Who's to blame?

A lot apparently. A blogger lists the various things or people to blame for the VA Tech incident. There were 73 things listed at last count.

Here's a good one:

It’s the fault that schools teach that the theory of evolution is fact.

Improbable

Funny insurance commercial clips.

100 things in 100 days - number 51

51. I am a Taurus.

According to the experts:

Positive Traits: practical, reliable, patient, persistent, determined, strong-willed, solid, affectionate, warm-hearted and trustworthy with a firm sense of values. (no argument here)

Negative Traits: possessive, jealous, lazy, self-indulgent, greedy, boring, unoriginal, stubborn and inflexible in opinion. (the only ones I buy are possessive and self-indulgent)

Likes: permanency, stability, luxury, comfort, pleasure and good food. (that's spooky)

Dislikes: disruption, being rushed, being indoors, being pushed too hard and any break in routine. (nope, doesn't sound like me very much)

100 things in 100 days - number 52

52. My birth mother died when I was just a few days old.

See number 65.

Since there's really no detail here, I'll post a 2nd one today....

These kids deserve to be idols....

You can keep your Christinas, your Hillarys, your Brittneys and what have you. Gimme some of these young cats who play guitar like there's no tomorrow. From the Strat-O-Blogster guitar blog, check out the Young Guitar Wonder Directory.

Jimmy Bowskill - Canadian!

Art you can eat....... but would you want to?

Check out these amazing cakes, made by Zhanna from St. Petersburg, Russia.

No plastics or any other artificial stuff is used - everything is edible.

Outstanding.......

Eggs - treme

I was ordering breakfast (and listening to others order) in Vegas and it dawned on me - there are a lot of ways to prepare eggs.

Poached; scrambled; over easy; over medium; over hard; omelette; sunny side up; boiled; soft boiled; hard boiled; quiche; deviled; souffle; baked.......

What is it about eggs that we came up with so many different ways to cook them?

100 things in 100 days - number 53

53. I am a 'meat popsicle'. Hehehe - I love that movie.

The Fifth Element. I loves me a good sci-fi movie and this is one of my faves. Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich (meeow!), Chris Tucker..... This is an awesome movie, great story, jaw dropping effects, a good dose of laughs and aliens. And it spawned 3 of my favourite movie exchanges:


COP 1: Sir? Are you a human?
KORBEN: No, I am a meat popsicle.


Leeloo: Leeloo Dallas mul-ti-pass.
Korben: Yeah.
Leeloo: Mul-ti-pass.
Korben: Yeah, multipass, she knows it's a multipass. Leeloo Dallas. This is my wife.
Leeloo: Mul-ti-pass.
Korben: We're newlyweds. Just met. You know how it is. We bumped into each other, sparks happen... Leeloo: Mul-ti-pass.
Korben: Yes, she knows it's a multipass. Anyway, we're in love.


LeeLoo: Chee-kun! (as she scarfs down a steaming hot chicken)

This sucks

So..... ummm........ one minor thing that happened while in Vegas was that one of my shoes self destructed on the inside and unbeknownst to me, the torn shoe fabric had immobilized my right big toe. It started to get sore on our last walk on the strip, but I tried to ignore it. Bad idea. It swelled and now it's in bad shape. I spent 3 hours in a clinic and I have to spend the next 2 or 3 days with my foot elevated and wrapped in Epsom salts, while on an antibiotic regimen.

Which means I can't sit at the computer. Good thing I have a laptop!!!! (Darlene is surely rolling her eyes right now). Anyway, I hope this heals fast.......

I'm not even going to bother trying to find a picture to capture what's going on right now, because that would just be gross. But at least I've got your imaginations working overtime, eh?

If I had a million downloads.......

Someone with influence in the music industry has finally offered up an idea I've had for years. Steve Page from the Barenaked Ladies in an interview with Ars Technica, suggested P2P blanket license fees that we could pay to get the right to download unlimited music. It's what the music-listening public wants. Blanket licenses already exist, (jukeboxes, records, radio, and live performance) so why can't we get that as an option?

