A severed foot washed up on the shore of a beach in Campbell River today. That’s the sixth foot found on the coast since last August, and the origins are still unknown.

I’ve been strangely fascinated with this. It’s like something straight out of a cheesy horror movie from the eighties, and certainly one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever heard.

The whole thing is still shrouded in mystery. The origins are unknown, and there really isn’t anything to match the feet with missing person reports, as you’d need a DNA sample from the missing individual. All they have to go off of right now are the sneakers, but they’ve only released details about one of the shoes to the public, and it was a size ten Nike that thousands of people around the world own. Another news report I read interviewed an oceanographer who said the feet could have come from anywhere within 1000 miles of the coastline.

I find this incredibly interesting, almost entertaining, because it doesn’t really seem real without names or identities or grieving families on the television. Since it’s just the feet, it’s easy to forget that there’s a real tragedy behind this - a shipwreck or foul play.

Hopefully they eventually find out what’s happening.

I’m driving in town, and I think to myself, I’ve just got too much money lately. I’m drowning in it. If only there was a quick and surefire way to rid myself of this materialistic burden.

So I scraped my car against an expensive-looking SUV. That should do the trick.

It was a truly stupid move. I wasn’t paying attention and turned too tight into a small parking stall, dragging my door a bit against their back bumper. The damage doesn’t look bad, just a bit of a paint scratch, but these things always end up being more expensive than originally imagined. They’ll probably have to repaint the entire car, with my luck.

The worst bit was that I was listening to my stereo quite loudly and didn’t even notice I did it. It wasn’t blasting, but it was loud enough to muffle the noise of the scrape. I reversed out carefully and readjusted my position after seeing how close I was to the vehicle, but it didn’t occur to me that I had hit it, even when the guy sitting in his parked truck a few stalls down gave me a dirty look as I walked into the store. He must have thought I was a complete tool, walking away like nothing happened.

After I dropped some pants off to get tailored, I drove down the street to grab a coffee. It was only then, when I walked around my car and noticed the mark on the door, that I realized what had happened. How’s that for a Paris Hilton moment? I’m like one of those senior citizens that run over a pedestrian and drag them 20 kilometers before noticing anything.

I drove back, and the SUV was still there, so I left them a note. I’ve been in touch with them since and will find out tomorrow how much I owe.

Sadly, this is the second parked car I’ve hit in my driving career. I swear they come out of nowhere. To be fair, though, the last collision involved a locust storm and the devil taking control of my steering.

Writers' Rooms

Photos and descriptions of many author's workspaces.

41 Medical Secrets: If You Only Knew …

Reader's Digest offered two dozen doctors a chance to anonymously say what would normally be inappropriate to tell patients.

NDP to introduce 'net neutrality' private member's bill

Nice to see positive government action in this.

B.C. severed foot mystery continues

Four severed feet have washed up on our shores, the first three with sneakers still attached, and no one knows where they're from.

But not me.

Tom Waits - The Piano Has Been Drinking

Paul, at The Struggling Writer, posted this meme, and since I’ve been struggling with weblog inspiration lately, I figured I’d have a go at it as well.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

This time of the year, ten years ago, I was graduating from grade ten. As it’s currently 11:00pm right now, I was probably wasting away with some friends in Denny’s, drinking coffee, and whining about having to get up in the morning for my soccer match.

2. 5 things on your to-do list for tomorrow

1. Clean the apartment.
2. Try to recover from my face-mutilating sunburn.
3. Donate some old clothes.
4. Visit the farmer’s market.
5. Finish the book I’m reading.

3. What would you do if you were a billionaire?

Travel, travel, and more travel. It would be amazing to just take off, travel around the globe, spend as much time in each place as I’d like, and not have to worry about running out of money or getting back to work.

4. What are three of your bad habits?

1. I hit the snooze button on the alarm clock about five times in the morning.
2. I waste way too much time reading random articles and weblog postings while procrastinating more productive activities.
3. I spend way too much money eating out.

5. What are some snacks you enjoy?

• Potato chips are my guilty pleasure.
• Strange, smelly cheeses on crackers.
• I’ve been trying to eat more fresh fruit as a snack lately.
• Smoked almonds.
• I’m addicted to pickled beets right now. I know, I’m strange. I’ll eat them as a snack, or a side-dish, or in salads. I probably go through two jars a month.
• Anything deep-fried, really.

6. What were the last five books you read?

1. Long Way Down by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman
2. Can-Cans, Cats & Cities of Ash by Mark Twain
3. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
4. Guilty Pleasures by Laurell Hamilton
5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

I’ve unfortunately been in a huge reading slump for the last few months.

7. What are five jobs you have had?

1. Java Developer
2. Paperboy
3. Systems Analyst
4. Concession stand cashier/fry cook
5. Senior Account Executive (which is just a fancy name they gave us on front line phone support)

8. What are five places where you have lived?

1. Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
2. Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada
3. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
4. Parksville, British Columbia, Canada
5. Puch, Salzburg, Austria

Paul also handed off this Arte Y Pico award thingie to me the other day, which was very kind of him. I’m not a huge fan of weblog awards that specify you link back to the original creator, as they’re basically a massive, viral marketing campaign for the original weblog, but I’m fully in support of providing links to weblogs you enjoy reading, so here are my five picks:

1. One Man Blogs
2. The Man Who Couldn’t Blog
3. What’s New, Pussycat?
4. Eat Alice
5. Paul Graham’s Essays

Before seeing that Messiah video I posted earlier, I’d never heard of Derren Brown here in Canada. It seems he’s had quite a few interesting television specials. Here are a couple of clips:

This next one features Simon Pegg, which immediately makes it great.

Last night I went over to Vancouver to see Iron Maiden in concert. I didn’t even know they were touring, but my friend Lee-Ann called me before she bought her tickets, and I’m so glad she did. It was amazing.

They sounded as good, if not better, live than in their studio recordings. It’s not just the music, though, it’s the full show: pyrotechnics, smoke, fireworks, giant mummy skeleton, huge walking demon cyborg thing. Everything was over-the-top in a cheesy, but awesome, heavy metal way. It’s the sort of music that just shines live.

Iron Maiden - Phantom of the Opera

It was worth the ticket price, the time off work, the ferry ride to the mainland and back, sitting through Lauren Harris (Steve Harris’s daughter, who opened, and was terrible), and the dodgy hotel room ($120 for four people should probably have tipped us off). Catch them live if you have a chance.