well......

the above picture is from the first snowfall of the year here.......

i wasn't going to leave it so long in between posts, but i actually had a couple of people tell me that they wanted to contribute answers to the quiz from the last post, so i put off posting for a few days to give those lazy bastard a chance to submit - and they REALLY dropped the ball.....

then i installed the new OS on my computer, and was really slow migrating information back over to the main machine, so the remainder of my time has been dedicated to making sure that i do the job properly. a lot more time consuming than i had anticipated. LOTS of data.

plus i have been enjoying a bit of time off. in the last month of work, i have only been home to my bed for THREE nights. brutal.


anyway - here are the answers to the quiz :


1. Boxing.

2. Niagara Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

3. Asparagus and rhubarb.

4. Strawberry

5. It grew inside the bottle. (The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.)

6. Dwarf, dwell and dwindle.

7. Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

8. Lettuce

9. Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.


not sure if any of you guys paid attention, but lazy kangaroo was the only one who made an effort..... and did VERY well. perhaps i should give some sort of award to LK for it!!!

anyway.

i will try and post more frequently - i have some really cool stuff in the vaults, and some awesome ideas for future posts, which SHOULD keep you hanging around for a while longer......



later

just in time for halloween

i am still too busy to post properly or regularly right now, but i thought that i would post a link that i thought was pretty cool. hopefully it will give you some ideas of what to do with your pumpkin this halloween.... here you go. oh - and a quick quiz. this one even had ME stumped. answers will be in the next post, but in the meantime, post your guesses in the comments section...... 1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends. 2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward? 3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables? 4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside? 5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle? 6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters ' dw' and they are all common words. Name two of them. 7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them? 8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh. 9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter 'S.'

work, work, work

crazy busy right now. hardly have time to breathe. been on the road for two weeks, and my last stay at home only lasted a day and a half, after having been away for a week. i am going to be home for a single day this weekend, then i am gone again for another 11 days. so please forgive the sparse nature of my postings...... the above image is called "camera ape", simply because the guy in the image seems to resemble some sort of simian with the movements he is making. i have been working at a government technology conference this week, and there are a few things that got me excited over the last day or so.... yahoo pipes free knowledge wikinomics, and its' associated facebook group and because i am always hungry for new information, i am almost OBSESSED with this site hope you find at least ONE of these links to be of interest to you.......

i had too much to dream last night....

this is a very strange one! i dreamed that i was late getting to the airport to fly out to quebec city. i was driving a truck of some sort, and realised that the lawnmower in the truck was out of gas. so i pull over, and proceed to march over to somebody's front yard, and grab the gas cannister that is conveniently sitting there. it turns out that the container is filled with banana-scented gasoline. i took the cap off of the gas tank of the lawnmower, and there were a few frogs swimming around inside. i filled the tank up, and then realised that i had lost the cap fro the lawnmower and spent some time wondering how i was going to get the lawnmower back inside the truck without spilling the banana-scented gas or the frogs. double you tee eff? anyone have any suggestions?

on the road....

believe it or not, i am actually posting this from the very top of whistler mountain. it is 2183 meters above sea level, and is the second largest ski mountain in north america--dwarfed only by it's next door neighbor, blackcomb mountain. the average snowfall here is around 10 METERS!!! unbelievable!!! if you go HERE, you can see the large chalet that i was posting from. it is supposed to be a "LIVE" webcam, but after many attempts at getting myself captured by it, i discovered that it only refreshes every 15 minutes or so. i even took a singer from quebec city with me, so that we could both be in the picture that i was intending to post here, but alas it didn't happen....(you can see her page by going to pascalepicard.com. she is a brilliant singer in both french AND english, and i have pasted a video of hers below..... you heard it here first - this girl is going to be HUGE. i saw a family of bears doing some pre-hibernation grazing today, but unfortunately i didn't get a chance to get a decent photo of them, because i had trouble with my camera, and the gondola was moving fairly quickly.... i am running around the country a lot lately, and have been taking some pretty cool photos, and i hope to post them in a big pile when i get a chance. keep checking back with me to see what's going on!!!!

