Forbidden Planet

When I was much younger, I had great interest in the occult and paranormal. When I was 13, for Christmas of 1979, I asked for and got a book called The Compleat Astrologer . I wanted this book because it showed you how to draw up a horoscope as well as providing interpretation guides and planetary tables from 1905 until 1979 - which put it far ahead of any other books on astrology which simply were describptive, but didn't show you how to do it hands on. I have no crystal ball and I have long dismissed divination, however let us see what the new year brings forth. And may it be good for all of us. Images scanned by me but remain the property and copyright of Bantam books.

Some soccer action from Tania this past summer. For some reason they have difficulty painting straight lines in Montreal. This is on Brunswick, just across from the Fairview Shopping Centre. You can see the satellite shot here Some Rose Hip found growing along Lac St. Louis. A morning glory found growing among some purple flowers in Parc Summerlea along Lac St. Louis. Google map here . Some soccer action from Jason this past summer. Jason and a horsehhoe crab when we were in New York in August. Giraffe's have blue tongues as can be seen. This is an edible mushroom. However it has no flavour, so there is little point. A mother duck and her ducklings. Taken in Parc Summerlea along Lac St. Louis. Tania and my goddaughter.

I was tagged by Tin-Tin and I have to tag some people later. The instructions are: 1. Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 keywords given below: family , friend , yourself , love , anything you like . 2. Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better. 3. Don’t forget to read the archived post and leave comments. Hmmm ... don't understand the comment part. Am I supposed to leave comments on my posts? I think I will wait for clarification from Tin-Tin . Who to tag? Who to tag? Last time I tagged people it was MOI , KayMac , breal , tin-tin , and Barbara . So this time I will tag: Ingrid , Carra , Tena , Cavalock , and Freckled One . If I didn't tag you and you want to play, please feel free to appropriate this meme. Image nabbed from here .

Last Friday, I went to see a Christmas pageant at my kids' school. It was less a pageant and more the kids singing some Christmas carols. They were divided into grades 1&2, 3&4, and 5&6 with two groups of each. My kids go to a private school and wear a uniform. I hate the uniform. Sofia likes it, so does my dad. They both feel that it gives the kids more order and discipline. Makes them more uniform and less prone class and fashion discrimination. I simply view it as a symbol of conformity and it really makes my skin crawl. Children need to learn tolerance and respect for others not because they all dress the same and behave the same way, but because it is the right thing to do, despite their differences. I like the education they are getting. Tania has remarked that she prefers this school to the public because she gets more work. It also seems to provide adequate challenge for Jason as well. But I still can't stand the uniforms. Anyway, back to the pageant. As I w...

If you have never prepared duck breasts, you will find them extremely firm and plump. They are also quite fatty. I managed to render over 3 cups of duck fat from breasts I prepared Monday night. (And yes, I saved the fat, much to Sofia's dismay, it is sitting in the fridge. I used some tonight when I prepared Turkey a la king - using it to sauté the onions). Unlike my mother, who always prepared the same traditional dishes Christmas Eve, I always try to prepare something new. Sometimes it is successful, others times it is not. I think my worst failure was an almond rice I prepared a few years ago. It called for amaretto extract - it was overwhelming and quite disgusting (sadly, we had guests that year. oops). This year we started with potato, pear and leek soup. Which I thought was very good. My kids disagreed. This was followed with crab cakes. With more disagreement from the kids. The main course was duck breasts in red wine (I used a very nice sweet Peruvian wine, but I think it...

Love this song, but I can't find a version I like. I think it needs to be both joyful and lead by a deep powerful voice. So many versions are just way over produced and so far removed from the simplicity of the message and emotion at the heart of it.

Photo credit: Richard of Forbidden Planet (actually, it is just the flash off falling snowflakes at night).

This is what happens when you speed on icy and snow packed roads following last Sunday's snowstorm. I passed two overturned cars on the Quebec side of the border (50 Km worth of highway) and one car nose first in the ditch on the Ontario side fo the border (150 Km worth of highway). It looks like this fellow left the highway right around this point (you can see where the snow bank on the side of the road has a path through it - slightly covered up by passing snow ploughs, but a path nonetheless). I was doing about 40 Km/h on the highway. I wanted to go faster, but the cars ahead of me kept me going slower. Photo credit: Richard of Forbidden Planet.

