BrianMason

Maclean’s Magazine, where all the journalism majors that...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:07:12 -0400

Maclean’s Magazine, where all the journalism majors that didn’t get into Carleton work. (To be fair I only ever went to Ravens games to get/be drunk)

Drake, Best Human Alive

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 21:14:00 -0500

gifdumpdump

[Source]

In the Top Five GIF ever.

I don’t understand fantasy hockey at all, but this is my team.

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 10:39:23 -0500

I don’t understand fantasy hockey at all, but this is my team.

"Lesson No. 4: Don’t worry about your network. Worry about your friends. If you have successful..."

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 11:46:35 -0500

“

Lesson No. 4: Don’t worry about your network. Worry about your friends.

If you have successful friends, you will be successful. It’s pretty much that simple. If you hang out with a bunch of losers, you too will adopt their loser ways and not achieve anything. Regardless of whether or not you go out and network, please make sure that your friends are ambitious and hard working people who you admire.

For some, this means that they will have to move on from their high school buddies. For others, it means that they will need to have friends who are older than they are. Some people will have to learn new skills in order to penetrate the friend groups that they would like to join.

But if you hang out with quality people, you won’t need to worry about networking. Your friends will be your network. The only reason you are reading this article is because Sarah Lacy has a lot of friends who are very high quality, and they not only supported her PandoDaily ambition, but also put money into it. And even though she is nobody, she does have quality friends.

It works. I’ve seen it work innumerable times. Your friends bring you up or pull you down. There’s no in-between. Make sure they are pulling you up.

”

- Bryan Goldberg (Founder of Bleacher Report) - Young people are screwed… Here’s how to survive…

(Received through a tweet from Darryl Moyers)

2012 was amazing. Australia, New Zealand, amazing friends during my PEI Summer, to moving to Toronto...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:20:10 -0500

2012 was amazing. Australia, New Zealand, amazing friends during my PEI Summer, to moving to Toronto and having many friends around while working at KPMG. Tonight will be tame cause of the CKE, but certainly wasn’t a tame year. To many more years like this!

Since Swedish House Mafia came up with this song while touring Australia (although played in England in the video) it seems like a fitting song for the end of the year.

Eli Manning, New York Giant, Super Bowl XLVI Champion and MVP

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 10:17:36 -0500

For my friend Connor’s Christmas present our friend Kate decided to make a magazine all about his favourite things (he’s a writer for The Atlantic Wire). As the designated sports columnist I decided to write about Connor’s favourite team the New York Giants. But since I forgot that article on my laptop in Toronto, I wrote a new article about Eli Manning who I have a severe hate on, both because I’m a Patriots fan and because of all the chirping I received because I mistakenly picked him in the first round of my fantasy football league. Here is my expose on him:

Eli Manning,

New York Giant,

Super Bowl XLVI Champion and MVP

By Brian Mason

There’s a time in everyone’s life where something happens that just seems unbelievable. For some it’s when they find someone in their life that they love, for others it’s just being at the right place at the right time to watch an amazing event, or just being out in nature to see something beautiful happen. But for a simple man like Eli Manning he has had the opportunity to have many of those events in his life.

His first thing was the day he figured out how to use a zipper. For someone as intelligent as Eli Manning it is quite complicated to learn how to use one of those bad boys. His mother, Olivia, had extensively tried to teach Eli to practice getting the bottom the zipper into the other. On remembering Eli’s struggles with the zipper Olivia said “His brothers Peyton and Cooper were old pros at using the zipper. I tried to make everything a competition between the boys but Eli just never seemed to have a great desire to win.” But one day Archie Manning, the legendary Saints Quarterback, sat his son down and told Eli that he wasn’t going anywhere until he figured out how to zipper up his jacket. Under the immense pressure from his father Eli finally figured out how to use zipper, it was an amazing feat for the young man.

The Manning Family, From Right to Left: Cooper, Peyton, Olivia, Archie and Eli

It wasn’t until later on when completing his studies at Ole Miss that it was proposed to Eli that he go pro. He still wasn’t exactly sure what that meant but his brother Peyton helped him figure it out and got Eli an agent to prepare for the NFL Draft. His father told him that the San Diego Chargers were going to pick him first overall, considering Eli didn’t think that he was a good football player he was just excited to go anywhere. But his father told him, not to go to San Diego and that if he went there he would never win a Super Bowl. Eli had a Super Nintendo growing up so he thought a Super Bowl to hold his snacks would compliment that quite well and agreed to publicly denounce the Chargers. On draft day, Eli was seemingly pissed that the Chargers had selected him overall, but was relieved when he was immediately traded to the New York Giants. He had always wanted to visit the city.