just a small story

this story is actually one of my favourites to tell, and also perhaps one of my most proud moments. and possibly my most eloquent. i used to live in a really bad ghetto in toronto. prostitutes. junkies. dealers. all of them "doing their thing" in my back and front yards. i was cycling home one night from my job as a security guard for a massive record store right downtown. i get about two blocks away from my apartment, and a cop motions for me to get off of my bike. and two other cops move right in the path of my movement, in an attempt to prevent me from going anywhere. the first cop asks me to dismount, which i do. he then starts to lecture me for not having a reflector on the back of my bike, (which is odd because he wouldn't have been able to see that from the front), for not having a bell on my bike, and also for not wearing a helmet. something inside me snapped. they probably actually heard it. this is my response. verbatim. "you've GOT to be fucking kidding me. there are guys up the street --- selling crack to CHILDREN!!! and you are harassing me for not having a bell????" the three of them looked stunned, and confused. i got back on my bike, and just before i rode off, i said "i suggest you find something a little more constructive to do with your time." i don't think i stopped smiling for a week!!!! by the way - the photo at the top of this post was taken in toronto this past week while i was there for work. i have no idea what kind of vehicle that is. anyone have any guesses???

mixed bag

it occurred to me not too long ago that the word multimedia is a bit of a redundant phrase. isn't the word "media" ALREADY plural???? and here is some footage straight off of my new phone it may be difficult to see in the video above, but the shadow of the plane is constantly visible as a little tiny spec on the ground. i just thought that the shadow on the clouds, (of the plane), was really neat! new phone ROCKS by the way...... expect to see lots of stuff from it on here in the future. my friend lorrie, (who is practicing MMA), and i have been obsessing over this song lately....... you may D/L it here : When in Rome - The Promise both "L-Dog" and i are wishing that someone would write a song like this for us.....

dating stories galore!!!!!

so i have been hearing lots of dating horror stories from all kinds of people, since i posted this one. in fact a friend has allowed me to post her TOP TEN worst dates, and i figured you guys would all get a kick out of reading them. her blurb is really well written. please enjoy!! ps - i have another friend who has bad dating stories - perhaps i can convince her to let me post one or two of them, if you guys let me know that you are interested!!! ---------------------------------------------- I have compiled a list of the 10 worst dates I have now been on from internet dating, and would like to share them with you so that you can take notes, compare yourself to these people, and if you see any resemblance what so ever to yourself, then I respectfully request you do not contact me and move right along. Ok? Seriously. I'm not joking. K. 10. Date with fireman. Continuous asked me if he was hot enough to be in the calendar this year. 20 times he said, “Seriously, dude, am I hot enough? Cause I think I’m hot enough? Am I hot enough????” Blazeboy, you were not hot enough, and your constant compliment seeking made me want to light you on fire. 9. Second date brought bible to our meeting. He found God, and apparently, didn’t want to leave him at home. I love God, we all should. But not at Sticky Fingers on a Wed night when wings are cheap. 8. Met cop at restaurant, he proceeded to drink in copious amounts of beer, than he stole the mug by putting it under his shirt. Then he drove me home, drunk. By the way did I mention he’s a COP? 7. I’m not even going to tell you about my 4th date because I tend to get a bit choked up and I am trying to keep the mood light. I don’t have a cat anymore. Anyways. 6. Met someone at Starbuck's. Had great chat for about 10 minutes, thought things were well. His ex girlfriend walked in. She came over said hi. He said hi. He said to me, excuse me for a second. He followed her outside to talk to her. He didn’t come back. This is not a joke. 5. The quickest date happened next, when the man whom I was suppose to be meeting had sent me picture of 6 foot tall, brown hair blue eyed good looking realtor. When 5"4 pakistani who was slightly balding introduced himself to me at Tiff’s as “Rick*”, I immediately got up and left. I am not racist, but I was PISSED. He sent me email later apologizing saying he was having trouble meeting girls the “normal” way and that he had hoped he could “win” me over with his personality. HA! 4. This date never showed. And it’s only making my list because when I went to my car I had a flat tire and had to wait 2 hours for CAA to come change it. And it was HOT outside. 3. Reformed alcoholic who didn’t tell me until after he had had 2 beers but was so nervous he thought it would help him “relax”. Um, I don’t know what ever happened to him, but I’m hoping he left our date and went straight to AA meeting. 2. Married man, didn’t even bother to take ring off, came right out and said he really only wanted to have a sexual encounter but wanted to see me in person before he decided. I flirted a bit, got him to tell me what he did for a living. Said I had to go, and would email him. Called his work the next day, talked to receptionist, found out his wife’s name, googled her, and sent her email. Hey, I might be blond, but I’m resourceful and SMART. Just not smart apparently when it comes to sniffing out the married. 1. And the number one worst date, by far, had to be with- and folks- I am NOT joking- with a PRIEST. A serious, real live priest, who was contemplating leaving the church and thought this would be the best way to “test the waters”. I might understand “walking on water”, or anointing those with “holy water”, but testing the waters should not be part of a priest’s vocabulary. ----------------------------------- hope you guys got as much of a chuckle out of that as i did!! - b-dot.

