Not all this is up to date, but just saving my portfolio here

R. Uinseann U. Ó Faoláin
(pron. win-shin oh’fway-lawn)
A.K.A. P. Vincent W. Whalen
https://DiasporaSocial.Net/u/77
#Space #Science #Entertainment #Sports #Nature
astrovinny@protonmail.com
Cell: 1-902-915-7550
Home: 1-902-900-9308

enter image description here

Work Experience:

2012-Present: Founder & CEO @ V-Multiversal

1990-Present: Drywaller, Demolition Man, Snow Shoveler, Carpenter, Painter, Security Guard, Bouncer, Driver, Delivery Driver, Courier, Cleaner, Shipper, Receiver, Mover, General Laborer, Hard Laborer, Landscaper & More @ Self-Employment & Various Odd Jobs

2022: Demolition Laborer @ Dora Construction Limited

2004-2010: Counselor, Cook & Administrator @ Private Practice

2001-2002: Inventory Clerk @ Western Inventory Services

1999-2001: Senior Steward, Steward & Housekeeper @ Delta Hotels

1997-1998: Security Guard @ Eagle Security Ltd.

1990-1997: Coinroom Manager, Basketroom Manager, Basketroom Asst. Manager, Runner & Hawker @ Halifax Metro Centre

1989-1990: Paper Boy @ Halifax Daily News

Education:

2016-Present: Online @ Cosmological, Ecological & Medical Sciences @ ESA, MIT, NASA, GIT, TU Delft & EUMETSAT

2016-Present: Online @ Political Science & History @ Harvard University, Trinity Dublin College & University College Cork

2010-2011: Certificate @ ACC Health Sciences w/Honors & ACC Technological Sciences @ Nova Scotia Community College

1992-1995: High School Diploma in Business @ J. L. Ilsley High School

1989-1992: Junior High School Certificate in Enriched Honors Program @ Cunard Junior High School

Skills:

Management (10+ years), Cash Handling (7 years), Sales (5 years), Bartending (5 years), Counseling (6 years), Security (10+ years), Training (10+ years), Administrative Support (10+ years), Administration (10+ years), Computer Networking (10+ years), Crisis Intervention (6 years), Leadership Development (10+ years), Team Management (10+ years), Supervising (10+ years), Community Organizing (10+ years), Networking (10+ years), Marketing (10+ years), Warehouse Management (8 years), Scheduling (6 years), Scientific Research (10+ years), Auditing (10+ years), Technical Support (6 years), Project Management (10+ years), Cooking (10+ years), Painting (2 years), Construction (5 years), Quality Assurance (10+ years), Mentoring (10+ years), Customer Service (10+ years), Driving (7 years), Shipping And Receiving (7 years), Medication Administration (6 years) & Recruiting (10+ years)

Languages:

Advanced English & Intermediate French

Awards:

2007: Longest Shift In History (53 hours) @ Private Practice

2000: Outstanding Service Award @ Delta Hotels

1999: Highest Ever HR Interview Score @ Delta Halifax

1998: Highest Ever Training Test Scanner/Data Entry Score @ Western Inventory Services

1997: Most Overall Sales Records @ Halifax Metro Centre

1993: Highest Achievement In Academic Social Studies 421

1989-1992: Cunard Junior High C-Award For Outstanding Extracurricular Participation (Sports Teams, Math Contest Winner, Multiple Science Fair Prize Winner, Academics, Art Club, Fundraising)

1989-1992: Science Fair Excellence Awards, Regional Science Fair Participation Merit Award & Science Fair Class Winner Award

1990-1992: Enriched Honors Program

1991: National Gauss Mathematics Competition Excellence Award Winner

1990: Academic Honors Award

Certifications & Licenses:

2011: Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System

2000: Delta Hotels Trainer Training Certificate

2011: Emergency First Aid CPR/AED Level A

1995: High School Driver Education Programme

2011: Occupational Health and Safety

1993: Nova Scotia Driver’s License

Groups:

1985-Present: Consistent volunteer involvement with local and global groups on and offline, volunteering in the community, charity and nature conservation societies, as well as a lot of sports and music participation and awards.

