Did you know that Valentine’s Day was established in A.D. 496 by Pope Gelasius I to celebrate love and affection between intimate couples?  As you can see, it was initially a holiday that was not based in any sort of commercialism; that did not occur until the nineteenth century with the sending of cards.  The 1960’s brought on the sending of flowers, and the holiday is the second busiest of the year for the flower industry, second only to Mother’s Day.

Sometimes, the fact that you are “supposed” to get flowers or some sort of loving gift for your beloved bothers me.  Why should it be on this day that you have to profess your love for your significant other, and then follow it up with a gift of some sort?  Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy giving – but I don’t think that it should be on this particular day.  Make it a day that is significant to the both of you, or better yet – how about a random day?  Just show up with flowers, a box of chocolate, or anything else that might tickle your fancy.

In any event, that’s my rant pretty much any year.  Now – onto better news.

This year, my Valentine’s Day was the best one yet.  The details are private – but I had a great time with a bunch of people who are close to me.  We did the usual Valentine’s stuff, but we also had a great time shopping in Buffalo, and dining out at Quaker Steak and Famous Dave’s.

Niagara Falls is bloody cold in the winter.  It is beautiful, but cold.

The girlfriend and I spent the weekend down there, as a way to get away from the mundane daily lives that we find ourselves in.  We had a great time, and obviously went to take in the falls.  There were not too many people there, a few crazies like us and some Chinese tourists.

As we walked down Clifton Hill I was struck by how dead the area was.  In the summer, it was packed, but in the winter, hardly a soul to be found.  Half of the businesses were closed as well.  I’m guessing that they are only open from April to November, during the peak tourist season.

I can see why people do not visit in the winter, just because of the weather factor alone.  We went down on Feb. 1st., and it is only now that I am posting due to the fact that I’ve been incredibly busy.  There is only so much time in the day, or the evening.

I have not been lazy…this time.  I have been busy writing a book.  It is not your standard book, though.  It is a book of personal recollections, photos, and collected data about my life and life in general.  I have started to work my way back from 2009 onwards.  This is not a book for sale (because lets face it, who in the holy blue hell would want to read my autobiography?), it is more for my own amusement.  Once I have finished it, I have plans for a second book that will be for sale.  It is a completely different type of book, and will not tax my writing or memory skills as this first one is.

The Good

Michael Vick straightening himself out…no major disasters or terrorist attacks…

The Bad

Michael Jackson passing on…Tiger Woods’ inability to keep his dick in his pants despite having a wife who is so attractive that I would wager she could turn a gay man straight…The Toronto sports teams, the Maple Leafs, the Blue Jays, and the Raptors, still suck…professional wrestlers are still dying prematurely…

Oh…you mean about me.  Well…for me 2009 was pretty good.  Not too much sorrow this year, but a lot of good and a decent amount of change.  I was able to grow both personally and professionally.  All in all, one of my better years.  I did not travel too much, making a foray or two to Montreal, Niagara Falls, Detroit, Port Huron, and Buffalo, but that’s o.k.  Perhaps this year I will journey further.  I would love to make it over to Europe, to witness some of the culture and the architecture before I get old and my eyes go.  Work is great, home life is great, health is decent (though could be a bit better).  The people that I care about in life are (for the most part) doing well, and that is all that matters.  Would I like to have more money?   Sure!  Who wouldn’t?  But money does not buy happiness (though it could put a great downpayment on it!).

All in all, here’s to a great 2009 and hopefully and even better 2010!

I hope that everyone had a fun filled and enjoyable holiday.  Despite a cold that has drained my energy, I certainly did.  It was exhausting, because I technically had three Christmas’ to celebrate, but nonetheless very fulfilling.

Prior to Christmas, my roommates threw two Christmas parties, both of which were hugely successful.  The first one was for one of the guys that we know because he was heading out west for Christmas, and therefore would not be with us over the holidays.  The second one was in conjunction with one of my roommates Facebook groups.  I suppose it was more of a meet and greet, but given the holiday season a good excuse nonetheless to get together.  While I am not normally a fan of gatherings, it was a fun time to be had and I was actually somewhat social.

