Theft of creative property makes baby Jesus cry.

I told you I'd figure out how you copied me...

http://thesightsandsounds.blogspot.com/2006/10/people-in-my-neighbourhood.html

As opposed to

http://www.xanga.com/flamebroiledpete

You'll be hearing from my lawyers.

Copacetic? I want to light myself on fire...

Do you remember what you wore on July 27th? Probably not exactly. But I'll hazard a guess that it contained some of the following articles:

• Tee shirt
• Shorts
• Flip Flops (or those lame sandals with the straps that your dad always wears with socks. You know, even though you think you're fashionably better because you don't wear them with socks, you're not. Those sandals are still lame.)
• Sunglasses perhaps?

And so on. In any case, the point that I'm getting to in a round about sort of way is that if your walk to the grocery store looks like this in October...

You're in the wrong place. Humanity is not meant to live in climates where, if left outside without proper clothing (say the same clothes you wore on July 27th) you would die in a matter of hours or sometimes minutes.

This picture was taken in Bora Bora this very day. This very October 30th day.

Canada, no matter what anyone says about how great you are because of your democracy, your freedoms and your limitless opportunities, I will always and forever counter that idea and expose how horrid a country you really are with two words:

"Minus Forty."

An American President?

My strategy for achieving a new goal in life is as follows:

1) Find beautiful American girl, love ensues.
2) Marry said beautiful American girl.
3) Register as a voter abroad.
4) Vote for this guy...



His name is Sen. Barak Obama and although many of you probably saw him on Oprah, I am herby shamelessly jumping on his bandwagon if he decides to make a run for the presidency. Amidst a maddening amount of midterm exams I found myself in a bookstore one afternoon unable to put down his book. Although it is more than a little conveniently timed for his run for the presidency in 08 one wouldn't expect a man in his situation to do it any differently and it was brilliant. Everything one could possibly hope for in a Democratic candidate.

All I have to say to my American readers is this:

"Just... please. Ok you guys? Please? For me?"

[shameless flattery]Besides, from what I've seen all the good American girls are taken.[/shameless flattery]

My first word will be my last.

My first word was Light

My last word will most likely be the

same.

Bull in a China Shop

Overheard:

• "The only people I seem to know are doctors and pilots. Do you know any pilots?"
• "You'd be foolish to buy a steel house on a whim, but if you're planning for the future and have only your children and your children's children in mind then you have to buy a steel home."

Since when did going to hockey games mean being submitted to boorish and self indulgent drivel. Shiggs, the next time we go to a hockey game, remember to bring a pad and paper to write this stuff down.

Observations on a Snowy Morning.

The valley behind the apartments was then obscured by the first fall of snow we'd known in some months. This was, quite assuredly and with tongue in cheek, a precipitous event that evoked emotions of conflict worth contemplating as it does every year when the leaves turn and the heart prepares itself for the winter season. And so with resolute hearts and hopefully equally sound minds did we accept the summer's leaving for places yet unseen by our eyes but often times heard of through the more exotic and travelled of our compatriots. This was cerainly a marked occasion for though we had seen the snows decend before never was life so marred by such an uncertainty of future, the snowfall signifying time's continual propensity to move in an onward fashion which only served to heighten our awareness of the aforementioned uncertainty.

Yet was there some solace to be taken from what was now beginning to cover the ground far below us? A quiet calm had seemed to settle as readily in our hearts as it did upon the city around us. Yes, indeed there was now a certain freshness, a newness to the city scape which spoke mightily to the turmoil which had been festering inside our psyche's for a time now. Things seemed closer as if the snow had somehow not only shifted the view from our balcony into a more monochromatic landscape but had also lessened our proximity to things which before had seemed quite distant.

Herein lays the truest quality of the winter months we shall endure here in our city. As the vibrancy of summer dies the distance between us all grows smaller as each moment the uniform tones of winter unite us towards the hopes that spring will come again.

~Brought to you by reading far too much Jane Austen~

Hi! You've reached thesightsandsounds!

Leave a message at the tone.

*beep*

An itch, scratched.

I finally saw her on the big screen tonight. There just aren't words. A television will never do her justice. This solidifies my need to see Breakfast At Tiffany's in a theater now since apparently Audrey Hepburn was even more magnetic. There's just something about the way a movie screen projects a person...

Why I woke up this morning

I woke up that morning with Noel Gallager singing in my ear. He asked me,

"How many special people change?

How many lives are living strange?

Where were you while we were getting high?"

It reminded me that every morning it becomes a little harder to put both feet on the floor. What mysteries lay ahead? What vacancies were waiting to be filled by the expanse of my imagination?

O you little things, you mundane details that lay between the dawn and the dusk. You may be the very things that fill my days but you are not what makes me rise come morning.

I rise because there's joy

Because there's hope

Because there's family

Because there's friends

Because there's brothers

And limitless potential

Because there's times to celebrate

And times to grieve

Because there's a guitar on the stage

And people in the seats

Because there's beautiful girls

And beautiful views

Because there's unquestionable loyalty

And a whole lotta love

So later that night, the sun went down but the house lights went up and even though the myriad of life's small details were still there, moving around the outside of the crowd, the looming spectre of things yet to do and things still to be, I answered that singer's waking question:

Where was I Noel? I was on a stage, right where I was supposed to be.