Additional Information:

2024: 5’ 11" 200 lb. Heavyweight. No criminal or medical records & is bondable.

2007: 100% Undisclosed National Aptitude Test (Top In Canada)

1988: Cub Camp Polar Bear Swim Champion

1987-1988: Most Improved Scout Of The Year

1986-1988: Cub Scouts

Sports:

Presently: Hockey Player, Football Player, Basketball Player, Swimmer, Hiker, Runner, Cyclist, Yogi, Calisthenicist, Tai Chi & Jeet Kune Do Martial Artist

2020: Ultra Marathon Hiker

2015: Marathon Swimmer

2010-2012: Kingsport Ice & Floor Hockey Player @ Annapolis Valley Gentlemen’s Hockey League

2007: Ultra Marathon Runner

2006: Marathon Runner

1999-2001: Delta Halifax Avalanche Hotel Hockey Player

1995-1996: Saint Mary’s University Intramural Football Player

1992-1995: J. L. Ilsley Judges AAA High School Football Player (CB, ST, WR, QB, Iron Man)

1994: J. L. Ilsley AAA Judges High School Football Marathon Champion

1994: AAA High School Football Officiating (Rod Man)

1988-1992: Chebucto Atlantics Minor Hockey Player (C/LW)

1989-1992: Cunard Clippers Junior High School Hockey Player (& Orienteering, Cross Country Running & Volleyball; Intramurals: Floor Hockey, Basketball, Badminton, Tennis, Volleyball & Canoeing)

1990-1992: Halifax City All-Star Summer Hockey Player (LW)

1990-1991: Chebucto Atlantics Minor Hockey Most Valuable Player

1991: Halifax Hawks Minor Hockey City Tournament All-Star Player (F)

1990: NHL Future Stars Competition

1988-1989: Chebucto Red Wings House League Hockey Player

1986-1988: Jollimore Minor Softball

1985-1987: Dutch Village Cougars & Huskies Minor Soccer Player

1984-1985: Halifax Capitals Minor Hockey Player

Entertainment:

2024-Present: Vocalist & Mixmaster “Vinnium” @ TBA (Metal/ExtremeMetal/BlackDeathGrind Band)

2023-Present: Founder, CEO & Host “V” @ A1FX @ Diaspora Social Network (Entertainment Network)

2016-Present: MC, DJ & Mixmaster “Druid Chief” @ F5 (Freestyle/RapMetal/Rap Group)

2012-2023: Host @ Various Shows @ Diaspora & Minds (Entertainment Networks)

2003-2008: Metal Outreach Coordinator @ CKDU @ Dalhousie University (Radio/Web/TV Station)

2007-2008: Host @ Stormz Ov Kreation @ CKDU (Metal/Various Show)

2005-2007: Host @ Extreme Metal Halifax @ CKDU (Extreme Metal Show) Station Consecutive Allnighter Record

2006-2007: Founder @ Metal Mega (Entertainment Network)

2005-2006: Host, Radio Developer & Moderator @ Darksoul VII Extreme Metal Underground (Entertainment Network)

2004-2006: Reviewer & Moderator @ Canadian Metal (Entertainment Network)

2004-2005: Organizer & Moderator @ Maritime Metal (Entertainment Network)

2005: Vocalist & Mixmaster “Vinnium” @ Wardruids Apocalyptic (Metal/ExtremeMetal/BlackDeathGrind Band)

2005: Vocalist “Vinnium” @ Alien Decimation (Metal/ExtremeMetal Band)

2003-2004: Host @ Heavy Metal Halifax @ CKDU (Metal Show) Station Show Requests Record

2002-2003: Host @ The Rebel Ruckus @ CKDU (Metal/Rap/RapRock/Rock Show) Ex-Station Show Requests Record

2002: Host @ The Raprockery @ CKDU (Metal/RapRock/Rap/Rock Show)

1995-1996: Host @ Pirate Radio @ CFSM @ Saint Mary’s University (Metal/RapRock/Rap/Rock Show)

pca

Still much grammar, formatting, organizing and adding to do…

Cheers!!!

