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White Poppies My Ass

Who’s brilliant idea was it to have a white poppy? Read the news people, it’s all around us. White poppies to promote peace, only around Remembrance Day!

Inform yourselves before reading on:

Here.
Or Here.

Jonathan Bartley, director of the religious think-tank Ekklesia says
“The red poppy represents the glorious dead,” he said. “The white poppy says that war isn’t glorious and you shouldn’t look back and see it through rose-tinted glasses.”

You know what? I’m not going to rant about symbols of peace. Hey, I’m all for peace.

What I am disturbed about is the blatant use of Remembrance Day as a launchpad for the Peace Pledge Union who is responsible for the white poppies. Strike One.

Using an already recognized symbol but just changing the colour? Strike Two.

Shoving it back in our faces and saying that we should be promoting peace, not remembering the dead? Strike Three.

Mr. Clark of the Legion couldn’t have said it better (from this Globe and Mail article):

“Instead, said the Legion’s Mr. Clark, peace activists should focus their efforts on Sept. 21, which is the UN-sanctioned International Day of Peace. But even then, he added, white poppies would infringe on the Legion’s trademark. He suggested they use a different symbol such as a dove.

“Nov. 11 is the day that we honour our veterans. We need to make sure that that does not get confused, combined or anything else with another campaign,” he said.”

Excellent points Mr. Clark. I stand behind your thought process. While they’re at it, why don’t they use the peace symbol attached the dove?

Remember, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for peace. But what this is just plain disrespectful.

Sometimes you cannot pass up a purchase. Like last night, I got a newsletter from the Sam Roberts Band and they were talking about the last Chemical City t-shirt released. Now, throughout the tour, I was disappointed with the various t-shirts offered. I rarely buy t-shirts anymore (price gouging of course), so it has to be really special for me to pick it up.

Well, something special came along. A wolf t-shirt! Coolness! At least, I think it’s cool and that’s what counts. There was also a 7″ limited edition vinyl of Brother Down that I couldn’t pass up. You never know, these things could be worth something someday.

Too bad the prices were in US dollars. I wonder what problems the band were encountering with MapleMusic to stop offering new items via the Canadian store?

You know you’ve hit the big leagues when you get the notice of yours truly from one of your comments on my site. BRB is probably dancing around praising the heavens that I finally acknowledge him. That guy has some wacko ideas and even worse, lives by them. While I don’t knack his photography, I do knock his fashion sense.

All joking aside, BRB is the man for bringing up this piece of 80s goodness – Max Headroom. Max Headroom (as seen in this picture) is from a TV show in 1987 (but started in the UK in 1985…whoa!) which revolved around…man, I don’t remember. All I know is that he was a rep for Coca-Cola.

In all honesty, I can remember watching this show, but cannot remember what the show was about. I was fairly young when it came out so higher level concepts probably alluded. By the way, if someone even thinks of making a crack about how higher level concepts probably allude me to this day, consider yourself on the blacklist.

I just remember thinking it was sooo coool to be a character inside a computer. Heck, I probably didn’t even have a computer at that time so I thought that a computer could do this. Little did I know that the only things that I would see on a computer were the following:

C:>

Wow. That’s great. What the heck can I do with that?

Anyhow, I would like people to share their memoirs of Max Headroom in the comments section. Let’s relive the moment where AI almost took over the world! Wait…is Max Headroom the precursor to the Matrix? I can envision a hilarious spoof right now.

Today’s Lesson: If your heart desires something that requires a lot of money, don’t hold yourself back, buy it!

I’ve had a vibration in my front right tire for quite awhile now and so I dropped it off to the dealer…six weeks ago? They said it was due to rust build up or something to that effect. Very strange. A few weeks later the vibration came back, and it was worse.

At the same time, Dad was mentioning how I should get my tires checked to see if I need a new set since the winter was coming up. I figure buying a set of new all-seasons will do me good in the winter months instead of buying a set of winter tires. Too all those reading this entry and who are gung ho on the winter tires, bravo. I applaud you. But they aren’t for me.

Upon seeing the first snowfall of the year, I decide to drop the car off at Canadian Tire instead of the dealer in case they can find something else wrong with the vibration, and at the same time, check out the wear on my tires. After hoofing it home, I get a call an hour later saying one tire is bald, and the three others are pretty well done also. Also, they said that the bald tire was the reason of the vibrations.

