View of Mount-Royal through my balcony door

View of Mount-Royal through my balcony door
Originally uploaded by gabrielrobichaud.

As part of my resolutions for 2007, I will be posting pictures on my blog, or at least trying to do so, every day. So plan on seeing many more photos on here.

This one i took this morning. I thought it was an interesting play with the shadows and the mountain. Waddaya think?

My Flicker Page

Ok, I dont know if you guys have heard about Flickr. But... in case you have not, or even if you have, you MUST check it out, or even better, check out my flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/acadieman/

TOP TEN WEBSITES OF 2006

Read the links carefully!!

1. A site called 'Who Represents'where you can find the name of theagent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name... waits for it...http://www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchangeadvice and views at http://www.expertsexchange.com/

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island athttp://www.penisland.net/

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there's the Italian Power Generator company...http://www.powergenitalia.com/

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New SouthWales: www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you're looking for computer software, there's always:http://www.ipanywhere.com/

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website ishttp://www.cummingfirst.com/

9. Then, of course, there are these brainless art designers, and theirwacky website: http://www.speedofart.com/

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at http://gotahoe.com/

2006 GABRIELROBICHAUD.COM MERDE AWARD

As the year draws to a close, I decided I would compile my own list, for prosperity, of course. So without further ado, here are the nominees for the 2006 GABRIELROBICHAUD.COM MERDE Awards. Let me know in the comments section of this posting who you think is most deserving. I will post the winners later.

Top acchiever for Merde in Politics. The nominees are:

1. George W. Bush, American President. For that mess in the middle east.
2. Stephen Harper. Candian Prime Minister. George Bush Wanna be.
3. André Boiclaire. Leader of the Parti Québecois. I'm nominating him because he spends most of day full of merde.
4. Ken Dryden. Liberal Leadership Candidate. Really. Stick to hockey buddy.
5. Gilles Duceppe. We are a nation. Oh, no we are not. Oh yes we are. Oh wait, but you can't say that. Damn it!

Best Environmental Merde Meltdown The nominees are:

1. George W. Bush, American President. And I quote "Global warming! Those people up north should be happy its warmer in the winter!"
2. Stephen Harper. Candian Prime Minister. Environmental Plan... What plan?
3. Canada. The entire country. For destroying native canadians water supply and then doing nothing about it. Drink up the merde water. hmmm hmm
4. Canada. Again. Doing nothing about the environment, tearing up the Kyoto accord, and well, generally sucking about the envronment.

Special Merde Achievement in Music (And the competition is specially fierce in this one) The nominees are:

1. Kevin Federline
2. Britney Spears
3. Celine Dion
4. Avril Lavigne. (I just hate her, so she's on the list, she doesn't even know who David Bowie is. Idiot!
5. The entire cast and crew of Star Academie. These guys are something else. No talent.
6. The entire cast and crew of Canadian Idol and American Idol. Ditto.

Overachievement in Merde Sports. The nominees are:

1. Terrell Owens for spitting in the face of Atlanta cornerback DeAngelo Hall.
2. Zidane for that famous head butt at the World Cup.
3. Nate Robinson and J.R. Smith for starting a brawl during a basketball game. Morons.
   

Merdiest Consutruction in major infrastructures The nominees are:

1. Transport Quebec for its efforts, petitioning to have the song changed to "Laval Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling"
2. Transport Quebec its wonderful highway maintenance programme. Just take a ride on any highway in Québec. Garranteed to damage your car in less than 10km.
3. City of Montréal. The aqueduc and sewere system is 100 years old. Pipes are bursting, streets are caving in from the water damage. This resulted in a 3 month longordeal on my street, which was closed to traffic and had a huge 100 feet long, 20 feet wide 16 feet deep hole, filled with sewage water, in ftont of my building.Mayor Tremblay. Don`t be expecting my vote. THREE months to change a pipe. Really. Was the 3 week study really necessary? CHANGE THE PIPE!
4. My Landlord. Mr Englander, you have been turning off the water in the building, every friday from 8am to 5pm for the last 6 months. Do you really need to do so on saturday as well? I appreciate your effortsto maintain the building, but can i have just 1 weekend without having my water cut off!

