I'd like to introduce you to someone.

This blog has made many a mention of my loveable beagle Bootsy, but little mention has been made of our other loveable family member, Shadow!



Now Shadow and I didn't start off well together. Rhonda had gotten him shortly after we started going out, and he and I have been fighting for Rhonda's love ever since. In fact when we first found out Rhonda was pregnant, I refused to take credit for the child until I had seen the ultrasound and saw that the baby didn't have a fluffy tail or one white paw.

But we've grown to be fast friends. And how could we not. Shadow first and foremost is incredibly smart. He can always figure out any new game instantly, always knows when something is amiss and has been like a second father to the baby... gentle, patient and firm. I'm gald to have him in the house in this neighborhood. He's small but he'll sound the alarm if something is happening and if we did have an intruder, I know he'd give his life to save the family. It wouldn't surely stop him, but I know his vigilance would give us a fighting chance.

Top Ten things to know about Shadow -
10 - He's a pimp - always kind to the ladies, always a gentleman
9 - He's a genuine horn dog - I blame Rhonda for never getting him fixed.
8 - The leash is a formality - He'll rarely wander out of earshot.
7 - He's great with kids - even when the baby pulls his hair, he rarely has more than a growl or a gentle grab to move her hand.
6 - He's smart as hell - learned to play frisbee on the first toss, my family still talks about it
5 - I'm still not sure he isn't Kayah's biological father - only the paternity test will tell for sure!
4 - He has one white paw - but rarely do I make reference to the similarity to Michael Jackson - he's not a freak!
3 - Nickname - Mr. Shadowski
2 - He's the real Nightwatchman Mr Morello
1 - He's probably one of the best dogs I've come across.

So do yourself a favour, get to know Shadow!

Canadian Car Chase

Yep, we've all seen it... probably getting tired of it, but hey I'd like to look back on this blog in 10 years and remember this commercial.

Classic.

Tetanus

So I got a tetanus shot this weekend. Was helping my dad put in some new windows in Swift Current this weekend and while throwing out the old ones at the land-fill, put a shingle nail in my foot. Hurt like a damn bastard. Decided to head to the hospital and get a shot just in case.

Gotta say, 2 days later, the shot is worse than the wound. But now I'm covered for a decade, so next time I need a shot the baby will be in Grade 5 and Tai will be off to college... so I'll have bigger things to worry about.

Had a good time in Swift Current. It was the first time I've had a girl over night at my parents house... and this time I brought 3! Grandma and Grandpa had some fun with their recently accquired granddaughters and Tai is learning the fine art of subtly coercing her Grandparents (replaceing "Can I have Dairy Queen" with "Boy an ice cream would be good on a day like this")

Back to work today. I need to get my record label making money, I don't know how to keep myself sane working on buildings for the next 29 years to retirement.

Blog Quebecquois

Figure if I'm gonna run for the Bloc next election, I better start recognizing that "La Belle Province" exists. Bonjour!

Been a fine week off. Decided to move a dozen large sidewalk blocks by myself today. My body is pissed about that one. But we shall survive.\

Election party was fun. Superstore chips, CBC-TV, MSN Chat and root beer. It numbed the pain of another Tory government. Looks like I'd better hurry on getting government funding for my label. Yikes.

I got a free copy of Bram Stokers "Dracula" sitting here for the first person who can line me up $15,000 in a legal manner. My label needs some funding.

Election Day MSN Party

Well folks, once again, my sister, wife and I will be hosting an election night MSN party. We've got people in PEI and Saskatchewan so far, and everyone is invited to put in their 2 cents and join the party. If you're not on my MSN yet, my address is fluffnews at hotmail.

We just get together and get a good view of the whole country, with people watching (hopefully) all the major networks and giving updates as we go.

Remember to bring your ID and get out there and vote so we have something to follow tonight!!!!

No Stephen! It's my ice cream!

Ah photo manipulation. Our poor politicians.

Voting Strategically 2

Well apparently Elizabeth May is encouraging strategic voting in close races. Wish I knew if my riding was one of the about 60 that she feels we need to vote this way in. Maybe such information will float up in the next couple days.

But then, this is in contrast to her advice only days ago. Now I'm not saying I'm gonna follow her lead explicitly, frankly I still question her skills as a politician.

So the debate rages on.

Think I'll run for the BQ next election. Present! pour la Quebec!

Pondering Strategic Voting

Well only a few days to the election. And all of a sudden I'm in a dilemma.

