Christmas: Count Your Blessings

 

I spent this Christmas with my parents - something that from time to time has seemed unlikely based on their various health challenges. We had Christmas dinner the evening of the 24th and invited my close friend Dan over for dinner as I hate to see friends spend a holiday by themselves.

I did a fair bit of the preparation and cooking. We had a 15-pound hormone free, free range, organic turkey that had never been frozen (although he was missing a wing - late purchase gets 'scratch and dent' bird I guess). I roasted it between 350 and 325, most of the duration with the lid on the broiling pan, with some added pilsner (two bottles) as lubricant and moisture source. The turkey turned out quite tasty.

With the turkey, we had my mom's signature stuffing: Bread 'chunks', some yellow onions, apple, raisins, a cup of melted butter, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, and poultry spice. At one point, I poured a bit of the turkey juice (beer) onto the mixture to keep it moister so it didn't get really crunchy while being baked at 275.

There was a salad - ontario greenhouse tomatos with some tomato balsamic dressing and some grated parmesan for Dad, tomato chunks with spring greens, tomato balsamic dressing and grated parmesan for the rest of us. Dad's new top plate isn't good for chewing field greens and won't be until he gets the bottom one.

And then there were sweet potatos mashed with some maple syrup, yellow potatos boiled then mashed with some butter and grated parmesan cheese, a steamed broccoli, some white buns warmed in the oven, and a lovely white wine.

The turkey was accompanied by a new discovery - a cranberry sauce made locally with whole cranberries, honey, and a bunch of spices to give it a little 'zing'! Very good stuff, I must say!

Dessert consisted of a sherry triffle with fruit, custard, raspberry jello, and some sherry, a layered dish, with whipped cream on top.

I made some raspberry ice cream for my mother in the Cuisinart ice-cream maker my friends Doug and Cathy got me for my birthday. It turned out well, but the freezer at home turned it rock hard so we settled for the whipped creme.

This was the first time I'd made a turkey. It was the first time I'd made the stuffing. It was the first time I'd made (or even peeled) sweet potatos. And it all came off rather without a hitch.

Dan was excellent company and seemed to enjoy himself, departing at around 9 pm as I was falling into a stupor of 'winter storm/sinus headache' misery that persisted for about 12 hours. Still, it held off starting until after dinner and the dinner was a special occasion for all of us, I hope.

On the 25th, I added some steamed asparagus to the leftovers to make another good feed, and then spent an hour or so carving up turkey to create materials for turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pies, and turkey soup. Another first for me was boiling the carcass and then straining off the liquid to make a turkey soup stock - we got about 7 quarts off of the big bird. I am looking forward to using that cooking, both to make some turkey vegetable soup and to use in place of chicken stock when roasting pork in the slow cooker.

I'm glad the food worked out. I learned a few useful things and convinced my mom she had bought too large of a broiling pan for me - which she hadn't believed - when it turned out to fit in neither her oven nor mine.

The important part was spending some time with my folks and with Dan. Life is about the connections we make with other humans and the way those connections help affix meaning to our few score passages around the sun....

Merry Christmas, I say to one and all. It is the season to find things to be thankful for and be happy about. The New Year can keep its concerns until we get there!

 
 

Fridges: Taken For Granted

 

Well, last night my fridge died, late. I thought I had overpacked the freezer so I moved a couple of things into the fridge as stuff didn't seem to be chilling right.

This morning, it was all thawed. I had a big water mess to clean up and the fridge was dead. I took the fridge and freezer contents, loaded them into shopping bags, and chucked them on the balcony (already thawed out though).

Then I called the super. Well, shortly, a new fridge appeared. I'll shortly get into the rant, but let me give you the gist: Newer ain't necessarily better.

So, my old fridge, I had to look up to see what was on top. This one, that's at about eye level. That means it lost a couple of inches in height and this means less interior space.

The freezer is bigger (sort of good) but this is a newer fridge hence more insulated hence more energy efficient but at the cost of interior space (bad).

I think the newer fridge is slightly narrower, hence less internal space (bad).

And then we get inside. Formerly, I had 3 full width door shelves. They were full of condiments, dressings, and so on and a wine bottle on the door as well. There was a butter storage thing, but it housed a block of butter and some honey (separately). But that was a third or less of the top shelf!

Now, the new one has a third of the entire vertical space devoted to pop can storage shortening all 3 shelves. There wasn't room in the old fridge for pop cans AND what in heck do you do if you are a healthy eater? That space is *wasted*. I tried to put in condiment jars, but most are taller than the pop cans and bind on the shelves preventing the door from closing! So I lose a third of the door space right off.

Then we have the 2/3rd width middle shelf as one big (and mostly useless) dairy holder. Geez, Louise. I didn't even use the old one for its intended purpose!

Then we have the top shelf that won't accomodate any jar or bottle higher than about 2.5"! A tobasco bottle (small) will jam the door from closing! So that shelf is nearly useless for most condiments or jam containers or the like.

No middle shelf (dairy container), a third of the space missing for pop cans (on all shelves), a useless upper shelf (for anything of any height), and a smaller overall width: NOT ENOUGH SPACE!

So where do all of these condiments end up? Tightly packed into the first and second shelves of the fridge (and not leaving room for much else!). Good luck trying to find anything now. And digging for condiments will be really 'energy efficient' as heat leaks out the open door and must be replaced.

This is how all of the new fridges appear to be designed and it's crazy. It assumes everyone drinks pop or other canned stuff and wants to allocate the space for that. That alone was a bad design decision. Then having a useless upper shelf and a less than useful oversize dairy container in the second shelf compound that.

And the third shelf: On the old fridge, I'd store a staggered double-column of condiment containers. The new third shelf is only 2/3rd as wide but in theory is as deep (if you look at the placement of the front bar that holds things in), BUT the scultped part of the door that sticks out underneath IS NOT. So I can put in two or three really wide things, but not the staggered double column. MORE wasted space.

So, suddenly, I have a poorly organized smaller space.

I also have a a pile of food that has thawed and needs cooked more or less now. And then I have to figure out where to store this food. I'm not sure how I'll do that right now.

So, love your fridge if you have a good one. A full sized one. Full sized fridges have gotten better over the years (bottom freezers, in some cases top compressors, well laid out doors and shelves) and the small apartment fridge has, IMO, become a piece of poorly designed junk. (And the warranties on these are very short too)

I may have to get a separate mini fridge just for the condiments, jams, sauces, etc. to clear them out of this poorly arranged new fridge. THAT's energy efficient! I'm glad this fridge uses a couple of less kW per year, given it means I'll be runnign a SECOND one.

Now that's Green!

Anyway, back to cooking. And trying hard not to grind my teeth.

Because I always like to leave posts here on a good note:

Muskoka Hefe Wiessbier - made with hops, malt, water, and some Bavarian strain of yeast by the Muskoka craft brewery in Bracebridge, Ontario - get some! It's a great taste with fruity hints and a wonderful flavour. I poached some sausages in the half-glass I didn't drink and they were marvelous.

Cheer up, Tis The Season!

 
 

Cat Braves Siberian Woods To Get Home

 

The Cat Came Back

I understand the cat being nervous after having a run in with a wild creature enough to leave teeth marks on his tail. Our last orange tabby, Sandy, had a bad run in with something that tried to eat him one night (deep punctures from teeth on the back, wounds on the belly, injured claw, etc... he'd clearly been on his back and raking with all 4 claws....). We never let him out after dark after that - he didn't deserve to get eaten by a Grue or whatever sort of nasty was lurking out there.

 
 

Get Well, Stephanie!

 

A friend's 18(? I always lose track ?) year old daughter is down with H1N1 and has ended up in Queensway Carleton hospital. They're trying to drain some of the fluid out of her lungs.

She's a good kid and I'm saying an extra prayer (can't hurt, can it?). Anyone else who keeps others in their thoughts or commends them to a higher power, please add Stephanie to your list. Seems like the young lady could use a little luck right now.
 
 

Challenge: Remembering Little Achievements in Design and Engineering

 

There are all sorts of awards out their for big, fancy, world changing developments in design and engineering. Things like the space shuttle, the international space station, the hubble space telescope, the mars rovers, developments in nanomaterials, some of the huge damns and skyscrapers, new methods of generating power, etc. all come to mind as the sorts of inventions or developments that will end up vying for such prizes.

Today, I was struck by the fact that many design enhancements or developments in our world are smaller, more banal or pedestrian, and yet for all that, incredibly useful. I think many of these are under-rated. So I thought I would throw out a small challenge to my reader(s):

Try to think of one or two small design enhancements or small inventions that you've seen over the past 15 or so years and post a line or two about them here. The idea is to identify the sort of thing that is a small invention, device, or feature enhancement and therefore that wouldn't probably make any sort of lists of bigger, more spectacular achievements, but yet one that has the sort of utility that makes you say 'hey, that was a good idea!' and the kind of ubiquity that should mean the other reader(s) would know what it was (or would understand why it was good even if they didn't).

