Hergest Ridge

Wear your seat belts.
Preach. Yell. Force. Convince.
Now, silence. Quiet.
Just watch.

Train ride from Berlin to Paris, €29. So why is it that when I select it – and I tried several different routes – the price on the billing page is €49? No explanation offered. Are these taxes? Booking fees? There’s just no additional detail, which makes it look like the search page lists the prices incorrectly. :(

A client just provided me with our website translation – I’ll learn the language sooner than I’ll figure out how it applies. The people I work with have zero imagination of the process beyond their part of the project. The reason I can’t work in the same office with them is that if we did, right now I’d be heading over to slap them hard – not writing this post.

Thank you Mr. Layton for your service to Canada and its people. You are an inspiration, and will continue to affect Canada in a positive manner for a long time to come.

Your genuine smile, your victories, legacy and memory live on in the hearts and minds of those you leave behind. You’re now absolved from the challenges you’ve taken on so bravely, only death able to stop you in your tracks. Thank you. Thank you, Sir.

Love is better than anger.
Hope is better than fear.
Optimism is better than despair.

Let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic and we’ll change the world.

– Jack Layton (1950 – 2011)

I was amazed at the awful quality of shoes in Poland. A pair lasts me about a month before the soles are thin as paper and often crack completely. Then I did some calculating: in the last few months, I walk about 150km per month – this goes a long way towards explaining why I need new shoes so often.

I started writing a rant about the absurd things even generally smart believers say when they finally get through their heads that I really, totally, and unapologetically do not believe in any gods. Instead I’m posting two of the countless reasons why life is much more beautiful without religion, and especially faith.

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
– Bertrand Russell

Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.
– Oscar Wilde