Monaco Grand Prix (Hopefully)

Our plans to go to Europe next year are starting to take shape. The villa in Vence (40 minutes out of Nice) is already reserved and we have started the whole passport dealio. A couple weeks ago we found out that the famed Formula 1 race of Monaco is going to be happening while we are 1 hour away. So the plan is to definitely hit that. This is the hardest road race of Formula 1 and is one of those tracks that pretty much every guy grew up racing in several computer games. It would be so amazing to see that live!!! I hope it works out!

Payphone Warriors: A Metropolitan Turf War

This is quite possibly one of the coolest games invented. I can just imagine some Young Peoples Commitee organizing it for a study weekend.
Click here to check out a review of a guy who played.

How did I miss this?

I missed one of the greatest days.

OK Hunting is Cool

I always thought hunting was pretty useless but this video has proved me wrong.

Sailing Is The Ultimate Sport

My brother-in-law took me out sailing again on the labour day weekend. This was my third time sailing with him (or anybody else) so I am starting to get used to the craziness surrounding sailing.

Before I knew Josh I had never really thought much of sailing. Despite living along Lake Ontario I just assumed that the sailboats out on the lake were merrily putting along having a grand ol’ time. My knowledge of sailing was limited to what the bible says and what I saw when I went for a walk along the lake. As with most things that you never deal with, there is so much more to it than you think. Now that I have done it and seen real racing sailboats I can say that I have a lot of respect for the sailors who race these small boats throughout the world. The guys who race have got to be slightly insane. They are travelling so fast on a vast, unpredictable course while relying solely on the wind. Some of the crashes rival Formula 1 and NASCAR. The boats can actually flip ass over tea kettle and the sailors get thrown way off the boats. It definitely has an element of insanity but its cool to watch.

A while ago, Tim wrote about luge and how it shouldn’t really be considered a sport. I couldn’t agree more but now that I have tried sailing I would vote sailing to be the ultimate sport. To be good you have to be athletic and smart. There is so much to know in the world of sailing. You have to know how to read the wind and water and know all the different types of sails and how they work. You have to be able to do multiple things at the same time and you have to do them fast or you will capsize.

It also takes a fair amount of energy to keep the boat going at a good speed. You have to ‘go out on the wire’ and pull on various ropes to keep the sails full. And you have to hold the rudder straight. I am just getting started and if Josh was explaining it this would turn into a full length text book.

The last thing I want to say is that there isn’t much that comes close to the thrill of flying across the water while hanging off the edge of the boat with nothing but a wire attached to the mast holding you. It is also amazing that it is only the wind that is moving you so it is pretty quiet. I have never been on a small motorboat but I bet it can’t even come close to that kind of thrill.

Birthday - Yay

To anyone who cares, my birthday was on the 3rd. It was a good time; in fact the whole weekend was full of good times. Irene and I went down to Brockville and Merrickville which are two quaint small Ontario towns. Brockville is on the St. Lawrence and is defined by the river. It seemed to be full of American tourists. One guy thought we don’t have cream cheese in Canada and I didn’t bother trying to correct his ignorance. We found a good place to eat though.

Merrickville on the other hand is one of those towns defined by artists and the tourists drawn to them. It is full of glass-blowers, painters, nice restaurants and old expensive hotels. I would think it attracts a lot of Montrealers. It kind of reminded me of Old Montreal. It is a town that caters to tourists with money so we didn’t buy anything. You can read more details about that trip on Irene’s blog.

Irene also got me a new electronic toy. It is a GPS locator which I had been talking about for the past few months. It will probably lead to some more travelling adventures. Now I just have to get the detailed maps to put on it. I think I am turning into a GPS junkie. Oh well, its better for you than crack right?

The weekend was rounded off with party at my in-laws and sailing on Labour Day. Definite good times.

Gnome vs. JimBob

As I have mentioned before, Irene's sister is expecting a baby. This will be my first nephew/neice so it is really exciting. Maybe it's even more amazing when you are closely related. So here is a picture of an ultrasound from a few weeks ago. See if you can figure out where the baby is. It took me a while but I saw it eventually. The picture is of the baby's head from a couple months ago (check the date on the picture).
Currently Mike and I are rooting for a boy. I immediately named 'him' JimBob and Mike, being the father, changed it to Gnome (he likes garden gnomes). He says he might still change it after the baby is born. For the kids sake I hope he does. Mike has till late December to think of something else....

Pilate @ the SuperEx

We recently went and saw one of my favourite bands, Pilot Speed (formerly Pilate) at the Ottawa SuperEx. There wasn't that big of a turnout but most of the people there where huge fans. It was like a real indie show. They played their collective hearts out and on a few songs ripped out mine. The falsetto on those sad songs gets me everytime. Man do those guys kick some serious butt. In a better venue they probably would have sounded even better. It wasn't the best concert I have ever been to but it was up there. I tried taking a picture or two but I can't control shutter speed on my camera so they all look somewhat like this....

Incidently we also came across a one-man band doing a great cover of The White Stripes Seven Nation Army(You would have loved it Joel). I should have taken a picture of that.

Josh & Dina, Greg & Shelagh

Recently I attended two weddings. The first was my good freinds Josh and Dina. It was your typical Can. Ref. wedding (i.e. like mine). It was great to see a lot of my high school friends again. Good times were had by all. To show you what I mean here is a picture of Josh and Dina throwing cake at each other. Clearly it was good times.

Joel also had a great speech involving throwing a binder the size of the Ontario Building Code.
And here is some guy doing an impromptu flyby with his motorized parachute. I don't think he had anything to do with the wedding but I could be wrong.
The second wedding wasn't so typical. I went through college with the groom, Greg. We bonded because we were both dutch-canadian (oh how I hate hyphenated nationalities) and we were both Christian. He went to a non-denominational church which believes you must be born again and disagrees with infant baptism. You can't argue with his faith life though. Greg is a great christian guy and I respect him for showing it. For me the highlight of the wedding service was when it turned into a praise and worship christian rock concert. Usually that kind of music turns me off but it was pretty good in this situation. Sure the 'message' could have used some more substance but it was good to hear something different. If nothing else it helped reaffirm my faith.

Here is a picture of Jason (another dutch-canadian-christian-technologist), Greg and me.