The Nonsensical

Summary of Events

2007-07-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Well It has been a while, so I thought I would throw up a blog post for the masses.

Leading the news is that I have joined facebook. If you are on facebook, search for Dan Zupancic and add me to your friend list. Facebook is pretty cool application that lets see others photos, there are tons of groups to join, it is pretty cool.

I went fishing last weekend with my friend Matt, out to silvermere lake, in Mission. We had a great time, and both caught lots of fish. Here are a couple of pics, now remember, it is the quality of the fish, not the size that matters, right?
Matt and I don't see each anymore... Just kidding of course, now we have to go out more so that I can catch bigger ones than him.

In other news, Anna and I have discovered the benefits of french press coffee. We are now officially coffee snobs. The preferred method involves grinding up some starbucks beans, and then using the french press to obtain optimal results. MMMmmm good. You really should try it, it makes the coffee alot smoother somehow.

A while back Anna and I went to a vancouver canadians game, which is semi-professional baseball. Anna's work paid for us to go, and they paid for a pre game BBQ which was pretty good. The only bad thing was that you had to pay for beer. And at 6.50 each, we got one each and that was it. A couple people got hit by foul balls. Ouch, that would suck. The only fowl balls I like are chicken nuggets.
Moving right along... umm yeah so things are busy with work and taking a class online. Today we are gonna go buy some fresh berries to eat. Abbotsford rocks for berries, we get grow strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and even blackberries abound.

We got an offer on our condo, so we will see if that pans out.

Till next time, keep those fingers busy.

Selling the Condo

2007-07-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

Well, if you have been reading Anna's Blog, Random Deposits, then you may already know that we are selling our condo! We are looking to get into house here in Abbotsford, something with a wee bit more room. People keep asking if this is because we need more room for more people, for example, children. No, this is not the case. Perhaps one day though.

You can check out a virtual tour of our place by following this link. We have been looking at houses, but we cannot buy one until ours sells, so we decided to stop looking until ours sells. Otherwise a house we may want might not be available when we are ready to buy. It is better this way I think.

Anna is already thinking of all the parties she can host. Garden Parties, wine and cheese parties, the list goes on. She is even getting library books about event planning. Ok...

So to get our place ready to sell, we spent alot of time cleaning. Not that the place really needed it, but stuff like washing windows, and dusting things that normally have large intervals between cleanings. I painted the front door, recaulked some of the tile, just little stuff like that. It's all in the details.

Now if you took the virtual tour, you can see the colors that we chose for our place. Well, I chose them, and Anna had to be convinced. After it was all said and done, we both love it. Vibrant and energetic, while relaxed and calm. Does that make sense? Anyway, what I am trying to say is, don't be afraid of color! Color is your friend.

Being in the painting business, we see all too often people who play it safe and choose boring bland colors. While there is a balance between style and garish, there are more colors than taupe and off-white that can really liven up your place.

Being a painter does come in handy. We can even negotiate repainting the place into any offers that we get. Hmm, now I guess we need to start looking at colors for a home...

stinkn' hot

2007-07-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

Temp reached 38 today. I was working outside. By the end of the day I was 6 pounds lighter. It's hot. Real Hot. None of this fake hot stuff...

Last Saturday

2007-07-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

Saturday my friend Matt and I headed out to Hatzic Lake for our first time ever to see what we could find for bass. Seems like we fished the whole lake, with nary a bass to be caught. We saw a few followers coming after our lures but no takers of the bass variety. Before arriving, we thought we were pretty clever by printing off a map from the internet that showed depths and the locale of a public boat launch. While we followed the map very well, turns out there is no public boat launch. At least not according to where the map indicated, and according to some of the locals that we asked. So we kinda had to find our own way onto the lake, which we managed to do...

Although no bass were caught, I did catch a huge black crappie on a baby bass pattern crank bait. It was the biggest crappie I have ever seen, about 1.5 to 2 pounds, an absolute slab. Of course forgetting the net was a bit of an issue... I had 'em right to the boat, and Matt and I were quite surprised when we saw that it was a crappie that I had caught. It was so big we just assumed that it was a bass. I lifted him out of the water so my buddy could grab him and bonk 'em, but as I did, the hook popped out. Of course. The biggest crappie I have ever caught, gone... Talk about motivation to remember the net.

We had a fair number of hits but our only other landed fish was a large pike minnow that Matt caught on a black and silver crankbait.

Of course the day ended off perfectly with me falling into the lake as I disembarked at our "public boat launch". Nothing too bad, just a couple of soaked legs. While I was unloading stuff from the boat, my buddy thought it would be a good idea to unload as well, only he failed to secure the boat before he left it. Of course a passing boat threw up a nice wake, and pulled the boat off the shore as the boat was left unattended. When we get back from the 30 sec. round trip to the truck, of course the boat is floating in the lake about 15 feet offshore. Of course. Seeing as I already had wet pants and legs I volunteered to go out and retrieve the boat. I stripped down to my boxers which were white. Of course. So into the lake I went, with my boxer and boots. Matt owes me big time.

Well an eventful day always makes for a memorable one right? Plus we were out fishing, so how could we complain...

After fishing we met up with our wives for a homemade feast of hamburgers, fries, and cinnamon buns with cream cheese icing. Mmmm cream cheese icing is so good. We played a game called take two, which is essentially speed scrabble. Everyone starts with two tiles, and makes their own "board" by lying the tiles in fron of themselves. When you have layed all your tiles, you say take two, and everyone takes two more tiles, regardless of whether or not they have laid them all. This continues until all the tiles are gone. Any tiles that are not laid when the first person finishes count against your score.

I won, so I really enjoyed myself. Woohoo!

School is coming and is already here

2007-06-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

Well I just found out that I missed my registration date for school in september. Again. Apparently I could register on May 31. Which is super early for freakn' september. This happened a few years ago too when I thought that the registration started in july. Apparently I always think registration starts later than it does. Huh. The school does not notify you when your registration is, you have to look it up on-line. Lame.

Well I did get two out of the three courses that I need, and am on the waiting list for the other course I need. I am #5 on the list so it shouldn't be a problem to get in, it will just be a bit of a hassle. The courses that I am taking are all crim.

Crim 420 is a research methods class where I will carry out a research study I designed in crim 320. I will survey several classes of students about the issue of software piracy, input and analyze the data, and draw some conclusions. It will be a crapload of work.

Crim 310 is called Advanced Theoretical Perspectives. Sounds like a barrel of monkeys eh? Could be a bit dry...

My third class is crim 410, which is about terrorism. This is the class I am most looking forward to. It will be very interesting, especially with the relevancy of the topic to current events. Plus, I like the teacher who is teaching it, so double good.

Those courses start in september, and I am taking one summer course right now. It is an online course about Website design. It is nice not to have to go to school, plus I am interested in the topic, so all in all it is not too bad. September is when it gets really crazy. 12 credits worth of school plus full time work, means I will have just enough on my plate to keep me slightly busy.

But After september I have only three more courses! The end is in sight, and it cannot be soon enough. After all is said and done, I will have my Bachelors of Arts in Criminal Justice. It better be worth it.

I wonder if they give refunds...

Recently Overheard

2007-06-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

Little boy at grocery store,"Daddy, wait for me!"
Dad,"why?"
Little boy,"so you can smack the poo-poo off my bottom!"
Dad, "Whats that supposed to mean?"
Little Boy, "It's just a joke daddy..."

two days two posts two thumbs up

2007-05-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Another Monday, another adventure. Today Anna and I headed south to do some grocery shopping in the states. Because we live only 5 minutes from the border, it is quite close, less than 6 minutes away. We had a bit of a wait to get across the border because it was a long weekend in the states, and all those americans were trying to get home. Speaking of americans, did you know that Anna is half american? Yep, its true. Anyway, the border guard asked some weird questions, like, hoe come you guys are not working today. What does he care if we are working or not? He also wanted to know what we did for work. What kind of work would make you suspicious? Oh, hey Mr. border guard, oh I grow pot and sell it for a living. How about you? oh yeah, I guess you are a border guard...

There are some things that you just can't get here in Canada that are very tasty. For example, chicken. In a can. A whole chicken in a can to be exact. At 7.99 it really is a steal of a deal. Too bad we already have enough chicken at home.

Also lots of manly food, like manwich filling. A sandwich only a man could eat. Or maybe a determined woman could try.

I also counted eight different kinds of wheat thins. 8. That is a lot of wheat thins. If you are thinking of checking out Bromley's Market in Sumas, Washington check out the website for some money saving coupons. We purchased some green salsa, flamin' cheetos, sangria soda, and some other misc. items.

After shopping we drove to Edaleen dairy to pick up some milk and Ice cream cones. As we were selecting our milk, who did we run into but the pastors of our church, Rob and Janet Thiessen. They were buying mozzarella cheese for pizza, and of course ice cream cones. Oh the people you meet.

Notice our matching sweaters? Thats just how in sync we are, better than a boy band!

I had rum rasin and cookie dough, and Anna had cherry and blackberry. The icecream was no bad, but I think that Birchwood Dairy ice cream is better. It seems to have more chunks of stuff in it, making much better. On the way back thru the canadian side of the border, we dutifully declared our goods ( get it, dutifully...haha) and I don't know if he didn't believe us cause he checked our trunk to make sure we were not trying to sneak some illegal cheetos across the border.

Later on in the evening we met Mom and Dad, Dustin and his friend Jake at Albert Dyck Park to go fishing. The fishing was mostly good. I caught 8, Dad caught 4, anf Dustin and Jake tied for last with zero. I don't know what the problem was 'cause they were using the same lures that we were, but they got skunked. Must be an age thing.

Dad poses proudly with his first fish. Maybe a bit small compared to his rod, but a fish nonetheless. A good time was had by all, and Dad and I enjoyed teasing Dustin and Jake about their lack of fish. Okay, it was mostly me doing the taunting, but Dad thought it was very appropriate.

All in all a great day.

Where I have been

2007-05-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

well lets see...

