Summer fun food and drink - Let`s have babies - that would be fun · Friday July 25, 2008 by colin newell
Romanian immigrant Livia Ionce has broken a British Columbia record — she’s the province’s most fecund woman in 20 years.
Livia and hubby Alexandru became new parents of their 18th baby, Abigail, on Tuesday. The Abbotsford couple’s 17 other children range in age from 20 months to 23 years old. Wow.
Photo above – In Romania, in the sixties, a woman’s ability to produce many strong offspring was measured in her ability to levitate mice deer – This phenomenon, known as the Flippening was demonstrated at an early age with Livia with her ability to levitate transport trucks… 3 at a time…
Abigail adds to a current line-up of 9 girls and 8 boys… uhm – making 10 girls and 8 boys. A youthful 44 year old Livia muses, “The girls in the house said they are happy that they continue to outnumber the boys, but it may not be the end of the story.” And concluding – “Maybe it’s the last, but I’m not sure.”
In the Ionce family, Mother’s Day is obviously more like Christmas than the traditional hallmark moment normally reserved for less prolific women. And when you do the math, it equates to a household birthday party, on average, every 2 and 1/2 weeks. More hallmark moments, more presents. You might say the giving never ends in this family.
Andrea and I are big fans of Jon and Kate makes Eight on TLC (The future of video entertainment – TV cameras in every house…) but these numbers are staggering.
My mother actually had a girlfriend (growing up in Montreal) who was one of 12 kids – Her mother was 40 when she had her last child – and there might have been more but her husband was tragically run over by a truck driven by a mysterious and never-identified woman – Hmmm. Makes you think doesn’t it?
Oh well – for all the thousands of couples (like us) that eschew a contribution to the gene pool, there are hundreds of families like the Ionce`s that fill in the gaps. Bless their hearts – all 20 of them.
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Summer fun food and drink - Doing stuff on top of stuff and stuff · Tuesday July 22, 2008 by colin newell
Ever get the feeling that you’ve got a tad too much on the go? My mother reminds me of this, well, almost daily – Like, since when was a man too busy or too multi-tasked by working on his guitar, his studio, his photography, his writing, his work, his radio stuff (deep breath…) to take on one more thing?
There are 24 hours in a day after all. And it is not as if I do all these things at once. Because I don’t. One thing at a time. With lots of coffee breaks in between.
I am, quite seriously, not one of those people that sails down the Trans-Canada highway with one ear on the Sirius satellite radio, one ear on his iPhone (when he is not text-messaging head office) – all the while barking orders to his 3 kids in the back seat of his Humvee while contemplating that recreational property and the hostile takeover of Langford, British Columbia – Now that would be something wouldn’t it!?
Digression complete. One of the advantages that I have is that I am not a member of the Millennial Generation, The Gen-Y’s, The Gen-Xer’s… and… I am stopping there. Let’s just say that I was born prior to 1970 – actually watched the first moon landing…
Double digression.
I work with the Millennial Kids and lots of them (my Employer-A University)… And folks, it is interesting. A more suitable name for my clients would be the Me-menial generation because that is what they are all about: Me. I mean. Them. Themselves. And they really do not get the value of actual labor… of any kind. Paid or unpaid. And it is amazing that at a University of all places that so many of them do so well – when there is so much work involved.
But here are some observations: When Millennial Kids show up for work, they seem to be more ready to play; facebook time, hotmail time, blog time, twitter time…
Yea. Twitter. I kid you not. Twitter. Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as tweets) which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length…
140 characters. Limiting them to meaningful conversations like…
“Bro, what’s up?”
“Yea, I am just at the University with…”
“my GF and I need to get…”
Scintillating huh?
In my World, I operate on a team of tech dudes – a team whose size has not changed in over a decade – and our work load has increased by a factor of about 5. There was a time where I could start and finish a job. Now I get interruptions on the 3 projects that I am trying to finish and often that interruption will get jumped on by some higher priority in the queue… or an emergency will crop up.
A Millennial Kid would take one look at what I do every hour of my work day and plug in their iPod buds, crouch behind their Asus Mini-PC, turn the lights down… and tweet.
And that my friends… was a couple more than 140 characters… Good night.
Summer fun food and drink - Heading home to Papua New Guinea · Monday July 21, 2008 by colin newell
A Papua New Guinea politician is threatening retaliation against Canadian companies after eight young dancers were denied entry to Canada, apparently because border officials didn’t believe they were on a cultural exchange.
