My Manifesto

2007-10-06T00:04:00.000-04:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 5074571

24 and I am outta here

2007-05-07T21:56:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to report that I am no longer slave to the hit series 24. I have watched more than half of this years episodes and not once was I enthused about the next episode. No cliff hangers enticed me even slightly and I have now missed the last 3 or 4 episodes and though I will one day catch up, I could care less when or if I do. I am done with my previous level of loyalty to that show. It's done and I still mith Edgar.

Also I am moving my blog to Facebook. If you are a reader of my blog and would like to keep up, you are likely a member of my facebook anyhow so keep an eye out there, this way you will be alerted via the facebook news network when a new article comes out and if you are not on my face book but want to read along then look me up - johnny proxy

This will be my last blogger post not including the sham post I will inevitably need to make in order to qualify for upcoming pokerstars blogger tourneys.

Yours Truly

JP

In search of an artist

2007-05-05T21:34:00.000-04:00

Back in December I knocked the bumper off my car in a single vehicle accident. Refer to December's blog for details.

Anyhow now I have repaired most of the damage but I'm still left with a new bumper cover to install. The bumper cover I got is matte black and needs to be painted. I figured I could find an artist who's getting started in airbrush to whip something up. Obviously I can't afford a custom choppers airbrush guy to deck my cover out in flames and skulls n shit but there's gotta some student artist out there who's willing to go nuts on this thing for me and do whatever. My deal is the artist gets to paint anything they want (save Maple Leafs designs or cock n balls designs) and I will drive it around Ontario for years to come.

If you know a student artist who'd like a go at this thing just for fun and practice
, let me know.

Guitar Gods, 3 of 4

2007-05-03T23:43:00.000-04:00

Guitar God number 1

Eddie Van Halen

He has (probably) graced the cover of more guitar mags more times than any other guitarist. ANYONE who knows ANYTHING about guitar knows that he must be considered among best ever when the topic of guitar greats comes up though some don't give him first place pretty much all will give him top 3.

In a career spanning over 30 years now Eddie has demonstrated utter masterhood of this instrument both in recordings and live on stage on all imaginable formats from classical, to 12 string to dry and wet electric, heavy metal, rock, punk, jazz you name it, Eddie embodies it with ease.

His music writing is top shelf, his performance is nothing short of perfect every time and his contribution to genres and hardware are cataclismic. Pictured is his famous "Frankenstrat" which he tweaked into a thing that fender basically can't take any credit for at all. There is an American 5 cent piece wedged between the neck and body of this guitar among many other customisations Eddie made to make this guitar do exactly what he wanted it to. He wanted this guitar to do what only he could do and no guitar was made to do that because his technique is purely his own and is completely unknown to other guitarists. Eddie pioneered techniques of using effects, tweaking hardware and employing out of the box type tapping, hammers, pull-offs, bends and things we can only imagine because he did it first. Eddie used to play with his back to the audience at times so that the virtuosos in his audiences would have a harder time figuring how he did what he did, how he made the guitar make the noises he could make with it.

His sound was so incredibly deliberate and complex that listening to his guitar work is like listening to the musical equivalent of an einstein theorum explained in minute detail. The depth and complete understanding of music, guitar and expression rings loud and pure with every single note. Above all much of his compositions are of high technical difficulty just by virtue of the fact that he is so adept that his music writing naturally adheres to more complex, advanced and simply difficult to execute technique. Soooooo easy to listen to, nearly impossible for any one to play. And I'd say there are no musicians capable of duplicating his complete repertoire with the same feeling he attributed to it or creating one of their own that was nearly as great a comtribution to mainstream music and music in general.

Breast Cancer

2007-04-13T21:36:00.000-04:00

I got an e-mail from my sister today that was sent to multiple recipients, as you can discern by the content, but there was a line in it that made me stop and think and I figured I'd discuss it here, but thought twice and decided to simply post her letter and let you read it for yourself. The part I'm talking about is the bit where she mentions cancer treatment now vs just ten years ago. Ten years ago was not that long ago, feels like yesterday.

The pic is her having fun with her hair before starting treatment as it was just going to come out anyhow.

Hi Everyone,

Yes it's that time of year again. I am getting ready to walk in the Weekend to end Breast Cancer benefiting the BC Cancer Agency (which really benefits us all).

I will give you all a quick synopsis of the weekend and why I feel it's so important for me to raise as much money as I can. As you all know I had breast cancer two years ago. It was a very scary time and I learned a lot about myself, the people around me and of course I learned more than one should know about cancer . If I had been diagnosed with the cancer I had ten years ago I probably would not be alive today. The reason I am here to tell my story is because I can. There are better treatments for breast cancer out there they just need to be found. Perhaps the cure is not to far away but it needs to be researched. An advance in breast cancer is an advance in the treatment of many cancers. I know I won't be a researcher or an oncologist but what I can be is a voice for them, and someone who raises money and awareness. That, in a nut shell is why I walk. I am living proof there are advances being made in oncology , I want to see a day when cancer is a disease of our past. More women are surviving breast cancer than ever before but we have to get to a point where no women die of this terrible illness.

Breast Cancer has again touched my life with my Aunt Paulette being diagnosed in early 2007. She is undergoing treatment now and will beat this and transition from cancer patient to cancer survivor, but it does not mean it's an easy journey. I am 35 and know far too many women who have cancer. It's time the cases are few and far between. The only way this will happen is through research and unfortunately research costs money...that's where you come in. If you can help support the Cancer agency, I can walk the 60K. This year I am walking with three other friends and we have set a goal of 20,000. Yes, that might sound like a lot but I am confident with hard work it can be achieved. Along with asking all of you we have a fund raiser here in Vancouver on June 2 2007 called wine for the cure. Should be successful although we still have so much to organize...but that's another story.

This year I will walk and dedicate the two days to my aunt who is showing incredible strength. She can know that although I am on the other side of the country I think of her often and have faith she can beat this. The two day walk begins at BC place and then we (2000 people) walk all through the streets of Vancouver. Over the two days there is a lot of laughter and a lot of tears. It is a very powerful event that really lets me know that I am not alone as a cancer survivor or as someone who wants to see an end to this. Each year at the end of the walk I have shin splint and more blisters than I thought were possible on one person but I hold my head high knowing I am doing something positive and in the direction of a cure.

If you are interested in lending a helping hand please go to the website endcancer.ca and do a participant search for Nicole Whitman and it's pretty straight forward from there. You can also find out anything you want to know about the weekend and what's going on in the field of cancer research. I know this is not the only worthy cause out there and perhaps you don't feel about it like I do,or have another cause you are passionate about, that's fine. I think the one thing that is important is that we as human beings help out where we can, and this is what I can do. As long as we all give a little we can see big results. Thanks for reading this very lengthy email and if you chose to donate...THANK YOU.

A quick PS I recently saw my oncologist and got a great report with a clean bill of health and I am so excited about what the future holds for me and my family. I will keep you all posted. Hope all of you are happy and healthy.

Love and Peace to all,

Have a Great Day,

Nicole

Guitar Gods 2 of 4

2007-04-08T21:11:00.000-04:00

Guitar God number 2

Stevie Ray Vaughan

SRV is the guitar gods lists of all kinds answer to Jimi Hendrix. Most lay music fans know that Jimi Hendrix is legendary and did so much so well for the guitar and the blues rock movement. Fewer people understand that SRV only lacks these accolades on as popular a level as Jimi because he came slightly afterwards. Had it not been for Hendrix, who no doubt was a major influence on Stevie Ray Vaughan, SRV would no doubt have blazed the very same trail nonetheless. He played many of Jimi’s tunes as well or better across method, technique and performance. Like Jimi SRV struggled with hardcore drug and alcohol abuse and overcame it. Both on and off the substance SRVs music was spot on. Many people regard him as the polished and cleaner sounding Jimi. Where Jimi produced harsh, distorted and sometimes blurry performances SRV delivered crystal clear sculpted notes and tones each and every time, live and recorded.

Chuck Berry chimed that Johnny B Goode played his guitar just like ringin a bell, and more than one of SRVs cohorts musician credited him for playing his guitar as if it were a natural part of him. I never got to see SRV live (passed on an opportunity in MTL when I was in high school, figuring I’d better be able to afford it next tour, and he died on that tour in a helicopter crash – one of my greatest regrets in life still to this day.) I’ve seen many videos though, I his performance on Austin City Limits. It was impossible to tell where the guitar ended and SRV began. He absolutely owned the instrument. To watch him play was like watching any other great do their thing, he made the lay person understand how good he was in how cleanly and supremely he did it. Think Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Oscar De La Hoya or Sydney Crosby – you just don’t need to know anything about their sport to know that they stand alone among their peers in greatness any time you watch them.

His talent was natural and in his genes, simply a given. What SRV spent his blood and sweat on was tweaking the sound. In the color image posted you can see one of his signature guitars. This one you can see some wear in the wood where he put it through fire to get just the right sound out of it. He used to put plexi glass over his amps and drill hole in them to get the sound resonating just right. He tuned the tube-screamer just so that with the right amount of tremolo it sounded almost like an organ and was the backbone of his wicked Texas sound.

The greatest thing about SRV is that there is no song I will recommend or point out in which his talents are most evident or showcased. His music is simply rife with it. Listen to any of it, watch any video, his masterhood simply pours forth at all times.

Guitar Gods 1 of 4

2007-04-04T22:49:00.000-04:00

Guitar God number 3

Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa is a guitar God because he is first and foremost a music God. Classically trained and self proclaimed jazz motherfucker (proclamation subsequently insubstantialized by the jazz community by the inclusion of his Peaches En Regalia in the Real Book of Jazz and by many acknowledging jazz greats.) Zappa assembled a band named in honor of the jazz term "motherfucker" denoting superb performer/composer in jazz talk. The band's name was dumbed down to societies acceptable standards by the man and was actually called Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. erhaps today he could have gotten away with The Motherfuckers. ANyhow, he spent his entire career surrounded by motherfuckers in persuit and appreciation of all that is great in music, including himself and his abilities as a composer and guitarist. Look no further than the Sheik Yerbouti Tango, the solo to Cheepnis and Rat Tomago for samples of Zappa's highly technical, deeply theoretically embodied, precise and unique playing style. The likes of Adrian Belew and Steve Vai and many more like them sold their souls for the honor of playing under his direction and influence.

In a career spanning 3 decades , 70 major releases and 100's more independent ones, Zappa proved his ability to play any style and his music itself has only been mastered and performed by the most elite of musicans that came after him.

More get to know me.

2007-03-31T02:47:00.000-04:00

The guitar gods post is coming soon, should begin next week. For now here's some crap I deleved into on facebook for your dogfucking pleasure.

I'm kind of a suck for these things. Must be the psych student in me, or the people watcher or something. Ok ok the dork, whatever.

100 Things You Might Not Have Known About Me [ and probably never wanted to know ]

1. EVER BEEN GIVEN AN ENGAGEMENT RING? HA ok apparently this quiz is designed for women, but I'm not too proud to stop. No, and I've never given one either. Or even considered it. I did once try to flip one from a buddy's failed relationship and discovered that the jewelery business is not for me.

2. LONGEST FRIENDSHIP? Norman D. Our parents were neighbours and we shared a crib as babies before we knew each other existed. Got our assess beat for dumb shit many times soon after and still communicate weekly and continue to propegate shenanigans. We were introduced in 32 years ago - his mom still likes to tell me how she changed my diapers (and loved every minute of it). We havent lived in the same province or got to share many beers in the past decade, but when we do get together it's like no time has passed since the last hoorah. Other than him, there is David H - we met in 27 years ago and I just spent the last week in his basement plotting our new Church of the Affirmation of Athiesm.

3. LAST GIFT YOU RECEIVED? Vice grip set from mom and dad probably.

4. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU DROPPED YOUR CELL? The real important question is how many times has it dropped me! POS. It gets what it deserves, I'll leave it at that.

5. WHEN'S THE LAST TIME YOU WORKED OUT? Seriously 8 months ago, lightly one week ago, plan to tomorrow I swear - does running count?

6. THING YOU SPEND A LOT OF MONEY ON? Eating out, my car, completely unaccountable sundry miscelania.

7. LAST FOOD YOU ATE? Well that's not fair I just came from apoker game where there were bowls of junk-food. Before that butter chicken from M and M (big mistake).

8. FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX? Whatever that persons best quality happens to be. If their gift is one of a kind eyes, then I notice that, if it's a fine rack, then yes I notice that, I don't look for anything in particular, just what is thier most attractive feature.

9. FAVORITE SONG? Impossible to say, but it would be a Lyle Lovett or Zappa tune - possibly Sofa#2 from Zappa - or From My Life by Smetana.

10. WHERE DO YOU LIVE? I wish I had an answer for this, I really really f'n do.

11. HIGH SCHOOL YOU ATTENDED: On paper it would be Lester B Pearson Catholic High School, the attended part is still up for debate.

12. CELL PHONE SERVICE PROVIDER: Bell. They suck as much as all the others, but had the best covereage for the zone I needed at the time.

13. FAVORITE MALL STORE: The silly ones, if they sell a fart box you can expect to see me in there at some point during my visit.

14. LONGEST JOB EVER HAD: Full Time: Optician (apprentice mostly) 3 years, PT: CMS 4 years and counting kind of.

15. DO YOU OWN A PAIR OF DICE?: Somewhere in the world there are some dice I can call my own, but don't ask me to bring em to your house next time I come over.

16. DO YOU PRANK CALL PEOPLE?: Me and David H were the kings of this a few weekends back in the early 80s, but once was enough.

17. LAST WEDDING ATTENDED? Lost track - take your pick, no wait...hang on, Pauline Leger. Was a fine gathering in Barachois NB and surrounding region.

18. FIRST FRIEND YOU'D CALL IF YOU WON THE LOTTERY: Very hard to say - the one who at the time I felt would be willing to drop everything and go to Vegas followed by Tahiti.

19. LAST TIME YOU ATTENDED CHURCH: Been a long time, as George Carlin would say, at least since I reached the age of reason, which for me was 15 years ago or more.

21. BIGGEST LIE YOU HAVE HEARD? (unchanged from the person I got this from) No idea. I tend to block them out.

23. WHERE'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO EAT WITH FRIENDS? (unchanged from the person I got this from) Lieutenant's Pump for breakfast on Sundays...and my own addition to that point - Pho Thu Do and Taj indian on Carling. Oh and who can beleive I almost forgot St-Huberts Chicken Shack Breast quarter table d'hote, creamy soup, regular coleslaw brownie for desert soda water and lime to drink baby and I don't even have to say it!

24. CAN YOU COOK? Yes but usually i prefer not to, but when I DO I enjoy it.

25. WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU DRIVE? HighNdry SON OF A (Hyundai SONATA with some personalisations)

26. BEST KISSER? As I said in q number one, not too proud: I have no idea really, never been overly wowed but there are a few busts I won't mention.

27. LAST TIME YOU CRIED?: I think it was on Valentines Day 2001.

28. MOST DISLIKED FOOD: Greek Salad - a perfect cornicopia of everything I don't like all rolled into one.

29. THING YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOURSELF?: That even one person has told me they never laugh harder than when they hang with me.

30. THING YOU DISLIKE MOST ABOUT YOURSELF: I'm too old for my direction in life to still be so very uncertain. I may just be getting started when some of my friends are retiring. I guess I'll have to start hangin with their kids!

32. LONGEST SHIFT YOU HAVE WORKED AT A JOB? I love this question. 36 hours, beat that! Showed up at work one thursday and our department had a huge deadline by end of day friday. We pulled an all-nighter, had a blast, finished barely on time and then went drinking. 4 Beers go a long damn way on 36 hours no sleep, vigorous work and many Tims runs.

33. Favorite MOVIE? Meh I addressed this one in my facebook profile: I love tons of films but worth a mention are Sneakers, Indiana Jones Trilogy and the other one I mentioned I forget.

34. CAN YOU SING?: Very limited range and style, but yes actually.

35. LAST CONCERT? Mother Mother before that Controller Controller (weird two double named bands) and before that Lyle Lovett I think.

