Hmmm... This thing is still here?!?!

Started a new job a while back and took a hiatus from posting....

Been working a floating, changing, crazy schedule with either too many or too few hours. Learning lots about people through the new gig. Reinforcing a lot of what I previously knew as well. I hit a personal milestone on November that I was striving for - over $100K in sales in one month. I think the final number was just over $112K. It was something I wanted to do for myself, not a company directive or anything. Felt good for a few days and then it was back to business as usual.

Yes, I'm purposely avoiding naming where I work or what I do as it is against company policy to post anything on any blog, web page, social network site, etc.

I'm still managing to have fun with the great group of people I work with....

Public Service Announcement...

From Rixstep.com....

Remember: there are reputedly over 1,000,000 (one million) 'viruses' for Windows in the wild. 92 - 97% of all email traffic is spam generated by compromised Windows computers. Small and medium size businesses lose hundreds of millions of dollars each year because they run Windows. Identity theft is the biggest crime in the world today and it's because of Microsoft Windows. Every security expert in the world has advised against using Windows for years.

And you're going to seriously contemplate using it because someone at your school does or there are more games?

WTF?!?!...

From the BBC News - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10333211.stm

Puppy thrown at German biker gang

A German student "mooned" a group of Hell's Angels and hurled a puppy at them before escaping on a stolen bulldozer, police have said.

The man drove up to a Hell's Angels clubhouse near Munich, wearing only a pair of shorts and carrying a puppy.

He dropped his shorts and threw the dog, escaping on a bulldozer from a nearby building site.

He was arrested later at home by police. The 26-year-old is said to have stopped taking depression medication.

After making his getaway on the bulldozer, he had driven so slowly that a 5km tailback built up behind him on the motorway.

After driving about 1km, he had abandoned the bulldozer in the middle of the motorway, near Allershausen. He continued his journey by hitchhiking.

"What motivated him to throw a puppy at the Hell's Angels is currently unclear," a police spokesman said.

The puppy is now being cared for in an animal shelter.

You Know You're In Keswick When...

Click on image for larger version.

South east Corner of Woodbine Ave. and Glenwoods Ave. Been parked like this in the middle of a field for about the last week or so. The property has a huge for sale sign on it so I guess this is the owner's way of drawing attention....


Photo taken by me.

Sky On Fire...

This is an image I took from my front step after a thunder storm in April. Click on image for a larger version.


Photo taken by me.

A Moment In Time...

The New York Times Lens (Photography, Video and Viual Journalism) blog began promoting a neat idea back in April - that readers of the blog all around the world take a picture at the same time on the same day and send it in to the Lens blog. The date to take the photo was Sunday May 2, 2010 and the time 15:00 U.T.C. (11:00am my time).

Lens would then put together a world photo-mosiac entitled "A Moment In Time" consisting of thousands of submitted images (over 14,000 last I checked).

I was on the road driving home after a weekend spent in Port Perry and at 11:00am snapped the picture shown below, which the New York Time Lens blog posted here. Click on the image for a larger, hi-res version.


Photo taken by me in Vallentyne, ON

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!...

In reference, and answer to, the recent censoring of South Park's Depiction of Muhammad by Comedy Central.

I don't watch South Park but I think that Comedy Central was completely wrong in censoring the show based on fear of reprisal from Islamic extremists. I mean seriously, WTF?!?!

Originally found on The Stranger, posted by Dan Savage.

Book-apalooza...

Some recent books I've read....

Low Side Of The Road - A Life Of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskyns

Not only did Tom Waits who is notoriously private, refuse to cooperate with Hoskyns biographical book, but he convinced almost all of his closest friends and band members from over the years not to cooperate as well. Makes for a tough task to write a book about the guy with no first hand accounts to go by but Barney Hoskyns manages to create an in depth narrative of the past 40 or so years of Waits' career. From his humble beginnings to his cult-like stardom. Hoskyns goes over every album up to, and including 'Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards' in track-by-track detail. He also details the various movie roles from Waits on-again, off-again acting career. Hoskyns did manage to get a few people to talk on record but not many. Even so, the book is attempted peak into the mind a reclusive musical genius - sometimes successful, sometimes not - but an interesting, informative read non-the-less. If you are in any way a Tom Waits fan, as I am, then this book is a must read.

