Greetings all, Steve here to make your weekend a little weirder. Ya know, I realize I'm sort of the Odd Man Out on this site. I have a really different approach than the majority. I see my work on DIYPlanner.com as being sort of an antidote to all the hyper organization that goes on here. Certainly there's nothing wrong with being organized – lord knows, I could use more of it myself – but I still think that it's important sometimes to break out and just be silly. In this world of insurmountable problems and increasing tension, just occasionally attacking some totally pointless task has a certain cathartic effect. That's why today's topic is: Doing Incredibly Silly Things For No Reason.

But before we get to that, I have an apology to make on behalf of the team. There have been a few comments recently on the site that, because of our overactive, super-duper, white blood cell, Arnold-Schwarzenegger-going-to-find-his-daughter-style spam filters, were wrongly marked as spam. We try to catch all of them, but sometimes we miss one. I tried to comment on one of these recently and it said that the comment didn’t exist. My heartfelt apologies if this caused anyone existential angst or precipitated or worsened a personal crisis of purpose.

But back to the topic at hand. Doing Incredibly Silly Things For No Reason, it goes without saying, is always perpetrated by men. Always. Considering the sort of stuff I normally write on this site, this topic seems like a natural and I'm surprised it didn't occur to me before. Actually, maybe it has. Somebody go through the archives and check that out and get back to us.

While we're waiting, I'll tell you about this week's silly thing, Gung Haggis Fat Choy, an annual event here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Vancouver is multi-cultural the same way that Indian food is spicy, that is to say, so much so, it's marginally insane. Vancouver is known for it's liberal social policies, as well as for being near many other places, such as Asia. This brings many people of different ethnicities and languages to live in Vancouver, where people from all over the world talk very loudly to each other and gestures wildly with their hands, trying to get their points across. Marijuana is very popular here.

But so is being Chinese, which is one characteristic of Todd Wong, the founder of Gung Haggis Fat Choy. Many years ago when he was attending university, Mr. Wong realized, in a puff of inspiration, that Chinese New Year, or Gung Haggis Fat Choy, is only a couple of days away from the Scottish holiday of Robbie Burns Day. This inspired Todd Wong to transform himself into Toddish McWong and to create Gung Haggis Fat Choy, a combination of (ready?) Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns Day. Really. I swear. I so could not make this up.

Over time, this has evolved into a yearly festival attracting hundreds of people, with the catchy name Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner Event. At this event they have bagpipes, traditional Chinese and Scottish dancing and then things get weird. They eat delicacies such as sweet and sour haggis won ton, with chop sticks, and sing songs such as When Asian Eyes Are Smiling. This actually happens people.

I would like to state for the record that I think this is awesome. I applaud Toddish McWong for bravely forging ahead with the creation of a totally unnecessary, totally random, totally silly and, let me be clear about my feelings here, totally flipping awesome holiday. I didn't hear about Gung Haggis Fat Choy this year until it was over, but I will certainly be there next year and you can be too, as Toddish McWong wants to take Gung Haggis Fat Choy across Canada.

Now, when anyone asks me if I think a multi-cultural society is really a good idea…I just smile.

So until next time, keep your pen on the page and your Asian eyes smiling.

Steve Sharam
www.whenrealityknocks.com