when i moved out here, i told everyone that i had a reason. i didn't quite understand the details around it then -- i suppose that i still don't have a perfectly clear picture. but the general understanding was that i had to leave vancouver so that i could learn about how the world works, and through that learning gain the power to change what i felt needed changing.

today i took my first concrete steps in that direction. i have four big ideas for the city of toronto, the details of which (once heavily scrutinised and worked out) will be available online. but the important part is that today i stopped screwing around and started working on it. did some research online for toronto budget information (the details of which are sadly lacking) and then contacted a nice man at the toronto chapter of the sierra club looking for some help on where to go next. it may not look like much, but i'm locked in now. no where else to go but through the other side.

for you internet exploder users, you may have noticed that some entries in my blog don't have the nice little grey line on the right. this is not my fault and i refuse to once again modify my work to compensate for micros~1's crappy code. the bug arises whenever someone uses an <em> tag to make some italicised text and said text wraps to the next line. it works in konqueror, it works in mozilla and it works in opera. therefore, micros~1 can "lick me today".

kudos to angela for that one.

i've run across a couple links worth checking out over that past couple days and i thought i'd share.

iams pet food is not a good company. i found the site by accident while surfing the canucks forum and it was enough to keep me the hell away from them.

and even for those of you who don't understand computer stuff all windows users should read this article. but for the lazy, here's the gist:

basically a new bug was discovered in internet exploder that, coupled with another bug that was discovered three years ago and never fixed, all explorer users are now very vulnerable to a security hole that microsoft either (a) doesn't know how to fix, or (b) doesn't want to.

how's the hole work? basically, you go to a website and click on a link that says something like "download this pdf". you think you're downloading a pdf (pdf's can't hurt me right?). then, when you open the file in your browser *poof* the bad guy and do whatever (s)he wants to your computer.

so what can you do? well microsoft hasn't fixed this problem for three years, so it's safe to say they're not interested in making your browser work properly. you can start using another browser like mozilla or opera, switch to an o/s that has real support like linux or buy a new computer and get mac osX.

either way, i'd advise you to stay the hell away from internet explorer. it's not safe anymore and they can't (or won't) make it safe.

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"the medium is the message -- i think that the internet makes you into a libertarian to a certain extent. because you can see non-hierarchical, non-centralized systems working, and it becomes hard to credibly claim that we need increased centralization in order to create order or equity or equitableness."
-- cory doctorow on the internet

www.shift.com/content/web/451/1.html

read the article, and if you have the time, you can download his book for free or buy it on hardcover.

i found this a day or two ago, but haven't had time to post it. it's from a site called "diesel sweeties. check it out here.

pavel invited me out tonight to attend something called a "nerd rave". it was at a club we'd been to before where i'd had a nice time so figured: "why not?" here's why: it was rediculously lame. no offense to pavel who i'm sure enjoyed his time there, but it was a room full of irc geeks who all knew each other well enough to not need to communicate over the absolutely terrible music. i spent the whole hour and a half i was there getting my ear talked off by a drunken idiot named "mike" who just wouldn't stop talking. a really, really unhappy time was had.

however, when i finally escaped, i went for a walk on the frozen streets of toronto. at 11pm, the city is still somewhat alive, the occasional bar or cafe still open to passers by. i window shopped in at the long closed trendy stores on queen, passed city hall and wandered up yonge to the hard rock cafe where i stopped in for an $8 milkshake (last time i'll ever do that). it was cold out, but not brutal, and the wind was low. i chatted up a garbage man doing the recycling rounds, asking him questions about the amount of stuff that actually gets recycled and process of it all. you'd be surprised at how much people love to talk about their jobs -- and how much they know about something you might be interested in. next time, just ask... you might be pleasantly surprised.

so it turns out that the american moron has decided that he wants to go to mars. my first thought was: "it's about time". this was my only thought on the subject until i saw a prediction for the final landing date: 2030. it was then that i realised that i'd be 50 years old at that point.

