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:
| Have a look at my HTML tutorial. | Look at my stuff on eBay. |
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.
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. 
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.
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
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].
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.
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.
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.
more than 1317 before Nov. 15, 2002
1955 super people have visited by the good date of June 29, 2003
simply 2050 people have visited before August 19, 2003.
just 2312 people have shared my thoughts by October 4, 2003
just 3186 people have seen my thoughts by February 19th, 2004
3562 July 7, 2004
6233 as of January 23, 2006
My Favorite Movies (I haven't seen yet)
My Favorite TV Shows
