Klatu verata niktu: Personal

Well... seems that I was robbed last night

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 08:23:41 GMT

I came home to a lovely suprise last night. I found my home had been broken into and a number of items missing. The perpetrator(s) couldn't have lingered long and looks like he/they had to leave in an awful big hurry. They left behind a half-filled back of possessions, the tool used to jimmy my house door with, and a flash light which belonged to them that they hurredly left behind on top of my bed, and which was still on and shining bright. They must have heard the sounds of the downstairs tenants coming (an hour before I arrived home) and decided to "get the hell out of Dodge."

I got home at 10pm and think that this all went down between 8:30 and 9:00pm.

There's a bit over $5000 worth of stuff missing, but the kicker is that they got my laptop, with pretty much my life on it. The identity thieves are going to have a hayday with this one. Fuck!

To top it all off, they got my other cell phone which he spent the night making calls from. Not surprisingly the idiot must have no friends since he spent the night using my stolen phone to call several people in my phone's address book, including my current cellphone (which I carry at all times) and my Dad's phone. Yeah, you heard me... the criminal called me on my current cell phone from the stolen one! He didn't say much, just kind of grunted and sighed like the moron that he is. The police came over last night and took a report and contacted the department's fingerprinting officer to come down to my home and dust for prints. The last one left at about 2:00am. The criminal in the meantime was calling me, while I was giving my report to the cops. I couldn't call him back because it would have just forwarded back to me... I have that phone permanently call forwarded to my new one.

I called the Fido to deactivate the phone but thought it might be a little more satisfying to have them unforward the phone for an hour or two so I can call the perpetrator and harrass and verbally abuse him a while. Sure made me feel better when the moron picked up both, my first and my second phone call. It just doubled my opportunity to curse and insult him before cancelling the service. I have to admit... it made me feel a little better.

I'll never see that stuff again, I'm sure. But, it'll be nice for the next little while fantasizing about what horrible fates might befall such a clearly idiotic criminal. I hope they find him and lock him up in a cell with a very big oven and two demented teenage puppy-bakers. One can only hope. Spare the puppies, bake a loser (see previous entry).

This latest incident only serves to top off an equally wonderful week which saw me miss two days of work due to an unknown illness, as well as the quite sad occasion of attending the funeral of a friend who lost his battle with cancer. I can't wait for this month to pass. Enough!

Blog break

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 06:01:22 GMT

I guess I was hoping I'd find the motivation / inspiration to keep posting regularly over the last month or so, but alas I've found neither. I haven't even been going on messenger as much lately. Just haven't really felt up to it. This means that it's probably time to admit to myself that I'm on a bit of an internet / blog break.

Sincere regards and respect to you my friends who have come by regularly and often looking for an update and have found none. And for those of you who have honored me with your usual fare of heartfelt comments and well-wishes and who are still awaiting a reply, please accept my humble apologies for not yet returning the compliment. It's not personal at all. I guess it's just a case of the internet blahs.

Please know you are in my thoughts

Love,

Simon

Happy April, Fool! :)

Sun, 02 Apr 2006 05:06:51 GMT

Though I don't generally subscribe to any religious philosophy, there are certain deeply significant religious holidays that I do observe with great respect and reverence. These are: St. Paddy's Day... and of course April Fools.

Happy April 1 everyone!!!

I've posted some new photos at the end of the "Currently Me" album that you might enjoy. Here's a couple to tease and tantalize...

P.S. Di, lemme know when you and Bender are headin' to Calgary, and I'll arrange for me and Kell to hook up with you guys for a visit. Hey, maybe we can rrrroll up the rim on a winner for ya?

Who's the fool?

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 07:40:01 GMT

My patience is yours but not for your tests

My openness is yours but not for accusations

My honesty is yours but not for foul judgments

My trust is yours but not for betrayal

My mind is yours but not for games

My words are yours but not for twisting

My heart is yours but not for daggers

My life is yours but not for the flushing

My soul is yours but not for the damning

My love is yours but not for the lethal closeness it allows for such blows

The thing I choose to keep solely for myself is my freedom of choice: the power to walk when these other things have been squandered

The Righteous Man

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 16:29:21 GMT

The righteous man wavers not

in the face of raging storms and gales,

and steers his ship on its ordained course

no matter what assails.

Though by winds and tempests of life’s harsh turmoil

is his journey blown,

by his stance and steadfast course

the righteous man will be known.

And he who speaks of him

with ill words and malfeasant tone

No glory, no honor shall such inherit

nor majesty of princes’ throne.

For it’s not easy to walk a path unforged

nor to swim against a forceful stream,

barred by men whose minds are muddled,

seduced by false promises or dream.

Hey, so what's eating you?

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 05:56:37 GMT

Tonight I was out for dinner with a couple of friends at a Japanese/Korean fusion restaurant, Sushi BBQ Inn, and we got to talking. Yes, we did find a moment to exchange a few words in between the grilling, dipping and scarfing. In fact, I was surprise by the sheer expanse of conversational ground that we did manage to cover while busily stuffing ourselves from both ends. Well, okay, maybe only from one end, but you get my drift. :)

Among the many topics of discussion, one struck me as particularly morally dilemmanistic. At this point, let me address your concern over whether 'dilemmanistic' is even a real word or not. I assure you it is not, but since when has that ever stopped anyone before? In fact, coming up with new words is a long held and proud tradition of mine, and why the heck not given an appropriate conversational context and the meaning is clear from the context to both the speaker and the listener, or in this case the writer and the reader? Though I do wonder at times what conversational context could ever account for words like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious or antidisestablishmentarianism? But, I digress...