whatever happened to us? we were supposed to be building a colony on the moon and taking regular missions to and from mars by now. 35years. that's how long it's been since the human race (granted, under an american banner) touched down on the moon. what the hell has been going on since then? what do we, as a people have to show for 35years of being on this planet? a couple wars, an internet and a whole bunch of fuct-up marketing selling the masses stuff we don't need. we could have gone to mars, but instead we bought washable cellphones. and now a war-mongering idiot is pretending that he has an honest desire to explore the galaxy just so he can get re-elected and make more money for the oil industry.

here's a thought: what if we could convince debeers to finance an expedition to neptune? apparently, scientists have theorised that it's raining diamonds there. they can harvest the rocks, and we can build starships. sounds like a plan to me.

i recieved a package in the mail today from ruth (aka mom #2). she baked me some tasy chocolate chip cookies and they've been helping me put off lunch for about 3 hours now. thanks ruth! ;-) i'll have to call her later tonight with a real thank you.

i went out thursday night with a friend i met years ago back at moshpit. pavel called me when i was staying late at work and asked: "hey, you want to go out to night and drink cheap beer?". after explaining that i don't drink and getting over his surprise, i agreed to go out anyway -- if only to start havnig a social life in toronto. ...and i had a really great time! we went to a tiny little bar called "smokless joe's" where he bought their last bottle of $6 russian beer, dropped by an (overdone, and not very good) pizza place called "amato" and then went on to a techo/gothic night club that was pretty much empty (but what do you want for a thursday night?) truth be told though, it was a fantastic place. great music and amazing dancing.... each person on the floor was completely caught up in the collective groove of the room, some dancing as if they were the only person there. it was almost enough to make me get off my ass and get on the dance floor myself -- almost. we met some friends of pavel's, i drank copious amounts of coke (ew) and had a nice conversation with a guy named "mike" who seemed like he belonged in bc (laid back, hair in dredlocks, fascination with weed etc.) overall, really a great night.

oo, and interesting of note, wyrdsister's blog has had a face lift. check it out if you have time.

as a last bit of news, i have now compressed and resized all of the pictures i've taken since i left ottawa... to a total of about 155. i'll try to post them all up on the imager over the next few days.

i've recently upgraded the blogger to handle something micros~1 calls "accessibility options". this a feature i plan to expand on later, but for now, certain people who have trouble with small, low contrast fonts will have an easier to read layout once they've logged in. it's based on a set of dynamically-called stylesheets, which are in turn based on the style engine. and the code is near ready to post. i just have to include a few docs with it first.

to add to the list of cool stuff online, i offer you grocerygateway.com. it's what i've always heard should be available, but until now, i've not seen anywhere. order all of your groceries online, at normal prices, in the sizes you like. i just placed an order and it'll be here on thursday (sadly, next week. i ordered too late to get it tomorrow morning). when it comes in, i'll post a review.

a couple interesting links today:

a dumb (but curious) kid was suspended for 3 days for sending a windows popup message to everyone at his school at once. the message? "hey". damn that kid! throw his ass in jail!. (yes i'm kidding). more upsetting, though admittedly, not surprising is the response from the kids computer teacher who (again, not surprisingly) is an idiot. check out the full story here.

there's a big amount of hype circulating the web about a new movie coming out called "the corporation". it focuses on important subjects like globalisation, and the roll of things like profit, consumerism and capitalism in general in society, culture and goverment. according to a lot of reviews (and the many requests i've had from various sources to publicise the flick), it's pretty damn cool and possibly "the next bowling for columbine". i don't know if i believe it. i have, after all, not seen it yet. but i will and when i do, i'll post what i thought.

for those interested, the movie will be playing in vancouver, toronto, and ottawa in the next couple weeks. i'd suggest that you go to the site to find out more, but it licks bigtime, so i'll send to you straight goods instead.