It's no secret that I would very literally take an axe to the head than cast a vote for this Conservative party. Even if I did consider myself a small "C" conservative, the party that we've had running the country has been deceitful, dishonest and just plain bad. From ignoring obvious issues to making a big deal and doing nothing, they've just fucked the dog for the past 2 years. Blame the Liberals if you want, but they've stayed home for the past 2 years, so find another whipping boy there guys.

Coming up to the election its becoming very clear that the election is going to be a very close one, with an almost certain minority. One of the seats that the Tories could potentially lose is the riding I'll be voting in. Word is that NDP Janice Bernier could potentially un-seat incumbent Andrew Scheer... but it could be close.

Now I've already made it pretty clear that I want to vote Green in this election, but a vote for the NDP could go a long way to shifting the balance of power. I'm not saying that my vote is going to make the difference between Prime Minister Harper or Prime Minister Dion, but the fact is, it could help. I have zero problem voting NDP, I've voted NDP provincially several times and I think once maybe twice federally. They're my third pick after the Greens and the Bloc Quebecquois.

At least I've got another handfull of days to decide, keep my eyes on the headlines and if I make my decision in the voting booth, well that's my choice to make.

God bless democracy.

Chant Down Babylon

We had an unusual visitor here this week. Rhonda has a little home business creating and maintaining dreadlocks. It puts a few extra bucks in the coffers every few months and we get to meet some new people. She had a new client come by, a self-proclaimed Rastaman. Not a terribly unusual thing considering Rasta and dreadlocks are pretty much synonymous, but the first person we've had by that I could say was a real Rasta.

We discussed the basis of rasta on the Bible, Hallie Selassie I and many other aspects of the religion. One of the aspects I wish I had spoken to him more about was the concept of rejecting Babylon. In Rasta it is beleived that by rejecting modern society (Babylon) and the temptations that come with it, one can reach Zion, their promised land. While to some this likely seems pretty extreme, this gentleman lived in what I understood to be very modest lodgings, working a farm and following the teachings of Jah.

The concept of rejecting many of the things that we have in our world has been a tempting concept for me of late. Call it what you want, the concept resides in many religions - leaving worldly posessions in order to become closer to a higher power. Considering the difficulties and stresses that modern society has, the idea isn't such a bad one.

It is a dream of mine to eventually have a place where I have some seclusion and a simplicity to my life. I'm sure I won't reach this goal until retirement, but I'm preparing now, saving, planning, dreaming. I'm thinking maybe a tree farm or an orchard somewhere, reading, walking, enjoying the world.

Hey a guy can dream can't he?

Google Chromium

Been using the brand-spankin' new Google Chromium this week.  Read an article online then one in Wired and decided it couldn't hurt to try it out.  

First impression is how damn CLEAN it is.  Then once you start using it more, it gets smaller.  It's really a new way of surfing, familliar, yet different.  Once you do a little research on how to use it, it becomes very interesting indeed.  

The software is really new, so there are a few features that have yet to be seen, no extensions yet, but if I understand some of the new structures they've put into the software, I think that extensions are going to be a bit different, so a new standard for extensions and perhaps even plugins will be created.  

The most intriguing part of all this is the fact that it's Open Source.  There is a relatively easy to read comic about the software availiable online.  It gets kinda technical at the end and to be sure I understood about 13% of it, but if I got my head around this right, they've created and built some pretty impressive new ideas into the realm of the browser and left it all open and free for all to use.  They simply want to advance the path of browsers in order to advance the internet.  Pretty profound, but then when your business is dependent on the size and use of the internet, the best thing you can do is give people the tools to do it for you for free.

Of course this leaves us in a world potentially saturated with Google.  Seriously, I see it in my life already.  It's totally integrated.  I can query Google from my cell phone, I get my schedule from Google Calendars in my e-mail and as a text message on my phone.  This blog is linked to my Google account, as is my YouTube account.  Even before Chrome, my browser had several Google-based plugins, and Firefox is synonimous with Google.  My homepage is my iGoogle page, I use the search engine for 60% of my searches, I plan trips on Google Maps, have photos on Picassa, and 80% of my office application work is done in Google Documents.  I also use at least a half dozen more Google Apps on a daily basis, it's even connected to several peices of software that I use.

We're on the fringe of the cloud folks, and it's name is Google.

Bleh. Work.