This is a smart, informed gentleman who has the answer folks.......... Music industry? Listen up!

100 things in 100 days - number 54

54. I have a temper, but I think I've tamed it.

I inherited a temper from my Dad, but it rarely shows itself. I do suffer through occassional bouts of rage, anger, frustration and violent emotion, but you'll likely never see them manifest. There is a hole in the wall of my old bedroom closet where I lived as a teen. I have never punched anyone. How do I control my temper? Well, if you must know - I secretly torture squirrels in my basement.

No, not really.............. but I almost had you going there, didn't I?

Picture by gary turner.

Episode 19 of GWN II is up!

In episode 19, the hosers try to send up the 'I'm a Mac and I'm a PC' ads with their own twist - I'm a Quebecer and I'm not. Not one of my faves, but the whole curd cheese thing was fun. Video.ca link. Many thanks to our viewers at video.ca, who now number over 10448....... awesome!

100 things in 100 days - number 55

55. I often crave real chip truck fries.

Next to burgers, the most enjoyable food is fresh home cut french fries. My love of this food started when I was in high school in Deux Montagnes, north of Montreal. Across the street from my school, was Mario's pool hall. He had the creation of fries down to a science. He started peeling and cutting early in the morning and had a system where the fries were pre-cooked prior to the lunch hour rush and then he finished them off in the fryer as lunch time started. Students poured in to play pool, rock the jukebox and get some of those fabulous fries. Walk anywhere near the place and the smell of vinegar was strong and distinct. After I joined the military and got to Ontario, I was lucky enough to be thrust into a culture where french fry trucks, or 'chip trucks' as they're known, thrived. You could find them on street corners in most towns and they were a common sight in cottage country too. In Alberta, chip trucks are rare and you won't find many restaurants that sell fresh home cut french fries. For those that have cravings similar to mine, there is a Mecca in Calgary - Rocky's Burger Bus - 1120 46Ave SE (403-243-0405). It has great home-made burgers and fresh home cut french fries. What more could you want?

Are all these food posts making you hungry yet?

Our stay in Vegas - Part 4

More eats!

Darlene wouldn't have let me live if we didn't get at least one meal in at The Cheesecake Factory at The Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. Their menu is extensive, but we're partial to some of their pasta creations. It was difficult, but we had to make room for their desserts. Darlene had the Godiva chocolate cheesecake and I had the chocolate coconut creme cheesecake (if you like coconut - you'll love this cheesecake). Then we tried to walk it off..........

Our stay in Vegas - Part 3

Eats!

I can't speak for the Mandalay Bay hotel, but at The Hotel, we got a 2-for-1 coupon for breakfast at The House of Blues. But the best part is if you look closely at your receipt, it says at the bottom that you can use it to get another 2-for-1 breakfast the very next day! Bonus! That helps keep costs down.

But the place I was really looking forward to was the acclaimed Burger Bar. It's in Mandalay Place, the little mall connecting the resort to the Luxor. I don't have to tell you how much I loves a good burger and the Burger Bar did not disappoint. I chose a real, very thick Angus ground beef patty. The list of toppings was endless, but I kept it simple with cheddar cheese and a mound of string-thin caramelized onion. For a restaurant burger - that was freaking awesome!

Our stay in Vegas - Part 2

One of the things I hear folks complain about the Mandalay Bay resort is that it's too far from the action. On the other side of the coin, you could argue that at the southern end of the strip, you never have to wonder which direction to go - just head north. But seriously, if you ever wanted to cut down some of your walking time toward the centre of the strip, just catch the (free) tram to Excalibur.

But while you're at Mandalay Bay, there's lots to do. The Shark Reef is always fun. If you've never been to a large aquarium, this will impress you. At $15.95 per person, you might think twice, but if you're staying at the resort you might get in for $5 per person instead.

