My Movie Idea

I've never had an idea for a movie before, but here is one:

Opening shot: Everyman (Steve Martin? Someone younger?) is minding his business, reading the morning paper in his hotel lobby. Samuel the waiter (Jim Carey? Mike Myers? Someone who can act?) is having a slow day in the restaurant, and suggests Everyman try some breakfast, focusing on one particular item. Everyman leaves, but is followed by Samuel, still suggesting breakfast.

The movie turns into a chase, as Everyman is pursued through house, hiding place, and countryside, with farm animals getting involved as well. First they're in an automobile, but soon, they're on a locomotive.

The "big scene" involves a huge collision between the locomotive and a ship. All along, Samuel is advocating breakfast and Everyman is declining it.

While floating and facing certain death, Everyman breaks down and tries some of Samuel's breakfast. To his great surprise, he loves it. The whole chase was an unnecessary waste.

Miraculously (and strengthened by breakfast), they reach shore. Everyman's joy is now complete.

---

In case you couldn't figure it out, this would be a live action version of "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss. I think it can be made into a cool movie. Or at least it can't be any worse than "The Cat in the Hat". Surprisingly, IMDB doesn't have a movie version of this story. The closest is "Green Eggs and Hamlet".

Hey, it could work.

House Hunting

Opening Music: Late in the Evening by Simon & Garfunkel

Last year, I said that this year, I might "think about thinking about" moving to a larger house. So, sure enough, this year I'm thinking about thinking about it. To me, this means that I am just trying to gather information, and I may or may not make a decision sometime soon. Or, I might decide to stay where I am for another year.

In my research, I've found one local new home builder that specialises in making large homes for not much money. I understand that if you buy the biggest house for the least amount of money, there will be other hidden costs. But, believe me, we'll be wanting as much space as we can get. A lot of new homes have these fancy cathedral ceilings in downstairs rooms. On the one hand, it looks nice, but on the other, I can't help but think, "What a waste of space!".

Anyway, today we went to our third model home for this builder. Maybe a month ago, I biked to one not far from here and talked to the lady there. I told her that I wasn't interested in a house, but I like to know what's going on with new homes in the area, since people tend to ask me sometimes. About a week or two later, T and I drove out to a model of one of their largest homes and checked it out. I also told the salesman that we were in no hurry to make a decision.

Today, we took the whole family for a ride through an April blizzard to see another model of the design that we think we like the best. There, I guess I wasn't vocal enough about the fact that I was in no hurry (or maybe it was because of the snow that he had no other customers) but it reminded me of the one and only time I went to a new car dealer. The guy seemed to want me to make a decision right away. I guess it must work on the average customer, or salescritters wouldn't do it, but I can't stand high-pressure sales jobs: I freeze and end up not making a decision for a long time.

So, right now, I'm thinking that our current house is really nice, and there are strong financial reasons to stay where we are. Why take on additional debt?

I'd post an image, but I'm on the laptop now, I don't have the right software installed, and I'd have to find the USB port. Sorry...

Closing Music:Distant Early Warning by Rush

First Daffodil of Spring

I've always liked daffodils, probably because they're some of the earliest flowers to appear in the Spring. Today, I noticed our first daffodil blooms; I may have missed then earlier, but I'm usually kind of observant about my daffodils.

It seems that the flowers are late this year. We had the shoots coming out of the ground in February, I think, but it seemed to take a long time for them to flower. Actually, I'm not sure when is the normal "first bloom" date around here. Now that I have a blog, I'll have to compare next year's date to today's.

Here's a poor photo:

It's All About the Information, Baby!

I'm taking this Good Friday (Jesus is the reason for this season) off work as one of my Floating Holidays or as Management Personal time or something. We were planning on visiting the in-laws this weekend, but those plans have been scrapped, and we'll be spending the day and weekend at home or at least in town.

The day off gives me some time to get things done around the house. I am finding that the things that "need to be done" are more and more information-related. Sure, I just helped the (usually) diligent T sweep the kitchen floor, but I also have the following tasks planned:

• I finally decided that 256 MB just wasn't enough RAM for the computer, so I broke down and bought 512 MB more. But, the last time I added memory (probably the wrong kind) to my old computer, it really messed things up. It wouldn't boot and the disk got corrupted somehow. So, I'm burning CDs of the last 5 years of family photos, which is probably a good idea anyway. The amount of disk space needed took a big jump after last year's purchase of a 5 MP camera capable of taking video.
• I need to finish up my taxes, or at least make a large dent on the remaining work. As I render therefore unto Washington the things which are Washington's (Matt. 22:21), this is also all about information. Since big ol' chunks o' gold aren't being passed back and forth, modern finances are all about keeping track of the information of who owes and owns what.
• I need to clean up our little home office/computer room area. As I look around, in addition to the kids' toys, there are a lot of papers strewn about: more information in need of management.
• Our bookshelves are a mess. What do books contain?
• OK, I think you get my point!

I also need to do some good old-fashioned car repair work of replacing an EGR valve. This is really beyond my car repair abilities, so I'm not sure how far I'll get. At some point, it may be better to junk the old car.

Pinewood Derby Results

The actual Pinewood Derby was today. It turned out that the Brownie car didn't win a design award, and came in third in each of its heats. The Wolf Cub Scout truck did win the award for "Best Workmanship" in its age group. It must have been the stylish writing and drawing that did the trick. The truck ended up winning one of its three heats, and came in second (of three) in the other two heats.

Here are a few more photos of the Pinewood Derby. First, here's an idea of what some of the other cars look like:


And here's the happy winner of the Craftsmanship award:


And the happy competitor:

2005 Pinewood Derby Cars

In case you're not familiar with it, the Pinewood Derby is an annual Cub Scout event, where the boys' fathers all make a car out of a block of wood. Then, there is a big event where everyone pretends that the boys made the cars, and they are raced by rolling them down a track. Below are our two cars for this year, along with last year's Tiger Cub car for reference. The Tiger car won the "Most Creative Design" award for its age group, so it's a tough act to follow.

Why do we have two cars? Well, in addition to a division for each of the ages of boys, there is an "Open" division for fathers, friends, and relatives who want to make their own cars. Last year, my daughter noticed that one of the cars in the Open division was a pink Disney-Princess themed one, and she decided that she wanted to enter a car this year. It should be obvious which is hers. If we were into that kind of thing, we could probably get "Girl Scout competes in Boy Scout Pinewood Derby" as a human interest story in the newspaper or somewhere, but we don't plan on attempting that.

So, who made what? Well,...

• The designs are solely by the kids.
• The wood-cutting is by my brother-in-law.
• The base painting was mostly by my wife in 2004 and by me in 2005.
• The trim work was by me in 2004 (for the face) and by the kids in 2005.

So, it's a family affair. Last year, we noticed that they didn't seem to care very much who actually won the races, so I don't think we're all that concerned about the cars being under-weight. Last year's car was maybe 10g under the weight limit (which most people thought was very light), but this year's cars are currently even lighter.

2005 Father-Daughter Dance

Here's a photo of people from my church, taken at Friday night's Father-Daughter Dance at Heritage Christian Church. Can you find me? :-)



And, since it's been a while since I've posted a photo of her, here's T:

The End Result

Here's the end result of our recent painting endevours. The photo give an idea of what it looks like, but I'm not sure that it totally does it justice. I'm sure that once we put some photos and posters back on the walls (and put the rest of the furniture in the room) it will be toned down a little more.

I Almost Feel Like I'm Stealing

I'm one of those people that have no idea how gasoline prices are determined. I find it interesting that all the gas stations sell it for the same price (within a few pennies) per gallon. If one place will raise prices 20c per gallon, so will the place across the street.

When I worked in a gas station, our price was always 1c more per gallon that the place across the street. The prices were set by telephone, where a mystery voice would call us and tell us what our prices should be. But I digress.

