Happy Holidays!

Hey everyone!
I just wanted to wish all of you a Happy Holiday, however you celebrate it. I'm heading out of town to visit some family and I should be back before the end of the year.

The Wandering Oak

One Stray Cat

Hey folks,

I can't believe it's been more than a month since my last update! I know in a previous post I had said I'd write more often, but the truth is I simply haven't been able to think of anything to blog about lately so all of my creative energy has been spent in my home recording studio playing my guitar instead. I'm hoping to put together a little holiday video for your enjoyment and it's been both fun and frustrating at the same time.

This morning however, I thought I'd say a few words about what I've been seeing in the news lately. In the words of Bono: "I can't believe the news today. I can't close my eyes and make it go away..."

No it's not the troubled economy, the war on terror, climate change, H1N1, or any of the other heartbreaking stories of violence and death that are troubling me today, it's the over sensationalized media circus surrounding one stray cat that has me shaking my head.

Yes I'm talking about none other than Mr. Nike himself, Tiger Woods.

Cartoon courtesy getelastic.com and found via google image search.

I'm not here to attack him or anything and personally I could care less about the whole issue. Just another famous person who's judgement went out the window (along with his golf clubs). What bothers me is how crazy the media has been going over this story. You can't go anywhere without seeing or hearing about this! I suppose it's not as depressing as the rest of the news is these days, and for some people it's probably pretty entertaining, but it strikes me funny how the media likes to prioritize their news stories.

Anchor person: "...and a dozen people were killed today when blah blah blah who cares. Let's move on to the big story, Tiger Woods. We have new information about the type of tree he hit..."

(Personally I feel bad for the tree.)

I know I'm not the only person who feels this way about the media circus surrounding this story, and in fact one of my favorite political satirists Jon Stewart summed it all up perfectly in this brilliant clip set to an appropriate song. (For my American readers, if the link doesn't work try this one. Look for the Dec. 1, 2009 episode.)

I'm glad I'm not a celebrity. I wouldn't want the paparazzi to catch me taking out the garbage before I had my shower and assuming my unwashed hair and facial stubble was the result of some domestic dispute with my wife. We have a great marriage, but it's no joke that if I was to stray like Mr. Woods did I'd be neutered, and I really don't feel like being in the center ring of the next media circus.

I know this will all blow over soon and the media will be jumping all over the next famous person to publicly screw up. I just wanted to share that link. Like I said earlier, perhaps the reason the media does this is to distract people from all the horrors in life and nobody's really getting hurt, well except Tiger. People just love to gossip about celebrities.

 

Maybe someday the rest of the news will be good news for a change and we won't need such distractions.

 

The Wandering Oak

Happy Halloween!

Goood Eeeeeevennning!

Have a happy (and safe) Halloween!

The Wandering Oak.

Back on The Blogwagon (Making up words is fun!)

Hello friends!
Has it really been 3 months since my last blog? (Checks date on last post...) Yep. Three months and 4 days to be exact. When I started this blog back in January I intended to post new blogs a lot more often than this, but life has a funny way of getting in the way of things. Nothing tragic happened, I've just been a busy boy this summer. Well the good news is that now that my workload has lessened I have more free time on my hands, and that means I'm getting back on the blogwagon.

So... where do I begin....? Well, while I figure that out I'm going to share some images from my summer and let them tell their own stories. Enjoy!

Stay tuned.

The Wandering Oak

The Promised Update

*Portions of this post appeared as a note on my personal facebook page and will look familiar to any of my friends and family who may read it here. That note did not contain the photographs presented here.

Hey everyone,
It’s been a while since my last blog and I feel like we should catch up. How are you? That’s great, or that sucks, whichever may apply. Myself? I’ve been busy. I’ve been back at work for a few months now, and as the weather warms up our productivity also picks up.
In case you’re wondering what I’ve been doing lately the answer is a little bit of everything. The company I work for has been contracted to replace all of the caulking in every window, balcony/patio door, and flashing on two 20 year old condo buildings in Victoria’s James Bay area overlooking the harbor. The first building is 9 stories tall and the second is 11 stories tall.

These are the buildings we're currently working on.

We also have to patch and repair any defects in the concrete, and then paint said concrete. Yes, it’s a big job. Our crew and equipment have become part of the scenery for visiting cruise ship passengers and will likely be there all summer long.

We can actually see the cruise ships from the upper floors of the buildings. To me, that's one of the best parts of working on this project. That's the stern of the giant Mariner Of The Seas seen just to the right of center.

One of the new experiences I’ve had on this jobsite is working on a swing stage. If you don’t know what that is, the easiest way to explain it is that it’s just like those platforms window washers use. They ride up and down the sides of buildings on a pair of cables suspended from the roof.

Looking Up...Waaayy Up!

Looking down. That's another smaller one-man stage going up the wall at top left.

Needless to say, swing stage work is not for everybody. I’m fine with heights as long as I feel that what I’m standing on is secure, but I admit there is a bit of a learning curve and I did have some shaky legs for a while there. There’s a reason it’s called a swing stage – it’s always moving! Now I’ve got my “sea-legs”, but from time to time a certain co-worker of mine likes to just do things without warning me and it still catches me off guard. There’s nothing like that split second feeling like you’re going to do a face-plant into a bay window 70-90 feet off the ground!
You folks don’t have to worry too much about me though. I do wear a proper fall safety harness and am clipped on to a safety line at all times, even when I’m climbing out of the stage and onto a balcony. Yep, you read that right. I ride up the building on the stage then climb out and over the rails and hop into people’s balconies to do work.
Learning and adapting to all of these new skills has earned me a recent pay raise and some great comments from my supervisors and that makes me feel pretty darn good.

