Pictures from Hazelton

I was doing some work in the Hazeltons yesterday, and at the last moment I thought to bring along my camera. I was glad I did.



I saw this little critter on the highway about halfway between Hazelton and Kispiox. Unfortunately, a school bus came roaring around the corner just after I took this picture and scared him deeper in the bushes. The other three pictures were not as good quality, and he was mostly hidden. But he looked right at me rather quizically as I pulled out my camera (from the safety of the work van, of course).

Here are a couple of pictures of the Skeena River, near the Glen Vowell (Sikh-E-Dakh) reserve.





In these pictures, the Skeena is flowing a little faster and has grown in size since adding the Kispiox river a couple kilometres upstream.



It meanders melodically past the bridge on it's way to a rendezvous with the Bulkley in Old Hazelton (a couple kilometres downstream).

But most fascinating of all, the cheap (er) price of gas on the reserve!



Under a dollar per litre? Don't mind if I do. Drop you filthy price, drop like a rock in the Skeena River.

2006 Tokyo Games

Since getting my computer, I haven't really been all that interested in the next generation gaming consoles. However, the Nintendo Wii is starting to grow on me...



But I'm exactly sure what accounts for this.





Of course, the P3 is looking more enticing all the time.





Last year's show, indeed!

Beating the Flea...

Paris Hilton's latest video starts off a little on the creepy side, but I'm willing to look past that. And scooping the Flea is no small feat!



Now is the time at WCC when we dance! Muahaha!

Somebody. Pinch. Me.

No sooner do I go about announcing my plans to see the Canucks/Capitals game on October 27th, and my boss is telling me he wants to send me on a work-related course to Kelowna during that week. One cannot simply be in two places at once, and my plane ticket (and more importantly, my Game Ticket) have already been etched in stone...



What's a brother to do?

Surely a brother must not give up two seats in the rafters of GM Place to a game which could see the end of my historic five-game Canucks-seen-live losing streak.

So, as a "compromise" (m'heh!), my boss suggests perhaps I take a different yet also work-related course in Edmonton, from October 16-18. I wholeheartedly agree, and upon checking the Oilers schedule for that week, what do I find? The Edmonton Oilers are in the midst of a home & home series with...



THE VANCOUVER CANUCKS!

I nearly fell over. Dropped Dead. Proverbial Crap in the Proverbial Pantaloons.

The co-worker who will be attending with me is also a huge Canucks fan, and he's game to see the errr... game. October 17th at Rexall Place. Canucks vs. Oilers. Wow.

Now to find tickets at a reasonable price. And preferably not in the "standing room only" section.

Two Canuck games in October. I must be dreaming.

Paul Koester pleads self defence against Ian Bush

UPDATE MAY 24, 2007: MY LATEST POST ON THE IAN BUSH INQUEST CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Interior News reporter Thom Barker reports on Constable Paul Koester's version of the events leading to the death of Ian Bush.

“When Const. Koester asked Bush to sign a promise to appear, Bush suddenly and unexpectedly punched Const. Koester repeatedly in the side of the face and head area,” the document alleges.

“Const. Koester took steps to try to defend himself against Bush’s attack, and offered to release him without his signature on the promise to appear, but Bush continued his attack.

“Bush choked Const. Koester from behind. When Const. Koester began to lose consciousness, Const. Koester drew his service pistol and struck Bush with the barrel of the pistol several times in an effort to break free.

“Bush told Const. Koester to take his last breath.”

I am certain this will cause quite a stir in Houston, as family and friends of Mr. Bush rally together to deny the officer's story.

Howard Rubin, Bush family lawyer, said it’s too early to know for what date the trial will be scheduled.

Although the lawyers are saying that an inquest could be held in December. As soon as I find out, I'll be posting it here.

Would the trial be held at the courthouse in Smithers? I'm not sure how Koester could get a fair trial here, since everyone has an opinion on the issue one way or another. There has simply been too much media attention that would prevent finding 12 jurors that have no bias.

Stunning pictures

Lots of great pictures on CBC's weekly gallery right now.

Number thirteen caught my attention!

Taliban Jack.

Damian Brooks says it all:

"The ass doesn't fall far from the hole"

Welcome to Canada, President Karzai. You can be sure that Canada will honour it's commitment to Afghanistan, despite what the cut'n run, cowardly, dishonourable yet vocal minority may say.

Priceless!

Beer at GM Place: $7.50 per cup

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Authentic Roberto Luongo #1 Canucks Jersey: $264.38 (USD - Yo Luongo!)

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Two tickets to Vancouver Canucks vs Washington Capitals (Alexander who?)hockey game via Ebay: $301.56

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Round-trip ticket Prince George to Luongoville via Westjet: $312.00

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Livin' it up with a friend from college for no other reason than "because we can"...

You fill in the blank!

Marjoe Gortner - Fake Evangelist



Offered without any further commentary.

Top Notch Karaoke

I spent a couple hours at the Fireside Pub tonight. Saturday is usually reserved for Karaoke, and tonight I was treated to the one and only Kathy Frank, who took third place in the David Foster Star Search competition. I know a celebrity!

"David Foster told the top five that they each had one minute and only one minute so they really needed to bring it, don't leave anything behind, if you had those money notes inside you then use them now," Skorepa said. "That is exactly what Kathy did, from the first note to the last second when her minute was up."

