SNIPPETS FROM SPACESHIP ORION

Neepawa

2011-03-18T14:14:00.011-05:00

This where I am. In Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada. The birthplace of author Margaret Laurence, who wrote a The Stone Diaries, among other books. And this is who I'm getting married to.

This is her beautiful sisters. Hey Meester, do you want to buy my seesters?

Besides being known for being the birthplace of author Margaret Laurence, Neepawa also bills itself as the lily capital of the world. It has a lily festival here every summer.

This is, of course, the proverbial stone angel.

This, again, is the stone angel. Some days, I feel just this way. Seriously, my future wife's parents are buried here. The author's remains are also there.

Master advanced features - My Location

2011-03-12T18:40:00.000-06:00

Master advanced features - My Location

I'M BACH!!

2011-03-11T15:45:00.006-06:00

I have been away Farcebooking. It was like sitting on the toilet voiding. You know how you've been doing something your whole life, and you find that it is SO much better? This -- blogging -- is so much better.

The person above is Lis, whom I will marry in November. The people above her are my son Evan, my daughter Monica and me. My two kids now are much older than this and have their own GF and BF, respectively.

It allows the readers and the writer to actually think. What a novel concept huh? AND be commercial-free and so unlike what everyone else is doiing with their simplistic -- bless them -- thoughts on Farcebook.

I don't mean their thoughts are simplistic, just that they are abbreviated like TV, and can't tell the whole story.

It allows us to get away from the commercialism of Farcebook. I may very well continue on there, but I have missed the substance & beauty of those on Booger.

I have met many on Farcebook. But I admire you all and look forward to talking to you.

Last Post

2010-10-24T12:18:00.003-05:00

This blogging has become nothing but a heartache.

It's another week of nothingness. Granted, I don't seem to want to go visit others, so why should they visit me? I have discovered how to marry videos with Farcebook. Even on that medium, there is more of an exchange, and a nearly instaneous one.

Goodbye, blogging friends.

Chris

Hymie

2010-10-21T11:20:00.006-05:00

From the moment I had this confounded stroke, the thing above -- whatever it's called -- has been with me. It was at the hospital with me. It has given me laughs when I didn't feel like laughing.

I call it Hymie. Which rhymes with Why me. But I have gotten much stronger. This isn't nearly as significant as rape or murder or kids starving in Africa or many other things.

But it is real, at least.

Crimes of Humanity

2010-10-21T09:50:00.004-05:00

Give me a break. We as a society trusted this Canadian Army colonel with our lives and welfare and he repays us and the good people who defend us by killing female members of our society?

This guy obviously has problems. If his parents or parent screwed up this much through no fault or all the fault of their own, he has picked on more helpless females to get his jollies.

I don't need or want to hear why he did this. I'm sure he has some indescribable illness due to an indescribable backround. I don't care any more. He should be put to death for what he has done and this is another thing I don't get.

It's called Capital Punishment. There should be some much more severe punishment for this crime, if only for retribution for the families of those women murdered at his cowardly hand.

And I wonder what kind of parents he had. They too should pay somehow or the government should pay for a system that failed to weed this guy out and in fact promoted him within one of its own agencies.

This is more than criminal. This is heinous.

My Financier Lis

2010-10-20T18:03:00.010-05:00

These are pix of my fianceeeeeeeee Lis, which is also short for Lizard. As you can see, she was REALLY looking forward to these candids!

Here she is from many years ago. Above AND below.

Doh!

Here, below, is just a guest appearance by moi, who can be called Marv for short. Marv stands for Marvellous, not Marvin.

Ah, but I like it too!

2010-10-19T15:12:00.006-05:00

That's the end of commercial thingy for Irish Spring, which I teased the world about incessantly as a kid and still do to this day, especially now that it's on the Telly every five seconds and because it's just a goofy product.

Also, I'm part-Irish which gives me the right to poke fun and fart in the general direction of all leprechauns and little people.

---

Also, Tom Bosly died today. The actor.

He's one of my fave actors of the last 7 seconds. Also, he will be replaced by someone else in the next 7 seconds. Actually, I really Did like The Fonz. I certainly did not like Richie Cunningham or whoever his name was, the former Opie.

A Stroke of Luck

2010-10-03T18:11:00.028-05:00

Well this is most of my family at my youngest sister Shauna's and her husband Ken's two years ago, before I had this confounded STROKE. If all goes well, my beloved Elisabeth and I just might be hosting our family Christmas this year at our new house. But I don't want to get ahead of myself in hopes. We will see.

This is my youngest sister Shauna and her oldest daughter Rebecca, and I apologize to them both if I have spelled that wrong.

Above is basically the whole group or at least many of them.

Above is a pic of my sister Shauna, her husband Ken and my nephew Josh, Gerry and Kim's son, from nearby Kenora, Ont. Gerry is for all intents and purposes a larger version of me and is my power of attorney.

My other brother, Doug, is older than Gerry but younger than me. He and his 2 daughters and 1 son stayed in Ottawa, where they live.

Gerry and my sister Lisa, along with my Mom, helped significantly in my recovery and still are, a fact for which I will never adequately be able to say thanks. Shauna and Lori have also played significant parts in my recovery.

But I must in all honesty thank Gerry and Lisa the most.

This is my daughter Monica, who will graduate as a nurse this year and whom is going out with a man named Alex whom I have not yet met. Monica and my son Evan, who just graduated from high school, were with me when I had the stroke.

If they hadn't been, I suspect I would have died.

This is again my Mom opening some Xmas gifts while Lisa, Josh, Ken, the great-looking me, Kim and Shauna deride her.

This is my three sisters -- Lisa, Shauna, my niece Rachael and her mother (my oldest sister Lori, left to right) sit and look silly.

This is a pic of my bald spot, I assume taken by my moronic brother Gerry.

A closeup of my sister Lori looking like she wants to kick me in the gonads...

A closeup of my sis Lisa...

My nephew Justin warming his butt near their fireplace...

My nephew Matthew from Kenora...

My daughter Monica's former BF, my daughter Monica, my niece Rebecca, my sister (and her mom) Shauna, and Shauna's oldest son (and Rebecca's brother) Andrew.

Much of the whole group...

Lisa's Hubby Darren and their daughter Maia in the foreground and that looks like my son Evan in the background...

That's Evan in the foreground, Shauna and Ken's Justin in the middle, and Lisa and Darren's son Cole.

That's my dad Don, above. And a pic of the clan opening gifts, below.

Some of the boys, including from left Evan, Justin, Cole (I think) and maybe Josh.

Uncle Ken joins in the fun. I can't tell you who the goalie is. I'm guessing Justin.

Evan with a bird's eye view.

My nephew and among the oldest, Ben.

The whole group, pretty much, at another time: Cole, Evan, me, Lisa, Monica (foreground), my Dad Don, Maia (tree), Lori, Mathew (tree), Josh, my Mom, Justin (in tree), Ben, Shauna, Rebecca, her Dad Ken, Kim, Andrew ( L to R).

Irish Spring...but I like it too!

