Yet again, another roadblock has been placed in front of my iPod purchase. My order has been mysteriously cancelled. I called up Apple and they said that it had to do with payment information, but the payment people weren't there at those hours, so I couldn't find out specifically what went wrong. The representative said that I could call back tomorrow to find out more information.

I think at this point I'll just wait for the stores to get them in again. The wait time from the online store and the possiblity of further complications isn't worth it.

Well, I finally ordered an iPod tonight. I ordered it from the online Apple store after much inner debate. The local dealers don't have any in stock, and when they do get them in stock they sell out incredibly quickly. I figured that I'd just order it online and not worry about calling up these places all the time to see if they have them in. They can't even give a good timeframe for their arrival. Well I wont complain anymore. Now I just have to wait for a while until my 15 gig iPod arrives at my door!

My family is going to open up my grandparents' cottage today. I'll be away until Monday evening.

This is a poem I wrote for English class. I think it's good enough to share. It is called Away On The Lake.

Sitting in the busy city lights alone,
When life is dragging and limping along,
I hear nothing but melancholy chords.
I dream about the last time and I think,
If only I could simply get away,
Away into the vastness of the wild,
the air, the space, the water open now.
I dearly wish I could do that today,
Today I would get up and fly away,
But wishing cannot take me from this life.
You get enveloped in the busy life,
Too much happens to get away from it.
Often I think of letting go today,
Step, jump away to save my sanity.
Luckily, there are times to get away.
The serene pristine scene of nature calms
the body and the soul. Paddling on the
Water gives you control over your life,
And leads you through peaceful passes unknown.
The smooth surface of the mirror-lake breaks,
As you glide on with ease, like a cloud blown
Ever so softly on the chill night breeze.
To paddle on a lake at sunset is
Like traveling to meet a place of peace
So deep. A sleep of beauty is unleashed
To set upon your mind like a mist of
Heaven on earth. It helps you escape from
Life, promises, and work. After a day's
Paddle you rest by the fireside at camp.
Sparks twist and turn with great fury in the air,
dancing and painting in the dark night sky.
The art of nature is now close at hand.
The waves lap the shore and the fire crackles.
This is the time for thought and peace. Yet not
Forever will I stay, paddling the day
And thinking away. Since Forever is
Quite a long time for nothing, yet something.
In time, I return to life, often too
soon, or too late for my contrary taste.
Escape is beautiful, calm and new, but
One needs something to escape from, or to.

This is one of the most (if not the most) brilliant Onion article of all time.

Although it is refering to September 11th and is shrouded in humor, I think the message is timeless and true. Everyone in the world should understand this.

Well I survived today without getting sick! If I can stay healthy tomorrow I may be in the clear.

Mike Pinkerton asks one of the great questions of our time:

"Why does bottled water have an expiration date?"

This puzzle must be resolved! Along with:

What is the air-speed velocity of an un-laden swallow?

Puzzling.

There is a high possibility I'll be sick today. I was exposed to a flu type thing two days ago. All of those who had been exposed to it 2 days before that got sick that day. So it seems the incubation period is 2 days. My Mom and Sister have already got sick today, I suppose I might be next.

Wish me luck, I have a 10+ year vomit-free record. :)

Well, well, well, the Leafs have been busy at this years NHL trade deadline. Not only did we get Owen Nolan a few days ago, we also got Glen Wesley from Carolina, Phil Housely from Chicago, and Doug Gilmour from Montreal! Gilmour is a Leaf once again! I can't wait to see him play on Thursday.

These deals have really given the Leafs a lot of depth. I just hope they can use their talent in the playoffs. GO LEAFS GO!

I picked up a copy of Beowulf today, translated by Seamus Heaney. I haven't started reading yet, just the introduction. From what I've read about it, it should be really interesting. It's strange, however, seeing the Anglo-Saxon on one side of the page and then English on the other. There are some similarities that you can definately see, yet it is different.

So I was away on the weekend camping again. I was at the same place I went two weekends ago with the same friend. It was at his family's farm. We went to help out with a Cub camp that was being held there in addition to going just for fun. I took the camera along and took a bunch of pictures. I've posted them here

There are some good ones in there and some that aren't so good. I didn't include a few as well, since a lot were repeats or weren't good at all.

We finished off the quinzee (snow shelter) from two weekends ago. It really was big. We estimate it was about 5 feet high inside and quite wide. We fit 11 Cubs and the two of us in it with lots of room to spare.

So I didn't go camping this weekend afterall. The weather wasn't looking good for driving, so it got cancelled. Yesterday there was freezing rain then snow in the evening. Overnight we got a big dump of snow as well. Too bad. I wanted to work more on our snow shelter and take some pictures. Maybe some other time...

Well, I didn't freeze! Camping was great. Our snow shelter was huge, and it wasn't even completed. The pile of snow is about 7 feet high, or more. When we were almost done hollowing it out half of it collapsed on us. Although rebuilding the colapsed half meant a hell of a lot more work, we all laughed for a while. I was on the outside and the three other guys were burried up to their waists in snow, laughing.

I'll be going back next weekend. My friend and I are going to try and finish it. I'll try to take some pictures of the monster if it is still intact.

I'm going winter camping this weekend up at a friends farm. We'll be building snow shelters and doing everythign outside. It should be fun.... but freezing.

So it is Valentines day today. I'm not a big fan of this purely invented holiday. It seems to me that all it is good for is making the card, flower and chocolate companies money and making people who spend it alone, well alone. The part I hate the most is the ads you see that essentially say "buy her an expensive diamond ring to show that you care about her." This is essentially a corporate guilt trip. You don't need to spend that much money to show feelings.

So Happy Valentines Day everyone! I might be being unfair. Its a nice day for many people.

I think I'm bitter.

Well, Steve Stavero has sold the Leafs. CBC gives us the breakdown of ownership:

"Under a new ownership structure, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund now owns 58 per cent of MLSE, Bell Globemedia has 15 per cent, TD Capital increases its share to 14 per cent and Kilmer Sports, owned by Larry Tanenbaum, increases to 13 per cent. "

Stavero also assure us of the team staying in Canada. "This change in ownerships guarantees that Canada's team -- the Leafs and the Raptors, will remain in Canada, in Canadian hands." Well, thats a good thing, except I don't think anyone would expect the Leafs to leave anyways. The Leafs are extremely profitable and wouldn't make more money anywhere else. Toronto is the biggest hockey city in the world and the Leafs know it. Every Leafs game is sold out for huge amounts of money, and I think almost all Raptors games get sold out as well. It seems pretty obvious that the team is not going anywhere.

I watched the movie 12 Monkeys last night. It was a very interesting movie. It really makes you think. Bruce Willis played the character well. Even Brad Pitt played a good role. Terry Gilliam, the director, is great. There was something interesting about the style of the movie. Anyways, two thumbs up and I strongly recommend it.

Here's another article from The Smoking Gun on Pete Townshend I should have linked earlier. It includes an essay he wrote a year ago about how shocked he was at finding Child Porn on the Internet by accident and how a friend of his was sexually abused as a child and she recently committed suicide. This combined with his work for Children's charities and the article I posted earlier convince me of his innocence.

Here's an interesting article. It appears that Pete Townshend wasn't lying and is innocent. Supposedly he was in contact with the Internet Watch Foundation and was reporting these things. The IWF initially denied that they had been in contact with him, but now they have admitted they did and Pete has email evidence to back it up.

I really hope this is true, Townshend really doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do that kind of thing. At least I hope not.