Mountain Middays - Daily Dose of Weird April 28, 2014- Atari's E.T. Dumpsite Found

I had only ever heard rumors about this! 

Over the weekend (Saturday) search parties working on a video game documentary found the legendary dumpsite of Atari’s ‘E.T. the Extra Terrestrial’ video game. This Atari game cartridge is almost mythical because as the story goes the video game is so bad that it’s makers wanted to wipe it from history.  

Hundreds of thousands of copies of the E. video game were unearthed over the weekend (April 26, 2014) in New Mexico’s desert. It’s an odd story and I am very happy it is true. It is kind of like a modern day treasure hunt!  I am happy I was not there in the desert, waiting to dig up and play the game; but I am happy the mystery is somewhat solved.

Want to nerd out even more about Atari 2600 E.T.video cartridge? Check out this article about the game that you never knew existed.

Mountain Middays - Daily Dose of Weird April 25, 2014- The Most Canadian Day At School Ever

"Ohhhh heeeeey"

Sorry, like I said in my previous post I got a little behind a t the end of last week with posts. Here is Friday’s Daily Dose of Weird about a young female moose that was on the loose outside an Orillia, Ontario school last week. This young lady moose was sick of the wild and wanted to bring out here inner child by visiting an elementary school sending it into lock-down mode. 

Mountain Middays - Daily Dose of Weird April 24, 2014 - The Great Axe Indy Thief of 2014

Sorry about the delay and the little break. I did not like Wednesday’s Weird News item, “Palcohol” so I took the day off from posting.

After a busy weekend I am back to writing and getting ready for a half-week at work. So the first of my two posts today is about “The Great Axe Indy Thief of 2014”.  If you are visiting Indiana and see a crap load of cheap (well cheaper) Axe body wash be wary... I can’t imagine that anyone would ever keep this much Axe; it is beyond a lifetime supply.

Click here for the full story! 

Avril Lavigne's Controversial New Music Video "Hello Kitty"

Oh, Avril.

The web is a-buzz with feeback for Ms.Lavigne opps... maybe I should be saying Mrs. Kroeger after she released her latest music video yesterday morning for the track "Hello Kitty". The video was pulled quickly after negative reactions, read more on that here. People are claiming the video is racist. I'm not sure I agree with that. I think the label bad fits just fine without stepping on any toes. 

I just want to be 100% clear, I think both the song and the video are horrible.

After Chad and Avril's dark duet "Let Me Go" the video and the song for "Hello Kitty" spins us in the other direction in a strangely upbeat way. It is a rare occasion when a music video actually changes your perception of a song (example N'SYNC with "A Little More Time on You" yes I am going there). This video does absolutely nothing for me, less than the song in fact. People are questioning if Chad's is rubbing off on Avril with this weird twist in the Canadian singers musical path. 

Me… not so much. I am the first person to crack a Nickelback joke, but I do not underestimate (or under-appreciate) the commercial success and force that is Nickelback. I think Chad's success is rubbing off on Avril maybe in the wrong way, but not in a I'm going to make crappy commercially successful music way. I think she is struggling with an identity crisis and the video for "Hello Kitty" proves it. It is like a strangely outdated combination of Psy, Kesha and Gwen Stefani. Mixed together it makes a stale unoriginal combination that people are mildly offended by.

I think Avril is projecting this image and sound to fit into this crappy world we now live in where viral videos get way more hits than solid songs and videos. Look at Young Lean, Rebecca Black and even Psy... a little bit of viral love can go a long way. I think Avril may be testing the limit of how ridiculous a video can be with "Hello Kitty". I don't think there was ever intent to be racist in the video, to me it kid of seems as if she is pandering to her Japanese fans a bit while looking like a trashy version of Kristen Bell. 

We have seen Avril do a lot since she rose to fame, from her EMO roots to collaborations with Lil' Mama she has been all over the place. I think this is part of the problem, when you try to appeal to everyone you end up appealing to no one. People like my dad (yes, John Bruce) who loved her first album were a little disappointed with her second album that was a little harder but with a cross into true pop (not just pop-rock) she completely lost a lot of people who she initially appealed to when she broke onto the scene. 

