Do you know what happens @ your work place while you’re away on vacation? Probably not. As you all know, most workplaces are serious and rightfully so, it’s a place to work not an amusement park. But every now and then when our colleague Nick goes on his three week vacation he often comes back to a small gag in his cubicle. It’s all fun stuff and he does have a sense of humour, I think. But I’ve been trying to think of something decent to welcome his return to the office and many ideas were thrown into the air but I stuck to one and it involved duct taping, no pun intended there, okay it was intended.

The thing about duct taping is that it can get messy and I didn’t want Mr. Nick to get pissed b/c of the adhesive residue that duct tape leaves behind so there was some prepping to do. Basically masking the area so that the duct tape can stick to a base layer instead of the actual items, basically a gift wrap and then duct tape. I got some items from a friends garage, mostly the duct tape and paper, I told him about the joke and he gave me the supplies. I should have taken more b/c I did run out of duct tape but I think it’s good enough.

The convenient thing about a portable tool box is portability, duh?! Portability is great but there can only be so many portable tool boxes that one person can have unless of course you really dig portable tool boxes. Portability has its advantages and those tools that need to be in those tool boxes will remain there for those grab and go moments. My tool boxes are dedicated to a task, be it plumbing, electrical, woodworking, etc. A majority of my mechanic tools sit in a Stanley FatMax 4-in-1 Mobile WorkStation which for the most part is a great system but it is not secure. Let’s face it, plastic and the like are great, they can be light and durable but they can also be broken into and can handle only so much abuse. Not that I’m planning to abuse my tool boxes or anything but you never know.

Basically I wanted a decent metal tool chest/cabinet system, not the ones that sell for 100$ but something a bit more robust. There are many brands and of course many build qualities. The cabinet had to be decent and brand name is not high on importance although many people associate certain brand names with quality. I took a look at Mac and Snap On which were really nice but I’m not planning to take out a mortgage for a tool cabinet. So I perused Sears to check out the Craftsman line, some were very smooth and some models were kind of flaky, that’s right, I said flaky. Did the same thing for Canadian Tire and even checked out Princess Auto and even decided to check out the big box stores like Rona, Reno-Depot and Home Depot. After a few weeks of searching I finally came across a Special Buy @ Home Depot. The quality was more than great for what I paid and nothing else came close, cost quality wise. Most of the other store brands and models cost more for something very similar and as much as 500$ for one particular model and it was less 2 drawers. One of my pals said that I should be careful and make sure that everything assembles perfectly, I told him that I’m not worried, it’s got a good warranty. I figured if there is something wrong then just take it back and get another one, it can be a hassle but you’re not paying again so what’s the problem?

Small rant here:
I found a ridiculous comment in regards to a major tool cabinet brand. Basically the individual said that the company they bought their tool cabinet from guarantees it forever so if the toolbox were to get hit by a truck and get demolished they would be able to get a new one.
Ummm….No, I don’t think that any company would do that.  No company will replace your product if it gets hit by a truck, car or any other type of moving vehicle. Most warranties are for manufacturing defects and assembly, it gives the purchaser some peace of mind. If anything breaks it will be in the first few months, so a one year warranty is not too shabby, three years is good and more than that and you’re laughing. I think the person was trying to make more of a point on the build quality of their purchase but then again if you’re paying x-amount for something then you have every right to expect x-amount from the company but I don’t think acts of road rage or demolition derbies are covered under these warranties. Why in the world would it get hit by a truck in the first place?

Sorry to stray from topic but I figured I would throw that in there.
So there, I went and bought me a tool chest and cabinet, woohoo! Yes, it wasn’t much in comparison to other brands and it may not be to some people’s expectations but I think it will serve me well. For 299$ CDN, why not.

Husky 11 drawer tool chest and cabinet w/bonus 2 drawer chest

Husky tool cabinet and chest

For many years I have been using gas systems for the BBQ because it’s convenient. But as of last year I have been using more and more of the charcoal variety instead of the gas and what a difference it makes. It took me a bit of getting used but once I got the knack of it there was not stopping me.
Got myself one of those kettle style grills and yes I could have gone nuts and bought myself one of those mega large kettles but I’m not grilling for a team so why bother. Besides, I want to get my grilling down before splurging. 

If you have never barbecued on a kettle grill then I suggest that you go out and try it. There are a few models that can be found cheap at the hardware stores and it does the job well, it doesn’t have to be one of the more popular ones like weber, big green egg or old smokey. Once you get the hang of it then go on and have yourself a real grilling party. I found that it really helps to use a chimney when dealing with briquettes and charcoal, it makes it that much easier. If you’re not sure what I mean by chimney then do a bit of research and find out. If you don’t want to research it then I’ll tell you.

