It's been more than a month!!!!

Holy hell,
I am sure no one is going to be looking at this anymore. Oh well, can't blame you seeing as I last informed everyone of my resignation. Since then, I finished up work at Rawlco, moved back to Edmonton, had a week's holiday, and worked two weeks on a construction site.
And Friday is going to be my last day as a labourer. So there! You are up-to-date.
I think I took this job too quickly thinking something was going to land in my lap so I've decided to hang up the work boots and try a little harder for something really enjoyable to come along.
I leave my place at 6 AM and drive downtown. I start work at 7 and work until 4:30 pm - so it's a long day. Almost 6 PM by the time I am home. So I am not going to keep this up any longer. I have honestly enjoyed being outside thought, and I don't mind the grunt work - it's just not for me right now.
Sarah, if you read this, thanks for your diligence. I am not sure who else will look.
More from me soon, now that I will be "in-between job" again soon. hehe
That's about all for the minute, time to go to sleep.

Resignation

On a more serious note, now that the moustache contest is over, I will return to trying to write about some more serious issues here.
I don't know what however.
Things are going to change a whole lot in my world in the next few weeks. I handed in my letter of resignation from NewsTalk on Friday.
It was the first time I had to do that too, but it couldn't have gone any better. I ended up yapping with the boss about hockey cards for half an hour.
But he says good luck, and if he can help out in any way he'd be happy to. So I couldn't ask for much more from them.
I decided it was just not getting any better here, and I really want to be back in Sunny Alberta. I gave it a good shot here, and I got some of that ever-important experience in.
So I should be fine with this, and I Will shake things up a bit and send everything into chaos.
I can't wait, and I am ready to have a beer with my old friends.
Very exciting.

Finals in Moustache-O-Rama 2007

Well, alas, the moustache is gone.
I was starting to enjoy it actually, with nice thick handlebars. But when it came time to go down for the final judging on Superbowl Sunday, I decided it was a moustache contest and I should leave nothing but the hair on the upper lip.
Oh my, what a terrible look. But it was fun for an afternoon, and I was told by the judges my decision to rid myself of the hadles cost me the win.
So I didn't have the best or the worst. There were awards for that too.
But we had some fun doing it, and I hope they can pick it up again next year.
Here's what I looked like when I went to the final. I'll link to the pics on the rick site when it's up.

Super Sunday

We are only a few days away from the final judging, and if I were betting, I think I'd take the $40 prize and the trophy home for the moustache contest. If you care to see the contestants you can go to the photo gallery on the follwing site - www.rock102rocks.com and check 'em out.
And to be totally honest, it can't come soon enough. The moustache prickles my nose and I can catch it out of the corner of my eye when I am eating and it just is creepy.
But the competition isn't exactly looking stellar either.
There will be pics of us with the Bud Girl judges at the Super Bowl party, so I'll be sure to put them up here on Sunday. Until then, all there is left to do is keep growing.

On another note, the Oilers seem to be heating up. We are about an hour away from a big battle against Vancouver. A win would go a long way right now I'd say.
So if all goes well, those alien baby twins on the 'Nucks will both come down with the flu and the Oilers can walk all over the Canucks. I can't think of a team I like less that Vancouver either for some reason.
You'd think it would be the Battle of Alberta, but there's just something about Van I don't like.
But I know you have better things to do than read this so off I go.

Pickton

What an interesting story we've got in Vancouver. Robert Willie Pickton is on trial for killing 6 women. Right now, that is. There's going to be another trial for him and another 20 women he's accused of killing.
Now the things he apparently did to these women is very bad. Or sad, or horrible. Whatever term you'd like to use.
My question is how much is too much? How much does the public need to know? Do we need to hear that he bled them on meat hooks at his farm? Or is it enough to know that he was a pig farmer and took the women there and did horrific things to them? Use your imagination.
I am not sure what I think about this. Does the public need to know about this one scary guy who could go down as the worst serial killer in Canadian history?
I hear those who say we deserve to know just how bad this guy really was, and others who say it's just glorifies, in some way the things he did?
I know there are over three hundred accredited reporters there, many of whom will stay for the enitre year. Maybe looking for book deals when it's all done.
Another says he will end up being the shining example like Marc Lepin who somehow represented all the men in the world who supressed women in some way. Marc Lepin at Polytechnic in Montreal did that as one crazy dude with a gun, so how does he become the face for feminist groups to use in their fight?
It is just something I am thinking about right now and I thought I should blog, so sorry to anyone who is just reading this and didn't really want to get into some philosophical debate here.
I'll say goodbye for now.

