Accents, Atlantis and Asprin

Well well well ... another week, another blog! Seems to be quite a few of these here; all the more to catch up on in one's spare time...


Sept 30 - Just Watch Me

YouTube - anything you want to watch, in ten-minute bites. As I've mentioned a few shows in the past in the blog, I thought I would share something different this time: spoofs. For your viewing pleasure, may I present Monty Python's Spamalot from the Holy Grail... done in Lego. Then there's ... Shining, which is a trailer that spoofs The Shining, all done with original clips. For those of you strong in the Farce, there's a never-before-seen clip of Darth Vader being a smartass - I can relate. Lastly, there is the incredibly funny Lemon Demon Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny...

The above video bring to mind old things made new... which of course can easily lead to a cliché. The Cliché Finder Database can help you avoid such things; as a writer I find it invaluable for testing my 'new' ideas to see if they've been done-to-death already. So, you're welcome.

I spent some of my time today outside on a patio at the local Starbuck's, soaking up a lovely sunny afternoon with a soy drink at hand and lots of people parading by. Being able to sit on a patio and not be smoked all over was a breath of fresh air, literally. Much as I espouse equal rights for those who want to commit slow suicide by cancer stick, I do not want to breathe in their chemical clouds from three tables over, thanks... so B.C.'s tough public smoking laws are a boon to patio-goers here.

Oct 1 - You Speak Me?

One of my interests is language; not to get too technical, but the fact that SO many different lanugages have developed on a single planet, among members of a single species, fascinates me. Accents among members of the same lingual family are an offshoot of this interest; this site lets you test what sort of American accent you have in the English language. Then again, you could always learn to speak Klingon or, my favourite: Atlantean!

Speaking of which, I've begun watching Stargate: Atlantis on DVD, which is great for enjoying both the writing and special effects at one's own pace. I've also just this week discovered the Stargate Atlantis Blog, which has tons of inside insights from the creators of the show. Too bad it just got cancelled. :-(

An old man on a bike caused me to experience a Scooby Doo Hallway moment today near my home. He was just another cyclist riding by, albeit on an old bike; not a classic, but likely from the late sixtie's and in questionable shape. He was by and gone in a few seconds as I crossed the street and waited for more traffic... and then he went by me AGAIN, from the SAME direction! I did a double-take, for I had last seen him turning into a driveway just up the street... and as far as I knew, there was no back alley or other laneway beyond. Yet there he was, the same old man with the same spaced-out look on his face, going in the same direction. Another day I am going to look into his route, as I want to reassure myself I did not experience some sort of spatial distortion...

The Church of the Banana project took another big step forward today, which I am glad to see. With a number of talented people working on it feverishly, new and good things are happening - stay tuned!

Oct 2 - Hit Shows

YouTube can give new life to many an underrated show long after it has vanished from TV channels. One such is Duckman, starring the voice of Jason Alexander from Seinfeld TV fame. The writing is sharp, satiricual and scathingly funny, much as many a good show is that gets cancelled too early due to audiences not knowing about it - this episode is a great example. Another show I enjoyed was (brace for the title, it's a doozy) Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles, which was an early CGI sci-fi cartoon with some surprisingly mature themes underlying the saturday-morning appearance. Which would explain how the show is developed quite a following despite being off the air for nearly ten years and despite the series ending before all the episodes were completed.

The Hit Counter for this blog reached 400 today, which was a milestone. Since I started the counter in February, it has tracked an average of 50 people per month checking out the blog. Not huge numbers, but it is gratifying to see that people are reading what I write. With a few comments scattered here and there too, for good measure.

One thing I haven't done in the last month is play Civ: Rev at all... seeing as nobody else is playing, getting my civ smacked about by the computer isn't nearly as much fun as attacking a human opponent. I suppose I could find some online gamers to fight, but it's not my thing to take strangers to task unless it's in something like Halo3 or COD4 ... less talking, more shooting, really.

Oct 3 - Smallest Houses

Seems I am stuck working every friday evening this month, which thankfully does not impact my social calendar much - yet. All things considered though, I like working the morning shifts better; there is less a sense of wasting an entire day working when you can be home by late afternoon - lots of time to do other things. Like laundry - apparently someone has discovered yet another amazing new way to do it.

The leaves have started falling from the trees along St. Charles Ave this week, meaning that Fall is inevitably here. It is odd though, seeing so many trees still green, and gardens that will remain in bloom throughout the winter months here - the City has planted pansies in many of the public gardens, so those will be colourful right through and into Spring. Nice thoughts for the chillier months.

Something on my horizon is home ownership - sooner or later, we all put down roots, save for the inveterate travelers among us. One concept I am keeping in the back of my cluttered head is Tumbleweed Homes, which can fit almost anywhere on lots too small for traditional homes. An added advantage, apart from the much lower cost of ownership, is the house can be moved at a later date if necessary - just try that with a 2000sqFt bungalow! Considering the sky-high cost of homes in Victoria in the current market, a small, personal-sized dwelling that isn't a condo has great appeal to me.

Oct 4 - Hey, where did...?

I continue to be impressed by the capabilities of my laptop - yes, it's the geek in me, but I try only to let myself G33k out at home. Really. *ahem* So what has my inner geek grinning? HDMI. Yep, the laptop has an HDMI port... and since it ALSO has a top-notch dedicated video chipset from ATI, I can pop in an HDMI cable and get 1080p - true HD output - from the laptop to my big-screen. Not only that, but the little laptop can use BOTH displays simultaneously... something even the techs at BestBuy said it could NOT do. So stick it, you wannabe-g33ks.. I got it to work with a minimum of electric shocks, soldering and cursing. Boy, does it look good!

I had the day off today, and as always it vanished FAR too quickly. I was out for lunch and about town until well into mid-afternoon... just in time to be REALLY rained on, more rain than I have ever seen in Victoria to date. The expressions on people caught outside without umbrellas were priceless... unfortunately, the sudden shift in air pressure meant my head wanted to explode - again, just like last week. I managed to get some work done in between doses of asprin, with two more articles for Cyberwalker.com nigh completed and more work for the CoTB.

Oct 5 - Sun-daze

Nothing really amazing today, just went to work and back again. The sun peeked out a few times during the day, then vanished again as quickly, but at least the rain held off save for a few drops here and there. People's moods were generally sunny today though, for some reason, despite the weather; something I appreciated given a few other days this week.

Sometimes you really need a good sense of humour, as well as patience. How else would you learn the many ways to shoot elastics at the Guide to Shooting Rubber bands? Seriously, there's just a little TOO much information there. So instead, to put your curousity to bed, there's the Red Button Page. Just try to stay away...

One thing that may knock your mood a-kilter, is this. What are people thinking in the name of fashion? Tattoos, piercings... those things I understand. Even the fad from a few years back for dental jewellery, along with other funny stories from the world of teeth.


Soldiering along towards Christmas we go... no comments last week, so I must be doing something right. Soon enough it will be time for ghouls and ghosts to roam the streets, and I still am not sure what I am doing for Halloween. Maybe I should go as a blog writer... all pale and twitchy?

Luggage, Lunch and Links

The week just sped by... it's suddenly Sunday evening, and Blog Time!

Sept 22 - SciFi

I ran across several sites today worth noting, at least if you like SF/F. If not, scroll down...

So, for those of you still with me, here are a few gems: The first is The SF Site, where you can find more on SF than most anyone can read up on in years. Of course there is always SciFi.com, where you can find all the latest media SciFi info. Then there's the bad SciFi, which you can now buy on DVD from Amazon - Harlan Ellision must be gnashing his teeth with this news of an upcoming DVD release.

Some folk manage to combine hobbies and SF in fascinating ways. Take this fellow for example; his woodworking skills have caught the eye of notables such as Stephen Hawking! But if you want hobbies, have a look at my friend Bob's blog, Ruined Niagara... he's got an amazing photographer's eye!

A little note for my no-cable thread: there is Fancast.com, a site which lists full episodes of TV as well as movies for watching... free! They do not have a complete database by any means, but you are almost certain to find a few things you'd like to watch,

Sept 23 - Need a favour?

I sat outside on a patio this afternoon, which was bright and sunny - for a few minutes. I was at the Starbuck's at the Bay Center, which has a great outdoor raised patio, perfect for watching the busy traffic pass by on the street. Pedestrians and cars alike wander past at slower speeds, with many a rubbernecker taking in the sights. I can attest that there were quite a few things worth looking at too; the sunshine seems to bring out the beauties, or at least so it seems to me. A surprising percentage of them seem welded to their cell phones, which does not bode well for phone radiation dosages...