36. LAST KISS? (thankfully not the same as the person I took this from - which was some random dancefloor dude) Quite clearly the ex-gf JKJ.

37. LAST MOVIE RENTED?: From the internet library - Blood Diamond, from blockbuster - no freakin clue - probably Clue.

38. THING YOU NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT?: No garantees, I could conceivably leave home without a clue of where I'm heading.

39. FAVORITE VACATION SPOT? What's a vacation? or what isn't a vacation. If I could get away right now I'd go to Calgary and go hiking in the Kananaskis, so I guess Alberta.

40. DO YOU LIKE CHINESE FOOD? Yes, but it's my least favorite of all asian foods. Favorite is Vietnamese. Thu Do! Woot!

42. IS YOUR ROOM CLEAN? Disorganised but clean - no dust, no dirt.

43. LAPTOP OR DESKTOP COMPUTER?: DESKTOP, laptops just don't cut it. Bought a brand new $2500 laptop last month and it couldn't hold a candle to my 3 year old desktop for performance. Not even close, I don't miss that laptop at all.

44. FAVORITE COMEDIAN?: George Carlin, Bill Cosby, Dave Chapelle, Woody Allen, Russell Peters, too many - i really love lots of comedy.

45. DO YOU SMOKE?: Cigars when golfing and musing with scotch. (perhpas 3 a year)

46. SLEEP WITH OR WITHOUT CLOTHES? (unchanged from the person I got this from) Without, unless sharing a bed with somebody I'm not having sex with. Naked is always better!

47. WHO SLEEPS WITH YOU EVERY NIGHT? Can we just all pretend I said something clever and witty here, now fuck off.

48. LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS WORK? Nope, that's a garantee.

49. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BEEN PULLED OVER BY THE POLICE? Hahahahahahahahaha.

50. PANCAKES OR FRENCH TOAST? Could go either way, usually cakes though.

51. DO YOU LIKE COFFEE? Card carrying member of the facebook group "coffe fiends of Ottawa" and damn hell yes! I look forward to work so I can get that coffee on my way in.

52. HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS? Over medium

53. DO YOU BELIEVE IN ASTROLOGY? Nope.

54. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?: The dude who's polace I'm crashing at tonight. OlSBP - good buddy o mine.

55. LAST PERSON ON YOUR MISSED CALL LIST?: I miss all calls, kind of use my phone more as pager. But I think it was either David H or The people from that job a applied at who I did talk to eventually.

56. WHAT WAS THE LAST TEXT MESSAGE YOU RECIEVED?: Was from Anu in Toronto, discussion of plans to get together and me to crash at her place cause a thing down the street the next day. She's very good to me. Her and her roomie and the bunny. Thanks guys. (I'm comin again mid April I think, got another thing)

57. MCDONALDS OR BURGER KING? Last year I could have said neither, but lately - McDonalds. Damn shiftwork.

58. NUMBER OF PILLOWS?: One for the head, one for between the knees. Damn you Kazaniwski, my hips thank you, but now I can't sleep without it, and can't turn over without waking up. Just when I was getting the hang of sleep.

59. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW?: (unchanged from the person I took got this from) fuck-me boots. HA love it, just wanted to keep that in there, I'm totally not wearing said boots, i promise. I'm in my America beige cigarette cargo pants and Bip Jeggy T-Shirt c/o kwesi Larose. Socks and ummm boy type boxer briefs. Glasses. Goloshes.

60. PICK A LYRIC, ANY LYRIC OR SONG? Whats the ungliest part of your body? Some say your nose, some say your toes I think it's your mind.

61. WHAT KIND OF JELLY DO YOU LIKE ON YOUR PB & J SANDWICH? Fuck that shit, what do you know about sandwiches question man.

62. CAN YOU PLAY POOL?: Yes, but I prefer bowling and do it better as well.

63. DO YOU KNOW HOW TO SWIM?: Rootin tootin, I even know the butterfly.

64. FAVORITE ICE CREAM?: Haagen Daas of any kind. Especially on a stick.

65. DO YOU LIKE MAPS?: What a strange question - did some GIS geek throw this one in? Yeah I dig maps, I prefer maps of places I'm familiar with for interst sake, but use maps mostly in Montreal and GTA, accept for a t work in Ottawa from time to time.

66. TELL ME A RANDOM FACT ABOUT YOURSELF?: (unchanged from the person I got this from) My jaw cracks everytime I open my mouth. - every single time! that's crazy! - Random fact about Proxy: one of my most visible scars is from computer repair. Wahn wahn.

68. EVER ATTEND A THEME PARTY?: Yes, it ended with many photos of many naked people and some fear and loathing in Las Vegas themes pics I'm not proud of but find very funny. I'll show them to you sometime if you happen to be a close enough enough buddy that you come to where they are kept (parents basement)

69. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON? SUMMER!

70. LAST TIME YOU LAUGHED AT SOMETHING STUPID? That question about ever being stoped by the cops.

71. WHAT TIME DID YOU WAKE UP THIS MORNING? some time in the hour of 8.

72. BEST THING ABOUT WINTER? (unchanged) ...skating on the canal.

73. LAST TIME A COP GAVE YOU A TICKET? More hilarity.

75. NAME OF YOUR FIRST PET? I'd tell you this but it's my password reminder ketphrase for lots of secret shit.

76. DO YOU THINK PIRATES ARE COOL OR OVERRATED? (unchanged) Cool! Ahoy me maties! Arrr! Talk Like A Pirate Day is awesome.

77. WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS WEEKEND? ummm mostly this questionairre apparently, I'm embarassed to post it when I'm done cuase you'll know I was doing this on Friday night. Be sure there's some poker in there and a trip to St-Huberts as well.

79. WHAT IS THE THIRD LETTER OF YOUR NAME?: Well now this question just sucks, no one learns abything about me from it. I have a tattoo of my initials on my left foot. It is meant to represent an artists signature on his painting. Taking responsibility for what I am.

80. HOW OLD ARE YOUR PETS?: They old, they ghosts.

81. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BACKPACK? Was black - stolen, now orange and black.

82. ARE YOU SICK?: (unchanged) Nope!

84. IS THE BATHROOM OPEN?: (unchanged) yup. quite a boring question, that.

87. ARE YOU SMILING?: Inside - almost always, outside not so much.

88. DO YOU HAVE ON EYELINER?: Starting to feel a little unwelcome in this questionairre. For the record, no.

89. DO YOU MISS SOMEONE RIGHT NOW? Not really, but lately I've been questioning some relationship decisions I've made in long times past.

90. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD YOU GO? South America (Amazon), Africa(Kilimanjaro), Australia(who knows, and suggestions Ol SBP?).

91. DO YOU HAVE A MYSPACE? DO YOU HAVE A LIVE JOURNAL? No.I do have a blogspot blog though. johnnyproxy.blogspot.com - beware the dejavu.

92. DO YOU WATCH AMERICAN IDOL? Only the first and last weeks of it.

93. DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH?: Not the note passing kind - or do I? I dunno.

94. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NICKNAME FOR YOURSELf? Johnny, JP (Proxy), But we all know you can't choose your own nickname. THe one I was given, that I dson't mind is McNerd.

95. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BATHING SUIT?: ummm cock and ball colored? I swim in my shorts or underwear - black I guess.

97. DID YOU GO ON VACATION LAST MONTH? No, who wriote this damn thing, they think we're the prince of persia or something.

98. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON A CRUISE? For bruisin from time to time.

99. DO YOU HAVE A SISTER?: Yup and thats all. Older by 2 years, lives on the west coast. We're close but we're not tight.

100. ARE YOU UPSTAIRS?: Rarely. Currently on the 3rd floor. Bit of an anti climax here. For a fun seguay into further procrastination I recomend Skoopy.com, but be ware of the borderline porn in the margins, don't let it prevent you from enjoying the shenanigans.

Upcoming blog mini series

2007-03-26T20:22:00.000-04:00

My computer has been indispensible for the past few weeks and will remain so for the next week or so while in transit/ Meanwhile I am using a friends computer to bring this post, but I don't want to commit to the miniserise without my full personal resources and comfort.

The mini-series I have planned is a for part "Top 3: Best Guitarists of All Time" where once a day for three posts I will discuss my picks in order of least to most influential/important and will finish with a fourth post of honorable mentions and reasons why they didn't make the top three. Perhaps that sounds like an anti climax, but just how do you think I can explain how both Jimi Hendrix and Steve Vai didn't make the list hmm?

Fandom: Sens vs Leafs

2007-03-15T12:14:00.000-04:00

I just got a message from a Leafs fan friend of mine on MSN and it said: "Well looks like the Sens will be out in round one. Likely meeting either Pittsburgh or [Whoever the other likely match was]" And I realized the fundamental difference between Leafs fans and Sens fans.

Any sensible Leafs fan will agree that Ottawa has more pure talent. Any sensible Sens fan will agree that more often than not, the Leafs play more passionate, entertaining hockey. But when it comes to the play-offs (when the Leafs even make the play-offs) there is a key difference. When the Sens loose out the fans are angry and disappointed because they had hope. The Leafs fans enjoyed the ride while it lasted and expected nothing better.

What seat would you rather be in come play-off time? The one that guarantees up to three rounds of fierce battle and certain failure. Or the one guarantees nothing but carries certain possibility of final victory.

I choose hope.

My weekend activities

2007-03-11T03:01:00.000-04:00

This weekend I got out of the house (and in the house so to speak, see below) quite a bit.

Earlier this week my buddy posted on his MSN that he saw a band in Kelowna BC, where he goes to school for music/sound engineering/production or something like that, that was very good. The band was called Mother Mother. (band is called "Mother Mother" each mother is a different link so check'em both).

So I looked into the band as his MSN urged and found the links above. I was further intrigued and it turned out that the band was in my town on Friday. I sent an email out, got some peeps on board and we went. Turned out they were in town as part of a Canadian Music Weekend festival going on in Toronto which was pretty cool. This particular venue, of many include in the festival was the Horseshoe tavern. Cool band spot with a big history I was ignorant of until Friday. We ended up seeing 4 fine Canadian artists, of which Mother Mother was my clear favorite. To make the evening even more fine our good friend Nirm from the former band controller.controller showed up in support of a fellow band from her old record label and touring days (You Say Party, We Say Die on Paperbag Records) who also put on a fine show featuring Nirm and co. up on stage freaking the joint out double time for one song. A good time was had by all.

At the show a friend in our party was looking for a fourth for a curling tourney the next day. Well he just said curling actually, so I volunteered, knowing that I would only spend the day in bed watching Bullshit! otherwise. So I arrived at the rink in the nick of time and found out that not only was I going to get my first exposure to curling, but a curling tournament to boot!

Let me tell you, I don't want to brag or nothing, but I think I'm something of a natural. I was certainly the worst on our team, but out of 12 we finished third and I did quite well for myself. And holy snot did I have a good time. I really like this game. But let me tell you more about our third place finish, because we were actually in first place right through to the very last rock. We won our first two matches, tied the third and were heading into the fourth atop the leaderboard. According to tournament structure it turned out that we could get away with just tieing this match and still winning IF the 3rd place team lost their final match (they didn't). Let me tell you, on the buzzer, us in the lead 3 points to 1, the second place team shooting for only a possible tie had the third place team who stood to win the tourney if they made the shot, on the edge of their seats. At this point they themselves could not win but only decide between us and the current 3rd place team who takes third and who took 1st. And as I said, they made the shot, tied our match and bumped us down to third. But still, 3rd out of 12, my first time out ever, not too shabby.

So to all of my curler buddies out there, let it be known now that I am a competent and willing sub anytime you're looking to fill a spot.

After curling we hit a quaint pub, had beer and dinner, I met another friend after for good chat and coffee and now I'm ready for bed and I've had a fantastic weekend. Hope you did too.

Bullshit!

2007-03-11T01:27:00.000-05:00

Ok so who's surprised I didn't edit the previous post instead of starting a new one? This way was less resistance and I'm not afraid to admit I'm very lazy. On we go, I have some Bullshit! to discuss.

About a year ago I discovered a great not so new show. At that time, the show would have been in it’s 3^rd season. Recently I’ve taken to trying to get caught up on it. While doing so I discovered time and again that nobody I know is familiar with the show. It is called Bullshit!. More specifically, Penn and Teller’s Bullshit! I think it’s on Showtime. If your TV service includes this network I highly recommend looking into it, or renting/buying the DVDs. You can also YouTube a lot of it for a good sample, I’ve included two nice ones at the bottom of this post.

The is slightly Michael Moore-esque a la Awful Truth, only with a Penn and Teller spin. By spin I definitely mean bias. The show is no means impartial, much like Michael Moore’s work, but they have a different delivery that for me is very satisfying. I also like Michael Moore’s work but he has a much more tongue in cheek way about making his points. MM’s shows are funny and witty, insightful and thought provoking which are all the good qualities Bullshit! brings you. Penn and Teller provide the added bonus of being in your face, up front, aggressive and they don’t beat around the Bush. Candor, as one source I once saw defined as "brutal honesty - to the point of being offensive or insensitive" I think is the best word for their sensibility. And I fuckin (<--just had to add that word to MS Word’s dictionary, but interestingly after I pasted this text into the blog editor, it did not complain) love candor, it even used to be an online handle of mine back in the day.

Some notes on the shows content. It is similar to MM’s work in that it focuses on topics that are controversial (or creates controversy where it is due) and shows you their side of the story while attempting to address the devils advocate, but always predictably in biased form. Nonetheless it is a wonderful show to behold for interest sake. Some notable episodes I’ve enjoyed are the two linked below, one being an attack on the PETA organization and the other a rebuttal to the war on drugs. They have a brilliant episode where they expose the bottled water industry complete with a faux fancy restaurant where they dupe prissy restaurant goers into rating different bottled waters that all came from the same tap/hose in the back. One bottle which being in the States where French is a distant 3^rd language they got away with naming Eau de Robinet (French of course literally translated as tap-water or water from the tap.) And the marks were mostly good sports about being called out in the end when the jig was up.

So now you know about a great show that doesn’t get enough exposure. It has been renewed for season 4 and 5 and hopefully more.

Pre Post Reservation

2007-03-08T22:14:00.000-05:00

Ok. So I was trying to log in so that I could comment on OlSBPs blog and I wasn't paying attention to where I was clicking and I started a new post. I only see options for saving it and not aborting it so I made this post instead. Don't want some saved nul post sitting around in blog limbo forever, not in my nature. I'll just edit this one when my next post is due. Or perhaps just let it go and call this a post. See how I feel when the time comes.

Let's learn to play guitar!