The topic in question which caused us some consternation was that of consumption... consumption of human flesh. One of the lads posed a question which now I admit I had no good answer for. I say that because no answer that I could provide was divorced from a set of vague moral or ethical codes based on learned societal or religious mores or their succedents. The only biological reason against such consumption that we could think of was perhaps the increased risk of transmission of human-specific disease since any microbe, parasite, or infection in the meal already has the necessary genetic coding to pass disease on to humans. This risk may be somewhat dimished when consuming meats from other animal sources such as beef, lamb, pork, or chicken though this is no guarantee and most of us are probably aware of recent human diseases that have mutated and crossed over from animal strains: BSE a.k.a. Mad Cow disease, Hoof and Mouth disease, and Avian Bird Flu.

In any case, I found myself really struggling with the answer to the posed question "What, exactly, is wrong with eating of the flesh of another human?" All my attempts were feeble and resorted to completely arbitrary moral and ethical standards. I could not make a cogent argument against human consumption without reverting to arguments and gut feelings based on some societal taboo or religious moral code. And given my rather strong philosophical contra-position to theism, this concerns me. The moral and ethical standards and constructs on which I was forming my arguments were clearly manmade and cannot be found anywhere else in the animal kingdom. There are no such constructs in the wild, and we must be willing to admit that at least under certain circumstances, most people would agree that cannibalism is probably acceptable as a last resort if it came down to a matter of survival, and is probably worth the ethical trade-off. Consider the story of the Donner Party, or the survivors of the Andes flight disaster, a plane crash in the snowy Andes mountains upon which the book 'Alive' and 1993 movie by the same title were based. It would seem that at least in some cases where survival is a necessity, some or perhaps most of us are willing to concede on the issue and are willing to understand, even forgive such acts of "barbarism".

But what about the recent case of the German cannibal back in 2002... the one who advertised for a human volunteer willing to be eaten and ended up getting several responses? Some people actually willingly responded to the ad, and for which there was at least one case where one victim consentually ended up as a set of meals for said cannibal. I seem to recall that they also jointly shared a meal comprised of the victim's spotted dick. On a serious note though, I believe this case and legality of the consentual agreement between diner and dinner is yet to be decided in German courts.

So really, what's to stop anyone, say in an underprivileged part of the world, from consentually willing their corpse after death to a needy family whose members are perhaps so poor and in dire need of food and protein that they risk severe malnutrition or starvation? Could eventual destigmatization of such admittedly distasteful culinary practices even hold some unintended positive side-effects on problems resulting from overpopulation? Problems such as competition for food, water, space, energy, or natural resources? Perhaps such culinary practices would ease reliance on other stock animal herds such as beef or pork and would reduce associated environmental pressures such as greenhouse gas generation resulting from aggressive modern beef ranching practices, etc.

Might there really be a Soylent Green in our futures after all?

Blechhhhhh. I shudder at the thought... though I don't really know for sure why.

Biblography:

1. Books on the Donner Party

- http://www.bookshelfstores.com/rh_donner_party.htm

2. Links related to the Andes flight disaster:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571

- http://members.aol.com/PorkinsR6/alive.html

3. Links related to the German cannibal

- http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,712621,00.html

- http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/12/13/germany.cannibal/

4. Links related to Soylent Green

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

New Photo Album - Me Through The Years

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 10:04:21 GMT

I've uploaded a new photo album... pictures of me over the years since 1985 to today. There are some gaps, and I'm planning to scan in stuff from 1977-1984, once I get my hands on the albums and a scanner!

In the meantime, have yourselves a good laugh. And yes, for those who doubt the authenticity of the photos, I did once have hair! :P LOL

Click here, or choose the album from my photos tab to view.

For most recent pictures, check out the "Currently Me" album.

Double standards

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:57:25 GMT

This post comes on the heels of my last post about the impossible standards of beauty, and is a bit of a rant the other way... against one that affect guys..

When looking at the double-standard of beauty, we must not forget that there are also other standards that should be examined: like that of basic mutual respect and dignity... which it would seem everywhere you look these days, you find they run only one way. If you thought double-standards are only practiced by men, you need to look again and examine how often you do this to your husband/male partner in public.

I would place large bets that as I write this, the women who complain most about the impossible beauty standards imposed by society and by men are at home right this very instant watching the Oscar's red carpet fashion strut pre-show, with superficial interviews and the almost mandatory commentary on modes of dress, styles, and beauty of the female stars. In fact, fashion and beauty are one very large component of the whole "Oscar's experience". Right ladies?

But, have you noticed how the guys are mocked for "slapping something on" last minute and how little time it takes them to get ready, etc. Though I'm sure it's not that straight forward. However, even if it were, do you know what allows a guy get away with this? Because most of us just don't spend that much time and effort of our lives worrying about how we look. We know there are more important skills and attributes in life that we need to develop. "Like me for me"... that's a guy's motto. And this is what women keep telling us guys they want. Trouble is, how much time do they spend on developing "themselves" vs how much time they spend developing their "look" or their "style"? Think about it. I had a female friend recently tell me that it's vulgar to talk about money matters in public, and doing so can only attract the wrong kind of girl. Is the same not true for girls who always talk about their physical attributes and "assets"? Are they not then advertising for the wrong type of guy?

