Hi, my name is Justin.

You may remember me from such blog posts as "No Pants Day - Not just for men anymore" and "Your mother is a snowblower".  I'm just stopping by to wish you a happy "Happiest Day of the Year".

Hopefully, I'll be back soon.  Who knows, maybe we can celebrate this happy day together.  Just not now.

Aloha friends.  Sad that a month has passed since I last shared something with you in this forum.  Note that I can't even claim that it was something of interest.  For those of you who have been visiting regularly in hopes of updating I apologize.  That, and maybe it's time to learn more about RSS feeds. ;)

Life has continued, as it is inclined to do (thankfully).  I welcome the arrival of spring/summer though I still find myself spending unreasonable amounts of time indoors.  I can only hope that will change, though my posts may not become any more regular as a result (I know it would be hard for them to become any less regular).

I find myself taking a bit of wisdom from here, some clarity from there.  Perhaps it's the route to happiness and wholeness but I manage to let myself just see it as indecision or indifference.  Sigh. 

You may or may not know that to go with this randomly-updated blog I have an even-more-randomly-updated photoblog. Not to be confused with my flickr account (who's photos are likely cycling to the right ->), my photoblog allows me to make sure that none of the photos I post truly disappear.

Neither this blog or my photoblog are particularly popular. That's fine, I'm not in it for fame. The photoblog in particular gets very few visits. I have found something peculiar about many of those visits that it does get though. You see, I have a "statcounter" on my blogs so I can find out how many visits there have been while also learning a little more about each visit. One thing that I can find out is what page the visitor came in from. If that was a "search" page like google, I can also see what their search-term was. Well, you could certainly have painted me surprised when I found out the most common search term that was leading people to my photoblog. I was surprised at the frequency combined with the content. Most visits were targeting a specific page (and the photo that was on it). This is where I have to take some responsibility. You see, I thought I was being witty when I named the photo. I thought it was entirely fitting, if a little irreverent. Perhaps I should show you the image that is drawing the attention.

I imagine you're asking yourself what has drawn all these visitors. To be fair, I don't think this is exactly what most visitors had in mind. To those who searched for and found this photo, I hope it provided a smile or maybe even a little laugh.

The name? Syphilis.

Improving efficiency and other environmental efforts are commonly thought of as expensive and more "window dressing" than tangible change. Thanks then go to Randall Knox of Adobe Systems Inc. (and innumerable others) for showing the concrete financial and environmental benefits of improving efficiency. Now if only our elected leaders could provide some leadership in this respect.

Man tells police 'I've been raped by a wombat'

I'm sure glad I read news from around the world. Otherwise I might never have found this.

Maybe if I turned my "tightwad" nature towards spending more on others, I'd feel less pain and more happiness around money.

Hello. My name is Justin, and I'm a tightwad.

To be fair, I'm hoping I'm only a quasi-tightwad. Still, I understand the pain they refer to when spending money. One would hope that spending money would be an easier and more pleasant activity as there is little to be gained by just sitting on it. I guess I'm just giving myself room to improve.

Two things I learned today.

1) A bear can be convicted of a crime.
2) There is a genre of music known as "turbo-folk".

Who says keeping up with the "News" is a waste?

Understanding my contradictory nature, I lament that people don't care what's going on in the world and then promptly click on the link to get more juicy details on Heath Ledger's will while bypassing the link about multiple suicide-bombings in Lahore.

As if that weren't bad enough, my ongoing concern about the future of our planet has been eclipsed by my disappointment with CBC for the decision to cancel JPod.

In better news, snow pickles have been captured on film.

Hello. My name is Justin, and I'm a photo-holic.

I got tickets to see Hawksley Workman last night (Thanks E!). While I absolutely loved the show, I couldn't help but take photos. In fact, I can't think of many activities that I have been a part of where I haven't thought about how I could capture it on film. Concerts, trips, walks around the neigbourhood. I always find myself wanting to take pictures (you can see the latest on my Flickr page, by the way) (or on the right-side of the page). There's nothing inherently wrong with pictures (in my cultural experience anyway), but I worry that it gets in the way of merely living and enjoying the experience.

Damn brain! Why won't you mind your own business?!

Bigger. Better. Best. Perfect.

Ugh.

I feel like I can be ruled by those four opening words. I try to avoid "keeping up with the Jones'" but I covet all too often. It is not a pleasant place to be as it implies that the status quo isn't good enough. I think that's the biggest problem for me.

Interestingly, I can those four words out of my life in some circumstances. Sports are usually something where competitiveness comes a distant second to playing well and enjoying myself. Clearly I need to start taking lessons from myself and apply that constructive context to the rest of my life.

Three little piggies.

B.C. is a strange place.

Uhhh... Somebody left their air conditioner on and their door open. It's -20 degrees celcius outside. That is one mean air conditioner.

