Searching for Tao, 7573 Kilometres from Home

May 02, 2011 17:05 +0000 | Canada Democracy 0

It's already May 3rd here in Seoul, but I wanted to post here, as I always do, to remind you to vote today.

This past year weve seen millions of people in the Middle East fighting and dying for a voice in their own government, while the majority of Canadians didn't even bother to show up to our last election.

You might think that your vote doesn't matter, that our system is so screwed up that whether you show up or not has no bearing on the outcome of events. In some of our past elections, you may have been right, but not in this one. Every poll is screaming that this election is a turning point. The NDP are capturing mountains of support and some polls have the Greens taking as many as 5 seats. This is a big deal and could change the landscape of Canadian history. Yes, it is potentially that big.

Get out there, make your voice heard. Your employer must, by law allow you up to 3 consecutive hours off to vote if your work hours would otherwise prevent you from doing so. Can't make the trip? Ask a friend to drive you. This is important - seriously. It's time to change the way we do things in Ottawa.

Still not sure who deserves your vote? You've still got time, I'll get you started:

Elections Canada's list of all parties and their websites where you can read their platforms.
Not registered? You can register at the poll
Don't forget to take ID with you
Find your riding and polling station. All you need is your postal code

April 29, 2011 12:07 +0000 | Canada Democracy Politics 2

Disclaimer: I am very jetlagged. Please be patient with me.

Canadians, and more specifically the Canadian media have been perpetuating a myth about our electoral system for a while now and it's gotta stop. Newspapers and radio shows are guilty of it, as are party leaders of most stripes: they're treating our electoral process as if we live in the United States.

Here's how it is: We elect parliaments in Canada, not presidents. We elect representatives who sit in the House of Commons who then collectively determine who should speak for Canada: the Prime minister, the first among equals.

Most of us can't vote for Harper, Layton, Ignatieff, or May, but not a day goes by on this campaign that I don't hear some pundit talking about how Ignatieff will do X or Harper will do Y. Both Harper and Layton have been noted for talking like they will personally do something if elected, and though I haven't heard Ignatieff do the same, I wouldn't be surprised.

The fact that in practise, our political system does work as though we elect short-term tyrants doesn't negate the fact that that's not how this system is supposed to work. In fact, I would argue that since we cover campaigns as though it were some sort of horse race between presidential candidates leads not only to an excuse, but an expectation of tyranny once that leader ends up in the Prime Minister's role.

The second myth is that parliamentary elections can be "won" somehow. Jack Layton or Stephen Harper cannot "win" this election as the absurdity of that statement is twofold:(1) as we've already established, any one candidate can only win his or her riding, and (b) winning a minority of seats (or even a majority) does not mean that the remaining parties are somehow not part of our governing process. The House is the authority, not the governing party, and certainly not the Prime Minister.

Ignoring these two truths about our system of government leads to the devaluation of the role of our elected MPs and to support for arguments like Harper's opposition to a coalition. We should either take advantage of our parliamentary system, or simply drop it in favour of (in my opinion) less democratic presidential role. There's really no point on keeping up the premise of parliamentary democracy if people are going to continue to believe that the Prime Minister runs Canada.

April 27, 2011 08:21 +0000 | Friends Language Moving 5

A series of good things have been happening lately, and I just wanted to share them:

I have an apartment in Bussum, The Netherlands. It's mine. I live there. You can now start mailing me things :-)
I have a bank account, and a residency card, and a residency number. I am an official person in the Netherlands. Next up is the cell phone and home internet.
I have a couch! And a friend who helped me put it together!
My computer has finally arrived at my job, so I'm no longer working on my tiny laptop. This new machine has SIX CORES and EIGHT GIGS OF RAM.
I made a new friend last night at my Dutch class. That makes *three* people whom I can call if I want company for a movie or something.
American movies here are in English with Dutch subtitles.
The Canucks won game 7. How is that not awesome?
My new apartment is a 10minute walk to work. I can now sleep in.
In less than 3 days, I'll be in Yeosu, Korea to watch a dear friend get married in a traditional Korean ceremony.
I'm learning Dutch (albeit slowly), but just the other day I actually understood a 100% Dutch conversation and joined in, (albeit in English).
It got distcc working on my laptop & supercomputer here at work so I can compile stuff way faster.
I talked to my family via Skype while they were all around the dinner table at my grandparent's place.
I got my tax returns from the past 5 years in, to the tune of about $7000! That'll help pay off my credit card.

In a blog that's usually plagued with negativity, I wanted to share some happy thoughts.

April 19, 2011 20:15 +0000 | Language Netherlands 2

I'm learning Dutch! And I suck at it. Strangely enough there are days when I feel as though Korean is easier, though I know considerably less about their language than Dutch. I often feel as though Korean just came easier to me than Dutch does... but I'm getting it, ever so slowly.

The title of this post, literally translated means "one large fries please", something I've had to say a few times here. The sticky bit though is that all four of these words are pronounced differently from how a Canadian might read them. Try to sound it out in your head, and when you think you've got it, read on.

