The Inquisitive Engineer

I've Moved

2007-02-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

I have moved my blog to yearzero.wordpress.com! Please update your links!

Cheers,
Mike

Bush Lite and First Impressions

2006-06-08T22:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted, but I'm going to try and update this thing more often. I feel like I've been silent for too long and that some things have gone down recently that just cannot get brushed aside.

Today I want to talk about the terrorist plot on our nations capital. I have to say that the thought of armed men storming the parliament building, taking hostages and beheading Stephen Harper is beyond belief. Shock would hardly cover the emotion that would surely rise up in myself. Yet, something seems off with this story.

Some commentators have already pointed out how this is turning into a spectacular show-trial and quite possibly will reduce the chance of these men getting a fair trial. Are they guilty? I don't know and I think it's up to the court to decide that. But by parading these guys around with SWAT team and snipers at every turn as if at any moment a full battalion of insurgents were going to show up gives the impression that these are more than just a bunch of deranged young adults and instead an organized and credible threat against our nation. Let's remember that they were caught before the execution of their plan by tracking a large purchase of fertilizer. If intelligent people were in charge of this operation, you would think that they would have bought in smaller quantities from unconnected sources... I also found it funny that the picture the press has used in the story on CNN shows nothing more than a gun, a multi-meter, and a soldering iron. Wow. So every registered firearm owning electrical engineer in Canada is potentially a terrorist? Yikes. This is a strange new world we live in. You'd think that if this was a fully planned and imminent threat they would have some scarier stuff to show in that picture... like... a bomb?

But I digress. My point is that there seems to be a new playbook being used with the media as of late and it reeks of Karl Rove. I'm not saying he's the puppet-master of the Harper government (but it wouldn't surprise me), I'm just saying that the conservatives may have picked up a few tips from their brethren south of the border.

For one, Harper stated that "we are a target, because of who we are and how we live, our society, our diversity and our values -- values such as freedom, democracy and the rule of law." This sounded so familiar that I had to go look up where I had last heard this. Bush said it back in 2001: "They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other." That always rang hallow with me then and it does so today as well. You know, maybe they hate us because we are bombing them, blowing up their cities, and killing innocent civilians? No, it's just cause we can choose to go to MicDick's and have cheeseburgers and watch MTV. That REALLY gets them all burned up inside.

But is that little, insignificant quote just an over reaction on my part? Maybe. But yet, something still seems different about how our Canadian officials are acting lately. Not many people noticed (or cared) but the National Post ran a story last month about Iran and how the country was planning to force Jews and other religious minorities to wear distinctive clothing to distinguish themselves from Muslims. The story ran with a picture from 1944 which showed a Hungarian couple wearing yellow stars that the Nazis forced Jews to sew onto their clothes. They even had an online poll with the question, "Is Iran turning into the new Nazi Germany?"

The problem with this assertion is that the original focus of the story turned out to not be true which was admitted by the editor-in-chief, Douglas Kelly, quickly after it was published. He said that, "[the paper apologizes] for the mistake and for the consternation it has caused not just National Post readers, but the broader public who read the story."

But the funny thing was how this story was used later in the day (before the retraction) by Mr. Harper when he said that Iran "is very capable of this kind of action," adding, "It boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the Earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany."

It seems that the Harper government is trying to get Canadians on board with a potential military action against Iran... just like our friends to the south are doing already to their population. Of course, a spokesman for Mr. Harper added later that his statement was prefaced by, "If this is true..." but we all know that public opinion doesn't care about whether it's true or not.

It's all about first impressions.

Firewall

2006-02-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

You might remember that last summer I posted about starring... well, appearing, in the new Harrison Ford movie Firewall. Well, last night I had the... priviledge?... no, ability to see the flick early as part of a preview promotion at Metropolis.

The movie in general wasn't all bad. The first 30 minutes were actually above average for your standard run of the mill thriller. What they did really well was making the plot rather plausible for a change. Most of the actions taken by the bad guys are explained and make sense. Note, I did say most... not all.

The scene that featured me was much too short to really make me feel like I was really in the movie. No, there was a blurry guy in a red shirt rocking out with a guitar that looked like me, but it wouldn't inspire anyone to say, "Hey! Weren't you in the movie?" even though I was at the premiere wearing the same outfit.

SPOILER ALERT!!!! Please do not keep reading if you plan on seeing the flick.

You should know from the trailer that Harrison Ford plays a security engineer guy for a major bank that is forced to work around his own security measures when Paul Bettany holds Ford's family hostage. The part that had me interested was how they kind of ripped off the first season episodes of 24 where Jack Bauer was in the exact same situation as both were wired up with cameras and microphones and are being watched at all times. Where this falls apart is when the bad guys choose to only do this for one day. The next day, oh, well, we trust Harrison now, so we won't do that whole deal again.

Now, most people know that to have wireless access, you need to be in range of a wireless router or access point. Sadly, the writers of this movie didn't know, as Harrison Ford is able to connect to the net under a bridge and Paul is able to check his Swiss bank account from the side of the road on a remote mountain pass.

But my biggest gripe with this movie was the number of groaner moments in the final 20 minutes. Sometimes movies have moments when you say to yourself, "Man, that was SUCH an AWESOME TWIST!" This movie didn't have that kind of moment. It had one of those, "No... no... no we are... no... you didn't just say... OMG... SHOOT ME!" What was this moment? Well, as the bad guys are running off to their base with his family, Ford stops to log into his online PetFinder service that tracks a GPS locator in their dog's collar. Oh yeah, that's right. The dog was taken with the family... because... well, he's just sooooo cute! Sigh.

After that it was all downhill.

But I was in it! SO IT WAS AWESOME! :-)

Let's just say I plan to rent it and rip ONE CHAPTER... and that's all I could probably watch ever again.

My New Pad

2006-02-01T08:59:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since the last post, but that was mostly due to me packing up and moving to my new place... not to mention an increased drive by Jo to get wedding stuff done early! :-)

So here are some snapshots of the new pad!

So we still have some work to do obviously. We need to get a nice dining table and a matching love seat to go with our nice Ikea couch Jo had. We are also still in the process of de-boxifying the apartment, as can be seen in the bedroom picture. The nice part is that those are all empty boxes, so it's just a matter of folding them up and storing them back at Jo's mom's place or throwing them away. Our storage area is housing the final boxes with stuff in them, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna keep most of that stuff anyways.

Anyways, I'm suffering from a brutal cold today so I'm going to post this and go back to resting.

Cheers

A Daily Show Update

2005-12-14T15:59:00.000-08:00

Some of you may wonder why Monday night's episode of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart was a repeat. As was mentioned on Tuesday night's taping, the death of a young staffer who worked on the show was the cause. In honor of the young man, Tuesday night's "Moment of Zen" appeared to be a favorite clip of the 23 year old receptionist who committed suicide last weekend. A somber Stewart introduced the clip and the show's credits ran without any music.

On a lighter note, Jon will receive the National Soccer Coaches Association of AmericaÂs Honorary All-America Award for 2005 in January of next year. The NSCAA Honorary All-America award is presented to those who have brought particular distinction to the sport of soccer through their efforts within and beyond the boundaries of the sport.

More can be read on this here.

The Day the Whole World Went Away - Deconstructed

2005-12-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

This is very neat to listen to. I guess these were posted during the time NIN was working on the Fragile and posted these as teasers to their old website. Click on the numbers to hear the loops. Each number adds another layer to the sound or changes the ordering of the mix. There are other loops for other songs too, but this one was really neat. Check out the rest at the NIN Hotline Archive. They are the colored boxes under Sound Loops.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

2005-12-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

I found it again, and everyone must experience this at least once... I practically peed my pants when they did this on Family Guy last month.

An Overdue Update

2005-12-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

Due to the craziness of school and my studying for exams, I had planned to put this off for yet another week... but I have realized that this isn't truly fair to those of you who I don't see very often. As such, here is the latest news in the world of Mike.

I got engaged.

Yes, that's right. Mr. Professional Single got himself a woman. On top of that, she even said yes. Stunning.

I've had many requests as to how this all went down, but I'm growing tired of explaining so here is all I'm going to give out.

Josee and I went out for dinner at Chambar down on Beatty Street and had an amazing dinner with some superb wine and excellent service. Following a mind-blowing desert feast, we travelled over to Jericho beach which was so fogged in that we couldn't see our car from the park... and also couldn't see the water at all! We walked through the eerie fog until we heard the water lapping up onto the beach. With fog all around and the sound of the waves crashing, I pulled out my iPod and we danced on the beach to Sarah McLachlan's Dirty Little Secret. When it ended, Death Cab for Cutie's Brothers in Different Beds came on, which is one of our favorite songs. During the intro, I proposed, and we hugged and danced through the song.

There you go! The rest of the evening (and days to follow) were spent going from family member to family member telling them the good news.

The date is currently set for August 26th, 2006. Oh, what fun planning a wedding is!

...

...

Well, not exactly. I still have a beef with the fact that every single shade of green has a specific name chosen by Martha Stewart. Sigh.

Test your musical might!

2005-11-24T22:17:00.000-08:00

This site has an image. In it are pictures that represent 75 different musical acts. See how many you can find!

Sony Gives Out Workaround to it's Own DRM?

2005-11-17T09:56:00.000-08:00

So, this guy emails the makers of the Sony DRM to complain about the inability to use his legally purchased music on his iPod. The reply he gets first tells him to "complain to apple to open up their DRM to third parties" but then goes on to explain how to work around the DRM completely!

Using the obvious technique of ripping the DRM laden tracks using Windows Media Player (as allowed and explained in the DRM's instructions), you can then simply burn the entire album to a new CD... sans DRM. Then you can rip the new CD as normal as many times as you'd like.

As a consumer, I'm just appalled at this. Why have DRM if you give out instructions on how to beat it? Is Sony only doing this to get people to lobby Apple for them???

Sigh.

Sony DRM spelled backwards is EVIL

2005-11-11T08:48:00.000-08:00

Actually, it would be MRDS, which didn't really spell anything... Anyhoo...

For those of you who haven't heard, Sony has released it's new digital rights management software into the wild... and you may already have it on your computer. The CDs, when inserted, install what is known in the hacker world as a "rootkit" which is a special piece of software that runs in the background on your machine without letting you know about it. Even more alarming, is that this software is incredibly difficult to remove as it hides itself from even administrator level permissions.

Currently, the following CDs have been detected to have installed the rootkit software.

Trey Anastasio, Shine (Columbia)
Celine Dion, On ne Change Pas (Epic)
Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (Columbia)
Our Lady Peace, Healthy in Paranoid Times (Columbia)
Chris Botti, To Love Again (Columbia)
Van Zant, Get Right with the Man (Columbia)
Switchfoot, Nothing is Sound (Columbia)
The Coral, The Invisible Invasion (Columbia)
Acceptance, Phantoms (Columbia)
Susie Suh, Susie Suh (Epic)
Amerie, Touch (Columbia)
Life of Agony, Broken Valley (Epic)
Horace Silver Quintet, Silver's Blue (Epic Legacy)
Gerry Mulligan, Jeru (Columbia Legacy)
Dexter Gordon, Manhattan Symphonie (Columbia Legacy)
The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity (Columbia)
The Dead 60s, The Dead 60s (Epic)
Dion, The Essential Dion (Columbia Legacy)
Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (Epic)

If you have put one of these CDs in your computer recently, it would be wise to consult Google for removal instructions. But beware! Early pioneers in this field of work have mentioned that sometimes it will cause your CD player to CEASE WORKING!

Now, I understand that DRM is a necessary evil in our day and age, but this seems to be crossing lines of a different sort. In an effort to reduce theft of Sony's copyrighted content, Sony sees no problem with potentially damaging its customer's computers. Early reports have been made already of viruses that can piggyback on Sony's rootkit software and use them to cripple computer systems and enjoy the rootkit's property of being difficult to remove.

Let's just say that I won't be buying another Sony CD until this garbage has been removed.

PS - Is it just me, or are more than half of these CDs targeted at the wrong demographic for countering file sharing?

A Tool Of God?

2005-10-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

(Excerpt from www.rawstory.com)

BBC will report Bush told Palestinian leaders that God told him to end tyranny in Iraq

President George W. Bush allegedly told Palestinian ministers that God had told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq - and create a Palestinian State, the BBC will report in a program slotted to run Oct. 17, RAW STORY can reveal.

The BBC errantly posted a press release link on their website early, revealing the documentary's contents.

In Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, a major three-part series on BBC TWO (at 9.00pm on Monday Oct. 10, Monday Oct. 17 and Monday Oct. 24 British time), Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003 to BBC reporters.

Foreign Minister Shaath declares: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

Prime Minister Mazen recounts how President Bush told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state."

The series charts the attempts to bring peace to the Middle East, from Bill Clinton's peace talks in 1999/2000 to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last August. It was produced by Norma Percy, who produced The 50 Years War, along with producers Mark Anderson and Dan Edge.

Presidents and Prime Ministers, their generals and ministers tell the BBC their accounts of what happened behind closed doors as peace talks failed and the intifada exploded.

Death Cab For Cutie

2005-10-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to Death Cab all week after seeing their amazing show at the Commodore this past Tuesday. There isn't anything I can say about these guys other than Wow. Brilliant and poignant lyrics and simple melodies built upon less than simple timeframes (at least on the older material) and a voice that brings it all together. If you haven't checked them out yet, download/buy/steal their new album Plans. Brilliant.

Here's one of my favorite tracks written out... Painful, heartbreaking, yet insightful.

What Sarah Said - Death Cab for Cutie
And it came to me then
That every plan is a tiny prayer to father time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU
That reeked of piss and 409

And I rationed my breathes as I said to myself
That I'd already taken too much today
As each descending peak of the LCD
Took you a little farther away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines
In a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend
On a faulty camera in our minds

But I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose
Than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground
As the TV entertained itself

'Cause there's no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous pacers bracing for bad news
And then the nurse comes round
And everyone will lift their heads
But I'm thinking of what Sarah said...
"Love is watching someone die"

So who's going to watch you die?

Well, This is Hardly a Surprise...

2005-10-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

You are a
Social Liberal
(75% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(8% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

NIN: The Greatest Concert of My Life

2005-09-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, that little circle indicates where I was standing during the entire performance. A performance that quite easily blew my mind. I have been a huge NIN fan since I started listening to rock music in high school. (Yes, I only listened to movie soundtracks in elementary... and not the "music inspired by" kind, orchestrated soundtracks!) Opening with the song, Love is Not Enough, from With Teeth, Trent came out swinging. A thin veil covered the stage which hid the band for the majority of the song and all that could be seen were the outlines of the members as they rocked out. The veil lifted and the show really took off.

The exact order of the set is a blur now. But my best guess shows that the guys pounded through 21 songs in less than 1 hour and 40 minutes. The stage show was impecable. Very simple, but powerful. They had these little monuments around the stage in weird shapes that turned out to be all LCD screens. A larger one in the back was used in combination during The Line Begins to Blur to draw lines across as the others began to burn red like fire. Crazy.

The highlight of the show for me was the live performance of Eraser. This was done again with the veil dropped and had a video presentation displayed on it. It began with the classic NIN nature show of wild animals killing each other, decomposing, and so on. But at the pinnacle of the song, which is really about someone reaching the end of all hope and contemplating suicide, the video changed to showing scenes of the Iraq war. I have to say I was blown away. The power of the song had been redirected from hopelessness of self, to hopelessness of humanity. Are we in effect no better than the savage animals seen just seconds before? It left me pondering for the rest of the evening.

With the veil still down, Trent began to play a slower version of Right Where It Belongs. This song contrasted images of nature again with humans and war, but also with humans and... happiness? Interspersed in the film were clips of young suburban people in khakis with smiling kids and shiny mini-vans. People dancing at black and white balls. Then war and suffering. The lyrics in the background, "What if everything around you isn't quite as it seems? What if all the world you think you know is an elaborate dream?" Powerful. The peak of the show was when one of the dancers slowly turned to reveal themselves as George W Bush dancing with Laura Bush. The first boos of the evening erupt.

