Well, life is busier than ever for Alice and I. Our baby girl is due in a couple more weeks (July 5) and we are both quite busy with work and preparations.

The last three or four weekends have had early starts and long days attending birthing classes, taking part in breastfeeding seminars, walking tours of the hospital and assisting Alice’s father in painting our place. We even had an emergency toilet repair as the wrong size of toilet was installed by the previous owner and nasty leakage resulted…

The place looks beautiful now and things are just now coming together. We have also been doing a lot of yard work and it has been a constant and protracted battle keeping the ivy (morning glory) and dandelions at bay. The deck is clean (somewhat) and we have a shade umbrella for our patio set (yay). I can’t wait for the opportunity to sit outside with a nice cold beverage…mmm.

I am hoping to get some free time to relax and get centered again this upcoming weekend. Alice could sure use some extra sleep-in time too.

The baby is quite active now and kicking up a storm. She is head down (thank goodness) so I hope the position is right when the time comes. Alice is quite eager to get on with things and her work is busier than ever.

There will be some new pictures posted here soon including some new pics of our place and a Pic of Alice, so keep your eyes open.

Later.

We lost Eric today to cancer. He was a very happy and inquisitive cat. Very friendly and a joy to us all. He lived a happy long life of 12 years. He will be missed.

Read a story about a guy who was given 7 gift cards for the Apple store. He went online to buy a computer with them and he can only ‘redeem’ 4 at a time. I don’t know about you, but this seems like a rotten policy. Rotten apples! Here is the Story

Well, we moved in to our new house, unfortunately corporate scammers and the normal crap that makes life difficult and very expensive. Planning for Alice’s maternity leave looks like we may be eating a lot of no-name spam and no-name Kraft dinner…

ADT are a bunch of scam artists. We cancelled our monitoring only to find out that (totally unbeknownst to us) there were 14 months remaining on our three year contract. We were told that it was month to month, now it suddenly turns into a contract. This is total crap, but is going to scrape us for $420 at a time when there is no money to spare.

Boycot ADT. This organization is unscrupulous and misleading. Unless you enjoy throwing good money after bad, or just enjoy the ‘getting screwed’ feeling, stay FAR FAR away from ADT alarms!!!

We were looking at getting a few more furniture items; however IKEA has gone and discontinued a bunch of the stuff we have purchased. Now it looks like we either have to buy a completely new bedroom set, or we’ll have to keep a bunch of my clothing in piles on the floor… Looks like the latter is going to have to be the way until after Alice’s mat leave…Talk about one step forward and two steps backward! Nice new house to live in, but all my shit is strewn about the floor for the next 1.5 years. This stuff is highly un-motivating.

My car died again over the holidays. Windshield is also quite cracked and a lady ran into my side and is now fighting back and is asserting I hit her. She merged into my side when I was driving quite straight and steady in the middle lane on Kingsway. I even have a witness. No offense, but I think everyone out there is just a scammer at heart looking to fuck their fellow human as fast and ruthlessly as possible. People are stupid, and turn to scamming when their mistakes start to pile up around them.

Not sure how we are going to get through all of this. Things are looking bleak right now

For all you loyal readers out there, thanks. It can be a daunting task absorbing my expulsed content. ‘Tis the season for enjoying time with family, listening to thouse moldy old tunes, preparing for copious amounts of cheer, etc.

It looks like the Canadian DMCA bill has been withdrawn. Enjoy your free-use rights while you can, fellow Canucks. There will come a day when the Police can seize your computer on the mere suspicion of copying some sort of content (software, music, words, etc.) They may even Tazer you for good measure. But until then, we can live, love, play and be merry. Freedoms only seem to be valued after they are taken from us.

Above all, everyone, have a safe holiday!

…MMm hot saucy cake.

These things only cost a buck or so and can lead to so much enjoyment! Especially with Ice Cream!!

Anyway, things are getting hectic around here again. Christmas is coming which means all manner of nastiness for yours truly. We managed to buy a house! in South slope!! It’s all renovated and ready for us to move in!!! The problem is, we take possession on Dec. 27 and we need to move in by Dec. 31. (sigh) So much for our Christmas this year! At least Alice gets to fly back home for a couple of days while my good friend Will and I move the stuff over. As good as the cake is, it can’t solve every problem out there…

My days right now are filled with packing, tracking down boxes, and making all the usual moving arrangements during a time of year where the right people who are needed for the tasks at hand are already on holiday. Joy to the world!

