Party Like its MMVI

The rollover to the new year is here again, complete with its year-in-reviews, and countdowns and lists and rundowns. I can't be the only one that gets tired of them all, but hey, it fills the programming slots so more people can be off for the holidays.

It seems this year though that everyone must have gone way overboard on the whole Christmas rush and tired themselves right out. Everyone out there seems to have no-plans for New Years and are just keepin it kind of mellow. For me that's nothing new; only one year in the past 22 have I not been at home doing a fondue for New Years. That one year away was spent on the morder of Arizona and Mexico in a hotel room ringing in the New Years of each of the north american time zones, and watching drunk locals drive over gas pumps at the neighbouring gas station.

Anyways, no-one seems to have huge plans this year. Maybe its cause the novelty of the new millenium has worn off now that we're half a decade in, and the world hasn't ended yet so no-one wants to brave the masses. Maybe its cause its on a Saturday night? Or maybe its cause everyone's all anxious about the U.S. vs. Canada world junior game tonight.

Whatever the case I'm not gonna break my mellow tradition, and more importantly pass up a fondue, just for the sake of doing something.

Cheers to waving 2005 goodbye!

Not a 2005 List Post

I'm not going to fall into the trap of making a list of things from 2005. Why not? Because I can...or can not? That and there's nothing to make a list about, except maybe....

Okay I lied; Here's my list, in no particular order, of things that I won't make a top 10 list about to close out 2005:

9 - Most annoying fads.
6 - Favourite blog posts (others' not my own).
10 - Worst songs to be played on a radio, let alone recorded.
1 - Most annoying music groups.
3 - Reasons why there is no 7 in this list.
4 - Reasons to hate the Yankees and their fans.
8 - Reasons to hate the Leafs and their fans.
2 - Favourite new tofu dishes.
5 - Faces that I should have burned into food and made a fortune with on eBay.

And so there you have it, eat it Letterman!

Mellow Christmas

As a kid, our family always opened gifts right after midnight mass. My brother and I were told to go get some sleep so that we would be awake for mass, and Santa would come while we were gone. This meant that I was laying there eyes wide open for a few hours until it was time to get my sunday best on.

Of course later I was quick to realize that the nap served only to let my parents wrap the last of the gifts and get them ready to put under the tree while I anxiously waited in the car to go to church and get the formalities out of the way. At church too, the kids would make eye contact, and there would be nothing but excitement in them, because they too would be going home shortly to open at least a few parcels. And the parents wound up from 'shhhing' their kids the whole evening, and knowing that their hours spent in the malls were soon going to come to some kind of fruition.

These days though, things are much more subdued. My grandmother typically comes over to enjoy some snacks and the company on Christmas Eve before systematically visiting with almost all of her other eleven sons and daughters over the week before New Years. The past few years though her health has been in decline. If at all, she and my mom go to mass early with my brother while I put any remaining surprises under the tree, get a fire going (while hoping that no squirrels have taken up residence in the chimney in the year since its last use) and throw some hors d'oeuvres in the oven.

Instead of the excitement of gifts these days, its the enjoyment of relaxation. I don't think anything could have been more relaxing than trying to get my fire of damp cherry wood lit while sipping some delicious Dutch beers that I got for my birthday, and eating potstickers. No surprises, no unnecessary excitement, just chilling out with the family and watching the groans as they open the gifts I put a little of my own personal touch to.

Merry Non-Denominational Holiday Season to everyone, hopefully you're finding your own slice of enjoyment.

Aftermath

Its Been a Long December

The years between 19 and 21 are the primes of our lives. Old enough to drive, drink, gamble, and vote, and young enough to enjoy it all. As much as I bitch about being old, today numerically and officially ends the prime of my life. Its all over. Nothing but uphill from here on out. But that doesn't mean I won't cling to the enjoying a drink or two for one last night.

One drink to the end of exams. One drink to growing old. And then finished for the evening.

What's that? You don't believe me? I wouldn't believe me either. Pictures to follow most likely.

Gotta Have Fun With These Things

The True Spirit of X-Mas

For me, as I mentioned in the last post, the holidays represent time to kick back and relax without responsibility to anyone for a couple weeks of the year. As a kid you go through the whole presents thing and not being able to sleep because you're amped up and ready to explode about what Santa's gonna leave under the tree.

With age however, I've grown to appreciate the actual holidays themselves as free time to kill however I see fit. Over at Sacrelicious they have a pretty good grasp of all things Christmas too! My roof is too steep for me to be gettin my ass up there, and its too high to be really legible from the street anyways, defeating the whole purpose. I do however love the pink flamingos, definitely adding that extra touch of class.

Three exams down, two to go tomorrow and Monday. I'm hoping beyond hopes that this snow storm we're getting doesn't keep up for too much longer and possibly end up postponing season past my birthday and far beyond what it should be.

"...and you run and you run to catch up with the sun..."

Two exams down, three on the not so distant horizon, and then (relative) freedom, and birthday relaxing and drinking, christmas eve relaxing and drinking, christmas day relaxing and drinking, boxing day relaxing and drinking, etc etc.

I'm not cursed, or blessed with a whole variety of family functions to attend over the holidays, which leaves me plenty of time to sit around and catch up on some reading and movies after a month of final assignments and exams on academic terms, or 60 hour work weeks on co-op terms.

My only true responsibility is to eat lots of devilled eggs, shrimp and heated frozen hors d'ouerves to make sure they don't go to waste. Its a challenge I am always prepared to bring my A-game to meet.

Unlike studying for the rest of my exams.

Or going out to do some field work in the next week or so.

But for now, I'll go use dead daytime shopping time to finish my Christmas hoarding and cut down a fresh tree, which is always more easily done in the light of day. I guess crooked, lopsided trees need love too though.

Kids, Consider Your Options Carefully

When I applied to university, I applied to one program at one school. It was what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do it, and because I was in a decently run school board, I had the opportunity to do a term on campus at the university while still fulfilling highschool course requirements. Back in the day I was a bit of a keener, and a bit more motivated than these days.

At the time, the prof I did some work for chided me for not applying to other schools in the area, in particular Western, just to see what kind of money they might throw at me (like I said, I had a bit of a keener complex and had scholarship marks). Well, after seeing this (NSFW) link from Tony Pierce and in light of the Saturday night exam tomorrow night that I have yet to crack the notes for, I really should have given Western more consideration. Why? Well I sure haven't had that free range dorm craziness livin here, I wasn't given that much money here, and I don't want to crack the notes for tomorrow night's exams.

In my time not spent studying, I've been cruising the webosphere perhaps to an unhealthy extent. In the end the story doesn't change all that much with torture alleged and torture not so much denied as 're-classified' and changed up in the rhetoric around it. But in the past few days Canadians have been getting up in American politics' face, and I can't say I don't like it. Between Paul Martin getting the U.S. all fired up over their commitment, or lack thereof, to deflecting climate change, and former Canadian Supreme Court, now U.N. Human Rights official, Louise Arbour's questioning of their definitions of torture, we sure have had a good week of pissing them off. Not so much the passive little brother up north this week. I also read somewhere this week that the World Trade Organization ruled in favour of Canada in another chapter of the softwood lumber dispute. It wouldn't be accurate to say that its just Canada questioning them though, the whole world is finally making many formal turns against U.S. policy. Hopefully it incites the least bit of change.

And I'm still not quite ready to start that studying, so instead Stella will keep my company for the evening. Cheers!

Classes Down, Exams to Go

The last day of classes for the term was yesterday. Each term end is marked by a party at one of the local bars held by our undergrad club that usually sees us closing down the bar. This year term was no different, although I have to say, its not a very difficult task to close down the bar when they make last call at 12:30.

Needless to say I got good and ripped enough to make a bit of an ass of myself on many occasions, its a good thing that most of the people in that group have a good sense of humour.

I managed to borrow from experience this time, and not be a fool fallin into bed early, and sobered up respectably before crashing last night, and only mildly groggy on waking up.

My first exam is scheduled in the worst time slot I have ever seen. When I had to write an exam from 7 til 10pm on the night of my 19th birthday, when I should have been vigorously celebrating my first night of legal drinking, I was pissed, but I certainly can't expect a university to schedule around one person, shit happens.