While I was cogitating on the scenery and enjoying the remaining sunshine, a website I had visited years ago popped into my brain again. Curious, I typed in a close analogue of the name... and lo, there it was: FavorVille.com. Imagine a website where you can post your needs, or your offerings, to your community... to connect favours with those who need them. Simple, yet the idea of neighbour helping neighbour seems to have been forgotten in the last few decades... I blame it on several things, including the shift from cozy suburbs with front porches to locked doors in apartment buildings with only a door number to differentiate one dwelling from another. When was the last time you went to borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbour? Or they from you? Some things should never have been let dwindle... or be changed for the worse.

Sept 24 - Movies

I realized today that I have not been out to see a movie at a theater since I arrived in Victoria... and for some time before I left, for that matter. I think it is mainly because I dislike having to share my enjoyment of new entertainment with the general public, who by and large are not nearly as respectful of each other as I am of them. Cell phones, crinkly wrappers of food snuck into the theater, heads in my line of sight... there are many distractions to the 'theater experience' that I can do without. Especially the idiots with cell phones, who simply cannot turn them OFF. *ahem* In any case, I much prefer to wait and see movies in my own 'theatre' setup... which is good enough to really enjoy the experience - how many theaters have a fridge at hand, and will pause the movie when nature calls?

Looking forward to upcoming movie releases, I can honestly say the only ones I am interested in are ones like Transformers2, Venom and yes, Wolverine. There's even a prequel in the works for I Am Legend, which would feed my need for post-apocalyptic films quite nicely, thank you - the release of Death Race 2008 on DVD may entice me to pick it up, being a Car Wars fan of long standing. I have no desire to see the badly-titled new Bond film 'Quantum Solace' ... sounds like a documentary on the Large Hadron Collider that's sparked such an unneeded internet-fueled debate about the end of the world. It's just science, people.

Sept 25 - Exercise Plans

Outdoor activities for me in Victoria have been limited to my riding my bike around the city; sad, but that's what happens when everyone's so darn busy. I'd like to try activities such as kayaking, or even hiking a nearby trail. Since I've recently found out the waiting list for gallstone surgery will be up to 18 months, I can start my plans to get into shape now, so I'll have a shorter recovery time from the operation - which itself is not as massively invasive as in years past. So it looks like I will be cracking out the exercise guides, shopping for some free-weights and eying a gym membership with necessary distaste. I'd prefer to avoid the gym altogether, as I begrudge the time spent to get there and back; I could be doing other things. Still, we'll see what I can find that's decent within riding distance.

I still have not found a local (or Canadian, for that matter) vendor for the X-Wing Kite. Sadly, I will likely forego looking for it until the spring, as the cool factor will be severely diminished if one is flying it on cold, cloudy days by the ocean side. Joggers and dog-walkers wrapped in many layers might find a kite-flying amusing, if out of place, in the cold winter months here in Victoria.

Sept 26 - Cheap Cooking and Cars

I discovered a cook today after my own heart, one whose menus are 100% influenced by their cost: the 99-cent Chef. Yes, that's right: this chef only uses ingredients that list for 99cents or less... and he doesn't use expire-the-next-day items either. Some of his receipies are really good, and have inspired me to shop with a new viewpoint, somewhat similar to the "Shop the Perimeter" theory of grocery-store purchases; by staying OUT of the center of the store, you avoid all the high-ticket low-nutrition items that the store wants to sell you to boost their profits and lower your life expectancy.

Time to leave for work came too quickly today, just as the weather changed - again. Sunshine mocked me for a few hours until clouds rolled in suddenly in the late afternoon; amazing how the changes happen so quickly here. I did amuse myself during the inevitable lulls with some arts and crafts at work - yes, a pair of scissors cut a swath through some paper cars as part of an internal contest we're having. I found a whole bunch of great car designs at Papercars.net, all printable, as well as other printable items at this site. There was even a great site devoted to one of the many Hanna-Barbera cartoons, the Wacky Racers - you can download printable designs at this site, though be warned they will take quite a bit of time to build.

Sept 27 - Inventions and Lunch

I've had quite a few ideas over the years for new (and sometimes even useful!) inventions. One such was my idea for a GPS luggage-tracking system, way back in the 90's when cell phones were just coming into general use. I envisioned a tracker that would lock onto local cell towers, wherever it was in the world, to determine its postion and then send a txt msg with the lattitude and longitude of its position, Imagine: much like the VISA commercial where a remote pops out wheels on some lost luggage and zooms it across the world to its owner, this would enable one to locate luggage anywhere.

Unfortunately, someone has already created the device of my fervent imagination. The folks at MicroTrakGPS have developed a device that does just what I mentioned above, and is even halfway affordable. I have thought of several refinements though, that would make it more airline-friendly... nobody wants a GPS activating at 30,000 feet to cheerfully cause interference with a jet's controls. Unlikely, but you don't want to take that risk.

I had lunch today at the Oak Bay Marina Restaurant with my parents, which was a very pleasant culinary and visual experience. The restaurant is circular, with a commanding view of the marina and the bay itself though floor-to-ceiling windows. We were seated in a curved booth in the middle of the restaurant's inner circle, whose elevated height swept our eyes across the other diners to the vista beyond; the sunny skies made the view a spectacular one. The food was excellent as well; I had the Chef's Special, which was a seared sole fillet with tomatoes, potatoes and goat's cheese. The taste was subtle and varied, depending on how one combined the cheese with the other elements. Expensive though, as expected, but a treat nonetheless.

Afterward, I trotted down to the Cook St. Village Starbuck's and spent a pleasant few hours on the patio outside, which I discovered has a heating system akin to that of the Kilt's in Port Dalhousie. Winters at Steebs are on the schedule now, especially given the mild climate here. I was amused by dozens of Green Party supporters canvassing the Village as well; many people stopped to chat with them, all of them friendly, which again jut blows my mind... where else would you see people HAPPY to slow their cars down to shout encouragement, or even pull over to talk? The weather likely helps, as everyone loves a sunny weekend. Sadly, I forgot half of the power ensemble for my laptop, so my work was cut short by a flashing power warning... but the sun still shone, regardless.

The rest of the evening blurred, as I fought off a migraine whilst getting caught up on various neglected tasks around the homestead. Tidying turned out to be its own reward: I finally located my long-lost Futurama DVD's! Seasons 1-4 had vanished in the move, and I had feared they had been stolen along with my Olympus camera by those charming thieves at Multicities Moving.

Sept 28 - Ancient Internet

Way, way, WAY back in the day, in the heady days of 1994 when the Internet was just a few hundred machines linked together by string and tin cans, the Cool Site Of The Day debuted. Racking up an electic mix of sites offered, yes, daily, the CSOTD continues to THIS day to be a great browse. Surprisingly, some of the sites listed from back in the early 90's are still online, including the Lurker's Guide to B5, as well as the Mystical Head of Bob. One of the first dozen sites listed was.... the CIA main site. People STILL wonder if back then the CIA logged and investigated each hit on their site... despite the occasional hack attempt, they may still be doing so.

Along with that, may I present: The Acronym Generator! No longer do you need to struggle to come up with an appropriate acronym for your world-dominating organization - the AG does it for you! Before l33t-speak, acronyms were quite common in internet chat rooms, where slow typists would make up for their lack in, er, speed... with phrases like the ubiquitous LOL, UR2COOL and GMAFB.

A working sunday... so I sleep in and get home in time for dinner - not a bad deal overall. I suppose I won't be going on any tours of Victoria's interesting places in the next month, unless I am able to wrangle a free Saturday to nab a vehicle. Touring on bicycle is only good in the good weather; something about being rained on takes some of the shine off being a tourist, though in Niagara Falls that just meant you were standing too close to the Gorge.


Well, that about sums things up, for now. I have a few vacation days coming up before the end of the year, so I will be madly sorting through my photos and updating my blog, finally. There's just so many, I have to just finish searching while comparing them to each blog entry... but since ImageShack seems to be doing the trick, I can include photos more easily in the future - if I manage to take any good ones, that is.

Planes, Pirates and Peanut Butter

The weather this week was rather blah for the most part. I went from grey skies in ON to grey skies in BC... but the sun popped out as usual on the weekends to mock me. Nice to know some things don't change, despite being in another province 3500km away...

Sept 16 - Going Rogue

Whew! I slept in today until 11am - guess I needed it. Spent a lot of the day running around getting groceries and the like. Nice to have a car only when you need it - saves parking and repairs - thanks to the folks, such is my case. I even splurged on a new backpack from Targus, though the price made me cringe as usual - necessary though, as my other bags cannot safely carry the laptop and are falling apart besides. The thing has more pockets than the other two bags combined though, as well as many other features that make it (almost)worth the price, in all.

