Author Archives: Rob

Comments should be working now. Give ’em a try and let me know. You probably won’t actually see the comment right away as it will go to moderation but after I allow the first one you shouldn’t have any problem. Also, if you use the same information you used on the old layout for the comments it MAY not even have to go to moderation – it may appear right away.

Ha! Two posts in ONE day! It’s almost a record!

Researchers have found that cows keep grudges, nurture friendships, and also are capable of strong emotions such as pain, fear, and even anxiety about the future…(if only they knew)

Here’s the link:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/04/cows_bear_grudges/

The article also links to previous studies about cows and sheep.

Quick! Call Guiness (either the book people or the beer people – either way is a good way to celebrate!)

There were some other things that I wanted to post about but I really needed to get to bed when I made that post. So, in no particular order, I’ll now post about those things.

First up – local politics and my two cents. So, the Freeps tells us today that we may already be facing an 8.8% hike next year. Not sure where the science on this one comes from but it obviously has to do with spending money. At no point during this most recent budget debate or since then have I heard ANYONE suggest killing the stupid project to build a rail overpass on Hale Street. It’s costing a bloody fortune (something like 11 or 12 million dollars – which means it’ll be closer to 15 or 20 by the time everything is said and done) and is only going to benefit a SMALL percentage of the city’s population. If these idiots whining about being delayed by trains on their way to work are so concerned let them drive 30 SECONDS west and take Highbury. Asshats. While on the topic of city budgets, I would be negligent if I didn’t mention Fanshawe Pioneer Village’s incessant whining that they need more money. First they cry about money then it’s reported that if they have to close down it will cost 1.7 million dollars to shut the place down. What the fuck?!?!?! Almost two million dollars to CLOSE a place? I don’t think so. There was talk about having to build a structure to store all the “historical artifacts” (read: old dusty shit) and then maintain that structure. Maybe I’m missing something here but if we’re going to close something down…why would we be storing the stuff? Wouldn’t it seem to make more sense to close down FPV to the public and then auction off EVERYTHING. Sell the “artifacts”, sell the buildings, sell the costumes. Get rid of it all. Gee, maybe the city would actually have revenue from this…Probably not – Upper Thames River Conservation Authority would probably at that point claim all revenue as theirs even though they’re quick to insist that the city pony up for at least half of all expenses.

Next up on my list of rants is the London Hydro deposits. Since we just bought a house and never had to pay hydro before, it was required that we put down a deposit to make sure we’re not deadbeats. Yeah, it sorta sucks, but I can understand why they (and Union Gas) would request it – we have NO history with these organizations. They don’t know us. So, apparently the utility has evaluated all accounts and have now imposed deposits on some existing accounts where past payment history indicates a risk to the utility. Needless to say, these freeloaders have whined and complained to the local media and The New PL had a report on the deposits on the evening news this week. One guy whining had a $602 hydro bill. I managed to catch that $291 of that was this new deposit. Hmm…that still leaves $311 unaccounted for. Let’s back up the awesome PVR and pause it on that bill. Now let’s take a more detailed look at it. What’s this? $170 previous balance? You mean *gasp* this guy didn’t pay his bill last month??? And now he’s crying that he has to pay a deposit? Okay, okay, I concede – maybe this one guy is the odd-man out and the rest of the people being charged the deposit are being unfairly treated. Wait, here’s another guy on the report. What did he just say? Something along the lines of “Sure I’ve been late paying my bill but I’ve only ever been threatened with being cut-off once.” All I could do was shake my head. Seriously – these people are lucky I’m not running hydro. They’d need a lot of candles….

Jason sent us a link the other day to an article on proposed changes to the fine structure for FCC broadcasting violations. I don’t have the link handy right this moment but it was widely reported across all major news outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, etc. Basically what it boiled down to is that the networks could get fined more for a single utterance of the word “fuck” than a Nuclear utility would get fined for a hazardous incident which required evacuation and may include health-risks resulting in hospilization and perhaps even death. Tell me that isn’t fucked up…

Hmm…I think that’s about it for now. Comment at will. I will be more than happy to discuss, debate, defend, argue, etc. my above positions.

