In My Head

I had a dream where I discovered that southern Sweden directly bordered Mauritania and Northern India, so I immediately started to plan the road trip of a lifetime! (For the record, Mauritania was to the east, and had a slightly longer border with Sweden than India did)

I awoke to find, somewhat disappointingly, that this is not actually the case. No offense Denmark.

Just for fun, here is a mock-up that I made of how it would actually look. The borders fit quite well together, I must say, especially India and Sweden!

Fascinating

The 21st century is a weird and wonderful place to live.

From the comments of the previous Money as Debt videos I came across this guy:




He has 126 (!) videos on YouTube, which he posts in response to other people's videos. All of them are about the same length and contain basically the same rant/information:

• he is a US armed forces veteran
• he claims his old boss was murdered but it was framed as a suicide
• he claims he was abducted and forcibly injected
• he claims someone tried to 'assassinate' him
  
• he doesn't trust the government and wants them out of power (through violent revolution)
  
• he believes we're in the middle of a technological war an doesn't trust technology (despite using YouTube to spread his message)
  

He also apparently wants to attend a local city council meeting again some day since he was (perhaps unsurprisingly) barred from them.

Now, I'm not laughing at the guy...he's obviously got serious issues. Who knows what exactly caused them or when they cropped up. But man, what a fascinating case. How many thousands of people must exist like this in the world? Does he feel like he's accomplishing anything with these videos? Man, the whole situation just blows my mind. The only reason I know about this guy is because he's chosen to make and share these thoughts on the web (I just watched a new one where he says he'd like to move to Iran) -- and yet now, because of the Internet, I have a partial glimpse into the bizarre life story of one individual whom I otherwise would never know existed. I wish I could offer the guy some help, but I really don't feel like there's a whole lot I could accomplish from across the world (I have a hard enough time keeping in touch with friends and family, let alone crazy strangers). And now the only reason you know about him is because you choose to read the thoughts that I share and publish on the web.

Wow, I love new media.

EDIT: Man...the more videos I watch, the more weird quirks I learn about the dude...I mean, it's pretty much the same material over and over again, but every now and then he'll just a drop a sentence here or there and it will completely come outta left field (my favourite so far is how he wouldn't have bombed Hiroshima because of all the beautiful japanese women there). What an incredible character!

EDIT 2: There's a new idea he seems to be advocating lately: a control child. Have one child that gets injections and medicine from the government and goes to public school and have another that avoids all of that and is home schooled. I'm not convinced either of them would turn out ok...

Money as Debt

Holy shit, this is informative. Sometimes I really wish I had studied economics...

Watch this, and then go watch the other 4 parts as well.

The Night Before Christmas

Sometimes I love xkcd.


Dude also just put a ball pit in his room. That's amazing!

Courtesy of TimeAndDate.com

For some reason blogger doesn't agree with the use of tables. Scroll down.

Location:	Date:	Sunrise:	Sunset:	Length of Day:
Toronto	Dec. 18/07	7:46am	4:42pm	8h56m01s
London	Dec. 18/07	8:02am	3:52pm	7h50m26s
Oslo	Dec. 18/07	9:16am	3:11pm	5h54m42s

BBC Bonanza

I'm taking a break from my final exam (which is discussing the jovial issues of Structural Violence and AIDS in Africa) and I came across another BBC article that made me smile:

One-fifth of Canadians Immigrants

I found this one funny but for a different reason than the last one. Although it accurately states all of the facts, it does so in such a British fashion. I realize that they're talking about first-generation immigrants, but really, in my mind, 99% of all Canadians are immigrants. With the exception of Natives (who, in all probability are actually immigrants from Asia thousands of years ago anyways) all Canadians 'come' from somewhere else. In fact, a large part of our national identity (which is a work-in-progress itself) is the concept of the 'mosaic' - many smaller pictures combining to make up one larger picture.

Maybe I'm reading my own biases too much into it, but it seems very, well, European, to differentiate between foreign-born and national-born residents. As I've mentioned here previously, the best friend I've made in Oslo is a Chinese-Canadian girl from Vancouver. Her family moved to Canada when she was 6 years old (I'm pretty sure?) but I don't think of her as any more or less Canadian than myself (or than my Anglophone roommate from Montreal or than the 2 bilingual girls I know here from the Unversity of Alberta).

I guess it just seems to me that the article places a large difference on 'immigrants' versus 'Canadians' which does make sense because it's an article about immigration, however I just don't get the feeling that the majority of Canadians would view the country through such a dialectical lens. Also, it frames statements in the negative (i.e., "People speaking neither French nor English as their native language now make up 20% of the total population, the highest recorded in the recent past.") Rather than the affirmative (something like "People's who native language is something other than English or French now make up 20% of the total population.")

In fact, compare the BBC article with the equivalent article on the CBC. The CBC article uses terms like "settling in" and "choosing to make their hometown," and opting for phrases like "newcomers" and "residents born outside of Canada" rather than the somewhat blunt and clearly differentiating "foreign-born."

The immigrants immediately become Canadians, they are Canadians, they're not separate from us.

Not that the BBC article is bad or wrong by any means, I just find the difference in tone and approach interesting from a cultural perspective.

Bahaha

It's nice to see reporters for the BBC having a little fun at work. Here's a direct quote from one article:

"It says the tiny bitch was whisked away under an assumed name after receiving about 20 threats."

Intrigued? Read the rest of it here.

Michael Moore on Life in Norway

Props to Gwyneth for pointing this one out to me.



Seeing Vigelands Skulpturparken and Karl Johans gate made me smile.

This is what happens when I'm forced to write 7000 words in a formal, academic style with footnotes and other proper citations:

Here we all sit,
in our blue jeans.
Poring over books and notes and doodles we have left in the margins.
Like soldiers on a battlefield,
we bond over a shared sense of hardship:
the pressure of the next exam,
the stress of rewriting those final two pages.
It seems all too present now, yet I can't help but think that in 20 years we will barely remember these times.
20 years from now...

We are young, we are white, we are rich.
We are tomorrow's leaders (or so they keep telling us).
The guy on my left - where will he be 20 years from now?
How about the girl who just walked through the door?
Will we have accepted our responsibility as stewards of the planet?
Will we use our wealth and education to eradicate climate change and global poverty?
The realist, who is also called the pessimist, inside of me says "no, nothing will ever change."

But it's got to.
It's the only thing that keeps me going.
The potential to alter the course of human history with
Love and Grace.
and Hope.
Why am I alive if not for this purpose?

20 years from now...
I'm not entirely certain how the whole thing will roll out.
And frankly, I'm a little scared.
But I do know that it starts here,
sitting in my blue jeans.

Homosexuality

I've been working a lot at Lixian's place lately in an effort to finish my final essays for the semester. Tonight, she went to bed early but I stayed up chatting with her friends/roommates and eventually realized that I was alone in a room with 3 gay people (2 guys and a girl).

