Fires, Fires, and more Fires!

On Tuesday, I was taking Mr. Run back to Woodstock. Just as we entered Woodstock, we noticed some kind of smell. The aroma smelled like plastic being burned. My first thought was a pile of tires got on fire and the main road started to look foggy so we started looking to find out where the smoke was coming from. To the right, we noticed more smoke and saw an old building all charred and fire men and equipment were around it.

Decided that it was another Kodak moment so drove down the street to get a closer look. The building was used for karate classes and part of it was used for paint ball production (which may explain why it smelled like rubber burning).

I started taking photos and one of the firemen came up to me and asked me to take more photos and asked me to walk closer to the building so I could take a close-up photo of his buddy up on the ladder. Posted all my photos on my Picasa Web Album and sent the link to the fireman.

Seems like I have been ending up being near fires this year! The number of fires during the cold season goes up, so my friends take extra precautions (and also make sure you have insurance) and be safe.

Stories and Pictures from the Past:

During the U.S. Thanksgiving, I had the honour of meeting FrecklesFly's grandfather.  He brought his photo album of photos from his whole life, it was very interesting looking at them and I was pretty impressed at the amount of pictures he had from the 1930's to 2000's, he probably has more pictures than I had in total before I went to Europe!  The most interesting pictures were from his hiking and traveling experiences during the 1940's.

In 1945, he decided to travel from Seattle, WA through parts of British Columbia, towards Alaska, made his way to Valdez and Fairbanks, AA and managed to spend some time in Dawson City and Whitehorse, YK.  The most interesting thing about his trip was he built his own "square" boat and rowed the boat all the way from British Columbia through Yukon to Alaska and then when he got to I think Fairbanks he sold the boat for 5 dollars to the Native Americans there.

Her grandparents are Deaf too and her grandfather grew up attending school at the Manitoba School for the Deaf and along his trip he met several people who grew up going to MSD too.  He had some pictures of Deaf events and there was a set of pictures from the West Canada Association for the Deaf and it was during their 50th anniversary.  There were a lot of people in the picture, a rough estimate would be some where between 150 to 200 people.  My general observation was that WCAD was a huge Deaf association so I tried to Google WCAD and got absolutely nothing related to WCAD!  It looks like WCAD disappeared off the face of earth!  I asked her grandfather what happened to WCAD and I think he said it faded and shut down, but I find it hard to believe especially if it was running for more than 50 years and had that many people attend their 50th anniversary.  I read somewhere that not only Canadians attended, but a lot of Americans attended that event too so thought maybe it incorporated into a general West Deaf Association, still found nothing.

Anyone reading this know what happened to WCAD, let me know and thanks.

Thanksgiving Bonfire:

On Friday I went over to FrecklesFly's parents place to have our American Thanksgiving dinner. We stopped at Wegman's to pick up some last minute ingredients for her mother and just as we were turning into the street that took us to her parents house, we noticed a column of black smoke.

Our first impression was is someone having a fire? The column was too black and thick to come from a fireplace so we kept on looking and we finally got a glimpse of what was burning... a house! Our first time to witness a working fire! We drove past the house and there were several people walking around the house, apparently the people who lived there were not home and those people were trying to do something to stop the fire, but all they could do was stand helplessly and watch the fire burn. The fire department was probably being notified of the fire as we were passing by because there was no firemen around yet.

We went to her parents home and told her sister and brother, they were kind of "ha, you're making that up" but once they looked out and saw the black column, her brother and sister-in-law grabbed the dogs and ran out for a walk. We forgot sour cream so we had to drive back to the store so we had more sightings of the fire, by that time the streets were clogged with fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, and other EMS vehicles.

Got back from the store and decided to walk up to the house and meet her brother and sister-in-law. It looks like the fire started in one of the bedrooms and completely destroyed that room and part of the roof. It was amazing at how fast the fire spread and how pure the flames were! While this was my first time to see a house engulfed in flames, but wonder how those people feel about arriving home and the shock they will have.

Working Fire:
Henrietta Firefighters responded for a house fire this afternoon on Elk River Rd. 640 was on location with heavy fire from the second floor of a 2 1/2. A working fire was declared and West Brighton provided a fill in company. Photos, Audio. (Updated November 24, 3:00 PM)

Poker: Shuffling Cards

During the weekend I ended up playing a lot of poker with my buddies who came over to watch the Grey Cup.

I am not an expert with Poker and Texas Hold 'em and I probably played more games than I ever played combined prior to 06.11.17.

One problem we came with was when a player was short of the required minimum wager (set by the little and big blind). For example if the big blind was 32 tokens and a player had 15 tokens left, did he have to leave the game or could he gamble with what he had left?

I decided to look that up on the internet and could not find any specific debate on that question. While I was searching, I decided to look at shuffling cards. I found that it was interesting that it was standard for poker players to shuffle the playing card in this order:

"A typical sequence between hands of poker, for example, is a wash, two riffles, a strip, a third riffle, and a cut, which an experienced dealer can accomplish in as little as five seconds." [Source: Wikipedia]

Anyways, I sure hope I do not become a compulsive gambler after that weekend, but it was fun to be able to play frequently with lower wagers instead of playing once with a higher wager.