I think the major attraction is the Beach. With a wave pool, lazy river (our favourite) and other lagoon pools, beach sand almost everywhere plus service right to your chair, you can't go wrong. If you plan on going to the beach with 2 or more people and you want chairs together, better get there before 11am. On busy days, most of the chairs are full by noon. To best enjoy the lazy river, you'll want an inner tube. The Beach rents them for an astronomical price - I won't even tell you - your brain will bleed. Better to buy a cheap one outright at $16 each.

X marks the spot we claimed at 10:30am. Y is where the topless beach is, if you're into that sort of thing (it's not free).

Our stay in Vegas.... an article in several parts

I'm going to post the journal of our trip in bite sized chunks - mostly so that I can fit in a picture about each part. Let's start with the hotel.

You can find just about any kind of room you want in Vegas, the majority being the economy-sized, economy-priced room just big enough to sleep in. Sometimes though, you have to pamper yourself, and Vegas has plenty of that kind of room to choose from as well. To date, our stays have included the Luxor (rating - OK); Treasure Island (nice junior suite); R.J. Marriott ( a little resort way off the strip - but nice and quiet); the Venetian (very nice - awesome service); and The Hotel at Mandalay Bay. The Hotel is part of the Mandalay Bay resort, but offers luxury suites in a separate tower toward the back of the property. I've read a lot of Trip Advisor reviewers saying this hotel is too dark. It's a very modern theme with dark colours and lots of black quartz tiling, but I like it. The suites have flat panel TVs in each room, even the bathroom(s). The tub, with its waterfall faucet and the shower stall are both huge. Probably the only drawback to The Hotel (aside from price) is that it's quite a walk to get to some of the Mandalay Bay attractions, like the Beach or the Shark Reef. Speaking of price, our cheapest night was $159US and the most expensive was $359US. The more booked they are, the higher the price.

Transportation along the Strip in Vegas

If you don't have a car in Vegas, getting around can be a pain if you're not up for the walk. And the part of the strip conducive to walking (Mandalay Bay to the Wynn) is up to 3 miles (5km) long - not including side trips into each resort. So having a ride is always welcome. Taxis are expensive. At one time, my ride of choice would have been the Strip Trolley. This cute little trolley shaped bus seems like a deal at 12.50 per person for 3 days. You have to suffer through stopping at the shuttle loading area at each resort, which makes the trips much longer than they need to be because of the trick of getting through the resorts' driveway mazes and then getting back into traffic. But you can get on or off at any stop. They claim to run anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes between buses. We found it was more like 30-60 minutes. If you buy passes, make sure to check them right away. We didn't and found out too late that although we had bought two 3-day passes, we only got one 3-day and one single day pass. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice, so we got to use the trolley as much as we needed. I guess we cashed in some karma credits there.

Of course, after we spent the money on the Strip Trolley bus, we discovered an even better bus system - The Deuce. These double decker buses come every 7 to 17 minutes and they stick to Las Vegas Blvd., so no detours into the hotel properties - which would save a huge amount of time. The fare is reasonable too - $2 per ride or $5 for a whole day. The day pass is good on any Vegas transit bus too, so you could get off The Deuce at the South Strip Transfer Terminal and catch a bus to the Outlet Mall. This bus will get you from downtown (where Fremont Ave is) all the way past Mandalay Bay. We'll know better next time.

First let's deal with the travel arrangements

So, we went to Vegas.

Darlene said if we had opened a fortune cookie just prior to leaving, it would have said, 'expect delays'.

Well, we started on a good note. Scheduled departure time: 7:30pm. Actual departure time: 10:30pm. Reason? Problems with the aircraft. So we arrive at terminal 2 in Vegas around 12:30am and I'm thinking, get a shuttle bus, check in, everything will be fine. PPPfft! There I go thinking again.... Although the signs clearly indicated where shuttle buses would be picking people up, there were no shuttle buses to be seen. No problem. We'll wait. Well, we would have been waiting a long time because they don't come to terminal 2 at 12:30am (fact is - I don't know if they go there at all unless you've booked in advance).

