I have had three images in my post for the last few days, and since none of them were worthy of their own post they will now join forces to make a mediocre post told through images.

I reached a milestone with last.fm yesterday and scrobbled my 70,000th track. That number would be a lot higher if iPod plays were counted but even still this works out to 38 songs a day. This play count record came only weeks after my fifth anniversary, which is pretty special for a website I joined randomly all those years ago.

The 500 birds trapped in oil in Northern Alberta is pretty big news, and it even reached several national news sources. CNN did cover it, but it looks like they found a far more interesting story to cover. Why won’t anyone think of the pelicans?

Grand Theft Auto IV was released this week to midnight openings and high accolades. It seems that everyone I know is playing this game. This is not a shot of my friends list, but certainly conveys how I felt when I saw all of my Xbox Live friends playing this game for a short period one evening.

I was going to post this over the weekend but never got around to it. On the drive into work this morning Garner Andrews from Sonic 102.9 talked about this very same video so in case others had heard that segment and wanted to see the video here it is.

The video Garner referred to was a man trapped in an elevator for 41 hours back in 1999. The details of this are covered in this weeks NewYorker.com. The article is quite long, but there were a lot of details to cover, like how someone did not notice he was in the elevator for that long, what he did with his time, and the fallout of such an incident.

Even though he won a settlement, it took four years to complete and his life does not resemble what it was before. He never returned to work because of the risk it may do to his mental health, he lost his apartment, spent all of his money and is currently unemployed.

Elevator Video, Journeys (3:03)

The video is quite haunting and fascinating and worthy of several viewings. He had no watch, no means of communication and no one answered the emergency alarm. He had no idea how long he was in there for, or if rescue was on his way. This is the ultimate in solitary confinement because it was completely unexpected.

What do you do in a situation something like this? I can entertain myself for several hours without any external stimulation but 41 hours would be very taxing and not knowing how long you slept for or how much time has passed would be disorientating.

For the season three finale of Lost Ack Attack did a very detailed episode recap. At first I felt insulted that someone went to all of that effort to bash Lost, especially for such a fantastic episode. Then I noticed their attention to detail and descriptions of the images was done out of love, not hate. From there I began seeing other episode recaps and saw that Ack Attack had a true passion for the show.

After going over some of the recaps with Scott he pointed me in the direction of Ack Attack’s Battlestar Galactica recaps and this lead me to a brilliant themed LOL cats and wonderfuly made avatar icons from Lost and Battlestar Galactica, which is where I found the above Office animated image.

All of this means one thing. Today is Friday, and that means more Bears, Beets and Battlestar Galactica.

In the middle of 2004 I read an article about Bono promoting Lance Armstrong’s Foundation with the Livestrong bracelets. The bracelets came in a box of ten and even if I was only going to use one I felt this was a good cause to support.

This was months before the bracelet craze took off but there was enough interest in these bracelets (Tour de France, Armstrong and celebrity publicity) that my order was delayed for several months. It had gotten to a point where I never thought they would arrive, but in either August or September 2004 the box arrived at my door.

I wore the bracelet every day for three and a half years. Yesterday the bracelet snapped in half and joined the other bracelet that snapped years ago. The bracelet became more than a symbol; it was just something I always wore. The people I worked with at Dell and currently at Statusfirm have always known me with the bracelet.

It is odd to think such a small accessory has been with me for that long and it got to a point where it was hardly noticeable. Now I find myself looking down at my wrist and seeing the faint tan outline the bracelet left. I had plans of removing the bracelet before the wedding but it looks like I was not the only one who had that in mind.

Anyone who has seen my lunch, or my Project 365 will know that Safeway Lumberjack sandwiches are cut up, wrapped, put in the freezer and last me for the entire week of lunches. Not only are they pivotal in the ease of constructing a lunch, they are pretty tasty.

I went to Safeway yesterday to pick up my Lumberjack and was greeted with horror. The Lumberjacks were in a different package and were pre-cut diagonally in quarters! I looked around, made sure I was in the right area and saw that the entire Lumberjack section had undergone this treatment.

Fortunately I only needed four pieces for the remainder of my lunches but what am I to do next week? The obvious answer is to get one made at the deli but is there a Lumberjack memo floating around Safeway headquarters designed to plot against my delicious and cheap meal idea?

The Canucks playoffs hopes are now over. Edmonton played spoilers last night and gave Vancouver the privilege of playing golf early this year. It was a difficult game to watch, especially when Edmonton gained the lead and did not show any sign of weakness until the late stages of the third period.

It always hurts when your team is knocked out of the playoffs but to not even have a chance is worse. I will do what I usually do when Vancouver exits the playoffs and ignore who is playing who and how teams are doing. Once the final rounds begin I will do something I haven’t done in a long time, I will be cheering for an Eastern Conference team to win the Cup.