A pretty good fan made trailer of interest only to Doctor Who fans. Doctor Who is the world's longest running sci-fi TV show. It started in 1963 and ran until 1989. There was a made for TV movie in 1996 and the series was revived in 2005. The new series begins following the Last Great Time War between the Doctor's race and the Daleks which resulted in the total extermination of both races. Only the Doctor survived - leaving him a bit hard edged and moody.

Today is the birthday of the first International friend I ever had - a Japanese woman named Megumi. We have long since lost contact, but I still remember her. She was a great friend, a biologist who had a great love of philosophy as well. We used to spend hours discussing all manner of things, whether we had any knowledge about them or not. I think comfort foods would have been an interesting topic to discuss with her. One thing comfort foods have in common is that they are calorie dense - typically 5 or 6 calories per gram (carbohydrates and proteins are 4 calories per gram, fat is 9 calories per gram and alcohol is 6 calories per gram). And tend to be carbohydrate and fat heavy. Chocolates and nuts typically average around 6 calories per gram; chips about 5 calories per gram. My suspicion is that early in our evolutionary history, getting adequate sustenance was a big stress in our lives. Energy dense foods would have relieved that stress. I am not saying there weren't other stre...

A bit of snow fell yesterday in Montreal (Ottawa too). I am still in Montreal. I have to dig out my car first. Then drive 200Km over icy and snow covered roads to get to Ottawa. I may choose not to go. Normally, we don't get this much snow. Photo credit: Richard of Forbidden Planet (and, yeah, that is my car in the driveway)

Since time immemorial, people have thought the world to be over populated, as can be illustrated from these two ancient snippets: "There was a time when the countless tribes of men, though wide dispersed, oppressed the surface of the deep-bosomed earth, and Zeus saw it and had pity and in his wise heart resolved to relieve the all-nurturing earth of men by causing the great struggle of the Ilian war, that the load of death might empty the world." - Cypria or Kypria, 7th or 8th century BCE. (estimated world population 75 million) "What most frequently meets our view (and occasions complaint), is our teeming population: our numbers are burdensome to the world, which can hardly supply us from its natural elements; our wants grow more and more keen, and our complaints more bitter in all mouths, whilst Nature fails in affording us her usual sustenance. In very deed, pestilence, and famine, and wars, and earthquakes have to be regarded as a remedy for nations, as the means of...

Came across an ad for a genetic ancestry kit which can be bought in Canada at either Best Buy (a big box electronics store) or The Bay (retail division of The Hudson's Bay Company - North America's oldest corporation, it has been around since 1670). The kit allows you to trace your maternal and paternal (males only) genetic lineage. It retails for $120 for one lineage, $240 for both. I am not really interested in my ancestry - I don't know them, they don't know me. I am more interested in progeny, though. A few weeks back, I was listening to a series of programs on the CBC Radio program Ideas about children begotten through anonymous sperm donations . Apparently they have all the issues of adopted children of wanting to know who their biological father was, etc. The narrator was saying how some men might have tens, maybe even hundreds of offspring. I thought was just plain silly and irresponsible. But when the narrator said that some men might even have thousands of o...

Grabbed this off dandan 's page. An 80 year old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45 year old highly educated son. Suddenly a crow perched on their window. The Father asked his Son, "What is this?" The Son replied, "It is a crow". After a few minutes, the Father asked his Son the 2nd time, "What is this?" The Son said "Father, I have just now told you it's a crow". After a little while, the old Father again asked his Son the 3rd time, "What is this?" At this time some expression of irritation was in the son's tone when he said to his Father with a rebuff, "It's a crow, a crow". A little later, the Father again asked his Son the 4th time, "What is this?" This time the Son shouted at his Father, "Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again, although I have told you so many times 'IT IS A CROW'. Are you not able to understand this?" A little later t...

Borrowing and modifying an idea from Ingrid , I present 14 bits of information about myself. Seven are real. Seven are false. This is also partially inspired by Carra 's post about weird things about herself. When I was into model rocketry, I used to roll my own rocket engines and make my own rocket fuel. I often had "catastrophic" engine failure. I have never been intoxicated. Not even a little bit "happy". I have had the privilege and pleasure of going out with women from every continent except Antarctica (for the obvious reason there are no indigenous Antarcticans). I volunteered one Christmas at a soup kitchen. I naively believed that such simple acts of generosity helped people over temporary setbacks until they could get back on their feet. The reality was these people were pretty wretched and needed far more than a ladled bowl of soup, a slice of turkey, some stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce to get them "over the hump". It was a sta...