Christmas Eve was very busy.  I had to run to my parents house and grab the Christmas presents for the boys.  I store the presents there because I have absolutely no room where I currently am (yes, I desperately need more space, ergo moving may be a distinct possibility).  This year for Christmas, aside from a few nominal gifts that I put under the tree, I decided to get Myles and Chaz some Lego (actually Mega Bloks, but everyone understands Lego and both brands are completely interchangeable with one another).  I did it a bit different though.  I could have just bought a few sets and wrapped them up and stuck them under the tree, but I decided to build the sets first.  I had the Endeavour Space Shuttle, some tanks, the Polar Express, the Nimitz aircraft carrier, and a bunch of others.  To say Myles was surprised would be the understatement of the year.  Shock and awe.  This is one instance where a picture is worth 1000 words.

Unfortunately, you cannot see all of it, but you get the idea.  I did film it and will likely put the complete collection up onto YouTube and I will link to it from there.  All in all the boys had a great time.  Once Myles got over the shock, he helped me carry it all upstairs (as we had guests coming over to stay the night and they needed the basement to sleep).  Because I put so much time into building the sets, we had some discussions about glueing them together.  Personally, I do not support that idea because I think that it stifles creativity.  Building with Lego stimulates the mind, and if the kids break them (which they will), then they will learn more by fixing them (or innovating their own designs).

As for me, I got a very nice Kodak digital camera and a Western Digital Media Tank, both of which will be put to very good use.  I have never owned a digital camera.  I have borrowed one on the few occasions that I have needed it, but now I do not have to do that anymore!  I am getting into the habit of carrying it everywhere.  It is a Kodak 12.1 MP XE.  It is small, simple, and will do everything that I need.  I ordered a couple of memory cards for it from Future Shop (they had a Boxing Day sale and the 8 GB cards were only $19.99 each).  Those will arrive on the 30th of the month.

The Western Digital Network Media Tank is a cool little toy.  If you haven’t seen one yet, definately check them out.  You can have all your digital media on the network or a local hard disk and display it on the TV.  It offers gigabit lan, two USB ports, and the interface is relatively simple and easy to use.  The first time I saw is was when my buddy John bought one of these and brought it over.  After is was setup (which took less than five minutes), I was hooked.  I was very impressed, and I do not impress easy (as said many times by Jesse Ventura).  It is truly a geek product, but has obvious benefits for those who do not like to mess around with home theatre gear.  I will start to mess around with it after I get my primary machine settled (see below).

From there, I grabbed a shower and headed off to my parents house for Christmas Part Two.  It was very different and subdued this year as compared to recent years due to the fact that my brother was out west (he moved last spring due to work).  That made it very quiet, yet nonetheless enjoyable.  After all the pre-Christmas preparation and running around, then Christmas Part One (which, with two little boys is always a myriad of activity and excitement),  it was nice to settle down, eat some great food, and catch my breath.  I even managed to snap a few pictures with my new camera!

My third Christmas celebration of 2009 actually started on Boxing Day.  While I was tempted to try and brave the hordes out looking for bargains, I had more important priorities (although I did take a peek online and found a couple of decent ones, nothing really jumped out at me).  I went over to the girlfriends’ house to start our first (of many, with any luck) Christmas’ together.  There were a lot of gifts to open, and we had to stop twice to clean up the mess.  We took over 800 photos and filmed the entire thing, which I will make a DVD out of.  It took all day, after which we relaxed, sat back, looked at everything and said, “Holy shit, that was a lot.”  We wanted to do other things as well, but we just ran out of time.  That’s ok, and at around 4:00 in the morning I hauled my ass home.

I could easily make the case that 2009 has been my best holiday to date.

