Is Snapple still available?
On Sunday I had a craving for a lemon Snapple. This was in the evening, on the day when I had had a long run in the morning where I probably didn’t have enough hydration. So, needless to say, I was thirsty.
Going home from the improv jam I went into Safeway and looked through the cold drink section and couldn’t find any. I stopped off at a 7-11 as well, and had the same story. Now that I think about it, I can’t recall the last time I saw a Snapple for sale.
They have a functioning website, but that proves nothing in Canada.

Years ago there was a show called Dark Angel on television. It was hyped a lot because it was made by James Cameron, who I am sure you are aware is well known for his science-fiction movies.
Anyway, I faithfully watched it for one and a half seasons. I was usually busy when it was playing, but I recorded it so I could catch it later. Then one day something happened and I lost the recording. A single episode was missed. I then noticed that I felt no sense of loss over this tragedy. Apparently I didn’t care. Only momentum was keeping me watching the show.
I never did watch another episode.
The television show Lost was hyped a lot and many people said it was good. So when it went into reruns I started watching it. Several episodes were skipped because the television network didn’t know how to broadcast a show consistently. Still I got the gist of what was going on and it was interesting.
Now in the second season, that interest is waning. Nothing ever happens. I think this is going to head the same way as “Dark Angel”.
The killer seems to be the last new episode broadcast. It was on the same time as a new show called Free Ride. I was out at the time so I could only record one. I had to see Free Ride because I knew the lead actor. (Literally. I was in a class he taught on improv. He’s a nice fellow.) I figured I could catch the missing (no pun intended) episode of Lost at some later date, or figure out how to bittorrent it. But I feel no need to do that. There is no sense of loss.
Maybe this is a chance to reclaim some more free time?

This weekend I made an accomplishment.
I have gone through all the old computers and sucked all the pertinent data off of them. All I have left to do is delete any old files lurking around and then I can chuck them off the balcony and let them be some lower dweller’s problem.
Maybe we’ll call the balcony plan B.

Holy gronk! I haven’t updated in awhile.
Nothing too exciting to report. My free time has been spent trying to clear off the data of old Macintosh computers. (And an old Newton.) It’s not exactly edge of your seat excitement, but it needs to be done. In my mind everything will go better once this is done. I can get rid of the old computers that litter this place. And then concentrate on other projects.
I need to make a “To Do” list of all the other projects I’ve been interested in.
I’m also impressed that I have been keeping my condo fairly clean. Usually if there is no threat of anyone visiting, it slides towards the bad. But I have been setting time aside to keep it in good condition. I have no fear of anyone dropping by at the last minute because I am ready for them. However I have probably jinxed myself by mentioning this.
Next week my sister will be visiting Calgary from Miami. I’m picking her up from the airport, despite being in a different city. Then I take her to the parent’s place. I haven’t seen her in a year and a half, so I’m looking forward to this. I just have to figure out how long it takes to drive to Calgary from Edmonton so I can hit the airport when her plane arrives.

Today I received an email from my father.
He was reminding me of a few things to take care of. But at the end of it, since it was his birthday recently, he mentioned how old he was. I found this kind of shocking. I don’t tend to think of the age of my parents. They are some nebulous age that doesn’t really concern me. To find out explicitly how old my father is has brought feelings of mortality up in me.
Some day I would like to have a child. If I don’t start on that project soon then my father would never know a grandchild. This is becoming a very real possibility.
I really have to start getting my life in order and get past some of the psychological hang-ups that seem to linger in my brain.

I noticed something this weekend of concern. I’m lopsided.
I was looking in the mirror and got a good glimpse of my pectoral muscles. The one on my left looks pretty good, dare I say sexy, but on the right it looks… flaccid. I’m assuming that this is because of my shoulder injury. I must be favoring my left arm leaving my right muscles to atrophy.
The solution I suppose is to start forcing myself to use my right arm more. Which shouldn’t be a problem since I am right-handed. It should be my natural behavior. Except evidence is proving otherwise.
I want to concentrate on my running form. I might not be swinging my right arm the same amount as the left. That might also be an explanation.