But my first exam this term is from 7:30 til 10 on Saturday night; who the hell does that?! Sure its fair to say that a lot of people have to study their asses off and don't have much of a life during exams anyways, and I can't say that I've got a hugely exciting weekend tradition, but its still sacred time. I am blessed with being able to pick up and spit out most of the material I need for an exam in a fairly small amount of time, and use the free time to stay relaxed. Studying endlessly only stresses you out and makes you ineffective anyways. So when this comes along and seriously impedes on prime relaxing time, I get a bit upset. Screw you U of Woo.

On a brighter note, I just got an e-mail pop-up notice informing me that the Jays actually managed to sign another top free agent in A.J. Burnett. Of course he's been hugely hyped, and is being slightly overpaid, but I'm happier to see that extra money go to someone who will eat up far more innings than B.J. Ryan. I think I'm going to get on ordering some tickets for some games early this year, even if they lose, I haven't had some good Toronto street-meat in ages, and it warms the soul in ways that knock off street-meat just never will.

Hot Streak!

The much maligned Raptors of T-dot fame went into this weekend 1 and 15. After back to back nights against the Hawks and the Nets with Vince 'no-heart' Carter, they managed to triple their win total on the year, and so are officially on an undeniable hot streak. Tonight's game against Baby Vince wasn't televised (at least on the cable I subscribe to), but one need only look at a live Yahoo blurb about Vince going out injured and the third, and then coming back to play out the fourth quarter to revisit the memory of Vince Carter's whining up here. Had he still been in a Raptor jersey with that injury, you can be guaranteed he'd be on the bench with a towel on his shoulders for the rest of the game, and his mom talkin shit about the franchise.

Tonight however, I was ecstatic to see Chris Bosh take it to them, and not fade down the stretch for a 13 point victory. After the Eskimos avenging the Argo's semi-final loss in the Grey Cup, and the Jays signing top free-agent B.J. Ryan, and a primetime Leafs loss to the new-look Sharks, this has been a decidedly good week in Toronto sports. And as an aside, Joe Thornton is a classy guy. He was a nextdoor neighbour of my great aunt and uncle, and if I remember correctly showed up at the funeral when my great uncle lost his fight with leukemia. Hopefully he gets more respect out west than he was getting in Boston...although one can't expect much respect for hockey in any city that doesn't naturally experience ice.

Pegging Points

The greatest of my fears is that I'm gonna grow up to be an ornary old man, even moreso than now. I look around at the drivers on the roads, the walkers on the sidewalks and the mumblers in the checkout lines and realize that there are far more helpless, unhealthy old people than there are cool, vigorous ones, and I know I want no part of it.

That said, the retirees amongst us often get segregated from society to an extent, and disowned, and visited once monthly, like the tick of a long period metronome, by their children. The build a community with their fellow, hepto, septo, octo and nonogenarians, and play cards and bitch about their ungrateful kids, and occasionally discover aliens, and they find happiness in their golden years, trying to avoid any tarnish.

I respect the people for their will to cling to life and keep at it despite some of the inevitable health limitations that I are the base of my own fear, so when I see stupid shit like this from the CBC, I get a little irritated. Calling to task some seniors groups because they play a little cribbage for at most $100? Come on! If this was a car accident it would fall in the "damages less than $500" category and just be quietly dealt with by the insurance companies. Let the old people have some fun. And if that cribbage is keeping them from bogging up the aisles at the grocery store and in the mall parking lot on saturdays and sundays when they have the entire rest of the week to do so in peace, then all the better. A $100 prize under the table is far more acceptable to me than an un-requested multi-million dollar election that will at most change a few seats in parliament and still leave us with a likely Liberal minority.

Busy Busy

I've almost managed to get into the groove of polishing off all the end of term rush work before settling in for exams. I work bright and early, in relative terms of course tomorrow. I haven't seen 7:30 in the morning for a couple months, but it will be hear soon enough greeting me through the distorted buzz of the blown speaker on my alarm clock radio.

One story in particular came to my attention today that blows my mind, discussed in MBlog briefly today and outlined in more detail in the LA Times. Basically, its been revealed that the U.S. has been paying to have its own propaganda distributed in Iraqi newspapers. Once again, nothing should surprise anyone at this point, and yet, things like this always manage to sneak up on you and make you give your head another shake.

The Canucks just went up another goal on the Avs, and I have to be up in a little over 6 hours to be in shape for a day in the cold getting soaked with water loaded with nasty little manmade compounds, so this marks the end of this blurb.

Tick Tock

The needle on the motivation meter is still resting against the pin. I've spent the past few days bumming around doing nothing in particular, leaving me with nothing particularly interesting to be excited about.

The Raptors are losing some close games out west, but are at least hanging with the teams out there. The Jays have all but dotted the t's and crossed the i's on a deal with one of the top free-agents on the market this offseason. They're paying too much for him, particularly given that he's a relief pitcher, but the overall improved image of the team might be enough to attract some other players for less with the promise of a competitive team up north with our rye and ginger ale.

Those end of term assignments that have been 'coming up' are now due in piles of other similarly rushed assignments in just over a week now. I've been asked to work a day in the middle of that week, which I actually need given the current state of my wallet. And exams start the following week. You still wish you were me.

"I believe I can see the future cause I repeat the same routine..."

One day runs into the next with only the subtlest of differences between them. Each day the air gets a bit more crisp, and the wind a bit sharper in the lungs, and motivation slightly decreased.

One need only look as far as my grades during winter terms to see how much the cold weather takes out of me, although it seems counter intuitive. In the winter with its lack of daylight, and cold shutting me indoors should do nothing but provide time to churn out the reams of arbitrary assignment answers, and stay properly studied up. But it just takes the piss right out of me, and makes me wanna get pissed in my own special way.

Of late I just sit here blankly scrolling through blogs and the news, after a short time not actually absorbing the words and pictures, just seeing them and going through the motions so as to avoid doing any real work. But then I turn on the TV and lay watching a Billy Crystal movie marathon on Bravo until 4 in the morning, or sports highlights until 3, while thinking in circles, but never actually motivating myself.

Aside from the cold taking any drive out of me to get on my bike and pedal in to class, it also does a number on the low cost (read 'free') outdoor activities. At the best of times its hard to get people out to play a game of baseball, or pick-up football, as soon as it drops regularly below 10 degrees, it ends completely. On a tight budget you're left with few other options I suppose than those I've been doing, and those that I will do tomorrow. I hear Vegas is giving 7 to 1 odds on the day after tomorrow being the same.

Reunion Night

Sometimes you find yourself plodding through life, finishing all, or at least the most important of what is required of you. You block out most of the rest of the world aside from catching up on a few of the current events, and then Friday comes.

The alarm goes off first thing, and you're ready to throw the fucker out the window for interrupting your dream about Elisha Cuthbert or Keira Knightley, or whoever. Then, in your light sleep between snoozes, some dolt on the TV station you fell asleep watching the night before starts ranting off some christmas shopping bullshit.

Its still only November 17th.

And then...because the shopping wasn't enough...they have some group of overeager, happy-go-lucky kids on playing jingle bells on the trumpet. How about we commericalize this holiday a little bit more. Because the month of December isn't already the biggest month for commerce, at least in North America and Western Europe.

So after not clearing those fateful tones from my ears, I roll my ass out of bed to polish off some arbitrary, highly subjective assignment for one of my courses. It being the last assignment, and me being highly unmotivated, I put a half assed effort in, but enough for what I feel to be sufficient with the wording given.

Bike in through the wind in the face, and the snow, and the mud, which of course leaves the unavertable mudstripe up your ass and back and hand in the assignment, and even show up for a tutorial.

I find out about two hours after getting home that I 'apparently' tanked half the assignment...but being that its Friday, and that my week has been excessively long already, I ignore it and decide I'm gonna hit the bar with a buddy and some friends of his. Now a night at the bar is always good times, but in the right company, you get the priviledge of some hilarious stories. The funniest of which being from the one guy who does some troubleshooting work via the telephone for a major wireless communications company talking with a service provider about his kid: (all below paraphrased)

Service Provider Guy (SPG): ...yea, I have 2 and a half kids at home, one just reached the 'What just happened stage?'

Wireless Comms Guy (WCG): oh, one of them just hasn't reached the no crying stage?

SPG: no no, he's blind...and every time something happens we get 'What just happened?'

WCG: ..... (face it you wouldn't know what to say either)

SPG: yea, every time he trips over something: 'What happened?' 'Well, you fell on your face'.

WCG: *stifling laughter* (yes its bad, but you'd laugh too) Aww.

