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Politics
Election. What does this mean? Well, in this case it means that some whining hypocritical
toadies, lets call them ?Progressive? Conservatives, weren?t happy with being
relegated to almost non party status because they completely pissed everyone
off by instituting the G.S.T (Grab & Squander Tax) and almost destroying
the Country, decided to back stab & snipe the ruling party who have brought
the country back into the world political arena & made it the envy of the
world community. I mean, if you say you are Canadian, people respect you, and
feel that you are lucky to live in such a free, socially responsible,
democratic, and Liberal, (not close minded and single purposed) thinking
nation. So, lets go on track record? PC.s (read hypocritical back stabbing toadies)?It basically sucks..A Tax everyone
hates, almost destroying the social safety net Canada is famous for,
privatizing health care (American Style, we KNOW that doesn?t work!) back
stabbing, hypocritical, political assassins, lets get in power no matter what
by a smear campaign because we don?t have a good track record & want to
fool stupid uninformed forgetful people into voting for us. Liberals Bringing Canada back onto the world stage, re-enforcing the
social safety net, keeping the world famous health care going, continuing to
make a strong economy, making Canada a great place to live & be proud to be
from. NDP Pretty well the same as the Liberals except they don?t
realistically have a chance?yet! Green Party Nice concept, no real track record, but a wasted vote the
way our political system works. Bloc Quebecois They used to hang traitors didn?t they?? Or, at least shoot them. These days I think
it?s lethal injection. I think anyone who is trying to break the country up is
a traitor and should be dealt with as such. I can?t believe they made up the
official opposition in the last parliament. These folks are trying to destroy
Canada (see above under P.C.s for the subtrifuge rather than outright treason). While I agree with free speech, treason is a
crime?. isn?t it? You may not, but again you may, agree with my own personal
political views. Please?make up your own mind. Your views are your own, Just
make sure they are informed, unbiased by political rhetoric and
advertising from ALL parties, and from your heart. That?s what makes
a democracy great. ? Just make sure you VOTE!! (Guess whom I?m voting for) Filed under General, Jan 17, 2006
 Three Times Lucky
Talk about 3 times lucky. I guess this sort of fits in with
the
things happen in threes rant. It started a few nights ago. I?ve been waiting
with some degree of angst, nervousness and anticipation for my initiation into
a brotherhood of men. It was all set for next Monday & this Monday after
work over a few libations I had a nice discussion with a friend & colleague
about ?stuff? pertaining to the craft. I was feeling pretty good about things
& settled down after supper & a few beers to a nice evening surfing
& watching the tube. I was feeling pretty comfy, if you know what I mean,
when the phone rings about 8:00 & it?s my friend. Apparently the candidate
who was scheduled to have a date with the goat that evening was a no show, so
he was pleading with me to make an appearance a week early. Well, adrenaline
city & I whip on a suit & make my way to the meeting, a week early, all
of a sudden, no time to even think about it. That?s a stroke of luck I guess as
I saved all that angst and nervousness of the build up. That?s one. Later in the evening, after the ceremony, we all retreated
to a nicely appointed hall for food and drinks. It seems that there is a draw
for a bottle of Scotch, $5 for 3 tickets. Tonight there are two draws however, a
second for a cane that would be donated to an older member who was in need. So,
I have three tickets. As the new guy, I am asked to make the draw. The tickets
are mixed up & held in a tub above my head so that I can?t see them. Well,
I draw one of my three numbers as the winner! LOL?I get the Scotch (to be
shared among everyone, it disappeared rather quickly). I make a second draw,
ANOTHER one of my numbers! You can?t win twice I?m told, so draw again. The
tickets are mixed again & I draw one more time. ANOTHER one of my numbers!
