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.

Yoda Arafat

Is it just me or is Yasser looking more and more like Yoda these days?

Wired and stuff

The most current issue (12.11) of Wired is pretty good for a change. There's an article about a river in Arizona that got contaminated with salt from farming runoff and thereby killing Mexican farmer crops downstream. The US gov. built a quarter of a billion dollar desalination plant that isn't in service yet. While the plant was being built, the salt water runoff was poured out into the Mexican desert. Oddly enough this eco-rich salt water wetland formed and all kinds of endangered animals and plants popped up in the desert. Now the Mexicans want the swamp to stay and nobody wants to fire up the desalination plant. Interesting problem...

There's also a free CD in the magazine with music released under the Creative Commons License (Beastie boys, etc). This is cool in theory because it gives artists and small labels some tools to break the major record company stranglehold on the market. On the music front, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is a serious badass that made the big labels pay up $50 million in unpaid royalties to some big name artists in May. He is now starting the wheels rolling to investigate the industry for radio payola. John Peel would be happy.


Speaking of cool, there's a new small affordable Hummer H3 coming out in a year or so.

The Peel legacy

John Peel died today, this is sad on many levels. John was a BBC Radio 1 DJ that really championed new music and gave lots of bands airplay that would never have been given radio play anywhere else. Bands like Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen and even drum & bass DJs like Kemistry and Storm all played live on Radio 1 from John's studio. These sessions were called the 'Peel Sessions' and without them, many of the worlds most important seminal bands, artists and DJs would never have gotten past their tiny scenes. The next time that you listen to the Strokes, Interpol or even Britney, think about John and how he had some hand in shaping that sound. Rest in peace John, the world will miss you dearly.

Weekends in burbia

Besides pubbing with my buddies, I really don't know what to do with myself when I stay in town on weekends. Maybe it's just me but watching tv, shopping and seeing movies really SUCKS! This is especially true when you get used to riding motocross, fishing and destroying wood and metal with power tools. I just don't get the suburban life, and hopefully I never will.

On a different note, my sources tell me that the legendary existentialist band "The Pumps" are getting back together for a second coming tour. Speaking of all girl bands, GBG are amusing me these days. Yeah, I know they aren't exactly ATREYU or KITTIE but amusing none the less, probably because like every kid in the 80's, I had a crush on Belinda Carlisle (the gogos) when I was a pup and Nicollete does a good impersonation minus the nose job, bulimia and cocaine. BTW: Google tells me that Belinda was in playboy at 42, wish I had a copy. My birthday is coming up (wink wink).

GBG - C'Mon

Something about Mark

About five years ago, Mark Cuban was the big kahuna at broadcast.com that had just been bought out by Yahoo for 5 billion dollars. Yahoo was really interested in my company's products but they got Mark on the case because he was their main guy when it came to video. So Mark had me and my partners fly out to Dallas to meet him and his team. He yelled at me for a couple of hours and tried to poke holes in our technology and then finally made us an offer to buy the company and pretty much threw us out of his offices. Needless to say, I didn't take his offer but I am still on good terms with him and oddly enough, he wrote about our technology from back in the day recently in his blog. I like Mark, he's a loose canon but the dude has some really solid values when you take a look under the hood. I watched a bit of both the Apprentice and Benefactor and the difference seems to be that Trump & his squad seem to make arbitrary nasty decisions to can people for what seems like minor issues, Cuban on the other hand makes what seems to be really rational entrepreneurial decisions. Trump makes his calls from an ivory tower and Cuban's in the trenches with the rest of us sweathogs. Even with a billion bucks in his pocket, Cuban still makes common sense decisions that don't seem to be too different from the ones that I would make.

One of his companies is Magnolia pictures and they have a documentary coming out that was filmed in Iraq by a bunch of random Iraqis given DV cameras. It seems to be the most enlightening piece of media coming out of Iraq because it doesn't take a stand, just seems to blurt out a whole bunch of footage shot by everyday people on the ground in Iraq.

http://www.voicesofiraq.com/

On a different note, this guy is an idiot and you should check out Tiger Army.

Adam Smith and my email

Adam Smith was an economist who in the 1700's came up with a lot of theories about political economy and free market systems. Most of what Adam Smith theorized about revolved around the principle that public welfare would be best served by market forces being naturally guided by economic free market forces (like competition and demand). Adam figured that people and governments were really ineffective compared with supply and demand. For the most part, he turned out to be right. If you look at stuff like AIDs medication and high priced drugs, you'd think that the free market really failed the people who need this stuff. In effect though, this is untrue because the profit motive behind this is government incentive in the form of patent protection. The government actively lets the drug companies make money at the expense of peoples lives - competition in the form of generic drugs is illegal. Same thing with music and media monopolies. You can trace these problems back to some kind of government protection. I don't think that the government can be completely hands off, we'd have corner store heroin shops if there wasn't some sort of intervention but I think that for the most part Adam was right, it's just that there are too many fingers in too many pies to make it work the way he predicted.