A chimney is basically a metal pipe (think stove pipe) with a handle that has space at the bottom for some flammable material, like paper and the top portion is filled with briquettes and charcoal. You basically light the paper at the bottom and it will create a ton of smoke for a brief while and in a few minutes you get hot coals! Grab it by the handle and not the body. You can also check out the embedded video below.

So what should I grill? Everything! I like the usual suspects when it comes to grilling, steak, pork chops, chicken, veggies, kebabs of all kinds, basically whatever you want. The only thing I wouldn’t try is cake, I don’t think cake grills to well but I could be wrong, maybe I can ask the folks at America’s Test Kitchen to try it, they’ll probably find a way to make it work. Hmmm…grilled cake.

Sitting and grilling

Grill my pretties, grill!

The quake happened after 1pm on June 23rd, I was sitting at my desk and I heard my boss make a remark about the floor shaking and sure enough, the floor was shaking. Most of us in the office just stood there with the same look on our faces, wondering if a truck was passing by or if it indeed was an earthquake. It was an earthquake. No one was in a panic but it was enough to cause a stir and sure enough the ever popular Twitter was on the move. In a matter of seconds after the tremor, there were thousands of tweets from Ann Arbor to Syracuse to Montreal to Toronto to Ottawa, you get the point. I sent a text to my sister in Toronto asking if she felt it, she did not. Funny how some people didn’t feel a thing but at the same time it’s understandable.
If you were riding in a vehicle or pedaling a bike then chances are that you wouldn’t have felt it but I figure if you were in a building or standing still then surely something would have been felt, not so for some.
Many people in the office said that it’s been a while since they felt a tremor but the last time I felt one was back in February. That one was fairly close to the house, app 35km or so and registered 3.9 on the shake-o-meter. The June 23rd quake was around 5 or 5.5 on the shake-o-meter, depending on who you ask but one thing is certain, it managed to spook many people, except for me of course.

I finished up the assembly on a kitchen cabinet for the girlfriend, it wasn’t from Ikea, hand built by yours truly, putting the woodworking skills to use. The Jazz festival started in full gear in Montreal and the FIFA World Cup was being watched at many places in the city. Of course we can’t leave out the G summit meetings in Toronto.

While the Jazz Festival entertained the people in Montreal the G Summit turned into a scene of violence and vandalism for the city of Toronto. The outcome of the Summit was not a big surprise, watching the clash between protestors and police is always a treat but in the end those protestors that are violent are the ones that get onto the news.
Here’s the thing, those protestors that are violent think they get respect and make a point by vandalizing property but in the end they don’t think. People will just see them as troublemakers and I do hope they get whatever is coming to them like becoming a new hood ornament for a Mack truck, I know I know, it’s mean. You shouldn’t have to do that to a Mack truck.

Many of these people talk the talk and protest like they do because they live in a society that tolerates it, people get angry, things get damaged, some arrests are made and then it’s over. Try that in a different part of the world where they shoot first and ask questions later, not so much protesting over there.
Anyways, the outcome of the Summit was no big surprise, so much for the billion dollar security force. I don’t think the Summit should have taken place in Toronto, too easy to access and too big to really contain. As I said, why don’t they hold it in a secret location and don’t call it the G Summit, call it something else. Hold it in a location where no one can really afford to go and where car and bus access would be difficult or impossible, one road in and one road out.

Anyways, I couldn’t watch anymore of the G Summit clashes because it was upsetting. Not as upsetting as England losing to Germany though.

One of my friends chose the word ‘oblivious’ and I wondered why but soon realized that oblivious was a good choice. Another one picked ‘rational’ and it really did not match, we did debate it for a while and then dropped the debate because it was anything but rational, my point was made. It’s funny how you think a word can define you and then realize that maybe that word may not have been the best choice. One of my friends described another friend as a ‘dog’, I said that it was an insult to the dog. It’s difficult to try and define a person with just one word because there is more to a person than just a word, unless of course that person is clueless then there is no hope.

The word that would best describe me is ‘clever’ and of course some could argue and say that ’smart ass’ maybe a better description or maybe even ‘bitter’ but I’m only bitter when people really piss me off. It’s safe to say that I’m clever 75 percent of the time compared to 5 percent of the time that I’m bitter, honest. Okay maybe 7 percent bitter, tops. As for being a smart ass, aren’t we all at some point in our life.

