The Breach

Injury and respite. No insults though...

2005-07-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

Am I old? When is it ok to start feeling over the hill? I have recently felt a justification to the lament that my time on this earth, in this mortal coil, is finite.

One fine Friday I hauled bushel boxes of books up a short flight of stairs. I injured my back and by the evening was hobbling around, bent forward, taxing Bree's courageous female sterength to get me back safely to our new apartment from the fine Robson Street Indian restaurant where we had dined.

Oh the humanity. The next morning I had a chiropractor appointment. This helped mostly for the education. The pain relief lasted approximately three hours. I had a full week away from work, doped up on on drugs and on my back with a computer on my belly.

Daytime TV is super fun but makes me feel guilty. Judge Judy, Joe Brown and Milian are all just too addictive. Why or why did I not post to The Breach? Oh well.

A week later I feel human and go back to work with a guilt-on for the boss. A week later I seek respite.

La Connor, WA.

A perfect place. American and full of flag and glory even out of the Fourth of July weekend, it is still blue state enough so I feel safe amongst the inhabitants. Bree and Joss (sister) are with me in my parents' vacant home. Wine. Books. Conversation.

Respite.

I Dream of Work

2005-05-31T23:31:00.000-07:00

Almost every night I have a dream. I have many of them really and they weave and morph and are episodic or indistinguishable. It is all really very chaotic. Some say they do not remember their dreams at all and by their downcast auras I feel lucky to remember what I do.

I have recurring dreams that I have just often enough to recognize eventually. When I do clue in in dreamland I take control of my dream and usually this signifies the last time the dream reoccours.

I remember one dream when I was a bus boy at a 'boathouse' restaurant. It had a lot of windows overlooking a river. The dream had me working on a busy night, trying to affect the pretension that my fellow co-workers had. Bob is your uncle. Cessna plane burst through the window of the dining room causing havoc and misery. I was aghast.

I have recently had another work dream. I am sitting in a restaraurant. The waiter asked what I wanted to eat. I answered "I will have a Newport Solid fuel heater"
The waiter did not bat an eye and scurried off to frtch my order.

I challenge you all. Eat a Newport Solid fuel heater. This is of course a product we make at work.

Well, comment. Do you have a work dream.

It is a beautiful day in the neighbourhood

2005-05-31T23:17:00.000-07:00

There is this girl see, and she is full of these insatiable ideas that just come to fruition like that! 'The Bree' has struck again and dazzled us all with her creative acumen and talent for bringing diverse minds together on a single product.

Rise! Rise and Ave to The Neighbourhood! This is a free flowing fiction blog where a number of writers come together and work out characters and stories in episodes. They merge, they weave. Characters are created and I have a feeling one will be destroyed. From the shrinking violet next door, the steely cop, the high powered executive or the recent immigrant, this blog has them all folks.

Kudos to the Bree and all power to the Neighbourhood.

Paper Trading

2005-05-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

Well,

I am involved in a newly formed investment club. We are all learning the facinating and mind numbingly exciting world of financial planning and investments. One of our excercised this month is to pick a stock on the Toronto Stock exchange and buy $1000.00 of imaginary stock. We hold the stock until the friday before our next meeting when we sell and discuss.

I have chosen to buy $1000.00 of Stelco stock STE.A. I do not pretend to know if it will go up or down but I am interested in the continental steel supply and the factors of demand of base metals, (a hobby really, something for my spare time) and so I thought I would follow it.

I 'share' this all with you.

$1000.00 at 1.650 per share at close May 24 2005

606 shares of STE.A. held until June 12.

I will let you know how it does.

Intelligent Design

2005-05-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

My dad just asked me about intelligent design in an email. He is a probing sort and he knows me like a son so he knew what he might expect. I am no expert on science or religion but I have the following to say on the matter and this is also the answer to my father.

From what I have seen or heard, Intelligent Design is mostly focused on the biomechanics of life, mutation, cells, adaptivity and so on. As far as the mind or thought goes I believe the intelligent design theory tries to construct the natural world around us in such a way that it demands the need for a Creator. This would then allow for the possibility that the creator had supernaturally endowed humanity with the unique ability to have complex thoughts and emotions and a soul.

Allowing for this special relationship between humanity and Creator is the end goal of the theory, and the biomechanics of 'scripted evolution' and 'predetermined adaptivity' is just a way of getting around all of the accepted science of cellular biology and modern evolutionary theory. Modern science, not needing to justify an end goal in this way, simply records and categorizes empirical facts regardless of the overall impression that is achieved.

