Being Canadian we only have Rememberance Day on November 11 to pay homage to our fallen war dead, but the US also has Memorial Day which is today.

Here's a post from a blogger named Sgt. Hook with a list of soldiers who have died in Iraq with a downloadable AU file of 'Taps' being played hauntingly on a bugle. Not everyone agrees the United States should be in Iraq. Nor are we sure what the final outcome is going to be. I pray the people on the list have not died in vain and that all will work out as it should.

Take The Geek Test and find out how much of a geek you are.

My score: "35.7002% - Major Geek"

OMG I'll bet this home theatre is hella loud. Can you say Richter scale? I knew you could.

Now this is more than enough to preclude me from ever watching another James Bond film. They suck now anyway.

I wish I had the time and cash to do a roadtrip like Worlds Largest Things Traveling Roadside Attraction. It would be great to see North America like that. I know the world's largest hockey stick and puck are in Duncan BC. I've seen 'em.

My ding ding dong...

Watch the headsnapping mullet ridden video right here.

I got an email from Barb Mac (Thanks Barb!). It appears I should do my a little more homework when it comes to my favourite show The Trailer Park Boys. Jim Lahey the drunken closet homosexual trailer park supervisor, played by John Dunsworth, just happens to be from Bridgewater NS where I'm from. I thought He looked familiar. I thought it was just because he's an actor, but I guess it's more than that.

Here's his official bio from the Trailer Park Boys website:

John Dunsworth (Mr. Lahey) was born in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, not far from the sea where he now spends most of his time on his yacht when he's not working. John is one of Halifax's most venerable and revered actors. He has appeared in countless CBC radio dramas and has held leading roles in over 25 Neptune Theatre productions. In 1970, long before the days of waterfront renewal, John convinced the city of Halifax to lease to him a run-down old building by the shipyards which he turned into Pier One Theatre – Halifax's first and arguably its most successful alternative theatre company.

John first met Mike Clattenburg in the mid-1990s when he auditioned for a small role in Mike's short, One Last Shot. Halfway through shooting, John's small role blossomed into a leading part – a part that garnered him a Best Performance award from the Atlantic Film Festival. From there, John developed that role into the character Jim Lahey, the trailer park supervisor on the series Trailer Park Boys.

John’s recent film credits include principle roles in Sleepmurder for CTV, Blessing for CBS, Shattered City: Halifax Explosion for Salter Street Films and Thom Fitzgerald’s Indie film Three Needles.

John is an avid bridge player, holding master points. He also holds, until somebody proves otherwise, the Internet Scrabble record for having three 7-letter words in a row. Around town, John is easy to spot. He drives an old truck with a thousand pound winch that he uses for hauling granite. In 1987, John founded Filmworks Casting where he worked as Halifax's most successful casting director. Prior to that, John worked in the transportation industry. To be precise, he drove a cab for three years and worked the CNR trains from Halifax and Sydney.

That's not my only personal brush with TPB. I went to university with the now ex-girlfriend of J-Roc played by Jonathan Torrens.

As a result of their loss last night in game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals, the Calgary Flames have fired Jarome Iginla and hired on Bubbles a.k.a. The Green Bastard from the Trailer Park Boys in his place.

Thanks to everyone who sent me the other graphic with the white background, but I did my own with the rink and fans in the photo to give it more of a action-shot feel.

I gotta get me one of these...

Carol's Mom, Audrey a.k.a. Mrs C, is visiting Cathy, Carol's sister, in Texas this week. They went to Padre Island on the Gulf of Mexico to watch the release of baby sea turtles by the National Park Service. I guess they're having a great time and learning a lot about and taking pictures of baby sea turtles. Sea turtles are interesting for sure, but I think they'd make a great soup to tell you the truth. It's probably that kind of thinking that adds to their being endangered.

I actually saw a sea turtle in the wild when I was young. It was swimming in the wake of Uncle Lloyd's boat when we were coming back in from trip outside of the bay of the LaHave River in the Atlantic. Dad took some pictures. It was a big animal, at least 4 feet across the back.

Thanks to Cathy and Mrs C for the links and pictures.

A seven year old boy was at the centre of a courtroom drama this morning when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of the boy. The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge awarded custody to his aunt. The boy confirmed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and refused to live there.

When the judge suggested that he live with his grandparents the boy cried out that they beat him more than anyone. The judge dramatically allowed the boy to choose who should have custody of him.