I logged a little while of gaming in COD4 with Dave tonight, and did surprisingly well. I seem to have found a combination of 'perks' and weapons that keep me alive long enough to claim a fair portion of team kills, which I find very gratifying. The Xbox360's controller is STILL nowhere near as accurate as a PC mouse and keyboard, but then that also means the OTHER guy is less accurate too - there's far too many headshots as it is!

One thing I also installed on the new rig is Rogue Trooper, a game based on the old 2000 A.D. comic strip that had some of the best storytelling I have seen... well, I read the Heavy Metal:War Machine issue with it in it (and stupidly loaned it to someone who lost it)so that's close enough. Authors like David Drake and Joe Haldeman are ones whose work I read avidly, as they both had brief-but-intense stints in the military that shape the course of their work even decades later. In some ways, I am quite glad that I do not live in a country where conscription is a fact of life, but when one reads about the camaraderie forged among those who have seen battle, the wise know that this is something that no other bond in the world can compare to... and also for which no other bond carries so high a price.

Sept 17 - Foul for the Environment

Back to work today for an evening shift, after my all-too-brief and all-too-busy (but in a good way) vacation last week. I am not one for long vacations, but even this one seemed just a little too short - I am used to at least a few days of total relaxation, but I suppose I can still do that; with the number of vacation days I have banked, I HAVE to take some 3 and 4 day weekends in the next few months. I hope to get a lot accomplished / caught up on those weekends... but if I do, does that not negate the fact that they are 'vacation' weekends? Again, irony raises its voice in laughter.

A strange thing: There is NO Drive Clean program here in B.C. as strange as that sounds. Cars belching copious clouds of black exhaust are far more common here than in Ontario. Which annoys the crap out of me on a personal level, as I have to suck in their fumes while climbing the hill to work every day - there's always at least one beater chugging up the hill next to me, making me stop to gasp for fresh air in a driveway or side street. It's amazing that the air can be so fresh one moment, then swimming with fumes and the stench of unburned hydrocarbons. For a province that claims the high ground in so many environmental fields, this is a glaring omission.

Sept 18 - Costumes

Halloween is coming up, and I am not sure what to do this year. I never seem to get around to costume design in time for the 31st each October, though many a great idea has stayed lodged in my head. Certainly I could shop for some great Halo3 costumes here, or even try for a matching set.

One of my friends is in the 501st Legion, a respected and well-established Star Wars costuming club. They're so popular, they have often provided security at many a convention, which of course is a sight to see - nothing like a squad of stormtroopers to settle disputes peacefully... The reason I mention this is that I recently recalled that the 2008 Canadian Action Figure Expo is coming up. I attended the 2007 show with Mike H. to sell off most of my beloved toys of years past in preparation for the move out to BC. Amazingly, someone with a camera managed to document almost every vendor present - my stuff (the table with the tall white shelf) is shown here and here, plus you can see a few shots of the 501st members who attended, including a female Royal Guard.

Which brings up the subject of female Stormtroopers, whose outfits although pleasing to the eye are somewhat impractical for battle. Heck, you can get into such topics as chainmail bikinis, female fantasy armour (or the lack therof) with some great recreations here, as well as the many stereotypes that abound in fantasy and fiction regarding barbarians and the like. One of my favourite series on the topic is the 'Chicks in Chainmail' series edited by Esther M. Friesner which has its authors exploring the many, er, cracks in the genre regarding women's stereotypes. She writes about the latest book in the series here. Of course, you could just take matters into your own hands about stereotypes, such as in comics...

Sept 19 - Pirates, yahar!

Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, which has several of my neighbours excited - they're big pirate fans, and I can guess fairly accurately what they're dressing up as this year. There is the Official Site, the Bus Pirates site, How To Talk Like A Pirate and even some Pirate Fonts to turn your PC into a buccaneer sailing the strange silicon seas of the internet. Plus a few more sites where you can spend yer gold on pirate booty and swag. Reminds me a little of BucCONeer'98, the World SciFi convention I attended in 1998 in Boston, whose theme (as the name implies)was piratical. Boston and pirates seemed to go well together.

One of my favourite pirates of all time is Captain Capacitor, which is odd as he is both fictional AND a CGI animated character... but that perhaps, is why I like him best. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, he was voiced by Long John Landry, whose salty tones did much to sell ol' Gavin.

Sept 20 - Don't Miss the BoobTube

It's been two months now with no TV, and I have to say I am more productive for it. It's no effort at all to pop in a DVD of my favourite series, or find something on YouTube that I've not seen in a while - despite the 10-minute limit, which is annoying for a 42-minute show, I'll grant you. One of these days I will get around to uploading ALL of my DVD's to my PC, but that will have to wait for a) the time it takes (2hrs per DVD on average) as well as b) the storage space - I figure I will beed about 5 Terabytes of storage, which is well beyond both my current finances and current tech on the market... but the gap is closing. I can recall when 1 gigabyte drives were 'too big to fill' even when installing ALL one's games, pictures and a few videos. Look for far we've come along since!

I was wiped when I got home from work, so much so that even dinner seemed a daunting task. Luck for me the microwave was invented, or I'd have had to resort to a PBJ - it's Peanut Butter Jelly time!

This week I also managed to get NWN to run on my new laptop, which was no mean feat in and of itself - Vista64 is NOT friendly to older programs, and since NWN dates waaaay back from 2002, I had little hope. Success put a smile on my face though, as now I can run the game on hot days without worrying about frying my main PC, which gets VERY toasty with no A/C nearby - I miss my office at The Prince, where I had an A/C vent pointed right at the back of the PC desk...

Sept 21 - Planes and Mechs

The Snowbirds are putting on a show today down by Dallas Rd, where nearly 25,000 people are expected to attend. Unfortunately, I am stuck working today, which I find manifestly unfair... I love seeing aerial acrobatics, and attending airshows has always been a highlight of any given year. At least I managed to catch a glimpse of one plane through a gap in the buildings to the south - sweet!

One thing I would love to do is attend Air Combat USA, where one can fly prop-driven aircraft in mock combat, complete with lasers and smoke dispensers to simulate hits. I have always liked flight simulators, so much so that I purchased one mother of a controller back in the day to play Tie Fighter - one of the greatest space combat sims ever created, for any platform. Though I did not do so well at things like Microsoft Flight Simulator, one of these days I will sit down and really learn how to fly... or at least how to avoid the ground for a good long time. Same thing, right?

This reminds me of the old Battletech Center which was located in the CN Tower in Toronto years back. This was a 'virtual world' of 16 linked 'battlepods' which simulated the interior and control layout of mechs from the Battletech universe. Each pod was linked in a network( pretty high tech stuff 15 years ago )where up to 8 players at a time could battle each other in tactical combat using the latest graphics at the time - pretty dull by today's standards, but it beat the heck out of the Nintendo64 at the time. As I recall, the whole setup was running on a Mac Quadra, which was incredibly funny to see; all these huge battlepods linked to a tiny Mac sitting in a corner that spat printouts from an old HP inkjet. The future meets the Mac - sounds like a commercial, actually!


I am using a Blog editor called ScribeFire this week, in the hopes that it will cure the annoyances that have drawn out each entry for FAR longer than it should take to enter some simple text. One thing it has done already is making links a LOT easier to enter, hence the link-heavy blog this week.

Niagara Trip 2008

Prepare yourself… I had a bit more free time this week, while on vacation. Which means I managed to pack a LOT more into the blog – a lot more happened too, so there’s balance! To help out, I have highlighted the wedding-related entries in blue text.

Sept 8 - The Saga Begins

My first day of vacation, finally! I made a nice relaxed breakfast( with turkey bacon of course! )and just tried to chill for a few hours to unwind from the long weekend.

The day was spent packing, on and off, as I dug things out of corners and cupboards to make a tidy pile for stuffing into luggage later. I took a break in the late afternoon, forced to do so by work - was there any surprise?

I was dropped off at the airport in plenty of time, a little after 9pm. I checked in at Sunwing, remembering only AFTER I had parted with my luggage that I was supposed to lock it. Oops. So I spent over an hour worrying about it, then forgot to worry as I sipped on a Tazo Chai latte, courtesy of the nice lady who opened up the sole Starbucks counter early just for me – I love B.C. folks more and more. I was so relaxed that I almost forgot that I had not yet passed through Security, so at 11:30pm I snapped out of my torpor and trundled to the checkpoint to partially disrobe in the hopes that flashing detector lights would not point out my ignorance of change in my pockets – didn’t happen, I was happy. Then only a few minutes waiting in the Departure Lounge before boarding, almost on time. It was amusing to watch the other passengers in various states of semi-consciousness, considering that I was rather stoked on caffeine which I never drink after 6pm, just because it keeps me up far after midnight if I do.

