Halloween Fun

Halloween Dog

My friend, Sharon, decided to dress up her "new baby".

David Berner on Vancouver's Misguided Drug Policy

This afternoon I attended one of those most thoughtful, profound talks I've heard in some time. The Vancouver Chinatown Rotary Club had guest speaker, David Berner, in to talk about his views on the city's badly misguided drug policy.

Besides being an exceptionally engaging and interesting speaker, Berner had some important, common sense things to say about a subject that he is very familiar with. He pulled no punches on his views of politicians, past and present, especially Mayor Sam Sullivan.

I have a long video of the first part of his speech, but need to get the audio cleaned up first. But here are some photos I took.






You should also check out the Odd Squad website. They're a video production company founded by 2 police officers, and are making films to get across a deeper understanding of what's really happening on the streets of Vancouver.

Stephen & Stephane

This morning Bill Good had past Liberal insider, Warren Kinsella on his program. Kinsella had the best quote I've yet heard to describe what's currently happening on the federal political scene:

Stephen Harper is like a cat and Stephane Dion is the ball of yarn that he's playing with!

Hilarious Letter from Afghanistan

A week ago Mark Steyn published this hilarious piece about my very own city of Vancouver. In it he described the incredible hypocrisy of Vancouver's city council to give hookah parlours an exemption to the sidewalk smoking ban. This decision is a perfect example of the multicult political correctness that is threatening to rip apart the fabric of our society.

A fellow in Afghanistan wrote Steyn this letter:

Re: Blowing smoke
FREEDOM OF CULTURAL EXPRESSION
Good Afternoon Mr. Steyn, I was amused by your article detailing the exception that Vancouver has made for smokers of protected cultures. A friend of mine asked if Vancouver would soon allow the firing of automatic weapons into the air during parades and on holidays. It only seems fair to "accommodate" this cultural expression, but given the liberal revulsion of firearms it would be difficult to square this circle.

Adam Lysene
Bagram, Afghanistan

Didn't Tony Almeida Die?

If you don't understand the question then you're clearly not a fan of '24', Kiefer Sutherland's hit TV show. The preview for Season 7 has been released and can be seen here. Jack's former colleague and fellow agent, Tony Almeida, appears to have gone bad and is plotting to destroy the U.S.

The only thing is, Tony was supposed to be dead!! You can watch him die in Season 5 here. So what on earth has happened?!?

As a side note, it appears that the new U.S. president on the show is none other than a woman! Clearly, this is paving the way to psychological help voters cast their vote Hillary's way!

"The Birds", Vancouver Style

Have you ever seen Alfred Hitchcock's famous film, "The Birds"?



I encountered something similar today: hundreds and hundreds of black crows, each of them screeching at full volume!

Million Dollar Walk

When my mind is cluttered and I need to sort things out, my favourite thing to do is go on what I call "The Million Dollar Walk". Why that term? Because the views are just absolutely incredible. The highlight of the walk is between Granville Island on the east and Kitsilano Beach on the west, though the best views of all are from the tip of Vanier Park in the middle.

Does a computer have a sense of humour?

Are you familiar with "Google Adwords"? This is the advertising feature that Google provides for anyone's web page. You simply install a little control and then it scans the words of each page and presents ads that are somehow related to the material.

While checking my e-mail this morning I had occasion to visit the "Spam" folder. To perhaps no surprise, I was presented with 3 recipes:

• Spam Quiche
• Spam Kebobs
• Spam Burritos

I'm not entirely sure that I'd like to try any of them!

Colours In The Night

I took these three completely unrelated photos last night:

It's Only Rock 'n Roll But I Like It

In case you're not aware, the title is the name of a song from the Rolling Stones in 1974. I think it's most apropos for the event I attended last night at the Stanley Park Rowing Club. A long time friend of mine, Steve, though now a bank executive, has kept his musical talents sharp and has put together a band of which are some people he played with 20+ years ago!

I'm not a "costume kind-of-guy" so my get-up consisted of putting on my 24-year old red Engineering jacket! And yes, it still fits ... sort of! :-) I helped out Steve's band by collecting tickets at the door and photographing and videoing the event. All attendees seemed to have lots & lots of fun!!







You can click here to see the full set of photos & videos I took. Please keep in mind that my little camera is simply not the best for capturing images with low light, such as at this event. Also, I think the camera's microphone got overwhelmed with the loud volume from the speakers!

Vancouver's Historic Railway

There's a neat little railway that runs on the south shore of False Creek, between Science World and Granville Island. Their website says it's not running but I found out different today.

Wonderful Fall Colours

Steamy Vancouver

Two Cuties

I came across these two beautiful, lively dogs on Broadway:

Deenu H: Pizza Master!

My longtime friend, Deenu, and his wife, Ravena, invited me over for dinner. I took the liberty of preparing some pizza dough with my breadmaker. I don't precisely know how he does it, but Deenu's pizza always turns out to taste much better than mine!

Finally, A Place To Rant About All Those Bad Drivers!

If you live in B.C. and would like to vent about the countless bad drivers in our communities then visit www.PlateRage.com or call them directly at 1.877.331.RAGE(7243).

49th Anniversary of an Aviation Milestone

On October 26th, 1958 a Pan Am Boeing 707-121 Clipper America became the first commercial airplane to make a regularly scheduled cross-Atlantic crossing. It flew from New York City's Idlewild Airport (since renamed "JFK") to Paris, France.

It carried 111 passengers and 11 crew members. It took 8.5 hours including a fuel stop in Gander, Newfoundland.

[Vancouver's] Westside Awards of Distinction

If you live on the Westside or shop here then you might want to nominate a person or a business in any of these categories:

• Community Spirit
• Retailer of the Year
• Restaurant of the Year
• Business Person of the Year
• Business of the Year

Click on this link to fill out a nomination:

Vancouver's Historic Orpheum Theatre

Vancouver's Orpheum Theatre is an opulent piece of history in our otherwise modern city. It was first opened in January 1927 and was renovated in the late 1970's.

Food, Food, Food!

Here's a sampling of the wonderful food served at the Griffins restaurant at the Hotel Vancouver:

A Glimpse of the Magnificent RAV Line

Here are some shots I snapped of the Translink RAV line construction down by Hastings and Granville. What a massive, amazing project!