Well what a long and strange trip it has been! After close to six months of inoperative blogs due to un-cooperative Blue-Hosts, I now have Willbop to share with you again. I have somehow managed to reain all of my history, unlike Breebop, who has lost everything:

Apparently the error was resolved back in January, but the block was never removed from my account, so I thought the various fixes I’d tried were ineffective. After several fruitless attempts to communicate with the Bluehost ‘help’ folks in which they told me again and again to ‘check my scripts’ I uninstalled WordPress in a desperate hope that it might fix the problem. The error messages persisted, and by this point, I was having a baby and was otherwise occupied…All I can say is beware of Bluehost. If you’re thinking of signing with them, forget it. There are so many providers out there, you don’t need to risk trouble with one that has already demonstrated incompetence. And back up your archives.

In honour of my return to your cyber space, I present to you a synopsis, some of which you may already know…

Got Girl, Moved in on her, got dog, got Corolla, got house, married girl, Portugal, got pregnant, Had baby Wesley,
Ta Da!
Dad and Wesley

I have it from Gillian, who has it from Meg “it’s National De-lurking Week!”, who has it from Sheryl who has a Typepad blog and so at this particular time in cyberspace is not visible, that is it time for lurkers to lean just far enough around the corner for us to hear their cheeky little snickers.

Soooo…. De-Lurk!

I am trying a new thing. I am blogging from my bedroom. It is the same but softer and my schnauzer is warming my toes. Can you believe the below freezing temperatures? I had a business associate call me from Newfoundland call to brag about his weather. NEWFOUNDLAND!

Mary and Joseph.

And as for you all… come out, come out, where ever you are!

Just Like Jesus,

This poor comedian suffers for the sins of his country.

From Wired.com
CONCEPTUAL RINGTONE SILENCES CELLPHONES

Subscribers Hear Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Seconds of Silence Whenever Someone Calls Them… Artist Jonathon Keats Offers Silent Ringtone Free-of-Charge Through Leading Mobile Content Provider Start Mobile… Silence May Go Platinum in 2007…

JANUARY 5, 2007 - Since the beginning of time, pure silence has been available only in the vacuum of space. Now conceptual artist Jonathon Keats has digitally generated a span of silence, four minutes and thirty-three seconds in length, portable enough to be carried on a cellphone. His silent ringtone, freely distributed through special arrangement with Start Mobile, is expected to bring quiet to the lives of millions of cellphone users, as well as those close to them.

Read the whole story here.

Ha! Now this is as self serving as it gets. During the last post in this series I wrote about Gillianic Tendencies. I considered making this entry about one of the Blogs I actually read frequently as the next entry in my series of Blogs-I-Read. Instead I will crassly refer only to some other websites I author my self.

Dickinson Marine is my employer and they make marine appliances. At Dickinson Diesel, I write posts containing corporate events, technical data and other information useful to the customers of our stoves and heaters. I like writing here because I know the posts are useful and I get to use my own voice a little. As it is my occupation, I will not give any additional detail.

In addition to this boat-related website, I have started Slocum’s Locker. This site is my first attempt at a productive blog where I use my skills and contacts in the marine industry to provide niche content on a website soon to host sponsored links and advertising. Just content at the moment though. No ads. Joshua Slocum was a famous navigator and author during the turn of the last century. He was the first man to sail around the world alone and he wrote the groundbreaking book. Sailing Around the World Alone, now part of the navigator’s canon. The site is to look like some of the blogs I will write about in the next Blogs-I-Read post.

I know, your may think “He just wants us to link to the sites to bump up his traffic.” Um… Yeah! Link away!

Well to my surprise, the post on this website to gain the most comments and readership has been that of the Grizzly Truck, a made in British Columbia Monster of a vehicle still to be seen in small numbers around the western half of the continent. With the help of photos from another site Grizzly Info and linking to the only other blog post on the Grizzly I could find (helpful in the comments section) I have made here a collection of all of the photos and information so far gained by having the post up on Willbop for the last year. I have not included comments from the other blog site but you can go ahead and link there to see them. Some are repeats from here.

We have learned the various places the trucks may have been built, the names of some of the participats (and the Grizzly fate of the business and one of its owners). We have also learned that there is some substantial demand for these trucks and the technical drawings, machine tools, fabricator programs and manufacturing documents that were used to make them. Any one holding on to something from the production days that needs to make a little cash? Post a comment here and you may find a buyer.

Here are the clue comments so far:

Comment by Zac |
2006-05-08 04:47:43
Rumour has it that the Grizzlies are being made in Campbell River on Vancouver Island now. Just word on the street.
Comment by Jim M |
2006-05-10 11:42:56
I worked for the Grizzly Truck Company during its final days. As far as I know it was bought by a company in Arizona and all the assets of the company were moved there. Whether or not they are still in business I do not know.
Comment by Jim M 2006-05-10 12:05:02
An addendum to my last post. I do know that the owner of the defunct Grizzly Trucks started another company called Blue Grizzly Truck and Equipment Ltd. and the owner is Geoff Buck.
Comment by roy |
2006-06-09 12:44:27
well - the company went broke when the US imposed embargos on Iran in the 80’s(?) - only a few left running …. too bad as they are a real truck (a’int no damn H2) and buddy had a real vision.
Comment by Jim |
2006-12-09 09:56:30
Sorry Roy. The Yanks had nothing to do with it.
Much as we like to blame our neighbours to the south, it was just business problems. Did you see any large logging companies here buying them? Didn’t think so.
Comment by Bruce |
2006-06-16 12:05:36
The company went broke in New West and the owner hung himself in the shop. Not nice. (97)
Comment by John Welch |
2006-08-07 07:08:23
I worked with this company in the early 90’s for specification applications of low speed cruise control. The truck features a Cummins heavy truck engine and all mechanical components are designed to be field interchangeable with logging industry equipment parts and fittings already on site where you are working. I still have some books on the trucks. The owner wanted to make a truck that could survive the logging industry conditions. It is the most heavy duty vehicle for off road ever built so far and simple to repair.