2010-10-03T10:42:00.007-05:00

I am a Deadbeat Dad

2010-10-01T10:27:00.002-05:00

I am a Deadbeat Dad. It doesn't matter that I didn't tear the marriage apart. It DOES matter that I have a sexual organ that shoots sperm instead of eggs. You can be irresponsible, a liar, smuggle booze into concerts.

But the person who wrongly, stupidly, is married to such a person pays even though he has no full-time job because, of all things, a stroke that only almost killed him before he had turned 55.

What the heck. He is just a deadbeat Dad, right? It is his fault. He is the convenient fall guy. Never mind all those weekends -- they count for zip.

Thankfully, I have found a REAL person -- one who doesn't pretend and conceal and one who is 10 times the person his ex wife is. But she's got me by the balls. My ex wife that is.

She is using Canada's archaic support laws to make my life miserable and to make my new life hard to get started. But me and my new wife will eventually get past this and survive it.

I will even survive the alienation of my kids, who are sticking by her because that's what kids do. Iam an easy target, and now my ex, who is responsible for our marriage breakup in the first place, is laughing all the way.

Such is life. I seem like the bad guy. But I am not.

And now for something COMPLETELY different...Agin

2010-09-29T20:43:00.006-05:00

In the past two weeks or so, I have been otherwise pre-occupied as not shown. And as shown by the most recent counter numbers, no one has noticed or otherwise visited or as much as farted in my general direction.

So this is the dreaded last post. Farcebook yourselves to death.

The numbers show a clear zero across the board per day. It is too embarrasing to show. Well, who cares...after all, people are dying of starvation in Africa. Kids are starving with no fathers.

Good bye, Blogdom. It was fun. But now it's time to be a Facebook weinie.

The Beautiful E

2010-09-28T18:37:00.011-05:00

Indeed, these pictures of my betrothed do NOT do her justice. But they will have to do. Some are out of focus thanks to me. Some aren't. Still. her beauty is undeniable. It is there for all to see. Here's a tour of my beautiful girl.

Some of these pix -- in fact, most of them -- were taken years ago.

This pic was taken recently by me. Women put on weight. Hello -- they have these things called babies. Heard of them?

Below is or are her two sisters. Beautiful, aren't they?

Cows & Farts & Stuff: Part 2

2010-09-15T20:30:00.017-05:00

There IS a point to all this...

Passwords and farts and stuff.

2010-09-14T17:32:00.024-05:00

This is supposed to be a blog of important things like farts and human gas and other kinds of gas, but I am unable to comply because this stupid system will only allow me a certain number of pix, and this it.

But only some 0.9 persons read this blog anyway, so what do I care?

So with a stroke that virtually obliterates half your mind, I am hardly able to remember my own hands let alone any one of a thousand passwords you might use. Passwords are a pain at the best of times.

Try remembering another person's password. It is not easy to do. Now multiply that by 10 and try to rememer those. Then you might get an idea what my life is like. I have to try and do what you take for granted. It is a life of Pleasure, Pain and Passwords.

Banking. Computing. Phoning. More. These are all basic things essential to everyday life. These are things I can no longer do by myself. I just don't have the brainpower anymore. What used to work as sharp as a tack before no longer works.

Sometimes I can barely remember my own name. But I can remember once farting on a hockey bench as a kid for eight seconds, which is a world record in my books. And I recently visited the beef farm of the husband and wife of my betrothed-to-be.

It was smelly and there was a lot of methane gas around, I'm sure.

Homo Escapeons

2010-09-01T16:52:00.016-05:00

Well, not everyone. But Donnnnnnnnn with about 100 n's does. Because I am truly the wonder of his life. Well, except for his Lovely wife and their young son -- and just about every other human been on thr planet.

I don't know why I took a pic of this guy on TV. Maybe because like Donnnnnn, he is virtually insane.

These pix are actually in inverse order. But with Donnnnnnnnnn, it rarely matters.

I have no idea what this picture is. But I'll be lucky if one person reads this anyway.

Here is Donnnnnnnnn, continued.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Dope.

No. HERE he is REALLY being a DOPE. Believe it or not, he is NOT drunk.

Here either. That sqeezie character that looks like him is for me to strengthen my hand muscle on my stroke-ridden right side.

This is him, exercising his LEFT side. Look away, Ridley!

Dolt.

Forcebook

2010-08-28T17:04:00.007-05:00

Well, for some reason I as usual would have to be Einstein to explain, I can't put any more pix on here. Being one who apparently can't see the forest for the trees anyway, I should confess I no longer do much Farcebooking.

I can't stand the shallowness of it, to be honest. But knock yourselves out. I have just decided that humans are far more complex creatures than that. Of course the advertisers on there want you to be as stupid as possible.

I realize that at heart, we want all to do what the next person is doing. For a while, it was blogging. Now it's Farcebooking. Who knows what it will be several months from now?

That's what all the marketing weenies are trying to figure out now. Where we go, the advertisers follow. And where the advertisers are, that's where companies want to be, delirious with the thought of our money.

The Force be with you.

Pepee Le Pew

2010-08-24T18:25:00.017-05:00

Despite how funny or ridiculous or mussed up I look, I actually got engaged recently to the most beautiful girl in the universe, and I promised her that I would publish no pictures of her on my blog.

But I didn't say anything about her ring! I promise not to say anything about her two gorgeous sisters, or the husband of one of them who took us out to meet and commiserate with all their cows.

And all their calves and mosquitoes.

And Hobbes The Wonder Cat who loved me and other animals and creatures and things.

Now on to run of the mill things, like getting engaged.

Aye, aye aye aye, I am The Frito Bandito!
I drove my fiance crazy with that song. But Hobbes loved it.

I apologize for almost all the pix being out of focus. Apparently taking pix is far from one of my strengths. Doh!

Try the focus, Doofus!

My hand and her hand...
HER hand...it's ALWAYS about the FEMALE!

Now that we're in the car, it's only PARTIALLY about her...

Here, it's MORE about me...but it's STILL about her...

AAHHH!!! How will I ever stand it????!!!!!

Darts

2010-08-12T18:35:00.020-05:00

Why, you wonder, is he showing us a map of the Canadian province in which he lives? Well, to show those 2.1 humans in the world still blogging roughly where I am in case you wanted to visit me or fart in my general direction, which is the theme of the next blog I do.

No, this a blog of utter human importance. It is about darts from beginning to end as the book of the same name (above) suggests. And it is the first revelation in the world that this is is how Donnnnnnnnnnn with one million n's spent much of our child-rearing days.

Playing darts and drinking beer and saying, "One hundred and Forty!" Like the guy on darts on TSN, when instead it took us about a whole game's duration to actually do that. Or take a shot...or go to the bathroom. Or something.

I do not know this woman above. But she has darts in her hand. So she matters. Sort of.

Darts can be dangerous. Thus the pic above. This could happen to you if you suddenly step in front of while I'm simultaneously swigging beer, belching, farting, leering at Racqel Welch on a 50-inch TV screen, or something.

Here is one of my dart heroes. I think he's from Wales. No wait, he is a whale. But he sure can throw darts and drink beer.

This guy can also throw dahts. Thrilling.

These above are a good example of dahts.

And this above and below are examples, strangely enough, of dart boards. Remember, you must wear a silly shirt and say, in a funny accent 140! if you want to join the World DahtsFederation.