Vinny

How the fuck did what the fuck become acceptable — nay, desirable — as a template for business names and ad campaigns? The obvious rhymes, the winking allusions, the no-apologies acronyms: It’s a WTFestival out there.

Here, for example, is a post-holiday-sale ad from that hoary nearly sweary retailer fcuk (French Connection United Kingdom, or so they say: see first footnote in my post about Sofa King).

End-of-season-sale sign spotted in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this month by Ben Yagoda. The circled F is not the store’s logo, but it stands in here for the chain’s name.

Sure, sometimes the reference is unwitting, as was the case with the Wisconsin Tourism Federation (as noted here by Stan Carey).

Acronyms before and after. Should we tell the good folks at the federation that TFW is Internet slang for that feel(ing) when?

Usually, however, What the Not-Quite-Fuck is wholly intentional, although — alas — only rarely as clever as its creators must have thought. Here’s a stab at a WTF taxonomy.

Straight-up WTF

The earliest citations for the WTF acronym come from Usenet groups beginning in 1985,* as noted by Ben Zimmer in an article for Slate’s Lexicon Valley blog. Ben Zimmer examples in which the W stood not just for what but also for who, why, where, and whatever. But it’s usually what, as these examples — which draw on the acronym’s resemblance to broadcast call letters — indicate:

• WTF with Marc Maron: a twice-weekly podcast hosted by comedian Marc Moran. It launched in September 2009 and became widely known after a June 15 episode with President Barack Obama. Maron does not explain the name of his show, which suggests that it speaks for itself.
• The Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Show, which uses the military alphabet equivalent of WTF, calls itself “conservative talk radio that’s informative and entertaining”; it’s distributed in the U.S. by Patriot News Network, “from deep inside flyover country.” (Marc Maron’s show, by contrast, is taped in Los Angeles, aka Gomorrah-on-the-Pacific.) From the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot website: “Do you constantly ask yourself, WTF is going on in this nation?”

Rhymes with fuck

This is a rich and mucky vein of name creation thanks to the many English words that end in –uck.

• What the Buck?!: a vlog by Michael Buckley, whom Wikipedia describes as an “Internet celebrity, comedian, and vlogger.” Note the double punctuation that approximates an interrobang.
• What the Chuck!?!: a line of cocktail mixers made by, yes, a guy named Chuck in West Texas. A rare example of triple-punctuated what-the-not-quite-fuck.
• What the Cluck?: a now-closed halal restaurant in Newark, California, It’s also the title of a self-published book about chickens. And the rhetorical question is also a darling of headline writers at the Mirror (UK), who used it at least three times in 2015.
• What the Duck: a comic strip by Aaron Johnson, It’s about some ducks.
• What the Puck: a podcast about the Washington Capitals NHL hockey team.
• What the Pluck!?: a feature on the Patagonia website that describes how and why the activewear company uses only “100% traceable down” in its insulated garments. Double punctuation again, this time in the reverse order as What the Buck?!
• What the Truck: the name of three unrelated street-food businesses, in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Edmonton, Alberta; and Delhi (yes, India).

What the Truck?! (Delhi)

It’s also the title of a guide to food trucks in Austin, Texas.

• What the Shuck?: a “classic oyster stout where whole oysters are added to the kettle” — I just copy and paste this stuff, folks — from Garden Grove Brewing Company in Richmond, Virginia. If that sounds irresistible, you’re out of what-the-luck: the beer is currently “in purgatory.”
• What the Yuck?: a book about women’s health. Seriously! Subtitle: The Freaky and Fabulous Truth About Your Body.
• What the Zuck: favored by headline writers looking for a concise way to shake their heads over Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It’s also the title of Coder Radio’s episode #175, which focuses on online advertising.

