ah, international relations...

this is funny.

I'm not sure if it's a matter of arrogance, ignorance, indifference or brilliance, but whatever it is, it's freakin' funny. Latin America's funny man and local crack-pot has told US officials to go to hell, and why not! Well, other than the obvious risks to his presidency and such. But in this world of transnational... well everything, it's kind of interesting seeing a leader of state stand by the ol' sovereignty thing. It reminds me of that campaign to educate youngsters about the dangers of strangers: "My body's nobody's body but mine, you run our own body, let me run mine!" I don't know that I agree with Chavez' support of the late Hussein's regime based on the fact that he was that country's president, but as far as Chavez goes, he doesn't seem to be interested in killing any particular race or taking over any foreign lands, so I find it somewhat entertaining that he is willing to defy the will of the world's reigning superpower... I think I might be able to understand his frustration too. Argentina and Peru both have democratically deficient regimes and yet the US doesn't seem to interested in their non-oil revenue having governments... uh oh. I said it. I guess I'm yet again questioning whether US intentions are crude or civilized. I'm pretty sure this might raise the hackles on some of you so I'll leave you with that.

still blown away...

a recent development has left me stunned, elated, prouder than who knows what, and amazed at the type of people I have been blessed to have in my life.

Some of you know, or know of my good friend and recent newlywed Gigs... He and his bride are expecting their 1st child on May 28th of this year and are already picking names and doing all the pre-parenty stuff. This is where I come in I suppose. As they have elected to not know the sex of the baby they have chosen a girl's name and a boys name. If its a girl, it'll be Isabelle (not bad eh?) . If its a boy, its gonna be ... KALEN!!! How cool is this!!! I've never been so honoured by a friend before. I'm so happy for the happy couple, and if it works out that I get a name sake out of this, then hey, hooray for everyone! (any one know where I can get some good cigars?!?!)

What's really cool about this whole deal is that they're gonna be great parents. Gigs is such a loving guy, and I know he'll do anything for his growing family... I'm proud of him and I look forward to being a small part of his family as the years go by.

In all likelihood, this may be my last post before a month hiatus, (not that that is much an absence when you look at my other non-vacation induced breaks in posting) so farewell for now...

sorry!

It has recently come to my attention that I have not added anything to this site for a considerable amount of time, and for that I wish to appologize... so, sorry. Of course we've all been busy with the last month of festivities, feasts but with my completion of course work for my degree, trying to work as much as possible while I still had a job, christmas travel and visits, new years celebrations, hockey games, and looking for and finding a new job, the last month has indeed been busier than most... however, I know how much the four of you love reading these little rants, so I'll try not to let another delay of such magnitude lapse again!

Right, so the reason I ultimately did stick myself back in front of the computer to rant and rave is yet again from the pages a local-ish newspaper, The Vancouver Sun. As I was travelling back to Victoria from Vancouver after a fantastic hockey game, I came across a special section in the Sun which was dedicated to the Jewel of Vancouver: Stanley Park. As many of you may know, the We(s)t Coast has been subject to some pretty impressive lashings from mother nature in the last couple months, the latest severe one occuring in mid-December. During this bashing caused by the bunching of barometric bars, poor Stanley Park was mugged, beaten and robbed of its majestic beauty, so say the Vancouverites quoted in the Sun... Granted, a shwack of shrubberies of all sizes were shoved to the ground changing the landscape of the park considerably, but to have several 'mourners' show up to the park and 'shed a tear for the trees' is down-right silly. I understand that many Vancouverites while away countless hours doing laps of the sea-wall incessantly complimenting the aesthetic beauty of their city, and have perhaps over the course of many-a year doing so have grown somewhat attached to certain land mark trees, but they're TREES!!! How many of these same mourners still with damp kleenex in hand went home and cried more still while they cut a fallen tree (in which their children and grandchildren spent hundreds of summer days) out of their living room? NONE. Any one who was unlucky enough to face a task like that or something similar dampened their hankies with sweat NOT TEARS while cursing the very branches their sweet little children played on year after year because those branches had to tried to gain carnal knowledge of their new toyota's leather seats, via the windshield with a little help from mother nature....

Now I hear that 100s of 1000s of dollars have been DONATED by the general public and private businesses to help with the clean up and restoration efforts. Does it not strike anyone but me as a little bass-ackwards that Vancouverites have an atrocious poverty problem but getting any funding for support programs is like pulling teeth from an angry crocodile, but a few trees fall down and people start vomitting money like it was spoiled shellfish!?!?! Trees are thought to be 'unique' and 'ancient' and 'mystic', but they're not. They all look the same and do the same stuff, most of the trees around Vancouver are at most 80 years old, and any 6th grade science text book (that's if you can find one in some of our under funded schools) can tell you what makes trees tick. So I guess what I'm getting at is while the wind may have knocked down some trees in the Park, it also knocked over trees near (now on/in) people's homes, cars and businesses, so to all those 'mourners' out on the sea-wall: get over yourselves and save your tears for something worth crying about...