my Top 5 posts of 2015. And unlike most top whatever lists, I start right at the top.
#1 - Oliebollen... The Traditional Way
I started the year with the latest installment of my award winning digital series "Cooking With Food", with special guest cook, Mom.
#2 - Cooking With Food Episode 10
I return to solo cooking with an epic webisode that whipped up a Rice Krispie Sphere.
#3 - Adventures in Winter Driving
A retelling of my harrowing tale of being stranded in Strathroy when a winter storm hit. It's not a story I want to relive, but it certainly was one of the longest posts I've ever written.
#4 - Implication of an Extended Election
I get a bit political in this one, but I make what I think to be an interesting observation of the size of the budgets of each political parties in the context of Blue Jays playoff games.
#5 - Top 5 of 2015
This one made the list because I only made 4 posts this year up until this one. So, yeah, I guess it was a slow year. Or personal blogging is so far past being considered passé and I refuse to admit it.
I say important things of importance
Monday, December 28, 2015
Friday, October 16, 2015
The Implications of an Extended Election
The federal election is in three days. The election was called over 2 months ago by the Conservatives and is the longest in modern Canadian history (what constitutes "modern", I'm not sure), and the signs of the long campaign are showing. One of the reasons the Conservatives called it so early (whether or not they'd admit it) is that they have a whole lot more money than their opponents. An extended campaign will drain the Liberal and NDP well before the vote, unless they run budget campaigns. I'm not sure how the fundraising has gone since the election was called, but I've noticed the effects... and they're right in front of everyone's face. Well, everyone who's watching the Blue Jays' playoff games.
Take Game 5 of the ALDS on Wednesday night. Every inning, like clockwork, there was a commercial for the Conservatives and a commercial for the Liberals. The NDP was nowhere to be found. The obvious conclusion is that the NDP are out of money. Did that cause their drop in the polls? Did their drop in the polls affect their fundraising? Are those two things unrelated? I don't know, but I found it to be an interesting observation.
I will now return to muting all commercial breaks. Unless they actually made this commercial...
Take Game 5 of the ALDS on Wednesday night. Every inning, like clockwork, there was a commercial for the Conservatives and a commercial for the Liberals. The NDP was nowhere to be found. The obvious conclusion is that the NDP are out of money. Did that cause their drop in the polls? Did their drop in the polls affect their fundraising? Are those two things unrelated? I don't know, but I found it to be an interesting observation.
I will now return to muting all commercial breaks. Unless they actually made this commercial...
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Monday, February 16, 2015
Adventures in Winter Driving
It started when my snow shovel broke. I should have taken the hint the universe was trying to give me.
The plan was to head to Sarnia for the long weekend. As per usual on a long weekend, I planned to leave on the Saturday late morning / early afternoon, instead of rushing out the door after work on Friday. It seemed to be a good idea, as it snowed on Friday night, and no one wants to drive through the snow. By morning, the forecast said the snow would have stopped, and it did. Before I left, I was just clearing out what had fallen on Friday night. The plastic bit that holds the handle to the blade snapped and therefore I was finished shoveling.
Side note... have you noticed that all snow shovels are pretty much all plastic now? I suppose they're also less expensive and made in China too.
So I leave at about 12:30 and decide to take Highway 401, instead of my usual Highway 7, just in case the weather is a little iffy. The main highways are usually in better condition than the back highways. And they weren't in that bad of shape. Mostly bare with some blowing snow, but nothing going a reasonable speed can't handle. I get to Woodstock about 1:00, and decide I want something to eat, so I pull off the highway and drive into the nearest McDonalds. However, for some reason, the McDs is packed, the drive thru line is huge and there are no parking spots available. So, I figured that I'll just get back on the highway and stop at the 401 rest station and grab some Wendy's there. So, I get back on the highway, and after a few minute, come up on some stopped vehicles. My thought is that given that it's winter, someone wasn't driving carefully enough and there was a small accident that people were slowly going around. After a few minutes, the traffic had barely moved, so I'm now thinking that it might be a bit worse. Hunting around on the AM dial was no help, neither the London or Kitchener news station said anything (despite AM570 claiming to run traffic reports every 10 minutes 24/7). So, I check twitter from my BlackBerry (which I don't feel bad about, because I was essentially parked). Turns out a few kilometres ahead, a 30 car pile up happened and they had closed the highway behind me. So, I spent the next four hours inching my way up to the next exit where 4 lanes of traffic were exiting a single lane onto the sidestreet.
