A Space Oddity

We watched 2001: A Space Odyssey the other night. It is a Stanley Kubrick film so I guess I should have been prepared but even after my brothers warnings (he loves this stuff) I still wasn't fully prepared for the loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong cinematic sequences with scores of classical music and a box that sparks evolution (i think) and a series of lights that leads to immortality (i think) and so little talking that it drove me to fast forward through parts of the 150 minutes. To be fair, there were some very compelling parts to the movie - especially the man vs machine (HAL) moments which I thought were going to be a much larger part of the movie. Also without this movie we would never have had Spaceballs. But alas, I like so many others, have been trained to want movies that are fast and simple and easy to relate to. I don't think that movie would fly in today's hollywood which is sad. The truth is we looked at what was playing in the theaters and nothing was interesting enough to warrant paying for so we popped in the only movie we had. I am sure it was better than Jim Carrey's 23 or whatever else was playing.

Is this immortality?

C'mon Everybody, Do the Colour Shuffle!

Wow that was fun!

Henderika (Oma) Helder 03/24/1918 - 02/16/2007

In memory of my Oma who passed away last Friday morning I have put together some of the digital pictures I have of her.
If anybody has any other pictures, especially really old ones, I would love to see them.

Tampa in 24hrs

So Tampa was pretty cool. Actually it was pretty warm. We decided on Friday that we should leave on Saturday and come back on Sunday. A sweet 24 hr tour of Tampa Bay and the beaches. I'd say it was worth it. Traveling usually is worth it.
We rented a Mustang convertible - i hate salespeople because they can talk me into anything. Anybody who knows me would say "why didn't you rent a prius?". Well its because the only things you can rent there it seemed were Hummers and Mustangs. And we figured, while in America, may as well drive like an Amercan.
The other funny thing about Tampa is all the retired Canadians. We met some at breakfast in our hotel. Thinking back, it was totally obvious that they were Canadian. You just had to compare them too the people sitting opposite them. The loud, obnoxious, 'Get a load of this Martha' stereotype is so true.

Overall it was just amazing to go from -25 to +25 in a few hours. We kept bracing for a biting cold every time we went outside only to be hit with a blast of warm Florida air. But truth be told, I would rather live in Canada and vacation in Northern Ontario (in the summer). That point hit home as we were flying home and I saw an ad in a mag for the Muskokas. I had this picture of a windswept pine tree on a rock island on a perfectly still lake in the middle of the Canadian shield. That will beat Florida every time.Deicing in Toronto - It took 1.5 hours

A classic shot over Virginia

Tampa Airport

Irene in her element

Welcome to America

The 'Stang

Some refreshing architecture. Actually the real reason i posted this pic was because of the kid getting yelled at by the guy on the front steps.

Palm treeage.

Tampa Fountains Rule.

More palm treeage - i think it's the only thing that grows there.Beside a model of a Spanish church.

Funky, but useless concrete.

Welcome Home

I'm An Uncle!!!

Hadassah Rein Broersma was born at 12:09 am on January 6.
She is a very healthy and alert little girl and from the moment I saw her I realized that a newborn baby is impossible not to love. There really is nothing like holding 8 pounds of cute and cuddly life.
What else can I say.....
I'm in love!

stay tuned for some amazingly cute photos

C'mon baby!

Currently Listening To:
My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion
From: At War with the Mystics
By: The Flaming Lips




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The craziness has begun!!!!
The baby is on its way. I will spare you the more grousome pregnancy details but apparently some water has been broken!?! I tried to spare myself them but I still know more than I should.
Anyway, we are on our way down to Arthur. Let the uncleing begin!

I will provide updates and pictures and name and sex as soon as I can.

Communist Coffee

Currently Listening to:
Grandaddy
Sumday
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Pretty much everyone I know is a coffee junkie. I can sort of understand but the way I see it is; I intake far too many unhealthy substances as it is - why add to it with an addictive one?
The latest coffee fad seems to be 'fair trade coffee' which has spawned into 'fair trade tea' and 'fair trade hot chocolate'. So whats next? Fair Trade Slurpies? Seriously.
Now, I am not knocking the whole idea of 'fair trade' but the problem is that there is too little standardization and controls on what constitutes 'Fair Trade'. Any coffee bean company can call their beans 'fair trade' if they want too. If that means some yuppee in suburbia will drive their prius to a coffee shop to pay triple the normal price than they will call the beans whatever that yuppee wants. People want to feel good about buying that coffee everyday and this seems to have done the trick.

Anyway the point I am trying to make is that 'Fair Trade Coffee' is like Communism. Both are great ideas and have the betterment of the average man at heart. But both don't work.

Its kind of like organic food.......lets not get started......