November 15, 2013 - The Saanich crews were out early this morning to my mother's house, and got the pipes fixed. Apparently the main supply to her home had sheared in two, and all the water was flowing under the driveway instead of through the pipes. Thank you to the crews for getting out so quickly and getting it repaired for her!
November 14, 2013 - For those who were asking what was happening at my mother's house this morning, let me explain. At 2:30am this morning, all the water in her home went murky and within ten minutes there was no water at all in the pipes. She had plumbers out to check, and they called the municipality, and they had two crews trying to figure it out. As of this writing, they still cannot explain the lack of water pressure. (BTW, I would like to thank the neighbours for supplying water while this was happening. My mother is lucky to have great neighbours now)
November 11, 2013 - Rememberance Day. Let us each take a moment out of our busy schedules to remember all of those who sacrificed to protect our freedoms. Lest we forget...
October 31, 2013 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
October 26, 2013 - With the arrival of Halloween next week, I have once again had inquiries into my pumpkin artwork and photography. For those who are interested, two great sources of patterns and templates are Zombie Pumpkins and PumpkinGlow. I have had a lot of success in past years with their designs (interested viewers can see my own artwork from 2001-2005,2005-2011, and 2012-2013. Some, but not all, of these are based on Zombie designs).
October 17, 2013 - I just spent my lunch hour stripping usable parts out of an old broken toaster oven. Some people would have discarded it whole - I feel sorry for them.
October 13, 2013 - Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends and family. May you spend it with your family, or better yet with loved ones :)
October 1, 2013 - There is a video circulating of the University of Western Australia convocation ceremony speech by Tim Minchin. I have been to a few cermonies, and this is one of the better addresses I have heard. It is worth a listen. The video is here and the transcript is here.
September 7, 2013 - It is World Beard Day!! (A fact I admittedly would never have known had I not just seen a comment from the king of the bearded ones, Brian Blessed)
August 31, 2013 - I am celebrating a far happier anniversary today - it was forty years ago today that my parents bought a little piece of land on Hornby Island, and created a paradise that we have enjoyed ever since. (Here are some photos of my trip a few weeks back)
August 21, 2013 - Today marks the fifteen year anniversary of the start of one of the most destructive events in my life. It was on August 21, 1998 that my father was first taking to the emergency department of the Royal Jubilee Hospital with a transient ischemic attack (a mini-stroke in the common vernacular) which through lack of proper treatment lead to a massive stroke one week later and, along with a lot of incidents of incompetence or uncaring by hospital staff, would lead to the destruction of my plans to go away to graduate school and have the academic career that I had worked so hard to attain. Sometimes I really wonder why not one person in the system could have considered my feelings and my needs before demanding such sacrifices from me...
August 16, 2013 - Why must vacations and camping trips end? I am having too much fun in the backwoods.
August 15, 2013 - Today is a personal anniversary for me - it was fifteen years ago this month that I first published a simple little website called The Grandiloquent Dictionary. Since then it has had a million hits, spawned numerous other projects, and become a worldwide sensation. Thank you to all of my friends and supporters who have been there in good times and bad, and helped to make this such a massive success.
August 12, 2013 - I have been waiting for a year to test out my new astrophotography mount, and the weather forecast is saying that there is going to be clouds and rain all night for every day of my trip. How annoying :(
August 10, 2013 - Last day in the office before my vacation! I can't wait to hit the road and get away from the big city!
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