So we had to catch a shuttle to terminal 1, where lo and behold, there are countless shuttle buses waiting to take people to hotels. How did we find all this out? Signs? Nope. I had to search for and ask around airport staff after the crowd got restless waiting for a shuttle. I managed to find out an inter-terminal shuttle was around the corner, out of sight of the shuttle bus loading area. Good work McCarron Airport. But man oh man did the limousine service (who were there in droves) ever make out like bandits with the folks who didn't want to wait or figure out what was going on.

We checked into our hotel (The Hotel at Mandalay Bay) and walked into a room that was definitely not non-smoking, so we went back to the desk and got a much better room as a result.

It was 2am when we got to our final room.

I'll leave the actual Vegas details until another post, because now I feel it appropriate to share with you the details of our return trip.

The return flight situation was just as bad. Our 5:00pm flight was already 2 hours delayed when we got to the terminal. Before anyone starts with 'well, that's what you get for flying Air Canada', let me say that I only chose the airline because I had some Aeroplan (reward) miles to burn. Scheduled departure - 5:15pm. Actual departure - 7:40pm. No wonder my friends have a more appropriate motto for this airline - 'Air Canada - we're not happy 'til you're not happy'.

While we were waiting for our flight, a Toronto bound flight's passengers (again - Air Canada) were informed that their flight missed out on getting catered, so go get something at Burger King or Pizza Hut (the only restaurants available in terminal 2) before you board.

OK, forget everything bad I said about Air Canada. They gave us $8 vouchers to spend in the terminal on snacks (only honoured at Burger King or Pizza Hut - not the snack store - no snacks for you!)......

Once we arrived in Calgary, I overheard a lot of grumbling from passengers. Some noted the lack of explanation or apology from the flight deck regarding the delay. Others noted that they knew of other friends whose recent flights out of Vegas on this airline were also delayed several hours. I saw the pilot and co-pilot quickly slam the door of the cockpit once they saw how upset some passengers were. Then, to top off the trip, they wouldn't let us off the plane right away because of a so-called security incident in the terminal. I have a feeling there are going to be a few calls or letters to Air Canada in the next few days regarding their service.

Seriously Air Canada, you could do better than this............

Off to Sin City

Well my loyal readers, this person is about to get on a plane destined for Las Vegas. Darlene and I are off for a nice relaxing holiday. See you when I get back later this week.

Be good and no fighting........

Vinegar - it's awesome

Here's an article on many uses for plain old white vinegar. Who knew?

I gave vinegar a try lately on hard water deposits on our kitchen sprayer on the sink. Worked like a charm.

Cell etiquette

Here's a fun article on cell phone etiquette. Except that, for the most part, it's all true.

Excerpt:

9. Thou shalt not attempt to impress with thy cell phone. Not only is using a cell phone no longer impressive in any way (unless it's one of those really cool new phones with the space age design), when it is used for that reason, said user can be immediately identified as a neophyte and a poseur.

100 things in 100 days - number 56

56. I love thunder and lightning storms.

Which is the primary reason I miss Ontario. When we lived in Kingston, we had a place on the 5th floor of an apartment building on a ridge with a great view to the West. We could see storms coming for miles and the lightning shows were prolonged and awesome.

One summer, I spent a couple months in Brandon Manitoba, where the storms were fast and furious. On an evening drive in the outskirts of the town, the lightning was so bright and constant, I was able to turn the headlights off and still see the road. We don't get much in the way of thunderstorms in Calgary (by comparison), so when they do happen, we love to go out on the porch and watch.

Picture by darkmatter.

Another fun ad from the folks at DQ

The Dairy Queen Blizzard ad writers are at it again. These people deserve a raise. This is supremely funny stuff. I especially love the dad's reaction when mom comes through the door....

Episode 18 is up

In this instalment of the Great White North II, the hosers discuss the myriad uses for duct tape.

Video.ca link.