I'm standing here, a good man living what life has been given him, folding my laundry with the TV on in the background and I'm listening to the red carpet interviews as a form of background noise. This pageant is nothing more than a fancy dog show for manufactured beauty and cult of personality. What strikes me most listening to these interviews is how supportive, loving, and appreciative are the statements made by males toward their female life partners contrasted against those statements made by females toward their male partners. The thing you notice most starkly when a wife or partner of a male star is given an opportunity to comment is how disrespectful some can be. It is usually some form of thinly veiled passive-aggressive attack or criticism on her partner. There is usually some form of disparaging or value-lowering remark about him in there. And you know what? I see this kind of behaviour and hear these kinds of comments all the time when I'm out in the real world too. Maybe I've become sensitized to it, or maybe I'm just paying attention. Either way, this kind of one-way disrespect happens all the time and has become an acceptable double-standard in our society. I wonder how many men would be in the dog house if these kinds of remarks were to come out of their mouths? This is personally one way I gauge whether to stay friends or partners with a person or not... based on whether they can continue to treat me with the same level of respect and dignity that I show them.

As an example of what I'm talking about... while being embraced lovingly around the waist by husband Will Ferrel, here is what Vivica had to say when asked by an interviewer how long it took for Will to achieve his 'dashing look':

"Oh, not long... he just moves to the next suit in line and puts that one on... that is if it still fits."

What the fuck?!? Is that REALLY what you chose to say in the precious 5 seconds of spotlight that you were given, Vivica? Is that your attempt at being funny? What are you saying? Is that your way of telling your husband (and the entire world) that you think he's an imbecile with no taste or class and that he's getting fat? Ha ha, nice one. Real sensitive. Real supportive. He's your loving husband, dumbass. You should be building him up in public, not tearing him down like that. Grow a brain dipshit. If you could only see a replay of Will's face at the time she made that remark... You KNOW he is biting his tongue... and you know he will never be able to bring this up to her in private for fear of 'causing waves' in the relationship, and God should forbid that he upset her or her fragile feminine ego by confronting her with her act of sheer ignorance and stupidity. No, with no option for recourse or outlet through dialog even possible because bringing it up will mean a BIG fight. And ladies, we don't like to fight with you; life is stressful enough as it is without adding more drama to it, thanks very much. So with no outlet for rational discussion of such matters a man will simply bury such injuries deep in his heart until the accumulating wounds pile up and fester and form ever-growing resentment until one day when he can bear it no more he decides to leave her or stray into the arms of another woman who makes him feel worthy and whole instead of a hollow, broken spirit. And his partner is then left wondering in complete shock and surprise as to what happened. How can females, who bill themselves as fair, just, giving, caring, and sensitive creatures be so fucking clueless sometimes?

Some will defend Vivica's remarks as "humour", but how humourous would it have been if he made the same remarks about her? Or are Vivica's remarks okay because we all know women don't say things with cruel intentions or spite? Let's all re-examine the basic assumptions that we all seem to be operating under in society these days, be it the giving of compliments, praise, hugs, or even in the realm of sexual thought and freedom. In almost all these areas, if practiced by a man, there is an assumption of an ulterior or sinister motive behind the act... but when practiced by a woman, these are seen as somehow pure and natural acts. Believers of this false dichotomy have their heads lodged firmly up their ass, and unfortunately in the 'westernized nations', it seems there are overwhelming numbers who subscribe to these flawed basic premises and frame of mind... thanks in large part to the socialization, feminization, and factual revisionism that has taken place over the last 4 decades.

So, whatever happened to the whole "behind every great man is a great woman" adage then? You know... the one that's been drummed into our little male minds since we were small boys? The truth? It went out with the rise of female empowerment and the wussification of the western male. That's right ladies and gentlemen, you heard me. The new sport is "Man Taming" and guys are the quarry. This is the deliberate and boastful sport of women breaking their 'wild men' like one does a horse with the goal of turning them into domesticated, well-trained, well-behaved*, submissive, ass-kissing little lapdogs. The horse-breaking analogy couldn't be more apropos, for in the coming years such a broken man will become saddled with much and ridden hard only to be thanked with infidelity or put out to pasture in a nasty, bitter divorce only to be replaced by another yet unbroken wild man because he has gone soft or become too boring.

In my mind, it is simple. There should only be one standard: All forms of denigration and disrespect should be considered just that regardless of the gender of the practitioner or the gender of the recipient of these attitudes and behaviours.

It's high time men woke up to this fact, put a stop to this willful abuse of love and trust, and refuse to accept denigration and disrespect from their partners. The simple rule of thumb is that you should not accept from a woman any behaviours or attitudes that you would not tolerate from another man. So take back some power boys and get a spine. Be free to be you, and not what someone else wants you (or is moulding you) to be. Grow up and be man for fuck's sake. Stand up for yourself and your dignity. Call her on her double-standards and her bullshit. If she doesn't love you for you, then who the fuck are you trying to become for her... and why? In the end, what woman will respect a man who is so weak in character as to allow himself to be remade in some image of her choosing or to just to appease her anyway?