As I thought more about it I realized that, perhaps sadly, this was the largest number of homosexuals I'd ever knowingly been in a conversation with. They are all great people, and I will make an effort to get to know each of them better.

Story of my Life

6000 words til Thursday.
Party on Friday.
3000 more by next Wednesday.
Month off.

Addendum

Today I also came across this article about Canada's role in Afghanistan and thought it nicely complemented my previous post.

11-11-11

It's Rememberance Day. Or at least it is in Canada and the UK. I kinda forgot cuz they don't celebrate it here.

My friend Matt from back home suggested that I write something about it, so here it is. 'This Bud's for you.'


The point of Rememberance Day is to honour the veterans of wars. This is typically displayed by wearing a red poppy. The problem is, I don't believe in violence. I never asked anyone to harm another human being on my behalf, so for this reason I don't show visible support for such actions.

I recognize that this is a rather controversial view and as such, when discussing it in real life, I tend not to be as blunt as I was above. Nevertheless, people go on about how brave their relatives were and how if it weren't for them we'd all be speaking German right now. And maybe that's the case. For the record, my own grandfather served in World War II and had a shell land right beside him which damaged his hearing for the rest of his life. He died almost 10 years ago now, but I have a feeling he wouldn't agree with what I'm about to say either.

The thing is, I believe that when Jesus said "Love your neighbour," and more than that, "Love your enemies," he actually MEANT it. Not in a theoretical, abstract way but in a conclusive, down to earth fashion. And if this results in your personal subjugation or even destruction, well y'know what? There's more to existence than just this life. At least, I hope to God that there is. That's the whole point of martyrdom. It's not easy, and it's certainly not desirable, but I don't understand how followers of Christ can, in good conscience, harm or kill another child of God.

Violence is the least creative solution. It takes no imagination to punch someone in the face when I'm angry, but it takes much more creativity to work through problems and come up with a way that both parties can leave a conflict with a sense of justice and dignity. Where is that sense of inventiveness? Where is our compassion for our fellow human beings? Although it does not make it any more acceptable, I can see how in days past it would be quite easy to demonize the 'Other,' and see the enemy as less than human; but in our increasingly globalized world, now more than ever it is a travesty that people from one culture would want to kill people from another and not see them as brothers and sisters. Equality. and Love. We need to believe that love conquers all evil because if we lose that then we are hopeless as the human race. If we can't come up with a better solution than killing one another off then we might as well pack it all in right now.

Now, I recognize that after these comments a lot of people will think that I'm naive and idealistic, and I'm fine with that. To further add fuel to that particular fire, consider this: war is declared by countries but made by individuals. If soldiers chose to put down their guns, if pilots refused to get into their bombers, if the guy sitting in the base 5000km away didn't push the button to launch the cruise missiles, then war would cease to exist. I believe there are better alternatives, even if that means dying in a way that our culture considers inglorious. Because ultimately we aren't judged by our society, but by the Big One Upstairs. I don't see courage in blindly following an order that is handed down to you by a commanding officer; I see courage in those who challenge the existing norms and dare to dream of a brighter future for every single human being on this planet, which we all share together.

This is why I don't wear a red poppy on Rememberance Day.

From the ends of the earth

Last night I went to Chateau Neuf and sat through an hour and fifteen minute long interview with my favourite Norwegian author, Erlend Loe. The whole thing occurred in Norwegian, naturally, which made it a bit tedious (given that I understand almost no Norwegian), but I still think it was worth it! I got to chat with him a bit afterwards and got him to sign my copy of Naive. Super. (Which I told him was one of the best books I've ever read and he responded "Really?! Well that is nice to hear.") He was a gigantic man (nearly as tall as me!) and really soft-spoken. Not what I expected at all, but awesome nevertheless!

Now totally unrelated, check out this video of seven guys beatboxing on the subway, it's amazing! I need to give credit to Oria for bringing it to my attention. Almost better than the performance itself are the reactions of the passengers around them!



And actually, in many ways it reminds me of the folks at Improv Everywhere, which I have mentioned before and clearly think are fantastic.

Courtesy of Burlington, Ontario

My dear friend Matthew Nigel Howell sent me the following message on Facebook and I thought that it was too good to keep to myself. Thus I asked his permission to share it with the world, and permission was granted. So without further ado:

"Last night was 'devil's night', typically a great night of adrenaline and mischief for young folks. Jody and I were sitting in the living room, which has a rather large window with an unobstructed view right to the road (Drury Lane), watching TV when SPLAT, an egg appeared on the window. We arrived at the front door just in time to see a little red car drive off. Slightly bitter, more because in our old age we had let our devil's night guard down than because of the egg on the window, I stood out front with the hose washing the window off.
I then prepared for round 2, now realizing how tempting our window was, by placing a tomato near the front door so that we could return the favour to our next eggers.
About one hour latter the second SPLAT came and I was up and gone like a bat out of hell! I exited the front door with enough time to see two young souls turning down the side street (courtland).
Now let me intervine in this story and explain that the street they were parked on was a dead end... yes a dead end. So as I rounded the corner and stood in front of their car, enjoying the intense looks of fear on each face, they had nowhere to go. I menacingly signaled for them to exit the vehicle to no avail. Not realizing they were on a dead end they reversed down the entire street right to central park, only giving jody enough time to put his shoes on and join the fun.
The car returned trying one final time to make an escape but with my body planted in between their front bumper and freedom they knew I had won. Jody told them to get out of the car, which they did... well all of the girls at least, the little bastard boy (who I am sure up until this incident had been feeling like the 'cool guy' 'mr. badass' driving around town egging houses with a bunch of girls), the one who actually threw the egg stayed cowering in the back seat.
Any way we had a laugh with the girls (their friend thought I was going to 'kick the shit out of him' - I then told them how violent I tend to be... and then the girls thought we would call the cops, to which we responded " BAH HAHAHA ya right!"), as they cleaned the window we explained to them that you should never turn off your engine when egging a house, let alone park on a dead-end street, along with this we taught them the drive-by technique of just pulling to the side of the road opening a door firing an egg, hopping back in and driving away, as a much more effective means of egging a house.

Another lesson taught by Jod and Matty"

On Any Given Night...

My friend Oria has a game called "that's not normal!" and I think that I inadvertantly played a round tonight.

While waiting for the metro this evening at my student residence an African man walked by alone, then suddenly burst into some sweet, sweet karate moves (dangerously close to the track, I might add). They were so exuberant that it sent his mobile phone flying out onto the platform. After he was finished he said something to the Norwegian couple beside me, but I missed it because I had my headphones on. He then picked his phone up off the ground and continued to walk to the other end of the platform.

THAT'S NOT NORMAL!!!

Recap

I always forget how long the day is when you get up early. You would think I'd learn, but it surprises me every time.

