The Olympic closing ceremonies are supposed to be the shining star at the end of the games. Sadly the only shining I saw was when Neil Young and Michael J. Fox took the stage. The "musical" selections were suppose to represent the best of Canada but the majority of artists came from Ontario with absolutely no representation from Altantic Canada. The only musical acts I enjoyed were Neil Young, Alanis and K-Os. Sadly I'm not a big fan of Nickelback, Simple Plan or Avril Lavigne.

The comedic elements were a little luck lustre as well. William Shatner did a skit that was very reminisent of his "I Am Canadian" sketch but not as funny. Then Catherine O'Hara did a "Canadian's are so humble and polite" skit which got a few giggles out of me but fell short of funny. Michael J. Fox was the only good comedian and he didn't play the crowd for laughs but was sincere.

I don't know how this closing ceremony compares to other closing ceremonies but I sure hope Sochi does a better job in 4 years time. Thankfully a bad closing ceremony doesn't tarnish the performances by the world's athletes!

These past two weeks of the winter Olympics have been the most memorable that I have ever witnessed. The Canadian athletes gave a phenomenal performance. Half way through the games everyone was wondering if we were even going to end up in the top 10 countries but our athletes stepped up and won medal after medal to end up 3rd overall.

With that 3rd place we have some honorable distinctions of being the country with the most gold medals (14) - this number actually means that Canada has historically won the most gold medals in this single winter olympics than any other country during a single winter olympics.

It was an amazing games and I'm saddened that it ends tonight.

Thank you British Columbia for hosting these Olympics. We know it didn't go perfect but they are a games I won't soon forget.

And thank you to the athletes from all countries. Even if you didn't win a medal you are still winners for being world-class athletes! Keep skating, skiing, curling, luging, sledding, and everything else you do! Can't wait for the next games

Here's hoping we get to meet her before she is too big!

My parent's dog, Buttons, passed away today. He was only four days shy of 16 years old.

While he wasn't a "childhood" dog for me he did hold a special place in my heart. Before he was my parents dog he was my maternal grandmother's dog. When she passed away my parents decided to take Mr. Buttons in. I believe he was around 6 years old when my parents took him in.

He had been having a hard time for the past couple of months. Having spells where he couldn't maintain his balance. The vets weren't sure what was causing these spells. Today something different happened. He started wheezing and struggling to breathe. They had an appointment with the vet around 11:30 today - but Mr. Buttons couldn't hold on and passed away on the way to the vet.

How did everyone spend there new years? We hung out with a group of friends in Guelph, Ontario. It was good times hanging out with people we haven't hung with in while. It was so good that we didn't get to bed until 3 a.m. in the morning. That doesn't happen all that often anymore! We spent the night with our friends SMooSH and Loba in Guelph which was very nice of them to let us stay at their place.

New Year's Day we headed down to my brother and sister-in-laws house for our niece's first birthday. Even though we were super tired we still had a good time. In the last couple of months my niece's personality has really started to shine - she has also gotten to the point where she is understanding words and actions.

The day after New Year's Day we spent shopping - mostly thrift stores. We returned a board game present (which we got doubles of) and picked up another board game called Zooloretto (which is quite simplistic but a lot of fun), I also picked up an XBOX 360 to complete the trifecta of next gen consoles. If you have an XBOX 360 add me to your friend list - my handle is "ForestPirate".

Well off to enjoy the last day before I head back to work!

Firda and I just got back from my parents place earlier today. We spent the past couple days (since Christmas Eve) with my parents. We had a good time with the family - it would have been great if we both weren't battling a flu/cold. We are feeling much better today though still quite drained.

So how was everyone's Christmas? Did you all make out like bandits? We did pretty good this year. Video games, books, board games (Ticket to Ride, Dominion: Intrigue, Dominion: Seaside and the Agricola Expansion), a heating blanket (to preheat our bed before we jump into it), a dining room table (used from Kijiji) and a bunch of clothing.

It was also my niece's first Christmas. I think she enjoyed it - though she had to take a nap half way through the present opening. She turns 1 on New Years Day so we are planning to go down there for the party.

What else? We say the Olympic Flame come through Stratford today. We just got into town and had to park on a side street (since the relay route passed in front of our house). We had about a 10 minute wait since we got home and they ran by. It was a "blink and you'll miss it" type event but interesting to see nonetheless.

I also had a chance to do out for dinner with a bunch of old friends I haven't seen in a while including two dear friend who live in England now (Kaley and Nasser), two friends from Toronto who we haven't seen since likely the summer (Caiti and Ian), and my best bud Joe and the always cantankerous Tom :) Sadly Firda didn't feel well enough to join us but we had fun.

Well it's off to play Ratchet and Clank now! Happy Holidays everyone!