Ok so back to work today after beating the SARS to some sort of meaningful submission. Had noticed this weekend that a few minor persistent health complaints that had been bothering me had subsided. And back they came today. Bullshit.

Not sure if its the work or the workplace or what, but these issues only seem to affect me at work. Not gonna get into details, they're personal, but I know one thing. I need to consider this in my career path.

I'm coming back into my desire to devote more time to the label, and have been slowly ramping back up. I'm running into and will run into more resistance from my wife and understandably so, but I want to get a whole heap of issues dealt with before I hit my stride again so that this time when the label consumes me, it will hopefully be easier to manage the rest of my life so she's gonna have less to complain about... ;)

Five more days and Pilotsworld.ca is gone ... update those bookmarks to http://pilotsworld.blogspot.com now!!!!

My wife wants me to weigh in on the election...

Really.

Well if you drive by my house, there's a Green Party sign on the lawn. I just added the button to my blog.

So why Green? Well I like, support and understand their platform and they seem to be running the most mature, and honestly most business like campaign. I look at an election like a job interview/performance review. The other parties in the race (with the possible exception on the BQ - I unapologetically admit I don't follow them closely - their half a nation away from me) spend a great deal of time lambasting their opponents and promising obscure and often complex programs. Either that or I just summarily disapprove of what they do/have done.

While the Green Party is a "single issue" party, they've managed to create a platform that covers a wide range of social, economic and national issues under one umbrella. They have a commitment to social justice, sustainability, diversity, healthcare reform and a new look at the way our government does business.

But I'm not in the business of telling people how to vote. That at it's root is an abuse of democracy. The parties all have their own webpages, or you can phone any one of their offices and talk to their representative in your riding. Narrow down your choices, make some informed decisions and if you listen to one thing I say, PLEASE VOTE ON OCTOBER 14. This, more than who you vote for is important to me. I see our political parties starting to take alot of liberties with the power they've been given, from the Liberals to to Conservatives. I think at the root of this is a lack of engagement from the voting public. The world is a busy place and we can't always be running off to protests, but an hour or two every 3-5 years is not enough to ask for you to maintain your freedoms and send a message to our leaders that we ARE watching them and we DO care what they do.

But vote Green, 'cause I'd love to see the look on Stephen Harpers stupid face when he's the minorty leader under Elizabeth May. I would giggle my goddamn ass off.

Update your bookmarks and more stuff

Before I forget, update your bookmarks to Pilots World to the old address http://pilotsworld.blogspot.com/ . pilotsworld.ca is gonna expire in the next month or so and I'm not planning on renewing it. Just not that important to me anymore.

This just in - Paul Newman has passed away. So eat a salad today and pour a 40 of salad dressing on the curb.

Ok I give up

I've had so much trouble finishing my Beijing saga that I just give up. Everyday I don't finish it is a day I'm not blogging about something else. So let's just say I got arrested, again, got SARS and ended up eating meecrob until my ass fell out and they sent me home.

That'll do.

So been a flurry of stuff the past month or so. Played Field Fest with Linger a few weeks ago. Pretty good deal. The band has broken up and re-formed as a new group featuring the Roman Bros. - Dave and Vic, the Pilon Bros. - Me and Andrew and the one and only Scotty T. We're finalizing our name and will start work on our new material next weekend. I think everyone is very excited, we've got a new - more stable guitarist and we're going to be playing music that we've all evenly contributed and written. Linger was getting very stale for everyone in the band and it was creating tension. The past couple months have been a rocky transition, but by probably spring next year we'll be rippin' and raring for our first gig and should hopefully melt some face and brains with the new material. I don't think anyone has any idea yet what it's gonna sound like, but I'm sure it will be rockin' and progressive... and overly technical if I'm jusdging everyone correctly.

Maent Records has been stuttering and stalling. I'm home on a sick day today (the SARS) so I'm gonna do a quick update on the home page and get some info out for people. We've completed our first release a short-run CD-EP by the one and only Johnny Rockstar. We had our first sale a few weeks ago, so we're making that red number a bit smaller now. We're trying to organise and re-tool the company right now as things got WAY out of hand in the beginning there and we were spending more time trying to meet expectations of others without making our own footprint in the industry which was our goal in the first place. But things are getting better and expect to see more from the crew in late October/early November.