We are definitely not the greatest at posting to the site. Sure, there’s tons of stuff that we mean to post here or could post here but generally it comes up when we’re nowhere near a computer to enter it. By the time we are there, we’ve forgotten – especially Dory.

That said, there is one thing that I’ve been meaning to post for the past little while and am just now getting around to it. (Of course, I should be in bed since I have to get up in less than six hours)

This past weekend I had the opportunity to read Michael Crichton’s newest release State of Fear. Like most of his novels, SoF is a techno-thriller that centers around the universe that is global warming and eco-terrorism. When was the last time you read a FICTIONAL book that sported a 17+ page bibliography and data reference at the end of it? Yes, that’s seventeen-plus pages! This guy did his homework. So while the story is fictional the data and science behind the story is culled directly from many different references. The thing that I found most interesting is that the data shows that global warming doesn’t really exist (and by the amount of snow on the ground outside I have no trouble believing it). In fact data seems to show that there has actually been an overall COOLING trend across the globe in the past 150 or so years. Not a significant decrease but still a decrease in average temperature. So, regardless of your beliefs about global warming, if you enjoy reading you owe it to yourself to read this novel. After all, how often can you be entertained AND actually learn something at the same time?

Oh yeah, by the way – next time you see Nikki, ask her how she’s feeling – she really likes that.

Okay, I don’t know how many of you are listening to the radio at 7:45 in the morning (god knows I wish I wasn’t!) but if you were listening to FM96 this morning you probably heard one of the best moments on radio! If you weren’t…read on…I will attempt to do it justice.

So Gordo The Wonder Boy is down at Covent Market giving away some Sum41 tix. NewPL’s New Day also happens to be outside doing a cooking segment. Someone decides it’s a great idea to get Gord on the tube so he’s trying to weasle his way into frame. At some point he’s talking to the studio via cell and gets disconnected. Big D calls him up and he answers promptly, “Yeah”
Big D, without telling him he’s on the air, replies “Get in the shot”
He replies, “I can’t. The security guard keeps telling me to fuck off.”
There was a stunned silence for about one second then the mics go off for about 5 seconds. They come back and promptly go to commercial.

By this time we were at work so I’m not sure if they ever actually commented on the incident but Nikki and I almost pissed ourselves laughing.

I sent an email of support to BigD, Mindy, and Gord and have gotten a couple responses back, thanking me for my support. I tell ya, it was great!

[02/05/05] UPDATE: I’ve had a couple emails from the main culprit, Gord, himself. His second email told me that the really interesting/funny part of the whole story is that the station has not received a SINGLE complaint about the incident but has received about 50 phone calls and 20 emails of support (or 50 emails and 20 calls – I can’t remember which).

Maybe London isn’t as prudish and conservatively tight-assed as I initially thought…

Whilst browsing Slashdot today I stumbled across an interesting article. The article asked, simply enough: “What do you believe even if you can’t prove it?” Screw science, screw proof. Do you believe in little green men? god? elvis is alive and living with james dean? speak up. you know where the comment button is!

I’d have to say that the number one thing I believe in that I can’t prove is that life on other planets exists. Not only that, but I’m convinced that intelligent life, probably far more advanced than ours, is out there somewhere. Are they bi-pedal? who knows, but I bet they’re out there. Have they visited us? Now THERE’S the $64,000 question. The debate in my head rages on. On one hand we’ve got the pyramids – myan, incan, egyptian. the math and skills involved to make those pyramids as exact as they are boggles the mind. there are also many references to the pyramids highlighting celestial points. and the size of the blocks, etc. etc. etc. Then there’s the modern day sightings, abductions, etc. If aliens have the technology to travel light years through space to visit this little rock, don’t you think they would probably have the intelligence and technology to realize that the middle of arkansas is probably NOT the best place to find intelligent life? Granted, Washington DC may not be much better for the intelligence aspect, but at least the power center of the world is more or less there.