Considered to be a consistently worthless fantasy football option throughout his career, Eli managed to step up during the NFL playoffs. In the 2007 season’s playoffs, despite losing to the Tom Brady led Patriots during the regular season, Eli and the Giants managed to end the Pats perfect season during Super Bowl XLII. With an unbelievable off the helmet catch by David Tyree, the Giants moved quickly down the field punishing the Patriots defence. Eli’s later response to the pass was that he was just trying to throw the ball really far. Luckily he had a fellow gunslinger in Plaxico Burress who also doubled as a wide receiver and solidified the win with his TD reception. Eli (and his brother Peyton for that matter) couldn’t believe that he won the Super Bowl. He was devastated that he didn’t get an actual bowl but he knew his parents were proud.

“Where do I put my hands?!”

Finally in his most recent season (2011) Eli had his most unbelievable moment of winning the Super Bowl Again. The New York Giants had fell into the playoffs almost by accident. The NFC East, often known as the joke division of football, didn’t really want to send anyone to the playoffs. Legendary dog owner and trainer Michael Vick managed to convince Eli that his team was the right one to go compete. Taking Vick’s advice Eli huddled with his wide receivers Victor Cruz, Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks to discuss how he likes to throw the ball really far. His receivers just grinned and prepared for the worst. But after accidentally beating the 49ers in the NFC Championship, Eli again competed against his brother’s rival Tom Brady. Eli’s team again managed to defeat the favoured Patriots and he was so amazed. In the locker room Eli could be heard yelling that he finally won more bowls than his brother. During the post game press conference Eli was astonished, he said he was confident that a team with a player named Ochocino was definitely going to win and that he was hoping now that he was a 2-time Super Bowl MVP that he would be allowed to have as much as fun at photo-shoots as Tom Brady…

Since I finally saw Skyfall, My Top 7 James Bond Movies

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 23:03:25 -0500

1. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997): This is my favourite Bond movie. I consider a lot of this just Pierce Brosnan nostalgia, but compared to his other 3 outings which are mediocre at best, this is a fantastic action movie. Better score and pacing than Goldeneye? Yep. Better pacing and action sequences than The World is Not Enough? Yep. Better everything than Die Another Day? Obviously.

2. The Living Daylights (1986): Timothy Dalton essentially plays the same James Bond than Daniel Craig does, I never understand why he gets hate. This movie is fantastic though: Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Awesome Villans, Amazing allies, mildly confusing story but worth it.

3. For Your Eyes Only (1981): While The Spy Who Loved Me is the classic Roger Moore movie, this is the closest to the Sean Connery/Timothy Dalton/Daniel Craig James Bonds that Roger Moore got. As the follow up to Moonraker it’s a bit jarring to follow it up with this, but it’s very good. Includes Pierce Brosnan’s first wife as a Bond Girl which linked him to eventually getting the role, awesome bond ally, and enjoyable actions sequences. Also includes by far the most ruthless kill by Roger Moore.

4. You Only Live Twice (1967): Yeah I don’t get as excited about the Sean Connery ones as some people do. This one is definitely my favourite though. Except for the overlong slowdown of pace before the climax, this one is an awesome movie. This is the movie Austin Power spoofs the most of (Dr. Evil is essentially Blofeld from this movie) and the budget is noticeably larger than Goldfinger’s (Smaller than Thunderball but meh to that). Fun Fact: The script was written by Roald Dahl.

5. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977): The Definitive Roger Moore movie. Jaws. Agent XXX. Submarine Lotus Esprit. Perfect.

6. Quantum of Solace (2008): Was it really 4 years since this movie came out? Critics have a huge boner for Casino Royale, I never understand why. Casino Royale would’ve been a lot better if they dumped some of that movie’s plot into this movie . This movie is fantastic, action sequences upon action sequences. The opera sequence is probably my favourite sequence in a James Bond movie (I love when Bond just doesn’t give a fuck). Dominic Greene is a great villain as a pseudo Blofeld (although subsequently overshadowed by Skyfall’s Raoul Silva). Note (minor spoilers on Skyfall) I didn’t really like Skyfall as much as most people do, I was under the impression that this movie restarted the franchise back to normal. I don’t know why Skyfall felt the need to do that again.

