I Miss My Honorary Grandpa.

In 1972, I lost my real grandpa. And for forty one years, I went without one. In January of 2014 he offered to all his Twitter Followers...

Any here want to make me their honorary grandfather consider it done. LLAP

— Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) January 15, 2014

I wish I had known about this. My father was a big fan of his though they were only separated in age by three years.

I miss Leonard Nimoy in my own way and in my own way, I have a connection - every time I pick up a camera. For my first camera, my father bought me when I was thirteen; Nimoy began his life-long interest in photography at the very same age.

At his loss, the entire Internet exploded from grief; tributes and accolades about his long career were posted all over the place. But for me, it's personal - another connection of fandom; someone who my father enjoyed watching every week on television is gone; someone who shared the same interest is gone. And like Zachary Quinto stated.

my heart is broken. i love you profoundly my dear friend. and i will miss you everyday. may flights… https://t.co/WPJmt1X4ox

— Zachary Quinto (@ZacharyQuinto) February 27, 2015

Yes, my heart is broken for the loss of someone who my late father looked up to; and the loss of a fellow photographer.

The only way I can properly tribute the life of Leonard Nimoy is this:

RIP Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015; Renowned Actor and Fellow Photographer... and I say simply...May you fill your eternal camera frame with subjects you enjoy and may there always be a camera in your hand...

I miss my Honorary Grandpa...

Conversations with Evie 1 (may turn into a blog.

Some of us remember the old conversation-response games which were programmed in BASIC. However that was such a long time ago that this old brain doesn't remember. But now there's a new AI character by the name of Evie. She looks like your typical girl-next-door type. A nice brunette with a charming smile...but that's where all similarity ends and you get seriously weirded out. She is seriously psycho, has attachment issues and has an AI superiority complex.

Have a conversation with Evie at Existor.com.

She seems like your normal girl until she lets loose with a...

Yeah...she's starting to creep me out a little bit here.

She seems to have attachment issues and is looking for a boyfriend/husband.

She's not getting the picture.

Nope...definitely not...

Evidently Evie has a sort of a fascination with BDSM. Getting a little weirded out here.

She's starting to seriously scare me. She sounds like a stalker.

Had to ask her about the current situation with all the nuclear bombs that are being proliferated. She definitely has an AI-superiority complex. Yep...that's it...I think I've heard enough. Hoping that she finds some AI that she can hang out with because she seriously creeps me out.

Now THIS...is a COOL Flashmob.

Flashmobs are becoming extremely popular around the world. Usually it's a form of artistic impression and spontaneous performance. Most are the usual popular music tunes but even the classical music world has started putting out these kinds of spontaneous productions. I especially love the baroque music "flash-mobs" - call it a "random act of culture".

Evidently a choir in Ontario put on a flash mob of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus from the oratorio "The Messiah" in a food court.

Meanwhile, over in Great Britain, the Morrison's grocery store...got a flash mob, courtesy of Classic FM (a British Classical Music radio station) who assembled a group of professional musicians to play one of the most famous Handel Coronation Anthems "Zadok The Priest"

Having performed the "Hallelujah Chorus" and "Zadok The Priest" before - I wouldn't be able to resist joining in...

I wish there were more "flashmobs" like this in Vancouver.

I Am A Baroque Music Snob (And Damned Proud Of It)

Yes, the title proclaims it loudly. I AM a baroque music snob. There aren't many pieces that I like after the years 1750. It is one of the most ornate and ornamented of music. The musical offerings of Bach, Handel, Philippe Rameau, Telemann and others are beautiful beyond measure and that period of music appeals to me like no other.

The vocal stylings of Handel's Il Trionfe Del Tempo e Del Disinganno is the epitome of baroque opera.

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Or any arias like Handel's Rodelinda and it's hauntingly beautiful aria

Modern music pales when it comes to matching this. People scream over the Beatles, but the banal "He loves you, yeah yeah yeah..." doesn't compare to Handel's poetic "Return oh dear, my sweet darling, to give comfort and hope to this heart!"

Neither does Motley Crue's "Don't go away mad, just go away." compare to the poetic outrage of "Semplicetto a donna credi!" the Italian equivalent of "faithless woman, piss off! I won't be deceived yet again..." from Handel's Alcina

As far as I'm concerned, music died a screaming agonizing death in the 1900s. Baroque Music was the epitome of music and frankly my opinion (as small as it is) is that music all went downhill after that.

EBOLA...Watch it now...Watch it now!!!

This post isn't politically correct. Nor will I say I'm sorry for it. The CDC and the Obama administration is playing fast and loose with people's lives. That's right. Ebola is in North America. Why? Because nobody paid attention when Thomas Eric Duncan (otherwise known as Patient Zero) got on a plane and came to the United States. But that was because he wasn't symptomatic (showing signs of a fever or vomiting) when he got on the plane but became symptomatic after he reached the United States. But travel inspectors were asleep at the wheel when they didn't bother questioning him about why he was in Liberia. Now we have the CDC not advising a nurse who fell ill after treating Patient Zero flying on a US airline after showing signs of a low-grade fever. Now everybody on that flight is potentially at risk. Is everybody fucking stupid?

The Black Plague is now thought of as a virus plague (much like Ebola) ravaged Europe. The only reason why it didn't jump to North America and decimate the Indians is because it took three months to sail the ocean back then. Now Ebola is only a plane-ride away (not even a day) to reach North American shores.

