The Seven Grandfather Teachings and What They Mean To Me

 Hello and aaniin. If you arrived here from either my X post or blurb in the Surrey Now-Leader then welcome. As mentioned here's a rehash of the 7 Grandfather Teachings and what they mean to me.

Love, represented by the eagle. To me means unconditional affection for all of creation. I use this lots. I love my wife and children. I love art and music. As a guiding principal I could simply ask if the policy demonstrates love then I would feel compelled to approve.

Respect, represented by the buffalo. To me means courteous consideration. I recenly attended AniRevo in Vancouver and it came up in regards to my interaction with someone who was cosplaying a character I like from the game Genshin Impact. I asked if I could take a picture and they hesitated but agreed after I explained I would likely use the picture as a reference for some artwork. Some time afterward I thought about it and decided perhaps it would be prudent to simply delete the picture as a act of respect for that person's privacy. After all I could get plenty of reference pictures in game. As a guiding principal I could try my best to approach people in the same courteous manner.

Wisdom, represented by the beaver. To me means to cherish knowledge and or intelligence. I use this from time to time. Where I work it is essential to troubleshooting. If I'm testing a circut and some aspect isn't working, the knowledge of how the circuit works enables me to find where faults are. I can then direct efforts to correct them. As a guiding principal I would do my best to learn about what is presented before making descisions.

Bravery, represented by the bear. To me means to stand without fear and face challenges head on. I am not ashamed to admit I sometimes struggle with this. But somehow when it becomes necessary I will do the best I can to summon the courage and do what needs to be done. 

Humility, repesented by the wolf. To me means equality. If anything I sometimes feel lower than everyone else. My hope is that if elected then perhaps my attitude will change to that of attaining a level playing field. As a guiding principal it would mean approching things with the attitude of balance and equity.

Honesty, represented by the raven. To me means righteousness. I try to act and speak with this all the time. If given a choice, pick what is correct and if asked to speak then say what is true.

Truth, represented by the turtle. To me means giving an account of events in a way that prevents deception. From my point of view it goes hand in hand with honesty. One source puts this as only speaking to the extent we have lived or experinced. As an aside, in electronics we sometimes use logic or truth tables. For a given function the table defines the truth. As a guiding principal I'd simply tell the truth whenever something is asked of me.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope to use this blog to expand on topics that come up during my campaign. See you in the next post. 

Stuff I didn't feel like putting on Faceplant

Hi y'all. Just thought I'd share a bit of the geekyness I'm experiencing today. Most people know how I love to listen to the radio. More specifically 99.3 the Fox. Well I've gotten a little brave and decided to e-mail the morning show with my comments concerning a couple songs that are in rotation now. First was the new Alice In Chains tune Check My Brain. In my opinion it sounded like it was recorded on or at least played back on a turntable that had a rubber band instead of a proper drive belt. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing, in fact I think its way cool, but perhaps when I wrote them they thought that's what I meant. If that wasn't enough I also made comments concerning the new Nickelback tune Burn I Down. I seem to remember hearing an interview where they originally thought the song would be about some girl getting kidnaped but after a meeting with the producer they decided on a extensive rewrite. Something about wanting to pump my fist in the air and crack open a beer if i recall correctly. So listening to the song cranked in the van cruising to work it seemed to me that at the start of the guitar solo there sounded like a muffled female voice muttering something. I could not help but describe it as similar to when I was a kid and I'd have friends over playing in the basement. Mom would call out outside the door to the stairway to the basement and ask if we were all ok and or let us know snacks where ready. Now once again I'm not saying thats a bad thing, but, I'm hoping that I'm not crazy and some people will agree thats what it sounds like. I guess it might simply be a result of the guitar effects in a crazy overdub or something purely coincidental. At any rate I wasn't expecting them to read my e-mail on air. Imagine my suprise hearing my name mentioned on air. SQUEEEEEEE that totally made my day.

