This shit is killing me.

Between the 15% sales tax, the 40% income tax and the $4.60 per gallon gasoline, I'm realizing that Canada is not exactly what I would call "cheap" to live in.

That's right, you heard me. $4.60 a gallon. But they trick us Americans by listing the price in litres. And in Canadian dollars. Tricky bastards.

But, at least my healthcare is free.

The set is complete.

So, obviously, I went to the Bill Clinton event last night in downtown Halifax. it was very interesting and informative. There was first a 20-minute speech by former Canadian Ambassador to the US Frank McKenna, followed by about an hour and a half speech by President Clinton. That was followed by about an hour of Q&A from Frank to Bill. I learned a good deal about the current and historical states of economic, trade, and political relations between the two countries. For example, I learned that the US does more trade with Canada across one bridge (the Windsor/Detroit bridge) than with the entire country of Japan throughout the course of a year. I also learned that Halifax has been visited 5 times by a sitting US President. And Clinton is 2 of them. Dubya, Gerald Ford and John Quincy Adams are the others.

Frank asked some tough questions and Bill gave heart-felt, direct answers. Much of both the speech and the Q&A centered on various war activities that the two countries are engaged in at the moment. But, there were some diversions, too. At one point, Frank asked Bill what he thought of Sunday shopping in Nova Scotia. Bill seemed a little surprised that Nova Scotia is the last state/province in North America to ban shopping on Sundays. He said that it would just prevent him from doing his best to add to the economy because he likes to shop when he goes places. He does it for Hillary (or so he says. Hee.) He also asked if Hillary would run for president and if she did, would she win. Clinton remarked that the most important thing he'd learned in all his time in politics is to never look past the current election or there won't be a next election. And since she's in the midst of running for re-election as a Senator from New York, she hasn't decided if she will run for president or not. He then said that when he was in office, the Right Wing Conservatives demonized only one person more than Bill himself, and that was Hillary (which he pointed out was a good thing because it showed that they are afraid of her. As well they should be.) Add that to the fact that we have never had a woman president, he said it would be a tough battle to win. BUT, if she did win, he's confident that she would make an excellent president because she has the perfect blend of brains and heart.

I couldn't agree more.

Anyway, the most interesting thing that happened the entire night happened long before Clinton even came out on stage: There was ZERO security to get into the building. No metal detectors. No frisking. Not even one Secret Service guy posted at any entrance. I found that odd, to be sure.

Well anyway, I had a great time. And now I've seen both Bill and Hillary speak, so that makes me happy.

On "Relations, foreign"

"You have to decide if your personal disagreement is more important than your common humanity."

mySpace

For those that are checking, there are a few new blog entries over at mySpace. I thought about just having one blog, but the problem is that I haven't been able to figure out how to subscribe to this one so it relies on your tenacity to keep checking it. On the other hand, if you go to www.myspace.com/jasonjthomas you can find my blog there and subscribe to it. Then you will get an email every time I write something new. Still on the other hand, I like the simplicity of this one. There are no ads or other junk for you to fish through just to read my stinkin blog. You know?

Whatever, this is as much for me as it is for you anyway, so I think I'll keep writing two. I'll put different content on each, so you should just train yourself to check them both. Hey, I know! I can put my "updates" here on this one, and just use the mySpace one for my mindless chatter. Things I want to talk about. Thoughts I've had. Shit like that. Yeah, good thinking. Starting now, this one will have the bulk of my news and information, that one will just be a window into my brain.

Deal.

Have a nice day.

If Colour was a boy band

So, we had this "creative offsite" today to discuss 2007 advertising strategies for Nova Scotia Tourism. It was held at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. Good times. Lots of boats in the marina to distract me. Anyway, during one of our breaks we all went outside and hung around the marina for a while. The weather was shit, of course, but it was still fun. Brian (the CD - Creative Director) decides to take a few shots on my camera of "the guys". Well, when I looked at the photo, I couldn't help but think we had just gotten our Boy Band on by accident. So, when The Colour Boys release their next album (leading with the hits "Show me the way to bigger logos" and "Killer lines"), this may very well be the cover art. Oh, and for some reason, the token woman in the group, my esteemed art director partner Lisa was no where to be found. She'd just break up the group, anyway. And the Boys are (from left to right): Jon (writer), me, Brad (writer), Ryan (AD), and Mike (AD). Brian (CD) is in the other shot. And Lisa (AD) finally came around so that's her in the last one.

