Angels & Demons vs King Kong

I finished off Dan Brown's book Angels & Demons the other day. I have to confess if was one exciting read.... Like the Da Vinci Code it started off with a murder but this time excellerated into a threatening Death experience for Vatican City....

There were many interesting characters, plot twists, on the brink of disaster moments, stunning changes in the characters and a surprise ending... You can't ask for much more. If I have any criticism it, like the da Vinci Code, tied itself up too perfectly at the end. Still you have to give the author credit for writing something that keeps you on the edge of your chair for over 500 pages... It's a must read for anyone interested in thrillers.

My Ipod's going back for repair...sigh... For some reason it's not being recognized by my PC. It's there as a seperate drive but inaccessible and not appearing on Itunes so I can't update it. The Apple technician told me to return it and they'll send me back a refurbished unit. Great... It's behaving like it's continually updating and each time I tried to format it or update it there was a message telling me it was not accessible. Sounds like a hard drive problem even though as a unit by itself it works perfectly. I Swear something simple has happened but I just don't know the solution to fix it. It's like the minute it's connected to the PC it starts updating without being recognized by Itunes so therefore occupied and inaccessible for anything else....

...I swear My Heaven will not include electricity......

I went to see King Kong last night with Sheila. This must be the 3rd or 4th remake of this classic tale of a giant Ape who falls in love with a small blond actress and is brought back to New York City to be a "freak show" on Broadway. It was three hours long and I heard from many people the first hour was boring while the remaining two very exciting. I found the whole movie excellent in fact. The first hour built up the story so yes is was less exciting but it held my attention the whole time. Once on Skull Island the excitement ripped... really, the amazing special effects blew me away and the show down with the dinosaurs was incredible. It took a more sentimental feel once they got this creature back to New York but the ending was classic Hollywood and I left the theatre feeling quite entertained. So it's worth the money, go see it if you want an exciting story played out before you.

Christmas in Ontario

It's over. All the running around searching for gifts... the mad crowds in shopping malls.... the crazy drivers on the highways... Within an hour it was finished. I had a nice time in Ontario. Supper was delicious. Our hosts were great as always. I got to see a high school friend I don't get to see that often and everyone seemed happy with their gifts. It amazes me though how the religious element of Christmas seems to have been taken out of the equation. It's all about eating and presents these days.

Anyways, we left Saturday morning from a very wet slushy Montreal stopping off at Les Halles d'Anjou to pick up the usual stuff from the bakery and Tim Horton's.



It was a mad house there. The place was jammed packed with people getting their last minute preparations. We ended up parking in the over flow. Eventually the pizzas were bought, I had the coffee and donuts and off we went heading for the T-Can West.



The drive to Ontario was better than any of us expected. Roads were dry and the scenery was classic Canada in winter. Lots of pretty scenery of snow covered barns and homes in the woods. I sense the density of the forests in winter more than in summer. It took around 2.1/2 hours. I listened to my first Podcast on the way up which killed some time. I kinda enjoyed that. It was a half hour comedy show from London. I didn't et all the jokes because it often had a UK focus but it was still pretty funny. They had an American country Christmas parady called "Dammit I'm Vixxen" based on Rudolf the Red Nose Raindeer song... pretty hysterical.

The city itself was gray and dull as we entered it. Traffic was surprisingly light so we had a pretty good go of it along the highway.



We arrived for Christmas eve. Everyone was in good spirits. The kids had grown a lot since the last time I saw them. Each one getting more mature and not surprisingly more cocky, especially the girls.

The parents had a surprise for one of the girls though. They bought her a Dutch Rabbit which turned out to be the definition of "cute".



They had him hidden down in a cage in the basement so the girl wouldn't know.... but of course kids are experts in deceiving their parents and as it would be she found out and faked it all along that she knew nothing. Not a good sign for her upcoming teenage years... at least not for her parents.

This makes the fourth pet to join the family. They had a dog that had got to be the best dog on the planet... so docile and relaxed. I Just want to take her home every time I see her. Sheila's dog though was a holy terror which I'll explain later. There's also a new fish as well as a psychotic bird... ...get a load of him checking me out ready and able to pounce on me if he could....



..he just creeps me out ... I wasn't sure how the bird and dog would react to the bunny but the dog turned out fine. We didn't dare let the bird out.

Anyhow Christmas Eve came up on us quite fast. The house looked like a classic Christmas setting...



We went over to the neighbour's for drinks and some food. They lived directly across the street from them and it was my first time in their home. It was quite nice, somewhat smaller and more "normal" in size but of course massive compared to my little place. One of the NHL's hockey players who lives on the street joined us also as well as some of Sheila's family from the area.

