Monday, May 30, 2005

Moving the House


Tracie and I went on a walk from the house all the way down to 17th ave south. We live on 36th ave north. It took several hours.

On our way, we noticed this house sitting on blocks in the middle of the road. I guess someone bought a house to get the lot and decided to sell the house to someone who buys houses and moves them rather than just demolish it to build a bigger better house on the same spot.

They were going to move the old house from the lot where we are now, but the movers were too booked up to do it in time, so they just tore it down.

I wish I would have gone by when they were taking it off the foundation.

-Gary Milner

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Abuse At Guanatamo Bay

Lets put it this way. There's no understanding those crazy afghan religious nuts or the nut jobs holding them as prisoners.

"The complaints are that the prisoners have been beaten, stripped, and had to watch copies of the Koran being abused. The thing that needs to be explained here is that Koran abuse is not prisoner abuse."

Dad, is stripping and then beating the prisoners abuse? Is holding them without charging them or letting them have lawyers abuse? Is keeping them in Cuba so that you do have to abide by your own laws abuse? How do you know some guy didn't falsely accuse his neighbour for a new goat?

Is the woman in this picture abusing this guy?

What about this? Is this abuse?

This must be a birthday party.

That my friend, is the difference between real abuse and phony abuse.

No matter how you turn it, spitting on someone is not the same as stripping them down and sicking an attack dog on them, or piling them up naked, or holding them on a leash.

My question is this, why are Americans the only ones who deserve any rights at all? If you can pick up random Afgans off the street, why not black people or Jews? Why not just round of Mormons on trumped up charges. How about this, make a law that legalizes killing them.

I for one don't think you should round people up for no reason. At least give them a trial or some clothes or something.

Abuse At Guanatamo Bay

Lets put it this way. There's no understanding those crazy afghan religious nuts and the crazy American Liberals that stick up for them. I've been reading about prisoner abuse at Guanatamo for the last couple of weeks or so. The complaints are that the prisoners have been beaten, stripped, and had to watch copies of the Koran being abused. The thing that needs to be explained here is that Koran abuse is not prisoner abuse. I repeat, not prisoner abuse. If indeed anybody needs to worry about abuse of the Koran it would be the guys who abused the Koran. The complainants by the way, are the same dudes that would split you from your crotch to your eyeballs if they caught you in their country with a bible. And that my friend, is the difference between real abuse and phony abuse. Hitting people with sticks and stripping them is of coarse, real abuse and I can see why a person would complain about that. However if the those same complainants were to instigate the abuse by aggravating the guards by doing something horrific such as spitting some horrid afghan saliva in a guards face I have to say that I if I were a guard I would wonder if I even got even if I hit the s.o.b. with a stick.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Work

Work sucks even when you only have two weeks left, so don't bother giving notice. Sometimes it is better to burn bridges than not, just so that you don't accidentally cross them again.

Tracie is working nights right now and it is a good thing too, because she would be getting the brunt of my ranting and raving about how much I hate the stupid people where I work.

The worst part about the stupid people is that they are stupid, lazy, JACKASSES. Being a hard worker with a likeable personality goes a long way when it comes to getting people to ignore the fact that you are a stupid jackass.

I'm so glad that I only have 10 working days left.

I should have just quit a while ago.

-Gary Milner

Glen Hutchinson Wins Big

Guess what. Glen won a golf tournament. The top prize money for the tournament was 2000 dollars and it's now salted away nicely in Glens ass pocket. Also he won the long ball hitting portion of the tournament and got a quantity of prizes for that too. One of the prizes is a gasoline powered drink blender that from the sounds of it you could mix cement with.

Friday, May 27, 2005

Health Related

Lipoma

What is it?
Lipoma is a common soft-tissue tumor found under the skin but also can appear in deeper tissues and even in various body organs, such as the heart, brain, and lung. They can vary from walnut size to that of a large baseball and usually have a soft, rubbery feel. Types of lipomas include the superficial subcutaneous lipoma, the intramuscular lipoma, the spindle cell lipoma, the angiolipoma, the benign lipoblastoma, and the lipomas of tendon sheaths, nerves, synovium, periosteum, and the lumbosacral area. The most common type is the superficial subcutaneous lipoma.