This morning I got up at 8 in order to get my mom to the bus station in time to get a bus to the airport for her flight out this afternoon (she has been visiting for the past 9 days during which we took a trip to Finland!)

After waving goodbye I walked from the bus station to Lixian's place downtown. Lixian is probably the best friend I've made here, but I hadn't seen her in a couple weeks since she was away visiting friends in Sweden and then I was in Finland with my mom. We ate some breakfast, drank coffee and the discussed our respective trips. At 11:45 there was a student demonstration across the street, so we went to check that out. There were a few hundred students there listening to someone passionately shouting into a microphone, but not being able to understand Norwegian, we left pretty shortly afterward. We then went to go pick up -- oh I forgot to mention this...while hanging out after breakfast we decided to get tickets to go see Jose Gonzales in Oslo on December 13th! So we put in an order then went to the Post Office to collect them (ha! take THAT ticketmaster service charge!!)

It was a nice day out so next we decided to head to the cemetery. I'm not sure what it's called, but it must be Norway's national cemetery or something since Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Munch (along with many others) are buried there. Lixian was excited to see dry leaves on the ground since apparently in Vancouver it's too wet to ever play in piles of leaves. Me, being the experienced leaf player, kicked up a sizeable amount and then dove head-first into them. Lixian followed suit, and then afterwards we just laid there with out heads sticking out above our respective leaf piles and chatted about life (we got a couple of menacing looks from the workers whose job it was to rake/blow the leaves into piles, but I don't feel too bad about it).

I don't think I'm describing this very artfully (I definitely overused the words 'leaf' and 'pile' in that last paragraph), but it was a great moment. At one point I thought to myself "I'm laying in a pile of leaves in OSLO, the sun is shining, and I'm talking to a good friend -- yes, this is my life!" After chatting for a while we headed back to her place, said goodbye and went our separate ways. I grabbed a kebab before hopping on the metro and heading home for a nap. Someone smart once said "Bed's are best appreciated after a night away." It having been NINE nights since I had last slept in mine, you can only imagine how good the nap was.

Humanity is Awesome

I hope we don't become extinct.

My Faculty Building

I've been meaning to take some photos of the art project in the lobby of my faculty building for a while now, but always forget. Then I remembered that Erin took some while she was here, and that I still have her photos on my computer, so I'll just use them (without her permission!)

The piece is made up of a bunch of individual tiles with all sorts of different text/images on them.

Some highlights spray-painted across it all include: Gud er kvinne (God is a woman), Alle vil til himmelen men ingen vil dø (Everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die), Live until you die, and The wall is in your mind.

I have no idea who created this but I love seeing it on my way to class each day...

Posterity

For the sake of accuracy in journalism, I will admit that I forgot to include the following:

• Laundry Access Card

That is all.

The Current Contents Of My Wallet:

• Ontario Driver's License
• Ontario Health Card
• British Driver's License
• Canadian Social Insurance Number
• List of 101 Things To Do Before You Die
• Ontario Birth Certificate
• Videosyncratic Membership Card
• Hostelling International Membership Card
• Starbucks gift certificate
• Queen's University Student Card
• University of Oslo Student Card
• Oslo Monthly Transit Pass
• Norwegian Bank Card
• Norwegian Credit Card
• Canadian Bank Card
• Canadian Credit Card
• British Bank Card
• British Credit Card
• Receipt with all the print rubbed off (x4)
• 119 Norwegian Crowns

I'm starting to feel a little like George Costanza

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving

Did you know that for most of the 20th century the Canadians used syrup as currency?

Webmail

I received the following message at my university (uio.no) e-mail account the other day:

"Dear My functional group...hahahahaha

I attached my reaserch work/Abstract on iodized salt that hopefully will give some
information about one of the indictaors and monitiroing in the IDD prevention and
control program ...and also don't forget i already sent for publication and waiting
the reply from reviwers, so ur comment will be valuable and also invited to give
comment.

Keep reading, but don't waste time on medical jurgeons..hahaha.

Cheers"

Just a reminder to those who forgot, I am here studying THEOLOGY.

wtf??

The World Is Wearing Red

As you may have noticed, the peaceful protest in Burma has rather captured my attention. Although I would love to fly to Bangkok and sneak over the Burmese border to join in, I figure that's not entirely practical. So instead I decided to make a website to consolidate info on all the various demonstrations and protests that are going on around the world in solidarity with the Burmese people and their struggle for democracy. It's pretty basic, but I think it works. The address is:

http://WorldIsWearingRed.blogspot.com


Go check it out if you have a minute. Use the archives on the right hand side to see media from various cities around the world.

Burmese Solidarity in Oslo - videos

Burmese Solidarity in Oslo

I attended the Burma Solidarity Rally at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo yesterday. I was surprised to learn that there is a large Burmese community in Oslo! In fact, a group called the Democratic Voice of Burma is based out of Oslo. They produce pro-democracy media (TV, radio, print, etc.) and beam it into Burma through various methods. Anyhow, I'm uploading some videos to YouTube, but here are some pictures to tide you over.

Japanese Reporter Shot in Burma

If you have been following the news, you've probably heard that a Japanese reporter has been shot and killed in Burma. The following YouTube video is from a Japanese news report, showing Nagai Kenji being shot. I post this not out of some morbid fascination, but rather to highlight that ACTUAL LIVES are being TAKEN AWAY by the Burmese military.

It is absolutely wrong on the most basic level. There is a worldwide campaign today to wear a red shirt in solidarity with the Burmese people and their struggle. I'm also attending a rally outside the Nobel Peace Centre where there will be speeches from the former Prime Minister of Norway, a Burmese monk, a Bishop of the Norwegian church and others. I will post pictures when I return.

Culture Clash

Ha! Check this out:



(Link is here for those who can't see it)

News From Myanmar

Sad today to hear that the military has started to violently crackdown on the monks protesting in Burma. With the media being so tightly controlled by the ruling military, it's hard to know exactly what's going on. However! I did discover something extremely interesting! This article on the BBC talks about how dissidents within Burma are uploading photos, videos and information to bloggers living in the West. Although less than 1% of the Burmese population has internet access, this still helps to show the rest of the world how the military junta is treating its people. The article explains how the internet is becoming a useful tool for organizing the resistance. Man, sometimes I hate technology, but other days I just love it!

Anyways, check out this dude's blog - there's a lot of Burmese text on it (which may come up as question marks if your computer doesn't have the language installed) but it's still cool to see pictures and videos from inside the country.

10 Degrees and Cloudy

Before I write shallow, narcissistic stuff about my own life, I would first like to draw your attention to this story. I think that it is incredibly exciting and has the potential for a non-violent revolution - of course there is also the potential that the military will turn it into a bloodbath and that would be horrible. Nevertheless, I feel like this is an excellent example of religion being put to good use. Religion often gets blamed as being the cause of every war in the world (and perhaps, rightly so) but it seems to me that the folks who point this out tend to neglect the positive contributions of religion and religious people to society. For those of us who pray, let's remember Myanmar and its buddhist monks and nuns.