SPG: yea, and we took him to the zoo the other day...

At which point the conversation went off on a bunch of tangents, with the most important being, who takes their blind kid to the zoo..."what are they gonna do, smell the different kinds of shit?"

Label me as cold or whatever you will, but that's just funny, and so true...what parent brings a their blind child to the zoo, and doesn't consider the obvious sleight to the kid, come on. Then, as a curious bookend to the conversation, not five minutes later, this gaunt middle aged man sidles up to our table and starts handing out cards to everyone, not saying a word. We take the time to pass the cards to the rest of the people at the table before reading the card:

"I'm a deaf-mute (and I cannot read lips). I make my money by selling these cards, please pay whatever you feel is appropriate." On the reverse is the sign language alphabet. And me being the sucker I am, and the most likely among the group to ever carry change, I throw all the change I have his way (probably no more than $2) and watch him move on and do the exact same to the next table. After dwelling for a minute, which admittedly was a minute too long, I suggested that I should have challenged him to a game of pinball. And despite our subsequent conversation about how much money panhandlers can actually make...and then drive home to their $300 000 homes, I let it go and moved on, because after all a couple bucks is just a couple bucks.

Then, the weirdness really began. Within the next half hour we ran into 4 people we hadn't seen, and had only heard gossip about since elementary school almost 8 to 9 years ago. And after the quick calculation to check that it had infact been 8 or 9 years, and that I was infact that old, a brief exchange of that period of time occurred as we made our way out. A quick dash to the urinals on the way out, and on the way out I see 3 other people I hadn't seen since highschool on the way out. I don't know why it happens, but it always does. Always in bunches, and not just because one group of people is associated with another, as was typical of my cliquey highschool, but just random people from all over the place, and every time it throws me for a loop, mostly because it reminds me on every occasion of just how much time has passed.

Its Here...

Go Pro

It sucks when your team has to fight it out in the best division in the respective sport. As a Jays fan, I get to watch Boston and New York fight it out every year now. And watch Baltimore spend absurd amounts of money to try to compete with them, kind of like the Dodgers.

As a hockey fan, the Avs are in the best division in the NHL most years against the likes of Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. The new NHL has brought them all even closer together. In the old NHL I grew to accept that the Avs started slow but made ground up quickly in the second half, but with the closeness of all the teams now, it looks like the playoff spots are going to be even closer a competition than ever before, and the usually 'meaningless' games in November seem more essential.

In the NFL and NBA....well, forget them both. The 49ers aren't gonna be fighting ANYthing out any time soon, except whether to take a running back, wide receiver, or all new offensive line with the first pick in the 2006 draft. The Raptors have to add some spice and polish to the new batch of rookies before they will compete seriously, and they don't really fall into the topic of discussion anyways, as I openly admit that the West is best overall in hoops.

And finally, in NCAA Football, I've grown to be a Michigan fan through the years. Early on I figure it started from their kickass nickname, and my Marvel comic collecting. What Saturday-morning cartoon-watching kid wouldn't love a team named and modelled after the rough, deadly Wolverine of X-Men fame. And as I grew up I started to follow them a little bit more, and saw more of them on TV being the closest 'big' American college team (at least by road) I fell into their following. And soon recognized what has been well emphasized this year. They are in a perennially competitive conference with Penn State, and Michigan State, and Ohio State, and Wisconsin being the ranked big guns on the field this year. And every year they play most of their games against these guys. Every team beats up on the other, and at the end attrition picks the best of the bunch to win the conference and get to go to the most prestigious of the alotted New Years bowl games.

I suppose in the end though it makes it all the more exciting as a fan to get to watch something competitive than watch a team walk off something like the Yankees of the past 10 years, or the Lakers up until last year, or the 90's Bulls; you see what I'm saying.

Sports writers have a sweet gig. Travel around, meet famous athletes, pay attention to every score, stat, storyline and whiney overpaid bitch you can, and write on it...and they'd pay you! Sure being the actual athlete is more glamourous, but there's also the distinct lack of real pressure. Like a roadie for a rockstar, sure you gotta make sure that guitar is tuned up on time, or that there's water at the ready, and all the gear's accounted for, but you're still gonna get the girls, and travel around to the most storied bars, arenas and stadiums in the world. The exact same I would have to think holds true of sports writers.

If I had a bit more writing talent, and the ability to pull more random facts from memory, and could shed my typically overwhelming bias, I'd give it a shot. Instead, I piss people off with harsh (although often true commentary) on other teams, and spend what little writing I do right here. I'm too old already to consider the pro athlete route as the fantasy career, so I suppose I'm left with rockstar, and superstar sports writer, unless blogging eventually truly breaks through to mainstream media and there are some openings in the blogstar department.

Pick on Someone Your Own Size

Finally George W. Bush is being challenged by someone of the same mental fortitude and toughness.

They condemned U.S. President George W. Bush and his administration for refusing to respect several NAFTA rulings supporting Canadian claims that the tariffs were illegal – including a recent one by an international panel whose rulings were supposed to be binding in disputes under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"The U.S. is just being a bully to us and keeps punching us," Matthew said.

"It's just sick and wrong."

The boys decided to make a statement by urging targeting one of the biggest and most beloved U.S. institutions – the Golden Arches.

"It's the most famous U.S. company in the world, that's why," Matthew said.

These kids deserve a lot of respect just for being aware of the situation unlike I'm sure a great portion of the population. Obviously a one day boycott isn't going to kill the company by any stretch, but what an excellent symbolic move. Maybe it will take kids like these to get through to the administration to the south.

Another Night of Drinking Older...But Not Any Wiser

Well, Wednesday night as expected was a great time. Two hours of all you can drink at the Brick Brewery to get started, and then a stumble down the street to shoot some pool, put back some more beer, and take random pictures that you don't remember when you download them from your camera two days later.

Pictures like these tend to be downloaded two days later because, as in my case, the day after is spent in a state of confusion, dizzyness and dehydration until well into the afternoon. Obviously I've had enough experience with those hydroxyls to know that you don't drink on an empty stomach, let your ass pass out without plenty of water or let your ass pass out while the room is still a bit wobbly. But I didn't let my experience control things on Wednesday night, and was visited by one hell of a hangover yesterday.

With yesterday being a total write-off, I once again left studying for an exam until the morning of. And despite all the hype and warning about how difficult it was supposed to be, it really seemed to go smoothly. Of course, the typical result of having any kind of confidence in an exam is having it handed back with a multitude of dumbass mistakes. A bad notation here. A rounding error there. Completely misreading part of a question on the last page. That's how the chips fall, and one day I'll force myself to stick with my plans to study and avoid those kind of things.

I have plenty of chances coming up far too quickly.

"Watch out for falling coconuts!"

I went out tonight for an end of season bbq/get together with my rec soccer team, which ended up leading to a wide ranging, and hilarious series of topics.

From gay nude beaches near UBC, and Fabio types, to warning signs from around the world, to stepping in warm dog and cat shit, to horny rabbits who use towels as sex toys, when you hang out with a bunch of geoscientists, you're guaranteed to hear some well travelled, twisted stories, no holds barred.

From the beaches of Costa Rica, to the bottom of caverns in New Mexico, from the volcanoes of Hawaii to the redwoods of Vancouver. Its why I fell into the field of study I'm in in the first place; the outdoors, the natural sights, the travelling. For now most of it is all related to me through the experience of others, but I have a few my own claims to great sights abroad, with only the promise of more in the future.

Its nights like these, amidst the laughter, and low comedy that I am reminded of why I put up with some of the shitty, useless courses that I do, and the overly redundant assignments and labs. In the end it will pay off, and I will be left in a field where travelling, and taking in the sights are part of the job description.

Tomorrow night promises to be filled with the same kind of hilarity on our undergrad organized tour of one of the local breweries and the likely subsequent stumble down to one of the bars down the street.

Sure I should be keeping a firm grip on my pennies. Sure I've got x-mas shopping to do shortly. But there's nothing that says that I can't have a little more fun now, while I'm relatively young and moderately able bodied. It only comes once, and I am getting to the point where I'm starting to regret letting my years roll by too quickly while I stand idly by with more aches, pains and scars seemingly each day.

Better Sit Down...

This about sums up my weekend:

Saving my harddrive was unsuccessful, I'm officially down to one last option to save all my old pictures and documents, and at best I think it has a slim to none shot of working.