Oh yeah. Before I go any further... a special place in hell is reserved for people who drive on the shoulder to get around a traffic jam. The only ones using it should be emergency vehicles or people who are in an actual emergency. I'm pretty sure nearly all of the people driving on the shoulder just thought they were special.
So, it's about 5pm now, and daylight is waning. It's at this point that I started thinking it might have been a good idea just to turn around and head back to Kitchener, but at that point, Highway 402 was still open and I figured if I went slow enough, I can make it through. So, I head to London and stop to get a quick bite and I'm on my way again. I took Fanshawe Park Road, which turns into Egremont Drive with the intention of rejoining the 402 near Strathroy.
Darkness falls.
It was getting harder to see, and I'm very much regretting not only not turning back to Kitchener, but also not just stopping for the night in London. The blowing snow with headlights reduced visibility to about a metre in some points. Anyway, I turn onto Hickory Drive to head to the 402, but soon am stopped in another line of cars. After a few minutes of not moving and not knowing why, I turn around to head to the next road which goes to the 402, Centre Road, which is just a few kilometres west. From there it just got worse. There was a small car in front of me that kept slowing down to a stop because they couldn't see in front of them. Eventually this car stopped and pulled over, obviously saying "I'm not leading this pack anymore". So I go ahead and am alternating watching in front of me and watching the snowbanks to my left, to make sure I'm staying on the road.
Eventually I get to Centre Road and Highway 402, only to find the Highway ramps closed off. At this point, I finally say "forget this" and head straight into Strathroy, figuring it's a large town, it should have some hotels. Well, the only hotels it has (without heading back into the country) are the Strathroy Motor Inn, right next to the 402 and the Clock Tower Inn, which was downtown. The Strathroy Motor Inn, despite the big neon VACANCY sign out front, had no rooms available and a lobby full of exasperated people. Not to mention that the parking lot was barely full, so I'm figuring that they just close most of their rooms for the winter. Also, the parking lot was a mess, and thanks to a stuck minivan in the driveway, I nearly couldn't get back out. The Clock Tower Inn looks like it's a more fancy place, but they also didn't have any rooms. Again, I'm not sure if they just close some for the winter... plus there was obvious renovation going on, so no luck there.
Eventually, I resigned myself to the fact that I might be spending the night in my car in -25 degree weather. I go fill up with gas and head to a Tim Hortons. Luckily I had my laptop with me so I could keep myself a bit distracted even though I was dreading the long night ahead before I would risk heading out again in the daylight. And I wasn't the only one who figured that Tim's would be the best place to spend the night, as the place was filling quickly.
Fortunately, my sister put out a request to her friends on Facebook asking if anyone knew anyone in Strathroy where I could spend the night. And through the power of communications, she got a lead from her friend's husband's co-worker's parents. Long story short, I was able to spend the night with a lovely couple in their spare bedroom, where they gave up their Saturday night to chat with me, give me a bed and feed me two meals. So, worst night ever avoided.
The next day, the 402 westbound was still closed, but eastbound had opened up, so I just went straight back to Kitchener, arriving home 23 hours after I left.
Let me sum everything up in a few points:
The plan was to head to Sarnia for the long weekend. As per usual on a long weekend, I planned to leave on the Saturday late morning / early afternoon, instead of rushing out the door after work on Friday. It seemed to be a good idea, as it snowed on Friday night, and no one wants to drive through the snow. By morning, the forecast said the snow would have stopped, and it did. Before I left, I was just clearing out what had fallen on Friday night. The plastic bit that holds the handle to the blade snapped and therefore I was finished shoveling.
Side note... have you noticed that all snow shovels are pretty much all plastic now? I suppose they're also less expensive and made in China too.
So I leave at about 12:30 and decide to take Highway 401, instead of my usual Highway 7, just in case the weather is a little iffy. The main highways are usually in better condition than the back highways. And they weren't in that bad of shape. Mostly bare with some blowing snow, but nothing going a reasonable speed can't handle. I get to Woodstock about 1:00, and decide I want something to eat, so I pull off the highway and drive into the nearest McDonalds. However, for some reason, the McDs is packed, the drive thru line is huge and there are no parking spots available. So, I figured that I'll just get back on the highway and stop at the 401 rest station and grab some Wendy's there. So, I get back on the highway, and after a few minute, come up on some stopped vehicles. My thought is that given that it's winter, someone wasn't driving carefully enough and there was a small accident that people were slowly going around. After a few minutes, the traffic had barely moved, so I'm now thinking that it might be a bit worse. Hunting around on the AM dial was no help, neither the London or Kitchener news station said anything (despite AM570 claiming to run traffic reports every 10 minutes 24/7). So, I check twitter from my BlackBerry (which I don't feel bad about, because I was essentially parked). Turns out a few kilometres ahead, a 30 car pile up happened and they had closed the highway behind me. So, I spent the next four hours inching my way up to the next exit where 4 lanes of traffic were exiting a single lane onto the sidestreet.
