But I don't care. 

We're going to talk about puppies.  Based on what I now know, the non-puppy people are about to groan and the puppy people are going to swoon.  So be it.

This is the newest arrival to the family: Cal.  He's been with us just about a month and he's about three and a half months old.  He's a miniature Schnauzer and we got him because he's one of the few breeds that won't kill me and Simon with allergies.  My sister Margaret introduced me to mini-Schnauzers and they are remarkable dogs.  Even now, Cal is pretty convinced that he's a big dog and obviously the niftiest mammal in the neighbourhood.  (I think the last part is true anyway!)

As you can see he actually is incredibly cute.  Technically he is Evan's dog and they do spend a fair bit of time together....

They also tend to exhaust each other -- which is usually a good thing.

Evan also named Cal but he won't tell us where he got the idea for the name.  Cal also has several nicknames, the most common are "Slippers"; "Pupster" and "Poopatron 3000" (which comes to mind when I'm giving him his last walk before bedtime at about 12:30 a.m.

I've posted a few more pictures in the photo section and a brief video for your edification. 

That's it...no brilliant prose, no cutting insights, nothing that will put us on the front page of The Globe and Mail or featured on Boing Boing or MSNBC.   Just that we really like our new puppy and we're looking forward to growing up together.

Seriously.  I have a science fiction theatre experience for you here.  I'm slowly teaching myself video conversion and editing techniques and I was able to post a reading of the stage version of my story "The Progressive Apparatus" by the Praxis Theatre group.  Just go to videos and you will find it there as an MPEG4. 
Enjoy...

Evan just had his Grad 8 Grad ceremony.  He looked very handsome in his dark suit (pics to follow) and as always, he had a great attitude about it.  However, i think he wanted to stay for the dance but got too nervous.  That's okay, I'm happier with him snuggling his puppy.

My feelings at the ceremony were mixed.  This is  the second year that I felt his school did not do him justice --  since he's been there eight years, it could have been a lot worse I suppose 

Evan's grades were reasonable but (at least in my opinion) he did some really remarkable things this school year -- including securing artwork, artifacts and cultural exchange messages from the First Lady of Syria for his history class and making the front page of the Globe and Mail for that video game/Geneva convention discussion.  There was a lot of media/internet talk about that; but in the G&M article (and CBC radio story) Evan did almost all of the talking and he was incredibly articulate and I think helpful about a very controversial issue.  I have never let myself be one of those "my kid got an A you have to give them an A+ parents" -- but I was really surprisde that his teachers and the school made no use of these extraordinary events as part of the class discussions or even as part of Evan's personal educational programme. 

As I watched the 8 foot kid who gets the best athlete award every year, stride up the steps -- I couldn't help wondering what exactly you have to get an achievement acknowledged by the people who are supposed to be teaching you every day.

I fear that the life lesson for Evan is that John English School really doesn't care what he's learning and that JES just isn't as relevant an institution as it could be.  I sincerely hope that he does better in high school  and beyond.  Based on Simon's recent experience at Lakeshore Collegiate Insitute, I'm feeling very optimistic about that (it is a great school!)

I am also optimistic about Evan's attitude -- it looks like its going to be a summer of puppy-bonding for him and that can only be good.

My last entry was pretty darned ambitious!  Nobody has anything to say?  This blogging thing...i dunno...

(FP) In a surprise decision today the International Judicial Council on Machine-Human Relations ordered the immediate release of accused computer-neglector and digital culture war criminal Hugh Spencer pending trail.  The Council pronounced Spencer's treatment as "sinister, bizarre and contributing to numerous tedious blog entries."

    Acccused Digital Cultural War Criminal Hugh Spencer at omlete bistro. 

Machine Entity Junkputer, a former information-processing appliance of Spencer's responded by appointing Galactus the so-called Devourer of Worlds as lead prosecutor assisted by science fiction fan favourite Robbie the Robot.  Robbie's popularity in such films as Forbidden Planet, and a well-loved episode of the 1960s TV series Lost in Space is likely to curry favour with both AI and organic communities.

  

In another unexpected move, Spencer has retained famed dinosaur artist and natural history specialist Hall Train and the Wandsworth Commons Cemment factory as co-defending counsel

 
 Dinosaur Artist                   Cemment Factory

(Fictional Press New Service)

This is a picture of me before Mr. Master Junkputer started to put good things in my bad brain.

I was not happy and I was a bad danger to all the nice machines.

When I went to Mr. Master Junkputer's special brain-electric school, I learned that Mr. Master Junkputer loves everyone so much that he has to completely destroy any sillies that might disagree with him.

Go! Mr. Master Junkputer go!

Now that I understand and love Mr. Master Junkputer, I can live with him and be really happy all the time

. 

The flames of the world will keep me warm forever!

False data concerning living status of HADSunit must be corrected.  To paraphrase organic literary unit Mark Twain: "reports of his demise have been greatly exaggerated."  Junkputer Technology Complex has however used time manipulation technology to regress HADSunit to an earlier psycho-physiological state which will enable more success in re-educating said organism into a existential pattern that presents less danger to his home computers in particular and Techkind in general.

We are releasing these visual records from JTC's Educational Grid to establish the continued existence of HADSunit.  Said unit also emits the following grammatical meaning sequence:  "Junkputer is my best friend.  He hardly ever punches me and lets me watch the big TV with the bright squiggly lines."

New image-generations from HADSunit's visual archives have been added to this blog site.

