We need Thug-Control - Not Gun Control.

We, Asian-Canadians, need to be able to carry for our own protection and I'm not saying that its just Asians who should be able to, but anyone who is legally able to after having gone through background checks. I've got no problem with sticking up verbally and physically against some stupid dumbfuck who says "I'm gonna fucking knock you out." I'd hope he was capable enough of trying to knock me out in a fair one on one fight. But when that individual is with 3 or 4 of his burly white or black thug type friends, we Asians are at a bit of a disadvantage. I stand about 5'7" - 195 pounds soaking wet - in the USA, I'd probably be a card-carrying NRA, conservative. I would protect my family with my life and that's the only reason why I would carry.

You try to steal my rightful possessions or try to harm any member of my family, I should be able to put three shots center-mass in you whatever calibre in legal self-defense at the time that the illegal assault is occuring. As I like to say, there's a solution for delinquency - "it's a double-tap to the head".

People complain about criminals and advocate for gun laws. The problem with that picture is that the criminals don't use stores to get guns, they obtain them through the "black market" or by breaking into homes where a firearm is unsecured. You won't find a gangbanger going into a gunshop and buying a gun. He knows where he can get one for free.

We've seen the legal system in Canada swinging all the way to perp-coddling with 10 years sentences for murders. That is why the gun-owning populace is getting concerned with how our safety is thought of by the police and by the government.

Are we expendable targets for gangs and two-bit thugs? If someone tries to jack my car, I would (with legal carry permit), draw my then-legal sidearm and put two rounds in him, because given a 'him or me' situation, I'm going home to my wife and family and there is no negotiation on that point. I was the same way in security. I carried around a 4D Maglite regardless of the fact that the supervisors wanted me to only carry 3 - and I said and I quote. "If some jack punk decides he's going to take a swing at me in the parkade and he's got 4 or 5 of his drunk ass buddies with him, I'm going to lay his ass out, then I'm going to ask them "Who's next? I'm going home to my family at the end of my shift whether you like it or not." (now this was in the good ol' or bad ol' days before they allowed SOs to carry pepper-spray and handcuffs)

So...what's it going to be, Canada, are you going to allow the criminals to run amok in the streets. You're doing it already with the gangbangers who are allowed to run around capping each other not caring which innocent civilians get shot. And citizens who abide by the laws are living in fear. There's a simple solution. More of us need to be able to arm ourselves. If the police aren't going to protect us, we should be able to protect ourselves, and the lives of our loved ones. And if it takes double-tapping a wannabe gangbanger in the head who decides to break down the door because he wants to get initiated. So be it. Make the gangbangers afraid of who the hell they target, because that target could be armed and willing to respond. You fucking want to roll-over my family and take my legally obtained possessions because you want street cred, you'd better hope to hell you are willing to risk your life for it, because I'll put two man-stopper frangibles through your thug-life gangster ass between your 3rd and 6th ribs, center mass through the heart - full-stop.

CANADA had the first Thanksgiving ever... SUCK IT...USA!

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada can be traced back to the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobisher from England in search of the Northwest Passage. His third voyage, to the Frobisher Bay area of Baffin Island in the present Canadian Territory of Nunavut, set out with the intention of starting a small settlement. His fleet of 15 ships was outfitted with men, materials, and provisions. However, the loss of one of his ships through contact with ice along with much of the building material was to prevent him from doing so. The expedition was plagued by ice and freak storms which at times had scattered the fleet and on meeting together again at their anchorage in Frobisher Bay, "... Mayster Wolfall, [ Robert Wolfall ] a learned man, appointed by her Majesties Councell to be their minister and preacher, made unto them a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to be thankefull to God for their strange and miraculous deliverance in those so dangerous places ...". They celebrated Communion and "The celebration of divine mystery was the first sign, scale, and confirmation of Christ's name, death and passion ever known in all these quarters." ~ "The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher: in search of a passage to Cathai and India by the northwest AD 1576-1578", Cambridge University Press

So this was 1578...a full 43 years before the Septic Yanks celebrated their first Thanksgiving. Even better, the Canadians celebrated their Thanksgiving without taking from the Indians - they provided their own food, rather than eating what the Indians brought to the table. This act by the Pilgrims in America cements Americans as moochers throughout history.

