I decided to be an aviator for Halloween this year. I purchased a pilot's uniform, and a pair of aviator glasses to go with it. My brother Tom is dressed up as a Special Forces Counter-Terrorist agent.

We're going to Devil's Martini this evening, so if you're looking for something to do in the Toronto area, hit it up!

Jim	Jim	Tom	Tom

On Wednesday, October 29th, 2003, one year ago today, my Opa (Grandpa) passed away peacefully in his sleep in his 77th year. His name was Cornelis (Case) Veldhuizen. He had a very profound impact on my life. I spoke at his funeral, and I wanted to share my words from that day last year.

"Over the years, this man has taught me many things about life. He has taught me to enjoy life. To have a little bit of fun at everything I do. To make a joke, or pull a small prank. He liked to live his life to the fullest. When playing pool against him, I remember how he would block my cue as I was about to shoot. He always had that happy grin on his face. There was never a dull moment, never any sadness in his eyes. His eyes were always gleaming with joy. If he became tired, he would go take a nap. An hour or two later, he’d be up and at it again.

He taught me how important it is to eat a bowl of cereal in the morning. He always said you need to eat your Special K to get your “Get up and go”. He could always beat me in an arm wrestling match, no matter what his age.

He taught me not to be afraid of death. That when we die, we will go to a wonderful place.

He also taught me to be extremely careful when using a Barbeque. Because as you all know, his barbeque caught on fire many years ago and burned off all his hair. Or so he used to tell me. That was the type of sense of humor Opa had. He always made us laugh.

And last but not least, the most important thing this man has taught me is how important it is to have a hero in your life that you will always remember. Opa is that special person in my life. When I look up into the stars at night, I can see him up there with a large grin on his face, giving me two thumbs up. He knows how much he means to me, and how much he will always mean to me. Some day we will meet again Opa. Thank you for being my hero."

The difference between Canadian and Arab bikers:

I have recently joined the Big Brothers program here in Toronto. I wanted to urge anyone that this might interest to become a Big Brother or a Big Sister. I just spoke to the coordinator and in Toronto, there are a very large number of little brothers waiting for a match, and there are literally no Big Brothers in the queue. So they are in need of more Big Brothers to join.

They work around your schedule, it's very flexible and only requires 2 hours a week or 4 hours every other week, depending on your preference. It's very rewarding for a little brother to have a male influence on his life. Some examples of things you can do are: going to hockey games, playing hockey, movies, amusement parks, mini golfing, go-carting, etc. (Sometimes they give out free tickets to sporting events). I think it's a great thing to do for the Little Brothers.

So if you're interested, go to Here to get more information!

I'm very suprised that these poor ladies didn't know (or weren't able) to kick out the back windshield of their vehicle. This was something that I was taught when I took driving lessons, and you'd think that one of them would be able to do it, especially in the face of death.

Apparently they used their cell phones to call a friend for help. You'd also think they would have called 911 instead of calling a friend.

Anyway, I feel very badly for these ladies and I've never been in that situation, so it's unfair for me to judge.

Here is a link to the story: Link

I don't know whether to laugh at this or not. It's very strange though.

Excerpt:
"That allows him to perform satanic rituals aboard and permits him to have a non-Christian Church of Satan funeral should he be killed in action."

So what are satanic rituals? Burning crosses? Poking people with a pitchfork? Ridiculousness.

Here's the link to the article: Link

I came across a resume for President Bush, put together by a person named "Kelley Kramer" on [Link]. I'm not a fan of Bush, but I would still recommend taking this resume with a grain of salt. It is very biased and one-sided, but it's still fun to criticize one of the worst Presidents in US History ;)

Here is the nicely formatted PDF version: Link

Past work experience:
- Ran for congress and lost.
- Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.
- Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
- Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using tax-payer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox.
- With fathers help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.

Accomplishments:
- Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union. Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money. Set record for most executions by any Governor in American history.
- Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my fathers appointments to the Supreme Court.

