the least worst of james windsor

http://rylcdn.tumblr.com/

2011-04-25T12:18:00.001-04:00

http://rylcdn.tumblr.com/

an update

2010-08-16T10:44:00.003-04:00

So currently I find myself working full-time at a Butcher, and at my mothers office. It seems to leave little time for my own personal projects. Anyhow here is a list of what I am currently working on, and what projects have moved to the back burner.
- Currently working on a series of "sprinkle paintings". They consist of iconic Canadian images, and portraits of famous Canadians through the medium of doughnut sprinkles, with a pop art theme. Having difficulties with colouring the sprinkles while keeping glossy look.
- Redefining a deck of cards. I am taking a traditional deck of cards and putting a Canadian spin on it. Changing the 4 suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades) to the 4 seasons (Spring [Flower], Summer [Sun], Fall [Leaf], Winter [Snowflake]. Changing the face cards (Jack, Queen, King, Ace) to Canadian animals (Beaver, Loon, Bear, etc..). The Joker will become Raccoons. Current difficulties are the actual drawings, trying to keep them simple and geometrical.
- Hoping to get into full-time practice in September for a new musical project. A White-Stripes esq dynamic, consisting of only two members (Drums & Guitar). Use of looping pedals combined with a polyphonic octave generator to create bass/rhy section. Tentatively titled RYL CDN.

- Back burner is civiko. Didn't bother to renew civiko.com Hoping for an election in the fall so I can properly test out certain ideas.

thats all for now.

BBC radio 4 - In Our Times

2010-08-16T10:41:00.002-04:00

Hello, this is primarily so that I don't forget about it. But here is a BBC 4 radio program called In Our Time. A bit dry and English, but none the less quite interesting on a large number of subjects.

McLuhan

2010-03-18T11:55:00.003-04:00

Been going over Mark Federman's doctoral thesis on Valence Theory and just thought I'd share a part of McLuhan's Understanding Media that he quotes with you all.

In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. That is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.... Many people would be disposed to say that it was not the machine, but what one did with the machine, that was its meaning or message. In terms of the ways in which the machine altered our relations to one another and to ourselves, it mattered not in the least whether it turned out cornflakes or Cadillacs. The restructuring of human work and association was shaped by the technique of fragmentation that is the essence of machine technology. The essence of automation technology is the opposite. It is integral and decentralist in depth, just as the machine was fragmentary, centralist, and superficial in its patterning of human relationships.

I recommend reading Federman's Valance Theory. It has brought me many new ideas for Civico (Civiko). Let us see what tmrw brings.

Dear Oscar, get fucked

2010-03-09T12:33:00.003-05:00

havent blogged in a long time. Just though i'd comment on how shitty the oscars were. First off I didn't watch the entire thing, but I did watch most of it. Yes i'm wasting my time cause the oscars suck but..... a few things:

-Why bother showing it live at all if the entire spectacle is for tv viewers? just tell us its live and properly edit the thing (like saturday night live/talk shows, etc..). That way you can cut short shitty speeches, and keep the good ones. Do multiple takes if things get fucked up, and so on. ITS A ROOM FULL OF ACTORS FOR FUCKS SAKE, they are used to this kind of thing.

- Why pretend to enforce a 45 second speech rule, when you clearly are just going to ignore it for the bigger awards.

- Why talk about award ceremonies that have already happened (technical awards)? You ignored them in the first place, why balk now?

- this idea of giving people oscars cause they deserve it for their entire body of work, rather then what they are nominated for is retarded. aka Jeff Bridges. Crazy Heart was ok, he was great in it, but it pales in comparison to countless other performances that he has given. They do this for pretty much every Leading Role award, every year.

- The Blind Side is a fucking awful movie, I dont care how good someone is in a film, if the movie itself sucks, no oscar.

- Why the christ do you have a group of actors taking turns, talking about a person nominated for film, name the movie for which they are nominated, have 10 seconds of music, bring out another person, and then have them rush through repeating the same information we just heard about?

- The oscars are too long?? Why not get rid of or at least have short commercials? and why aren't they of superbowl-esque quality?

- The whole thing is a crock of shit. Fuck the oscars.

- Avatar is infinitely better film making then the fucking hurt locker. Both are solid B+ movies at best.

- I love the medium of film, the industry, and those who profit off of it have turned a beautiful art form into a waste of time.

Villanelle For Our Time

2009-11-16T19:50:00.000-05:00

From bitter searching of the heart,
Quickened with passion and with pain
We rise to play a greater part.
This is the faith from which we start:
Men shall know commonwealth again
From bitter searching of the heart.
We loved the easy and the smart,
But now, with keener hand and brain,
We rise to play a greater part.
The lesser loyalties depart,
And neither race nor creed remain
From bitter searching of the heart.
Not steering by the venal chart
That tricked the mass for private gain,
We rise to play a greater part.
Reshaping narrow law and art
Whose symbols are the millions slain,
From bitter searching of the heart
We rise to play a greater part.

Steal This Sound - A Constantines Fan Site

2009-11-11T16:59:00.001-05:00

I had the flu, and I spent it making a Constantines fan site. Its still in the works but its got plenty of crap on it. Check it out here
STEAL THIS SOUND

i've got a lazy eye and so do these ladies

2009-11-04T12:52:00.003-05:00

stumbled upon this while looking up information about lazy eyes. I'd be curious to see the male version of this list. Only one I know of is Thom Yorke.

yee old bloge

2009-11-02T19:12:00.004-05:00

My girlfriend asked me if I knew about any cool blogs, and I could think of none. So alas here I am updating my old blog. The following I post with hesitation as nobody likes to have their own thoughts associated with "conspiracy", etc...
Anyhow this is an interesting little video that a Canadian kid made about his country. Ya its of poor production value, and the person who made the video injects himself continually into the film, it contains some pretty great interviews with our elected members of state.

While it loses focus, and facts are slightly dubious at times it is worth watching.
im kinda stoned on neo-citrons and cold medicine so i'm just gonna stop writing.

http://ohcanadamovie.com/

Helen Fisher tells us why we love + cheat

2009-06-06T14:52:00.001-04:00

not vividly detailed, but interesting none the less.

From Mulroney to Harper

2009-06-02T15:13:00.002-04:00

So rarely does Canada manage to make it to the front page of the BBC NEWS, but we pulled it off today with the title of the headline "Canadian economy in sharp decline".

Our economy hasn't sucked this badly since fat chin was our prime minister. So congratulations fat ass for evening the score with your conservative predecessor.

With the Liberals not wanting to force an election this summer it appears the Conservative sluts get free reign over ruining this country until halloween.

on a happier note, Toronto is a million times cooler then I ever imagined it to be.

Jon-Rae Fletcher- the Big talker guitar tab

2009-04-29T13:02:00.002-04:00

more guitar tab time. This one by Jon-Rae Fletcher (previously with the river) solo album oh Maria. This song is called the big talker, jon-rae once again proves that four chords, a great voice, and some good words are all you need. Enjoy. The song can be found on his myspace page (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=410081905)

the Big Talker - Jon-Rae Fletcher

INTRO:
C | F | Am | G | F

Am | G | C | x4 (4th one no C, longer G )

VERSE: Am | G | C
as the sun chases the night
and the shadows from the bend
as the dew dissolves from view
remember what i said

my word is true
from now until the world is done
believe me there's no deceit
my heart beats for one

CHORUS: F | Am | G | C |
and I'm a big talker
I'm just a big talker
well i say whatever to get me by.
you can stick a needle in my eye.
my word is true, and thats no lie.
i'm a big talker

i'll fall down on my knees
hold my breath until i turn blue
cut myself until i bleed
for to be with you.

I will move that mountain
and I will move that sea
I will move that valley
for you to be with me

CHORUS:
cause I'm a big talker
I'm just a big talker
Well I never sleep until I die
and I'll drink the well until it's dry
My love will last and that's no lie
oh I'm a big talker

McLuhan and Facebook

2009-03-09T19:28:00.002-04:00

McLuhan, If you haven't read his work, you should. Every day I find it more and more significant when it comes to understanding the world around me. Lately I've been thinking about how facebook, and the Internet in general has changed every ones relationships in a very profound and significant way. It is difficult to see these changes, and even more difficult to understand them in their entirety but thankfully Marshall has left us with some tools.
There is this one article in the New York Times that scratches the surface of this discussion, but leaves much to be desired. I will now link it with the most interesting sentence that i came across in the article. "And as we stretch the definition of a friend to encompass people we may never actually meet, will the strength of our real-world friendships grow diluted as we immerse ourselves in a lattice of hyperlinked “friends”?"

I should be doing school work, so I'm just going to spit this out in order to get it "out there".
One of the easiest things to get across when telling people about the work of McLuhan is his tetrad of media effects (Enhances, Reverses, Retrieves, Obsolesces). Essentially we can gain a greater understanding of the effects of a media if we analyze it by asking the following four questions, and because we are talking about facebook i will put the questions that way:

1. What does facebook amplify or intensify?
2. What does facebook drive out of prominence?
3. What does facebook recover that was previously lost?
4. What will facebook do when it is used too much, or pushed to an extreme?

Don't understand what the fuck I am talking about? Don't understand why facebook is a media? Thats ok stick with me, and it will become clear. Lets look at how radio effected society.

1. Radio amplifies music, the spoken word (radio soap operas, talk shows, etc...), news casts, and are available to a larger geographic audience.
2. Radio reduced the importance of print, newspapers, books, and other things we look at with out eyes. Who needs a book when you can listen to rock n roll on an old transistor radio?
3. Radio brought back the spoken word. In a time when books were all the rage. Everything was read in a book. Radio returned us to the age of the spoken word.
4. The popularity of radio gave birth to the return of the visual (now accompanied by audio) with the birth of tv.

Now that you understand what these 4 questions are about, ask yourself them? I will not answer them completly today, but will at a later date. Please comment. to get you started

What does facebook amplify? Clearly it allows us instant communication with almost everyone in the entire world, particularly someone we've met in some fashion. We rely less on face to face communication, the telephone, etc... It brings back people we haven't spoken to in years, etc....

anyhow, mull it over, im getting back to work.

TV & the Internet

2009-03-05T16:19:00.002-05:00

All TV channels should distribute themselves over the internet. No more CTV and Comedey Network simalcasting american programs, and no more showcase living off of HBO and Showtime.

