Heston RIP?

Well last week Charlton Heston died. I have certainly enjoyed some of his movies over the years, but I think he totally undermined his own popularity by his own actions as President of the NRA. Not that I have a problem with gun ownership. There are plenty of responsible gun owners, but you can't legally allow something as dangerous as guns amid the public without rules, because not everyone is going to be so trustworthy with them, which is why in Canada, since we instituted the FAC (Firearms Acquisition Certificate), no one can legally own a firearm without also undergoing rather extensive training in how to safely use firearms. They don't have that in the US, so the average gun owner in the US relies on Uncle Bubba to train him/her on the safe use of firearms.

A rather interesting and politically unpopular fact has come out in a Canadian study that looked at the drop in accidents, injuries and deaths related to firearms, and it showed that the drop did not coincide with the rise in regulation, but with the creation of the FAC.

But I digress. I didn't blog today with the intention of debating gun control, but was merely pointing out some reasons why, when I heard the news of Ben-Hur's death, I couldn't really be bothered. But in his obituary, I learned something that I didn't know....

Charlton Heston isn't his real name. It was John Carter.

Yes, you might wonder why the hell was his name changed from such a manly, easy to say in a western sense name? Well, as it turns out there already was a man named John Carter, and he had been gracing the pages of pulp novels for some time. Only the geeky set would today know about Edgar Rice Burroughs and and his series of novels that started with John Carter of Mars. Wanting to distance himself from the titular character, he changed it to Heston.

I thought that was kinda funny. So that explains why Heston did what he did with the NRA. He'd spent too much time on Mars.

So in honour of this discovery, here's a what if thing that was posted on Ain't It Cool this week.

A RAMBLING MAN...

It has been a very long time since I posted last, and if you only know about what I’m up to through my blog, then you’d think I was still in Miramichi! Alas, I’m back, and then some. I have traveled more in this year than I have in my entire life. It has been quite a ride. So I thought I’d run through a condensed version of what I’ve been up to since September.

I arrived in Miramichi and thoroughly enjoyed my stay. It was great seeing Robby and the family again. I do find it strange that even though they don’t live here any more, I saw them so infrequently that it doesn’t really feel like they are gone.


On the first day, I got to see Fatkat. It looks like a really nice studio, and the people really seem to be quite nice. I must say that I was really impressed with the place, and once having seen it, I have at least added Miramichi as a possible place to move to.

The second day we went to the beach. I’d never seen the sea before, so this was quite a sight. The place was called Escuminac Park, and they had a nice place to sit and eat lunch in.



On my last day, I went for a walk and found this little path that led down to the shore. It was another hidden gem in the town.



But in the end, I did have a train to catch, and headed back home. Again, I was put in cabin 7, 007 for the trip back. In the end, what I got most out of the trip was to see my friends again, saw a beautiful city, and discovered a love of train travel.


I didn’t go anywhere in October, but in November I went off to Vicky and Anders and tested out my new 3-season tent, and my all season insulating mattress with my sleeping bag that is rated to –12 degrees. It was a lot of fun getting really rugged, and surviving the experience. I was well prepared and supplied. It sounds crazy to try sleeping outside in the snow, even when the temperature dropped to –15 degrees Celsius. I was fine.


The tent look twisted only because in my rush to put the tent up, I forgot to attach the Velcro fasteners on the tent cover to the support poles, so when the weight of the snow pushed on it, it twisted.


Once I had the straps attached, the tent took on its more natural shape.


On the last night, I took my food thermometer into the tent to illustrate just how warm it was inside. It was –5 outside, but inside, as you can see, it was 15 above (it went up past 15 after I took this picture), a full twenty degrees warmer.


The next trip I went on was at Christmas. My brother and I had to go on a family gathering of sorts, which would take us across two provinces, and staying in 5 cities. The car we rented turned out to be a Pontiac Grand Prix GT.


If I may turn into an episode of Top Gear, I have this to say about the car. If I have the stats to the right model, it’s a 3.8L V6 engine with 260 HP. Being used to riding in econo-boxes, this was a very different beast entirely. When you put the foot down to pass another car ahead, it just happens without much fuss. It accelerates in a slow but steady lumbering fashion, but it was strange that once we pulled back into the right lane after passing the other car, you really felt like it was just starting to go. We never did find out where the acceleration petered out and slowed, but that’s because my brother is a very good driver. I think it was lucky that we didn’t come to any corners, or windy roads because I’m not sure how this American Highway car would have reacted. We would have probably ended up in the ditch. I would have to sum up the drive in these terms: “It’s a bit like making love to a woman through a duvet cover. You know there is something really great going on, but you can’t really feel it.” This car separates you from the feel of driving so much that you don’t really feel a part of the driving experience. And that’s not good.

