Larry Hnetka Goes HMmmm

Last year, my PhotoHunt friend Hootin Anni started a tradition of handing out “treats” and not tricks for her commentors.

She’s continuing the tradition. All you have to do is to leave comments for her anytime during the week. She’ll then choose three to five of those that leave a sweet treat for her in the comments!

The sweet treat being kind words! I was most honoured to be chosen to receive her sweet treat the very first week she started handing them out.

Check out Hootin Anni’s weblog.

It’s a fun combination of personal insights, things to do and of course, “sweet treats”.

Here’s Unnecessary Knowledge to clog up your already stuffed brain.

My favourite, and I swear by it, is #8 on this list.

1 - It would take 1.2 million mosquitoes biting you simultaneously to drain all your blood.
2 - the average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing
3 - Americans, on average, spend 18% of his or her income on transportation as compared to only 13% spent on food.
4 - There is One AK-47 for every Nine people on Earth
5 - Squirrels cannot contract rabies.
6 - 1 out of 350,000 Americans get electrocuted in their life.
7 - There is 293 different ways to give back change on a dollar.
8 - In ancient Rome, when a man testified in court he would swear on his testicles.
9 - Close to 73% of girls in Bangladesh are married by age 18.
10 - 50% of female polar bears also have a penis.
11 - Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
12 - There are more pigs than humans in Denmark.
13 - A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
14 - The brain continues sending electrical wave signals for 37 hours after death
15 - The word “lethologica” describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

The Canadian Cancer Society statistics may be just numbers to some. When breast cancer affects someone you know, it is the survivor statistics and the decline in death rates that gives hope that some day breast cancer will no longer be a statistic.

On Sunday, October 5, 2008, unite with all Canadians in the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure. Be part of the largest single-day volunteer-led fundraising event dedicated to creating a future without breast cancer.

Logos, nation-wide fundraising runs, pink ribbons, advertising — information that is useful and important to raise awareness of the importance of breast cancer.

This October, breast cancer awareness hit a raw nerve in me. I just found out a friend will be undergoing possibly a double mastectomy and the accompanying rounds of chemotherapy and likely radiation treatment.

Since I received her e-mail last week, I wake every morning and think about her and send her thoughts of courage and strength as she faces this challenge. Yet, somehow I know she will be a survivor in her personal battle with this disease.

My mother died of lung cancer but true to form in exasperation one day just before she passed away she said to me, “Why didn’t I get breast cancer? These things are useless; they could have cut them off!”

There was a pause and then we both started laughing — the snorting, guffawing type of laugh that cleans out the sinuses.

Previous Next Close

Water colour by Anthony Batten painted in 1979 and part of private collection of Kenneth Schell.

I didn’t want to post just an ordinary clichéd view of a view this week.

So I looked around the house and decided to take a photo of this original watercolour by Canadian painter Anthony Batten.

I like the tropical “view” it portrays as well as the architectural features of this artist’s view of this scene.

Mr. Batten painted the scene in 1979 and gave it as a gift to a friend of my housemate Kenneth. It’s been hanging in Kenneth’s place and now my house for almost thirty years now.

In 1979, Mr. Batten was just at the start of his artistic career. He’s since gone on to become a well renowned watercolourist and painter.

Previous Next Close

Climbing the steep Coquihalla Highway which cuts the time to get to the interior of BC. Even though we travelled in mid-April, theres still lots of snow on the mountain summit.

The image above shows the road as you are driving up the Coquihalla Highway in British Columbia.

The Coquihalla Highway, is a 186 km (116 mi)-long freeway, varying between four and six lanes and having a posted speed limit of 110 km/h (68 mph). The route that the Coquihalla follows through the Cascade Mountains is approximately the same route traced out by the former Kettle Valley Railway, which existed on this route between 1912 and 1958.

Previous Next Close

Here we are nearing the toll booth at the summit of the Coquihalla Highway.

After passing the Great Bear snow shed, which is a landmark on the route, you arrive at Coquihalla Pass [1244 m (4,147 ft)]. Your next stop on the Coquihalla is the toll booth. The Coquihalla is the only BC highway with a toll booth now.

Previous Next Close

Portable GPS stuck to my windshield. We've just passed the toll booth on the Coquihalla Highway and are on our way down the mountain into the interior of BC.

The image above was taken once we had driven up the Coquihalla Highway (summit pass is 1244m or 4,147ft), paid our money at the toll booth and were travelling down from the summit toward Merrit.

I had just bought the portable Tom Tom Go 910 GPS system which you see stuck to the windshield. How those satellites pinpoint your position and then tell you where to go still amazes me everytime I use it.

Gerard at the Presurfer never ceases to amaze me with the tidbits he gleans from the internet.

Every visit I find true nuggets like these:

The Lazy Bloggers Post

Oh for crying out loud! I just climbed out from under my rock and realised I have not updated this since Paris Hilton was in jail… You would not believe how tidy my house now is. But I’m sorry you’ll just have to take my word for it..

I am frantic with an awfully big adventure, hoping you haven’t found other blogs, just generally being an embarrassment to anyone unfortunate to cross my path, my day is full to overflowing from sun-up to well after sun-down. I am putting money aside so I can run away. but never say never.

I absolutely, positively promise I will write something that makes sense soon. Honestly! Assuming I don’t get distracted by counting my chest hairs..

Check out the Presurfer for more quirky information from the internet.

The Bathub Test.

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director how do you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.

‘Well,’ said the Director, ‘we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.’

‘Oh, I understand,’ said the visitor. ‘A normal person would use the bucket because it’s bigger than the spoon or the teacup.’

‘No.’ said the Director, ‘A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?’

Which bed would you prefer?

Stumbling around and found these funny things — well HMmmm funny to me.
CAUTION: some of the info is adult-oriented.

LSD vs. Alcohol vs. Tree and many other tree-centred cartoons.

Click on graphic for larger view.

The End of the World and how it happens.

Some e-cards — when you care enough to hit send.

Bubble Calendar, a poster-sized calendar with a bubble to pop every day.

Previous Next Close

Me and Buckie the Beaver skiing at Whistler. Now how wild and crazy is that?

How wild can one guy get with his pal Buckie the Beaver?

We had eluded the paparazzi all day at Whistler, but the flashbulbs finally popped when Buckie the Beaver and I shot down the side of the mountain on our skateboards.

I’m so wild it even scares me sometimes!