Anyways, what's that got to do with me? Thanks to the free market economy and a couple of dudes in the valley who gave me a 1GB email account, Hotmail extended my inbox to 250MB. The same kind of thing happened when Sprint gave me 15 cent a minute long distance, Bell gave me 10 cent calls.

Now I just wish the same thing would happen for gasoline and banking fees.

Road rules

I am on the road again pretty much all week this week, working at the House of Commons. Yesterday history was made - the chamber ajourned because of a software issue! Something to do with the translators software systems. I guess that's the state of things right now that software in some form controls almost all machines. This is kind of scary when you think about it but at the end of the day, most of the machines work pretty well most of the time so catastrophic failures are pretty rare. Having said that though I saw a show about software bugs in radiation therapy machines that killed a few people, so you've really got to be careful not to underestimate the effects of bad software.

On a different note, a while ago I was talking about car stereo integration with MP3 players. News.com has a pretty good article about this.

If you haven't seen the CBC shows on the greatest Canadians of all time, you should check them out, pretty cool people. I didn't realize that insulin was invented by a Canadian (Frederick Banting) who sold his invention for a dollar to made sure that insulin was affordable by everybody and in turn saved millions of lives. Lots of people and stuff like that.

http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/

More Moore Entertainment

Most of you that know me know that I think that Michael Moore is a donkey turd. That's not because I am pro-Bush or anything. If anything, I would like to see Bush indicted for his intent with the same vigour that Clinton was for his blowjobs. The thing is that guys like Moore discredit the whole liberal and centrist wing of the world. It is easy for the right to point out that the left and center is full of crap when the left and center is represented by contortionists like Moore. Take a look at this document by Dave Kopel called "Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11" and ignore some of the right leaning rhetoric and concentrate on the facts and timelines of objective data versus Mikey's claims. Sure Kopel is a bit of a right wing gun toting crackpot, but the BBC and their footage and all of the timeline data that he states is pretty easy to verify independantly.

Moore is an arse hole for bending the truth again to serve his purpose - just like he accuses Bush of doing.

An unfortunate moose

I sadly put my street bike away for the winter this weekend after enduring a wet, cold and rainy drive up north. This annual event really sucks.

I killed two chipmonks by accident by leaving a half full bucket of water around. The dumb little fellows jumped in the bucket and couldn't get out. I looked in the bucket and saw two little pickled rodents. This made me sad. Not as sad as putting the motorcycle away though.

Then there's this moose that got it's antlers tied up in a power line and well, the rest of the story is a little weird and sad at the same time.

Storage and stuff

Why is it that they can make a 20GB MP3 player that can fit in your nose and they don't yet have a digital camera with a built in hard drive? Speaking of which, Archos, Dell and Rio all have super tiny mp3 players coming out any day now. I kinda have my eye on the Archos, smaller than an iPod mini, 20GB HD and $250US. I think I'll wait until january though unless one of you doods wants to buy me one for christmas (hint, hint)

I am going to be on the road pretty much all of next week so if you need something from me, go ask somebody else.

Mini stoppie

Ever seen a mini doing a stoppie?

Whatever

I am freaking busy and have nothing to say. Having said that, my favorite site of the day is this shaken faces site.

Judy is an idiot

I am not especially politically inclined but political matters regarding the budget really piss me off because it is after all my tax dollars that are financing it. Let me ask you something, if you had a credit card bill, would you pay it off in 60 years? Would you ever run up a bill that took you 60 years to pay off? How about 30 years? Read on.

Here's what NDP finance critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis said about the 8 Billion dollar government surplus for 2004:

"Every spring for seven years this government has been telling poor kids, students, environmentalists, city mayors and so on that the cupboard is bare. And every October, every fall, suddenly billions in surplus mysteriously appear,”

Hey Judy,

WE OWE 510 BILLION DOLLARS!!!
WE ARE FREAKING BROKE,
THE CUPBOARD IS BARE ALREADY.
WE ARE NEARLY BANKRUPT.

Judy, you dumbasss, even if we paid 8 billion a year to pay off our Canadian federal debt, it would take between 30 and 60 years to pay it off.

So tell me something. I don't intend on paying any taxes in 30 years and certainly will be close to death in 60 years so who is going to pay the bills that you run up?

