All Hallow's Eve

It's been a classic autumn and Halloween was no exception this evening. To pick up a bit of the Halloween spirit I took Luna for a walk around the neighbourhood. The trees shivered when the wind rushed up and damp leaves whirled across the road. The old mansions in this neighbourhood lent a perfect haunted atmosphere to the night. It was wickedly beautiful. These two little boys one a skeleton pirate and the other a politically incorrect Indian, complete with red face paint,stopped and asked me in French if me and my dog were celebrating Halloween. It was very funny as the skeleton brandished a sword which he made threatening gestures with.

Mystery of the Cursed Cursor

It Rains

It rains. Should you leave or stay it rains.

Vote and Emote

We had a whacked dinner that fell somewhere between intelligent conversation and a soviet re-education planner. Sayuri was sick so that was not good. We watched a bit of SNL and saw EMINEM do his Mosh bit. Not bad but it's all so F**@b,he made Voting seem a radical act. Which might not be a bad thing.

Amaretti

The filling has been prepared, the pasta dough is ready and the rain is still falling. It was bittersweet being in the Bottega, the little Italian mercato, kind of like the amaretti I bought there. All my Italian memories came rushing back. There was a time that Italy was my second home, but I had to let that go. It made sense then it doesn't now. To this day when I hear someone speak Italian I feel good and sad all at once.

Rainy Day Ravioli

It's a rainy day. We started off for a late walk and it began to drizzle while we were waiting at a light. Luna hates the rain and she started moving trying to avoid the unavoidable drops that were getting heavier by the second. We turned around and went home. I towelled her off. She loves that. For her it's like a game. Now I'm looking up recipes for ravioli di zucca for tonight. I'm going to make some pasta and then fill it with a blend of butternut squash and amaretti biscotti. It's supposed to be drizzled with melted butter and sage but because of my diet I'll go for a light tomato, olive oil and parmesan topping instead.

So I'm off to the market. I don't think I brought my old umbrella with me from Montreal. It had this solid wood handle. It was long and strong and spanned out like a huge bat wing. Not one of these flimsy but compact things but a real challenger to the wind and rain.Damn it!

Ugh: Caveman Diplomacy Part I

One thing that I haven't heard discussed much yet is the fact that what this war in Iraq has shown is that despite it's size and technological efficiencies, the post WWII US military isn't very good at conquering people. That's not necessarily a bad thing. What the US miltary excels at is bombing things into rubble. Perhaps this comes out of the traditional cold war need for developing a strong defensive military. A defensive war is a much different thing than the kind of neo-colonial exercise that the US is now involved in.

You can bomb your enemy into oblivion, but you can't do this to your allies, the people you are "saving". You can't kill peoples friends and families and then expect them to thank you. You can't bomb an ideology into someones skull from above the clouds. You can't introduce a new political system into a country that doesn't have those traditions at gunpoint. Seventy odd years of enforced communism didn't produce a nation of communists.

So now we have a blindly stubborn president who believes that you can violently occupy a country that you don't understand and don't want to understand, and make everything alright just by not blinking in the face of opposition. He believes that there is a military solution to the troubles in Iraq and there is not. Who is the enemy? Try making friends with your neighbours by going over with your shotgun, eating the best cuts in their fridge and sleeping on their couch at night.

The effects of this war are something will no doubt be felt a hundred years from now with or without the US presence and it was all so uneccessary.I can hardly believe that he has gotten away with this as far as he has.

No Comment

100,000 Iraqi civilians dead, says study

Gut Talk: The Movie

In my gut I feel that Kerry is going to win on Tuesday. Yes it will probably be a close call as in any thriller worth it's salt, but I feel like he will win and he will triumph in Florida. I'm not sure what has changed to make me feel this way, but as this all comes to a close I sense that the Republican party is acting out of desparation. They come across as the sweating villians in the final scene about to get their just rewards.

In the movie we're in they've unleashed the wolves and their plethora of high tech weapons to no avail. The hero marches on dodging the bullets slaying the vampires dispatching the cronies as Springsteen's Jungleland plays in the background. It all comes down to Bush, his tie unravelled, his brow shiny with sweat, looking to the heavens, the flames of the burning inferno of his own creation are reflected in his eyes that can no longer stay blind to the devastation that has arrived at his own frontdoor. He babbles "Tough decisions, steady and firm." His followers have abandoned him. The hero and his army of citizens stand in a circle around the crumpled figure.

