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Friday, September 30, 2005
  Bush Speech Creator
This is really funny! A fun Flash Movie, you get to make your own George Bush speech... Hehehe...
 
Thursday, September 29, 2005
  Latino helps Newcastle into Europe? Only in the movies - Sport - Times Online
Latino helps Newcastle into Europe? Only in the movies - Sport - Times Online

A decent article about GOAL! - Unfortunately no North American Release dates available on IMDB...
 
  20Q.net
Jack and George got this cool little electronic game for their Birthday, it's called 20Q, for 20 Questions... (Here's a web link - http://www.radicagames.com/index.cfm?event=showProdDetail&id=5&categoryId=3 It's very neat because we'd been playing this game a fair bit over the summer, while camping, around the fire, you know you go around and people ask questions, typically w/ a yes/no answer, and you try to narrow down what the person is thinking about... So the way the game works is you think of something and the toy asks you questions and you respond, after 20 questions it tries to guess what you're thinking of and quite often it's correct... Anyhow, just found a web version of this game, it's a fun little diversion, check it out:

http://www.20q.net/index.html
 
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
  Weekend EPL Match Predictions
Man City v Everton
I think Man City will bounce back and win this one... Everton are completly lacking confidence this season, they've also got injury problems... Pierce will know that City need a win and will have the lads up for it.
Prediction: Citeh

Arsenal v Birmingham
Arsenal have too much class, even without Henry and Bergkamp for Birmingham... Especially at home...
Prediction: Gunners

Villa v Boro
O'Leary seems to have things clicking pretty good with the Villans, they're playing with some confidence, Milner is doing well, Boro just got spanked by Sunderland, I think the home side will take this one...
Prediction: Villa

Blackburn v West Brom
Both these teams are pretty sh*te, Blackburn suprised everyone with their win against Man United, so they'll stroll out and fail to trouble West Brom, I predict a boring 0-0...
Prediction: Draw

Charlton v Tottenham
This should be a great match, and should be selected for television... Both Charlton and Tottenham have invested in some quality over the past few years and I expect will be fighting for a European spot come the end of the season... It's a close one to call, but I think Tottenham might just outclass Charlton, although I could see this one going either way...
Prediction: Tottenham

Fulham v ManUre
Unfortunately I think United will win this one... However, I would LOVE IT, LOVE IT, if Fulham would beat them!
Prediction: United.

Portsmouth v Newcastle
Newcastle expect to have Dyer back in the line-up, I think with N'Zogbia playing so well, Parker, Dyer, and probably Bowyer, Newcaslte will boss this game, and our pace will be too much for Portsmouth, should be a comfortable victory with ex-mags LuaLua down with bloody Malaria and Robert unavailable due to the wacky transfer-cum-loan deal thing...
Prediction: Howay the Lads - We should win this by at least 2 goals...

Wigan v Bolton
Bolton are a very, very difficult side to play against, I think they'll win this for sure...
Prediction: Bolton

Liverpool v Chelsea
I think Chelsea will win this one... I don't really rate Liverpool much this season, I think Crouch was a bad signing, I think Gerrard is really the only thing keeping this team in contention this year, he's the only player with heart... I was suprised that Liverpool held Chelski in the Champs League, but there's no way they can stop the juggernaut for 180 minutes...
Preduction: Chelsea

Sunderland v Westham
I think Sunderland will have a lot of confidence now that they've secured their first win... The crowd will be behind them and I think they'll match West Ham... West Ham have been difficult to play against and are picking up lots of points...
Prediction: Draw

Let's see how accurate I am come Sunday afternoon!
 
  Pulse24 - Toronto's News
http://www.pulse24.com/Sports/Top_Story/20050928-002/page.asp
Seems like the Leafs might suck this year...
 
  Update... Shmupdate....
Time to post a little blog action...

