Transformers Movie

All those teaser clips on the internet and all the rumours and such...

It's official--Time to transform and roll out!

See the IMDB.Com entry here--Transformers - 2007

Wil Wheaton alluded to this very aspect about 'blogability'--faithfully recreating prince edward island--

I go thru the day pretty much with the 'blogging radar' going all the time--"Could this be a potential blog entry? How 'bout that?"

Out of the 100 blogging radar hits I get per day, very few actually end up here--as you can see by my "prolific" posting numbers...

Basically, since I notice about 100 things I could potentially blog about daily, and actually write something once every few days, that leaves many, many things that I could yammer about.

But being the nice guy that I am, I won't bore you, the reading audience with every little thing that I find interesting.

That said, I am the kind of guy that is pretty much 'WYSIWYG'--What You See Is What You Get. I've basically prided myself on the simple idea that if I'm honest with myself, then I don't have to hide who I am from others--This is it, there isn't much more. I kinda like that idea actually. It evolved from my 'wearing my heart on my sleeve' from my younger days.

I also appreciate openness between people--secrets cause conflicts. I'm not talking deep and dirty personal secrets here, mind you--but secrets regarding those with whom you're dealing with. To clarify--I'm a straight shooter and I expect the same in return.

So with these blog entries, I pretty much state what I think, or how I feel, and I don't try to mince alotta words in doing so.

That said, there is always a 'better way' of saying something that does not hurt or offend, and I try to keep that in mind as well. It's something we picked up going thru our lives--how to interact with our peers. There are some of us who are quite adept at making others feel comfortable and secure over the course of a conversation, and then there are those that immediately set you off--you know the type--the second they open their mouth you immediately feel angry or frustrated or hurt by what they're saying. There's a very old euphemism that I keep in mind just for such times--'never attribute to malaice or cruelty what can adequetely be attributed to stupidity.

With all that said, from me to you, the reader--I'm sorry if if you read something in one of these blogs that personally offended or hurt you. There was no malicious intent ever written or implied in any of these writings. I blog about things and events that I find interesting.

Having said that, I would also expect that if you, the reader, have an issue with anything I've said or done that you'd come right out and state just that--keeping it inside where it can fester will only embitter you towards me. I won't know about it therefore completely powerless to rectify it.

I'm as open as I can be with each and every one of you and if there's an issue, I'd like to know.

Whatever may happen, also keep in mind that I may blog about it!

And dispense some indiscriminate justice!!

If this Penny Arcade comic has any truth to it--

Treachery Manifest

Then I'm going to be a *very* happy computer game player...

If Blizzard is in the process of starting to develop a Multi User Online Roleplaying Game based on my personal favourite PC game of all-time--StarCraft--then that's good news.

If Blizzard isn't... well then... first, they should, and secondly, Penny Arcade's gonna hafta do some 'splainin'!!

For Aiur!!

Chippy

Sandy took some pictures from around the back yard the other day.

Raspberries

The Raspberry shrub we have is taking over the whole garden, but we're looking forward to the ripened raspberries, so we don't mind too much!

Woodpecker feeding

Of course, it wouldn't be a photo blog of our back yard without hte obligatory picture of a Downey Woodpecker feeding on the hanging suet.

See all "start of summer" pictures--Sumer 2006 pictures

Hey Spark! (no, the other one)

Happy Birthday!

Growing up, I was taught the euphemism--'never judge a book by its cover'.

I took it to heart, and my experiences through the years have shown me that it's really quite true.

I'll try to not make any generalities and only talk about specific happenings, but these are things that I've noted--

Standing in line at Tim Hortons (or other venues of choice), I've noted that often times a very 'high end' car like a BMW or an Audi or something will pull up to the front door (blocking traffic), the driver will come into the building and try and push his way to the front of the line (acting very impatient) and be very impolite to the hostesses behind the counter (and to the other people in line).

Now this isn't *all* expensive car drivers. However, I have not seen a 1981 Vega driver park his or her wreck in front of the store and execute the same (what I'll call) uncouthness towards the general public.

There was the one time I witnessed an extremely minor accident as well--guy, probably 40-50 something, in what looked like a brand new pick-up (a very large model--maybe an F350 or something) was 'rear ended' by a little lady (probably 50-60 something). I was standing right there and she barely bumped him. Yet he came out of that truck like wild-fire--his face all red and his pudgy gut swinging around as he faced his transgressor. He yelled profanities at the lady that would make a sailor blush because 'how dare she scuff' his brand new truck.

