We drove down and had a nice family Christmas. The kids were excited to see me and were really happy to meet Leslie. My 3 year old niece really liked having another "girl" around and wanted Leslie to sleep in her bed. I managed to be good and didn't put on any weight (I've lost 12lbs since November) even though I drank beer every day. We both ended up very sick though from some kind of bug and Leslie has been sleeping all day. I hope she is feeling better for tonight's activities.

I turned 40 today and it's actually feeling like a big relief. I was more upset when I turned 39. I think that it's because that was the last year of my 30s and now I feel like I'm starting something new. Hurray for 40.

A Winter Sigh

Dear Leslie is sleeping, curled up under blankets as warm as a bundle of fresh laundry. She is lovely even as she dreams.

Leslie Day

Im off to the airport soon to meet Leslie who is in O'Hare right now waiting for her flight to Ottawa
or as they say at the Denver airport Oh Tawaugh. Speaking of which she just called. A little bit closer. Her flight however has been delayed half an hour. Well what's 30 minutes when you've waited 3.5 months. Forever that's what it feels like at least. There's alot of snow called for this evening so I'm glad she has a clear day for flying. At least it's clear on this end. Now I better go walk Luna.

Whoo Hooo!

Like it says above, tomorrow is the big day. To say that I am excited is an understatement. In fact I am too full of energy too focus long enough to write anything here. So I'll just say this. Whoo Hooo!

The Grin Who Stole Christmas

It was cold outside this morning. So cold that the wires on my walkman (doesn't that sound dated) were as stiff as a coathanger. The sun shone from behind a panel of cut glass blue sky. I woke up a bit later than a normally would having stayed up late finsihing The Haunting of Hill House, a novel from 1959 about strange manifestations in an isolated and unamed location. I've have been reading it roughly following the structure of one night in the story as one nights reading. It is eerie but fun in that way.
The bright day was invigoratingly at odds with the dreary and sullen tones of the novel. I awoke fresh and lively and excited. I love the cold brisk days just before Christmas. This year is extra special. In fact I haven't been so happy in years. What a nice thing to be able to say. I swear as I walked Luna down the street everyone I met gave me a grin. I guess I was grinning first. I must have been, because I checked to make sure my fly wasn't open and it wasn't.

Tis the Season to Be Healthy

I've had to change my diet and adopt an exercise regimen recently following doctors recommendations and I have to say it's been a good thing. The results more energy and a loss of 12 lbs of excess body weight over the last month. It hasn't been a difficult switch but that's only one month the hard part will be sticking to it long term. However with Leslie arriving in a few days I will have a good partner to help me stick to my guns through the myriad holiday temptations that await.

Dec 10th Phone Conversation

7 Days

We are now in the final week of the countdown until Leslie arrives. It's going to be "the Best Christmas Ever!" She has a new down filled coat and she's going to need it. It's c-c-c-c-old.
The kind of cold where the exhaust from smokestacks looks almost solid. Only 7 days but it is this last stretch that feels the longest.

Size Matters

A while ago I was reading up on the construction of skyscrapers and in particular a history of the Chrysler Building in New York. I got to wondering what the tallest buildings in the world were at the present. As it turns out 5 of them are in China and a total of 8 are in the far east. This made me think about the realtionship between power and architecture. The skyscraper was indeed developed not only to eek the greatest value out of the smallest amount of real estate but as a visible symbol of status and physical embodiement of wealth.

There is a certain irony in this comment of Chrysler Building contemporary, Arthur Dewing, "Just as the rulers and great nobles of Europe, the princes of India, and the long line of Chinese dynasts, used architecture to exalt themselves in their publics' eyes, and as the surest monument to their achievements, so do our industrial rulers act today." North American Review (no.231, 1931: 591-6).

I wouldn't be the first person to note the symbolic intentions of the men who brought down the World Trade Center. Not only did their target cause intense physical destruction and emotional pain it hit at what was perhaps the most tangible representation of a nation's preeminance. In bringing it down there was also psychological shock. Neither is it a matter of chance that the proposed redevelopmet of the former WTC site would be dominated by the Freedom Tower which would stand taller than any building today at 1,776 feet high. The symbolic message that height conveys is clear one (1776 should be a significant number to anyone familiar with American history).

The skyscraper is one of the quintessential American symbols. The great cities of America are decisively recognizable sihoulettes of spires. Aggregates of skyscrapers literally create new landscapes that challenge the natural scenery with messages of the nations towering wealth, American technological know-how and sheer power (I haven't even delved into the phallocentricity of the structures). So what does it say to the world that 8 out of ten of the tallest buildings are in Asia, while wealth and production find themselves centered there to a greater extent than ever before? Is it simply that the buildings go up where the money is, or are other nations speaking the American language of status back to America? Are they too competing, as the Chrysler corporation put it in a promotional booklet on its famed building, to reach "into the empyrean... seeking to pierce the ever- unfathomable blue above".

New species are discovered all the time but often they are insects. A new mammal species is a very rare event. This creature presently dubbed the "cat-fox" was recently discovered in Borneo.

Who Said It?

Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.