Really, last night was pretty much the first time I ever drank beer. I’ve had numerous opportunities before for beer, even free, but I never drank it. I guess peer pressure, and a friend who wouldn’t take “No” for an answer, finally did me in. The secret is apparently to not sip, but to take a good swallow.
Today I still felt the taste in my mouth. And I don’t know if there is a hint of a craving for it. Which doesn’t make sense since I much preferred the Shirley Temple I had after the beer.

I have no shame.

Went to the bar. Just got back. Yes, I am aware it is a work night.
I went with a co-worker and his friend. He was quite supportive and seemed to be trying to make me a better person. This involved me drinking half a pint of Kokanee Gold. I apparently need to acquire the taste for beer.
Also I can’t seem to do anything right. I need to swear more. I need to drink. I also need to learn how to talk to women with confidence, especially if they start the conversation.

It was warm enough to do hill training today, but we have finally had snow. I figured I didn’t want to try charging up a hill when it is slippery. So I went back to the treadmill.
On Sunday I with a shorter running group than usual, because I was taking Harry the dog with me. He kept up well for the ten kilometers. The last two or three he was lagging, but he did finish. I’m sure he enjoyed it. After the first kilometer he had calmed down that I started letting him off the leash in safe areas. An interesting result of this was that when the group of runners was packed into the woodland trails behind Hawerelak park, he started expressing his genes.
He is a border collie cross, so he started herding the pack of runners.
No nipping or anything, but he started circling the group to make sure there weren’t any stragglers. I could have put him on the leash again but it didn’t look like he was getting in the way, and he seemed to be having a good time.

I was exhausted today. It was a different sort of exhaustion than I am used to. Usually when I haven’t had enough sleep I try and keep my eyes open as best as possible. This time I had no trouble with that, but concentration was shot. It was because after a weekend with a dog that had a moral objection to people sleeping, I had also stayed up too late last night.
Still it didn’t stop me from going to a model call.
I noticed on the door to the stairwell in my building that the Academy of Alberta Aesthetics was having a model call. I wasn’t sure what it was, and with good judgement shot to hell from fatigue, I went and checked it out. The pretty girl was very convincing, so I was soon being interviewed by three students of the academy to see if I would be good as a model for some event in March. I think they are interested in using me. I have prior experience being a model from being a chronic volunteer last November in Jamaica. Plus I am obviously comfortable being in front of a lot of people since I do improv.
At one point they were asking for vital statistics about me. I didn’t know what my eye color was because I never look at them. Really, how can I? So I go forward to let one of them tell me and she said I had freaky bluish-green eyes. Usually I only get that reaction if I am wearing cats-eye contact lenses.
That interview only took fifteen minutes after work. I went home and took a quick nap, ate dinner and then got to my improv class half an hour late. I didn’t miss much, just some warm up exercises. The class is too crowded so I don’t feel I’m getting that much out of it. So I don’t feel bad about being late.
The nap helped because I am quite alert right now, and about to do the same mistake I did last night and stay up too late.

This was a whirlwind weekend.
Last Thanksgiving I purchased a turkey. The plan was to cook it and invite people over to eat it. A dinner party if you will; For all the people who wouldn’t be able to have a good Thanksgiving dinner. That plan got trashed when I went to my parent’s for Thanksgiving.
So the turkey stayed in the freezer until this long weekend. I invited all the people who didn’t have turkey at the correct time to come over. I even had my parents there to help celebrate. But not to help cook.
Cooking with my mother in the area is rather difficult. I wanted to do this party by myself. She said she was bringing Waldorf salad and stuffing, and I thought I would leave her that, but I would do the rest myself. In her defense, she left the turkey itself to me, but she was insidious with everything else. I really wasn’t allowed to be involved with the gravy sauce at all. The rice and peas were a fight to do my part. Still, it was a good turkey for the seven people around the table. I finally opened up one of the twelve year old bottles of rum that I had purchased in Jamaica. The daiquiris were apparently very good. The party didn’t officially die until around midnight when the last person left.
Interestingly, for a time there were two turkey’s living in my refrigerator. The aforementioned bird and another one I had picked up at the farmer’s market on Saturday. The Hutterites make great turkeys and my mother wanted one for the “Welcome home” party when my sister visits in four weeks.