Accomplishments as president:
- Attacked and took over two countries.
- Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
- Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
- Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
- Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
- First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
- First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
- First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
- After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.
- Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history.
- In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
- Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.
- Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period.
- Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
- Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
- Signed more laws and executive orders circumventing the Constitution than any president in US history.
- Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
- Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
- Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
- Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind. [link]/)
- Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
- My presidency is the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history.
- Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (the 'poorest' multi-millionaire, Condoleezza Rice has an Chevron oil tanker named after her).
- Had more states to simultaneously go bankrupt than any president in the history of the United States.
- Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.
- Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
- Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history.
- First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission.
- First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board.
- Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.
- Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.
- Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
- Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
- First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections).
- All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
- My biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
- Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
- First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
- First president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
- First US president to establish a secret shadow government.
- Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
- With a policy of 'dis-engagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
- Fist US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
- First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
- Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
- Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
- Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'.
- Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capitol building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.
- In the 18 months following the 911 attacks I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
- Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.
- In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war.
- Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.

Records and References:
- At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).
- AWOL from National Guard and Deserted the military during a time of war.
- Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.
- All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
- All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
- All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
- Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public review.
- For personal references please speak to my daddy or uncle James Baker (They can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.)

I'm missing a huge part of my life, and I can really feel it on a night like tonight. I'm at home, it's 9:30PM on a Saturday night, and normally I would be just finishing watching the Leafs play a game on Hockey Night in Canada. I'd be watching the game with the boys, we'd drink a few cold ones during the game, and we'd be entertained by Don Cherry's controversial opinions. Well there is no hockey this year, and it's every day people like me that suffer.

Please come back hockey!

I came across a Rap song called "Not In our Name" by DJ Spooky. I wanted to share the lyrics.

We believe that as people living
in the United States it is our
responsibility to resist the injustices
done by our government, in our names

Not in our name
will you wage endless war
there can be no more deaths
no more transfusions of blood for oil

Not in our name
will you invade countries
bomb civilians, kill more children
letting history take its course
over the graves of the nameless

Not in our name
will you erode the very freedoms
you have claimed to fight for

Not by our hands
will we supply weapons and funding
for the annihilation of families
on foreign soil

Not by our mouths
will we let fear silence us

Not by our hearts
will we allow whole peoples
or countries to be deemed evil

Not by our will
and Not in our name

We pledge resistance
We pledge alliance with those
who have come under attack
for voicing opposition to the war
or for their religion or ethnicity

We pledge to make common cause
with the people of the world
to bring about justice freedom and peace

Another world is possible
and we pledge to make it real

Since the US elections are coming up soon, I thought it was appropriate to post some election related quotes.

"Suppose you were an idiot....And suppose you were a member of Congress....But I repeat myself". (Mark Twain)

"Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation." (Henry Kissinger)

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." (Albert Einstein)

I would consider myself rather conscious about the environment. I always promote the installation of automatic hand dryers as opposed to towel dispensers. But it seems that I'm also a hypocrite, because today there was an automatic hand dryer and a towel dispenser next to each other, and I chose the towel dispenser. It just seems too convenient when you actually have a choice. One time I experienced an extremely high-powered automatic hand dryer; it took about 5 seconds to dry my hands. I wish all hand dryers were this powerful; a lot of them are just useless.

More men are willing to sleep with their boss to receive a promotion or salary increase than women according to a poll in Belgium.

Yahoo News: Click here

What the survey doesn't discuss is how many females dress to impress their bosses with the intent of receiving a promotion. I would expect this survey to be the exact opposite results. I would expect that less males dress to impress their bosses with the intent of receiving a promotion than females.

My conclusion is that the ladies love to tease the males to get what they want ;)

My roommate Ned and I have spent most of our weekend digging in our basement. We are building a basement apartment in our house, so we are creating a separate entrance into the basement and digging out a new room in the basement. As a result, we have a huge pile of dirt in our back yard.

The dirt pile is starting to get very large, and we still have quite a bit of digging to do yet. We are digging approximately 6 feet down, 7 feet wide, and 15 feet wide, so that's quite a bit of dirt.

Huge thanks to Mark for helping us dig yesterday. With 3 people, the productivity is much better.

