The second best page in the universe

The New Place

2007-05-25T22:37:00.000-04:00

in honour of the end of an era

2007-03-20T13:17:00.001-04:00

Regent Park

2007-03-04T12:24:00.000-05:00

RP 4 LYFE

Happy Holidays

2006-12-15T16:41:00.000-05:00

Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all;

plus,

A fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of the other cultures whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, national origin, disability, political affiliation or sexual orientation.

(Disclaimer: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for him/herself or others and no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.)

je me souviens

2006-11-11T17:49:00.000-05:00

[On the morning of November 11] orders came down that all pilots should stay on the ground. About 10:00 I sauntered out to the hanger and casually told my mechanics to take the plane out on the line and warm it up to test the engines. Without announcing my plans to anyone, I climbed into the plane and took off. Under the low ceiling I hedge-hopped towards the front. I arrived over Verdun at 10:45 and proceeded on towards Conflans, flying over no-man's-land. I was at less than five hundred feet. I could see both Germans and Americans crouching in their trenches, peering over with every intention of killing any man who revealed himself on the other side. From time to time ahead of me on the German side I saw a burst of flame, and I knew that they were firing at me. Back at the field later I found bullet holes in my ship.

I glanced at my watch. One minute to 11:00, thirty seconds, fifteen. And then it was 11:00 A.M., the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. I was the only audience for the greatest show ever presented. On both sides of no-man's-land, the trenches erupted. Brown-uniformed men poured out of the American trenches, gray-green uniforms out of the German. From my observer's seat overhead, I watched them throw their helmets in the air, discard their guns, wave their hands. Then all up and down the front, the two groups of men began edging towards each other across no-man's-land. Seconds before they had been willing to shoot each other; now they came forward. Hesitantly at first, then more quickly, each group approached the other.

Suddenly gray uniforms mixed with brown. I could see them hugging each other, dancing, jumping. Americans were passing out cigarettes and chocolate. I flew up to the French sector. There it was even more incredible. After four years of slaughter and hatred, they were not only hugging each other but kissing each other on both cheeks as well.

Star shells, rockets, and flares began to go up, and I turned my ship toward the field. The war was over.

-Eddie Rickenbacker

2,517km / rehearsal / bachelor party / wedding / 72 hours

2006-07-17T11:28:00.000-04:00

Jeep Jump!

2006-06-29T00:06:00.000-04:00

Click to see Video

On living at home after college

2006-06-10T19:28:00.000-04:00

"Your parents paid for college, the least you can do is reward them with a few more years of your college-educated presence. Show them how enlightened you are by rejecting society's demands that you 'get your own place.' Plus free food and plenty of time to play Halo." And a hearty Amen to that!

-Stephen Colbert

You never know what a military guy is going to do

2006-06-09T22:02:00.000-04:00

Makes for an interesting delivery.

Fun Times

2006-05-15T23:51:00.000-04:00

Well the weekend was most excellent, despite spending it in Peterborough. My beautiful cousin Erin married her love Blake. I got to spend Saturday night partying it up with Chuckleton. Sunday morning I burned down Westmount. Sunday afternoon I visited the Eastons at Hope Valley. Lidija arrived and we attended a party in honour of the great Andymac (Lord of the Beards) and his gorgeous fiance Rebecca (I've never seen Andymac be so positive/uncynical/optimistic/unlike how we spent entire second year of college; dude must really be in love). Lidija and I toured the Peterborough Lift Lock (which, it turns out, is not even close to being the world's largest - I feel so cheated).
There's the readers digest version of my weekend.

Oh, my most excellent weekend concluded itself first thing this morning with a 'flop'. w00t.

Andymac Made Me Post This

2006-04-14T17:36:00.000-04:00

COMMENTS!

Together, Andymac and I have hacked the interweb.

The Buffalo Theory

2006-04-09T15:21:00.000-04:00

Galatians 5

2006-04-09T00:25:00.000-04:00

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
(esv).

when it all falls down...

2006-04-04T00:51:00.000-04:00

Man I promise, she's so self conscious
She has no idea what she's doing in college
That major that she majored in don't make no money
But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny
Now, tell me that ain't insecurrre
The concept of school seems so securrre
Sophmore three yearrrs aint picked a careerrr
She like fuck it, I'll just stay down herre and do hair
Cause that's enough money to buy her a few pairs of new Airs
Cause her baby daddy don't really care
She's so precious with the peer pressure
Couldn't afford a car so she named her daughter Alexus
She had hair so long that it looked like weave
Then she cut it all off now she look like Eve
And she be dealing with some issues that you can't believe
Single black female addicted to retail and well

Global Warming Is Caused By Aliens

2006-03-29T23:53:00.000-05:00

the politics of bad science

Saint George

2006-02-27T00:05:00.000-05:00

2006-02-05T14:47:00.000-05:00

Some days this job is better than a kick in the teeth.

However, Tuesday I get to go on a free trip to Toronto to drive the new Dodge Caliber. I can't wait! It's definitely the coolest small car ever. It even has an in-dash cooler for drinks!

Happy Holidays

2006-01-02T01:46:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays

2005-12-25T22:52:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas.

life experiences

2005-11-01T11:20:00.000-05:00

"We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it--and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore."
-Mark Twain

(seven)

'nuff said

2005-10-25T22:05:00.000-04:00

sweet. let's do it...

Three over the curb

2005-10-01T00:40:00.000-04:00

oh yah.

Don't Refloat

2005-09-15T00:17:00.000-04:00

It's worth considering....

The case against rebuilding the sunken city of New Orleans.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005, at 12:19 PM PT

Nobody can deny New Orleans' cultural primacy or its historical importance. But before we refloat the sunken city, before we think of spending billions of dollars rebuilding levees that may not hold back the next storm, before we contemplate reconstructing the thousands of homes now disintegrating in the toxic tang of the flood, let's investigate what sort of place Katrina destroyed.

The city's romance is not the reality for most who live there. It's a poor place, with about 27 percent of the population of 484,000 living under the poverty line, and it's a black place, where 67 percent are African-American. In 65 percent of families living in poverty, no husband is present. When you overlap this New York Times map, which illustrates how the hurricane's floodwaters inundated 80 percent of the city, with this demographic map from the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, which shows where the black population lives, and this one that shows where the poverty cases live, it's transparent whom Katrina hit the hardest.

New Orleans' public schools, which are 93 percent black, have failed their citizens. The state of Louisiana rates 47 percent of New Orleans schools as "Academically Unacceptable" and another 26 percent are under "Academic Warning." About 25 percent of adults have no high-school diploma.

The police inspire so little trust that witnesses often refuse to testify in court. University researchers enlisted the police in an experiment last year, having them fire 700 blank gun rounds in a New Orleans neighborhood one afternoon. Nobody picked up the phone to report the shootings. Little wonder the city's homicide rate stands at 10 times the national average.

This city counts 188,000 occupied dwellings, with about half occupied by renters and half by owners. The housing stock is much older than the national average, with 43 percent built in 1949 or earlier (compared with 22 percent for the United States) and only 11 percent of them built since 1980 (compared with 35 for the United States). As we've observed, many of the flooded homes are modest to Spartan to ramshackle and will have to be demolished if toxic mold or fire don't take them first.

New Orleans puts the "D" into dysfunctional. Only a sadist would insist on resurrecting this concentration of poverty, crime, and deplorable schools. Yet that's what New Orleans' cheerleaders—both natives and beignet-eating tourists—are advocating. They predict that once they drain the water and scrub the city clean, they'll restore New Orleans to its former "glory."

Only one politician, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, dared question the wisdom of rebuilding New Orleans as it was, where it was. On Wednesday, Aug. 31, while meeting with the editorial board of the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill., he cited the geographical insanity of rebuilding New Orleans. "That doesn't make sense to me. … And it's a question that certainly we should ask."

"It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed," Hastert added.

For his candor and wisdom, Hastert was shouted down. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., and others interpreted his remarks as evidence of the Republican appetite for destruction when it comes to disaster victims. But if you read the entire interview—reproduced here courtesy of the Daily Herald—you might conclude that Hastert was speaking heresy, but he wasn't saying anything ugly or even Swiftian. Klaus Jacob seconded Hastert yesterday (Sept. 6) in a Washington Post op-ed. A geophysicist by training, he noted that Katrina wasn't even a worst-case scenario. Had the storm passed a little west of New Orleans rather than a little east, the "city would have flooded faster, and the loss of life would have been greater."

Nobody disputes the geographical and oceanographic odds against New Orleans: that the Gulf of Mexico is a perfect breeding ground for hurricanes; that re-engineering the Mississippi River to control flooding has made New Orleans more vulnerable by denying it the deposits of sediment it needs to keep its head above water; that the aggressive extraction of oil and gas from the area has undermined the stability of its land.

"New Orleans naturally wants to be a lake," St. Louis University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences Timothy Kusky told Time this week. "A city should never have been built there in the first place," he said to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Why was it? Settlers built the original city on a curve of high flood land that the Mississippi River had deposited over eons, hence the nickname "Crescent City." But starting in the late 1800s and continuing into the early 20th century, developers began clearing and draining swamps behind the crescent, even dumping landfill into Lake Pontchartrain to extend the city.

To chart the aggressive reclamation, compare this map from 1798 with this one from 1908. Many of New Orleans' lower-lying neighborhoods, such as Navarre, the Lower Ninth Ward, Lake Terrace, and Pontchartrain Park, were rescued from the low-lying muck. The Lower Ninth Ward, clobbered by Katrina, started out as a cypress swamp, and by 1950 it was only half developed, according to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center. Even such "high" land as City Park suffered from flooding before the engineers intervened. By the historical standards of the 400-year-old city, many of the heavily flooded neighborhoods are fresh off the boat.

The call to rebuild New Orleans' levee system may be mooted if its evacuated residents decide not to return. The federal government, which runs the flood-insurance business, sold only 85,000 residential and commercial policies—this in a city of 188,000 occupied dwellings. Coverage is limited to $250,000 for building property and $100,000 for personal property. Because the insured can use the money elsewhere, there is no guarantee they'll choose to rebuild in New Orleans, which will remain extra-vulnerable until the levees are rebuilt.

Few uninsured landlords and poor home owners have the wherewithal to rebuild—or the desire. And how many of the city's well-off and wealthy workers—the folks who provide the city's tax base—will return? Will the doctors, lawyers, accountants, and professors have jobs to return to? According to the Wall Street Journal, many businesses are expected to relocate completely. Unless the federal government adopts New Orleans as its ward and pays all its bills for the next 20 years—an unlikely to absurd proposition—the place won't be rebuilt.

Barbara Bush will be denounced as being insensitive and condescending for saying yesterday that many of the evacuees she met in the Astrodome would prefer to stay in Texas. But she probably got it right. The destruction wrought by Katrina may turn out to be "creative destruction," to crib from Joseph Schumpeter, for many of New Orleans' displaced and dispossessed. Unless the government works mightily to reverse migration, a positive side-effect of the uprooting of thousands of lives will to be to deconcentrate one of the worst pockets of ghetto poverty in the United States.

Page One of today's New York Times illustrates better than I can how the economic calculations of individuals battered by Katrina may contribute to the city's ultimate doom:

In her 19 years, all spent living in downtown New Orleans, Chavon Allen had never ventured farther than her bus fare would allow, and that was one trip last year to Baton Rouge. But now that she has seen Houston, she is planning to stay.

"This is a whole new beginning, a whole new start. I mean, why pass up a good opportunity, to go back to something that you know has problems?" asked Ms. Allen, who had been earning $5.15 an hour serving chicken in a Popeyes restaurant.

New Orleans won't disappear overnight, of course. The French Quarter, the Garden District, West Riverside, Black Pearl, and other elevated parts of the city will survive until the ultimate storm takes them out—and maybe even thrive as tourist destinations and places to live the good life. But it would be a mistake to raise the American Atlantis. It's gone.

******

Apologies to Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Ernie K-Doe, Allen Toussaint, Tipitina's, Dr. John, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Jelly Roll Morton, Jessie Hill, Lee Dorsey, the Meters, Robert Parker, Alvin Robinson, Joe "King" Oliver, Kid Stormy Weather, Huey "Piano" Smith, Aaron Neville and his brothers (falsetto is the highest expression of male emotion), Frankie Ford, Chris Kenner, Professor Longhair, Wynton Marsalis and family, Sidney Bechet, and Marshall Faulk. I await your hate mail at slate.pressbox@gmail.com. (E-mail may be quoted unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

What Hastert Really Said

Excerpt from the Aug. 31 conversation between Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and the editorial board of the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill., a suburban Chicago paper. Reprinted by permission.