Name That Eccentirc Accused Murderer Music Legend

Re-booty Call

The entrepenurial spirit is alive and uh very disturbed here in Ottawa.

Terraserver Sees All

New Out There post on New Mexico Scientology complex >>

Akkadian Driftwood

It's stating the obvious to say that dreams are strange. In fact it is normal that dreams are strange. Once in a while a particular dream experience stands out. Last night I was involved in a project with two women in which we were writing a paper on the Akkadians, a people who lived in ancient Mesopotamia. As part of the project I was going to create a timeline that summarised Akkadian history and then create a web page that displayed significant Akkadian cultural artifacts. As in many dreams the goal I set out for myself could not be achieved. I would get on the wrong bus, or be delayed and distracted by people I met. At one point I managed to make it to a reference book and found that there was no entry for Akkadians. There were "Ai" entries like "Airplane" and "Al" entries like "Alberta" but there were no "Ak" entries in the book. Someone asked me if I was sure that the Akkadians existed. I said that I was certain, but then I began to doubt myself. I spent most of the dream night searching for references to the Akkadians. At one point I was in a library/museum and there was a great stone statue in the middle of the room. It had pieces missing from it but from inside came noise. Clanking and humming. It frightened me but at the same time I felt this had something to do with the mystery of the Akkadians. At one point the statue rumbled and we all fled from the building on a cart of hay pulled by donkeys.

I woke up with the strong feeling that my task was incomplete so I looked up the Akkadians on the internet. This is what I found:

The Akkadian Empire was established by Sargon I after the Akkadians conquered the Sumerians. It existed from approximately 2340 BCE to 2180 BCE. The capital was Akkad which may have been located where Babylon later came to be. The language of Akkadina was a Semitic language. After Sargon's death the empire continued to expand until around 2180 BCE the Gutians invaded from the Zagros in the north and Elamites joined them in rebellion paving the way for the creation of the Sumerian empire. At its height, the empire covered the lands from Anatolia in the north to inner Persia in the east, Arabia in the south, and the Mediterranean in the west.

Grown

Leslie is always showing me these really intersting web sites with puzzles, illusions and general fun and strangeness. I asked her why she doesn't post links to these things. I said if you don't I might as well. So this weeks borrowed discovery is Grow Cube. Choose the right sequence and watch marvelous things happen.

Any Major Dude

One of the things that always made Steely Dan strange (besides being named after a dildo from William S. Burroughs Naked Lunch) were their lyrics. On the one hand they were the epotomy of LA cocaine smooth production, on the other hand they loved jazz more than rock and wrote songs about deviants, perverts and ne're do wells wrapped in something so palitable you didn't know you what you were swallowing until it was too late. One of my favourite Steely Dan songs is Any Major Dude. A song which Wilco covers live by the way. It's not one of their stranger songs I think.

I never seen you looking so bad my funky one
You tell me that your superfine mind has come undone

Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you my friend
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again
When the demon is at your door
In the morning it won’t be there no more
Any major dude will tell you

Have you ever seen a squonk’s tears? well, look at mine
The people on the street have all seen better times

I can tell you all I know, the where to go, the what to do
You can try to run but you can’t hide from what’s inside of you

Hot Sauce Recipe

Being a hot sauce lover I decided to try making my own hot sauce today. Here is the recipe I came up with:

3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp cayenne powder
1 habanero pepper
1 cubanelle pepper
1 roasted jalapeno pepper
3-4 cloves of garlic
1/2 tomato
sprig of cilantro
fresh ground black pepper
salt to taste

Blend until smooth. For a thicker sauce cut back on the tomato.
I've decided to name this flaming delight, Leslie's Flaming Delight after her fiery red hair and delightful personality. I'll have to come up with a label.

Slippery Devil

I went to see "Ice Harvest" the new film by Harold (Crazy Legs) Ramis, this evening. It's being marketed as being by the director of Caddy Shack and Groundhog Day, which is true but misleading, and as the season's Bad Santa, which is just a lie. What it is, is a was a deep dark film about male middle age crises wrapped in Quentin Tarantino violence as humour. It stars John Cusack as a corrupt mob lawyer and Billy Bob Thorton as his pornographer pal. Together they concoct a plan to steal 2 M$$$ and change from one of Cusack's mob clients (Randy Quaid). Shenanigans bleak and sordid follow. I quite enjoyed the film even though in places it slipped (haw haw). When it was funny it was very funny. Cusack's acting does manage to bring a lot of the undertow to the surface especially in his eyes. However it was trying hard to be something it never quite was. The ending reminded me in a funny way of the end of Midnight Cowboy where the Cowboy and Ratso Rizzo are on the bus headed for Florida. Boys who never fully grew up will probably relate to this the most.

Weird Trees

My server provider for the Glob and Wail goofed up somewhere so I have not been accessible for the last couple of days. The problem seems to be rectified now but they didn't give me an explanation. I'm not at all happy about how hard it was to reach them either however there service is dirt cheap so I guess it's a case of getting what you paid for.

Meanwhile it snowed the other day; real snow. I went walking in it and saw these weird trees down along the Rideau River.