Ok folks, there you have it. May the voting begin!

Pee Shy

Last night, I watched a very interesting episode of Degrassi, The Next Generation. This is, of course, a Canadian show, which addresses issues faced by everyday teenagers and Canadian youth. This latest episode pitted a wheelchair bound guy and his girlfriend against the grim reality that he would never have an erection. Of course, in true TV style, they determined that they could overcome this *ahem* shortcoming, by finding other ways to have sex.

This got me thinking long and hard about sex and what constitutes sex. Obviously, if there is some kind of penetration, vaginal, anal, oral, it is sex. But what if one of the two partners cannot achieve orgasm? Like in the case of our paraplegic friend: is he actually having sex? Or what if he cannot penetrate his partner? I suppose he could do lots of things to her/him but what about the reverse? Would he still be considered a virgin?

What if you don't actually touch someone else, but you achieve orgasm in the vicinity of others? Is that sex? This is a question that has been on my mind a lot recently. I keep running into someone I know, a dear friend of mine actually. The trouble is, I run into him in the most compromising situation! I have caught this person whacking off at urinals on 4 different occasions. Two occasions I managed to leave without him seeing me, and two others, we were forced into very unpleasant conversation while I was washing my hands trying desperately to erase the picture from my mind.

I will not go into a tirade about public sex right now. Some people are into it, that's their business. Whacking off at a urinal at the mall... It is a whole new level of perversion.

This got me thinking some more. What if this person had a partner? Would he be cheating on his spouse by jerking off with a bunch of people of at a urinal? (There were 4 of them going at it. An eye opening experience, to say the least!) There was no actually physical contact. So is it any different than watching porn or downloading some hot pics online? Or going to a nudie bar? But the line has to be drawn somewhere right?

So I asked my friend Charles (Not the guy at the urinal) if he would want to know if his partner was whacking off at urinals. And like me, he did not really know. He couldn't determine if that consisted cheating or not. I understand his indecision, but, the line needs to be drawn somewhere.

Now I want to address this whole, whacking off in public thing. I feel I have lived a relatively innocent life. But about 2 years ago, a friend of mine told me about a website: Cruising for sex dot com. This site is one of many that provides lists upon lists of areas to play in public, such as the situation I described above. I had no idea this was such a popular activity. Well, curiosity got the best of me, and I have to say, I checked out some known spots in Montreal, to see if this was true. And oh my gosh!

Montreal is full of perverts. Pick any men's washroom in this city, and if you sit around long enough, some pervert will walk in looking for action. Really, it's insane. This also explains why there are so many security cameras and security guards constantly flowing in out of public washrooms.

The moral of the story, is beware of the guy standing next to you at the urinals. If you think he's been standing there too long, odds are he's not peeing.

Fags in Hollywood. ITS ABOUT TIME!

When I was a teenager, I used to watch the show Doogie Howser M.D. At the end of each show, he would write in his journal, and this inspired my love of writing. Not only did he inspire my love or writting, Doogie Howser was the first television personality that awoke my feelings of lust for members of the male species. I had such a huge crush on him. Well, about 17 years later, I am still in lust with him... and who can blame me, he's a cutie!

Now here is the clincher. This morning, I found out he came out of the closet. I know it is silly, but this really made my day. Straight people have teen idols and heart throbs but how often can a gay teenager have a heart-throb only to find out that his heart-throb is gay too. WOW. I really appreciate the times we live in.

I know Neil Patrick Harris will most likely never read my blog, but I have a message for him in case he does : "THANK YOU! You brought a bit of normality to my very abnormal life. Congradulations. I am very happy for you!"

