The world like a dog

Tonka Trucks

2012-01-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

When we bought this house, it came with lots of crap. There were a few sewing machines, rusty barrels, broken yard implements of every description, and this little gem of a Tonka Truck.

It snowed yesterday and Theodore and I built a ramp for jumping his bike off of, but he suddenly got nappish (or chickened out) and went inside. As the truck had been helping with building the ramp, I figured it needed to jump it. It didn't end well:

New Bike!

2011-12-28T21:12:00.000-08:00

Theodore got his first bike this year, a blue Norco. I have to admit I'm quite jealous, I've been hankering for a Norco for a while now to replace my aging mountain bike. But alas, I have a bike already, and the Beaver didn't!

New Roof

2011-12-13T23:41:00.000-08:00

What we used to come home to. Well, the large blue sheets weren't there, but there was the brown roof with the decrepit chimneys.

And then this guy showed up:

Hey! what are you doing to my roof?

You've put a big hole in it!

And broken the chimney:

The bridge comes in handy:

Mike shows up with the know how - Kim cutting up stuff.

And I'm to the rescue!

But mother nature gives us a beautiful blue sky, and cold day.

Hmmm, we put half the panels on backwards...

And work late into the night:

And now, I'm eating cookies :)

New slippers

2011-12-13T23:25:00.000-08:00

The Bachelor Life

2011-10-27T10:25:00.001-07:00

I've been working in Vancouver for the last month. Luckily, I have this great bachelor pad that I can park right in the hottest neighbourhood of Vancouver, Yaletown. False Creek is a small harbour that terminates at the Vancouver Science museum. It's free to moor the boat for up to a few weeks a month, and there's quite a community of people that live between here, and just outside the harbour in English Bay. Kim and Theodore have been coming over with me for some of the time, and False Creek is surrounded by parks and public space for the little Beaver. Here's Gitano, just in front of Granville Island.

Once Kim leaves, I have to admit that the boat becomes a total bachelor pad. Food is mostly PB&J sandwiches, and the fridge is mostly beer!

And here's the Beaver, in a DeHaviland Beaver, Flying back to Salt Spring. He loves float planes and after getting home, made plane noises for the rest of the day!

T on the boat

2011-09-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

Theodore, Kim, me, Mike and Mia

I'll take the next watch......

Sailing the Salish with Dylan

2011-09-29T11:32:00.001-07:00

J

2011-09-28T15:00:00.001-07:00

Here's a neat perspective of the boat the I'm racing on, J.

Theodore Rowing

2011-09-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

This was a great day! The young lad wanted to help get us back out to the boat. He'll be rowing himself in no time!

Saling towards UBC

2011-09-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

Dylan Rowing

2011-09-27T19:59:00.000-07:00

Here's Dylan rowing everyon back to shore after a grand day out.

Kim peddling her bread

2011-09-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

Salt Spring Island Saturday market is famous in the lower mainland. Kim, being the ambitious type, decided that this was the market that could handle her debut at bread making! She sells out promptly and people search her out for her delicous pepper breads.

Here's what the bread looks like at home - notice the 'Admiral' stove in the background. Oh how we mocked it, but it really puts out some great bread!

And here's young Mr. T keeping the paparazzi at bay.

Thai Adds

2011-07-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

Opera de la Pampa in BA

2011-05-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

More Tigre pictures

2011-05-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Sailing in BA!

2011-05-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

Visiting Tigre, near Buenos Aires

2011-05-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

Walking!

2011-03-06T20:12:00.000-08:00

So his first proper walk was at Susannah and Erik's, and he's been practicing ever since. Here's a short couple of steps that Kim managed to catch on film!

Our healthy boy

2011-03-05T14:48:00.000-08:00

Some never really grow up

2011-03-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

Here's Theodore walking with his cart - he walked across Susannah and Erick's kitchen last night all by himself!

Helping Dad brew beer!

Chillin

The house we just bought on Salt Spring Island!

The ferry to Salt Spring.

Lazy Sunday at Point Atkinson lighthouse in West Vancouver.

Aye Aye Captain!

2011-02-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

We keep going this way! I've sailed these waters my WHOLE life swabbies!

The Chariot in Action

2011-01-12T21:08:00.001-08:00

Two more projects knocked out

2011-01-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

Kim picked up some old ten dollar skis, and I cut them down for Theodore's charriot. PVC pipe for the harness, and a bit of scrap ply for the legs. It's dumping snow right now - hopefully can try it out in the morning!

And I had started on this walker for Theo before christmas - and finally finished it tonight as well. I came out nice, the front wheels are even round! We made them out of walnut on Jacks drill press. The main part is cherry, with oak dowels. I can't wait for him to wake up in the morning to try it out!

My first painting

2011-01-10T13:48:00.001-08:00

Sitting in a hotel room watching some cheezy fix up your house show and they had this homeowner do some painting on a canvas - simple stuff, but bold. They put it up and it looked great. I mentioned this to Kim and so last year for Christmas, I got some canvas and paint brushes. Susannah, who works for an art supply house hooked me up with some acrylic paints. To say that she was supplying an 'artist' would be a stretch here though. And when I say last year for Christmas, I don't mean the one that *just* happened. I felt like a sufficient amount of procrastination had come between me and the original act of the gift, so last night I googled around to find out what 'acrylic' paints are, and how to clean up from them.

We spent New Years week on the boat, which is moored on Salt Spring Island, and we had the most spectacular sunrises every day. A magnificent red orb delicately lifting from its nights repose and painting the harbour in yellows, purples, and oranges. So this was the image that came to mind, and I had a couple of fun and relaxing hours smearing paint on canvas. And, while the paint dries, it smells like art.

Movember!

2010-11-22T11:34:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh, it's been months and months since I've posted. Life is exceedingly busy. Theodore is growing into a big Beaver. Mum is thinking about returning to work. We've been traveling, sailing, I've broken my thumb, and the condo is up for sale. Phew! I'm in Alberta this week, -20C and blizzarding.

And, it's MOVEMBER!If you want to donate to prostate cancer research, click HERE!

The 9 O'clock Gun with Michelle

2010-08-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

OMG, where have you been?

2010-08-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

OK, so summer rolled in, and it's been MAD! just plain MAD! We haven't spent a weekend at home since May. A lot of time has been spent sailing, camping, and house hunting. But I'm hopefully going to get back into writing here so that you can see and hear about some of the crazy great things the Woolcock Big Top is up to.

Theo in the sun

2010-06-06T21:07:00.001-07:00

This is incredible!

2010-05-07T18:59:00.001-07:00

WTF?

2010-04-26T08:54:00.001-07:00

Letters of Note

2010-04-23T10:56:00.001-07:00

Fun site to peruse:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/

Cartoons

2010-04-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

On the way home, we passed by a factory with amazing phallus' for smokestacks. That of course led to a conversation about The Little Mermaid, and this is what I ran across today. Enjoy :)

Godparents!

2010-04-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

We're down in California visiting Natalie and Celine and Dylan. We also stopped in at the Strictly Sail boat show where we got Theodore an autographed picture with the skipper and owner of this years winner of the Americas Cup. Kim sailed a Beneteau 30 and loved it. There were lots of other great boats to see, including a 68 foot race boat - the Hull and Humber - competing in the round the world race. San Francisco is a stage stop for them after crossing the Pacific.