All right, so you may or may not have noticed that I tarted my blog up a bit. The old template was broken so I migrated to the new one with a fancy archival process. Looking through the archives I noticed that it is nearly the end of the year and I don't even have 1/3 as many posts as I did in 2006. I think that is due to several reasons. The first being that I spent most of 2007 in Canada, which I find less stimulating and less conducive to blog-post-coming-up-withness. I believe also, as Matt pointed out, Facebook has contributed to a general decline in the world of casual bloggers. After all, it's a lot easier to change your status update (one line) and upload a bunch of photos from your camera (automated process) than it is to actually sit down and come up with something to say. However, I am not content to let my blog die. I have never felt obligated to post (nor would I want to) but there are still times in which it is the better suited medium. So having said that, I will try to be more intentional in sharing my life and thoughts here in the future.


What am I up to then? The truth is, not a heck of a lot. I have had lots of visitors the past little while (both couchsurfers and dear friends) and while it has been nice to see them, it is also going to be nice to have some time on my own again. School is, well, I'm not sure - I've kinda been neglecting it with my visitors, so it's important to focus on that again for the next little while. I'm also hoping to move into a room in a flat in the city centre, but that hasn't been finalized yet, so more on it later. I'm slowly adjusting to the Norwegian lifestyle, and hopefully even more so if I move in with this bunch of Norwegians. Oh! Speaking of whom, I have another Norwegian fashion update!

For some reason, clothing from UCLA is really popular here. One of my female norwegian friends told me that they even sell it in clothing stores alongside other popular brands. She also believes that a lot of young norwegian girls don't even know where it's from since they refer to it as 'ook-lah' (which is how it would be pronounced if it was a Norwegian word). Ha!

PS: For the Facebook-less, here are pictures from Oslo and Fredrikstad.

You and me both, buddy

Le Sigh

This is entirely unacceptable and yet it appears as if no one can do anything about it.

To put it into perspective: there have been 10 times more innocent people killed in Iraq since the US invaded than were killed in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. How much blood is enough?

It's Hammer Time!

I wasn't sure at first, however I'm fairly certain now that Hammer Pants (aka parachute pants) are making a comeback amongst chic Norwegian girls. I wish I was joking, but unfortunately it's all very true. Lest you have forgotten:





I had noticed it a few times since arriving here, but had figured that those people had been cycling and were afraid of getting their baggy trousers caught in the gears or some such. However yesterday, while waiting for the metro, I noticed a girl all decked out (hair and make-up done, fancy bag, big hoop earrings etc. etc.) who had extremely baggy jeans which were then TIED OFF at the ankle with TWINE!

Even more accurate to the original style are the girls who are buying retro hi-tops and tucking the bottom of their overly baggy trousers into them! It's like Back to the Future 2! (only 8 years early....)

New E-mail Address

I have a new gmail address that I am going to use as my main account from now on. In order to avoid spam, I'm not going to post it here, however you can find it on my facebook profile or else send a message to my old yahoo account and you will get the new e-mail message in an auto-response.

Over-react much??

This is absolutely ridiculous. A Culture of Fear indeed.

This, on the other hand, warrants some serious investigation...

My New Backyard

As an update to my previous post, I entirely retract what I said about the dude at the help desk. I made that post from one of the computers on campus and then as soon as I got home I had Internet access in my room. I don't know if it was a coincidence or not, but I hate to be rude if the guy did go out of his way to hook me up.

Anyways, today was a lovely day and the student village where I live is a 5 minute walk from a lake so I went with some of my new friends and we had a picnic. I even went swimming! Here are some pics (keep an eye out for the pig on a leash):

Norwegian Bureaucracy

A Norwegian girl told me today that bureaucracy is the price that you have to pay for living in a socialist welfare state. Originally I thought it wasnt so bad, but now im beginning to question that.

I went to the student residence desk to ask why internet access hadnt been hooked up to my room yet. They told me that my account hadnt been activated and that I needed to talk to the IT deptarment. So I went to the IT department today and asked them to activate my account. The guy at the help desk asked me whether I had registered on StudentWeb (the universitys online course registration system) and I told him yes. He asked whether I had paid my semester fee and I told him yes. I then logged into StudentWeb and showed him how the screen acknowledged that both of those things had been completed. He asked when I paid the fee and I said last week. He asked how I paid the fee and I told him at the post office because I dont have a Norwegian bank account yet (I have to jump through about 3 more hoops before that one is ready, and it will probably take another month or so) and he said thats likely the problem - the payment takes longer to register on their system from the post office than from a direct transfer (despite it somehow ALREADY REGISTERING in StudentWeb). I asked if there was anyone I could talk to in order to show them my predicament and he said no, I just have to wait, and that I should come back on Wednesday if its not working by then.

I get the feeling, however, that if the guy at the help desk had to live without Internet access for 2 weeks that perhaps something might be done to remedy the situation a little more quickly...

Norway

...is where I live now.

R.I.P.

Man, Ingmar Bergman yesterday and Antonioni today...it's time to start watching your back, Godard!

Let's Get Something Straight

This has been a pet peeve of mine for a while and I would like to take a moment to clear things up.

If you are, for example, unfazed as to how someone else feels about something than the proper expression would be:

"I couldn't care less."

As in, you care so very little about their opinion that it would not be possible for you to care any less than you already do. You do not care at all, therefore you could NOT care less.

Now this seems fairly straightforward to me, yet I continually see/hear "I could care less." This makes no sense!!! This phrase signifies that you ARE able to care less about the given subject than you currently do. Which means that no matter how little you care about it, you do care about - which defeats the whole purpose of the proclamation! If you COULD care less then why don't you?!!??!

Now don't get me wrong, this is all about the context in which the phrase is used. If I were to say about my friends "I could care less," this would be true, because I care very much for my friends and it is possible for me to care much less for them. However the context in which I hear people saying it is "I am a fan of (band xyz) and I could care less what other people think." To reiterate: that means that you DO care what people think as you just stated that it is possible for you to care less than you currently do. ARGH!!!!

All right, I apologize for such a high and mighty rant, but populist bad grammar frustrates me.

UPDATE: History of caring less.

Ok...CRAZY!

This story was just too good to pass up.

If ever there was a good argument against constitutional monarchy, I think this is it. But then I've always been of the opinion that royalty are a waste of money.

And yet, I'm still going to do my Masters there...

Shoe sale

I was in the mall today, and saw a sign hanging above a bunch of shoes that read something to the effect of:

"Massive summer clearance! Two for the price of one!"

And I thought to myself "Isn't this how shoes are normally sold?"

Arigato Gozaimasu

A modern day Robin Hood?

Haight St.

