Nigiri

Raging Kraut's creature-nemesis:

The Dreaded OCTOPUS

'What creature will become your nemesis?' at QuizGalaxy.com

via Ith

Caprica

OK Sci-Fi - I hate you for cancelling Farscape and you don't even know that I live on this plane of mortal existence, because I'm only an insignificant part of your secondary revenue stream from foreign sales of shows to the Space network but please for the love of God please fix what you did wrong with the second series finale of Battlestar Galactica before you dilute the writing staff with the spinoff.



Blah blah blah - in fifty years they all get nuked, so who cares?

And no, I'm not going to spoil the Canadian viewers about the season finale of BSG since they're about 5 episodes away (boy did it piss me off though...) If you're that desperate go find it on bittorrent or pop the cash to watch it on iTunes (sucker...)



Kind of sounds like Dynasty in space, doesn't it?

My favourite quote about this comes from a commenter over at slashdot:

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Maybe I'm being too hasty here - if the rumours are true that NBC wanted to grab Galactica and put it on regular greasy, slimy, vacuous network TV - then this might be a brilliant move! Offer them the spinoff as sacrificial victim so that Galactica remains pure and on a science-fiction network where it will be appreciated and nurtured properly. Caprica can have all the bed-hopping, evil twin, amnesia-laced story lines...in space...that the chattering masses appreciate without infecting the mother show...

Week Two

It's the middle of week 2 of the Double Income, Kids in Daycare regime and it looks like we survived the mutant flu-plague the girls brought home with them late last week.

The transition has gone relatively smoothly with some minor bumps in the road.

I think our dog is relieved that all the sick people have left her alone to bask in the sun on the couch...I almost purchased a remote webcam just to see what kind of trouble she gets up to while we're away.

Rue and I have an appointment at 11:30am with a family doctor who is accepting new patients - it just took us two years since we moved to Kelowna to find one. Did I mention that Rue and I work for the same employer? That we're both part of the big happy family that is the BC Public Sector?

That everything that I've ever thought about the public sector is mind-numbingly true? Both good and bad...

Daycare

It's such a blessing to be living in a country where the most important issue of the day - the one that has been manufactured to have SO MUCH critical importance to our lives - is state-sponsored daycare.

Not nuclear proliferation...

Not Israel-Palestine...

Not trade wars with the US...

But DAYCARE!

Mad Cows? Oil? Bah! Trivial stuff. The real fight is over who gets to care for your one or two-year old. (Don't fool yourself - Many have no problems with the preschoolers -3-5yrs- going to a good quality daycare/preschool. Most of the talk bandied about by "experts" refer to the "socialization" of one and two year olds, or the economic prison imposed upon women "forced" to stay home and care for the offspring they hatched. Last time I checked, parenthood was something people engaged in voluntarily. You don't want the responsibility - don't have children...The proposed programs of national daycare seems to be about indoctrinating our young and "saving" them from the clutches of all parents whom the previous government deemed incompetent to raise their own children.)

Full disclosure time: My wife has just returned to work and my daughters, aged almost three and four and a half entered a private-company daycare two weeks ago...So for us this is a top-of-mind issue, as the double-income wouldn't flow until we found spots for the little ones. Time on the waiting list: one month. So there were spaces available. Cost to have them in full time: $530/month/child or $1060/month.

I also have to disclose that my parents ran a private "Family Day Care" out of our own home from the time I was twelve to the time my mother fell ill and died from cancer almost ten years later. "Family Day Care" was a form of business that I believe is still allowed in which a private person can care for a preset number of children in their own home as a business subject to regulation (in the case of my parents' business it was the local Family Day Care Society, whose minions would drop by for a chat/inspection every month or two) so I've seen it from both sides. It is a form that seems to have fallen out of favour because of the regulations involved in keeping a normal house safe for lots of kids with varying degrees of discipline and stupidity (yes, my biased observation - you weren't there... some kids are just DUMB!) It's a job trying to childproof a home for your own kid - try seven or eight of the snot-nosed little hell-spawn (yeah, they got into my room and found stuff they shouldn't have and that I had to explain to Mom and Dad...)

But I digress.

This issue has been kicking around for 36 years (see CBC News INDEPTH: Day care in Canada). Every government promises it in an election - every government has broken its promise after they've gotten elected and people have moved on. I didn't see Conservatives fighting the 2004 election on daycare. I didn't see any Liberals wagging their fingers at their candidates shouting "You didn't deliver on daycare! You betrayed us!" when election after election came and went.

It's after the election. Why are politicians still talking about this? With the thought of going to the polls at any time now (potentially) the issue hasn't been allowed to die its normal post-election death with phoenix-like resurrection 5 years later - just prior to the NEXT election, when the same group of engaged parents from the previous election are no longer concerned: their kids are in school now so why should they give a damn about somebody else's children? - But with this minority government situation part 2, maybe a sitting government might actually have to do something, as opposed to the nothing of every previous government.

As a ruthlessly self-interested parent - sometimes you have to be - as a good first step I'd like to have something right now rather than this nebulous "perfect system" that's been talked about for 36 years and never delivered upon. The journey of a thousand steps starts with just one.

I'll take my $1,200 x 2 kids please. That's a 19% reduction in my costs versus a whole lotta nothing up to this point. Like I said: it's a start.

And I promise not to spend it on beer and popcorn.

Red Ensign Standard #40

Chris Taylor's got it this time and does a bang-up job.

Red Ensign 40

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Yes I'm still alive. I must write more to get more than the "Honourable Mention" entries that I've received in the last two Standards...

Back to Work Flintstone!

How do I know that my soon to be employed dear wife has been in my office?

Little subtle motiviational hints like the image below, facing me on my whiteboard...

Red Ensign #39

Dust My Broom is hosting the latest Red Ensign Standard