Forbidden Planet

is the title of a fictional poem I quoted from in a play I wrote in 1985, for a course called Theatre and Drama . I was 19. Below are the 3 lines I quoted from it. Even then, I could be pretty morose. At times fear does seem more to be the enemy than the empty darkness which beckons us to our death. Oh, foolish mortal! Can you not see or has the darkness entered your eyes? See how the fool does dare to trek across the open hand of Death. I also came across a book of compositions from Grade 5. As you can see, my penmanship and artistic skills were a little on the challenged side. Feb 21 BEING A MALE MOSQUITO If I were a mosquito I would be small and I wouldn’t bite people yet one day someone will succeed in killing me. The captions are: HATCHING and KILLED Image credit: Richard of Forbidden Planet

Comment Jason made to me as I put him to bed about a week and a half ago. I asked him if he wanted to have my mother 's ashes in his room that night.

Earlier this week (07-April-2008), Forbidden Planet became a 3 year old toddler. Over a period of 1101 days, I have managed 556 posts (including this one). Not as prolific as some bloggers, but I think averaging one post every two days isn't too bad. My ground rules for posting are pretty simple: no more than 1 post per day (I have broken this rule 3 times, I think) keep the posts concise. My fictitious goal is 3 paragraphs avoid repetition leave the reader with something to think about I hope the approach I take to blogging is similar to what Lister Sinclair expressed about the way he approached the production of Ideas : (paraphrase) "I assume the listener is intelligent and very knowledgeable in all subject matters, except the one I am presenting." I think I have been reasonably successful. Some of my favourite posts over the past 3 years (there is no rhyme or reason to their selection, except that they came quickly to mind and I like them): Evolution of a Peeve What ...

A week or two ago Jason asked, "What is 10 minus 100?" "Minus 90," I said. "No, it's zero," he said. "If you have 10 and you take away 100, then you take away all 10 and you have zero. Ha Ha! I'm cool, you're not!" He is always asking about numbers and seems to be pretty good at math. A few weeks ago he surprised me by asking for my dad's age and then my age and almost immediately working out the difference (68 - 41 = 27). I was pretty impressed because that is pretty good for a 6 year old.

I first met my friend Emad back in 1992. Megumi invited me over, telling me that she had a friend whose wife was coming over. We went to his student apartment and I brought some Pujabi mix with me. Emad grabbed a handful, popped it in his mouth and thought he was going to die. Apparently, Sudanese do not eat spicy food and Punjabi mix is pretty high on the spicy snack scale. He was incredulous that both Megumi and I seemed to enjoy it without ill effect. Since then, he has learned to tolerate and even indulge in spicy food. He still remembers that first encounter with me when he thought I tried to kill him. Image credits: Richard of Forbidden Planet.

Today is my mother's birthday. She would have been 64. She died 361 days ago. I went with the kids to church this morning to pray for her. The photo is of her when she was 19.

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.

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...

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.)

Despite trying to be conscientious and considerate, I do, on occasion, make errors of judgement. So far, none have been fatal, but some are humorous (at least to me). Here are some faux-pas I have made over the years that I find amusing. I returned home one afternoon around 14:30 and found a message on my answering machine from a friend in Japan. Doing a bit of quick math, I added 12 hours to the current time and arrived at 20:30 – 21:00 Japan time. I called her and was greeted with a very groggy "Moshi, moshi" at which point I realized ... oops ... it is not 21:00 local time, but 03:00. I apologized and let her get back to sleep. Another time, I was over at a friend's house for dinner and I noticed his wife had a rounded belly. I congratulated her on being pregnant. She replied that she was not pregnant just overweight. Oops. I later did something similar several years later when I asked an overweight and pregnant coworker when she was due. She told me she had given birt...

Despite my abject social skills, I did manage to make some friends while at University. Some came from various regions of Canada, though many were from overseas. I would say the majority where from overseas. At the end of the school year, when people were returning home, I would get their address (note, I only get addresses of people I am interested in. I am not polite enough to ask for an addresses I do not intend to use). I would then write a letter and mail it a week before they left, so the letter would arrive around the same time they did. It was a real letter, several pages long, no an anemic postcard with a trite “Welcome Home!” message along with "Don't forget to keep in touch" admonishment. I thought they would appreciate receiving a letter; knowing that they had not been forgotten once leaving Canada. Maybe it was naïve, but it was remarkably effective. I always received effusive replies of thanks back. Now there is only one left and pen and paper have long sin...

Image scanned by me, but copyright remains with the publisher.

Said my friend Megumi, as we stood on the landing looking down. This did not reflect my own thoughts, which were more along the lines of "Why is this railing so low?" This is the other end of the hall (actually, it is the starting point of the Grand Hall ). You can see the sculpture at the far end of the photo - more like a white blob than anything clearly defined. Photo credit: Richard of Forbidden Planet. Photo was taken at the Canadian Museum of Civilization

Oops! For the first time in 10 years, I forgot that today is my goddaughter's birthday (it shouldn't be hard to remember, since it is the same day as my brother's). Any ideas on suitable gifts for a 10 year old girl?

One thing I find inexplicable is the strong desire people have to "label" themselves. They make sure they wear and consume the "right" brands. They ensure they have the "right" look and walk and talk. They even make sure they have the "right" psychoses or ailments. These thoughts were spurred by an article I read a few weeks ago by a woman claiming her relationship problems are due to her high IQ (intelligence quotient) and low EQ (emotional quotient). Years ago, ADD / ADHD was a popular identifier, then dyslexia, asthma and now, it seems, autism. As more and more people are labeled and it becomes fairly normal, we then start hearing of epidemics and rising rates. I don't dispute that some genuinely have issues. My beef is with those who seek labels to abdicate responsibility for their actions, "Oh, it's not me, it's because I have / I am ******." Ultimately, what we do or don't do is our responsibility. (As you might b...

When I was younger, probably 8 (maybe 9), I was in Cubs (the junior version of the Boy Scouts). I am pretty sure it was not my idea to go since none of my friends went. I suppose it was my dad's idea. I loved my Cub book. I still have it. It is full of fun things to do (of course, maybe my idea of fun differs from most). However, I found Cubs to be nothing like the book. The book was interesting, Cubs was not. I don't recall much of the year (maybe two) that I went (I only have a handful of specific memories). Meetings were held in the gymnasium of my elementary school. Cub leaders were named after characters from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book . As a requirement for some star, one of the tasks was to draw a Canadian flag. I did so, using a pencil. The flag was grey and white. I was told the flag should be read and white. I pointed out that in the Cub book, the flag was green and white (the Cub book was printed using two colours - black and green). I asked if colouring the f...