US based Exxon Mobil Corp has posted a record profit of $36.13 billion for 2005. This is the largest profit of any company in US history. Exxon is the world's largest publicly traded company and its financial statements indicate that it generated $371 billion in revenue in 2005.

Exxon has long had a bad track record of a corporate irresponsibility and violating human rights. A number of human rights organizations have accusations against Exxon and a number of lawsuits have surfaced against Exxon.

It's no wonder the US has such interests in oil producing countries such as Iraq, there being so many shareholders investing in large oil companies. Oil markets are like gold and shareholders and corporate big wigs in the oil industry have a lot of political pull.

Any disruption to domestic oil production or international oil exports can disrupt the economy and cause inflation to rise. Even a hurricane in the gulf states proved how valuable oil really is in a country overcome by urban sprawl and a reliance on gas guzzling SUV's to drive one's self to work every day.

Facing large losses 5 straight quarters in a row, GM is struggling to compete with the Japanese competition in the US. They have announced their intentions to push their line of new SUVs in an attempt to revive auto sales in the US. It's another example of environmental irresponsibility of large Corporations.

When gas prices are high half of me is happy because it means people will drive less, but the other half of me thinks about the amount of money large corporations are making as profit with little regard for the environment and only being focused on their short term profits and shareholder gain.

Here's one for the gas companies:

I have spent a large portion of my weekend so far on the launch of NiagaraList.ca. This one is for my family and buddies who live in the Niagara Region. There aren't any decent free classified websites in the Niagara Region, so we have created NiagaraList.ca as an extension to TorontoList.ca. I'm hoping people in the Niagara Region will use this site to sell their goods and find apartments/homes.

Tell all your friends in the Niagara Region about NiagaraList.ca and we'll make it the defacto Classifieds site for the Niagara Region.

Now the rest of the weekend will be for school work.

In a shocking Palestinian election on Thursday, the Palestinian people have elected Hamas to govern their state. This revelation has shocked the world, the Fatah has conceded victory and the media has frightened the world into thinking that peace is now impossible.

Hamas is world renknown for their view of Palestine as a state without non-Muslims, and their military operations against Israel civilians have caused worldwide condemnation from many human rights groups.

Hamas is very popular with the Palestinian people because of its welfare to the Palestinian people via social programs, charities and educational and religious institutes. In the 1970's, well before the military wing of Hamas was born, it's reported by the United Press International that the Israeli government directly and indirectly aided Hamas as an attempt to balance power between the Fatah.

The rise of Hamas should come as no surprise. With the death of Yasser Arafat and the failure of the Fatah to achieve peace or to relieve impoverished Palestinians, it's only natural that the Palestinian people were looking for a change. Although Hamas boycotted the elections in 2005, they participated in the 2005 municipal elections which gave them control of one third of the municipal councils in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Now that Hamas have government authority, they have a difficult task of earning respect from the rest of the world. The world is skeptical of Hamas as a result of their track record. If the Hamas can cleanup their act and prove to the world they can combat suicide bombings, peace negotiations can continue. My prediction is that peace negotiations will be delayed by a year as a result of this election, but I think after a year the Hamas will be ready to work together with the rest of the world to achieve peace. If they maintain their current attitude of the destruction of Israel I believe there will be another cycle of war and Israel will take back settlements in the Gaza and the Hamas leadership will likely be killed in the process.

I think it's in Hamas best interests to prove themselves to the world.

Panic and the Rebel Emergency is now on MuchMusic with their video "Walk on By". I need every single one of you to get your email out and send an email to ondemand@muchmusic.com and tell them how much you love the video and to play it more!

The video is getting quite a bit of exposure, it's featured on the MuchMusic main page right now. Check it out on MuchMusic or download the video from the Panic and the Rebel Emergency site. Or visit the MuchMusic Videos page for a description of the Panic and the Rebel Emergency video "Walk on By".

In other news, Panic and the Rebel Emergency is playing a sold out show with "The Trews" at the Opera House on Februrary 10th. Another show was recently added on Februrary 9th, so get your tickets now from TicketMaster.


Watch Video!