We're in San Luis Obispo, locally known as SLO, and known to us as the location of the worlds best avocados. The oranges are amazing here too! Farmers markets, walks on the beach, tours of the vineyards. Amazing!

And over dinner last night we asked if Celine and Dylan would be Theodores Godparents. And here's a shot of the new godmother and the squeaker.

EEEKS!

2010-04-18T14:34:00.001-07:00

The year is 1954, and the "science" that has been exposed as a "sham" by conservatives is the link between smoking and lung cancer. Welcome to Tobaccogate, as Fox News would call it. The conservatives are championing professor Clarence Cook Little, who says he has discovered insurmountable flaws in the use of statistics and clinical data by "anti-tobacco" (and quasi-commie) scientists. The press reports the "controversy," usually without mentioning that Cook Little is being paid by the tobacco industry. A relieved nation lights up--and so, over the next few decades, millions of them die.

It is happening again. The tide of global warming denial is now rising as fast as global sea levels--and with as much credibility as Cook Little. Look at the deniers' greatest moment, Climategate, hailed by them as "the final nail in the coffin" of "the theory of global warming." A patient study by the British House of Commons has pored over every e-mail from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and interviewed everyone involved. Its findings? The "evidence patently fails to support" the idea of a fraud; the scientists have "no case to answer"; and all their findings "have been repeated and the conclusions have been verified" by other scientists. That's British for "it was a crock."

Yet a startling amount of denialism now, like Climategate, travels across the Atlantic from my country--Britain--to the United States. Yes, I know our accents make us sound instantly plausible, but it's time Americans knew who these Brideshead bull-scientists really are. Look, for example, at their doyen--a man named Christopher Monckton. He has been lauded by the Wall Street Journal, National Review and Rush Limbaugh for exposing the truth about global warming, and is used by the New York Times as a balancing voice against the claims of climate scientists. In fact, Monckton is an English aristocrat with no scientific training. He studied ancient Greece and Rome, and worked as a policy adviser for Margaret Thatcher.

Oh, and he claims he can cure HIV. Seriously. As journalist George Monbiot points out, Monckton has stated in writing that he is "responsible for invention and development of a broad-spectrum cure for infectious diseases...including...HIV." He is prone to such wild fantasies. He has stated that he persuaded Thatcher to use biological weapons in the Falklands War. He falsely claimed he is a member of the House of Lords and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. When challenged, Monckton has admitted to a weakness for telling "stories that aren't actually true."

Yet this man is treated as a great debunker of climate science in the United States. So what's his alternative scientific theory? In a speech in Minnesota last year, he explained it. "There is no problem with the climate," except that Greenpeace is "about to impose a communist world government on the world" and "you have a president who has very strong sympathies with that point of view." Warming is an excuse invented so that Obama can "sign your freedom, your democracy and your prosperity away forever," and give it all to "third world countries."

That's the intellectual caliber of the most celebrated denialist. Yet when it comes to coverage of global warming, we are trapped in the logic of a guerrilla insurgency. The climate scientists have to be right 100 percent of the time, or their 0.01 percent error becomes Glaciergate, and they are frauds. By contrast, the deniers only have to be right 0.01 percent of the time for their narrative--See! The global warming story is falling apart!--to be reinforced by the media. It doesn't matter that their alternative theories are based on demonstrably false claims, as they are with all the leading "thinkers" in this movement. Look at the Australian geologist Ian Plimer, whose denialism is built on the claim that volcanoes produce more CO2 than humans, even though the US Geological Survey has shown they produce 130 times less. Or Sunday Telegraph columnist Christopher Booker, who says the Arctic sea ice can't be retreating because each year it comes back a little... in winter.

Many Americans assume that if a story has been in the news section of a reputable English newspaper, it has been fact-checked. One recent climate "scandal" that spread from Britain shows how these stories actually originate. In its most recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--the umbrella organization of the world's climate scientists--explained that 40 percent of the Amazon rainforest is at risk of dying if there is even a slight reduction in rainfall. This is true. It is the view of the most distinguished scientists in the field. The IPCC sourced this claim to a report by the World Wildlife Fund--when, in fact, it should have referred to a report by professor Dan Nepstad, whose work is mentioned only in passing by the WWF.

It was a minor footnoting error--but when a denialist blogger named Richard North noticed it, he announced he had found the IPCC making fake predictions. He tipped off the Sunday Times, owned by Fox king Rupert Murdoch. The newspaper's journalists quoted Dr. Simon Lewis, a leading rainforest expert, who explained that it was a very minor mistake and that the core claim is accurate. The paper ignored the bulk of his comments and mangled his quotes to make it sound like he agreed that the IPCC had been talking rubbish--and ran the "story" under the headline "UN Climate Panel Shamed by Bogus Rainforest Claim." It gave credit for "research by Richard North." The story was then zapped all over the United States as Amazongate, and as a result millions of people are now under the impression that the Amazon is in no danger. The Sunday Times refuses to admit it made a whopping error--in a story that attacks the IPCC for supposedly making a whopping error.

And while the United States has been engaged in these fake rows, the world may have just crashed into one of the climate's tipping points. For years, climate scientists have had a nightmare scenario. Buried in the hard Arctic permafrost is a massive amount of the gas methane, which causes thirty times more warming than carbon dioxide. There is more carbon in the world's methane deposits than in every lump of coal and barrel of oil on earth. As the poles defrost, it becomes possible that all of this gas will be farted out into the atmosphere--and trigger catastrophic warming.

Over the past year, culminating this March, a series of major on-the-ground scientific investigations of the frozen methane have been published. The author of one, Professor Tim Minshull, explained: "Our survey was designed to work out how much methane might be released by future ocean warming; we did not expect to discover such strong evidence that this process has already started." If you hold a match to the ground, a great flash of methane-fire now bursts forth.

Looking back, the historian Allan Brandt said the conservative-corporate machine that conned people into thinking smoking was safe pulled off "the crime of the century." We are now witnessing the crime of the twenty-first century, using the same strung-out old script. In his smoky hell, Clarence Cook Little must be offering a little chuckle.

Southern Straights Race

2010-04-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

I think I've mentioned it already, but here are some video clips from the race that I missed due to a sick Captain. Luckily Ron is on the road to recovery, and we wont miss the next round of excitement!

Spear Chuckers

2010-04-07T09:47:00.001-07:00

This is from a forum, don't know the author, Jinx, but wow did he seem to hit it on the head:

Quote:

"You know when I was a little boy, there was an old negro farmer that lived down the road from us, named Monroe. He was ... (subtle laugh), I guess he was just a little more luckier than my daddy was. He bought himself a mule.

It was a big deal in round that town. Now my daddy hated that mule. Cause, his friends were always kidding him about, "They saw Monroe out plowing with his new mule and Monroe is going to rent another field now he had a mule."

One morning that mule showed up dead. They poisoned the water. After that, there wasn't any mention about that mule around my daddy. It just never came up. One time we were driving down that road and we passed Monroe's place and we saw it was empty. He just packed up and left, I guess, he must of went up north or something.