Wow, this is quite something!!!!

Holy cow! This moustache contest is getting out of hand. Check that out..... oh my, it's ten minutes old, and I thought I better put it up right away before I chicken out.
The beauty of technology. I can shave with 7 blades, with no irritation, while baking lasagne and post a blog of my new 'stache. Life is good.
I figured I was involved in a moustache growing contest, but wasn't really living the contest. No more. I am officially in. And one of the forerunners too. Except for the strange gap right at the lip. Oh well.
Today we found were informed of a twist in the plans. The last weekend is the contest is actually Superbowl weekend, so we are going to hold the judging at the Rock Superbowl Party and let the Bud Girls judge the contest.
Not bad.

Two weeks into the contest

Hey all,
Here's the update at the two week point. I am getting a lot of good growth around the chin area, but it is driving me NUTS! I haven't worn a beard in a few years, and have this silly chin-strap going now. Kind of feel like I am 18 again, but hairier. So I only have two weeks left to wear this beard, and I look at it as a clean sheet. I will be able to cut it down into a moustache with big handle bars and if it looks silly I can take it to the big push broom look. If that fails I could always try for the Alolph look. He really did ruin a pretty good look.
Hmm, I didn't think it would bug me though. I just itch, and play with it, and see it while I am eating. It's just weird.
Well, I am tempted to take it off and actually wear a moustache. I think I will. When else would I be able to wear a moustache other than being in a contest like this? So I really should just jump right in. Who cares if I look goofy for two weeks? After all, I could take home $40 in winnings. That ain't pocket change.

Wow, quoted in the National Post?!!!

Yup, it's true.
I was working the other day, and a lady phoned and told me she was a reporter with the Post. She wanted to know what the general mood was surrounding the Yorkton murder trial. How am I supposed to know? We did do a little bit of it on the show that morning and she heard about that so she tried me.... all I knew was what we heard on the show. I certainly don't know what the mood is in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
But here is the article, and I must admit I sound pretty wise for my young age..... it's about a third of the way down.

Father killed to save daughter, jury told
Saskatchewan welder to be judged a hero or a vigilante in drug dealer's slaying

Anne Marie Owens
National Post, with files from CanWest News Service
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

