Here's a baby name even worse than naming your son Sue. Do people truly think about what they're naming a child? This is the stuff of legend.

Hi all. Well I'm so friggin busy I think I'm about to lose my mind. Our house officially went on the market yesterday and we have our very first showing today! Holy crapola. I hope it sells just as fast. We were looking at the place now that we've done all the renos etc that needed doing prior to selling and we think it looks great here. I have to drive Carol downtown right now and then whip back here to make sure all's well for the 4:15 showing. Argh. I can't take too much of this so let's hope it goes somewhat smoothly. me=mental

Tsunami alerts follow 8.2 quake near Sumatra NOAA advises evacuation of coasts within 600 miles
Scary stuff. Scientists on MSNBC are saying that given the size of the quake we 'have to assume' that a tsunami is coming. Ugh.

I was curious so I looked around. I found Schiavo Feels No Pain and the other side of the coin Sheer Torture. Interesting reading.

As well as some other rather sick and mean spirited sites I found a link on MonkeyFilter.com to a blog by this woman named Becki Snow who is on a 'hunger strike for Terri'. I couldn't help but giggle at the comment made by one of the MonkeyFilter readers: "She's hunger striking for a woman who's in a coma because of an eating disorder? I think she broke my irony."

Ma and Pa Browne, pictured above with Carol and I, have been here since Thursday. They dropped in on their way back home to Nova Scotia from New Zealand. They've been a big help with prepping our house for sale. Dad loves the fix-it stuff so we're taking advantage of it. I'll get copies of Dad's New Zealand photos and post some later on. If you've been trying to get in touch with me they're the reason my phone's been turned off. I only get to see them, if I'm lucky, once a year so call me on Monday.

Whether you're observing the first of spring by way of the Vernal Equinox, Easter or some other whacky holiday I wish you well. This guy has found a great way to celebrate by trying to do himself in with a feast of those horrifically sugary treats known as Peeps.

Wal-Mart sells T-shirts that appear to use the premier's Maui mugshot... I love living in BC.

Steve McQueen would have been 75 today. I know you're still dead, but happy birthday anyway Steve.

MSNBC - U.S. Supreme Court rejects Schiavo appeal

Appalling that Jeb Bush and crew would be trying to 'take custody' of Schiavo. The whole church and state line seems not to exist any more. The whole mess is just friggin' bizarre. Interesting bit at the very bottom of the article:

"The custody request was based on the opinion of a neurologist working for the state who observed Schiavo at her bedside but did not examine her.

The neurologist, William Cheshire of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, is a bioethicist who is also an active member in Christian organizations, including two whose leaders have spoken out against the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube."

Argh! If there's one thing I'm learning from all this its that right now is a good time to have your wishes written down, witnessed and signed by a lawyer. I'm horrified at the thought that Carol would have to go through anything like Michael Schiavo is if I were incompacitated or vice versa. I don't think our families would do what Terry Schiavo's folks are, but you never really know what people are going to do with a stressful situation until they're in it. I pray that me or anyone I know never have to find out how we would react. Yuck.

I'll knock on some would just for you Dré.

Here is a top 20 list of Monty Python sketches from Entertainment Weekly. Thanks to Steve for the link.

I'm not sure how on Earth anyone could pick a top 20 Python sketches. You'd have to leave so many good ones out. Take one of my faves for example: upper class twit of the year. If you're into reading more sketches from those crazy brits you can check out this site to read them online or to download all of them in zip format. Nicely done Bruce.

MSNBC - Court: Schiavo feeding tube won't be reinserted
It's the hot topic in the news. I don't know all the facts in the case and have been staying out of the discussion on purpose. It's interesting an intersting and challenging question to say the least and has people coming out staunchly in one camp or another. I'm not sure where I stand, but am leaning toward the 'let her go' camp.

What a mess. When congress gets involved in an issue like this things tend to get even messier. Mrs Schiavo as a thinking feeling person is for all intents and purposes not even there any more. Apparenlty the portion of her brain that identity and awareness existed in has been destroyed. I don't envy the position her husband is in, having to make his wife's wishes known without a written will. Her parents (as parents are rightly apt to) do not want to see their daughter pass away prior to them and are holding hope, apparently futily, that there is hope for Terry's recovery. People say she is being 'starved to death' and that's wrong. However, if there's no 'person' left how can anyone but the people around her be suffering? In my opinion letting her go would help everyone to move along with their own lives.

The whole debacle makes me want to draw up a living will. I'll state right now and publically so, I do NOT want to be kept alive by artificial means if the person I am now no longer exists.

