A Fourth Dimension

Seriously...why do so many people know nothing about Daylight Saving Time? And, more importantly, why do they THINK that they DO know?

Well, I guess most people really don't care. But I have heard too many people be wrong lately, so if you read this post, at least YOU won't annoy me with your ignorance any longer.

Daylight Saving Time was absolutely NOT made for farmers. I don't know how many times I have heard this blatant lie. "Yeah, it's for the farmers so they have another hour of sunlight to work the fields." B.S. As if a farmer cares when he gets his sunlight. Daylight Saving Time doesn't add an hour of sunlight, it just makes more sunlight in the evening instead of the morning. A farmer just gets up with the sun. Or maybe he gets up later and uses lights on the combine, since it's the 21st century. But anyway, farmers (in very general terms) would be OPPOSED to DST. Read :

Another complaint is sometimes put forth by people who wake at dawn, or whose schedules are otherwise tied to sunrise, such as farmers. Farmers often dislike the clocks changing mid year. Canadian poultry producer Marty Notenbomer notes, "The chickens do not adapt to the changed clock until several weeks have gone by so the first week of April and the last week of October are very frustrating for us." - source

Ok? So stop trying to make fun of me when I tell you that Saskatchewan didn't adapt DST because of its agriculturally-based economy. Even today, despite the fact that the urban municipalities there voted to change to DST, all rural areas voted against it so they continue with one time throughout the year. There is always disagreement about which time zone they would adapt, Mountain or Central, since the time zone line would run nearly straight down the middle of the province.

DST was developed not too long after time zones were created. Time zones were actually made by the railroads (Canadian Sanford Fleming). It started when it was realized that people's schedules were such that, in the summer they would be awakening after the sun was up, and staying up after it had gone down. By a simple move of the clock, it could be made such that there was an extra hour of sun in the evening, so people could enjoy the summer and use less electricity. It wasn't adopted with any sort of a standard (sometimes even across counties in the UK, nevermind over countries) for a long time. In WWI, its energy-savings potential was realzied and many countries throughout the world adopted it, starting with Germany and Austria. Shortly thereafter, many European countries follwed, along with some notables such as Manitoba and Nova Scotia. During WWII, the US actually institued DST (called "War Time") for more than 3 straight years.

So now you know. It is to save energy. Not for farmers. That's all.

Une demonstration aerienne

Well, now I have a semi-reliable connection. I just go to my friends' house. Since I sleep here pretty much every weekend, I can get one post per week up. That's good, right? Right?


Anyway, last weekend I went to the air show. It was AWESOME. So here are some fine pics of the show. This is some crazy 60 year-old dude who flies in nothing but loops and rolls and Cuban 8's and hammerheads and various other aerobatic moves in his souped-up biplane.

Next is the good ol' GAU-8/U Avenger cannon...oops, I mean an A-10 Thunderbolt II. But the gun is the avenger. It's big. Like, really big. True, I've seen bigger...but never on a plane.





And finally, the often-imitaded, never duplicated CF Snowbirds. These guys are amazing. It looks like they are all tied together, even when they are going through climbs, descents and turns. Ridiculous.




That's it for now. I hope you have an awesome weekend.

Life in Heck

That's right, folks, I now really live in Heck. That's because I have no internet access where I live.

It's horrible. Shaw Cable doesn't even service the building, so to get internet myself (I had been stealing someone's wireless) I would have to get a phone AND an internet connection. That would be over $60/mo all told. I feel socially isolated.

Luckily, I have found a new way. I just have to drive about 20 min to get to Bar Italia, an upstanding public bar in the Little Italy of Winnipeg. Then I just need to buy something (namely, pints of beer) and I get free wireless internet. So basically, it's like I get internet for free, and being able to get beer is just a bonus. At least that's how I need to look at it if I wish to avoid seeing myself as an alcoholic. So hopefully that's the way it actually is.

In other news, completely unrelated news, there was excessive drinking this past weekend on Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday. Lucky for me I managed to bow out to be the designated driver on on Sunday, and got to drive a drop-top Mustang on the highway in the sunshine. But really, should 4 guys be able to finish 4 x 40 oz bottles and 2 x flats of beer in one little night? I would argue 'no.' And then do it again the next day? That's just ridiculous. On Friday it was hanging out outside by the fire, while on Saturday night it was a social and some camping in Carman, MB. There was one male and one female in each of three tents, and nothing went anywhere. MAY have been related to various people passing out. Luckily, at that point, we were out of tents so I went inside my buddy's house to sleep (we were camping in the back 40 behind the house). And then they all woke up at 9 and drank all day, including a case in the car on the way home. Also during gokarting and bumper boats. Until 9pm. Damn.