But I digress. We left home and stopped at a place called Grand Falls near the northwestern border of New Brunswick. This was the view out of our motel window. Rather nice I would say.


So the next day we headed out and arrived in Miramichi again to see Rob and his family, and then we headed out to Saint John to see family. Then we went back to Miramichi for Christmas dinner, then the next day we made a beeline for Quebec City. Now I’ve never been there, but this was the view out of the hotel the night we arrived.


I really fell in love with this city. I’ve been saying that if you can’t afford a trip across the Atlantic to see Europe, then Quebec City is the next best thing. We spent the entire stay in the old section of Quebec City.


We found this restaurant called the Continental, which was across the street from the French consulate. We ate dinner there, and I had the best scallops I have ever eaten before. When I go to restaurants, I usually come away feeling a bit unimpressed, as I usually could cook a better dinner myself. At the Continental, I found a dinner that was better than I could, but only just, which I found not only surprising, but made me feel good about my self taught culinary skills.


On our way back home we found Dinosaurs. They didn’t bite, as they were already eating fish.


We made a stop in Montreal to have Chalet Barbecue. It’s a local secret, and they make the best barbecue chicken in town. Forget Swiss Chalet and St. Hubert.

The last trip I went on, of which I only got back last Saturday, was to Windsor Ontario, with a short trip to Detroit. I was doing research for my book that I wrote. I needed to see the places I wrote about and see where I had to tweak things, having seen the place in person. I had a really nice view of Detroit out of my window. So I can now say that Detroit is a beautiful city, from a distance. It was a really incredible experience going around finding out where my character might have lived, worked, and ate. It really blurred the boundary between reality and fantasy, and it was thoroughly rewarding.




So that’s what I’ve been up to. Things are going to calm down from now on I think, and get back to normal. I need to make the alteration with the information I have learned from seeing Windsor and Detroit, and once that’s done, it’s back to work.

For those of you that might have been wondering, I made it safely. I am now sitting in Rob's house on the East coast! Having made the trip out on VIA rail, I have to say that if someone was to offer me a lift by car, I would turn them down without a thought and take the train every time. I don't have a lot of time, so I will tell you about my trip and then I will have to go.

My friend Sue had at the last minute offered to drive me to the train station. I live so close that although it wasn't necessary, it did give me a chance to see her, as I missed her birthday. So we had a nice lunch and drove off. She even had the good sense to take this picture...



Which is a great way to start my story...

The train left Ottawa more or less on time, and I found it funny that I asked for a window seat, and got this...


...Yeah, that's a window seat. If I turn my head 90 degrees to my side, otherwise I'm looking straight at a wall. Other than that it wasn't all that different than taking a bus, although the handy footrests you find on the bus were curiously absent from the train. I guess it is because the train was older than the fleets of buses. Something I surmised by the ash trays hidden in the armrests. A funny throwback to an older time.

Another throwback which surprised me, and maybe it was just coincidence, was that all the people working on the train from Ottawa to Montreal were black people. I know that was the way things used to be, but it got me wondering if this was just a coincidence, which may be because everyone on the Ocean (the name of the train that took me to the east coast) everyone was white. Segregation is a bad thing...

So anyway, I arrived in Montreal by 5:10 or so, and went up the escalators, and immediately found the ramp to the Miramichi Train, but I had to check something out, something I noticed back in Ottawa. You see just as Sue and I were waiting for me to be allowed onto the train, we saw a line of First Class passengers walk from the lounge area, and board first. Now this time I had a first class ticket and wanted to know the process. So I was told to go to a special Sleeper Class line and check my ticket. I had a very short wait at the line, and was immediately told to go to a special glass enclosed lounge for first class passengers and relax, and that when they were ready, we would be called. I was also asked if I wanted the 6:45 dinner sitting, or the 8:15 dinner in the dinning car. I took the 6:45. So I walked over and had a nice seat, and the first thing that struck me was how quiet it was, compared to the loud roar of the rest of the stadium-like train station. I also found it really funny that the lady calling out the trains that were leaving every few minutes over the PA was giving the traditional 'all aboard' call but spoke in the most annoying artificial radio voice. It just didn't seem to fit.

At any rate, we were summoned at 6:00 pm and our train wasn't scheduled to leave until 6:30, which was weird, because this time I was walking in first watching all the other passengers still sitting or standing in line, out in the noise. So from there my task was to find car 37, which didn't take any time at all because it was near the back where we came down the escalators.



It was a tight squeeze. You had to kind of walk sideways to get through, but it was cool. Now this brings me to the best part. I'm not sure I should tell you because this may give away national secrets that could compromise me and Her Majesty's Secret Service...



Yes, my room number was 7, 007 to be exact. We couldn't leave the extra zeros in, it would have been too obvious. I don't want to make it that easy for SPECTRE.

