Looks like my grade 5 French teacher. 

Pool lizard 

Art photo 1 

Art photo 2 

Looking charred. 

Mimi and a pelican waiting for a set. 

That would be me. 

The balcony monkey, my personal favorite. 

And another by the tennis court. 

Here's another howler monkey that hung out outside our balcony. 

Monkey Balls & Pura Vida - Costa rica

I just got back yesterday from a week in Costa Rica with Mimi and I have to say that I am not entirely sure why I came back! I was staying near Tamarindo which is about 3.5 hrs away from the capital San Jose. Costa Rica is a pretty small mountainous island with good surf on both the Pacific and Caribbean facing oceans. Prices for food and gas was not too different than North America in urban areas. We were on the Pacific coast.

Here's the rundown:

Weather: 85-90 degrees every day, 80 degree water, sunny every day.

Animals: CR is absolutely dazzling, we stayed right next to an estuary and there were like 20+ different kinds of birds around. Black and Green Iguanas were around all day around the pool, they didn't seem to care too much about people. Little lizards are everywhere at night as are huge grasshoppers. Not too many bugs except a few mosquitoes at night. We each saw what seemed like huge Manta Rays in the water. Lots of Red Snappers churning the water and a few flying fishes were around. TONS of pelicans were hanging around in the air and water, vultures too on the road - they look like really ugly turkeys. We saw howler monkeys a few times during the week, the size of large house cats they sound like lions. They scared the crap out of Mimi.



The thing about these little howler monkeys is that besides howling a lot, the males also have HUGE white balls. You look up and there's these hairy little black beasts screaming at you with huge bald white balls - really quite a site to see!

People: The people in our hotel were mostly fat corn fed white yuppies and suburbanites, not very friendly. We got stuck at an all inclusive hotel which was really nice but mind numbing boring. In Tamarindo, people were super friendly and the locals were really nice. Every home and business is fenced up like a prison and in San Jose, the gas stations have guards with shotguns. I am guessing that crime is crazy high there. I have read that there is a big problem with illegal immigrants from Nicaragua. The biggest industry is computer semiconductor manufacturing and Intel, Microsoft, etc. all have big complexes there. That would explain a Ferrari dealership in a tiny country with horrible roads.

Surf: There are endless places to surf, beach breaks, point breaks etc. Lots of funky stuff though like thieves, crocodiles, polluted rivers etc. We mostly rode a beach left right off the Playa Langosta break, a river mouth break on volcanic rock. The beach break in Tamarindo was a lot easier but at least twice the ENTIRE lineup got cleaned up with a big (7+ ft) close out set on the outside. You can rent a board from almost any place in town for about $15/day. On the way back, we checked out the Boca Barranca break but didn't have time to find the break but did check out the area - very sketchy, you've really got to know where to go and be sorted out or you might find yourself in trouble. I suck, I was in such terrible shape that I didn't get to stay out long enough to really ride as much as I wanted to. Better than nothing though and I did really learn a lot. My summer long wake surfing will only help me when I can catch more and better waves. That's going to be a big breakthrough for me.

FYI: I am now officially in training for a spring trip, call me if you want to join me, maybe CR or Cabo.

Internet: There are tons of Internet café’s there and there is a big fiber trunk running into Tamarindo so bandwidth is plentiful. No Internet in our hotel though and not much sign of Wifi. VOIP is big at the café’s. Internet access is about a buck every 10 minutes. VOIP long distance is about 60 cents a minute. If you bring your own laptop and VOIP phone, you can actually get a 9 cent a minute rate with Viper networks, free from VOIP to VOIP phone.

Food: The all inclusive place we stayed at was ok on the first two days but then drove me crazy with the same boring "americanized" tasteless food. The best place in Tamarindo that we ate at was the "el aracife" near the main roundabout which was cheap and had AWESOME jumbo shrimp, the rice was un-freaking-believable, the second place was the Copacabana on the beach which was really good but a little pricier, much better than the classier place right next door.