Anyhow to download your favorite TV shows (moments after they are aired for the first time) get this program called TED. It works on all OS so you should be golden. You will need a torrent program to have this work. for PC get uTorrent, and for mac download Transmission.

The once lovely atdhe.net apparently got way too popular in Canada as the fuckers no longer seem to stream Canadian hockey games for the most part (according to forums the NHL has been leaning on them). If the NHL wants people to see their product so they can have decent advertising revenue. They might want to reconsider charging $50+ a month to watch games via their website. And as long as their are TV timeouts, i wouldn't feel obliged to spend any money on watching hockey. If I'm going to pay to watch profressional sports, I better physically fucking be there. Anyhow fuck the CRTC and a long list of other people. i hope this has been helpful.

FLUXUS Good Enough For Government Work EP

2009-01-30T14:21:00.003-05:00

The band I am in, FLUXUS recently released our first EP. The songs are all very different so please take a chance to at least preview them all. We wanted to have something out before we played our next show, so the songs aren't necessarily exactly how we wanted them to sound like, but good enough. They sound nothing like this live, but that is to be expected. We are working on our first full length album, and are hoping to play various festivals and shows across Canada, and New York state this coming summer. Hope you enjoy it. j. windsor

Guitar Tab - Serena Ryder Dark as the Black

2009-01-09T13:24:00.005-05:00

Guitar tab time, seeing that the Hayden song I did seems to be the only reason people visit this site, I figured I'd share another. Here is one by the lovely Serena Ryder. Don't judge her by her recorded albums, the live show is a billion times better.

Serena Ryder - Dark As the Black
Tune Down a Full Step

Can be seen played live here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwU1tU5-Ng4

This is a simple transcription of what shes playing. the C in the verse is x32033. (normal C at other parts I think)
The C/D is sort of a walk down removing your finger from the D string x30033. Then the D after that is sort of just picking away at it.. To give it more character, hammer fingers on and off on the Em. just use your ear, and figure it out.

G C G C C/D D
There's a crack in the ground from Waterloo all the way to Arizona.
I can see from the fire escape outside, that help me get to know you
Em C D G D G
What was it like, when I was in your life, did my touch feel the same,
D
as your touch it felt so good to me, it felt so good to me.

Em D G C
One world, one love, means nothing if you're just pretending
One world, one love, there's nothing to good intentions
Em D Em
Dark as the black in the cracks in the ground.

There's a crack in the ground from Tennessee all the way to Caledonia
I can tell by the way the silence rings, and echoes in the corners.
Em C D G D G
how many times you wanted to cry, but you kept it inside.
D
Now the silence echoes deafening, its much too loud for me.

One world, one love, means nothing if you're just pretending
One world, one love, there's nothing to good intentions
Dark as the black in the cracks in the ground.

There's a crack in the ground from Old New York, all the way to Minnesota
I can see by the way ten thousand lakes are screaming for more water.
Give us some hope, we haven't got enough.
To keep ourselves filled up, when you drink us empty, drink us dry and ask us why we're dry.

One world, one love, means nothing if you're just pretending
One world, one love, there's nothing to good intentions
One world, one love, means nothing if you're just pretending
To do, your part, there's nothing to good intentions
Dark as the black in the cracks in the ground.
Dark as the black in the cracks in the dark
Dark as the black in the cracks in the ground.

best albums of 2008

2009-01-07T11:19:00.003-05:00

with the exception of a few amazing albums, most of the music of 2008 was disapointing or fucking lame. Then again I'm not sure how much of it i even bothered to listen to. So here we go:

1. Constantines - Kensington Heights Number one with a bullet, and also hailed as album of the year by the associated press we have the Constantines with Kensington Heights. This one is tamer then their previous albums, but still packs a punch. Some of the songs still don't quite mach their brilliance live, but they come damn close. This one also contains the best song to date sung by Steve Lambke, "Shower of Stones". While his vocal stylings might not be everyones cup of tea, this song has gorgeous texture, builds up brilliantly, and the main line of "all love can be a shower of stones" is a gem. All the other songs are all brilliant in their own unique way. I would have named the album Queenston Heights, as a slight reference to the Americans essentially losing the war of 1812 because of this famous battle, but I have since spent time in Toronto and discovered that the Kensington Market area is pretty fucking kick ass, and home to a great guitar shop called "paul's botique". I got a sweet amp from their, and the dudes are actually helpful, rather then out to screw clueless musicians such as myself.

2. Hayden - In Field and Town
Like all Hayden albums, this one contains 4 amazing songs, and then a bunch of really pretty ones. Simple, wonderful and easy to digest. Personal favorites are: Damn This Feeling, Lonely Security Guard, and Weight of the World.

3. Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs
While none of these songs were recorded in 2008 the latest installment of the Dylan Bootleg series was released in 2008. Another fine example of this old bastards ability to write a song and play it a million different ways. A good live version of Cocaine Blues, pretty similar to Van Ronk's but freeer and more swinging. A simple acoustic take on Most of Time is interesting to hear, and while I always thought a stripped down version of any Dylan song is always superior to its band backed counterpart, this one makes you realise that.... they are both great, fucking dylan. Not for everyone I know, but have your local dylan fanatic pick and choose em for you.

4. Ray LaMontagne - Gossip in the Grain
A good example of being able to release an album to a wide audience and not have it suck really badly. Some songs are a bit boring, but Meg White, Hey Me Hey Mama, and Henry Nearly Killed Me carry most of the weight.

Most disapointing albums: Raconteurs, Nick Cave's Dig Lazaurs, and Coldplay's boring crap fest Viva La Vida.

Most Over Hyped: Anything on pitchforks list.

Pretty Good or If I listened to them more then once they might be good: James' Hey Ma, doing pop just as well as they ever did. Not a solid album from begining to end but Hey Ma is a good anti-war tune, and the rest are pretty and non-offensive. Kings Of Leon's Only By Night is nothing too new or interesting, but as far as top 40 rock n roll goes, its better then most of the shit they put on the radio. Portishead's third, Tv on the Radio's science something or other, cut copy.. my buddy sean likes them so it could be good. blaa bla bla im tired of writing.

Band's who might have been good at one point in time, but don't have to bother listening to ever again because they clearly have gone past the point of no return:
Catpower, Coldplay, Ryan Adams, and i hate to do this... Billy Bragg

i wish ron paul was the president

2009-01-04T12:47:00.001-05:00

figured this was worth posting. I am 98% sure Obama is going to be useless.

TV and the Internet, Al-Jazeera in Canada

2008-09-18T13:41:00.002-04:00

A while back the CRTC made a bull shit ruling that al-Jazeera could be broadcast in Canada but only if it was under 24 hour surveillance. This gave the various TV consortium's (Bell, Videotron, Shaw, Cogeco, Rogers, etc...) the excuse that it would be "too expensive" to do, and thus allowed the whole country to quietly ignore the fact that our access to information and media is one of the most restricted of western democracies.

Well fuck em, you can now watch in fairly decent quality al-jazeera, bbc news, bbc world, a couple french channels, a Russian one, and listen to the german station DW for free via the wonderful software program livestation. I highly recommend it to all. Also joost is making headway, and is now available in a flash format, so those of us stuck with G5 chips can now use the software.

anyhow elections are around the corner, and though the problems that face our current society, and the greater human civilization are far too complex for a current political technocrats to deal with I will gladly settle with a government (if the NDP were to win) that would get rid of those $1.50 banking fees, and to give all the cellphone compaines in this country shit so we aren't left with myserious $100+ bills every month despite whatever $17.95 monthly 3 year contract plan we signed up for.

If you are going to vote, just don't vote for one of the main parties in Canada. America, sorry, but you're fucked no matter what happens.

children for president

2008-09-04T12:55:00.003-04:00

Did anyone watch republican vice president Sarah Palin's speech last night? The whole thing was pretty fucking weird. The entire speech had this bizarre juvenile ring to it. It seemed like I was watching a girl running in a high school election giving a speech. The listing of minimal achievements as if they were impressive accomplishments while totally ignoring the reality of what is actually going on in america was just fucking odd.

Only republicans can turn the daily misery of millions of people into nothing more then a silly game of one liners and easy answers. After viewing this speech you would have no idea that this lady is talking about a country that is: the most powerful country in the world, currently fighting two different wars, facing a massive energy crisis, a housing market meltdown, an economy that is facing rapidly increasing unemployment and inflation, and millions of other fucking problems.

This is an attitude that can only be adopted by people who have no regard for their fellow human beings, and the real problems that they face on a daily basis.

I'd be angry, as should everyone else, but lets face it they haven't even counted the votes in the last 8 years, so don't take it seriously. At the end of the day this is nothing more then an elaborate show to help prolong the myth of american democracy and to make people feel warm and fuzzy inside. Seriousness, morality, and practicality have no place in this circus. It's all bull shit, and it's bad for you. by the way. election in canada soon in case anyone is still paying attention.

youth in revolt

2008-08-12T21:13:00.002-04:00

im stuck in my hometown taking care of my mothers office while she is on vacation, so i figured it would be a good time to re-vive the old blog.

anyhow the first book i ever remember picking up and reading by myself is being turned into a movie. I picked up the book because of its font choice, which I ended up using as the font for my early websites. Anyhow the book is called "youth in revolt" by C.D. Payne. In the early days of the internet when people only connected via AOL, compuserve and a handful of other internet providers, I use to email back and forth with the author. That was one the things that made me fall in love with internet. Anyhow there is no real point to this post. But fucking canadian Michael Cera is playing nick twisp, Steve Buscemi is in it, and so is Zach Galafanakis. So I am fucking thrilled about this. just figured id share that. Im currently reading Paynes "frisco pigon mambo" which was supposed to be turned into a movie, but apparently got dropped. Anyhow just glad to see the author that turned me onto fiction is finally getting the credit that he deserves. Im sure the movie will kick ass.

holy fuck i miss montreal. tear.....

CIVIKO.CA

2008-07-07T20:19:00.002-04:00

well this blog is now officially ignored to death. im working on civiko.ca it looks like shit, and doesnt have anything on it right now. but this will hopefully be my sweet little baby.

ummmm yea. thats it for now.

well i was wrong

2008-06-10T01:22:00.002-04:00

well I was wrong about Ms. Clinton. Oh well, its a good thing.
two things of interest happened today.
first is Kucinich's introduction of 35 acts of impeachment against President Bush. The 2nd is the passing of bill C-50. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080609/Immigration_reforms_080609/20080609?hub=QPeriod

that is all.

