Searching for Tao, 7573 Kilometres from Home

April 06, 2004 05:12 +0000 | Nifty Links Society & Culture 5

watch this. it's exceptional. i saw it tonight on cbc's zed, a show i admittedly have skipped over it in the past, due to a great deal of what i considered crap... but tonight noam chomsky was sampled in a lot of the media, and this spoken word was the closing act. realplayer (linux, windows, osX) required.

edit:

the link above probably won't work 'cause cbc has some sort of external link protection on the file. so to see it, all you have to do is copy and paste the whole link into your realplayer client in order to see it. just go to "file > open location" and put in the following:

http://static.zed.cbc.ca/users/p/PrimaVera/files/Koyczan_OhCanada.ram

that should do it.

April 05, 2004 14:49 +0000 | Why I'm Here 4

it's one of those sadistically brutal days in toronto. the sun is up (early, thanks so much to the retard that decided that losing an hour of sleep in the spring is a good idea) and there isn't a cloud in the sky... and it's -15 with the windchill. why, may i ask did so many people settle here again?

yesterday was very much the same, but in an effort to get my ass out of the house and away from command and conquer, i went for a walk to the wind turbine here in the city. for those who don't know, toronto is home to the only urban wind turbine in Canada. it stands really, really high and is partially owned by a co-op called windshare. but on super-windy day like yesterday, it wasn't moving. i got some good pictures though, and i'll post them later on.

April 04, 2004 07:54 +0000 | Miscellaneous Nifty Links 0

my first post of the month, and it's based on a tv show... not a good omen i suppose... thanks be to jeanie and quizilla for these:

i'll never tell....
which buffy musical song are you?

and that was my least favourite song too... for the "which angel character are you", i was hoping to come out with wesley ('cause he's so damn cool) but with options like "lately, i drown my sorrows in booze and have sex with someone I hate" as a response to "what is your favourite pastime?" i just couldn't make it work.

you're fred!
which angel character are you?

curious... i had to edit this post and replace

images.quizilla.com/

with

live.quizilla.com/user_images/

in the image links to make it work. maybe someone up there is asleep at the keyboard?

April 01, 2004 02:33 +0000 | Society & Culture 0

April 01, 2004 02:19 +0000 | Nifty Links Why I'm Here 10

according to monster's short quiz (courtesy of smyli) my personality type is best suited to one of the following:

Special education teacher
Alcohol and drug addiction counsellor
Universal design architect
Holistic health practitioner
Diversity manager / trainer
Speech / language pathologist
Career counsellor
Therapist
Director of religious education
Editor / art director
Writer

and while i can't say that i feel like i fit well into any of the above, i have to say that i feel like a major part of "me" is missing on my current path... i just have no idea where to go to find the right one...

April 01, 2004 02:04 +0000 | Geek Stuff 0

so i decided that i would try and use freecycle to acquire some old pc hardware. there had to be some people out there looking to offload some old parts that are still good for me right? i posted a "WANTED:" message to the list and got a response from a nice man that would like to offload "an old windows3.1 box". why not? i thought and bribed a friend with dinner to drive me out there to pick it up..

i'm now the proud owner of a doorstop.

not only does it not have a cdrom (i had hoped) but the hard drive is only 210mb and the on board video is so old, it won't work with my old monitor. so basically, i can turn it on and stare at it... i can' t even put a version of linux on it until i find a monitor that'll connect to it, and buy a network card that'll fit it...

so then i remembered that there's a recycling day coming up in my neighbourhood, so i went online looking for times & locations i could dump this thing... aparently, there's nothing anywhere near me. if i wanna dump this thing at any of the events, i'm looking at cab fare at the very least (you'd think they'd do it near a subway station or something... i did however find this page that describes what i've been saying for years now. it IS possible to adapt an apartment building's garbage chute to handle more than just garbage. in fact, this thing will do garbage, paper, plastic and metal. ...and they're looking at ways to do organics as well... now if only i could figure out what to do with this doorstop. maybe aaron can help...

March 30, 2004 01:58 +0000 | Society & Culture 0

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.

March 30, 2004 01:11 +0000 | Geek Stuff 1

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...

March 29, 2004 00:39 +0000 | Nifty Links 0

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

March 28, 2004 23:53 +0000 | Personal Life 1

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.