THE KIDS AND GRANDKIDS OF TODAY ARE GOING TO BE PAYING OFF THE IRRESPONSIBLE DEBTS OF PRESENT GOVERNMENTS.

Judy, if you want to spend more money, spend your own not mine. In the meantime, Judy, please piss off.

Thanksgiving

Well my 1 day roadtrip turned into a full week on the road which was a little harsh but mucho productivo. I cooked my first turkey this weekend - 16 pounds of bird flesh stuffed with 4 pounds of "stuffing". Good thing some people came over! A word of advice if you ever make a huge slab of any kind of meat, get a meat thermometer - it works great and you don't have to know what you're doing. Oh yeah, buy some disposable containers and make sure nobody leaves empty handed ;) This was a random weekend with lots of random activities including some bike repair work, cleanup and some chopper riding. I think a bunch of us are going to start a mini chopper bike gang to terrorize something or the other - "Hells Retards".

I ran in to Chuck at the boat/sled shop on the corner of my street. He now is the proud owner of some steel pins in his wrist thanks to a redneck who strung a steel cable across an ATV trail and nearly decapitated Chuck. Good thing he was there because I was able to vulture a few parts from his wounded bike :) For the record, I'm not the only one pulling parts off his bike, that's another crap thing about being out of action, your friends will use your machine spares. But that's what friends are for right? Anyways, he's probably still burping turkey and he'll have some shiney new parts from all of us when the orders come in.

Last week I did some work for the National Archives at the Gatineau preservation center. This is a huge glass warehouse with a solid concrete building inside housing archive film, video, photos and books. The humans work on the roof of the concrete building inside a glass building. It's pretty wild, you have to see it to believe it. Here's the concrete warehouse on the left inside the glass warehouse. Five stories up, people work on the roof - Indoors! 

This is the outside of the National Archives preservation center. 

Al has a roomate who does custom paintjobs on these micro choppers, 25cc little beasts that go about 35 MPH. Dangerous as hell but crazy fun too. I can't tell you what a gas these little monsters are. The seat is about the size of a slice of bread and it sounds like a chainsaw. 

Me and the chopper 

This is a bundle of joy disguised as a 25cc chopper. 

This the view from Mt. Sourir in St. Donat, pretty cool lookout overlooking the lakes, town and airport. 

The Pumpkins

Every fall in Delaware some maniacs have this competition where they use huge catapults, trebuchets and pneumatic canons to fire pumpkins thousands of feet. The team that throws an intact pumpkin the furthest wins. These devices are HUGE and cost the teams tens of thousands of dollars. The furthest throw last year was almost a mile. Holy crap, some dude shot a pumpkin out of a canon almost a mile! I'd like to go and check this out one year, it looks like fun.

Here it comes

If a car was a thong, it would be the Mercedes fortwo. Under 20 grand, 70MPG, diesel and super safe - it seems like a no brainer. The thing is really tiny, I saw one buzzing around this summer. It is basically a motorcycle with four wheels in a crazy strong rollcage - ram into it and it bounces away. I just wonder how it handles in two feet of snow. Wired has a good article about this little bad boy.

The bear facts

I am telling you, there is something up with the bears this year. This bear gobbles pies.

On the road again

I'm on the road until next Tuesday so have a happy Thanksgiving and please - don't put it in your mouth if you don't know where it's been.

Supreme Santas of Canada

I just watched the speech from the throne today because, well because I had to (for work). Besides being the same as the last speech, what really struck me was that our supreme court judges all dress up like Santa. I wonder why that is. Adrienne Clarkson sits there in the Senate Chamber giving this speech in front of nine Santas. Sure it is serious business, but besides being surreal, it's really hard to take anything Canadian seriously as it is. Why not dress the Senators like elves while we are at it?

90 Days

Ninety days sometimes seems like an eternity and sometimes seems like a flash. In about ninety days it's going to be -20 outside. In about ninety days, it's going to be 2005. In about 90 days I'm going to Costa Rica. In the next 90 days, I'm going to be out of town 60 days. In the next 90 days, I'm going to piss about 400 times. In the next 90 days, I'm going to drink over 200 coffees. In the next 90 days I'm going to drive 10,000 kilometers. In the next 90 days I'm going to be really busy and have a lot of fun.

This is brilliant and this guy is an idiot.

Wind power

Did you know that Hydro Quebec just launched a huge wind power generation project? Well, that's pretty cool considering that most people consider HQ to be an environmentally unfriendly bunch. I read an article in Fortune (Aug 23rd edition) the other day on how to kick the oil habit - alternative energy, more efficient gas and hybrid powered cars, more ethanol fuel blends and less consumer waste were three of the big suggestions. I think that technology can make all three a lot simpler. The deal breaker is usually consumer pushback to wacky eco-technology. These days though it's a pretty easy sell to convince a consumer like me to reduce oil consumption. Big bucks, dirty wars and even dirtier air is enough for me, now give me some better products.

