On a little trip to Banff with the in-laws, after having visited the place on and off over the years, I decided to actually buy something at the Rocks & Gems Canada store. This place is filled to the gunwales with rocks, minerals, jewelery, gems and… more »

Recently I was listening to a track on a three CD Manfred Mann's Earth Band compilation called "Odds And Sods". The listing called it "Don't Bring Me Down (Castles Burning)". It's a great track and seemed very familiar. Since this was a live version I… more »

Over the weekend, the motherboard on my LINUX file server croaked. Fortunately, however, not the harddrives. I therefore constructed a cunning plan: instead of rebuilding the Fedora system, I would move to a standalone NAS which would be rather less of… more »

I live in what used to be Ralph Klein's riding here in Calgary. With his retirement, the seat is open for someone new so the political machines are getting warmed up. more »

A relative forwarded a prayer to us just this last week, and it tends to raise a red flag, as we are not religious. We are atheists. The forwarded item was: May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant… more »

Even if you're not a B-movie fanatic like my wife or father-in-law, if you've ever seen Shawn of the Dead, it's hard not to have a soft spot for Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The duo is back again in a unique entry into the overlapping genres of mystery… more »

I really only have one question about this: will it be even less readable than "The Silmarillion"? Of course, it could be as dull as the "Books of Lost Tales". "The Hobbit" was a classic; "Lord of the Rings" was a rather fine read. After that, the… more »

I'm well aware that many computer geeks have, shall we say, limited interpersonal skills. Generally speaking though, you keep those ones away in a closet somewhere and do not make them customer facing. That rule normally applies within companies as well… more »

I hate squeegee kids. It wasn't even that I had really met any before. Living in a 19th Avenue apartment and walking to and from work each day, I had my fill of panhandlers. I had my fill of natives trying to pass off funny stories for a buck or two… more »

Early this Monday morning, Ritchie and I were up and off to the Prenatal Genetics Clinic for an 8:30 am appointment for our 18-week ultrasound. Pretty terrific that Ritchie was able to come this time-- for the ultrasound part of the triple screen I had… more »

Ever been on a long flight, and they give you one of those little packages of pretzels, and you desperately need just a little more amusement than merely eating the pretzels? Well, perhaps you haven't, but I have, and with all the connecting flights, I… more »

In my mailbox today was a letter postmarked from Spain, Madrid to be precise. I don't actually know anyone in Spain so gave it a look. Inside was -- oh, I can hardly contain myself -- a notice that I had a winning ticket in the "El-Gordo Sweepstake… more »

I've been using DataViz's "Documents To Go" for years now on my Palm Tungsten. When I bought my Macintosh, I was delighted that they offered a OSX version as that made switching platforms easier. When v9 came out late last year, I paid the upgrade fee… more »

I was moved to pick this up when I saw a book-signing in the front of the bookstore I was walking into, and got close enough to realize they were peddling mystical garbage. I ended up in the science section just to shake off the willies from such close… more »