NOTE: "in the circumstances" of my contract related claim, during extended discoveries, I was court ordered to produce my 'CV' (Curriculum Vitae: latin for 'Life Story,' i.e. resume). As such, under these circumstances I felt I did not want to leave a stone unturned; so just in case, I decided to start at my birth. More or less, most stages of my natural development are there, for argument and judgment.
- This information can be important under certain 'circumstances.' It can prove, by argument, in a court of law, that the individual claimant perpetrator, was unfit to be pursuing certain objectives, and incapable of carrying out certain actions and responsibilities.
The following was supplied Defense on February 15, 2013, as ordered outstanding by a Master.
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A former CLIENT’S RESUME
For 4 and 1/2 of my formative years I experienced starvation and tropical illnesses while living in the midst of daily dying. No wonder I later became fascinated by the process of life.
At times, like now, this has taken me in to some very strange places. I understood why the Japanese wanted the resources of Indonesia; however, I find the cruelty of dishonesty and the powers of legal abuse, forcing me to make an account of my personality by producing my resume, a mystery.
How my resume in any way relates to my Superior Court claim of contractual non-
compliance, “under the circumstances” is down right sinister. I no longer trust anyone!
Having been made cautious and suspicious, in case at a later date I may be held responsible for lack of inclusion about anything in my past that may in any way be considered “relevant under the circumstances,” I have decided, rather than supply the general and obvious – to include my life’s earlier years, since, after all, much of one’s adult behaviour is a reflection of one’s past.
So, while ordered as I have been, baffled and bewildered, I set myself down to make account of myself this January, 2013, days short of this now 5 year journey. The following is my bio/resume.
I was born on March 21, 1939, in Kotaradja, Atjeh, the most northerly province of Indonesia on the island of Sumatra. After it had been a Dutch Colony for some five hundred years, Indonesia gained independence in 1956. Kotaradja, now known as Banda Aceh, is best remembered for the major offshore earthquake with its devastating Tsunami some 9 years ago, killing thousands.
My parents, both ‘white,’ (should ever this be questioned) were also born in Indonesia. At my birth, my father was a young lieutenant in the Dutch-Indonesian army. In 1942 the Japanese invaded and interned all those who declared themselves non-’native.’ Any boy over fourteen was considered a man and was shipped to help build the Birma rail road. My father was appointed the job as ‘water carrier.’ He had to fill buckets of water from the river Kwai, and carry them up hill to the make-shift kitchens.
My mother and hundreds of women and children from the area were trucked to quickly erected internment camps. I remember the day we were told to pack an over night bag. It was March 20, 1942, the day before my third birthday. Reason I remember it is that I had seen my stacked presents, ready to be opened. However “overnight” turned in to four and one half years of a total of some nine different camps. This my mother informed me of later.
While the women worked ‘in the field,’ mostly growing sweet potatoes, the kids amused themselves with a variety of simple games. One of which was seeing who could chew and swallow the greatest amount of Tjabe Rawit, one of the smaller, hottest red peppers growing. Tearing, choking and laughing, we were absorbing precious vitamins. We would also drop ants in to ant-lion pits, and pit Djangkriks (Crickets) against each other. Around the age of four, I ‘cooked’ my own sweet potato in a can over a burning coal, with some
gathered dry sticks; my early survival instincts at play.
Those who held on until the Americans showed up in Singapore, in early ’46, were all shipped to a cold Motherland, called Holland. The Australian author Neville Shute, interviewing a woman who had been part of my mother’s clique, wrote a book about us “A Town Like Alice.” (See wikipedia’s Historical accuracy)
Three weeks later, I turned seven. To be able to go anywhere you please, is a luxury I discovered. I still cherish that freedom daily. One of my first friends in Amsterdam was a Jewish boy. Until my mother explained it, I could not understand why his parents so profusely thanked me for befriending him.
Around 11, I remember being sent to the principal’s office for standing up for a troubled kid who was being unfairly picked on by the shop teacher. Although the Principal reprimanded me, the teacher was fired.
