A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

I cannot argue with the weather today. I've been complaining, not so secretly, about how crappy June has been. At least things have improved a lot now that the month's almost over.



I deposited my $100 Climate Action Plan cheque in the bank machine while grocery shopping today. It's sort of an initial bribe from the government due to the upcoming carbon tax which is being implemented in British Columbia. It doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense to try to combat fossil fuel use as a single province alone. For example, it may prompt me to travel more frequently to Bellingham, Washington as while there we could fill up much more cheaply. In the long run that means I'll burn a little more petrol.

We've never had really cheap gas here but this will add an extra 2.4 cents a liter. It comes into effect on July 1st, so I wanted to buy gas today. I filled up at $1.464 but I saw many stations selling at $1.495 a liter. These prices are the equivalent to about $5.50 a US gallon. Starting on Canada Day, the tax will likely push up the price past the psychological $1.50 per liter mark. In subsequent years increases will automatically kick in.

An interesting thing about our extra fees is they're supposed to be revenue neutral. It's not simply an additional tax grab. Although it will cause inflationary pressures, being that we aren't big consumers, we'll probably be better off financially. Reduced provincial income taxes should leave us ahead of the game. To celebrate, when visiting downtown Vancouver today, we took the SkyTrain. We did this more for its convenience than a desire to be eco-friendly though.

Labels: British Columbia, cars, government, money, transit, Vancouver

Yesterday's entry prompted me to think about making a video clip of part of a Canadian citizenship ceremony. Finding the clip seemed appropriate as Canada Day is fast approaching on July 1st.



After residing as a new immigrant in Canada for four years, one could apply for citizenship. There was a small test one had to study for in order to pass. Then, eventually, an appointment appeared in the mailbox giving the time and location.

In March of 2000, Jay went to Surrey, BC for his ceremony. This old, 2:47 camcorder clip was taken near the end of it. The official paperwork had already been given out. The new citizens had returned to their seats to sing the national anthem. The judge also reads through a list of the countries from where the people had come.

Labels: camcorder, Canada, Canada Day, Immigrating to Canada, Surrey, YouTube

Twelve years ago, the Cathay Pacific flight landed at YVR. We had flown from Dubai and connected through the old Hong Kong airport. Then, a Pacific Ocean later, we disembarked in our new country. That was June 26, 1996.

Being ever the explorers, we'd not made too many arrangements before arriving in the new land. Little did we know that within ten days we'd be renting an apartment in a place called New Westminster.



This was the view from our first Canadian balcony. Nowadays, three new towers are being built around the New Westminster SkyTrain station and will probably block the view of the river we had. This photo was very well taken before our shipping cargo had arrived, so chances are we were cooking in a few new pans, sitting on the floor, and listening to a radio for entertainment.

Labels: Immigrating to Canada, New Westminster

I didn't have to work this month. Ordinarily that would leave me deliriously happy. Yet, as I look back over the last weeks, I didn't find them very pleasurable. Yesterday, I realized why. Finally, it was a fine day.

The weather has been pretty awful this month. Psychologically I felt as if summer were coming, but in actuality it seemed like a February. In this place that means it was cold, damp, and overcast. I still have all the winter blankets on the bed. I very well could have been running the gas fireplace during the evenings even though I resisted the temptation. We have seen weather reports showing hot conditions elsewhere, yet they've been no where to be seen. In fact, the snow pack on the mountains has not even managed to melt as it should during a normal year.

Perhaps the weather changed from the first official day of it. Last weekend was okay and yesterday I actually went out without a jacket. I feel better but may get a call that I have to teach a one month class starting next Monday. Why'd this weather get here so late?

To add insult to injury, now the days have started getting shorter!

Labels: New Westminster, weather

My online presence continues to expand because of these daily snippets. I know I am unique but I don't know of anyone else who has accumulated such a great deal of online memoirs. It's even getting hard for me to remember what, exactly, sits on this site. The introduction of labels has helped me keep track of my eJournal and images, but a great deal of materials were added to the site before I started blogging.

I honestly don't understand a common mindset about the supposed, sacred importance of online privacy which some people have. Most of my peers (read: folks over 40 years old) have a weird fascination in believing they must work to maintain secrecy about private information. Well, all right; I'm certainly not about to blog my credit card number or, in fact, any other information that I wouldn't divulge at any social event. But hey, I certainly don't mind that things about me are publicly recorded and archived. In fact, it's actually quite hard to come up with something that anyone wants to read or look at. I think this matter of not being exposed on the Net is a generational thing. People entering the workforce nowadays have actually grown up with the Internet, so these are not concerns which they share.



I don't even know the full extent of all my digital debris. I accidentally came across this photo among my own online junk. I had been wondering whether I could pull together various photos of the cars I've owned. I'd completely forgotten about the car above, much less that a picture was already online. The K-car station wagon replaced a previous one.

This was the second car driven from New Hamsphire to Seattle. After finishing work in Taif, Saudi Arabia, I went home. My father and I crossed the country in this one in October of 1987. We did a little sightseeing which is why the photo was shot at Mt. Rainier. I was anticipating working in the States, but ended up running back to another Saudi teaching job in January of 1988. I sold the car to friend, Joel, I believe. It smelled awful inside because I used to smoke cigarettes.

Labels: blogging, cars, Internet, Joel

People are fairly stupid. Wait, let me retract that. People, except me, are fairly stupid. I guess I'm prone to overstatement but I have been thinking about this as I've been involved at trying to dispel two hoaxes in the last two days. The Internet, on the whole, doesn't necessarily make people any smarter; rather, it simply allows them to be stupid faster and more loudly.

Myth #1 - A Device Can Allow a Car to Run on Water

If it's too good to be true then it probably is. This myth always comes around when there's a shortage of oil or the price increases rapidly. Hence, variants on this theme are quite popular at the moment.

The Hoaxes: Example 1 or Example 2
The Fact: Wikipedia

Myth #2 - Multiple Cell Phones Can Explode Popcorn

People love their cell phones but cannot shake the idea that somehow they're bad for their brains. Well actually, I do believe they're bad from one's brain! No, I don't think it has to do with electromagnetic radiation; it's simply bad for human brains because people yack their way through life rather than observing what's around them. Regardless, the recent video myth that a few cell phones can pop kernels of corn is, indeed, moronic. What smart viral advertising it is though!

The Hoaxes: Example 1 or Example 2
The Fact: Tech. Yahoo

Even fairly intelligent, educated colleagues have forwarded ridiculous emails containing Internet hoaxes. It seems that human nature really hasn't seen much development since pre-historic stories around the campfire. There are some things we just need to believe in no matter how foolish. I don't want to end here but I've got to go. I'd include a third myth but I just got an email from Bill Gates that says if I re-send his message to all of my friends ...

Labels: email, Internet, opinions

I saw the television promos but figured the program was probably too foolish to watch. At the present time, I find few sitcoms worth spending my time on. Once, I sort of accidentally caught one episode and I was instantly hooked. I've now been recording all the summer re-runs.

The protagonists are younger than I am. Those guys are actively involved in careers which involve hard science although I'm not. Finally, they are just characters written to be clever and funny, but I was born with those traits.



What I'm trying to say, however, is that I really enjoy the show. It proves I'm nerdy but in a good, revenge-of-the-nerds sort of way. Even the theme song, sung by the Bare Naked Ladies, makes me smile.

Labels: music, television, YouTube