Watched the 1st episode of The Amazing Race, Season Eight tonight... We actually missed it on Tuesday, so I downloaded it via BitTorrent, if you're not already familiar with this technology, you really should be, it's the best way to watch shows when YOU want to watch them... Grab a BitTorrent client, like ABC or Azureus, then hit www.mininova.org and you can download all kinds of stuff, but TV Shows are particularly easy to get... Nice thing is they are great quality, commercials cut out, and then make sure your PC has a video card w/ TV-Out capability, or burn it to DVD or get a modded XBOX running XBOX Media Center and connect it to your home PC... Ah to be a GEEK!

Anyhow, it makes me crazy seeing all of these bloody christians praying and what-not in order to do well in the race, I mean, can they honestly think that 'GOD' gives a flying F*CK about people in a reality TV show??? Gimme a break... These people should visit this web site - http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/intro.html

I also thought it was really ironically funny that the token african american contestants actually had the surname of Black, and so they were referred to as 'The Black Family', unfortunately they fell at the first hurdle and were eliminated, but it was, and I think will be a fairly exciting show this season, some of the families will have quite a bit of drama...

Another show we've been watching lately is Prison Break, the acting isn't the greatest, but it's got a rather unique storyline and the cliffhangers each week are killer!!! I've been downloading these as well and will prob. burn them to DVD...

Enjoyed a few pints of Hockley Valley Dark (Most Craft Brewers have SH1TE websites!) tonight, it is a REALLY, REALLY nice English Style Dark Ale! Excellent stuff, highly recommended... This is the type of beer you don't even have to store in the fridge, just leave it on the floor, drink it a few degrees below room temperature, preferably along with haggis and chips...

This Saturday, Oct 1st is the Winking Judge Brew Fest, looking forward to a good time!
 
Thursday, September 22, 2005
  Newcastle United | Interactive | Wallpapers
Some new wallpapers have been posted on the official NUFC site:
http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Downloads/0,,10278,00.html
 
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
  My Knee...
Went to my family Dr. yesterday, to have him check out my knee... I'm suffering from Prepatellar Bursitis... Basically swelling of the Prepatellar Bursa... Caused by the direct trauma (landing on the stairs, ouch!) It will heal on it own, but I need to rest it as much as possible, avoid doing anything that makes it hurt (like kneeling), hopefully within another month it'll be good enough that I can start playing indoor soccer again!

Here's a great site with TONNES of info:
http://www.emedicine.com/pmr/topic118.htm
 
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
  Newcastle's Strike Force

Isn't that a beautiful sight?? Let's hope we see many, many, more scenes like this over the next 9 months!
 
Monday, September 19, 2005
  The GIF Pronunciation Page
The GIF Pronunciation Page

Fascinating site that states quite authoritatively that GIF should be prounced with a soft 'g' sound like JIFF, not with a hard 'g' sound like GIFT. Crazy...
 
Sunday, September 18, 2005
  Shearer, Owen and Zoggy bring Goals to Newcastle
Crisis? What crisis... Shearer, Owen and N'Zogbia each score second-half goals to bring Newcastle their first win of the season!

I was quite pleased to be able to watch this game, using PPLive, it's some streaming site based out of China. Football Files posts a weekend schedule with hotlinks to the various streams... Very cool stuff!

The Canadian channels decided against picking
up this game, is it didn't include Chelsea, Man United or Arsenal, so of course, no one could possible be interested in watching it right?

This picture shows N'Zogbia taking the ball around Freidel to score Newcastle's 3rd. We were down to 10 men at this point, Taylor having been sent off for a second bookable offense against Bellamy... Check out all the empty seats, I guess no one from Blackburn wanted to watching this match either! They must have known they were in for a beating :)
 
Saturday, September 17, 2005
  Geeks on Film


Scenes of wild celebration of Charlies N'Zogbia's 78th minute equalizing strike v. Fulham... Look carefully at the guy on the LEFT... Look familiar?

My mate Richard taped this for me, and I've taken a pic w/ my camera to post up for proof! This was shown on the EPL Review show on Fox Sports World Canada on Sunday the 11th...

Here's the full match report...

 
Thursday, September 15, 2005
  Sudoku - A Cool Puzzle...