Today was one of those days where everyone raises their prices. They had been $1.99⁹ per gallon everywhere, and today all the stations raised their prices to $2.15⁹ per gallon. Except one place. As I was leaving, I noticed that they were at $1.99⁹. Throughout my daily travels, I noticed that every place else was at $2.15⁹. I didn't buy it at one of those higher-priced places, hoping to get it for $1.99⁹ on the way home. Sure enough, the place that didn't get the call was still 16c cheaper than all the other places. I ended up saving a whole $1.84.

But as I said, I am so trained to expect that unrelated gas stations (owned by unrelated companies) will all raise and lower their prices simultaneously. The fact that one place didn't stay in step makes me wonder and assume that it was only a mistake that caused them to not raise their prices. If they really meant to sell gasoline for $2.15⁹, then am I stealing from them?

The Mad Greek

Last night on the way home from work, I was going to pick up some Indian food for dinner. But, when I was phoning in my order, I found that the number of the closest Indian restaurant to my house had been disconnected. Further inquiries confirmed that the place had shut down. So, instead I picked up dinner from a place called "The Mad Greek". It's too bad that there aren't more restaurants like this one in the "Fast Food Capital of the Midwest".

This was the second time I was at the Greek, and the second time I ordered carry-out. One of the dinners came with soup, so the guy asked me what kind of soup I wanted. Maybe this was because I had taken a while to look at the menu, and perhaps it was because I wasn't a regular customer. But when I asked for the fish soup, the guy behind the counter suggested that I try each of the soups, said a few words (partially in Greek) to an employee, and soon I had three bowls, each with a small amount of soup in the bottom. They were

• Fish Something
• Lemon Chicken (Which was described as the "most popular"), and
  
• Lentil

They were all very good, but I went with my first urge of the fish.

Otherwise, all of the food is excellent. My usually picky daughter loves the pastitsio. Plus, they have delicious baklava ("Nature's most perfect food^TM"). It's all good, but I was most impressed by the personal service I received.

It's too bad there aren't more restaurants like The Mad Greek.

Note to Self on Odometer Readings

At the start of the year,

• Motorcycle, 22834.0
• Bicycle, 2725.2*
  

* - Sure, I could reset the bicycle odometer at the start of the year,
but what's the fun in that?

Speech Meet at The Tree

Our friends over at The djl Zone are big fans of the Tree of Life Christian School, or at least its athletic teams. Today, I had the opportunity to visit The Tree for the first time, as my daughter was entered in a speech competition there. She did a very good job reciting the poem The Three Little Kittens from memory. Given her skills at oration, it was almost too easy for her this year.

(Interestingly, a web search shows that there are a number of different versions of this poem.)

Here are some photos from today:

Letting the Kids Decide

For years, we haven't done much painting our of white walls because of one or both of the following reasons:

• They're already white, so there is no need to paint them white.
  
• If we picked out a colour, it would probably be boring or ugly.

This isn't exactly true, since we have done a bit of painting, like the sponge job of the downstairs restroom in Pepto-Bismol pink. But we've still had two of the kids' bedrooms that we hadn't touched with a paintbrush. This changed a few months ago, when we painted the girls' room in a nice purple and pink, with a nice border. I don't know interior decorating, but it looked OK to me.

Since they picked the colours, my son got to select the colours for his room. Not long ago, my wife and son went paint shopping, and came back with a medium green paint, with a blue for trim. The plan is to stencil some planets and stars on the walls in blue after painting the walls green.

Here's an in-progress photo. (No glass of wine is visible.)

Well, it certainly is bold-looking compared to the plain white, or even compared to the purple and pink room. I'll have to post a photo of the completed project.

I've heard it said, probably more than once, "Whenever you paint a room green, you'll be unhappy with the results." Am I unhappy? Well, I'm not painting. (I'd better go help!)

Video Curling Highlights at cbc.ca

At least as I type this, there are video curling highlights at cbc.ca. Check it out, especially if you're not that familiar with curling.

(We're not that good.)

(Temporary) Promotion to Vice

Warning: This post may contain lots of curling-specific words and phrases.

"But first I decided to buy some doughnuts." First, an update on the doughnut situation. For the last two weeks, I stopped by the same place that gave me the free doughnuts. Both times, there was a different cashier, and he charged me 65c for a doughnut, rather than letting me have it for free and telling me to take more. I'm not sure what it is about free food. I'm fortunate to be in a financial situation were I can afford a few dollars for a half dozen doughnuts once a week and not miss the money. But, I'm still hoping for to get some for free. I guess the sociologists or psychologists out there can probably give me an explanation.

At curling tonight (not that I'm bragging) we won 13-3 against the team that we all assume has the best skip on the ice. We got lucky and I'll assume he had an off night. My skip mentioned that our vice skip is going to miss a few of the upcoming games, so he's promoting me to vice for this duration. (Or maybe until I mess up!) He also gave me a bit of advice that seem to help with my delivery. I'm paraphrasing, but it might have went something like this, "Aim for the broom, you idiot!" Whatever it was, that advice helped in the short term.

I had been curling lead or #2, and starting to decide that I like lead better. So, being vice will but the pressure on me to not mess up with a crowded house. I'll also have my opportunities to sweep reduced by a third. Since sweeping is the best workout of curling, and since the doughnuts aren't free anyway, I'll have to take it easy on the doughnuts.

Finally, when it comes to curling, I've been told more than once that I have good form. This, more than anything, surprises me. Those that know me know that I'm not afraid to try new activities. But, I don't tend to have good form or grace or style at anything I do. For example, while I don't golf much (I do make it a point to golf once or twice per decade) my golfing has been compared to someone more than 20 years my senior with a bad back. Those sorts of comparisons are what I'd expect from my particular style in anything. Maybe the people complimenting me are just trying to be nice...

Five Months and One Day

I (L) & C (R)

N-H-Who? We have Arenaball!

Commenting on the cancelled season of the National Hockey League, it's worth mentioning that I went to the local Arenaball game with my 7-year old son tonight. Between the loud rock music and the high-scoring football action, HE UTTERLY LOVED IT.

What does this have to do with the NHL? Absolutely nothing, of course. (That's the point.) My son has never been to an NHL game. Had there been an NHL season, maybe last week we would have went to an NHL game and UTTERLY LOVED that. Maybe he would have become a hockey fan for life. Instead, he had a blast at the football game, and might never care about ice hockey.

Whither Quaker Canyon Camp?

For each of several summers in the mid to late 1970's, I spent a week at Quaker Canyon Camp. QCC was a Christian-based summer camp, and offered such summer camp activities as archery, horseback riding (the memory of which is still painful), and lots of learning about Jesus. Recently, I've been wondering whatever happened to Quaker Canyon Camp, so I googled for the term. It (or its memory) certainly doesn't have much of a web presence. At the time of this writing, only two hits were returned:

1. A Religious Studies professor who mentions he spoke to campers there after he graduated from high school.
2. Someone else asking whatever happened to Quaker Canyon Camp.

(So this page will likely be the third.)

If you have any information regarding the fate or status of Quaker Canyon Camp, please let me know (by leaving a comment). Is it still going? Was it shut down and turned into a strip mine? If so, then when? Thanks.

Historic Time Magazine Covers

Check out http://www.time.com/time/coversearch. You can enter (I think) any date since the beginning of Time and see what was on the cover of the magazine. Use it to see what was important news in the US (at least according to Time magazine). Enter your birth date, or any date you choose.

Selling Krispy Kreme

After a thrilling 7-6 loss in overtime (best skip stone with sweeping) at curling tonight, I stopped at the gas station for a fill-up. I'm usually hungry after curling, and I noticed a Krispy Kreme sign, so I went in to pick up a doughnut. I walked to the counter and the guy said, "Is that all you're getting? It's OK; they're free. You can take some more if you'd like."

Bonanza! The only question in my mind was, what is the greatest number of free doughnuts I can grab without the guy saying, "That's too many!"? Seriously, I went with a half-dozen, which also added up to one for me tonight and one for all the doughnut eaters tomorrow morning.

