Categories
Play Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Win 2 Tickets to HoHOTo

hoHOTo - August 18, 2009Nobody in Accordion City throws a charity event quite like its creative techies, and the latest such event is hoHOTo. It’s the summer sequel to HoHoTO, a charity party that got put together in mere days, not weeks or months, by some very ambitious Toronto techies on Twitter.

HoHOTo’s charity is the Daily Bread Food Bank, the organization dedicated to eliminating hunger in and around Toronto. They provide food to hungry people. offer support with issues that often accompany hunger – social benefits, housing, employment, immigration – and work to create social change to reduce poverty through research, education and advocacy.

A recent report from the Daily Bread Food Bank says:

A new report released today by the Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB) revealed that there has been an alarming increase in the number of persons turning to food banks in Ontario since last fall. Between September 2007 and September 2008, food banks in Ontario have reported an average increase of 13 per cent in the number of neighbours turning to them for support.

HoHOTo will take place tomorrow night at Suite 106 & Wetbar, located deep in clubland at Peter and Adelaide, from 7 p.m. until late, with DJs and cash bars plying their trade all night. Only 500 tickets were made available, with prices rising steadily as the event drew nearer. In these last hours before the event, tickets are now $40 each and it appears that only three or so dozen remain.

Microsoft logo with accordion

Microsoft, for whom I work as a Developer Evangelist, is a sponsor of the event and has provided me with two HoHOTo tickets to raffle off. I’ll make it simple – just email me at joey.devilla@microsoft.com by 6:00 p.m. tonight and I’ll put your name into a lottery for those tickets. I’ll announce the winner on the blog tonight.

Categories
Life

“American Police”: A New Japanese Magazine

I wonder if this is just a one-off or if they’re going to publish regularly. Either way:

  • I want translations!
  • Needs more donuts!

American Police magazine

Categories
Life

Ben Franklin’s Schedule

Of the Founding Fathers of the United States, my favourite is Ben Franklin. I’m a fan (and attempted emulator) of polymaths, and Ben was a supreme one, having been a writer, printer, political theorist and practitioner, scientist and engineer, soldier and statesman.

What better way to mark the beginning of what’s going to be a busy week for Yours Truly than by posting Ben Franklin’s daily schedule? Here it is, complete with his morning and evening questions, which we’d all do well to ask ourselves daily:

ben_franklins_daily_schedule

Some folks I know were discussing what he meant by “Addressing Powerful Goodness”, which he does at the start of the day. Someone supposed that it meant a morning constitutional, another thought it might be prayer and a wag suggested it might be “chopping the morning wood,” in that way that wags are wont to do.

Fans of the movie Dazed and Confused might prefer the notion that Ben Franklin liked to drop by George Washington’s place to smoke his fine weed (see this scene), and just for you, here’s a comic depicting just that, with both gentlemen talkin’ gangsta (be forewarned, it’s a little sweary):

george_and_benClick the comic to see it at full size (courtesy of “highplainsgrifter”).

Categories
Life Music

Have You Seen This Cat?

Most “Have you seen this cat?” posters don’t make me smile, but this one does…

Post of Frank Sinatra - 'Have you seen this cat? Because he is AWESOME.'
Photo by Jason Carlin. Click to see it on its Flickr page.

Categories
The Current Situation

Plus Ca Change…

The strange accusations about Barack Obama coming from the American wingnut brigade – Socialist! Radical Muslim! Foreign-born! – are nothing new:

jfk_wanted_treasonImage courtesy of Brian Kane.

Categories
Life

The “Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus” Trailer

A mega-shark! A giant octopus! A reference to the "Thrilla in Manila"! Lorenzo Lamas and Deborah (formerly Debbie) Gibson! What more could you possibly want from a movie?

(A tip of the hat to John Bristowe for pointing me to the video!)

Categories
The Current Situation

The Squeaky Fromme Gets the Release

Squeaky Fromme is free? Damn, I’m old.

squeaky_fromme Click the photo to see Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme’s Wikipedia entry.

(I wish I’d come up with the title, but alas, that clever turn of phrase is the name of a team that played at a trivia league in New York City last week.)