and believe me, there's a better frankenstein for you to bride
and a better president to look you in the eyes and lie.
we could never decide what to call the cat,
so we called her cat.
and it's time to go, it's time to go away.
- Say Hi To Your Mom
flickr
your action is (again) required
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Kindly visit WWF and add your name to this petition requesting action from the Canadian government on behalf of an area in an Alaskan wildlife refuge that the Bush administration proposes to drill for oil.
Check out the caribou migratory map while you're there, and take a second to watch the tv spots too, as they're actually very well done.
aspartame contains phenylalanine
Saturday, July 30, 2005
September's turning out to be quite the month to look forward to!
Starting with the System of a Down/The Mars Volta concert on the 22nd, and now followed closely by The Arcade Fire on the 30th!! I can't fucking wait to see The Arcade Fire live, I have a recording of a live studio session thanks to Just Concerts, but it should be a kickass show at the Burt.
In other news, I've felt rather single-serving as of late.
As a follow up to my last post, John McCallum, the minister responsible for Canada Post issued a statement regarding the book shipping rate for libraries:
"The library book rate is a tremendous tool that helps us achieve some of our most fundamental public policy objectives ... A strong literacy rate and low-cost information sharing will be critical as Canada continues to position itself as a world leader in the knowledge-based economy."
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Read this:
Now, go here and look up your Member of Parliament. Then, fire off an email telling them that you're not in favour of this move, and insist the book discount rate continue.
The Canadian Library Association is calling on Canada Post to continue subsidizing inter-library book exchanges across the country. Most rural libraries rely on Canada Post to send books back and forth for patrons at a subsidized rate of less than $1 per book. But under a new plan proposed to take effect in April 2006, libraries would be charged commercial rates – which could cost as much as $14 per book. Onagh Williamson, librarian at the Reston and District Library, told CBC News if the change goes ahead, many rural libraries will not be able to afford to take part in the inter-library service, and that means readers will have access to fewer books.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Wow, we're having one hell of an electrical storm here right now. The best way to describe the frequency of the lightning would be to compare it to the way a fluorescent bulb flickers at the end of it's life. It's incredibly cool. I took some crappy video with my digital cam, I'll see if I can work out the mechanics of uploading it to my webspace and then link it here.
mmm I love the ozone smell that accompanies a storm like this. mmmm such a good smell.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Woohoo, a picture I submitted to one of Rick Mercer's photoshop things is on his site, everyone click here and go see it.
p.s. I'm a photoshop amateur.
Monday, July 11, 2005
I came across this interesting stool/art piece while perusing boingboing.net this evening, and I couldn't help but share it here.
Give the page a bit to load, it's awfully slow.
Is anyone else noticing how old Vince Vaughan is looking these days?
Sunday, July 10, 2005
The humidex being 45C outside at the moment, and it being probably more humid in here I've decided to see about posting some more fun pictures of everyone's favourite 
recently-privitized Prime
Minister.
In other news, Bowling for Columbine is on tv, so for the next few hours I'll be sitting here stretched out infront of a fan enjoying it. Anyways, I know where my bread's buttered, so here are some pictures.
I don't even remember seeing that koala picture while he was in office... This link HAS to be clicked on and the video viewed. It's french, but really... is there a better moment in Canadian politics than video of the Prime Minister choking a protestor?
It's really nice that blogger has implemented the embedded picture feature, but now they need to upgrade the post editor, it's too hard to move around the pictures and format the post nicely.
Images courtesy various sources: CBC tv, National Archives, the PMO, and This Hour has 22 Minutes.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
I came home from the mall today to refresh my cbc.ca homepage and read to my surprise that Chuck Cadman had passed away. While I suppose it's not totally unexpected, being that he had (and died from) skin cancer, I was still shocked to read it. It was him, and him alone that we have to thank for Goodale's budget passing, and the government not collapsing after a no-confidance vote loss. I hope, for the government's sake, that Surry North elects a suitable and honourable replacement for Mr. Cadman. My condolences to his family, though I'm sure they'll never ever read this.
In other news, it's fucking hot here. 40C with the humidex, at 10pm. I was out and about today during the day, and wow... thank god for the wind, as it was utterly impossible to stay in the sun for any length of time. It gave me a whole new love for air conditioned buildings, and Tims' iced cappuccions. God Bless Tim Hortons.
I know I haven't posted on the London bombings, and I won't spend any length of time on that topic, as everyone already knows the story. The one thing I will comment on is the amazing ability of the internet to connect people. There are records of people posting message such as "I'm Okay" in their flickr accounts, to uploadings of cell phone camera pictures and videos. Even corporations relied on the web to keep their businesses running. The London central bank activated a secure chat room that they host to keep in touch with the banking sector, and pass on news. I thought that was amazing. There's more about that on cnn.com, I don't feel like hunting down a link. It's too hot for that.
Image courtesy of CP.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
This post is specially for Elena, as I hear you like the previous pictures of politicians I posted. The picture's from Rick Mercer's blog, from which I have shamelessly stolen it.