Getting the house together the past few weeks and I'd be well on my way if I wasn't knocked on my ass by this fucking SARS shit. Got the garage totally cleaned out (thank you Used Regina!) and am half way though getting the practice/writing studio/tv room/chill area/general purpose room cleaned out and storage back to where it needs to be. I need to find a couple quality folding tables and get some more plugs installed in the room, but that shouldn't be too much of a challenge. Finally having the freedom to get the house together and make it liveable is a massive load off my mind and I actually look forward to more cleaning and organizing. I've never been mister neat, and add to that some of the shall we say "self-created retardedness" of the past 10 years or so haven't made it any better, so finally finding myself in a place in life where I can fix my problems instead of making them is very zen.

Baby is rolling all over the place and likes to "talk" all the time. She's very cute, but can also be very fussy and grumpy at times. But she's getting better.

Anyhoo, election coming up. Please don't vote Conservative in the coming Canadian election people. You'd only be shooting yourselfs in the foot. Unless you own a big Corporation. Then maybe you'd be ok. I'm throwing my clout behind the Green Party again. I'm tired of sacrificing my values in an attempt to knock off another party. I know the Green Party is an awfully constrained way to run a party, but I think if democracy was run properly, there would be a multitude of parties like them and we'd have more expertise on issues instead of the general approach attached to an idiom that we currently have.

After Jail

Sorry to cut you guys off there, but I'm back. I'm safe, I'm ok, I just gotta figure out how to get home now.

So I got out of jail, and made my way into the street, destitute, no way home, no language.

Sounds like bad writing to me.

A kindly old woman approached me as I lie crying in the rain on a bench. I'm not sure what she said, but she was very calming and soon was ushering me onto a bus. The bus drove for I don't know how long until we got off at the foot of a large group of dense public apartment buildings. I was ushered up three fights of stairs (wondering what those on the top 30 or 40 floors did) and was soon seated on the floor wrapped in a warm blanket.

I fell asleep at some point and awoke very ill. I was shivering and nauseous. Seems the lack of proper nutrition, stress and lack of sleep had affected me quite negatively. I was fortunate as the woman, Ma Xiuxiu was a great comfort and kept me fed and nursed me constantly. We watched the Olympics, I was able to tell her where I was from by watching the diving and pointing when Alexandre Despatie and Arturo Miranda dove. She soon rushed me an atlas and I was able to show her where I lived.

I've been there ever since. As my strength returns, I go for walks, a little more everyday. She gives me a few yuan everyday to go to the local market to pick up some rice and vegetables. Rhonda will be glad to hear that Xiuxiu has been allowing me very little meat. She pats my belly and laughs when I try to ask. Any extra money she lets me keep, I've been using it to get internet time to contact home. She really has been a wonder to be around, I do hope someday I can repay her for her kindness.

But I should head home, supper will be nearly ready, and Xiuxiu has some sort of suprise for me, she had a red envelope for me before I left, but she wouldn't let me open it until I get back.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Ok; Still in Bejing.

F___

After my last post, I headed to the airport, got my money and headed to get a ticket home. As luck would have it, if I stayed the night and left in the morning, I could get my ticket for half price, and accommodations would be a small concern, according to the kind woman at the ticket counter.

I left the airport for the downtown where I was told I would find a hotel with ease. I arrived in the crowded downtown, and soon came along a small stand in an alley. A nice gentleman sold me five DVD's - Charlie Bartlett, Dark Knight, Pineapple Express, Step-Brothers and The Office Season 3 for $5US - A deal to me.. and I had heard about some of these Asian countries selling cheap bootleg movies.

Just as the money was changing hands, a police officer rounded the corner and there I was, in the back of a truck with about 8 street vendors, sans passport or wallet.

I spent the night in a frighteningly sterile cell, isolated from the remainder of the group. I didn't sleep a wink, no clue of the language, no money, passport, phone. They even took my car keys. Just my clothes and belly button lint (I would soon resort to amusing myself playing catch with myself using the latter).

The next morning a soldier came in returned my wallet, phone, keys and passport. The wallet had been conveniently lightened. I still had my ticket, but had already missed my plane by the time I made it to the airport.


Oh my time at the internet cafe is nearly up. I've got to e-mail my parents and wife before time runs out. i'll Talk to you all later.

Back at the Internet Cafe

Ok, so I'm back at the internet cafe that I was at last time. Been very strange, but I had to try and stay in familiar territory.

I called Rhonda just after the last blog, I thought that she might be excited that I was going to go check out the swimming. She asked if I had even thought of getting a round-trip ticket. I hadn't. So about twenty minutes later, once she had reached through the international phone cable and pulled my testicles out my throat, we arranged for her to borrow some cash and Western Union it to me at the airport here. I can get on a plane and get home.

