Jun
17
At least buy me a drink first!
Submitted by dbillson on Wed, 06/17/2009 - 12:57
A new neighbour moved in down the row from our house. During the unpacking, I went to go welcome the family to the neighbourhood. I met the father/grandfather of the house - a nice older fellow, probably 65-70.
He proceeded to tell me in a 15 minute conversation:
Jun
11
Things I learned about Camping
Submitted by dbillson on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 15:51
Here are some things I learned about camping:
May
23
Thank you Gene - and not just for Star Trek
Submitted by dbillson on Sat, 05/23/2009 - 13:56
Imagine you’re watching a new TV show. It’s about a vessel of sorts, traveling through space on previously untold adventure. Imagine the bridge crew, corn-fed Iowa home-town hero for a Captain, and a mixture of people from different entho-cultural backgrounds. There’s an African American communications officer, an Asian helmsman, a Russian navigator, and an alien first officer.
No big deal – right?
Now imagine it’s 1966.
May
7
Graffiti
Submitted by dbillson on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 19:37
On Wednesday on my way to work I was shocked to see that the Junior Achievement's sign had been spray-painted - I'm not sure if it's a word or "gang" symbol, but either way it was clearly meant to deface the sign.
Graffiti has been one of those things I have never been able to understand even going through the rebellious days of teenager-dom.
May
1
Eat Pork! Mmm... pork chops.
Submitted by dbillson on Fri, 05/01/2009 - 15:18
Rebroadcast of an email sent to me from someone in the pork industry:
Apr
30
The child becomes the parent: Chrysler, GM
Submitted by dbillson on Thu, 04/30/2009 - 13:40
In recent news the UAW will own substantial amounts of both Chrysler and GM; what's not owned by the UAW will be owned by various governments and creditors by the look of it. Hearing the story reminds me vaguely of the cycle between child to parent to child again. As we rear our children and we age we become weaker and eventually our children may have to take care of us.
Apr
28
My first Web Comic on Swine Flu
Submitted by dbillson on Tue, 04/28/2009 - 13:59
OK - so I've done a web comic to express my feelings on the current swine flu panic going around. The first thing I recalled thinking is - I've heard this before? I recognize the differences between the two strains. I also appreciate the irony if North America gets wiped out by "Swine Flu" - revenge of the pigs.
PS - No I don't think you have to worry about my attempts at web comics becoming a trend.
Apr
27
On Travelling
Submitted by kbillson on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 23:35
This weekend David and I travelled to Toronto with Anna and Charlie. I thought it would be fun to use up a via rail voucher by booking train tickets and chose the most fun destination we could reach inexpensively with this voucher: the city that is only 2 hours away from us.
It wasn't all "me" doing this choosing and booking, my attempts at input from the other half were met with the predictable "that sounds good". "okay".
"Do you want to stay at this hotel?"
"Does it have a pool?"
"yes."
"okay."
Apr
24
Parenting Tool: Repeat-a-Tron 3000
Submitted by dbillson on Fri, 04/24/2009 - 14:15
On the car ride in to work I designed the perfect parenting device, the Repeat-a-Tron 3000.
The concept is simple - an audio recording device with external speaker and a shoe-lace.
You tie the Repeat-a-Tron to the chlid and then speak a command into the Repeat-a-Tron. The device then repeats what you said every 1 minute until the parent enters a key which disables the repetition - and then the device will be available to accept a new command.
Apr
23
Comments / User Registration
Submitted by dbillson on Thu, 04/23/2009 - 22:48
For those of you that have visited the site and attempted to register or post comments, we've made some changes. First, anonymous (not logged in) users can post comments without needing to be approved provided they can solve a simple math challenge question - I THINK this is easier than trying to see images in those annoying image challenges.