Thankfully, the Conservatives were only able to achieve a minority government. A majority Conservative government would likely send Canada down the same path as the United States wastfully spending billions of dollars on the "war on terror", the missile defence system and homeland defense. An environmental conscience would also be low on the priority list, and legal gay marriage and abortion would be abolished.

With a minority government, the Conservatives will only be able to achieve some of their priorities. The NDP managed to land 29 seats in the House of Commons, and increase from 18 in 2004. Jack Layton is excited about his party's successes and he's ready to do everything in his power to keep the Conservatives in line.

A minority government in Canada typically only lasts around 18 months, and my prediction is that we're going to see a frustrated Harper throughtout his tenure. I won't be surprised if he loses his temper while in office.

President Bush probably pitched a 3 inch tent in his pants at the news of the election results. We'll see how far Harper will bend over for Bush.

1. THINGY (thing-ee) n.
Female...... Any part under a car's hood.
Male..... The strap fastener on a woman's bra.

2. VULNERABLE (vul-ne-ra-bel) adj.
Female.... Fully opening up one's self emotionally to another.
Male.... Playing football without a cup.

3. COMMUNICATION (ko-myoo-ni-kay-shon) n.
Female... The open sharing of thoughts and feelings with one's partner.
Male... Leaving a note before taking off on a fishing trip with the boys.

4. COMMITMENT (ko-mit-ment)
Female.... A desire to get married and raise a family.
Male...... Trying not to hit on other women while out with this one.

5. ENTERTAINMENT (en-ter-tayn-ment) n.
Female.... A good movie, concert, play or book.
Male...... Anything that can be done while drinking beer.

6. FLATULENCE (flach-u-lens) n.
Female.... An embarrassing byproduct of indigestion.
Male...... A source of entertainment, self-expression, male bonding.

7 MAKING LOVE (may-king luv)
Female...... The greatest expression of intimacy a couple can achieve.
Male.. Call it whatever you want, just as long as we do it.

8. REMOTE CONTROL (ri-moht kon-trohl) n.
Female.... A device for changing from one TV channel to another.
Male... A device for scanning through all 375 channels every 5 minutes.

I think it's safe to assume that Olivia Chow is going to win her riding at Trinity and Spadina this year. In 2004 she was beaten by Liberal Tony Ianno by only 2 percent. Mr. Ianno has held Trinity-Spadina since 1993.

The reason I think Ms. chow will be the winner is because I currently reside in the Trinity-Spadina area and Ms. Chow's team has paid numerous visits to our apartment building, and I have received 3 or 4 phone calls from her team, confirming the location of the election and whether I will be voting for Olivia or not.

In 2004, she also likely lost a lot of votes from NDP supporters who strategically voted Liberal to block the Conservatives from winning, and as the polls indicate this time around, that strategy won't do much good this year.

That's not to say that Mr. Ianno is not working as hard to get votes. He personally visited our apartment a few weeks ago and spoke to my brother about the election and who he'd be supporting. I think Mr. Ianno is probably working very hard, but it sounds to me like Olivia's team is much larger than Mr. Ianno's.

Get out there and vote smart tomorrow people!

So the rumours you might have heard are true. I have finally bit the bullet and purchased a place to call my own. Well it's actually owned by a financial institution that was dumb enough to give me a big mortgage, but there is a document out there registered with the city that says it's my place, so let's just stick to that story.

Two and a half years ago I first started looking for a condo. I ended up purchasing one 2 years ago, but I rescinded the deal within my 10 day cool off period. Instead I ended up purchasing a house with a friend. Although it was a great experience and I learned a lot from it, it's always hard to own a house with a friend. Especially a World War 2 era house that constantly needs renovating. We were in different financial situations, different work schedules, and different ideas of what we wanted to do with the house. I was also very busy at work, and had very little time to help with the renovations, and my friend had much more experience with renovations than I did.

After a year of owning the house together, we both knew it was time to go our own ways, so he bought my half of the house. It worked out well for both of us because it gave him the freedom to do whatever he wanted with the house, and it gave me the opportunity to get my finances in order, have some fun, and figure out what I want my next big investment to be.