All in all, I had an awesome time and I will be going back as soon as I can.

Here's a perfect Costa Rican sunset, this was the first time we saw clouds all week. 

Here's Mimi in a crazy beautiful Costa Rican sunset at the Playa Langosta break on Sunday night. This is also where the leatherback turtles nest this time of year. 

Here's the Langosta river mouth break, it's a bit rocky but was cranking 6' daily at high tide. You've got to be pretty good to be in the main lineup here, we surfed mostly the mushy left shoulder but it was fun. This break was literally thirty seconds away from our hotel. 

The lefts are peeling in here, a couple of 6-7' sets came in during the week but mostly 2-3'. 

Tamarindo Beach Break 

Locals 

Barcelo Blue Whale 

Black Iguana 

Snow Heron 

Off to Tamarindo

See y'all in a week, I'm off to Tamarindo, Costa Rica. Let's see if all that wake surfing is going to pay off in the ocean ;)

It's about time

The US finally coughed up some dough. I am still in shock, it's really hard to come to grasps with a hundred and fifty thousand people being killed in the span of a few minutes. I think this is the worst single thing that happened in my lifetime.

For the record, Canada only shelled out $4 million so far but has unilaterally declared a debt moratorium for any country that was victim to this tragedy. Not bad but we can do much better and I hope that we do.

What did you do? Do something for a change.

Aeon Flux revisited

On a brighter note, the animated series "Aeon Flux" originally aired on MTV is coming out as a movie next year, I hope they don't screw it up. Charlize Theron is playing Aeon, here's some pics.

Maybe Trevor will finally get some play?

Article here...

It is time to cough up some cash.

Seventy thousand plus dead, millions homeless, hundreds of communities wiped out and all we (North American governments) can cough up is 10 million bucks plus a loan of 20 million. George spent 200 billion on a useless war and all he could cough up was a few million in aid.

This is a very sad indicator of the state of affairs on our continent.

So what does that mean? It means that per capita, the US goverment did not even cough up 6 cents for aid but coughed up seven hundred bucks a year for a war.

This really means that it is up to you and me to dig deep because our governments won't and it is really unlikely that countries that bitch and moan at the UN won't either despite their pro-third world rhetoric. And where the fuck is that billionaire Osama and his aid? That prick is richer that most first world governments and all he can do is blow up Iraqis while his fellow Muslims live in squalor. How about the hundreds of millions that Arafat stashed away, what are the chances that that money will ever help out Muslims in need?


Dig deep and cough up some cash or shut up:

http://www.unicef.ca/
http://redcross.ca

I'm off to to Costa Rica to do some surfing, see y'all on the 10th.

Ten jobs in Los Angeles

A friend of mine is shopping around for about 10 web type technical and creative people in LA for American Apparel:

http://www.americanapparel.net/contact/employment.html

Know anybody? Send them the link above.

Thanks!

Kneeple

I was having an especially bad and stressful week. It's going to be a very expensive year for me to an extent that makes me sick.

So it was with great pleasure that I found something to make me chuckle; This dude had a skin graft on his leg and grew a nipple there. The coolest part was that he had it pierced :))

Big Fish

Nova scotia has some really big fish.

I Robot

About a decade ago, programming computers involved some pretty deep thinking and a lot of insight into how computers work. The exception was Basic and "girlie" computer scripting languages. Borland and Microsoft changed that with really simple tools for programming Pascal and Basic. So what happened was that millions of mildly educated people suddenly became programmers and the "Information Technology" industry exploded with a dumbed down army building tons of applications.

Which brings us to programming embedded computers. These things live in watches, calculators, remote controls, TVs, cars, lights, thermostats and microwave ovens. These days it is pretty hard to find a consumer product that doesn't have an embedded computer in it. The problem is that programming these things is where programming PCs was a decade ago. If you wanted to build your own device or build a little robot or robotic arm to do something like open the door for you, it took a ton of work and a lot of technical knowledge. So much so that it wasn't even worth it.