I was introduced to Sudoku while trying to find a way to kill spare time in the airports and on the flights this weekend... On the right I've linked to a typical starting point for this puzzle, anyhow, it's really fun, you can buy books of these puzzles (that you complete on paper, sort of like a crossword puzzle), and they can take (depending on difficulty level), anywhere from around 20 minutes to an hour...

Here the Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodoku

Here's a link to a web site w/ an online version you can try out...

http://www.websudoku.com/

Let me know what you think? Do you like it? Have you tried it before? Any other cool sites?
 
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
  A Night out in Rapperswil
Had a nice walk around and dinner in Rapperswil (a small medieval town on the north shore of the south-Eastern park of Lake Zurich...

It's funny because Arlene and I went to Rapperswil last year on our last day in Switzerland as well, and while we cruised around a bit, we finally picked a restaurant, and guess what? We ended up eating at the same place tonight! Bizarre eh?

This first one off on the right is taken from up on this castle looking out over the rooftops...



Yes, I did finally bust out my camera, here are a few pics:

The sun was setting, and this guy was fishing, I thought it was a perfect little shot!



Ok, it's just the moon, but I'd never really tried to take a picture of the moon before with the nice ZOOM lens...


A little walkway flanked on either side with these cool little trees...


Bambi!

Well I'm up at like 6:30am tomorrow, heading to the airport for 7:15am, so I'm off!
 
  Newcastle v Fulham - My Day & Match Reaction

Yeah, I was at the match this weekend!!!

It was a totally amazing experience... The noise in the stadium was awesome, and while the result didn't go as planned, clearly Michael Owen hadn't read the script clearly, or he would have known that he was supposed to score a hattrick!

The day started off a bit shaky. My flight from Toronto to London Heathrow was delayed an hour, but I still landed at around 7:30, with what I thought was plenty of time to make my 9:50am connecting flight to Newcastle... The plane taxied for a while before getting to the gate, followed by about a 10 minute walk to the shuttle bus, waited another 10 minutes, then a 15 minute drive to Terminal 1, then a 15 minute in the security line-up, so now it's about 8:35am, at this point, I am seriously considering that perhaps the plane crashed while I was dozing off and I am in fact, in hell, which consists of a series of 10 minute walks through an airport terminal followed by waiting in line... repeat ad infinitum... Anyway, my gate is supposed to close at 9:20am, and I find there's a line of HUNDREDS of people (which was barely moving) to get through immigration... Ugh... I finally make it through by about 9:30am, and SPRINT (ok I stopped to breathe a few times), and made to the gate as the flight was boarding!

While waiting in the line, I figured I better give Adrian a call, (cuz I said I would) to let him know the situation... "phone says no" I was sure that my mobility phone had worked in the UK before... Who knows whether they no longer having a roaming agreement or what, but no joy, so I couldn't let Adrian know I'd made my flight...

Ok, back to boarding the flight to the Toon.... As I walk past first class and into coach, who do I see? George bloody Graham! (For those of you who don't know, he is a scottish former player and manager, managed Arsenal, Tottenham, etc) I wave and tell him that he's shite... Just kidding, I didn't say anything to him, but he WAS really there! Later in the day, we spot him on TV as a pundit for the late kick off Middlesboro v Arsenal match...

So I land in Newcastle, grab my bag, walk out and to my delight Adrian is there to pick me up, joy! We head into town, pick up another Canadian, Brett, a co-worker from Adrian's company from Vancouver who is over for business, but attending his first Toon match. Then we head to a sports store in the city centre to do some shopping...


.George Graham: Back in the top flight!

Everything is on sale in the place, I could have easily spent 2 hours in there, and
£200 pounds, but I somehow manage to control myself, and just pick up a new home jersey for
£11, and a few other little things. Next we quickly pop into 'The Back Page', a superb little sports memorabilia shop, TONNES of old match programs, books, videos, Corinthians figurines, etc, etc, etc... I snatch up a few more little treats and then we're off...