All this BP oil is doing some serious damage and I along with a few friends were discussing this topic. We were kind of split half and half on the subject of oil companies being more responsible but I said that we as a society are partly to blame seeing as we are the ones who demand this stuff. It’s bad enough that we use it for our cars and other motorized toys but manufacturing uses it for other things too, think tires and the like. We have an obligation to be more responsible and limit our use of the oily stuff and not be so dependent on it. But I have to be real at the same time, it may take quite a while to achieve an alternative to oil and even then it will take some doing to convince people. As it is, many alternatives that could or should move forward are not and according to one of my friends, it’s the oil companies that prevent it from moving forward. My response was that it may not necessarily be the oil companies but industry in general but what do I know, I just work for a living.

As far as I’m concerned this whole mess in the Gulf was due to greed, it involves money so greed is in the mix there. Sure there’s other things that caused it but greed is what drove the drilling in the first place. Someone did mention to me that BP probably did not follow any environmental guidelines and that would make sense because if they had maybe they would have had a game plan to clean up the mess. No, BP is responsible for this mess and I hope that they do go belly up after they clean up their mess and I hope that those people responsible get prison time for their neglect or as one Facebook group suggested, Stuff the BP exec’s into the pipe.

I guess OMG won’t change to “Oil, Million Gallons” but that’s okay, it would probably just cause confusion,  LOL :-p

Really? A billion dollars for 3 days of bull crap, I think the f****** government is nuts. Oh wait it’s Steven Harper we’re talking about, so f****** idiot would be a better description.
It’s rare that I type in the ‘f ’ word ( a bunch of stars actually ) but I do have a billion reasons to be upset and so should the public. Some people might say big deal, they’re going to spend it on something stupid anyways. Well that’s the reason it’s a big deal, it could have been spent on something better and more useful instead of spending it on these meetings.
Some of the smarter people out there said maybe they could do it via video conference, lessen the cost and avoid this whole hoopla of a mess. But no, they have to go and spend a billion dollars because that’s the best way to spend the people’s money (should there be an apostrophe for that?).
I know that I already ranted on about the summit meeting in the other blurb but the price tag wasn’t at a billion dollars, it was only in the millions, not that it’s any better but it is the lesser of the two evils, sort of.
Maybe I should propose a billion dollar meeting at work and see what happens, it could be a yes but will most likely be a big fat no and then find my rear on the street begging to make a buck. A billion dollars for 3 days of BS, Steven Harper may have just given a billion reasons why he should not be a representative for this country.

I’m talking about the G8 and the G20 summit meetings. I’m wondering why they need to announce it and make it public. If they keep it quiet and away from media then maybe, just maybe there wouldn’t be a swarm of protesters swinging and shoving their way into the towns and cities and disrupting the peace. One can argue that it’s their right to protest and have their voices heard but when acts of violence are carried out then that’s where I draw the line, throw them into the slammer and let the radioactive rats get at them. Not really sure if rats could be radioactive but regular rats can do the job too.
I spoke to someone who went to protest at one meeting and they started with the whole capitalism and unfairness and the rich and blah blah blah. I didn’t really think much about what they said or really pay attention because there was a Ford GT40 idling at the stop light, a bit ignorant of me to do that but I heard those rantings before.

So people want to change the world but here is the reality, it won’t change overnight and those who are on top are hard to topple. The fact is the rich get richer and we, the small guys are the ones that put them there. We only have ourselves to blame and the same for government, we voted them in so suffer my pretties, suffer. Everyone has a different take on things and what seems like a good idea now may not be such a good idea later on, think past governments. Yes we all suffer, some more than others but really, violent protests at these G summit meetings get you nowhere, even peaceful protests get you nowhere, this of course is just my opinion.There are people that will disagree with me and that’s fine, people can disagree, I’ll just have a gas mask on while I’m holding my pepper spray cans. Ha! See what I did there, oh man I’m a riot. Ha! Get it?

Seriously though, this whole G summit meeting thing is just ridiculous, it almost seems like they enjoy announcing it to get people to riot, conspiracy theorists start your engines! I don’t think that’s what their intentions are but why not cut the regular folks a break and keep your freaking summit meetings to yourselves. If they want to make it open to the public then maybe they can hold the meeting in the Kamchatka Peninsula region. I doubt that they would actually host the meetings in Kamchatka but you never know, one can dream.

The reason I babbled on about this was due to a news report I saw on TV. An RBC building was torched by self proclaimed anarchists to show their displeasure with RBC sponsoring the Vancouver Winter Olympics. I think it’s a cowardly act to do such a thing, maybe what they should have done was to challenge the president of RBC to a boxing match. I’m sure he would have been up to it, not MMA style because that requires some sort of martial arts training but just a regular boxing match. I think we should settle everything like that, 10 rounds in the ring, done and over with.