It's a Rich Full Life

Trip music from Europe 2009

When daughter Lauren and I were in Europe this month we really enjoyed listening to the Belgium radio station MNM. We also had the chance to take in the Brussels Summer Festival and enjoyed some cool techno music live.

While driving around we used Shazam on my Blackberry to ID some of the songs. Today I decided to take those sings and create a CD for her to put on her computer.  If you want to be cool like Lauren and I, you can listen to them here. (Removed from here as they autoplay which is irritating).

Funny Guy

OK, he's not that funny, at least until you compare him to the last few Presidents.

Prairie boy has fun at lobster boil.

For some reason, and because of friendships that have originated here on the prairies, I was invited to a University of New Brunswick (UNB) Alumni event tonight. It was a good 'ol lobster boil, fundraiser and dance party. I didn't have any affiliation with the school, and yet I was made comfortable and proceeded to have a great old time.

Half way through the night I was thinking that I should have been a Maritimer. These are fun people. What struck me immediately was how friendly the party people were. The Moosehead beer was flowing and the dance floor was buzzing right from the start. As soon as the entertainer (Local Maritime singer Duff Robinson) hit the mic, people were grabbing each other and "Jumping" to his songs.

One thing resonated with me all night. We live in a GREAT country where people are so different, yet so similiar. Awesome stuff, and I will be visiting the Maritimes as soon as possible to experience the real thing.

Things that charm me.

I am addicted to my new bike. I love riding this thing at limits well below the bike's potential, but beyond mine. As my first sports bike, this Triumph Daytona Centennial Edition brings me great pleasure. I will probably end up in a heap of testosterone and metal because of it.

If your interested, the first gear brings me to a healthy 80 km's/hour and I have tested it in 4th, which you can only guess.

Operation Bathouse Move

Cabin living can be a great stress reliever, and in particular sitting on the deck watching the sun go down can be a favourite past time. The problem at our cabin has always been the short-sightedness of the previous occupants who decided that a bathouse would be a good idea. In many ways it is a good idea, as bats are great mosquito predators and it makes sense that a bathouse directly over the deck would be a natural alternative to a bug zapper.

What wasn't considered, was that in a family made up of three ladies and one very squeamish gent (yours truly), everyone would lock themselves in the cabin as the sun started to go down. Watching those suckers scream around the yard about 5 feet off the deck, made for some loud and funny screams.

So today I finally moved it from the cabin. I didn't just want to destroy it, and harm the bats, so that meant a gentle relocation that would hopefully allow them to continue their good work, just further away from our yard. I can say that it went off without a hitch. I wasn't that confident in myself at the beginning, and had images of the bats escaping the house, swarming and making a vampire out of me.

Here are some pics, and you can see that they have found a great new home. 

The bathouse at the start (Murphy as the job superintendent)

A very careful Duct Tape procedure to keep the bats from my hair!

The bat's new home on the "peninsula" in front of our place.

Twitter WTF?

Twitter has been an amazing way to meet dozens of new people in Edmonton, stay on top of local and international event, and just have fun. That said, Twitter has had some technical problems because of the rapid growth curve it's going through.

That is the only way I can possibly explain this Direct Message in my inbox this morning. Honest. Mr. Chambers, if this was NOT a Twitter DM mistake, I have to share with you that I am flattered, but married.

I have taken some notes from Mr. Chambers however as he seems to really have a way with words. An Earth Day Valentine is a very nice touch.

p.s. I hate guys who run around looking this with no shirts on. Give me a f@&%king break please.

Hey, I'm busy. What can I say.

I hate guys like me. Nearly every 5th post is about why I am too busy to blog and an apology. I have decided to resist the apology part and embrace my busyness. So in the spirit of super-blogger Mack Male, I will give you a bullet recap of the things I WILL someday be blogging about in greater detail. Until then, you really should be able to find some better blogs to read anyways.

• I was appointed by City Council and formally elected last week to the Edmonton Economic Development Board (EEDC). Today was the fancy luncheon. Lot's to talk about here as the organization has surprised and excited me with its depth and breadth. Stay tuned.
• Our company has been in the throws of developing a new brand. All I can say is that it ROCKS. Once the brand takes root, we will have a new product set to launch in the fall.
• I have agreed to get involved in a project for the Edmonton Eskimos that feels more like fun and an honour, than work. I have loved the Esks since the glory years, but left them behind for the NFL lately. I am really happy to be back.
• Plans continue for Changecamp Edmonton. This will be a very exciting project that focuses on using Technology in citizen activism. The mission will be something like this:  "Our mission is to innovate how Canadian governments engage with citizens in an age of mass participation on the internet."from Changecamp Ottawa
• Twitter has me damn busy. If it's not attending Twitter events of various nature like the Edmonton Tweetup, it's spending more and more time getting/teaching other friends and organizations to use it. I love Twitter and really value the friendships I ave made on it.
• Whenever possible I attend Democamp and tell everyone else in the City who may be in or around the Tech community to do the same.
• Our company has been planning a unique event in Toronto that will help customers and potential customers understand the basics of Psychometrics (Exam Science), Instructional Design, and Online Exam and Training Systems.

So, on top of all that, I just bought a new toy. As you can see fom the picture below, I may not have much time for stuff anymore, so I needed a faster way to not do it.

Whiskey discrimination

I am not the type to fall for most marketing campaigns. As a stubborn old fart, I tend to like what I like and not react much to advertisements. There have been a couple exceptions however and one is the Canadian Club "Damn Right your Dad Drank It" campaign.

This marketing campaign uses photo submissions from customers, all of 60's and 70's vintage photos, presumably of customers fathers. What I really like about the campaign is how it is intended to get customers nostalgic about their fathers, and perhaps to allude to the "good 'ol days" when men were men and drank their damn whiskey. Here are some of the past themes:

So you can imagine my happiness to see a contest launched in Facebook by Canadian Club to submit new photos, under a new them, Your Dad Hasn't Told You Everything. Now if there are two things I now a bit about, it's Canadian Whiskey and the fact that my father has had a coloured past. I immediately pictured myself digging up some old treasures and winning the competition without much challenge.

Well, the only problem is that the contest is only available to US residents. I guess I understand that they are probably trying to strengthen their brand in the US, and there may be rules and regulations about these types of contests, but you would think that considering their brand name, they would make the extra effort to create a contest for their Canadian customers.

Canadian Club is still brewed in Canada at the famous Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery in Windsor, Ontario. As a side not, in my research for this very insightful blog post, I learned the difference between Canadian Whiskey and American Whiskey. There is actually a LAW that dictates how long Canadian Whiskey must be aged.

And finally, what does it say about me that my longest blog post ever is about whiskey?

Sometimes there is no reasonable explanation

I don't know what to make of this, and I suspect that over thinking it might only lead to long periods of WTF.

Cool Deep Sea Fish With Transparent Head - Watch more Funny Videos

I don't want to talk about it.

My mood lately has been awfully serious and I no more know why than I don't want to talk about it. It's not that I don't like you, in fact it's quite the opposite, I really like you.

I have been in a mood of sorts, and I am OK with that. It's never been in my nature to want to talk about things, and frankly having to talk makes me even more pissy. I am a solitary creature, who really truly enjoys having time to myself to think. So when you read this and really want to learn more, back the f*&% off. Again, my mood will leave me for no good reason, but only if I let it pass in it's own time. If we try to force this thing, I get even more irritable and we don't want that.

My mind is racing, all of the time, and when I am in a funk like this, the last thing I want to do is stop my thoughts to try to explain to you what the hell it is I am thinking about. Mostly because it is too much, and yet nothing at all.

So there, I hope your happy for prying.