Custody was granted to the Toronto Maple Leafs this morning as the boy firmly believes that they are not capable of beating anyone.

Thanks to Pauly for sending this. He, however , had substituted another hockey team's name in the text. I made the executive descision to change it to one more appropriate.

Wondering what to do with all those cassettes you have laying aorund? Well you can digitize them now with a PlusDeck2 Drive for your PC. Now that is cool.

Check out Angry Naked Pat: Ice Cream Fantastic and all his videos, especially FBI. Remember this guy from the Superbowl is Gay video.

TommyBoy says I didn't get this link from him.

Do you watch the Sopranos? We do. If you haven't seen last week's episode don't go any further. There be a spoiler ahead.

If you're up to date you saw the episode you know what went down with Adriana. Someone has already done a spoof flash cartoon.

Thanks to Carol for the link.

George Michael wants to move here. If there's a 'body part' rubbing your foot from beneath the adjoining toilet stall in your local park you just may find the former Wham-mer on the other end of it.

This calls for a nasty joke straight from my new favourite British TV show, The Office:

What's white & slides down the wall ? George Michael's last release.

Images from Moblogging Soldiers II Soldiers in Iraq are sending some interesting photos to their websites. Definitely worth a peek.

Chihuahuas Aren't Dogs, but rodents instead. I guess I'd like to have a rodent...

Yep ... Sarin confirmed in Iraq shell (May 26, 2004) What's sarin? This may help.

5 guys? No problem. At least not for this guy... His name is Mike Vallely and he's aprofessional skateboarder.

Note to self: There are some skateboarders who can (and will) kick your ass. Yikes!

Apparently he's in a band as well. (Thanks Bull)

Check out this intelligent billboard ad for the next season.

What if Harry Potter said wang instead of wand?

Here's a funny little flash animation about Bush and Blair...

Monty Python's Eric Idle hates the FCC. He sings about it in this oh-so nasty mp3. Beware! It's not for little ears.

Thanks to TommyBoy for this graphic he put together calling it Bush's Bumper Sticker Solution to the middle east.

Right... He was a funny guy but, methinks, still dead. I'm not buying this at all. Apprently he even has his own blog. The hoaxster probably had set this up with his friends.

Have a computer? Vancouver restrooms and reviews

CBC Sports: Flames reach Stanley Cup finals
Don't you shit the bed on us.

Oh my, what a long day. Thio spost should have been on the 18th, but I didn't get in until after midnight, so... It was a full day, that's for sure. It all started off with a great speaker, Karen Salmansohn, acclaimed author, giving her How to Be Happy as a Designer, Dammit! shpiel. It was pretty funny stuff. I enjoyed it and I think I may even have learned something other than the fact she loves to call people on the phone and say the word "PENIS" to them to make an impression. LOL!

Next it was off to Hillman Curtis's session called Putting Your Heart Into Your Design. Awesome work and an intersting speaker. He spoke a lot about how the current state of affairs worldwide has gotten to him and affected his design work both for better and for worse. He was in NYC for 9/11 and very briefly touched on that. I was thousands of miles away and still feel the effects of what I saw and felt that day. I guess artsy fartsy types are just more sensative to that stuff. Either that or it's more important to us so we pay closer attention. I'm not sure whci it is, perhaps a bit of both.

The third session I attended was by Jay Jung, Creative Director of New Product Development for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Yes, he supplied enough fresh doughnuts to feed the entire room more than once, and no, I didn't cheat. I went doughnutless. Jay's talk was called When Executives Have an Idea (something all designers have dreaded from time to time). He gave creative solutions on dealing with the problems that may arise as a result of an executive's idea. Interestingly he shared four Krispy Kreme related stories about brand development and dealing with creative tasks.

The fourth and final session I went to today was called The Process Makes the Difference by Deb Fiorella of Franke+Fiorella. Simplifying and defining the creative process brilliantly Ms. Fiorella gave her firm's re-branding of Cargill Foods as an example of how the creative process works i application.

This evening I went out to dinner with Brendon (who I play first-person shooters with) and his wife Brandy. Brendon is in the US Navy and Brandy works at the San Diego Airport for the Department of Homeland Security as a security guard checking people's baggage for nasty stuff. A very patriotic family to say the least. We went to Seau's and I had another steak. Afterward we went back to their place where I got a fix of Call of Duty on Brendon's gaming machine and showed them my lunch and this blog; nice folks. I'm always surprised by how comfortable I am with these people I've never met face to face. After the final session tomorrow we and a few of the other dudes we game with are going to see Shrek 2. Could be fun!

