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Oh, The Humanity…

I was Stumbling around the net when I came across this site: http://magswordfinder.com/

I didn’t find the site particularly interesting, my personal opinion, of course. The site allows you to type in a word and it will pull out any other words that can be made out of the letters involved in the word you type. What I found interesting, though, was the disclaimer:

“Note that some dictionaries are quite large, so the search may take several seconds.”

Several seconds? What kind of world are we living in where we have to wait several seconds to discover all the iterations of the word “Impatient”? I’d rather spend my time watching cat videos and eating fast food, thank you very much.

The Truth About Curling

The first thing that non-Canadians ask me when they find out that I am from Canada is: “Tell me about the sport of curling because in my country we do not play, but it is a very fascinating sport to us and we must learn all we can about your culture.” This is what they ask unless that person is from one of the following countries that has an official curling association (list from Wikipedia):

• Andorra – Andorra Curling Association
• Australia – Australian Curling Federation
• Austria – Austrian Curling Association
• Belarus – Belarusian Curling Association
• Belgium – Belgium Curling Association
• Brazil – Brazilian Ice Sports Federation
• Bulgaria – Bulgarian Curling Association
• Canada – Canadian Curling Association
• China – Chinese Curling Association
• Croatia – Croatian Curling Association
• Czech Republic – Czech Curling Association
• Denmark – Danish Curling Association
• England – English Curling Association
• Estonia – Estonian Curling Association
• Finland – Finnish Curling Association
• France – French Curling Association
• Germany – German Curling Association
• Greece – Hellenic Curling Association
• Hungary – Hungarian Curling Association
• Iceland – Icelandic Curling Association
• Ireland – Irish Curling Association
• Israel – Israel Curling Association
• Italy – Italian Ice-Sports Federation
• Japan – Japan Curling Association
• Kazakhstan – Kazakhstan Curling Association
• South Korea – Korean Curling Federation
• Latvia – Latvian Curling Association
• Liechtenstein – Liechtenstein Curling Association
• Lithuania – Lithuanian Curling Association
• Luxembourg – Luxembourg Curling Association
• Netherlands – Netherlands Curling Association
• New Zealand – New Zealand Curling Association
• Norway – Norwegian Curling Association
• Poland – Polish Curling Association
• Russia – Russian Curling Federation
• Serbia – National Curling Association of Serbia
• Slovakia – Slovak Curling Association
• Spain – Spanish Ice Sports Federation
• Scotland – Royal Caledonian Curling Club
• Sweden – Swedish Curling Association
• Switzerland – Swiss Curling Association
• Chinese Taipei – Chinese Taipei Curling Federation
• Ukraine – Ukrainian Curling Federation
• United States – United States Curling Association
• United States Virgin Islands – US Virgin Islands Curling Association
• Wales – Welsh Curling Association

Since I played curling for a few months back when I was in high-school, and I’ve watched a couple of games on T.V.,  I figure myself to be something of an expert.  Therefor I will explain all you need to know about this sport.  Once again the amoebas have agreed to assist in the explanation:

Teams are made up of 4 people, making a total of 8 players participating in each game.  Competitors like to get together before a match to have a celebratory drink to the game that is about to take place.

The Canadian Amoeba Curling Club has won the World Amoeba Curling Championship the past three years.

The game begins.  The blue team shoots first this round.  Next round the brown team will shoot first.  Play continues for a total of ten rounds.  With the first shot, Team Blue will try to set up a guard.  A guard is a rock that sits before the house (the coloured circles) but after the Hog Line (black line you see in the image).

The first shot was perfect!  Everyone, including the opposition, celebrates the shot with another drink.

Team Brown has the next shot.  They decide to try and get a rock into the house.  Unfortunately the shooter put too much pepper on the shot, and the stone goes all the way down the sheet and out of play.  The players decide to have a commiseratory beer.

Curlers tell non-drinkers to “go play hockey”.  This is considered a major insult in the world of curling.

Play continues with players on opposite teams alternating their shots.  After all the shots are taken (sixteen in total for each end), points are awarded.  Points are scored by having one or more of your team’s rocks closer to the center of the house (circles) than your opponents.  If your team has two rocks closer to the center than any of the other team’s rocks, then your team will score two points.  If neither team has a single rock in the house at the end, neither team receives a point.

In this case the brown team scores two points since they have two rocks closest to the center of the house.  Only one team – or neither team – can score points each end.  Everyone celebrates Brown Team’s points.

Play continues like this over ten ends.  At the end points are tallied and the team with the most points wins.  After the game everyone gets together and has “one for the road”.

Games sometimes end before ten ends are played, due to excessive alcohol poisoning.

And that is pretty much curling in a nutshell.  If you are interested in some actual curling information, I recommend checking out Curling Basics.  It’s a really cool site, with lots of good, and…er…relevant information.

Happy curling!

Top 10 Tips on Creating Lists of Tips

Creating top-ten lists is the meat and potatoes of internet posting.  Although I do enjoy reading them, I think making a top-ten list is lazy authourship.  That having been said, I would like to return to Canadian Fermentation by introducing for your education, Dear Reader, my Top 10 Tips on Creating Lists of Tips.

Although it may seems like there are contradictions in my list, there are, in fact,  none.  It’s a perfect top-ten list.  I hope you enjoy it and are able to take something educational away with you from the experience.

1.  Creativity and entertainment are more important than applicability, facts or actual usability.  Go crazy!

2.  Interesting visuals are nice, particularly if they include a hottie (male or female depending on your target readers), or a picture of a cat doing something crazy.  The pictures should, even if loosely, be related to the topic or tip.

The best visuals are a combination of hot babes and cats.

3. Originality is overrated.  Focus on topics that people are familiar with.  People don’t want to learn something new, rather they want their beliefs confirmed.

4.  Keep entries short.  A long entry just provides more material for other people to prove you wrong.

5.  Try to refer to at least one “expert” in your list.   Jane Spilousia, Lead Tip Master with the Tip Institute of Toronto says, “Experts give your tips acumen and authority. If in doubt, find an expert to make your tip pertinent.”

6. Don’t share personal anecdotes, and beware of using your personal experiences as proof.  Trust me   – I tried this on my last Top 10 list and it didn’t work.

7.  Borrow from historical sources.  If you become stuck for tips to share just remember that the internet is your playground.  Ignore what others have told you; there is no such thing as plagarism on the internet.

8. Maintain your authority.  If you receive critical responses to your list, either delete the responses or chastize and humiliate the person who criticized you (preferably using an alias).  This will show other readers how masterful and in control you are.

9.  Give yourself a deadline, and stick to it.  Don’t worry about having a concise, accurate list with the absolute “top 10″ tips. The important thing is production; get that post on the web where it’s needed!  Be willing to embrace tip #1, rather than strive for total accuracy and relevancy.  By utilizing tip #’s  5 + 8 your list will remain relevant.

10.  Avoid being witty.  Most readers are stupid anyway, and won’t get the joke.  Don’t waste your time on them with your best work when any old junk will do.

Bonus:  Always have a bonus tip.  Why?  No one really knows, it’s just something that all top 10 list makers do.  You don’t want to stand out from the crowd, do you?

Officially Official

I’ve decided to take a hiatus from writing on Canadian Fermentation for awhile. It might be for a week, possibly a month, or maybe longer.

There are changes happening in my life – positive changes – but I want to focus on them for awhile.

Thanks,

C.F.