[Update 10-Deember-2007 @ 17:38, since this post went up 3 days ago, I have had a few search engine hits using the keyword smoking on this post. To dispel any possible confusion: the title is ironic . Smoking increases the risk and incidence of cancer. So do oral contraceptives. However, both also have positive side effects. Smoking appears to reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's. Researchers are currently looking into a nicotine like compound found in a marine creature as a possible treatment for Alzheimer's (why they don't look at tobacco, I don't know - probably because it would not be politically correct). Oral contraceptives reduce the incidence of certain rare forms of cancer, however, the sum of cancers prevented and cancers caused show an overall increase in the number of cancer cases.] I am still in an anti-spinning mood. Eleven years ago or so, the Ottawa Citizen ran a front page article on the pill. The headline (in the biggest font I ever recall seeing) was ...

As someone who likes his information unadulterated, I am often annoyed by news reporting, political rhetoric and spin in general. Two nights ago I was listening to The Review on CBC radio, which featured a segment on plasticizers from the The Current earlier that day. Like most "in-depth" reporting, it was not. It was primarily about presenting one side of a story and making it as sensational as possible. Of course, it helps to bring in some experts from McGill University. There were two things about the report that really annoyed me because the information was disingenuously presented. The first was about how not much research has been done on the biodegradation of plasticizers. Ok, then we should do more research. A group from McGill did an experiment in which they put microbes into a container with plasticizer and watched what happened. As expected, the organism broke down the plasticizer, but then, (oh, shock!) they discovered the microbes were dying from compounds the pl...

Last week I invited people to participate in playing a meme for me. I was very happy with the responses. The responses far exceeded my expectations. I had expected them to, overall, be polite and pleasant, but I was I am not going to respond to each and every one of them (as I normally do), except to say a heartfelt thank you for all who played and gave such awesome responses. I will, however, pick one item from each and respond or comment on it: breal: Richard needs to (feels the need to) form some kind of conclusion/assign meaning to most things. Most definitely. I find it very, very hard to just accept things. To know is not enough, I must understand. carra: I want to amuse Richard. I loved this response. It made me smile. I definitely need to be amused more, but you might find me a difficult person to amuse – I am quite solemn and stoic in person. tena: If I were alone in a room with Richard, I would ask him to tell me what he fears more than anything. I fear falling. I absolut...

Went to visit my goddaughter yesterday. She is 10. As I picked her up to give her a hug, I noticed that she had two bumps.

I find it really irritating how many guys over estimate their size. I am between 183 and 184 cm (a little over 6 feet tall), yet, other men constantly estimate me at being at least 6'2" (sometimes even 6'4"). "No, I'm just over 6 feet," I reply. "Bah! Impossible!" they splurt back, "I'm 6 foot. You're at least a good 2 inches taller than me." Then we do that whole measuring thing where it is obvious I'm at least 2 inches taller. Thus confirming I am at least 6'2". No, I reply back, you are 5'10". I know how tall I am. I have measured myself many, many times. I am always just over 6 foot. I am a little taller if I am wearing New Balance joggers, but height is measured without shoes. This is really pervasive, because guys as tall as me, insist they are 6'2". The moral of this is that guys add at least 2 inches to their size. Image nabbed from here .

For the past month I have been posting daily because I signed up for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). I got the heads up on this from Tena . For some reason, I was unable to get one of those little stickers you can put on your blog, but, no matter, I still kept up with it. This went a lot more successfully than my attempt at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) two years ago. Thank you all for reading and putting up with me :P Image nabbed from here .

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations [Update 29 November 2007 @ 20:53: change the quote from "Take care not to feel towards the inhuman as they feel towards men." to a clearer one.] [Update 30 November 2007 @ 10:50: added missing HTML tag to prevent ALL my text being in courier font]

There is a web site that allows you to upload an image of yourself and it will try to match you against images fo various famous people in its database. When I used my avatar image, I got pretty questionable results. Using a 20 year old image, I am not sure the results are much better, but I do see some resemblence with Demi Moore - who looks like she could be my mom (at least from this angle). I don't see the similarity with the others. http://www.myheritage.com/collage Give it a try and if you are not too embarrassed by the result, post it on your own blog.