Hill training isn’t fun. I find that I am no longer looking forward to the Wednesday evening runs. It is no longer a social activity but a lonely slog up and down the hill.
So, when it became cold today I felt no guilt in skipping the run. It really isn’t that cold, temperature wise it is only -13 degrees. However, the wind chill makes it feel like -23. That’s good enough for me on a day when motivation is low.
In my defense I did go onto the treadmill in my gym. I set it to a high degree angle and tried to find how long I could keep that up. Treadmill running is different from what I’m used to so I couldn’t keep it up for very long. Still it was training.

Many years ago I went to Chianti’s for Valentine’s day. It is a nice Italian restaurant that some might consider romantic. I was single at the time and was only looking for a meal. Afterwards I described the experience as “I went to Chiant’s and glared at all the happy couples.” The thing is that it keeps happening. Not every year, but quite often I am there irrespective of it being Valentine’s day. I went again today because I go on Tuesdays before my improv class. Crowded.
At least I got groped by a Mary on this day. Unfortunately it wasn’t a girlfriend. Mary Nowski was a doctor doing nerve induction testing on me. Worse, it wasn’t really a women, but Dr. Marynowski. An aged gentleman.
My only other concern for today is that I took my car in for a yearly checkup. They found a leak in a rear strut. It isn’t serious but it would take approximately $700 to repair. It’s under warranty for 60,000km/3 years. I’m way under for the kilometers but way past for the years, so it isn’t covered. I’ll save it for after my mortgage is paid off.
The weird thing is that after the repair, my key doesn’t always work in my lock. The car starts fine with the key, but in the door it just doesn’t turn. I believe that it is because they washed the car and it is finally cold here. So some water got into the lock and is jamming it up. If the car is in one of the heated garages that are at work or home, it seems fine. But after sitting outside for a few hours while I was at improv, it jammed up again. Luckily I could open the passenger door. I’m hoping a night in heat will evaporate enough of the water to stop this from happening.
My sister gave me a lock deicer that I’m going to start carrying around.

It’s been awhile since I last posted. So I should spend time catching up.
Fah! That’s boring.
Today was rough though. I was operating on three and a half hours sleep when I thought it would be a good idea to run 20km. It felt good to run, because it was so nice out. The high today was +12. But by the time the afternoon rolled around I had collapsed in bed and totally ignored the beautiful weather.
The reason for the lack of sleep was the previous evening. A co-worker’s wife was in Taiwan for a few months so he decided to host a dinner party. It was just him, me and another co-worker. The dinner was fantastic with delicious butter chicken, Tandoori chicken and a bunch of things I can’t remember and can barely pronounce. The host uses Bittorrent and had downloaded a bunch of TV shows. One we watched was Posted in Uncategorized

I have a friend, Peter, who has been more encouraging than my other friends. He wants to actually go out and do things. He makes my other friends look like sedentary sloths. It’s great.
Today, he decided that I need to get new clothes to help me look better at bars. So off to West Edmonton Mall where I go through a large amount of money to get new clothes and shoes. I’m sure I look nice in them, but I had planned on the Ralphbucks going to pay off my mortgage, and a large purchase doesn’t help.
But I do need to get new clothes.

