Blog

That’s me. Unfaithful to keeping current with the blog that is. I was glad to see that Doug dropped by the other day to encourage me to keep posting. I’d like to, but as he notes, I’ve gotten out of the rut, and it’s not an easy thing to do to get back in. But I suppose this is a start.

In other wonderful news, I’ve just added, oh, three hundred or so posts to the blog today. Yup, imported a whole shwack-load of the old posts from when I first started blogging. You’ll also find a few guest posts going back to 2002-ish, when Richard and I were doing Sgt Pepper’s Army (at the time one of the top, if not the top, returning Google result for Beatles.) Don’t tell Rich, but it was as much my devotion to the Beatles as my attempt to get a high Google ranking to do that site.

If I had a category on my blog for things that make me smile, John Piper would frequently appear in it. So would my little dude. But as I’m not yet in the practice of posting videos of my little dude to my blog, this endorsement for Old Country Buffet from John Piper will have to do. (The fun starts at 3:09 and this video should start playing there as well.)

Three ninety nine! And it includes the taco bar!

I’m thinking of the photos from Hati the last couple of days, but I have also noticed it in Compassion children, and even baby aliens (like from District 9.) Images I’d destitute children have much more of an effect on me because now I can relate to loving such a child because he is my own. These children are someone else’s little dudes.

I want to bring to your attention this morning, the incredibly partisan spot on The Great Northwest this morning on CBC radio in Thunder Bay. Did you hear it? It was one of the most lop-sided pieces I’ve heard in a long time. Now, I don’t fault our local radio people for this. I’m sure that the “Ottawa Report” corespondent sends in a script of questions for Lisa to ask her. And you know that in my opinion (and apparently a lot of other people’s,) TGNW is the best radio on air in Thunder Bay.

Never the less, the Ottawa Report corespondent totally missed the boat on researching and explaining what prorogation is all about, and instead parroted Liberal rhetoric and gave airtime to Liberal attack ads. Then she went on to speculate how prorogation isn’t really what the PM is going to face heat for. He’s really going to get it for “his deficit.” Deficit what? Spending? She didn’t make it clear

What she failed to mention is that our former Liberal PMs regularly prorogued too. It’s part of our political process. And she failed to mention that prior to this past year’s recession, the Conservative government was trying to run a balanced budget in order to to chip away at the mountain of debt that a decade or so of Liberal deficit spending helped to build.

She did do a great job of praising Ignatieff though. Surprise, surprise. Time for a new Ottawa Report corespondent, I think.

Yesterday was the first day of the year that required a real shoveling of the driveway. As I mentioned four years ago, I really like my snow shovel, so yesterday was the first time to really get it going this year.

Now, I should mention that even though it’s a great shovel, it does have a design flaw that’s become apparent the last year or so. She blade/scoop has a hole that the handle settles into and a locking mechanism to keep the two attached. When it gets mild, snow melts and water works its way into this hole, so that when it freezes, it pushes the handle out of the blade. No big deal, I bring it inside, let it melt attach it, it’s good to go. Then I store the shovel blade/scoop end up for the remainder of the year and everything is ok.

But last night, after some mild weather, the shovel wasn’t ready to cooperate in clearing the driveway. I am now the proud owner of two of my favourite snow shovels. This year’s model has a slightly more roundy grip. I’ll let you know how that works out if you’re interested. All this to say, this morning, Jenn asked, “Two shovels, eh? What does this mean?” I think the was concerned that I’d be asking her to shovel with me. No worries, I told her that now the dude can come out and shovel with dad.

We’re just sitting on the couch watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and I heard a line I hadn’t heard before. Just before the children go over the falls, Peter is holding out his new sword towards the wolf captain of the secret police. Susan says to him, “Just because a man in a red suit hands you a sword doesn’t make you a hero!”

Doesn’t that sound like something a peasant named Dennis might say to a king named Arthur?

I recently found out that a friend of mine doesn’t eat eggs. He’s not allergic to them, it’s not that he doesn’t like them. He just doesn’t eat them. He couldn’t fathom how I would need an eighteen-egg carton from the store. Easy, one for me, one for Jenn, every morning. That’s fourteen in a week with four left over. I could have added “for snacks,” but that probably would have thrown him into a tailspin.

Funny, I was buying just a big carton of eggs, and he was just buying a whole loaf of bread (who eats a loaf of bread?) If we could have found someone buying a big bottle of maple syrup, we could have gotten together for french toast.

And apparently, CBC Radio is no. 1 in the books of a majority of Thunder Bay radio listeners too. Congrats CBC Radio people! Now, driving to work this morning (and not listening to any radio) I was wondering why. Well, it could be the thoughtful programing and charming on air talent. It could also be the alternatives are dreadful. I speculate though, that CBC Radio is no.1 in Thunder Bay because both drive shows are full of local interest stories, and the rest of the day is full of Provincial and National interest. If listeners want to listen to “talk” that relates to them CBC’s really the only game in town.

So, is that it? A majority of people want to listen to local talk as opposed to music? Well, I expect the other side of the equation has to do with the “music” listeners. They have options; CD, mp3, satellite radio, all of which are probably preferable to what the local stations are offering. So, why listen to the other local radio stations.

I wonder if that accounts for the rising popularity of public radio in other areas as well? What do you listen to on the radio?

Over this past fall, I’ve submitted a few of my Sketch-Up models to Google Earth. I’ve started modeling Thunder Bay landmarks, and so far seven have been accepted into the 3D layer of Google Earth. I’ve also managed to interest at least one friend into building Thunder Bay buildings and successfully submitting to Google Earth.

So, if you ever use Google Earth (and I suggest you do, it’s a lot of fun) be sure to check out Thunder Bay to see the city growing. If you’re not sure you want to install Google Earth, you can check out all the buildings online, at the 3D Warehouse, in the Thunder Bay collection.