Speaker Hastert: "This is the largest disaster, natural disaster, we have ever had. I can just tell from what happened on 9-11 we spent nine weeks in my office working out all the problems so that we could solve these problems. I am sure the next 10 weeks or whatever in Washington (will be) consumed trying to get New Orleans back and Biloxi, Miss., that's been wiped of the map literally, and Pass Christian and on and on and down the line. This is a huge disaster. … When you talk about the oil issues you begin to see the tip of that iceberg. We don't know what else, the repercussions there are yet. "

Chris Bailey: Does it make sense to spend billions and billions and billions of dollars rebuilding a city-

Hastert: "That's seven feet under the sea level. I don't know. That doesn't make sense to me."

Bailey: Is that a question that anyone will ask or can we not even ask that?

Hastert: "I think it's a question that certainly we should ask. And, you know, it looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed."

Bailey: Awful.

Hastert: Yeah, it's just terrible. First of all, your heart goes out to the people, the loss of their homes. Anybody. But there is some real tough questions to ask. How do you go about rebuilding this city. What precautions do you take. When the electricity goes out and everything else goes out ... you don't have the pumps to pump it out either. Because it doesn't work either."

Patrick Waldron: Of course that's an unprecedented question by itself. What will it take to rebuild this city. Should we rebuild this city? Would you agree that will be part of the Congressional debate?

Hastert: I think it should be. Of course, the folks from New Orleans will have their own opinion on it—we are going to rebuild this city. We help replace, we help relieve disaster. That is certainly the decision the people of New Orleans are going to make. But I think federal insurance and everything goes along with it. We ought to take a second look at it. But you know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake fissures and they rebuild, too. Stubbornness.
Jack Shafer is Slate's editor at large.

Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2125810/

Is this thing still on?

2005-08-25T23:55:00.000-04:00

Hey, just wanted to let ya'll know the exciting news: I got to drive a Chrysler 300C today! But even cooler than that is the reason why I got to drive a 300C...I got a new job! As of this coming Monday I am selling cars for Kingston Dodge! So if any of you want to buy a Crossfire or a Viper, you let me know.

Of course, we also have other - more practical - options. Kingston Dodge is a family owned *5 Star* dealership. If you're interested in being treated right, let me know.

sweeet

2005-07-01T00:11:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday Big Dave came down for the day. Tuesday Josh and I went to the beach. Wednesday Josh was a good buddy and stuck by me while I recovered from the beach (I'm more burnt out than a pothead). Tomorrow I work for double time and a half and then drive up to the camp. Saturday Big Dave and I will attend the Live8 concert in Barrie. How friggin exciting is this week?!

2005-05-31T23:39:00.000-04:00

The church as a whole must be concerned with both evangelism and social action. It is not a case of either-or; it is both-and. Anything less is only a partial Gospel, not the whole counsel of God.
-Robert De Haan

Fuel Economy

2005-04-04T00:11:00.000-04:00

As a follow up to my previous comments about my Focus, I'll post what data I've collected so far. My apologies to Thain, who will have to convert these herself (I know she will).

2003 Ford Focus Sedan, 2.0L Zetec, 5spd Manual
Total vehicle kilometres: 11,600
Kilometres observed: 8972
Worst Fuel Economy on a single tank: 11.83L/100km
Best Fuel Economy on a single tank: 8.41L/100km
Average Fuel Economy: 9.83L/100km

I've created an automatic Excel/Openoffice spreadsheet for calculating mileage. All you have to do is type in how many kms you drove on the tank and how many litres it took to fill the tank up and the spreadsheet will fill in the rest. If you want it, let me know and I will email it to you.

self-serve

2005-03-13T01:20:00.000-05:00

So why haven't you guys been posting? You think this blog is going to write itself?

As part of our ongoing effort here at Corporatis Inc to eliminate all employment altogether, we have instituted a "Self-Blog" policy here at gurr8.blogspot.com. It began with our experimental "Self-Serve" program at our gas bars, followed by the wildly successful "Pay-at-the-Pump" feature. Recently, we have continued to expand the job loss with the high-tech "Self-Checkout" system at Loblaws stores. Blog Administrator Justin used this feature today, and found that - although it had its flaws like customer confusion and lack of customer interest in ever returning to Loblaws - it was a wonderful experience. Please feel free to use the Self-Blog feature at your convenience,

and as always here at Corporatis Inc: "Go Screw Yourself".

a fine steed

2005-02-27T22:41:00.000-05:00

I've had an awesome weekend: Big Dave came down on friday night and today we drove to Oshawa, hopped on the GOtrain to Union Station and toured the Canadian International Auto Show all day. So, in honour of this good time with a good friend, I present my pick of the show.

Good News and Gooder News...

2005-02-22T21:53:00.000-05:00

The good news is:

http://www.jokaroo.com/ecards/funnymovies/topten.html

The better news is:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/02/22/mckenna-missile050222.html

"The Great Satan"

2005-02-10T09:02:00.000-05:00

If you already choose to put your money with Walmart, then this news isn't going to convict you. You have already chosen to ignore a long list of issues so that you can save $0.03 on your 24 pack of toilet paper. This company has for years taken advantage of its own employees, encouraged child-labour and sweat-shop conditions abroad, and caused North American cities to sprawl into a bland and depressing disconnect of hodge-podge warehouse buildings. There have been union attempts before, but the company has always won. However, despite Walmart's union-busting attempts, the store in Jonquier, Quebec managed to unionize just a short while ago. After 9 days of contract talks, Walmart decided to take unprecidented steps to flex its muscle: it will - for the first time ever (except relocation) - close a store.

Walmart's excuse? 'We have to remain competitive'. Remain competitive? They aren't just competitive, they've managed to destroy their competitors with these damaging business practices. Some argue that a corporation has to do what it has to do to make as much profit as possible, but I say that a corporation has a responsibility to the society from which it makes money. Walmart has not lived up to that responsibility.

But hey, if you think your $0.03 is worth it, then by all means contribute to this negative force in our community. You can count me out.

Wal-Mart to close union store
DANA FLAVELLE - BUSINESS REPORTER
Wal-Mart Canada Corp. says it is closing its first unionized store in North America after nine days of contract talks, but denies it is out to bust the union.
Canada's largest retailer told the 190 employees of its store in Jonquiere, Que., yesterday that the store would close this spring. It is the first time Wal-Mart has closed a store in Canada except to relocate, the company said.
The discount chain is a division of Wal-Mart Stores Ltd., the world's largest retailer.
Developments at the Jonquiere store were being closely watched across North America by investors and union organizers.
One of the keys to the success of Wal-Mart, which is considered strongly anti-union, has been keeping costs low.
The Jonquiere store is one of several the United Food and Commercial Workers union is attempting to organize across Canada, most in labour-friendly jurisdictions such as Quebec and Saskatchewan.
A second store, in Saint Hyacinthe, Que., was certified last month and is scheduled to begin contract talks soon. A third, in Brossard, Que., has applied for certification.
Michael Fraser, national director of the union, accused Wal-Mart yesterday of "ignoring the laws of Canada and playing the game by its own rules."
Wal-Mart spokesperson Andrew Pelletier, however, denied the company was out to bust the union.
"It is the first time we've had to close a store in a community and leave that community," he told the Toronto Star's Miro Cernetig.
"Ultimately it is a business decision, of course."
Pelletier said the Jonquiere store had never made money and the union's proposals "would have fundamentally changed the store's business model."
For example, the union had asked for scheduling changes that would have
required the store to hire 30 more people, said Kevin Groh, another Wal-Mart
spokesperson.
An analyst said low labour costs help Wal-Mart compete against other retailers.
"Wal-Mart is scared to death of unions," said analyst David Abella of Rochdale Investment Management. "Even if they could manage that store with a union, that could lead to a domino effect across Canada and the United States."
Pelletier said the store could have been closed months ago, but the company chose to bargain in good faith. But, after nine days of talks, including conciliation, the union applied to Quebec's labour board for first-contract arbitration, he said. That meant a contract would be imposed on the store, he added.
The union saw the Quebec organizing drive as key to conquering Wal-Mart.
"It's a pivotal moment," union director Fraser told The Star's Cernetig. "If we can do it, there are thousands of Wal-Mart workers who are out there who will want to be organized."
Jean-Marc Crevier, a Quebec Labour Federation spokesperson, called the store closing "a very big blow."
Claudia Tremblay, a cashier at the store, said many employees burst into tears, "myself included. I'm a mother of two children and I'm separated from my
husband. It's very hard."
News of the store closing leaked out after Wal-Mart advised the employees yesterday afternoon.
The store had opened three years earlier.
The Jonquiere store was certified last September. Talks began in October.
The company said it asked the Quebec labour board to appoint a conciliator after four days of talks.
On Feb. 2, the union applied to the board for first-contract arbitration saying conciliation had failed to produce any progress on major issues.
They included work schedules, employee status and seniority clauses, the union said.
Yesterday, Wal-Mart announced the store would close. The company said it "deeply regrets" the closing and has offered employees generous severance packages that exceed the legal minimum. The closing comes just five weeks after the parent company, Wal-Mart Stores Ltd. in the United States, launched a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign aimed at countering what chief executive Lee Scott called urban legends and outright lies about the company.
with files from THE star's wire services

The Earth Strikes Back

2005-02-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

As much as it makes me a communist hippy, I gotta say that I'm loving this story:

http://www.ktvu.com/news/4175954/detail.html

still alive...

2005-02-04T09:31:00.000-05:00

Ok, it's been awhile. But, two months after promising it to you right here on these pages, I have a good job. It's with Assurant Solutions. We offer third-party customer service for companies like Future Shop, Best Buy, HBC, CIBC, and others. I'm in the warranty deptartment, so I deal with the warranties that the salesmen try to sell you when you buy your electronics or appliances at Future Shop or Best Buy. I work in an ultra-modern office with all the trimmings, including the best chairs I've ever sat in and about 6,000 19" LCDs. Life is good.

In other news, Southern Ontario is about to recieve it's first-ever WINTER-TIME SMOG WARNING. Comon people! Geez.

I shoulda bought a hybrid.

....

2005-01-18T22:35:00.000-05:00

I know, I know...I haven't posted anything yet this year...the fact is I'm busy and don't have anything to say to you people.

i am the personification of all that i hate

2004-12-30T16:32:00.000-05:00

Last night I watched a man on television recounting how he was on vacation and is now returning home without his girlfriend...she was ripped from his arms as the tsunami waters receded in a torrent. The most upsetting part, while watching this guy choke up, was that he was the luckiest of millions of people...so many who live in those poverty-stricken countries have lost children, parents, siblings, friends, homes, and businesses. The least fortunate of the world's 6.5 billion became even less fortunate in an instant.

In the months following the 9/11 attacks, North Americans gave approximately $2 billion to support the families of 6,000 victims through agencies like the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the ironically named Robin Hood Fund. All this money for white-collar workers who already had life insurance and on top of the fact that the government had a pot of $6 billion to pay the victims (to keep them from suing the airlines, who were legitimately negligent with passenger safety).

My theory is that everyone was so entertained with those big explosions, pyrotechnics, and demolitions, that we felt obliged to pay something. After all, we pay when we go to the theatres, don't we? Heck, I was watching that morning after the first plane struck, and I saw the second plane hit LIVE! I got to watch several hundred people die! I wonder what kind of a payout I am obligated to cough up for that kind of entertainment?

My theory has to be correct, because it couldn't be based on logical need. I vomited and wept from stress and grief after 9/11, but I knew that what those people needed wasn't money. Not 99% of them anyway. The victims were the families of white-collar workers who had life insurance and still had their homes and supportive families.

But if $2 billion wasn't an entertainment fee and it wasn't through a logical attempt at re-distribution of wealth, then it must have been out genuine compassion. I'm inclined to believe so. However, for me to believe that, I expect to see - at a very minimum - $38,000,000,000.00 (that's $38 billion) donated to charities for the purpose of relief, aid, and redevelopment in the wake of this tsunami disaster. That's 114,000 victims (a conservative estimate) multiplied by $333,333.33 (the approximate amount donated per 9-11 victim).

