Show Notes: Oct. 6, 2026

 Welcome to Tuesday! I hope things are going fine for you right now. I can’t help but dream a little. I noticed that the Lotto Max jackpot is up to $75 million. Man, I remember, like, 15 years ago, when the Lotto Max was still relatively new and the jackpot got up to $50 million for the first time. In case you missed the news, they overhauled the Lotto Max back in the spring, so now the jackpot maxes out at $90 million. Ya know, just for funsies, I decided to use ChatGPT to find out how much my dream vacation would cost. As cliched as it is, I would love to go to Walt Disney World. I want to stay in the Contemporary Resort. That’s the most famous hotel at Walt Disney World. That’s the one where the monorail goes right through the lobby. And of course, I want to go to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. That’s the Star Wars land at Walt Disney World. And I want to build my own lightsaber and my own droid. Anyway, according to ChatGPT, a vacation like that would run me about $20,000. ChatGPT helpfully pointed out that that’s only zero point zero two four percent of the jackpot, so a bargain...if I win the Lotto Max. But no matter how clever AI is, it can’t give you the winning lottery numbers just yet.  

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Yesterday, I’m hanging out, doing the office stuff I do around here when I’m done doing my show, and the boss comes up to me, he wants to show me his pictures. This past weekend, my boss lucked into some Oilers tickets, so he took his grandson to see the Oilers game. Fantastic. The little guy got his picture on the jumbotron, got his picture taken with Hunter, the whole thing. And of course, the boss was telling me about the prices. I haven’t been to Rogers Place to see a game, but from what I gather, the burgers and beer are ridiculously high. And then I got to thinking about the last time I saw an Oilers game. Last time I went to an Oilers game had to be, like, 25 years ago. Dad lucked into some tickets through work, and he took me. And then I’ve got my sister. My sister is the baseball nut in the family, so a few months ago, she and her family went down to Seattle to see the Blue Jays play the Mariners. And that reminds me of a guy I used to work with. He was a real big NFL fan, and his bucket list was to see an NFL game in every NFL Stadium. Had to fly down to San Francisco twice to see his 49ers play. So I just want to hear from you today. Have you ever been to any major league sporting event? What was like? How much was it? Tell me your major league sports story! 

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And that’s it for me, I’m done for the day. Thanks for hanging out with me on this lovely Tuesday morning. But before I go, I just want to take a moment to wish you a happy National Taco Day! 

Taco Day is on Taco Tuesday! I love how that worked out! And of course, I just had to go with the old Taco Bell Godzilla commercials for my clips. Who doesn’t love a good taco? The beef, the cheese, the veggies...all in a crunchy shell! And there’s a reason why I went with the Godzilla clip. The Gordita is my favourite thing at Taco Bell. They take a regular taco, then they take a soft taco, fill it with cheese, and then put the regular taco in it. So good! Anyways. I hope you treat yourself to a Taco on this, National Taco Day. And whatever day you’re celebrating today, I hope you have a good one.  

Show Notes: October 5, 2026

 And we’re back! Hi! How’s it going? I had some vacation time I had to burn off, so I decided to take half of last week off. Give myself a five day weekend. But we’re back now, and heading into another long weekend, because Thanksgiving is coming up this weekend. But yeah. I had some lovely time off. I went home to Entwistle to visit the folks. And while I was there, my Mom suggested we take a day trip out to Jasper. I was down for that. I love Jasper. You know, I’ve told you how, when I got my new car two years ago, I was going to take so many lovely day trips with it. I don’t know why I never considered taking a day trip to Jasper. We definitely live close enough that it’s doable. So that’s what we did. We checked out downtown Jasper. Just from my brief tour, it looks like they’re recovering from the fire damage at a steady pace. Then we went up to the Miette Hot Springs for a dip in the pool. I love those hot springs. So, yeah. I had a very pleasant autumn vacation. But now I’m back, and I’m ready to get back to it! 