2007-03-08T19:26:00.000-05:00

In 1990 or so I was bored and I picked up my buddy's guitar and a book he had with it in it's case. I had a minuscule background in music from early childhood and I figured if I could manage to figure out how to read guitar music I could learn the basic chords and get started on my way to rock-n-roll stardom. Well though I haven't achieved my first gold album yet that day was a big success. I learned A, B, C, D, E, F, and G chords. I had committed them to memory in about 15 minutes. Every couple of hours I picked the guitar back up and played them again so I would never forget them and some day somewhere by a campfire I'd be able to play along as someone shouted out the changes for me. The next guitar I picked up happened to be the same one about 6 years later when I became my buddy's room mate. I still knew the chords. Having time and access to a guitar on my hands I decided to take it to the next level. The internet had come a long way in those 6 years and I had a bit more guidance too. The next few years my learning consisted of downloading tabs to my favorite songs (that I could possibly play along with as a rhythm, which amounted mostly to Elvis Costello and Ramones). From there I coupled a little knowledge I had gained from a single informal lesson I had received prior from a buddy Ben E and proceeded to learn all the minors, 7s, augmented 5ths, power, barred forms and other inflections of the gamut I had come to be familiar with. Eventually I bought my own first guitar in 2003. It was an electric, which I highly recommend to new learners because it is so much easier to play and tune than an acoustic. I didn't add much knowledge in the years to come since that purchase. I became convinced that I had maxed out my knowledge without taking the step to either formal training or serious concerted effort in online self tutelage. I decided to begin thinking more seriously about taking my playing to the next level so started warming up to the idea of securing a teacher or finding a good self-source. As I am still in too much flux with where I live the live teacher idea is still out and the point of this blog entry is that it is no longer necessary. I downloaded tons of instructional videos and guides that didn't seem to do the trick. They taught me licks and tidbits of theory that all seemed to paint a very fuzzy picture of what I needed to know. I came to a point where I knew what I needed to know and just needed to find it, and finally I did. I found it at the internet library in the form of House of Blues series of learning to play Blues guitar, volume one and two. I'm stuck on Volume One chapter one, page one! The video laid out in clear terms exactly what I was looking for. I'm working on it now and will hit page two when I've mastered it. The following is a summary of the info that was the light I was looking to turn on. Like I said, I always knew it was there, just not exactly where to find it and how it all worked. There are in fact still many aspects of this basic I'm sure I don't see, but I actually feel like I'm progressing now after a long long time at a max. I'd become very familiar with my equipment and proficient within my limited scope. What I've learned will allow me to tie it all together and build upon it. And here it is, let's start with a diagram I made based on it look it over, and refer back to it to make sense of the rest of this blog. Just a note to the reader: from this point forward, if you have no interest in learning the guitar or in music and are not interested in the nature of my discovery then you might as well cut'er off here. The rest is just technical music rhetoric. If you're like me and have maxed out your manipulation of the aforementioned chord structures and need a lift over the hump with direction in your learning, then read on, cause I found it and here it is.

For starters let me point out the one thing that isn’t included in the diagram and is perhaps the most important factor of all. A key component to effective guitar playing is something I began working on about 7 or 8 months ago and only now is it even starting to take form. That component is a good mop. Grow your hair if you’re going to take guitar playing seriously. There’s only so much you can do with your hips and your eyes are on the neck of your guitar most often and your arms and hands are definitely out, what else have you got left to grove with? Alright, now that I’ve got the tone of this lecture set, let’s always keep in mind that music is supposed to be fun first and foremost and let’s not get too stodgy as the technical parts pour out forthwith (at the waffle hut).

What we are looking at here is the framework of the Pentatonic Minor Scale. And what were talking about here are scales. I’ve known for a long time that the key to progressing was in learning my scales. But what scales? Where to start and where do scales fit in, why are they so important. Well eventually all scales, but the starting point for blues and rock guitar is the Pentatonic Minor scale. MOST chord structure, licks and solos are built upon the framework of the Pentatonic Minor, so it’s the best place to start. And there also is your reason for learning the scales. Learning the scales also develops your proficiency in picking and fingering frets individually. Once you understand the foundation of this diagram, where the logic is behind it, it actually is fun to practice the scales and memorize the patterns. As much for me, as it is to play along with my favorite music using tabs.

Pre-info on Tones and Semi Tones
Notes in any instrument increase in tonal increments. Like each key on a piano is a semi tone different from the one directly above or below it. A tone indicates two semi tones. So on the guitar if you play a note on the first fret then the 2nd fret is a semi tone up from that and third fret is a full tone up. The difference between 1st fret and 4th fret is then a tone plus a semi tone, or TS. Understanding this is key to what follows so read it a few times and look at your guitar if you have to to get it. And don't forget that the 5th fret on one string is the same note as the next higher open string, and the relationship involved there is why our scales crawl from string to string and not all the way along a single string (which in theory they could to the extent of the string).

As you may have guess guessed (or known if you’re ahead of me in this) pentatonic has something to do with 5. Let’s focus for the time being on Position 1. Each pentatonic scale has just 5 different notes. So the pentatonic minor in A for example starts on A and progresses thusly as all pentatonic minors do: ACDEG - this equates to tone semi tone, tone, tone, tone semi tone or TS-T-T-TS. What TS-T-T-TS means is that you can pick any note you want anywhere on the fret board (or keyboard, fingerboard etc) and increase that note by a tone plus a semi tone (TS), then increase the new note by a tone (T) and increase that note by a tone (T) and increase that note by a tone plus a semi tone (TS) and you will have your pentatonic minor scale with the root being where you began that pattern. So to reiterate, if you begin this pattern on A you end up with ACDEG. I think the reason the lesson I used A is because all the notes happen to be natural (no sharps or flats) when you apply the TS-T-T-TS algorithm.

The 5 Positions
Looking at Position 1 on my diagram the scale starts with an A note, which is why it is highlighted in yellow, (highlights as you see are root notes, for this scale that note is A). I’ve oriented this chart a little differently than the more common ways seen here and here because I find it easier to follow my way. Use whatever one you prefer. I like mine because when reading along as you play it progresses naturally from top to bottom as you do on the strings of the guitar. The pentatonic scales as practiced for guitar involve playing two notes per string for a totally of 12 notes, but these twelve notes only include the Root note plus a tone plus a half tone plus a half tone plus a tone and back to root an octave higher and so on. Each pentatonic scale has 5 positions. The positions only mean which note you begin the scale with. Position 1 begins with the root, 2 a TS up 3 a T up from there 4 a T up from there and 5^th a TS from 4^th.

So for Pentatonic minor in A your five positions starting notes are A (1st position), C (2nd position), D (3rd position), E (4th position) and G (5th Position). Note that some positions have multiple starting points, like E for instance can be played open or 12th fret. Each Position has a pattern that you can see in he diagram. This is the main reason for my setting up this diagram myself, as this orientation makes the patterns of each position most visible at a glance. Finger them any way you feel comfortable and are able to play them cleanly; there is not set fingering for these scales at all. Learn the patterns for each of the five positions and you’re well on your way past the plateau I talked about.

An interesting basic rule to note on the Positions: You can play any position off of any root note along the fattest string on the fret board and you’ll have a pentatonic scale, only which one will change depending on which position you play off of which root note. For example Beginning on the 8^th fret if you play position 2, you can see in the diagram that you are playing the Pentatonic Minor A (even though your first note is a C, you’re still playing the A minor Pentatonic scale.) If you start on the very same note (8^th fret), but play the Position 3 pattern from it, you have actually played the Pentatonic Minor in G position 3. So two factors decide which scale you are playing – which of the five positions (patterns) you play and where on the fret board you initiate it. Those two factors must be combined to know which key you are playing in. Get to know the five positions and their place in each key. Practice them backwards and forwards. Run position 1 into 2 into 3 into 4 into 5 until you can play the whole pentatonic up and down the neck in each key and we’ll be well ready for lesson 2 and much more advanced playing.

The way the scales are meant to be played from my diagram are top to bottom left to right, just like on the neck of your guitar. The numbers represent to frets to hit and the strings are named on the left (but hopefully this much you already knew if you're actually using this lesson). And you simply walk your fingers up the strings in the five Positions. I recommend learning the five positions relative to A so you will both master the positions and one scale at once. Then just learn to move the positions along the fretboard properly for each key. Also note that the five positions are chosen by starting at the root and increasing your starting note by the same pattern the pentatonic scale follows, TS-T-T-TS. So for example the F progression will be 1st position on fret 1, 2nd on fret 4, 3rd on fret 6, 4th on fret 8 and 5th on fret 11.

Wow so much in one simple lesson. I loved that, hope you did too. Hope it wasn’t too confusing and I hope I didn’t screw anything up. Use the two link to the words HERE to help you make more sense of this. One illustrates the positions for Am Pentatonic and the other G, I’ve sort of compared, contrasted and incorporated them. The next logical step from here are more scales that require no more lessons than learning what the tonal separation for new scales are. I know that Pent Minor is TS-T-T-TS, pentatonic major will be just the same as above only with a different base tonal separation between the 5 notes. Have to look it up though, I ain’t freakin Mozart over here.

My auto accident incident

2007-03-05T10:47:00.000-05:00

So by now most of you know that I was involved in a motor crash not too long ago. Well here's the story, complete with visuals.

First of all let me state without any hyperbole that these pics do not do the event any justice. Upon reviewing the pics I nearly decided to omit them as they definately have the effect of downplaying the intensity of the mechanism of destruction.

So here's how it all started. On this day I was to returning to Mississauga because I had a shift the next day at work. It had snowed something feirce the night before but the roads as you can see were rather clear and so was the sky. A hell of a fine day for driving the old hwy back from Ottawa to Toronto, i was looking forward to it. My friend Cara was expecting me for a visit in Sterling too, in fact I think I'll email her a link to this blog, cause I never did explain why I never showed up - but no doubt she wasn't much concerned cause that is very much like me I guess - on the opposite end of that scale, when I do show up in Stirling it is usually without announcement of any kind.

The day was cold but nice. Perhaps the roads were frosty - but as you can see in the "looking back" photo, the roads are more or less dry. On this part of the highway in dry conditions I would normally do 119km/h in cruise. This part of the road is patrolled by O.P.P. and they don't forgive any more than that. But today because of the the frosty roads and the nights snowfall and the fact that it was a nice day and I had all day I was doing 100km/h. However just before the accident, I pulled into the left lane and spead-up to 110km/h in order to overtake a truck that was quite a bit ahead of me, but I could tell I was going to pass him eventually since I could tell he was doing 90-95 by the way I was gaining on him at 100. That's when the whole thing started. Seemingly out of nowhere I felt my back-end swing suddenly towards the right, I compensated with a gentle 15-20 degree steer to the left and imediately returned the wheel to neutral. The car comensated by swinging to the left about 30 degrees and the manouvre took place again only in mirror image. At this point I was in familiar territory. I had steered and countersteered out of a fishtail with many vehicles many many times in heavy snow and rain. It took about 2 seconds before I came to realise this was not my everyday rearwheel drive slick condition fishtailing. Each successive manouvre/counter-manouvre seemed to bring upon a more extreme result and I began having the thaught that I'd start spinning in 360s any minute and possibly catch an edge and start the life threatening roll-over of doom. But I didn't resign myself to that and still faught to keep'er on the road. I noticed the overpass of Palladium Drive coming up, concrete to the left of me, concrete to the right and I thaught the possibility of careening into it to be a very high likelyhood at this point. I glanced at my speedometer knowing from experience of my past two careers that when it comes to concrete, speed is the number 1 factor in deciding death or certain life altering injury. I saw the needle a few degrees past 100km/h. I knew I had no time or distance to change that to a non-life-threatening number so I just kept on steering, my life litterally in my own hands in the form of a cheap faux leather Korean manufactured steering wheel with the top 3rd decaying from a combination of the past 2 owners natural hand oils and sunshine through the windscreen. I passed under the overpass safely. By now I had made my way into the right lane and the inevitable was nearly upon me. But I still hadn't given up trying to regain control flying in the face of highway entropy.

Thankfully I was alone on this stretch cause if not, someone was bound to get sucked into this vortex of fishtailing 4-banging Sonata. A small sense of relief overcame me when I noticed I threaded the Palladium Drive needle and for a split second I nearly resigned myself to the ditch, but my speed was still nearly 100km, it was as if my tires weren't even touching the ground (and soon they wouldn't be) and everything I did to steer or brake at this point was futile. From fear of a roolover once I left the road (I had accepted that fate by now) I continued to attempt to steer, my only goal at this point being keeping the car straight, hoping that anything I encountered would crumple me to a survivable stop rather than roll me in the snowy ditch like a popsicle stick on maple syrup. ANd before I could think anymore about it I was off the road - into the snowbank to the right, about 50 feet past the Palladium Drive overpass. I hit the 3 foot snowbank at about 35 degrees and 100km/h. In the picture you can see where I highlighted in red the lack of tire tracks. There, just beyond my entry point through the snowbank which launched me a few feet over the snow, you can see where the tire tracks begin where I landed (just beyond the red squares that mark the area I flew over). Already my windshield had become covered in snow and my visibiliy was now zero, my control was zero I had finally abandoned my efforts of controling this thing and switched over to simply bracing for impact. I had no idea what impact might come. I was so busy watching the road when I ran off of it that I didn't even know what was in my path (thankfully it turned out to be nothing but tons of fluffy snow). I felt myself presseing forward into my seatbelt, hitting the snowbank felt as though it absorbed about half of my speed instantly (and I think it did). And the slight elevation of the snowbank launched my car off the road. My car wasn't high off the ground but when it hit the ground it hit hard and it was like a snow explosion I could see peripherally. I was driven along the axis of my spine into the drivers seat. I felt a slight pang of pain in my heart, the very same pain or discomfort I felt when I had fractured my sternum a year and a half ago. I had a come to a stop. I tok a few few breaths. The sternum would be fine. I checked myself - I had not wrecked myself. I killed the engine. I heard massive hissing and thought for sure major shit gone wrong under the hood. I opened the door, leaned out and saw steam rising up from my engine. I leaned back in and popped my hood, dreading what I might discover. And I exited the car.

The rest plays out quite typically. An uninjured driver in a fairly scary looking accident walks away. Deals with well meaning passersby who stop and only add to the shame. I called 911 as a passerby informed me that several drivers down the road were calling. I informed 911 that I was the victim they were hearing about, the only victim and that I was fine. They asked if the
damage was over 1000 dollars. "Oh...most certainly", I replied. Then they informed me it was necessary to send police. I called CAA, surveyed the damage and got back in my car and waited.

The Damage Survey

I walked in knee deep snow around to the front of my car and immediately I could see pieces of my front bumper cover were missing. A side turn light hung from a wire in the space where the bumper cover once wrapped around the front of my vehicle and held it in place. I opened the hood and looked in, expecting to see nearly every hose severed and every metal plate wrinkled or cracked. I saw snow. My whole damn engine was consumed by snow. The bumper cover had disintegerated and allowed the free flow of snow up into my engine through and around my radiator. I got my snow sweeper/ice scraper out and brushed off what I could.

Everything looked normal. The steam was coming from the snow on the hot engine parts. I got back in my car and turned the key hopefully. It started. I waited and watched. No engine light came on. I reved it up a bit, to 3000 RPM. No adventitious engine noises. I put it in reverse nd backed up a few feet, got out, surveyed the damage again now that I see the front better since
it wasn't piled up against the 50 feet of snow I ploughed to get where I was at. I brushed as much snow out of the engine as I could and then I proceeded to test the car a bit. I backed and drove the 10 or so feet that I could a few times testing the steering, testing the gears. It seemed to work ok, I just needed a lift outta the ditch and I'd be on my merry way. Thank god the airbags are disabled because they surely would have gone off. You can see in the image how my car is on an angle from having drive it inside the ditch. I backed it out as far as I could to get it closer to the road. What the picture doesn't reveal is that the car was infact about 25 feet further in when it came to rest, along the trajectory of the red marks where I was launched. The other pic is looking back at the Palladium Drive overpass from the point of entry in to the ditch.

CAA finally arrived after 75 minutes. The tow-driver made a cardinal error, he blamed me for his being late, saying my directions were poor. I don't what part of Westbound 417 just past Palladium Drive was unclear - but this guy clearly is not too bright. The very nature of his job is dealing with people who are having a bad day. NOBODY wants a tow truck - ever. So he should know that whoever he's going to meet is not in the mood for criticism. He's lucky I'm smart and civil, other peeps would have knocked his bridgework straight down his throat (as I wanted to) and then beat them back out through his chest (as I imagined myself doing). He then proceeded to break his winch while attempting to drag me out and had to call back-up. When back up arrived they demonstrated to him (I saw this in my rear-view mirror) that he was using his winch incorrectly. The new guy set him straight and then broke his winch for real when making a second attempt - no doubt his amateur use of the winch before set the winch up for destruction upon proper use. So the second guy ended up dragging me out after all.

While in the ditch I called the good people at Grant Street Garage Co. and made me an emergency appointment to be checked out before I put this High'N'Dry SON OF A car back on the road. I suspected some diagnosis to come becuase he was not too steady on her feet the way there. I kept it under 60, cause 60-80 she started to shimmy, shake rattle and bump. Here's what we discovered. My front right bearing was completely shot (I had the left one changed a few months ago - no doubt the right was good to go soon, perhaps it contributed to my senseless loss of control), my left ball joint assembly was shot (no idea what this is or what condition it was in before the accident, but it sounds like it affects steering, also I failed to mention that the second tow guy had to jerry rig something to make it work given the angle he had to park on since the first tow guy was in optimum positioning and it was against their job rules to screw around with positioning on the highway. Fair enough, but I think this guy jerried to my ball joint and yanked it out of wack). My tires were bald and only 3/4 of them passed minimum safety requirements and they were over-inflated. My radiator was bowed inward and so was the part of the frame it is secured to. This bowing did not affect the ability to allign the wheels and drive the car, so currently it is still unrepaired.