The dancers arrived in Vancouver on July 4, expecting to spend four weeks in the British Columbia Interior, sharing traditional storytelling, dance and music at the invitation of the Little Shushwap Indian band.
Instead, they got four hours of interrogation by the Canada Border Services Agency… and then sent home. Bloody brilliant.
(Today)I had coffee with Papua New Guinea expert, Brendan Holden (retired University professor) at one of my cafe haunts – The Finnerty Express, underneath the UVic bookstore.
I know a little bit about PNG Culture (over 20 years experience observing PNG media) and Brendan Holden knows a lot about PNG culture, having lived and worked in Fiji for almost 3 years, having worked in Vanuatu and having visited a wide variety of Micronesian and Melanesian Islands.
Let’s just put it this way: The Canada Border Services Agency have just fuddled up big time… again. PNG Culture is entirely different than Canada’s – and when dealing with unique cultures like PNG, we need agencies and officers with a modicum of training and some sensitivity to cultural differences.
The Canadian Border Agency has no diplomatic training. They are about as culturally sensitive as a hungry wolf in a sheep paddock full of expectant ewes.
So, you wonder: What on Earth can PNG do to Canada, Canadians or Canadian businesses doing business in PNG?
Actually, I am not so concerned about Canadian businesses in PNG.
I am concerned about Canadian travelers and missionaries on the job in PNG.
Word travels fast in that part of the World – believe it or not.
And revenge or retribution is usually swift and painful.
Hopefully, next time, the CBSA will grab a brain and use a little reason, show a little compassion and exercise a little restraint.
On the up-side, the dancers got away before the RCMP airport detachment could put a taser cap in their asses…
Tok wantaim Yumi wantok (Say it with me friend…) – We live in interesting times!
Summer food fun and drink - The Classic Ice cream battle · Saturday July 19, 2008 by colin newell
Once a year there is a corporate magazine that hits the stands called (I think…) The Best of Victoria or Victoria`s Best Stuff or Shit we think you should want
or something like that…
and what burns me about it – is that (in my humble opinion…) It is a crock of information cooked up by Men and Women in expensive suits and no brains.
Example: (and this, my friends, triggered my now legendary “Victoria`s Best Cafe”) — as chosen by the readers of the CoffeeCrew.Com website…
Anyway… the example:
Where is Victoria’s Best Coffee?
Number one choice… Starbucks.
Number two choice… Serious Coffee. (Yikes, and to think that Geir and I actually wrote the catch phrase – Want great coffee, Get Serious!
and Number three choice? Never mind. By now you should be scratching your head.
Okay. Next example:
Where is Victoria’s Best Ice Cream?
Answer. Number One… Beacon Drive In
Uhm. Hello? Does the Beacon actually serve anything with Dairy in it? I have it on a pretty good source that they do not serve anything with Dairy in it at the Beacon Drive In. It is a vegetable oil product or something (To the best of my knowledge…) Correct me if I am wrong thank you very much.
If you are interested, I think their number two choice for Victoria`s best Ice-cream is Baskin-Robbins or Ben and Jerry. From a Mall no less…
Say it with me friends… Jane! Stop this crazy thing!.
Seriously – The best Ice Cream in Victoria is a bit of a toss up. It could be Sweet Memories on Government street. It could be perennial favorite Mister Tubbs on Burnside Avenue. It could be the new Rogers Ice Cream Parlor (open hardly 2 weeks) on Government Street. Ice Cream is kind of personal, I guess – and I beg our readers (not just regulars Jeanie and Cheryl) to express their Moo-Pinions in the comment field.
Listen up you corporate boot lickers: Ice Cream is made with milk. Not Hydrogenated f*cking Vegetable oil! I have to take Lactaid prior to eating any Ice Cream and I am proud of it.
In fact, if there is a God, she is probably made of pure Ice-Cream… with milk and chocolate syrup running through her veins – Oh great lady of the Dairy I worship you. And If she uses cold cream (and I doubt it), it is probably real cream – without a drop of trans-fat.
Did you know that there are 2 types of Ice Cream eaters out there; lickers and chewers? I am a chewer. I bite and chew ice cream. Always have. Go figure.
Oh yea. According to this mysterious Cities Best according to the Establishmentarian`s Magazine The Best burger in Town?
McDonald`s apparently. :-/ Right. Listen up Corporate toadies: Victoria`s Best anything is all home grown, all Mom & Pop, all Local
Not McDonald`s. Not Starbucks. Not Ben & Frickin Jerries.
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