|
|
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
| |
3:51 am - Yeah, that's a bit of a stretch
|
Oh, Amazon. You sure do like your wildly inaccurate recommendations. Like this one:
Publishers must pay Amazon for recommendations in at least some cases. Because buying Smash Brothers Brawl certainly isn't a sign I'm interested in yet another sub-par mini-game collection for the Wii.
Tsk, tsk, Amazon.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
| |
5:34 pm - Well, Fuck
|
As I'm sure most of you know, there was a lot of talk about the possibility that we would be heading for a summer election. Ignatieff took the weekend to think about it and then decided to bargain with Harper to see if he could get some EI reforms passed in exchange for not forcing an election.
Well, the talks were had, and Ignatieff was able to get Harper to agree to... put together a study over the summer examining the EI issue! Wow, that's totally going to lead to major change in the fall; Harper certainly won't just ignore the report if it isn't to his liking.
In taking this "compromise," Ignatieff is taken the first step down the road that lead to Stephane Dion's ruin. Time and time again the Liberals would go on the attack about some onerous thing that Harper was pushing through. Time and time again there would be talk about the Liberals forcing an election on the issue. But, each time the Liberals "compromised" or just folded completely. All the while Stephen Harper and the money-laden Conservative party ran attack ad after attack ad further destroying Dion's credibility. As a result, when we finally did get an election, the Liberals were trounced.
And now Ignatieff is all set to do it again. Hell, look at Harper's speech announcing the deal. He threatened about how nobody wants an election in the fall (much like they didn't want a summer one up till now) and implied that Ignatieff would form a coalition to attack democracy. Even when he's getting his way, Harper doesn't lay off the attacks for a single moment.
The Liberals are out front right now but each time they fold to the Conservatives they are going to lose face. Let's hope that they decide to do something before Ignatieff has as much credibility with the general public as Dion had.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
| |
10:35 pm - Shock and Awe #3
|
So last Saturday was the third Shock and Awe Dusk til Dawn grindhouse movie night at the Fox Theatre. I didn't go to the first ever in June of last year because I couldn't find anyone to go with. I did go to the second ever back in November after convincing Nathan to go even though he had to be somewhere at 9 AM. This time I once again failed to convince anyone to go (Nathan's mom was in town and everyone else had scheduling conflicts or a strange aversion to watching obscure movies until 10 AM). But since I had gone to the second one I knew that much fun would be had so I decided to go even though I had to go by myself. And much good times were had.
( Warning: Lengthy ramblings on six movies ahead. )
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, March 26th, 2009
| |
11:36 am - Jesus Love You (Making Fun of his Signs)
|
Back at Acadia, there was a United Baptist Church just between the edge of campus and the rest of downtown. As is often the case, this church had one of those signs where announcing the title of the upcoming sermon and other important (to the church) information.
The signs were often quite (unintentionally) amusing with bizarre titles and the like so my friends and I would eagerly anticipate each new sign, to the point where we would complain if they were a day late changing the sign (to ourselves. We didn't go to the church to complain or anything.)
Ever since those days I have always kept an eye out for amusing church signs. I never really found any back in Pictou County. There were a good number of signs, of course, but they rarely tried to get creative (and hence lame) so they weren't really notable.
Here in Toronto, there are quite a few church signs around as well. Some of them can be pretty funny, but there's one on Mt. Pleasant in particular that has a tendency to provide really hilariously lame signage, often with cheesy puns and the like.
My old favorite from them was, "Seven days without prayer makes one weak." Pretty lame, huh? I figured it would be difficult to top that one, but this week's sign just may be able to do it.
The sign:
CH CH
WHAT IS MISSING?
U R
Now that's some lame church signage.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, March 21st, 2009
| |
3:31 am - Ummm... wow.
|
So tonight was the series finale of Battlestar Galactica. My review will be up on IP sometime tomorrow but I thought I'd share it here now.
For those who don't feel like reading the full thing, here's a one word summary:
Boo-urns!
( If you want more, clicky. )
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, December 4th, 2008
| |
8:16 pm - Harper Hating
|
So as I'm sure those of you living in Canada were already aware, the Governor General gave in to Harper's request to prorogue parliament.
In theory, parliament resumes on January 26th, but as I understand it now that parliament is no longer in session, technically Harper could wait up to a year to start it up again (as according to the constitution parliament only has to be in session once a year). Now obviously, he can't keep parliament shut down for a year (if only because the gov't has to pass budgets and the like), but if the opposition is still united in its goal of defeating his government, I wouldn't be that surprised if he decided to stall some more. I think it's great that Harper has decided to take his ball and go home. It's not like the country is facing an economic crisis right now or anything, the selfish bastard.