Who gets it?
* Superficial subcutaneous lipomas occur more frequently in women than men, usually on the trunk, nape of the neck, and forearms. They are found more commonly in people who are overweight, although losing weight will not make lipomas smaller.

* Angiolipoma lipomas are usually found in young adults, typically on the forearm.

What causes it?
No one knows why lipomas occur. Usually they are inherited.

What are the symptoms?
Symptoms of lipoma include soft, moveable lumps under the skin that are sometimes painful to the touch.

How is it diagnosed?
The doctor may be able to make a diagnosis of lipoma based on a visual examination of the patient. The doctor may also do a biopsy on the lesion to determine the type of lipoma.

What is the treatment?
Treatment for lipomas may not be required, however in most cases they can be surgically removed if they are very large, painful, or cosmetically unattractive. The doctor may remove them by surgical excision. Liposuction can sometimes be performed and may result in less scarring.

Sometimes it is impossible to remove a diffuse lipomatosis if the involved limb becomes massive in size. In this extreme case, amputation of the limb may be recommended.

Self-care tips
Lipomas generally grow to a limited size and usually are not painful. Surgery to treat lipomas for cosmetic reasons is usually successful, with a recurrence rate for most lipomas at less than five percent.


Preliminary Data Suggest That Soda And Sweet Drinks Are The Main Source Of Calories In American Diet

Tufts researchers recently reported that while the leading source of calories in the average American diet used to be from white bread, that may have changed. Now, according to preliminary research conducted by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Americans are drinking these calories instead. The research was presented in abstract form at the Experimental Biology Conference in April of this year and a more comprehensive paper is being developed. Odilia Bermudez, PhD, MPH, studied the reported diets of a large nationwide sample of American adults. Among respondents to the 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), more than two thirds reported drinking enough soda and/or sweet drinks to provide them with a greater proportion of daily calories than any other food. In addition, obesity rates were higher among these sweet drink consumers. Consumers of 100% orange juice and low fat milk, on the other hand, tended to be less overweight, on average.

Bermudez, who is also an assistant professor at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, is hopeful that, "by helping to identify the main sources of excess energy in the American diet, this work may contribute to the development of much-needed strategies to combat obesity in the American public."

"These results are startling," she continued, "and indicate that we need a much better understanding of how the American diet has changed. Our paper will look more closely at the issue of sweet drink consumption and its relation to obesity factors among three of the main ethnic groups included in the national surveys: African Americans, Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites."

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Slitting My Wrists (ok Elbow Pits)


I went to the doctor today to get a minor surgery done this morning. I had to get some lipomas removed. One from each arm.

The one in my left arm was a little bit bigger and deeper than the one on my right arm.

Tracie asked the nurse if we could take some photos and she said it would be ok. Then Tracie asked the doctor and he said it would be ok.

Let me tell you, the needle to freeze your arm is a lot better than the needle to freeze your mouth. After the initial needle, you don't even know your arm is frozen. Not like your mouth where you can't even talk for the next 4 hours. Heck even when the freezing wore off, it didn't hurt as much as the least painful dental work I've had.



In any case, the doctor made an inch long incision on my left arm, and squeezed out the lipoma, zit popping style, only instead of white puss, a blob of yellow fat cells came out. Blob makes it sound more runny than it actually was. It was pretty solid looking. I guess I should have squished with something so I could describe the consistancy more effectivly.

He did the same thing on the right arm, only the cut wasn't as long or deep. We had a student doctor in with us who did the stitches.



Tracie said that it would have been better to get the student to do the cutting and the doctor to do the sewing. Apparently anyone can do the chopping, but the sewing takes a certain amount of skill. I wish she had piped in sooner. She said that she didn't want to influence my decision. Apparently she would have let the student do the whole thing.

The bigger one on the right came out first. I call them Abbott and Costello. To give you an idea of size, the scalpel is about as long as a pen.



The stitches went in just fine. I have three in my left arm and two in my right arm. Tracie thinks that I could have used four in my right arm though, and I am inclined to agree. I get the feeling that I will have a scar on both of my arms. But that's ok, because chicks dig scars. I have an appointment on Monday to get two more taken off my belly. I will be lump free after that.
Tracie's Birthday

In other news, today is Tracie's birthday. Happy birthday!!! It is also Tracie's Mom's birthday. Tracie celebrated by coming to my surgery and taking the photos for me. Then we went to see Star Wars. It was quite good. We both really enjoyed it. It got rid of a lot of the things that I didn't like about the other ones. After the movie we went to Chapters and read books about Singapore for a little while. Seeing all those books made me wish that I could afford to purchase a few of them and have a small library at home. Then I remembered that I don't really have a home anymore.

