I've had to change the "war on terror" honour roll numbers on the Connect2Canada page of the home website.
Another Canadian soldier was killed in Afghanistan.
Killed:
Trooper Michael Yuki Hayakaze, 25, of Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), based in Edmonton.
Hayakaze, nearing the end of his tour in Afghanistan, had been on a supply mission in the area when his armoured vehicle struck an improvised explosive device around 3:45 p.m, - the blast happened in a persistent trouble spot for the Canadian military in Kandahar, a group of villages about 45 kilometres west of Kandahar City known as Mushan.
The death of Trooper Hayakaze, brings to 79 the number of Canadian troops, plus one diplomat, killed at the hands of the enemy or in accidents in Afghanistan since 2002 - the death toll also includes one diplomat.
They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast, And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Brig-Gen. Guy Laroche in a briefing with reporters at the Kandahar Airfield said - "Our comrade died in the service of his country - his sacrifice will not be forgotten and his memory will be with us as we continue to carry out our mission, with the same determination and resolve to see it through.
Our men and women know we are engaged in a dangerous mission. They also know how important their presence is to the people of Afghanistan "
More than 18,500 troops make up ISAF, with contributions from 36 nations. To learn more about the NATO force and mission - click here for their official web site.
Honor to the soldier, and Sailor everywhere who bravely bears his country's cause, Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause. (Abraham Lincoln)
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March 3, 2008 - Canada One-China One - A Memo from John Cleese
Think this guy was a tad teed off at what he just had to pay for a gallon of gas?
$3.13 a gallon - Oh joy - 5 cents a gallon less than the station several blocks down the road - so yesterday, I joined a lineup of cars waiting patiently to fill up at a price we now celebrate as a blessing.
I moan, bitch and wonder what the hell is going on as I tell myself that at least this is $1.22 a gallon cheaper than what my family is paying north of the 49th - and what I'll be paying again in a month and half.
Then, that very day, while cruising the web, I spot this headline - Canada to become next OPEC
This was a catch-up news item for me - the release dates back to last month - about how the United States' oil dependence on Canada, already America's largest supplier, is about to grow with the building a new pipeline to transport oil from the tar sands of Alberta into the central part of the United States - another pipeline.
Plans also are under way to extend Canadian pipelines down to the Texas Gulf Coast refineries.
Now here's the stats according to the Energy Information Administration - the leading suppliers of U.S. oil in Nov: 2007 were:
Canada, 2.431 million barrels per day
Saudi Arabia, 1.620 million barrels per day
Mexico, 1.581 million barrels per day;
Venezuela, 1.381 million barrels per day
Nigeria, 1.306 million barrels per day.
Now here's where it get a little fussy for me.
Using US dollars - the per gallon price in the OPEC countries listed above - Saudi Arabia is - 0.91 - Venezuela - 0.12 - Nigeria - 0.38
So, if my Dominion is becoming the new OPEC - how come we're paying more - on average, about $3.88 per gallon more - than the original OPEC guys?
Even the Russians are paying less than we are - with a per gallon rate of $2.10 US.
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Anyway, this next item is directed to Canadian readers - those of you from other non OPEC nations - just change the names - thanks to retired buddy for the following:
Garfield on the oil crisis:
A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country. Well, there's a very simple answer.
Nobody bothered to check the oil - we just didn't know we were getting low - the reason for that is purely geographical - Our OIL is located in - ALBERTA~BRITISH COLUMBIA~MANITOBA~~~COASTAL NEW BRUNSWICK~~~COASTAL LABADOUR~~~
Our DIPSTICKS are located in OTTAWA ONT.!!!
Any Questions??? - NO? Didn't think So - Garfield.
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Back to this Canada - United States partnership - as Canada wins one we lose one.
It's now official - my country has lost its place as the world's No. 1 exporter to the United States - the new king of hill - big surprise - China is the new exporting champ - I must say however, there's less chance of lead poisoning in our products - but I nit-pick.
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Now on to other things - thanks to not-yet-retired buddy Bill Mckay for sending in this commercial - clever stuff - the wrong horse - check out the sponsor at the end.
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Retired buddy Jim Hill also sent me the following - I have no idea were it originated - or if John Cleese had anything to do with it - also, I hope my American friends will take it in good humour.