Our client called us on Thursday morning to see if we could be on-site on Friday. After a rather frantic Thursday morning (buying plane tickets, reserving rooms, renting cars etc.) I flew out on Toronto for Thunder Bay at 2:30. I grabbed my rental car and drove 1.5 hours to my first motel in Nipigon.

The motel was relatively nice, in that it had a bed and a bathroom. It also had paper thin walls so I could hear the neighbours TV - even though it wasn't overly loud. Since myself and the gentleman next door were the only two renting rooms at the motel I asked the motel owner if I could move a couple of doors down. He graciously allowed me to move from my single room to a double bed room several doors down.

The next morning I woke up and got on the road quite early. I had a 5.5 hour drive to get to our client site and I needed to be there by noon. The drive basically consisted of driving east for 4 hours and then north for 1.5 hours. The east part wasn't too bad - the roads were clear and the driving was easy. The north part kind of sucked. Apparently it snowed the night before and the roads were still kind of messy. I took it slow but I still made it to the site 15 minutes before noon. One of the highlights of the drive (other than the beautiful scenery) was the "no gas station for 97 kilometers" sign when I turned onto the north highway.

I spent the night in the only motel in town, which was actually in a "mall". I use the term "mall" very loosely, but it was a mall. The mall had the motel, a liquor store (LCBO), variety store, library, community swimming pool, a restaurant, a bar and I believe there may some government administation offices (though I'm not sure). It was an interesting atmosphere since everyone seemed to know everyone else. It was a nice enough motel - the room was super warm but I had a good sleep and that was the most important thing.

Saturday morning I got up - hit the road and got back to Thunder Bay in about 5.5 hours. The road conditions had approved greatly since the day before so I made good time. I arrived in Thunder Bay around 1 pm and had a little bit of time to check out the town. I stopped at the Terry Fox Memorial just outside of town which was very nice.

For those of you who do not know Terry Fox, he is a Canadian icon. He was diagnosed with cancer in his teens and lost a leg to cancer. In 1980 he decided to start his "Marathon of Hope" while his cancer was in remission. The Marathon of Hope was a cross-country run to increase cancer awareness and raise money for cancer research. He started his run in St John's, Newfoundland and made it through five provinces and 5,373 kilometers before his cancer returned and he had to quit the marathon. His plans were to continue when he got better but sadly he passed away in 1981 from pneumonia. Every year the "Terry Fox Run" events take place all over Canada to raise money for cancer research and to continue the legacy started by Terry Fox.

Back to my story. I jumped on my plane back to Toronto at 4:55 pm - the flight took around 1.5 hours and I was home by 8:30. It was good to be home, but sadly I had missed most of the weekend by then. If it was possible I would have taken a day off this week but alas things are really busy right now and there is no way I can do that.

Oh well. Hopefully I will have some time off around Christmas (other than Christmas Day and Boxing Day) but I'm not really counting on it.

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen movies you've seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

1. Donnie Darko
2. Dance Me Outside
3. Requiem for a Dream
4. Best in Show
5. Brewster's Millions
6. Ravenous
7. Highway 61
8. A Mighty Wind
9. Hard Core Logo
10. Dancer in the Dark
11. The Fox and the Hound
12. Monsters Inc.
13. Evil Dead 2
14. Army of Darkness
15. Amelie

It was very sudden. She was sent to the hospital around 2:00 pm with chest pains. She was in her 80s - and the possibility was always present but I hoped that she would be around for several more years. There was very little warning.

Even though we were not biologically related (my biological grandmother passed away when my father was in his late teens) she is the only grandmother I knew on that side of the family.

The visitation and funeral won't be until mid-next week.

Firda and I decided to take in a couple of the documentaries, six in total. The six documentaries with a quick review are listed below:

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1) The Hangman's Graveyard - This documentary was created for the Canadian History Channel. During an archaelogical survey of the Don Jail site in Toronto, Ontario it was discovered that several graves were located under the current parking lot. The graves were located and dug up. The documentary follows the forensic process of identifying four of the fifteen graves discovered.

The documentary was interesting - especially the reenactments of the crimes that were commited by the four men identified. Many of the reanactment actors were Stratford residence. The level of historic accuracy is quite phenomenal as well. The film-maker was present to take question after the documentary. My only complaint about the documentary were the unnecessary number of cheesey video effects.

2) How William Shatner Changed the World - This documentary from 2005 was originally going to be called "How Star Trek Changed the World" but since Paramount wouldn't give them the rights to use the name it had to be changed to the current title. The documentary is narrated by William Shatner and discusses the impact that Star Trek had on the technology since the show was on the air. The technologies include cell phones, ipods, home and handheld computers.

