I was reading a story the other day about how Apple’s $600 iPod is actually a disposable music player. Basically, its rechargable battery isn’t replacable. And, at least initially, Apple’s policy was to charge for $300 for full refurbishment when the battery inevitably died. Continue reading Disposable $600 iPods…
I was reading a story today about France outlawing headscarves and other religious symbols in their schools. The stance being taken is that these types of symbols divide people and, instead of teaching tolerance, encourage cultural isolation. Continue reading Quebec can learn from France…
My wife’s (Irene) parents came over from Victoria to visit this past weekend. Irene’s Aunt from Zimbabwe was also here, staying at Judith’s (Irene’s *other* aunt) home. Simultaneously, friends from Edmonton (Hi, Janet and Gord!) were in town.
Right off the bat, anyone who really knows me will realize that all these people, despite the fact I love them all, are a problem for me. You see, I’m anti-social…
I’ve trained myself through years of practice to not visibly panic when faced with a social situation. Now I safely internalize all of that uncertainty and fear. Well, more or less safely…
Continue reading On being anti-social…
I’ve got to tell you…I am getting a little sick and tired of spam email. You know, all that “V!agra c.heap!”, “E.n.large your m&anhood”, and “E.xxtreme h&amster S.E.X.X!” crap that clutters your inbox.
I have two different spam filters, and receive an average of 80 email messages a day…of which six pass through my filters, and four are legitimate email messages. The pathetic lowlifes who send this barrage of crap into my life are beneath any contempt. Lengthy sessions in jail with V!agra overdosed E.n.Larged cellmates would be appropriate. I also think there should be a special hell reserved for the businesses that fund these spammers, and the ISPs that turn a blind eye to their activities.
But I think it is possible to go too far …
Continue reading Spam rage…
There was a major rain and wind storm in our area a few weeks ago. We had something like 6 inches of rain in 24 hours, and winds of around 80 km/h (50 miles an hour).
This isn’t normally a problem: we hunker down in our house and watch the water fall from the sky. But this time, one of the trees in our front yard suffered a calamity…
Earlier this year we had to have our dog, Sheena, euthanized. It was a tough decision. But I was pretty clear that Sheena was our first and last dog: I loved her, but dogs are a lot of work.
Irene has been working on me ever since. She wanted another dog. But we have a household of seven cats, and that’s busy enough. Up until this weekend, logic prevailed: despite several near misses, we remained dog free.
I finally broke down this weekend. Meet Sadie…
I live in a coastal rainforest region. We had a dry summer this year, and water rationing including anti-sprinkling bans, which is really unusual.
It started raining pretty heavily this week, which is great. It got a little out of hand, though. Its a reminder of that old cliche, it never rains, but it pours… Continue reading Waste…
There are people out there who really renew my faith in Darwinism. People who forcefully and surgically remove themselves from the gene pool through their own basic ignorance, stupidity, or plain bad judgement.
Normally, though, these people are somewhere “far, far away”. Today, however, I came across an article in the paper edition of our little local paper (the Now newspaper).
It seems a fellow really, really wanted some copper wire…
Continue reading Almost one for the Darwin Awards…
Google has once again changed the structure of their news feed. As a result, you will notice that the Google news links above don’t seem to work. They actually do incorporate the correct news URL, but they include some other junk at the beginning.
