Many years ago , When I was still attending college, 2 friends of mine asked me to help them with a Geology class assignment. What came out of this assignment was the Amazing Adventures of Captain Conglomerate!

I have Uploaded the resulting Comic book for you all to read, We lost the Sequel some time ago which featured Gravel Boy all grown up and calling himself Weatherman.  I have also set aside a section for my old Psychosix files and as I upload them Wednesdays and Saturdays, I will let you know.

I have recently noticed that my old stomping grounds of Psychosix.com is no longer working, but I would like to Wish the few of the members that read this “Happy Gobble Gobble!!!!!”

It’s Kind of Odd, that I returned to Canada from China, now I work for a Chinese-Canadian School, and teach Chinese students. It’s almost like being in Beijing. Unfortunately since most of our students are immigrants, they and their families don’t understand how we Celebrate things here, and so the demand to have class on Turkey day is very high.

This is a cultural difference of the biggest size here. In Canada when we Canadian Born Citizens have a celebration we do it loudly, and proudly, and make the whole thing visually appealing and invite everyone to join in the fiesta of candy and friends and dinners and whatever you do. On the Flip Side such outward celebration is frowned upon in the Chinese or Korean cultures, when a special day happens you quietly join your family to show respect and spend the time indoors with them eating and talking. The town is not dressed up foolishly, and in today’s society where there is a High pressure to do well in school (Huge population of students all wanting to get into the best universities) this is when the academies or “Cram-Schools” are the busiest. So when they come to Canada for the first 5 years or more they don’t understand why we don’t want our classrooms open on these days and it has to be negotiated. But in the end, if you pay-for-it, teachers will come.

In the end you, typically try to stay with the culture you were raised with. And Trust me, we’re just as bad. You go to Beijing, or Seoul, and you have sections of the City that the foreigners practically never leave. Our own “Western-Town” so to speak. (Itaewon in Seoul, and Sanlitun in Beijing are examples). In these little Havens English is the language spoken by all customers and 90% of the businesses. The local Holidays are kind of shrugged off as inconsequential, but Christmas or St.Pattys Day comes around and there is decorations and drunken singing in the streets. Santa Claus can be found at the local Hyatt Hotel, with his Gold Encrusted Sleigh and his Cappuccino Drinking Reindeer.

My point is it would be very hypocritical for me to complain about communities such as Richmond, that have evolved into a mostly non-English speaking city right next to Vancouver, especially since I have been known to complain about not being understood in English at the local McDonald’s in Beijing once in a while. And I have looked at people with complete bafflement when they asked me in Mandarin why I didn’t learn the language after 8 years….

Let’s all just be thankful that we live in such a wonderful place like Canada, that lets us have such Multicultural Mash-ups peacefully. So what if we don’t understand each other. We are all working on it, and just remember, this country was founded upon multiculturalism and understanding of each other.

Happy Turkey Day Everyone, and remember 감사합니다 씨 메이플 시럽 터키 사람, 谢谢枫糖浆先生土耳其男子 & Merci, Monsieur le sirop d’érable Turquie homme

This is a picture I drew just after moving to Korea. I made it to represent a character I had written about for the “Psycho-Six” stories my friends and I had been writing. I have not heard from a lot of these people for a while, only 2 come to mind, I hope the rest are doing well for themselves. For those of you who came to the Blog-site, you will notice I have started to put 1 of those stories up, I will be editing and updating it as we go (and I have time).

1 Week to Thanksgiving, and we have a lot of planning to do. This is our first Thanksgiving EVER. In China we would forget about it, because there was no external reminder and in class we were teaching American Thanksgiving (Same Holiday, just 1 month later). We are having a few people over, mostly from the Mainland Vancouver area. Will Post pics on the Facebook page during and after the event. ^_^.

On a Culture note: I have been told I am too “f&*^%ing sensitive” about this, (By a man from Ontario), but have we as Canadians started using the “F” word for everything while I was gone, or am I just meeting the wrong people since I got back? Now to be fair it isn’t everyone I see, but a lot of people in the Vancouver area I see cannot make a sentence without placing the dreaded word in there at least once or twice. It’s comparatively bad to the 1980’s with the word “like.” they’re not even using the word properly. An example I hear the other day was “I’m going to go F–ing shower and f—ing pick you up then go F– that party!”  and generally when they use this word they make sure everyone in the area can hear their profanity with a smile on their face.

Now, coming from a culture of freedom of speech, I believe in their right to swear. But my curiosity come from why do people believe that they have to do so in every sentence?

So I shall leave you with Happy Thanksgiving! and please don’t go F—- that turkey.