New motivation poster

By Karl Plesz

100 things in 100 days - number 57

57. I've been surfing the web since 1994.

When we moved to Calgary, one of the first things I did was get an internet connection. I remember it like it was yesterday. Darlene wasn't convinced that the internet was a big deal, but I had a feeling it was something we really needed to get. We got a dial-up connection through a local provider. By 1999, we had switched to a high speed connection using DSL, again with a local provider (Nucleus - whose customer service rocks, by the way). We haven't looked back.

I love discussing with folks how our lives have changed since using the internet.

Stealthy....

We were stopped at a traffic light yesterday and Darlene said, "Look at that cute car". I'm looking around, and not seeing any car in my line of vision that I would deem 'cute', I said, "Where?". Darlene says, "That Smart car!" I'm looking around some more and finally crane my neck to one side and suddenly I see it. It turns out the entire car was blocked by the pillar between the windshield and the driver side window. That made the both of us laugh.

The Smart car - hidden from view behind a window pillar........... it's the stealth car!

Not a fruit you say.......................

This can't really be true, can it? Oklahoma has been officially declared the watermelon a vegetable. Not happy to stop there, Oklahoma's house of representatives voted to award the watermelon the honour of official state vegetable, by a vote of 78 votes to 19.

Some days this blog just writes itself.

One thing leads to another

So you all know about my foray into acting training. Well, you may also know that it's this diversion that led to Bernie and I starting this whole Great White North II thing. Now, I've been given a new venue - Law Day. Tomorrow is Law Day in Calgary, where the justice system puts on a day of educational presentations at the Court of Queen's Bench downtown. For the kids, there's a mock trial presentation, 'Pirates of the Courtroom – The Case of the Pirate Princess'. It's a sexual discrimination case and since one of my classmates from acting classes was involved in producing, writing and starring in the play, I was lucky enough to be asked to participate.

My role? I play the Pirate Princess's mother. Yes, that's right, I'll be in drag for my next part. If you're up early tomorrow, you might catch me in the background during an interview with Alison (the producer / writer / Pirate Princess) on Global TV. If you're downtown at noon or 2pm, I'll be at the courthouse.

In case you can't make it, there's me in my getup.

[update] See that wig? Didn't wear it. Alison had a blond one instead and it was perfect, along with a few other accoutrement. Anyway, the play was a blast, the kids were great and I told the cast I want to be involved next year. Met some great people and got to hang out in the judge's chambers with the cast, which included Ian White (a local CTV news personality). I even made it onto the Saturday morning news on Global, although I did not record the show, since I had no idea when it would air (it was live). So if you were watching Global in Calgary this morning at 9:15am, you would've seen me on TV.

Alison and I are both hoping we were discovered today....

Ouch

I so need to get me one of these for entertaining - a Voodoo toothpick holder..............

100 things in 100 days - number 58

58. Comedy is an important part of my life.


Steve Martin. Bill Murray. Robin Williams. John Cleese. Rowan Atkinson. Jerry Seinfeld. David Letterman. Geniuses - every last one of them. I could only aspire to be as funny as they are.

I think laughter is indeed a potent medicine.

Ever seen a toddler say "I need to get my drink on"?

Here's a clip of Will Ferrell playing a tenant who hasn't paid the rent, who gets a visit from the landlord, Pearl.

Caution, if you're upset by the sight of a toddler using strong language, don't watch it.

Heheheh................. are they still here? Nah, I didn't think so.........

100 things in 100 days - number 59

59. I served 20 years in the military.

How I joined - that's a funny story. A buddy and I were going to join together and on the day I went to swear in, he never showed up. Luckily, I never looked back.

It was a good career - I was essentially a telecommunications and IT technologist. I stumbled into instructing, which made up over a third of my career. I still instruct to this day. The last 5 years in the military were a bit of a drag, but that's only because I had outgrown the culture. But there are no regrets. That career gave me confidence, taught me some skills and in the end, brought me to Calgary.

Lego creations

10 cool Lego creations.

Pictured is the Lego car controlled by a Bluetooth mouse.