Sorry for the rant, but it's bullshit double-standards and double-talk like this that is allowed to pass for humour in our society all the time these days that burns my ass. The standard that women can do and say what they want to a guy and he just has to take it. But done the other way, it's "abuse" and a capital offence worthy of castration, divorce, or worse, an intervention with Dr. Phil. And THAT double-standard and others like it really piss me off.

*: whatever well-behaved means in the eyes of a woman today. You know it will change tomorrow anyway. :P

P.S. As corollary, I will bet that very few men will touch this contraversial post, not out of disagreement, but out of fear. There is very much a male culture of fear in talking openly about this, and women seem to think it's cute whipping their men into subservient yes-men pussies. I hope some guys will have the balls to comment.

Drama... who needs it anyway?

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 14:34:35 GMT

If you are anything like me, you like your drama where it belongs: on the big screen. Life is too short to argue over petty things; make mountains of mole hills. We don't always get what we want, and sometimes this is okay. Gotta look at the big picture. Gotta pick your battles in life. No use frettin' over every little thing -- that's how people end up as nervous wrecks.

I have seen and had enough arguments and fights in my life. I don't want to spend the precious days worrying about this or that little thing. For once in my life, I'm trying to go with the flow; not trying to plan or look ahead or anticipate, mitigate risk, formulate contingencies, yada yada... For once, I'm choosing happiness over security.

Here's to the betterment of life and the earnest pursuit of happiness...

Cheers. Salut. Sahhitkon.

Winds of Change, they are a blowin'

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 00:42:52 GMT

So, after four years with the same company, having served in a multitude of roles and positions; having travelled near and far; having poured much blood, sweat and tears... I'm about to leave my heart behind. I am leaving my job and starting another. I am leaving behind a great bunch of people. Smart people. Fun people. Solid people. And were it not for this loss, life would just about be perfect.

The new job is going to be awesome and I'm so looking forward to it. It's going to be fresh, challenging, and comes with some interesting responsibilities. I'm really stoked.

Much has been happening in this simple man's life as of late and the winds portend good fortune. I am hopeful and optimistic about what lays ahead. I look forward to my days and I can see little that will hinder my outlook. In this spirit of change, I will now quell my usual urge to repress excitement and supress sentiment and instead acknowledge that life right now is looking pretty damn good! :)

---

Snow. Snow is the word of the week. Lots of white, fluffy, beautiful snow. No bitter cold, or harsh grey skies. No, no, no... just a blanket of white and the bright sun shining in all its glory, lifting the spirits and fueling the hope of all under its grace. I wish I had a picture to post along with these words.

---

In summary, I'm good and hope you are too my dear ones. I hope to post again soon. I'll have to spin up a funny story or two for ya.

Take care all.

Life's little surprises

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 07:38:36 GMT

Next month will be my family's 29-year anniversary in Canada. We landed in Calgary on March 2, 1977 after having emigrated from Lebanon, by way of Athen's Greece (1 month), London England (1 month), and on to our final destination Calgary, where I have stayed and have grown up since the age of 8.

It was that year when I entered into the already in-session Grade 2 at Capitol Hill Elementary school. There, on my first day of school, outside the nurse's office was a young girl. She was the first classmate to ever set eyes on me. She was pretending to be sick as she did often that year. Unknown to me until recently, she did not get on well with a particular teacher. She recently recounted her memories of that encounter to me. She remembers my wide-eyed look of awe, wonder, and fear on my first day of school. I was a new kid in a new school in a new country in a new culture. I could not speak the language and I had no friends. And in the thriving redneck metropolis of 1977 Calgary, I was the only kid of ethnicity in the whole school who was not chinese. I was the only 'brown' kid.

Now, to some, that was a novelty. Some kids were overtaken by their curiousity and the sense of wonder and took it upon themselves to explore an in-school friendship with me. Some others, a few bad apples, were not so easily won over. I had a particular group of admirers a couple/few grades above me that would follow me home from school yelling obscenities all the way and sometimes throw stones. My mom eventually got wind of this and began meetiing me part way everyday armed with a broom in an attempt to shoo off this contingent of hooligans. That was year one.

In the years that followed, the taunts and teasing abated, perhaps partly because I'd made some friends, partly because some of these bullies had graduated from Grade 6 and moved to another school, and partly because I did a little ass-kicking. Having grown up in Lebanon, I had been quite an outdoorsy kid, climbing 40ft tall Palm trees to pick dates, daily swims in the mediterranean, hikes up large hills and mountains, playing soccer, and lots and lots of strength-building outdoor games and activities (we didn't have many toys in Lebanon, so we made up all kinds of physical games and challenges). I was a slim but very fit and strong kid. It was clear that if I was to have a hope of surviving this new place that would be my future home that I would have to assert some dominance. So, it wasn't long before I had some schoolyard fights with a few of the bullies and taught them a little respect. It only took two or three such encounters and about the same number of bloody noses and black eyes to send a clear message to the remaining a-holes in the school that they should'nt mess with "the little brown boy". In fact, this is how in Grade 3 I met my first best friend in Canada - a fellow by the name of John G. For as long as I have known John, he's been a lippy guy. And though he is today a saint of a man, a commited husband and a father of three, he has never outgrown his cocky, lippy ways. :) It was during one of our school lunch breaks in grade 3 when John decided to exercise his mouth on me. By this time, I wasn't taking much crap from anyone and so it was on... by the end of it, we were both bloody, battered, bruised and worn out. And, we had become best of friends. John would remain my best friend for the remainder of elementary school and one of my closest friends throughout the further 6 years that followed.