I looked over at my daddy's face, I knew he done it. He saw that I knew. He was ashamed. I guess he was ashamed. He looked at me and said, "If you ain't better than a nigger son, who are you better than?"" - Agent Anderson, Mississippi Burning

And welcome to the Tea-hadist mindset. With Barack Obama in charge...who are you going to be better than?

And don't think some of us recognize the symptom because we are a pack of condescending know-it-all asshats. We are...but that has fuck-all to do with the observation.

It's just that we have seen this before. Up North...in our so-called "enlightened" neck of the woods.

Want to know the difference between North and South? Well, a man once told me that up North, it is OK to have a Black as your boss, but you will be damned if you will have one for a neighbor. Down South, it is OK to have a Black neighbor...but you will damned if you will have one as a boss.

So we went through all this Tea Party nonsense up North, about 20-30 years ago. And the reaction was just as vehement, inarticulate, and dumb as what is being spewed now. If you want to see hate and spittle, you should have seen how South Boston reacted to school integration.

But you would not have seen it 24/7 as you do today. It happened...but not in a perpetual echo chamber. And thank Christ for that.

And if you think the enlightened liberal North embraced integrated housing with open hearts, think again, It was called "white flight" and it damn near emptied some cities. "Sure, we support integration...now excuse us while we move to the suburbs where those Zulus won't be able to spear us with their assegais."

But white flight was a safety valve. It kept the pressure at reasonable levels. It also prolonged it and led to new levels of stupidity, but you could, after all, vote with your feet. Many did. Many still do.

OK, the job front was a bit stickier. Northern Industry has always been (at least since the 1950's) largely integrated. Steel Mill owners don't give a fuck what your skin color is. Besides, you could only tell on the way into work, on the way out everybody pretty much looked the same.

But you always knew what hand you were playing, because the cards were mostly dealt face up. Your boss was still white. Your union steward was still white. Your mayor and your chief of police were still white. And, as much as it pains me to tell you this, Michael Steele did not run the GOP. And even if he did, at least up north, you went home at the end of the day to your own private Idaho in the suburbs, and played golf on the weekends at a club where Michael Steele was never going to get in. Well, not the front door

The workforce may have been integrated, but you still knew who you were better than. Nobody dared yell "You Lie!!" at a white boss.

Over time, most of that has changed (but if you take a shot every time you can name a Black mayor of a predominantly white New England city...you are going to bed sober). But it took a very conscious effort to change it. Acceptance of diversity does not come easy when the question is: "who are you better than?"

And now the way the cards were dealt 18 months ago has upset a huge segment of the population. They no longer know who they are better than. They are lashing out. And there is fuck-all for a safety valve and it does run 24/7 in a perpetual echo chamber.

They say it is about "freedoms"...but they can point to no freedoms that have been lost over the last 14 months.

They say the Constitution is being destroyed, but when you ask them what parts of The General Welfare Clause or Congresses' power to regulate Interstate Commerce are being violated...they stand mute with rage

They say it is about taxes...but they can find no drastic tax increases in the last 14 months.

Come to think of it, I don't really remember anyone getting speared with an assegai thirty years ago either. But that didn't stop people screaming about the danger.

And they say they want their Country Back.

Well, Bing-fucking-O.

Now we have it. They want to return to a time and place where they at least knew who they were better than.

And the fact that most of this spittle is flying from the mouths of the poor, the semi-educated, the low information voter, and from By-God Dixie...well, that is only because it is your turn. A lot of the rest of the Country has already gone through this exercise 20-30 years ago. And the same spittle flew from the same confused lips when it was our turn.

So we don't look on Tea-hadists with scorn because they are alien and unfathomable. We do so because we recognize these very traits as ours and those of our neighbors."All in the Family" wasn't the most popular show in the Northeast because Archie Bunker was despised. It was popular because he was comfortably familiar. But at least he was a character. Nobody tried to run him for President.

And it ain't just President Obama. It is a lot else: If your job can be done on the Indian sub-continent, who are you better than? If China can launch a spaceship, who are you better than? If the world looks at the mighty Dollar as little better than an American Peso, who are you better than? If an immigrant can work your ass into the ground, and do it smiling for a lot less money, who are you better than?

A whole lot of life has been shaken and stirred the last couple of decades.

This whole Tea-Party nonsense will eventually pass. Because there is no "going back". OK, you can move to Idaho, or Montana, and it will feel like you have found what was missing. And you might even be happy. As long as you never watch the POTUS on the national news while you are trying to answer the question: "Who am I better than?"

But Jesus wept, people are going to keep asking that damned question. Soccer may be watched for it's beauty...American Football is about who is better. We are more of a class society than people want to admit. There is still a very strong vein of Scotch-Irish pride that runs through this Country's character. Unfortunately that pride is seldom based, at least lately, on personal or collective achievement...just who you are better than. You can hear it every time a factory closes in this Country and people cheer. No, they really don't believe that closing the Auto Factories will make America stronger. But it adds a whole bunch of people to the list of those they are better than.

Still...what the fuck. 600 years of violence and oppression was bound to warp the Scotch-Irish a bit. Hell, you can even consider them heroically well adjusted given their, and my, history. And history will eventually change us again once all the dogs adjust to the new Alpha Male reality and find their place again in the pack. Until then we live in the land of flying angry spittle.

PS - I never wanted to be better than anyone else. Just faster. Cheers

Change table

2010-04-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

So I'm on my way down to our storage locker to look for my router to help Kim build a(nother) bookshelf. I got to the storage place after they closed. Even though it was a great day for a bike ride, I was still a bit bummed about not getting the router. Dejected I head back uphill towards home. Now when I say up the hill, I'm not talking about some pansy rise in the topography. I mean hill as in the kind Tenzing Norgay would give pause to. The main route up this hill is Lonsdale Ave. Every cross street creates a platuea, the Mayor wants to install a bike escalator, even I get winded cruising up it. Yes, it's a commitment to head down it, both in brakes, and the knowledge that it's a slog to get back up. And up I went. On the way, I happened across a tree that had lost a limb in last weekends wind storm. It was quite a storm that caused a boat to sink and several other's sever damage on the sailboat race that I was supposed to be racing in, the Southern Straights. So I strapped a couple of peices onto my bike and headed home. I wasn't able to help Kim with the bookshelves, but I did put together this baby change table. Thanks Mum for the great changing thingy! Also notice the wool soaker that Kim knit for Theodore. These are the outer layer of a cloth diaper system. Wool is so absorbent that it acts as the water proof barrier - I was duboius, but it works!

Really? CNN vs. Aljazeera

2010-04-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Working

2010-04-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

Mum has run down to the chandler to pick up some hardware for the van curtains and I'm watching the squeaker for the afternoon. The items on my desk have expanded from mice, keyboard and pens and now seems to include milk bottles.

Pics

2010-04-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

The project of emptying the earth worm compost bin, which I knew would be gross, involved a fair amount of booze to get enthused about digging into two years worth of worm turd. On the way out to the porch where our worms live I had a garbage bag in my hand to transport said turds to our garden on the second floor. I though, gee, why not fill that with hot air! Six candles didn't proove sufficient for a clean lift off, but alas was all we had.

Theodore, somehow quite a fashion maven, despite his parents, seen here outgrowing yet another outfit.