Enjoy.
Monday, July 04, 2005
I'm watching the Karla Homolka interview on RDI right now, and it's sort of surreal. This woman who I can vaguely remember the trial of 12+ years ago and who has been in the news a lot especially the past few weeks and months as her day of freedom drew near. Now from the title of my post, one might be led to believe that I'm one of the people who don't thinks she should be freed. Well I'm not.
She has completed the term that the justice at the time saw fit to lock her away for, and from all accounts she was an exemplary inmate. Of course what she did was horrible, however we do live in a democracy and the decisions of the past need to be respected. Did the Crown make a mistake when they drew up the plea bargain? Maybe, but they acted to the best of their ability based on the information they had available to them.
As for Karla reoffending, I feel that if the justice system does not get complacent in its monitoring of her, there is no concern about her reoffending. When the crimes were committed she was a 17 year old kid, who was obviously under the control of a powerful man (Paul Bernardo). I honestly don't believe that she is (or was then) capable of committing crimes like that by herself. Not that it matters what I think, but whatever. Is it easy to write off her crimes as "I was a weak girl under his control"? Yes of course it is, but that's just a cop-out.
I can't imagine what it must be like for someone coming out of prison after knowing nothing else for 12 years of your life. Not to mention being someone reviled by the vast majority of the population, some of who have websites devoted to your death. She must be terrified. She really looks like a woman who has been in jail for 12 years.
I just glanced back at the television for the second half of the interview, and it's still surreal seeing her speaking and giving this interview.
-image courtesy of cbc.ca
2,4,6,8, Live 8 was kinda great
Saturday, July 02, 2005
It's all too easy to be complacent and just look at all the glitter and artificiality which seems to surround the whole Live 8 event. Sure the whole thing was the brainchild of a bohemian-wannabe who had one hit song back when he was in a band. But it's not the various concerts that are of any value, it's the underlying message (obviously). Granted they will probably to nothing at all in terms of influencing the G8 leaders, at least it's an attempt. Humanity as a whole has become all too complacent and apathetic, as it gets easier and easier to sit inside the coocoon of one's life and never need to look at the larger picture.
I am somewhat guilty of this, though I at least try to stay abreast of happenings in other parts of the world. Thank goodness I don't live in a country that is subject to complacency as much as a certain country to my south.
Now, I don't often pontificate or spout my ideals however I feel I must address. I spent some time today (as I'm sure many of my fellow Canadians did) taking part in the Live 8 events by watching the television coverage. I do get some American channels through my various tv packages. Something I couldn't help but noticing was that no major US broadcast network was covering the concerts. I later learned that the only networks in the US carrying the concert were the cable networks VH1 and MTV. Now I don't know the penetration those networks enjoy into the homes of Americans, but I'm sure it's nowhere as high as any of the major broadcast networks. I later learned that later in "prime time" one major network or another would carry a highlight show. Well isn't that nice. Quite frankly it makes me sick, that the networks were unwilling to pre-empt their valuable Saturday day-time television schedules.
Or maybe they just couldn't secure broadcast rights, what do I know?
CTV did a bearable job of covering the concerts, although once again they provided us with Ben Mulroney overload. Soon he'll be the host and star of every show on the network. One thing that bothered me during the broadcast were the commercials. It just felt like in the spirit of the event CTV should have forgone the need to have commercials.
Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed the Canadian concerts. Gordon Lightfoot especially was amazing to watch. This one, frail looking man standing on a huge stage (empty but for him) with his guitar. He held the massive crowd in rapture, silent as he began his set, but raucus and cheering as he completed it. The Tragically Hip were amazing, as they always are live, and The Barenaked Ladies had the crowd singing along to If I had a Million Dollars. Wonderful Canadiana. E especially enjoyed Steven Page's rendition of a few lines of Tears are Not Enough, a Canadian collaboration song from Live Aid times. I just wish iTunes, or some music store, would have recordings of the songs for purchase.
I've got to admit, the sponatneous rendition of Oh Canada! at the end of the concert gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it. Usually sung at the opening of a major event (like a hockey game), it proved the perfect period to the end of the sentence that was the Barrie concert.
In other news, I spent too short a time with a lovely girl this afternoon, it's a shame she doesn't live here.
But, back to enjoying the current thunder storm and CTV's greatest Live 8 hits show as the Hip are playing.
Happy Beer Day! err.. Canada Day
Friday, July 01, 2005
That picture is shamelessly borrowed from cbc.ca. To my few Canadian readers, Happy Canada Day! Here and now I don't feel like going on about extolling the virtues of being Canadian and living here because it's just too easy.
Anyways, here's some more stuff borrwed from cbc.ca.
"The flag is an enduring presence. It's in our lives wherever we go," said Martin. "It's why we pin it on our lapels, it's why we sew it on our backpacks. It's why, including one of my own sons, tattoo it on ourselves."