It's pronounced: ayne kchroat freets al-stew-blayeft, and the kch in there is that phlegmy sound you hear common in languages like Hebrew and Arabic. Pretty brutal eh? The stickiest part I've found so far has been the combined vowel sounds. For example, the region of Amsterdam I currently live in is called Zuidoost which is not pronounced zoo-ee-doost, but rather a subtle mangling of the sound ah, oh, and oo to make a sort of Zauydohst, not to be confused with zout which is Dutch for salt.

Let me tell you, it's rough, and it makes my brain hurt, but that's part of the reason I came out here right? I like this feeling of my brain learning how to learn again, there's nothing quite like it. Dutch may not have been my first choice (or even my tenth really), but I think that at this point in my life it's more the experience than the function that matters.

And in unrelated news, I thought that I might share this lovely quote I found the other day with you all:

Your journey has molded you for the greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don't think that you've lost time. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time. -- Asha Tyson

April 16, 2011 21:54 +0000 | Cycling Friends 3

I had a lovely, though taxing day today. My new friend Sue invited me out for a day-long cycling trip following a flower parade from Voorhout to Lisse. The idea was to take our bikes out there by train and then ride them along the parade route in time to catch the actual parade as it rolled into Lisse.

It didn't actually happen that way though. When we arrived in Voorhout, the parade was just starting. We had to weave through the onlookers to get ahead of the parade and make our way northeast to Lisse. We'd be moving faster than the parade, so we could still be in Lisse to see it roll by. But then we got lost... and sidetracked by the hectares upon hectares of vibrant tulips spread over the countryside. Sue insisted on stopping for pictures an aweful lot, and then at one point, no one was remembering to check our GPSs, so we went way off course. But no big deal, we were still ahead of the parade, and now we had a couple hours of sightseeing done.

We found our way to Lisse, thanks to the wonders of technology and the kindness of strangers, toured a beautiful church and perused the open market for lunch. Can I just say how awesome Dutch doughnuts are? NOM. I also had a shaved ham sandwich with caramelised onions and some tasty sauce along with some fresh squeezed orange juice. (...and I do mean fresh-squeezed. The oranges were right there).

The parade finally arrived in Lisse. (Have I mentioned that this is a multi-city parade? It goes all over the region, all day long). The theme this year was Broadway shows, so there were floats dedicated to Wicked, Westside Story, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, and Grease to name a few of the English ones. And here's the thing: every float was made of flowers. All of the colour, design, everything but the physical supports underneath were made of real flowers. The floats weren't only beautiful, but they smelled great too!

Dan (not me, but Sue's Romanian friend) wanted to go to "Goh-gan-hoff" (I don't know how to spell the proper Dutch name, but that's roughly what it sounds like) to see the apparently world-famous fields and buy some bulbs for his own garden in Belgium, so we continued North through the aforementioned fields. Even with the weather being less-than-friendly, it was a really beautiful trip. Along the way, we ran into the parade now and then as our trip took us away and back toward the parade route throughout the day. We biked North, then East toward Hoofdorp, where I knew there was a Gowalla snowflake to pick up and didn't want to miss my chance, and from there, we hit the Hoofdorp train station and went our separate ways.

Altogether a really great day. Going by my rough map (below), Google says we travelled more than 31K, which is pretty awesome.

The full size map is here if you're interested

April 11, 2011 21:55 +0000 | Green Party Politics 0

The biggest problem we Greens have in Canada is perception. People don't know who we are, or what we stand for. We tend to operate in a media vacuum, in an absence of media coverage from mainstream sources... which is a shame because the Greens have some really interesting things to say. There are still people in this country who think that we're a "one issue party", or that we're "Conservatives with a green bent". These are caricatures, fashioned by those who don't want us taken seriously, and sadly, they're usually all the public hears.

In 2008, the public had the opportunity to see who we are and what we can do when our leader, Elizabeth May was in the debates -- an opportunity denied to Canadians this time around by an unelected consortium with no responsibility to the public trust. In response, the Greens have seen a surge in support from the general public, former prime ministers, and independent media, and it's that last one that I thought I'd share with you today.

Below is the result of an "open debate" invitation from Channel Zero, an independent media group, who decided that if the media consortium wouldn't invite all of the major parties, and wouldn't even reveal the requirements for inclusion, then someone else would have to pick up the slack. All parties were invited, only the Greens have shown up (so far).

I really encourage you to watch the video below. If for no other reason than to be sure that you've seen all the sides in this upcoming election. You might also want to cut her some slack on account of her voice being rather beaten up over the past few days. She normally sounds much less raspy :-)

April 11, 2011 21:26 +0000 | Activism Art Democracy 0

This has been going around and I thought it worth preserving here for my friends and family who don't do the whole Twitter/Facebook thing. The author apparently loves to do this sort of thing, and obviously has a stake in the outcome of the upcoming election. Please visit the original page for more information and feel free to pass the link around. The way I see it, every Canadian considering support for the Conservatives really needs to see this.

As an added bonus, the site also includes a bunch of links I'll be able to use for my voteharper.ca site.