When Fortune magazine starts talking about stuff like this, you know it's got some good fiscal and political sense and not just eco-vegan dogma.

One more thing, this guy is an idiot.

Focus

I saw one of those cheezy motivational posters a while ago that said something like "obstacles are the things that you see when you lose focus of your goals". Yeah whatever, that seemed like another one of those things that makes sense for like 10 seconds and then disappears. That's what I thought until this past weekend. I crashed my motocross into a small boulder, endo'd over the handlebars into a pile of boulders and rocks. I guess the rain and storms exposed a few more rocks than I am used to making the ride a little sketchier. Anyways, the point is that I had an 8 foot wide trail with a 10 inch boulder in the middle and by getting fixated on the rock, I went straight for it and crashed instead of picking any one of a million other lines. Then that cheezy motivational poster made sense, look where you want to go and not just at the stuff in the way. I've read that in business books, seen it in posters, learnt it in motorcycle school, read it in motocross technique books and finally lived it up close and personal. Makes some sense now that I've kissed the rocks. BTW: I'm fine, just a bit sore but I broke my brake lever and banged up the bike a bit. So take my word for it, keep your vision on the long term because if you lock in on some minor crap in front of you, you will likely slam right into it.

On a different note, the Laurentians are spectacular right now - go check it out, there's tons of stuff to do up there and the scenery is brilliant. Shut off your TV, get off your couch and check it out dude.

And finally, there actually is a bluetooth motorcycle helmet on the market but unfortunately it isn't a fullface. So that's 2 out of 12 things on my list that are taken care of.

Is it a coincidence?

I put my boat away two weeks ago, didn't ride motocross for two weeks, rode my motorcycle and not my car in town and now the ozone hole over Antartica has shrunk. Coincidence or not? You be the judge.

Kerry and Bush

I didn't bother watching the debate last night because they both stand for more or less the same thing. Americans would probably get their panties in a bunch and point out differences in policies regarding gay marriages, the environment etc., but I think that a lot of people (including Canadians) are missing a major point about the US that nobody seems to be talking about.

How about that MONSTEROUS US deficit? Yeah sure we Canadians have a huge one too, but we argue about it all the time and have talked non stop about it for a decade. We've actually paid down $50 of $600 Billion.


The conservative estimates from Republican friendly economic think tanks peg the US deficit at over 7 Trillion dollars with a hidden unfunded deficit totalling over 40 Trillion dollars. Unfunded budget deficit in simple terms is pension, health care etc. that is promised to be delivered but there is no money in the bank for and no tax revenue coming due for.

40 Trillion dollars divided by 300 million people means that every man, woman and child in the United States is liable for $133,000 $US.

MR BUSH, MR KERRY, what about the buck thirty three that all of you patriots owe? Talk about it, argue it, scream about it. Just do something about it because if your country goes down in economic flames, so do we. Mr Bush, your 2004 deficit of $480 Billion US$ would be the Canadian equivalent of $69 billion.

If the Canadian government ran a $69 Billion dollar deficit last year, they would collectively be castrated in a very public display of fury.


How about here in Quebec?

Federal Debt: 500 Billion ($16,666 per capita)
Provincial Debt: 110 Billion ($14,666 per capita)

Total debt per capita: $31,332

Here's the saddest part, as government debts get cranked up, more of tax dollars go to foreign banks in interest payments instead of being spent on government services like roads, hospitals and education. Canadians already spend 30% of tax revenue on debt payments.

For the record, you can make a voluntary donation to the US Secretary of the Treasury to pay down the US debt. ("Gifts for Reduction of the Public Debt." Established by Public Law 87-58 in 1961).

I would recommend that Secretary Snow consider buying some squeegees as well.


Some sources:
Canadian census stats
Quebec financial status
CNN Budget article
Scotia captial budget report
Minister of Finance financial report
US Population demographics
Liberal article about unfunded US liabilities
US Treasury Debt FAQ

What a long week

I was in Ottawa yesterday and saw Jack Layton on the street giving an interview. It was a loooong day. Next week I have two day trips to Ottawa on Wed and Fri and have to drive back each time. This isn't so bad because I bought half a dozen CDs that I haven't listened to yet (Atreyu, Alexis on Fire, International Noise Conspiracy, Good Charlotte). Speaking of which, I bought the new album by the Cure which has more in common with the first three albums than anything released in the past two decades. Not to shabby for a bunch of old guys who wear makeup.