Hilliary Clinton will win the Democratic Presidental Nomination

2008-05-22T14:07:00.004-04:00

once again I haven't posted in a long time but here is my opinion on the current state of American politics.
Yes that's right I believe that Hillary will eventually beat out Barrack Obama for the nomination of presidential candidate this year. Sounds pretty fucking ridiculous doesn't it? The fact that Hillary needs 98% of the remaining undeclared super delegates to win the nomination, and Obama only needs 3% further underlines that point. So then why the hell would I still think that she is going to win? A poll on CNN has 95% of the population feeling that the nomination won't be decided until the day of the convention. Why is that a big deal?

Super delegates can change who they want to support until the very last moments of the convention. So why would 98% of the super delegates suddenly switch support from Obama to Hillary? That all depends on what kind of bullshit story the American public, and for that matter the general population of the world can swallow. In the recent days we have seen the Hillary campaign underline the fact that everyone's vote should count. This is important because two major swing states delegates; Florida and Michigan's votes and delegates have been disallowed. So why would two states knowingly go against their own party's rules and have their primaries ahead of time so that they would be disallowed?
The current line is they wanted to receive more attention, so that they would be more important. Well ultimately this statement isn't incorrect. They will become incredibly important as this contest dwindles down to its ultimate conclusion. Hillary will demand that the votes of these two states be counted. Currently there is talk of a mail-in vote, or just having the primaries held again. Hillary currently has a 17 point lead in Florida, and a 14 point lead in Michigan. These are two important swing states and if Hillary can "win" these states by a large enough margin, it will a great bull shit excuse to "convince" the super-delegates to give her the nomination.
Hillary and Barrack are both back campaigning in Florida, so this now seems inevitable. (Hillary is currently in Boca Raton, Obama talking to Cuban-Americans)
Hillary has been making ever so slightly gains over the last few primaries. There is a reason why this has been dragged out for so long. To make you so sick of it, so that you hate the process, don't want to pay attention to it, and ultimately could careless about the final outcome. This is the slow grind of manufacturing consent and apathy.
I hope to fucking god I am wrong about all this but I've noticed far too many subtle hints in the media lately. When Edwards endorsed Obama he spent the entire time talking about how wonderful Hilary is. In the NYTIMES they keep printing these strange dark pictures of Obama that only show a shadow of him that makes him come across as sinister and mysterious. The rhetoric that Hillary has been using as of late; “And so our party will have a tough choice to make,” she says. “Who’s ready to lead our party at the top of our ticket? Who is ready to defeat Senator McCain in the swing states and among swing voters?”

The current odds for Hillary to win are 6.5 to 1, Obama 1.2 to 1.
Hillary is doing a good job now of playing the sexist card, that she won't be bullied out of this contest. This will give her more then enough gas to take her all the way to the convention.

so that is my prediction. I hope I'm wrong, but if there is anything that history has taught me, it is to fight optimism and hope when predicting future events, they distort our ability to perceive reality and the situation that surrounds us. This sounds pessimistic as hell but I am going way out on a limb here. Optimism is cowardice and to make a bold prediction is pessimistic in its very nature.

so now, we wait and see.

kids in the hall

2008-04-21T22:49:00.002-04:00

holy shit its good to see these guys are back at it. apparently they are playing a show in Toronto June something or other.
they have some new skits at funnyordie.com

this one about student loans and raping kevin is pretty good, so is the car fuckers.
i would like to get my hands on every skit, and then make my own personal collection of favorite kith skits and put it up on bittorent, as there seems to a lacking of their stuff on the net.

happy summer. habs win! Praise the lord!

fantasy hockey, or not that far from reality hockey.

2008-04-16T14:23:00.000-04:00

This is an old posting, that never got posted, as I wanted to crystalize a few more ideas before posting it. but seeing that if i dont post it now it will just be neglcted forever, and I need to update the blog, and this is an easy half assed way of doing so.

Playoffs: Habs look like shit, but i hope like hell they can get it together. Im pulling for Calgary because of all the great old bastards on the team, San Jose is for fags. My money is on Rangers coming out of the east. Those sluts in Anaheim might just beat the shit out of everyone and pull it off. I guess we will have to wait and see. Ottawa looks fucking pathetic. Spezza is shit, and Heatley doesn't look much better. Also if this country wants to see the Male half of the species to stop slipping behind the ladies academically, they might want to move exams, or the playoffs. its not helping.

RANT ABOUT A NEW HOCKEY LEAUGE BEGINS HERE:
Anyhow to all those who said the idea of Premier Canadian Hockey League is impossible.
I've got two rich billionaires that want a team. This Guy and Basillie. Thats one team in Toronto, and then another in Hamilton. I am sure there is some rich oil fuckers that can put a team in Alberta, and there has to be at least one french-canadian billionaire to put a team in Quebec.

2 more and you have a league right.

Have the league entierly transparent, and rather then have corporate boxes, run large charity based lotterys/raffles, and give the tickets out that way. You could even sell the tickets via auction sites in order to create a fair market value for the cost of tickets. Throw all scalpers in jail and you would have full arenas every damn night. Season ticket holders that don't show up to the game on time (they could call in if they were going to be late) would have their tickets sold at game time at the rate of the average cost of a ticket in the arena. Nothing worst then seeing the best seats in the house empty. Currently at least 50% of the value of a ticket is going to 3rd party middlemen (ticketmaster, scaplers, ebay, and other 3rd party ticket brokers). A league that was capable of setting up its own ticket broker would see a massive increase in ticket sales.

The only thing that would fluctuate would be how much money the team is either making or losing on a nightly basis, which information would be published to the public. You could then balance out the cost of running a team against the cost fans are paying for the tickets.

Really there are enough wealthy Canadians that are addicted to hockey like crack cocaine that they could find a way to run a team like a co-op. Display how much money they are spending on staff, players, and the arena, and then explain to the local population that they require this much money to run the team.
You could also find a new way of paying players that would remove the need for shitty "agents". Create a standard wage that everyone receives, add bonuses for hits, +/-, goals, assists, time on ice, blocked shots, fights, etc... Then have local fans rank the players on their teams of importance adding more additional cash to each player. This would help create an effective ranking system as well. Also create a strong pension fund for players that get injured. Why should shitty players get paid a lot that they don't deserve?
Have the strongest cash incentives for playoff performance, and overall team performance.
Players would then be all on the same paying level, and the constant negotiating, and fucking about with lawyers would be removed from the sport. Players would make more money, as a large portion would no longer go to their agents and lawyers.

Remember people the reason why the league sucks (not as good as it could be) is because its run by A FUCKING LAWYER!

The league could also film the games themselves and sell it directly to bars and consumers via the internet. No need to get short changed by the big TV companies. The NHL doesn't have a contract with a single major american network!? And we are supposed to believe this is a "professional" sport in America!? you must be shitting me. I would be curious to see how insignificant the tv revenue from Versus is for the NHL compared to their contract with the CBC.

My friends have recently come to the conclusion that the best hockey season would be 20 teams, 60 games. That would be great, but

I prefer two divisions of 15 teams playing 60 games. Premiership consisting of the top 15, and then a second league consisting of the bottom 15. With the top 5 and bottom 5 switching spots each season.

So who would be in this hypothetical 30 team league?

1. Toronto
2. Toronto
3. Montreal
4. Montreal
5. Ottawa
6. Hamilton
7. Quebec City
8. Winnipeg
9. Calgary
10. Edmonton
11. Regina
12. Vancouver
13. Halifax
14. Somewhere else in Ontario
15. Possibly St. Johns

16. NY (long island)
17. NY (Manhattan)
18. Philadelphia
17. Boston
18. Pittsburgh
19. Detroit
20. Chicago
21. Denver
22. Dallas
23. Los Angeles.
24. Buffalo
25. Anaheim
26. San Jose
27. Washington
28. Minnesota
29. Carolina/Hartford
30. Somewhere in Ohio

obvious rule changes: no touch icing. Get rid of the instigator rule. Goalies can get hit when they leave the crease, but can skate anywhere and play the puck. Take those useless line refs off the ice, replace with electronic location detectors in players skates and the puck to see when people are offside. Its the 21st century fuckers, we have computers and electronics! Similar thing for puck going across the red line when scoring. Penalites can be called after the whistle is blown if they are missed and of signifcance. Have a room full of people watching every inch of the ice via video cameras. IF A BAD CALL IS MADE, the ref can decide it was stupid and negate it. If he doesn't, it may then be reviewed by the leauge, and a strike will be made against the ref if its a bad call. 5 of these and he has to get a new job. Bigger fucking areans, and reasonable prices for food and booze. NO COMERCIAL BREAKS DURING THE GAME!! only between periods. If all the fucking adds on the boards isnt enough, slap a logo on the uni's. would look like shit, but the pace of hockey goes up about 1000% when there isn't comercials every 7 fucking minutes.

comments, critisisms, its fucking hockey, everyones got something to say about it!

2008-03-17T01:59:00.006-04:00

for some reason my blog got 30 hits last week, so i figured i should update it.
drank too much for st patricks day. woke up around midnight. sleeping pattern is not in a good state of affairs.. but alas, good for weirdo internet behaviour.

this is interesting
1948, 1984, 2004, ahh forever.....

coming soon... an essay on Canadian Senate reform, and how to fix federalism in Canada.
(Upper house elected by an intellectual community, and why a 3rd virtual level of parliament would be highly beneficial to help clairify debate within the commons.)

new constantines album is being leaked on the internet. hype machine it.
and the latest cuff the duke album is kinda good.

SAVE JPOD!!!