W quotes

The 10 best George W Bush quotes.

More online computer fun

If you're bored and need a little distraction, give Onslaught a try. Attackers try to get to your base. Your job is to build and upgrade defences to shoot them into oblivion before they get there.

Can you say addictive?

100 things in 100 days - number 60

60. I've owned 4 cars and 3 motorcycles over my life so far. I drive an Acura TSX at the moment.

1980 - Honda 185cc Twinstar. Small, but eco-freakin-nomical! That was the best investment I ever made. Bought it for $1100 and traded it in the next summer for $1000 toward a.....

1981 - Honda 400cc CM400T. Kept it for a couple years, then bought my first car, a used....

1983 - Chevrolet Chevelle. Your first car is always special. This one served me well, until a buddy set it on fire trying to start it with too much ether. That would be the last used vehicle I would buy for 24 years.

1984 - A brand new Honda V45 Magna (750cc). Hard to believe I paid a mere $4000 for a brand new bike. Shaft drive. They say once you get shaft, you never go back to chain. I kept that bike for 4 years and put over 80,000km on it. Remember what I said about my love of driving? I suppose this is about where it started. Sold the beauty in late 1989 in anticipation of my first new car......

1990 - Honda Civic Si. What a cool car that was. Unfortunately, it was cursed. Broken into in some amateur thug's attempt to steal it. Bizzaro accident on a road trip to Washington DC. In fact, it was after this road trip that I concluded it wasn't a car well suited to long road trips. So we traded it in for a.......

1992 - Honda Accord DX. Not exactly the most exciting car in the world, but very practical. And roomy for a small car. Not bad on gas either. Kept the Accord for 12 years and put over 365,000km on it. By 2004, it was starting to cost me just a tad more in maintenance costs than I was willing to accept, so I bought a........

2004 - Acura TSX. It's really an Accord in disguise. With 200hp. Sport shift. I totally love this car.

[late entry] 2007 - Honda Jazz scooter (2003 vintage).

Not quite.....

I love this. Fast food ads versus reality. You know - how the picture in the ad looks nothing like the food you actually get? I was just talking about this with Darlene a few days ago.

Here's a Whopper ad beside what you actually get.

Nothing up my sleeve................ PRESTO!

You can always depend on Worth 1000 for a good chuckle and this contest is no different. This time, folks were challenged to remix horror movies into something safe for kids.

Director's Mother's Cut 2.

Busy busy

Apologies for the lack of posts. I'm teaching 2 nights this week.

I'll try to make up for it on the nights I'm home.

100 things in 100 days - number 61

61. I actually owned a Commodore Vic 20. [shudder]

If that doesn't date me, I don't know what will. It had a tape drive to store data. Some games came on special cartridges. It had no monitor - you had to hook it up to a TV set. That sucker had a 1MHz CPU. It had 5KB of RAM. That's not a typo. Mind you, only 3.5KB was available to the user. Not to worry, that could be expanded to 64KB. The scary thing is - that was only 26 years ago.

Funny

What if the Beatles were Irish?

Forget hydrogen fuel cells....... we had the solution right under our noses

Another great film I watched this past weekend was Who Killed the Electric Car. It's a documentary chronicling the rise and fall of pure electric cars in the US. These vehicles only came into existence thanks to progressive legislation in California that aimed to cut smog by forcing car manufacturers to build zero emissions cars. It worked, for a time, but these companies were secretly planning to sue the government into submission and take these profit killing electric cars off the road for good, all the while blaming lack of demand for their demise.

It's a decent observation of how big business has unchallenged power in our economy. The best part of the documentary was how they showed just how flawed the hydrogen economy will be (emphasis on the fact that it's not ready) compared to what we already had with electric cars. Which by the way, would not only deliver power to vehicle most efficiently, but also be usable by the electric utility as a means of storing some electric power off of the grid until it's needed.

100 things in 100 days - number 62

62. I am a Liberal.

There's really not much to add to that. Except to say that when I was growing up, I was a minority in my own province (Anglophone in Quebec). Now I'm a minority in Alberta (Liberal). That wasn't meant to provoke a discussion - I'm just stating fact.