I had new tires thrown on, left ball joint, right bearing, alignment, balance, once over inspection and $1400 and 36 hours later I was on my way back to the big smoke and was 10 minutes late for work. The car is stable up to 100km/h, after that the poor aerodynamics of my now snub-nosed, bumpercoverless car makes it rather unstable feeling and wekaens my gas mileage. I figure it'll be about $2500 more to return it to normal but I haven't had the good folks at Milano's Auto Body look at it yet. I consulted with a patients husband who is body work guy about this and he gave me some tips on how I might take care of this myself. Worth looking into. I'll let you know how that goes once the good weather comes and I give it a whirl - providing that is it makes financial sense to do so compared to what Milano's tells me.

Sorry it took so long for this story to come out, but it was a long one and I wasn't up to it for a while. And I didn't even eloborate onthe whole towing fiasco, you got the Coles notes version here.

The moral of this story is that Hyundai vehicles are not the crap they're popularily media'd out to be. I've seen much lesser incidents end up with much more internal damage. A higher valued make van once struck a curb at about 70km and decended 5 feet into a ditch and the engine block came completely detached, something I was expecting to find under my hood - but now 1500km later she's running just fine.

Dude, Where's My Samsquench

2007-02-23T22:06:00.000-05:00

When I lived in res in Humber College someone had a sign on their door that read the words of my title. It was f'n funny, but I wasn't sure why. Turns out it was a nice combo of pop culture I and students like me could appreciate. The "Dude, Where's My" part is all too obvious. But where had I heard "Samsquench" before. I couldn't recall.

Recently I added that line to my MSN banner because my previous live regarding some job search test results was too baffling and incited way too much inquiry so I had to change it and at the time Dude, Where's My Samsquench was the funnest thing I could come up with. Then someone asked about that and it dawned on me that though I was familiar with Samsquench I couldn't quite put my finger on where I'd heard it. I knew it was a bastardization of Sasquatch but where from I just couldn't remember. I googled it and discovered it to be a very popular nickname and a void entry in the Urban Dictionary. The Urban Dictionary offered me the spot to define it, since I had searched it and come up with nothing. At first I was thinking Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin. A little mind meld later and I remembered, it was Bubbles, from Trailer Park Boys.

CHeck in on the Urban Dictionary from time to time, see if my edit makes it to post. Search Samsquench at www.urbandictionary.com

In addition I have signed on as an official editor of Urban Dictionary. Not sure what that entails, but I guess I'll find out.

The Phoenix: Part Three, results are in.

2007-02-07T00:22:00.000-05:00

Wel folks, it's been x-amount of days since the I lainched project Phoenix and today, half way through it's proposed tenure I have to announce that project Phoenix, aka project Axe Effect is getting the Axe.

At first I thought it was dst allergy, then after 7 days and worsening condition I thought possibly scabies or something I caught from a patient. Then I though sarcoidosis (thanks Dad and Dr. House) then I realised my 20 or so dime sized dry rashy patches of skin were concetrated mostly where I lay down my first swath of lather on my daily shower routine. My left breast area, partially my right, and my sides thereabouts have broken out. After realising that the timing and location of this rash co-incides with the advent of project Phoenix I began a reversion to older tested and true body washes. Sure enough the rash is quickly disippating. I guess for once that disclaimer "discontinue if rash develops" actually is speaking to me this time. So after just half of bottle of body wash and ZERO compliments and 20 rashes later, project Axe Effect gets the axe effective immediately. Take that Axe, never again, no products of any kind.

Please let me know if you ever find Speed Stick Ultimate Impact Deoderant (not antipersperant, which is still widely available.) I'm holding off on the moose piss for the time being.

Homeostasis

2007-02-03T03:19:00.000-05:00

There was once a rat in a cage in a lab somewhere. Everyday at the same time, the same man open the door to the lab, turn the light on, would come into the lab, grab the rat by the neck and inject the rat with something (glucose solution). Then the man would place the rat back in it's cage and leave. Soon after a different person would enter the lab take some of the rat's blood, feed the rat, restore the cage, kill the lights and leave. The same routine happened day in and day out for weeks. Naturally the blood tests revealed a spike in insulin production in the rats system after the glucose injection. The reson for this is so that the rat could metabolise that glucose and restore it's system to the happy neutrality it is designed to maintain, the glucose doesn't belong there. This is homeostasis. The funny thing...is that without the rat's knowing it, it's body and brain have learned that when the door opens and the light comes on and the injection happens, it is time for insulin. THe rat's homestatic mechanism evolves and learns. So that after weeks of training when the injection of glucose is switched for plain saline the insulin is still produced because anticipation of the event is enough rather than the actual presence of glucose after the learning has taken place. But remember, it isn't conscious learning.

This biological process affects our metabolism and our mood in many many ways. It is the basis of addiction and withdrawl. The rat for example who produced insulin despite not getting the glucose ended up having the opposite reaction that was intended. The Insulin was produced to neutralise the glucose, but the glucose didn't come. So the action of the insulin alone had a final effect on the rat without the buffering of the anticipated glucose. Think about the smoker and the nic fit. Smoking has x amount of cholinergic effects, anticipation of smoking has opposite effects for homeostatic purposes. Missed smokes result in those opposite effects becoming net manifest effects. In the heroin or cocaine user, a missed step can easily result in overdose. The heroin user who shoots up at a time and place his body doesn't expect it, using their usual dose under expected use circumstances often results in overdose because their body wasn't prepared to counter act the effect of the drug as it normally would be. The junkie who drug-fasts for a week to get a better high is employing this effect to their advantage. Another way would be to shoot up under circumstances that their body wouldn't expect to get high. In the back of a church perhaps?

This powerful homestatic drive that biological entities have occurs on so many levels. Stand in a doorway and press the backs of your hands laterally against the doorframe as hard as you can for 30 seconds. Your muscle activity will adapt to that behaviour and mechanisms will develop quickly to maintain it. After thirty seconds step out of the doorway and relax. What are your arms doing? The muscles are re-trained for a different neutrality, but soon your body catch up and you will feel normal again.

The reason for this discussion? Simple really. I treated myself this weekend to some very sweet delicious booze. The stress and pressure of shopping for and researching my impending Laptop purchase has gotten to me. I'm talking myself into bigger and bigger budgets and I have the weekend off and simply wanted to relax. I found a great brew I haven't tried before. From the Orkney region, more northern my favored Highland region. I have high hopes. But in planning to sit down and sample this new scotch I remembered an article I read on the addictions board at a hospital I frequent at work and it it was about alcohol. It offered plenty of standard advice about curbing problem drinking and identifying it. But one tid-bit I have never seen before in addiction litterature on alcohol was this: "Wait 20 minutes between the decision to drink and actually drinking." This statement points directly to todays discussion. Allow your body time to prepare for the ingestion of alcohol. Allow your body to set-up anti alcohol effect barriers. Can it possibly be prepared for what you are about to do to it. No. But it can make the difference between an evening found and an evening lost.

And now my 20 minutes is up. Cheers.

2007-02-01T09:05:00.000-05:00

It's been 4 or so wonderful years with my current machine and it has served me very well. In fact even still today it holds it's own against the current market. I guess you get what you pay for. But now laptops are so cheap and so convenient that along with the incentive of free Windows Vista I've decided to upgrade to a laptop.

Anyone know much about them? Remember this moment folks, Johnny asking for computer buying advice.

I don't know much when it comes to laptop architechture and especially now that were in the duo core generation. I kind of lost track of what came after P4 as my P4 has been all I ever wanted or needed thus far.

Also my current tank is for sale, here are the specs:

- Custom built from PC Cyber retail parts
- P4 3.06G HTT
- Asus P4 G8X Deluxe (533Mhz Bus)
- 1G Ram DDR
- ATI Radeon 9550 256mg Video
- 160G 7200RPM IDE
- 120G 7200RPM IDE
- DVD +/- RW Combo Drive
- Multi Card Reader
- Linksys Wireless PCI
- MSI TV Anywhere (TV Tuner Card)
- Thermal Take Power Supply Dual Fan

Let me know if you or anyone you know would be interested in this system. Or if you are in the know, what do you suppose is a fair price I should ask for this baby?

What's so great about "2"

2007-01-29T19:00:00.000-05:00

I think I heard somewhere that when choosing a number between 1 and 10 the most commonly chosen number is 6. Why do you suppose that is? Well most people won’t pick 1 or 10; it’s like when ‘choosing any card from the deck’ you pick between the top and bottom card. Also most situations that this comes into play for is like drawing straws or the price is right i.e. closest without going over wins. So people tend to err on the side of the odds and need to either pick 6 or 5. Hit ‘em high, hit ‘em low. If you think Bob Barker is thinking of a high number, you go with 6. If you think he’s going low, you choose 5. But people are generally uncomfortable with odd numbers so they won’t pick 5. There you go, my theory on why 6 is most commonly chosen when picking a number between 1 and 10. That makes 6 a significant number. Another significant number is 7. 7 Rhymes with heaven and hence has been assigned biblical significance. 1 is significant, very common in art and especially music. You could probably make a whole double album of songs called ONE. Why do so many artists choose to examine 1? I can see why. It’s curious, unlike all other numbers it is the only number that represents solitude, every other number has some form of implied company. 1 is the monk of numbers.

There are lots of numbers that have popular significance, but when I think of 2 I don’t hit on much significance and I think that needs to change. What is really significant about the number two? It is the first prime number and it is the only even prime number. Yes I can hear all of you screaming “but 1 is a prime number”. Well some circles don’t regard 1 as prime anymore. I’m not certain why, but here’s my theory. The rule of prime numbers is that they’re only divisible by 1 and themselves, which implies that there are two and only two ways in which prime numbers can evenly divide. When it comes to number 1, depending on how you interpret that rule, it may not even apply. Because 1 is not divisible by both 1 and itself, it is only divisible by 1 OR itself. So only one rule applies when evenly dividing 1. Since 1 and itself are both 1, it really only divides evenly once, not twice, you’re simply performing the same division two times and thinking about it differently each time.

This makes 2 very special. So let’s agree temporarily that 2 is the first prime number. It is even which makes it unique among prime numbers and it represents the number of times a prime number can be evenly divided. 2 starts the sequence and sets the rules in it’s own image for all other prime numbers behind it. And so begins my discussion of and foray into resolving prime numbers.

Get To Know Me

2007-01-25T01:45:00.000-05:00

Today I bare a piece of my soul right here on my manifesto online. For those of you who are psychologicaly inclined perhaps you can formulate some kind of MMPI'ist analysis from this info. Here it is unadulterated, unedited, unabbridged and annotated, a COMPLETE list of my bookmarks for your amusement. I'll say right off the top so you don't waste your time, there's no porn in it (I visit those sites often enough that they're in my dropdown, no need for bookmarks ;> )

But seriously, here they are, some may not work as I haven't accessed many of them in ages. Also not all are linked. Linking them would take me for ever, I linked some of the ones I thought the average person might enjoy. Feel free to cut and paste each one to really get inside my head.

Hint: To follow a link (in another window) without leaving this page hold shift as you click the links! Now who can say my manifesto isn't educational?

Under the "EMS" Folder:
01. http://health.howstuffworks.com/heart1.htm
- This is a great site for all things. Check out how your ticker works, and then check out how your windsheild wipers work, or fish tank filters or anything you can think of.

02. http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/vlabs/cardiology/content/cg/basic.html

03. http://www.sickkids.ca/childphysiology/cpwp/brain/CNV.htm

04. http://www.ontarioparamedic.ca/

05. http://www.yrbhp.markham.on.ca/cme.html

06. http://www.collegeofparamedics.org/acp_downloads/registration/individ_equiv.pdf

07. http://www.collegeofparamedics.org/registration_ait_process.php

08. http://www.medicare-ems.ab.ca/links.html

Under the "HARPING" Folder:
note: I went on a harmonica kick a few years ago, these are the best DIY learn to play harmonica sites I could find at the time. And some basic harmonica theory or music sites.

09. http://www.gindick.com/

10. http://www.bluesharp.ca/lessons/harmonica_lessons.html

11. http://www.harmonicalessons.com/lessons.html

12. http://www.harmonicalessons.com/beginner.html

Under the "SCHOOL" Folder:
note: Most of these apply to my Ottawa U days, so are psych or socio or philo oriented, and some english too, the internet is a great coles notes!

13. https://web3.uottawa.ca/coursetimetable/Main/en.html

14. http://www.bookrags.com/notes/snd/

15. http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/cratylus.html

16. http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/dictindex.html
-This link no longer works, but the content of this link still exists here and for those interested in philosophy of mind I highly recomend perusing it sometime. I remember initially discovering this site whilst writing a paper on epiphenomenalism and trying to wrap my head around it. This site wasn't too much help for that, but did come in very useful over the course of my degree. http://philosophy.uwaterloo.ca/MindDict/dictindex.html

17. http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html#a
- A much better explanation of epiphenomenalism here.

18. http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/barrons/candide.asp
- Alright, I admit, in this sciology 102 course I didn't earn 1% of my C+, it all came from here.

19. https://web3.uottawa.ca/infoweb/logon/en.html
- Phenomenal spot to get in touch with faculty or current students of Ott U.

20. http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/

21. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur

22. http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/students/students.html

23. http://www.leary.com/archives/text/index.html
- Dead link, but I remember finding a great site on Leary's life and work for a paper i wrote about him. He's definately worth googling if you're bored at work some time. No doubt www.leary.com still works. The long and the short of what I discovered about him is this: father of existential psychology. Meaning he treated his patients by co-existing with them in two ways. He actually would shadow them in their lives for a period and discover that way the root of, and solution to their problems. He also developed a more practical way of doing this in his office through the use of guided LSD trips that supposedly had the same result. He was a good friend of John Lennon's and was well respected by many other admirable personalities. Needless to say he had his fair share of legal troubles, trials and tribulations. His death was to be te first internet suicide, but he was talked out of it, then was to be the first internet natural death by webcam, also was talked out of that. He did die peacefully in the company of good friends and family and a portion of his ashes were jetissoned into space with a portion of Issac Asimov's. If you were riveted to this paragraph, definately google him sometime, he was a very interesting man. And there is a major motion picture due out in 2008 telling his story. Hopefully it's as well done as "Kinsey" was. If you haven't seen Kinsey, see it. It's a greatly told story of another great man of psychology, sexual psychology.

Under the "ZAPPA" folder (guess what's in here):

24. http://www.zappa.com/splash.html

25. http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/index.html
- Fantastic discography site. All discography sites should be organized thusly.

26. http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/

ALL OTHER non folderized/categorized bookmarks:

27. https://www.airmiles.ca/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Airmiles/Service/Login/Index&prefer_lang=E

28. http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/images/375.html
- Amazing website for glancing at art and artists. I used this American Gothic pic in a paper I wrote where it somehow was relevant, though I don't remember. Go ahead, look up your favorite artist. Very good site.

29. http://www.csm.astate.edu/~wpaulsen/chess/chess.htm?000015

30. http://chordfind.com/

31. http://www.dirtworld.com/trails/trail.asp?id=1099&trail_name=Ravenshoe%20Mountain%20Bike%20Trail
- Wondering where a good maintain bike trail near you is? Look it up here, all of North America included, very reliable sources.

32. http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.swf
- Very good quick clean fun. Recomended for your nieces and nephews, and mine. Enjoy Savannah.

33. http://www.sdss.org/
- My mom's cousin runs the show at this place in New Mexico, at least a few years back he did. I got the exec tour, it was awesome.