We went to Kelsey's for supper and had a really good time visiting. The countdown to our trip is really at the forefront of our minds right now. We are getting more and more excited everyday.

-Gary Milner

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

MUSIC CAMP

I went to a music camp near Bragg Creek that was hosted by the Foothills Acoustic Music Institute, this past weekend. And something interesting happened. Three guys were in a music class together and they all saw a ghost go drifting across the room . It wasn't the regular humanoid type ghost but kind of a grey shape. What the heck eh.

Monday, May 23, 2005

TO LAURA MILNER OF WEST YORKSHIRE ENG.

We have traced our Milner ancestry back to George Milner born in1541 in Aslacton, Notts , Eng. The first Milner in our family to come to the States was John Brewett Milner born in l830 in Gringley, Notinghamshire. His father was John sr. of Mattersey, Nottinghamshire Eng. John Brewitts oldest son, Benjamen Franklin Milner moved to Canada in 1900. It would be nice to find out that we are related to you Laura.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Return of the Wallet

I returned the wallet today. The Phillipino couple were very glad to get it back. There was over $300 cash in it. I was somewhat surprised, but they brought me a gift, a box of chocolates and a very nice vase.

I was glad to help them out. It had all the husband's id, credit cards, citizenship card. It would have been a huge pain to lose all that stuff, not to mention the money. Probably a third or more of their mortgage payment.

-Gary Milner

Saturday, May 21, 2005

I Found A Wallet

I found a wallet at the hospital this morning when I was picking Tracie up from work. It has over $300 in it. Unfortunately, it also has ID. It would have been a lot better if it was just a pile of money.

In a situation like this, I can't help but remember the whole cell phone incident of last summer. Even if the guy offers me a reward, Tracie will get mad if I accept it, so I'm going to have to keep it quiet if he does. Maybe I'll go see a movie by myself or something.

Who says I never learn anything?

The Scotts Steal Dad's Idea

Dad it looks like your idea for harnessing the power of the ocean has been stolen.

"A Scottish company, Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) and it's Norwegian backer, Norsk hydro are set install three wave powered generators 3.5 miles off the north coast of Portugal for the Portuguese renewable energy group Enersis. This will be the world's first commercial wave powered generating system. Providing the initial three generators perform as expected, an additional thirty wave powered generators will be installed by the end of 2006. It's estimated the wave powered generator farm will displace 6000 tonnes of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be emitted from conventional electrical generating plants."


-Gary

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

HOUSE BREAKERS

Somebody tried to break into Jeffs house in Lethbridge. One of his tennents was home at the time and scared them off. The neighbors said that they saw two guys loitering around in the alley earlier. The thing that should be done about something like that is to alert everybody in the neighborhood and tell them to watch for people not living in the neighborhood who are loitering in the area and then ask the police to talk to them. I think they call it a neighborhood watch.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

WHAT I THINK OF THE LIBERALS

The liberal magazine "Time" seems to have undone all the good work the Americans have tried to do in Afganistan and Iraq. They accomplished this by reporting that guards at Guantanimo Bay desecrated a Koran by flushing it down the toilet. Scores of killings and injuries have occurred over it. Now Time says that they were in error based on what they now know. The crazy Moslums now think anything at all would be better than having to put up with the Americans any longer. Isn't it interesting that the liberals who are so darn interested in protecting Muslim religious rights at Guantanimo are the same party that made it against the law to have anything to do with religion in schools. They are also the same ones who do everything in their power to remove restrictions on anything that is immoral. They also say that abortion is okay. Suddenly they are appalled when a terrorists koran gets flushed down the toilet.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

4th Ave Flyover



Calgary Public Library

My brother sent me a program called autostitch that automatically stitches together series of photos to make panoramic images.

These images are from groups of photos that I took the other day. I am quite impressed with how well the program works, and I will most likely be making a lot of panoramas in the future. The top picture is of the 4th Ave. Fly over, and the bottom picture is of the books on the main floor of the downtown Calgary public library.