Sorry babe.

I ended up heading to the swimming pavilion not too long later. I would learn at the front door that no event started that day until 2. So I went for a walk around the arena to pass some time and consider my next move. Suddenly I was hit with a very sudden need to find a bathroom. I suppose it's not necessarily wise to drink fountain water in a city whose air is thick enough to pour on pancakes. I ran to a side door of the arena and threw the first door I saw open and ran down a hall. Thankfully, the little man on the door means the same thing in China as in Canada, and I soon found relief.

Emerging from the stall I realized I had entered a changing room and had direct access to the pool deck. Following my keen pool-health knowledge, I removed my shoes and proceeded to check out the pool. Any ex-pool boy is gonna be curious what China built for a pool for the OLYMPICS. Got a good pssic -

I headed back out and sat down on a seat to put my shoes on to leave. I must have leaned back to collect my strength to leave and I just passed out.

The next thing I knew, I was being shaken and a young Chinese man with poor English was above me imploring, "Please Meestar. I will be punished if you are found here. Jail for you. Leave now quickly!" As I ran out of the building I could see a lineup developing at the doors.. it was nearly noon.... I had entered the building at 5 or 6 in the morning.

So I decided to make my way back here and update the world on what's happening. Rhonda will be excited to see my pool photo. Hopefully my next post will be from the airport, waiting for the plane to take me home. I might go check out a store or something on my way to the airport and see what's up. Gonna check my e-mail here too.

IN BEJING!!!!

Ok so something weird happened yesterday after that last blog. I just kinda snapped. So I cashed in a bunch of my savings, bought a plane ticket to Bejing, and here I am. At the Olympics.

Pretty cool pictures from the opening ceremonies for you here...

I haven't really got anywhere to sleep yet, and I stayed up pretty much all night... and morning is coming soon. I stepped into this internet cafe to get a coffee and collect my thoughts. Here I am in a foreign country where I don't understand the language, and all I have is my cell phone, my wallet, with a work credit card and my debit card in it, and my passport.

Rhonda said her favourite Olympic event to watch was swimming, so I think I might go check that out, once I find somewhere to get some sleep.

I'm so tired and this keyboard is really weird.

I'll talk to you guys soon.

Ok a Demand and a solution.... to a couple problems....but I might need help.

Ok folks, I've been busy with life - baby and allsuch. But I've got some complaints and some possible solutions...

Problem 1 - The death of the Sask Blogs Aggregator. This was a great resource and not a week would go by that I wouldn't pop in to see how the province was doing. My favourite thing to do was to visit in the hours following a Rider game and see how people were reacting. Carm and crew at CKRM do a great job reviewing the game, but it's fun to hear it from the people. I offered a possible solution to SaskBoy recently then was broadsided with/by life. So I offer this out there to anyone with the time and enthusiasm to pursue it.

- Start a feedtwister account. Begin plugging in RSS feeds from sites submitted and farmed from the original Saskblogs Aggregator - the Blogroll still works and can be seen on the right side of this blog...use it. Then take the generated code and plug it into free or personal webspace. If I could, I would recommend 110mb.com. They also offer fantastic scripts. I think of interest to a page like this would be a message board and a news page, but there are tonnes of scripts and even a small amount of imagination and drive could expand the concept quite a bit... SaskGallery, SaskSMS.. whatever! I'd do it myself, but hey... I blog like once a month.

If I'm lucky.

Problem 2 - No CFL scores in RSS or SMS form. Argh! I've been using my cell-phones SMS ability to a great extent of late. I have it receiving my daily Google Calendar Schedule, Sending me severe weather warnings, a daily forecast and I'm thinking of a few more. One of the ones I'd like it an update at the end of each CFL game on the score of that game.. who won-who lost. The best I can find out there right now includes league news, team and player news, scores and lengthy descriptions. My initial thought is to subscribe to the scores online and in any other way possible, then post them to a blog whose RSS feed one could subscribe to via My Yahoo and use their SMS feature OR start a broadtexter account and let people subscribe to the feed.

Again - time time time.

So until the time someone gets more time than me - help yourself, these ideas are licenced in the public domain.

6-1

I'm disappointed, but I can understand. Good rally in the 4th quarter, that kind of umph would have been nice in the three quarters preceding it.

Now to crying babies...