I was sandwiched into the window seat, per my request… forgetting yet again the law of averages. My two seatmates were a lovely, quiet older couple… who were quite disabled in terms of mobility. So, I was trapped in my seat the entire flight, as the man took at least ten minutes to work up to the effort of hauling himself from his seat – he was unable to do up his belt without help too, for that matter. Nice and quiet the entire flight too, I have to say. I was especially pleased to see that the only crying baby on the flight was far to the back, barely in earshot – I would have knelt to give thanks right then, but the fold-down tray blocked my attempts.

The short hop from Victoria to the Vancouver stop was barely an eye blink, and reminded yet again that ALL of my flights to and from B.C. have been in the dark – I have yet to see my new home or the surrounding area in daylight. Odd, but there it is… Vancouver was a sea of lights, spread out light jewels in the perfect night that glowed with the yellow and cold white of the sulfur and sodium streetlights. I was amazed at the clarity of the night: no clouds marred the tiny perfection of the scenes spreading out below as I arrived and left a city I had yet to set foot in – the mountains and waterways were of course invisible to me, sadly. Maybe another time.

Sept 9 - Back In Niagara

We were in the air again shortly after 1:30am PST, at which point I set my watch forward 3 hours to EST. I managed a few hours sleep from 5am to 7am EST, then was gently elbowed awake by my seatmate in time for breakfast – I chose the poached eggs over the waffles, as syrup and I have always had a messy history, especially in close quarters. Delicious too – who would have thought that a hot breakfast would have been part of such a low ticket price I paid?

The flight landed on time, and the shuffling horde made it out of the plane in decent order… except for me, as I was still trapped next to the nice-but-motively-challenged couple. The gentleman eventually managed to haul himself out of his sea far enough to let his wife and I pass, which was great as I had not planned on spending my first half-hour back in Ontario trapped in an airplane seat. The baggage claim was much faster, as I managed to be one of the first people to grab n’go – there's a first time for everything, I guess, and some balance too.

The airport shuttle was another matter; since Enterprise was off-site, I had to find their shuttle pickup spot… which turned out to be as herculean a task as snapping a picture of both Bigfoot and Jimmy Hoffa together. After taking a pedestrian tour of the entire Pearson Parking Garage’s lower level without spotting any sign of an Enterprise shuttle( heh, Star Trek… )I relented and called them for further clarification. Turns out that the ‘designated pickup point’ was an unmarked, glass and grey-panel bus stop in the furthest corner of the garage, with NO arrows, signs or other markings leading to it or on it. Intuitive, I guess, for the psychics among us. In any case, I walked all the way BACK there, and All Was Well. The trip to St. Catharines was uneventful too, with the sun shining and traffic flowing like a sparkling steel river along the QEW as I left T.O. at 10:30am. Though I do not miss travelling on the QEW, I do recall with fondness many a trip to the Eaton Centre as a kid - a trip to the Big City was always exciting.

I rolled into St. Catharines before noon, going straight to Rene’s where the trooper had stayed up from his night shift to greet me and make sure I arrived all right – thanks, bud. I settled myself in, then headed out to make a few stops.

Barely an hour in town, and I got a call from Shawna asking about how to fix her computer… see any patterns here? Turns out it just needed a dusting, easy to diagnose over the phone. Simple fixes; love that.

I stopped in at The Prince early in the day, to say hello to the Supers there. They were surprised to see me but very pleased nonetheless, so we spent a little while catching up in the office. I have to say the place looked great, with numerous cosmetic upgrades that added touches of class to the building. Great folk.

On my way to the Falls to get measured for the first tux of my life, I stopped first at the Welland Ave M.Mart to say hello to the girls. As I pulled up to park, a stylish and shiny black car zoomed into the spot next to me. With visions of Yakuza gunmen, I warily exited my car… to be greeted with a squeal of “Peter!” – it was Katie! Apparently she had spotted me turning into the lot, recognizing me despite a goatee, a rental car and not seeing me for nearly a year. We chatted for a bit, delighted to have run into each other so soon, and I had a look at tiny Annabella in the back, asleep… much as I felt I needed soon, having got 2 hours in the last 30 myself. That car seat looked awfully comfortable in the shady sunlight – lucky kid.

The tux measuring in the Falls went well, with the clerk commenting that the measurements I had sent in( that I had don myself )would have better suited a skinny gorilla than a human being. I agreed, and asked if he had ever measured a gorilla – we both got a laugh over that.

Once I was back from my measuring, I settled into my room – the air bed was comfortable, but had an odd tilt to the left. After a nap of a few hours, I had dinner with Matt L. and his wife Suzette at their place on Roehampton, only a few doors down from my old haunt at The Prince. It was a great dinner( thanks guys! )and we all had a blast in each other’s company.

I arrived at the Kilt a little after 8pm; Brian was already there. Amazingly, within a short period of time many people showed up: Dan, Mike, Pierre, Al… even John and his new beau Amber. We took over two booths under the projector screen and had a blast until midnight – I was touched that so many had come out just to see me on my first night in town, even with the ‘official’ Kilt night being Wed.

Sept 10 - Lunch, and Kiltage

Well, I wanted to sleep in today, and I did - with a vengeance. I hit the hay last night around 2:30am, which with the time difference was an early 11:30pm for me PST. I woke when Rene rolled in from work around 7:30am, then went back to sleep for what I thought was a few hours... But the clock read 11am when I finally opened my eyes!

Both Rene and I went to meet Tim at Coppola's for lunch, very conveniently located at a 2 minute walk on Carlton Ave. My old school-mate Luigi runs the place, and I have only heard good things - today's lunch did not disappoint either! A chicken club on foccacia was delicious with a a Caesar salad, and the other guys were both ecstatic about their meals. The waiter was very attentive, refilling drinks before being asked and amazingly, spotting that I hailed from B.C. - without being told! He said it was my happy and relaxed attitude... something that I apparently picked up after leaving ON. Without trying, I might add.

I was at the Kilt again for 6pm, and again Brian was there soon after – I envy him the ability to make his own hours, as I hope to do so for my own career sooner rather than later. Working for The Man stinks, most days.

People. TONS of people. Almost everyone I had sent an email to arrived tonight. Brian, Lucas, Shawna, Nigel, Katie, Dan, Simon, Matt L. plus the M.Mart girls: Rose, Tyra, Jackie, Ashley and her friend Amanda. The most lovely surprise was seeing Jen again, who has taken the plunge into real estate after leaving M.Mart a few years ago to get married, among other things. Being an idiot, I forgot to post my Itinerary to F.Book, but Jen figured it out anyway... smart, smart girl, she is.

Honest Frankie was playing tonight, and we caught up in between sets – it was great to see and hear him perform again live – a bit of Niagara I had missed greatly in B.C.

Sept 11 - Emotional Gifts

It is strange being a tourist in my old home town. In many ways, it feels as though I have never actually left – all the major bones are there, the trees, the views, all that. Yet surgery is underway on the QEW, quite a few other small changes are taking place across the city as well. Some stores are closed, new ones open... the streets are still crowded at the usual bottlenecks.
Plus, it feels DRY here – not the humidity, that’s much the same soupy-feeling air. No, after the lush foliage of B.C., even the thousands of trees I see fall short of the riotous splendor that fills Victoria from end to end with a million shades of green and all the colours in between. At least the weather for these two days has been beautifully sunny, though the forecast for the weekend is sadly for showers… such is the luck of weddings this time of year. Though considering the wet summer they have had in Niagara so far, it may not have mattered much this year anyway.

Part of my day was spent dithering, about spending. For some time now, my home PC has been hampering my work efficiency, as its relative antiquity means I can perform only a few tasks at a time and other things take far too long overall as it is. So, I have been debating getting a new PC, though the expense has had me balked for the last long while – after all, I am a master at making my current stuff stretch to avoid expensive upgrades. The Blue Frankenstein currently has parts from six different computers in it, and has served me well... but its time has passed.