Bull's-Eye!

Arbitrary Idiotness

2010-08-10T15:13:00.018-05:00

This is my younger brother Gerry. No, wait, that's an ass!

THIS is actually my younger brother, Gerry, below. Note he isn't just giving me ONE finger. He's giving me TWO! And I'm the oldest?? This is what thanks and respect I get?

It's OK. I made him goalie all the time when I played street hockey as a kid with Clod Lambert and Andy Adolphe. He loved it and went on to take too much rubber on his head.

This is just a picture of what, I don't know. Go crazy with your own guesses and I'll award you all -- all three of you -- with a prize.

Here's a pic of me many years ago getting beaten at a game of Fish by a six-year-old Ridley, Donnnnnn and Alice's son. Poor Alice. Poor Ridley.

Here's Donnnnnnnnn and me many years ago canoeing at Wallace Lake. No doubt Alice was asking herself, What am I getting myself into? I still don't know.

Doh!!

What an idiot!

Believe it or not, these pix were made by him. Poor Ally!

Reflections

2010-08-07T12:19:00.004-05:00

This is one of my fave songs ever...if this doesn't import, it's Reflections by Marmalade. You can find it yourself on YouTube! Good listening!!

A Beauty

2010-08-06T10:58:00.003-05:00

There is a beautiful female in my life.

I'd like to post pix of her but I think I'd better not. This whole circumstance has me blown away. She is the most beautiful person I have ever met in my life and for us, now is the perfect time and the right time.

Yes, I met her on Facebook, but we have spent some time together and she is more beautiful than I imagined. AND I should stop making fun of Facebook. But I've GOT to make fun of SOMETHING! I will soon meet her cat Hobbes, who is a male, and as his name suggests, he will play second fiddle to me.

Actually, his name DOESN'T suggest that. His name suggests he is a butler or something. I say!

I will be the dominant male.

Ha!

But that will get me nothing!

Because as we ALL KNOW, the female always gets what she wants!

Farce Book

2010-08-05T17:11:00.012-05:00

The "F'' used to stand for something else, as in "Fuck off and die." Now it stands for something we all know and hate: Farcebook.

I personally lament this development. For one, it begins the process of our de-evolution into amoeba. Secondly, it heralds the start of our move back to the herd mentality I and sharks and lions and killers and OTHER predators thought we had evolved away from. Not so.

No, we all herd without a clue towards Farce Book. Unwary of what lies in wait just behind the bush.

Woe is me.

Here I am, still blogging like it's nobody's business -- Hey wait. It IS nobody's business. About three people on the planet still blog. They have all gone over to Farcebook. Well, excuuuuuse me. I can act like a tyrannosarus Rex or a Brontosaurus too.

Oh. They're extinct.

Me and part of my life

2010-08-04T18:04:00.020-05:00

Well, we start off with me and my kids, Monica and Evan. Lovely Lis, my female accompaniment, has refused to let me publish pix of her. But I will get her back. You know I will. I am seeing less and less of my kids, but they ARE growing older and more independent.

Here they are again -- after the stroke.

Here are a pair of ostriches. Note how the male is doing all the work and the female, like a queen, is just doing nothing but bossing the male around -- poor guy.

Here is me, pondering life and my existence.

Here is a bunch of women doing what they do best. Ha Ha Ha Ha!

This is my fate.

Me looking angrily at my son, who's out of this picture.

Me still.

Me flying away.

Just some scenery, like a pictorial musical interlude.

We all are babies at heart...and we all wear masks of some sort.

Because otherwise, we'd all have to be ourselves, as hideous as that might be.

Wimmin--Gotta Love 'Em

2010-08-03T19:42:00.007-05:00

I was going to post some funny guy stuff about wimmin -- emailed to me by my younger brother Gerry, who I entertained as a young boy with the finer points of farting and other uniquely male experiences -- but other issues got in the way.

So then I was going to opine on the finer points of the female gender, but something happened -- I went gonzo over one of them. Strange, that.

Because they really ARE so inferior to us.

Look...we start stupid wars over territory no one cares about, or fight wars over issues that no one cares about...in fact, no one cares about anything we do. But before you know it, they've got us washing dishes differently.

All they do is have our babies and give us sex -- minor details, both, in our warring ways.

What, you may ask, would we do without them? I don't know. I just don't know.

Donn's

2010-07-26T11:32:00.025-05:00

See, Donn with two thousand n's secretly loves these posts I do about him, his silly antics, his family and more about his silly antics. Donn picked the hottest, sweatiest day of the year to have me over for a BBQ of hot dogs and hamburgers yesterday.

We kibitzed around as we usually do. Alice, his wife, LOVED IT! Poor Alice. Their son Ridley is slowly developing a sense of humour like us. Poor kid! No, I mean lucky kid! Two Donns with two n's! Alice will likely go insane!

So Donn came to pick me up and drive me to his place To pick up Alice, their son Ridley and Donn's unfortunate mother Carol and his stepdad, Brian. We went to see his oldest daughter, Nicole, dance. Then we went back to his place.

Poor Carol and Brian, below, and behind them, Alice and Ridz. They have Donn to deal with. I was stuck in the front with him.

We finally went to Donn's with two n's.

Donn with two n's and his lovely wife, Alice.

Brian being a guy or something.

Carol being a girl or something.

These are random pictures that I ASSUME were taken by Alice.

Below, this is me trying to take Donn with a whole lot of n's for a ride om his turn-of-the-19th century bike.

The two brainiacs try to figure out how to use the brakes.

Chris and Ridley Rock The Casbah.

Conrad

2010-07-24T10:33:00.004-05:00

This guy is even MORE of a prick than he appears. He is Conrad Black. He singlehandedly destroyed the Canadian newspaper business. People might have left newspapers anyway with the advent of the Internet.

But they undoubtedly have left quicker in my mind because of his mightier than thou, nose up, I'm better than you attitude and style that he and his henchman, a rat with the last name of Radler, employed on the Canadian public years ago.

He begged and got the queen to make him a knight. So he is Sir Conrad, the same as King Arthur is Sir Arthur. What an embarrassment to the planet.

He closed down newspapers in many markets. He put many people out of work (not me). He got caught later for money laundering or fraud or something and was jailed in the U.S. After causing so many people their jobs. Their lives.

He is and was the worst ass. He's the kind of person who hid behind his money and power. He is like the worst example of humanity you could imagine. He is worse than the worst bug you could imagine. I can't believe he is getting out of jail.

I can't believe he is a Canadian. I can't believe he is a human been. I HOPE he is not allowed back in Canada, the country he once renounced so he could be lorded by Her Idiotness The Queen.

Thought of You Today. Got Gas

2010-07-23T14:39:00.006-05:00

Well I walked to the hospital today -- and then found out I'm not supposed to be seeing Kathie, my therapist, until next week. DOH! So I walked home again, and came upon this guy, still in my apartment after repainting my tub.

Repainting my tub? That's right. The paint itself is all toxic and smelly, of course, but it will dry. Consider it like building an airplane. The real thing, once it's ready, is majestic. But it's the building of it that stinks -- literally.

There...isn't this bog post Farcebooky?

