Beware of Zombies.

I know, I am a scientist and I am writing to inform you about the very real threat of Zombies.

More specifically, what to do if they attack.

I am taking this directly from a real scientific and published article too.

For referencing:

Title: WHEN ZOMBIES ATTACK!: MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF AN OUTBREAK OF ZOMBIE INFECTION

Authors: Philip Munz, Ioan Hudea, Joe Imad, Robert J. Smith? (Note that the "?" at the end of Smith?'s name is real and supposed to be there... That's part of his name.)

Journal: Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress

Editors: J.M. Tchuenche and C. Chiyaka

Pages: 133-150

The paper (Introduction section) starts off by defining the zombie as:

"A zombie is a reanimated human corpse that feeds on living human flesh"

and then proceeds to give us a run-down on their historical concepts and development into what we now know are zombies as:

"slow moving, cannibalistic and undead"

and that once a susceptible human is bitten by a zombie,

"it leaves an open wound. The wound created by the zombie has the zombie’s saliva in and around it. This bodily fluid mixes with the blood, thus infecting the (previously susceptible) individual."

As this article is written by Math guys in Ottawa (Ottawa and Carleton University), there is some pretty convincing looking graphs and mathmatical bits to show that they know what they're talking about. They assess whether quarantine, or finding a cure quickly would work in preventing a zombie take-over... And they don't.

The discussion of this article starts with drawing the conclusion:

"An outbreak of zombies infecting humans is likely to be disastrous, unless extremely aggressive tactics are employed against the undead."

Which I would agree with. Especially the extremely aggressive tactics part.

The article concludes by saying that:

"In summary, a zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilisation, unless it is dealt with quickly. While aggressive quarantine may contain the epidemic, or a cure may lead to coexistence of humans and zombies, the most effective way to contain the rise of the undead is to hit hard and hit often. As seen in the movies, it is imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly, or else we are all in a great deal of trouble."

Lesson learned.

For further reading on this article, please follow the link ZOMBIES.

For further viewing, I would recommend....

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Knight of the Living Dead

Shaun of the Living Dead (I liked this one alot)

Too funny...

Rebecca was just looking at some stuff on youtube, and she found this... We watched it over and over again... yes, it's that funny...

A fine day indeed

Well, there's no special reason for today being such a fine day... I'm ultra far behind in my analysis of the last 2 weeks' experiments, with no sight that next week I'll be able to do any more analysis. Which means that I will be three weeks behind in my data analysis when I take 2 weeks off for holiday... And I wish I could say that I could catch up in a week. But alas, my experiments are too big and require too much time to get all the information that I need out of them...

So I succumb and write to you.

Feel special because despite my mounting mountain that threatens to crush us all in its inforgiving weight and bulk, taking with it much of my poorly deserved sanity and dwindling patience, I choose to converse with you.

So I started playing my guitar again a while ago. And I have also put a nice Baha'i healing prayer to music which has taken me a little while, not so much on how to play it, because I had written most of the music a while ago but was struggling with words. So I opened a prayer book that was given to me as a gift from another Baha'i, and right on the inside of the cover, there was a nice and short healing prayer. How to sing it is what has taken my a little while though. I try to get through the prayer twice in the song, and the second time I sing the "verse" a bit different, maybe a fifth or so higher. I struggle with the change. I have started to record it as well, and if I could find a decent place to post it, I would. So if you find a place, let me know.

So what else is going in... My wife's parents and youngest sister are coming up from Sydney Australia in ONE WEEK!!! How awesome is that!?! We really can't wait as it's been about a year and a half since we last said good-bye, and it'll be another 3-4 weeks until we get to say good-bye again. But I assure you that the time leading up to that 3-4 week point will be well cherished. They've never been to NS before so it'll be nice to show them around a bit. We'll go down to Yarmouth to meet my parents and show them where I lived. And I think that they wanted to go to Sydney NS, to see what their Sydney lacks. And we'll see what else comes up. I am really just looking forward to even having a coffee with them. A nice chat over coffee. Just like old times.

