Post is a day late, but yesterday was a holiday. So deal with it!

The holiday in question was indeed Canada Day, and what better reason to celebrate than the fact that your country is awesome? Sure I’m biased and often other places will say they’re the greatest in the world, but I truly think that I live in the best (certainly top 5 in my opinion*) country in the world. This is obviously strictly opinion, and I’m not going to convince you that my country is better than yours if you’re from somewhere else.

You hear about some crazy stuff happening elsewhere in the world, but you never seem to hear about it here at home. I love my country and my city, and there are very few things I’d trade my living situation for.

In short, celebrate Canada Day everyday- I know I certainly do.

–T

* I say top 5 because I’ve heard some good things about the Netherlands, Switzerland, and some of those other European countries. They seem to be doing it right over there, and since I’ve never been I’ll reserve final judgement. Plus, if you follow the World Cup (I don’t, I found out via Twitter), Brazil who?

How do they do it? Over the past fifteen years, Pixar has given the world eleven movies. Of those eleven, the only one I haven’t seen is ‘Cars’. As far as I’m concerned, these are some of the best movies that have been produced over that time. Don’t take my word for it, take a look at the rankings from Rotten Tomatoes (RT):

- Toy Story (1995): 100%

- A Bug’s Life (1998): 91%

- Toy Story 2 (1999): 100%

- Monsters, Inc. (2001): 95%

- Finding Nemo (2003): 98%

- The Incredibles (2004): 97%

- Cars (2006): 74%

- Ratatouille (2007): 96%

- WALL-E (2008): 96%

- Up (2009): 98%

- Toy Story 3 (2010): 98%

Fifteen years and only one movie (that I haven’t seen so can’t comment on) scored less than 90%. That’s an impressive stat no matter what way you look at it. Now RT may not be the most credible or lucrative reviewing source out there, but I’ll be damned if those stats don’t mean something.

The movies that they continually put out are entertaining to people at so many different levels. Children get a kick out of the bright colors and cute characters, while their parents and any other young adult in the room can enjoy the diverse story and sub-plots that the children likely don’t understand. The humor is complex enough for the older crowd to to get a kick out of it, while at the same time being riddled with comedy for the young ones. The Pixar movies aren’t riddled with fart-humor and poop jokes, but rather a solid attempt is made to reach a broader audience.

As well, the story telling in these movies is second to none. There’s a plot for the children, and there’s a plot for the grown ups. The plot intended for children is light and easy to follow, while the plot for the grown-ups is deep and tugs at your heartstrings. They don’t even need words to do it! The first 15-minutes of WALL-E gets you attached to this lovable little robot who doesn’t talk, yet you just want someone to hold his hand…

I’m going to cut my Pixar-loving-cartoon-huggin’ monologue short, because I keep getting distracted by things going on around me, and it’s starting to bug me that this isn’t posted yet. BEST EXCUSE EVER. Moral of the story, go see Toy Story 3, especially if you grew up with the first two.

-T

Play this before you read, it’ll set the mood…

After the stressful events that occurred last night as I was about to sleep, to the not-so-hot start to the work day, today turned out to be a pretty good day.

The sales numbers picked up, Taco-Time provided a decent lunch (far from greatness, but it sure beats sub-par cafeteria food), and then the rest of the day flew by at the office.

The evening is what really defined today as a good day. I was able to spend a good four hours at one of my favorite places in the city, a place that goes by Cairns field. For those that don’t know Saskatoon that well- or just aren’t that familiar with the place- Cairns field is the home of the Saskatoon Yellow Jackets (WMBL), but more importantly just the home of baseball for me in Saskatoon. There’s nothing like sitting at the ballpark for hours on end on a nice evening just taking in some baseball. From Midget AAA to the Senior league here, it really didn’t matter who was playing tonight, and seeing as it didn’t start pouring like it was supposed to, I was happy just watching the two teams that were on the field battle it out. That made the rest of the day and last night’s shenanigans just seem like peanuts (pun intended). Coupled with the fact that I had a fresh bag of smokey BBQ Spitz, there really wasn’t much that could upset me at that point.

Pair that with a 2-hour longboard this evening, throughout the north end and up and down Lenore Dr. several times, today ended up being pretty good.

To conclude, here’s an awesome commercial from Nike with Ice Cube’s song in it as well. Watch P-Rod rip it up with a couple guest appearances, overall a pretty sweet spot.

-T