A Leaf on the Wind

Rue and I went to see Serenity this afternoon. A great movie that did not disappoint. In the spirit of things I decided to take a quiz that Rue took earlier.

In common with Wash, I do have a stunning wife that could probably kill people (no evidence of past events are in my possession)...

You scored as Hoban 'Wash' Washburne. The Pilot. You are a leaf on the wind, see how you soar. You have a good job, and a stunning wife who loves you (and can kill people). Life is good, which is why you can't help smiling. Now if you can just get people to actually listen to your opinion things would be perfect. Hoban 'Wash' Washburne 100% The Operative 88% Capt. Mal Reynolds 75% Jayne Cobb 75% Simon Tam 63% Zoe Alleyne Washburne 63% Kaylee Frye 63% River Tam 63% Inara Serra 56% Shepherd Derrial Book 31% Which Serenity character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Smurfovik Collective Bombed!

Apparently the UN has produced a video showing the Smurf's getting bombed (no, not drunk! Bombed: as in planes dropping them, buildings burning etc.)



Mark Steyn comments here:



Chris Taylor celebrates the end of the Reign of Blue Terror:



Again, the U.N. has stuck it's nose into children's programming, and brought back those vile Smurfs, whose programming pushed the anvil-dropping, dynamite 'sploding Bugs Bunny Road Runner show off of the local affiliate that was one of the few channels that would run decent Saturday morning cartoons (ie. not censored of the ol' ultra-violence).

The last time I noticed the U.N. sticking its nose in where it doesn't belong was the vile collectivist lecture Kofi Annan gives the Sesame Street gang about doing things the "U.N. Way":



I wonder if Kofi Annan's son would be skimming off the "Cookies for Trash" program set up to help all the innocent starving worms under President Oscar the Grouch's totalitarian thumb.

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Before I start getting emails criticizing me for displaying shocking callousness towards victims of war and the very real suffering that results, note that I reserve all my venom for the Smurfs (not the innocent victims that they are supposed to be proxy for) the U.N., which has some of the most barbarous regimes running their so-called "human rights" committee, and has shown an over-whelming propensity for preserving the status quo above all else, and the superior smug attitude of those who would appropriate children's programming in an attempt to indoctrinate our young'uns in the "glories" of collectivist ideals.

And of course Mark Steyn's got it right: you know who the U.N. is directing this ad-campaign against.

Doin' the Happy Dance

So what's the big secret?

Am I going north to drop in on Temujin, even though he came to Kelowna and didn't visit me?

No that'd be nice. But how does that improve my life?

Did I win a lottery?

No, that'd be nice too. But the site would be a lot fancier, and there'd be a lot of "Ha Ha! I'm so damn rich and you're not!" posts, so no that's not it either.

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I went and got myself a better job. Big deal, you say. Fine, I say. I didn't ask you to come over here and rain on my parade, now did I?

I did say that it was important to me, and important to my family. With my current job I drive back and forth every day from Kelowna to Penticton, robbing me of about one and a half to two hours of my day commuting.

OK my commute kind of looks like this, so I shouldn't be complaining (this photo doesn't do the view justice, especially in fall.)



But now I'm doing the happy dance!

New job, closer to home, more money, better organization (lots more impressive on business cards!), better title, my own stinkin' office (wooooo!) and the ability to threaten friends of mine with poking into their files of past business dealings and results with said organization. And all I have to do is take the body blows when the non-financial-speaking revenue producers are called on the carpet to explain to the budget chiefs in Vancouver why they're spending so much damn money. All this and Excel models, too!

WOOOOOO!

It's funny. Thinking back to when Rue, the little princesses and I moved here over a year ago, this was the exact job I had envisioned myself having, and with this organization too. I guess Rue's right. A little positive thinking can go a long way. And a man can accomplish great personal things if he has the right person supporting him every step of the way.

Thanks, hon!

Did I forget to say WOOOOOO!

The New NHL

As I was engaged in making my picks for Hockey Pool #3 this evening, I got to watch the Ottawa-Toronto game, and the Vancouver-Phoenix game. And so far so good for the new NHL. The games were faster, some nice goals were scored, and hilights from the other games in the league show that scoring is up. The shoot out at the end of the Ottawa-Toronto game was exciting, and that was a good choice for the league to make. Of course it also helped that Ottawa won. Let's hope that the NHL consistently enforces the new rules, and that the players adapt to them quickly. Welcome back NHL, I missed you.

Secret Identity

When I first started this blog - and no one in the real world knew that I had it - I could cut loose with any old detail about my personal and professional life and it wouldn't matter: nobody knew me and nobody cared - it was a nice safe little public place to vent and scream and do whatever I felt like.