Another one for the "Duh!" files

Botox linked to severe side effects, deaths: FDA.

While the most severe cases seem to focus on a less common use of the drug, why should it come as a surprise that a form of the botulism toxin would result in side effects?

Things that have caught my eye

- Two articles about a Canadian inventor who has developed something as yet unexplained by the laws of physics. Perpetual motion?

- Exxon wins freeze on Venezuela assets. In response to the "nationalization" of oil production in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez, Exxon went to court and got a hold put on $12US Billion worth of assets in hopes of getting more of their investment back from the government. A part of me thinks that's good as Hugo has made a mess of things by being heavy-handed with these dealings. Still, it reminds me of the immense power of multinational corporations. Canada could face it's own similar challenges as it increases the cost to oil companies to exploit the oil sands in Alberta. And this, when Canada (and Alberta in particular) doesn't seem to be truly looking toward the future. Norway seems to be looking toward the future while taking care of itself and it's citizens today (at least with respect to oil).

- While deemed "accidental", I find it sad that Heath Ledger had prescriptions for oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine. Sadder still, is the amount of time and attention dedicated to this admittedly sad situation in the face of the truly horrible things going on in the world (as was highlighted well by a friend of mine).

- It's the Year of the Rat.

3,100,000,000,000

That's a whole 'lot o' zeros! It's also the proposed U.S. Budget (in US dollars) for the fiscal year ahead. By the way, that represents 3.1 trillion. Split amongst every citizen of the United States, everyone would get $10,000! Instead, increases are inline with defence concerns: 7.5% for the Defence Department, 11% for Homeland Security and 17% for customs and immigration. Yow! All this while trying to cut $200 billion dollars (over 5 years) from Medicare and Medicaid. I think you can pick up that I am not a big fan of U.S. government priorities. Then again, I'm not a big fan of Canadian government priorities for the most part either. Thankfully they're not throwing the same amount of money around.

Again with the apologies... I find that I can spend ridiculous amounts of time in front of the computer but can't always bring myself to stick around when it comes time to write in here. Maybe it's 'cause it's cold around my computer. Maybe it's 'cause I'm lazy. Meh.

The world presents us with only what we can process. No. The world presents us with everything. We choose what to process and how to process it. Whether we wear rose-coloured glasses or walk a mile in someone elses shoes, how we perceive the world is entirely dependent on our state of mind and the capability of that mind to interpret what it senses. I believe that the world is much more than we perceive in our little human pea-brains. I also think that every once-in-a-while we get a glimpse into a part of the world that we haven't experienced before but are usually so set in our own reality to understand it. It is this belief that brings me to the snow pickle. I mean, what other explanation is there for a pickle, pleasantly iced, presumably crunchy and definitely green, sitting on the sidewalk in the midst of my walk to work? I, for one, believe that Bicks Canada was trying to do us all a service by educating us and sharing with us a different reality through their recent series of ads. I believe that the poor frozen creature that I saw on the sidewalk was a pickle that yearned for freedom, for a life outside of its jar. Success was in its grasp. Its inability to check weather reports and lack of understanding of Canadian winters alas, were its downfall. And so the pickle ended its short life on the sidewalk with its last crunch not being between our teeth, but rather underfoot on a blustery January day.

It didn't need to be that way. The world presented another glimpse into other life. This glimpse leads me to believe that the snow pickle may have had support. You see, I had occasion to witness the common fire hydrant in its natural environment. While ostensibly a tool for our protection, this particular hydrant inadvertently shared a secret. As the light shone with the rising sun, my walk allowed me to witness the hydrant wearing a hat. Knit, and not unlike a toque (commonly worn by Canadian humans in winter - save for those of us too vain to mess up our hair), this hydrant's headgear let me know that it too felt the cold of winter. I realized that it too was in the process of escaping. Unlike its crunchy green friend, the hydrant had a good chance of surviving as it knew the conditions to expect and dressed appropriately. I can only believe that it is far from Kingston now. Perhaps it has joined the ranks of the few, the proud, the train-travelling hobos. It may be far from here now, but I will always remember it, and thank it, for helping me see outside of my life and my experience (and for reminding me that if I don't want to be green and crunchy, I had better not forget my hat).

1/8W+(D-d)3/8xTQMxNA = Blue Monday

You're probably not reading this until at least January 22. If that's the case, start smiling. Why? Because you've made it through the most depressing day of the year. For some (like those with money in stock-related investments) you don't need the calculation above to understand why. But, the equation didn't count on the stock markets. It considers how far after Christmas (and how close to holiday bills coming due) amongst other things.

I knew I felt "off" today. I guess I've got an excuse.

The Snow Pickle is still out there...

Stay tuned for the Snow-Pickle Chronicles. Coming soon.