Gone

Last night I found out that a good friend and an employee has committed suicide.  He was well liked by everyone who worked with him and had several friends at the Centre so it has been really, really hard on all of us today.  I found out last night and was the one to break the news to most of the staff and management today which has made this into one long emotional day.

Kill Jordon

Yesterday Wendy took the car to the garage as it was making a clunking noise in the back tire.   I thought I had hit a pothole but no, it was something else.  The lug nuts had been loosened and according to the garage, they thought it was intentional.  They said it is done to scab workers once in a while but since I generally park in a spot that is off the security camera, it could have happened at work.   I am now parking in our monitored parking lot.

A New Project

There are a lot of reasons for doing this but I am starting a new project a few of you might find interesting. It is a documentary about life in the inner city of Saskatoon (which is now famous as the second most dangerous place to live in Canada). Those that live there, a look at how some of the NGOs and government agencies are doing to help them. Some friends are helping out as well which should be fun and several agencies, elected officials, and others have been quite receptive to it. In some ways, it is Saskatoon's version of a Westside Story.

Doing a project like this involves a lot of decisions. I am shooting it on mini-DV as I needed a camera cheap enough to give up if it avoided a serious conflict but then I needed a external mic, lights, and a external hard drive to store it on. As far as aspect ratio, we are going to distribute it via YouTube but I decided to go 16:9 as I also want to distribute it for computers and for the iPod/PSP.

Why video?

I was torn over this as I am more comfortable writing or even with a still camera but I thought back to a series of columns in the now defunct Saskatoon Free Press about the west side. Stories of prostitutes, homeless people, and addicts and I thought he was making it all up. I am hoping that doing a documentary makes this seem a little more real to people and hopefully change a couple of incorrect stereotypes along the way. If you are interested in helping out, let me know as I will be shooting video over the spring, summer, and fall and there is a lot to get done. I'll keep you posted.

Technorati Tags: Saskatoon,Free Press,poverty

March 11

It's kind of tradition around here to live blog March 11 every year for my birthday (2003, 2005, 2006, 2007). A couple of you actually e-mailed to see if I would be doing it. I wasn't planning to but since I am in front of a computer, here goes nothing.

7:00 a.m. :: Mark came crashing into our room ready to give me my birthday presents. He gave me SOCOM Navy Seals: Fireteam Bravo for the PSP. The dog gave me a nice composite Spalding basketball and a mini basketball for Mark. Wendy gave me the Rt. Hon. Jean Chretien's second book, his autobiography, My Years as Prime Minister. Lee gave me God of War for PSP last night. Thanks to everyone!

7:40 a.m. :: Left for work and realized I forgot to get gas last night. I made it to work but I am blogging this as a reminder to fill up on the way home or I will be walking.

7:50 a.m. :: Got into the office and had a stimulating conversation on how Madonna being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Justin Timberlake was a debacle.

7:55 a.m. :: Anyone else notice the irony of the Roman Catholic church pointing out that accumulating great wealth is a sin? I wonder if they wrote that up in the Vatican itself.

8:15 a.m. :: I just heard that the Barry Hotel just sold. It is a pretty notorious flophouse and hopefully the new owner cleans it up but I am not optimistic.

9:00 a.m. :: Carried some donated sheets from one entrance to another.

9:15 a.m. :: Am working on a report on inner city demographics and city planning today. I'll post some of it later as it is quite interesting.

10:00 a.m. :: Went for coffee with the staff. That is five cups of coffee I have had so far today. More than I have had in years. My hands are shaking.

11:30 a.m. :: Wendy arrived with some KFC for lunch bought for by one of the Front Desk staff. Thanks!

11:45 a.m. :: Was accused of stealing along with a couple of co-workers today. Long story but didn't take it very personally.

12:00 p.m. :: Was thanked by our resident teacher of the SAGE (Saskatoon Adolescent Gateway to Education) for housing a teen. Was truthfully able to tell her that we thought he was a good kid.

12:20 p.m. :: Was asked to do a favor for a co-worker and run to Staples, make 440 photo copies and return for a 1:00 p.m. meeting. Apparently our photo copier is jamming.

12:59 p.m. :: Stuck at Idylwyld and 25th waiting for a train. I don't think I am going to make it.

1:10 p.m. :: Arrive for meeting.

2:10 p.m. :: Meeting over, went for a coffee with co-workers but was rather chilled as the kitchen window was open. I had an oatmeal cookie as well.

3:00 p.m. :: Did battle trying to being an old 40 gig Western Digital drive back to life. It didn't go so well.

4:30 p.m. :: Home at last.

4:43 p.m. :: Went looking for my basketball pump to put some air in Mark's basketball.  No luck.