Again, sound off. What do you believe in even if it can’t be proven?

This had me practically rolling around on the floor at work, trying not to piss myself. Okay, maybe I’m sick, laughing at others’ misfortune, but this is just TOO funny…

Clicky

Okay, please tell me that you see the inherent humour in this story. The organization that tries to help kids learn about Christ, get street kids off the street, stay clean, don’t break the law, etc. ends up hurting those very same kids by breaking the law…smart…

And with that we bid adieu to the year that was 2004. Wow – looking back at the year – a lot of shit happened. Join me, if you will, for a brief recap that was my 2004…

First, and foremost, obviously was my engagement to Nikki. Words can’t really express the meaning to me of that one event. I was going to write a rather long, potentially boring diatribe on Chaos Theory and things happening the way they do but I deleted it. Suffice it to say, I love Nikki with all of my heart and life is the way it’s supposed to be.

Next up was that Nic & I moved in together. Sure, by the end of last year we were practically living together but it was made official in March of this year. Everyone says that you don’t know someone until you live with them. That may be true but there wasn’t really much adjustment (at least on my part – apparently I did upset Nikki’s sense of bathroom decor).

Hmm…what else??? It seems like so much more happened…

Oh yeah…we bought a house!

I don’t think I need to write any more about that in this blurb. I know – the pictures still aren’t up yet. Chill. They’ll get there…eventually.

There were other things that happened I’m sure but those three above events were probably by far the most important. Any one of those would definitely be the high-point of anyone’s year. To have all three happen in one year just sorta makes you step back and go Wow…

Of course there were many global events that happened that will contribute to whatever the future holds. Not the least of which is the most recent tragedy on the far side of this little round rock we call home. I’ll leave those top stories to the news agencies – they need something to publish on New Year’s Day.

So, now that I’ve kicked 2004’s ass out the door, what’s up for 2005? Hard to say – that’s the thing about the future, the slightest little thing can alter its course. My plan is to still win the lottery (hell, for all I know, I could have won Wednesday’s 6/49 – still haven’t checked my ticket). Other than that…stay tuned. If it’s big in our life, it’ll probably be here. If it’s useless information on the internet, it’ll DEFINITELY be here!

Cheers everyone! Please drink responsibly and DON’T drink and drive.

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

hehe

So, got my computer hooked back up today – finally. The email situation wasn’t too bad – just shy of 500 emails to download. Granted, I’d gone online using webmail throughout my ‘outage’ and grabbed key email and got rid of some spam before it was downloaded.

House Update: We’re slowly getting there.
[Monster House voice]
Back Kitchen: DONE!
Computer Room: DONE!
Front Kitchen: DONE!
[/Monster House voice]

Dining Room: Yeah…err….next… {speaking of which – if anyone likes painting stucco ceilings give me a call!}

Bedroom: Almost done – paint is up. Still gotta throw another coat on the trim around the windows and the baseboards and paint the inside of the closet. Bed will be assembled today.

Living Room: Still a mess. About 30 boxes to go through and unpack.

Basement: Not even worrying about that part of the house until sometime in 2005.

Bathrooms: Not doing anything with the bathrooms at this point. When it comes time to rip out the plaster in the front rooms we may expand the bathroom up there so that there’s a little bit of breathing room. We’ll see…

So, that’s the update. I know that I had promised pictures but we’re getting closer and closer to having everything done. I’ll get the pictures up as soon as we’re done everything – that way there will be before and after pics of the key rooms.