At lunch time I also got to thinking (scary huh) what if instead of taking guitar in highschool I took drama instead. My biggest fear was how would I do in that class. I seem to think they would have an exercise where the teacher would ask the students to act like spoons. Initially I thought my spoon is an inanimate object so I'd simply lay still on the floor. Or perhaps the point was to imagine it was a living thing and my task was to personify it. I'd be sleeping soundly in my lunchbox when suddenly some guy picks me up and shoves me into some yogurt. He then is just about to put me in his mouth when I sputter and shout at him "Woah buddy you got some nasty jungle breath!". I suppose that could be used as a concept for some mouthwash commercial with the tag line "Nine out of ten spoons approve" and I'd be the guy in the spoon costume with the Don Cherry thumbs up in a cameo on the screen.

Like I said "Geeky" huh
Ok Bye now.

Azumanga Daioh vs Questionable Content fanart

Hiya. Its been a while but anyway here goes.
I did a drawing based on the concept of "What if Azumanga Daioh came to visit Questionable Content?"
Here's what i came up with. Ink Only



and also the same but colored



Laterz

New Pics From New Camera

Hi y'all. As promised here are a few new pics. Starting with the following one



This is Samantha Joan Carless. She was born August 15th 2008. I took this picture with our Fuji camera using the Potrait mode. I see how that might enhance the skin tones but the effect overall seems to add too much yellow. So the next pic was taken using the Natural light mode.



As you can see it seems to have worked better. The light source was a window that faced east but with overcast skies. And finally one more pic.



This is Renee handing Samantha to meet Colette for the first time. Of all the photos I took that day I think this one came out the best. I really enjoy how the lighting worked and the colors matched so close to how I saw it. The overall composition overwhelms me with emotion. If ever I where to enter an amateur photo contest this one would totally be my pic to enter. Well there's plenty more to come but that's all for now. G'night y'all.

OMG I almost forgot I had this

Hi y'all, as the title of this post would suggest I've almost totally neglected this blog thingy. Some things are coming up though. If you are on facebook it'll be no suprise that we are going to have a baby anytime soon. In prep for that we got a new camera and I'm hoping to start putting up pics and stuff here for the benefit of those who are not on facebook (or faceplant as Opa calls it). In the mean time here's a pic of me at the parade on Canada Day in Steveston.

This pic was taken by Kristin with our old camera (Kodak EasyShare C315). I'm holding the new camera (Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd). Its sooooooooo much better than the old one. Even though it's not a SLR camera, it has a lot of neat features. I hope to learn to use them all. I did shoot almost 4 Gigs worth that day and with a varity of settings. Most if not all of them turned out good. Like this one.

Of course I could always crop and zoom that one but its ok for posting on here. Ok thats all for now. Maybe i'll take a photography course through Parks and Rec. I leave you with one more pic i'll call after the parade....

Back the Time Machine Up Part 2

June 9th.
Our newlywed friends just got back from their honeymoon so we go out to their place to visit. We did not tell the girls right away that we were really going with them to Disneyland. When we got to Dave and Lana's we only told them we where going to a place with shopping and amusement rides. We passed Bellis Fair which had rides and shopping but when the girls protested we told them there was a bigger and better place ahead. When we passed Puyallup they really started to complain, but once again we told them there is a bigger and better place ahead. We stopped in Seattle for lunch and decided to let the girls off the hook but not until after lunch. After lunch we kept on down the I-5 then the girls where really getting upset. I couldn't stand it either so I begged the rest of the adults to stop and let them know. We stopped in Tacoma and finally told them. This is what they looked like at that point.
Kristin was in tears. Colette looked skeptical. They were fine the rest of the way there. In California we seen lots of Palm trees. Colette still the skeptic wondered if the trees where "real" so I had to reassure her..
This was a "real" tree. We had lots of fun. Only 2 bad times at Disneyland. The first was the lineup for the new Finding Nemo ride. Even with our early entry passes we had to wait 3 hours.
Worst lineup EVAR! The ride itself was really cool and worth the wait. The other thing that really wigged me out was Space Mountain. In a word it'd be "vertigo". On the last day there the girls where starting to get tired but thats probably because they where also hungry.

Mommy to the rescue.

And there you go. Thats all for today.

Back the time machine up. Part 1

April 28th, The Big Day. After months of planning the day finally arrived. It was Lana and Dave's Wedding. Both my girls and my wife where in the wedding party. The girls, flower girls. My wife, a bridesmaid. I was just there to drive them around. Here are some pics


The Chapel at rehearsal.


My girls and wife just before the ceremony.


The Bride and Groom.

Thats all for today more updates to come.