When he shows up at court in the small Saskatchewan town where he lives with his wife and three children, Kim Walker looks like an average small-town labourer, a bearded 50-year-old welder unaccustomed to appearing at a courthouse, a family man whose answers are soft-spoken under questioning.
To the jury hearing evidence in his first-degree murder case, however, Mr. Walker is either a hero father who saved his daughter from the ravaging death of a drug addict or a small-town vigilante who took the law into his own hands.
The man charged with killing the 24-year-old drug dealer he believed was leading his teenage daughter astray is the focus of a debate that has consumed this town of about 17,000 over how far a parent can go in rescuing their child from harm, and whether parental concern can ever justify criminal action.
With the jury expected to begin its deliberations today, the discussion over what some portray as a case of parental vigilantism is gaining resonance far beyond Yorkton, a community in east central Saskatchewan on the Trans-Canada Yellowhead highway.
"Your kid is hooked up with someone you don't want -- how far do you go in trying to protect?" says Tom Dukovac, producer of John Gormley's popular Saskatchewan call-in show that tackled the topic yesterday, who expects that callers will have an outpouring of opinion once the verdict is delivered.
"There's this view that here's
this average guy at the centre of a parent's-worst-nightmare situation, you know?"
The reaction that appears on the blog of Tim Dormain, an Albertan who writes about the news "from a conservative Christian perspective," is typical: He quotes at length from reports about the Yorkton murder case, highlighting those that focus on a family taking desperate measures to get their daughter away from trouble, and offers this conclusion: "There was a time in Canada when the system would have protected a 16-year-old girl from a 24-year-old male, let alone a morphine-addicted drug dealer."
In their closing arguments to the jury yesterday, the lawyers on both sides delivered polarized perspectives on the moral question that has so captivated the community, and possibly, the jurors.
Defence lawyer Morris Bodnar described Mr. Walker's actions as those of a parent intent on saving his daughter from a death from drug addiction and, in doing so, his motivations fulfilled the parental obligations demanded of society.
"If she had died, what would you have said? 'Where were the parents?' " said Mr. Bodnar, a high-profile defence lawyer who defended former Reform politician Jack Ramsay and who was himself a member of Parliament.
He told the jurors they would be sending the wrong message if they convicted his client of murder, and told them that the victim in the shooting, James Hayward, was "killing people" by selling drugs.
"He was that close to killing that girl in the front r o w," he said, pointing to Jadah Walker, now 20, who was sitting with family members.
Mr. Hayward, a one-time bodybuilder who at the time of his death was living in what police describe as "a known drug house" in the town, may not have been the kind of person a father wants hanging around his daughter, but he too, "was somebody's son," said Daryl Bode, the Crown prosecutor.
He said the law does not allow for any consideration of "a second- class murder victim ? The moment we devalue life, that's the moment we betray ourselves."
Karl Kopan, the editor of the Yorkton News Review, the town's newspaper, said it has been difficult for people not to take sides in a community so small.
The victim's mother has sat in the courtroom, wiping away tears and clutching a stuffed animal, bolstered by supporters; the Walker family says it has been overwhelmed by the support of townsfolk who have dropped by meals and cards.
"It has touched a lot of people, because, by all accounts, this was a father doing his best to work and to raise his kids in this town," Mr. Kopan said. "I think everybody can identify with some portion of this trial, especially if you have kids, and you know that you can only control your kids so much. And then when you think about what can happen.?"
According to the evidence in the case, Kim Walker and his wife first suspected their teenage daughter was running with a bad crowd and using drugs and alcohol in 2002, when her attitude toward her family and to school suddenly changed.
Jadah was 16, and there were times, too many to count, where they had no idea where she was, or whether she was safe or not.
At one point, the court was told, the police showed up at the family's house after Jadah had "a terrible fight" with her mother.
The officers advised the distraught parents to take a tough love approach to their errant teen.
She ended up moving out of the family home and eventually lived with Mr. Hayward, who had been convicted of drug-related offences and served seven months in jail for trafficking.
Their concern escalated with the revelation, contained in an anonymous letter delivered in March, 2003, that Jadah was addicted to morphine, and was "slowly killing herself " by injecting the drug with her then-boyfriend.
The Walkers turned to the RCMP for help, and then to a provincial court, where they ended up getting a warrant under
the Mental Health Act to have Jadah committed for a short term assessment.
She was released from the psychiatric ward and returned to her parents' house, but a few hours later, was back again with Mr. Hayward at his house.
Mr. Walker has testified that his recollection is spotty about the events on that night in March when Mr. Hayward was shot repeatedly. He said he does not remember taking a pistol from his house, entering the drug house where his daughter was staying, or firing his gun.
A witness in the house at the time testified during the trial that Mr. Walker began shooting within just a few seconds of confronting the younger man about taking his daughter away.
"I'm pretty sure he emptied the whole gun at once. It was continuous," the witness said.
Evidence suggests that the 9- mm Luger M80 pistol was fired 10 times and that Mr. Hayward bled to death from five gunshot wounds.
Jadah Walker, who is now 20, graduated from high school and became a manager of a store in the town.
She has been attending her father's murder trial with her family and was in court when Mr. Walker testified that his relationship with his daughter now is "wonderful."

So there you have it. My day in the national newspaper.

