Friday night brought my buddy Mark and I an interesting encounter with a very aggressive yet entertaining Portuguese individual. He walked up to us and asked us if we'd like to buy some 'crack'. So Mark's 'tongue in cheek' reply was "No thanks, I heard crack stunts your growth". Seeing that the 'crack dude' wasn't much taller than 5 feet, he took offense to it. He replied "Are you calling me short? You wanna fight a pork chop?" He put up his dukes up and started jumping around like a boxer from the 70's. Then he put his arms around the 2 girls he was with and said "I got hot girls. Look at these girls, I got hot girls! You calling me short?" After laughing in his face as he danced around like a little pansy, he tried to take a couple swings at Mark. His girls were trying to drag him away, but he kept coming back. We got bored of his little dance after a while and jumped in a cab to leave, because he clearly wasn’t lucid. I remember driving away in the cab and looking out the window only to see the self proclaimed 'Pork Chop' fighting some other guys on the sidewalk.

The moral to the story, don't do crack.

The "National Intelligence Council", (a center of strategic thinking within the US Government CIA) has released a report that predicts that US Global dominance could end by 2020.

The report suggests the possibilities of the EU becoming a superpower, the likely emergence of China and India, as well as others, as new major global players, and questions whether other countries will more openly challenge Washington. "In the same way that commentators refer to the 1900s as the "American Century," the 21st century may be seen as the time when Asia, led by China and India, comes into its own. A combination of sustained high economic growth, expanding military capabilities, and large populations will be at the root of the expected rapid rise in economic and political power for both countries."

The report also suggests that international terrorism is here to stay. "The key factors that spawned international terrorism show no signs of abating over the next 15 years."

Although the report predicts the emergence of new global powers, it also suggests that the US will still play a large role in shaping the world. "Although the challenges ahead will be daunting, the United States will retain enormous advantages, playing a pivotal role across the broad range of issues - economic, technological, political, and military - that no other state will match by 2020.

The report titled "Mapping the Global Future: Report of the National Intelligence Council's 2020 Project" took about a year to produce, involved over a thousand people and is unclassified and available for download from the National Intelligence Council website.

In the current state of violence in Iraq, will the elections being held Sunday prove to be valid? A US General has said the lack of security could deter many voters in four of Iraq's 18 provinces that hold nearly a quarter of its population.

The security state of Iraq is far worse than the US Government had predicted it would be in time for the elections. In October Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice had publicly declared, "The Iraqi security force will number 125,000 by the end of the year. There will be 145,000 security forces by February, and 200,000 by the time of the permanent election." Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said he'd warned her "earlier about the need to level with the American people. When you say," he explained to Rice, "we have 200,000 trained security forces...the impression of the average American is we've actually trained up people who can do the job." And by "people," we mean "Iraqis." How many Iraqis, Biden queried Rice, "do you think are trained who can shoot straight, kill and stand their ground? I don't mean in a uniform. I mean real, live guys." Rice replied: "The number right now is somewhere over 120,000." "If you speak to the folks on the ground," Biden snapped back, referring to US Gen. Petraeus and armed forces personnel, "they don't think there's more than 4,000 actually trained Iraqi forces. I strongly urge you to pick up the phone or go see these folks."

I'm quite impressed with the extraordinary measures they have taken in Iraq to ensure the maximum amount of voters will turn out. Some of the measures that will be taken over a 3-day period include a dusk-to-dawn curfew, closing down the borders, shutting down Baghdad International Airport, and banning vehicles without permits from the roads.

Iraqi electoral officials have said as many as 120 international monitors will be in Iraq to help supervise the election, and the US and British embassies would provide staff to act as monitors, as would the Canadian, German and Romanian embassies. There will also be monitors from Indonesia, Mexico, Panama and Albania.

After the election, the big question will be how long it will be before the US withdrawls the majority of their troops, a question US Officials have failed to answer up until now.

Sources: BBC.co.uk, CNN.com, ArabNews.com

78-year-old Marcel Tremblay plans to attend his own wake this evening with 50 friends and relatives in Ottawa before committing suicide.

He suffers from a number of health problems, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung condition that leaves him unable to breathe properly.

He believes that he will eventually die from not being able to breathe, and wakes up every morning wishing he had died the night before.

This is a very sad story and a very difficult decision to make. His family surely must have mixed emotions regarding his decision, because they know how much he has suffered from his sickness. On the positive side, they have known about his decision for a few months and have been given ample opportunity to say their goodbyes. Sometimes it makes it hard when somebody close to you passes away if you didn't get to say goodbye.