Yesterday I think I wasted the day. I spent most of the afternoon on the computer. I would like to say it was on computer games. But, instead it was spent going through old computers and trying to transfer files in obsolete formats into non-obsolete ones. I finally knocked off the hard drive of the Macintosh Plus (20 years old), and the Macintosh Performa 6200 (ten years old). I wrote rather prolifically in my younger days, so there are quite a number of files. Unfortunately, I did most of my writing in a program called “Write Now”. That file format is no longer supported, so I have to work on the old programs to save the files in RTF format which the later Macs actually like.
Some of the transfers have been harder than others. A few files were written in Nisus in a newspaper style which has been impossible to maintain. Sacrifices have been made with format to preserve content. I’ve also had problems with multiple files existing. I sometimes find the same file existing on two different computers, and I have to figure out which one is the more recent.
It has been nice seeing some of the old memories. I even have works by friends that were buried in the electronic sediments. And now that I have two computers cleared, I can look at getting rid of them and reclaiming space. And not worry about moving them.
Then I started on the old floppy disks. (The Performa 6200 is the latest computer I have that can still accept a floppy.) Most of them had already been transferred to hard drives long ago, but I ran across the floppy that I kept a journal on. From April 4th, 1991, I kept a journal for a few months. All of it written in “Write Now”. Each day in its own file. It isn’t really critical to preserve them, but that feels like a cop-out attitude. I wrote it originally for posterity (I’m assuming) and it would be wrong to just toss it.
Mind you, it isn’t high literature. I would be tempted to store them in LiveJournal, except it doesn’t shed me in the most glowing of light. I would be about 17, in grade twelve at the time. A time when the average boy is hormones and stupid. The final line of the first entry pretty much summarizes it: “So far all I can say is that this diary is going to be very private.” So it is probably best if I keep them for myself.

I haven’t updated for awhile, and for that I apologize. I thought it was because nothing very interesting has happened, but that isn’t totally true. I have a few drips and drabs of… stuff.
On Saturday I saw Underworld Evolution. It was good, nearly as much so as the prequel. It kept up with plot development and we learned secrets of the world that helped explain previous actions. My only problem is that in the last few minutes it fell into the common Hollywood trap: “Hey this fight scene is going great. Let’s spice it up by breaking a few laws of physics and probability and kick it up a notch by adding another hazard for the people to fight around.” All that really does is strain credibility.
Sunday had a 14km run. I had stayed up too late the previous night so I was wasted by the time the afternoon rolled around. I still went to the improv jam in the evening, but I was the only one. (Aside from the two moderators.)
On Monday my Ralphbucks arrived. A $400 bribe from King Ralph to forget that the conservatives have been in power for far too long and have no idea what to do with all the money they won from the geology lottery. I would have preferred that the money went to better the province, maybe by building infrastructure. However, I still am not giving it to charity. It’s going to pay off my mortgage.
Tuesday was another Improv class. The class is too crowded so I’m not enjoying it. I’m not getting a chance to actually do improv, and I feel my skills are starting to slide. Afterwards I went to Improvaoke. A former teacher was doing a combination of improv and karaoke at a nearby bar. The end result of that was me staying up too late. I didn’t sleep that well either.
Wednesday was a disaster. I got into work in a haze, and I was not very productive. In the evening there was running. I did hill training again. I have noticed that I am no longer looking forward to the Wednesday evening run. I don’t know if it is because when you are running hills there isn’t a chance to socialize, or that it is just hard to do. My legs don’t ache as much, so I suppose that is good.

I made a change in my running habits today. Instead of the normal run, I started hill training. As the name suggests, it involves running up and down a hill. With the Kananaskis 100 Mile Relay Race on my schedule, I really have to get in training.
It was a good day for it. There was great traction. Probably because there is no snow in this town anymore. It was a high of 9 degrees today. Traction is very important when you are fighting your way up a hill.
A word of advice: Don’t have a Blizzard as a late afternoon snack when you are doing hill training in the evening.

Once again I’ve started another Improv class. This time there are a record 13 students. So it is crowded and you don’t get that much individual attention.
My biggest problem is that I am the one with the most experience here. Everyone else seems to have just come out of the level 1 course, or they haven’t been doing many other classes. So I am in real danger of becoming cocky. That killed me in a previous class. I have to remember that I don’t know everything and that I can still learn.

