Been a while

Well it's been pretty busy around here what with Christmas coming and all. Haven't had much time to post but I keep on trying. Went to Louise's Xmas party in Brighton last Saturday and so I thought I would post a few pics. It was a good time and unlike last year the drive back was not horrific. That drive was through sleet and slush, need I tell you it was 'white knuckle' all the way. This year we had planned to get a hotel room if the weather turned bad, but there was no need as it was a dry (colddddd)night and we got home in record time. Anyway the house was full of kids and us 'grown ups' and then (low and behold) Santa showed up... again. LOL. Everyone got a nice gifty and we all had to sit on Santas lap again (I think I am going to put on 100 lbs or so for next year so I won't have to, no offence Santa)

We also met Lucas' new foster parents and they seem very nice, cute couple with a tiny baby too. (Victoria, Brad and baby Ky)

Anyway here are a few pics...

BTW these are just a few pics, actually the ones I was supposed to send to Elicia (sp?) I will post more later if I get around to it.

Santa Clause Parade

Well my two daughters and my wife were in the Santa Claus Parade today. It was pretty good except for trying to leave afterwards. :) They were marching with the Girl Guides and looking cute as buttons. Nana also went along for the walk and they had a great time. Me and my little man push Grandad up the road in his wheelchair to watch the festivities. Unfortunalty Jake wanted to sit on my shoulders the whole time so I have a crick in my neck now. All in all a great day and lots of fun for the kids. Nana goes home tomorrow after giving me and the wife a night out to ourselves on Saturday night. Thanks NANA. We went out to dinner (nobster) and then xmas shopping, nothing too exciting but it was nice to get out and not have to get a table for 6 and have to use the elevators in the mall. We did miss the wheel chair parking tho. LOL

Anyway a few pics from the parade follow, oh and I forgot to mention they all got on TV as Rogers was there to film the parade. YAY!

Writing news and new blog

Yes I have done some writing. Although I am still sick, I did a bit the other day and I am doing some re-writes and editing today. Slowly but surely (don't call me Shirley!) it is coming along.

Need a new name for my book tho... not happy with the currenty one.

So I have started a new Blog for this Writing Log. This blog will now revert to what it started out to be, a little bit of good news and some pics of what me and my family have been up to. The Writing Log will continue over at writeclubs.blogspot.com so I hope you head over there for a look see. But don't forget to come back here.

TTYL

Flu: i know its no excuse but thats the deal... sorry

WRITING day two.. (yes I know I missed day one)

Okay well I was sick yesterday and didn't write anything. Not a great start, but things can only get better. Tonight I wrote just over half a page. I have started working on the end of the book as I am stuck where I actually left off. It seems to be going okay, a slow start but thats pretty much what I expected.
Well, thats all I have to tell you.
Write On.... LOL

WTFIWWM

Okay so today brings about a change in what I am doing with this blog. (your probably saying "like you have been doing anything with this blog lately anyway!" and of course you are correct. sorry again... :( my bad)
Anyway, long story short I have been writing, or should I say 'not' writing a book since.... well... um.... let say the 90's and leave it at that. Actually it is almost finished but my innate laziness and fear of success has prevented me from doing any serious work on it since about 2000.
So from now on my blogs (hopefully daily) will simply describe how much writing I have done (or not done) in a feeble attempt to embarrass myself into finishing the darn thing.
Its called the Guardian, for now, but as I really do want to be a writer and publish the darn thing i can't tell you anymore than that.
This will probably be really boring for you all, it is a good thing nobody reads this blog. LOL
Anyway wish me luck!

Well that was a quick summer. :) LOL
Okay I have been realllllllly bad about posting on here but we did so much over the summer I didn't find the time. We went all over S. Ontario and ended the summer with a trip to Orlando FLA and Disney World. Unfortunatley WDW was a big disappointment and we will NOT be returning anytime soon. But everything else was good so I am putting on my happy face and grinning in spite of Walts Disney Mess.

Anyway perhaps I will post some summer pics next time but for now how about a few First Day of School Pictures... Starring Jacob!

Looking a little nervous...

Classic eyes closed pic :)

Happy with Mum :)

He did great and LOVES school. Hopefully that will last ;). And yes I realize these pics are late too but hey at least I put them up.

And if you came her from facebook... GOOD ... I'm tired of being the only one that ever reads this thing!!

PS Syndey also loves school and Maddy (or Madi or Maddi depending on her mood) is a bit overwhelmed but seems to be adjusting to middleschool quite well.