5:00 p.m. :: Mark talked me into having hamburgers for supper.  I need to stop letting him pick out my birthday dinner.

7:46 p.m. :: Chatting with Darren Friesen on Google Chat.  D-Fri is in Nova Scotia checking out prisons there.  Either Darren is the Community Chaplain or he is planning for a life of crime.

7:55 p.m. :: Installed the RC2 of XP's Service Pack 3.  So far so good.

8:00 p.m. :: Reimer's came over.  Been a long time since we have seen Tamara.  Had a nice time, ate some cake, drank some coffee. 

Technorati Tags: March 11,Saskatoon,Darren Friesen

The good news and the bad news

I wasn't going to post this until much later (say in early August) but as some of you know, Wendy is pregnant. We weren't going to say much about it with our previous problems with miscarriages and the fact that it generally causes a lot of problems with some people who really despise her. We don't know what it is (other than a baby) but according to several old wives tales, it looks to be a baby girl but who knows. We don't have a preference on the sex of the baby so whatever it is, I will muddle through.

With Wendy being 38, there was some concerns but things were going well. She has a wonderful bout of morning sickness that she is finally over but yesterday in a visit to the doctor, she was warned that the road ahead could be bumpy and more difficult than it was with Mark.

The answer to the question that every is asking is; Mark is handling it well and is looking forward to being a big brother. He will be evicted from his room upstairs and moved to the larger bedroom in the basement. Some friends have told me that they think Mark is way to young to move to the basement but Mark asked me the other night if he could move out with Lee so Lee wouldn't be so lonely without us. I don't know if being separated by a couple of floors will traumatize him too much. As a co-worker said, "He's a young male, living in sub-subterranean housing appeals to him." He is already lobbying for some two way radios and a computer so he can e-mail us.

As I mentioned, the big change is that Lee is moving out and I will lose the chance of ever getting my office back. The other concern we have but am not sure how to deal with it is that Maggi is like a bull in a china shop some times and while is gentle and never aggressive with Mark, she has gone through him a couple of times when excited (kind of a Dino greeting Fred Flintstone type of scene) and steps on my feet all of the time which at 100+ pounds kind of hurts.

Wendy's only complaint until yesterday is that she isn't crazy about a summer baby and the heat but considering that she has spent our entire marriage complaining about how cold I like the house, I am sure she will survive.

Life Around Here

I am still sick. Not as sick as I was last week but still pretty sick. I have had a couple of 18 hour naps and I still can't shake the fever/chills cycle I am in. Wendy and Mark are pretty sick as well although Mark is getting better.

On Monday I managed to have supper with Jared Siebert who was in town doing whatever it is that denominational stooges do for a living (changing paradigms I suppose). I don't know if we got anywhere in our plans for world domination but we did enjoy some nice seafood at Red Lobster. I give a shout out to Red Lobster as the restaurants I have eaten at lately in Saskatoon have been horrible and it is nice to have had some nice hot food that wasn't burnt.

Day 5

Well, this is day 5 with this virus.  On Thursday the doctor told me to go home and sleep it off until Sunday and that is pretty much what I have done.  I was up and about the house for a couple hours yesterday which was the first I have been in days.  Tomorrow I am preaching at the Saskatoon Free Methodist Church which oddly enough doesn't list service times on their web site (and they start at 10:30 instead of 11:00 a.m.)  Not that I have a lot of options but I should be strong enough to get through a 20 minute sermon.  They have heard me speak before so they have low expectations.

Wendy has the virus now and so does Mark so we are all doing wonderful.  Even the dog is sick.  On one hand I am glad that it is the long weekend and I don't have to miss any work but c'mon, I finally get a long weekend to do nothing but chill and I am so sick I can't get out of bed.

Technorati tags: preaching, Saskatoon Free Methodist Church

Sick

I don't know what I caught but I am feeling horrible. My chest is tight and hurts. My neck is killing me and it took me several moments to get into my car today. My lower back is killing me. The only time I am not suffering from the chills is when I am burning up from a fever so I go from sleeping with gloves and a toque, enough blankets to crush a man, and a large dog on the bed to tossing it all off when I change from too cold to too hot. I made it into work this morning for a couple of hours in time to experience some more sewage problems at the Centre and called it a day. Since then it has been lights out and more tossing the dog and the water bottles off the bed every couple of hours and then looking for them when I get cold again. In other words don't expect much in the ways of e-mail or blogging until I feel better.

Update: I feel better today but still kind of rough. I was so cold last night that Wendy gave me a hot water bottle to hold but warned me that it was quite hot. I thought it felt fine and fell asleep with it. I woke up with big (but not severe) burn across my arm and chest. Apparently it was hotter and I was colder than I thought.