But, today I fell in love… well, had my jaw drop anyway. Over at Best Buy, my eye was caught by a snazzy Gateway laptop - there is a favourable review of it here. Now, I am the last one to say “I need a laptop” as it usually means a compromise, AND a whack to the wallet but this thing had my number – it could do everything I wanted it to for getting my work done more efficiently, not to mention being about ten times faster AND smaller than my current PC. Heck, its portable – meaning I can do my work anywhere, much as I had been doing with my PDA to get blog ideas down… and then fighting to transfer them to my PC without enabling all sorts of errors( see previous blogs for that ). The clincher in the deal today? I could walk out the door with this beautiful machine, for a price that had me blinking in shock, and not pay anything, not even interest, for a whole year. I was sold, so was the laptop, and I cheered. Then I felt an awful twinge of phantom pain near my wallet, so I limped to the car, still grinning like a fool.

I also shopped again for a wedding gift today, but was hampered by the fact that all of the gifts at The Bay were already purchased from the Registry there. I did not find anything I liked at the Pen, but like an idiot I did not check Sears to see if they were registered there as well – I found out on the wedding day that there were, so I could have saved myself some searching. Ah well… not like I do a lot of weddings, but I will chalk this one up to ‘learn for Next Time, dork.’
I picked up my tux in the late afternoon, at Caswell’s in the Falls. It was amazing; I felt like an ad spokesman for Gary Waters when I looked into the mirror after the fitting was done. I expected to look like the classic ‘penguin’ tux wearer: a lot of black, some white, and lots of shiny. Instead, an elegantly-trimmed man stared back at me, done up to the nines as though for the Oscars. Wow!

I had dinner at my aunt’s in the Falls shortly after, where we spent a lot of great hours reminiscing about the family history. There is a lot of history at that house in particular, where most of our italian family gatherings have been held: birthdays, Easter, Christmas, etc... dozens of times in my life that place has been packed to the gills. Especially the couches after dinner, where all the older uncles snoozed after the heavy feasting.

What I loved best though, was going through my grandfather’s poetry, the works that he had written to my grandmother during their courtship and other pieces too. They have both since passed on, with his death shortly before my birth in 1973. I was stunned to see so many similarities in our writing styles: the same unconscious choice of verse and measure to the poems we both wrote, much as my own father wrote poetry to my mother – and still does. Even our handwriting was similar in many ways, down to the little quirk of running out of room at a line’s end and cramming the words in as catch can. A bold hand, looping and sacrificing refinement for speed to keep up with our thoughts. Again, I felt saddened that I never had the opportunity to meet this wonderful man, my namesake, who must have posessed many of the qualities I value in myself today. That lack is one of the very few things I regret in my life, and his.

As I left the dinner, I noticed that the two gas stations on Thorold Stone Rd & Montrose were lined up. Luckily, two motorcyclists were talking next to me at the light, and I overheard how gas was predicted to spike thanks to Ike( heh, it rhymes! )tomorrow. So I pulled in and filled up, next to a guy with an SUV who was complaining loudly about the cost at $1.25 cents. So I cheerily explained that gas in B.C. was up to $1.45, so that snapped his mouth shut in a hurry. The cyclists were right too; gas went up to $1.38 the next day… which stinks, because after this trip is over I will have had to put an entire tank into the rental – but at least it was cheaper tonight to fill.

Later that night I went to Faith and Pierre’s place, where I met Mike’s girlfriend Lisa, who was still nice to me despite being warned by Mike – she seems VERY nice. Dan was there, as was Brian, and a chocolate fountain. After some herculean efforts, the chocolate began to flow, to the delight of all who dipped various fruits and confections into its sweet dark drippings. Talk turned to tech, of course, including discussion of putting up the website they had all created for my birthday a few months ago. As well, Pierre pointed out a great, inexpensive quality microphone that I can use for my voice acting work – since I have a nice, quiet laptop now to work with, I should be able to create MUCH better recordings than with my loud 12-fan Blue Frankenstein PC.

Sept 12th - Retro Games Night

Rene had kindly made enough breakfast for two, so I dined on a splendid omlette that really got the day off to a good start. Room service with a smile! Thanks!
I headed out ‘early’ today; well, early for me, as the 9am start here was still 6am for me PST. I went straight to the pen Centre, determined to get a worthy gift for the wedding and still not deterred by the fact that the tiny Registry had been 99% bought up already. After some searching, I found a multitude of perfect related gifts and had them wrapped together at the Customer Service desk, where the nice lady commented mine was the heaviest gift she had ever wrapped… but that her expertise was such that she never once had to lift or flip it. She deserved the tip, as that was one HEAVY box, I tell you… and I hope, HOPE that the newlyweds can make use of the items. You never know...

I had lunch at Café Amore with some relatives, which turned into a have-to-go-now-its-3pm visit – nice, but I did not want to overstay my welcome, much as I love them all.

It was raining spiritedly on the way to the Falls as it is wont to do in Niagara. Unlike Victoria, whose rain is almost apologetic in how it falls gently then vanishes, rain here in Ontario is like that neighbour next door who likes his wrestling on TV: loud, annoying, and lasts FAR too long.

It must say as well that I am less than impressed with my rental car, a Pontiac G5 – the Info button on the steering wheel tells me that I am averaging 8.8L per 100 km… which is sad. It’s a nice little car, but I have been watching the gas gauge drain with something akin to horror, given the current gas prices. By the time I return to T.O. I think I will have to put another half-tank into it, which is frustrating compared to my old ’94 GrandAm’s gas-sipping ways.

The Guys Games Night was a blast. Jason had printed off some old arcade game cabinet shapes, complete with art that we cut out laboriously with scissors… and did not end up using due to a lack of solid posterboard backing. Ah well. My Galaga score came close to beating Jason’s three times, but I gave up as I developed a habit of reaching for a nearby raid can as the pressure mounted in the endgames. We switched instead to Forgotten Worlds, another old Capcom game that I had missed with a vengeance – Jason and I made it through to the end, which elicited much cheering on my part – it made up for my utterly hopeless attempts at conquering Ghosts and Goblins, which remains to this day one of the trickiest arcade games one can try to master.

A brief interlude had me trying out the Nintendo Wii in a few games of tennis, where I have to say I was impressed with the ease with which one can ‘jump into’ the game with the Wii’s motion-sensitive controller. Slamming a backhand to spin a ball just inside the line, far out of reach of your opponent is a thrill when you DO it, not just slapping some buttons and moving a joystick. Cool!

I also hooked up my laptop to the LCD projector during the break and played a few videos: Kiss a Wookie, Star Wars Hands, and a few others too.

We ended the night with a three-person adventure in Gauntlet II, where I cracked up the other guys with my dead-on impression of the ‘game voice’ saying things wholly inappropriate to the game… “Wizard needs food, badly!” We played until we were cross-eyed, and called it a night.

Sept 13th - Rain and Rehearsal

Breakfast today was at the Sunrise Café on Bunting Rd. Brian was there of course, as was Scotty – great to see him, as I had not seen much of him in the last few years. We used to hang out downtown at the Celtic Knot, before it became The Office – their Meat Pie Special was an amazing deal and always tasted great with a ton of hot gravy on the fries. Not that I would be able to eat it anymore, but some good times, especially one time at New Years… ah well. I ended up taking a tour of Scott’s place to see all the renovations he has done – it looks great, and of course it eats up all his spare time… which is just Scotty SOP, as usual. Ah, homeowners…
I was in the Falls before 4pm to help out with some of the final things for the wedding, including neat fans – this involved stylish fake leaves, ribbons and lovely paper cardstock that somehow combined into a tasteful and functional gift for the wedding guests. Combine that with a bottle of spring water each, and they were set for the hot weather tomorrow. Good planning, K2K’s !

Around 5pm all of us, the wedding party and family, went for a convoy drive out to Jordan for the rehearsal, as well as to familiarize ourselves with the route and destination too. Turns out that the Cave Springs Vineyard is on the very same road as Camp Cave Springs, where my entire Grade Eight class went for a few days in late spring. Memories of green hair, arrows fired straight up into the air and firelight tales of horror made me grin – too bad my camera was back at Rene’s or I’d have snapped a few images for the album.

Everything looked great, though the raining grey skies were ominous above the gentle green rows of vines all around. It was very quiet and peaceful… too quiet as it turns out, for the CSV folks had forgotten to open the reception hall for us to practice in. A phone call soon had that sorted out, and we all went in out of the rain to toss umbrellas into a large dripping corner pile.
Rehearsal went well, as things were fairly simple. I only had to worry about seating the guests and looking pretty, both of which should not be mutually exclusive. There was room for all.
We were done dinner before 9, and I was heading back to St. Catharines before 10pm. I met up with Lori, Brian and Rene at the same Ontario St. Timmy’s, where we jawed until well after midnight. I was pleased to see Lori doing so well; her new high-tech pump seems to be doing her a world of good.