Outside of work there really isn't much to tell you about. My lovely wife and I spend our free time jogging, cycling, visiting bookstores, watching cruise ships, or just staying in and watching movies.

A few weekends ago, we also visited the Royal BC Museum to check out the “Treasures: The World’s Cultures from the British Museum” exhibit and it was really fascinating. The carpenters and painters really did a good job in making our museum look like the British Museum. The Egyptian and Roman artifacts were particular favorites of ours. Much of what we saw we were already familiar with from books and TV shows, but to see the real things were something else. They actually had a casting of the Rosetta Stone and a real 3000 year old mummy!

Well that’s it my friends, and family, and everyone else. I’m still alive and well and I’ve just been spending my days hanging off the sides of buildings. That’s about it. Thankfully I’m a gifted enough writer to make it all sound interesting.

Take care!

The Wandering Oak

Update...coming soon...

Hey all,

I know it's been forever since I've updated here and I just wanted to let you know an update is coming soon. I'm experiencing some technical issues today, so I'm unable to post what I want to post the way I want to post it. Of all things my biggest issue is simply copying and pasting some text into this blog editor from another source (word on my computer). I know I've done it before without any issues, so once I figure out (read: remember) how I did it I'll be back in business.

Until then, take care of yourselves and each other!

The Wandering Oak

If I Was A Cartoon Character

Hi everyone!
For today's post I've decided to re-post something fun that I originally wrote more than 4 years ago on my previous (and now defunct) blog site. I believe the world needs laughter, so I thought I would post this here on my new blog so that new readers can enjoy it. It was inspired by a conversation I had at the time with a good friend of mine. This is how my post originally appeared in March, 2005.

How cool would it be to be a cartoon character for a day? Think about everything that you can do. The laws of physics simply would not apply. The only way you could be killed would be if someone were to erase you (or Dip you, for those Roger Rabbit fans out there.)
Here are some examples of the way your life would be as a cartoon:

1. Wherever you go and whatever you do, there will always be music playing in the background. That music will change according to your actions or emotions. (i.e. travelling, fear, joy etc...)
2. Just before you go to run somewhere, you will hover for a moment in the air as your feet pick up speed. Then, when your feet do touch the ground, you will take off leaving a puff of smoke accompanied by the sound of a gunshot or speeding race car.
3. If you run into a wall, your body outline will be left behind if you make it through, or you will leave a perfect impression of yourself on the other side if you don't.
4. If you run off a cliff, you will keep going and will not fall unless you stop, look down, and realize you are standing mid air. Remember to scream on the way down. AAAAaaaaaahhh!
5. When you do hit the ground, you will again leave a perfect body outline as you plunge about six feet into into the dirt or floor. Bonus points if you are in a multi level building and fall through each floor.
6. If you get flattened, you can easily recover by blowing into your thumb and re-inflating yourself back to normal size. You can also re inflate with a pump, but be careful not to over inflate or you will pop and fly around the room when someone pricks you with a pin.
7. You will never have to worry about doing laundry as you will only wear one outfit. Chances are you will have a closet with hundreds more identical shirts, pants, or dresses in case something happens to damage or stain your clothes. If you don't wear clothes, change that to fur or feathers. (think Foghorn Leghorn)
8. If you take a blow to the head from items such as a frying pan or anvil, birds or stars will circle above your head. The great thing is there will be no concussion.
9. Your eyes will always be visible, even in total darkness. That way others will always know where you are.
10. Your skeleton will be seen when hundreds of volts of electricity pass through you.
11. When something surprises you, your eyes will pop out of their sockets and grow to 10 times normal size.
12. When something frightens you, your skeleton will leap out of your body and run away leaving your skin in a heap on the floor.
13. When there is a monster behind you, your companion will not be able to warn you with anything more than incoherent babbling. You can easily check by feeling the creature's face without looking back. It won't do anything until you actually look it in the eye.
14. Like Homer Simpson or Fred Flintstone, if you are a big fat guy your wife will always be thin and hot regardless of how many children she's had.
15. If you're a guy and you see a hot woman, your face will morph into that of a wolf, your tongue will hang out, you'll howl and or whistle loudly and your right foot will rapidly stomp on the floor.
16. If you are shot, you can easily locate the bullet holes by taking a drink.
17. Acme will endorse every hair-brained, half-witted scheme you attempt.
18. You will only have minor burns when the stick of T.N.T you're holding goes off.
19. If you are being chased, you can always paint a hole or opening in a wall to hide in.
20. Whatever you need you will always be able to reach behind you and grab, such as flowers, an over sized mallet, a gun, or even a flame thrower.

Since writing this original list, I've thought of a few more things that would be different in your life if you were a cartoon character. And they are:

1. Your voice might be provided by a famous celebrity.
2. You will never show any signs of aging. In fact, the opposite usually happens. The quality of your animation will improve with each passing year.
3. If you go to jail, chances are you'll be out the following week as if nothing ever happened.
4. If you should die a cartoon death, it's not uncommon to see your spirit float out of your body. Sometimes death himself may be standing there to offer some smart assed comment about the way you died.
5. Don't worry, you'll be back next week - once again as if nothing ever happened.
6. At any given moment you or someone in your life will break into song and it will likely turn into a show stopping number.
7. If they ever make a live action movie about you the cartoon character - it will suck. Period. (Think Garfield, Scooby Do, etc...)
8. When walking anywhere you'll pass the exact same buildings, trees, people or cars over and over again. This is all normal. (I can't believe I didn't think of this one the first time I wrote this!)
9. If your animated life gets syndicated, there's a good chance people everywhere will quote or re-enact scenes from it somewhere during their day-to-day conversations and those who get the references will laugh and join in on the fun. Feel good about that!

This last image is what I'd look like as a popularly styled cartoon character.

Th-th Th-th That's all folks!

The Wandering Oak