We just got our new Mazda 3 from the dealership on Wednesday. Looks like replacement insurance was a good idea! Because of that extra insurance, instead od judt getting payed out for the value of our old car, we get a brand spanking new one. This new one has about 42,000 kilometers less on it right now. It is basically the same car, with a few small changes. After driving rental cars and loaners, it sure is nice to back in "our" car. The only difference between our car and the car in the photo is that our front windows are not tinted. Otherwise, you are looking at our car, SB2. As you can see it is a great looking car. Anna and I both love to drive it. Luckily for her, she drives it most of the time as she does not get covered in paint and dust at work. Now hopefully we don't get into any more accidents until we need a new car...

Today after church we headed on a special mission. We went to a bonsai conference! Apparently they are trying to make it an annual event, and this was their first one ever. They had a bunch of bonsais of course, and lots of pottery for sale. I was hoping to maybe buy a cool looking bonsai, but they only had one kind for sale, juniper pines. Junipers are very common in the bonsai world, and I kind of wanted something a little less common. I guess I am a bonsai snob. But I did learn that you can make bonsai out of tree cuttings, which is much faster than trying to grow trees from a seed. So I have been inspired to try and create some of my own bonsai from cuttings, because lets face it, 3-4 years for a seedling to mature before you even start to think of working on your bonsai is a long time. As you can see from the picture, standing next to bonsais really makes me look quite tall. I think bonsai trees would be ideal for short people who want to look taller than they really are. Perhaps this is why bonsai trees have a reputation for deception. Wait, never mind, I just made that last part up, it was a deception...
Last weekend we went caving! We headed up past Chilliwack to what are called the chipmunk caves. It is actually on chilliwack lake road, but you kinda have to know where they are because they are not marked in any way. I think that one of my expectations that really was met was how dark it was inside the caves. If you had no flashlight, guess, what, total darkness. I mean darker than a babies diaper that hasn't been changed in a week. See what I mean?

The first cave we went into was pretty easy, you could crawl around, and even squat an half stand. This cave is just to get you ready for what is fondly referred to as the wormhole. Now the name wormhole may remind you of a shortcut between galaxies that star trek has popularized. But no, we are talking a literal worm hole here. You know, the kind of thing that an earth worm would make in its quest for moistness.

This cave was not for the claustrophobic. You really are worming your way thru the cave mostly on your belly. There are no spots where you can crouch or really kneel. It is all belly crawling of the awkward kind. At many points the tunnel twists and turns, and you have to contort your body in pretzel like shapes to maintain forward motion. The taller, or in this case, the longer you are, it becomes a bit more difficult to navigate the wormhole. Add in the fact that it is very dark, and you cannot turn around to see where your feet are, and oh yeah, you are traveling uphill, it was quite the challenge. Finally I emerged from the cave, victorious. Breathing that crisp fresh air, was like biting into a deep red, crispy, juicy, slightly tart fuij or jonagold apple. Delicious. After manhandling myself thru the wormhole, my knees and elbows were pretty beat up. Sometimes you need to sacrifice your body to attain the peaks and thrills of adventure. Other times you just have to sacrifice your money...

Today after the Bonsai convention and a wonderful roast beef lunch at the Thieles, we all headed out for a walk. On this walk I saw this train, and took a short video clip. It is just a train, but what the heck right? So if you like trains, it is only about 13 or 14 seconds, but the train was quite loud and fast, so see for your self.

Well I think that is all for now, I will try and do another post in a shorter interval than the last few. These blogs are so demanding, not to mention the fan mail...

Mondays can be good you know...

2007-05-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

Both Anna and I work tuesday to saturday so that we have our days off together. It is nice sometimes to have mondays off because we can go places without the crowds and craziness. On the other hand, lots of stuff happens on saturdays that we can't always get to because of work. Give and take I suppose...

Today Anna and I headed to Albert Dyck Park in Abbotsford, which is the home of Walmsley Lake. After stopping at Tim's for a morning coffee, we successfully drove to the park. It is only about a 7 minute drive, so it is nice and close.

I took my fishing stuff, as I heard that there are bass present, and Anna brought some books and a lawn chair. Neither of us had been there before, so it was a nice change form mill lake.

Sure enough there are bass in the lake. I caught 5 bass in total, with a couple more hooked and lost. Alas, they were all around 6-8 in, quite small. The day that I catch fish also happens to be the day that I don't bring the camera. But Anna can verify, really she can.

Things that happened while fishing besides catching fish:

-Helicopters kept swooping down to schlup up some water
-Austin decided to watch me fish (he is 10)
-I taught Austin how to fish
-Austin was very happy
-Austins mom invited me over for a sandwich
-I switched spots
-I stepped in dog poo
-I cast right into a tree
-I attached a new lure into my line

Other things that happened today:
-Had tuna for lunch
-Went to costco and save-on
-Went to the running room to get our free shirts because of the coupon on vector cereal boxes
-watched heros
-read
-waited in line at ICBC driver services for an hour to get another drivers license because mine is all cracked and falling apart
-Got telus to correct the mis-spelling of our name in the telephone directory (from Zopancic back to Zupancic, this is the second time we have told them it is spelled wrong)
-cut my head hair
-had a shower
-did some more reading

well that is pretty good day off. We got stuff done, had fun, and had enough time to do this blog post.

guilty bananas

2007-05-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted. Right now I am kind of posting out of guilt. Blogging guilt. Almost worse than I ate the last brownie guilt, but not quite. Well my summer course has started up now, and it looks like it will be interesting. It is an online course on web design, which I am taking as one of my elective credits. It is nice to take it online so that I don't have to actually go to school. Plus only taking one course seems like a real treat.

Even though we made it safely home from Hawaii, I thought I would post some more pictures for you guys. Don't get jealous, you probably wouldn't have liked Hawaii, it was mostly beaches and palm trees, stuff like that. Don't forget about all the sunshine and did I mention beaches? So unless you like that kinda stuff, you probably wouldn't like it...

Going back to work hasn't been too bad at all. At least the weather is fairly decent right now. Anna and I went to costco tonight after dinner. Got some granola bars , some rain jackets for us, milk, yogurt, meats, and other great goodies. For dinner we had a kenyan meal, ugali, and skuma with beef. It consists of cornmeal, marinated beef, and a mixture of kale, onions and tomatoes. Basically you combine all three things in a mouthful, chew, swallow, repeat. Very good, and very filling.

What else has happened lately...

-I ate ice cream two days in a row
-I ran 5 k today, and got a coupon for a free running shirt off of a vector cereal box
- I did a blog post
-I bought my text book for class
-I woke up in the middle of the night with a calf muscle cramp
-I hogged the covers in my sleep (sorry hon!)
-I tried a green tea soda (not bad)
-Walked around mill lake with Anna
-Read a chapter form my textbook on HTML
-finished this list

Aloha from the big island of Hawaii

2007-04-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

Well, this may be my only post of the trip because internet is not free, and I had to pay $10 US for a one day internet connection for the laptop. Obviously we made it safe and sound, and are having a great time. One thing I have noticed about Hawaii is the heat. Much hotter and more humid here. But after a few days it doesn't seem so bad, plus there almost always seems to be a breeze, which really helps things out. It has rained several times, but only during the night, ho awesome is that?!

There are tons of gecko's around here, and they are quite brilliantly colored. I took the picture below right outside the condo we are staying at.

One of the neat things we have done is travelled to a green sand beach. It was about an hour drive and another 3 miles of walking to get to this secluded beach. It was pretty neat, well worth it. On the way back a couple people were able to hitch a ride with a 4x4 so they didn't have to walk. I was not one of those people... It is hard to see form the photo, but the sand really was quite green, very cool.

How many people do you know that have been to a green sand each? Because it was such a long walk to get there, it was not crowded at all. There were maybe 8 other people there at different times. The above picture was taken on a ridge above the beach, the dots in the water are some of Anna's family.

On the way back after the green sand beach we stopped and I took some photos of some abandoned wind turbines that were no longer in use. It was all fenced off so I couldn't get too close, but I still managed to get some good shots.

We have also done some snorkeling, which was really cool. We have seen lots of fish and even a bunch of sea turtles mere inches away! Hopefully those turtles don't bite... We plan on doing some more, which is lots of fun. It takes a bit of getting used to breathing thru a snorkel, and not sucking in any saltwater.

Today was spent going around to different markets and doing some shopping and stuff like that. I got a pair of runners brand new from Wal-mart for ten bucks, for our trip to the volcano park on monday. All of the lava rock is quite sharp, and it can really slice up and damage your shoes. At ten bucks for a pair, these shoes are basically disposable to me. Who knew you could get shoes for so cheap? I have tons more pictures, and I will post a few more below. The next post probably won't happen until early May. But you never know...

Car Update

2007-04-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

Now I hadn't mentioned it yet on this blog, but Anna has posted about her car accident on her blog. You can read about her car crash at her site We lovingly refer to this car as the "sexy beast", and we truly did love this car. The rental car we have now is a pontiac G5, and we much prefer the mazda 3 over this pontiac. The overall quality is much better with the mazda. Somehow we'll survive.

Well today we visited the salvage yard to check out the car and gather our belongings from it. It is written off, so this was the last time we will see the car. I shot a short video so you all can check out the damage to the car. I am just so glad that Anna was ok. All in all, it looks like we will be getting a new car out of the deal, because we have replacement insurance. Our car had 42,000 km on it, so now we get to start over at 0, cha-ching!

Tonight we leave for hawaii with Anna's family. We will be there for about 10 days, so I don't know if we will have internet access for blog posts. I will take lots of pictures though, and hopefully be able to post some updates. Its gonna be late night because we have to catch a 8:30 am flight out of seattle. Thems the breaks...

black and white wonders

2007-04-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures I took on our weekend in pender harbour. These shots were all taken at Francis Point Provincial Park, if you are ever in the area, it is a must visit. Apparently I like trees...

