the cbc is out of it's mind. for most people, this is not a new concept, so maybe i've just been naive. but would someone please explain to me why the cbc is closing out a "season" of monday report in march? setting aside the fact that the show is pretty much one of the only things worth watching on the network, in fact, the show is one of the best shows on television... and pretending for a minute that most other shows don't close out for at least another month, what's the point of making a news show that's in reruns for half the year? it's not like the monday report can possibly cost as much as most of the other shows on cbc, so why not run it all year long? you don't see the daily show with john stewart showing reruns through the summer.

i've repeatedly defended the cbc as an important part of Canadian culture, but on days like this, i can't help but give some credit to the side that wants to shut them down due to mismanagement.

but for those interested in some really excellent programming (regardless of badly managed it might be) i'd like to direct you to rick's latest rant. realplayer (linux, windows, osX) required.

apologies for the dead space for most of the day today. rogers changed my ip on me and i had to switch over the dns... i have to find a better way to do this...

behold! the suburban trunk monkey! link courtesy of smyli.

ok maybe "pain" is an overstatement, but this was a hard weekend -- i think mostly due to a general lack of sleep incurred. chrystal came out to visit these past few days and we did lots of walking, and lots of movies.

first things first though: day of the dead: not a bad flick -- if you don't mind movies centred around gore and absolutely no plot. freaky-deeky though. enough to make it hard for me to get to sleep. we saw scooby doo 2 as well. funnier, more entertaining, but really not a good flick. you know how you can make a movie for kids thats good for adults too? (shrek, harry potter) well this isn't one of those movies. if you're not under 12, i recommend that you stay away.

which brings me to my first gripe about stupid people... i can't believe i've taken this long to get to one on my blog. i can only assume i've not been paying attention. i went to see this stupid movie (scooby doo) and having already seen dawn of the dead earlier that day at the same theatre, i am caught by surprise when the very large and underpaid attendant, tears my ticket to let me in then stops me at the door and says: "sorry, you can't bring that in here" pointing at my $1000 camera slung over my shoulder.

"but it's not a video camera" i responded.

"it doesn't matter", the large guy continues, "you'll have to leave it with customer services if you want into the show".

now i'm not the type that likes to be forced into something -- i don't think anyone is. the fact of the matter is that (a) the camera is only capable of a whopping 3minutes of poor-quality video, and (b) i hadn't come to that theatre to break any copyright laws (no matter how ridiculous, archaic and restrictive). i'd come to blow $13 on a very bad movie. and after having already blown another $11 earlier that day (not to mention the cash chrystal was into this) i was understandably pissed that his halfwit at the door couldn't stop and think for a few seconds about what rules he was enforcing and what he was actually doing.

i talked it over with chrystal and while she was more than willing to walk all the way home to drop off the camera and catch the late show, i wasn't going to do that to her (she doesn't do late shows well). i walked over to the "customer service" desk and handed my $1000 camera to the $6.50/hr kid who took my name and number and offered me nothing with which to reclaim my stuff.

after the movie, i bitched out the idiot in the suit at the desk and told him that there were enough theatres in toronto that i will be able to make it a point to never come back -- his only defence was that it was the rules and that the company loses $40million a year on piracy -- a crime, i reminded him i had no intention, or ability to commit. but he didn't care -- fucking tunnelvision idiot.

but what's the real problem here? is it the fact that he's an idiot? not really, there's idiots everywhere. i think the real problem is the fact that this idiot was the best i could find to address my problem. these theatres are owned by big american companies and run by underpaid morons who follow the rules or get replaced. therefore, a big lick me today goes out to the rich assholes at paramount, and to a greater extent, the mpaa. i'll be sure to pirate my movies from now on 'cause it beats the hell out of putting up with this shit.

the rest of the weekend included a nice trip to the cn tower, where we "admired the view from the ground" since just going up the elevator would have cost $18 each, and a few good meals at local food joints -- eggspectaion obviously among them.

overall it was a very nice visit from an old friend turned x-girlfriend turned old friend... it's going to take me a while to get used to the whole thing, but i have faith that it will all be ok.

i went sifting through geourl today and found this guy's very well designed blog. but aside from the nice layout, this post is pretty damn funny. worth the read if you're in a good mood, but if you're squimish about anything concerning nipples, nevermind.

this is my official "happy birthday" message for margaret since i was such a putz and forgot to even mention it over msn. so yeah, happy birthday margaret! margaret's an aries and actually quite fun, but in need of a cheering up today 'cause her radiator broke.

so everyone give margaret a big hug if you see her today ;-)

those of you who watched the show know it was possibly the best show to ever see the the silver screen. sometimes, i find myself daydreaming about scenes from it, smiling subconsciously at the brilliant and witty writing. so one day, i decided that i'd make a collection to use with fortune, a really nifty linux program that grabs random quotes from a text file... and here it is: in bz2 format. and for you poor windows folk, here's just a text file.

big day eh? new moon, first day of spring. new blogger theme and... o yeah, angela's initiation as an official witch. (yay!) for those of you who don't know, i'm probably not the best person to ask, but for a watered-down definition, an initiation is sorta like a baptism for witches. it's a personal commitment to the faith, and a sort of acceptance by others into the craft. many pagans (yours truly included) never go through the whole process of an initiation, but for some, this sort of commitment is the logical next step, and a very big deal indeed.

like a baptism though, congratulations aren't exactly the right sentiment, but i'm not sure what exactly is... maybe just a gesture of pride and awe. so yeah, congratulations ($pride++, $awe++) wyrd. i hope this next fold in your life is full of all sorts of really good things.

didn't i say that the monday report was hillarious?

check out this link. (realplayer required.)

every once in a while you meet a "smart person". and you know that they're a smart person because you get that enlightening feeling when the enter the room -- like the collective iq of this little space just jumped. i got that feeling tonight, when i met cory doctorow.

i mentioned him a while back. shift.com had done a piece on him and his then new book entitled down and out in the magic kingdom and how he'd not just released a paperback version, but also an e-book version as well. he has since re-licenced the book under an even less-restrictive banner and out of all of this we're seeing russian and japanese translations cropping up from around the world. some diehard perl geek even wrote some nifty code to "remix" the entire novel. after downloading and reading it months ago, i bought a copy tonight at the launch of his new book called eastern standard tribe.

he's got some really interesting views on everything ranging from copyright, to terrorism, to globalisation, and agree with him or not, you can't deny that he's well read in all of the above. a toronto native and living these past few years in san francisco, he's moving to the uk to help the electronic frontier foundation fight some potentially damaging copyright laws being generated in the european union. his books are intelligent, eloquent and funny. i highly reccomend the read... and you can read it all for free.