In other news, a surfer rode a whale in San Clamente and this bear took a man hostage and ate all his chocolate. What the hell is up with the bears this year? My life seems to be punctuated by bizarre bear stories (?)

Speaking of fungus, here's a cool mushroom called the spiney puffball. For some reason, there's tons of them around this year. This probably has to do with the bizarre weather that we have had. Usually these things only grow near the water but they seem to be everywhere. (??) 

She goes south for another winter :( 

So what's next?

Half a dozen years ago, I was telling people about wireless music services, tiny digital music players, subscription services and music libraries in the air. As it turns out this stuff quickly became available and boring, you can get all of that stuff at Walmart now. So the question is, what is next? The answer to that is pretty tough because the technology is really far ahead of the licensing issues right now so there is almost no way to innovate given the complexity of working out licensing deals with the few remaining record companies. So if services aren't going to change drastically, what else can change? Here's a couple of things that give you a good peek at what will probably be commonplace in a couple of years:

- Cars that detect your portable music and can control your device. The new BMWs already can do this with the iPod and there are some adapters for a bunch of cars. Nothing common or standardized yet but assume that a Bluetooth device and a Bluetooth phone should be easily and transparently integrated with your car computer when you come into your car in a couple of years. While you're at it, you won't need a key - just an RFID tag in your wallet.

- Softgoods with integrated electronics. Burton has an ugly MP3 playing hat and Oakley has ugly MP3 playing shades. How long until all the others follow? And why is it that today's clothing doesn't have cell phone and MP3 player pockets? I have heard that there are some jewelry inspired memory sticks coming out too. I'd like to see a Bluetooth motorcycle helmet with speakers/mic for telephone & music.

Fab DVD rental machine

My friend Jacob had a record store called DNA on Pine avenue near St. Laurent, I don't know what happened to his record store but he now has a cool DVD rental store that is self serve machine based. Cool stuff, you buy debit card and then take out and return movies from the machines 24/7. The best part about it is that the movies are a buck for 6 hours. WICKED! The technology has been around in Europe for five years and the franchises just opened up here in Montreal recently. Great idea, low margins, high volume, low overhead - good business model so far. If Blockbuster gets in on it though, they might have problems. Hopefully these things will shake up the whole industry and drive down the prices. Good luck Jacob, and if you live in the plateau, you should support him by renting there, save yourself some money and in turn keep some more money in our local economy.

gripe: If only they had previews....

And finally here's a few places to get some fine bathing suits for the ladies who may be considering boating with me next summer:

www.malibustrings.com
www.wickedweasel.com

Candiru - the penis vampire fish

Sean told me about these dudes that surf a standing wave in the St. Lawrence . Seems like fun but the water is sketchy out there and I just saw a nasty documentary about a really toxic PCB dump upriver 1KM at the Technopark.

I looked up river surfing and found this bizarrre phenomena where large waves run upriver from the ocean once a year in a few rivers. One of them is in the bay of Fundy in Canada, I wonder if anybody has ever surfed it. There's one in Brazil and they actually have a contest there. The really sketchy part is this nasty parasitic fish in that river that swims up your dick or your ass and then sucks your blood and gorges on your flesh. No crap, it's a real fish called the "Candiru". Look it up yourself.

Here's what I found:

"However the reason that the Candiru is most feared by humans is because it is the only vertebrate known to parasitize humans! The fish is said to be addicted to the taste and smell of human urine. Candirus parasitize humans, when they are skinny-dipping while urinating in the water. The candiru tastes the urine stream and follows it back to the human. It then swims up the anus and lodges itself somewhere in the urinary tract with its spines. Blood is drawn, and the candiru gorges itself on the blood and body tissue, its body sometimes expanding due to the amount of blood consumed. Once inside it would eat away the mucous membranes and tissues until hemorrhage would kill it or the host. It was also said that even if one caught the fish by the tail, once in the urethra it could not be pulled out because it would spread itself like an umbrella.

The Candiru can attack both men and women. Penectomy is generally preferred to the misery and pain associated with leaving the fish in the urethra. One way to expel the fish would be to drink the juice of the green fruit of the Jagua tree, Genipa Americana L. The juice of this fruit is brewed into a tea and drunk hot, supposedly causing the skeleton of the fish to dissolve and resulting in its expulsion from the victim within a couple hours. A synthetic version of the brew has been used in the past by urologists to dissolve bladder "incrustations" and kidney stones. The Candiru can also be removed surgically. But both these processes are time consuming.

There are moves to ban the import of these fish into the United States because of fears that
some of them might find their way into American rivers and wreck havoc. As of now there are no known predators of the Candiru and apart from their feeding habits there is very little information available about them. "

Cameron Diaz is a selfish bitch

Read about it yourself. What a biatch.


of course i'm kidding, chill out tightass

Oh yeah, this is pretty funny - watch out for gypsy balls.