Bang Ouch Ouch

2007-04-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

So I am typing this with one and a half hands. Because I have managed to injure myself today at about 7:15 am, at the local paint store. I was trying to be nice and considerate, and not slam the steel door as I entered the store. I was holding onto the door as I closed, to slow it down. Alas, I was not paying careful attention, and the door managed to mash my middle finger like a toddler with 5 day old banana. As you can see, my nail is almost completely black, with tons of blood underneath. Well after I slammed my finger, I stopped back at home to get some stuff that I thought would help combat the swelling. Namley some ibuprofen and cranberries. Now these were special cranberries, of the frozen variety. They seemed to do the trick. However, as the day went on, my finger became more and more painful. Sometimes it would just be a sharp pain when I tried to use it, and other times it would be like a throbbing pain, not unlike a jackhammer.

Anyway, after a delicate day at work, I stopped for a slurpee on the ride home, strictly for therapeutic reasons. You see, the slurpee is cold, and as I held it in my hand, it numbed my finger, and helped reduce the swelling. Slurpees have way more uses than just being a delightful and refreshing beverage.

At home I decided that something must be done to quell the the accumulation of blood underneath my fingernail. I got out a needle, a lighter, some toilet paper, hydrogen peroxide and some anesthetic (I'll let you wonder about what I used to numb the pain.) First I sterilized the needle by heating it up really hot, then I started picking at the underside of my nail, scraping out the scabs and crusted blood. When I had penetrated far enough, jackpot! The blood was flowing! Well maybe not flowing, but when I squeezed my nail blood came out. I though about taking a picture of the bloody toilet paper, to show everybody, but I think enough is enough right? So after milking the finger for all he was worth, I rinsed with the peroxide and ta da! I now had less blood than when I started.

I guess only time will tell if my operation was a success. I wonder if my nail will end up falling off in the end. Will I kind of have to peel back once it dies, or maybe just give it a quick yank... Ah, the mysteries of life...

Anyway, it still hurts, and if you want to help, you can buy me a slurpee. For therapeutic reasons only of course.

Easter Egg Bonanza

2007-04-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

Anna and I were up in Pender Harbour over the weekend, visiting her parents who have a trailer up there. I will be doing a couple posts about the weekend because there is a bunch of stuff to post about it. This first post is about the Easter festivities. We all went and had a pancake and egg and ham breakfast that was put on by the lions club in Pender Harbour. But the main attraction was the easter egg hunt for the kids, in this case, Rafi, Anna's brother.

He was pretty cute doing the hunt because he is so focused on what he is doing, he tries ignore everything else. Below is the video that I took of Rafi doing the hunt.

Mmm creme eggs. Easter Candy is my favorite holiday candy. There are creme eggs, wunderbar eggs, and malt eggs, oh my! The best thing is going to places like wal-mart or zellers and getting the candy on sale after the holiday weekend. My best find one year was getting all kinds of creme eggs for only .17 cents each! Needless to say, my whole family loaded up on eggs. How can you not? This year I have only had 1 creme egg and 1 wunderbar egg. But I thought about them a lot. However, I did have a bunch of malt eggs. Mmm, malt. You either love it or hate it.

Have you ever noticed how good things often come in oval packages? Like hockey rinks, watermelons, oblong circles, candy eggs, wash basins, laundry baskets, babies, plus like a million other great things!

Anybody else have a great thing that comes in a oval package?

Bicycle Messenger

2007-04-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

So I was driving down the street one morning, and saw on the side of the road this bike chained up up to a pole. It has a couple signs attached to it, and it looked like your typical doom-and-gloom -the-world-is-ending-kind-of-self-proclaimed-prophet.

Jesus the Light, sounds not too bad eh. Well lets take a look at the back of the bike.

Not quite as clear as the front now is it... You may have noticed the website address on the first sign, http://www.unknown-nation.com This site is crazy! You can see a picture of the author, which kind of confirms some suspicions you may have already had. Now try to read one of his posts. No can do. It is pretty much all crazy rambling that is nonsensical and lacking severely in punctuation.

Its almost as if this guy has used a random word generator to make up his text. How does this guy have a website? I guess everybody is riding the wave of the future, the interweb. What is truly amazing is the amount of material this guy has written. But I guess he has a lot of time on his hands. Kind of makes you wonder what this guy is into. Is this the type of thing that would make somebody infamous?

I wonder if this guy would be willing to write about other topics for money, to give them a unique spin or something. Then maybe he could get sponsored and maybe make some money.

Yep, its this kind of stuff that I find in my travels all the time. Well maybe not all the time. Well, ok, once. The other day. But it could happen more. Maybe.

Semi Pro Wrestling meets soap opera meets awed fans

2007-04-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

So, on Sunday I was at home in our condo relaxing after a great morning. Anna was at school working on school stuff oddly enough. As I am relaxin' away, I hear this loud music and somebody yelling. It sounds like it is in our parking lot, and of course I investigated. I couldn't see anything in the lot, but as looked over to the parking lot of the movie theater I saw two guys with masks running around.

I was mildly astonished, and decided that I should investigate. I grabbed my camera and headed over to the theater. After I jumped the fence, this is what I found.

The above video is a compilation of a bunch of clips that I filmed. I filmed so much that I had to run back home for a second battery. I also took a bunch of pictures.

Wow, did I ever feel like a redneck watching the guys and girls do their thing. As you can see from the video, that kid really got into it. Make sure you crank the volume to hear what he is saying. The whole time I was there I was laughing. It was just so ridiculous. They even had a midget type person as the ref! After a few rounds the police even showed to see what was going on. I think they may have come because somebody called in a noise complaint.

What a great day! I mean, how often do get to see grown men wear stretchy pants? Granted, some of them really should never do that in public, for decency sake. This reminds me of one my favorite moves Nacho Libre. If you haven't see it, then you must.As you can see, the brand of humor here is quite, er, physical to say the least.
Two on one hardly seems fair. I guess wrestling was never meant to be fair. I mean, is it love or war, which is it?I feel this guys pain. Or at least his fake pain. I think I will leave his "shorts" with him, theres only so much you can share, right?

Next time this happens, I will try and spread the word like warm butter on hot toast. We can all gather and laugh at the ridiculousness of the spectacle. Is this what people thought of the gladiators back in the day? Hmmm, How do you end a post like this... perhaps with an inspiring quote,

"It is better to be the hammer than the nail!"

Recent Happenings in Palookaville

2007-03-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well, last night I had a presentation at school which marked almost the end of the semester. All of my assignments are done, and I just have exams left. I feel like celebrating, but I know I can't. If I get in the celebratory mood, it will be too hard to make myself do any studying. Studying always make the exams seem to go better for some reason.

Today is March 30, and on March 31 all fishing licenses expire. So I jumped the gun and got mine renewed after work today. Thought I would beat the rush. Wouldn't want to spend hours in line with a bunch of antsy fishermen. Who knows what would happen!

If you read my previous post you know that I lost a fish because I did not have a net. Well I thought I would catch two fish at once and I got a net at the same I was getting my license. Hows that for multi-tasking?

Well my brother dustin mentioned slurpees in his most recent blog post, which got me to thinking about them. Did you know that slurpees are served at -3 Celsius ? The average slurpee drinker is 29, and the province where slurpees are most popular is Manitoba.

Is there a difference between American Slurpees and Canadian Slurpees?
Yes! According to 7-Eleven: "the Canadian product is heavier and wetter, the difference being that the American product is injected with air and is therefore drier. This is why you can feel that itch in the back of the throat when you drink it--that's the air bubbles. The American stores have been using Cornelius equipment where as in Canada we have been using Taylor for years . Although both machines perform for their specific markets, they do create different products". The previous quote and facts were found at this sweet slurpee page. Who knew?!?! Dustin, this ones for you.

Personally I love slurpees. They are great after a long day painting exteriors in the sun, or after a short day doing nothing in the snow. Plus, for a 1.17 litre slurpee it only has 570 calories and 134g of sugar. Great even if your are trying to cut back. Nothing like little sugar to get ya going.

My favorite slurpee flavours are coke/pepsi, lemonade or grapefruit, followed either by rootbeer or dr. pepper, then maybe lime, after that probably orange and sprite. If I am feeling really risky, maybe I'll go for the cream soda. But only if I have a lot of confidence that day. Most times I go the purist route and get only one flavor. Sometimes I will mix darks such as coke and root beer, and the only colors I mix are coke and orange or coke and lime. Thats it. And never more than two falvors in one slurpee Sure you can me a traditionalist, but when I was teen, I was all about the mixing. But I guess everybody grows up at one time or another.

Are you picking up what I am putting down? If you ever have more than one or two flavors in your slush, than you my friend have not yet reached the pinnacle of your youth. You are still in it. Grow up. Really. Come join the ranks of "the traditionalists" and enjoy your slurpee with pride. Now, perhaps you feel that I am being a bit harsh on the uninformed, but I am not. So suck it up! (quite literally I must say)

Next time you grab a quick slush, remember, it is an experience to treasure. Don't haphazardly pick and mix your flavors, be precise and concise when it comes to choosing. Are you a man or a mouse when it comes to slurpees? Perhaps my next slurpee post will be about slurpee etiquette...

Fishing in two dice

2007-03-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

I headed out to mill lake this morning for a few hours before class. It was so nice out it was too much to resist. Stopped at Tim's and got myself a nice coffee and a chance to play gain. Yesss! Got there about 8 am and started fishing. I was using a mepps spinner and fishing from the boardwalk. I was using 6lb test line, thought it would make it more of challenge if I hooked into any "big" bows .

Well After about thirty minutes I did hook into one of the big brooders, about 20 inches long. I actually saw him following my spinner, and slowed down my retrieve to try and coax him into nailing it. Well he did nail it. Kind of. It was a pretty lackadaisical take, , but whatever, I set the hook and away we went. Kind of. This fish had no fight in it whatsoever. It thrashed around a bit, but I basically just reeled it straight in. Even with the drag super low and 6lb line this fish did not take any line. At this point I had a couple of spectators on the board walk, and was preparing to land the fish. As I mentioned, I was on the boardwalk, and without a net of course. So as I am leaning way over the railing trying to grab this fish, and the fish is dangling in air as I try and pull him up into reach. As the fishing is dangling in the air, pop! Out comes the lure, and away goes the fish. The spectators thought that I was an exciting spectacle, and I glad I was able to entertain them. Maybe next time I will try and charge money for the show...