The show then roars to life again with songs like, "You Know What You Are" and "Burn." The other surprises of the evening included live versions of "Deep" which finally sounded good and "Down In It" which has cheesy early 90's rap written all over it. The mosh pit stops as no one wants to admit that this genre of music is good. I chuckle.

Finishing with Head Like A Hole, the fans thank the band for an amazing ride. Drenched in sweat and probably a few bruises, the band thrashes a few more things on the stage and takes off. Trent seems to smile. It's nice to know he's back doing what he loves. And I know I will be back for the next show for sure.

Bill Gates Meets Napoleon Dynomite

2005-09-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

It's a hand cam, but definitely worth watching. Click Here to download a copy. More proof that these guys have WAAAAAAY too much money on their hands.

Trent Helps Out

2005-09-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

The mastermind behind Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor, recently performed for ReactNow. Moved by the devastation of Katrina on his former residence of New Orleans, Trent performed a solo version of Hurt on piano.

Now I really can't wait for the concert!

Also, there is a new song by Trent floating around the net called Non-Entity. Can't confirm if it is destined for the next album along with the track Home that was released on the Japanese import version of With Teeth, but I would figure that's a good bet. Could be a really mellow album in comparison to With Teeth, hopefully also with some more instrumental tracks similar to those on the Still EP. Time will tell.

Congrats Dave & Jamie

2005-08-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

The summer of love is officially at an end. Wedding number 5 (of 9 possible that we could have gone to!) was my bud Dave Robinson marrying my girlfriend's sister, Jamie Hacker. It was a very nice service with only a few snafus...

The reception was alot of fun after we relaxed a little. The opening was a little frantic but once the food was on the table the party was underway. The caterers were friends of Jamie and they dropped the roast beef from the menu in favor of prime rib. No argument from me. I repeatedly commented that the rib was simply, "Magical." It had a tender etheral substance too it... like it was prepared by elves from the mythical forrestland found beyond the wardrobe in an old British mansion.

But the highlight was the look on the couples face. Dave looked sharp and Jamie was stunning. Way to go you two. Best wishes in your life together!

The Brains Behind Bush

2005-08-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Click here to watch a quicktime movie that seems to shed some light on the brains behind the Bush Administration. Brilliant.

Quasi-Stag

2005-08-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

So I threw a mini-stag last night for Dave last night for some locals at my tiny living/bed-room entertainment center. We watched a few Season 4 episodes of Family Guy, 2 episodes of Robot Chicken (hilarious, mad-cap sketch animation show), 1 episode of Da Ali G Show, and topped it off with a leaked copy of the Stewie Griffin Story / Family Guy movie.

It was nice for me since people brought all the necessary goods to make the event fun. Lots of beer, some vodka, orange juice (for the vodka), tostitos, salsa, organic chips, more beer, organic pop, non-organic pop... but then the oddity. I know some people like it, but cheesecake at a stag party? WTF! For the record, none of the peeps there swing their bats "differently" than the others and the description "straight as an arrow" could be applied (at different levels of intensity) to each person there. Yet at the end of the night, 1.5 cheesecakes had been consumed. I was shocked and appalled.

I stayed in the chip region and consumed about half a bag of "two-bite" brownies which I affectionately call "one-bite" brownies. Needless to say, I had a mighty nasty stomach this morning, but it was worth it.

Good luck on Saturday Dave.

Congrats Mike & Asha

2005-08-20T23:46:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of witnessing the marriage of Mike and Asha this evening. As you can probably tell from this picture, they are more than happy and the event was a blessing on all who attended.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to help play a song Mike wrote for Asha titled "My Desire" which is what the name Asha means. Somewhat out of place, Dave, Mike and I rocked the joint and belted out one of the best songs the three of us have worked on together.

Blessings on you two kids. The cute factor is off the scale.

The New Machine

2005-07-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

My new PC has finally arrived and has now been fully configured and is purring like a kitten. Well, actually, it really does. The new case, the Antec p180 (as seen above) is a sick case with an extra fan located ON TOP of the case blowing down. The main features include having the power supply and the hard drives in the base of the unit using the fan from the PS to cool the hard drives as well. They are both insulated from the rest of the chamber to keep heat away from the CPU and thus keeping the system quiet and cool.

While hardly the silent predator I was hoping for, the machine covers up for its low frequency growl by producing enormous computing horsepower with freezer cool efficiency. This case also uses an advanced plastic-alloy for the covers which serve to reduce rattle and internal noise by a huge amount. How huge? I can barely hear the cd spin when the door is closed but can clearly hear it when its open. That's big enough to make me look twice. The door is also capable of opening to 270 degrees which makes long usage of the drive space less prone to running into the door while its open.

The graphics card is a BFG GeForce 6600 GT which has amazed me with its flawless setup and excellent performance. The mother board is the nVidia based DFI Lanparty Ultra-D nForce 4 model. I have never had the pleasure of a more stable, solid and easy to use mobo. The drivers are a breeze to install and the board even comes with a pre-made floppy with the required SATA drivers. Are you listening ASUS?

Windows XP was up and running inside of an hour with most major apps and devices installed later in the day. I managed to port over my complete 200 gig HD from my previous system and even fooled my iPod into thinking it was sync'ing with the same system.

I can't say enough about nVidia right now. With their unified driver system updating to the latest version of their drivers is a snap. Just go to the website, download, uninstall the old one (2 clicks), then install the new ones (2 more clicks). Infinitely easier than ASUS and VIA which caused me so many headaches. Different versions of the same driver located everywhere and some of them were prone to fatal errors! I'm never going back now after experiencing the joy of nVidia.

**** DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT HAVE STOCK IN NVIDIA NOR HAVE BETS ON WHEN ATI WILL GO BANKRUPT ****

:-D

The Pre-Wave

2005-07-16T18:38:00.000-07:00

You may have seen this technique done while driving around lately. Someone is pulling out from a gas station or shopping mall and you are slowing to a stop. The person leaving the area pulls just slight ahead of you and smiles (optional) and waves at you, thanking you in advance for letting him ahead. If the person sees this and is okay with it, all is good. Most of the time, not so good.

Today a taxi-van pulled out in front of such a driver and when honked at responded with a raised finger, most likely the middle, but I was too far away to confirm. The taxi then stops parallel to the car (in front of it) and waits for traffic to stop so he can make a left turn. The whole time, both drivers are swearing at each other and making rather rude faces.

To avoid this kind of misunderstanding, it would be wise to either retire this communication protocol or redefine the ACK cycle to allow for better transmission and fewer dropped packets... Wait, sorry, that's network speak.

I dunno why I'm posting this. I just thought it was funny to watch this taxi guy be a total ass. If you are a pre-waver... you suck. :-D

Did you break the law today?

2005-07-13T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well, if Bill C-60 passes you probably did. According to an article in the Globe and Mail yesterday, the bill will amend the copyright act to make providing any copyrighted material via an information search tool illegal. This of course includes tools such as the ever popular Google search engine. Sigh.

If you want to break the internet, this would be a good way to do it. Of course, this will just result in people finding new ways (yet again) to find the goods they want. Trying to police the internet is like trying to fix a leaky roof with duct tape. Instead of using fear and lawsuits to keep users from downloading copyrighted material, why not make legally acquiring the material more beneficial and a better bargain? It's hard to compete with free, but if a site could offer me convenience and quality at a low cost I would be interested. Let's see some innovation to bring the buyers back to the table. Anyways, who has $18 for a CD these days anyways?

Speed of Apple Intel dev systems impress developers

2005-07-13T17:50:00.000-07:00

AppleInsider | Speed of Apple Intel dev systems impress developers

To post an add on to my previous Apple article, this report details how many Mac users have actually been bragging on false pretenses. I have suffered many a tongue lashing from Mac-addicts who claimed that their systems not only out-performed Intel/AMD based systems but were just flat out "better." To them, I say suck it. Suck it hard.

Enjoy your new machines and their Intel-based speed improvements.

China and Russia Give Finger to US

2005-07-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

In a not so surprising move, China and Russia have given a veiled threat to the United States which, roughly translated, states that the US should f*** off and die. When the only two other countries in the world that have been or are referred to as "super-powers" start doing joint military maneuvers it might be time to re-evaluate your foreign policy. What drove these unlikely partners together? Russia is kinda miffed with the US meddling with ex-Soviet states and getting involved in the Chechnian affair. China is similarly PO'ed with the States dealing with Taiwan as a sovereign nation (which it technically isn't by China's opinion.)

Of course, we know the Bush Administration doesn't give a rip about what other countries think of its actions. Bush made that clear during the Presidential Debates last year claiming that sometimes you have to do things that people think are unpopular to get the results you want. Well, if your actions cause Russia and China to become good buddies you may want to re-think your strategy.

The Definition of Irony

2005-06-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

In a surprise twist of fate, Warner Brothers Studios has been ordered to fork up $17.5 million (yes that's not a typo) for infringing on a copyright held on the source material upon which the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard was based. Apparently no one thought to check up on the legal side of making a movie based on a TV show that they thought they owned.

One poster at Cinescape quirped that maybe WB would try and catch the owner of the rights downloading the movie and sue him for their $17.5 million back. More directly, another poster simply said that the WB was "OWNED." Couldn't agree more on that call... Click here to read the original story.

Ferry crashes into Horseshoe Bay marina

2005-06-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

Click here to read the story posted on cbc.ca. More proof that the entire BC Ferries fleet needs to be retired has surfaced today as The Queen of Oak Bay sailed past the birth it was aiming for and smashed into a nearby marina at approximately 10:10AM Thursday morning. The picture is horrifying to say the least. It is unknown if the accident has caused any fatalities.

It should be noted that there were many boats caught underneath the boat as it slammed into the marina. It is unknown if anyone was sleeping in them at the time.

UPDATE:
It has now been learned that as of 1:45pm there have been no reported injuries resulting from the accident. The 544 people on board the ferry were unable to be unloaded until divers had completed the search. Not that it would be of much consulation, I'm betting that there was some complimentary food offered...

UPDATE:
"It's very clear that something went wrong, probably on the mechanical side, but beyond that I can not speculate," David Hahn, President of BC Ferries, told a news conference on Thursday afternoon. Well, duh. Passengers have said that if they hadn't been told they were going to crash they would have assumed it was a normal docking procedure. The impact felt by passengers was nothing more than the regular bumps of contacting the birth walls.

Quote of the Day

2005-06-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.
---Pablo Picasso

My Spin: Isn't it funny how critics have no idea how to actually DO what they criticize? Let us all remember this the next time we bash a politician, movie maker, musician, blog writer... ;-)

Bruce Campbell vs. Mike Worth

2005-06-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

One day even YOU might be this elite. Bruce was downtown at Chapters on Robson street last Sunday signing his new book, "Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way." While I haven't gotten around to actually reading the book yet, the question period with Bruce reaffirmed that the man has not lost an ounce of his wit that made films like Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness such cult icons.

Here are some outtakes from that session... (Thanks to Les for typing them out!)

Question: ARE YOU THE CHOSEN ONE?
Bruce: According to you maybe, I'm just passing through.

Question: Book Three?? Is there a third book in the making???
Bruce: Well it depends on how well Book 2 does. Great decisions have a lot to do with economic reality.

Question: Is Jack Of All Trades coming out on DVD?
Bruce: Why bother? Nobody watched it in the first place!!

Question: What's your favorite movie of all time and what's your favorite movie you have been in?
Bruce: My favorite movie is Maniac Cop!! No its actually Bridge on the River Kwai because it has my favorite actor William Holden, who could kick Ben Affleck's ass any day of the week.

Question: Are you going out with Katie Holmes??
Bruce: No she is a girl, I prefer women.

Question: Was it fun being in Army Of Darkness??
Bruce: No it was not fun at all. Because today you are getting the stretchy face, today you are getting the two headed rig, today we are going to spin your ass upside down, today you are evil ash, 3 hours of make up!!!

Question: Say the boomstick line
Bruce: I would if I was your little monkey!

Question: Bruce when does The Woods come out??
Bruce: Well it got delayed for a year?? Do you think that's good?? They called me up a year later to do three extra days of shooting. Then they said actually we don't need you. (sarcasm) I'm sure it will be an excellent movie (/sarcasm). It will be out this fall some time!

Question: What's your next role in Spider-man??
Bruce: If I get a role in the next Spider-man, I'm holding out! For a smaller role. Lets review real quick, in the first Spider-man I gave the character his name, in the second Spider-man I'm the only character who defeated him, and in part three I will be Spider-man I guess.

Question: When is The Man with the Screaming Brain coming out
Bruce: That film wasn't released it escaped. I'm touring with that film right now, I think I'm going to bring it to Toronto. (Crowd starts booing) Ugh...I mean... Its coming here very soon!!

Apple Admits Inferiority

2005-06-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well, not really. But it has decided to switch from using it's IBM PowerPC processors to use Intel x86 based ones starting in June 2006 and completely switch by 2007. Wonderful! So, all you people who parade your Macs around in some sort of pagan ritual claiming how they are sooooo superior to PCs now must realize that all you have is a slick, user-friendly OS that is no safer than Windows. Yes, that's right. Now being based on the same machine code ISA as Windows PCs, hardware hacks and malicious code need only to adapt to the different subtleties of the OS' memory management techniques to drive up the need for Apple virus scanners. Neat.

While I might be interested in trying out Tiger on a PC, in reality, I just don't see the point. Why move away from one propriatary OS to another? Oooooh, slick buttons and nifty toolbars! Joy! Both Microsoft and Apple will then be in direct competition for the ownership of your desktop. This could be a fun thing to watch. Where will Linux end up in all of this?

Personally, I'm still planning to eventually switch over to Linux in the next few months and keep Windows for school where I need to use programs I can't run in Linux mode. I've been using Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunfire for the last 5 months without any problems. I really do think the only troubles I will run into will be finding a good MSN client (Gaim works, but its so lightweight... I miss silly features), and getting my iPod to sync up properly. It will be fun.

First Listen: Coldplay - X & Y

2005-06-02T09:36:00.000-07:00

Another reinvention results in a massive success for Coldplay. X & Y's leadoff single is the most familiar sounding on this disc as the rest of the tracks, while staying inside their genre, take on a new flavor from the previous two albums. Parachutes seemed to bask in melancholy rhythms and played out in a rather downer tone (think Trouble, Spies, Don't Panic). A Rush of Blood to the Head was more anthematic with Politik, The Scientist, and Amsterdam. X & Y, while still in that vein, brings in more synth keys to give a fuller sounding bed to build upon.

This structure is sometimes bigger than usual as the guitars build to a chunky climax in Talk, or light and floaty during the opening of Fix You only to explode with the drums in the second half. These two tracks upon my first listen were the real standouts. Fix You is destined to be the new Yellow that won't get overplayed (I hope) since it takes a while to build up. Square One opens with a direct homage to Pink Floyd that will have some people checking to make sure Wish You Were Here didn't sneak into their cd player when they weren't looking. Swallowed in the Sea is also a great track with some great wordplay at work with a great piano/guitar mix to carry it forward.

My take? 4.5/5 stars on this one. Good stuff.

Sometimes it's best to NOT explain things...

2005-05-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

Click here to learn about leetspeak and save your kids from certain death! I'm still laughing this one off. Damn. Wish I had this back in 2nd year...

Pictures from the set of Firewall

2005-05-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

So here I am on the set of Firewall throwing up the horns. This was one of the coolest/most exhausting experiences of my life. Getting to rock out for 450+ extras who are being PAID to cheer us on is something I can't really describe.

Apparently CityTV did a story on the shoot last night at 6pm. I will be getting a VHS copy of it transfered to digital so if you would like to see it let me know. The story has a few interviews with people from the church (Kevin, Chelsea) and others I think. Most importantly, yours truly got some face time on TV with a close up and some severe rockin' out clips. Woot.

Below are some other pictures taken from the set. One is of our all round nice guy/custodian Hank with his secret crush Mary Lynn (Chloe from 24). The other pic is of Karen and Julie posing with Matt who plays Bobby in the movie. Matt played bass in the scene with us and often got me and Rick in trouble by spurring us to do impromptu jam sessions while the lighting guys were working. He also spent the day trying to make up names for our fake band, some of which included...