Michael Moore is full of shit

I keep hearing people quoting Michael Moore, he said that Canadians own more firearms per capita than Americans. I am calling bullshit:

CANADA
7.9 Million firearms in Canada - 31.4 Million people
Canada: .2516 firearms per capita
Source: Canada Firearms Centre Study

US
222 Million firearms in the US - 270 Million people
US: .82 firearms per capita
Source: Cohilition for gun control

Michael Moore was off by a factor of over 3 on this "fact" that keeps getting quoted by ignorant Canadians.

I was never for or against gun control because I didn't know much about it. I have a countryplace in an area where everybody has some kind of firearm (hunting) and NOBODY gets shot. I did my research and here's what I found:

- Gun control laws and per capita ownership has no relationship worldwide to firearm deaths
- The stats for international gun ownership versus violent crime will show you some pretty wild facts, there is no clear trend
- Michael Moore focused on Colombine and not Compton - this is the exception not the rule
- Washington DC is a gun free zone and since it has been, weapons crime has gone up dramatically
- Florida liberalized concealed weapons and most gun control advocates thought that mayhem would break out. This didn't happen.
- The so called "assault weapons" ban that just expired didn't have any measurable impact as all it did was make weapons with a combination of 2 out of 6 dangerous features illegal to manufacture and sell. These weapons were already in the hands of those that wanted it. These types of weapons were never a serious "material" threat to the general public - the historical stats prove that.

So in the end, I have no answer or opinion regarding gun control although I am less of a believer than I used to be as you can probably tell. It doesn't work according to the stats but it does make some people feel better.

We Canadians just don't have a clue what it's like to live in a country where all of the bad guys have guns on them all the time. I encourage you to go check out both sides of the story from the gun control and gun lobby side. Just stop quoting Michael Moore, he's a pathelogical liar.

Anti gun:
Stop the NRA
Coalition to stop gun violence
Coalition for gun control (Canada)
Google - gun control


Pro gun:
NRA
NRAHQ
NRA UK
Google - right to bear arms


And some articles that I think are pretty interesting:
Fewer guns, more death
Fighting back

Speaking of string

Here's a great bikini contest to cheer up your wednesday.

Enough with the flames already

Do you remember in the 80's when everybody chopped off their sideburns and had their muttons chopped from the ears down like kraftwerk? Anybody remember acid washed jeans? Looked great back then with a Guns'n Roses wife beater. Mark my words, in a couple of years you're going to be looking at iron crosses, flames and tribal tattoos in the same sour disdain. Save yourself now, shed that crap and quick before you find yourself in one of those "what was I thinking" timeless pictures. Like the one with you wearing a dayglow bandana to keep your mullet bangs out of your eyes.

Things I'd like to see die:

1) Iron crosses
2) Flames on everything
3) OCC & West Coast Chopper stuff (especially the crap at Zellers)
4) Tribal tattoos
5) Harley t-shirts & underwear
6) Faux-hawks and pointy ridge gel hair
7) Contrived indy rock
8) Those god damn MTV spots that they haven't changed for too goddamn many farking years
9) Michael Moore educated vegan eco-drones
10) Post modern hippy culture
11) "X" everything - how the hell is toothpaste extreme?
12) Paris, Jessica, Avril and Britney (not dead, just gone away like the Spice Girls)
13) Reality shows
14) Manufactured pop singers and their goddamn factory shows

Things I'd like to see/see more of:

1) Fish tacos (don't laugh until you had one)
2) Lumberjack fashion
3) The Clash
4) Alexis on Fire/Avenged Sevenfold/Screamers
5) Girl rockers/Kittie/Distillers
6) Motocross tracks and offroad trails close to the city
7) A mini-cross track in town
9) Free outdoor shows (although there are lots already)
10) Better ways to hear new music
11) MuchLoud
12) Space 1999/Logans Run/Bladerunner esthetics
13) Community kite fighting
14) Urban paint ball days
15) Surfable standing waves in rapids
16) Beer price wars
17) Gas price wars
18) Better/cheaper/universal PVRs

Fall has fallen

Have you ever wondered where you can get instant replay binoculars? Or perhaps a washingmachine that can read smart tags on clothes and automatically wash them and then email you when it's done. You can find them at gizmodo.com. I especially like the Metasonix TX-1 Agonizer, distortion box/pedal with "strangle", "pound" and "suck harder" knobs.

BTW: If you live in montreal, check out montrealshows.com for upcoming concert listings.