After that I had one more fish on briefly, another big brooder, but after a couple of headshakes he was away. After about two hours I packed it in to get home and get ready for class. Fishing should pick up after they stock the lake again, which apparently is coming up soon. Still, a great morning with at least some success.

It's amazing how many people will stop and ask how the fishing is going. I think that fishing is probably a great way to meet some interesting people. One idea would be to photograph everyone who stops to chat and see what kind of photos you get. Everybody seems to have a favorite spot or "witty" comment to make. For example, today a guy asked what I was using and I showed him the spoon I had on. "oh" he said, "I thought that fish liked to eat worms, maybe you should try that...".

On my way back to the car, I came upon an awesome scene in the park, it was some heavy machinery attacking a stump! I got it all on tape, and be sure to watch the whole video for the surprise ending.

Abstract Photography

2007-03-21T22:51:00.000-07:00

I thought I would do a photo post on some of the photos that I have taken. I really like finding a unique perspective that form an abstract photo. Converging lines, counter-intuitive composition, minimal elements in a photo, contrasting bands of tone and colour. Its amazing how you can turn something as simple as the side of a train car into an abstract photograph.

This photo combines graffiti and the side of a train car. I really like the tonal contrasts and lines of this shot.

A close up shot of some drift wood on the beach provides an awesome example of texture and form. By placing the main focus on the black winding shape in the bottom portion of the frame, it adds a feeling of weight, as the black anchors the image.

A close up of some tiles that was taken with a long exposure and twisted for effect. You are able to get some semblance of shape and form with strong black diagonal lines. By moving the camera around while the shutter was open, I was able to capture a feeling of disarray. The tile is laid out in a structured manner, but by introducing motion, it gives the appearance of chaos.

This next shot is of the side of Wal-mart. There are very few elements to the picture, I think I must have been feeling quite minimalistic that day. When taking pictures with minimalism in mind, it is important to balance all elements of the picture. My intent with this picture was to invoke a feeling of puzzlement. If I hadn't said that it was the side of a building, it would hard to say what it was.

The most important thing to remember when taking abstract photographs is that there is no right way to take them. Sure there some things to look for like texture, lines, tonal contrast, complimentary shapes, and whatever strikes you as inspiring. But to get abstract photos, you have to get out there and take them...

My Weekend

2007-03-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well this weekend has been quite busy. We had a wedding to go to on Saturday, so Anna had the day off, and I only worked for a few hours in the morning. Some friends of ours successfully got married. I find that successful weddings are always the best kind.
Here is a picture of Anna blowing some bubbles as the bride and groom exit the reception on the way to the honeymoon. All I could think of was how many bubbles were getting on peoples clothes and the soap spots it would create. But I managed to stay out of the path of wayward bubbles.

Todays big event was clothes shopping and costco! Well it was mainly for me because my jeans had multiple holes that were not fashion statements. I also had an awesome hole in one of my pockets that threatened to spill my keys all over my legs. Awkward!

Anyways, now that we got our camera back from the repair shop, I took the opportunity to film myself in the change room. There was a big mirror in there. Its a short clip, but I wanted to illustrate my situation. Also I put a picture that I took of my change room here as well. It was hard to get the exposure right, so I put my clothes back on for the pic.

Anyways the shopping trip was successful, I was able to get two pairs of pants and two shirts as well. Is it just me, or are clothes getting more and more expensive?
Oh well, at least I don't have holey pants any more.

Costco was crazy today with people everywhere. The only upside to going to costco on the weekend was that there was lots of free samples. That was pretty much our lunch today, everything from juice to curry to dessert. But what is up with people and their cart manners? People were wandering everywhere willy nilly, leaving carts in the center of grocery lanes, walking erratically, generally making themselves a hassle. There should be some kind of training center for people and carts.
Seriously.

Oh yeah, if you are looking for the video, I decided not to put it up because it kinda sucked. I think I need to learn how to use it better. It seems that it cuts off the endings, so I need to leave a little extra time before I stop recording. Plus, who wants to see a video of me in a changeroom....creepy...

update time...

2007-03-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well school is progressing along. I have most of my assignments at least started. Yay. Its hard to believe that it is almost mid march. This year has really flown by quite quickly.

With both work and school, it seems like the full weeks speed by. With only a few weeks left of school, it is starting to get exciting that the end is near. Kind of the end. I am planning on taking a course during the summer, perhaps an online one to make it easier for my work schedules. One of the possibilities is a course on web design, which would be cool.

I always seem to have lots of ideas for different websites, and this may be a good way to get some skills to put these ideas into action. Who knows, perhaps one day I will become a web mogul. One day...one day... until then, you can see the site that I have, my website about African Cichlids

Can't wait till schools done...

wiiview

2007-03-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

I quite enjoy the internet and find myself browsing many sites. One of the sites I find myself perusing is www.johnchow.com. He has lots of information and sometimes even contests. His current contest is held in conjunction with 1234pens.com, they make promotional pens. 1234pens.com has donated the prize for the contest. The prize is a nintendo wii, which is a pretty good prize. This may be a good chance to get something for free. As we all know, free is the best price of all.

One interesting thing about John is that that he likes to refer to himself as the root of all evil. Now this is a little bit of a misconception. Most people also think that money is the root of all evil. Not so. The love of money is the root of all. Boy is this phrase misquoted a lot or what?

Anyways, I know whoever wins the contest will wiilly enjoy the prize.

Canon sd630 digital camera repairs are not free.

2007-03-10T22:36:00.000-08:00

well I managed to break the camera that we just got. Yep, my very first try, I did it. Somehow it fell off the couch when the camera was on, and landed right on the extended lens. Yep, like I said, first try. Of course it inly fell like two feet, but it was enough to damage it, so that the lens would not retract, and thus cannot take any pictures. I was not too impressed, and the only person to blame was myself. Boy did I lay into him! Rats!

You know that sick feeling you get in your stomach when eat a whole package of bacon for breakfast? Well that was the feeling I had, plus it also felt like I had a bunch of sausages in there. Mmmm breakfast pork. I could go for a sausage mcmuffin right now...

Anyways, the closest repair shop is in vancouver, so I had to trek out there and drop it off to get fixed. It will cost about $120-140 to get it fixed. *sigh* At least they will ship out to me so I don't have to pick it up in vancouver. For only an extra $20 dollars. *sigh*

Once we get the camera back, I will really try to be careful with it. Really. Why do they make cameras so small when my hands are not so small...

At least I can consider it an investment. An investment that doesn't make me money. Wait, this is a crappy "investment"...

Well we should get the camera back next week sometime, and then perhaps we can get back to making awesome videos. Right now I am stuck with my other canon camera. When I say stuck, I mean happy, and when happy, I mean contented. So overall Canon cameras have been good to me. If anyone is looking for a nice compact camera, I would reccomend the canon sd630. It is awesome because it has a 3.0 inch lcd screen on the back which is great for viewing photos and composing shots. It also makes movies and other great options. Just don't break them. Or drop them. Or break them.

I'm busier than you.

2007-03-04T21:20:00.000-08:00

So how busy are you? Have you ever noticed that when somebody tells you how busy they are, your first response is tell them how busy you are? It seems that whoever is busiest "wins".

As you share with each other your varying levels of commitments, you give the requisite nods, tongue clicks, and whews. After appearing at least somewhat sympathetic, you blow them out of the water with your insane schedule.

"oh yeah, you thinks thats "busy"? After I wake up and feed my sea turtles I go out for a 2 hour run, come home and shower, water my bonsai trees, work for 16 hours, volunteer at the sea turtle rescue center, go home,shower again, feed the turtles again, go to night school to study animal rescue techniques, get a hair cut, write an amazing blog post, get another of my hairs cut, then come home and sleep for at least 2 hours. 8 days a week."

Thats busy.

Sound familiar? How busy is too busy, what amount of busyness is appropriate, if you are any amount busy, is that too busy? Some people are too busy, others not busy enough. Some people like being busy, others can't stand it.

Busy is a funny word isn't it? It really should mean something that is large, rectangular, moves people around for a small fee, and goes on strike for higher pay. You know, Bus-y.

Busy is even spelled weird. Shouldn't it be spelled b-i-z-z-y? Yo, yo, I'm too bizzy fo' you foo'. Hmmm, maybe not...

Bottle Depot Despot.

2007-02-28T16:30:00.000-08:00

So today I was at the bottle depot returning some bottles. Anna and I always try and recycle as much as we can. But we draw the line at toilet paper. Somethings should not be re-used. At the bottle depot they also take tons of other stuff, like car batteries, scrap metal, old newspapers, etc. This has to be done fairly frequently because we do not have much room to store all those empties, lovely as they are.

As I am unloading and sorting these assorted cans and bottles onto my cart, a older minivan pulls up. It was an early 90's caravan, with tinted widows that were bubbling, a cracked windshield, you know, a classy ride. A guy that must have been fairly close to my age, except that he had a chipped front tooth, called out to me, "hey buddy!".

I looked up from the task at hand to see what this guy wanted. He said," Do you think that if we, like, gave you 5 bucks, we could use your picture id to turn in some scrap metal?" My first thought was, if you don't have any picture id, for example a drivers license, how can this guy be driving around. My second and most important thought was, hey! these guys are probably scrap metal thieves! All recycling centers now have a new policy that a drivers license be shown and recorded every time people turn in scrap metal for money. This is to discourage people from stealing metal things and hawking them for money at the scrap yard. Now with this id policy, they can track people down if it turns out the metal was indeed stolen.

Now all of this was running through my mind in about a second and a quarter. Of course my response was "No." My buddy's response was, "whats ****ing wrong with you?", and then he gave me a glare as he started to pull away. Of course my instinct and wit kicked in and I automatically responded with,"same thing as you I guess." Witty, right?

If only I had a little more time, I am sure I could have really zinged him one. Boy would he ever think again about trying to approach strangers to become accomplices in crime. It's not really worth it when you know you are going to get zinged a new one with my rapier sharp wit. I think I really intimidated him, cause wouldn't you know it, he kept on driving. Thats right "buddy", keep on driving, drive on home to your mama.