In the past I have invited fellow bloggers to lie for me, to participate in a friend's survey and to ask for prayers . This time around, I invite you to fill in the blanks. I got the meme from Hotel Solace a long time ago. Cut and paste the paragraph below and fill in the blanks with the appropriate adjectives/ nouns /verbs/phrases. You can be brutally honest about this - I promise you would not be silenced after this exercise. :) In case you are wondering, this is NOT a narcissistic attempt to fish for compliments. Negative comments will not be censored. The objective of this word game is to see how creative you guys are, and what you REALLY think of me. Can be quite amusing to see what you come up with. Here goes.... I ___(1)____ Richard. Richard is ____(2)____. Richard thinks a lot about ____(3)____. When I think of ____(4)____, I think of Richard. If I were alone in a room with Richard, I would ____(5)____. I think Richard should ____(6)____. Richard needs ____(7)____. I ...

Tania did poorly on an English test last week and Sofia is quite upset. On the other hand, I completely empathize with Tania because she interpreted the test instructions the way I would have. The test was divided into a number of sections, with each section consisting of a number of multiple choice questions. The instructions were to select only one answer . Which she did - selecting one multiple choice answer in each section. Unfortunately, she was supposed to select one answer per multiple choice question, consequently, most questions went unanswered. To me, her response was correct. She was given a precise instruction which she followed. It didn't make sense to her, but then again people rarely make any sort of sense. The world is filled with all sorts of arbitrary rules and inconsistent behaviours and positions that this one was hardly worth batting an eye at. Hopefully, she will add this to her repertoire of possible exceptions to the inconsistencies of the world and request ...

Your True Love Is a Leo Why you'll love a Leo: A Leo has a presence and power that you find intoxicating. Sensual and playful, you'll be thrilled to have your Leo pick you as a playmate! Why a Leo will love you: You're willing to let your Leo be the center of attention (both at home and in public) And you're able to tiptoe around your lion - and put up with the occasional fit. What Sign Is Your True Love? Sofia is a Capricorn.

Just in case you were not sure on how to open a can with a pop-top lid. Photo credit: Richard of Forbidden Planet.

From On the Nature of the Universe by the Epicurean Roman poet Lucretius.

I think we all like getting compliments. I also think it is easy to miss those we get when we don't think we are really doing out of the ordinary. I used to have a deaf friend. She started life hearing, but progressively lost her hearing (because of a heritable condition) until she became, as describes it, "profoundly deaf". We were having lunch one day and she remarked, "With you, I don't feel I am deaf." We communicated by scribbling on a pad of paper and passing it back and forth. I wrote back something akin to, "Perhaps you are not deaf, but I am mute." (I could look it up, but, first, I would have to find the papers – then I might find my response was far more banal or completely different, so we'll stick with the recollected version. Alright? :) Her most striking feature was her eyes. They did not sparkle or shine or gleam or twinkle. They flashed. The first time I had an opportunity to chat with her, I immediately thought she would be pe...

I have a great love for Stoic philosophy, but there is one aspect that bugs me as being completely irrational. Stoicism extols the supremacy of the mind and reason over emotions. However, contrary to popular belief it is not about being unfeeling or insensible to emotion as Seneca points out in a letter to his friend Lucilius: "There is this difference between ourselves and the other school (the Cynics. richard) : our ideal wise man feels his troubles, but overcomes them; their wise man does not even feel them." (Letter 9) He continues, "If he loses a hand through disease or war, or if some accident puts out one or both of his eyes, he will be satisfied with what is left, taking as much pleasure in his impaired and maimed body as he took when it was sound. While he does not pine for these parts if they are missing, he prefers not to lose them." (Letter 9) In a later letter he basically wipes away his earlier reasoning and effectively says, "When life become...

The dark haired one was given by my friend Megumi ("To remember me by") before she left Canada. The blond one was given by my friend Atsuko at her wedding. (The dolls in the background are Sofia's from Peru.)

"You let one of them go ... but that’s nothing new. Every now and then a little victim is spared. Because she smiled. Because he’s got freckles. Because they begged. And that’s how you live with yourself. That’s how you slaughter millions. Because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind’s in the right direction ... you happen to be kind." Conversation between Margaret Blaine (Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen) and the Doctor in the Doctor Who episode 'Boomtown'. Image nabbed from here .