Sadly we only saw the first hour of the doucmentary which covered the technology side of the documentary. I believe the second hour dealt with the social impact of the show. One of the film-makers was available at the end of the documentary to take questions - most of them around William Shatner and his personality. The documentary was very entertaining - as the majority of stuff that William Shatner is involved with is.

3) Found - This 6 minute documentary was played before Gonzo Ballet. A hauntingly beautiful documentary about Toronto poet Souvankham Thammavongsa discovery of her past (from her dad's journal writings). She and her parents escaped from Loas to Thailand in the late 1970s. In the six minutes the film runs she conveys despair, loss, hope, love, sadness, redemption and acceptance. This documentary was one of the highlights of the DocFest.

4) William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet - In 2004 William Shatner put out an album called Has Been. This album was produced by Ben Folds (of Ben Fold Five fame), and teamed Shatner up with Aimee Mann, Henry Rollins and Lemon Jelly (to name a few). The film covers the process of changing this album into a ballet by the Milwaukee Ballet and several of the ballet pieces. Shatner is interviewed throughout the show with back story.

William Shatner was in attendance and took questions following the show. He ended up taking questions and telling stories for around 15 minutes before excusing himself. I'm saddened that he didn't talk for longer but I guess 15 minutes was still nice. The film was enjoyable - I'm not a big ballet fan so those parts were alright. The back story parts were what kept me interested, plus the music was pretty good.

6 minutes of Shatners post-screening discussion is on YouTube.

5) Waterlife - The film-maker for this documentary described this as a road movie about the affects that human beings have had on the Great Lake water system. The documentary starts with Lake Superior and follows through the great lakes in the order of the water flow. The cinematography and panoramic views of the great lakes were amazing. As expected the message of the film is that humans have been negatively impacting the great lakes water system and unless we do something about it soon the impacts to the environment and ourselves will magnify and may be irreversible.

Having lived within an hour or two drive from the Great Lakes for my whole life I'm familiar with all of these concerns. From the invasive species (i.e. zebra mussels, lamprey eels) to the chemical pollutants being pumped into the lakes by industry (see the Love Channel in New York state as a prime example). This film did an amazing job of summarizing what we've done to the great lakes, and is an excellent learning tool regarding fresh water supplies in general.

6) The Cove - In the small coastal town of Taiji in Japan an annual slaughter of over 2300 dolphins takes place. This film is an expose of this practice, which the general population of Japan does not know is taking place. A former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry (who was the dolphin trainer for the 1960's show Flipper) is the main focus of the film who has made it his lifes mission to free captured dolphins. He discovered this dolphin slaughter during his mission and brings together a team to expose this slaughter. This team ultimately setups up hidden cameras that allow them to video tape the dolphin slaughter for the first time in order to confort the Japanese officials, public and the International Whaling Comission.

The hidden camera portion of the film was the most gut-wrenching sad footage I've ever seen. There Japanese fishers slaughtering the dolphins while laughing and joking. The sea in the cove running red with the blood of the dolphins. The underwater sonar footage of the dolphins signaling each other until there are no more dolphin sounds. An amazing film which will hopefully force the Japanese government to do something about this slaughter.

The film makers were suppose to be in attendance for the showing but had to cancel two days before the showing since the film was accepted to a Japanese documentary festival (which is a really big thing due to the content).

7) Anvil, The Story of Anvil - Anvil is a heavy metal rock band formed in 1973. The band has played with metal giants and been sited as an influence by many other (including Metallic). Unfortunately through lack of representation and bad luck their celebrity fizzled and they never reached the level of stardom they felt they deserved. Fast forward to early 2000. The band still exists, with two of the original members, and they are still trying to make it. The film follows them through a disasterous European tour, the creation of their thirteenth album, and ultimately their redemption at a metal festival in Japan.

The main theme of the film is "hope". Throughout the bands 36 years existence the lead singer (Steve "Lips" Kudlow) and drummer (Robb Reiner) have remained friends and determined in their goal of heavy metal stardom, which they seem to have achieved with the success of this documentary.

Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner were present after the documentary to answer questions. Lips did most of the talking and were amazingly hospitalible and thankful for the reception of the documentary. They even stuck around after the documentary to sell and sign merchandise in the lobby.

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The 3rd annual DocFest will take place next year at roughly the same time and we will likely partake in the viewings.

Though they might be laughing as well since I believe the Dylan record comes from his "crazy religious" years!

So far this year we've seen 3 out of the 14 plays this year. The plays we've seen at this point are below with my mini-review.
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(A) MacBeth - I read MacBeth in high school and enjoyed the story. Part of the enjoyment was the time and setting of the play. In this version of the play the setting was civil war ravaged Africa, with the time period being indetermined, but appears to be the late 20th centry. I wasn't a big fan of this change from the original play - I can understand that the themes of the play could be forced to fit in this setting. The problem is that it felt forced.