7. Goldfinger (1964): The Classic. Aston Martin with the Ejector Seat. Oddjob. LaserBean Trap. Jill Masterson Painted Gold. Not much else to ask for. I was really struggling which movie to put here, I tend to enjoy them all, but after the above 6 I don’t really differentiate which ones are better than the others. This movie by far has the worst posters.

Charlottetown through the eyes of 10 Year Old me. This...

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 11:02:36 -0400

Charlottetown through the eyes of 10 Year Old me. This didn’t turn out as funny as I wanted to, I blame that on creating this during a spout of insomnia. Perhaps a zoomed in West Royalty would be better.

This website is fantastic. @katherinemckenn

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:44:14 -0400

This website is fantastic. @katherinemckenn

21 Truths About Being An Only Child

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 10:56:59 -0400

21 Truths About Being An Only Child :

1. Whenever you tell people you’re an only child, they skeptically look you up and down before saying something cryptically judgmental and casually insulting, like “Hmm really? You don’t seem like an only child,” or, worse, “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense actually.”

18. Only children think of their best friends as their brothers and sisters. Despite our self-centeredness, we can be extremely loyal — our friends are everything.

While the entire list is very good, these two stand out as the most true.

I think I have more tumblr posts in drafts than I do posted. I think it’s time I read...

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 10:38:39 -0400

I think I have more tumblr posts in drafts than I do posted. I think it’s time I read Linchpin again.

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the..."

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 10:44:21 -0400

““It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.””

- Theodore Roosevelt (Heard from one of Brene Brown’s TED talks both of which are excellent)

@brianmid

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:33:17 -0400

@brianmid

Father's Day

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 11:26:21 -0400

Today’s Father’s Day, which is a pretty awesome day and I someday hope to be on the other side of, but for now I get to appreciate that I have a pretty awesome dad.

As an only child my relationship with my parents is a third sibling and two thirds parental figure. Almost all of my extended family doesn’t live in PEI so my parents are my family life and far and above the two most important people in my life.

Growing up my Dad and I bonded over James Bond movies (watched all on VHS back in the day and watched from The World Is Not Enough til Quantum of Solace in theatres together), Star Wars (prequels together in theatres) and and other similar movies like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Otherwise, Dad and I are similar in certain habits and how we act in social situations (and he is an accountant after all) but our general interests are much different. I watch sports and am much more socially and politically inclined (despite my dad working for the PEI government) while he loves building things (his cottage, renovating the house and the apartments he used to own) and outdoor activities like sailing. He built the current family cottage in Parry Sound with his Dad, and I know he really wanted to build our PEI cottage with me, but I was never the heir to falling in love with buiding.

Sure I helped put some things together and install appliances but nothing to any scale. Men of my generation (especially me) aren’t learning these abilities and think that they can just throw money at them. It’s too bad but I was never that interested. However, this summer (my last summer at home) I’m going to help him build a new garage down at the cottage and I’m looking forward to it.

What should be said at every high school...

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:37:00 -0400

What should be said at every high school graduation.

nationalpost:

Joe O’Connor: A fulfilling life ‘is an achievement,’ not something that falls in your lap
Wellesley High School, in Wellesley, Mass., is among the best in the United States, a stately institution with a student body that has bankers and lawyers and doctors as Moms and Dads and high expectations of studying in an Ivy League setting.

On a recent afternoon, the class of 2012 gathered for commencement, an annual rite of passage typically marked by impassioned speeches about how they, the new graduates, are the best and the brightest.

Privileged, exceptional, wonderfully unique and destined to go forth and make a difference.

But the difference, on this sun-dappled afternoon, was the message David McCullough Jr., an English teacher at the school, had for the crop of Wellesley kids in their crimson graduation caps and gowns.

“You are not special,” he told them.

“You are not exceptional,” he said.

“Contrary to what your U9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you, you’re nothing special.”

On the way back...