None of the teams that were supposed to win in sports last night won, and Favre just threw a tipped interception at his own 20, which means at least another 3 points to overcome for me to get this underdog pick right.

At least I caught up on my sleep this weekend.

Pimp my Pride

Ahhh Fridays. Certainly no Wednesday. Today was a weird one too to keep things interesting. I woke up from a weird ass series of dreams to find out I had the van for the day, which always makes it much easier to drag myself through the motions of going to school and sitting through lectures.
Then I stumbled outside still in a half asleep daze to throw something in the garbage before the truck came by, and was greeted by sunshine and already 12 degree air. A high of 17 on the 4th of November is certainly welcomed by me, even though it made me feel mildly guilty for not biking in and taking full advantage.

A couple hours of mindless lectures later, and a school newspaper throughly perused, I got myself out of there ready to celebrate the weekend by stopping to get a cable I needed to attempt to save the harddrive that crashed a couple weeks ago. Yea, I know how to keep it exciting.

I pull into the driveway with the window down to enjoy what I'm sure will be the last nice day of 2005, and notice a familliar ticking coming from the engine of the van, reminding me that at 11 years of age, she's burned off a bit of her oil again and needs to be topped up.

On pulling the hood release to throw some oil in, the handle comes a full two inches further than its supposed to, and I cringe as I know there's another issue to be fixed (the full list is far to depressing, expensive, and in the end pointless to lay down here). I give closing the hood a couple tries, and no dice, at which point I know I won't even be able to drive out to grab whatever part I need to fix it.

With the hood release mechanism being right above the radiator, and myself being prone to needless cuts, scrapes, and burns I decided to give it some time to cool down before poking and prodding around too much more, so I come inside to throw on some grubs that have enough other stains on them that a few more grease and oil spots would just add some more character, or something like that.

I check my e-mail quick and find out the University has graciously decided to give me a bunch of money in a scholarship for this term, which after balancing my accounts this morning, is more than just a convenient occurence.

After a little bit I decide to get at the hood latch again. I'm glad its a relatively old vehicle at this point, because I have seen under the hoods of some of the new cars out there, and everything seems so awkward and inconveniently placed that I doubt I would have been able to get at anything under there. As it was, it took me a full twenty minutes to confirm my suspicion that some spring had broken.

Another ten minutes and I'd manage to bend the end of the remaining spring into shape and force it into place on the latch, and thus repair, if only temporarily, the hood latch. Amazingly, all of which done with no blood or burnt flesh, and at zero cost but my time.

Now I am left with just my harddrive to attempt to save. One of my personalities is saying that since I'm having a great day, it might actually work, while the archpersonality drives home that only so much can go right in a day. I guess we'll have to see what happens.

Hump Day

Wednesdays suck. They suck almost as much as Mondays. Those two lead the pack in being filled with suck. Aside from them being the busiest day in my schedule, it has its own universal flaws.

Wednesdays lie right in the middle of the week, right in the thick of working or going to school. The memories, those that you retained, from the weekend are fading, and Friday is still too far away to bring the promise of new ones. Its got nothing for the religious people out there. Its got nothing for social customs. Its completely useless.

The one time saving grace of any given non-Sunday was that TV schedules might align with your taste and give you a show to look forward to, on Wednesday at 9 for example. But now we live in the age of Tivo, and PVRs, and DVRs, and DVDs, and the internet, and can watch just about anything we want, whenever we want it (provided its got enough of a following).

I'm glad most of my Wednesday is over.

And on the most recent Tuesday in my schedule, i.e. yesterday, my signed copy of Stiff arrived from sunny L.A. Tony went above and beyond to do me a favour and package a book for my buddy with it, and I plan on getting started on it sometime before next Wednesday.

Fight til the End

Yesterday I woke up, rolled to the side of my bed, picked up my guitar, and literally played till my fingers bled. Well, til one of them bled. And no, I didn't pick it up at the 'five and dime'. That was about all old man productivity had in store for me for Saturday. Today, I did the same.

My weekends lately are seriously devoid of any kind of excitement, and have become far too predictable. Learning a couple new riffs or memorizing a couple new chord progesssions, simple or no, is only self gratifying for so long. And the alcohol does nothing but tax my wallet.

And why is it a remaining tradition for senior citizens to do their shopping on weekends. I completely respect equal opportunity for all people, including the geriatrics among us, but come on! You people have 5 days of the week where most of the working, professional, or schooling world will be totally out of your way and you can waddle through the aisles of your local grocery store at leisure. Why do you insist on saving your shopping for Saturdays and Sundays, when the stores are busy enough with the volume of the working world, and park your carts in the most inopportune of locations, and laze slowly about.

If anyone catches me shopping on a Saturday or Sunday beyond the day I offically retire, I hereby grant you permission to take me into the stock area and kick my ass.

Today provided a little bit of activity to the weekend with a playoff soccer game in my rec league, which we lost to a team full of those people that take things way too seriously (I'm sure you know the type) and a number of NFL weird and wacky games.

The Packers were beaten again, and Favre is fading not so gracefully into the sunset, but he sure as hell is ready to go out doing the best he can manage with the talent around him he has to work with. And now the Bills at the Patriots is started, and Ted Bruschi who had a stroke after last years Pro Bowl, and who looked like it would be impossible for him to play ever again started, and is playing influential football. Its gamers like Favre and Bruschi that fight, and don't give up that reflect positively on professional sports, despite the whiners and sucks you will find out there in all sports.

Hallows Eve Suggestions

If I was into going out and doing the Halloween partying thing I have a couple costume ideas for this year, feel free to use them as you see fit:

-Internet Pirate (a la Maddox): Get yourself an eye patch, and bring along your ipod/mp3 discman/pirated media weapon of choice, and maybe wear a torrentspy or I Hate Lars t-shirt.

-Leafs Fan:
option 1 - Find someone willing to lend you a Leafs jersey, cut off the blade of a hockey stick, tape the leftover shaft such that it is lodged up your ass or
option 2 - Find someone willing to lend you TWO Leafs jerseys, and find yourself an inflatable doll to put the second jersey on, strap to back in suggestive pose. (Note: you might be best off asking that Leafs fan pal of yours who lent you the jersey for his inflatable doll...we all know he's got one...and its probably effeminately named 'Darcy')

-Your Evil Twin: The big bonus here is no money lost on costume, the downside lack of originality, this is the low budget option (if it gets you into the party/kegger/bar cheaper, do it). Only lots of pride and self respect lost in defaming yourself, but you'll most likely be drunk soon enough and prone to embarrassing your sorry ass anyways.

-George W. Bush: I dare you. If you could find a friend to dress as a WMD for the evening though, you could run that gag all night in a crowd; "Has anyone see my WMD?" (Note: to the WMD friend, if you decide not to show up, the image is complete, find yourself a better party, and tell G.W. about it later.)

Apparently I misplaced the rest of the mildly amusing ideas that came to me today, my memory is a seive lately, unfortunately, it has an affinity for only keeping the crap. Post your suggestions!

Its a Start...

The U.S. today apparently decided to cease funding for the development of back-pack nukes according to the BBC.

Its alright to call everyone else on even the slightest hint of nuclear arms development, impose sanctions against them, and threaten to attack them if their actions don't fit with the visions of the big guy. Yet, millions per year go towards funding their own weapons of the same destructive energy. Millions per year for too many years that, just for the sake of simple analogy, could have easily been diverted to levee construction everywhere in hurricane alley. Clearly there are numerous other programs both domestic and international that the U.S. could have better spent that money on, but instead it goes to flexing the military might. Military might so shocking, and awe inspiring that 2 and a half years later, Iraqi militants are still so bewildered that they continue to strike randomly at the occupant military, and other political and religious sects in the nation.

It should have been quite apparent right from the start that a big military presence wasn't going to be met by an equally large military in some large battlefield, with the mess to be mopped up later. Battles like that haven't taken place since the World Wars, and for good reason, good commanders realized they were a waste, illogical, and for the most part meaningless. On top of that, those few nations that do have such a large military will obliterate one another with nukes before any large scale battle could ensue. The North Vietnamese demonstrated the effectiveness of guerilla tactics against a much larger enemy, and one would think there'd be a lesson learned. Instead, the posturing continues, and the big boys on the block belabor young nations about their nuclear intent, while continuing to do the same themselves. And sadly, instead of choosing this, smallest of opportunities, to lead by example, a main argument from within instead comes:

However, critics doubted whether the weapon could go deep enough to contain any fall-out.