But then I had to go and ruin it because I wanted people to read it. And then they started to ask me about things I was writing. And then I got stage fright because people in the real world that I knew and that knew me in a certain context started to know about the other things I was thinking about.

So what has this got to do with anything?

I have news.

Big news (to me at least. It won't effect YOUR lives any...)

And I can't say a damn thing about it here because there are secret listeners (And to you secret listeners: no, Rue's not pregnant! Shut up about that...)

When I can say something about it I will, but I'm just steaming to let it out!

Sleep is becoming elusive due to the excitement.

Reunited. Does it feel so good?

Today is the 15th anniversary of the reunification of East and West Germany.

It's a little disconcerting that my generation was the last one that had any particular fear of total nuclear annihilation from a confrontation of superpowers. The scruffy teenagers that go to the trendy protests have no memories of what it was like with a wall through the heart of Germany and "us" on this side and "them" on their side with a lot of razor wire, attack dogs and machine guns to keep their own people from fleeing the oppression of the Iron Curtain.

I have relatives who lived on both sides of the wall. It's sad that some of them are almost nostalgic for the "good ol' days" of Communist East Germany...

Surprised? I'm not

Svend's coming back



...and then supposedly lost his head and stole an engagement ring for his partner, turning himself in before the police arrested him ($64,000 rings usually have video security on them.)



Hmmm. Hopefully the propensity for thieving isn't.

And what of the supposed "mental health disorder" that was the rallying point that everyone who wanted to support "poor Svend" used as an excuse for THEFT. Some disorder if he could just go away for a couple of months and then return - ALL BETTER NOW - would I be a bad person if I questioned this? Would I be taking it out on the mentally ill if I pointed out that he will be under even more pressure upon his return? Pressure that might make someone without this "mental disorder" crack just as readily.

Why would he subject himself to this again?

Am I just a cynic in thinking that this is just the latest step in a plan that was hatched the second he realized that he couldn't get away with stealing something so conspicuous in April 2004? Will this plan work?

Sometimes you can count on the gullibility of others. Especially voters.

I wonder if Sheila's next on the comeback trail?

RE XVIII

The Red Ensign Standard has been raised over at Kate's.



More good bloggy stuff, even some pitiful entries from this site which somehow made the cut.

Scipio

Scipio You scored 66 Wisdom, 78 Tactics, 50 Guts, and 49 Ruthlessness!

You're most simillar to Scipio in the fact that you're smart and ruthless. Scipio beat Hannibal by luring him back from Western Europe (where he was crushing legion after legion of Roman soldiers trying to gain support from local tribes) by laying seige to his home country of Carthage. Hannibal returned to defend his home and was defeated at the Battle of Zama. Ruthless, but it worked. Scipio was the conqueror of Hannibal in the Punic Wars. He was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio, and from a very early age he considered himself to have divine inspiration. He was with his father at the Ticino (218), and he survived Cannae (216). The young Scipio was elected (c.211) to the proconsulship in Spain. He conquered New Carthage (Cartagena) almost at once (209) and used the city as his own base; within several years he had conquered Spain. As consul in 205, Scipio wanted to invade Africa, but his jealous enemies in the senate granted him permission to go only as far as Sicily and gave him no army. He trained a volunteer army in Sicily. In 204 he received permission to go to Africa, where he joined his allies the Numidians and fought with success against the Carthaginians. In 202, Hannibal crossed to Africa and tried to make peace, but Scipio's demands were so extreme that war resulted; Scipio defeated Hannibal at Zama (202), returned home in triumph, and retired from public life. He was named Africanus after the country he conquered. His pride aggravated the hatred of his enemies, especially Cato the Elder , who accused the Scipio family of receiving bribes in the campaign against Antiochus III in which Scipio had accompanied (190) his brother. It was only through the influence of his son-in-law, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, that Scipio was saved from ruin. He retired into the country and ordered that his body might not be buried in his ungrateful city. Later he revealed his great magnanimity by his attempt to prevent the ruin of the exiled Hannibal by Rome.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 55% on Wisdom You scored higher than 74% on Tactics You scored higher than 29% on Guts You scored higher than 48% on Ruthlessness

Link: The Which Historic General Are You Test written by dasnyds on OkCupid Free Online Dating

A much better quiz than I thought it would be, and yeah, it's spamming for links to its online dating site but so what...

And I thought that I'd get what Andrew got...

Inflatable Brewskis!

In case you're in an area that's short of pubs, you can pack your own:





Although I would kill the guy that brought the darts...