Needless to say, after going to bed around 6:00 am, I crashed hard.  However, I failed to take into consideration what all the running around would do to my rather out-of-shape body.  I was exhausted and literally spent the day in bed.  A day of rest and some chicken noodle soup works wonders though, and I was back in top form less than twelve hours later.

Now that we are officially past Christmas, I am taking the plunge and installing Windows 7 on my primary computer at home.  Everything has been wiped and it is a clean installation.  From what I have read online, Microsoft got it right with Windows 7.  It is fast, runs efficiently, and has none of the problems that plagued Vista.  On my computer, which has dual quad-core Xeon processors and twelve gigs of ram, it should run pretty good.  I had considered installing it on an SSD drive, but at almost five hundred dollars for a 64 GB drive, it is just not worth it at this time.  The difference in speed would have been significant, but I’m not a millionaire.  I also looked at picking up a Velociraptor, but the speed difference would have worked out to less than a ten percent increase over what I already own.  Again, but for different reasons, not worth the investment.

So here I sit…patiently waiting for Windows 7 to install.  Once it is done I will configure it, tweak it, find out all of its horrible little secrets…and I will post a followup with my thoughts as I load it down with software.

…and to all a great day.

…and all through the house…

Things are going crazy!  Baking, wrapping, kids playing, all excited for the big day tomorrow.  This almost seems like a Twitter update – I do have an account tied to this website – ah, forget about it.  Hehehehe.  It’s just a great time of the year (and thus all the personal-type entries as opposed to the informational or commentary type ones).  I still have a lot to do, and I’m going to get on it as soon as I finish my nap.  Yep, I’m officially considered old because I don’t mind afternoon naps.  I’ll start worrying when I have to wear a diaper, though.

During the holidays I have some time off from my regular job, which will allow me to add some more content to this site (hopefully).  As I mentioned before, there are some changes in the works, so stay tuned.  I hope to be able to release some details soon.

Another long gap has gone by between posts.  For those who read frequently, I do apologize.  December is always a busy month for me, especially getting things ready for Christmas.  It’s like getting married, lots of fun, lots of planning, lots of gifts, except it happens every year and the entire world is at peace over it.  I read a quote somewhere, “Whoever invented Christmas should have been crucified,” that I found especially funny.  Last year on Christmas Day (ironically) I watched the movie Religulous.  Oddly, I did not review it (mental note made to do so).

Not much is new in my corner.  I have been working a lot of overtime at work so as to make up hours for the post-Christmas break (and to allow myself a week or two of vacation time in the summer).  My roommates threw a couple of Christmas parties that went over exceptionally well.  I have been very busy with Christmas.  Add it all up and subtract is from the number of hours in a day and well, you end up with a long time between updates.

I haven’t hosted any UFC events recently, primarily due to being busy as well as the cost.  At sixty bucks per event, plus food, it adds up fast.  Multiply that by the number of events that the UFC is hosting now (14 pay per views by my count this year) and it eats up a good chunk of money.

Today is the first day of Winter.  With the cold weather all around us, who would have thought that it was still Autumn.  Today therefore, being the winter solstice, was the shortest day of the year.  Now the days shall become gradually longer until June.  This is a good thing, in my humble opinion.

Tiger Woods is still taking a shit kicking in the media.  I wonder how long this circus will last.  Quite honestly, it is becoming a tad overbearing and tiring.  Leave him and his wife alone to sort their own business out.  I guess the media has to do something to sell their newspapers.  Speaking of which, I can see that industry dying a slow death sooner rather than later.  That however, is a post for another day.

Wow…Almost a month between posts.  That was not supposed to happen, however I have been most busy and updating the personal blog sadly fell somewhat by the wayside.  It has been good, though.  For the most part, I’ve kept myself out of trouble and accomplished quite a bit, especially leading into Christmas.

Anyone and everyone who knows me understands well how much I enjoy the holiday season.  It is, despite the occasional storm, a wonderful time of the year.  Yes, there is a lot of commercialization (and a little note to Costco – September is much too early for Christmas gear to be on sale), but that goes hand in hand with the season.  You can choose not to participate in any sort of gift giving and still have a great time with your family and friends.