(Actually, part of me was thinking, "If they're free, there must be something wrong with them", but it tasted fine.)

However, this was a disappointment as well. Foolish optimist that I am, I bought some stock in Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. at a price much higher than today's. Ever since then, the stock has dropped, and mostly bad news has come from the company. Today, in the news, I even heard the term "bankruptcy" mentioned as one possible future for the company.

So, it's probably not a good investment at this time, unless you like high-risk turnaround plays. Still, when I invest in a company, I am usually slow to sell it; perhaps too slow at times. However, tonight clinched it. I mean, if gas stations are giving away their doughnuts for free, how can I ever expect them to make money? Krispy Kreme, if you're reading this, you might want to do something about it. It's time to sell the doughnuts' stock. It remains to be seen if stopping in for (hopefully) free doughnuts after curling will become a habit.

Actually, the guy at the gas station likely knows that few doughnuts sell after a certain time, and they'd all get thrown out anyway, and maybe they were expired, and maybe he hates to see them go to waste, and he's a nice guy. But a win for the doughnut eater is not a win for the owner of the company that sells the doughnuts.

Below should be the price chart for KKD shares over the past 12 months. As of this writing, the last trade was at $6.06 per share.

The Ax by Donald E. Westlake

(Amazon.com link)
Yet another book report. Didn't I hate to do them when I was in school? How things change. Anyway, The Ax is a new genre for me, being a selection from one of my book clubs. It's listed under "Mysteries and Thrillers", which is one area that I haven't read much of before.

The book is the story of Burke Devore, a line manager at a paper mill who is laid off when his job is outsourced. He's in his early 50's, and is finding the competition fierce for the dwindling number of available jobs in his area of specialty. So, he concocts a plan to reduce the competition: just kill enough of the job-seekers in his particular area, which will leave him the best (and only) man for any job (that just might happen to become) available.

As the story progresses, it becomes a battle against time. Will Burke be able to kill enough people and land a job before he's caught by the police or before his marriage or family falls apart? There are, of course, social commentaries about justness of a society that can toss people like Devore out of his chosen line of employment. Perhaps this is meant to get the reader to sympathize or identify with the protagonist in the story, but I can't say it was effective on me.

One thing I've noticed about books, but I can't really quantify, is how "easy" they are to read. As a self-styled slow reader, with some books, it can seemingly take "forever" for me to get through ten pages. With others, including this one, I can whip through 30 pages before I know it. I'm sure this is mainly due to the author's choice of words and sentence structure. According to a review on the back of the book by the Detroit News and Free Press, "No one can turn a phrase like Westlake." I'm not exactly sure what that is supposed to mean. This is a "page turner" novel that might be described as a "psychological thriller", not a great work of literature. While the writing style did make Devore seem to be an ordinary guy, I certainly don't recall any phrases that stand out as being noteworthy.

As I said, this is a genre that I haven't read much of in the past, and I'll say that I don't have any plans to read much of it in the future. When giving a rating of a book, I am torn between just saying how much I liked it and saying how "good" of a work it may be. Just because I don't care for something doesn't make it garbage. However, in this case, I'll rate the book by how much I liked it. I have to ask myself some questions. Why did I read this? What did I gain by reading it? I certainly didn't enjoy it. It wasn't "educational" in a meaningful sense. While some might consider it to be something one reads for pleasure, I didn't find much pleasure in going along for a ride with a murderer. So, I'm forcing myself to give this book my lowest rating so far: one star out of five.

NFL Team Shirt Day, 2005 Edition

(I had completely forgotten it was NFL Team Shirt Day. She remembered it herself, so don't blame me!)

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

(Amazon.com Link)

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency tells the story of Mma Precious Ramotswe as she establishes the first (and only) female owned and operated private detective agency in all of Botswana. Mma Ramotswe floats from case to case, finding missing and/or cheating husbands, tracking down stolen property, turning down marriage proposals, and doing all of the things that you'd expect from a Botswanan female private eye.

Judging from its high sales figures, the fact that it is first in a series, and the rave reviews over at Amazon, this is a well-liked book. However, I have (at best) mixed feelings about it. On the plus side, I enjoy books that give a good feel for what it is like to live at a certain time or place. This book does do a good job of that, giving the reader a real feel for the day-to-day life of a small businesswoman in present-day Botswana.

Unfortunately, there is not much plot here. Most of the cases are independent "morality plays" (if that is the correct term). Mma Ramotswe uses her superior understanding of human motives, or her superior intellect, or her superior bulk to solve the case and show that lying, cheating, stealing, or leaving your wife and going off to join a religious sect(!) doesn't pay. There were tantalizing hints that there might be some main story-line coming together, but it never really came to fruition.

This isn't a bad book. If you are looking for something to pick up in an airport to read on a flight or something, you can certainly do worse. Plus, for the non-Botswanan among us, the look at life in a new country is certainly a plus. I feel like I'm being picky, but the lack of a plot is holding back my rating. I'll give it two stars out of five, with the caveat that for a two-star book, it's really quite good.

International Kid #2: Aussie Mite Sandwich

As I've mentioned before, my kids (including 4-year old T) make school and work lunches for all of us on work/school evenings. Once a week is Bowling Day, so I have been leaving work to pick T up from preschool and drop her off at the bowling alley where she can meet up with the wife. Rather than taking up an hour of the work day to do this (time I have to make up) we're going to let her stay after preschool for an hour and have the wife pick her up after bowling. As a part of this extended preschool care, we need to send along a lunch.

So, of course, T was really excited about getting to make a lunch for herself as well as helping with everyone else's! And, what did she chose to make for herself with no prompting from anyone? I was rather shocked, but she started to make herself an Aussie Mite sandwich! I helped her to make sure she didn't glob too much on there. I'm sure the teachers won't know what it is. I hope it goes OK.

Aussie Mite, for those not in the know, is a product similar to Vegemite, except not as good. I have some left over from our trip to Australia last (northern) summer. I'd add a link to the web site listed on the Aussie Mite jar (www.allnaturalfoods.com.au) but that site seems to not exist.

International Kid

So, we're making a rare visit to McDonalds on Friday night (more later on Friday night, hopefully) and my 7-year old son points out an ad on the wall at the restaurant and says, "Hey, there's a cricket batter!" There were other activities on the ad as well, like basketball and fishing. But his notice of cricket brings the following thoughts to mind:

1. I'm surprised that he recognized the cricket batsman. When I was his age, I'm pretty sure that I had no clue about cricket.
2. Why in the world does McDonalds use cricket in its advertising schemes? While I don't mind the internationalization, it's not like we were in a high-immigrant area or anything.
   

Outdoor Ice Skating

Last year, I bought a pair of new ice skates for a little more than $30. I thought that this was a good deal, since I would have expected new skates to cost around $80 or $100. Of course, at the rate I use them, it will still be many years before I make back what I would have paid in skate rentals the infrequent times that I do go ice skating. (But, at least I guarantee not getting a pair of cruddy skates.)

In order to make my purchase less of a waste, another not-very ambitious goal of mine is to use them outside on a pond (where skates are not rented) at least once a year. Here I am on the local neighbourhood pond. Conditions weren't all that great, as there was some snow and slush. We brought along a shovel, but I didn't venture too far out as I didn't trust it out there. (I think I heard a crack once.)

All-in-all, the three of us (G, Delhi, and me) had a good time in the snow and ice. It was about 10F (-12C), but nobody complained of being cold -- a first, I think.
(Photo by Delhi)
While I'm on the subject, I've noticed a difference in how kids are taught to treat frozen ponds in the wintertime compared to when I was a kid. Perhaps this is because I grew up in slightly more northerly climes than where I live now. Or perhaps it is due to global warming, or more likely, liability insurance. But, when I was in Boy Scouts, and maybe school, we were taught how thick the ice had to be to be safe for one person, a small group, and a large group. Now, as best as I can tell, it seems that kids are told, "Always stay off frozen ponds, no matter what." That's a shame.