The room was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be, and alas it had no shower. I so wanted to be able to say that I had a shower on a moving train, but perhaps another time. All the same I was impressed by the thought that went into trying to cram as much shelving and stuff into the room. It must have been a fun job designing it.





I particularly like this one. Behind the little bathroom window I was able to plug my iPod into the hidden power socket to recharge, and hang my iPod on the glass.



Pretty cool eh? Well, after a short time figuring things out, how the bed folds down, where I can plug my laptop in, what kind of information I get with the room, we got under way. Out of a dark cave, the train emerged out into the skyline of Montreal.



Once underway, I set about looking at my two tickets I had, one was for dinner, and the other was for breakfast. When I figured out which one was which, I noticed that they had put me down for the wrong sitting. I was scheduled for the 8:15, and not the 6:45. As hungry as I was, I decided to see if they had an extra seat. The walk to the dinning car was particularly wobbly because of the bumpy track coming out of Montreal, but having taken a we bit of Aikido, I managed fine (one use for martial arts no one thinks about!) Well, they managed to find me a seat with this nice little old lady from just north of Reno Nevada. She had just retired and was taking the train across Canada. It also turns out that when she was a teenager living in California, she wanted to get into animation, and even interviewed Walt Disney himself! So we had a nice talk! Imagine if VIA had put me down for the 6:45, I would have been seated by myself and I would never had spoken to her!

Which bring me to dinner. There were around four selections, which I chose the smoked salmon and crab-meat salad. I wasn't sure at first if it was going to be good. The smoked salmon and crab were on the side in a little mound, with a bed of leafy greens with a salad dressing on top. I started with the greens and found the dressing so strong that the greens lost their flavour. Once I added the smoked salmon and crab to the party it was something else. I will have to try and make this sometime because it was really good. For me it was the highlight of the meal. Next up I chose the beef tenderloin medallion with a light cream sauce, mixed vegetables and potato. It was quite good, but I'm not sure about the cream sauce. It was low on flavour because you don't want to overpower the taste of the beef, but when it's that delicate a flavour, why bother adding it? Along with the meal I also had a very nice glass of red wine which complemented the meal very well. To finish it all off I ate a great slice of cheesecake with strawberry sauce. I was leery of the cheesecake, since that would be a bad idea after such a heavy meal with my ulcer, but it turned out to be the lightest cheesecake I have ever eaten. Still I was only able to eat most of it. Sadly such a heavy meal with my weak little stomach was difficult. I had to take a glass of bromo selter and then I was fine. In all it was a great dinner capped off by the fact that the sun was setting the whole time.

I had hoped that I was going to have a North By Northwest Eve Marie Saint moment where some hot blond was going to come onto me, but I quickly discovered that everyone my age these days takes the plane. I was the youngest person on board. Everyone else were retired and wanted to see Canada.

I settled into bed and watched Robot Chicken on my laptop!


Unfortunately the picture came out blurry, but you get the idea. I turned in early, because it had been a very long week, and I needed to sleep. I was also going to be arriving in Miramichi at 10:00 am and wanted to get up early to see the sights out the window. I slept well, but I did keep waking up, not because of the rocking of the train, nor by the other people walking by; putting things in their shelves or pulling down their beds. I woke up because I was too hot, so I left the blanket off, and then I got too cold, so I pulled the blanket on, and then I got too hot again. This happened a few times. I think it was because I ate so little this week, that once I got a real meal in me, I had turned into a human furnace from the energy dinner gave me.

When I finally woke up in the morning I casually looked at my watch and it said 6:30. I thought, fine, I'll just get a bit more sleep and go for breakfast later. Then I realized that we had probably crossed the time zone already and that it was really 7:30! I must have slept for 9 hours. So I quickly got up, dressed, and took a look out the window, and freaked. What lay before me was the Gaspe Region. I saw a long stretch of sandy beaches, a huge stretch of river, and in the distance, the mountainous regions of Quebec. Ain't nothing like it in Ontario, and until then it had just been a fun trip on the train. When I looked out that window, it all became real. I was in the East Coast for sure this time. I dove for my camera, whipped it out of my camera bag, pressed the on button, and as I lifted it to take the picture, a wall of trees shot past my window. And there they stayed for the duration of the trip. I had obviously overslept. On the way back I will have to try again, only this time it will be at sunset! Eventually I walked over to the dinning car and ate a simple breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs. The eggs were served in a a baked potato boat, and I think the eggs were mixed with cream not milk. I also had a cup of coffee and washed it all down with a glass of orange juice. Which turned out to be freshly squeezed orange juice.

Once that was over, I walked to the very back of the train and sat in the observation car until we arrived in Miramichi.