Sept 14th - Wedding Day!
After a somewhat fitful sleep( a little too warm, actually )the hour was but 8am( 5am PST )when I broke from my slumber to get a rush on the day. I was ready and in the car by 9:15am on the way to the Falls, all my gear in a travel bag and my tux hanging smartly in the back. After changing at Jason’s mom’s place, I followed him up to Jordan, where we parked in the very smart lot of the Inn On The Twenty and then boarded the limo. By sheer co-incidence, the driver of the other limo, a Rolls-Royce, was none other than my former high-school principal! We caught up briefly after the ceremony... small world.

Amazingly, on the way to the vineyard the weather cleared! It was humid as a rainforest, but the skies were blue and the sun shone down clear on the gathering shortly before noon. Wisely, the decision had been made last night for an indoor ceremony, and that kept us out of the mud in mid-vineyard today. A constant, heavy breeze cooled everyone inside the building, though it meant that we had to pile rocks from a nearby drain to keep the tent outside from leaving on its own!

The ceremony itself was beautiful. Myself and the best man Bob led the bride’s mother up, followed by the bridesmaids, including several cherubic young flower girls who also brought up the rings to give to the two mothers. Then the bride was led to the altar by her father and given away, all the while among rapt attention of the crowd. Did I mention that most of the musical tracks playing for the wedding were Enya? THAT made me grin… seems I am not the only one who finds her work tugs at the emotions, as well as helping one to relax in such a stressful world.
Jason only managed to get halfway through his vows before he started misting up from the emotion, but he soldiered on and kept steady to the end. Ruth did not waver, but they were both very emotional yet hung on to retain composure before having to face towards the gathering. The minister was very good, keeping things going smoothly and helped by both a palpable yet gentle presence and a carrying voice. Ruth looked lovely in her dress, smiling radiantly after despairing last night that it would be a dull and grey wedding day. Jason looked happy too, grinning from ear to ear, though he too was suffering in the torturous personal sweat-suit of a tux.
Pictures outside were splendid in the shining sun, though I discovered later that I had managed to get a mild sunburn despite my sheen of sweat. Did I mention sweat? It was hot in that tux. I had rivers of sweat coursing over me, so much that I could feel myself dehydrating just standing there. I managed to cool down a little from the oven I was in on first arriving with a combination of shade, water and removing my layers down to the shirt and suspenders before the main ceremony started and I had to layer it all back on. I have NEVER been that hot before yet been unable to do anything about it except sit and take it, though nobody commented that I started to look like a red tomato, so I managed to give a graceful impression, I guess. I was also impressed with the tux shirt I was wearing: despite the massive sweat injection, it did not show any of it – turns out it was some kind of microfiber polyester. Which explains the heat and lack of breathing capabilities, like cotton has… ah well. It looked good regardless, and that’s all that counts.

We headed back to the Inn On the Twenty for the reception soon after 1:30, after all the requisite pictures had been snapped. The reception went smoothly as well, with everyone seated and even the small children co-operating for the most part – high energy, extreme youth and weddings are not a great mix most days.

Jason had created a multimedia presentation set to music, showing images of himself, Ruth-Ann, friends and family from all the stages of their lives. It was beautifully done, with stunningly professional wipes, dissolves and other media touches that had the whole room sitting in rapt attention. He even had a pic of me in there, though it was just my Facebook one – it has been so long since we last got together that he has no digital pictures of me at all!

Dinner was great, and not too involved, which I loved. Being used to massive Italian weddings with far too many courses of far-too-delicious foods, it was great to see a simple, elegant menu of delicious food that did not take hours to dig through yet still left one smiling and satisfied. I also managed to gravitate from usher, to Best Man, to Groom in the course of the reception – when entering the room, the M.C. announced ME as the Best Man( oops! )and at one point, with the guests clinking their glasses for a kiss, Ruth-Ann looked around and since Jason was out of the room, planted the kiss on me! Talk about whirlwind romances…

It was all over by about 5pm, with the guests leaving with grins on their faces as the bridal party and family transferred across the street to the elegant Inn On The Twenty. I lugged my gift around a few more times, and wished whoever had the job after me luck with their back. It was just starting to rain as I left, the big fat drops spattering my windshield as if to say “See? We waited as long as we could and BOY are we glad we could get on with things now!”

I headed to the Fairview Starbuck’s soon after 8pm, to sit for some hours and type up this blog – at almost 6,000 words, it took a while to add and edit it. The wind was gusting rather fiercely, flinging tree limbs about and lashing the passing rain at me as I ran to and from my rental car.

On the way back, the wind was still in full force. So much so, that as I turned onto George St off Carlton, a tree branch cracked and fell in the street about fifty feet ahead. Now, when I say tree branch, I meant limb. A BIG limb. Say, about thirty feet long / wide as the street, weighing in the several-hundred-pound, crush-your-car-roof-like-tinfoil category of limb. I pulled up and stopped, then got out to ask if another guy standing at the end of his driveway was OK, as he looked a little stunned. Turns out he had just turned UNDER that very limb to pull into his driveway and park – seconds later the limb lost its battle with gravity. He soon calmed, and after I took a picture or two( see below )we parted company, with me telling him to buy lotto tickets ASAP! Talk about car-ma!
Damn, I hate being reminded about my own mortality like that. So I took advantage of Rene’s cable TV and watched most of Tank Girl on Teletoon – Lori Petty’s wacko over-the-top performance always cheers me up, despite the poor plot choice of the Ripper’s zoo origins. One of these days I am going to have to pick up the original comic, which I have heard is ten times better than the movie adaption. Go figure.

Sept 15th - The Wrap-up

Up and bleary-eyed for 8am…. then 8:30am after a failed attempt to rouse from bed. I met Brian, Pierre and Josh at the Sunrise Café less than an hour later. It was like old times, save for the fact that Mike was not there… but that’s a 9-5 job for you. We talked about quite a bit of tech, including our thoughts on the Church Of The Banana and how to develop it into something that may one day, with luck, provide some kind of income for us. Of course, we bandied stories about of the various ‘Got Rich by Luck and Skill’ internet multi-millionaires, and I have to admit I heard a few new stories. One such was the guy who parlayed a cell-phone ringtone site into a blog site worth tens of thousands per month. Another was TechCrunch, a blog that gets over a million hits a day. – you can imagine the kind of revenue THAT generates from ads on their site.

I delivered the tux in the Falls then hit the QEW around 2:30pm, passing over the Skyway and getting a fantastic sunlit vista of St. Catharines. Brock slouching on the Escarpment far to the left, panning towards the lake across a vista of pale buildings poking through a sea of green treetops. To the right, Lake Ontario sparkled a deep blue and far across its azure surface Toronto gleamed tiny and bright in the sunshine. Beautiful, even with the scars of local construction appearing ahead.

Travel time was excellent; as I had expected, the traffic jams were all going OUT of Toronto – the ride in was smooth and jam-free. I stopped for an early dinner at the Erin Mills Town Centre just off the 403, minutes from the airport. I remembered a restaurant there called J.J. Tapps, which was unique in that it was a multi-level eatery that took up both the upper and lower floor of a section near the food court. Sadly, things had changed somewhat since my last visit of ten years past – it was now a Pickle Barrel restaurant, and though it still sprawled over several levels, the upper had been disconnected from the lower so that the unique glass-block stairs would not take you winding through the place until you emerged on the second level of the mall. A pity; the design made for a light and airy restaurant, with a waterfall dropping through the entire height of the place – it was now a 'water feature' and much shorter. Change can be cruel to fond memories... but the maple salmon dish was fantastic, and so much could be forgiven on a happy, full stomach.

I took the rental shuttle to the airport after dropping off the car, and settled in to wait near the closed Sunwing Airlines counter around 6pm. After about 45 minutes, I realized that the counter was NOT going to open, despite the many lights. So I trundled quite a ways away, following a tiny electronic sign to discover the actual, active boarding lines, which moved quite quickly. Security was a breeze, despite my glasses falling off my tray and almost being crushed by the rollers. A quick stop for a tea from Tim Horton’s, and I settled into the lounge with well over an hour before boarding began. Despite the lingering smoke in the air from the nearby cookery( quite strong, actually )I dragged a chair over to the only power outlet in the entire lounge and set up to type this remaining entry as my laptop sipped at the tasty current as it typed awkwardly.