Three fourths of the family on the Pacific coast. Theodore's first campground! at French Beach, just north of Sooke, BC. Actually I just noticed the tan blob. Merritt's like Waldo, and somehow managed to get in every photo! So that's four fourths..

The new baby seat and cooler box tiedowns. One issue with a panel van is the distinct lack of seat belts. The seat has universal anchor straps, found on most newer cars. I checked those out and they're really skimpy metal straps. So I picked up a pair of cast tie downs at the chandlery with a working load of 2700 kgs. Doing a little math for when Theo outgrows the car seat at 10kg and hitting a nonmoving wall at 80 km/hr gives a total force of 280 kgs, a tenth of the working load of the anchors. And there's 2 anchors to share the load.

Sailing with Mum

2010-04-03T23:39:00.001-07:00

This is the North East corner of Bowen Island in the background as we sail to Gambier. Yes, the sombrero might have been a bit optimistic, but hey, it was sunny when I woke up!

Conservatives??

2010-03-29T08:14:00.001-07:00

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.
You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.
You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.
You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.
You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.
You didn't get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.
You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.
You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.
You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.
You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.
You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn't get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.
You didn't get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.
You didn't get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans...oh hell no.

-from Rosie O'Donnell

French Beach

2010-03-29T00:21:00.001-07:00

My Old Man!

2010-03-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

Kim and Theodore on Gitano

2010-03-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

Bike Commuting

2010-03-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

This is shot in Vancouver - some nice shots of the city - some nice facts - Ryan Rocks!

One Month!

2010-03-09T14:16:00.000-08:00

Sailing to Jericho for dinner

2010-03-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

3 Weeks OLD!!!

2010-03-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

A night at the Woolcocks

2010-03-06T09:29:00.000-08:00

Caron and Theodore watching a movie.

And Theodore trying on his new life jacket...

And Merritt hanging out.

Caron and Kim in Victoria

2010-03-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

LIfe

2010-03-04T11:13:00.001-08:00

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. ”

— Bertrand Russell

70 Million

2010-03-04T11:06:00.001-08:00

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

Late for work, late for work, run, run, run

2010-02-18T14:19:00.000-08:00

New Study Reveals Most Children Unrepentant Sociopaths

2010-02-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

MINNEAPOLIS—A study published Monday in The Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry has concluded that an estimated 98 percent of children under the age of 10 are remorseless sociopaths with little regard for anything other than their own egocentric interests and pleasures.

Data shows that many seemingly innocent children—such as this one—are not to be trusted.

According to Dr. Leonard Mateo, a developmental psychologist at the University of Minnesota and lead author of the study, most adults are completely unaware that they could be living among callous monsters who would remorselessly exploit them to obtain something as insignificant as an ice cream cone or a new toy.
"The most disturbing facet of this ubiquitous childhood disorder is an utter lack of empathy," Mateo said. "These people—if you can even call them that—deliberately violate every social norm without ever pausing to consider how their selfish behavior might affect others. It's as if they have no concept of anyone but themselves."
"The depths of depravity that these tiny psychopaths are capable of reaching are really quite chilling," Mateo added.
According to the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, a clinical diagnostic tool, sociopaths often display superficial charm, pathological lying, manipulative behaviors, and a grandiose sense of self-importance. After observing 700 children engaged in everyday activities, Mateo and his colleagues found that 684 exhibited these behaviors at a severe or profound level.
The children studied also displayed many secondary hallmarks of antisocial personality disorder, most notably poor impulse control, an inability to plan ahead, and a proclivity for violence—often in the form of extended tantrums—when their needs were not immediately met.
"Children will use any tool at their disposal to secure gratification," Mateo said. "And as soon as the desire is fulfilled, be it some material want or simply an insatiable and narcissistic desire for validation, they quickly become bored and lose interest in their victims, all the while thinking only of satisfying whatever their next hedonistic craving might be."
Mateo added that even when subjects were directly confronted with the consequences of their inexplicable behavior, they had little or no capacity for expressing guilt, other than insincere utterances of "sorry" that were usually coerced.
Because children are so skilled at mimicking normal human emotions and will say anything without consideration for accuracy or truth, Mateo said that people often don't realize that they've been exploited until it is too late. Though he maintained that anyone can fall victim to a child's egocentric behavior, Mateo warned that grandmothers were especially susceptible to the self- serving machinations of tiny little sociopaths.
Despite the overwhelming evidence presented in the study, its findings have been met with heavy criticism from people who associate with children on a regular basis.
Batavia, NY resident and 38-year-old mother Mary Corcoran echoed the sentiments of many other adults who refuse to believe they are sharing their homes with merciless predators.
"Not my Jimmy. Just this morning, he told me I was the best mommy in the whole world," Corcoran said of her son, 5. "In fact, he's been such a sweet little boy this month that Santa just may bring him everything he asks for."
According to renowned child psychologist Dr. Pritha Singh, author of Born Without Souls, diagnosing preadolecents as sociopaths is primarily a theoretical interest, as the disorder is considered untreatable.
"We've tried behavior modification therapies, but children actually learn from our techniques and become even more adept at manipulating others while concealing their shameless misanthropy," Singh said. "Sadly, experience has taught us there is little hope for rehabilitation."

"Just look at the way most adults act," Singh added.

Dinner, carriers, Dogs

2010-02-16T15:53:00.000-08:00

Um, yes, loud noises are possibly not good for a fetus

2010-02-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

One Week!

2010-02-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

Not for the squeamish (Jim)

2010-02-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

So the belly button has always tripped me out. You put your finger in there and wiggle it around and you get a funny feeling in funny places (I hope this is normal and not just my own weirdness!) So watching Theodore's go from a full umbilical cord, me cutting it, and now it's slowly drying up and will soon fall off, leaving a belly button. The instructions have been to keep it clean and dry, so I've been swabbing it with q-tips with every diaper change. In the olden days they said to use alcohol or peroxide on it, but now just keeping it clean and dry is the thing to do. Unless of course it gets infected. Here are some pics of it after a week.

I can't wait for it to fall off so that we can all jump in the bath together!

A grand day out

2010-02-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

This awesome Russian Tall ship is in town for the Olympics. She's moored down near where our boat is moored so we had a nice outing, walking along the seawall and taking in the crowds.

There was even a local sailboat flying the sickle and hammer - not something you see everyday!

Here are the three boys under the massive anchor of this sailboat, which is simila to what my relatives used to sail around the world on.

And back to Gitano for some lunch!

I'm a Dad!!!

2010-02-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Or should I say I'm a Father? Still trying to figure out what I want to be called. Dad just seems so ordinary. Father seems so, well, Victorian. Douglas is out of the question. Poppa is nice, but I think would be weird later. Pops is good, but it makes Kim think of Grease.

So, the details - Theodore Orion Woolcock - born on Feb 7th at 9:45 at our house. Kim rocked it out spending a good bit of time in the bathtub, candles providing just the right amount of light and setting the peaceful mood. Then she waddled around a bit with our Doula (a birth coach) Jackie doing some magic on her hips to loosen everything up. Our midwife Vera was in the living room enjoying the coach. After Kim would have a good round of contractions with particularly painful sounds Vera would call out "That sounds great Kim". There was no comment to the wimpy crys.

