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This is my online journal. I will update it when I have time usually every month. For those who don't know me, on the political spectrum I can be "radically center". I enjoy political sparring, and maybe one day will spar with the big boys and girls of parliament. Heck, my idea of a good job is to be a senator by age 35. It should be a nice entry level job in the appointed-public-service. Not everything I say is political though. Sometimes it is just plain boring ...   I hope you check in often since I will post all my best pictures, and you might see me in front of interesting places. UPDATE: My current BLOG is now HERE. Have a look at older events in my archives, or scroll on down to the new stuff:

Skip back to February 19, 2002       Skip back to April 19, 2002
Archive page 1
CN Tower / Ottawa
Archive page 2
Sens / Flight home
Archive page 3
NYC / TO / Football
Archive page 4
Montreal / TO / Regina
Archive page 5
Regina to Feb. 28
Archive page 6
Regina to June 23
Archive page 7 Home
to June 14 '04
Have a look at my HTML tutorial Look at my stuff on eBay.

June 16, 2004
    I cut away most of the soaked underlay for the wet carpet, and hauled it outside onto the deck to dry, with Dad's help.  I took a few pictures of sunset after the rain had just stopped coming down.  I hope I avoided any mosquito bites, but there are so many everywhere I probably won't stay unbitten for long.  Time to build up immunity to West Nile Virus the hard way ;-). An odd Purple glow appeared in one picture. I didn't see it when I took it:

Elevator background

 looking west from Junction 358 Storm coming

June 27, 2004
     I got ready to be a DRO tomorrow in the election.  Should be an interesting day, as I'm rather sick with a cold still.  Will have to take a box of kleenex with me, and not get it mixed up with the ballot box.  The size difference should help if I'm not drugged up on Buckley's syrup.

June 30, 2004
    I got my teeth cleaned today, in Gravelbourg.  I also bought a bottle of Ontario wine at the new liquor store from across the street from the dentist's office.

July 3, 2004
    I had to hang the laundry outside today, because the dryer's element is broken still.  I also set up some software on my laptop, and contemplated cleaning the basement which can almost get back to normal now, after the flood last month.

July 7, 2004
    I've been working the past 2 weeks on acquiring and putting to use the woodmountain.ca domain name to use with the new site located at http://woodmountain.robertharrison.ca .  I'm hoping very soon CIRA will approve, and activate it so I can start telling search engines like Google about it, and get the old site with old information taken off the now defunct CAP server.
    Yesterday we pulled the dryer out from the wall, took it apart, and found a broken wire, so we can return the replacement element that was over $50.  Mom also called Sasktel today, about them not fixing our phone line a month ago, like they said they would.

July 8, 2004
    Today was a Free Listing Day at Ebay, so I put up a foil hat for sale and some other things sitting around like old jeans and computer memory.  I'm also trying to sell two quarters for a dollar.  A wind storm yesterday, cracked our truck topper, as it flipped it over and back up the right way.  Dad and I put it back up on its stand.

July 25, 2004
    This early morning, there were the most sensational northern lights where they converged overhead and to the south of me, and I'm at the 50th Parallel. I couldn't see the purple, but the camera sure did.  There were some that looked like "light tornados", and at times they were streaming upward to an odd point overhead that was like a bowl,  with motion lines in a cartoon to the north of it.  There were patches of the sky over head, where it was completely clear and dark, and then suddenly it looked cloudy with a spotlight being shined on it.

    From the other week, the quarters, jeans, and computer memory all sold, which was rather remarkable, but all for just their starting bids of 99cents.  I have a job interview this week in Yorkton.

July 27, 2004
    Went to the park for supper.  Cut hedge around the hotel, and Hall.

July 28, 2004
    I dug up the dirt in a flower box by the old Hotel, so I could pull out the grass that had overtaken it, and planted some onions and a strawberry plant.  I also moved the carpet back in from the van, into the basement, and will unroll it in a few days, and tested some modems in my laptop, and got ready for my job interview tomorrow.

August 2, 2004
    Did some gardening.

August 4, 2004
    I got a job offer today, and took it.  I'm moving to Yorkton this month, and will be working at the Parkland Regional Library headquarters running their tech shop :-D  Yay!  *Doing the happy I-got-a-job-dance*

August 10, 2004
    Something I ate around Friday or Saturday didn't agree with my skin, but I'll survive.  I'm very busy today, and taking a one minute breather to write this, since I'm going away tomorrow to Saskatoon, and won't be back until Thursday evening after taking a computer-skills-test at Dundurn.  I'm going to meet some people from Canada Town Square on eBay chat boards, at Alexander's Restaurant, and spend some time at my family's place in the city.