April 08, 2011 11:12 +0000 | Money Stupid People 2

In an effort to furnish my soon-to-be new home, I hit up Ikea and had a rather negative experience. I wrote them an email and thought that I'd share it here.

I wanted to give you money, a lot of money in fact, but your staff have made it clear that you don't want it.

I've just moved to the Netherlands and find myself in need of furnishings for my new apartment. I need to fill my new home with everything from a bed, to a couch to knives and forks and so I thought it best to go to Ikea. I thought that I would share my customer experience with you.

I went to your website, which despite having the ability to display English on the Canadian site, was clearly unable to show me anything other than Dutch when on the Netherlands site. Despite this problem, I managed to spend an hour or two using Google Translate to build up a list of roughly €1500 worth of stuff to fill my new home... only to find out that in 2011, not only is your website monolingual, it also doesn't actually sell anything. I was instead directed to bring a printed copy to your store in Amsterdam Zuidoost.

But I thought: "Who am I to judge the way people do things in this country? Maybe that's just how they do things here". And so, with this in mind, I emailed the list to my smartphone, left work early, and headed over to the nearest Ikea.

But after navigating the store and finding the customer service area, your resoundingly unhelpful representative there informed me that in order for me to give you my money and get what I need, I must spend another hour or so wandering through your store, hauling heavy objects off shelves and dragging them through the checkout. Apparently, having €1500 and a list of things I'd like to purchase from you handed to a customer service representative is not enough to actually do business at Ikea.

I ask you: why do you even have a website? Why do you bother with this impression of customer service when you clearly have no interest in providing any? More importantly, why don't you want my money?

It's sad really, Ikea was my natural choice as a new arrival in this country, but you've gone out of your way to make it impossible to pay for your products.

Money Stupid People 2

April 07, 2011 20:01 +0000 | Amsterdam Food Oxyor/Marketsims 1

I'm seriously considering stealing the CSS from a nice-looking WordPress theme and crowbarring it into this site. I just hate how unreadable it is.

So here's an update for those if you not following my Twitter feed:

I've found an apartment

It's in Bussum, the tiny town that plays host to my job. The people there are definitely more reserved than Amsterdamers, but they're still friendly, even when they think I'm American. The primary reasons for my selecting this location include the 10minute walk to work and the €800/mo price tag, which is incredibly low for the size and quality of place.

I'm making friends

I've managed to meet a few friendly people at some meetups around town, either through CouchSurfing or via an event on Meetup.com. One of the people I met accompanied me to Zandfoort, a beach town on the edge of the North Sea, and then brought me to a party where I had the opportunity to meet a number of really cool people including some Romanian Expats who were impressed by my (very limited) knowledge of their language.

The job is Big

It's funny, during the interview, I really wasn't sure why they were hiring a full-time guy for something that really felt like a contract gig. As far as I knew, they just wanted a community site, with an e-commerce component sure, but it didn't seem that big. Well now that I've been treated to The Big Vision from the Head Cheese, I know better. This is going to be a very big, very challenging project -- made even more difficult by the fact that I'm the only web developer on the project. There's a few Java people, but no one working on the community project but me. I'm learning a lot about Django though, which is cool... now if only I can figure a way to integrate Android development and mapping, that would be pretty sweet.

The Food is Amazing

And lastly, I'd just like to take a moment to talk about how fabulous the food is here. Have I done that yet? OMG FOOD. For the most part, the primary cuisine here is in some sort of sandwich. Meat + cheese + bread = awesome. But how is this awesome? We do have those things in Canada after all. Oh no my friends, no we do not. The bread here, even the white bread from the grocery store for €0.50 is flavourful. And the cheese! OMG cheese. Simple, plain, and super-tasty. Even the slips of meat you buy wrapped in plastic taste great. Croissants, puff pastries, doughnuts... you guys, it's as if my whole life in Canada I was walking around with chalk on my tongue. Yes, it's that good.

PS

When I got home today, there was a letter from IND on the table. They have my BSN (finally). I have to go get it though, which is kind of lame, but I really can't complain. Soon, I will be a Real Person in the Netherlands!

April 07, 2011 10:26 +0000 | Gentoo Linux 0

My office isn't so much a web shop as a investment banking training company that doesn't really use the internet locally. As a result, we have corporate DSL of questionable quality from KPN and whenever I do a software update (like the big one today that pushed KDE to 4.6.2) the few people in the office using the internet get upset. So I poked around looking for options for limiting bandwidth in Gentoo's Portage system.

Most of what I found were dead links to the old Gentoo Wiki, and the one link I found had stale/inaccurate information so I thought that I'd post something here in the hopes that one day it will be useful to someone.

To limit Portage's bandwidth usage to 50K/s just add these lines to make.conf:

FETCHCOMMAND="/usr/bin/wget -t 5 --limit-rate=50k \${URI} --output-document=\${DISTDIR}/\${FILE}"
RESUMECOMMAND="/usr/bin/wget -c -t 5 --limit-rate=50k \${URI} --output-document=\${DISTDIR}/\${FILE}"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS="--bwlimit=50"