Colm Feore played the lead, MacBeth. Colm is a little bit of a celebrity in Canada and you may have seen him on 24 or Battlestar Galactica. He played the played amazingly. There were many other outstanding performances, though at some point the number of characters made the story a little confusing - even for someone who had read the play (albeit it was over 10 years ago).
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(B) A Midsummer Night's Dream - Another Shakespeare play. I read this play on my own (meaning I wasn't forced to in high schoo). As most people know this is one of Shakespeare's comedies, which typically involved love triangles, slapstick, misunderstanding and this version of the play didn't disappoint. As always "The Mechanicals" were hillarious, led by the comedy keystone character of Bottom (played brilliantly by Geraint Wyn Davies). The costumes were divided between the 1950's for the human characters and anywhere from the 1960s to the 1980s for the fairie-folk. Actually the Robin Goodfellow (aka Pan) character reminded me of Phil Spector or Lou Reed.

The play was great (despite what the "professional reviewers" may say). I've always enjoyed this play and if you haven't seen it check out your local theater pages for a local production (or come to Stratford and see it).
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(C) Zastrozzi - This play is based on a novel by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The playwright is Canadian George F. Walker. This was performed in one of the smaller theaters at Stratford which gave it a much more intimate feeling - which I believe was required for a play that only had 6 characters in it.

The play is about the master criminal Zastrozzi, who takes it upon himself to "judge" artists. If their work is judged to be mediocre the sentence is death. The play revolves around his obsession with Verezzi, a mediocre painter who is partially responsible for the death of his mother.

The ensemble cast did an excellent job in drawing us into the gothic work of the late 1800's. The minimal sets props, brilliant use of lighting and the intimate setting allowed the audience to become immersed in their world and learn to empathise and despise the characters involved.
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We have tickets for two more plays over the next two weeks - we are seeing Cyrano DeBergerac tomorrow night and Julius Caeser next week. Excited about these and I'll post mini-reviews on them!

Ah. This town!

This particular day we were seated beside a table with two ladies and a man. One of the ladies was the "cantankerous old lady" mentioned in the title of this post.

This particular old lady had plenty of things to complain about - the 30 second wait for cutlery (I give it to her that there should have been cutlery on the table when they sat down but the way she just couldn't wait 30 seconds for her waitress to grab it and bring it back), the fact that she wasn't given a bun (when she was asked what type of bun she wanted she said "either" - which sounded like "neither").

The real kicker is that after she and her companions were finished eating she came back into the room looking for her sweater. She was absolutely positive that she had left her sweater on the back of her chair and when she couldn't find it she was absolutely positive that someone had stolen it. She even walked up to the waitress who had served her and said to the table she was waiting on "this is disgraceful - don't come back to this restaurant - you leave for 5 minutes and they steal your stuff".

Other people at tables around the old lady asked her "maybe your companions took it" or "maybe you left it in the car", which she denied because she was absolute in her thinking that she had brought it in and put it on the back of her chair.

After several minutes of looking around and rummaging through stuff she gave up. And guess what? She had left her sweater in her car all along. Just as people had suggested.

She didn't even come back and apologize to anyone. She just decided that she was right and everyone else was wrong. I'm hoping that she was embarrased. I know the other diners had some words about this.

There is no excuse for this type of behavior. I know she was a senior and we are suppose to respect our elders, but how can you respect someone that acts like a child. I just hope that when I'm a senior citizen that I don't act all high and mighty. That I respect other people (no matter the age) as long as they deserve the respect.

Now if you'll excuse me - I seem to have forgotten when I left my sweater!

We visited you again tonight. These visits are always painful experiences. I'm not sure how to put this lightly - your customer service sucks. It seems the only time you can get the notice of one of your "clerks" is if you start looking at something over 100 dollars. I understand that there were four people in the store and four clerks (that we could see), but could you not dedicate someone to hang out at the cash register.

One of the clerks even helped someone who came in after us since she was looking around for something. Good service for her- not for us. There is no excuse for making us wait 15 minutes to buy a 13 dollar bottle of developing chemical. Especially since it took us 30 seconds to grab it and take it to the register.

I've been trying to figure out how your customer service is so bad. The only reason I can think of is that your clerks get commission on their sales.

Unfortunately you are the only walk-in store we know that carries developing chemicals, without making a special order. I would have walked out of the store if there was another place to get the chemicals (actually we would have never gone to your store in the first place).

Don't take this personally. Your selection is quite good, and our experience with your online store has always been good. Maybe it's just your Waterloo store.

With regards,
Me