I realize this post is full of rambling and nonsense and poor sentence structure. Next time, I will write the post before I get the beer. Have a great day.

Yeah...I'm pretty much the best I know.

Last week...I flew a helicopter.

I'm not gonna lie. It was awesome.

We started out in Winnipeg and were planning to fly to Portage la Prairie. Luckily we were off the ground and on our way before we had our first problem, a TOT failure (yeah, I don't know either, it has something to do with a temperature indication in the turbine), and second problem, a generator failure. So my first chance at actually flying the thing myself was when the pilot was flipping breakers, and on the radio to the air traffic controller telling him we might drop off their radar because we could have to make an emergency landing. Sweet. Nothing like learning under pressure. Like when you're trying to learn to drive a standard by starting out going up a hill, with 5 drunk guys in the back of the truck. Except your life is in danger, rather than just your dignity and respect.

Note the gauge in the middle there reading zero. It's supposed to be reading 600 or something like that. Oops.

Well, we made it to Portage and swapped it up for another, working, helo. Now the fun begins as he demonstrates for me how to hover, and tells me how to do it. Believe it or not, easier said than done. I think at one point during my hover, which was supposed to be stationary at about 5 ft, I was actually moving at about 20 knots and 30 ft. Oops. I was starting to get the hang of it, though. Then, he flew us into a "confined space landing," which involved putting us down in a patch of grass barely bigger than the helicopter, completely surrounded by trees that were at least 40 ft high. Supposedly I will be able to do that someday. I guess I had better work on the hovering first.

Then I got dropped off at the Shell station on the highway where I was picked up by my buddy and I headed off for a weekend of driving and camping. Yeah, it sure did feel like I was a rock star to be dropped off by helicopter.

Why EVERYONE isn't trying to be a pilot, I don't know.

Maybe EVERYONE is a Crazy

I've come into contact with some strange people lately. Some good examples:

1. Today, in the Giant Tiger, a guy came up to me in the aisle and said, "Since you're here, there are steak tenderloin (holds up so I can see his steak tenderloin) for only $3.97."

"Oh yeah? That's a pretty good price."

"They're loads of them. They're in the freezer just over there."

"Oh, great, thanks!"

Now, this is fine. Except they have been that price for months. And they don't look very good. And I don't have a barbeque anyway. But really, who goes up to strangers in a grocery store and tries to get them deals? Strange.

2. When I was leaving Superstore, I saw a lady who was there with a young girl and a man who was presumably her husband. They were leaving with a fairly full cart. But then they stopped at the bin where you can drop stuff off for the food bank, and she discretely grabbed some things out of it.

Aren't you supposed to go to the food bank for that? I think when you take food you didn't pay for out of a store, they call that stealing. Mind you, I did that (sort of) a couple weeks ago. I got some food at Harvey's and they accidentally put fries in my bag. I thought it was strange when they asked me if I wanted ketchup for my chicken, but I said yes anyway. Then I realized I had fries. I figured they wouldn't take them back, so I just gave them to the homeless people outside. Same idea, I suppose. But read on, the next one is better.

3. I was in the back seat of a car driving on the highway yesterday, and we stopped at a gas station to fill up. I took a few extra seconds to get out because I was stuck behind stupid reverse doors that can only open from the outside. When I got out, I saw the guy who had been driving our car, a Tempo employee, and another customer in a seriously heated conversation. I wasn't too sure at this point what was going on, but the big Tempo guy was about to walk away, then turned around and told the other customer that, "If you say one more thing, I'm going to punch you in the face." Hmm. That's not good customer service. I guess he had thrown the other customer up against the gas pump when the driver of my car ran over there and told him to stop it and pulled him off the guy. Turns out Tempo had put gas in his diesel engine and he got a wee bit upset. Understandable. Tempo employees throwing people up against gas pumps...not so much.

4. While in my truck and about to leave the Earl's parking lot in Edmonton, I was approached by a sad-looking and disheveled girl of about 18 years old or so. She knocked on my window so I rolled it down, and this was her story (which she told me all in about 6 seconds):

"Hi, my mom and me and my little sister are here, my mom had to be here for a court case today and we're from Calgary and my little sister is not feeling very well, see that's my mom standing across the street over there, and she was here for a court case today and she forgot her bank card and now we have no gas so could you maybe give us like $40 for gas or something so we can get home?"

(Holy crap) "Uh..what? You're here for a court case and ran out of gas?"