At 16 I emigrated to the wide open spaces of Canada, and while attending high-school in Calgary I saw a hilarious Commedia dell’Arte production starring Jean Gascon of Le Theatre du Nouveau Monde. It sold me on theatre.
With my Dutch education I was ahead in most subjects, so in grade 10, after only 2 classes, I quit French, and signed up for Drama. (I wrote a final grade 12 French exam to get 78%.) The Drama classes led me to watch movies, which in turn made me fascinated by how people communicate – why they do what they do to each other. This then became a calling to want to become a feature film-director.
In winters I couldn’t stand going to school, stuffed in a bus; so I had to have a bike. To buy one, my first after school job was @ 75 cents p.hr. as a ‘take-out’ at one of the large grocery stores. Tips of 10 cents and sometimes even a quarter were huge in those days. Out of some 1200 school kids I was the only one on a bike at 20 below. The two summers between grade 10 and 12 I worked up north in the Uranium mines for 6 weeks, making the relative fortune of some $700 each time.
After grade 12 I worked for a Dane who did summer landscaping, mostly creating lawns around newly built houses. I soon discovered he was making a fortune slave-driving his large crews at $1.50 an hour while he retired each winter down south. Often workers didn’t last a full day; most were gone within a week. Feeling I could do what he was doing, I was curious to learn the process and bore his cantankerous demeanour for 2 whole weeks (i.e. 2 pay checks). I then went knocking on doors looking to get my own contract by
undercutting his price per square footage.
At this stage I had contacted several theatre schools in London, England, including the Central School of Speech and Drama; it was considered one of the very best. They had responded to say I would have to show up early September to do an audition. So after I had done some 4 lawns, I think, and profited some $1200, + the rest in my Account – enough to see me through my first year, assuming I would be accepted, I left for England.
Standing on the school’s Old and Famous Embassy Theatre Stage, located in Swiss Cottage, London, I was asked by the judging Admin sitting in the front rows: “So you want to be an actor, do you?” My response of “Well, not really, I actually want to become a Director, feeling it will make me a better one if I know what actors are all about.” Although creating a questionable snicker, from around some 300 auditioning, I was one of 38 accepted. That was 1959.
Whatever the school saw in me, they forewent my tuition for the second and third year. My first directorial effort was at the school, a Moliere one act called Le Marriage Force. I directed the now famous Pauline Collins. We did the noon-time show in French.
After graduating in 1962, I was up for a lead in a feature film with J.Arthur Rank. But being a Dutch-Canadian Immigrant studying in England, I was not eligible for a work visa. My career would have been very different, had I not returned to Canada.
I almost ended up working at the newly created Montreal Theater school. When I was offered a job starting as a third assistant film Editor at the National Film Board, I entered the building and was taken in to the bowels of its activities. I quickly realized I could not work in the no-window cubby hole circumstances.
Instead, after doing some early acting work in summer stock, I landed a job with CBC as a stage hand in Toronto. This brought me right in to the world of making TV production. But also, as I discovered, the dubious world of politics.
I had been told I could “work my way up in to production.” When CBC jobs were posted, I could apply and graduate from Stage-Hand to Floor-Director. It was not to be. After some 6 applications in a year and a half, I ‘smelled a rat’, when internal CBC employees’ nephews from Winnipeg, or St. John were getting the jobs, often with no applicable credentials.
So I quit, and in 1964 started my own Theatre company. Two one act plays were our first production. One, ‘Sir Halewyn,’ was based on a medieval Scottish ballad. I liked the name and titled us ‘Halewyn Productions’. Based on our extensive PR, we had wonderful media coverage and were favourably compared to the big time traveling shows.
That took us to our full-time stage in the ‘Collonade’ for 2 years. With my young actors, I started lunch time theatre, taking our Canadian Carol Bolt’s one-act play ‘I Wish’ to high schools; we also did lunch-time comedy at the Colonnade; stuff never done before.
Giving them the entire back page, I managed to get VW to advertise on our program, a feat unheard of in those days. No question, our 2 productions of Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’ became our most prominent endeavours.