I heard someone share this tonight:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." A Return to Love - Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson

What a beautiful passage. I've heard and read it many times before, but it rang more truly than ever especially considering what I've been through of late. It comes, as things usually do, at exactly the time I needed to be reminded of it. Once again it affirms the spiritual truth that who we truly are is exactly who we are supposed to be and that we all have much to offer this world regardless of opinions (our own and other's) to the contrary. I feel comfort in the knowledge that I truly aspire to this. As long as my behaviour matches my beliefs I'm on the right path. Spiritual integrity: What a concept.

Just a side note: This quote has been attributed Nelson Mandela as a part of his inaugural speech of 1994. Apparently, and surprising to me as I had believed it as well, incorrectly so. He did not, according to a little research, use the above in his speeches that year. Mandela's actual inaugural speeches are at these links: speech 1 and speech 2

Confucious kept it a little shorter (and a little sharper): To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.

Here's some more quotations on integrity that I'm finding comfort in. Especially:

Having integrity means... being completely true to what is inside you-- to what you know is right... what you feel you must do, regardless of the immediate cost of sacrifice... to be honorable and to behave decently. - Samuel Goldwyn, 1960

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep. - Dennis Waitley

It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe. - Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

and finally:

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Shakespeare, Hamlet

UPDATE: After reading Moselle's remark below I thought I had better clear something up prior to more comments. Religiosity is not my intent, but spirituality. There's a huge difference. The word 'God' tends to freak a lot of people out. When I speak of or relate to God I in no way mean anything near a 'Christian', 'Islamic', 'Jewish', 'Hindu' or any other religious God (which I can't accept). The guiding tenets of all the religions I've studied are basically the same, but there are portions of each one that just drive me up a wall. The 'God' I speak of is my own personal conception of God. My God is more like 'the Force' in Star Wars. That's the best way I can describe it. Today I choose the path of Obi-wan Kenobi rather than that of Darth Vader. If when reading spiritual literature you are stumped by a word like God just substitute it with what you're comfortable with like spirit, good orderly direction, love, the light, the force, goodness, goddess or anything else.

Some more reading that has helped me:
Conversations with God and works by Joseph Campbell, Gary Zukav, Thich Nhat Hanh and Emmet Fox.

You can make one out of duct tape. I'd make one but I don't have anything to put in it. I opened my wallet tonight and moths flew out. I think I found Jimmy Hoffa too. He's not looking so hot.

Poor Michael Jackson. He's so hard done by. MJ says: "I never copped a feel!" Right. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Thanks to Bill for the link.

I'm painting again. And damn it all we've run clean out of blue painters tape. It's a good thing we have a roll and a half of Painters Mate Green {I can't believe they a) have a website and b) I found it}. The problem is that 2/3 of today's job will be blue tape while the rest will be in green. The horror! So dramatic. Mismatched painting tape. I can't take it! Argh! Wait a minute... *counts to 10* ... I'll be okay. I think I'm overreacting a bit.

Perhaps it's the film scores that I have playing in the background. The first one I listened to was the Dust Brothers - Fight Club Sountrack, then it was Rosemary's Baby. The current choice is the third in the awesome Hannibal Lecter trilogy, but prequel to the other two, Red Dragon (which is thoroughly creeping me out by the way). Later on I'll have a listen to Sleepy Hollow, Dracula, Vampires and Jaws. I should be completely out of my mind with fear and curled up in the fetal position on the stairs when Carol comes home. Seriously though, the soundtracks are more than just to keep me company. They help with ideas. I keep running over here to the laptop to write down another doozy. The creative process can really be fun when you just let go.

CBC News: Sleeping senior ends up at B.C. morgue
Whoops. That's quite the little booboo. Interesting that this old woman didn't wake up when she was being transported from the old folks home to the morgue. Must be some great tranquilizers being given to the seniors there.

When I was working security in a number of these places, I did notice that a lot of the people seemed there but not there. If you know what I mean. I used to think of the living dead frequenlty when I had to patrol these little care facilities dotted all over the lower mainland. You'd hear moans and people mumbling in the dark. Creepy as being stuck in a room with Anna Nicole Smith and her weird kid.

My time as a guard was fantastic research for writing zombie/horror flicks. I still shudder to think what I saw in morgues (yup occupied ones), holding cells in former mental institutions, abandoned nurses residences 11 stories tall with wonky wiring that turned lights on and off, operating suites and former (supposedly haunted) burn units in closed off wings of VGH and procedure rooms for God knows what kind of horrific torture in all the different facilities. My mind had a field day with me. I scared the shit out myself numerous times. Being afraid of hospitals to begin with didn't help me enjoy my job any more, but it does help with the writing.

MSNBC - Ready for your close-up? Here come the vlogs
Hey, wait a minute... I have a sony miniDV cam. Prepare to be tortured.

Check out Mindfulness In Plain English. I've been reading tons of spiritual books lately. Buddhism seems more accessible than I thought. These kinds of translations are especially helpful to my western mind's understanding of these eastern thoughts.