Oh yeah. Before I go any further... a special place in hell is reserved for people who drive on the shoulder to get around a traffic jam. The only ones using it should be emergency vehicles or people who are in an actual emergency. I'm pretty sure nearly all of the people driving on the shoulder just thought they were special.
So, it's about 5pm now, and daylight is waning. It's at this point that I started thinking it might have been a good idea just to turn around and head back to Kitchener, but at that point, Highway 402 was still open and I figured if I went slow enough, I can make it through. So, I head to London and stop to get a quick bite and I'm on my way again. I took Fanshawe Park Road, which turns into Egremont Drive with the intention of rejoining the 402 near Strathroy.
Darkness falls.
It was getting harder to see, and I'm very much regretting not only not turning back to Kitchener, but also not just stopping for the night in London. The blowing snow with headlights reduced visibility to about a metre in some points. Anyway, I turn onto Hickory Drive to head to the 402, but soon am stopped in another line of cars. After a few minutes of not moving and not knowing why, I turn around to head to the next road which goes to the 402, Centre Road, which is just a few kilometres west. From there it just got worse. There was a small car in front of me that kept slowing down to a stop because they couldn't see in front of them. Eventually this car stopped and pulled over, obviously saying "I'm not leading this pack anymore". So I go ahead and am alternating watching in front of me and watching the snowbanks to my left, to make sure I'm staying on the road.
Eventually I get to Centre Road and Highway 402, only to find the Highway ramps closed off. At this point, I finally say "forget this" and head straight into Strathroy, figuring it's a large town, it should have some hotels. Well, the only hotels it has (without heading back into the country) are the Strathroy Motor Inn, right next to the 402 and the Clock Tower Inn, which was downtown. The Strathroy Motor Inn, despite the big neon VACANCY sign out front, had no rooms available and a lobby full of exasperated people. Not to mention that the parking lot was barely full, so I'm figuring that they just close most of their rooms for the winter. Also, the parking lot was a mess, and thanks to a stuck minivan in the driveway, I nearly couldn't get back out. The Clock Tower Inn looks like it's a more fancy place, but they also didn't have any rooms. Again, I'm not sure if they just close some for the winter... plus there was obvious renovation going on, so no luck there.
Eventually, I resigned myself to the fact that I might be spending the night in my car in -25 degree weather. I go fill up with gas and head to a Tim Hortons. Luckily I had my laptop with me so I could keep myself a bit distracted even though I was dreading the long night ahead before I would risk heading out again in the daylight. And I wasn't the only one who figured that Tim's would be the best place to spend the night, as the place was filling quickly.
Fortunately, my sister put out a request to her friends on Facebook asking if anyone knew anyone in Strathroy where I could spend the night. And through the power of communications, she got a lead from her friend's husband's co-worker's parents. Long story short, I was able to spend the night with a lovely couple in their spare bedroom, where they gave up their Saturday night to chat with me, give me a bed and feed me two meals. So, worst night ever avoided.
The next day, the 402 westbound was still closed, but eastbound had opened up, so I just went straight back to Kitchener, arriving home 23 hours after I left.
Let me sum everything up in a few points:
- If you're starting to think that the roads ahead are going to be worse than the ones behind and maybe you should be turning around... you should have turned around already.
- I will never take pleasure in driving by a long traffic jam on the other side of the highway again.
- Even in todays highly connected society, it was really tough to get information about what was going on with the roads. I got most of my information from Twitter. The MTO's road conditions report is essentially useless.
- Tim Hortons sure could use some point outlets that customers could use. About half of the crowd there was trying to get their phones charged.
- There are good people in this world who will open up their homes to complete strangers.
You can always depend on the kindness of strangers,
to buck up your spirits and shield you from dangers.
Now here's tip from Blanche you won't regret:
A stranger's just a friend you haven't met!
Friday, January 02, 2015
Oliebollen... The Traditional Way
When you have a guest star who is so willing, it's hard to not make a video.
"Willing", "insistent"... whichever.
"Willing", "insistent"... whichever.
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