Animals Save The Planet Shorts.

This has to be one of my absolute favorite shorts from Animal Planet. They tend to take a humorous approach to the problem of conservation. These two eels are definitely not a couple of "bright sparks".

"Hey, Mac...Wanna Buy A Sundial???"

We have seen Beauty and the Beast Special Edition, The Little Mermaid Special Edition, The Lion King Special Edition, The MULAN Special Edition (and that really rankles my goat (no pun intended) because out of all the bloody Disney Specials that I have seen come out in Special Edition; the one Disney Movie that I really truly enjoyed and want my kids to be able to see and enjoy is "Hercules".

That, I swear, was the funniest damned Disney animated movie to ever come out of Walt Disney studios.

With lines like:

Panic: "Hercules." Why does that name ring a bell?
Pain: I don't know. Um, maybe we owe him money?
Hades: What-was-that-name-again?
Meg: Hercules.
Panic: Wait, wasn't Hercules the name of that kid we were supposed to...?
Pain, Panic: Oh, my Gods!
[they run, Hades seizes them]
Hades: So you took care of him, huh? "Dead as a doornail." Weren't those your *exact* words?
Pain: This might be a different Hercules.
Panic: Yeah. I mean, Hercules is a very popular name nowadays.
Pain: Remember, like, a few years ago, every other boy was named Jason, and the girls were all named Brittany?

Hades: Pain!
Pain: Coming, your most lugubriousness.
Hades: Panic!
Panic: Oh, sorry. I can handle it.
[Runs down the stairs; trips and crashes into Pain; they tumble down the stairs; Pain is now stuck to Panic's horns]
Pain: Pain - Ow!
Panic: And Panic - eechk!
Pain, Panic: ...reporting for duty!
Hades: Fine, fine, fine. Just inform me the minute the Fates arrive.
Panic: Oh, they're here!
Hades: [shouting] What! The Fates were here and you didn't tell me?
Pain, Panic: Ohh... We are worms!
[as they grovel, they turn into worms]
Pain, Panic: Worthless worms!
Hades: Memo to me... Memo to me: Maim you after my meeting.

Hades: I can't believe this guy. I throw everything I've got at him, and it doesn't even...
[Hades notices Pain is wearing Air-Hercs]
Hades: What... are... those?
Pain: Um, I don't know. I-I thought they looked kinda dashing.
Hades: I've got 24 hours to get rid of this bozo, or the entire scheme I've been setting up for 18 years goes up in smoke,
[begins to shout]
Hades: and you are wearing his merchandise?
[Hades almost blows up in front of Pain, but stops to see Panic slurping a Hercules drink]
Panic: [chuckling nervously] Thirsty?
Hades: AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!
[nuclear explosion blows off top of mountain]

The Pain-Panic-Hades interaction just made this movie an absolutely hilarious counterpoint to the saccharine sweet Megara and Hercules romance. James Woods just stole the show as Hades. And just the fact that they made Hermes look like composer and Tonight show bandmaster Paul Schaffer and Paul Schaffer actually played Hermes...that was one of the best parts of it. They do need to come up with a 2-disc Special Edition for this movie and they gotta do it soon.


Not going to be satisfied with Disney until they do.

This post is for my "brother" Hitoshi.

I have another "brother" from a different mother who lives in Singapore. One of my dearest friends, Hitoshi Ono, whom I lovingly nicknamed "Sponge", a real awesome guy. He calls himself a "beer loving oyaji"...I guess I'm the "camera loving oyaji" now since I'm a few years older than him. We had a great few years hanging out as roomies in Vancouver while he was going to UBC and working on the side. And he'll always be considered "my brother".


He's married now and lives and works in Singapore.

So my brother, here's my own family...now that I'm married:


My oldest son


My middle son


My beloved wife and my youngest son. (He has had "developmental difficulties" and he's being tested for autism)


My little beloved daughter; the youngest of the brood.

So, my brother, Hitoshi, here is my family.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." ~ Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs Commencement Address - Stanford University's Class of 2005, June 12, 2005.