So, bonus points (I'm keeping score) for the best replies!

I'll start with my own first candidate:

The screw-top orange juice carton

Now, this little baby was, if you think about it, a neat development. Maintains the same form factor generally (means package needs to change very little overall and larger scale shipping containers require no changes) as older cartons and keeps orange juice fresher for longer, makes for more convenient pouring, means you don't have to wrestle with reticent cardboard spouts (that can tear while opening and then where does that leave you?), and generally seems so obvious that you say 'wow, why didn't they think of that beforehand?'.

Of course, if it was so obvious, why did none of us think of it?

I hope the packaging designer who came up with this got a raise or a share of the patent revenues. He probably didn't, but it has now become fairly ubiquitous and it is a highly functional design.

So, what else have you got?

 
 

The New Wheels

 

I have a cadre of friends who think any vehicle needs a name. I'm not so sure about that myself, but I'd hate to be different from the norm (Lord knows, that rarely occurs).

Names suggested to date are Haggis and Kato. I kind of like Kato because that would portray me in a sort of Peter Sellers fashion. While not exactly a flattering comparison, I do find the good Inspector to be a man of principle, of conviction, and of unwitting humour that amuses many. There could be far more ignoble people to be compared to.

So far my only thought to add to the list is Darth. That would apply more with the (not included in this image) black winter rims.



I'll take suggestions, if you can think of a funnier or more fitting appellation for the new transportation.

For those who are interested, it's a 2010 Ford Escape XLT AWD with a 3.0 litre V6, 6 speed automatic transmission with overdrive, heated leather seats, a tow package, and a power moonroof. It comes with SIRIUS satellite radio (quite awesome), traction control, ABS, stability control, probably some form of hill descent control, and so on. It has some pretty amazing gas mileage (8-9 L/100 km in hybrid of city and highway driving so far, which is well over 30 MPG(Cdn)).

 
 

Concious Thought vs. Unconcious Thought: Sleep On It!

We may out-think ourselves if we try to use concious thought in matters we have expertise in along with greater amounts of pondering, rather than going with the first answer we come up with.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20091027/sc_livescience/whysleepingonithelps

They do raise some caveats about the research later in the article. One caveat I don't think they mention that I would raise is that some sorts of complex tasks require not just a single decision, but a series of them to reach a solution or endpoint. I'm not convinced that these sorts of complex problems (such as in engineering or medicine) would not defy this simplistic analysis. But for a lot of less involved matters, just letting the idea percolate underneath the concious level might be advantageous.

I know I myself have had a number of epiphanies about work at times not related to work and likely for this sort of reason. Take a problem home, get something to eat, watch some TV, and when you wake up (or just before you finally fall asleep), an answer you missed in the heat of the days activities makes itself readily apparent.

Belated Anniversary Celebration

My cousin Alan from Missouri (well, Scotland, but living in Missouri), me old Mum and me old Dad, and a couple of family friends (a lovely Irish couple who are my second family and very dear to me) joined me for a belated celebration of my parent's 41st anniversary.

It was an imperfect meal - I ran out of time to create the rosemary potatos and the waldorf salad with pear. But what was left went down well. The menu was:

• Phylo pastry filled with goat cheese and cranberries (tasty!).
• Phylo mini-quiches with smoked Gouda and ham (ditto).
• Round of drinks: Waterloo Dark, the Gerwurtztraminer wine, a Waterloo Dark, a Steam Whistle, a Rye and Ginger Ale, a Laphroig Quarter-Cask (cut with a small bit of Evian) and me drinking a Ginger Ale.
  
• A spinach salad (spinach and field greens, some orange bell pepper, some radish and alfalfa sprouts, tomato, some poppy seed, and a dressing of the users choice - creamy dijon, raspberry vinagrette, or zesty italian (made a separate salad with iceberg lettuce instead for Dad as he's no fan of spinach).
• Wine with Dinner: Pinot Noir and the Gerwurtztraminer.
• Main course was Beef - two outer eye of round roasts (no bones, trimmed of fat, each about 2-2.5 pounds) done in beef stock and Guinness, with Worcestershire, Browing Fluid, a hint of Tobasco, Montreal Steak Spice, powdered Garlic (lazy!), a touch of Cumin, fresh ground pepper, a touch of sea salt, and with half of a purple onion for the roasts to rest on in crock pot. Also made a lovely gravy from the juice.
  
• Long grain wild rice (microwave sort... but it was pretty good).
• Steamed carrots and broccoli.
  
• Irish Soda Bread and Becel (thanks Toni!)
• Pre-Dessert Course Drinks: More Laphroid and a nip of Evian, some Irish Breakfast Tea, more wine.
• Some date squares to hold the diners over until dessert was ready (from the Antrim Truck Stop bakery - good!)
  
• Dessert, about fifteen minutes later: Black forest cake (with candles notionally arranged to look like the number 41, although allegations of them looking like a 9 were made by certain cheeky cousins) and home-made Coconut Ice Cream (500 ml 18% table cream, 1.5 cups unsweetened coconut, one can (400mL) coconut milk, 250 ml of 3.25% homo milk, 3/4 cup of sugar (and 35-40 minutes in the new Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker).
  

It was generally agreed the home made ice cream was a success and that coconut was another worthy flavour (the first batch was vanilla with raspberries).

The clean up will take probably 3-4 dishwasher loads in my dinky little apartment dishwasher and there will be leftovers to recycle into new salads and other meals, but the result was overall a smashing success. Setting the Crock Pot probe cook mode to 140F was a good choice - it left the roast a bit pinkish with a wee bit of blood inside (I think it got a bit overcooked last time).

Over all, a good night. My cousin met my second family and vice versa. I got to hang out with some good people and the work was worth it since everyone seemed replete when they tottered out.

And then I took the weight off of my feet and killed some Zombies on Left 4 Dead for a couple of hours and had a beer myself. A good day.

Everyday Hero

 

Man joins the US Army to pay for his wife's cancer treatments.

http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=He%27s+in+the+Army+now+-+JSOnline&expire=&urlID=412930745&fb=Y&url=http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/64677772.html&partnerID=380639


Sometimes you read something that shows you how good you have it and how much tougher the situation of someone else can be.

We don't know how this story ends. It is clear to me that this is a story about the human ability to endure and to pursue Hope instead of giving in to despair.

We need more of that sort of courage in the world.

 
 

Seven Dogs of Awesome

 

When I read the headline that was about seven dogs that have accomplished more than you have, I thought it was a bit unlikely. Now, having read the accounts, it seems a bit of an understatement. These are truly amazing animals.
 
 

My Amazon Wish List (maybe yours as well!)

 

From time to time, for various reasons, people want to buy stuff for their friends. I have found over the years that gifts from friends (and family) fall into one of three categories (and I take a guess at the distribution %):

1) Appreciated (for the gesture) but not a lot of use (one of those ones that, if you were honest, you'd regift but you don't want the giver to find out) (Hey, I'm just being honest here... we all get gifts like that... I'm sure I've *given* gifts that were looked at like that....)

Percentage: 35% (higher from family or acquaintances, lower from friends you share hobby activities with)

2) Appreciated and something you actually wanted (these tend to be useful because they both show your friends or family are thinking of you and fill a need or want)

Percentage: 55% (higher from friends, lower from family or acquaintances)

3) The odd time, one will come in that you wouldn't have said you wanted, but turns out to be something really neat that you actually do find fantastic.

Percentage: 10% (or less - this turns out to be hard to do)

Now, I ran across this many years back when I wanted to buy an e-friend across the pond a gift but had no idea what/how. He showed me that Amazon UK had a wish list and he had a bunch of stuff up there for these sorts of occasions, in all price ranges. He liked books, so it worked out well. It let me do something nice for him and get him something he wanted. It seemed somehow marginally less crass than just sending him twenty Pounds...

Well, I recently realized I've got a pile of things sitting in my shopping cart at amazon. I also realized that sometimes friends want to get you (or me) something and are struggling to think of what. Both the giver and the reciever would likely be happier if the present was desirable to the recipient. So, these wish-lists seem to fill that niche.

It would be nice if there was one place where you could reasonably store all your wish lists from all sources (ie woodworking tools, history books, sci fi and fantasy books, wargames, RPGs, kitchen tools, recipe books, computer books, computer games, martial arts books, model building and painting tools, etc). Realistically, that isn't going to happen.

But Amazon has this wishlist thing. And so I moved a bunch of stuff sitting in my shopping cart unbought out into a wish list.

You can see Thomas Barclay's entire Wish List at:
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/registry/122MQDBNI8CHD

I'm hoping that some of you might also have wishlists from Amazon or other places and will place them in the comments. Then I too can find shopping for a gift for my friends easier.

It's never about the size or even nature of a gift - the gesture is what really shows the affection and/or respect. That's what really matters. But given that, it is still nice to have your friend absolutely love your gift.