The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre

Engrossing, slow moving tale of Father Duncan, the Bishop's go-to man to make problem priests disappear (not Sopranos type of disappear but rather relocate to another parish) and help control the fall-out, even if that means suppressing evidence to keep the church looking squeaky clean. The story deals with the sexual abuses of Catholic priests on young east coast children and the lifetime of effects on not only the individuals involved, but on the communities as a whole. The years of dirty work and personal revelations take a toll on Father Duncan leading him to question his own life and choices he's made or avoided. Linden MacIntyre creates a compelling and believable tale. Highly recommended.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Wow! I say again Wow!! Without a doubt the best piece of crime fiction I've read in too many years to remember. I don't recall how or who or what told me to pick-up this book but once I did I was obsessed. I've never read Swedish crime fiction before but am looking forward to reading more if Larsson is an example of how good it can be. Far too complex to try and describe in a short review but it covers everything from a what looks to be a decades old murder mystery, to state sanctioned abuses of women, to high tech spy novel. The story and characters are all completely compelling. The female lead character Lisbeth Salander, an aspergers/autistic elite hacker, is simply a pleasure to read. Larsson brings her character alive on the pages. Similarly Mikael Blomkvist, the crusading journalist, is the perfect reluctant hero for this story. I just couldn't stop reading this book. If you haven't read the book and you like crime/mystery fiction then do yourself a huge favour and go get it now. Like stop what you're doing and go now!

The Swedish made movie (in Sweden the original title of the book and movie are both "Män Som Hatar Kvinnor". Translated as Men Who Hate Women.) is pretty damn impressive as well. Leaves a few elements of the book out (to be expected) but nails 85% of the story. And the actress playing Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is 100% perfect. In Swedish with English subtitles.

There are plans underway to make an American version of this film starring American actors. Without even having seen it, I highly recommend one to avoid that movie. Hollywood will not be able to deal with horrific brutality toward women the way the Swedish did. They will instead try to sugar coat it.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Believe it or not Stieg Larsson manages to continue the page turning excitement in part 2 of the Millennium Trilogy. It's almost as good the first book. Same characters, same continuing story of state sanctioned abuse and cover-ups. Lisbeth Salander is back as the aspergers/autistic hacker supreme, but this time she is charged with the murder of a young couple. Only a couple people close to her believe she is innocent even though her finger prints are all over the gun used to commit the murders. All sorts of plots twists through out with a country wide Police alert for Lisbeth as she struggles to deal with her own past and clear her name. Some of the best crime/mystery fiction I've ever read. Larsson creates some incredibly powerful, believable characters that just sweep his story along.

And again, the Swedish made movie ("Flickan Som Lekte Med Elden") of the same name sticks pretty close to the book. Starring the same actors as the first movie it is an enjoyable continuation of the story on film. In Swedish with English subtitles.


The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

(Note: This book is due to be released in North America on May 25th. I ordered my copy last November from amazon.co.uk in Britain where it was already released).

Part 3 of this series is completely engrossing. I stayed up all night reading this book in one setting. This novel deals with the aftermath of Lisbeth Salander being shot in the head while attempting to kill her thoroughly evil, ex-Russian spy father (with an axe to his head!). Most of the story takes place in the hospital and the court room and grips the reader, almost forcing one to continue reading to find out what happens next. The climax of the story, in a court room, is completely satisfying. I found myself rooting for Lisbeth and Mikeal through out these books and Larsson does not disappoint. I think it may be time to reread this series.

While being thoroughly engrossed in these books and wanting to read as fast as I could to find out how it all ends, it was bittersweet when I reached the last page of this book. I was completely satisfied in the story but sad that there was no more to read. And will be no more to read. Too bad.

The 3rd Swedish made movie (original Swedish title "Luftslottet Som Sprängdes". Translated as Air Castle That Blew Up.) makes a great conclusion to the series. Same actors, same sticking very close to the book. All 3 movies are available online if you know where to search for torrent files. In Swedish with English subtitles.