2008-03-11T23:31:00.002-04:00

just because the leafs suck and have lost CBC a shitload of revenue, and the Conservative government doesnt like to support.... anything, doesnt mean jPod should no longer exist.

i figure 10 seconds of blogging is the least i can do for a TV show that i really enjoy.
dont like it, or never heard of it?

ill burn you a DVD of all episodes if you sign the petition!

new mac keyboards

2008-03-09T19:41:00.002-04:00

I got myself one of the new mac keyboards and they are fucking awesome. Despite purchasing a french one initially, I got my hands on an english one shortly afterwards and its wonderful. typing is enjoyable with these highly response keyboards. Haven't tried the wireless but I highly recommend this purchase to anyone who has a computer. For 50 bucks, its worth every penny.

what a shit day for Canadians

2008-02-26T18:21:00.003-05:00

Well today was quite the shit day for fans of the Montreal Canadians and every single Canadian citizen.
Bob Gainey got rid of its starting goalie Christobal Huet for a 2nd round draft pick to Washington. With Montreal only having a 6 point lead over the 9th placed team in the East, I won't be surprised if they don't make the playoffs. So now the starting goalie is the young Carey Price who has a cross and Garth Brooks on his mask and is coming off of several loses. Yippee!

More impotantly the piece of shit Conservative government passed a budget today that will be so useless and uneffective at accomplishing anything, you wouldn't even know it passed or that billions of dollars are being spent on things. I take that back, they did spend a shit load of money on the military. So enjoy getting blown up by IEDs in your new toys Canadian military! Then again it most likely will be spent primairly on advertisements to recruite more poor, misguided Canadians.

The Bloc, and the NDP voted against it, and the Dildos swaped shots in the mouth in order to retain their positions as party leaders for a little bit longer. bla bla bla. what a sad fucking state of affairs.

Hayden - Damn This Feeling - In Field and Town - guitar tab and lyrics

2008-02-13T17:17:00.001-05:00

This song has been stuck in my head for about a month now, and I wanted to learn how to play it so I'm sharing a simple version of it with you (people of the internet). enjoy.

Hayden - Damn this feeling from the album In Field & Town

(key of C)
Verses
F Bb F C
I have been wrestling
with the thought of it all
since you left me
out in the cold last fall.

i wake up lonely
and go to bed the same way
people they call me
just to make sure i'm ok.

(chorus)
F Bb C F
But I think I'm healing
damn this feeling
I have been reeling
since last season
Gm C
its the one thing i had left
from everything I get
I'm gonna miss how bad this has felt.

Woman adore me
for the sad look in my eyes
now they ignore
for getting on with my life

(chorus)
cause I think I'm healing
damn this feeling
I have been reeling
since last season
its the one thing i had left
from everything I get
I'm gonna miss how bad this has felt.
how bad this has felt
how bad this has felt

(harmonica interlude)
(bridge)
Gm C Am Bb x2
Gm Gm C (i think, then back to verse)

leaves they are falling
just as I let go of you
winter is calling
and I have no memories to lose.

pointless blog

2008-02-06T16:52:00.000-05:00

While Michelangelo may have been the shittiest of the 4 Italian renaissance artists depicted in the Ninja Turtles (I like Raphael as far as the actual artists go, Leonardo as far as Ninja Turtles), he clearly takes the cake in this classic stay off drugs video.

Fucking Cell phone companies

2007-12-21T16:12:00.000-05:00

The seemingly useless conservative government created a complaint for telecomunications commissioner. Anyhow I've sent my complaint, I recommend you do the same.
I am sure there won't be any results, but you never know until you try.

COMPLAIN and COMPLAIN LOUD
FUCK YOU ROGERS!! FUCK YOU UP YOUR STUPID ASSES!

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

2007-12-19T18:50:00.000-05:00

i've got nothing to blog about, so i figured i'd talk about one of my favorite albums of all time.
Bob Dylan's 1965 masterpieice "bringing it all back home". The album cover has a weird ring effect, and a couple other great albums laying around (robert johnson, eric von schmidt). I think this was Dylan's first commercially sucecful album in the U.S. (just found a wikipedia article, that confirms this) This is the first album Dylan released that pissed off all of his "folk music purist" fans. The album is split into two sides, the first electric with a full band backing, and the second just acoustic guitar, vocals and harmonica. This album is valuable lesson to any musician, as it clearly outlines what adds to a song, and what can just fuck it up.

It contains this lyrical masterpiece "it's alright, ma (i'm only bleeding)".
I've been trying to memorise the lyrics for a couple years so far so I could play it. Just can't do it, don't think I will ever be able to. Here it is:

Darkness at the break of noon

Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.

So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not fergit
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares Propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.

agghhhh

2007-12-17T09:19:00.001-05:00

im in agony from drinking too much this weekend. I recently spent sometime with some of my conservative friends, and couldn't help but wonder what it must be like to feel like them.

They must feel that I am a moron, and so are most of the people around them every day. Because if you don't think that global warming is real, then you must think the people that do believe in it are gullible, and/or not very bright. I don't think any of my conservative friends are stupid for not thinking that global warming is a real issue that we will all be forced to deal with in the near future, I just think they are too busy making lots of money to read any books.
Anyhow if you have ever tried to maintain a pools PH level, and you do a poor job, and it all goes to shit. Well imagine that on a much larger scale.

i want to go back to bed.

video game review

2007-12-10T20:00:00.001-05:00

For all you video games dorks out there, or people who just want to be entertained by a funny british guy. Check out the link here.

City of Woes

2007-12-10T13:54:00.000-05:00

I came across this very good article during my daily internet surfing, but it was the section this section from Mr. King that caught my attention.

"I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate,” King wrote from another era as he sat inside a Birmingham jail. “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

No matter how much I think i've read about martin luther, I find myself continually stumbling upon brilliant pieces of his writing time and time again. While this is in reference to race issues in America I think it says a lot about the state of apathy everyone seems to have for any sort of positive change within Canadian society these days. It seems no matter what the issue is, all people have for answers are half baked partial remedies at best.

For instance the increasing cost of University in Canada.
I meet people whom are clearly very smart, and well read, but then they have almost opposing attitudes and ideas. While they might be in favour of free education for all on a grade school level, and even for free University, they then reverse all of this by seeing an increase in the cost of University Tuitions as fair and justified. As a result they are either in favour of a tuition freeze, or slight increase, both of which do nothing to solve the problem, that being, that the cost of University is already too expensive and that having the most educated portion of your work force being burdened by debt is crippling to the economy. There seems to be strange disconnection between the reality of a social problem and how we feel and think about their solutions. To even suggest free University in Canada seems to blow most peoples minds, despite this being available in almost every Western Democracy.

It does not appear that people's beliefs follow any sort of moral, ethical, political principles, or a continuous stream of logic that would lead a person to any sort of scientific based conclusion, but rather a collection of feelings and attitudes that people seem to have adopted from someone or something else. Yet we all pretend the debate is based upon attitudes of left or right, expert versus amateur. anyhow i don't know where im going with this, I just wanted to post the King bit and then got carried away.

Skeptic Lovers

2007-12-09T15:15:00.000-05:00

Every year around christmas time I try and record some music to give to my mother as a gift.
Anyhow this year I tried to make it a bit better then usual. I've gone the extra step and created some album artwork, and recorded a few original songs in addition to the traditional xmas fair. It is not yet complete but you can sample some of the poorly crafted songs on the link above.

comments, suggestions, as always are appreciated.

Jesus Christ!

2007-12-07T10:09:00.000-05:00

Recently I seem to have stirred up a bit of a shit storm amongst my friends because of the recent modification of my religious views on facebook. Right now it says "I love Jesus and all the fucking idiots that think he actually existed. Merry Christmas to all!". I thought this was a polite way of saying that Jesus is not a real historical figure, but I love him, and his followers.

I thought this was a very Christ like thing to say. Be strong in your convictions but love those who are against you. For years I have been fascinated by organized religon, and in particular jesus christ and christianity. I assume it has something to do with going to pre-school in a church, and then walking by several churches several times a day, every day of my life. That and generally living in a Christianity based society. Anyhow between Smashing Pumpkin lyrics, the 3rd Indiana Jones movie, and my obsession with King Arthur as a child, I thought it would be a good idea to be well versed in the scripture.

Thanks to the uneccesairly large religous section at my public library, and to the kind people at the Christian book club (great source of free jesus books) one's ability to research the subject is quite easy.

As a young skeptic, I quickly came to the realization that the story of Jesus appeared to have a lot in common with other mythological lore. Anyone who has read the Epic of Gilgamesh, or read about Greek Mythology, Norse Mythology, Egyptian Mythology, Buddhism, etc..... will quickly realise that their are obvious parallels in all of these stories. (many are listed in the link of this post)

My grade 11 World Religions teacher (Mr Skiliter, the most well read, sweet jewish man I have ever known) also helped clarify the meaning and use of numbers within religious text and what they come to represent. This knowledge is very important if you want to make sense of the metaphors or allegory within Dante's trilogy. (very good read, I would love to turn those into an epic mini-series with great special effects and music)

Anyhow I always was of the belief that Christ had actually existed, but that he most likely was just some guy with a following who was never capable of producing miracles

This is until recently when I began to understand all of these mythological story similarities in the context of stars.

If you have ever studied any of the ancient pyramids in Egypt, or of the Aztecs, or any of the other sun worshiping groups, you will know that man has been obsessed with our alignment with the stars and the universe. Fuck people still do it today with their daily horoscopes. ("Oh My God, thank Jesus you arent a scorpio, other wise we would not get along!")

Anyhow those Horoscopes are much more enlightening then one might give them credit for. Rrather then do a poor job of trying to re-explain all of this, and rather then have you research these things yourself, there is a movie that does a fairly good job of telling this story. Anyhow you can watch it here (skip ahead to 10 minutes in, because the intro is pretty fucking stupid, and then end it around 33 minutes. 33 minutes!! Maybe Jesus is trying to tell me something! HE DOES EXIST! IGNORE ALL OF THIS.YAAA!) If you think that any of the claims made by this film (only in reference to the time period stated above as the rest of the film i can not defend in any way, shape, or form.) is inaccurate, then please post comments. Discussion is greatly appreciated.

On that note, I will change my facebook religious views to something less offensive.

Canadian government following the Bush example

2007-12-04T16:03:00.001-05:00

Despite the recent U.S. Intelligence report that says Iran doesn't have nor is interested in developing nuclear weapons, the drumbeat to war marches on.

The current Canadian Conservative government is all too eager to help tar and feather the Iranian administration, as it has been rejecting Tehran's suggested ambassadors for a long time now.
This has been going on for quite sometime, until the point in which we clearly have insulted the Iranian administration and they expelled our ambassador.
Our government hasn't given us any details as to why we have been rejecting any of Iran's suggested ambassords, but rather has given us the detailed answer of "Iran has not measured up to our standards for an international relationship for some time"

Canada, America, and Britain continue to try and isolate Iran from the world. We constantly ridicule their politicians, and treat them with less respect then a tele-marketer.