By the way, the pond has signs that say, "NO BOATING; NO SWIMMING; NO WADING." Since the sign doesn't say anything about skating or walking on the ice, I figure we're OK.

Literary Character Day

Unfortunately, today was an unnecessary snow day, so all our efforts in costume design came to naught.

Morality in Costume Design

Next week, my son and daughter have a special day at school. They are encouraged to go to school dressed as a favourite literary character. My son wanted to go as King Arthur, or at least a knight. To accomplish this, we went to a costume shop and rented a knight costume (which is something that I would never have considered when I was a kid). The rental cost $30 plus tax.

My daughter wanted to go as Oliver Twist from the Dickens book. That took a bit more thought, trying to figure out how to dress her as a 19th-century English orphan boy. What we did was go to a thrift shop and bought the following items in grey or tan:

• A pair of pants for $2.
  
• A scarf, overpriced at $2.
  
• Some used shoes that really aren't that bad for $1.
• A slightly small button-down sweater for $2.
• A t-shirt for $1.

So, the total was like $8. The plan is to cut off the pants below the knees, perhaps with a raggedy edge. We also might sew a few patches on the pants and/or sweater. Plus, she also had the idea to put some black smudges on the shirt and pants.

Thinking about it, we still need to get her one of those caps...

Anyway, the point I wanted to make with this post is that, even though I tried to get cruddy-looking thrift-store clothes to start with, the clothes didn't really look that bad. We haven't done it yet, but it's like I'll feel guilty ruining a pair of nice pants to create a costume that she'll wear only once. I didn't feel particularly bad paying $32 for my son's costume (though I know it's not cheap). But sacrificing wearable clothing to make a $9 costume makes me feel kind of bad. I'm sure there's a reason for that, that someone can explain to me.

Maybe I'll post a photo later of them in their costumes.

Oh, also, we may be doing a bit more thrift store shopping in the future.

Mustard Again?

Each school/work night, I have my kids make lunches for themselves to take to school, and also have them pack a lunch for me to take to work. (It's good to be the Dad.) Sometimes, they can be a little adventurous. For example, I once mentioned that while I've never had a peanut butter and cheese sandwich, I didn't think I would like to have one for lunch.

Last night my son attempted to make me a mustard sandwich (the kind with cranberries). While such a thing would certainly be edible, it isn't my first choice. I think he was just in a hurry and trying to take a short-cut. I had to ask him, "Would make yourself a mustard sandwich for lunch?" ("No.") "Would you like to have a mustard sandwich for lunch?" ("No.") I got him to also put a slice of meat on the sandwich, and agreed that he could make me a mustard sandwich whenever he also made one for himself.

Pennies on Their Way Out at Jolly Pirate?

On the way to work/school this morning, we stopped at the Jolly Pirate Do(ugh)nut shop. We usually (once or twice a week) go to Tim Hortons, but we made an exception today. I got a small decaf and a doughnut to share with T. The order came to $1.54. At first, I handed the lady $2, but then decided I had 5c in my pocket so I handed her that coin, too. She gave me 50c in change, without any regards to the extra cent owed me.

This was no problem to me -- I feel that one-cent coins are more hassle than they're worth. But it was interesting to see an example of a merchant who seems to agree with me. I'd like to think we would have already done away with pennies if it wasn't for the zinc lobby.

And, here is T's comment on Jolly Pirate doughnuts. (Say this with the tip of your tongue far back on the roof of your mouth.) "They're too dry. I need something to drink."

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a novel by Mark Haddon. (Here's the Amazon.com link.) It is narrated by a fifteen year-old boy named Christopher who discovers that a neighbour's dog has been killed. Despite being innocent, he's initially suspected of the killing and decides to track down the real killer. The "catch" of the story is that Christopher is autistic. He is very gifted in math (or "maths", as it was called in the book -- I assume this is a Britishism) and can be very logical. But he can't stand to be touched, has little tolerance of crowds, strangers, or lack or predictability, and has his own little rules for life, such as avoiding things that are yellow.

At times, I found myself relating to Christopher and his way of thinking in the story. However, at other times I didn't, such as when he mentions that when shopping with his mother, there were too many people, so he laid down on the floor and started screaming. The jacket says that the author previously worked with autistic children, so I assume he knows what he's writing about.

While, on the surface, it's about an autistic boy tracking down the murderer of a dog, it is, of course, much deeper than that. It may sound corny, but it's more about what he discovers along the way, how it affects his relationship with his family, and how he reacts when his ordered life is turned upside down. There are also insights (through Christopher's eyes) on how his very ordinary parents dealt with a very special child, and the effects it had on them.

Also worth noting is that the author has experience as an illustrator, and there are lots of neat little illustrations in the book. These are not overwhelming and add to the effect of the story.

The book is shorter than much modern fiction at 226 not-very-dense pages. I view this as a good thing. To me, this is long enough to tell a good story. I'm busy and a slow reader. I'll try 600-page books, but they can become quite an effort for me. The length of this one seemed "just right". Still, it took me about 6 weeks to get through it -- I don't think I really got into the flow of the mostly short chapters. But another reason could be the fact that, since I've been getting up in the middle of the nights, I haven't been too eager to read much before bed every night.

When a friend suggested this book, I had high expectations for it, and I expected to love it. Maybe having high expectations can be a bad thing, as they left room for disappointment. I liked it, but didn't love it. If I liked it better, would I have read it quicker? Or was my schedule really maxed out? In any event, I'll still give it 4 stars out of 5.

How do you pronounce "Siobhan"?

Early 2005 Rose Bowl Comment

When, at the 50-yard line before the game, the referee told the Michigan and Texas captains, "Mickey will toss the coin", I just had to change the channel.

T Plus 3 Months

(The full-sized images, which you can see by clicking on the images below, seem to be less blurry than these reduced-sized versions.)

	C Girl
	E Boy

Best Monopoly® Quote

Tonight, we played our first family game of "adult" Monopoly, with myself as the car, the Mrs as the doggie, my almost 9-year old daughter as the horse, and my 7-year old son as the battleship. I came in second to my daughter, who always wished people a nice stay when they stayed at her properties. (I wasn't "taking it easy" on anyone, either.)

But the best quote of the night came from my son. Not being 100% familiar with the rules, when he acquired a monopoly in the light purples (Virginia, States, St. Charles), he asked my wife, "Can I knock down your Electric Company?"

BD's Mongolian Barbeque

I recently had the opportunity to eat lunch at a BD's Mongolian Barbeque restaurant. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, the diner puts his desired meats, vegetables, and sauces into a bowl, where they are grilled together as a stir-fry while the diner waits.

There was a wide variety of meats and seafoods available. It had been a long time since I had duck, so I loaded up my bowl exclusively with pieces of dead duck. (So much for my consideration of making it a vegetarian lunch.) There was also a good selection of vegetables; really I would have preferred more vegetables than would fit in my bowl. I chose a variety, but the largest component was bean sprouts. Finally, for the sauces, I didn't know what I was doing, so started with some black bean sauce, added some Chinese hot sauce (I think it was kung pao sauce -- a Chinese co-worker said that I added too much) and some wine as well. Then, to complete my spicing, I added some curry powder.

All-in-all, of course, it was exactly what I wanted, even if it wasn't any good! Actually, it was fine. I can say that every time I've had duck, I've been less than 100% impressed, but that wasn't the fault of the restaurant.