Around 9am things really got going and I saw my son's cone head pop out for the first time. Then, Kim gave one more push and like a greased herring he squirted out onto the bed. I was all prepped to catch him, but Kim was gripping me so tightly by this point that all I could do was endure the pain her talons were inflicting on my arms. Vera lifted Theo onto her belly and just like a puppy, he wiggled his way up to her nipple.

I got to cut the cord, which was amazingly tough. And then we waited for Kim to deliver the placenta. This was probably the most exciting thing for me. Seeing this organ that moments ago was supplying Theodore with everything he needed, securely attached to Kim, now separated from her and with the last of her energy she pushed it out. No, we didn't make a milkshake from it! Although even as a vegetarian the placenta would have been fair game (along with amputated limbs I guess). We thought about keeping it to plant under a tree, but realized that it would have hung out in the freezer for a while, and then either Colleen would be over cooking dinner for us and, thinking it was a liver, pop it in a stew, or forgotten until we move. So Vera unceremoniously put it in a ziplock and took it with her to be disposed of at the hospital.

So there he was, 3.32kg, 50cm long, and healthy as they come. Only got a 9 out of 10 on the APGAR - obviously didn't practice enough. He's breastfeeding like a champ. Kim's boobs are amazing, producing a very tasty milk. I've heard from others that mothers milk is odd tasting, but I could easily have a cup of this stuff. Tastes like raw to me, the hind milk at least.

For pictures, go here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dpwool/BirthAndBeyond

The War on Drugs

2010-01-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

This is a video from LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. I think the the best quote in here is "drug legalization won't address the drug problem, it will address the crime problem. And once drugs are legal, only then can we address our drug problem"

Dissapointed in Prince George

2010-01-21T16:13:00.000-08:00

I was really looking forward to some nice cold weather up here in Prince George (Northern BC). Unfortunately they're having a warm winter, and the little snow they did have melted last week so now there's just a bit of brown snow and ice hanging around. Ah, global climate change is in the air!

Travel

2010-01-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

Well, after 3 days of the flu, I'm getting better. My fever broke yesterday, and I ate breakfast this morning. First real food since Saturday! Waking up Monday morning I didn't know what to do about this Prince George (northern British Columbia) gig. When I could make it through my shave without sitting down, I knew it would be a waste of everyone's time for me to go. Cancelled my flight and hotel and climbed back into bed for the rest of the day. There's going to be a bit of fallout from juggling my schedule, but should be OK. Maybe a bit of work this weekend. Next year, I'm getting my flu shot!

cool picture of an owl in flight

2010-01-17T18:55:00.001-08:00

Genetically Modified Corn

2010-01-13T10:19:00.000-08:00

Somehow, after the cross pollination of Aventis' Starlink corn into the human corn crops the debate over GM foods seems to have fizzled. Maybe because a) the government "lacked sufficient resources" to properly test the people that were breaking out in hives from eating corn products (Iowa won $10M from Aventis and Taco Bell has also sued) or b) Aventis has enough money to dispell any sort of concerns about GM crops. In a classic case of self regulation, Monsanto told the government that it's GM corn is safe for human consumption - and hey, they spent three whole months testing it, so how could they be wrong? I'll quote and article on some new findings that, shockingly, suggest that GM'ed corn is not as safe as advertised.

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto's GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.
According to the study, which was summarized by Adam Shake at Twilight Earth, "Three varieties of Monsanto's GM corn - Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603 - were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities."
Monsanto gathered its own crude statistical data after conducting a 90-day study, even though chronic problems can rarely be found after 90 days, and concluded that the corn was safe for consumption. The stamp of approval may have been premature, however.
In the conclusion of the IJBS study, researchers wrote:

"Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity....These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown."

Monsanto has immediately responded to the study, stating that the research is "based on faulty analytical methods and reasoning and do not call into question the safety findings for these products."
The IJBS study's author Gilles-Eric Séralini responded to the Monsanto statement on the blog, Food Freedom, "Our study contradicts Monsanto conclusions because Monsanto systematically neglects significant health effects in mammals that are different in males and females eating GMOs, or not proportional to the dose. This is a very serious mistake, dramatic for public health. This is the major conclusion revealed by our work, the only careful reanalysis of Monsanto crude statistical data."

Speed Walking

2010-01-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

Woa! WOA! I say. This can't possibly be true - what am I doing talking about speed walking? Has it happened? Has decrepitude finally been able to catch me? Did I, gasp, actually do it? And not just because I was shoplifting? Did I, cough, cough, like it? Well, actually, yes. After my last knee operation, they pulled a bit of cartilage out and sent it off to a bank to be grown in case I need it in the future. They did this after seeing a fairly large V shaped crack in the front part of my femur's cartiledge. Luckily, the pointy part of the V doesn't touch, and the cartiledge is not peeling up. My doctor said the if she were me, she'd give up running. I really miss running. Not a lot of gear, and you can do it just about anywhere. It's dead perfect for holidays and business trips. And, you can make a lot of distance running, and also look around at the scenery as it goes by. Something that can be pretty hard to do on a mountain bike.

So, last week Merritt and I went for a walk up Lynn Canyon, a nice broad trail with lots of other dogs for him to play with. And I was walking faster and faster until finally, I was covering some pretty good ground and the hound was happily trotting beside me. Tonight, we went out again, this time to try and summit Lynn Peak. It was getting dark, and this picture isn't the best, but you can see that the better part of the trail was a waterfall. Merritt had a blast running up the waterfalls and getting completely soaked. We made it to the upper ridge, but had to turn around as the light was fading fast. The waterfalls proved to be slightly more tricky on the way down. Although I waited to get home and slip in the bathroom and hurt myself. I was quite surprised to look down and see my big toe completely *under* my foot - owiee.

Wal-Mart

2010-01-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia:

A poll indicated that after 2004 US Presidential Election 76% of voters who shopped at Wal-Mart once a week voted for George W. Bush, while only 23% supported senator John Kerry.^[90] When measured against other similar retailers in the U.S., frequent Wal-Mart shoppers were rated the most politically conservative.

Now I have pretty low esteem for conservatives, and their mental faculties, but this photo that someone took at a Wal-Mart store has taken it to new lows!

And now, it's early... and here's another lazy blog post

2010-01-06T13:02:00.001-08:00

It's late; there's been boating; there's been booze

2010-01-05T23:14:00.001-08:00

Nerding

2010-01-05T17:00:00.001-08:00

Ok, so this is the coolest thing ever. It's a giant QR code. QR for Quick Response, is a 2 dimensional bar code. It's most popular is Japan, and many of their cell phones can read it with the camera. This is a link to a website.

Sailing!

2010-01-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Dylan and Celine were in town for the holidays and wanted to go sailing. Break my arm right? We checked the tide tables and made a plan for an afternoon on English bay. Yummy food was packed and we headed out into a light drizzle. The rain stopped, and we had a fantastic afternoon with a flat ocean and a good breeze. We did lots of tacks and gybes and Dylan is a fantastic skipper and Celine worked the fordeck with me for a fantastic sail. Coming back home the rain started again, just as we passed under the Lions Gate Bridge.

