Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

First, thanks to Angela for these photos (photo credit goes to her). BTW, point of trivia about her for you people who've been eyeing taking her on in fight club — she has a Tae Kwon Do black belt, so watch out!

I haven't posted any pix yet, so I thought I'd show these two shots that incidentally at least show the Toronto BME offices. Including the lofts, it's a nearly 3000 square foot space that will soon house BME and PsyberCity's main development centre, as well as being used to build my next car prototypes.		My best Orange County-esque Jack Black impression. Is it just me or do I look like I've just walked out of a cave? (PS. Jack Black, n*Sync, Shannon Elizabeth, and a number of other celebrities are all in the scrapbook)

Anyway, I know I should write a little more about Saturday (others have done it as well). We got to the space at about 1 PM I think, but because the bathroom isn't installed yet we headed across the street to Piri Piri, a Portuguese grill house. The food seemed really good, but for us vegans there was literally nothing on the menu. Just the house salad I think, although they were kind enough to try and make some dishes to feed us.

I think about a dozen and a half people were at the ID party, which did eventually migrate over to the office where drinks were mixed and I sat up on the roof of the office (well, the unfinished loft) with Ryan and Marc talking about flying… Both Marc and I are well into our pilot's training, and Ryan wants to start, so hopefully this winter and next summer we'll finish that (I've got lots of flight hours, but am behind on my ground school).

Then we headed over to the bowling alley (I was actually a tiny bit late because we had to run an errand first, but luckily Rachel had driven separately and was there in time). I think around 35 people bowled with about another 15 on the sidelines. I have to say that our scores were, on the whole, literally HALF what I saw of the scores at the Philly bowling event… Very embarassing!

Anyway, then Jack's friends took over the first lane, chucked all the balls down the alley and broke the machinery, and then started throwing chairs and got thrown out — luckily the alley didn't hold it against us (or try and charge me for it) so it blew over without issues. Once things started wrapping up I was pretty tired (I'm on Tweed time, which means I get up very early, but go to bed early too) and headed back to crash.

I think about half of the people (dunno, I wasn't there) headed down to Sneaky Dees and stayed till closing… And Rob still hasn't returned from the party, so I guess that means it's still going good somewhere (Although I'm not looking forward to explaining it to his mother, so please come back soon Rob!)

In any case, I had an awesome time and it was really nice seeing everyone again (not that it's been long, but I still always look forward to it).

PS. Can't wait to see everyone's pictures, as well as the pictures from all the other BBQs that happened this weekend. There sure was a lot going on!!!

First of all — wow — I'm on a highspeed low-latency connection for the first time in a month+, and I'm blown away at how fast everything is. I know it's only about a second of latency in general on the satellite, but having effectively ZERO latency is awesome… As much as I really don't want to be in the city, this really shows me that I need to be to continue this development. With a low latency connection I can really feel what the server is doing.

Anyway, today is ID party and bowling day… Details are in the events section (and linked from my main description above). Late arrivers for bowling are welcome.

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I guess everyone knows the sad news about Sen. Paul Wellstone's plane crash… A short recap of the events leading up to it, which you can interpret as you see fit:

• Wellstone is called on to vote for or against war on Iraq. He's anti-war, but all of his advisors tell him it's political suicide to vote with that attitude, especially considering he was facing a close election. He votes what he believes, and casts his vote against war. Luckily his constituents appreciate the vote, and it helps him and he becomes more popular. (full story).
• Bush et al (who had taken an active personal role in this campaign because of Wellstone's prominence as one of the few vocal anti-war Senators) were not thrilled about his vote, and even less thrilled about his public's support of it — it made it clear that average Americans, if they felt they were allowed to, were in support of an anti-war platform. Shortly after, Wellstone is killed in a plane crash. (full story).

Like I said, interpret it as you see fit, but I think the message was sent very clearly about what happens if you successfully oppose this war. (If you'd like more on Wellstone, most of cursor's links today are relevant). This next part I'm going to tell you about is where it gets really freaky.

While the liberal churches are on the whole opposed to the war, as well as of America's extreme support of Israel (another $10 billion was just pledged for “support of Israel”, right?), the far Christian right are extreme supporters both of Israel and of war in the Middle East. If you want the answer why, read Revelations (ie. the “conclusion” of the Bible).

For the apocalypse to happen, Israel must be rebuilt as a Jewish state, which along with war in the Middle East will bring about the second coming of Jesus and the triumph of heaven. (full story). The crazy punch line is that Bush's extremist Christian team has been quite publicly saying this since day one… Does no one care that the country is in part being run by religious lunatics who are doing their damndest not to bring about world peace, but to bring about the apocalypse?