Jesus and the Jumping 12
The Tragically Jesus
Van Jesus
Jesus of the Stone Age
The Gospel Freaks

Hank with secret girlfriend Mary Lynn (Chloe from 24)

Karen and Julie pose with Matt (da bass player)

Done being a movie star...

2005-05-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

So I just got home from shooting FIREWALL, the new Harrison Ford movie that comes out sometime this fall. We were rocking up the sanctuary at my church with some loud boistrous rock and roll with over 400 extras cheering us on. It was alot of fun and draining at the same time. My legs feel like they are going to fall off.

I will post a picture from the set as soon as I get a copy from Julie who was quite camera happy today. She snapped a picture of Hank (our janitor/boxer) with Mary Ann R(something or other) who plays Chloe on 24. Too cute. No real star power beyond that today, but I shook hands and chatted with the directors and a good number of the lighting guys. It is insane how much work is done outside of shooting time that is pivotal to the creation of a movie. A good 30/45 minutes were spent setting up the camera and the lighting for each 30 second shot.

Anyhoo, I'm gearing up for the big 2 hour finale of 24 tonight (GO CHLOE!). I shall write more on this if I remember more.

Cheers

It's Good, Not Great, But Good

2005-05-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

There, that's better. An opposition party is always nice to have. Do I like the NDP? Not really. Do I prefer the Liberals? Nope. Am I a cynical bastard? Yes.

I'm not a fan of party politics mainly because of their single-minded ideologies. How can we find middle ground and moderate solutions if people won't budge from the party line? The NDP loves unions, public ownership and despises big business. The Liberals love corporations and would like nothing less than the complete destruction of unions. Is either ideology a good idea? Of course not. Extreme positions rarely hold a sustainable solution as there is nothing to keep them in check with reality.

What do I suggest? Nothing. I'm not that clever. But I will say that this election outcome is good as it doesn't give one ideology free reign on the province. The Liberals will have to deal with Question Period with actual tact now. With an estimated 46 seats for the Liberals and 33 for the NDP, this will be much more "fair and balanced" than the previous government.

As far as specifics go, Delta-South went as I feared. Splitting 56.94% of the vote between Dileep Athaide (NDP) and Vicki Huntington (Ind.), Val Roddick was re-elected with only 37.65%. Vicki lost the seat by only 100 votes! To all who said, "My vote doesn't count" and stayed home SHAME ON YOU! That's the most idiotic protest argument I've ever heard. "Government doesn't represent me so I won't vote for it." Sigh.

Val, the Province said under your picture that you were "instrumental in saving Delta Hospital's ER." I haven't heard the specifics, but YOU were on the committe that suggested it be closed so you better change your tune and fix what you started. Four years pass very quickly. Next time, you may not be so lucky.

Just when you thought you've seen everything

2005-05-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

Belinda Stronach has crossed the floor, leaving the federal Conservative party to join the sinking ship known as the Liberal party. Paul Martin must be happy, he now has 151 votes against the 152 of the Conservative/Bloc alliance. With 3 independants serving currently, this could be the most entertaining budget vote ever. Oddly, look who one of those indies is... none other than Martin's Golden Girl Carolyn Parish! Ooooh, the irony. Martin's frail government now depends on the ousted, Bush-doll stomping MP. Neat.

But it is probably not going to matter. Chuck Cadman is another indie from Surrey who will most likely vote for the Conservatives unless he is convinced otherwise. He has stated that he hasn't decided yet and the fact that a No vote from him could result in another election could persuade him to go Yes. If he does vote Yes and the third indie votes No, the tie-breaking vote will come from the Liberal MP Peter Millikin who is the Speaker of the House. Neat.

Gotta love Canadian politics.

Matthew Good Update

2005-05-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

First off, check out this picture book Matt put together for his website. Very well done. Wonder how long it is until Lego sues him.

Also, I just heard that Matt will return to a studio in Vancouver to record a variety of acoustic versions of his songs for an upcoming fall release: In A Coma – Matthew Good 1995-2005. Finally, we will get a professional quality acoustic mix of Apparitions on cd. Woot. My question, when do we get the next album of new material? I want to hear how Ryan and Meegee sound on tape!

With Teeth is Number 1

2005-05-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

The new Nine Inch Nails album "With Teeth" debuted last week at Number 1 on the Billboard Top 100 Albums. This should quickly put to rest the critics who claim that Trent lost his fans by releasing the lengthy album "The Fragile" and then going into hiding for 6 years.

I saw the reviewer on Amazon.com state that NIN is a one trick pony, but that it is a really great trick. There is some truth to that statement, but at the heart it cheapens the work Trent does on his music. Have you ever heard a song by NIN that sounded so similar to another track that you would get them confused? (ie: Nickelback / Linken Park...) When you are dealing with heavy industrial music, this should not be overlooked. As one of the few remaining creative and totally original songwriters in modern music, Trent has a record of taking risks and releasing music that is honest, open and intimate. So much so, that fans that dig into his words are often rewarded for their efforts. These are the fans that made this album debut at number 1.

If you have never listened to NIN before or have been put off by their previous releases due to the dark brooding sound they have, then check out this new disc. It is much more accessible and lighter than the others and has some of Trent's best work in decades.

Monday, Bloody Monday

2005-05-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

Yawn.

So on the bus this morning we drove past the line of crazy sign wavers promoting local candidates for the Provincial Election. Since when did getting a bunch of people to wave signs constitute a political campaign? I found it funny that the NDP candidate managed to get roughly triple the number of sign wavers as Val Roddick did this morning. Man, she looked kinda retarded waving her flag in her long red coat. I felt like waving back in a gesture of "Goodbye! Don't let the door hit you in the ass!"

I'm not really against the Liberal's plan to have a more streamlined government and better fiscal management. No, I'm more against how they plan to achieve that goal. Cutting taxes and then saying they can't afford essential services like health care and schools seems like a prescription for a future without much hope. But on the other hand, there's the NDP who have not managed to convince me that they will buck their ideology and be rational individuals and vote in the peoples' best interests and not the interests of their Union-based voter base. Then we have the Greens who still have failed to get their platform clearly across to the voters. Sure they have information out there for people to find, but that's not good enough. If they ever plan to get elected, they need to get a real grassroots movement behind them in a Howard Dean-esque manner... sans the YEEEEEEEEEARRRRRRG speech in the 11th hour of the campaign.

Thankfully, there is another option in our riding. Vicky Huntington is a rational liberal who is furious about the way the party has dealt with our hospital. Having a person in government who is directly accountable to the voters (since she is not and will not align with a party) is something that I would like to see more of in BC politics. To help this along, please vote yes on the STV. Let's see if we can change this system to one where we vote IN people rather than vote them OUT.

God's Own Party?

2005-05-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

By Jim Wallis
Sojourners

Several weeks ago, Episcopal priest and former Republican Senator John Danforth began an op-ed in the New York Times by writing: "By a series of recent initiatives, Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians." And, I would add, some Religious Right leaders are trying to transform the church into the religious arm of conservative Republicans. Either way, these partisan attempts to hijack faith and politics are wrong.

Yet each week brings a new outrage. This week's news was of a Baptist church in North Carolina, where nine members, including three deacons, say they had their membership revoked because they were Democrats who supported John Kerry. According to the Charlotte News-Observer, the nine walked out of a church meeting when Pastor Chan Chandler asked them to sign documents agreeing with his political views. When they left, members remaining voted to terminate their membership.

While the pastor has attributed it to a "misunderstanding," the former members say that last fall he told the congregation that anyone who planned to vote for Kerry should either leave the church or repent. One, a 75-year-old deacon, told the News-Observer: "He went on and on about how he's going to bring politics up, and if we didn't agree with him we should leave. I think I deserve the right to vote for who I want to." News reports today indicate that Pastor Chandler is resigning.

It's the latest outrage in a continuing pattern. Last year, news stories included Republicans seeking church membership lists and mailing postcards implying Democrats wanted to ban the Bible. Just a few weeks ago, Religious Right speakers held what they billed as "Justice Sunday - Stopping the Filibuster Against People of Faith" in support of President Bush's judicial nominees. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council was quoted in the New York Times as saying Democrats "have targeted people for reasons of their faith or moral position."

Because many other religious voices spoke to challenge the attempt to make God a partisan, President Bush, to his credit, repudiated the equation of faith with his policies. He was asked at his recent press conference whether he thought filibusters against nominees were "an attack against people of faith." He replied: "I think people are opposing my nominees because they don't like the judicial philosophy of the people I've nominated.... I don't ascribe a person's opposing my nominations to an issue of faith."

Then, on ABC's This Week, George Stephanopoulos asked Pat Robertson about his statement that "the out-of-control judiciary, and this was in your last book Courting Disaster, is the most serious threat America has faced in nearly 400 years of history, more serious than al Qaeda..." Robertson replied: "George, I really believe that. I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together...the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings."

This latest news from North Carolina is the logical, inevitable result of the road the Religious Right and some Republicans have taken.

It is the assumption that Christians must accept one partisan political position on issues, or be accused of not being Christian. This is an assumption we must reject. Rather, we must insist on the deep connections between spirituality and politics while defending the proper boundaries between church and state that protect religious and nonreligious minorities and keep us all safe from state-controlled religion. We can demonstrate our commitment to pluralistic democracy and support the rightful separation of church and state without segregating moral and spiritual values from our political life. Abraham Lincoln, in his famous Second Inaugural Address, said of the two sides in the Civil War: "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other." He would say the same today.

The Republican Party is not God's own party, as the Religious Right and some Republican leaders seem to be suggesting. And, of course, neither is the Democratic Party. We must say it again and again until it is heard and understood: God is not partisan; God is not a Republican or a Democrat. When either party tries to politicize God, or co-opt religious communities for its political agenda, it makes a terrible mistake. God's politics challenge all our politics. Our faith must not be narrowed to the agenda of one political party.

Jim Wallis is convener of Call to Renewal, a network of churches and faith-based organizations working to overcome poverty, and editor of Sojourners magazine. He is also the author of the best-selling book "God's Politics."

Day 113 of the President's Silence

2005-05-04T13:28:00.000-07:00

By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times

Tuesday 03 May 2005

Finally, finally, finally, President Bush is showing a little muscle on the issue of genocide in Darfur.

Is the muscle being used to stop the genocide of hundreds of thousands of villagers? No, tragically, it's to stop Congress from taking action.

Incredibly, the Bush administration is fighting to kill the Darfur Accountability Act, which would be the most forceful step the U.S. has taken so far against the genocide. The bill, passed by the Senate, calls for such steps as freezing assets of the genocide's leaders and imposing an internationally backed no-fly zone to stop Sudan's Army from strafing villages.

The White House was roused from its stupor of indifference on Darfur to send a letter, a copy of which I have in my hand, to Congressional leaders, instructing them to delete provisions about Darfur from the legislation.

Mr. Bush might reflect on a saying of President Kennedy: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality."

Aside from the effort to block Congressional action, there are other signs that the administration is trying to backtrack on Darfur. The first sign came when Condoleezza Rice gave an interview to The Washington Post in which she deflected questions about Darfur and low-balled the number of African Union troops needed there.

Then, in Sudan, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick pointedly refused to repeat the administration's past judgment that the killings amount to genocide. Mr. Zoellick also cited an absurdly low estimate of Darfur's total death toll: 60,000 to 160,000. Every other serious estimate is many times as high. The latest, from the Coalition for International Justice, is nearly 400,000, and rising by 500 a day.

This is not a partisan issue, for Republicans and the Christian right led the way in blowing the whistle on the slaughter in Darfur. As a result, long before Democrats had staggered to their feet on the issue, Mr. Bush was telephoning Sudan's leader and pressing for a cease-fire there.

Later, Mr. Bush forthrightly called the slaughter genocide, and he has continued to back the crucial step of a larger African Union force to provide security. Just the baby steps Mr. Bush has taken have probably saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

So why is Mr. Bush so reluctant to do a bit more and save perhaps several hundred thousand more lives? I sense that there are three reasons.

First, Mr. Bush doesn't see any neat solution, and he's mindful that his father went into Somalia for humanitarian reasons and ended up with a mess.

Second, Mr. Bush is very proud - justly - that he helped secure peace in a separate war between northern and southern Sudan. That peace is very fragile, and he is concerned that pressuring Sudan on Darfur might disrupt that peace while doing little more than emboldening the Darfur rebels (some of them cutthroats who aren't negotiating seriously).

Third, Sudan's leaders have increased their cooperation with the C.I.A. As The Los Angeles Times reported, the C.I.A. recently flew Sudan's intelligence chief to Washington for consultations about the war on terror, and the White House doesn't want to jeopardize that channel.

All three concerns are legitimate. But when historians look back on his presidency, they are going to focus on Mr. Bush's fiddling as hundreds of thousands of people were killed, raped or mutilated in Darfur - and if the situation worsens, the final toll could reach a million dead.

This Thursday marks Holocaust Remembrance Day. The best memorial would be for more Americans to protest about this administration's showing the same lack of interest in Darfur that F.D.R. showed toward the genocide of Jews. Ultimately, public pressure may force Mr. Bush to respond to Darfur, but it looks as if he will have to be dragged kicking and screaming by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Granted, Darfur defies easy solutions. But Mr. Bush was outspoken and active this spring in another complex case, that of Terry Schiavo. If only Mr. Bush would exert himself as much to try to save the lives of the two million people driven from their homes in Darfur.

So I'm going to start tracking Mr. Bush's lassitude. The last time Mr. Bush let the word Darfur slip past his lips publicly (to offer a passing compliment to U.S. aid workers, rather than to denounce the killings) was Jan. 10. So today marks Day 113 of Mr. Bush's silence about the genocide unfolding on his watch.

Sarah Bettens: Not Insane

2005-04-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

I was poking around online for the past while and found this video by Sarah Bettens and I thought it was worth posting on. Check it out here. She did this track on the Underworld soundtrack called All of This Past that really blew me away. I'm glad to see she has her own album coming out now. I also found that she used to record with a band called K's Choice which I'm digging up some torrents on as I type this. Definitely worth a listen.

How to Quickly Get In Trouble

2005-04-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

So, I did tell someone that I would never ever mention them on here, but whats the fun in that? The best way to learn about someone is to begin some sort of silly conflict and see how they handle themselves. Do they keep it all bottled up until it just explodes out after forgetting to say "God bless you" after they sneeze? Or do they immediately fire back with ICBMs aimed at your face?

Let's find out.

Josee is cool. I think she's sweet.

As this may be my last post before I loose the ability to use my hands and legs, I would like to take this time to thank all my loyal readers and commentors (you know who you are). It's been a fun ride and I wish you all the best.

Estimated time of death for me: Monday at 3:35 pm (give or take traffic and plane arrival times)

Vote STV!

2005-04-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

For those of you who live in BC but haven't heard of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) you may want to read this article by Rafe Mair. It doesn't really get into the details of the process which is, to be blunt, kind of complicated. But the fallout of such a system could be a more accountable government and more public involvement in goverment which, in my opinion, is a good thing.

You can also find more out about the STV at the website of the
Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform who were tasked with finding a new method of electing officials following the 2001 election where, with only 59% percent of the popular vote, the Liberals came out with 98% of the seats.

Funny

2005-04-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hey all. A good comic was posted on the MBlog today. Click here to see it.

Family Guy Returns!

2005-04-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

Family Guy has returned once again to Fox and if you don't watch it, I will kill you. Especially if you are a Nielson family. The opening quickly put to rest any fears of the show losing its sense of humour or randomness. The episode was not the best of the series by any means, but it was a consistently funny (hilarious at times) episode that is easily a good candidate for repeated viewings.

I'm not a man who enjoys spoiling jokes, so I will refrain from leaking anything... besides this one joke from the opening! ;-)

(In the living room with the whole Griffin family)

Peter: Everybody I've got bad news. We've been cancelled!

Lois: Oh no! Peter how could they do that?