Click here to read the full article.

Here is an artist's rendition of me. It was drawn by a fellow blogger "Godsmack". Click here to view her site.



Do you think it looks more like me or Michael Jackson? ;)

This week's quotes of the week come from Johnny Carson who passed away on Sunday.

"Happiness is your dentist telling you it won't hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill."

"I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself."

"When turkeys mate they think of swans."

While waiting for the streetcar on my way into work today, there were some construction guys that were blocking the road from letting cars by. So after about 2 minutes of waiting, an older man in an SUV laid his hand down on the horn and didn’t let up for a count of about 30 seconds straight. There is nothing I despise more than a honk that goes on longer than 3 seconds.

The construction guys let a few cars go through, and the SUV pulls up to the front. He was in a state of rage and screaming profanities at the workers. I thought he was going to run them over. So after they instructed him to drive around the construction, he turned his wheel ferociously and drove past them, cursing yet again at them as he drove by. As he's pulling up to where I'm standing, I motioned with my hand that he needs to calm down. He pulls over beside me, rolls down his window, and starts screaming at me in his Ukrainian accent that he has been waiting for 5 minutes, no, 10 minutes for these mother f*#kers to move. He then starts calling me a mother f#(ker and screams at me for another 30 seconds in half English/half Ukrainian calling me every name he can think of. I stand there with a smirk on my face and continue my hand motion for him to calm down. He then lays his foot on the gas, squeals his tires and burns through the red light, screaming more as he tears away from me. Some people make their lives much more difficult than they should. I didn't even bother telling him that I had been standing outside in the cold long before the construction crew even appeared, while he was in the relative comfort of a nice SUV.

All humans have some good qualities that make them good people in their own ways. Over the years of growing up in a moderately Christian household, I often wondered why we did the things we did. Did we do them to be good people? Does going to church every Sunday because you feel you will live in a utopia after you die make you a better person? I often wondered what I was getting out of church, but I could never figure it out. Over the years of wandering threads of thought, I came to the realization and opinion that going to church is largely a social thing, and doing things for the purpose of eternal life is somewhat selfish when you don’t really understand the reason you’re doing the things you do.

I now consider myself an atheist and I like to read about different religions to see the good aspects of each religion. I think being a good person means taking the time and energy to do something for somebody else. People are essentially what make other people happy. Selfishness and spoiling of one’s self can bring a degree of happiness, but it can also bring on a form of emptiness. Without unselfishness and gratuity toward others, I don’t think a person can ever have complete happiness.

While growing up, I believed that going to church makes you a good person. I now realize that the unselfish things my Mother did for me to make growing up easier, and the unselfish things my father did for me to bring some fun into my life were far superior in making them good people than going to church. Although I think I should do more, I’m done school and I don't have a wife or kids to worry about, so I'm going to participate in various programs that I believe in. Everyone has their own way of giving back, in little ways and in big ways. I believe you have to enjoy and believe in something to be successful at it, and if you're doing something for someone else, it will only make you happier about yourself and others.

Have you ever woken someone up, and they start talking to you about the things that they are currently dreaming about?

I woke my brother up last night when his friend called him, and here was our conversation:

Tom "Is it okay if I put this here?" (Pointing at his bed).
Jim "Is it okay if you put what here?"
Tom (Points at his bed again) "This"
Jim "What???"
Tom "Is it okay if I put this cot here?"
Tom (Starts looking around his room with very puzzled look on his face)
Jim "What are you talking about?"
Tom "Never mind. Forget about it"

So I put two and two together and realize that he thinks we're still at the hotel that we slept at last night in Chicago where we ordered a cot for our buddy to sleep on. We had a good laugh about it later on.

Another instance in which this occurred was when I woke my roommate up a while back and he started talking to me about computer hardware. We laughed about this for weeks because we knew he loved his old computer parts but we never thought he actually dreamt about them.

I arrived back in Toronto around 3:30PM today. We were supposed to arrive last night at 10:30PM. We ended up spending the night in Chicago. We also had bad luck on the way to Puerto Rico as well; we sat at the Chicago airport for 13 hours due to airplane mechanical problems. So we only ended up with 5 full days of vacation, minus the catch up on sleep day, and a sick day that I had on Wednesday, and 3.5 days of flying.