So now we can look forward to six weeks of the Conservatives running constant ads aimed at turning people against the Coalition (expect to hear the words "separatist," "undemocratic," and "un-Canadian," thrown around a lot [on a side note, the Conservatives have probably screwed themselves in Quebec for the next few years at least with all the anti-Quebec BS they are spewing]). The opposition will counter with their own ads, but the Conservatives have more money than all the other parties combined so their ad blitz is almost certainly going to be the more pervasive one.
And to top off the fun, there's a Liberal cabinet member saying that the coalition won't survive and talking about how they should work with the Conservatives.
When I first read this, especially in light of how the other cabinet ministers have been quick to label Karygiannis' comments as un-true, I thought he was an idiot. The reason Harper was able to act like a bully ever since being elected PM is because he thought the other parties would always back down in his games of political chicken. For once, the other parties are standing up to his bullshit, but if they ultimately back down, then Harper will be worse than ever. This is one situation where compromise is not a viable solution (not to mention, Harper;s idea of compromise, like his Republican counterparts', is for the other side to give in to everything he wants).
After checking out the Karygiannis' wikipedia entry, I'm actually wondering if there's not something more on the go. Karygiannis' seems to be rather conservative (particularly with regards to social issues). And we know that the Conservatives have been trying to lure opposition MPs to the dark side. What if Karygiannis' took advantage of such an offer? There would be good reason to keep quiet about his new affiliation for now. He'd be a far more effective PR tool for Harper if he was a "concerned Liberal" instead of just another Conservative MP. I'm not saying that's what happened here, but it certainly seems possible.
Regardless, we cannot let Harper continue to wreak havoc on democracy. Now is the time to act. There are a number of ways one can act:
Contribute Money: As I mentioned, the opposition is going to need all the money it can get to counter the Harper smear machine. To that end, why not donate a few bucks to one of the opposition parties. Here are the links for the donation pages of the Liberal, NDP and BQ. Of the three, I suspect the money would be most effective going to the Liberals or the NDP (if only because I assume the BQ would mainly advertise in Quebec and Harper's rhetoric has pretty much assured that nobody in Quebec is going to want him to stay in power). If you are like me, you don't have a ton of extra cash laying around for political donations, but every little bit helps (I managed to part with $40 myself).
Demonstrate: Go to a rally. There are a number of rallies happening this week in major cities across Canada. A lot of them took place today, but there's still a few left (Yellowknife has one Friday; Toronto and Montreal on Saturday) Presumably there will be more in the weeks to come.
Talk to people: This can be on a large scale though writing to local newspapers, contributing to blogs, calling radio talk shows, etc. or on a much smaller scale. If you have friends, family, co-workers, etc. who aren't too keen on the whole coalition angle, work on them. Explain to them why it's a good idea, and why letting Harper stick around would be to the detriment of most Canadians. You can also write your local MP and let them know you support or oppose their position (obviously this will vary depending on who your local MP is). The Conservatives are going to try and pressure opposition MPs to back down; let them know you are behind them.
Be Creative: Figure out other ways to show your support. Share those ways with others. Word of mouth is going to play a huge part on how the next six weeks unfold.
We are in for a tumultuous few weeks on the Canadian political scene, but each and every one of us has the power to help make sure the good guys come out ahead.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, November 30th, 2008
| |
10:52 pm - Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
|
I must say, I've really been loving the last few days in Canadian politics.
Fairly early in his first term, Harper and the Liberals were at odds on a number of issues. Neither side wanted an election; it was only a few months since the last one, and the Liberals had yet to replace Martin. However, in a situation was quite similar to the one between Mr. Burns and the German investors in "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk," Harper realized that the Liberals (like the German investors) were anxious to avoid an election (okay, well, they were anxious to sell the plant, but you get what I mean). So Harper refused to compromise on anything. If they didn`t want an election, the Liberals would have to let any confidence bills pass, even when it came to things they strongly opposed. As a result, the Liberals looked weak as they backed down from stand-off after stand-off.
Flash-forward to last Thursday and Harper and company clearly were expecting the same thing to happen all over again. They didn`t bother with any kind of plan to help the economy and loaded their economic update with all kinds of stuff that the other three parties were strongly against (and in the case of eliminating the subsidies, things that would give the Conservatives an even stronger monetary advantage). This time though, the bully isn`t getting his way.
It`s been great watching the Conservatives over the last few days. On Thursday, and early Friday, they were refusing to concede anything. They were keeping the bill exactly as it was, with no changes, no matter what the opposition threatened them with. But by Friday afternoon, panic starting setting in and it seems like every few hours the Conservatives are ceding more ground in the hopes of saving themselves. Even if a last minute deal is reached and the Conservatives stay in power, they`ve definitely been tarnished by this whole thing.
