As I write this, there’s one hellzapoppin’ storm outside Shopify HQ. Strangely enough, today started off incredibly bright and sunny, but the humidity was a hint of the deluge to come:
I felt bad for the street vendors who set up shop every day outside our front door. They scrambled to cover their stuff with tarps and were stuck in the middle of the downpour. I think I’ll buy them some coffee once the storm lets up:
I don’t even know what this thing is or how it’s supposed to be used, but it’s pretty good at launching kids at high velocities.
If you’re a techie, creative or business in the Ottawa area and you’re looking to do something fun in the ByWard Market area (the home of Shopify — we believe that great companies belong in great locations) next Tuesday night, we’d like to invite you to our upcoming Shopify Pub Night! It’s a chance for you to get to know us, meet some new people, have a nice dinner and enjoy the vibe of the Market on what’s shaping up to be a lovely summer.
Shopify Pub Night will take place next Tuesday, June 14th at the Heart and Crown pub in ByWard Market (67 Clarence Street) from 6:00 p.m. until about 10:00, later if warranted. It’s an informal affair, and while we’re always ready to talk about ecommerce, software and design, you don’t have to be a geek, ponytail or suit to come, because this event’s about getting to know you and for you to get to know us. Come on down and join us for good conversation, good food and drink and hopefully, good weather!
Here’s my view from the patio of D’Arcy McGee’s pub, located a block and a half away from The Swank Tank (the furnished apartment where Shopify’s putting me up for my summer in Ottawa). I was enjoying a beer with Justin Slootsky after catching X-Men: First Class on Sunday night when I snapped this photo.
It’s that time of year again: the announcement of this year’s Gathering of the Juggalos! It’s Burning Man/Lollapalooza/Coachella for juggalos – fans of Insane Clown Posse and related acts. If you’re into shock-rock, rap, backyard wrestling, comedy acts (including former wrestlers doing stand-up), drunken parties and Faygo, you might be into this, the 12th such event to take place.
To promote this year’s Gathering of the Juggalos, there’s a half-hour long sci-fi themed infomercial featuring Vanilla Ice, ridiculous costumes, a hilarious voice-over guy and a lot of swearing. Depending on your tastes, it’s mind-bendingly awesome or laughably awful.
I think it’s both, and I have to admit that were I a good deal younger, I might consider heading down to Cave-In-Rock, Illinois for August 11th through 14th. Juggalos actually seem like a more fun bunch than the smug hipster Coachella crowd.
The Triumph of Tina Fey is Now Complete is the title attached to the photo above, which shows Fox News Channel showing a photo of Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, captioned “FMR GOV SARAH PALIN”. It’s bad enough when Fox gets stuff wrong (something they do often, and often do deliberately), but when they can’t even properly show a photo of one of their very own talking heads, something’s seriously broken.
If the behaviour of Sarah Palin’s online defence brigade is any indicator, they’ll be replacing her photo with Tina Fey’s on her Wikipedia page any moment now.
