Give up Reddit for Lent or Discover Chavez is Dead?

So I guess I gave up reddit for lent. It wasn't like a conscious effort or anything I just stopped going on it the day after Pancake Tuesday and haven't been on since today... Much to my surprise I discovered Venezuelan "long-term" President, Hugo Chavez has died at the age of 58 today.

Rest In Peace Big Guy

I also tried giving up coffee this week. I cracked at 6:30 and had a cup of Nescafe Rich Hazelnut Instant Coffee. That's like the equivalent of a smoker giving up cigarettes and finding some left over pipe tobacco in their father's sock drawer and just shoving it up their nose and lighting up. Gross...

Seriously, Gross

But seriously I love coffee, I'm not afraid to admit I'm addicted to it either. The taste, the smell, the mouthfeel, the buzz, the brewing ritual, it's all mine to love and adore.


Anyway, this blog is supposed to be about the media I consume so here we go!

I discovered today via the OSAP website that I am too late to apply for the 770 dollar college certificate rebate. That sucks, but at least I know when the government is crying for money in 15 years it won't be because I took that student rebate from them. This gives me full right to complain about all the taxes I have to pay, right?

I have been reading about random stuff in Hollywood on Cracked.com. Including this one.

And of course I've been working my way through The Dictator starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a witless dictator of an ambiguous Middle Eastern country.




So what else has been going on in media land with me? Well, I made a demo reel, but mine sucks so here's a better one. 

Cabot McNenly DP Demo Reel (Updated January 2012) from Cabot McNenly on Vimeo.

LANCE CHEATED?

Read an article had to do something to it to make it funnier and 400 words. Here's the original http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/21066354. 

Here's mine. 

Hold onto your cycling caps and drop-bars ladies and gents, Mr. I'm-Tired-Of-Fighting-Allegations has finally come clean. In an interview with Oprah, Lance Armstrong has announced that yes, he did do drugs during the Tour de France. So what was his reason for telling the truth finally? Well it seems it was mainly due to Oprah demanding answers not unlike a headmistress asking a schoolboy about who was firing spitballs in class. Who's a naughty boy? Lance Armstrong, that's who. 

Oprah opened with three questions demanding yes or no answers:

1. "Did you ever take banned substances to enhance cycling performance?

"Yes."

2. "Was one of those substances EPO?"

"Yes."

3. "Did you use any other banned substances?"

"Yes"

So yes, everyone Lance Armstrong has done all sorts of nasty things to gain the upper hand in a culture where doping was simply creating a level playing field. Which goes to prove to his mom (who's not mad just disappointed) that he would probably jump off a bridge too if everyone else was doing it. 

Who's to blame in this whole mess other than Armstrong himself? Well, pretty much everyone else involved in the sport. According to Lance [he]"…didn't have access to anything that anybody else didn't." You could also blame former doctor Michele Ferrari who, according to Lance, was not the mastermind in the whole doping scandal. If blaming people isn't your cup of tea, you could even blame the hundreds of drug tests that Lance and his Discovery Team totally passed, but really it wasn't the tests that caught him rather it was the testimony of several teammates. Several teammates including George Hincapie who had to sell himself out to the UCI to aid in the condemning of Armstrong. 

What does this mean to people like Emily O'Reilly masseuse for the United States Postal Service team who turned into a whistleblower who was later called a prostitute by Armstrong? Armstrong says "She is one of these people that I have to apologize to. She's one of these people who got run over, got bullied". Yes, Lance calling a masseuse a prostitute does warrant some sort of apology but it's okay after all you did raise millions in cancer research and you did manage to increase interest in a sport in America that was on the same level as F1 racing to a level roughly the same as cricket.