Thanks for the Canada Post Expresspost hat. Oh yeah, thanks for the retro candy and the Amish air freshener too!

Check out video.mikebrowne.com » Christmas Insanity. Pretty much how it feels year after year.

I'm not sure if Carol used this site to help her cook the turkey the other night, but I sure did find it educational. Thanks for the link Bill!

ABC Family has a website for Chasing Christmas with Tom Arnold. Kind of cool, but not really. :)

Star Wars: Kids | Droidel, Droidel, Droidel
Happy Channukah to all the nerdy jewish Star Wars fans!

Is Bush Drunk?

I know. I know. I'm not as stupid as I look you know. Good thing , huh?

The rest of that site is extremely nasty. Don't bother with it. ew...

Merry Christmas!

That is all. Carry on.

Have the chins sing to you at Merry Christmas from Sundog

::ill Will Press:: Passion of the Zombies
Foamy rules! Thanks for helping things lighten up today Erik!

Our friend Ric Downey passed away this morning around 1:20 am. He was 61 years old.
Above is photo of him in happier times. Ric touched the lives of many people in a positive way, both publicly and privately. He was a well loved and highly respected member of his community and will be missed by all who truly knew him. His stories and wit were legendary. I for one will miss our talks. You could tell Ric anything. I am lucky and grateful to have had Ric as a close friend and mentor. Goodbye my friend.

On Christmas night, Sunday, Decmeber 25th from 9 pm - 11 pm here in Vancouver on CityTV, the show fromerly known as The Spiritual Guilt Trip, now known as Chasing Christmas will be playing.

Hey who's that in the credits? Why me of course. :)

0615 - Awaken to the sounds of Gene Autry gaily singing his Christmas standard, Here Comes Santa Claus. You may download it right here to play as you read this post (right click and choose "save as..." to download the 3.52mb MP3). We were up early to prepare Moosh for surgery to remove a cyst on her eye. She wasn't allowed to eat anything at all so she was rather unhappy this morning. We did manage to hold her down to take a photo of her cyst for posterity. Illustration below:


Merry f'ing Christmas! Here's a giant vet's bill. Good thing we love the dog or it'd be off to the woods for one of those, "Go on! Get! Shoo!" scenes from horrifically sad movies. Just kidding. I was so worried about old Moosh going under the knife today I hardly slept at all.

0715 - Leave Burnaby with a hungry, pissed off dog in the car driving against rush hour traffic to the veterinarian in Maple Ridge. Only one lane on that stupid Pitt River Bridge at that hour as the counterflow lane is in. Fun... not! Yes , we still use the vet in MR as Dr Loff is great with Moosh and specializes in senior canines. Moosh, the half-blind, half-deaf, warty and arthritic 14 year old Springer Spaniel definitely fits that bill. Did I mention we love our dog?

0820 - Arrive ten minutes early at the animal hospital and have to wait ten minutes to hand Moosh the trembling drama queen over to the vet's assistant.

0840 - Arrive at Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe in MR (still the best butcher's shop for us) to beg for an unordered Christmas turkey and meat for stuffing. I guess they saw me coming because they had a 16 pounder for me. Luckily I went early enoough in the day that th extra birds they ordered were still there. Thanks guys!

Worst Job Ever - Google Video (NOT AT ALL FOR CHILDREN's EARS)

I always wondered who was on the other end of that. And you thought your job sucked.

Time for some controversy…

Finally! A film about this delicate subject that is done by Hallmark as an afterschool special. We will be seeing The Ringer over the holidays.

Before anyone gets wound up and frothing at the mouth about the content and subject of the movie let me clarify - This film is done by the Farrelly Brothers (of Something About Mary and Me, Myself and Irene fame) and they are friends of Special Olympics and have included a friend of theirs with and intellectual disability as a bit player in all of their films. One of the films Executive Producers sits on the board of the Special Olympics which as an organization has backed the film. Here's a quote from the Making of The Ringer PDF on the Special Olympics site regarding the film:

Tim Shriver agrees that it is time for the organization to take some chances to address a new group of people. A key aim of Special Olympics is to change how non-disabled people think about people with intellectual disabilities. “We’ve been sharing that message on the playing field with many groups,” he explains, “but the stereotypes are naggingly persistent.