I guess I'm goin halvsies.

You Are 50% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

Global warming?

I don't know about all that, but what I do know is the entire continent is hot as a bitch right now. Except Seattle. What's THAT about?

Good news. Bad news.

First the good:

My remix of the Bare Naked Ladies track is front and center on their mySpace site (www.myspace.com/barenakedladies) Check it out!

Now, the bad:

It seems a few people have been voting my song down by rating it low. Now, here's how I see it: If it's good enough for the actual band to put it on their site, don't you think it could be good enough for you, too?

The problem is, I don't think enough of you are taking the time to go rate my track. And this makes me very sad. For that matter, I don't think many of you are reading these posts.

Let's take a poll. Everyone who wants me to continue these blog posts, hit me with a comment that says YES! Those who would prefer me to go back to the mass emails, hit me with a comment that says NO!

Now go rate my song with 9's and 10's, damnit! (http://stems.barenakedladies.com)

PS. They've just release the tracks for the next remix, so keep an eye out...

The office pastime

I took this shot between tournament games the other day. And I thought it was cool, so I'm going to share it with ya.

By the way, I'm 3-1 in the tourney at this moment. But it's early in the Round Robin yet. Anything could happen.

The Ladies love me.

I've just received an email from the Bare Naked Ladies management and it seems that they want to put my remix on their mySpace page along with 2 other mixes. Kick ass!

Keep the ratings coming! And thanks to those that have done so already (except that jackass that gave me a 2. I'm going to need lots of 9's to make up for that sorry fool.)

Rate this!

Hey hey. So, apparently I'm an idiot about some things. When I sent my song in, somehow I didn't name it (thinking it would just take the name off the MP3 that I submitted) and so the official name of my song is now my email address. I sent them an email to see if I could get it rectified, but in the mean time, my address stands as the name. No matter. You can still vote on it.

And vote you shall. Currently, my song is the highest rated on the site. Granted, there are only 2 people rating it so far, but they are a 9 and a 10, so that's cool. Obviously, the more votes I get the better my score can be. So you need to go to the site and vote for my song. Think 9's and 10's. Comments are cool, too, if you like. The more I get the better my chances are of sealing up the highest rated song on the list. And if I do that, I get to have my song included on the special EP release the Ladies are putting out later this year. So hooks me up!

You can only rate each song once, so make it count. After you've rated my song, check out some of the others. There are some really good mixes in there. There are also some stinkers, so watch out.

I wanna be famous, damnit!

Naked in Halifax

Some of you know, some don't (isn't that the way of the world?) that the Bare Naked Ladies offered up the pieces of their newest track called "Easy" for people to remix. Well, I've gone and done it. If you've heard it, then you know. I have just submitted it to the panel for public execution. There are a bunch of other mixes on there, too. Some good, some, well... not.

Any hoot, if you have some time on your hands and you wanna help a brotha out, point yourself here:

http://stems.barenakedladies.com/fileupload/listen.action

I could really use all your feedback because the Ladies will be taking the best rated mix and put it on an EP they are releasing in the fall (they will be having this same "contest" with their next 4 songs, so the EP will be the best mix of all 5 tracks. I plan to make a different song for each.)

At this very minute it's not up there yet because they have to make sure it's not vulgar or some shit I guess, so keep checking back. And friends, let me tell you: there is a BIG difference in vulgar and sick. You feel me? The mix is called "Easy (Naked in Halifax Mix)" by JT.

Word.

Peggy's Cove

And then today (Sunday) I drove down to Peggy's Cove to have a look-see. Again, the weather was shitty. It was raining, foggy and windy. Lovely. But, since I was there, I decided to make the most of it. Most of my pictures were dull, but I especially liked this one. Now just imagine it with a nice blue sky bespeckled with cute puffy clouds, and POOF!, your very own postcard.

And the second photo, well it sort of speaks for itself.

Smooth sailing

So, I woke up yesterday (Saturday) and walked out onto my balcony to have a look around before heading off to Dartmouth for a day of Dragon Boat rowing for charity (our team did better than the one last year, but there was still little to write home about.) Anyway, I took this picture of the harbour because I have never seen the water so smooth and calm. Unfortunately, the weather above it wasn't as majestic.

And through this door... the 21st Century.

Welcome, eh!

Not much to report at this very moment, but I had to write something, right? Anyway, you've found my blog. I think we will all find this to work much better than long-winded, space-consuming emails. Am I right?

We'll find out, I guess.