So, tell me about your wish lists too! (at Amazon, some other website, or just in text from the comments)

 
 

R.I.P. Don King: 1933 - 2009

 

My friend Susie's father passed away from Leukemia recently. From first diagnosis, it was less than a month, most of it spent in the hospital.

I attended Mr. King's funeral on Friday. Susie gave a moving eulogy and did a very good job of it considering how difficult a time it must be; Susie is a woman of surprising strengths.

Don King led a full and complete life. Lovely daughters, a long marriage, lovely grandchildren, service to his community and country (former RCMP officer, former business owner, former mayor of Picton), service to various charitable groups (the Royal Canadian Legion, the Kinsmen, more Masonic chapters than you can imagine including the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, the Blue Lodge, Preceptories (several), the Royal Arch, the Shrine, and the Knights Templar), and generally being a man well-known throughout Picton and Prince Edward County for integrity and compassion, as well as for a quirky sense of humour.

Don was among the foremost Masons in the world - having held a list of offices as long as your arm and having been included in elite groups of as few as 40, then 8, then 2 as his service continued. His contributions to Masonry have led the Masons to enshrine records of his efforts in their archives and to create an official memorial for his work. Safe journey Eastward, Brother.

Don was the sort of man you didn't ignore - he had very high standards and was fairly stern with his kids. But he had a sense of humour about life and passed on many great lessons. I learned a lot about Don from the people who gave his eulogies but I learned more about Don from having known Susie for many years.

For Susie, her sisters, her mother, and the rest of the extended King family - my condolences and heartfelt sympathies extend. For Don, I hope that he was right about what he believed in, for he did believe and he lived his beliefs. God rest his soul.

The world is a poorer place for his passing, but a greater place for his living.

Don's Death Notice

 
 

 

Students send a camera to 18 miles up, to the blackness of space, for $148.

NASA, you should hire these guys.

Story Link
 
 

The Happiness of Working with Wood

 

I have just returned from 5 days of woodworking in Almonte and Rosewood Studios taking Excellence With Hand Tools.

In this course, I learned how to use a variety of hand planes, scrapers, chisels, spokeshaves, draw knives, etc. to prepare wood from rough sawn lumber to a smoothed state (without sanding, I might add). I also learned how to tune-up and sharpen hand planes, scraper blades, and chisels (at least as critical as knowing how to use them). And I learned how to make hand-cut dovetails for boxes and drawers. There were a number of ancillary issues like understanding wood's behaviours with moisture variances here in North America and some brief examples of how to design with this in mind.

This is the first course of a 6-week or 12-week Furniture Making course. There are then up to six months of further coursework you can undertake as well as individual guest workshops on various specific aspects such as boxmaking and so on.

Fine Woodworking is a craft. It's not something you become truly competent at until you have at least five years of practice - you need the experience with the wood, with how to avoid and resolve problems, with how to understand the way to get the best look out of your wood (including how to rough saw the wood in the best ways), in furniture design, in the use of various production machines like steam benders, veneer thickness planers, etc. So before anyone asks, no, I'm hardly qualified to turn out Masterwork Furniture.

On the other hand, I've started to rehabilitate a lot of old woodworking tools from around my Dad's shop (some were Granfather's). Old planes (transitional wood/metal planes, a hybrid rabbit/shoulder plane, several smoothing planes), old chisels, a spokeshave, a draw knife, and so on. I've purchased some additional high-quality woodworking tools. I'm going to start working towards having a good workbench at the family homestead. Then *maybe* I can start producing small projects.

I would like to take the remaining courses, but probably won't be able to this year. The course is continuing today and I'm not there and can't afford to be (should have looked into government sponsored retraining options sooner, but the idea didn't occur to me until late last week).

Whatever else I do know, spending a day working with wood gives me the feeling of having achieved something, having worked on building something that will be of some use to someone and that will hopefully improve the world by its existence. The last three or so years of being on software projects that were cancelled or never deployed has really quashed that feeling for me at work.

I need to recapture that sense - I think I went into engineering in the beginning to understand the world a bit better and to design and construct things to make the world a better place.

For a long time, when I was working on computer systems for the RCMP and later the military, I had that. Even working on some telecom projects and on point-of-sale systems for Canada Post, I had that. But many of the other projects left me wondering why I'd committed so much of my time and effort and feeling rather hollow at the end.

Well, working with wood looks like it is full of challenges, but at least if you apply yourself, you can produce something tangible and concrete. Eventually, I should be able to produce things that are useful and beautiful as well.

I've taken most of this year off of work. I've reconnected with old friends too oft ignored. I've spent some time (a diminishing resource) with my folks while they're still here and somewhat capable. I've started to learn how to work with wood to produce quality products. I've learned how to make home-made jam (the art of canning) and I've started to write a bit.

Still up on the year's list: A visit from my cousin in Missouri, spending more time with Dad learning how to Weld and Braze, working on consolidating the skills I learned at Rosewood, learning to sew by hand and with a machine, maybe learning how to kill and process chickens for food (from a friend who does this) and attempting to become competent at pastry work. Somewhere I have starting on the road back to better physical shape as well.

I suppose it is small wonder I've felt busy enough without work in my life. Truth to tell, I needed the recharge. I will have to start seeking 'paying work' again soon, but my life feels much more balanced than it did at the start of the year.

So maybe the year I turned 40 wasn't such a bad year!

 
 

41 Years of Marriage

 

Here's me raising a glass of awe to my parents.

Monday the 31st of August, 2009, was the forty-first anniversary of their marriage. 41 years, not all of which have been trouble free. Some were hard years, some were very hard years. But they've weathered thick and thin and stuck by one another. And here we are, 41 years and counting.

Looking at my own slow pace (if stopped can be considered a pace) towards a married life, 41 years from tomorrow would still see me 80 years old. I don't imagine I'll ever get to see that event.

As I've aged, I've appreciated the people they've been more. I've seen more of their flaws, foibles, and human limitations, but rather than make them less wonderful, that has endowed them with a deep humanity and a depth of character in my eyes. Sure, I don't agree with one or other of them on some subjects, but one way or another, I've been very blessed to have them.

If forty-one years of marriage has produced naught else, I'm one outcome. Whether that's a good one, I'll leave to the reader to decide, but certainly my parents should get credit for most of my positive aspects and no blame should afix to them for my flaws (for they are surely mine own).

I know that I wouldn't be the man I am (whatever that is exactly) without them. Any character, integrity, or honour is a byproduct of the upbringing I received in their house. Any courage, compassion, or curiosity about the world and how it works and how to improve it also can be credited to them.

I've been very lucky. I hope they have a few more decent years left in them as I really enjoy their company (except for some of Dad's rambling stories, but let's be honest - I'm not known for terse either...).

Here's to you, Mister and Missus B. As the old Scots saying goes

Wha's like us?
Damn few, and they're aw Deed!

 
 

Crazy LA Fire Pictures

Go see these. That's some fire.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bigpicturefire,0,5985825.htmlstory

And I guess say a prayer for all the brave men and woman putting their lives on the line (and sometimes losing them) fighting these types of wildfires.


 

The Good Lord Makes The Shoulders For The Burden

 

That's what my mother always tells me when life seems to be piling on the weight. I suspect that's wishful thinking.

I've got a dear friend of many years whose father is now in the hospital with a bad dose of leukemia. Treatment options are limited and harsh and his age and health are complicating factors. There is hope, but the odds are not what one would call good.

Many of my friends are aetheists or agnostics. For those of you that might have faith or that hedge your bets, say and extra prayer for Don. He could use all the help he can get in this fight. I know I will be.
 
 

Pre-Owned Cats: $0 Down, 0% Financing!

 

Brilliant advertisment by a Humane Society in Michigan
 
 

Dreams: A View Into Another World (Part 2)

The Dream Location: Outdoors



Commons

Let us start the description with the large commons, an open field of green grass. LC1 is the designation.

Along the back of it (right of the image) are a line of 15-20' tall trees, leafless, either dead or the season is fall (I suspect it is late in the year, the weather is mild, but not hot as it turns out, maybe a bit damp). Beyond the tangle of leafless branches is another field designated LC3.

I have no idea what would border the commons to the bottom - never saw that view.

To the left, the commons are bordered by a row of dark-coloured block buildings, apartments presumably, set close together. Uninviting, I would say. I would guess the buildings at 1970-1980s from architectural style.

To the top of the image, we have a section of grass on which the vehicles park (the two greenish areas), split only by a single large tree (T1) - well over 30' high, probably an oak or the like, with a trunk at least 24" across, maybe more. Under the big tree, facing leftwards, is a big, old, dark hardwood desk, complete with massive wooden drawers and missing a chair. This appears to factor in during the narrative.

Beyond that section of grass, running in a distorted L across right to left and then down towards the bottom, is sidewalk. Above the sidewalk at the top, is a row of houses of various sorts, a chain link fence, a two-lane suburban road, then a park or other green space which gradually rises to a low ridgeline about where the LC2 label sits.