Again, I'm not saying that all middle-aged heavy-set pickup drivers are mean as a snake. I plan on being a middle-aged pickup truck driver (pretty soon) and I tell ya--I don't think I'm mean at all.

That said, the mean pickup truck drivers that I've seen are middle aged men who obviously put their truck before any societal decorum.

The point is (and I do have a point) that you can't judge people by what they drive. You can make certain generalities, but that'll get you nowhere for there'll always be people who don't quite fit the 'stereotype'--I've met many people that drive BMW's and pickup trucks and they're the nicest, sweetest, most considerate people you'd ever hope to meet.

I wrote that bit to get me to this next bit. It's been on my mind of late--really on my mind, and it goes something like this--

People have told me that I should be careful about what I write here on this blog--"It may affect something at some indeterminate future date" is the general consensus. For example, a good friend mentioned just last week that employers are now doing background checks on prospective employees by googling them on the internet. If you did or said something 'bad' in the past and it's on the internet, that may affect your chances of getting hired.

One concrete example was, again, a friend who runs an on-line photo journal. There was a picture on that photo-journal of someone else--an acquaintance--who was quite hammered at a party, and that image was captured for all posterity and posted on this photo-journal. Well, acquaintance's employer saw the photo on-line and there was some negative repurcussions for said acquaintance. E-mails for removal of pic from photo journal wasn't too far off, and done deal.

The issue I have with this is as follows--It wasn't the poster of the picture who is to blame for the negative repurcussions the acquaintance faced, it was the acquaintance for getting sloshed in the first place (not that I'm going to put on my anti-fallen-down-drunk hat right now).

Further, and more specific to me, if an employer is going to not choose me for a job *solely* on the basis of something I said here on this blog, then that's an employer that I don't want to work for. Bill Gates or not, no one dictates to me what I can think or say when I'm not at work.

I've pretty much prided myself on the idea that I'm not ashamed of anything that I've ever said or done. Regrets? Yes. Woulda-coulda-shoulda done something else? You bet. However, no shame to be found. I've lived my life to the best of my ability. Any prospective employer of mine that reads this blog should have in her or his mind the idea that 'this Dave guy' has an opinion--not written in stone, mind you--on issues that affect us all. If I'm wrong, then I'll admit it--I've never had a problem fiximg my mistakes or updating how I look at things if warranted.

I'm going to quote my favourite show--"When I write something, I put my name on it!" I refuse to change my opinion or 'tone it down' based on how someone might perceive me, and I refuse to be embarassed about the thing's I've said--If I can't stand up for me, who is good enough for me to stand up for? And if you make your decision about me based *solely* on the writings herein (or other 'wonderful' things on the internet with my name on 'em), then you're the person writing off all pickup truck and BMW drivers. I mean, you can go right ahead--it's your life--but I'll just go on living mine over here, thanks.

Yup, it's now offically less than 100 days until we get hitched.

I must admit that the nerves, the stress and the panic are all starting to kick in.

Wow, I can't believe we are so close to becoming Mr. and Mrs. David and Sandy Koudys - Hmmm, I like the sound of that.

Don't Bow To God's Bullies

In which it is said by the Rev. Jim Rigby, HuffingtonPost.com--

He makes this very astute observation--

Are you listening, Pastor Hagee? Pastor Falwell? Pastor Robertson? Con artists--all of you.

Rev. Rigby goes on to say this very telling bit--

Maybe it is like the book of James always said--doing is more important than believing--"Those who work for the common good are his church".

The important bit for us to remember, however, is this--

If we keep silent, we are just as guilty as those con artists that have hijacked 'God' for their own purposes.

One of the commenters made that very clear--

How many times have I heard over the course of my life--"Don't do that!! It's a sin!!"

Why? Who said that it was a sin? Some historical figure in a book? Or maybe someone's potentially flawed interpretations of whatever historical writings that were left by some historical figure? Either way, it doesn't matter--putting historical or religious dogma (and that's what it is--dogma) as the highest arbiter of what we can or cannot do is ludicrous. Open up Leviticus sometimes and come back and tell me we should follow what 'the bible tells us so'

Another commenter had this to say--

'Main stream' religion is too busy making God and/or Jesus into their image.