34. http://www.soundrangers.com/storepages/Sound_Effects.html
- This exact link isn't working anymore, but tweak it a bit and you get where I wanted to be back when I made this bookmark:
http://www.soundrangers.com/category-results.cfm?storeid=1&cat_id=0038
oh jesus I love it. You too can actually OWN these for just dollars a piece. Mouse over the demo column.

35. http://www.superstringtheory.com/basics/index.html
- Unfortunately this site is no longer working. It was a great dumbed down to my level (see above link for further details) explanation of what Einstein missed when he though up E=MC2. If anyone knows of the current whereabout to this sites content, I'd love to know it.

36. http://www.ocua.ca/
- A site many of my readers will be familiar with.

37. http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/category.asp?cat_id=D_GICH
- A fine site no longer in service. Was the most well organised Scotch Whiskey afficionado website ever. Too bad it's gone. Again if you know the current whereabouts of this content, I'd love to have it.

38. http://www.cbc.ca/inperformance/schedules/sched_february.html
Keep an eye on this site, don't miss something you'll regret like I did.

39. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/default.asp?view=alpha
- Buying a digital camera? Or just wanna know where you stand with yours? Check out this really thorough, really good site where you can contrast and compare cameras by the pictures they take! as well as by specs. Someone went through a TON of trouble making this site.

40. http://ca.epodunk.com/
- Look up your Canadian town today, big or small, you may learn something.

41. http://www.olsbp.blogspot.com/
- A site no doubt all of my readers are familiar with.

42. http://www.cancaver.ca/

43. http://www.cancaver.ca/prov/nb/index.htm

44. http://kevinsan.livejournal.com/

45. http://www.onlinepools.com/index.php
- Free chicken for Rick yet again. Ben still goose-eggin the win column. Could this be his first year? Nope but he may get a silver medal. log:45108 pass:chicken

46. http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Nova_Scotia/oakisland.htm
- One of my retirement plans.

That's it for my bookmarks folks, hope you enjoyed your time with me. I have some quicklaunch links that don't appear in my bookmarkmark list, but we'll do those another day. Or maybe not, they're actually quite dry. Banking, Guitar Tab sites, 411, Moviephone and hotmail. There you go.

Fond memories of hard work

2007-01-21T17:43:00.000-05:00

This is me years ago when at Ottawa U. Look at me, studying on campus, late into the night. You can see the "GS" on the cover of my book, a text book of DRUGS for psychopharmacology. I don't remember doing that well in that course compared to other courses actually, despite the effort. The class wasn't as exciting as the syllabus made it out to be though. You can see the wear on my shoes as well from the near full time hours I was putting in at CMS during this period as well as running an 85% full school schedule. Those were the glory days of my dicipline. It is also important to note that this was the point in time I began going to the gym a lot. Where did I find the time?

Yesdarday I slept till 4, watched 24, Lost and played Jedi Knight 2. Today - much of the same. Tomorrow back to work.

Today's health tip: Eating right includes timing it right as much as eating the right things. So do as I say and not as I do. Eat 6 small meals a day. That way your body learnes that it will be fed regularily and will maximise the nutrient usage of the food it gets, rather than squirrel some away as fat because you tend to fast for 12 hours at a time. End result a level higher metabolism. And now for my first meal of the day (not the time 17:45ish) Ribs!

On Healthy Kicks

2007-01-19T07:59:00.000-05:00

Waltzed into a Harveys today fully expecting to order a delicious juicy burger. Something...don't know what, struck me about the way I've been eating lately and I upgraded my health factor to a grilled chicken sandwich. 12 hours later I'm none the worse for haveing made the sacrifice of wants to needs. (Yes I still got the fries to go with it, but I didn't poutine style them, tiny steps)

From two years ago up until about 6 months ago I enjoyed the healthiest time of my life. I ate very well (for a John MacNeill) and worked out 5 times a week, usually intensely. The inertia of that fit kick is almost all worn off now that I've stopped eating well and virtually cut the gym and running out altogether. But just as I got fit step by step in the first place, I am doing it again. And in doing so I am passing along some tidbits I picked up over the years about getting fit. I'll expand more in time on these and other points. This is part of my motivation to get back on that fit horse. Not crazy about having fallen off.

- Pick your two worst food culprits and cut them out 100% ... today. I recomend soda pop and chips. Diet pop is OK. Aspertame is not bad for you - find me one study that proves it is worse than 16g of sugar instead and I'll eat the can it came in.

- Drink lots of water. Avg adults need 2L a day. Each coffee, chocolate, alcohol or other diuretic subtracts from your water intake, so if you intake 1 coffee of .25L, then up your water to 2.25L. That's a lot of water if you drink 3 coffees a day. This point can't be stressed highly enough, it's like oil changes on your car. If it's the ONLY thing you do to keep healthy, just do it. I'd even go so far as to say it'll do you more good than quitting smoking if you're a smoker.

- If you're a smoker - quit. If you're a hard core smoker - quit slowly.

- Switch burger and fries for grilled chicken and salad.

- When you're doing good, don't reward yourself by doing bad.

Instead of a pic on todays blog, how bout you take your shirt off and go look in a mirror.

More later. Have a super day.

On Honesty vs Realism

2007-01-18T08:04:00.000-05:00

What's the difference with being honest with yourself and realistic with yourself?

Honesty is to possibility where realism is to probability.

i.e. Honestly, the Sens have a shot at winning the cup. They will likely make the play-offs which will make them eligible and they have the talent to pull it off. It's possible. Realistically they probably will choke or give way to team X that simply "wants it" more.

More on A.I. - the problem of synergy.

2007-01-16T21:10:00.000-05:00

No one is more avid a proponent (note to Erin and Rick, I think proponent was the word I kept wanting this weekend when I kept saying purveyor) of computers as a model of human intelligence than me. However on my Ott-Tor commute today I was listening to music and as I sat enjoying the music it occured to me that computers - even good AI - probably cannot approach enjoying music.

As I listened to an old favorite by...Elastica I think, I remembered times gone by when I and many others would dance to that song at our favorite haunt. The music is data - in through the ears and decoded by the brain and delivered to my senses that make me want to dance (as feebly as I may). Just like my ears to my brain, as I type into my keyboard right now, it is data input to my computers brain, decoded and delivered to you online. But I doubt that I can type, or mouse in any particular way that makes my computer groove to it. Input is input. The sound of my engine squeeling when it is cold is somehow very different than the sound of music by my interpretation. Music is truely curious. It's just more sound data - but somehow...serendipitously...synergistically not just more data.

This synergy seems to be one key element that seperates human intelligence from artificial intelligence. What is it in my brain's processor that it's kernal can tease apart a difference between music and noise? Could it actually be proof that this processor was manufactured not by Intel, but by God? no wait...

An insight in keys to success

2007-01-10T07:13:00.000-05:00

As you may know if you read my last post my sister was recently in town. She came with her lovely daughter and always a pleasure to hang with husband for a wedding. Getting married was my sister's husband's sister. I had a chance to meet the bride (Mel) briefly years ago at my sisters wedding shindig in NB; I had never met her fiance(Dave) though until this weekend. A fine gent indeed for a fine lady indeed. I met them for the first time as a couple at their home near Avenue road in the affluent Y and E neighborhood of Toronto. It didn't take long to discover that they were mighty successful. Rumors were aflight about what they paid for their new home I was visiting and I'm not gonna say it here, but I will say it's a price I'll probably never pay for a home in my lifetime. Right off the bat I learned of two keys to certain affluence: AUDI A4 (ok that's a physicl key not a figurative one) and not having kids - at least not too soon. I got a chance to drive that AUDI after the couple left on their honeymoon and I spent the night with my sister's family in their home. We went a few kms away for dinner and were free to take the A4 - my bro in law offered to let me drive. SOB man, what a friggin ride! I've driven many a good car. Which reminds me, I think I had to blog about renting good cars. Well this car, for about 45,000 blew the 60,000 rental away hands down, and any other car I've ever driven. Worth every penny I'm certain. My car is worth half that new but for 2x the price you get 10x the car. I simply can't describe all that was great about this vehicle. you simply have to drive one sometime. I now have a firm benchmark and goal for myself in vehicles. I gotta test the Volvo s-60 first to be sure, but for the same price, I just can't see it out specing any part.

OK - I certainly wasted a lot of time without even hinting at the point yet. One true key to success.

So I stayed the night at Mel and Dave's home since I was driving my sister and her fam to the airport the next morning and I was put up in the new couple's bedroom. Before hitting the sack I noticed Dave's Blackberry on the night table and I thought to myself, now there's a classy guy, leaving work behind on his honeymoon. How many would have taken that Blackberry with them? Key to success? Perhaps in a marriage. The key to financial success is to follow - also related to that Blackberry.

I went to sleep. At some ungodly hour I was woken by the familiar buzzing of an incoming call. It wasn't my phone, it was the Blackberry. I ignored it. It persisted. I had to use the washroom too - so I figured I'd take it with me and store it in a cupbpard somewhere between some towels where it would bother me or other people sleeping. When I hit the bathroom light I saw that it wasn't a caller making the device buzz on and on. On the screen it read...

"Daily Alarm - 04:00AM"

Jesus Christ. This guy gets up at 4am everyday? Is that part of what it takes? Isn't there some 6 figure job out there that you can work say...10:00-3:30? I guess I'll be driving my Sonata for some time to come.

I guess there's truth in that saying - early to bed, early to rise...wealthy and wise.

Anyhow congrats on your wedding Mel and Dave.

My sister (Nicole) and niece (Savannah).

Nic and brother-in-law (Trevor)

Trevor and Savannah

Dave, Savannah and Mel

Changes to My Manifesto

2007-01-10T07:05:00.000-05:00

Hello all,

Well I must say it's good to be back. Things are very different in my life these days so I won't be blogging every day - not even photo-blogs, but I still aim to blog at least a few times a week. So if you still like to keep up with me, I appreciate it and there will be material here regularily enough so keep on keepin up.

On my new layout:

I know Ol SBP stuck with his first format for over a year, but I get bored much more easily I think, plus this new layout goes with two new things, my new situation and the fact that I've finally made the switch to the new blogger version. This is my first blog under the new blog tool so I don't really know how it's different yet. I hear they have drag and drop - i'll find out about that in my next post, coming immediately.

Recently:

My sister was in town with her awesome family and we had good albeit brief times. I heard a joke while hanging with them and it goes like this: What's the difference between God and a pilot?
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God doesn't think he's a pilot.

HA!

Poker: How to fold aces pre-flop!

2007-01-05T20:51:00.000-05:00

We've all seen aces get cracked. Too many times. It's memorable because every time it happens it is unexpected. But still time and time again they get played, often all-in pre-flop and the rest is horse-shit err... history.

Despite the bad beats why would anyone in their right mind fold those buggers pre-flop? I don't read all the poker litterature, any of the big name bio-tutorial whatevers so I don't know if my logic is agrees with by the pros at all, but here it is - judge for yourself. Here's why you should on occasion fold aces pre-flop. The answer is a chess term: zugzwang, meaning "that one player is put at a disadvantage because he or she has to make a move — the player would like to pass and make no move, but the fact that the player must make a move means being forced into a significantly weaker position."

In poker this translates into the following possible situation. You are one of four players left in a game where three positions pay out. To make it interesting let's say the buy-in was 10,000, so you really want to make it in the money here, tournament points alone aren't going to cut it. Out of four players your chip stack is any position but first, i.e. an all-in called by the wrong player will wipe you out. Of the three remaining players, at least two are playing agressively. You get dealt the aces, pitch'em, it ain't worth it. You effectively take a pass on this and let the babrbarians do the work for you. Bingo bango bongo, fold a few more and you're in the top three without even playing a hand.

Certainly the aces should be played you may think - and most of the time, yes they should. But occasionally they will be beat, sitting a few places out of the money with barbarians still in the chips, you're crazier to risk the horse-shit.

Like a Phoenix From the Ashes: Part TWO

2007-01-04T14:22:00.000-05:00

In highschool I was a bit of a self-proclaimed high-society wanna be. I did my best with what I had to play the part of the filthy rich. I even emboidered my bus pass holder with the monogram HH, for Howard Hughes - among the worlds wealthiest men in his time who was known to take the loser cruiser from time to time and wear shabby clothes - just to screw with society. Well OK, so I didn't do the embroidery - but I did hang onto the thought that just cause I take the bus, doesn't mean I can't be high society. I used to say my ride was worth $120,000 - what's yours cost?

Anyhow the point of that rediculous intro was that in highschool I took to wearing very expensive cologne. Chanel Anteus was my choice. It was a truly refined scent that I believe spoke wisely of my sense of individuality - mine and the 10 million other Anteus customers. Anyhow this crap was 100 bucks a bottle and in my tenure with it I went through about 4 bottles. Only once ever in all the 4 bottles did I ever get noticed. That was by a server I was stalking at a bar I used to frequent. She got close to me and then ran away. I saw her go straight to a friend of hers and with a wrinkled nose she whispered something to her. Then the friend walked over toward me quite conspicuously, sniffed me and ran away. Then the I saw the two laughing and walking further away. Best 400 bucks I ever spent? I guess so - in my mind she was a date murdering sociopath. Thanks Chanel for defending me from that bullet. From that day on however I resolved to take my chances bare scented.

Until one day 2 years later on my first week of marketing/advertising at Algonquin College. It was frosh week and the sponsors were out in droves on campus. A new buddy of mine from class was going ape shit about a deal he had found, someone was giving out samples for a buck. This buddy went on to explain that this was the scent that God sent. It was surreal, he came to a group of us with a look in his eyes that must have been the same one King Arthur had when he pulled the sword from the stone. "You guys gotta get in on this, get yourselves some man, it's a buck a piece", and he flailed a bag full of these Excaliburs around and pointed to where he discovered them. We sauntered on over and found a Speed Stick by Mennen tent, giving out the "new" Speed Stick Ultimate for buck a shot. Surely this can't be what Mikey was swinging around in that bag was it? I looked closely, the bag hung in his hands against the bright marketing display lights. Mikey stared at the barrels of Speed Stick with wanton eyes, wishing he had a bigger bag, and ten more bucks. He stood statue like in the lights - I saw the speed sticks in his white plastic bag. "You have to get 'Impact'" he muttered to no-one in particular.

I was needless to say disappointed by the climax, but I was short on my own supply of pit stick and a buck was a good deal, so I grabbed two. The next morning I woke up a became a new man. From that day forward wearing only Speed Stick Ultimate (TM) Impact and Dove soap on my aura, I got compliments on my scent EVERY single day forward for years. It became a regular part of my day. Women would wiff me and run away and come back with friends and they'd all wiff me and hug me and fling their hair in my face - it was ethereal. This event became as regular to me as picking up my morning coffee or saying hi to people I knew. "Would you beleive it's my deoderant?" was as common a saying in my mouth as "hey how's it goin". It wasn't long before I took this effect for granted.

Until one day the shelves dried up. Impact is now only available in Anti-Persperant flavor, and it simply doesn't work like the deoderant did. I went to drug stores and Walmarts far and wide - even stateside - searching for over stock. I had a few reps looking into it for me and I wrote a letter to Mennen telling this very story, but I heard nothing from any front.

Now years later I'm caught in a perpetual vortex of experiscenting with different soaps and pit sticks. None have worked, none have had the effect, none have restored the glow. Axe commercials would have you believe that they are the new Impact, but I tried it once, I also gave it as gifts to several buddies to speed the search process - but no Mikey's were born from it. I gave up on Axe.

Then recently I discovered by force, not by choice, the delights of the puff and body wash combo. Incredible. I used to think puffs were for poufs, but not so. Puffs open up the world of body washes, which expand my reach within the vortex. Perhaps I have some options yet uncharted. I decided to try Red Zone. Highly touted by jocks and geeks alike and buzz was that a few ladies I know endorse it. I tried it. It failed. My last dose of Red Zone is nearly up and I went hunting for another straw to grab at. By coincidence my deoderant was also getting to it's last dose so I was searching for that too - and I found that Axe offers teams. Combinations. I beheld the Phoenix.