As If I Needed Another Reason To Love Scandinavia

yes, Yes, YES!

Memories of Oxford

Never thought of looking for Slam Poets on YouTube, but here are two videos of what are, in my opinion, Taylor Mali's two best poems. I saw Taylor perform at the first slam I ever went to and he is fantastic. Rich has even had him over for supper I believe!

WTF?

Pardon me, but this is fucking ridiculous.

A 3am Thought

Human beings are designed with great redundancy. We have two eyes so that if one is damaged, we still have the ability to see. We have two arms so that we can still function if one is incapacitated. And yet, we only have one set of reproductive organs. Surely this is the part of the body which is most intrinsic to our survival as a species, so why not two each? Or 4?

Comments encouraged.

Us Kids Know

I've been listening to No Cars Go by Arcade Fire a lot lately. It was originally released on their debut EP, but they retooled it for Neon Bible and it sounds incredible. I'm not entirely sure what attracts me to the song so much...I'm sure part of it is that they closed their set at Coachella with this song, during which the band visibly poured their heart and soul into it. Chanting the end part along with 50,000 (or so) other people was pretty amazing too. But then I realized tonight, I think that a large part of my attraction is a lyric that is repeated toward the end of the song:

"Between the click of the light and the start of the dream."

I guess I kinda feel like that's where I am these days. I'm in that liminal state again - I'm not quite awake and I'm not quite asleep. Not that it's a horrible thing. In fact, in many ways it's quite comforting to actually KNOW what I'll be doing for the next 2 years of my life. And it's exciting to think that I'll be a student again, living abroad and learning a whole new language/people/culture. And it's not like I'm in a bad place right now either - it's summertime and Guelph is a great place to live. I've got friends here and I'm making new ones. Life is actually pretty sweet, but I guess it's just that sense of not wanting to invest myself entirely, knowing that I'll be taking off in 2 months time, and the anticipation of starting another 'new life.'



By the by, for those not on Facebook, my Coachella pictures can be seen here.

Wanderlust

"Lust for comfort suffocates the soul
This relentless, restlessness
Liberates me.
I feel at home whenever
The unknown surrounds me.
I receive its embrace
Aboard my floating house.

Wanderlust!
Relentlessy craving wanderlust.
Peel off the layers until you get to the core.
Did I imagine it would be like this?
Was it something like this I wished for,
Or will I want more?"

And you wondered why I loved Björk so much...

Up and Coming

I know I haven't blogged in a long time. I'm trying to devise a smooth transition back into the blogging world.

This is not it.

Symantec Redux

If you scroll down and read the comments for the post entitled "Bollocks" (I would include a link but its not very easy from this terminal) you will find a very respectful dialogue between myself and Ron Bowes, who is the editor in charge of the bloggers at Symantec who wrote the original post that the CBC article is based on. I really respect him for responding and appreciate his perspective on the issue. Go read it!

Oslo-bound

I received an e-mail this morning from the University of Oslo in Norway stating that I had been nominated for the M.Phil in Intercontextual Theology and that my letter of acceptance was in the mail, so it looks like I'll be headed to Norway mid-August sometime!

I'm not entirely sure when orientation week is or when classes start yet, but I will definitely try for a stopover in England, and, if I can swing it, a trip to Greenbelt ;)

As well, 24 hours from now I will be in San Francisco. Woo hoo!

Bollocks

I hate articles like this one.

"This illusion of privacy leads people to be a little freer in their disclosure," Symantec Corp. security researcher Nick Sullivan wrote in a post to the company's security response weblog on Friday.

Of course, no where in the article does it mention that Symantec is arguably the largest purveyor of computer security software (a little program you may have heard of called Norton AntiVirus), and that it is in their best interest, financially, to spread FUD about identity theft and computer crime. It's like writing an article about a study some guy did complaining how long it takes to walk between places, and then you find out he works for a car company.

The concerns he lists about Facebook are blown out of proportion -- he says the danger comes from Facebook sending e-mails including links for users to click on. His argument is that identity thieves could send e-mails with fake links and try to steal information from people. Well then the problem isn't with Facebook, it's with idiots who don't pay attention to what links they're following. This isn't a danger specifically with Facebook, but rather with the ENTIRE INTERNET. People should know by now that just blindly clicking the 'Yes' button and not paying attention to what you're doing on the Internet can lead to spyware and fraud. He only brings up Facebook because it's a popular site and will get people's attention.

This frustrates me on another level because it panders to the consumerist mindset. People feel like they shouldn't actually have to think for themselves, and that everything should be safe and easy from the get go. And while I agree with making laws to curb illegal schemes and the dangers of using the Internet, I also think people who don't exercise caution on the Internet deserve what they get. After all, just because we have lanes painted on our roads and light signals hanging above them doesn't mean I should expect to be able to cross the street with my eyes closed and end up still in one piece. We still need to take basic precautions to protect our own well-being. It almost seems to me as if people today, more and more, feel the 'entitlement' to ignorance. Like they have the right to not be bothered with details. Well, if one can't traverse a regular highway blind, then I don't see why the information highway should be any different. But I think that the general populace would rather have an easy, cookie-cutter solution (like, oh say, I don't know, purchasing & installing a computer security software program) than actually taking the time to pay attention to what they're doing. This doesn't just go for computers and the Internet, but many aspects of Western living. Like rather than hanging out with the poor and getting to the bottom of the problem of poverty, people would rather just write a cheque and then walk away and think about something nicer, but I digress...

At any rate, back to the original point, I would expect shill articles like this from American media companies, but I have a higher standard for the CBC....disappointing.

Update

Wow, has it really been 3 weeks since my last post? How about that...

Well, my blog has always served mainly two purposes:

1. To keep my friends overseas up to date with my daily life
   
2. To share my thoughts on stuff with people
   

I'm not saying these are the ONLY purposes for a blog, or even really good purposes for a blog, but they are the ones that mine has served nevertheless. Inasmuch as these purposes are concerned, there really hasn't been a whole lot to post about. I'm still in Waterloo and have been working full time doing data entry. I haven't been having a bad time by any means, just a rather mundane one. All of that is about to change however!

Next Wednesday I will be arriving in San Francisco for the first time in my life and spending a few days there, followed by renting a car, heading down the coast, hanging around LA and then off to Coachella. The day after I return, two of my Scottish friends that I met in Russia are coming to visit and I'm going to show them around this great country. After they leave, my mom is talking about heading to florida or north carolina or somewhere warm for a week or two and taking me with her. Following all of that business, I will be moving to Guelph and living in a home with some kinda-old-but-actually-new friends and their two young boys. Somewhere in there I should find out whether I'm going to school in Norway in the fall or not.

So, comparatively, you can see why I haven't really been posting anything exciting lately...all the exciting stuff is just around the corner, and I'll make sure to share all of THAT when it happens...