Later TG

A Bad Week

I can't say I am glad tomorrow is Monday, as I am sad that I have to go to work while the kids and wife are home for summer break... but I am glad to have a new week ahead, as the past week was terrible.

First my friend Suzette had two of her friends killed by a random act of violence. These kinds of acts are so senseless that nothing I can say can really sum up the anger and pain they cause. I don't understand how people don't see what the result of their actions will be, not only on the person they have killed, but on the family and friends of the victims and the inevitable effect on their own lives as they rot in jail for what??? She was understandably devistated and my thoughts are with her.

Then my friend Mary Ann's mother died suddenly of a medical condition. Having lost my own mother, I am tempted to say that I know what she is going through, but the truth is that everyones grief is very personal and no one can really know anothers pain in such a situation. All I can say is that I have had a similar experience and she has my most heartfelt sympathy.

To make matters worse we lost not one but three legends...

Ed McMahon, best known as the sidekick of The Tonite Show's Johnny Carson.

Farrah Fawcett, pin up girl and Charlies Angel a wonderful actress.

And most unexpectedly Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died suddenly of cardiac arrest. At only 50 Michael was taken too soon and the effects of his death have stopped Hollywood in its tracks.

I have put together a short video, that features Mr. Jackson, but is really for all of those who have lost a loved one. I apologize upfront for my singing but I hope that Michaels words strike a cord with you the way they did with me. My deepest condolences and respect to all....

...

Halsy Knox is on YouTube

www.youtube.com/HalsyKnox

oh the possiblities...

My Friend Bruce uploaded this great video of me in the 80's... I have been adding different music too it over the last couple of days... it is just too funny, I can't stop.. anyway here a couple of the vids.


The next one has the F-Word so be warned

Not My Cup of Tea Either

Well, I recently got in touch with a very intelligent person. Kevyn B. is the one who originally posted the wonderful video in Tribute to our mutual friend Lenworth (See my previous post) Kevyn and his wife have a very inspiring Blog called 'The Best Life Ever'. They are amazingly upbeat people with a fantastic outlook on life, in truth reading their blog was what originally inspired me to write my own. Well Keyvn recently wrote about how he has decided to stop saying he hates things and instead say that these things are "not his cup of tea". Now I am very guilty of the 'H' word myself so I think I will take Kevyns advice and do the same.

Thanks for the heads up Kevyn... life is too short to go around Hating stuff.

On a totally different subject... this most definitely IS my cup of (steeped) tea, and I love rolling up the Rim even though I hardly ever win. LOL

Lenworth Chapman 1967 - 2005

Well You Tube let me down. My Friend Lenworth Chapman passed away suddenly in 2005, He would have been 42 this year. He had a lot of friends because he was a great guy. One of them posted a really touching video on You Tube with some nice clips and pictures all to the Gordon Lightfoot song 'Beautiful'. Well in its infinite wisdom YouTube decided that they needed to remove the audio of this Tribute video due to copyright infringement. Now don't get me wrong, understand people copyright their creations to protect their intellectual property and ensure that no one get rich on their backs. But lets face it, this video was not hurting anyone, and for that matter, it introduced me to this song which I had not heard before and like very much.

All that being said, the main reason YouTube annoyed me was the fact that the Audio on this tribute video contained more than just the Gordon Lightfoot song. There were a number of clips of my late friend speaking and hearing his voice was wonderful, but these were also removed when YouTube disabled the audio on the clip.

Well as luck would have it, the first time I saw the video I saved it to my harddrive and with a little work I was able to remove the offending copywritten material, while still leaving the speaking parts of Lenworth and then I did a cover of the same song behind it all. Admittedly it is not as good as Gordon Lightfoot, and I couldn't remove all traces of the original audio so it doubles up a couple of times but I don't think Lenworth would mind too much.

Please note that I am not commenting on Mr. Lightfoot himself, I am sure that he would not have objected to his song being on this tribute. My belief is that YouTube is simply being over-zealous in its actions. (By the way, there are still a number of Gorden Lightfoot videos of this song on YouTube so removing it from my friends memorial really makes no sense at all.)

Sorry for the long post, here is the video:

The Weekend

TGIF finally the weekend has arrived. I have been so tired this week... I just want to lie in bed all weekend. Oh well, that isn't gonna happen as we have skating tomorrow. With luck I will get to bed early at least! BONUS has arrived so that will definely help. Life is good.

Here is a pic, not really that recent but cute and it shows Sydney doing what I wish I was doing... chilling in bed!

Even more reasons for living! Making Contact!