Well, my day is now slipping away and I realize that I still have alot of crap to do before I can even begin to think about the crap that I have to start on Monday....

BUT, I would like to say that I am glad to see that my dearly beloved Aunt Marsha has written again on her blog (check the link to the right.. Couch Potato). Welcome back! facebook only has so much that it can offer you, and honestly, I now only really use it for some of the slightly addictive games that it has. If you are a friend of mine, and you look on my profile, you'll see that I have a fair number of friends now. Honestly though, I only really have about 4. and they're probably annoyed and have given up on me for my lack of contact with them (yes Mom, you are included in the 4, and the annoyed with me bit too!) The rest of the "friends" are people I require for gaming purposes. I don't know them.

Cheers,

Mike

Remember when...

Just a quick note to draw your attention to something that has been really bothering me infrequently..

I went to McDonald's the other day to pick up some supper because I was running late from work for one reason or another.  I went in, ordered etc as per usual.  Then I watched as they scrambled to get the orders filled.  It wasn't really busy, but I had to wait alot longer than one would expect from a place like McDonalds.  There used to be these ads on TV where it showed how well the front-end of McDs was laid out so that everyone could move fast and get things done.  But now, with some of the stores renovations and lay-out, this is impossible...  All the burgers and fries etc are at one of the far sides of the cash registers so that, while pretty much everyone who goes to McDs orders some kind of burger, all the workers have to crowd around a tiny little area at the far side of the front end and wait to get their customer's order.  The rest of the front end is covered with things that not many people order.  I understand the logic of placement though: since everyone is coming to buy a burger, we don't need to show them the burgers... we want people to come and try our coffee, or our McFlurrys, or our apples, or muffins etc.  

So prime space behind the cash registers is filled with product that only the rare few purchase, and forces the cashiers to congregate at the tiny little area where the burgers etc are delivered from the people heating them up at the back.  It looks terrible to someone coming in when you see a line of people waiting to be served because the cashier has to literally leave the register to actually see if the previous order has been made yet...

Another flow-on from this product is that there ends up being (the other night) 3 different people putting your order in the bag.  Mistakes happen because of this.  It was like watching a highly disorganized group struggle to get you your food because the higher ups appear to be so far removed from the front end work of their company that they have effectively made a place that gets so many complaints from those in line waiting for their food that I now avoid McDs because of the wait and that I have to check to make sure that I get everything that I ordered... 

Burger King on the other hand...  I love them.  Great front-end layout, not more than 2 people fill  your order and they work together, and the wait is short.  I think that McDonalds really should take a page out of their book because they are losing business (at least mine).

I know.  I tackle the big issues eh?

A word on hockey

Well last night the vancouver Cunucks were eliminated from Stanley Cup contention.  I am truly sorry at this as I really would have liked to back a Canadian team for the cup.  Even though....

I am a Calgary Flames fan.   What I mean by the "Even though..." above, is that during the regular season, whenever Calgary lost a game, the Canucks fans seemed to have a field day slamming the Flames saying how much they sucked.  Pretty harshly too.  I think friendly rivalry is healthy, but man, the level of slamming was a bit harsh.  But what I would like to point out though, is that despite being in a slump at the end of the year, the Flames fell to the Blackhawks 4 games to 2.   Last night, the Canucks fell to the Blackhawks as well, oddly enough, 4 games to 2.  They were well fought games I will openly admit.  And this is not an I told you so, because I never said anything to that effect... As I said before, once the Flames fell, I really would have liked to have a Canadian team still in contention, although the Flames smashing would have likely increased etc etc... 

I just find it kind of funny that both the Flames and the Canucks fell to the same team in same number of games.  Ah well...  Maybe next year.

I wish...

