If you haven't seen it, it's probably on YouTube

My entire life, I have had cable TV. Well, at least for as long as I can remember. I think it's to blame for my horrible affliction of procrastinating that I'll get work done as soon as the episode I'm watching is over. I can't even sleep without the TV on anymore. I think it's out of hand.

Needless to say, last year, when I moved into my current apartment and decided to forgo a monthly cable bill in lieu of food I assumed I would either a) become much more productive, or b) lose my mind.
Good news: I'm still relatively sane
Bad news: I found out that downloaded television kicks ass and will take up your life and bandwidth.

It started with How I Met Your Mother. I downloaded all of last season and kept it on my computer to get me through the summer then I discovered that I could download all the shows I love so much and keep myself up to date on the happenings of Ted, JD, Jim, Hiro, et al.

I currently have a list of 8 shows I download when new episodes come up. A couple of them I'm just trying out to see how they are before I decide if I'm going to keep them on the roster. It's not looking good for some of them (I'm talking to you, Andy Barker PI), and of course there's a couple that I enjoy, but they're in their first season, so the jury/network is still out on them.

I can't remember where I was going with this post, perhaps it's because my brain is fried from watching 5 seasons of Scrubs in 4 days. Who knows? All I'm saying is I'm curious to see how it will be come next season, when I'm living in a different place with cable.

Its just had me thinking the last few days about how much longer TV will exist the way we know TV. Sure TiVo is just as convenient as downloading I suppose, but I'd like to see a show of hands of how many people actually have TiVo, and in that vein, how many people still have VCRs? I'm just starting to worry that if I'm downloading my favorite shows, then a lot of other people are too, and if no ones watching their actual televisions the shows will get canceled. And if the shows get canceled, how long will the medium last? It's a good thing Zach Braff has all those pretentious indie-films with obscure music to fall back on.

They're gonna put me in the movies

I did a play a few years back called Broken Hearts & Broken Homes and last spring we were supposed to film it. But about a month before the start date it got canceled and I cut the blue wire and moved out to St Johns. I was bummed out but ending up getting on with Rising Tide for the summer and it proved to be for the best.

Then a few months back I got a call from the playwright, Shirley Morrow. She was calling to tell me that the Committee Against Violence (the non-profit that backed the play) were having their 15 year anniversary and they wanted me to come in and do some selected pieces from the show. Shirley is a great friend of mine and I loved doing the show so I said no problem and immediately made the necessary arrangements. She also told me that the film was back on, but because of different commitments and various restrictions on time and things it was being contracted out to Theater Newfoundland & Labrador and they were going to use their summer cast and film in Corner Brook in June. I was bummed out that I would miss out, but figured at least it was happening.

Then I went in to Grand Falls to do the show. Amanda came out with me and we had a great time, and the show went phenomenally. So well in fact, that the Committee started revisiting the idea of doing it themselves. They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but a non-profit organization deciding to produce a movie based on a one-off performance of excerpts by you and two castmates is right up there.

I decided based on my experience last year with the rug being pulled on it I wouldn't get too excited about the project until I was on stage with a camera pointed in my face. But today I got the contract, so as soon as I get it back to Shirley they're stuck with me.

It was today when I opened the attachment and read the contract when I realized I'm going to make a movie. Sure its a straight-to-DVD, distributed-to-schools thing, but thats still pretty rad. And every school kid in the province is going to be forced fed this thing for years to come.

Holy shit.

You'll notice I also updated the aesthetics of the Soapbox today too. I got bored with the old look so I figured I'd try this out for a bit. Hope you like it.

Whew, I'm out of practise.

So people often ask me; "Mike, how was the new TMNT movie?", and I tell them; "only wicked!"

Ok, now that I have that ode to a funny MySpace video by Jonny Harris out of the way, and informed you on the kickassness of the new Ninja Turtles movie I can move on and get down to business.