I definitley don't know everything, and I don't have all the answers, but from what I've read and what I've learned, i'm sorry--I can't be conned that way. To the Hagees, the Robertsons and the Falwells--you can try and keep your con going. However, more and more people are waking up to it--you can only bully people for so long before they realize they're being bullied and will just walk away.

I've walked.

And I haven't been happier in my relationship with God.

Scott Kurtz, creator of the on-line comic strip, PvP, had this to say yesterday--

Though I've travelled a different avenue, I think that Scott and I are on the same page where religion is concerned.

I especially liked this bit--

Why, indeed.

This is Hawking's telling--

So science can study the where's and the how's now, but not the 'how did it begin?', 'what started it all?' and then the obviously big fallout question as to the origins of, well, Life, the Universe, and Everything--'Why?'.

Why wouldn't the Pope want these answers?

Because if science can answer the 'why' as to the origins of the universe (and i'm going on record right now stating that I think it'll never be able to, but that's another story), that answer may make religion obsolete. If science 'proves' that 'God' isn't the answer, then where does that leave religion?

To not get to the answer then, says the Pope, don't pursue the question.

Religion, in this context, is like the 5 year old who thinks that there's a monster in the closet--it sits there cowaring outside the door, unwilling to open it. More importantly, religion doesn't want anyone else opening the door, either.

So there religion sits, outside the closet door, century after century, unable to open the closet door.

Galileo tried opening the door once and look wher that got him.

Though, to be said, the same Pope that didn't want Hawking to pursue the 'Why's' also gave a 'reprieve' to Galileo--

Maybe there is movement towards opening the closet door.

I can only pray that this is so.

In 1972, the average car price was $2000.00 (now this is from memory and I was only 5 at the time, so I may be a little off)

In 2006, the average vehicle price that I'm noticing advertised on teh telly is $30,000.00.

K, I'll wait for someone to rationally justify that leap of pricing over 30 years...

But that's parenthetical to the point I'm about to make.

I bouught a 4 year old Honda Prelude at one point in my life. Those who knew me then remember how much I loved that car (and I still have some pretty fond memories, but I digress...)

Anywho, I bought the Prelude from a 'friend' at the dealership--sticker price $8,900.00--purchased price $8,900.00. Yeah, I was a mark and he knew it.

Anyway, not having $8,900.00 in my bank account, I ended up with a payment plan over 4 years. In the end, the car costed me $12,000.00 (and a few emotional distresses, which, again, parenthetical to the debate).

I had the car for about 7-8 years, so that worked out to be $1500.00ish per year. Yes I'm not including maintenance/repairs/gas--just talking about how much was paid for the vehicle vs the vehicle 'used' time.

So 1500 dollars per year--Approximately 4 bucks a day. Not too bad--it's like a few cups of coffee--or in a high-end coffee shop, like a half a cuppa coffee.

Anyway, 4 bucks a day isn't much when you really think about it. But let's get some perspective on this.

How much time do you spend in your car? For everyone it's different. I figured out my average hourly usage per day is around an hour--convenient, that.

Then I thought, how much do I use, say, my house? Well, besides the time I'm at work (and other miscellaneous coffee/visiting time) I probably average at least 16 hours a day thru the year at our abode. How long have we/will we own the abode? Well, I was personally planning on at least 20 years (but Sandy may have something to say about that)--but let's use that number for thes purposes.

20 years in a home. Purchase price--$105,000.00--works out to be $5250.00 per year, or 14 bucks per day. Yet I spend 16 hours a day in the house, so it's less than a buck an hour. Car--4 buck an hour.

Again, numbers have a way of proving what you want them to prove. But let's look at it another way--

The average car price is $30,000.00. That's around one third our house purchase price. Think about that--a car, in which you spend an hour a day is one third the cost of a house, in which you spend 16ish hours a day.

I can't 'appreciate' the cost of a vehicle when I look at it that way.

Then there's this 'minor' issue--take your $30,000.00 car to the car compactor.

Squish it into a tiny metal cube.

Take that metal cube to the scrap dealers.

$50.00 (maybe) is what you'll get for it.

$50.00 worth of (raw) material in a $30,000.00 car.

Where does the other $29,950.00 go?