My adaptation/translation from the Middle English was used as a basis for an Off-Broadway musical which I co-wrote and directed, with Paul Hoffert’s music and David Secter’s Lyrics, in early 1969 at the now defunct Sheridan Square Theatre. (Google)
The production ran for some 7 weeks, despite a bitter New York winter and a scathing review by Clyve Barnes, who stated Chaucer did not belong on stage. At this point I decided to get in to the film business.
With my Halewyn Films and doing half of the camera work, I created a B/W Karate film ‘Empty Hands,’ the first of its kind in North America. Early copies were sold to a number of police academies. Sadly I never retained a copy, nor does Google have a track record of it.
Our 16 mm color/sound Career Guidance films were sponsored by Industry and set out to acquaint students with real world jobs. Our first 2 covered the Ophthalmic Careers and won Columbus Ohio’s ’Chris Award.’ The annual awards are the equivalent of the Oscars in the documentary world. Our 28 minute film on NewsPaper Careers was sponsored by Abitibi Paper; our film on Cosmetic Careers by Yardley of Canada; our Marketing Careers by General Foods. Over some 2 years, we did a number of them. I freelanced as well,
directing some 7 films for then Moreland-Latchford.
With our first feature film script we applied for funding to the newly created CFDC (Canadian Film Development Corp). Since we had done 16 mm films, I insisted our 35 mm application would not leave any potential questions unanswered. We had 2 scripts, a reader’s script and a shooting script; the cast and their pictures were on hand; all the crew assured, with the top CSC in Canada, Reginald Morris on board; all the locations and equipment were confirmed. All we needed were the funds. It worked, because out of some 400 applications we became the CFDC’s guinea pig project. “Brilliant boys, all we need is for you to find a FilmDistributor, and you’re all set.”
So off we went, at 25, with barely enough gas, from Toronto to New York, shaving in a public toilet before meeting with Famous Players execs. After watching our guidance film on ‘Ophthalmic Careers’ and commenting on its quick cutting and excellent production values, the execs suggested we tell the Canadian Government to give us the money to make the movie. When done, they would be very happy to look at it.
It never happened, since after some 2 years of intermittent meetings, while continuously being ‘promised’ the funds, based on their ongoing vacillation, I relented. Realizing we were dispensable young pons to their newly established niche, to be used for their education, I threw in the towel and never regretted it.
With a friend, I 50/50 purchased the house I lived in. After giving it a face lift, within 2 days I sold it myself. We ended up with some $10,000 each. This was 1971.
I bought a 208 acre former dairy farm for $41, 000, received a $29,000 Mortgage and asked the owners to take back a second mortgage for $13,000. They did, and I ended up with $1000 to pay my expenses; again no realtors!
While getting my farmer’s feet wet, with organic chickens and a large garden, the first year I sold the trefoil seed on several of the 10 acre fields; the rest sold as hay. I also started to renovate the large turn of the century, top of the hill house, as well as work for the Owen Sound Children’s Aid Society. One winter I ran a street-kid arts program. In 1976, we sold the farm and with $13,000 moved to Hornby Island, BC.
Except for some essential services, with some 350 full-time residents, Hornby then had no jobs. Most recent arrivals were young city folk who had ‘seen the light.’ A number were artists who would sell their product off-island in galleries and at fairs. To live on Hornby, and support my family, I would need to find an income.
Including the one that tried to heat our rental home, my first winter introduced me to everyone’s wood burning stoves. A natural low-tech innovator, this became my next five years’ mission. During 2 years of prototyping, my ‘Chinook’ was warming a number of local homes. In 1978 my ready-for-market Reverse Process ‘Sunrise’ was featured both on TV, several BC newspapers and Harrowsmith’s #14.
