Yesterday evening, a short time after the press release chaos and the following strategy meeting I had in preparation for tomorrows TPSB consultation, I had something of an epiphany that I would like to share.

You see, after all of the above, I was vibrating... Stress had overwhelmed me and I didn't want to think -- no, I couldn't think about anything related to the events of the past 24hours. And so, I went for a walk. In the frozen cold, snow floating down from the sky, I walked from St. George station all the way to Yonge and Bloor... and that's when I realised.

It started with me trying to flush out all the stressful thoughts from my brain. I was walking down Bloor, getting wound up about future responsibilities, work to do, etc and I found myself consciously trying to make those thoughts "go away". It took some effort, but with the help of a Farbucks hot chocolate and ginger cookie, and a long walk in the snow, I managed just that. And by the time I reached Yonge & Bloor station, I was no longer thinking about anything stressfull.

But then, on the ride home, I started trying to ease myself back into what was up next and that's where I noticed it: I couldn't remember. Nothing was coming to mind. Who was I supposed to email next? What was in my inbox? What jobs were left for the evening? Nothing remained. It was like I knew I had something to do, but the actual work had been erased from my memory.

Now, given the current state of my memory, I'm thinking that is quite common for me, except that it's probably on a subconscious level. I forget things because part of me can't handle the stress of remembering it, and so, the memory disappears...

Community Meeting Regarding Closed Circuit Television

Thursday February 1st, 2007

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

West Toronto Secondary School
330 Lansdowne Avenue

Auditorium

A 30 minute presentation on closed circuit television will be provided followed by an open forum question and answer period.

EVERYONE WELCOME

Community input is vital!

For information contact:

11 Division 14 Division

416.808.1119
416.808.1500

Note that it's a "question and answer period" and not a call for input. I imagine that this will be quite frustrating and/or patronising, but I'm going regardless. At the very least, it could be a good source of information.

JavaScript and I have never been friends. For a long time I've wanted to be able to do the things that JavaScript would allow me to do, but every time I've ventured in that direction I've been kicked in the head by the stupid quirks of the language.

But thanks to my current job, I had to learn a bunch of JavaScript and fast... Enter getElementsBy.com a simple but very handy site that pointed me in the right direction. If you don't quite know how to get the stuff you need out of this frustrating language, this site is a great starting point.

I received this article from Colin who's since posted a rant about Big Pharma in his own blog (with which I totally agree).

Without going into a rant of my own, here's the gist:

• The University of Alberta has discovered that a very cheap, old drug can possibly cure Cancer.
• The drug has been in circulation too long to be covered by a patent. It is therefore very cheap to mass-produce.
• New Scientist has a full article on the details here.
• The university is a Public institution, dependent on public and independent funding to continue it's work. Given that pharmaseutical companies are never interested in actually curing diseases, the university cannot expect to be getting funding from private interests. Donations are greatly appreciated.
• Make sure that you tag your donation for:
      Medicine and Dentistry » Dr.Michelakis: Cancer Research Fund.

It should be pointed out that there is something seriously wrong with a society that rewards behaviour contrary to the betterment of it's citizens, while simultaneously neglecting institutions designed to improve it's quality of life. Our universities should have all the funding they need and companies like Pfizer should be held accountable for their squandering of resources.

I got this from the NewMindSpace newsletter this morning.

On Saturday January 27th, Torontonians from of all walks of life are invited to spontaneously hug by the thousands at 3 pm at Nathan Phillips Square. The amazing candy pop band, the Bicycles will be on stage and at 3 and will ask for a mass hug.

Mass hugging is becoming an international trend some say in response to a gloomy world state of affairs. Hug Day is being put on by the Toronto Hug Coalition which also points that hugging has incredible health benefits including stress reduction and boosting the immune system as well as improving your outlook.

Saturday January 27th, Share the Love in Nathan Phillips Square, at 3pm for Hug Day.