Whew! That’s it… a week packed into one blog. Thanks again to ALL of you, my friends, who went out of their way to spend some time with me this week in Niagara. A very special thanks to Rene, who lost sleep in order to host me comfortably and actually get some talk-time in there too. Jen, it was amazing that you were able to make it to the Kilt – your deductive powers triumphed over my innate lack of preplanning to get ahold of you. Thanks to Rene too, for his great comments about this week's blog - miss ya bud! Pics will be updated once I finish learning how to get Imageshack to do thumbnails...

Bananas, Bison and Bites

I am finishing this off in the midst of packing for my trip... toothbrushes, folded clothes and the ever-elusive wallet are scattered all about. I will be updating this blog again on Sept 16th, when I return to Victoria... tah!

Sept 1st - Labour Day

Got in a good afternoon of COD4 with a half-dozen of my friends, and I have to say I did pretty well in a few of the games, much better than my usual 1:1 balance of kills/deaths. Good for a reflex game, though the insane 3-second-average lifespan of players in Unreal Tournament still gives me the willies - that's just too frenetic to enjoy. What's the point of getting blasted a hundred times in a few minutes - the score means little when your head feels like exploding from the motion sickness. Blech.

Few people think much about the origins of Labour Day - to most, it is simply 'that holiday before school starts for the year' ... which is sad, as it celebrates the toil and hard work of generations of Canadians.

Sept 2nd - Mona Lisa and Bananas

Caught up on some reading today, including a book I picked up while visiting Nanaimo on the weekend: The Annotated Mona Lisa. I have always had an interest in Art History, especially poignant now that I live just down the street from a top-tier gallery here in Victoria... and I just missed the Andy Warhol exhibit due to being sick this month.

On the topic of art: it seems a website I had a hand in creating as a joke is actually generating some traffic - LOTS of traffic! The Church of the Banana was a site created as a joke amongst Brian, Mike and myself... though it does not use Drupal, it still looks damn decent to my eyes. Somehow though, people have been finding it on the web, and the numbers skyrocketed in August.

Sept 3rd - Spiders

I really need to get some custom screens made for my apartment windows... most places here in Victoria do not have screens, as the bug count is amazingly low all year round. Yet there are other things that like to explore nice, warm apartments on cold nights...


For the second time in two weeks, I've found a large spider crawling through my apartment. For those of you that do not know, I am not fond of spiders. Not screaming-insane scared mind you, but I do take pains( hah )to catch them / kleenex-kill them. Ironically, I was humming 'itsty-bitsy-spider' this morning as I stepped into the shower, a childhood memory of my mom telling me that spiders were dancing on the shower head... and what do I find clinging to the shower curtain? A whopping big spider, of course. Irony. Hate it.

For those of you who might laugh: see my blog on July 2nd to see how much I enjoy the thought of a spider bite. Especially given the possibility of other complications, like Arachnogenic Necrosis, that may occur from bites., along with other symptoms, some of which I have personally experienced. Before you ask: yes, I can still watch Arachnophobia easily, and do not run from spiders... and I let these two( or the same one? )go free outside - FAR away outside. So: bite me.

Anyway, as you can see from the pictures, they're bigger than a loonie, with legs than spanned about 3 inches across. For a spider, that's large, and seeing one of these crawling across your floor is an experience - it's large enough to cast a shadow!

Yes folks, that's right: they grow them BIG out here. Not tarantula size, but I KNOW what tarantulas look like, and behave like. Each time, after detaining, photographing and releasing the spiders, I tried to look them up online. They're not Brown Recluses, native to the southeastern USA, and they're not the deadly Hobo Spider - that's about the size of your pinky fingernail, about 0.5 inches across.

No, whatever these were, they are going to be on my mind awhile, at least until I manage to get them identified to put my mind at ease. Wrestling with one for control of my TV remote is NOT my idea of late-summer fun in B.C.

Sept 4th - Monkeys?

I was thinking over the old saw, that if monkeys had seen what civilization would develop into, they would never have come down out of the trees in the first place( Gangsta Rap and Roseanne come to mind ). I hereby dub our natural reaction to such things the 'Screaming Monkey Reflex'. You can see how some monkeys have adapted to the human world here... in Costa Rica, where my sister is considering moving. Her friends have told her NOT to bring her cats though, as the monkeys get in though windows and do not like domestic pets much.

So the urge to climb into a tree to fling feces and fruit is perhaps understandable, but impractical in today's society. Sad what we have lost... though I do not miss the nits, or the lack of television. Funny, since I recently stopped my cable TV service. A vestigial monkey reflex at work, mayhaps?

Sept 5th - Silverfish and Sleep

For the last few months, my smoke alarm has been beeping. Not continuously, but on and off, usually at night. I've lost a fair deal of sleep, as it goes off just long enough to wake me, then stops. Only just the other( early )morning, I blasted it with some compressed air... and a silverfish fell out and scuttled away. I nearly smacked my forehead in frustration as I recalled the same thing happening a few years ago at The Prince - but a herd of the little critters had made a home in the ceiling space there, into which the smoke alarm had a large hole cut for its A/C power. Cue Fire Department at 4am, and an annoyed Superintendent... and a lot of foam spray to seal it all up.

Finally, after one particularly annoying episode here in Victoria, I'd had enough. This morning I pulled it out of its ceiling cradle and had a good look to see what I could do. A creative application of duct tape and foam trim substituted nicely for a lack of expanding foam spray, to seal off the inside of the smoke alarm from the ceiling cavity. They should really make these things with some kind of seal for the wires, so that this kind of problem doesn't happen. Many people would sleep better - I can attest.

Sept 6th - Mocking Sunshine

Stuck working on the weekend, with the sun shining mockingly just out of reach beyond armoured glass and big, bright windows. It is weekends like this that I ( only sometimes )wish I had a job outside... though not pumping gas.

At least working the later shifts on the weekends means I can sleep in and make a decent breakfast - cold cereal cannot compare to fresh pancakes, eggs and turkey bacon to put a good spin on the rest of your day

I was tired tonight, but had trouble falling asleep - with the windows closed, this place gets HOT. It registered 31 degrees in the main room at midnight, but started falling after I relented and opened the windows - briefly - to blast in some cooler air.

Sept 7th - Bison Balls

I have mentioned before how much I despise people who walk into a place where the staff are stuck inside all day, and the first words out of their mouth are "Gosh, it's SO beautiful outside!" - makes my hand scrabble for the Tiger Pit button... *sigh*

It figures that weather-wise, Victoria is now going to have PERFECT 100% Sunny Skies ALL WEEK while I am on vacation in ANOTHER province... likely getting rained on while sitting in a Tim Horton's. Somewhere, the weather gods are ROTFL at me. Fair, life ain't.

I had dinner at my parent's after work, along with my Aunt & Uncle who were visiting from Niagara - the first people to do so, family or friends, so we were all thrilled they could make it. We had spaghetti and bison balls for dinner... well, meatballs made from bison meat, which is so low in fat that I can have more than a few with no bad reaction. They provided much amusement at the table!

My relatives flew IN using Sunwing Airlines, the same people I got such a great deal from for my own flight tomorrow. They said that the only thing they did not like was the in-flight movie; otherwise it was as pleasant a trip as they have ever had, and being world travelers I found that most comforting a statement. Ironically, they will be flying OUT on the same flight I will be flying IN on when I return to Victoria, so we may pass by each other in the airport at some point.

That's it - more in a week and a day after I return from Niagara. And Welcome to the Silver Spider of the Sea, our newest Commentator - have they taken over from the Comment Christ, who has not spoken in some weeks? Only Time will Tell!

Time, Trips and TV

The week started off slow, but picked up steam as it went along... and only a little over a week now until Niagara - hooray! Added Aug 29th entry update on 9/3rd.

Aug 25th - Recovery in Time

Still working on recovering from my cold today, though all that remains is a total lack of energy. At least it didn't develop into any other stages; I hate coughing and sneezing. A lot. At least I had plenty to keep me occupied, though I did drift in and out of consciousness a lot more than usual today, for a day off. Waking up suddenly from the middle of a game of Civ:Rev can be disconcerting, as I tend not to fall asleep easily when feeling well.

I did manage to finish reading the third book in the Island in the Sea of Time series, entitled On the Oceans of Eternity - a massive book, as they all were, and utterly engrossing in their detail. Other favourite alternate history books of mine are the classic If the South Had Won the Civil War and The Peshawar Lancers. Some folk take it a little too far though, and examine EVERY point in history as a 'what if' - see some of the results here.

Aug 26th - Why me?