Check this out. I stole it wholesale from MetaFilter:

It rubs the lotion on its skin (10mb MOV file but worth the download) is a song by a band called The Greenskeepers, with an effectively creepy music video culled from clips from The Silence of the Lambs. Full lyrics here.

I must say it's got a catchy beat and it's easy to dance to. They really did a great job with editing the footage from the film to match the tune.

The coolest part of this find is that we were just laughing and quoting Silence of the Lambs, specifically Jame Gumb aka Buffalo Bill, today. Let's just say the conversation was rather twisted. We were at the butcher's shop after all.

See this post for more on my obsession with this character and links to actual movie dialogue and 'that song' he prances around to. *shudder*

Today's a big day in Ireland. A day to celebrate the life of their patron saint, Patrick. The clothes I'm painting in aren't green, but we're going out tonight so I'll put on me wee green shirt and go looking for four leaf clovers and leprchauns. No green beer for ol' Mikey but I think I'll have me another Diet Coke with lime. Hell it's got some green on the outside of the can and the lime flavoured chemicals must be green as well. If they're not they can kiss my smelly arse.

Here's a couple good Irish blessings for you today:

Always remember to forget
The things that made you sad.
But never forget to remember
The things that made you glad.

Always remember to forget
The friends that proved untrue.
But never forget to remember
Those that have stuck by you.

Always remember to forget
The troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day.

and...

May you have warm words on a cold evening,
A full moon on a dark night,
And the road downhill all the way to your door.

and finally...

May your troubles be as few and far between as my grandmother's teeth.

Oh dear, I forgot to remove the batteries. Thanks to my ol' pal Bubba for the link.

It's another rainy day out here in the 'Ridge. Moosh is chillin' on the couch and I'm just hanging here beside her taking a bit of a break from the 'work' I've been doing. Work? Yes, work. Nothing paying yet, but putting one foot in front of the other. I have some leads but nothing concrete. I sent my résumé to some friends and may have an opportunity at a local independent film company. They do tons of stuff here in Vancouver and are open to helping newbies like me get started. Rather than work as a lackey for them I just might pitch one of my ideas. We'll see. I have more prep before I can do that, but it's coming together.

I also yacked with a buddy about story ideas and did some writing too. The whole idea of making my own thing is looking more and more attractive. There are a hell of a lot more possibilities that way. Just a lot more work. Oddly enough working that way doesn't seem as much like work as it does like play. Hmm...

Anyway, I'm getting lots done around here. Laundry and dishes first. I'm such a good little house husband. Ugh. The house smells like paint as well. In prep for putting the house on the market, we're doing some little touch-ups. Today it was the kitchen nook. Looks not so bad if I do say so myself. I'll start on the kitchen itself tomorrow and then the hallway of doom (all the way up the stairs etc) after that.

All this is better than talking to aliens.

Billy Joel enters rehab for alcohol abuse... Again. Any Billy Joel fan knows the opening lyrics of Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. Perhaps more than one bottle of red and one bottle of white... All those car accidents over te last few years couldn't have had to do with the fact that he was pickled? Could they? Nah. That's too obvious. Drunks never do obvious or predictable things.

It's the beginning of week number two of living in Nojobsville, population me. Carol says I'm not really alone as Moosh, our dog, doesn't have a job either. She's never had one though. Probably because she has no thumbs and shits on the lawn.

The whole forced vacation thing kind of sucks to tell the truth, so I've been doing all I can to keep myself busy and mentally nimble. I've got time to read the books I've been meaning to and am studying production and the film and TV business like a madman. I actually feel pretty hopeful right this moment as I just finished putting together my résumé. It's not something I thought I would be doing, but it's a good inventory of how much I really do have to offer. Even the slightest bit of optimism is good right now. Not that I'm feeling overly negative it's just a trap that I can easily get caught up in. Me + self-pity = doom

Anyway, here's my résumé in PDF (57kb) and DOC (51kb) formats. Just right click and choose 'save as...' to download, look at and forward to someone who wants to hire me and give me lots of money. :)

I've emailed, talked and chatted to so many concerned and helpful people since what I'm now referring to as 'Black Friday'. I'm thinking about starting a chat line and charging $3.95 a minute so people can call me up and feel better about their lives as a result of offering poor little me an ear to rant into. All kidding aside, I really do appreciate all the good feeling folks are sending my way. Keep it coming it's very welcome.

At least this blog says it is.

I think so and so do lots of other folks. It's been voted third most livable city in the world with only Zurich and Geneva Switzerland beating it. I think we'll stay awhile.

Of course he is... Check out this article at Canada Kicks Ass

Exit Mundi: a collection of end of the world scenarios
There are plenty of ways for us to go kerblooey. I think I'll start with our survival shelter preparations today. I wonder if the strata for this townhouse complex would mind if we dug up the backyard? It is common property after all. I guess it would also add some resale value to our home having a concrete bunker buried in the backyard. Are you ready for the apocalypse? As my luck goes its probably already happened and I missed it.

