I made a bet

I made a bet with myself that I could remember to post something on my blog for 7 days in a row. While I'm at work today can easily remember every time I visit the MOH forum it won't be so easy when i'm at home and tend to forget about such things.

The hard part here is going to be finding something worthwhile to talk about as I generally consider life to be rather uninteresting. However here goes.

I have a trip booked to visit my daughter in Okinawa at the end of March. Nikki and her husband have recently taken up scuba diving and have liked it so much that they have started to invest in all the necessary equipment, which is not cheap. I have always wanted to give it a try but never really been in a position to do so. One of my childhood ambitions was to become a Marine Biologist because I thought I would get to make like Jacques Cousteau.

So while I was chatting with my daughters husband a while back he told me that he had an idea for a christmas present for to surprise Nikki. He offered to pay for scuba lessons for me so I could get qualified before I went over for my visit so I could surprise her and go diving with them. Now that sounds like a great idea to me and I am now in the process of taking the course to become a certified open water scuba diver. I haven't yet made it into the pool as I have to do the study and classroom work first but I am really looking forward to it. Once I complete the portion of the course here I'll be heading out to Victoria before my trip to Japan to complete the open water portion and get my certification.

This should open up a whole new area for exploration and may make a vacation to the Carribean a bit more likely.

Alive and kicking

I have a habit of forgetting about things like blogs and email and such. I finally logged in here after my last visit in July and found 2 comments that needed to be moderated. Go figure. Better late than never I guess. I need to stop in here more often. I could never make it a serious blogger at this rate.

Christmas is getting closer and I am in a quandry as to what to get a couple of members of my family for presents. This is a struggle every year. I do not have a creative mind and coming up with ideas for presents is akin to trying to understand the formulas behind quantem mechanics. I also have to fill a stocking for my brother, which should be fun. Stockings are eay though and I have some truely evil ideas. I'll have to think about the presents while I sit here at work today.

I did see one item at Canadian Tire that I almost picked up for someone. A gift package containing a can of WD-40 and roll of duct tape. Someone finally figured out the ultimate fixit present for every handyman.

I have always gotten a kick out of watching American politics any time an election is coming up. This time around is no different. It amazes me how political figures can spend more time disparaging their opponents instead of focusing on the issues and trying to find solutions to the problems facing the country. I guess though, considering the publics fascination with scandals and such, they are just catering to the people that are going to be voting. I suspect an honest, ethical politician would never get elected. It's going to be interesting to watch the rhetoric ramp up as the election gets closer.

Winter in Calgary is always a scary time for a driver. A little bit of snow and people forget how to drive. While the majority of people slow down and take it easy there are always those who continue on like it's a nice summer day. The other day it had snowed overnight and I passed one spot where there were 4 cars in the ditch within a 200 meter stretch of road. From look of things none of them were related to each other. I'm not sure what these people were doing to end up in the ditch because the road wasn't in bad condition.

And on the subject of drivers, why is it so hard to understand the concept of a merge lane? Every day I end up behind someone who is trying to merge onto a busy major highway where the traffic is moving at about 100 kph. These people usually try and merge onto the highway at a speed about 20 kph lower than the traffic and end up almost causing accidents as a result. I have even had people stop dead at the end of the merge lane waiting for a break in the traffic before they would move. Do these people understand how much danger they are placing themselves and other people in? Apparently not because they still do it.

Another day

Here I am at work, another weekend sitting at my desk. Today was a bit different though in that I had the pleasure of a visit from from an online friend of mine, Transfrmr as he is known to denizens of the Museum of Hoaxes forum.

As he had some time off and I had some spare time in the simulator I had invited him in for the opportunity to go for a ride. Being the self-professed alpha geek that he is he jumped at the chance. So I took him in and we flew around for over an hour getting the experience of what it is like to be a pilot in a B-737 aircraft. Going from the smile on his face afterward I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the experience.

It was great to finally meet up with someone from the forum as it is my goal to one day meet up with as many of my online friends as I possibly can. Sometimes I find the friendships I make online are in some ways stronger than the friendships I have offline. Maybe it's in getting the chance to chat with people and interact without the visual cues but there is something different. One of these days I'll sit down and give it some serious though.

For now though here are a couple of pictures from his visit. Proof that Gray really does exist. :)