But it was a great week that included: Bodysurfing, sailing, snorkeling, boogey boarding, beach volleyball, pool volleyball, pool basketball, night clubs, formal dinners, many live bands, tanning, beach bar, streaking, gambling, and more.

Here are some more pictures from the last 2 days on the "island of enchantment". I also wanted to holla at all the great people we met this weekend including: Mike & Chuck (Acton), Joel & Natasha (Niagara), Sarah & Sumaira (Toronto), Richard (Toronto), Richard (Kamloops), Joanna & Shannon (Windsor), Edna (Montreal), and everyone else who I'm forgetting.

I'm off to bed shortly to catch up on some much needed sleep.

 
 
 

I don't want to waste too much time on the Internet, since the weather is absolutely gorgeous out here and I want to get back to the Ocean to body surf the waves, so I'm just going to post a few pictures of the trip thus far.

Most of these pictures were taken yesterday. We overtook an outdoor beach bar after it had closed, brought our own beverages and I became the bartender. Last night we had about 30 people show up at my bar (I named the bar "Turd Ferguson's"). We were sitting there at one point, and without any warning, we looked over and saw our buddy sitting at the bar completely naked. So we were saying "Oh my god!". So he stands up, walks over to us (totally naked) and says "What seems to be the problem over here". After about 30 minutes of being completely naked, I gave him a plant leaf to cover himself up, it seemed to work out very well.

I won $400 at the casino last night, so we're hoping to go downtown San Juan Thursday night to spend it. More photos and stories will follow when I return.

 
 
 

I'm leaving for Puerto Rico this morning, so you probably won't hear much from me all next week.

A strange coincidence happened to me today. When I was leaving work, the battery in my Jeep was dead, so I asked a lady nearby if she could help me. She was very friendly and helpful, and spent about 15 minutes with me to get my battery charged up enough to start. I noticed that it looked as though she had been crying. While waiting for my battery to charge, she told me she had just been let go from her job, without any explanation other than "Restructuring". As it turns out she worked for the same company as me.

This created a very contrasting image. I was in a great mood all day because I'm leaving for Puerto Rico on Saturday morning for the trip that was given to me by my company. She was upset because she had been fired from the very same company. I was in a hurry to get where I needed to go because I had my trip to prepare for and I also needed to work the next day. She was in no hurry to go anywhere because she didn't have to go to work in the morning anymore.

Maybe this is an opportunity for her to do something new and exciting; maybe she's the free one now, and maybe I'm the one that will continue in the so called rat race while always being busy and never having any time to do my own things. Despite the tears, she was very optimistic about it and agreed with me when I suggested that this could be an opportunity for her to do something new.

... In other news, last night I was at a bar and Johnny Fay also happened to be at the same bar. (He's the drummer for The Tragically Hip) We had the opportunity to say Hey and shake his hand, but he was a little bit preoccupied with his lady friend ;)

A recent legal fight in the U.S. raises many questions about ownership of emails after a person dies. When Lieutenant Corporal Justin Ellsworth was killed in Iraq, his father asked Yahoo! Mail to provide him Justin's emails in order to create a memorial for his son. Yahoo refused to give up the emails due to Privacy issues.

The question is, who owns your emails after you have died? In the past, if you wrote in a journal, whoever receives your possessions will receive your journal, and they have the right to go through your journal if they wish. But when it comes to electronic mail, it is a grey area and a good discussion topic.

It's a sensitive subject, because viewing your email after you are deceased could change what people thought of you or could reveal secrets that could hurt the people that remember you for who you were to them. I think some things are better left unread, but I also think there are circumstances where it may be appropriate for a loved one to see your email.

I think that your email password should be left in your will if that's what you choose. If you choose not to leave your password, then nobody should have the right to view your mail. The down side to this is that it would be an administrative nightmare to update your will if your email password changes. But I think ultimately it should be up to the deceased person to decide how they want to handle the situation.

Would you want your email to be read by your family after you die?

Not only has Bush cleaned the White House of anyone who doesn't get on their knees (and polish his shoes ;) ), he has now managed to get 4 CBS employees axed for running a story on 60 Minutes that questions his military records.

Link to article

... In other news, US columnist Armstrong Williams admitted his firm was paid $240,000 by the Education Department to promote the No Child Left Behind law. Link to article

and Bush also named Al Hubbard, a long-time friend and financial backer as his chief economic advisor. Link to article

Where I come from, we call this a "Conflict of Interest". Is there no such thing in US Politics as a Conflict of Interest anymore?