From Vancouver

And Merritt staying dry down below:

From Vancouver

After spending the day fighting a laptop with viruses

2009-12-29T15:32:00.001-08:00

Publish Post

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T16:55:00.000-08:00

I wish each of you could be here enjoying eggnog and belly rubs with us. Love you all!

Here's Merritt, who is no longer a cute little puppy, enjoying his first boat ride on our way out to Gambier last weekend.

Here's a couple shots of Merritt, during, and after a weekend on Gambier:

And here's me, nerding out in the fab hat that Susannah gave me on a very rainy sail home.

Kim's in the background now enumerating things that need to get done, being Christmas Eve and all. As I have yet to hear "blog", or "surf the web", or "look at cute puppy pictures" I suspect I should go.

Spoons

2009-12-17T11:32:00.000-08:00

Parenthood

2009-12-15T12:04:00.000-08:00

I suspect my experience with parents is as limited as most peoples, one of each. My Dad worked at an office and my mum worked in the home. The vacations were planned, and there were never dirty dishes. Kim's parents have a similar arrangement, the house is always tidy. I saunter into the kitchen and am starring at yesterday's dishes in the sink. I'm at home, Kim's at the office, dishes are piling up. This just doesn't fit into my view of being a parent. It's always a circus in our house, projects strewn from one end to the other, vacations planned as we board the boat or plane, 'what's for dinner' usually comes out around 9pm. Is it the vision of seeing a birth that will somehow align our world view? Is it a shot you get in the maternity ward? Or will we elude becoming parents despite having a third human in the house? Will they take him away when they see that he doesn't eat until 10 or that there's a neverending array of project parts, aka chokeables, or that we took him to Thailand instead of Disneyland.

woa

2009-12-14T12:21:00.001-08:00

Canadian Doctors

2009-12-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

After seeing today's xkcd comic, I started doing some research and ran across this Doctor's website. "pay what you can"? Really?? This is from his website:

B.C Medical fully covers the vasectomy and the tray fee. This includes all disposable supplies required to perform the procedure. For patient convenience our office can provide at cost an optional after care supply pack of those items you may wish to have for your comfort in the healing period. If you are not covered by B.C Medical or an alternate health insurance plan, Dr. Pollock will do the procedure for whatever you can comfortably afford to pay. Dr. Pollock believes that you should not be denied quality health care because of a lack of ability to pay, so he encourages you to call his office to arrange for a consultation.

Holidays

2009-12-12T12:26:00.000-08:00

We went to Kim's work party last night, heralding the start of the festive season for us. A fine gathering of nerds, wine, and good food. We discussed at length the Emerald cockroach wasp. It has a fascinating reproductive cycle that you can read all about by clicking the link. Merritt was with us of course. He's gotten so good on the busses and the seabus and has lost his fear of jumping up into bus or train completely loaded with people. Coming home the skytrain was loaded with lots of very drunk party goers and Merritt got slobbered all over as they adored him. Kim's boss told me that the Linnaeus' original classification of dogs, Canis familiaris, as a separate species from wolves, Canis lupus, has been changed. They are all now one big happy ~~family~~ species, Canis Lupus.

this is cool:

This is not Merritt

2009-12-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

Afternoon Hike

2009-12-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

Took Merritt to a virtualization workshop today. I gave my speech and Golden Boy just lay there, almost perfectly the whole time. He got some de-merritt's for gnawing on the chair legs, hence the 'almost'.

On the way home we stopped at the SFU trails. We hiked for an hour and Merritt walked most of the obstacles we came across. We also enjoyed one of the most spectacular sunsets I've seen in a while. Mount Baker was basking in the evening glow that emanated from Vancouver Island, whose mountains were outlined by the sun. Winter is in full effect here, it was -4 this morning, and I don't think it warmed up much during the day. We're sitting outside puppy class now as we got here a touch early. It's about time to start working on the heater for the van!

So my lovely wife has started posting to her blog again. We bought a new camera, a Cannon G10. Fantastic little unit, slips in your pocket and shoots like something that wouldn't. She's really taken to taking pictures with it, as you'll see in her Blog 2.0. I guess that makes it a phlog. Check ~~her~~ them out here.

Ministry of Defense shut down UFO Unit

2009-12-04T13:21:00.005-08:00

This is one of the many reported UFO sightings that the MoD has responded to in it's 50 years of existence. I find it perplexing that in today's climate of heightened anxiety of threats to security from every dark corner imaginable, that the MoD would even consider abandoning such an obvious source of TERROR. I mean come on, space is HUGE, I'm sure there are just as many green terrorists as there are brown terrorists. Although the ministry did say that it's 24/7 radar observations would spot a UFO and they would scramble fighter aircraft (presumably to shoot at them). Welcome to our planet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8395473.stm

I'm sure the US won't be turning a blind eye to terror threats from space! I've put a live terror alert monitor here. Looks like you Americans should be terror-fied!

Swimming!

2009-12-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

Merritt and I had a great walk on the seawall this morning and he went swimming! I suspect for the first time because as he ran into the water he had quite a startled look on his face when it didn't support him. He doggie paddled, of course, back to shore and then went absolutely crazy, running circles in the sand and dashing in and out of the water. This went on for quite some time until he finally started showing signs of getting tired. Then we went to the park and played catch for a while and exhausted, he sat down to chew on a stick. I noticed blood on his paw and checked his mouth - one puppy canine gone! It was the white one and I looked for it in the grass but sadly it was gone. The brown broken one was still in there, also getting pushed out by his adult canine. I grabbed it and gave it a good tug and much to my surprise, having done this several times over the last week, it pulled out! Man are they ever long, they must go clear into his nose. Not a single wince or wine?? I hope Theo is as tough. Too bad he only has the rotten brown one, I don't think the Tooth Fairy pays as much for them.

What's for Dinner?

2009-12-03T12:52:00.002-08:00

Hopefully, we won't come home to find Theo in the pot.....

I Hate War

2009-12-01T09:34:00.001-08:00

A Tragic Mistake

By BOB HERBERT - New York Times
Published: November 30, 2009

“I hate war,” said Dwight Eisenhower, “as only a soldier who has lived it can, as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

He also said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”

I suppose we’ll never learn. President Obama will go on TV Tuesday night to announce that he plans to send tens of thousands of additional American troops to Afghanistan to fight in a war that has lasted most of the decade and has long since failed.

After going through an extended period of highly ritualized consultations and deliberations, the president has arrived at a decision that never was much in doubt, and that will prove to be a tragic mistake. It was also, for the president, the easier option.

It would have been much more difficult for Mr. Obama to look this troubled nation in the eye and explain why it is in our best interest to begin winding down the permanent state of warfare left to us by the Bush and Cheney regime. It would have taken real courage for the commander in chief to stop feeding our young troops into the relentless meat grinder of Afghanistan, to face up to the terrible toll the war is taking — on the troops themselves and in very insidious ways on the nation as a whole.

More soldiers committed suicide this year than in any year for which we have complete records. But the military is now able to meet its recruitment goals because the young men and women who are signing up can’t find jobs in civilian life. The United States is broken — school systems are deteriorating, the economy is in shambles, homelessness and poverty rates are expanding — yet we’re nation-building in Afghanistan, sending economically distressed young people over there by the tens of thousands at an annual cost of a million dollars each.