Lots of stuff has been happening lately. We are settling into Tracie's Aunt and Uncle's house, Work is steadily progressing, and we will be really ready to fly away in 64 more days. 63 if you don't include today.

I did a quiz the other day that gave two conflicting statements and you had to pick which ones more completely described your thought process. One of the statements was "Immigrants today are a burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing, and health care." It seemed to me to be subtlely racist. How is someone getting a job, buying or renting a place to live, or visiting a doctor, a burden on a country. If anything it is a benefit to the country to have more people producing and spending in that country. I guess it would be a burden on the individual who must compete more to get a job, buy a house, or wait their turn to see the doctor, but that isn't a burden on the economy or the country.


-Gary Milner

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Feliz Navidad!!! I Mean Happy Birthday!

In honor of my Birthday, I added this Flickr badge containing pictures of myself.

In case you are wondering, I received birthday salutations from Aunt Celanie, Tracie, both of my parents, Jackie, Tracie's Aunt Linda and Uncle Randall, as well as their daughter Sarah.

While Jeff seems to have almost forgotten. After seeing his photos on Flickr, I guess that all those monkeys must have reminded him of me.

-Gary Milner

Saturday, May 07, 2005

The Move

We got the move all done. We're at Tracie's Uncle's house now.

I have stress. It isn't from any one thing, but from life the universe and everything. I really wanted to quit my job five weeks ahead of scheduele, but then I had a medicinal doughnut and things were much better.

They told me that I will no longer be working in the office, which means I will be out moving stuff all day. I didn't know a job could both suck and blow at the same time, now I do. In anycase after three days straight moving stuff, the joints in my elbows and shoulders really started to ache. I decided that I was no longer going to put up with it now that I am out of the office permanently so I filed a first aid report. HR let me know that I must go see the doctor.

What a supreme waste of time. I was very hesitant to do this (although I did sort of want to) for two reasons. 1. Because I didn't have an appointment and I knew that it would take about a year to get into see the doctor, and 2. Because there is nothing the doctor could do for me anyway.

It turned out that I was right on both counts. I waited in the lobby for 2 hours and 15 minutes then in one of the side rooms for 15 more minutes then the doctor told me that I should work slower, but never actually suggested any modified sort of duties for me.

We leave the country on July 17th. I have five weeks of work before I quit to go to the wedding and have a vacation. It just can't pass fast enough.

-Gary Milner

Friday, May 06, 2005

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

There's a new movie now showing called the "Kingdom of Heaven". Here's what one critic said about it. He said that a character in the movie told about a time when he was fighting and he got an arrow in the privates, but he fought on in spite of it. The critic said that was the way he too felt just from sitting and watching the movie. That seemed to sum things up pretty nicely.

HE WHO LAUGHS LAST, LAUGHS BEST

A guy who had his car stolen discovered his car outside a huge apartment complex in the city where he lived. So he had the car seized and taken away. The guy who stole the car by this time had started thinking the car was his own so he phoned the police to complain about his car being stolen. This made the police smile because now they knew who the thief was.

Monday, May 02, 2005

ce n'est pas clean

So the house is gone. We moved all of our stuff Friday. On our way down to store it in Raymond, we stopped at a small restaurant in Nanton. The food was not undelicious and it was very cheap. They made up for the tastiness of the food and cheapness of price by not washing my cup.

I had taken a few sips when I looked at the far side of my glass only to see a big lipstick smear. Ladies this is why we have straws, so that you don't get awful red gobs of petroleum by-products that are hard to clean on the glasses.

Tracie was really grossed out by it all. I just said that it was like making out with my new mistress every time I took a drink. What could be better than a little Pepsi flavoured action?

Earlier that day we were at the Ryder truck rental place getting a 15' moving van. The man at the desk said, "Is this your correct address?" I said, "Yes for two more hours, we're moving. That's why we need the truck."

All in all the move went very well. We had everything packed an hour ahead of schedule, and it unpacked very quickly. Now all of our stuff is in storage in Tracie's Grandma's house. Storing it there is going to save us about $2000 because we won't have to pay for a mini-storage.

-Gary Milner, I'm homeless for a few days.