Trying to keep up with Facebook. I haven’t been spending much time there due to the bottomless nature of the site, and the fact that my personal computing time is better spent on other things. Sheesh, if people really want to connect so badly, why the hell don’t they just call!

Anyway, to wrap things up, it seems like the DMCA is finally coming to Canada, and it is worded quite rudely to say the least. If you don’t know what the DMCA is, it basically is a law put in force by the media moguls of the world saying that if you copy anything, hum a tune, make a backup, etc. etc. you can go to jail and owe them thousands for infringing on the intellectual property they own. These laws are just band-aids for the media companies so that they can rape you for every last dollar you have. You want to play that CD on your Ipod, you will have to re-purchase every song. If you can’t purchase the music for your Ipod, too bad you are out of luck and there is nothing you can do about it!

If you want to play that CD on your computer, you will have to re-purchase every song for computer playback…Etc. These are draconian laws put in force to take away fair use rights that many of us take for granted. These rights cost media conglomerates money and having them removed opens the door to having your cultural goods commercialized to the nth degree. Hell, under the new rules, just using trademarked names and brands in such a blog post could cause media companies to request a takedown of this site and a squelching of my free speech. Any of us out there who may fix our own broken stuff, record TV shows to watch later, make a copy of a DVD to play it on your computer, etc. would find yourself in hot water and fied for many thousands of dollars. I think I would have to stop buying or renting movies, music etc. if such a law came in to Canada because it would just be too risky to have these things around! Think about it, you buy a CD and are accused of making a public broadcast just because you listen to it loudly and your neighbors hear it. This brings a law suit and thousands of dollars of cost for you to defend yourself. I don’t need that kind of trouble! Check out this Link

Things are getting tight around the house these day. Alice and I are saving every dime to be able to afford a house sometime in the winter/spring. Bioshock was finally released, and I have been playing through it. Very cool game with an eerie, scary environment. I recommend it, however, it is quite demanding hardware wise. Lots of fun though.

My back still aches from the repeated accidents. More of a twinge if I move my arms the wrong way (sigh).

Seems like everyone is invading Facebook these days. I have been keeping it loosely up to date, however, it is now blocked at work, and I dislike having to share my private information with every freakin plugin and add-on people send me. For all I know, impostors are learking. Awaiting to screw my credit up with their financial impersonations. I think I’ll be leaving Facebook alone for a while.

My car still runs like SH*T. I have no idea what the problem is. After a tune up, new TPS/O2 Sensors, and timing belt the thing still idles rough and at around 1100 rpm (should be closer to 500-600 in gear). Could be many other things, including vacuume leak (from Intake, Brake booster, EVAP Canister, EGR), EGR Valve, MAP Sensor or Coil. Replacing these could cost me major $$$$, so I have to live with the frustration of a car that runs like crap. ARRRGH!!!!

Looking forward to the next long weekend and some relaxation time for a change.

Hey all, I stumbled across this the other day. Sad stuff about one of the most infamous cults out there. Criminal charges in the EU are also Pending

Just got back yesterday from a family dinner to celebrate our wedding. We had a bit of a get together in Vancouver on Aug. 25 which was also a success. Now this wedding stuff is all done and things can get back to normal.

Yes, I am now a married man! I have many more details about this occurrence, however I am rushing off with my wonderful bride Alice to a hot and sunny (not that it’s not sunny here…) honeymoon. Wish us luck!

Rearended…Again!
Why are there so many tailgating, impatient drivers out there? Every time I drive defensively and slow down, this sh*t happens to me. Driving to work, stopped by a car in front of me, tail-gater behind does not stop. Bang…

This sucks.

Now my back, which was healing up quite nicely, needs drugs again to keep me out of pain.

Still looking forward to July 9th, marriage, fun in Saltspring, Honeymoon in Croatia. Probably won’t be able to drink though due to medication for my back!!! Bittersweet…

Got a new camera for the trip though. A Pentax K100D. Very cool digital SLR. Fun to take pictures, and they look awesome. I hope to post a bunch of them here when we get back. Keep your eyes out for them.

I decided to do this because my old camera was getting a bit dated, and taking a video camera around means that one of us would’t be enjoying the trip, just filming everyone else enjoying the trip.

Saving to buy a house is hard work…Dieting is hard work…Life has been a bit of a grind lately. It will be very nice to have a holiday and get away for a while. I hope there are no cars there…