I?ve drawn all three of my numbers in a row! LOL?I was told to go out & buy
some lottery tickets immediately! LOL?That?s two. The next day, home on lunch break at noon, my computer
spontaneously reboots & won?t find the hard drive. I figure I?ll reboot
& get into the cmos to force it to recognize it. It won?t even open the
cmos. YIKES! I?m thinking this is probably a karma thing regarding the run of
luck I had the previous evening. My entire life is on there, if I lose my data
I?m pooched. Over a months worth of digital photos; complicated spread sheets,
mailing lists?the works. I take the machine in to the genius we take our stuff
to & he says he?ll have a look at it. I?m thinking at this point that it
might not be the hard drive, perhaps the mother board as the inability to
access the cmos was suspicious. There may be hope yet! I go in the next day
(today) & am told good news & bad news. The good news is, he can?t find
anything wrong with it. The bad news, he doesn?t know why it would reboot like
that & not access my hard drive. ?No Charge? he says, but I take the
opportunity to buy an external hard drive case you can swap hard drives in
& out of & a spare hard drive just to be used for backups. No sense-tempting
fate! I figure. That?s the lucky three! Filed under General, Jan 11, 2006
Beliefs
Theism vs. Atheism vs. Agnosticism I thought I had it all figured out. I had the
comforting knowledge of my beliefs. I was at peace with my beliefs and myself. Recently, I desire to join a fraternity of men: a group of
individuals who in the knowledge of life, are like-minded, philanthropic, and
believe in a SUPREME BEING. My strong desire to be a member of this group, this brotherhood of men, cannot, and will not, nor should it, compromise my personal
integrity and beliefs. A quandary? At this point it may be, or indeed it may
not be. I have spoken to learned members of the craft/society/group/cult,
whatever you choose to call it, and have received counseling and advice. I
think the bottom line is, I have to be true to myself. Right now, I am fairly
certain what the tenets of the organization are, and that my beliefs agree with
them. However, I have to make sure before I have my date with the goat. Herein lies my discomfort. Not the supreme, not the
like-mindedness, not the fraternity or the spirit or philanthropy, but the
?being? thing. ?Being,? indicates a consciousness, at least to me. I mean, I
believe in an order to things. Shit happens, for sure, but STUFF, LIFE, THE
UNIVERSE & EVERYTHING have a reason and order. In my limited knowledge and
existence as a human on a small planet in the middle of nowhere lost in the
vastness of the unknown quantity of what we call ?space?, I prefer to call it
Nature or DNA so that it makes sense to me, but I still believe that there is a
power that is a regulatory force for existence. Is this a ?being?? Does it have
Sentience? Am I getting hung up on semantics? Do I believe in GOD? No, absolutely not. The thought of a
?god? is ridiculous to me. Do I believe in a power or regulatory force?
Absolutely. This, for me, leaves "god" in the dust. Is this a ?being?? I hesitate at that. Therein lies the crux of the
problem. However, with the arcane language of centuries old ritual, perhaps
semantics is the case here. It may seem so, and so masters of the trade have
told me. Indeed perhaps there is no dilemma at all. So, is this theism, or atheism? I mean, I don?t agree with
theism as organized religion is repugnant to me, but am I an ?A?-theist, AKA Anti
theist? I suppose in a sense based on this definition I am, but in another sense I believe in a power,
force and organization that I don?t, and probably can?t in my limited
existence, understand. Does this then make me an ?Agnostic?, rather than an
?Atheist?? Does this make me a "Believer" rather than an "Agnostic"? Am I really then a "Theist" after all? Food for thought. Filed under General, Dec 3, 2005
Teenage Pant Hell
Do you have a child who is now a teenager? Yes? Too bad! I
have two. Imagine how I feel! Do you ever go shopping with them? To buy (shudder)
clothes? Then you know what I?m about to talk about. OK, my 16 year old son, who was such a cute baby, (lol, what
happened? I must say that on the whole he?s still a really great guy though)
decides he needs some new pants. Apparently the pants I think are good
aren?t good enough, not ?fashionable? enough. --OH Ghohd, --Don?t buy those?You
know the story. Soooo I think to myself, we have to spend money on fashion
rather than durability and practicality (well, OK, fashion is in there but I
want them to last more than a month or two). OK, I?m enlightened (sort of, but
not at all according to 16 year old pant boy), so I?ll go along as long as it
fits in the budget. Mistake. Apparently pant boy has specific things in mind, but no
matter what we show him, or where we go (my poor suffering wife, who is
actually their step-mother is with me) nothing is good enough. We show him all
the jeans, all brands, blue, black, stone washed, distressed, regular fit,
loose fit, straight leg, boot cut, you name it?nothing is right. We get the
?wrong? colour (its? a BLUE jean for Christ?s sake!) The wrong cut, not quite right?& THAT?S when he actually
tells us anything! We ask him what he wants? ?I don?t know? What????? Can you show us what you want?.. He stands sullen & silent. Show us what colour you want? He stands sullen & silent Do you like these? ?Um, not really?? How about these? ?Um, not really?? This happens store after store. We find a pair of pants that may work (I wanted to get a
couple of pairs, but will settle for anything at this point) OK?he goes to try them on. He emerges 10 minutes later?. they
?sort of fit? but I have lots of black pants already! AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRFGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Apparently (this is great), he thinks Blue Jeans don?t ?go
with? anything. Amazing. The singular, most popular pant in the world, because
it goes with ANYTHING, isn?t good enough because it won?t match the rest of his
wardrobe. After several stores of the same thing I lose patience &
say, OK?this is over! We drive home?pant less. After an angst filled confrontation at home where we are
showed the EXACT shade of blue jean should be (whatever happened to
fading them in the wash???), I concede to take pant boy back tomorrow & look
at a pair that he saw that were 2 sizes too big (he?s a 31 waist, these were a
34) that were the only ones he liked. Did I cave, or is this just stupid? Man; Teenagers. They
were so cute when they were babies. LOL Filed under General, Nov 19, 2005
Threes
I guess things happen in threes. You?ve heard this right?
