Robert Paterson's Weblog

7 Things you might not know about me

OK I'm game but late in the meme - Rob Lantz tagged me - the deal is to reveal 7 things about yourself and add 7 new victims

• I am terrified by heights - I think this began as a 2 year old when my granny put me on a huge horse. Now if you want me to go nuts - get me close to the edge of a cliff

• I hate films and books about dysfunctional families - My own family was so dysfunctional that I don't want to be reminded

• I  escaped from what was going on as a child into books. They offered me an alternate world. By 8 I was reading books like war and Peace - I used to read at least a book a day and on holidays more. I still read a lot - 3 or 4 a week

• The first girl I ever loved was called Beth - I asked her to my 8th birthday party - I never dared to speak a word to her - I can still tell you what her dress looked like. I wonder where she is today

• My "adopted" - he chose me - father Sidney Patterson died in my arms. I was having tea with him with Robin and my then very small children and he had a heart attack. It was the most stunning event of my life - James aged 3 made me laugh through my tears when on the way home piped up "Is Sidney a skellington now?"

• My most embarrassing social faux pas was at a wedding. I met the wife of the Mayor of Westmount who was on her own. "Where is the Mayor?" I asked "Is he too busy to be here?" "No Rob" She relied - "He is dead - he died a month ago" The ground should have opened up and swallowed me. But she was very sweet about it and later in life after some losses of my own I understood better.

• My greatest longing is to be with a group of people that I love and care for very much and do something noble and worthwhile with them - I have a sneaky feeling that this wish may be granted - taking back our power locally is I think the work

Now who will I give this Black Spot to? Maybe some of you have been tagged before but here goes anyway

• Cynthia Dunsford - whom I have not seen or heard enough from recently
• Craig Willson - any man who loves dogs as much as Bub does must be a good man
• Tom - whom I want to get to know more
• Johnnie Moore - who will want to kill me for this
• Todd Mundt - who always seem to be able to make time even though he is very busy
• Tim Eby - when he has a minute in his move to St Louis
• Dennis Haarsager - now he has all this free time! Joke Dennis Joke!

The Building of the PEI Igloo

Charlie Scott - master builder (aka my son in law)
The snow conditions were perfect for block cutting
The easy bits
The harder bits begin
In need of more support
Closing in
James and Max - the slaves (aka nephew and son)
The next day
Natural Light

I am sad to say that the warm days have meant that the PEI Igloo is no more - more like a "tell" of an ancient city lost in time.

Igloos on PEI

Cant be serious all the time - Farts Rule

This caught my eye:

Apple recently relaxed its rules to open the App Store doors to a new breed of tongue-in-cheek applications such as Pull my Finger and iFart Mobile. Both deliver realistic fart sounds that have names such as "Air Biscuit", "Jack the Ripper", "Splatter" or "Quack". Some may argue that these programs have no real purpose, but who really cares if there is enough demand? The iPhone user base responded to these offerings and the results are stunning.

InfoMedia released the sales numbers of its iFart Mobile software. The $0.99 farting application was in the #1 slot on the AppStore's Top 100 sales list at the time of this writing, ahead of games like Tetris, Sim City and Bejeweled 2 as well as popular entertainment applications like iBeer. Setting the price to $0.99 certainly helped, but InfoMedia claims it was the combination of clever marketing that really pushed the application. Cash-wise, iFart Mobile raked in nearly $10,000 in the first day of its release - that is after Apple’s 30% cut. Not bad for a farting application. But then we also know that such applications have always been popular. Some Internet veterans may remember the early days of fart.com that posted sounds and allowed its users to download the files. In the late 1990s, the site was among the most successful sites on the Internet in terms of traffic.

Boyd - Intermission - Enjoy!

Thanks to Terry Heaton who found this at David Weinberger points to this most excellent mash-up of “40 Inspirational Moments” in film from the people at overthinkingit.com.

2012 - The "Dream Ticket?"

Worried about a McCain/Palin Victory? Come to Canada

Thanks Sonia Belle

What will gymnasts be wearing in 100 years time?

I am a big believer in trends. As I watched this Olympics I could not help myself, as a man, from noticing that we seem to be approaching the original Olympic ideal

So here for fun is the starting point for Women's Gymnastics

Here is where we are now

I will be long dead in 100 years.....

All work and no play makes Rob a dull Boy - English Weather

My friend Steve Kurtz sends me cool stuff a lot - most of it serious but some very funny or just generally useful. I have been very dark recently - no maybe for a long time - so here is a gem he sent today:

English weather.

In deference to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Royal Commission for Political Correctness, it was announced today that the local climate in the UK should no longer be referred to as "English weather"

In order to avoid offending a sizable portion of the population, it will now be referred as "Muslim weather"

In other words - "partly Sunni but mostly Shi'ite"

But I still have Hope

Thanks Will - Made my day