The amalgam of these facts is decontested as a theory. This theory is a working model that explains and agrees with all of the facts noted thus far. New facts that are recorded or discovered are integrated into the existing theory as far as is possible and to the extent that this is impossible, the theory is modified. If this happens often or a set of facts shatters the pre-existing theory, a new theory must be worked out. This process is what philosopher Thomas Kuhn coined as a 'paradigm shift'. This can all happen because true science has no overarching goal that is so defining that it cannot be tossed aside in the face of the facts. It is the facts themselves that are the goal. It is truth itself that is the end.

Religion, rather than having a 'paradigm shift' in the face of new facts, seeks to re-record the observable facts or manipulate the facts in such a way that they meet the needs of the religious-theory's goals (i.e. that there is a special relationship between humanity and a creator). The theory or the re-messaging of the facts as Intelligent Design can only be seen as means to an end to the religious philosopher/scientist. The end or goal is to make an allowance for or assert a need for god in scientific theory.

The business about facts, theory and the adaptiveness of theory to facts is in some ways like statistics. The more facts you have that have to agree with the modern theory, the more likely the theory is valid or useful. Early scientific theories were especially susceptible to being over thrown because each new fact dramatically changed the nature of the population of facts. As a constant, we have seen since the beginning of recorded history that each new fact leads us further away from

a) the need for a creator in the explanation of the world and,
b)the possibility that any supernatural, unrecorded creator or etc. exists in the first place.

The same thinking that leads to discounting the beliefs of astrologers and the séance must lead us against the belief in vampires, unicorns, Mithras, Zeus, Isis, Odin, Baldur, and the Judeo/Christian/Muslim God. The successes of the just mentioned cultural phenomenon have been directly proportional to the willingness or ability of their host cultures to cling to them. Each face the friction of revealed fact and that friction is directly proportional to the amount of collective self-delusion that the culture has to endure to keep the superstition. The willingness to believe in unicorns was not equal to or greater than the amount of friction (through revealed fact) that the host culture encountered. In the light of sophisticated science, the level of self-delusion that allows many to cling to a monotheism (of choice) is astounding and yet we see anecdotally, that the cultures where these views are kept best are perhaps the most self-deluded.

I clam that this is an unsustainable situation and that the cultural willingness to be self deluded will be less than the amount required to over come the friction of belief. Intelligent design is an effort to mitigate the friction of observable fact on the chosen goal of God having a place in credible thought. The substance of intelligent design though is just a different self-delusion. This transference of incredulity though is useful for the theist though because it allows the responsibility of deceit and the self-delusion to rest on a select group of pseudo scientist/philosophers. The masses are relieved of their self-delusion as the friction of belief has been mitigated by a new set of 'facts'.

Agree?

Bush

2005-05-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

Bush, originally uploaded by Will_Tom.

In one of those episodes where men in a back room were not telling the president what to say in public through a microphone, Bush reacted to embarrasing photos of Saddam in US custody.

Under a headline in the Vancouver Sun May 21, 2005: "U.S. President...dosen't believe that humiliating photos of the former Iraqi leader in his prison cell could inflame anti-American violence" President George Bush is quoted saying of Islam: "I think they are inspired by an idiology that is so backwards and barbaric that it's hard for many in the western world to comprehend how they think."
I thought he wanted to discourage terrorism.

A true representative

2005-05-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

Chuck, originally uploaded by Will_Tom.

Regardless of your views on the government or if it should have fallen or not, Chuck Cadman's votes for the budget bills (and thus save the government from non-confidence) was a true reflection of what an MP should be: beholden to the collective will of his constituents.

Chuck's druthers would have had him vote aging the Liberal government. He was elected as an Alliance MP before running as an independent (and winning handily) in his North Surrey riding. After hearing the 'please no election' views of his community, he voted against his own wishes and for his party. His party is the people.

This is representative democracy and it is behavior I applaud.

I once mused about forming a party called the United independents that would be an amalgam of independent candidates only for the purposes of party status, logistics and pooled funding. Each member would be held to a common and public code of conduct and method of operation but the salient feature would be that each vote the United Ind. MP made in the house would be to the stated and public will of his/her constituents according to a scientific sample of the voter's list of that riding.

A vote is scheduled. The riding office presents unbiased views for and against. The voters of the riding submit their views on that vote. The threshold of statistical validity is passed (or not) and the MP votes according to the mandate of his/her public. In the event of an indeterminate riding result the MP can draw on the typical history of the riding and or the personal views of the MP.

This could be achieved in person at the office or in malls town squares or via the web or by phone or fax. Whatever. A riding that has this system would quickly grow accustomed to it.

