Just forget the words and sing along

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

I always love reading about justice being served - even when it's against a company I love.

Famous Players Theatres just got fined a little less than $6000 and was ordered to donate $52000 to a burn victim charity over an accident that happened at Silver City in West Edmonton Mall.

A kid was doing his job in the back room when one of his buddies was putting away a bottle of drain cleaner. Naturally, the cap for the bottle had been lost a long time ago, so when the bottle was knocked over, it spilled all over this kid.

Did I mention that the drain cleaner was an 86% solution of sulphuric acid?

The kid could feel the stuff eating away his shirt. So, he tore off his shirt and sprinted down to West Ed's food court - the nearest place with the facilites to wash the gunk off his body. In the end though, he suffered first degree chemeical burns to his neck, shoulders, and back and required skin grafts.

Famous Players was fined for: improper storage of the hazardous chemical, improper training for how to handle hazardous chemicals, having no one with the proper first aid training on staff, and not having the proper first aid fascilites; specifially, a decontamination shower.

I kinda wish the fine was more.


As I'm packing up my apartment and prepping to move home, I'm reminded of my Mom's statement shortly after I moved in here. She said that it seemed my apartment was lacking something because I didn't have any mementos from my time in Japan on display.

Someday, I'm going to own a nice, sprawing acreage. And, just for Mom, I'll build a Shinto shrine on the back 40.

I actually think that'd be kind of cool. Just hiking in the Canadian wilderness then suddenly - BAM!! You find a Shinto shrine. Sure shock a lot of people.


Now I find this to be kind of cool.

I was doing some research on railway handcars, should I ever make good on my threat to try to cross the country on one. And I came across these speeder clubs.

Speeders, in case you've forgotten, were those little buggys that went zipping down the railway track for rail workers to inspect the tracks. They started phasing them out a few years ago, replacing them with those pick-up trucks with the flip-down train wheels.

Anyway, rail enthusiasts have started forming these "speeder clubs." People buy old speeders, fix them up, customize them, and then have weekend excursions riding the rails with them. In these clubs, they make convoys of about 15 or 20 speeders. They tend to stick mainly to short line railroads, so as not to disrupt regular rail travel.

Now, you just know that's the kind of club I'd be a part of if I had the time...and money...and one was local.

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