Tag: Travels and Other Places

Chatteriffic Bullet-a-rama For A Friday

A fabulous day is here. The Friday that begins the great final melt, the weekend the rains come. Soon we will be smelling things, things that have been out there under the snow and ice for months. Soon car windows will be down, we will notice sounds from a distance as we sit in our houses, dogs a few streets over will interrupt our thoughts, the neighbours fights will introduce new words to the kids. Tra-la!

  • Update: Did you know that Kingston has the lowest unemployment between Halifax and Winnipeg? 5.0% percent.
  • Update: I had never heard the phrase “pimp my Zamboni” until I heard this story.
  • I am a broken record, I know, but sometimes you still here the music between the skips and so it is with great pleasure that I give you the greatest conversation of the week making fun of Web 2.0. An argument between people who want pornier porn and those who can advocate this with a straight face – “beware the coming misappropriation of the phrase ‘social software’.” Fabulous in its meaninglessness.
  • Indeed – what has Ghana done anyway?
  • Here is new information I did not know before. With all the talk of hands off our resources, the right way is the only way, and Alberta is taking the lead…now they are begging to not have their special case Federal tax break taken away:

    Alberta Finance Minister Lyle Oberg warned Thursday against any move by Ottawa to scrap a special tax break for the oil sands, saying it would be the final punch in a triple whammy blow to the energy sector. The Harper government, which needs Opposition party support to pass its March 19 budget, is reviewing an NDP call to scrap what’s called the accelerated capital cost allowance program for oil sands…tax expert Jack Mintz of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management estimates that oil sands projects would pay $165-million more in federal and provincial corporate income tax a year if the income tax rules applied to them were the same as conventional oil and gas investments. But, he adds, if oil sands investments were treated the same as Alberta’s non-energy projects, the additional tax would be $440-million a year.

    Maybe we can have these bonuses put on the table when we have to deal with the insufferable self-promoters of the West that lies between BC and Sask next time. Nice to have been pulling their weight so they can tell us how self-sufficient they are.

  • Speaking of meaninglessness, apparently Red Sox veteran pitcher Curt Schilling is blogging.
  • A couple of travelers sent me nine photos of their trip to Belgium. I like their travel planning.

That is it for now. Maybe more later. I have some planting to plan and I have start working on my spring festival outfit. And thinking about who to invite to the cheese roll.

The Final First Friday Of A Month Of 2006 Chat

I remember like it was yesterday that it was recently not now but that was a lot longer ago than I recall.

What is going on? It is a moving day for someone I know and I am lending a hand so a half day. It is also a double party evening. It’s been so long since one of them came a long I can’t recall how they work. Sweater vest and red tie for the first, ball cap and mandolin for the latter. Have we discussed “mand-o-lin”: violin for the hands, no?

  • Old logo good, new logo swooptastic!!!
  • This is neat if you have a British last name as illustrated by “Campbell” here.
  • This is just weird:

    When Christopher Fleming-Brown, a banker living in the exclusive area of Kensington, London, kicked a ball about with his five year-old son in a large private garden communally owned by the houses in his crescent, little did he know he would later face a two year court battle for inadvertently turning the garden into “a public recreation ground,” contrary to the Town Gardens Protection Act 1863…[because]…[l]ast November, a magistrate court held that this game did not constitute football, as there were no ‘teams’ involved. According to the present law, they concluded, teams means football…

    What!!! I am not one to just on the “Europe is dying” bandwagon but this is just…what…they appealed?

    This week, on her appeal, the High Court decided that Mr Fleming-Brown’s game had amounted to football, with Mr Lord Justice Waller saying that “By any common-sensical, natural interpretation the respondent and his son were playing football or a similar game.”

    Well that’s alright then.

  • Well, I suppose I better make my call on the Liberal Leadership Campaign:
    • Iggy – The Grit Stockwell Day. Day was elected, Iggy might be too. It will be weirder for a while and then it will be over.
    • Rae – the nicest guy in Canadian politics. If he wins I might vote for him as I have usually voted for some version of a soft socialist with a faint hope of winning power. Experience and I expect him to give a great speech. My hometown Senator Hugh made the point that few of the candidates have ever spoken to a crowd of 5,000. Rae has.
    • Dion – I don’t know that he has done anything to attract the attention of anyone who isn’t supporting him. Is he a Grit policy wonk?
    • Kennedy – less a no-chancer than three weeks ago but corduroy jackets are so 1974 and also 1994. He would probably make a good leader but he can make a good leader next time. They have to vote for someone who can win in six months.
    • Dryden – he played hockey, right?
    • The others – there are others?

      • I will likely track tomorrow’s second to sixth voting rounds via the radio.

