Monthly Archives: June 2011

ReBlog: I Refuse to Appear Online Except Online

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This is a reblog of a post I did on my previous blog on October 14, 2010.

I have been thinking about the movie Videodrome lately. One of the reasons may be that I had decided to register the domains “davefromgp.ca” and “davefromgp.com”. I got the idea because I have been developping this online identity for the last year or so and thought that the first thing I needed was a handle. I got so tired of coming up with usernames and aliases for every website and blog I wanted to go on and came up with the name Dave From GP. Seems I have made enough of a presence that if I plug my online handle into Google, it comes up with quite a list of places where I have left comments, sites such as Spark.ca, the blog Canadian Capitalist, Twitter, and IO9.com.

Getting back to Videodrome, as I was going about the process I kept thinking about Professor Brian O’Blivion, a media personality that doesn’t appear on television “except on television”. The professor would go on talk shows, but only appear as a head and shoulders on a television that was wheeled into the studio and set up with the other guests on the show. Here is a clip from the movie where he appears with James Woods and the incredible Debbie Harry. Continue reading →

Road Trip to the Calgary Comic Expo 2011

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This past weekend I travelled 800km to Calgary to take in the fifth annual Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. I have always wanted to attend a ComicCon / Sci-Fi convention, but it was only last year that I learned that this one in Calgary even existed. I was pleasantly surprised at just how good a time I had and the variety of things there was to see. A good part of the show is dedicated to comics. I do not have a real great interest in comics though. I was there more for the Sci-Fi and horror aspects. This year Calgary had invited such guests as George Romero, Felicia Day, Tia Carrerre, Summer Glau and Elvira Mistress of the Dark. The main attraction was William Shatner.

Once we got to Calgary we checked in to our hotel and downed a quick beer, then hopped on the C-Train and headed down to the BMO Roundup Centre. I had bought my ticket online a couple of months ago, so upon arrival I traded it in for a weekend pass. Continue reading →

The Company Cell Phone

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Is providing a cell phone a company obligation anymore?

At one time having a pager or cell phone supplied by your company was almost mandatory. Not many people had them. We all had land lines at home. When people were on call they gave their phone number to their boss and were expected to be in some type of close proximity should the phone ring. I do not recall there ever being a benefit (other than overtime or standby incentives) that would specifically oblige the company to provide you with a home phone or subsidize your bill in any way.

When cell phones came along suddenly it was to the advantage of both employer and employee to have a phone provided by the company. The company could get hold of any person detailed to be on call at only one phone number. For the employee, he was now free to move about and tend to his daily after hours activites without the worry of missing a call. Continue reading →