Things are going to change rapidly soon, it's getting way easier. When PCs got easy to program, a few million applications were launched and everybody became a programmer. Microsoft just released a microprocessor that uses .Net as it's core and uses standard .Net languages for programming and a relatively cheap development system as well. This type of development means that a million new hardware gadgets can be released by a million tiny companies and individuals. It means that a guy like me can program a bunch of robotics to control when and how my windows and blinds open automatically at home. It means that I can build all kinds of crazy robotics into my cars/bikes etc, and easily too.

I for one am really excited about the possibilities. A few friends and I are planning a lake-wide wireless internet network using WiLan next summer so on top of that, all of my robots will be internet connected. I want a robotic boat with a video camera to check out the lake while I'm in the city. A robotic helicopter would be wicked too.

Creeps and stuff

That whole story about the guy that shot Darrell Abbott (x/pantera) just totally creeps me out. Apparently this fellow blamed Darrell for the breakup of Pantera and went nuts and shot him five times in the head on stage at a concert. He then went on to kill 4 other people who were in the way. That is some pretty messed up stuff.

On a different note, here's my top ten for December:

1) Devils Garden - Tiger Army
2) Story of My Live - Social Distortion
4) Alternative Ulster - Stiff Little Fingers
3) I remember you - Ataris
5) Say you don't love me - Buzzcocks
6) One Hundred Punks - Gen X
7) Something Beautiful - Cauterize
9) Don't you forget about me - Bouncing Souls
10) Fire in Cairo - The Cure
11) Wait for the Blackout - The Damned
12) Cities in Dust - Siouxie

Yeah, I know my top ten never adds up to ten. As you can tell, I am on the retro punk-ish program, I haven't heard any good new drum & bass or techno for a while so I'm giving it a break for a couple of years.

Bernie gets fingered

I really don't like Bernie Ecclestone, he's the guy that nearly stole the Formula 1 GP races from Montreal and is doing the same thing in England right now. Everybody hates him because he had exclusive control over the F1 empire and bullied everyone in his way.

I am happy to say that Bernie is in big shit now.

First off, in 2008, Ferrari, Renault, Mclaren, Mercedes, BMW and Williams are starting a new series called "GPWC". Without them, the F1 doesn't seem to carry much weight anymore.

Second, Bernie is losing control of the company to the banks that own 75% of the company.

Every dog has his day and it looks like the day is coming soon that Bernie will get his. Now if only he could lick his own balls.

Bluetooth dreams

I wrote about wishing for this last summer but finally we have a really nice bluetooth headset built into a decent motorcycle helmet. Now I can answer my phone while riding YEEHAH!! But then again, I don't really want to be disturbed so forget about the phone, I have to find a bluetooth MP3 player..... stay tuned

oh yeah, and here's some nice curves...

Selma and I

The highway cops seem to be getting smarter these days because everybody that I know is getting speeding tickets. I got 2 in the past 6 months which is more than I have had in the past 5 years and I usually drive pretty fast and do a lot of highway driving. I think that their laser systems got a lot better so they can hide better. On top of that, they can clock you while going in the opposite direction, I know firsthand the hard way. Oh well, it's only money....

On a different note, I have at least one thing in common with these guys.

Cool rats

These monster land mine sniffing rats are cool.. I wonder if I could train one to find all my missing socks.

The week in review

Sometimes things just seem to whiz by so fast that it's hard to find time to even blink. This past week was one of those for me. It all started last Friday nite, blizart, neon and then a wing ding a the new W. I drank the ocean and paid for it on Saturday which led to a James Brown concert and a birthday party. JB rocks plain and simple. I saw him once before for free outdoors at a Grand Prix show but it wasn't quite the same. The show at Metropolis was awesome, it's an honor just to be in the same room as that guy and I wasn't disappointed.