Now, in place of thanksgiving for relief from potential disaster like Martin Frobisher - we celebrate like the Americans: Turkey, stuffing and fill your gut up until you practically are comatose from over-eating then watch a game on TV. How far we've fallen to the reprobates south of the border.

Anyhow, my wife now celebrates the Canadian Thanksgiving as opposed to the feast of excess and buffoonery down south of the 49th Parallel. And proudly waves a maple-leaf which she will be exchanging her blue passport to a maple leaf one as soon as she gets her Canadian citizenship. Thank God for Canada.

Thank God for Canadian Thanksgiving. Thank goodness we had Martin Frobisher who knew what he was truly thankful for: his life and the life of his crew and the act of preservation of their lives was what he raised his hands in supplication for in relief that his men were saved. Unlike the Seppos who think that Thanksgiving is a time to feed their already obese cakeholes in thanks of the plentiful harvest - Thanksgiving is truly a celebration of gratitude up here in Canada for our lives in this harsh climate - Especially North of 60 degrees latitude.

Photoshop...Gotta Love This Program.

If there's one thing that gets a lot of use on my computer, it's my graphics application program - Photoshop Elements. I use version 8. It has to be one of the most useful programs I've got. Since I'm a photographer, I tend to like to use that program for post processing. Even after 4 years of utilizing Elements, I haven't broken the tip of the iceberg on how to utilize this program, but I'm slowly learning. I mostly tend to utilize photoshop when I'm color-correcting or editing my photos.

...and no, I haven't seen an F5 tornado come up along the Fraser River lately. That's PURE photoshop trickery.

Nor have I seen a nuclear mushroom cloud go up over Rogers Arena. At least not yet, because Torts hasn't "blown up" on the Canucks as of yet, despite their losing streak.

This is purely fictional.

My latest PS creation: "Reason #1 to not drive a hydrogen-powered car".

Friday Fog

The fog was absolutely insane on Friday night and Saturday night. Visibility in some parts were down to a few meters. This was a night that one doesn't speed. Too easy to get in a wreck.

Tree right across the parking area in front of the Burger King. The lights illuminate the drive-thru window on the Burger King, but it's definitely reducing the visibility.

Speed Test - Online Connection.

http://www.speedtest.net/ Wayyyy better than Telus. Amended: After my wife switched to Telus: ~sigh~

More F*NG CLEANUP!

More f*ng cleanup! Anyways. There's a few more things that we have to do in order to make things nicey-nice. Well, here goes. Today we'll be working on the living room where we'll be sweeping the floor, mopping the floor and dusting the shelves and organizing it so that it looks tidy, Storm's room, the hallway which seems to collect dust on a minute-by-minute basis and pretty much has to be kept on top of every other day it seems. We also will be working on the downstairs room which is the storage room. The boys will work on the bedroom after they get back from going over to Grandma's. Tomorrow, I'll tackle the sink, mop the floor and make things a little more presentable. But we'll see just exactly what we can get done today.

OK...back home from getting my daughter to day-care and into washing the last of the cutlery that needed washing. Finished sweeping the kitchen floor and now into boiling some water so that I have some good extremely hot water and disinfectant to mop the floor. Then I will sweep and mop the living room floor. In the interim, I've folded clothes, so that the clothes are all done.

I have to say that I have some major complaints about the size of the kitchen. When two adults stand in the middle of this kitchen, both will feel claustrophobic. That's how small this damned kitchen is. I keep saying "one of these days..." but it's definite. There is going to be an entire revamping of the layout of this house. Sooner than later, if I win the Lotto Max - have to play though. However given the choice between playing Lotto and having a better financial situation, I've got better things to spend our money on - our kids.