Yeah, my boat came out of the water this weekend marking the start of fall. I didn't even get to do any motocross this weekend because I was too busy and tired so I'm going to be a fireball this week. Talk about a bogus weekend.

Songs of Summer 2004

Here's the top ten songs most likely to be heard around me during summer 2004:

something beautiful - cauterize
second heartbeat - avenged sevenfold
in this diary - the ataris
dyers eve - metallica
rank n file - anti flag
whole lotta rosie - acdc
unholy confession - avenged sevenfold
one shot down - the briggs
come with me - puff daddy and jimmy cliff
immigrant song - led zepplin
perfect - smashing pumpkins
true believers - bouncing souls

Yeah there's twelve songs in my top ten, so sue me.

When you're done, check out this video from Cauterize

SWEET: The Wailers Rock!

On a random whim, I invited a few friends to go and see a free outdoor show put on by the Concordia Students Union that was right next to my office. Well I got the day wrong and I was out of town on the day of the show (thursday) but I did get back in in time and against all odds, my old friend Marko and Mario both came around and we had a really wicked time. The band was The Wailers who were one of the seminal Reggae bands. Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh were all in the Wailers at one time and the founding brothers were part of the rock steady bands that released "Liquidator" and "Return of the Django". Seeing them live and for free with a few thousand people was just wicked. It really helped that we had crazy warm weather, usually it is blowing, raining and cold but last nite was tropical. Of course, the beer ticket fiasco was just plain dumb. It's a good thing that we found a depanneur on the street selling brown bag heinies 'cuz I was getting a bit pissed. Also, how can you serve a few thousand people beer without providing a single ferking toilet? Despite that, I laughed so hard that I was in tears most of the night and everybody was in a killer mood. Wicked show, wicked night - I've gotta do this more often.

Teddy is dead

I wrote about seeing a little bear a couple of weeks ago on my street. My heart sank early Saturday morning when I went for my daily trail ride and rode by the dead body of this fat little bear cub. I am guessing that it got hit by a car and then crawled off and died. This made me really sad.

The weather was hot and weird this past weekend. We wake surfed for the last time this year - the boat goes away for the winter next week. Next year is going to be nuts, I can't wait already.

On a different note, my friend Chuck hit a steel cable in a trail in 5th gear and got taken down with his motocross and broke his wrist/arm really bad. He's going into surgery today. Good luck Chuck, we'll ride again next year.

Hurricane Frances petered out when it hit Canada but it left Lac Ouareau with a flash rainstorm that raised the water level by 18 inches. My dock is now underwater and my boat is touching the roof of the boathouse. There were unleashed docks and all kinds of junk floating everywhere this past weekend. 

God bless the freaks

So first we had this monkey that randomly started walking upright, then there was this alcoholic bear, and now we have this scary looking two legged dog that walks. This dog even has its own lawyer. We live on a very strange planet.

September is starting out pretty good so far, the water is still warm and the weather isn't terrible yet. Last year was really crap so I'm hoping that we have a couple of warm weeks coming up. It looks pretty good so far but the weather people have been really off this year.

I did a lot of bbq'ing this weekend and I would really recommend Marche Akhavan in NDG (6170 Sherbrooke) to anybody wanting some ethnic grub. Wicked marinated lamb chops, "meat flaps" (don't laugh they're awesome), marinated quails, etc.

I crashed my motocross pretty hard and fast this weekend in the trails, skeety stuff - I was shaking pretty bad when it was over. I realized that I really need some handguards to stay out of the emergency room.

Here's some terms that me and the clowns in St. Do came up with this past summer in case you don't understand what I'm saying sometimes:

skid pad: grundle (usually on a motocross seat)
packing the pork: put on your wetsuit
skeets: shaking after a huge scary crash (motocross)
barp: barf flavoured burp
chowder: floating barf
marination: warming up your wetsuit by peeing in it
knave: ferking idiot
boat slut: somebody who goes from boat to boat without owning one
sandbags: people who come out on boats but don't ride
pretard: dumb kid
jizz job: lubing your chain (motocross)
jerky: scrapes

A tribute to Indian Larry - RIP

Some of you might not know yet but most people in the motorcycle world are a little shook up because Indian Larry died this past Saturday during a bike show. He was doing a stand up stunt that's his trademark in front of 4000 people when he crashed and died. Indian Larry is/was a legend and he inspired people everywhere. Covered head to toe in tattoos, he defined the spirit of biking and why we who love bikes are different from the rest of you. I have to say that it pisses me off a bit that motorcycles and custom bike culture has been yuppy-commoditized but then again it's also nice to live in a more bike friendly world. The two wheeled family got a lot bigger in recent days and Larry is and always will be a family godfather. Like all families, this one is especially sad to have lost such a seminal patriarch. We're going to miss you Larry - RIP, your legend lives on.