I, for one, am anxiously looking forward to December 8th. As things stand right now, that is the day that Harper goes kaput, a victim of his own arrogance and bullying. Truly, a greater Christmas present one could not ask for.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
| |
6:56 am - Sleepy Trevor is Sleepy
|
|
Just thought I'd post a quick update before I go to sleep. Just got in from the Nano event. It's getting very close to being 7 AM. I started the night with 9060 words and ended with 18295, meaning I just slightly more than doubled my previous total. Not a bad night at all. The new Christ PI novel is coming along really well. It's going to be tough to do the remaining 31705 words in 8 days, but I'm going to give it a try.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| |
1:46 am - Christ PI is back!
|
As I write this, I am at Nano's overnight writing event for the month (Obviously I'm taking a little break from the actual writing to write this).
My story was stuck in a limbo for a while there. I liked the idea, I liked the character, I liked what I had written, but the plot just wouldn't materialize, no matter how much I yelled at it. So tonight, I tried rebooting with a totally new idea (the 9000ish words I had written for the other story still count towards my total), but (while I loved the idea) I was having a hard time getting the story started. So a couple hours ago, I just said, "The hell with it" and started a new Christ PI story.
Oddly enough, I'm not writing an earlier entry in the series (I had always said if/when I write another Christ PI book, I'd do the first book, detailing how Christ (or at least a guy who thinks he's Christ, it's left ambiguous as to whether he is really Jesus or just thinks he is) became a private investigator in the first place). It's actually set a while after the events of the last book instead. It's going really well so far (I've written almost 4000 words so far tonight) though I'm not entirely sure where the plot is going (Jesus and company have been invited to a secluded mansion to solve something, though I really don't know what the something is yet. Hopefully I'll figure it out by the time they make it to the mansion). Anyway, I should probably get back to writing; I just thought I'd take a little break from the writing (by writing something else. Probably not the most effective means of taking a break).
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
| |
1:15 am - It Begins!
|
November 21st. That's how far I made it without having to hear any Christmas music this year. Nathan and I were on our way back from the gym, and the song on the radio was crap, so I started checking the other stations. I hit the number 5 and it was all "Silver and gold" and I was all "Nooo!" and hitting another button to change the station.
I really had hoped to make it until at least December without hearing any X-mas music. Still there have been years when I got hit with it the first week of November so it could have been worse.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
| |
6:40 pm
|
I've spent a lot of time at the movies the last few days.
Last night I went to see Sukiyaki Western Django. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a Japanese Western filmed in phonetic English (most of the cast doesn't actually speak English). It mixes the Old West cliches with sword-fighting and other such things. It's very over-the-top, very violent, and quite entertaining.
On Saturday night, the Fox Theatre had its second Shock and Awe: The Grindhouse Experience event. I missed out on the first one back in June, on account of the fact I couldn't get anyone to go with me. It was looking like that was the case again this time, but after changing his mind a couple times, Nathan decided on Saturday afternoon that he would go as well.
( Read about the whole event )
While some of the movies weren't the most entertaining in the world (particularly Sensations and The Bus is Coming), the whole night was a lot of fun. Definitely something I'll be going back to when they do it again next June.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Friday, November 7th, 2008
| |
12:21 am - The Haunted Something or Other
|
I just went down to the basement to get my laundry out of the dryer. Everyone else seems to be in bed and the house is very quiet and all the lights are off other than the one in my room.
The basement isn't quite dirt cellar old, but it's definitely got the old basement vibe. In additions to the washer, the dryer and some storage stuff, my landlord keeps a couple of cardio machines down there. While I was taking my clothes out of the dryer and one of the cardio machines went beep...
beep...
beep...
The beep was just like the one you get from those types of machines when you press enter. I'm sure it was just some kind of low battery alarm, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't creep me out at the time.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
| |
11:01 pm - Fucking A!
|
|
| Monday, October 13th, 2008
| |
11:14 pm - Mr. Jingles!
|
If you liked Frère Jacques but thought it could use a little more darkness, boy do I have the trailer for you.
I haven't seen the actual movie to go with the trailer yet (though Nathan owns it). If it's anywhere near as terrible/hilarious as the trailer though, it's got to be a winner.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, October 5th, 2008
| |
3:03 pm
|
Finally some good news on the Canadian political front. Most importantly, there's finally some sinking in the polls for the Conservative Party. I think even most Conservatives would cede that the Conservatives have, for the most part, run a horrible campaign. The Conservatives have been hit with scandal after scandal over the last few weeks, but until now, it's had no impact on their poll numbers.