I'm a simple man, with relatively simply wants and needs... healthy family, food on the table, and a roof over our head. But what I really wish right now is that I had something interesting to say. I've read somewhere that someone of note (who's name I never committed to memory as it was likely someone of note in their own mind) said that they really enjoyed talking to men over 30 as they had opinions and could carry on some sort of conversation.

...

I just thought that I would let that sink in... So here I am. A 32 year old male, haven't really written in months.. And I still have nothing to say.

I guess my opinions in a nutshell are that the economic ... "downturn" was an inevitable event when you have such extremes of wealth and poverty based on capitalistic greed. No. I'm not a communist, but I believe strongly that those in power (power being defined as elected officials) should act as PUBLIC SERVANTS who's sole desire is to serve the public's best interest, ie those who put them in their position of "power", with no regard for their current salaries and/or future pensions. Take Obama for instance. At present, he seems to be working for the greater good, which is why I think he's still so well liked. Unfortunately though, I have my doubts as to whether he will be able to effectively alter the situation as much as he hopes. He is still a newbie as far as politics are concerned. And while he'll do much to improve the global opinion, I don't think that he will be able to change the problems inherent in the system. You can't change the game by playing it (ie, change it from the inside). You play a new game.

Anywho... On to other topics not related to politics.

6 months of winter. What was the deal with that!! The first snow fall was in November, the last snow fall was like April. I thought that there was supposed to be 4 seasons, say.... 3 months each. So now that we have 6 months of winter, there is now 3 seasons left for 6 months, leaving 2 months for each season. I was really hopping for a nice summer, but we'll see.

I got my fishing gear all ready for fishing this season. Got my boy Alex a reel as well. Last year he had one of those fishing rods that launches the bobber and hook like a rocket launcher. It worked well, and he was able to catch some fish and everything... But he kept wanting to use my rod and reel... I couldn't let him cast mine like he wanted to. Something about a 5 year old throwing a nice rod and reel with a sharp hook attached to it near me. Call me paranoid but... And maybe he's ready for it this year. I guess we'll see soon enough!

I have missed the blog though. It's something that I have wanted to do for a long time, but I just haven't had any time. I've been pretty flat out at work with little time for spare anything. It's been going well though. I have more freedom to do what I want and follow roads that I want to follow. It's taken a while to get here, but I feel that it's going well. I would like it to go a bit faster, but I find that sometimes the analysis takes a bit longer than I would like to hope.

I should really go now, and I will try, I will try hard to write in you more ofter. I have wanted to write here around my one year anniversary back in Canada, for my kids birthdays, for my wedding anniversary in which we went to Montreal, and earlier today for no apparent reason.

Well, that's about all the crap that I can think to write about at this moment in time. So smile as you kiss that time good bye.

Cheers,
Mike

Ya ya ya

This won't be long, but I just finished watching some hockey.  and since I haven't gone to sleep, it's not the 26th.

So in loving memory, I bid A'Dieu to my late brother Chris.  You're loved, remembered, and still cherished.  Even if you are a rat bag.  

I have to keep with some sort of tradition here don't I!  And it's my blog, so I'm entitled to it.  But you're more than welcome to judge me.  

Not a day goes by, still, that you are not thought of.  And fondly I might add.  Fondly indeed.  I know that you watch (over?) us and hopefully laugh at our follies.  And because of this, I know that you know we miss you.  It would have been nice to have you hear though, and maybe you could have played a bit more of an active part in our life.  But as it is, I'll accept.  As long as you at least welcome me when my time comes. 

Well, goodbye and goodnight Chris.  

A quick not to draw your attention...

Hey there, I don't have a lot of time right now, but I wanted to draw your attention to something that I just noticed...

So I'm listening to some Led Zeppelin, and Ramble On came on... So I'm sitting there working away, and then I hear talk of Mordor and Gollum!!! For those of you yet to play, they are references to Lord Of The Rings!!!! Evil place, and questionably bad guy (questionably because is he really bad? or simply held captive by the ring and therefore sufferor of Stockholm Syndrome? I think I'm right. Don't argue.)