The 'stache is coming

Oh boy, there are a few pretty sparse moustaches lurking around the halls of the radio station. But I'd say I am one of the forerunners right now. There's three weeks to go, and I can't believe I have to wear this thing around for the next month. As it is right now, I've got the full beard going so as not to offend too many people. You can check out the pre-contest pics at www.rock102rocks.com and go to the photo gallery.
But I don't really want to wear the beard, so I may be forced into a goatee or even pull the handlebars on for the duration.
Oh decisions, decisions.
Just like the one facing me now --- when to do the dishes. See the life of a bachelor is full of tough choices. Should I let them pile up until the 4 plates and bowls are dirty. And the two pots....? Or should I keep on top of things and get it done? It always feels so good to sit down and kick up my feet after a tough day of yacking on the phone, knowing that everything is clean, and in it's right place.
In fact, that's what I'll do.
Later.

Moustache Contest

Well, yesterday was the first day of the first annual moustache contest at the radio station. Somehow appropriate that we are all radio guys - that way nobody has to see them. (Except for us)
There seems to be some stiff competition, but the eastern european persuasion may serve me well. I don't have much trouble growing facial hair.
So here is the pre-contest picture.
In honour of Tom Selick,and Rollie Fingers, we are going to follow this throughout the month and on February 8th, 2007 we will be judged by a flock of lovely ladies who will determine who wins the measley prize. (We each put $5 into the pot) We are radio guys rememeber?
No real rules, although there's no Rogaine allowed and we have to have a moustache for judgement. Any look goes until judgement day.


Oh yeah, did I tell you I was Employ-O-Rama of the Week?

Employee of the Week

So I took a week and a half away from work over the holidays, and savoured every second of it. Came back to work for three days last week, and was named Employ-o-rama of the Week this week in the Monday Morning Memo.
What does this mean for me?
It means I should work three day weeks all the time.
Or it means, I did a full weeks work in three days.
Or it means they drew my name out of a hat and I got the closest parking spot for this week because of sheer luck.

I am not sure what to make of this honour. I am told by some former Employees of the Week that not only do I get the best parking spot, I also get a nice little certificate, and a $20 movie card.
Man, I am not going to be able to get through the door with my swolen ego.
I'll have to go continue surfing for job opportunities before I get comfortable again. I'll return later on.

Kleenex

Yup,
You know when brands become the name for the product.... Kleenex and Xerox... Well, I got this iPod thingy from my sweetie for Christmas. A Creative Zen Vision: M mp3 player.
30 GB's if you can imagine. 15,000 songs and Hi-Def tv and all this crazy stuff. I kinda just call it my ipod. But it's been so much fun loading it up with all my music. I've been longing to get rid of all my cd's and find a way to get my hands on one of these. I just couldn't spend the cash right now. So the most thoughtful girl I know, goes and picks me one.
So I've got the music going, over 1100 tracks only thus far, and I am playing some Tiger (on my Christmas gift from her last year, my xbox) and I just drained a 92 foot long putt.
What a nice January evening in Saskatoon. It's Friday night, the Oilers are playing and it just seems like everything is in order right now.
It's good considering I've been running myself ragged in my head for the last couple weeks. I saw an article in the news saying that shrinks are lined up with patients right now after the holidays finish and people are all wound up during the holidays and then it's all over. Like me, I am not in line to go see the crazy doctor, but I had 10 days off and spent them at home with all my friends and family. It's hard coming back to a place where you don't neccessarily want to be anymore. That's certainly not to say I need to go see a psychologist, but a masseuse would do.
Oh yeah! Take that Retief Goosen. I have him dormie after 11 holes. You'd be amazed how much I've learned about golf from Tiger Woods 06. It's silly because I can go to the golf course and talk like the real hard-core golfers talk. I guess you'd have to be there for that. And if we were to go, we'd have to wait about 6 months, so forget I even said anything.
Cheers, GO OILERS GO!
Oh yeah, that picture is a few months old. It was taken off the balcony of my apt in July 2006. How about those rays?

A few pics

Faizal, Laurel, and Il Duke

Raz and Devyo

I am dancing, not shuddering from the rum. Trust me.