Now back to the 21st century. I have been following another TV Drama, this one is called Grey's Anatomy.

There is a character in that show called George O'maley played by TR Knight. Hubba Habba. Well, he is a fag too, and came out last week.

Congradulations are in order to him! And take a look, he's a McHotty!

Here I Go Again On My Own...

And here I go again on my own
Goin down the only road Ive ever known,
Like a drifter I was born to walk alone
cos I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams.


Ok... Time for a life updated blog. Haven't done one of those in a long long time. In case the previous quote from the infamous Whitesnake song (flashback from the 80s *wooooo scary*) wasn't obvious enough... My marital status has been revert back to its original state. SINGLE. AGAIN. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK.

I am not sure what to make of it. But after a few months of sorta being single, but not really feeling it, it all came crashing down on me this week. And for that I have one thing to say to the man that made all this happen... Thanks... FOR NOTHING.

Another 4 years of my life, chasing a dream that will never happen. I think this time I have learned a lot. Well, I'm always learning something... But unlike Spanish, this lesson is going to require months of recuperation. The zombie like state that taken over my soul is hard to shake. Been there. Done that. Lets recap, shall-we?

Nick : Oh boy. This one was a doozie! Nick was the very first guy that captured my heart. I even remember the moment I realized that I had fallen in love with this handsome blond blue eyed prince from the west island. (puke) It lasted 7 months, and thanks to him, I saw a side of myself that was so ugly, I knew I would have to do some serious soul searching and self-improvement. But we were so young... It was doomed from the start. Although, I did gain something tremendous. A true friend. Still today, Nick and I are good friends. Not too mention that I am really blessed to have met his mother, a true jewel. Not even a MasterCard commercial can show he true value: Priceless!

Steeve: Now that was something. Just under 3 years. The first two were quite lovely. Then we moved into an apartment in NDG and it got UGLY. After we broke, we never spoke again. I see him once in a while, usually at the mall with the guy I think he's been seeing ever since. I was so fucked up after that relationship, it took me over a year to get my head in the right space again. In the end, I'm glad I met Steeve. Mostly because after we broke up, I became a different person. Although I did loose a fair bit of respect for humanity and became very jaded about gay relationships. I will forever remember the conversation I had with Mark after... Mark if you ever read this... THANK GOODNESS you took those 3 hours to talk to me that night. I wonder what Mark is up too... Have not seen him in years. I hope he's well.

The last one. And the way I feel right now, he will remain, the LAST one. I don't know. Is a gay relationship even possible? We were going on 4 years together. Personally, I would have been perfectly able and happy to turn those 4 years into a 'till death do us part commitment. But I guess I should have known better than to expect that kind of commitment from a gay relationship. I guess that's what it boils down too. My whole believe system is screwed up right now. I used to believe in love, I used to believe in the fact that two people could spend the rest of their lives together... But 3.5 years. I mean for Christ sake. If we can expect to live 84 years in Canada that's 3.5/84*100 = 4.1% of my life. Wow. If this was a financial investment, I wouldn't have even attempted it with such a low rate of return. So why on earth do I get involved with this relationship crap if I can get relatively close to the same return with ING Savings account or Canadian Savings Bond?

Would we waste time in bad investments like that? Well, I sure wouldn't. I have my investments in much safer vehicles such as Index Funds, Real Estate Funds, etc which are currently yielding over 11%. So... Applying the same math 11% of 84 years is 9.24 years. So... Looking at the rate of return of my 3 major relationships, I think it is safe to assume that I have been making bad investments when it comes to affairs of the heart.

When I read Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad last year, I learned that you must do you research before investing. That you must choose your investments wisely and that you will make bad investments. Its just a matter of figuring out whether or not you can afford these bad investments, then learn from them.

Well, since the main cost of these investments is time, and that already I have squandered 38.1% of my life, I can no longer afford to make bad romantic investments. Trust me, if there is another joint venture on the horizon, it will be the LAST one.