Peter: Well unfortunately Lois there's just no more room on the schedule. We've just gotta accept the fact that FOX has to make room for terrific shows like Dark Angel, Titus, Undeclared, Action, That 80's Show, Wonderfalls, Fastlane, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Skin, Girls Club, Cracking Up, The Pits, Firefly, Get Real, Freaky Links, Wanda At Large, Costello, The Lone Gunmen, A Minute With Stan Hooper, Normal: Ohio, Pasadena, Harsh Realm, Keen Eddy, The Street, American Embassy, Cedric the Entertainer, The Tick, Louie, and Greg the Bunny.

Lois: Is there no hope?

Peter: Well I suppose if ALL those shows go down the tube then we might have a shot.

All hail the return of one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Let us hope and pray it will stay on the air for a good long run.

Veronica Mars: Renewed!

2005-04-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

E! Online's Fifth Annual Save One Show Poll Results are in.

Total number of votes: 686,323

15. The Wire (HBO): Less than 1%
14. Kevin Hill (UPN): Less than 1%
13. Medical Investigation (NBC): Less than 1%
12. The West Wing (NBC): Less than 1%
11. Jack & Bobby (WB): 1%
10. North Shore (Fox): 1%
9. Joan of Arcadia (CBS): 2%
8. Point Pleasant (Fox): 2.5%
7. Enterprise (UPN): 3%
6. Tru Calling (Fox): 5%
5. Life as We Know It (ABC): 5.5%
4. Charmed (WB): 6%
3. American Dreams (NBC): 7%
2. Arrested Development (Fox): 9%
1. Veronica Mars (UPN): 56%

Yes, that's right. Veronica Mars destroyed the competition. Why? I think most fans will say that great casting, interesting characters, great stories and superb wit are the key factors. With word on the street that the show has been renewed for a second season, I'm damned happy my new Tuesday night show will be back next fall.

If only Fox would get off their ass and start promiting Arrested Development better. Have you seen the ads they run on Global? If I had never seen the show before and the commercial was my only information source, I would never watch. I would cheer when it gets cancelled. But yet, after only one episode (this seasons' premiere) I was hooked. It's like if Family Guy was live action - cut scenes included! Probably the most insane sit-com ever put to air. I will definitely miss it when it goes kaput.

This Lonely Room

2005-04-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

I don’t disagree, with your answers
It’s just these questions, won’t go, away
The harder I look for you
The more emptiness I find

I already know what I’m trying to learn
But it feels so cheap to settle for this
Peeling back the layers only opens up holes
And that is when my doubts take hold

Yet outside this lonely room
There’s a light shining on me
I can feel it sometimes, when I stop and wait
And I wonder if it’s you…

Do you think, it’s a lapse of judgment?
To just go, with the flow, and accept it all
The words they say you spoke
Don’t speak to me at all, anymore

To kill them all and take their land
Or to love, forgive and lend a hand
Why do your words support these wars?
While your own son rejected force

Yet outside this lonely room
There’s a light shining on me
I can feel it sometimes, when I stop and wait
And I wonder if it’s you…

My questions, may never get an answer
And sometimes, I’m okay with that
‘Cause if I could prove you exist
What choice would I be left with?

Yet outside this lonely room
There’s a light shining on me
I can feel it sometimes, when I stop and wait
And I wonder if it’s you…

Michael Worth - April 17th 2005

The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

2005-04-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

Naomi Klein (pictured here speaking in Vancouver) writes in this new article for The Nation about how the ideas of colonialism have not disapeared, but rather shifted into "reconstructionism" allowing for exploitation of other weaker/poorer nations. I would recommend this for anyone interested in disaster relief as something to keep in mind.

Naomi is the author of the books No Logo, and Fences and Windows and writes for The Nation among many other media sources.

Sometimes, things just get weird...

2005-04-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

So, yeah. Got a phone call today asking if I'd like to be part of a worship band playing in the new Harrison Ford movie. Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. We find out later if it's for sure, but right now fitting and photos will be on Monday night at 7:30pm and the actual shoot is on the following Monday. Bizzare. I just want to do it to see how it all pans out. I don't care if we get left on the cutting room floor either. Maybe it will end up on the DVD in the end? Go deleted scenes...

What else could possibly happen out of the norm? Did someone misplace their life and give it to me by accident?

Testimony from Guantanamo

2005-04-14T18:33:00.000-07:00

This is a short excerpt from a report posted at Common Dreams. Don't you just love seeing democracy in action?

Court documents publicized last week are giving dozens of Guantánamo detainees what the Bush administration had sought to keep from public view: identities and voices. The government is holding about 550 terrorist suspects at its naval base in Cuba. An additional 214 have been released since the facility opened in January 2002 -- some into the custody of their native governments, others freed outright.

The detainees appeared last year before the three-officer military tribunals which, after quick reviews, confirmed their status as ”enemy combatants” who could be held indefinitely.

In the transcripts, one terror suspect asked his U.S. military judge: ''Is it possible to see the evidence in order to refute it?”

In another case, Guantanamo prisoner Feroz Ali Abbasi was ejected from his hearing for repeatedly challenging the legality of his detention.

''I have the right to speak,” Abbasi insisted in transcripts reviewed by the Associated Press.

''No, you don't,” the tribunal president replied.

''I don't care about international law,” the tribunal president told Abbasi just before he was taken from the room. ''I don't want to hear the words 'international law' again. We are not concerned with international law.”

[With Teeth] Leaked!

2005-04-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

The day has finally come. Since The Fragile destroyed my ears in late 1999, I have anxiously awaited Trent's inevitable follow-up. Being a long time fan, this is even more exciting as it marks a new beginning of sorts for the "band." With a new lineup of players and a return to songwritting as opposed to concept album developing, this record is definitely more accessible for the average listener. The Hand That Feeds has crossover appeal that makes me wonder how many fanboys will be yelling "sell-out" in their blogs after the official release.

Personally, I don't care if it "sounds mainstream" since my personal rating system of music goes as follows. 1) Does it sound good to me? 2) Do I want to listen to it over and over again? So far, this album has scored a resounding yes for both. The leaked copies of Getting Smaller, The Hand that Feeds and The Line Begins to Blur are already past 30 plays in my iTunes database.

Also noteworthy on this disc is the presence of Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) on half of the tracks doing drums. Trent described the collaboration as being "one of the most exhilarating experiences of [his] life." Listening to them play together is comparably exhilarating from my perspective.

In short, I have a new favorite album. Even if you don't like their previous work, you should at least listen to this disc once through. You will be caught off guard by the diversity of style and sound and tone. The best news I've heard all year was that the next album will be released in "a timely fashion" according to Trent. One can only assume that this would infer a post tour recording blitz and a follow up in early 2006. We can only hope...

ACF aka Throw Shoes at the Stage Festival

2005-04-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

ACF's lineup this year was fabulous. Tupalo Honey were pretty tight and did a wicked cover of Audioslave's "Show Me How to Live." Stabilo showed off their chops and were probably the most layered act of the day. Metric showed up and cranked home their hits (while I didn't really care for much else they did...) K-OS packed them all in though. His band was phenominal and he was just rocking. Tho, could people feel any more of a tool by answering "YO" to his "HEY" more than 4 times?

Then, what I had been waiting for all week. Matt Good meets limblifter. Damn, Pat was ON FIRE on the kit. During Weapon I swear I saw viens in his forhead. Ryan and Meegee fit perfect with Matt (and make him look pretty damn tall too!) The new take on Carmalina was wild and hearing Everything is Automatic and Giant was like a time warp. I'm curious if Ryan will bring back the Dave Genn-ish hooks of Underdogs to the new album. One can only hope.

Sadly, the whole affair was lameified by the 50 pairs of shoes thrown at the stage during the concert. Matt took it the hardest of all the performers and threatened to leave the stage. He kept playing, but it obviously wasn't the planned set. The encore was reduced to two new songs (which were pretty cool) instead of what probably was a longer set with Apparitions on accoustic and maybe some more off the solo albums.

The alarming part was when a wrench was thrown at Ryan (barely missing) and a nine inch nail (aka metal tent nail... man, Trent choose the right name there...) almost contacted with a security guard. People are so retarded.

Music Videos Can Kill

2005-04-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

Click here to see a rather painful music video. As much as people seem to hate Weezer on here, most will admit they would rather hear Buddy Holly than this guy...

Behold, Twitchy: The Wonder Dog.

2005-04-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

So here is the fruit of my EE375/474 group's labor. Our robot dog doesn't really walk fluidly, but it proves that our design works. Hopefully we can get it a little more stable by the demo time tomorrow, but I'm happy just seeing the little guy move as told.

All hail Twitchy. And may all your adventures be grand.

Jon Bolton: In his own words...

2005-04-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Jon Bolton is now the US Ambassador to the UN. Paul Wolfowitz is president of the World Bank. What could possibly go wrong next?

It is nice to finally have solid quotes dictating what many people have known for years. The US is only looking out for it's own interests. So when you stop to remember all the "humanitarian work" the US has done in the past try not to forget Bolton's message. Roughly paraphrased...

If we don't want to do it, we won't let you do it either.

US to Liberate Canada

2005-03-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

After stating last week in a press conference that Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is "kind of a pussy," President Bush seems to be heeding the call of his Conservative brethren and is preparing a plan to liberate the people of Canada.

"Too long have the people of Canada suffered under the oppressive quasi-Socialist Martin/Chretien regime," Bush told the White House press core on the front lawn of the white house. "Our intelligence leads us to believe that we will be received as liberators and not as occupiers."

When questioned as to why the military approach is necessary rather than a diplomatic solution, the President responded, "I like Cheetos. Do you like Cheetos? I like 'em better than pretzels cause I can eat 'em without the secret service guys pre-chewing them for me. I like Cheetos."

At this point Vice President Cheney took the mic and sternly told the reporter to "go f*** himself" and then explained that not doing something could be much worse than doing something very poorly. When a reporter asked what the hell that meant, Cheney faked a heart attack as Bush kept muttering something about Cheetos.

Party faithful have shown strong support for the plan with some commenting that the Canadian people deserve to be free from socialism and the evils it propagates. Newly appointed President of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, has openly stated that he is eager to "open up those trade barriers and get some economic development started to improve the Canadian standard of living. The first step will be to get rid of that horribly inefficient public health care system and replace it with something much more sustainable."

Wolfowitz isn't the only one excited about the new economic playground. A spokesperson for Wal-Mart has said that the company looks forward to further expanding its position in the North United State, especially after the removal of economic inhibitors like workers rights and benefits programs.

Opposition from the Democrats has been vicious and determined. Sen. John Kerry stated that while he was dead-set against the war, he would support it if President Bush started it. "While we are against going to war with a friendly nation, we cannot ignore that friends sometimes do things that friends should not do. Health care is important and we must protect it from privatizing, unless the privatizing is a good idea. Then its a good idea. We should throw our ribbons away from old wars, but not the medals. The medals can be melted down to increase resources. I have a plan, a better plan for America. We can do better." He was then reminded that he was no longer in the race for the Presidency.

Former CNN correspondent Tucker Carlson, now seen by 5 people on MSNBC and a few more on PBS, weighed in on the affair. "The Canadian people are more socialist than Russia ever was. They whine about everything we do without admitting that without us, Norway could come over here and kick their ass. They should stick to what they do best, dogsledding and drinking beer. Let us handle world politics."

When asked about the impending invasion, PM Martin replied, "Really? Well, we will definitely seek a solution that will ensure my re-election. If the Canadian people want to get invaded, then that's what we will do. This is a democratic country and I'll be damned if I don't do what the people want."

Opposition Leader Stephen Harper seemed to stand in the pro-invasion camp. "America is our closest friend and strongest economic trading partner. If they need to blow off some steam and blowing up Quebec helps them do it, fine. As long as they stay out of Alberta I'm cool. The faster we can get some Fundamentalist Christian values back in this country the better. And after all, who better to put the "fun" back in fundamentalist than this administration?"

As expected, Canadians are evenly split on the issue. A pro-invasion citizen of Calgary pointed out that, "as long as they bring in some good trade and economic reforms I'm cool with some people dying. I've been unemployed for three years and this could really help me get a job in the rebuilding effort. The oil fields will need locals to rebuild it and I want to get in on the ground floor."

On the other side of the spectrum, a Vancouver local was quoted at a rally for Beaver Rights and Freedoms at the Nam restaurant as saying, "We must respect the rights of the people of Canada and the animals that inhabit these great lands. Americans are brutally vicious beasts and should piss off. Any country that thinks 3% beer is good really shouldn't be involved in international politics."

Piper to step down

2005-03-24T17:40:00.000-08:00

Martha Piper, current President of UBC, has announced that she will step down from her position in June 2006. Long despised by many a UBC undergrad for jacking tuition without first developing a budget, Piper has never had many fans in the student body.

As my time at UBC is drawing to a close, I must admit that the recent flurry of construction is actually looking like a good investment. The new buildings will add much needed study space in my particular program and offer more seats to increase enrollment.

On the flip side, new buildings and new seats do not translate into better instruction. While I have had 4 or 5 profs that have been oustanding and gave some excellent instruction, more than 10 were absolutely horrid and failed to impart any knowledge to the class.

If the school desires to return to it's former glory, I think the proper start would be to improve the faculty and not spread it even thinner.

WEEZER!!!!

2005-03-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks. Just FYI, the presale for the Vancouver Weezer show at the Commodore is already underway. I expect it to sell out very quickly as this will be an awesome show. Tix come out to $45ish after all the crappy service charges but that is still worth it for Weezer in my opinion. The presale password is "hills" just in case you need it. Regular public tickets go on sale Saturday morning.

The new Weezer album is surprisingly still "new." As is, no one has leaked a copy to the net as far as I can see. If I'm wrong on this, please let me know! (Still anxious for the new NIN album too!)

Anyways, if you are gonna go to the Weezer show, let me know. I bought a single ticket cause I hate trying to find people to buy a ticket after the fact. Too much stress with so many people on tight budgets.

Sigh, Moby, Weezer, and I still haven't bought my tix for Arts County Fair. This is going to be a crazy April.

Meeting Matt Good

2005-03-21T17:53:00.000-08:00

Meeting Matt Good shouldn't be such a big deal. Yet, there is something special about shaking hands with someone whose work has been such a huge factor in your musical life for so long. I can't remember much that we talked about, but one thing did stand out.

I started by telling Matt the story of the first time I saw him live. A group of us went to the XXX Modern Rock Circus at the Plaza of Nations. Being in high school... grade 9 I think... we had to get a ride to and from the show. Waiting for the ride to show up at the Terry Fox memorial, a group of thugs came by and decided to torment us. This then led to us being mugged; me specifically being taken into an ATM by 3 guys and told to get money out of it. Fun times.

Anyways, Matt couldn't believe we got mugged. I'm sure if I ever run into him again I could just say, "Hey Matt, I'm the guy who got mugged" and he would remember me. Unless, other people have told the same story, then there could be some overlap. ;-)

Anyhoo, it was a great night. Oh yeah, the reason I met him was he was speaking at a rally on voter reform in Chinatown on Saturday. It was more of a town hall style meeting with lots of ideas put forth on why the system doesn't work and what we can do to fix it. But I'll be honest, it was more about meeting Matt Good.

Also, I managed to find out some hints about the setlist for Arts County Fair which is coming up on the 8th of April. Surprisingly, some old MGB songs will be played including Giant, Generation X-Wing and Apparitions. Should be an awesome set.

Daily Show Reports That Bush Has "huge balls"

2005-03-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

Daily Show correspondent Ed Helms gave an excellent report last night on the nomination of Paul Wolfowitz to be the next president of the World Bank. Bush's reasons for giving him the job were...

"He's a man of good experiences."
"He helped manage a large organization. The Pentagon's a large organization. The World Bank is a large organization."
"He's also committed to development."

Helms' report reminded everyone of Bush's appointment of John Bolton to be the new US Ambassador to the UN last week even though he is on record as having no respect for the organization. Bush also nominated Alberto Gonzales as the new Attorney General even after he suggested that America would not have to follow the Geneva Convention. Summarizing, Helms stated that because of these things and the new appointment of Wolfowitz, "President Bush has huge balls."

A rather detailed look at said balls were then conducted by using MRI scans that Helms somehow managed to acquire. We won't discuss that here...