Houses on the Top of Map

The houses are an interesting mix. I'm guessing at how many there were and I even suspect I'm short a few.

A1 and A2 - Detached homes with what looks like painted board siding with small covered entry porches, reminiscent of something from the early part of the 20th century, two-storey sloped roof, not cottage roof.

B1 - Detached home, blue board or vinyl siding, reminiscent of maybe 1950s or 1960s style architecture, a bit more squarish than the first two. Front door not covered by a porch. Possibly 3 storey with perhaps a flat roof.

C1 - Skelton... floors, parts of walls, weathered wood and exposed pipes. Don't know if it was the victim of fire, abandonment and demolition, or what. Seems oddly out of place in the neighborhood.

D1 and D2 - Multistorey (possibly 5 storey) block of flats. Red brick with concrete under and over windows and that concrete painted a bright pastel green. A bit hard on the eyes, but much more inviting than the blocks of flats on the left side.

I'm sure there was another abandoned building but it may have been out beyond D2 to the right.

General Observations

The neighborhood seemed to be reminiscent of something in the 1970s or 1980s - I don't think I recall a vehicle parked on the common in detail, but there were 6 to 8 of them and at least one was a pickup I'd vintage as the 1970s (mid to late).

The road at the top saw occasional traffic, but it wasn't remarkable, aparently.

So I'm going to temporally peg this at the late 1970s or early 1980s. The whole place had an aura of calm about it. It felt like the area was economically not that rich - working class. No expensive cars. Most cars not new. The kind of place where people would work on their own cars to keep them running because they can't afford a mechanic or a new car.

The Neighbours

I recall meeting in passing a few of the neighbours from the accomodations on the top of the map. I seem to recall one was a single nurse of youngish age, not striking but pretty enough - I think she might have lived in B1. I seem to recall a very nice elderly couple, both white haired and wizened, who may have lived in one of the Ds, but I suspect may also have lived in A1.

The Dream Location: Indoors





Bedroom

The indoor map appears to be that of a house. At one point in the dream, I wake up in the bed in the bedroom, either a low bed with no box spring or else a futton. The floor in the bedroom and down the hall towards the bottom is heavy varnished hardwood, board or tongue-and-groove flooring, very last century (too expensive now!). The flooring show enough imperfections to indicate it has been some time since the house was built.

The bedroom has a small hardwood side table. Daylight shines in from the window at the top and through a screen door from a porch or deck or front step at the top left. The hallway towards the right is dark and I never find out where it leads. The style of the windows is older single or dual pane style with aluminum or steel frames, not the modern triple pane with vinyl.

I walk downwards on the map, through the door at the bottom of the bedroom. This leads into a wide hallway or perhaps dining space that is floored in hardwood.

The walls in the house are all a bright lime yellow colour, lively. No light but natural light appears to be functioning; I cannot say if there are electrical problems or if I just don't turn them on. I don't see any fixtures, so I assume they are either not of note or are missing. I get the impression I may be doing some work on the house.

Dining Hall

Daylight shines in through a side window. Around 1 on the map, I have tools scattered around - an odd mix of hand and power tools, with the power tools all looking like 1970s or earlier. 1 itself is a built-in bench. 2 is a built in storage cabinet. These are both the same bright lime yellow as the walls. Apparently there was a sale on that paint...

The dining hall lacks any furniture, a further suggestion I'm new to the house and working upon it. Either that or I'm very spartan.

Kitchen and Work Area

The region in green is raised one step and is tiled in a white tile with green inclusions.

The topmost section on the left side of this area labelled kitchen is just that. The pink sections are cabinets which are roof mounted over the countertop. There is a sink in front of the window and dayllight streams through the window.

The bottommost section on the left, labelled work area, is similar in appearance, but having a countertop where the other side has a sink. Lights shines through this window as well, as it does from the window across on the rightmost wall.

The cabinets in this area look hand built, not mass-produced, further suggesting the era of this house is older, perhaps in the first half of the 20th century before everything went to mass-produced looks. Sturdy and enduring are words that come to mind. Lived-in is another.

On the small southern wall, at 5, there appears to be a door painted lime yellow which one thinks might lead to a basement, although this is never proven.

The Rest ?

There is a dark corridor down toward the bottom, floored in hardwood, with a number of obliquely glimpsed closed doors. The only light comes through a screen door at the end which one tends to think opens outside.

My guess is the house might be at A2 located on the outdoor map. Maybe.

Dream Narrative

When we join the story, I appear to be working on a vehicle in the commons. Not sure what I was doing. I think it was the truck and the hood was up.

I have flashes of meeting a few of the neighbours - the old couple and the nurse. The day is nice, sunny but a bit cool, and with a breeze. I suspect it is fall. Clothing styles suggest latter half of the 20th century and working class. This again helps pin the dream at the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Somewhere along the line, someone is helping me look for my new house. For some mysterious reason, I've forgotten where the keys are. It seems, at the time, I may not be sure which house I bought. Why I think this is never clear. This is where that big old wooden desk under the tree comes in. It appears to be a storage place where people in the commons keep stuff. I don't appear to have a key, but someone does and we find the paperwork (I think the deed/real-estate papers) and my keys. I am relieved when this occurs.

I don't recall standing in front of the house or walking into it, which is why it is a guess to put it at A2 on the map. I'm basing that on interior appointments (and their age) and from the different degrees of light admitted in from outside.

The next snippet has me awaking in the bedroom, looking about, getting up, going into the dining hall room, looking over the collection of tools on the bench (obviously some work in progress), looking up into the kitchen and work area, down the hall into the dark corridor to the screen door (side door?).

And then the narrative ends... a feeling comes over me like I've just realized this isn't right, that I'm seeing into someone else's life or into a life that isn't mine, and some part of my brain has just realized that this is not my actual life and is alarmed.

You'd almost say that the vivid reality of the whole thing lulled my brain for a time, and then it woke up and shouted 'Alarum! Something Rotten In Denmark!' and thus, with a start, I awake, at 4 am.

And So What?

I doubt I've captured the level of detail in any way sufficient to do it justice. The drawers moved like hand-made wooden drawers move. The light was very natural. The whole place felt like someplace in the latitudes of Pennsylvannia or southern New York State in September of some time in the late 1970s, in a sleepy and not financially well-off neighbourhood.

I don't read much into dreams. The mind needs to churn to power the imagination, to work out things while you sleep, to sluice away stresses, and so on. I don't think of dreams as messages - they rarely seem that way to me. Mostly they seem like movies or videos and sometimes like a first-person visit to someone's life and their world. Those last are the most vivid and kick me away. I recall one in high school that was about me fighting in the US Civil War and I came to a bad end from a cannon fusillade in that one and that woke me up breathless.

I don't know what grand conclusions to draw. Likely, none are appropriate or have not been spoken by others more erudite than I. I do know dreams are a source of wonderment.

And I can't help wondering if, every so often, I'm seeing echoes of another life, from someone, somewhere, somewhen....


 
 

Dreams: A Window Into Another Life (Part 1)

 

Everyone dreams. I dream in a variety of ways - daydreams in the middle of meetings, dreams during small naps, the deeper dreams of a good night's sleep.

I almost never dream in abstractions and my flights of fantasy are usually firmly moored around characters (third person actors in the dream) doing fantastic things in fantastic settings.

Most of the time, the dreams fall into one of two forms: First-person, self-centric dreams or Third-person, other-centric.

Third Person, Other Centric

Third-person, other-centric dreams, as I have them, are the majority of my dreams. Semi-aware daydreams are over 97% of this sort and dreams from naps and deeper sleep are probably still 80%+ of this form.

These dreams are like watching a movie and usually come with imagery and dialogue, but no particular look inside the head of the protagonists. Being a sci-fi, history, and military geek, my dreams usually integrate those aspects in one form or another. They seem to be organized with each dream episode as a vignette or scene with its own characters, dialogue, and actions.

It is from these sorts of dreams that I derive much of my push to write - wanting to capture these fascinating dream-driven sequences. They seem to form interesting and vivid parts of whatever imaginary life-path the characters in them are experiencing. If I can flesh out around the edges and using the dream content as inspiration for a larger arc, it seems I can create complete storylines and compelling characters. Or so it seems to me in my attempts so far.

First Person, Self Centric

The other sort of dream, the first-person, self-centric dreams, are more rare for me. Semi-aware daydreams don't usually take that form for me. These dreams usually require a deep sleep. They are by far the most vivid and emotionally impactful dreams. They have about them an immediacy and reality that is astounding. Despite being male, a goodly portion of them dont revolve around beautiful, naked females. Involve, sometimes. Revolve around, rarely.

These are of a experiences of a different breed. They are like windows into another's life as they live it or into a life as I may have been able to live it in alternative circumstances of where and when.

These are first person dreams and the character perspective is self-centric, looking out from someone's eyes (unlike the third-person, other-centric which is like watching a scene on TV or in a movie).