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So, over the weekend, I got a text from my best friend. He’s out there in Vancouver. Now, apparently, his kiddos have been bitten by the acting bug, and they have a small role in a movie that premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival. So my best friend got to go to his first-ever big time movie premiere! And of course, he had to dress for the occasion. He busted his suit out of the closet. This is what he had to tell me. He reached into the pocket, and he found a receipt from 2013! So it’s been at least 13 years since the last time he had to bust out his suit. He also told me that when he polished up his black dress shoes, they were so old and worn out, they fell apart in his hand. So he channeled his inner Red Green. He ran down to the dollar store, bought himself a roll of black duct tape, and patched up his shoes with duct tape. So inspired by my friend, I would like to hear from you today. When’s the last time you dressed up? When’s the last time you had to bust out your suit or your nicest dress and get all dressed to the nines? For me, it was the company Christmas party two years ago. What can I say? I think I look good in my suit, and the Christmas party felt like as good a time as any to bust it out. But how about you? When’s the last time you got all dressed up? Text in and let me know!  

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And that’s it for me, I’m done for the day. Thanks for hanging out with me on this lovely Monday morning! But before I go, I want to wish you all a happy Global James Bond Day!  

The very first James Bond movie, Dr. No, hit theatres on this day in 1962, and one of the longest-running movie franchises was born. I remember back in the 1990s, there was this cable TV channel called TBS, and every couple of months they would have James Bond movie marathons. I lost many a weekend in high school and college to those marathons, and that’s when I really fell in love with the franchise. I own most of them on DVD, so I’ll probably watch one this afternoon. And I hope you do, as well. So happy Global James Bond day, everyone! And whatever day you’re celebrating today, I hope you have a good one.  

Mark Tastes KD Ramen

Ever have Cup o Noodles and think, "This could use some cheese?" Well, Kraft decided to answer the call!

It's KD Ramen, today on Mark Tastes Random Things!

Show Notes: Sept. 29, 2026

 Welcome to Tuesday! Shaping up to be another wonderful autumn day. Didn’t get up to too much yesterday afternoon. Got my laundry done. I know what whenever I get laundry done, I bore you with tales of fighting for a washing machine in my apartment’s laundry room. But no...no fights yesterday. Everything went pretty smoothly. I’m just getting tired. You know, I used to have dreams of living in massive house with a six car garage and an indoor pool and stuff like that. But now, I simply dream of having my own laundry room. Being able to do laundry whenever I want without needing a sockful of quarters. Oh, that would be bliss! But in the meantime, laundry’s done. September’s pretty much done, too. We’re off tomorrow for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. So, yeah. It’s a Tuesday that’s feeling like a Friday. Just an overall weird vibe to today.  

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Well, we’re off tomorrow for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, so that means today is my last day of the month! And that means today I’m doing my usual end of the month thing and asking you, what got you through the month? See, I was inspired to do this by my best friend in college, all those years ago. My best friend was the editor of the school paper. Our school paper came out monthly, and he would end each issue with two lists: what annoyed him this month, which is pretty self-explanatory, and what got him through the month, which was all the good things that happened to him that month. So I want to hear from you today! What got you through the month? Share all the good things that happened to you, so we can inject some positivity into the world! What are some good things that happened to me...? Well, McDonald’s had their International Menu Heist again. Those black pepper and garlic Chicken McNuggets were so good! There were some special edition DVDs on sale that I finally got for my collection. I can now watch every single Charlie Brown holiday special ever made! So that’s me, but I want to hear from you. What got you through the month? Text in and let me know!  

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And that’s it for me, I’m done for the day. Thanks for hanging out with me on this lovely Tuesday morning. But before I go, I just want to take a moment to wish you all a happy National Coffee Day! 

I know I’ve mentioned this a few times before. I am not a coffee drinker. I think it was all that time as a kid being told I’m too young for it that kind of killed any desire to start. I mean, coffee’s not like alcohol, right? With alcohol, there’s that magic age, 18, when you can finally drink and you go to the bar for the first time. There’s nothing like that with coffee, where you turn a magic age and you go to Tim Hortons for your first double double. I remember being in grade 12 and my english teacher made a joke about drinking coffee when you’re studying for diplomas, and I was like, “dude, I’m old enough to drink coffee now?” But I still never started. Anyway, happy National Coffee Day everyone! And whatever day you’re celebrating today, I hope you have a good one.  

