What I’ve been looking at

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Some images that caught my eye on the interweb this week.

Scotch, mmm.

Macallan Scotch invited me to a tasting last week, and before they’d even finished the question I was like YES YES OK YES PLEASE.

The event was held in a tastefully-lit room filled with an assortment of delectable cheese and my friend Steve.

The above photo depicts Steve, not cheese.
Although I see how that could be confusing.

All varieties of this scotch are aged for years, which is funny when you think of the time in terms of pop culture.

A twelve-year old scotch was first distilled while There’s Something About Mary was out in theatres and Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On was causing headaches everywhere.

An eight-year old scotch remembers the first Spider-Man movie.

An eighteen year old scotch was just a wee babby when Kris Kross was makin’ us all Jump-Jump and Whitney Houston promised to Always Love Me (she totally has not followed through on that, though. Just saying).

Some things I learned:

1.
Macallan ages its scotch in casks that originally held Spanish sherry. Using second-hand barrels isn’t a budget-cutting tactic; the sherry residue actually adds complexity to the scotch, and in fact Macallan subsidizes the production of Spanish sherry well beyond its real-world market demand, simply because the byproduct of sherry production is ideal scotch-casks.

2.
The best way to sniff scotch is to inhale through your nose, but with your mouth slightly open. While having a slack jaw might make you look a little simple-minded, it also allows you to taste the aromatics instead of just blowtorching your sinuses with volatile aclohol.

3.
Old scotch tastes reeeallly good with dark chocolate.

4.
I took horrible photos of everything. Exhibit A:

According to my photographic record, the event was held on top of a jackhammer during a laser show and also all the people were melting.
All the good-looking photos used in this post were grabbed from the professional photos on the Macallan Canada Facebook page.
Not really something I learned, but bears mentioning.

5.
After tasting five kinds of scotch, I care waaay less if it’s cold outside.

6.
Finally, I dropped by the Tuesday Night Special comedy show at the Drake after the tasting, where I learned that scotch tastings can make comedy shows extra-hilarious as well.

Thanks to Matchstick and the Macallan Canada for a fun night.

Here’s a 5-click survey which doesn’t ask for any personal info. For each completed survey, $2 will be donated to the Red Cross.

Hand Model

Here’s an interview with a top hand model. She wears gloves everywhere and hasn’t done anything useful with her hands in over a decade, since even a paper cut would cost her work.

Via Kottke.

UPDATE:

This is awesome: Funny or Die did a parody. SO FUNNY.

Infinite Camel

Thanks to Peneycad for the tip.

My first LOL of the day: a short play

HIM: My mom’s sister is named Mimi.
HER: She sounds selfish.

A HAHA. Thanks to Kelly and Elliott for making me snort.

Ten years in two minutes

Neato. Via Kottke.

Cats arguing

You think this is just gonna be a sickeningly cute video of cats doing something with their paws, but what you don’t realize is that these are talking cats.

Thanks to Nathalie and Carlos for Facebooking this.

Cougar Boots

Cougar sent me two pairs of winter boots to talk about here on my bloog. They must have caught wind of the fact that I like cats, or younger men, or warm feet, any one of those, really. Can I tell you about how hard my life is? Because it was really difficult to photograph my new boots, waah!

The day I planned to photograph the first pair, I was playing online poker really really busy. By the time I got around to it, the sky was juuust starting to darken, so I got dressed as quickly as I could and ran outside to discover that, oh yeah, daylight savings time, and oh yeah, it takes me forever to get ready. So oh yeah, it was pretty much pitch-black and freezing outside.

No natural light. But no worries; I figured using the flash would give the photos a gritty, edgy look, like wildlife photography. You know, like I’m just a lil’ cougar drinking at a watering hole and what’s this trip-wire thingie… and KUH-FLASH, now I’m a centrefold in National Geographic.

What used to be a field of tomatoes tied to hockey sticks is now a luxuriant swamp of leaves, aka my backyard. Jealous? Well, maybe you need an elderly Italian landlord then.

I like these boots a lot. It was damn cold out when I was taking these pics, and the rest of me was frozen solid, but my feet were toasty. The boots are comfy and rugged, and the laces slide smoothly in little rings so they’re very easy to tighten. The style is called Ringo. I didn’t try them on drums or toy trains, but they’re good for feet.

Who me? Oh nothing, just boot modelling by a lamp post.

They’re also rated to -30′ weather, which is handy because that’s pretty much the temperature inside my apartment all winter. Jealous? Well, maybe you need an elderly Italian landlord then.

(Just kidding, my landlord is suuuper nice, and it’s 100% not his fault my apartment is cold. It’s David Suzuki’s fault because I feel guilty turning up the heat.)

(Just kidding, I love the ‘Zukes too, like a lot. Seriously. We’re buds.
By “buds” I might mean “One time I followed him down the street in Vancouver for two blocks but then I got shy and hid behind a bus shelter instead of saying hi to him”.)

Suuuper casual, guys.

To photograph the second pair of boots, I planned much more carefully, by which I mean I managed to get dressed before the sun went down, so my neighbours could photograph me in natural light.

But then my neighbours just… weren’t there. They’re photographers, and I pretty much expect them to be hanging around on their porch all day, ready and waiting to photograph me on one second’s notice. But for some reason, they weren’t sitting conveniently in the cold waiting to do totally random, unplanned favours for me, the nerve.

Biting back my rage, I set up my camera’s timer function and balanced it cleverly on a chair. Because, you guys, I totally do not need any help in order to take awesome photos of my footwear.

I rest my case. Wait, what does that saying mean, again?

Luckily, just then, my mailman wandered by. Well, luckily for me, because it meant I now had a photographer.

Much better!

Maybe not quiiite as lucky for my mailman, because it meant he now had
a lunatic me, forcing inviting him to pose for ridiculous cool matching pics.

Canada Post, you guys. Now THIS is service.

Seriously, my mailman is awesome. Dude takes good photos, too.

Just crouching by a tree like I do. You know how it is.

Also dude is an incredibly good sport.

Totally standard working day.

Thanks, Mailman David, for the mad photography and modelling skillz. He also delivered some socks I bought on eBay, and a flyer about pizza.
So. Win-win-win, you guys.

Oh yeah, and the boots.

Yes, non?

This style is called the Tibet. They’re waterproof, flock-lined, warm, and rated to -24′. I like the little work-socks cuff detail, which can be neatly folded down, or scrunched up if you’re badass. I haate all weather that isn’t sunny, but this year I’m almost looking forward to the rain and snow because these boots are warm and cute.

In summation, I’m a fan of Cougar Boots.

Excited, scared, or just a natural athlete? You decide.

PS:
Here’s a very short, 1-minute survey– just 3 questions!
And for each person who takes it, the promotions company will donate $2 to the Red Cross. You can be a hero!

West Indian Humour

When you hear “West Indian Dub Videos”,
this is probably not what you expect.

Guyanese Dora and Boots:

Trinidadian Slap Chop:

Thanks to Pasha and Gerry for Facebooking these.

Sun melts rock, OH MAH GAWD

So this is a big mirrored parabola thingie that collects 3 square metres of sunshine and focusses it to a pinpoint. Which is hot enough to burn literally anything on earth.
My brain seriously exploded and is now dripping down my neck. It’s pretty hot but this is hotter:

Thanks to Jessie for this mind-melting clip.