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Category: Personal

  • Play pinball like it’s 1978 with the new Kiss game | Ars Technica

    Stern Pinball brings back the iconic band for another round with the silver ball. Source: Play pinball like it’s 1978 with the new Kiss game | Ars Technica I was never into games, or pinball, when I was a kid, but I was really into Kiss, and on my list of regrets is not buying…

  • My Improvised Life – Toastmasters Speech #4

    My Improvised Life – Toastmasters Speech #4

    When I was 13 I entered high school. In my part of Canada we didn’t have junior high school, so we went from elementary school to high school. My high school had a fantastic music program and at 13 I was starting to get serious about music. On my first few days at the school…

  • The state of Canadian race mentality

    Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and to destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped out. Pierre Burton I never, ever thought that I would be in a position to write such a post as this. I am, after all, on what…

  • Death By Perfection

      Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it. Salvador Dali Perfection is one of the great things about Japan. Its something that, as a foreigner here I really admire. But, perfection is also stifling the Japanese. Not Everything Can Be Done Perfectly One of the great things about Japanese culture is the…

  • Top 5 Ways to Be Mediocre

    Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them. Joseph Heller I’m tired of trying to be exceptional. Let’s face it. I am mediocre. But, since I always strive to be good at something, I want to be the best mediocre person I can be. Here is…

  • I got a personal email from Mr. Bernanke – head of the Federal Reserve

    It’s the price of success: people start to think you’re omnipotent. Ben Bernanke How special do I feel??? Today I received a personal email from the head of the US Federal Reserve, none other than Ben Bernanke himself! Now, I found the following things a little strange about the email He uses hotmail. Come on,…

  • The Curse of the Belly Fat

    I guess I don’t so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old. Benjamin Franklin I believe it started out like this: Once upon a time, in a quiet, small town in Canada, a boy lay asleep in his bed. Unbeknownst to him or his family a horrible ogre had slipped into…

  • I suck at diaries

    If you read somebody’s diary, you get what you deserve. David Sedaris Blog’s really are online diaries. And by that I mean you can find thousands of them that have lots of entries between (metaphorically) January 1st and 15th, then things peter off to every once in a while and then the rest of the…

  • What it is to be selfish

    For me the definition of a selfish person is clear I don’t like what you are doing, so I want you to change for me. Recently a friend of mine seems to be running up against this from inside their family. And it got me thinking. I’ve been accused of being very selfish because I…

  • Is buying frequent flyer miles worth it?

    Right now Miles and More (Lufthansa’s StarAlliance rewards program) is having a sale on. You get 20% more miles when you buy. Often this scheme is touted by people (like Chris Guillebeau for example) as a good way to get more miles. But, I sometimes wonder if it is worth it. During the sale, if…