Paint?

Robot worker wages?

R & D?

See, when I think of it like that, I really can't justify a $30,000.00 price tag on a new vehicle. Especially when we all know (and have heard of numerous times) that a vehicle drastically depreciates in value the second you drive it off the lot.

Why?

Because it wasn't worth the sticker price to begin with.

A new car isn't worth the sticker price. However, the dealers/manufactureres ask for that price because they know that people'll pay it--"Ooooh--check out my new (insert car name here)!"

I may have been a little jaded from my 'expensive' Prelude purchase (expensive being a relative term here), or I may have been a little spoiled by my last vehicle purchase...

Let's talk about that for a sec--

Mighty Dodge--purchase price (to me)--$500.00

Years driven--6

Figure that there out--

22 cents per day.

Did ya catch that? 22 cents per day.

(And if I was actually on top of things (as I should have been), that Labour Day run-in with the MTO wouldn't have happened (that was my fault--not the vehicle's))

Anyway, I guess the point is, why are we spending so much money on something that we only use for an hour a day? I use my bed more than I use my vehicle--though, to be said, a bed doens't contain much of anything.

Bottom line (for me)--a vehicle is a utility--it's to get me to work and to home. That's the purpose of a vehicle. And if I can do that with a 500 dollar vehicle as opposed to a $30,000.00 vehicle, I'll take the 500 bucks, Alex.

And I won't get started on the fawning and coveting that surround the mythos of the car.

Sci Fi has the best quotations for the "bleakest hour", when the odds are against you and hope has all but left the building--

As for other great sci-fi quotes, I think I'll stick to B5--

This is a rather lengthy one--

Of course, to get the 'full impact' of the above quotations, one should be a fan and understand the events that lead up to the point where these words were spoken--put 'em in context, as it were.

There'll be those that 'get it' and appreciate them, and then there'll be those that can't be bothered 'cause it's 'sci-fi'. Eh, to each his or her own.

As for me, as with my love for science fiction,

"The sky's the limit..."

Transformer

If they make a 'real life' movie and the detail's that good, I'd pay the 10 bucks to see it.

Probably due to legal issues, but Optimus was a red truck, not a white one.

Nicely done, either way.

Telemarketers often call our abode.

Most are for some sort of 'Donate to this!' thing, but I usually get them off the phone pretty quick--'We donate to other things. Sorry, we're not interested!'

Today, however, the telemarketer called and caught me completely off-guard--

"Hey!", says I.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Winchester..."

Mr. Winchester???

Waittaminit!!

Was I inclined to donate to whatever she wanted me to donate to, with 'Mr. Winchester'--not so much.

I mean, I think Sandy should keep her last name after we get married--my last name is prety much unpronouncable by those 'not in the know' (or are from 'wooden shoe' country), so she'd do well to keep her last name.

As for me, I'm used to my last name and am kinda attached to it so I'm not inclined to change it.

So Ms. 'Mr. Winchester' Telemarketer--no money for you!

Slaves to the sytems, slaves to the machines...

So Sandy and I have decided that white invitations for our wedding... not so much. We want Ivory instead--more for the fall motif we've got going on.

However, we had purchased wedding invites a while back at Michaels--they were having a 50 percent off sale (Yipee!!) and we had picked up the white invitations then for 25 bucks (normally 50! Good deal!!).

Last night (our 'date night'--saw 'Break Up'--Kinda cute, but I digress) we headed up to Michaels to exchange the white invites for the ivory ones.

We get there--Sandy grabs the Ivory invites and we stand in line.

Now Ill point out some basic information--both invitation sets are made by the same company. Both come in identical boxes. Both contain exactly the same amount of invites/envelopes/reply cards/etc.

The *only* difference, besides the SKU (which we'll get into), is that one set is white, the other is ivory.

So we talk to the 'customer service' person--"We'd like to exchange this set (white) for this set (ivory)."

We hand over the receipt and she starts the exchange process.

However, the exchange process, at least for this store, is that the 'returned goods' is rung up and the price on the receipt is refunded, and the new item is rung up and the current price is charged.

Well, that's not good for us--we got the item on sale for half price. She mentioned that we would owe the difference of 25 bucks.

"But wait", we note, "Isn't this a straight exchange? This one for that one?"

