Christmas Eve morning in Vancouver

Here's a look at life in Vancouver this morning. The video is taken from our apartment window, and the van you'll see is in our pancake flat parking lot.

Vinnie Celebrates as snow falls in Vancouver!

It's been snowing in Vancouver.
Quite a bit actually.
And when it covers the palm trees at English Bay....

And the only person at the beach is a snowman...

Well, it's enough to irk even veterans of massive snowfalls and blizzards, like Vinnie. We caught up to him as he made his way to lunch in the winter wonderland that is now Vancouver.

...and the snow is still falling.

Exclusive Santa photo rocks Vancouver!

It's Santa as you've never seen him before.
A very fit looking Santa Claus was captured in an exclusive photo as he left Vancouver, Canada following a pre-Christmas reconnaissance mission Friday night.
Scientists have long struggled to explain his incredibly precise annual schedule of Christmas gift delivery in harsh winter conditions, over seven continents and more than 30 time zones.
The photo taken in Vancouver on December 12th appears to confirm a theory that had been discounted for generations.
The nighttime photo shows a fit and focused Santa directly above the Lions Gate Bridge exiting Vancouver after a training run. He is without his trademark suit, beard and winter hat, a sign, Santaologists say, that he did not want to be recognized.


(Click on the exclusive photo to enlarge)

Santaologists say the photo confirms that Santa's incredible feat is not magic, as postulated in generations of tales, but the result of a year of training and rehearsal with extra time spent in fast growing cities such as Vancouver.
It is believed Santa was in the coastal city to study new routes after substantial growth in several suburbs.
The photo also helps explain the role of Santa's reindeer. Santa is clearly seen flying above the bridge on his own, without any reindeer. It is now believed the reindeer are employed, not to guide Santa as previously believed, but to haul the huge amount of gifts Santa delivers--gifts Santa did not have with him on his solo run through Vancouver.

The Cheesy Awards...

I am Cheesy.
The proof is in the picture. I won a "Cheesy Award" at work. The men's fashionista trophy...


It's my second award recently. In early November our team of reporters won the Webster Award for Excellence in Legal Journalism. Here's our cheesy photo at the awards ceremony...

Sunday life at English Bay

The eagles are back over Engish Bay, and the resident gulls are harrassing them. It's time to visit Brackendale!




On the water down below...
A Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft.
Rescue or just cruising? Don't know.


A nice day to sip English Bay wine...

ok, there's no such thing, but that's what's in this glass. Click the pictures, enlarge, and see!

Considering it's December 7th Cypress Mountain is unusually bare...

Read all about the lack of snow at Guyz blog.

Trudeau the "egghead"; Nixon the paranoid rambler

Imagine being a fly-on-the-wall during an Oval Office meeting between American President Richard Nixon and former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Newly released audio tapes from 1971 let you in on what Nixon thought of Trudeau and what was really said at their meeting. Interesting stuff, Just click here for a read:

New tape captures Nixon and Trudeau

In the beginning...

It was enough to make me blog.

Like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up a hill, I had dedicated myself to a struggle. Righting a wrong--crafting a response to an newspaper's online creation--a database of civil servants' salaries.

Canwest, the wounded and limping corporate giant whose stock price has fallen from $26.75 ten years ago to .54 cents today, owns the newspaper that created the database. It lists all 30-thousand provincial civil servants in BC who made $75,000 or more last year. Canwest bet that you and I would so enjoy snooping at the pay cheques of our friends, neighbours and even family members that the newspaper could sell advertising and cash-in.

We no longer have to summon the courage to ask people we know that uncomfortable and usually inappropriate question: "how much do you make?"

Instead we just go online and the newspaper, hoping to make money, will help us secretly invade the privacy of people we know and even of people we love. I mean, besides a handful of top executives, top decision makers (whose salary disclosures I agree with), who else would we possibly search for in the salary database?

That "journalism" is so negative and so mean spirited that I was determined to slay the limping corporate giant with my words....in an online comment on the story.

Two hours of writing later, I had crafted my words into a mighty weapon. I had pushed my boulder to the summit. And like Sisyphus, I could now see the clear blue sky of a better world.

As a sword toward the giant, I swung my finger toward the mouse to click, "post comment." I felt empowered. I basked in optimism knowing my mighty weapon was about to strike the evil, limping, corporate giant. Knowing I was about to right the wrong.

Then suddenly, with a click, all of my work was lost! All of my words gone.
A website warning shouted at me--there was an error posting my comment. It was "non-recoverable."

My boulder had rolled back down the hill.

And so here I am.
Descending the hill to retrieve my boulder.

Concious of the absurdity.
Concious of my fate.
Conscious that my fate is our fate.
Meditative and lucid.

Now enlightened by hope.
I have arrived here at this blog site....and retrieved my boulder.