The Best Event of my Professional Career

In my current job, I have a lot of “windshield time.”. The term, “windshield time” is what salespeople refer to as time spent driving. It is considered unproductive time, as one is not spending time in front of customers doing one’s job — selling stuff. My windshield time varies from day to day, simply due…

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The Day I Blew Up The Science Lab

Okay, so I didn’t really blow up the entire lab, but the title sounds good. I have no idea where this memory bubbled to the surface from, but it’s a darn funny story, so I thought I’d blog it. Back in the day, (yes, this really is one of those stories) I was in Chemistry…

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Film Atrocities

I recently saw what I must think was probably one of the worst made-for-TV movies ever made. It was called “Locusts” and it was — well — awful. It always amazes me what atrocities tend to come out of hollywood — like Kangaroo Jack, for example, a story about two guys chasing a rapping, sunglass-wearing…

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Bathtime With the Elephants

A few months ago, my wife participated in a silent auction for “Bathtime with the Elephants” at the Calgary Zoo. She bid successfully, and yesterday, with four friends, we went and enjoyed the experience of “Bathtime with the Elephants.” Bathtime with the Elephants is pretty much self-explanatory; you go to the Calgary Zoo, meet some…

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Ashamed to be Canadian

Radio talk-show host Charles Adler read this on his program the other day. While I cannot claim to be the author (because I’m not,) I felt it was well worth passing along. I have taken the liberty of correcting a few minor punctuation errors, but other than that, I have posted it verbatim. I echo…

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The Mynt

The Mynt Last night, for a friend’s birthday, we decided to go hit the Mynt for a night on the club scene. I have not been “clubbing” in years. Many many years. But I went anyway — for fun mainly, but partly out of curiousity as to what this place was like. I’d heard about…

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Hell in the Pacific

Well I’m finally home. In fact, I’ve been home for one week and one day now. The jet lag is pretty much gone, and life is slowly returning to normal. I wish I could say that I had a good time in Hong Kong. I really do. In fact, Hong Kong itself isn’t a bad…

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Stupid Game Shows

What the hell is it with TV networks nowadays? Not only do we have humiliate-the-hell-out-of-some-unsuspecting-poor-young-beautiful-ditzy-blond-say reality shows, but we have really really really stupid game shows now. For a while, I thought game shows were improving. The show, Greed, for example — at least that one had most of the elements of a good game…

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Crabbing

Yesterday, we went crabbing. Catching crabs isn’t that easy after all. (You’re all sickos, by the way…) You drive down to Port Germain, which is down on the seaside, and then walk out along a mile-long jetty as the tide is coming in. The water carries the crabs with it, so you bait your nets…

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Culture Shock, Cricket, and Christmas

CULTURE SHOCK Travelling to a different country always yeilds some interest and bemusment and the different ways similar people do things. For example, here in Australia, one discovers very quickly that the newspapers are far more blunt and pointed in their editorial slant than North American papers. Secondly, nudity on TV is fairly commonplace… even…

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