So after a year of pondering Toronto condos, I have finally made my purchase. One of my biggest concerns about buying a condo in Toronto is the saturation of the condo market. They are building condos everywhere. They all seem to be selling, but who knows what's going to happen after all the condos are built and people start selling them to try to make money on their investment. So when I discussed this with my real estate agent, we decided that instead of buying a typical condo like everybody else, it would be a smarter investment to buy something trendy and unique. It's a "contemporary 2 level urban loft" in King West village. (I took that from the MLS listing). It has a 17' high ceiling in the living room with the 2 bedrooms on the second floor overlooking the living room. Since I'm on the first level I have a large front fenced in terrace with a barbeque right on King Street West. The building has a gym, pool tables, golf simulation room, theatre and party room. Since my living room is an open concept, my bar is going to fit in there very nicely. I get possession on February 17th, and I'll be moving in at the end of Februrary.

Since I'm writing this entry on a Saturday night instead of going out, it's obvious that I'm already in "mortgage mode" where I need to watch my money closely.

I plan to have a housewarming party in March after Tom and I get settled in, so expect an email.

Here's my funny video for the day: The Family guy - Beach Homos

In describing Stephen Harper in my previous post I couldn't really find the right words to describe how I feel about Stephen Harper. Last night I read an article from one of my favourite writers, Eric Margolis who I think describes Stephen Harper perfectly.

I will quote him: "The Liberals have been in power far too long, becoming deeply corrupt and arrogant. But they have frightened many Canadians seeking change and cleaner government by comparing the Conservative leader, Stephen Harper, to….George Bush. Well, Harper is no Bush. In fact, he’s a rather unimpressive politician with no charisma or strategic view, but at least he has not been named in corruption."

On a related note, Paul Martin has been pleading with NDP supporters to vote Liberal to avoid a Conservative victory. I think Liberal supporters should vote NDP to preserve Canadian freedoms and avoid corruption. That's my two cents.

The Liberals have made a huge mistake in their campaign. They have essentially lowered themselves to Stephen Harper's level and the result has made Stephen Harper look like the good guy. My opinion originally was that Stephen Harper had a weak campaign of attacking and mocking the Liberals. As the campaigns progressed, I found that Harper started talking more about real issues. When the polls started to indicate that the Conservatives were tied with the Liberals, the Liberals started attacking the Conservatives. This made Harper's job really easy. He can respond with such comments as "A prime minister of Canada should never run an ad that directly or indirectly badly reflects on the military of this country. My opponent has. I will never do that." It makes him out to be the good guy.

Unless the Liberals pull a rabbit out of a hat, their campaign is not on a good trail. With less than 2 weeks left until the election, they are not in good shape.

I'll also make a note that the NDP and Jack Layton haven't been taking part in these vicious attacks.

... On an unrelated note, why do Muslims keep trampling each other? Another 345 people have died at the hajj stoning ritual.

- Why is bathroom chat always so awkward with people at work?
- Why do I always peek through the cracks of the bathroom stall to see who's entering?
- Why do I always wait until my last pair of socks or underwear to do my laundry?
- How is it that Bon Jovi can charge $80 for a crappy seat at their concert?
- Why is it in North America that the people you really want to run your country aren't any of the options?
- Why does playing hockey take priority over everything else in my life?
- Why don't people eat peanuts with a spoon? (I highly recommend it)
- At what point do invasion of privacy in the name of terrorism quash basic freedoms?
- How on earth can the US detain around 500 people for 4 years with no access to court, legal council or family visits?$? Only 9 people have been formally charged! Take action @ Amnesty International
- Why do gay men get to change in the Men's change room?

A 28-year-old man crashed the Montreal Canadiens practice yesterday to try to prove he was cut out for the big leagues. He managed to get 2 shots on Canadiens' goalie Jose Theadore before getting chased off the ice by the head coach and then escorted out by an arena worker.

This is something I could see myself doing ;)

Read the full story: Man crashes Canadiens' practice with 'nothing to lose'ESPN or CTV News

Here is a list of some of my resolutions. I don't want to call them "New Years Resolutions" because I don't really believe in having a bunch of resolutions once a year. Things come up in my life throughout the year that require me to adjust my priorities, so I essentially have many resolutions throughout the year.

Some of these resolutions had already begun in 2005.