26.5 HOURS LEFT!!

I don't think I have waited for my vacation time with so much anticipation before. At least, I do not recall being so antsy over the fact that my vacation is looming over my head. Yes, its true, I am going to blow this joint in less than 27 hours. I am very excited. Actually, I'm elated. Yes, E-L-A-T-E-D!!

No, I'm not going any where extravagant. I might not go anywhere at all. But I am very excited at the prospect of doing NOTHING. I rather like the idea of sitting in my appartment watching TV or playing Poker. Actually, I do have some plans.

One of my major plans is that I want to get back into running semi-seriously. I used to be able to run 10k three times a week. Those days have disappeared and I have been thinking about starting that up again. So last weekend, I went to buy myself a new pair of runnning shoes, running shorts and I also revamped my swimming gear. I bought new racing googles, and training paddles. On my way out I ran into my good friend Ryan, no pun intended. He was also on his way to buying new running shoes. Talk about great minds thinking alike! Well, after each purchasing breand new running gear we made plans to go running after diner that day.

So around 5:30pm on Saturday, we pointed our shoes towards Mount Royal and began our first of , hopefully, many runs up the mountain. So including that day, we ahve gone twice, so we have stuck it through the worse part, which in my opinion, is the first couple of runs since you always feel a bit sore in the begining. I am posting our running schedule here incase you are wondering what our training is like:


10 week running program.
Goal : To run 30 minutes non stop.
Follow the program at your own pace. If you do not feel ready to go to the next stage, repeat the last week, as many times as necessary.

Week	Run	Walk	Reps
1	2	4	6
2	3	3	6
3	5	2.5	5
4	7	3	4
5	8	2	4
6	9	2	4
7	9	1	4
8	13	2	3
9	14	1	3
10	30	-	-

So as you can guess from the above table, each week increases the amount of time spent running. So for week 1, you run 2 minutes, then walk 4 minutes and you do this 6 times. Sounds easy enough... But if you are coming from a sedentary lifestyle, you will find this hard to follow. Ryan and I found this challenging the first time out, but the second time we thought it was pretty easy and added some jogging between the runs to make it a bit more of a callenge and to keep our heart rates up.

I want to acknowledge this website where I found this routine. Sorry folks, you'll have to be able to read French to understand it!

Marche pour la paix / Peace March

(English to follow)

Date : Dimanche le 6 août 2006
Heure : 1:00 pm
Lieu de rencontre : Parc Lafontaine

Le groupe «Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East» qui organise la manifestation est un organisme à but non lucratif qui prône la paix, la justice et la sécurité pour tous les habitants du Moyen Orient.

--------------------------------
Date: Sunday, August 6 2006
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Meeting Place: Parc Lafontaine

The march is organized by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) which is a non-profit organization made-up of Canadians of all backgrounds who believe in justice, peace and security for all people in the Middle East.

You Know You Grew Up In The 80's or Early 90's If:

1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word "SIKE".
   
2. You watched the Pound Puppies.
   
3. You can sing the rap to the "Fresh Prince of Belaire" and you can even do the "Carlton".
   
4. Girls wore biker shorts under their skirts and felt stylishly sexy.
   
5. You yearned to be a member of the Baby-sitters club and tried to start a club of your own.
   
6. You owned those lil' Strawberry Shortcake pals scented dolls.
   
7. You know that "WOAH " comes from Joey on Blossom.
   
8. You know what Parachute Pants look like and feel like.
   
9. If you ever watched "Fraggle Rock".
   
10. You had plastic streamers on your handle bars... and playing cards on your spokes for that incredible sound effect.
    
11. You can sing the entire theme song to "DuckTales " (Woo ooh!)
    
12. It was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday Morning to watch cartoons.
    
13. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.
    
14. You saw the original "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" on the big screen...and still know the turtles names.
    
15. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.
    
16. You had big hair and you knew how to use it.
    
17. You played the game "MASH " (Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House)
    
18. You wore a stonewashed Jordache jean jacket and were proud of it.
    
19. L.A. Gear....need I say more?
    
20. You wanted to change your name to "JEM ". (She's truly outrageous.)
    
21. You remember reading "Tales of a fourth grade nothing" and all the Ramona books.
    
22. You know the profound meaning of "WAX ON, WAX OFF"
    
23. You wanted to be a Goonie.
    
24. You ever wore fluorescent clothing.
    
25. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted.
    
26. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
    
27. You took lunch boxes to school... and traded Garbage Pail kids in the schoolyard.
    
28. You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets.
    
29. You still get the urge to say "NOT " after every sentence.
    
30. You remember Hypercolor t-shirts.
    
31. Barbie and the Rockers was your favorite band.
    
32. You thought She-ra (Princess of Power!) and He-Man should hook up.
    
33. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets.
    
34. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes.
    
35. After you saw Pee-Wee's Big Adventure you kept saying "I know you are, but what am I?"
    
36. You remember "I've fallen and I can't get up"
    
37. You remember going to the rink before there were inline skates.
    
38. You ever got seriously injured on a Slip and Slide.
    
39. You have ever played with a Skip-It.
    
40. You had or attended a birthday party at McDonalds.
    
41. You've gone through this nodding your head in agreement.
    
42. You remember Popples.
    
43. Your motto was "Don't worry, be happy."
    
44. You wore like, FOUR pairs of socks over tights with high top Reeboks.
    
45. You wore socks scrunched down and over your tight jeans.
    
46. You remember boom boxes... and walking around with one on your shoulder like you were all that.
    
47. You remember watching both "Gremlins " movies.
    
48. You know what it meant to say "Care Bear Stare!!"
    
49. You remember watching "Rainbow Bright" and "My Little Pony"
    
50. You thought Doogie Howser/Samantha Micelli was hot.
    
51. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.
    
52. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool... and don't even flinch when people refer to them as "NKOTB".
    
53. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The Bell," The ORIGINAL class.
    
54. You know all the words to Bon Jovi - SHOT THROUGH THE HEART.
    
55. You just sang those words to yourself.
    
56. You remember watching Magic vs Bird.
    
57. Homemade Levi shorts. (the shorter the better)
    
58. You remember when mullets were cool!
    
59. Frizzy hair was IN.
    
60. You still sing "We are the World"
    
61. You tight rolled your jeans.
    
62. You owned a banana clip.
    
63. You remember "Where's the Beef?"
    
64. You used to (and probably still do) say "What you talkin' bout Willis?"
    
65. You're still singing shot through the heart in your head, aren't you!!!
    

WANNA FREE LAPTOP?

JUST CLICK!!

I AM ACADIEN

Chu pas su mes stamps ou su le welfare,
Chu pas un pêcheu de coques,
Chu pas analphabet ni illettré.

Y'a pas de fromage su mes poutines, pi ma poutine et pas un président russe.
E'je vie pas dans une p'tite shack en bois.
E'je va pas au travail su la 20, su la 40 ou su la 401.
E'je prend le chemin du fond d'la Baie, le chemin d'la côte ou le vieux Shediac Road.

J'ai pas de besoin d'une bavette ou des outils compliqués pour manger mon houmard.
J'le rouve moi-meme, j'le mange avec du pain frais pi d'la coke!
J'écoute pas Patrick Bruel, Pierre Lalonde ni Nana Mouskouri.
La vrai musique, a lé faite par 1755, Bois-Joli, Zachari pi Daniel à Ola.

E'je shop pas aux Galleries de la Capitale, ni au Centre Eaton, mais à la Champlain Place pi su Home Hardware.

E'Je parle pas le québequois ou le français de France.
Chu trilingue, e'je parle le chiac, le francais pi l'anglais.