Anywho, so the lyrics are:

Mines a tale that cant be told,
My freedom I hold dear;
How years ago in days of old
When magic filled the air,
Twas in the darkest depths of mordor
I met a girl so fair,
But gollum, and the evil one crept up
And slipped away with her.
Her, her....yea.
Aint nothing I can do, no.

as lifted from:
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/led+zeppelin/ramble+on_20082096.html

The only thing that worries me, is that within the darkest depths of Mordor, are orcs and creatures of evil purpose... So maybe it was for the best that Gollum and the evil one who must not be named slipped away with her. She was likely evil as evil gets and sent off on some evil as evil gets errand of inescapable fear coupled with imminent doom and unspeakable horrors.

Like I said earlier: Don't argue.

Eye Surgery

So I went to see my eye doctor (opthalmologist I think it was) this morning at something like 7:20 am... I wasn't there for very long, but in those few minutes, I was moved up from whenever the hospital calls me, to the next in line. So I now have an appointment with the surgery at the VG hospital for Monday at 11am!!

Yay for me!!!

They will apparently flip my eyelid over, and surgically drain the crap out of my eye so that I am no longer shunned in public and cried at by small children (the bigger ones just point and look scared).

So it's a 4-day week for me next week!!

Cheers,
Mike

Untitled

so ya, sorry everyone... I've been pretty busy as of late...

Especially looking back and seeing that my last post was just after school started in early September!! And lo and behold, it is now the end of October.

I suck.

But I'm learning to live with it.

I think it's my eye that's giving me grief. I have this massive stye on my left one, and wholly crap!!! It just keeps getting worse and worse. I saw a specialist who said that he would book me into a surgery at the hospital, and this was a month ago. My eye now has a ball the size of a pea under it. Literally. And now I have something slightly bad on the top of my eye lid.

Jeez.

I don't think that I need a mask for Hallowe'en anymore. I'll just wear a paper bag with my left eye showing and it'll freak everyone out because it looks so real!! because it IS real!!! How awesome a costume do I have!! I'll post pictures!

Maybe.

But maybe not.

So what else has been happening.

The election(s), both in Halifax and Federally. I didn't vote in either. This is actually unusual because I am a firm believer that as a citizen of this community and country, it is my duty to vote. But I didn't because I have no idea who is who, what does person "x" stand for, or rather, what does party "x" stand for? I had and have no idea. I don't know if Harper is doing a good or bad job. (NOTE: Please do not post your opionions on his effectiveness). Or if anyone else out there is better or worse. All I know is that there was no one that inspired me. In any way at all. So I didn't vote because I didn't know who to vote for. And that continues down through to the local municipal elections. I guess the other question is that wether or not any one will be better, or are we just voting for a figure head? I don't know, but I tend to not follow this line of thought, wether or not if it is true.

So that out of the way... Work has been bloody busy. Lots of experiments, few positive results, striving to find a direction to look in. Damn chemokine receptors. Don't look them up unless you are bored and feel like learning a new language, or like immunology. Of which I do, so I tend to read up on them a fair bit. And that's probably why I have not blogged in a while.

Oh ya!!! I got a new computer. A nice 17" HP Pavilion dv9700. It's a happy computer... But the only problem that I had, was that it runs on Vista Home Premium 64-bit. This meant that I could not get onto the internet at work where I need it most. So I had to figure out how to dual-boot into Windows XP or Vista (because I actually like Vista, I use it at home). That was a significant problem. I ended up needing to get a hold of a 3.5 inch floppy drive!! Do you know how hard it is to come up with one of them!? But it's done, partitioned my hard drive, re-installed drivers for XP to work with my hardward, programs installed twice, and blah blah blah blah.

Blah blah.