Yep, just doing my civic duty, stopping criminals from profiting from their crime. I knew this education in criminal justice would come in handy one day.

My first video

2007-02-27T23:35:00.000-08:00

So we just got a new digital camera that is able to record video clips. So of course I had to make a video. We were able to use our air miles so the camera was pretty much free. Anna begged to be in the video as you will soon see. I think that starring in her first film was a bit overwhelming, but with a bit if practice, I think she could be a celebrity of famous sorts. The sound is a bit off because I recorded it on the lowest quality, but when my new memory card arrives I will be able to make better ones.

Midterm Madness

2007-02-26T20:19:00.000-08:00

Midterms are over! I had my two today and Anna had one as well. I have not posted for a while because I have been studying for these tests. It is quite nice to have this orangutan off my back. I have a bunch of pictures to illustrate I am sure you will enjoy them. It is hard to believe that it is almost March.

Boy this degree had better be worth it....
This is my studying face. Now I did kind of ham it up a bit with the expression, but everything else is all natural.
Isn't the rotation of the earth just awesome?
Note the location of the south pole on the summer solstice and vernal equinox. Awesome!

This is my rainbow of cue cards. I find that the variety in color helps keep me alert and smart. Everybody loves cue cards, but what about Q cards?

Budget your money before its gone...

2007-02-20T23:32:00.000-08:00

Anna and I recently got out our credit card statements, bank account statements and all other relevant info to figure out what our monthly income is relative to our monthly output.

We have never had issues with money, we are both savers by nature. However, it is very useful to know where all your hard earned money is going. We are doing the Good Sense Seminar, which teaches you how to manage your money more effectively.

We headed out to Starbucks for a coffee date to do the course pre-work, which entailed doing up a budget, and tracking our purchases. While some people dread going over finances, we actually both enjoyed it, and had a great time. Plus we used a gift card for the coffees, so we didn't have to budget for it.

One of the most interesting things we discovered is how much money is spent on gifts throughout the year. A worksheet is included that covers all the holidays and birthdays for a list of people that you buy presents for. Also included are things like weddings, anniversaries, baby showers etc. These are the kinds of things that can be hard to budget for. You don't always know what events will be happening that require a gift.

Once we calculated out all the people and events that we get presents for, we were surprised to see how much we spend in a year on presents. Well over a thousand dollars! Gifts is one of those areas you don't realize how easy it is to overspend, and how quickly they add up.

If you are wondering where all your money is going, then perhaps the good sense course would be good for you. (personally, I would rather make dollars than cents) So far it has helped us get a better handle on how we spend our money. It also confirmed that we are on track with our goal to graduate university debt free.

John Chow and Chows

2007-02-19T22:43:00.000-08:00

I have been reading John Chow's blog for several months now. In fact, I can't even remember how I came across this site. I check it faithfully each and every day that I have access to the internet.

I am doing this review because john chow is offering to link back to everybody who does a quality review of his site.

John offers quite a smorgasborg of topical variety. He posts on monetizing your blog, tips and tricks to maximize your blog income. Search engine optimization, cars, marketing and life are among the other topics that round out this self proclaimed moguls site.

He does lots of reviews of restaurants in vancouver, which is awesome because I live in the area, and one day I could possibly even eat at one of those fine places. If I ever make as much money as John Chow does online, I will look up those places for sure.

Now, lets get down to the nitty gritty. John Chow seems like a fairly ubiquitouss name, and I decided to do some research on the internet to find out about some possible connections between john and the rest of the world.

I assume you can see the picture of a chow-chow dog. Now if the connection does not seem obvious to you, I am not going to waste my time or yours explaining it too you.

Is the resemblance in name only?

I think Iwill leave that for you to decide.

Personally I think chow-chows look very huggable, and so does john.

The next item is of course chow mein. Rumour has it that John's favorite food is foie gras, NOT chow mein. If thats not disloyal, I don't know what is. I think that personal identity is important, but come on John, you could make this dish your own. Clam Chowder would be a another great dish you could trademark. For all you vegetarians, we could even make it corn Chowder. We all know how important it is to reach broad and diverse audiences.

One thing that we know about John is that he is down to earth. His posts are not given down to the peasants to grovel over, he writes like the internet is his peer group. This makes his site accessible to a large cross section of people, who can learn from his experience.

What sets this blog apart from others is how open John is about how chows down on the money to be made on the net. His innovative techniques for viral marketing, such as this review me scheme are great ideas. Plus, he shares these ideas for his audience to glean from.

One thing that I would like to see changed is his blog masthead. I thought the picture of the single car was much more dynamic and sharp. The new one seems kind of boring because it is too symmetrical, there is no single focus point. Change it back John!

Mini Golf Pros Please

2007-02-18T21:44:00.000-08:00

On Saturday night we went mini-golfing with Anna's family to celebrate her sister Amy's 21st birthday. From left to right is Anna, Rafi, Gin, and Amy. Not pictured is Anna's dad, Dan, and her older sister Christina, who is in Toronto at the moment, and of course, me, cause I was taking the picture.

Well I would tell you who won if it was me, but it wasn't me. But I did win a free pass by getting a hole-in-one on the 18th hole. We golfed the jungle course at Castle Fun Park in Abbotsford, and it was very exciting. It was also very dark. Whoever had the green ball had a hard time seeing their ball on the green greens. I think it was because of the light refraction off of the jungle swamp, but who knows.

Everybody knows that jungles can be quite the scary place. Who could pass up an opportunity to do what comes naturally in such a place? Not me of course. Below is the result of a carefully timed smack to a garbage can that providing a nice clanging sound just as she walked through a doorway into a dimly lit area. I am pretty sure she thought it was tiger, but the only beast around was me...

After working up a huge appetite, we had a great dinner at the adjacent Whitespot. After dinner we came back to our place for birthday pie, presents and of course, the requisite decaf coffee. It was a great evening enjoyed by all, especially Anna's dad Dan, because, well, he won the mini-golf tournament. I think I had better practice some more before I go do any more group golfing.

Having trouble finding the blog?

2007-02-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

I have been playing around with my blog settings, and right now you cannot use www in front of my address. Use http://thenonsensical.com You may need to update your links. I am working on getting the www functional, but it is best if you drop it.

Thank goodness for stupid! er....cupid.

2007-02-14T20:11:00.000-08:00

So today being valentines day I planned to make a nice dinner for Anna. I had the day off of work because I had school in the morning. So it worked out that I had some time in the afternoon to get some stuff together.

As I was driving around town, I came across this accident that was backing up traffic. As I had the camera with me, I quickly tried to snap a shot as I was driving by. I would have tried to get a better shot, but hey, I was trying not to get into accident. Safety first, always wear your lifebelts!

Anyways I got all of the stuff I needed for the dinner and headed home. Save-on-Foods parking lot was nuts! It took me forever to navigate in and out of there.

The menu for the night was pesto salmon with herb and garlic pasta, and veggies on the side. For dessert we had a multi berry sauce with whipped cream and sponge cake. Yeah it was pretty much an awesome meal. The pesto sauce was really good. (sorry mom, it had pine nuts in it)

Oh yeah, I also had about thirty candles lit up around the place. Very romantical. Many of the candles were vanilla and pear scented, very nice smelling. I also had some spanish music playing softly in the background. Very mood setting. And romantical.

As I was in save-on getting some cinnamon hearts, this random mid 50's lady says to me, "oh you must have a lot of sweethearts, if you give one heart to each of them." I said, "no, not a lot, just one really special one". Her response is , "oh! how long have you been engaged?"
Of course I tell her that I am in fact married, and then she goes on to ask, for how long, how many kids I have, If I am happy, and I must have picked a good one." Wow, this woman was getting pretty in depth for only having known her for 20 seconds.

All in all it was a good night, enjoyed by all. Who doesn't like salmon and cinnamon and pesto and berries?

Well I guess tomorrow goes back to being a normal day. Easter is just around the corner. They already have all the easter candy in stores, and valentines is not even over yet. Ahh creme eggs and malt eggs.

Of all the holidays, easter candy is by far the best.

Dang, Darn, Shoot, Rats!

2007-02-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

So today at work my dad and I were doing a drywall repair at a home in delta. We had painted at this house before, because of roof leak, and the roof had leaked again, prompting our arrival. This house is quite unique as it once was a radar station back in the early 1900's. But that is about it, because it looks fairly normal from the outside.

Anyway, the main chunk of the story happens as I am removing a chunk of drywall from the ceiling. I was making the hole in the ceiling a nice rectangle, so that the new chunk of drywall would fit into it nicely. I had a drywall saw that I was using to cut through the drywall very nicely. As I was cutting away, dust was flying everywhere, I had to stop a few times to clear some dust out of my eyes, it was very dirty. I had dust all over me and in hair and ears.

Awesome!

As I am sawing away, I notice that there was bits of straw falling to ground. I was thinking to myself, huh, they sure built these old houses weird. Then my next thought was, oh a bird must have had a nest in here at one point. The house we were working in was on a horse farm, it sounded very feasible.

I pulled a large chunk of drywall down off of the ceiling, so that I could continue my great progress. As I pulled it down, a shower of hay and dirt fell down along with it. Now that I could see better into the hole I noticed this funny looking chunk of insulation. It looked like a big chunk of that expanding foam insulation that can be sprayed into cracks and crevices, great stuff.

It had an odd protrusion that looked kinda like an arm. Haha, it looks almost like a mouse or something I mentioned to my Dad. He came over to look, and said it was probably just a chunk of that insulation I was just talking about.

Anyways, the drywall I was removing was holding up the insulation chunk, so I got a paint stir stick to pull it down. As I am preparing to remove it, I of course am getting a closer look. As I get closer I think that I can kinda see an ear and eye! Dad, I say, I think it is a rat! Noooooo, Dan, come on, its just insulation. But I was adamant, and he came over to look. Well look at that, he exclaimed, you are right, a rat. I'll go get some latex gloves. While he went to retrieve the gloves, I named the rat rufus.