MoreStuff

2010-07-21T10:44:00.025-05:00

I like to call him Bubalooey Baboon. He was fearless. And he was young. I was at an african Safari tour near London, Ontario. And he was quite a character. Inquisitive and bold. And bad. I thought he might climb into the vehicle. But he didn't.

In a staid pre-Farcebook world, his bold existence and moves were shocking. But he was the best thing about that up close and personal safari.

The baboons were just like a group of Curious Georges. And so was I.

Doh!

Females! They climb up in trees! They're SO evasive!

Except when they have babies...

Sometimes, the baby just sits...

But other times...

Stuff

2010-07-19T09:13:00.003-05:00

While I try to recover from my son Evan being over here and laughing so hard, living life comes to the fore. My right side is DEFINITELY losing much of its paralysis. I'm sometimes like a bear who has been in winter hibernation.

I feel I can do more now. As if The Boy in the Bubble Syndrome is passing me by. Finally. I can and WILL still stumble and fall. But like a baby that you let walk around when it has just been crawling, it's OK if I fall.

That will just teach me NOT to fall again. It will teach me to walk again. Which it has. It has taught me to want and chase more beautiful things. And I have. And I will. This HASN'T happened to me. It couldn't.

But if it has, I will combine it with the most beautiful blessing that could happen to anyone, period. I will love. Deeply and happily and contentedly. And I will joke. Heartily. But I will also be deadly serious. Seriously.

Evan

2010-07-18T12:16:00.015-05:00

Evan! Wake up!!! It's 2010! Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!

Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Ha Ha Ha Ha! After a late night of watching my Family Guy tapes from -- GASP!! -- my daughter, Monica -- this was my son, Evan, on Sunday morning. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! If you think I have a small brain, his is microscopic!

Believe it or not, he eventually woke up. And left. But I don't think he made his bed!

Here is a random shot of my shower.

Here is a random shot of me INSIDE my bathroom, which is alternately known as the loo, the lavatory, the WC, or the can or bathroom in different parts of the world. It may be called something else in YOUR part of the world.

Unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending how you look at things -- my 18-year-old son Evan & I got to spend some alone time this weekend as my Queen of sheba daughter Monica worked and played with her new boyfriend, who I have never killed yet, Alex.

Poor guy.

As usual, though, Evan came over. He is the Prince of Pain. The Deacon of Dirt. The Sultan Of Sleep. And speaking of...

Sons & Daughters

2010-07-17T17:27:00.011-05:00

Actually, neither my son Evan or my daughter, Monica, are over here yet. My daughter drove over here earlier to grace me with her presence. She slept most of the time as I laughed in her face and teased her.

My son, Evan, was supposed to come later. But he, like most males, has a tiny brain. He seems to sleep all the time.

Smart, eh?

He's as smart as our hero.

Now Monica, of course, knows that the smartest, most direct way to her Daddy's tiny male brain is by making him laugh at innane shows -- which apparently WHY she bought him Familt Guy CDs for the second year in a row.

MY GOD! I wonder WHY EVAN and I enjoy it so much?

Design

2010-07-17T12:59:00.003-05:00

Well, in the absence of any intelligent life like Einstein or somesuch, I hereby stop trying to pretend I know what I'm doing and stop trying to fiddle with the display of my blog.

It seems the same weenies who decided to obliterate all MJ's comments and then magically restore them have decided to put the title of my blog way over on the left hand side.

And short of obliterating my entire blog, you'd HAVE to be Einstein to figure out how to fix it. So I won't reinvent the Theory of Relativity. Many of you probably THINK I can't figure this out anyway.

But I will. The same way I figured out the Theory of Relativity.

Have a nice life. All 1.2 of you.

Life

2010-07-15T17:43:00.015-05:00

Life -- like the hmm hmm -- is just crying and we let it slip away

Love -- like the hmm hmm -- is just trying but we let it slip away

I don't really know the words to this old Seals & Crofts ditty -- but I loved it the first time I heard it and I STILL love it.

Life -- so they say -- is just a dream that they let you put away.

The Beauty of Monica

2010-07-15T12:09:00.011-05:00

This is my daughter Monica on her graduation from Grade 12.

Below is my son Evan. He graduated THIS year from the same high school. My daughter graduated a couple of years before him and is now taking nursing.

Below, Monica as a young child.

Below, roughly, the Monica of today.

She looks more like this now, has a BF, the whole bit. But she is lovely. She will always be my daughter, my little girl. The little girl that sometimes abhors my interference in her life.

Interference to ensure she will not be hurt. But she is NOT a piece of China.

She WILL be hurt and she MUST be hurt. Like every other Human Been. It's as long as she knows someone is trying to prevent her from EVER being hurt that matters most.

Above, that's her with two of her cousins; below, that's her with a cousin. Either way, and in many other ways, she has been loved and has learned to love others. And it is beautiful.

Blogging is NOT Dead

2010-07-13T17:19:00.005-05:00

I have been taught an important lesson. Blogging is NOT dead.

There still are many friends of mine -- yes, even Farcebook weinies among them -- who do both. And there even are some who still blog without resorting to the shorter quickness of Farcebook.

The important thing is that we communicate. I don't necessarily GET the relative quickness, convenience and in some cases the shallowness of Farcebook over blogging.

But who am I to question it? It is a phenomenon. People have less disposable time. They have less time to say things in. They are becoming more economical in terms of what they do with their disposable time.

Still, I blog to get the life experience of others on the planet. And I will continue to try to do that. To each his or her own. Blogging AND Farcebooking are where I want and need to be.

Blogging

2010-07-07T07:18:00.004-05:00

My super cool counter thingy tells everything or it tells a lie. Zero visits in the past two weeks. Well I KNOW THAT'S wrong.

Which leads me to believe it has always been wrong. Except that real human beens -- from South Africa, from India, from The Phillippines -- have commented ON MY BLOG. I did NOT make this up. Now they're not.

But in any event, it is like the calming,endless sound of the waves lapping up on the shore. It's all about human exchanges and laughs and ideas.

Without them, this is a pointless exercise. It is like "If a tree falls in the forest and no one heard it or saw it fall, DID it fall?

Without the human exchanges -- And this is partly my fault because I've been visiting so few blogs -- it's all so pointless. An era is over. I may go blog somewhere else.

I Farcebook, the same as everyone else. But the thought of less thought and devolving into a dinosaur, potentially, doesn't appeal to me. Because, as we all know, dinosaurs with their small brains, became extinct.

I don't want that. If I can help it.

Mood

2010-07-05T08:30:00.006-05:00

Blogging, as we know it or at least as I have known it, is dead. The visitors to my site have gone down to virtually nothing. And without visitors, there IS nothing. The blog is simply outmoded.

If there is still room on the planet for real human thought rather than just thought bites, and bytes, I will look for it. I may still blog or comment from time to time. But like a dying out dinosaur, it is time to just walk away.

It is lamentable. To see us use our brain less. But we will evolve into a thoughtless society used to spur of the moment gratification. To take two or three minutes is untold of pain snd agony.

We have the time no more, we deeply maintain.

We have the time for TV? We have the time for sleep? Goodnight. And good luck. And success to MJ and Eroswings, the last two standing bloggers that I know of, And to Andrea at Colouring Outside The lines.

