A cool morning at about 6:30. Just getting ready for today’s meetings. They’re planning on trying to teach me something today – good luck.

Tonight we’re supposed to have a “games night” with “pub fare”. It’s amazing what they’ll do to try and keep your interest up.

Last night we had a nice dinner. Tomato orange bisque followed by locally raised trout fillets finished with a white chocolate torte. Pretty tasty.

Talisman seems to be in the black hole of communications. Most of the people up here with me are equipped with Blackberries that I sourced and, as luck would have it, no one has a connection and for some reason it’s my fault. I didn’t pick the location.

Update later.

!@(talisman1.jpg:R240 http://www.eyeno.net/images/talisman1.jpg “Talisman”) Not much to see here. This a shot from the balcony of my room at Talisman Resort near Collingwood Ontario. A crummy day.
!@—

Robert Heinlein

>“Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.”

I’ve posted before about Kevin Sites, a freelance journalist embeded with the US Marines in Iraq. Sites became a lot better known last week as the reporter who took the startling video of a Marine apparently shooting an unarmed, wounded Iraqi. Many outlets identified Sites as an “anti-war” activist.

In this compelling posting on his Blog, Sites writes an open letter to the Marines to explain to them, and us, what exactly happened on that day.

He ends with these words to the troops:
>So here, ultimately, is how it all plays out: when the Iraqi man in the mosque posed a threat, he was your enemy; when he was subdued he was your responsibility; when he was killed in front of my eyes and my camera — the story of his death became my responsibility.

Harlan Ellison

>“The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.”

Played my last round of golf for the season at Peel Village this morning. Probably my last round until I go to Orlando in February.

The cruelest part of this morning was that it was so gorgeous and my game actually sucked less than usual. The sun came out just as we started and it was incredibly bright and fairly warm for this time of the year.

Just a couple of things to do in the backyard and the snow shovels are ready for their first use. The clubs will be unloaded from the Jeep this afternoon and tucked away in the basement. I’ll hit the driving range a few times over the next few months but it’s just not the same.

Car in harbor. Crane comes to lift car out. What could go wrong?

Bill Gates gets 4 million spam emails a day. Yes, and monkeys fly out of my butt at 7 and 9 nightly with matinee shows at 3 on Saturday and Sunday.

Kurt Vonnegut

>“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.”