It is ofen unclear who the character in these dreams is. Sometimes you get thoughts, but even they don't necessarily clarify if the character is you (the dreamer) or someone else. Most of the time, you just get the experience of the senses. It feels altogether like living a snippet of a life in someone else's head.

Aside: I wonder if this is what spawns the 'past life' theories some people seem to ascribe to?

You see, hear, feel, taste, etc. what the dream-protagonist experiences. You feel an emotional response. You see some things with an amazing clarity, as sharp as real-life. Other things, you don't seem to notice or pay attention to, gaps that don't tend to occur to you in the dream state, but strike you as odd once you review them upon waking. You wonder 'how did I see this room so clearly, but never look at the 4th wall?' and so on.

Having spoken a bit about the generalities of dreams as I experience them, I'll share my most recent first-person, self-centric dream with you in part 2. It was noteworthy enough to describe in some detail - I was even able to recreate an indoor and an outdoor map of the surroundings to accompany the description.

More to follow....


 
 

Hong Kong WWII Veteran's Memorial Unveiled

 

Given the war ended 64 years ago, it took them a rather shameful amount of time to get this done. Nonetheless, a monument honouring 2000 who went to reinforce Hong Kong and who fought fiercly against the Japanese, resulting in nearly 300 dead and nearly 500 wounded. Then there was the long ordeal in Japanese prisons, where 300 more died.

Hong Kong Memorial

Hats off to those boys - they were thrown into the breach, ill-equiped and barely acclimated, and they fought hard despite that, showing their own great sense of duty and honour. They were and are a credit to Canada.

 
 

Hot Day In Ottawa In The Kitchen

 

This promises to be an interesting day; The weather forecast is for 31 C and I'm making jam. For the uninitiated, that means boiling water to blanch peaches (the cinammon-peach jam lot), boiling water to sterilize the jars and sealers, boiling water to cook the jam, and boiling the jam itself briefly (but sugared fruit boils at a far higher temperature than water). The net effect of this is more humidity than you can shake a stick at and more heat in the already hot apartment.

On the other hand, the cinammon-peach batch looks like it went okay. The peach blanching wasn't a perfect success - I need a bigger bowl for icewater and I need to get the ice in further in advance. I also discovered some peaches rot from the inside and you discover that when you get down about 1/4" into the peach and find you don't like the look of it (and of course any such material didn't go into the jam).

I may try another batch of peach jam if I find more decent peaches - I want to try the ginger-peach recipe I read about. I also kind of wonder if currants, raisins or cranberries could not be usefully added to peach jam. I know you can use honey for sweetening instead of sugar, but honey's not cheap stuff. I'd have to be convinced it was clearly superior.

I still have a batch of raspberry to go. No twists on that one, I hope. Wanted to make the peach and raspberry because my batches of blasterine (blueberry-raspberry-nectarine with a hint of strawberry) and strawberry are not edible by me old Mum due to her drop-dead-fast strawberry allergy. I figured I'd like to make something she could have and I like peaches and raspberries.

Next on the line is making some homemade pizza (maybe tonight) and trying out my newly acquired marble pestle on the fresh oregano I bought for the pizza. If I don't do that tonight, I'll do it Sunday. I've also got a canning operation to produce some salsa, but I may need to buy some more fresh ingredients. I wonder if canning my own salsa is any cheaper? The jam probably isn't, but I know what went into it and I can get more experimental interesting recipes (peach jam recipe to try #3 involves hot peppers and lemon zest).

And somewhere along the line, I should make another cake. I've got some eggs I should use up. Or maybe a loaf of some kind - banana loaf or pound cake. I have to share this stuff out because I'm only one guy and no way I can eat it all myself, but that makes sharing food a social thing...

 
 

Hubble Ultra Deep Field Gives Perspective

 

We have Hubble to thank for a view into our universe that sheds a lot of light on the significance of Humanity, let alone the significance we have as individuals.

Video showing Hubble Ultra Deep Field and a 3D construction of same.

Even if you aren't an astronomy geek, watch this. The narrator's presentation is simple and he has a good voice for narration. The facts presented are staggering. 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the universe. 100,000,000 stars in each. If I do my zeros right, that's 1E19 stars out there. 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 suns.

Carl Sagan was right. The probability of intelligent life out there other than us must be 1 (aka 100%). I cannot conceive of us being that special. Special, yes. That special, no.

Of course, that does not mean we'll ever meet these other intelligent species.

Some of those galaxies are receding from us faster than the speed of light now. That's also a hard concept to grasp. As is 47, 000, 000, 000 light years away (the distance of the furthest galaxy). That's 47 billion years at the speed of light, 3 x 10E8 m/s.

We collectively, as humans, are small sands on the beach that would be our own world. We think ourselves small as 1 in 6,000,000,000. We certainly are, by that standard. And yet, our sun is one of ten quintillion other stars. As rare as we are individually in the sea of Humanity, our sun is a smaller part of the total count of suns in the universe by a factor of 1.66 billion times.

The numbers involved here are celestial and literally incomprehensible in any direct way by the human mind. Our concept of scale just can't really process this. The universe is breathtakingly vast. Our little sun is a grain of sand's grain of sand on one very big beach. And we are then as inconsequential as a grain of sand upon that beach.

Think about that for a second. If this doesn't give you a sense of true awe at the magnificence of the entirety of our universe, then you have no poetry in your soul.

I'm reminded of something once said by a famous and humourous man:

"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space." -- The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams, Chapter 8

 
 

Douglas Adams had no idea how right he was. And this we know because we invest in projects that don't reap an immediate Earthly benefit such as our space program. We understand our place in the universe and the vastness of Creation because of the window into that which the Hubble Space Telescope grants. Think about that next time someone debates with you the value of the space program.

Chuck Norris takes on Obama's Health Care Bill - Roundhouse Kick!

 
Yes, I did say Chuck Norris. THE Chuck
Norris.


Chuck vs. Obamacare, Round 1


From a tagline at the bottom of the article page:


Chuck Norris is a columnist and impossible to kill.
 

Steal my wallet - what the hell's a matter with ya?

Good samaritan has his wallet stolen. Thief gets hog tied and left in street. Wallet returned to owner. Thief given some verbal dressing-down as well. Justice served.

China: Harvesting Political Prisoners for Organs

I listened to Rabbi Reuven Bulka interviewing The Honourable Scott Reid (Lanark-Carleton MP) who is the chair of Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, a representative of the Fallun Gong (Lucy was her first name, I never caught her last), and The Honourable David Kilgour, former Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, on the matter of the treatment of the Fallun Gong by China. Particularly, the program focused on the harvesting of organs from political prisoners (including many Fallun Gong) in China.

CBC had previously done a piece on this, but this was some time ago. It seems the practice has been going on and may have cost literally thousands of Fallun Gong their lives for organs for Chinese and foreigners looking for organ donors.

In one case that was documented, a man from the Arab world was given eight consecutive kidneys over 4 months due to antibody-based rejections. The Chinese *advertise* and *gaurantee* you'll get a workable organ or they'll keep getting you new ones. As anyone who has worked in civilized, voluntary organ donation will tell you, there is no way you could ever gaurantee someone an organ donor would be available or that you would get eight kidneys in four months. The only way this works is if the people are being selected and killed for their organs.

This is apparently in little dispute - Mr. Kilgour and Mr. Reid both acknowledged that the proof is now well-documented. Over 55 different documented forms of proof exist including official Chinese communications and recorded conversations with officials of the Chinese government (who later tried to say they said something different, but the Canadians had taped the calls) who said that they had Fallun Gong at their prisons and the people interested in organs could 'come and get them'.

On the one hand, we have a major state, China, one of the alleged bastions of civilization (over 3000 years of it), and an autocratic regime trying to obtain some form of international acceptability. (Beijing Olympics anyone?)

On the other hand, we have human beings being ruthlessly harvested for organs. Their only crime is belonging to Fallun Gong. This isn't Al-Queda. This is a peaceful religious movement. But an autocratic state that his lost its faith in its own founding principles (Mao's Revolution) and is soul-searching for new footings in the modern world is apparently terrified of people who organize themselves for purposes not directly aligned to their own temporal gain. This whole concept causes them alarm and thus their declaration of Fallun Gong as a threat. A bunch of peaceful religious people, a threat to the largest and oldest culture in the history of the world. Just try to imagine it... pretty hard to conceive. And yet, that is the pretext for imprisoning them and then later slaughtering them for their organs. And then working to cover this up so that the civilized world does not notice.

Well guess what? There is a report about to hit the Human Rights Committee. It lays a lot of this out. This then gets put before Parliament and voted on. This stuff is documented and pretty much ironclad. Parliament will then decide if they wish to make any sort of statement or take action (they have taken unanimous action before to help individual Fallun Gong members with Canadian ties).

