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The World's Shortest Guardrail . Unless you happen to live in eastern Prince Edward Island, you probably have no idea where the Selkirk Road might be. Better known as the shortcut to Wood Islands, and displayed on highway maps as Route 23, the Selkirk Road runs in a nearly straight line from Orwell to Belle River, and shaves about 10 kilometers off the trip to catch the ferry to Nova Scotia. It's a quiet country road with little sign of civilization for most of its length, passing through communities you've never heard of like Valley and Iona, the latter of which happens to be home to the World's Shortest Guardrail. More . . .
Regrettable Rides: Two-Tone Trauma . I never really understood the notion of having a two-tone paint job on a car. While it can work on occassion, ultimately it smacks of indecisiveness — why have a blue car or a silver car, when you can have both? Of course, if the car below was blue and silver, or anything even remotely tasteful, it wouldn't be featured here. More . . .
Send in the Cans. The first Saturday in May was the first time since the mid '80s that anyone was able to buy flavoured, carbonated drinks in non-refillable containers (apart from those intended for immediate consumption) in Prince Edward Island. What does this mean? It means that on that weekend people here went just a little insane. More . . .
Worst Advertisment Ever . A few years ago I started using Google's Gmail service for most of my personal email. It boasts a wealth of features, excellent speed, and a very clean interface, and the price is right — it's free. There is one catch, however. Gmail displays advertising to the right of the screen when you are reading your email. Context sensitive advertising. At least, it's supposed to be context sensitive. More . . .
Absurdity in Infantwear, Vol. II . I loved Winnie the Pooh when I was a child, but I was never quite so enthralled with his hyperactive companion Tigger. The bouncy tiger is certainly popular with children today though, and he's almost as well merchandised as the honey-hoarding bear. My children have all manner of Pooh, Tigger, and co. items, many of them gifts from friends and family (thanks everyone). One of them is the hoodie pictured here. More. . .
Much Ado About Clubbing . It happens every year at the end of winter. As the ice starts to show signs of breaking and the first hints of spring arrive in the air, the activists show up to protest the seal hunt. And every year, the hunt goes ahead anyway. There's anger and rhetoric, condemnation and accusations, threats and arrests and of course calls for boycotts until the hunt is over and everyone goes home (depending on court dates) and gets ready for next year. More. . .
Misadaventures In Marketing (Part VII) . Everywhere you go, you are faced with advertising. In one form or another, someone wants to sell you something, whether it be a product, a service, or an idea. Here at Dontmindme.com we want to promote awareness of what the true message of certain advertisments actually might be. More. . .
May I Help You? Vol . 3. Hi. I'm Mike. I know, I know. . . I look familiar. This could be because I have worked several jobs where you were my customer or something like that. Yep, now you remember. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find someone who will provide the customer service that you expect? Someone who will listen to everything you say, and come up with the exact solution that you're looking for? More . . .
All the Small Things, Vol. II . Way back in 2002, I wrote up a rant about things that bothered me. Those things still do irritate me, although CD packaging not so much as it used to. Mind you, that's not because CDs are any easier to open, but simply because I don't open as many CDs as I used to. But there are other things — fresh new things — that just get under my skin and just plain tick me off. And so these are the new additions to my catalogue of annoyances. More . . .
Generalizations. There are two types of people in the world, those who make broad generalizations, and those who don't. I count myself among the former. Below is a list of generalizations, some more tongue-in-cheek than others. There will be two types of readers of this list — those who find it amusing, and those who don't. Which are you? More . . .
Regrettable Rides. Unless you happen to be a sloth, shut-in, or sea anemone, you don't stay in the same place all the time. And unless you don't travel far, odds are that you utilize some manner of vehicle, a.k.a. — a ride — to get from point A to point B. Fact of the matter is that some rides are decidedly better than others. Some, frankly, worthy of ridicule. More. . .
2008 Wilhelm Awards. It's hard to believe that an entire year has passed since the last Dontmindme.com Wilhelm Awards. A lot has happened in the last 12 months, and there are a lot of things and people which are, if not very, at least moderately deserving of a Wilhelm Award. Some of the winners were formally nominated during the last year, while others are now for the first time being mentioned in association with this prestigious prize. More . . .

2008 Academy Award Speed Ratings. Once again, the Academy Awards have come and gone. This year I found myself strangely uninterested in the proceedings, not having seen any of the movies nominated for any of the major awards. But doing a speed rating of the awards show is a tradition around here, so here we go again. As always, it's a speed rating, so it's heavy on immediate reaction, very light on analysis. More . . .
Fed Up with Facebook. Once upon a time there was a little website that let people stay in touch with their friends. Actually, there were thousands of websites like that, but this site, for various reasons, became very popular. It was ideal for making contact with long lost friends, faraway family members, old college pals, and before long millions of people started using it. It was the name on everyone's lips, the url in everyone's browser history, the request in everyone's inbox. In short, it was completely and utterly the new hotness. More. . .
A Thousand Words, Volume XIX. It's that time again. It's far too long since the last edition of A Thousand Words, but everyone loves funny photos, especially when accompanied by equally, if not even funnier, captions. This is volume 19, so that's a lot of funny photos. The usual disclaimer applies: This
is parody, don't get overly offended if we mock something or someone you
know, love, or happen to be. More. . .
Licorice Allsorts. Traditions are a big part of Christmas. One tradition that I enjoy is finding a package of licorice allsorts in my stocking. Even though my wife finds them rather vile, she still makes sure I have some over the holidays. Don't get me wrong, I'd eat them year round, but on some level I do associate them with the holidays. More. . .
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