That led up to my week on the road. 15 meetings in 5 days, 12-14 hour days, 4 hours of sleep and a week of Marriott room service. Now I am ready for a retirement home but unfortunately I have to do this all over again two or three times until my contract is done. If you can't find me don't take it personally, I'll turn up eventually.

When I do, don't give me a wedgie and in the meantime, try not to do anything too stoopid.

Banks and Credit Card Companies Suck Ass

Let me tell you why - these companies rake in billions of dollars in profit by charging extortionate interest rates and service fees and handing out terrible investment returns and then finally ignore their customers security woes as compensation for loyal service.

The thing that gets me is that they haven't upgraded security in decades! Phishing, credit card fraud, identity theft are all easily mitigated with technology like smartcards, biometrics and public key tokens. Where the hell are those things on my ATM machines? Why is it that card swipers can be hacked together for a mager couple of bucks to fool the ATMs owned by multi-billion dollar tech savy companies? The reason is that they are just too fat and greedy to give a damn about the consumer being ripped off, it's not their problem.

Half a billion dollars annually is what consumers got ripped off from phishing, who knows how much from credit card theft, ABM rip offs and identity theft. Those Bay street bastards know it and don't do squat about it.

The sick irony of it is when they do finally do something about it, they will probably charge you and I extra for it too.

How do you do something about it? Simple, next time you buy an investment - buy some stocks in the publicly traded irresponsible greedy banks. Tank up your RRSP in RBC funds and then get your mortgage somewhere else like from ING direct or a smaller credit union.

If they are taking billions from consumers and giving it to shareholders, you might as well be a shareholder right?

Same goes for Microsoft & Intel.

On Target

It's too bad we don't have Target stores in Canada, we'd get some really interesting new products.

Feelin hungry?

I saw that movie about the dude who ate nothing but burgers for a month and got fat and inflated. First off, what the hell did you think was going to happen? The same thing would happen if he ate whole grain bread tofu organic vegan burgers in that quantity for a month. I put on five pounds in a week just from eating hotel food in a slightly bigger plate than I normally eat so it makes sense that a normally healthy person would fatten up pretty quick on a doubled or tripled caloric diet.

After seeing that movie, I just wanted to have the hugest burger on the plant and I don't even like burgers and have eaten at McD's maybe twice in the past ten years. Sometimes I think that I'm the only one who thinks the liberal youth left wing is even dumber than the far right. I'd put this guy and Moore on the same level as Billy Graham, Oral Roberts and Tammy Faye Baker.

On that note, here's a wicked burger.

Ice Baby Ice

What has red hair, weighs 60 pounds, hops around Florida and would kick you in the balls if given the opportunity (assuming of course that you have balls)? No it's not Danny Partridge or the wee man, it's Vanilla Ice's renegade kangaroo.

Darwinism in action

Man, it just totally amazes me how stupid some people are. Anywez, I'm on the road for another week so I'll be sparse for a while. See yez!

Remembrance day

Today is remembrance day, most people my age don't know exactly what it's about or even seem to care. Today is the day that people like you and me who sit in a relatively free place take a bit of time to appreciate the people that fought to keep it that way. If it was up to me, I'd also consider the civilians and "enemy" soldiers, many of them innocent as you or I.

The parade continues

Here's a moron, idiot and a stubborn old fool.

And why is it that Arafat keeps dying and then un-dying? How many times can that dude be declared dead?

Idiot parade

What is up with the idiots these days, they seem to be coming out of the woodwork. We've got dumbass Japanese people who bath in a radioactive soup, nuclear activists who don't quite get it , there's this crazy bunch in the UK with doggie glasses, then finally there's the self explanitory doggie fart thong.

Oh the hypocrisy

Most of the world thinks that the US shouldn't be in Iraq, this includes me. So how about Sudan or Haiti? Who is to decide if intervention is OK? Back in Europe during World War II, may people were very much against going to war with Germany even though there were many reports of atrocities, same thing with Kuwait and Yogoslavia.