Miss You, Love You, Need You.

Christopher Leigh Zeller is the greatest human being you've never met (unless you have met him in which case you know I'm lying for the sake of dramatic effect) and today, the world has most definitely become a more... interesting place because of him. If Chris' life were written as a novel, today's chapter would be called "Chris Gets a Blog". Who knows what oddball antics will be recorded in this, what is sure to be a torrid blog of tales so outlandish, extravagent and exciting that it may in fact rival Motley Crue's autobiography The Dirt for sheer audacity. Seriously, Chris has moved to what must be the excitement capitol of planet earth and I can only imagine at the rampant pace he must be living his life out there in... Holland, Michigan. Wow. Just... Wow.

But nonetheless, I miss Chris terribly. He was the 8th best roommate I've ever had (after Mike, Pete, Shiggs, Dustin, Darren, his brother Dylan and that lizard I looked after for Tom Drinkwater one summer). No one could annoy Dustin like Chris could and no one could (sort of) grow facial hair like Chris could. I will always miss his sense of humour (that only prepubescent boys found really funny) and his penchant for baking muffins at completely inappropriate times.
Stupid Chris... Knee, Football.

People In My Neighbourhood

I've decended further into my own geekery and figured out how to manipulate html into allowing some new links in here. Unfortunately you have to scroll all the way to the bottom but html hasn't revealed all of it's mystical secrets to me yet so they'll have to stay down there for now.

For your reading pleasure: I highly recommend kristen's blog for those of you who like lots of words and no pictures and Sarah likes to talk about beers and local Edmonton celebrities, which I enjoy very much. Also in the xanga line, be sure to not miss out on Pete's latest weblog as he grossly misinterprets a comment made by yours truely and dedicates an entire entry to lil' old me. I love Pete though, if only for his goaltending skills.

Shiggy now has his own website. I told you he's going places though so this shouldn't surprise you. This website will contain things that may in fact blow your melon. In my "humble" opinion, it's the greatest shock-and-awe campaign to have ever hit our fair intarweb. Shock n Awe Greg... Shock n Awe.

And even if you have better things to do (which I promise you you won't) read Jessica's blog. It's quite simply stunning and, much like the lady herself, will draw you in not just with pretty words and well formed sentences (something all us guys look for ina woman) she also has pretty pictures to look at too for those of us possibly and hypothetically born with attention deficit hyperactive disorder and/or dyslexia. Seriously, if blogging was a trait I found attractive, this girl would surpass Lindsay Lohan on my list of desireability, placing her third behind Audrey Hepburn and that girl from the "Everyday Italian" on the food network. It's that good.

Pitiless Posts for Pitiful Times

I love this picture. I love this picture for reasons even beyond that of my immaculate sideburns (a word previously only used to describe the virgin birth of my Lord and Saviour). I love this picture because anyone can look at it and pretty much surmise their own translation of the relationship between my sister Jennifer and I. It's all right there in the photo. And while you all may make your own relativistic interpretations, the underlying truth of the photo is this:

My sister's hair tastes phenomenal. Seriously.

You might think I'm being facetious or trying too hard to be funny for the purpose of the blog, but the truth of the matter is that Jennifer has great tasting hair. As with all things amazing regarding my sister I take full credit for it, since most of her amazing qualities can be traced back to me in some way or another. The great tasting hair is no exception here either folks. I've instilled in Jen a "lather/rinse/repeat" routine to rival Fabio himself. I'm not sure what that says about me as a man, but I sure as hell know what it says about my sister Jennifer...

She's got great hygene, and that's what I love and admire most about her. She showers. Regularily even. A skill I've still yet to conquer.

So Jen, as you and I begin to examine all the reasons why you're now single, I think we can both say without fear that it's not because you have bad tasting hair.

I love you. (but only because you shower)

~I've also yet to decide whether or not to make this into a series entitled "Not The Reason You're Single".

The Wait And Why It's Worth It.

One of my favorite things in life is the feeling of anticipation. Although I've never been one to wait patiently for anything when I could just as easily go the route of instant gratification, sometimes there comes things or events that force you to wait. Today I've been reminded of all the reasons why some things are absolutely worth waiting for.

Imagine with me if you will, a little boy who loves christmas (it's no big stretch). Now imagine that this boy is told that Christmas is coming but, due to cutbacks and other projects that Santa is currently working on, it will not arrive for five years. So the little boy regretfully accepts his fate. There is after all, nothing he can do about it for there has never been a little boy who had the power to bring about Christmas before it's due time.

Now imagine with me that five years later that same little boy, who is somewhat more grown up, begins to hear rumours and murmurings that Christmas is coming. No one yet knows exactly when it will arrive, but there is certain proof that Christmas is indeed on its way. Then, one warm fall day, when all the leaves have turned and the geese begin to fly south, the boy stumbles upon a photo album in a dark corner of the attic in his house. The book is filled with pictures of past christmas' and the boy is reminded of all the many reasons why he loved Christmas so much to begin with. He knows that despite his impatience, this Christmas will be worth the 5 year wait.

This year, Christmas comes on March 9, 2007.

Uncensored Trailer

Hi-Def Apple.com trailer

*The photos included are stills from the actual film.