Japanese Philanthropy

I think that this story is worth commenting on. I'm not entirely sure what my comment is yet, but I do think it's positive. Hmmm...check back tomorrow for more...

Under the Category of: Things I Wasn't Expecting Today

At work this morning I pulled a mug out of the communal kitchen cupboard. I started to fill it up when I noticed it was one of those personalized mugs where you get one of your own photos printed on the side. This mug had a picture of someone else's kids. In the bath tub. Naked.

I'm not sure that sort of thing belongs in the company cupboard. In fact, I'm not even sure it belongs on the side of a mug in the first place...

I put it in the sink and pulled out a generic "91.5 The Beat FM!!" mug instead.

Ha!

Booyah!

Let the cognitive dissonance begin...

Now With 50% MORE Powerpoint Presentations!

I just noticed for the first time this morning that the office I work in has an 'Ultimate Meeting Room.' I can only imagine what fantastically amazing, ultra-rad, life-or-death meetings take place in a room labeled with such a name...

Bum Rush the Charts

Ok, I realize this is only 3 days away, and that I don't exactly have a large audience, but I wanted to share something with you nonetheless:

I will be participating in Bum Rush The Charts on Thursday, March 22nd. You can get more detailed info by clicking on the link, but the premise is this:

On March 22nd a large group of people will be protesting the evils of the RIAA by purchasing a specific song by a specific artist (Mine Again by Black Lab) through the iTunes Music Store in an effort to make it hit #1 that day and show the record labels that the days of their stranglehold on the music industry are finished and the independent artists combined with new media technologies are ready to take over.

I realize that this isn't quite like standing in front of a line of tanks at Tiananmen Square and I don't believe it's going to change the world overnight. Nevertheless, I think it is a powerful message to send to the record labels and symbolic proof of what grassroots, independent efforts are really capable of achieving. Therefore I urge anyone who cares about such things and who has iTunes installed to participate this Thursday.

PS: If anyone's afraid this is a get-rich-quick scheme for a band, you can see the money break down here and check the whole website for a lot more info.

A Pet Peeve

The seasons were wrestling again today and the decisive winner -- at least, in Kitchener, Ontario -- was Spring...blue skies with a high of 10 degrees C!

I decided to celebrate by walking over to the mall during lunch. It was at the mall where I saw a billboard which ignited the fire to write about a pet peeve I've had for some time.

The line on the billboard read "Are you a shoe-aholic?" Ignoring the blatant consumerism and materialism contained within, let's examine for a moment the language used here.

First of all, someone who is an alcoholic is addicted to what? Alcohol. What, then, is a workaholic addicted to? Workahol? Rageaholic --> rageahol? Workahol and rageahol are not, to my knowledge, actual words in the english language.

The word 'alcoholic' was created by adding the suffix 'ic' to 'alcohol,' NOT the suffix of 'oholic' to 'alc.' Thus, while it may sound somewhat crude and irregular, surely we should have "workic's," "rageic's" and "shoeic's" instead. I realize this is just one case of MANY in which the english language doesn't follow its own rules, but for goodness' sake people, you can't suggest people are addicted to things that don't even exist.

Alternatively, we could just have alcoholaholics, if that's going to be the norm...

Scheming

Inspired by Bill, I began looking into freighter travel and found that Los Angeles to Auckland only takes 14 days and costs about $1,200 US. That's about as much as a one-way flight to New Zealand anyhow.

Interesting....

Living Heroes

I have several.

The newest is this guy. He's traveling around the world and making a video diary on every weekday. He's just starting out, but his entries so far have been insightful and well-produced (he uses clever angles and his sound editing is fantastic). He's got a satellite modem so he can upload from pretty much anywhere in the world (including, already, the middle of the Atlantic ocean).

I am both significantly impressed and insanely jealous.

He's also a living testament to my theory that -- with a few rare exceptions -- you don't really begin to produce anything of significance before the age of 27. That gives me 2 more years to get my act together...

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Ok, so it's a cheesy and cliched expression, but until someone comes up with a better analogy, there isn't a more apt metaphor describing my current state.

You must understand that the work I do (and have done for the last couple years) is solely for the cash and that I have absolutely nothing invested in it -- there is no love for what I do day in and day out. Therefore, the worst days at work are the ones when I'm stuck in the middle of 'the tunnel,' so to speak -- when I'm working hard, head down, with no distinct goal or future reprieve in sight. These are miserable, miserable times.

Yet at some point this week (I think it was Thursday), it all just clicked for me. I realized that 5 weeks from now, I will be flying into San Francisco, spending a few days there before heading to LA and finishing with one helluva festival. Suddenly at work I had visions of bombing it along Highway 1 by myself in a rental car, windows down, tunes blaring with the sun shining on some of the most amazing scenery in the world. And y'know what? That was enough.

Which isn't to say there won't be frustrating times at work between now and then (in fact, there already have been), but simply that I have motivation to work through such things. I suppose everyone has their own driving factors, and adventure -- especially when combined with uncertainty and live music -- is definitely high on that list for me.

However, I am not only excited about my trip to California. The week I return home I am going to meet up with the 2 Scottish girls I met in Moscow and spend some time showing them around my corner of Canada. This should also be when I find out whether I was accepted to do my Master's at the University of Oslo or not, and so my next adventure (whether to Norway or elsewhere) should be in the works by that point as well.

Finally -- and perhaps as equally uplifting -- is the notion that spring will be here soon enough. Although we haven't had a particularly long winter this year (it didn't really get cold til mid-January), it's still been 2 years since I've experienced a Canadian winter and I'm ready for it to be done. It's been warmer the last couple days and the snow and ice has begun to melt. Again, this isn't to say that it won't be cold or snowstormy again, just that if it is, it will be bearable, because the worst is behind us and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So Close!

Dammit, it almost happened! Snakes on a Plane...cargo complex.

A Day of Discoveries

Man, today just keeps getting better and better! Following a link I saw to a LibriVox reader's blog, I came across Kiva.org

This website is amazing! You can go check it out to get more detailed info but basically they partner with microfinance institutions around the world to provide small loans to business operators in third world countries! This is not charity but an actual loan that is expected to be repaid. Only instead of coming from large financial institutions that will suck them dry, it comes from first world investors, such as ourselves. Now, the loan does go through a few middlemen, Kiva.org being the first and then whatever the local microfinance institution is -- and the local institution is allowed to charge interest, however Kiva has stated that they won't partner with anyone who charges ridiculous interest rates and that the main purpose of the whole site is to invest in the lives of people in developing countries, not to make money (in cases like these, the money made from interest rates tends to go towards administrative and upkeep costs anyhow).

I really can't expound on the brilliance of this project enough. If the Internet was ever to be used for the good of humanity, truly globalizing the planet, then surely this is the ultimate example of such a thing.