My Son & I & other things

2010-07-03T12:56:00.011-05:00

Kilrot or whatever you call him is, with Agent 86, Peter Sellers, Ahnold and others one of my few heroes. So of course he is just about everwhere in my apartment. He loves the notoriety, seeing as I can have no pets.
I also have pens and coffee cups with his famous mug on them.

But of course, I am much more multi-dimensional than that.

IIn all Her Regalness, The Queen showed up in our province today for yet more useless spending of tax dollars while people still starve around the Globe. But at least she got to wear her royal silly hat! I say!

Here's Just another picture, which is about as useless as the figurehead of the Commonwealth. Oh, Bloody Hell!

Chinese Gibberish

2010-07-01T11:19:00.004-05:00

I don't get it. You'd think Google was making enough money to stop garbage emails from the most populous country on Earth Earth -- China -- to not invade the email services of us bloggers.

The three of us that actually remain -- we've been Farcebooked. Farcebook 'em, Dano! And we have been!

But every overnight, I still get garbage comments, written in Chinese, coming into my email box. I delete all of them, of course. But they are like a colony of ants. They keep coming, non-stop.

The frustrating thing is, for every one I destroy, another one takes its place. Why is Google allowing this? It might put a dent in their profits. Woe is me. Cry me a river.

Are they going to banish me over there to solve this problem? Or are they going to be big boys and actually solve this problem themselves instead of shutting down blogs they don't like?

I Spy...

2010-06-30T17:52:00.009-05:00

Very often, I am spied upon by various robotic individuals named Hymie from the show Get Smart to ensure that in actuality, I am being the fine upstanding example to all of humanity that I insist I'm being.

So I pretend I'm my son's one and only sculpture and eavestrough on the real spy, Chris, under the cone of flatulence, with the help of The Chief, Agent 99 and Hymie.

This doesn't always work. I don't know where the green flatulence machine went. Donn has one but he retired it. I once blogged about it, but go find it yourself if you must.

I have no idea why, but I took a shot of my apartment door.I Continuing on, here is the hallway below that I have seemingly walked for months. Now, of course, I am walking outside and terrorizing people. Better bring down the Cone of Silence!
Here below is me taking aim at somebody. Do NOT try this at home.
Here is the real me, below, trying to figure out all this complex stuff.

Blogging's Extinction

2010-06-30T07:47:00.005-05:00

For some reason, I can't seem to copy and paste it. But I had two visitors in the past two weeks. So who am I writing for? It's the old falling tree in a forest trick.

If nobody hears it fall, DID it fall? DID it die? Yes, it did. The tombstone will read: "Blogging R.I.P...a victim of little blurbs -- farcebookisms -- of thought." And as with all deaths, we will lament its passing.

We will also lose what intellect we had left, out of non-use. That's evolution. What isn't used becomes a victim of extinction.

Chinese Invasion

2010-06-29T09:19:00.003-05:00

This is what blogging has become. They're like ants at a picnic, or worse. They are some form of Chinese.

I have nothing against China. But they are one of the most populous nations on Earth. And every morning when I wake up, they have invaded my blog and left gibberish for comments and I fail to understand their point.

I am never actually going to allow one of their comments -- it's all in Mandarin or some other dialect -- so what's their point anyway? I think we have to assume that this is all mechanized.

And that some Chinese computer geek has come up with an automated program, like a germ, that automatically does this. And that Google's security system cannot stop it. Knock yourselves out.

Look at this Photograph

2010-06-25T17:59:00.016-05:00

That's my son, Evan, Left foreground with the backwards baseball hat, on a cold day around Winnipeg a few years ago when we drove out with some of his friends to a paintball competition which I did NOT win.
The crucial thing? Neither did he.
He graduated from Grade 12 today. Unfortunately, he forgot to tell me until yesterday. A chip off the old block! Fortunately his sister, who is at least halfway sane and who is WAY more organized than either of us, drove him over here.
For some reason, all the pix that were taken, I can't find on this computer. My kids and I pretended to be The Avengers Spy Group or Hymie the robot or something like that.
Here are the only pix I could find.

Above is a long ago pic of me and my kids.

Here is a pic of me and my kids after I have had the stroke this year.

This above is Evan holding a pet chicken.

This above is Ev obviously at a young age.

This above is Evan and me a few years ago when he and some of his friends went out for some paintball.

Fathers Day 2010

2010-06-20T06:55:00.027-05:00

ThThat should be true. My daughter gave this to me -- I can't remember now if my son Evan ALSO gave it to me -- several years ago.
Today is Father's Day 2010. We know most of these days were just made up by the card companies to sell more cards. But it's like me saying I wish the Allies had never bombed Hiroshima.

My kids have done lots over the years to make sure I never feel like useless tits on a bull. But let's face it -- the mother is far more important than the male in child rearing, once you take impregnating the woman away.

But really, what IS then the role of a father? It IS or can be influential. It is being there, it is not being afraid to feel, it is teaching your kids what's right and what's wrong, it's being responsible, it's respecting.

It's a whole bunch of things. They all add up to it's loving.

My kids are grown now. For my son, especially, it's about learning to grow up and not be a doofus. And increasingly, at 18, he isn't.

The picture above is the pix of him I've got within the pic I brought back from India that also has some pix of my daughter. The pix, ironically, is of a snake charmer. And sometimes, with my kids, that's what I have to be.

I don't know where the pix went. But on my bed. I've got this little pillow given to many years ago by my daughter, who's now 22 or something.

On it, it says simply "A Father is somenone you look up to, no matter how tall you get." Fathers aren't the important life sustaining creature that mothers are. But we have no choice. Smile to your kids. Love them.

It's our own Tianenman Square

2010-06-14T17:01:00.004-05:00

Earlier today, I tried accessing a friend's Facebook site. Not blog. A note came on the screen saying my reqest for that site was going through some kind of filter. I never could access that site.

Isn't this becoming just a LITTLE bit like what happened in Tianenman Square in China?

Bring it on.

You will just hasten the dissappearance of so many. Must not be making enough money.

The Death of Free Speech

2010-06-13T15:43:00.003-05:00

Blogger, it turns out, is a corporate Baby. It has infuriated most of us by arbitrarily and with no warning obliterating apopular blog, Infomaniac, and then refusing all queries to at least explain why.
It is not any longer about why or whether some of us chose to go there. It is about how Blogger can just DO this, I thought welived in a democracy. There is something called freedom of speech.
Or freedom of expression.
Doing away with MJ's blog serves no one's interests. It is heavy handed and takes away the rights of those who choose to go there, despite Blogger's warnings. I urge the blog's immediate reinstatement, as is and was.

Orwellian or what?

2010-06-12T11:34:00.003-05:00

So what? While Blogdom is dying a slow, painful death due to Farcebook, primarily, Blogger itself kills one of its most popular blogs, by MJ of Infomaniac fame and Vancouver, Canada?
Pretty soon, Blogger will bumble all across the land and silently, with a deft hand, decide for us all who we should visit and who we shouldn't -- even though MJ's blog was labelled and flagged with warnings.
These warnings let everyone know they MIGHT be offended by the content, and warned the faint of heart or those who might be offended to take a hike if they so wanted.
They came by the scores anyway. But Blogger, I guess, figured it had to be the moral judge for ALL of us. and obliterated that blog.
Then I ask you to obliterate this blog, too, if you want. Or you don't like the pleebs saying something you disagree with? You will just rush my own disappearance from the blog world.
Or maybe that's what you are hoping happens?