Both body wash and deoderant. Hit em high, hit em low. A co-operative vortex scent aura forming duo. I'm gonna give the Axe one more swing. About the only thing I haven't tried yet is Mitchum and moose piss. I sure hope the Axe delivers.

Like a Phoenix From the Ashes: Part ONE

2007-01-04T01:07:00.000-05:00

I thought the Phoenix would be a good choice for tonights comeback blog.

As you know I dropped off the face of the blog-planet a month and a few days ago. Well tonight I rise like a Phoenix from the ashes. I've been busy - as they used to say at the lab for the eyeglass purveyor I worked for in Calgary years ago - busy as a two-cocked dog at a fuck-off. Here's a bit about what I've been up to.

First off thanks to those who replied congrats to me on my new job. That's what I've been up to. I moved to Toronto to take on a job in Peel Region. I went through a pretty rough patch after graduating Humber College's Primary Care Paramedic program last spring and was pretty down about it. "Keep your chin up" my preceptor told me time after time when I called and e-mailed him to keep him up to date on each door slammed in my face. Eventually I found myself in rural New Brunswick, chasing the shadow of a dream that was becoming a nightmare. But NB wasn't all bad - I met some really great people there, some of the best I may ever meet in the business, and some of the worst. It was a tremendous learning experience and I kept my chin up - as hard as it was at times. And so worth it - I heard from one of my interviewee's some feedback - they told me that one major factor that contributed to the Region of Peel's interest in me as a candidate was that I went as far as NB to do what I've chosen to do, and that showed them I really wanted to do it. That felt god - getting that recognition and knowing that it was worth it. So my coming back to Ontario for a fleetingly short contract of a chance, I feel like a phoenix rising from it's ashes.

Word of my contract offer in the Region of Peel came last minute and without much detail. But I blogged out and packed up and went. It's taken me this long to get a place, unpack, go through orientation, put in some hours, settle my affairs of provincial documents and licences and what not. A few of my first days off I took to spin back to Ottawa to visit with friends and ease my transition. Now I'm spending my first days off in a room I can call my own - for a while, getting caught up on more personal matters, such as e-mails, blogging and watching TIVOs. I'm pretty busy at my new job, long tough days and weird hours, so I may not be bogging every day, but as always I will aim to keep it regular, entertaining and al manifesto. So here's to coming out swinging and getting up off the mat as much as you have to and keeping swinging till you're the last one standing with your chin up.

Service interruption

2006-12-01T21:30:00.000-05:00

Hey there valued Manifesto visitors. I wish to appologise for my inconsistant delivery of daily entertainment especially as recently promised. I have been shuttling back and forth across provinces lately in a last minute job harrang. The good news for me is that it has proven fruitful. During this period of travel I've had no - or unreliable access to the internet and have been unable to visit with you. This level of access to both the internet and my own computer will be sustained due to my last minute pick-up-and-move since my job hunt fiasco has me moving provinces at a moments notice. I will be staying on couches and spare beds without access to the net or my computer for some time to come. Whenever possible I will post updates and hopefully soon be back in business.

I did have something to talk about related to my recent fouray of travel - and that is when you get the chance to rent a car I highly recomend renting BIG. WHen else do average earning citizens such as most of us get the chance to drive a $60,000+ car. I had a great experience in a Chrysler 300 I want to tell you about, and I will just as soon as things settle down. Right now, I have to cram my life into my HighNDry SON OF A (read: Hyundai Sonata) and get movin. See you in a nother time zone.

Johnny 20:46

Liquor and Light

2006-11-28T21:59:00.000-05:00

I don't drink a lot. And I don't drink often. And I don't often drink a lot. But I do love good booze. Is that so bad? (this pic was never meant to be special, if I recall correctly I was simply experimenting with light. when I see this pic now though, I see some serious potential, I wish I had it to do over again. and I don't drink creme de banane, or any other creme's of the like)

Holiday Dell

2006-11-28T09:10:00.000-05:00

Hey-oooo. So I'm doing my part in making Dell's ad budget worth while this holiday season. They built on online game - Bubble Breaker/Crazy Bubbles/Bejeweld-like in nature. By playing the game here visitors to this site contribute extra ballots for me into the daily draw for a free Dell laptop. What are my chances? Negligable I'm sure, but the game is mildly entertaining for those who are bored at work. And hey I do know a few people who won crap like this when it seemed so rediculously impossible. You gotta choose which hats you throw your name into carefully. I wouldn't mind a Dell - and my spam account is getting bored of hearing only porn sites.

Climate Change

2006-11-26T22:08:00.000-05:00

Calgary, summertime 2000? maybe 2001? I visited my friends in their nice new home in an upper middle-class neighbourhood. The weather is normally quite moderate in Calgary. Not many people in Calgary have air-conditioning - though summer's are nice, they don't normally have this effect on your candles. They had a warm spell the week before I arrived, pictured here are the stunning results. Hmm. Yup - they have air-conditioning now, and so do many other Calgarians who never used to. They also have two lovely daughters and a new house I have yet to visit, but will some day. I promise.

On photo blogging

2006-11-24T08:18:00.000-05:00

It occured to me today that if I want regular visitors to this site (and I do) I should be more attentive to actually posting regularily. Sometimes I'm just not inspired or motivated to get anything down (and sometimes when I am, you can't tell - I know). But my new solution to having something to say every day is to fall back on photoblogging for uninspired days.

I don't mean that photoblogs are uninspired. Quite the opposite. Lately I've been frequenting two photoblogs and I love them! One is my good friend Nirm's (a fine amateur photographer) and the other is one I found linked from Nirm's site (a very fine professional photographer). Both are fantastic and I encourage you to check them out thoroghly.

I too am an amateur photographer and I have a huge backlog of photos of various degrees of inspiration to draw upon for days where I just don't feel like putting in the effort to write something much. Initially prime numbers was my fall back, but that's a heavy topic. I will come to it from time to time, but let's try photos for a while.

Here is my first. hot with my first digital camera, sans tripod (most of my photos are) on a whim. I was at a warf-side pub having a good time with good friends when the rain came. Then the rain went and outside the front door I noticed this scene. I ran to my car, grabbed the digital Elph SD 230 and captured this. It was in Pointe-de-Chene NB, 2003 or so. Click on image for larger version. It could use a little photoshopping to bring out the rainbow a little more, but I didn't want to comprimise the sky tinge which is pretty acurate in this image.

Now with all this said I am leaving town till Sunday night, so I won't be blogging again till then. But from now on, this site should have new content on a more reliable daily basis.

Limit vs No-Limit Hold'em

2006-11-21T23:44:00.000-05:00

The purpose of this discussion is a response to OlSBPs post on his dream of playing in the WSOP. So before I get into the discussion particulars I will quickly address Ben and his readers: Ben et al., Nobody is - or has been more supportive of your drive to your dream than yours truly. I along with rt., plan to be there cheering you on. That is if I'm not there taking you on. I would however like to caution you on your statement (in your reply to a reply) that there will be "a lot of drama, highs & lows you go through." ergo making the investment worth while even if you do not place in the money. Agreed, but only sort of. Read on.

How much drama and swings and sways will there be if your very first hand is AA and some shmuck (and yes there will be many schmucks, don't kid yourself) calls you down with A-10 suited and the flop comes x-10-10. The only drama to be had will be all the way home around the Stan/Kent/Kim/Forts/Belanger tables for the next 2 years! Possibly even worse, my personal biggest WSOP nightmare: KK opening hand with x-x-A flop. My recomendation is that you CONSIDER limit hold'em. The OlSBP is a schooled and skilled hold'em player. I think Limit Hold'em is more condusive to skilled play than no-limit hold'em.

Here's why...

In the early stages of the game, limit forces time upon you. Even if you TRIED to lose everything it will require upwards of 15 - 30 hands depending on tournament structure, to do it. That garantees you playing time of probably an hour or better even with WSOP dealers. Much better return for entertainment and experience on $1000USD than 30 seconds wouldn't you say?

In the early stages of the game you are protected from bad beats such as AA vs A-10 with the x-10-10 flop. You are protected from legitimate mistakes and errors in judgement or simply not knowing your opponent well enough...yet! Some might say the drawback is that all players have opportunity to see more flops,turns and even rivers - this does not decrease your odds of winning if you're a skilled player. Just because the flop and turn come cheap doesn't mean you should pay for it without the goods to back it up, right? Starting hands should be held to the same standard you would in playing NL hold'em. One drawback is if you get a made hand, it might not pay as well as NL, but if you're skilled, that one hand won't make or brake you, take the limit on it, play smart and potzers will pay you off in limit. Plus sometimes in NL made hands make nothing, cause no one else has butkas (sp?) to call you on.

In my online tourney experience playing in large number of players games, I've succeeded in placing top 27 out of 8000+ players 4 times (graduating to round 2). 3 of those times was Limit. There is a nice dynamic to limit - after the first 3 hours the blinds get so high that the limit no longer matters too much. All that remains in the later stages are legit players and potential insurance against bad beats if you're keen. What is gained is a much better chance of landing in the 4th hour of play. Now this is based on online play - third hour online may translate to 3rd day WSOP play, and also might I add close to being in the money if not in it. In your first appearance at WSOP in Vegas, with $1000USD of SBP dollars riding on it, your nerves are gonna be somewhere you've never felt before. Limit starting pace will give you some time to physically and mentally adjust and "normalise".

Limit hold'em regresses skill toward the mean, NL has massive quantites of outliers - one such outlier goes by the name of Moneymaker. Over the long course of forced conservative play that Limit imposes; you as a skilled player have much greater odds of outlasting the yahoos and letting your skill, not good luck or bad luck or SBP screw-jobs decide your fate all in one hand.

Along the lines of that regression towards the mean theory I would further postulate that if you looked into the history of final tables I bet you'd find that the limit final tables more consistantly had players that have some sort of legitimate resumes and accolades rather than your who?-who?-who?-Josh Ariel-who?-Phil Ivey-who? final tables of NL. Another way to put this would be thusly: if you had to risk your $1000 on calling the players to be seen at the final table of next years WSOP do you think you could better predict the NL table or any given Limit table?

Nobel Prize Ticket #1 Part 2: the Ones and Zeros

2006-11-19T02:16:00.000-05:00

Booger warning: the ideas and concepts to follow are about as likely to earn me (or you) a Nobel Prize as Bullet-Ball is to become an Olympic sport.

What do human beings have in common with the very computer you are reading this on? Tons I say. Not everything, but some key features are eerily similar. Luckily the organic nature of ourselves is the key difference. Man has long searched for the ultimate AI. Many sci-fi stories have supposed what might occur if the ultimate AI was ever attained, and it usually ends up with computers deciding that man is a pox and going about destroying us as imagined by Asimov in I Robot (and probably many others, but I won’t read them, I need Hollywood to fill me in on that part of the bookstore) or at least ignoring us to some ill-fated end as put forth by and Arthur C. Clarke in 2001: A Space Odyssey (ok-ok, Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey as far as I’m concerned).

I’m certainly not an expert in fact or fiction about AI, but I do know that the foundation of it is the design a machine – software and hardware – that is capable of intelligence, meaning independent thought and learning. Many people believe that there are fundamental differences between human beings and computers that make this pursuit a prisoner of sci-fi, I am not one of those. The brain works just like a computer. Logic gates + electricity = capacity for intelligence. The advantage that humans have that thus far limit computers is the complexity and vastness of the logic gates (neurons) and the ability of those logic gates to form new connections. The connections of the logic gates in a CPU are fixed, those of the human brain are dynamic and changing. It is our organic nature that allows this to happen. Back in the 90’s I remember reading an article about a group of scientists that attempted to circumvent this little nuisance in their attempt at improving the limits of AI by developing an organic CPU. Essentially a computer who’s CPU was not silicon based, but mold based. But who the hell wants to own a computer they have to feed and keep warm only to have it rebel and exist for the soul purpose of bringing you down. Hmmm…where’s that vasectomy I ordered? …Anyhow it was mostly theory and conjecture but I’m sure these scientists and their protégés are all still hard at work on it and it’s just a matter of time before they come up with some sort of seed that will grow. When that happens they will have accomplished half of the recipe for ultimate AI – the hardware. Then they will need to program it. But how exactly is the human brain programmed? What is the source code of the OS of humanity? Unfortunately this is not a job for Microsoft, even Windows is more stable than humanity. I don’t propose to know the code myself, but I do think I know of a way to find it, or at least a part of it – and therein lay the key to my first Nobel Prize. The key I’ve found begins with the optic disc.

There is a visual phenomenon known as the blind spot. The optic disc is a spot on the retina where the optic neurons come through the back of the eyes and begin to fan out. There are vision receptors everywhere on the retina accept for this one spot. Try this little exercise to discover your own blind spot.

See the illustration below. Cover your right eye and stare at the red circle on the right with your left eye. Then, slowly move away from the screen (or if you're already far, move toward the screen). As you move away from/toward the screen (Do not look at the blue star), there should be a point where the blue star disappears from the picture. That is your blind spot!

The point where the star disappears (or circle if you're testing your right eye)is when the light projecting from it through your pupil becomes focused on the optic disc where there is no photoreceptors. Day to day this doesn’t affect your vision because between the two of your eyes the information that falls onto the optic disc is different in each eye, so what’s on your right eye’s blind spot your left eye picks up and vice versa. Only with monocular vision and close attention does the blind spot reveal itself to your conscious perception.

In the example above the star/circle disappears from sight but what do you actually see? Whiteness. Why not blackness? The brain somehow replaces the missing data with a continuous image. Does the brain generate random filler for the missing data? Does it completely discard the missing data and generate a view that is not dependant on that piece of landscape that is missing? It’s hard to say for sure, but a series of experiments may shed some light on it.

In the example above when the object disappears it seems to be replaced with whiteness. What if the background was another color? Or the experiment is set up in three dimensions, such as with your two pinky fingers against any backdrop (try putting a black marker dot on one finger to help identify when it disappears)

Here we see it is now replaced with the green, not white, because the brain senses that as the background. Already we have discovered that the brain is not substituting the missing data with whiteness, but is taking into consideration the surrounding stimuli and giving you a most likely rendition of the visual experience. Look way above at the first image in the blog - in this image of a cylinder on a chess board the brain does it again, it thinks without your permission.

Believe it or not square A is the same color as square B. Sure as hell doesn’t look that way though does it? This is a great demonstration of vision as a brain function (not an eye function), as what you see is digested by the brain and regurgitated according to a set of rules – a program – that it interprets data by. Your brain knows from experience how shadows work, the difference between black and white, the pattern of a chess board. So in keeping with that model, your brain differentiated the same shades of grey to represent a shadowed white and lit black. What algorithm lay behind that process? Deeper investigation in the blind spot phenomenon may shed some light.

Consider if the background was complex, such as plaid. It wouldn’t be so easy for the brain to just pinch the edges together to fill in the empty space or ignore it and jump to the other side. The brain would have to calculate what to do by using the surrounding information. Here is a really fun website that touches on this and offers a few trial situations.

My idea is that with the right set of trials and enough effort and data, we may be able to decode some sort of algorithm employed by the visual cortex to do this. That will offer some major insight into how the brain wiring really works. At least in that part of the brain.

Jesus grab-bag

2006-11-14T20:52:00.000-05:00

Another grab-bag. I have a few things I want to throw in the manifesto tonight so I chose Jesus grab-bag as my title. Jesus however is only one small part of it, I think tonight's grab-bag has three items, none are the internet.

Let's begin with Jesus. Why not.
One of my favorite cartoonists whom you may be familiar with is Dan Piraro. He does the Bizarro comic. Over the years if I've cut out a comic to tape up somewhere, or scan and make images of on my computer for a desktop, (if I can find one particular one I have in mind I will stick it at the end of this blog, I did the coloing job myself in phtoshop!) it was probably his. Somehow I discovered that he does more than just comics, he does fine art and I really love it. I remembered one in particular tonight when I decided I wanted to blog about Jesus. Why it didn't come to mind two blogs ago - I guess I was preoccupied. What can I say, I'm anal about this topic. So tonights further disppointed in Jesus pic is from Dan Piraro's fine art collection
and it is a piece entitled:

"Jesusman to the Rescue"

This is a great piece. I'm no art critic or historian, but here's my take on this, and the rest that you see in his collection online. The whole collection seems to have a sarcastic address to worship of the holy family. It doesn't outright denigrate them, but it sort of suggests that the roles they play in our society are roles we defined and not role the actual characters embodied. Many people today seem to have this Chrit the saviour attitude, and I just think that Jesusman is about as likely to rescue them as Mighty Mouse is.