I think that the hard liners who are against intervention should take a look back in history and think about what would happen if nobody ever intervened until they were directly threatened. You'd probably be speaking German, Russian or Japanese right now. I'm not saying that it's the right thing to do by any means, but the answer isn't so black and white and Iraq isn't so different from Serbia.

Want an example? How about France and the UN hanging out in the Ivory Coast where nobody there wants them? Same story, different theater except it's Chirac who's doing the intervening.

On a different topic, last night on the way into town I saw another Aurora Borealis. I had always thought that it only happened in August. This is the third time in 2 years, really unbelievable sight especially the first time you see one.

A Dirty Secret About Offshoring

So let me ask you this, when you buy a car that was imported or a shirt from the Gap (yuk!), do you know that you pay some import duties indirectly because the goods were taxed on their way into North America? The same goes for anything you might buy from the US that was made in China, you will pay some duties of up to 20%. You don't pay any duties on American and soon South American goods due to NAFTA.

So my point is that when the big software companies have their products built offshore, why is it that you don't pay duties on the software? Duties and excise taxes are meant to protect local industry from dumping and unfair offshore competition. What about offshore IT work? Does Microsoft or Sun pay duties every time they sell you software? Probably not, it seems un-enforceable. While IT offshore outsourcing is a natural extension of manual labor outsourcing (sweatshops), it just isn't fair that it isn't taxed in the same way as tangible goods. What's worse is that it seems to be encouraged both by governments and Wall Street. This seems strange given that Americans are so patriotic but not patriotic enough to protect the jobs of the weak against the greed of the powerful.

For the record, I stand to gain the most from the status quo but I still think that it is unfair and will come back to bite us all in the ass. Unfortunately, politicians and the common folk won't react to this probably until its too late.

Thomas Jefferson said that people who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was and never will be. True dat.

Smug Canuck

Just when you were feeling especially good about being a Canadian, there's some local bonehead who shows up to remind you that we're prone to idiosis like everybody else.

Whacked out in DC

I don't know about you, but I have been getting wads of email from my friends who now live in the USA. Some are ex-pat Canadian, some American but what they have in common is that they all seem pretty distraught and almost desperate about the outcome of that last election. I don't really know of any Canadians who wanted Bush to win, even the most conservative ones. For the most part, most people that I know thought that given what a horrendous job he did, that there was no way he was going to win. They thought wrong and so did my peers in the USA who got snookered by rural USA and the bible belt. If you live in Boston, NYC, LA or anywhere relatively modern, it just became really clear to you how different you are from somebody living in Texas or Idaho. Culture shock isn't just Paris Hilton in a camper, it's the bible belt running the country, ruling the supreme court and bombing other peoples countries. You'd think that there was nothing the common American can do about it. Well that's the sad part, the people who will get screwed the most voted the least. That would be the youth and the poor. The younger you were, the poorer you were, the least likely it was that you voted in the USA. That's a very sad failure of democracy.

Another sidenote: Did you know that the District of Columbia where the White House, Congress and the US Senate resides voted 90% (!!!) for Kerry. Talk about ironic.

Four more years

CNN has some really interesting stats on the type of people that voted for Bush/Kerry, here's some really interesting highlights:

- White people voted 58% for Bush
- Black people voted 88% for Kerry (PHEW!@)
- Other races voted around 55% for Kerry
- People over 30 voted about 52% for Bush, under 30 it was 54% for Kerry
- Voting by income was wild, if you made <$15K, you voted 63% for Kerry, over 200K, 63% for Bush
- Protestants and Catholics voted 59% and 52% for Bush
- Jewish folks voted 75% for Kerry (!)
- Churchgoers voted 60-70% for Bush

No real surprises but there are now some numbers to these trends to really show how divided the US really is. Good luck to them, I'm just glad that I am Canadian today.

Source: CNN


BTW: I am on the road for the next month so I will be mostly out of sight.