Another war is on its way, and like the one we are currently in, it will be never ending, but I guess thats the idea. War's aren't ment to be won anymore, just to perpetuate for as long as the political cost will let them.

this country is starting to really piss me off.

the best (only decent) thing the conservative government has done

2007-11-28T17:45:00.000-05:00

about fucking time

Kucinch and Ron Paul!

2007-11-28T12:15:00.000-05:00

Apparently somebody asked Dennis who he would pick for his running mate and his response was Ron Paul. If these two get together and run as a independent on a "centrist" platform, this might turn into the most interesting election ever. Suck it Hillary, suck it long, and suck it hard.

Those sad maple laughs lost to the Habs again. It is amazing how quickly the shit talking leaf fans turn on their team. Oilers are starting to come around, and with that I make a GUARANTEE that the Oilers will make the playoffs.

2007-11-26T15:25:00.000-05:00

blog blog blog blog
Im not in Montreal, and thus not by my computer so blogging is somewhat annoying.

But its the end of the year so I figure I'll do some soft blogging on movies of the year and shit like that in the coming days. Right now I've got receptionist duties at my mothers office which requires the patience of Christ, something I lack.
Whatever doesn't kill you, will only make you stronger.... whats more likely is
Whatever doesn't kill you, is actually killing you, its just happening so slowly and subtly you don't even notice.
i'll write something of interest later...

Ron Paul

2007-11-21T16:24:00.000-05:00

Blowback, non-interventionist foreign policy, get rid of the department of homeland security!!

these words coming from the mouth of a Republican presidential candidate!

Mr. 9/11 makes quite the stupid comment in the midst of Paul's speech. Man he is one annoying cross dressing fuck. Ron Paul is clearly well read, as you can tell because he makes "references to historical events that actually took place", something no other Republican candidate does.

In a perfect world, after Ron loses the republican primaries he would run as an independent candidate with a democrat on the card as well, then go on to kick the shit out of both the Republican and Democratic parties. (Kucinich or Obama would be a good running mate)

In a more realistic world, they allow his popularity to bring the Republicans back from the grave, he gets assassinated in his 1st or 2nd year, and then some asshole replaces him and continues to lead american on a global path of self destruction.

anyhow this video is great with the cheesy music, quotes from fathers of confederation, etc...RON PAUL a new hope.

Race for the American Presidental E_ection. and something for the writers strike

2007-11-20T23:45:00.001-05:00

its pretty fucking sad how caught up I get in the race for the American Presidency every 4 years. I read intensely on possible candidates and endlessly dick around on political blogs and websites. I don't watch the debates, but rather watch clips that someone else has edited for me (because really no sane person should invest that much time into pointless shit) anyhow i find it incredibly entertaining for one reason or another.

Yet every time its the same sad, painfully predictable sad ending, no matter how exciting the build up is. It must be similar to what it is like for a lot of women in bed. "Hmm this looks interesting, hmm ya it is kinda interesting, oh really thats whats going to happen, ooh I didnt expect that, oh my god whats going to happen next, fuck are you serious, oh my god this is amazing, oh jesus is this really going to happen, oh my god we've almost got it....."

and then next: silence, confusion, and excuses.

"fuck it i forfeit" or better yet "my dads buddies that are supreme said it was good enough." What you aren't satisfied with the results?

Try that one next time you are in bed with your lady friend and see how that goes over?

fuck i guess i never really saw it as forfeiting, just a lack of will or desire. Nobody likes a quitter.

AND for the Writers Strike, this one is fairly funny. What writers should do in order to gain greater support from the public. FUCKING WRITE SOMETHING!! oh they figured it out, sweet.

fucking tasers

2007-11-20T14:32:00.000-05:00

for the record the poor Polish man (Robert Dziekanski) that got killed in the Vancouver airport was/did not:

- mentally ill.

- drunk.

- threaten police officers with a knife.

He was however:

- Confused and in the airport for 10 hours.

- Had a plastic chair that he put down when officers approached him.

- Killed. As in dead. As in sorry your life is over.

I find it amazing how people casually brush this shit off. It really does show how little we value human life that isn't our own.

Anyhow you can watch the video yourself and come to your own conclusion.

I think these 4 cops should be made an example of and all be thrown in jail for a year each.

It should not require the use of a taser in order for 4 men to take down a single man in a secured room, who has no weapon, nor can harm anyone within a 10 meter radius.

Thankfully the B.C. premier has apologised on behalf of the people of B.C.

- a man in america dies from taser.

The real reason why Police use tasers because it is a form of excessive force that they can legally get away with. If they stuck by their traditional methods of billy clubbing people into submission (like they should when deemed necessary) then the number of excessive force cases would sky rocket (because they generally do). Bruises and marks look a lot worst in the courtroom then a small red mark from being tased.

Anyhow take away all tasers. My suggestion was some sort of net gun. Between pepper spray, a billy club, handcuffs and a fucking gun, these assholes have more then enough weapons at their disposal to "dispense justice".

The now famous "dont tase me bro" incident is another prime example of mindless cops using excessive force in situations where it is clearly not required.

If police officers insist that they must keep their tasers, then they should have to get tased once a month in order to help remind themselves what kind of force they themselves are administering upon people, and at the very least it will toughen them up a bit.

Anyhow comments, and discussion is greatly appreciated.

oh jesus

2007-11-14T12:57:00.000-05:00

i saw this film a while back, but now you can watch it for free on the internet.
anyhow its an over the top conspiracy theory flick, but the first section where it questions whether or not jesus ever existed is pretty good.

seeing that Christmas is on its way soon, i thought it would be good to put the whole birth of Christ thing into a historical context.
enjoy.

dennis kucinich

2007-10-31T23:36:00.000-04:00

It really is amazing to see somebody run on the democratic bill that even speaks like this.

-Here he is on NAFTA.

-This one is amazing.

-On Labour and unions.

- On professional sports and infrastructure !! (then it becomes a collection of other clips)

and his new wife is fucking hot.

-Impeaching Vice President Dick Cheney on DemocracyNow

Frontline - News War

2007-10-27T12:30:00.001-04:00

while on the subject (see earlier post) of governments ability to restrict information to the public, I highly recommend that you watch this 4 part series put together by the fine people at frontline and the PBS.

The link above is to the torrent where you can download the whole series. If you can't figure out how to use torrents, well go figure it out right now...

the painful realisation that the end is upon us.

2007-10-27T11:42:00.001-04:00

In the recent months the number of websites who's access has been restricted based upon the country you reside in, has been increasing dramatically.
Recently China banned youtube.com and those fuckers from CTV and the comedynetwork.ca have tried to make us visit their crappy website, rather then allowing us access to comedycentral.com

My favorite torrent site demonoid.com is now no longer accessible from Canada. (you can visit it, if you live anywhere else in the world but not here)

The Internet, like radio, tv, newsprint and every other form of mass media will be controlled and restricted within a very short period of time. It has already been happening (despite not being told about it) for many long years, but now it is being blatantly done in the name of profit and not just the restriction of what could be deemed as "information not suitable for the general public consumption".

Just google "internet regulation" and you can see how its being done around the world. (im not going to write a highly articulate, well written article on the subject. Do it yourself.)
For all of us who have grown up in the age of the internet, and hoped that untethered access to information would bring civilisation out of the dark ages of misinformation, and massive propaganda are sadly disappointed.

It is amazing how we can take amazing inventions and turn them into useless shit.

Anyhow if you want to see the american comedycentral website and you live in canada. Use this http://www.the-cloak.com works for now.

read 1984 by george orwell if you havent. I'm pretty sure its the most important peice of fiction of our time. Doesn't really seem like fiction much these days though.

yee old blog

2007-10-24T17:29:00.002-04:00

well this baby has been neglected for a long time. But seeing that I took today to quit my job my amount of free time has increased dramatically.
Don't have much to say right now so Im going to go over a few records this year that were good, or disappointing as hell. I've left out my own personal favorites that aren't generally as well received by the masses. this stuff is pretty in the middle of the road. woot

Great Records for 2007:
Radiohead - In Rainbows, holy fuck this album is sweet. tracks 6 on are flawless, though I prefer many other versions of videotape. They did the same thing with motion picture soundtrack though, so at least they are consistent with recording poorer versions of their final tracks.
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible, this one takes awhile to grow on you because of its depth, but its worth it. Intervention is a highlight.
National - Boxer, this album is fucking so damn good. They are my new favorite band. She's a quiet album, but something different from other shit you might have been listening to.
Kings of Leon - Because of the times, great dynamics and reminds you of what good American rock music is still capable of. Nice to hear a singer with some actual balls.
Jarvis - Jarvis, the man from Pulp returns to full form. It's like "this is hardcore" but not dark. A great album that for some reason I feel like woman will appreciate more.
Feist - The Reminder, amazing voice, different types of songs, and a few that are so catchy you might sing or hum them for so long you will feel like you are going crazy.

Worthy Mentions:
Wilco - Blue Sky Blue (a little disappointing, but 2 or 3 really great tracks on here),
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship even Sank, this one is pretty good, just not as good as the album before. Favorite track is "missed the boat".
Great Lake Swimmers - A quiet album that is very good. I only put it here because the songs are pretty similar through out the entire album. But if you want something to go to bed to, this ones the ticket.
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds - For those of us you use to love DMB but got stick of them after these crowded streets. This is Dave and Tim covering the same old territory but doing it really fucking well. Well your taste in music might have changed alot since you loved dave all those years ago, this album will surely remind you of why you thought he was the tits at one point in time.
Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild OST, this is just eddie making the best music he has since pearl jam's 3rd album. nice to hear him without stone and the gang taking away from his kick ass voice.