I talked to the Sheila's nephew most of the evening. He's 14 now and I must admit quite intelligent. He was worried about being in an adult environment but relaxed when we started talking and admitted in the end he enjoyed it all. He's at that age now where he's too old for kid stuff and isn't really comfortable with adult environments.. that akward tween-teenage period where you feel you fit no where. For some reason though he seems to like to talk to me about things and he has a ton of questions and interests that he seems to just wants to get off his chest. He told me he like our discussion because his friends "no nothing" other than Gaming and food.

That late night fog settled in over Ottawa so Christmas eve was eerily silent. There was a light rain falling as we went back home around midnight.



Christmas morning came up fast after a sound night's sleep. I was the last up but I have to confess I get deep into Dan Brown's Angels & Demons and found myself coming downstairs around 8:30am... to the sounds of "FINALLY" from the kids, LOL... oh well..



Since they have grown up quite a lot over the year it wasn't the mad house it used to be when they were little kids. Sheila, her dad & I exchanged gifts on the 23rd actually so we wouldn't have to bring them up in the car. With the dog taking up the whole back of the SUV there isn't much room in the end once she's in place. Her family gave me a portable Ipod speaker set which was really nice. The sound is quite good from the tiny setup. They liked the gifts I gave them and I think genuinely so. So cool.

The dog below was terrible. She lives for food and food alone and managed to find a plate of chocolates and other baked goods on a table and went and helped herself to it when no one was looking..



The rabbit was given to the girl at the end of all the gift openings. She faked her surprise quite convincingly. The bunny was just too cute and the dog just sniffed and watched and then got bored with her and fell asleep LOL. Turns out the bunny is a living breathing poop machine. It was leaving little poop pellets everwhere all the time... I give it a year and it will be gone LOL.



Later we watched some movies on their giant screen TV. Something's Got to Give was one of them. I was poured so many Scotch's that I really can't remember the rest. It turns out I can handle liquor pretty well given the amount that was poured into me over the weekend LOL. Both Sheila and her dad remarked on it... not sure if that's a good thing or not...LOL

I called by cousin in New Brunswick for the first time in about 4 years Christmas morning. It was good to talk to her. She had sent me up a black and white photo of my parent's wedding. I'm glad she did that, not only for the photo but for getting back in touch with me. My last call to her was uncomfortable as it was around the days just after her mother's death (my aunt). She had called often when my parents were very ill but me being the self centered person I can be didn't do that in return and felt bad when I heard she died and hadn't been following it all. So I got the impression of me trying to say things too little too late and feared my last conversation might be the last I'd have with my cousin. Actually a cousin who was one of those most close to me when I was a kid. So we seemed to have cleared all that up and I feel much better about it because I always liked her and felt bad after the previous phone call fearing the worse. The only sad news from her though is she isn't talking to her brother (my other cousin also obviously) since her mother's death. Apparently there was arguing over the settlement of her will or remains (she wasn't that specific) and since then he's cut her off completely. I was stunned to hear this as I couldn't imagine these two ever coming to this point but there ya go... sometimes the most surprising things will happen. Very sad actually, I'd love to have a brother or sister and here's one case where they are so lucky to have each other and they (well he) won't talk. I hope for both their sakes and their children's sake that ends.

Regardless of my personal affaires supper was an incredible turkey. Delicious with amazing desserts which included a chocolate pecan pie that was better than sex and winning the lottery together... well, maybe not that good... but close enough. Of course everyone over ate and we all sat around after stuffed like the bird.



The hockey player and my high school friend joined us. I was more talkative than the last few times for some reason. Perhaps it was the alcohol. but it made it all the more enjoyable. Later I went and joined the kids and watched Hitch on TV. That was the movie I watched on my Swiss flight to Zurich in the summer. What a funny flick..




Anyways I slept really well although work was still on my mind. It's hard to clear it out when things aren't just right. We putted around the house this morning. I almost finished off my book which I must confess is so exciting that I just can't wait to turn to the next page..We watched Badder Santa (or was that last night too.. I think it was) that starred Billy Bob Thorton and it was pretty bad; then Anacondas this morning which was pretty good with quite a few good looking guys in it. The fear factor is this movie was pretty high. It had me on edge quite a bit.

The ride home seemed quicker. There had been a ice storm and everything was covered in ice. Too bad I was driving because the scenery was much prettier than the drive up. We stopped off at MacDonald's and arrived home in about 3 hours. All in all it was quite a nice trip.

Now I have a week off, woo hoo!

Winter slams into Montreal

On Friday we got hit with 40cm of snow.... it was a living hell driving to and from work LOL... It turns out it was a record snowfall for December. Right now looking out my window it looks like late February, early March there's so much snow on the ground. The city is trying to deal with it but it's a slow process.