Obviously, our financial mixed interests will influence the final form any action takes. China is a big trading partner. But a China increasingly interested in a place at the table in the modern, civilized countries will have to face up to its dark secrets and do some housecleaning and adjustment. Even shining the light on it makes them uncomfortable. Government sanction, even if it was mostly symbolic, would be another potent jolt to them.

I hope Canada takes a leading role and follows up on the great work of the parliamentary committee members. Anyone with an ounce of humanity should be horrified at using innocent religious practicioners as organ farms at the cost of their lives as this is unequivocally an attrocity. It has been suggested that this even meets the UN's definition of Genocide.

China has to change its ways. They may not like outside attention and interference, but as long as you are going to act like barbarians from 2500 years ago, you can expect to get treated as such. Canada should not stand for the continuance of this Chinese practice, nor should Canadians.

I say the small thing that each and every one of us can do is look at the things we buy. Look at the things we buy that say 'made in China' and see if another alternative is available. There may be other vendours from Europe, Canada, or even other second- and third-world countries that at least don't have the singularly horrifying, Government sanctioned operations to chop up innocent people into parts to fill organ replacement demands. If you can buy something that isn't Chinese, buy it. If you ever talk to your MP, encourage him to push the government to take some strong action on this. Tell your friends.

The one thing that evil cannot stand is the bright light of truth being shone upon it. I am hopeful Canada will be one of the ones holding the light to China's dark secrets.

The cost of doing it yourself (in the kitchen)

Well, I went shopping for 'a few things' and $201 later, I'm home.

Of course, then I decided the bottom drawer in the fridge was a bit of a mess and I'd need to wash it before dropping vegetables in it. Then I realized the shelf above it was a bit in need of one too. Then, after removing that unit, discovered the bottom of the fridge interior (under the drawer) was *really* in need of a cleaning. So, while things melted around the kitchen, I cleaned.

Having shopped at the 24 hour Sobbey's (and might I add, they are not much of a place for jam makers or canners - they don't stock no-sugar-add Pectin), I didn't get home until 0015 HRS and the unloading, storage and cleanup have taken me until now (0130 HRS). It's annoying, but it feels good to have it done.

I have plans to make a batch of peach jam and a batch of raspberry jam this week (batch = 5-8 250 ml jars) once I get the right Pectin and a silicon-tipped spatula with a stainless handle (it turns out silicon-tipped plastic handled spatulas can't handle the high boiling temperatures of jam with all that sugar - at least the handle can't).

But I digress, which is not unusual.

I was planning to address the cost of doing it yourself, particularly as it pertains to pizza.

Now, I remember a day in university where Peter, Paul and I would buy a big rectangular pizza shell (Paul made a few in his bread maker too) and I recall them being pretty cheap. We'd buy a big bag of shredded cheese, a pepperoni to slice up, some tomato paste, and usually on some part of it, Peter and I would sneak green peppers (Paul had a policy of not eating anything green). As I recall. this construction might have cost $15-16 or so and should probably have fed 4-6, but we were pizza demolition men in college, so it fed 3 hungry techie geeks. So, $5 a head, $2.50 a head if you had eaten normal amounts. These are 1995 dollars, so we must account for 14 years of inflation too. According to the Bank of Canada, this would be $19 in 2009, so $6.33 a head, for pizza pigs.

Now, contrast that with my trip to Sobbey's.

2 pizza shells with sauce - 5.49
2 Greem Pepper - $1.28
Pepperoni - $4.49
Bag of Cheese - 7.19
+ Tax Total = 20.85

Assume for a moment this makes two pizzas, which would be enough for 3 pizza pigs or 6 normal humans. That's $20.85/3 = $6.95 per. Compared to the adjusted-for-inflation 1995 dollars, we can see about a 10% increase in costs. Part of that is GST hitting all sorts of things now and part of it is that dairy and wheat costs have grown out of proportion to inflation (I believe... seems that way if you look at the cost of cheeses, pasta, bread and milk).

Overall, home-made pizza (cheese, pepperoni and peppers) costs about what it used to, give or take. That's my first conclusion.

On the other hand, a McCain pizza with meat, vegetables, and cheese was on sale for $4.00, premade. No preparation. Two of them would match our do-it-yourself plain old pizza for $8.00 + tax. vs. $20.85.

You tell me.... is it cheaper to roll your own and prep your own meals? Add in some sort of time cost for your own prep time and that two pizza set would likely cost you $30-40. And the two pre-made ones (and you can get two with different, but good and tasty, contents) are $8.00 + tax.

Here is where we see how the movement towards home food preparation is dragged out into the back alley and beaten senseless. Yes, when you roll your own at home, you can add more herbs, crumble some italian sausage onto it, use organic vegetables and a multi-grain pizza shell (the McCain was multi-grain too). You do get more selectivity of ingredients (at further added cost). But even the baseline pizza is at a minimum 2.5 times more expensive if made at home than the pre-packaged one.

Now, if you made your own pizza shell, it might drop to 2.2 or 2.0 times more expensive. But the economy of scale and process McCain works on is telling, even ignoring any of your own time/labour costs! If you factor them in, the comparison is even worse.

Ultimately, most families can't afford to be all that choosy about what they eat. Many are living hand to mouth. When the difference between slow food, home prepared and pre-prepared mass-production food is on the order of 2 times or more... they would be insane not to opt for that. And this is my second conclusion from looking into this.

I'm not sure the comparison extends the same to all meals, but these are my observations from the pizza front.

Finnish Police help out in Vancouver

Finns nab assailant who punched bus driver

Some Finnish police, in town for the world police games, had a chance to show they can be handy at police work too as they chased down a jerk who decided to punch a bus driver.

Rest in Peace, Harry Patch and Henry Allingham

The last British Veteran (possibly the last veteran) of the Great War (WW 1) is now gone beyond. Before that, one of the remaining few to pass beyond was Henry Allingham, the last founding member of the RAF and another veteran of WW 1.

http://www.cbc.ca/photogallery/world/2443/

My Grandfather fought in the war and lived with the after effects for the rest of his life. It was a conflict that even we modern fork, inured to TV genocides and ethnic cleansings, and raised on televised real-world wars like the Persian Gulf War and the War in Afghanistan, would not have been able to endure like spectators. That war had men drowning in the mud, dying from disease, sleeping in trenches up to their midriffs in water with corpses and rats, dying from triangular bayonets, artillery shrapnel, mustard gas, the new horror of the anks, and the dreaded machine gun. The scale of casualties was vast and hard to believe compared to our losses in current wars.

So far, Canada has lost 127 men in Afghanistan. In less time than we've been in Afghanistan, we lost 67,000 killed in WW1. Think about it - that's over 527 times as many casualties! We think we've lost enough people in Afghanistan to justify us coming home... we've lost more Canadians than that in single days of fighting in WW 1.

http://europeanhistory.about.com/cs/worldwar1/a/blww1casualties.htm

WW 1 seems in may ways to have been a pointless war. It changed some political boundaries and killed a lot of people but it lacked the clear moral imperative of defeating Fascism or blocking Communist expansion of later conflicts. The only moral imperative was to not be dictated to by another nation and the whole war reminds me of a family feud at the highest level.

And yet, it claimed so many lives.

Take this brief opportunity to visit that link and contemplate the number of people all of the countries lost. The loss of human potential from the War... from individual battles like the abortive attack on Galipoli, commemorated in "Waltzing Matilda" (song). The horror of mustard gas, which is a gas which, when elements bind with the moisture (water) in your lungs forms hydrochloric acid in the lungs and throat. The horror of attacking through mud that can swallow you with a mis-step.

Think of all of that and consider yourself lucky to be living in the hear and now. We've had it good, by comparison. Whenever we get gloomy about our future and all the ills of the world today, just think about those numbers and the horrible meat-grinders of days gone by.

No, we've got it good. And we've got evey chance to make it better. Part of that is remembering how bad it was and how bad it could get again if we let it. And then striving not to let things go that way ever again.

Hope In Everyday Life

Sometimes, just getting by day to day can be an act of hope. My father has had a bad heart for years and that isn't generally something that improves as you age.

Dad has a problem with chronic ulceration on his lower leg as a consequence of poor circulation from a long-ago sports injury and from the venous removal for a prior heart bypass and as a consequence of a heart powering at maybe 40%. Due to the aforesaid sports injury, he also had a collapsed lung and one of his lungs has never been very good since, so he has maybe 60% of normal lung capacity.

Add all that together, along with the nerve regrowth pain from having a continuous, seeping, frequently infected, open wound of very large size on his leg and you have a life that comes with brutal pain in the leg, chest pain, chest heaviness, headaches, flushing and chilling, light headedness and unsteadiness from variable blood pressure, and challenges from getting fluid build up in the bottom of the lungs (shortness of breath, difficulty sleeping lying down).

Anyone having to deal with all of that on a daily basis could not be blamed for losing hope, temporarily or permanently. And there are very bad days. There's nothing quite like having a relative ask you to go get a gun and shoot him to offer him surcease from the pain (except of course being the sufferer of such pain).