E'je dis Co-congue pas Co-cagne.

J'ai ma propre université pi mon propre drapeau.
Mes heros s'appellont Antonine, Ti-Louis pi Roméo.

Chu fier de ma langue, mon heritage pi ma culture.

Worriez pas vos brains même si on peut sortir le gars de l'Acadie, on sort pas l'Acadien du gars.

Le Grou Tyme c'est le 15 aout, pas le 24 juin ou le 14 juillet.
I am Canadian pi Acadien en même temps.
En Acadie la Sagouine a son propre pays, Bouctouche a sa propre dune et on a notre prope étoile.

Je m'appelle Gabriel à Roland à Aimé à Honoré à Hubert à Louis à Otho à Louis à Prudent à Étienne, pi I AM ACADIEN

Something new

Ok, so lets say you never want to miss a single blog from me? Well, now, its easy. I have added syndication to my blog. Just add this url http://www.gabrielrobichaud.com/feed.xml to your rss reader or in your custom Google home page and you will be able to view all my new blog articles automatically. Coool huh?

Top 11 reasons Americans don't watch the World Cup (brought to you by BBspot)

11. Having a hard time converting from metric goals to imperial.
10. What? All Americans south of Rio Grande watch it!
9. Because soccer is for moms. Or so I've heard.
8. Never got soccer fever immunizations as a kid worried they might catch it.
7. Oath of allegiance to NFL prohibits viewing of soccer matches.
6. Ignoring losing team much easier than admitting you are a loser.
5. Lost all interest after Lance Armstrong retired.
4. Not enough commercial breaks
3. Failing to understand the concept of "the world".
2. Conflicts with summer Fear Factor marathon.
1. Because if you like soccer, the terrorists win.

50 Corporate Secrets

If you work, or if you ever plan on working, I have a suggestion for you :



Read THIS BOOK



This is, without a doubt, the most usefull information I have read in last 25 years (since I learned to read.)

This is a page turner. I could not put this book down. A colleague of mine leant it to me and I read the first half of the book during lunch! Its incredible. I learned amazing things about how Corporations operate, and how much there is left unsaid, but still happens behind the scenes.

The author, Cynthia Shapiro, is an HR expert with mountains of experience as a consultant for many many many companies in the U.S.A. Trust me, you need to read this book before your next conversation with your boss and especially before your next evaluation meeting.

If you do end up reading this book, or have read it in the past, please click on the comments and let me know what you thought.

Bonspiel - La Quête du Roi

Here is a shot of the final stone in the 3rd end of the final game of the C division title at the bonspiel.

Champs!

A few weeks ago, I participated in a Bonspiel. We won in the C division!!

Vancouver - Its all about the mountains!

Vancouver - Tree in the sky.

Even yuppies can be hippies.

Vancouver - Treetops at Capilano Suspension Bridge

Vancouver - Capilano Tree Tops

This structure is hanging from a bunch of Douglas Fir trees. Its like an ewoke village! Very cool.

Vancouver - Paul & Peter on Capilan Bridge

Vancouver - Capilano Bridge

Vancouver Aquarium... Baluga whale

Vancouver... Land of construction

ORACLE SQL TIP OF THE DAY

You know, sometimes you just do the dumbest things because you never bothered looking into simplifying the task. Lets say you have a table full of data and you want to retrieve all duplicates. Well this is how i used to do it.

select *
from ( select mydata, count(*) thecount
from mytable
group by mydata)
where thecount > 1;

Well thats just DUMB DUMB DUMB!!!!

I can write instead:

select mydata, count(*)
from mytable
group by mydata having count(*) > 1;


much much better!!

Boys playing with dolls.

I recently started reading The Republic Of T. Another fellow blogger who happens to be gay. Most of what he writes is well researched and in tune with my opinions. Recently though he talked about how he used to play with dolls as he was growing up.