I keep hearing that Americans are concerned about gargantuan budget deficits. Well, the idea that you can control mounting deficits while engaged in two wars that you refuse to raise taxes to pay for is a patent absurdity. Small children might believe something along those lines. Rational adults should not.

Politicians are seldom honest when they talk publicly about warfare. Lyndon Johnson knew in the spring of 1965, as he made plans for the first big expansion of U.S. forces in Vietnam, that there was no upside to the war.

A recent Bill Moyers program on PBS played audio tapes of Johnson on which he could be heard telling Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, “Not a damn human thinks that 50,000 or 100,000 or 150,000 [American troops] are going to end that war.”

McNamara replies, “That’s right.”

Nothing like those sentiments were conveyed to the public as Johnson and McNamara jacked up the draft and started feeding young American boys and men into the Vietnam meat grinder.

Afghanistan is not Vietnam. There was every reason for American forces to invade Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. But that war was botched and lost by the Bush crowd, and Barack Obama does not have a magic wand now to make it all better.

The word is that Mr. Obama will tell the public Tuesday that he is sending another 30,000 or so troops to Afghanistan. And while it is reported that he has some strategy in mind for eventually turning the fight over to the ragtag and less-than-energetic Afghan military, it’s clear that U.S. forces will be engaged for years to come, perhaps many years.

The tougher choice for the president would have been to tell the public that the U.S. is a nation faced with terrible troubles here at home and that it is time to begin winding down a war that veered wildly off track years ago. But that would have taken great political courage. It would have left Mr. Obama vulnerable to the charge of being weak, of cutting and running, of betraying the troops who have already served. The Republicans would have a field day with that scenario.

Lyndon Johnson is heard on the tapes telling Senator Richard Russell, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, about a comment made by a Texas rancher in the days leading up to the buildup in Vietnam. The rancher had told Johnson that the public would forgive the president “for everything except being weak.”

Russell said: “Well, there’s a lot in that. There’s a whole lot in that.”

We still haven’t learned to recognize real strength, which is why it so often seems that the easier choice for a president is to keep the troops marching off to war.

Serious Soliloquy

2009-11-30T15:33:00.002-08:00

A few serious words about religion

2009-11-30T14:17:00.002-08:00

audiophilia

2009-11-29T13:35:00.002-08:00

Ah, the weekend. Mine's a bit short this time, but I've made the most of it. Yesterday was spent convincing Kim that despite the recession, the condo purchase, and the impending baby we NEED a tube amplifier in our living room. This morning I rolled (you can giggle here, I do) Kim out of bed and we went for a fantastic hike on the Baden Powell trail. It's 8 minutes from here if we drive - can't beat that! Merritt LOVED it! Met lots of other dogs, got totally covered in mud and will no doubt sleep all afternoon.

Kim has a gaggle of girls over now so I'm sitting in my office enjoying my new head phones. The theory that being built like earplugs and cutting out noise works as theorized. Sitting here, eyes closed completely surrounded by crisp, clean, deep, rich music. AHHHHH.

Linux

2009-11-26T20:21:00.002-08:00

For most of my work life I've had two computers, one linux and one windows. My father taught me the importance of using the right tool for the job, and with two systems I always had the right tool. With Dell, I can't really travel and set up two systems so I'm down to my one laptop. This forces me to decide on what OS to use. The Dell standard is of course MS Windows, which is fine and dandy, but working with Linux servers and ESX systems, having a linux system just seemed to make sense. So for the last couple months I've been running Fedora Linux on my laptop, and tonight, it crashed for the last time. I have to say that I was right in there critizing Dell and other vendors for pulling their systems loaded with Linux. The theory was that MS strongarmed them to do it. The marketing spin from the big three was that there were a lot of consumer complaints about the systems supplied with Linux. I of course believed the former, but now, I think the latter is actually closer to the truth. In a pure corporate environment I think a Linux desktop might work fine, where no multimedia is needed and no MS documents need to be manipulated. Although OpenOffice, the defacto office productivity suite in linux crashed repeatedly on me, even when editing documents in its native format .odt. In the server world, where speed and stability are king, I think Linux has it's place.

But for an all around workstation? No way. Heaven forbid I might want to watch a video on the internet, a DVD, or listen to MP3s. Like with my brand new headphones. I got through a few songs and the whole system locked up nice and solid. Luckily I had just saved my work! I mean the slider bar in the MP3 player didn't actually work. How basic of a task is that. Now, when people go on about how MS 'poisoned' the netbook market I'll know the truth of the matter, the linux netbooks simply didn't work and consumers dollars spoke out.

Wow, this is a really fundamental shift in my feelings about this. It makes me sad really. I had this feeling that a community of developers would be able to make something better (or at least as good as) a major corporation. But here I am, a reasonably technical person, and I can't make my laptop play youtube vids reliably or watch a DVD. And yes, I realize that youtube is proprietary and all that - but that doesn't matter - the reality is that I can't play them. Uh Oh, I just stepped up onto my rant box. I'm going to quickly step off as I'm a bit emotional now. I'm off to download Windows 7.

Ear Buds

2009-11-26T17:18:00.001-08:00

OK, I have to say I was a bit dubious about why on earth ear buds could possibly cost more that $10. Last year I made the mistake of flying w/ noise cancelling headphones - and now have a hard time flying w/o them. Unfortunately, I left them on the plane when we flew to NC for Davids wedding. The flights since have been SO loud. So I started googling around to see what's available - of course there's the bose ones, but at $300, and my tendency to give them to other people, I kept looking. I went to a pretty high end audiophile shop - Bay Bloor Radio - here in Toronto as they have a huge selection of earphones. So I ended up spending $100 on some 'in ear' buds by senheiser. They aren't noise cancelling, but act like ear protection as they completely seal in your ear . I just plugged them in - and am listening to some chill out lounge music that I listened to yesterday and HOLY FRACK! It's a completely different experience than the standard earbuds. Right now there's a clip of a pop pouring into a glass - I can almost smell the CO2 as it bubbles off the top - yes, I can hear every fizz pop!

While I was there I oggled the vacuum tube amplifiers and know exactly what I want for xmas! The real test will of course be the flight home tommorrow.

Only one more sleep before I get to see Kim!! I've started calling her Gigantica since we watched Aliens vs. Monsters - and I'm sure she'll bear even more resemblance to her moniker after growing larger for a week.

What's with all the work?

2009-11-25T14:54:00.001-08:00

Yup, another day with out a picture of Merritt on the blogspot. Well, I've been sent to Toronto for the week and he's at home (and work) with Kim. I heard yesterday that he's gotten really good with peeing on command at UBC. He's one seriously smart guy that little one.

This time I'm staying in downtown Toronto instead of the burbs and really enjoying it. It's got that 'old' city feeling. Certainly NOT Vancouver! One of the main streets in Toronto is Yonge street, and I'm staying and working on it. It brings back lots of great memories of when I would spend college summers here, biking around town with John looking for classical music on vinyl (mostly on Yonge St.) that we would enjoy over wine in the evening.

Here's a scary one - it's kinda like what Fox 'News' does:

A day of RTFMing

2009-11-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

I've spent the better part of the last 24 hours becoming a subject matter expert. This involved a LOT of manual reading and I couldn't agree more with this!

MAMA!