How many people will list Avril as one of their favourite artist? I would bet that few people would even have her on their radar. I think she needs to take a page from Nickelback's book and figure out who she is as a musician and stick to it. The people who love Nickelback, LOVE Nickelback. They'll do whatever it takes to see those guys play generic rock and set of fireworks and pay a lot of money to do it. 

Want a more in-depth look at the video for "Hello Kitty"? Buzzfeed has your back!

Mountain Middays - Daily Dose of Weird April 22, 2014 - The Weird Connection Between Chocolate and the Nobel Prize

Today's Daily Dose of Weird makes us put our smarty pants on for a chat about the weird correlation between countries that eat the most chocolate and the countries with the most individuals who have won Nobel Prizes.

For the full read eat some chocolate and check out this article.

Mountain Middays - Daily Dose of Weird April 21, 2014 - Ypsilanti's Most Wanted

Today's Daily Dose of Weird takes us to Ypsilanti, Michigan where a horrible person is violating Prospect Park. Not much to say here other than this is the work of a vile human being... #YPSIPOOPER

Fitness App: Breeze Motion and Activity Tracker for iPhone 5s

I am pretty excited right now, spring has sprung in the Kootenays and people are back into being outdoors! We have had beautiful April weather so far this month, until recently it felt more like summer it was so hot!

Don’t get me wrong; the weather is very exciting here. While other parts of Canada have been finishing winter we dove straight into summer. But, I am super excited to have a new smart phone after a couple of months off the tech-sauce.

Now that I am back on the grid I have been checking out new apps. Now that I am back in a fit phase to get ready for summer I have been concerned with the amount of steps I have been taking. Working at a desk most of the day I do what I can to stand as much as possible, but I still think I take a relatively low amount of steps in a day.

My new iPhone 5s has been helping me out with tracking steps. I downloaded the new app called Breeze to see how many steps I would be taking over the Easter Long weekend.

So far I am impressed, Breeze uses the motion coprocessors in the new iPhone 5s that are used for tracking the motion of the phone to track your movements throughout the day.

Whether you are walking around the house or going for a trek into the mountains, Breeze will keep tally for you! The app averages out your daily steps and sets goals for you based on the steps you have taken in the previous days. It even coaches and motivates you to continue walking and adding to your daily step count (without being annoyingly pushy).

Breeze can total the total amount of steps you have taken as well as the total time you have spent

moving and it can also determine how you are moving (running vs. walking). The app keeps telling me it can tell me what animal I move like (I’m hoping the highland cow pictured here is not my spirit animal) too! The polls are still out on this, when my iPhone gives me an answer I will let you know what I move like.

The only thing is that I keep expecting there to be more with Breeze. More than a simple motion meter to keep track of my steps and the exact route I take on my weekend walks. The app is absolutely free so there is not much more I think I can ask from it, but it feel like it should be building into more… calorie tracking etc.

I think this is what the Lose It! App should aspire to develop their pedometer into. To be honest with you, I will not be upgrading Lose It! for more stats for $$$ when I can use the beautiful Breeze app for free.

If you are interested in upping your body movement check out Breeze! I am aiming for the common goal of 10,000 steps a day outside of the gym.

Right now the Breeze app is only available on iPhone 5s.

We used Breeze to track our steps while at Disney World and everyday we took over 30,000 steps! It was so nice to have the info from the app telling us how many steps we took and the amount of time we spent moving around, it made us feel better about all the less than healthy food we ate that week! 

Mountain Middays - Daily Dose of Weird April 1&, 2014 - How to Earn a Free Subscription to Hustler Magazine

It really is the little things in life that can put a smile on your face. I think I told everyone I ran into about this story after I read about it. In fact, I was talking about it at the grocery store and one of the workers told me she had heard about it the radio. Double Happiness is not just an amazing Chinese restaurant in Trail, BC... it was how I felt April 17th.

Mountain Middays - Daily Dose of Weird April 16, 2014 - The Case of the Missing Bridge

Missing bridges... that no one really noticed, for while at least. What is the world coming to?

Mountain Middays - Daily Dose of Weird April 15, 2014 - Vancouver's First Strip Spelling Bee

I kind of went off the rails yesterday with the prom blog. So today will be short and sweet. Vancouver’s first Strip Spelling Bee is being held as I type this blog. It was the subject of today’s weird news. This is a “body positive” event…  good thing! My Canadian wintered body would need to be layered in a snowsuit to be taking part in this event. Why? I am admittedly not the strongest speller. Also, I have the attention span of a cricket so shirts would have to come off every minute to keep my attention. I’m not great with losing either…

Anyways, here you have it. Vancouver’s first Strip Spelling Bee is April 15, 2014’s Daily Dose of Weird.