Remember how back in September the Soapbox was awesome, and I was updating it all the time and lots of people were checking it out? Yeah, that was fun times. Then you know how by November I started to suck it up and was no longer awesome? Well I'm unemployed again and now have nothing better to do with my days than job hunt and write blog posts, so that will hopefully bring the Soapbox back to its former glory.

Hrmm, I guess I should update people on whats been going on with me lately. I know that journal entries are generally kind of boring, but I've been so irregular with posts that now that I'm hoping to be back on track I should get everyone caught up.

So lets see, I have a girlfriend, her name is Amanda, she's pretty cool. I know I just blew a lot of people's minds because no one expects me to have a girlfriend, but I do, and I enjoy it.

Also, as stated I'm unemployed. I got cut down to part-time a while back and it wasn't working out. I've been off for like a week but haven't gotten used to it yet. I'll let you know how it goes, but I do hope it is a short lived batch of joblessness.

I will manage to keep busy though. What with writing blog posts, playing in my new band Ram-Hard! (don't ask about the name) and working a on web comic Byrne and I have been talking about for years and say we're actually going to get going soon. Speaking of web comics, I've become addicted to Questionable Content. I've read like 800 of them in like 4 days. Also, it gets updated daily, so that should keep you occupied when I fail to update my blog as much as I should.

I suppose that's enough for now. I'd hate to give you guys too much to process all at once after so much neglect. Oh yeah, you might notice that after Dennis giving me grief about it for a while I've decided to finally up the font size. But there's no way I'm going to go back and resize the previous entries, so I suggest getting a browser with a zoom feature.

Happy St Paddy's Day

So in the spirit of St Patrick's Day, and me being all Irish and stuff I decided the best way to celebrate the holiday was to post this video, which just makes me happy.




Also, on a related note, a leprechaun has also be allegedly spotted in the greater-St. John's area, eyewitnesses managed to snap a photo of the mythical nymph. Unfortunately, much like the infamous Bigfoot photo, it's too blurry to verify.

Talk Dirty To Me

Live at O'Reilly's

I broke MyHeritage.com

So everyone on Facebook is doing this Celebrity Look-a-Likes thing. It's offered from a genealogy site called MyHeritage.com and you upload a photo of yourself, which the site then matches to a database of celebrity photos. Then it makes a collage of you and the celebrities you apparently look like.

I got sick of constantly getting messages from people saying "Check out my celebrity look-a-likes" so I decided to break it. I went online, found a photo of a random celebrity, processed it, and this happened.

Ok folks, Colin Farrell apparently doesn't look like Colin Farrell. So there, it doesn't work. Stop now.

Facebook is awesome, that is all.

Oh Soapbox, how I have abandoned you. It's not my fault. I blame the internet. And yes I see the irony in blaming the internet for me abandoning my website, but its true. Web 2.0 has provided way to many options of the time wasting variety.

First I started really getting into MySpace, to the point where I developed a theory that Tom was actually The Brain from Pinky and The Brain and MySpace was a harebrained scheme to take over the world. And like all of The Brain's schemes it was working, right up to the point where some unexpected variable throws everything off track...

Facebook, ah Facebook. This thing has gotten frigging insane. It's beginning to rival MSN Messenger for the number of friends I have on Facebook, and the thing is addictive, I'm pretty sure that Facebook uses the same agent Starbucks uses to keep people addicted to their coffee. So much happens on Facebook too, theres photos, notes, wall postings, messages, groups, etc. And, of course, like MySpace, you can view your friend's friends and add them as your own, but on Facebook you even get to see how they know them. It's like someone went; "Ok, how do people waste time on the internet? Alright, now lets take that, minus all the porn, and put it all on one website! Gee, there was a lot of porn." I know you're saying; "Well, I waste a lot of my time on gossip sites" well Facebook has that too. You can see who's going out, how serious they are, who's hooked up, etc. and all that and it comes to you in a nifty little news feed on your Facebook home page. And the experience gets even better when you use Firefox and use the Facebook extensions like the toolbar and StudioLD skin.