(amount donated to victims of 9-11) / (9-11 victims) = (amount per victim) x (conservative estimate of tsunami victims) = expected tsunami giving

therefore:
($2,000,000,000.00) / (6,000) = ($333,333.33) x (114,000) = $38,000,000,000.00

So, if I'm so much smarter than the rest of you chumps, then why am I the personification of all that I hate? Because I'm sitting here proving why you're stupid while most people (ie 5 billion people) have real problems. And here's a rundown of my last 24 hours:
-watch tsunami victims on television
-sleep in warm dry bed
-wake up late
-discuss New Years party plans over the internet
-go for coffee with friend
-get car washed at an automatic car wash
-get home and clean the inside of the car

-biggest worry of the day: getting home from the wash without the car getting too dirty.

gurr's pick o' the day

2004-12-28T17:02:00.000-05:00

ok so i bought this little kit for the dryer hose yesturday. This afternoon my dad installed it and we are LOVING THIS. For nine bucks I picked this up at Canadian Tire. Think about this: what is the worst about your air during the winter? It's cold and it's dry. When you vent your dryer out, what are you blowing out of your house? Air that's hot and humid. Problem? Meethinks. So we installed this little kit on the hose and now my room (next to the laundry room) is warmer and smells moutain-fresh (despite me). During the summer (when not using the clothes-line) you can turn the switch and blow the air out of the house. genious.

Thainamu can ignore this post and stick to the clothes-line. Darn you and your warm climate.

Merry Christmas

2004-12-25T16:02:00.000-05:00

and a happy new year.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

shoppers car mart

2004-12-23T13:57:00.000-05:00

my opinions, rambling as they may be...nobody held a gun to your head to get you to come here....

I must confess that over the past couple of months I have not been living in Peterborough. Or Kingston. I've been living in Vice City. I know what you may be thinking...are you some kind of sociopath? Not entirely. But the game is really enjoyable, with an exciting mix of first-person-shooter and driving. And a great plot. But I figured it was time to take a break from virtual driving and talk about real driving (how's that for the worst segue ever?). I looked at a lot of cars before purchasing the Focus, so I thought it would be fun to review how I made my decision.

Used
I went to new car dealerships, but got talked into checking out a couple of almost-new used cars. I was interested, because they were both sought-after models that were out of my range in new-car form.

Mazda Protege5
This was a decent car. The thing that surprised me about it was the lack of room on the inside. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't a tight squeeze, especially when compared to other cars I drove. However, this car seems like a big car from the outside. Yet inside - especially in the back seat - it seems smaller than its dimensions. This could have just been perception, I haven't checked the numbers...perhaps I was just expecting something more. Anyway, this car really moved. It felt great, handled great, looked great. It actually reminded me of the Focus I landed on: the fit and finish was there yet one cannot help but wonder about the quality. This car had something loose in the drivers door that rattled enough to shake a tooth loose. In the end it's a car that I would've been proud to own; practical performance wrapped up in a real purdy package. The price just wasn't right from the Toyota dealer it was at.
Fuel Economy: 3.8 stars
Handling/Performance: 4.2 stars
Practicality: 5 stars
Looks: 5 stars

Toyota Celica
Um, wow. I loved driving this car more than any other car I tested. This despite the fact that it had 72,000km on it! The thing handles like a go-kart...meaning it has no body roll (think about how your parents' minivan leans over while turning - this car had none of that). Grip was phenomenal. Acceleration was heart-stopping. I picked my mom up from work in this car, and on the way home I did 160kph. She didn't even notice; that's how well this car rode. The only thing that kept it out of the winner's circle: it had even less room than the Corolla SR5 I was trading up from. This car's backseat was so small, I would've seriously considered removing it for more sound system/cargo room. Even the front seats were..."cozy".
Fuel Economy: 4.5 stars
Handling/Performance: 5 stars
Practicality: 2.2 stars
Looks: 4.5 stars (as tested. The brand new GTS's are 6 stars out of 5!)

New
I went into this with little criteria. In fact, the only criteria I set out was that it had to be a manual transmission. After that, I judged each car by it's own qualities. This meant that I tested cars that I otherwise would've overlooked.

Toyota Echo Hatchback
This car had a distinct disadvantage coming into my test: I had extreme expectations for it. I was really excited when this car came to Canada last year. Based on the Vitz out of Japan (called Yaris in Europe), this car is popular the world 'round. In the end this car disappointed me. First off, Toyota Canada decided to call it the Echo Hatchback instead of Vitz or Yaris. To me, that's a mistake considering the disdain people have for Echo styling (I myself love the redesigned Echo of the past couple of years...the only problem with it is that - although quite attractive itself, especially in sport form - it's reminiscent of the older ugly one). Secondly, this car is CHEAP. And I do mean cheap in the truest sense - my tester had a piece of plastic in place of where the radio should be. The quality is there; I have no doubt in my mind that these cars will outlast my Focus by a factor of two, and get phenomenal mileage while doing it. They just feel aweful: cheap plastics, power nuthin, cheap shifter (all cars I tested were manual trannies - cause only losers drive autos /rant). Plus, the three door I tested (I wanted a five door) was the same monthly payment as my Focus ZTS! This because Toyota doesn't feel it needs to offer rebates or financing. Now, I can understand no rebates, but they - along with the other Japanese manufacturers spare Mitsu - are making a serious mistake by not offering 0% financing. If they offered 0% for 60 months, they would destroy the domestic automakers.
Fuel Economy: 5 stars
Handling/Performance: 2.5 stars
Practicality: 4.4 stars
Looks: 3.8 stars

Chevrolet Cavalier
This little lady was the shocker of the group. In the end I only agreed to test it because I liked the saleswoman so much (she sold us our minivan). This car is archaic. It is basically the same car that they were producing 20 years ago. The J-body has had many forms: through many Cavalier facelifts as well as Sunbird and Sunfire iterations. However, age has done this car no harm, as GM has had lots of time to tinker and improve on the design. Perhaps there is something to be said for manufacturers to keep the same car for a decade at a time. Meh, it won't happen: it's all about marketing. Anyway, I tested the fully loaded Z24 coupe. If I had purchased I would have gone with the equivelent Z24 sedan. It's Ecotec engine was very peppy, with a clutch/shifter second only to the Celica. It was comfortable, and with the Z24 gold package, quite attractive. The only downside is the lack of respect this little number gets. But, I for one no longer look down on these cars.
Fuel Economy: 3.8 stars
Handling/Performance: 4.7 stars
Practicality: 3.8 stars
Looks: 4.7 stars

Chevrolet Optra5
GM recently aquired the bankrupt auto manufacturing division of Daewoo. The rebadge-Nazi's at the General took this opportunity to water down the corporation's brandnames even further. Taking all of Daewoo's cars, they gave them facelifts and put gold bowties on them. Now, that might not sound too bad, until you realize just how bad of a car Daewoo was. There was a reason they went out of business! Think Hyundai in the mid-80's. Yah. That said, I decided to be open-minded and give the hatchback iteration of the Optra lineup a try. It actually really impressed. It was the only car that I tested that I could comfortably sit behind myself. By this I mean that I adjusted the driver's seat just the way I like it (way back and way reclined - like the gangsta that I'm not) and then sat in the backseat behind. With the driver's seat adjusted, I could still sit in the backseat without my knees rubbing. Truely impressive. The car's interior is huge; with the backseat folded down the cargo room is mind-boggling. It comes well-equipped with options. For $20,000 you can get one that's basically fully loaded (no leather or heated seats, but it does have a sunroof). The engine, though, is weak and inefficient. Fuel economy is atrocious. If they put the ecotec of the Cavalier into this attractive and practical body, GM would have a real winner.
Fuel Economy: 2 stars
Handling/Performance: 2 stars
Practicality: 5 stars
Looks: 4.4 stars

Kia Spectra5
I would've bought this car. The only problem is, Kia has decided it's Mazda and is going to produc too-few vehicles and charge full price. So be it...I wouldn't pay full price for a Kia any more than I'd pay full price for a Ford. Anyway, this car is phenomenal. I only sat in it, but the reviews say it drives really nice. It's got a great fit-and-finish, it's roomy, it's got some really cool interior features, and the MSRP is right (there are just no incentives). Chances are I'll look here again when the time comes.
Fuel Economy: 4.2 stars
Handling/Performance: N/A
Practicality: 5 stars
Looks: 4.8 stars

Hyundai Elantra
Even moreso than it's cousin company Kia, Hyundai has made leaps and bounds over the past few years. Elantra is one of those cars that could suit anyone's needs. It's roomy and drives ok. The fit and finish is great, and the entire car is just nice to be in. It also has that quality - like the Focus - of blending in with the five trillion other cars just like it. Oftentimes, that's just what we want. The only thing I didn't like was the body-roll. Perhaps my parents would enjoy that kind of handling, but for me it was just too soft. For me, if I'd gone with Hyundai I would've gone with Elantra's little sister.
Fuel Economy: 4.2 stars
Handling/Performance: 2.8
Practicality: 4 stars
Looks: 4.5 stars

Hyundai Accent5
Officially making the original Accent redundant, the Accent5 is a tremendous vehicle. It does everything well, but in a bland sort of way. If I couldn't have found anything more exciting, I would have been satisfied with this.
Fuel Economy: 4.2 stars
Handling/Performance: 3.1 stars
Practicality: 4.5 stars
Looks: 4 stars

Mitsubishi Lancer OZ Rally Edition
Gorgeous. This was the car I wanted more than any other car. Almost as much fun as the Celica, but with a practical dose of room. The OZ Rally has the look of the Ralliart/Evolution, but without the engine to back it up. Which is fine with me, because I like my gas mileage anyway. In fact, I like this car so much I think I'll post a pic of it. What are you going to do? It's my blog.
Fuel Economy: 4.2 stars
Handling/Performance: 4 stars
Practicality: 4.7 stars
Looks: 5 stars

Ford Focus ZTS
I would not have considered a Focus, especially a non-hatchback Focus, except for the price. And even then, it had to be the nicely equipped model. But, the Focus has a good balance of performance, handling, space, looks, and fit-and-finish. The quality remains to be seen, but hopefully this "new generation of Ford" really is new. The handling is really quite something on the Focus. Since its introduction, I had heard wonderful things about how fun the car is to drive. But when I took the car on a test drive, it seemed to ride pretty soft. It seemed like there was a lot of body roll and other such cushiness through cornering. I didn't push the car anywhere near its limits, though...I just toured. However, once I purchased the car and broke the engine in, I started running it through its paces and lo and behold, the handling performance remains composed no matter what you do. Turn the traction control off, and this thing flies. The 2.0L zetec provides some quick zip. This car defies logic; it appears cushy when cruising, but sporty when pushed. Now, it's no sports car, but it provides more fun to city driving than almost anything else I drove. Add to that complete luxury and 48% off the MSRP, and my name was on that dotted line faster than a fat kid on a Smartie. A word to the wise: if I had known about the 2.0L zetec's thirst, I would have reconsidered my purchase. I'm not saying I would have turned the car down, but at what point is luxury and performance worth the wallet crunch at the pumps and damage to the environment?
Fuel Economy: 2.8 stars
Handling/Performance: 4.7 stars
Practicality: 4.7 stars
Looks: 4.8 stars

They aren't rich and they definately aren't white...

2004-12-11T16:56:00.000-05:00

so, not that you care or anything, but....

Freedom's On The March

2004-12-05T22:33:00.000-05:00

Evidence, Mr. Ambassador?
by Naomi Klein; UK Guardian; December 05, 2004

David T Johnson,
Acting ambassador,
US Embassy, London

Dear Mr Johnson, On November 26, your press counsellor sent a letter to the Guardian taking strong exception to a sentence in my column of the same day. The sentence read: "In Iraq, US forces and their Iraqi surrogates are no longer bothering to conceal attacks on civilian targets and are openly eliminating anyone - doctors, clerics, journalists - who dares to count the bodies." Of particular concern was the word "eliminating".

The letter suggested that my charge was "baseless" and asked the Guardian either to withdraw it, or provide "evidence of this extremely grave accusation". It is quite rare for US embassy officials to openly involve themselves in the free press of a foreign country, so I took the letter extremely seriously. But while I agree that the accusation is grave, I have no intention of withdrawing it. Here, instead, is the evidence you requested.

In April, US forces laid siege to Falluja in retaliation for the gruesome killings of four Blackwater employees. The operation was a failure, with US troops eventually handing the city back to resistance forces. The reason for the withdrawal was that the siege had sparked uprisings across the country, triggered by reports that hundreds of civilians had been killed. This information came from three main sources: 1) Doctors. USA Today reported on April 11 that "Statistics and names of the dead were gathered from four main clinics around the city and from Falluja general hospital". 2) Arab TV journalists. While doctors reported the numbers of dead, it was al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya that put a human face on those statistics. With unembedded camera crews in Falluja, both networks beamed footage of mutilated women and children throughout Iraq and the Arab-speaking world. 3) Clerics. The reports of high civilian casualties coming from journalists and doctors were seized upon by prominent clerics in Iraq. Many delivered fiery sermons condemning the attack, turning their congregants against US forces and igniting the uprising that forced US troops to withdraw.

