Tuesday, July 12, 2016

allright. I couldn't let that a post sit there looking like that. Its been about three years since I last poste anything as banal as what kind of cellphone I'm using. Neverthee mind. I've been busy fathering child and drinking wine. It almost seems as if no one blogs anymore. new methods and techniques exist for being online and there just isnt much call to read journals of others when you can try and get people to read your stuff. The real goal here is to just have something. just offer up something for people to see and maybe even read through to the end. if you are among the few who have ever come here and i'll admit even i dont come here, thanks for reading this far. maybe I'll post anoher time in a year or two. hehe clay

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Big Brother is finally watching us.

Like a lot of people I recently decided to upgrade my cell phone and get a data-phone as I like to call them but most will know them by the irritating name "smartphone" This has become the catch-all word to describe any iphone-like phone that will deliver and send email, run applications, or display web pages etc... Its a surprisingly addictive little gizmo and its using the Android operating system so it integrates seamlessly with my gmail account and now with all its connected "services" like YouTube and Plus and all that hazzmajazz. What this means as far as I can tell us that the Google corporation have succeeded in gathering even more information about me. If they choose (and most probably they do) they can read my mail, track my whereabouts, see my social life and pictures etc. So what happened recently is that when I purchased the phone Google had pre-loaded it with an ebook in order to promote their ebook store and encourage people to buy books and read them on their cellphones. The book they loaded it with? 1984 by Orwell. So what struck me as ironic about this is that periodically updates to the book application including parts of the books were automatically applied without me knowing or approving them which I guess is pretty much standard and accepted these days. Sound familiar? Mind you the text if the book hadn't been altered but the cover picture had. It makes me wonder where we're headed with all this auto-updating technology. Information is becoming less and less a finite thing that you buy and use it and enjoy and more of a service that you subscribe to. Its constantly being updated and modified. But it makes me wonder where were heading with this. Online news computer programs are already being constantly modified and rewritten. Will the same thing start to happen with books and movies?


Wednesday, February 08, 2012

La Peruse, Maui
 I was in Hawaii again after the holidays.  Whenever I say I went to Hawaii to people I get this response that's like a half wider-eyed "wow cool" expression mixed with a barely distinguishable dark undercurrent of "What the hell?  What's this joker hiding from me?  How come he gets to go to Hawaii and I don't?  Why didn't he take me!?"  Not necessarily because I can see this expression, but because that's generally how I feel when people tell me about their trips to Thailand or New Zealand or Africa or wherever, well, for those people I have Hawaii.  It's no great distance away, but it's probably still one of the nicest places to visit or, as in my case, have family you can visit.  Nothing beats couch surfing in a place you can actually go ocean surfing too!  As a Canadian it seems I'm not one of the ones that's immune from the snowbird instincts like my other fellow Canadians.  The truth is, most of us don't go to warm places for winter - we tough it out.  I assume as things get more expensive and out of reach for the average person not lucky enough to have some disposable income and couches in paradise to sleep on, we'll just have to all move to Victoria or one of the few other warm pockets of BC or just endure the winter.  It's not that bad at the heart of it.  But then again I've never really lived much farther north than the 49th. so maybe I'm just bullshitting at this point. 

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Well, well.  Old man Winter seems to be here for keeps now.  It's nice and sunny, but it's also cold!  We have had plumbers and now Drywallers and tapers in our apartment for the last few weeks.  They come in early in the morning and we have to get up so they can repair and replace stuff.  So, anyway, not a lot else is happening.  Winter is cold and damp here, so other than the usual working, playing, drinking hot fluids and fighting off colds by trying not to breathe too hard on the bus, you spend a lot of time trying not to eat too much rice.  Hot steamed rice is awesome when the weather gets cold and it really makes you feel comfortable and warm, but it's easy to eat too much and thats when you start to feel bloaty and heavy with starch.  Anyway, we eat a lot of rice and it's nice.  I've been trying to bike as long as possible in this weather, but I draw the line at freezing rain.  There is a point when bicycling starts to feel more like a stubborn chore than a nice fun way to get around.  Anyway, I hope everyone out there in blog-reader-land is doing well and I'll post more.  I promise.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

IMG_5591


IMG_5591, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

Here is another great pic of our cat. Cat images probably make up about 1/3 of internet traffic after Facebook and porn, but, well why not post another? I can think of far worse things to spend time looking at - like Facebook and Porn for example. He has extra toes and long legs so I'm guessing this is why he likes to sit with his legs stretched out in front like this, or maybe more likely, it's because he's too hot. The air has been a little cold in town lately, so I'm guessing either we're still going to get some really hot summer weather in the next few weeks, or the Canadian winter is already descending down from the north!!! Say it isn't so!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Freak out / live life!

It was Italian days on Commercial Dr. This weekend the street was rendered carless yet again, and people took to the streets, doing whatever. Wandering and eating sausages mostly, but there's always a few people who take the opportunity to show off their moves. There even were live bands and a fashion show! I had some disappointing pasta considering it was Italian Days and all... The sausages looked good though. It was the most "summery" I've felt in the city though since last summer. Nothing like street food and street freaks to get this party started!
Sent from my mobile.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

KARKAZON!

IMG_0905.JPG
I used to play a lot of board games when I was younger and I still like to from time to time.  My girlfriend's mother is really into board games and usually when we go over for a visit we do some gaming of some kind.  Karkazon is a good game that's been around for the last few years, but I only picked it up recently.  It's pretty fun. Basically, there is no board here.  Gamplay consists of building the board and strategically placing markers in order to win points and resources.  It's fun because no two boards are alike and there is a lot of strategy involved.IMG_0906.JPG
As time goes by, the game changes.  We practically play it every time we go over there.IMG_0907.JPG Games are loads of fun. I'm not sure if it's happening yet, but I think that playing board games is an activity long overdue for a resurgence. It's a good way for people to hang out and be social without having to drink tons, go out or watch movies or knit or whatever.  Fun for the whole family as they say.