Show Notes: Sept. 28, 2026

Monday has arrived! Welcome to the brand new week. And I tell you, there’s no denying it. Fall is now in full swing. How do I know? At my apartment building, my parking spot is right under the trees. And when I came out yesterday morning, my car was so completely covered in leaves, that I had to dig out my snowbrush and brush them all off before I hit the road. That’s not too bad. But sometimes, we get a little bit of frost, too, and then the leaves stick to my car. So I’ve got to wait for things to warm up a little before they come off. And then when they do come off, I’ve got all these leaf-prints all over my car. So I’m going to have to put up with that for the next few weeks. But it’s OK. You’ve got to admit the autumn leaves are very pretty, so it makes for a wonderful drive. I just don’t want to take the leaves with me. But anyway. Looks like we’re going to have lovely autumn weather this week, so brace yourself for more leaves.  

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I was wracking my brain for a topic for today. I was sitting at my desk, reading articles, trying to figure out something, when I saw this for a potential Hit It and Quiz It questions. Twenty five percent of people worry that they’ll never find a hobby. Really? That a lot of people! Well, we need hobbies. They help us relax. But sometimes, we realize that a hobby just isn’t right for us. So that’s my texting takeover for today. I want to hear from you what’s a hobby that you tried and decided just wasn’t for you? I mean, I’ve got a few. One is geocaching. Have you heard of geocaching? It’s searching for buried treasure in the modern age. You go to the geocaching website, you get the latitude and longitude of your buried treasure, and then you go look for it. When you find it, you take something and then leave something behind, and write in the log book when you visited. I first read about, I thought it was cool, I visited a few, but...I don’t know, man. It just didn’t hold my attention long enough. I keep saying I’ll go out hunting this weekend, but I never get around to it. Anyway. I want to hear from you today. What’s a hobby you tried and decided just wasn’t for you?  

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And that’s it for me, I’m done for the day. Thanks for hanging out with me on this lovely Monday morning. But before I go, I just want to take a moment to wish you all a happy National Good Neighbour Day!  

It’s been said in this day and age that we don’t take the time to get to know our neighbours anymore. I really should, living in an apartment building, when we’re all so close. But I do try to be a good neighbour. For example, there I was, a couple years ago, just at home, watching TV, and I got a knock on my door. My neighbour had just bought some new furniture on Amazon, and needed someone to help her carry it up the stairs. So I did. Just little acts of kindness like that are all it takes to be a good neighbour. So happy National Good Neighbour Day, everyone! And whatever day you’re celebrating today, I hope you have a good one.  

Show Notes: Sept. 25, 2026

 Friday is here, and I am ready for the weekend! I am ready to get out there and enjoy my rest and relaxation! Looking like weather should mostly be good for it, too. I don’t have much planned for the weekend. Looking ahead, I see the next few weekends are going to be crazy busy for me, so this is going to be my last quiet weekend for a while. I’m looking forward to it. You know I collect DVDs. Well, I’ve got a bunch of new ones that I’m looking forward to tossing in the ol’ DVD player this weekend. And, of course, go out and get my steps in. Not too much longer when I’ll have to stop getting my steps in outside and start doing it at the gym again. I do that when it starts getting too cold out. Either way, I’m looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing this weekend. And whatever you get up to this weekend, I hope you have fun doing it.