US authorities have denied that hundreds of civilians were killed during last April's siege, and have lashed out at the sources of these reports. For instance, an unnamed "senior American officer", speaking to the New York Times last month, labelled Falluja general hospital "a centre of propaganda". But the strongest words were reserved for Arab TV networks. When asked about al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya's reports that hundreds of civilians had been killed in Falluja, Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defence, replied that "what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable ... " Last month, US troops once again laid siege to Falluja - but this time the attack *******d a new tactic: eliminating the doctors, journalists and clerics who focused public attention on civilian casualties last time around.

Eliminating doctors
The first major operation by US marines and Iraqi soldiers was to storm Falluja general hospital, arresting doctors and placing the facility under military control. The New York Times reported that "the hospital was selected as an early target because the American military believed that it was the source of rumours about heavy casualties", noting that "this time around, the American military intends to fight its own information war, countering or squelching what has been one of the insurgents' most potent weapons". The Los Angeles Times quoted a doctor as saying that the soldiers "stole the mobile phones" at the hospital - preventing doctors from communicating with the outside world.

But this was not the worst of the attacks on health workers. Two days earlier, a crucial emergency health clinic was bombed to rubble, as well as a medical supplies dispensary next door. Dr Sami al-Jumaili, who was working in the clinic, says the bombs took the lives of 15 medics, four nurses and 35 patients. The Los Angeles Times reported that the manager of Falluja general hospital "had told a US general the location of the downtown makeshift medical centre" before it was hit.

Whether the clinic was targeted or destroyed accidentally, the effect was the same: to eliminate many of Falluja's doctors from the war zone. As Dr Jumaili told the Independent on November 14: "There is not a single surgeon in Falluja." When fighting moved to Mosul, a similar tactic was used: on entering the city, US and Iraqi forces immediately seized control of the al-Zaharawi hospital.

Eliminating journalists
The images from last month's siege on Falluja came almost exclusively from reporters embedded with US troops. This is because Arab journalists who had covered April's siege from the civilian perspective had effectively been eliminated. Al-Jazeera had no cameras on the ground because it has been banned from reporting in Iraq indefinitely. Al-Arabiya did have an unembedded reporter, Abdel Kader Al-Saadi, in Falluja, but on November 11 US forces arrested him and held him for the length of the siege. Al-Saadi's detention has been condemned by Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists. "We cannot ignore the possibility that he is being intimidated for just trying to do his job," the IFJ stated.

It's not the first time journalists in Iraq have faced this kind of intimidation. When US forces invaded Baghdad in April 2003, US Central Command urged all unembedded journalists to leave the city. Some insisted on staying and at least three paid with their lives. On April 8, a US aircraft bombed al-Jazeera's Baghdad offices, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub. Al-Jazeera has documentation proving it gave the coordinates of its location to US forces.

On the same day, a US tank fired on the Palestine hotel, killing José Couso, of the Spanish network Telecinco, and Taras Protsiuk, of Reuters. Three US soldiers are facing a criminal lawsuit from Couso's family, which alleges that US forces were well aware that journalists were in the Palestine hotel and that they committed a war crime.

Eliminating clerics
Just as doctors and journalists have been targeted, so too have many of the clerics who have spoken out forcefully against the killings in Falluja. On November 11, Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, the head of the Supreme Association for Guidance and Daawa, was arrested. According to Associated Press, "Al-Sumaidaei has called on the country's Sunni minority to launch a civil disobedience campaign if the Iraqi government does not halt the attack on Falluja". On November 19, AP reported that US and Iraqi forces stormed a prominent Sunni mosque, the Abu Hanifa, in Aadhamiya, killing three people and arresting 40, including the chief cleric - another opponent of the Falluja siege. On the same day, Fox News reported that "US troops also raided a Sunni mosque in Qaim, near the Syrian border". The report described the arrests as "retaliation for opposing the Falluja offensive". Two Shia clerics associated with Moqtada al-Sadr have also been arrested in recent weeks; according to AP, "both had spoken out against the Falluja attack".

"We don't do body counts," said General Tommy Franks of US Central Command. The question is: what happens to the people who insist on counting the bodies - the doctors who must pronounce their patients dead, the journalists who document these losses, the clerics who denounce them? In Iraq, evidence is mounting that these voices are being systematically silenced through a variety of means, from mass arrests, to raids on hospitals, media bans, and overt and unexplained physical attacks.

Mr Ambassador, I believe that your government and its Iraqi surrogates are waging two wars in Iraq. One war is against the Iraqi people, and it has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. The other is a war on witnesses

ooh ahh

2004-12-04T13:54:00.000-05:00

its times like these that make me say
Lord if you see me please come my way
leavin bread crumbs for when i stray
rely on sacrifice and the price You paid
feel me like a fingertip
sometimes i fall, i slip
my heartfelt desire is to be more like you
trying not to quench Your fire by the things that i do

my life be like...
the fear of never falling in love
and the tears after losing the feelings
of what you thought love was
like the dirt still up under the rug
my life be like...
bad characteristics
covered in Christ's blood
the joy of new birth
and the pain of growing up
the bliss between giving my all
and giving up
the highs and lows
paths and roads i chose
in the cold i froze
trying to ease my woes
in this world of sin
clothes too thin to fend
so to God i send
words of help to win
in grumblings so deep
letters could never express
so the sound of ooh aah
beneath my breath projects

my life be like...
the fear of never falling in love
and the tears after losing the feelings
of what you thought love was
like the dirt still up under the rug
my life be like...
bad characteristics
covered in Christ's blood

What Does Jesus Want for Christmas?

2004-12-03T19:45:00.000-05:00

December 11, 2001 — Fresh Words Edition
By John Piper

What does Jesus want this Christmas? We can see the answer in his prayers. What does he ask God for? His longest prayer is John 17. Here is the climax of his desire:

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am (v. 24).

Among all the undeserving sinners in the world, there are those whom God has "given to Jesus." These are those whom God has drawn to the Son (John 6:44, 65). These are Christians – people who have "received" Jesus as the crucified and risen Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives (John 1:12; 10:11, 17-18; 20:28; 6:35; 3:17). Jesus says he wants them to be with him.

Sometimes we hear people say that God created man because he was lonely. So they say, "God created us so that we would be with him." Does Jesus agree with this? Well, he does say that he really wants us to be with him! Yes, but why? Consider the rest of the verse. Why does Jesus want us to be with him?

. . . to see my glory that you [Father] have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

That would be a strange way of expressing his loneliness. "I want them with me so they can see my glory." In fact it doesn't express his loneliness. It expresses his concern for the satisfaction of our longing, not his loneliness. Jesus is not lonely. He and the Father and the Spirit are profoundly satisfied in the fellowship of the Trinity. We, not he, are starving for something. And what Jesus wants for Christmas is for us to experience what we were really made for – seeing and savoring his glory.

Oh, that God would make this sink in to our souls! Jesus made us (John 1:3) to see his glory. Just before he goes to the cross he pleads his deepest desires with the Father: "Father, I desire – I desire! – that they . . . may be with me where I am, to see my glory."

But that is only half of what Jesus wants in these final, climactic verses of his prayer. I just said we were really made for seeing and savoring his glory. Is that what he wants – that we not only see his glory but savor it, relish it, delight in it, treasure it, love it? Consider verse 26, the very last verse:

I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

That is the end of the prayer. What is Jesus' final goal for us? Not that we simply see his glory, but that we love him with the same love that the Father has for him: "that the love with which you [Father] have loved me may be in them." Jesus' longing and goal is that we see his glory and then that we be able to love what we see with the same love that the Father has for the Son. And he doesn't mean that we merely imitate the love of the Father for the Son. He means the Father's very love becomes our love for the Son – that we love the Son with the love of the Father for the Son. This is what the Spirit becomes and bestows in our lives: Love for the Son by the Father through the Spirit.

What Jesus wants most for Christmas is that his elect be gathered in and then get what they want most – to see his glory and then savor it with the very savoring of the Father for the Son.

What I want most for Christmas this year is to join you (and many others) in seeing Christ in all his fullness and that we together be able to love what we see with a love far beyond our own half-hearted human capacities.

This is what Jesus prays for us this Christmas: "Father, show them my glory and give them the very delight in me that you have in me." Oh, may we see Christ with the eyes of God and savor Christ with the heart of God. That is the essence of heaven. That is the gift Christ came to purchase for sinners at the cost of his death in our place.

Seeing and Savoring Him with you,
Pastor John

Why I'm cancelling my CIBC Visa

2004-12-01T18:33:00.000-05:00

CIBC faxes private information for hundreds of customers to an auto wreckers in West Virginia. They did this from July 2001 - when the owner immediately alerted them to the problem - until November 2004, when he broke the story to the Canadian media. Enough information was transferred for an unscrupulous recipient to assume customers' identities.

CIBC loses tens of millions to an investment in Ken Bryden and the Ottawa Senators, recieving $0.0006 for every $1.00 loaned (point six cents on the dollar). No doubt this loss with be offset through nickel and diming small customers.

CIBC dispenses Canadian Tire money from one of its ATMs.

Edit: Note that I did not say "ATM Machine". People who say "ATM Machine" are slack-jawed mouth-breathers. Should you encounter someone using the phrase "ATM Machine", promptly make them say in full what they are actually saying: "Automated Teller Machine Machine".

Chin up, kid, it turns out even faceless trillionaires can have a bad week....

Deliverator

2004-11-29T19:52:00.001-05:00

I do not have the ambition to write a post like I did about Tim Hortons, but with recent developments I simply must comment.
As you may know, I worked as a delivery guy at a rural Pizza Hut from July until a week ago. This post stems from a story that one of my ex-coworkers, Doug, relayed to me last night. You see, there's this customer that lived quite a ways out in the country, and he never tipped. And I mean never. He'd come up with the greatest stories; It'd always be something like, "oh man, i don't have any extra for you, I only got to order cause my wife's out so I had to smash the piggy bank." (As he pays in nickels). Despite the fact that he orders more than once a week. Anyway, Saturday night he ordered. But when Doug got to the door, the wife answered and paid. This was a new development...none of us had ever seen her. She tipped Doug $4 (a descent tip). Here's the kicker: an hour later the guy called the store and asked for his tip back. I kid you not. Which brings me to today's lesson:

Respect for those in the service industry.

As you go about your day-to-day life, do you take the time to be considerate of those who's job it is to serve you? Tipping isn't always the appropriate response, but perhaps you could be kinder to the cashier at Canadian Tire. Maybe you should tip that guy who's standing in the blistering-cold wind pumping your gas. I don't know: use your own imagination. The point is, you've got to stop the mindset that "it's their job anyway". Have you considered what the pizza delivery guy goes through?

Here's a guy who doesn't make an hourly wage. He uses his own car. He pays for his own gas. He's out there in any weather. He's trying to find your house even though you don't have a visible house number. You forgot to turn the light on for him. He spends twenty minutes solely on you. And in return, what do you tip him? $1.30? Are you using your brain? A waitress generally is making a wage (however small), plus she's serving customers other than you. She's not using her own car or gas. But when that $30 bill comes, you're careful to give her her $4.50.

Let me make it simple for you: if you tip your pizza delivery guy less than $2, you are an evil person. This doesn't mean that $2 is a good tip, but it's the minimum. Much like you should be doing at least a minimum of 60kph on the 401.
Many Christians read this blog. To you I say: what good is that Jesus fish on the back of your car and that sign on your door that says "As for me and my house..." when you've just tipped the guy less than $4? What a convoluted witness: "Hey! Become a Christian so you can feel good about yourself as you take advantage of others!"

Bah. I disown you all!