Still, it's not difficult to find faults with the place. A few are as follows

• They priced a meal by the bowl, and not by the weight or contents of the bowl. This differed from the previous time I ate at a Mongolian-style restaurant, which was in Edmonton. There, the priced the meal by the weight of the contents of your bowl. That system had the problem of charging the same per gram no matter what the filling was. But the "by the bowl" pricing system is an example of what I consider to be the worst thing in current American restaurant practices. Since any bowl was priced the same, I felt compelled to fill the bowl to the brim, since I would be charged the same no matter what I put in it. Plus, they offered diners a second trip for only a few dollars above the initial price. Thus, it's another example of over-sized portions and inducement to overeating.
• I guess my second complaint against the place was that it just seemed a little ungenuine. I mean, it's a modern chain restaurant with waiters who smile a little too much, and the place is following processes from some manual of proper restauranting techniques designed to get as many customers in and out as quickly as possible, taking as much of the customers' money as possible in the interim.

In short, O.K. food, especially if you like to experiment, and an atmosphere and experience not any different than any other modern restaurant chain in its genre.

Curling Game on the Web

There's a neat (one player vs. the computer) curling game at mousebreaker.com. Some elements are missing, such as sweeping, but it's still fun and addictive. I should win almost 100% of the time; not that I do.

By the way, some of the games at that site might not be considered suitable for children (for reasons other than violence). That hasn't stopped me from letting my kids play, but maybe it should.

2004 Heisman Thoughts

I'm glad that I'm not a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Well, that's not exactly true, since I wish I was a voter for said trophy. However, I will freely admit that I am completely unqualified to vote for the award this year. But being unqualified to express an opinion hasn't stopped me before, so why should it now?

Anyway, the five finalists are:

• Reggie Bush, RB, USC
• Matt Leinart, QB, USC
• Adrian Peterson, RB, Oklahoma
• Alex Smith, QB, Utah
• Jason White, QB, Oklahoma

I'd vote for Peterson. The times I've seen Oklahoma play, he just stood out as being the best player out there.

Nothing Much to Say

It's been a while since I've made a blog entry. This means that either I have nothing much to say or no time to say it.

• Last night at curling, I had maybe the most frustrating night since the league (my first) started maybe two months ago. I released 18 stones as we played an extra "end" beyond the regulation 8. It was probably around stone 15 or 16 until I felt somewhat comfortable with my release, and I had some control of what the stones were going to do. I'd like to have some time to practice releasing a bunch of rocks in a non-game situation.
• Before then, I went to the Christmas pageant at my kids' school. Another sign of my kids' growing maturity is that I was confident that my son would be able to make it through the entire show without fidgeting too much, or otherwise being a distraction or calling inappropriate attention to himself. Maybe sitting on the opposite corner of the room helped, but he seemed to exude a new sense of confidence and maturity.

On tap for this weekend:

• Get a Christmas tree.
• Fix a flat tire.
• Write and send Christmas cards.
• Maybe go running, or at least otherwise get some exercise.
• Watch some football, if my favourite team is on the air.
• Maybe watch the rest of the Grey Cup tape.
• Finish and finally return the Babylon 5 DVD that I borrowed from a co-worker.
  
• Buy some Christmas presents. I'd better get something for my wife. I think I'd enjoy the time a lot more if we did what my parents do, and not buy Christmas presents for each other. But our relationship isn't at that level, I suppose. While I'm on the subject, one year I bought her a large cast-iron frying pan. As I was leaving the store, the (former) pastor of my church was walking in. I was all excited, and showed him, "Look what I got my wife for Christmas!!" He was like, "You got your wife a frying pan for Christmas??" But I knew she would like it, and she did.

OK, that's enough for now.

Love Is...

(Note: When I first wrote this, I wasn't planning on adding it to my blog. But, after reading it, I decided it was appropriate.)

1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is patient,

The verse continues, and I don't want to read too much into stopping the verse there. But, patience is the first attribute mentioned, and perhaps that is for a reason. Surely, love is not just patient. But, maybe by some measure, that's a good first approximation of what real love is. Indeed, try reading 1 Corinthians 13:4-12, noting how many times the statement about love relates to patience.

Having Fun With MP3's

I would say that I've entered the 1990s with regards to music, but I see that Napster didn't get started until 1999. So, I might not be as far behind the trend as I think.

Anyway, for my birthday last month, I got a new stereo. My previous stereo was a gift from my mother about 15 years ago. It was a fine stereo in its time, but a new one was needed. Other than the very basic stuff that you'd expect to come standard in a radio, there were a few things I was looking for, stuff that most people would probably consider to be "basic" anyway. These were:

• A "line in" option to be able to beam my Launchcast station to it over my RCA Lyra wireless unit.
• A remote control.
• A CD changer that held more than one CD.
• A CD player that played MP3 files.

I added that last requirement without knowing what I would do with it. However, I have learned how cool MP3's can be. I ended up getting a Sony CMT-HPX system. I'm not much of an audiophile, but it seems OK to me. One problem I saw with it was that if I would put the maximum of 5 CDs in the unit, it would still repeat songs on shuffle play more frequently than I would like. This is largely remedied by the power of the MPs.

With MP3s, I'm able to copy my meagre CD collection to MP3s on my computer, and then burn CDs containing these files to be played on my stereo. What's so cool about it is that (with an MP3 compression rate of 160 kpbs) I can fit ten or more albums onto one MP3 CD, and still be satisfied with the resulting sound quality. I can pop one of these into the Sony, put it on shuffle play, and get a lot fewer repeats.

So now I'm working on copying my CD collection to MP3s.

Depending on your level of experience and interest in this area, you're probably thinking one of two things:

• Yes, this all is obvious. What took you so long? Or,
  
• I don't really know what you're talking about.

In any event, I think it's kind of cool.

Currently playing on Launchcast: "Space Oddity" by Natalie Merchant. (What? Did anyone else do that song?)

Hand-Holding in Public

A few weeks ago, as I was walking back to the car with my son from one of his football games, I was holding his hand. I didn't notice any other father/son combinations doing this. At the time I thought "enjoy it while I can," since I know he's very close to the end of the Holding Hands With Daddy phase of his life.

It's interesting that my daughter and I can probably hold hands in public at any age, but that's not the case with my son. This is just an observation; I'm not bemoaning societal norms or anything.

T Plus 7 Weeks

Yet more baby photos...

Four-Year-Old Wisdom

• On horses: The 4-year-old knows that there is a type of horse that is larger and stronger than a regular horse. You and I would call it a draft horse. But, she doesn't quite call it that. Tonight she wanted to play "giraffe horse," with me as the giraffe horse. I thought it was cute.


• On Cesarean Sections: She said something like, "[A friend from preschool] said that sometimes to get the baby out, they take the Mommy to the hospital and cut off her bellybutton and take the baby out and then put on a new bellybutton." I don't think that's quite correct, but maybe not too bad for one four-year-old to another.
  

End of the Biking Season

With the demise of daylight savings time, it pretty much ends the biking season for the year. The early sunsets no longer allow daylight riding in the evenings. Of course, weekends are still available, but with the dropping temperatures, I don't expect to ride a lot between now and the end of the year.

For the second year in a row, the numbers of miles I've ridden has gone down. I may ride a bit more, but I'm not going to top my 2003 distance.

Year	Distance Ridden (miles)
2002	1168
2003	855
2004	700 (so far)

Motorcycle riding was also off for the year. I kind of make 1,000 miles my goal for the amount of miles I ride on my motorcycle, but this year's total was only 410.

Jeff Suppan Baserunning FolliesTM

While it is a bit late to talk about Game 3 of the four-game 2004 World Series, I did want to make a point. You may recall the brain freeze of Cardinal pitcher Jeff Suppan during the third inning of Game 3. He was on third base, when a ball was hit to deep second. The Red Sox were pretty much conceding the run, but Suppan couldn't make up his mind, broke home, went back towards third, stopped, and was eventually picked off.

My intent here isn't to rag on Suppan. These things happen, and it's not like the Cardinals would have won the Series if not for his mistake. He's a pitcher, not a "real" baserunner. Actually, that is my point. I hear National League fans claiming that the American League doesn't play "real" baseball due to the D.H. Maybe that's true. But... it's also true that the chances are that such a sorry display of baserunning would be much less likely to be seen in an American League park. One advantage of "fake" American League baseball is that it tends to keep guys like Suppan off the bases, resulting in fewer "little league" plays in the World Series.

