The Best Video Store I've Ever Been To

Video Store?

"Brian," you might be saying, "you're at the leading... no, BLEEDING edge of technologies and the internets, why are you going to a video store? That's so pre-2007." Well, first of all, thanks for the recognition. Secondly, I happen to like to rent the odd video and I especially love independent video stores.

In Calgary, we have Bird Dog - which is awesome & you should go there if you are from Calgary and haven't been. While in Austin, I went to I Luv Video. It was great. A few things that made it so great:
  • Giant mural on the back wall incorporating images from everything from Star Wars to Oldboy.
  • Canada was a foreign films section.
  • The wall of shame, which names the people who didn't return their videos.
  • My favorite: comments from the staff taped on the covers of notable videos.

(for the record, we rented 'Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job, Season 3' and 'Broken Embraces'... but only saw the former)

There isn't much room for video stores in today's day & age. Big name stores in Canada (and I'm sure elsewhere) have been creating a lot of available retail space recently. The shops that survive are going to have to make sure they carve out a niche for themselves if they will survive for the next 10 years. Bird Dog & I Luv Video have done a good job of that so far - it is enjoyable to go to those places. They have created a brand for themselves that has allowed them to thrive when the big players are suffering big time.

They are a few years behind what the record shops have been experienced at the hands of the internet. In the music world, the likes of Virgin, Tower and HMV are all but extinct. Megatunes, a Calgary & Edmonton institution, is now also closing up shop. I hope that in the next few years that Bird Dog and I Luv Video will be able to adapt & avoid the fate of their record store counterparts.

Letting Go

On the plane ride home today, my pen exploded.

I have carried a pen in my pocket since I was in grade 6 - despite the extra cargo, it has allowed me to doodle when I've been bored, write down ideas when the spirit moves me, and get contact information when I meet someone I want to see again. In over 20 years of carrying this type of pen (Uniball Micro), it's maybe exploded on me twice. Still, I realize that this is not an Earth shattering event. The thing that is significant: it made me realize I don't actually need a pen on hand anymore. I've had an iPhone for well over a year now and it does everything that a pen ever did for me. It's already loaded with all of my contacts, many lists, various brainwaves, and maps of anywhere I want to go. It has replaced my home phone, my old flip phone, my PDA (remember those?!), my point & shoot digital camera, and now MY PEN. **recalling Kids in the Hall sketch**

And yes, I realize this may be the most boring blog post ever written, filled with all kinds of obvious - but sometimes something needs to explode before you recognize the simple thing that's been in front of you all along.

What's going on with Chrome?

Those that know me, know that I'm a bit of an analytics junkie. Today I noticed that I was getting a lot more traffic from Chrome users recently. This is admittedly a small sample size, but I compared at the last four days of traffic to the four days before that. Usually my site skews away from IE users, and Firefox generally makes up about 60%, but suddenly Chrome has taken the lead.

As a percentage of site traffic, both Chrome and Safari have doubled and Firefox is down about a third. I looked at some of the other sites I manage which get more traffic than this one, and although not as dramatic, the upward trend in Chrome usage the last few days applied across the board.

I couldn't find anything obvious online that would account for the uptick, but did find an interesting, and somewhat related, article comparing browser speeds. I've tried and liked Chrome, but I found the performance that sets Chrome apart started seriously suffering as soon as I tried extensions & having multiple tabs open (the article seemed to support this) - I switched back to Firefox 3.6 as a result.

I'm still curious as to the increase in Chrome's use - wondering both if it will continue & what 's causing people to switch. I don't get a lot of comments on this blog, but if anyone feels compelled to tell me why you prefer Chrome, I'm all ears.

I turned on my computer and this was there.

I keep many tabs open in my web browser (sometimes 20+). When I scan my twitter feed, I usually go through and click on all the links that I think will be interesting or worthwhile, then go back and read them later. Sometimes the pages are too content heavy and I can't get through everything (or even start) before it's time for me to go back to work.

Anyways, I opened up my computer about 5 minutes ago and I was staring at this slideshare presentation about branding and social media. I've made it about halfway through and so far it is bang-on. I'm now passing it along to you, the reader. However I have no idea where it came from, and I'm not sure who to attribute it to, or thank... if it was you, then thanks. Otherwise, enjoy:
View more presentations from KickApps.