Happy New Year!

The new year will be happier for some than others. Today at lunch, we went to the same restaurant we always go to on Saturday mornings... the same one that hosted my wife's surprise 50th birthday. Nothing is weird about going to this place on Saturdays. What is weird is that on Friday night, we couldn't think of anywhere to go to dinner, so we went to our usual Saturday spot. As we prepared to go again for lunch today, we even toyed with the idea of going somewhere else, until I mentioned that the owner might have a heart attack if we didn't show up at our usual time to sit at our usual table.

So we went. And it wasn't there. I don't mean the business had closed overnight. I mean the building (or at least most of it) wasn't there. The owner was standing in the deserted parking lot, along with what seemed to be half the Windsor Fire Department. But the building was gone, except for some cinderblock facia. This restaurant has had a sports theme, and there was a ton of priceless memorabilia inside -- signed jerseys and rare photographs of deceased sports legends, and the like.

It will take some time to determine the cause of the blaze, and the owner has indicated he intends to rebuild and reopen (thank goodness!), but for now, a lot of good people will have been thrown out of their jobs, and the owner will have to live with second doubts about whether there was any way he could have foreseen this circumstance. Early coverage of this event is already on the internet and will probably appear in the next issue of the local paper.

I wish him, and all you readers out there, the best of new years.

Merry Christmas

Sure, I wish there was world peace. But in lieu of that, this is the next best thing.

The Funeral

Max's funeral was today. It's mid-December, and the weather was wonderful. There was a bit of condensation from the previous day, but otherwise, the weather was agreeable -- not even cold enough to see your own breath in the air!

The funeral services were well attended, and the procession to the cemetery was long and very impressive. Max was truly well-liked. At the gravesite, the earth was soft and easy to shovel, and many took part in the honour of heaping dirt onto the casket. Back at the wake, there was much food and many people available to do the prayers. It remains to be seen how many men show up this week for the twice-daily prayer meetings, but today, there was a lot of respect shown for Max's memory.

Moratorium on Florida and California Death Penalty is stupid

This post is not about whether the death penalty is justifiable or constitutional. It is about the laughable state of affairs currently existing in Florida and California, two states that currently have the death penalty. It seems that there have been recent botched attempts to put inmates to death in these states, and because of the possibility that the inmates' constitutional protection against cruel or unusual punishment may have been violated by these botched attempts, executions in general have been placed on hold.

Let's examine the insanity of these claims. If we assume that the only people who are actually strapped to the tables are those whose appeals have all been exhausted (and I'm not speaking of guilt or innocence here -- that's fodder for another debate entirely), it seems clear that by this time, it is the state's intent to kill these people. At the rate of something less than 10 executions per year, and no way to do "dry runs" on real people, it's understandable that some procedural errors are going to occur due to lack of practice. After all, when you're trying to stick a hypodermic needle into the arm of someone who doesn't want it there, you might make a mistake caused by stress or personal discomfort. And those types of errors, while not intentional, may cause distress to the inmate when the chemicals start to enter his/her system.

So what constitutes cruel or unusual punishment? My opinion is that to qualify as "cruel", these infractions must be intentional in nature (i.e. wanton torture, either physical or emotional -- which is intended to harass or degrade the inmate). The lawful application of a final judgement, to me, does not constitute an intentional infraction, even if a procedural error occurs in the process.

When you examine any punishment that requires that an inmate be prepared prior to execution, either by being strapped to a table with hypodermic needles inserted, or strapped to a chair with electrodes affixed, there is a possibility that the preparatory procedure will be botched. It is indeed possible that lethal injection, death by hanging, and death by electrocution are prone to a greater degree of error in the preparation. I believe the only process that makes sense is death by firing squad. Human firing squads can practice on dummy targets without a great deal of preparation, and the skills required to deliver death by firing squad are not any different from the skills required to kill in combat, making the act less "unusual" than that of hanging, electrocuting, or injecting someone. However, in this day and age, I don't believe it is fair to place the psychological burden on a human firing squad. The introduction of robotic "marksmen" with laser sighting technology that could home in on a target patch affixed to the inmate over a vital organ would allow for virtually instantaneous death.

If states wish to repeal their laws authorizing executions, let them do so. But while these laws are on the books, the use of a firing squad as a means of execution should allay everyone's fears about cruel or unusual punishment.

Mixed feelings

The last 24 hours have been strange. It started yesterday morning at the daily prayer meeting. One of the guys was holding the latest version of the Jewish Community Centre news magazine. It's published three times a year, and the Chanukah issue had just hit the streets. I have an ad in that publication, so I took a look. My ad had been professionally prepared based on a concept I had sent to the artist, and it looked perfect. It was also in a great location within the publication. If that didn't brighten my spirits enough, my friend Max had come up to me, that perpetual twinkle in his eye, and commented on how nice my hand-writing was. I had sent Max and his wife a card thanking them for their patronage, and wishing them a happy holiday.