"The Red Sox curse has been lifted" a distant voice yells from the crowd. The voices of the people swell in unbridled joy. A tear rolls from Bush's eye and behind him we see the orange eclipsed moon turn bright glowing white. "Global Test?" Bush chirps as he is gently carried away disappearing through the flame.

"With great power comes even greater responsibilty" The hero says. His stony faced silhouette black against the flames evokes Mt. Rushmore. The camera pans away to show masses of men, women and children filling the streets making there way home. The camera rises and shows us the city from above, the great fields of wheat the mountains an American flag undulates across the screen. Suddenly - It's party time USA and "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" screams over the closing credits. So you see this is where it's at.

So that's my gut reaction and my gut says Kerry wins. My quivering knees and dry mouth however say that for those who stay until the end of the credits there is one more detail. The camera freezes on a crowd shot. It clicks in closer , closer, closer until we see the grainy close-up of one man - The grinning face of Cheney. And there goes the wailing siren psycho chord and we can all go home.

Never Seen Before

It never fails to astound me that we live in a time when we can see the surface of other planets. It also reminds me how hostile most of creation is to human life. We live on this speck of cosmic dust and that is it. We are all in this little bubble of sanctuary. Titan, this moon of Jupiter is probably all methane in various states. Imagine trying to have a good time there. Still it's beautiful from afar. This photo is enhanced by various filters so the actual planet wouldn't look like this to the naked eye.If you look closely you can see a Wal-mart.


Titan as seen by the Cassini space probe

Read My Apoca-Lips

What a day in history. The Red Sox won the World Series, a full lunar eclipse, the discovery of a new ancient (can you say new ancient?) species of tool making creatures
and Yasser Arafat is at deaths door. So using my plentiful powers of prognostication I take this to mean that either Kerry will win by a landslide next week and rainbows will fill the sky or that Bush will win and issue in the Seconding Coming just after he spits out a 666 shaped pretzel and is revealed to be the Dark Lord himself (he does have kind of pointy ears if you look closely). Since one outcome seems as likely as the other at this point I may take up the little discussed "third option" which is to turn into a sparrow and fly away. Yes I'm convinced that is the only sane option that remains.

I Live For This Stuff

I find this recent discovery on a remote Indonesian island amazing. It seems that there was this small tool making species that existed between a span of 95,000 to 12,000 years ago "on the island of Flores, a kind of tropical Lost World populated by giant lizards and miniature elephants."

There is debate as to whether to include them in the Homo genus or not but in any case this is extremely cool!

More here BBC
More here New York Times

On the Wind

It's a season of winds and my thoughts have been swept away along a stream of wind songs. It has me thinking of metaphor and the way the wind is used in lyrics. There's the cleansing wind that blows away the old, the destructive wind that tears things apart, the wind that brings good news and visitors from far away or pestilence and ill portents, the wind that blows with us by which we set our course, the wind of opposition that batters us as we tread forth, the moving air can be a spirit that speaks from beyond or an inner voice such as "the wind in my heart". The wind can float us like a kite or pound us like a hammer. A subtle current, a raging whirlwind, a seductive breeze, a forceful gale, an icy draft, a drowzy zephyr like buzzing bees in June.


Illustration by Richardson Rome

This Will Encourage CD Sales

According to this article some commercial music CD's are being manufactured with a program that automatically installs itself onto your computer preventing the CD tracks from being copied. The issue here of course is software that is installed without permission as the author of the article notes

"If some 13 year old kid did the same thing, he of course would be tracked down and thrown in jail for causing some umpteen million dollars of damage."

Huge Victory for Kerry Predicted!!!

John Kerry will be the next President of the United States of America (with a twist). How do I know? Well last night I had a long dream in which this was the case so it has to be true. Which also means soon I will grow insect wings and fly to New York. Have you ever had a dream event that made such an impact that when you awoke you carried that residue with you through the day. I recall a dream I had in grade seven where I kissed the girl who sat across from me in Lit class. I woke up the next day completely in love with her even though I had never thought much of her before.