On the campaign trail, what voter would not like to hear "I will be your representative. I will vote how you tell me."

This breaks down only if the United independents are asked to form government.

Well, there are pitfalls and false logic sure but it it is a new idea to me.

Answer the question: would you vote for a canditate running under the above stated mandate?

Chain Gang

2005-05-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

I don't believe you people! Foisting about pithy memes by subtle persuasion or pernicious peer pressure. Pha!

And getting my girlfriend in on it too. My standard "fie upon you and your chain meme" must needs be humbled and
so I
relent..

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
Will
William
Sir

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
Bill Chapman
Vladislav
Dickinson

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
beard
jaw
legs

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
scar on lip and back of skull
scar on arms
scar on chest and belly
(arrh maties, shiver me timbers)

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
English
Norwegian
nil

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
Stephen Harper
American political expression
disease

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
Bree
The Boy
News

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
Oxford cloth butten-down blue with white plaid
dark blue close knit wool sweater
Blue Jeans

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
Bree
Briana
Little Brianas

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE (in no particular order):
I'm not that serious or conservative once you get to know me
I have an acute sense of comedic timing
I love old history books

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE SAME SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
gravitias
Outdoors look
short hair
Why the same sex?
My answers for the opposite sex would differ from those above stated.

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
wine
Stop writing this infernal post. Zounds!, Will this ever end?What kind of hell spawn first started this any way? My will be done he'd be clapped in irons and flayed with the cat. I'd......
Boat

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING:
First Sea Lord of the Admiralty
Hurricane Pilot in WW2
Roman Consul for Iberia

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
Second Punic War
Bruges
Boat

THREE KID'S NAMES YOU LIKE:
Nora
William
Evan

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
Tallship
Question Period
Be consulted on a matter of state by the Queen

THREE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW:
Paul Martin
Keith Boag
Evan Solomon

Housekeeping

2005-05-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Just a note that the settings have been changed and that everyone can now comment on my Blogger Blog even if you do not have a blogger account.

Thanks

Hey Look! The Queen!

2005-05-19T00:43:00.000-07:00

Queen 2, originally uploaded by Will_Tom.

HRH Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith is in Canada just now.

I have a question for all of you. If the government falls while she is in the country, does the PM have to ask the Gov.Gen to dissolve Parliament and call an election or does the PM go straight to the well-spring and ask HRH?

Comments please.

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

2005-05-19T00:23:00.000-07:00

Peter to Paul, originally uploaded by Will_Tom.

Whoa,
Is this fun or what? British Columbia woke up to an election day and the best bit of gossip fodder we have, as Canadians, had for a while. It has everything folks: love, betrayal, power, politics, ambition, animosity, intolerance. Ohhh yes! I am so glad to wake up in the morning these days. With politics like this "Canadian Idol" will have about as much staying power as a bottle of Keith's at a Cape Breton kitchen party.

George Stromboulopoulous of CBC's hip news show "The Hour" quipped that the Liberal Party "robbed Peter to pay Paul." George's pith-ishness aside, this weeks events have had me glued to the national media.

Ms. Stronach (you will find no tasteless, bigoted epithets here) who has helped represent the side of the Conservatives I could conceivably vote for (i.e. progressive, Clark, Brison et al)has been seen as increasingly uncomfortable under the shadow of Mordor. (Present epithets excluded). She is in the game for the big prizes to be sure. Why else leave a successful business career? Sidelined and in demand, she made the leap, crossed the floor and was Liberalized.

She has left behind a caucus that included her love interest Peter MacKay and the defection seems to be from him as well as the party. Heartache, steely nerves, unrequited..., well I go on.

What is plain is that after his CBC interview on his Pa's potato farm, the scruffled, bruised soul of Peter MacKay confirmed him as Canada's most eligible bachelor in the hearts of news junkettes nationwide. Gilbert Blythe has nothing on PEI Pete.

Some cite ambition, avarice and opportunism as leading factor for Stronach and while I agree, I do not condemn her for it. She did not do this because it was the easy thing to do. Consider:

1)Stephen Harper and the Alliance are not the kind of Tories Belinda naturally represents.
2)As an Ontarian and closer to Quebec than the "Western Aliens" in her party, Belinda is less likely to be subsumed by the parochialism that allows Harper to truck with the Bloc.
3)She came the this game to play not to benchwarm. Leaving Magna to be under the thumb of Mr.Godsrighteousfury is not what she signed up for.
4)We knew she was a Liberal all along. C'mon. You knew it too.

Well, in the USA they make politicians from their celebrities (Ventura, Gubernator, Reagan). In Canada the Good, we make celebrities of our politicians.