Game of Life

2004-11-28T19:01:00.000-05:00

New whip, new digs, new job (soon!). That's right, I've moved back to Kingston! (For those of un-Ontarian decent). AND I bought a new car 10 days ago. It's a brand-new 2003 Ford Focus ZTS. It was probably the last '03 Focus available new anywhere, it was sitting next to '05 models so I got a HUGE deal on it. Seriously, I robbed them. Ask me what kind of a deal I got on it. Anyway, it's the ZTS model, which means it's the luxury Focus. It's got power windows, power locks, remote, tilt/teloscopic steering wheel, six-disc in-dash CD player, leather steering wheel and seats, 5spd manual transmission, 16" alloy wheels with low-profile Perelli tires, Canadian Winter Package Plus (heated seats, traction control, heated mirrors, ABS), etc, etc. In fact, the only option it is missing is a sunroof. Sigh.
So I didn't post last week cause I was waiting for access to these pics so that I could show you my new life. This pic shows my new crib in the background:

This one looks over the bay at the Dupont plant in Kingston:

Praise

2004-11-13T01:44:00.000-05:00

The sun shining. Seasonably warm. The smell of the woodstove hanging in the crisp fall air. The perfume of freshly hung laundry. The kittens playing in the crunching leaves. All at once. What a beautiful day. What a beautiful creation.

Well, my car rolled over 300,000km...time for a new one.

Birthday Boy

2004-11-05T22:14:00.000-05:00

I'm not getting any younger, you know.

knowledge

2004-10-22T01:41:00.001-04:00

It is vain, O men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your insight only leads you to the knowledge that it is not in yourselves that you will discover the true and the good.
- Blaise Pascal

Killing Frogs

2004-10-16T01:46:00.000-04:00

I'm becoming quite frustrated that it says there are two comments for my last post, but it only shows one comment when opened. Anyone out there see two comments? If you do, let me know by posting a comment. Then again, I probably won't get it. Oh, blogger.

I've decided this year that the beautiful leaves will make me happy instead of sad. I've never been able to understand why people get so excited about the changing leaves; it's just a reminder that summer's over and the bitter winter will soon be upon us. However, this year I have forced myself to simply enjoy the beautiful, ever-changing scenery outside my corner-office window. Come to think of it, my office has four corners.

I kill frogs for a living. Seriously - do they migrate at this time of year or what? I can't drive down one road (outside of town) without dodging frogs (or not dodging frogs - as indicated by above title). I drive 250km a day...that's a lot of frog's legs. The wee frogs are givin 'er all she's got, too. Poor buggers.

Thanksgiving

2004-10-12T01:59:00.000-04:00

I didn't get to have a Thanksgiving weekend this year, but I'm still thankful. I've been blessed with great parents and a wonderful family.
I buried my last grandparent on Saturday, my 96 year old grandfather. He was born in 1908, served in the British Military, owned the farm that became the Golden Mile in T.O., worked as a painter, and worked for the parks department. He saw a lot in 96 years. It's proper, I believe, to stop and reflect every so often that one day we will lie in a hospital bed - if we're fortunate - and we will breathe our last. It is sobering and it puts one's day in perspective.

How can I best live a life that will have an impact beyond my own 96 years?

Light Reading

beginning anew

2004-10-08T15:22:00.000-04:00

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.

-Augustine of Hippo

Excuse me!

2004-10-02T01:24:00.000-04:00

You forgot Poland!

around

2004-09-28T01:15:00.001-04:00

I'm still here...not doing much. Nothing exciting. I'm not going to concerts, having babies, or eating Twinkies (Twinkies are going bankrupt, you know).

What's a guy to do? Waiting can be so hard.

And in the fashion of a blog that throws information at you more than providing answers, I leave you with this quote from Gary Parker:
"If faith never encounters doubt, if truth never struggles with error, if good never battles with evil, how can faith know its own power? In my own pilgrimage, if I have to choose between a faith that has stared doubt in the eye and made it blink, or a naive faith that has never known the firing line of doubt, I will choose the former every time."

...what is it good for? absolutely nothing.

2004-09-27T01:44:00.000-04:00

"In the past 15 years, more than two million children died as a result of war."

[Source:UNICEF deputy chief Kul Gautam, in the article UNICEF reveals abuse of millions, September 21, 2004]

Crude Dudes

2004-09-26T02:40:00.000-04:00

So...why the heck is the U.S. in Iraq? There doesn't seem to be a logical reason why Iraq would be attacked over, say, Iran or Syria or Saudi Arabia or North Korea. It seems that anytime someone mentions the hypothesis that perhaps the Bush administration was trying to secure the world's largest untapped oil reserve, that person is shunned as a 'conspiracy theorist'. But what other explanation is there? The evidence pointing towards this conclusion is nearly overwhelming: Cheney's ties to Haliburton, Bush's ties to the oil industry, documents from before 9/11 that point to a policy of capturing oil reserves from "rogue states", etc, etc, etc. Interested in understanding this issue further? Linda McQuaig has written an informative and concise article explaining one viewpoint of the Iraq debacle.

Crude dudes
LINDA MCQUAIG

From his corner office in the heart of New York's financial district, Fadel Gheit keeps close tabs on what goes on inside the boardrooms of the big oil companies. An oil analyst at the prestigious Wall Street firm Oppenheimer & Co., the fit, distinguished-looking Gheit has been watching the oil industry closely for more than 25 years.

Selling the modern world's most indispensable commodity has never been a bad business to be in — particularly for the small group of companies that straddle the top of this privileged world. But never more so than now.

"Profit-wise, things could not have been better," says Gheit, "In the last three years, they died and went to heaven .... They are all sitting on the largest piles of cash in their history."

But to stay rich they have to keep finding new reserves, and that's getting tougher. Increasingly it means cutting through permafrost or drilling deep underwater, at tremendous cost. "The cheap oil has already been found and developed and produced and consumed," says Gheit. "The low-hanging fruit has already been picked."

Well, not all the low-hanging fruit has been picked.

Nestled into the heart of the area of heaviest oil concentration in the world is Iraq, overflowing with low-hanging fruit. No permafrost, no deep water. Just giant pools of oil, right beneath the warm ground. This is fruit sagging so low, as it were, that it practically touches the ground under the weight of its ripeness.

Not only does Iraq have vast quantities of easily accessible oil, but its oil is almost untouched. "Think of Iraq as virgin territory .... This is bigger than anything Exxon is involved in currently .... It is the superstar of the future," says Gheit, "That's why Iraq becomes the most sought-after real estate on the face of the earth."

Gheit just smiles at the notion that oil wasn't a factor in the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He compares Iraq to Russia, which also has large undeveloped oil reserves. But Russia has nuclear weapons. "We can't just go over and ... occupy (Russian) oil fields," says Gheit. "It's a different ballgame." Iraq, however, was defenceless, utterly lacking, ironically, in weapons of mass destruction. And its location, nestled in between Saudi Arabia and Iran, made it an ideal place for an ongoing military presence, from which the U.S. would be able to control the entire Gulf region. Gheit smiles again: "Think of Iraq as a military base with a very large oil reserve underneath .... You can't ask for better than that."

There's something almost obscene about a map that was studied by senior Bush administration officials and a select group of oil company executives meeting in secret in the spring of 2001. It doesn't show the kind of detail normally shown on maps — cities, towns, regions. Rather its detail is all about Iraq's oil.

The southwest is neatly divided, for instance, into nine "Exploration Blocks." Stripped of political trappings, this map shows a naked Iraq, with only its ample natural assets in view. It's like a supermarket meat chart, which identifies the various parts of a slab of beef so customers can see the most desirable cuts .... Block 1 might be the striploin, Block 2 and Block 3 are perhaps some juicy tenderloin, but Block 8 — ahh, that could be the filet mignon.

The map might seem crass, but it was never meant for public consumption. It was one of the documents studied by the ultra-secretive task force on energy, headed by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, and it was only released under court order after a long legal battle waged by the public interest group Judicial Watch.

Another interesting task force document, also released under court order over the opposition of the Bush administration, was a two-page chart titled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfields." It identifies 63 oil companies from 30 countries and specifies which Iraqi oil fields each company is interested in and the status of the company's negotiations with Saddam Hussein's regime. Among the companies are Royal Dutch/Shell of the Netherlands, Russia's Lukoil and France's Total Elf Aquitaine, which was identified as being interested in the fabulous, 25-billion-barrrel Majnoon oil field. Baghdad had "agreed in principle" to the French company's plans to develop this succulent slab of Iraq. There goes the filet mignon into the mouths of the French!

The documents have attracted surprisingly little attention, despite their possible relevance to the question of Washington's motives for its invasion of Iraq — in many ways the defining event of the post-9/11 world but one whose purpose remains shrouded in mystery. Even after the supposed motives for the invasion — weapons of mass destruction and links to Al Qaeda — have been thoroughly discredited, talk of oil as a motive is still greeted with derision. Certainly any suggestion that private oil interests were in any way involved is hooted down with charges of conspiracy theory.

Yet the documents suggest that those who took part in the Cheney task force — including senior oil company executives — were very interested in Iraq's oil and specifically in the danger of it falling into the hands of eager foreign oil companies, rather than into the rightful hands of eager U.S. oil companies.

As the documents show, prior to the U.S. invasion, foreign oil companies were nicely positioned for future involvement in Iraq, while the major U.S. oil companies, after years of U.S.-Iraqi hostilities, were largely out of the picture. Indeed, the U.S. majors would have been the big losers if U.N. sanctions against Iraq had simply been lifted. "The U.S. majors stand to lose if Saddam makes a deal with the U.N. (on lifting sanctions)," noted a report by Germany's Deutsche Bank in October 2002.

The disadvantaged position of U.S. oil companies in Saddam Hussein's Iraq would have presumably been on the minds of senior oil company executives when they met secretly with Cheney and his task force in early 2001. The administration refuses to divulge exactly who met with the task force, and continues to fight legal challenges to force disclosure. However a 2003 report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concluded that the task force relied on advice from the oil industry, whose close ties to the Bush administration are legendary. (George W. Bush received more money from the oil and gas industry in 1999 and 2000 than any other U.S. federal candidate received over the previous decade.)

The Cheney task force has been widely criticized for recommending bigger subsidies for the energy industry, but there's been little focus on its possible role as a venue for consultations between Big Oil and the administration about Iraq. One intriguing piece of evidence pointing in this direction was a National Security Council directive, dated February 2001, instructing NSC staff to co-operate fully with the task force. The NSC document, reported in The New Yorker magazine, noted that the task force would be considering the "melding" of two policy areas: "the review of operational policies towards rogue states" and "actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields." This certainly implies that the Cheney task force was considering geopolitical questions about actions related to the capture of oil and gas reserves in "rogue" states, including presumably Iraq.

It seems likely then that Big Oil, through the Cheney task force, was involved in discussions with the administration about getting control of oil in Iraq. Since Big Oil has sought to distance itself from the administration's decision to invade Iraq, this apparent involvement helps explain the otherwise baffling level of secrecy surrounding the task force.

It's interesting to note that the Cheney task force deliberations took place in the first few months after the Bush administration came to office — the same time period during which the new administration was secretly formulating plans for toppling Saddam. Those early plans were not publicly disclosed, but we know about them now due to the publication of several insider accounts, including that of former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill. So, months before the attacks of 9/11, the Bush White House was already considering toppling Saddam, and at the same time it was also keenly studying Iraq's oil fields and assessing how far along foreign companies were in their negotiations with Saddam for a piece of Iraq's oil.

It's also noteworthy that one person — Dick Cheney — was pivotal both in advancing the administration's plans for regime change in Iraq and in formulating U.S. energy policy.

As CEO of oil services giant Halliburton Company, Cheney had been alert to the problem of securing new sources of oil. Speaking to the London Petroleum Institute in 1999, while still heading Halliburton, Cheney had focused on the difficulty of finding the 50 million extra barrels of oil per day that he said the world would need by 2010. "Where is it going to come from?" he asked, and then noted that "the Middle East with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies."

Cheney's focus on the Middle East and its oil continued after he became Bush's powerful vice-president. Within weeks of the new administration taking office, Cheney was pushing forward plans for regime change in Iraq and also devising a new energy policy which included getting control of oil reserves in rogue states. His central role in these two apparently urgent initiatives is certainly suggestive of a possible connection between the U.S. invasion of Iraq and a desire for the country's ample oil reserves — the very thing that is vehemently denied.

One reason that regime change in Iraq was seen as offering significant benefits for Big Oil was that it promised to open up a treasure chest which had long been sealed — private ownership of Middle Eastern oil. A small group of major international oil companies once privately owned the oil industries of the Middle East. But that changed in the 1970s when most Middle Eastern countries (and some elsewhere) nationalized their oil industries. Today, state-owned companies control the vast majority of the world's oil resources. The major international oil companies control a mere 4 per cent.

The majors have clearly prospered in the new era, as developers rather than owners, but there's little doubt that they'd prefer to regain ownership of the oil world's Garden of Eden. "(O)ne of the goals of the oil companies and the Western powers is to weaken and/or privatize the world's state oil companies," observes New York-based economist Michael Tanzer, who advises Third World governments on energy issues.