And yet, he keeps going. Part of that might be a natural human survival instinct. Part of this might be that he knows Mom, gradually decaying from the reconstructive surgery from her run-in with a dump truck and from advanced osteoporosis brought on in part by prior run-ins with cancer earlier in life, needs him to help her maintain an independent life. Part of it might be that he clings to the faint hope that I'll straighten out my life and get settled down and be happy and give him and Mom some grandkids.

Whatever is behind it, he keeps going. Some days his spirits are really down (whose would not be?). But he keeps going.

Somedays, just getting through ends up (intentionally or otherwise) being a testament to hope and courage. I think a lot of days are like that for both of my parents, two of the most courageous and enduring people I know. The fact that they manage to worry about me and our many family friends while in the midst of their own challenges, instead of becoming totally introspective about those challenges, is amazing.

I've been very lucky to have two wonderful role models. Their courage in the face of adversity gives me an enduring sense of hope. I have always loved my parents and thought myself fortunate to have had the two fo them as my parents (even in my worst moments). As I age, I see even more clearly how blessed I was by random circumstance of where and when I was born and to whom.

I guess this post is just my way of acknowledging their quality as parents. They inspire me to keep on fighting the good fight and to endure. They show me that, when I think I'm having a bad day, it really isn't anywhere near as bad as others are having. They help grant me a perspective on my own challenges which seem meagre in comparison. All in all, they give me the gift of hope.

Thanks for that, Mom and Dad.

Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. -- Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), the Shawshank Redemption

Beer Poached Jambalaya

Tonight was a first go of beer-poached jambalaya. The recipe is extracted from this excellent work - Cooking With Booze which I highly recommend as being worth the $20.

• Chorizo (well, I substituted Hot Italian due to supply issues) Sausages
• Shrimp
• Chicken Breasts
• Rice, Bell Peppers, Onions
• Minced Garlic, Thyme, Oregano, Bay Leaves, Chili Powder, Hot Pepper Seeds
• 24 oz. Dark Ale (Warsteiner in my case)
• Chicken Stock and Crushed Tomatos
• Instant Rice
  
• Jalapeno Pepper (my addition for heat)
  

The end result was a hearty tomato-based stew with lots of protein that was very tasty. Makes enough for six normal sized servings or 4 very hearty ones. Would be excellent accompanying a cold beer or a sparkling or white wine with some fruity flavour as a counterpoint.

Cooking time is around 40 minutes and you can try to do the prep as you go or ahead of time. I think the entirety would be about an hour or hour and ten minutes.

A good multigrain bread or flatbread would make a nice accompanyment. Something like a fruit pastry with some whipped cream or ice cream would make a good desert and cool the palate.

While it cooked, I had myself a drink I must thank Kevin for introducing me to:

• 341 mL (1 Can) Ginger Ale
• 150 - 200 mL of Ginger Beer (Soda)
  
• 1 to 2 oz. of Rum (your call on variety - I used Dark and it gave the whole a nice golden colour)

A slice of lime might have been a good garnish.

Don't Panic!

Some interesting recipes for a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster and Vegan Rhino Cutlets. If you don't know who came up with these (Douglas Adams) or where they were from (The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy), then you need to read some more classic sci-fi.

PGGB and Rhino Cutlets

Canadian Valour

http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/index_e.asp?results=1&Firstname=&Middlename=&Lastname=&City=&Province=&TypeID=mvd&Honours=&AwardStart=&AwardEnd=&npp=25

My friend the Bugbear posted this on his blog. Unlike his usual rambling, skeptical rants or his inexplicable fascination with things involving hot coals, this link was one worth spreading around more generally.

We, living in Canada, often take for granted the efforts of our Armed Forces. They go to places we would shy from, they face horrors we would quail if faced with, they deal with implacable foes and confounding allies, they try as best they are able to execute the missions given them by our Government with skill and integrity, and where they are permitted and able, they work to make the world a better place - safer, more secure, and better for normal, peaceful folk to live in.

As Canadians, they put their lives in our wonderful country on hold, leave their families worried, and go off into harm's way at the behest of our Government and effectively at the behest of our people. This commitment to public service and to a life of sacrifice and risk willingly endured so the rest of us can be safe and our Country's goals in foreign policy can be realized is something alien to most of us who consider rush hour commutes on a 400 series highway to be high drama.

It's worth taking a few minutes to visit the attached link and read some of the citations. The shocking thing isn't that these men and women rise to the heights of courage that they do, the shocking thing is how few of them are reported and how commonly acts of at least as much courage go unheralded - we only see the tip of the iceberg.

Canadian Forces, part-time or full-time, active service or retired, I salute you.

Homeless girl makes it to Harvard

The next time any of us feels like making an excuse for a sub-standard performance, we should probably consider this young lady's example. Homeless for most of the years of her primary and secondary schooling, she nonetheless made it through to obtain admission to Harvard.

Amazing young lady.

I call that an inspiration. I think people like this show us that we can rise above our challenges and above mediocrity if there is will and determination. Of course, a good set of gifts helps a lot, but we've all got some kind of gift... we just need to find out how to turn it into something transformative.

More fun with Bacon!

On the second page, we get the Bacon Henge (for you neo-Druidic types out there) and Chicken Fried Bacon (Mmmm... Colonel's Secret Recipe...crave it fortightly, you will!).

http://www.spike.com/blog/10-best-bacon-porn/69623

Is there anything Bacon can't do?

Chatham, cat wating for adoption, wins ribbon at Cat Fancier's show!

Chatham, a handsome cat in the care of the SPCA, wins "Best Household Pet"...

Three Questions

A friend of mine (Laserlight) raised the question of what three questions you would ask of someone you've met before proposing. He sets the scenario such that you have already established very basic compatibility. He further suggests that if you are married you phrase it as 'what I wish I had asked...'

I gave my answer in the comments to his blog. I think it's an interesting question or two. And some of his replies are interesting.

I'll put my own 'probing query' up:

If you could go back and reverse decisions you took (or actions) or else change outcomes, what 3 would you go back and revise?

Please avoid the obvious one: "I'd make sure my lottery ticket won." or the like - "I'd do it all the same again" is acceptable, but perhaps shows you aren't a quick learner or don't believe much in improvement... *grin*

Tulips + Canal + Movie + Beer = Good Day

Today promised to be an interesting day. A bit of time was spent getting off some information to my accountant (too bad she isn't single - she is really quite attractive and smart!). Then there was the headache caused by the construction hammers and saws - ripping balconies off the back of the building, cutting rebar, etc. So the start to the day was dodgy.

But it got better around 5:30 pm. I had stuck earplugs in and tried to sleep off the headache and it mostly worked. About 6:30 pm, I got on the bus (first time since 1986 on an Ottawa OC Transpo Bus!) and successfully rode the 101 to Dow's Lake.

I proceeded to spend the next two hours wandering the length of Commissioner's Park and shooting lots of snaps with my (admittedly crappy camera) cell-phone. I saw many lovely tulips in lovely arrangements - dark midnight purple, mid purple, purple with white fringes, pink, pink with white fringes, white with pink splashes, white, yellow, yellow with red highlights, red, red with orange highlights, red closer to orange, and so on. There were a few other non-tulip beds and a variety of interesting trees and other greenery. Tomorrow I'll try to extract the photos from my camera and post a link to an library of them, likely on Google's Photo Site.

I noticed a lot of families, kids, mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers. There were bikers and walkers and even a those with canes or wheelchairs. The weather was lovely - 16 to 18 Celcius. A cloudy sky in the later day, but beautiful nonetheless. The water of the canal was lovely and I saw ducks and other birds as well and a lovely tortoise shell cat in one of the flower beds (assuming the picture came out).

I saw the state 'man with two hats' and the plaques talking about the Canadian Liberation of the Scheldt Estuary. If you haven't read much about this, Mark Zuehlke has a book or two you should read - the battle for the Scheldt was not an easy one and many brave boys died to liberate the Netherlands and the low countries. I understand there is a duplicate statue somewhere in Appeldorn, Netherlands and I hope to visit it one day.

I also saw the simple but effective plaque, set off in a nicely separated ring surrounded by nice beds of greenery, commemorating the people who died, many of them Canadians, on Air India Flight 182 that was bombed in Irish airspace in 1985 by Sikh extremists. My thoughts went out yet again to the families of the innocent victims and our Government's failure to secure convictions in this matter once again made me embarrassed.

I had a Menonite organic sausage and a bun, some fresh cut fries, and an ice cream. The sausage was good, but I think the spicy Italian sausages from Preston street nearby are slightly better, although I can't guarantee they are entirely organic (as it is meant nowadays). Still, eating overlooking the canal and Dow's lake was lovely.