Now that got me wondering. Did I ever play with dolls? I don't think so! I had a stuffed monkey growing up, but only until the age of 3 or 4. I remember playing in the sand box, the woods, building treehouse like things and even playing with GI-Joe.

Although I was not much for violent sports, we did pretend we were American soldiers for a few weeks after watching the movie Red Dawn. We also had a very bad habit of carving wooden ninja weapons and pretending we were ninjas or Bruce Lee. We even nick named my little brother Joel "Ninja of the Lunch Can" because he used to swing that thing around like a ninja! It was very dangerous.

So do all fags play with dolls? I have heard so many of my gay friends talk about how they would steal their mother's or sister's clothing and dress up when they were kids. I did no such thing. The only time I put on a dress, I was 17 years old and it was for a performance piece in my theatre arts class... It got me an A, and that was the point.

But I guess the fact that I elected to register in theatre arts instead of GYM 2 might have been an indication of things to come. I didn't play any sports, nor was I any good at them, but it was certainly not because I did not want to. No sir! In fact, back then I was dying to be in sports. Any sport. But I was 16 years old, and I was not quite 5 feet tall. (Thankfully I grew to 5'10 in the following 5 years, talk about a late bloomer. I was still losing baby teeth in University).

But I never played with dolls. I am somehow very proud of that. Maybe it is because I failed too many other tests of masculinity growing up. We had the ultimate test of masculinity growing up. We had a game that we called "Faggot". The game was played on bicycles. Everyone would ride on their bike except for the faggot. The faggot would have to run around trying to tag the guys on their bikes. Once you were "it", you would dismount your bicycle and try to tag someone else, because you would not want to be the faggot too long, it would get annoying after a while since part of the game was chanting: "FAGGOT!! FAGGOT!! FAGGOT!!" as you zoomed by the faggot. Surprisingly, I was very good at this game and seldom became the faggot. My brother, who is now married and arguably one of the most masculine guys I know, was constantly the faggot. So much for putting any worth in those games boys play.

Working hard?

Or hardly working? Today, its a bit more of the latter. Today's blog is coming to you directly from my cubicle, 1092-A. Across from me, at cubicle 1094-D, there has been lots of action of late. Somebody somewhere screwed something up and now that is in turn screwing up more things that are screwing up the lives of the inhabitants of cube 1094-D, 1092-B, 1096-F and 1094-B.

While this is going on I'm too busy trying to dodge 1074 and 1096-F because I feel that Fridays are generally not my most productive days. And in case you missed it, 1074 is the big wig. He doesn't have a letter because his work space comes with a door.

My cube, 1092-B, has no door, nor light, no privacy and no personality. I could really use one of those surprise Ikea decoration commercial people to come in and do a cubicle makeover. I think a splash of pink and a few different texture might make the place look more inviting.

Hmm... I don't know if I need it to be more inviting than it already is. 1092-B spends enough time rambling off in here as it is. I get my morning visit around 9am from 1094-B, which is usually interesting. Once in a while I'll get a prolonged visit from 1094-D which garantees me more brain farts than I can handle.

A few weeks ago one of my dearest colleagues was moved to 1090-D. Now that's at the other end of the building, in the "other" section. Although its quiet, he gets a great view of the occupant of 1088-A which, I am certain, helps make the day go by a lot faster.

Personally, I have developed a fascination for 1085-B. That helps keep my days here interesting. God forbid I would actually get some work done. Why on earth would I do that? Oh damn it. I think I have a meeting in 1072 with a bunch of cube heads, so I need to go get some more free coffee and toothpicks to help keep my eyes open for next hour.

C ya!

New Year

In case you lacked the inspiration required to make up your own New Year's resolution, this little bit off the web will generated one for you!

Bonne Année!
Happy New Year!
Frohes neues Jahr!

In the year 2006 I resolve to: Reunite the Spice Girls. Get your resolution here