On Vacation

I'm on vacation for the next two weeks. See you crazy cats later!

Rick Mercer Strikes Again

With the help of a " Nation with too much free time on its hands."

 

I Struggle To Find Words

 From Jay Currie:

So what? This is not torture, this is the use of a cultural difference to obtain information. Is that so terribly wrong?

If it causes extreme emotional distress, psychological distress, that can be just as painful as physical distress.

I would be considered cruel if I called my wife or child names and was rude to them as much as if I hit them. In the same vein, torture is torture. Just because it would not feel like torture to you as it does to them does not make it less despicable.

Not Sure I Like Your Tone of Voice

 From the unimitatable Colby Cosh:

Over the weekend--and this is rapidly becoming a mildly embarrassing Canadian tradition--a couple of Canadian book outlets accidentally sold about a dozen copies of the forthcoming Harry Potter novel before the worldwide launch date. Raincoast Books, the Canadian publisher of the series, joined with lawyers for J.K. Rowling to obtain an extraordinary prior-restraint order against those who had purchased the book in good faith.

[...[

The fans who innocently purchased a copy would not ordinarily be entitled to obtain the confidential information. The injunction asks them not to keep or disclose what they obtained from unauthorized copies of the Book. This includes reading, reviewing and revealing the contents because it gives an unfair advantage over all others who comply with the on-sale date.

If I went into a store, bought something with money and took it home and read it, and it was not some controlled secret document, there is not a power in the world that would prevent me from talking about it with my friends and to hell with the government. They want details about who I talked to about the book? Screw you. The government does not own me, the Book Publisher and author does not control my freedom of speech and since I did nothing illegal, you can go jump off a cliff.

Either the store where I bought the book made a mistake, or the publisher did. They can work that out themselves, but I certainly did not break any laws in my actions and to seek legal recourse against these individuals is not acceptable in my view.

Running Shoes

Courtesy of Kim:

A man was ordered by his doctor to lose 75 lbs as soon as possible due to very serious health risks.

As he wondered how in the heck he would ever do it, he ran across an ad in the newspaper for a GUARANTEED WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM.

"Guaranteed. Yeah right!" he thought to himself. But desperate, he calls them up and subscribes to the 3-day / 10 pound weight loss program.

The next day there's a knock at his door, and when he answers, there stands before him a voluptuous, athletic, 19-year-old young lady dressed in nothing but a pair of Nike running shoes and a sign round her neck.

She introduces herself as a representative of the weight loss company. The sign reads, "If you can catch me, you can have me!"

Without a second thought he takes off after her. A few miles later, huffing and puffing, he finally catches her and has his way with her. After they are through and she leaves, he thinks to himself, "I like the way this company does business!" The same girl shows up for the next two days and the same thing happens.

On the fourth day, he weighs himself and is delighted to find he has lost 10 lb. as promised. He calls the company and orders their 5- day / 20 pound program.

The next day there's a knock at the door and there stands the most stunning, beautiful, sexy woman he has ever seen in his life, wearing nothing but Reebok running shoes and a sign around her neck that reads, "If you catch me, you can have me."

He's out the door or after her like a shot. This girl is in excellent shape and it takes him a while to catch her, but when he does, it is worth every cramp and wheeze. For the next four days, the same routine happens.

Much to his delight, on the fifth day, he weighs himself and found he has lost another 20 lbs, as promised. He decides to go for broke and calls the company to order the 7-day / 50 pound program.

"Are you sure?" asks the representative on the phone.  "This is our most rigorous program."

"Absolutely," he replies, "I haven't felt this good in years."

The next day there's a knock at the door and when he opens it he finds a muscular guy standing there wearing nothing but pink running shoes and a sign around his neck that reads, "If I catch you, you're mine."

 

Checkmate!

A co-worker and I started playing Chess at lunch at work. He's a big enthusiast of the game and I like it as much as I like all board games.

We play fast, finishing about three games an hour. The first few games he totally thrashed me but I'm improving by playing computer chess at home and today saw me win two games out of two before I had to run to pick up my car at Minute Muffler (that's another story).

We are starting to attract other interested players in the lunchroom and there was another couple guys playing today. I hope to grow it to a little group of players. Anyway, expect the odd post about my chess playing adventures in the future.

Rick Mercer's Blog

I've watched Rick Mercer's Blog with interest and enjoyment as he posts about Canada and her politics, so this post is both a point at his recent offering, a reccommendation to add his blog to your blogroll, and encouragement to Rick to keep it coming.

Destroyed MP's, Deceased Premiers, A book about Stephen and Mr. Feschuck.