Daily Dose of Weird - April 14, 2014 - KFC's New Chicken Corsage

Today's Daily Dose of Weird is brought to you by KFC and their new fried (or grilled) chicken corsage. It is running Americans $20 and has made my highlight reel on this ridiculous Monday.

I had a great time at prom. My date was/is a stellar guy, I had an awesome dress and I had some fast food. I opted for a trip to McDonaldland over the dirty bird, out of habit KFC closes super early in rural Nova Scotia and when you are under-age and have nothing to do on a Saturday night a trip to the McDonald’s in the next town over is the main source of fun (other than cards).  It is my belief that too many fast-food restaurants close too early in Nova Scotia. That is not the point of this blog and a very narrow discussion point so I think I will end my rant on that here.

I love unique prom arrangements. From duct tape dresses to landing a helicopter in the soccer field instead of arriving in a limo, I look at prom as a great source of entertainment because people can get so ridiculous about it. I am one of those people. My mom complained about having to buy me a $100 stick-on bra for my strapless-dress (but had no problem forking out $800 for the dress), she would have moved heaven and earth to get the town’s Zamboni for our arrival and I was 100% okay with all of it. I’m not much of a limo girl myself, I wanted the Zamboni to symbolize my dedication to ice hockey (my sport of choice)… my dad was on the rink commission and was in no way going to allow us to break the insurance policy by driving it 500 feet away to my school for my prom entrance. Dad 1, Mom -$900.

Anyways, I am generally a big fan of outrageous prom stunts. But, not this time KFC. The KFC corsage is too much. I don’t care how much you love KFC this is just not a class move. I have had a lot of fun talking about this today, but overall I think it is just dumb. You should stop reading here, I am about to go way too in-depth on this subject.

It sparks the following questions in my curious brain. First off, who just wants one piece of chicken?  Second, do you eat it while it is still warm? Third, what if you get grease on your dress? Fourth, where do you store the gravy (everybody knows KFC is nothing without the amazing gravy)? Fifth, is it protocol to share with your date? What if he wants to eat the skin and all you want is the skin?

As you can see, I have thought WAY too much about this today. In fact it was at the top of my mind while I did my cardio at the gym. It came down to this one thought. Nova Scotian kids (sorry everyone else) who want KFC on prom night should just get a bucket and pop it in the oven after a night full of fun--- don’t let KFC closing relatively early ruin your night. Oven heat the chicken for the authentic taste and microwave the gravy… you’ve got to get the gravy! Buy and wear a normal corsage for the night so that your mother can keep it at the back of your freezer until you get married (think of how gross that chicken would be in 10 years)… and so you don’t ruin that dress you will never wear again.

Started specific, ended very specific. Now I want to go to prom… and eat KFC. 

*This is like 50% joke.... I think this is a brilliant promotion for KFC, it made me think this much about fried chicken so they are clearly doing something right!

Daily Dose of Weird - April 11, 2014 - Man Who Sues His Mother's Nursing Home Over Strippers

I have never seen a strip show. I think I will leave it on the bucket list so that it can anger my future children because I will be spending my old-age money by putting loonies in a pair of SAXX 37.0. Good thing I don't plan on having children, everybody wins! Well, it is mainly just the Strippers and I winning but two out of three isn't bad right?

If I do ever have children I hope they aren't little jerks like this guy. Seriously, when I am 85 let me do what I want. Unless there are serious crimes going on in the photos found showing the elderly lady and the strippers than let it be and just be happy to have a mum!

It could always be worse... like the senior's home in Happy Gilmore! Click here for the full story. 

Daily Dose of Weird - April 10, 2014 - Alberta Dentist Wants To Clone John Lennon After Purchasing Tooth For $33,000

This story is bonkers!

I really do hope this is one big promotional move rather than a legit plan. Apparently John Lennon’s tooth and legacy mixed with too much money make a crazy freaking plan.