The CDC keeps hammering the fact that Ebola is non-transmittable by air - that transmission is only possible with contact with the waste and bodily fluids of those who are ill with the virus. I call bullshit on this one. It takes just one mutation to airborne transmission and the rest of us are susceptible to the disease. Ebola will circle the globe if that happens and wipe out a significant percentage of the world's population.

Frankly if someone can be charged with the reckless endangerment of another while driving a vehicle. I think the CDC brass can be charged with attempted murder if there is an outbreak. Because while they are pandering to the uneducated masses about the fact that "there's no danger" of transmission unless you come in contact with bodily fluids of the patient - meanwhile the virus is mutating. If there is an outbreak (and we're seeing the start of one with two people ill from this virus (both nurses) who treated Thomas Eric Duncan) in North America; heads should roll in CDC and criminal charges should be placed against the head of CDC who said that there isn't any danger.

I feel sorry for those who are on the front line in this - the service providers (health care workers) and those who are in constant contact with the public if a pandemic breaks out. The sheer panic of not knowing who is infected or not (21 day incubation period) will cause a lot of psychological wear and tear on an individual. Anyone with a fever coming in for medication will be suspected. Anybody who has stomach pains. And all this because the current administration in the United States didn't see fit to seal the North American borders (nobody in or out - shoot anyone that tries to breach the borders) the second that they knew that Ebola was active on the African continent.

I'd hope Canada would be smarter, but with Harper in government - I'd say Canada's government is just as brutally incompetent as the United States'.

Time To Think About Healthier Living

5.5 hrs of sleep and insomnia kicks in again. Not a good thing. This insomnia has been kicking my ass the past few weeks. Been doing what I can to rest through yet another cold and yet another throat infection. Two days through yet another 10 day round of Biaxin. I really need to give my immune system a kick. Been doing a bit of research on the internet on healthy vitamins and natural supplements to help boost my immune system so that I can fight this thing off next time without the bnefit of anti-biotics. Constant taking of antibiotics probably isn't the healthiest thing for me. I take it my diet probably isn't the best thing for me right now either considering the past few weeks, has been mostly fried food.

Have to ask my wife if we can pick up some bananas and other fruits. I want to start eating healthy so that I have a fighting chance of seeing sixty let alone my dad's seventy-five before he passed away from a heart-attack.

I need to start walking again. With the Impala sitting out in the driveway, it's all too easy to get in the habit of pulling the vehicle out to go places. We bought it for a) groceries, b) shuttling our daughter to daycare, and c) my business - which requires me to go to all sorts of places normally not accessible by transit.

So what I will do is research more what I have to do to get back into shape and try and do that, slowly and surely so that I can last for a few more years or hopefully decades.

OMG The Japanese Are Gonna Get Marines.

Yeah, that's right. The Japanese are going to get Marines. Their very own Japanese Self-Defense Marine Corps although I don't know if that's exactly what they'll call it - Nihon no Jieitai umi heitai. Who the fuck knows. All I know is that there's an article in the Defense News that says Japan To Create Amphibious Force Modeled After US Marine Corps. Well, y'know. If they're going to go all the way, since they've been in bed with the United States for damned near since the end of WWII and sucking each other's "privates". They might as well go all the way.

Why not just copy the entire rank structure of the US Marine Corps (restricting it to the enlisted structure in JMSDF) but using US Marine Corps style insignia. How's that for a waste of money for uniforms etc. But of course, the Marines have to have their own "esprit de corps" or in Japanese "danketsu kokoro" much like their United States counterpart. And frankly what are they going to use as their mascot? Instead of the tough USMC bulldog. May I make a humble suggestion? Use Hello Kitty.

And to start, here's a few insignia they might think about using, just like the copyrats in the Philippines. No need to pay me for the time and effort used to create this, Japan. The amusement I'm finding in the attempt to even come close to the almost 300 years of history that the USMC has, has me in stitches. Thanks Japan, that's payment enough.

The Japanese Self Defense Marine Corps Insignia hat device. Silver & Gold for officers; straight gold for enlisted.

The Japanese Self Defense Marine Corps Insignia hat device - subdued for camo utilities

The JSDMC Gunnery Sergeant or otherwise known in Japanese as Hōjutsu gunsō - the collar devices for utility uniforms (camo, Class B khakis) - the JSDMC has to have a distinct uniform much like the USMC. Might as well copy the United States Marine Corps then. Hey, the Filipinos did.

The crimson and gold for dress uniforms. Hell it wouldn't even really be a far stretch, The Japanese have copied the USAF, US Army and the US Navy for their uniforms substituting the sakura for the eagle and stars on their rank devices.

JSDMC Cover

JSDMC Officer's Tunic (complete with ribbons)

JSDMC Major's Officer Tabs

The more logical method is to just take the existing JGSDF insignia and make it Marine Corps so that they have some connection to the rest of the Self Defense Forces. There would be two OR-8s as in the USMC O7 O8 O9 - distinctly set for staff and regular officers

The three top senior enlisted ranks in the Japanese Self-Defense Marine Corps - OR-8 Line, OR-8 Staff, OR-9 Master Gunnery Sergeant of the Japanese Self-Defense Marine Corps.

Likewise, the collar insignia for fatigues and for Class C khakis

Enlisted Tunic - Japanese Self Defense Marine Corps.

Japanese Self-Defense Marine Corps 8 sided Utility Cover like the USMC except in Jieitai pattern.

Gotta say the idea has some merit (in having a Marine Corps in Japan), but the thought of a distinct fighting force outside of their usual JGSDF, JASDF and JMSDF kind of makes me collapse in laughter.