so i got to thinking....

..... about the event from the other day. and it is a really great story to tell, but it could have turned out much worse. in fact i am still getting messages from her, and she isn't getting the hint that i am not responding, so it may still turn out wrongly. like maybe she is thinking "i want to wear your skin to my birthday", or something like that. like silence of the lambs in reverse.......

true story

i have been hanging around a dating site for about 3 weeks now, and have enjoyed chatting with girls on there. meeting some really nice ones that are smart and funny and cute. so i made arrangements to meet up with one for a quick bite last night. this is how it all went down. i don't even know where to begin with what was wrong with the date. but i should have known it was going to be bad when the girl that showed up was NOT EVEN CLOSE to being the same one that was in her profile pics.... and it actually went DOWNHILL from there. it was as if she knew that i was thinking "you psycho girl! you stole someone else's profile pics, and used them as your own". because she pulled out her health card and said that "this picture doesn't look anything like me, does it?" creepy thing is, it DIDN'T look like her, but it also wasn't the girl from the other series of photos either. she was also laughing WAY TOO HARD at my jokes. you know what i mean? i felt like someone had given her a hundred bucks, and said "laugh like you have never met someone so funny in your life". now, don't get me wrong, i am a funny guy, but not THAT funny. it all just seemed so forced. she also tells me that she hasn’t worked in 2 months, and that she recently had to sell her car, in order to give her father money to pay his mortgage. she doesn’t live at home. then she goes on to tell me that she was at the queens recently to celebrate 60 days of "being clean". she didn't say "60 days of not smoking pot", or "60 days without touching drugs". nope. she specifically used the phrase "being clean". that has far too much weight behind it. i am all about giving people a second chance, and letting them get their life sorted out, but when you start to combine this little detail with the others, this becomes a fucking ENORMOUS warning super-light, that rotates really rapidly, and has barbed wire around it, and sirens going off. in surround sound!! so, there we are having something to eat. and she starts telling me that her ex-boyfriend had called her that day. from jail. and that he was telling her that he still loves her. and she then proceeds to tell me that the only reason that they broke up is because he went to jail, and if he hadn't she probably would have stayed with him. are you kidding me? you are telling me that you still love your ex while you are on a date? (at least YOU are still calling it a date. i stopped calling it that about 60 seconds after meeting you). she then starts to tell me that she did "a solid" for her ex once. and then some other words that i don't recall very specifically now, since my head was spinning from the fact she was now using jailhouse lingo to talk to me. i nervously chuckled and said "ha! sounds like you've been to jail once or twice yourself! heh heh!" BINGO!!! turns out that "the solid" she did for her ex, was take the blame for some crime that he committed. so she ended up going to jail even though she didn't do the crime herself. she let them "pin the rap on her". but isn't that what they ALL say in jail? tony : hey louis! what are you in for? louis : i didn't do it!!! i was so bloody freaked out by this girl, that when we parted company, i just wanted to run away. screaming. she reaches in for a hug, and my stupid reflexes kiss her on the cheek and i return the hug. i also say "i'll see you soon." AHHHHHHH!!!! what have i done???? she has since sent me 3 messages to tell me what a great time she had.