Another The Customer-Is-Always-Right day... boy, did I have a doozy today. In brief, the highlights: A woman was visiting from England, and didn't agree / understand / care about policies in Canada for money transfers. She carried on to a point where I was about to call the police to have her removed from the store - then I managed to foist her off onto Western Union, where she chewed a strip a mile wide through various levels of CSR's. After she managed to disconnect herself from them, and using my massive experience in Idiocy Deflection, I managed to get her the hell out of my store, WITH her transfer, and a fervent wish that the next foreign country she visits will have a standing policy of shooting monomaniacal foreigners who think they are Righter Than Thou, despite ignorance of a different country's rules, laws and common decency.

I only wish I could see the look on her face as they take the safety off and cock the hammer back... *sigh* Not really. But still: See Not-Always-Right.com for more amusement - I find the person asking a clerk at a dollar store how much a particular item is to be endlessly entertaining...

Aug 27th - Bananas and TV

So far, my lack of television has not made an appreciable dent in my day' schedule. If anything, I am now free to watch what I want, when I want - much as back when the VCR was introduced, followed by the PVR... anything I want to see is on the PC, on DVD, or on YouTube. In fact, I have been discovering a LOT of shows are on YouTube, some of which I had never expected to ever see again. Along with some things that perhaps are better seen once, then forgotten again... quickly.

On a side note, I received an email today which was a first: someone actually FOUND a website I had co-developed years ago both as a joke and exercise in web-building. Yet in my Inbox today sat a note that asked how one becomes a member of The Church of the Banana ... ? Well, to be honest, I'd never expected anyone to actually WANT to do more than laugh if they stumbled across the site... and frankly, I am not sure if we are going to respond, as anyone who WANTS to become One with the Great Banana kinda scares me. On several levels.

Aug 28th - Silent Voices

I did a bit of a double-take today while rooting around searching for voice actors, to add to my research about getting into that profession. To my sorrow, I found out that two actors whose work I had so admired in some of my faviorite shows had died, in both cases several years previous! Tony Jay, better known as Megabyte in ReBoot( and characters in countless other shows )passed on in August 2006. Preceding him into the Binomial Abyss was the aptly-named Long John Baldry, who also voiced several characters in ReBoot and had a solid singing career. In both cases, they had voices that were utterly distinctive and recognizable in any work they did.

There's just something that appeals to me about the voice acting. Having a good voice is a must, but one has to be flexible in many ways. Though people like Rich Little have obviously been gifted with voices and mimicry beyond almost anyone, most voice actors are still able to voice several dozen different types of characters - hence the term 'actor' you will note. Unlike some limited voice actors, or people like Sugar( formerly of YTV, whose voice is incredibly high )the whole idea is NOT to get typecast - while certain roles may be perfect for YOUR voice, they do not come along each day, so you cannot make a living doing just ONE type of voice. Heck, look at John Tesh... he's still hosting a radio show, albeit a very popular one in syndication. Plus a singing career. Hmmm....

Aug 29th - Deadly Dust

EDIT: I almost forgot - I attended BluesBash'08 tonight, with a few of my neighbours. We stopped at the Market Square for dinner first, to eat at Green Cuisine, a buffet-style all-vegetarian place. Amusingly, the most popular menu item were the fries... though I liked the veggie falafel. In any case, we settled in for a COLD evening by the water to watch Jim Byrnes, along with special guests The Sojourners. It was a great crowd, and Jim related quite a few touching stories about his long musical career and the Blues. Oh, and the music was good too. *grin*

I had to make a dash for Starbuck's though, as the concession booths only had one hot drink: coffee, and none of us drank that. So I skipped to Starbuck's at the Bay Center to pick up some drinks; hot chocolate for me, and some weird needed-a-full-page-written-on-a-napkin green drink for the others. Reminded me of hot Romulan Ale, for as Scotty would have said after a sniff: "It's ... it's green." We were the only ones there with Starbucks; my smiling charm got me past the gate guards, who could relate to the lack of hot bevvy variety at the fest. Go me!

An odd thing happened to my PC today, which scared me for about ten minutes until I ran out of creative technical swear-phrases. In short: my screen went black & white, then blank. Period. Seeing as this is my one and only machine for the vast majority of work I do apart from my day job, I understandably started to sweat bullets.

Fortunately, a little down-time seemed to fix the error, and a thorough cleaning actually cooled the blue beast down some more - dust does tend to build up in there, all too quickly. Ironically, I am writing a 'Basic PC Maintenance Guide' for Cyberwalker.com, so perhaps my own PC is trying to tell me to finish the Guide off soonest! I guess I will have to get my air cleaning going again in the main room.

Or buy a new computer. I must admit, lagging so far behind the technical edge is starting to become a bother, especially since I can only do a few things at a time before the beast overloads. *sigh* Maybe in the new year... one of these would be nice, but I would settle happily for one of these, and so would my wallet, at that!

Another reason for a new PC: Fallout 3. I have a penchant for post-apocolyptic: Mad Max, Deathlands( the earlier books are much better )and After the Bomb are all favourites of mine. Something about mutants, radiation and the fact that the customer service industry would be reduced simply to having shotguns held ready under counters as a final measure appeals to me greatly.

Aug 30th - Friendship

I had an interesting line of thought run around my brain today, as it has on occasion over the years. Whilst ruminating on the various friendships I have formed over the years, I once again thought about the vagaries of life that occur to toss people together, and tear them apart again. Childhood friends, school friends, work friends, social friends, family friends, online friends... the list of friends is as many and as varied as one can imagine - meeting people can happen anywhere, from the grocery store to in the middle of a river.

What I find interesting is how MANY of these friends that one keeps over the years, and at what level. I have known people who have few friends, but those they have are very close, like family. Other people seem transitory, changing friends every year and swapping social circles like socks. Happily, in my own case I have been very lucky to have met some fine friends early in life, and continued the trend all along. I count many dozens of people among those whom I am proud to call friend, from all walks of life and all manner of meetings.

One person who has made a study of friendships, a Prof. Dunbar, has come up with something now being referred to as 'Dunbars Number. In essence, the good prof theorizes that people are hardwired to not have more than 150 friends at any one time. The theory is mentioned in this article, which is a good read. I find it fascinating, as I am using technology to stay in touch with my far-flung friends - this blog is but one example of such.

Aug 31st - Nanaimo: not just a tasty dessert

I spent the day today traveling to the lovely city of Nanaimo, 1.5 hours north of Victoria, about the size of St. Catharines. I've enjoyed day trips on the Island, as I have not spent much time outside the Greater Victoria region - much the same as travelling to Toronto from the Niagara region. Only FAR greener, and with a LOT more mountain scenery.

We stopped along the way at the town of Chemianus, whose claim to fame are dozens of outdoor murals in the main downtown area. Apparently the local sport is Tourist Dodging, which is played much the same around the world as in Niagara Falls: dodge your car around various idiot tourists with cameras, who are looking at everything BUT the Big Dangerous Metal Things on the roads!

Lunch was at the Crow & Gate, a reproduction English Pub located way back in the country roads of Cedar, B.C. It is an authentic British Pub( built in 1972 )right down to the low ceilings, massive use of wood everywhere and the Bar Ordering System. Yes, that's right: you line up at the bar to place your order and pay BEFORE the meal, get your drinks, and then the food is brought out to you. Slow and inefficient, but it's authentic... and you get the chance to talk to your fellow line-goers in the bargain. It was a little cold to sit outside, but they had a lovely English garden surrounding the pub, including a pond with, of all things, black swans! Photo op!

Nanaimo itself was very... hilly. Everything descended to the sea from the hills, with the downtown core in an L-shape whose long end pointed away from the ocean and towards the brand-spankin' new shopping mall. Yep, all that way and we ended the trip wandering around a half-completed mall.. with a new Best Buy, the first on the island. I scored some dirt-cheap 'Grand Opening Special' SD memory cards and an Ultimate Edition of The Fifth Element, one of my all-time favourite films. Go Milla Jovovitch...! Did I mention she's starred in several apocolyptic films, like Resident Evil? And did I also mention she sings?

Sadly, I'd developed a stinker of a headache from the trip, perhaps due to the lovely sunny skies - high air pressure ya know. I am pleased to report that I have suffered FAR fewer headaches here in BC than I did in Ontario ... likely due to the much more stable barometric pressure levels that can trigger headaches in some people, such as myself. So I begged off dinner plans and sank into a Tylenol-induced snooze for a few hours, to wake feeling moderately human again, though not enough to do more than putter on the PC until snoozing.


That's a wrap - for some reason this week's blog just would NOT flow until the late hours turned into the early hours. Ah well - it's on paper, so to speak, and I can sleep.