Podonomics

Okay, so I’m standing in line at the grocery store. I hate shopping - any type of shopping - so to ease my misery, I think good thoughts. You know, like a plate of food from a Chinese buffet, Battlestar Galactica, chiseled chests, even my future Rottweiler named Tank, anything but the items that burden my arms.

So, I start thinking about movies. Aside from action, comedy and sci fi movies, I just love films that have an end-of-the-world message (upon searching, I discovered that this genre is called apocalyptic fiction). Some disease, alien, force of nature or plague is threatening Earth and it’s left to just 1 or 2 or a small band of people to save all of humanity from the impending destruction.

Films like 28 Days Later, Outbreak, War of the Worlds, The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact and Armageddon are just a small sample of films in this genre that keep me on the edge of my seat. Love it!

Which got me thinking…

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Today is the day of my birth. About 3 decades plus 3 years ago, I made my entry into this world. While it was an insignificant event to many, it was the most significant to the woman who bore me (I’m not tooting my horn here as it’s what my mother tells me).

So, I shall update this post with a collection of the 33 people who have made me smile, laugh and feel generally positive about things over the past year. I’m following a post that Bryper did on his birthday and I thought it was a nice touch, so I’m going to do it here.

Here’s my list.

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I did a keynote address a few weeks back for the Women in Trade & Technology association called What Technology & a Cute Guy Taught Me About Taking Risks and Being Myself.

Some of you may be looking at the title of my speech and saying:

“Leesa, what a silly title.”

However, the first rule of speaking is - Know Your Audience. Because I was speaking to a group of 15, 16 & 17 year olds, I knew that I could be a little bit more zany and wacky with my speech title.

I got paid a good sum of money to do this keynote. When I told my mom how much I was getting paid, she nearly choked on the soup she was slurping.

“For just 45-minutes?” she balked.

Now, my point isn’t to brag about how much I was paid. On the contrary, it’s to show you why paying your speakers for their appearance at your event is worth all the money you’ll invest if you’re an event organizer.

Even if it’s not a full speaking fee, at least give an honourarium of some sort. Even a gift certificate to Chapters-Indigo is good enough. I got so many of these over the past 3-months, I was able to buy a slew of books.

I digress…

So, let’s go through the steps of what I did to prepare for this keynote just to give you an idea.
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There was an article that I wanted to read and unfortunately, the site that it was on is no longer up. As I consumed some more holiday treats, I remembered archive.org. There, I was able to input the URL and voila! The article popped up.

I ended up becoming quite nostalgic and did a search on some of the web properties I used to operate.

Just in case your curiosity is getting the better of you, here they are:

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I’d like to take the time to wish you all a Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah. What is Chrismahanukwanzakah? It’s a holiday that celebrates the joys of Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, elves - even Pagans and agnostics - all wrapped into one day.

Mathew Ingram calls it ChristmaHanuKwanzivus - a blending of Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa and Festivus. I kind of like his interpretation better. Like him, I’ll spend the day eating, sleeping and eating some more. I may even get some much needed content for the Papa Zeek podcast because I’ll be spending the evening with a whole wack of family, including the star of the podcast (my dad).

I’m also going to tune in to my favourite Christmas movies. They are:

• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (too funny)
• A Christmas Story (too funny)
• Trailer Park Boys’ Christmas Special (a TV special that’s way funny)

I’m also going to get my hands on Bad Santa and Elf as well and see if they’re worthy enough to add to my favourite Christmas movies list.

Any other movies I should watch?

I’m dedicating Friday’s to posting about anything I want that’s not podcast related. So, I’m calling it my Anything I Want to Post About Fridays, or AIWPAF for short.

Thanks to Rob Clark, he pointed me to this blog post about the Simpsonization of the Battlestar Galactica characters. As Rob put it, only a fan of both shows can appreciate this work of art.

Who’s on the left?