Anyhoo, I have never had much love for the World Bank. This is definitely not helping.

Elections Run by Same Guys Who Sell Toothpaste

2005-03-15T08:25:00.001-08:00

By Noam Chomsky
International Relations Center

Tuesday 08 March 2005

Presidential candidate John Kerry's platform and program were way to the right of popular opinion on just about every issue in the 2004 U.S. elections. To the extent that anybody could even understand the program, people didn't favor it. People who voted for Kerry are people who were concerned about the economy and about health issues. Do you think those people could tell you what Kerry's health program was or what he was going to do for the economy? I mean, I couldn't tell you. You have to do a research project to figure out what the program was. And it's not that people failed to know it because they're stupid. It's because it was not presented as something comprehensible.

Of the people who voted for candidate George Bush, the major categories were people who were concerned about terror and about national security. It's claimed that people who were concerned about values voted for Bush, but that's mostly a statistical artifact. When you asked the further question, "What values do you have in mind?" it turned out that the major values were things like, "I don't like this society because it's too materialistic," and "There's too much oppression." Those are the values. Is that what Bush stands for? Getting rid of that? As far as terrorism is concerned, the administration very consciously chose actions that it was expected would increase the threat of terror and, in fact, did. It's not because they want terror, it's just not much of a priority for them.

People who voted for Bush tended to assume that he was in favor of their views, even if the Republican Party platform was diametrically opposed to them. The same was largely true of Kerry voters.

The reason for this is that the parties try to exclude the population from participation. So they don't present issues, policies, agendas, and so on. They project imagery, and people either don't bother or they vote for the image. The Gallup Poll regularly asks, "Why are you voting?" One of the choices is, "I'm voting for the candidate's stand on issues." That was 6% for Bush, and 13% for Kerry-and most of those voters were deluded about the positions of the candidates. So what you have is essentially flipping a coin. Each candidate got approximately 30% of the electorate. Bush got 31%, Kerry got 29%.

The party managers know where the public stands on a whole list of issues. Their funders just don't support them; the interests they represent don't support them. So they project a different kind of image.

If you listen to the presidential debates, you can't figure out what they're saying, and that's on purpose. The last debate was supposed to be about domestic issues. The New York Times commented that Kerry didn't make any hint about possible government involvement in health care programs because that position has, in their words, "no political support." Well, according to the most recent polls, 80% of the population thinks that the government ought to guarantee health care for everyone, and furthermore regard it as a moral obligation. That tells you something about people's values. But there's "no political support."

Why? Because the pharmaceutical industry is opposed, the financial institutions are opposed, the insurance industry is opposed, so there's "no political support." It doesn't matter if 80% of the population regard it as a moral obligation: That doesn't count as political support. It tells you something about the elite conception. You're supposed to vote for the image they're projecting. That's not surprising really. Just ask yourself, "Who runs the elections?"

The elections are run by the same guys who sell toothpaste. They show you an image of a sports hero, or a sexy model, or a car going up a sheer cliff or something, which has nothing to do with the commodity, but it's intended to delude you into picking this one rather than another one. Same when they run elections. But they're assigned that task in order to marginalize the public, and furthermore, people are pretty well aware of it.

For many years, election campaigns here have been run by the public relations industry and each time it's with increasing sophistication. Quite naturally, the industry uses the same technique to sell candidates that it uses to sell toothpaste or lifestyle drugs. The point is to undermine markets by projecting imagery to delude and suppressing information-and similarly, to undermine democracy by the same method.

In the year 2000, there was a huge fuss afterwards about the stolen election, with the Florida chads and the Supreme Court. But ask yourself who was exorcised about it? It was all among a small group of intellectuals. They were the ones who were upset about it. There was never any public resonance for this. In the current election it's being reiterated. There's a big fuss among intellectuals about the vote in Ohio, how the voting machines didn't work, and other things. But the interesting thing is that nobody cares.

Why don't people care if the election is stolen? The reason is that they don't take the election seriously in the first place. They reacted about the way that people react to television ads. It's a mode of delusion. If the Democrats want to succeed in that game, they're just going to have to figure out better ways of delusion.

There is an alternative, and that is to try to run a program that's committed to developing a democratic society in which people's opinions matter.

These are remarks Noam Chomsky made on Jan. 25 at events in Santa Fe, NM, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the International Relations Center (IRC). Chomsky is a member of the IRC's board of directors.

Pictures! Glorious Pictures!

2005-03-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

The following are pictures from last month's Engineers Ball at the Pan Pacific Hotel. It was a blast! I don't think I've danced like that since my High School Grad party. Ohhh the memories...

Max, Myra and I get prepped for the Engineers Ball.

As you can see, there ARE women in engineering. And no, I'm not drunk. This was at 1am in the morning. :-D

How Latin America Turned to the Left

2005-03-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

Uruguay Swears in its First Left-Wing President Today, Joined by the New Wave of Leaders in the Region - and Fidel Castro; the Event Symbolizes Waning US Influence

by Rupert Cornwell

At presidential inaugurations, as at weddings, the guest list says everything. In Montevideo today, Tabare Vazquez will be sworn in as the first left-wing president in the 170-year history of Uruguay. That is noteworthy enough, but even more remarkable are the foreign dignitaries in attendance.

Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva, the center-left President of Brazil will be there. So will Hugo Chavez, the fiery demagogue who leads Venezuela, and Argentina's Nestor Kirchner. Adding the revolutionary topping will be none other than Fidel Castro. No gathering could better symbolize the slow drift of Latin America out of the US orbit.

Until 31 October, Uruguay could be counted upon as one of Washington's staunchest friends in the hemisphere. But then Mr Vazquez, an oncologist and former mayor of Montevideo, broke the traditional two-party mold of Uruguayan politics by leading the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) leftist coalition to an overwhelming election victory.

Today Washington's unqualified, 100 per cent loyal allies to the south of its border with Mexico are no more than one or two - El Salvador and Honduras certainly, but who else? Even Chile defied the superpower by refusing to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a slight not yet entirely forgotten in Washington.

Instead, a de facto center-left bloc is emerging across the continent. Its members vary greatly from Chile, the economic poster-boy, to Washington's bugbear Venezuela. One thing, however, they have in common. They may not be necessarily opposed to the US on every issue, but they are no longer beholden to it.

Their drift away is testament to an historic failure of American foreign policy. In recent years the US approach to Latin America has been hopelessly distorted by its fixation with one modest-sized island 90 miles south of the Florida Keys. In economic and military terms Cuba is of little significance, but its symbolic importance has been vastly magnified by the attentions lavished upon it by Washington.

Isolation has been the watchword - first of President Castro, and now of another regional "bad boy" in the person of Mr Chavez. But the strategy has backfired utterly. American bullying has given the Cuban leader a nationalist support he might never have had otherwise, consolidating his position as the longest-serving government leader on the planet.

The US has bullied Mr Chavez too, clumsily backing a failed coup against him in 2002, and subsequently criticizing him at every turn. Today, boosted by his state's surging oil wealth, Mr Chavez is more assertive than ever. "Washington is planning my death," he claims, using Mr Castro's tactics to mobilize supporters against an external foe.

Once upon a time, the US tried to understand Latin America. In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt and his top Latin American adviser, Sumner Welles, realized that US military interventions in Cuba and elsewhere were counterproductive. Instead they devised the "Good Neighbor Policy". Two decades later, John Kennedy proclaimed the Alianza para el Progreso (the Alliance for Progress).

Since then, however, US diplomacy has been back-handed in the extreme. Its illogical obsession with Cuba, its insistence on seeing the world through a single prism - first the struggle with communism, then the spread of free markets and free trade, now the "war on terror" - have blinded it to the sensitivities of the region. During the Cold War, Washington backed an array of unpleasant military dictators as bastions against Soviet power. Later, the US insistence on rigorous fiscal policies (which it conspicuously fails to impose on itself) is widely blamed for a string of financial crises, culminating in the near-collapse of Argentina's economy in 2002.

"The US has suffered defeats on every front," says Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington. "The fact is that Latin America is no longer 'hemisphere-bound', just a handful of countries in America's back-yard." Today President Castro is probably in a stronger position in the region than ever before. Both Brazil's Lula and Uruguay's Vazquez were elected on left-wing platforms, but are economic realists. Closer ties with Cuba allow them to burnish their left-wing credentials and prove their independence from the US, sweetening harsh economic medicine at home.

It is unlikely the US will regain the lost ground any time soon. Neither George Bush nor Condoleezza Rice have displayed any real feel for Latin America. Policymaking has been sub-contracted to neo-conservative ideologues, notably Roger Noriega, head of Western Hemisphere affairs at the State Department, and the former White House aide Otto Reich.

Mr Birns points to the growing links between Mercosur, the rickety four-nation trade bloc grouping Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and the EU as a preferable alternative to the FTAA, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, that is promoted by the US. Tellingly, after his stop in Montevideo, Mr Chavez is off to India and the Middle East. Washington can but watch, and gnash its teeth in impotent fury.

A great laugh

2005-02-27T15:44:00.000-08:00

Do you fear that you may be falling into the sinful nature of thinking for one's self? Read this link and be healed! Hallelujah!

http://gracepages.blogspot.com/2005/01/tips-for-struggling-with-intellectual.html

Heh, I'm still laughing from this one...

Woot! I'm older!

2005-02-27T00:37:00.000-08:00

Man, nothing is better than turning 18. Too bad that was like 6 years ago. 24 is kinda lame. So I have a year of my life for each hour of the day... Blah.

Was planning to have a quiet night tonight and finish my report and do some studying but then the guys came over... and then the beer came out... and well... let's just say I still have a report to finish and studying to do. But I did kick butt at Winning Eleven 8 and Burnout and won a few times on Nightfire... so it was all good.

I am dying to hear the rest of the new Nine Inch Nails album. I scored two leaked tracks from it: The Hand that Feeds and The Line Begins to Blur. Hand that Feeds is really upbeat and poppy, almost could be played on Z if the program director wasn't looking. Line Begins to Blur is more traditional NIN, but still has traces of hope in its melon collie tone. I really connect with the lyrics on that track. Anyhoo, hopefully the rest will get leaked out soon. I don't think I can wait until summer.

Alright time for bed. Hopefully I can get my emails done and study some tomorrow before the Oscars. Oh sooooooo busy it hurts...

Fear of a MS Planet

2005-02-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

So I think I am finally at the breaking point. I have learned a great deal about computers and programming from school and have actually started to experiment with Linux more seriously. What is the motivation on this? I guess you could label it paranoia, but I prefer to think of it as preemptive precautions.

Microsoft has dropped the gauntlet finally on home users without a genuine copy of Windows. The new policy hasn't become enacted quite yet, but it would be foolish to assume that it will simply "go away." The plan is to require digital verification of genuine MS software before any non-security updates will be allowed to be downloaded through Windows Update. I'm not sure what will constitute non-security updates, but I would figure that anything that is not directly responsible for stopping a specific virus or backdoor issue would be unavailable to non-legit users.

What does this mean to Joe Public who doesn't have the $300+ to spend on an OS? Well, you can stick with the baseline releases that you can download via torrent/p2p and hope MS doesn't see you. I would not advise this as word on the street is that MS has taken an active interest in torrents pertaining to their software. So beyond making a copy of someone else's disc and then using www.astalavista.com to get a crack or key-gen you are pretty much obliged to become a legal citizen and buy software. In all honesty, I would figure paying for the most critical piece of software on your computer shouldn't be a big deal. If the price was lower I'm sure it would be more feasible for people.

Anyways, what I wanted to get across here is that if you want to go legal but stick to an invisible budget, it is time to explore what open source can offer you. If you want to just dable in a bit at a time, try using some open source products that have been compiled for Windows and see if you can honestly see yourself using them. OpenOffice is a near clone of MS Office and has gotten better with each release. FireFox is stealing away users of Internet Explorer in droves and sports some excellent plugins for ease of use. Gaim can handle all of your chatting needs for all protocols that deserve recognition. And if you want to do programing, you should be aware of gcc and the limitless possibilities of developing on a Linux system.

Everything is there except for one thing. Experience. I swear, the only thing that stops me from using Linux and never looking to windows again is lack of experience. I don't know how to do what I can do in Windows. When it takes me 1 hour to pull off a 2 minute task in Windows, I get angry. But no pain, no gain. The only other thing (and this is SUCH a pansy reason) is that I have become spoiled. MS has a very clean and elegant interface and I like pretty icons. Alot. So much so that I get annoyed in Linux that things aren't "pretty" enough. I'm sure thats from my lack of experience... but meh. It's time to start moving over since I'm not going to cave to MS and play the game their way.

Canada (heart) Monsanto

2005-02-13T15:15:00.000-08:00

This was forwarded to me by my activist buddy Chris. Mandatory readying.

Canada Backs Terminator Seeds
By John Vidal
The Guardian U.K.
Wednesday 09 February 2005

An international moratorium on the use of one of the world's most controversial GM food technologies may be broken today if the Canadian government gets seed sterilization backed at a UN meeting.

Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show that Canada wants all governments to accept the testing and commercialisation of "terminator" crop varieties. These are genetically engineered to produce only infertile seeds which farmers cannot replant.

Jointly patented by the GM company Monsanto and the US government, the technology was condemned in the late 1990s by many African and Asian governments who called for a permanent ban.

Monsanto and other GM companies which were developing similar technologies voluntarily pulled out of research after concerns were also raised about the "terminator" genes spreading to non-GM crops, and international outrage that poor farmers would not be able to use seeds from their crops, as they have always done.

But leaked instructions to Canadian government negotiators at the Bangkok meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, a group which advises the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity, show that Canada will request today that all countries open their doors to the technology.

The papers, leaked to the environment group ETC, also show that the Canadian government will attack an official UN report critical of the potential impact of "terminator" seeds on small farmers and indigenous peoples. The report recommends that governments prohibit the technology.

The Canadian government team in Bangkok was last night unavailable for comment.

Super Bowl Sunday

2005-02-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

Well, its 10:18 pm and I'm definately buzzed. It was a good day today as the turnout for my Super Bowl party was quite good. Had about 10 people at the peak time (near halftime) and some stragglers showed up as the game went on while others left. The game was very entertaining but I was rooting for the underdogs so I was sad the Eagles lost. But, they were playing sloppy at times and that's when the turnovers came. Oh well.

The Simpsons episode following the game was one of the best episodes I have seen in a long time. This season is reafirming my faith in the series as the last 4 episodes have been hilarious. I think that they picked up some of the Futurama writers after that showed was pulled off the air. The wit and zaniness is in full form now and I'm sure they could turn in a great season this year.

American Dad followed and was okay at best. I did laugh out loud a great deal (especially at the Chenny joke!) but it was hardly sustained. It seemed like the gags were distanced by a large amount of filler that was trying to be funny but wasn't. The good news is that the newer sequences that were done after the 5 minute preview was created were hilarious so there is a chance it could rise to the challenge of following the new Family Guy episodes.

Anyhoo, time for bed now. I think I'll sleep in tomorow and ditch first class. Mmm sleep.

Cheers

Who do you trust?

2005-01-28T19:44:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching Farenhype 9-11, the Republican response to Michael Moore's latest film. I found some interesting facts that I had learned before about both sides of the argument and have decided to post as many as I could here. This is not an attempt to display an arrogance on either side, but to present somethings I thought were interesting and worth knowing.

The quotes at the bottom of this post are from the Farenhype film and can be read at face value. These were "talking points" from the film that are fully within context here. There was little other context extra in the film and the theme of these statements remains true when separated. Yet, you can see the irony in their statements a little easier without the music and images they bombard you with.

Maybe film media isn't the best place for political debate since it is prone to deception and lies. Statements can be made in rapid succession with no rebuttal and build a case that may be baseless at the core. On both sides of the fence, we have been lied to.