As opposed to, "we will take a step to denuclearizing the world, and our own military, and hope that the rest of you will follow".

Find the Time

This week is stupid busy for me, so anything that isn't mildly stressed out garble will be at a mininum. Its not so much difficulty as quantity, but still enough to put too much on my plate.

That said, Matt Good made a stellar post today on the future of global sociopolitical action, and specifically how attitudes here in North America are going to need to change before we can change the direction that some of the powers that be are taking us. The best things in life are worth working hard for.

Check this.

In My Dreams

Lately I have been having very vivid, or at least realistic dreams. When I wake up I couldn't give a written account of the affair or anything, I just know that its not anything too fantastical. But the issue is that I remember enough of them, like snippets of dreamt conversations that I get confused as to whether the discussion ever actually took place.

I don't know if its the stress, or the alcohol, or the getting old, or some function of the three that does it, but its really weirding me out lately, and making me feel more than mildly retarded at times.

Did I pass on that message that the family doctor called confirming an appointment? Is my buddy gonna stop by to pick up that DVD today? Did I leave the lights on in the van?

Its not obsessive compulsive or anything; I don't go tracking things down in some paranoid frenzy. Infact, I feel like to much of an idiot when these things come up to do anything about it but some subtle, careful retracing of the previous few days events.

Whatever it is, hopefully it goes away soon...I miss my normal falling dreams, and touring the world within the span of a night, and talking with people I haven't seen in years.

Just lay back down your pretty head...

The MG show kicked ass, and for the most part only a couple of the idiots. A guy in a leather jacket jumpin around like a fool and waving his hand in peoples face or almost hitting them in the face, and people who just couldn't shut up for a couple minutes while Matt was trying to connect on an intellectual level with the crowd, you win some you lose some.

Of the weirder moments of the evening was the kid behind us who we thought was pushing his way forward, and was actually passing out and ended up fallin down between me and my buddy and a couple other people. I assume it was just exhaustion or over excitement or something for the kid, but we got him back up and the one guy took off to make sure he got somewhere to sit down.

Anyways, here's the best of my shots...

Downhill From Here

At long last this week is all but over, and I survived the beatings of a midterm and the abundance of assignments and labs that always seem to be due all at once. I even got in 4 hours of 'contract' work today to pad my wallet a bit, and now have the Matt Good show to go to tonight to relax before it all starts again with two more midterms and too much other stuff for me to remember at the moment.

I'm hoping beyond hopes that there aren't some morons there tonight, or at least not close to me. But its a small venue (which makes it awesome) and there are inevitibly morons amongst the crowd that take it upon themselves to try to start a mosh pit during a solo acoustic number. I'm bringing my camera, we'll see if the batteries last and if I can get any decent shots out of the evening...you'll know soon enough if I do.

Employees Wanted

I wish I could get away with applying to jobs not nearly as high in stature or importance with as vague a description of my past education and work experiences as Harriet Miers'. This woman, nominated by Bush to be the replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor as an Associate Justice in the Supreme Court of the U.S. of A, while having an impressive list of past experiences and positions, can't go through the relative ease of looking up the dates of past employment to submit in her official response to the judiciary committee of the Senate that is basically responsible for grilling her before being allowed to take the position.

One would only hope that a higher standard would be expected of someone that could see a lifetime tenure in the court that makes some of the most important decisions in United States Law. Sure, there are plenty of experiences to account for, and many of them date back a fair way, but anyone deemed worthy of being able to handle the responsibility that Bush wants to bestow on her should be able to figure these things out and fill out a complete description.

Someone should have been kind enough to let her know that she wasn't running for Grade 9 student council rep. If I applied to a co-op job with 'Date unknown' or 'mid to late 80's' there's not a chance in hell I'd even be considered for the job in question. Nevermind the limited experience with the kind of job environment that she would find herself in, or the questions about her ability to separate her beliefs and politics from fair unbiased case hearings.

I don't see how, unless she's trying to not get the job, you could go about returning a response to a job like that in such a casual fashion. I'm sure many will argue in favour of its honesty and candidness, and that's fair enough, but as a matter of principle and dedication to her cause and possible future job, she's sure gotten off to an extremely poor start.

Oh yea, and Saddam Hussein goes on trial tomorrow. The hope is to come across as a fair trial, and one can only hope beyond hopes that it actually goes down as such. Its fairly obvious that he was responsible for brutal crimes in his time, so a trial like this shouldn't need unfair loading of the scales to begin with.

How To Walk in Public

Why is it when people get into public places they forget how to walk? I'm not talking about stumbling around the bar on a couple pitchers and a few shots, I'm talking walking around a store, or on a sidewalk, or between classes.

There are all kinds of walking offenses that people commit, and it really pisses me off:

1) The formation walkers. When walking down a hallway/aisle you get the group of three or four abreast either infront of you doddling or coming at you, and won't move their asses out of their preset formation. Get over yourselves. Move the fuck out of the way, I'm sure your friends can still hear what you've got to say if they walk a step behind you...I sure can when I'm trying to get down the hall past your slow asses.

2) The speed challenged. I understand if you've got a disability or injury or something keeping you from walking at a normal pace, and I understand taking a leisurely stroll, but when there are a couple thousand people moving between classes, and you happen to not have a class in the next 5 minutes, don't hold everyone else in the world up with your strutting. Everyone knows that all the juicy hints and shit so you don't have to study as hard for exams and assignments get handled in the first few minutes of class.

3) Wanderers. Learn how to walk in a straight line people. Or be prepared to deal with the consequences when I run over you cause you've stepped infront of me for no reason. Its a pain in the ass to walk around your bobbing and weaving ass too, are you pretending you're playin football and avoiding would-be tacklers? And then these people have the audacity to start cussing after me when I ride by them too close cause I can't read minds.

4) Double doors. They put at least two doors at entrances and exits of areas for a reason. They tend to be at least partly glass so you can see traffic coming through them. Use the door on the right, just like lanes of traffic here in North America people (yes, you're living in North America now, so learn the rules and we'll have no problems). when there are two perfectly good doors, don't open the opposite door and then give me a dirty look when I walk right on through and don't let your ass go first.

5) Clogging the system. Why do people find it necessary to stand in packs in the middle of hallways and open spaces? Yes I realize you are probably waiting for something, and hell, it might even be something important, but it can be important off to the side somewhere too so that people who aren't waiting can move on. Its not so important that you and your friends need to make a human monument to your cause and make everyone else filter their way through and around you.

If you get an elbow in the ribs or shoulder against your shoulder, or bike tire up the back of your leg in the future, you probably deserved it.

Who Needs 'Em

So I wake up at 10:00ish this morning. By 11:00 my messenger program starts crashing and giving me Winblows errors. I, as is the usual solution, restart my computer, only to have it not want to boot up again.

At this point I'm more than mildly aggravated with close to 5,000 songs, 20 movies, and countless irreplaceable pictures on my drive. I try solutions that have worked for me in the past, and others suggested on support forums for 3 hours with no success, so I give in and go out and buy the new harddrive I've kind of been wanting anyways.

This lightens my mind a bit, you know, makes me think I'm in the clear. I hook it up and install Winblows to it no problem....but does it see my old harddrive? Of course not. After further playin around, it won't even boot up if I have my old drive connected.

I already lost 5 years worth of bank records, pictures and the like earlier in the summer, and was only able to recover part of them. That event I attribute to my own stupidity, but this was fully and completely the result of Micro$oft bending me over and giving it to me sans lube. I've lost another batch of pictures, and all the music I've collected and ripped from my own CD's in the past 6 or 7 years, and its not even looking like I can save pieces of them at this point.

I was primed for a great weekend, and then this shit happens.

Mr. Gates, you just visited my school and I missed you, but damnit, you'd best be sleeping with one eye open. Yes I'm pissed. I can almost guarantee you would be too.

I'm known to be anal about the tags on my music, and it took me forever to organize the shit the way I wanted. That said, if you think you can help reestablish my music collection let me know...and those closer to me, if you've got some pics that I've posted and have probably now lost, hook a guy up.

I'm so sick of this fixing computers bullshit.

Don't Get Cocky

Midterm season opened today. I had no choice but to partake in the hunt, but I did so thinking my couple rounds of ammunition would be enough to take on any assortment of animals that came at me.