Well, the majority of the cleaning is done. The HELLISH part of the cleaning is done. If ANYONE who reads this site is EVER to learn just ONE thing from this site it is this: NEVER – and I mean NEVER – smoke inside your house – cigarettes, pot, crack – whatever – just don’t do it! Chances are someday you’re going to want to paint, or just realize that the walls need cleaning, and you’re going to break out a cloth, give a wipe, scream in fear of what task you have just absolutely committed yourself to (after all, you’ve now just wiped a stretch of the wall, revealing it’s true colour and there’s no going back now), possibly faint. The one thing you’re not going to do, I assure you, is reach for a cigarette to calm your nerves as you ponder the daunting task ahead of you. Well, okay, you might. But after the cleaning is done – I bet you won’t do it again.

Of course, there’s always the percentage of you that rent (and don’t care) or don’t plan on cleaning your house before you sell it. This, of course, means that the next schlep to come along has to rid the walls of your bad habits. (be it landlord, next tenant, or next owner) All I have to say your little faction is this:
I FUCKING HOPE YOU ALL GET HIT BY A FUCKING TRAIN AND DIE AN EXCRUTIATING DEATH!

There. That should do it. If you’re going to smoke – do it outside. Not for health reasons – fuck, you’re smoking already. Do it for cleanliness.

I now have a new group of people to add to my most hated groups list – indoor smokers. I think they would have to rank just behind child molesters and animal abusers.

Ah, I feel a little better now.

So, back to the report. The only places left to clean are the first kitchen and the one bathroom. We’re not worrying about the basement rooms right now as we don’t really have a need for them at the moment. Once we get settled in, some demolition work will begin down there so more cleaning will be required anyway.

As the title of the post indicates, today is the first day (of hopefully two, and ONLY two) painting days. The dining room, bedroom, and back kitchen are all being painted. We picked up a five gallon pail of this primer paint called “Kilz”. It’s supposed to seal in the odour and prevent the nicotine (or any other type) stain from bleeding through the paint. Each room is getting completely painted with this stuff before the real paint goes on. Because of the colour we chose for the bedroom, it also requires a tinted primer to be applied to it on top of the Kilz. Then we paint in earnest. The dining room is going to be “Blue Sapphire” with “Silver Trophy for the ceiling and trim. The Bedroom is a deep red (whose name escapes me at the moment) with white ceiling, trim and accents. The kitchen shares the white ceiling and trim while the walls are covered in “Peach Medley”. Nikki’s never painted before and my painting experience is somewhat limited. I’ve never done a project this large before (but I had never drywalled before the work I did in the condo and I did a pretty kick-ass job on it!). Fortunately, some great people are helping us out over the next couple days so we won’t be toiling alone.

I’ve got some “before” pictures taken with the camera and as soon as the rooms are finished I’ll snap some “after” shots. The internet is being switched over to the new house today so we’ll both have our laptops there. I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance to get the pics posted but hopefully it will be this week.

You know – not one person that visits this site wished me a happy birthday in the comments of Nikki’s post. Hmph.

I fully expect detailed explanations why said-comments failed to appear. At least 100 word essays. From all of you. I know who you are! 🙂

Please email responses to ibegyourforgiveness@robbierobb.com

Well, we’re at less than a week till we get possession of the house. We know it’s Friday. We have no clue when. We’re hoping it’s earlier in the day since we’re rather excited and anxious to get in.

It’s looking like we’re going to be moving on the following Thursday so if you’re not terribly busy on that day and want to lend a hand…well…we probably won’t say no 🙂

The housewarming/Xmas party is scheduled for the 17th. Nic’s off that day so she’ll be there all day and I’ll be there around 8:10pm. If everyone starts to show up around 8 everything should be excellent. If you get there earlier – no big deal – just don’t park in the driveway!

As the day gets closer we’ll post more details about the party.

Once we get in on Friday we’ll take a bunch of pictures and I’ll upload them as soon as possible. (I promise it’ll be quicker than the Florida pictures)

First off – ditto what Nikki said about packing. Anyone wanna help? Our cats won’t bite you…much. I’m just glad I never unpacked my boxes full of books and movies. Good god, we’d never get packed. But we’ve still got a shit-load of time so I’m confident that this move will NOT be a repeat of my move from Woodward to Southdale. Actually, I will go so far as to state that come hell or high-water it will not be a repeat.