Bad on Moore:

Altering size of font of newspaper story and misleading that it was a story, rather than the editorial that it was.
Misrepresenting Bush's dinner party quote about the "Have and the have mores" when he was going through a set of jokes that were aimed at poking fun at himself. Gore was at this dinner as well and did the same style of set.
The Carlyle Group has a good number of Clinton's cronies (Democrats) on its board.
Saudi investment levels misrepresented in the film. It is not 8% of the US economy.
Bush is not responsible for the cutbacks in the Oregon State Police since they are not federally budgeted.
France wanted to lift the sanctions on Iraq not to help the people of the country, but to have access to their promised oil fields that Saddam had offered in exchange for their veto.
Not showing the Kurdish reaction to Saddam's ousting which from the 3 seconds the film shows has some people in the streets dancing.

Bad on his critics:

Shameless use of 9/11 and the firemen/policemen who sacrificed their lives to stir up anger against Moore. Claim that refusing to show the 9-11 attacks visually was meant to diminish their affect rather than doing so out of respect for the dead.
State that Moore lied about length of time Bush read with children (5min not 7) when Moore stated that Bush was IN THE ROOM for 7. They state that Bush waited only 5 minutes. Neither side is saying an incorrect time, but the GOP lied to distort this to their advantage.
Dismissed claims of 2000 election fraud because 3 major papers said it was okay, the Supreme Court said it was okay and the narrator, who worked on the Gore campaign, said it was okay. Yet, documentation has been provided that has not been discussed in the major American papers (the Brits covered it extensively as did most of Europe) that should raise alarm bells for anyone interested in true democracy.
Disregard the stamping out of the rights of all Americans by the PATRIOT ACT by showing a few examples of its success.
Zell Miller likens the war on terror to him finding some snakes under his porch. His "unilateral action" to kill the snakes without going to City Hall for a resolution or consulting with his wife was justified because the snakes were dangerous to his family. This oversimplified analogy is supposed to justify the innocent civilians who will pay for OUR security with THEIR lives? There are more factors involved than just ourselves.
Mislead the public that the WMD that Saddam had in '91 were still usable. The nerve agent he possessed had a shelf life of 2-3 years and had since expired. The UN inspections team had confirmed this fact that the agents were useless and the fact that they could not be accounted for is nullified. The real question would be if he could create more of it. This was raised at the UN speech by Colin Powell but failed to show any concrete evidence that such facilities existed. All he had were drawings of what he COULD have used to do so; none of said facilities have been found.
Ed Koch states that he would have voted to go to war if he was a congressman even if no weapons were found. This of course was recorded well after it was clear that nothing was found were the intelligence said it would and was doubtful anything would turn up. While it is his opinion, this statement in a "documentary" is misleading and deceptive. This is exactly what the film was trying say about Moore.

"What is similar between what some of us call World War III, the Cold War, and World War IV, the one we are in now, is that both were animated by a hostile ideology with global ambitions."
Frank Gaffney - Former Assistant Secretary of Defense under Reagan

"One person's opinion, or agenda, does not make the truth. Just because they are famous [or] have a lot of money [means] we have to believe them or think they are credible?"
Aunt of fallen soldier who was the focus of the final part of Moore's film

"Here is a man [Moore] who says that the United States has spread misery throughout the world? Come on."
Sen. Zell Miller (D)

New System of a Down Album...s!

2005-01-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

So I just found out over the wire that System of a Down will be releasing not one but TWO albums this year. There will be a six month gap between releases, most likely to make sure singles from both albums see the light of day on MTV/Much.

The albums are to be called Mesmerize and Hypnotize and should probably follow in the footsteps of Steal This Album which had a heavier political stance in terms of directness than Toxicity. I am eagerly awaiting this disc and rumor has it that the first half should drop in early spring.

Also on the music front, NIN will be releasing "With Teeth" sometime this year. It was supposed to drop this spring as well, but Trent has made some strange comments lately that make it sound like delays will occur. Sigh. Hasn't it been 6 years now since The Fragile? Trent is either the world's biggest perfectionist or the biggest procrastinator. I'm betting its the first one. The big news on the disc is that Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters did the drums for the album. Trent has stated that working with the legendary Nirvana drummer was "the most exhilarating experience of his life." Let's hope it translates to tape well!

Inward Analysis

2005-01-14T13:39:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I wrote something deeply personal so I figured I should output some pondering I've been doing.

The concept of self-worth is sometimes not apparent to ourselves unless it is made clear by outside entities. To say that in english: Compliments make us feel valuable, necessary and validated. This is all the more necessary when you are somewhat self-depreciating and are skeptical of praise coming from people who have no idea about what they are complimenting you on.

For example, when the average person tells a painter they like their work, the painter will most likely thank them but wonder what it was that they liked about it. Were they impressed with the subtle references to the great works of Picasso? Did they think it was a daring venture from their previous conservative works? Or did they just think it was "pretty"? All are valid reason for sure, but if that same comment came from the curator of the museum, I believe it would carry more weight.

This is even more relevant when you deal with technology related projects. Once you have left the domain where the average person can even comprehend what you are doing, praise is going to ring hollow. If you look at my CPU I designed last term for EE476 you will most likely not even know it was a CPU unless I told you. It's just 10 files of code that is about 1000 lines all told. When you simulate it on the computer, you see a bunch of lines that look similar to those seen on heart monitoring machines. It's like that scene in the Matrix where Neo talks to Cypher as he "watches" the Matrix from the real world. Neo only sees the green characters scrolling down and Cypher says that once you get used to it, you can see past the code and see "a blonde, a redhead and a brunette." I wish I saw that in my code, but I do see the functions of the CPU in some level of detail. I look at my friends' code and I see their work come alive. When other people see it, I get comments like, "... uh... That's cool, I guess..." It's nice to hear an honest comment. ;-)

What I'm getting at is, I wish I could get some approval for my efforts besides a hollow grade. Sometimes I wish I had gone into arts where I could flex my witty prose machine and get some verbal praise from people that know what I'm talking about. This doesn't exist in engineering. At least, not in my field of it.

Where does this desperate seeking of approval derive from? I wasn't sure for a while. I thought it was just a tick of mine for the longest time and I can still argue that to be true. But beneath that, there must be something which caused that tick to manifest itself. I believe this to be the loss of my mother. She was the encourager and the motivator for my early works. I remember playing a song I wrote on the guitar for her one night. She said, "Well, you have become quite the little musician haven't you? I'm very impressed." I felt fuzzy for a week.

Sometimes I would sit in my room on my computer and listen to her on the phone. I would strain to hear when she began to discuss me in any fashion. My belief is that whatever people say about you when they don't know you are there is the honest, unguarded truth. This kind of praise is the kind that can move mountains in a person's soul. (Or destroy people forever if negative... but that didn't happen in this case.)

The other kind of Golden Praise that can inspire a somewhat down person is random encouragement. The kind that can be bestowed on you by a complete stranger. Last week some guy stumbled onto my blog and was genuinely impressed with my writing. Not content with simply posting a comment saying, "U = roX0r" like Pie Man tends to do sometimes *wink*, the guy adds me to his MSN and lets me know "in person." In person of course meaning real time rather than a static post. It made me want to write more. Like I am... right now... Strange...

Now I don't mean for this post to shame people into false praise. This is just something about myself that I wanted to say somewhere. I also wonder if others feel the same way in their lives. Like we are all walking by each other seeking others approval unable to realize we are withholding it from others. It could be enough to keep them from giving up something they are gifted in.

Heading to the polls... twice?

2005-01-11T22:37:00.000-08:00

Yeah, good old provincial elections. The question this time will be how many seats will the NDP win back? Oh wait, no its not. The question is how many seats will the Liberals lose. You see, BC has this nasty habit of voting out rather than voting in. It makes one wonder if democracy is really what we have here since we never elect anyone. Just replace them.

Anyways, the news on the street is that pollsters for the Conservatives are asking some interesting questions... Here's the gem that my Grandmother was asked...

If an election were called today, could we count on your support for Stephen Harper?

Sure, it could just be a quickie poll to find out support levels, but with a minority government this kind of question should set off alarm bells. Is Harper going to work with the NDP/Bloc to kill the Martin government? I wouldn't put it past him. He is quite the little prick when you get into it. I don't understand why people don't see him for what he is... Bush Lite. Half the religious fanaticism, same old Reagan-esque economics. Well, maybe 1/4 less religious fanaticism. Of course, we could be dealing with Stockwell Day still ... then it would be double...

So in the end, what is going on? I don't know. But you may want to be ready to head to the polls more than once this year. Woot!

Jon Stewart is my hero

2005-01-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

Originally posted at Ars Technica, the following article is truly amazing news. Heh, Tucker Carlson is a jackass. :-)

Jon Stewart wins, CNN cancels Crossfire
1/6/2005 2:37:15 PM, by Ken "Caesar" Fisher

In the middle of October, Jon Stewart took his usual complaints about partisan hackery to his appearance on CNN's Crossfire (transcript here streaming video here). From the beginning of the discussion, Stewart took aim at Crossfire and other media shows, saying (at first with a smile) that they "hurt America" by making politicians' lives easier by failing to "hold their feet to the fire." The gist of Stewart's complaint was that shows that were purportedly "hard" and "cutting" were really only theatrical performances of talking points and sensationalism. The incident is now famous, and little needs to be said about it. I'm following up that story because it was so popular when we ran it before.

Today CNN announced that they are nixing Crossfire, and dropping their relationship with one of the show's "commentators" (I use that word lightly), Tucker Carlson (who claims that he actually quit months ago). CNN's new President, Jonathan Klein, said that he agreed with much of Stewart's indictments against the media. So sayeth the New York Times:

Mr. Klein specifically cited the criticism that the comedian Jon Stewart leveled at "Crossfire" when he was a guest on the program during the presidential campaign. Mr. Stewart said that ranting partisan political shows on cable were "hurting America." Mr. Klein said last night, "I agree wholeheartedly with Jon Stewart's overall premise." He said he believed that especially after the terror attacks on 9/11, viewers are interested in information, not opinion.

Now, few would think that Stewart is the cause for the demise of Crossfire, but his complaints are most certainly a symptom of the media's unwillingness to throw punches. Whether it's Swift Boat Veterans for Truth or forged National Guard documents, too much time is spent discussing discussions about "news." Then, what becomes news are the discussions themselves, and the journalists don't spend enough time asking whether or not any of this garbage is actually correct, or engaging in real debate. I commend CNN for dumping the likes of Crossfire, but they, like most major media outlets, have a long way to go before the thinking public truly respects them again.

Go Canada!

2005-01-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

I guess it isn't a surprise really, but man, it's nice when you dominate a tournament like that. 8-1 victories are really nice to get. But a 6-1 victory in the gold medal game is even better. Way to go boys.

Recommendations from 2004

2005-01-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

I hardly consider this an exhaustive list. I was trying to make it into a top ten, but it just didn't seem appropriate. Saying that Spiderman 2 was, in some way, better than Kill Bill seemed like saying apple juice is better than orange juice. Instead, I have compiled a list of films that I thought were worth noting that either were released or re-released in the past year. I reserve the right to edit this list as people yell at me for forgetting films that should be here.

Garden State
This one I will state explicitly: This was my favorite movie of the year. Hands down. Perfect execution by Braff and company showing realistic tones of a young man begining to realize he has slept through most of his life. Subtle wit and simple metaphors keep it from being too overbearing but still maintain enough to make its point. Best soundtrack for a film in a long time.
Donnie Darko (Director's Cut)
Fine, I haven't seen it. But I'd put it on here anyways so who cares. Go see it. Brilliant. On my top 20 of all time.
Spiderman 2
Ebert called it the best superhero movie ever. I can't agree, but I won't fully disagree either. There are only two weak spots in this one. Dunst still can't act and Molina is given very little to do with Doc Ock to make him memorable. On the plus side, the emotional rollercoaster we are given by Sam Rami is breathtaking. Highlight for me was the homage to Evil Dead 2 in the hospital. Note the chainsaw and the "evil-cam" tenticles... I'm not sick for laughing the whole way through, just slightly deranged.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jim Carrey finally sheds Jim Carrey and becomes somebody else. I managed to get through this whole movie without saying, "Oh, there he is." I was caught in the spell. Charlie Kaufman deserves more recognition than being a character in his own movie (Adaptation). Give this man some statues people.
Collateral
Michael Mann earned my respect after filming Heat and The Insider, two of my favorite films of all time. While both of those are rather long, Mann has learned of editing this time out and has made a slimmer film with a more even tempo. Jamie Foxx rivals Tom Cruise for screen presence but the winner is the night time skyline of the city. Mann gives us long glances at the lights of the city giving the film a larger feel even though a good portion is held within a cab. Cinematography nomination is a must.
The Aviator
Leo still looks to young to play anyone over the age of 30, but besides that this film is excellent. The acting is spot on and the script, while definitely expansive and drawn out, is fascinating and spellbinding. Alan Alda and Adam Baldwin are great as supporting characters.
Kill Bill 1 & 2
I'm bundling these together since that's the way they should have been. Tarantino has an eye for great cinema but I admit, it's not for everyone. His dialogue is not loved by all, but deserves recognition for being the most fresh that I've heard in a long time. Sure he is "ripping off" movies left right and center... but how many rip offs come out as good or better than the source material? And isn't impersonation one of the best compliments you can give? Part 2 even works on its own as a film and is easier to stomach violence wise.
The Incredibles
Pixar seems to be invincible. Character design, plot, script... all tight as a drum. I don't think this is their funniest film, but it is not supposed to be a laugh riot comedy. This is a family action film. Highly recommended.
Spartan
When you do plays for a living, your films will focus more on characters speaking than actions occuring. This is how David Mamet works. Val Kilmer gives an excellent performance as a spy/soldier (we are never really told what he is) who is called in to help with a missing persons case. The story spills out and twists many times before we reach our destination. Epic storytelling with such minimal scope you'll wonder how it managed to work out.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
I have a thing for Wes Anderson. I think it's the resemblance between his work and that of some aspects of Kubrick. Or maybe just his ability to make movies about losers and make us care about them. Bill Murray is brilliant in this, but I don't think he is really acting that much. Most of his candid comments in this film I think are shared by him in real life. When watching this, keep that in mind and see if you agree. I believe the reason he is all pissed off in the press is because he is taking all the critical response to the film personally. Something to think about at least... Also, best usage of Sigur Ros in a film... EVER. I got goosebumps.
Shaun of the Dead
Who needs a new Evil Dead remake when new films like this are possible? This quirky english comedy was a hit beyond all imagination of its creators. The tagline says it all, "A Romantic Comedy... With Zombies"

And now, the documentaries...

The Corporation
If a coporation has the rights of a person, what kind of person is it? This film builds a tight argument to show it is nothing less than a psychopath. A little lengthy for most people, but a must see for everyone.
The Fog of War
Errol Morris' documentary on MacNamara is both pointed and fuzzy. While some details are given that show his life through the second world war and Vietnam, some questions are left unanswered. Some have suggested that Morris wasn't tough enough as an interviewer to get the real answers from MacNamara, but in the epilogue we see that it was more likely that MacNamara wouldn't have done it if he had tried harder. Note that while he seems apologetic about wars in the past, MacNamara is only sad about the loss of American lives. The cost of the enemy civilians is never really mentioned.
Control Room
Reverse propaganda? Probably. This "insiders" look at Al Jazeera is as manipulative as CNN yet it is refreshing to see the view from the other side of the fence. It would be good to remind ourselves that the "enemies" are the terrorists, not the citizens of the countries where they live.
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Yes, it's a documentary that isn't political. *Gasp* Highly recommended, even if only to see the kings of 90s metal go through therapy together to discuss their feelings.
Fahrenheit 9-11*
I don't think this is a documentary. (Note the star) This is editorial filmmaking if anything. I was captivated from the opening shots of the 2000 election all the way to the final shots of the Bush administration wrapping up. I don't agree with Moore as much as I used to. We all grow up eventually I guess. But I do think it is good to have opinions and voice them. Even if you are wrong. That's what our ancestors fought for anyways. If you want to spit on their graves feel free. If people would actually discuss issues rather than bash each other with ridiculous statements (ie: Kerry's "superficial" purple hearts or Bush's pretzel wounds) we wouldn't need muckrackers like Moore. At least this time out, Moore chooses to show ideas of other people than try and build his own thesis like in Bowling. The film benefits from this as it is less scatter shot... but not by much. Still, worth seeing before seeing Fahrenhype 9-11, the Republican counter offensive.