Keep the crispy outer shell, change the creamy filling.

These variants start with f and end with k, but in between the phonetics vary.

• What the Fork: a food truck in Pennsylvania.

What the Fork, Pennsylvania.

• What the Fork is also the name of a blog about restaurants and food in the East Bay Express in California. The logo avoids F-words by substituting an image.

• And here’s another rebus: in November 2014, the Bravo TV network ran this ad for its “Best New Restaurant” show. The W stood for who, not what.

• What the Frack: a university project in Milan, Italy, that digitally maps the hydraulic fracturing controversy.

A sign protesting North American fracking. (Via Daily Kos.)

• What the Frak: derived from the “potent profanity in the language of the Twelve Colonies” used on TV’s “Battlestar Gallactica” series. You can wear the mock-expletive on your chest, as Salma Hayek did on an episode of “30 Rock.”

• What the Folk: a fan site for Flight of the Conchords, “the almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand.” It’s not to be confused with What the Folk?!, an online music station wit terrestrial headquarters in San Francisco; or with What the Folklore?, “a comedy podcast trying to make sense of nonsensical stories.”
• What the Frock: a dormant blog about fashion. Also a dress – that is, frock – manufacturer in Hong Kong and a consignment store in Portland, Maine, that sells “high-end” dresses and keeps it classy by using only the initials of What and The. (Incidentally, frock came into English in the mid-14th century from Old French, where it referred to a monk’s habit.)
• What the Flick?! — aka “the acerbic WTF” — is a YouTube channel hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, who also has hosting duties on Turner Classic Movies. The show calls itself “the most trusted name in [movie and TV] reviews.”

F-word substitution

This formula keeps only the initial F and changes the terminal consonant as well as the internal vowel sounds.

• What the Font: a typeface identification platform. From the site: “Seen a font in use and want to know what it is? Submit an image to WhatTheFont to find the closest matches in our database. Or, let cloak-draped font enthusiasts lend a hand in the WhatTheFont Forum.”
• What the Fact: a Tumblr about “funny, weird, cool, stupid … amazeballs” facts; the site’s Q&A is called WTFAQs. There’s also a series of What the Fact e-books on subjects like inventory management.

I find What the Fact especially amusing because I once lived in Israel, where native Hebrew-speakers frequently dropped English fact into conversation or speeches — I never understood why the Hebrew equivalent wasn’t up to the task — but they invariably pronounced it fahct, which always sounded to me like fuct.

For further reading:

• James Harbeck asks what the fuck is the the in what the fuck?
• Stan Carey on OMFG! Sweary abbreviations FTFW

_

* The spelled-out version is certainly older, but by how much is hard to say. Wiktionary gives a 1960 citation from Carlos Fuentes’s Where the Air Is Clear (“Even dogs know the neighborhood better than you do, so what the fuck, you just follow”), but that line is from the 1988 English translation. I’m fairly certain the original Spanish is non-sweary: “Te salen perros al paso, que conocen el cantón mejor que tú, y tú nomás te dejan llevar.” The next-oldest citation is from a 1972 work of music scholarship by R. Serge Denisoff (“But what the fuck, let’s face it. I want to live good. I want to make some money; I want a car, you know. How long can you fight it?”). [UPDATE: See comment from Stan Carey, below.]

https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/what-the-not-quite-fuck/

#acronyms #retail #rhyme #sports #whatTheFuck #WTF

Strong Language

2015-01-19 17:36:10

No discussion of swears and branding would be complete without a nod to Sofa King, which is at once a real brand, a parody brand, a tribute brand, a song title, the subject of a Saturday Night Live skit, and the punchline to a joke. For you scholarly types in the audience, it’s also a convenient introduction to prosody.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

In the not-quite-beginning there was The Sofa King, a real furniture retailer in Northampton, UK, that opened in 2001 with a memorable tagline (or strapline, as they say over there).