Going to work was the worse. It was coming down in massive amounts... so much so the drive along the Met was almost at a standstill. My back window was continually covered up by the snow, the de-icers and my heater had no effect... I had to get out 2 or 3 times on the elevated portion of the highway to clear it because I couldn't see out the back window or my right side window.. in short it was dangerous.

The worse came whem my wipers stopped working as I was approaching the interchange at l'Acadie with the 15... I literally had my arm outside wiping my windsheild with my snow brush as I manoeuvered around the worse part of the entire trip. I eventually stopped about a kilometer up the 15 and discovered to my enthusiastic delight there was ice that had built up around the base of the wipers and once removed they worked again... Phew... Laval city crews though pushed meter high piles of snow into intersections causing many cars to get stuck as they tried to cross the road... it was a disaster. Many cars were off on the side of the road, peolpe had trouble seeing ahead of them. There were several cars that hit snowbanks and got stuck as well as stalled vehicules. Two hours it took to get to work..

Coming home in was no better although the snow had let up. An 18 WHeeler had jacknifed on the 15 south leaving me stuck there for about an hour. The roads had deep snow and ice ruts with half meter high snowbanks between each lane at some points. I've never seen that my entire life. Then the entrance to the 40 was closed for snowclearing. I was forced onto the 40 West with no signage to indicate where to go to get East.. God forbid I was a tourist or business traveller. I knew to take Chemin Rockland even though I ended up on the service road of the 40 East and basically drove into what was effectively a 10 km parking lot... eventually we crawled past the l'Acadie Interchange only to see it wasn't being snowplowed.. they had all day to fix that but decided for whatever reason to just close it down. What idiots... really, like that helped the situation. They are paid to clear the roads not ignore them. Sigh... That whole multi million dollar Interchange revamp is a total mess. It floods in summer and now it is too dangerous in winter. I actually wrote my city counceller over that when I got home... it needs to be fixed big time; it was infuriating to have been forced away from it when we needed it the most. It took me 2.1/2 hours to get home and then I had 90 minutes of shovelling.

Anyways... such is life. The drivers were actually quite skillful throughout it all. People kept their distance and the speed down and seemed to respect one another. I guess we all knew what a mess it was and just accepted it for being exactly that. THe snowblowers are slowly clearing it all out. I heard them all last night and into the morning whirring away in distant streets around my house. The did the other side of my street this morning..

Anything but Amusing

I finished off the book "Shalimar the Clown" this morning. It's Salman Rushdie's epic novel of a "love" story that sweeps over the main character's lifetime and takes the reader on a tragic journey through time from Kashmir India, Alsace region France and then to California.

The book got great reviews. It was my first Rushdie novel. This man of course was the subjected to a "fatwa" by Iranian Muslims over one of his earlier books The Satanic Verses where he supposedly was very critical of Islam. In many ways this comes through in this novel too.

I have to say that all the praise and critical acclaim this author gets it's well deserved. He is a brilliant writer. This book was very well written, structured in an amazing fashion and followed the story line of an Indian fable which intertwined with the novel. He gets into the mind of each main character like no other novel I've read since Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov". In that sense it was brilliant. He also had a way of seeing and expressing simple things in the most amazing manner. Little gem phrases that made you think "wow.. never looked at it that way before" kept popping up in unexpected places throughout the tale.

All that being said in the end I really didn't like the book. Despite the author's intelligence and skill at writing the story was depressing and there were no likable characters in the entire book. Even when at points you thought something positive was about to unfold it seemed to always unravel into a mess or something worse. His writing style isn't one I really like however. That is my personal taste but I'm aware many people do like it. For all his great writing skills it just took too long to get the tale out. After 400 pages there were perhaps 50 pages or less of storyline, the rest were flowery prose and endless flashbacks and descriptions of places, people or events that were relevant but not really directly relevant to telling the story at that moment. It was as if he was imitating Charles Dickens who was paid by the word. Although it was logical and for some people marvelously and intricately woven together, the story for me though dragged hopelessly.

Although a completely different type of book the Da Vinci Code for instance wrapped up it's ending way too cleanly. Everything fell into place in a predictable way. It was almost a television show ending. This book however seemed to scatter itself all over the globe and in the end you are left to write the last few lines in your own head... It was anything but nicely tied up. I don't like either of these scenarios. A good book to me has a bit of good and evil with some open and closed endings along with a few twists and surprises. Making everything fit in place or nothing fit in place really doesn't satisfy me because those scenarios in life rarely happen even though I must admit the "no-ending" endings are more realistic.