I have never graduated college or university. The closest I came to being a university student was when I took real estate classes at the University of British Columbia. To this day, I don't have a degree. But what I do have is stubborn-ness to not take "no" for an answer, the stubborn-ness to continue no matter how many times life may knock me down and an unwillingness to listen to naysayers who have nothing better to do than to knock other people's dreams down.

I can almost see Steve Job's words directed at me. June 12th, 2005 was my 35th birthday. And on that June of 2005, I finally found out what it was that I enjoyed in life. From that moment on, I was a photographer. It has been more than six years since that commencement day address and just now I realized that even though I didn't hear Steve Job's words then, they penetrated in some shape or form.

I'm not a rich man, frankly, I could probably be considered one of the poorest in terms of finances. But there is one thing that separates those who are lost in the maelstrom that is life and those who have the ability and willingness to succeed is their perseverance. I'm dedicated in my goal, no matter how far it may seem out of reach to others. Being a professional photographer is my goal, my task, my job and I am prepared to dedicate my soul and life to it.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

~ Steve Jobs

I will not listen to naysayers. I will not let other people's doubts bring me down. I will not stop in my dedication to my pursuit of my profession of photography. As Jobs said, I need to have the courage to follow my heart and my intuition.

And that alone is my Life Journey. May we all have success and happiness in our individual Life Journeys.

More cleanup and a late-evening trip to Cloverdale

Been extremely busy with house chores over the past few hours. I'd really like to get the living room and our bedroom done so that Storm and I can actually get out and do a few fun things like go up and take photos of the various parks within our walking distance. Suffice it to say, it will be fun to go down to Bear Creek Park while Heather is at work and take some shots.

Needless to say, half my afternoon was destroyed by a stupid hacker infiltrating my computer with a stinkin' virus. I'm just glad that I was able to disinfect it. Unfortunately, I was unable to salvage my startup menu and my Lightroom icon went POOF. Oh, well, it was just a trial anyways and I managed to find it so that I could stick it on my desktop startup bar.

Stormi is asleep after eating quite a bit, but I'm going to have to feed her some more when she gets up. The weather has been rather warm so I'm grateful for a fan in any case. The $250.00 gift card from NHL.com showed up and Heather got herself a Canucks track jacket and Cameron got himself a Canucks youth jersey (Heather got it for him; he doesn't even know it yet). Looking forward to seeing the look on his face when he gets home to see it.

Edited a few pics today. Not many...and I have to also figure out the programs that I'm going to have to get in order to do some major cleanup of my computer. I may go up to LD #8 and see if I can talk to one of their computer guys. I gotta see if I can manage to get a format c:// drive rebuild after I get the programs necessary to rebuild my hard-drive after a total wipe of the system and after I backup my personal files (my JPG image files and RAW format images).

Actually...didn't manage to get up to #8. Heather called and wanted me to come down to #75 so I headed over to Cloverdale via the #320 Langley Centre bus. Of course my watch picks this happy little time to die so I had to leave early...thus having to suffer through seeing 2 Fleetwood buses (they both share the same stinkin' number) load and depart...and then having the third bus' driver make an entry mistake and hit Fleetwood. I sarcastically asked. "Hey...you know when a Langley Centre bus is going to show up???" He grins and says..."Well...made an error...I am the Langley Centre bus..." D'OH!!! Yep...it was also a full moon out tonight. Just as luck would have it, when the bus was about to depart three interesting individuals...evidently returning from downtown anime convention. You know that you're pretty much seen it all when you see a guy prancing around in a Sailor Moon costume. I would have thought I had drunk too much alcohol, but I don't have any in the house at the moment. Yes...it was definitely a full moon out...all the lunatics were all partying tonight. It's 9:30PM by the time I get to Cloverdale so I browsed around the store aisles until two minutes to closing waiting on my wife to get off work. And we headed home together. Now...hopefully, I will be able to make some headway in cleanup tomorrow. At least the stinkin' dishes are done.