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November, 2024:

Hard to take the Aussie Pie Guy (or Resourcecode Media Inc.) seriously

Nov 17th, 2024
by Craig.
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In Vancouver there is a company called Aussie Pie Guy. I have to admit, I like their pies. I haven’t tried them all, but the Trifecta Pie is pretty darn tasty. I recommend them.

But their website makes me want to chunder.

Take a look at the screenshot below. How many spelling mistakes and other errors can you find in the four sentences? By my count there are five!:

  • “favorite” –> favourite
  • “savory” –> savoury (x2)
  • “flavor” –> flavour
  • “aussie” –> Aussie (it’s a proper noun)

They claim to produce “Australian-themed … pies” in Canada, both of which are Commonwealth countries that (for the most part) use British English, not American English! At least the punctuation and grammar are passable. And I’ll give them the capitalisation error; I suppose it looks better from a marketing perspective if the lone word doesn’t clash or cause confusion with the name of their company.

But this website is apparently made by a company that bills themselves with the slogan, “Multi Language Website Design, Development and Translation“! Uh, yeah, sure! I speak French, passably, but I don’t claim that I’m bilingual and market myself as such to paying customers! But if you know my definition of the word “marketing“, you’ll understand.

Aussie Pie Guy website screenshot, 2024-11-16.

Aussie Pie Guy website screenshot, 2024-11-16

America and communism

Nov 15th, 2024
by Craig.
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United Socialist States of America flag.

United Socialist States of America flag (Samdir3 CC BY-SA 3.0).

The way that Americans seem to have a penchant for labelling anyone they disagree with — particularly Republicans labelling Democrats — as “communist” has always troubled me. The problem is ignorance. A good friend of mine — a former resident of the United States — who is well educated in this area says that he won’t talk to anyone about communism unless they have read all of a reading list by authors such as Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, etc. I don’t remember the full list, but I myself have not met the prerequisite. Among them I vaguely recall “Das Kapital” by Karl Marx. At best I have read a number of excerpts of a few of the texts in my friend’s list from text books from a college political science course.

But today, in 2024, I am stunned by the extent to which right-leaning American politicians are siding with former communists, particularly one vladimir putin. You may have heard of him: he started the first war in Europe since the end of World War II in 1945 by sending Russian troops to invade Ukraine, troops that were immediately defeated in their push for Kyiv. The current American president-elect — donald trump — and his nominee for the cabinet position of Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, both (by all accounts) support putin, and trump claims that he plans to end the war within 24 hours of taking office, if not before! It is widely expected that he will do this by denying any further military assistance to Ukraine and twisting the arm of Volodymyr Zelenskyy (president of Ukraine) into ceding Ukrainian territory to putin.

To someone whose country’s west-leaning government was abandoned by the United States of America to the communist terrorists — supported by the Soviet Union and China — against which we fought in the 1970s, this actually shouldn’t be surprising. So welcome to the club, Mr. Zelenskyy, the club of people that have been fighting on the side of America and to bring the freedom of the West to your country, but in whose faces America has spat.

But is this really surprising behaviour by a president-elect who has nominated an anti-vaxxer as the Secretary of Health, and a suspected criminal as the Attorney General?!

OMG, I’m stunned

Nov 7th, 2024
by Craig.
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Tattered American flag.

Tattered American flag

Despite the supposed neck-and-neck polls, I didn’t think it was conceivable that a nation that bills itself as the smartest, richest and most successful could actually vote in a potential (probable?) dictator and an actual convicted felon. Under normal circumstances I’d say, “Thank the gods for term limits,” but that may be the smallest thing he will change, if predictions are correct. If I was Liz Cheney right now, I’d be very concerned for my safety.

But what I’m not surprised about is that Americans, once again, gave a female candidate the heave-ho. Other countries have been electing woman politicians as president and prime minister and whatnot for years, but America stubbornly refuses to join even the 20th century, never mind the 21st. Listen, I don’t think anyone should vote for a woman (or anyone else) just because of what she (or he) has between their legs but, my god, I just don’t get it. What is with these people?!

It’s actually a good thing that I am in the process of winding down my business, because it’s time I closed my accounts in that shithole, about-to-be-third-world country. That will make two Third World countries I’ve pulled out of this year! I have just a couple of months to whip around and visit what few friends I have there before I close the border to myself for at least four years.