St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow (see you at Paddies). But before I get to Paddies, find a stool and celebrate the holiday by drinking; I must ask myself “why am I drinking in the first place?”

St Patrick’s Day has its origins in ancient times. Patrick lived in the British Isles, a land invaded and conquered first by the Romans and then by Germanic tribes. Patrick was captured and taken as a slave at the age of sixteen.

Legend has it that one night while he was praying, a voice told him to escape and find a ship that was waiting for him two hundred miles away. Patrick got to the ship, sailed to Europe, and disembarked in what is now probably France. He led several of the ship’s crew through a dangerous forest, praying all the time. Neither Patrick nor any member of his crew was captured.

When some of the men were about to die of starvation, wild animals appeared for them to eat. Events such as these appeared to be miracles and gave rise to later legends surrounding Patrick.

Once home, Patrick felt that he was called by God to perform an important mission. He believed it was his duty to go back to Ireland and convert the Celtic people to the Christian religion.
Patrick arrived in Ireland and became a missionary, travelling from village to village and talking about his faith. Once, several members of a tribe approached Patrick and told him that they found it difficult to understand and believe in the Holy Trinity. Patrick thought a moment, then stooped down and picked one of the plentiful shamrocks growing wild around Ireland. “Here are three leaves,” he said, “yet it is one plant. Imagine the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit as each of these leaves. Here they are, yet they are one plant.” The tribesmen understood, because

Patrick had used a familiar object to explain. From that time on, the shamrock has been a revered symbol of Ireland.
Stories of Saint Patrick, for by then he was a saint, reached far and wide. His most famous feat is forcing the snakes out of the entire country of Ireland. Even though there are many different stories about how he accomplished such a task, it is probably not true.

St Patrick died on March 17 and the Irish people set aside the day to mourn. He became the patron saint of Ireland. Mourning turned to commemorating him and celebrating his life. Americans have inherited this custom. On St Patrick’s Day in the United States, millions of people celebrate whether they are Irish or not!

So essentially, once again a Christian heritage has become yet another consumption activity. I find it interesting that we all sit around and drink. Which is fine and I am pretty sure those that celebrated his life before us did the same; although I am sure they were discussing his life and his impact on his people, not so much the “lets drink our face off” discussions.

Tomorrow, when you raise your glasses high and in good cheer remember to give thanks to those that have gone before you and to St Patrick, who liberated a country.

Next week I will be 23 years old. Wow, it seems like only yesterday I was 17, playing basketball in my front yard; not a care in the world.

I may not be the perfect age but I am in the perfect mind frame. I have finished school and obtained employment. Everyone that looks my way will assume that marriage should and could be the next step.

So then why don’t I feel that way?

I just got out of a two year relationship which has shown me never to expect anything. From my experiences you might even think I am going backwards. All around me my friends are getting married, having kids and doing family things. I know my parents are dieing for Grandkids but for me…. I don’t see that in my life.

I don’t mind being single either. The truth is I don’t think I need a significant other to complete me. Now granted, if a relationship did come along I wouldn’t appose it but I am certainly not cowering the streets in search of that person.

There is so much baggage that comes with dating and now, the more I look at women; I find myself getting pickier. Back in the day I only needed 5 seconds to see if that person was good enough for me. Nowadays, they have to pass the 5 second head to toe inspection, engage in conversation (which is usually what kills it for me) and then on top of that they have to show me that they are independent.

I get so annoyed with myself and my judgment of women that I think it better to stay away. I even find myself going out now to see how many women I can engage in conversation with just so I can analyze the shit out of them and prove to myself that the person isn’t for me.

I associate the word marriage to that of unfortunate. (Queue the tomatoes from the people in love and who are married). I don’t think Love is unattainable or that you shouldn’t get married. There are plenty of awesome couples out there that I envy and respect, but for me, as my mind is set right now marriage doesn’t seem like the proper avenue.

I’m at that age where it’s cool to be single but how many years do I have left before I am just a sour apple?

I grew up watching James Bond 007. Seriously; that’s what my Dad and I would do on the weekends. I have seen them all, even the non recognized stuff that Sean Connery did after his falling out with the franchise.

The latest installment, Casino Royale, was I think the best Bond idea ever. Notice I didn’t say best movie.

Since I am young and only had the pleasure of watching Pierce Bronson in theatre, I still believe Golden Eye to be the best Bond.

Daniel Craig in Casino Royale brings on an entirely different Bond that I much prefer.

The difference in Casino Royale compared to all the others is that we get a glance to the roots of Bonds. In this movie he’s a rookie and on his first assignment. He only just receives his 00 status (00 meaning 2 kills). He doesn’t have all the nice gadgets and when asking for a martini, the waiter says to him “shaken or stirred” and Bond replies “does it look like I give a damn?” Haha, I love it.