We drop off our stuff back at Adrian's place, grab a taxi back into town and head to Bodega, a fantastic pub, absolutely packed with Toon fans, and serving cask conditioned real ale... It's a CAMRA pub of the year!!! I now realize that it's still possible that my plane crashed, but clearly I've made it to Heaven instead! :)

I knock back a few pints, I have a Bitter (can't remember which) and a Mordue Workie Ticket

Next up, it's 2:30pm, time to head for the match... It's a short walk to St. James' Park, the place is buzzing, we make our way through the concourse and into the ground, we're at the Gallowgate end, we walk up and realize that instead of heading UP the stairs, we're heading down... to the FRONT ROW!!! (AA), I'm standing at my seat, I'm about 15' away from the goal... I'm absolutely kicking myself for not bringing my camera, but I'm practically floating! I kiss Adrian... (on the cheek! don't be gay!)

The place absolutely ERUPTS as the players come out the tunnel, of course for Michael as he's announced last... The match gets started and within 10 minutes we've conceded a goal (right in front of me), Stephen Taylor plays a suicidal back pass, which is intercepted, Boumsong slips as the pass comes in and McBride is left with an easy tap in... Boo...

We continue to play like sh*te for the remainder of the first half... Souness makes a few decisions that I disagree with, he plays Bramble in the middle (should have stuck with Taylor), moves Taylor out to right full back, and plays Stephen Carr in right midfield where he obviously has no clue what to do... Parker is holding midfield and Faye is playing further forward... Why he wouldn't have started Bowyer (or even Clark who'd be up for the match playing against Fulham), I can't explain... When Bowyer and Clark do eventually come on in the second half, we play better...

Half time... Time for a pint and a pie... Both are magnificent... Back in my seat munching on a delicious mince beef pie, watching Newcastle, it's too amazing for words...

Owen gets fouled on the edge of the box, little Charles N'Zogbia steps up, curls a great spot kick into the far corner, we go berzerk (and apparently I'm captured on film in the EPL highlights show!) I keep joking that "There's only one Charles N'Zogbia" is a great chant, because possible for the first time ever, it's probably accurate, there probably really is only ONE "Charles N'Zogbia"... The match sort of fizzles out after this, but hey, we've managed to grab a point, I've seen a goal, I can't complain!

We head back to Bodega, have some more pints, go for a Ruby Murray, head back to Adrian's place, he thows on Football Factory and I pass out on the couch... What a perfect day!
 
  IT Meeting Update!
The Lindt IT Meeting in Switzerland wrapped up today... Lots of good ideas and projects for the next year...

Had a very nice time last night, went out for dinner to a place called Chnusper Hüsli, which translates to something like the Gingerbread House, meaning the one where the witch lived in Hansel and Gretel... I've searched for a web link, FOUND IT - http://www.chnuschper-huesli.ch/ Check this out, very neat little place!

The place is all done up in a sort of witch decor, food was very nice, started with an excellent soup, then corn on the cob, BBQ chicken and fries. Had a very nice Australian Merlot Cabernet blended wine to drink...

As I mentioned, no direct web site, but here's a page that talks about hiking through this area and has some pictures that give you some idea of the view...

http://www.geocities.com/activityworkshop/hiking/switzerland/uetliberg.html

Tonight I'm heading down to Rapperswil with Martin Meier, Roger Bowald, Stephen Scappichio, and Gerry Baughman, do a little site seeing and go for dinner, I think I'll finally bust out my camera for tonight and get some pictures!

Heading to the airport at 7:20am tomorrow, my flight departs at 11:05AM, then I'm at Heathrow from 12:00pm to 3:15pm, arriving at Pearson, Terminal 3 at 6:00pm (Flight #BA99)
 
Sunday, September 11, 2005
  Trip Update!
A quick post, I'm using an Internet Cafe at the Newcastle Airport, only have a few minutes... Had a fantastic time in Newcastle yesterday, our ticket for the match were superb, in the front row behind the net in the gallowgate end! Unfortunately the result didn't go our way, but at least we managed a goal! Both goals were actually scored at our end of the field actually...

I'll post a more detailed update, hopefully later on tonight when I arrive at the hotel in Thawil...
 