On another note, I was rooting for Alouettes so it sucks that the Lions won.

A Machine to Die For:

Was skimming through the TV channels and the show on Discovery Channel caught my attenttion.  The episode was about free energy.  Looked up the description:

"Trace the history of the search for perpetual motion, the promise of an engine that powers itself; see the bizarre devices and gimcrack clockwork gadgets of sincere and committed inventors and obsessed oddballs."

Read a blog earlier today about conspiracy plans, and it seems like the U.S. Government has is trying to prevent or delay the relase of perpetual motion patents that have the potential to make all current energy obsolute.  Imagine the ability to purchase a machine that generates perpetual motion and in turn generates free electricty to power your home? 

Wikipedia has information about perpetual motion, guess all this information made me fascinated about this potental technology.

Key Election Issues and Questions for All Candidates:

Saw this news article about the municipal elections and how this Deaf guy was frustrated at the lack of access for Deaf people. I believe access for Deaf people suck big time when it comes to elections. I am interested in voting for candidates in my area, but how the hell do I know what they have to offer or want to do to make my town a better place? I am not aware of where the elections are, but just know that elections are on November 13.

I am going to vote, but to be honest, will I know who I am voting for? No! I am not going to vote for the mayor who is running for another term, he has been the mayor for many years. I am going to vote for the opponent against that mayor just to see if my vote helps change something. :) I am going to vote for the top 5 people in the council list just because five votes are required.

This article also made me remember an email I received a while ago, I am not sure how many people actually asked the candidates any of those questions from the email I received (attached below).

Key Municipal Election Issues:

• City/Town's commitment to include barrier-free process in their official plans
• Accessible Councillor/Mayoral offices (i.e. TTY, FM system, visual fire alarms, sign language interpreting and real-time captioning services for their constituents who are deaf, deafened and hard of hearing)
• Accessible campaigns (accessible all candidates meeting, welcoming volunteers who require communication access in municipal election campaign activities, etc) Questions (Asking Candidates, including councilor candidate, mayoral candidate)

Key Election Questions for All Candidates:

1. Do you support the development and implementation of strong, enforceable, effective barrier-free mechanisms in your official plan?
2. Would you make a commitment to recognize the unique communication needs of deaf, deafened and hard of hearing constituents (i.e appointment of deaf, deafened or hard of hearing constituents to be on Municipal's Accessibility Advisory Committee, hiring staff with hearing loss in the municipal offices or mayoral/councilor's office, sign language interpreting services and captioning on the debates of the City Councillors/Mayor on TV)?
3. Do you support a review of the Municipal Election Act to ensure an accessible electoral process for all municipal cities and towns, including regulations and funding guidelines for providing the accommodations necessary for persons with disabilities, including deaf, deafened and hard of hearing individuals who wish to be candidates, electors and volunteers who are in municipal campaign activities and accessible all candidates meeting?

Cost of Driving:

Everyone who has a car probably gets into their car and drives to their destination, let it be a store that is only five minute drive or to visit a friend in a town a few kilometres away with out thinking about the real cost of making that trip.

The main reason why I am doing this post is because I have a car, no job, and live in a town that is approximately forty kilometres and one hundred kilometres away from two larger Deaf communities. It is not that I am upset about being in the middle of no where. It just makes me wonder how much it actually costs to get there every time my friends want me to visit, especially London.

Looked around for some rough idea on how much it costs to drive, according to the Annual AAA Study, the average is USD52.2 cents (or CAD58.9) per mile converted to kilometres... CAD36.6 per kilometre (hopefully I did my math correctly, if someone wants to verify that I did my math correctly, feel free to do so).

Getting that information made me re-think how I should ask people to pay for car-pooling with me. Say three people join my car making it a total, should I ask for 36.6 cents / 4 = 9.2 cents from each person times the number of kilometeres driven? I have talked to some people and got mixed results. It seems like half of them think I should charge based only on the gas, the other half agree that I should take in not only the cost of gas, but wear and general costs associated with owning a car.

I believe asking to be paid by the kilometre is the most logical method because before we make the trip, we will have a good idea of how much it will cost per person by using Google Maps or other web-based map service and it is true that gas is not the only expenses associated with driving.

CAA and AAA has pdf documents that you could use to get a better idea on how much it really costs you to drive your car. Have to keep in mind, some of you may opt to do your maintenance and oil change yourself, making the cost of driving your car much lower than those who opt to have those services done by mechanics. I am using the average to keep things simple.

• CAA - Cost of Driving.pdf
• AAA - Your Driving Costs.pdf

Another website that provides cost of driving for almost all the latest cars is Edmunds. But it is limited to US Postal Codes.

Also found a blog that had a post about the true cost of car ownership. There were some errors as pointed by some of the comments such as not including the cost of depreciation.

So the next time someone asks me for a ride, keep in mind I may ask to be paid by the kilometre. AND if someone asks me to visit them, keep in mind that I will be considering the cost of driving over to visit you.

Guess I am on the correct path towards becoming a Jew. :)

Should I ask for payment per kilometre?
	Yes
	No

Where does American Tax Payers' Money Go?