I don't think I like the way this thing is setting up my pics, but I will just have to fool around with some more. I seldom put pics up here, and now mom is going to think I had a bash at her house while she was away in Florida. In fact, I took a steak out of their freezer and prepared a big feast for my girl when she got off work. Then we sat around and met with a couple friends I hadn't seen since that time last year it seems.
It was beautiful, and thanks for Hotel Duke, it was great. I even turned up the furnace a little. And you know mom's out of the country when you start fiddling with the thermostat.
I sat on the phone until 9 o'clock in the evening talking to my sister in Zambia who had begun her celebration hours earlier - we'll just leave it at that. Cooked up a nice supper and played cards until the wee hours.
I am somewhere in between being a real grown up and being an old man. I think I have the old man part of it down by spenind most of New Years on my own, then meeting my sweetie, and a couple friends. And still not yet a grown-up considering I was at my parents place. Would be nice to join the ranks of the homeowners wouldn't it?
Many of my pals have started, but I seem to be lagging behind a little.
I guess I have fewer bills this way.

It's 2007

I am amazed once again about how quickly time drifts away. I am trying to do this more often, but I had holidays and decided I was taking a break from everything. And it was delicious.
I could've been a little bit more prepared for that first day back at work, but that's only water under the bridge. We are heading into Friday and then end of another week. Woo hoo!
So I spent the entire 10 days in Edmonton, actually, I would have to say St. Albert because I hardly ventured out of the burbs.
It was wonderful. Skating, drinking, eating, visiting. What else can you do when you really do nothing?
I have some pictures from New Years and those will go up in a few minutes.
More from me in a new posting, hopefully later tonight.
ahhhhhh, the freakin pictures won't go where they're supposed to go.
Boo.

It's Time!

Well, I have taken a long hiatus from this thing, but I have thought about it often, and thought there was a lot of stuff I should be sharing. How else do I start other than plunging right in?
I want to make my way out of Saskatoon.
As I type this, I am just getting ready to head to my grandma's birthday kind of thing - it's a bash for a couple of her brothers and sisters. It will be fun, I am sure, but I have tonnes on my mind I am not sure I will be able to share much.
I have given Saskatoon a chance. I worked in journalism, I was a reporter, and I got to work in radio for a year and a little bit. I was in show business baby! But for what?
I am sorry you have to read through this little ride I'm on, but isn't time to put something "real" in here?
It has been a good time here, but there are so many things that make me want to go home. I got the call today from the fellow I was chasing back home. He tells me they're hiring and he is going to send me the address and tell me where to send a resume. I am thinking about who to put on my resume. I am packing my stuff for crying out loud. I have to be ready for this call - I have to impress - Did I on the first call?
I haven't quite figured out the first step yet, but I am ready. It won't be long for me I don't think.
If you really want something, you'll go get it right? Or will it happen for you? I ask these questions and appear as though I am waiting for something to fall into my lap, but I am going to be sure to show confidence and be the guy people are used to seeing. The time is now, the ball is rolling, and even though I just did a lot of talking, I think this is going to happen. My heart is in it, and I am ready to go home.

Saturday Morning

What else would a guy want to do on a Saturday morning when it is -29 degrees and a windchill of -38. Holy hell Batman, welcome to December in Saskatoon. I got up at 7:15 and brewed a pot of coffee and I am typing away on the computer, enjoying the warmth of my little apartment.
It is amazing. The cold first hit and I had trouble getting my car started so I had to take it in for a new battery.
I guess this weather would be hard on a car, afterall, it's hard on me.
Last night I had a raoring Friday night, where I played Tiger Woods golf and had a couple of beers. The heat was even on.
I live high up in an apartment building and it is usually uncomfortably warm, but this little cold snap we've had has encouraged me to use the heater. It was delightful acutally, sitting here playing video games and seeing the plumes of smoke from the tops of buildings rising straight into cold dark sky.
The other day was lovely with no wind, and the same plumes rose high into the winter day, but now the wind has changed direction and is howling out of the north west.
Earlier in the week we had the "Beast from the Southeast" roll through, bringing with it a big dump of snow and some very cold weather.
It is nice in a weird sort of way - I bundled up and went out for a walk earlier in the week and it felt like I was the only guy on earth, even though I was right dwontown. I could see the flags whipping and the snow blowing across the streets. Entries to the building were piled high with drifting snow and it was gorgeous.
Anyone who has lived in this climate will understand the delight. I felt like I was on the moon, or the last real wild frontier.