I however, choose to give out presents.  I like seeing the faces of people light up when they have a gift to open.  Especially children.  It warms my heart and is something that I truly look forward to.

One of the reasons that I have not updated recently is due to the fact that I have been putting in a lot of overtime at work.  I have been good about it; usually around 2-5 hours a night so that I do not burn myself out.  At my previous job I had that happen a couple of times and the effect is not at all pleasureable.  You walk around in a haze and you have a constant headache.  Furthermore, you are less effective once you pass the daily workload of eight hours (so studies say, and I would concur with them).  In order to have some extra time off at Christmas, with pay, the lieu time has to be put in.  My goal is to get enough time in so as to have a paid summer holiday as well.

Christmas shopping has taken up a decent amount of time too.  I enjoy it, but venturing out to stores, checking sales, and scouring the Internet take time.  I have found some great products at some great prices this year though, so I’m happy.  I always tend to overspend at Christmas, but such is life.  I like to find gifts that people will enjoy and appreciate as opposed to giving out cash, gift certificates, or something equally impersonal.

I came across something the other day that I found very inspirational.  Has anyone ever heard of a gentleman named Randy Pausch?  Randy was a tenured professor at Carnegie-Mellon University and pioneered some simply amazing software.  However, he was more known for his “Last Lecture.”  I will not spoil it for you, but I urge you to take the time to watch it.  The first video is the short version of the talk that he gave on “Oprah.”  The second video is the full speech that he gave at Carnegie-Mellon University.

I have to admit, this talk brought a tear to my eye.

In other news, Tiger Woods is the biggest item in the news right now.  It has been pretty much confirmed everywhere that Tiger was unfaithful to his wife on more than one occasion.  There is mystery surrounding his car crash, and exactly what has transpired.  Personally speaking, I don’t care.  The man is worth over a billion dollars, most of which are from endorsements.  What he does outside of golf makes for great tabloid fodder, especially in light of the fact that Tiger is not generally considered media-friendly.  As a result, the media probably has it out for him a bit.  I’m sure A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Mike Tyson, and all the other sports celebrities that do not have the best of reputations are silently saying a prayer of thanks to Tiger Woods for taking the heat off of them.

Tiger should have handled this the way David Letterman did.  Letterman had an affair, and is notoriously public shy.  Yet he handled it the right way.  He went on his show, spilled the beans, took a bit of flak, and poked some humor at himself.  Guess what happened?  His ratings went up, his public approval went up, and the media went away.

That’s about it for now…I’m sure I’ll think of more later though.

It’s been one year since I started this blog.  I have had blogs before, however the posts were all kept private.  Perhaps, if there is interest I will open up the archives and post some of the older entries.  I have had this domain for over ten years, but this past year has been the first that it has been aggressively promoted and used.

Initially, the beginnings were humble – to post my thoughts, opinions, and ideas about the things that interest me and are noteable in the world at large.  Keep the format simple and easy to read.  I have been tentatively sketching out plans to expand the domain somewhat.  I will keep them under my hat for now…but changes are coming.  Looking forward, my goal is to update somewhat more frequently than I have been (not that I have been doing a shabby job), as well as finish off my biography (which is more of a mood thing).  Furthermore, I would like to start adding some photos – and make the site somewhat more visually friendly.

Today is also Remembrance Day – please take some time and give thought to all those who fought for the rights and freedoms that we enjoy today.  Never forget the horror of war, and hope that you yourself never have to experience it.  It reminds me of a poem I once read by William Owen.  Most people my age are not familiar with it.  It was originally written as a letter to Jessie Pope (a pro-war poet) in 1917, describing the agony of the soldiers fighting in the First World War, and is famous primarily due to its horrifying imagery.  The title of the poem is Dulce et Decorum Est – a play on words of the famous pro-war poem of Horace.  I have copied it below:

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!–An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.