0955 - Kitchen and bathroom mopped. Laundry folded and neatly set up to put away; stove-top cleaned off. My kids will put away the dishes when they get home from school - that's one of their tasks.

1257 - Working on daughter's bedroom to organize it better than it currently is.

Daughter's closet is now cleared out but unfortunately we have to share closet space until we manage to get some sort of decent built in closet in our bedroom.

Toyboxes/Diaper ChangeStation-Bookshelf Unit completely cleaned up and non-toybox toys are all stacked neatly. Meanwhile my wife is going through her winter clothes.

Prior to making the bed. Shot of Dad's Desk where I still have to work on getting it clear, but the rest of the listed stuff that needs doing comes first.

Foot of daughter's bed.

Bed made up, and excess stuffies placed neatly on rocking chair.

After four hours of tackling my daughter's bedroom, it now looks like this. The top shelf has Easter and Christmas wrapping since we don't have a place for those things with easy accessibility. My desk has to stay where it is as we have no other place for it and I need a place to work myself.

Evidently, the rocking-chair is the gathering place for the over-flow stuffed animals until we can somehow manage to get a proper toy box.

I hate Fall Cleanup just as much as I hate Spring Cleanup!

Talk about busy these past few days. Wednesday, I got done the kitchen and made it presentable, Thursday - the living room. Tackling my daughter's room today along with some throwing out of some clothes that I intend to do this week should make things a lot more user friendly for the condition of this home. It always seems like the place needs a major overhaul in order to make this place seem the slightest bit liveable. However I intend to lay down some groundrules.

a) WE are getting a portable dishwasher; I have a photography career that I am trying to build up from the bottom up. And if I constantly have to keep cleaning up the house, there is no way that I'll have time to build up my career. The condition of the house has been pathetic and it stops right here and that starts with the place in the house that I spend the most time in trying to keep the dishes clean: the kitchen!

I used to want a lot of books, a lot of toys, a lot of junk that would make me happy. Now, I don't need that. If I have my camera, my lenses, my computer and a way of transferring my images from camera to computer and onto the web, I'm perfectly happy. That and my family. That's all I need in this world now. I don't need the constant rat race, I could be living out of a hovel and still have a perfectly good standard of living. Money isn't the objective anymore. As far as money is concerned, just enough to pay my taxes, eat, keep a roof over my head and gas in my gas tank and a little left over so that I can save up towards upgrading my camera equipment and I'd be a pig in mud - happy as hell.

b) we are getting rid of things that we no longer need in this house. That means everybody. The more things we have in this house means the less space that we have to utilize. Hoarding stops now.

c) I fully intend that there will be rules in the house: 1) wash dishes as you use them so that we don't have to do so much. The dishwasher will mainly be for pots and pans during a cooking session and for cleaning up big messes like when we clean out the fridge annually but what we will not be utilizing these for every day dishes.

d) Having time will mean being able to do more things - not necessarily stuff to do with cleaning the house, but fun family things. I won't be so harried and we will have the freedom to be able to do everything that we could possibly want to.

And that means a much more enriching life. And more enriching means "photography" to me because that's what makes me feel like I'm living. And now that my oldest son and second oldest son plan to learn what they can about photography, they have started coming out on my shooting expeditions (at least on the weekends). I will be grooming all three (my 2 sons and my daughter) to take over my photography business and chart it to where they want it to go after my death.

Hopefully tomorrow I can tackle the bedroom and I'm saving the last spot for Sunday or Monday -- the bathroom. UGH! Then once that is done - it's finished. And we will also have an idea of what other necessities for organization that we need: I've already counted in a blanket box, a few more containers and storage cabinetry for the kitchen. I'm tired of not having enough space and plan to utilize that area beside the fridge to make it more handy. We'll see how that goes.