“One reason for that is that our traditional message is not as effective with teens as it is with older people or much younger ones. But humor is a very effective way to reach them, and the Farrellys are masters of that demographic”.

As someone who spent three years of his life working with some severely intellectually and physically disabled people and their families, and went to be a scorekeeper for a local Special O bowling league, I am sure there will be some folks who will be offended right off the hop by any film approaching this subject as irreverently as the Farrellys may. Perhaps after an openminded watching of this film families and friends of intellectuallly disabled folks will feel more at ease and those who didn't understand before will have some insight. I have hope that this brings to light the real sense of humour that I saw from my clients on a daily basis in my work.

Looks like Sonnyboo is finally done his independently produced movie, Horrors of War, and the trailer is available online.

Synopsis - Feeling the pressure from Allied advance, Hitler unleashes his secret weapons. This movie follows a wayward soldier during World War II in the European theatre as the O.S.S. sends him to investigate Hitler's arsenal of experiments.

A WW2 movie with zombies? Count me in. I'm an avid gamer of World War 2 first person shooters. It's Call of Duty 2 right now. I'm also, as many of you know, a huge fan of zombie movies and if you click the link zombiefreak.com, surprise it takes you to my site.

I met Sonnyboo while gaming one day and we had a chat about his flick. Its cool to see he's done. Way to go Sonnyboo! Good luck guy!

YouTube - SNL - The Chronic of Narnia Rap

Viki says the following on her blog about Ric:

MONDAY NIGHT
Still no change. The family is meeting with the doctor tomorrow afternoon to get some questions answered. He was too long getting to this hospital, and his age is another strike against full recovery. However, not drinking and smoking gives him extra points on the plus side. He has not yet responded in any meaningful way and remains unconscious. The girls and I are mostly staying at the hospital in the ICU Family room or at Ric's bedside when they let us come in. It's been almost 24 hours now since surgery. Thank you to everyone for checking in with me on comments. Keep praying, we need you. bbfn

posted by Viki : 10:06 PM

I'm really worried now.

Lightening the mood I bring you Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah! via Jackson's awesome new site TheVancouverite.com.

Has had an accident. The following message from Viki, his wife, is all the information I have so don't bother asking for more:

"Ric has had an industrial accident and is currently undergoing brain surgery in Foothills Hospital in Calgary. All your prayers please. Viki"

I will update when I get more information. I hate this kind of message. Its scary and leaves way too much room for interpretation. I hope it isn't as omninous as it sounds.

I'm sending my prayers, good thoughts and love.

UPDATE - A post on Viki's blog

"PROGRESS REPORT
I'm posting from the family room of Intensive Care Unit at Foothills Hospital in Calgary. Ric fell off the water truck late yesterday afternoon and sustained brain injury. He was airlifted from Three Hills hospital at 9:00 pm. They operated last night. Heather & I arrived about midnight and he had just been moved to ICU. There's been no change in his condition, but looks like he has a new zipper on his head. He seems to be comfortable, but is not yet awake. We're praying my next post will be from home very soon and he's well on the road to recovery. Haven't seen his attending doctor yet. Erica is on her way here now. bbfn

posted by Viki : 8:10 AM"

Here's Ric's blog in case you're wondering about who he is. I can tell you anyway, he's a damned good egg.

Here's a post at themovieblog.com about Blocking Cell Phones At Movie Theaters.

I'm all for it. Rudeness is definitely one reason I won't be going to theatres as much. While at King Kong this past weekend we had a very unpleasant theatre experience. First of all the food was way too expensive. We paid almost 5 buck each for two pops! I just rolled my eyes and grumbled but I saw another guy literally screaming at the concession stand monkeys.

While in the movie we had to endure two older ladies beside us chattering away like hens pecking in a farmyard, commenting at the screen and laughing innappropriately at parts of the film they found not to their liking. Others were crumpling plastic bags and chatting away. No cellphones rang but, we've heard that before.