Apparently Nikki likes the red more than the blue. Of course, I have to read about it here on the site. Wouldn’t you think it would be a lot easier to look down to the other end of the couch and say “Hey Rob, you know, I really like that red you’ve got up on the site, why don’t we change the site colours to that?” I think that would have been much easier. Apparently it isn’t.

Therefore, I have decided to keep the red, but not because Nikki likes it better – but because Boston deserves to be honoured until they are no longer the defending World Series Champions! (So it will stay red until the point next season where either a) Boston is mathematically eliminated from playoff contention or b) They are eliminated from the playoffs.) Some will say that I’m not very optimistic about a repeat performance. Don’t get me wrong – I’d LOVE to see my boys take WS pennents back to back – I just don’t think it’s gonna happen.

So, just to reiterate, the colour is staying (and I’m going to fix the logo and menu options at the top) BUT ONLY IN HONOUR OF THE RED SOX VICTORY – not because Nikki likes it – regardless of what she may tell you 😛

No. I’m not thinking of changing the layout to the Boston Red Sox red I’ve currently got up. (It’ll probably be changed back within the next couple days) I’m just pondering aloud the outcome of today’s US presidential election. Personally, I’m hoping Kerry wins. Not because I think that he’ll be much better than Bush Jr. – well, actually, I *DO* think he’ll be better – at least he seems to have a firm grasp of the English language. I just think that the Democrats got a raw deal last election because apparently a large part of Florida is too stupid to know how to properly vote. (Yes, I know – Florida was only a small part of the entire SNAFU that was the 2000 election – but it’s just so much fun to blame it on them entirely) Gore won the popular vote – he should have been El Presidente. Would the US (and other “allied” forces) currently be in Iraq right now if Gore won? Hard to say. One thing I think it is safe to say though is that if Gore had won and invaded Iraq it would have been for the right reasons.

That’s my two cents. If I happen to have any American visitors who visit this site that are over 18 – PLEASE go vote. I don’t care who you vote for (well, okay, don’t vote for Nader – he’s a moron – just get out there.)

Awww crap. It’s not even November yet. Anyone got access to a time machine?

In case your wondering why the logo at the top of the website now looks like ass it’s because I’ve changed the colour of the background in honour of the Boston Red Sox (it’s Red Sox red) winning their first World Series in 86 years!!! Not only did they finally break The Curse of the Bambino, they beat St. Louis four games straight! Combined with their ACLS victory over New York, Boston won EIGHT games straight to capture the World Series title!!!!!

Let’s just hope it isn’t another 86 years.

First off, let me express my condolences to the Hendrick family and Hendrick Racing after the loss of one of their planes with no survivors. It is a sad week in racing.

Now on to the gains. The home inspection went smoothly and there’s pretty much nothing left in the way of us getting this house. The conditions of sale waiver should be signed by tomorrow and then it’s just a matter of waiting until the closing. Man…never have I wanted the month of November to go by so quickly…

I had a wishlist for amazon that I was going to put up here so that everyone could pick and choose of the list of stuff that I had up there that I wanted. It would make shopping for Christmas soooo much easier for everyone. Then we went and bought a house. Obviously we’re going to need some stuff for the house that we don’t have (shovel, rake, lawnmower, garbage cans, ladder, etc.) so I figure that stuff should take priority over things like books, DVDs, and XBox games. Meh, what the hell.
Here’s the link: My Wish List
You can browse the selections off of Amazon.ca that I’ve added to my wishlist. This doesn’t even include all the stuff that Nikki wants. If you ARE really insistent on picking up something from this list for me, I would highly recommend ANY of the books on Barbequing and Grilling that are on there since I’ll finally be able to barbeque again!