August 18, 2004
    I hauled a load of water today, because Dad had to fight a baler fire south of town.  I also almost have an apartment in Yorkton, but the owner is away until Monday, so it isn't finalized until then.

August 25, 2004
    Today I set up my Power and Telephone in Yorkton, and got a haircut in the morning too.

Front of my appartment building

September 23, 2004
    I went to a garage sale last weekend and picked up some maps, and the weekend before that I got some free National Geographics with maps too.  I need to tidy up my kitchen, and living room, move some furniture around, and I'm all settled in.  I've been battling hives the past month, brought on by as of yet some unknown allergy.  I've eliminated most foods from my diet the past few days, basically down to onions, beef, green leafy veggies, and rice.  I'm not starving, but I'm looking forward to re-adding some foods to my diet, wheat and eggs in particular, then milk after that if there is no negative change.

    My new job is going well, I'm traveling out to the communities I'll be repairing and maintaining computers in.  Today I was in Quill Lake, Wadena, Wynyard for a snack stop, and Rose Valley.  There are many interesting Orthodox Churches in many of these places and along the way, and I've got pictures of some that I'll add to the site later or on request. Insinger SK


September 27, 2004
     Yesterday I went to Regina to see the Riders beat the Ottawa Renagades  36 - 22, on a perfect sunny Sunday.  Then my family went out to supper at Melrose Place, and I drove back to Yorkton with my new fish Comet.  Comet's being pretty inactive, so I'm wondering if he's going to survive life alone away from his old tank at the store.

Burris     I'm eating eggs and wheat again, to see if I have an allergic reaction to either of them, because I've been better the past 4 days, with no lip swelling.  Sure the hives are lingering, but I'll get the cause of those figured out at the end of October when I have a test.  They aren't testing sooner because of the type of antihistamine I was taking a few weeks ago could mess up the test results within 6 weeks of taking it, apparently.


October 11, 2004
On the weekend I went home, and saw "The Village" [6/10], which was less of a horror movie than a drama with a plot very slow at times.  But over all I enjoyed it, and as usual it's tough to figure out the catch in movies made by this M. Night S. director.
I also saw most of "The Italian Job" [7/10], and all of "Bad Santa" [3/10] which is mostly a bad movie, with the redeeming qualities of some character redemption, and it being the last chance to see John Ritter.
On Thursday after seeing the Village, I watched "American Wedding" [5/10] where the jokes are mostly the same, and the first 30 minutes are painful to listen to with Stiffler making every other word a swear, and for little reason or purpose other than to inform the audience that yes, he's a jerk.  But we knew that already, so it's just pointless swearing.

Several weeks back I also watched "Fahrenheit 9/11" [9/10], and on Wednesday "Supersize Me" [8/10] which is a movie that makes you think, laugh, nearly throw up, and wonder just how humans survive.

October 30, 2004
Yorkton Wood Mountain
Semans firetruck Today is Saturday.  Another day living with hives.  They are not going away.  Doctors are being useless.  But I re-added milk to my diet today because I'm not allergic to milk, or so two tests say.  The US election is on November 2nd, and the civilized world is holding its breath, to see if the American population will re-elect Bush Jr.  I'm not overly optimistic, since election fraud is most likely around the corner, so I'm predicting either a narrow win by Bush, which will lead to many vote recount and voter fraud appeals, or a Kerry win with 59% of the vote. [Update: Bush won with 53%, and Kerry backed out of challenging the unconstitutional electronic touchscreen voting in Ohio and other jurisdictions.]

November 9, 2004
    Last night there were fantastic northern lights, some even flickering overhead and vortexing to the south of overhead like they were in late July.  The sunset and sunrise were both impressive sights too.  I went to the doctor, and had some blood taken for allergy testing, wheeee needles.

November 17, 2004
    I drove down to Neudorf, Lemberg, Abernathy, and Balcarres today, took some pictures, and fixed some computers along the way.

November 18, 2004
    I  drove to Lake Lenore, Spalding, and had supper at the Esso's TC restaurant in Watson.