When we (and by we, I mean those of us in the developed first world) look at people in the developing world, we are often struck by the level of hardship endured by these people. So, being good citizens, we organize and deliver various forms of aid. Unfortunately, these are often tied up in rather arrogant attitudes on our part. Sometimes, I get the impression we believe that without our aid and assistance those poor people would be sitting in the dust trying to eat rocks - therefore, obviously, they need our knowledge to learn how to dig wells, how to plant crops and raise animals and, of course, how to run an effective government and judiciary. We tend to forget that these people have been living there for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and have managed to survive thus far. While some of their woes may be due to antiquated or inadequate knowledge, the vast majority of their ills have nothing to do with ignorance. Image nabbed from here .

Saw it last night with Sofia at the IMAX in 3D. It was a pretty good movie and I'd give it a 3 to 3.5 out of 5. My chief gripes with it were: (1) the whole bit with Grendel was too long. It took about half the movie to get rid of him. I think the movie would have been tighter if they edited that part in half. (2) I found the whole Grendel stuff a little to icky and gory and brutal. I think they could have left more to the imagination (personally, I think this could have had a PG rating instead of a 13+ rating had the violence and gore been toned down a bit). (3) scenes were expressly shot for 3D impact. I prefer story over visuals. (4) it was animated! Good grief, I thought it was live action, but it is done in some sort of hyper-realistic computer animation. The last half of the movie was very powerful and helped to redeem the first half. While the 3D was interesting for the first 10-15 minutes, you just get use to it and it loses its impact. It is a lot like the difference betwee...

We always hear of the wonderful restorative powers of chicken soup. However, this is not universal. A few months back I was surprised to learn that in Chinese culture, chicken is contraindicated for colds. Apparently it is associated with phlegm (I think, but my memory is hazy). And last night another Chinese friend reminded me that chicken soup is not recommended when sick. On the other hand, when I am sick, a good garlic soup is all I want. 1 clove garlic some stale bread (optional) or some leftover mashed potatoes (optional) a bit of salt boiling water Chop up the garlic. Sprinkle with a little salt and mash with the flat side of a knife (I use a butter knife to avoid any unnecessary accidents). The salt helps the garlic mash into a nice fine paste. Spoon the paste into a cup or bowl. If you have some old rye bread, dice some of it and put in the bowl or, if you have left over mashed potatoes, put them in the bowl instead. Pour boiling water over it and enjoy. Yeah, it is a beggar...

I don't like them. They seem like the perfect antithesis to random acts of violence and tragedy, but they are not. I would hope we all find any act of violence disturbing, but there is a difference between a criminal who gets his due because of a double cross or something and a 3 year old who is struck by a drunk driver. It is the randomness of the act that is so hard to understand, that empties our soul of purpose and meaning - leaving us hollow and barren. Doing random acts of kindness to counterbalance random acts of violence does nothing to refresh the soul and to imbue it with purpose and meaning and resolve. Random acts of kindness are as meaningless as random acts of violence. They do not occur because the person is in some way deserving of it, they occur for no reason, for no point. For kindness to be effective it must have a purpose, it must flow from genuine and sincere belief, meaning and intent. It may be spontaneous, but it cannot be random. The antidote to random acts...

Tin-tin recently blogged about her holiday back home and mentioned food. I really got excited about dinuguan - a spicy soup made from pigs blood - which I really want to try. I am not sure if it can be made here, since I have never seen fresh blood for sale - but I will bug my Filipino friends if they can make it for me here. I may have to plan a trip to the Philippines for that one. Anyway, all that talk of food make me hungry for a pork dish I do like and know how to make: Pork Hocks. 4 pork hocks 1 tbls salt 1/2 tsp ground pepper 1 tbls ground paprika 1 tbls ground cumin 4 bay leaves 1 large onion, chopped 1/2 bulb garlic, chopped (I was lazy and used 1 tbls garlic powder) Soy Sauce (growing up, my mom used liquid Maggi) 1. Wash the pork hocks. 2. Place them in a large pot. 3. Sprinkle with the salt, pepper, paprika and cumin. 4. Add the chopped onions and garlic. 5. Squirt Soy Sauce over it. 6. Fill pot with water and bring to a boil. 7. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 3 hour...