Not that this has anything to do with the current topic, but it might interest you all to know that I predicted the return of Jean Chretien to politics after he had retired and wrote that book Straight from the Heart. People thought I was nuts. I then predicted he would win the Liberal leadership and become the next Prime Minister. Nuts again. For my next trick, I predict that Justin Trudeau will run for leader of the Liberals (and win), but not as soon as people think.

Imus smears a ho

Unless you don't follow the daily news, you've probably heard about the Don Imus story. I have nothing of value to add to the discussion, but here's one blogger's take on the whole story.

Do ya like that clever blog post title? It's a twist on 'Horton hears a Who'.....

Stop the madness

If you don't want Canada to have a similarly bone-headed law as the DMCA in the US, you might want to let your federal politicians know. If you don't know what's at stake, you can read more about it here.

Once you've read enough and agree that you'd like to inform your representative that you oppose this, there's a site that makes writing an email to the right people super easy. This link helps you quickly find your MP, presents you with a standard objection letter, which you can edit accordingly. Sweet!

100 things in 100 days - number 63

63. I have a great interest in city planning.

In hindsight, maybe I should have gone into civic life. Either as a politician or a city planner. I have an unnaturally strong interest in city planning. Ask me what Calgary has done right and wrong with its development and growth and I'll have your ear for several hours. That computer game Sim City? More addictive than crack cocaine.

So what are my platform promises? Well, if you vote for me, I'll get that ring road finished sooner rather than later. It's time to consider raising some or all of the C-Train line downtown up above the +15 elevated walkway level so we can ease traffic and increase the safety of the system. In fact, we need to make transit more desirable to commuters, but right now taking transit is akin to herding cattle. Bus riders often wait for several buses to go by before being able to board one. C-Train rides aren't much better. One councillor suggested removing seats. This individual obviously wouldn't be caught dead riding a C-Train to work, would they?

It should always be easier and cheaper (preferably free) to park a motorcycle, moped, hybrid or miniature car (like Smart cars) at a pay parking site - even private sites like hospitals. Some measure of a perk should also be extended to cars arriving in the downtown core full of passengers.

We need to address sprawl. There's no wonder our city has trouble maintaining its infrastructure with the ultra low density we have. We need incentives for property owners to ease the shortage of rental properties. The conversion of rentals to condos has to be limited.

Guest bedroom makeover

For those of you craving more before / after pictures, here's the guest bedroom.

Someday that green carpet will be gone too.

Babel.................. I liked it

So I finally got around to watching the movie Babel. If you ever saw Crash, it was similar in premise, except with a slightly more International flavour. I know a few people who didn't really know what to make of this movie. It was a nice exploration of how people touch other lives in the most unexpected ways. It didn't have a Hollywood ending, but that's part of why I liked it. I also liked seeing Japan featured in yet another movie.

Darlene didn't get why they bothered casting Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett for such relatively small parts, but it seemed OK to me.

Karl's Personal Pie Charts 3

Chart #3.

% of life sporting a moustache.

(I haven't had one since 1995)

100 things in 100 days - number 64

64. I don't celebrate birthdays anymore.

There's not really much to say about this, but I don't celebrate them. I guess I don't see the necessity in celebrating birthdays.............. errrrr........ unless you count cupcakes. I'll gladly bend the rules for a good ol' cupcake...... or two. Or birthday se......... ummmm never mind.

My friends and co-workers have no idea when my birthday is and I like to keep it that way. Darlene and I have a truce - I don't get restaurant staff to embarrass her on her b-day and vice versa.

I know - I'm weird.....

Picture by chotda

Episode 17 of GWN II is up!

In this episode, Hoser wants to discuss hangover cures, but Hosehead just wants to go to bed, suffering from one hims own self. Video.ca link (8100+ views on Video.ca so far).

Did I ever mention that these videos are unscripted?