So that's where I am now. getting ready to carve out my pumpkin. Jeez, I'm just watching Heroes, and I totally see why it kicks so much @$$. Man. I gotta go to bask in its glory. I'll try to write before Christmas. Or at least when I get my eye fixed. I really should take a picture of it...

And here it is!! Notice Steve hanging around my left eye.Ya, I named him.

Naughty chairs...

Well, Alex has started school, and I just wanted to let you know that it is going mostly well. He still likes it, but today, he was sent to the red naughty chair for doing something that I am still not really clear on. I have to rely on what he tells us, and that is not always clear cut. But, while he was on the naughty chair, he was naughty again...

He was also the first to be sent to the red naughty chair.

Well, he did better than we thought he would... He made it into the second week!

Little update,...

So we got the quote for the fence from the guy who said $10,000 to give us a quote on a chain link fence (4 ft high) and it was much more respectable. So it looks like I won't be fencing, and we'll have a fence sometime in the next long while. We just need to get a few more quotes.

And on another note, my experiment turned sour today. It looks like a bloody do-over. The dirty rotten ELISA... Crap.

Hullo agin ma frens

Another day another dollar eh?

Spent maybe...

So we've been looking into getting a fence put up around our back yard. So we get quotes. Which leads me to my question to you all...

Anyone wanna help me put up a little (about 4 foot high) fence around my back yard?

So ya, the price is not that great. Really high actually. We've only gotten one quote at the moment, but do you really think that the next few quotes are going to thousands of dollars cheaper? We put up a bloody garage (well it wasn't really bloody) in Australia for less than a measly 4 ft perimeter fence. And the garage required ALOT of concrete to make it level since we were on a bit of a slope, slight, but enough that there was a lot of concrete which had to be poured.

So, I am pretty sure that I can build a fence myself. I have put a little bit of thought into it, and I can see how it needs to be built. Once I get the main pillars up, it shouldn't be that hard screwing the rest of it together. It's just the putting up the main ones eh?

Well, I guess I'll have to do it myself then.. just think of all the $$ I'll save, the injuries I'm libel to get... but the pride my friends, the pride in doing it myself. And the wishful thinking that I'll only have to do it once and never again.

In other matters though, for those who are keeping score at home, I still don't have a credit card. Yup, still can't get one. We have gone to ScotiaBank, and MAN do they put up barriers. So much so that we are leaving them altogether. Fully and completely. By the end of this month, all of our banking will be through TD. We met with them the other day, and they were much more accomadating than their competition. But the credit card application is in the works, we haven't heard back yet, but either way, we are happier with TD than ScotiaBank by a long shot.

What else can I tell you...

Nothing it would seem, so I bid you good bye!

The let down.

All week, me and my wife have been building up my son's final 2 soccer games (he's 5 and a half) for Saturday morning. The day comes forecasting rain, and a rain day was given.

So we step out the door all set to watch some kick-a$$ soccer, and then it starts to rain... But ever so slightly. So we decide to stick it out and go. So we all get in the car, and start the drive from Dartmouth to Sackville.

As we get closer to Sackville, the rain starts to come down really heavy. So we abort because I won't be having Alex playing soccer in heavy rain. A little rain's ok, but not as heavy as it was when we were half way there. So we turned around and had a really boring morning and afternoon. Alex was upset, but he understood that there was no soccer in the rain. And me and my wife stressed to him that it's ok, we'll just play next weekend because it's too rainy right now.

So the day wanes on, we talk to some people, who talked to other people. And then found out that it didn't rain in Sackville. And we missed his final soccer games of the year. And the presentation of his trophy and medal.

Crushing.

Alex was upset, but Bec dealt with him. And I felt terrible. After all, it was me that abruptly turned the car around because of the heavy rain. In fact, I am still quite upset about this. I really loved watching him play soccer. I never missed a game, and I even coached / refereed one of the games that his regular coaches couldn't make. Gutted.

So we missed the whole thing. And now we will have to wait until next year.

Not happy Jan. Not happy at all.