First Paypal Donation!

The unexpected thing happened today! Someone actually sent a donation to me via the paypal button on my blog! The total value of my first donation was USD$1.00!

The Person We Never Met Birthday Celebration Wish List:

Since a few friends of mine have begun to post their wish list, I thought I should do mine... just be grateful I am not a very demanding person.

• Money for new pants and shorts.

I got some new shirts from New York City so do not worry about me needing shirts, what I really need is something to wear down there!

Screw Jesus - he does not deserve those since we never met him!

Modern Art for sale CAD$250:

I came upon this art I created a while ago. Price for original file: CAD$250.

Material used: Paper Towel, unknown liquid.
Size: 27.5 cm (apx. 11 inches) x 22.5 (9 apx. inches)

Doing this because I care about my friends...

Just in case some of you have not seen the news, Maple Leaf Foods (website with details) has recalled some of their meat products after they found some possible evidence that their employees tampered with their meat products.

News Article about Maple Leaf Foods' Recall Information

Honda Accord Ad

And you thought those people that set up roomfuls of dominos to knock over were amazing.

Well, people,let me tell you: there are absolutely no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film clip you are about to watch. Everything you see really happened in real time exactly as you see it.

The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. By the time it was over, some people in the crew were ready to change professions.

The film took three months to complete. It is two minutes long. It cost a reputed six million dollars to produce--including engineering.

However, this clip is fast becoming the most downloaded advertisement in internet history. Honda executives figure the ad will soon pay for itself simply in "free viewings" (Honda isn't paying a dime to have you watch this commercial!).

When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation - including the estimated costs.

There are six and only six "hand-made" Honda Accords in the world. To the horror of Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two of them to make the film.

Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and complete Honda Accord) are parts from those two hand-made cars.

The voiceover is Garrison Keillor. When the ad was shown to Honda executives, they liked it and commented on how amazing computer graphics have gotten.

They fell off their chairs when they found out there were no graphics. It was for real!

Oh, and about those funky windshield wipers. On the new Accords, the windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing their thing automatically as soon as they become wet.

Honda Accord Ad

Georgie Screensaver

Apparently, this has become the most popular screensaver in the USA.

If he gets stuck, just move him with your cursor.  You can also toss him around by clicking and dragging him :-)

Georgie

De-institutionalizing Deaf students?

Read this article about de-institutionalizing disabled people and it did not say anything about Deaf people. What came to my mind was does this article classify Deaf people as disabled people? It talks about de-institutionalizing disabled people, mostly for those who live in institutional homes and did not see anything about educational institutions.

First thing that came to mind was I grew up attending the London School for the Deaf (Robarts School for the Deaf) - which could be considered an educational institution for the Deaf that is funded by the Government of Ontario. There are other Deaf education institutions across Canada and when I look back to my elementary and high school times, I am grateful I attended LSD. It helped me develop my self-awareness of who I am, made me appreciate who I am and most of all, made me very proud of being Deaf.

Right now, I see talk about LSD slowly shutting down, forcing Deaf students to attend mainstream schools or move and attend the Milton School for the Deaf (Ernest C. Drury School for the Deaf). The same thing is happening to the Belleville School for the Deaf (Sir. James Whitney School for the Deaf). The enrollment numbers are down for these Deaf schools.

My concern about this article is that it could further reinforce the Deaf-Impaired concept that isolating Deaf children in the Deaf-Impaired world will make life better for them? I hope not! I have many friends who grew up going to Deaf schools and they have no regrets and are glad they were not isolated with Deaf-Impaired students.

If this article only focuses on de-institutionalizing disabled people (including Deaf people) from institutional homes, I would support that because Deaf people (as long as they are not corkies) are capable of living independently, but this article makes it look like ALL institutions should be removed.

Good things brewing... Fortified Beer

Today I bottled my first pure batch of home brew.  Hopefully the beer will taste like real beer because it was my first time to use dried malt instead of dextrose.

The ABV should be approximately 3.5 to 3.8% and according to Beer Math Calculator, one pint should be approximately 250 calories.

Another thing...  while I was looking for bottles to use to bottle my beer, I found a box of my father's old beer bottles so I decided to pick up that box and it was heavy.  I was baffled at why it was heavy so I dug in and found several bottles that still had beer!

If I remember things correctly, I used those bottles to make my first three batches and if I am correct that was sometime during the summer of 1998 or 1999!  Decided to buff a bottle and crack it open, the bottle felt soft so I knew it would not be carbonated.

Poured one litre of beer into my bottle, took a good glup, let the beer sit on my tongue for a few seconds.  Studied the flavor and smell.  It smelled exactly like my first batch - sour and and sweet.  The taste was pretty different.  It tasted tangy and felt like was strong, but did not feel the correct burning sensation you have when you drink beverages that are high in alcoholic content.

First thought I had once all that sampling was done was that it tasted like beer that was fortified with vodka.  Finished bottling my beer and there was about 125 ml of netural beer so mixed it with that 98/99 beer.  Tastes a little bit better.

Now time to enjoy some unique brew.

Prost!