Sovereignty, as explained by GWB

2004-11-30T22:26:00.000-08:00

Yeah, it's old. But man, in light of the recent visit I just had to post this.
http://media.ebaumsworld.com/sovereignty.mov

Parrish vs. Carlson

2004-11-30T22:07:00.000-08:00

What follows is a transcript from Wolf Blitzer's morning show on CNN about Bush's visit to Canada. While Carolyn Parrish has sometimes shown the more extreme side of anti-American sediment that she claims is not aimed at the citizens of the United States, but more at its foreign policy and its current administration.

Personally, I am all for people breaking ranks with their party and speaking their mind. I don't think that Parrish is a model citizen for trying to get the US to care about our opinions, but I am glad to see that there are still rebels in Ottawa who are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in.

Anyways, read and enjoy. And maybe send some email to Tucker Carlson informing him that Canada is not the dog sledding paradise he thinks it is.

BLITZER: He has his work cut out for him. Joining us now from Ottawa is the Canadian parliament member, Carolyn Paris. She was expelled from the Liberal Party for what Prime Minister Martin called "unacceptable behavior," which included a recent stomping of the George W. Bush doll. And here in Washington, Tucker Carlson, he is the Canada-baiting co-host of CNN's "CROSSFIRE." He has suggested that our northern neighbor, in his words, is a third-rate country. We'll get to Tucker in a moment. Let's begin with Carolyn Parrish.
Thanks very much for joining us. We're going to show our viewers that picture of you stomping that George W. Bush doll. What were you trying to prove?

PARRISH: Actually, I was making fun of myself. We have a program up here called "This Hour Has 22 Minutes." And they love to get politicians to do bizarre things, like put rollers in their hair and jump into bed with strange people. And they kept giving me direction and I kept following it.

BLITZER: So, you apologize for that?

PARRISH: Nope.

BLITZER: Why not?

PARRISH: Because I was making fun of myself. It was a parody on me and my anti-Bush position. And if you can't make fun of yourself in this business, then it's time to get out of it.

BLITZER: What about the sound bite that -- we'll play it right now. I want you to listen to what you said about this coalition the president has been trying to put together.

PARRISH: I've heard it before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PARRISH: We are not joining the coalition of the idiots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Give us the context of that.

PARRISH: Well, I was speaking to a large crowd on the steps of the House of Commons. There were a lot of people there protesting against Canada's joining missile defense and I happened to agree with them. General Gard (ph) came up from the States, representing 48 former military people, and I had spoken with him about it. We also had Professor Postal (ph) from MIT telling us this isn't going to work. And I think it is an increase to weaponization of space. I think it's a very bad idea. And the coalition of idiots I was referring to I think were mostly the politicians in my own government.

BLITZER: All right. So you don't consider President Bush an idiot?

PARRISH: No. How could he rise to the top job in the country by being an idiot?

BLITZER: Tucker Carlson, what do you think of this latest twist in the U.S.-Canadian relationship?

TUCKER CARLSON, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Oh, well, I mean, it's part of an ongoing sort of battle that the U.S. doesn't really participate in. I think you get the sense that Canadians think much more about the United States than the United States thinks about Canada.
I think, you know, Canadians are nice people, it's a nice country, but it's a country in the grip of a national insecurity complex. Canada needs the United States for trade, for a lot of reasons. Without the U.S., Canada is essentially Honduras, but colder and much less interesting. And I think that that makes Canadians -- the dependence that Canada has on the United States makes Canadians understandably resentful.

BLITZER: Carolyn Parrish, those are fighting words.

PARRISH: Oh Tucker, you're way out to lunch on this one, my friend. Most of the top six things you buy from us are raw materials: hydro, gas, oil. You need us more than we need you.

CARLSON: We exploit your natural resources, that's true. But in the end, Canadians with ambition move to the United States. That has been sort of the trend for decades. It says something not very good about Canada. And I think it makes Canadians feel bad about themselves and I understand that.

PARRISH: No. I don't agree with you, Tucker. I think Canadians who have a good social conscience and are more European in their outlook live here quite happily.

CARLSON: I bet.

PARRISH: Those who want to make huge bucks and not worry about where they're coming from go to the States. And we're glad to be rid of them.

CARLSON: Well, with that attitude, no wonder they leave. I concede that.

PARRISH: No wonder.

BLITZER: What is the attitude now, Carolyn Parrish, in Canada, President Bush has been re-elected, there's a bigger Republican majority in the House as well as in the Senate, has there been an accommodation, if you will? Are Canadians ready to accept this American president?

PARRISH: Listen. We accept the democratic process. And that was why I was interviewed the day after the election. And I said the people of the United States have clearly spoken. I think this was a non-controverted result and I think as good neighbors, we will wait patiently for another four years.

BLITZER: I was in Ottawa 10 years ago or so, then-President Clinton spoke before the parliament.

PARRISH: Yes, he did.

BLITZER: He was pretty warmly received. You noticed this time, Tucker and Carolyn, the president of the United States is not speaking before the parliament in Ottawa. Carolyn Parrish, why is that?

PARRISH: I think Mr. Clinton shared a lot of our values. He talked about Medicare and he talked about banning weapons. He said that he envied us our gun laws. So he was more simpatico with the Canadian people. And he was very warmly received. He's a very terrific guy?

BLITZER: Would you have heckled President Bush had he come into the parliament?

PARRISH: Absolutely -- no, no, no. I'm not a heckler. I don't heckle anybody.

BLITZER: Would your colleagues have heckled him?

PARRISH: I don't think so either. I think the reason Mr. Bush didn't address the parliament is was they were having a hard time finding common ground that he could talk about. We do not support the war in Iraq. We are not impressed with 100,000 dead Iraqis. We're not impressed with 1,000 dead American soldiers. So, what would be the basis of the conversation? We couldn't solve softwood lumber in a speech in the House of Commons. We couldn't solve the beef problem. So there was no common ground for a speech.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: What about -- Tucker, I was going to say to you, what does it say that the president of the United States on an official state visit to Canada, the first time in a decade, doesn't address the parliament?

CARLSON: Well, you know, he doesn't want to get heckled. That's right. I'm glad to hear Ms. Parrish is not a heckler, merely a person who stomps on dolls. You've got to have standards. And I appreciate yours. No, look. Just simply because the United States and Canada disagree about the war in Iraq and they do doesn't mean they can't have productive conversations. I mean, the United States and China talk about all sorts of things. We're major trading partners. And I think in the end, it only hurts Canada, these attacks on the United States. Again, just to restate a pretty obvious point that I know is foremost on your mind, Ms. Parrish, Canada needs the United States. The United States does not need Canada. But you need us. And so to alienate our administration is probably not such a good idea.

PARRISH: Tucker, that's a really bad attitude, my friend...

CARLSON: It's true.

PARRISH: I think we need each other. I think we have got a long-term trade partnership. I think both countries benefit from that partnership. And when you say to us, we don't need you, that's not a way to make friends...

CARLSON: In fact, it's not even a value judgment, it's simply a recognition of economic reality. Of course it's good for the United States to trade with Canada, but it's vital for Canada to trade with the United States. So you gain nothing by alienating the administration.

PARRISH: It's pretty vital for California to take our hydro-oil (ph). I think it would be dark the next day. I think this is not a productive conversation. I think we're long-term friends, we are long-term trade partners. And we will weather this recent storm. We are fundamentally opposed to might is right and brute force and preemptive attacks on other countries. That's fundamental in Canada.

CARLSON: Well, you have the benefit of being protected by the United States and you can say that. But I think if Canada were responsible for its own security -- you would be invaded by Norway if it weren't for the United States and so you...

PARRISH: We're a very secure nation because we haven't ticked off the rest of the world. We march with the world. We're not out of step.

BLITZER: Tucker, don't you believe that this 3,000-mile border that the United States shares with Canada that it's imperative that the U.S. has a friendly ally on the other side?

CARLSON: Oh, of course. In the end, the countries are friendly. There are some French politicians who get something out of...

BLITZER: But when you say the United States doesn't need Canada, the United States has a 3,000-mile border with Canada.

CARLSON: My only point is as a matter of trade, Canada is far more dependent on the U.S. than the U.S. is on Canada. That's simply a fact, again, not even a value judgment. But of course the United States needs a good relationship with Canada and I suspect it will always have one unless some separatist government comes to power and the country splits into two, which is always possible. But short of that, no, absolutely the countries will remain allies and there will always be politicians who see it to their benefit to stomp on Bush dolls. But no, I don't think the average Canadian feels -- the average Canadian is busy dogsledding. You know that.

PARRISH: That is such -- that's such a caricature and you have to understand from this lowly backbencher that shouldn't even be on your show, I am of total insignificance within my own party and within the country, you're sure putting up a lot of fuss and putting a lot of attention on this. It shows a very weak ego, in my opinion. I think if you're as strong as you say you are, anything I have got to say can't hurt you.

BLITZER: I will point out to our viewers as well as to Carolyn Parrish that Tucker Carlson often speaks with tongue in cheek. Is that a fair assessment, Tucker? Just want to make sure our viewers don't literally believe that every word that you're saying.

CARLSON: I don't think every Canadian is dogsledding at all times but I do think there's a lot of dogsledding in Canada. Yes, I do think that's true.

PARRISH: Very little, my friend.

CARLSON: You know that's true, Carolyn. (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But there's a lot of dogsledding.

PARRISH: No, there's not a lot of dogsledding. There's a lot of dog walking, my friend. Not a lot of dogsledding.

CARLSON: Welcome to our century.

BLITZER: There's some dogsledding in the United States as well, including the beautiful state of Alaska. Tucker Carlson speaking tongue in cheek sometimes, not always. Sometimes.
Carolyn Parrish, you're an important guest. All of our guests are important. Thanks very much for joining us.

PARRISH: Thank you, Wolf. I've enjoyed it. Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Thanks. Thanks a lot, Carolyn. See you in Canada.

PARRISH: Yep.

BLITZER: U.S.-Canadian relations, a very, very important subject to all of our viewers, both south and north of the U.S. border.

A Reply

2004-11-17T17:26:00.000-08:00

Pete recently commented on my "refusal to comment" on Canadian politics and sarcastically remarked how glad he was that we Canadians are there to watch over them. Well, jeez man. What else is there to watch up here? CBC? For shame.

Let's be straight, I'm not here to preach that Canada is perfect. It's not. My "refusal" to comment on it much is more out of boredom than anything else. I'm not included in much of the politics of Canada since it mainly takes place in Ottawa and they are quite reluctant to let us into the party. It's hilarious that most of the west votes for the Conservatives for the simple reason that the Conservatives are based out in the west. Most probably are not aware of the POLICIES of the party and when one of the MPs leaked to the press that they would change the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to define marriage to be only between a man and a woman, a good number of them changed their votes back to the Liberals. Funny, it's like the polar opposite of what happened in the states.

I have gone through my archives and realized that I didn't mention Canadian politics once since I started posting. Now, I think I mentioned a fair amount on my old site, but our news cycle up here is so drastically intertwined with the states that it is nearly impossible to not be a) informed or b) involved with how decisions are made in the south. And since the US is now the sole superpower of the world, the entire world is watching what they do very closely. But is this not the essence of the democracy the states claim they are bringing? Should the world not be given some sort of voice in the affairs of this planet we share to inform the leader of grievances? If we are to leave the states atop its throne of power, maybe the often mocked "Global Test" Kerry mentioned should be more seriously discussed.

Of course, critics will quickly say that nations will still act in their own interests and veto anything that challenges it. To this, there is no answer. Unless everyone is willing to count themselves as equal and have no veto rights, there will never be a unified global power.

Anyways, I'm beyond rambling tonight. Sorry about that. I'll leave this open ended for now, but I will try and accommodate "Pete" and slam Canada more often so he knows I'm not just picking on the states. Not like they deserve it mind you. *wink*

So... Ohio?

2004-11-02T22:31:00.000-08:00

So it's looking like another four years of the Bush administration. I thought I would quickly go through the pros and cons of this turnout...

Pros:

Family Guy will be able to take shots at Bush while he is still president
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will continue to be hilarious and full of highly relevant goofs and gaffes from the Commander in Chief
Freedom will continue to "march" in Iraq as US troops remain there
Osama bin Laden can rest easy as he still hasn't become more than a "thug" again according to President Bush
The DNC can continue to bitch about fraud and the stolen 2000 election saying that 2004 never would have happened if Florida 2000 had gone our way

Cons:

With control of the Senate and the House, the Republicans will be able to drill for oil in the arctic wildlife reserves for the "drop in the bucket" of oil that will run 1 SUV for a week
Dick Cheney will once again become President of the USA... uh... I mean VICE President... yeah... that's it
The movie event of the summer in 2005, 9-11: Freedom Lives On, starring Rudy Giuliani, will now be put on the fast track with Karl Rove directing
Who do you run in 2008 for either party?

Let me say this name now. Barack Obama. I guarantee you will hear this guy speak in the next four years. He was elected into the Senate as a Democrat and this guy won with 70% of the vote in his state. Mind you he was running against Alan Keyes who was a midseason replacement so, yeah... But anyways, this guy is a lock for the Primaries in 2006/2007 (I'm not sure when they start...) but also, he is probably the best chance for being the first African American to be President of the United States. We can only hope...

Until then, hope you Americans like your rights trampled, your security lost, your money taken, your jobs lost and most importantly, like losing your ability to say, "We didn't really elect him. He stole it."

Well, at least for now. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

No more!

2004-10-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well, midterms are almost over... yet there are still a few on the horizon... namely Thursday. Sigh. The last two days have been intense. I got back some of my midterms from the first bout and got mixed results. 85% in my Discrete Math course was a nice reward for hard work altho my latest battle with it will probably give a lesser value. My horrid 476 was BETTER than I thought... I got 50%. Yes, that's right. I'm HAPPY about it. My 90+% club friends (which I am NOT a member mind you) got a little lower than I did for the most part... save Andy with the best of our bunch. (shakes fist)

The EE450 (economics) midterm went well but I spent way too much time studying for it than was necessary. It cut deep into my 320 time and I'll be paying for that dearly. Hopefully I'll master the 476 for the next midterm on Thursday and pull up that course.

Here's hoping...

Until I get another chance to breathe...

The Leader of the Free World

2004-10-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Click here to see the most powerful man in the world.

Remember, he's the one in charge of policy decisions that involve millions of lives.

Sudden Passing Thought...

2004-10-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

The war on terror is more important than it may seem on the surface. At first it appears to be a simple imperialist move by the United States that has massively destabilized the middle east. But I think that is somewhat shortsighted of the actual intention.

Our world is now 100% organized by the state system. Every piece of land on this earth is identified by a state it is part of. Why? Well, in your history class you will see that this was the best system we could think of to keep violence between people to a minimum. By using states, wars could be fought between countries and decided by the leaders of those states. This idea was quickly adopted following some of the most vicious wars in Europe which helps to make sense of why it caught on.

While some may be skeptical of the usefulness of states to prevent violence, it is easy to see that some states are much stronger than others and can take advantage of weaker ones. We call those states first world nations. The little guys they pick on are called third world nations.

Now for the interesting part. What do you call a group of people who don't believe in states? Terrorists. It's almost amazing how a small band of brutal murderers could gain such widespread attention in such a short time. The problem facing US strategic planners is simple yet troubling. How do you deal with an enemy that is not a state without admitting that the state system has failed?

You may wonder why this even matters. Well, again, for the US and other first world nations to be able to milk third world nations for resources and such, the state system must prevail. Otherwise, it will be much more difficult for them to do these extractions without being imperialists or empire builders. For all the times that the US disrespects the UN, it never talks about why the UN is unable to fix anything (besides the fact that the five nations on the security council are never able to agree...).

I simply propose a re-examining of the state system to see if it is indeed the best way to reduce violence in our world. I'm sure many ethnic groups in Africa and the Middle East would be very interested in such a study as it would possibly solve many of their grievances which perpetuate the ideology of the terrorists and add so many to their ranks.