I went to school with Kathy, and even worked with her for a short time many years ago. Tonight she sang a couple of songs and was fantastic. Everyone in the whole bar was cheering, and that's quite a rarity! Think of the sterotypical karaoke bars with no-talent hacks belting out country tunes while half-snappered, and that's pretty much the scene at the Fireside. It was refreshing to hear an actual singer up there (and a near-famous one at that!).

As an aside: to the young-ass country hick wanna-be Alan Jackson who always sings "If I had money" and "Chatahoochie": Quite frankly, you suck. You are off-tune, off-key, and off-base. You should not be singing karaoke. In fact, you ought to just remain seated and not say or sing anything. Seriously folks, a year ago I remember going to the Pub on karaoke nights and listening to this guy, and he was lousy back then. He. Has. Not. Improved! It's so terrible. I mean, am I the only one who thinks that maybe if you have no talent and you suck at singing that you should not sing? Once in a while perhaps... if you are really drunk or just looking to have a good time. But honestly. What do his friends think? Are they even his friends? Surely they would say something to him if they were.

Anyways, this is supposed to be about Kathy and her success.

Good on ya, girl! What a tragedy it is that you lost to a woman named "Che".

Addiction

Yeah, these things are incredibly addictive. I ate a whole stinking bag to myself today, and I don't feel the least bit sorry about it.

Significantly better for you than other additions which shall remain nameless.

Five Years Later

As part of the 2996 project (Note: mirror site here), I will be remembering Louis Calvin Williams III, who died in the south tower on September 11th, 2001.

According to Kristen Ford of the Orlando Sentinel, Louis Williams was vice president and investment management consultant for Vestek. Mr. Williams was in Manhattan on business, and was on either the 77th or 78th floor of the South tower (where Vestek had offices). After the first plane hit, Mr. Williams phoned his wife and told her he was alright. He was not heard from again.

He was a loving husband and by all accounts a great father. He meant a lot to those around him.

Today I will remember him.

How not to remember 9/11

Janice Kennedy is a complete and utter waste of journalistic flesh. She does not represent this Canadian, and I find her words utterly apalling and highly inappropiate.

"Remembering 9/11" my ass, Ottawa Citizen. More like "Disrespecting all those who died that day".

The real disaster is that the ongoing response to it has spun exponentially out of control. The real disaster of 9/11 is that George W. Bush was president.

I mean, of course, the collective Bush -- the good ol' boy and his string-pulling cohorts with their poisonous instincts and unerring flair for mismanagement. I mean the man whose response to the crisis, after he stopped flying around the country looking for a place to hide, was that he was gonna hunt the bad guys down and smoke 'em out.

Which, in all its simplistic dumb-assedness, pretty much sums up five years' worth of the official U.S. response to the complex disaster that was 9/11.

The real disaster is that this woman gets paid money to write this tripe.

No one else in recent memory -- not Al Gore (who should have been in the White House that day), not Bill Clinton, probably not even George pere -- would have botched the job quite like Junior, who has made both the U.S. and the rest of the world a far darker and more dangerous place than it was five years ago.

This woman is completely delusional. How unbelievable that Canada.com and the Ottawa Citizen would mask her anti-Bush partisan rhetoric with the phrase "Looking Back: remembering 9/11, 5 years later."



Bait and Switch at its finest. Absolutely tasteless.

Final Update (?) on Ian Bush

UPDATE MAY 24 2007: My latest post on Ian Bush can be found here. Please direct any comments there.

Wow.

I just heard on the news that the officer involved in shooting Ian Bush in the head while he was in custody at the RCMP detachment in Houston will not be charged with any crime. The results of the investigation were reported on CFTK (Channel 7 in Smithers), the CBC affiliate located in Terrace, B.C.

There was enough evidence supporting the officer's claim that he acted in self-defence.

I am certain that there will be a great outcry from residents of Houston, as well as the family and friends of Ian Bush. For more information on the history of this story, you can check this link to the Province newspaper. You will need to be a subscriber to the Province in order to read some of the stories, but some of them are free.

As well, you can read my thoughts here and the original post from last November here.

I can hardly wait for the new edition of the Interior News to come out tomorrow!

Note to new readers of WCC and Google searchers: Please attach any comments you may have in the comment thread to this post, as I am not in the habit of searching through old posts for new comments. Thank you.

Joyride turns deadly

12 years old. Five o'clock in the morning.

Brekkas said Kali snuck out of her home at about 5 a.m. Friday to join her friends. He said that by the time he reached the crash site, the kids were all in an ambulance.

There is a lot more to this story than meets the eyes, I suspect.

It was there that the four-door sedan packed with eight teens -- three in the front and another five in the back -- flipped and rolled over.

Kali Brekkas, squashed precisely in the middle of the back seat, was killed instantly. The other youths, all under the age of 16, including the 14-year-old driver, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

A lot of parents are going to be asking a lot of questions in the coming weeks. And those kids will have to live with this for the rest of their lives.

How unfortunate.

Thank you, Heros

With a Stanley Cup Ring to the Bear (via this comment thread), I think this video is most appropriate, in light of the four Canadian Heros whose bravery and sacrifice shall not be forgotten.



Tonight I am going out to a local watering hole with a friend. We plan on playing some pool, having a few brews, and enjoying the long weekend.

We will do so without fear of reprisals at the hands of extremists.
We will not think twice about enjoying a beer.
We will not treat those around us with disdain based on their gender or religion.
We will use our hard-earned money and spend it however we choose.
We will wake up tomorrow morning and carry on about our lives.

And we will do it all in a free country.

All this made possible by men such as Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish and Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan.



Thank God for such men.