“Our prices are Sofa King Low!”

Amazingly, this family-owned business got away with it for 11 years. “Police investigated complaints in 2004,” the BBC reported, “and no action was thought necessary, but the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received more complaints.”And so, in 2012, the ASA upheld the objections of some upright citizens “because the phrase could have been interpreted as a derivative of a swear word.” They were so fucking right. Despite owner Mark Kypta’s furious protests (“The public are behind us and think it’s crazy”), the ads came down, although the strapline still flourishes on the Sofa King website.*

But “sofa king” as an alternate rendering of “so fucking” had already been kicking around the playground for some time before Sofa King sold its first sectional. On the Straight Dope bulletin board, the first post under the header “I’m sofa king stupid” was published on January 11, 2000. A month earlier, someone had posted “I’m sofa king crazy” on the same bulletin board, and elaborated with a now-classic bad-taste joke:

I we Todd did.
I sofa king we Todd did.
hehe hehe , (read slowly and and think stupid)

Fucking and retarded – a double whammy! It was only a matter of time and e-commerce before variations on the meme appeared.

Source.

Source.

The line was used in a 2004 episode of the animated TV series “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” (“Repeat after me: I Am Sofa King We Todd Ed”), and was picked up by Danger Doom for the group’s 2005 song “Sofa King.” (Lyrics and “Aqua Teen” clip here.) It’s worth noting the ambiguous foreign accent and awkward stress patterns of Billy Witch Doctor in the cartoon (so-fa king is not the same as so fuck-ing), which makes the joke a) odder and b) funnier once you get it. There’s that prosody—the technical term for the rhythm of speech—that I promised you in the first paragraph. You’re welcome.

Various amateurs had their fun with Sofa King ad concepts—here’s a video from 2006, and here’s another one from the same year—and then, in April 2007, Saturday Night Live turned it into something both cruder and more polished. (The video isn’t embeddable, but you can but you can watch it here.)

The SNL “Sofa King” ad starred Fred Armison and Maya Rudolph as unibrowed foreigners of indeterminate provenance (Kazakhstan, maybe? This was, after all, just a year after the release of the Borat movie) touting their wares. (“Sofa King great!” “Sofa King comfortable!” “Sofa King cheap!”) In a Language Log post published shortly after the episode aired, Eric Bakovic analyzed the sketch’s linguistic and dramatic devices:

Every time “Sofa King” is mentioned in the sketch, a “Sofa King” logo appears on the screen.

“Sofa King” is always pronounced “Sófa Kíng” — that is, with the first and third syllables distinctly stressed — as opposed to “so fúcking”, where the second syllable is the stressed one. [Ed.: Prosody again!]

The characters in the sketch all speak with a discernible (but not explicitly identified) foreign accent.

And just in case you really like having jokes explained to you:

The play, of course, is on how “Sofa King” sounds like “so fucking”, and it works because “Sofa King great” can mean something like “great in the way that only Sofa King can make it” (kind of like “Army strong”, as discussed here**) while “so fucking great” means something like “(so) amazingly great”.

But wait! There’s more!

Inspired “in part” by the SNL sketch, a Chattanooga, Tennessee, restaurateur opened Sofa King Juicy Burger in late 2012. There’s a sofa inside the restaurant, and the website’s home page is papered with furniture ads from circa 1961. There was equal parts pearl-clutching and befuddlement among locals when the opening was announced, but everyone seems to have settled down.

I also discovered:

• Sofa King Good restaurant in Jalisco, Mexico (!).
• Sofa King Stew Ped hot sauce
• Sofa King hot sauce (sans “stew ped”)
• Sofa King Bueno wine (“so fucking good”), a Syrah-based blend from Chronic Cellars in Paso Robles, California. (Chronic is, among other things, a strain of cannabis, which this wine does not contain.)