Thursday, September 08, 2005
  Newcastle v Fulham - Team Sheet
Hmm... Unfortunately with Luque having picked up an ankle injury while playing with Spain, Jenas being sold on deadline day to Spurs, Milner loaned out to Villa and Nobby unavailable for 2 matches, with Dyer and Emre still injured, Bowyer doubtful as well our midfield is looking pretty threadbare, in fact, we're top of the table!! The EPL Injury Table, that is... here's my guess on the team we'll put out:

Starting Line-up

Owen // Shearer

N'Zogbia // Faye // Parker // Bowyer

Babayaro // Boumsong // Taylor // Carr

Given

Subs:
Harper
Ameobi
Brittain
Bramble
Clark


Perhaps Souness will go w/ Ameobi out on the left instead of N'Zogbia, and then perhaps pull Owen or Shearer off with 10-15 minutes to go, bring on N'Zogbia and move Ameobi up front and Not really awe inspiring!, we need to get Emre, Luque, Dyer and Nobby back into the team as soon as possible...

I still predict a victory, but I think we'll have to work for it. Not suprisingly, the match is a sell out, so there will be 50,000 screaming fans hopeful that will be the lift the team need to claim our first 3 points of the campaign!
 
  Goal! - The Movie, Sept 30th

Cool, the same date that FIFA 06 comes out, Goal! is set to be released! If you're not familiar with it, is a new movie coming out where a young south american prospect joins Newcastle United... The official web site has been update considerably, has a trailer to watch and some nice wallpapers, check it out!

http://www.goalthemovie.com/
 
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
  Northern Ireland 1 - England 0
Yikes! What a horrible, embarrasing result for England.

While I think the players are partly responsible, you have to point the finger at Erikson, This 4-5-1, 'David Beckham Show' formation isn't working, and I think even worse than the formation is Erikson's tinkering and substitutions...

Can anyone explain his selection of Owen Hargreaves?? I suppose I should like this guy since he's Canadian, but he's shite! With all of the other quality English midfielders he should be nowhere near the squad!

Keiron Dyer
Scott Parker
Jermaine Jenas
Lee Bowyer
Keiron Richardson
Alan Smith
Nicky Butt
Paul Scholes

I think all of these players are better than Hargreaves, he was caught in possession twice in 5 minutes... I think Wright-Phillips was causing NI lots of problems, yet he's first to be hauled off, and then to replace Lampard with Hargreaves is such a total insult...

Rooney lost the plot and should have been pulled off a half-time, he's obviously a player that plays with a lot of passion and fire, once he freaked out and got the yellow, obviously he was told to calm down, but without that intensity in his game seriously lacked... After realizing that the 4-5-1 doesn't work, he should have pulled off Rooney, put on Defoe, and switched Phillips to the left wing, Beckham to the right and Lampard and Gerrard in the middle... That way you'd actually be getting service into the box and I have to think that Defoe and Owen could have gotten a goal or two...

Ah well, still a few games left to go for England to get back on track and quality for the World Cup...
 
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
  Barbara Bush: Things Working Out "Very Well" for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans
Check this out...

Welcome to MichaelMoore.com!
 
  Winking Judge - Beer Festival - Saturday October 1st - 2-6pm
Ladies and Gents, this is *THE* festival to go to, guaranteed good time, tickets will sell out - WHO's In??

http://www.winkingjudge.com/events.htm

*UPDATE* - Ok, I'm in, Steve's in, who else? Let's get tickets and finalize the plans!
 
Monday, September 05, 2005
  New Depeche Mode Single!
Depeche Mode have been for a long time, and continue to be, a favorite band of mine, I was totally obsessed with these guys back in high school and college... Well inevitably, they're getting older, but still keeping busy, they've just released a new single "Precious", I pulled it down w/ eMule, it's quite good, I've been looping it for about 3 plays so far... new album is due out in a month or so... Then they're Touring, here's a link to the tour dates... http://www.depechemode.com/tour/index.html North America is to be confirmed, Toronto appears will be sometime in December...
 
  What Anti-Virus SW to Use?
It seems Symantec is messing with auto-updates for Symantec/Norton Corporate Edition 8, it's what I've been using/recommending for some time now, so I'd like to look into/evaluate some freeware options... I typically use www.nonags.com to find/download freeware, I've had really great success with anything that is rated there, you're guaranteed no to get nagware or crippleware, etc...