I’ve been working on learning how to program in Cocoa. I’ve got a book on it and I’ve been slowly going through it. It’s hard to devote time to it though. I seem to have collected too many hobbies. I reached the point where I know enough to be dangerous. I’ve started writing a program. It could go better, but I have no instructor to ask questions. That’s the problem with book learning.
The program I’ve been trying to create is different than the one I’ve been working on for the past twelve years. I decided to try and make a Sudoku solver. Something with an actual user interface as opposed to the one I have that needs me to babysit every step in the debugger.
Progress died a quiet death last week. I found that someone has written a Sudoku solver that does everything that I wanted mine to do. And more. It’s hard to feel motivated when someone has already finished the race.
So instead of continuing that line of attack, I installed Diablo II on my computer and started playing that.
Why, yes, that game is five years old.
I first played it when it came out, when a co-worker brought in a copy and let everyone use it. I played it after work on a Windows machine and enjoyed it. Eventually the guilt got to me and I purchased my own copy of the battle chest version that had the expansion. That was about the last time I ever played the game.
On Saturday I finally cracked it open and installed it on my Mac. I played a few levels and tried to remember how everything worked. Good times.
Then I did an experiment. I took the saved games from years ago from a different platform and copied them into the appropriate folder. To my pleasant surprise, they worked. I could use my old character and finish the expansion without going through the whole rigamarole from scratch. Of course I have forgotten how to use my high-level character effectively. So maybe I should start from scratch…
I can’t completely blame that other Sudoku program for this. On Friday I started as a player in a new D&D campaign that was based off of Diablo II. It’s fun. Basically a black and white morality game where you go around and kill things. Simplicity. D&D at its core. It brought back memories, so I decided to try the original.

So tomorrow I have to vote. I don’t support the liberals. My conservative MLA has done squat for this riding and I would really like to punish him, or at least let him know that the conservatives can’t just assume every riding in Alberta will support them.
For the last few elections I have supported the Green party. How can you not like them, and they appreciate every vote.
But, in my riding there is an NDP running, Linda Duncan. The newspaper did an article on her last month and I like a lot of what she is saying. The thing is that I don’t like the NDP. They couldn’t balance a budget with an army of accountants. (Plus the cost of that army would almost certainly unbalance that budget.)
I’ve been going with the assumption that my vote doesn’t count. Then Jack Layton announces that this is the riding in Alberta where he thinks he will finally get his second NDP MLA elected. And he’s speaking historically with that last statement, not currently. The NDP really aren’t loved in Alberta.
So if I vote strategically, I should go for Ms. Duncan. That makes sense, doesn’t it? I have a plan, I am content.
Then Mr. Layton goes and ruins it. He declares that people shouldn’t vote strategically. You should vote for the party that is going to do the best for Canada, instead of the party that isn’t the worst. Otherwise Canada will never get the best.
Please realize I am paraphrasing from memory here, so it isn’t an exact quote.
Now what? Was he speaking on a riding basis or a Canada basis? I don’t know! The former would mean I should vote NDP, the latter Green.
Any advice now would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve noticed something about my job.
The product I am programming is quite old and has a lot of stale code. Much of it was written poorly. I’m sure it was good at the time, but its age is showing. It makes maintaining it harder, and new features are difficult to implement because you are fighting that legacy.
Every so often, we programmers would propose rewriting parts of it. This would make it more efficient and easier to add new features. Sounds good, doesn’t it? The problem is that the managers will always ask “Will the customer notice?” No, they won’t. So we would spend many months working on something to make the user experience exactly the same. So the proposal would die.
Lately though, things have changed. I now work for a large company that loves its bureaucracy. This has led to a new development. We have finished the work for a new release that won’t go out for several months. So we have time to do stuff. Now we can change the code, but only if it won’t change the customer’s experience. In other words, “Will the customer notice?” is working to our advantage. The documentation has been written, so as long as the UI is the same, we can get away with a lot.
We still need to convince a manager though.