Nope, that's not how this works. See, the SKU's didn't match--the white set was produced a few months ago and the ivory set was produced more recently. As if that makes a huge difference to a person.

But it does make a huge difference to the computer, and it's the computer that must be right.

So we ask to see the manager.

She shows up and we explain the situation. She was wavering on the 'We have to pay the difference in price', when she came up with this brilliant idea--treat the return as if we didn't have the receipt.

Exqueese me??

See, if we lost the receipt, we could do a straight exchange with no issue.

So we were told to 'hide the receipt' and we did the straight exchange thing, so that was okay.

But then I got to thinking about it--we could have gone into the store last night with an item that was normally priced at 50 dollars (but which we bought for 25), returned it, and gotten a store credit for 50 bucks--how does that work better for the store?

But ours is not to wonder why.

In the end, the Michaels manager last night put customer service ahead of what the computer was saying, unlike a certain cable company that we recently had dealings with.

But we'll save that for later.

We now have our ivory invitations--that's the important bit.

Look Ma! Onions!

One thing you learn after a while--Mother Nature will not be denied!

Baby Tomato Plant

We planted a few rows of onions, as well as 4 tomato plants in our little garden.

We couldn't plant anymore 'cause the garden's getting quite overgrown--

Flowering Peonies

With the regular perennials, as well as the raspberry bush we got growing against the house, it's a wonder we had the room for what we did!

Raspberry bush looking a little untamed

And lest we forget the fallout from the winter birdfeeders--

Sunflowers

Whatever seeds that the birds missed are now growing into sunflowers.

Sandy added a few hanging plants to round out the look of our back yard

Bloomitjes!

We're pretty happy with how the growing's going so far.

See all back yard growing goodness here--Garden 2006

Sparky's and Sandy's Space is moving to a new 'bon-a-fide' server!

(Just thought I'd scare ya with the moving bit )

Over the next few weeks, we'll be migrating the entire website (4.5 gig, not including the extraneous stuff) over to a brand new server (well, new to us)

You can have a look at the 'temporary' setup--

Temporary Sparky's and Sandy's Space

K, it's just like this one and basically every link points back to here, but eh, whatever...

Due to the swapover, there may be some issues or outages with the website over the next few days/weeks. Please bear with us.

And we apologize for any inconvenience.

It's at home (so any cops reading this--don't pull me over when I drive home tonite!!!) and I'm at work. Realized my little faux pas around the halfway-to-work mark, so I decided to not bother with it.

But, of course, I get all 'I don't have my wallet with me so I better be careful not to get noticed whilst I drive'... so that made my drive in to work that much more stressful.

And I'm feeling pretty much naked without it--it's like I forgot an item of clothing.

So there you are.

The first ever Sandy and Sparky Garage Sale

Once a year, our townhouse complex has a survey-wide garage sale. You can partake (or not) if you so desire.

Well, this year we desired.

See, when you're combining the contents of two abodes into one, you often find lots of duplicates. As well, I'm increasingly of the same opinion as my pops and Wil Wheaton--if some object didn't get touched/used in the last 6 months, chances are it'll never get touched--time to think about getting rid of said object.

So that's what we did--set up our little area and waited for folks to show up to purchase our wares.

Lookit all the junk--er, I mean great stuff for sale!

We put out patio furniture, and other big stuff that was taking up room in the garage. We put out lots of mugs, teacups, and other kitchen-type stuff, and just anything else that we would never use again.

At the end of the morning, we had about 100 dollars more in our hands and less stuff taking up room in our abode. That's the good bit.

Sandy waiting for customers

We priced things to move--some garage sales that I've seen appear to be set up to make the money back on the item. In my opinion, that's not the purpose of Garage Sales--we weren't there to make a huge load of cash--we did it to make room in the house and hopefully pass on to others some useful items instead of sending these items to a landfill.

Most of the people that came around were our neighbours and fellow condo people in our complex, so it was one big 'move stuff from our garage into yours' thing going on.

But isn't that what Garage saleing is all about?

When we were done for the day, we packed up what was left into the back of the Mighty Dodge and headed over to Value Village. A neighbour, seeing us loading up the pickup, asked if we were heading over to Value Village, and, if so, would we mind taking her leftover stuff as well. So we had a pretty full truck.