Among the thoughts in my note was how I appreciated his efforts in organizing the breakfast that is served to members of the congregation that show up for Sunday morning prayers. I had been thinking about donating some food to help out with that breakfast, and after weeks of procrastinating, I finally decided to take the plunge for this Sunday's meal.

I tried to call Max to find out when I could deliver the frozen food to him but his line was busy, so I tried someone else who I know has a key to the synagogue. He told me that Max had passed away during the night.

You never know when you, or someone you know, will leave this earth. I'm so glad that the last words I had with Max were kind and pleasing. And though I'm saddened that he won't be around anymore to help brighten each day, I know that his time on earth was wisely spent, and that he will now be honoured for his efforts.

Keeping busy

Yeah, I've been keeping busy, but that heading isn't about me. Right now on TV, there's a movie called After the Thin Man. There's a bit player in the movie who I think is named Lee Phelps. He reminds me of Ed Asner. In fact, I thought it was Ed Asner, until I realized that in 1936, Ed Asner wouldn't have looked that old. I looked up Lee Phelps on IMDB, and discovered that this actor had been cast in nearly 600 movies during his career. Which got me to wondering whether any other actor in history has been in more movies. If anyone wants to do the research and let me know in the comments area, I'd be curious to know.

Blind Hatred

I want to start with a statement of fact. I don't watch political commentators on TV, nor do I listen to them on radio. Such commentators, regardless of their political views, are on the air to get ratings. Without ratings, they have no platform. Therefore, I believe, specially during "sweeps week", the shows that would be broadcast are more inflammatory in nature than you would normally find.

That being said, there is no denying that there are places in the world where blind hatred is taught to an entire society, beginning with the children. As a Jew, I have experienced personal persecution during my lifetime. Sometimes, the persecution was the result of child peer pressure ("he's a Jew, it's alright to pick a schoolyard fight with him -- we'll back you up"), sometimes it was the result of "innocent" remarks ("I went to a store to buy something, and I Jewed the guy down a few bucks").

The thing about being brought up with blatant persecution is that you develop a thick skin. You weigh things carefully, trying to determine whether a particular person's actions are the result of ignorance, or hatred. At a recent prayer meeting, a friend of mine asked whether I had seen the Glenn Beck show about Radical Islamic Fundamentalism and the hatred that is taught to their children. I had not seen it, and took some time today to search for a replay on YouTube. I found a video and watched it. It was disturbing. I wanted to post a link to it here, but instead, found another copy of the video with the ability to "embed" the video on a website.

I have chosen to embed that second recording, even though it is not the exact copy I watched. I'm telling you this in case there are problems with the video. If there are, I urge you to go to YouTube and search for "Glenn Beck Exposed". That should result in a suitable video link being delivered. In my original search, I found many show snippets of a few minutes each. There were only two links I found that were at least 40 minutes long (the actual play time, minus commercials).

Here's the embedded link:

Updates

Though each event on its own merits little mention, as a whole, things are moving in a positive direction. Having suffered through a slow October, November is starting out in a positive light, vis-a-vis business. I've had enough service calls during the first two weeks of the month to match the previous two month's revenue (that's not necessarily a major accomplishment, just a fact). I've also been approached to possibly provide a business service that might generate recurring revenue.

Speaking of recurring revenue, I've taken a couple of baby steps forward on one of my pet projects. Having acquired some much-needed research material through ebay, I'm making real progress towards bringing one of my other website ideas to fruition. It might take some time, but I'm hoping things will work out in the end.

On yet another front, I was cruising ebay a couple of weeks ago when I got the crazy idea to check out automobile GPS units. I happened across an auction with less than 1 minute left, and the current price was ridiculously low. I tried to snipe a bid, but by the time I had logged in and done everything necessary, the auction had ended. I was a bit annoyed (though I had no real reason to be), and started looking through some of the other GPS auctions, coming across one that had about 6 minutes remaining.

There was barely enough time to finish reading the product details and place a bid. I won that auction, and three days later took delivery of the GPS unit. It's been an absolutely wonderful toy, helping me navigate to a couple of service calls to obscure side streets that I would have otherwise had to print mapquest details for. I particularly enjoy watching it reroute itself when I purposely make an incorrect turn. With my wife planning to travel out of town this weekend, it will be a perfect navigation companion.

Well, that's about it. You're now up to date!

It's over

I guess I'm a bit disappointed there won't be any hoopla this weekend now that the Tigers have lost the World Series. But I'm also happy that television can get back to normal. The playoffs always last too long for my liking.