This week in the media, there are reports that Sir Elton suggested the world should ban organised religion altogether. First and foremost bravo Sir Elton, you're not alone in that but it seems you're alone in proclaiming it. It's possible he was misquoted, maybe he meant we'd be better off, or HE'd be better off if...rather than actually wishing that religion went away. I've always believed this. But of course it can't happen because those empowered to make it happen are the religious leaders and followers. It's like asking a baby to deliver themselves, they simply can't be in and out of the womb at the same time, and even if it could, it simply wouldn't understand the instruction because it it applies to two worlds - one inside the womb and the other outside. That's just too much to expect from a self absorbed, shut-eyed, sensory deprived needy parasite.

Now I don't think that it would be the solution to war or hate of any kind. People would still hate (read fear) homosexuals and foreign races and whatnot but at least without religion we'd have to admit that it is our own hate and fear and misguidance. That might make dealing with it a little easier, but it may not make being subjected to it any less frustrating.

Moving on. Grab-bag item two. I've been putting off wrapping up the human intelligence algorithm because it involves me doing some illustraion and I haven' had time, but I think this weekend coming up will afford me enough time to do it, so by now saying it I seek to semi-commit myself to getting it done. Then we can move on to the real fun of prime numbers.

Item the third: I've been reviewing that chicken kung-fu kid file and, I'm no chickenist but I think I've noted that the kid has one particular move which seems to incite the chicken's wrath. It seems to be the part where he attempts a forward probing foot-sweep and slides his right foot along the ground. This appears to be the presice moment where the chicken explodes into furious action thwarting the kid effectively and efficiently and unwaveringly I might add. That chicken was seeing red! I think the kid could have danced all day for the chicken's pay had he not done that ground scraping thing. Any chickenists out there with some insight into this? Do they have some sort of homeological mechanism that relies on the stirring of the ground in just such a way? I think so.

Ok, so I couldnt find the old scan I had of a Piraro comic, the point of it was a stab at the frivolous way in which our consumerist society currently regards the acrement of marriage. I hink I know where it is, the next time I get my hands on the floppy disk in my parents basement with the image on it I'll post it. Instead I found this jem while searching my hard-drive for ".jpg" and figured I'd post it instead. I did this to myself while building the very computer I'm using to bring it to you. Well, mosly, the very compuer I'm using now has changed form a bit but that was part of it's history. Cheap case = sharp case and parts that jam and fingers that flay. It was deep, I have a good scar to prove it.

Internet grab-bag

2006-11-12T16:42:00.000-05:00

Ever heard of Skoopy? www.skoopy.com or break.com or thatvideosite.com or youtube etc. The websites we frequent for silly shit while bored at work or school. I found a nice one, no super classic to be or anything, but I thought I'd highlite it.

This kid has some sweet moves, but in the end - he chickens out.

On another site, while searching for a fix for a spyware issue I found this interesting observation. The guy who wrote it took some liberties with the saying, but the gist (jist?) is definately there. I like it.

"So you've heard the saying, 'a million monkeys at a million keyboards will probably write Shakespeare' well now thanks to the internet we know that's not true."

Disappointed in Jesus

2006-11-10T21:08:00.000-05:00

Back when I lived in Calgary I used to go to a great dark firelit cafe and just write. Over one fine fine winter I churned out the begining of what was to be my first novel. Nothing much came of it, but I had a few chapters of character development penned and spent many a memorable hour there in the cosy chairs they had by the fire.

Anyhow, the point of this, is that I had a working title for this novel of "Disappointed in Jesus." I liked it, it was catchy, controversial, but I had a hard time making the story fit it. I really had no direction for my characters, no substance to extract from the title and nowhere for them to meet and have meaning. I vaulted both ideas, till now. I still don't have any direction for the characters or integration for the title, short of a despondant main character not being satisfied with the wisdom to be taken from a group of born-agains he falls into. What I have is some cover art.

Check it out, now does that say disppointed in Jesus or what? Don't see it? Keep looking, he's there and he loves you.

This is the point in which I refer to my mantra: MY manifesto, not yours.

Ol SBP, DLP and LCD

2006-11-09T23:18:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't know Ol SBP, he's a good buddy of mine who has recently blogged about his TV buying decision making woes. I piped in on the comments tab about him getting LCD and well I just want to put my money where my mouth is.

Introducing my own new LCD TV/Computer Monitor. It's a mere 32" but it's the best fit for my budget and space (note the space consideration) for the forseable warranty period (2 years extended enhanced.) After that, well there's a new standard in entertainment appliances, upgrade more often. That Sony Trinitron just ain't gonna stand for 25 years anymore, even if it does last that long.

For the record I am very pleased with my new purchase. Next up - X-Box. Grease those contacts Scooter ol' buddy I'm comin for my SBP arrangement.

Behold Andromeda

2006-11-08T20:42:00.002-05:00

Ever notice Andromeda? Not the Star Trek series, but the galaxy for which it is named. It's in our sky, you can see it with the naked eye. If you ever looked up at the stars at night you probably saw it, but didn't notice that it was a whole other galaxy. It's small to the naked eye, looks like a blurry star most of the time. In the winter months here in Canada, it is most clear to view, unlike in the summer when for some optical reason it is not as easy to discern.

We live in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is so big it is hard to fathom. If you were born in the west end of the MW and travelled east at the speed of light for your enitre life and the next three generations you wouldn't even get from Scotia Bank Place to Kanata Centrum. And up in the sky there is Andromeda, equally as large, and it seems to be just a single blurry star. Look carefully some time, you may just get lucky and notice the blurry stars billions of parts, binoculars help. Must be pretty far away to look so small, so far away yet there it is to behold. There simply must be some friends out there somewhere. Maybe we'll never get to meet them, but possibly, our great-great grand-children might get to play World of Warcraft with them. But I guess for that even to be true, Einstein would have to be wrong about that speed of light being the max thing.

Nice e-find

2006-11-07T21:36:00.000-05:00

Hey check out this nice new site I stumbled upon.

Episode Guide Extraordinaire

As simple and exhaustive as IMDB this handy website is a godsend to all my bretherin who lost track of their shows during the World Series and aren't sure when the new episodes came on or which ones they were. Also great for those who like to partake of the bit torrenting of TV shows old and new. Lastly a great place to browse for nostalgia or interest sake on the lastest and greatest shows we love and loved, or loved to hate. I see a good future for this web site.

Someone has a swift kick in the nards coming to them.

2006-10-30T18:54:00.000-05:00

I switched from Outlook Express to regular Outlook 4 days ago because of an OE virus I can't seem to get rid of (every time I open the app Norton goes batshit) and it's taking some getting used to. I guess Outlook is pretty good, but I liked what I was accustomed to.

So anyhow, now that I have changed my email clients I am more aware of the spam I'm getting day to day because somehow in the "Transfer files and filters" protocol, my so called filters didn't actually get transferred. So now in 4 days I've received 51 bulk spams like the one above. You must have seen them. Somehow they permeate all ISPs.

How on earth is it that these goofs perpetrating these email's don't get shut down? And furthermore, are the low-lifes who are doing this getting ANYTHING at all out of it? Who is buying this stock? Who is ordering these pills?

I would eat the cybershit these emails rode in on for one chance to hoof someone responsible for these in the beans one time. It'd be a pleasure my broken foot would never forget.

Anyhow...

Work's been pretty crazy lately, so I haven't had much time to blog regularly, accept when I find time to do it at work. And I'm going on a few days jaunt to civilization so I shall return in a week or so with more on decoding the human intelligence algorithm.

Nobel Prize Ticket #1 – PART ONE of TWO, Digression. (not the prime number one…that’s number 2, incidentally not prime)

2006-10-29T18:06:00.000-05:00

Before I get into this. I want to address a point of my Color Model of Multiple Infinity (CMMI). In that discourse I mentioned the example of red and green falling under the same shade of grey in b/w. My friend Anu pointed out that color vision in general is a subjective brain function and she referenced the rods and cones. This digression is about highlighting a nuance of said rods and cones, but first a little background on vision.

I should almost get into component vs opponent process vision theory as part of this but I think I’ll leave that up to you to find out about if you’re interested in increasing your foundation for this digression. But since it isn’t critical, I will leave it. I can feel this getting too long winded without it. But other than that, here is a crash course on human vision.

Vision is primarily a brain function. Your brain has a generous helping of higher functioning tissue (grey matter not reserved for maintaining vital functions such as the 4 F’s – Fighting,. Fleeing, Feeding and Reproducing, which are features of lower brain functioning present in lower life forms as well as humans) called the visual cortex. The visual cortex is located mostly at the back of your head in the occipital lobe of the brain. This is why a good blow to the back of your head could blind you. However that's not why blows to the back of the head (rabbit punches) are outlawed in boxing, this is also a good place to jar the brainstem (lower functions) which control breating and heart rate, and can kill you. In order for this chunk of grey matter to deliver any visual information to your consciousness it needs information from the eyes to work with. The brain itself sends out some slaves to the eyes to do this. The slaves in question are the optic nerve and retina. The retina is made up of the ends of the fibers (neurons) that make up the optic nerve. They enter the eye through the optic disc (remember this structure as it is key to part two of this discussion) and fan out and connect to receptor cells made of cones and rods collectively called the retina. Cones primarily make up the center portion of the retina, called the fovea and are responsible for sending color information and acute focal sensation. Rods primarily surround this area and make up the fringe of the retina and are responsible for transmitting peripheral vision data. They are pretty much black and white in their color capacity. Rods are responsible for your night vision, which is why in low light, everything looks black and white. Rods are also very good at detecting differences in black and white gradients, which is why star gazers train themselves to “gaze” via their rod rich periphery and not through their cone rich fovea field of vision.

So how does this architecture come into play in facilitating this illusion I found on line. This illusion highlights the relationship of complimentary colors as mentioned in the CMMI. How exactly I’m not really sure, I don’t quite know what to make of it, except that it certainly has some relation and shows that red and green are in some fashion, the same color. In this illusion you see a circle of red (ok they’re kind of pinkish) dots. The flashing is not an illusion, it’s a script within the image. The dots are programmed to flash around in a circle as you can see occurring. However, if you stare at the black cross in the center, you will soon see the flashing dot turn to green (and maybe the pink dots will even disappear from time to time!)

Press shift and click on image to see animated version.

My theory here is that by some mechanism of this illusion, it reveals the complimentary (black and white doppelganger) of the particular color in the illustration. I think. You have to wonder why you need to look at the cross for it work. It could be that by doing so, you bring more rods into the equation and they help to tease apart the duality of opponent colors. This seems to be the case with the pink dots. I wonder if I edited the image if the same effect would occur only with the respective color compliments. I shall try it. I’m speaking like I’m not going to show the results, but that’s because I’m not composing this on my computer right now so I can’t try it yet, but by the time I post this, it will have the results(I hope).

Again: do the shift click thing.

Post Edit: OK I have run the experiment and it was a great success. Painstaking as it was I live for the cause. This makes a stong arguement for the opponent proccess theory of color vision. But I digress...the whole point of this talk about vision is because my ticket to my first Nobel Prize has a little something to do with the optic disc.

To be continued.

Infinity at last

2006-10-24T19:30:00.000-04:00

I hear you sayin’ what’s so great about infinity anyhow? Well for me, it’s one of those things that remind of how small a part I play in the big picture. This humbling sensation is good too, it helps me get by with hardships and not sweat the small stuff. (Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff – a very good read btw, perhaps we should all review the coles notes to it once in a while to keep it fresh in our minds) So what is it about infinity that is so humbling? Just like trying to wrap your head around the idea of time and it’s beginning, it’s one of those things that send you into an instant dreaming like state the moment you begin to attempt to rationalize then in your mind. They are concrete ideas, but intangible concepts. It’s paradoxical in the sense that we know it exists but we can’t conceive it in our minds. Well maybe conceive is the wrong word, rationalize I guess is the better word. I can easily rationalize an apple on my desk. I can imagine it, conceive of how it can be. I know it has particles that act a certain way and obey the laws of physics as we know them. I can apply everything I know about it to my senses and more. Time however is not the same. We can’t apply our knowledge of time to the senses, to any sense, so it’s harder to rationalize, and further if you consider that time should logically have a beginning it raises the question of, “OK let’s say we’re standing on the starting line of time, what do I see if I stand up and turn around?” There must be something there! There can’t BE nothing there right? I’m getting that dreamy feeling now. For those of you who care, Stephen Hawking has apparently mathematically proven that time DID indeed have a beginning. Sorry bible thumpers, according to SH’s universe, God wasn’t always. Now don’t ask me to explain his proof of this, all I can do is say that the diagram that represents it is basically it’s a donut with a Chinese finger trap through the center. Now do you get it? Much clearer I'm sure.

So infinity is also like this. The idea makes sense but the concept is completely intangible, and if that isn’t wacked enough my problem with infinity is that I’ve considered a thought process that might suggest infinity is at best, only half of infinity. So that nice little bid you made as a child of infinity +1, may have some legs after. My first idea that there is more than one infinity came to me in the philosophy class of professor Paul Forster. He is as far as I can tell, the most respected member of the Philosophy dept (this is according to one of his TAs and a few of his students I know well). Not sure what the topic was in class but somehow relevant was the consideration of infinite concepts. Decimal places are one that came to mind. There are in infinite number of decimal places in the concept of 1. In other words if you count from 0 to 1 through it’s decimal places, you’ll never get to 1. The decimal places are infinite. So let’s say for the purposes of this argument that you do finally arrive at 1, as SH proved you can arrive at the beginning of the infinite concept of time, we’ll say we arrive at 1, don’t ask me to prove it though, I have no idea where to find a Chinese finger trap in my neck of the woods. So we’re at one and we’ve accounted for an infinity of decimal places, now count to 2. A whole ‘nother infinity of decimal places, and it doesn’t end there, I think there’s another digit or two after 2. I posited this to professor Forster at the end of class (not during class, because I had a suspicion my idea was a laughable one) and his response to my theory was a succinct and direct affirmation that I completely missed the point and was not exactly right about my supposition in the first place. I don’t remember his explanation for this conundrum, but it made sense at the time. The gist I THINK was that decimals don’t count, they are only part of a finite construct, in this case the concept of a whole number (1).

I walked away and remained satisfied to this day with the decimal model of multiple infinity quashed, but I didn’t put the idea out of my head, I simply needed a better model, one that might stand up to the scrutiny of Dr.Forster’s infinite wisdom. Eventually I found one, or should I say remembered one. However I can’t say that this stands up to true philosophical analysis either, but it is not a decimal model so it needs a whole new thrashing I have yet to uncover. The key to my new model was a concept I learned about years earlier while studying photography. We’ll this my color model or multiple infinity. Thus far undebunked!, but I’m hesitant to label this a theory, because it is essentially un-testable. So I’m just talking here, hear me out. If you’ve read this far at all I think I’ve already accomplished something amazing. I’ll take advantage of this time to gratuitously use the word booger in my manifesto. Booger.

Alright, that was awesome. Now onto my color model of multiple infinity. I read that when doing black and white photography one must be careful when composing that the colors of the subjects are not too complimentary. What this means is that if you want vivid b/w contrast, don’t take a photo of something that is red and green and expect the b/w to represent the disparity that color affords (interesting to note, green and red are popular color blindness colors where the color blind individual can't tell the difference between them, color blindness also involves many other color disparities that fall under this black and white non-disparity effect). You see in black and white certain shades of red look the same as certain shades of green. They will appear on b/w film as the exact same shade of grey despite being very much different colors in our actual full color perception. The book I read about this in then showed a wonderful example of a collection of colored toys, each a unique brilliant shade of crayola-x, when the b/w photo was compared many of the toys were the same shade of grey. (I plan to search the net for a similar pic to show you, but not sure if I’ll find one, if I do I’ll link it to this text.) So green and red aren’t the only colors that will do this. In fact every color you can name has a complementary color that appears the same as it’s counterpart under black and white scrutiny.

