April 2007

Whenever I get the chance I enter contests, as you never know what or when you will win. The other day I was out and about when I was approached in a store to enter a draw. The young lady who was taking the information from me asked me who would be the lucky person I would take with me if I won the trip, to which I had no answer.

Believe it or not I had never really thought about it but if I were ever to win a “Trip for Two” somewhere I have no one to go with me. How depressing is that.

It seems like everyday and more than once in a day we are hearing about some person or persons who have committed some heinous acts towards defenseless animals. The stories are heartbreaking and make me so angry when I hear or see them. I cannot understand why a person would do such horrible things to another living being. These people are the lowest kind of scum and should get the same treatment that they forced on these poor animals. Jail and fines are not a good enough punishment for these pieces of crap, put them in a room with me for 10 minutes and that would be a good beginning.

Today another story about a garbage man in Edmonton, Alberta who found an injured Yorkshire Terrier under some garbage bags in a garbage can. From the CBC story (Story here);

Humane Society official Diane Shannon says it’s remarkable the tiny dog was able to survive the ordeal.

She says she it was a cruel act and hopes animal protection officers can find the person responsible and charge them under the law.

The people who commit these crimes deserve a lot more than any current law can punish them. Hopefully through education and harsher penalties some of these horrific crimes can be stopped. There are absolutely no excuses for mistreatment of animals and we need stiffer laws to punish the perpetrators

The BC SPCA End Animal Cruelty Campaign is using education along with an Action Letter to BC Government to ask the Provincial Government to increase funding as well as strengthen the provincial laws.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated…” M. Gandhi

As soon as I thought of the title for this posting the Supertramp song started playing in my head. Ahh but I digress, I had a dream last night. Why is that such big news, well besides the fact that it was an interesting dream, it was the first time in weeks I have had a dream or a decent nights sleep for that matter.

My dream is about me, one of my favourite subjects, I am in a strange house where everything is big or at least I am too small too reach anything. I smell something tasty on a counter but cannot reach high enough to get whatever it is. I am alone and trying to figure a way to get to the counter to get what is on the counter. I am not sure what is up there but I definitely want it! As I look around I see a chair which is too large for me to lift so I push it across the floor to the counter. Now I need to find something to help me climb up on the chair. I find some books and pile them up beside the chair. Next I climb on the books and pull myself up on the chair but I find I am still too small to reach the counter. I try jumping up and down on the chair but still am not able to reach the counter. I lean off the chair and pull the books one by one up unto the chair. After piling the books on the chair and climbing on top of the books I am finally able to reach the counter. I look around and their is nothing in sight. Thinking it maybe further along I climb on the counter and still cannot find anything. I stand up and look around at a unfamiliar kitchen in a strange house. I walk around the counter but cannot find this most enticing smell. Disappointed I decide to get down from the counter only to discover the chair and books are no longer where I left them. Not sure how I am going to get down I sit down on the counter and with a sudden start I wake up with this strange sense of wanting something but not sure what it is I want.

It is driving me nuts because the smell was so familiar yet I cannot place what it was and also the song Dreamer is still running through my head.

Another Random subject this time about little ole me!

You know when you are invited out by friends and you are the only single person in the group, can you say awkward. Well I have become accustomed to this happening so it only bothers me some of the time.

When I decide I would like a snack I stand in front of the fridge and then the cupboard and then back to the fridge trying to decide and then discovering I really have nothing to snack on in my house.

My lawn needs cutting and each time I decide to go cut my lawn it is raining. Guess I am just unlucky or maybe I only decide to cut my lawn after I checked that it is raining.

I go to all the trouble of getting a Raspberry Mocha from Starbucks and then get so engrossed in something I forget to drink it until it is ice cold.

I plan to watch a movie and get everything ready including a snack and a drink. I start the movie and the next thing I know I am watching the end credits roll, I fell asleep!

I have been looking forward to going to a restaurant for a certain meal and when I get there they are all out of my first choice. But the real kicker is they are out of my second and third choice as well.

Because sleep continues to evade me I figured I would produce some facts to entertain

• The sentence “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter in the English language.
• Did you know you share your birthday with at least 9 million other people in the world.
• Mosquitoes are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color.
• A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.
• Almonds are members of the peach family.
• Charlie Brown’s father was a barber.
• In Mel Brooks’ ‘Silent Movie,’ mime Marcel Marceau is the only person who has a speaking role.
• “Evian” spelled backwards is naive.
• The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright.
• Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
• In Scotland, a new game was invented. It was entitled Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden…. and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.
• The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this…) The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
• Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
• Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
• There are more chickens than people in the world.

THE MOVIE MEME as stolen from Dave over at Blogography

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.

Way too many to list. All the original Star Wars films, the Indiana Jones series, the original Die Hard, The Rock, Casablanca, The Guns of Navarone, The Eagle Has Landed, Lion King, and dozens more.

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater.

Star Wars A New Hope.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.

A few including Kevin Spacey, Anthony Hopkins, John Cusack, Michael Caine to name a few.

Read the rest of this entry »

We have been expereincing some more techincal challenges with both my website and email. I restored my web site and it looks like things are working so far. As for my email if you sent me an email in the last 7 seven days chances are I did not get it so please resend. Not that any one sends me email anyway.

Working on bringing back my pictures and then hopefully things are back to normal.