Perhaps controversially, I have chosen to make my first investment to a business in Afghanistan. My reason for this is due to Canada's current military presence there. Now, I'm not naive. I realize that although the Mercy Corps (the local lending organization) investigates each business thoroughly, money could still be funneled to terrorist groups. I also realize that even if it's not, my small donation is not going to do much to combat feuding warlords or power-hungry extremists. And yet still, the idealist inside of me SCREAMS that this is such a better way of supporting and empowering the people of Afghanistan than sending in a bunch of young men and women, armed to the teeth with guns and tanks. From a big picture perspective, if you want to talk about fostering terrorism, then surely sending in armed Western forces is doing a lot more to harvest such notions than my $50 loan could ever do.

Please, I implore you to go to Kiva.org and invest in a business. All you need is $25 US and a credit card -- the money goes through PayPal but you don't even need to sign up...you just punch in your credit card number and you can make an immediate & immense difference in someone's life. I know from my travels that what may seem like so little money to us really goes a long way in developing countries. So far, Kiva has a 100% loan repayment rate, so once your money comes back you could keep it or, of course, you are free to invest in someone else ;)

Here's a PBS documentary on how it works:

Watch the PBS documentary from FRONTLINE exploring the impact of microfinance in Uganda and how Kiva is helping.

My Heart Will Go On

I have found work increasingly difficult to focus on lately. Although I am allowed to listen to music, and although my MP3 player has at least 15 gigs worth on it, I find myself growing weary of the tunes that I've got.

I've tried to compensate by downloading new music, and it has helped, to a degree. The problem is that most albums are shorter than an hour so I require several in order to keep a rotation that holds my interest. This is a lot of work to do every day, and there's no guarantee that I'll actually like all the new stuff I get. I was about to give up hope, when suddenly I remembered something...

Back when I was 15 and 16 I used to work during the summer at a computer firm that took about an hour to drive to in the morning. I remember that one of the other guys, Rob, had roughly the same commute and HATED it. He said the only thing that saved his sanity was the discovery of books on tape. Thinking about this, I remembered that Project Gutenburg had a lot of audio books online as well as original texts, so I headed over there to see what I could find. The first thing that jumped out at me was Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The office has a fantastic internet connection which takes less than a minute to download a 40mb chunk of audio. And since all the works are in the public domain and read by volunteers, it's completely legal -- this is a black and white area, it's not even remotely grey (ironically, much like the setting of Heart of Darkness, ho ho ho). I reckon I'll be able to finish the book by the end of the day.

The book is read by the lovely Kristen Luoma and hosted on LibriVox. Although she occasionally fumbles over her words or mispronounces some of the British phrases, she does a pretty good job overall! Heading on over to LibriVox I found they have a ton more titles that, for some reason, aren't listen on Gutenburg! Certainly enough to fill the rest of my time here at the office. I've always wanted to read some more 'classics' but have just never made the effort to get around to it (recall my comment about self-discipline yesterday). Now I can do the next best thing and listen to 'em!

Since LibriVox is entirely a volunteer project, I'm totally gonna do some readings for it! I've got a nice deep voice and I like acting, so I don't think it will be too difficult! Apparently you start out doing chapters here and there and then 'graduate' to entire books. I'll be sure to let you folks know when I've completed a few recordings!

On the Subject of Blogging...

Through a series of unexpected events, I have recently been turned on to some new, fantastic blogs. Not that I don't enjoy reading about what my friends are up to, but there's something very interesting in reading about a complete stranger's life and their views on it -- even more so when they do a good job of documenting it.

Which has gotten me thinking more about this blog right here. I started it when I first moved to the UK in Sept. 04 as a way of keeping in touch with friends and family back home. I absolutely downright LOATHE mass e-mails that people send with updates of their lives and had no desire to inflict that horror upon the ones I love. I figured that those who actually cared about me would bother to look up a website a couple times a week and those who didn't, wouldn't. It morphed a little bit from there, as I would throw in a little political commentary or share something interesting that had been shared with me, but that was about it.

Ok, so here's the part where I pull back the curtain and reveal the SUPER-DUPER, BRAND-NEW, ULTRA, STEP UP OF MY BLOG!!!! Except I'm sorry to say that's not going to happen. What *is* going to happen -- at least, I hope -- is that I will be a little more intentional about my blogging efforts. I purposely never set a goal or target for my blog because I always wanted it to be something I enjoyed. If it ever felt like a chore, well then that would kinda be self-defeating. Nevertheless, there is something to be said for a little self-discipline (an area I've never particularly excelled in), and I find I do get quite a lot of satisfaction out of putting my thoughts into words...often I don't realize how therapeutic it is until after I've done so. I'm finding it particularly difficult to write lately -- there's something about the combination of a full-time job and the Canadian winter that just zaps the life outta me. And yet I've realized this is really the time I need to write the most.

So I'm still wary of throwing down a specific number or tangible goal, but just know that inside there has been a significant shift. And that's about the best you'll ever get from me -- sorry, it's just how I roll.

221

Today was my 25th birthday. Unlike 16, 18, 19 and 21, the only thing that happens at 25 is that your car insurance rates go down and most big rental companies will let you borrow their vehicles. I guess the whole 'quarter-of-a-century' idea is a big deal too, but I hypothesize that's only because we live in a culture founded on the decimal system. For example, if we only had 3 fingers and 3 toes, it is likely that we would function on a base 3 system, and in Ternary, today I would be 221 -- that's not a very special number now is it? (next year, 26, would be 222 and that would be kinda cool...) I bet in a ternary society, the big celebrations would be every 9 years (100, 200, 1000, etc.), and 81 would be huge (you're 10,000!) After all, us human beings are often just silly creatures who attribute false importance to symbols we arbitrarily create....


NEVERTHELESS! I had a wonderful 221st birthday! I had brunch in the T-Dot with all of my family members and their significant others (minus my cousin Greg whom we all missed cuz he's living out west!) It was a great meal and good to spend time with everyone since I haven't really had the opportunity to do so very much in the past 2 years. Hanging out with my family is always lots of laughs. Afterwards, my mom and I did some birthday gift shopping at the World's Biggest Bookstore, followed by Sam the Record Man and MEC, where I received a light-weight, one-man tent named Big Agnes (although having set it up in our living room, Matt and I reckon you could squeeze two men...er...people inside. Whether we actually tried this or not, I will leave up to your imagination). Hopefully she will see me through Coachella as well as future adventures. Then it was back down the 401 to Waterloo for a relaxing Sunday night at home. All in all, a pretty darn good day, if I do say so myself! Happy birthday to me!

Oh My Goodness!

Someone making SENSE with regard to Canada/NATO in Afghanistan! Unfortunately this will probably fall on the deaf ears of our current pro-military, pro-U.S.-style government. They will likely retort with some such nonsense about 'not supporting the troops.' Bah.

Sorry for lacking posts as of late. I'm working full time and though I have lots of thoughts to share, I just don't have the energy to make it happen all the time...