If there was a way to teach people manners and public movie watching etiquette at the theatre short of sticking my Doc Martin up their hind end I'd be all over it. Those little ads at the beginning don't work. Theatre owners should have an usher inside the theatre firing the noise makers out. "Buh-bye!"

Until then we'll be enjoying DVD's months later on our brand new honkin' big TV.

My old pal Lorno has found a Christmas Decoration Death Camp in Edmonton. Good find there nitz!

I wonder if Amon Goeth, Ralph Fiennes character in Schindlers List, is sniping at the odd helpless gingerbread man from a position on the front step.

Oh no! I've gone completely mad. I saw a remake and I loved it.

Carol and I went to see Peter Jackson's King Kong yesterday and it was, in a word - great!

We wanted to see a movie yesterday. Although there are many films we'd like to see right now we narrowed our choices down to Walk the Line (which I will see eventually) and King Kong. Kong's big screen appeal won out even though I had major reservations about seeing this flick at all considering the hype, the fact that Jack Black (who needs punching) is in it and the entire film is a CGI fest. I admit I went looking to be disappointed, but I wasn't.

The movie had its flaws, namely some weak dialogue as pointed out by John at The Movie Blog, but overall it was a film worthy of my movie bucks.

Casting, even Jack Black, was good. Everyone pulled their characters off quite enthusiastically. A real feat considering a lot of what they were interacting with (namely a 25 foot gorilla) didn't even exist. Naomi Watts truly owned her role as Kong's obsession.

Kong himself was worth the trip, although he was not revealed until well into the movie. Perhaps this is a good thing as I wasn't sure I'd "buy" the whole CGI ape thing from watching clips and trailers, but drawing the audience into a story before going completely CGI crazy did the trick. I was totally sucked in.

Peter Jackson deserves a pat on the back for pulling this one off.

Kong will be, and deservedly so, king of the box office this weekend.

We're not sure Santa is coming this year because, as you can see from the shocking photo above, he has completely lost it and is doing a variety of things around town to offend others and besmirch his own reputation. The worst news yet comes via this video on my video site. Watch at your own peril and plug the childrens' ears.

Torn ACL sidelines Cloutier for 4 months
No "number one" (and I type that very reluctantly) for at least four months as Dan Cloutier tore an ACL and required surgery.

In other news Cloutier got a concussion answering his cell phone. The Waaaahmbulance was called. What a wuss!

Please Santa, bring us a real goalie for Xmas.

Kazakhs pull the plug on Borat's Web site

Kazakhstan fired the latest shot in the war between themselves and Ali G (comedian Sacha Baron Cohen) by switch off his .kz website. I'm sure this is not the last we'll hear from Borat.

Don't the advertisement Kazakhs realize that kicking up this much of a stink actually helps Cohen? Its attention a comedian wants and attention he is getting (and a little cash no doubt). Go Sacha!

Until his site is back in one form or another you can enjoy the Borat Soundboard:
borat_soundboard.swf (535 kb)

NOTE: Little kiddies don't need their ears polluted with this, even though they may not understand his accent. By why take chances? You've been warned.

Pathbreaking Comedian Richard Pryor Dies - Yahoo! News

Hello to my two families in Nova Scotia! In ten business days boxes should be arriving in Bridgewater and in Berwick. 'Tis the season.

This absolutely faked up version of a Christmas classic is exactly how I'd love to see it done. I knew Ralphie was a psycho. Enjoy!

A Christmas Gory

It'll do more than put your eye out. Oh, and make sure you click the "inspiration" link.

Cross my Heart! A Stage For Fathers to be Heard

Arnie is biking across Canada in the hopes of raising funds and awareness of fathers' rights. Its an interesting site with lots of fascinating opinions. Some of what Arnie has to say may be found quite provocative by some folks, especially those who've been through this.

I can only imagine the pain of this kind of thing for all involved, especially the children. I personally know many people, some very close to me, who have been through this painful ordeal (on both sides). I hope I never have to feel it myself.

At the end of Arnie's story he says, "Together, with media, I want to pressure politicians to make changes to Family Law so it will endorse a healthy family situation, particularly in volatile divorce scenarios." Arnie's heart is in the right place for sure. Anything that has an aim of healing is worth a peek.

