Read all of Bill's Blog Entries!

January
February
March
April
May
July
August
September
October
November
December

June 25, 2008

Hello and thanks for being here!!!

As we gear up for Canada's Birthday on Tuesday (see last week's Blog for a full run-down of what A-Channel is doing), I thought I'd offer...drum roll please...

Even MORE Canadian Fun Facts!

• The name Canada most likely comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement".
• JULY 1st has been regarded as "Canada Day" only since 1982. (Prior to '82, it was regarded as "Dominion Day".)
• Canada's first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald was a Conservative (Wow...like me!!)
• Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II, under Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
• our official motto: "From sea to sea"
• Canada is home to over a million Aboriginal people
• Nearly one-fourth of all the fresh water in the world is in Canada
• Canada can boast about having 2 million lakes
• Canada has one-tenth of the entire world's forests
• Canadian inventions include...alkaline battery, basketball, dental mirror, electric car, electronic music synthesizer, garbage bag, insulin, lightbulb, pacemaker, rollerskates, snowblower, snowmobile, snowplow, Superman, telephone, washing machine, Wonderbra, zippers
• July 1st in The Capital will prove to be AWESOME!

Have fun, be safe and thanks for reading.

Your pal,

Bill W.
bill@Achannel.ca

June 19, 2008 Back to Top

We are approaching Canada’s birthday on July 1st.

But the age of Canada depends on the starting point. The Dominion of Canada was formed in 1867. The Colony of New France was established by Samuel de Champlain in 1608. Basque mariners were regularly fishing the Grand Banks and operating a whale-oil refinery on the Labrador coast before Jacques Cartier arrived in 1497. Four hundred years earlier, around 1000A.D., the Icelanders founded a settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. No one really knows when the indigenous peoples first crossed the Bering Strait and arrived on soil that is now part of Canada, but it was probably as far as 10,000 years ago. So it can be said that Canada is both old as a territory, but young as a country.

(If I sound smart and appears I know a vast amount of history…it’s an illusion. All I did was “Google” Canada.)

Anyway…we here are embarking on some lofty plans to celebrate Canada’s birthday on July 1st.

We’ll be live from our Market Media Mall 87 George St., and also Parliament Hill, The War Memorial, Jacques Cartier Park and the Waterfront Festival in Pembroke.

• It all begins at 7 am with a special morning show broadcast. (I’ll be live at Parliament Hill)
• We then do a special mid-day show from 11 am to 1 pm.
• We host another Block Party from our parking lot (York St. entrance) from 5 to 6 pm
• We also do special Canada Day News broadcasts at 6 and 11

Hope to see ya soon!

By the way…I did some more research on our great Nation…

CANADA FUN FACTS

The country is adorned with many roadside attractions…where you can find the world’s largest:

• bee (Tisdale, SK)
• Bigfoot (Vermilion Bay, ON)
• dinosaur (Drumheller, AB)
• guitar (Bloomfield, PEI)
• fire hydrant (Elm Creek, MB)
• pyrogy on a fork (Glendon, AB)
• Canadian Flag (Falkland, BC)

1. Canadians consume more macaroni and cheese than any other nation in the world
2. Hockey and lacrosse are Canada’s national sports
3. "O Canada" was only proclaimed Canada's national anthem on July 1, 1980…100 years after it was composed
4. The world's highest tide is in the Bay of Fundy at Burntcoat Head, Nova Scotia. The mean large tide range is 16.1 metres.
5. The Great Lakes - Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario - are the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world.
6. Canada has the world's longest coastline
7. Niagara Falls is estimated to have a mean annual flow of 6000 cubic metres per second.
8. The Trans-Canada Highway is 7604 kilometres. It is the longest national highway in the world.
9. Québec City is the first city in North America to be placed on UNESCO's World Heritage Sites list.
   

June 13 , 2008 Back to Top

Welcome and thanks for clicking your way here.

I'm sorry for not making more of an effort to update the Blog...but after hearing from a few asking...it was the needed kick-in-the-butt to start banging away on my keyboard. And as I've said in the past, I continue to feel humbled and grateful people care enough to drop by and read whatever I'm thinking.

At the moment...I'm still feeling in awe and still feel a huge amount of pride and joy for 16 of my A-Channel co-workers that make up the Pink Army. These individuals gave up an entire weekend to walk 60 km, raising more than $40,000 for the "Weekend To End Breast Cancer".

Many of the walkers suffered sprains, soreness and blisters...but ALL say it was worth it. To put it in perspective...60 km is the distance from Navan to Kanata!

I did some math here, and I calculated that if they did that walk only 6,417 more times... they would have covered the same distance from earth to the moon!!!!!
But at that point...I'm sure the legs would've been worn down to just little stumps. Yikes! Not a pretty picture!

Anyway...a HUGE amount of pride is also devoted to many viewers who donated their share of the final tally of 40 grand! You are sooooooo awesome!!

Here's a pic of the A-Channel Pink Army!

Now totally off topic... I admit I'm not a huge electronics aficionado. Yes, I own a home PC (which I'm currently using to type these words). I have a plasma, which I use only to watch a handful of TV shows and many DVDs. I have a nice enough stereo (but only keep it at 1/10th the volume because I'm respectful of my condo neighbours). I have a simple and plain MP3 player I use everyday walking to work. I have a 2-year-old basic cell phone which I rarely use.

My point is I don't pay much attention to the latest "must-have" device. Although, I did purchase a new electronic device that I have to tell you about! It's a digital frame!

This thing is awesome! I keep a 1 GB card in it that stores hundreds of pictures. When I turn the frame on, it's a new pic every 15 seconds! It's like having hundreds of frames on your wall, but without damaging your drywall by hanging them, or spending hundreds of bucks on frames! Imagine...one frame and hundreds of pictures!

I've been so excited by it, I've even started scanning really old pictures I have, converting them to a .JPG format, then transfer them to the card!

Anyway...I've attached a few pics that are currently featured in my digital frame. A thought though... how cool would it be to have a digital frame with a built-in MP3 player??!!! Listening to music while pictures flip by? THAT would be the most awesome thing EVER!

Thanks for reading!

Your pal,
Bill W.

In Kenya, Africa (1998)	Britney Spears at MuchMusicVideoAwards (1999)
with best friend Johnny in T.O.	having a drink backstage with Motorhead's Lemmy (2005)
on-set of "The X-Files", performing an alien autopsy (1997)
with a Picasso (2008)	with the legendary Waylon Jennings (1993)