Today, John and I still keep in touch, though it's not as frequently. We are more likely to play telephone tag and see each other once a year or so. He's still cocky/lippy, but in a totally funny, endearing way. :) Thankfully, I haven't had to try and school him since. hehehe

Rewind back to my first day of school. That little girl outside the nurse's office would later come to be my first crush and remain my unrequited love for the rest of my time in elementary. Her name was Shelley. I'd never gotten to know Shelley all that well, and had never really worked up the courage to tell her I liked her. She was a very pretty girl and of course in grade 5, a lot of boys were starting to notice her. At this time, the little childhood 'loves' began to blossom and some kids started 'going around' together. LOL. And a boy by the name of Roddy ended up winning m'lady's hand. :) I wasn't part of this 'puppy love scene' as I was still a little too shy and lacking confidence, so I just took a back seat and watched, letting the fire of my crush for Shelley die down and fade to embers over time. In Junior High, we changed schools and we were once again the little fish in a big pond, starting all over. There were many distractions and entirely new dynamics and though Shelley and I both attended that first year of Jr. High together (her family moved away at the end of the school year), the social divide was too great and we had drifted our own completely separate ways.

Two weeks ago I received the surprise of a lifetime. Shelley had sent me a communique from the classmates.com site. I'd been registered on that site now for what seems like a millenia and I'd never heard from anyone at all. So, it was such a cool surprise to receive a notification from classmates that read "An old classmate, Shelley xxxxxx, has sent you a message". Wow, what a surreal experience it was to hear from such a long lost, distant memory. A pleasant and wonderful experience. Naturally I was curious, but was a little unsure at first. However, the next day I opened the message and to my delight it was Shelley writing to say hello after all these years! :) Shelley! How wonderful is that?

After an exchange or two over classmates e-mail, we began to exchange regular e-mail and instant messenger. Since that fateful day, for over two weeks now, we've been chatting and getting reacquainted. And, I've discovered what a truly wonderful, charming, witty, intelligent, and funny person she is. She's cool and super funny. Personality-wise, we seem to have much in common, including the same twisted sense of humour. We've been conversing daily and have shared many stories, photos, confessions, laughs, and laments. To paraphrase her words, "It's great to have that shared history and familiarity with the same events and cast of childhood characters. They are not just some vague figures of childhood that people oft refer to when talking about the past. These are real people and memories for both of us."

And, with me not being that once shy boy anymore, we've been flirting shamelessly ever since and having so much fun. My goodness how wonderful it has been getting to know her again after all these years, though I must be vigilant not to get too carried away. She's dangerous... possessing all the charms and qualities that could make a guy fall hard. I'm still in no place mentally or emotionally for that right now. I'm still a little raw from the last time I let my guard down :P, but I'm appreciating our time together immensely and feel a strong connection of friendship forming.

I now have a couple of pictures of Shelley from those early years in elementary which she's agreed to let me share with you. Now if only I had some pictures of myself from that era, you could all have a good laugh... but alas, I've kept none. Mum's photo albums transfered to my sister after her passing, and Florida's a long ways away from me at this time.

Have a Happy Valentines Day

Shelley, as she was then...

(published with permission)

Shelley, as she is today...

(published with permission)

Busy, busy, busy

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 15:38:35 GMT

Things have been pretty busy the last little while, so not much free time to post any updates. I need to put down a few fires first, then I'll get back to my usual slacking, blogging, etc.

A couple of cool things that have happened lately...

1. I bought a snowboard! I can't wait to find some free time to hit the slopes. Broken bones, here I come!

2. About a week ago, a classmate from elementary school whom I haven't talked to or heard from in over 20 years found me on classmates.com and contacted me out of the blue. She recalls the day I first started school after my family emigrated to Canada (1977). She still has such a vivid recollection of those times. Coincidentally, this same girl happened to be my first crush a year or so later (circa grade 3 or 4), a fact to which she was completely non-privy as I was always a bit of a shy boy around girls I liked. Though I do remember trying all kinds of subtle ways of getting her attention... like wearing volleyball knee pads under my jeans and pretending I was the Six Million Dollar Man! LOL Yeah, I know!! Dumb. Sadly, my wooing skills are little better today than they were then. hehehe.

Anyway, as kids this classmate was always such a cutie; a sweet, pretty, and darling girl. Today she's a beautiful woman and lives in BC with her 12-year-old son. It's great to hear from her again and it sounds like she's done pretty well for herself. We've been e-mailing back and forth and trading stories ever since last week. It's been a real blast from the past!

Anyway, that's all for now. Talk to you guys soon; hopefully when things quiet down here a bit. :) Take care.

