The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

I’m treading on sacred ground here, but I think this video (featuring a snippet from Bill Maher’s new book, The New New Rules) makes a pretty good point: the redistribution of wealth among NFL teams makes for a far more interesting league than Major League Baseball, where it’s every man for himself.

The good things happening in North Korea are few and far between, but one of them has to be this accordion quintet’s rendition of A-ha’s 1984 hit Take On Me. I wonder if they were told that the song was penned by one of the Kims, either Jong-il or his successor, Jong-chubby.

Thanks to Wayne Conners and Katie Hrycak for pointing me to this video!

That hand motion is also my reaction to FOX News. Shake it like you mean it, Rick Santorum!

Laura from Shopify samples some tea.

We get a lot of perks at Shopify: all the cereal we can eat, all the pop, filtered water and espresso we can drink, bagel Wednesday, free catered lunches, gym memberships and so on. It’s a damned fine place to work, chock-full of smart, ambitious, energetic people and business is going like gangbusters. If you’re in Toronto and interested in working at Shopify, you’ll want to catch me at the Ruby Job Fair taking place on Friday, February 10th at Unspace’s office.

Today was Fajita Friday, and as an added bonus, a representative from the local tea shop, The Tea Party showed up and gave a tea-brewing seminar followed by a big tea-tasting session. If you’re ever in the ByWard Market area and are looking for a good liquid pick-me-up, you should drop by the Tea Party: they’ve got an impressive selection of teas, their snacks are quite tasty as well and it’s a great place to sit back and relax.

Liana, Serena, Theresa and Laura pick out their teas.

Today’s the final day of TechReady 14, the 14th semi-annual internal training, briefing and information-sharing conference for Microsoft employees. The conference, which is typically attended by thousands of Microsofties from all over the world, swallows up the entire Washington State Convention Center and all the hotels in downtown Seattle. As you might expect, it’s mostly men.

My last TechReady was TechReady 12, which took place about this time last year. I think it will suffice to say that it was an eye-opening, life-changing experience.

A good number of friends and associates are at TechReady right now, and I’m sure they’ll understand when I say: “Have fun at the sausage party!”

In light of the recent controversy over the Susan G. Komen charity and its decision to cut breast-screening grants to Planned Parenthood and their recently revised and difficult-to-believe new explanation for said cuts, the impending release of the NFB documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc. couldn’t be better timed. The video above is the trailer for the film.

Here’s the description:

“We used to march in the streets; now we run for a cure.” Barbara Ehrenreich, author and social critic.

Breast cancer has become the poster child of corporate cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless women and men walk, bike, climb and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve?

PINK RIBBONS, INC. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labeled a “dream cause,” has been hijacked by a shiny, pink story of success.

The film recently celebrated its World Premiere at TIFF, where it was named one of the TOP 10 Films. It opens in Canadian theatres on February 3, 2012.

Related to this topic: the folks at someecards have done it again with a topical greeting card:

My job often sends me to talk to university and college students; I really should hand out copies to the Jack Johnson wannabes that pollute those places. You wanna stand out as original, kiddo? Keyboard instruments are where it’s at, you hippie douches.