See all garage sale pics here--2006 Garage Sale

The following is a parable. Any similarity between events described in the story and actual real-life happenstance is entirely coincidental.

Joe Smith is a ditch digger. Joe, being that kind of guy, tries to be the best ditch digger that he can possibly be--he went to school for ditch digging, he's practiced ditch digging in his spare time, and he dug ditches for many of his friends and family for most of his life since high school.

Now Joe, being again that guy, decided that perhaps ditch digging, as it is his love and passion, should be his primary source of income. He's pretty good at it--though to be said, Joe isn't arrogant about his ditch digging abilities and will often listen and appreciate what others in the ditch digging field have to say about their chosen profession.

It may have taken a few years, but Joe got he considered to be a pretty decent job... nay, a career as a ditch digger for a very big company.

The company was a good one and Joe was happy with his digging of ditches and geting paid for it for many years. Joe got to share in knowledge exchange with other ditch diggers and everyone was happy.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, things started to go awry. Small things at first, but these issues started to negatively impact on Joe's job duties of ditch digging.

For example, in any position in a company there is bound to be 'administrative time'--time where Joe wasn't digging ditches but had to fill out paperwork for 'the management'--whatever the paperwork might be. Joe realized that 'administrative time' is a necessary evil in any profession and he was more than happy to fulfill this duty as assigned because that comes with the job.

However, management started to become micromanagement, and instead of Joe relegating 10 percent of his time to 'administrative tasks as assigned' and 90 percent to actual ditch digging, he found himself in a situation where his time was shared almost 50 percent between paperwork and actual ditch digging.

Again, because Joe loved to dig ditches, and the company he worked for was still paying him a very good salary to dig those ditches, Joe didn't particualry kick up a fuss, even though he wasn't digging as many ditches as before--'comes with the territory', Joe thought.

However, with the micromanagement reducing Joe's time for actual ditch digging to around 50 percent, it was noted that not as many ditches were getting dug. Management, in their infinite wisdom, decided that bringing in some contractors 'to pick up the slack' was in order. Joe's private opinion was that if he had less adminstrative overhead, he could dig more ditches himself, but alas, management didn't see that wisdom.

So in came the contractors. Contractors, at least from what Joe could see, neither cared or loved the company or ditch digging as much as Joe. But Joe kept that opinion to himself.

However, when the contractors, due to ignorance, stupidity or outright thoughtlessness, started to fill in the ditches that Joe's trying to dig--well, that was a little too much for Joe.

Joe sat down with his boss and mentioned what was going on with the contractors. Joe showed his boss the ditches that he's dug, and then had to redig them because the contractors filled them in.

The boss mentioned that he'd take care of it, so Joe left it in his bosses capable hands.

Turns out that the contractors contined to 'make errors'. Joe knows about errors--in his long years of digging ditches, he's made more than his fair share. However, Joe always took responsibility for his errors and vowed to learn from them and never made the same mistake again.

Not so much for the contractors--they disavowed any knowledge of filling in the ditches, even when confronted with documentation and witnesses--'We didn't do it--it can't be us!!'

Again, Joe took a trip into the bosses office. Joe wasn't an unkind soul to circumstances, but when the contractors were shown the errors of their ways and blatantly lied about their involvement thereof, Joe was a little peturbed.

Again the boss stated that he was managing the problem.

Joe went back to his job--digging ditches and filling out paperwork, and left the issues to the purview of management.

Life like this went on for Joe--digging ditches and redigging filled in ditches. Management continued to state that they were managing the issues, and promised more help for Joe and his fellow ditch diggers--for more and more ditches had to be dug, and there was less time and people to dig these ditches.

The help from management came in the form of more administration--"We need to know what you're doing with your time! Please fill out these forms on a daily basis."

The parable of Joe the ditch digger doesn't have an ending--at least, not a proper one. I picture Joe, trying to comply to the micromanagement of the company whilst still trying to perform his daily ditch digging tasks to the best of his abilities. Many people who have heard the story of Joe have stated that perhaps he should look for ditch digging opportunities with other companies. The problem being, Joe knows from speaking with his ditch digging cohorts that mostly all other companies have very similar issues--the old euphemism--'better the devil you know...'