  • Big brother has been watching…no, really – he’s my big brother…has been watching events and implications of the great “Wuzza nation?” debate and considers how nations have hockey teams so Quebec may now need one, too.
  • A freaky weather event may happen down our way later today:

    NORTHEAST WINDS AHEAD OF THE LOW PRESSURE AREA WILL DRAW DOWN THE WATER LEVELS ON EASTERN LAKE ERIE…BY ABOUT 2 FEET. THE SUDDEN SHIFT IN WINDS ALONG THE LENGTH OF LAKE ERIE AS THE COLD FRONT PASSES BY WILL LIKELY SET UP PRONOUNCED SEICH AND FORECAST PRODUCTS ARE SHOWING A RISE OF 8 FEET FROM THE LOWERED WATER LEVEL TO THE HIGHER WATER AS THE LAKE SHLOSHES BACK. A LAKESHORE FLOOD WARNING WILL BE IN EFFECT FOR LAKE ERIE FOR THIS EVENING. LAKE RISES ARE POSSIBLE ON LAKE ONTARIO AS WELL…AS THIS STORM PATTERN IS SIMILAR TO AN EVENT IN FEBRUARY 2006. WATER LEVELS ALONG THE EASTERN SHORE OF LAKE ONTARIO AND THE UPPER SAINT LAWRENCE RIVER ROSE A COUPLE OF FEET FROM OSWEGO TO CAPE VINCENT AND DOWNSTREAM TO ALEXANDRIA BAY ON THE RIVER.

    Freaky. I wish there were some sort of over the counter product to deal with “PRONOUNCED SEICH”. On the upside, this is a rare boogie boarding opportunity.

  • I will go to the Dinosaur BBQ again. I do not care. I ♥ it.

That is it. Gotta go. That must be enough. Can’t you stop emailing me? Someone is at the door. What? WHAT??? Argghhhhhh!!!….

[Exeunt. Ovation. Bows. Exeunt. Fin.]

Zip There And Back

…chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick…

You know why Trudeau should have gone all France and built that high speed train in the Quebec-Windsor corridor?

…chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick…

So I did not have to get up at 4:30 am to be in downtown Toronto for 9:00 am. It’s about privacy law so I can’t get into the details of the course…GET IT??? That is the sort of joke I heard twice today. So there will be no pithy comment in the morning. No noting that Harper is now back to unloved and has no buddies with any pull in the US that like him more than they love Bob Rae.

…chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick…

It’s that different now. Bob Rae goes to Washington 1 January 2007? “Comrade!!! is all you will hear echoing throughout Congress. Clinking glasses as the brass bands play The International and everyone shouting “Comrade!!! as they kiss each other’s cheeks.

…chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick…

Harper? What will he be greeted with in Washington after 1 January 2007? Somewhere between tumbling tumbleweeds and Deadwood. The unloved. Will it really be over that quickly? How delish. Yet…I will not go there tomorrow. I won’t. I can’t. No, I will be on a train between Belleville and Cobourg and you will not even be out of the Land o’ Nod.

…chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick…

That is why Canada needed that high speed train in the Quebec-Windsor corridor to be built back in 1983.

…chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick-chich-a-tee-chick…

Billy Bragg, Ottawa Concert

So we went to see Billy Bragg in Ottawa last night, eighteen years since the last time when I got the t-shirt and taught Bill suffleboard during a break in a sound check as I held the best table in the place all afternoon. I actually turned down free Sloan tickets a few days earlier as I learned my lesson about the ringing of ears from three years ago. It was a good move as the setting for the Bragg show was great. We got there a bit early and I saw everyone heading for the balcony and the stage I look around and, as God is my witness, there was a sofa and an armchair at the back.

So there I am at the back of the crowd in an armchair. Everytime I feel like having a peek, there is Bill about a hundred feet or so on the stage of the smallish venue and seeing that he is still in a red shirt with a guitar I can sit back down again. My neighbours were similarly comforted by the sofa. A little farther away we were at first slagged for our lack of rocking out effort but then, due to out firm plan to stay comfortable, we got all our cred back and more. Best of all was this honking great big table thing that kept the mob largely from us so that we were not forced into the “my space / your space” argument. Towards the end others were telling me what was going on, who had a lighter up, what Billy was doing with his hands. Very comfy and not unlike if he and 500 people had come over to my house for a concert.

It was all good plenty of early stuff like “New England” and World Turned Upside Down”. It got very sing-along music hall after a while with good story telling and a bit of yap back with the crowd. The theme of goat pee moved through the stories and, during the encore, he sort of lost it when “Sexuality” became “Beastiality” as he giggled and had to stop. Very chummy, though the last sentence probably means you had to be there for that bit. He mixed up the lyrics up dating political tunes with current facts. He also did a mix on “England, Half English” to the tune of and with the first verse of the traditional English song “John Barleycorn“. Perhaps odd to see that I was likely in the middle of the crowd in terms of age. Most photos too shakey. Good two-hour set. The ears do not ring.

One last thing that I found interesting is how he made good fun of bloggers who would be doing what I was doing here but then was on and on about YouTube. Hampsters eating a cookie and animals that talk got about an eight minute monologue. YouTube is killing blogs because it is easier and offers value for less effort.

I Was This Close To The Stage

As time passes and you get older you forget you laughed a lot over bands like Foreigner and so you now think it is kind of cool to walk around the New York State Fair and listen to them. Apparently a lot of people are of the same mind. They were tight and from 500 feet looked pretty good, especially the guy (or dot) in the white jacket.

I had a far better view of the Dinosaur BBQ ribs.

August SW Ontario Road Trip

Mucho fried after 17 hours in 48 driving, driving, driving along with the questionable food and the more questionable guest bed arrangements. I could have been to Boston or even farther and back. Not too much to complain about as I dropped by a couple of breweries on the way, including my first trip to Neustadt Springs, home of the excellently named 10W30 dark ale and also picked up some new ones for me from Church-Key.