Anyways , this rat had been in there for a long time, because it was kind of mummified. So you remember all that hay and dirt that was falling down all around and on me? Yep you got it, the hay was the rats nest and the dirt was not simply dirt. It was rat droppings.

Awesome!

So my dad came back with the gloves and a solution. His solution was very innovative. It was this: here are the gloves Dan, use them to pull the rat out. Hope you don't get rabies. Boy, I sure am glad I am the boss! (okay the rabies and boss thing he didn't actually say, but I bet he was thinking them)

Awesome!

So here I am, trying to extricate this rodent from his tomb. I gently grab him and try to respect his past life. Hmm, he stubbornly seems to like his tomb and does not want to budge. I pull a bit harder, and say to my Dad who is helpfully watching, umm I don't think he is coming out.

But my dad had a great idea. Hmmm, he said, how about you get a better grip and pull harder? So as I get a better grip on this rat, I can feel all of his inside organs squishing around. The only thing going through my mind was, "please don't break open, please don't break open, please don't break open." Well at least now I know what rat organs feel like.

So now I am vigorously yanking like a two year old on the tail of puppy,and this rat is not coming out anytime soon. My dad pushes on some of the roof boards, and finally the rat comes free. The rat and a bunch of straw and more rat droppings all go into the garbage. We finished the repair and went for lunch.

I do not get paid enough. Note that this picture is not of rufus, I did not have a camera with me so I had to scavenge one off the net.

what we all need most in life...

2007-02-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

I came across this little gem the other day, and I felt that we could all benefit from it. It enriched my life, so I wanted to give you a chance to experience it. Some people say that it useless, but I think that it just takes the right frame of mind to get all the use out of it. I would say that after I signed up, it changed the way I looked at the internet. You can visit this amazing site here

If this site changes how you look at your internet life, let me know in my comments.

you'll never be the same.

ever.

maybe ever.

Due to reader demand....

2007-02-10T21:39:00.000-08:00

Non-Members are fairly special people too.

2007-02-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

Well my adventure for the day was going to costo for some groceries and supplies. Anna had a bunch of readings that she needed to get done, so I was on a solo mission tonight. I had the day off a work for school, and I put it to good use. I got about 3000 words down on paper (virtual paper) which equals one papers rough draft. Anyways, so it was kind of nice to get out of the house. So I thought, where can I go where only some other people can go? Costco!
Everybody loves big things. Especially large, exclusive things. Everybody has a longing to belong to something bigger than themselves. Costco fulfills this inner need, and is able to charge membership fees to make you feel even more exclusive, and thus better than other non-members. Is this economic stratification at its worst? Well Anna and I decided to get a Costco membership so that we could find out first hand. Really. We have no inner need. We belong, we are secure in our group settings. The decision to join up was purely for academic interest. That and more toilet paper than you could use in 6 years.

Sometimes Costco is really great, but honestly, for just the two of us, jumbo size is not always the most usable size. There is pressure to eat all of what you bought before it goes bad. Even if you are not hungry, it must be eaten. We are not wasters, and I hate throwing out food. For example, artichoke hearts. In the first three months of our marriage, we went to costco with my parents. Anna decided that she loves artichoke hearts and would eat them all the time. This jar was a 1kg jar of artichoke hearts. I asked her, will you use this all up? Oh yeah Dan, I sure would! Well fast forward over a year, and guess what is still in the fridge. Two thirds of a jar of artichokes.

Well I was unsure of Costco's policy about taking pictures in store, so I had to take these pics on the sly. I had Anna's little camera which fits nicely into my jeans pocket. I would slip it out and snap shots quickly. I even turned off the flash so as not to attract unwanted glares from camera shy people.

To the right is one of my great finds of the night. Spanish music! Anna loves cultural music, so I bought with her in mind. Plus it was like three CD's for the price of one. Now thats Costco size that I can appreciate.

You can see that I am trying to be nonchalant so as not to be overly obvious. I even looked away from the camera so that if anybody challenged me, I could be like, what camera, ohhhh that camera, I didn't even see it. And it would be true, I couldn't see the camera.

I think that we can all agree that shopping is a very exhausting process. All those thoughts running thru your mind at once.... How many grams of trans fat does this regular yogurt have versus the low fat yogurt... Is the whole wheat pasta more starchy than regular pasta...oooh samples... arrgg who double parked their cart... and so on and so forth.

As you can see, I safely parked my cart, and my butt. I was able to find an adequate pile of peat moss to use as a makeshift tripod. As you can see, I was able to let out some deep breaths, and prepare myself for the next onslaught of shoppers bliss.

The checkout was quite the enjoyable wait. And I do mean wait. The people in front of me were buying a big TV, and apparently their debit card kept getting declined. Literally they had to do 8 or 9 debit transactions to break up the total into chunks that her card would process. Chalk it up to Costco experience, where they only accept cash/ debit and american express cards. No visa or mastercard. The Joys.

After loading up the mazda, I headed over to the costco gas bar to fill up on cheap gas. Coscto. The full experience for man and machine.

Fun with your Family! (it is possible)

2007-02-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

So we all have been part of a family photo or four. They can be occasions where the family is gathered together in one spot and pictures are taken simply out of convenience sake. Or perhaps you have been corralled into getting your picture taken with the family. Either way, you end up with a memorable occasion, and a photograph that documents your family as it was at that point in time.

Now to our left, you will see the classic environmental family portrait. Not only is the picture of the family, but it also is meant to record the surrounding environment. Note the large cacti.

Not only is a great family picture, but it provides context for our memories. In this case a family trip to Mexico, circa early 2000's.

Now that you have the standard pictures down pat, lets explore some of the more "creative" options.

I like to call the picture below "solemn anonymity". Note the solemn expression. The disguise glasses add an element of anonymity. That is what inspired the pictures title. I like to state the obvious.

This next picture is what we classify as "tragedy personified". It is this kind of artistic flair, and an eye for interesting elements that will make or break your family pictures. This was one road trip we will never forget. (I think we crashed because I was used to the handling of the boxers, not this vintage car)

This next picture is classified as "conflict management". Every family has conflict, but how do they manage it? By taking pictures of course. Next time you have conflict in your family, try taking a picture. I think you will be stunned by the results.

Well I hope you have been inspired to take some interesting and somewhat melodramatic family pictures. Remember, if it looks interesting, people will want to spend more time with you. This is a great tool for making new friends. Happy snapping.

Hot Days, Hot Cars...

2007-02-02T21:56:00.000-08:00

This my friends is a porsche boxter. This is one car that looks good and drives even better. But you could have a porsche boxter, or you could have a dodge boxers. It handles a bit ruff, but some see it as perk. One note of caution, there is a bit of a roll-over factor.

So yeah, Anna saw these dogs at work the other day and happened to have her camera with her, and snapped an awesome shot. Way to go Anna!

Bonsai Tree Kits Available Now!

2007-02-02T16:52:00.000-08:00

Bonsai Tree Growing Kit

Well, as you may already know, I am the proud father of a little bonsai sprout named Zeke. I have gotten much joy out of this little fellow, in quite a short time span. I found this cheap kit online and thought I would post it here in case there were any inspired gardeners out there. Now as you can see, this kit is not expensive, however, I think it provides great value. If you are ever thinking of having children one day, what better way to test your parenting skills, than with a bonsai?

If you can raise a bonsai, good for you! Considering that you do not have to water kids (besides bathing), kids are probably even easier to grow than bonsai trees. Children are actually quite similar to bonsai trees.

For example, bonsai trees need to pruned now and then, just like the hair of children! bonsai trees. also need air to live, as do children! Bonsai trees need nutrients to properly grow, and guess what, children enjoy nutrients as much or more than Bonsai Trees!

If you are nervous about having children, why not get some great practice first? After raising a bonsai from a seedling to a tree, children will seem like a snap! If you could handle one bonsai tree, you could probably have five or six kids and experience no problems whatsoever! (please note that this is not a guarantee, this is just based on your most probable outcome)

Well do I have enough exclamation marks in this post already or what!

Wealthy Toddlers and Killer Centipedes

2007-01-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

Have you ever met anybody who talks in their sleep? Or perhaps dreams out loud? Turns out Anna talks in her sleep, and I dream out loud. Huh. Imagine that. No wait, I don't have to imagine it because Anna and I have both experienced it first hand.

It all starts of course when we fall asleep. Anna likes to fall asleep wherever the sheep may take her. Most often this happens to be the couch. Of course she always tries to find the most comfortable position, and then stays there as long as humanly possible.

On one such occasion, I am watching tv while Anna is "resting her eyes". All of a sudden, Anna asks me, "Dan, are you five rich?" What?!? I reply. Again she says it, but now slightly annoyed, "Dan, are you five rich?" Again, I say What?!? I think that I must not be hearing her right because this is not making any sense at all. Five rich, what the heck is that, a wealthy toddler? So after the second what, this is Anna's response (note, read this in a very angry tone), "Look, Dan what part of this are you not getting? At this point, I figure I better give her the response she is looking for before somebody gets hurt. So I say, yes Honey, I am five rich. Anna responds with ok, good. And she goes back to sleep, just like that. Thats just an average night at the Zupancics folks.

Another incident involved Anna asking me this question while she was asleep, " Dan, is it true that wolves with blue eyes are the fiercest?"

While Anna may be a sleep talker, apparently I like to live out my dreams. I have never witnessed this, but that may be because I was asleep. Anyways, this actually just happened a few nights ago. It is the middle of the night, about 2 am. According to Anna, I yelled out "Centipede!" As she was trying to make sense of this excited declaration, I reached out and thwacked her on the head with my hand. Apparently it really hurt. Anna exclaimed, "Owwww!" But was quick to ask, "What about the centipede Dan?" My obvious reply was, "ahh my hand hurts."

As you can tell, not only are our days packed full of adventure and fun, but so are our nights. After all of these episodes, neither of us ever remember our ridiculous behavior. Its probably for the best.

Anybody else have any crazy sleeping stories? If you feel like sharing them, post them in the comments. Sweet dreams...

Baby Bonsai, Baby!