I tip-toed through the first half of the exam, picking off the random rabbit or squirrel, but the big bucks were nowhere to be found. But the squirrels and rabbits were enough to make me cocky, thinkin I could handle anything. And then came the long answer questions, providing me a huge target to shoot at. Targets I'd been assigned before. Targets I picked off no problem in the past. But not today my friends. Today a bear got a hold of me, hit me in the head a couple times, and confused the shit outta me.

He coulda killed me, but in the end he let me go, and I let him go with only partial wounds. My cockiness got the better of me and the bear let me know that I better pack better heat for the rest of the midterm season, or final season could see me mauled in a deep dark place on campus.

Hear My Train a Comin'

Well, its not as all encompassing as I had hoped, infact, its mostly only a new page, and there's not much on it, but its coming. If I find some money I'm thinking of buying a domain and hosting (yea, I know I've said it before, and it may be a while yet) and switching everything over to WordPress in hopes of making republishing more manageable. There are some fun things I wanna do with that links page yet, just a matter of getting the help and learning the code I need to know. Hey, I see you over there pointing and laughing at my pocket protector, stop that.

Tony got his book Stiff on the shelves. I'm lookin forward to gettin a copy, but if anyone local to me wants to go in with me in an attempt to save some shipping and customs bank let me know soon.

Apology to the Kiddies...

This is an apology to the disrespectful kids I called out in the last post. The lost camera I was discussing was found last night, apparently some drunk other kiddy left the camera in some chick's car. This is a somewhat dubious story in my eye as someone who lifted it and felt guilty later could easily say "oh you musta left this in my ride"...but in the end, the pictures and videos are back.

Update in the works.

Hey Kiddies...

What ever happened to respect? I went to a party last night that was a send off for a buddy who's going to Whistler for his second winter of skiing and debauchery, and had a great time. That is, until the early morning sometime when the Brit that's living at my buddy's place had his camera swiped (at least, that's the only conclusion that made any sense after searching the house and surrounding property), complete with months worth of pictures and videos from his travels. Even to go to a party like that and steal something of any kind is just plain dumb, but who the fuck has so little respect that they take irreplacable memories.


I stuck around trying to help find shit and clean up til nearly 6 this morning, and slept all day. I haven't talked to anyone yet from last night, but I think its pretty safe to assume that we were thorough enough in searching to know that camera's gone.

In other news, Tom Cheek, the radio voice of the Blue Jays since they came into the major leages, passed away today, Touched em all Tom.

Its Back

In most cases, a strike in sports detracts from the game for an extended period of time, only now is baseball getting back on the pace it left itself at in 1994. But tonight marks the opening of the NHL following their 2004/2005 strike, and, at least among Canadians, there seems to be nothing but excitement, and relief to have professional puck back on the ice.

TV broadcasters are giddy, and smiling like a schoolboy who just found his dad's Playboy stash. There were jerseys of the favourite teams all over campus and the city today...obviously with more Leafs jerseys than I'd care to see.

This strike had a reverse effect. Instead of losing fans who felt players were getting too much compensation for having fun, and entertaining us, the players of the NHL took some large paycuts just to come back and play hockey. In the end they ended up settling for little more than they could have had to save the last season, but they still took a huge hit...and people like me missed the excitement in the meantime. So they held out for a year, and teased us, and played in Europe, and made us get reacquainted with junior hockey, and brought on a lot more soccer coverage.

I can't complain about any of the outcomes. Players needed to go to Europe and learn the skill game again, not the grind and grab that the NHL had turned into. The kids in Junior hockey needed some attention, and viewership, and money to keep goin, and they got it. And who can complain about better soccer coverage.

The only complaint I can really voice, is that of all the goddamn Texas Hold'Em I had to sift through for the past year and a bit. Its a game, mental strategy, playing odds, for the love of all that is physical and athletic, please can we now see the end of the explanations of what the 'River Card' is.

On behalf of Canada, I welcome you back NHL, and with any luck, those Americans will start to show you some love too.

The Post Season

The one truth of any sport is that the playoffs are a whole new season. The lowest seed coming in can always pull something out of their hat and pop up to surprise you. Players that filled positions during the season show their stuff, motivated by the possibility of a championship in their respective sport.

The most recognizable voices of sports broadcasting come out to play too. And in October, the gritty, strong, north-eastern voice of Chris Berman, usually reserved for stumblin' and bumblin' around the football scene is heard making humourous wordplays on names, and adding his own spice of excitement to the baseball diamond.

During the baseball postseason, the networks recognize that a lot of the common folk see watching baseball on TV as about as entertaining as watching grass grow...and the best personalities out there come loaded with entertaining anecdotes and stories about players, coaches of old and new. While I can sit and enjoy a televised baseball game under most circumstances, avec or sans filler, I certainly don't object to most of the little dialogues exchanged.

There are certain commentators, most of whom I tend to forget the names of until the following time I hear them, that state blindingly obvious axioms and theories as if they are something so profound that we should be sending THEM money for their relief effort to the game being described. But these guys are there all the time, and just get a bit more of the spotlight during the postseason...or on Monday nights in the case of Coach Madden(ing).

These guys can be tuned out though in most cases, and there are always really interesting tales to be heard in between, particularly in the baseball realm. October is one of the finest representations of America's pastime, and one of the best things they have going...lets show a little more collective respect...there's so much more than grass growing, even to the uninformed casual viewer.

And lets not forget that Canada's pastime opens for the first time in two years tomorrow night!

Fire Rawwwrr!

I was already planning on having a fire this weekend...but Raymi's friends have given me more motivation.

I don't know why I haven't done this yet.

Another "What's Your Stance"

Came across this little quiz over at MBlog. Granted it means about as much as a rain drop in the Pacific, still, it was something to do.

You are a Social Liberal (65% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (31% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Good Night's Sleep

The latter part of this week saw me suffering asthma like symptoms, something I've gotten sparodic bouts of for years. It usually ends up lasting a couple days, not being able to recoup after one day from how uncomfortable it is to sleep. I've always been too stubborn to go to the doctor about it and get an inhaler to clear it up if it were possible, instead resorting to trying to diagnose the cause myself.

The past couple times I've had it, its been from cleaning, particularly in the basement where on top of the dust that is in a bit of excess around here, it is also damp, and so likely rich with mold spores. I'm hoping with a couple air filters I can lower my chances of the episodes.

After getting a decent, but not great sleep Friday night, my chest loosened up, and so last night I managed to saw logs straight through the night. This morning was one of those mornings where you wake up with an abundance of energy, and feeling great about life. Within a 2 hour stretch I managed to make breakfast (this from a person who rarely even eats cereal for breakfast), whip together some caesar salad dressing for dinner this evening, do a sink-full of pots and pans, as well as unload the everyday stuff from the dishwasher, and two loads of laundry. Then I had time to catch a bit of NFL pregame before opening kick-off.

While those persistant, annoying Yankees managed to clinch a playoff berth this weekend, and the Jays managed to finish the season under the .500 mark, I still managed to have a positive weekend...certainly less disappointing than This guy.

Conflict of Interest

I ran into a dilemma in the last week. I really do support my Blue Jays, and want to see them do well. In a division with Baltimore and Boston and New York, even a winning record is a plus, but right now the best I can hope for is a .500 record. That said, the Jays played Boston this week, and did a decent job of playing the spoiler role.

I almost wish that they hadn't. Going into the final 3-game series weekend, Boston sits 1 back of the Yankees, and tied with the Indians for the wildcard spot. In that position, Boston has to win all 3 in New York, or win 2 of 3 in New York, and then win the tiebreaker between them, which I believe is their record against one another. Or they have to hope that the fading White Sox pull their shit together this weekend and lay it to the Tribe.

However, my hope isn't to see Boston make the playoffs, as a Jays fan, I hate everyone else in the A.L. East. Ideally, Cleveland sweeps the ChiSox out of Jacob's Field, and Boston manages to beat NY some how, some way. We all counted them down and out in the ALCS last year. Hopefully they can twist the thorn further in.

Nothing this weekend would satisfy me more than to see the Yankees left out of the playoffs entirely.

Alcycling

Yoga? Sounds like a forgotten Starwars character.

Pilates? Pontius and family? or a Hollywood fad taken abroad?