However, although my brochures, marketing exposure and direct orders for some 300 stoves came in from across Canada, local politics stood in the way of my securing a vital, Nanaimo based foundry purchase with the BC Government small-business project. From my assembly plant at the old Victoria CPR railroad’s ‘Store Room’, I sold some 78 Sunrises across the Country and USA. http://woodburningstovesreviews.net/reverse-process-wood-burning-stoves/ *
A divorce brought me to Vancouver to continue fathering my 2 young sons. Initially I found employment as a Group Home Parent to 5 struggling teenagers. All were wards of the government (some 2 and a half million dollars I was informed). I did this single-handed for 1 year. Sharing our abode as equals, Human Resources told me I had made a telling difference to several of them. Away from us, one drove himself to death.
While I became my son’s band manager (see Omnibol.com), for another 8 years I worked as the primary ‘Handyman’ for a man who managed a number of buildings and houses. Although no expert in any of the trades, I am familiar which each, having built most of my house on Hornby.
In 1989 a former young actor I had mentored, had become a major Canadian Theatre Producer. His 5 million dollar ‘Durante’ musical was playing to sold out houses in Toronto, and on its way to Broadway, via San Francisco and LA.
Still, it needed work and I was hired as its ‘Show-Doctor.’ After watching the Vancouver
previews, I was given 10 days to fix what I felt needed fixing. Two days prior to opening in San Francisco, the major earthquake hit California. It shut the production down. All was for naught.
However, while in Vancouver, I wrote a one Act play 'Crystal Balls' which I directed and produced during the Fringe Festival; I also directed/produced a period piece for the United Players: 'The Beaux Stratagem.'
During travels back to Hornby, I had invented what ultimately became the ‘Omnibol,’ a sporting good device. A multi-purpose, trapezoidal frame-suspended net allows an individual to challenge and play against themselves. A tension adjustable net with a dual ground (down), or racket (up), positioning framework gives the player multiple choices of applying a number of known sports, including assorted presently still unknown sport applications.
I appeared on a National TV show ‘Live It Up’, and several other, more local TV stations. I
sold 8 Units based on response to the shows. Although I had US patents filed, Vancouver is not known as the 'hub' for manufacturing; the time and place was not to be. I actually helped shut down the questionable VSE, when I caught a promoter raising funds, trying to circumvent me.
Late 2007 I was encouraged to take my ebay induced concept (pre Craigslist and Kijijij) seriously. This later became Gopoco.com. Although I cautioned we might be too late, by committing some $73,000, 2 investors encouraged me to proceed regardless.
As a recently pensioned elder, I felt the need to do some serious homework to find our ‘right’ Web-Developer. Starting out near home, I checked out a number of potential developers in Courtenay, Victoria, and Vancouver. I had some telling connectives with a Nanaimo based web-developer who initially was so excited about the concept, he asked me NOT to contact any other web-developer. However, when reality set in, it bogged down.
Then my online searches hit upon GURU.COM, a site that lists hundreds of globally available web developers, their shingles vying to score new clients from anywhere. Some of their PR was out of this world, with several North American companies warning there was no recourse when doing business with the far East. Complete safety lay at home. What irony in retrospect.
This then made good sense to this high-tech newbie. So after a good number of email exchanges in which I gleaned company “X’s” practices of “100% guarantee” and even “going beyond the client’s expectations,” I contracted the Canadian company, who, at that time ranked in No.1 position on the GURU site.
In hindsight I was naive, believing what I was told. Clearly, I still have much to learn about the fickle nature of our species.
The rest is history, as they say. Contrary to the actual Rules of Civil Procedure, it has already been Court proven that Online Contractual claims end up in the Developer’s Jurisdiction. This being the case, I suggest to those looking to hire a Web-Developer: Do your diligent homework; make certain roles are explicitly defined, that phasal completions are exactly that, observable and provable; that penalties are in place when
deadlines are not met; and deal with a person or company in your own jurisdiction.
* NOTE: The above mentioned URL: http://woodburningstovesreviews.net/reverse-process-wood-burning-stoves/ no longer exists; nothing is forever...
However, Googling Wikipedia: The reverse process wood-burning stove, will verify my story. (Gopoco/Sandbox etc)
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