Then there’s Judi Dench’s acting as M. At last we get to see something of the reason why she’s head of MI6. Previously, M has been a tough and competent woman; now, she’s a fiercely effective stone cold type whose piercing intelligence can cut through crap like a hot knife through butter.

In this movie, he’s not so much a womanizer as so well known for in previous movies. He is venerable, falls in love and ultimately is betrayed. You see a totally different character in this movie. You see his inner struggle, he gets beat up a lot, blows things up and if you are a poker lover, there is lots of that too!

Best line of the movie “Eva Green as Vesper Lynd plays the gorgeous young treasury official. She introduces herself with ‘I’m the money’, to which Bond replies ‘and worth every penny’.

Nathan is one of my best friends. We have known each other since high school. He was the all star Christian kid at school and I….. Well, I enjoyed myself in school.

Nathan and I became friends during Cisco class, which is funny because I am sure neither he nor I thought the other was into computers. I’ve never admitted this to him but he is much more knowledgeable than I am with computers.

Nathan introduced me to church while I was in high school and I thought it was pretty lame but I never thought Nathan was; so I kept at it. As it turns out this Christianity thing was pretty exciting after all (minus Church and other things).

Nathan dated a girl in school who I went out with a couple weeks ago. She told me she didn’t like me in high school because I always took up Nathans time and she always felt second place. Hearing that I thought it was pretty funny; I think she’s still a bit pissed.

Nathan has an awesome family. I am close with all of them; I even dated his sister at one point. I walk their dog regularly and drink with his Dad. Sorry Nathan, I have taken over!!!

One funny story was when Cory (Nathan’s mom) was washing a pair of jeans for me a condom fell out. Nathan explained it was mine and she said “that boy will never date my daughter.” A year later……..

Nathan was always there for me in high school. He looked out for me when things were going sour and we always did the most interesting things.

Two summers ago he met a girl named Rachel Pede. Whom I might add is an awesome girl and love to death! I remember he and I went out for a chat one night and he was telling me all about her; I thought then “wow, he really likes this girl, he might even marry her.” A year later he was showing me the ring and asking me what I thought.

Nathan and I have been living in Sarnia together since September and it has been an awesome time. Rachel has been patient with my over the top quality time steeling needs (thanks Rachel).

In May they get married. Wow, it’s like not even 2 months away. I think I am more nervous than they are. I even get to be one of the best men at it. (To which I am honored by the way).

So this gets me thinking. I’ve never had a friend get married, let alone my best friend. I’ve only known people that already were married when I met them. How is this going to impact things?

Am I ready for them to get married?

I mean, what if it’s like 4am and I need someone to talk to, I can’t just walk down stairs, he’s going to be living else where. What if I am working on something IT related and need his help? What if I just need advice? What if he stops updating his blog daily?

As Ken keeps informing me, “life is always changing.” Change isn’t bad I guess, in fact, if change didn’t happen, it would be bad. I guess I have some adjusting to do. I am the over protective friend but I will learn to ease out of that role and let Rachel become that person.

Hey Rachel, we’ll have to work out a schedule ok?

At a time when declining birth rates are plaguing many developed countries, Canada’s population rise was due in major part to an influx of immigrants. It marks the first time since 1991 that the population increased faster than in the previous census period, which saw 4% growth.

“In most of the industrialized countries, the trend in population growth is toward a decline,” said Laurent Martel, senior population analyst at Statistics Canada. “[Canada] is the smallest population, but it’s the fastest- growing population.”

So what do you think about immigration? Is immigration really what Canada needs? Most money making people will say yes; most racist people will say no. But I think again; is it racist not to want more immigrants?

“This kind of growth is not sustainable,” Ms. Donald said in an interview yesterday. “To me, it’s one of the most compelling policy challenges of our day. How are we going to manage that kind of suburban growth we are now seeing in Canada?”

Personally speaking, I am an immigrant. I was born and raised in England. I think immigration is
a great thing; people are given the opportunity to expand and regardless of what people say – North America is one of the best places to live in the world.

I think immigration is good when controlled; we can’t just open the flood gates. And if people are immigrating here, they do need to know the language. If they can’t, they just become a plague to the society.

I know our immigration system is good. My parents had to meet a lot of requirements in order to come here. Looking back, they say they are glad they made the move although if my Dad could have it his way he would bring the social culture of England here.

Speaking of culture, this is another thing that bothers me. What does it mean to be Canadian? We really don’t have anything that distinguishes us as “Canadian.” We are known as a country that celebrates other cultures and un-like America; we let them keep their heritage.