At a funeral? LMAO!
The Scotsman - Top Stories - Deceased do it their way with music to die for

13WHAM-TV ROCHESTER || NEWS is reporting that the story the public was told around Saddam Hussein's capture was a crock.

Forbes.com: Top Corporate Hate Web Sites

CBC News: Mount St. Helens bursting with ash
Oh wait, it's not the sky it's just a mountain blowing up.

Check out 101 Zen stories... I love this stuff.

Photo in the News: Baby Foxes Going to the Dogs.

...made relativley simple. Personal and Historical Perspectives of Hans Bethe.

Whatever, it still makes me want to cry. The guy just passed away. I've never heard of him until today. Where was he when I was flunking high school physics? ***sigh***

As you may or may not know from the very cryptic post on Friday, I am no longer employed by Riptown.com Media. As my perception differs vastly from those who let me go, 'without cause' (their words) I'm not sure I want to get into the reasons why. The deed is done, regardless of all the convoluted perceptions of everyone involved including my own. I am essentially, and quite literally, jobless.

I have a pretty rough few days emotionally. But, they're only emotions and will pass. I've seen the whole gamut in just a few short days. It feels like grief. Not on the same level as when my grandmother died, but deep all the same. I worked there for 4 years, pretty much to the day I left, and had much of myself invested in my work there no matter what someone else may have thought. The people there are like family to me, quirks and all, and I'll honestly miss every one of them. Yes, even 'the senators' who had me seen to.

A lot of friends have rallied around me already. Many are offering support in a variety of ways. Everyone is giving me great advice and as a result I have some concrete direction. This gem from Bill is especially great: (just stay focused, and fer godssakes away from the Haney Bingoplex). Don't worry Bill I'm not a degenerate gambler. Hey, wait a minute... Ah shit. Anyway, it's nice to know that people actually care.

What's next for me? I'm not sure, but I think something big is on it's way. I've seen time and time again that everytime a door closes another one opens. It's up to me to put one foot in front of the other to walk through it.

Immediately on the brightside: We're selling our place so we need to spend some time doing the little things to prep. I know have the time to dedicate to some home improvements and a friend with a home repar company has offered some help. I got a severance package that takes care of a good portion of the bills for three months, so on top of having time to dedicate to following my bliss and continuing on toward deeper involvement in the film and tv biz.

Wish me luck. I have work to do...

Yahoo! News - Inventors Find Niche in Office Toys also check out happyworker.com

I'm boning up on my hobo lingo.

And I'm the old... Let's make a long story short. Suprisingly (or not so suprisingly), I'm looking for a new gig. Let's see what happens. Anyone who needs a slightly whacky creative type... I'm available. Maybe now's the time to really do what I love. And no it's not sit around and grow hair on my ass.

From MetaFilter "Dear Condi - Lloyd Axworthy was Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs for five years (1995-2000). Now that he's no longer in government, he doesn't need to be so diplomatic."

CBC News: Millionaire lands safely, breaking flight record
I'm not sure why but ths news bores me almost to tears. Perhaps it's that these jackasses have done stunts like this and failed so many times, to actually see them succeed is rather anticlimatic. The story would have been better had he had to bail out and landed in cow poop 10 miles before his goal.

CBC News: Coffee contest highlights litter issue ... so much so that 22% of all of the province's litter is made up of Tim Horton's cups. There are (I think) 5 Tim Hortons in my hometown of Bridgewater, NS and the population is only 7600. I'm not surprised there are so many blasted cups laying around, but the sheer number seems insane.

Don't forget Tim Ho's makes shiatty donuts too. The only residue they leave is large people. See Rita McNeil for a prime example of a Nova Scotian I suspect likes donuts.

The 1,121 Naughty Words not allowed on NFL jerseys. Thanks to Carol for the link.

CIO Today - Worldwide Technology - Microsoft's Gates Is Knighted by Queen Elizabeth... Thanks Christian

...but I'm still not giving you any money. Ninjas? Right...

**thanks for the ninja link Elliot**

My results are actually pleasantly surprising. Thanks Dré. How nerdy are you folks?


I took the cool test too. Thank God those results were good. I actually answered honestly...

According to the Guardian Unlimited Ex-Sex Pistol wants no future for swearing. What a f**king t**t.

"This is a database of torture and execution devices and methods. All text and images are copyright 2003-2005 Erik Ruhling unless otherwise noted." Check out Infernal Device.

Corpses of ex-boyfriends for one...
Sheboygan-Press: Woman who took boyfriend's remains gets 60 days in jail
After free beer and smokes? There's got to be an easier way.