On the way back from my 3 mile (est) round trip, I read a bit about Dow's lake and the Rideau Canal. I'd studied it before in studying the conflicts in early Canada and in Engineering History at Queen's University. Colonel John By and the Royal Engineers did quite a job in constructing the Rideau Canal system. I did discover something new - when a fire raged through the town and threatened the canal, they cut one of the earthen berms and drained out some of the water from the canal and Dow's lake to flood the area around Preston street to create a barrier agains the fire, saving the canal work and probably parts of the city.

The whole wandering pilgrimage was worthwhile, pleasant, and breathtaking. I did botch one picture that would have been printed in our papers and made me a minor celebrity for 15 minutes - I almost had a picture of a fenced flower bed, with a no walking on the flower bed sign, and 18" away, a mother and grandmother were putting their kids into the midst of the flowers to get a photo. That's the sort of thing that explains the current state of our world.

As I was ambling back, watching ducks land on the water, I texted a friend about going for beer on Preston. He pointed out he and another friend (Ricki D and Dan R for those who know them) were waiting for "Monsters vs. Aliens" to start at the AMC.

Seeing nothing odd about two grown, middle-aged men going to see an animated cartoon, I immediately made plans to join them (to add yet another grown, middle-aged man to the group). This, however, gave me just under 30 minutes to get from half way down the Canal from Dow's Lake to my apartment and thence to Kanata. About 500m on foot, several lights, then 9 city blocks by bus, then about 10-15 km by car were required.

Thus ensued my version of the modern urban triathlon: Fast walking, busing, and driving. I arrived after the first couple of minutes of the film, but basically caught the vast majority of it. It was a good film - good for kids and grown ups. Funny, heartwarming, and with enough of the sorts of comments that would sail by the kids (and homages that would do the same) to keep adult interest.

From there, we ended up at O'Connor's. Rick and Dan feigned outrage at not being carded, I joked about us needing a Senior's Card. This got Dark looks. But beer was had, women were watched, a band was heard (and little else after...), and fun was had. I'm sure for some of the younger patrons, it was the first time they'd heard the Doors or CCR. And apparently the spiked hair/fake tan guido look is still around. The more things change, the more they don't....

So, a good night overall. Beautiful flowers and a lovely walk by the water, some good friends, a beer, a laugh or ten at the movie, and some cute young ladies to not-approach-due-to-lack-of-courage. That's an excellent evening and day in my opinion!

If I Had A Million Dollars...

I was watching a piece on TV about a fellow who was working to be an Olympic Badminton champion for Canada. His Dad recently asked him what he'd do with a million dollars and he was nonplussed - he really couldn't think of what he'd do with it because he was already doing the things he wanted to be doing with his life. That's a potent statement about living your dreams and finding your happiness.

In reflecting on that, I thought a bit about what I'd most like from life in the next short while and after that, in the medium to long term. Well, the medium to long term forecast was about as fuzzy as any that Environment Canada ever cranked out. But the short-term forecast for what I'd really like was amazingly clear.

It turns out the thing I most want to do right now is take the summer off - not bother to pursue work, not feel stressed about it. Most of the time in the last years, I've had time off only when contracts ended - often in the early winter or over Christmas leading into the doldrums of the early months of the year. Not exactly your most fun-filled moments. Not much outside life. And when I'm at work, my non-work life largely evaporates.

So I thought to myself.... I haven't had a summer off in a while. I haven't enjoyed enough of the weather between 10-25 C for far too long. I haven't got enough nice sun married to decent breezes for far too long. And I haven't spent as much time with my parents over the past three to five years as I should have. My parents aren't the only ones who missed me - many of my friends did not see much of me either.

And thus, I thought.... If I could afford to take the summer off (mostly), I would pursue a number of pended projects; Scultping and casting, furniture constructions, car repair, book reading catching-up, seeing friends, spending time with my Dad and getting him to finish teaching me about woodworking, welding, brazing, spending time with my Mom getting her to teach me to sew, spending time with both of my parents recording the family history in their own words, getting my living space 'just so', trying to brew some beer, finding a way to get out sailing on a boat, visiting my godson, starting to get in shape, working on my pastry making skills (okay, those last two sort of contradict), and working on a couple of projects related to potential career change (maybe getting back to school sometime soon or pursuing a few other ideas).

I figured out that in order to do this, I need to have $8000 in the bank that isn't spoken for. I could probably do it on a bit less.

Ultimately, my folks have a finite span on this world. I still want to spend some time with them and I want to harvest more of their knowledge. I want to do some more things with my hands and have my Dad's advice on doing them. I want to spend some time with them, even if it is only hanging out, drinking a beer and watching a NASCAR race with them (Mom has become a big fan).

What I don't want to do is rush back into another contract that won't really grow my skillset tremendously, that won't teach me knew technologies, that will further the ratrace experience I get working in the modern technology world, and that leads me to bad lifestyle habits that aren't to my long term (or short term) good.

I don't want to miss the time with my friends either. Or seeing their kids, since I don't have my own, grow up.

I don't know how long I or my parents have, but the math tells me there is less of each every passing day. I also see that there is less of them and or a healthy me each day that I slog away in the trenches for the benefit of my corporate overlords/employers. That's not the incentive it once was.

A retirement fund does me no good when I don't make retirement. A retirement fund does me no good if I lose track of all my friends by working too hard. A retirement fund does me no good if my lifestyle leaves me a wreck unable to appreciate it even if I am around. And the markets seem to hate the idea of me retiring anyway.

So, make more money? Meh. Work more building things I'm not really convinced matter? Blech. Yes, some of my work HAS made a difference. Some of it is useful, and some of it saves lives. But a lot of it doesn't and the utility may even be debatable. Yes, I got paid - so I could pay taxes, put money into a market that is a greedfest and that I don't think anyone really understands well enough to predict, and to watch years of my life slip by as I kept thinking 'things will change next year'.

Tomorrow never comes unless you go out to find it. Your future is something you build and it seems that just flowing along and assuming it will attend itself is not much use. You need to be aware of yourself and what your life is doing to you and I am much more aware now than ever before. I am aware of my finite nature, the finite nature of those I care about, and the reality of tempus fugit.

The only one who can improve my present and thereafter my future is me. Part of that involves rethinking what matters. To me, in the short run, work isn't really reaching onto my radar. What matters is the people in my life and my own peace and happiness and figuring out what dream I need to be pursuing. That might take some time. But you don't get anywhere without a first step.

I know what I'd do with a million dollars, but in the short run, a few thousand will do. I'm going to live this summer for me, for my peace of mind, and to open myself to the possibilities outside the current rutted track I'm on. I have no idea if that will work out, but I'm at peace with the idea it is the thing that feels right to me now.

Mother's Day at the Homestead

A late arrival caused by some shopping challenges encouraged a late start to dinner. After 2 solid hours of preparation an early cooking stages, the meal went into the 'simmer for two hours' phase.

The final meal was:

• Garlic and Butter Mashed Potatos
• Steamed Asparagus
• Tomb's 3B Guiness Brazed Beef (3B = Beer, Beef, Bacon!) : Included bacon, carrots, celery, onions, bay leaves, thyme, Guiness (in my case had to add a little gooseberry ale since I was about half a can short on the Guiness), a splash of port, a wee bit of salt, pepper, montreal steak spice, flour and canola oil (for searing the beef), fresh minced garlic, beef stock, and (in this case) a cubed round roast of beef - with a four stage cooking process.
• Desert was a Panna Cotta with a Blueberry and Peach Compote : Didn't make this one - President's Choice, comes in individual portions you have to unthaw and attempt to decant without disaster - and it is the first cousin of a Creme Brulee since Panna Cotta is cooked cream.

All in all, an excellent meal.

While the meal was simmering, I walked Mom through a bit more of the 'Computers 101' course - she has some awful trouble keeping the cursor from moving away from her text insertion point - I think it may be touch pad related. I may have to disable the touch pad and go for an external mouse or at least disable the tap-to-click aspect of the trackpad. Getting a more visible cursor set may also be necessary.

She tried to send out her first email and did so, albeit with some pretty painful stages. Think yourself privileged, Douglas! I know she plans to try to respond to Alan, Toni, Kevin, James, etc. as she is able (that may yet be a while). A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, but it sure takes a while to come to an end. :0)

Anyway, a good time visiting the parents. A good day. Mom didn't have to cook and Dad could eat with his dodgy teeth. So a general win, although I made no progress on my table construction project this day (much like many other visits recently).

On the side of concern, Dad is going in for Dental Surgery Tuesday. I'd be lying if I didn't say my anxiety level is uncomfortably high. I just don't seem to be able to batten down the uptight feeling I have about this and it is rather unpleasant. It needs done and the GP has given her go ahead, but he's the only Dad I've got and I want him around for a long time more. Of course, I want him not to be suffering and he needs to get some teeth fixed.

So if you are the sort to pray, say a few for my Dad. If you aren't the sort to pray, at least think about it being a positive outcome. I'm not sure we can impact the universe in such ways, but it is always wise to hedge your bets....