I love May sweeps.

The HBC Point Blanket

2005-05-15T23:18:00.000-07:00

07HudsonsBayBlankets, originally uploaded by Will_Tom.

Ohh, I am jealous! I love these things. If a Canadian was to be wrapped in a flag, it could be this just as well as the Maple Leaf. This looks warmer.

The Nanaimo Bastion

2005-05-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

bastion, originally uploaded by Will_Tom.

Was in Nanaimo BC the other day, just by chance. I was also able to tour the town's most distincive historical relic, the Nanaimo Bastion.

This lovely base of bombastic bombardment is now a museum. A dear girl dressed like Laua Ingles of "Little House on the Prarie" was on hand to show me around. Dispite the fact that this particular fashion era is one of my favorites for ladies wear, I listened attentively and asked questions at acceptably demure intevals.

The fort was built to protect the stores &c. of the "Coalville" Coal mine and community from those nefarious local Indian types. The whole lock stock and barrel was owned by the venerable Hudson's Bay Company and the town became Nanaimo. The locals never attacked, probably not because of the Bastion. Who wants to steal coal? Once more into The Breach!

Banff Apts

2005-05-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

Banff Apts, originally uploaded by Will_Tom.

So folks, here are the cool digs. Kuhl, ya? The bay windows facing us in the photo are not one of ours but if you look at the top floor on the right where the tree is, yup, right there, that is it.

We directly face a fitness world location so either I will be motivated to move about vigorously, or to make postings re the sweaty boppers opposite. Time will tell. Any bets?

Resurrection

2005-05-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

It's alive! Alive!

How Likely is it that I will continue to blog on this page? I practically live through Breebop, the uber-blog of my girlfriend Briana. And now as we embark on a cohabitation of brownstone proportions, it is ever more likely that either

a) I will impose my uncaring will on the hapless readers of Breebop

or

b) I will be mercilessly goaded into a more regular servicing of The Breach.

I will bet "b" is correct as the track record for goading me into regular servicing has been pretty good.

until then...

Yule is the Rule

2004-12-11T01:38:00.000-08:00

Tome to celebrate the holidays

Passes on from breebop is a wonderfull idea for a Christmas party / drinking game. Spirits optional (seasonal spirit mandatory)

"My buddy Jason and I are having a lit geek gift exchange/drinking game party next weekend. We just came up with the idea today. Here's how it goes:

Each invitee brings a wrapped book that must have come either from his or her own library or from a used book store. If bought from a secondhand store it must have cost less than $10.

The prezzies go in a pile.

We spin a bottle or draw names out of a hat or something to pick who goes when, and then take turns either picking a mystery book from the pile or stealing someone else's book.

If your book is stolen, you get to take a shot of a yummy liqueur to dull the pain of your loss (any suggestions from the peanut gallery?). If you are evil and steal a book -- covetous knave! heartless bandit! -- you have to take a shot of something punishing (Fireball whisky maybe?).

On it goes until the last wrapped gift is opened.

The hope is that everyone will bring good books, which will hopefully stimulate discussions about authors and spark suggestions for must-reads.

If a bunch of guests want to read the same book, I'm thinking we'll suggest people let others write their names and phone numbers in the front cover, and when the new owner of the book finishes reading it he or she can pass it on to the next name on the list. That way not only do we each get a new book, we also get to read other people's books."

Hey you in Kansas! Yeah I know your reading. Find a book and do it! ( Vote Democrat to while I'm at it. Eh?)

Oaths and Curses

2004-12-04T19:05:00.000-08:00

Would not approve.

There has never been a time when the cuss, swear or blasphemous oath has not been a segment of the lexicon of language. Marketeers, curs and villians, crofters, soldiers and pompous braggarts have from Arcadia to America spouted a vile stench of offence to pepper their uncultured, limited vocabulary to add colour, meaning or emphasis. Sacre! Other languages than Albion's have been plagued by this base and vapid veneer of basic communication.

While understandable in rigidly hierarchical societies where life was truly nasty, brutish an short, the lowest of the low were barely human or worse, property and had no pretense at social morals or even mediocre education; in our own time and among those I would otherwise assume as sentient, this odious rot is deplorable. Is it laziness? Is it used to dot the emotive 'i's and cross the proverbial 't's? Or is it the entropic puss of a cheap and manufactured culture referencing itself in the word choice of the otherwise useful?