Tonight CBC News reports that Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal is under investigation by the RCMP for irregularities in his 2004 election expenses. Wow. And we were under the impression this guy had already hit bottom. Apparently not. Is Karl Rove working for the Liberals now? Talk about beating a guy like a rented mule. What's next? Will the transcript of the screaming in Grewal's head be released to the general public? Time to leave this guy alone. Move him to the side of the grill – he's done.

I love it.

Back to Being Childless

Our three little houseguests for the past three weeks have returned home to their recovering mother in their new home. Last night the house seemed so quiet and empty again, but truth be told, Kim and I needed the break. We were getting frayed.

Its not that we couldn't handle the kids, its was just that our routine was not as smooth as it could have been at night and the smallness of my house didn't help matters. We survived, and I know we could have handled it permamently if we had to.

Now, I only have one more week of work and then two weeks (and a day!) of vacation. Begin the restless clock-watching!

Only 4.5 more days!

"Some New Perspective - Forgotten Terrorism And Extremism"

 An excellent read from Ianism with a different view on the terrorism in London:

First, I want to say that my deepest sympathies go out to the victims and their families of the terrorist acts in London this morning. All terrorism is evil. And I’m not about to try to minimize what happened today.

Hey Socialists!

In a nod to Andrew I present the following thought:

If you continually advocate against allowing people the choice of purchasing healthcare above and beyond what is available in the public system, yet you pay to send your kids to a private school....

You might be a hypocrite.

 

London's Burning

My sincerest thoughts go out to those who were lost and hurt in the events in London today. I dread the day such an attack happens in Toronto or Ottawa or any Canadian city.

Feeling Better

After a Monday where I felt barely awake and a Tuesday where I felt like I was half in the bag, I feel relatively great today. I got a good night's sleep for a change thanks to the cooler termperatures, and it probably helped that I got some exercise by going up to the school and trying out the new grip on my tennis racket by hitting a ball against the gym wall. Andrew is in trouble now.

In other news, my vacation starts in less than two weeks. Kim and I are spending from July 19-24 camping at Bon Echo and July 25-Aug 1 recovering from camping at Bon Echo. Posting, of course, will be light.

Give It A Rest!

Look, like most everyone else I'm not happy that Karla is out and about after only 12 years in prison.

And yes, we deserve to know she's back on the streets. Thank you media, for telling us so.

Now shut up. I don't need two weeks worth of front page headlines discussing the minutiae of the case again, or the fact she sneezed and green boogers came out. I certainly don't give a rat's ass about what Paul Bernardo is whining about through his lawyers and I don't care to hear the pundits opine for the next year about how the courts made a deal with the devil. We went over that in detail tweleve years ago. Its done. Over. Kaput.

Report on some news for a freaking change you yahoos. Try doing some digging into real stories that are out there waiting for discovery. Stop the masturbatory gushing about how Karla took a van from the prison and went to French CBC studios to talk to the media, reporting on every inflection of every word. GIVE IT A REST!

 

Weekend Roundup

Wow, first long weekend in a long time, eh? Boy that felt good.

Let's see, try and remember back to Friday...

Kim and I took the kids up to downtown Ottawa and spent some time taking in the sights and attractions. I've got pictures, just forgot to grab them this morning. We took the bus from Bayshore mall, cruised through Majors Hill Park, and jumped over the river by shuttle bus to Jaques Cartier Park where we spent a couple hours watching a show and some rides. We then went over to the Museum of Civilization to the Kids museum for another hour before beginning the long trek home.

Another PIzza Pizza dinner and some baths, we walked down to the Riverside park in Carleton Place and watched the awesome fireworks display they have every year. Everyone slept soundly that night!

Saturday was house work day! I mowed the lawn, did some weeding in the garden, changed the dryer vent from plastic to metal tubing, changed the light switch in the dining room from some weird motion detecting dimmer to an old fashioned dimmer (the light would go on of off whenever someone walked in front of it) and cooked some hand-made hamburgers and corn on the cob for dinner. Kim and the kids vacuumed and washed the car.

Finally, Sunday was shopping day and we drove back to Ottawa to shop at the Bayshore mall (which took forever thanks to Kim) and a quick stop at Super Pet in Kanata for some crickets for the geckos. Finished up the weekend with a family dinner at Swiss Chalet.

Wow, I'm tired just typing all that! Man, kids keep you busy. Anyway, we only have the kids for one more week as we take them back to their mother at their new home on Sunday. It has been an adjustment getting used to have three kids in the house but we'll miss them when they are gone.

He SEES Me!

Hubble Spies Lord of the Stellar Rings