Finally, I went to the How Conference Tuesday Night Reception aka The White Party put on by Neenah Paper a good time was had by all. Everyone was dressed in white and was given blue glow sticks and little battery operated and magnetic LED lights to decorate them selves with. Here are three pictures I took ... photo 1 ... photo 2 ... photo 3

'Odd Couple' Star Tony Randall Dies at 84

How sad. I can still hear the theme from the show whenever I think about it. Bye Tony.

This pretty much sums up the conference so far. I am having a great time and learning a lot. I wish I had come with someone as it's pretty lonely not knowing anyone, but oh well, Pauly just called from Vancouver which was nice. I needed just to yack at someone. Thanks Pauly. Carol and I have been calling each other on our cell phones pretty much non-stop. I shudder at the thought of our next bill. We should have just paid the extra cash for her to come along.

Anyway, I've been taking a ton of pictures at all of the sessions I've been attending as well as a few of San Diego's beautiful architecture. An interesting site I saw in the hotel was on the way to my room from the elevator. I thought it looked like the hallway from The Shining in which Jack Nicholson's character sees the ghosts of murdered twin girls so I snapped a photo.

The first session I went to this morning was interesting to say the least especially with my love of film. The speaker was Alexander Laurant from Industrial Light & Magic a.k.a. ILM and the topic of his talk was Designing Illusions for Film. Especially impressive was his work on 'Minority Report' designing the elevated super-highway that Tom Cruise's character uses among other effects. Another film of note was his design work on 'The Mummy' designing both the scenery and the villain Imhotep. The crowd was huge, I estimate at least 3500 people from the size of the room. I took a picture, of course.

The second session I attended was with the hilariously charismatic Joshua Davis who's topic was Flow: Leaving Room for Chance in the Design. He awed the crowd with his super cool and self written design generating software. You can see examples of it at The Department of Notation and Once Upon a Forest.

The third and final session before escaping for a huge steak and more picture taking was with Jim Krause of Pinwwwheel.net who's talk was titled Creative Sparks: Strategies for Fostering Creativity. I bought three of his books Idea Index, Color Index, Layout Index for work and will most likely pick up the new Creative Sparks for myself tomorrow.

It's only 9:30 and I'm bushed. Must watch some TV and drink some Diet Cherry Coke (I bought a 12 pack) before bed. I think I'll read a bit too.

What a surprise this was. Bye Jimmy. Expect more crappy SNL-style flicks. Secretly I love them.

SaveDonCherry.CA -- Help keep Don on HNIC
Sign the petition and forward it to a friend.

I'm writing this from my room at the Manchester Grand Hyatt for the HOW Design Conference in San Diego, CA. Pretty nice. It could be way worse, that's for sure. Now I'll tell you about my day. If it seems like I'm not grateful to be here you're getting the wrong message. I just like to complain. Having Charlie Brown luck is worth a giggle or two. It's going to be a long one so grab a coffee or something.

It all started at 4:30 am with Carol, Moosh and myself piling into the truck with my bags to get to YVR with plenty of time to get through US Customs and airport security before my 7:45 am flight. The first bump in the road came when I was told my flight from Phoenix to San Diego was oversold and I didn't have a seat, but that's okay it will be taken care of. Ominous words and more on this later. The second glitch came when I didn't have my customs form filled out. Whoops. I guess paperwork is important. Anyway, that got done and I made it through Customs without having to be photographed or fingerprinted (the guy ahead of me was).

After Customs came the bag drop-off. The conveyor belts weren't working so I obsessed about my bags all the way through the security check, but relaxed when I saw them tossing bags like maniacs onto one belt now working. I made my way to gate 91. On my way through the terminal I took note of the wee little commuter jet at the gate I was leaving from. I took a picture (at left), but it doesn't really do the teeny-tinker toy justice. It was a Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ - 900) capacity 80 seats (6 First/74 coach) with a cruising speed of 500 mph (if the squirrels can run fast enough). We were shoe-horned on to the cramped little plane (I hit my head three times and I am NOT tall), my window seat turned out to be a bulkhead with a window blocked my seat and the seat ahead of me. ARGH! The guy next to me was an arm rest hog, the inflight meal was a tiny bag of mini-pretzels (evil carbs, but I was damned hungry). The first leg wasn't a complete bust, I had a good nap and did get to see the Grand Canyon as when I leaned my seat back I could peer out the window. I even took a few pictures. Here's one!

