Category Archives: Commentary

Commentary, St. Maarten, Vacations

Arriving in Sint Maarten!

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Airport viewWe arrived in Sint Maarten late Saturday afternoon. Pam and I were separated on the plane by about 15 rows. But we both claimed to have the worst screaming kid right beside each other! haha

Anyway, we got here safe and sound. They have some weird rule where you can’t get your rental car at the airport! You have to line up outside and wait for an over crowded shuttle bus to take you to a little station so you can wait in line to be assigned a car, so you can then go wait in line to get the car!

The roads are something right out of a horror movie! WoW – they could use a BIT of paving! Dodging potholes seems to the national sport. Although we’re quite a ways from the airport, we managed to get to the resort without major incident, although Pam claims her kidneys will never be the same.

Driving to Oyster Bay We got here as it was getting dark, so had no time for the ocean, although we have a swell view out of our room over the ocean. The rooms are nice, with some nice artwork on the walls. The beds are comfortable, and the smallish kitchen is well-equipped, and enough for our needs.

We had dinner at Beau Beau’s, which is a short 90 second walk from our suite. Pam and Maggie and Tim had the ribs and pronounced them good. They have the annoying habit of adding a 15% gratuity to the bill, which is pretty standard in most restaurants we’ve been to in the Caribbean. The waiters then tell you that they don’t really get any of that, and want an even bigger tip. sigh What can you do?

Tomorrow we’re gonna hit the ocean out front here and see what we can see.

Internet is very expensive here, so my updates might be not as regular as usual. We’ll do our best!

Commentary, Holidays

Merry Christmas or Season's Greetings?

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There is always a large, and very vociferous, debate about how to greet someone over the Christmas Holiday season. Many feel that Merry Christmas is too Christian, and offends the Jewish, Buddhists, and Islamic communities. They feel that Western culture does not take their feelings into account.

Merry Christmas!This may be true. But do Islamic countries allow Christians to celebrate their faith, openly, and without persecution in primarily Islamic countries? The answer, of course, is a resounding no. So should we be sensitive to their needs, in primarily Christian communities? The answer, of course, is a resounding yes.

Why the discrepancy? Simple. Because we can. We are freedom loving people. We don’t want to offend people; we want to welcome them to our communities and to our lives. If they choose to NOT celebrate our customs and traditions, that’s fine. I don’t celebrate the Islamic Diwalli Festival of Light either. I don’t greet people with Happy Diwalli. In fact, despite living in a community with a significant Islamic community, I have yet to be greeted by those of the Islamic faith with such a greeting.

Christmas is celebrated on an ancient pagan holiday. It is not a faithful representation of  the day of the birth of Christ. It is merely when we celebrate it, much like we celebrate the Queen’s birthday on some weekend in May. So why do we feel the need to express ourselves in such a way? Frankly, I do not object to people greeting me with Merry Christmas. But I also do not object to people greeting me with Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings either. The latter two are more inclusive, embracing Jewish Hannukah, Islamic Diwalli, and even pagan celebrations of the New Year.

Surely, the whole point of this holiday is one of inclusion, celebration of family and friends, and thoughtful reflection on the year just finishing. Most of the dissenters are not people of other faiths, but agnostics who wish to remove all religion from any kind of meaningful context in our lives.

Let me be clear – I do not practice any faith, but to suggest I do not have Christian values is silly. Many of the things that make this country great, are because our forefathers were of Christian faith, and preached tolerance and love. To deny this, is to deny our heritage, our history, our life.

So my wish to you is this – Happy Everything! Happy Holidays! Season’s Greetings! And Merry Christmas too! I use all three sayings, and have no hangups about using any of them. I hope you will do the same.

Commentary

Olympic protests

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DOWN with it!Our home province, British Columbia, last week introduced legislation to empower authorities in Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler to enter homes and remove or cover up “unauthorized” signs during the Olympic Games. The Miscellaneous Statutes and Amendment Act states such actions can be taken “without the consent of the owner or occupier.” The proposed law would let authorities remove any sign on a person’s residence or property that doesn’t celebrate the Olympics.

This is an outrage! I had been a quiet supporter of the Olympics in Vancouver, even though I frankly couldn’t care less about any of the Olympic sports, including hockey. But I realize that the Games will showcase our great city to the world, and that’s a good thing. Or is it?

I didn’t watch one minute of the recent games in China. Frankly, I think it was wrong to attend the China games. The reason? They do not believe in giving their people the freedom to express themselves, let alone other basic freedoms we take for granted.

And here we have BC following the Chinese example? DISGUSTING!! This is not the way a democracy works. If the politicians in this province pass this legislation, my yard will become an anti-Olympic sign factory. I will fight this fascism til my last breath.

If the police intend to enter my home to remove these signs, I will resist. I will instruct my dog to attack anyone looking to abrogate my right to free speech. I will use force against any invaders of my property.

If this law passes, there will be violence. People will not sit back and let politicians take away rights for which we have fought and died. We fought the fascists in Europe. We will not be cowed by the fascists in suits in our own legislatures!