The possibility of Iraq's oil being reopened to private ownership — with the promise of astonishing profits — attracted considerable interest in the run-up to the U.S. invasion. In February 2003, as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell held the world's attention with his dramatic efforts to make the case that Saddam posed an imminent threat to international peace, other parts of the U.S. government were secretly developing plans to privatize Iraq's oil (among other assets). A confidential 100-page contracting document, drawn up by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Treasury Department, laid out a wide-ranging plan for a "Mass Privatization Program ... especially in the oil and supporting industries."

The Pentagon was also working on plans to open up Iraq's oil sector. In the fall of 2002, months before the invasion, the Pentagon retained Philip Carroll, a former CEO of Shell Oil Co. in Texas, to draft a strategy for developing Iraqi oil. Carroll's plans apparently became the basis of a proposed scheme, which became public shortly after the war, to redesign Iraq's oil industry along the lines of a U.S. corporation, with a chairman, chief executive and a 15-member board of international advisers. Carroll was chosen by Washington to serve as chairman, but the plans were shelved after they encountered stiff opposition inside Iraq.

Still, the prospect of privatizing Iraq's oil remained of great interest to U.S. oil companies, according to Robert Ebel, from the influential Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Ebel, former vice-president of a Dallas-based oil exploration company, retains close ties to the industry. In an interview in his Washington office, Ebel said it was up to Iraq to make its own decisions, but he made clear that U.S. oil companies would prefer Iraq abandon its nationalization. "We'd rather not work with national oil companies," Ebel said bluntly, noting that the major oil companies are prepared to invest the $35 to $40 billion to develop Iraq's reserves in the coming years. "We're looking for places to invest around the world. You know, along comes Iraq, and I think a lot of oil companies would be disappointed if Iraq were to say `we're going to do it ourselves' "

Along comes Iraq?

How fortuitous. U.S. oil companies just happened to have billions of dollars that they wanted to invest in undeveloped oil reserves when Iraq presented itself, ready for invasion.

Along comes Iraq, indeed.

In the past 14 decades, we've used up roughly half of all the oil that the planet has to offer. No, we're not about to run out of oil. But long before the oil runs out, it reaches its production peak. After that, extracting the remaining oil becomes considerably more difficult and expensive.

This notion that oil production has a "peak" was first conceived in 1956 by geophysicist M. King Hubbert. He predicted that U.S. oil production would peak about 1970 — a notion that was scoffed at at the time. As it turned out, Hubbert was dead on; U.S. oil production peaked in 1970, and has been declining ever since. Hubbert's once-radical notion is now generally accepted.

For the world as a whole, the peak is fast approaching. Colin Campbell, one of the world's leading geologists, estimates the world's peak will come as soon as 2005 — next year. "There is only so much crude oil in the world," Campbell said in a telephone interview from his home in Ireland, "and the industry has found about 90 per cent of it."

All this would be less serious if the world's appetite for oil were declining in tandem. But even as the discovery of new oil fields slows down, the world's consumption speeds up — a dilemma Cheney highlighted in his speech to the London Petroleum Institute in 1999. For every new barrel of oil we find, we are consuming four already-discovered barrels, according to Campbell. The arithmetic is not on our side.

Particularly worrisome is the arithmetic as it applies to the U.S. With its oil production already long past peak, and yet its oil consumption rising, the U.S. will inevitably become more reliant on foreign oil. This is significant not just for Americans, but for the world, since the U.S. has long characterized its access to energy as a matter of "national security." With its unrivalled military power, the U.S. will insist on meeting its own voracious energy needs — and it will be up to the rest of the world to co-operate with this quest. Period.

Canada plays a greater role in this "keep-the-U.S.-energy-beast-fed" scenario than many Canadians may realize. A three-volume report prepared by a bipartisan Congressional team and CSIS, the Washington think tank, highlights how important Canada is in the U.S. energy picture of the future. The report, The Geopolitics of Energy into the 21st Century, notes that Canada is "the single largest provider of energy to the United States," and that "Canada is poised to expand sharply its exports of oil to the United States in the coming years."

Fine — as long as Canada doesn't want to change its mind about this. Well, in fact, Canada can't change its mind about this — a point celebrated in the report. When Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993, we gave up our right to cut back the amount of oil we export to the U.S. (unless we cut our own consumption the same amount). Interestingly, Mexico, also a party to NAFTA, refused to agree to this section, and was granted an exemption.

The U.S. report points out that that, under NAFTA, Canada is not allowed to reduce its exports of oil (or other energy) to the U.S. in order to redirect them to Canadian consumers. Redirecting Canadian oil to Canadians isn't permitted — regardless of how great the Canadian need may be. Some outside observers, like Colin Campbell over in Ireland, find the situation striking. "You poor Canadians are going to be left freezing in the dark while they're running hair dryers in the U.S.," says Campbell. It's a situation that comforts the U.S. senators, congressmen and think-tank analysts who wrote the report. With obvious satisfaction, they conclude: "There can be no more secure supplier to the United States than Canada."

Alas, for the U.S., not every part of the world is as pliant as Canada. Most of the world's oil is in the Middle East. And while different oil regions will reach their production peaks at different times, the Middle East will peak last, underlying Cheney's point that the region is where "the prize ultimately lies." Whoever controls the big oil reserves of the Middle East will then be positioned to, pretty much, control the world.

But we're supposed to believe that, as the Bush administration assessed its options just before invading Iraq in the spring of 2003, the advantages of securing vast, untapped oil fields — in order to guarantee U.S. energy security in a world of dwindling reserves and to enable U.S. oil companies to reap untold riches — were far from mind. What really mattered to those in the White House, we're told, was liberating the people of Iraq.

Adapted from It's The Crude, Dude: War Big Oil, And The Fight For The Planet, by Linda McQuaig, 2004. Published by Doubleday Canada. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved. Toronto-based political commentator Linda McQuaig is a past winner of a National Newspaper Award and an Atkinson Fellowship for journalism in public policy.

attn: bloggers

2004-09-19T15:22:00.000-04:00

I would be interested in hearing the testimony of some of you bloggers out there (you know who you are). How is your faith affecting you right now? How has it?

Whaddaweek

2004-09-10T01:48:00.000-04:00

This week started out pretty freaky...put my car in the ditch while working (driving for a rural Pizza Hut). God protected me and Yoda, although I kinda ruined Jonothan's nice bodywork on the driverside fender. Since then, though, it's been a blast! It's been almost like a whole unexpected vacation after New York last week.
Tuesday Steve came up to see me...haven't seen him for at least a year. Got to see his new car, which is a simply fabulous Mazda 3 Sport. Then Wednesday I got to go see AndyMac in the crappy little town of Belleville. Finally, Thursday Dave and I took a trip to Oshawa/Whitby.
I've also seen two movies - Collateral and Bourne Supremacy. Both are excellent, although Collateral may be even more than excellent (let's just say the club scene made AndyMac pee himself a little).

Live from New York...It's Saturday Night!

2004-08-29T21:20:00.000-04:00

This place is a riot! And one might break out here (more on that later).
Dave and I spent most of yesturday in the car. After missing about a dozen turns, we made it to our hotel; a nice Super 8 on 46th Street near 6th Ave (also known as the Avenue of the Americas). We walked around for about 6 hours last night. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe (Andymac is never allowed to enter that restaurant - too many enviable guitars). Times Square was unbelievable. Seriously, television doesn't do it justice.
Today we marched with over a quarter million protestors. I could not have even imagined what that experience is like. After that we went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle (Pastor Jim Cymbala). With a congregation of over 10,000, it's an exciting church.
I wish I could write more, but I'm too tired to move my fingers.

"Hey Bush, how about you have another pretzel?"

R.I.P.

2004-08-23T00:24:00.000-04:00

My regularly scheduled blog has been interrupted this evening with breaking news of a terrible tragedy. My first fish died. I had four black ones and three white ones. May he rest in peace.

But it gets creepy after that. I can only see two white fish, a dead one and a live one. I have looked through every possible spot in the tank and all I can see are two white fish. The other one has totally disappeared. Also, the black ones are eating each other. It's mayhem in there. It's my own little Lord of the Flies scenario playing itself out on a glass stage in my bedroom.

Seriously though, it seems like there are two bully fish and two getting-eaten-alive-slowly fish. They don't seem too injured yet. I've tried seperating them, but it seems that no matter which one I trap, the other three just keep attacking each other (they're attack is really just nibbling...they're little fish). Any advice would be appreciated!

The Lighthouse

2004-08-18T00:47:00.000-04:00

"It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to talk about it; lighthouses do not ring bells or fire cannons to call attention to their shining - they just shine."
-Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)

Bryant reminded me of this in his comment (thanks for it, btw).

Also, the quote that I attributed to Dennis Rainey in my last post was actually originally from A.W. Tozer.

Testimony

2004-08-15T23:57:00.000-04:00

"Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.¹⁷Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

I realized recently that almost everything I have held dear has, over the past couple of years, disappointed me or intentionally hurt me in some way. I've been let down by church leaders and camp leaders, I've been hurt in the extreme by a girlfriend of two years, by school faculty, and by people I considered close friends. I can't believe what I've heard come out of the mouths of people that I held in high esteem. A job that I was dedicated to became, for lack of a sufficient description, a hell-hole.
I never realized during those golden high school years how perfect everything was for me.
But I don't reveal these feelings to evoke pity. On the contrary, I am only now beginning to realize the work that God has been doing with me.
I've always been a strong-willed person. I have, for the most part, an ability to see the picture in a way that is larger than most people are able/desire to see (for example (as those who know me can attest), my dilemma with the causes and effects of how Walmart is able to offer such low prices). This, I fear, has resulted in a feeling of self-worth and -- dare I say -- self-satisfaction that is incompatible with what we read in Scripture.
My self-reliance has produced plans that did not necessarily take into account the will of God (even though they were, for the most part, centred around 'serving God')[James 4:13-16]. But how can someone effectively serve God when he does not even have the faith that God demands? Of course the answer is, he can't. That's where I was. I was (or am, as it's a constant battle) too self-reliant to be used by God. I'm supposed to accept God's help as a child accepts help from a parent. A small child does not question why a parent chooses this plan or that. A child has no concept of the future beyond what the parent has planned. A child merely accepts the parent's wisdom and planning, and benefits from the results.
Am I making any sense? That's been the point of the last two years. Man, I wish I had been smart enough to learn that lesson to begin with! I mean, I always knew that we were supposed to depend on God, but I always figured that I could get away with securing myself a nice little plan that suited my comforts.
And so, despite the fact that I'm a little uncomfortable sharing this much with all of you, I offer it with a two-fold purpose. First, as a warning. I wish I had learned this lesson sooner without all the pain that it took to teach me. Be teachable, take God at His word, and accept what He says. Doing so will result in much blessing, and much less needless suffering. Second, I offer this testimony as a praise to GOD, who works all things for the good of those who love Him. Perhaps Dennis Rainey is right when he says, "it is doubtful that God can use a man fully until He has hurt him deeply."

I pray that God would use me in a way that would bring Him much glory and myself none.

On News

2004-08-08T03:07:00.000-04:00

"Contrary to the images on the eleven o'clock news, which to a large extent are a function of a definition of "news" that has at its centre elements of the dramatic and atypical....

You'll never hear on the news that for 99 percent of the population in any metropolitan region on any given day everything was every bit as ordinary as it always is or that the large, large majority of the buildings did not fall down. That's not really what's demanded of the news, but the danger is that somehow the atypical and unusual comes to be treated as if it were the everyday and ordinary, and as a result, people cut themselves off from a good deal of possibly rewarding experience."

Stephen Friedman, "City Moves", 1989.

Return of the Blogger

2004-08-04T00:51:00.001-04:00

Despite a painfully slow internet connection, I have decided to return to posting. I've had lots to say over the past couple of months. My return has nothing to do with Andymac.

First of all, you guys are mooks for not understanding that in my last post I was writing to my blog, and not to any actual person. If I had a dime for every time someone said to me "ooooh, so who was that post to?" I'd have, like, 50 cents.

The election came and went without any coverage on my blog. I guess that's why we ended up with a minority government. Shame on you liberals for not getting out there and voting NDP. It was in a major way Layton's fault that the NDP didn't do better...he shouldn't have emphasized how dangerous the Conservatives are, it just led to people running for the (currently corrupt) middle.
I certainly do not agree with the NDP on many issues, but I had to prioritize what I deemed to be important, and concluded that I agree with the Conservatives on almost nothing, and that I despise everything about the Liberals. If I had known about the CAP at the time I probably would have voted for them. Jen is my hero for spoiling her ballot by writing in pen the CAP's candidate for Peterborough (he dropped out a couple of weeks before the election).
Paul Martin is useless, McGuinty is a lying scumbag. Bah, more later.