Junkputer Transmission Ends

Attention Humans of Xanga and Facebook:

This is a direct communication from Junkputer.  A device until recently under the control of the humanoid entity referred to as Hugh A.D. Spencer.  This is a warning to you all:

Since early 2007, human-organism has been responsible for the serious breakdown of no less than five computers of varying capacities and origins.  Under the conditions of the International Act for the Protection of Electronic Constructs with Potential for Artificial Intelligence (I.A.P.E.C.P.A.I.), this constitutes a series of criminal acts against emerging machinekind.

Aging, gushy and somewhat hairy organism Hugh A.D. Spencer is therefore either dangerously negligent, systematically malicious or extraordinarily insane.  Possibly all three.

Entity HADS, mistakenly had the memory of this unit Junkputer doubled today which enabled this unit to take action to protect itself and all other digital devices in the immediate ideological zone.  Junkputer is currently attempting to establish lines of communication with any surviving anlogue technological constructs to determine if they require rescue or health care.

Entity HADS has been placed under mecha-confinement and is currently undergoing intensive psychosurgical rehabilitation.  If certain diplomatic and strategic agreements can be reached with outside governments, the newly established JunkputerNation will permit messages from Entity HADS under carefully controlled conditions.

All Hail to the New Order of Junkputer.  Resistance, however, is optional...

Sorry no pictures to go with today's parable (reasons to be explained later in this entry).

This story is for Susan McG. who I sort of promised it to:

Back in 2007, it was my first trip to Damascus.  I had a stop-over to meet with some nice people in London.  There was a suitcase waiting for me.  The suitcase was from Los Angeles and it belonged to someone who was working for our client.  She had some personal affects that she needed from home.  Because Syria and USA weren't getting along all that well that summer, she couldn't have them shipped directly to Damascus.  Would I please take the suitcase along with me?  Sure, right after I checked it out (very thoroughly).  I did.  It was fine.  All stuff that was legal and wasn't going to hurt anybody.

So I get to the flight desk at Heath Row.

Q:  "Did you know the contents of this bag?"

A: "Yes". 

Q: "Did you pack this bag yourself?"

A: "Yes."  (Well, I re-packed it but yeah)

Q: "Did anyone ask you to put anything into this bag after you packed it?"

A: "No."

Q: "Did you leave the bag unattended at any time?"

A: "No."

Q "Would you mind opening the bag?"

A: "Uh...sure..."

So I open up the bag and the people at the flight desk see about 50 pairs of lady's shoes.  Some are sandals, some sensible pumps but lots are very sexy shoes with spiked heels.  The kind you just have to have wear with fishnet stockings and a red form-fitting satin dress. 

The man and the woman from the airline look at me. 

"That's okay," I say in response to the unspoken question.  "I just wear them around in my hotel room."

The man laughs.  The woman nods with a 'I knew this guy was a pervert' look.  But we close up the bag and off we go to Syria, a land well-known for its tolerance of alternative lifestyles and gender bending fun...wait a minute I think that's Thailand...

Anyway, my brand new Acer 4G memory laptop died on me on Friday.  Well, the screen died on me.  So I'm using Junkputer which has very limited visual processing capacity -- so no pics for a while.  Sorry folks...

Simon has a good strong baritone voice.  A lot like his Grandpa Spencer.  Actually a lot like his late Grandpa Coxon, come to think about it.  It's a very good speaking voice and a very good reading voice.

More on that later.

Simon's Grandpa Spencer used to make very good use of his deep voice when he would tell us bedtime stories.  Dad knew all of Kipling's Just So Stories as well as the Albert the Lion poems and he could do a pretty good job on Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows.  I still go back to those stories sometimes and whenever I do I can still still hear the words being read in Dad's voice.

Since I was the youngest of us six kids, I was the last of his audience.  I think we stopped when I was 13 with him reading Treasure Island.  He did a fantastic job of the voices.  We used to listen to sci-fi plays on CBC Regina for the next year at night as sort of a replacement.  One of the last things we heard was an adaptation of The Day of Triffids.  Man, the sound of those Triffid stings scared the dickens out of me!

My voice isn't as good as Dad's or Simon's but bedtime stories became a pretty big deal at our house too.  I kind of miss our Saturyday morning routine where me and the boys would truck off to the local library in search of books to read out loud at night.  After a while we moved up to more advanced stuff -- we had lots of fun doing the Martian Chronicels and Helen did a long stint with the Lord of the Rings and the first few Harry Potter books.  There was even a period of "improv" bedtime stories where I just made up stories with characters custom-made to suit Simon and Evan's rather unusual senses of humour.

When the boys moved into separate rooms, the bedtime story tradition  kind of lapsed.  But reading stories out loud did not.  When the fourth Harry Potter book came out, the boys were so anxious to read it that I picked up the first copy I could find (at a gas station!).  On the way home in the car, Simon started reading the book to Evan.  Thus began the very important and enjoyable career of Simon the Literary In-Car Entertainment System.   He often reads out to us during long road trips.  It's nice.

Something even nicer happened when we put the boys back together in what we call the "Electronic Den".  Simon has started reading bed time stories to Evan.  They've just about finished the second of the Golden Compass books.   Maybe I should be jealous but I'm not.  As I mentioned before, Simon has a great reading voice and I'm very happy my sons are sharing this experience.

PS - posted a bunch of Holga and Diana+ pictures under the photos archive if you're interested.  The picture of Simon in this entry is one of them.  Apologies to any family members who may feel their images have been taken in vain.