They list a few with 6 out of 6 ratings:

avast! 4 Home Edition - http://www.avast.com/i_idt_153.html - A quick glance at the website looks promising! - A bunch of positive reviews here - http://www.snapfiles.com/opinions/avast_Home_Edition/avast_Home_Edition.html

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_
downl.htm (Appears to no longer off a free version, just a 30-day trial version...)

AntiVir Personal Edition - http://www.free-av.com/ - Sounds hokey!

The first 2 sound vaguely familiar, but that's it... I'm reluctant to go with freeware AV software, not so much for the code, but regarding the updates... Any personal experience or recommendations on these would be appreciated! If I do go ahead with pulling one down and testing it out, I'll post the results here...
 
Saturday, September 03, 2005
  NUFC Opinion: Michael Owen's Transfer - The Truth (sort of)
NUFC Opinion: Michael Owen's Transfer - The Truth (sort of)

An interesting article on the Owen to Newcastle transfer saga...
 
  Niagara Wine Tour - Fun Fun Fun!



Arlene and I, along with our friends Joe and Denise went out to Niagara today, to visit some wineries, and had a really great time! I'm much more a beer-geek, than a wine-geek, but I'm starting to get into wine a bit, so I really, really enjoyed visiting the wineries and sampling a bunch of different wines, lots of fun!

We visited 5 wineries in all:

Maleta - http://www.maletawinery.com/

This was our first stop, so we didn't know what to expect... It's a very small, craft winery, the lady working there was really nice... We enjoyed 4 complimentary samples, a Shiraz, a Gamay, a Cabernet-Merlot, and a Meritage. Our favorites where the Gamay and the Cab-Merlot, we picked up a bottle of each...

Iniskillin - http://www.inniskillin.com/index.asp

This was our second stop, obviously this is a much better known brand, a much larger winery with a more elaboriate setup. They offer a 20-stop self guided tour, each station explains a different element of the wine making process, from the climate and soil, to the varieties of grapes, how their picked, the juice extracted, etc, etc... We enjoyed samples of a Pinot Noir, another Gamay, and an Ice Wine, very nice...

Leiley - http://www.laileyvineyard.com/

This was another smaller, craft-style winery, enjoyed samples of a new style (to us) - Zweigelt, and Cambourcin...

Jackson Triggs - http://www.jacksontriggswinery.com/en/

Another large winery, with an absolutely georgeous facility. The architecture of this place was amazing... They even have a amphitheatre with musical acts each weekend....

Stratus - http://www.stratuswines.com/

This was our last stop. A small, but high-end winery, again, the space where the tastings were done was very, very cool, and the wines were magnificent. We purchase a bottle of their Stratus Red 2002, it's a blended wine, uses a number of varieties of grapes, but absolutely superb!

------

I was super impressed at how close by all the Niagara Region wineries are, most are within a 2-5 minute drive of one another, so it's quite easy to visit 4 or 5 (or more) in an afternoon... I've been to probably a dozen or so beer festivals, but never visit a single winery, so this was a special treat and I really enjoyed it, I'd recommend it to anyone, a fantastic way to spend a day! While the larger wineries were quite busy, the service was superb across the board, the staff were intelligent, and willing to answer questions, explain the products to us...

Some of the wineries offered complimentary samples, others charged a minimal ($1/$2/sample) charge. The most expensive was Stratus, $10 for a 'flight' of 3 wines... I think from an educational perspective this was great, as I was able to sample probably 10+ wines, quite inexpensively and sort of educate my palate along the way, get an appreciate for what I like/dislike...

I typically don't go for white wines, but I did enjoy an unoaked Chardonnay, I don't think I've had an unoaked before, this means that it hasn't been aged in a barrel, so instead of the woody flavours, the more tangy-fruity flavours come through, which I quite enjoyed!

On our way back in decided to hit the Pepperwood Bistro in Burlington, for dinner, it was outstanding, great food, awesome beer - Joe and I each had a pint of the Best Bitter Dry Hopped... Arlene and Denise went for the Framboise..