At least my NHL 08 Dynasty has won a Cup, I will live vicariously through that as I go through the grieving process. It is going to be a really long off season with a lot of questions and possibly some player moves with the promise of getting some scoring.

NBC announced its fall/winter schedule on Wednesday, much earlier than usual and sooner than other networks make their upcoming season public. A lot of shows were in the mix but the line that stood out for me was the fate of ER.

Among the critically hailed series returning to the NBC schedule next season will be “ER,” the most-nominated series in Emmy Award history, returning for its 15th and final season. link

There was speculation that this current season of ER was going to be the last but I suspect the WGA strike may have put a dent in those plans. I am looking forward to getting more ER but with a properly scripted final season it may be able to leave on a high note and tie everything together.

In other news, April 4 only recently meant something to me but I have been looking forward to tonight for a few months. Truth be told my several month wait is minor in comparison to those who have been waiting over a year but I have paid my dues with suffering through hiatuses of other shows I watch religiously (I’m looking at you Lost).

Tonight is the beginning of the end for Battlestar Galactica and I am part excited and sad. I have only been a fan of the show for five months but in that time I have nearly watched the series twice, talk about it to whoever I can, wherever I can and have joined the online army of fans who support the show. Tonight will be bittersweet but it is going to be brilliant, so say we all.

I recently updated seagurs and rogersgurskywedding to WordPress 2.5 and there were some major updates to the admin side of things. Just now it took me a while to realize where the File Upload area was. Having gotten so used to how things worked on WordPress 2.3 or earlier it will take me some time to adjust but I’m sure these changes will be for the best.

April Fool’s came and went, like most people I was the subject of a devious YouTube Rick Roll. In addition to that I received a minor heart attack at the hand of our Newfoundland office which claimed all subscribers to CurlTV had their email addresses changed to someone else’s email.

Because this came in after twelve I said that the joke was on them but I wondered where I got the noon expiration from. Have I been living a half Fool’s Day all this long or is this an unwritten rule? Wikipedia does not mention anything about this time deadline, perhaps this is a decade long joke on me at the hands of my parents?

Is this spam? An incorrectly addressed message? Google mentions the phone number a few places, but searching for Sean Gustafson also brings up some results. At supper this evening Jenna asked how much money I would take to drink three quarter cups of soy sauce and I began to wonder if this Fear Factor email received me by accident or not.

Let’s start with a little word association: choke. Do you think of the medical definition? The Chuck Palahniuk book? If you are a Vancouver fan you think of the Canucks 4-0 loss to Minnesota on Friday.

We have dropped four straight since that amazing victory over Edmonton last week, our number one player has gone home to be with his very pregnant wife and the injuries continue to mount on the forward and defensive line.

Like most Canucks fans I am hoping Luongo returns to the team soon, but also resent the fact that a six and a half million dollar salary does not ensure pregnancy is a little more planned out. If Vancouver does miss the playoffs by a single point then this will be seen as a pivotal reason why.

Luongo has played nearly seventy games, and started twenty six straight but when his team needed him in a very tight battle for a playoff birth he is away. In a weeks time everything will be over and we will either be analyzing what went wrong or preparing for the post season.

RibWichThe stars have aligned and something magical has happened, the McRib has returned and is in Canada!

Readers will know that I was tormented with the Reunion Tour several years ago, but this time it is really in Canada. Not only has a co-worker had one, the McRib’s Wikipedia has been updated and lists Edmonton as a confirmed location. Every McDonald’s I have driven by has had me rubber necking to look for some McRib confirmation and every one promoted it on their sign.

In Canada, it is available for a limited time starting March 17, 2008 confirmed in Vancouver, BC, Edmonton, AB, Calgary, AB, Winnipeg, MB, Toronto, ON, London, ON, Ottawa, ON, Montreal, QC, and Halifax, NS.

In a form of twisted fate and a way to build excitement, Global aired the Simpson’s Ribwich episode Saturday afternoon, only to further solidify my love for this burger. I wanted to try the McRib as early as Thursday but a hockey game, work and other family dinners held me back. Then on Sunday Dad said he had no less than five McRib’s in the last week, tormenting with tales of their sauce and deliciousness.

Monday afternoon the time had come and I was able to to go through time and relive over a decade of hype, mystery and magic with two McRib’s all to myself. It was amazing and everything I had remembered. There was no lettuce to complicate the formula, just pickles, onions and meat. Several people walked by and asked if I was eating the mythical burger and all I could do was nod and encourage them to try one today.

Realizing that time is limited on the McRib I will be returning to McDonald’s very soon and continue the gluttonous path the McRib has started me on.