When I was in grade 9 I had to take “Typing” as a course. Literal typing.

In the early 2000’s, high schools wanted you to learn how to type so you could be an advancement to the workforce with your keyboard and early internet skills. I had neither but in grade 9, I had to take this class on typing where we effectively had to type out an assignment every class. It needed to be specifically spaced out when printed and it needed to be exactly matching the teacher’s printed copy.

We learned when and how to use the “Tab” key

Looking back on that class, it was a total joke because all I would do is print out a copy of my work and hold it up to the light alongside my computer nerd friend’s assignment to see if the words and margins completely matched up. If they didn’t match I’d adjust and print again. Now that I think of it, we wasted SO MUCH paper in that class!

This was when I was like 15 years old? Such a basic class that my kids in elementary school could take and get an A in now. I suppose the true test isn’t about how good you can type but nowadays in the age of texting, how FAST can you type. Keeping in mind that 40 words per minute is the average speed most people type at, there’s a 17 year old kid who goes by the name MythicalRocket or Rocket for short who can type 300 WPM!

How does one even discover that they can type this fast? You play a lot of Minecraft obviously and you type in the chat. Rocket noticed he was around 140 WPM a few years ago as he typed in Minecraft chats and decided to push himself to see how much faster he could get - because why not?

This is nuts

Rocket uses Typeracer and MonkeyType to practice where he holds the records for most WPM in 60 seconds and 15 seconds. Dude clocks in at just over 300 WPM on these websites! While this has taken me back to shades of yesteryear where I would type with just my index fingers, effectively searching for each letter, I’m pretty proud of how far I’ve come - what’s your score?

This week's issue is a 3 minute read:

☕️ International Tim

👿 What happens when Bart Simpson gets old

💾 A casual reminder about your data

Is that you, Timmies?

Canada is home to a few national treasures, including maple syrup, vast lakes and forests, and Tim Hortons.  We drove across the eastern side of Canada as a family a few years ago, and going into Tim Hortons in small towns really reminds you of how Canadian Timmies really is.  In Toronto, the competition is hot to have an attractive coffee shop that people frequent daily and so a few years ago Tim Hortons started to rebrand for urban environments to give a look and feel that was much more sophisticated - essentially a red and brown Starbucks.

What I didn’t realize at the time though was Tim Hortons had already started doing this in other parts of the world.   In May this year, Timmies celebrated its 60th anniversary since opening its first restaurant in Hamilton, Ontario.  In honour of this, take a look at what Tim Hortons looks like around the world - do any of these look like the Tim Hortons you frequent?

In the Middle East the restaurants look immaculate…

What about the UK, do you recognize this level of comfort in a Tim Hortons?

And look at the outside of the latest international location in Seoul, South Korea - let’s just say if you saw the inside of this Tim Hortons you wouldn’t believe that it was actually a Timmies

And don’t get me started on what they look like in China…bruh - how does the rest of the world have nicer locations than the ones in Canada for an originally Canadian restaurant??

Bart Simpson at 81

What do you think about when you think about a slingshot?  Obviously Bart Simpson and his mischievous ways.  You certainly don’t think of an 81 year old man who has been terrorizing his neighbourhood for 10 years, flinging various sized ball bearings and BBs at his neighbour’s homes, cars, and pets.  BUT after a nearly 10 year investigation that started back in 2015, police in Azusa, California finally caught the man responsible for shooting up his hood with a slingshot.  (How can you not laugh...)

Prince Raymond King first started shooting ball bearings through his neighbour’s property back in 2015.  Police were called and investigated, but they couldn’t figure out who was doing it.  And as the years went on, neighbours continued to report their property being damaged by little BB’s and ball bearings but they couldn’t quite put their finger on who did it, although some neighbours  said they saw King shooting at stuff in the neighbourhood with a slingshot.  

Well, after 10 years, the neighbourhood can finally sleep easy at night knowing an 81 year old man is currently under a restraining order from going back to his own house other than for medications as well as communicating with anyone within the neighbourhood.  I did a quick Facebook search on Azusa, California and saw all kinds of wild stuff in their community group - from a guy trying to open people’s car door as they get in their car at Target, to men stealing patio furniture right from resident’s front porch - when I originally read this story about elderly Bart Simpson they made the community out to be a nice quiet LA neighbourhood but man, a slingshot sounds tame compared to everything else going on!

Edit: The old man has passed away as of Wednesday this week. The sling shotting really is over.

Friendly Reminder: Meta is Using Your Data

In other news Meta is taking your Instagram images and videos and training its AI with it, and there’s basically nothing you can do about it unless you live in the EU.  European data laws aka GDPR, give power to EU citizens to deny access, delete, and otherwise control their own data.  Meanwhile, in North America we are unknowingly making Meta richer in a whole new way now.

Regardless of whether your Instagram profile is private or public, they still may be using it to train their AI.  The fun part is you’ll never know if your data was used or not.  It’s not really fun.  But then again, if you’re opting to use Meta’s apps, then you kinda already know your data isn’t yours to begin with once you share your cat pics with them.  And frankly speaking, take my data, enjoy my Instagram stories about nonsense.

And with all kinds of craziness popping up on Facebook and Instagram over the years, although Meta claims to have safeguards against using inappropriate images, videos, and text to train its AI, do they really?  Do we really believe Meta would have strong enough safeguards in place to essentially protect people from what would end up being a very toxic AI system?  I don’t know about that one Zucks.  Have you used the current Meta AI thing in their apps?  I still don’t see the point in having an AI thing in my search bar on FB or IG.  

There’s like AI tools everywhere these days and all I want to know is what is the weather tomorrow.