This is a...

Random guy who, during the Whyte Ave festivities, was convinced (possibly by the author) to jump up and down, make faces at and generate large quantities of buffoonery in front of the pictured S.W.A.T team member.

The realizations that "Random Guy" failed to make were twofold:

1) Whyte Avenue is not Buckingham Palace. Not even close. Mr SWAT was most certainly not standing there for ceremonial purposes. He was also permitted to move and react in many fun and interactive ways with people.

2) The weekend prior to this night, the fine folks at the Edmonton Police Service were rather embarrassed by the actions of the mob on Whyte Ave and had a strict no tolerance policy regarding any and all tomfoolery.

So "RG", as I like to call him, ended up in zip ties on the street surrounded by many many more anal retentive SWAT guys.

And "That was a..." random guy. Who got really, really suckered.

"This is a..."

To mark the fact that this blog will not be an accounting of daily activities, there will be a brand new series of posts called the "This is a..." series. With my trusty camera in tow (or not so trusty, he's kind of a shifty character) any random occurence, object or person may be documented here under the auspices of the "This is a..." moniker.

As with anything here, it might happen in 15 minutes, it might happen next week. Who can say really?

You Asked For It...

Look what you've done. Do you see what's going to happen here? I hope you feel good when you read this because this is all your doing. I think this whole thing is an anti social, maladaptive, self serving and trivial farce that will probably stunt my personal development and could possibly alienate what little social circle I have left.

I wish I could say that this whole thing was "due to popular demand" but let's be honest with each other for a moment: If I had a nickle for every person who's told me to hop on the blog train I'd have $0.95 with room to bargain up to about a buck ten. So my excuse can't even really qualify under the "Peer Pressure" category (which is what I was really hoping to file it under but my application was turned down faster than the time this guy tried to get into the playboy mansion).

So now that my feelings about blogs have been made abundantly clear, I would like to lay down some ground rules (mostly for myself) about what the nature of this little corner of the internet shall be used for...

1. Safety first. (It's just an appropriate rule to start with)

2. This blog will not, under any circumstances, be a daily accounting of my activities. I understand that many use their blogs so that others can "be informed about goings on in their lives". If you have any pertinent or burning questions about what happened in my day, use a phone.*

3. This blog will not center thematically around myself. I have enough narcissistic tendancies to fill up at least 27% of the internet**, this is not the time nor the place. It will however touch on many nouns (persons, places, things) that I happen to find interesting. Heck, I might even throw in an antonym of myself here and there.

4. This blog will not be used on a regular basis. Only if and when I feel obliged or "inspired" to write something here. Really, it'll mainly just be for pictures because how much inspiration does a blog really require. I mean seriously...

5. Grammar counts. That is all.

As an appendix to the above list, I also may move this blog to it's own domain once it gets established (again). I just like the idea of this blog sitting on it's own site instead of logged and filed under millions of others... just a thought.

Once again, this is all your fault and I will not be held responsible for anything that goes on in here. Let the games begin...

*Seriously though, I can pretty much promise you at least one awesome story from any day you might choose to call. My life is random like that.
** The other 73% of the internet is reserved for porn of course. Not even I can compete with that kind of market domination.