Lastly you could sense the author's political leanings throughout the storyline. The endless killings and terror, the hypocrisy in governments around the world, the irony of a Shangri La turned into a living hell... Whatever anything appeared to be at first it was always stripped and revealed for it's less beautiful truth in the end. Everything sucked in other words... perhaps for me it was a little too close to reality and so in the end a bit too depressing. Yeah for sure he's a far superior writer than Dan Brown but the Da Vinci Code sold more copies for a reason. There are many times I realize I hate living my life along the lines of what ever "the masses" like... usually that leads to watered down sentimental crap but if I had to choose between the two of these tales I have to admit I was more entertained by the Da Vinci Code in the end... Oh well.. still I'm glad to have read this epic and I can say I do admire Rushdie's skills it's just too bad he's just such a downer... but then again like the characters in the book his life too layers itself continuously on top of each experience he has and together they've ultimately shaped his mind which came up with such a complex, intricate, tense albeit destructive storyline. For that you've got to admire him

Inventory thoughts - Winter Election - Blah...

Well here it is Sunday December 4th and I'm sitting at my desk at work doing Inventory... the end of year ritual... I stopped off at McDonald's drivethru to pick up an Egg McMuffin thingy this morning and when I went to pay the girl reaching out to hand her the coins I twisted my back in such a way that I pulled some muscles and now I'm in a lot of pain... I can't find a comfortable position to sit in and getting up and down is painful... sigh... man I can't win.. bad enough I'm working on the weekend but to have put my back out on top of it is annoying.... thankfully I'm not in the warehouse counting because this would be just "too convenient" and no one would believe me.

Anyhow we're in a slow spell this morning so I thought I'd write something here to kill time.. I'm listening to my Ipod... Everlast "Seven Years" is playing through my PC speakers.. kinda smooth... So let's see, what's happening out there in the world these days...

The Federal Government fell... whoop dippity.. Idiot Opposition calling an election when the numbers aren't even strongly there for them. Having the campaign over Christmas and into the freezing cold of January no less.... Pollsters say we'll likely elect the same minority government with a slight chance of a Liberal majority. There's no decent Party to vote for anymore.

The Liberals are corrupt and should have been kicked out years ago except the parts of the country are head strong on electing local niche-interest parties pushing their regional issues at the Federal level. The Bloc being the main culprit... like they care anything about Canada or have any interest in helping to make it work or even make it work better. All they care about is making Ottawa look bad in the eyes of Quebecers so they can win a referendum on Independence or whatever they are calling it these days. So Quebecers selfishly vote for them ensuring no large group of Canadians will ever put their vote behind any other party other than the Liberals and then they'll turn around and complain nothing ever changes in Canada.... Effectively leaving Ontario to decide the country's fate and ensuring there will be very few ridings in Quebec who'll have actual members in the Government to pass legislation and makes significant changes in their ridings. All they can do with the Bloc is voice opposition and push for change which I'm sure they would prefer not to see happen too often since it would go against their political goals of proving Ottawa in ineffective. In effect by voting for the Bloc ensures the same idiots they know and love to hate stay in power. Nothing like trying to keep your enemy close at hand so you can continue to manipulate a known entity.

However that being said there isn't any alternative worth wild out there anyways. The Conservatives lean towards American Republicanism and need to be sent back to the Opposition for all their hard line right wing values that won't go down with most Canadians.. the NDP is perhaps the best alternative but pushing union and alienating the wealthy needs will only lead to more confrontation... so the Liberals are still the best option despite the fact they stole millions of dollars and lied to the public about it... wonderful, the best option has a criminal element to them... says a lot for Canada. Maybe Les Quebecois are right, we really just need to split from them all. Sometimes it really does seem hopeless here and perhaps we are really just in the way of the rest of the country's progress.

Oprah was on Letterman the other night. Sheila PVR'd it and we watched it last night. The way the audience reacted it's like this woman has become a saint or something lately. I have to say though she is at least making the effort to help people with all her money. Criticize her all you want but she's not obliged to do anything she's doing. It's excellent that she puts African issues out on the table for public awareness and discussion. It would never surface on the radar otherwise. Although you'd never know by watching the news they are among the most serious issues facing the planet at the moment. AIDS, serious illnesses, lack of education, hunger, poverty, a low life span, orphaned children, Darfur, lack of jobs and industry, war and suppression of females and the weakest people there. So I tip my hat to her for at least acknowledging that. By focusing on education she at least has her sights set in the right direction even if she admits herself it's only a drop in the bucket... but it's much more, hell, significantly even amazingly more than what I or most people are doing. Letterman seemed pretty good with her, he must really have pissed her off and now he's wooing her big time for whatever reason.. it was a good show actually. I'm not sure what all the feuding was about and she too seemed a bit confused by it all.. perhaps it was just marketing on the Late Show's part...

Any ways.. waiting for St-Hubert to arrive.....sigh.... Krispy Kreme came in this morning too... might as well cart me out to the car this evening... have a fun day..