It really is a shame that Larsson died before seeing the world wide success of his books. These 3 books were the first 3 full length novels Stieg Larsson had ever written and he delivered all 3 to the publisher at one time. Unfortunately he died of a heart attack shortly afterwards. He had talked about producing possibly 10 novels starring Lisbeth Salander. Very, very sad that we'll never get those other 7 books.

Asshat of the Month (maybe year) = Air Canada...

My oldest son is off to the UK and Europe on Thursday for 10 days with his university professor aunt (my sister) on a World War II educational tour. The trip leaves from Winnipeg, flies to Toronto, changes planes and then on to London. My sister arranged with the tour company that Connor would join them in Toronto. My son's airfare for the Winnipeg to Toronto leg was still being paid just not being used. The tour company stated this was fine as they have done similar arrangements in the past and will simply have Air Canada issue a new e-ticket for my son to pick-up in Toronto.

My sister called Air Canada last week to confirm these arrangements and Air Canada went into corporate ass-sucking mode. They are using the recent volcano eruption in Iceland, and the now cleared up back log of travel problems, as an excuse for zero tolerance on changing tickets. Air Canada refused to allow for a new e-ticket to be printed for my son and stated that if he is not on the Winnipeg flight they will sell his ticket to someone on standby and he will not be allowed to board in Toronto. Even going higher up the management line they simply wouldn't budge. He has to be with the group in Winnipeg or no go.

They then offered my sister a ticket for my son from Toronto to Winnipeg for $800 - eight hundred fucking dollars!!!! She politely told them she'd look elsewhere and bought a WestJet ticket for $335.09

The company running this tour, Education First Educational Tours, is on the other hand a totally great company. They were also pissed off about the way Air Canada treated one of their clients - upset enough that they picked up the entire cost of the WestJet ticket for my son to get to Winnipeg. Thank you Educational First, you put Air Canada to shame.

So my son is now leaving Toronto Thursday afternoon to fly to Winnipeg, hang around the airport there for a few hours and then fly back from Winnipeg to Toronto, change planes and then onto London. He'll end up spending 13+ hours in the air. Fucking ridiculous.

I'll never use Air Canada again. And I'll tell everyone I know not to use them starting with this blog.

Fuck Air Canada and the plane they flew in on.

Asshats.

Happy Birthday Leonardo...

April 15, 1452: Leonardo da Vinci is born in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci. Painter, sculptor, anatomist, architect, engineer, geologist, Renaissance Man...

Vitruvian Man pictured above is my favourite piece of art I've ever seen.

Happy Birthday Leonardo da Vinci !

Time according to Tom Waits...

"Time is not a line, or a road where you get further away from things.... It's all exponential. Everything that you experienced when you were eighteen is still with you."

-Tom Waits

from

Low Side Of The Road

A Life Of Tom Waits

by Barney Hoskyns

Death's Children by Mark Adair...

Mark Adair
Death's Children
March 27 - April 18, 2010

loop Gallery
1273 Dundas Street West (3 doors west of Dovercourt)
Toronto, Ontario, M6J 1X8

Wed-Sat 1-5pm

Sun 1-4pm

Went to see Death's Children, the latest (and final?) installment in Mark Adair's Death series. The first in the series, also on display, is entitled Death Drinks. These are small, playing card or tarot card sized charcoal drawings about the seemingly normal misadventures of Death in the modern world (falling in love, getting a job, having kids, etc.). Incredibly detailed drawings, especially for charcoal work; these are wonderfully creepy little Gothic vignettes that amuse and disturb at the same time. Elements of dark European art and Tim Burtonesque landscapes blend to create little scenes that draw the viewer into Death's world. Very engrossing. Highly, highly recommend anyone in the Dundas & Dovercourt area to drop in and take a look.

I've seen this piece in various stages over the last decade or so and it has easily become one of my favourite pieces created by Adair. Mark's work has always seemed to delve into the darker side of life and in the late '90s we discussed this and other ponderings in an interview entitled Culture, Art, Death for a now defunct online zine (The Annihilation Fountain).

