QUOTE OF THE DAY : "Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible." - Francis Bacon

SONG OF THE DAY : DJ Serious and Masta Ace - Again

LINK OF THE DAY : All Things Christie

Thus sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud;
And after summer evermore succeeds
Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold:
So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet.


Meteor shower? No such luck tonight.

Every year around my birthday the Leonid Meteor shower takes place. Quite spectacular, given the proper conditions. Tonight at 4 am was the height of meteor shower. I was out on my back deck trying in vain to see anything, but the clouds weren't co-operating. I did see a few meteors, but the cloud cover made it too difficult to take in the whole show.

What always amazes me about Toronto is how quiet it is at night. Didn't hear a single car while I was outside, eerily quiet. So quiet in fact that I was getting a little creeped out. So I did what any normal person would do, I grabbed my sword. The Iaito is like my security blanket. Any neighbour looking out at me probably would have been weirded out, I cut quite a distinctive figure. Giant rust coloured blanket over my shoulders, blue pajama bottoms that look like MC Hammer pants, with a sheathed katana lazily resting on my shoulder, as I stared blankly into the sky at 4 am.

I was kind of lonely just standing out there by myself so I decided to bring the dog outside with me... Big mistake. Juno sat down in the chair outside, and she immediately smelled an animal of some kind, not just any animal... A skunk. The little bastard was on the lawn right below us, and the dog didn't like it one bit, she started to whine, bark and growl very loudly (4 AM!). With that the skunk raised its little tail and looked like it was about to stink up the place, I managed to grab the dog and run inside before the little asshole sprayed the backyard. Didn't get hit, nor did the dog but it put an end to my meteor watch.

Weather, animals, time of day... All the forces of nature were arrayed against me, I didn't stand a chance.

Even though I'm in the house you can still smell the skunk spray.

Better luck next year.

perturbed.
- Will
   Thursday, November 18, 2004

  QUOTE OF THE DAY : "When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." - Mark Twain

SONG OF THE DAY : The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar

LINK OF THE DAY : Very Cool Car Commercial

He that is proud eats up himself: pride is
his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle.

Twenty-one... Now what?

I really don't want to write, I've spent the past 3 days researching and writing a giant history essay. But today is my twenty-first birthday.... Worthy of marking the occasion.

This year my full school work schedule does not afford me much time for celebration, but I'm sure I'll get some drinking done with the gang, as well as dinner out with the family.

It will be nice to have some friends and family around this year, I spent my birthday alone, and with complete strangers last year, (albeit in Paris, France)hey, it's not where you are, but the company you keep.

That's about it. 21... wow. Feels the same. Legal to drink in the states, not like it stopped be before.

- A man.
   Tuesday, November 16, 2004

  QUOTE OF THE DAY : "Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind." - John F. Kennedy

SONG OF THE DAY : Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around

LINK OF THE DAY : The Battle of Vimy Ridge

We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name.



This time last year I was in the old world. So naturally I've been reminiscing as of late on my experiences the other side of the pond.



Today is Remembrance Day. Last November 11th I was lucky enough to be at Vimy Ridge, just outside of Arras, France on the border with Belgium. If you don't know the story of Vimy, click the LINK OF THE DAY. I was amazed at the gratitude of the locals towards Canadians, which is still felt today, 80 years on. I'm glad Canadians did what they did at Vimy Ridge. Seeing the hundreds of graves of young Canadians makes you proud of their sacrifice... And yet at the same time realize the futility of war.



Europe marks the end of The Great War on the Sunday before November 11th, our remembrance Day. However, the all Canadian staff at the Vimy Ridge memorial have a special ceremony for Canadians visiting on November 11th. It was my honour to be there.



Several days later I found myself in Caen, a small city in Normandy just south of the D-Day landing sites. Again I was taken aback by the immense gratitude I was shown by the locals just because I was Canadian. The streets of Courseulles-sur-Mer were lined with Canadian and French flags, I was very moved by this.