While letting immigrants keep their heritage is an awesome thing, there are many good things to learn and adopt from other countries. This also means that we adopt their values. Those values, for some immigrants could have been the reason of their departure from their old country.

It’s almost as though immigrants come here to experience new freedoms but also tie themselves back down in order to keep their heritage.

When I was in high school I played Rugby. And now, with this picture it will be forever documented.

I’m circled in Red.
My best buddy Jesse Sibbald is circled in green.

I miss Jesse. So I booked a plane ticket to go and see him. See yah in two weeks bro.
Cheers.

You haven’t heard? My all time favorite TV show as a kid is back and bigger than ever with a movie entitled TMNT.

Seeing the commercial the other day I almost drooled all over myself; fond memories of my childhood and playing with my Ninja Turtle toys rushed into my brain as those thoughts quickly turned me into a happy go-lucky kid all over again.

Then, the sad truth of happiness was exposed as Joe from thestory discussed that my association of happiness connected to my toys was all an evil advertising scheme used by advertisers to explode children. I was a victim. I feel violated.

Adbusters writes a pretty in depth article here about my sad consuming addiction.

Basically what they are saying is that my generation has been studied and analyzed; corporations know how to tell me my wants, desires and needs – all at a low and decent price. And if I don’t want what they are offering, they know how to make other people tell me I am out of order.

In my honest opinion, I care about the negative effects corporations have on our society. But then the question is “Am I willing to go without to show my concern?” I don’t know if I am.

Isn’t that sad?

We live in a generation where it isn’t hip to stand for anything, except personal gain – no matter the cost.

Even with my rant, I am going to see this movie opening night; Donatello was my favorite Turtle.

I find for me, being drunk doesn’t happen the way I expect it to occur. I don’t ever start my evenings anymore thinking “I am going to get this drunk tonight.” In fact I can’t say I have been royally shit faced in a long while (alright, maybe that’s not true).

I find getting drunk happens to me more out of chance these days. I’ll go to a friends house and he will be mixing or offering a drink. I’ll ask for a re-fill and that turns into 4 more. By the time we leave to go anywhere I will have a nice glow on me.

I find being drunk has changed for me over the years. Just as I turned 19 I started getting really bad hangovers. Worse than the average bear. No matter how many attempts I made to avoid the hang over (drinking crazy amounts of water, eating food/bread, coffees, cutting myself off earlier or McDonalds with Oravec in the morning) nothing will work like it once did.

I find that the consequence of the hangover has turned me off drinking heavily. I guess, for the most part is a good thing. I have been able to avoid un-needed fights, arguments and situations due to my sober behavior. But I will say this; not drinking also leaves you out of the loop. By not drinking at parties or not drinking as much, people don’t seem to have as much fun with you and vise-verse. It’s almost like when you reach a certain level of intoxication you enter this club that only other drunken people are in. And I will admit, that party is awesome (at least at the time it feels that way). To a sober viewer you probably look like and are acting like a pompous jack ass.

The truth of the matter is when you take drinking for what it is; all the troubles, risks, hangovers and lost money – making it to that special drunken club almost doesn’t seem worth it.
So what’s the appeal? I ask myself that question EVERY time I wake up hung-over and with all of my “never again” speeches, I always keep Tylenol near me – just in case.

In my attempts to battle the evil powers of spam and script kiddies (that’s a slang word for geeks who sit at home all day writing dumb computer code and viruses) I have installed a new function to my website.

If and when you leave a comment on my site in the future you will be asked a simple question in addition. Please answer the question correctly because if you don’t, there will be a cute comment awaiting you.
I also changed the time of the blog so now when you reply it doesn’t look like you replied 5 hours into the future.
Woo.

This is a message to all you slick guys out there in regards to women.
Don’t assume anything. I made the error of this yesterday by assuming a friend of mine wasn’t using tickets to a show.
I said something like “well I will take the tickets since I don’t want them to go to waste.”

Wrong answer guys.

The correct answer should have been “hey, are you planning on using those tickets because if not, I was going to give them to my mom.”
Here is my other piece of advice guys; don’t assume anything. (Notice the repeat in my second piece of advice). Always remember it, it will serve you well.

Tonight is poker at our house again. I stayed in last night and did the dishes because they were starting to smell. So don’t worry fellow pokers (that sounded wrong) there will be no dishes left un-done.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to tonight’s game; once again I say to Nathan, “I have shit to do.”

Notice to all people doing there taxes this week. YOU CANT. The government of Ontario’s servers are down. Oh yippee. What are the chances that when we actually need the government to give us some money back – their broke (get the pun?)