Finally we arrived at Miramichi, and unfortunately this was the best I could do. They didn't have much out the window of the train to see. Then my batteries ran out, so I couldn't take pictures of Bobby and the kids, who conveniently had a day off from school today, as they met me at the train station.



I will have more pictures and stories to tell tomorrow, but so far today, I have seen the new Anderson family house, Fatkat, been to Grant's dinner and had an amazing lunch of breaded scallops. I had to. My grandmother loved scallops.

Now that I have written the longest posting I have ever made, I must go. We're going to have dinner soon, and I mustn't be rude. So far everything has been a blast, and I recommend everyone to try this kind of trip!!!

BULLIES, BOOKS, AND B*LLSH*T

For some time now I''ve been planning to make another posting, but with work, my book, my RPG development, Gran Turismo 4, and a touch of laziness, I haven't gotten around to it until now. Long ago I was going to post about having completed the second draft of my book, which is cool. I had taken the printed copy and scribbled all over it with the changes I wanted to make. I even took a picture on the night I finished it!



But there it sat on my desktop, doing nothing until now. But now that I'm getting around to posting again, I have something else to talk about, something more important. I finally finished the book I was reading so that I can get at a new book that has been sitting on my night-table for some time waiting to be read. It's called The Bully, The Bullied, and The Bystander, by Barbara Coloroso.



Why would I be reading a book about bullying at my age? Kind of dumb question, really, when you think about it. Do you think that bullies stop being bullies when they grow up? Hell no. When someone learns aggressive or inappropriate ways of dealing with people, they learn that for life. You can even transpose this kind of behavior on the world, because countries are ruled by people, so it is logical to assume that countries will behave like people too. Think about what is going on in the Darfur region right now. It's easy to look at the Darfur as the weird kid off alone on the side. No one really likes him, and he's getting picked on, but no one does anything about it even though they can. They all sit back as bystanders. The sad thing is, is that the opposition in Darfur is not very strong, they could be stopped easily, especially by the United States, the toughest kid on the block), but they are too absorbed in their own selfish interests. But it isn't the responsibility of the United States to fix conflicts like this, it's all of ours.

Why should you read this book? If you have kids, you really need this book, because your kids are for sure going to get bullied. if you've ever been bullied, you need to read this to clear up some of the thoughts you may have about the experience, because whether you realize it or not, you have been shaped by the experience. This book is like a primer on understanding some basic concepts of human interaction, and I've found it to be an incredible eye opener. A lot of the ideas so far are things you may already know, but it still puts it all into a context that is far more reaching than you think.

Do yourself a favour, whether you are a parent or not, read this book!!!
The Bully, The Bullied, and the Bystander...

CONTEMPLATING SUICIDE...

Okay, maybe not, but you have to admit it's a headline grabber.

Well work has been pretty stupid, and my life outside work hasn't been much better, so I got together with my brother for dinner to commiserate our misfortune, and bake a cake. Yes it was a very manly get together, full of testosterone and fighting. Nothing like baking a cake to make you feel like a real man.

So this was our plan. We were going to mix up a batch of brownies, using the recipe on the side of the Fry's Cocoa container (with the addition of a tablespoon of Tim Horton's English Toffee Cappuccino mix added. It's a sweet addition that my brother came up with). But in this case, we split the mix between two-cake trays and I mixed up a batch of chocolate sour cream icing. We took the brownie cakes out of the oven much too early, so that it would still be very moist, and after it was cool, smothered it in icing.

I must say it was really good, a bit too good. I had one small piece after making the thing on Tuesday, and I'm only having my second piece today. On Thursday! It's such a rich, sweet desert it takes two full days to recover before you can have more. It's a true kamikaze dish, because you've got to question your sanity to want to eat anything like this!!!!

Over and out....

PAGES, PAGES, PAGES...

Well after battling laziness, horrible diseases, food poisoning, work, stress, and anxiety, and a lack of things to post, I finally came up with something.

I’ve started re-writing my book. I’m already through the first part and getting into the second, really hefty middle part. I have a lot to do, but after leaving it alone for some time, I'm pleased to say that I’m not cringing from going over my first attempts to write a book. There are many things to fix if I want it to work as a cohesive story with a point, but I can see the shape of things. There’s something there in the clay, and I have more bits to whittle off, but It wasn't a waste of time. Sorry to use that tired metaphor, but it was there and handy.

I’m going through it fast, so that even though I’m behind schedule, I know I will catch up fast. Plus it gives me an excuse to hang out on my deck and relax, listen to music, and keep tabs on my iChat.

I’ll have more later.

Help!!!!

Sorry I've been neglecting my postings recently. I'll try to come up with an interesting new post this weekend. I have three simple words to explain what has kept me from posting.

Work, sick, Facebook.

'Nuff said.