2007-01-29T14:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the real world Zeke! I have my first bonsai tree sprout, and boy he is a gooder! (yes, it is a boy, I checked, and what a boy!) After much doubt and trepidation, finally some results. I am theorizing that it is the great sunlight we have been having recently that was the main catalyst for growth.

So now Zeke is a sprout, I wonder how long it will take him to become a full fledged tree. What kind of water does he prefer, regular old tap, or would he do better with exotic bottled water? For now I will stick to tap, because obviously I am doing something right.

Well I will try to faithfully post growth updates, so you can all be surrogate bonsai growers.

atypical day in the 'hood (yes, atypical)

2007-01-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

Well today is another day of school and adventure. Right now I am taking a break from the school and adventure to write this post. This morning I took our car to the dealership to get serviced. While that was getting done I worked on getting some of my readings done for school.

After that I headed home where I parked the car and headed towards school. I had a meeting with one my professors to discuss my research project. I have to design and in the next course conduct the research that I propose. I am thinking about focusing in on the issue of software piracy. Oooooooohhhh exciting!

Sometimes it seems like my brain is like this picture. A large jumble of ideas that need to be organized into something a little more coherent.
BAM! All of a sudden a great idea pops up like a slick weasel out of its burrow. Just as quickly, an over-sized mallet of reason flattens the friendly mammal/idea into oblivion. Another one bites the dust, do dooo doooooo. Back to the idea factory....

Anyways, after several fun filled hours of research methods, statistics, and ordinal data, it was time to depart for home. I decided to stop and examine the site of pickle world. Yeah, the other day on my way to school, this guy (lets call him Peter) came running of his RV and started throwing dill pickles at me! (I don't know for sure if they were dill because I didn't taste them, they could have been garlic or something different, but for convenience sake lets just assume they were dill) Now this put me in quite the pickle! ( I know I know, bad joke, sorry I guess its not kosher. Dang it, you can see the dillema I have here...)

Well as this man was chucking prodigious amounts of briny cucumber projectiles towards me, I couldn't help but wonder where he was getting all these cukes from. I mean, How many pickles could poor Peter pack, to possibly prepare for the pickle projectile war!?! Anyways, while being pelted by pickles, I had a decision to make. Do I stick around to try and gather enough pickles to fill our jar at home, or should I try and get of range of Peter's pickle projectiles.

Well I decided to come back a different day, and let poor Peter exhaust his pickle supply on somebody else. Well as you all know, I not really a vindictive kind of person, but I guess somebody else had experienced Peter's pickle barage, and decided to do something about it.

As you can in the picture, I have an expression of horrified gleefulness. While feeling bad that poor Peter has lost his home, it still was kind of funny that Peter got taught a lesson. Ok ok, so maybe none of that ever happened, and it was all made up, and there is no Peter, but, what if, right? Something did happen to the RV, and I was there when that picture was taken.

Well, here is something that really did happen. On the way back from school I stopped and looked into a dumpster to see what was inside. I had a sneaking suspicion of what I would find, and boy was I right!! It was garbage. Suspicions confirmed, I moseyed along back home, content with the adventures of my day. As you can see from my expression, It was critical to hold my breath to avoid taking in the bevy of toxic fumes that were brewing in the rubbish bin. Believe it or not, I was able to hold my breath the entire time I was looking into the bin. Yep, thats just the kind of mad skills I have.

Quick Update...

2007-01-20T19:39:00.000-08:00

Well we are back into the swing of school and it looks to be another crazy semester, seems like whenever I finish a reading, there is another one around the corner. This is just a quick post to update a few things...

No little bonsai sprouts yet... I am staring to wonder if these seeds may be duds... Zeke, Bubba, Bob, where art thou?

I finally did make it to ikea and was able to purchase a book shelf, so the office is looking a lot better. Man that thing was freaking heavy when it came time to drag it up to the condo.

I am an official e-bay seller! The barbie sold for a $150 USD and the pen sold for $42 USD. Gin was super pleased to get that much for the barbie, and I was very happy with my pen money. Both items are shipped and gone! I will probably spend all my ebay money on fishing lures or something like that. Nothing like a good triple hook crankbait to make your morning perfect.

So yeah, sure looking forward to spring fishing starts to pick up. My goal is to learn how to bass fish this year.

Anyways I have to get back to school work now, I will try to do a good post soon. By good, I mean noteworthy. By noteworthy, I mean memorable.

I like Hamm (mmmmm spicy mustard)

2007-01-12T18:02:00.000-08:00

One week ago Anna and I had the opportunity to meet my friend Marcia's boyfriend, Tim. Now Marcia lives in Manitoba (as does Tim) so it was kind of a fluke chance that he happened to be in Abbotsford. Marcia let me know on thursday that he would be at a conference type thingee in Abbotsford on friday night. So of course, Anna and I jumped at the chance for adventure.

Now this speaker person thing started at 7:30, so we figured it would end around 9. So we got there at 9, but it didn't end until 9:20!! Imagine that. So anyway, the directions that we had for identifying Tim, was that he was tall, and would be wearing a tux on the stage. Because we got there late, Tim had already left the stage. But we didn't know that. There were thee guys on stage, the speaker guy looked a bit old for Marcia, and one of the other two looked fairly old and was black. I am sure that if Tim was black, Marcia would have said so, because that would greatly help in identifying him. So by process of elimination, we had our Tim. Once the program ended we made our way up to the front to meet "Tim". Some other people made it to him first, so we had to wait a few minutes. As we were waiting, Anna observed that "Tim" was wearing a wedding ring. Aha! This was in fact NOT Tim!

Our next clue from Marcia was that Tim would be selling dvds in the lobby. So to the lobby we headed. Because we had never met Tim before and did not know what he looked like, I had made a sign on a sheet of paper to attract his attention. The sign read in bold letters: Tim from Manitoba (Marcia's boyfriend).

We scoped out the dvd booth and speculated which of the three guys were Tim. Again, one guy was eliminated right away because of age. The other two guys were very close in age, but only one was tall. All of a sudden, the tall man turned around, and saw us and the sign. A look of recognition crossed his face along with amusement at the sign (I admit, the sign was ingenious).

It was Tim! The real Tim, not the fake married "Tim". Of course we had to commemorate the occasion with a friendly photo that Anna snapped for us. Here is Tim and I, newly acquainted friends.

To make the meeting truly memorable, I designed a short questionnaire or interview, whichever you may prefer. The whole purpose was to see what we could learn about Tim to assess his suitability for Marcia. You may be skeptical as to how much you could learn from a short interview, but you forget one thing. Dan Zupancic designed the interview with this very purpose in mind! I specially crafted each question to utilize my word usage and infer special meanings and insights.

Tim was unable to complete it at the moment due to pressing dvd table issues. However, he did promise to email me his responses to the quiz. I received his answers today and thus I will post them below!

All About Tim

If Marcia were an animal, what kind would she be and why?

- I would say a kind of bird (a beautiful one) because she would probably want to soar over God’s creation and see the world.

What is your favorite food?

- Farmer Sausage, or any other kind of meat

At what age do you see yourself having kids?

- Sometime after marriage, whenever it may be

If your name TIM was an acronym, what would the letters stand for?

- Tall Impish and Multimedia (HAHA, I dunno, that was a hard one)

What is your biggest pet peeve?

- People eating with their mouth open

What kind of car do you drive?

- 97 Red Sunfire GT

How many times have you been pulled over by the police?

- Uh oh, 2 stop sign tickets, 3 or 4 other warnings for speeding/stop sign. (But have never been in an accident in 11 years of driving).

What first attracted you to Marcia?

- A joyful, beautiful woman who’s passionate about Jesus, and is a leader

What concerns you more, old age senility, or premature death?

- I guess old age senility because I’m not scared of death

When your kids have kids, what do you want to be called?

- Grandpa?

I think this quiz is pretty self explanatory. The special care taken in crafting the question should make the insights readily apparent to all. oh, yeah, his full name is Tim Hamm. Marcia, here is my seal of approval.

Bookshelf boycott along with snow shenanigans

2007-01-10T13:36:00.000-08:00

Well, with some of the time off that I have, it was decided that its time update our bookshelf situation. We got a bookshelf for free from one of my aunts, and it has worked great. The only problem is that it does not have a back or sides, and it is made of mostly glass. Because of all the glass, it really collects dust quite well. Even though we have been making a fortune selling the dust on ebay, we have decided to get ourselves something more bookshelfy and less displayie.

Anna and I have had our eye on a bookshelf at ikea, so that is where I was planning on going today. Anna's sister Amy had wanted our old bookshelf, so the plan was take our old one to her place on the way to ikea. I went about the process of unloading the all of the stuff off of the unit, and as you can see, there is now a large amount of stuff in the immediate area surrounding the shelf. I was able to purge all of my notes and school stuff from years gone by, and even some from high school. Oh the treasures we keep. So I got the shelf all taken apart and ready to go. I had arranged to use my dad's van to make it easier than transporting all this stuff in my truck. So I left to go pick it up. I called my friend Matt to see what the road conditions were like, because it was snowing. It was supposed to be a minor snow storm, but nope. There is more snow coming down than kids at a water slide. I also talked to Anna, and she said that the roads were crazy, and that it wasn't worth it to go gallivanting about the lower mainland.

So I made my way home after spending about half an hour at my parents. The roads on the way to my parents were totally fine, but after that half hour, they were considerably worse.
Apparently the snow is even worse in Langley and Surrey than out here in Abbotsford. For all you without snow, be thankful. Driving in the snow with my rear wheel drive non 4x4 truck is not the peachiest task in the world. Anyways, back to the world of ebay...

Ebay is free if you don't buy anything.

2007-01-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

Well I have been an ebay member since 2000, and over the years I have bought several things, ranging from $150 of razor blades, a kangaroo scrotum pouch, my camera and lenses, and even this computer that I am typing on right now.

Now I am trying out my hand at selling things on ebay. So far I have only bought things on ebay, so now the tables are turned. Take that all you consumers who are now at my merchandising mercy. The first thing I listed was a vintage barbie from 1964. I am selling it on behalf of my mother-in-law Gin. You can take a look at the listing here.

The other item I am trying to sell is a pen that I have had for a while but have never used. It is made in switzerland, and hopefully somebody will buy it and make me rich. You can take a look here.