Yet more Useless Stuff

2010-06-11T11:19:00.011-05:00

Well, as usual, this is notworking properly. I took and then downloaded a whole bunch of new pix to my new computer with the brand new Window 7, but I can't download those new pictures into my blog.

It is extremely frustrating. Wasn't computing supposed to make your life easier rather than more difficult? Oh, but then what would all those employed techs do for a job? Just like auto and TV repair people.

So the person above is my son Evan, when he was a young kid and had barely a care in the world.

The couple above is an emu couple at a wild safari zoo. The most colourful and vibrant specimen, of course, is the colourful one on the left. He is a male. The one on the ground, doing little, is the female. Note her dullness.

What males won't do...

Take, for example, the silly photo shop job from above. This is a compilation, I belive of Donn and Andrea Pratt.

This above is part of my family having fun.

This above is a real live xray of my friend Donn's brain.

And this, of course. is me.

Yet More Stuff (also titled, is it Grey or Gray?)

2010-06-10T14:17:00.014-05:00

Well, here it is again...MY BALCONY!!!!!! Above & Below are pictures of my two lounging chairs, which I might actually use if it ever warmed up more than say -3,000 C, which for you dense Americans stands for Celsius or Centigrade.

actually decide so they stuck us with both, which I know someone is going to correct me on. I walked outside today and it was grey, wet and about -300 degrees Celcius --or whatever. It was cold!

Here is the pool. You can see how well used it is today.

Here is the obviously well used barbecue machinery from a few apartments below.

Here are three sad plants from over winter. DOH!!

Here is the dull-looking greyness from beyond.

Or should that be, FROM the Great Beyond?

Oops! This shot is just upside down.

More Stuff

2010-06-09T08:50:00.012-05:00

I have no idea what this post is about. It includes the laughable stupidity of the pic illustration above.

Plus also the contentment of me and my two kids below, who I took a few years ago to Caddy Lake in Ontario by invite of my brother Gerry and his wife Kim. We had a great time with them and their kids, Josh and Matthew.
I

It includes a dose of perspective, which I;m learning a lot about.

It has very little to do with anything, but here's a shot of a baboon attempting to hide in a wildlife park. Of course, it isn't wild inthe least; it's trained to beg for sustenance. So am I.

Here below is a pair of mating baboons. Note their happiness together.

This above is after me and Donn, that smuck, capsized my canoe at Wallace Lake many moons ago. We had been drinking, of course.

Stuff

2010-06-08T16:53:00.007-05:00

These are just random photographs. Just like the song called Photograph, by Canadian band Nickelback. There is an Arnold Scharnegger joke around my family.

It's " I'll be Bach!" And I jokingly say it with an exaggerated German accent all the time. In truth, he's one of my fave characters in real life. My son and I always jke about it too while we're laughing at the innane humour of Family Guy.

We have such little minds. But we need simple Guy Humour to get us through the day. While my daughter tries to solve all the world's problems when she's not in the bathroom, Ev and I just laugh.

And solve all the weighty world problems, like go and watch THE Edmonton Trappers of some obscure baseball league I used to cover or the Winnipeg Goldeyes, which I also used to cover.

This above is my son, Evan, apparently contemplating the future of the planet -- or the equally important responsibility of solving all the world's problems.

With the assistance of the computer above and a baseball bat he can always use when he MUST resort to brute force, he will endure.

When that doesn't work, he can always have an afternoon nap.

And if THAT doesn't work, then he can revert to a child.

And if THAT doesn't work, he can simply become an Ibex and avoid the whole thing.

Evan

2010-06-05T12:50:00.012-05:00

I have many more pix of him of course. But my son, Evan, 18, who's here this weekend with me and who is 18, has broken up with his first serious girlfriend.

I felt very protective of her and wanted their relationship to succeed -- she is SUCH a beautiful girl -- but she and he recently broke up. I feel badly about this, but it is the way of the world.

W
We two are very close. I coached him in baseball, for example, and tried to get him to love sports the way I do. But he didn't have the personality or talent for it. What he DOES have is acting and singing as an interest.

He has never had the atletic interest or skills of his dad. But that's OK. We both share the same interest in laughing at The Family Guy, among other things. And we do just fine.

My son doesn't have a care in the world and can spend time on the crucial job of becoming a man. And that's OK.

India and 1979 and other things

2010-06-04T11:09:00.020-05:00

This is a mug I picked up many moons ago in Germany. It is beside one of my speakers and a cool knick knack thing of a couple. On top of the speaker is another thing I picked up in Argentina.

Enough said...But this doesn't have the story you think. One of my sisters is a breast cancer survivor, thus she gave me a coffee cup that is in the form of a breast.

TThis above is mostly stuff I picked up in India and in Iran

Who's that guy who cut his ear off? Well, this a sculpure of him by my son, Evan.

Here's just more knick nacks, part of my life.

This is a mask I bought in Spain, a beautiful place where I covered the 1992 Olympics.

This is a cup of Marvin The Martian, one of my favourite characters ever.

I can't recall the origins of this, but I can't help but think my best friend Donn Coppens is somehow involved.

This is obviously from my kids, Monica and Evan.

This is a painting of a snake charmer from India.

This is a licence plate from India that I picked up on the ground after passing out outside due to too much Indian beer, I seem to recall.

I tried to copy and paste some stuff in here, but it didn't work. It's my new Farcebook way of doing things. Don't actually THINK, just try to be fast and down and dirty and don't really use the brain we were given.

It's the same thing that's happening to newspapers.

It's like they DON'T actually want us to think any more. Because IF we did, we might actually understand how commercial interest and the importance of making the almighty buck have become.

My place...for now...

2010-06-03T19:53:00.012-05:00

Outside my apartment building lies the pool, plus one of the community centres where I played hockey as a kid. You can see a bit of it -- it's called the Bertrand Arena.

Near it is Queen Elizabeth Elementary School. This is where I beat up many a kid, both physically and in sports, in which I was a tough defender, usually, who would hand out bone-shatterin hits and tackles to bigger players.

Now, of course, that would be tougher. But not impossible.

I played lots of baseball as a kid, usually at short stop.

Here's another shot of the Bertrand Arena.

This is a sideways shot of the East part of my apartment building. The part I'm in faces North.

Here's the park.

The pool yet again...

Bertrand Arena again...

As The World Turns

2010-06-03T13:15:00.007-05:00

My bubble hasn't burst. But I have turned into Jackie Blue. I walk to the hospital three times a week for physiotherapy and later this month or early next, Iam going on a special type of intensive therapy.

Essentially, it's supposed to by the use of constraint therapy force me to just use my right hand, which has taken the brunt of this stroke. This experimental therapy was to help me regain the full use of my right arm.

That's important, because I used to be right-handed.