Once I got to Phoenix I called Carol to give her the obligatory "I'm alive and it's 88 degrees in Phoenix" phone call while walking the 800 miles through the terminal to catch my connecting flight. I walked up to the gate I was to leave from and found that I didn't have a seat, the America West computer was down at that gate so they couldn't issue me one right away. EEK! After listening to dbacle after debacle around the terminal, people screaming for friends as they were missing flights and being extremely nasty to the airline staff because "they should have held the plane" for someone who was busy in the bar. It was just like an episode of Airline on A&E. At least I was entertained. I told Candace, the matronly and infinitely patient America West rep at my gate, that she deserved a medal for taking all the abuse she did. She smiled and said, 'not everyone feels that way.' Anyway, at the last minute, the computer came back up and I got myself a seat albeit beside a mom and here two (yes 2) toddlers.

This plane was, surprisingly, even smaller CRJ - 200 which we had to board out on the tarmac. Just like in the old days. Man was it hot out there. We took off and it was only an hour to San Diego. But as it was a small plane you could really feel every little bit of turbulence and change in altitude. The lady behind me spent the whole flight barfing. Yuck!

I got into San Diego and had the worst taxi driver ever. He couldn't understand where I was telling him I needed to go. How many ways can you say 'Manchester Grand Hyatt' and 'The Conference Center'. The driver ended up being yelled at by mounted policeman as he was stopped on the crosswalk at a red light so the train could go by. Then when we pulled into the Hyatt he got hollered at by the girl directing traffic in the round about as he didn't want to go where she said. He was so pissed off when I got out he said 'Thanks a lot for making me come down here. I hate this job." LOL! I gave him an excellent tip. That probably confused him good.

The hotel is awesome. The views are (picture1 and picture2) great from my tenth floor suite. San Diego is beautiful. I did some sightseeing. I saw the USS Midway and a few other Air Craft Carriers in the harbour.

Finally, it was time for the first speaker at 6:30 this evening. She was great. Her name is Robyn Waters who was VP Trend, Design, & Product Development for Target for 10 years and now acts as an independant trends consultant. Her talk, A Trendmaster's Guide From A-Z, was a good start to the conference and inspiring to say the least. I'm looking forward to the rest. I'm going to figure out my schedule for tomorrow and hit the fart sack. Wee! This is fun. Have I mentioned I love my job? Oh yeah. I love my job.

With the horrific news as it is I thought I may just lighten the mood with this...

Need a costume? Here's the joint for you. It's not quite like August Balls' costume shop in The Pink Panther Series, but it's worth a look anyway.

I wanna be a clam or a turnip.

Thanks to PR Todd for the picture.

According to this anyway.

I love The Beatles. Perhaps I'm evil. Muhahahahahahaha!

Buffy's Swearing Keyboard! Push a button. Hear her cuss!

Three more days until I go here.

Apparently, she claims she was just following orders. It seems to me that there was another group in recent history that claimed the same thing. Hmmm!

Hey there Boo Boo pass me that bottle of hooch! I'm going to get pie eyed and give the ranger a bit of trouble. Yikes!

I would love to have my own Complete Ghostbuster suit!. If anyone wishes to pick this little item up for me I wouldn't complain.

Yes it is what it appears to be. So if you are under 18 or offended in any way by talk of pornography do not read this article.

Thanks to the ultra-vigilant Bill G for sending this along.

Carol and I went to have dinner and a movie last Sunday with our friends Pete, Kellie, their daughter Sara and three cats C.A.T., Goober and Petty Lou (seen at left). I had never met their new cats but was surprised to see Petty Lou walking around exactly like you see her, with her head tilted to the right at an extreme angle just like in the photo. When Pete and Kellie got Petty from the animal shelter with her two other sisters they ask why she looked that way. Apparently Petty Lou (now called Tippecanoe Cat and Tippi Hedrin by Carol and I) had an inner ear infection when she was very young that left scar tissue inside her ear canal thus throwing her balance off and requiring her to cock her head to the side to get around comfortably. The veterinarian says the cat is in no pain and that there are no other ill effects from the tilted head. There is, however, an expensive operation that may or may not fix Petty's cosmetically hilarious problem, but they have chosen not to put her through the trauma of surgery.

I hate that sound but I can't help cracking this guy's knuckles.

I'm not sure what ever would possess someone to do a flash movie with Badgers singing the banana phone song, but it's worth a giggle.