• Take Mojo for runs more often (2-3 times per day)


• Find an optimal work/life balance


• Find more time to read my books


• Call and visit my Mommy more


• Find more time at work to research new technologies


• Stop renting and purchase a Loft in downtown Toronto by March


• Go to bed earlier and get to work earlier to prepare for the day


• Drive to Wisconsin to visit my Dad for a long weekend


• Go back to school part time - Classes start tomorrow

Here's the video of the day: Airplane flies under bridge

... and I'm your only other choice.

This seems to be the basis of Stephen Harper's platform. I could have made a better commercial with my digital camera than the Conservative Party has done. I think the commercial cost them about $50 to make. The commercials are set to make the Liberals out to be corrupt, without even discussing what the Conservatives will do differently. The basic message is: the Liberals are corrupt; Canada needs a change. Stephen Harper is your only other option.

Despite the Conservatives crappy commercials, I enlightened myself by visiting their website to see what their platform really is. If I limited my exposure to only the TV commercials and the debates, I'd say the Conservatives don't have a platform except to mock the Liberals mistakes. Their main platform seems to be giving money back to Canadians by cutting taxes, subsidizing public transit, and beefing up the military. They are also supporting the US Missile Defense initiative (in which I strongly oppose), but they are staying out of Iraq. For years after the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, Stephen Harper strongly opposed Chretien's decision not to commit troops to Iraq, but I think Harper loses credibility for supporting the war and criticizing the Liberal government, and then deciding not to join the war if he wins office. He's obviously made a political decision to do this to win votes because most Canadian's don't support the war in Iraq.

Reading Harper's biography, he doesn't have a lot of experience and he doesn't have a lot of accomplishments under his belt. He worked as a member’s assistant and policy advisor before being elected to parliament in 1993. He's also a member of the Queen's Privy council for Canada and he is a Member of Parliament for Calgary Southwest.

One thing the 2 main opponents in the election don’t realize is that they are not the only choice. In recent polls, the Liberals and Conservatives are very close at just above 30 percent, and the NDP is just under 20 percent. The people of Canada may realize that they do have more than 2 choices. When looking at the choices, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the NDP hit 23% by election-time.

For New Years, I went to Montreal with 3 other guys to celebrate the New Year. One of the guys who came with us I had never met before, but he is a friend of my buddy who was also on the trip. His whole persona and all of his mannerisms and random comments are hysterical and were worthy of me writing this entry about him. He made us laugh so much over the weekend that we compiled a list of all of the funny things he did that made us laugh. He's a stalky guy from a smaller town who calls himself “Festively plump”, and he always has something random and funny to say. The faces he makes and his laugh are also hilarious. The best part is that he doesn't even try to be funny; it's just him being himself. You could make a movie on this guy and it would be hilarious. We're convinced that he has A.D.D. but he denies it.

Here is the list of random funny things he did this weekend:
- We were at a restaurant and he asked for the leftover dinner rolls to go.
- We'd be at a bar and he'd disappear and we wouldn't see him until we got back to the hotel
- He goes through about 2 packs of chewing gum every day, every few minutes he pops one in his mouth
- He ordered a pizza and dropped a gigantic pile of change on the pizza box for the delivery guy.
- He calls everybody "Nort"
- We were in an elevator packed with a bunch of guys and he let a huge fart go.
- He accidentally knocks stuff over. He knocked over a glass in the restaurant, beer bottles in the hotel room, and a lamp in the hotel room.
- At a restaurant he took a spoonful of our other buddy's soup while he was in the washroom.
- He always asks if you're done with your food long before you're even close to finishing it.
- We dropped him off at a massage parlour at 11:30AM and waited outside in the truck for him.
- He talked about a spaced-out kid right in front of him saying he looks like he “got hit by a train”.
- He talked about an old man with an animal hat right in front of him saying it looks like he has a squirrel on his head.
- Slipped on the ice on the sidewalk and fell flat on his face.
- 2 minutes after he talked about how full he was from lunch, he saw a Dairy Queen and asked if we could stop the truck so he could get an ice cream.

Random Quotes
"You gotta get er done"
"I knew it was time to leave when I got turned down by the passed out girl"