February Sucks

Today was a balmy 3 degrees celsius! It was a nice break after the -20's we've been having lately. That said, I've still managed to contract my annual cold...boourns.

Anyway, someone shared this with me, and I thought I'd share it with you. It's dedicated to Matt:
(for those that care, the guy drops a couple f-bombs in the middle - you've been warned)

Finally

Ok, here we go....for those who don't know, here's what I'm up to these days:

I've found a job through another temp company, and have been doing work in the finance department for a big Canadian food supplier. It really is my ideal work for the moment, which is to say, maximum payment for minimal responsibility. The duties of my job pretty much consist of me sitting in front of a computer and punching numbers into an excel spreadsheet all day long. I have little interaction with others, and can listen to my MP3 player all day, enjoying music, podcasts, audio books or whatever tickles my fancy. It pays pretty well, and my supervisor(s) are really nice to boot. As I've said to folks before, if I had to do this for the rest of my life then I would probably rather kill myself as it is extremely monotonous work and really does very little to make the world a better place, however currently, as a means to greater ends it does the trick just fine. Yes, it takes up a lot of time, I have to get up early and I still come home tired after work, but it beats the coffee shop job, where I would be there til 9pm sometimes, sweaty from having to mop up, and run down from people complaining about too little or too much milk in their tea.

Hopefully this will see me through until the end of April, when I plan on attending Coachella. The big reason for the trip there is, of course, the Rage Against the Machine reunion. I absolutely love Rage and thought I would never get a chance to see them after they broke up in 2000. So far it is being billed as a 'one-off' performance by them, but I've read interviews with Tom Morello who says he hasn't "ruled out the possibility of future activities" for the band. So even though it's likely there will be more shows in the future, you never know. However, Rage isn't my only reason for going...the other two headliners (The Chili Peppers and Björk) are also performers whom I love but have never seen live. And that's in addition to the 100 or so other bands that will be there. There's a bunch in that list that I am big fans of as well, so combined with a trip to southern California at the end of April, it didn't seem like such a bad idea. To top it off, I found out a couple days ago that my buddy Ryan and his wife are planning on going too, so I'll have folks to camp out with! Score.

Well that's about it really. Sorry if I got your hopes up for something huge. I'm supposed to find out in May whether or not I got into the program at the University of Oslo, and so I should have a better idea of my next move after that. Until then, it's simply work followed by Coachella....

Stalling

I do have a big update that I would like to share, but I keep putting it off with little bite-sized entries, like this one.


Anyhow, recently I've had friends in places like England and Texas who have experienced unusual amounts of snowfall. I recognize that for the part of the world which they are in, this is indeed an unexpected treat and should be celebrated. Nevertheless, it is always a bit funny to me to see people guffawing about snow, given forecasts for the place where I'm currently living -- like this one for tomorrow: (click the little picture for the big one)


That's right, the HIGH tomorrow is MINUS TWELVE. Which, when combined with the windchill factor, will feel like MINUS TWENTY-THREE! That is tomorrow's HIGH. The 15-20cm of snow will be added to what's already frozen on the ground.

And again, this isn't to say that I'm better or tougher or anything (certainly there are people who live in much more snow than I!) It just strikes me that what is novel for some is usual for others. Conversely, if I had to live with equatorial heat all the time, I would probably drown in my own perspiration.

A lot more to come soon

I promise I have a lot more to write about, and I will do it real soon, but first I wanted to share this story about an honest guy with a good sense of humour. The summary is, he found $10,000 beside a bank machine and handed it in, but my favourite quote is this:

"Although it was short-lived, Hawkins said he enjoyed his newfound fortune by pumping his money-filled fist into the air and yelling, "party time" as astonished cafeteria-goers looked on, mouths agape."

I hope I would have done the same.

Good work Jack!

Before I get to writing today, I need to give you a little context for the story:

For my UK/non-Canadian readers:
In Canada, we also have what are known as "The Big Five" banks...these are roughly equivalent to places like Barclay's, Lloyds, Natwest, etc. However, in Canada whenever you withdraw money from a cashpoint that doesn't belong to your bank, that bank charges you a service fee. Now I'm not talking about the little privately owned ones (although we have those too) but even the big ones from another bank - it's like getting charged if you had an account at Barclay's but took your money out from a Natwest-owned machine. The fee here is usually $1.50 or something close to that.

For my Canadian readers:
In the UK, as long as you withdraw your money from an ATM from one of the big banks, you don't get charged a service fee. They do have the little privately owned ones as well which DO charge a fee, but they're usually only found inside pubs and convenience stores.

So today I read a story on CBC about how the leader of the NDP (which is the Canadian equivalent of the Lib-Dems in the UK) is proposing that Canadian banks should stop charging fees when customers from other banks withdraw money from their ATMs.

Now, the banks make a couple of good points. In the article, they claim that would be like owners of a gym allowing members from another gym to use their equipment, and that banks in the UK make up the fees by charging more for other services, which may very well be true. But you know what? Combined, the big five made a PROFIT of over $18 BILLION in 2006 ALONE. I realize that they are trying to make a profit for their shareholders, but y'know what? Not all of us are shareholders, but we are all STAKEholders. I would also like to point out that the CEO of the bank I use, Royal Bank, was given a "bonus" of $1.8 million dollars in 2004. Yeah, I'm sure $1.50 to use another bank machine doesn't really bother him to much. Basically I wouldn't give two shits if each bank lost a billion dollars in profit so that the rest of us could have the convenience of taking money out for free. Wouldn't bother me a bit.

I'm glad that Jack and the NDP are still on the backs of big business, cuz frankly, they're ripping most of us off, and giving our money to a very select few.

Tsk, tsk

It is indeed likely that the BBC is a better authority on this than I am, however having finished and posted my application to the University of Oslo this past week, I was disappointed when this story about "Storms in Northern Europe" kept discussing the Netherlands and Germany.

Really? That's considered Northern Europe??

Lack of Keyboard

Sorry for the slackness of blog posts lately, it's just that my computer doesn't currently have a keyboard. Well, one of them does, but it only works for 45 minutes at a time. It's a complicated situation. Anyway, I'm working on remedying it and I should be good to go again in the near future.

That Day of the Week

I was sitting in the living room of our new apartment watching Elling, when my roommate, Matt, walked in. I hadn't seen him since last night because he went to visit his girlfriend.

He was carrying two plastic grocery bags and didn't even say hello...he just shouted "IT'S CHOCOLATE MILK DAY! IT'S ONLY A DOLLAR FOR A LITRE! I JUST GOT 4, WE NEED TO GET MORE!"

I concur. Perhaps we'll combine the effort with the beer run scheduled for later today.

Not Dead Yet

I'm still alive, just been busy moving and such...more soon.

In the meantime, while I generally don't like advertising, I find this commercial to be hilarious!