There is a very interesting bio film (directed & produced by Patrick Jenkins) about Mark and his art entitled Death Is In Trouble Now, available from Moving Images Distribution. A short youtube excerpt of this film is below.

unHappy Meal Shite...

Got a link in my RSS reader Otemanu this morning linking to a babybites.info article on a year old McDonald's Happy Meal. Said meal was bought and put on a shelf for one full year. The article comes complete with before and after pictures that show absolutely no decomposition, no mold, no smell, no bugs.... Pretty freakin' scary.

Here's the freshly purchased unHappy Meal one year ago.

And here is the same unHappier Meal currently, one year later.

It can't be stressed enough - don't eat at McDonalds - it's not real food if it doesn't rot....

Photos by Nonna Joann via www.babybites.info

Presidential Reunion on Funny Or Die...

Very well done Funny Or Die sketch featuring past & present Saturday Night Live Presidents reunited for a good message.... Directed by Ron Howard.

Smut for smut...

Campus atheists offer free porn in exchange for Bibles....

Atheist Agenda, a campus group at U Texas San Antonio, has created a "Smut for Smut" program, where they'll trade you high-grade porn in exchange for your Bibles and other religious material. The idea is to highlight that the Bible is as full of bad ideas and bad depictions of those ideas ("a woman is worth half a man") as pornography.

Hmm.... "Smut for Smut" - I like that....

Pirated vs. Paid...

Below is a chart from http://i.imgur.com/GxzeV.jpg explaining the differences between downloading a pirated movie and actually going out and buying one....

Google Street View camera car update...

Google's Street View has finally got my neck of the woods online. Below is the picture of my place with Connor & I out front. I had forgotten what a picture perfect day it was when the Googlemobile came by....

France, Germany, Australia warn against using Internet Explorer...

After the recent major, high level, totally organized hacking sessions against Google, Adobe and 3 dozen other US corporations, which were executed through vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows & Internet Explorer, the governments of France, Germany & now Australia have issued warnings to their citizenry to avoid using Microsoft Internet Explorer for any online use. The Australian... "Government says Microsoft has acknowledged all recent versions of the program are vulnerable".

Scary fucking shite.

Some quotes from Rixstep's Microsoft's War of Words

article:

All the wonderful (and humorous) things mentioned in Apple's 'Get a Mac' apps: most apply to any 'non-Windows' system. Apple, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Red Hat/Fedora, AIX - they all share the same things in common. Stability. Reliability. And above all: security.

The current War of Words isn't about Apple on the one side and Microsoft on the other. It's not about Ubuntu on the one side and Microsoft on the other. It's about everybody on the one side and Microsoft all alone on the other.

Microsoft: with their Windows, with their drive letters, with their system32, with that maze they call the Registry, with their crashes and hangs and malware outbreaks heard round the world, with their hopeless standalone architecture.

If you are still using Microsoft's Internet Explorer to surf the net then you really need to give your head a shake because you're just being stoopid to the Nth degree. Like knowingly driving a car downhill with no brakes or seatbelts stoopid.

Not to mention that you should really get off Windows all together. Ubuntu, Apple - both easy to use, install, maintain and tons of free software for both.

And just wait & watch the list of countries joining France, Germany & Australian grow.

Cuba photos...

OK here we go - home movie time.... Not really but some pix from our Cuban vacation. I only wish I could have had a camera with me when my boys & I were out on a catamaran about 2 miles offshore. What an experience. Warm ocean waves splashing over us, beautiful coastal scenery. I could have spent days on that boat. Definitely my favourite part of the trip. That and an early morning walk on the beach with the waves washing over my feet. Bliss....

Click on any of the pictures for larger images.

We stayed at the Playa Costa Verde resort in Holguin. Amazing beach.

Walking along the beach with the waves washing over my feet was pure heaven.

This is the beach bar & hot dog hut. Normally it had a steady line of people getting their refreshments.

At first I couldn't get over how many palm trees there are in Cuba. All along the roads as we drove in from the airport and the resort has hundreds of them. Very cool.