I am filing this under crazy and leaving it there. I hope this does not work. I am a purest and Lennon 2.0 is not something I think ever needs to happen. Unfortunately some things are better left in the past and I think this average dentist is robbing 15-minutes of fame from the extraordinary John Lennon.

This post is a little angry compared to others. I really don't feel comfortable where this type of thing is going and people like this looking to be a little famous. Tomorrow I'll keep it cutsie.

Daily Dose of Weird - April 09, 2014 - Spiders Hooked on the Smell of Gas

Today’s Daily Dose of Weird is pretty freakin’ creepy.  It combines two of my least favourite things spiders (well any creepy crawly) and car troubles.  There are many more questions that need answering in this story for me.Like:

-Is it just Mazdas? Hopefully these yellow sac spiders are allergic to Fords.

-Do those hell-bent spiders meet their maker via incineration, do they explode or are they invincible?

-How far north can these spiders survive? If I have learned anything from World War Z and Walking Dead it is that living as far north as bearable means a better chance of surviving a zombie apocalypse. I am applying the same logic here.

Creepy.

Daily Dose of Weird - April 08, 2014 - Crazy Lady Helps Herself At McDonald's

I love weird news. So now I am going to bring you your daily dose of crazy and weird on Mountain Middays.

Today’s story was an easy one. Crazy and fast-food combined into one incredibly weird package.

As a person who has worked in the quick food service industry a lot, I can totally picture how this happened. I can envision it in my head as clear as day. Why? Well I have dealt with a lot of crazy moments behind the counter. It is kind of like a team building exercise sometimes to deal with out of the ordinary situations like this one where a topless woman found herself behind the counter of a Florida McDonald’s and self-served herself some soft-serve (among other things). All while being captured on security cameras.

Now this out-crazies anything I have ever dealt with by a mile… at least. But, just think of the staff of teenagers who will remember this for the rest of their lives. Every time they see each other they will be like, “Remember that Monday night a lady in a thong decided to take over and trash McDonalds? I was there!”

Yes, this lady did a number on the McDonald’s trashing camp as she helped herself to ice cream and fries. 

Who hasn't wanted to go behind the counter and fill their own order out of frustration, this lady was just taking it to the next level. Reminding me of one of my all-time favorite characters and this great moment…

Need more details? Click here.

The Day I Thought Would Never Happen... The Day We Gave Up Cable TV

Today we did it. We gave up something I never thought I would go without as an adult. Something that will (for me) make giving up wheat and sugar seem like an easy task. We gave up cable.

Until I was about thirteen my family’s TV experience was locked down to three channels, four on a good night. You best believe that includes Radio-Canada… so three English channels. Atlantic Canadian children all know the pain of picking between the five o’clock magazine news programs like Live At 5 or doing literally anything else.

AsI have detailed in previous blogs, I used to stay overnight at my Grandparent’shouse whenever my Grandfather was away to watch TGIF Friday’s on ABC and theamazing eras of Fox Sunday night animation. I was a huge TV nerd then and I still am now. But, with Kevin escaping to Basic Military Training this summer having cable is just going to be wasted at my apartment. It is way too expensive for one person, cutting it out of my services with Shaw saves me half of my monthly bill!

I am starting to feel like quite the little hipster. I haven’t had a cell phonefor over a month and now I have cut my cable… I also have become obsessed with houseplants. Yes, things are getting weird for Kate in the Kootenays.

To be honest with you there is not much I am going to miss on TV. There are few things I can’t watch now on my iPad or stream. We have fournd ourselves watching more Netflix than ever via the Xbox and there never seems to be anything truly worth watching on basic cable.

I am so over reality show competitions. I listen to the best music ever made all day at work, nothing really compares to the legends. People here in the Koots are less interested in television programming than anyone else in the country, rarely is any of it worth mentioning in my show.

I guess it all comes down to a lull in good programming on basic cable. Apart from the News there is nothing on cable that I can’t get on another device. I quite like listening to the News on the radio while I do yoga too… so I guess I am not really missing anything!

I’m not sure how long this will last. As much as I say there is a ton of crap on TV not worth paying for, I totally still allow it to clutter up the quiet in my apartment. Yes, I watch a lot of crappy TV; I hope this will end my horrible habit of watching anything and everything.

Do you still have cable? Do you think you will ever get rid of it? Or, are you finding anything different without cable? 

I sure will miss Fallon though…