Not that all swearing is to be seen as out of place. John Wane can regard the oncoming enemy with a despairing 'sonofabicth' and get away with it. It is the unneeded and pervasive peppering of words with poison that is truly the subject of my righteous disapproval. Imagine the vapour brained twinkie grating through a sentence with one dozen superfluous 'likes' and 'fer-sure ya know?s but instead of being merely depressed with the empty skulled twit you were disgusted with too frequent reference to fecal matter and crude debauchery.

Pathetic.

I invite your comments and for those of you tempted to foul my comment box with the very evil I deplore, know that your own feeble and predictable attempt at irony will easily out done by my assessment of your lack of understanding of that word.

Pernicious fiend.

Ha! Gullible newts!

2004-11-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

I have been told recently by some that my tertiary submission disagreed with their world view and that if I just accept the thinking of the theist, I would understand. Bah! Fie!

Bree: "It's all just theories. There's a lack of proof any way you look at it. I'm reserving judgment until I collect enough data points to tip the scales."

It is not my assertion that there is a god or gods or unicorns, it is against the assertion that I write. There is not only a complete void of facts to support the existence of god(s), but there are remarkable theories that the god(s) as represented are in fact our own creation and further, that the world view that follows a belief in god (in history, politics, sociology, science) is patently false and flawed.

Please remember that the theory is not as the creationist would say, some conjecture or unsubstantiated version of what could happen. A theory is a firm base of thought that explains the evidence around us. If observed data contradicts the theory, the theory has failed. "The distinguishing feature of scientific theories is that they are capable of being tested by experience."

So, with out the "you can't say you don't believe because you don't have a relationship with HIM" or the " I have faith " where is the existence of the proof of god?

I am not blind to evidence. If I were to be faced with observable or demonstrable data that invalidated not only my non belief in the supernatural or magic (thus would further nullify the majority of the intellectual and scientific foundations of culture, life and physics as we know it) I would be willing to concede to the theists that there is a supernatural.

It would remain to be seen what the supernatural was. Mithras maybe, or an omnipotent invisible spirit beaver of unquenchable power . We shall see (I say we shan't)

Magical Carpenter

2004-11-18T20:15:00.000-08:00

"Gods are beings created by humans and given supernatural powers or attributes such as immortality, omniscience, telekinesis, and invisibility. These creations serve many purposes, such as imaginary protection from enemies or explanations for the origin of such things as good and evil, fire and wind, or life and death....It is often said claimed that religion began in fear and superstition. The same might be said for gods.

Some religions maintain that there is just one God and that all the gods of all religions except were created by human beings. Yet, everyone who believes in a god of some sort believes their god is real.

Since Gods are supernatural, they exist outside the bounds and laws of space and time. They can possess any of the infinite array of magical powers. Hence, there is no way to prove or disprove their reality. One might say: If gods exist, anything goes. "

The preceeding is an excerpt from Robert Todd Carroll's website The Skeptic's Dictionary, an A-Z of chicanery and fraud and what is more important, how to recognise it. At www.skepdic.com Carroll reveals in the illuminating power of scrutiny and sober thought the sibling evils of Amway/Quixtar, magical carpenters and other assorted faries and goblins. Throughout it all, the website used science and reason as a stark contrast to the duplicitous schemes that plague our culture's narrowminded. Check it out.

In my (reasonably accurate but prone to misdiagnosis due to a lack of data ) opinion, any arguements relating to the proof of GOD, god, gods, a god like thing, creators,omnipotent, benevolant or abmivilant all have one thing in common. They can also be used to support the existance of gremlins, unicorns and the additional creative excrement of a culture facinated by centuries old children's tales and social construct designed to keep large numbers of agrarian and or pastorally based peasants from rising up and beheading each other for the right to die in their meager pestulant isolation.

Pipe and Smoke it.

Photo lessons

2004-11-14T16:59:00.000-08:00

Little boats.

In the Beginning...

2004-11-14T13:13:00.000-08:00

There was the WORD, and it needed some work. So don't come crying to me if you can't get past the typos or spelling mistakes because I will probably gloss over your criticism with an air of annoyance and superiority. If you take umbrage with the content or a fine point of argument or the general tone or ethos of what you see here then great, this Blog is for you. It has been specifically created to offend you to the point where you write in a comment, giving me an opportunity to express just how wrong you are and how no one can deny the essential rightness of my deliberations.

Data Points. I require data points. I welcome trivia, historical curiosities, points of conjecture and general ponderables.

Argue with me. This is really the whole point. I will take stands on issues, change them as I see fit and mix hypothetical positions with ones I actually adhere to just to keep things interesting and suitably unfair. This of course, is your problem.

This and all you see here in the present and future I give to you and you shall be grateful.
The end.