Here are some pictures of our progress:

The weather turned out to be nice; no rain, the sun was shining, and the temperature was probably around 10 or 11 Celsius.

I ended up running the race in 41mins and 57 seconds. Not my best time, but I'm not in as good shape as I was in the summer, and the hills in the Zoo really wore me out. But it felt good, I had fun, and it's the last race of the year for me.

They snapped a picture of me halfway through the race. Notice the selective placement of my race number. I'm #21. Also note the colour of my shoe laces ;)

I'm running a 10K race this morning at the Toronto Zoo. I'm not looking forward to it though, it's 8 degrees celsius outside right now, and they are calling for isolated showers this morning. So I get to run the race cold and wet. I guess it's better than running in extreme hot weather. Wish me luck!

This week's quotes of the week come from Seinfeld's George Costanza.

"I always get the feeling that when lesbians look at me, they're thinking, '*That's* why I'm not a heterosexual.'"

"If I owned a company, my employees would love me. They'd have huge pictures of me up the walls and in their home, like Lenin."

"The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no reponsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last 9 months floating... then you finish of as an organism !!!
Amen"

"When women smile at me I don't know what it means. Sometimes I interpret it like they're psychotic or something. And I don't know if I'm supposed to smile back. I don't know what to do."

"For me to ask a woman out, I've got to get into a mental state like the karate guys before they break the bricks."

Check out these T-Shirts for kids. When I have kids, this will be the first place I go shopping ;)

Link

Examples:

"I sh#t my pants, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt"
"Now that I'm safe, I'm pro-choice"
"I can kick your baby's ass"

I had a great thrill today. I rode my dirt bike 120KMs on the QEW to visit my Mom for Thanksgiving. My Uncle Dave and his son Nick also brought their dirt bikes to my Mom's house on the back of their pickup truck. Dave rides a 2000 Kawasaki KX 250cc. Nick rides a 1993 KX 125cc. These are really fast motocross bikes.

So I led them through the trails along the Welland canal. We were ripping through the mud, climbing hills, avoiding ruts and rocks, we ran into a 1.5 foot high fallen tree that we needed to lift our bikes over, and we even hit the odd jump. It was the most thrilling thing I've done this year. Dave is a pretty big guy, and he ended up wiping out his dirt bike 3 times. Nick and I were fortunate enough not to wipe out at all. But it was fun to look behind us and see Dave riding down a steep hill, with his front tire in one rut, and his back tire in another rut, therefore causing his bike to go sideways, and causing him to fall off the bike and slide down the remainder of the hill. Nothing funnier than seeing a 40 year old guy wiping out on a dirt bike ;) Sorry Dave, but you were so entertaining!!

Later in the evening, I got on my dirt bike covered in mud, and rode back to Toronto along the QEW, thinking to myself that I now know the true meaning of "Dual Purpose" when describing my motorcycle. It was a great time, and reminds me of being a kid again.

Superman star Christopher Reeve died on Sunday of heart failure at the young age of 52. In 1995 he had an accident while riding a horse that left him paralyzed. Since then, he has done great work for spinal cord research, and I had always hoped that one day he would walk again, as he had regained sensation in parts of his body, and in 2000, he was able to move his index finger.

I find the best way to remember someone is to remember something they said, so I'll leave you with a quote from Christopher Reeve:

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles", Christopher Reeve, 1952-2004

I woke up this morning to an unpleasant surprise. Shortly after my alarm went off, still half asleep, I opened my bedroom door and I felt like I walked into a brick wall. My roommate's bedroom is across the hall from mine, his door was wide open, and the entire hallway, stairway, and bathroom smelled worse than a dead animal in my house. If you know my roommate Ned, you would know that he is capable of clearing out an entire gymnasium with his gas. I've been told that he can clear a room faster than a fire alarm. This has yet to be proven, but I believe it.

Most people will keep the smell contained within the confines of their bed sheets, but this one seemed to sneak out of his bed sheets and wreaked a massive dispersion of disgusting toxic chemicals into the air.