Searches that have found this blog

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 05:46:35 GMT

About 4 or 5 times a day, someone locates my site using some search engine. Most of these hits have to do with "klatu", or "verata", or "klatu verata", etc. However, every once in a while I am located through some rather unusual search phrases. Today was one such day. So, to commemorate the event and to begin cataloguing the myriad ways that people find my site through searches, I have begun this list and will maintain it going forward. I have placed a link in my "Links" list (bottom right). For kicks, I will start with today's unusual search phrase:

1. "its my underpants site:spaces.msn.com" via http://search.msn.com/

2. "canada politics site:spaces.msn.com" via http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/

3. "KLATU VERATA NIKTU" via http://ar.search.yahoo.com/ and http://www.google.de/ and http://www.google.com.ar/ and http://mysearch.myway.com/

4. "klatu verata" via http://www.google.com/ and http://www.google.ch/

5. "chris and missy" via http://search.blogger.com/

6. "xenaballerina" via http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/ Search box

7. "intelligence entropy" via http://www.google.com/

8. "baley.org" via http://www.google.com/

9. "Pepe le Pieu" via http://www.google.ca/

10. "human inheritance activites" via http://www.google.ca/

11. "kilmati" via http://mysearch.myway.com/

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London: A whale of a good time

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 02:34:15 GMT

More views of The Tower district

So, a few of you enjoyed the last round of pictures, I decided to do a bit of a walkabout "The Tower" and post a few more photos for you. These ones were taken at night and digitally lightened so you can see some details. Hope you enjoy. (Again, in this view, the pics are cut off on the right hand side. To see them in full, click "Blog" in the menu above)

London Tower

The Promenade

Me and the Tower Bridge

The Tower Bridge

The Tower Bridge (closer)

Ouch!! Did the Dead Man know he signed up for this?

Work and Play

Well, this trip to London has certainly been livelier than some of the others I've done in the past in terms of entertainment. We had a productive week at client site, accomplishing all the slated objectives and perhaps a few more. I met some cool new people who it seems also thought me "a cool enough bloke" to want to hang out and show me 'round the city's nightlife and pub culture a bit.

As well, I really think I managed to put a dent in satisfying my cravings for good London Curries and for English beer this trip! Of course, nothing comes for free and with the daily work and the after-work entertaining, my body clock never adjusted properly to the UK time, nor did it move off of the Calgary time zone in any predictable fashion. So, I ended up operating on about 3 hours sleep per night the whole week, except for Thursday where I only got 2. Ughhhhhh. The bags under my eyes were bigger than the ones I brought on the plane with me.

Fortunately, both Saturday and Sunday morning I managed to sleep in and catch up on the much needed Zzzzzz's.

Tomorrow I'm coming home and though home is where the heart is, it is certainly tempting to try and stay out here a couple more weeks.

Foot Punishment

As you all know from my previous post, the hotel (and room) I stayed in was really great. The only downside, if you can consider it that, was that it was located about 2 or 2.5km from the client offices. This meant about a brisk 20min walk each way. Not that bad if you've got runners, but kinda sucks when wearing brand new, unbroken-in dress shoes! I brought two pairs of shoes with me on this trip, one dressy pair, and one casual pair. I've included pictures below. I've also included pictures of the damage that the first 3 days had on my poor feet. With each step in the dressy shoes, the leather above my toes would naturally bunch at the pivot point, forming persistent and effective pincers. Well, about 15,000 steps later, the flesh on top of my big toes on the second bone from the tip was rubbed raw and bleeding, and blisters on the bottom behind the middle toes. Needless to say this made further walking in my dress shoes very unconfortable.

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

Food Punishment

There must be some unspoken tension between cartoonists/animators and stinky cheeses. Growing up, Bugs Bunny and Friends was a staple of entertainment in our household. Among the hilarity of Bugs himself, I always enjoyed the segments with Pepe Le Pieu. This adorable and lust-ridden skunk L'Amour is enough to capture anyone's heart. However, the poor fella could never catch a break with the ladies. And to make it worse, he was always mocked for his powerful, yet wholey natural aromatic endowment. I cannot recall precisely whether it was during the Pepe Le Pieu segments or other segments of the Warner Brothers smash Saturday morning series, but Limburger cheese seemed to be a regular feature whenever a powerful odor was required. From the context it was used, I surmised as a young boy that Limburger was the penultimate in stinky substances and why it was used with such great ubiquity in the cartoons to illustrate extreme and unpleasant pungency.

Recently with the release of the new Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit movie, there is a scene where Wallace dreams of what must be another stinky cousin of Limburger: Stinking Bishop.

Seeing how I am a great lover of cheese and have boasted aloud many a time in front of my UK-based cousins that I love cheese, and the older and stinkier the better, they felt that in their own good way they were doing me a service when they brought home some of that Stinking Bishop for me to try. Well, it didn't take long after removing the block of cheese from the grocery bag for its scent to permeate through the remaining three layers of plastic and wax paper to strike me with a knockout punch right in the kisser. Folks, let me explain. This cheese smelled bad. Very, VERY bad. If the most corrupting Evil of Hell had a smell, it would be called Stinking Bishop. This cheese must have been ripened at the entrance of the hot, steaming orifice at the base of the deep cloven ridges of Satan's own sweaty buttocks. The noxious, toxic sulphurous gases emanating from lava fountains at the mid-Atlantic ridge have nothing on this cheese. If the scent of this combined with Satan's ass was captured, combined together, and marketed to the masses, it would be labelled 'Stinking Bishop'.

Stinking Bishop ass cheese

Remember folks, this cheese is bad, B, A, D bad. So, I tried a little. The first thought was "hmmmm, surprisingly mild." That was before I discovered the secret to this cheese's potency: stealth. It sneaks in under the taste radar by destroying all taste buds. Then as the heat from your mouth warms and melts the cheese, it begins to emanate a noxious cloud that immediately fills every crook and crevice of your sinuses and olefactory organs. By this point, all hope is lost. Your face turns green, your eyes pop out, and the festering puss of this cheese leaves you with a smell of redigested and freshly vomitted bat guano, processed by a person with ulcerous stomach and bowel lesions and passed upward through a cyst-laden esophagus and halitosis-afflicted mouth resulting from a severe and progressive form of gingivitis.