Ebay me be a it of mystery to some of you, but let me assure that they will take money from you if you wish to spend it. Right now I have some bids on some fishing stuff that I would like. You can get some really good deals, but you have to do your research to make sure the price combined with shipping is still cheaper than buying it in store. Also don't forget that there could be customs fees if you are buying things outside of Canada.

Happy bidding, and don't forget, bidding on auctions can be as addictive as smarties on summer day in Paris.

Bonsai Bonanza

2007-01-03T19:40:00.000-08:00

One of the gifts that I received for christmas this year was a mini bansai tree kit. My mother in-law Gin (Like the state virginia, not the drink, gin and tonic), had the foresight to purchase this unique gift for me. This kit boasts that it contains everything you need to start your own bonsai tree garden. EVERYTHING!

Of course when it comes to bonsai, everybody goes bananas because beautiful bonsais beat brown bogs because brown bogs blind boys by brown blah.

Included in the kit were 5 jack pine seeds, one bonsai pot, one peat pellet, one instructional book, a piece of paper that had some details on, one pair of scissors, and of course the box.
As you can see in the pictures, the whole kit is contained in a small box, and everything that came in the box was thus small. Bonsai size. The piece of paper is critical to the kit. without it you would not know that the bonsai tree kit, or perhaps the tree itself, is 98% pure. The one useful bit of information is the actual latin name for the tree, Pinus Banksiana. Please, no puns. And if you are concerned about putting out your back, no worries! The paper kindly informs us that it only weighs about a half pound. That makes it a perfect gift for those of you who are unable to lift heavy items regularly.

Another critical aspect to this kit is that they give you 5 seeds but only 1 pot and 1 peat pellet. What the directions want you to do is plant the seeds and then kill off the weaker trees so that the one strong tree will thrive. Now this kit claims to have everything that you need, right? Right! So of course they include something to "prune" the undesired trees with.

This is where the beautiful pair of mini scissors come in to play. As you can see from the picture, the handles have been painstakingly color matched to the orange of the box. Although the scissors may look too small to be useful, keep in mind that they are bonsai size.

So today was the day that I finally was able to plant my seeds. Before you could plant them, you first had to soak the seeds in water for 24 hours. You then needed to cold stratify them for a week. According to the book this means putting them in a damp paper towel, and enclosing said towel in a ziplock bag, which is thus stored in a fridge.

I can't wait until I get some little bonsai seedlings. I think the hardest part will be killing the weaker seedlings once they have sprouted. By the time you can tell which ones are weaker, I think that I will have an emotional attachment to my little seedlings. Right now I am trying to pick out some names for my seedlings before they sprout. I think that if they have names, they will grow better knowing that they are loved. Some names I have so far are burt, bernie, bob, bubba, william (bill), and zeke.

So the planning and planting is done, now all I can do is wait for the soil and nutrients to work together as a tree rearing team to bring my bonsais into the world as healthy happy trees. I wonder what the world record size bonsai is...

Ffff-fishing

2007-01-03T12:29:00.000-08:00

Does the word fishing bring thoughts of warm summer afternoons spent lolling on a grassy river bank, whiling away the hours, waiting for some winsome trout to snap up your perfectly placed bait, and thus engage you in a monumental battle between man and beast, where only one actor in this great comedy of life will come away victorious?

Then you my friend, are sadly delusional. I have spent the last few days valiantly fishing in weather that would curdle your toes worse than that milk you forgot at the cabin two years ago.
It takes real grit to endure the elements that seemed to have a personal vendetta against you. When the rain is nailing you in the face like a five year old waiting for food, you know that it can be nothing but a personal attack on your manhood. When you heave a mighty cast out into inky depths, and the wind shimmies itself between your lure and the water, parading the lure around for the fish to berate, before not so subtly whirling the lure back in the direction it came from for a net cast of 5 feet (give or take 4 feet), you have no choice but to realize that it is you against the world.

Mill lake, while far from the perfect setting for a dreamy day of fishing is more than adequate for a fisherman that is determined to dip his lure in the water, and lay the smackdown on the local fish. The local gang of trout go by the moniker rain-bo-boyz, and are known for their dominance of the local weed industry. The rain-bo-boyz are THE hook-up for milfoil and lily pad. So my goal for my outings was to make sure the boyz knew who was boss, and make sure they had all their respect in all the right places.

Even with the whole weather conspiracy, I did manage to pull in a rainbow trout that was about 12 in long. I also saw several larger trout following my lure that I could not entice to bite my lure. I was using rapala diving minnow lure. After several hours of the battle of the wills, I decided that I had shown the boyz and the weather that I was the boss. I decided to let the weather continue its little hissy fit and loped off to the warm confines of my home.

To the left you will see my fishing get-up. Note the stylish gloves.

Mill lake is supposedly home to bass and black crappie as well as trout. I will return in the spring to crank in some large bass and crappies. Perhaps then I can experience the idyllic fishing experience without it being too ubiquitous.

Anguish Languish

2006-12-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

So how well do you know the english language? Do you categorize yourself as particularly verbose? Would your friends describe you as overly loquacious? Then this post is for you.

Anguish Languish (English Language) is a book that was written in 1956 by Howard Chace.
The book contains classic stories and nursery rhymes, but with one major difference. Each story is composed in english, but each word is replaced with a similar sounding yet totally unrelated word.

The most well known story from this book is that of Ladle Rat Rotten Hut (Little Red Riding Hood). The idea behind this book is to showcase the versatility of the english language, and of course it is quite the amusing read. Unless you know what the title is, it can be very difficult to decipher what is going on in the story. Often it is much easier to understand the stories if you read them out loud.

Single words take on new meanings, stuttered could be "started", murder could be "mother" and so on. One word can also mean several words, for example, Evanescent could be "if it isn't"
Several english words can also form one word, like groin-murder equals "grandmother". Lets start you off with a short easy nursery rhyme. Legs gate raiding!

Oiled Murder Harbored

Oiled Murder Harbored
Wen tutor cardboard
Toe garter pore darker born.
Wenchy gut dare
Door cardboard worse bar
An soda pore dark hat known.

Because this is so well known, it is fairly easy to decipher. When using these kind of word combinations you are bound to come up with some crazy combos, such as...

Conning otters moaning
badger canned gas wart
Hankering ardor cloys
way dun heifer half mush moaning
dare enter envelopes ply

Marry Hatter Ladle Limb

Marry hatter ladle limb
Itch fleas worse widest snore.
An ever-wear debt Marry win
Door limb worse shorter gore.

Also included are several "thumb thongs", such as "Hormone Derange". No it is not a song about the perils of mad cow disease, nor is it about office politics...

Hormone Derange

O gummier hum warder buffer-lore rum
Enter dare enter envelopes ply,
Ware soiled'em assured adage cur-itching ward
An disguise earn it clotty oil die.

Harm, hormone derange,
Warder dare enter envelopes ply,
Ware soiled'em assured adage cur-itching ward
An disguise earn it clotty oil die.

Anguish Languish is long out of print, and it is very hard to procure a copy of the book. You can find old copies online ranging in price from $160 to $420 (USD). The copyright has expired on this book, so all the stories and songs can be copied freely. For more of these delightful stories, you can visit this site which has posted the entire book.

Some more stories...

Do Black people love you?

2006-12-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own"--Jonathan Swift

I hope you understand the term satire. Because that is what this site is all about. Very well done site that deals with race and stereotypes through satire. If you don't understand the fine nuances of good satire, do not go to this site. Meet johnny and sally, who are loved by black people everywhere.

You must look at the letters section where people write in about the site. It is surprising how many people do not get that the site is joke and go ballistic on poor johnny and sally.

Well done satire and humour is a great way address hot-button issues that often are very controversial to discuss. These topics can set off more explosions than a chainsmoker in fireworks factory. Nevertheless, these issues need to be discussed to create awareness and discussion. Whether the topic is racism, environmentalism, expired food or politics, intelligent discourse is much preferred over heated rhetoric.

www.blackpeopleloveus.com

Beat Kids! Its funny.

2006-11-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

No, not literally of course. These videos are of kids interviewing adults and getting away with asking outrageous questions because they are kids. Brilliantly written and yet only slightly offensive. This was a segment from a tv show called wonder showzen. Gamble gamble gamble die..... if you only have time for one, watch the exploitation one first.

Who did you exploit today
Horse track
Beauty Pageant
Butcher Shop
Little Hitler

Bobby's first tooth

2006-11-25T00:19:00.000-08:00

As the inaugural post, this had better be a good one. I was able to suss out this crazy auction on ebay where a dad has listed his sons tooth for sale for 100,000 dollars! Apparently the tooth fairy tried to unionize, and was shut down by corporate (santa's workshop perhaps?!?)so this father decided to take matters into his own hands and try and make some money for his kid. Oh yeah, and maybe to pay off some gambling debts, and the mercedes. Don't forget about that 60" flat screen that somehow found its way onto his visa. Below is the actual unedited text from the auction along with the high quality photo

"Yes thats right, For sale in this auction is my sons first tooth and anything that I can fit into a 12"x12" box at no charge, The tooth is we have alot of medical and personal bills that were falling behind on so i will try about anything, hopefully some of the people that are very wealthy would want to help someone like me out I will ship as soon as I receive the money if someone buys this weird item. thanks"

If somebody actually buys this tooth, then parents around the world are screwed. Kids will demand exorbitant amounts from the tooth fairy, and parents will be at their wit end, mortgaging their homes to appease their children.

Heck, when I was a kid, I got one dollar for one tooth, and that was only if I allowed my dad to pull out with his fingers the still attached bicuspid out of my mouth. He would pluck it out like loose batteries from a dropped remote. For one dollar! At the time considering my allowance was two dollars every two weeks, a dollar seemed like a boon. I wasn't about to look a gift dad in the mouth. I hustled that dollar right down to corner store.

Anyway, since I only have about 90k in wallet, not the requisite 100, I guess I'll have to pass on this auction. If anybody scoops up this deal, let me know so I can "congratulate" you.
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The actual ebay auction