300

Today is a quiet celebration: 300th run since I started logging runs on Nike+ web site. In just over a year I logged 2143 km. Admittedly I'm bragging, but I worked hard for it.

Terror in Mumbai

Series of simultaneous attacks were launched across Mumbai, India at 10:30 p.m. local time. Hostages were taken. Attackers targeted the hotels, restaurants and a train station, asked the hostages to present the passports and especially singled out the British and Americans.

I'm watching CNN. They call it terrorist attacks, although there is no confirmation who's behind it. As always, they had a plethora of analysts and "experts" on air, already discussing connections to Al Qaeda. CNN turned into a disgusting, self-serving, sensationalistic cable station. They seem to have forgotten that their duty is to present the news based on facts. More often than not, CNN develops its own theory based on partial information. After 20 years in journalism myself, I can't stomach such dilettantism.

Leaving CNN with repugnance, I log onto CBC.ca to get my fill of the news, Canadian way. I like their measured, professional and factual tone. Then I make the second mistake of the evening and scroll under the news story to see the readers comments. Either this world is filled with complete imbecils (which I refuse to believe), or only the stupid dare to speak aloud, because they can't judge how stupid they are. There are hate comments, religious and racial slurs and outirght verbal fights among some of those to comment. Am I really so sheltered in my tiny circle of intellectual friends, that I haven't noticed all the idiots populating the world around us? Or, are the idiots just the fastest on the keyboard, while the others take time to think before they write?

Universal Power

Once or twice a year some punks from Direct Energy come knocking on our door. They usually flash some sort of the ID and demand to see our gas bill "to check if we are getting the fair price". I admit, first time they came around, I thought they were some sort of inspectors and by the time I realized they are soliciting for their gas distribution service, they already had my phone number. It took a while to get us off their calling list.

Tonight, another aggressive energy delivery solicitors came about. A young black man first rang the door bell, then when we didn't open fast enough, started banging on the door so fiercely I thought he was going to break it. When I answered, he pulled the same trick like the Direct Energy guys: he flashed an ID, said he's with Universal Power and said he came to see our energy bills, electrical and gas. To his misfortune, I do learn from my own mistakes and flatly refused to show him the bills, to which he tried to convince me that I can't do that and I must listen to what he came for. He was incredulous when I told him, with a polite smile, that I am not interested.
"You're not interested?" he asked in a voice full of threat and disbelief. He sounded like a cop who asked you to do the breathalyser and you refused. It sounded like "you're going to regret this." So I repeated even sweeter that no, I am not interested, thank you and have a good night, and I slammed the door.

I don't know who trains these young thugs to literally attack a potential customer in this manner. Whoever it is, they should spend some time on the internet and check the effect their approach has--there are numerous blogs and message boards warning people not to fall, even not to open the door when either Universal Power or Direct Energy guys are making rounds in the neighborhood. If you read this and you live in Markham, Ontario, watch for the Universal Power ruffians, they are on the prowl.

Birthday - Lunar and Solar

Maggie's birthday was on the 14th this month. A gentlemen never speaks of a lady's age, so I can't mention that she's 35. Oh well...
She was disappointed when no one in her family remembered the birthday. But they remembered yesterday--a week later! While we function on the solar calendar, Maggie's family half a globe away works on the lunar one. It seems that the moon is lagging a bit, but it eventually arrives at the same spot a week later. Happy b-day Maggie!

For Whom The Bell Tolls?

The Hemingway's book was on the list of books I was supposed to read for the literature class in high school. I was always a bookworm, but in high school I rebelled against being told what to read and when to read it. Instead of the books from the list we were given, I read what I found interesting. The casualties were, among other masterpieces, "For Whom The Bell Tolls", "Ana Karenina" and "War and Peace". In order to pass the literature grading in school, I made my classmates tell me in details what was in each book. I know the story and that made me avoid these books for all this time. However, curiosity won at the end, and I ran with "For Whom The Bell Tolls", literally! The story carries me away and sometimes I forget to watch where I put my foot and I blame it for running through puddles and, more recently, slipping on the ice. As long as the twists and pulls are only in the plot and have nothing to do with my joints and muscles, I will keep enjoying it. It's me and Ernest (Hemingway) running together at dawn on -13 C through the empty streets of my sleepy frozen neighborhood.

Lazy

I can barely make myself to blog--getting really lazy in winter months. Since the temperature dropped under the freezing point, all I do is stretch on a sofa with a book. Maggie is no better, huddling next to me and pushing her cold feet under my thighs to warm. She's also reading a lot. On Saturday we joined the town's public library and now have the unlimited source of books within easy reach. Ideal to turn into a couch potato(es) for the winter.

Today is snowing. Radio promised 5-10cm by morning. It's fun to run on powder, but it's not fun for driving. Like every year, people seem to forget how to drive on snow and the first snowfall creates chaos. Traffic barely crawls, and the cars slide all over the place. It will be an interesting trip to work tomorrow.

We're feasting on sarma. That's Croatian for cabbage rolls. Maggie makes the best sarma in this part of the world. Which will probably result in me gaining back all the weight I lost in the past year. I am thinking about extending my runs to burn all the cabbage-roll-calories.

Remembrance Day

On the eleventh hour of eleventh day of eleventh month each year we pause to remember all who had given their lives for the country. For days, Canadians walk around with a plastic red poppy flower pinned to the lapel. As the fallen are remembered, I notice most of them had fallen in wars abroad. Now, if each country had the army ONLY and EXCLUSIVELY to defend its own borders, there'd be no war at all.

My fellow countrymen will have to excuse the lack of poppy flower on my coat. I don't believe in war and I don't mourn soldiers killed as a part of an occupying force.

Hip-hop President

The hip-hop nation down south have chosen its first hip-hop president! I don't mean that in a negative way. On the contrary, I like the fact that someone young, fit, modern, intelligent and black will rule the Americans. Go Obama!

I wouldn't like to be in his shoes though. No matter how popular he is right now, no matter how smart he is, he's bound to disappoint. As Newsweek magazine pointed out, no man alive can live up to the challenge of righting so many wrongs: two wars, broken economy and health care, shattered image in the eyes of the rest of the world. It will be very interesting to watch how the first black president dances around all those issues, and to see what will bring him down. Too bad, I kind of like the guy!

On the positive note, there'll be no more campaign messages, for next little while. Even up here in Canada, we got tired of it.

Thank God...

...it's almost over! I am talking about the U.S. elections. There has never been longer pre-election campaign. Tons of ink was spilled on it, thousands of miles of TV tapes, millions of terabytes of internet coverage. We will have to endure some post-election analysis, but by the next week it'll be over! And thank god for that! As interesting as it has been, the over-extensive coverage made the whole continent weary and we can't wait until it's done, so we can return to our dull lives and spill endless ink on ice hockey.