Meandering Again

I’ve been wandering again. Just to let you know, none of this stuff is found by actually looking for it – usually someone sends me something or I come across it looking for something else.

1. My son sent me this first item. With both of us being Mac users (the system that doesn’t crash or give you these big embarrassing error messages) we thought it was quite funny that Coke would be foiled by a Windoze error. This picture was taken in Piccadilly Circus in London, England. For those of you unfamiliar with Windows error messages (i.e. Mac and Unix users) the caption reads “Coca Cola Media Player has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.” I hope Coke doesn’t use a Windows machine to control the mixture of their soft drink ingredients.

2. A lot of filming for movies happens in Toronto. It’s actually fun catching glimpses of the Toronto skyline or well-known landmarks (well-known to Torontonians) in various movies. They are filming the second Incredible Hulk movie in Toronto and one of the super special effects scenes was filmed on Yonge Street right outside of Evergreen where I used to work. They are trying to transform the building into a mission in Harlem (New York City) instead of a mission in Toronto. Both of these photos do capture a bit of the New York feel but I admit it is more effective at night. You’ll also notice in some of the other pictures on the linked site that they did quite a bit of work in trying to recreate the Apollo Theatre. There are a number of shots of the “carnage” wreaked by the Hulk here and here and here. I found these because my son happened to be walking by there on Sunday evening and caught some of the action.

3.Maybe it’s just me, but is anyone else out there as completely baffled as I am by the idol worship of film stars? We just went through a couple of weeks of the Toronto Film Festival and people were lining up for hours or pressing their noses against the glass of local restaurants just to catch a glimpse of someone they might have seen in a movie somewhere. Does this make any sense to you? A few more images here.

4. I was looking for the source of the quote “90% of life is just showing up” and I found a couple of sites that help you out if you need to figure out who first said that quotable quote. This page gives you links to a whole bunch of quote sites. This one lets you ask others on an online forum where that quote came from. They seem to know their stuff. That quote above? Aparently it came from Woody Allen who actually said “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

5. Finally, this was one of those web ads that shows up at the side of the Clustermaps site that you can click on at the left side of my blog. It just seemed too interesting not to click. Someone is building the world’s largest cross in Nazareth, Palestine.

"The Nazareth Cross Project aims to build the world’s largest and most impressive cross, standing at 60 meters tall, housing a magnificent church in its center. The cross will be decorated by some 7.2 million brilliant mosaic tiles of varying sizes, each one with a personal engraving. These tiles will be made of stone from Nazareth,
or platinum, silver or gold. The breathtaking Church with its panoramic view will be located at the intersection of the arms of the cross, 15 stories high, and will contain over 400 m2 of floor space. In the 8000 m2 surrounding this monumental cross,
a visitor center will be built to offer a unique inspirational experience as well as a world-class educational and leisure center. The central location of the church together with a circular monorail transportation system will provide pilgrims easy access to and from the historic Christian churches, the Fountain of Mary and the city’s central bazaars."

As a house church guy, this just seems silly – but maybe I’m just biased.