So I went to a cooking class tonight instead of running. In my defense, it was an event organized by other runners. The chef was John Lizotte and he was teaching French cooking. The class was set up that we all watch him make the dishes, and then eat a four-course meal of his creation.
I can’t say if I actually learned anything. He was good to watch, and he knew what he was doing. But I’ll be honest, I really can’t see myself making Creme Brulee. I’m not a big dessert person, and the amount of trouble that goes into making that dish is more extensive than I usually put into making a main dish. The rack of lamb was tasty, but also looked like a lot of work. I probably will try it one day, but not soon.
The Coq Au Vin left me with a quandary. It looked easy enough that I could feel safe attempting it. There were two problems though:
1) My mother’s Coq Au Vin tasted better than what he made. His was still good, but the comparison makes me nervous. If he, with a full kitchen and a lovely assistant, couldn’t match her, what hope do I have.
2) The recipe requires at least 1/2 cup of red wine. I don’t drink, so it is expensive to buy a bottle of red wine and then throw most of it away. I certainly won’t cook fast enough to use it all.
Mr. Lizotte provided recipes, but looking at them, he didn’t follow them. At no time was the can of cream of mushroom soup used in what he demonstrated. I took copious notes, but I can’t guarantee I got everything down that I would need.

There is an online game that I’ve been playing, UltraCorps. It’s for a beta test and has been a hoot to play. Basically it is a massive multiplayer game of “Reach for the Stars”. Simple rules, but still lots of strategy.
It is the first time I’ve played so my strategy has been a bit lax. My biggest problem was that I made too many allies. Almost everyone around me agreed to non-aggression treaties early on. There was one who agreed but then never got around to playing the game so he has a very small empire that I could crush easily. But I want to be honest and stick to my agreements.
But, remember, I said almost everyone. There was one person, across a vast gulf of empty space who only said “Maybe later”. Well it’s later, and I still haven’t heard anything. So I plopped a large force on the nearest planet and took it over. He seems a bit perturbed. But to ease things over, I sent him a polite explanation:

> Do not know why you took <CENSORED>, I have the capabilites of sending a fleet there that to re-take it. You will not be able to make the giganto, if that is your intention
—-
Our ranking diplomatic representative has been at the <CENSORED> post for TWO YEARS! And your military government hasn’t once invited him to their year end banquet! Of course you must realize this means WAR!

It also has to do with that in turn two I sent you a proposal for a non-aggression treaty. You politely declined by saying “beliebe[sic] it is to early to talk about any non-agression treaties, but I am prone to them, only later “. Since that time I haven’t had any communication with you. Meanwhile every other star empire around me has been more than willing to sign treaties. This leaves me with only one direction to head.
—-
> I had no plans to attack your empire, If you leave gannise unprotected, for me to take next turn, and sign a non-agresion pact I can offer you 2 Megabots V2 as as gift fleet as aprecciation.
—-
While your offer is interesting, I have to refer to “The Ten Commandments of UltraCorps” section 8: “The correct answer to a threat or ultimatum is ALWAYS ‘Come get some!'”
So, I must respectfully decline.

Bring it on.

Bonus points if you recognize the declaration of war.
I’m feeling good about this. I realize I am not winning the big overall game. The person in the lead has three times as many planets as I do. Still, I’m having fun.

I’ve noticed something lately. The thought of Stephen Harper as Prime Minister doesn’t feel me with dread anymore. I don’t know why, and it worries me.
Is it because he is rising in the polls and I want to be like everybody else?
Is it the recent leak that he is a big fan of the original Star Trek?
I don’t know. I remember not liking the guy, but now he feels tolerable.
Do I want to try him for awhile as a conservative-lite. (Half the fear-mongering with no Liberal aftertaste.) A minority government nicely restricts his power and he has to listen to the people.

I’m still not voting for him.

When I was growing up my father never played the guitar. I knew that in the past he had played a lot. Lately, I’ve gotten it into my head to learn to play. My father kindly lent me one of his old guitars. I brought it with me to Edmonton after my last visit to their home.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get it opened. The lock on it didn’t have a key to go with it.
I took it to work with me today because there is a locksmith nearby. While there, a co-worker showed me that no key is actually required. You just need to push the lock to the side and it opens.
Then things got interesting.
The guitar in question is a Martin. Research by co-workers shows that it was made in 1958. The finish on it is Brazillian rosewood. That is from an endangered species and hasn’t been used since the 1960s. They were all amazed at it, and somewhat jealous.
I took it to a guitar store after work. They were practically drooling over it. It was in nearly mint condition. A few minor repairs were needed, and I’ve left it with them. I’m not keeping it as an investment, I got it to play with.
The sad thing is that I found out my father hasn’t played regularly with it since 1961. He used to love to play, but six months after his honeymoon he got so busy that he hasn’t had time since. So I missed a huge part of my father’s life.