Well even though things have been extremely negative for me over the past week or so it is nice to have something good and positive to think about in life. Today is Tara’s Birthday and I am pleased that she is doing alright. She has had what look to be mini seizures over the past 5-6 days where her head just bobs up and down and she zones out. I call them mini seizures because she does not realize what is happening and when she comes out of them she is not aware what happened. Other than that she is her usual happy self. She is pretty laid back and just takes the day as any other…

“Yaa it’s my Birthday but I really do not need a party to celebrate….an extra treat or two would be nice though!”

Happy Birthday Baby Monster!
Added a link to Tara’s page on Dogster

Click on Picture for Larger View!

Something else to add to my list of things that are pissing me off. So it is Sunday evening and I decided it would be a nice treat to get some Ice Cream for Tara and I. At 6:30 we leave the house and head for my local Supermarket only to find it closed. So we head further downtown to another supermarket, same result. I check all the usual places including Dairy Queen and all are closed. I can understand Christmas Day and maybe even New Years Day but for crying out loud it is Easter Sunday and the real holiday is Easter Friday and all these fucking places were open late. Figure that one out.

Funny thing is, I was not alone in my great search, there were 12-15 people at each place I tried and each was just as pissed off as me. Some I even saw at multiple places as they were trying to find something open. Obviously this is just something designed to send me off the deep end.

I just don’t fucking get it….things are conspiring to piss me off. Today I went out to try and relax and take my mind off of the shit that is happening in my life and ended up coming home more angry than when I left. I was in a store looking at something on a shelf when a young native gentleman walked in front of me and started looking at the same thing. I cleared my throat and was going to politely ask him to move. Instead he heard me clear my throat and turned and looked at me and just laughed. So needless to say I was not in the best mood when I got home.Made some dinner and tried to relax. After watching hockey I needed a file on my home computer except my computer decided it did not want to cooperate. So now after I expressed my displeasure with my computer I find my optical mouse no longer wants to function. Anyone got a new optical mouse they want to donate to a good cause.

It just keeps spiraling downwards!

I was going to say Like a Box of Chocolates but someone already said it. Life has been pitching me curve balls lately and even though they are no where near home plate the friggin Umpire has been calling them strikes. I figured life could not knock me down any further but just as reminder, Life has decided to bean me in the head with the ball. I just cannot get any breaks.

The sun and moon must be in alignment because this afternoon I tried the connection to my TV and it worked. No idea why it would not work earlier today. I made no changes between the last attempts earlier today and now. I guess lots of cursing and threatening to throw computers through walls must have an effect.

And I do not mean the ones on your house. I have been an avid computer user for more than 20 years and during that time I have used Microsoft Windows based computers with a large level of success. I am quite competent with using and troubleshooting computers, normally with little to no challenge. I have my notebook computer which I use as my primary computer and it uses Windows XP as the operating system. Over the past 6-8 months I have become disgruntled with Windows and how shitty it is to run and maintain.

The more I try to do something with my computers the more frustrated I get when I cannot accomplish my task in a simple way. Changing any setting is like taking your life into your hands, you are never sure if your system will stop functioning or blow up altogether. Since I like to get the best from my system I tend to tweak settings and it used to be that I could tweak to my hearts content and windows would not always like it but would not blow up. Over the past 6-8 months each time I have made a change it seems like Microsoft does not want me to make any changes and my Operating System (O/S) craps out. I understand that Microsoft is trying to make their O/S easier to use and ensure that all copies are legal, but for crying out loud make it more stable, stop adding updates which cause it to crash and quit worrying that everyone is stealing a copy of Windows.

Over the past 4 to 5 months I have been trying to connect my Notebook to my TV and have the proper cables and thought I had the most recent drivers. Without any success, I did some research and found out it can be done but was hit or miss at best. While I was researching I discovered a newer video driver and decided to give it a spin. This turned into a complete nightmare, after completing the installation of the new driver my computer proceeded to reboot and would not boot back into Windows XP without generating errors. After 4 hours of frustrating playing I was finally able to get back to a state where my computer seemed to be running in a stable manner. In the end I got the new drivers to run and really have no idea how I “fixed” whatever Windows did not like.

During my many hours of absolute frustration I was looking online for help and came across some info comparing Windows based and Apple machines. One of the points was the ease with which an Apple machine out of the box can be hooked up to a TV with the proper cables. I delved a little deeper and found a few forums where users agreed with this statement and described their experiences. Each time I have a challenge with my computer it reinforces my resolve to purchase an Apple notebook when it comes time to replace my current notebook.

I was out enjoying the sunshine on Wednesday and decided to go for a tan. I always find it relaxing to spend a few minutes getting some rays. After my session I was asked if I wanted to set another appointment and decided to book another appointment for Friday. The two girls behind the counter looked at me with a look of horror as if I had said something rude. As I noticed the look I was getting I asked what was wrong. The ladies informed me that Friday was a holiday, Good Friday, and how could I not know it was a holiday. I found this rather amusing and then explained that due to the fact that I am not gainfully employed, everyday is the same for me and so holidays do not really have any impact. Mostly holidays are an inconvenience for me as I have to adjust to places being closed and more people than usual out and about.

After I left the tanning salon I was thinking how much I used to enjoy holidays and how much I now despise them for causing me to be inconvenienced. I dislike what I have become and hate being unemployed!