Disappointing:
Tegan & Sara - The con, while these girls are talented, songs are kinda lame and seem a bit repetitive, the lack of hawksley producing explains why this doesn't hold a candle to their previous album.
Stars - In our bedroom after the war, this album is pretty much a shitter version of the album they put out before this.
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger, is a boring peice of shit. His worst album ever, but "i taught myself how to grow old" is a pretty solid track.
Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist,- This would be a great album if billy changed the tone of the songs, cut back on the excessive gutiar parts, but his vocals are back to where they should be. I still have faith he's got another amazing record in him somewhere down the line. None the less pretty good lyrics and the album has a great theme.
Matthew Good - While there are a few great tracks on this, its matt sounding the same, doing the same thing over and over again. I still love the guy but he should either strip it down to the bone, or rock like a bastard, or better yet an album combining the two. Instead we get something that is somewhere in between those that never quite works.
Low - atmospheric and great vocals, but like the stars album seems just like a lamer version of the album they put out before this one. Dragonfly is over of the better tracks.
Iron & Wine - The Shepherds dog. seemed pretty boring. havent given it much of a chance.
Frames - The Cost, a quieter, crappier version of burn the maps. I think the singer had put more effort into the movie he made ONCE. So fuck this album see the movie or get its soundtrack instead.
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga - I try and like bright eyes, but I have a very hard time listening to anything that isn't from I'm Wide Awke and its Morning. Thus haven't listened to this more then once, and nothing jumped out at me.
Ben Harper - Lifeline, this one got some good reviews, seemed pretty fucking lame to me. Ben is still best off just him and his guitar. yawn.

thats enough of that.

oh tobias

2007-08-30T13:13:00.001-04:00

american foreign policy

2007-08-23T14:15:00.000-04:00

watch this clip

Jeff Tweedy

2007-06-07T11:45:00.000-04:00

I found this fucking amazing live recording of a Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) concert in Chicago.

It is the concert in its entirety (including jeff's witty stage banter), so smoke a doobie, lay in bed (or sit in your office chair), crank it (with the headphones on if you are sitting at your office job), and enjoy.

men and woman are different...... types of drunks

2007-06-07T11:17:00.001-04:00

my brothers gf was talking about how woman digest alcohol differently then men, i wanted to learn why... apparently its because (the internet doesn't lie):

Gender. Women absorb and metabolize alcohol differently from men. They have higher BAC's after consuming the same amount of alcohol as men and are more susceptible to alcoholic liver disease, heart muscle damage (8), and brain damage (9). The difference in BAC's between women and men has been attributed to women's smaller amount of body water, likened to dropping the same amount of alcohol into a smaller pail of water (10). An additional factor contributing to the difference in BAC's may be that women have lower activity of the alcohol metabolizing enzyme ADH in the stomach, causing a larger proportion of the ingested alcohol to reach the blood. The combination of these factors may render women more vulnerable than men to alcohol-induced liver and heart damage (11-16).

stuck in my head

2007-06-07T10:22:00.001-04:00

this song has been stuck in my head for a week now.
its good though.
the national - slow show

Gore Vidal was fucking great last night.

I'm a born again.......

a born again atheist.

1967: 40 years of occupation

2007-06-06T12:57:00.000-04:00

i've had a lot of free time at work today, hence the continued blogging.
For the love of god Canada needs to get rid of the CRTC or at least appoint an entirely new body, because there is no good reason why Al Jazeeera needs to be monitored 24 hours a day. They have this great program on entitled "40 years of occupation" and thankfully they have a couple clips available on youtube. This program in its entirety is great and I will try and find it on bittorrent; but until then enjoy the clips.

Keith Olbermann

2007-06-06T09:34:00.000-04:00

Countdown with Keith Olbermann is really the only political commentator worth listening to on American television. Watch his bit on "Nexus of Politics & Terror" it is pretty fucking frightening. The quality isn't great on the video, but the content is more then impressive.

the democratic presidental debates

2007-06-06T09:10:00.000-04:00

the daily show on the democratic presidential debates is pretty funny, especially when they start talking about gays in the military.
and here are some select clips from truthdig.

If American elections actually meant something, the democrats would be smart to run Edwards for president, and Hillary or Obama for vice. Why? Purely because the democrats have never won the south with a non-southern candidate since they signed the civil rights act.
I'm predicting another fixed election; but then again third times a charm, so maybe they'll forfit this one and just do what they did after bush sr. lost; spend all efforts on finding a way to impeach the president.

way to go!

2007-06-05T19:36:00.000-04:00

To all my older peers, i say this....... CONGRATULATIONS!!!
you did it!

i knew something changed

2007-06-05T17:29:00.000-04:00

I remember when I was younger (16 or so) I had a much easier time remembering lyrics to songs.
This study helps explain why my vocabulary has gone to shit, and why I can't remember..... wait wha the fuck was I talking about.

quick post

2007-06-05T12:11:00.000-04:00

hey there this is a quick post because i actually have alot of shit to do at the office lately.

This is a great website if you like kick ass music. Its called BOOTLOG. It is all live recordings of indie bands. Download the live Jon-Rae & the River recording in Kingston, its fantastic.

A great website, that i'm not quite sure how I never found until now called truthdig. Check out the A/V section for a great interview with Gore Vidal about Cuba, and Doctors.

I don't like the rain.

Canada... I mean Alberta the worlds Energy Super power

2007-06-01T14:12:00.000-04:00

As everyone knows in Canada, if you want to make a lot of money, head out to Alberta.
The cost of oil continues to increase globally due to: the worlds diminishing oil reserves, nation's natural resources being controlled by a well organised Oil Cartel consisting of BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Total, (Opec wishes they had the clout that these guys have) rather then the people that live in these countries (with the exception of Venezuela), and the destabilization of oil rich regions of the world. (Iraq, Sudan, etc...)
What once was non-profitable oil sands, is now the worlds largest oil reserve.
Under the Canadian constitution provinces are entitled to 100% of the profits from all natural resources. Every time the federal government steps into to try and direct Canada's energy policy, the province of Alberta get all pissed off, and tells Ottawa to keep its hands off.

With the current boom taking place (mind you the oil boom has been taking place since the 2nd world war), one would assume everyone in Alberta would be entitled to free University, Health Care vastly superior to every other province, and an amazing social infrastructure. Sadly Alberta only fairs slightly better in education & Health Care, and social programs and spending are only on par or below the national average. The province does have some pretty impressive infrastructure, but this only consists of highways, railway and airports, primarily used for moving oil from one place to another.

There might be an increasing handful of millionaires, and some people are making some good cash working on very dangerous oil rigs, but as a society in general, the province isn't fairing much better then any other.
Where does most of the money go? Well quite clearly into the pockets of oil company CEO's and share holders. One of the most important facts that is quietly ignored in Canada is the fact that Alberta's provincial government has only changed twice since 1935. The Social Credit was in power from 35 to 71, and then the Progressive Conservatives moved in and still hold power.
If you don't think its a little fishy that Canada's most oil rich province has more or less had an autocratic government since its creation, then I ask you why the fuck don't you?
Alberta has been the centre of so called "right wing", "neo-conservative" rhetoric for a very long time. Private oil companies have been funding right wing Canadian think tanks from Alberta such as the Fraser Institute for many years. The current ruling federal "Conservative party" is essentially the creation of the Son of old Alberta premier Ernest Manning (Preston Manning created the Canadian Alliance, and Stephen Harper was his protege). The PC government under Mulroney dismantled this country's national energy program, with the aid of its provincial counterpart.
It doesn't take a political scientist to draw the ties between this parties refusal to support the Kyoto protocol, or subsidizing any form of alternative energy resource development. Anything that could have any negative effect on the profits of oil companies is completely disregarded by the party. The current subsidy of hydro-fuel cell development, and ethynol fuel subsides is only done because anyone who has done any kind of research on energy alternatives knows that these technolgies are either at least 50 years away from being effect alternatives, if ever at all.

Private oil companies have been dumping considerable amounts of money to push their agenda through the front of a "conservative" political party in Canada for many years.

This country, like our neighbor to the south, has been controlled by oil interests for far too long. They have been able to succeed by manipulating, and taking advantage of our out dated first past the post electoral system. If seats allocated to government were proportional to number of votes cast, then Canada would still have a National energy program, and you wouldn't be paying the absurd costs that you are currently paying at the pumps.

anyhow here is a clip from the cbc after the oil crisis in the 70s with Universty of Alberta prof. Larry Pratt, it's worth watching

an article by the wonderful Naomi Klein.

I'll post links to some great movies on the subject in the future. Hope this has been informative.

SiCKO

2007-05-30T15:46:00.000-04:00

Most people hate, and weakly criticize his previous film because it was the popular thing to do (while applauding his previous film Bowling for Columbine), but I give a lot of credit to the most successful documentary film maker of all time. Anyhow his next flick is coming out at the end of June and I can't fucking wait.

anyhow here's the trailer.

Gore Vidal

2007-05-30T14:57:00.000-04:00

I had forgotten how to log into my blog for a bit but I have since recovered my log in and password. Anyhow I get the pleasure of seeing Gore Vidal this coming wednesday as part of the Toronto LUMINATO festival. (really cool, check it out).

While getting caught up on the works of Vidal, I came along a speech where he mentioned the last speech (actually given by a friend because of his health, but he wrote it) that I had never heard before. I found it interesting so I'm posting it here. (skip the first paragraph if its too long for you)

Mr. President

I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administred.

On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.

american cops

2007-05-18T13:39:00.000-04:00

My mom showed me this one. It's pretty funny.
time is going by ... really ...... slowly

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hnZb5wi_jsU

Canada should face international war crimes prosecution

2007-04-24T11:22:00.000-04:00

Essentially whats going on is that we are allowing the torturing of prisoners if Afghanistan. We will hear a far more complex description of bullshit from Parliament over the next while, but essentially the current line is this "the group that has in charge of making sure this doesn't happen, has the legal jurisdiction to do their job, but they aren't being allowed to do it.".

So people will point fingers, and fumble and fuck around for awhile, with the only real solution being that we pull out of Afghanistan. As long as we are in an joint military operation with the USA, all aspects of the mission will be totally FUBAR.

Flames fucking suck, I hope the wings get destroyed by the Sharks. Van city barely pulled that one off. Go Sens Go! All they need is for Alfy to get hurt somewhere in the Stanley cup finals, so they can move the C to a Canadian player, and then they might be able to do it.

You're all a bunch of sluts!

return of the blog

2007-04-21T13:40:00.000-04:00

figured id start writing in this thing again as its a better way of spending my time rather then smoking dope and watching old married with children episodes.

It's been quite sometime since I've wrote anything of consequence on here. To catch you up on my life over the past year and a half, ive more or less done nothing with myself, and now you are back up to speed... moving on.