So if Kerry does win it clearly won't have any relationship to my dream but today I am convinced that he will win. The twist? He will grow into King Kong proportions and go on a rampage through Washington.

If US Elections Went Global

In the wake of all the brouhaha (whatever that means) over the Guardian's ill-conceived campaign to sway voters in Clark County Ohio how to vote comes The The US Election for the Rest of The World. Their motto:

"Let's help the U.S. figure out who their president should be. Lord knows they spend a lot of time 'helping' other countries with theirs".

Who Said It?

"I disagree with the Iraq policy and am tired of people who never served a day in the military telling me I am a traitor for it."
A democrat? A liberal? An anti-globalization provocateur? Actually these are the words of former Marine and Republican Bill Winter of Colorado. Seems there are some disillusioned Republicans gathering in Colorado to publicly state their support for Democrats. Is this an anomaly or do they represent nation-wide resentment on the part of some Republicans?

Noisy Neighbours

No "ghost" last night, just night-owl neighbours. Between the two of us we've gone up five times to explain,/complain to no avail. They simply don't get that this is an old building that they share with other people. The alternative is to contact the management company who will threaten legal action if they continue waking us up at two in the morning. I hate being in that position. It makes for an unfriendly environment, but it's an ongoing problem and it's starting to affect my health, so the line has already been crossed.

The Face.

I crawled into bed and turned out the light. The instance my eyes were closed I saw the face of an old woman about a foot away from me. It gave me such a shock that I jumped and turned on the light. Except when I tried to turn on the light it wouldn't work. "Bad Movie!" I thought as a chill ran over me. I scampered across the room in the dark to the light switch by the door. I know this was just because I am exhausted and overextending myself and that the lightbulb had just burned itself out at the strangest moment but it was creepy nonetheless.

Wolf Follow Up

I just watched the wolf add at Mr. Bush's site. These people scare the hell out of me. They are desperate.

Wolf! Wolf!

I've been hearing about a new attack add by the Bush Gang that shows threatening wolves, the implication being that only Bush can save Americans from them. How utterly fitting. Bush really is the "Boy who Cried Wolf" over Iraq. Now he has no credibility at least outside the US. The Democrats would be smart to turn that wolf image around and tie it to the Boy Who Cried Wolf story.

Angry Dog Week

For NEA

I'm working on it .

Autumn Day

Autumn slide show 673K wait a few seconds for the movie to load.

Making Friends the Bush Way

The head of the security council of Iran has come out in support of a Bush presidency. It seems what's good for Bush is good for Iran. One of the complaints "Democrats usually insist on human rights".

Another great Bush supporter is Mr. Totalitarian of 2004 Vladimir Putin of Russia.

The Strangels (rhymes with Angels)

Tonight we went to see the Stranglers. It was very funny. They played some songs that I hadn't heard for 10 years. The singer was a young buff guy who had replaced the original singer ten years ago. He was obviously living out his fan-boy rock 'n' roll fantasy. He was a combo of Iggy Pop, Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend and Hugh Cornwell. Oh and Tom Greene was there which was very funny. Aside from Alanis Morisette he is the Ottawa proginy made good. He looked bored. He's here for a CBC interview about his new book. Strange night and cold. Winter's here.

The Living Dead Are Mushrooms

The oldest living organisms are revived after hundreds of thousands of years and they are fungi.

Ill Portents

Sinclair fires their Washington bureau chief who speaks out on plans to broadcast a 42 minute propoganda film produced by an aide of Tom Ridge.

The voter registration controversy in Florida has already started.

Scientific proof that Bush has his head buried in the sand.

Somewhere in England

Trish sent this photo of her new friends.