November 29, 2004
    Saw the doctor today and got back some results.  I'm not allergic to the 2 things they tested for, but they didn't test for about 10 other things which they could have but are too cheap or stupid to know how to test for.  So officially still I don't have allergies, even though I have recurring hives and angioedema.  If it's not allergies, then what is it?  That's the nearly 4 month old question.
    Oh, going to soak some rice now, as I'm not allergic to that, thank goodness...

December 6, 2004
    I had this Monday off, and am going back to work tomorrow, after a long weekend.  On Friday I saw a doctor who thinks I'm sick from being exposed to something toxic, which isn't a big surprise to me.  The real trick is finding out what that toxic substance is, and avoiding it in the future.  I started getting sick several days after being in Yorkton for the first time, so it could be something like the water here, or the office where I work.  I'd not been to my apartment on that first visit, so it at least initially couldn't have been the cause of this, which is some relief.  Hopefully I'll have a better idea in January when I get the skin test done, if other tests don't come back with a clue before then.  I phoned to prompt one test's return, and hope to have it tomorrow unless it's not been done by the lab.  I thoroughly stumped Regina's top allergist, who says I don't have allergies oddly enough.
    I watched "The Day After Tomorrow" [7/10] again the other day.  Its plot has problems, but overall an excellent movie with a good message, and very fun special effects.  I've seen almost the entire first season of Joan of Arcadia now too, and Enterprise on Friday was very good.  Season four of that series is looking to be much better than some of the previous ones.
    It's rather snowy out now, and -10C so far tonight.  It's been much colder recently, with nearly -30C Wind Chill.  November was mostly mild, and had very little snow, but December is looking to be the opposite of that.

December 11, 2004
    Saturday again, and warm enough that I biked over to the Co-op for groceries.  There was one street I shouldn't have taken, it wasn't cleaned off, and I had to walk the bike most of the way, and the rest it was like skiing, sliding from side to side as I pedaled along, with the snow sliding away from my narrow tires, and the ice underneath giving no resistance to my 'S' path.  I'm sending an eBay item out in the mail today, so I guess I should do that before it's picked up [if they even pick up from mailboxes on Saturdays here].

Canora's old church to the south east

December 16, 2004
    I drove to Kelvington today, and on Monday I went to Pelly, Canora, and Kamsack to fix or update computers.  It was cold today, but warmed up to -9 degrees Celsius.  There was some snow on my way back, but the roads were fine but for a few icy patches and icy grid roads.

December 19, 2004
    Brien left this evening after visiting on the weekend.  We did some Christmas shopping the Parkland Mall yesterday, and saw some movies, including "Elf" [9/10] with Will Farrel and "Out of Time" [6/10] with Denzel Washington.  The girl from Big Trouble was in Elf, playing Will's love interest at a New York store.
    I put some Christmas presents to family in the mail on Friday, and will put another into the mail tomorrow after work.  I have to get up early on Monday, as my car pool driver needs to go to the dentist.  I'll have to go to Melville and Neudorf sometime this week, to return fixed computers.  And call Sasktel

December 20, 2004
    I did a whole pile of work today, and drove into the city in a bit of a blizzard.  I might need to go to Melville tomorrow, but the wind chill is supposed to be more than -35.

January 7, 2005
    I was supposed to have an allergy test this evening, but the traveling doctor "forgot" the equipment for it back in Brandon, MB.  So I'm extremely disappointed, as I've been looking forward to possibly finding a cause for months now, and this is just yet another setback.

January 11, 2005
    Today was another bitterly cold day.  I drove to Melville without incident, and to the newly renovated Yorkton Public Library, to help the librarians set up an inventory procedure.  I walked home a few blocks after work, as there was no wind, even though the temperature was -21C.  On the weekend I watched "Back to the Future" [8/10], and "Scary Movie 2" [5/10] which had spoofs from Titanic, a Bill Clinton joke, and other things that most people just won't find funny in a few more years when they forget the original event the scene is making light of.  In another ten years, it will be a 3/10 movie.

January 29, 2005
    I watched "Back to the Future II" [7/10] and "III" [8/10], an older Hitchcock movie called "Secret Agent" [4/10], and "Lost in Translation" [8/10] which has Bill Murray as a washed up actor making a commercial in Japan, and contemplating an affair with a younger married woman.  It's really an entertaining movie, with great scenery, and its lack of a real plot is almost excusable.  A few weeks ago I watched "Dogma" [6/10] which is a Jay and Silent Bob movie, about two fallen angels trying to get into heaven, which will end up destroying the universe.  It's got very funny parts to it, and a lot of dark humour.  Unfortunately the excessive swearing really makes it look like a movie made by jerks.