Zone diets, Atkins, fuck all that shit...what you need is a good bike ride. Not just any bike ride. Find yourself a buddy and a couple friends, and drink it up at their place while re-running the hilarity of The Life of Brian. Have 1, or 2, but ideally 8 beers. Then hop on your bike, and ride your loaded, bloated, beer swilling ass home into a good headwind from an oncoming cold front. Don't pussy out and take the flattest, easiest way you can.

Instead, take the most circuitous yet direct, hilly route you can find, and ride all out. I guarantee, you'll be sober, and feelin like a million bucks after 20 minutes of workin your system as hard as a Roman with a whip who hasn't seen the bright side of life.

Monkey Business

**Warning: Long Post/Rant Ahead**

A couple weeks ago the Daily Show brought to more public light the battle between Creationists/Intelligent Design'ists' and Science in their 'Evolution Schmevolution Week'. Its something that, coming from a science background, and scientific thinking as I do (and so yes this post will infact have a bias to it), I have seen a lot of in the past. Particularly in studying the earth sciences, where all of a couple hundred years of scientific study, predictive models and hypotheses lead to the earth being on the order of 4.6 billion years old, and not truly forming in any habitable way until about 600 million years ago.

Now there are groups of people that exist that believe in catastrophism theories, that suggest that what we currently observe in terms of natural processes of sediment deposition (that is 'making rocks') and erosion (that is 'destroying rocks') used to happen much faster. Infact, nearly instantaneously in a 3000-4000 year calendar for the entire Earth. And fossils that are discovered, and can be dated using the same knowledge that now allows for nuclear power, and nuclear weapons proliferation, back to 100 million year time scales, by methods frequently tested, and replicated under strictly controlled conditions have been placed there by 'demonic powers' to 'throw us off'. Most logical minds, not even particularly scientific minds recognize that things like this cannot be simply thrown away as 'blasphemous'. These tend to be the same people that realize Holy books as roughly translated, non-literal literature.

But the most widely spectated battle for the past 80+ years has been the theory of evolution and its implications against certain religious beliefs, particularly in North America. When Darwin came along and identified 'survival of the fittest' as a means for living beings to better themselves, it offended some people. Now, futher research has only added to the validity of Darwin's evolution theories, there is still some opening to uncertainty, and I'm not claiming it to be 100% accurate...there aren't many things that ever ARE completely right. Nothing is always black and white, mostly just lighter and darker shades of grey. That said, scientists have been taken to task over this theory since the 1925 Scopes Trial, trying to abolish the teaching of evolution in the United States. Most recently, in Pennsylvania the Intelligent Design community has actually forced a trial to deliberate over the teaching of evolution and non-inclusion of Intelligent Design as a plausible alternative.

In the past Creationism was seen by most as a religious belief system imposed as pseudo-scientific explanation. Unfortunately for them, even the politicians in the past looked through the rough, and certainly unproven hypotheses, and recognized the teachings as religious, and thus not allowed by a particular clause somewhere in the U.S. Constitution (hey, I'm not a law student, let alone U.S. law). But with a dying following, a lot of this group has reinvented itself into the Intelligent Design movement who suggest that anything they deem unfathomable within a short timescale must have been put in place by some higher power (i.e. God). And now somehow, despite the complete religious overtone of their belief, it has actually made it to trial to have it be taught formally as a possible alternative.

As I said, no-one in the scientific community is going to swear by evolution as Darwin described it 100%, that's simply not how the scientific process of checking, rechecking and checking theory again works. And I completely agree that, particularly for younger children, it should be emphasized that evolution is a THEORY. While it is reproducable, and fits an explanation with very few wild leaps of faith, it is not a certain concept and should be taught as such. On the other hand, you cannot just decide to emplace some belief system with very many leaps of faith just as something for an alternative.

If there was a founded, logical progression to ideas, and not simply the suggestion that anything we cannot currently understand is too complex for us to ever know, and thus must be the result of some higher power, then by all means teach it. Human knowledge in the past has only benefitted from controversy, difference of theory, and the drive to establish more accurate, thorough descriptions of the way things all around us behave. It makes us get our shit right. We know the earth isn't flat because we've gone around it on planes, trains, and aeroplanes, along with spaceships and the satellites that give us Fox News, CNN et al. 24/7. We know the Sun isn't a god in the sky, because we've sent physical, tangible objects there, and had them give back information on what happens there. We've been on or at least around many of the other chariots in the sky now too, again with objects, that people could touch here on earth, enhanced with technologies like those that let millions walk through malls with annoying ringtones, and take pictures with the same phone.

Somehow though, we are supposed to disregard all the technologies that science has brought us because a couple hundred years has only gotten us wireless technologies, and so we can't possibly understand how a mushroom, tree, or we ultimately came to be. It has been the same all along. When planets and stars were too difficult to understand, they became gods because people could relate. When we needed a way for the earth under our feet to hold us up, and give us food, and for the clouds above to drop rain and fill our rivers, it was Gods. But slowly logical thought and problem solving came along and we had the ability to predict how things would occur.

If its not become apparent in my posts in the past, I'm not a particularly religious person. I take issue with some of the absolutely arbitrary rules and obligations placed on the religions I know a little bit about. And while I digress that I do only know a little of each, I know enough to recognize that the core principles of each are almost the same; they come down to common sense really, but religion serves as an organized means to bring these principles across. I have no problem with people practicing their faith, as long as they don't push it on me, or don't start killing others because of it simply because of their interpretations of many times translated pieces of literature. But when that does start to happen, and when people start trying to force these beliefs on children, or knocking on your door, calling you a sinner, then I start to get pissy, and get ranty like you see here.

Pray to your god of choice, practice the peaceful way of life you choose, have your beliefs about the place in the universe for heavenly influences, or the belief they may not exist at all, but do not start forcing them on groups of people, particularly in the public school system where people of this wide assortment of culture are going to come together.

Words Without Words

Skimming the news between classes today across I came across this book on the BBC. There are some great words defined just within the article, and I might have to pick up the book itself.

My faves of the bunch in the article:

"The Japanese have bakku-shan - a girl who appears pretty from behind but not from the front."

"...a Backpfeifengesicht - a face that cries out for a fist in it."

"Which brings us back to de Boinod's title: tingo is an invaluable word from the Pascuense language of Easter Island meaning "to borrow objects from a friend's house, one by one, until there's nothing left"."

(Old) Man On!

I just got in from the first campus rec soccer game I was able to make this year. I figure if I commit to a team sport, I have to show up, and thus get in shape. But in the mean time, 20 minutes of full field play just rocked me. I only played in the field for the first half and chilled in net for the second half, but wow. Muscles have tightened up that haven't been used since the years as a kid when I played football or baseball 5 times a week.

As a team we played awesome, no-one takes to overly seriously, but everyone knows when to play hard...like bein 2 people down in the first half (and that's my excuse for the first half)...hopefully the remaining two games this week whip my old man body into slightly younger man shape.

At least I didn't make any Paul Scholes like blunders costing my team the game, like yesterday's ManU vs. Blackburn game. Although I racked up some more points for havin van Nistelrooy on my fantasy roster. Yes, sometimes the mildest things in life amuse me.

There's an IV Keepin' Time Beside My Bed

Last night destroyed me. I'm so tired and out of it today, its unreal. I finally dragged my ass out of bed at noon to haphazardly finish off an assignment, and then run in for a class and a field lab.

While looking at partial derivatives is never particularly fun, I learned today that its far worse while hungover. I also read last nights post and realized I should invent some kind of filter to keep me from posting while I'm too drunk to form two coherent sentences in a row.

Road Map to Nowhere

Alright, so lets see how this goes...

Today was the earth sciences department "get wrecked day". I got sufficiently wrecked, and am now sitting here trying to put up with the over the top Nancy Grace, 'O'Reilly' style reporting on CNN Newline. In the mean time I had tons of fun watchin a repeat of the ManU Liverpool draw from last weekend, and watchin other people make asses of themselves...

granted I made a similar ass of myself...c'est la vie.

As for the disasters in the south...I don't have the monetary means to do anything, but I feel I have a bit of common sense and understanding of water contamination on my side....but there's not really much I can do about it to get there and help, except cheer for American stubborness and resiliency...

No matter what the results of elections or failed movements, no-one should have to suffer the inevitable, yet avoidable consequences of nature.

Sure people will attempt to call this year a statistical anomaly....but such anomalies I believe will end up relating back to poor use of resources, and overall gluttony of the first world lifestyle, and desire for the scenic paradise way of life, and those less fortunate left in the wake of those with money's departure...