Mmmmmm, that's good cheese! Blechhhhh!

Completion of the retch from the Stinking Bishop

It is a tad bit of an understatement to say that this cheese has a somewhat mildly unpleasant aftertaste. Well, so much for that culinary experiment! I spent the next fifteen minutes stuffing all manners of things down my gullet to try and wash some of the rankness of this infestation from my mouth and olefactory system, to no avail until I thought to spray scalding hot water up my nostrils and into my eye sockets to clear out the corrupting haze that had laid such a heavy burden on my senses. Even this did little to quell the aftertaste, so I resorted to having a go at licking Lochy's balls. Lochy is my cousins' family dog. And he is not a little foo-foo lap dog either, he is a rural living Scotch Terrier of a beast (with attitude to match) that rolls around in his own excrement, kills badgers, and rarely ever wipes after a good pee. But alas, the taste of the Stinky Bishop was gone!

Lochy, the dog that got lucky

Whale Rescue

The big news story of Friday and Saturday is a young whale that somehow managed to swim its way past the Thames barrier and go up the Thames all the way to protest in front of the British Parliament building. It would appear that the whale was sick or possibly had suffered some kind of damage from high energy sonar. Environmental protection groups have long been trying to raise awareness of oceanic "noise pollution" from underwater explosives tests and the regular use of high-power sonar equipment employed by submarines and geological and oil-exploration surveys of the sea floor. It has been postulated to cause damage to the sensitive sonic receptor organs of sea mammals such as whales and dolphins. In any case, the specific cause behind the whale's mysterious drift into the Thames is yet unconfirmed, but the rescue operation undertaken yesterday failed and the whale has since died. News is pending an official autopsy by marine wildlife experts and environmental agencies. Click here for pictures of the attempted rescue. Follow this link for the full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4635874.stm

First Day in London, A Room With a View

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 23:22:45 GMT

Well folks, the flight was relatively uneventful, save for some screaming children who like every other time I've taken this trip once again caused me to get NO SLEEP on the way. The plane came to an absolutely text-book landing, at 9:50am and the landing was soooo silky smooth and the stop so imperceptibly gradual and non-violent that the passengers all gave a clapping ovation to the crew. It was a stunning performance. The ride on the Heathrow Express to Paddington was rather quick, but transferring to the troubled Circle Line on the London Underground chewed up some valuable time due to "Minor Technical Difficulties". I wondered if a Miner threw himself onto the tracks. I hear it's really quite a depressing profession. :) Or perhaps there were some Minors causing a ruckus. Dunno. An hour passed before Brad and I found ourselves at "The Tower" hotel. This is literally right next to The Tower of London, an old castle sporting an impressive dungeon and a large and unusual assortment of instruments of torture (like Dame Edna's rendition of Willie Nelson's "To All The Girls I've Loved Before"). Incidentally, The Tower of London is where they keep the Crown Jewels, and not so coincidentally, underneath my own tower is where I keep my family jewels.

Having finally made it and checked in to the hotel at 1:00pm, we were met by a very comely young blonde of relatively recent Russian descent working at reception named Tatiana, who I sensed was trying her best to flirt with me. Her opener? Having checked out my passport photo, she implied that it gave me a certain manly ruggedness... and accompanied with a large sparkling smile, proceeded to ask me if I was a Terrorist. Yes, that was the best should could come up with, Gawd bless her! So, I busted her chops a little and we had a bit of a laugh together. She was very smily and accommodating and I did notice a little coy thing she was doing with her eyes whenever she spoke to me. I just pretended to be oblivious. Not hard to imagine for those who know me. :P Anyway, I poured on the charm and got a few good laughing snorts out of her. A few moments later, I am upgraded to a nicer suite with a great view! :) Still, I may have to find some "annoyances" with my room so that I have a good reason to flirt with her again. ;)

So I proceeded to my room and tried to have a bit of a clean-up and catch a quick snooze before grabbing a bite and heading over to client site for a tentative meeting 2 o'clock meeting. The snooze didn't happen, and neither did the "quick" bite, but I did get a few nice photos of the room and the view. Looking at the list of available inhouse restaurants, I decided to avoid the inhouse "Carvery" as this would take too long and probably be way too expensive, and opted for the scaled down "Gallery" restaurant instead, thinking its simpler menu ought to get me going with something fast, cheap and easy. But since she wasn't around, I decided on the The Fish Tapas instead. :D Basically, the Fish Tapas was a Spanish version of sashimi but with smoked Haddock and "something pink and stinky". It was neither fast, nor cheap. I'm sure they sent out the boats to catch the fish for this appetizer because it took about 1 hour to get it. I almost fell asleep in my coffee waiting for it. Incidentally, coffee and Fish Tapas = £12 GBP, or $25 CAD!! For four translucent deli-style slices of stinky fish and a palm-full of fancy salad greens!! Dayyum! Remember, this is what one might consider to be the filler meat in a *very light* sandwich!