Word of the Day

I find this column by William Safire a bit troubling. He discusses Kerry and Edwards references to Dick Cheney's daughter Marey Cheney as a gay women AKA lesbian. Clearly the reference has a political purpose. Every period and comma, pause and emphasis is plotted when a politician speaks, however the tone of this column suggest s that the closet is where gay sexuality ought to be left. The word lesbian is a given slur in Safire's estimation as he states it Kerry is at fault for "for tagging the Cheneys with the word "lesbian" before 50 million viewers." Well yes, she is a lesbian and that will no doubt upset some people, but it is a perfectly fine word even if it was used as a Weapon of Minor Distraction. Safire complains that the sexual life of Marey Cheney should be left private, kept in the dark, sexulaity should not be discussed in polite company. In fact one get's the feeling from reading his column that homosexuality is shameful. Really Mr. Safire? Is that your message?

Thanksgiving Weekend

This is the path from my parent's place to my sisters house. How many kids actually get to go through the woods to Grandma's house?



My nephew Joe starts into is pumpkin. He's going to be a lizard for Halloween.



The great pumpkin himself.



Outside of Bancroft



Some wood deer



Bristol Quebec

Tuesday Oct 13, Bancroft.

This has a soundtrack (36 seconds) so may not be work friendly. I did this on the fly so there is no sound off option. This is the view over a small lake at Bancroft Ontario. I stopped here and took Luna for a walk and had a stretch. The highway north of here is very winding and cuts through shale and swamps. A great drive.

Crossfire Under Fire

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show speaks his mind to the hosts of Crossfire. He calls Tucker Carlson a dick to his face and asks the hosts to "stop hurting America" with their partisan bullshit. It's a very big file even at high speed so go brush your teeth or something while it downloads.It's worth seeing. Tucker Carlson is particularly peeved that John won't play by his rules and be "funny". The strangest thing is that Carlson keeps criticizing Stewart for being soft on John Kerry when he was on the Daily Show. Stewart points out that he does a comedy show and that we are all in trouble if actual journalists look to him to set the standards. Of course the fact is that Stewart's show does cut through the crap in ways that the pandering media never gets close to. The paradox is that people are taking his comedy more seriously as a source of genuine insight, while the pundits are seen as the real clowns.

In Bill Moyers words "You simply can't understand American politics in the new millennium without THE DAILY SHOW." Here's a transcript of his interview with Stewart.

I Hear A New World

On of things I really love about the internet is discovering colourful characters who had a huge impact in their field but somehow flew under the radar. A perfect example is the British sound engineer Joe Meek, a man who sound afficianados utter in the same breath as that of Phil Spector. He was an innovative producer in the UK in the 1960's. I came across him through a reference to a song called Glob Waterfall which appears on a 1960 recording called I Hear a New World.
Joe pushed the boundaries of sound recording which was considered a mechanical process at the time to creative art.Joe however suffered from clinical paranoia and what started off as a stellar career ended tragically.

Weird Music I: Leon Theremin

Here's an interesting account of the Russian inventor of the strange musical instrument that takes his name the theremin which is played by interupting wave osscilations with the hand or objects. He came upon it inadvertently in 1919 while working on radio surveillance equipment.In case you are not familiar with the theremin it is the instrument that is used on Good Vibrations to make that eeire whoooo-eeee sound.

Invitation

Who wants to go see the Mahones down in the market tonight? Bwah. Dave is sick. It's his turn so I guess that means I stay in and work on my web-site tonight. It's cold and rainy and some nice Irish rock and stout would hit the spot. I was going to go hiking on Sunday as well but it's supposed to rain all weekend. The leaves are the best they have been in a decade so if the wind doesn't blow them away maybe next weekend will be good.

Revenge of the Newts

If amphibians knew what was going on they would initiate a pre-emptive strike upon humans. It looks like we are wiping them out. Based on a recent global census "the rate of global extinctions is proceeding thousands of times faster than expected" according to Simon Stuart who is a senior adviser on biodiversity assessment for the World Conservation Union. The study finds that 32.5 % of all amphibian species face extinction in the near future. This compares to 12 % of bird species and 23 % of mammal species who also face extinction. Climactic change appears to be the primary cause. Aren't we lucky that they are only dumb animals.

Why I love my Mac

Pretty soon my PC will be nothing but virus and security updates.