This was sent by my buddy Paulie of RadioNL in Kamloops who you can see smiling broadly (and baldly) on the Cross Canada Trek page with Arnie and Dan, who is covering Arnie's trek.

The above photo shows John Lennon signing a copy of the last album released prior to his death, Double Fantasy, for the obsessed Catcher in the Rye reading fan who would murder him later that evening - still a chilling image.

I was only 11 years old and I remember it very well. I knew who the Beatles were as I appreciated their music even at such a young age. I could not sleep that night, and in Nova Scotia at the time our AM station was not on all night, so I used to play with my purple transisitor radio and were able to pick up far away stations. That night I ended up listening to stations out of New York talking about Lennon's being shot and then announcing his death sometime later. Having had the birthname Christopher Jude, I related to the Beatles song "Hey Jude" closely and very much loved (and still do) all of their music.

Although too young to understand the significance of that night and its events. Now I am just grateful to remember.

Here are some of today's web articles remembering Lennon 25 years later:

Lennon's death lingers for those who were there - MUSIC - MSNBC.com

Northern Songs - John Lennon in Canada, 1969 - CBC

Liverpool, NYC remember Lennon - CNN.com

On This Day - December 8 - BBC

We still miss you John.

'Tis the season. Have a shot at Sober Santa 2. Get Santa hammered by walking him from glass to glass wth your arrow keys (the ones near your numberpad on the keyboard). The burping and farting is hilarious. *Hiccup* After you're done wiith that one try Sober Santa 1 from last year

I love Charlie Brown's Christmas growing up. I still do. In fact we have the DVD. I think we'll watch it agin soon. Over at fark.com there was a link to a trivia page containing 5 things you didn't know about the show. From there I did a little quiz about the classic Christmas special. I scored 90%. How did you do?

Who the hell is Sinterklaas (I know the page is in Dutch) you say? Well, its none other than Saint Nicholas aka Santa! Being of dutch heritage (as I now find out) I get to open presents on the eve of the feast of Sinterklaas which is December 5th... Today!! Apparently christians and non-christians (I guess that would be me. I'm such a heathen) all celebrate in the Netherlands.

This morning Sinterklaas came in the form of a box of goodies from birthmom Dianne! Wee!


The text on the box, I think, roughly translates to Merry Christmas. And it is December 5th so I opened the box. You'll see what I found inside after the jump.

Now comes the unpacking. I hate this part.

Basically we're still living out of boxes. If you have seen my underwear there is a reward. I am "going commando" as the kids say today, or "regimental" as those whacky kilt wearing Scotsman like to say.

It seems we had more stuff than we thought and this whole moving twice in 6 months thing is making me very tired. My office is coming along nicely and looking much like NASA's control center in Houston. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Below is a picture of a work in progress. Eventually everything will be put in its place, books will be on the shelves and wires will be neatly squared away:


This morning I rolled out of bed and went at it again. After putting away my 450+ DVDs and setting up Carol's computer I headed outside to the dreaded garage. We still had stuff to move from the garage into the house as our helpers (at my urging as I felt sorry for them) left many boxes there. There was so much crap in there that I couldn't fit the car in. It's a two car garage and we have a Hyundai Elantra. Yikes! Yes, what you're visualizing is probably fairly close to reality. I moved all of Art and Jo's stuff (they're our landlords) to one side and ours to the other. Then I took what belonged in the garage from the house and vice versa. All this took about four hours, but there were rewards:

REWARDS
- The car is in the garage.
- I got some exercise.
- I have a strong desire to stay in one place for a long while.
- All the boxes the belong in the house are in the house.
- All the boxes that belong in the garage are in the garage.
- I have something to blog.
- I get to have a shower as I smell like a ball's nutsack (the smell is not a reward).

That's it for now. I may write more later. Now I have to eat a litle lunch, walk the dog and tackle the living room.

There! All done. I don't think we're forgetting anything. Wait a minute... what's that in the photo? Oh, dustbunnies... We need to vaccuum a bit more. Dog? We have a dog?