The client site was about a 15-20 minute walk, and I didn't have to lug any equipment, so I hoofed it on foot in the spittly drizzle of the overcast, chilly London haze. Well, at least the drizzle kept the pigeons grounded, so there was no danger of getting hit by an errant ass missle. Folks, this is the reason why I don't go site-seeing in London... because the fuckin' tourists feed those damn shit-hawks so much that they're not only fat and aggressive, but they're also kept nicely loaded... and if you ever find yourself in Trafalgar Square or Piccadiliy Circus, you better bring an umbrella, even on a sunny day! Fuggin' Pissgeons!

Anyhoooo, as I was sayin/swaying (yes, a couple of pints too many), on the walk back from client site, the London weather fairies decided to take a big piss on us and thoroughly drenched us from head to toe. That goes to show that you should NEVER GO ANYWHERE IN LONDON WITHOUT AN UMBRELLA! Not even to the "loo", not even for a moment. So, here I am sporting my dapper new cue ball cut -- I shaved the head turf all off again yesterday -- and of course there is no more hair to soak up the rain, so it beaded off my skull with the same effect that a newly waxed car sheds water, in big globular watery coinlets. And of course, it found the path of most annoyance, primarily down my forehead, then my brow, then onto my proboscal organ (no, THAT organ you sick bastards), whence it accumulated in an immaculate and gravity-defying display of teetering balance on the tip of my nose before slopping down to my other proboscis (okay, NOW I'm talking about THAT organ )

Well, by the time we reached the hotel, we were drenched. But I did discover that the water resistant blue polyester jacket Tracy helped me purchase a few weeks ago (the one that looks so much like our new Company Logo jackets, arrrrrggggg!!) is not so water resistant. So back at the room, sopping and miserable like a wet cat, I proceeded to disrobe, wring out my clothes and hung them to dry. But it's all good, because it gives me the opportunity to sit here and impart this wonderful mental image for you of me typing this entry wearing nothing but my sopping underpants. Mmmmmm. Yummmm. LOL

Anyway, my hotel room kicks ass and I have the best view, so as your reward for bearing with me, here are some pictures I took of my digs, and a full frontal of Studley Me in the mirror. Yes, I paid for a replacement mirror! :P

P.S. These pictures are somewhat truncated on the right side due to the relatively narrow blog column width. If you wish to see them in their full glory, click on the "Blog" link at the top of this page. That will show you this entry as a FULL PAGE.

From the hall to the view

From my window: The Tower Bridge

My luuuuuvvv nest

Facing back toward room entrance

Closet to the left, bathroom to the right

My schwanky shitter

Tower Bridge from my window

The Tower Bridge at Night

The London Thames Tour Ferry at Night

My studly Self in the mirror ;)
This is by far the best part of the room. hehe

Ahhh Snow! And just in time for my departure. :)

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 21:12:51 GMT

Well, it finally happened. We finally got some snow. Only 3-4 centimeters, but snow nonetheless. It's been quite long overdue and I was wondering if we'd get any at all this winter. Christmas in Calgary was a balmy 14 degrees Celsius (that's 57 degrees Fahrenheit to my American friends). Normally for Christmas, we have knee high snow, minus 25 to minus 30 degrees Celsius (-13 to -22 Fahrenheit) and near-blizzard conditions.

I would say we faired quite well this year, so this must mean we were all good boys and girls... which of course really means that we obviously didn't have enough fun or stir up enough trouble in 2005. :) Perhaps 2006 can be a little more mischief filled?

Anyway, I just thought I'd drop everyone a note before I take off on my London trip. I'm planning to be back on Tuesday, the 23rd if all goes well. Wish me luck!

New Photo Album for y'all

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 21:44:09 GMT

I've uploaded a new photo album entitled January 13, 2006. Enjoy.

Yet another trip to London

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:50:44 GMT

Hi everyone, it's been a few days since my last blog entry, I know, but things have been pretty busy for me over here. I'm trying to sell a house, rent out another, and been heads down putting together a training course skeleton in prep for another trip to the UK next week. I'm not overly enthusiastic about being away from home right now. It's not like I don't like London, but 18 or so trips in the last 3 years have made me a bit less than wholely appreciative of the place. Now if it were Sydney, Australia -- there's a town I'd like to go to again! 3 months living there and I never once got bored or sick of the place!

Anyway, my flight and hotel is confirmed. I leave Calgary for London on Sunday night and will return the Monday night eight days following. I'll be staying at The Tower Thistle on St. Katharines Way. (Trip dates January 15 - 23)

For my friends in the UK: if you are going to be in the London area, perhaps one evening or the weekend of the 20th we can share a pint of the stout at one of London's fine drinking establishments? :)

Speaking of Sydney, I'd also be up for a good London curry or perhaps some vietnamese noodles at the Phat Phuc (hehehe) Noodle Bar on Sydney Street.

Talking about January 04, 2006

Sat, 07 Jan 2006 06:57:58 GMT

This entry was posted on Shannon's (OneTrueGoddess) site.

Shannon is such an inspiring lady and this quote really struck a chord with me. I thought I'd share it with you here and introduce you to a truly beautiful person who inspires and encourages scores of people every day.

Thank you Shannon. Love ya darlin'. *big hugs*

Shannon's Blog Entry for January 04, 2006 (click to see original post)

When we become truly

enchanted with our own lives,

we become more selective

regarding the company

with which we are willing

to share our precious time.