Well. This all made sense in my head but I was a little wary of the bald tire causing the vibration (because the bald tire was on the opposite side). Regardless, I order four new all-seasons and pick up the car a few hours later.

Did it do the trick? For sure! No vibration. There may be a small one, but I’m not sure yet as it may just be the feel of the new tires on the vehicle. Must run it around the block a few times to find out if I’m imagining things or not.

Either way, the following observations were made:
– One would think that the dealer would have checked the wear on the tires and noticed they were pretty well gone.
– $564 later, I realize that there’s some cash that could have been used towards something fun in my life. 😉 Alas, the car is my fun. It gets me around places. But don’t hold yourselves back! Spend the money if you have it. This reminds me of the time where we were driving to Montreal and as soon as I cross the Ontario/Quebec border, cops come out of nowhere and flag me down to pull over. Ah crap. It was this giant speed trap where six cars pulled over. I knew I was busted so I waited there patiently. However, all the cops went to all the other cars lined up! I waited a few minutes and figured they must have flagged down the car next to me and not my own! I slowly pulled out (in case I was wrong and the cops were just taking their time getting to me) but no one motioned to me so I took off like a bat out of hell. That day, I bought a few clothing items, because in my eyes, I just won my own money back. Instead of a $150 speeding ticket, I had that in my pocket now for me to enjoy. Yeeha!
– Did you know ING Direct puts a limits on how many virtual bank accounts you may open? Doh! I loved the ability to just open a new account and fill it for random things I need in life – driver’s plates, swimming pass, bearskin rugs…I am on this saving kick where if I know there will be something in the upcoming year (let’s say…your property taxes!), then I just figure out how much it is per week and set up an Automatic Withdrawal system. It is working out supremely at this moment because I don’t get a nasty surprise around my birthday (“Hey guess what! You owe us $100 for your license plates! Happy Birthday!”). Anyhow, I was about to start one for saving up for my next set of tires, but alas, it does not allow me to do so. 🙁

iplaying: Bullet with Butterfly Wings [Live in Barrie 2000] – Smashing Pumpkins

Kids With No Costumes – 8 PM rolls around and the kids aren’t coming as frequent. Then the doorbell rings and there are seven teenage boys with shopping bags asking for candy. No costumes! What’s the protocol on this? Do I give them candy? Let me tell you, with seven teenage boys at my door, I sure as hell was going to give them candy or fear the aftermath of what would happen to my car’s tires. There was even one guy with no bag! I made a comment and he asked if I had a bag that I could spare. I politely declined and whispered “Moron”.

Buying Candy – It’s pretty hard to find Reese Peanut Butter Cups at 5:30 on the night of Hallowe’en. But I managed to find some at Zellers. However, it was $10 for a bag of 90! I picked up two bags with the notion that I would return the other bag. This is a smart thing to do people! It’s like the keg party you’re at that has a spare in the back room JUST IN CASE. Just don’t let some thirsty partier crack the last keg before the others are finished, or you’re stuck there all weekend drinking it – or in this case, eating Reese Peanut Butter Cups. Anyhow, keep your receipt to avoid these hangups. For mental note’s sake for next year when I’m reading this entry, I didn’t get through a bag of 90 Reese Peanut Butter Cups. I probably used 70, along with Mike’s Rockets.

Peanut Allergies – The big thing nowadays is not to give candy with peanuts in it in case of allergies. Well, some may question my purchase of the Peanut Butter Cups but the way I see it is that it’s clearly labeled so if a kid can’t eat it, at least he has all that other peanut free candy that they got from the neighbourhood. We received some great compliments on the choice of the Peanut Butter Cups. Plus, if we get stuck with candy afterwards, it’s easy to swallow 20 of those in a day. Ugh.

Throwing Eggs – Let the following life fact echo in everyone’s head and stay there for eternity. “If thou thinkest an egg thrown at your buddy’s house is funny, you must also be prepared to find it funny when he retaliateth by dumping the leaves from his yard in front of your door.”