Comment by Lonewolf |
2006-10-16 16:26:50
In the summer of 96 I had the opportunity to see the small plant in New Westminister BC and to meet the owner and spent time talking about buying one in the future. He let me take pics of his truck and a truck being built. Later when I was in town again I called to talk to him sadly though, I was told he had been killed in an industrial accident a few days earlier and the furture of company was uncertain.
I still have the truck booklet that I requested showing the many body and drive train versions to meet ones specific requirements. This truck is awesome and still my first chocie. I’m not able to find any info on the company and would like to know if it is still being built and if they have a Web Site.
Comment by Cory |
2006-11-01 03:08:08
I have seen these truck in Fort St. John BC. Canada. They were used in The oil patch, I do know that there were at least 3 in town in the time frame of 92 - 95. These trucks were very impressive very heavy. I never had a chance to work on one, but I do know they were built like tanks. They make the H1 look like a tin can. I do think I know who owned one in Fort St. John so I will make some calls and find out if they are still around. I will post again if I find one.
Comment by Mike |
2006-11-10 06:18:46
There was two of them around Comox on Vancouver Island when I was there in the early 90’s. There was an enclosed type as the picture above and a Pickup model I believe in red. Amazing truck. There are several logging companies on the island so I assumed they belong to some of them.
Comment by Allan Crawford |
2006-11-19 19:56:08
I would like to buy on if ever anyone sees one for sale. I run a company in Whsitler Called Canadian Snowmobile Adventures. My number is 604-932-8809
Thanks
Comment by Rohi |
2006-11-26 01:55:38
I saw one 3 nights ago on Granville Street at 70th in Vancouver. My initial reaction was that it was one of my designs which I worked on several years ago. However, when it passed me, I realized that this machine was a simple design compared to the more aggressive and classy looking machine which I have drawn…..However, the Grizzly is an awesome beast though.
I have been thinking for a few years to build a true Canadian SUV,…… put the Hummer 1, 2 and 3 to shame…. If I see the Grizzly again I will try to take some pictures.

That is it for now. Thanks for the visits.

In response to the immediatly preceeding post “BC Place Dome Collapse 20 Mins Ago” another blogger responds “Photos Schmotos” and shows this vid. I agree 100%. .

In my defence, I had the post up within 30 mins. Here is the (way cool) video

I will start my series on blogs that I read with a shout out to a long time favorite website: Gillianic Tendencies. This is a classic personal web-log authored by the laugh-tastic Gillian Gunson of British Columbia. Through the years (since Aug 2004) This site has shown the sarcastic humour and is truly, as the it claims to be “The cyber-representation of Gillian Gunson”.

With posts on office sillyness, fantastic photography, relationship drama and supporting local charity efforts, there is always something hilarious to read. While the running theme of “Friday Cat Blogging” often dont have me in feline fits of hysterics, I have overpopulated my world with schnauzer related posts so I can just be pleased in the posts on keeping Gillian from going from Friday Cat Blogging to the Cat Lady Blogger. As the included global readership chart suggests, I am not alone in reading Gunson’s posts regularly.

Or how I learned to suck it up and write something for my web-log after being lazy and overwhelmed with other things.

Firstly dear reader, we are proud and excited to announce the future arrival of a new member of our family. That’s right! A new baby is my first news of the new year! Briana and I are due to welcome our new squirmie on May 15th and we are deep into the traditional pursuits of determining baby names, finding neat modern parenthood gadgets (we simply must have if we want to hang out with the cool moms ad dads) and worrying about the myriad or controversial mommy-baby health topics (where some one is almost always compared to Hitler predictably). Boy , girl, we don’t know and the white coats won’t tell us (no matter how much we try to stick it to the MAN) but whatever baby chooses for its birthday suit, this is the perfect time for us to add to our family and Briana and I could not be happier.

This Christmas and for the first time, Briana and I hosted the season’s festivities. With lots of help from family and friends we had a great time over five days of revolving door visitors, dinner parties and house guests. I just loved it and I learned (thanks mom) how to make a killer turkey and awesome gravy. As for seasonal swag, I scored an awesome black coat as a gift from Briana. Its funny! We both got each other pajamas, a coat, and kitchen gadgets.

While I have not been blogging myself to any meaningful extent, I have been fluttering around the bloggosphere like a geeky butterfly getting to know other blogs and enjoying old favorites. This activity is a lot of fun for me and responsible for countless hours of inactivity and over use of the scroll wheel on my mouse. On this subject, I announce a new series on Willbop: Wherin I review some blogs I am reading and what I like and don’t and other bloggie stuff.

Those Crazy Blogs

An interesting vid . This is based on a series of advertisements from apple based on “I switch” (from PC to MAC). This presenter switched to Canada.