Pumpkin

Baby Photos

People have been complaining lately that they wanted more pictures of the babies, so here you go.

World Series Comment: Bring on Game 7!

As I write this, the Boston Red Sox lead the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 World Series, two games to none. While I guess I prefer Boston to win, a part of me prefers that no team that has won its most recent World Series before 1948 win a World Series before the Cleveland Indians do.

Also, it seems to me that there would be a certain poetic irony if the Cardinals would win the Series after falling behind three games to none.

But, what I think I would most like is a long World Series. I like the World Series. So, the way I look at it, the more the better. For that matter, bring back the 9 game Series. "I predict the Indians in 8!" d:-)

OK, maybe going back to a 9-game Series isn't a serious suggestion. But, I'd rather see the Cardinals win at least a few and make things more interesting.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Amazon link) was a selection from the book discussion group of my local public library. I've never seen the 1945 movie or any other production of this story. In the book, as you are probably aware, the portrait of a young man ages, while his appearance remains unchanged.

This was a slightly different representation of Dorian Gray than how he was portrayed in the 2003 Connery flick The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In that movie, Gray is rather immortal, as any damage done to his body is instantly transferred to the portrait, while he is healed. Needless to say, this is nothing at all like the book. In the book, the focus is on Gray's increasing moral corruption showing up on the picture. While his physical appearance remains unchanging, there is never the assumption that he can't be killed or hurt. In fact, those concerns are a major part of the story.

Another difference between Wilde's work and LXG was that in the mediocre (at best) flick, Gray (or maybe others, I forget) couldn't look at the portrait or he would die, whereas observing the portrait is a major item in Wilde's work.

This wasn't intended to be a comparison/contrast piece between the book and unrelated movies. Anyway, the most interesting parts of the book are not the journeys into Dorian's psyche, but the drawing room conversations involving his friend Lord Henry. If anyone represents the devil in the book, it would definitely be Lord Henry. Although I don't recall his exact quotes, he's the type of character that would say something like, "I hear that Mr. So and So has been spreading vile gossip about me behind my back. Let me assure you that these wild accusations are most certainly and completely true." Henry's advice reminds me of the Weird Al song "Everything You Know Is Wrong". His hedonistic advice is in the end devastating to the young and impressionable Dorian.

As with my recent review of Tolstoy, it's interesting to think that Dorian was written in 1891 or whenever, in the era of my grandparents' grandparents. Some of the sensual descriptions of male beauty make one not surprised to hear of the author's later legal troubles. All-in-all, it's an uneven work. Dorian Gray is enough of a cultural reference that one should be familiar with the concept. It's interesting and entertaining in places. But, in others it is boring and predictable. I certainly wouldn't want to discourage anyone from reading it that might otherwise be interested in the author or the era. I give it two stars out of five.

Roaring 40's Win ILCF Regular Season Title

I'm still amazed at my success, but my CFL fantasy football team's regular season has ended with it in first place. For the sake of posterity, here's the final 2004 ILCF regular season standings:

Standings as of week 18

                     GP   W  L  T Pts   PF   PA  DIFF

Columbus Roaring 40's 18  15  2  1  31  717  427  290

Nepean Killer Bunnies 18  11  6  1  23  718  604  114

Newfoundland Brigade  18  11  7  0  22  657  589   68

Yellowknife Ice Worms 18  10  7  1  21  667  564  103

-----------------------------------------------------------

Richmond Roughriders  18  10  8  0  20  706  625   81

Windsor Border Patrol 18   7  9  2  16  460  577  -117

Steel City Stench     18   3 12  3  9   463  566  -103

Edmonton Marauders    18   1 17  0  2   182  618  -436



Matchups for round 1 of the playoffs (Edmonton players idle)

Yellowknife at Columbus

Newfoundland at Nepean

On to the playoffs!!!

Here's the current roster, which got us through most of the season:

---

QB:	Marcus Crandell, Cal Casey Printers, BC Ricky Ray, ??
OL:	Ottawa
RB:	Antonio Warren, BC Scott Deibert, Cal
RC:	Chris Brazzell, BC Frank Cutolo, BC Winston October, Edm Tony Miles, Tor Mike Morreale, Ham Albert Connell, Cal Denis Montana, Cal
DL:	Brent Johnson, BC Clinton Wayne, Ott Roger Dunbrack, Ott
DB:	Almondo Curry, Mtl George White, Cal
LB:	John Grace, Cal
K:	Paul McCallum, Sask Sandro Sciortino, Ott
P:	Paul McCallum, Sask Sandro Sciortino, Ott
KR:	Winston October, Edm Chris Brazzell, BC

Due Date

Today is the original due date for C and I. I guess this means that my other kids and I can now say that they are "zero" and not "negative one".

The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy

I last (and first) attempted to read Tolstoy when I was in high school and bought a paperback copy of War and Peace mostly in an attempt to impress a girl. I've been asked whether or not I was successful. Well, I don't think I made it past page 50 or so of about 1500 pages, so you can use your own judgment to answer this question.

But today's review is on The Death of Ivan Ilych. (Here's the Amazon.com link for a slightly different collection.) This is a much shorter story than W&P. I'm not sure what the distinction is between a (long) short story, a novella, and a short novel, but it's in there somewhere, and I made it through the whole thing.

The subject of Ivan should be clear enough from the title. It begins with the title character's funeral, but then backtracks to cover his entire life, including the illness that ended it. The whole gamut of emotions is expressed by ol' Leo, including lots and lots of despair. Tolstoy was masterful in his writing. At times I found myself amazed at how "modern" it sounded for being written in eighteen hundred something-something or whenever.

While I can't say that it was a life-changing experience for me, I can say that this story has the potential to alter how you look at life and death. Thus, it's a weighty and consequential work that will make you think, rather than just being a piece of fluff. Just being potentially life-changing is enough for me to give it my highest rating: five stars out of five.


My copy of Ivan also included the story Master and Man. In this story, a wealthy rural Russian businessman and one of his servants set out (by horse and sledge) on a trip to close the deal on the purchase of a forest. In the middle of winter. In Russia. In a snowstorm. Can you guess what happens next?

Once again, Tolstoy very believably explores the thoughts of men as they approach death. While this story doesn't quite have the impact of Ivan, it's worth reading if you ever find it. Three stars out of five.

I still don't have any plans to pick up War and Peace any time soon.

Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Wait Till Next Year (Amazon.com link) tells the story of the author's childhood in Rockville Centre, New York in the 1950s. Despite the book not being very long (257 quick pages, including a good deal of photographs), the author goes into detail in at least the following areas:

• Her family, including its history, joys, and tragedies.
  
• Her friends, neighbors, and community, including the inevitable decline in community as the decade wore on,
• Her experiences in school and the Roman Catholic Church,
• Her increasing understanding of events of national significance,
• And, last, but not least, what it was like to grow up as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan and the how baseball was and can be a uniting force in families and communities. (As a aside, I was planning on adding a link to a cool Brooklyn Dodgers web site, but I couldn't find one on the first page of Google results.)

One thing I find striking is how much more unsupervised her childhood was compared to those of my children, while my childhood was probably somewhere in-between. Getting into the reasons for this would be a topic for another blog entry.

Back to the book: I found it to be a very good read. If you're not a baseball fan, don't be scared by the apparent baseball theme of the book -- baseball certainly isn't the main point. I suppose I could consider that to be a negative, but I won't. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to just about anyone who would think it might be interesting. Four stars out of five.

Zych For President

The brother of a friend of mine is running for President. Of the United States of America. Check it out.

If I've met him, I'm sure it was only briefly, like at my friend's wedding or something. But, hey, I'd vote for him! "We've Done Worse".

