I was talking to Gill this evening and she reminded me the Vancouver 2010 Olympics mascots were announced today. The mascots are named Miga, Sumi, and Quatchi.  I will let you guess what they are since, apparently, our local animal population was not good enough.  Apparently, a mash up would avoid the inevitable "blob" problems which have plagued several Olympics in recent years.

Of course, I want to make fun of these creations.  I need to make fun of these creations.  But, I happen to believe they are not "that bad".  I wish they were a little more British Columbia.  What do you all think?

YES!  The Saskatchewan Roughriders have taken the 2007 Grey Cup!  They haven't won the cup since 1989 and, wow, wow, wow, wow!  I am going out to celebrate!

And a quick note about the deal the CFL and TSN signed last year.  Shame on you, CFL.  How dare you remove the CFL from the CBC.  Fifty-five years of the CFL on the CBC - and you have betrayed all Canadians.  I don't watch TSN.  I don't have cable to watch TSN.  I will never watch TSN. 

And with a mature close to thsi post: you suck, CFL.  Jerks.

This little video was forwarded to me today and I felt it deserved a little sharing around the Internet.

If you think that you're having a bad day where you are sitting in front of a machine, check these poor souls out.

I received a comment on my blog today from someone at Vancouver Parks & Recreation that notified me of an update to the new Mount Pleasant Community Centre.

Please attend the Mount Pleasant Community Centre AGM, Tuesday Nov 27 at 7PM. Updates on everything including building progress on #1 Kingsway.
You will also be able to pick up a copy of the annual general report.
I chair the Pool committee, so if you are at all interested in that feature of the park, you can contact me for a copy of the pool committee report, also included in the complete annual report.
It will be built!

I think I am going to attend and check out what the delays have been and how it is possible this new and expensive centre lacks a pool.  If you want to come with me let me know.

Now that I have announced that, it has been some time since I have blogged on a regular basis (breaking all the blogger rules, I know) but I felt I had lost focus for this web site.  I have been blogging for other people, normally internal blogs and that kind of thing, but, for some reason, so it isn't like I am not blogging but this site seemed to have lost something.  I won't pretend to know what that was but I lost it.  The fire was gone.  Sure, I could pump out stuff like most blogs:

• "Wow, this is funny."
• "Hey, look what I found on Digg..."
• "Look, this picture/video/soundbyte is interesting.  Go check it out!"

But that didn't satisfy me at all.  I just would sit in front of the keyboard when my "blogging hour" hit and nothing would come.  False starts and frustration took over and I decided it was time to take a break.  (You'll notice that bloggers do this kind of thing from time to time.)  Actually, it wasn't that I decided to take the break but my body told me to  I guess I feel like my thoughts and my fingers lost a connection.  They were disconnected.  Each time I sat down to compose anything blog related, it was like my fingers were telling me to stop or refused to function.  I wish I had something more profound to say about it but, normally, it is something I have struggled with for some time.  A typical comment I would use is: "What's the point?"  Then, without much fanfare, I disappeared and left this site to linger.   Sounds very dramatic, doesn't it.

I tried some ideas - reformatting, making some plans to do other things: but I keep coming back to the blog.  But, they were typical attempts at reviving a blog and didn't really make me want to write.

Then, I missed my Rememberance Day blogging.  I didn't realize it on the day but this would hit me as something I should have done.  For the last couple of years, I have been watching Rememberance Day events and documenting some things about Rememberance Day.  It is something I enjoy doing and it is important to me.  But, I missed it this year and within a couple of days, I felt like I had let myself down.  It was a surprise but a welcome one.

Then, I remembered there was a book coming out.  And I haven't blogged in months - what kind of a hypocrite am I being?  I was busy with my company and the getting the book done but - wow, how could I not blog!

So, there you go.  My tale of woe (or boredom).  I'm back.

I have an announcement.   I helped write a book called Blogging For Dummies, 2nd Edition.  It has something to do with a particular kind of writing and I hope you will go out and buy one today. This book needs to make some sales because, otherwise, the entire blogosphere will implode.  Don't be responsible for the end of the Internet as we know it.

I was keeping this under my hat for some time and didn't write about it anywhere but, now, I decided it must be fine to do so since the publishing date moved to Boxing Day (according to Amazon) and Wiley (the publisher) also posted it on their site with my name and everything.  It was into the spring previous to that - but, I guess, we did good.

In a nutshell, Susie called me up one day and asked if I wanted to help write a book and I jumped at the opportunity.  I wanted to help out and get some experience under the belt and make sure that I could write well enough to prove myself - or some such garble like that.  I have learned so much from Susie and, hopefully, I have become a better writer from all the late nights and cupcakes.

But, it is done and out the door and coming soon to a book shelf near you.  I will chat more about it when the book is viewable on book shelves.

A number of weeks ago, I received a phone call that surprised me.  It was T Paul's sister, Linda.  We had a short conversation about him and she requested that I post a message from the family here.

To all the friends and acquaintances who sent expressions of condolence or assisted the family of T Paul in any way after his untimely death. Please accept our heartfelt thanks for all you have done. Your expressions of sympathy and affection for our son and brother have helped us immensely in coming to terms with his death.We have come to understand his great attachment to you all and to Vancouver.

We have brought his ashes to his home in the east but we feel that his spirit for the most part remains in the west where he found his real niche in the arts community.

Thank you all for embracing him as a friend.

Sincerely Jim & Lorraine St. Marie
Linda & Torin van Loon

If you have any memories about Paul you would like to share with me it would be very much appreciated. Thank you again Linda & family.

My heart goes out to them.  This has been a hard time and I hope visitors to ShanesWorld will take a few moments and send them a quick note.  If you have any notes, leave them in the comments or e-mail them to me and I can forward them on.