I attempted to go back into my room and close my door to keep the foul air out, but it was too late. My room was now plagued with this deadly air. My dog was no longer thinking about going outside to go pee; she was on the ground suffocating from the foul smell. I seriously considered throwing a chair through my window and jumping 2 stories into my back yard.

After about 30 minutes, the smell subsided, but not without permanent damage to my brain, my dignity, and my soul. Ned apologized for the incident, told me he had all you can eat shrimp the night before, and that was the end of it.

Rodney Dangerfield (Born Jacob Cohen, Nov 22, 1921) passed away yesterday after going into a coma after having heart surgery. Rodney's humour has always made me laugh. One movie of his that I always remember is "Back to School". The movie is from 1986, and I probably haven't seen it in 8 years or so, but I distinctly remember laughing my head off at Rodney walking around with lots of confidence with a bunch of teenagers, being obnoxious, making fun them and himself, cracking jokes and one-liners constantly. The guy is hilarious.

Scarbs already posted a bunch of Rodney quotes on his blog, so I'll post a few others that he didn't post on his blog.

Rodney Dangerfield quotes:

"A girl phoned me the other day and said "Come on over, there's nobody home." I went over. Nobody was home."

"I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out."

"I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet."

"My wife is always trying to get rid of me. The other day she told me to put the garbage out. I said to her I already did. She told me to go and keep an eye on it. "

"When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them. "

"Last time I tried to make love to my wife nothing happened, so I said to her, 'What's the matter, you can't think of anybody either?'"

"I get no respect"

This week's "Quote of the week" comes from George Carlin.

"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?"

Listening to Yahoo! Launchcast, I recently came across a band from a small town in Georgia named "Clemente" and I instantly fell in love with their music. The song I fell in love with is called "Inevetable Plots Tonight", and can be heard on their album "Teeth Measure the Need" released by Moodswing Records Link.

Clemente has an alternative rock sound, mixed with a subtle country style slide guitar and violin. Their melancholy lyrics along with the transformation from fast to slow makes Inevetable Plots Tonight an amazing song to listen to.

I recently went searching to purchase their cd, and I've never had such negative luck in search of a cd before. At first I tried the regular music stores, after this attempt failed, I went on CDUniverse, where a search for Clemente yields nothing relevant, then I attempted to search for the band's site. I finally found their site link) where they claim that you can order the cd from their record company. After choosing "Order online" and then choosing "Clemente" from the drop down list, a blank page appears.

After this mildly exhaustive search for their cd, I resorted to emailing the band. I received a reply within a day from Jef Siler, one of the 2 creators of the band. He instructed me to send him a cheque for $13, and he will mail me the cd along with a promo cd (As I offered to try to get him some air time on our Toronto radio station).

After I receive the cds, I'll give the promo cd to 102.1 The Edge Link, and hopefully they will give Clemente some exposure in Canada. I would love for them to play a concert in Toronto some day. I'll also post a review on their cd after I have listened to the entire cd. But I'm expecting it to be excellent. It's too bad a search on Kazaa also returns no relevant results.

My first hockey game was a lot of fun. It felt great to get out on the ice for the first time in 5 months or so. We won 2-1.

But the interesting part about the night was that I successfully transported my entire hockey equipment on my dirt bike 70kms along the QEW from Toronto to Hamilton to play the game. In order to accomplish this ambitious feat, I was forced to wear some of my equipment on the bike. It was quite hilarious. I strapped on my shin pads, slid on my jock strap, and then I wore my hockey pants on top of everything. The remainder of my equipment was either stuffed into my saddle-bags, or my backpack. I looked like a real trooper on the QEW wearing half my hockey equipment.

When I arrived, I pulled my hockey bag out of my backpack, and put everything inside it. I then looked at the size of my hockey bag and wondered how on earth I managed to do it.

It reminded me of the good old days when I was 10 years old, we'd have games at 5AM, and I used to get dressed at home, then I would arrive at the arena and all I'd have to do is get Daddy to tie up my skates and put on my helmet, neck guard and gloves and I'd be good to go.

Thankfully we don't need to wear facemasks, neck guards or shoulder pads anymore, or I would have looked even more ridiculous on my bike ;)