I’m feeling better today. Yesterday was not so good though. I woke up feeling fine, but as soon as I got to work I started getting worse and worse. I guess poor air quality. By the time I got home I had a horrid headache.
I’m glad I went to sleep early. Especially with the hindsight I have now. If I hadn’t done that, the phone call I got at five in the morning would have really disrupted my rest. And I can’t say it was an important phone call.

“Hello”
“Hi. The grass is green and the moon is purple.”
“Who is this?”
“It’s Billy.” (I don’t know a Billy.) “Did you know the devil has scissors?”
“As long as he isn’t running with them.”
“He’s using them right now to cut bud.”
“Goodbye.”

I’ve been sick, so I haven’t been updating. Nothing interesting happens when you are sick, so I have nothing to say.
However, I’m watching the Canadian political debate. I’ve noticed a few things.
1. Jack Layton always seems to talking like he is in a commercial. He’s not really debating, but using it as free ad time.
2. Three of the leaders have admitted, proudly admitted, that they are from Quebec. I haven’t heard anything about Western Canada in this debate.
3. Best question for Gilles Duceppe. “If Canada can be broken apart, can Quebec be broken apart?” The speedy answer “No!” makes him look hypocritical.
4. Stephen Harper remains scary. He seems convinced that he is helping the poor by raising income taxes on them, and lowering the GST for everyone. I personally think the GST is a good tax. If you don’t want to pay it, don’t buy anything. I suppose it is a sin tax against consumerism.
5. Gilles can’t say “Democratic”. It comes out as some weird assemblage of consonants.

My person opinion is that I like how the Liberals run the economy. They seem to be very fiscally responsible. The complaints about underestimating the revenue is silly. We should always underestimate revenue because it is so much better that overestimating the money you have available. The problem with the Liberals is that they have gotten arrogant.
Stephen Harper is not Prime Minister material. I think when the Reform merged with the Progressive Conservatives, and they were electing a leader, the previous leaders shouldn’t have been allowed to run. I think Belinda Stronach would have been more palatable than Harper. I don’t know if she would be good as a PM, but at least she isn’t just a reincarnation of the Reform party.
I have never voted for the NDP, and I don’t want to now. They are not fiscally responsible, and they seem to hate business.
I wish Gilles Duceppe would just leave. The threat of separating is hurting Canada. If you are going to go, just go, so we can get on with our lives. Do it soon though. Alberta is about to put a huge load of money into the federal government’s coffers. I would rather if Quebec didn’t get that if it was leaving. Metaphorically: I want the man (Quebec) to leave the wife (Canda) the week before she wins the lottery.
I do have peace of mind in the knowledge that my vote doesn’t count. My riding has always voted conservative, and probably always will. So I already know the incumbent will win. I get to vote for whoever makes me feel the best. That party will get the $1.75 my vote is worth.
It would be nice if any person running in my riding would actually try and get my opinion.

I have decided that I am allergic to small children.
On Monday I attended a small party at a friend’s place. One person had brought their family, which included a baby and a small girl. The next day, I had a scratchy throat. Coincidence? I also wasn’t at my best, but I blamed that on coming off of a vacation. Today, I am really out of it. Not enough that I couldn’t go to work, but I really wasn’t there.
But, I still went running today. I actually just got back. It’s been about three weeks since I last pounded the pavement. I kept up a good pace, and I think the fresh air did me good.
It’s probably just as well that the girl previously mentioned never phoned back to arrange the coffee date. I am not in the mood to play phone tag with someone who doesn’t seem interested in me. Or it might be that it took too much sucking up courage to phone once, that I don’t have the energy to do it again. Take your pick.
Life continues.