Pause

On the way home to Ottawa today I took a detour to the cottage and while I am not now in this state of mind this is what I wrote as I sat by the river exhausted

I went an hour out of my way to take a rare opportunity to see the cottage in autumn. I pulled up to Pine Lodge to use the washroom but all the doors were locked for the season. When I stepped out of the car the fresh air and pine immediatley revived me after 7 hours on the road.. The smell of pine and sandy soil is the most comforting I know of because for me it is home, it is tranquility. it is strange being here at this time of year. No one else is around. Windows are boarded up and all the boats are gone. In my mind it is always summer here but I see red and gold leaves, even barren trees and the sun hangs so low in the sky it looks as though it just doesn't have the strength to rise any higher. Everything is bathed in an alien glow. When Jack was younger he come into my room in the morning and say "Wake up it's summer!" I'm having a lot of grim thoughts these days about time passing, about getting older about things changing about living things becoming memories and then not even that. I guess I'm afraid of seeing the people I love get old and die. That and being alone.

We are all in this together. Mortality. We all face it but that's hardly a consolation. Everything will pass. What's all the hurry and scurry for? In ten thousand years who will know our names? So all we have is now. No point in wasting that being sad and gloomy. I'm not usually so nihilistic. It's just going by so fast.

Heading North

Tomorrow I will leave sometime before 7:30 and head back to Ottawa. I feel somewhat better now. I just slept to a movie with really nice sound. Horse hooves, opera, gypsy music. I only actually watched the end of the movie (The Man Who Cried with Christina Ricci) but it was great to lie there half awake and just drift in the ambience.

It's cold this evening. I let Luna out and had to wait outside with her since she is an urban dog she doesn't understand being "let out". My breath literal hung in a cloud in the air and floated away like a ghost. I can tell I'm feeling better now, because I feel like writing.

My sister lives within walking distance of my parents place. To get there you walk through a wood then through a block of a subdivision, then again through the woods along the Niagra escarpment. In the daytime it's fine but at night you would need to carry a flashlight. I walked home on Saturday night after watching a cheesy movie from the 60's about a cursed ring. There is this dead woman who has this twisted grin and bulging eyes. She is very fake looking, but because the movie is so dated and weird looking it actually did give me the creeps. Mentally I was back to my teenage years when I used to walk home from my buddies. It would be foggy and dark and there was a cemetery on one side and a wood on the other and a creepy mansion on the top Moore's Hill that I had to pass by. It was fun to feel those chills again.

After dinner last night one of my nephew's was playing with an Uncle of mine,"your a big fat goof" he said to my uncle's face. I looked at him sternly "That's what mom says" he said in hopes of clarification.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I left early morning on Friday from Ottawa and drove the back way through islands of fiery leaves. It was surreal weaving through the hills and lakes among the red trees. At times I was the only car on the road and there were no farms or homes in sight. It was a long drive (8hrs) and I was tired since I was recovering from a lagging cold and a noisy neighbour night. I went out with my long-time buddy who recently moved back here and seems to be questioning whether it was a good idea. Another friend was visiting her parents in-law. I hadn't seen her for ages. She lives in TO and her husband in Tokyo. There's some sorting out to do. That can't be easy.

I spent a lot of time with the kids but my cold or another cold came back so today I am once more aching and miserable. I slept as much as I could. Not a great way to spend the thanksgiving weekend. In fact I feel really crumby right now and should probably have a hot shower and eat something and go lie down again. Grrrrrr.

A Chip off the Old Block

This National Research Council project is mind-blowing. They are growing brain cells on hybrid silicon-polymer chips to explore how cells communicate and to facilitate developing cell cultures that can be more readily mapped than with conventional techniques. Ultimately they hope to have the cells interface with mechanical systems as well.

Experiment

It's Wabbit Season

Bush bashing is an easy sport to excel at. Here are some experts, among them his wife and compatriots:

Richard Perle, foreign policy adviser: "The first time I met Bush 43 ... two things became clear. One, he didn't know very much. The other was that he had the confidence to ask questions that revealed he didn't know very much."

David Frum, former speechwriter: "Bush had a poor memory for facts and figures. ... Fire a question at him about the specifics of his administration's policies, and he often appeared uncertain. Nobody would ever enroll him in a quiz show."