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So back on Monday, for the texting takeover, we were talking about Halloween candy. I mentioned that I got my first box of Halloween candy for the year, and I was asking you when you start buying that Halloween candy. And in the midst of that, I got this text from Shirley. Shirly says, “I decorate inside and out for Thanksgiving. We have a lot of local and non-local producers who work hard in challenging conditions to grow the food that sustains us all. I fell the bounty is something to be indeed thankful for as well as our local producers. However, when I went looking for decorations, I can find aisles of Halloween decor and even some Christmas out however hardly anything for Thanksgiving. My question is do people decorate for Thanksgiving?” And you know what, Shirley? I kind of agree with you. As we start to make a bigger and bigger deal about Halloween, I can’t help but think we’re starting to forget about Thanksgiving. So I want to hear from you today. Do you decorate for Thanksgiving? Do you really get into it? Or are you just so worked up about Halloween that you kind of forget about it. Do you decorate for Thanksgiving? Text in and let me know!  

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And that’s it for me, I’m done for the day. Thanks for hanging out with me on this lovely Friday morning. Now. I don’t know if this is official yet. But I know the movement is afoot, so I’m going to put it out there. Happy Dolly Parton Day! 

When Dolly Parton passed away about a month ago, a movement started that September 25 should be declared Dolly Parton Day. Why September 25? Because when you right it out as numbers, it’s 9 25. You know...9 to 5, like her hit song. I had the news story earlier in the week that the State of California has declared it so, so I don’t know if that means it’ll spread around the world. But I’m optimistic that it will. So happy Dolly Parton Day, everyone! And whatever day you’re celebrating today, I hope you have a good one.  

Show Notes: Sept. 24, 2026

Thursday is here, and the weekend draws ever closer. I am looking forward to it. I don’t have much planned for this weekend, but the two weekends after are going to be nuts, so this is going to be my last free weekend for a while. Prefect for relaxing and getting out there and enjoying this autumn weather. Man, it’s going to be gorgeous out there. It was gorgeous yesterday afternoon when I got my steps in. Had a little incident when I was getting my steps in. I’ve got a FitBit, right? And when I was starting out, the exercise plan that my trainer put me on was that I power walk for 2 minutes, and then I walk at my regular pace for minute. I constantly switch up my pace like that. And I figured out how to program my FitBit so a little alarm goes off when it’s time to switch up the pace. Well, early into my run, I accidentally paused my FitBit. So I forgot when to switch up the pace and power walked for a lot longer than I wanted to. Oh, well. I need to get a new FitBit. Mine is about 9 years old. The clock runs an hour fast. It doesn’t sync to my phone’s GPS anymore and draw the little map of where I went. So if you’re thinking about a Christmas present for me, new a FitBit would be nice.  

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So back on Monday, for hit and quiz it, the question was 17 per cent of people have done this under the influence of alcohol. And the correct answer was online shopping. You know how it is, after a couple of bottles of wine, you just start going through Amazon clicking on “buy now,” and then the Amazon guy has a surprise package for you a few days later when you’re sober. Now after we did that question, I got a text from Amanda. Amanda felt like sharing her experience. She says she doesn’t drink, so she was sober when she did this. She got goofy when she was online, and she bought a life-sized cardboard cutout of Mr. Bean. She’s had him for 15 years now, and apparently works as a great home defense system. I can see that. Set him up in front of the front door, and people will think there’s always someone home. So inspired by Amanda here, I want to hear from you, what’s the craziest thing you bought online? Maybe you were under the influence. Maybe you were just in a goofy mood. But what’s the craziest thing you bought online? For me, it would have to be my microwave smores maker. You put your graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows in it, toss it in the microwave for 30 seconds, and you get a smore. So I want to hear from you today! What’s the craziest thing you bought online? Text in and let me know!  

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And that’s it for me, I’m done for the day. Thanks for hanging out with me on this lovely Thursday morning. But before I go, I just want to take a moment to wish you all a happy National Cherries Jubilee Day! 

Ya know, I was struggling to find a clip for this one, and I just knew there would be a My Little Pony named Cherries Jubilee. One of the most famous of decadent desserts, cherries are cooking in a sweet sauce, and then mixed with a warm liqueur, usually brandy, and then set on fire! The burning cherries are then served over vanilla ice cream. History says it was invented in 1897 to mark Queen Vicotria’s diamond jubilee, and the Queen loved herself some cherries. So happy Cherries Jubilee Day, everyone! And whatever day you’re celebrating today, I hope you have a good one.