When things are going well, the Bush Administration loves to take the solo credit for their accomplishments. But when things go wrong, they love to share the blame with others.

The US mistakenly dropped a 500-pound bomb on a house early Saturday, killing at least 5 people. The BBC report calls it an "embarrassing admission by US forces, who have been accused of killing many civilians during recent military operations in Iraq particularly in the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja in November".

The BBC seems to commend the US for taking the blame for the incident, but if you read the article on CNN, you'll see excerpts from the US Military statement:

"At least five people were killed when a coalition F-16 bombed the wrong target south of Mosul, Iraq"

"U.S.-led multinational forces were searching for an insurgent cell leader and targeted a house, which was struck by a 500-pound bomb"

"Multi-National Force-Iraq deeply regrets the loss of possibly innocent lives"

The statement attempts to distribute the blame among all forces in Iraq. Let's not forget that this was a US F16 jet and the US makes up approximately 85% of the number of troops in Iraq, with approximately 138,000 troops deployed to Iraq.

CNN article

BBC Article

I was reading an article in the Newspaper this morning about a 24-Year-old mother who has been charged with 2 counts of first degree murder for the killing of two of her infant sons. The first son was murdered 1998 when he was 7 months old, and the second murder was in 2002 when he was 9 months old.

For some reason, this got me thinking about my opinion on abortions. Abortion gives a mother the right to kill a child before it is born, but as soon as it's born, if a mother kills the child, it's murder and she goes to jail. I understand that the baby hasn't developed yet, so it's not really fair to compare these two situations, but I do see a lot of similarities in these two scenarios, with the latter example being a lot more extreme.

With all the birth control methods available out there, I think abortion should be banned. It might make people more conscious about the desicions they make.
 

The last couple centuries have seen the most significant changes in technology and means of transportation. Before rapid transportation was available, races, cultures and languages were preserved and segregated geographically. In Europe, you could travel a mere 100 kilometers before unveiling a different language and completely different culture. With the many different methods of rapid transportation available, it's simple to get to the other side of the world and back. It's only a matter of time before everyone in the world becomes one race.

Third world countries may slow down this process, but I believe the eventuality will be one race and some day even one language. With technology and the Internet ever evolving, the need to have a common language will become much more apparent.

I believe this will take hundreds of years to happen, or maybe even over a thousand years, but I think it's inevitable. The real question isn't how long it will take to happen, but whether or not human existence will be around long enough for it to happen.
 

For those of you who haven't seen my puppy, here is "Mojo". She is a 2-year-old Jack Russell, and she looks even cuter in real life.


 

This week's quotes of the week come from comedian Emo Phillips. They're even funnier when you hear Emo's voice and the way he talks.

"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me."

"New York's such a wonderful city. Although I was at the library today. The guys are very rude. I said, "I'd like a card." He says, "You have to prove you're a citizen of New York." So I stabbed him."

"I love to go down to the schoolyard and watch all the little children jump up and down and run around yelling and screaming. They don't know I'm only using blanks."

"I got in a fight one time with a really big guy, and he said, "I'm going to mop the floor with your face." I said, "You'll be sorry." He said, "Oh, yeah? Why?" I said, "Well, you won't be able to get into the corners very well."

"My mother was like a sister to me, only we didn't have sex quite so often."

"I once had a large gay following, but I ducked into an alleyway and lost him."
 

I'm getting sick and tired of everyone using the slang word "Anyways". It's very bad grammar to use this constantly, and it really annoys me after a while. I don't think it should ever be used, but if you are to use it, it should only be used to change the topic.

Example: (This is a conversation that Sally is having with John in front of John's friends)

Sally Hi John, I really think you look cute in that pink G-String you were wearing last night.

John ANYWAYS, how are you guys enjoying this warm weather?

Even then it's still bad grammar, but more acceptable. It's very difficult to find a movie/song or book that uses the word "Anyways", so why should we accept this bad grammar in our daily dialogue?

Say ANYWAY! ANYWAY!
 

Just got home from my New Years party not long ago. It was around 4:00AM when I got home. I thought I had a good time, but apparently there were people who had a better time than I. I came home and laying in my front yard was a drunken dude who pissed his damn pants. Check out one of the pictures I took of him. (I even tried yelling in his ear to wake him up, but he was snoring too loud to notice my yelling)

hahahahahhaha.. this is one of the funniest things I've ever come home to discover. Look at the piss on the sidewalk, the poor chap.