I think the Conservatives strength in the polls is largely attributable to the brilliant (yet shameful) job Harper and his cronies have done in running attack ad after attack ad against Dion, pretty much from the moment he became leader of the Liberal party. People shrugged those ads off at first, but after years and years of repetition, the message managed to gain a lot of traction.
I suspect even now that the scandals aren't what's hurting Harper in the polls however. He's pulling a John McCain on the economy, insisting everything is fine, even as the markets get grimmer and grimmer. John McCain ended up reversing his claim to try and minimize the self-inflicted wound, but so far, Harper is sticking with his story on the economy.
The other bit of good news is less about results and more about attitudes and comes from a speech Paul Martin gave in Calgary. They've got about 8 minutes of video on the site and it's a great speech. He really tears into Harper, and more importantly, he asserts that the Liberals will win the election. While that may not be the case, in politics, attitude is very important. If it doesn't look like you think you can win, nobody else will think you can either. This is precisely the kind of talk we need to hear more of.
The Conservatives are still leading in the polls, so the news isn't as good as it could be, but it's still hope. At the very least, the Conservatives have dropped enough that, for the moment, there's less worry about them forming a majority government.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| |
12:46 am - Context Needed
|
On my way back from seeing Religulous (Hilarious movie, btw. Go see it), I decided to pick up a few groceries at the Dominion on College Street. I figured that midnight on a Saturday wouldn't exactly be a super busy time for them. When I got off the subway I was surprised to see both the store, and the whole building were really busy.
As I was going into the Dominion, I walked passed a group of approximately college aged women. As I went by, I overheard a snippet of conversation, "We're looking for the zombies, too!" Definitely a bizarre statement when lacking context.
Eventually I remembered a reason for why it was so busy (tonight's the big Nuit Blanche city-wide, all night art thing) and I figured it was probably connected to that in some way. So when I got home I went online and confirmed that was indeed the case: Zombies in Condoland. This also explains the guy I saw on the subway with a serious zombie make-up job on the go. I kind of wish I had figured it out sooner; I could have gone and found the zombies myself.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, October 4th, 2008
| |
1:23 am - A Valuable Lesson
|
|
Duff's Wings' Armageddon Sauce is very, very spicy when taken orally. It is even spicier when accidentally rubbed in one's eye. Ow.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
| |
7:26 pm - Harper Annoys Me, Vol MVII
|
Apparently Harper's taking yet another page out of the Republican playbook:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/story/2008/09/24/environment-voting.html
Promising to get "tough on crime" is one of those things that's always goes over well with certain segments, regardless of what the current punishments are or whether there's any evidence that harsher sentences will lead to a reduction in crime. So it's not really surprising that Harper is doing it yet again this election. His defense though, when people point out that studies show that what he's proposing is unlikely to reduce the crime rate while at the same time costing tax payers more money, he gets very Republican. Who needs to listen to experts? What are experts anyway, other than the people who are the most knowledgeable and informed in their given area? That's nothing compared to going with what the "average Canadian" (by "average" he really means Conservative) thinks. I use the same logic when I get sick. Sure, I could go to some guy with a fancy-shmancy degree, but when it comes to real health advice, who better to ask than random people on the street?
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, September 11th, 2008
| |
6:49 pm - Oh noes!
|
|
| Thursday, September 4th, 2008
| |
5:17 pm - Polling Time
|
Apparently when it comes to scandals in Canadian politics, denying everything and blaming everyone else for your actions is successful strategy:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/09/04/poll-results.html
Until this poll, I was feeling cautiously optimistic about a fall election. Now, not so much. Numbers like these, provided they hold steady, could even lead to a Harper majority government, a thought which sends many a chill down my spine.
I think the biggest piss off is that Conservatives win out on the question of which party is capable of providing the most honest government. Since being elected, Harper and Co have done everything they could to make the government less transparent and less accountable. And when they get called on stuff, they lie their asses off. How is that honest government? Argh!
On a less "How can Canadians be so bloody stupid?" note, it seems that Canadians are definitely on-board the Obama bandwagon:
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/national/080903/n0903119A.html
66 Obama, 13 McCain? Now those are some numbers I can support. Even amongst Conservative party supporters, Obama holds a healthy 55-27 lead. A quick look at the poll numbers shows that there are only 2 states (Hawaii and Vermont) where Obama has a bigger lead than he does amongst Canadian Conservatives. And when you look at Liberal, NDP, and Green members, Obama really crushes McCain with a lead of 70 points or more (I'd have listed the Bloc as well but the article never mentions them, though the survey did include Quebec). Granted, the US is quite a bit more conservative so it's not that tough for fans of Harper to not be fans of McCain, but it is still nice to see.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
qpine's journal