The guy who is writing this blog is apparently too chicken to put his name on it, yet.

Still testing the waters, I suppose.

That’s odd, because he’s not going to run for public office, he’s proud of most of his opinions and observations, and he’s published much more inflammatory stuff under his own name, in an earlier century. Also, several of his pieces have appeared in his local news-rag’s Letters to the Editor section, with of course his full name attached.  Must be just an idiosyncrasy or something…

Nevertheless, while he is happy to see his material widely quoted (with attribution), he’s more than prepared to get nasty about copyright if you try to:

a) represent his material as your own (including links that don’t identify source properly)

b) profit from his material without his written agreement.

So, what about him?

We’ve established that he’s a guy, though you could probably tell from the tone of the writing.

He’s over 50 - and doesn’t really wanna be, but is willing to go with it, given the generally available alternative.

He writes technical stuff for a living, and enjoys it - which suggests that he’s got a reasonably perceptive and analytical mind - but he gets a lot more fun out of opinion pieces and debunking of other people’s lies and myths. Don’t get him started on religion.  Well… on that topic, like most others, he’s self-starting. Perhaps if you just avoid making eye-contact…?.

For fun, he used to jump out of airplanes, until he got too fat. He still does a bit of skiing in winter and cycling in summer, and a bit of running (though that’s hardly what you’d call fun - ok, you might, but he wouldn’t, and nor would you care to be anywhere near a fat guy running in spandex… all that jiggling… there oughta be a law…).

He’s married to a smart, gorgeous woman, and they share their house with two cats, no kids.

He enjoys that his home - Canada - has such a variety of seasons, though he finds himself wishing that his wife would hurry up and get her [Caribbean country] citizenship confirmed, so he’d have a nice permanent getaway during the thick of winter each year; skiing is fine, but water skiing is better.

How does he vote?  For many years, he didn’t, as a matter of what he considered principle, but he’s reconsidered. Most elections, he wants to vote “NOTA” (None Of The Above), but the political animals up here are too smart to allow that option on the ballot. He might vote Green if it looked like they had a chance. He votes for the candidate or party who looks to be the best bet for the good of the country, rather than the one who promises the most goodies.  If he’d had a vote in the recent (2008) American election, he’d have voted Obama, despite the guy being an avowed socialist, only because McCain seemed the worse choice and there were no third-party or independent contenders.  At home, he’s picked Conservative (that’s approximately the ideological equivalent of the US Republicans… but without most of the racism) the last few elections, only because that seemed the least-worst choice. Canada doesn’t use booths, just little propped-up, cardboard privacy screens, so our bloggist here makes a point of visibly holding his nose while he marks his ballot. The gesture is probably lost on the other people in the room, even though he’s tall enough to be easily seen over the top of the privacy screen.

He’s in the market for a good-quality “helmet-cam” that he can carry with him everywhere, to record the stupid crap that people do - mostly bad drivers, but other nonsense, too. Then, he’ll publicly embarrass the toads by posting their antics to his website.  The problem is finding a small, rugged, hands-off camera system that takes video of sufficient quality to show license plate numbers and the facial features of the driving dead. (What? In your country they don’t allow the deceased to continue driving? Wish that would catch on here…we’ve got far too many brain-dead people in charge of motor vehicles. Also bicycles. Also, in some cases, shank’s-mare [look it up].)

He could go on. And does. So read the blog entries. Agree with them. Disagree with them. But if you disagree, try to have a coherent reason. At least, try to put some thought into why you believe as you do - on any topic. Look up what Socrates had to say about “the unexamined life”.

Now, go find some nice people and have a couple of beers (real ones, not that watery American stuff ;-> ), enjoy some good food, BE some good company. Perform a random act of kindness. Life is short.