This is the part of the pool with the swim up Aqua Bar. Very popular place.

More of the pool area.

In the middle of the resort is this hut with a stone wall around it. Inside the wall is a rooster. I didn't see any other animals inside the walls during our stay. Just that single rooster. Kind of like a rooster prison.

Marika & Anthony walking towards our suite.

More palm trees & pool....

The pool with the main resort building between the palm trees in the background.

Lots of old American cars in Cuba. This one was in a town called Guadalavaca where there is a small tourist market we rode mopeds to.

Another old classic in Guadalavaca.

Nice hood ornament.

More ocean.

I couldn't get over the colour of the ocean. From a clear to turquoise to dark rich blue, almost black. Simply beautiful. I spent more time in the water during our 6 days there than I have in the last 15 years combined.

Found this little lizard in my room on our last day at the resort. Connor & Sasha managed to catch him the glass.

Took him out of the room and found that he really liked sitting on our hands. He wouldn't even move. Just sat there calm as could be absorbing our body warmth. Pretty cool.

Almost makes me want a pet lizard....

In front of the buffet restaurant they had a couple pig roasts while we were there. And man, did that pork ever taste good. Just out of the picture on the left was a staff member who sat there for hours hand turning the wooden spit. The smell as it cooked just kind of floated over the pool area.

Our house cleaner was always leaving what we called 'towel oragmi' in our rooms. On the last day there she used towels to spell out 'bye' in our boys room. We also had a towel butterfly and flower & vase. She was very sweet.

Outside view of our guest house. We had 3 rooms on the 1st floor. The corner room, one beside and one on the inside. Great little places with large, airy rooms.

The side entrance to our rooms.

Sasha on a moped in Guadalavaca.

Marika & Sasha on the ride back to the resort. Guadalavaca was 18kms from the hotel. Got to see the real Cuban country and people.

Flag on the beach bar in Guadalavaca.

Strangely beautiful sculpture by the tourist market in Guadalavaca.

Looking towards the beach in Guadalavaca.

The main entrance to the buffet restaurant at our resort.

Early morning shot of the beach at our resort before it got crowded.

There was a man at the resort with this beautiful hawk that he would let people hold on their arms and have their pictures taken. I think the bird was trying to walk right up my arm. Amazing looking creature.

Photo taken by Sasha.

Sasha liked the hawk as well. The bird's owner also had a tiny baby hawk that he left on a table in the snack bar beside the pool. It would hop onto your finger when you put your hand in front of it.

These hibiscus flowers were all over the resort.

Driftwood sculpture that I liked.

Real Cuban homes along the road to Guadalavaca. Lots of poverty.

Some homes still haven't been repaired 2 years after the last hurricane yet people still live in them.

We were told this is a complex where a lot of the resort workers lived.

No roadside billboard advertising in Cuba that we saw except for political propaganda.

Typical Cuban highway scene. Cars, trucks, buses, mopeds, horses, people. You have to keep a sharp eye when driving in Cuba.

A roadside banana plantation. That is one thing we really noticed at the resort - how amazing the locally grown bananas tasted. Nothing like what we have in Canada.

To get to the beach from the resort we had to cross a walkway over a conservation area that had so many different species of birds that it was nice just to stand on the walkway to watch & listen to them. Lots and lots of turkey vultures everywhere in Holguin.

Morning patterns left in the sand from the receding tide.

At the market in Guadalavaca this old friendly guy was walking around talking to anyone and everyone in Spanish. I tried to talk with him but he spoke no English and I speak no Spanish. So I offered him a peso to take his picture and he agreed.

Jackson & Anthony - Jackson (left) works at the resort on the entertainment crew. He and my daughter's boyfriend Anthony (right) looked like they could be brothers. On our first night at the resort other staff members approached Marika & Anthony saying they had to meet Jackson. Jackson turned out to be a pretty nice guy as well. Watching him MC a show one evening I heard him speak fluent Spanish, English, French & German.

Cuba was a wonderful time for us. Great people, great resort. Looking forward to returning next year.

All photos taken by me unless otherwise noted.