Laura Bush, spouse: "George is not an overly introspective person. He has good instincts, and he goes with them. He doesn't need to evaluate and reevaluate a decision. He doesn't try to overthink. He likes action."

Paul O'Neill, former treasury secretary: "The only way I can describe it is that, well, the President is like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people. There is no discernible connection."

When You're Sick and Bored

Here's a Bushism quiz courtesy of the Guardian Unlimited.

Cynical Be(a)st

This probably won't make a difference to the way the election swings though it should. If that's the case then who are we dealing with when we speak of Bush supporters and what does that mean for the future?

The Heat is On

Okay it pays to complain. I just got a call saying the boiler has been repaired and I can feel the lovely warmth of the radiator as it builds up.

Heat

My apologies to Dalton McGuinty. It seems that the law in Ontario is that heat must be available as of Sept 1st. So it's not Ontario legislations fault It's the fault of the management company that owns this building. A few of us in the building called to complain. Apparently a piece is needed to repair the boiler. Shouldn't that have been taken care of before the cold season arrived? This is not a ramshackle building (yet) it otherwise is clean, well kept and in good condition so what's the problem here?

Otherwise it's a gorgeous October day. I'm actually looking forward to the 8 hour drive to Owen Sound on Friday, time to reflect, no responsibilities except driving and I'll have all the Sideburns to listen to.

Dinner Party Deep Freeze

I had some friends over for dinner this evening. We watched the debate between evil Cheney and Edwards. It was very different than the Bush Kerry debate. Cheney might be a fucking liar but he is an articulate one. Edwards was fine but lacked the stoic resolution that served Kerry so well during the first Presidential debate. If nothing else Cheney drips slime the way the rest of us breath out.

What I was going to say is that it's freezing in here. In Quebec it is the law that the heat comes on after October 1st. Apparently not in Ontario. Screw you Dalton McGuinty. I'm leaving in a few days, driving down to Owen Sound so when I get back if there is no heat the gates of hell willl be opened.

So I just got over a head cold, it''s cold and I'm tired and cranky. Crank crank cranky. I can't sleep either. Why else would I be blogging at 2:00 am. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrr r r zzzzzzzzzzz.......................

Haley Drifts Away

My sweet niece last June on the river.

Photo Burn

I'm really enjoying this photo burn. I made a quickie gallery page that displays all the images together. No doubt it will evolve as we go. Great idea Shiv!

Freezer Burn

Killing Frost

Tonight flowers will die.

Scarab Day : New Format

The Blog format really "blew" in presenting a narrative. So I rejigged Scarab Day the first eSt game into a new easier to follow format. And it's finished. Something new will start soon.

Sunday by the River

Low in the (Canadian) Poll

This doesn't come as any great surprise based but here is some research to back up the anecdotal. Bush wouldn't stand a chance if he were running in Canada.

Rainy Saturday

Drizzle drip icy whip, sizzle slip windy nip

Border Collie Heaven

photos by Trish McMillan

Border Collies are known for their exceptional intelligence. These Einsteins of the dog world not only saved up their hard earned coin to purchase this Volvo, they also take turns chauffeuring each other on day trips such as this one to the beach at Devon.

First Blood

the Guardian Unlimited reports on the first Presidential debate.

For Those Who Need to Know

My head has a circumference of 23 inches.

Another Burn Arrives

Hey Shiv's Burn arrived too. Definitely a day to stay in.

October Arrives With Gloom

It's been sunny and warm all week and I decided that I would take the day off and read in the park, but no. The sun decided to take the day off too. It's cold and gray so I think I'll stay in and listen to the Burns and drink some cider. So far I've received Gnat's and Leslies which are both really great.Val's arrived today so I will definitely check it out. Why am I blogging this? Tedium that's why. Oh the guitar. Perfect day for guitar.

Curious George

Who's apeing who?

Bush Looked Nervous

I was surprised at what an amatuer Bush looked like during this "debate". Early on he was off-centered and he never quite recovered. However he kept pounding his head against the wall in hopes that someone would believe him because he was full of "Gee Whiz and Shucks: Kerry's stiffness worked for him, with his knowledge in that it made Bush squirm. And yet the American media seems to adore Bush. In the end Bush still may win . How sad for us all.