The one really bad thing for Fox TV is that the ratings for this series were miserable, and since it was a short series to boot, the network is going to lose a lot of money on this year's deal. Oh well...

Ouch!

Our neighbors in Detroit are stinging from the spanking handed to them in Game 1 of the World Series by upstart St. Louis. All those lovely pictures of the Detroit skyline that you may have seen on the broadcast were taken from across the river - right here in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Hopefully, some time during the series, the people at Fox might turn the cameras the other way and catch a glimpse of our side of the river. Fair is fair...

Baseball Fever

Just across the river, baseball fever is going strong in Detroit. Our cities hosted the Superbowl earlier this year, and now, it's time for a World Series. I'm glad Detroit won their game today, because if they had to play tomorrow, there would be three professional sports teams playing within a 1 mile radius, with the Tigers and Lions occupying adjacent stadiums, and the Red Wings playing at Joe Louis Arena, less than a mile away. Traffic won't be so bad now!

If the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Mets, the World Series will be a rematch of the 1968 Series. That year, Detroit came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Cardinals. Baseball fever is growing.

Go get 'em, Tigers!

An unpopular opinion - on the record

I think the crash of Cory Lidle's plane into a New York building was a suicide. After a horrendous pitching performance in the deciding game of the Detroit / New York playoff series - a performance that allowed 3 runs to be scored by four consecutive hitters in the fifth inning, I think Cory was unable to handle the pressure of facing his teammates and management. Some witnesses to the crash indicated that the plane was acting erratically before the crash. My guess is that Cory was trying to crash the plane, while the instructor accompanying him on the flight was doing all he could to prevent the crash.

Maybe investigators will be able to shed some light on the root cause, but with such a small plane, I'm not sure there is the kind of tracking equipment that would allow such an analysis to be carried out. We'll just have to wait and see.

Who said cats don't like water

My sister sent me a link to this video, which should dispell any idea that cats don't like water.

Vrroooommm

I'm a Dodge Viper!

You're all about raw power. You're tough, you're loud, and you don't take crap from anyone. Leave finesse to the other cars, the ones eating your dust.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Surprise!

Today is my wife's 50th birthday! So to surprise her, we celebrated two days ago. And when I say "we", I mean every relative and friend I could lay my hands on with the short notice required to maintain secrecy. There were twenty-one guests at the party even though invitations had only been issued a maximum of five days before the event. There was even one guest who received an invitation at 12:10PM (guests were to arrive by 12:15, with the party beginning at 12:30). That was because my wife generally spends time with this person on Saturday mornings, and I didn't want any possibility of a leak. When I explained why the invitation was issued so late, the guest acknowledged that the secret might have slipped out.

Anyway, I've included a couple of pictures from the event... one of my wife about 10 minutes after the surprise was sprung (note how she still hasn't recovered), and one picture showing the group of people who gathered to honour my wife on her special day.

Still not recovered from the shock	Both families (and friends) showed up for the occasion

Need feedback

I have just read that filelodge.com, the site I have been using to host some of the photos on this blog, has become a site that employs questionable tactics to get people to pay for previously-free file hosting.

In my post of August 13th, I have pictures of two houses. Can anyone who reads this blog please leave a comment as to whether you can see these houses directly on my page, or whether you are presented with an ad or link of some kind?

Thank you.


P.S. I have some pictures to post, once I locate a stable picture-hosting site.

Crocodile Hunter meets his match

While filming a special on dangerous underwater creatures, Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, was fatally stung by a stingray.

Although I always thought he took far too many chances, his programs were always interesting. I'll miss him.

I wonder if they'll ever air the fatal episode. It would be a good reminder to people to respect the dangers of the deep.

Is that funny, or what!

I can think pretty quickly on my feet. Though no rapper, I can bust a rhyme on the fly as well as anyone I know (I don't know any professional rappers), and occasionally, I can come up with a completely original joke. Today was one of those occasions. The kids had come down for the holiday weekend and we all went out to lunch. On the menu was something called Fried Pickles, and my daughter ordered it. When the order arrived, the pickle slices resembled lightly breaded potato wedges. As I looked at them, I turned to my daughter and asked:

"Do you know what they call the breading that surrounds the pickle?"

She looked at me like I was nuts, and said she didn't.

With a smug smile, I replied: "Dill-dough"

Thank you... thank you very much!

Nothing happening

I've not been feeling too well lately. My sugar levels have not been too good and it's affecting me profoundly. I'm almost always sleepy, which makes it difficult to concentrate for any length of time on anything I'm trying to accomplish. Consequently, I haven't felt too much like posting to this blog. It may be a while until I do so again.

Mentos + Diet Coke = A blast!

I hadn't seen this before today. How about you?



P.S. Make sure your speakers are on to get the full effect of the accompanying soundtrack.