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 08:06:00 -0400

I’m currently in Singapore which means that I have completed my trip to Australia. I have two extended stop overs in Singapore and Hong Kong before I return to Charlottetown for the summer.

I’m not going to go too in depth about my time in Australia/New Zealand, but it was awesome. I’m so glad I did it, and I’m glad I did most of it on my own. I will say that I’m quite glad I started the trip with Meredith and Emily because my first room at Wake Up in Sydney sucked and I don’t think I would’ve been so comfortable the rest of the time without some familiar faces.

Speaking of familiar faces, it’s awesome seeing and staying with people when travelling. Staying with Jason Morais (Gold Coast), Cody MacEachern (Gold Coast Round 2), Jill Wise (Brisbane), my cousin Stacey (Tauranga) and Kieran Goodwin (Dunedin) definitely helped me keep it together on the road and I thoroughly appreciated it.

I got to do some amazing things, meet some amazing people and hopefully grew up a bunch. I know though that next time I do a big trip (not as big and in the far off future once I financially and physically recover from this), I want to do it with friends since I mostly accomplished what I wanted on this trip and the stuff I didn’t would be more fun with some buds.

Like I’ve said before, I’m very excited to move to Toronto and this trip has only made me even more excited. I know that moving to Toronto will be awesome because a) I learned in university and reaffirmed during this trip that I know I’m capable of doing whatever I want on my own and b) If by chance I’m not, I’ll have a solid group of my friends from both Charlottetown and Carleton there with lots of opportunity to make many more.

Mother's Day

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:30:00 -0400

Something I’ve learned when travelling is how often my Mom (and to a similar extent my Dad) is right. The thing I’ve learned though (and will forget if I become a parent) is that I need to learn on my own that what she said was right versus just believing what she says. Just because vegetables are healthy and probably make me feel better than a Baconator doesn’t mean that I don’t have to learn that on my own.

A couple things (there are more I just can’t remember them at the moment) that I’ve learned travelling that my mom is right about:

a) Peppers and Onions are pretty great, although I definitely prefer them cooked.

b) I am addicted to computers/the internet and it’s kind of depressing how much time I spend on it (ironically this is posted on the internet). I should be outside exploring/socialising not searching random shit on Wikipedia. I’ve been contemplating not getting a smartphone when I go home, I’ll probably get one anyways (just cause there aren’t many amazing talk/text phones) but I’ve definitely been considering it. Video games aren’t the most productive either but there are enough benefits and when I get home I will be playing plenty of PS3.

Anyways my Mom’s awesome, but hopefully when she’s patrolling my twitter account and sees this she doesn’t decide to be the ultimate authority all summer long.

Expectations

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:34:59 -0400

I live my life with incredibly high expectations. I no longer spend my time worrying about not achieving them; I now spend my time learning and figuring out how to get there. My biggest flaw growing up was repressing the memories of when I didn’t achieve what I wanted. I’ve since learned that the feeling of failure, while frustrating, is also the feeling of growth.

Why Being In Your 20s Is Awesome « Thought Catalog

Fri, 04 May 2012 23:34:00 -0400

Why Being In Your 20s Is Awesome « Thought Catalog:

“Youth is fu**ing magic. Don’t you get it?….As twentysomethings, we’re constantly moving — apartments, relationship, cities, jobs. Anything is possible. People are ready for you. They want to hear what you have to say. They look at you and are curious about what words are going to come out of your mouth. You’re the new generation. What do you have to say? Don’t bite your tongue.”

I know this article is old but despite the awesome time I’m having down under, I’m still down here to grow up a bit more and it’s refreshing spending the day reading this sort of stuff.

Just gotta go with the flow

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 06:04:02 -0500

I’m a fairly Type A personality. I used to drive my friends crazy making plans and wanting to know what we were going to do next. I’ve chilled out a lot, especially now that I’m out of university, maybe it’ll rear it’s ugly head when I move to Toronto but for backpacking I need to be Type B.

I’ve gotten too caught up in figuring out what to do later, that I should be worrying about what I’m doing now (hell, I’m currently looking through Fraser Island plans when tomorrow I’m going to the Australia zoo). But yesterday I woke up and decided that it was time to travel more and deal with finding a job later. So tonight I’m at a hostel in Noosa, going to the Australia Zoo tomorrow, and we’ll see tomorrow where I’ll go from there.