You're Never Too Old To Make a Semicolon Mistake

Not that this will be interesting to many people, but today I noticed that I had made the following C++ mistake. I wrote:

if ( !foo );
{
// ...
}

It was detected early enough in the cycle. Sure, it's legal code, but it would be nice if the compiler would give warnings in cases like this.

(If you'd like, insert your own joke here about the importance of semicolon screening.)

2000 Election Again (or How Big is Your House?)

The law that set the size of the US House of Representatives at 435 was passed in 1941. There is nothing magical about the number 435. If you asked Congresscritters in 1941 what they thought the size of the House might be in 2001, perhaps many would have thought that it would have been larger.

Since Gore won the popular vote in the 2000 election, anyone giving a bit of thought to the makeup of the electoral college would realize that a larger House of Representatives would have resulted in a Gore electoral victory. But how large would such a House need to be?

You can find the answer at this link at thirty-thousand.org.

The answer is 492.

Hold on, this is where it gets interesting. House sizes of 491 and 597 result in an electoral tie. But for sizes between these two numbers, the result flip-flops (to use a term from the 2004 election) several times between favouring Bush and Gore, with a few electoral ties as well.

Gore wins with a House size greater than 597. Except for 655, which would have resulted in a tie.

According to the thirty-thousand.org site mentioned above,

The winner of the 2000 presidential election was determined in 1941 when the House size was fixed at 435. Had the House size been set at 500 in 1941 (and not been changed since) then Gore would have won the 2000 election!

Introducing...

Carys (L) and Ian (R)

Naming Research: Still Fascinated by Xzavier

We're still trying to come to a final decision on the topic of baby names. I confess, I am still fascinated by the name Xzavier. According to the Socialist Insecurity Administration, Xzavier was the 707th most popular name in 2003, having been used 268 times, and it is gaining in popularity.

Why do I find this name so interesting? Well, I suppose you need to consider its origins. I assume that somewhere, someone saw the name Xavier, didn't know how to pronounce it, and started saying "Ecks-zavier". Then, someone else said, "'Ecks-zavier', that's a nice name. How do you spell it?" and got "X-z-a-v-i-e-r" as the response. I guess the issue is, how many other names have two obvious mistakes in their derivation?

When it comes to our own name selection saga, we may be reaching some resolution. We've had a girl's name selected for a long time now, and other than some wrangling over the spelling, I think we're set. However, we always have more problems with boys' names. Some of what we've considered can deduced from an entry in this blog. However, we now have another leading candidate. (Hint: It's another non-English name from the British Isles.) I'm not sure if it will be our final decision or not, but it may be.

One problem with this choice is that it might be too popular. It was in the top 100 in popularity for each year since 1990. Ideally, we'd prefer to go with names closer to 200 in popularity: something you've heard of, but a name that isn't too common. We may make an exception this time.

Then there's the problem of middle names. Actually, we're not having as much indecision here.

Also, you may be thinking I should mention my ideas here and perhaps get your input. Sorry, but if I wanted your input on this, I would have already asked for it (and I have asked for some). I feel that I'm under a lot of pressure if someone asks which of two baby names I like better, and I don't want to burden anyone else. This is something we need to handle (mostly) on our own. (Also, once a kid is named, it is then too late for the polite to say anything but, "That's a wonderful name!")

Speaking of wonderful names, some of my better ideas, like Ernest, Frederick, and Brock keep getting vetoed.

Blog Templates: What's the Secret?

As you can see, I added two new little sections on the right column of the blog: Currently Reading and Friends' Blogs. To do this, I had to mess with the Blogger template files. I was able to figure it out, but it's the sort of thing that makes plain HTML look easy.

What's the secret? What am I missing? Surely there are some WYSIWYG template editors somewhere that everyone else is using, isn't there? I'm not so far behind the times that I'm the only one that isn't an expert with these blog templates, am I?

So, how come everyone but me has nice, custom-looking blogs? How do you do it? What tools do you use?

Please help.

Thanks.

More on the Decline of Small, Family-Owned Businesses

Due to the deterioration of the hubs of my front lawnmower wheels after years of use, I need to get some replacements. This Saturday afternoon, I motorcycled to the local, small-town hardware store. (I could have bicycled, but I didn't want to miss too much of the football game on TV.) Part of my thinking was that I could have went to the mega Dow Jones Industrial Average component international hardware store conglomerate, but I'd give the little guy some business.

When I got home and tried to attach the new wheels to my lawnmower, I found that they were the wrong size. (My axles were too short to fit all the way through the hubs.) I don't blame the store for that. I was going to return to the store for an exchange or refund, but I thought it might be a good idea to call first to make sure they were still open. No dice; I called at 5:15, and they said that they closed at 5:00pm on Saturdays. When I enquired about their Sunday hours, I learned that they are closed on Sunday.

These sorts of hours may have been the norm when I was a kid, but I've come to expect being able to do business before the sun sinks too far towards the horizon on a Saturday afternoon, and being able to do business on a Sunday. From this experience, I couldn't help but think to myself, "I should have went to the mega Dow Jones Industrial Average component international hardware store conglomerate. Next time I will."

---

I'm goin' (yes I'm) goin', I'm a-goin' to the
Goin' to the (hard) ware I'm goin', really goin' to the
Goin' (hard) I'm goin' to the (hard) oh yes, I'm goin' to the
Hardware store

Not a Good Day for the Mini-Whites

On Saturday, the "Mini-Whites" had their second game. This one didn't go quite as well as the first as they ended up losing 27-0 to drop their record to 1-1. Below is a photo of their snazzy new game uniforms. (Not shown is the gold helmet with red facemask.) Their whole setup is snazzier than we had when I was a kid and played football. No, the helmets were not leather! But, every team did have plain white pants and plain white helmets with gray facemasks.

Unfortunately, I missed the first bit of the game. The Omni needed a pair of tires, and the other car needed a flat to be fixed. That involved more than a 2 hour wait. The cost of a pair of tires was probably more than the value of the car, but I'm sure it will be a safer ride without the balding tires. I hate to invest too much in the Omni, but I also hate to get rid of it while it still runs.

---

Memories at the Republican Convention

Memories light the corner of my mind.
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were.

---

Tonight I watched George W. Bush's acceptance speech for the Republican Presidential nomination. For better or worse, it seems that his campaign intends to bring up memories of his leadership in the time after September 11, 2001, and to campaign on his response to international terrorism. Once again, my wife had the best synopsis of a candidate's speech when she started singing the Barbra Streisand song The Way We Were.

One thing that I found annoying about the speech was the constant interruptions for applause. Did Kerry's speech have so many interruptions? I don't think so, but in any event, it was aggravating for a person who just wanted to hear what he had to say.

A few other thoughts on the speech:

• I liked the self-deprecating comments regarding Bush's problems with language and having his English corrected by Arnold Schwarzenegger. One complaint I have with Bush's term in office is that he gives me the impression that he can't admit mistakes, or even conceive of the possibility that he might sometime make a mistake. So, it was somewhat comforting to see him able to admit some personal flaws.
• I question the need for the far-reaching social programs outlined in the speech, especially in the areas of education and health care. Personally, I feel that the federal government already has far too much say in my children's education, and would prefer that the involvement decrease, not increase. (Please show me which part of the Constitution authorizes federal involvement in this area...)
• It was interesting that when mentioning foreign leaders who were his allies, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia was the first one mentioned. I wonder if this would help or hurt Howard's reelection chances.
• While I'm on the subject of Howard, does he look like "Dick" Cheney? Or is it just that I believed it when I heard that a bald guy with glasses could never be elected President, so I'm surprised when I see them in executive offices?

Here are photos of Cheney and Howard. Can you tell them apart?

---

Memories may be beautiful and yet,
What's too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget.
So it's the laughter
We will remember,
Whenever we remember
The way we were;
The way we were.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

I didn't intend this blog to be a book review site, but I would like to keep a log of the books that I read. The fact that book reviews take up a large percentage of the posts just means that I am not writing non-book review entries frequently enough.