CBC Sports: Canada repeats as world hockey champions

I had to post this. I know many people think Canada wins everyhting that has to do with hockey, but that's not true at all. We should be very proud. This gold is our 19th in 69 tournaments. Way to go guys!

She's a happy girl!

OMG! I forgot! No Pants Day 2004 is May 7th. That's today! Off they come. Thanks Jackson.

Join the Shoulder Riding Club of BC?

WTF? Fetishes are weird.

WARNING: There are some nasty banners on some of the subpages of this site.

CNN.com - Man survives six nails driven into head - May 6, 2004 Thanks to Bill for sending the link. He said, "The first three probably hurt the most."

This Picasso painting of some fruity kid with flowers in his hair and a pipe in his hand sold for $104 million bucks at a Sotheby's auction. Holy snappin' crap!

Woman buys 10,000 Mars bars, drives off in limo. WTF?

Chuff sent me the link to Wrecked Exotics. There are some nasty and weird crash photos here.

I just played Super Slapshot 3D and scored a 7500 on my first try. The goalie is as easy to score on as Cloutier.

Oh and by the way, Colorado is also hitting the links now as San José advances to the semi-final round by beating the Avalanche 3 - 1 in game 6 of their series.

Maybe all the players who have gone out early in the playoffs should try the above game to improve their confidence after losing. Especially, Toronto's geezer squad.

Check out this Face. Poke it and mouse over it's various parts. A little creepy, but kind of cool at the same time.

Cinco de Mayo is today. I can't eat beans and tacos any more (too many carbs) but AY YI YI YI anyway!

According to this review at MovieJuice! Van Helsing sucks. Too bad. I love the classic characters. Once again a horror movie with tons of potential is ruined my the Kate Beckinsale kiss of death. Oh well at least it's not DeNiro playing Frankenstein again, although he is stinkin' it up in another horror film call Godsend.

Toronto shit the bed in OT. Score 3 - 2 for the Flyers and they off to play Tampa Bay in the final 4.

Martin Gelinas, of the Calgary Flames, scores in the final seconds of the first overtime period of game 6 and eliminates the Detroit Red Wings. The score 1 - 0. It was Gelinas who scored the overtime winner against the Canucks, and now the Wings are gone too as a result of hos OT scoring.

Brian Burke had a chance to pick up Gelinas at the trade dealine. He said, in effect, 'I don't belive in nostalgia'. Whoops. I guess that's part of why you were fired today. Calgary moves on to play the winner of the San Jose / Colorado series.

Who knows? All bets are off. The Flames seem to want it this year more than the rest.

Everyone needs their own Saddam Hussein style spider hole in the backyard. Careful though, there are graphic pictures of this kook skinning and eating a snake here too. Ew!

Take it from these guys (3.67 mb MPEG video). Don't take your valuables for granted.

Thanks to Chuff for the link.

Someone has to take the blame for the Canucks not making it out of the first round of the playoffs. Looks like Brian Burke is taking the fall. Too bad. He was a fairly colourful dude. Watch us end up with someone really boring and conservative as GM. I hear Don Cherry is looking for a job.

OMG the Kitty Cat Dance is weird.

This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective:

Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 .............. $10.32 per gallon
Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 ............$9.52 per gallon
Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 ................... $10.17 per gallon
Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 .............. $10.00 per gallon
Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 .............. $33.60 per gallon
Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35................ $178.13 per gallon
Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 .............. $123.20 per gallon
Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 .................... $25.42 per gallon
Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 ........................$84.48 per gallon

And this is the REAL KICKER

Evian water 9 oz $1.49...............$21.19 per gallon

$21.19 for WATER and the buyers don't even know the source. So, the next time you're at the pump, be glad your car doesn't run on water, Scope, or Whiteout, or God forbid Pepto Bismal or Nyquil. Just a little humor to help ease the pain of your next trip to the pump.

Thanks to Big Al Mac for this.

Matt S says:

".. damn Americans.. what the hell is a gallon anyway? :)

I was curious so I recalculated those figures you have into litres:

Diet Snapple $2.74 per litre
Lipton Ice Tea $2.53 per litre
Gatorade $2.70 per litre
Ocean Spray $2.66 per litre
Brake Fluid $8.93 per litre
Vick's Nyquil $47.32 per litre
Pepto Bismol $32.73 per litre
Whiteout $6.75 per litre
Scope $22.44 per litre

Evian Water $5.63 per litre

Our current gas price: ~$0.90 per litre
;)"