-------

So a super day! Great weather, great wine, great food, great friends! As good as it gets!!!
 
  Toon Army the Game??
Ok, back to trivial geeky stuff...

For anyone who's familiar with European Football - the term Toon Army refers to Newcastle United Supporters, but there's a new XBOX game coming out called Toon Army that is like a cartoon version of Dubya Dubya Eye Eye (WWII)...

Check it out: http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox/834/Toon-Army/
 
  The US Government's Response to Katrina...
Have you been watching the news lately??

I think it's an absolute attrocity the way the US is handling the situation in New Orleans, and surrounding areas following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina... I hope that everyone pays attention to what has, and continues to go on here, because it proves something that I've felt for a long time... The US Government is pretty useless at taking care of their own people but they figure they're experts are running around the planet (like Team America) trying to sort out the problems of other nations...

I'm sure other media will do a better job than I will at presenting any of the facts, so don't quote me on this stuff, but we were just watching CNN and Geraldo is down at the Convention Centre there in New Orleans (he flew in from New York), and there are literally THOUSANDS of people there, 6 days after the hurricane, still no food, no water, no medicine and no buses... You're telling me the US Military with it's billion, if not trillions of dollars can't roll some tanks or hovercrafts or drop in supplies or something, gimme a freaking break... It's complete chaos and anarchy and it's making Bush and his entire government look like complete asses...

So let me get this straight, Geraldo Rivera can stroll into New Orleans and get to the people in need, but the aid agencies can't?? Does Geraldo have f'ing super powers or something?

Another thing I'm peeved about is the requests for donations from Canadians... Wait a minute, the US spends BILLIONS, and BILLIONS of dollars on warfare around the world, and they can't feed and shelter their own people after a hurricane?? Screw them... Don't get me wrong, I feel for the people in need and it brings tears to my eyes seeing what they're going through, but they've got to take responsibility and look at the government that they've put in power... I'm not going to contribute to fixing their mess, I would rather assume that a sovereign nation can take responsibility for what happens inside it's border...
 
Friday, September 02, 2005
  Village Idiot Pub

Went for lunch there today, it was great, some of the best fries I've had in my life! Amazing fresh cut spuds... They have a decent selection of taps too!, Tennant Lager, Boddington's, something from Brick (I think Honey something...?) It's on the corner of Dundas and McCaul (just across from the AGO...)
 
Thursday, September 01, 2005
  Nobby Pic


Isn't it great to see Nobby back in the Black and White?
 
  Check out my Tattoo Design
Hopefully it doesn't need much explanation, but it's a Tribal-style design modelled from the initials of my son's names, and with this latest version I've changed the top of the G into a Dragon's head, I think it looks pretty neat, comments??
 
  Andy Gray - Toon Will Fire Again
Andy gives his thoughts on the Newcastle Squad... Funny, he agrees with me! :)

http://skysports.planetfootball.com/column.asp?lid=Sky_Sports_Column_Andy_Gray
 
  iSketch is Pretty Fun!!!
If you haven't checked this out yet, you really should, it's a super fun Shockwave-based Internet Online game, called iSketch - the URL is www.isketch.net

Arlene and I have just been playing for like 2 hours... Yikes, perhaps I should be going to bed now...

When I play my nickname is 'ToonArmyCan'
 
A personal blog by John Walter.

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I think a lot. Some people say I think too much... However, I don't want to be seen as being aloof or pretentious, it's just that I really enjoy philosophical questions and deep thoughts. That's not to say that I don't find pleasure in more down-to-earth or trivial things, like beer and soccer :) I'm happily married with 3 wonderful children. I'm a partner in a technology services company based in Toronto. Myers Briggs says I'm an ENTJ

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Some of my Favorite Sites:
Kurzweil AI (Deep)
The Onion (Funny)
Sparkpeople

Blogs of People I know:
Jason Bonney
Richard Barter's Blue Moon
George
Jack

Some of my Sites:
My Company - Netserve
My Flickr Page
MySpace