While in the Caen region I took a trip south to Falaise. There was a large Canadian War cemetery there. I was visiting a family member. My 23 year old cousin who died 60 years before I was born, Everett Borgald. I didn't know how to feel when I saw his grave, I didn't know the man but he was family. It was then that the thousands of Canadian graves I'd seen in France all became people to me. They weren't just stone markers with names on them... They were someone's brother, son, cousin, husband. I left two poppy's and a Canadian flag.

We have to remember those that fought for the cause of freedom, they are the reason we are here, living the way of life we so often take for granted.

I will always remember the sacrifices of the people I know, and don't know who lived and died in the service of freedom.

You will not be forgotten.



- Will
   Wednesday, November 10, 2004

  QUOTE OF THE DAY : "Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." - Mark Twain

SONG OF THE DAY : DJ Serious - Popped

LINK OF THE DAY : I'm a geek... What are you gonna do about it?

He is come to open
The purple testament of bleeding war.


"GET OUT OF MY MIND!"

Four Canucks sat in a dive. A sketchy bar and grill in the corner of a casino in a certain American gambling Mecca. $1.99 for a giant cheese burger and a load of fries, the best deal in town apparently. As they sat waiting for their orders to arrive they discussed plans for later that evening and the subsequent day. They were so busy discussing the latest goings-on that they didn't notice a large man enter the room.

He was by no means a skinny man, but not the typical wide body one will observe in the average American city. He had the look of a man who had just driven a pickup truck a very long ways, and then gambled for 24 hours straight.

Televisions hung in every corner of the room. NASCAR and baseball on every one of them, highly entertaining fair. But the man was not interested in the TV, he placed his order and sat there alone, quite contentedly. Now any normal person would have busied themselves with something, pulled out a newspaper, or watched the television. But the stocky, gambling trucker man just sat there and stared.

A wide eyed, unblinking stare. For nearly 20 minutes the portly man just looked straight ahead without so much as a flinch or a blink.

Soon the Canucks took notice of the man, his unmoving gaze seemingly burning a hole in the wall next to them. Initially believing he had died while waiting for his food, they didn't know what to do. However, after the man quickly scratched his neck, still fascinated by the wall, the Canadians realized he was very much alive; albeit entranced by the wall.

And what was on the wall? Well nothing, it was an off white wall... Nothing special. The man however saw some meaning in it... He was enthralled... Beguiled... Captivated by the wall. The Canucks began to snicker at the man, but the man didn't notice, or didn't care. When the food arrived there was no change in his mood. He just sat, stared and shovelled steak into his mouth.

After his meal, he stared again for a few more minutes at the enchanted wall, his eyes must have hurt from all that looking, but he didn't seem to mind. Then he got up and walked back into the casino never to be seen by the Canucks again.

Somewhere right now, the stocky, gambling trucker man is staring at a wall. What mysteries does the wall contain? Only he knows.

- Will   Monday, November 08, 2004

  QUOTE OF THE DAY : "What luck for rulers, that men do not think." - Adolf Hitler

SONG OF THE DAY : Muse - Apocalypse Please

LINK OF THE DAY : JohnKerry.com

These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us.



George W. Bush : Two Term President of The United States... I never thought I'd see the day.

"George Bush, the most unpopular American President in history outside of the United States, has been re-elected. His re-election says something about the intelligence of the majority of Americans, about American arrogance, about American insularity, and Americas obvious desire to openly claim its place in the pantheon of imperial powers."

How are those of us outside of the United States supposed to react to this news?

Thank you to the US citizens with the wisdom to vote for John Kerry, I only wish more of you would have voted.

I for one would like give my congrats to the Republican party of the United States. You've successfully used fear-mongering as an elective tool, well done.

Maybe the sad state of education in the US is a tool. By keeping the masses dumb, you can get re-elected. So that's why they're letting children fall behind in the US.

To me, and I'm sure many others, last nights election result is just baffling. As if the fear-mongering of terrorism, the quagmire in Iraq and the lackluster economy in the US weren't enough... The majority of Americans somehow found it necessary to re-elect Bush.

There is so much more to say about this but I have nothing more to say. I'm honestly at a lack for words I'm so disgusted.

- Will   Wednesday, November 03, 2004