Doing to them what they do to us

When I was a wee lad of 17 attending my first year of University, I had a first year calculus class with a curmudgeonly old professor who looked like Albert Einstein's fatter brother. His classes were standing room only. Seriously, there were 200-300 students jammed into a lecture hall that should have only held about 150.

At the time Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister, and of course everyone was gossiping that this math prof who looked every inch the mathematical genius (wild hair, strange glasses, stranger clothes, and a weird yet effective teaching manner of having running dialogues with himself in which he'd refer to himself in the third person as "wise old fat man") was the ex of a certain Justice Minister at the time.

One of the braver (and prettier) students in the first row decided to ask him at the start of class.

He stared at her for a moment and said:

"All I'll say, is that I'm one of the few people in this country that did to one of them what each and every one of them do to us every day!"

Some of the slower students didn't get it until the thunderous applause started to die down.

-----

I wonder what reminded me of that this week.

ACE

I should've stated it sooner, but one of my best friends will be posting some entries here on the 'Kraut, under the name Ace.

I went to UBC with Ace. He stood up for me at my wedding in New Orleans to Rue I stood up for him at his wedding in Vancouver.

I sometimes call him Ace-hole.

His opinions can be quite different than mine, which is why I invited him here - who would want to debate someone who thinks exactly the way they do?

A blog dies if there's no new content: hopefully a couple of sparring matches will liven the place up a bit.

I've explained the rules, so there's no reason to take it easy on him.

Oh, and he's a career civil servant, too - so cock those guns and give him both barrels if he tries to slip one past ya...

Thinking of New Orleans

This building is in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada.



Everytime I pass it I can't help but think of the much grander buildings in the French Quarter of New Orleans...



Obviously the residents/owners of this building feel the same way and were compelled to hang out the banner shown.

Random Thoughts about New Orleans

I have been to New Orleans twice. Once in 2000 for a wedding (which coincided with Mardi Gras), and once in 2003 at the start of a 7 day Caribbean Cruise to celebrate both of my parents turning 60.

It is a fantastically fun town, I only wish that I had gone when I was younger & more stupid about drinking so that I could have enjoyed it even more.

There is still two months left in hurricane season, what do you think the odds are that another hurricane hits them?

Per an article of Ron Fournier of the Associated Press. The Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane & flood programs in New Orleans. This was cut to $42.2 million by the White House and Congress. Yet the legislators & White House approved a $286.4 billion highway bill that included 6000 projects such as dust control for an Arkansas highway, a warehouse on the Erie Canal, and a $231 million bridge to an uninhabited island in Alaska. Maybe they could dam the levees with the bridge?

Canadians who go to the Southern States in the winter are called "Snowbirds". What will they call all the Southerners who flock north every summer & fall to avoid the hurricanes?

Are the looters just exercising their second amendment rights?

The next time an evacuation order is given because of an impending hurricane, how many do you think will try to ride it out?

An Amusing Anecdote by Way of Introduction

Hello. The Kraut has graciously allowed me to make the occassional entry on his site, while many will be of a more political nature, the following will let you know a bit about me.

Last Monday my wife & I took our 18 month old daughter to the Pacific National Exhibition here in Vancouver. My mother came over from Victoria to join us for the day.
One of the great pleasures in having my daughter has been learning about my own childhood from my Mom, as "the Munch" hits the same milestones that I passed 34 years ago.
On the way to the Fair, my mother related a story about my first trip to a Fair.
I was just over two years old, and like many two-year old boys I had a fascination with all sorts of cars, trucks & heavy machinery. Mom & Dad had just taken me inside an exhibition hall which had all sorts of trucks and other heavy machinery, so I excitedly started shouting at the top of my voice "Trucks!, Trucks!, Trucks!..." The only problem was that I couldn't pronounce my "tr"s all that well, and they sounded more like "ff"s. Apparently my mother turned beet red, clamped a hand over my mouth and got me out of the hall as quickly as possible, which of course made me inconsolable.
I'm happy to report that the Munch had a great time at the Fair, seeing all the animals, going on some of the rides, and scarfing down mini donuts, without giving her parents any amusing stories to tell in the future.

Scenes from Penticton BC during Ironman

Well not pictures or a breakdown on the participants or anything like that...just my experiences with the uber-fit touristas that have decended upon Penticton like latte-sipping locusts and have invaded my peaceful little town of employment during this time of uber-fitness.

Yes, I'm a local now. And now I have to deal with vacuous empty-headed sun-worshippers with low-riding shorts and even lower IQ's that wander into my favourite café when I'm jonesing for caffeine, step up to the counter in front of me and ask in the stupidest voice this side of Paris Hilton: "Um, like, what's the best item here?"

Flash forward five minutes of banal sales pitch from the worried looking cashier (the line is growing as Miss Brain Trust and her pseudo-rapper wannabe boyfriend ponder the fact that there is no "best item" - I mean how do you compare pizza vs panini and determine what is "best"?) and the evil Starbucks' Venti from across the street is starting to look like a much better choice...

Finally the glamour twins settle on a boring order of two souvlakis and get the hell out of my way. Total time to order coffee: eight minutes.

Owner behind the counter asks me what I want.

Large Americano, I say.

No charge, he says.

That's Customer Service, I say.

Just taking care of the regulars, he says. Ironman nonsense only lasts a week...Then life goes back to normal. Don't want you going across the street to the Evil Empire. The beans are better over here.

Superior product and superior service will keep me coming back, I say.

There's a lesson in there somewhere, but the caffeine flowing into me pushes it from my mind...

The Green Fairy

Wasn't this stuff illegal?



And yet here it is in all its greenish glory on the shelves of the BC Liquor Store



I suddenly feel like watching Nicole in Moulin Rouge! again...

With our own money

Canadian?

Bought an iPod in Canada last year (2004)?

Then you can get a refund from Apple Canada, considering that our beloved imperial Canadian government during all of 2004 was assuming that you tech-savvy, mp3 rippin', iPod-totin' bastards were stealing from poor tortured music artistes by the very act of having a mp3 player (Shame on you!) and did the only REASONABLE thing: TAX TAX TAX!

As has been noted in other articles around the web, Apple Canada sincerely hopes that giving you your own money back will make you conveniently forget that Apple raised iPod prices to make sure that consumers -- not Apple Canada -- bore the brunt of this "you're all guilty bastards" tax.

And why wouldn't it work? It works for government all the time...


via the Unofficial Apple Weblog

Cannibal Daddy

Many many years from now, my daughters' psychotherapists will uncover repressed memories of their Daddy re-enacting scenes from Dawn of the Dead (not the 2004 version) with themselves playing the part of tasty humans...

Don't look at me like that.

They're having fun, really...

I can't really be doing that much harm...

I mean, my youngest (age 2 and 2 months) started bawling when she thought I was going to pass her by and not bite her. Suitable monster moaning, baring of my teeth, an ineffectual shuffling zombie lunge toward her and she was laughing louder than she does when she watches The Wiggles (I actually think that some of those guys are zombies, but I digress)

It's not like I'm really biting them and infecting them with zombification...





Well it is more fun writing about this than the sorry state of politics at this time...

Alive!

The blog is alive after an upgrade to Expression Engine 1.3.1 that took some detours into sql database purgatory - everything is back where I left it, and looking like it should.

Whew! That's a relief.