I'm hoping that as much as possible it works. But it's a brand new, not too tested theory. It's like a baby in that sense. The idea is good -- by forcing my right hand to do all the work, they're hoping I will over-compensate.

By over-compensating, they're hoping the brain cells -- the two that I have -- will readjust and I will return to some semblance of normal.

I'm Requested Out

2010-06-03T07:50:00.014-05:00

I have decided to wave the proverbial white flag on the shallowness of Farcebook. Who can fight the latest rage? The pic above is my rendition of America's most flaunted.

This pic above, with Andrea Pratt of Vancouver I believe or my friend Donn with a million n's Coppens doing the illustration, is outstanding, if I do say so myself. And I do say so myself.

This a pic of me at the World Hockey championship in 2002 or so in Finland.

Turku, where Teemu Selanne played before he joined the Winnipeg Jets. He scored 76 goals in his rookie season and I won the hockey pool that year because of him!

Another goofy pic of me...they put this pic on most of my press credentials...

And below, me and my buddy Donn with two stupid n's

Oh, and I have more than 50 stupid Farcebook requests, most of them from Farmville or Fishville. Has anyone heard of fuck off and die ville?

Auto racing & other stupid things

2010-06-02T09:19:00.010-05:00

I have very little to say...other than thank God for big families. The only people missing from this photo, which I think I took a couple of years ago, is my brother Doug from Ottawa and his three lovely kids and GF.

B
Below, that is one of my three sisters, Lisa, playing ball of all things.

This, below, is my youngest brother Gerry, giving me the finger. It's one of the nicest things he's ever given me.

Has anybody seen anything as stupid as car racing? As a so-called sport? How stupid can we be? How shallow? It is worse than all-star wrestling and requires about as much intellect.

Auto racing and Other Stupid Stuff

2010-05-30T07:57:00.013-05:00

As I recall, this was some kind of thank you card from a young child in Montana when I did some sort of long-distance presentation. Below is just a goofy picture of me when I wthree months old.

Holy crap! I'm STILL terrorizing people!

And what does all this have to do with what you'd think I should be writing about? Well, it's simple, really. I was minding my own business on a lazy Sunday morning when a bunch of auto racing came on TV. It is so non-sensical.

Who cares that a bunch of machines can exceed incredible speeds? The American public. How shallow and easily entertained they are by the advances of technology!!
Below, that's my dear sister Lisa, her husband Darren and my former Damatian Jolson, the most stupid dog I've ever owned. This pic, I think, must have been taken many moons ago.

Before she went under my deck in winter to die.

These are pix of an emu taken at an Ontario wildlife park.

Below is NOT an emu. That is ME before this stroke.

BBelow THAT is just a pic of my bathroom.

Below THAT is a pic of one of my heroes.

And below THAT is just another pic of ME looking stupid.

Tennis, Anyone?

2010-05-29T11:29:00.018-05:00

Well, this was to be about tennis brats, believe it or not, and the silliness of that hierarchy, and how people pay to go see a bunch of spoiled brats hit a funny little green ball around a court. Oh, bloody hell.

But those pix, it appears, got lost in the shuffle. Instead, I am just left with these pix from an African Wild Safari. I can't fathom what one has to do with the other. Unless it's the absurdity of enclosing wild animals in people-proof enclosures for our benefit.

That would be a lot like everything, nowadays. Very few things have been left how we found them. But such is the way of the world. We have to prove to our infantile little minds that we are superior and we can conquer anything.

Lemmings and other Things

2010-05-28T15:47:00.004-05:00

This, as you can see, is NOT a lemming. It is some sort of antelope, unrelated to a lemming. I took this a few years ago at a wild animal park in Southern Ontario.

Lemmings are actually stupid little mammals that are renowned for jumping off cliffs en masse, if necessary, to reduce their incredible numbers. They reproduce, and spend all day on Farcebook, like their simplistic relatives, the human beens.

I tried to find their pictures on my brand new computer, but I could not.

Well, Cry Me a River.

So Long from Snippets from Spaceship Orion

2010-05-26T11:24:00.005-05:00

I tried to copy and paste my visitor profile stats here. I couldn't. But suffice to say, I had one visitor. One visitor who didn't even leave a comment. I have had it. The effort put out no longer compares with the pleasure derived.

The beauty of blogging was the exchange of ideas, the interaction of ideas. It is no longer that. Elvis has left the building. Love Me Tender. And the best to you all. I can't bear to watch the finality.

The World is operated by doinks...no, make that Doinks

2010-05-25T16:11:00.004-05:00

Once, I went on a driving tour of an African Safari Park in Southern Ontario.

This is it. That's a baby babooon above -- some people would call that my brother -- but I prefer the majesty and lack of brains of the baby baboon. Doh! I mean the buck deer!

Just Something Stupid

2010-05-12T19:15:00.017-05:00

I know I have blogged somewhat about the day, a few years ago, when Evan and some of his friends went out paint-balling. OH! What a useful humanity-filled, worthwhile endeavour -- train your kids to go out and blow each other to smithereens with paintballs while the world ceases to exist as we know it around them.

Oh, but who cares if a few million starve or dehydrate to death. We.ve got wars with the Taliban to fight!

So what used to be my son Evan, above turn into those commando types at the top of the page.

And then they turn into rhinos, which are almost impossible to stop.

It just makes me SICK!

Let's just post something as stupid as humanly possible for the 2 humans left in the universe who STILL BLOG (besides me, that is).

Why Women Love Men And Other Amazing Tales

2010-05-11T10:45:00.009-05:00

Let's face facts. Women Love Men. Yes, they have no choice.

But that's a minor detail. We help propogate the Species...Uhh, what else do we do? Create dumb things like religion, war, politics...just to drive each other nuts! Then we watch hours of Family Guy to forget about it all and laugh.

Ha! ! Ha! Ha!

Francois de la foo-foo

2010-05-07T13:26:00.003-05:00

This is what I think of THAT...

The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

aka Francois de la foo-foo

Farcebook

2010-05-05T13:36:00.007-05:00

I decided today to rob this word and opine about it.

Word of the Day

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

vamoose

\va-MOOS\ , verb;

To leave hurriedly or quickly; decamp.

To leave hurriedly or quickly from; decamp from.

Read the full entry|See synonyms|Comment on today's word|Suggest tomorrow's word

Quotes:

Councilman Caraway is adamant that all of the businesses on Pontiac Street must go away, vamoose, take a powder, even though they are industrial and manufacturing companies and even though they are on land that is zoned for industrial and manufacturing.

-- Jim Schultze, Dallas Observer, April 21, 2010

"Vamoose!" my father repeated, making an exasperated shooing motion.

-- Jose Skinner, Flight and other stories

"If you don't vamoose before I count fifteen, I swear I'll fire. And I shan't miss, I warn you. We don't want to see your face again."

-- Alfred Tresidder Sheppard, The quest of Ledgar Dunstan

Origin:

Vamoose originates in the 1800s, derived from the Spanish vamos, or "let us go." The word likely entered American usage through Mexico.

Now who knows if this will actually work. And everybody -- or just about everybody -- has left the blog world for Farcebook anyway, so you may ask, "What's the point?"