I've started working on some short videos that I will be posting on youTube, that try and explain why people living in Ontario should vote yes for the proposition of changing our provincial electoral laws from a first past the post system, to the German mixed-member proportional representation system. Hopefully I will get these done asap. The election isn't until October, but the sooner the words out, the better.

I recently stumbled upon an article my friend Matt Mundy (who i havent seen in fucking agessss) wrote on a site called popandpolitics. Matt is the only person who has ever been able to convince me that rap music is capable of being really fucking good. So check it out HERE. The 2nd video is fantastic. Also on this site a great MLK speech.

anyhow thats enough for now, I know how short all of our attention spans are. More in the near future.

Go Flames go!

test

2007-02-28T15:02:00.001-05:00

testing to see if this works

moved bitches

2006-03-03T17:21:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone the blog has offically moved over to http://web.mac.com/jamesmartinwindsor/

hopefully this will be a much better, and more entertaining blog.

its just up, so there's pretty much fuck all on it right now.

goodbye google, thats what you get for helping the chinese government.

sluts!

2006-02-15T23:40:00.000-05:00

still downloading my copy of iLife 06, so i can start a website on my good computer.
also bought a digitcal camcorder... that could lead to interesting things.

going to cuba in two days, may or may not ever return.

woop

2006-02-06T01:10:00.001-05:00

Still waiting for my copy of iWeb to finish downloading before i bother to update yee old blog.
Well tomorrow the new Conservative government gets voted into power, and Stephen Harper becomes are new Prime Minister. For all of you that think this will be the end of the world, need not worry, Harper's minority government will not be able to pass any major bills in the house that will cause any great discomfort to our society. It is going to be entertaining to watch him deal with it all... another Joe Clark in the making? we will have to wait and see.

and in France where different political parties actually work together...
"...in December, members of both the ruling conservatives and the opposition Socialists threw the law off course with an amendment to legalize file-sharing in exchange for a flat licensing fee."

woop

2006-02-06T01:10:00.000-05:00

election websites

2006-01-17T20:40:00.000-05:00

Worried that the conservatives are going to win a majority government? (you really shouldn't be, because they won't) But in order to make sure your vote is maximized to its fullest, you can check out this website. It lets you know whos expected to win, the history of the riding, and the amount of votes a candidate needs to be even in the running.

So I reccomend checking out the site, find out which riding you are in, and then deciding your vote that way. If the NDP were within 15% of winning the riding during the previous election, then vote for them. If it is close between the Liberals and Conservatives, then pick your poison. (note one of these poisons hates that nice gay person you know, and loves to see more homeless people on the street). If it is an obvious Liberal win (like Westmount) then you can do whatever you want with your vote. I reccomend voting for one of those fringe parties because they will appreciate it the most. That or just stay in somewhere warm, and just watch the whole process from the comfort of your home.

I found this an interesting page on the CBC Canada Votes website. With the exception of a couple crappy news papers, everyone is endorsing the NDP.

I am a Romantic with a sense of irony

2006-01-05T17:28:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite poets died the other day. Montreal's Irving Layton (no relation to the NDP's Jack Layton) was a friend of my other favorite poets: Al Purdy and Leonard Cohen. He was also a Political Science professor at my university Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University). I personally like alot of his poems because they are witty, easily accessible, political and very enjoyable.

A poem from his book of love poems.

FAREWELL

She's gone. The one I swore up and down
to give a Greek villa and six children
if she married me, a trip around the world
to the moon, Mars, Venus
anywhere so that I could be with her
so great was the fire in my head.
in the sleeved arms that ached to hold her.

She's gone. The one that made me turn
restlessly from side to side each
sleepless night, thinking of her cool naked limbs
curled up on the love stained sheets,
her red lips and long black lashes,
her smiles, her pouts, her sexy gestures,
the perfection of her small feet.

She's gone, whose laughter made me forget
the decorum of grey hairs,
children, friends, literary foes
the importance of being Trudeau, Pompidou, Spiro Agnew
or even the illustrious dust of Uncle Ho.
Let the whole world be dammed, I said
and let the dead marry off the dead.

She's gone in whose arms I rose
resurrected after the third lay;
peace and wild joy and laughter were mine
for awhile but she's gone, gone in a bus
that with a snort has taken her far away
while the grey dust that settles over me
swirls and twirls like the ghost of an empty day.

hello

2006-01-05T14:49:00.000-05:00

well the holidays are over, christmas and new years were quite the good time, hopefully ill have some pictures to post in the future. A new semestar of school is upon us, and in a weeks time I should have my new computer.

in the news! The real campaigning begins now for the political parties of Canada, and recently a poll has placed the Conservatives ahead of the Liberals, this is a Toronto Star poll I might mention, a traditonally Liberal newspaper. Anyone who remembers the last election will recall that this happened, and resulted in a large quantity of female voters voting Liberal, out of fear of a Conservative government. It seems this time however the public response won't be very large, as the average Canadian understands that no matter whats happening, a minority government is going to be the outcome, so people are feeling less inclined to vote out of fear. For all of you in Toronto ridings the NDP support is incredibly high even in districts where support has been traditionally low. In my brother's riding of Parkdale/High Park Peggy Nash even has a great chance of winning, this is caused by a split in the Conservative Liberal vote, and that Liberal candidate Sam Bulte has been caught up in illgeal campaign finacing contraversy. This is caused by illegal campaign contributions from Canada's entertainment industry. It seems the Canadian Recoding Industry Association has been specfically donating money to her inorder to try and influence Canadian copywright laws. (aka adopting ones similar to Americas) Just another example of crooked liberal cronieism.

I find it interesting that when I mention the fact that Germany is the world's largest exporting country according to the WTO, even greater then China or America. This is in large part to German arms trade, a stellar example appears in the news today as Germany is selling more of its submarines to Israel. Germany has the 5th largest GDP in the world at $2.298 trillion dollars.

anyhow more posting in the future. Side note: The new NDP advertisment is fucking terrible.

once again

2005-12-13T16:57:00.000-05:00

my blog is being neglected. exams are almost over, and im getting a new computer soon. so it shall most likely return in new and wonderful ways. until then a picture of me typing this...

new government

2005-12-01T22:58:00.000-05:00

once im done writing all these fucking essay and exams, i will start election coverage, and go into detail to why we all should support the NDP, proportional representation, and why we should increase our foriegn aid to .7% of our GDP.

i've been drinknig too much,

i've stopped caring

2005-11-21T17:58:00.000-05:00

dont think i'll be blogging anytime soon. school work sucks.
maybe after christmas. keep trucking kids.

asdfsdf

2005-11-16T19:18:00.000-05:00

sdfsdf

stephen harper is a pussy

2005-11-08T15:28:00.000-05:00

sunday

2005-11-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

dont have anything to post. tired, sleepy from wine, food and reading.
my internet connection has been slow and painful lately.
I can't think of anything to write myself so I give you a poem from canadian great, Al Purdy.

-all wavery yellow and gold things
shining-across-the-windows-of summer things
remind me of you
as well as old cliches about oil and water
however true
remind me also of the enormous load
of information and so-called wisdom
accumulated from the human past
which supplies no hint
or memory bank of ways and means
by which a man and woman
may live together
in a rented room
and looking back and ahead in all directions
notice nothing
except each other
except their fever
except their dying
as time continues
forever

later I explain my fascination with all things "canadiana", and the development of the German political system post WWII.

oh and if you are missing mail, like i am. this might explain it.

Alberta is fucking retarded

2005-11-03T20:17:00.000-05:00

Strangely enough this retarded province is run by conservatives.
take a look at this gem, that they've come up with.

looks like we might have an election before Christmas.
vote ndp, unless you are really rich, and hate everyone that isn't in your immediate family.

hey mother fuckers!

2005-11-02T16:18:00.000-05:00

amber is throwing a party this friday, so I figure i'd help spread the word. So if you are in the montreal area and want cheap drinks, its the hot spot. even cheaper then fucking BIFTECK!?

fri, nov. 4th
bar elyssa (1444 st. mathieu [south of masionneuve])
hookas for all
$6.99 pitchers
$4 mixed drinks (we'll be giving away a lot of free booze)

out of the basement productions have taken over a turkish restuarant and transformed it into the establishment of our whisky-drenched fantasies. we're launching shit this FRIDAY with a bash you won't soon forget.

what the fuck is going on in the whitehouse?

2005-10-31T14:24:00.000-05:00

For those of you who might be wondering "whats all this crap on TV about plamegate, and some republican fuckers getting indicted?"

Well first I reccomend watching this 60 minutes segment (its about 10 minutes long). You can either watch a low res version, or if you have bittorrent you can download the torrent here.
To give you the 5 second gist of situation is this: Joseph Wilson was asked to go to Africa to see if Saddamm had been making any attempts to obtain materials to create nuclear weapons from countries in Africa. Wilson discovered that "this was incredibly unlikely, and that it is almost entierly certain that Saddamm was not trying to obtain such materials."
In Bush's address to the nation when he was laying out the reasons as to why America should invade Iraq, George Bush stated that "Saddamm had obtained uranium from Niger, and had been trying to make a nuclear weapon." In response Wilson called bullshit on the president, and resigned after the speech. Wilson (who had worked for several presidents before hand, including George's father) was accusing the President of taking intelligence and altering it so that it would fit his own personal agenda (invading Iraq). In response "someone" in the White House, retaliated by outting special CIA agent Vallerie Plame, who is Wilsons wife. The "someone" it seems is Dick Cheney.

So thus, much like watergate, something that seemed like a simple crime, turns out to be awhole lot more shit. I've done a piss poor job of explaining things, but you get the general idea.
I reccomend reading THIS.

and if you think this kind of bullshit behaviour is anything new in America, you are sadly mistaken. Pretty much every American president has had grounds to be impeeched.

halloween

2005-10-30T23:26:00.000-05:00

absinthe

2005-10-27T13:20:00.000-04:00

an interesting article about absinthe, and the book i got by phil baker is a good read.

my university sucks

2005-10-24T14:56:00.000-04:00

in another useless class, not learning anything.
So I turn my attention to more interesting things.
The GAO report was released a few days ago, and makes it offical to what many of us allready knew. In order to keep your attention and not bore you with the technical details, 'll keep it brief with actual results due to the flawed electronic voting system. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILED ARTICLE.