And yes, there is a whole subcategory of Pho King names—a minor subcategory, which is why I’ll dispense with them here rather than devoting a whole post to them.

Pho (or phở) is a Vietnamese noodle soup; the vowel is pronounced as a schwa, more or less: fuh. So naturally there is a Pho King Delicious in Northridge, Los Angeles County; and a Pho King Good in—I kid you not—Beaverton, Oregon; and a plain old Pho King in Oakland, California. And here, knock yourself out with a whole bunch of creative pho restaurant names. They are sofa king funny.

__

*I pause here to remind you that the international fashion brand French Connection, which is also based in the UK but is much bigger than Sofa King, has been known as fcuk (yes, lower case) since 1997. “The fcuk brand was dreamed up in-house,” The Guardian reported in 2001. “The company used to send faxes back and forth between its London and Hong Kong offices using the abbreviations FCUK and FCHK. ‘There was no thought of it being rude,’ insists [company owner Stephen] Marks, but advertising executive Trevor Beattie picked up on the abbreviation and came up with the ‘fcuk fashion’ slogan.”

**Or “Ford tough.” Brand name + adjective is a fairly common trope in advertising copy.

https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/its-sofa-king-famous/

#food #furniture #PhoKing #puns #restaurants #slogans #SofaKing #television #wine

Oh so pretty blatant

Interview with Stephen Marks, chairman and chief executive, French Connection

^{Julia Finch (The Guardian)}

A1⚡FX #Entertainment #Music #Film #Art #Sports 2024-02-11 @ 07:27 AST

Rick Rubin: Protocols to Access Creative Energy and Process

Super Bowl buzz: Latest on NFL free agency, draft, coaches https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id/39478896/super-bowl-2024-week-latest-nfl-buzz-news-rumors-free-agency-trades-draft

Origin - Chaosmos (Full album)

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II (Full Album Premiere)

Travis Scott - UTOPIA Full Album

Primordial - How It Ends (FULL ALBUM) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW_0In070FI

SUFFOCATION - Hymns From The Apocrypha (OFFICIAL FULL ALBUM STREAM)

Vomitory - All Heads Are Gonna Roll (FULL ALBUM)

Immortal - War Against All (OFFICIAL FULL ALBUM STREAM)

CRYPTOPSY - As Gomorrah Burns (Full Album Stream) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjvgV8-FgKY

Cannibal Corpse - Chaos Horrific (FULL ALBUM)

DIESEL · GORILLA WARFARE [Full Album]

Rancid - Tomorrow Never Comes (Full Album)

Foo Fighters - But Here We Are (Full Album At Sunrise) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IS-GJWfus4

André 3000 - New Blue Sun (Full Album)

Egyptian Meditation | Temple of Light (Duduk Music)

☄️

A1⚡FX #Entertainment #Music #Film #Art #Sports 2024-02-18 @ 02:46 AST

Listen To Will Ramos Of Lorna Shore Collaborate With The Gnarly Neighbor On “Riptide” https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLWdfv5PPq409frDIDPwY8Vljj_pybF_bv&v=u-WteE8YfOs https://www.metalunderground.com/news/details.cfm?newsid=157574

Aborted Releases New Visualizer Video “Dreadbringer” Featuring Shadow Of Intent’s Ben Duerr https://www.metalunderground.com/news/details.cfm?newsid=157572

Pacman Jones Reveals His Family Candy Connection And What He Eats in His Ferrari https://uproxx.com/life/pacman-jones-favorite-food/

IHSAHN Releases Self-Titled New Album – “This Project Has Expanded Into Far More Sonic And Visual Areas Than I Could Possibly Have Hoped For” https://bravewords.com/news/ihsahn-releases-self-titled-new-album-this-project-has-expanded-into-far-more-sonic-and-visual-areas-than-i-could-possibly-have-hoped-for

Schoolboy Q Defies The Status Quo In His Paranoid ‘Yeern 101’ Video https://uproxx.com/music/schoolboy-q-yeern-101-video/

🔱