Finding old friends. Well recently I have been catching up with old friends on Facebook. Initially I only signed up to chat to my family but I have started finding lots of people that I grew up with. Finding Bruce was great and we have shared some good memories, caught up and I managed to get ahold of some pics and videos from those long ago times. In the last little while I have found even more school mates on Facebook and it is great fun to see what they are up to and check out how they changed and stayed the same.
Life is sweet. :)

Also there is this picture of Rovin at my work for no reason at all, other than it makes me laugh. Lovin' the headphones!

Old Tyme Dancing Girls!

Here's a little video I put together from the footage of my daughter at her School Assembly. This actually is the menu for the DVD I made. I thought it was pretty good, hope you like it!

Where's Charlie Chaplin when you need him eh?

Sydney's a Star

Last Friday I took the day off to go and see my little pumpkin dance at her school assembly. She did great! Take a look!

Unfortunatly just a few days later she was sick (caught it from her Brother who was down with it all weekend) It's been a bad year so far for colds and flu, I haven't cleaned up so much puke in years (but that's another story) On the bright side it will be spring soon enough. The Ground hog says 6 more weeks of winter but I am going to cross my fingers and think positive.

TTYL

Peter Goon - private eye

These are good memories, that I am so glad to have back! In the Mid 80's my friend Bruce myself and a bunch of other friends got together and made some home movies. This was one of the best. Peter Goon (a goof on Peter Gunn) was lifted from an old Archie comic in which Jughead bumps his head and believes he is a Private Eye. The equipment was pretty good for the 1980's but of course it doesn't compair to the digital vid cams and computer editing available today. Its funny, sweet, embarrassing and even a little exciting. Thanks to Bruce for putting it up on his site! This really made my day, I hope you enjoy it too!

^^^Now showing: Peter Goon Enjoy!^^^

^^^DVD cover I threw together^^^

Hat Trick ~ who doesn't love Hockey?

Playing the Waiting Game

Okay so I have been watching this overhanging snow, on my roof right in front of our door, for about a week and it won't fall! In fact it has gotten smaller. Where is the fun in a snow drift on your roof, if it won't fall on someones head?

On an up note I made contact with my old school friend Bruce on facebook. Its cool to catch up a bit, and see how much we have changed/stayed the same. (He looks exactly the same and I look old and gray.) He put up some pics to look at of us when we were young and crazy! Maybe I will link to some stuff later, (we had a band so perhaps some 80's style original tunes) it should be fun!
TTYL

Lost is BACK!!!

Well Here is a great reason to be alive and wathcing ABC tonight!
I can't wait!

President Barack Obama

Today we are witnessing history as our neighbours to the south Inaugurate their first Black President. The level of patriotism in the United States has always impressed me, look at the size of the crowd in the picture below. They are estimating more that 2,000,000 men, women and children have turned out for this historic event.

Congratulations Mr. Obama.

I'm Back ...

Wow, have I been sick. In fact my son, daughter, wife and I have been down and out with the stomach flu. Not much good to say about it, except that 3 of us are starting to feel better. My wife Nancy is still feeling crappy but hopefully she will be on the mend soon. It seems like ages since I have posted anything and I don't have any pictures (trust me you wouldn't have wanted to see or smell us for the past week, LOL) I am pretty sure we all lost some weight so that is sort of a plus.

I kind of miss work, or at least the people I work with. It sucks being shut in the house so long. Anyway here are some old pictures to bring a smile to your/my face.

^^^Me as a little guy (on the right) The guy on my left is my friend Len who passed away a couple of years ago.

^^^Princess Madison on her Royal throne not sure when that pic was taken.

^^^Dennis Quaid as Indiana Jones (Lousy Photoshop chop done by me a while back) Trust me (lol) if they make another Indy movie this guy has to play the part. They look so similar and he is a great actor. Anyone else would be just wrong and Harrison Ford is too old now. Don't get me wrong Harry is great but he is just a little bit past it.

Oh an I just thought of a great reason to be alive (and well) LOST is coming back! YAY.

Here is the countdown for my fellow Losties!

TTYL

Back to School

Well, it has been great but today the kids are back to school. I am always amazed by my kids. When I was young I dreaded going back to school after a long break (heck I dreaded going to school after the weekend was over). But my kids couldn't wait to get back. I don't know whether that means they are smarter than I was (probably) or is it just that they the teachers have made school more enjoyable to encourage the kids to want to go? (hopefully).
Either way my two girls were excited to get back and see their friends and teachers so I am happy.
Its so great to see them enjoying school and not getting worried and having stomach aches the way I used to.
Way to go Madison and Sydney!

video games

Dang! Okay I have been playing this game... Sims 2! It is soooo addictive... I will try to post a pic later. Another great day!