Actual Examples of Voting System Failure

GAO found multiple examples of actual operational failures in real elections. These examples include the following incidents:

· In California, a county presented voters with an incorrect electronic ballot, meaning they could not vote in certain races (p. 29).

· In Pennsylvania, a county made a ballot error on an electronic voting system that resulted in the county's undervote percentage reaching 80% in some precincts (p. 29-30).

· In North Carolina, electronic voting machines continued to accept votes after their memories were full, causing over 4,000 votes to be lost (p. 31).

· In Florida, a county reported that touch screens took up to an hour to activate and had to be activated sequentially, resulting in long delays (p. 31).

diesel sweeties

2005-10-24T02:58:00.001-04:00

not only great for movies, but also news

2005-10-23T22:15:00.000-04:00

Not only is this website great for downloading illegal shit, it is one hell of a great website for ammusing news, and techy crap.

This one I found funny.

the crtc replies

2005-10-23T22:01:00.000-04:00

the fucks at the CRTC gave me a response.
If the case is that al-jazeera does broadcast "a pattern of statements over a period of time that are of great concern", one must wonder why they were granted a license from the CRTC in the first place? I sent them another email asking them to describe any of these patters, so far no response.

Thank you for contacting the CRTC.

When considering the addition of a foreign signal to the lists of satellite
services eligible for distribution in Canada, one of the factors taken into
account is a broadcaster's record, especially if there exists a compelling
record demonstrating why the application should either be denied or
alternatively, approved with special conditions. For example, in the case of Al
Jazeera, the Commission was presented with detailed interventions indicating a
pattern of statements broadcast on Al Jazeera over a period of time that were of
great concern, in light of Canada's long-standing regulations that prohibit the
broadcast of abusive comment. As a consequence, the service was authorized for
carriage under very specific conditions. (See Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC
2004-51 for full details.)
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2004/pb2004-51.htm

While the Commission appreciates your concerns on this matter, it should be
noted that under the Broadcasting Act, decisions of the Commission are final and
conclusive.  This means that the CRTC cannot review its decisions. Therefore, it
would not be appropriate for me to comment further on the merits of this
particular case.

Sincerely,

Mireille Albert  "

24 hour party people

2005-10-22T02:20:00.000-04:00

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom; for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough." ~ William Blake

years from now

2005-10-20T04:04:00.000-04:00

years from now, they will make water from the reservoirs of our idiot tempers. soon enough, work and love will make a man out of you. through and through. Your gentleman father, would pray for a daughter. As he walked from room to room, saying "women are winning the tournament of hearts. Somebody's got to loose..."

al-jazeera

2005-10-19T19:06:00.000-04:00

Former Marine Capt Josh Rushing has been signed by Al-Jazeera to work for them. You may remember him as the young American that worked at centcom, from the documentary "Control Room". Here is a clip from NOW where he discusses why he chose to leave the Marine core. (click the watch the video button, and then click large).

Al-Jazeera has also signed Sir David Frost, the greatly respected British Journalist.

While Al-Jazeera has been granted the right to be broadcast in Canada it is only if it is monitored 24 hours a day and heavily censored for anti-Jewish content.

I recommend sending a complaint to the fuckers at CRTC here.

can someone explain this to me

2005-10-19T01:57:00.000-04:00

enron lawsuits promt $500 million dollar charge at RBC.

So why exactly is enron suing Royal Bank Canada for 500 million dollars? I can't seem to figure it out.

what should i be for halloween?

2005-10-18T18:40:00.000-04:00

went to a costume store in old montreal today where the crapy TV channel that is CH was filming some crap about a ghost trail in montreal. Fucking people and ghosts. As much as I wish ghosts existed, I firmly believe that they don't, because if they did, I'd buy an old fire department and ghostbust the shit out of this town.
Don't cross the beams!

so any suggestions for halloween outfit? If I had millions of dollars I'd get someone to go with me as this.

and I'm glad my party kicked this bitch out.
but more importantly it's always nice to see people writing about this, because if you really think the majority of Americans were stupid enough to vote for Bush once, let alone twice, then you don't really give them enough credit. Sure America is all fucked up, but it's not as if IQ points of the average humanbeing suddenly plummit once you cross the border.

Lebensraum

2005-10-17T18:39:00.000-04:00

I found it quite bizzare that "Lebensraum" was in the Microsoft Office dictionary, while millions of more commonly used words are absent. I came across the word while reading my fathers old university text book from his German History class. Apparently the literal translation is Life space. I don't know why i'm posting this, as it will only interest me. off to cinema politica.

apparently internet isn't free

2005-10-17T18:09:00.000-04:00

internet has been down here due to me not paying my bills, thus no blog updates. I think every major city in Canada should have free wireless internet everywhere. Wouldn't even be that expensive to do, and would do wonders for the tech industry of Canada. A country as cold as ours is perfect for computer nerds come those cold winter months.
don't really have anything to write about, but I figured an update was needed.
more later.

i am not a communist

2005-10-01T16:12:00.000-04:00

I figure i'd post this as I've been getting in arguments with Marxits and Communists lately. Rather then write in great detail, and bore the fuck out of everyone, I am just going to post a section of George Monbiot's book "manifesto for a new world order". It is clear, and concise, and says everything I would have said on the subject. So for the following reasons, and the fact that I would never willingly particpate in violent revolution, I am not a communist.

The Manifestos great innovation and great failure was the staggeringly simplistic theory into which it sought to force society. Dialectical materialism reduced humanity’s complex social and political relations to a simple conflict between the ‘bourgeoisie’ and the ‘proletariat’; that is to say the owners of property and the workers, by which Marx and Engels meant the industrial labourers employed by large capitalist concerns. Any class which did not conform to this dialectic was either, like the peasants, shopkeepers, artisans and aristocrats, destined to ‘decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry’, or like the unemployed , was to be regarded as ‘social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society’, with no legitimate existence in a post-revolutionary world.

Unfortunately for those living under communist regimes, society did not function as Marx suggested. The peasants, aristocrats, artisans and shopkeepers did not disappear of their own accord: they; like everyone else who did not fit conveniently into the industrial proletariat, had to be eliminated, as they interfered with the theoretical system Marx had imposed on society. Marx, who described them as ‘reactionaries’ trying ‘to roll back the wheel of history’, might have approved of their extermination. The ‘social scum’ of the lumpenproletriat, which came to include indigenous people, had to be disposed of just as hastily, in case they became, as Marx warned, ‘the bribed tool of reactionary intrigue’. As the theory so woefully failed to fit society, society had to be remodeled to fit the theory. And Marx provided the perfect excuse for ruthless extermination. By personalizing oppression as ‘the bourgeoisie’ he introduced the justification for numberless atrocities.

Moreover, Marx’s industrial proletariat, modeled on the factory workers of Lancashire, upon whom he relied to ferment revolution, turned out to be rather less inclined to revolt than the peasants, or, for that matter, the petty bourgeois, artisans, factory owners, aristocrats and educated middle classes from whom he drew almost all his early disciples. In order to overcome this inconvenience, Marx effectively re-invokes, in the form of bourgeois communist ideologues such as himself, the guardian-philosophers of Plato’s dictatorship. Rather than trust the faceless proletariat to make its own decisions, he appoints these guardians to ‘represent and take care of the future’ of that class.

His prescriptions, in other words, flatly fail to address the critical political question, namely ‘who guards the guards?’ Democratic systems contain, in theory at least, certain safeguards, principally in the form of elections, designed to ensure that those who exercise power over society do so in its best interests. The government is supposed to entertain a healthy fear of its people, for the people are supposed to be permitted to dismiss their government. The Communist Manifesto offers no such defenses. As the ancient Greeks discovered, guardian-philosophers tend rapidly to shed both the responsibilities of guardianship and the disinterested virtues of philosophy.

Moreover, by abolishing private property and centralizing ‘all instruments of production in the hands of the State’, Marx granted communist governments a possibly unprecedented power over human life. Officials could decide what – indeed whether – people ate, where they lived, how they worked, even what they wore. Marx himself, in other words, devised the perfect preconditions for totalitarian dictatorship. The ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ transforms itself, with instant effect, into the dictatorship of the bureaucrat.

The problem is compounded by the Utopian myth at the heart of the Manifesto’s philosophy: that with the triumph of the proletariat, all conflict will come to an end, and everyone shall pursue, through ‘the free development of each’. ‘the free development of all’. But history does not come to an end; dialectical materialism has no ultimate synthesis. New struggles do, and must, emerge as needs change, interests diverge and new form of oppression manifest themselves, and a system which takes no account of this is a system doomed to sclerotic corruption. Indeed, Stalin and Mao recognised this, through their perpetual discovery of the new enemies required to sustain the dynamic of power. Marx helped the industrial working class to recognize and act upon its power. His analysis remains an indispensable means of understanding both history and economics. But his political programme, as formulated in the Manifesto, was a dead end. It stands at odds with everything most people claim to value: human freedom, accountability, diversity. Any attempt to systematize people by means of a simple, let alone binary, code will founder with disastrous consequences both for those forced to conform to the Marxist ideal, and for those judged by the all powerful state to offend it.

i remember when

2005-09-27T19:50:00.000-04:00

i remember when blogs first started to become popular. Oohh the excitement of it all. Interesting insightful, personal things from people you had never met before. Such a far more useful way of discussing politics then the traditional excessive posting in forums that were around before hand. (they still are around)
and since then... for the most part they've turned into shit more or less. Nothing more then a socially acceptable way of stalking strangers (or ex-bf/gf) and people trying to make their lives seem much more interesting to others then they are in reality.
So why did this happen? I'll tell you why. It became too easy and too accessible for the general public. Every asshole and his dog could simply create a blog. Once those fucking idiots on CNN and FOX news got their own blogs, it became painfully clear that "just because everyone is now capable of expressing their opinion, doesn't mean they actually have one, or one that anyone should bother listening to."
Though many a blog are still great, and rich in content, most seem to have become boring random blurbs, with nothing but still life shots, and pictures of the author's friends. Not that there is anything wrong with this, i'm just saying it's amazing how easily shit can be watered down, to the point where you can't tell what it orignally was.
(*note - the only time when a lot of people visted my blog is when I had pictures up. People only want to see themselves! How sad, and vain we all are. )

anyhow to all you other bloggers out there. Keep up with your witty comments, and keen observations, and if you've got nothing interesting to say, then just keep posting amateur porn... I know I will.