But I thought I'd put the parable of Joe down into writing and share it with all of you. Maybe, in the hope that if you know someone in a similar situation, or you're in a similar situation, you have to know that you're not alone. There are many, many people out there in the business world that are in the same situation--you're trying to 'dig your ditches' and others are filling them back in, or adding heaps of administrivia to your daily duties which makes it nigh impossible to dig the ditches that you were hired to dig.

Of course, the best bit of advice for this fabled Joe person comes from a television show--

My good friend Craig mentioned to me many months ago that Roger Hodgson was going to play in Kitchener.

Well, knowing my love for the group known as 'Supertramp' and all bandmembers, current and former, thereof, I was pretty excited.

Craig, being the totally cool frood that he is, picked me up a ticket for my birthday.

The day finally arrived--May 31st, 2006. Mark (another big fan), Craig and I proceeded to find 'The Centre in the Square' (got a little lost but that's another story). One thing--The Centre in the Square is set up and looks like a smaller version of Hamilton Place--I kinda liked that.

Craig and I did a ballpark estimate--the venue has approximately 1500 seats, and all of them appeared to be full for the evening.

So we sat down, talked about our favourite Supertramp songs, and waited for the show to begin.

Promptly at 8 p.m., the Kitchener Orchestra tuned themselves, the cacophany of sounds faded as the lights dimmed, and then the spotlight on stage left--Roger Hodgson strolled out.

Everyone was estatic.

Without too much preamble, he sat himself in front of the synthesizer and launched into 'Take the Long Way Home' (one of my top 5 favourite sing-along songs). Roger belted it out like he did on my favourite live album--Paris. The symphony was also wonderful. I've always thought that Supertramp songs would do well with a large symphonic orchestra, and I pretty much loved all of it.

Between most of the songs, Roger spoke to the audience about the songs and his memories regarding his writing or other ancedotes regarding his craft. And we lapped it up--all of it.

Hodgson played three non-Supertramp songs during his set, and they all went over exceptionally well. I previously thought that he was pretty talented but watching him play the guitar, the piano, the synthesizer and belt out songs--some of which he wrote over 35 years ago--and keep the audience entertained with stories and such--the love he has for his chosen craft was palpable and I was pretty much blown away.

He encouraged the audience to 'help' with 'School'--we were to be the screaming school kids that you hear near the beginning of the song--that was fun!

There was one point--I think it was right before Roger sang 'Dreamer', when he started to say something that piqued my curiosity--but he stopped himself from continuing. He said something like, "The next song I want to do is also from 'Crime of the Century'" *pause* "Actually I... well, nevermind..." Oooh, to know what he was about to say...

His appreciation for the orchestra was apparent--he gave them kudos through the entire evening, noting a few times that it's extremely difficult at the best of times for an orchestra to play with a band--added to this difficulty was the limited rehearsal time before the show--basically a day. That said, the orchestra was fantastic--they pulled off 'Fools Overture' flawlessly (at least to my ears) while Roger played both the piano and the synthesizer.

After that, he thanked us for showing up, even with the bad weather, and left the stage. Everyone stood up and there was thunderous applause--even the orchesta members were stamping their feet on the stage.

So Roger came back out, got his guitar, and played 'Two of Us'. Then with yet another heartfelt thanks to the symphony and the band members, Roger stated that he was going to play one more song, and that we could sing along if we wanted. He mentioned that he had written this song over 35 years before, but the song has more poignant significance today than it did when he wrote it. So he started playing and singing 'Give a Little Bit'. We were all standing and singing and clapping and just having an absolutely fantastic time.

But alas, all good things...

It was a phenominal concert-going experience. The only things that detracted from the evening was the bit about where we got lost trying to find 'The Centre in the Square', and a very aggressive usheresse that was not happy I was using my cell phone during the intermission. But those two things couldn't negatively impact the great music and talent that we witnessed on the stage.

Since the concert was in a 'family friendly' venue, there was no age restrictions--the audience was made up of people aged from 7 to 70--if you looked around, you would see what looked like grandparents with their grandkids. That was a unique sight for me. As well, there seemed to be many late teens/early twenty somethings attending--I don't know if they just had nothing better to do on a Wednesday evening

Thank you Roger for continually touring--bringing your enthusiasm and love for your craft to us so we can at least spend a few wonderful hours 'feeling the music' as it's meant to be experienced.

Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
Give a little bit
Ill give a little bit of my love to you
Theres so much that we need to share
So send a smile and show you care