The thing to focus on now is the fact that the grayscale (all the shades of grey between black and white) is infinite. So if they shades of grey are infinite (which is granted) then why isn’t there a different shade of grey to represent every color available? There should be you’d think, but no, every color (and there are infinite colors) has a buddy that they share a shade of grey with when converted to b/w. This conundrum seems to suggest that the infinite color spectrum is 2x bigger than the infinite b/w spectrum.

At a glance it seems that the color model of multiple infinity illustrates that infinity may not be a set concept, and can vary in vastness according to whatever concept it happens to be attached to. But one thing does appear clear: infinity is divisible evenly by 2, and is therefore not prime.

My apologies to anyone searching the net in legitimate search of research into infinity and prime numbers who stumbled upon this site. It was a bit late in the dissemination, but booger was your cue to move on.

Time for me to get a VÄSKAN (manpurse)?

2006-10-22T21:11:00.000-04:00

Don't ask me what VÄSKAN means, it was on the image when I found it. But I gotta assume it's Dutch (or similar) for manpurse.

So I was watching the final episodes of 24, season 5 this week (I know I'm way behind on it, but I think you're so much better off to "TIVO" the show for a whole season, then watch it. That way you don't have to put up with the annoying waits between gripping cliffhangers, and if you ever get the feeling for it, you could bump up your 24 experience by syncing up the times with real time!) and I couldn't help but notice Jack's manpurse. The show actually made a point of highlighting it in one episode Jack confides in someone (a stranger I beleive) that he keeps his guns in it. How cool is that? I gotta say, if the manpurse ever had a shot at making it, Jack Bauer has written the ticket for it this past season.

So I'm legitimately considering getting me one. I think if I had one, I wouldn't have lost all the crap I left behind in my car when it got broken into. Take another look at the pic above, the VÄSKAN is huge, but you really don't even notice it, it fits so well with the rest of the international superspy getup - of jeans and a suede coat with Eddie Bauer (co-incidence?) type shirt underneath. Oh yes don't forget the nondescript black sportswatch that no doubt has GPS functionality of some kind. I bet he never takes that thing off without his manpurse nearby to tuck it into. Wouldn't want to loose something like that.

I figure as an homage to the show itself for breaking down these manpurse borders and making it acceptable for me to adopt one I will prepare an iron-on of this memorial t-shirt I found online today.

In fact, I bet you dollars to donuts that Jack himself will have one of these on his VÄSKAN next season. You wait and see - he's not too tough to cry, I've seen it and he mithes Edgar too.

I'm looking forward to the freedom and coolness this will provide. Anyone know where I can get one, just like Jack's?

Relativity of Time

2006-10-21T17:55:00.000-04:00

Current time in EDT

Gee with with all these big topics like infinity, prime numbers and other fabled avenues to my Nobel Prize you didn't think I'd go a week without touching on relativity and time did you? The very topics that earned Einstein his place in history. Did he get the Nobel? Probably, I'd bet yes, but I've used all my google miles for the day.

Well don't worry, I'm not really gonna talk Einsteins relativity. I just mean that the passage of time is relative. Some days seem fly by and some days it seems to just crawl.

The only clue to this I can find is that generally when you're having a blah, crawl by kind of day, it seems others are too. It must be the moon and stars or something. Now granted not the whole world is gonna have a blah day, say for example people who played paintball today, probably are feeling pretty tweaked right now and thought the day flew by. But did yours? Did you have a long day today too? In fact it's been a long week. When I started this blog thing, I vowed to do an entry a day for at least the first little while, and looking back I've done...5 entries including this one. Holy crap man, I feel like I've been blogging for 8 weeks. And I had a packed week, pimped my car, travelled, worked - yet still it seems to be crawling by. Anyhow, with every valley there is a peak ahead, so let the time just start a flyin'.

Here are some links if you have some time to waste:
• The guy who made this site has got way too much time on his hands
• My fellow bloggers may enjoy this one, and find time to use it! (see below and above for examples of customizable samples)

Eastern Time

Atlantic Time (my time)

Sports on TV

2006-10-20T16:25:00.000-04:00

Remember the show American Inventor from last year? It was a reality series like American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance and all that, only this show was watchable. People would line up to pitch their idea to a panel of industry vets who would vote on wether or not the idea had any legs and eventually they narrowed the field and the winner got a million bucks or something to launch their invention. Some finalists got good internships in the industry pertaining to their inventions. Well on this show there was a guy who invented a game called Bullet-Ball. His story was heart-wrenching, pathetic in the truest sense, touching, pittyful and so very real. One keyword that will get you to this guys clip on youtube is "depressing". It was really difficult watching this guy. I had tears welling up inside wathcing this clip. You know that heavy chested feeling with the hot and jagged lump in the throat of fighting off pure sorrow feeling. This poor guy put himself on the line and get shot down in brutal honesty. The moral of this guy's story, this really nice, affable, passionate and sensitive man's story, is that the truth really hurts. This guy lost his house, wife, job, kids and home for his faith in the game that he invented.

Watch it here. The entire clip is just over 5 minutes.

He lived in his car for his game and then he gets on the show and they tell him he's done, the game is over, it just won't fly. Get your Life back, they said.

So what I wanna know is...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...where the hell was this panel of judges when the guy who invented baseball came around!!? My god that game sucks. I want my Simpsons, House MD and Family Guy back.

Grammar ad nauseum

2006-10-19T17:52:00.000-04:00

Infinity will have to wait. In fact it may wait a while. I want to discuss it but it is a big bite and I'm generally lazy. I need to be inspired, and I need to prepare a little more than a google search for the images I'll need. It is forthcoming, don't dispair and don't worry, it's not the elusive second road to my Nobel Prize.

Stan B., sorry my comment on "too" usage made you self conscious, it had nothing to do with you at all, in fact it had nothing to do with anyone in particular. I simply was reminded of that when I myself used the word. I rarely use the word "too" actually, so when I did - I jumped the opportunity to include it's proper usage in my manifesto, as it were.

I have three grammar peaves to discuss today and a few to confess. I believe I have a good grasp of these three sticking points so I will offer my unsolicited advice on getting it straight for anyone who cares for it. Someone actually askled me to help them straighten out one of these once and I couldn't do it. I knew the proper way to use the trouble words, but couldn't explain to them a good way to remember it. Well today I think I can.

The three trouble areas I will address are:
1. TO vs TOO (quite common)
2. KNOW vs NOW (popular but not as common, and the one referred to above)
3. TRY AND vs TRY TO (too common, and under recognised)

1. Too means "also". So when you are using to or too, consider whether or not you mean to say "also", if you DO mean also, then "also" has an "o" you need to use, take it and add it to your to(o). Too means a bit more than just also though, it also means excess. Too much. Well if that's the case then you never can have too many "o's"

2. Know is related to the word knowledge. If you need know when to use the "k", think is this knowledge based. ie, I know you, I have knowledge of your face because I've seen it before. Now is also immediate, and because it is immediate you don't have time to write a longer word, you need the word now, so go with the shorter version.

3. Try and spot the error in this sentence. The error is that I should be saying try TO spot the error. Saying try and spot the error assumes the subject will indeed acheive the modification. We fall into this error because it is all too acceptable in speach to say it that way, it flows well. All through school teachers never point this error out to us and it feels fine now to commit it. Go ahead if you want, continue commiting it, but now you know.

Now I don't want to come off here as Mr.Grammar Police. I am not one to point the grammar gun by any means. I just want to expand on yesterdays blog and set my friend at ease. And congratulate my friend btw and his lovely wife on their new daughter Finleigh Audrey "Duck" S. hmmm, Aud "Duck" eh buddy? Not a bad thing.

So here off the top are some confessions of my grammatical shortcomings (besides spelling in general) - Its vs It's. Yes I know that it's means "it is" or possessive form, but still I manage to screw it up all the time despite taking a proactive approach to monitoring my use of its('s)[it]. Another is the comma and semi-colon. I abuse the comma...after writing anything, anytime, I need to go back and try to give back about half of them, and then I end up with a work semi-over-laden in commas. The semi-colon I simply don't know how to use AT ALL. A great english teacher I once had likened it to a yeild sign vs a stop sign. Damned if I know what the hell that means, on the page or the road ;)~

The last is a fun pet peave of my buddy rt, and it's the spoken "for fuck sakes" vs "for fuck's sake", the latter being the proper one, but the former being the abused one. I don't plan to change, but he's right. And to those who are offended by my use of the word fuck, I guess I'm sorry but not sorry enough not to use it; I must refer you to the subtitle of my blog. And I think I may have just penned the mantra of my blog. And please don't tell me it's wrong to start a sentence with and. I love doing it. And I won't stop. And it's not as bad as they say.

How do you like your sip-hole oriented?

2006-10-19T00:14:00.000-04:00

Well here I am, in my parents screen room, crisp evening air c/o god (who I don't beleive in, but that's another blog), drinking whiskey c/o my parents and smoking a fine Cuban cigar c/o Jacob (thanks buddy). I just finished pimping my car with leather everything c/o VISA and Bastarache Auto Salvage and now I'm really enjoying the peace that comes with a great sense of accomplishment coupled with chemical vices, a wireless connection and a nice comfortable chair.

If you include brain circuitry, what vices aren't chemical?

Stan B, I had no idea you could WHOIS a website, but I'm glad you mentioned it, it makes sense, never thought of that possibilty before. I guess you can PING one too. (note the proper use of "too", as opposed to "to"; a little pet peave of mine, please feel free to criticise my writing anytime, it can only help.) If Nickleback is responsible for that campaign they will make money off me, cause I'm gonna buy a ticket to burn down their next show that comes close to me.

Speaking of vices and things Canadian, how about those rocket scientists at Tim Hortons. I was considering doing the math on it and running an experiment, but instead I'll just estimate. it seems to me that 90 percent of the time I order a coffee at Timmy's I get it with the lid apllied so that that the seam in the cup is somewhere near or IN my sip-hole. Man I hate that. There are 360 degrees of cup rim to choose from when applying the lid and the sip-hole is...oh lets be generous, 30 degrees wide, so the chances of having the sip-hole coincide with the seam is 1 in 12 or so, then i should get my seam in or about the sip-hole less than ten percent of the time. but as I said earlier, I'm seeing it about 90 percent of the time. I hate the seam in my sip hole. It's uncomfprtable on my lips, and also in my hand. I like my sip-hole 180 degrees or there-abouts from my sip-hole. I figure maybe the majority of Tim Hortons rocket scientists beleive that the seam is a culprit of bad sealing so they consciously put it in the sip-hole 30 degrees. Granted, my lips are more form fitting and forgiving than than the low grade plastic (brown in nature) of the lid, but it is my firm conviction that the seam is not a seal risk if place anywhere in the remaining 330 degrees of lid available. To manage my lip real estate in negotiating my coffee intake is an effort surpassing that of placing the seam outside of the crucial 30 degrees of sip hole allotted. Am I wrong? Am I crazy? Am I alone in feeling this way? Most of the time I am at the drive through, I have lives of fellow motorists in my hands, and fellow addicts behind me in drive through queue that don't have the time nor luxury for me to reposition my lid at the wheel.

I don't like like to criticise empty handed, I do have a solution. how about Timmy's INVEST in the Rocket-Grade lids that Second Cup use, which avert the problem altogether. you know the ones I'm talking about? They have a good childproof, nearly nipple-like peak of a sip-hole that is completely ignorant of the seam orientation. Let me tell you Timmy's if Second Cup developes wide-spread drive through - THI.TO is in big big trouble.

Sorry I didn't cover infinity tonight, but a more pressing matter came up.

Dont Hold Back (missing the apostrophe on purpose)

2006-10-17T23:38:00.000-04:00

I haven't been in Ottawa for some months now but many people I know are from that area and know what I'm talking about when I say Dont Hold Back. Have you seen the Dont Hold Back signs? Some time in the spring I think they first appeared. Initially as paper signs taped with packing tape to many, many posts and poles around Ottawa. At first I thought they were the work of local crazies, investing their hard earned Tim Hortons cup by the intersection dollars at Staples mass producing these toner holocaust reverse print announcements. The next week the signs spread, I saw them as far east as Orleans and as far west as Carp, and not just a few, these signs were everywhere. It amazes me that anyone from Ottawa doesn't know of these signs.

Well after a few weeks they disappeared and after a short dry spell they re-appeared only in other media, election style lawn signs and road-side election style impromptu billboards. Only these ones had an added element of a web-page. www.dont-hold-back.com This was in June. I visited the site, It was a linkless page with one message, a familiar one. I visited the page routinely for about two weeks and nothing changed. I forgot about it.

Until recently, I wen't back to the page last week or so and it hasn't changed much accept for one promise that has been added. Coming in November '06. The work of Tim Hortons cup intersection tycoons? Perhaps, but very resourceful and persistent ones. I will stay tuned and see just what this Dont Hold Back revolution is all about.

In other news: sorry no pic to go with today's message, but in lieu of a pic I have a link (above for one, but here as well). My buddy Nirm by some cosmic coup de tete conceived of the idea to blog on this very site, very close to the moment I also made the forray into this world of armchair journalism. She has decided to take a cool approach though - just photos...for now. She did confess to me that she started her blog with the intention of motivating herself to write once a day - hmmm - sound familiar. Something strange is afoot in the milky way. And speaking of the milky way, the subject of my next blog, should nothing more pressing arise will be infinity. Now go see Nirm's picblog. http://missimperial.blogspot.com

My Manifesto - An intro with mention to Ol'SBP

2006-10-16T20:15:00.000-04:00

From Collins Cobuild (my pocket pc based dictionary)
"Manifesto: A Manifesto is a statement published by a person or group of people, especially a political party, in which they say what their aims and policies are."

The first and foremost thing I learned in university, re-iterated across multiple classes on day one, (english, philosophy, sociology) was never to recruit a dictionary definition in formulating an argument. It's important then for me, and you the reader to realise that in the pages of My Manifesto I am not making any arguments and I am not building a political platform. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything or impose anything but I'm simply stating the way I see things. And I conceed right away that that is subject to distortion. These are the words that in some way shape and form are directed by my values - my policies.

I hear it's thereputic to keep a diary, or by today's standard I guess a blog applies. It helps to sort out your thoughts and emotions. They say it removes them from the eternal and abstact environment of the mind and putting them in the slightly more concrete and definite realm of cyberspace. So now when you see me speaking softly into my pocket pc you will know that I'm not telling secrets behind your back, nor am I wispering sweet nothings to it (our relationaship is plutonic at best), I am simply purging my mind to the "on deck" of cyberspace.

I hope those that find their way here find my words provocative, insightful or if nothing else laughable (at or with) because any laugh is a good return on investment. I aim to update as freequently as possible to keep the blog fresh but life is pretty slow paced these days in rural New Brunswick so I'll do what I can to keep it interesting. I have a few fail-safe topics to fall back on from time to time when there's not much coming to mind. Both happen to be my 2 little pet Nobel Prize projects. If you're able to take my ball and run to your own prize with it, be my guest - I'm only in it for the betterment of mankind, you can have the glory. I'll divulge these in good time... Alright I'll give you a little taste - I'm working on resolving prime numbers. I figure if I live to 550 I may develop enough ground to get the ear of at least a semi-reputable math society. As a reminder to myself, the first time I blog on prime numbers, I want to take the Ockham's Razor approach (which with my math background is about the only approach I can take).

So, welcome one and all to My Manifesto. I decided to begin this blog after becoming a regular of the daily dose of Ol'SBP. So taking off in his footsteps I've begun my very own blog. SBP you will be happy to note that next year my Blogger Poker entry will be a legit one.