Well you know, I think it?s true. Last weekend my wife & I went to the big smoke for the
weekend, reservations postponed from a few weeks back because my poor
sweetheart contracted pneumonia. It was for her 50th, erm I mean 39th!
She was feeling much better now though, so we went for our postponed weekend
getaway. The weekend was great, blogs to write, but this is about three?the
number that things happen in. It?s a weird thing. OK, so we?re driving home, the car has been a bit iffy
lately on the radiator front. Small
leak, I poured some ?stop leak? crapolla into it a few weeks back & topped
up the anti freeze. I've monitored it since then & checked it before the
trip & all was fine. The trip in went well. The trip back however??. It?s about 170 klicks from DT to home base, I hit the
highway & booming along at 100 klicks
SMOKE starts pouring out from the back of my vehicle. What the???? No
idiot lights going off, gauges normal?OK?I decide to keep on driving, eyes on
the gauges. The smoke stops. I?m particularly interested in the temp gauge as
the coolant problem reared its head a few weeks back. I turn on the heater
full, with full fan to make sure it keeps cool. The air coming out is hotter than
I have ever felt. I have to make it home! Eventually, 30 or so klicks later, it
feels cool?OH OH?no more coolant in the rad? The temp gauge starts rising?.a
few more klicks & it starts rising rapidly! I pull off at the nearest exit,
which fortunately appears almost immediately. Smoke is now pouring from the
engine compartment as I make my way off the road to the nearest place where I
can stop. Fortunately this was a rest area with restaurants (and washrooms!). I
open the hood & hear the hissing of antifreeze hitting a hot engine.
Hopefully it?s only a rad hose, but we?re still 120 km away from home with a
dead vehicle. The tow was a hoot actually, (no charge to me: auto club,
just a tad over $400 if I wasn?t a member) but perhaps more on that later.
Anyway, my vehicle sits at my mechanics, which because he?s REALLY REALLY GOOD,
is understandably busy & can?t look at it for almost a week! That?s ONE I?m at work, a day later, and being a driver as a
profession, I have some serious sunglasses. Prescription, even though I don?t
need them as a condition for my license, I have them because they make driving
easier. Street signs are soooo much easier to read. I?m in a building, taking my hyper expensive glasses off to
put them in their case & then safely in my pocket, when the tiny screw that
holds one of my lenses in, has worked loose & lets go. My expensive,
prescription, glass lens falls in slow motion to the floor, which of course is
made of concrete, and smashes into a thousand shards. That?s TWO A few days later in the week, I get up & take my morning
ablutions. I turn on the sink to shave. The plug is closed. The sink starts
filling up. I push the rod to open the plug & nothing happens. Oh Oh. It?s
been acting up, but so what?well now it doesn?t work?THAT?S so what. Crap! Now I have a sink full of water, full of shaving hair. YUK!
I brush my teeth in the kitchen. That?s not quite three. Just wait. I manage to get the water out of the sink at lunchtime by removing
the plug from the bottom. The rod that moved it up and down had rusted through. There?s a plastic piece that
the stopper screws on to. After work I think that I should put this piece back
in the sink to prevent toothbrushes & the like from falling into the trap.
I position it over the hole (which is supposed to have the remnants of the rod that
pushed it up & down still there, at least it did when I took the sucker out!) & PLOP, down into the trap it goes. Now? That?s THREE!!! Go figure Filed under General, Nov 17, 2005
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