Britain is Repossessing the U.S.A. A Message from John Cleese:
To: The citizens of the United States of America:
In light of your failure to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy).
Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded - a questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour
The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix -ize will be replaced by the suffix-ise.
Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').
Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as 'like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell- checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.
You will relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen.
July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.
Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.
The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline)-roughly $6/US gallon. Get used to it.
You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to is beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting Nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth - see what it did for them.
Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Johnny Depp attempt English dialogue in Sweeney Todd was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.
You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of Nancies). Don't try Rugby - the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us
Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America . Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.
An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; strawberries in season.
God save the Queen - Only He can. John Cleese
And so it is for this Monday - I know - nothing much in this entry had anything to do with retirement other than pointing out that having a creative retirement job helps pay for the price hikes in gasoline - strong motivation - start here - (Go to URL)
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March 10, 2008 - A Confession - Chinese Astrology - More Videos - Just for the Pun of It
I missed last Thursday's Retirement News Blog deadline - but I'm caught up in a new creative retirement challenge and as someone once said - ""You'll know what your passion is when you find yourself being incredibly productive, forgetting the time passing by, and not being able to wait to get up in the morning to do more!" - and that's the way it is for me at the moment.
Obviously, no-one is going to drive over a cliff when I say that because of this new energizing retirement project, other assignments such as this Blog and the websites have been demoted to "whenever" status - my aging brain needs to focus as I attempt to learn how to shoot - edit - write and produce meaningful video with my new High Def video camera - don't want to settle for just "point and shoot."
I swear, that video photography has taken ten years off my life - the creative process is a fountain of youth.
Back in the TV working years, I was carried by a group of professional camera persons - some of the pictures they gave me to work with was pure art - now, I get to be the pictorial creator - so far however, not much in the way of art but heaps of fun edged with frustration - the perfect combination to energize the brain and invigorate the soul.
.Remember the quote - "Do what you love and the money will follow" - well, over the past few years - the internet challenge has produced an extra source of retirement income and continues to do so, but at the moment, with this new creative retirement job of mine, the pocketbook is not the motivator.
But I am 80 year old proof that whether it's for money or just to be involved in doing something you love, retirement gives you the time to get involved in something new and exciting - a creative retirement challenge that brings you joy and a heady hit of youthfulness.
Explore new ideas and think outside the box - create - and if anyone tells you your too old to take on such a challenge - tell them to shut the hell up - age never enters into such a decision.
Retired buddies Kathy and Craig Olson sent in the following - take the test - I'll give the answers at the end of this entry.
Chinese Fung Shui Horoscope - Take a moment to take this test! If you are honest this tells the truth, it's pretty accurate.
Write your answers on paper - Find out your horoscope at the end of this Blog entry.
Which is your favorite color: Red, Black, Blue, Green or Yellow?
Your first initial?
Your month of birth?
Which color do you like more, Black or White?
The name of a person that is the same sex as you?
Your favorite number?
Do you like California or Florida more?
Do you like a lake or the ocean more?
When you are done, scroll down. Don't cheat!
After receiving this I Googled to learn more about Chinese Fung Shui Horoscope and clicked on this site dealing with Chinese astrology and found out my sign is The Dragon - and says, in part - "The Dragon is one of the most powerful and lucky Signs of the Chinese Zodiac. Its warm heart makes the Dragon's brash, fiery energy far more palatable. This is a giving, intelligent and tenacious Sign that knows exactly what it wants and is determined to get it." - close maybe, but the CIC will debate the giving and intelligent part.
Also in the retirement news Blog in-box - some video recommendations:
Retired buddy Bill Ozard forwards this humorous explanation of how male and female brains are different by Mark Gungor.
I had to send this one to my son who is a Leaf lover - as hockey fans know, the Toronto Maple Leafs - the hockey team with a historic past - lousy present and a dismal future is having yet another losing season - but as Rick Mercer on his CBC programme points out, Canada's major cable company is helping leaf fans ease the suffering.
And while on the subject of sports - we go from losers to winners - not yet retired buddy Bill McKay sent in this Tiger Woods commercial.
Retired contributer Bernice Dini offers this video of the dancing dog.
They say that the ability to make and understand puns is the highest level of language development - Here are the 10 first place winners in the International Pun Contest:
Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, "Dam!"
Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, "I've lost my electron." The other says, "Are you sure?" The first replies "Yes, I'm positive."
Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."
A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."
A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened
up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close.
Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.
Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good) a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh.
Now lets get working on that creative retirement job - (Go to URL)
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March 25, 2008 - Computer Woes - The Great Escape - Retired Mind
What a dumbass I am.
I always took pride in the amount of research I do when starting a project and I thought I had covered all the basics when starting this new creative retirement job as a videographer - but nay - I was so caught up in the "camera" side of things - I ignored the "computer" side.
Since my last entry, I've been having the energizing time-of-my-life - I have sloshed through swamps, hiked miles of trails in State Parks and driven countless miles through the county's back roads, searching for visuals for several projects I have in mind.
This videographer retirement job is one I highly recommend
Just one word of advise - make sure your computer can handle what your camcorder delivers.
Bonehead that I am - I was so caught up with my new high-definition camcorder with all it's bells and whistles - hey - it even shoots in the new AVCHD format for Blue-Ray burning - I didn't even think about my computer.
When I tried to transfer the HD material, my computer burped several times and chocked up several pop-up messages that said in effect - "You idiot - you've got to be kidding - I'm too old for this new high tech crap."
So here I sit - with an SD card full of images that will never see the light of day unless I get a new computer - negotiations with the CIC will start during our drive north next week - I feel the talks are less threatening if held in a confined space.
Here's a couple of pics I wish I could take credit for - sent in by retired buddy Bernice Dini
Back to that camera/computer thing - perhaps my brain needs a selenium hit.
Researchers have discover that that elderly people who got at least the recommended daily value of selenium (about 55 micrograms per day - 200 max) had cognitive test scores that put them in a league with people 10 years younger - selenium can add some smarts.
Also, selenium, a trace mineral has antioxidant properties that may protect the body from free radical damage and thus boost the immune system and reduce the risk of cancer.
Don't bother with supplements - like everything else too much can be a bad thing - your regular diet should handle what you need - to give you and idea:
Thanks to retired buddy Joanne Raycraft for sending this link to - "an neat piece of history and very well presented.
I guess everyone has seen The Great Escape at least once. This is about the tunnel. It is awesome. The interactive map is also creative, but not nearly as much as the fortitude it took to engineer the escape itself. The animation alone is worth looking at, but the story of the tunnel is amazing.
This was the inspiration for the Steve McQueen movie in the 60's. It is a fascinating look at a tunnel that was built in a German POW camp. The tunnel allowed 76 Allied POWs to escape."
Retired buddy Dianne Quinn forwarded this link for a neat little computer game that will drive you nuts - Putt it - (opens a new window)
What a winter it's been for everyone up north - here's a pic that was taken about 100 miles from Edmundston, New Brunswick - gives you an idea of how much snow was dumped in the region - obviously having an impact of the deer herd.
And finally from the in-box - Retired buddy Bill Ozard sent in this piece he calls - Ramblings from a Retired Mind
I was thinking about how a status symbol of today is those cell phones that everyone has clipped onto their belt or purse.
I can't afford one.
So, I'm wearing my garage door opener. I also made a cover for my hearing aid and now I have what they call blue teeth, I think.
You know, I spent a fortune on deodorant before I realized that people didn't like me anyway.
I was thinking that women should put pictures of missing husbands on beer cans!
I was thinking about old age and decided that old age is 'when you still have something on the ball, but you are just too tired to bounce it.'
I thought about making a fitness movie, for folks my age, and call it "Pumping Rust."
I have gotten that dreaded furniture disease. That's when your chest is falling into your drawers!
I know, when people see a cat's litter box, they always say, "Oh, have you got a cat?" Just once I want to say, "No, it's for company!"
Employment application blanks always ask who is to be notified in case of an emergency. I think you should write, "A Good Doctor!"
Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office? What are we supposed to do... write to these men? Why don't they just put their pictures on the postage stamps so the mailmen could look for them while they deliver the mail? Or better yet, arrest them while they are taking their pictures!
I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older. Then, it dawned on me, they were cramming for their finals. As for me, I'm just hoping God grades on the curve.
" Enjoy Your Days & Love Your Life. Because, Life is a journey to be savored"
Now let's working on your creative retirement job - start here - (Go to URL)
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