The Crack House

OK you perverts who got here from google image search or whatever, enjoy these pictures but don't forget to check out my regular blog. Oh yeah, thanks for stopping by and enjoy your appetizer.


This my friends is why they now call my house the crack house. I was in the water while the girls got creative with the camera. Once again I wasn't complaining. I've really got to do this more often. Oh yeah, speaking of fauna, I saw a bear cub and a fox on my street on Saturday nite - for real. I thought it was a bear or a dog that broke into my garbage box last summer. I guess it was a bear.

Andy and the Fauna

Mimi invited a couple of people over and a whole bunch of people dropped by again by boat & motocross. The next thing I knew I was stranded in a boat with my neighbor Andy, half a dozen kittens and a case of beer. Andy wasn't complaining and neither was I.

A whole lot of surfing went down and although it doesn't seem too thrilling after being cracked out for a day, it is still crazy fun. I've got the cutbacks wired, now working on a 360 and maybe a little ollie. 

My girlfriend had a dozen girls over this weekend and Big Al came over to entertain them. Things got a little sloppy and loud. The thing about having a dozen girls over is that no matter how much you cook, eat, drink, drop, spill - everything is always clean and wiped down. It's like having invisible cleaning fairies, I like it! We put seven of them in the boat on Sunday and all on the port side to throw the sickest goofy side wake. The weather suck but the surfing made up for it. 

This sport might not make the olympics but maybe it should be considered for the special olympics. What happens if you take three girls and big Al and have them all hang on to each others ankles and wrists and roll down a 60 degree slope together - after some vodka shooters. You have the quad roll of course! I guess you had to be there. 

Big Al's post quad victory dance 

The Bear Facts

I like this bear. Next time I have a party, I'm going to invite him along with my favorite monkey.

The Three Noble Truths

I realized a couple of things this past weekend. First, I realized that it's a really good idea to play hookey from work when the weather is perfect. I used to do it all the time but for some random reason I stopped, I am officially back on the program and advocating good weather hookey for anybody in the northeast. Work weekends in February and November, just get out as much as you can when the weather is good, you will thank yourself when you're 85. My second realization is that I suck at wakeboarding because I have been surfing so much this summer and last summer I didn't ride because I ripped a tendon in my ankle. This is a double edged sword because I am getting pretty good at wake surfing at the cost of my wakeboarding. I'm feeling a really rapid progression and totally love it so it works for me. The third thing that I realized is something that is obvious, repetition and progression turn a fun activity into a peak experience. Between motocross and surfing, I am getting into some major progressions and riding better and better each ride and having more and more fun. I get up early in the morning when everybody is asleep, fill up the bike and hit the trails. When I get back, I'm totally stoked, learned a couple of subtle new techniques, went a bit faster and escaped death yet another time. It's hard getting up and getting going but once the initial shock is over, it totally rocks. I guess the same is true for anything. I don't like wakeboarding or snowboarding that much anymore because I don't do it often and don't have the flow going. I think that that will come back, I just gotta get up early in the morning and hit it hard.

The Eleventh Day Ride

I had a long discussion with Big Al about being focused and in the pocket when you ride, so much so that you aren't so much thinking it as you are feeling it. It doesn't matter if it's wakeboarding, surfing, motocross or knitting - when you're in the pocket, you know it. The best way to describe it is like if you rode for ten days straight and were totally in your game and then on the eleventh day you just jumped in and instead of being a little freaked out when you hit a big kicker, you pick out your line and savour the centerfugal force as you get whipped into the air. In the air, time stands still and you float, spin, grab, tweak and stall it into a feather soft touchdown like a jackrabbit. Land it and scream off and crank out another one and then another one and so on.

That my friends is the eleventh day ride.

Chuck Carothers motocross 360 body varial

Check this bad ass video out

Countdown to Fall

This weekend was ferking cold, that didn't stop me from going into the water though. A bunch of us rode till sundown on Saturday night, after the lightening storms ended of course ;) I've got people dropping by, by boat and motocross all the time now which is pretty cool. I think I'm finally starting to get into the local groove. This was the first weekend that I didn't ride motocross this whole summer which really sucks. I am actually looking forward to fall and winter for the first time in a decade.

For the record, I am not eating chicken for a while. I've had quite enough.

And finally, I put up the pictures from Marc's summer party here.

I forgot all about this ritual of Marc's. The dude fills up a gas can full of booze and juice and shoves it down everybodys throats every twenty minutes. The first time I met him he stuck it in my face and it was only 11 AM. You gotta love that dood!