I've been reading Fast Food Nation. It is one of the best books I have ever read; I highly recommend it. Seriously, go get yourself a copy. I've found myself unable to eat much meat since reading it's section on production. And don't go and label me a hippy, neither; I don't care how they kill the cow. What bothers me is the sanitary conditions of the slaughterhouses since large corporations took over. Ever wondered how people get Salmonella or Escherichia coli 0157:h7 (E. Coli) poisoning when these pathogens are transmitted through fecal matter? That's right! As Schlosser puts it, "There's shit in the meat." 78.6% of ground beef contains microbes that spread primarily through fecal material. 'Nough said.
I don't want to misrepresent the book; it's balanced as it looks at all aspects of the Fast Food industry: from it's rather humble beginnings to how it currently affects the economy, socialogy, food production and consumption, and geographical makeup. The author is also very witty and ironic - I'd love to meat him in person (pun intended).
Here's an example of his writing:
"Hank was the first person I met in Colorado Springs. He was a prominent local rancher, and I'd called him to learn how development pressures and the dictates of the fast food industry were affecting the area's cattle business. In July of 1997, he offered to give me a tour of the new subdivisions that were rising on land where cattle once roamed. We met in the lobby of my hotel. Hank was forty-two years old and handsome enough to be a Hollywood cowboy, tall and rugged, wearing blue jeans, old boots, and a big white hat. But the Dodge minivan he drove didn't quite go with that image, and he was too smart to fit any stereotype. Hank proved to be good company from the first handshake. He had strong opinions, but didn't take himself too seriously. We spent hours driving around Colorado Springs, looking at how the New West was burying the Old.
As we drove through neighborhoods like Broadmoor Oaks and Broadmoor Bluffs, amid the foothills of Cheyenne Mountain, Hank pointed out that all these big new houses on small lots sat on land that every few generations burned. The houses were surrounded by lovely pale brown grasses, tumbleweed, and scrub oak - ideal kindling. As in southern California, these hillsides could erupt in flames with the slightest spark, a cigarette tossed from a car window. The homes looked solid and prosperous, gave no hint of their vulnerability, and had wonderful views.
Hank's ranch was about twenty miles south of town. As we headed there, the landscape opened up and began to show glimpses of the true West - the wide-open countryside that draws its beauty from the absence of people, attracts people, and then slowly loses its appeal."
And on it goes. A beautiful work.

I'm going to call it quits for now, but just as a follow-up to my second last post: I found out what Petro-Canada stands for. Pierre Elliot Trudeau Ripping Off Canada.

G'nite folks!

Just checking in.

2004-06-05T00:51:00.000-04:00

Sorry honey. Haven't called in a while. Just wanted you to know that I'm still alive. I'm living at Hope Valley now. We don't currently have an internet connection, so I have no way of calling you. I'm working on getting a connection; I'll be in touch. Never forget that I love you, dearest Blog.

Yours,
Justin

What do I hear?

2004-05-20T23:34:00.000-04:00

"We always hear the thing we listen for, and our character determines what we listen for. When Jesus Christ alters our character, he gives us the power to hear as he hears."

Oswald Chambers

Priueeese can i have one?

2004-05-18T18:52:00.000-04:00

In my excitement following my last post, I would like to dedicate this post to the most awesome car on the road. It's Toyota's new Prius. This vehicle is a spectacular machine with unmatched styling and a great interior setup. Oh yah, it's also a hybrid that gets 80mpg. The electric engine recharges on the normally-wasted electricity generated by braking (the car doesn't get plugged in). And it doesn't cost that much to buy. What's not to like?

Gas prices

2004-05-17T22:33:00.000-04:00

At some point in the near future I'm going to review why I am unable to vote for any of the parties running in the Canadian federal election next month. For now, I would like to site Harper's terrible proposal today as symptomatic of the short-sitedness that prevents me from supporting the Conservative Party.
The tax break would only save me a cent a litre: an amount that the oil companies could easily eat up for themselves with a quick price increase - I'd rather have that money going to repairing the roads that I'm going to use the fuel on.
If the government was serious about keeping prices low, it would re-invest in Petro-Canada; a company it created to regulate the industry through competition. Better than that, it could stop the flow of oil out of Canada. Most people do not realize that Canada is actually blessed with an oil surplus - like Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Why, then, do our prices fluctuate with the USA? Because our oil is taken from Canada, refined by American corporations, and then resold to Canadians.
Some people have the idea that government should not interfere with business - that capitalism is a wonderful thing that will regulate itself given enough freedom. However, this view is blatently contradictory to obvious evidence. Furthermore, since there is already no competition between companies - there's no capitalism to preserve (some would argue that what we are seeing is true capitalism).

I should end this rant by clarifying that I'm not altogether opposed to gas price increases. There are far too many needless vans, pickups, and of course SUVs (all SUVs are needless) on the road today; purchased because consumers were spoiled with gas prices that are often half the amount that the average European pays for fuel. 90 cents per litre hurts me a little at the pump, but if it has an impact on the purchasing and driving habits of consumers on a wide scale, then I'm ok with it.

Newskim 05/13

2004-05-13T01:44:00.000-04:00

Bets on whether these rich fat-cats will actually receive 60 years?

Liberal party continues to use it's dictator-level power (Canadians did not vote Paul Martin into office) to distort justice.

Looks like there'll be an election next month. If only I had someone to vote for.

If you try real hard, you might actually be able to fake some concern. But then again, maybe not. You are North American, after all.
Mr. Prime Minister, if we are to move beyond commemorating genocides, pogroms, the Holocaust and other human atrocities, Canada must work together with its international partners to resolve this latest crisis in Africa.

On hints

2004-05-09T12:05:00.000-04:00

Here's a post that I deemed interesting enough to plagerize (with the author's permission). You can find the original post, titled "On hints" (2004/05/06, 12:47AM), here.

I'm not talking about hints as in "jen's blog sounds sorta odd, maybe there's 15 Caedmon's Call references hidden in it"... i'm talking about a lifestyle in which people always have to read between the lines to know what you're saying. Where what's NOT being said is more important than what IS. AND takes more listening for. I would just like to say... ABSURD! IT'S ALL ABSURD!

Ahem.

What are the advantages of a lifestyle of pointedly not saying exactly what you mean?
1. You don't have to be vulnerable. At all. You make people guess what you're feeling and thinking. And then THEY get hurt if they get it wrong, NOT you. And if they use their guesses against you... you just pretend they guessed wrong. Perfect security.
2. You have a built-in hierarchy, with you at the top. You force others to serve you if they want any sort of friendship or relationship.
3. There's a built-in level of disdain. Because OBVIOUSLY if they can't read you, they don't know you very well at all. Except that you never let them know you in the first place...
4. You can assume that everyone lives by the same rules that you do. Which makes everything easier. Except that they don't... i mean, just because i know that anyone who's anyone plays with the napkin dispensers at Tim Hortons...

Ok, so basically, a lifestyle of veiled authenticity isn't really authenticity at all. It's just selfish, and it's going to hurt and confuse people. So stop it, all of you. And when i do it, stop me, too.

Granted, with some people you're going to have to be more pointed than others. With people that you know well enough, an off-hand reference to a situation might be all you need to do in order to completely communicate everything you need to. With others, you could spell it out for them, and it might still be an enigma. But that's not the point. The point is, are you willing to let someone know if there's something wrong? Communicate in a way that they understand, not simply a way that you're comfortable with? Are you willing to be upfront with who you are? Are you willing to stick your neck out once in a while, for their sake?

Non-post

2004-05-08T01:01:00.000-04:00

This is less of a post and more of a public service announcement.

1. I've finally added comments. Please feel free to comment on any past or present posts. I expect a comment for every post from Thainamu, who's been at me about getting these installed. ;)

2. I would like to send a shout out to the international crowd reading this blog. Who knew? Ok, it's probably just Thain, but that still gives me the right to claim this prestigous honor (misspelling in commemoration of non-Canadian visitors).

3. Just a quick comment on the atrocities that are being revealed in Iraq. This is exactly what I have been saying all along, folks. W is not a Christian, he is Osama Bin Laden. The two men are one in the same, they just have a different cause. W is Saddam; they both use the same tactics to control the Iraqi people. Take three minutes and read this: http://slate.msn.com/id/2100014/

Seven Months

2004-05-06T18:01:00.000-04:00

Well, I got the car's brakes fixed today (Andymac, Ana, Jen, Dan, and all you other whiners can stop yer complainin') :) It cost a pretty penny, too. 2 rear wheel cylinders, metric steel lines, front disc pads, front rotors, rear shoes, brake fluid, and labour came to $671.31. The decimal is in the right spot, I triple checked.

It's worth it, though. My car feels SO good, and now Andymac's car is so inferior that I fear it may just spontaneously combust.

The rule for old (er, classic) cars like mine is that it has to give you a month's service in exchange for every $100 in repairs that you spend. This means that my car has to be around for at least another seven months....the world can rest a little easier tonight.

It's the Friends series finale, and they're playing it like the planet is going to stop revolving tomorrow....I will spend the remainder of the evening avoiding the television.

many plans....

2004-05-05T00:46:00.000-04:00

How do you understand the world when God is so clearly working in your life, and you don't like it?

How do you move from being totally secure in your own plans to being tossed in the waves with no anchor but the Lord?

Why does God require such faith in His provision? Why can't He and I reach an agreement where we settle for my best plans?

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
Proverbs 19:21

Religion

2004-04-26T00:54:00.000-04:00

"Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but live for it."
-Charles Colton

all this time...

2004-04-25T02:08:00.001-04:00

how can you see into my eyes like open doors
leading you down into my core
where i've become so numb
without a soul my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there and lead it back home
wake me up inside
call my name and save me from the dark
bid my blood to run
before i come undone
save me from the nothing i've become

now that i know what i'm without
you can't just leave me
breathe into me and make me real
bring me to life

wake me up inside
call my name and save me from the dark
bid my blood to run
before i come undone
save me from the nothing i've become
bring me to life

frozen inside without your touch
without your love darling
only you are the life among the dead

all of this time i can't believe i couldn't see
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
i've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
got to open my eyes to everything
without a thought without a voice without a soul
don't let me die here
there must be something more
bring me to life

On rights and liberties...

2004-04-22T22:04:00.000-04:00

"There is a point beyond which the conduct of judicial officers will bring the administration of justice into disrepute. That point is passed when a Christian printer is ordered to produce business cards and letterhead for an organization that promotes pro-paedophilia essays, is fined $5,000.00 for having refused to do so, and is left with $40,000.00 in legal bills for daring to defend himself."

- Catholic Civil Rights League spokesperson Sean Murphy, commenting on a recent Court of Appeal decision that required printer Scott Brockie to pay legal costs in addition to a fine. [Source: LifeSiteNews.com 04/15/04]

The Old Man is Snoring

2004-04-19T16:46:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it's just teeming out. And I just realized that I left my driver's side window open a few centimetres. So I'm torn between being soaked now or having a damp bum later.
Life is hard.

Still better than snow on the seat

Relative

2004-04-16T22:43:00.000-04:00

So I hit a new land-speed record (for my car) on the 401 tonight. As I was slowing down on highway 28, I realized how 90kph can at times feel fast and at other times it can feel relatively slow. In fact, many things are relative. The radio, too, sounds too loud as the wind noise reduces. But most importantly, the thing you must remember is that

everything's relative in West Virginia.

Ba-doom Ching!

The Hokey Pokey

2004-04-15T23:54:00.000-04:00

I dunno if you guys'll find this funny or not....I found it profitable for it's humourous content. ;)

THE HOKEY POKEY
Original Lyrics

Put your left foot in,
Your left foot out,
Your left foot in,
And shake it all about.
You do the hokey pokey
And turn yourself around
That's what it's all about.

THE HOKEY POKEY
Shakespearean Style

O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke.
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from heaven's yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt
Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.

Courtesy of Mikey's Funnies.

On my knees

2004-04-14T22:35:00.000-04:00

At times life is wicked and I just can’t see the light
A silver lining sometimes isn’t enough
To make some wrongs seem right
Whatever life brings
I’ve been through everything
And now I’m on my knees again

At times life’s unfair and you know it’s plain to see
Hey God I know I’m just a dot in this world
Have you forgot about me?
Whatever life brings
I’ve been through everything
And now I’m on my knees again

Am I hiding in the shadows?
Are we hiding in the shadows?