And I'm sorry Alex.

I am truly sorry.

Pics of the new house...

Alright, here are some pics of our new house.

And some of its occupants...







And besides looking good, the house is also across the road from a lake, and a few minutes away from a Trout stocked lake!!! YAY FOR ME!!!!

oh lucky day for you!!

Yup, another post from me!!

Oh how happy you must be to read me again.

So... Alot of things have been going on lately.

Firstly, me and my lovely family (not pictured below) moved into our new house (without a credit card even) . I love it, my wife loves it, Alex loves it, and Madison loves it. The kids love the fact that they now have a lawn to play in!! I love the fact that it is not a duplex, has beautiful hardwood floor upstairs, 3 FULL baths, one being in the bedroom, a fully finished downstairs, and looks great with no need to do anything except put up a fence.

So that's been pretty cool.

I also took my family to Keji last week, 6 days after moving into our new house no less. If it wasn't so half rainy, I'm sure it would have been great. But as it was, the weather wasn't really... conducive to swimming, so not much of that happened. But it was nice camping with the kids, and my parents. I would have liked my vacation to have lasted longer, but it didn't. And now I am back at work. Doing alot of data analysis. I like doing data analysis because it is nice when you have something like that done. But it takes a while, and my boss will be wondering why I haven't done more experiments. I'll have to have a talk with him when he gets back from his vacation!!! on Monday or Tuesday I think. Hmmmmm...

Still don't have a credit card either. Went into the bank to try to get one, and forced them to change my name from Mr. to Dr. Amon. But apparently I don't make enough. I think that part of the problem is that I am not taxed, so when I give them my salary, they can't deal with it because it is not taxed, so they are thinking that I get less than I am. Grrrr..

I will get one though. It's amazing at the number of things that it would make easier.. Like renting a U-haul to move. That would have been alot easier with a credit card. Becoming a member of Canadian Automobile Association over the phone when I ran a flat and could not get the bloody tire off so I had to call a tow-truck to charge me $50+ dollars (fortunately, I asked a passer by to jump on the wrench as he weighed more than me and it worked, so I left my parking lot before the tow-truck came! Yay for me!!) or even to get a MacPass to pay the toll on the bridge that I now have to cross every day on my way to and from work instead of having to throw quarters into the toll... Of which I am now always in short supply of.

Jeez. What's a guy to do?

Credit

Well hello there again...

An interesting thing happened to me and my wife the other day...

We applied for a credit card. We are finding ourselves needing one more and more as we wanted to rent a U-Haul to move at the end of the month, and because we didn't have one, we had to pay a $100 deposit in cash. Grrr...

So we applied for one. And the other day we got a letter in the mail from them saying that they are sorry but they don't think that we have the financial ability to handle a credit card, and that they were having problems assessing my credit history.

I know my credit history is problematic because I was in Australia for the past 7 years and therefore, because Australia (apparently) doesn't exist as a country capable of transferring or providing access to credit history of people who live there when they move overseas, I had/have no credit history. And therefore no credit card is possible.

BUT, when I was a student doing my BSc here at Dal, with no job, only a mounting student loan, I was capable of getting TWO credit cards!!! At the same time!!!! Yet now that I am Dr. Michael A. Amon, with a job, I cannot get a credit card.

What the hell!!!

I can get a mortgage for our new house, but not a stinking credit card!!

So, I will have to go elsewhere for my credit card...

Anyway, I just thought you all would like to know...

Blah blah blah

Hullo again everyone... I know that it's been awhile, but what can I say, I am a busy man. I will now try to briefly explain why I have been so busy...

Over the Canada Day weekend, we went camping up at Shediac, New Brunswick. The first day there was a really beautiful day. The tent went up well, the sun was out, and the kids were alright. We got some firewood, roasted some marshmallows, and ended the day on a good up note. (Saturday).