2009-11-24T18:48:00.001-08:00

Ergonomics

2009-11-22T12:48:00.000-08:00

The theme for the week (aside from puppy) has been a killer sore back. I suspect I strained something on Gambier, and then working on the van on Sunday finished it off. I *even*, gasp! went to see someone about it! Yes, it's that bad! First thing I did was a new office chair. A proper office chair is frighteningly expensive and I totally scored w/ a used one at Impact Office Furniture. They had an $800 model for $250 and I find it very comfy. Next, stop hunching over the laptop. Dell's pretty cheap when it comes to ergonomics, no second monitor, keyboard or mouse. So I picked up a microsost ergonomic keyboard, whick I've had before and really liked. The keys on this one are a bit stiff, hopefully it'll break in. I also got a monitor for the desk so no more hunching over the tiny 13" screen on my laptop. Next, is a keyboard tray - I generally hate them, and will have to shop around for something that will work for me. I might also buy a proper desk at some point - I'm currently using an old kitchen table. Unfortunately, I'm quite smitten w/ a Danish designed desk in teak that's a few thousand dollars.

All of this, combined with the excercises from the physiotherapist will hopefully get my back back into shape. Apparently, my back muscles are all VERY tight, contributing to some sort of nerve inflamation. grrr. getting old sucks.

Merritt

2009-11-20T15:44:00.000-08:00

We found out that he's named after the town of Merritt, in the mountains of British Columbia. The proprietor of a bar there has a PADS dog and was able to raise sufficient funds through fund raisers at his bar to sponsor a puppy. That's what allowed PADs to bring Merritt from Nova Scotia to us.

Cute

2009-11-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

Wow! this little gapper is just pure cuteness. We went up to the ski hill tonight to check out the snow and see what Merritt thought of it all - there was much furious digging and scampering about by him as Kim and I laughed hartily at his antics. And now he's laying next to my office chair just waiting for his next belly rub.

Movember

2009-11-17T16:16:00.005-08:00

I'm sure you saw that last pic and thought "WOW What a great stache on that guy!"

Well, other that how good it looks, I'm actually growing it to help raise money and awareness of prostate cancer. If you start singing hokey pokey, and put "prostate" in there I guess you'll figure out pretty quickly why the second most common cancer isn't spoken about in polite circles too often.

%jingle% The prostate connected to vas deferens, the vas deferens connected to seminal vesicle, the seminal vesicle connected to the ejaculatory duct - (sounds of crashing and banging as the moms crash into the AV booth at the skating rink)

We've renamed November to Movember, and I'm a MoBro sporting a hot stache. Check it out here, and you can click on the Donate to Me button if you want to get involved!

http://ca.movember.com/mospace/122271

And this is from the Movember.com site:

The idea for Movember was sparked in 2003 over a few beers in Melbourne, Australia. The guys behind it joked about 80s fashion and decided it was time to bring the moustache back. In order to justify their Mos (Australian slang for moustache), they used their new looks to raise money for prostate cancer research… never dreaming that facial hair would ultimately lead to a global movement that would get men talking about a taboo subject – their health.

A Mo Bro starts Movember – the month formerly known as November – clean shaven, and grows a moustache all month long, garnering support from friends and family in the form of donations. What’s more, a Mo Bro is a walking billboard for the cause as his new look opens the door for him to talk about prostate cancer – making the moustache a symbol, much like the pink ribbon is for breast cancer. Each Movember culminates in a Gala Partè in major cities around the globe where Mo Bros dress up to match their Mo, channeling the likes of Tom Selleck, Ghandi and Ron Burgundy, vying for the ultimate accolade: Man of Movember.

While growing a Mo is left to the guys, Mo Sistas (women who support their guys) form an important part of Movember by recruiting Mo Bros, helping to raise funds and attending the highly anticipated Gala Partés.

The money raised in Canada goes directly to Prostate Cancer Canada. Prostate Cancer Canada will use the money raised by Movember for the development of programs related to awareness, public education, advocacy, support of those affected, and research into the prevention, detection, treatment and cure of prostate cancer.

In 2008 the Movember campaign in Canada raised $2.4 million making it the largest charity event for men. Significantly, awareness of men’s health issues has improved with Movember helping to spread important health messages directly to thousands of Mo Bros & Sistas.

We challenge you to join us in changing the face of men's health.

A Grand Day Out

2009-11-17T15:43:00.002-08:00

Today was our first day on the bus *and* at a restaurant. I of course chose something nice and low key - like lunch with my boss at a shwanky downtown joint. The first bus took a bit of coaxing and the bus driver was wondering who was training who as I hoisted the little gapper in. The seabus was no problem as it's pretty much just a walk on, and the second bus driver kneeled (lowered) the bus for us making it much less intimidating.

I asked the maitre d' if it was OK to bring Merritt in, and she looks over her pedestal and just started coo'ing. This seems to be the standard response most people present upon seeing him so I took it in stride. The better part of the kitchen staff came out to meet him as he lay ever so quietly next to me. It's like he knows what to do somehow. We get to our table for two and there's not enough room underneath, so he plunks himself down right next to me for the next two and half hours as Craig and I chat. Amazing!

Coming home I realized that it's going to be really really hard to go anywhere with him without having many conversations. Everyone wants to know all about him, the program, how will be be able to give him up, the works. I remember in college how Saira was a total chic magnet. The magic of Merritt's cape (henceforth known as the 'magic cape') is that it makes the boys coo as well!

Merritt

2009-11-16T10:21:00.000-08:00

His name's Merritt - he's four months old - a total cuddler - absolutely adorable - and, absolutely adorable!

Hammer Time!!

2009-11-11T19:11:00.003-08:00

I know the thought of MC Hammer brings back fond memories for all of you. We've been moored in New Brighton harbour on Gambier Island for the last few days. We thought the shed would be nearing completion by now, but that turned out to be optomistic. Go figure. When surveying our shed site, we decided that it would be prudent to cut down a few of the maples that were leaning over the site, and the yurt. Of course that entailed taking down the yurt and moving it, moving all the lumber we've brought up, and cutting down some fair sized trees. It always makes me sad to cut down a tree, but we reasoned our way through this. The maples are fast growing and are the first trees that grow in after a forest has been logged (as most of lower BC has been). They also die out once the cedars start catching up with them apparently. I was quite surprised when the one maple right next to the yurt splintered and collapsed after the chain saw went in only a few inches! yikes!! The majority of it's core was rotten. I've left them in long sections so that once we have an Alaska Mill they'll get planked.

Today ,however, saw the first nails going in! We were given some breeze blocks (cinder blocks) by our neighbour Morgan and we leveled off a spot. Be the time night fell we'd just finished the leveling, but we weren't leaving without some hammer time.

The week has been decidedly wet, and we are so glad to have cozy Gitano to come back to. The sound of the heater purring away is fantastic. The sound of the heater not starting - not so fantastic. I suspect the glow plug has seen better days, as a few tries usually gets it going. We been eating like royalty and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Today was remembrance day here in Canada and we attended a ceremony put on by the Anavets - cannon's fired and songs sung. I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore when we finished off with God Save the Queen. A luncheon followed and we met some more Gambeirites - this is the best community - so welcoming and friendly.

My dinner's getting cold, so check back soon for pictures of our shed!