Today's review is of Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. (Here's the Amazon.com link.) In the first few pages of the novel, terrorists storm a formal diplomatic dinner party at the Vice Presidential mansion in an unspecified South American country. Their goal is to quickly kidnap the President and escape with him to the jungle. Unfortunately for their plans, the President is not there, things go awry, and they end up in control of the compound, with a houseful of kidnapped dignitaries, but surrounded by police and military forces.

Although it's not mentioned, there are many (superficial, at least) similarities between the story and the Tupac Amaru seizure of the residence of the Japanese ambassador to Peru in 1996-1997.

This could be the setup of a Clancyesque thriller. However it's actually about as anti-Clancy as could be imagined. The story focuses on the development of relationships between the hostages and each other, and between the hostages and the terrorists. There isn't really a "main" character, but the closest thing to one would be Gen, whose role as a professional translator makes him the only person able to communicate with everyone present, and puts him in the centre of most activity.

I can't say I know what it would be like to be in that sort of hostage situation, but the book doesn't have the air of realism to me. However, I don't think it's meant to be "realistic". I think the author tried to imagine what relationships could develop in this sort of situation, and went from there. In some ways, it's more like a romance novel than a political thriller.

It's certainly an OK read, but my opinion of the book went down as I neared the end and the house became more and more of a utopia. I was going to give it three and a half stars, but I'll remove the last half star.

Three stars out of five.

Part-Time Work

On Friday night, I started a new part-time job. This is the first new job that I've begun in too many years now. For tax reasons, I'm an "independent contractor", working for the television station that my brother works for. He's the one that got me the job. They have a state-wide high school football wrap-up show on Friday nights. My job is to scan various internet sites, find final scores from high school football games, and enter them into their system so that the scores will scroll across the bottom of viewers' screens.

Part of me wonders how much more automated this system can become. What would it take to read scores from a file or other internet sites, and transfer them into the system without having to type the numbers in myself? This is an interesting question and I'm not sure if there's a good solution. But, such concerns are really beyond the scope of my assignment.

There was always the feeling of being under pressure. What if I enter the wrong scores? What if I say the wrong team won? I joked that the job would have been a lot easier if their system already had the winning team on the top for each game. Also, they handed me the phone a few times when people called in to the station. I quickly learned that the caller sometimes giveth, and the caller sometimes taketh away. One caller quickly gave me a final I didn't have and hung up. (How very nice and efficient!) Another asked me for some scores. Finally, a third caller tried to give me a score, but I kind of lost him when he was saying, "I think they scored 23. Or maybe it was 25. Something like that." Could it be that the regular employees don't like taking calls? (Why else would they give the phone to the new guy on his first day on the job with no training?)

While I am getting paid, the amount will add about 3% (before taxes) to my income. (Of course I'll work a lot fewer hours at the TV station.) So why am I bothering?

• As Geddy said, "Ten bucks is ten bucks, eh".
• It allow me to keep an eye on my brother.
• It keeps me off the streets.
• It's kind of fun.
• Who know? Maybe a whole new career could spring up. I certainly don't expect anything of that sort. But, there are so little in the way of new opportunities in my current job, and also so little in the way of job security, that it couldn't hurt to try something new and meet some new people.
  

Dear John

I have been trying to figure out the derivation and meaning of the name English names John, Jonas, and Jonah. I've seen conflicting information concerning this. For example,

• Does John mean "God is gracious" or "He (God) accomplishes"?
• It's pretty clear that Jonah is from the Hebrew word for "dove", but is Jonas a variation of John or Jonah? Also, is Jonas Lithuanian or Greek?
  

I found what looks like reliable information at BehindTheName.com. That site has the following in its entry for John:

English form of Johannes, which was the Latin form of the Greek name Ioannes, itself derived from the Hebrew name Yochanan meaning "YAHWEH is gracious".

And the following information appears for Jonas:

JÓNAS m
Usage: Icelandic
Icelandic form of JONAH

JONAS (1) m
Usage: Lithuanian
Lithuanian form of JOHN

JONAS (2) m
Usage: Biblical (Variant)
Greek form of JONAH

(Just another example of the kind of stuff you probably won't learn anyplace else...)

Roaring 40's Undefeated After Week 8!

I've been involved on and off with the ILCF ("Internet League of Canadian Football") for about the past decade. I'm just amazed at how my team (the Columbus Roaring 40's) is doing this year. It's not like I have good access to the goings on of the CFL or anything. Last year's 40's finished with 4 wins or so all year. All I can say is that Casey Printers is the man and I received great advice that I should consider BC's backup because Dave Dickenson was likely to be injured. I'm just happy finish out of the cellar. Here are the standings after 8 weeks of the 2004 season:

                       GP   W   L   T   Pts     PF    PA   DIFF

Columbus Roaring 40's   8   8   0   0     16    371   211   160

Yellowknife Ice Worms   8   5   2   1     11    297   226   71

Windsor Border Patrol   8   5   2   1     11    228   217   11

Nepean Killer Bunnies   8   4   3   1     9     348   312   36

Richmond Roughriders    8   4   4   0     8     357   312   45

Newfoundland Brigade    8   3   5   0     6     257   329   -72

Edmonton Mauraders      8   1   7   0     2     101   247   -146

Steel City Stench       8   0   7   1     1     171   276   -105  

Electoral College Vote Predictor

Check out electoral-vote.com. It's a preduction of the upcoming US Presidential election, updated daily. I assume the guy uses reasonable data rather than just making stuff up. Its current prediction is as follows:


While we're at it, for a completely different take on the election, check out the "Mock Election" results at Dave Leip's uselectionatlas.org.

The Corrections: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen

I recently finished The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. (Here's the Amazon.com link.) This is a book that elicits a lot of thoughts from me, but I am not sure if I'll be able to express many of them in a coherent manner.

The book is the story of a typical(??) dysfunctional American family: two parents and their three adult children. At the highest level, it tells of father Alfred's struggle with Parkinson's disease and his slipping further and further into dementia. But, it also goes in-depth into each of the main characters, exploring how messed-up each of them really is.

At times, Franzen is quite amusing with the jabs he takes at our 21st-century capitalist/consumerist society. As an example, the only model of Sport-Utility Vehicle driven by any of the characters is the Ford Stomper. (This inspired me to call my new minivan a Ford Behemoth.)

So, what's the point of it all? In my book club discussion of this book, everyone was disappointed by the "and they all lived happily ever after" ending. After spending 592 pages describing how dysfunctional everyone was, nobody thought the final five pages were very believable. If I had to find an overall theme, it would be that the story is a confirmation of Numbers 14:18b in the Bible: "[God] punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

I found the book to be overly long. Also, why can't books be rated like movies? I found this one to be fuller of coarse language and sex than I prefer in a novel. It would be nice if there were some way to learn about a book's content or its "suitability for children" or whatever, othen than just reading it.

The author shows a lot of talent in this book, and I'm sure that some people will really like it and consider it to be an "example of meaningful contemporary literature". But in this case I don't think "a display of writing talent" necessarily translates into a book that I'd recommend.

Two stars out of five.

The Things You See In The Sky

I try to go camping in a tent with one or more of my children at least once a year. (Yes, I know, this is a pretty feeble goal...) Anyway, last night my son and I went camping in our spacious backyard. (Despite nothing but endorsements by me for Therm-a-rest, I'm a bit stiff today.)

I woke up at 5:00 AM and made a quick trip into the house's downstairs bathroom. When I got out, I was amazed at what was in the sky. It was a clear night, and I noticed:

• How bright the half-moon made everything. Sure, there was the light pollution of the neighborhood, but I think most of the light came from the moon.
• What I assume was Venus shining brightly in the eastern sky. (I've never seen Venus there before...)
• What I have to assume was a satellite floating by. I last remember seeing a satellite at summer camp maybe 25 years ago.

You can notice a lot in the backyard at five in the morning.