Ringing the Bell – Ah ha, I bet you thought I was talking about the kids at Hallowe’en ringing the bell? Nope. This is about ringing the bell on the public bus. Now, I consider myself a seasoned rider of the public transit system so I will give this person the benefit of the doubt. Anyhow, as I sat on the bus this morning, the lady next to me asks if I may reach up and ring the bell so that the bus driver knows to stop at the next stop. Well, the next stop is the building I work at…and where 90% of the bus unloads in the morning. Being a seasoned rider, I realize this is pointless as we all know that in the morning, the driver KNOWS to make the stop there. It’s just a given. It would be different if it’s an odd stop along the way. So here is my list of ‘When There is No Need to Ring the Bell.”:

• When you are getting to the end of the line. The driver knows enough to stop there.
• You don’t have to ring the bell if there is a major stop coming up. Granted, you would have to know this beforehand after many trips on the bus. A fine example is the mall. Someone is 99% guaranteed to get on or off at this stop. So there is no need to ring the bell.
• There is no third option.

So there you have it. Palmer’s Thoughts for the past 24 hours. Oh, plus I love cable for the sole fact that I can watch the Rick Mercer Report. That guy is freakin’ hilarious.

Spook yer socks off ladies and gents! It’s the night of Ghouls and Goblins and we’re not talking about your girlfriend here (except for you Bobby. Get your girlfriend some help.)

This year, the Hallowe’en bug didn’t really hit me at all as my Ghostbuster costume idea didn’t come to fruition AGAIN (2 years in a row) but I am hopeful for next year. I am also a fan of making a scary costume…so I have my second calling as Vero’s friends are having a Hallowe’en party this weekend. Yay! I think I’m going to go all out and zombie-fy myself.

Anyhow, in true spooktacular fashion, I present some essential Hallowe’en goodies that you need to immerse yourself in.

Candy and Kids – Nowadays, as most of us reading this blog are adults, it’s time to up the ante. We can’t go around getting candy, so we need to do the next best thing – scare the bejeezus out of the little ones. My memories fade back to how scary it would be when Nanny would pop out her teeth. Now that was a fright! Tonight, I have ambitions of hiding inside the giant hill of leaves that I have yet to take off the lawn. In reality, I will probably just hand out candy from the safety inside my house while watching a horror flick.

Horror Flicks – Come on people. If you’re too scared, you don’t deserve any candy. I’m a big fan of the horror genre, so I present to you my all-time faves:

• Evil Dead/Army of Darkness – I am scared of the woods at night, it’s no secret. So this just makes me wet my pants when watching it. However, when you get farther into the movies, they just get hokey which is awesome because Bruce Campbell is the greatest actor alive. He is the true B-Movie actor.

• Hallowe’een – Move over Freddy and Jason. Mike Myers was the cool stoic one walking around like nobody’s business and slashing you with that big kitchen knife. One of my personal faves of the whole bunch.

• Blair Witch Project – Alright, alright. I know, it isn’t that scary. But it is if you’re scared of the woods at night AND if you don’t know the secret behind the movie (which won’t be spoiled here on Palmer’s World.) I was blown away when I first saw this movie a few years back. This movie will make you cry out ‘Mommy!’

Costumes – All costumes must adhere to the principles of good Hallowe’ening while at the same time, provide a balance of practicality. For example, if you’re going to wear a pumpkin on your head for the event, leave enough room to stick your beer bottle in there so you can keep hydrated. No one likes a dehydrated pumpkin head. Let it also be known that there is no excuse for not having a costume ready by the day you are actually hosting a party. That’s just poor form. A bathrobe does not count.

Practicial Jokes – Hey, there’s a Gremlin in every bunch so it’s good to lay a joke out here and there on Hallowe’en. My personal fave is when you slash your buddy’s tires and when he gets up to go to work, there is a look of horror on his face. This, my friends, is what it considered a great practical joke. Or, the old burning of the front yard tree goes well on Hallowe’en also. I’m not a fan as of this joke alltomuch as there may be squirrels starting to collect their nuts for the winter.

TV Shows – Hey, we all love the Great Pumpkin. Krista tipped me off that this would be playing last Friday so Vero and I caught it on TV. Vero was very thankful she found out what the big deal was all about.

I hope everyone has a good Hallowe’en, and I hope that everyone makes an effort to watch SOMETHING that is spooky.