"Yeah our van is parked over on that street there and my mom forgot her bank card, and we can't get back to Calgary and we were just here for a day for a court case, and my little sister is in the van. That's my mom over there."

(Hmmm) "Ok, you're out of gas and want to get back to Calgary."

"Yeah and I'm wondering if you could give me like $40 or something so we could get back home with my sister because we're just here for the day and my mom forgot her bank card."

(Strange, but I would like to help) "Ok, where exactly is your van? I will meet you there and call AMA and they can bring us some gas."

"...Uh...uh...I was just wondering if you could give me $40 for gas because my mom forgot her bank card and we were just here for the day and my little sister..."

(Uh-huh) "Ok, I get it, but if you meet me over at your van there I will call AMA and they will bring some gas. Ok? Go get your mom and meet me there."

".....ok, it's just over there I will meet you there."

So she starts running over to her mom, across the street. I drive past her and her mom, and they aren't going anywhere. I go to exactly where she said her white van was, just around the corner. There's no white van. Big surprise. I wait 5 minutes, carry on home.

Friggin strange people.

Apology to the ones that brought me here

How did they know? Seriously, with all sorts of things that have happened to me in the last 3 years, I could go back to my parents and they would be well within their rights to say, "I told you so."

On taking care of other people's stuff: "Once you get your own car, you will understand." I sure will. I take good care of my car. It gets washed weekly, waxed and cleaned often, and properly maintained. When I was driving their cars, I could go for months - in the winter, no less - without a car wash. Hence, it is now in Hamilton rusting to pieces with the grill falling off. Sorry.

On cleaning up: "I can't stand getting home from work to a messy house. You will see, once you start going to work." This one was bang-on. When I got home to my house and there were dishes piled in the sink and crap all over the tables and floor, the blood pressure went through the roof. Just ask Kyle. I turned into the most annoying nag, because it drove me inSANE. I went back to my parents and told them. Sorry, mom and dad.

On making money: "No matter how much you make, you will never seem to have more." 100% accurate. I will make $30k more dollars this year than I did two years ago. But I don't FEEL like I have more money. It doesn't seem like I can spend any more than before, and it certainly isn't piling up. It just seems like I have more things I have to pay for now.

On friends: "Some will come and go, but never forget the good ones that will be there for you." Yep, this is true. I have had high school friends and university friends and work friends and girlfriends, and sometimes I pay more attention to one of these groups than another. But I know which ones are good friends. They're probably the same ones who will be commenting later at how my blog sucks and I need to quit my damn whining and stop being so lame. Ahh, good friends.

There are many other examples. What does it all mean? Am I getting old? Am I getting wise? Or was I just a really stupid kid? Who knows?

Ernest (Smokey) Smith, VC

On an October night in 1944, a young man from New Westminster, BC, ran into some enemy on the bridgehead his Seaforth Highlanders had just established across the Savio River in Italy. He was supported by neither tanks nor guns. This is what he did:

Under heavy fire from the approaching enemy tanks, Private Smith, showing great initiative and inspiring leadership, led his P.I.A.T. Group of two men across an open field to a position from which the P.I.A.T. could best be employed. Leaving one man on the weapon, Private Smith crossed the road with a companion and obtained another P.I.A.T. Almost immediately an enemy tank came down the road firing its machine-guns along the line of the ditches. Private Smith's comrade was wounded. At a range of thirty feet and having to expose himself to the full view of the enemy, Private Smith fired the P.I.A.T. and hit the tank, putting it out of action. Ten German infantry immediately jumped off the back of the tank and charged him with Schmeissers and grenades. Without hesitation Private Smith moved out on the road and with his Tommy gun at point-blank range, killed four Germans and drove the remainder back. Almost immediately another tank opened fire and more enemy infantry closed in on Smith's position. Obtaining some abandoned Tommy gun magazines from a ditch, he steadfastly held his position, protecting his comrade and fighting the enemy with his Tommy gun until they finally gave up and withdrew in disorder.

-From the Victoria Cross Citation for Ernest (Smokey) Smith, VC, who was Canada's last living Victoria Cross recipient. He died Wednesday.

Because I'm hot

No, seriously, because I'm hot. Like, overheating.

That's why I don't have time to post. Because yesterday the humidex was 41. The day before it was 38. It only gets down to about 27 at night. So I can't stay in my room (with its lack of air conditioning, or air movement for that matter), due to serious health risks posed to myself.

As soon as it's not deathly hot I will get posting again. In the meantime, I'll be by the pool/at the driving range/at the movies/out for dinner. MAN, my job is so hard.