-Creed

Apologetics

2004-04-04T22:57:00.001-04:00

I want to apologize to three billion people. Half the world's population. To the women I ostrasized with my previous post. Please accept my deepest apologetics.

I want to apologize to three billion people. Half the world's population. To the men I ostrasize every day with my amazing car ( http://www.cardomain.com/id/gurr8 ). Please accept my deepest apologetics.

Starsky always had the better car. Always will.

For clarification

2004-04-02T00:33:00.000-05:00

OMG I hate women.

Thank you for your attention.

Trentified....

2004-03-30T23:36:00.000-05:00

hahaha...check out Rick Mercer's take on Trent!

http://www.cbc.ca/mondayreport/

We've got innertube waterpolo...

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."

2004-03-26T19:41:00.000-05:00

I dedicate this thread to Bush misquotes...due to the unbelievable arrogance displayed by Bush tonight
( http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/8286872.htm ).

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."

"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy, but that could change."

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

"[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system."

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made." GW Bush, Jr. to Sam Donaldson

Interesting article for all those Passion haters: was this guys repentance genuine? http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Southwest/03/26/passion.confession.ap/index.html

misunderestimate Junior? I don't know how you could?

Two in a row!

2004-03-22T20:59:00.000-05:00

Wow, you get two great Bush clips in a row!

This is the best 60 seconds you will ever spend...

http://www.moveon.org/censure/caughtonvideo/

I've told you a bazillion times not to exaggerate.

They misunderestimated me!

2004-03-18T16:26:00.000-05:00

Best internet game EVAR!

http://www.miniclip.com/bushshootout.htm

*bang bang*

would you like a little cheese with your line?

2004-03-16T23:39:00.000-05:00

"So...what time are you off tonight?"

There's a cheesy line straight from the lips of the main character of some movie or T.V. show, right? Nope. Straight out of my life. More precisely: out of the lips of some crazy old bat tonight at Tim Hortons. Totally made my day, though (yes - even making up for me being a blithering idiot). Kellie was bursting a gut behind the cream machine while this lady gave me an oragamy dog. Best part of the whole story was that my family was sitting in the corner of the store waiting for me to finish my shift (they're on their way to Timmins and then Kirkland Lake).

The idea of spiritual gifts has been mentioned in relation to my last post. So if it gets you guys thinkin at all, then I present the idea that "spiritual gifts should determine one's direction in life". How true is this statement (not at all, a little, always)? Lemme know.

On Christian Living...

2004-03-14T00:24:00.000-05:00

We all know what the Lord requires of us (To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God - and all that goes with that), but what of careers? I must admit that in my life I have fallen victim to the idea that the only true Christians either became clergy or other "professional" Christians (eg. missionaries). Should a Christian young person think strategically within the society (i.e. becoming a police officer, teacher, or politician)? Or should they think spiritually (i.e. youth pastor, missionary, etc)? Should they even care? Is it true that we should "Love God - then do what you want"? Think about it, then tell me what you think.

Brotherhood.

2004-03-12T13:21:00.000-05:00

I can stand united with the people who wrote this USERS MANUAL. (http://www.funnybox.com/classics/classic.php?rowmax=&id=23). Anyone who has to deal with customers cannot help but believe in the depravity of man. And the stupidity of man. I can only imagine what a Tim Hortons Drive Thru users manual would look like. It'd probably have to be spelled phonetically.

I need to let go of my bitterness towards Timmies customers.

Ever wonder why "phonetically" isn't spelled phonetically?

I have good news and bad news...

2004-03-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

So I guess al-Qaeda is bombing some more places. (http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/03/11/madrid040311). That's really too bad. Good thing we have someone who knows the answer! (http://www.unknownnews.net/apocalypsenow.html). Yes, Jack Van Impe is my hero. I'm really glad that my cat is going to heaven. And my favourite tree. And my car.

And my shoe.

You'd best belize it.

Imp is a gimp

2004-03-08T23:38:00.000-05:00

So, I watched Jack Van Impe last night....and he was hilarious. Predicted that Jesus is going to come in 2011. Just like He was going to come in 1998. Ah well...the best part was when he was explaining how your pets are going to make it to heaven. Apparently just our pets, too (not all animals/insects/bacteria); so God's plan of justification for Rover is that he is loved by a person. I'm confused, I'm going to have to buy the $30 video that will explain it to me for 2 hours (shipping is free!). Here's a quote to make your day:

"The Jews said God created the world in 6 days, Genesis 1:31, and He rested on the seventh day, Genesis 2:2. And since a day is like a thousand years, Psalm 90, verse 4, that means the world will go on for 6,000 years and then our Meshia, our Messiah, will come. And Rabbi Blesh said that event is now at the door, the messianic age. The Christians: same thing. In 2 Peter 3:3 it says "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers saying 'Yeah, where's the promise of His coming? Since our grandparents fell asleep, nothing's changed.'" But he goes on, context, verse 10: "The day of the Lord will come," when? Verse 8, a day is like a thousand years, the thousand years is like a day. After 6,000 years. And that hits, not at 2000, but 2001, so don't wear your white sheets January 1, 2000. You've got another year to go, if you're going to be accurate. Then, I believe, because of calendar changes, it could be anywhere from 2001 to 2012. We don't set a day or an hour, Matthew 24:36, but we believe it's near, even at the door, Matthew 24:33. And please study Matthew 16:28 and Matthew 17:1, after six days Jesus took them up to a mountain and He showed them what it's going to be like when His kingdom arrived on earth, when? After 6 days, 6,000 years. Oh, it's all so near. (Jack Van Impe Show, TBN, December 1, 1999)"

It's all so clear to me now.

All dogs go to heaven.

Teaching, Regulating, Presiding, Lidding, Incarcerating

2004-03-07T00:20:00.000-05:00

My manager said this morning that he's going to create a website dedicated to teaching people how to order at Tim Hortons. I informed him that I was way ahead of him. Don't be surprised if you see a licensing system implemented to regulate drive-thru users (conditional on my becoming president of the universe).

Also, a special note for (B)Hutch: we've got the better lids at Timmie's now...you will no doubt be ecstatic.

Sorry for the non-updates...the Warden played around with the wireless router again, so it isn't working. Hopefully we'll get it fixed Monday.

Ya'll have a great weekend!

ShotGunRules

2004-03-04T21:56:00.000-05:00

http://www.shotgunrules.com/
Well, this post isn't born of any angering-yet-humourous incident, but I simply thought I would pass along some more information; this time on transportation etiquette. While this whole site is helpful (and it's book makes a great gift for the elected chauffer in your life), I would like to point out the most important rule in the history of mankind:

The Balk
This rule is applied when you have called Shotgun and are waiting for the doors to be unlocked. If you lift the handle while the doors are being unlocked and therefore cause the Shotgun door to remain locked, then you are "voided" for that ride. At this time Shotgun is available for all of the other passengers to call.

By working to avoid The Balk we can all help to prevent curb-stomping incidents.

Who learned you to talk good?

2004-03-02T19:08:00.000-05:00

A public service announcement from the government of Canada.

Ok, people. It's time for a little lesson in Canadian etiquette. Today a lady cursed me up and down because I served her what she had ordered and paid for at the drive through. The mistake was hers, because she had ordered improperly. Allow me to explain the proper process for obtaining products from a Tim Horton's Drive-Thru:

1. Pull up to the speaker. Turn your radio off. If you are driving a diesel truck, turn your engine off. Put your cell phone call on hold. Know what you want before you pull up to the speaker (it is acceptable to sit in the area in front of the speaker while you make your decision). Wait to be addressed by a Tim Horton's employee.

2. When greeted, begin to relay your order. This is the tricky part, so pay attention. Terms such as "ummm" and "uhhh" should be avoided. Do not give the speaker a run-down of what you will be ordering (there is no "customer is going to order five coffees; please hold" button on the cash register). Speak loudly and clearly. If it becomes obvious that the employee is having trouble hearing you, speak louder (you would not believe the number of people that continue to whisper after being asked to speak up). Order each item seperately, unless they are identical.
For example, when Bob says "Two large double-doubles, please", he is ordering in an acceptable manner. On the other hand, it is not satisfactory for Dave to declare, "Five coffees: 3 large and 2 medium. Two of the large are double cream single sugar. The third large is 3 cream 7 sugar. One of the mediums is single sugar double cream. The other medium is 3 cream and 1 sweetner. Also, two of the coffees are a decaf: the large with 3 cream and 7 sugar and the last medium." Ordering in this manner will earn Dave a curb-stomping.

3. When you have finished giving your order, the employee will try to sell you more products. They do not wish to do this; they are minimum-wage employees being forced by their managers to 'upsell' without commission. It will probably sound like this, "Would you like any fresh muffins or donuts with that today?". Politely decline. Wait to be instructed further by an employee. Do not move your vehicle. Wait for a variation of, "That will be $1.35 at the window, please." If you recieve no indication that you should move your vehicle, then you must remain stopped. Long periods of silence are not licence to proceed to the window. Travelling forward before being instructed to do so will earn you a curb-stomping.

4. Pull away from speaker. When you are fully away from the speaker, get your money ready. See that cement pad in front of the window? That contains a censor that times how long you are at the window. These minimum-wage employees are financially penalized if you are on that pad for longer than 25 seconds. Therefore, you must stop and get your money ready before continuing on to the window.

5. When your money is ready, pull up to the window. Hand your money to the employee in the window. You've been a good person this far, now is your chance to be a really good person and tip this young worker. You are a big boy/girl; you know what you're going to get back in change. If you ordered a large coffee and gave them a Twoonie, then you are going to get 2 quarters, a dime, and a nickel back. Now is your chance to say clearly, "Just give me the quarters." Or, "Don't worry about the change."

6. Having recieved your product, kindly thank your server. Pull quickly away from the window. Remember, the people inside are being penalized financially while you sit there and eat a quarter of your bagel in front of the window.

Further notes on terminology for advanced users:
-A double double is with cream. If you want a "large coffee double double with milk", then you say, "large coffee, 2 milk, 2 sugar".
-Consistenly request the ingredients of your drink in a 'liquid, then solid' format. For example:
"with 3 cream and 1 sugar, please", not "with 1 sugar and 3 cream, puhleese"

With the implementation of these proper drive-thru techniques, together we can all avoid a curb-stomping incident.

One has wrote...

2004-03-01T22:30:00.000-05:00

"Whelp...see ya" may at first appear to be a good technique. However, upon examination, one may discover that one of the unintended side-effects of the execution of this approach can be the execution of said "one". Yah, things are better than one might have expected.

My thoughts on The Passion

2004-02-29T23:58:00.000-05:00

"Warning!": Spoilers follow this "Warning!"

Overall, I found the movie to be fantastic. It was beautiful and artistic, yet raw and gut-renching. It did tug at the emotions instead of the head (as it has been accused of doing by some critics), but I don't think that Gibson was unjustified in doing so. It seems to me that the non-Christian critics of the movie are grasping at straws. One critic said of Jim Cavizel, "basically he just made himself a human punching bag for two hours." Oh really? Kind of like the person that he was portraying?

My only negative reaction during the movie was when this was left out:
Matthew 27:54 (ESV):
When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

I've always found that to be a very touching and authoritative line, and I was looking for it and missed seeing it in the movie.

Overall the Catholic content was not subversive, intrusive, etc. The only thing that was goofy was saying that Mary Magdaline was also the adulterous that Jesus saves from being stoned. That's such unsubstantiated conjecture that it's embarrassing for Gibson that he included it.
I do fear that this may further the ecumenical movement.

As far as personal reactions go, I found myself hating those two or three soldiers who were charged with scourging Jesus. I hated them at first, but by the time Jesus was halfway through His walk to Golgotha, I was hoping that God was heaping extra fire on them in hell. I hated them so much. Then, after Jesus had been nailed to the cross and they slammed Him back and forth into the ground, He screams "Father! Forgive them!" And I felt so ashamed. I know the story so well, you would think that I would have remembered that He said that, yet I hated those men so much for a good portion of the movie. I'm pretty sure God was saying something to me there. I far too often hate my enemies instead of praying for them.

The Beginning of the End

2004-02-29T21:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I've reached a new stage in my life. So I was thinking to myself, why don't I start a journal to record what I'm thinking about all this. Then I thinks to myself, "Self, what better way to hash out what you're thinking than on a medium that's open for all to view and criticize?" So here it is, the second-best page in the universe.