This Alone

2004-10-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

Could we be happy
If our enemy went away?
A new clean slate
But then just transfer our hate?
Like leaves on a tree
We fall out of favor
Unable to simply
Befriend our neighbor

A million eyes that never see the lies
A million voices will never sound again
This small world has never felt so big
Have you ever felt this alone?

Is being free
Merely a dream?
Impossible yet sought
While our souls are all bought
Traded and sold
Our lives revolve
Around a pile of gold
And yet we are so alone…

If this is the end of history
If this is the best we can do
Then I hope the end is coming
To wash away this bloody mess

The Debate: Part Two

2004-10-01T17:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a short quote from George W Bush from last night's debate where he discusses the issue of the International Criminal Court. It is startling to read between the lines on his reasoning for not joining. Note the section in bold...

My opponent talks about me not signing certain treaties. Let me tell you one thing I didn't sign, and I think it shows the difference of our opinion -- the difference of opinions.
And that is, I wouldn't join the International Criminal Court. It's a body based in The Hague where unaccountable judges and prosecutors can pull our troops or diplomats up for trial. And I wouldn't join it. And I understand that in certain capitals around the world that that wasn't a popular move. But it's the right move not to join a foreign court that could -- where our people could be prosecuted.
My opponent is for joining the International Criminal Court. I just think trying to be popular, kind of, in the global sense, if it's not in our best interest makes no sense. I'm interested in working with our nations and do a lot of it. But I'm not going to make decisions that I think are wrong for America.

Not only does that sentence not make any sense grammatically, but it devastates Bush's claim of being a peace keeping nation. How? Well, why would the US want to be popular in the "global sense" if "it's not in (their) best interest(s)"? I haven't heard this stated any better since I heard Noam Chomsky speak at the Orpheum. The only reason the States will go and do something is if there is some benefit to them. Is this wrong? No, of course not. Every country does this. The point is, let's cut through the bull and be honest when we talk about foreign policy. Let's look at what the US stands to gain from having a permanent military presance in Iraq.

I think it begins with the letter O...

The Debate: Part One

2004-09-30T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well, that was interesting. Not in an intellectual way mind you. It's late and I'm tired so this will be pretty concise for now. Here are my thoughts on the debate...

Well moderated. The PBS guy was great and the rules were clear and followed very well unlike our disaster of a debate during the federal election in Canada. The only problem was that the 30 second extensions were almost always prompted by Bush speaking out rather than the moderator choosing to extend the discussion.
Bush was out of his league... again. He never lost his tight-lipped, hunched posture or his "everyone is gonna kill us" composure, but he did become speechless on a regular basis. Endless rhetoric on "mixed messages", "hard work", and "our duty" has no place in building arguments. These empty statements are signs of a lack of clear coherent thought and would be torn apart in even the most elementary political science essay when looked at by any Professor. No one cares that you "meet every morning with the head of the FBI." You could be having a coffee and shooting the breeze for all we know. This kind of diversionary tactic is telling of how little thought has gone into Bush's plan for dealing with Homeland Security.
Kerry was well spoken and, unlike Bush, paced himself out almost flawlessly and even weaved in a few uppercuts into his rebuttals and statements. Classic gold was given when Kerry stated how Bush "outsourced the task of getting Osama" to Afgahn rebels. Priceless.
My total disdain for Bush reached a new high when he discussed unprovoked his decision to not support the international criminal court. This institution is responsible for dealing with leaders who commit criminal acts and attempt to administer justice on them for what they did. Previous defendants in this court include such dictators as Pinnoche (Chile, 73-89?) and Milosovich. Bush's reasoning was simply that he would not support any effort to prosecute American troops and leaders. I find it unbelievable that Bush is holding Saddam for trial in a way he says no American should be, even if they did what he did. Saddam's soldiers, who were fighting for their country as brave soldiers following their leader (rather than flip-flop over whether they should or not) were told by Bush in the beginning of the war that "just following orders" is not an excuse and that they would be brought to justice for their "crimes." Puzzling, the inconsistencies of Bush's argument from this single segment are more telling about his own lack of cohesion over his own policies than anything Kerry has apparently done.
With regards to Kerry's "flip-flops" and "mixed messages" I can only say this. If someone came to you and said, "I have evidence that tomorrow it will rain" that if the evidence looked solid that you would agree. But if the next day it was sunny, you would question that intelligence and wonder if you should rethink your decision and how you made it. This is not flip-flopping. This is called learning from your mistakes. The mistake was trusting this administration that has done nothing but show contempt for any inquiries into finding out how the intelligence was faulty or how 9-11 occurred in the first place. The mistake on November 2nd (not the 11th, thanks Anonymous) will be to trust it again for four more years.

First Listen: U2 - Vertigo

2004-09-26T01:03:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I only have the single right now. But with a name like "How to Disarm an Atomic Bomb" how can you go wrong?

This single just screams rock to me. I'm right in the zone with the Edge blasting my eardrums with a straight up rock-riff straight from The Who playbook. The rhythm section is solid as always, and no one needs to state that Bono is still on top of his game.

Hello, hello (¡Hola!)
We're at a place called Vertigo (¿Dónde está?)
Lights go down, and all I know
Is that you give me something
I can feel your love teaching me how
Your love is teaching me how
How to kneel, kneel

I can't wait for the rest of the album.

First Listen: Chevelle - This Kind of Thinking

2004-09-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

*feedback* *rock riff* TOUCH! *madness*

Here starts the new cd from Chevelle. Fans of Wonder What's Next will be completely at home on this record as they have not deviated much from their previous course. What you will find is deeper textures of guitar and more mature melodies. Personally, I felt a little bored by the midpoint of the album the first time through, but it has really grown on me lately. I find that it gets played in its entirety more often than most of my other favorites at the moment.

The first track, The Clincher, is my favorite by far. The riff is straight up and fierce and the chorus takes the grit and distortion and takes it to a new level of sonic soundscape. This is Chevelle at a peak in my opinion. I put this song on and I just get sucked in. So much so that I usually repeat it a few times over until I start to get sick of it. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen and I force myself to move on so my play counts on the ipod don't get all out of wack.

The other outstanding track on here is Panic Prone. I feel that it is a close sibling of The Red, but stays in a more mellon collie state of being. This would probably be the closest to a ballad as Chevelle will ever come I think. I hope that this song would be graced with being the third single after The Clincher being the second. But then again, they did choose Send the Pain Below last time for a second single... so...

I highly recommend this disc to anyone who likes the whole modern rock sound. You can't go wrong with this one.

And the winner is...

2004-09-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

Muse! Wow! That was easily one of the best concerts I have ever been to in my entire life. The Commodore was packed and people were rushing the stage the second the opening act finished. When the three members took the stage, this wave of presence just washed over everyone. The screams of elation of just the sight of these guys was louder than the amps! And here I was thinking it would be a nice rock show... I was wrong.

They busted into apocalypse Please off their newest album and just kept going up from there. The frontman was just astoundingly talented (as were the other members mind you) and did such a visceral assault on my senses that I was left speechless when the set was over. He played his guitar with authority, as if the gods of rock had raised him to be the messiah of music. This may sound like overkill, but if it does, it's just another sign of how you weren't there. It was just amazing.

The only fault of the entire show was the sound. I was smack dab in the middle of the stage and 2 people widths from the security gate. There is no P.A. pointed in that area so all you can hear from there is stage volume. This proved to be a problem since all I could hear was music. The vocals were washed out by all the screaming. The only songs I could make out words for are the ones where the crowd sang along... which happened more often than I thought it would have.

All in all, great show. I will be seeing them next time they come for sure. Of course, that will probably be in the Pacific coliseum or other large venue...

Timing is Everything

2004-09-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

So my pal Dave just announced that he and his girlfriend of 2-months are going to get married. Now, I have no real issue with them getting married. I think they are very cute together and could definitely make it as a couple. The trouble is, what's the rush? Why not slow down, chill out, and just get to know each other before making the commitment?

It's not my decision to make obviously. I just hope they made the right one since there isn't much room to maneuver in now.

UBC Bookstore aka Black Hole Financial Institution

2004-09-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

You put money in, you get nothing back. Well, not exactly. The UBC Bookstore is well known for it's ridiculous prices and hazardous line-ups come September. To make the pain of buying a $130 textbook for one of your six classes (which each require a similar priced book), they have implemented a "Buy Back" program where you can get cash for your no-longer-useful books.

What they DON'T advertise is the fact that you will NOT recieve a "fair" price for your book. And that's only if they haven't switched to the new version of the text that probably just came out.

Here's my experience... I bought Systems and Signals 2nd Edition back in January. It cost me roughly $130. Today the price of a new copy is about $122. The stupid part is that I used this textbook once... as in I opened it then closed it five minutes later. It should also be noted that this occured while I was buying the book in the store in January. The course NEVER USED IT ONCE. So, in BRAND NEW CONDITION, I took it to the buy back booth and was told I could get $42.50 for it. That's 1/3 of the retail price they could get for it since it's still as new as the other books they sell. If I sold it to a student, I could probably get $80 with no haggling at all since the cheapest used copies (which there are none of) are going for $92.

Now, this could get even worse if I hold on to the book. It would not surprise me at all if the book goes into a Third Edition this fall. Of course, all that would change would be a few pictures and the cover most likely. Yet, the bookstore would never buy an "out of date" book...

Therefore, I'll have to try and find where that class is being held and post some messages advertising the book for cheap.

Yawn

2004-09-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

Well, its 9am and I just got out of my first class. I have nothing until noon which is just completely retarded. It makes me feel even worse for sleeping through it since I can have a three hour nap after and not miss anything. Sigh.

Tonight is the Blindside concert at the Croatian Cultural Center. Should be a good show. They outplayed P.O.D. when they opened for them last summer so hopefully they will knock this one out of the park.

The Muse concert is coming up quickly. September 24th at the Commodore... Hopefully doors will open LONG before they did when we saw the Killers. We got there at 8pm but doors didn't open until 9:50pm. I have been listening to all three of their albums (yes they have more than Absolution) The other two are called "The Origins of Symmetry" and "Showbiz." Showbiz is my current favorite but I haven't really check out Symmetry yet...

Porch Light

2004-09-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes all I need, is a little reassurance
Just some sort of sign, that I’m not alone
But what can I hold on to, that isn’t in my mind?
I feel that something’s missing, but nothing’s what I find

Can you believe then understand?
With open arms yet questioned faith?
Someday I know I’ll get it right
Till then I stand by my porch light

The wise men disregard, what’s beyond the senses
The mystics have no place, in the realm of reason
Where can I find truth, that won’t fail me?
That will still my soul, and satisfy my mind?

Back to School

2004-09-08T09:07:00.000-07:00

My first days back to school have been rather routine. See people you haven't seen for a while and catch up. Go back to class and learn things that you didn't know before. Take buses that run slowly. Walk past construction sites that have been ongoing since you started. Sigh.

The funny thing is that this time, I have grown a lot since my last stay. As I have been saying on this blog for a while, I have become skeptical of people who rely strictly on everything they read without doing any conscious understanding on their own. I could read every book ever written and still be a complete idiot. It is good to read as much as we can as many brilliant thoughts have already been had. But, the goal of human society isn't to learn what has been learned and repeat it, but rather take what has been learned and build upon it.

I was talking with someone yesterday and realized how easy it is to impede this goal of common learning and understanding. When talking about politics and world issues, we should never have a hard time explaining concepts since they are usually very universal. But when the "educated" mind runs loose one is able to throw in all sorts of complications in an effort to sound more intelligent. The end result unfortunately is a less understood statement that ultimately is limited by the readers previous knowledge. Good scholarship in such matters should be understood by all regardless of background.

My reasoning for this is quite straightforward. Imagine you wanted to explain to someone why they owed you $5. If you pulled out some old Greek philosophers and 5th year economics you will simply confuse the person, but will probably get you the money. Did this help the person understand anything at all? No. They are left feeling stupid and slightly unimportant. A better way would be to use language that was understood by the person but then explain how that simple info is part of a larger theorem by such and such and is part of X field of study. You then don't sacrifice understanding for sounding intelligent. Instead, you improve your clarity and stabilize your argument since it no longer hinges completely on another persons work.

Well, that's my two cents anyways.

Bush Is 'Unfit' to Lead U.S., Kerry Charges

2004-09-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

Click here to read about John Kerry's first real hit back at the Bush campaign. For months, Bush and Co. have berated Kerry and tried to tarnish everything from his rethinking of policies such as the Iraq war to his service in Vietnam.

Leftists everywhere have been yelling for Kerry to just point out that someone who never went overseas at all should not be criticizing someone who did. Also, Dick Chenny, who had five defferments from Vietnam ("Owwww, my leg hurts, I can't go. I'm a weak sad man... boo hoo") has the gall to declare Kerry's purple hearts as mere scratches. The people on the floor of the Republican Convention could be seen to be wearing Band-Aids with little purple hearts on them to further push this sick point. Staffers have leaked that this came from the top of the pile... most probably designed by Karl Rove, the same character assassin who engineered Bush's smear campaign on Senator John McCain back in 2000. Same trick. Have people leak a lie about military service but then say you don't approve of it. It's like saying, "Purple Elephant" and then telling people to not think of a purple elephant. The brain can be easily tricked into tarnishing anything if you are clever enough.

Moving On

2004-09-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is about old relationships, but they definitely seem to fester in the mind when one of the members starts a new one with someone else. I am all about cutting failed relationships off clean as I don't see much reason to try and nurture something that will probably stay unhealthy anyways.

The picture in my mind is of a fruit tree. When it is young, a farmer/fruitgrower may graft on a new species of tree in hopes of making a specific type of fruit. I dunno exactly how this works, but apparently the mixing of the sap types makes a variant fruit. Well, I see failed relationships as grafts that just didn't take. The extension is weak at the joint and the intermixing of sap is causing problems with the tree. The best way to fix the problem is to simply prune the dead weight.

Yet, this is impossible for humans since our emotions can not be so cleanly disposed of. Running into ex's will always cause some sort of emotional response. Whether it be a reminiscent feeling of past joy, or a painful reminder of inadequacy, there is a feeling attached to that meeting... even if it is only in the mind.

I was talking to a few of my pals on this topic and discovered a few interesting tidbits. If your ex moves on to someone new before you, you will probably be pretty pissed off about it. If YOU got into a relationship first, you would wonder why your ex is all choked up about it and tell them to chill. If you pull a Chris, and date four girls after (and even during) a previous relationship, but never tell the ex about the new ones, everyone will still want you... badly. More proof to the claim that man-sluts get more girls. Of course, they wouldn't be man-sluts otherwise...

A Fanboy Site for EE's

2004-09-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my buddy PieMan sent me this link to a fanboy site for EEs. I laughed so hard that I felt I had to post on it. Click Here to understand my world that much better... and pray you never make me flip out...

Box Office Quotes

2004-08-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

Well, Hero has managed to snag the top place but really, that should have been expected. When your main competition is a sequel to a bad creature movie and a teen comedy's third week... well, you can do the math. The other story here is how Suspect Zero scored only 100k more than Baby Geniuses 2 is fairly telling of how good Suspect Zero probably is. I'm sure Paramount is very pleased with this turnout.

1. HERO $17,802,000 $17,802,000
2. ANACONDAS: THE HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID
$13,200,000 $13,200,000
3. WITHOUT A PADDLE $8,700,000 $27,857,000
4. THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT
$8,068,000 $75,050,000
5. EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING $6,735,000 $30,821,000
6. COLLATERAL $6,300,000 $79,988,000
7. OPEN WATER $5,000,000 $23,502,000
8. ALIEN VS. PREDATOR $4,800,000 $72,065,000
9. THE BOURNE SUPREMACY $4,605,000 $157,708,000
10. SUSPECT ZERO $3,400,000 $3,400,000
11. SUPER BABIES: BABY GENIUSES 2 $3,300,000 $3,300,000
12. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE $2,830,000 $59,003,000

The Killers Concert

2004-08-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have a spare ticket for the Killers concert this Friday. Whoever contacts me first (and pays for it of course) is more than welcome to join me... or kick me to the curb and take my other ticket and go without me. Either or...

(Waits by phone patiently...)