January 30, 2005
    Last week I got a phone call from Pollara that does polling in Canada and the United States.  They asked me questions about a proposed Human Rights Museum in Canada, whether or not there is not enough hockey without the NHL running, and who I would vote for today if there was an election.  They didn't offer the Green Party as a choice, so I'm counted as an "other" in that poorly worded statistic.
    It was -2 and sunny today, which is a stark contrast to last Sunday which was much colder and cloudy for much of the evening.  I went to Regina and got my allergy testing done, but even though I was off of antihistamines for over 12 hours, and off the non-drowsy kind for a month, the test was wildly inacurate.  I reacted measurably to everything they tested for, except for rice.  Which to me seems to imply the test was mostly a waste of time, however now I can take an allergy shot which may or may not eliminate my hives and costs about $130 a year.
    It was a very busy week at work, even though I was only there for 3 days of it.  I drove to Strasbourg, Kelliher, and Ituna on Thursday, although I only got gas in Ituna as it was too late to do any work there.  And I had to do an inventory of the computers in the libraries, so that I can order new parts for them early next week.  And Yorkton's Public Library has moved back into their newly renovated facility, which means there's a lot of computer work to do, and physical work setting up all of the machines on their new desks.

January 31, 2005
    I hooked up more computers in Yorkton Public Library, and fixed a problem with the Dynix server.  Hopefully tomorrow won't be as busy at work.

February 6, 2005
    I looked out the window today to see what the weather looked like, and was greeted by the sight of my apartment manager walking through the parking lot.  I recognized him because he has a bit of a limp from his MS, and I watched for a few seconds, and glanced over to where he was walking to, and saw an RCMP cruiser, and a smashed up brown 1980's car.  The car had it's entire driver side doors smashed in at the bottom, and windows seemed to be missing on that side too.  Apparently the car was stolen, and ditched there last night.

February 27, 2005
    It's been a week now since I've tried to stop my supposedly allergic reaction, and still no luck.  Tomorrow I'm trying a new drug, which I hope will have a positive effect.  My sister and her boyfriend stopped by to say hello yesterday on their way back to Regina.  And I almost subscribed to the Leader-Post for a month, but I can get free papers from behind the store when they are a day old, and I barely have time to read a print newspaper anyway.  Burris left for Calgary today, so that was the top story yesterday in the paper.  I'm also making a website for the Mergel Ranch.  I made their Farmer's Market page last year, and so it's already started, and I registered the domain with Yahoo yesterday.

March 11, 2005
    I went to Preeceville earlier in the week, and repaired a printer, and today I went to Wadena, and Jansen to upgrade equipment and make updates.  It snowed and sleeted the whole way, and was -10 so the roads weren't great, but I had no problems.

March 30, 2005
    The parents visited on Easter, and I took them out to Melrose Place for supper.  I had chicken and BBQ ribs, and barely finished half the plate there was so much.  I had the leftover chicken for supper last night even.  Then we watched "The Pelican Brief" [8/10] a Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts movie from 1993, where she writes a legal brief conspiracy theory, and everyone she shows it to ends up dead.  Pretty entertaining I thought, although pretty dated and loopholey at times.Robots near Spalding
    Yesterday I worked in Spalding, and today in Foam Lake.  I've been biking to work this week, and it's been very warm about 0 or warmer for the past 3 days.
West of Yorkton

Barn near Duff

April 7, 2005
    Work's been keeping me running this week, with a new email server going into effect, so I've had to make dozens of phone calls and trips to desks to make minor but important changes.  There'll be more work next week to go with it too.  I've got tomorrow off work, but am going to do a bit on Saturday, setting up for the Annual General Meeting at Melrose Place restaurant.  They have a Sasktel.net wireless hotspot, so I think I'll take my laptop to see how easy it is to connect there.  It could come in handy should my home connection ever go down, because the restaurant is just a 5 minute bike ride from my apartment.

    Yesterday ebay Australia had a free listing Day, so I listed a foil hat, some stickers, a vintage book, and a new item the FOIL'ID AGAIN™ which is a foil wallet for passports and other RFID infested documents.  RFID is cool in food packages, and books, but in ID it's just a bad idea.  Someone could pick your pocket without your documents ever leaving your wallet, unless of course you invest in my FOIL'ID AGAIN™ product ;-).

    I also got some papers to design more of the new mergelranch.com website.

Foil'ID Again wallet


 
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