Sunday came, and rained. And then it rained some more. But we had an awesome day at Crystal Palace so it didn't matter that much. And the tent held up pretty well. We will spray it with some kind of water-proofing stuff, but it was pretty good nonetheless. Alex really liked Crystal Palace despite not being able to go on the bumper cars or the swings because he is about an inch or two too short. But he did get to go on the roller coaster many many times. As expected, he didn't really want to leave though, but we did and he fell asleep in the car. On the way back to Shediac from Moncton, we listened to the radio to get the forecast for Monday, and low and behold, it predicted rain. Thunder showers even.

Crappity crap crap.

So we went to PEI on Monday. Ya, alot of driving for the kids, but it was worth it because they had a good time. We took Confederation Bridge, and the family was pretty impressed by it. After finding a place for Bec to use the bathroom that is. I love you dear.

The day turned out to be beautiful.

We first went to Summerside, had lunch and then roamed around there for a little bit taking in the sites and candy from this candy store. We went inside this little "light house / lookout" which was pretty cool mainly because Alex has been dying to see the inside of a lighthouse. even though this one wasn't a real light-house, he still really enjoyed it. So next we went to Charlottetown where they were having a really big concert that we didn't have tickets for, nor could we get tickets for because they were all sold out and we had two kids in tow. But there was a free petting zoo, and several free jumping castles which both Mads and Alex loved! After the jumping castles, we went to a park in Charlottetown on the waterfront where there was a pool (we didn't bring swimmers due to the predicted rain etc).. So we played in the playground for a while and again, the kids had a really good time, so it was another good day. Of note though, when we were leaving downtown Charlottetown (the jumping castles), across the rd from where we were parked, were two police officers and a tow truck... they were loading up 2 nice motorcycles that were illegally parked on the side of the rd. I am sorry to say that I did have to laugh a little bit... How crappy must that night have been for the two owners, who may have been in line for the concert which was about to begin, to come out of the concert all happy at seeing Collective Soul (heard their sound check) and whatever other bands were playing, only to find that they had no ride home. Sorry guys.... or girls...

It wasn't raining that night when we got back to Shediac, but we couldn't make a fire because me, being the clever doctor boy that I am, left the wood outside on the first night, when it rained. So the wood was soaked. I managed to get a small fire going, but the wood was just too soaked to burn properly. So no roasted marshmallows for my family as I am a failure as a woodsman. A failure indeed. But I have learned my lesson, and I generally don't make the same mistake twice, usually, unless it was really fun to make that mistake, then maybe I would make that mistake several more times, and then some more. Enough of that, sidetracked I guess... Always cover your wood.

So Tuesday came, and it was really hot, which made the drive home really nice for the three hours or so in the car with no air conditioning. It was awesome! Sweating bullets like there was no tomorrow, stopping to photograph my beautiful wife in front of the giant blueberry in Oxford NS, and then getting home.... Where we had a quick supper and went down to the waterfront for the Fireworks, which again, we all enjoyed. It wasn't quite as extravagant as those in Sydney, Australia, but they were good nonetheless. I think that if they could put the fireworks to music, it would blow the audience away...

Anyway, so that was my Canada Day weekend, more things happened that I neglected to include, like Rebecca's discovery of real mosquitoes. The Australian's think that they have bad mosquitoes, but honestly, I couldn't agree less. And now, neither can my wife. Or Madison, who was a frequent pin cushion. Nor about my problems with Tim Horton's...

But that's another blog. Maybe the next one as I haven't felt the need to rant much lately...

Cheers,
I gotta go now.

Back to my old tricks...

What tricks you may be finding yourself asking... Pretty lame ones actually... I'm simply referring to the long lag between posts. It seems that I am a pretty busy guy at work. And I don't really like to do much on computers when I am at home, so that leaves me with little time to do this.. . But I haven't forgotten about you all. I do read your posts, and think that I should post more regularly.

But Alas.

I find myself not posting.

Anyway though...