That's exactly the point, actually. Not doing what every other being, just about, is doing. And no offence to those who have vamoosed from blogging for Farcebook. It IS much faster.

If you can get all your thoughts out that way, great! I can't and I refuse to try. Because we are a thinking, feeling species. Until I'm definitely the last person in the building, I'll blog thank you, instead of becoming another Farcebook Weenie.

22!

2010-05-03T18:14:00.009-05:00

My daughter, Monica, is 22 today. Doh!!! These are obviously just a few of hundreds. So bear with me as I just TELL you, rather than SHOW you, how beautiful she is.

Last year, she and one of her best friends went to Europe together to explore. I would encourage travel for ANY young person, including my son, Evan, who is in the pic wiyh Monica, above.

The three of us are pictured above that before I had this stroke.

You're beautiful, Mon!

KATO! You FOOL!

2010-05-03T13:07:00.005-05:00

Seeing as I have been to India, it shouldn't be much of a leap to believe I was once a Sheik in Sheik's clothing and I had a harem of 200 women strong.

Ha Ha Ha Ha!!! What did The Pink Panther used to say?

"KATO! You FOOL!"

We want 'em...but we don't

2010-05-01T16:39:00.003-05:00

U.S. Efforts to Fight Illegal Immigration Divide Some Local Communities

FOXNews.com

As a national debate flares up over Arizona's new immigration enforcement law, local leaders in some communities across the country are clashing with their police departments over whether those departments should be working closely with the federal government in targeting illegal immigrants.

Among the places where such battles are being or have been fought are Washington, D.C, Morristown, N.J., and Maricopa County, Ariz. The tension centers on two of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's major programs enlist the help of local law enforcement officials to identify and deport illegal immigrants.

ICE's Secure Communities program, created in 2008, allows authorities to check the immigration status of individuals they arrest, through fingerprinting. The program is operational in 168 jurisdictions in 20 states.

And the agency's more intensive 287(g) program gives local police authority to initiate deportation proceedings against illegal immigrants linked to serious crimes. Immigration authorities say they have agreements with 71 law enforcement agencies in 26 states for the 287(g) program and have identified more than 160,000 illegal immigrants since 2006 – mostly at local jails.

Critics say the programs promote racial profiling, claims similar to those lobbed at Arizona's newly passed law, which, when it takes effect in three months, will make it a state crime to be in the country illegally and will entrust enforcement to local police.

The federal General Accountability Office has criticized the Secure Communities program for failure to supervise participating agencies. But ICE boasts that, since Secure Communities was established in October 2008, 21, 736 matches have identified illegal immigrants charged with or convicted of serious crimes, such as murder, rape and kidnapping. And the agency says the program has not received any complaints of racial profiling.

"Secure Communities is a color-blind system and reduces the opportunity for allegations of racial and ethnic profiling because the fingerprints of every individual arrested and booked into custody are checked against immigration records, not just those manually submitted by local officers," the agency says on its website.

But in D.C., council members are looking to prevent city police from joining the fingerprinting program.

D.C. Council members Phil Mendelson and Jim Graham are sponsoring a bill that seeks to uphold the city's policy that local police stay out of immigration enforcement. The legislation is likely to be introduced on May 4, Graham spokesman Brian DeBose said.

Last month, Police Chief Cathy Lanier expressed support for the Secure Communities program, which takes fingerprints when inmates are booked into jail and sends them to ICE and the FBI. A police spokeswoman says the department has not yet implemented the program.

"What happened in D.C. is happening everywhere," said Sarahi Uribe, the regional organizer for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "No public discourse or accountability."

In Morristown, former Mayor Donald Cresitello's efforts to sign on to the 287(g) program was met with opposition from the police union and finally withered after he lost the Democratic primary election.

During his last days in office in December, Cresitello signed a document finalizing the town's request to join the program, but the new mayor, who opposes the program, said the papers are worthless, The Star-Ledger reported.

"I do not support 287(g). It's just a piece of paper. It means nothing," Mayor Tim Dougherty told the newspaper in December. "As of Jan. 1, I am the new mayor of Morristown. Donald Cresitello is no longer mayor."

And in perhaps the most prominent case, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Marciopa County, home of Phoenix, has made a national name for himself by pushing the bounds of local immigration enforcement through the 287(g) program, leading a dozen crime and immigration sweeps, some in heavily Latino areas.

But Arpaio's efforts have also brought him troubles as he battles county officials challenging his crackdown on illegal immigrants.

"You don't get more dramatic than Sheriff Arpaio," Uribe said. "They claim they haven't gotten complaints. What about lawsuits? Or the Justice Department investigating Arpaio? So that's preposterous. I don't think they understand how racial profiling works."

Arpaio has long clashed with county authorities over his harsh anti-immigration tactics but the feud appears to have escalated recently since Arpaio stepped up his investigations of county officials amid heated political feuds over budget cuts and other issues.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Arpaio's office over allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures – a probe that the sheriff believes was prompted by his immigration efforts.

"When one law enforcement agency becomes subject to three federal investigations in a matter of weeks immediately after a shift of political control in Washington, it is difficult not to speculate that politics played a role in the decision or that policy differences related to hot-button topics such as local law enforcement's vigorous enforcement of immigration related crimes are being litigated through enforcement actions," Robert Driscoll, a lawyer for Arpaio, wrote to the Justice Department last May in a letter published in The Washington Post.

Last year, Arpaio was stripped of some of his special authority to make federal immigration arrests, though he retains some federal power that allows his jail officers to speed up deportations.

He told FoxNews.com at the time that he would continue to pursue illegal immigrants.

"Nothing will change," he said. "I'm not going to be deterred by any bully."

Last month, Arpaio cheered the new Arizona law, telling Fox News that the people of Arizona are "fed up" with violence and the "flood of illegal immigrants" in their state.

Arapaio said the new law gives him new authority to detain undocumented migrants who are accused of committing any other crimes.

"Now if we show they're illegal, we can actually arrest them and put them in our jails," Arpaio said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The U.S. wants Mexico as a trade partner, but it doesn't want their people. It wants their money, it wants their trade, but it doesn't want them. No wonder they feel used and abused.

DOH!

2010-04-30T19:48:00.004-05:00

If it has Tires or Tits it's gonna give you trouble

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

DOH! SORRY...A FRIEND SENT ME THIS

The REAL Me

2010-04-30T12:24:00.027-05:00

Here is me, just apparently woken up on Xmas Day, 2008
Me & my kids, Monica & Evan, above...me below, before this stroke

Another Donn Special...me, above
Someone's family dog and her litter, above. I think it's Shauna & Ken's but it could be Gerry's and Kim's. Remember, I'm onlt a guy.

Above, a pic of me and my niece, Rebecca, when she was a baby.

Doh! Above...
My mom, above, and Joshua. Below, Gerry's dog Halifax -- I think!

Above, our childhood dog Taffy, obviously before she died...

Below, my brother-in-law Darren...
And in the totally stupid hat below, my stupid brother Gerry

A pic by Gerry at sunset of his and Kim's kids, Josh and Matthew...

Brainiac Sayings

2010-04-29T15:39:00.003-05:00

POLITICS: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

Ambrose Bierce