And as though I wasn't wasting enough time on Facebook, Stumble Upon shows up to help me waste more time. This thing is great because it allows you to choose a bunch of interests and then when you're bored you click "Stumble!" and it will present a website you might find interesting. Not that interesting? Click it again and it'll show you a new site. It makes being bored so much less work.

So now, whenever I get bored instead of ranting about high fives or bayfriends, I just click "Stumble!" or join a group to discuss Brian Fellow's Safari Planet.

Apples vs Oranges

Here's something I wrote a while back but never bothered to post:

For years I’ve heard people say that trying to compare two different things was like “apples and oranges” as though those things were so different it was therefore impossible to pick between them.

I say fuck that, they’re fruit. You can pick you favorite fruit. Mine is Nathan Lane

But back to apples and oranges. I prefer oranges personally, but I still appreciate the need for the apple. Here’s why: oranges taste better, they make better juice, and people…one word…creamsicle. But apples are great in they’re own right. I mean, apples have the whole green apple flavor thing going for them, which is nice, and of course, the saving grace of the apple; mobility.

Oranges are great, but they need to be peeled or cut into halves or quarters. Apples you can have straight out of the crisper, no need for utensils. Simple.

So to summarize; if I’m just chilling out in my apartment, or having breakfast, or whatever I’ll go for an orange, but if I’m running late and need to eat on the move. It’s apples all the way.

By the way, I still stand firm on having orange juice IN cereal. I’m telling you, frosted flakes and OJ hits the spot.

* I know that’s offensive, but a) its funny, b) the Producers kicks ass.

Michaelmas; it's a thing

First off I want Gerard Kennedy to know I'm not gay (not that there's anything wrong with that).

It's been a crazy week and a half since I last posted and that is because of...MICHAELMAS! That's right, it was that annual multiday bender that is celebrating my birthday. This year, I sadly missed out on the much anticipated "strip club pub crawl" but without the Cotton Club reopen yet it would have probably just have made everyone sad.

Other than that I've just been kept busy with work and trying to get over the flu. It's surprisingly hard to do, especially when I'm not actually taking any meds. I keep coughing and feeling all shitty, but it comes and goes and the crazy weather is helping me get through.

What is up with that, btw? It's the 9th of January and it's like 11 degrees? In Newfoundland? I don't know what the deal with that is, but all I have to say is that up until that point where everyone drowns and we wind up in a bad Kevin Costner movie I don't mind this global warming thing (yes, I understand that with the exception of the ones with baseball and Robin Hood "bad" is redundant in that sentence). But come on, let's be serious. It's not going to happen overnight, we'll see the tide rise up and just move inland. Everyone will be fine.

Oh yeah, back to Michaelmas. See, me and a few friends started it up a few years ago. It's based on the concept that since my bday is so close to the holidays everyone is constantly doing something else and it's impossible to get everyone together at once. That in mind we staggered several nights of drinking over the span of the week starting with Michaelmas Eve (January 3) right on up to the Saturday of Michaelmas. It's generally funtimes and this year was no exception.

But I did discover something quite odd. There actually is a Michaelmas. It's the feast of St Michael and it happens in September. This puts me in an odd place. Do we change the name of my Michaelmas, or do we just ignore the other one? Either way, I now have a full year to figure something out.

One last thing. I've decided to rig Google. You've done a vanity search. Don't lie, you know you have. And last time I did one the Soapbox was #9 for "Mike Hickey" and #13 for "Michael Hickey" but I don't think thats good enough. With your help I think we can make it #1. Or at least #2. Which I don't mind, #2 is solid. Hehe, yeah I did.

Apparently Google runs on some kind of link thing or something? I don't know but for sure, but if someone could let me know it would be super. In the meantime, link this shit up from everything you can. In return, I'll post more often. I think it's a fair deal. Let's get on that.