So Alex is now a soccer star. Well not a star yet, but he's exceeding my expectations. He, unfortunately, has the genetic problem shared with most first-borns in my wife's family... Mainly an inability to run without looking like they are running like a girl. My wife has this problem. Her first born cousin (a boy) has this problem, and my son has this problem. Interesting thing about it though, is that my wife's cousin (who is over 20 now) has known that he has this problem for quite some time. And he plays soccer. Or at least he still did when I was last in Australia. But he has come over this problem by running as fast as he possibly can. Which apparently cures the disease for as long as one is running as fast as they possibly can. He doesn't jog, lest the affliction should rear its ugly (yet funny) head.

Alex, playing soccer, seems to work. He hasn't scored a goal yet, but he has entered the fray of 5 year olds struggling for the ball, come out of the fray with said ball, and ran to the other net with everyone else chasing him three times last game. He didn't score because he was concentrating a bit on lining himself up with the net etc... but he got 2 assists out of it as someone else on his team did the scoring. So he's up-and-coming. Maybe I'll try to post a pic or two, but that might seem out of character as of late, so I likely won't.

Other things have happened, but of more importance, it was Father's Day yesterday.. I thank my lovely wife, daughter Mads, and son Alex for thier great presents. Of which I don't have time to list. But Alex was most excited about the Star Wars Lego game from the Wii. Of which we played for about 2 hours last night!!! Yay for us!!!

But I would also like to wish my Dad a great Father's Day. Sorry we couldn't be there on the day, but I hope that the day before helped make up for it!! Thank you Dad for being the man that you are. A good, stand-up guy who's not afraid to do what needs to be done. Who's taught his children the meaning of work, while never sacrificing time with his kids. I am still working on that one. I also think that Dad probably contradicts the notion of a sensitive, new-age man, in that I have always known him to wear his heart on his sleeve. And in doing so, we've all known exactly where we stood with him. That he loves me, or the rest of his kids, grandkids etc, has never been in question. Under any circumstances.

So thank you Dad.


One day I hope to live up to the model that you have lived.

Secrets Revealed

Ya, it's another exciting and inventful blog post title. Man I am Mr Creativity eh? Ah well as my millions of regular readers will already know, I don't care enough. So I'm down the coast visiting my parents. It's raining pretty heavily so we're all staying in and I think that I will try to watch hockey tonight with Alex as he is favoring the Red Wings instead of the home-town favorites Penguins. Ah well, they scored first in the previous game we were watching (Detroit vs Dallas I believe it was).

Anyway though. I thought that I would address the previous post and clear up a few things. About the big experiment making me sound like I am a mad scientist. Yes, it's true, I am a mad scientist and am planning to take over the world with my madness. Mwa ha ha hahahahah !! If you can try to make that sound as evil and menacing as possible, that could only help the effect of my madness encompassing even you as I sit hear writing, subliminally entering your mind and planting thoughts of madness, my madness, in you. So thanks for your support. I'll thank you in the credits.

I can't remember if that particular experiment worked or not. But I think that that particular experiment worked... fabulously. Fabulously in that the data was beautiful, the analysis went really well in a custom made Excel spreadsheet I made to automatically calculate alot of data and decide which data to use based on minimal input from me... And fabulously in that the experiment, which takes over a month to do must be re-done. Using slightly different conditions. But the data looked so good that it was undeniably so. This questioned the re-producability of certian things, in that there are two diffferent sets of results with only a small change which shouldn't have changed things. But it did. Bugger.

But another big experiment worked just as beautiful for the reasons I already said. Except that this time, it worked reproducably. So happy day. My madness will encompass you sooner than later. ANyway. I think that I should go as I might be going to the movie tongiht as the rain looks like it may have slowed.

So cheers, and keep your eyes peeled for the subtle sings of my imminent take over. As I have planted things in your head already, you will recognize the signs before the rest of the world. SO think of yourselves as being in my inner circle.

Cheers.