Commentary

Windows 7 vs Vista

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As many of you know, the new version of Windows has come along to replace Vista, the much-maligned OS from Microsoft. Windows 7 is supposed to be this huge improvement on Vista. Now I don’t want to get into the many arguments one way or the other. Frankly, it doesn’t matter. New laptops will come with the new OS and have increased functionality as a result. At some point, upgrading will not be optional. It’s just the way it goes…

My complaint is this: I paid for Vista – it came with my Acer laptop. I also have TWO Vista install CDs, also paid for. One came with a new computer, and the other was purchased, retail. Every few days I get a notification that Vista needs to be verified. It is ridiculous that this continues to happen. But the annoying thing is, I have twice had to call Microsoft to have my software “approved.” When it happened the third time, I went and found a crack for it on youtube, and I’ve not had a nag note from Microsoft since.

Now I ask you – how is it that I’ve spent close to a thousand dollars for legitimate software, that MS acknowledges as legitimate, and yet, in order to use the software, I have to hack it? Does this make sense to anyone? Is it not an infringement on my rights that Microsoft continues to ASSUME I am guilty, without any evidence? A police officer could not check me out on the off chance I might be doing something illegal, unless he had some “reasonable cause.” How is Microsoft able to circumvent this principle cornerstone of our society?

Now I hear that Windows 7 has the same problem! People are complaining that they are being nagged to death about their legitimate software. CNET has posted a link to a youtube video on how to crack Windows 7.

Ironically, a Microsoft exec claimed that Windows 7 was based on Apple’s OS X. Of course, they are back tracking on that now, but clearly, any idiot with a quarter of a brain can see that 7 has similarities to X… Personally, I don’t care. BUT, it is astonishing to me how Microsoft works so hard to keep legitimate users from using their purchases, while picking and choosing cool tools from other people without paying or acknowledging their work.

Microsoft claims that they are only doing it to insure they are paid. Well I’ve paid. It’s time they did too. I should be paid each time they call me a thief and they are wrong. Clearly, they are defaming me and my reputation. This kind of needless and repeated intrusion into my privacy is unconscionable. Microsoft must stop.

Commentary, Something About Us

Returning a damaged camera

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We have had three different Olympus Underwater cameras. You’ve seen all the photos of fish on this site, 98% of which have been taken with one of those three cameras. When we were in Aruba the second camera sprung a leak, and we were “forced” to buy another on the island.

The camera has a one year warranty, and Pam realized that I would procrastinate until it was too late to get any kind of repair or replacement from them. So she took it upon herself to get it packed up and sent back to Olympus. In less time than it takes Anna to process an order, Olympus had the camera back to us! Yes, that’s right, in less that two weeks we had the camera BACK!

Now that’s service! It is nice to see a company concerned with what their customers think, providing prompt, professional service. It’s so refreshing! I can’t say enough about this kind of warranty repair service. It is definitely the best service we’ve ever experienced for this kind of problem (returning a defective product).

Just thought I’d give a company that cares a plug!

Commentary, Holidays

Halloween Vandalism

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Pam and I do a lot of exterior decorating, for lots of different holidays. Have done it since we’ve been married, and each year, we add a little to the display, make it a bit better. We do it for the kids, because we remember how cool it is to see someone get into the spirit. Pam asked me once what we’d do if someone vandalized our stuff. I said, “no worries, we’ll start over. Not going to be defeated by idiots and losers.”

Why am I saying that? Well, here’s a first! Someone stole one of the grave stones off our front yard. Only one marker was stolen – they left the cool skeletons, the fancy bats, the lights, the pumpkins, the blow ups – everything. Only the new grave stone we made this year with the name “Roberto 2009” on one side, and “Anna 2009” on the other side went missing. Interesting that only that one grave marker went missing. In fact, VERY interesting that it is only that one particular grave stone that went missing.

It’s amazing to me, how small some people are. Stealing a wooden grave stone? Wow. You must really be proud of yourself. A truly remarkable person. I bet your father, if you know who he is, must be really proud of you! And your mother, gosh, she must truly be a remarkable person too – instilling such values in you… She probably works down on Main and Hastings. I shouldn’t be too hard on the thief, though, they probably have residual childhood issues, like bedwetting, Mommy didn’t breastfeed them, or Daddy spent too much time with the hookers.

At any rate, I’ve got two more grave markers in production, and we’ll just replace the stolen grave marker. These small, pathetic people won’t deter us…

Commentary

Change through Fun

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I don’t often make posts like this, but this is just too much fun. Here’s the setup: how do you get people to do what is good for them? You can try education, but that is often a slow process. Look at smoking – BC has only 15% of the population as smokers, but just 20 years ago, that number was over 60%… It’s been a tough go. Tough legislation to make cigarette companies responsible for their products, including forcing them to show you the consequences of using their products, have made gains.

Lately, they’ve forced smokers outside of all government buildings, enacting legislation to force smokers 20 meters from doors and entrances. They’ve even forced people in their cars to stop smoking when minor children are in the car. All well and good – for a good cause – your life!

But it takes years and years to get results with this type of approach.

Is there something that could cause change, but at a quicker rate? Is it possible to get people to do something that is good for them, like climbing stairs, even though an escalator is right beside the stairs?

Well, here is a video from YouTube that I think is absolutely hilarious! And the results are clearly instant!

The whole thing is called “The Fun Theory.” Check out their website, maybe you have an idea that can make you money!