This is too much

I am looking at my sisters blog and I notice she's missing a few details from her story about my mom. Let me get it right.
My dad is here in Saskatoon visiting me.Yay, steak one night, chicken wings, chicken kung pow the next. Beer all the while. Oilers hockey. You know, stuff guys do with their dad.
We have a ball, he fills my fridge, and off he goes. I now have enough pickles and perogies for anyone who wants to visit.
Dad gets home only to find out my lovely grandmother is not well and she's in surgery for the third time since September when she had her knee replaced.
So, I have to back up a bit, but you know my grandma is not doing too great, she's 83 and getting old. While my dad is here, mom goes out for a couple drinks with her friends and locks herself out of the house.
Because dad is gone she padlocks every door in the house and leaves her keys behind. So she has to squirm in through the laundry room window.
Now this is where my sister missed out on a couple of things.
My dad used to brew beer and long since has abandoned this terrible hobby, but he still has some remenants kicking around. Some of these include a large pail full of bottle caps. So of course that's in the way as she blindly shuffles through the window. Now all over the floor.
And the other part she misses is that all the doors were padlocked, but what is the basement window open for?
I guess I would do the same, after all, it is St. Albert. There are no robbers in St. Albert.

What is it with celebrities?

I am thinking about the latest celeb to make the news because of a racist rant. Kramer from Seinfeld is apparently being heckled by some guys in the crowd and he starts dropping the n-bomb. Are you kidding me? Michael Richards, famous really for only one show, but he seems like a funny guy. Why would he do this? Maybe he was upset that people were making fun of him and heckling him, but come on. The guy has loads of money and made it as a comedian.
You'd think he'd have thicker skin than that.
But it really is a statement on our whole society. If it's black vs white in the USA, it's certainly White vs Aboriginals in Western Canada and what a sad state of affairs it all is. Why would someone say this stuff that takes us all a giant step back. What a comment on the times when people like Ray Nagin in New Orleans showing the world that America is facing major problems that just bubble under the surface. Mel Gibson getting drunk and making a lengthy anti-Semitic rant.
Here closer to home, the general manager of the Swift Current mall says the whole town is a bunch of Rednecks because there is only 0.2 percent of the population that's not white.
Does this discussion really have to take place in 2006? I would like to say no, but it is obviously an issue. If only I could help solve this. Maybe there's a way, but it is part of our lives and there is no avoiding it. It's just too bad some people have to be so backwards.

Ahhhh this is bad. It's been ten days

Well,
I am doing this to try and keep up with my writing and get into the habit, but it appears to have slipped out of my mind shortly there.
I had company, and I totally change everything when my sweetie is here. I don't do any of the boring stuff I usually do in the evenings. Instead I go out to movies, eat at restaurants, and visit new pubs. It's sure a lot of fun to have company. To have someone to share the evenings with. I sure have trouble sitting here and thinking about the fact that I don't have a lot to do. I really should get things on a roll and see if I can make it all better.
The world is still spinning, the sun goes up and down, the wind howls in Saskatchewan, and everything suddenly goes back to normal. But normal is so boring. I have more ups and downs in this job than I can imagine.
Time to quit doing this online. I need to go read for a while and get to that place Don Juan goes in the Mexican desert. With the lizards and the crows........... You know? Relax, read a book, and turn in at 8 or 9 PM. Oh wow, as soon as she leaves, everything is just so foggy, and I am so uninspired.
I just need to go sit and think.

This is unbelievable!!!

I don't know where to start this, because I just want to get this down as quickly as possible. But I've realized just how big a part of my life this silly computer has become.
Although you might not know it from the relatively infrequent entries to this blog, but I am drinking rum and watching the Rider's game yesterday afternoon, when tragedy strikes.
That's what people in Saskatchewan do. And something comes up, a guy makes couple of huge hits, and a fumble recovery and I decide to look him up. Maurice LLoyd. Well, I end up spilling some rum and coke right on the f#$%ing computer. The right side of the keyboard is a little sticky, as well as the spacebar.
And it is literally driving me insane. How can I fix this? Arghhhh, I don't want to break the keys but I'd like to throw the thing out the window.
But there are a million postings online and I am hoping the geeks will come through for me. It's just infuriating.
TOM out.