It's late enough in the day that I might just be there... ;-)

One of my coworkers helped me out of a jam by writing some amazing math-foo the other day and I wanted to share:

public static function getDefinitionFromSerials($in) {

	$out = array();
	if ($in) {

		sort($in);

		$n = $in[0];
		for ($i = 1; $i < count($in); $i++) {
			$z = $n;
			if ($in[$i] != $in[$i-1] + 1) {
				if ($z == $in[$i-1]) {
					$out[] = $z;
				} elseif ($z + 1 == $in[$i-1]) {
					$out[] = $z;
					$out[] = $in[$i-1];
				} else {
					$out[] = $z .'-'. $in[$i-1];
				}
				$n = $in[$i];
			}
		}
		if (count($in) == 1 || $z != $n) {
			$out[] = $n;
		} elseif ($z+1 == $in[count($in)-1]) {
			$out[] = $n;
			$out[] = $in[count($in)-1];
		} else {
			$out[] = $z .'-'. $in[count($in)-1];
		}

	}

	return implode(',', $out);

}

The above is an algorithm that transforms an array of numbers (1,2,3,7,9,10,11) into a human readable range or fieldset such as "1-3,7,9-11". I spent hours online googling for the solution and found nothing so I thought I'd share it here in the hopes that someone else might find it useful.

My second mom sent me yet another story about some stupid-ass americans restricting the viewing of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth on the grounds that no viable "opposing view" is being made available with it:

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

"Federal Way schools restrict Gore film, seattlepi.com

Now forget for a moment the fact that these people are clearly religious wing-nuts trying to force their back-assward beliefs on a body of potentially free-thinking, intelligent people. Instead, I'd like to focus on the fact that this is not a surprise.

We know that the world is chock-full of morons, and we know that they're organised. (Of course the argument can be made that our "democratic" system has installed our own "Tyranny of the Stupid", but I won't go there today). I'm thinking tonight about how we can use this information to our advantage.

It's one thing for a smart person to stand up in a room and say something intelligent, but that alone isn't enough. What the smart person needs to do is stand up knowing what the thought-fearing majority is going to say (or rather be told to say) so (s)he can crush that deranged opposition before it starts.

After my last post, I decided to take the night off. Colin suggested a full vacation but given that that wasn't an option at the moment, his secondary solution was to turn off the phone and remove myself from my life for a while. I can't say that this "fixed" me 100%, but I'm definitely feeling better today. I even went through my mountain of emails and those I didn't respond to, I at least marked as "read" so they won't be hanging over me anymore.

The plan, (at the moment at least) is to lay off the unnecessary things. No more tv (downloaded or otherwise) and to force myself to have at least 2 nights a week where I turn off my phone and vacate my life for a while. It's not much, but it's the best I can manage at this point.

I'll post more as I wade through this.

A blog is about you. Originally, these things were invented as a sort of personal reflection place, a diary of sorts. I never really intended my blog to be like that, but in a case like this, I'm not sure where else I work this stuff out.

Stress is getting in the way of my personal life. Normally, I'm a laid-back kind of person, but lately, with the TPSC, the new job and Melanie happening, I've found myself continuously exhausted.

It's important to note that the use of the word "exhausted" here is not meant to mean "sleepy". Rather, I'm burning out. The thought of going back through my email to answer the 12 or so people who are waiting on me literally makes me queezy. I can't focus on anything it seems and I think my personal life is deteriorating as a result.

I just need... rest.

On January 3, 2006, 18-year-old Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi was sentenced to death for murder by court in Iran after she stabbed one of three men who attempted to rape her and her 16-year-old niece in a park in Karaj (a suburb of Tehran) in March 2005. She was seventeen at the time. Iran is signatory to international treaties which forbid them to execute any one under the age of 18; however they continue to do so.

On June 1st 2006, the Head of Judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi announced a stay of execution and the call for a complete new retrial. Nazanin Fatehi’s retrial will take place January 10th, 2007 (20th of Dey 1385 in the Iranian calendar).

This is not a pointless pettition that no one will read. Nazanin is in an Iranian court fighting for her life and she needs our help. More to the point, her court fees are expensive. If you have some cash to spare, put yourself in her shoes and consider what you think is an appropriate donation.

Update 2007-01-16 11:00:00

According to Etemaad Newspaper in Iran, which also reported Nazanin's original death sentence in January 2006, three out of the five judges in Nazanin's retrial have ordered that dieh "blood money" be paid to the family of the man who was killed, although the other two had recommended Nazanin's unconditional freedom.

Nazanin's lawyers intend to appeal the payment of blood money, but since this appeal may take several months, they have also requested bail so that Nazanin may be released from prison immediately. The court has set bail at 400,000,000 rials (over US$40,000).

Because Nazanin's family is very poor and unable to make payment of the bail or blood money, immediate financial assistance is required to secure Nazanin's release from prison.

Details at helpnazanin.com and Wikipedia.

Donate here.