And the same people who call on some divine power, and others, will expect some new miraculous invention of science to save them....but while the oil industry holds back certain advances in the interest of profit, and while funding is witheld, and while we sit rotating on our thumbs...this spinning glob of dirt, gas, and liquid, will be further fucked into the future by pride and ego.

Time and Money Well Spent

I sure am glad that two fifths of my tuition money this term are going towards learning difficult concepts like "how to find an average" and "how to change a page orientation". I know I'd be lost without these borderline rocket science concepts. The problem is that courses that have been mandatory for my program for some time have evolved over the years and tend to be geared towards other disciplines, except perhaps my statistics course which so far seems to be focused toward about a Grade 5 curriculum.

There are much better things out there I could be spending my money on; more topical courses would be a good start, but not necessarily even for myself. Unfortunately there's not much I can do to buck the system at this point, so I'll just have to bend over and take it.

On the bright side, tomorrow is Logan Day, where the Earth Science department gets together to celebrate one of the godfathers of the Earth Sciences in Canada. In other words, the profs, staff and students from all levels get together, play some games, and then move on to the bar for the real fun to ensue, and I'll attempt to find temporary happiness at the bottom of a beer bottle (pictured).

My signed copy of Matt Good's In A Coma came in today, complete with bloggers in the liner notes. The interweb has been embraced to yet greater extent again. And the album so far is extremely solid, not that I expected any less. Its partially a greatest hits album, so all of you out there that only enjoyed him a little, but not enough to buy a full album should check it out.

Autumn in the Air

Brisk evenings and cooler and cooler days. The smell in the air as a haul my less than rested ass off to school. The leaves of the maples starting to turn from green to that distinct purple. The pennant races. The NFL Sundays. The NHL training camps. The season premieres of all the good shows. The fact that I'm back in school, and that less than rested me is one year older, and supposedly wiser. It all adds up to one thing, fall.

Every year at this time I get this weird feeling of nostaligia as I think of goin back to school as a kid, and watching the Jays (before the 94 strike) make a run at the championship. The years gettin to know new classes, and new schools. The excitement involved with both the sports and the new chances, and yet, eventually all the leaves fall. The excitement recedes...and the temperature keeps falling, and exams come knocking, and my birthday comes rollin up in the driveway tellin you to get out and party it up, only for ice storms or Christmas celebrations, or exhaustion to ruin all that.

The grass and leaves, and squirrels foraging for walnuts on the lawn all too quickly falls to 2 feet of snow, slushy roads, and excessively cold air.

And once again I get caught looking too far into the times ahead, while thinking about the experiences past.

Coming Soon....

Right now I'm looking at coding a new small page with links to my fantasy sports teams incase there's anyone out there that's as addicted to the games as I am. Apparently I'm missing something in the coding right now and it looks like shit (as do old entries of mine if you click on them individually). If a buddy of mine and I can't figure out what I've managed to fuck up though, I'll just design something new and make the masses deal with it. Because I can.

In other news, the vote on the book covers over at Busblog is done, and cover 5 won. Cover 5 wasn't mine, but was one of my faves. For those paying attention, mine was numba 3. Tony however decided that he's gonna make all 6 of those covers available, which is a pretty sweet deal. I'll have no official credit out there, but I'll know, and so now will you, and that's all that matters. I'll post a link when he's got the books available for sale...

Matt Good posted a show for Kitchener at Elements October 20th...I think I have a midterm the next day, but fuck it, I bailed on the shows near here earlier this summer, no excuses this time around. Its an all ages gig, which means I might end up having to contend with the dumbass young kids that decide they want to mosh to an acoustic version of Apparitions and to Can't Get Shot in the Back if You Don't Run, but a couple well placed elbows will solve that.

School's on in full force now. I know this because I've taken a look at my first large assignment, and skipped my first class (of many to come) for the term....I've settled in.

Googlogger

Well, Google has now released a Blog search engine that supposedly goes beyond its own Blogger engine and Technorati. Between the scholar search for educational/professional papers, google earth, gmail, and now this, these guys are on fire. I recognized that when they first put stocks on the market, but I'm one of those who's not left with the money to buy into solid prospects.

The rich get richer... etc etc. blah blah. woof woof.

In the end it comes down to this: Google is offering some kickass free services, and driving Microsoft itself to rewrite search algorithms. Yes I bitch with no end about Microsoft, only because it has run seemingly unchecked for so long. But competition like this, and that from other alternatives for various services (web browsers, e-mail, word processing, etc.) only serves to increase the quality of the product we're getting, while keeping prices down.

The same goes for processing with battles between AMD and Intel over who can produce the most efficient, reliant, fast, and yet affordable PC computer chips (no disgrace to Apple, who've done some awesome things on their own in the past few years, and have me thinking about getting one simply to play around with laying tracks in ProTools). Or nVidia and ATI who have battled for the past several years over the video processing market.

Without competition, there is no motivation to do better, to better serve the customer, and give them the most effective, no frills version of a product possible. Political parties here in North America should have a read from the digital electronics notebook on this one....there has to be a significant challenger waiting in the wings, pounding down the door, waiting for you to slip to take over the reigns.

In Canada we have our two 'big boys' and then the NDP...the more the merrier, but even then, no one ever really causes enough of a fuss to get real shit done. In the U.S. it only seems worse, with only two parties, and the Democrats not very visible at all besides the occasional jabs here and there.

Unfortunately the 'customer' in politics case doesn't have a 1-800 line to dial and lay into and demand better, save for approximately every 4th year, and even then, specific demands are never truly heard, things need to be changed.

Tony Pierce Book Cover Contest

The cover I designed made the final six of Tony Pierce's book cover contest. I'm not gonna say which is mine though...any guesses?

Infact, four of my favourites are in the top six, I don't really care if I win, there were some cool covers.

Provincial Government Stands Up

I just came across an article from the CBC on the Shariah law movement in Ontario. There were protests this weekend around the world against adopting legislation that would allow Islamic law to be used as a proxy in Ontario. Now from what I've read, when practiced properly these laws are generally fair to all parties, but I agree fully with not allowing religious practice into the judicial system. Yes we here in Canada live in a very multicultural society, with many different religious backgrounds, but in order to maintain a society that is fair to all those parties, the central bodies should not have a whole bunch of different separate laws that are applicable to the church bodies in the province. I understand that there are currently other bodies afforded the same special privilege to impose their own law, and I think those too should be abolished.

The fact is that Canada is the cliched mixing pot of the world, and that everyone should respect all the other beliefs in the society around us. But I also feel that once you have become a member of a new society, in most cases to escape the practices of an old culture, one central system of law should be followed.

I've always believed that the central ideas of all religions are on the right path, but I also feel that there are far too many openings to misinterpretation, and arbitrary 'rules and regulations' in each religion. To start allowing each and every group that comes along to provide their own variations, while being the neighbours of people of completely different belief is unfair to everyone.

Feedback and debate on this is welcomed, maybe I'm missing some key points?

Cable versus A Dollar Well Spent

Its come to my attention a couple times in the past few days that I am missing some particularly interesting television. A couple different bloggers out there have posted links back to Crooks and Liars with at the very least humourous, and usually quite relevant discussions or quips by those in media. I sit here with the basic cable package and the next step up which basically gives me coverage of the big broadcast networks in the U.S. and some iffy Canadian cable (along with some admittedly good stuff). And while I'm sure there's stuff on the networks that I feel I'm missing that I really should miss, there's some stuff I'd love to see without either downloading, or staying up all hours of the night to see.

The Daily Show on Comedy, and Bill Maher on HBO in particular, and at times MSNBC even. The only 24/7 news network I can actually get 24/7 here seems to be CNN and the CNN Headline News. Aside from being generally redundant there are just certain personalities I can't take. With the CBC being on strike they've been carrying more BBC news lately, and I try to watch that when I can.

But there is a whole assload of shit on my cable that I don't want or need....American and Canadian Idol are everything that's wrong with music, most of the new sitcoms on TV are tired, and the old classics are only so funny the first 10 or 20 times.

I guess what I'm basically asking for, while knowing that it will never happen in a fair way financially, is that I could pick and choose the 10 channels I actually watch and forget about the rest.

Maybe the internet has just done too good a job of taking over and offering me almost everything I want to see at a couple clicks, and a file transfer's notice.